November 19, 2010

Already wrote about my first day in LA, so my next day was a little more eventful. Not by much though haha. I got a message from Shannon about meeting for dinner, so we had plans to meet for dinner at like 7 so I spent the afternoon at Venice Beach. I spent the morning lazily getting ready. Still a little tired, possibly from the pills I'd been taking. Waiting at the bus stop a young homeless guy asked me for change. Since I was just WAITING at the bus stop he felt it necessary to make me uncomfortable and tell me how horny I made him. I gave him some money and he said he loved me. I joked with him, but definitely kept my bag zipped up and away from him. Kind of a creeper. Long bus to the beach. Started at Santa Monica Pier and wandered south to Venice Beach. Nothing too spectacular except the huge birds. I was there from about 3pm to 445 so I managed to catch the sunset. There weren't any clouds, so it was this perfect clear-sky sunset. Really cool. The beach was fine; seaweed isn't something I was used to in Oz, the sand wasn't as pretty, just not as nice, but still pretty. Got back, met Shannon and we went to Geisha House, which is Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's sushi restaurant. It was a beautiful place and the waiter we had was really friendly. I figured that since the place was right on Hollywood Blvd, reasonably priced, and owned by celebrities that the place would be swarming with tourists, but it wasn't. Great food, amazing sushi and it was so nice talking to someone that knew me prior to Nov 2009. Shannon was the first person I'd been in the same room that's known me longer than a year so I probably rambled a lot more than I should have. We haven't really talked since high school so we had about 5 years of catching up to do. I was a bit jet lagged still, so we called it a night around 10.

Next day was pretty busy. Warner Brothers studio tour in the AM. WB is a bit further out of town than I think the other studios are, but I prefer WB. They film some of my favorite shows and movies, so being there was a must. The instant I stepped on the lot I got so excited. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Everyone that knows me knows my obsession for TV and movies. My obsession with celebrities has died down significantly, but being where the magic happens is so cool. They played a little intro movie showing clips of movies that were filmed there and I kept getting goosebumps. Freakin Casablanca to Harry Potter… everything! Incredible. Amazing things have been done here. The tour guide was an older guy, super friendly. I talked to him about the job and he seemed to love it. Kinda talked me into applying. Not that being a tour guide is something I'd want to do forever, but I'd be an incredible guide and WB studios would be the top notch of places to be a guide. Anyway, got back from the tour, my iPhone arrived! Synced it all up and went for a walk, chatting on my phone, and to the supermarket. On the way back a guy on the street was handing out tickets to tonights taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson! AWESOME! Started in the next 1.5hrs or something so I really had to get going. Made in with plenty of time. Waiting in line, security, waiting outside, debriefing, warm up guy, and then FINALLY the taping. Taping a show is pretty much as I expected. Goes a lot faster than I anticipated. Craig is hilarious and stayed out and chatted with us during the "commercial breaks". The audience was only about 105-110 people so a small group, which I like. Much more personable. That meant Craig wasn't a tool and talked to us a bit more than prob Leno does. There were two tapings that day so I stayed for the second. The guests were Mark Ruffalo, the author of Shutter Island (the book), and some comedian Amy Something who wrote a craft book. All are hilarious. They can do and say what they want because no one watches this show haha. Really fun. Definitely an experience! From there I had to rush back to the room, change, grab food and jump in a cab to get to my Dear Jack (Jacks Mannequin/Something Corporate) concert. Whole thing is a one day only, for charity, event. Really cool that it worked out to be during my 4 days in town. Got there late to see that instead of missing a crappy opener I missed Matt Nathanson, who I LOVE! I think he had a new album out cause he sang 2 songs I didn't recognize, Highway to Hell, and I did manage to catch Come on Get Higher. JM was awesome as well… both Matt and JM were touring together last year so I caught them in Richmond for an awesome show. I REALLY needed to go to this one because I adore Something Corporate. They broke up awhile back but did a little reunion tour while I was in Aus (go figure), so them being here was a dream come true. So happy. I knew and loved almost every song. They didn't play Down, which is my all time fav song by any artist, but they played Konstantine, which was just as good. Ended with La La Lie, and both JM and SC came out for that one (2 members are the same in both groups for those of you that don't know the groups), so that was fun. Awesome show!

Next morning headed to San Fran. That can be a separate post :)