Oh man, I've been SO bad in updating this thing. I return home in a few days. No doubt I'll do like last time and redigest my thoughts on return and have a lot more to post about over the next few weeks/months/etc.
I just realised that Virgin Atlantic's plane design isn't flawed, but that it's actually a good marketing decision. When you get on the plane, you walk through first class and premium economy before hitting regular economy and realising you have to put up with this for twelve hours. Having walked through the nicer sections it makes you think.. perhaps I'll spend a little extra next time and fly Premium (or a lot extra, and fly First). Next time I think I'm going to close my eyes until I get to my seat :-)
A picture of the canyon where the Getty Center is (I can't remember its real name.. possibly the Sepulveda Pass?), and some pictures from handing out flyers in Studio City, as a friend is running for council here. And if you wonder why I look like shit, it's because I had hella-flu :-)
My camera is screaming from under use.
I can't believe I forgot to mention that I saw a celebrity on the way over here, and no less than three times. First, I was standing in the security line at Heathrow and at one of the desks I saw the receptionist chick (a.k.a. Lucy Davis) from The Office. Then I saw her again in departures.
Once I got to LA, we were in the line waiting for immigration control and I saw her again going through and talking to the guards.. so she must be out here on business or something. I also found out she's Jasper Carrott's daughter, crazy. Perhaps she can bring back some more American words for her father to popularise.
I've been knocked down with flu for the past few days, so if I haven't been in touch, I apologise. Yesterday I had enough energy to do something non strenuous, so I went to the theatre and saw 'The Passion of The Christ' and the first sneak preview screenings of 'The Girl Next Door'.
The Passion of The Christ
You cannot escape The Passion of The Christ here. It's been America's biggest film for the last month or something. It's approaching half a billion dollars in takings, and it was made entirely on Mel Gibson's dime. The story is simple, it portrays the last 12 or so hours of Jesus's life in all its violent and bloody glory. And, boy, is it violent.. if you want to see a man get whipped, beaten, punched, and then realistically nailed to a cross for two hours, this is the film for you. Even better, the whole film is in ancient Aramaic and Latin, so enjoy the subtitles folks. That said, I didn't mind the film, it was powerful, it was emotional, but possibly a little overproduced.
The Girl Next Door
The Girl Next Door doesn't open in the US till April 9, and in the UK till April 16, so it was nice to get into the preview screening.
It's a late teen comedy, much in the vein of your American Pies and Road Trips. The big star is the delectable Elisha Cuthbert from 24, but the whole cast is great and comes off with such charm.
The story is that our main male lead is a bit of a geek at school and is unhappy with how school has gone, but is focusing on a shot at a big scholarship in the coming week. Our Elisha turns up as a 'hot chick next door' type and she sweeps him off his feet, they start dating, and getting up to all sorts of crazy stuff. Being a bit of a stick in the mud, this whole experience 'changes' the guy and before you know it the movie is full of porn shoots, swearing, parties, and hookers.
It sounds lame, but it was extremely well done, considering the whole teen genre is getting really overbaked. The cast had charm, the story was... okay, and the twists were smart. It had an amazing soundtrack to boot, with The Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" being used for the TV ads.
The 'R' rating
The one thing which gets me about American cinema is the 'R' rating on movies. R supposedly means you need to be 17 to see the movie, which is fine. But it also allows parents to take their children of any age in to see the movie. So you can be 5 years old, and get into an 'R' movie with your parents. Considering many UK '18' movies are 'R' movies in the US, this just screams 'bad idea'.
There was a 6 or 7 year old boy in the row in front of me, and this film has the F word all over the place, simulated blowjob scenes, topless action, and poledancing!! None of it was particularly harsh, it was a teen comedy after all, but isn't it a tad irresponsible to take your kids to that? Then they wonder why, several years later, the kid is telling them to F-off and is out selling crack on Hollywood Boulevard. :-)
What an excellent law!
If there is no vehicle immediately in front of you and five or more vehicles are immediately behind you, state law requires that you pull to the side of the road, where you can do so safely, and allow the vehicles behind you to pass. When pulling over, avoid quick stops on unpaved shoulders. Use marked turnouts where possible.
Boy, I wish we had this in the UK. It'd increase journey times in Lincolnshire by mega percent.
I'm taking St Patrick's Day off of drinking. Not that I've been drinking much anyway, but it seems all Americans think they're of Irish descendency this day ;-) What's more, we had a free bar at this new place that opened downstairs last night, so I got a double rum and Red Bull, and the American idea of a double rum is to FILL THE ENTIRE GLASS with rum then splash some Red Bull in the top. Yes, this is a country where Red Bull is more expensive than spirit, so they'd rather overdo the rum than the RB.
What's more, they don't water down spirits in the US like they do in the UK. Some years ago I had 4 double vodkas in the UK, and didn't feel a thing. I wasn't even a quarter into my rum last night before I knew it was serious stuff. So, if you're an alky, the US is the place to go for those strong drinks. Sadly I found the rum to be rather vile, but got through three quarters of the neat stuff.
I went down to Orange County a couple of nights ago with Chris. It's great down there. You know when you've left LA because the lanes on the freeway get about three times wider, and the smog disappears. It was so open. No cheaper than LA though, this is where the jet set with their powerboats live. The office block we turned up at had BMW Z3s, Ferraris, and Aston Martins parked outside, and small shares in the office block were selling for $850k each.
Chris and I went to a party somewhere up near Woodland Hills on Saturday night. We had that staple of all good American teen movies.. the KEG! I was the only one up for knocking back a shot with Kelly at the start, but I ended up with some crazy frozen Malibu stuff.
The cops turned up a couple of times and the music had to die just before midnight because they threatened to arrest everyone which was kinda lame because they'd told all the neighbors about the party way in advance. Nearly everyone at the party was new to each other, which was pretty cool, because you could just mingle and talk to pretty much anyone. By the end of the night everyone was either drunk, in the hot-tub, or on the trampoline. My thunder was stolen, however, when Mike turned up with a British friend from uni who was wearing an Arsenal jacket.
This is just a generalism, not applying to all Angelinos, of course.
Haven't really got anything to say at the moment, but will catch up shortly. Going to the Roxy tonight on Sunset Strip. Ate lunch at Quizno's.
Technically it's still winter, but today we hit 87F (30C) in LA. The weather forecast initially predicted temperatures in the mid 70s, but when I was walking around it felt so much warmer, so I checked out Yahoo Weather and it confirmed my suspicions :-) Now, at a dark 7pm, temperatures are hovering at 74F (23C). Oh boy. And.. the Nissan dealership is still full of people.. on a Sunday.
Another thing, it's funny how Starbucks is packed 24/7 yet the interesting places are not. The way I figure, it's a good thing because it filters the generic sweater wearing Voltaire reading types from the places where you can buy something stronger than espresso ;-)
LA must be the only place in the world where people are packing a Nissan dealership, buying cars at 11pm.
Matt's birthday boozefest was great. I caught the Metro with Nelson and we walked down to Sunset to the Cat and the Fiddle. You can check out the courtyard where we sat in the picture on that site, it was such a great atmosphere. A lot of people turned up and we had animated drunken conversations about Eastern Europe. Joan was there, Little Jo was there, a teacher guy called Leo, and this crazy guy called Lucas. It's all a kinda blur, but it was great.
Unlike most other places I've been in Hollywood, it was insane value. I had a meal which was like $9, and had five pints of cider and some rum and I ended up spending like $30 with a tip.
California licencing allows the sale of alcohol till 2am, and even though everyone else was going, Nelson and I just stayed there the whole time until they kicked us out. I almost left my bag there I was so drunk. The guy shouts out 'Hey, did you guys leave a bag here?' and I was like 'Don't think so, but we'll take a look' and it was mine, lol. Then I ended up walking the streets of Hollywood at 2.30am with no public transport or anything, but eventually managed to hail down a cab at Hollywood and Highland.
I crashed into bed at 3, and then got up at 7, rock!
I haven't really been taking pictures, I've not been in the mood, but I have a few assorted ones anyway.
I finally went and got my hair cut today. Everyone kept recommending Supercuts, a large chain of cheap hair salons. The hair cut was $13.50 and I tipped $3, which means it wasn't that expensive, and it turned out pretty well.
Tonight I'm going with Nelson down to Hollywood Blvd and we're going to some bar to celebrate Matt's birthday. Matt is a guy I know from last time I was here, and who came with me to tons of theaters to watch wacky indy movies. It'll be great to see Matt - and his brother, Little Jo - again, as well as to get plastered in Hollywood. Let's just hope this isn't the typical Hollywood $8 a drink joint.
There's this cool homeless guy a block from the motel who I speak to from time to time. He's always standing around with an electric guitar looking like Van Halen, I'm gunna have to get him to smash out some tunes sometime.
Crossing the street in LA is fun. Not only are the roads four times wider than those in Europe, but you get to share the right of way with half of the traffic if it's a 'turn right on red' junction. People are pretty good about stopping if you're in the road though.
Renee, can you drop me an e-mail with your address again? I have that John Peel CD to send you :-)
Last night LA had hella rain. It was torrential. You rarely get downpours like that in the UK. But today things are good. It's not that warm LA wise, but feels pretty toasty to me, and it's certainly better than UK weather. I think it's about 60F right now.
Anyway, I gunna have to find some place for lunch now I think :-) Going to buy clothes this afternoon.
The journey over was pretty good. You start to zone out on the flight a bit, as sitting in the same place for twelve hours is a killer. The entertainment system on the plane wasn't the usual great one, but an older version whose only benefit is that you can play Mario and Tetris. I pretty much just listened to music all the way, with perhaps an hour of 'School of Rock' at the end, and an hour of Tetris in the middle. I was doing good with Tetris when I got up for the toilet, so I paused it and when I came back it had finished my game. I played again and managed to get to 78 lines, which isn't too bad considering the controller kept throwing my blocks in weird directions.
I was sitting next to two women on the flight. The one directly next to me wasn't big on flying at all, she spent like half the flight in the foetal position or something, but she was okay in the end. Next to her was a nice girl called Angela who I spoke to from time to time (and told her about this site). She works for a charity in the UK, but was raised in LA, and is just heading back for a couple of months to sort out her marriage visa for the UK.. and then she's back to Britain full time (I think). Somehow I asked her if she was a valley girl, which I realised is a big mistake because it's like asking a woman from London if she's an Essex girl.
They try to give you way too much food on the flight. Lunch, tea, snacks, and the meals are huge, you get all these bread rolls, muffins, and stuff. I had to decline half of it, it's just way too much. The service was excellent though, as always. Virgin Atlantic still gets a massive thumbs up from me. There were a few delays, so I didn't get out till late, but met Peter and we were on our way, dodging jams on the 405, when we decided it'd be better to take La Cienega and Laurel Canyon. Even got in some shopping at Ralph's.. and now today I have net access, woohoo.
Pictures are a bit thin on the ground, I have a few, but not with any people in them, yet, and I didn't take any pictures while in transit.. which I guess is a mistake. You don't really feel in the mood for snapping while travelling though, but perhaps I'll have to take some on the way back.
Oh, I have a mobile too now, equipped with a valley number too, but I won't put the number here, if you want it.. leave a comment, or I will be e-mailing it to you anyway.
No time to write much, I'll do that tomorrow when I can use a proper PC :-) But I'm in LA, and hi to Angela from the flight because I gave her the URL for this. Full post comes later tomorrow after sleep!
And come on folks, post comments.. not that there's anything to comment on yet ;-) The real fun comes in a day or two after I've got over the travelling :-)