Day 2: The Happiest Place in Anaheim

We decided yesterday that we would be hitting up Disneyland on Day 2 of my California excursion. Kieran convinced his Russian friend Marina to accompany us to judge the accuracy of "it's a small world." It was decided that we would leave at 11am. Therefore, when I awoke at 9am, standing at Kieran's bedside with sad puppydog eyes, awaiting our trip, he wasn't too pleased,

The two of us went to a diner a few blocks over from his place for breakfast. It was a quaint little place, with tons of 1950's era posters on the wall. I remarked on the cuteness of the 1950's named meals, but when I found out the place was called "Cafe 50's", I decided they were trying too hard.

We left the diner, picked up Marina, and were on our way to the O.C., bitch.



Our ragtag bunch of Mouseketeers arrived at Disneyland at around noon, and quickly dismissed the thought of visiting California Adventure.



It's so magical.



Sadly, the one ride I was looking most forward too was shut down. Dang.



I had to purchase the 50th Anniversary Golden Mouseears of course,



Yet, I could not convince Kieran to purchase the Eeyore ears



I would have the photo of us shooting down Splash Mountain here, but I ruined the whole thing. Y'see, The Disneyland Splash Mountain only holds 4 people, single file. So Kieran was in the front, and I was right behind him. As we descended down the final drop, I reached around, and grabbed his bosom as the cameras flashed. Sure enough, when we ended up in the photo gallery at the ennd of the ride, our photo was never shown. As Kieran put it, "I made the Magical Kingdom dirty."



According to Disneyland, Middle Eastern people can fly carpets.



And Kieran really enjoyed it. Way more then the Jimmy Kimmel show the day before.



Surprisingly, we were able to do everything in the park way before the midnight closing time, which was a shock to me. At 8pm, we decided to take off, and make the trip back to LA for a goodbye party for one of Kieran's friends.



On the way out Kieran and Marina were more excited by the giant concrete parking structure than anything in the park. Nerds.

On the way back, I got a call from my friend Tanya, and made plans to get dinner on Sunday night.

I left my camera at Kieran's place that night, which is a shame since there was a car on fire right across the street from the bar. Kieran rocked a way excellent plaid jacket, which sadly, I also didn't get a photo of- yet.We stayed out till closing, and ended up back at Kieran's place at around 3, when I subsequently crashed on Kieran's most excellent makeshift foam couch.

-Steve!

Day 1: TEEN TITANS GO!

I decided once again to not sleep before the flight. I know, last time I did that, it was a big problem, since my flight was delayed, and I couldn't fall asleep in the terminal for fear of missing messages. I ended up going 30 or so hours before I got any sleep. But this time was different. I was flying Jet Blue.



Ah, beautiful JetBlue. How I love thee. Why do I love them so?



Full House on a hi-def TV,

So, as I watched Full House and snacked on 2 Jelly Donuts and a chocolate milk, I decided to write. But of course, I could not find my pen. Since the newsstand only had expensive crappy souvenir pens, I went from JetBlue employee to JetBlue employee searching for a pen. Alas, I could not find a pen. By the time I gave up my search for a pen, it was just about time to board. I killed off the last five minutes reading the new Rolling Stone article about Weezer, and boarded the plane.

That pen story sounded so much more interesting this morning.

The plane ride was perfect. As soon as we were in the air, I flipped on VH1 Classic, popped on my head set and fell asleep to great 80's tunes. First person to tell me what John Hughes flick used the Psychedelic Furs song "Heartbreak Beat" is my new hero. I woke up shortly before landing in Long Beach, where my good buddy Kieran (who I am bothering for the week) picked me up.



I was shocked to find out the the LBC was not filled with trouble as much as it was filled with car dealerships. One of them was owned by a Don Kott. Kieran told me I wasn't alone with the disappointment I felt when I realized it wasn't 'Don Knotts'. He felt it too.

So as we drove around, Kieran asked me what the first thing I wanted to do was.



Three words: In N' Out.



And what a marvelous place it was.



I ordered a Double-Double Animal Style and a Chocolate Shake,



Kieran wasn't feeling my desire to photgraph everything.



After demolishing our meals (Kieran enjoyed his 'protein style'. The sick bastard), we made a quick stop at Kieran's house to drop off my luggage.



And here is my first pseudo-celebrity moment. Kieran lives across the street from the new bassist for Metallica, The girly dude with the Heidi braids. He's spending his St. Anger royalty checks wisely, building a castle behind his childhood home. I called my friend Mike, the uber-Mettalica fan about this. He told me that if I saw braided bassist dude, make sure I congratulate him on the christening of his eight month old child.



We had to make a quick stop at Kieran's school so he could pack away his stuff for the semester. He gave me a tour of the school (which I'm pretty sure is as much as a school as 'Camp Nowhere' was a summer camp.), and we talked architecture and television.



Next off was a quick stop at the legendary Amoeba Records. It is as awesome as everyone says it is. And the prices are spectacular. It took me all my will to stop myself from blowing tons of money on cheap TV-On-DVD.



And then the sight-seeing began. We started off walking down the Walk Of Fame, looking for Mr. T's star.



As we passed by the Chinese theater, were were handed tickets to tonight's Jimmy Kimmel taping. Since it was at 6, and it was already 4, we decided to walk down the Walk of Fame for a while longer, and then check out the show. After that, I figured I could meet up with my friend Brian for some dinner.

Sadly, Mr. T was never found.

But I did find this.



Argh.

We spent way too much time on the line for Jimmy Kimmel. They finally let us in, just as we seriously considered bailing. As we sat down in the audience, I came to the realization that Jimmy Kimmel wasn't exactly the benchmark for late night entertainment. As the "talent" began to enter, I realized that Dicky Barret, lead singer of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, is now the announcer for the show.

That made me quite sad.

As the warm up comedian tried to warm up the crowd, I turned to Kieran, and asked, "How bad do you think the guests are going to be?"

The correct answer ended up being Fran Drescher.

But the musical act totally made up for it.

Puffy AmiYumi.

Yes, the Japanese female pop duo who have their own cartoon on the Cartoon Network, and sing the awesome theme song to "TEEN TITANS". Fucking awesome.

I noticed that the stage area was way too small for any sort of musical act. So I guessed the musical portion would be taped, Bummer.

Jimmy interviewed Fran on the subject of dating younger dudes, and making out with Jamie Kennedy, and Kieran seemed to really enjoy the show. I mean, the dude really enjoyed it. He was clapping when the APPLAUSE sign wasn't even on.

Afterwards, Jimmy did a humorous interview with Puffy AmiYumi, and then seemed that he was going to throw to a taped performance segment. Instead, they herderd the audience out of the theater to a makeshift stage on the upper level.

We were going to see an extended concert by Puffy AmiYumi, and Kieran and I ended up in the front row,

The played the theme to their cartooon, and two most excellent Japanese songs, as well as an awesome cover of Green Day's "Basket Case". They topped it all off with the extended version of the theme to "TEEN TITANS". I rocked out. Hard. Singing my guts out in the front row, while Kieran wondered what the fuck he let into his house for the next week.

Unfortunately, the show let out too late for us to meet up with my friend Brian, so we ended up grabbing some dinner at a fusion sushi place by Kieran's school, then doing a little late night driving sightseeing while enjoying some Death Cab.

-Steve!

The Episode 3 line.

Out on bail fresh outta jail, California dreamin

I'm out to LA for the next week. Hopefully, I'll slap an update or two along the way. If anybody needs me (HA!), feel free to call my cell.

-Steve!

whoa...

And look what is fucking waiting for me when I come home! I love my parents some times.

The Castle.

I'm not sure if I eat there too much or not enough, but I love the fact that there is a White Castle between my house and the train station.

My workspace.

Very little work gets done here, though. Mostly pornography, and other assorted jackassery.

-Steve!

Matt Hawkins is a pretty lady.

Vivo en espanol!

These new Mets ads are even better in spanish.

Post-Script: According to http://world.altavista.com/tr, the english translation is "The anus proximo is Pedro and Piazza communicating in the same language."

Way better in spanish.

Netflix 38: Love In The Afternoon

Didn't really do much of anything for me.

I Am An Outstanding Choreographer.

I won this last week.

And by won, I mean "purchased from the old man who sells junk on the corner of 45th St. and 9th. Ave."

I pass by him everyday, and last Thursday, I noticed he had four different award plaques. So, I thought about it for the day, and decided I needed one of these awards to hang in my office at work.

I went down there, and approached the dealer. He tried to get me to buy all 4 for $8. I almost did it, but soon changed my mind, and convinced him to sell me one for $3. I decided to go for the choreography one, since my dance skills are awesome.

Seriously.

My co-worker Rick convinced me to Google this "Bridet Barkan" to see if I can find out who this "Outstanding Choreographer" really was. As we all guessed, it was obviously a typo, as "Bridet Barken" doesn't exist. I later inspected the other 3 awards on the corner (which surprisingly have not sold) and they all appear to have some sort of typo on them, which might explain how the junk man ended up with them.

But I did find a Bridget Barkan. And according to this article, she did attend the Professional Performing Arts School, with none other than Mrs. John Conner herself, Clare Danes.

In my mind, Clare Danes is most famous for her work in Terminator 3.

And just to make it come full circle, Bridget Barkan is in an indie film called Bristol Boys, with Gillian Foss, who is friends with my buddy Dustin (who I keep forgetting to call), and was in his thesis film "Herman", which I edited.

Anywho, Bridget Barkan, if you are out there, I would like to challenge you to a dance off to see who the outstanding choreographer truly is.

-Steve!

I don't know if you can see it...

but this guy is guy is going in circles.