Friday, April 29, 2005

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!