DATELINE WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Our trip begins! After work, I got Dave then we hung out at the Casa de Van Lieu while I got all my shit together. Here's Dave playing Megman X, a la infrared.
Moon Over My Hammy
I lasted about two hours on Route 5 before I my mind shut down and had to sleep. In the mean time, Dave went out and took some late night Woahtos. This is one by Dave.
Behind the Vehicle
Another whoato by Dave. After sleeping for a good two hours, we drove over to the Denny's near by and ate some Chicken Strips. The waitress was hella cute.
DATELINE THURSDAY
Another typical shot of Route 5. I actually had to take another nap after our Denny's excursion, but by then I was refreshed. Mostly because I was awaken by the wonderful smell of cow shit.
Powerlines
This is another picture Dave took. I would have taken one, but it's kinda hard to take pictures while driving.
Grapevine
Once we hit the Grapevine, it was all uphill... then downhill from there. At an Arco station somewhere, we spotted a cute girl with her emo boyfriend... she would later give Dave and I a CD of her boyfriend's music as I was pumping up my tires with air. Here's the URL to their site: http://www.satoriband.net/ [cheap plug]
Wellkommen!
We finally made it to Aaron's place, with enough time to drop all our shit off. Paul hadn't arriven yet, so we had some time to bullshit. Aaron would drive us to LAX soon thereafter.
Beetle Shell
Aaron's VW Bug, a memory currently laying in shambles. Pops will get it back sooner or later to work on it. I miss the Bug!
Aaron's New 1987 Toyota Celica
Comeplete with stickers of Interpol, Deftones, Suicide Girls, and....
getcha dick sucked
Yeah! Whitney, one of Aaron's best friends in LA and all-around cool grrl, gave that to Aaron. Apparently the sticker shop she got it from was a little embarassed with making that sticker. Hahaha
This is also hanging on Aaron's rearview mirror...
...thus completing Aaron's "fucking guy" motif.
Boogerface
I made Aaron drive to LAX to pick Paul up, since I was so zonked out....
The Suckfishes
Hey Paul! Long time no see! ... Outside of LAX are LARGE letters that spell out.... LAX. Boy, LAX is pretty vain like that, huh?
Hm
Speaking of vain...
Route... what, 405?
The drive back to Aaron's place was typically LA-ish, traffic jams and all. Incidentally, the structure in the middle of this picture is the shopping plaza where we met up with the original LA Hookup at the resturant she worked at (for more info about the LA hookup, check out my other photo gallery from 2003, "City of Compton"). ... BTW, the left headlight of Aaron's car is held up by a can.
Warner Bros. Water Tower
Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah Wakko Yakko Dot blah blah reference joke hahah blah blah blah. BTW, we learned a new word while down there: Armo. Armo = Armenian. There are a shit load of Armenians in LA, and unfortunatly Aaron has been screwed over by a ton of them. So that word has entered into our weekend vocabulary... and it's been Armo-this and Armo-that... pretty funny shit man.
Outside of the Disney Channel Corporate Building
Burbank is full of that kind of shit... but in the mean time, we decided to check out where Aaron makes his money: Starbucks. There's one in the lobby.
Rawk!
Nothing much to say about Aaron's work other than we got to visit it. And it's Starbucks.
Bullshittin Boulies
Catchin' up....
Enter Aaron's Room... IF YOU DARE
That Aaron nametag on the door there was when Aaron was on the Price is Right! (Although he was just in the crowd....)
Dave huggin' kitters
Back at Aaron's pad, complete with shirtless Aaron. .... The house cat had kittens, I think the one black cat, dubbed "Kitters", was the one they kept. Oh, and before we got back to the place, we stopped at my local mecca, a Longs Drugs.
Kitters!
There she is!!! AWWWW!!!! <3 <3 ... It's a real shame though, Kitters here was the source of many amusements, between chasing after laser pointer dots, bits of string, and being tossed into boxes and then spun around to make her dizzy.
Six iPods
We be spinnin' mad cash! There's about $2,400-ish there. Woot!
Schroedo
Legs wide open, complete with hole in crotch. Sorry.
Dave shows Aaron his camera
Keep a careful eye to the pills and Colt 45 on Aaron's bed-stand. Hmmmm....
The kitchen
Paul converses with one of Aaron's roommates, Neanderbitch.
Sleppy Paul
Thursday was a day of rest for most of us... I zonked out myself while everyone went to a local pool. Paul later passed out, but not until he was awoken by shouts of "SPRING BREAK!!!"
Frustrated Aaron
Aw, how I miss your goofy faces and shit. ... Anyways, later in the night, at first I thought it would be a good idea to catch an early rest, the party-all-the-time nature of the house instead brought a ton of people over... mostly folk Aaron invited to give us SF-CHI folk a "Welcome to LA" deal. Nice!
Brett and Brett
Forgive my Paris Hilton-esque night-vision-ish pictures of Brett and Brett. Left Brett is another one of Aaron's roomates, while Right Brett is one of Aaron's video gaming friends, with obvious "Hadooken" t-shirt. You'll see more of them later.
Evil Stare Whitney
Whitney has cut her hair since our last encounter. It actually kinda threw me off because she didn't look anything like from what I remembered (see http://www.nick15.com/images2/fuckla/fuckla-Pages/Image16.html). Coming soon: Kung-Fu Grip Whitney
Jessica + Iced Cream
Another infrared camera shot.
Paul aims...
and fires!
Paul and I manage to capture a picture of each other at the same time. Woot!
More infrared goodies
Note the lack of... stuff... in Aaron's Radiohead poster....
...as well as...
...on his white board (which sported a humorous send up of Kim Il-jung) and two of the pictures posted above it. Weird!!
Dark Shade Whitney
Collect them all, only from Mattel!
Hella hanging out
The party-all-the-time nature of Aaron's place, combined with the fact that Brett deals, as brought over a great number of mysterious people to the place at nights. Most of the time is was a bit bothersome (as I'll discuss later), but other times it was entertaining. Anyways, I dunno who the guy is sitting behind Whitney there.
Blue room...
I used Dave wacky all-Red shades to take this picture. To get this blue effect, I just removed the red channel from the picture. WOAH!
Tasting a panda's ass
It was 10PM and we were bleedin' hungry... so Dave, Paul and I decided to either taste a panda's ass or eat out the red-headed chick. Guess what won.
Tumbs up! Tumbs all upp!
Gnyar
G'night Scarface
If you've seen my previous LA trip pictures, you might notice that the front room got re-arranged up a bit.
DATELINE FRIDAY
The morning after... where are my panties? ... Paul and Jackie chill in the morning... well... afternoon deal. Anyways, Aaron went to work at 7 and came back at around 12, right around when we were waking up.
Mornin' Davie-baby
Note the Kim Il-jung picture on the whiteboard. Weird how the infrared camera didn't pick it up. WOAH!!!!
We're walking, we're walking, we're looking...
While Aaron rested, Dave, Paul, Jackie and I decided to check out the little Empire Center, which I referred to as a structure (to Paul's humor and delight). We ate out the red-headed bitch, then went store hopping. Dave had it in his head that he could find a new SF cap. I, on the other hand, discovered that I wanted to buy a fedora, after seeing a Quiksilver fedora that didn't quite fit my head.
Melrose Street
Hours afterwards, Aaron decided to take us to Melrose Street. Foolishly I neglected to bring my camera, so here's a picture by Dave.
Shop droppin'
I quickly realized how many clothes shops there were on Melrose Street. Worse, I also realized that, after faling to find a good fedora that fit, people in LA have really small heads. ... Paul took this one of Dave and I.
SLAYER KISS
Another Paul picture. This one was taken outside of this really... obviously hella LA-ish... shop. What it was was a barber shop-slash-club. People were cutting hair and cuttin' a rug with a DJ and beer. Weird.
Shirtless
The man without a shirt is Mayan, Jackie's husband or boyfriend, I'm not quite sure. Two interesting facts: 1. He's (one of) the son(s) of the lead singer of the Ohio Players. But being the son of a black man, Mayan says the only royalties he gets is his monthly whumpin'. 2. The first time Paul met him, he had just jumped into the room and asked "Does anyone here know any Karate?!"
Mob-tastic
After The Chedders' Estate's fancy dress party, we did our best to bring our fanciest clothing out to LA for another mob-hit night. This is another Paul picture of the four of us in suits. Once again I did my Penn look (of Penn and Teller fame).
Infrared Doodz
Check it out! Their shirts are bright white, and I can see through their sunglasses. WOAH!
At Whit's'n'Jessi's place
Whitney and Jessica opted to join us on our little hot-guy excursion. In fact, we all decided to check out Whitney's ol' stompin' grounds... an Indian Casino in Temecula.
Hot Dave
Also joining us on our trip is a male-friend of Jessica.... uhm... Lloyd? Thom? I can't remember. Anyways, he was OK.
Old Skool....photos
Whitney showed us some of her old photos, including her ultra-goth senior year high school photo, complete with... uhm... goth neck-lace thingy. :D
The Suits
Paul didn't have a coat, so I let him try mine on for size. It fit him quite well.
Lazy Eyes
Oh man, this picture of me sucks so much, it's awesome.
Aaron the Impailer
Blah!
The crackle of Pigskin
After a quick pit-stop at Jessica's male friend's place, we eventually made it to the Pechanga Indian Casino outside of Temecula, California. In the parking lot we saw this Black guy and White woman walking to one or the other's car... I found that kinda humorous. :D
A shot of Pechanga
Nice place, there! Thank God the Indians figured out a way to rape back the palefaces.
Walkin' Woahto
The drive from Burbank to Temecula was about two hours, but certainly not all that boring. At least the roads were not clogged up, that makes me happy....
Another walking woahto
Looks like Aaron took a picture of me also. Now here's a typical me-moment; the minute I walk into the casino, I dropped a dollar into a machine and won $10! ... I subsequently spent that $10 along with a few more bucks on the same machine and lost it all.
Silk
Inside the casino was this pretty fancy club called Silk. Apparently there is a room where people can get nekkid and dance-as-silhouettes behind (apparently) silk sheets. Innnnteresting! ... Fortunately we had come late enough to be able to get in for free; originally we would have had to pay $15 to get in. Well... us MEN would have to, women got in for free. Lousy reverse sexism.
Another Slick Silk shot
The place was pretty dark, so I wouldn't get a good picture without it blurring up. ... An interesting bit about Silk was that it maintained a dress code; basically you gotta look nice and not swear sneakers, and you're in. Sweet! ... Anyways, at Silk we met up with a few more of Whitney's friends and we all hung out a bit. You'll see more of them shortly.
Dark shot
What kinda sucked ass about this Silk place was that Last Call was at 1:10AM, and the club shut down at 1:30AM. Now that's pretty pathetic.
Get Down!
Whitney and Paul talk to one of Whitney's friend (or friend's mom). I suck at names....
Snap Blur
Another shot of the dance floor
Casino Floor
Well, this was just after we all were kicked out of the club at the paisley time of 1:30. ASSHOLES man. Hell, even the bar below (lower left-hand corner) was down and out. Frack.
Change Tree
The neat thing about this glass window thingy was that it changed colors every few seconds. Nifty!
Dave's Getting Hyphie
Before Temecula, we hit a 7-11, and I got some.... gum. Here's Dave having some fun with the foil wrapper.
Fountain's getting Lightphy
Anyways, it was ten-till-two, so we all started heading out to the parking lot to maybe find another bar that's open for another minute. Half of us went the wrong way... oh well.
Bronzed Indians
Did they like... dip real people in bronze or something?
T2K6
OK, we found this pretty amusing. If you don't know, Dave there is The Turtle, and Dave has his T2K thing, kinda like Y2K deal for the year. So.... it was pretty funny that the second level of the parking lot was the Turtle lot, and that we were in section K. Hahaha!
Outside of some Irish Pub in Temecula
Anyways, it was 2:21AM by the time we got there, but everyone was still convinced that it would still be open. Hah! Outside the pub was another friend of Whitney, one who apparently is a jerk because she wouldn't drive two blocks to meet Whitney, despite the fact that Dave, Paul and I traveled as far as we did to see Aaron. Humph!
Closeup of Jessica's Friend
Jessica had to work in the morning, so she took off with her friend shortly soon after.
Ghost Whitney
At this point everyone was trying to figure out what the fuck we're doing.
Whit's Friends
I'm terrible with names, other than the girl second from the left is named Jessica, and that's her mom there talking to Whitney.
Grrlz 4 lyfe!
Oh man
DRUNK PEOPLE!!!
Cool Beans Aaron
BTW, I dunno who the dude is with the Dodge behind Aaron.
Cool Beans Paul
AAAAYYYEEEE
Cool Beans Dave
YOOOOO
Cool Beans Plip
Dave took this one of me. BLECH! HUZZAH!!
Cool Beaners
Well, only Dave can count as a Cool Beaner, though Aaron looks like one.
BOULIES 4 LYFE
Chicken Fried Chicken
After the photo-phree-phor-all, we got some gas, then later decided to dive into a Denny's, par usual. BTW, can anyone explain to me what Chicken Fried Chicken is?
The Blob
Bouly + Mob = Blob. Get it? ... Oh, speaking of getting gas, when Aaron was doing some Community Service, he managed to find a gas card and was getting free gas for some time now. But just my luck, once I made it to LA, the card stopped working. Shiiiiiiit.
What the....
OK, I nodded off in my seat (I wasn't getting anything to eat, aside from a salad). I was then woken up by Whitney, who alegedly put her boobies on the top of my head. Huh what?? Paul quickly snapped the short conclusion. ... BTW, Paul, Dave and Aaron were all thinking of new Porky Kwan film titles. They include: Porky Kwan versus the Ghost Blimp, Porky Kwan meets the Neanderpimp, and, inspired by my sleeping, Porky Kwan and the Sleeping Samurai. Hahah!
AWWWWW
How sweet! [giggles]
CHEEZU!!!
At the dinner table
Just a shot of everyone...
Aftermath
OK, Denny's was all over, and so was out night. (This was at 4:38AM). We didn't make it back to Burbank until 6AM. Oh man
WE ARE THE KITTERS
Jackie kept singing that to the cat, a la Kraftwerk.
DATELINE SATURDAY
We all get up at around... 3PM or so. We felt like sleeping in. :) Aaron made me sleep in the front room last night, 'cause... uhm... guess. Anyways, here's Aaron doing his best impersonation of Martin.
Boulies Inn
After we all got our smeg together, Aaron wanted to show us Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, since we missed it the last time we were out here. Whitney wanted to come with us, so we dropped her off at her place so she can change out of her dress. In the mean time, we walked the streets of doontoon Burbank.
Frankie!
Here's next to his hero, Mr. Sinatra.
Inside MUD
Foolishly I neglected to take some pictures of inside MUD, so here's one Paul took. Anyways, MUD, or Make-Up Design is the school Aaron went to school and how he knows most of the people he knows in LA. This one is one of the... rooms. I suppose.
My Fedora!
I finally managed to find a Brixton fedora that fit nicely and that my friends approved of. I dubbed it Fiona, after another Fiona-the-Hat owned by someone I have a particular level of awe and respect for. :) I got it at some skate shop which apparently has some good taste in apparel. Next to it was an Urban Outfitters which taunted everyone's pocketbooks with appealing clothing and shoes.
Bling Bling Whitney
I dunno. Anyways, shortly after Whitney met up with us after changing into more appropriate clothing.
Peruvian Grooves
We managed to walk in the middle of a Burbank street faire, which was pretty neat although we really didn't pay much attention to the booths. I figure that they would make a ton of money making Peruvian-remixes of TV, movie and video game theme songs.
Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles
Afterwards, we headed off to Hollywood to check out Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. Now Chicken and waffles (yes, the one that you pour maple syrup all over) might seem like a weird combination, but if anyone could make it work, it was Roscoe's.
Inside Roscoe's
Behind Dave is a picture of Black Moses. Or... would that just be regular Moses while Charlton Heston would be known as White Moses? Anyways, the whole resturant had all these kinds of paintings on the walls, including...
Ghosts of Ghetto's Past
Tupac, Biggie, Aaliyah, Left-eye Lopez, and... uhm... one other guy, are all looking down at us from Heaven. I love this picture. I only wish it was on a collector plate so I can put it right next to my American Jesus and Stormin' Norman collector plates.
Paul studies the menu
Anyways, time came for us to order. I got this chicken omelet, fries and some corn bread. I never tasted anything better in my life from a resturant. Aaron wasn't shitting me when he said this place was good!
Infrared Roscoes
Although I enjoyed my meal, I really should have gotten some of the waffles instead of the fries..... they were just as good, and maybe even better.
Studying Dave's Camera
Dave has a really awesome camera; a Nikon D50. It puts my measily Nikon Coolpix 5400 to shame (mostly because the D50 is an SLR). Anyways, we pay up our bill. The food was most certainly worth the money!
WHO IS JOHN SCOTT
I have no clue. Check out the site, I suppose, for the answers. This sticker is currently on my back car window.
I STOLED YOUR GRRL
After Roscoe's, we hit Amoeba. There, I picked up Aphex Twin's Chosen Lords, Enon's Hocus Pocus, and this Neil Hamburger prank call CD which I've been looking for for years now. Here I am stealing Whitney, then asking why she's interested in a two-time loser like Aaron? Paul snapped this picture.
The Pleasure Chest
Paul took this one, saying: "Insert your own joke here." ... Anyways, after Amoeba, we stoped by this really swanky, high-class porn shop. They had everything there... the most amusing thing to see were the glass dildos, or the ones that lit up and shit. WOAH.
House "Party"
We were THEN invited to a party on the otherside of the hills by Burbank. (Think Daly City is to Burbank as Brisbane is to the town we went to.) Anyways, apparently the party was a 21st birthday party for a friend of a friend of Aaron. Naturally, we had to crash it. Our caravan included the four Boulies, Whitney, and also Video Game Brett.
Hey Johnny!
That's Johnny on the left, he's a photographer friend of Aaron. Both of them worked on some glamour photos (Aaron did the make up, Johnny took the pictures.) Johnny's friend was the one who was having the party.
Partay!
The backyard was packed... and there was a keg of Newcastle. WOOT!
Dave and Brett
Bullshittin'
Stunna Shades
Whitney pops on my hat for extra fun. Bored, I spent most of my time talking to Whitney about this, that and so forth.
Van Lieu is Raoul Duke/Hunter S. Thompson
Ben Stiller
You can't see him, but Paul and Brett are talking to a big time Mister Elle-Aye dude, who looked a lot like Ben Stiller.
A whole bunch of people I have absolutely no clue as to who they are
I have serious doubts about these kids being any part of my krew, given the fact that Cap'n Jack Sparrow in the middle there is playing a girl-swooning, Emo guitar... AND he hasn't been beat up yet. At best, these people would be the Moose River / Red's Mart krew, but only because I made them up.
Cap'n Jack Sparrow 'gain
We left maybe about an hour after we got there, mostly because the kid's parents were coming "in twenty minutes". Although I'm willing to bet that the kid just wasn't thinking when having the party (party etiquette dictates you never have a party when the threat of known parential arrival is an issue), my Spidey Senses say that we, and others like us, were just being kicked out because we were unknowns drinking up all the beer in the keg. Oh well.
Bigfoot Lounge
After being kicked out of the "party", we eventually made our way to the Bigfoot Lounge for a little Eleventh-hour drinking.
Red Whitney
Red Dave
A Bit of Fun
Whit And Aar
Paul took this one, I kinda like it.
Kids Love The Hat
What can I say?
Tell me when to go
Put your stunna shades on, shake them dreads
Insert another lyric about stunna shades here
I'm so lame
Hey, FUCK THE DODGERS!
The guy in the green SF cap supported our interests in fucking the Dodgers.
Bigfoot Krew
We stuck around 'till Last Call, then all went home. Some pety drama shit started and then quickly fizzled. I'm not gonna get into it, but it involves some jerk spitting at the feet of Brett. Asshole.
DATELINE SUNDAY
We all got home at a respectible time this time. I ended up sleeping on the floor of the front room (as opposed to the couch), when Aaron kicked me out of his room once again. I also chose the floor as to force another person who is staying over to sleep somewhere else. I'll get into who that person is soon. Anyways, there's Mayan once again, shirtless as always, chatting it up with Whitney.
Dave Plays With Pussy
EERRRRR... I still feel sorry for that cat, everyone was torturing it and shit. Once, Dave and Aaron rolled the cat up like a Ho-Ho in some sort of long pillow and tied it up with a string. They were about to roll the cat around until Mayan just kicked the roll out of nowhere. AAWWW!!! :'(
Whitney Again
We all had planned to go to the beach, but Whitney couldn't go with us. Awww :(
Beach Krew
It was Mayan, Jackie, Aaron, Dave, Paul (who took this picture) and I who ended up going to the beach. We first went to Ralph's to pick up some supplies. Here we all are, waiting for the sandwich guy to finish making all our sandwiches. He did a kick-ass job at it! We all wanted to tip him too...
Short Sidetrip to UCLA
Aaron has previously contact our good know-well, Julia, who has recently moved from San Francisco to LA. She expressed interest in hanging out with us, so we opted to pick her up. Paul took this one, I think it was on the UCLA campus.
Racing
Aaron led us on a wild goose chase in order to the beach. Here's a picture Paul took of us passing Aaron up on the road.
Changing Lanes
Dave on the other hand took this one of us. Look at my shit-eating grin. ... I'll use this oppurtunity to talk about "Chris". Apparently Chris was this friend of Aaron's roommate Brett and was a small-time criminal. He supposively spent some time in the Dominican Republic evading arrest and buying cocaine. He has been staying at Aaron's place for some two weeks (or two months?), but has been doing a fair share of pissing everyone off by like throwing beer bottles, slamming doors and generally acting like a jerk. I just thought he was a tremendous dork. Anyways, the reason why I slept on the floor the night before was just to keep him from taking space up away from Dave, Paul and I.
Welcome To Santa Monica!
Taken through the wonderful clarity that is my windshield.
Venice Beach
I think this was the exact same part of Venice Beach we went to last time we where here (in 2003). Holy smeg!
The Beach Krew Settles
Yeah, that's all of us, Julia included.
Nice SoCal Beaches
OK, maybe there's ONE thing I like about SoCal more than NorCal...
More Beach Folk
I think there is an airbase or naval base off on the horizon there...
Beachy Keen
Life's a beech.
L'Enfer Des Zombies
Huh wha?
The Schrode
T-Boi
Just hangin'...
Upshot 'o Me
Dave took this one of me. I like it a lot.
Sunshine Jackie
Paul Fall
Mayan and Julia
Aaron, Dave and Mayan decided to throw around a football.
Paul relaxin'
Dave Shoots...
And I Shoot Back
Julia shoots also
It's the shoot out at the VB Corral!
Infrared Julia
She almost looks... plasticine.
Fuguwads!
Paul dances upon the shore
Julia and Dave
Man, I'm sick of giving these pictures the most obvious of titles.
Best Budz 4 LYFE!!
Bad Ass Army Ghetto Bird
We all saw this guy fly over the store.... Apparently this is a helicopter from the Korean War era. Most likely it was owned by someone, as it's very doubtful the US has any of these still in service. (Unless there was an airshow we were not told about.)
Pacific(a) Ocean Pier
This is a picture
I've run out of new titles to give some of these pictures.
This is another picture
This picture is of... I suppose Mayan is still playing with the football. Meanwhile, Aaron is passed out on the pink blanket and Julia is chatting with him.
Beach Blanket Santa Monica
Sunset Over The Sands
Psh, I should be shot writing a title like that.
Mayan: X-Treme Closeup!!!
I think I'm just gonna be purposefully lame now.
Crimson Clouds Covering Santa Monica
Oh! Lesse... The weather down in LA was actually pretty tollerable. Especailly for something like me where anything above 70°F is like Kryptonite to me. It actually rained over the night Thursday night. OMG! Most of the rest of the days were pretty nice and warm, with the evenings and nights actually pretty cool. Good thing I brought a jacket.
Back to UCLA
After the beach, we all decided to go back to UCLA to cram the night before finals... into Julia's room! Get it? College? Cram?? Oh man, I'm witter than fuck!
Smugglin' Beerz
We had to smuggle in the alcohol. I suppose there's some sort of rule against it, but I can't see why. I mean, what do college kids do with alcohol anyways?? ... BTW, I'm curious whose Spainish flag is hanging on the window there?
This is a picture of Julia and Aaron sitting down on chairs
Julia's other roommate, whose name I didn't catch, left round about when we got there. I can't remember why. Anyways, I used the lounging time to check out Julia's music collection and see what I could get from her. I am most certainly impressed with her excellent taste in music, and more importantly, have instantly been turned onto some of the new shit I got from her, like The Knife and Ambulance LTD. Sweedish!!
Julia's Pinup Wall
Pictures, posters and paintings, oh my! I especailly like the picture all the way at the top there...
The Last Supper
...I just about died when I saw this picture. FUCKING hi-larious!
Peaceout, Twentyfourth!
KIMCHEE!!!
This is a picture of Dave drawing a picture of Julia
I wish I thought about drawing her a picture... :(
This is a picture of Julia and Paul sitting on her roommate's bed
Nice sheets!
Loungin' at Jack in'da Box
Well, we said our goodbyes to Julia (she had to study for a final). Aaron and I both ended up proper-racing home; I ended up with an eleventh-hour win despite making the wrong turn... Aaron decided to turn a street before his street, but he got hit by a red-light. Har har! ... Anyways, Paul was a bit hungry, so we decided to make our way to the Jack in the Box near by. I just got myself an Oreo Cookie Shake (I'm quite addicted to that shit.)
DATELINE MONDAY
Well, this was Paul's last moments in LA. His flight leaves at 6PM Today, plus he's being picked up by his friend Stuart who just happens to be in LA at the same time at 2PM. Here's a picture of Paul drawing something nice on Aaron's mirror, thanking him for all the good times this past weekend.
Jah Love Everlasting
Aaron says he wants that picture of a Mexican on a t-shirt.
Stuart und Paul
Anyways, 2PM comes and so does Stuart. We say our pleasentries, shake a few hands, and Paul went off to LAX. So long, Pa(u)l!! .. Incidentally though, the person who Stuart was gonna stay with in LA flaked out on him, so he got to stick around with us for the night. Woot!
SWAIN'S
After Paul left, Aaron needed to get a new drawing pad. Aaron's roommate Brett had a discount to Swain's (apparently a large art store), but they were closed. Jerks! We later went to Aaron Brothers'.
Brett and Aaron
Brett just graduated from art school, majoring in animation. Pretty nifty, huh?
A Typical Los Angeles Sunset
What can I say? Powerlines, smoke stacks... hmmm....
Clouts of Gnats!
Driving back from Aaron Brothers', we all noticed that on the tops of all the trees hovered this dark cloud of... bugs! We figure they were gnats. I tried to take a good picture of them, I think you can see them. (Ignore the dark spot in the middle there, something got fucked up in the negative-digitization process.)
LA Stoplight
I just like this picture.... once again, very LA-ish.
This is a picture of Aaron and Tori
Afterwards, we later get a call from one of Aaron's friends Tori, who apparently is a sound engineer. He wanted us to come over and "play video games". Which... actually turned out to actually mean playing video games. Huh! ... Dave and I also wanted to take some night shots, plus we wanted to have Whitney along... and since Tori lived in the same apartment complex as Whitney, I tagged along.
Westsyde!!!
Dave WESTSYDES out on the couch.
Fight Night
Aaron, Dave and Tori play some Fight Night 3 for XBox 360, as well as this WW2 flying game which was pretty damn tough. We stayed for about an hour, then we scarpered.
Chinky Eye Dave
Since we were in the neighborhood, all we had to do was just walk over to Whitney's gate and wait for her.
In the mean time...
...it was whoato time!
Warp Speed Aaron
Two Faces of DOOM
Invisible Whitney
Graffiti Whoato
Stuart spent most of this time hanging around LA, but eventually made his way back to Burbank. We brought him along for the ride.
Tagging Whaoto
Glendale!
Almost looks like something from The Simpsons... like whenever a given character is sitting atop Mt. Springfield. ... Anyways, Aaron knew of this place that was really dark that we could take pictures in in Glendale. So... we went there!
Stuart Woah
Whitney Woah
I'm kinda disappointed with my camera... I couldn't take a single clear shot with this. Bugger! I guess maybe it was TOO dark, and my focus mechanism couldn't work. Oh well, I'll see if I can't fix it later.
Day time at night!
Aaron and Dave wandered off into the distance there... That's them in the lit center there.
OH SHIT
Maybe about 25 minutes into our deal, we get shot down by the Glendale Po-Pos. They even had a ghetto bird fly over us. Oh man!!!
Just a bunch of kids...
Fortunatly no one had anything on them, so all the cop could do was just say "Park closed at 10, get out." So... we did!
Drive off
Apparently though, everyone else but me had heard over the police intercom about that they were looking for some 15-year-old girl in all black. Maybe the police thought she was with us, and thus had the ghetto bird fly over to make sure it was just the five of us? I suppose... anyways, we didn't stick around for much longer to find out.
Downtown Burbank Again
After driving around for a bit, we eventually make our way back to Burbank. We hoped that no police officer would pop out again and tell us that this particular alleyway closed at 10PM also....
Greenlights
Man, this was HELLA green.
Whitney-Hulk
Now with pretty flower in hair!!
Dave's Camera...
....with the twin towers of the Holiday Inn behind it. Apparently it changes colors every so often. Anyways, now we're on the top of a parking structure. It isn't really dark up here, but it is a bit out of the way.
Ghetto Bird Flight Path
Another ghetto bird flew over us, and I managed to capture it flying off. Nifty, huh?
Vibrating Aaron
Next to the parking structure is an empty lot. Actually, it was more like an empty pit that went down about 20 feet from street level. I wonder what they're gonna build there?
Mountains...
More of Burbank/Glendale...
Stuart and I talked for a while about this, that and the other. I began to profess my interest in SoCal... at least... I realized that it ain't SO bad, just as long as I'm around the right people and not stuck in a traffic jam. Actually, some parts of SoCal felt like it was just another part of the Bay Area that I just haven't visited yet. Hmmmm!
More of Burbank
Hmmm... so calm and serene... well, for a LA-ish city that is.
Still Camera
Flash Smear
A photo technique that Dave wanted to know how to reproduce. Basically you just leave the long exposure open; the initial flash captures a single moment in time, but the exposure remains open in order to get this really woah effect.
Double Flash
Aaron takes some pictures of Whitney. So do I! ...Anyways, time ended for us on the parking structure, so we eventually made our way back out. We stopped by Whitney's place, said our goodbyes (we'll miss you!!), then dropped her off. Sniff... :(
King Tut Had Hella Bling
Here's an infrared picture of Stuart. Stuart is accmompanied with a nametag that says "King Tut had hella bling." Try and guess where that quote came from. :D
Moonlight
Dave and I weren't done taking night shots, so after getting back to Aaron's place, we went to the park near by and kept on shooting.
This is a nice long exposure picture
Complete with a ghost Dave
Late Night Playground
This is another picture of the Late Night Playground
Late Night Dave
My digital camera ran out of batteries, so I decided to play with my Minolta 35mm camera. It isn't exactly capable of taking long exposures normally, but I suppose if environment is dark enough, it knows to keep the appature open for long enough.
35MM Late Night Playground
35MM Woahto
Last Picture...
This is when I no longer had any means of taking pictures... so Dave and I went back.
Lazer Pointer
I charged up my camera battery, but I was just too beat to go out again for more pictures. I later went to bed while Dave went out for another run.
DATELINE TUESDAY
Well, we had lots of fun, but the time had come for us to go!!
V!
See yah later, bro! Nice to see you again!!!
On The Road Again...
Dave and I eventually headed out and we were on the road back up to the Yay. I can't remember where this picture was taken, but it was about an hour out from Burbank on Route 101.
Just a pleasent reminder of where we are....
But first... Denmark!
We stopped by the Santa Barbara International Airport and took the first flight out of the US to Denmark. It only took us about.... four hours, but we got there! Here's the first picture I took after we landed. Nifty, huh?
GRRR!!!
Actually, we only ended up in Solvang, which is a little town originally founded by Danish settlers. Dave had never visited it, so I decided to take a short excursion there, maybe get some food and buy a few souvineers.
More of Solvang
BUT! Our plans were quickly dashed after I idiotically locked my keys in the car just as I finished parking. Worse, the spare key I always keep with me was in my wallet... which was in the car. Man that was one hell of a brain fart!
Another Solvang building
Matters got worse when I discovered I wasn't on my family's AAA, so I couldn't get that, and several locksmits bid me $60-ish to get me sprung. FUCK THAT SHIT I said.
Fortunate Sons
Fortunatly the couple in the middle of this picture saw me trying to unlock my car with a paper clip, and gave us a hand. We were very fortunate that they had AAA service, and they did us a major favor in calling them and getting our car unlocked for free.
Down Copenhagen Street
They didn't ask for anything in return, and they refused any offer made by Dave and I for thanks. Such a nice couple, and I'm forever grateful for their help! (At least it saved me $60!)
Nice Shaded Bit of Town
So in return for their help, if anyone needs a hand with getting out of a sticky situation, give me a call! If I'm not at work or something, I'll be there in a jiffy to give you a hand. I'm serious!! (It'll help even more if I got myself on AAA...) But anyways, the offer is there. Well, I mean, the offer to help oout my friends has ALWAYS been there, but now it's a public thing!
The Red Viking
Anyways, after we got sprung, I grabbed my wallet and keys, and Dave and I went to the most accessable resturant we could find. And so... we found one! This place has some OK food, but they had some hot waitresses. Mmmmm...
This is a picture of Dave drawing on the otherside of the placemat
Windmill
After dinner, we tried to find some place that sold some iced cream, but to our dismay, it turns out that everything closed at 5:30PM. DAMNIT! Well, I guess if I had to pay SOME price for locking my keys in the car, it was the lack of getting some iced cream. [snaps] That'll learn me.
Mortensen's Danish Bakery
Another shot of the area
Atterdag
It's a damn shame we spent most of the time dealing my locked car keys, I really wanted to see more of Solvang. But we had our fill of it and wanted to get back home. So well, see yah, Solvang!
Drive back to 101
Apparently the movie Sideways was filmed in Solvang and the area surrounding it. It makes sense, wine tasting is pretty big around this part of California. ... Anyways, on the drive back to 101, Dave's sunglasses flew out the window. :(
Davean Cowboy
More driving back to the Yay.... Dave seemed to have had a lot of fun with the video camera. I mean, like at first he was pretty uninterested with it. He IS a photographic guy, not a video guy! But he picked it up and played with it a bit... and has done a lot of really cool shit with it. In fact, he spent a lot of the time on the drive back filming shit and doing woah things with it. Glee!
Route 101 is not Route 5
Anyways, while driving back home I was going my usual 85MPH when I started thinking to myself: "I'll bet there's a cop around this corner!" Surely enough, there he was. I tried to slow down but it was toooooo late. Now not only did I realize that driving 85 on 101 is not the same as 5, but I think I should stop speeding. Two tickets, two points (one in April and one just now) is enough for me.
This is another picture of Route 101
Disappointed in myself, I stayed driving five miles above the speed limit all the way back. But to releave some of my tension, I stated playing some of the music I got from everyone on the drive back. It's a nice way to get my mind off the $100-$200 I'm gonna have to pay soon. ... Despite the ticket though, I'm glad I took 101 up. It's a longer drive than taking 5 (six hours versus nine), but it's far more sceanic than the drab, boring, and flat drive of 5.
Side shot
I spent most of the time back thinking about the past weekend. I miss seeing Paul and Aaron, but for the first time it actually has felt like they've been gone. Prior to this weekend, it only felt like an off day back in the day. Kinda like if we hung out Monday night and wouldn't hang out again until Friday night... the time between the last time(s) I've seen Paul and Aaron this past year had only felt like just the few days between hang outs. Now it really feels like they've been gone for months. It finally hit me after about a year. Woah. Well, I've always figured that it takes me a while for things to sink in... I suppose this is just another piece of evidence of it.
Sunset...
Fortunately though, their absence may be short term. In fact, if things go right for both Aaron and Paul, they might be back in the Yay Area, permanently, around the end of the year. I welcome their rearrival, that's as much for sure.
Armo Be Good
Dave and I make it home safe-and-sound at around 11PM... and we needed some well deserved rest. The last weekend was a blast and certainly one for the books. Anyways, that's that. Chao!