About the wildfires

A few points about this:
1) Whoever started these is a fricking idiot and should be punished at the fullest extent of the law.
2) I wish a quick fix for all of the people who are homeless and hopefully they have a place to stay.
3) Is this really worse than before? See this article for yourself which indicates, it has gotten worse. Global Warming Also, check out Real Time with Bill Maher this week. It was pretty interesting.
Who's to blame for global warming? Probably everyone a little bit, but the US government should be curbing it. It doesn't seem like there doing it according to this article: California sues the EPA Go California!

Hollywood tour

For my 4th visit to the Hollywood area in five days, my roommate Eric invited me to go with a few people to brunch and a tour of Hollywood Forever, or formerly known as the Hollywood Cemetery. Brunch was at the Griddle on Sunset Blvd. It was very good. I had the pancakes topped with pumpkin pie filling and the Italian Hoagie omelette (both I finished half of the orders!).

Afterwards, we headed over to Hollywood Forever for a guided tour of some famous people buried in the cemetery. This was run by the Art Deco Society of LA. They were very knowledgeable of the deceased. There were some very interesting stories of the people. I'll give you a few.

Cecil B. DeMille, the director had his casket facing Paramount studios so he can face what he started. Rudolph Valentino was laid to rest in the masoleum next to one of his former directors as a temporary location because his estate couldn't afford a headstone and she would sort it out soon after his death. Unfortunately she died before that could happen. Carl "Alfafa" Switzer (of Little Rascals fame) was killed over a scuffle with a guy he rented a hunting dog because the dog ran away while he was hunting and he never gave the guy the deposit. The lessor shot Switzer in the stomach and Switzer died at the age of 34.

DeMille and Paramount tower

 

Hollywood sign

 

Douglas Fairbanks Sr reflecting pool

 

Actually a movie set, not a masoleum

 

Hollywood forever

 

Maestro's

My cousin Marisa was in town, so I meet up with here in West Hollywood (the third time I was in this area in the last four days!). She set up reservations at Maestro's. Maestro's is in that genre of fancy steakhouses like Smith and Wollensky's, Morton's and Ruth Chris. I ordered a wonderful Bordeaux wine that went well with the steak. They tried to explain their cooking method. But basically, they coat the steak with butter and parsley, start the cooking process at a very high temp and then bring it down. When they serve the steak, it comes on a heated plate! Let me tell the steak WAS like butter. I don't think I have had a steak that cut so easily and tasted so good. To boot, we order lobster mashed potatoes. I didn't like where they sat us, but our waiter was very good.

Atmosphere: 7
Service: 8
Food: 9
Overall: 24

Crustacean

I feel that I need to review Crustacean. I have been here twice. It is located in Beverly Hills and I went here with work people. It is Vietnamese based, but really the food is very eclectic. When you walk in they have a jazz band playing in the bar area. As the host/hostess walks you to your table, you walk along the glass floor which has large fish swimming under you!

This time we had the Asian tapas sampler which included rice paper rolls, coconut prawns, satay, and dumplings. It was fairly good. I ordered the halibut with mixed vegetables in soy sauce. It was very good. The fish was tender and the sauce was a great complement.

Atmosphere: 9
Service: 7
Food: 8
Overall: 24


Crustacean

La-La's review

I headed to La-La's in West Hollywood with my friend Oleg. I had passed it when I was first in town a few months ago and wanted to check it out. It said it was Argentinian, and of course I couldn't pass it up knowing that I haven't gone wrong in other Argentinian restaurants. When in Rome do as the Roman's do; so I ordered the steak. I enjoyed the provoleta and chorizo for the appertizer along with a great Argentine wine, Terezas. The chorizo was okay, but the provoleta was very authentic. My steak was good, but not what I expected from an Argentine restaurant. No parilla and it wasn't grass fed.
Rankings (out of 10)
Atmosphere: 7
Service: 7
Food: 6
Overall:20
Lala's

Vegas Baby!

My friend Mike and his wife, France, were heading to Vegas to celebrate her 30th birthday, so we packed up late, late Friday night and headed to Vegas and arrived very, very early on Saturday morning...

This was my first time in Vegas. I was pretty excited about, especially since I have been working some very long hours at work, so i needed to let off some steam. As we crossed the California border to Primm, the lights started to shine and got even brighter about 40 minutes later when we arrived in Las Vegas. To no surprise, the city was still alive at 4 am!

After a nap, we headed to the MGM for a serious brunch and to meet up with the rest of our guests, Mike's boy Raul and his girl along with his uncle Dave and his wife, Beth. And then a surprise showed up, Mike's dad and his wife. Things progressed from there. After enjoying an awesome omelette and other assorted goodies, we headed to New York, New York to go check it out. I headed to the craps table where I lost some loot and continued to lose for the next hour. I finally walked away about halfway through my allotted amount, so I headed to meet up with everybody at the bar and watch Band She, some band Uncle Dave had been raving about, basically a cover band with hot chicks.

After I got bored, I went to check out the ESPN zone and got pulled away by the wall of college football games and decided to bet on the LSU-Florida game. The board said LSU by 4, but when I went up to the booth, it was 7. I still took LSU, but was a little hesitant. I watched the first half and LSU looked a little shaky so I decided to stop watching and head back to the room. A few people were passed out from the long day and I decided to try my luck at craps. Broke even and went back upstairs. People still passed out, so I watched the LSU-FL game. It was the end of the game and LSU was down by three with about a minute to go and driving down the field. Because the line was 7, I was actually hoping for them to kick a field goal so they can go into overtime so I could possibly get a push if they won by 7. The bastards scored a touchdown. I hate gambling...

People were still getting ready and I was bored, so I decided to go play craps again. I was there for another hour, broke even again. I couldn't get over the hump! Finally, everybody was ready so we headed to the far end of the strip near Caesar's to go to a few bars/club. We had a good time and we stayed out pretty late. I went separately from my roommates and went with Mike's dad. They left before me, I arrived back, wandered for food, ate, arrived back at the room, went to sleep and they finally arrived an hour later from getting crappy Mexican food.

I woke up the next day still tired and went to watch the hapless Lions get creamed by the 'Skins. I went for the craps table about halfway through the game, started getting my mo' back and won a little. I walked away when the rolls started going bad and went to watch some more games. I walked around a little bit and went back to the same table. I entered at the right time and won a little more. All in all, I lost money, but I did make most of my losses back on Sunday!

After 36 hours, we headed back home into the sunset on my first trip to Sin City. Looking forward to my next trip!

Mr. S and his backup dancers

 

Me and the Mexicans

 

Caesar's at night

 

The wall of College Football

 

MGM

 

Back in New York...

 

Sin City in View

 

Palm Trees outside of my pad

 

Palm trees walking up my street

 

My pad

 

College FB West Coast Style

My friend Stu's boss offered him two tickets to the USC game and he invited me to go. I wanted to see how the other side lives and checked out the game at LA coliseum. I wouldn't say that the tailgates was anything like a MSU-UM game, but it was pretty good. Lots of people right outside of the stadium tailgating. There was definitely a higher echelon of fans there, but they still looked to be tailgating well. Stu mentioned the seats were pretty good...well he wasn't kidding 50 yard line, three row from the field! The tickets have been in the family for three generations, so they have moved up as time as gone on. The crowd was definitely into the game, but it still can't match a game at the Big House. USC spanked them, to no surprise. They do have a very good offense. JD Booty is a pretty consistent offense.

Side note: The tickets were on the visitors bench side and there were these colorful fans who were harassing the people on the bench, most without the profanities, but since we were pretty close to the bench, they could hear them. It was pretty funny because the guys they were harassing would turn back occasionally. They reminded me of my friend from U of D, Scott Courtney who used to sit behind the visitors bench at the basketball games and heckle the opposing team.

It rained a little bit during the game, not to hard, but it was funny when there was a steady pour, the entire 92K of fans simultaneously put on their raincoats, ponchos, etc. if they had them. This was the first time in years it has rained in September and it also made it "winterlike", meaning low 60s, high 50s, but I saw a girl in a pea coat, wool hat and gloves! I guess I'll have to get used to that.

After the game we went to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion near the Staples Center. It was really good. The entire menu looked good, but I ended up going with the pre fixe because of the dessert, the flourless chocolate cake soufflé.

I took public transportation for the first time in LA. I wouldn't say it's up to par with NYC public transit, but it will do. I took the Passport, this small bus line that runs through Long Beach over to the rail which took me near LA Coliseum, where we took a bus to the stadium. The rail was good, but I should have drove to the rail because the wait time was long and because I arrived back in LB late, I took a while to get home.

Olympiad area

 

Rainbow at the Colisuem

 

Booty getting ready to hike it

 

Outside the Coliseum

 

So long hotel living

This is now the end of my transition phase of the move from Brooklyn to Long Beach. I am checking out of the hotel this morning. Over the last two months, I have stayed in a hotel for about 50% of the time. I've enjoyed room service, dinner at good restaurants, eating out at lunch, and king sized beds. And when I was in Brooklyn, I was saying goodbye to everybody, so I didn't really eat in much and my diet went to the tank...

Time to get back on track and have a routine. This weekend will be filled with unpacking, rearranging, and going to (fill in the blank of a home decor/target) store. Nonetheless, it will still be fun. A whole new experience!

Moving Day Part 2

The goods came in Long Beach today. They unloaded in world record time, about 40 minutes! Go Oz! Now comes the fun part, unpacking. Luckily the place I am staying at has storage, so I don't have to unload everything, only the things that are absolutely necessary. E had anything related to the living room and dining room and most of his kitchen was complete, so that stayed in the boxes. I still had to open because the names on the boxes weren't very specific, just said "Kitchen stuff". I started on the bedroom but only got halfway through because I was being distracted by work. I didn't really plan on doing much anyway. Save the rest for Saturday!

E's girl made a delicious dinner and we sat ate dinner and watched the end of the Colts-Saints game. When I sat down about 8:00, they were in the 4th quarter. I actually saw the score first, 34-7, and thinking in terms of the East Coast, I thought it was only the first quarter. I have to get used to sporting events starting earlier here!

Sequoia National Park

Most of the crew decided to head to Sequoia National Park, which is about 120 miles north of the campsite, but a 3 hour drive because you are on long and windy roads where you can only go 30 mph. It was a fun drive and it was worth it once we arrived to the park. It is a park that has one road, Generals Highway that goes through the very large park. It's main attraction is the redwoods, not as prevalent as the redwood forest but still breathtaking. We also climbed a monolith which is about 8,000 ft above sea level and 400 steps from the base. Once you arrive at the top and view the neighboring mountains every way, it was worth it!

There was a stretch of the road that they were working on within the park. Only one way traffic was possible on that section of the road. They set up a makeshift light and you wait at the light until it turns green, which is about 20 minutes! We went right through it on the way in, but on the way out, we waited more than an hour!

As we are approaching the light, we heard the sound of metal scraping on the road. It thought it was my car because it sounded so close, but I look up in the rearview mirror and I see the SUV behind me cutting over to the other lane (remember that there is no traffic going that way) and coming closer to us is a car heading to hit mine. I cut over to the left myself hoping to avoid this car. It did not feel like it hit me, but I get out and it did graze me! Their car, a red Toyota, supposedly had it's brakes go out and that was that sound. Luckily, the driver was smart enough to crash into the side of the mountain rather than veering off a cliff!

After a few minutes and making sure that they were all right, the suv that was behind me was nice enough to drive the other car's passenger down to the ranger station. We filed a police report and headed out around 10:30. We had headed from the monolith at 7:30 and it should have taken us about 40 minutes to get out of the park, instead took us 3 hours! We arrived back at the site at 2:30 and I was beat! The silver lining was that my car could have been worse had I not reacted as quick as I did.

The car two back is the one that hit me!

 

Monolith changing in the sunset

 

Sunset with the saab and the sierras

 

Ranges facing the sun

 

I swear I'll jump!

 

Me at the top with a mysterious shadow on my stomach