Finally Hobbling out of the House

Well after a week of laid up on the couch with a bum ankle the social plans for the weekend started flying in. Ahh yes friends of friends are want to see the Hair Helmet in action on a weekend.

Now job wise nothing has been panning out but the plans started coming in and having been laid up all week and getting stir crazy as hell I decided to break out with something low key. So for my first departure I finally left the apartment to watch the UNC-Duke game with some friends of mine that went to Duke. There is a bar in Westwood that shows all the Duke games and the Duke Alumni association sets up their games watches. It was either that or a bar in West Hollywood that is a pretty cool sports bar. At least that's what they tell me as I've never been there before. My one friend is adamant about going to Q's (the bar in Westwood) so that's where we go. They had a couple of friends to meet there so there you have it. Only problem was that Duke played like crap and after shooting lights out in the first half they sent up empty three attempt after empty three attempt so that put a damper on the mood. I was kind of shocked by the size of the crowd in Westwood which takes forever to get to from most of LA and for a Duke alumni. So I figure most of the people in LA couldn't even go and yet they still had a large crowd there. I guess it's kind of true what they say about Duke. That it's not a Carolina School, it's really all people from New York, New Jersey and California.

After the game we were hungry so we decided to grab some food in the area and there is a really good Raman noodle place nearby that one of my friends raved about. Only thing was that it only took cash and none of us had cash so we went next door to some Korean BBQ place. Now I've only had Korean BBQ a couple of times before and I'm assuming that this was more authentic since there was actually a ton of Korean Americans eating there. Well what I learned is that I don't like Korean BBQ. Well at least not this place. My Tofu Beef Soup wasn't bad but my main dish BBQ pork was sweet and tangy and not good. Of course having ties to the BBQ Pork Capital of the world in North Carolina probably didn't help. But they also gave us 5 sides that none of us touched. The Zucchini was almost picked and had spices on it only you couldn't really taste the spices only cold soggy Zucchini. Not good. Then there were some rice noodles that were ok but in some funky sauce that two of the folks were just like ahh, no thanks. The Fish cake was a soggy fish cake. And then there was some other dish that lets just say didn't go down well. So needless to say I won't be craving Korean BBQ anytime soon.

Friday night I got an offer to go to a bar in Silver Lake with a friend of a friend. There is this thing called guerrilla gay bar thing that they all go to and said it's a blast. Well it would be good to go out and meet people in the business but figuring if it's that popular that means it's crazy crowded and I would have to stand with my bum ankle which I decided was not that great an idea. Plus I wasn't sure how I would get there since I still can't drive my car. So then my friend calls to see if I want to go to the Largo and see this guy she's seen a couple of times, Jon Brion, http://www.myspace.com/jbrion. The guy started with him just playing the piano and singing mellow song after mellow song. I was like, all right dude lets mix it up for gods sake. He then announce that it was time for him to get his head out of his own ass and rock out. I couldn't of agreed with him more. He then hit the drums for a couple of minutes to lay down the beat, he record it and then played it on a loop, then hit the piano to rock for a minute, recorded it and played it on a loop, then did the same thing with a guitar and then again with another guitar and then grabbed another guitar and sang and rocked out the entire time. It was freaking impressive. He literally mixed a song on the fly like that. It was damn cool. He did this a few times. The best part was the guys facial expressions. When he played the piano as he was trying to rock out you would of thought he was having an epileptic seizure. Then as he jammed on the guitar he would spin and freak out. Look up in the air and his eyes would roll back. It was kind of hysterical. Ridiculously talented dude but my god his facial expressions and body movements would top anything you've seen on stage before. He then brought a guy to play stand up bass and played some jazz. He channeled his best Jerry Lee Lewis as he played Duke Ellington. After a couple of songs more guys came on stage and they rocked some Dylan and others to finish the show. Pretty damn entertaining. At least once he got his head out of his ass.

Well Saturday, my friend wanted to drive up the coast and what better way to spend valentines day then with a dude watching the Sunset. But since my only offer of entertainment was a bar crawl in Hermosa where I sprained my ankle the week before I figured it was best to pass on that and wait a week or so to pick that crowds brains for job advice since they all work in TV. I didn't want to push the ankle. So up the coast I went. We drove up to Santa Barbara which was freaking cool as hell. Old Spanish style architecture in the down town area. Pretty tall mountains over looking the city and hills overlooking the city loaded with huge houses. That would explain the fact that the median house in the county has been over a million for the past 5 years. Well after checking out the city and being very impressed we deciced to check out UCSB. That would be University of California-Santa Barbara. My buddy has heard its' a huge party school (it's also a good academic school-44 overall) so we wanted to see what it looked like. Well that and because we're dirty old bastards and like to see co-eds walking around. This school is freaking impressive. It's in a town north of Santa Barbara and is literally on the ocean. And when I say on the ocean it's on the ocean. Some of the dorms overlook the ocean. There is a lagoon and a beach on campus. Then to the north of campus is Isle Vista which is a college town. And when I say its' a college town I mean that's all the town is. It's just sandwich shops, bars, and student apartments. College kids walking around all over the place. And there was some sort of women's lacrosse tourney since the USC team walked past us and the San Jose St team was eating at the same place we grabbed lunch. The entire set up on of this place was awesome. there were two intersection with all the cafe/bars and shops and such and then student apartments as long as one could see. Like I said before its' a good school (44th over all) and a good party school. Just the combo I love. And right on the freaking ocean. And mountains with good hiking 30 mins away. What a location. If I was to be a little more picky it would of had more of downtown but that's pushing it. Not all cities can have quaint downtown's like other older college towns. Well after deciding that we needed to get the hell out of there we headed back on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and drove on back to LA and watched the sunset over the ocean as we drove.

Well we got back to the Hermosa where my buddy lives about 9:30 and decided to grab a couple of drinks. We hit Manhattan beach and start out at Ercoles which has been there since 1927. Cool bar but we were taken aback by the age of the crowd. Everyone was 40 plus. There were a couple of hotties in the table next to us but that was it. Two women were dancing and so drunk they fell over. I mean good lord they has to be pushing close to 50 and they were falling down drunk. The one woman told her dude that she had never done that before and if he was ok. He was fine but we were not. It took everything in us not to start busting out laughing. We soon headed to another bar.

The next place was packed and because I have a bum ankle and couldn't stand I asked a dude standing around a table with a bunch of chairs if I could sit down. He didn't mind and said sure. So I'm sitting there talking to my buddy only some girls that were hanging around there with the dude and his friends come back and I can hear he making comments to her friends about my like what the hell am doing there. She's trashed, and I try and move out of the way. she's still not happy. She's bumping me all being a bitch. Now I can't walk otherwise I would make some comments but I the table behind me clears up. So I ask another chick if I can sit down because of my ankle and she says fine. We start chatting and she's hot and friendly and playing the sympathy card. Only then her dude shows up and my engines starting smoking. It's going to be a bad landing. I pull the cord and bail out. The girl and her man leave and the place is getting crazy crowded with people so we jet and call it a day. You know since people could care less about the hobbled one.