California to the end

I'm over a week late on this one.

Upon arriving in CA the "adventure" had turned toward "vacation." I rode with Zach to Los Angeles. He happened to have recently returned from Nepal as well (!) (and several other countries) as a bike tourist (he rode his bike with his girlfriend everywhere). We spoke of Thamel and Pokhara and altitude sickness. He asked only $20 for gas money, a kind gesture. His ride was an '86 VW Westvilla, not so great with the gas mileage. He was just looking for someone to hang out with on the road west, his destination was Santa Cruz. We had a lot to talk about.

I arrived at Kalen

's house in the evening on Thursday the 14th. and dropped my bag on his futon thus ending the trek through the southwest. My attitude changed instantly. I was with a friend that would let me crash in his studio apartment for a month if I had reason to. The rest of January was relaxing. The rest of January was luxurious.

I arrived on the newly coined "classy movie" night where either Kalen, Noelia, or Daphne decide on an upscale/probably period picture from Kalen's immense collection of DVDs and drink classy cocktails. So, moments after I arrived I found myself grabbing some In-And-Out (where we saw Orson Welles) and watched The Earrings of Madame de... Then I was introduced to Jersey Shore (TiVo'd), the most important reality television phenomenon since COPS.

My 11 days in L.A - Here's a summary, prefaced by the movie I watched that day.

Day 1, mentioned above, was Madame de... but
Day 2 was a little more serious. A double feature, commissioned by Stuart Gordon (he made Re-Animator), of Nightmare Alley and a bizarre Burt Lancaster picture The Swimmer. Later that evening Kalen and I attended a show at Spaceland where our old friend Justin was playing in his new band Night Horse.

Day 3: The original Heartbreak Kid (1973 and it's really great); True Grit, the only western John Wayne won an Oscar for (and the Coen Brothers are remaking it with Jeff Bridges... that. will. be. great.); and A.I., Kubrick's last movie that Spielberg directed, it's incredibly underrated and easily one of the best films of the aughts.
Day 4: Dumbo at the El Capitan (Disney's) theater on Hollywood Blvd. One of the trashiest streets in America.

Day 5: Malpertuis, a really weird movie starring Orson Welles from a bed.
Day 6: F for Fake, another Orson Welles movie thats reeeeaaallly clever. Kalen also hosted a little arcade party:



Day 7: James Franco Destroys a Room and Kalen and I dropped a sick hip-hop track that you can't listen to and was a birthday present for Daphne.
Day 8: Classy movie night again! The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, a terrible new movie that we knew was going to be terrible but was worse than that. Starring a terrible Bryce Dallas Howard spewing a terrible script that is shot, edited, and directed terribly. We got loaded on Lynchburg Lemonades. Earlier I visited Jon Stern (producer of many things David Wain and my employer for many years) on the set of Children's Hospital. Stern moved to L.A. from Brooklyn...
Day 9: Don Hertzfeldt shorts Everything Will Be Okay and I'm So Proud Of You. I also visited old friend Chris Ustaszewski at the Universal Back lot (I was on the lot shortly before Conan's last show), we took a tour of some the attractions:



and we sneaked into the prop house.

Day 10: No movies... Kalen and I killed time waiting for Ben Stiller to leave The Station set so I could visit David (Wain) while he was directing (it's a pilot for Fox). Noelia and Daphne, coincidentally, were also involved with that project. Later, Kalen and I visited Jason Woods (who has a rad job) and went to a Daphne's birthday party at a bar on Sunset Blvd. (not my scene...)
Day 11: Off to San Francisco!

San Francisco was pleasant. It's my second favorite town and a place I wouldn't mind living in. Lots of neat restaurants and bars and specialty ice cream. I did even less in SF than in LA. Here are the highlights:

Stayed with Fletcher
and Sean Smith

at their place across the street from Dolores Park.

Trivial Pursuit is a favorite board game amongst friends. The boards that I have been playing are even more difficult given that they're from the early '80s. It becomes competitive. Catchphrase and Settlers of Catan and Apples to Apples are also a lot of fun.

Jeff G.P. moved to San Francisco. He arrived

a few days after I did, he lived down the street from me for the past 4 years in Brooklyn. We went to see a show at Amnesia (neat bar, lots of coke heads in the bathroom) and saw a band named Bronze, they were okay! Here's Jeff at home:

Motorcycle driving is something I did in college and again when I had access to my old bike at Dad's luxury condo atop Casto Hill (newly coined The High Castle). Title image is the view from The High Castle at night.

The Sutro Baths (title image) is this old pool complex that burned down in 1966. The ruins are still around. Kalen, Sean Smith, Fletcher and I checked it out at sunset (sunset+Pacific ocean is... incredible).
The morning I left for Brooklyn Fletcher and I returned at dawn to accomplish an art project:


This image will be used for Fletcher's (bird by snow) EP Mystery School. That afternoon I boarded a plane heading to New York City. I'm in Brooklyn now... feeling old.