Luau in L.A. Day One

(ed.note: I feel like today is an episode of 24, the longest day of my life, ha)

5:35 AM

Ok, so we've landed in LA, and are now waiting for the shuttle to Hertz --- at 2 something Hawaii time ... needless to say, I want to sleep. I always find that I have problems sleeping on nightflights -- largely because airlines seats feel like concrete with a small layer of padding on them on Hawaiian Air

6:30 AM

You know how you expect good service --- well maybe it's just that people in HI are pretty cool about giving good service -- well, HELL, good service is apparently not to be had early in the morning at Hertz --- this lady was giving me a lecture for about 10 minutes about how my Drivers License number didn't match my Hertz Gold Card information --- blah blah blah, just give me my car

ok, so we are in the car, where to go, where to go?
SheDev called our hotel to see if we can check in early --- no luck, we're heading out to Claremont to go take a look at my college

7:45 AM

Ok, so through the traffic and the insane pace of driving, we made it out to Pomona College. SheDev was pretty amazed at the SPEED of the freeway, well that and the really crazy driving maneuvers we saw going out there. I must say, it does take a while to get back in the groove of driving 80MPH, oh yeah, that is the average speed on the I-10 ... you drive slower and you probably die

Well, hmm, you know when things are totally fROCked in L.A. when you drive around in sleepy Claremont, and an older lady with poofy perm gestures at you in disgust when you are turning into a parking lot after driving 15 mph ... and she wanted to leave the parking lot but didn't because she was waiting for me to pass by --- I bet she works at the college, hmmm, maybe I'll find out and send her a thank you email for yielding to me and wasting 15 secs of her life

9:30 AM

Ok, we just got finished eating breakfast at the local Baker's Square --- it was funny because while we were sitting there SheDev had a moment of awareness --- yes, we were the only non-Cs there. Claremont is many things, but mostly it is the home of rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg --- ok, that and it is a upper class retirement suburb, so guess who lives in these places

Well, it was a nice breakfast --- kinda weird because every so often the quiet of clanking on plates from people eating was this APPLAUSE or LAUGHTER from the side room --- maybe it was AMWAY, maybe it was AA, but for meetings in Claremont there is a Bakers Square for you

10:30ish AM

Ok, so after calling our hotel midway to Santa Monica, again no luck --- We went all the way to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The Santa Monica pier area is one of the nicer areas in Los Angeles just to be a tourist and walk around. We went down the pier and saw the carnival. Then for some reason, SheDev wanted to go out to the beach (to see how cold the water was), so we walked down the beach and guess what, THE WATER IS COLD, so said SheDev

I guess one of the more tragic things you notice while walking around these really shiny touristy areas are the homeless. I pass no judgement on these people but you basically cannot pass a corner or cross the street without being begged for money, spare change, food, etc.

The other thing you notice, well besides the kinda fun shopping boutiques, is that there are street urchins. The people who wear "uniforms" and come up to you with a clipboard with some cause or other that they are asking for donations. We were approached by some dude wanting money for AIDS in Africa and children --- needless to say it was quite convoluted --- maybe you shouldn't trust someone whose clipboard information has bus schedules on it (but that's just me)

1:00PM

Well, we've made our way from the beach inland through Hollywood to where we are staying in West Hollywood. On the corner from our hotel is the Whiskey, a little down the block is the Tower Records of Hollywood, the one with the really big ads --- cool. Well, that's where the coolness pretty much ended for the day

SERVICE SUCK TALLY
Our Middle Eastern or Indian friend at the counter who didn't say hello to us, who hemmed and hawed at us and told us we couldn't check in until 2:30 (This is after I asked for early check-in via my hotel membership thing).

Then we found out that assjack was blowing smoke because when we checked with this nice Black woman who was in the desk next to him, she moved heaven and earth to get us in, and even told the Guest Manager about our situation --- so he came over and apologized and gave us some bottled waters --- well, that pretty okay of them BUT

The fiasco just got worse and worse, at 5:00 pm, we had left our bags with the bell desk at lunchtime --- the bell people took three calls and then WE WENT DOWN to get our bags --- really on it

The high speed internet didn't work so the service lady said she was sending some one up to check on it (yeah, they never came --- THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE)

6:15PM

On our way down to go see the Blue Man Group, it was a nice drive down to the central part of LA. We drove past the Beverly Center and the Farmers Market, and I guess you get a good feel for how LA goes from city to city from really nice neighbors to really downtrodden ones

When we got to the Shrine Auditorium (yes, the home of the MTV awards shows and the occasional home of the Grammys), we had to find parking --- as much as we bitch in Hawaii about the cost of parking --- it's hard to top LA. The parking cost $20

8:00 PM
THE BLUE MAN GROUP w/ Special Guests: Tracy Bonham and Venus Hum

It was pretty cool to get into the Shrine, and yeah, it looks like a Middle Eastern shrine --- the inside has all these photos of the famous that have played there --- ok, the problem with the Shrine is that once the lights go down, there's no track lighting or row number lighting --- It's PITCH BLACK

We got there when Tracy Bonham was starting her opening set, and people were just milling, pushing, and falling over each other trying to find their seats --- well, we sat in the wrong seats on purpose until the usher and the right people came by and kicked us out and we found out where our real seats were

Tracy Bonham, a really energetic performer who just doesn't have strong songs --- that's all I have to say. I know she is most famous for her "Mother" song, but well, I can't say I or most of the audience enjoyed her performance

The second opener was Venus Hum --- now if you all do not know who Venus Hum is, we sure didn't --- but they are a really cool electronic band with a lead singer who sounds like Bjork --- and the double keyboard attack (and powered by MAC, yeah!) --- they were really great, and the lead female vocalist has a really powerful voice --- they are worth a checkout. And actually their CD is available at Tower for $9.99, so what can you lose --- we really liked them

BMG

You know, it's been a while since I can say that I've been totally blown away by a performance. This was one of those shows. Everything about the show is well carried out from the really awesome lights, lasers, and video to the playing of the PVC tubes.

This may be a spoiler, but if you want to know what they do in the show, you should check out their album, The Complex. The Luau has a review of this CD in the can, and it will be posted shortly.

The basics of the show are that it has all the drama and power of a rock concert but it attempts to kind of play with "what is a rock concert" and deconstruct it. The show is awesome and it kind of makes you think about what they are trying to do and what message they are attempting to convey. There are also messages about what society is like, what it means to be an individual in society, deep stuff but really fun and accessible

Some of the highlights of the show are when Venus Hum and Tracy Bonham come out and do vocals with BMG --- I was a little disappointed that Mr. Stefani did not show up to do vocals for The Current from T3 (oh also and that Dave Matthews didn't show, I CAN HOPE, ha) --- but actually they have an ensemble singer that has great range to do Gavin Rossdale type vox to Dave M. vox -- that was impressive

Some of the more classic moments are when they do tributes to other artists music using just the PVC, it's really cool --- it kind of makes you go WOW, they can do that

Overall, it's just a really awesome and excellent show, SheDev was saying she saw a local news interview where a Hawaii performer was in the Chicago BMG --- unfortunately for us in paradise, no plans to come to Hawaii --- that is unfortunate because it is a really really great show

11:00PM

Ok, the show ended an hour ago, we are still waiting to get out of the parking structure

11:45

We didn't really have any dinner so we went over to the infamous Tommy's --- if you all don't know, and you live in LA --- sheesh, are you sure you live in LA??? --- anyways, Tommy's is a really cheap chili burger place in a bad part of town that's open real late --- I guess for me the tradition continues. Every time I see a show in LA afterwards we go over to Tommy's and eat chili cheese burgers.

The thing I love about Tommy's is that everyone can go there. It's like a peace zone. At the wall, there are counters and you see everyone from gangbangers to Koreans to Mexicans, the old, the young, the limo crowd, everyone is equal there and ready to eat --- oh and you need LOTSO napkins, emphasis on the LOTSO

12:45AM

Back in West Hollywood, after a drive the wrong way on Sunset Blvd. adventure --- it's so easy to get turned around here. On the way back we drove through the infamous Sunset Strip/Roxbury District and even on a Thursday night it is going off

Back at the hotel, its gonna be shower and bed --- we are so exhausted