Drinking in LA

More pictures from LA as you can see, many thanks to Ben's photography skills! Any comments etc are as always more than welcome!

B-Ball

Went to watch the Golden State Warriors play the Chicago Bulls on Thursday with a bunch of other people from work, mainly people who were visitors in SF like me. Some nice moves to watch and there was a bit of a hype around Chris Webber returning on court and there was a big roar. Anyway, they lost by six points mainly due to this one Bulls player absolutely kicking ass. Game was fun but a bit boring at some points due to the amount of time-outs. But I kep myself entertained by queueing for beer and hotdogs, which were even for rich Europeans like me (!!) overpriced. Plus I was sitting next to this Japanes girl who I was talking to and she had this really funny Japanese/British accent, which made the conversation even more fun. ANd there was this fat guy behind us who just kept on shouting abuse at everyone, including Warriors fans and players, like "you suck, go home to ya mama man, y'all shouldn't be playing b-ball you f***in' losers! Yo, watcha doin man? Ya can't shoot from there man, you couldn't evne play junior league homie...". And the guys sitting in front of us were wearing some interesting jackets as you can see.
Unfortunately we got home pretty late cause instead of going home right away people kept on chatting and I was so tired and therewith in a bad mood, but I was home by midnight and managed to get to bed by 1 and had to get up at 6. Yeah, I know, poor me...

Doing things in L.A.

Okay, don't really know where to start as the whole trip was a bit overwhelming. Got to Burbank in the evening on Monday and we drove to LA (we were actually staying in Anaheim). First we had Tapas in this nice Spanish place and then Liz took us to this really really cool rooftop Bar, which was part of a hotel called The Standard (you should check the link out, you get a 360° view of the place). The place is expensive but really cool and as Annika said, it looks like it doesn't actually really exist. They also project old French movies on a building opposite to the bar and it is really just the coolest place ever (and yes, they did let me in, no problem!).

The next day Winnie, Sandra, Ben, Liz and I drove into LA again and hung out by the beach for a bit before doing some more driving around. We also drove to Venice Beach were the were a bunch of hip hoppers trying to sell us their CDs, but Winnie got rid of them with some funny comments. I also bought some sunglasses as I tried to look as cool as Liz in hers but I guess I never really stood a chance. Later on we got caught in some horrible LA traffic after which we made our way back to Anaheim and went to Disneyland, as that was the true purpose of the overall trip. Went on Space Mountain and some other rides and most were good fun, apart from the Indiana Jones one, which was just really annoying. Winnie and I also went on the Lift of Horror or so (a free-falling thing) which was the best of the lot. After a few drinks we went back and hung out in one of the hotel rooms, tried to play some ficticous card games to trick Sandra, drank some beer, and watched a movie with Kate Blanchett, in which there were supposed to be some shocking sex scenes (much to my disappointment I never saw them). Next day went back to SF by plane and just hung out for the rest of the day and got some food at some Mexican place, which was okayish, nothing in comparison to my wet Burritos in the Mission.

Movies, Squash and fish'n'chips

Before I go on about what was happening here and there the week before, I just thought I would ge this movie review out of the way. I always enjoyed writing reviews about things as a kid (I used to write reviews about my computer games) so I think subconsciously the only reason I am writing this blog is to publicly rate these movies etc. Anyway, the fact that I am giving this film its own blogpost says it all: it is really really good (let me say, 90%).

I had played Squash yesterday and after some fish and chips at a burger place on the way back went home. I went to the same place last time and funnily enoug chips'n'chicken strips cost 5$ and a burger and chips 9$, but fish'n'chips cost 14$. Anyhow, they were good. Squash was good too and I played a kid who was the best player I have played so far here, even though he started playing pretty badly after the first game. Squash is getting a problem: evertime I go there I get at least three new people who want to play with me at some time, although I really just wanna playe Fridays and maybe one other time an I am really struggling not to sound rude and tell them "well, first of all I really don't want to play too much, secondly, you are number 7 who is asking me, and thirdly, I wouldn't mind playing against someone a tad bit better". That shouldn't sound arrogant, but I just don't want to walk all the way up there just to play a guy who I would also just happily play Fridays in a Round Robin.
Yesterday I played a guy called James who was like 40-something and after 15mins he saw my T-Shirt and said that "Broken Social Scene" is his favourite band too, which I found odd as he seemed a bit posh and old for that. Now I don't know if I can still keep them as my favourite band...
To end this bit: I was home already and ready for an early night as I was ridiculously tired but then Sandra (pic2) and Winnie (pic1) and Ben (pic3) called and I thought I should at least do something on a Friday night and I walked past some dodgy people to the cinema at 10:25pm and that was a really good decision. Poor Winnie got a ticket though for parking (60$) which was a bastard, in theses situations neither a Prius or a dog help.

Okay, back to the film, it is really violent and this Javier Bardem guy is the creepiest ever (Winnie says in real life he is going out with Penelope Cruz?!). It is quite slow-paced and is quite typical for the two directors, the Coen brothers, but I and everyone else really enjoyed it, I even so much, that at some point I was muttering to myself "Shit" and "Oh no!" as I was quite engrossed with the story. But anyway, this may help more than my stupid ramblings...

Le Super Bowl

So, I am writing this while I am taking the shuttle to Oakland airport (but I am posting it a day later from my Anaheim hotel room), from where I am flying to LA today, or better said, Burbank airport, where ever the hell that may be. I had a bit of a hectic morning, as I had to swich


appartments from my place in the Mission back to the Bay Area but the keys for my new place were not to be found and the room wasn't ready yet so I had to make a ton of phonecalls but I lastly was able able to get all my stuff into my room at least so I wouldn't have to lug it to LA with me. Right now I am passing the Bay Bridge, which, on a sunny day for a change, is a delight to drive over.

My weekend proved to be a lot of fun, got some new music from Evan and went out with him, David and Arlene and some other people to the Thieves' Tavern, where we played some pool and messed around on the jukebox. I played one of my favourite songs which happens to be 11mins long and probably pissed some people off. I told Ben and he said when he gave me the great advice that if you are in bars you don't like and have a jukebox, just select a really crappy song three times in a row before you leave, ha! Anyway, the night was fun and we ended in a few more bars and got a hotdog on the way back. We managed to get a cab too which, in the end, actually wasn't one - it was a pizza delivery guy who took us along, but none of us noticed until he was like "Just gimme whatever you think is fair!"
Next day I went to Winnie's place to watch the Super Bowl (see pic), which was quite boring until a spectular end with the blatant underdogs pulling off a last minute win. The other team have this guy Tom Brady, the superstar Quarter Back who is going out with Giselle Bündchen, so whatever he does, he can't be too upset. There is a big hype around the adverts as well and you should check them out, some of the are real good:
http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads , best ones: "tide to Go", Audi, both ETrade ones, FedEx, and BudLight with Will Ferrel.

Anyway, otherwise things are good, you can also check out some pictures from our bowling night (soon, I have real trouble uploading pictures due to the bad connection here). Next postI will have some pics from LA etc, so stay tuned. I am now gonna watch the last episode of the Wire Season two, and I have the bad feeling that one of my favoutire characters is going down, which will upset me tremendously.
Ps he did die, what a bastard...

Eating, drinking, hangin' in SF

Okay, so am just hanging out in this cool little cafe round where I am still living until tomorrow, called Last Laugh Cafe. They do this really good Grenola thing which I had for breakfast and some good coffee too and free wireless, ha!
Anyway, as a round-up of my ongoings since last time I posted (without the cinema thingy):
I went out last Saturday to Arlene's Bday Party which was at this place called Kells and I had a good time although I have to say, it wasn't my all-time favourite place: I got in and they played Bon Jovi followed by Bryan Adams followed by House of Pain. I got used to the bad music after a while although I stayed away from the dancefloor, as you may have guessed, even after several drinks. The pics you can see are pre-party (Evan and Ben) and mid-party (Arlene & I; Arlene & Jordan & ?). The next day I decided to walk to this cool area called Haight Street but I walked over to Mission St. and walked in the opposite direction for 45mins. I was too lazy and hungover to check my map (I didn't want to look like a tourist either) and decided to get some coffee after that time and asked the guy if I was okay just walking straight on, right? He just laughed and told me where I was - the other end of town - and it would take me 5 hours to walk to Haight St. I tried to play it cool and pretended to know where I was and it was all intentional and started walking back and after a phone-call with Sandra I actually walked all the way to Haight St., passing some drug dealers (between 16th & 17th on Mission), some guys randomly smoking pot sitting in front of their house and other fun people. By the time I got to Haight St. (I calculated afterwards on Google Maps that I actually walked 8.6 miles - that including several hills) I was pretty knackered so afer chacking out a few shops I went back home tired (by cab of course).
Anyway, been having a good time since but I am a bit sick again unfortunately which is really pissing me off. Yesterday we went to Oakland where Winnie lives and checked out some galleries which was fun, as it was full of the hippest people you could imagine (some were too hip for their own good). Highlight was definitely this punk band playing in a shop window with like 5 square metres of room for 4 band members including drums. After that we went and had some Chicago-style Pizza which was good (see pic).
I also got a full tour of where I am working and found some pictures of outside (I dont think I am allowed to post inside ones). The tour was basic and many of you will have seen this stuff before, for others I think the T-Rex and the swimming thingies are quite fun (they work like a tread mill). I actually rode a bike to get to the main building which took a couple of minutes as I missed the shuttle and the weather was nice (for a change).
Otherwise I have been taking it easy, staying in and having my temporary flat mates cook, although I could at least provide some wine from my several wine tours. Oh, and we went bowling in this really crappy bowling alley. I scored 129 or so but lost to this Irish fella we were playing with (damn it) but beat all the girls at least. We wanted to play another round but for some reason they finished at 21:45 so we just played one round. Before that Matthieu cooked and we had some wine, and him being French, food was really good and so was the wine. He is quite the connoisseur in comparison to myself.
Okay, off now, going to Evan's place to swap some music and probably going out tonight, trying to fight my cold by flushing it out with some beverages. Don't tell me that doesn't work! Oh, and for all you bad-ass guys out there, check out this fun game! I scored a pitiful 21, Martin scored 30 but then again he is heavier than me and meaner and has no mercy. And thanks for the comments of late, does help to see that people are actually reading this stuff. Next week I am in LA for a few days so hopefully you will get some pics of myself and random celebrities in the next exciting post. Peace.

21

New films in old places

I watched this on, em, Tuesday, in this small little cinema between SF and MtV. We were gonna watch it in SF but there was an oil spillage on the highway so we would have been late so we had the great idea to get off the highway and go to some small town on the way. And you know how we knew the film would be running there and how we got directions (Winnie's GPS was broken)? Winnie has an IPhone which just worked and absolute treat in helping us get there (well, we still got lost but without it we would have missed a substantial bit.
Anyway, we went to this charming & old cinema called "Guild" , which, quote, was "originally built as a burlesque house and converted to exhibit movies in the 1940s, it is the oldest standing theatre on the S.F. Peninsula, featuring two giant golden wings on either side of its gloriously large screen", it was a cool old cinema in any case and I found some pics too.

The funny thing was there was this kid who looked like he played in some cheesy emo band, off whom I bought popcorn, Hägen Dasz (I'm too lazy to check the proper spelling) and a drink. So I was wearing a TShirt from this British band called "Forward Russia" and all you saw was a part from their logo, which are like an upaside down and normal exclamation mark. And he was like "Man, is that a Forward Russia TShirt? I so wanna see them live, blabla". I was like "yeah, that would be popcorn, a coke and some Ice-cream". It was funny anyway. THe film wasn't funny, rather the opposite, a bit of a gruelling, epic film about America's beginning of capitalism, exemplified by a guy (Daniel Day-Lewis) who finds some oil. It is really good, a bit dark and a bit long, but it is up for a ton of oscars and I would say, em, 81% for me. The score is really good, from one of the Radiohead people I hear. Here is a trailer anyhow: