Los Angeles Trip Recap

A little while back I went and made a seemingly quick trip back to L.A. for my friend Susan’s wedding. It was a shindig.

In-between there was some epic record store shopping; tours of Highland Park; McDonald’s billboards that mimicked Raymond Pettibon artworks; Pauly Shore following us around Silverlake; a Mount Washington BBQ; slow dancing to Wooden Shjips new; a few glasses of wine at the 101; meet-up with my parents at Cat & Fiddle; a dinner at The Dresden Room; and a show at the old Spaceland …sorry I will always call it Spaceland, I have been going there since I was 16!

Ben hadn’t been back in 10 years, but that didn’t stop him from randomly run into some musicians from BJM and The Warlocks on the eastside! We hadn’t seen a lot of people for a really long time, actually. It was great to stay with our friends Hunter and Charity and to get to know parts of Mt. Washington. Looks like we will be making another trip out in February. Amazing how much one can like L.A. so much more as a tourist and not an inhabitant. Pro tip: Memorial Day = reduced traffic to the max! It was amazing, everyone had left town and it wasn’t a pain to drive on the freeways as much as it usually is. Amazing.

Treat time.

Henry loved Ben, but hated me at first. I get more respect from big dogs it seems.

When you stay in the guestroom of a stylist, you find all sorts of things.

Record store time!

Yay, medical art in random shops!

All goth all the time, even sometimes a record store will suit my mood (photo by Charity)

I can’t imagine having to lug equipment up these stairs to play an in-store!

This place was super cool and out early when the other stores were closed. Check them out www.beatcruiser.com

Came upon artwork by Casey Weldon, even!

R.I.P. Rik…

I forget the name of the band, I only caught the last 2 songs, and then everyone but me ate from a food truck in front of Satellite and we danced to Neneh Cherry. Like you do.

Mary the day of rehearsal.

Proof I can go into a church and not go up in smoke! (Photo by Bianca White)

Reunited after 10 years! Ben and his old boss and pal Lee from Dionysus. Lee walked me down the aisle and was the MC for the wedding reception. Funny because he met Suzi when she was the maid on honor at my wedding 13 years ago!

Time for the reception, but not here…

Here! Everyone has stories of shows they went to at The Palace. It’s now called The Avalon + Bardot but dammit it is ALWAYS going to be The Palace.

And, I never thought I’d be on stage at The Palace eating in front of a crowd, but there we have it.

I think this photo sums up the late evening at Bardot, yep.

This is just a tiny video I took, but everyone really needs to check out the band The Neumans. They were amazing doing all sorts of covers.

Anyway, after all of that….

My mom had me make a reservation for brunch at a place near Hollywood and Vine that seemed pretty swank. In fact at first they told me they were booked (until I used OpenTable.com). When I walked up to the place, it had a velvet rope in the front…at 12:30pm. I said I had a reservation and was granted entry. The place was empty, but I heard music from the patio. When I got to the patio, it looked like a wannabe South Beach club and had a very loud obnoxious DJ thumping beats right at the table they were trying to seat us at. “Yeah, my mom will not dig this at ALL” I told the waitress, so they put us back inside. Empty, like I said. We bailed and decided to go back to our old haunt Cat & Fiddle. Note to restaurants: a velvet rope is stupid and makes me not want to give you business. Unless you are catering to 22 year-olds, lose that shit!

The Best Western at the 101 had this lovely picture I woke up to in the morning….

And her in the elevator….

Across from my old apartment. Man, what the hell happened!? This place used to be so chic and wonderful. I’m actually appalled at how Hollywood has become. The high rise condos and the chain store retail that is even worse than before. I loved my apartment and location but I can see now we would have moved on eventually. The neighborhood had changed and not for the better.

Oh Hai Dresden! Sorry, no Will Farrell sighting of him narrating “The Spoils of Babylon”.

Awww, Dresden bar and listening to a hilarious cover band.

Ray & Suzi and us and Charity & Hunter. Despite me being away so long and having only sporadic trips back to L.A., I’m at least very glad I was there the night Ray and Suzi met over a Thanksgiving holiday at a club some friends were DJing at. I think the whole wedding reception echoed the the way they got together. The groomsmen all wore Pucci ties worth a billion dollars, an epic garter toss to Led Zepplin, and Tony the Tyger DJ’d a few sets as well. A shindig indeed.

Old CalArts buddy Lance and I at Verdugo. Because beer beer beer!

Oh, in the end, Henry that little shit stirrer decided he liked me after all….