Herewith, a brief laundry-list of how I've been slacking.
====
[Thursday]
Spent the afternoon stuck in traffic heading up to LA. While in a SigAlert
(complete lane closure on the I5), I set up a date for Saturday night;
there's another for Sunday, so you can already size up there's some freaky
chakra going on here already.
First stop was LA Municipal Court to answer for a 95-in-a-65 ticket I got
with Henrik and Daniel Veillard April 2nd. Today was my appearance date --
they won't even tell me my bail for this offense, it's a
mandatory-appearance. So I show up at County, and they tell me I'm at the
wrong courthouse -- Traffic is 20 blocks south. In the meantime, Elsevier
calls to say they might be relaunching the Web Journal, and would I like to
talk to them in Anaheim on Sunday?
I finally got to the right court, in benighted East LA, got in line, and
the clerk told me to report to the 4th floor courtroom... on September 17!
So without paying a dime or admitting anything for four more months, I went
to Caltech to catch the trailing edge of Ditch Day'98. Truly spectacular
engineering, as usual: jackhammers in Lower Crotch, and a particularly
poignant Ruddock stack that led the underclassmen inside and locked *them*
inside, to puzzle their way back out.
Adam and Michelle's Seinfeld party was a riot, unlike the episode itself --
a disappointment if you weren't entirely familiar with the entire history.
I was familiar enough, but I'd still say Newhart had a far better finale
(where the Japanese buy the small town in Vermont and Bob wakes up to
realize the whole series was a dream.
Adam and I then talked events until late. They had to leave at 6 to head
out to Brian's med school graduation in New Jersey, but I slept in at their
place
====
[Friday].
Woke
Read "The Mile High Club" by the pool, a celebrity expose by a former MGM
Grand stewardess
read the week's issue of Slate.
Read email headers, falling further behind.
Read the Economist, fell asleep on the couch
Ran into the couple minding Adam & Michelle's cats.
Decided I had to drive around for a bit to recharge the cellphone.
Went to Target to get some butane for my portable welding torch. They said
"we have no butane today," go
to Osh Hardware.
So I drove to Osh, who claimed "we have no butane today, go to Target."
At least I picked up some superglue and repaired my watch, whose keyboard
case had cracked.
Passed the $3 theater which was playing Dangerous Beauty, but I missed it
for the day.
Went out to Old Pasadena armed with some reading material, projected onto
some states of mind: {Economist, Entertainment Weekly, Maxim} X {Erudite,
Populist, Horny}. Pored over them while pouing out a pot of horrible chai
at the Lipton Teahouse (an experiment of Lipton corporate that hasn't taken
off).
Wandered around Old Town wondering what to eat. Ended up at Ariang, a
Korean BBQ. Bulgogi on the grill tonight...
Wandered around again, ended up at the Equator coffeehouse. Eyeing a table
of blonde USC med students working on Neurology homework. Nice place, but
the demographics skew a bit older.
Saw "2 Girls and a Guy." Good performances, begins as a great tale, fizzles
into conventionality as he picks the hetero blonde and breaks the triangle.
Also, Robert Downey Jr has some fine scenes, but there's *no* kernel of
lovability which could possibly explain why both fell for him.
Wandered over to Moby Disc, a used CD store. Almost bought the Revenge of
the Nerds soundtrack for 99 cents. Out front, they were giving away
promotional casingles from Cornershop: glorious news, they're headlining
their own show in LA!
Unglorious news: it's on June 15, during a WebDAV meeting I have to attend
in Seattle.
Oh, and they have a Seattle date, too, and I won't make that either. Sigh.
Ruminated over a beer at Gordon Biersch's. Wandered home.
Decided the beer buzz was just enough to drive me out to Hollywood, to
Toi's.
Lo and behold, I ran into Annie! On her birthday, no less! And, with my bag
of basmati rice bags in the trunk. What a wonderful encounter, with an
appropriately jubilant Annie, too. She was touched by my entry on her in
the Australia VOIDpost, so I was happy all around.
Chatted about Teflon, DNA, Great White sharks, riptides, and T-grain black
and white film gamma curves with a photographer at the bar.
Tonight's fortune: triplets! Three fortunes stuffed in one cookie: "Treat
yourself to something of quality" and "You love the spotlight" and "You
have the makings of a leader, not a follower." Made my night!
4:19 AM Went to the 24hr Home Depot @ 101 and Sunset to find that butane
fuel. Clerk out front said no way, she'd never heard of it. I found it in
the welding supplies aisle.
I love this town. Apparently it does pretty good business for a massive
24hr hardware store, especially from Hollywood prop designers.
Dropped by Fred 62, but it was pretty empty, so I went home and soaked in
the pool as dawn rose.
====
[Saturday]
Got up around 1 and checked on the plans for tonight's date: instead, I got
a raincheck. In the meantime, I got a call back from Door #3, and set up a
third for Monday night at LAX.
Headed to Little Tokyo to try out this Tempura bar at the New Otani, but it
was closed until 6, and it was waay too expensive not to 1) invite someone
with a corporate expense account along or 2) someone I really wanted to
impress. In any case, not shorts-and-Tevas.
So I browsed the Japanese pop culture mags at Kinukinoya and got some
yakisoba noodles instead.
After that, I hit the highway aimlessly and decided it was such a nice day
I had to drive PCH. So I ended up at the Hindu temple above Malibu Canyon
and spent two hours in silence wandering the complex and soaking up the
calm.
That was calm enough, so I spent the evening at Third Street Promenade,
watching the throngs and finishing up _Liar's Poker_. Went to Border's, and
Barnes & Noble, and Midnight Special -- found LA411 at the latter, which
had two pages of leads on movie-prop vehicles (such as, say, Scooby Doo
vans...). www.la411.com : recommended.
Ended up at Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina Del Rey. Did not realize that
Andy Kaufman used to be a busboy at the JFD in Studio City *while earning
$30k/wk on the set of Taxi*. Now there's humility.
====
[Sunday]
Originally, I had an editorial meeting with Elsevier in Anaheim at lunch,
but that got postponed to 4, so I slacked in until 3. Had a poolside chat
about the history of the Web Journal (and perhaps, its future) til 5:30,
grabbed a personal pan pizza and headed back to the office looking forward
to a 7:30 movie date.
In putting the pizza on the passenger seat, I slammed into the back of a
bus. There's massive construction throughout Anaheim with the rebuilding of
the I5, so it's random stop-and-go. So while one of Adam's mixtapes blubles
out "Don't Worry, Be Happy", I'm having flashbacks to the $700 of bumper
damage in Consumer Report's Bonneville evaluation (one of the highest
recorded).
I find an opening in the orange cones, and trundle over to assess the
damage. Plastic bumpers actually survived; I popped them back in with a
screwdriver. The hood wouldn't open until I give it a mighty whack. The
right hand headlamp is a total loss, though. The glass enclosure for the
lo, hi, and turn lamps is just shattered.
Back to the office, biding my time. J. called at 7:17 wondering what
happened, since she thought it was 7PM. D'oh! We have cookies and tea, and
saw Dangerous Beauty. In an ironic bit of timing , D called from Boston as
the curtains rode. Sensuous, but heavy-handed on the moralizing (the movie,
although it might be said of D, too :-). No post-game chat, though.
Went to Sid's and moped by way of plowing through an entire grocery bag of
magazines Adam gave me. Factoid: Asia Carrera is a card-carrying member of
Mensa (www.asiacarrera.com). Chatted with one of the waitresses 'til 2 and
headed home.
Rohit
--- Aristotle distinguished three types of Friendship: 1. Pleasure: some characteristic of the other affords pleasure, e.g. sense of humor, physical beauty 2. Utility: common goal or shared activity (camping, sports, etc) 3. Good: love of another for themselves