2 Saturday’s ago Jessica had a lovely garden party. Drinks, friends, family, kids running about, Park Slope…you get it. The next night I met up with Marcus Oakley. I hadn’t seen him in person for about 4 years I think, that didn’t seem to matter, we had some beers and a great time. Talking with him was so great because there was very little “catching up” and a lot of what is currently on my mind type of talk. He joined the gang for dinner and that was that.
Monday I took off for LA. I knew beforehand that I’d pretty much be doing the exact same stuff that I do here in NY while I was out there, but I figured why not since I had a free plane ticket coming to me and a place to crash out there.
Got to the airport and of course my flight was late meaning I’d miss my connecting flight to LA. I struck a deal and flew on to KC for the night, meeting Brooke, the Blumes and others at the Cure concert there. Caught the last half hour of the show, went out for a couple beers, raided Blume’s fridge and talked into the night. Woke up on Tuesday and fiddled around and waited too long to call a cab. Turns out it takes 40 min to pick you up there. So I made it to the airport 10 minutes prior to takeoff… Luckily KC is about the easiest airport in the world to get through so I made it no problem.
Gino picked me up in the black PT Cruiser we’d be cruising in all week. “It’s a rental!” The whole week was a pile on of creating a glossary’s worth of inside jokes, farting, pushing each other to the limit, with the occasional cultural / tourist event included. Highlights included: new LACMA wing, visiting the AMMO office, climbing Ryan Mountain in Joshua Tree, Venice Beach, the Getty, Dodgers v. Cardinals game, majestic views, and live music. We went to some fancy bars (Green Door), some bars we loved (Little Joy, Jumbo’s), and some not so great bars. Drank too much coffee every day, visited the taco trucks most nights, had some amazing Mexican food at Alegria on Sunset, and a million little plates of food in Koreatown. I did my best to avoid geography conversation (NY vs. LA, what do you like about NY? LA? etc…), but it was inevitable and people just don’t drop it. We eventually just took on this super arrogant persona and said everything in NY was dope and everything in LA was wack. I am not sure many people got the joke. All in all a great trip, though I hope my next travel adventure is more along the lines of a quiet cabin by a lake.
The intense hanging out time reinforced my hopes of setting a long weekend retreat / lock-in with the idea that something tangible would come of it.
Today at work we received a shipment of the book series I helped on and I’m totally happy with how everything turned out. Went and checked the location of the new office and man I am ready to get in there. Lots more space, crazy views of the Trade Center site and that old cemetery / church, weird mix of people walking around, beer and candy store connected to the building.
Sent off the final necessities for The Artist’s Guide Vol 2. Should be coming out in July sometime. Again, feet were dragged longer than they should have been on our part, but maybe that’s just the way it should be. I should probably start thinking about financial backing for issue 3 now… but I’ll just wait until something comes up.
Current Interests
Drawing
Recipes
Games
Reading
Making Music
People I Think Read my Web Log
Lane
Jake
Sam
Kelly
Brock
Aug
Jen
Miranda
Defining
Class Clown vs. the Class Comedian?
The Village Idiot vs. Uninhibited Person Without Regrets?