old news part 1: california

The question came up last weekend: east coast or west coast? Despite often not having a left-turn lane, I would definitely say east coast. I don't like the sun and I don't like volleyball. I certainly don't like the vastness of concrete that is Los Angeles.

Surprising then that I enjoyed myself so much this past weekend. In a nutshell, Joe and I needed to make a presence at our first film festival -- The All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival. We decided to have Jen, Margie and Zo drive us there.

I'm not going to elaborate on a ton of photos like I did with my last California trip. I stuck everything you need to see on Facebook, right here (I hope that link works). Nevertheless, here's something you won't find on Facebook (yet). It's our iPod karaoke that we did as we thought Jen's car may be overheating.



Turns out the car wasn't overheating, it was simply breaking entirely. Or so we thought. The mechanic at Barstow said the repairs would be extensive and time-consuming. Joe then rented a car and we were off again.

Totally arrived in the climate-controlled environs of Los Angeles safely. Here is my meal from Pink's Hot Dogs:


Later that night we hit Santa Monica Pier. I should NOT have done headstands in the water fully clothed. Hmmm. Actually, I have no regrets.


One thing I've forgotten to mention is that we did this whole thing on Joe's birthday. As his birthday present he beat the tar out of this poor kid at Guitar Hero Arcade.


Here's a more beautiful picture of Santa Monica Pier than real life.


Take a look at this picture. When you're on the Santa Monica Pier of life are you the one yearning for what's in the distance, or are you the one taking a bite out of what's in front of you?


Saturday was the day of the festival. Here's my meal at Pann's Diner. Pann's was the restaurant prominently featured in Pulp Fiction.


Here we are in front of the press runway for the film festival. Notice the awesome uniforms Joe had made for us.


It's weird. I thought I was going to be really uncomfortable at the festival scene and hate everybody. I was only half right. The people there were really stellar. Everyone we talked to was super friendly to us and there was a wonderful spirit of camaraderie. I tensed up quite a bit when our movie was shown, but it seemed to roll quite well.

The wonderful news of the evening, but not quite news to Joe and me was that we actually received a reward. Our film was the only film that made it into the festival's "Micro Documentary" category. Who knows how many entered that didn't get in (I supposed there's a POSSIBILITY that nobody else entered)?

Due to camera issues, we didn't get our entire acceptance speech, but here's what we got:



Here's our gang at the awards ceremony:


Here's a meal (not mine) from Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles:


Stunning view of L.A. from Mulholland Drive. Note the power lines. Man! Los Angeles is sure missing a sort of organic appeal.


Here's a drink from that taco place near Manhattan Beach we went to. Does the guy on this cup look like me? Is he a guy from Eagles of Death Metal?


Anyhoo. Film festival: success! Los Angeles: success! Lots went wrong, but it seemed mostly right, which was more than I thought it would be.