On WIth the Show, This is it

So, Monday night, I went to my first sort of, movie premiere, in the form of my boy Z, AKA, Issac Bright, AKA, The Verbal Warrior, unveiling, or should I say, unLEASHING his new one man show on the unsuspecting masses. While there weren't flood lights bounding through the skies of Hollywood, or papparazzi, or a red carpet, it was nonetheless, kind of neat, seeing my boys' name up on the marquee. Z was shrewd enough to rent out this really cool theater around the corner from me on Fairfax. I'd driven by it countless times. It regularly shows old silent movies, and seems to have a decent sized regualr clientele for their Charlie Chaplin and Lilian Gish flicks.

Anyway, so Bubba and I get there right on time, and make our way inside. The theater looked like it held maybe 100-120 people, and included plush chairs, complete with small throw pillows on each one, as well as two rows up front of leather couches for proper, living room style lounging. So much so that this one jackass apparently really did think he was at home, as he fired up cigarette after cigarette. Maybe it was a less than subtle homage to Max Cady in "Cape Fear," minus the raucous, obnoxious laughter?

Before the show started, I mingled with some good folks I knew, ALL of whom were East Coast transplants. It seems true what they say, that no one in L.A. is actually FROM L.A. I got to see three different people, none of whom I'd seen in probably 10 years. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I'll refrain from an actual movie review, leaving that to the good folks at Variety and such. Suffice to say, the performance was "different" and "unusual." Put that on the poster.

Focal Point of Blah

So, I haven't been particularly in the frame of mind to blog much of late, as I've been a tad funky for a little while. Maybe if I grease the wheels of creativity a bit, the flow will increase and I'll be able to up the productivity a little.
Recently, I had a unique experience. Well, not so much that what happened was so extraordinary, but it was new for me. See, a friend of mine from back east was in town, and really for the first time, I was in the position of being an L.A. "host," in the sense of, "I'm the guy who now lives in L.A. so I'll be able to show a newbie the ropes. I've had visitors since I've been here, (my sister Bef, my sister in law Jenny, and the Felz), but none in a while, and I would say that I was more the defacto host then, as opposed to now, when I'm more of a veteran of the L.A. process. And that feels wierd to me, the fact that I've been here long enough to be a "veteran."
Anyway, I've learned since I've been here that location wise, it was a remarkable throw of the darts at the board as to exactly where we ended up. We really are smack dab in the middle of it all, though I didn't know it when we flew out here on a whirlwind tour to find an apartment in 4 days in October '06. We knew we wanted to be in Hollywood, but didn't know just how centralized it actually is. So when my man came out I was like, "where are you staying?" "Over near Griffith Park." "Cool. That's a stone's throw from me. What would you like to do?" "I want to check out the shopping on Melrose." "Cool. That's walking distance from me." The Sunset Strip? Walking distance. The beach? 30 minutes by car. Etc.
We ended up taking a little tour of the Sunset Strip (which he was largely unimpressed by), before doing a little window shopping on Melrose. Once on Melrose, Oren reiterated what I'd already suspected. Namely, that for all the hipness and trendiness aspired to in the shops, it's remarakably homogenized. Like, all of the designers are trying to be so unique and different, yet they all look the same (think Ed Hardy). I've yet to properly verbally quantify the style, but there is this one underlying line of thought, shared by all of the "radical" designers. And all the hep cats sport the same accessories in the form of the haircuts, rings, jewelry, and tats. So much so that I feel like I'M the radical because I'm tattoo-less, sport no products in my hair, and really no accessories at all.