Thursday, February 28, 2008

L.A. Confidential Says...

Ok....I really should start writing these every week so I have some method of remembering how I spent my early 30's. Let's see...I was in San Francisco on Friday for a video game conference. I was there to shoot some interviews on camera but I recently had surgery on my eyes (don't ask) so I have two big shiners where Irish eyes a smilin' used to be. So, that being said, clearly I needed professional help before appearing on camera. And by "professional help" I mean "make-up artist", of course. So, when the clock struck noon and she hadn't showed- I felt a mimosa was in order to make up for the camera ugly. Three hours (and...a...few) mimosas later, it was time to leave the Hotel. Oh - the hotel, by the way, is the W which normally is one of my faves- but they did a terrible re-design and now their motif is Asian Fishbowl. I suggest the St. Regis if you're heading to SF. Anyway- off to the airport to hop a plane to Park City Utah for a weekend of Skiing. I get to Utah after a 2 hour on flight conversation with the elderly Mormon next to me. Russ was a super nice man and I think I convinced him homosexuality is ok- but DEFINITELY not caffeine. I de-plane and drive to my friends house, a few more drinks and off to sleep. On Saturday skiing was a bit too energetic for me so I had my first hot rock massage. Great idea but I have a scorched-in rockburn on my lower back...I guess that's the trade off. Saturday night was girls night (as opposed to any other night???) and 6 of us hit the town. After many hours of good times and a few of the girls convincing me it was a BRILLIANT idea to go in the outdoor jacuzzi - remember it's about two degrees in Utah- I decided it was probably best to head home. Sunday I actually made it to the Mountain. Beautiful conditions and amazing skiing. Then I was persuaded to sit for an hour on a TimeShare tour for $150 cash and 2 free lift tickets. Sold! Sunday night was OSCARS OF COURSE!....then back to Seattle on Monday. Oh- first I did a shoot in Provo Utah on Monday morning but thats not all that exciting. Stay tuned for next weekend.

Jon Friedman Says...

I ate chinese food twice.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

My Past Weekend

My Past Weekend began midday Friday, just after the snowfall. I went to get Turkish food and to see Cliff, the fellow I traveled to Buenos Aires with last July, who stayed in South America until very recently. This was our first meeting in months and there was a lot to catch up on over Turkish soda. He gave me a fab track jacket from Peru that I asked him to find me when he was down there. It looks like the puma font but it says PERU instead and in place of the leaping puma there is a chillin' llama. It's the second dopest track jacket in the world and I also own the first. So Cliff and I went to his place and bonded over episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I am not a person to watch sitcoms and don't follow much family, mainstream programming, but if you are not checking in on this show you are sleeping. It's HILAR!!!
A little while later my old college chum Patrick showed up in town and Meg came over with beers. The boys hadn't met before but they got on well- they're two old lads with similar crocked senses of humor. Meg peaced out and we went out to Grape and Grains- a cool little spot with a nice beer list and some slammin' margherita pizza- we had three pies. That is because one tiny slice fell off the second plate and they ordered us a new pie to replace it, and then decided they were just going to toss the incomplete pie in the trash so why not give it to us anyhow. Good deal! They get my props- check out the links in the right hand column to get the info on the place. Also the room was occupied by us and a crew of Portuguese from Portugal. Friendly, intelligent, slow speaking, kindly bunch of guys. Cliff and I were all over them, with our love of Latin people, food and drink.
Bonus! The flatscreen high up on the wall was showing The Outsiders. I don't remember C. Thomas Howell being so damn fiery hot! I didn't know who to look at first. Even some of the extra gang members who never got famous were sizzlers. Who are they? Are they my age now? Call me!! Then we hustled ourselves out, walked Senor Cliff home, went back to mine andhit the hay.
Sat. am I awoke and decided to look at the Jackass 24 hour takeover on MTV for about one of the hours. Maybe that was Sunday? I don't know. All I know was that the show was a jumbled mess of unfunny freestyle chat and antics, they showed a Smiths video which was rad, and they shmeared Nair all over one of their homie's hair, didn't let it sit long enough, and then pulled huge chunks of his hair out of the top, causing bloody patches on that part of his head, leaving the sides long like bozo, and then Steve-O ate a clump of it.
So that opened my eyes wide enough to get out of the bed, and then Pat and I goofed around, quizzed him for his spanish midterm he was goingto take Monday (he failed- sorry P!), bought the domain name for my new business website from a host service in Chile (whatever), had some lunch, and got ready to see Manon Lescaut at the Metropolitan Opera house with Amber and Meg. We all met up there, Pat squiring his ladies three, and when it came time to pay Patrick back for purhasing all the tickets, he refused to take our money! He had never even met Amber before, Meg only once, and hadn't been in touch with me for well over a decade! What a guy! A prince among men! Everybody needs to be friends with this guy! And he is thinking of moving here from D.C. so everybody can! Well not everybody, he doesn't like that many people.
Anyway, the opera was lovely! Especially the second act, set in a massive French bedroom suite, with the characters and room dressed in the Dangerous Liaisons look. I love that period. What period is it? If you know, leave a comment, thanks! The singing was marvelous, the audience filled with many younger people which was a surprise, the drama and acting was executed very well, and the subtitles came in spanish and german too! After a while I began to read the subtitles in spanish and see if I knew what was being said. I did pretty well, and also learned some new high drama words and phrases, like: What am I saying, so many tears, I am going crazy, never forget me, etc. I will be certain to incorporate those phrases down at the Spanish restaurant next time I eat there. Afterwards Amber peaced out and P, M and I went to the West Vill to eat more pizza and drink some beers. Two staff members approved our request to go get pizza and bring it inside to eat since the kitchen was closed. 1/3 of the way through my second slice the manager came over and told me it was against policy to do this and I had to go outside in the frio to eat it. Bitches and hos! He didn't react when I told him that I had respectfully asked if we could do this and that his own staff gave us the green light. He took it all out on me. Then later the waitress came over again and never said it was her bad. Sometimes I hate everybody. The place was the Greenwich Village Bistro. Noone go there now, and it doesn't get a link in the right hand column either. We wanted to go to Yama anyway.
Sunday we went shopping on Lafayette Street bc P wanted to acquire some dark jeans. He found a pair of black ones at G-Star Raw and proceeded to buy two pairs of them. The man knows what he wants!
After, we went to Cafe Esquina for corn and chicken tortas. Gat damn delicious. I like the taco stand part better actually but I did enjoy my brunch. I recommend the establishment, even if they do have these huge photos of masked guerillas on all the walls- makes the place look like its being ambushed!
Next I walked P to the subway so he could head to Penn Station. Yes, fancy Pat takes the Acela train when he could feasibly take the Chinatown bus for $35 RT. He won't stand for the aroma of urinalcake and that is that for that. Hell, if I could afford the Acela I suppose I'd take it too. Pat is a baller. Then I went on to Amber's bday party at a dive bar in the East Vill. I am not going to shout it out because 1. they are all the same 2. I don't enjoy a dive bar 3. you all know it anyway and have probably puked there. Even with my left wrist in a brace due to my fracture sustained whilst snowboarding, I managed to do my admirable dart tricks with my other hand and dazzle the crowd. Cliff appeared and we left to go to his apt. and watch more How I Met Your Mother, which from now on I will refer to as HIMYM. Many laffs later (I'm for real! It's totally funny! Trust!) I bounced out of there as I was disinterested in watching any Oscars broadcast. I read my book and melted into slumber, resting up before my casting job this week, auditioning improv actors for a new IFC series. ps- I met Peter Scolari!