Living For The City

Huuuuge congratulations to Kelso who had one of her photos selected by National Geographic for the Daily Dozen section of their website… You can vote for your favorite so… go vote!

Nothing I could say would even begin to mend the tear you’re passing will leave the very fabric of this city that you’ve given so much to and that loves you so very much. Rest In Peace, old friend.

Tonight I will pick up a cheque for more money than I’ve ever seen in my life! Unfortunately, that money is already spoken for (oh, the many joys of home ownership…) but I’m going to skim a little baby-bit off the top and treat myself to something totally impractical…

This is my boss Yan, he’s the man. He was a punk rocker in France in the late late 70′s / early 80′s and now he’s the Creative Director at work. I’ve worked for him for 6 years now… great dude.

Yan has been riding motorcycles for nearly 30 years and has owned probably as many bikes as that in that time… He’s be working on me since I started working here to buy a bike and I think I’m finally ready to pull that trigger… I want to be ready for my mid-life crisis, you know? I don’t want to have to learn how to ride a bike when I’m 50, I wanna already know how!

Anyway, last night Yan plunked me on the back of his Street Bob and zoomed me up to the north end of Markham to look at an old CB I’d see on craigslist… Same one Andrew has.

Looked great in the pictures, looked great from the street; once you got about a meter away from it you could tell it was a total piece of shit. It wasn’t running and you could tell it had been sitting apart and had been hastily put back together – parts missing and all. If the electrical system wasn’t total junk I’d have probably bought it anyway and put a little into it but unfortunately it was too far gone… so… no go!

So, friends, please look out for something for me… Mid-70′s, Honda, I reeeeeeally like the old CB750s but something smaller is fine… doesn’t have to be perfect but running and certifyable right out the gate would be beautiful!

K, Thx, Bye.

Give ‘em the boot, Sammy!

Story – Photos

It would have been really nice to have had some more time here… I spent pretty much all my time in Santa Monica which I really enjoyed but it would have been nice to explore more… I really wanted to go into Hollywood and pay a visit to Dan Smith (and maybe even come home with a little something special) but unfortunately the time just wasn’t there. I got here on Saturday night and had to leave Monday morning… 1 day? Just not enough… unfortunately I couldn’t get the time away from work with the current work schedule…

Wokeup, had coffee, packed up and vacated! I hate travel days, it sucks knowing that you’re going to leave the house around 12 in the afternoon and get back to Toronto around 12 at night (which will feel more like 9 at night with the time change so sleeping may not be easy) then go to work in the morning. C’est la vie.

Huge, Huge, HUGE thanks for Marc for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to show me a great time and also to his roomie Doug for allowing me to take over their living room for the weekend…

–

So I’m sitting here at the airport, complaining that I got here waaaaaaaay too early and who do I notice sitting right across from me? Guzman, Adrian Cann and Cronin sitting right across from me and the rest of the TFC and their staff down the line…

I looked through my camera and sure enough, the only good pic that I had was of Cann so I walked over and said “hey, sorry to bug you, but this is you, right?” and he was stoked! Adrian asked me to send the pic over to him via email when I get home… I took the opportunity to pump up Red Nation a little and then let them be so they could get on to Vancouver.

Nice dudes!

I slept in but good, I’ll tell you what! I wish I hadn’t because it feels like a waste to sleep when you’re in a new city but the boys were nice enough to just let me waste the day away… I got up around 11, went and got a great cup of coffee and then we got on with our day.

Marc took me first to Abbot Kinney which is a pretty nice little area of town… lots of cool little shops, vintage and whatnot… Vegan joints in this town are a dime a dozen (seriously, they are everywhere!) so I’m glad this one turned out to be pretty good…

…and it gave me us a good vantage point to watch dude-bros and the like walk into the gaybar across the street and then time how long it would take for them to walk out… I think this bunch made it 1 whole minute before realizing where they were.

The guy at this store wanted way too much for this type-writer and complained when I gave him a US dollar coin rather than a bill for this little 50′s military patch I bought… Gimme a break.

The folks at this store, nice as it was, wanted waaaaaaaaaay too much for their jeans… Even if they are hand made. $500-$700 a pair? Are you mental? I don’t care if they are raw Japanese selvege denim… So are Naked & Famous and they are only a little more than $100 which is still a good amount of coin. Get real.

I love these guys; dude is standing around in an outfit worth over $1000 trying desperately to look like he’d have worked in a steel foundry at the turn of the century… I’m sure I’m guilty of that to some degree but just the same, it’s a little hard not to want to just slap ‘em across the face. SLAP!

Then we went over to Venice Beach for about 30 seconds… the skatepark was cool buuuuut otherwise, what a shit show! Hahaha

Sick walking stick, bro…

Sick no handed Segway & Pirate Hate, bro…

Now this I can get behind…

Then we went over to Montana (think Yorkville) to grab a very good cup of coffee before heading home to mellow out before heading out to meet up for a quick drink with Marc’s friend Eli and his friend Laura before heading back, you guessed it, to Real Food Daily!

This is the best tomato soup I have EVER had. No doubt.

This crab cake kinda thing was fucking incredible…

The nachos were unstoppable…

The Tempeh Parmesan was unbelievable…

The banana Cake Marc had was awesome…

But nothing, ever, could touch this Brownie Bowl with Carrot Cake icing!

Jaaaaysus Christ!!!

–

I headed over to the convention center, set up, went for my usual coffee & snack at Lion’s, worked for the day… pretty uneventful overall until mid-afternoon when the whirlwind began! The exhibit hall closed at 3 and I had a 4 o’clock train booked for LA so I had to boogie! Boogie I did… tore down and packed up my equipment in a record 11 minutes and 13 seconds and hauled ass to the train station!

I gotta tell ya; the upgrade to business class was a very, very smart decision. No line-ups, guaranteed seating, nicer seating, much less crowded car, wine & snacks served, a little table to set my computer on (with power outlets and eeeeerythang), and seriously… 14 bucks? Yes ma’am.

I met this really nice lady named Ramona, originally from the Philipines who now lives in Long Beach. Really, really nice lady and we chatted all the way from San Diego to LA without rest – she had really great stories about traveling Europe when she was younger and a wonderful outlook on life, trying as it may be at times.

Meeting folks like Ramona & Irene definitely made the trip a lot better for me, helped eliminate some of my loneliness quite a bit and encouraged me to push myself a little bit outside of my comfort zone and talk to strangers more. You never know who you’re gonna meet and what their going to give to you.

The view from the train was no joke, either. The weather may not have been amazing but it didn’t make the coast any less beautiful.

Got picked up by Brother Lemoine – a giant among men – at Union Station and we headed right away over to The Home Depot Center where he was shooting some pics for Sparkles’ Footie site Red Nation Online.

It also just so happens that Marc is buds with Jackie, a LA Galaxy Sideline Reporter (who also happens to be a bit of a babe – if I do say so, myself… and I do), so she made sure that I was able to get in posing at Marc’s assistant.

I mean, come on, I may not be a superfan or anything but it doesn’t get much better than watching a game THIS close!

There was some suuuuuper obnoxious wanna be hooligans right behind us yelling the worst shit the whole game… I obviously don’t care that they don’t like the TFC but it took so much to not just turn around and drag these weenises out of the stands and spank them like their fathers should have…

So glad the TFC held on to tie the game; a loss would have given the reeeee rees so much satisfaction.

After the game Marc and I boogied over to Real Food Daily before they closed – this place did NOT disappoint! Holy shit! I had a Tuscan Bean Soup and the Fettucini Alfredo and they were iiiiiiiincredible! No room for desert at all! Bumout! I just couldn’t do it…

Went home, set up camp, had a beer and passed the F out! Hello LA!

Went to work nice and early and got set up, went to my local coffee shop (I’ve only been here for three days and they know my order when I walk in the door), went back to the convention center until it was time to break down for the day.

Walked back through the Gaslamp back to Pokez (hey, I’m a creature of habit) and then back to the hotel. Everwhere that I stop that seems half way cool I ask “where should I go? what should I do?” and no one seems to be able to tell me… They either tell me to go somewhere that I already know sucks oooor they tell me to go somewhere that is too far away…

Tonight I googled San Diego Bars and cross referenced my findings with a show that looked interesting I’d see in the local paper (Lonesome Heroes, Halcyonaire & River City) and it turned out that the bar I’d chosen was hosting the show that had piqued my interested. Perfect.

I headed up to Evolution knowing that they closed at 9, figuring I’d kill a good amount of time there and then head down the street to the Tin Can Ale House for about 10:00… Unfortunately Evolution has new hours and they closed at 8 but the drive-through was still open to I did a walk-through at the drive through and mowed down a quick snack before heading to the show much earlier than I’d hoped!

I got there with nearly an hour before anyone went on so I was sitting there by myself with my social anxiety kicking into overdrive! Fortunately, I met some nice/cool folks and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the evening – stayed out a little too late, drank a little lot too much. What are ya gonna do?

The bar was really, really cool – the type of place that I’d willingly spend time in back home. I wish that I’d found it much, much earlier in my trip – I likely would have met folks there that would have pointed me in the right direction which would have made my stay a little better but, just the same, I had a good time in San Diego and enjoyed getting to know the city a little. Thanks to Nikki, Kat & Crew for showing me a good time and making me feel a little more at home.

Also…

I chomped the shit out of my inner cheek. It was the worst. If nothing else, though, it distracts from the blisters on my poor tootsies.

Oh yeah…

Hellboy 2 was on the TV. Guillermo del Toro can do no wrong in my books.

Today was quite a bit less eventful; yesterday I was setting up an Augmented Reality program we developed for the ONS conference but today was the first day of the conference so a) it started much, much earlier b) went much, much longer and c) even when I could sneak away I was on call so I couldn’t go more than 10 or 15 minutes away from the hotel / convention center so my escapes were highly limited.

I walked around the Gaslamp Quarter again, hoping it might be better in the light of day… It wasn’t.

Then I got changed back into my suit and tie guy get-up (I clean up pretty well, if I do say so myself) and went back to the convention center for a little while to check in, make sure everyone was happy and make sure everything was going smoothly… It was.

Then back to the hotel to get back into my wicked-cool guy get-up (I dress down pretty well, if I do say so myself) then I went for a walk through the “Seaport Village” which is basically a fake village along the shoreline behind the hotel for tourists to get a piece of that beach town vibe… you know, in that sort of fake / made up beach town vibe kind of way…

It was pretty none the less and at the end of it all is the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier and “The Greatest Generation Walk” which has a bunch of monuments to WWII vets.

In my younger “fuck the military in every which way and fuck the USA” days I’ve have been all “fuck the military in every which way and fuck the USA” but today, I’m going to allow myself to appreciate it as less of a “tribute to US imperialism and the military industrial complex” kind of thing and more of a “tribute to the hundreds of thousands of young men and women that gave their lives” kind of thing. I feel better about that.

You may not be able to tell from this photo but this statue is GIANT! Like, 25 ft or better… I’d have boarded the carrier but I was wearing one of my Pearl Harbor Gift Shop shirts and I felt like a bit of a military fan-boy enough as it was, the carrier would have been a bit much. Maybe I’ll go back to see it tomorrow…

Tonight I made my way over to Pokez on the suggestion of both Dan Lambert & Dan Arel. Two Dan’s couldn’t possibly be wrong!

…and they weren’t. Much like the statue above, you might not be able to tell from this photo but this burrito is GIANT! It was amazing… best burrito I’ve had in at least 13 years (last best being in Atlanta) and because my memory of that time may be a little foggy at this point I’m going to declare this the best burrito I’ve ever had. Deeeeeelish! Served with chips / salsa, salad & juice for less than $7? Giddy up!

Back at the hotel by 8:00pm with no inclination to go anywhere and no clue where to go if I had any. This dude at the hotel bar is trying desperately to talk to this girl and it’s hilarious. Then again, I’m a dude on his computer at the bar so I’m not sure who’s worse? Ha! I say him, still, because neither of us are getting laid tonight but at least I’m not trying and getting shut down in the worst possible way.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

–

On an unrelated note; SkyMall rules. Like, where else are you going to get an underwater pogo stick (the only!) and sneakers with fucking sperms all over them in the same place? Nowhere, that’s where… Only SkyMall.

–

On an even more unrelated note; I’ve really been enjoying this video…

…and this one.

I feel great.

Oh, good morning, room with a view!

So I got up, went and got a coffee, a lettuce & tomato sandwich and a banana, went to work for a few hours, had a beer and made my way towards the San Diego Zoo. As I was standing in line, this nice old lady came up and asked if I’d bought a ticket already? I thought maybe she wanted to sell me one that she wasn’t able to use or something… cool… but nope! She has a yearly pass and she’s allowed one guest with each visit, I suppose I must look like a nice enough young fella, because she chose me to take me with her! Free zoo! GO!

Irene moved to New York City in ’57, after waiting more than 10 years to come to America after the war. When she was 13, she and 20 others escaped from a German “camp” in Poland (I think we all know what that means) and hid in the woods until the camp was “shut down” (I think we all know what that means) in 1945… Moved to California in ’66 and married an Irish-born Marine named Daniel O’Callaghan.

Since Daniel died, Irene spends the bulk of her days hanging out with the Gorillas and Orangutans at the San Diego Zoo… pretty cool. She knows all of their names and knows their schedules like clock-work. “That big silverback over there… give him 10 minutes, he’ll come by here… just wait, he’ll come by, it’s almost time…”

This little guy, Frank, is the man. He’s always runnin’ around and spinnin’ and beating his chest and slamming the glass and generally being a rambunctious little 4 2 year old. I could have spent the whole day watching Frank… wishing I could be Frank.

These otters were funny… They kept going after this one baby monkey and even the monkey’s mom didn’t want any part of them… I thought otters were supposed to be nice?

A lot of animals were sleeping… like, seriously, a lot of them.

Sadly, the shot I like the most is the one I shot of a video being projected on a wall of elephants in the wild.

This guy tried to fight me…

…or impregnate me, the jury is still out on that one.

After the zoo I headed over to Evolution as it had come highly recommended by a few folks. Only in California… Vegan Fast Food joint… BMW SUV in the lot, Hummer at the Drive-Through. What a world.

“Bacon” “Cheese” “Burger” Giddy up!

Free Vegan Soft Serve… Uh… Giddy up! Thanks Evolution… Hopefully I’ll see you again before I leave.

Spending the time at the zoo with Irene was super fun and I think she enjoyed the company as much as I did. See, I don’t travel well… alone, at least. I really enjoy exploring new cities and seeing things I’ve never seen before but I really do prefer to have someone, or some folks to share all that with.

As I write this I’m sitting alone in a bar on the 40th floor overlooking San Diego Harbor in one direction and the city, with all it’s bright lights, in the other. Rather than trying to strike up a conversation with anyone I’m typing away on this here keyboard and when I’m done that I’ll bury my face in local magazines trying to figure out what to do tomorrow night so that I don’t do this again… but I probably will.

I guess it beats sitting in the room watching TV, right? At least I’ve got a bottle of something cold to keep me company, right? Gad, I wish I had a bike to ride.

Good night, room with a view.

Best thing about bein’ in Amer’cuh is watching the news. I mean, this is obviously a joke but it’s honestly not far off… no wonder this place is fucked!

I’ve been accused, on more than one occasion, of being a wee bit of a momma’s boy. I don’t give a god damn, I love my momma and I don’t care who knows it. Happy Mother’s Day, momma, you deserve the world for what you’ve endured.

…and to my sis and all my dear friends who’ve had kids in the last little while (Jesus, I’m getting old and I feel so far behind…), Happy Mother’s Day to you too.

…and to all my gal-pals that don’t have kids yet but have little dogs and cats and other furry little friends, you guys count too and deserve to be recognized for the love you give, Happy Mother’s Day.

RAMGOAT!