WATCH THE LENO SHOW

WATCH THE LENO SHOW 11:35PM YOUR TIME ANYTIME.....UPDATE COMING SOON.


PART TWO: Sooooo this was crazy. IN a nutshell, we somehow got front row, courtside tix to the LEno show. Carrie got sick so Chloe (daughter of the writer of the movie Runaway Bride) came with me. Tom Cruise was guest, had a conversation with him about Bayonne during which he said "Wait till you see the bridge, it gets wasted".

We are on TV multiple times throughout the show, it was nuts.

Also that morning I was shipping my souvenirs home when in walks Bruce Willis. For some reason I couldn't bring myself to say anything, although it would have been the perfect time to ask him to send our neighbor, Donna (former gf of his) some more moolah. Oh well.

This trip was overwhelming and a perfect way to balance out the recital stress. Carrie's and her fam were great, but of course, I'm glad to be home!!!
<3

Day 7, June 7th

TODAY WAS THE DAY OF STAR SIGHTING. THREE OF THEM!!!

practicing at tom and gloria's!

jamba juice round 2

paramount studios tour...very cool check pics
----not included in pics: being on the entertainment tonight set (27 plasma tv's), the insider, soul train, and nip/tuck. the FULL SET. that was cool, although I don't watch the show...

STAR SIGHTINGS #1:
Jake Gyllenhaal (Bubbly boy, donnie darko, other movies) 1 inch from us
---scenario: stopped in our car at a light, he gets out of his car which is parked right next to us, he is an inch from our passenger side, he looks into our car as chloe is flipping out. then we drove around the block and got a pic (see pics)

next to the grove (cool outdoor thingy), and melrose. coool vintage t shirt stores here, and vintage clothes in general. la is shopper's paradise.

dinner at le pain quotidienne=eating grass. i ordered what looked like the most normal food on the menu, a tuna sandwich. it comes out and it looks like an art exhibit. according to carrie, this is "cali food".

STAR SIGHTING #2:
MILA JOVOVICH (L'oreal girl, fifth element, resident evil, etc.)
just hanging on a corner with her friend. at this point she has dark dark black hair with bangs and bug-eye sunglasses. she definitely knew we were trying to play it cool in our car haha it was funny.

home to recoup and finally complete all math for the week. get ready to head out for carrie's celebration.

ended up at some western-style place, with a mechanical bull and cool wooden structures inside....mixed crowd, not to crowded so we just got our own high table and listened to the kareoke stuff.

STAR SIGHTING #3: Tracy Morgan from SNL was at the bar we were at.
Cabbed home and went to bed ASAP!

TODAY (Wednesday): carrie's feeling funny in her throat, so Warner Bros studio tour is OUT. That leaves Leno and packing....check out Leno tonight 11:30pm on NBC...

<3

Day 6, June 6th

------Part 1-------

today is carrie's 21st

walking tour of historic downtown (the tour guide referred to bayonne as the birthplace of film)
---lots of cool pics

met carrie's dad for lunch at some cafe near his building....and I HAD CLAMS. seafood. clams. and it was ok.

checked out the LA building, his office is on floor 40, the view is spectacular! also the hallways are lined with awesome photographs

walked over to disney hall which is the most amazing building i've ever seen architecture-wise. look it up. this is where the la phil plays....the bookstore inside was great

drove over to historic union station and also to "Olvera Street", the oldest street in LA, all little mexican stands with cool merchandise...we also saw some guy get violently arrested for stealing/being homeless

me and car drove to the coolest bookstore in west hollywood, samuel french. (kind of like mti, big performing arts publishers). i could have purchased the whole store. tons of categories like, original screenplays, playbooks, sheet music, and books about the industry.

----Part 2 Preview: meet chloe, dinner at some italian restaurant, math test part 2, drinks at cabo cantina------

everything in preview except drinks were replaced by dessert due to unanimous fatigue decision. party tomorrow.
<3 goodnight

p.s. chloe is super cool....critical film studies major in uc santa cruz...sleepover tonight

TOMORROW (TUESDAY): Practicing on gloria's piano, jamba juice, paramount tour, melrose and farmer's market, get lucy grass for mommmm....party

Day 5, June 5th

simple and relaxing

brunch at the JC (Jonathan Club)-beach club that car's family belongs too
----they had everything you could imagine, from breakfast to dessert, all covered under the flat bill
----2 of the guests were family friends tom and gloria, who (THANK GOD) offered me their house key so i can practice....not playing for this long is tooo weird

home to change and get ready for Laguna Beach!

nice scenic drive (about 45 minutes)

sat on beach for 2-3 hours, with a mix of sun and clouds
----this was the best...carrie is a beach bum too...we just sat and watched stuff and read...perfect!

blockbustered it up: nicole kidman's "Birth" (what???) and "Ocean's 12"---we only watched ocean's so far

debated for a long while about din din, decided chinese, had chicken with broccoli different than i've ever tasted before, with some weird spice

studied more math hmmmmm got sad that carrie didn't want to stay up for her birthday time (midnight, 31 minutes ago). so i figured i'd update pics and blog

TOMORROW: Downtown tours and lunch at the LA Building, then possibly Sunset Strip partying for car's 21st
<3 goodnight

Day 4, June 4th

breakfast at the "rodeo collection" with our old friend charlotte--outside boutique mall

p.s. it was saturday and there were orthodoxies allll over! it was crazy. walking everywhere.

peddler on the roof, famous flea market - 3 dollar admission, on top of a parking lot, best view of the hollywood sign! lots of cool jewelry, etc.

JAMBA JUICE!!! the coolest smoothie place ever. I had the Orange-A-Peel. basically this you can have your meals at this place. really cool

then we headed out to Venice Beach which has been my fav bY FAR
-----muscle beach (hilarious), more street performers (including this short short muscular black guy in a speedo rolling this small heavy lead ball all over his shoulders), very reminiscent of point pleasant (beach on left, tons of little stands on the right...selling Venice Beach sweatshirts etc.)
-----there was the coolest t shirt place, especially if you like retro or comment t's (7-up, bush stuff, family guy, simpsons, etc.) it was so cool. i wanted to buy the whole store for joe haha. *molly-one of your souvenirs is from here*
----first encounter with sand so far! very cool, we just sat for a long while andp eople watched
----the bikers are vicious, they have their own lane and they will run you over!!!
----lots of palm trees

then we talk a walk to charlotte's house and to the venice canals (these look like manahawkin near LBI only suppper beautiful) pics to come.

mel's drive-in, a super retro diner place, where the waitresses wear little white cones on their heads....

then carrie took me to this place as a surprise, called "the spot" basically, you drive up the mountain that the hollywood sign is on (through the hollywood hills-an awesome but dangerous residential area---ben affleck, etc.)
----it is a super windy road of death and goes alllll the way up the mountain!
-----at the top, you can park your car on private property, go up to THE TOP of the mountain, open your eyes, and see ALL OF LA at night! it was sooooo awesome/breathtaking/etc. pics didn't come out so good, but whatever. apparently this "spot" isn't really known to/explored by tourists and it's more of a teenager hang-out thing. so cool.

back to the burgin residence to go to sleep at 10:15 because WE WERE POOPED.

Sunday: carrrie's brunch on the beach, laguna beach, math test.

Day 3, June 3rd

ALERT ALERT ALERT we found out that when we go to the Leno taping on Wednesday, Tom Cruise will be a guest! If he mentions ANYTHING about NJ or even Bayonne and filming War of the Worlds there, I'm yelling.
-------------------------
woke up to SUNNY weather!

accompanied carrie to her santa monice errands. NOTE: try to say "Santa Monica Boulevard" NOT in the Sheryl Crow ryhthm. very hard, right?

today was HOLLYWOOD. featured attractions included:

the hands at the chinese theatre. michael douglas has the HUGEST footprint i've ever seen.

lots of souvenir shops

the "sex district" as i like to call it which includes the erotic museum, the original fredrick's of hollywood (with a museum inside with real movie lingerie i.e. the FEMBOT costume from Austin Powers), the exotic dancer shoe store, etc.

also in this district are a handful of the craziest smoke shops ever

we dined at the Musso and Frank Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood (used to be a fav of Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, etc. --for you mom!)

Scenic drive feeling like stalkers at people's houses. Pretty successful, with the houses of sinatra, gershwin, cosby, and lucy. Ones that were blocked by trees include the Playboy Mansion.

Then we went to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, which carrie says is her fav place to go. It's basically a street with stores on each side, only the street is pedestrian only
----reminds me of the waterfront (restaurants, shops, coffee, movies)
-----also has street perfomers. today: belly dancer, dancing monks, a gymnast with no legs, a folkie singer playing a harp

saw cinderella man. eh. thought it seemed like ron tried to hard? i dunno.

INTERESTING DIFFERENCES:
jaywalking is a serious no. no. today we were at a crosswalk and no cars were crossing, but you don't cross until the little walking man signal is on. ridiculous. i almost got fined today for it. i have been the first to cross at every intersection it's so weird.

in the movie theatre, people were quiet and clapped thunderously after the movie. carrie said that's normal. they also get very involved and laugh at things that are not laugh-out-loudable. to each his own

californians, although they will firmly protest otherwise, do NOT use their right blinkers.

i think the term "freeway" is cooler than our "highway"

people don't use air conditioning in their houses.


ok that's all for now! time to upload some pictures maybe....
<3 goodnight
--------------------TOMORROW'S PREVIEW
breakfast with charlotte (carrie's friend who lived with us in Pittsburgh for 1 year in the ballet grad program at PBT)

Peddler on the Roof flea market. apparently a big thing.

laguna beach which is supposed to be beauuutiful

tomorrow night is up in the air although it must conclude me taking my chapter 2 test for online math. yay.

Day 2, June 2nd

IT IS JUNE GLOOM. An environmental freak of nature. For info, see bottom of post.

woke up at 7:15am. didn't know it was that early, because CARRIE DOESN'T HAVE A CLOCK IN HER ROOM! isn't that crazy? so we found one in the house now. problem solved.

hung around the house, cinnamon toast crunch, etc.

got ready, went to carrie's brother's school (gateway...it is a reformed WAREHOUSE...coolest design ever)

watched his 1-hour presentation, a required final project (the topic was how his musical development paralelled his emotional development during the past 2 years...the presentation featured his invention, a synthesizer made from the pieces of an electronic can opener...it is called an electromag-na-tone...he uses it to make beats, and also to create unique guitar distortion. very cool)

lunch in santa monica at the border grill, had really interesting tacos with rice...

driving tour wth carrie for about 2 hours, throughout ALL of LA. some highlights: the Fonz's house, Ted Danson's house, Hollywood, The Ivy Restaurant, Santa Monica Boulevard, Westwood, Century City, Sunset Strip, BEVERLY HILLS WHICH IS AMAZING, Pacific Palisades, the Incline down to the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), Sunset Boulevard, Melrose (THE COOLEST), Brentwood (AS IN OJ SIMPSON'S estate, etc.)

came back to Beverlywood (Carrie's neighborhood) to plan our itinerary, trying to fit everything in. some upcoming events include: venice/muscle beach, rodeo drive, Laguna and Malibu Beaches, Downtown LA, Movie Studio Tours (Paramount and WB), Famous flea markets, Carrie's Birthday celebration in the Sunset Strip club(s), Disney Hall (where the LA Phil plays), Chinese Theatre (hands in ground), two cemetaries where stars are buried, a detailed driving tour to specific addresses of A-listers (Whoopi, Billy Crystal, Stephen Spielberg, THE ARNOLD, Goldie Hawn, Walt Disney, the Elton John/Prince/Michael Jackson House, Lucille Ball, Playboy Mansion, and.....drumroll please....GEORGE GERSHWIN etc.)

for dinner we're having California Pizza Kitchen (otherwise known as CPK)...I guess ordering out is just as popular here....then watching the season finale of will and Grace even though neither of us watched new episodes this year, then SLEEP

...and still, amidst all of this hubub, i miss all of you, and i wish everyone was here too!
<3 goodnight

-------------------------
JUNE GLOOM: A period of time in June where the ground is heating up, but the marine layer is coming in. When the hot air comes up from the ground, it encounters the cool marine air and makes a VERY thick grey cloud cover when you live close to the beach. It comes up suddenly, usually in the beginning of June. Sometimes...be prepared this now...it even DRIZZLES! Keep in mind that the normal LA weather is dry air, in the 70s, and sunny as in NO CLOUDS whatsoever. Blue skies. Cross your fingers for some sunny weather for us!

Day 1, June 1st

hung around rachael's coool coool house for most of the day

get ready/last minute shizz

park on maggie mo

trek through campus

goodbye to rach at admissions

run after the bus

have a nasty chicken sandwich

see ling fung on plane hahaha

get my ear talked off by this little woman from paris

get to LAX to find Carrie and her BRO!!!!!

Dark by then, did a quick drive through her neighborhood

Come home to the Burgin residence with guests (Department Head of UCLA Earth and Space and his wife, a published writer and editor)

Blew up the aerobed, got settled in

DISCOVERED THAT SIENFELD ISN'T ON AT 11PM HERE

talked about carrie's new flame!

<3 goodnight

P.S. - webshots site: http://community.webshots.com/user/gemzzgrl88