You walk into basically a large garden covered with a wire mesh so no wayward butterflies can escape. They're kind of trapped inside with us. A few helplessly tried to beat against the enclosure, but no such luck.
I was just excited at the opportunity to get some photography practice in.
Unlike the turtles, however, these little buggers are quick. When they're not flying around, they're fluttering their wings. I spent most of my time in the cage crouching in the dirt, squinting at the sun, and wiping sweat off my viewfinder. Awesome.
But the butterflies were so pretty. It was worth it. :)
Helpful signs allowed visitors to categorize the butterflies.
Like this is a Giant Swallowtail.
Not sure what this is. Maybe a Buckeye?
Zebra Longwing. Easy.
Um, no effing idea. Looks sort of like a Mourning Cloak.
Or is this the Mourning Cloak?
A Gulf Fritillary. This is like Pokemon!
A monarch. Easy. I didn't even need the board for that one. lol.
I wasn't the only amateur photographer walking around.
Argh! Why don't I bring the camera places? After last night's dinner at Craft, you'd think that I'd learn my lesson. But apparently I didn't and showed up to Pearl Jam's final night in Los Angeles at the Gibson Theater with nothing but my crappy iphone camera. And it died halfway through.
The lighting was really good at the concert and our seats were decent enough that I could have gotten some good shots. I guess my reluctance to lug the camera everywhere stems from my fear of not being allowed in to a particular venue with it. And I don't want to look like a camera geek. And it's a pain to drag around and make sure I don't leave it in the women's bathroom. All pretty stupid reasons, and now I have to live with my stupid pictures.
(But you don't have to. I'll intersperse my ramblings with sidehike's wonderful shots of the Austin City Limits Festival. It was the same set and they wore similar outfits... lol)
Our seats were good, but there really wasn't a bad seat in the house. When we walked up the stairs to the end of the lodge and I looked back at the stage, I would have been more than happy there. I've provided this helpful annotated illustration.
It was sort of an intimate stripped down concert vibe. I was pleased.
Several of my "reasons why I hate concerts" were in full effect.
Bald guy in front of me that looked like a cross between Benjamin Linus on Lost and Ron Howard's brother toking up and blowing smoke in the air? Check.
A hall of people singing aloud at the top of their lungs? Check. Fortunately, Mr. Vedder's voice drowned them out. heh.
Erratic spastic dancers that are crazily distracting? Check, checkity, check, check.
People encroaching in my personal space? Check.
And I even crafted a new one - a stray lock of hair from a woman wildly thrashing next to be nearly got in my contact. Nice.
Despite my stick-up-my-ass behavior, I actually had a good time. lol. I've never seen Pearl Jam live, despite having Ten and Vs. permanently stuck in my 3-cd Aiwa stereo for most of the 1990s. The couple next to us had traveled to this concert from El Salvador as a birthday present and the guy kept offering Mr. Insom swigs from a bottle of tequila in his jacket pocket. Pearl Jam is a good band to see live, and a great band to see live in Los Angeles. I know they probably act like this in every city, but I really get the feeling that musicians pull out all the stops when the arrive in a city like Los Angeles. Maybe my Angelocentric bias is showing here... but actually, they performed several songs that they typically don't (including one that hasn't been performed in six years), so score one for my hometown.
Vedder began by telling people that he just had watched the movie The Cove that afternoon and that after seeing the worst of humanity, he couldn't wait to get some positive energy at tonight's show. I don't blame him. I haven't seen that movie, and I don't want to as I'm sure watching dolphin slaughter would put me in a horrible mood for the next 3 years. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, I guess. (I was going to stick in an image of the movie poster, but even looking at that made me feel queasy and sad.) Then Vedder said he was going to throw away throw away the set list and proceeded to rock his little heart out.
Guitarist Mike McCready is a dynamo and his extended nimble solo during Even Flow (which he played a decent chunk of it behind his back) brought the house down.
Vedder did his "intense grip the mic" thing, careened around like a dervish, and drank from a bottle of booze (which he graciously shared with Ben Harper during the Indifference encore and a few fans in the first row). Lots of energy and the crowd was really into it, so much that at the end of the concert, they were literally drained.
When it was all said and done, I was pissed that they didn't play Yellow Ledbetter, Elderly Woman, or Rearview Mirror like they did at previous nights. Yes, I'm one of those fans.
Setlist is available at here at setlist.fm, with random video clips....
Note:Four songs made their 2009 debut. Both Alone and Crown of Thorns were played for the first time since November 19, 2006. Kick Out The Jams was played for the first time since November 16, 2006. All Those Yesterdays was played for the first time since July 11, 2003, and was played for only the 10th time ever.
One more thing:
I had no idea, but apparently people are making quite the killing selling concert posters on ebay. They had different posters for each of the nights in Los Angeles. The one from our night is selling for 70 bucks. (Granted, there have been no bids yet, lol) But the one from a couple nights ago has 10 bids and is going for 60 bucks. Next time, I'm going to get some posters my damn self and turn a profit. lol
I've only been to Craft once before, but I had their tasting menu when I did. Mr. Insom's been there more times than me, but despite that, he wanted to go for their restaurant week menu.
Last night we arrived for our $40 prix fixe menu and it was a fantastic deal. (I didn't bring the camera, and left my phone in the car, so I had to make do with Mr. Insom's cell phone for my documentation effort. And of course I was too lazy to email his pictures to myself, so this post will be all text, baby.)
First up - a selection of two salads. Endive & Apple Salad, Local Goat Cheese Vinaigrette and House Smoked Salmon Rillette & Fennel Pollen Cracker. Loved both of these. The salad was crisp and refreshing and the salmon had a delightful tangy bite to it.
For the main course, I got the Roasted Beef Sirloin and Mr. Insom got the Braised Short Ribs. I was probably more impressed with the trio of sides - a medley of baby roasted root vegetables, wild mushrooms, and potato gratin. The potato gratin was rather bland, but the veggies and mushrooms were my favorite things. They really infused the meal with a cozy autumnal quality. Comfort food at it's finest... :)
Dessert course - chocolate bread pudding, fig tart, and ice cream/sorbet. Chocolate bread pudding made from those delicious chocolate brioches that they used to send you home with. I knew I was supposed to eat this last, but ladies and gents, I inhaled that sucker. This was after I burst into applause when the server laid the dish in front of me. Decorum, I have none.
Fig tart - nice.
Rasberry sorbet and port pepper ice cream. The rasberry sorbet packed a punch flavor, but the port ice cream was just meh to me.
The services was really spectacular. There were tons of people bustling around, but they were never intrusive. They moved with the stealth quickness - often I didn't notice that a dish had been cleared away until minutes after the fact. Refilling sparkling water, whisking away dishes, bringing more bread, pouring tastes of each ordered wine glass before offering a hearty pour... all the stuff you'd expect in a fine restaurant. Well done, folks.
All in all, not a bad deal for $40. And they gave out $20 worth of gift certificates for another meal. Nice.
We watch a lot of movies. My favorite theater is the Landmark on Pico - they have ridiculously comfortable chairs, a bar, but best of all, the ability to reserve seats. No need to get to a movie 20 minutes before starting time to ensure that you're not craning your neck from the front row. But since Mr. Insomniac showed me this article in the LA Times that discusses the downfall of the Westwood movie palaces, I've been making an effort to support those theaters.
Excerpts from the article:
The closing Thursday night of the Mann Festival Theatre on Lindbrook Drive -- on top of last year's demolition of the Mann National Theatre and previous losses of the Mann Westwood 4 and Mann Plaza, among others -- is further indication that Westwood's movie culture appears in danger of fading to black.
Preservationists are also bracing for the potential loss of the village's two most architecturally distinctive theaters: the Village and Bruin, which date from the 1930s. Encino-based Mann Theatres has given notice that it intends not to renew its leases on the Broxton Avenue theaters -- one Spanish Mission style with the famed neon-lighted Fox tower, the other Art Moderne with a distinctive wraparound marquee. Both are city historic-cultural monuments.
When Mr. Insomniac was a student at UCLA, he used to head into Westwood Village all the time for the big summer movie premieres - but now those events have moved elsewhere. I remember running to the balcony to see the latest film as a kid. Westwood was the place to go for opening weekend.
The Mann Bruin.
We watched Inglorious Basterds at the Mann Village.
Lots of places to eat pre- or post- show...
The famous Didi Reese cookies.... 50 cookies for 10 cents. No matter what time of day, there's always a line.
A few blocks south of Westwood Village on Westwood Blvd (north of Pico) is an area known as Little Persia. There are various shops, services, and of course, restaurants.
One night we went to Flame. (different night, different camera. lol) The interior was interesting (lots of plasma tvs) but I really liked the tanoor oven that served up hot flatbread all night long.
As an appetizer and accompaniment to our meal we got masto'khiar, a combination of yogurt, cucumber, and mint.
The salads were delicious and consisted of crisp fresh produce. No dried out carrots and cukes here.
For the entree, I got the rack of lamb. It looked much better than this when it first arrived at the table. lol At any rate, they were perfectly cooked - tender, juicy, flavorful... some of the best meat I've eaten in a long time.
Mr. Insom got the chelo kebab, seasoned ground beef with charred veggies.
It was a lot of food... Mr. Insom wasn't a fan of his meal for some reason, so I ate both of these dishes for the next three days. :)
I love movies and watching them in movie theaters. Every once in a while, though, I see a bad one. But on rare occasions, that movie is so bad that you aren't the only one that realizes it. Some one lets out a loud guffaw in the middle of a key dramatic scene and everyone laughs. Then it's on. Everyone in the theater begins piling on - ad-libing, laughing, swearing... it becomes a free for all. This is a very rare occurrence, unfortunately. The last movie I remember like this was Original Sin starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas.
But if you go and check out The Room, you can have this experience every month.
Worst movie of all time?
Quite possibly. Check out the trailer to get a taste...
On the last Saturday of the month, Laemmle's Sunset 5 shows The Room in all of the theaters. We tried going to check it out last month but the tickets were sold out. On Saturday we got there an hour and half before showtime and there were about 80 people in line already. The guy in front of us had seen it 6 or 7 times and he handed me a large package of spoons. What am I supposed to do with these? You'll know, he replied. Okay then. He said that after an Entertainment Weekly article discussed the show, all kinds of people starting showing up. Like me - that's where I heard about it.
Excitement coursed through the line as murmurs of a Tommy sighting ran through the waiting crowd. Sure enough, a man wearing a black sport coat appeared and stood on a trashcan to thunderous applause. He made his way down the line, posing for pictures and signing autographs. When I first saw him, I thought that he had some sort of developmental delay and asked what happened to his face. Mr. Insom told me to stop being mean.
The movie difficult to follow the plot because (1) it was disjointed and confusing and (2) people were screaming at the top of their lungs over the dialogue. lol
It was definitely a good time.
Folks would shout (often in unison) when the camera went out of focus ("FOCUS!!"), when actors look directly into the camera ("DON'T LOOK AT THE CAMERA!"), when new characters would just suddenly appear inside the protagonist's home ("WHO ARE YOU?"), at the obvious green screen work, the random b-roll shots, at the fact that characters walk into a house without knocking or ringing the doorbell and leave in two minutes with a cavalier "Well, I have to go" (audience response: "YOU JUST GOT THERE!!"), etc.
The sets were horrible. On a table were these framed pictures of spoons, and every time they were in a shot, you were supposed to throw plastic spoons at the screen. By the door was the ugly painting and when one guy yelled "NICE FUCHSIA SAND PAINTING!" the entire theater cracked up.
The writing is bad. The acting is bad. Tommy has this weird accent thing going which makes everything unintentionally hilarious. ("I did naaaaaat.") In the clip below someone shouted "WHY ARE THERE FLOWERS IN A TRASHCAN?"
Sometimes I wondered if he was stoned during 80% of the filming. Case in point? This bizarre temper tantrum. After this crucial scene, several people stood up at gave Tommy's acting performance a standing ovation.
What I was unprepared for was the crazy sex scenes. I suppose previously I was of the mindset that any sex scene was a good one as long as it was a consensual one and didn't involve any depiction of illegal activity. (Jodi Foster in The Accused? Not a good sex scene.) I have since revised my opinion.
Watching Tommy was like watching a reptilian insect mounting. It was shockingly distasteful. The whole audience would groan in disgust. Some of the more sensitive viewers were hiding their eyes. At one point Tommy strokes his partner's face with a rose, Dick in a Box style. And then they couple in a bed strewn with rose petals. The woman rolls over and there are two rose petals clinging desparately to her back and one guy screams "LEECHES!" to raucous laughter.
And the music. The sex scene music. It was like this cheesy generic R&B smooth jazz Night Jamz stuff. Everyone would merrily clap along to the beat during the intimate moments which cracked me up to no end.
During another sex scene folks yelled "INTERMISSION!" and proceeded to walk out and mill about the lobby for two minutes.
I won't spoil the ending, but rest assured that this chef d'oeuvre has to be seen to be believed. I'm seriously considering buying the DVD. lol
For some reason all of my favorite TV hosts tape in New York (Senors Colbert and Stewart) so when another favorite made his way to Los Angeles, I knew I had to check him out live. And besides, the tickets are free.
You're allowed to get four tickets at a time and you can request tickets for 4 dates. They generally book at least 4-6 weeks in advance. I put on my request that "I live here - I can do any date" and I got an email on Aug 11 for Sept 22nd.
You can also do standby tickets...
The tickets are free, but parking for public transportation-phobic Angelenos is $10.
A few days before the taping, Mr. Insom got an add-on case, so he wouldn't be joining me. Bummer. The day of the taping I called to see who would be on the show. Rebecca Romijn (non-Stamos). Double bummer. Lisa Lampanlli is okay, I supposed. Monsters of Rock? Never heard of them.
I was instructed to be there NO LATER THAN 3:30pm.
So of course my dumb ass rolls up to the gate at 3:39pm out of breath and sweaty. That's me - chronically late. I got put in the bull pen with standby people. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had gotten there on time... maybe I would have waited in an air conditioned soundstage with a ladened craft services table.
I got handed a decorative bracelet
and this card.
I noticed some people had a lighter orange card. I wonder if those were the people with reservations that got there on time...
As it was though, I was stuck in the bullpen audience holding area. I know from personal experience that these shows treat audience members like cattle and there is a lot of waiting. But i came prepared. Between my paperbook novel, Monopoly on my iphone, and assorted web surfing sites, I kept myself sufficiently entertained.
The heat, well, that was another matter.
The valley was like a full 10 degrees hotter than where I live. It was sweltering. I was grateful that we were under an awning to shelter us from the sun. NBC also had set up fans that blew mist which quickly evaporated into nothingness. Without the mist though, I guess the fans would just be pushing around hot air. I was appreciating the mist (and the lawsuit that probably mandated it) until I overheard someone remark that the mist smelled just like the water at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. The sad thing was that he was exactly right.
In addition to the stinky mist, NBC had set up kegs of water and watered down Gatorade. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of cups. I was one of the lucky ones to get a plastic cup, and guarded it fiercely - prison yard style.
I felt bad though, because anyone affiliated with NBC was wearing grey suits, a la Kenneth the Page. lol Those must have been hella uncomfortable.
Then we were off, heading through the gates of Universal Studios... Cameras off, phones off, no more pictures.
The set was blissfully air-conditioned and looked really cool. Just like on TV lol. Lots of monitors were overhead so we could see the different cameras and watch the funny Conan videos.
We got a warm-up guy that riffed a little on the fact that a guy named Luis was vacationing here from Mexico, and then the band played for a bit. They're quite good - you don't get to hear much of them on the show, but all of the musicians are really talented.
Next up was Conan. He is indeed very tall and skinny and is incredibly charming.
I got a kick out of seeing the Super Mario Bros. inspired backdrop live...
I really liked the Manga voiceover video. Funny stuff Conan and Andy.
Rebecca was meh.
Lisa was pretty entertaining, and watching Conan squirm through her "I didn't know whether to service my husband's huge schlong or feed it a peanut" ribald humor was an added bonus. Andy was cracking up, though. lol
Monsters of Rock's performance was blissfully short. Heh.
Today Tim Gunn is scheduled to appear. Oh man! And tomorrow is Joel McHale and India.Arie. Dang. Oh well... luck of the draw.
In what felt like no time at all, the taping was done. I believe taping started at 5:30 and we were out by 6:15. Conan and all the famous people left the set. The guy sitting next to me pulled out his cellphone and in a second, one of the gray-suited pages descended upon him. They are serious. I had pulled out my phone as well, but when I saw that, I slowly put it back.
We were dismissed by sections and shuffled out of the studio, watched closely by assorted security personnel.
As we walked along the sidewalk ("do not go in the street!") someone handed me this card.
"Want to brag to your friends that you so Conan live? Then get the official Tonight Show badge to put on your Blog, Website, Facebook profile..."
Neat-o. A badge for me blog.
But apparently, said badge hasn't worked since August. I found that out after I did the tedious task of registering on NBC's stupid website with a bunch of fake info.
A Los Angeles native gets reacquainted with her city after being away for 15 years. She also tries to eat food that resembles plants on a semi-regular basis.
