jenna katie and i have been scheming on linda vista hospital for a while. i had stumbled upon a list of abandoned buildings from across the world and noticed that linda vista was conveniently just down the 10 from me. i also found this thing which really got me going - how cool does that file room look!!
our original plan was to sneak in and do an awesome photoshoot, but after some reconnaissance, we realized that the building is super secure, privately owned, guarded by dogs, and haunted. all reasons for making breaking in a bad idea.
turns out that they rent the hospital out as a movie set, so we lazily attempted to work the katie-film school angle. BUT THEN it turns out that there's some nerdy paranormal group that does tours - and voil'a. access. it wasn't QUITE like we planned it... there were like 300 people there, and it was a guided tour so not much opportunity for photoshoot but it was still super fun! went with jenna, lee and lee's friend matt.
they kill all the lights, and let you wander around with flash lights. they also tell you about the paranormal studies they've done in the building. we pretty much went all over - the psych ward, the morgue, this room that the night stalker used to hide out in, the chapel - but i didnt get to see the file room so I was kind of bummed.
But we did end up taking some awesome photos and got roscoes after, so all in all a win!
Jenna and I went to Wurstkuche before Jerry Beer's comedy show downtown. It was delicious. Definitely worthy of being on the LA Bucket List (I'm not so sure about some other ones I put on there... what is St Vincent's Court. Not sure where I found that one...)
I ended up getting the duck and bacon with jalapeno peppers sausage, with a side of fries with truffle oil. We got a curry ketchup and aoili to go with the fries. Seriously, I dont know HOW i was living life without truffles in it before, but not to worry, the obsession with truffles has commenced. 2011 will become the year of truffle everything. Also, the curry ketchup was suprisingly delish and not at all weird. well a little weird. but a tasty weird.
It was pretty crowded - the dining area is set up mess hall style, with three huge long wooden tables and benches and a couple of smaller tables off to the side. We ended up sitting next to these friendly german men who assured us that wurstkuche was pretty authentic to his home town. super legit.
first one off the list. w00t. smeggs and i went a trekking out in pasadena. per typical LA crazy weather patterns, it was a spicy 89 degrees the day we went. in January. spicy weather. in January. not ok.
but super ok for hiking! even though brian wore a long sleeve shirt. i'm sure this added to what would be the sleepiest saturday known to our 20-something existence. but more on that later. eaton canyon was a fun hike. there was definitely a lot of fording rivers. a lot of maneuvering on logs and rocks. like human frogger. it wasn't as green as escondido falls, but i actually found it more interesting - a lot of escondido is walking through residential areas and/or dirt roads. this one got straight to the point.
me, trying not to fall in. it was spicy hot but the water was spicy cold
And then the waterfall at the end!
It was poppin. The cool thing about this hike is that there's a sequel - when you get to the waterfall, you can go all rogue and do this rock scaling hike that leads you to the SECOND waterfall (the one in that spills into a pool in which the above waterfall draws from). but we'll save that for another day. and another list.
after the hike, smeggs and i went over to din tai fung, my favorite dumpling house. they have xiao long baos, juicy pork dumplings which are beyond. and to give you reference on how awesome these things are from particularly this place - DTF is an asian chain - there's only one in north america, and its in arcadia. so super legit. [edit: I think they're opening one up in seattle, so that statement may not be as true as it was a couple months ago...]. It was brian's first time there, so we may have over done it a little on the ordering. which lead to the biggest nap of all time.
we both independently went home, and fell into a coma. Brian immediately passed out at home, only to wake up at 1am and make it out for last call at a bar. I had come back from dinner, decided to take a quick hour power nap and then go out for a friend's birthday. I woke up at 10am instead.
i blame the sun. brian blames the "sleepy soup" in the xiao long baos.
christian dior: altuzarra: gucci: and then some random people on the streets of new york, as spotted/planted by the sartorialist (surprise surprise, i like grays)
i've been on a bit of a TED kick, and by kick i of course mean i watched 23 videos in the past 3 days.
if you dont know what TED is, it's basically youtube with an intellectual/insightful/artistic filter. weeds out the double rainbows/people setting their eyebrows on fire iphone videos. they're video's of talks from various TED events throughout the year. you can watch them at TED.com or on hulu. i'd like to go to one of these talks, but tickets are apparently $5k.
TED stands for technology, entertainment, design: ideas worth spreading. My favorite videos are:
1. underwater astonishments
as of 2008, we've only explored 3% of the earth's oceans. and 70% of the earth is covered in ocean. that's a lot of unknown.
highlights: 4:21. octopus with an invisibility cloak. seriously i had to watch that part a couple times. amazeballz
2. Let's Talk Parenting Taboos not that i'm necessarily interested in parenting tips, but they point some interesting things about "the baseline of happiness" that are oh so relevant.
13:05 they bring up this chart of average happiness vs age. they then apply a secondary line to plot the extremes of emotions that range around average happiness - when you're young the highs are super high, but the lows are super low. as rufus says, "age is a form of lithium, as you get older you become more stable." as you enter into adulthood, your average happiness goes up but the highs and lows become less extreme. "your average happiness goes up, but you lose those transcendent moments".
so basically they're saying you're overall more happy, but your highs arent as high and your lows arent as low because you self limit your experiences. re: the example he included of you being given the opportunity to go to a concert that is 99% guaranteed to rock your world, but you decide against it because you fear it will be crowded and you wont be able to get a beer so you rather just stay at home. hello, this happens to me ALL THE TIME. and it's kind of sad - i want those highs, but i guess by this point you dont risk it because you know the lows can be debilitating. so here we are moseying through our 20s, right along the happiness baseline.
3. a choir as big as the internet
insanely beautiful.
also holler at the boy with the yellow lighting at 1:45. hey boy hey!
4. Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain
"Listening to Bobby McFerrin sing may be hazardous to your preconceptions. Side effects may include unparalleled joy, a new perspective on creativity, rejection of the predictable, and a sudden, irreversible urge to lead a more spontaneous existence."
"what's interesting to me about that is regardless of where i am, every audience gets that."
5.mike rowe celebrates dirty jobs
is he not the manliest man or what. goodness. even when he's talking about cutting off goat balls.
"Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today."
6. what adults can learn from kids
ok little kids who seem too old to be their age like this girl, dakota fanning circa i am sam era, and that man child who lipsyncs to katy perry on youtube, really freak me out, but seriously she was giving this talk like BAM.
jealous of her speech delivery skills. although she's pretty nerdy. but seriously, girlfriend be name dropping aristotle and bill gates, referencing "totalitarian regimes" and "pioneer germ fighters", and using the word "reciprocal," "credentials," "imperative," "senile" and "alienating" appropriately. she's 11!! shouldnt she be playing with da bratz dolls or something?
also in somewhat unrelated but related news, i saw ted mosbey at the movie theater last weekend.
jenna katie and i have been scheming on linda vista hospital for a while. i had stumbled upon a list of abandoned buildings from across the world and noticed that linda vista was conveniently just down the 10 from me. i also found this thing which really got me going - how cool does that file room look!!
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