Day 16 (21/5) - Los Angeles
The previous night we encountered a most scummy beggar. He dropped something (a piece of broken glass) on the floor and asked if we could help him look for a coin. We looked but only found broken glass. He then asked if we could give him a $1. Someone did (probably just to shut him up), and this attracted another beggar, albeit one with a slightly more believable story (he had some bandages covering his neck - he claimed it was a surgery wound and had one crutch, claiming he'd just been discharged but had missed his only means of transport home, and surprise surprise had no money). This got the rest to give him some money.
I left early without the others.
Morongo - a most unfortunately titled casino, resort and spa
Masonic Temple
El Capitan Theatre
View of the Hollywood Sign from the Hollywood and Highland center
Pseudo-Assyrian decorations there
Assorted bodyprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater, including Donald Duck (wth)
I seem to have missed Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson's wand prints. Damn.
Frontage
On the recommendation of the hostel receptionist, I then climbed up to Yamashiro (a Calasian restaurant) for a view of the city (though he recommended going at night).
A singularly ugly city view
I decided to look at the garden instead.
Yamashiro restaurant, with a parking lot just in front for the employee of the month. This beats stupid plaques.
I saw a 'Sunshine State' (Florida) license plate, but still hadn't seen a 'Golden State' one!
Rolbeca Bakeshop produced products that looked and smelled like Rotiboy.
At a tourist information kiosk, I enquired about Wicked (I'd seen the ad the night before). It was a sold out show but anyhow I wouldn't be able to get tickets for the night since it didn't play on Mondays. Perhaps I'll get another shot at it in another 2 years! At the kiosk I also saw a brochure for Medieval Times (you get to see Knights jousting) - they have 9 outlets now, 1 in Canada!
Street Performers at Chinese Theater. Catwoman (whose fan you can see at the left of the second image) was disgusting - not only was her costume quite off, she was also shameless and brazen, flaunting her tip pouch (which presumably was not part of her costume) and kept saying "we work on tips". She was very adept at wielding her fan, covering her face when I tried to record just how awful her costume was.
Violating public transport rules can get you 48 hrs public service as well as the $250 fine.
I then went to the Farmers' Market for brunch.
Cajun Hush Puppies. Mmm, hearty goodness.
The Farmers' Market had a lot more cooked food and souvenir stalls than those selling fresh produce (ie what you'd find in a real Farmers' Market). A local I talked to while sitting on a bench agreed but said locals do actually come, but just on weekdays or on weekend mornings before the tourists are awake.
Huishan and Darren eating. I had a buttermilk donut. I had to explain what buttermilk was to the former and she didn't believe the process of making butter was so simple.
I don't know why there's a German sign.
There was a place called "Singapore's banana leaf" selling egg rolls. Wth.
Pies which are perfect to smash in people's faces. It's so hard to find plain pies nowadays.
Natural fragrances. The lavender didn't smell very good. Extract's much better.
Funnel cake and Big Bear Root Beer
The woman forgot I wanted Cinammon Funnel Cake so she lightly dusted it with cinammon sugar a second time. Apparently Funnel Cake is Dutch.
A good root beer needs to have an acidic twang - but just a twang, complemented by a rich, smooth flavour. Big Bear Root Beer was very smooth but had a flat, simplistic taste which failed to tantalise and excite the tastebuds and was lacking in richness. Topping it off, it wasn't frothy enough. Once again, A&W is better.
I then returned to the hostel to drop off my things and we went for the taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Some people think that there's no point watching concerts - you might as well listen to recordings. I wonder if they'd go for TV show tapings, then.
Some people tried to sneak in cameras in their pockets or bags, but sneakily they made us deposit our phones and cameras at the 'security' counter after going through a metal detector. Everyone wants to shoot Craig. Right.
They warmed us up with a fluffer who was very brutal about the instructions:
"If you don't get the joke, if you don't think the joke is funny, who are you to judge?" (emphasis his)
This was accompanied by more psychoing about how each of us had to clap for 30,000 viewers (or something like that), since the studio audience was small (113 people despite CBS having big studios - Jay Leno has 200+ and David Letterman has 300+ - they claim this is so because he likes to keep it intimate). I humoured them by laughing hysterically often enough, but sometimes I was laughing at them rather than with them.
I'd asked Liquid Nitrogen why she liked Craig, and she said it was because he didn't make personal attacks, but someone pointed out that all talk show hosts make personal attacks. Indeed, the fluffer admitted that he made fun of himself, politicians, "show enhancers" (the fluffers) and more, and later Craig was mocking this Latino assistant on a bingo game show who kept going: "No Bingos!".
[Addendum: "haha i meant that craig doesn't poke fun at people with malicious intent and does feel guilty about hurting people.^^"]
Since I had nothing else to do and didn't have my camera or camera phone with me, I noted down some of the worse (better) jokes:
"What did one butt cheek say to the other? If we stick together we can stop this shit." (Huishan, with her scatalogical obsession, loved this one)
"You can always tell when our stage manager, Doug, has just had sex. His eyes are red. From the pepper spray."
"How many of you watched our show Friday night?... We're in Hollywood, and in Hollywood we lie for a living. How many of you watched our show Friday night?"
We were entertained before, in between and after segments with pre-recorded music videos of a band playing on the stage (it was quite surreal with the same stage in front of us - only empty) and banter between Craig, the Stage Manager, the Producer and the fluffer, as well as normal fluffing (the fluffer and audience).
They refilled Craig's mug from a green bottle. As far as I could tell it was mineral water.
Unfortunately, although the recording was for and on the start of "Magic Week", we didn't see any magic since it'd been taped beforehand. We did, however, get to watch segments from 3 shows (he changed his tie twice - maybe this is why women don't host talk shows).
What was taped:
- The monologue for the start of "Magic Week"
- An interview with their "Cannes correspondent" (this was filmed in the same studio so we could see that they used a blue [yes, not green!] screen)
- Some girl playing the piano and singing (but who was not interviewed)
- An interview with a Brit girl who'd moved over to the UK. She claimed guys in the US are more chivalrous than in the UK and Craig said they were gay, hurr hurr.
- An interview with Matt Serra (a boxer)
- An interview with this black guy who'll be on "Pushing Daisies" - a show about someone who can resurrect dead bodies for a minute by touching them
The only segment I can find on YouTube: Matt Serra on Late Late Show
There was this security guy with a horribly long trenchcoat. He must've needed it to hide a taser inside.
Filming took about 1 hr 15 mins. Given the 1 hr wait before, that wasn't bad.
When we left we saw a long queue of people in chairs, tents and sleeping bags, waiting for The Price is Right.
Hollywood Highland
When we got back we went to have a look at an American Idol event. Fortunately or otherwise, there was no singing, just some old idols and current finalists prancing around for press publicity. Also, someone noted that there were very few Blacks and Latinos there, just like at the TV show taping.
Stupid 'Assyrian' decor
This didn't look like a dress but more like an overly long top (... fashion). I couldn't help imagining leggings on her.
3 of us got fed up of waiting, so we left Guan Zheng to his vigil and went to California Pizza Kitchen.
Vinod had enthused about watching Pirates in California, the land of Hollywood (it was the propriety of it, he said). I said there was no difference - you'd pay for the same overpriced ticket, the same overpriced popcorn and sit in the same cramped theatre with the same obnoxious people and the same annoying ads and trailers. Eating CPK in California was slightly different, since even after taxes, tips and conversion it was still slightly cheaper than Singapore (an Original BBQ Chicken was $11.49). The pizza menu was similar, with only a few more pizzas. There were many more appetisers though.
They sold frozen pizza (presumably to go), which was advertised together with their equity (wth) in the menu. They also gave us bread and butter (they don't do that here, but it was quite odd considering we were going to have pizza).
"The CPK menu adventure guarantee: be adventurous - try something new! If it doesn't thrill you, we'll replace it with your usual favourite". Too bad they'll never do that in Singapore.
Since there were 3 of us we got a bowl of Adobo Chicken Chowder rather than a cup of soup. I had a Greek Pizza and they shared a Mushroom with Pepperoni. Both weren't that good - no wonder they aren't available here (they may have fringe appeal over there). Maybe we should have utilised the adventure guarantee. Or Mango Tandoori might have been a better choice.
A friendly reminder on tipping
Quotes:
[On bags not being allowed into the taping of the Late Late show] You're right. Women always carry bags. [Me: Be thankful that you're not a woman.] I know. I am, every day.
Don't you just love looking at Gabriel? [Student 2: Not rally. I've had enough of him after a semester.] ... Not listening to him. Looking at him at a distance. [Me: What's so interesting about looking at me?] Nothing. You're beautiful.
I'm looking for a deep (dip)
They f'lear'm everything (film)
[On American Idol] The more I wait, the more I want to wait. [Me: You're irrational] [Student 2: I used to be like that too... Then I became enlightened.]
Another 5 minutes and I'm leaving. My patience for tolerance... (waiting for the event)