Tag: Roadtrip

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Halloween in NYC

My first trip to NYC and it was a great weekend. I went for work, to find my woman in the city and to meet up with with friends Christine, Moni, and Steve.

I think it was a full weekend as the Yankees were headed through the World Series playoffs, I watched one of the games at Smith and Wollensky’s. I walked much of the city seeing the Rocketts in Grand Central Terminal, Central Park, Times Square, World Trade Center disaster site, City Hall, Battery Park, and getting a sunset view of the city from the Empire State building.

Being that I had some friends in town, I also got a chance to check out some Halloween parties (this year I dressed as a magician and even had the bloody rabbit parts in my hat), hit up a few clubs (Encore and Avalon), see much of the village Halloween parade, and dine out at some fine NYC restaurants. think I’ll be moving here soon!

Here’s some video and picture highlights:


New York in Oct 2003 Gallery

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America’s Day in San Diego

Some last minute ideas came through for the 4th and I rolled down to San Diego with some boys to hit the largest 4th of July celebration on the west coast. Pacific Beach and all it’s dirty, ghetto, bikini clad, So-Cal glory. The residence was accommodating, complete with 3rd level viewing deck for watching the Marine World’s fireworks, or just practicing nude T’ai Chi Chi Kung. No rest for the wicked, but obviously the wicked were not at Larry Flint’s Hustler party. Apparently he was casting for some movies at his sex shop earlier that day and had the after party at On Broadway but I didn’t see any pornstars but of course I’ve never seen any porn so I probably wouldn’t know what to look for. I find it a little pretentious that they call this place an event center…it’s just a bank turned club and yes it’s nice but tell it like it is – a bank turned wanna be upper echelon club!

DJ Dan did play a wicked set, actually better than I’ve heard him in the bay lately…I guess he’s tired of the home town crowd. And I give props for Paulie P and his crew as we seemed to roll with to each event he had going on all week (respect D Reyes for the hook ups).

The beach was off the hook…about a million people on both the bay side and beach side of PB, cruzin’, boozin’, dancin’ and celebratin’ for America’s freedom. I can say I did here quite a few renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance with God in the verse. I was a little worse for wear thinking that my thin white shirt would protect me from the Hades like burn I received that day. I would have to say the highlight was the old skool feelin of groovin’ on the beach, having a great time and not giving a shit about responsibilities and regulations – just going for it!!!

Random thought: More burritos than toilets in SD but at least most of the time there decent…well at least the burritos are.

Managed to meet everyone in SD down at Ole Madrid’s in DT San Diego. Nice place except the first DJ was playing not only CDs but he was playing the whole Mixed CD disc of Mark Farina’s Session One. He was even pretending to work the board to Farina’s trademark filters and EQ tricks…. what a spoof! And worse the promoters thought we were hating on the DJ…well yeah?!?

After the close out of Ole’s we conjured up the cabs and headed to Club Montage located in the warehouse district of northern SD. It’s quite industrial and ghetto (2 porta-potties located ground floor by the entrance for bathrooms – build a toilet why don’t you!) SRH and Paulie P’s Studio 54 was going on/off this Friday with Paul van Dyke and Scooter & Lavell. They don’t like when the club boasts of the 5-room maze, my first time through got me twisted. Not a PVD fan but S&L DJ’s rocked the house with some dope scratch-hard house combos…yeah I said HH… I guess it helps when you 2×4 and you don’t have to listen to the same rhythmless beat for 4-5 minutes. Good party, but the roof is the spot in the summer.

The week didn’t end without a trip through the PB bars and relaxing the day away on the beach, by the pool and over all a great road trip with friends showing that socially American’s know how to live it up. What I still don’t know is how long will it take for the GP to learn respect for our environment and will we as a people learn to be as vocal within our own private circles as should be about our public/global portrayal of ourselves.

President Honors Veterans at West Virginia Fourth of July Celebration

“Sixty years ago, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall declared that “before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom, on the one hand, and of overwhelming power on the other.” This is our purpose again today. Once again, history has called America to use our overwhelming power in the defense of freedom. And we’ll do just that.” ~ President George W. Bush

Chewbacca: “Aaaaarrrgh!”
C-3PO: “He made a fair move. Screaming about it can’t help you.”
Solo: “Let him have it. It’s not wise to upset a Wookiee.”
C-3PO: “But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.”
Solo: “That’s ’cause droids don’t pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.”
Chewbacca: “Grrrrr…”
C-3PO: “I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, R2 – let the Wookiee win.”

STAR WARS Episode III

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Roadtrip to SLO

Let’s do an update on A-ber shall we? Sure. Well just about two weeks ago I set up with my boys Nick and Navin to roll to hometown college town of San Luis Obispo… First stop was DTzie! The Stones for a Tri-Tip and a Firestone brew. If you haven’t had a good tri-tip then head to the central coast. The fries, tip, self serve drinks, big screen TVs, the basty and all the charm of dumb college Sophomores. What more do you need?

Met up with some friends still hitting the 7 yr plan and proceeded to binge drink my former college self into a good time downtown that evening. Hitting most of the typical “hot” spots or whatever you can call them in SLO… Frog’s (Frog & Peach ~ a wanna be Irish pub) for a Guinness and to check out the local reggea band…on to Mission grill, formerly Mango’s but a good place to meet the spoiled meets Kid Rock types (yeah I met a chick who’s boyfriend calls himself Kid Rock). Didn’t dare venture into either Bulls or Fratasons (Madison?s ~ although I hear since the remodel it hasn’t kept it’s typical frat atmosphere). However, no trip to SLO with out the local spot at McCarthy’s. If anyone is happiest here it’s Jerry, cuz he stands at the door all day gawking at all the SLO ass…and at his age it’s all good – Don’t be fooled by the reality of it though.

I actually convinced my friends to head over to the old Z club, I mean Ra, well now it’s The Realm. Still owning after a few years… Still coming out of there sick from all the free drinks… I’ve got to abstain next time… Just something about that place makes you want to drink… it couldn’t be the women though…???

Ended up crashing at the no infamous Rock where I got worked at foose. Shit an I used to have a table too.

After some meandering around we headed south to SB. Ahh the land of sun….and….a college…and…what does SB have to offer. I’m not completely sure. I do know that it’s a kick ass party town, well that’s for those in Isla Vista, pizza and beer is a staple, lots of shopping on State St. and of course the beach. We chilled with a friend in the ghetto… She conveniently pointed out all the spots were people were jumped, stabbed, found passed out drunk or just areas not to go. Nice. I love IV.

After shopping, and a few drinks at 634 during the day we met a nice man that let me know I was responsible (my people) for keeping him down. I’ll remember that when my job takes out more money for his Social security and he makes a more money than me (tax free) pestering shoppers on the street. We had a camera but who knows if I’ll ever get copies of the prints and scan em….

That evening we hit two spots. Club 634 again and an old gem turned new hot spot: WildCats (15 W Ortega St.) 634 had the top 40/house/hip hop music/crowd going on. I found myself on stage a few times showing the peeps how to dance and I found I got along rather well with the locals. Spotted a Bart Simpson look-a-like. We cruzed down the street to Wildcats where earlier I had heard some underground beats and sure enough…underground. While in line I met the owner and he instructed us to go around the back. I guess they had reached capacity in the front but were able to let peeps back in on the DL. The place used to be called Club Arson until someone took it literally and burned it down. Now remodled in some gothic meets retro attire… the place is phat. Drinks good. Friendly ladies and good djs (finally). Read Mangazam’s School for the Santa Barbara DJ to get a picture of the crap I had to endure going by most of the other clubs: DJ School

On the way back up the coast we stopped by San Simeon to check out Hearst’s ridiculous representation of wealth…the Castle We lagged on making reservations and ended up on the last tour of the Garden To top it off it was raining and our tour lady sucked. “Ok over here is that big pool with some Greek statues… I think that one is supposed to be Neptune….and over here are some flowers n stuff…”

Over all a good time out from the bay…

Finally I’ll Leave you with this fitting mantra HERE Gotta have sound though…