Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Union Stuff (or My SAG-AFTRA Delegate Time So Far)

Posted on September 20, 2016 | Comments Off

It’s really shocking to realize that my term as a delegate with SAG-AFTRA is already more than halfway over. Even though this isn’t the most involved position as an elected union member, I’ve tried to be as involved as I can. I really loved my time at the National Convention and I’ve been trying to find that in as many aspects of my union participation as I can. While it can be tough to be involved while balancing as many day jobs as I can, I try to find the time or at least stay informed on what’s happening.

We’ve had some really awesome stuff happening in our union lately. In case you aren’t a union member (or are but aren’t aware of these things), one of the biggest things the union has been working on since SAG and AFTRA merged was the merging of the healthcare plans. Split earnings was such a huge issue, and it was announced this summer that starting on January 1st 2017, the plans will be merged and split earning will be a thing of the past! I’m not eligible for the healthcare yet, but I know how big of a deal this is for my fellow actors and hopefully in the future I can take advantage of it.

Another big thing that’s been happening lately is a bill that we are trying to pass that helps to reduce the age discrimination that happens with actors (and other industry professional). Some industry websites post the birth dates of people on it, and while that doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people it really can cause people not to book a job. If someone is in their late 20’s but looks like a teenager, they shouldn’t automatically be eliminated from consideration because of their age. No other job allows your employer to see your age before considering you, so I don’t see why acting should be any different. This bill hasn’t passed yet, so if you are in CA and want to see age discrimination reduced in industry jobs, you can fax in your support of the bill passing (and you can fax for free from your email!).

And we’ve got our upcoming contract negotiations happening with our TV and theatrical contracts. I’m not a part of the negotiation committee, but that doesn’t mean that I (or any union actor) can’t be involved in this process. We’ve got our wages and working conditions meetings happening now and we will continue to have them for a while leading up to the negotiations. I think every single SAG-AFTRA actor needs to attend these to share their experiences and to learn from others. It’s so important to know what is happening and what issues are going on so you can learn as well. I’m excited to attend some in the future when I know I will have a bit more free time between day jobs.

These things are things that have just been announced recently, but have been in the works for a very long time. The age discrimination issue has been in the works with SAG-AFTRA for 8 years and they finally got it to the Governor just recently. While I think all of us would love to things to change faster than they do, it just shows how dedicated everyone is in the union and how we can make changes if we try hard.

Since I’m seeing the results of long-term dedication to SAG-AFTRA, I’ve started to think about our election that will be coming up next year. I have no question in my mind that I will be running for a delegate position again. This has been such a great thing for me as an actor and I only wish I had done this sooner! I wish I’ve been more involved this past year, but I know that the day jobs had to take priority until I got a bit of stability happening. Now that that’s more normal, I can focus more on my acting career and union.

But I’m not totally sure that I’m fine with just being a delegate again. I’m seriously considering running for the local board so that I can be even more involved in what is happening in my union in my local area. This will be more responsibility, but I think that I can handle it and really do some great things. I’ve got some time before I have to decide what positions I’m running for, but I’m really leaning toward being both a delegate and local board member.

I’m so happy that about 2 years ago a friend of mine encouraged me to run for a delegate position. I love all the people who I’ve met through Unite For Strength and the various union events. I’ve never felt more connected as a member and I can’t want to make that connection even stronger through the years.

Comments Off on Union Stuff (or My SAG-AFTRA Delegate Time So Far)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, Los Angeles, SAG-AFTRA, union

A Night At The Bowl (or Movie Music With Friends)

Posted on September 6, 2016 | 1 comment

I really was hoping to make it to a couple of shows this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, but after going to see “The Little Mermaid” earlier this summer I hadn’t made it back until this past weekend. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but time and money were limited this summer and things just didn’t line up.

But the show that I got to see this past weekend was the night of John Williams, which is one of my favorite shows ever! And I really lucked out with my tickets. I knew that several of my friends had already purchased tickets, and once I found out the night they were going and where their seats were I went online to look for tickets. There was only 1 seat left in their section and it happened to be the seat right next to them! So I bought that and we were all able to sit together!

Even though I was going to the show with several of my friends, because we were all coming from different parts of LA I ended up getting there by myself. I took the Bowl bus over (which is probably the easiest and best way for me to get there) and it just happened that we all arrived at about the exact same time! We met up right as we were going up the first set of escalators which could not have been timed better if we planned it!

Our seats were toward the top so we had a bit of a walk to get up there. I don’t mind the high up seats since they are cheaper and you get a great view of some of the fun things that happen at the John Williams show. And once we finally got to our seats, I was excited to see that not only did we have a great view of the stage but we had a great view of the Hollywood Sign as well!

Bowl and Sign

I usually don’t sit on that side of the Bowl, so seeing the sign (and the Griffith Observatory) was a treat for me!

The first half of the show was conducted by David Newman. He had some great stories to share with everyone and there were some fun musical tributes. There was a section that was just clips of Paramount movies to the score from “Forrest Gump”. They also played the first 10 minutes of “Star Trek Into Darkness” and had the orchestra play the score live. I really liked that (it reminded me of seeing “The Little Mermaid” earlier this summer) and that score is just so dramatic and wonderful to hear. I’m glad that was one of the parts for the show.

After intermission, John Williams came out. In the past, he conducted the entire show but I actually enjoyed seeing 2 different conductors playing music from movies I love. Even though the music sounds the same, there is just something different watching it live with a different conductor. And once John Williams came out, there was just one thing everyone was waiting for.

“Star Wars” music live really is the highlight of the show every year. So many people there bring light sabers with them (including several of my friends) and I love seeing all of them glowing while the music is playing. I usually hate glowing things at concerts, but this is different and special. It almost enhances the music when you see so many people enjoying themselves.

Besides hearing music from “Star Wars” we also got to hear the score from “Superman” which was something I remembered hearing at one of the shows a few years ago. It’s another beautiful score and I just sat back and enjoyed the music.

There are always at least a few encores at the show (John Williams really hams it up but it’s so much fun to see everyone screaming for him to come back out). The final encore every time I’ve been to the show has been the score to the closing scene of “ET”. And this year was no different. The score builds up to such a dramatic finish and you can just visualize the movie playing as the music is happening. And the closing of the score also lights up the inside of the Bowl with a rainbow (similar to how the end of the movie has a rainbow). I just love seeing it and it makes me happy every time.

The show was really just as amazing as every other year that I’ve gone to see it and I’m glad that this has become a bit of a summer tradition. Since the season for the Bowl is pretty much done now, I doubt I’ll make it back there until next summer. But getting to go twice in a summer is still awesome and I’m glad that this is something I’m able to do pretty much every year!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged concert, friends, Hollywood, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, movies

15 Years Later (or Reflections On LA)

Posted on August 24, 2016 | 1 comment

About 15 years ago, I moved to LA. My move was actually pretty easy as I was coming to LA to go to college at LMU. It was a pretty traditional move to college, I just didn’t know then that it would be pretty much my forever move from Northern CA to Southern CA.

I still remember moving down here with some really fun memories. My parents drove their car and my best friend Kate and I were in my car. My parents car was pretty much filled with everything that I was moving down with me. I’m sure I had way too much stuff (and honestly I don’t think anything is still with me that I moved down here 15 years ago), but at the time I thought I needed it all.

Packed Car

Since we were in separate cars, we needed a way to make sure we didn’t get too far apart from each other during the drive. Even though we all had cell phones at the time, we decided that we needed to have walkie-talkies in the cars. Kate and I had a lot of fun with those, but I still wonder why we had them.

When I moved to LMU, it was a pretty easy transition. I didn’t know anyone but I made a bunch of friends in my dorm and in my classes as everyone was pretty much in the same boat as me. I lived on campus during my freshman and sophomore year and I had a sublet in an apartment during the summer between (my winter break trip home was the longest I’ve been home since I moved here 15 years ago).

I had my own apartment my junior year and shared an apartment with my friend Marcus during my senior semester (because of summer school classes I took, I only had 1 semester of a senior year). I was in that senior year apartment for almost 6 years until I moved into the house that I’m in now. I’ve pretty much lived in a 5 mile radius since I got here, so there are places that I discovered when I was 18 that I still go to now.

I think as soon as I came back after my winter break freshman year, I knew I was meant to stay in LA. It felt like home right away to me and I’ve never regretted the decision. It’s so crazy to think that in 3 years, I will have lived in LA as long as I lived in my parents’ house in Northern CA.

In that car ride down here 15 years ago, I knew that awesome things were in store for me in LA. But there was no way for me to know then that I was finding what would become my home and I would have so many amazing opportunities and adventures here. But that excitement of moving down here has stuck with me throughout the years.

I still have “pinch me” moments where I have to wonder how I get to be so lucky. I have times where I joke that if I had known in high school that these things would happen to me in my 30’s that I wouldn’t have cared so much about all the silly things that bothered me in high school. I don’t live a perfect life (it’s pretty far from perfect), but it’s still so awesome to me and I have so many things every day that I’m grateful for.

I know that not everybody lives in the same place as long as I have. Lots of people went away for college and either moved back to where they were from or to another city after college. I’m lucky that my college move happened to be my move to my dream city. It made my transition from my hometown to LA so much easier and I think that is part of the reason why I love it here so much.

Here’s to my first 15 years in LA and here’s to whatever incredible adventures will come in the next 15 years! I could never imagined this life 15 years ago, so I’m not even going to try to guess where I could be in another 15 years!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged anniversary, college, fun, Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount

My First Cinespia Experience (or Watching “Speed” In A Cemetery)

Posted on August 10, 2016 | 1 comment

I’ve lived in LA for almost 15 years now, so I feel like I’ve done a lot of the things that people love to do in LA. I go to the Pantages, I go to the Bowl, I go to the beach, and I go to the mountains. I go to a lot of movie screenings (mainly thanks to my union) and I get to do a lot of fun adventures quite a bit! Most of the time when I see lists of the top things to do in LA, I’ve done all of them. But there was one thing that it seems like everyone does that I hadn’t done until this past weekend: Cinespia screenings.

Cinespia organizes some pretty amazing movie screenings, but I never had gone to one before. I believe they have screenings throughout the year, but their most popular ones are the summer ones at the Hollywood Forever cemetery. I’ve actually driven past the cemetery on screening nights and seen the huge crowds there lined up to get into the cemetery. It seemed a bit overwhelming but fun at the same time.

So when my friend Erin asked me if I wanted to join her and some friends to a screening of the movie “Speed” at Hollywood Forever cemetery this past weekend and I figured this was a perfect opportunity to check out what the screenings are all about. I got my ticket online and got some picnic stuff together for Saturday’s fun.

I got to the cemetery a little more than an hour before we could go inside. There was a big line in front where you wait before you have your tickets checked, and one of Erin’s friends had gotten there early and got us a good space. So I met up with everyone and we sat down and waiting for the gates to open so we could go inside.

Once we got inside, I really didn’t know what to expect. A couple of people went ahead to claim a good spot for us to put our blankets down at, but I walked a bit slower with some of the other stragglers. I wanted to check out the cemetery plus I was carrying a bunch of stuff and couldn’t go that quickly.

The cemetery was pretty cool, but so many of the headstones had headshots or photos on them and I thought that was a bit different. I don’t have a ton of experience being in cemeteries, but from the few I’ve been in I don’t remember so many photos of people on their graves. But it was still interesting to look at and some of the people buried there were buried a very long time ago.

Once we walked around the cemetery we got to where the screening was going to take place. We got a pretty good place to put our stuff down and once we got all the blankets out a couple of us went wandering around. The cemetery is pretty beautiful so I’m glad we got to explore a bit.

Hollywood Forever

We went looking around at the various graves to see who was buried there. There are quite a few famous people who are buried there, but the first “celebrity” marker that caught our eyes was the one for Toto.

Toto

We also saw Mickey Rooney and Hitchcock, but I didn’t get pictures of those. And as we were walking back toward where the screening was happening, we saw the photo setup they had for the movie. We were all hoping it would be some sort of bus, but it was a bus stop and I think we got a pretty amazing photo as a group.

Cinespia

At the end of the night (after the credits of the movie aired) they put a couple of the photos up on the big screen to show off and our photo was one of maybe 10 that they chose to do that with. I don’t know if that means we were one of the top 10 photos of the night, but we felt pretty special.

Once the photos were done, it was starting to get dark so we headed back to our blankets to get settled in before the movie started.

Movie Time

We also all brought some food with us to share, so we were eating while we waited for 9pm which is when the movie was supposed to start (I brought the feta dip I make for Thanksgiving).

Once the movie started, it was pretty exciting. We had an ok view of the movie (the people in the chairs in front of us blocked our view a bit) but I have seen “Speed” so many times that I was ok not having a perfect view.

Speed

The crowd was very energetic and it was so exciting to watch a movie this way. At the screenings I usually go to, people are quiet and trying to be respectful. This screening had people cheering and yelling at the screen and it was so much fun!

The only negative to me (besides having a partially blocked view) was my lack of preparation to be there. I brought a nice beach blanket with me and I thought that would be fine. But I wish I had brought something to lean against or one of the camping seats that are on the ground but have a back to them. I was getting a bit locked up in my hips and toward the end of the night I was starting to be in a decent amount of pain. But since I had never been to a screening like this before, I didn’t know what to expect and now I’m more prepared.

I’m so glad that Erin invited me to join her for this screening! It was such a fun night out and while I don’t know if I’ll make it to another screening this summer I’m totally going to do this again!

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged friends, fun, Los Angeles, movies, picnic, screening

Tacocity (or A Book Review And Giveaway!)

Posted on August 5, 2016 | 7 comments

I’m so excited for today’s post! Not only do I have an amazing book recommendation for you, but I’m giving away a signed copy too! I recently had the opportunity to read “Tacocity: Los Angeles” which was written by my friend Rob Gokee. I’ve known Rob for a couple of years through various friends. He’s an amazing composer, big user of twitter, and obsessed with tacos! I feel like almost every picture he posts online is of tacos.

So when he started mentioning that he was writing a book about the tacos of Los Angeles, I wanted to read it! I’m not a huge taco person, so if I’m going to go get a taco somewhere I want it to be the best. And since Rob tested out dozens of taco places for his book, I know any place he recommends is going to be one of the top spots to go to.

Rob gave me a copy of his book to read (full disclosure, he gave me a free PDF version to review but the review is all my own) and I was very happy when I started reading it.

Tacocity

Obviously, I knew that the book was going to review taco places in Los Angeles, but I didn’t know much more. I was happy to see in the table of contents that he actually breaks down his reviews geographically so you can look at the area of Los Angeles that you happen to be in. Where I live in West LA, there aren’t a ton of awesome taco places. But while there were some familiar names in the West LA section I loved seeing that there were some places I hadn’t gone to yet and I immediately added them to my list of restaurants to try.

West LA

For each of the restaurants that Rob reviews, he includes a little bit about each place and what they are best known for. He also gives some tips about what to order, when the lines might be shorter (or in some cases if you should go to the outside line or inside line), and sometimes advice on parking which can be tough to find in LA. I loved hearing his stories about what he tried at each place and all the photos that were in the review section made me want to go have everything!

After the reviews of all the taco places around LA, there is a recipe section with some of Rob’s favorites. As you all know I’m working on trying to cook more at home, so I hope to soon have a recipe post for you all of me trying one of the ones from the book! This mole taco one might be the one I have to make because I keep coming back to the picture from the book and thinking it looks incredible!

Mole Tacos

I think this book is perfect for anyone who lives in LA or might be moving to LA soon! It’s a great guide to amazing food in the city and I think even people who have lived here their entire lives will discover a new restaurant in the book. And even if you don’t live in LA but love tacos, this is a great read from the recipes in the back as well as giving you inspiration for a LA taco trip (I’m sure if you tweet at Rob he can help you plan a taco crawl).

Now for the fun part! You can enter to win a signed copy of “Tacocity: Los Angeles”! There are a ton of ways to enter this time (just make sure you leave a blog comment as that is the required entry). While most entries are only one-time things, you can tweet every day for extra entries! Rafflecopter will randomly be selecting the winner at the end and you will be getting a signed copy of the book from Rob!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and I can’t wait for you all to read the book too!

PS: There will be a book launch/signing for “Tacocity: Los Angeles” coming up on August 22nd from 5:30-8:00pm at Salazar (one of the places Rob writes about in the book). I hope to see a bunch of you there!

7 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged books, cooking, food, giveaway, Los Angeles

The End Of My Black Friday Deal (or Cabaret At Pantages)

Posted on July 22, 2016 | 1 comment

This week was the final show in the amazing Black Friday deal I got with my friend Dani for the Pantages this season. This time, the show was “Cabaret”. Dani and I really lucked out with our shows in the Black Friday deal and I’m so glad that we decided to go for it. Plus, our seats for each of the shows were so much better than any seats we’ve had before (they were significantly better than what our season tickets were like last season or will be for next season).

The big downside to this final show in the deal was that Dani couldn’t go. The entire run for the show was while she is out of the country, so she gave me her ticket to give to a friend. I asked around to see who wanted to come see “Cabaret” with me this week, and my friend (and amazing casting director) Jeremy Gordon said he could go with me. I met Jeremy through The Actors’ Network, but I hadn’t seen him in person for a very long time (but we’ve stayed in touch through social media). Jeremy and I have been saying for a long time that we were way overdue for a coffee hangout, so going to see a show together was pretty awesome.

Since it’s not cheap to park by Pantages, Jeremy and I carpooled there. It was nice to have someone in the car with me while I dealt with traffic, and it gave us a great opportunity to catch up on things. We also both realized that neither of us had seen “Cabaret” in its entirety before. I’ve seen most of the musical numbers and knew a lot about the story, but I’ve technically never seen the show before. I thought it was pretty cool that we were both first-timers at the show and we were looking forward to seeing what it was like.

Cabaret

I don’t want to give away a ton about the show in case some of you haven’t seen it, but it was incredible! The cast was really great and I think that it was beautifully staged (which can be tough for a touring show). There was a great mix of silliness and seriousness throughout the show. And while the sound seemed a bit too low (both Jeremy and I noticed it was a bit quiet and could be tough to hear at times), I was able to follow the story and got sucked into it pretty easily.

I did know a bit about how the show ended, but I didn’t know all of it and it took my breath away. It was very intense and while it was sad it was also beautifully done. And when the actors took their bows at the end of the show, there was no music from the orchestra (which I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before) and that added to the shock value of the ending and made it stick with me. I am glad I didn’t know the entire show because that moment was so powerful and I’m glad I was able to experience it at the show.

I think Jeremy will agree with me that the show was so well done and I highly recommend checking it out if you are in LA (or when it tours in your area). With the way that politics are going these days, this show is actually pretty relevant and current even though it takes place in the 1930’s. But even without the politics of the show, it was just great and I’m so glad that we chose it to be a part of our deal when we bought them back in November.

After the show, Jeremy and I took a silly selfie outside the theater to document our awesome hangout.

Jeremy Gordon

I’m so glad that Jeremy was able to come with me to the show. While I was sad that Dani wasn’t there, it was great to get to share the experience and my love of going to the theater with another friend. We’ve talked about hopefully going to another musical again in the future so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve promised to tell him if there is another Black Friday deal similar to the one I got so he could get some tickets for next season (it seems like the season tickets for Pantages are pretty close to being sold out so I’m lucky my group was able to get our tickets already).

With the exception of any shows I may see at the Bowl this summer, I most likely won’t be seeing another musical until my season tickets start in November. I’m ok with taking a break. I’ve only been going to the Pantages again in the past view years. Before that, there was more than a 10 year gap between shows there. But I’m glad that my friends have gotten me back into seeing musicals because they really do make me happy and make my life so much better.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged Hollywood, Los Angeles, musical, Pantages Theater, play, show

My First BlogFest (or Maximizing 5 Hours)

Posted on July 19, 2016 | 2 comments

This past weekend was BlogFest. BlogFest is a fitness blogger conference that is partnered with the IDEA World Fitness Conference and Sweat Pink (which is a blogger organization I’m a part of). This was the 3rd year for BlogFest and I was lucky enough to be able to get a ticket for it! They were offering free tickets to bloggers, you just had to put in your application why you deserved to attend and I was selected!

BlogFest

My original plan for BlogFest was to ask my boss at my box office job if I could work just customer chats (not phones) for the 2 days of BlogFest which is what I had done during the SAG-AFTRA Convention. I know my boss doesn’t like when I do that, but I didn’t want to have to ask for those days off either. Then, I found out that I would be going out-of-town the weekend after BlogFest and I would have to have time off for that. So since I had to take time off, I wasn’t comfortable asking for chat only days when I’m already getting time off (we don’t get vacation time or time off at the box office job so I have to limit how much time off I ask for).

Because of my work schedule, I ended up only being able to attend the afternoon of the first day of BlogFest, but I was determined to make the most of the time I was going to have there! As soon as I was done with work at 3pm, I raced over to the light rail station and caught a train to downtown. Since the event was being held at the convention center, it was pretty easy for me to take the train there and it saved me time in rush hour and saved me money for having to park downtown. I got to the convention center about 10 minutes before the next blogger session was going to start, so I quickly checked in and found another BlogFest attendee who was able to direct me to the room where the session was being held.

The first session that I was able to attend was all about social media and how to maximize using it for your blog. While I think I’m pretty good at using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; I’m pretty bad at using Snapchat and YouTube. I got a lot of great tips and advice in the session and while I haven’t been able to implement those things just yet, I’m working on some ideas that I hope that you all will enjoy!

After that session we had a few minutes before the next (and final) session that I could attend so I took a quick second to take a selfie in front of the BlogFest step and repeat (it was my only chance!).

BlogFest Arrival

The next session was a breakout session where there were a bunch of small groups discussing topics like branding, monetization, content, and other topics that bloggers may be concerned about and needing advice on. I had a pretty awesome group and I got some great ideas for things that I want to work on for here and hopefully will be able to start using them soon (things are in the works!).

Sadly, I missed all of the morning sessions that day and all of the sessions the next day. There will be notes posted online soon, but I still wish that I could have attended more because I really got so much out of the 2 sessions that I was able to go to. I also ended up missing the IDEA World expo and checking out all of the vendors there because I wasn’t able to get back to downtown another day.

But even though I was done with my 2 sessions pretty quickly, I still had some more fun that night.

My next stop was at Lawry’s Carvery to get a quick dinner with some fellow BlogFest attendees.

Dinner

It wasn’t the healthiest dinner (especially since we all blog about fitness), but it was quick and very yummy! At dinner, I finally got to meet some of my online blogger friends in real life which was awesome! We had a very honest conversation about our blogs and the challenges we are having now and it was so great to get that type of support from other bloggers who have been there and aren’t judging me for my lower numbers or anything.

The final stop for the night was the JW Marriott hotel (right next to the convention center) for the party for BlogFest attendees and everyone who is at the IDEA World conference.

Party

Since BlogFest was just some of the people attending the conference, we got a group of tables inside the reception that were reserved for our group.

VIP

Most of the people at the reception were in the line to get food, but since I just had dinner I sat down at a table and got to chat with more bloggers who I hadn’t met yet. We discussed our blogs (and even got someone to set up a brand new blog while we were there!) and it was just a really awesome time. While at the reception, I was feeling a bit sad that I was going to be missing all the rest of the time at BlogFest and I just feel more motivated that I need to figure out how to get some more flexibility in my life. I want to be able to attend events like this and not have to worry about if I will lose my job for asking for the time off. That’s my big motivation right now and I’m hoping that by next year’s BlogFest I’ll have something worked out.

But before I left, some of the amazing women behind Sweat Pink grabbed me so we could take a silly photo at the photo booth that was set up for the reception.

Photo Booth

Right after that, I had to head back to the train so I could get home. I only spent about 5 hours at BlogFest, but those 5 hours were pretty incredible. I got to meet some inspiring people, learn new things, and just have a fun time! I can’t wait until my next blogger conference opportunity and hopefully I will be able to spend more than 5 hours at it!

2 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged blogging, fitness, Los Angeles

Dinner And Carole King (or The Best Musical Ever!)

Posted on June 30, 2016 | 2 comments

This past week was the 3rd musical in the Black Friday deal my friend Dani and I got at Pantages. It was actually the last show Dani can go to (she’s missing our last show but I’m bringing another friend to it) and our season tickets for next season don’t start until the fall. So this may be our last musical together for a while!

This time, we were seeing “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”. When I saw that this was a part of the Black Friday deal, I knew I wanted to see it. Dani wasn’t totally sure on it, but she trusted me and we got the tickets with our deal back in November.

We drove over to the theater together (we don’t usually take the train for weeknight shows because we get out so late and the train isn’t as fast as the freeway at night), but we got there early enough to grab some dinner before the show. We weren’t sure where we wanted to go, but we saw Greenleaf Chop Shop and it sounded good to both of us.

Greenleaf

Greenleaf is mainly a salad place, but when Dani and I sat down at the bar (the line to order at the counter was really long) we saw that they had way more than salads! We ended up ordering some spinach artichoke dip, chicken nachos, and goat cheese pizza to split between us. We also got some dessert because we felt like we needed something sweet too. I think it’s pretty funny that even though we were at a salad place, salad wasn’t part of our meal (technically Dani did order a side salad, but basically our meal was all non-salad foods).

After we were done with dinner, we walked down the street to the theater. It was a bit crowded because it was getting close to showtime, but we were able to get to our seats with time to spare.

Beautiful

We really lucked out with the seats we got for our Black Friday deal. For all of our shows, we are in the center orchestra. I don’t know how we got such great luck, but I love it!

While we were waiting for the show to start, we both were admiring how awesome the Pantages Theater looks. It’s really so beautiful and we were both saying how grateful we feel that we get to experience shows like this so close to where we live.

Pantages

Once the show got started, I knew that we had made the right choice seeing this show. It was so incredible! It was a jukebox type musical that reminded me of a mix of “Jersey Boys” and “Motown”. It had the storytelling elements from “Jersey Boys” but since Carole King wrote for so many musical acts there were a lot of different musical groups portrayed in the show similar to how “Motown” was.

The songs were all so great and every time a new one started you could hear the moment the audience recognized the song and everyone was excited to hear it. I recognized pretty much every song and I think they were sung so well and the choreography was spot on. Dani and I were both laughing and smiling so much during the show and I was just in awe of what we were getting to see.

Not only were the performers awesome, I loved the sets and costumes. The sets were beautiful and so impressive (especially considering this is a touring show). I loved how they were so simple but so elaborate at the same time. And the quick changes that the actors had to do in the show were almost like magic tricks! There was one quick change that was done on stage in view of all of us and I wish I could watch that part over and over again. And there was another quick change where the performers were wearing one thing when they walked behind a small wall, walked behind the wall to the other side, and emerged with a different outfit! It just made me so happy seeing all the cool creative things that were in this show.

But what I loved the most about this show was how it was the story about not giving up on your dream. It’s about going for what you love and making sure that you know at the end of the day you did everything you could to make that happen. And it was just inspiring to see just a small snippet of someone’s life when they have had a very long career in a creative pursuit.

I’ve had a couple of friends tell me that my favorite musical will be “Hamilton” after I get to see that next year in August, but I really don’t know how something can top “Beautiful”. This was just incredible and I’m even trying to figure out if there is a way I can go to see it again because I want to experience the show at least one more time (and I almost never see a show more than once).

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged Hollywood, Los Angeles, musical, Pantages Theater, play, theater

Helping A Friend With Their LA Bucket List (or Hot Dogs, Tar Pits, and Ocean Views)

Posted on May 11, 2016 | Comments Off

My blogger buddy Lyndsay is leaving LA soon. She and her boyfriend are moving to Las Vegas at the end of the month and while I’m excited for them, I’m sad she’s leaving the area. Although, I’ll admit that while Lyndsay and I only live about a mile apart, we rarely get to see each other in person. So when I found out that she is leaving, I knew we had to hang out.

So this past Sunday we decided to go on an adventure to help her experience some awesome LA stuff before she moves away. She didn’t have a ton of ideas of places that she wanted to go to (we worked on that while we were hanging out on Sunday), but she did have a few restaurants on her list. And one of those restaurants was Pink’s Hot Dogs. I hadn’t been there for a while, so I was excited to go with her!

The line at Pink’s wasn’t too horrible, but it was still about 45 minutes before we got to order. Lyndsay got a bacon chili dog and I got the Lord of the Rings dog. I get the Lord of the Rings dog every time because it’s so awesome! It’s a hot dog with BBQ sauce and onion rings. Definitely not the best thing to eat, but as a super occasional treat it’s not too bad. We also got some chili fries to split between us.

Pink's Hot Dogs

My hot dog was just as delicious as it was the last time I had it (which was several years ago) and the fries were good, but I was pretty full from the hot dog so we didn’t eat a ton of them. And I think that Lyndsay agreed that even though we had to wait in line, the wait was worth it because the hot dog was so awesome!

After we were done with our hot dogs, we were trying to think of where we should go next. Both of us were lacking in money, so we were trying to think of free things around where we were that were fun to go to and Lyndsay hadn’t seen yet. We finally realized that we were right by the La Brea Tar Pits, and since Lyndsay had never been there we went right over.

We didn’t go into the museum there (they were closing as we arrived plus that costs money), but we walked around the tar pits.

Tar Pits

It was looking more watery than like tar, but it was still a landmark for Lyndsay to see and a check off of the LA bucket list that she was creating as we were going on our adventure!

After the tar pits, we were stuck again for what to do next. It seemed like everything we were thinking of cost money. But after a couple of minutes we decided to take a drive up to the Bird Streets.

If you aren’t too familiar with LA, the Bird Streets are the streets in the Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip with some of the most amazing city and ocean views. Homes there are pretty expensive (when we searched online out of curiously, the range was $12-25 million) but they are pretty cool to check out. We knew we wouldn’t get to go into any of the houses there, but we figured we’d drive up to the one that was for sale for $25 million and see what the view was like from the street.

The drive up there was pretty fun. We were checking out cool looking houses on the way and saw some really fun new houses that were being built (it seems like people who spend $12 million might consider it a tear down, which is insane). The $25 million house was at the top of the hills at a dead-end street, but as soon as we turned around to face going back down the hill, we were not disappointed by the view.

Bird Streets

Even though it was an overcast day, we still had an ocean view. And when we looked the other direction, we could see downtown LA. Obviously the house is ridiculously expensive, but that view is really a million dollar view. I had never really explored the Bird Streets before, so going on this drive was a new adventure for me as well. And it was totally worth it.

Our final adventure was going out of the Hollywood Hills and into the hills right next to them. My great-grandparents (my mom’s grandparents) had a house over there and a couple of years ago I was able to go inside the house with my mom to see what it looked like. My mom talked to the guy who owned the house then, and he was happy to let us in to see what it looked like at that point. My mom loved it because so much of the house still looked the same as it did when her grandparents owned it. We had taken some pictures and said goodbye to the owner.

This time, it looks like someone else owns the house. We did a bit of research and it is now a rental house that rents for a lot of money. We actually saw people walking in and out of the house, but I didn’t want to bother them (plus it seemed weird to do that), so I just took a picture of the outside so I could text it to my mom.

Great-Grandparent's House

After that stop, it was getting a bit late and I knew I had to get home. So Lyndsay and I headed back to our part of town and we said goodbye. She’s got a bit more time in LA before she leaves and I promised to help her check off a few more things on her list, so hopefully I’ll have another blog post soon with another of our adventures!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged adventure, food, friends, Hollywood, Los Angeles, lunch

Nighthawk Breakfast Bar (or A Late Night Breakfast/Dinner)

Posted on May 3, 2016 | Comments Off

I’m always looking for fun things to check out around LA. It fits in nicely with one of my 2016 goals to go do more fun stuff with my friends. So when I saw an article from the LA Times about a new restaurant that is only open late at night and serves breakfast style foods, I knew I had to check it out! I posted about it online and asked my friends who wanted to check it out. We managed to get a group of 5 of us and were able to go this past week!

The Nighthawk Breakfast Bar is only open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 8pm-2am. I’m not usually a late night person and we heard that it can get really crowded, so my group went on Thursday night and we made an 8pm reservation. The Nighthawk is out in Hollywood, so my Disneyland buddy June and I carpooled together. My friend Rayshell met us there at 8, and my friend Amanda and her friend had to work until 8 so they met us there at 9.

When June, Rayshell, and I got there the very first thing we did was check out the menu and the amazing drinks that they have available!

Nighthawk

In all the reviews we had read online, people were raving about the Spiked Cereal Milk. While they sounded awesome, I decided to get one of the Julius drinks (I got the OG).

(by the way, sorry that so many photos are the best quality. I took them in a dark space without a flash so others weren’t bothered)

It was pretty amazing! It tasted so much like an orange creamsicle and there wasn’t too much alcohol in it so I didn’t feel that buzzed. Rayshell got one of their boozy floats (and I got to try it and thought it was awesome) and June was the one who got the Cereal Milk!

Cereal Milk

It was a lot of milk, but we all got to taste it and it was really delicious! I just wished that they had some sort of Cereal Milk sampler (maybe shots of each type?) so you could try them all and not have as much milk because it’s a pretty filling drink.

We also got some food to start with (and Rayshell couldn’t stay too late either). The first thing that caught our attention when we were checking out the menu online before we were there were the Benedict Fries. They sounded amazing and we all knew that we would have to get them.

Benedict Fries

And we totally made the right choice on those! The egg on top was perfect and runny and the hollandaise sauce on the fries was really good! I think we all loved them and the only regret we had was that with only 3 of us splitting them they were so filling so we didn’t get too much more food!

When we had the Benedict Fries, Rayshell also ordered the Purple Haze Potato Hash.

Duck Hash

She let June and I try some of it (since I knew I would be writing this post I felt like I needed to try as much as possible). It was a little bit spicy for me, but not so bad that I didn’t enjoy it. The duck was really delicious and it was a great match for the Benedict Fries we also had.

Sadly, after we ate those Rayshell had to leave (she had an early work day). But June and I hung around for Amanda and her friend to get there and we tried to prepare ourselves to order more food (we really wanted more, but we were so full!).

Amanda and her friend got the Benedict Fries too (June and I didn’t have any of theirs) and the Chicken and Biscuits.

Chicken and Biscuits

I got to try the Chicken and Biscuits and I think that the next time I go to Nighthawk I will have to get those! I’m not usually a fried chicken person (or gravy person), but this was really good and not greasy like I thought it might be.

And since June and I wanted to try one more thing, we went for more of a dessert option and got the Drunken French Toast.

French Toast

The french toast was the perfect end to the meal. It was really sweet and light and everyone at the table enjoyed eating it!

What shocked me the most about going to the Nighthawk Breakfast Bar was that everything was really delicious and that I had really no complaints about the food at all. I was telling June in the car on the way home that if something wasn’t as good as the rest then maybe we could have ordered more things to try (we really wanted to get the Tower of Bacon but had no room in our stomachs). But since everything was really top-notch, we basically cleaned the plates of everything that we got. But we also know that a return trip to the Nighthawk Breakfast Bar is in order so we can try out more things (and maybe by then they will have some sort of Cereal Milk sampler too!).

If you are going to go to Nighthawk, I do recommend making reservations. It wasn’t super crowded when we got there at 8pm, but it filled up quickly and if you go really late I can imagine that there would be a wait for a table. Also, nice it is a late night restaurant, you can probably find free meter parking nearby! We found a free meter (it was free after 8pm) right across from the restaurant so we were pretty happy about that! I really do recommend everything that we ate and I would guess that everything else on the menu is just as good as what we tried. This is a really fun place to check out with a pretty chill atmosphere (especially chill since it is in Hollywood and many places there are a bit touristy).

If you get to go to Nighthawk, I’d love to know what you had and what you loved! I think my friends and I will be able to make it back there in a month or so, and I know we want to know what things are must-haves for next time!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, drinks, food, friends, Hollywood, Los Angeles

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