So glad to be back in Vancouver, albeit only for a couple of days.
The more I visit LA, the more I know that I could never, ever move to LA. The city is not pretty. Too much brown, taupe, sand. Not enough green space, the hard water wrecks havoc on my skin and the city is too much of a sprawl.
But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun. Especially when your friends from Vancouver happen to be in LA the same time you are AND at the same hotel. How random is that? Of all the billions of hotels in LA, we all found ourselves at the Omni.
After a morning sesh on Saturday, I met up with Will & Chiemi to check out touristy Hollywood and ate lunch near Beverly Hills.
Another fun thing that would’ve been grand to check out tonight was the Cinespia Cemetery Screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I love outdoor movies. I remember watching Charade with Audrey Hepburn & Cary Grant at New York’s Bryant Park a few years back. Eats, drinks and byob – bring your own blanket.
Saturday’s movie was Beetlejuice! How appropriate for the cemetery crowd.
Alas, I couldn’t go, because I joined my Opera America colleagues as Long Beach Opera was presenting Orpheus and Euridice. Did I also mention the whole opera was being performed in a swimming pool?
The audience was given a 10″ foam square, so that we could sit comfortably on the bleachers, whilst watching the sold out opera. There was a small orchestra seated by the side of the pool, while the performers sang and played the clarinet, in a rowboat in the pool. It was no Beetlejuice at the cemetery, but it was pretty rad.
That’s why I also know why I could never live in LA. I found myself much happier once we got out to Long Beach, where there are green grass and the water nearby. And I’ve always liked Santa Monica and Pasadena much better than LA.
We all got back to the Omni and I thought that perhaps I’d be calling it a nite. However, Will and Chiemi were back from dinner and wanted to check out The Edison, which I had been raving about. At midnight, we taxi’d down to The Edison.
I expected the line on a Saturday to be much worse, but we were in in minutes. And boy, were they blown away like I was when I first stepped in there. The night, however, was not one I would’ve chosen. It was hip hop/electronica/top 40 to cater to the bridge and tunnel crowd. And so not appropriate for the venue. The crowd was much, much younger, but they were in great spirits and some were gussied up as flappers. At a hip hop/pop night.
The seating were all reserved or taken, but a group 20-somethings from Long Beach invited us to sit at their table. I swear, any club I go to in any city I travel to, the club-goers are always nice and friendly.
This is such a contrast to Vancouver clubbers, as they’re all about fronting, putting on a fashion show and are way too cliquey. This is not just my observation. A few friends of mine who live elsewhere in the world, have the same response when going to Vancouver clubs.
The group made us feel welcomed, with shouts every now and then of “Canada’s in da house!”
The green absinthe fairy made her rounds and came to our table. Will bought a bottled of pomegranate flavoured absinthe for the table. And boy, did it kick in real hard by the end of the nite for Will. Happy drunk.
The Edison closed at 2am and we made our way back to the hotel, grabbed some midnight munchies from downstairs at Famima and got to packing for my flight back home Sunday.
It’s been such a long time since I’ve been out clubbing on a Saturday night. And only because it was somewhere other than Vancouver.
View more photos of my LA trip on my Flickr album.
Hollywood + Edison photos courtesy of Will.
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