Monday, August 9, 2010

Welcome to Los Angeles, Australia

One of the biggest issues I had with travelling around Europe was feeling like I was in any random suburb of Sydney. For all the cobbled streets and exotic smells, the sound of an Australian accent was never far away. It turns out L.A. is exactly the same. It's probably got a lot to do with staying in hostels, but even on the streets that Australian drawl seems cut through the crowd.
But enough Aussie bashing. Yesterday I ended up going for a wee walk around Sunset Boulevard to kill some time. The first stop was Amoeba records, possibly the greatest place...ever. It's a giant record store that happens to be dirt cheap. If I had more room & more money it would have been easy to get a whole heap of awesome vinyl records (new Gaslight Anthem was only $12 on vinyl!!!!!!). Just before I left Frodo Baggins was getting ready to do a dj set in store.
It didn't take too long for the lack of sleep over the last 3 days to catch up and once I was able to get into my room I had a wee nap before I miraculously I ended up hanging out with some non Aussies for a while. Two Swiss lads were willing to share a few beers and anecdotes before a Chilean guy who shared my name lead a hike up Runyun Canyon.
The hike took about 2 hours, but was made a bit harder given I was wearing my skinny jeans (it is Hollywood after-all). Runyun Canyon park is full of dogs off their leash. When you're not struggling up hills you're busy getting licked by a bunch of random dogs. It's even full of prairie dogs (or some equivalent (also, the cutest animal ever)). It also presents a pretty great view of the whole city, which happens to be absolutely massive.

Last time I was in L.A. most of the time was spent in Anaheim, kicking it theme park style. Now I'm closer to the city and it is a completely different place all together. After the massive hike, I realised I hadn't eaten for about 15 hours (fo real). A few of us got together and hit up a restaurant for some super cheap and massive American food. Right after one of the guys from my room and I ended up hitting up a liquor store for a couple of beers. A 12pack of Bud only cost $9, which is pretty god-damn amazing.
There was a bit of a comedy night at the hostel, though that is being a bit generous. Still, it was free entertainment and something to watch with a few beers in hand. It took until about 2AM before the beer had finished and I finally decided it was time for a bit of sleep. It had kind of amazed me how well I was doing given my lack of sleep over so long. Now I've woken up (albeit it too late for breakfast) and I've pretty much avoided jetlag, yew.
I swear one of the guys in my room is Corey Worthington. He's a little bogan guy who keeps telling me about the cheap suit he got made up and all the beer he has drunk.
But anyway, today I'm going to hang out in Hollywood & around. Steel Panther are playing tonight and it wouldn't feel like I had been to L.A. if I don't check them out.
Generic tourist photo.
Today's music video is provided by Steel Panther. Apart from being an amazing power-ballad (my favourite type of music) the video seems to sum up L.A. pretty well, satire and all.

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