Through some particular events in my GF's life I found myself at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday afternoon for a one-night stay. The Beverly Hills Hotel is a 5 star hotel with a legendary history. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned in one of the bungalows there (Number 5), Will Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks used to eat lunch in the Polo Lounge every day, Guns n'n Roses signed their record contract there.
She had a hair and make-up appointment at the salon they have; I caught her in the hallway as she was leaving for it and I was arriving to the room. After about 30 minutes I went down there to see how things were going but it looked like she was getting water-boarded; she was tilted back flat in the chair and the make-up artist was leaning over her intently. I decided instead to grab a bite at the Fountain Room, a coffee shop diner they have (and is where GnR signed signed their contract).
Later, she went to her event in the hotel-provided limo and then a few hours later came back. In the interim I had reservations for the Polo Lounge for dinner for us. She called me as she was leaving so I could meet her in front to help with her stuff; award statue, gifts and flowers. As I was waiting some older movie producer types got out and walked up the ramp into the hotel; gray hair, big round black rimmed glasses, pullover shirt, leather pants. Bowling ball pot bellies.
As we came down the stair case I swear Lauren Bacall was in front of us in line. We were seated at a decent table but we did not see anyone we knew as a celebrity but obviously there were some fairly well-off people there.
The next morning we went to breakfast at the Fountain Room; James Taylor walked in and sat down at the opposite end. He was scruffy and hauling a backpack around with him. We later saw him in the lobby waiting for someone; he was wearing a baseball cap.
But that was it. It was an interesting experience but also fairly expensive for my loser middle-class lifestyle. But now I can say that I have stayed in the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel and eaten dinner at the Polo Lounge.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
2007 San Diego County Fires
No issues for me but here are a bare few photos showing the difference between Monday and Tuesday.
Monday, October 8, 2007
I went to Tokyo again last week. It was an uneventful trip but I had a good time with everyone. One night we went out to the musical instrument stores part of town and had the clerks pull down lots of nice vintage instruments. We played them and then had them put them back. That was fun!
Here are some photos. I did not have a lot of time this trip so I was only able to re-visit the Asakusa district.
Here are some photos. I did not have a lot of time this trip so I was only able to re-visit the Asakusa district.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Urban Hipster Coolness For a Price
Urban Hipster Coolness
This last Friday I took the day off and the GF and I went to downtown San Diego. We were seeing Crowded House at Humphrey's By the Bay which is on
Shelter Island so we figured we could kill some time by pretending to be a couple looking for a new lifestyle and shop for a Downtown San Diego East Village condo/townhouse/rowhouse. You know, moving out of suburbia and into the urban hipster lifestyle environment that the still-in-redevelopment downtown is supposed to provide.
First, here is a Google maps of the area we were in - "East Village", near the new Padres ball field PetCo Park. If you turn on satellite images you'll see they are at least 3 or 4 years old; they show an in-construction ball park and a bunch of vacant lots where new condo towers are now.
Here is an info page for a bunch of different developments. We went to "ICON" and walked around "The Mark San Diego."
We saw 3 floorplans at ICON, one was an 1100 sq ft (100 m^2) 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 17th floor for $850K and two lofts on the 3rd floor of a renovated warehouse with the original outside wall left intact. These were 1035 sq ft (92 m^2) and 825 sq ft (80 m^2) for $435K and $419K respectively. The 17th floor was nice, nice view of the harbor and the ball park but it was on the SE corner which also means you get to see the railroad yard. The lofts windows were right at street light level - the light would POUR in at night I'm sure, plus it is across the street from the vacant lot where the proposed (but probably never to be built) new downtown library is supposed to be. Because it is more important to build a baseball field than a library.
The salesman emphasized that the 1100 sq ft 2BR 2 BA condo was priced differently depending on the floor you're on. Higher is more expensive. He also commented multiple times of the availability of parking (1 or 2 spots). I thought nothing of it at the time but later the significance of that became clear.
Then we walked around the neighborhood. It's still not completely redeveloped and in fact the steam has gone out of the effort with the condo glut downtown and the flattening (at best) of the housing market here. Turns out that the nearest grocery store is 9 blocks away. There was no dry cleaners nearby and no pharmacy or convenience store, either. The streets seemed a little dead, too; it was 4 PM on Friday and you'd think people would be starting to move around but not really where we were. We saw lots of old empty buildings ready for demolition; old warehouses, garages, parking lots. No gas stations though, old or new. We ended up at 8th and Island and liked the condos/row houses along the street (part of The Mark's development) but couldn't find the sales office. Very few were occupied; maybe 25% and there weren't that many of them, maybe a dozen?
So, now the significance of the parking space comments became clear. Even though you are living a downtown urban hipster lifestyle you still need a car to GET ANYWHERE, even with the trolley since the trolley makes a big lap around the downtown district but doesn't actually enter the center of it. This is antithetical to the urban lifestyle, right? You don't NEED a car. Everything is RIGHT THERE for you.
Here's the thing for me. Back 100 years ago, even "pre-war", people from all walks of life lived like this. Rich people lived uptown in brick fronted row houses, middle class people lived in apartments above their shops and poor people lived in Hell's Kitchen in tenement housing. The point is there was lots of choices for all economic positions.
I have to wonder about this in downtown SD; East Village was a piece of crap neighborhood and has been for decades and decades. It couldn't have been THAT expensive to buy a bunch of non-earthquake safe 75 year old warehouses full of rats with leaky roofs, could it? $1.25M for 1900 sq ft row houses right on F Street? That's not an "upper class" housing style, that's middle class housing. That's housing for a guy like me. And I feel I can barely afford my current mortgage which is a fraction of some of these prices.
I fear this means a massive RE value collapse in order to let the next generation buy and they won't be buying out here in SuburbiaLand because those houses will be sky high and be passed down from parent to child, just like houses used to be 100 years ago. They'll be moving back to the urban areas because it's the only place anyone will be allowed by NIMBYs to build vertically.
The only other possibility is if we start being like native Europeans and have a lower than replacement birthrate, in which case the terrorists will have won.
It seems far more expensive to build a downtown area over the course of 50 years, say, let White Flight to the suburbs in the 60's devastate the urban core, allow it rot for 25 or 30 years and then say, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we dumped billions of dollars to tear down old crap and build new crap with no supportive infrastructure like a pharmacy or a fucking trolley car stop at the corner." And make no mistake, downtown San Diego in the 70's and early 80's was a very scary place. Very scary. The Gaslamp began a recovery in the mid 80's but even now there are blocks that are untouched by the evil hand of Eminent Domain. There is however a two story Hustler store on 6th Street which is considered an upscale addition to the neighborhood.
I like the downtown area; I enjoy the restaurants and the atmosphere but if I were to move to San Diego proper I'd buy a Craftsman-style bungalow in North Park and restore it from the ground up before I'd buy a downtown condo and still have to pay for a car.
This last Friday I took the day off and the GF and I went to downtown San Diego. We were seeing Crowded House at Humphrey's By the Bay which is on
Shelter Island so we figured we could kill some time by pretending to be a couple looking for a new lifestyle and shop for a Downtown San Diego East Village condo/townhouse/rowhouse. You know, moving out of suburbia and into the urban hipster lifestyle environment that the still-in-redevelopment downtown is supposed to provide.
First, here is a Google maps of the area we were in - "East Village", near the new Padres ball field PetCo Park. If you turn on satellite images you'll see they are at least 3 or 4 years old; they show an in-construction ball park and a bunch of vacant lots where new condo towers are now.
Here is an info page for a bunch of different developments. We went to "ICON" and walked around "The Mark San Diego."
We saw 3 floorplans at ICON, one was an 1100 sq ft (100 m^2) 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 17th floor for $850K and two lofts on the 3rd floor of a renovated warehouse with the original outside wall left intact. These were 1035 sq ft (92 m^2) and 825 sq ft (80 m^2) for $435K and $419K respectively. The 17th floor was nice, nice view of the harbor and the ball park but it was on the SE corner which also means you get to see the railroad yard. The lofts windows were right at street light level - the light would POUR in at night I'm sure, plus it is across the street from the vacant lot where the proposed (but probably never to be built) new downtown library is supposed to be. Because it is more important to build a baseball field than a library.
The salesman emphasized that the 1100 sq ft 2BR 2 BA condo was priced differently depending on the floor you're on. Higher is more expensive. He also commented multiple times of the availability of parking (1 or 2 spots). I thought nothing of it at the time but later the significance of that became clear.
Then we walked around the neighborhood. It's still not completely redeveloped and in fact the steam has gone out of the effort with the condo glut downtown and the flattening (at best) of the housing market here. Turns out that the nearest grocery store is 9 blocks away. There was no dry cleaners nearby and no pharmacy or convenience store, either. The streets seemed a little dead, too; it was 4 PM on Friday and you'd think people would be starting to move around but not really where we were. We saw lots of old empty buildings ready for demolition; old warehouses, garages, parking lots. No gas stations though, old or new. We ended up at 8th and Island and liked the condos/row houses along the street (part of The Mark's development) but couldn't find the sales office. Very few were occupied; maybe 25% and there weren't that many of them, maybe a dozen?
So, now the significance of the parking space comments became clear. Even though you are living a downtown urban hipster lifestyle you still need a car to GET ANYWHERE, even with the trolley since the trolley makes a big lap around the downtown district but doesn't actually enter the center of it. This is antithetical to the urban lifestyle, right? You don't NEED a car. Everything is RIGHT THERE for you.
Here's the thing for me. Back 100 years ago, even "pre-war", people from all walks of life lived like this. Rich people lived uptown in brick fronted row houses, middle class people lived in apartments above their shops and poor people lived in Hell's Kitchen in tenement housing. The point is there was lots of choices for all economic positions.
I have to wonder about this in downtown SD; East Village was a piece of crap neighborhood and has been for decades and decades. It couldn't have been THAT expensive to buy a bunch of non-earthquake safe 75 year old warehouses full of rats with leaky roofs, could it? $1.25M for 1900 sq ft row houses right on F Street? That's not an "upper class" housing style, that's middle class housing. That's housing for a guy like me. And I feel I can barely afford my current mortgage which is a fraction of some of these prices.
I fear this means a massive RE value collapse in order to let the next generation buy and they won't be buying out here in SuburbiaLand because those houses will be sky high and be passed down from parent to child, just like houses used to be 100 years ago. They'll be moving back to the urban areas because it's the only place anyone will be allowed by NIMBYs to build vertically.
The only other possibility is if we start being like native Europeans and have a lower than replacement birthrate, in which case the terrorists will have won.
It seems far more expensive to build a downtown area over the course of 50 years, say, let White Flight to the suburbs in the 60's devastate the urban core, allow it rot for 25 or 30 years and then say, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we dumped billions of dollars to tear down old crap and build new crap with no supportive infrastructure like a pharmacy or a fucking trolley car stop at the corner." And make no mistake, downtown San Diego in the 70's and early 80's was a very scary place. Very scary. The Gaslamp began a recovery in the mid 80's but even now there are blocks that are untouched by the evil hand of Eminent Domain. There is however a two story Hustler store on 6th Street which is considered an upscale addition to the neighborhood.
I like the downtown area; I enjoy the restaurants and the atmosphere but if I were to move to San Diego proper I'd buy a Craftsman-style bungalow in North Park and restore it from the ground up before I'd buy a downtown condo and still have to pay for a car.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Award-Winning Professional Photographer
Award-Winning Professional Photographer
It's all so very curious, this art-as-competition stuff.
I entered three images the Orange County Fair's Photography competition. This one was rejected, This one was accepted, and this one was not only accepted but was given an award.
It was only an Honorable Mention, which rates a light blue ribbon, placed right on the frame, but my happiness was based more on the fact that, because I am not a resident of Orange County, I had to enter as a professional, which I am most assuredly not.
So, a minor victory and a small professional feather in my photography cap.
It's all so very curious, this art-as-competition stuff.
I entered three images the Orange County Fair's Photography competition. This one was rejected, This one was accepted, and this one was not only accepted but was given an award.
It was only an Honorable Mention, which rates a light blue ribbon, placed right on the frame, but my happiness was based more on the fact that, because I am not a resident of Orange County, I had to enter as a professional, which I am most assuredly not.
So, a minor victory and a small professional feather in my photography cap.
Monday, June 11, 2007
I went to Taipei last week for a short work week. Taipei is a crowded Asian city that has a more worn-out feel to it than Tokyo. The little neighborhood directly behind the Westin Tokyo was very quaint, well-maintained and pleasant. The little neighborhood across Nanking East Rd (A major thoroughfare) in front of the Westin Taipei is a shitty run-down rickety crap neighborhood. So is every other neighborhood we've seen.
One night we had a bad dinner in a really great restaurant. We decided late in the afternoon to go to CompuDex, a big electronics show in the convention center. Coincidentally it is right next to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world when counting floors and not antenna height (in which case the Sears Tower is taller by a few feet). It has a shopping center on the first 5 or 6 floors and also a bunch of restaurants. We had in tow a sales representative chick from Phillips that one of our the guys in our party had mislead into believing that we were interested in buying her tuners; he bailed on us after a while so the remaining of us asked her to dinner.
We ended up at a traditional Chinese place - very nice looking, very elegant and classy. We had one of our colleagues order the set menu for 4. This meant a bunch of small-portioned things; two soups, vegetables, steamed white rice, a platter of chicken and beef, a plate of some sort of organ and a whole fish (they served the head and tail, too). It was a bit "off" for Simon and myself; the chicken had been cleaved into medium sized pieces from a whole chicken. They consisted of skin, bone, ligaments and meat. The chicken in the soup was still on the bone, too.
I ended up eating my rice, the vegetables, working my way through the first soup (which was pretty good) and the chicken soup. That was it, though; I was starving this morning.
Another night we went to "Snake Alley" which is officially called "Tourist Night Market." We looked at all of the stalls and I took a bunch of pictures. We ate at a really good Chinese seafood restaurant and I ate everything (clams, crab, prawn, soup) and really enjoyed it. I bought a feng shui energy detector. I'll have my pal Wendy Tse translate it for me when I get back to the office.
We also hosted the entire organization at a really fun "Las Vegas Style" buffet lunch at a local hotel. The food selections were outstanding and everything was really great.
It was oppressively hot and humid and the rains poured down every morning, but it was a good time and a very interesting place. I'm sure I'll be back and very soon as well.
Photos here.
One night we had a bad dinner in a really great restaurant. We decided late in the afternoon to go to CompuDex, a big electronics show in the convention center. Coincidentally it is right next to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world when counting floors and not antenna height (in which case the Sears Tower is taller by a few feet). It has a shopping center on the first 5 or 6 floors and also a bunch of restaurants. We had in tow a sales representative chick from Phillips that one of our the guys in our party had mislead into believing that we were interested in buying her tuners; he bailed on us after a while so the remaining of us asked her to dinner.
We ended up at a traditional Chinese place - very nice looking, very elegant and classy. We had one of our colleagues order the set menu for 4. This meant a bunch of small-portioned things; two soups, vegetables, steamed white rice, a platter of chicken and beef, a plate of some sort of organ and a whole fish (they served the head and tail, too). It was a bit "off" for Simon and myself; the chicken had been cleaved into medium sized pieces from a whole chicken. They consisted of skin, bone, ligaments and meat. The chicken in the soup was still on the bone, too.
I ended up eating my rice, the vegetables, working my way through the first soup (which was pretty good) and the chicken soup. That was it, though; I was starving this morning.
Another night we went to "Snake Alley" which is officially called "Tourist Night Market." We looked at all of the stalls and I took a bunch of pictures. We ate at a really good Chinese seafood restaurant and I ate everything (clams, crab, prawn, soup) and really enjoyed it. I bought a feng shui energy detector. I'll have my pal Wendy Tse translate it for me when I get back to the office.
We also hosted the entire organization at a really fun "Las Vegas Style" buffet lunch at a local hotel. The food selections were outstanding and everything was really great.
It was oppressively hot and humid and the rains poured down every morning, but it was a good time and a very interesting place. I'm sure I'll be back and very soon as well.
Photos here.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Beatles "Love" Show in Las Vegas
I saw the Beatles "Love" show in in The Mirage Resort in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 8, 2007.
It was quite beautiful and arty.
Most Cirque du Soleil shows are more athletic and gymnastic and tend to feature various "acts." This show was different; more of an ensemble feel, lots of activity going on, lots of ensemble and group dancing, high energy with the occasional trapeze or rope artist or other sorts of things, including solo dancing.
Great sound, great lighting and effects. The show is in the theater that used to be the Siegfried and Roy space. It's in the round and I can tell you that the show uses every cubic inch of the space; every square inch of stage and all the way to the ceiling.
I had front row seats and everyone in the very front section ringing the stage is inside one of the effects; the rest of the house saw the outside, we saw the inside and were part of the show; we were allowed to manipulate part of the set. It must have looked really cool from the outside because it got a huge roar from the crowd when it finished.
The show is considerably longer than the soundtrack; there are other songs not included plus there is some great great great inter-action set pieces featuring projections of actors (in silhouette) portraying the Fabs acting to dialog created by edited-together interview statements, studio banter, maybe even some flexi-disk stuff. You don't see the actors as anything but silhouettes so you aren't distracted by a less-than-look-alike.
There are large video screens around the venue that add video effects and occasionally other screens are dropped from the ceiling showing Shea Stadium clips and other performances.
Both "Something" and "While My Guitar gently Weeps" are very poignant set pieces as well. Sniff sniff (tear? what tear? I wasn't crying! I had something in my eye!). "Help!" is a high energy very fun section of the show with rollerbladers and "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" has a gorgeous starry sky. "Revolution" has hippies and riot cops squaring off on trampolines.
There is even a reference to drinking tea(!).
If it's not the most expensive show in town it's close but both of us really enjoyed it and being front row was quite frankly worth every penny of the $165 per ticket price.
It was quite beautiful and arty.
Most Cirque du Soleil shows are more athletic and gymnastic and tend to feature various "acts." This show was different; more of an ensemble feel, lots of activity going on, lots of ensemble and group dancing, high energy with the occasional trapeze or rope artist or other sorts of things, including solo dancing.
Great sound, great lighting and effects. The show is in the theater that used to be the Siegfried and Roy space. It's in the round and I can tell you that the show uses every cubic inch of the space; every square inch of stage and all the way to the ceiling.
I had front row seats and everyone in the very front section ringing the stage is inside one of the effects; the rest of the house saw the outside, we saw the inside and were part of the show; we were allowed to manipulate part of the set. It must have looked really cool from the outside because it got a huge roar from the crowd when it finished.
The show is considerably longer than the soundtrack; there are other songs not included plus there is some great great great inter-action set pieces featuring projections of actors (in silhouette) portraying the Fabs acting to dialog created by edited-together interview statements, studio banter, maybe even some flexi-disk stuff. You don't see the actors as anything but silhouettes so you aren't distracted by a less-than-look-alike.
There are large video screens around the venue that add video effects and occasionally other screens are dropped from the ceiling showing Shea Stadium clips and other performances.
Both "Something" and "While My Guitar gently Weeps" are very poignant set pieces as well. Sniff sniff (tear? what tear? I wasn't crying! I had something in my eye!). "Help!" is a high energy very fun section of the show with rollerbladers and "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" has a gorgeous starry sky. "Revolution" has hippies and riot cops squaring off on trampolines.
There is even a reference to drinking tea(!).
If it's not the most expensive show in town it's close but both of us really enjoyed it and being front row was quite frankly worth every penny of the $165 per ticket price.
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