Friday, April 3, 2009

Best Trip Ever!:part 4

Friday morning arrived, and you haven't woken up yet if you haven't been serenaded awake by Ryan McCracken.

Ryan is an amazing musician who writes for a music blog in LA called Losanjealous.com. Ryan's love and knowledge of music, old and new, is immense and constantly expanding. There's always smooth grooves reverberating throughout the McCracken pad from a CD or his turntable.

I'm always treated to new and undiscovered bands when I visit. It truly is the best place to stay if you're in LA.

Ryan had noticed some aphids on the leaves in his garden. After a Twitter about the little devils, he received tons of advice. That morning we ran an errand to a hardware store to obtain, not 1, not 48, but 500 ladybugs. It was creepy as hell. I never realized you could buy so many living creatures at the hardware store.

Here are some pictures of the great lady bug release of 2009.





It was noon and I had to head to Radical Axis' LA hub to chat with my friends April and Joe. We gossiped about work for an hour, then April had to go to a meeting. Joe was nice enough to accompany me to lunch. We went to a place that specialized in hotdogs and was inside an old railroad car. It was awesome!

Next I traveled to Titmouse Studios for a tour of the place. It's the studio that produces the show Metalocalypse for Adult Swim. My friend Nash from Blue Sky knows them and set it up for me. My point man was Antonio Canobbio. Not only is his name kick ass, he was incredibly nice and extremely accommodating. He gave me a tour of the entire place. I practically met everyone there. It was fantastic.

After the tour I was on my way back to home base.

Vanessa's a writer for game shows. That night I was going to be her plus one for the wrap party of her latest show. We met up at a place called Home, where a couple NYC improv friends of ours were having dinner. After catching up for a while, Vanessa and I made our way to Lucky Strikes Lanes, where the wrap party was in full swing. One near death experience involving me trying to cross a busy street in the Cobalt and a cab ride with a crazy Russian dude who thought we were married then told us 3 to many inappropriate stories later, we were lacing up our bowling shoes.



I bowled a 68 BTW.

I'll break down the party:
Free bowling = Great
Free Booze = Amazing
Rock Band = Totally Sweet
Meeting Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air = PRICELESS

I got to shake his hand and he was super nice. Unfortunately I have no photographic proof of said encounter with the great Alfonso Ribeiro, because Vanessa insisted I not take a picture. I'm not listening to her next time. Watch your back Alfonso Spears from TV's Silver Spoons.

After several free drinks, the party ended and we stumbled across the street to another bar for one last beer. I wish I was a little more sober, because we ended up crashing the booth of the most amazing characters I've met in a long time. Two Swedish rock musicians. One of them was a year into his California dream. The other was pretty fresh off the boat and had amazing feather hair.

Vanessa had that ready to go home look, but I was digging my two new friend to much to leave. Eventually I gave in and we hopped in a cab back to Ryans.

Another long action packet day down. More two come my pretties....

4 comments:

SAM said...

You met Alfonzo Ribero!? So he was working at the bowling alley, huh. Was he handing out the moist, smelly shoes? Figured as much. It's not like he's doing any TV or anything. At least he has a job in these tough economic times.

At least Chief didn't wake you up with a dick in a book.

Nick Gibbons said...

Ah, the old "dick in the book". One of my fondest memories from college.

Actually Alfonso is the host of the game show that my friend Vanessa was writing. That's why he was there.

SAM said...

Sure! That's why he was there.

Nick Gibbons said...

He did spray deodorizer into my shoes after I took them off, but I just thought he might have been a clean freak.