Here we are on a Friday once again. I think I will put my thoughts and some activities of the last week into a blog entry. I guess I don't have to always post things on the economy, employment situation or the homeless.
So, here we go. I am going to attempt to upload a lot of photos in this entry. I have no idea on the order in which they will display but I will do the best with what ends up happening. Perhaps I will do a little less than the best if it looks too time consuming. You know me ... efficiency in motion and effort is my creed.
I went shooting two times last week. One time I used this shotgun, my A391. I did much better than I normally do so I thought I would return in the next day or two with my pretty Beretta over/under to see how I would fare with my other shotgun.....
Well, it seems as if the photo upload is pretty random. In any case, this was an amazing pulled pork sandwich that came from my friends Antonio and Lana Medina. They own the gourmet food truck called Gastrobus. They were one of many trucks at an event called Chinatown Nights last week. If you want to check them out they can be found at http://www.gastrobus.com/
Things were hoppin' and buzzin' at Hot Chinatown Summer Nights
This was still early, before 7pm. When the sun went down things got much more busy.
Some new friends and one from the past. Sam Hunter is on the right. She was the gal that fed me after my second divorce. Sam is an artist, teacher and gets things done.
Still a bit early in the evening
Fun Jazz club in Chinatown. Back in the early eighties Madame Wong's was one of the hot spots for punk music. Chinatown is a cool hang.
As the sun set the crowds grew larger and the low light lack of capability started to become more noticeable
I actually try to live life on an economical level most of the time. This is a quick lunch. Yeah, even made it myself. Fresh bread, olive oil and vinegar for dipping, aged English Cheddar. I also have whole dry salami but I just ran over from the shop and was eating fast so I went for the pre-sliced stuff. In the glass was apple juice. Banana for dessert.
Radical shopping trip. This is where the bread came from for the lunch in the photo earlier. We single guys keep shopping simple unless we can actually cook ... which I cannot. I am not saying I cannot cook at all. I am saying that I seem to surround myself with friends who are master chefs or bakers. Who am I to attempt to compete?
At the end of my second day of shooting last week. Turns out the pretty over/under is not as effective in my hands as my single barrel 391. Some feel the over/under is pretty and some say it is more sexy. When I asked Pat Moore, owner of http://www.moorenmoore.com/ which gun I should use he asked me; "do you want to look good or shoot better" ?
All done for the day with the Beretta O/U
I don't even know where to start on this shot. Alcohol drink of some sort from the kitchen of a restaurant that only has a beer and wine license. Filled with stuff that looks as if it came from the wonton soup. Very potent drink. There was no charge for the drink so technically they did not serve us the drink. The owner of the restaurant knew one of the people in our group so they gave the drink to us to share.
Very tasty. This was dinner in Chinatown one evening last week. I have taken both my boys to this restaurant. I never seem to be able to recall the name but it is on Broadway near the goldline Metro stop. Just walk on Broadway on the side of the street farthest from College Street toward Union Station and look for a Chinese BBQ place with whole ducks hanging, visible as you walk past the front door on the street.
Fried rice from our China night dinner.
Wonton soup. Staged on the vacant table next to ours as we were already a bit out of control. Not a good shot due to low light indoors but the soup was much better than it looks here.
Jumping around again, this was the same night as the dinner in Chinatown. Just to clarify, the food truck night in Chinatown was a different night than this particular night. But ... just to make things more confusing, the shot above was the night of the Chinese dinner in the previous shots .... but .... the drink above was from a Japanese restaurant on 7th street that we walked past on our way to the Bonaventure hotel where ... we were headed to go to a bar that Jade wanted us to go to. And ... just to make the path a little more icy and slippery from a mental point of view the girl that was guiding us to the proper Bonaventure bar is not really named Jade, that is just what folks call her. Now if that makes sense to you I am impressed.
This shot above has NOTHING to do with any prior shots. One day I went down to Union Rescue Mission. http://www.urm.org/ You know, those folks I write about a lot because they are all such cool folks that do so much for folks that have nothing.
I was down on skid row, doing a bit of statistics collecting (counting how the population is growing) on my way to URM. Once I was done at URM for the afternoon I was a little hungry. I was meeting Jade and Kim later for dinner in Chinatown (some of those above shots) but could use a snack. I had walked down 5th from Pershing Square and all around Skid Row and worked up a bit of a hunger. So ... I walked down San Pedro Street when I was done at Union Rescue Mission and went to Little Tokyo where I had a spicy tuna roll at a spot I like.
The shot above is earlier in day, maybe mid afternoon, as I walked down 5th from the Pershing Square Metro stop.
.... and this was walking along San Pedro Street on my way to Little Tokyo where I got that spicy tuna roll snack.
I sent this photo from my phone to facebook with a note telling one of my friends (Don Garza) that I would wait here for a few minutes if he wanted to meet me. It took AT&T six hours to upload the photo to facebook. By the time Don got the message it was night time. Thanks again to AT&T whose service has held the number one spot on the bottom of the list. BP tried to challenge them for this top honor but since the BP disaster was somewhat localized to a big portion of the USA but not the entire USA they could not take the crown away from AT&T.
In the afternoon at Union Rescue Mission. If you are in So Cal and have items you would like to donate you can bring them here. They will make sure they get to the right place.
Not my photo, this is a cell shot from Andy Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission. Andy has great taste, a great sense of humor and is one of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. Andy inspires me to be a better person and to do things that help others. Folks that know me realize he might be bailing a sinking ship with a spoon in regard to having me change all that much but I have to admit that I do look at some things in a different way based on his way of living. Yeah, I like his taste in food too, and he is a master on the grill. Humor and belief in what he does? He once took on a bet for $100 where somebody said he would not consume a heaping spoon of wasabe. Andy pulled it off and the money went to URM. If you want to learn more about Andy Bales follow this link to his blog where there is a lot of great stuff
I do what little I can to help these folks a few nights every week.
This is an amp of mine that Carl Verheyen ( http://www.carlverheyen.com/ )had been using for a few years. Since he was going to be in Europe for a few month on tour (he has been Supertramp's guitarist since 1985) I figured I would grab the amp and bring it to the shop. The guy that built this amp to my design is Ludovic Pierson. Remember what I wrote earlier about master chef people in my life? Well, Ludo is one of them. He is also a master amp builder. More on Ludo at http://www.pierson-amps.com/
In 1967 I attended Palisades High School and had five periods of autoshop in the 12th grade. I had attended military school for the two prior years so I did not have a lot of requirements left to graduate high school. I was the fuel guy on the two man team for the 1967 Plymouth Troubleshooting contest. The electrical guy was Bob Patee by the way. I digress. I know a thing or two about fuel systems and Joe asked me to assist after a day at the shop last week on his Caddy. I had some wrenches that he needed in my personal tool box and found this GT business card. I was GT tech support for six plus years. Wipe a bit of grease on the card in honor of it's founder and stuck it under the hood of Joe's car which seemed like a good thing to do at the moment.
Back to Chinese dinner a few nights ago, maybe two nights ago? It is all starting to blur just like the cell photos. Appetizers that evening.
This is not the Chinese dinner. This is Chinese dimsum breakfast the morning following the night after the Chinese dinner. When you drink you should not drive. Sometimes when you drink you should not even walk. Enough on that subject.
Dimsum breakfast the morning following the Chinese dinner. I am not going to blame my cellphone camera for the blurry nature of this shot. THIS IS ACTUALLY WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE from my point of view
Final drink of the evening. Tons of rum. High tech bar with high tech lighting. Very trendy Bonaventure Hotel spot. Jade told me that if your drink has fresh fruit in it then it is actually good for you. Since she paid for the drinks and dinner I had to go along with her thinking to be polite.
Walkin' in L.A.
Walking down 5th in the afternoon.
This is 5th between San Pedro and San Julian streets. The police at Central Division say that San Julian Street between 5th and 7th is the most dangerous and violent street in the USA.
Hard to read the note on the cart here but the bottom line is, some folks know what it is like to be out of work and lose their house. They think that is pretty harsh. It is not as bad as it gets as you can see here. Your house can be little more than a few personal items in a cart and this too can be taken away.
This was from last night, 9/2. Club/Restaurant on Melrose called The Foundry. Seems I did not kill myself earlier in the week so some friends were taking another path to get back at the guy that at twice their age ran them into the ground.
As a side note, on facebook I have a friend in Norway that is a killer guitar player and also owns a guitar store called Vintage Guitar. His name is Arne. He looks like the typical Viking ... tall, blond, in great shape. Ask him what I put him and his friend though last year. You may find it amusing. Arne will be back out here in L.A. for a few days. He and his friends are great sushi folks to hang with.
From last night, not our food but the food of somebody else. This would have killed me as an hour before we ate Italian at Miceli's on Hollywood Blvd for dinner.
Inside joke for Joe Bourdet as one day we ate Artisan crackers in the shop for a while. Not funny? Guess you had to be there.
From last night (9/2/10) in angry Hollywood
I had to ask my friend Brian about this. I don't get it. I must be missing something.
Okay ... so last night I finally broke down and ate dessert but it was shared
Here is a bunch of Celestion H30 speakers at the shop today 9/3
Here are some amps being built - http://www.65amps.com/
There are also a lot of great classic amps over at the shop
Over at the shop today (9/3) at http://www.65amps.com/ there were two major bands that used 65 Amps stuff that needed more cabinets pronto. So, stuff was pulled together so we could take a few shots to email to some folks and they could then say stuff like ... I want "N" or whatever. I uploaded a cell shot to facebook and in the process of this one of the folks out there saw the 4x10 combo cab who is the dealer for 65 Amps in Norway. Throw a Monterey chassis in that 4x10 cab and with the bump off it would be tweed bassman big time. With the bump engaged the sky is the limit.
Hmmm ... in case that sounds familiar he is the Viking from Norway (actually Lars his friend with the long hair is totally Viking and considered one of the top guitarists in Europe) that I mentioned earlier. In regard to Lars look on facebook or google Lars Haavard Haugen to hear a great player. He is also one of the sushi gang when he is here in Los Angeles. For more on Arne (also a great player and sushi madman) and his shop - http://www.vintagegitar.no/
9/3 - looking at empty cabs means looking at speakers.
Lots of prototypes at 65 Amps. Took this shot today 9/3 this morning.
- the end for now -
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this is good stuff! -j.b.
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