So I really hope Chris is a committed follower of my blog, merely because I have further guilt to heap on him in regards to this day. I don't think my complaining and stony silences at the time and my successive rants following were enough to punish him for his crimes.
LOL. No, in all seriousness it's rather the contrary. While I'll colour this post with as much criticism as I possibly can for his benefit, I couldn't be more grateful for the semi-native "show you personal" tour guiding Chris so willingly provided me.
Chris is the embodiment of your stereotypical Crazy Pom. Originally a tourist at Banana Bungalow himself, he made himself useful doing some handyman work around the place at one point and wound up landing himself a permanent live-in Jack Of All Trades job. Not exactly a real job, is it? A big part of his role is being at the many parties that take place between the West Hollwyood and Hollywood Boulevard branches. Tough, huh?
You'll never meet a person more full of crap than Chris, but he knows that and is a well-intentioned and generous bloke underneath all his bollocks, so after wanting to strangle him for the better part of a conversation you generally wind up feeling guilty for said desires. i.e. like driving me nuts all night Saturday talking in circles and sulking about nothing then offering to shout me lunch and tour guide me all day Sunday.
I didn't exactly let him repay his debt in the way he might have wished, setting out for the lunch he wanted to shout me, I chose Jack In The Box: Hungry Jack's/Burger King style joint. But I enjoyed it, even if it didn't meet the standards Chris had imagined. It was also a great opportunity to catch up on all the news I'd been completely ignorant of for a week as our table looked out a window that was diagonally opposite the CNN building. While I chowed down on my double burger and curly fries the digital newsreel screens updated me on plane crashes and murders and... yeeeaaah...
I mostly forgot to take photos as we plodded about seeing all of Chris' favourite spots, but it was fantastic nonetheless. Having lived and worked in and daily traversed the roads of Hollywood, Chris is a wealth of information and insight. Having quickly deduced me as a well-rounded geek, we went to dozens of places that satisfied my silly whims: a military store complete with authentic disused war gear and guns, infamous and unknown souvenir stores, several different shoe shops packed to the rafters with unique Chucks... the list goes on.
Visiting his "local" to get all the dirt on the Crazy Pom from Chris' barmaid friend was a valuable stop. It only helped me to heap on the crap.
Right in the thick of the Boulevard's "Hollywood & Vine" Tourist Central area, the bar was nostaglic in its reminders of home. A somewhat Irish and/or English style pub, it was almost eery how "familiar" such a foreign place felt.
Chris wasn't wrong in promising he'd supply me with my favourite destination: The Highlands.
While I'm not typically female in being a super big fan of shopping for the sake of shopping, this place offers more than great stores. I could have browsed the place for hours (and pretty much did) never mind the treasure trove it's surrounded by. It will probably sound ridiculous to most people given the longwinded rants of enthusiasm you've been hearing about this neighbourhood: but The Highlands is literally in the bowels of Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater!
Like, it's right there, tucked in behind with half a dozen escalators leading the way in. Kieran and I had even wondered where the walkways lead to and marvelled at the odd location of a "Build-A-Bear" Workshop being wedged right between two mega-theaters. D'uh, there's an enormous shopping plaza right there folks!
In addition to the four levels of stores and eateries, the place is dotted with little stalls and miscellaneous fun things to look at. I must have tried on twenty-odd pairs of sunglasses and almost bought six diffierent belt buckles for Lachlan. Seriously, America is the Land Of The Cool Geeky Belt Buckle.
My favourite store in The Highlands, and possibly in the world, is Hot Topic. I wanted one of everything. Most [loser] Australian people [like me] probably know of Hot Topic more as an online entertainment merchandise shop.... which is what I'd mostly thought of it as. You can imagine my delight in coming across it and finding it packed to the rafters with every variety of my favourite things. Harry Potter, Twilight, Transformers, Super Mario, music, movies, jeans and more in the shape of shirts, wallets, bags, belts and all kinds of trinkets.
I much admired Chris' patience in standing around while I looked around at every item six times and eventually [poorly] attempted to make a decision as to whether I would or wouldn't buy something and what.
It came down to a Super Mario bag, three different band shirts, a wallet, a Potter shirt and a Transformers tank. The last three being the front contenders. Chris advised that the wallet, while completely impractical, was super cool and that I'd "look hottest" in the tank top. I got the wallet and resolved to procrastinate (oxymoron much?) on the attire.
So anyhow, The Highlands is flippin' awesome.
This photo would be way better if I didn't have my eyes shut, right
My sweet wallet
Chris then lead the way through to his Big Promise: Movie Geek Central.
Chris showed me the main doorway to the Kodak Theatre and the stairs that the stars walk up to enter for the Oscars. Throughout this little tour he also have me an explicit explanation of how they set everything up along the Boulevard for the red carpet and such. Seeing the pylons with the "Best Picture" winners of each year got right into the depths of what a complete obsesso-geek I truly am.
It was all I could do not to totally spaz out (a term I've learned from my campers recently).
Back out onto the street and it was everything from randomly seeing SuperGirl and BatGirl waiting for an elevator and having a photo with Bumblebee, Batman and The [seriously freaky-alike] Joker. Huzzah!
Ali's star is actually mounted up on a wall all on its own
Awkward, these two guys didn't call each other that morning
It was down to Santa Monica Boulevard then and more favourite locals spots guided by Chris. Most importantly, yet another promise: a super cheap shoe warehouse. ($40 Chucks friends!)
I narrowed it down to three pairs of sneakers I felt were both snazzy and camp appropriate, but put off the final decision till another day. Chris made it infinitely clear that I was banned from buying the ones with the pink Nike tick as I'd lose my "cool chick" cred.
Yet more random sightseeing and finally, after much complaining and stinkeyeing on my part, we arrived at the Ultimate Promise: The Rockwalk. Thus, the "musical equivalent of Grauman's".
Apart from being an uber cool music store, Rockwalk has a whole heap of pavement with imprints from stars too! This time it's just hands and it's musicians. A-woooot! I was thinking of you the whoooooole time Nikki!
[Loads more Rockwalk shots in my Flickr!]
I insisted on a 7-Eleven slurpee/"slushee" break on the way back, plus additional complaining and stinkeyeing. I also conked out in my bunk and stood Chris up for our scheduled movie night in the Screening Room. Serves him right.... double serves him right for choosing a crap movie too. I can't remember what it was, but it was terrible and worth mentioning just for a final dig.
It's new digs, Star Dedications and the peak of my enthusiasm in my next post (two letters again: W and B!)
I've taken hits for being the anti-social laptop junkie here at Fuller though, so you can lower your expectations of me even further.
As the lone Australian here, y'all could help me out by sending me some post or something so my sole comfort and contact isn't in cyberspace, y'know. LOL.
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