Day 10: From Johnny To Julia

THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 9, 2009 (USPDT)

So many of my Facebook Friends will recall that at this particular time I was agonising over how to spend one of my final nights in LA as I had gotten myself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Rock = Blink182 Rooftop Concert at Jimmy Kimmel Live that I had booked a ticket for days before

Hard Place = Julia Stiles' play "Oleanna"

I had been wanting to go to Jimmy Kimmel Live regardless but had been thrilled when I researched tickets and found he was having one of his rare rooftop specials. With Blink no less, a somewhat legendary band of our era and a band that had somewhat been on hiatus for some time prior to this regrouping. I'm not much of a Blink fan, never really was, but it sounded like a pretty fantastic opportunity. I was really looking forward to it.

But then, somehow I can't remember, I came across "Oleanna". I really can't recall how the play came to my attention, I feel like my sister had something to do with it, but by the time I knew about it my only options to see it were this Tuesday night or the Wednesday night.

As I was leaving Wednesday night open for other plans, I had no choice but to choose one or the other for this night.

Arriving back at my room from WB late on the Monday afternoon, I met my new group of roomies. First I met Lisa, 26, from England who was off to a Summer Camp in Massachusetts she had been working at for several years. Tops! We bonded over camp anticipation and sucky American deoderant. She was also impressed by my knowledge of the Hollywood turf and requested I help her out with some tourism.

Lisa exited to do some washing and minutes later the Aussie Fraser sisters entered. Also off to a Summer Camp on the East Coast, Felicity, Billie and Carissa also contributed some excellent bonding: add Twilight, Harry Potter and general cultish obsessions this time. They also expressed interest in my Hollywood experience.

Lisa returned and all five of us had our own little "Woohoo Camp!" party while making plans to tourist together the next day, as I said, with me at the helm!

The girls weighed in on my difficult choice: useless, it was a dead heat. 2 and 2. It was at this point that you Facebookers would have been casting your votes in response to my posted agony.

Which brings me to the events of this day's post: Tourist Tuesday.

We ate our free continental breakfast together down in the Tiki Garden and tried to convince Lisa to have some vegemite on toast while I made my final decision on how I would spend my Tuesday night: Julia had it.

After having received important votes from key people such as Nikki, Deb and Sister Jen, I opposed the shunning of the Blink fans and rationalised that I'd never have a chance to see Oleanna again, whereas not only would Jimmy and Blink still be there in the future, but I could probably watch it later on YouTube anyhow.

I phoned and booked a ticket with epic enthusiasm then hit the road with Camp Party.

As I had told the girls previously, there would be a movie filming right outside the hostel this day, as per a notice posted by the production on the hostel notice board. I've completely forgotten the name of this b-grade production, but we hung around as long as we possibly could without looking foolish. All we really saw was the catering tent and a heap of equipment, it was too early in the day to see any real action. I'm pretty sure they filmed at the little Thai restaurant though.

Then off to Tourist Central it was!

We strolled down Hollywood Boulevard, stopping in stores and snapping photos aplenty. I showed the girls all my favourite spots and pointed out Kyra's brand spanking new Star.

Eventually we landed in The Highlands block where I pointed out all the best Hands & Feet at Grauman's, bragged about seeing a movie there, showed them the best souvenir shop (where we spent a substantial amount of time obsessing), laughed at the characters dressed up, then headed into The Highlands shopping plaza itself.

One thing I had missed previously, the Star Trek square, I hadn't seen the sweet plaque and the sheer size of it on my other visits:

I was thrilled that my party were as hyped by Johnny Rockets as I was. We agreed to eat lunch there, much to my satisfaction. Choosing what to eat was an adventure in itself. We took ridiculous amounts of ridiculous photos and gratefully accepted silly hats from our waiter. A total hoot all in all!

I was again ecstatic that my company appreciated Hot Topic as much as I did. The girls weighed in again: I purchased the coveted Transformers tank. Sweeeeeet!

Our shopping and touristing was extensive. A totally great day had by all.

Lisa left us to meet a friend and us Aussies crossed the road to Disney's Soda Fountain. I entered with my girls back home close to my heart. In spite of not being much of a Disney enthusiast myself, I had a blast looking at all the merchandise and taking photos to show my Disney Fan girls. I wanted to buy them all three of everything.

I had to leave my party behind at this point and head back to get ready for my much-anticipated Julia play.

Metro.Net didn't fail me, I managed to walk-bus-walk my way to Downtown LA's "Walt Disney Music Center", to the "Mark Taper Forum" specifically.

The plaza encased by the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was a beautiful place to sit and chill while waiting for the show to start:

Watching my budget closely, I gave the fancy al fresco cafe a miss and just grabbed a quick bite from the little snack shop. I sat myself on a pretty little park bench nearby the valet parking and watched all the rich people arrive at the fancy Music Center. I listened to a table of middle-aged women gripe about their overpaid husbands and exhausting lives of parties and cotilions. One of these women was currently facing a terrible difference of opinion with her spouse: to use the seventh bedroom in their brand new custom home as a study or a second guest room. Oh peril!

After the copious amounts of heavy food we'd put away at lunch, my iced tea and apple were not in the least bit disappointing. A detox, I'd go as far as to say. What I wasn't prepared for was for my beverage to karma harassing me. I look down at my glass bottle at one point only to find it shouting at me "For good karma, recycle!".

So abrupt! If I wanted a karma bashing or an environmental lecture I'd have asked, thanks.

The inanimate object redeemed itself with the trivia under the lid though. We all know I love any variety of good fart humour, well, my lid informed me of the origin of the term "Bronx Cheer". A term I'd previously learned from the print on Whoopee Cushions but never truly understood. Love it.

Another highlight of the evening was the saxophone busker. He stood there and played his heart out like there was no tomorrow. I was completely captivated by him. I was thinking of you Deb.

Finally, it was almost showtime. I managed to snap some illegal photos of the stage, a-teehee!

While I will save a specific review of the play for its own post, I wonder if words can describe how absolutely phenomenal this experience was for me and how unbelievably brilliant this performance was. By far a highlight of my entire trip as a whole, I don't doubt.

For now I'll just say: wow, kudos Julia and Bill.

I'll also continue not to hold back the depth of my dorkishness and confess to what a thrill it was to see such a talented celebrity in the flesh. To see her but a number of metres away, doing what she does best.... just, wow. It was a buzz I can't articulate. And that's saying something! LOL.

I decided to go all out with my obsesso-geek tourism and go round to the stage door afterwards. Expecting the typical spectacle of such a thing, I was confounded that nobody was back there waiting. Sure, plenty of you are just thinking "yes, that's because you're a loser Nicole", but I care not. I've done this sort of thing before, I literally cannot believe nobody was interested.

Eventually a teenage guy and his parents joined me and I overheard their conversation about the boy going to school with Bill Pullman's son and that Bill had invited them along during their sons' graduation the night before. Sure enough, Bill came out a short while later and welcomed them inside.

Yep, you're damn right I grabbed an autograph and photo. He was lovely and incredibly warm. Handsome too, for an old fella. Haha.

I asked the lady inside the stage door if Julia would be coming out soon. She said she should be and that she'd let her know she had a visitor. I didn't care at all that I looked like a loser, I was going to get to meet one of my favourite actors.

I literally cannot believe my bad luck: a while later the stage door lady came back out and apologised that Julia must have already left through the side door. She told me that this never happens, Julia often stays around to hang out backstage and that she had only left in a hurry because she had "commitments".

The next part just rubbed salt in the wound, Stage Door Lady told me that Julia never has people wait at the door for her and that she knows Julia would have been thrilled and most definitely would have come out to chat and take a photo. I would have much preferred to hear that Julia always rushes off quickly and that she most likely wouldn't have bothered to come out anyway.

The whole thing was clarified the next day too: Chris told me that he'd seen Julia on the TV on an early morning breakfast show giving an interview about "Oleanna".

What are the odds?! Dang and bollocks. Big, BIG bollocks!

But still, I'm just happy to have had the chance to see such a profound work of art and to have such a great story to tell in the future. Not to mention that Jen is an even bigger fan of Julia than me so I'm glad to give her the experience vicariously through me!

As a sidenote: I am super proud of myself for finding my way around LA. I won't deny that walking around Downtown LA late at night to find my return bus and walking from the bus to the hostel was a wee bit on the freaky side, but I did it... without getting lost or even going for a bumsteer. I have not only conquered public transport, but foreign navigation too!

I couldn't have done it without the sheer luck of a second unit filming crew being on the sidewalk filming pacing shots. Not only did they help point me in the right direction, but one of them was also an Aussie guy that grew up in the Blue Mountains. Small world.

The gathering of cats behind the bus stop was a tad on the freaky side too.

So standby for my next post, dedicated solely to raving about my awesome celebrity theatre expeience and the wonders of Julia Stiles.

P.S. As usual, extra pics in my Flickr for the enthusiasts (of the Disney kind especially).