Day 11: Last Day LA

THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 10, 2009 (USPDT)

So my final day in Los Angeles isn't exactly an editorial to get too excited about.

Mostly it was a day of getting organised and tying up loose ends. This basically meant: getting some much-needed washing done, making sure I have everything packed, making a list of things I might need, going out and about to get a few things that couldn't wait, hitting a few favourite spots, doule-checking my travel plans to Camp Fuller, triple-checking my flight details, packing my bags in a suitably airport-friendly way... and so on and so forth...

Washing was an adventure in and of itself. I had not yet learned that guests aren't allowed to use the washing machines prior to 3pm as the cleaning staff use them. Bugger. Had to hang about and stalk from afar later in the afternoon as time was creeping up on me and a nervous first-time traveller like me obviously wants to be packed several hours too early.

When I did get around to it later in the day, I felt like I was in a movie using coin slots and the suchlike in a communal area. Heeeheeee.

As far as real events for the day go...

I went back and settled on the white hi-top Nike shoes I mentioned previously and was thrilled to get such a great buy at such a cheap price, US$59 ladies and gentleman!

I picked up bits and pieces around the place and found at least thirty t-shirts I wanted to buy, vowing they'd get another look-in on my return to LA, prior to departing for Oz later in the year.

I swung by the Grauman's-Highlands district again for lunch and general shenanigans. Truly a favourite spot on the planet for me.


One last Hollywood Tourist shot (probably not THE last, let's face it)

I ran into a close friend of Nikki's while in the area:



While waiting for my bus I decided to grab an iced mocha from the McDonald's that always tempts me behind that bus stop. I loved that even the Macca's is Hollywoodified with movie star portraits, signs, lights and other random paraphernalia:





With all that and washing done, multiple checks of my luggage completed and necessary paperwork printed and ready, I booked an airport shuttle for 8am the next morning. All set.

Tony and his buddy Tarwin arrived back from San Francisco bringing with them Tarwin's friend Miki, who's a whole can of awesome. It was settled that we'd skip the hostel party and spend the evening in Santa Monica. Woot! I hadn't yet managed a proper trip to this much-desired spot yet.

A ridiculously long car ride and several silly magnetic word games with Tony later and we were sitting on Santa Monica Beach at twilight. Toooooo nice.

Just to add some colour there was a helicopter doing low circled laps of the water a ways out, which we were left to assume was some kind of search. A rather morbid form of entertainment, for our part, if it was indeed something emergent going on... *tugs at collar*

After a visit to the parking meter, Tarwin had picked up another friend and we were all seated in a flash at a super groovy restaurant in the middle of the main street. The food was great and the ambience even better. I did Karen proud by ordering one of their fancy beers: Leffe, check! I even tried a sip of Miki's weird chocolate beer. Thanks, but no thanks.

We toured down to the stunning Santa Monica Pier from there, a little late to see any of the really good stuff it offers, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I successfully made Tony like me a little less by choosing to drive while the others walked. Parking was a nightmare, Tony pretended he didn't mind.

Meandering about on Santa Monica Pier was a fairly perfect way to spend my final night in LA.

Highlights were the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company shop ("Forrest Gump" Fan For Life!), the enormous flapping fish a guy caught and let flap around on the deck a while and Miki harassing another fisherman until he offered to let her take a turn casting, only to get it caught and tangled and everything else she could possibly do wrong with a fishing rod. Hysterical.




Flappy fish! (You probably had to be there to feel any enthusiasm)

Another ridiculously long drive and some GPS navigation fun and we saw the rest of the night out at the hostel, then it was up at sparrowfart for me and off to the airport.

And y'all know what the next installment will be. Epic, you know it. Epic.

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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).

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Day 8: Pounding [Every Inch Of Hollywood] Pavement

THESE EVENTS TOOK PLACE: June 7, 2009 (USPDT)

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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