the weekend warriors

(pictures coming up soon)

Friday saw me in downtown with my cousin Justin, where we checked and toured 7th and 6th st. We got lost somewhere in Grand, and ended up in the Public Library. It was our "downtown LA" tour day, where we rode the Metro to the city from Long beach (yay!) and took the "scenic route" (a.k.a., got lost) around grand to look for 6th. Lucky for us, nobody tried to mug us (although some homeless guy scared the bejezus out of me my leaping into my path for no reason).

We checked out the APERTURE exhibit happening at the Getty Wing, an extraordinary sight of images taken by well known artists and photographers spanning about 5 decades. It's amazing to see these images, especially theones i only used to read and see through books. I could hardly contain myself when i saw the actual Andy Warhol print --- aww man! This is just so fabulous...

After grabbing a bite from Mcdonalds (compliments of a kid's meal!), we decide to check out the MOCA exhibit --- no Basquiat yet(darn!), but they did have the Byrne Collection , which was around 50 or so works of various artists including Steve McQueen, Andy Warhol and M. Kersels. Fave pieces? Kersels' Pink Constellations, a surreal video series which totally boggled my brain, as well as McQueen's Drumroll --- although the latter reminded me so much of another friend's thesis vid.

We wentback home thru train again, and managed to drop by and check out downtown Long Beach and its interesting array of pop --- from street performers (jazz singer and such) to some petty hip and happening bars along Pine. Too bad we couldn't try out the ferris wheel! Perhaps next time...

+ + +

Saturday was kind, as i went to Downtown LA alone for the first time. Learning from my mistake yesterday, i went down 7th, which took me closer to 6th and Grand. Didn't have a cellphone though, so i had to use the good ole' payfone to get in touch with River. We got to meet up and decided to kill time and chat at the local coffee shop by 7th and Figueroa. Yes, saturdays make downtown LA seem so nice ---less crowds, more streets. and it's kewl to just hang and chill... too bad CBTL was closed though :-P Anyhoo, we caught up on stuff, from living here and reminiscing Manila...it's so cool to talk to River again, and kinda surreal to have this kind of chat in LA --i felt like we were just in Katipunan! :-P Go figure...

Jeff and Onel joined us after "5 minutes" and we decided to check out The Standard for some drinks. Unfortunately, that place was kinda ritzy and well, needed a dress code. So we ditch it, met up with Abie and Harold and proceeded the convoy to Glendale. Once there, we hung out at Chuwy's (tama ba?) to dine and drink. On the ride there, Abie, River and I chat up to catch up, and like me, they were feeling the whole "surreal" vibe ---yes, ladies, we are in LA, we are all together, and we ARE going out! :-D

A pitcher of margarita, a double round of cadillacs, lotsa food and conversation --- pratically elements of a fun night sans the planning! We stayed there drinking and laughing, and it was really great to get to know everybody. We headed over to a nearby convenient store to get some coffee and ended up chillin' at the nearby 711 to see the paraks cruise by. Unfortunately, unlike Manila, LA's nightlife is cut too early by the 2am curfew (what a buzzkill!) Still, it was a pretty fun night, and i'm pretty sure everyone had fun. :-) Kudos to the homeboys --- Onel, Jeff and Harold for showing us a pretty kewl time! :-)