Safety Apes, Sundials, and Videotape

I wonder what it would be like to do
a video blog? Kind of boring
probably. I'll try it if enough people
comment on this post in support. If not,
forget it!

As the weekend draws to a close, I
recall my first few days back in the Palisades
as relaxing yet productive, with several gleaming moments of spontaneity and
intrigue to keep it memorable. Friday
night unveiled one of the most interesting coffee-shop experiences of my
life. I traveled with my good friend
Jason and his buddy Ryan to "The Smell," a worn down shell of a club
right in the heart of downtown LA. After
making a right down the alleyway behind the sketchy Latin bar, we were
confronted first by the infamous smell from which the club takes its name, and
second by the tiniest bouncer/doorman I have ever seen. Stepping inside "the smell," we
agreed later, was most comparable to stepping inside a Tim Burton movie. We were there to see The Art of Bleeding, a
performance at group that somehow Jason got on the mailing list for. After an opening act by a drastically gothic
yet soothing solo artist, I had the scruffy guy at the small bar whip me up a
vegetarian burrito and we sat down to see the carnage. The next half-hour of "carnage"
consisted of a robot, an ape, and a puppet sharing a fairly base philosophy
about the human desire to feel "safe," while hooking two practically
naked women up to some machine to test their reactions to stress. It was kind of like a more-twisted Pee-wee's
playhouse (if that can be imagined). You
know how those big creepy characters from Chuck-E-Cheese made you feel as a kid
-- amused and confused on the surface but somehow deeply terrified at the same
time? That was SORT of like this. Anyway, I was amused but felt somewhat used
and unsatisfied by the whole experience. Maybe part of it had to do with the fact that later we find out one of
the women in the play was THIS WOMAN. Whoa. Anyway, the evening
finished with an over-enthusiastic singer/tapdancer singing depressing lyrics
over 1930's big band tunes. I actually
enjoyed that one a lot. It was good to
catch up with Jason and remind myself that I am once again, in LA.

Yesterday was a blast too. Jason and I got to visit the Franciscan Monastery
by Pepperdine before grabbing some pizza. One of the statues there was donated by someone with the last name
Hannon...I'm going to have to check that out. We hid some random key under one of the loose tiles at the monastery
just for fun. We left a cryptic note
with it too to get a rise out of the lucky monk who finds it. We also found a cool sundial...Tempus Fugit? Check it out
=)

Oh, and Meagan and I are finally using Skype, which means tons of cutesy-wootsy talking for free.  Yay!  Till the next....