Los Angeles Part 1

LA started with us arriving Shane's (Kyle's cousin) house in the Los Feliz area of West Hollywood. Shane currently had friends taping a webisode in his living room, so we quickly dropped our bags off and followed Shane on a tour of the area. We found ourselves at a place called "Best FishTacos", and I agree, they were pretty darn good. After we went over a place referred to as "The Pub" where we had a few beers and met up with my friend Jake who works for the Los Angeles Film School and promised us a tour for the next day.

This morning we went into the Hollywood area to do the touristy things. We met up with Kyle's friend Dan and his girlfriend Tania, who are also on a cross-country road trip, only they stated in Florida! We were all hungry so we found Umami Burger. This place was a little on the pricy side at $10 for a burger and $3.50 for fries, but, for $14 they offer a combo meal that includes their Umami burger, fries, and a Nakhon beer from Thailand. The burger was cooked to perfection, they claimed all their burgers are cooked medium rare, but I would more accurately place the temp at medium… just right in my book. The burger comes served with Shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and a little of their homemade ketchup.

Umami Burger is right down the street from the Los Angeles Film School, so we decided to hit there next. I sent Jake a text and in we went. The tour of the school, which is partly the old RCA building, was really cool and much more than I expected. Jake first brought us to the 9th floor for a great view of the city, this floor was also empty so students can create sets when required. We then went to a sound stage that consisted of various rooms created to look like the interior of a nice house, it even had a porch overlooking a giant painted skyline. After, we walked into Elvis' old recording studio, which has now been updated with modern equipment, but still appears as it did when Elvis performed. Finally, Jake showed us the school's THX certified theater in all its 16 speaker glory, the location where Nickelodeon animators made all the episodes of Rugrats and where the first three seasons of The Simpsons were animated. Thanks for the tour Jake!

Next we walked over Grauman's Chinese Theatre to check out the star's shoe & hand prints. It was here

we also got tickets to see a taping of Minute to Win It with Guy Fieri! The taping was at 5:00PM, but we had about 2 1/2 hours to kill, so we decided to drive over to the Getty Museum first. Unfortunately, we didn't know how big this museum was and how much we had to see. It was packed with all kinds of great paintings, photography, and sculptures. We ended up staying until 5:30, missing the taping of Minute to Win It. We'll find another show tomorrow.

Final place we went to tonight was Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) for an improv comedy show entitled Facebook staring Rob Riggle, Rob Hubel, and another comedian who's name escapes me right now. During the show, the comedians pick random people from the audience and have them log-on to their Facebook pages. Once on their Facebook page, the comedians ask questions about various pictures and wall posts after which they create a hilarious improv comedy skit based on the answers given by the audience member. I wish we had something like this near my apartment in Philly, I would go every week! After the show, we were treated to a sneak peak of an episode of the HBO series, Funny or Die, staring one of the comedians and Ben Stiller.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!