OUT AND ABOUT

OR, "WHY I LOVE LOS ANGELES THIS WEEKEND"

K and I had hoped to attend a party in honor of the "Y: The Last Man" comic books at Meltdown Comics on Friday evening, but realized our chances of getting in were close to nil. We were a bit disappointed because, in addition to the authors Brian Vaughn and Pia Guerra being in attendance, the keynote speaker was Joss Whedon, of Buffy and Angel fame. I love Joss Whedon. Really. I do. Even more than Lukas Haas. But we had no tickets and couldn't wait in line all day for a chance "standing room only" ticket (damn those jobs!), so we decided to throw in the towel and just meet up for drinks later on.

My brother, Jeff arrived in town on Friday night, and I decided to show him the town. We went to Elf Cafe in my lovely neighborhood, Echo Park, and had the most fabulous vegetarian meal you can imagine. Everything was delicious, especially the saffron pudding with orange-blossom syrup and pistachios:



We then went to meet up with K, Mr. N, and some other folks at Coach & Horses in Hollywood. Jeff and I got in with no problems, but about five minutes after we arrived, I got a call from K saying she was stuck outside because there was a line to get in. K and Mr. N had never seen a line at C&H, and they are regulars, so this was a very strange ocurrence. I poked my head outside to pow-wow with them, and K pointed out that Brian Vaughn was standing about five feet from us. Well, that's weird, we think. He must have come here after the party. I headed back inside, and soon got a text from K that read:

Dude! Joss Whedon is out here!

Then, as if on cue, Brian Vaughn and Joss Whedon enter the bar. I was giddy. My brother found this amusing. Not much later, K and Mr. N were allowed in, and we discussed the strange serendipity of the situation. Then Joss Whedon walked by and I gathered all my courage and asked for a photo with him. He was very nice about it! I would post it on here, but I am vain and I think I look less-than-awesome in the photo, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.

We played some touchy porn and successfully got the jukebox to play our songs before closing time. It was great. Then we went home and slept.

The next day, I met my friend Steve at Intelligentsia in Silverlake. They have the best lattes in L.A., and you can quote me on that. Just look:



I lent him my sewing machine and we talked about his website and people who have lame boyfriends. Then, I took Jeff to Scoops, where we had the following flavors of ice cream: earl grey and lemongrass; brie and artichoke; and olive oil and vanilla sea salt. It was delicious. Walking around with our ice cream, Jeff and I discovered this cool mural off Melrose:



Back at home, I cut Jeff's hair on my patio. Did I mention that it was about 80 degrees in L.A. this weekend? It was ridiculously gorgeous.

With newly-short hair, Jeff and I went to meet Amanda at the Chinese New Year Celebration in Chinatown. And, yes, I did at some point say, "forget it, Jeff, it's Chinatown." I was the only one who thought it was funny. We arrived in time to catch the end of the parade where they set off more firecrackers than you've ever seen in your life all at once. Apparently dragons like firecrackers, observe:



We were getting pelted with the exploded casings and it was louder than a jet engine, but it was good times. Then Jeff and Amanda went into the bouncy castle and realized they were too old when they were tired after a mere five minutes of jumping. Then we saw some cool Chinese acrobats. Then we left to walk back to Amanda's car.

Walking through downtown L.A., I came across this one-stop shop for all your marital needs:



There were actually people in there with wedding dresses on, waiting to walk down the aisle. I didn't see any couples preparing for divorce, but Amanda suggested they should walk backwards down the aisle to make it official.

Jeff popped in to a Ritmo Latino store to look for some music and I found the Bill Clinton book, seemingly miscategorized:



Or was it?

Then we went to the Universal Citywalk, 'cause as an NBC employee I could a) park for free in my work garage and b) get discounts at all kinds of restaurants and bars. We ate, saw Juno, then went home and slept.

It was one of those weekends that reminds me why I love Los Angeles so much. There's a never-ending supply of stuff to do, places to go, and people to see. All that and it's 80 degrees in February.