Vegas

This weekend I stayed at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas during my first trip to the city. Remember to buy a little sequins dress before you visit Vegas. Then have a blast. I went cowboy instead of sequins. It worked.

My favorite part came when we went to the pool to splash away the 110 degree day. The whole weekend felt like I had fallen onto a playground for adults. We are amazing people, we humans, with great imaginations.

Fires

For those of you wondering, the Los Angeles fires are creating a lot of smoke but mainly not reaching me. I can see the smoke from my office downtown. It's a big billowing cloud in the sky. But unlike my friends in Pasadena, I cannot smell the smoke from my house. I am closer to downtown than the outlying hills. So no worries about my safety. Please do keep the other Californians in your prayers, though.

He Hugged Me.

Last night and tonight John Vanderslice (one of, if not my favorite singers) played in my neighborhood for free. He traveled from San Francisco to Los Angeles to participate in a radio show. As long as he was here, he put on free "gorilla" concerts, as someone in the audience referred to them. Basically he played at a "vinyl" store - a record store - on Tuesday and a different one on Wednesday.

The shows were called "gorilla" concerts by someone in the crowd because, I suppose, they weren't widely advertised or hosted in large venues. The band played with acoustic-like instruments: an orchestra bass and a bass clarinet, to name a few. The audience members varied but many were the same both nights.

Tonight he came up to me and hugged me after the show. This drew a confession out of me. "I want to sell t-shirts at your next show." I blurted. Guess who will be selling shirts at a show in February??

First Class is Free

Tonight I attended my first 30 minutes yoga/ 30 minutes spinning class in the neighborhood. Hey, first class is free. Let me tell you, it was a butt-kicking experience.

The studio is called "YAS," which stands for Yoga for Athletes. The founder is a lawyer turned yoga/fashion lady. Through her YAS studio, she is making Yoga more pertinent to athletes.

I consider myself an athlete, a runner. But tonight I found out the reality: I can barely spin a bicycle and it's tough to put my legs behind my ears in yoga. But because the studio sells those cool skull outfits I talked about yesterday, I cannot give up quite so easily.

Defining Hipster

Today I learned that I'm an Angelino... the name for one who lives in Los Angeles. My neighborhood of Silver Lake is said to be a popular hipster place. Thus, allow me to share some stories from this Angelino searching to find her hipster side.

First, I sought out hipsters at a hip event. I attended my first StorySLAM hosted by an org called The Moth. Basically 10 people from the audience get to tell 5 minute stories and one is deemed the winner by audience judges. This started in NY a while back and is apparently very popular with Angelinos. This event at El Cid took me from a strange looking building on the outside to a beautiful 16th Century Spanish Tavern on the inside. I would have never known about this place had it not been for word of mouth. That's the thing about hipsters - you gotta ask around to know where they go.

Next, I sought out the locations of where the hipsters worked their bodies into their cool hipster shapes. I jogged around visiting local gyms I had found on google. The only full service gym sports a super 1970's vibe, and the people there are so hip. One gal walked out wearing short shorts, tights/leggings, and tall boots. One guy walked in with tattoos working their way up his neck, hugging his face like a turtle neck. Down the street at the local yoga/cycling studio, I noticed a matching sports bra and yoga pants in black and white skulls for sale. There I was, competing with skulls, tattoos, and leggings, wearing my brother's elementary school age faded black tank top with some small holes near the belly button area. I think my outfit could compete with hipster exercise clothes.

But alas, I had to finish my journey learning about hipsters with a treat. At the local Pinkberry frozen yogurt joint, the Mariah Carey song "All I Want For Christmas is You" song blared. Maybe that is the secret to hipsters... keep Christmas in your heart all year long.

This is the newly established Angelino, signing out from this tale of hipsters.