graham (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jake82) wrote,@ 2006-10-25 21:51:00 |
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| Current music: | Animal Collective - Winters Love |
the best birthday ever, with 85 pictures
I went home to Davis for a few days last week, to see my mom and my friends before my 19th birthday. I was sick most of the time, but I managed to fit in some quality Monkees-viewing time with Carla and Alexa, a day in San Francisco with my mom, and a photo shoot with Didley Squat, which I'll post in the next couple of days. I was only gone five days, but Rudy and I were already missing each other like mad even before my preliminary six-hour drive had ended. He called me at 2:00 one night, and we talked for an hour in my dark bedroom. He told me all sorts of romantic things, and we talked a lot about the future. How we're going to support each other creatively, spend more time together, leave the couch and make things happen.
"You're the best boyfriend ever," I told him.
"Usually I'd deny that, but after your birthday I think I'll finally be able to agree with you," he said. He'd been planning my birthday for weeks, and I didn't know anything about what we were doing. It was shrouded in mystery-- all I knew was that we'd be going on an adventure. I hadn't asked him for anything, so I had no idea what he was planning. I didn't know what to ask from my mom, either-- the only thing I could think of was a new lens for my Nikon D50, but I opted to ask for an envelope of cash instead, and put it aside for another day.
I returned to L.A. on Sunday night, the night before my birthday. It felt so great to see Rudy again. He took me to The Echo for a pre-birthday surprise, which turned out to be Ariel Pink and Holy Shit playing at the weekly club Part Time Punks, performing sets of Smiths covers. Unfortunately, it turned out that the night had recently become 21+, so we went home empty-handed, after a brief sidewalk encounter with Martiniano of Los Super Elegantes.
I went to bed harboring extreme feelings of curiosity and excitement about my birthday. Rudy had planned an all-day surprise, and I was dying to find out what it was. We woke up around 8:30, and he brought out my present. Wrapped perfectly in the black and white pages of the Weekly World News, I was shocked and amazed to discover Rudy had given me exactly what I wanted-- a 55-200mm lens for my camera! It's a zoom lens, enabling me to take incredible long range photos, stalk celebrities, peer through bathroom windows, and much much more.
The lens, however, was only the first part of my present. For the rest of the day, Rudy took me all around Los Angeles to ten amazing places we'd never been before, and I documented the whole experience with my new toy. The destination of each leg on the trip was kept secret until we got near it, at which point Rudy would hand me a dossier explaining the history and significance behind the place. We started off at the Angeles National Forest in Glendora. After driving up a winding mountain road, we wandered down an isolated path, staying half an hour before hiking back to Rudy's car in the searing October heat. Next, we visited the Watts Towers, an unbelievable sculpture made by one dedicated man with no construction or design experience, using only found materials and his hands to construct the impressive pieces of art.
Our third destination was an abandoned movie theater in East L.A., dating back to the golden age of cinema, decorated with such beautiful baroque sculptures, it seems almost criminal that it's just been empty for two decades. While we could have easily snuck in, we decided to wait until this weekend so we could be more subtle about it under the cover of darkness, rather than hopping a fence in broad daylight on an extremely busy street. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by Rudy's parents' place and watched an episode of "Project Runway" in their TiVo (P.S. Please don't tell me who won! We still have two more episodes to watch!) before heading downtown to see the Bradbury Building, the next destination on our list. It's that building from Blade Runner, if you don't feel like reading the Wikipedia entry. It's also home to the office of Phil Angiledes, a Sprint cell phone store, and a Subway restaurant. An interesting tidbit is: the architect decided to design the building after using a Ouija board to contact his dead brother. His brother told him, "Mark Wyman / take the / Bradbury building / and you will be / successful".
Next we walked through Grand Central Market, where we looked at all sorts of delicious food, but I decided that I wanted Subway after all. We got sandwiches, chips and oatmeal raisin cookies to go and drove to our next destination, Echo Park Lake. We ate in the shade of a palm tree as the afternoon sun slowly lowered in the sky. After our meal, we walked on the path around the lake. There were a copious number of birds of all kind, which I used my new lens to take close up pictures of. At one point, the path was covered in dozens of birds. We walked forward cautiously, until they were all around us. Suddenly, a man down the path from us threw some bread crumbs onto the pavement, prompting all of the birds to go into a frenzy, flapping all around us like in a scene out of Hitchcock. Nearby in the water, a bevy of naked flowers prompted Rudy to tell me about the yearly Lotus Festival, where people come to celebrate these rare and beautiful florae.
The next place Rudy took me was a quiet enclave of Griffith Park, tucked away in the Hollywood Hills near that eponymous city sign. The reason we were there, however, was for something more remarkable than the Hollywood sign-- it was the location of the Bat Cave, from the original Batman T.V. show. It was located in an eerily quiet canyon, with a flock of birds slowly circling overhead. Next, we found ourselves at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the final resting place of the rich and famous. They screen movies there in the summer, on the wall of a mausoleum. We wandered around, stumbling upon a Johnny Ramone cenotaph, the grave of Jayne Mansfield, and an enormous fountain dedicated to Douglas Fairbanks.
As if this all weren't enough, we also stopped by a street in West Hollywood where they filmed the final scene in Halloween. The sun was beginning to go down, and we drove back to the east side on Hollywood Boulevard, passing by the Borat premiere at Grauman's Chinese theater. Just when I thought all the excitement and surprises had ended, we returned home for a surprise party with the girls of Black Diamond, Aaron, Alonso, Zandra, and Bob. Rudy had even gone to my favorite bakery in L.A., the Phoenix Bakery in Chinatown, to get me an incredibly delicious vanilla cake with fresh strawberries in the middle! It was the most amazing birthday I've ever had, and probably ever will have. I can't imagine how it could have been more perfect. It just all goes to show... Rudy really is the best boyfriend in the world ;) Here are (some of) the pictures from October 23rd, 2006, my 19th birthday.
The first picture I took with my new lens. Crazy close! Taken from across the street.
Last of a dying breed.
Heading up a mountain road in the Angeles National Forest.
The most adorable man alive.
Pimped out limousine in Watts.
The Watts Towers.
The former second story balcony on the outside of the abandoned movie theater.
Cell phone tower palm tree. Ceci n'est pas un arbre. You see these hidden all over L.A.
The Bradbury Building.
Grand Central Market.
Echo Park Lake.
Birds flocking past us in a frenzy to get free bread.
These dudes waddled in after everyone had arrived, squaking at the other tiny birds until they cleared away.
Lotus plants.
Rudy in the Batcave.
Requisite cheesy Hollywood sign picture.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Douglas Fairbanks' special pond.
The flag of Kazakhstan.
The incomparable Cherry Jones.
