Bryan Lee O'Malley ([info]destroyerzooey) wrote,
@ 2008-03-26 15:40:00
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Entry tags:appearances, film, travel

Los Angeleees


the sand in Hope's shoe
Originally uploaded by radiomaru
We ended up having a good time (oops?).

Day 1: travel. When we got in (dinnertime), we found out that the casting of Michael Cera had been announced and people were abuzz. Pure coincidence. We had dinner with some of the boys from Oni, who were in town for other stuff, and also with some Hollywood Producer Guys and Mr Edgar Wright. It was loud, but fun, and the food and wine were excellent (Tasca, Eric Gitter's favourite place, I guess - he's our Oni Press Hollywood Producer Guy).

Day 2: we hung out with some friends (Nick and Emily, who are on livejournal but I don't know how to do the name-link thing), and ate at the 101 Coffee Shop. I had the thursday fried chicken special. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of all my food the entire trip. We also visited Michael Bacall (screenwriter to watch) at his awesome house.

Day 3: went to Little Tokyo, ate some cheap/good sushi at Zencu, browsed Kinokuniya and bought a couple things, picked up some Japanese snacks at the market (pancake cookies, green tea meltyblends, mochi, american coffee), shopped at American Apparel, took a meeting, and then went out to a dinner that I can't even begin to explain, so I won't.

Day 4: exhausted already! Went for a swim in the morning. Dropped my phone in the pool (it showed signs of life for a while, but I don't think it's going to make it). Went to Meltdown, made a huge stack of books to buy after the signing. Ate sandwiches at Abbot's Habit (down the street from the comic store and very good). Signed nonstop from roughly 1:30 to 3:30. Sold some art. Bought the pile of books. Went out to dinner with Bacall at a cheapy Mexican place that I won't mention because we got made fun of for going there for the rest of the weekend. Almost went to a movie, then didn't.

Day 5: Had breakfast (poolside! at the Standard!) with Adam and his wife. I dunno about the rest of you, but our experiences with Hollywood Producer Guys have been strangely awesome. All our producers are awesome Ivy League geniuses, not the caricatured dum-dums you might expect. We really like them and would hang out with them any time, even if they weren't Hollywood Producer Guys.

We mostly took it easy the rest of the day - ended up going to the beach with Nick, toodling around the closed mall (easter sunday) and then we finally did go to a movie that night, Drillbit Taylor, which was awful (but we still love Owen Wilson).

Day 6: had lunch with Edgar (the Standard again, but inside this time), went to Universal (exciting! but didn't see any famous people), chatted about movie stuff. Jared (a Yale man, see?) took us around the studio on a golf cart. We got in trouble with security when we tried to drive by the Back to the Future clock tower. Then we dragged him out to dinner at Chosun Galbee, which I'd been waiting for all week, and we had a ridiculous quantity of bulgogi and stuff.

Then we came back!!! The trip back was horrible and Logan Int'l (Boston) is my new pick for "worst major airport ever".

I took down my last two posts - I don't want to sound like I'm being a negative creep about this movie thing. I get easily ticked-off by lazy, ill-informed Internet Opinions (tm), but I'll try to chill.

It's exciting, sometimes fun, generally weird, often confusing. We get to hang out with people like Edgar Wright, which is many a nerd's dream, I'm sure. And we got treated like Important People for a few days, about which I cannot complain.

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[info]studiojfish
2008-03-26 06:48 pm UTC (link)
It sounds like you had a good time in town, which is a major accomplishment in my mind. Los Angeles does hold many an opportunity for fun and laughs, but I find it can also be a big poop. I was having a beach blast the whole time.

I hope I can buy you two a drink in a fine restaurant during Emerald City Con.

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[info]dragoninstall
2008-03-26 06:52 pm UTC (link)
Sounds awesome, a good blend of awful movies and amazing food. Bulgogiiiiiiiiiiii, that's inspiration alone to keep busy making comics non-stop. Inspirational...

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[info]dragoninstall
2008-03-26 06:54 pm UTC (link)
Ahhh- *Movie as in Drillbit lmao... I'm looking forward to the Scott Pilgrim movie for it's sheer existence.

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[info]the_big_mo
2008-03-26 08:14 pm UTC (link)
Glad you guys had fun. L.A. sounds like magic.

And I've spent many hours at Logan. It made me hate airports, rather than just be annoyed by them.

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[info]adg
2008-03-26 09:01 pm UTC (link)
I've never wished to have sand in my shoe so much. *sigh*

your trip sounds like it was pretty stellar though. mmhmm

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[info]jestermotley
2008-03-26 11:15 pm UTC (link)
Good to hear you two had a great trip!

Also, I love the article on Bacall acting out the scenes with props.

I have to say the movie is slowly growing on me, not that I've ever been against it. I just don't react strongly one way or the other to adaptations before they're out usually.

That being said, regardless of how it turns out I will be at my local theater opening night wearing my SP green head t-shirt. Yes, I realize that will kind of make me "that guy" but I've never had the opportunity to be that guy before, and everyone should be him at least once in their life.

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[info]captain_ioga
2008-03-26 11:21 pm UTC (link)
Ach! I totally didn't know you're going to Los Angeles!

If/when you go again, I highly recommend this little sushi bar (Sushi Mac)

Pretty awesome sushi, insanely cheap prices. 2.50 per plate, which can be either a lot or a little depending how fancy you want it.

The biggest crime in Santa Monica was the lack of Donkey Kong in the pier arcade.

Glad the trip was an overall success, and I'm kind of surprised that you had issues at Logan and NOT LAX.

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[info]paulsakoff
2008-03-27 01:05 am UTC (link)
NO PICTURES OF FOOD?! ASHAMED I AM YES.

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I suck at life.
[info]sicilianwhore
2008-03-27 01:08 am UTC (link)
In my defense, I was working 36 hour shifts following KISS around and avoiding Gene Simmons' grabby hands. He's a grabby man.

Glad you got to go to the 101. I dig on the 101, and also Abbot's Habit, though I do prefer Cheebo across the street.

Also, as a Boston native, Logan is, indeed, the worst airport ever. It's been "under construction" since I was five, and not once in the last 25 years have they managed to construct anything but a crummy Cheers rip-off pub for food.

Hooray for Hollywood Producers not being schmucks! We're not all bad.

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IOU 1 Milkshake
[info]sinnottflicks
2008-03-27 03:40 am UTC (link)
I had an awesome time with you guys. Thanks again!

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[info]royalboiler
2008-03-27 05:11 am UTC (link)
I like that Meltdown.
The way you talk about Hollywood producers makes me feel
the same as when you talk about Gantz. I'm unsure if it's good
but glad it's doing good things for you.

Although on some level you might as well be talking about how
nice unicorns are. I've never seen one.

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[info]lazymetaphors
2008-03-27 11:47 am UTC (link)
Logan is possibly the worst PLACE on Earth.

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[info]hughtron
2008-03-27 08:53 pm UTC (link)
If I ever went to Los Angeles I would most likely sing that Decemberists song incessantly and annoy all those around me.

Also, dude, I read most of GANTZ last week (because it's the time of the year when I am supposed to be writing papers or preparing presentations) and man, that is..... some kinda comic. I think my favorite/least favorite part is that 90% of the time the chapter breaks were just picture of BOOBS and GUNS.

The weirdest part was trying to make sense of the aliens that they fought. For a little while I was trying to figure it out as some kind of commentary on manga creators or manga history or something. The robot/bird guys kind of dress like Kazuo Umezu, that weird dinosaur boss is dressed like the One Piece guy, the short aliens all look like Toriyama creations, uh...they fight Buddhas and Tezuka drew that gigantic Buddha series? (okay, a bit of a stretch).

Anyway, that didn't really go anywhere and in the end all I really decided was that the pacing/structure of weekly manga is really messed up.

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[info]doffomoffo
2008-03-31 01:47 am UTC (link)
I'm glad you left L.A. with a good impression, even though i'm in orange county and don't think of L.A. too fondly myself ;)
The producers you met up with make me feel all warm inside because of the fact that not everyone in the industry (which i hope to be involved in in the future) is a douche.

Now I don't know about everyone else, but I would REALLY want to know at which Mexican place you ate :)

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[info]coldest_desert
2008-04-02 11:43 pm UTC (link)
Hey! I can't believe I got a chance to have you sign my books! I went to L.A. for the week and as soon as i got off the airport I headed to Meltdown, pretty awesome store if you ask me. I don't think I've ever met a creator of awesome comics. But anyway, I had like a jillion questions to ask you but I only gathered enough courage to ask you, "Can I get a picture with you?" Then my friend laughed at me and mocked me. Anyway, it was worth it.

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