This blog has now reached it's end. The American Adventure has finished. Will there be a sequel in the near future? One will never know, but for now let's let the credits roll...

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Holiday Adventure Pt 2 - BEVERLY ADVENTURE

The adventure came in the shape of a rental car, rented by some friends of my roommate. We decided to drive up and around Beverly Hills to see all the 'amazing cribs' as one of them so profoundly mentioned. While I personally found snapping pictures of people's insanely huge and amazing 'cribs' somewhat ridiculous (imagine yourself going around ss19 taking pictures of houses. They'd think you're a terrorist or something. Which is definitely not good in America) I did take a whole load of pictures of some great views and sights around Beverly Hills.

Now Hollywood may not be all it's cracked up to be but Beverly Hills certainly is. It's amazing how some people can afford mansions like those. Unfortunately there will be no mention of mansions here because I don't want to be caught by the FBI or CIA or whatever. Or maybe just one mansion.



The Iconic Beverly Hills sign. Unfortunately that's the best angle I had. Any more and I would be on the road being hit by a truck.






That's just some pics of the view from the top (or almost top) of Beverly Hills. Really gorgeous.
And here's the mansion I promised. This house/mansion/castle is literally sitting on it's own hill. I can only guess who lives here but he/she has got to have money running out the nose.


We stopped several times on the side of the road just to admire the view. And then I saw this.

We parked right under the 'no parking' sign. Fancy that.

And that's Beverly Hills. I don't know how many movie star homes I passed. I'm guessing a ton because clearly there were some houses there that are safer than the pentagon. And more gorgeous.


Stay tuned for the next episode of ...

THE GREAT HOLIDAY ADVENTURE!

COMING SOON - THE BEACH ADVENTURE


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Holiday Adventure Pt 1

I just got back from a 30 mile +++ bike ride from my apartment to the beach, around the beach, and then back to the apartment.

My feet = rosak

I'm not going to update anything yet. I think I'll do that tomorrow. But this is the start of the GREAT HOLIDAY ADVENTURE!

More to come. Stay tuned to this post.

X____X



*UPDATE* UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE *

*UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE * UPDATE*

Part 1 - The Great Barbeque








Pictures : My delicious platter, the 'balcony' next to the rooftop (looks like a prison I know hahaha), the delicious burgers, the delicious sausages, the swedish BBQ brigade, the rest of the food

So what happened was the previous tenant at my apartment left us this BBQ grill and we decided to use it for the holidays. MMMMMmmmmmmmmmMmMMmmmmm.... BBQ on the rooftop next to the Jacuzzi.. how awesome is that.

Nom nom nom..



TO BE CONTINUED




...

...

...

RIGHT NOW!

PART 2 - THE GREAT HIKING ADVENTURE

What happened here was a friend from church invited me to go along with him on his weekly hike up the hills. At 5.45 in the morning. That's probably the earliest I've ever gotten up on a Sunday. Yep - we headed up on a Sunday morning before church.

It was pretty darn worth it though. The city was quiet - which is amazing for Hollywood. Hollywood is noisy almost all through the night and I think 5 in the morning is the only time the activity dies. Amazing.

And the view was fantastic. We got to see an ariel view of LA city all around.






That's what it looks like way up there. I personally love the second and fourth pics. It's like those 'God light rays' that you see in cartoons. Pretty darn awesome. And LA city is so huge that there is no camera shot that I can take that will get the whole city in it. So that's the best I could do.


More to come.

NEXT, ON THE GREAT HOLIDAY ADVENTURE - THE BEVERLY HILLS ADVENTURE! YES YOU HEARD RIGHT! BEVERLY HILLS!

-=OUT=-

-KJ

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Chapter dx/dy - Anjing Panas

So I was thinking of continuing the DUN DUN DUN post just for fun. I thought it built suspense - which it certainly didn't. But it was a cool thing to note that I'm actually a 100% done with my quarter. Now all I have to do is finish my finals and whoopee - I'm 1/6th of the way complete with my awesome drum skillzzzzz (when you add more 'z's it's more cool)

But I had an extremely American adventure just a couple of minutes ago and I decided I needed to post it here. 

Welcome then, to America's answer to the Ramly Burger.

The Street Hot Dog


It's 100% wholesome goodness with a huge beef frank fried in grease until it's crispy on the outside, with a whole ton of onions and peppers deep fried in grease, and topped with crispy bacon fried in grease and smothered in mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise that's fried in grease. Okay, maybe not, but it's so greasy, it wouldn't make any difference. 

And it's delicious.

The power of the combined flavours and the amazing smell of the grease- I mean, sausage, coupled with the fact that I was just on my way home from the practice labs after 4 and a half hours of practice - which seriously makes you hungry - resulted in a very famished me consuming the hot dog with such vigour that my entire face was contorted. 


It looked as if the hot dog was attacking me, but it truth I was attacking it! Ha ha! Touche! En Garde! Whatever else that sounds cool at the end of this sentence!

That's that then. I have officially completed one of my missions on my 'To do list' aka 'THE GREAT AMERICAN ADVENTURE" - eat a street hot dog. 

Next update at the end of the week - finals week is coming 

DUN DUN DUN!!!!

(Sorry, I had to put that in.)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Chapter 1

This is it - the last week of school bef0re the finals. And then 2 weeks of holidays.

This is it.

DUN DUN DUN!

_______***_______***_______
UPDATE     UPDATE    UPDATE
********___********___**********

This is it - the last day of school for the entire quarter. 100% completed with the study bit.

This is it - the final day of school before finals week.

This is it

DOUBLE DUN DUN DUN!!!!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Chapter PQRS - *UPDATED*

I literally just got to the computer from the KODAK THEATRE where I just watched an awesome Jazz concert with MARVIN 'SMITTY' SMITH on DRUMS!

How amazingly awesomely fantastically cool is that?

I promise I'll update with pics the moment I hook up my camera. Stay tuned to this post.

*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*

Ok, I'm gonna update on a couple of stuff.. so hang tight for the great big Kodak Surprise.

Firstly, this last weekend we had a purge of the apartment. Literally every corner of the apartment was cleared and cleaned and thoroughly gone over with all sorts of cloth, soap and suction machines. The end result is a splendidly clean room. 

But also, along the way, we managed to purge the place of a whole lot of uninvited guests. These unfriendlies were giving us hard times every night. So we decided to purge them from the apartment as well. The operation is still underway, but the enemy did sustain many casualties that day. If you are squeamish, the following image is not for you.



I did warn you. That was the main enemy base camp that was eradicated from the kitchen table fortress.

***

As some of you might have seen in my latest practice video, it's a lot of hard work to actually go through each night. Let's be honest, pad practice isn't fun. All the drummer people out there will tell you that. And it makes it worse when your teacher gives you these incredible devastating clubs to use.


These are what my normal sticks look like.

And this is the monster that I use for my pad practice.


Will you look at how much fatter and bigger they are. And they are ridiculously heavy as well. If anyone is interested, go to a drum shop and see if you can find the Pro Mark DC10 sticks. Get a feel for them and you'll know exactly what I mean. Otherwise, take my word for it that I could literally beat you to death with them. 

They should arm the police force with those.

****

As some of you know, the USA has officially declared it summer. The universities are on holiday and most students will be returning home. 

Whoever these Official Summer Declarers are, it's clear they need to be fired. This was the scene that greeted me on the 1st of June - clearly a summer month. A month that you'd take to enjoy the warm air and the beautiful sun and catch some waves at the beach or dip into the pool or just lie in the sun with a pack of cold beer. 

REALITY CHECK!


That's what it looks like in summer. Someone somewhere has screwed up the four season calender here in LA.

It's been cold, windy, cloudy, rainy and pretty much miserable for the past week or so. I mean, I kinda like the rain - when I heard thunder today for the first time I actually grinned and laughed to myself. The people around me must have thought I was an evil scientist waiting for lightning to bring my monster made from several different body parts ... wait.. that sounds familiar. Anyway... Like I was saying, I love the rain. But not when it's 20 degrees celcius outside and the wind howling like... a howling wind. 

GIVE ME BACK MY SUNLIGHT YOU UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! GIVE ME MY SUMMER BACK!

***

And now the update you've all been waiting for. I know it's a lot to get through, but I haven't had the chance to blog in a while, and I've only been twittering (If you don't already know, my twitter is on the sidebar) so I've go a whole lot of stuff to write now.

KODAK THEATRE!!! WOOT!!! 

Ok fine... I wasn't IN the Kodak Theatre. I never said I was did I? I was AT the Kodak Theatre. This took place in the Courtyard of the Kodak Theatre.

Look at that crowd! It was amazing! 

And did you also notice my amazingly awesome BACKSTAGE spot! 

...

Truth be told again, that's not really backstage. I mean, it was just behind the band. Anyone could stand there. 

See.. there's the band and the bunch of MI students hanging out at the back. We weren't watching the show. We were watching the Drummer. XD

And there he is, none other than the great Marvin Smitty Smith. He was awesome. Didn't get to meet him and shake his hand and take a picture this time. He was too busy entertaining all the other famous people that turned up. But I will the next time. When I appear on the Tonight Show.

And a thought occurred to me. He's another great drummer who's incredibly short. And I mean... REALLY short. I wonder what that means.... I need to shrink a couple of inches I suppose.

***

That's it for now folks. Till next time.