I actually took the time to throw some iMovie effects for this one. My apologies for not stabilizing the video drive through Topanga Canyon.

Pretty much my day at Epicenter 21 2010

So I went out to Southern California for a week. I have a couple more videos to edit but I'm going to post this one here just to get something out there.

I traveled with a friend o fmine and hung out with a friend of mine who works in Santa Monica with whom we stayed at his townhouse. The air on the pier is just refreshing and amazing. I didn't feel too well when I went out there (maybe I was sick of work) but I felt like a million bucks after being in the sun and heat of Southern California for a week. We then hit the Hollywood Bowl for the Sound of Music Sing along, which apparently is a big event. Honestly we just went to see the venue as it is a legendary art deco historical place and bought tickets off of ticketsnow.com at the last minute. We ended up getting box seats and had a blast.

The next day we went to the Epicenter 2010 concert festival.



I went to see really to see Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, Rise Against and Blink 182. Seeing Blink in SoCal was just a perfect thought. I was a bit disappointed with 30 secs to mars. Jared Leto just rubs me the wrong way as he just seems like an out of control ego manic controlling freak. I came to hear you play, not order everyone around.

Anyway here is the first video.

After the horrendous week I had it was just perfect timing that I was able to get out of dodge and to Vegas. So I went from Saturday until Wednesday and had a descent time. Although I didn't come out ahead, I did have a freaking blast @ Rehab. The pool party on Sunday's at the Hard Rock Hotel, the one that the reality show is filmed on TruTv.

So here are a few pics of the new Paradise Tower room I stayed in.

Me on the bed checking facebook or something.



The Vanity



Shower



View 1



View 2





Even though I posted the following on another site, I'll just repost it over here, but yea I love Rehab, the pool party. I guess I have a bit of frat boy in me or something, but for an event which you can view and make your own opinions of I was pretty impressed by the DJ's and what they were spinning. For instance they were playing Depeche mode and other assorted stuff that I used to hear when the Continental was open 5 years ago. Also a reoccurring theme for me at this event is some chick always tries to get me to save her expensive pair of Dolce & Gabbana or Dior sunglasses as they drop somewhere in the pool, at least the chick that made out with me found hers.

Sun 9/27

We wake up a bit early and place our bets for the Sunday NFL action. After handicapping out bets we head down to grab the breakfast buffet, which though at $20+ dollars was a bit expensive, but to be honest the food was of very good quality with a great selection. Our next move after watching the first half of the games a decent sized TV in the North Tower room was to then check out. We then walked north about two blocks to the downtown transportation center where we still had valid bus passes from yesterday. We then hopped the 108 to the Hard Rock before they expired on 25 minutes. I went to the front desk to check in and my friend stood in a very long bell hop line to check out bags as our room wasn't ready and wouldn't be for a few hours. In the meantime we obtained out Rehab wristbands and hung out at the sports book to catch the 4th quarter of some games. We then went into Rehab and kicked back for a few hours taking in the scene and scenery. After going back in to the sports book to place a wager on the 2nd half of the Bills/Saints game and coming back into the covered bar area in the pool area my cell phone rings and our room is ready, it's about 4PM at this time, we then pull the same delegation of tasks and we're up in our Paradise Tower "mountain view" room. Honestly they should market it as a South Strip view as you do and can see if you turn at an angle everything from Bally's to Encore/Wynn with a straight on view of the Hilton. I was pretty impressed with the new rooms as the gothic wall patterns, pic of a rock star, beds, shower head, amours, and ever the naughty catalog complete with the $7 assorted male contraceptives on top of the min-bar, 40 inch HDTV with 200+ channels and cordless room phone.

So after changing into our swim trunks it was off to the pool, which was the main reason why we choose to spend $350 for a room on a Sunday, Rehab! It was everything that it portrayed on TV, but going there is always a rush. I just enjoyed $7 beers, but my friend indulged in the $22 sports drink cups, which are filled ½ of the way with booze. Needless to say he didn't heed my warning about the dangers of partaking in such consumption and he did feel worse for the wear. I actually was impressed by what the DJ's were spinning and did get my moment in the sun when some chick from Staten Island basically jumped me in the pool ;-) Yea, I don't know what it is with my and chicks from the metro NYC area but it was fun as my buddy shook his head. I basically at the end of the night had a conversation with the bartender Kat who was working the covered area away from the insanity by the DJ's and the main pool. I basically got all of my drinks from her all night and was totally impressed by her grace, poise and charm. She hasn't let the show get to her head at all. Plus she did a phenomenal job of keeping the drinks coming fast and cold all day. So around 8ish I bid my goodbye and ended up walking out with a security guard and we then spoke for about 10-15 minutes about the craziness that is Rehab and how the show affects their job. I worked in a casino for about 4 years so I could definitely emphasize and relate to what they did every Sunday for the summer.

Yea, I can't wait to take off to FLA this week. Not a big deal on the surface since I was there less than 7 weeks ago. It's just that this time I'm heading down there when two events are going on, V-Day on Saturday & the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Plus you have all the Sunshine that should be much warmer this time around.

The weird part is that a part of me as I did mention earlier in some post about "getting out of Dodge" for that weekend. Well I'm glad that I didn't...

Yea, if I knew what was good for me I'd turn off my computer for the next 20 days

Really that was just generated by i initially making contact with someone on some stupid dating site & realizing that it is the sister of my ex's ex-boyfriend, if you can follow that logic.

So in a strange set of circumstances I have ended up making a kind of date with someone down there in FLA off another site I use. She's pretty cool and intelligent but in reality she wants someone to go to the 500 with and as an added bonus she's not into V-Day at all. So working out the logistics should be fun, but with the timing falling into place with me being there at the right time and coming back it should not be too difficult. How could I turn down an opportunity to check out the "Superbowl" of stock car racing?

So I'm grateful for having the time and resources to do this as well as the dumb luck for reading someone's blog that is a "friend" of mine. Other than that I should have some fun in the SRQ as usual, now the 2.5 day wait...

Here are some other pics I took off of RT-15 along the Susquehanna on the drive home.

Well I had to do something to celebrate my birthday. My choices were A. Going to Vegas or B. Going to D.C. Since I went to Sin City in August I decided to hang out with my buddy & his family in Northern Virginia. I left on Thursday after I hooked up with a friend of mine for dinner on Wednesday.

I arrive around dinner and then proceed to chipotle for dinner before my college buddy and I head over to a meeting of his investment club. It was a bit interesting to see how older guys think about the market. Observing their meeting and stock pick was a pretty entertaining evening for myself. The best part is one of the members who did also go to Niagara had 2 extra tickets for the Browns/Redskins game. So we took him up on his offer.

Friday I ended up going to Richmond for the day since I didn't want to hang out at his home while him and his wife were working. If I wanted to watch CNBC I could have do it here. So I explored a city of which I wanted to visit and had a good time. Especially since they still have an independent record store, Plan 9 I ended up sticking around until late evening as I meet up and hit Carytown with a friend of mine. I then went back to go out locally with my buddy in Northern Virginia.
This pic is just to piss off (e:jason) as PBR is placed between Sam's and Stella


my catfish lunch

Just places around Carytown






Plan 9's basement


Friday Night we ended up going to the Capitals/Devils game. He scored tickets off of Cragislist for $25 less than face value. The best part was they were Center Ice 7 rows up! Sadly even their face value of $105 is cheaper than what the Sabres are asking for these days.

Here are some pics @ the Verizon Center






























Then I went to my 3rd current or 4th all time NFL Stadium. After learning that Redskins tickets are hard to come by I felt really good about grabbing them. Our Alumnist friend as a guy that originally lived in North Tonawanda as his tailgate buddy. You can just tell by his setup that he is from Buffalo & serious about his food.





























There is a guy in the tree playing a Sax for tips! He said that he thought the attention would get him more $




This is the police carrying some guy that ran out on the field away.






The sporting events. All I can say is that we didn't plan going to one game let alone making it a double header weekend.

So in honor of my birthday I'm taking off for a long weekend in D.C./NoVa. My original plan was to pass through Pittsburgh just to have lunch at my favorite hamburger stand Fatburger. Well I was unable to verify if the two locations are still open at this time. There was a blurb on their website that the parent company bought back the franchises but nothing if they were open or not, especially since they were not listed on the website or calling the corporate office :-( I did find out that they did have some locations around Cleveland. So the next time I feel like some good grease I may just drive out the Cleveland, especially since they also have my other favorite Waffle House. It's just that I may not find a "Yankee" Waffle House authentic enough for my taste.

So I'm off to take whatever route the GPS takes me on.

With the tip off of the first final 4 game today, the need to post these pics before they become totally outdated became urgent. For the most part they are of the first round and the pre-game of the first round.

On the tip off day of the NCAA Tournament Colin Cowherd had an event @ Clyde's which was basically a real life beer commercial! We heard about the event on his ESPN Radio show & decided to attend. We were starving as we didn't eat breakfast, but low and behold there was free bagels and danishes. Being the college sports fans we were we did need to kick back some adult beverages before the dry NCAA event. When we went to the bar to get something to drink, there was only one selection, Heineken and it was FREE!!! After listening to Colin who in a weird way reminded me of (e:austin) the staff brought out more free food this time descent finger food such chicken wings, ceasar salad and turkey wraps. Oh, and my buddy from college got to look at some Heineken girls as well. The only thing that would have made it a better experience would have been if they were wearing bikini's! Needless to say we hit the jackpot before tip off ;-)

Anyway here are just random pics of the Verizon Center and the surrounding areas. The other pics are from Maryland off of I-70 before the US 15/I-99 split.


















This one was taken from the Waffle House Parking Lot in Frederick MD. I just was stunned by the fake turn of the 20th century lighting. Serioulsy, there is a reason why we have florescent lighting now, it's because it works better! Why does every new/gentrified area need to play the "old fashioned" lighting card?

A couple of weeks ago I ended up going on a mini vacation that was highlighted by attendance at the 1st & 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament. With the conclusion coming this weekend I just felt the need to expedite the process of posting. Given the fact that I've been working OT I've just been too drained to post anything of value.

So here was my stop on Wheeling WV. I didn't go to the "fringes" of the Ohio Valley like another local Lewiston resident although I was attracted to the Gambling It's a pretty nice place. The only knock against it is that it is run by a local company DNC & if anyone has an idea about their corporate culture, it was the only casino I have been to where they CHARGE YOU FOR WATER & SOFT DRINKS! So needless to say I didn't gamble too much there.

So here are a few pics from around town.











For some reason I'm draw to early 70's Office buildings & Victorian's