COACHELLA...

So i am going to do a 3 day update of the music at Coachella then finish up with an overall write up of the Festival... 

COACHELLA...

THE FESTIVAL IS UPON US... 

watch the link for how epically epic this will be!

If y'all interested in my faves heres my top 10 for Coachella below...

Arcade Fire

Mumford and Sons

Bright Eyes

Angus and Julia Stone

Broken Social Scene

The National

Swell Season

Phosphorescent 

Cee Lo Green

Cold War Kids

Santa Monica Dream

* Santa Monica Dream - Angus and Julia Stone - Down the Way

Seriously you should listen to this song its dreamy!

So caught the train to Downtown LA... then Sam told me to catch the big blue bus... not that hard.

But it didnt come and I was eager and so jumped on the 3rd bus I saw that was going to Santa Monica

FAIL!

So basically this bus took me for a 3 hour... (well 2.45) journey through LA! We drove through Hollywood and Beverley Hills and about 50 suburbs in between that physically could not exist...

Finally I arrived at the Beach...

Which wasnt really much of a beach lets be honest...

But it is also the iconic ending of the famous Route 66

On the way... I observed some very very interesting people... lets say Hollywood is a strange place my friends. And the ones who are making it big time... obviously weren't on the bus.

I stopped for a solo Budweiser ... (this was sad)

Then headed back to downtown where I went to this amazing Mexican Street called Olvera St which was a collection of food, shops and people. 

Then caught the Metro back to Pasadena (ive stopped spelling it with 2 ss's) where I went to Target and stoked up on candy (going for the flatmate of the month award 2nd month running)

Then had to negotiate my luggage... seriously i think i might be at the 50kg limit... i didnt even know this was possible. Am going to load up my hand luggage with the heavy stuff shhh dont tell the airline... 

Then... went with Phil who is awesome for Frozen Yoghurt at Pink Berry... mmm frozen yoghurt!

Heading to Coachella tomorrow... which is SUPER EXCITING... such an amazing lineup... 

California Dreaming...

* California Dreaming - The Mammas & The Pappas

So really just been having a dreamy time in Pasadena. Doing the things that Californians do... shopping, movies, drinking beer...

Saw the most INCREDIBLE film today... seriously am highly recommending this one... Of Gods and Men...  this is Living Life.

Peace out y'all!

Sunset Boulevard

* Sunset Boulevard - Andrew Lloyd Webber

Soooo today obviously i went to Sunset strip... where dreams come true... also for the record... Hotel California is not in San Francisco but in Mexico... Ill believe anything though.

Today just another dreamy day in California!

Headed to the Getty... (which is an art museum) (in Bel Air) was awesome this guy Andrew drove us all out... cruising the freeways how you do it here.

The garden for the gallery was just incredible - and the building was on top of a hill overlooking all of LA.

Walked round the gallery for a few hours... quite enjoyed the Monet and Van Gogh... 

I especially liked Monet's Sunrise... The capturing of light in this work is epic! (i love how I have no idea)

Then headed out to Westwood where the UCLA campus is... and got some Diddy Riese seriously this is the most explodable business idea... I am so opening one of these in Auckland. The queue was out of control, out the door and down the road... but the outcome was SO worth it.

Mint Choc Chip between mnm cookies... awww man

Then headed to this middle eastern place for dinner which was SO yum... ate myself till stuffed. Apparently (or so andrew told me but he told me alot of stuff like he showed me his house in Bel Air where he grew up...) they nickname the area Tehrangeles because it is a very Iranian area.

Then headed to Hollywood for a late night cruise... drove the boulevard, as well as through Beverly Hills, saw the play boy mansion and probably heaps of other famous peoples houses... felt like i was in Entourage... cruising with the sounds pumping! 

Do you know the way to San Jose...

* Do you know the way to San Jose - Dionne Warwick - Valley of the Dolls

Basically there are so many signs directing you to San Jose in San Francisco you cant possibly not know the way!

I wasnt going to blog today as it was a pretty boring day... just travelling really.

BUT... in my shuttle on the way to Pasadena... we dropped a guy off at Caltech... which i got excited about because its where Sheldon, Leonard, Wallowitz and Kuthripali work!

Later I found out its actually famous because Einstein went there or something... mhe!

Arrived in LA its a pretty blah looking city or at least the drive from the airport was... has some nice hills!

Also had a epic fail when i tried to check in for the wrong airline... whoops! always read your ticket... where it says American Airlines not United Airlines! got there in the end!

Welcome to the Hotel California...

Hotel California - The Eagles - Hotel California Album

Because today... I saw... THE Hotel California... 

Prepare yourself for a long one because today has been a LONG day!

So I have 1 day in San Fran… so determined to make the most of this I decided to purchase a bus ride thingy which takes me… everywhere!

Headed towards the golden gate bridge - went over the bridge, which was incredibly windy and cold. Stopped at the “vista” point that’s what they call lookout points over here… got the photos. Also was quite excited as was the guide and the New Zealand couple next to me because at this “vista point” they have… pohutukawa trees! Real ones!

Then we headed down to Sausalito which is the rich part of the bay – apparently it is one of the riches areas per capita in the whole of the US and has the highest average house price in the States.

It was amazing though! I could have spent the whole day there as opposed to 20 minutes. It has heaps of galleries and coffee and wine shops. Is just generally “cute” and sophisticated. Is located on the coast and there was this quaint little fishing port. I felt like I was in Portsmouth or somewhere. We also saw the the dock that inspired Otis Redding. (which was going to be my song until…)

We headed back to San Fran and that was the bridge tour. I then hopped on the bus to do the downtown tour. This took us everywhere really… Fishermans Wharf, Ferry Building, City Hall, Union Square, Chinatown, The financial district, Italian district, Lombard Street, Pier 39… basically San Francisco in a nutshell.

I hopped off in Chinatown and walked through the area… was completely different to NYC Chinatown… seemed way more legit! Went to this random place Uncles for lunch and had the best Sweet and Sour since Brunei times… was soooo good and cost me $4.55!

Finished the tour at Pier 39 which was quite a weird place to be honest. Very touristy… so basically they had a massive earthquake early 20^th Century and 2 days after a bunch of sea lions arrived on this pier… this is apparently a very exciting thing to look at (if you haven’t been to Kaikoura) and so around it is this hideous Americany fair ground slash concentration of tourist gift shops… mhe.

I did go to a bakery though where you can buy shaped bread… like lobsters and crabs! was amazing!

I then decided I was going to find the City Lights bookshop… which I had heard about and was interested in going to. So tried to find it because I thought it was in the Fishermans Wharf area… I literally wandered for about an hour then was able to steal the Hilton’s wifi and googled it to find it wasn’t in that area but in Chinatown… so I trekked for about 30 minutes up a massive hill to find this bookshop… but it was so worth it.

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles.

The book shop The City Lights mast head says A Literary Meetingplace since 1953. Ferlinghetti, the guy who opened it (he was a writer/poet) used to say it was as if the public were being invited, in person and in books to participate in that ‘great conversation’ between authors of all ages, ancient and modern.

And I love that!

So basically was in heaven! They had upstairs a poetry room where they had gatherings… oh man I could have actually spent hours there…

Was really bad and totally couldn’t resit a hardcopy of the first print edition of On the Road… heavy luggage or what! But seriously… I was so stoked!

Then popped into the alley way next door where… Dylan did the photo shoot for Blonde on Blonde… and then to Vesuvio which is the bar next door… which was frequented by several beat generation celebrities…

So that was all just a whirlwind of magic!

I then ran back down to Fishermans Wharf to catch the 6’oclock night tour bus… picking up a gelato in the Italian part on the way.

Caught the night tour bus around a different route of the city was cool.

Did you know… That there is this statue in Union sq here where they needed a girl to pose naked for it (see statue below) so this art student did it, and then she became really popular and then ended up marrying the richest man in San Francisco who was 28 years older then her. He was the richest man as he held the monopoly on sugar… and thus the term “sugar daddy” was born!

And then we headed up to Nob Hill where we drove down Stiener street and saw the seven ladies which… the yellow one is the house on Full House… (see previous post)

So really that was my day… I have a mixture of sun burn and wind burn…

See how windy it is!

LA tomorrow!

Have Mercy...

I decided this needed to be a standalone blog post... for those of you who aren't fans... this is Stiener Street the home of... Danny, Djay, Stephanie, Michelle, Uncle Joey, Uncle Jessy, Aunty Rebecca and the twins... Oh YEA!

What a Wonderful World

* What a Wonderful World - Eva Cassidy - Wonderful World Album

5:15 am Alarm goes off

5:17 am Roxie wakes up

5:19 am Roxie gets out of Bed

5:30 am Roxie walks to the “meeting point”

Ok so I had to walk through the army base in pitch black at this time of the morning… and then wait on some random corner hoping that the “bus” would know it was me… problem… there are 4 corners to a crossroads. 2^nd problem… San Fransisco has a lot of homeless people – (apparentley this is illegal in some states! But San Fran offer free meals and showers) which isn’t a problem unless you’re a female waiting alone on a corner at 6am… it was ok though… they just drove their trolley past as I held my breath.

6:00 am the bus picks me up…

And the journey to Yosemite begins.

The trip is 4 hours there and 4 hours back with about 6 hours spent in the national park. The journey there was quite exciting and it was a great way to see a bit more of America. We passed a wind power valley which has over 7500 windmills… it was amazing to see them scattered all over the hills. We then drove through the San Joaquin Valley – this apparently provides approx 50% of all America’s produce… as well as being the home of the Almond producing over 80% of the worlds almonds!

We then stopped in Oakdale – a town of approx 20,000 people that named themselves ‘The Cowboy Capital of the World’ because once a year they have a rodeo… anyways – there was this GIANT supermarket complex (I don’t know how they sustain this) where we stopped to pick up lunch etc… The other thing about Oakdale is that they had like a zillion churches like no kidding I saw at least 20! and that was just the main road. The guide said that he thought there were more seats in the churches then people that populated Oakdale... 


To Yosemite. The park was cool – not quite as spectacular as I expected but still massive and awe inspiring. The park features a giant Sequoia grove (redwood trees for the unlearned) which we couldn’t see as it was too high up and was snowed out. Several giant waterfalls (one is the 4^th highest in the world?) huge granite rock faces as well as an amazing national park filled with wildlife… Black Bears included. The bears were all in hibernation however I did see a couple of deer and a million squirrels.

The rock faces were pretty impressive, apparently it has the largest concentration of granite in the world. The waterfalls only form in the winter/spring as the snow melts but dry up in the summer.

The weather was incredible. I packed a bag with boots, thermals, extra scarfs, hat and jumper… and ended up walking round the park in a tshirt with my jeans rolled up (kiwi). But that golden sun… wao California Baby!

\Probably the best part was our guide... Rick. He was Brazilian and had the most legit accent. He sounded mexican and reminded me of rob schnider maybe? i could just imagine him saying coco loco? He was just generally hilarious and talked and talked and made the funniest jokes and was just "crazy" as he kept telling us. At the end of the tour he said - you will never forget me i will always be a part of your life... genuinely a legend!


Driving home through Oakland... (Full House reference... the one where they think they are going to Oakland and they end up in Auckland New Zealand - this episode holds a special place in my heart!)

We finished off the trip with a view of San Fran at night from the other side of the Bay Bridge...

Shame about the iPhones capacity to take night photos :(

Going to California...

* Going to California - Led Zeppelin

I was super sad to farewell NYC as I think it is my new favourite place ever… (more then Melbourne or London) everything about it inspires me!

Had a bit of a freak out moment in the shuttle when it went to La Guardia (the other airport to JFK which is where I was meant to be going) but… we were just dropping people of on the way… so I did eventually end up at JFK… whew! You can totally imagine me panicing in the shuttle though being like OMG im at the wrong one!

I endured the painful 6 hour flight to San Fran… seriously 6 hours with no meals or inflight entertainment… seriously kills you! I watched an entire season of Entourage… get me in the mood for California.

Jumped in a shuttle to my hostel or should I say Barracks… the shuttle driver was this crazy little chinese man… who talked the whole way at a million miles an hour I had no idea what he was saying but it was a very bizarre trip. He also had the loudest lounge jazz playing in the shuttle was so weird… 

I arrived and it turns out my hostel is actually on an army base… I don’t know how they failed to tell us this on the website, its in like a renovated barracks and is called Fort Mason. Its on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere… (google maps didn’t really show this when I looked it up) but I guess it’s a roof over my head?

I did a quick walk round the block before food where I caught the sun going down over the golden gate bridge… the plus about the location. It also has this reserve around it which is very peaceful and looks over the whole bay.

I was then starving… so went to the hostel’s café… where this little old man sold me some vegetable soup and ravioli for $6… bargain. Was so nice to have home cooked food… ohhh warmed my belly.