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Jazz Fest and California

So here’s that long post I’ve been meaning to enter. Let’s see how long this takes me, and how many “save and come back later”s.

4:26pm, Monday, May 30.

I almost thought I wasn’t gonna do jazz fest this year, because I hadn’t heard back from my jazz fest live people. Turns out the guy I’ve been going through for the past 5 or whatever years is no longer with the company, and we’ll leave it at that. Finally someone who’s worked with them before got in touch with me at the last minute, got me some people to get in touch with, and all went well. I started out on the blues stage again, and eventually also ended up working a couple of shows on Congo, Acura, and Fais Do Do. As it turns out, there’s someone who works with them…begin gossip here…who, if I understand correctly, went away for a while because he didn’t want to work with the person who’s no longer with the company, and now that that person’s not there, he’s back. Well, apparently over the course of the 10-11 days or so, he ended up working some nerves on a few people. So, on the 2nd to last day, I’m asked how would I feel about taking that position next year… well, it’s a paid position, so it would be pretty sweet. It would involve some organizational skills and also still recording, so that would be great. I was also asked if I can do a live-recording mix…for shows where the cd is sold as soon as the show is over. Um, yeah. I’m not sure if this was solely referring to the small handful of shows that we do that for at the fest, or if it was referring to the other gigs they do elsewhere. It was at least 3am at Snake and Jake’s when that came up, so I’ll have to get some clarification. 😉

The jazz fest pictures are up on photobucket.

Now on to California. Quick note: you can click on any of the following pictures to get a bigger version. I got in around midnight on Friday the 13th. Got my rental car, found my hotel, figured out parking. It was downtown San Francisco, and it was kinda like staying in, or right on the edge of, the french quarter. But I don’t mind because I’m not too picky and will probably sleep through the apocalypse, so $40 a night was a sweet deal for that location. And I even got to hear a dude on a skateboard get hit by a cab! Oh he’s fine, or at least alive…

Saturday and Sunday were really nice, if not a bit cold at night. It was supposed to be raining and gross all weekend, but it held out til Rose got there, of course. Thankfully she did get there at least the day she was supposed to, after all the delays.

So yeah, Sunday. I walked 7.2 miles in thankfully nice weather. I was gonna wuss out if it was too cold and/or raining. But it wasn’t, so I did it, and it was loads of fun. Once again, weather faith won out over weather science.

One of my favorite random attractions? The skateboarding dog.

After the race, I headed to our hotel in Corte Madera and sat in the hot tub for a bit. On the way there, I snapped this photo:

Found out Rose was gonna be late, took a nap, and eventually went to pick her up. Back to the hotel, sleep, wake up Monday morning to go wine tasting. Rose, help me out with the names of the two places we went besides Coppola, which you can see here, in the form of me next to a ship.

Our favorite place we went was the next one. While there, the people to our right were from right around where Rose is in VA, and the people to our left were from Mandeville. Weird. We also liked the shape of the place.

We then went to one more, followed by In and Out burger (YUM), then back to the hotel. We were gonna go to an awesome tiki bar in SF, but the wine took effect and knocked us out for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, again cold and somewhat rainy, took us into San Francisco to do some sight-seeing and grab lunch before beginning the 6 hour drive to LA. We ran across a restaurant called “The Stinking Rose,” which is a garlic-based, or garlic-inspired, or something like that, place.

We got to our hotel, pulled up to the valet, and went inside to check in. Holy swanky, Batman. They had our reservation, but not that it was being paid for, so we straightened that up right away, and went up to our room. We went back downstairs to have a drink at the bar, walked around a tiny bit, and retired for the night. Oh yeah. Paris Hilton was having some kind of party there for the Oxygen Network. Johnny Rockets was having a convention there too.

Wednesday, thankfully, the weather cleared up, and we went to the Getty Museum.

We had lunch, checked it out, spent about 3 or so hours there, then headed back to the hotel, because we were going to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Topher Grace and Adam Corolla were the guests. Christina Perri was the musical guest, but they actually taped her segment the week before.

The next day was practically the reason for the trip: The Hangover Part II premiere. We hung out during the day, took it relatively easy. Went to a mail place to do some work notary stuff for Rose, then went to a vintage clothing shop about a mile away, then headed back toward the hotel. We had lunch at Five 0 Four, as you can guess from the name, a New Orleans type place. Why? Because I can’t pass up andoille sausage. Or New Orleans food. Or Abita. And as far as I’m concerned, they did a pretty good job. I cleaned my plate, which I usually don’t do.

Time to take a break…4:59pm.

Ok. So I took a long break. It’s now Wednesday night at 11:00pm. I’m gonna break this blog into two parts, so you don’t have to read too much at once! There may only be 3.5 days left of the vacation, but they’re action-packed!

I’ll leave you with this cliffhanger:

Up next: The Hangover Part II premiere!

TO BE CONTINUED!!

Last 5 posts by jeff

Fest, Travel

2 Comments to “Jazz Fest and California”

  1. Hey Who is that celeb with Dr. Ken?

    She looks classy!

  2. Ooh, you left off at the best part! 😛 Congrats on the Jazz Fest opportunity!

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