Hangin' in Hollywood and guess who I run into? One part of the best second unit the NBA has ever seen - Sasha Vujacic (sans headband) of my Los Angeles Lakers. And he just so happens to be THE coolest guy ever.
Yesterday was my mom's birthday. So me and my cousin took her to Camarillo for a day at the outlet shops. It was a nice drive away from the smokey skies that the Sylmar fire brought over to my hood. We all came up on some pretty good items. Then for dinner, I took my mom to my favorite steakhouse - Houston's. Because of my severe cold and cough (as Theraflu likes to call it), I was afraid that I wasn't going to taste any of the food. But that didn't happen, and I enjoyed the best Hawaiian Rib Eye ever.
We had a couple friends in town this weekend - one from NYC and another from Manila. Because their stay was brief, we were only able to hang out for one night. I had a bunch of ideas for our excursion, but I really wanted to focus on the things I love about this city. Two things came to mind: Lakers and food. We succeeded in treating our friends to a real LA night. Then we headed down to our old stomping grounds - restaurant row near USC. My personal favorite is this shack of a restaurant called Chano's. They serve the best carne asada tacos and chili cheese fries money can buy. But for some strange reason they were closed at 9pm. To satisfy our Mexican food craving, we simply headed across the street to La Taquiza for some burritos. After much conversation, we realized that the chairs had been stacked and it was time to go.
A relaxing night has been long overdue for me. I always think that I'm going to have one, but my mind starts racing with all the things I have to do and it never happens. An ideal night would be in front of the television watching one of the many DVDs I've bought for a night like that. It's quite a laundry list of titles, by the way. Last night, I attempted relaxation and realized that I didn't want to watch any of those movies I had. So I went to Second Spin in search of yet another one. I was unsuccessful and ended up buying music instead. Yes, you are seeing R. Kelly's 12 Play album. Blame it on nostalgia. Also picked up were John Legend and Robin Thicke's new ones. I'll admit that I'm a sucker for R&B. Oh and BEP's "Bridging the Gap" also known as tracks pre-Fergie. Second Spin is close to Borders and I've been looking for Swindle's Icon issue since it was released, so I checked up on it. They didn't have it, and thus settled for Juxtapoz. They published an amazing spread on African art - a world that I knew nothing about. They profiled around 20 artists originating from different parts of the continent. Those featured shared a commonality; they struggle with concepts of identity and discovery and use art to portray the battle. Photographs depict the harsh reality of Africa's political and social paradigms, paintings express the imagery of assimilation, oppression, immigration, and the art installations celebrate African culture, from traditional weaving to modern craft making. It was all pretty moving and much better than being a couch potato.
I started early on birthday festivities by enjoying a nice evening with Jason Mraz and my crew. The weather cooperated and the energy was positive (though we did sit in front of people who couldn't shutup).