Armada
how do the Dutch do it, man? how are they so tiny and adorable and awesome?! i do not know.
We went to the Armin Van Buuren show at the Vanguard in Hollywood Saturday night. I don't remember the other two guys that were on before him - they just weren't my speed - but he was the last 3 hours of the night. The last three AMAZING hours of the night. And, now that I'm thinking back, we *have* been to the Vanguard before for a Bassrush event, but it was probably 4+ years ago and they've clearly remodled since then. It's really nice now. Their gigantosaurus steps up to the back patio are still weird and frekish and I don't know *why* you'd do that to drunk & high people, but...that's LA. We deal.
We did rent a hotel room for the night just because we needed a place to get ready, park the car for free (we *thought*. more on that later.), and because we had no idea how tired (or sober) we'd be at 4AM and the thought of driving home...needed to be an option, not a requirement. So we stayed at the Westide Rentals Hollywood Hotel. The hotel itself is fine. I'd totally stay there again...except...they completely and utterly screwed us over with regards to the parking situation. Kermit went in to check in and find out where to park while I waited in the car in the 5-min passenger whatever spot. They told him to "park in the public lot around the corner on Cahuenga."Right. THE public lot.
We had dinner at Sharky's. It's some fresh-mex chain in LA? I don't know. We read about it on TripAdvisor - the poster said it was the safest place in LA because it was where all the cops ate in Hollywood :) We looked, when we went in. No cops! I was disappointed :) On the other hand, their food was really good, some of it organic, all the meat was all natural, and the veggies were really fresh. We went back to the hotel to get ready and headed out around 8:30. We figured, for once, we'd get to an event early, get out tickets and be there from start to finish. Groovetickets is insane. Why on earth would you not open the will-call window until 9:30 when the event *begins* at 9:30? Especially when you have a line wrapping around half of LA that indicated that 95% of the people attending this event are in your will-call line? WTF, yo? I was glad we got there early and were only maybe 20-30 people back in line instead of 1000+.
We did a lot of wandering around. We met some nice people (wut up, Mike with the wife, who was there celebrating his neighbor's gay son's 21st birthday! And wut up, little asian couple who were there celebrating their own 21st birthday! don't worry, Plur ain't goin' nowhere.). Lots of people loved our shirts. We killed a lot of time and i whined about being bored, but eventually it was midnight and the 2nd opening guy was kicking things into a gear i finally enjoyed, so we went inside and spent the rest of the night, moving slowly but surely up to the very front, where Armin signed the back of one of our tickets during a moment of downtime :) heh. That makes the 2nd celebrity to sign the back of something (thanks, Keanu.) at a concert.
Allow me a moment to fangirl and squee at the highest volume possible because, Armin Van Buuren? Totally rules the school. Rocks my socks right off. And has THE single best freaking smile on the face of the planet, I swear to you. THE BEST! You cannot look at that face while he's jumping up and down and grinning like a loon and be unhappy, at all, ever. EVER! So we had three hours of amazing THAT, with great music and the kind of closeness and room to breathe that you never get at the bigger events. Totally ruled. Loved every minute of it. $6 bottles of water, but hey...that's how it goes. Worth every penny, to watch that show!
So when we got out of the concert, Kermit was still wide awake and I was thinking...damn, let's just go back to the hotel, shower and drive home tonight. Screw sleeping for 5 hours and *then* getting up to drive home. So we went to the parking lot to get the car... which was no longer there.
There are, apparently, *two* public lots right around the corner on Cahuenga. We parked in the wrong one. Now, we didn't go back and look for the one we should have parked in, due to the HIGHLY ridiculous amount of asshattery that occured later, but we definitely didn't see the sign for it...so, while we were at the event (probably standing around being reeeeeally bored by progressive), they towed my car.
Man, walking up to where you parked and *not* finding you car is the freakiest feeling. Lordy. But I told myself, no, don't freak out, maybe it's been towed. We had left our cell phones in the room on the way to the lot and we had no pen/paper (which i always keep in the car!), so we tried our best to just remember the number while walking back to the hotel. It's about 4:30AM now. When we got back, we called them and the dude on the other end related his tale of woe.
The guy at the parking lot we *did* park in, called the hotel. Twice. The man who answered the phone told him that there were no guests staying in the hotel with cars AT ALL. This is the same man who, 5 hours earlier, had given us a damn parking permit and told us to park around the corner. HAD THIS MAN SAID YES, we would have been given an opportunity to move the car before it was towed. But he did not. I tried to explain tot he parking dude that, we were, in fact, guests at this hotel - sitting in the room, calling you from it, right now! - and that that we did, in fact, have a car. He told us there was nothing he could do, he called the hotel and we should speak to them. Speak to the hotel? The hotel is effin' asleep, dude. it's 4:30am. Kermit did try knocking on the manager's door a few times and calling the after-hours number that was posted, but, predictably, they did not answer and the number went straight to voicemail. What's the good of having an after-hours number that no one answers? I do not know.
So we called the towing company. They have my car. They don't care if it was an error, and besides that, it's the early ass crack of dawn on Easter Sunday. If there were a dispute to be had, it'd have to wait until Monday anyway, at which point we'd owe them twice as much money, have to pay for another night at the hotel and miss work. We called both the parking place and the towing company back at least two more times to ask more questions and explain the situation, but, truly, they did not care. So, at 6:30am, still unslept, unshowered and car-less, we called a taxi company to take us the friggin 6 miles that they had towed the car (this is ridiculously far, in LA), argued with the towing company over using our debit cards as credit cards (because they are clueless and cannot work their own machinery) & paid them far too much money.
Then the guy told us to go to the gate outside, he'd open it up and we could get our car out. So we stood there and waited like good little children. And in the 7 hours since they'd towed it, they'd towed 2 other cars that were now in front of it, so they had to get their tow trucks and move each of those cars out of the way...blah blah dee freakin dah... Kermit pointed out that, at least we get to see the sunrise. I told him that sunrise could shove it and that LA was dead to me now. We had a conversation a long time ago about how the only proper way to see a sunrise is when you're still up from the night before. If you have to get up early to see it, you're doing it wrong. This fiasco is another wrong way, i wager. Sunrises should inspire awe, not grumbling and the disowning of cities. Finally, at like, 7am...we got in the car and left. Kermit was, miraculously, still awake enough to drive us all the way back home and gracious enough to let me sleep for an hour and a half. I think he's becoming the pilot again. wee :)
While looking online for the location of this towing company, I had run across MULTIPLE accounts of people being maliciously overcharged by them. Apparently, in LA county, a towing company is only allowed to charge what the LAPD would charge if they had towed your car. That going rate, right now, is $107. I think they're also allowed to add one day's storage fees onto that, so $130-140 should be the max you're charged. They made us pay $250. The retarded thing is, the freaking towing company has this info posted RIGHT THERE ON THE DAMN WALL outside the window where you pay, and yet they still wrote down $170 for the towing fee plus the extra storage fee and an after-hours fee, that i can only assume applied because it was the weekend and a holiday or something. I'm not sure if they're allowed to do that...either way...grossly overcharged by a minimum of $50. Every account that I ran across said they had taken the company to small claims court and won, so we're looking into that now, with the help my my amazing dad who understands all this stuff much better than I do.
In a way, thank god we didn't know because we would have had to leave the event and we would have missed an incredible good time. In another way, I am now out $250 goddamn dollars to a completely crooked towing company because of the stupid hotel's mistake. And my green jacket, which I lost at the event...I am also blaming on them, just for good measure :) Stupid hotel.
So now I get to start the search for another lime green jacket (I gave it to Kermit to drape over his little messenger bag type thing...turns out we should have tied it on there, what with all the people pushing past and dancing like wild monkeys) and my first civil suit. Go, America!
We went to the Armin Van Buuren show at the Vanguard in Hollywood Saturday night. I don't remember the other two guys that were on before him - they just weren't my speed - but he was the last 3 hours of the night. The last three AMAZING hours of the night. And, now that I'm thinking back, we *have* been to the Vanguard before for a Bassrush event, but it was probably 4+ years ago and they've clearly remodled since then. It's really nice now. Their gigantosaurus steps up to the back patio are still weird and frekish and I don't know *why* you'd do that to drunk & high people, but...that's LA. We deal.
We did rent a hotel room for the night just because we needed a place to get ready, park the car for free (we *thought*. more on that later.), and because we had no idea how tired (or sober) we'd be at 4AM and the thought of driving home...needed to be an option, not a requirement. So we stayed at the Westide Rentals Hollywood Hotel. The hotel itself is fine. I'd totally stay there again...except...they completely and utterly screwed us over with regards to the parking situation. Kermit went in to check in and find out where to park while I waited in the car in the 5-min passenger whatever spot. They told him to "park in the public lot around the corner on Cahuenga."Right. THE public lot.
We had dinner at Sharky's. It's some fresh-mex chain in LA? I don't know. We read about it on TripAdvisor - the poster said it was the safest place in LA because it was where all the cops ate in Hollywood :) We looked, when we went in. No cops! I was disappointed :) On the other hand, their food was really good, some of it organic, all the meat was all natural, and the veggies were really fresh. We went back to the hotel to get ready and headed out around 8:30. We figured, for once, we'd get to an event early, get out tickets and be there from start to finish. Groovetickets is insane. Why on earth would you not open the will-call window until 9:30 when the event *begins* at 9:30? Especially when you have a line wrapping around half of LA that indicated that 95% of the people attending this event are in your will-call line? WTF, yo? I was glad we got there early and were only maybe 20-30 people back in line instead of 1000+.
We did a lot of wandering around. We met some nice people (wut up, Mike with the wife, who was there celebrating his neighbor's gay son's 21st birthday! And wut up, little asian couple who were there celebrating their own 21st birthday! don't worry, Plur ain't goin' nowhere.). Lots of people loved our shirts. We killed a lot of time and i whined about being bored, but eventually it was midnight and the 2nd opening guy was kicking things into a gear i finally enjoyed, so we went inside and spent the rest of the night, moving slowly but surely up to the very front, where Armin signed the back of one of our tickets during a moment of downtime :) heh. That makes the 2nd celebrity to sign the back of something (thanks, Keanu.) at a concert.
Allow me a moment to fangirl and squee at the highest volume possible because, Armin Van Buuren? Totally rules the school. Rocks my socks right off. And has THE single best freaking smile on the face of the planet, I swear to you. THE BEST! You cannot look at that face while he's jumping up and down and grinning like a loon and be unhappy, at all, ever. EVER! So we had three hours of amazing THAT, with great music and the kind of closeness and room to breathe that you never get at the bigger events. Totally ruled. Loved every minute of it. $6 bottles of water, but hey...that's how it goes. Worth every penny, to watch that show!
So when we got out of the concert, Kermit was still wide awake and I was thinking...damn, let's just go back to the hotel, shower and drive home tonight. Screw sleeping for 5 hours and *then* getting up to drive home. So we went to the parking lot to get the car... which was no longer there.
There are, apparently, *two* public lots right around the corner on Cahuenga. We parked in the wrong one. Now, we didn't go back and look for the one we should have parked in, due to the HIGHLY ridiculous amount of asshattery that occured later, but we definitely didn't see the sign for it...so, while we were at the event (probably standing around being reeeeeally bored by progressive), they towed my car.
Man, walking up to where you parked and *not* finding you car is the freakiest feeling. Lordy. But I told myself, no, don't freak out, maybe it's been towed. We had left our cell phones in the room on the way to the lot and we had no pen/paper (which i always keep in the car!), so we tried our best to just remember the number while walking back to the hotel. It's about 4:30AM now. When we got back, we called them and the dude on the other end related his tale of woe.
The guy at the parking lot we *did* park in, called the hotel. Twice. The man who answered the phone told him that there were no guests staying in the hotel with cars AT ALL. This is the same man who, 5 hours earlier, had given us a damn parking permit and told us to park around the corner. HAD THIS MAN SAID YES, we would have been given an opportunity to move the car before it was towed. But he did not. I tried to explain tot he parking dude that, we were, in fact, guests at this hotel - sitting in the room, calling you from it, right now! - and that that we did, in fact, have a car. He told us there was nothing he could do, he called the hotel and we should speak to them. Speak to the hotel? The hotel is effin' asleep, dude. it's 4:30am. Kermit did try knocking on the manager's door a few times and calling the after-hours number that was posted, but, predictably, they did not answer and the number went straight to voicemail. What's the good of having an after-hours number that no one answers? I do not know.
So we called the towing company. They have my car. They don't care if it was an error, and besides that, it's the early ass crack of dawn on Easter Sunday. If there were a dispute to be had, it'd have to wait until Monday anyway, at which point we'd owe them twice as much money, have to pay for another night at the hotel and miss work. We called both the parking place and the towing company back at least two more times to ask more questions and explain the situation, but, truly, they did not care. So, at 6:30am, still unslept, unshowered and car-less, we called a taxi company to take us the friggin 6 miles that they had towed the car (this is ridiculously far, in LA), argued with the towing company over using our debit cards as credit cards (because they are clueless and cannot work their own machinery) & paid them far too much money.
Then the guy told us to go to the gate outside, he'd open it up and we could get our car out. So we stood there and waited like good little children. And in the 7 hours since they'd towed it, they'd towed 2 other cars that were now in front of it, so they had to get their tow trucks and move each of those cars out of the way...blah blah dee freakin dah... Kermit pointed out that, at least we get to see the sunrise. I told him that sunrise could shove it and that LA was dead to me now. We had a conversation a long time ago about how the only proper way to see a sunrise is when you're still up from the night before. If you have to get up early to see it, you're doing it wrong. This fiasco is another wrong way, i wager. Sunrises should inspire awe, not grumbling and the disowning of cities. Finally, at like, 7am...we got in the car and left. Kermit was, miraculously, still awake enough to drive us all the way back home and gracious enough to let me sleep for an hour and a half. I think he's becoming the pilot again. wee :)
While looking online for the location of this towing company, I had run across MULTIPLE accounts of people being maliciously overcharged by them. Apparently, in LA county, a towing company is only allowed to charge what the LAPD would charge if they had towed your car. That going rate, right now, is $107. I think they're also allowed to add one day's storage fees onto that, so $130-140 should be the max you're charged. They made us pay $250. The retarded thing is, the freaking towing company has this info posted RIGHT THERE ON THE DAMN WALL outside the window where you pay, and yet they still wrote down $170 for the towing fee plus the extra storage fee and an after-hours fee, that i can only assume applied because it was the weekend and a holiday or something. I'm not sure if they're allowed to do that...either way...grossly overcharged by a minimum of $50. Every account that I ran across said they had taken the company to small claims court and won, so we're looking into that now, with the help my my amazing dad who understands all this stuff much better than I do.
In a way, thank god we didn't know because we would have had to leave the event and we would have missed an incredible good time. In another way, I am now out $250 goddamn dollars to a completely crooked towing company because of the stupid hotel's mistake. And my green jacket, which I lost at the event...I am also blaming on them, just for good measure :) Stupid hotel.
So now I get to start the search for another lime green jacket (I gave it to Kermit to drape over his little messenger bag type thing...turns out we should have tied it on there, what with all the people pushing past and dancing like wild monkeys) and my first civil suit. Go, America!