Edison + Miyazaki + HP, oh my!
That, my friends, is liquid inspiration for all bohemians, ABSINTHE!!
It's been a very busy last few days. I'd like to think of it as my enjoying the last days of summer before I get busy *knocks on wood*
Friday
Last Friday, I met up with a kouhai and a senpai at the locally famous bar, the Edison for Happy Hour. Visiting the Edison itself was a huge trip. The place is this gorgeous underground bar styled in the 1920s fashion. The place is filled to the nooks and crannies with old antiques, and the servers are dolled up like flappers in beaded vintage dresses. The lightbulbs that dangle from the ceiling are the old clear types with curly filaments. As such, the place is dark as hell, or I would've loved to grace you guys with pictures because, really, this place is gorgeous. It's definitely worth a repeat visit, but next time I will make sure to have reservations. Finding a cozy lil' table at this place on a weekend night is nigh impossible.
Fridays are Soup Kitchen days, with happy hour specials harkening back to the Great Depression. The specialty drink is the 401K, appropriately served half empty :p It wasn't my favorite (something like pomegranate juice and bourbon), but I just reason that it's bitter--just like life during a recession. And hey, it was 35 cents (!!), so it's not like I lost anything giving it a try. I also tried absinthe for the first time. Frankly, I didn't like it, but I love the bottle, and they let me keep it! They also pass out free grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, which helped take some of the edge away, lol. There were also sweet potato fries, which were very tasty. Afterward, I made the happy discovery of finding a place in LA that serves okonomiyaki, yey!
Tuesday
The program from the night's event
Miyazaki's trip to the US went from Berkeley, to SD Comic Con, and ended with the Marc Davis Celebration of Animation with Hayao Miyazaki at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. You know. The Oscar people.
Can I just way how beautiful the Samuel Goldwyn theater is? Because it's very lush and posh, just the way you think Hollywood splendor would exist in yesteryears. Though the way the evening was set up, it should've been called John Lassiter (the Pixar guy) presents Miyazaki. Lassiter as the MC and presented his favorite clips from Miyazaki's movies, followed by his asking Miyazaki a few questions. But I wasn't really impressed with him as an MC; he didn't really prepare any questions in advance, so a lot of the questions ended up like: "So, your fascination with planes, what's up with that?" LOL It was just otherwise very cool to see Miyazaki in person, and for $3? Who can really say no to that?
We rounded out the evening with milkshakes at Mel's, which was just a sweet end to a sweet evening :)
Wednesday
Chocolate Frog: a Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie cake with chocolate appendages, pecan eyes, chocolate tongue, and chocolate flies
Yesterday, a senpai and I took a day trip down to OC. Our first stop was at Downtown Disney since she wasn't able to see it last winter when we went to Disneyland. She got to have her ginormous caramel apple and I finally got to see Vault 28, which may be my new favorite store ever :O So much stuff on sale that was just...me!! Why oh why don't I have a job yet???
After, we stopped briefly by the Costa Mesa Kinokuniya, which is probably the largest Kino in SoCal, though not as large as San Jose or NYC. Dinner was at Five Crowns, voted the most authentic British style inn in SoCal. The atmosphere was very charming, and while there we partook in the Harry Potter themed dinner: a 3 course prixe fixe meal that included some pretty delicious shepherd's pie, a chocolate frog dessert, and endless butterbeer and pumpkin juice. The food was tasty, but if I have any complaints, it's that the butterbeer was non-alocholic >( In the words of John Lassiter, what's up with that?
Disney concert hall tonight to watch a really blah charity concert. But at least the venue is spectacular hurr hurr.