C'est formidable!

Hey friends—decided it was time for an update, to fill you in and make you jealous of all the incredibly cool things I have been doing. That’s right, another episode of “Me and My Fabulous Life!” Take it awwaaaaayyy…..Rob!

Two weekends ago, Nicole and I attended a jewel-studded musical event known as the Treasure Island Music Festival. And yes, it took place on….Treasure Island!! The most common access route between the East Bay (Berkely, Oakland, Walnut Creek, etc) and the city is the Bay Bridge, which is actually two crazy suspension bridges. Incidentally, from what I understand they are the highest traffic-use bridges in the world, with an average of 300,000 people passing by daily. Anyways, connecting the two bridges is a man-made island called “Treasure Island”. It was first used after the construction of the bridges to house a giant exposition that drew attention to the bridges and America’s engineering genius. Shortly thereafter, it became a naval base and only recently has it been given back to the City, which is in the process of developing the island as super-futuristic, eco friendly condos and living areas. Cool, huh?

Anyways the festival was pretty crazy, relatively small (meaning we could be as close to the stage as we wanted), and a great lineup—we listened to MIA, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, Honeycut, the Gotan Project, and of course Thievery Corporation, who was headlining. There were also some cool new finds—in particular, I recommend Ghostland Observatory, a crazy dancey rock/synths duo from Austin Texas. Those guys were so fun to watch—the lead singer was super-flamey, with hair in two braids, girls jeans and a baby-t, he screamed out the vocals (actually a really good singer!) and strutted all over the stage, hahaha it ridiculous but entertaining. The other band member was, if possible, even stranger. He had a wispy blond mullet straight out of the 80s (not in a cool way, like someone who was being retro-ironic—like he had actually been torn out of the background of a Duran Duran video). His ears were also huge, close to the size of my hand, and you know the expression “slack-jawed”? Perfectly describes this guy, whose mouth seemed permanently half-opened in a dull sort of leer. Anyways, in spite of (or perhaps because of) all this, they played a bomb-ass set with everyone dancing away like crazy, so hahaha yeah check them out. MIA was just ok…Thievery was just as awesome as you are imagining right now. Yeah, that good ;p

I’ve also been down in LA a couple of times over the last week, once for work and then again this weekend to visit Nicole’s family. I went down on Monday to work in the LA office and do a Corporate Orientation type-thing—uneventful except for a few details. First, I stayed in this really cool little boutique hotel in Beverly Hills called the Maison 140, take a look at the website or pic below, as you can see it was really interesting and beautifully decorated.

I also ventured out into the exclusive LA club scene, a place called “Area” which I checked out with some co-workers and friends. Hahaha I can’t even begin to describe the experience—picture an Edmonton club, like in WEM but scaled down a little and decorated better, subtract most of the “A-Z-Ns” and replace with guys in diesel jeans and blazers (damn so stylish!) and girls who universally must show at least 3ft of legs and 30 square inches of cleavage, or risk being denied entry. Add rumors of Justin Timberlake’s imminent arrival, douse with expensive alcohol, and voila, you have this club. Do you guys remember those commercials that store Paradox ran like 6 or 7 years ago showing “the latest Italian fashion”? Like that, but on drugs ;p We also enjoyed table service, which included two bottles of Grey Goose, a blond to pour us drinks, and a price tag of $1500 hahaha. Ah well—in spite of how corny this all was, I had a good time hanging out and getting to know my co-workers, and it was fun to see the madness ;p Remember, the only thing cooler then being on the scene is hating on it, apparently I qualify for both ;p

Finally, Nicole and I drove down to LA this past weekend to celebrate her brother’s birthday—pretty uneventful trip, had some incredible sushi in little Tokyo on Saturday night and checked out a sweet bar with some solid funk and soul music—bboy heaven, it was like the old Friday nights at Backroom Vodka but way more people, bigger venue and extra helpings of James Brown ;p I def thought about my brothers back home and around the world—hope you guys are still controlling the floor.

Anyways I guess that sums it up for now—another week of work, and some time to chill and get my study on for the GREs. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and happy—would love to see some emails or msgs darkening the doorstep of my inbox. Love to my family!

Peace&Progress

R

Chung, if you read this, I'm going to see the Klaxons this weekend. So there.