Ozzy, Warner Bros, and The Fucking Commerce

On Wednesday we woke up and Jinmoon wanted to go for a hike so we went along with him. He lives near Griffith Park, so we just walked there and started the trek up the "hill" (it was basically a mountain). About 15 minutes in and my calves and shins were on fire. We ended up going on about 5 mile walk, which I'm counting as my leg workout for the trip. After the hike went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, which was just as good, if not better, than the one we went to in Vegas. One thing I've discovered about LA is that the food here is very good, albeit expensive. It's no surprise that we did nothing that night and just relaxed, which was nice for a change.

On Thursday I dragged Nfuego out to see some touristy things in LA. We drove to the Hollywood sign where I got some pretty good pictures. From there we went to see Hollywood Blvd, where the Walk of Fame is (all of the stars with people's names on them). When we were first walking along I didn't know who half of the people were with stars. Nfuego of course knew several of them..."Oh he was Gomer Pyle...she was in the movie blah blah blah...". He's been giving me shit on this whole trip about not knowing much older stuff, such as never hearing of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and not being able to recognize U2 songs. As we were coming back along the other side of Hollywood Blvd. we came across the building where they tape the Jimmy Kimmel show, and a girl asked us if we wanted to attend the taping of the show for free. The main people getting interviewed on the show were the Osbournes, which was surely going to be a treat. We finally got in and it was weird how small the set really is compared to how it looks on tv. The first guy they interviewed was from the show Cupid and I wasn't really interested. Then Ozzy and Sharon came on, and it ended up being a pretty funny interview. My favorite part was when Jimmy asked Ozzy about his biography and Ozzy replied, "Yeah I'm working on one, but the problem is I can't remember anything." The other part of the show that I genuinely burst out in laughter was during Jimmy's monologue, and they show a video of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about destroying guns or something, and he compares it to a scene in Terminator 2. I mean c'mon really, ya'll all elected this guy as your governor? Lol.

After leaving there we drove down Sunset Blvd. and went to Rainbow Bar (no it wasn't a gay bar), a bar where several bands got their start, including Nfuego's beloved group, Guns and Roses. Several of their music videos feature scenes from this bar. After that we went back and slept, only to wake up the next day for another tourist adventure. I wanted to go on the Warner Bros Studio tour, so we left in the afternoon and went there to take the 2 hour tour. We went in small groups of 15 or so and rode around on golf cart limos, and were able to get off in several places and get closer looks at things. I got to see the fire escapes where the upside-down Spiderman kiss took place, the Jumbo Mart and part of the Emergency Room from ER, and the soundstage for a new show called The Mentalist, which I've actually heard a lot about in the poker community because it involves reading people. When was the tour was almost over, we got to go through the museum, which showcased several real movie props and costumes, such as the Joker's purple suit and nurse costume from The Dark Knight, several Matrix costumes and props, and lots of Harry Potter memorabilia. All in all, it was a pretty fun tour and I was satisfied.

We left there and headed to The Commerce because Nfuego wanted to play some live poker. After sitting in traffic for two hours we finally arrived there. I didn't really feel like playing because I'm in the vacation mindset of this trip now, and I really played more live poker in Vegas than I thought I would. Nfuego went to get on a list and I went back to the bar/restaurant to watch the remainder of the NC/Gonzaga and Michigan State/Kansas games. After taking my time I went and got on a list to play 3/5, which has a $200 max buyin. WTF? Everything was so weird here. They take $1 rake even if the hand doesn't see a flop and I think $6 rake each hand that sees a flop. RAAAPPPEEEEE! Especially when you consider there is a thousand poker tables in the freaking place. I get seated at a brand new table and proceeded to get absolutely nothing going because I was completely card dead and didn't even have spots to make any plays. It's kind of hard to when you only start with 40 fucking big blinds. I finally did pick up AQs and iso'd a limper to $20 and got 2 callers, the flop came down ATT with two clubbs so I checked and the button shoved his $96 in. I called and the board came 4d Kc and he flips over A8o. Fuck my life...nice river...chop chop. Luckily Nfuego got up $600 and quit his game, giving me a free pass to end this misery from a game they call poker in California. I instaleft only down $60. I kind of wish I had just went and played Paigow with the hot asian girls...

We're leaving Jinmoon's place today. Next stop: Venice Beach, California.