This is LA
I have been doing a good job of spending little money this week. As a result, there has been little excitement in my life so I've been living vicariously through the going-ons of fellow patrons at the hostel.
I spend half my time at the Cotel (I just shower, sleep, work and eat there). Never one to enjoy spending too much time around my owns digs, I've been hanging out at the Venice Beach Hostel (not to be confused with my place - The Cotel). I was introduced to a few people there by Daz and Rick - they had stayed at this hostel when they first arrived in LA.
As I mentioned, I have enjoyed hearing stories from fellow travellers.
The first night at the Cotel I ran into a guy who I thought was crazy. It turns out that he just has Alzehimers - poor guy. Word around the campfire is that he was once a champion bodybuilder and was Arnie's mentor when he first arrived here from Austria. The story had some credibility - while old and a little shaky, he was obviously a bodybuilder. As for the Arnie association, he's always decked out in Schwarzengger apparel. I need to find out his last name so I can Google it.
One of my room mates at the Cotel is Daniel from Sweden. He has been traveling on money he won. He became quite a celebrity in his homeland when he went on, and won, a reality tv program called 'The Bar'. His winning of $130,000 was taxed at 57% by the Swedish government. His net winnings then had to be split with his twin borther (who was also in the show) as they had made a pact that if either won, they would share their winnings.
My British mate, Kevin (or so I learned last night, K Deliscious), almost had to leave the hostel last night as his funds were exhausted. He was going to buy a lottery ticket with his last couple of dollars but then thought he'd have better chances walking across the road to the managaement company he's been in talks with for the last couple of weeks. He was lucky enough to finally find someone in the office. Anyway, they gave Kev some money and next week he goes into a studio to record some tracks so he can take the tapes up to Interscope Records on the 12th for his meeting with the bosses.
But what is most entertaining is a little gem I've come across for all my Mount Gambier peeps. There is an Aussie from the Mornington Penninsuala at the Cotel who was telling me he has a mate who's moved to Mount Gambier for work. His mate is so interested in Mount Gambier culture that he's created a myspace page for the town. You're gonna love it. Oh but not now. It seems I can'tfind the adress. Friggin myspace - its always difficult to find things on there. Anyway, sorry, next time!
Flying to Calgary soon. Happy New Years!
California
California has fantastic weather. It's winter, yet sunny and 19.
The photo in my previous post is a mural I see everyday when I sweep the sidewalk out the front of the Cotel. Jimbo lived on the rooftop and wrote many of the songs for the Doors' debut album.
My days in Venice are coming to an end. I make a point of writing Venice as I have not left the area in close to a week. The furtherest I have been was on my walk to Santa Monica this morning. I wish I had made better use of the city this week but I think it was more important to save my money.
About four hours into the new year I will make my way to the airport for a reasonably priced flight to Calgary. This will conclude my time in the US.
I may have mentioned to some of you that I was interested in taking the train ride from LA to Vancouver and then the bus to Banff. I decided against this as it would be 38 straight hours in a train seat and then another 15 on a bus - something I had always questioned. It is also a financial decision to take the short flight and then the two hour bus ride from Calgary. So I will spend the night of January 1, 2007 in Calgary where I will get my visa at customs and my social security number in the city. I have two weeks booked at the hostel in the small town of Banff and in this time I hope to gain employment.
You may note a lack of comment about my time with Rick and Daz. I do not have any photos and feel that those who are interested will no doubt hear it straight from the horse's mouth (mmmm, horse!). But I will say it was unbelievable. A fantastic time! Great memories for many years to come. My fondest memories, and god there's a few of them, are (in no partiulcar order - and of course these could change at any moment but will do for now):
* Hitting the strip in the Mustang
* Barney's Beanery
* The 7th Veil
* That cool as hell deli in midotwn for breakfast
* Top of Rockefeller Center
* Thinking we were going to get good tickets for Letterman
* Waiting for the ferry at Staten Island
* That 3 pointer to take the Lakers into OT
* Drinks atop Muholland Drive
* In the Flamingo before we headed out
That's right... I have a blog!
Jim Morrison came here in 1965 with little money.
He left a rock god.
Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in 1968 with little english.
He now governs the state.
I pulled in about 2 weeks ago.
I do the 4-7pm cleaning shift at the Cotel.
I will enter this script into my blog at the local library this aftrenoon, but now I scribe it sitting on Venice Beach, CA. The weather has been fatastic and will continue. It is windy now but I am protected from the flying sand as I sit shielded by a lifeguards' tower.
To the north I see mountains and dotted along them Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. To the south is the OC about 15 miles away. Behind me is the boardwalk. At a glance I see a grubby man playing a piano for tips, a black man rolling on skates with an amp strapped to his back and a guitar on his front. There are punk kids skating and a young guy talking to himself. A lady with lips as red as her high heels is wheeling herself in a chair. There's two officers sitting in their black and white - one of which is gazing through a pair of binoculars.
Soon I will head back to the Cotel for my shift. And I will probably once again ponder that time in Mrs Wilson's grade 3 class when we were to write down what we would be doing in the future. I'm not sure if I will smile or shake my head!
Last Days
My posts are looking a bit sad these days without a camera - I almost thought I had it fixed today but not quite. Then I ended up shocking myself with its internal power source - damn near threw me off my chair so I put the kibosh on that little project.
I was hoping to have 150 posts before I left Butler but I have fallen a little short with about 140. As it seems this will be the last post from Butler, I thought I would express my thoughts regarding the past 11 months.
Education and the possibility of adventure were the chief reasons for coming here. While at times I feel a lack of tangiable outcomes from my studies, I am confident that I have made substatial contributions to my skill set, acquired meaningful professional experience and gained much needed direction for future career endeavours. (That reads like a resume. YUK!) It's somewhat harder to evaluate the hedonic outcomes from my time abroad, but I certainly had a lot of enjoyable experiences. I am always pleased when faculty and fellow students note that I'm always involved in something.
Sometimes I feel that I should make a greater effort to forge more meaningful relationships with people. There's no doubt that I know a lot of people here and in return many know me, but I question how much these relationships will contribute to my future wellbeing.
Then there's America. That place I have always found so so so so so so so so intriguing. While its culture is inarguably the most potent of all, I think my fascination has derived from fabrication rather than reality. From now on, I wish to be able to make a clear distinction between the two.
Despite this, there's a piece of granite rock that sits out there on the eastern seaboard that gives me a lot of pleasure. And somehow I think never before more than now. I'm outta here!
Drawing to an End!
It's cold here today: 17F (-8C). Although it didn't snow last night, there's quite a bit of frost lying around this morning.
But while it's cold outside, things are hotting up inside at
Hinkle Fieldhouse (sorry about that corny lead but what else could I do?) Yes, we are number 15 in the entire country! Its fantastic and I'll be sorry to say goodbye to it. Wednesday will be my last game and I think I will not work on the video crew but sit in the Dog Pound and watch as spectator (for the first time). While it is my last game, I am comforted in the fact that I will be able to watch the games on webcast.
I traveled to Bloomington recently to see the
Hoosiers play on their homegrounds at
Assembly Hall. IU basketball is an institution in Indiana and it was great to see a home game.
I spotted a famous IU alumnus, Larry Bird, when I was at a Pacers game recently. My internship gave me some tickets so I walked around to
Conseco once knocking off work. Bird is a big deal in Indiana - I think they preserved the basketball ring from his childhood home. I'm not sure if it still sits at the property in French Lick. Maybe it's in the Smithsonian in Washington.
I'm sitting here during the last day of my internship. I've just finished editing an interview with Nelly Furtado that was shot at Santa Slam over the weekend (I didnt shoot the inerview tho!). If u care for her you can see it at
http://www.radionow931.com/santaslam/video/nelly_interview.aspxRick and Daz are in LA!
I have been doing a good job of spending little money this week. As a result, there has been little excitement in my life so I've been living vicariously through the going-ons of fellow patrons at the hostel.
