Depeche Mode - live at Staples Center

September 29, 2013.  My second depeche mode show in a week after seeing them a couple of days earlier in Chula Vista.

I got downtown early enough to look for Seven Grand.  I had heard that this bar serves a proper Mint Julep, my favorite cocktail.  After a bit of walking around, I found the bar's upstairs entrance.  I had gotten there a bit early and had to wait for it to open.  I was happy to see it was prepared in a metal cup and packed with ice.  However, the cup was a bit small compared to the last one I had had and it left me disappointment. 

I walked over to Staples Center and checked out the merchandise table.  I bought a really nice and comfortable hoodie, but you could barely tell it was branded.  What I really like about the hoodie is that the pockets are really deep.  My keys or phone never fall out.

I went to find my seats and was pleased to find that two rows in front of me were empty.  For a short person like myself, I was in heaven.  No shoulders to look over or heads in the way.


Here's some videos from the show recorded with my Nokia 808 Pureview.


Walking In My Shoes


Precious


Behind the Wheel


Sooth My Soul


A Pain That I'm Used To


Enjoy the Silence


Just Can't Get Enough

This last video is interesting.  One of the band members fucked up and they had to start the song over.

Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Lumia 925- View of LA City Hall from the lobby at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

It's been so long since my last concert, I forgot to take any pictures.  There was a rule not to take pictures anyway, so there's not much I can post.


Nokia 808 -Kraftwerk goodies

So anyway, my first concert of the year was seeing the German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Late last year, they announced they would be playing each of their albums in their entirety.  I signed up for a mailing list in order to get tickets.  On a whim, I picked The Man-Machine.  I had forgotten to check my calendar and got lucky as a friend got me tickets for The Book of Mormon the next night.

This was my first visit to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It is conveniently located off the Hollywood Freeway.  If the show hadn't run so late, I would have taken the subway.  I bought a shirt and received my 3D glasses as I found my way to my seat.  Kraftwerk started at roughly 10:35.  I was surprised by all the late comers.  I think too many people in LA were used to bands starting late. 

The show was amazing.  Kraftwerk were stationed behind 4 platforms.  They were wearing black unitards and helmets with white grids like something out of Tron.  They stood there playing music on their knobs and keyboards without much motion.  The real show was up on the screen.  Kraftwerk's simplistic beats were often matched with simplistic video.  Some songs looked like animation from the early 80s, others from the early 90s.  What made the videos awesome was the 3D.  A few songs had lyrics on screen that looked great in 3D.  The second song, Spacelab, featured flybys of a space station before a UFO descended on Los Angeles and onto the Walt Disney Concert Hall itself. At the end of the show, each member did a solo, took a bow and left the stage. 

Normally, I would shoot video or take pictures, but I followed the rules since I didn't want to be disturbed by an usher.  Turns out I would be distracted anyway.  A girl in front of me recorded a lot of the show on her iPhone.  I kept wondering why.  The show was in 3D and it the video only filled up half the screen.  So futile.

Two night photos of Los Angeles City Hall

I was downtown last Saturday and saw City Hall lit up in blue, so I took a couple of  photos with my Nokia 808 Pureview


This first photo was done in 8 megapixel using Pureview.


This second photo was done in 38 megapixels full resolution.

December in Photos

N8 | Moon and Jupiter


N8 | Griffith Observatory at night


N8 | Sunrise over Los Angeles


N8 | Scott Pilgrim marquee at the New Beverly Cinema


N8 | deadmau5 at the Hollywood Palladium


N8 | Penn Ward with the Doorknockers


N8 | Los Angeles Sister Cities


N8 | Christmas Tree in Little Tokyo


N8 | Battle Royale Cosplay at the Silent Movie Theater

LA Auto Show: Aston Martin

N8 | Too bad they don't let you in.

Jupiter over Los Angeles

N8 | Night shot from the terrace at Griffith Observatory

Rally to Restore Sanity - Los Angeles

N8 | Like a Boss

The weather was great. I had a bacon wrapped hotdog. Fun times!

More photos here

Pillow Fight 2010

Here's a collection of media from this year's Pillow Fight. The event took place April 3, 2010 at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.



The above is a slideshow of pictures I took with my Nokia N82. I love taking pictures with it. The d-pad makes it easier to switch from auto to sport mode. At one point, someone knocked my N82 out of my hands and it lost the memory card holder while the battery cover was damaged. That didn't stop me from taking more pictures.



I used my Nokia N97 for the videos seen above. I left it in video capture mode since the Symbian camera UI for touch is slow to manipulate.

With a Nokia camera phone in each pocket, I was able to capture a lot of great moments.

Bacon and ice cream never tasted so good!

20100403973, originally uploaded by Al Pavangkanan.

Last Saturday I visited the Coolhaus ice cream truck at Meltdown comics in Hollywood.

Coolhaus lets you make your own sandwich. You can pick your own cookie and ice cream combo.

I had Brown Sugar ice cream with Candied (chopped) Bacon. It was amazing! Even the wrapper was edible, since it was made with rice paper.

Santa Con 2009

Santa Con 2009 took place on December 12.

I was supposed to be in Chinatown for lunch, but I was very late. You can't go to Santa Con without drinking like Santa, so I went to BevMo in search of a flask and some whiskey. After browsing around aimlessly, I asked a guy working there for help and he showed me a cheap plastic flask and a nice flask that cost $25. He then remembered about some gift sets and showed me a couple. First was a brandy gift set, which was around $25. There were also some whiskey gift sets. I went with a Jack Daniels gift set for $30 that consisted of a nice black flask and a huge bottle of whiskey.

I made my way to the Sepulveda Orange Line Station. I opened up my gift set and thought that I'm probably going to make a mess without a funnel. Luckily the bottle's opening was designed to match the flask's mouth, so there was very little spillage. I made my way to the ticket dispenser and decided to get a week's ticket since I wanted to do travel about LA the following week. Turns out the weekly pass wasn't valid until Sunday, so I had to buy another day pass for the day. :(

On the way to Chinatown, I ran into two more Santas. I made friends with one of them, Chris, and hung out with him and his friends for the rest of the day.

Around 12:30, all the Santas made their way to the Chinatown Gold Line stop. It was very weird to see so many Santas. I especially enjoyed the Santa girls in slutty outfits. Everyone crowded into the train for the first stop at Mariachi Square. All the Santas really packed into the train and there wasn't even room to move.

At the first stop, there were some announcements or something going on. We were given a list for some kind of scavenger hunt, but I don't think anyone tried to really play. They were too busy getting drunk. I saw one Santa throwing up into a trash can.

The Santas moved on to East LA. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant and the new milk and cookies: cerveza and tortilla chips. There was also a mariachi band and lots of caroling. On the way out of the restaurant, there was a clown protest. They had chants and signs and even pushed around some Santas. A couple of the girl clowns were wearing skirts that didn't even cover their butts. NICE

The rain started pouring as we made our way back to Union Station. On the ride back, we sang dirty Christmas carols. Some of the Santas stayed at the bar while others went to Disney Hall to carol. I went with them, but we were too disorganized and there was no caroling.

All the Santas moved on to Pershing Square. I got caught under the mistletoe and got a kiss while waiting for a corn dog. Some of the Santas went ice skating whiles others made their way to the Down and Out pub. The Santa who got sick at the first stop was there dancing.

We headed to Little Tokyo for dinner. It was my first trip there in many years and it was nice to see what was there. After dinner, my group of Santas decided to go home instead of seeing the main group of Santas at a karaoke bar.

Santa Con was a ton of fun. Can't wait for next year.

The 2009 LA Auto Show

Last week, my old friend Ozzie invited me to the LA Auto Show. He works for Honda so he has tons of passes. Kinda strange hanging out with him. Despite being a dad and engaged, he's constantly hitting on women.

Monday is the best day to attend. Its not crowded at all so, it makes it easy to talk to everyone there.

The Ford exhibit had lots of games to play. The Fiesta display was pretty cool. They set up a kiosk (with a very poor metal keyboard) that was set up with access to facebook and twitter. There was a neat interactive display that had pictures of a few of the people involved with the Fiesta Movement. I also saw a Grand Theft Auto type game and a table with a 4 player car race. There was also a great F-150 off road driving simulator.

There was also a foosball table set up and I got in a game with 5 random people. The other team jumped out to an early lead but my team made a comeback after I got moved off being the goalie. The game came down to the wire with 1 point left to score for each team and I scored the winning goal!



I think my favorite trend I saw this year was USB jacks next to the charger ports. Makes things simple. Volvo's booth had New Moon product placement, which was weird. The Lincoln pavilion showed off Microsoft Sync, which has a creepy avatar that talks.

I'm bummed I never found the time to go back and check out more cars. There's always next year.

St Patrick's Day Parade

Pillow Fight L.A.

Click to Play

Los Angeles Pillow Fight
Pershing Square
March 22, 2008

Pillow Fight L.A. video #2: More Pillows

Click to Play

Los Angeles Pillow Fight
Pershing Square
March 22, 2008

Pillow Fight L.A.

St Patrick's Day Parade

St Patrick's Day

Young Dubliners

Red Line Subway, pt 2

Red Line Subway, pt 1