My Weekend Passport » Events

Happy New Year

Alex @mwp — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:23:28 +0000

Happy New Years from Taipei!

DineLA: Eat your hearts out, LA

Alex @mwp — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:29:00 +0000

LA’s restaurant week has arrived. Two weeks of restaurant specials, actually, from Oct 4-9 and Oct 11-16. Book your reservations now!

I’m going to eat at Kendall’s Brasserie in Downtown and Craft in Century City. Hopefully eating at Grace Restaurant or BLT Steak, as well. If only I didn’t have class three nights a week, I would be able to fit in more…

Crash and Burn at the 2009 Red Bull Soap Box Derby

Alex @mwp — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:05:00 +0000

It used to be that when I thought of Soap Box Derbies, I think of a boy and his pops building something out of scrap metal and discarded bicycle tires in their garage. Then I watched Cool Runnings and the idea of making a push car totally caught me for a few weeks. Well, this weekend, another evolution of the soap box occurred in Downtown LA. Sponsored by Red Bull, the 2009 LA Soap Box Race inspired the likes of half-baked college students, fire fighters, young professionals, and plenty of strange characters to take to the hill in the most creative soap boxes they could build.

It’s hard to describe this scene to those that weren’t there. I’ve never seen the streets of Downtown so alive and buzzing with people. Turns out people will come from all over the county for a free event. There literally was nowhere to walk on Grand or 5th street throughout the duration of the race, and some people turned out at 10am, 3 hours before the race, to secure a prime location. I lived half a block away from the starting line, so I stayed in my room until 1am thinking I could get a good spot still, but boy was I wrong.

The Red Bull peeps quoted that over 100,000 people showed up to the streets. I didn’t believe it at first, but looking at this picture again, it doesn’t seem all that unrealistic. This many people on the streets probably could occupy the entire Coliseum.

The race course began on top of Bunker Hill at Grand and 4th, snaking it’s way down Grand, turning at the intersection of 5th and Grand, and continuing down 5th street until the conclusion at Olive street. During the course of the race, the drivers would have to maneuver a serpentine path down the hill, tackle a high speed banked 90 degree turn, and land two jumps off one foot tall ramps. Points were awarded on creativity, driving skill, and crowd pleasure. Frankly, if you made it down the hill in one piece, I would declare you a winner, but everyone wants to see a show. They want to see some crashes!

Speeds of 45 mph were reached by some cars, and brutal face-dives into gravel and haystacks were witnessed. There was something to see for everyone.

So it’s really all about the soap boxes that were built, and there were some really creative ones. There was a Baywatch (“Babe Watch”) themed group that drove a lifeguard tower down the course, bananas that rode a banana hammock, and Marty McFly went Back to the Future. As you see here, there was a group driving a stripper pole, but unfortunately I was busy getting food so I didn’t see whether actual people were dancing on the way down. That would be cool though.

Some frats and engineering clubs from all the local universities were represented here. You could tell which carts were designed by frats and which ones were designed by engineers pretty easily. The latter’s, of course, didn’t fall apart before the first turn.

The eternal debate between USC and UCLA wasn’t settled on the streets today. They both crashed and burned, but I love the post Washington-defeat taunting that UCLA threw on prior to the race. Oh and I learned that UCLA really means University of Caucasians Lost among Asians. Clever.

I would say half the competitors never made it to the finish line in one piece. Those that did deserve a gold star, because that is not an easy track to complete. I held my breath every time I saw a car attempt to scale the banked wall.

My fave of the bunch has to be the Spaceballs group. They had the best opening skit highlighted by a ring-saber battle between Lord Helmet and Bill Pullman. All the characters, other than Yogurt, were in attendance. And the winnebago actually survived the course with a very admirable time. Easily the crowd favorite of the day.

Okay, next year, I’ll definitely be back. Hell, I might even assemble a team! This looks like fun.

http://www.redbullsoapboxusa.com/

Gyoza Eating Contest: Hide your pot stickers and little children, Chestnut’s hungry!

Alex @mwp — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:57:51 +0000

If you don’t know this man, first you should watch the video below. You might not want to eat hot dogs for a while though.

In the video, he had set the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating record at 66 dogs in 12 minutes, but this past July 4th, he broke his own record which is now at a whopping 68 dogs in 10 minutes.

This past weekend, he came to Little Tokyo to attempt to break his own record of 231 gyozas in 10 minutes, set last year. It’s the third year running of this modest eating event, but it was able to capture a very sizeable crowd at the Nisei festival. Young and old, Japanese and gaijins, gyoza lovers and those grossed out by professional eating, all gathered around to watch the spectacle under the big tent. There were even some loud, drunken frat-type boys in the back–official groupies of Major League Eating. I walked about a mile each way from my downtown apartment to capture the action and witness Joey Chestnut’s domination in person.

First, let’s introduce the Nisei Week Queen and her court of princesses. They have the job of bringing out the plates of gyoza to all the contestants. These lovely ladies are here to provide moral support and cheer on the contestants, while at the same time serving them their demise in pot sticker form.

On your mark.. and GO!

Joey Chestnut is the second one from left on upper row. Everyone else, well, thanks for competing. I believe he beat the next highest up (big man in the blue cowboy hat) by over 50 gyozas.

There’s a table set up on the bottom left for the previous year’s Nisei week princess court. All of them make up one team of eaters and put down a decent amount of gyozas combined.

While most of the amateur competitors pick up gyozas one by one, Chestnut uses the more advanced technique of grabbing a handful, squeezing them together, and then shoveling it down his pipe. He probably eats a third of the plate in five bites. The man is unreal.

Check in on the ladies’ effort, and they did pretty well. Better than most of the amateurs, but not quite pro level. Maybe the soy sauce makes the gyozas go down better. The girl next to Joey Chestnut, also one of the former princesses I believe, brought her own dipping sauce for the competition.

Then again, maybe no amount of sauce can help THAT amount of gyozas go down. That’s the face of “uh oh, what have I done to myself?”

More looks of defeat among the competitors. Apparently, the word “Gurgitators” was invented and coined just for this sport to reference professional eaters. Sometimes, though, they’re also called “Regurgitators”, as one unfortunate combatant was consumed by gyozas in the end. On stage, unfortunately. Wasn’t pretty.

Did I win? Did I break the record? I think my gyoza baby is starting to kick! Mr. Chestnut is just remarkably cool compared to the rest of the crowd after putting down more gyozas than most everyone eats in a full year.

To the victor goes the spoils. In this case, the spoils is more plates of gyoza. The extras were passed around in the crowd. I sampled one, which was pretty tasty. I’m sure it helps a food eating competition when the property is something that you would fancy digesting.

No, he didn’t top his old record. He didn’t even come close, actually. He was short by almost 50 gyozas (two more plates), which only makes that number even more ridiculous. Still, what an impressive display of domination.

Nisei Week: Easy, Breezy, Japanesey

Alex @mwp — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:47:15 +0000

Please stop banging those Taiko drums…

When you’re nursing a Sunday morning “headache”, it’s definitely not the most welcome sound outside your window. This, however, only reminded me that Little Tokyo’s annual Japanese-American celebration, Nisei Week, has snuck up on me.

For those that missed it over the weekend, there was a two-hour parade through Little Tokyo on Sunday evening. It featured a ton of floats, traditional dance, taiko drumming, anime characters, and the lovely nisei-week court. The crowd was great and the atmosphere was very fun and inviting. It definitely reminded me of my summer days in Japan and attending these matsuri’s (summer festivals).

Nisei Week is a whole weeklong celebration of Japanese culture and Japanese-American community residing in Southern California. There will be other events such as traditional dance practice and other cultural events (including a rubik’s cube contest, for some reason). The noteworthy highlight of the week for food fanatics to enjoy will be the Gyoza eating competition featuring headliner competitive eater Joey Chestnut.

This Saturday afternoon you can spot “Jaws” try to take down his record set last year with 231 gyozas eaten in 10 minutes. He tells Downtown News that he’s trying for 250 this year! Will he do it? I’m totally eager to see him try. Pride of San Jose right there.

I’m just hoping there won’t be an encore of Taiko drums early in the morning.

Nisei Week Japanese Festival
August 15-23, 2009

This Weekend: Jessica Biel is a Doll

Alex @mwp — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:38:25 +0000

But you already knew that probably. She’ll be playing the role of Sarah Brown in this weekend’s production of Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl (July 31 – August 2). One of my favorite musicals since the spring of ’99 when my high school decided to make it our spring production, I have a lot of fond memories of the music and acting.

Well, does it get any better than seeing it on a warm summer night, under the stars, in front of one of the biggest starlets in Hollywood? Probably only if Frank Sinatra were to play the male lead. If you’re a fan of musical theater, then a good time can be had for cheap this weekend. Buy some cheap seats in the back, bring a bottle of wine, and make an evening picnic out of it. Just bring your opera glasses for a closer look.

Hollywood Bowl

Do you like GARLIC?

Alex @mwp — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:05:53 +0000

Is your partner not a vampire? Does trying garlic ice cream sound like a good idea to you? When you cook, do you go through a whole string of garlic in a week?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this weekend is your mecca. Starting today, the 31st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival is going on through the rest of the weekend. Time to celebrate.

Situated in the “Garlic Capital of the World”, Gilroy is about 45 minutes south of Downtown San Jose. I’ve been going to this event for a long while now, and I’ve always had a great time. People here just know how to have fun and the festival provides plenty of entertainment.

There’s live music, chef demonstrations, shopping, beer gardens, and most importantly, FOOD. But here, all the food involves garlic in some way. You’ve got garlic bread, garlic fries, and garlic fried calamari as your staples. If you’re adventurous, there’s also garlic ice cream, garlic gator on a stick, garlic mayo, roasted whole stuffed garlic, and well, you get the idea.

If you love garlic, this is the place for you.

Gilroy Garlic Festival

PS. Go early if you want to try all the foods while the lines aren’t as long. Eat first, then drink your beers, find a comfy spot at the amphitheater, and listen to some country music for the rest of the afternoon.

Lakers Victory Parade

Alex @mwp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:35:10 +0000

Lakers win the championship! Time to celebrate!

Despite all of the negativity swirling around the parade in our city during a time of economic recession, I believe it’s important for us to have a parade. Your team wins the championship, you throw a parade. It’s just what every city does. It also does much to bring up city morale, and I was able to feel the buzz from the crowd. Wednesday was just a really happy day.

Here’s the story of my victory parade journey in its entirety. We covered about 10 miles of ground between Downtown and South Central, visited the ghettoest street parties on MLK, ate about a pound of bacon wrapped dirty dogs between us, and oh yeah, saw some Lakers.

It’s starting! Hurry!

Me and my partner-in-crime, Elliot (Elle) Derek Fisher Fan Barton, walked down from our offices on top of Bunker Hill to LA Live. The parade starts on 11th Street at LA Live/Staples Center. Our starting point was 3rd street, so we’ve already logged a mile just to get to the parade.

Everyone gathering @ LA Live. I can’t even describe how many people were there, it was insane. There’s all the 12.5% unemployed in LA in one place, plus a few ppl cruising over on their lunch breaks. I accidentally made mine a 2.5 hour lunch break due to some bad judgment.

Entire streets around LA Live were filled with people. There was nowhere to stand. Figueroa was lined with people three or four rows deep for THREE miles. The 94,000 seat Coliseum was at max capacity. AND there was almost as many outside trying to get in (though most of them were crackheads selling weird shit).

The parade is about to start, but we can’t see anything, so we decide to move south along the parade route to find some clearing.

Walking down to Venice, as you can see it’s still packed with people by the Convention Center.

After we walk under I-10, we reach 18th street (2 miles now) and find some clearing. The parade starts where that tall unfinished hotel tower is located… kinda far looking now.

Hello ladies!

After 4 fire engines of the Laker girls and the band, here come the buses! The crowd loves it. And check out the mexican kid in the Kobe jersey with a birdman do.

Derek Fisher! Elle screams.

Mr. Skyhook. Damn, look at those hands. You know what they say about your hands being bigger than your face, right?

Sun Yue and Josh Powell on this bus.

Ariza’s totally blocked behind the guy in purple in the picture, too bad. I heard someone behind me go “Mira! those ears!” when Farmar went by.

And the MVP. #24. Black Mamba. Kobe Bryant.

Here he is visibly with his entire family again. He has a hot wife, adorable daughters, a gold medal, and four rings. Not bad. I dig that T-shirt, but why does he look pregnant in it?

Okay, this is when shit gets kinda crazy. The entire fucking crowd starts to run and follow the Kobe bus to the Coliseum. Me and Elle decide to give chase as well. Maybe we can get in and attend the rally too!

Figueroa is packed with people watching the parade still, so we decide to take Flower and sprint through South Central with some other crazy nuts.

Some people bike to get there faster… Others on skateboards, Harleys, scooters… I saw 9 guys packed inside a Cadillac cruising down the street. We’re keeping pace with the buses, as you can see!

We reach Grand & 39th (THIRTY NINE!), underneath the freeway after 20 minutes of running and sheer stupidity only to find…

“oh SHIT, look at all those people in the stadium” -Elle

This cop and his flimsy rope is what’s standing in the way between us and Kobe & Phil’s victory speech.

“Hey, where are you going Elle?” – “I’m going to go talk to him”

She convinces him that she goes to USC (probably cause we were the only unghetto looking people there) and he lets us past the barricade. FAIL #2 happens when we get to the stadium gate and they tell us we can’t get in again. Well, what do we do now.. walk back?

We can’t even figure out how to get back to Flower with all the barricades and somehow end up with people on MLK Blvd. This begins the ghettoest street party I’ve ever seen. I have stories.

I bought a soda from a guy and he said “Thank you. You’ve just made a meaniful contribution which proceeds benefit the cause of me.. getting HIGH later tonight!”

Although you don’t really need any weed of your own to get high. I probably couldn’t pass a drug test right now from all the secondhand wheeze I inhaled here.

It’s not a place for a girl or children. I abandoned Elle to get a soda and she was mobbed by some cholos and ghetto dudes. “ey what’s your name?” “you look tired, want me to carry you home?” I overheard as she came running back.

Haha. Seriously, I can’t believe this bus.

If you look closely, you’ll see they’ve hung tablecloths over the windows. Makes me wonder what’s going on inside the party bus?

The guy on the loudspeaker was chanting “riot… riot… riot…”

Wednesday was a good day to sell anything Purple or Gold. I wish I took more pictures of the crazier vendors I saw on MLK.

Ughhh. That hotel tower looks SO FAR AWAY.

Finally back at LA Live. Time to get a beer. Congratulations, Lakers.

LA Film Festival 2009: We’ve got Johnny Depp, Megan Fox, and Anime

Alex @mwp — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:38:22 +0000

Here it is again, for the 15th year! Welcome into town the Los Angeles Film Festival. Time to head out to Westwood and enjoy some flicks, music, and shmoozing.

WHAT IS THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL? (taken from their website)
Now in its fifteenth year, the Los Angeles Film Festival is widely recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to some of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world. Drawing on an expected attendance of 85,000, the Festival provides films with the opportunity to be embraced by the public and discovered by the industry. More than 70 feature films – narrative and documentary – are featured in the Festival, alongside gala premieres, panels and seminars, short film programs, music video showcases, free outdoor screenings, live musical performances, and unique signature events.

This year, over 200 films will be shown during the ten days of the festival. Headliners include the ever-so talented Johnny Depp’s Dillinger outlaw film, Public Enemy, Academy Award ™ winner Hayao Miyazaki’s latest, Ponyo; festival opener Paper Man, and the US premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Well, it’d be really cool to see Transformers two days before everyone else can, but it’s not something you can only catch at the LA Film Festival. Besides, I think catching Megan Fox on a 90 ft long IMAX screen is still more appealing. I have a feeling Johnny Depp’s movie will be good too, but I’m really excited to watch Ponyo. They’re bringing it to the US in a way to try to make this Hayao Miyazaki film a summer blockbuster. While Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle were fantastic movies, they never have the box office weight in the US as they do in Japan. Ponyo brings along the voice talents of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Nielson, and others, so expect the big names to contribute to its success when it is released nationwide on August 14th. Of course, since it’s being released by Disney, the main character voices are supplied by people with the last names Cyrus and Jonas. Never been a fan of dubbing over Japanese originals, but at least this time they pulled some big names to help market the US version.

Individual tickets are now on sale for all movies. Unfortunately the hottest tickets (like the aforementioned movies) are only available to pass holders. I’ll be catching the closing show of Ponyo, but I’m always excited about film festivals. I’ll be scouring the list of films today… anyone else in?

An adult’s way to celebrate a five year old’s birthday

Alex @mwp — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:29:05 +0000

Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday 5/31) at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, there will be a food event called the GOURMET FIVE YEAR OLD PARTY. It’s a gathering of over a dozen of LA’s hot and chic dinner spots as they offer up samples of their cuisine.

Guests include the restaurants owned by the Dolce Group (Geisha House, Dolce, Ketchup, and Bella), The Kress, Maria’s Italian Kitchen, and Frosting Forever. For an admission of $40 you’ll be able to help yourselves to as many samples as your heart and stomach desire. Judging by the photos of previous events, it’s quite a visual spectacle inside the Renaissance too. Being in Hollywood, you’d expect a well-dressed and outgoing crowd of food lovers.

Sorry, alcohol isn’t all you can drink.

Event is from 4-7pm inside the Renaissance Hotel at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland.