So we’re back in West Hollywood. Kinda like catching up with an old friend really. You know their quirks, you know what you have in common, you by pass the touchy subjects and jump straight into reminiscing.
We covered the bulk of the West Hollywood stores previously here and here, but just to quickly recap, Flightclub LA and Sportie LA are always good stops for consignment/pre owned gear, though some of their prices are starting to get a little greedy. If you worry more about how good you look while skateboarding than how good you can actually skateboard then you might wanna pop your head into the stores of
Supreme, Diamond Supply and Crooks and Castles. Each trying to out do each other in hipster arrogance and poor service. What’s worse is none have the inventory to back the attitude, with limit range and sizes, give the glorified check out chicks a miss, there’s nothing you cant buy online or at another store for cheaper.
Flightclub LA
Sportie LA
Johnny Cupcakes is always worth a stop in for in store exclusives. A recent subtraction from this cluster of shops is Loyal Army, sadly they pretty much upped and closed their store overnight with very little notice. They are however still selling online and from their San Francisco store in Haight.
Japan LA
On the plus side, JapanLA has moved on to Melrose not too far from their old location to a newer and bigger store. Still the same good selection, abundance of Hello Kitty merch, friendly staff, sale items and now also sporting a small gallery room at the back with works from local artists.
Meltdown Comics
Last stop in West Hollywood was Meltdown Comics. Easily one of the biggest comic stores we’ve seen in awhile. Huge selection of comics and just as big selection of collectibles, figures, toys and plushes ranging from movie/comic based items to urban vinyl collectibles and blind boxes. They also have the complete range of So So Happy merchandise, which means if you’ve got a sweet tooth for the sickly cute and colourful you’ll no doubt go into a diabetic coma here.
Pop Killer
While you’re there, pop over the road to Pop Killer. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling of vintage and vintage styled new items. Mostly clothing but also a range of accessories, knick knacks, novelties and house hold items.
Mulholland Drive
As the sun slowing slipped away at a leisurely 8pm we took a drive up to Muholland Drive. Just follow the road up to the lookout (with fixtures and signage, not just dirt!), even though there are spots before this, parking is a little hit and miss as is the view. Don’t forget to take a jacket as well, those mountain breezes are very unforgiving! The view here is mostly of west LA, to see more of downtown follow the road around and head east through the tiny residential streets. You will eventually go over the mountain and start heading down, half way down on a rather Mt. Akina style of road, there’s a dirt spot to pull over to get your cityscape pano on.
LA cityscape (click for big)
Next up, we hit the downtown area where dodgy and awesome go hand in hand like Jesse James and Kat Von D!
Los Angeles 2011 part #1 – Arrival, Melrose Trading Post
Los Angeles 2011 part #2 – West Hollywood shopping, Mulholland Drive
Los Angeles 2011 part #3 – Downtown shopping – Fashion District
Los Angeles 2011 part #4 – Downtown shopping – Japantown
Los Angeles 2011 part #5 – Steel Panther @ The House of Blues 17/5/11
Los Angeles 2011 part #6 – Hollywood sign, Farmer’s Market
Los Angeles 2011 part #7 – Peterson Automotive Museum
Los Angeles 2011 part #8 – Greater LA area shopping
Los Angeles 2011 part #9 – Hollywood sight seeing with Orbic Air
Los Angeles 2011 part #10 – Driving in Los Angeles/California
Complete Los Angeles 2011 photo gallery here
“You can stick your well laid plans up your well laid ass!”. Ah yes, another pearl of wisdom from Mr. Jackson and nothing short of the truth for the opening leg of our latest trip. It’s true, there’s no amount of preparation that will prevent curve balls from external influences.
Things started off with a nervous check in thanks to our travel agent putting completely wrong passport numbers into our flight booking. Not the best thing to have against your name flying into the states with their current “everyone is a terrorist” standing. Luckily, after half
an hour of “Border Control” TV show style questioning, accusing glances and hushed phone calls it was all sorted and we were on our way around the world!
We scored some crazy cheap flights via star alliance, which led to the bulk of the flights being covered by Lufthansa. I’ve only flown once domestically with them which was fine for a short trip but I was a little skeptical with what the service would be like on a long haul – no thanks to a lot of comments and :S faces from friends and random strangers. However I’m happy to report it was great (: Service was good albeit it a bit hurried at times and the accommodations were nothing short of lush, being on a 3 week old A380 definitely helped with this. Exceptionally quiet, engine noise was easily half of a regular A300 or 747. Seats were comfy and the touch screen LCD complete with 3 external live cameras was great for in flight entertainment. Don’t forget your LAN or USB cable to plug your devices into your arm rest 😉 Best of all, it had that fresh off the floor, new plane smell.
Noisey kids, idiots bumping our seats, jet lag and the inescapable 2 hour crawl through LAX customs/immigration later, we were free from the clutches of commercial transit. Grabbed our rental car from Dollar Rentals (review here) and headed straight for West Hollywood.
(tips on driving in California in a coming installment)
The biggest speed bump I always find on holidays is store trading hours. The majority of places I have travelled to in the world (except Australia), retailers open around 10-11am (sometimes 12 or later for boutique stores), some bigger stores/malls might swing the doors open around 9. This might work well if you’ve had a big night but it seriously eats into your day when you’re travelling. So a good thing to try is to tee up sight seeing or community events to do in the morning while you’re waiting for the stores to open.
Random bits and pieces
First stop for us was the Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax High school which is pretty much what you would expect for a popular Californian market. An abundance of quirky brick-a-brack, hand made arts and crafts and vintage items galore from cute plush monsters to taxidermy to thousands of random photographs and negatives from people’s personal collection. How? Why? Who knows, it’s LA baby!
Vintage Coke Esky
Hand made plush toys
Framed butterflies
Vintage photo frames - $5
Buy someone else's personal photos
There’s also a selection of vintage and modern cameras and accessories. Forget over bidding on ebay for a used Vivitar flash, they were available here for throw away prices. Plenty of army surplus items as well, right down to aircraft instrumentation and war memorabilia.
Camera stuff... and hand mirrors
More camera stuff
Ammunition case
Aviation memorabilia
Photo tip: while there are plenty of tourists and arty types snapping photos, take care when shooting some of the stalls, especially the ones of the local designers who seem to be very particular with others “stealing” their ideas. I witnessed a guy get chased down and verbally abused by one owner. While the empty threats of “That’s stealing! I’m calling the police” may not mean much, it is definitely a conflict best avoided. Or at least wait till you’re about to leave anyway :p
Travel tip: Head to their website for half price entry coupons
Depending on how thoroughly you browse, it only takes about 1-2 hours to do the whole event. Take advantage of the food and (especially) toilets while you’re there. Parking is free when you drive into the grounds, (just follow the directions from the traffic controllers) so to save a few bucks, leave your car there and check out the surrounding shops, most of which should be open by now….
Next – Shopping in West Hollywood and a spot of sight seeing at the famed Mulholland Drive.
Los Angeles 2011 part #1 – Arrival, Melrose Trading Post
Los Angeles 2011 part #2 – West Hollywood shopping, Mulholland Drive
Los Angeles 2011 part #3 – Downtown shopping – Fashion District
Los Angeles 2011 part #4 – Downtown shopping – Japantown
Los Angeles 2011 part #5 – Steel Panther @ The House of Blues 17/5/11
Los Angeles 2011 part #6 – Hollywood sign, Farmer’s Market
Los Angeles 2011 part #7 – Peterson Automotive Museum
Los Angeles 2011 part #8 – Greater LA area shopping
Los Angeles 2011 part #9 – Hollywood sight seeing with Orbic Air
Los Angeles 2011 part #10 – Driving in Los Angeles/California
Complete Los Angeles 2011 photo gallery here
And then there was THREE…
It’s a sign of the times when you see print media going the way of the music stores. As of a couple weeks ago, 3D World magazine’s final issue ever hit the streets, not just in Brisbane but across the country. It is with a heavy heart that not only we lose an inspirational and creative business collaborator but also an informative and quality weekly read.
Sadly, the digital medium juggernaut and supporting devices continue to steam roll, what some would say, the soul out of the arts. But all is not lost! The consolation is some features of 3D World will be integrated into local sister publications, in Brisbane, being Time Off. The bigger news is the editorial team isn’t going to go quiet into the night, they’ve mustered wisdom and insight from business cat and montage like inspiration from courage wolf and are already conjuring up a new monthly magazine expanding from the music base into a full fledged culture and lifestyle publication. It has been branded as Australia’s first free iPad magazine with supporting iPad reader app. which will take our humble mag into new international territory!
When one person farts another will open a window… or something like that.
Check out the breaking news of “THREE” here
Till then, peace out 3D you will be sadly missed. May you live on in waiting rooms, toilets and my work lunch room forever!
After postponing due to weather in April, the Home Festival scores a beautiful day for their reschedule event.
Home Festival @ Raymond Park photos here
The Dame team hit it again with another long weekend show, happy birthday Queen Mum!
Dame Reggaeton @ The Church photos here
Extended gallery on the Dame Reggaeton Facebook page
Sound issues aside, DnB stalewart Friction smashes out a rockin set for the Queen’s biffy.
Friction and MC SP @ Monastery photos here
This week we wrap up the Shooters Superclub shoot with a double header. Discrow and MC Premix drop in to have a yarn about gay clubs, fake books and robbing kids of their lunch money.
Check them out in this week’s issue #1061.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ 3D world magazine – Brisbane
This week the sausagefest at the Shooters Superclub shoot is broken up with the lovely Andrea Tenille.
Read about her in this week’s issue #1060.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ 3D world magazine – Brisbane
This week we have new Gold Coast young gun Kurt Joseph aka Ctrl Alt Del from our shoot at Shooters Superclub.
Read about him in this week’s issue #1059.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ 3D world magazine – Brisbane
SBM World Tour 2011…
Is almost upon us!
Its funny how things work out. Originally we had planned on a LA > Japan > NZ trip this year. Mainly to cover ground we missed at each destination on previous trips, but throw out an unbelievable price for a round the world fare and it was hard to say no. Not only are flights to Japan and New Zealand almost always on sale, the recent string of disasters really made travelling to those destinations a little unnerving. In saying that, no doubt in the next 12-18months both countries will be back on their feet and enticing travellers over with ridiculously cheap fares. I know I’ll be eagerly refreshing my inbox in anticipation!
What are we up to instead? LA is still on the list, with a drive up through Bakersfield (whats up Korn!), Fresno, Yosemite National Park then on to San Francisco. From there we fly to Ol’ Blighty, London, where they’re having a heat wave of low 20C temps! Rail to Paris, then over the big continent to Beijing to see that 7 Wonders of the world of theirs. If you caught our last adventure you know there will be plenty of stops for sneakers and toys, the usual open mouthed tourist gazings and of course plenty of photos. On top of that, now that I’m sporting the Nikon P7000 there’ll also be some fun footage. Bonus!
Back to housekeeping, needless to say, we will not be available for shoots in this time, but still feel free to contact us for dates from mid June onwards. We will have a netbook handy but response and updates may be delayed.
So who wants us to bring them something back? Ha! Psych! We’re gonna need all the space we can get! 😉
Till then, Au Revoir, Zaijain and all that jazz (:
