“Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going.” – Hunter S. Thompson, from The Rum Diary

a brief synopsis of 5 days in the LA area:

Galco’s Grocery contains an amazing collection of old school soda, Freedom of Choice, check out his website, or this video, good stuff, seriously, watch it

Galco's John Nese

Galco's Sign

Griffith Park, incredible views & architecture, unfortunately no Rocketeer sightings

LA Skyline

Griffith Lawn

Griffith Detail

Griffith Sign

Ennis House, sadly its vacant, and still needs an incredible amount of restoration, but hey, its for sale, anyone have $15 million? the detailing is incredible, but the surrounding neighborhood is so built up its quite a cramped site

Ennis Side

Ennis Gate

Ennis Court

Ennis Detail

Ennis Wall

Ennis Front

Ennis Front Detail

Hollywood, not my favorite place, but interesting none the less, lots of tourists, a drive around the celebrity center, no xenu sitings, but we think we saw an auditing machine

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Xenu Is Here

Krishna Parade

Venice Beach, hare krishna parade, skaters, beach drum circle, street performers

La Brea Tar Pits, highly recommend this, cool museum, grounds and park, can’t recommend the bad smell

La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar

La Brea Detail

La Brea Pit

Some Lampposts Art, pumping oil, watching planes land at LAX from the In-N-Out Burger, Pizza & beer at Huntington Beach, watched the surfers, an architectural high school, by an architect’s name i should know

Lampposts

Hazy Pump

Runway In N Out

Huntington Beach

Huntington Galaxie

School From The Road

Hollywood Sign

Father's Office

Hollyhock, we missed the tour, but it looks to be in better shape than the Ennis House, and the grounds are a nice park, walking the grounds are free, i recommend, walked around Beverly Hills, meh, not much of a shopper, early lunch/dinner at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles

Griffith On The Hill

Hollyhock Lawn

Hollyhock Side

Hollyhock Side 02

Hollyhock Flower

Hollyhock Sign

Hollyhock Detail

Roscoe's Plate

Roscoe's Sign

it was an amazing few days. left early Wednesday AM for San Francisco to meet up with the crew, for 3 days of Phish in Berkeley, and to quote the Doctor one more time,

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

things are good…