February 24, 2006

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  Mixygirl and I caught a fantastic show a couple nights ago at the Staples Center.  It was Lenny Kravitz opening for Aerosmith!!!   I've liked Aerosmith for a long time now, but being that I'm not a heavy metal fanatic anymore, I never really made an effort to see them live.  Well, they're getting pretty old now (all older than 50) so I felt I had to see them before one of them kicked the bucket.  Their show was amazing (crying, crazy)!!!  Steve Tyler and Joe Perry were in top bad-ass form despite looking really old.  The music, was loud, and the guitar solos were fast.  They played only a few of their popular hits from the 90's.  They didn't play anything from Permanent Vacation, or Pump.  They played a lot of hits from the 70's, and a few of the songs from their new blues oriented album called Honking on Bobo.  For me the highlights of the show were Sweet Emotion, Dream On, and Cryin'.  The talkbox guitar intro with the bubbling bass line during Sweet Emotion were just unreal.  I couldn't believe I was actually seeing it live finally. 

  
  

  

  
  

  Lenny Kravitz turned in a great set as well.  Normally the arena is half empty during the opener (for example when we saw Fiona Apple open for Coldplay recently).  Kravitz on the other hand had them packed in already, and eating out of his hand.  He played with a big band including horns, and backup singers, with a backdrop of a brightly lit LK.  Lenny's singing and guitar playing were amazing.  He also had the advantage of being able to play hit after hit.  He's also another musician that I've always wanted to see live, but had just never gotten around to it.  I remember early on in college, Aram Sarkissian telling me how great this guy was live.  He did hit most of the famous songs, such as Are you gonna go my way, Let Love rule, Always on the Run, and American Woman.  On a final note, having seen Coldplay recently at the forum with Toro, and Mixy, and seeing this show at Staples, I can definitively say that the Forum sucks!!!

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  Well, as you can guess Mixy and I have come back from Oahu.  Big post to come, but I need to catch up, so here's the Mammoth post from our first snowboarding experience ever, at the end of last month.  Mixy and I stayed at this cool German style lodge called Austria Hof.  It's right next to the parking lot of Canyon Lodge, so in the morning you actually just walk through the parking lot and you're ready for the slopes!!!

  
  

   

  
  

  Having moved back to LA a while ago, I forgot how cold winter weather could get.  The pic on the left is of the huge snow drifts right outside our room window.  The first day was extremely cold and snowy!!!

  
  

   

  
  

  Here's our room shots of the snowboarding action to come.  We don't have any pictures of us on the slopes, and in retrospect it was a good idea not to have brought a camera up.  They would have surely gotten demolished because the entire day was spent falling.  It turned out to be what I truly think was the most physically painful experience in my life.  Injuries included a mild concussion, whiplash, getting the wind knocked out twice, many falls on the buttocks, and many falls on the knees leading to severe bruising.  Fortunately I had gloves with wrist protectors in them.  After our second day of whiplash,  I couldn't even turn my head in bed without having to grab my hair and lifting my head off the bed to physically turn it.  Fortunately, our skills were slowly improving, and the second day was a lot enjoyable (we still have a long way to go).  We had originally intended to snowboard for three days, but we scratched the third day because we were already too sore. 

  
  

   

  
  

  On the third day we just drove to the Main Lodge and chilled out.

  
  

   

  
  

  We took a cool gondola ride from the Main lodge up to a smaller lodge located midway up the mountain.

  
  

   

  
  

  There fortuitously turned out to be a great restaurant at that location.  It was really cool, cause it was on the mountain and you could see all the skiiers and snowboarders going by while you were eating.  I particularly liked my dish (right) of seared fennel seed crusted ahi, with caramelized onions, on a bed of lentils. 

  
  

   

  
  

  We spent the rest of the afternoon just enjoying the beautiful snow scenery. (On the left is Mixy's imitation of the SNL Superstar pose). 

  
  

   

  
  

  The last night of our trip, we had dinner at our hotel restaurant which is known for its German cuisine.  We had this amazing traditional German Sampler.  The sausages were amazing.  We definitely couldn't finish it so we finished the rest for breakfast the next day.

  
  

   

  
  

  On the left is a picture of Mixy from dinner, after I tried to get creative with the digital camera.  On the right is our last view of the Sierras as we drove away!!!

  
  

   

  
  

  We definitely want to go snowboarding a couple more times this season.  Probably not all the way up at Mammoth again(but you never know Jober? Juddy?  Turtle?  Toro?).  We ended up picking up a pair of boards.  My bamboo topped Arbor Roundhouse is on the left, and Mixy's Burton feather is on the right. 

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