Galia, you know me so well. I've been there before, actually. It's pretty interesting. They do a night tour every Halloween (or at least they used to), and that's lots of fun. The stairs that lead to no where are pretty fantastic.

Are you stopping near Anaheim? I guess you can either goto Disneyland as someone else suggested although I hate it. You can also try Knott's Berry Farm thats close by in Stanton. As for food, and vegetarian diet, you can probably goto a japanesse sushi place since the whole area is stacked with them, I believe they do have some sushi there that consists of vegetables(cucumbers etc) whatever they are called.

As for the Irvine area, the stuff there is way overpriced. and only the rich folks live there, the people are so rich there that they mistake the characters from the show OC as east LA gangbangers

As for your melting pot multicultural needs, Irvine has alot of persian shops there (smells like ass ). In Westminister, you should also find little Saigon (smells like ass too ). Santa Ana is what you call beaner town too ( smells like ass too). Basically Im pulling no punches at all on all ethnic groups., I havent been near little Russia which is supposedly located in the City of Orange (probably smells like ass too )

Since you also did mention that you will be in Bakersfield, you definatley arent that far from Big Bears if you are into skiing

Well it would be a good spot but its in the San Jose area which is closer to San Franscisco than it is with LA. You are almost looking at driving close to 200-300 miles there from Bakersfield

Go to the gay bars in Laguna Beach! so much fun! and hotties too!

BTW are you going to visit any of the beaches or piers? I guess over there you can either go fishing, taking some of the boat rides or swimming

http://www.rockcitynews.com/pages/calif ... tpier.html

Joe's crabshack is quite a nice restaurant if you are into seafood. Too bad you are a strict vegetarian and wont even eat fish

Anyone ever been to the ArcLight Cinemas? http://www.arclightcinemas.com/homepage.jsp

That's where Brick is playing.

Anyone? Arclight Cinemas? It seems... strange. There's reserved seating. That's blowing my mind.

Reserved?

Do they have a problem with people sneaking in or something?

NO wonder they charge 14 bucks.

Ya... I've been there. Twice I think.

It's actually really nice from what I remember! But yes, they charge $14 and the seats are numbered so you have assigned seats on your ticket.

I've only been there once. Swanky.

Is it stadium seating? The sound is good and all that jazz?

its regular seating expect for one, the dome. which is very big. Arclight is my favorite theatre it is great. A bit pricey but its worth it I think.

No I think it is all selective seating. They do this as they are very upscale and want the reserved seating > I saw the LOTR 3 in this Dome. I think they ask you the general area that you want to sit in and then assign you a seat.

Doubt it is in the Dome as that is the theater to see it in but the others are still nice to OK.

Generally, it is one of the nicer big theaters right near the Strip > Gruman's Chinese is about a mile up the block

***********

Just FYI > while you are there, it you are interested > the Sunset Strip is about 5 miles down the road > Clubs and Music joints - including Johnny Depp's club.

just noticed the Q&A session if you are in town / interested.

Brick (R) (Exclusive Engagement)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emilie de Ravin, Matt O'Leary, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss
Director: Rian Johnson
Rating: R for violent and drug content
Running Time: 1 hr., 50 min.
Genre: Drama/Mystery

There will be a Q&A with writer/director Rian Johnson on Friday, March 31, following the 7:40pm show.

Student Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is smarter than everyone else, but he's happy to be an outsider until his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin) vanishes. That's when Brendan enlists the help of The Brain (Matt O'Leary) and non-student The Pin (Lukas Haas) in what soon becomes a dangerous investigation into the truth about what happened to Emily.

If you're flying watch out. There might be Snakes on [Your] Plane.

I totally just spent $56 on four movie tickets.

Which movies?!

Four tickets for an evening showing of Brick on Saturday.

School of Cock, Boner Jams, Star Whores, and Brick.

*drives to ArcLight*

So, the recap...

I saw three films on my trip, all of which were at the very lest really good. Brick (which was astonishing and one of the best films I've ever seen), Slither, and Thank You For Smoking.

The Arclight is the best theater I've ever been to. It's completely worth the high ticket price. Seriously, I wanted to move in. They had this amazing Brick display inside. I wish I could have gotten pictures, but they weren't allowing cameras in. I did get a picture of the banner hanging outside, though:



Another thing besides the pitch perfect picture and sound that made Arclight an absolute fanboys dream come true was my close encounter with director Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins). He was literally two feet behind me in the line for Brick. That was pretty exciting.

I also stopped by Amoeba Music, which was across the street from the Arclight. Simply put, the biggest record store I've ever seen in my life. It's like a freakin' warehouse. I spent entirely too much money on vinyl and some great OOP band shirts.

I was also able to hit up some pretty fantastic restaurants. The Gypsy Den Cafe in Costa Mesa was great, as was Javier's in the Irvine Spectrum.

The latter part of the trip was spent just relaxing in Laguna Beach and Newport. Laguna particularly had a great downtown. Both cities are absolutely beautiful. The piers are amazing.

All in all, it was a pretty great time. The highlight of the whole thing? We were stuck in traffic (shocking, I know), and a guy in a BMW about twenty feet ahead of us was getting arrested. Thing is, there was about ten cops surrounding the car, and they all had their guns fixed on the guy. It was pretty interesting, to say the least.

You werent that far away from where I work at in Costa Mesa. We could of had lunch or something

make sure you dont set yourself up to be accosted by a 55-year-old Bulgarian prostitute with webbed feet.


God Bless LA.

Did you tan?