Hellagoodbuy

Once again Long Beach came calling to us wanting to party.

On our outing we saw a train/museaum, and what do you do when you see a train/museum? Take a picture of course!

We also found a souvenir shop and you know you can't go to California with out getting a souvenir.  Well, you can, but you shouldn't.

I don't know if it's still "curb appeal" if it's meant to attract people that are walking around, but if there is one thing that could get us in a store it a tasty treat in the window.

Oh hello Sweet Jill's, we WILL get an apple pull apart.

So the reason we made this little trip was so we could see one of Andrea's favorite bands from many moons ago, hellogoodbye.

Oh the things I do for Andrea: what was supposed to be two opening bands and the main act all over and done with by 11 ended up being four opening bands and hellogoodbye taking the stage after midnight :(

Not only did the amount of opening bands double, but the whole shebang didn't even start for an hour after it was supposed to.  It was fun, but we got pretty tired as the party seemed to stretch on, and on, and on.  Hellogoodbye delivered the goods though and ended the set with a song people had actually heard before (almost their whole show consisted of songs off the new album, and most people know how that goes...).

Besides the bands, the venue was interesting as well.

Alex's Bar, with some of the most out of control decor - velvet Elvis paintings, skeleton band sculptures (pictured) a la the Night Before Christmas, paintings of bull fighters and luchadors, a HUGE Johnny Cash picture/poster, and fake ravens/crows lurking all over the place.  We found out later that this bar was used in the show True Blood.  Apparently vampires need to to wet their whistle too...

THE CREEPSHOW!!!!!

The Creepshow was the main reason we went to Ink-N-Iron.  I would have posted this yesterday, but as they are Canadian I felt a post about ice cream would be more appropriate for the 4th of July.

I suppose it was a natural progression that we'd like this band.  After all we've been watching the Munsters as our relax-and-get-ready-for-bed show and the Creepshow is a psychobilly/horror punk band with very tongue-in-cheek horror movie references and a similar sense of humor.  I'm not sure you'd get that from the pirate picture, but I suppose you can either trust me or find out for yourself.  In addition to their interesting visual aesthetic they make some pretty good music too.

I found it pretty amusing to watch this with the Queen Mary as the set backdrop.

Sarah "SIN" Blackwood in all her lead singer glory.

The Reverend McGinty with his electric keyboard that sounds like what else but an organ.

Matt "Pomade" Gee on percussion (not quite a "Shades" Patterson, but you work with what you get).

Sean "Sick Boy" McNab slapping away at the stand-up bass (hey look, it's the flag!).

To showcase her versatility Ms. Blackwood showcased her standing on the ground skills as well as

her standing on the bass skills.

The show was fun and we even got some pictures with the lead singer.

All in all a fun time for all.

Chris & Iron-N-Ink

Once again little Christopher has come out to play.  First we took him to Manhattan Beach so he can enjoy the breeze in his 'frohawk.

Then we took him to Long Beach

to help him get his music/car/tattoo festival on at Ink-N-Iron (the ink is for the tattoo part, the iron for the car part, the n is for the tuNes?)

As none of us have had any ink done we were a little out of place, but we all had a real good time checking out the really cool cars and rockin' out to the hip music.  This is where all the rockin' went down.

Here's some swingin' wheels.

This one's mine.

The backside.

 In case you couldn't make out the detail in the tail lights.

Chris was the eagle eye and spotted the FREE bumper cars! oh yeah!!!!

I didn't get a picture of Chris' ride, but it was similar to this one except it had a raccoon tail hanging from it and a coke bottle for the coolant reservoir.

Here's some totally random band that was decked out in some crazy body paint.

This car was amazing and had pinstriped flames.

Here's Andrea's boat because she's too cool to pick a car.

Oh yeah, then she picked this car.  So now she has a car and a boat and Chris and I only have a car :(

She's so sneaky!

And what was the main reason we came to this happenin' little shin dig?  You'll have to find out in an upcoming post!

with so much trouble in the LBC

For some reason you build up a real desire to leave LA, or at least I do.  To scratch this itch we went on down to good ol' Long Beach.

Aided by the interweb we found quite a few fun things to check out in addition to what we already knew about (shopping, Yogurtland, and of course cupcakes).

First up on our new things to do list - drive through a wormhole to arrive in Chicago to check out FERRIS BUELLER'S HOUSE!!!!!

skip to 20 seconds for the first glimpse of the house

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is possibly the greatest movie ever made, so when I found out that his house is not but a short drive away I knew we'd have to stop by.

Next up, the skinniest house in America.

this is regrettably a terrible picture that doesn't show the house very well

Then, to Belmont Shores where we HAD to get Yogurtland!

One of the reasons for coming to Long Beach was the 2nd Saturday Art Walk.  It was quite a bit of fun (free Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!!!!!) and if we were granola we would be in heaven because maybe half of the vendors we very hippy-dippy.

this guy's stuff was my favorite, I think I'm going to find him again and get some of his stuff when I actually have some cash

We were a little early to festivities so we went on a little walk and checked out a little bit of downtown

and ShoreLine Aquatic Park - home to a very cool and educational fountain and a ship's wheel (or helm if you're down) on the beach...

Why on the sand? Why not?!

Sadly when we found Snoop Dogg's favorite eatery we had already eaten :(  Maybe next time Snoop.

Last, but certainly not least, Andrea got some new babies!

Oh Long Beach, you're so wonderful!