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.

Milk & Fame

We like tasty treats.  Because of this we always find the need to get them and gobble them up.  Andrea loves cupcakes and lucky for her, it seems everyone else in LA loves them too because every corner you turn uncovers yet another cupcakerie.  High up on MY list of places we HAD to get snacks from while in the City of Angels was MILK.  Andrea can keep her single serve sweetened bread in a paper cup topped with frosting, I'll have ICE CREAM!!!!!!!

So far the only fancy schmancy ice cream we've had was at New Zealand Natural Ice Cream near the Staples Center - interesting flavors, but it didn't seem that special (click on the link if you want to see freakiest kid in the southern hemisphere).  Of course we have to get Ben N Jerry's when it's on sale, but BNJ doesn't evoke the word "fancy" or "schmancy" to me.  With that in mind I was super excited about making the journey over to MILK on a Friday afternoon.

It took us forever to decide on what to get but we ended up getting a rocky road ice cream macarons (translation - fancy ice cream sandwich).

In a word - delicious; in three words - to die for; in a sentence - this was totally worth the traffic we drove through and the hassle of finding a parking spot!!!!!

We also got a peanut butter brownie to save for later, but ate it before we remembered to get a picture - it too was heavenly!  After eating these two delectable desserts I am even further amazed that people waste their time on cupcakes.  Ah what a fabulous day!

Oh and what's this?

Mid-enjoying of the tasty ice cream fantasticness Andrea noticed one of the actors from Traffic Light was also enjoying some of MILK's delights!  This was especially strange because just earlier that day I watched an episode of the Office that this guy was in (he was actually in like 4 or 5 episodes but didn't remember it until then).   We didn't say anything to him (Angeleno protocol) but Andrea used her awesome paparazzi skills to snap a couple quick pics.

I think this technically was our first "star sighting" since he was in his native habitat and not at some event or show - just a guy enjoying a snack with his buddies.  I was pretty happy with this being the first since he wasn't just a famous person but someone whose work I actually really like.  Well, since Traffic Light was cancelled I can only wish him luck!