The Arrondissement (Pt. 2)

I love my hotel, Hotel du Petit Moulin. This 17th century building, once a boulangerie where Victor Hugo used to patronize, was recently redesigned by fellow Marais neighbor, Christian Lacroix. It was just perfect; so whimsical, over the top and still refined.

View from my room.

View of the street.

I love red doors. Especially ones that are slightly opened. Makes you just curious as to what's behind them.

A digestif of absinthe after a delicious meal at Chez Janou. You can almost never have a bad meal in Paris. Almost Never.

An absolute gem. You have old records, very old manuscripts, very very old posters, ancient periodicals, books and books and books... I usually get "mental" hives in a place this dusty but I didn't mind it here... So many precious treasures. It's major.

Delicious petit déjeuner each morning. I tend to drink just tea but since I was in Paris (when in Rome, ya'll know), I was downing coffee like it was water (avec gas s'il vous plaît), and then I had to stop cuz' I endured a bad case of insomnia/jet lag for a night and that is never a good thing at all.

I go here every time I'm in Paris. Somehow, the queue was too much of a bore for my appetite this time around. I opted for tea at Mariage Frères instead!

I want to eat this. I want to know what this tastes like. Anyone who knows, please invite me over for dinner and I'll bring dessert!

There were like 7 different types of pâté, 30 kinds of cheeses, 20 kinds of cuts, 10 kinds of desserts. This is heaven to me.

Et mais oui, the perfect French shop, APC, which was just right around the corner from the hotel.

The oldest square in Paris, Place des Vosges.

Conkers.

On my last night, I dined at Robert et Louise. Let's just say this made my trip magical when it was already perfect.

The First Night (Pt. 1)

Mike took me on his velo to Chez Omar for some delicious couscous. The lamb and beef were super juicy and tasty. Just super.

We rode by Café La Perle but I couldn't deal with how many fashionistas there were on the sidewalk. I guess when the weather's this good, you gotta enjoy it while you still can.

We ended up at Café Pop In and met these nice and friendly young French boys who took a liking to us as we spoke English; well I speak American which is an entirely different language but I had them fooled!

*I know they may look like they are fashionistas (see second pic) but they're more like indie kids which is why I spoke to them. When they heard CSS playing downstairs, they and their friends freaked out and ran downstairs to dance. That was a sign for us to make our exit...

La Ville Lumière

Je suis à Paname en vacances. Plus à venir...

La Seine la nuit...

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris

C'est ma chambre d'hôtel. C'est jolie, non?

Indo Board Guitar Hero

Indo Board and Guitar Hero. Who knew that this would be the perfect combination to amuse oneself? It's about getting low, hanging ten, hanging heels, goofy footing it, bouncing and spinning while playing Guitar Hero. It's about using all of your mental and physical coordination and balancing abilities, you know, those "core" muscles, while maintaining your style and grace. And a bottle of rosé brings out that joie de vivre.

shaka bra...

Juggling grapefruit with the cat on board.

Star Power!

"I've got my own work to do..."

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm in the midst of moving (it happens this weekend) and am just overwhelmed with just e v e r y t h i n g . . . Packing, working, packing, BB8, sleeping, then packing again... and all sorts of friends visiting from around the world, it's all a bit too much at once... Hi Maria, Hi Amy, Hi Mike... It was lovely but brief.

But the one thing that never gets old (surprisingly still!) is last year's Television Personalities' "My Dark Places." Sad but it makes me feel good... misery has its merits, yes indeed... Here are my two faves:

"No More I Hate You's.mp3"
"There's No Beautiful Way To Say Goodbye.mp3"

The Deathly Hallows

Last weekend I went to New York again. I took the red-eye. It helped though the 4-hour delay due to mechanical error was the main bore this time around. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as hot and humid as I thought it would be for this time of the year. It was actually lovely. Stayed in UWS again and did what UWS residents usually do: hung out in Central Park, shopped at Balducci's, dined at various neighboring bistros, read the new Harry Potter, etc...

An evening stroll through Central Park.

Met up with Amy at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in Chelsea. Can I just say how rad her shit is? It's pretty ultimate.

This is David Sherry's work who is also in this group show. Another awesome artist and person.

You know, I was really into doing UWS things. This is what you do. You walk 40 blocks uptown and catch a friendly game of baseball in the park.

Had a yummy dinner with one of my oldest bestest friend from high school at some Japanese joint on Houston. Yum yum, piggy's bum...

I took the subway all the way to Brooklyn (which is a big feat for me!) to see Susie's new baby boy, Max. He's wearing the onesie I got for him. Babies are precious.

On my last night, I made it downtown to Sway to see my old friends. Kuo introduced me to Dan, Abby and Pascal (who was there in spirit); they are all in his new band... Here's the first look at Clams Casino, the super duper new band that will soon blow your mind!

Mr. Wrigley's Spearmint Island

I consider myself a Californian so it's bewildering why I've never been to Catalina Island until now. A few weeks ago, I took the ferry to this island 26 miles off the coast of Southern California. The Pacific Blue... What a beautiful island.

The result of the fires that happened a few months ago. It only affected 10% of the island, up in the mountains.

Going green; you can see how the trees are slowing coming back to life.

Took a touristy adventure through the island to see the bisons. Aaaah... Look mom, there's the prairie cow!!!

Zane Grey Hotel. Where I stayed. Kick ass pool. Highly recommend.

The mountain view.

Look out upon the Myriad Harbour. The ocean view.

A Life Aquatic. Took a semi-submarine boat tour in search for nocturnal creatures. I couldn't catch it on photo's but the marine phenomenon of bioluminescence was the highlight, just magical.

Here's what it looked like slowed down a thousandfold.

Always on guard, here's my boat docked, patrolling Avalon.

Oh yeah, Happy Bastille Day.

Hell on Wheels

Frosty's Rollerskate Birthday was earlier tonight at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale. I was very apprehensive about having to rollerskate again. The last time was in junior high school and I do believe that in each of the only two times I went in 8th grade I had managed to sprain both of my ankles; the left on the first time, the right on the second time... I never bothered to go again.

The rink had a very Roller Boogie feel to it, a lot of disco and a lot of serious skaters, showing off really fancy moves.. fluid, swift, sort of like the cadence of a flow yoga class. I started very slow, I might as well been crawling at first. Then the referee, (he was also the one who rented my smelly skates) told me to just look up. Whoa. And that made all the difference.

As I loosened up a bit and sort of improved (was still too scared to go in the middle with the advance skaters though), it got so much fun (I didn't even mind the music) and got a really good workout from it. I felt spry on the feet and was glad I tried something that hasn't been kind to me in the past. One warning though: do try to avoid their cherry and strawberry slushies, pure sugar and hardly any ice! Totally gross, the complete opposite of deliciousness.

Birthday Boy and his gal pal

w/ Jenny during the "Couples Only" song

Sexy Jenny

w/ Maura... now I'm really having fun. The fear of falling on my ass (or face) is slowly fading away...

My favorite song for the last week or so - Taken by Trees' Lost and Found.mp3

The Bu'

TED and her golden stick...

Too flat for Jeannie to paddle out...

Ran into Nina, Spanky and Travis...

TED and Chad sliding side by side...

After chowing down on delicious fried evilness at Malibu Seafood, we made our way home and encountered this kick ass couple on their kick ass custom bike, hip hop music blaring for all of PCH to hear. Nice Sunday for a ride... they made our day.