| RIP Michael Jackson |
[26 Jun 2009|10:57pm] |
Ok, everyone else on the planet is making Michael Jackson tribute this and tribute that. It's all very expected, as he was such a huge icon and larger than life figure. As someone who grew up as a dancer and follows the dance world, however, I'd like to post 3 videos that I think are the best of his catalogue. I grew up trying to copy the choreography in these videos...
"Scream" duet with Janet Jackson
"Billie Jean live" The first time the Moonwalk was performed
"Smooth Criminal" full length version
Enjoy!
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| Pull up yo pants girl! |
[02 May 2009|10:50pm] |
I saw Tara Reid today. Mikey and I were at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica eating the best Italian deli sandwiches ever (seriously, if you are in LA, we are going) and Mikey says "Do you think celebrities ever come here?" I go, "probably, I wouldn't doubt it". Then this girl walks past with blond hair and I notice that her pants are riding down really low and she's got a little plumber butt going on. That's the first thing I see. Then two employees on break stop her and ask for a picture with her, and I see that it's Tara Reid. And my reaction is "Oh. Ok. Whatever. She needs to pull up her pants."
Seeing Kate Winslet would've been so much better.
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| Seattle in bullets |
[28 Jan 2009|11:16am] |
I'm back! In SoCal that is. Last weekend's trip was everything a vacation with the Asuncion brothers can be...lots of food, lots of beer and lots of walking.
Thursday:
-Woke up at 4:30 to get to LGB by 6 am. Flew up on a full flight in a 2X2 Embrarer tiny ass plane. It was Jet Blue though, so the TV helped me zone out. I felt really bad for a huge Samoan guy sitting in the row in front of us. He was just a large person. Probably 6'2", almost 300lbs? And not fat. Just....huge. Bad plane for him to fly in.
-Pat picked us up at the airport and from there we drove back to the city and got breakfast at Coastal Kitchen where I had a great crepe with ham, apples and gruyere cheese drizzled in a honey pear sauce.
-Walked into Downtown and around Pike's Market and got Humboldt Fog at Beecher's Cheese, which is kind of funny because they make their own cheese on site, but I buy something from CA.
-Back to the apt to play with Ruby and Max, Pat and Wes's fun cats.
-Picked up Wes at work over Lake Washington and it made for a pretty drive.
-Happy Hour at Smith down the street where I started the tradition of ordering something different from the guys. They got a pitcher of Hamm's, I got a Hef. Had bacon and leek crostini and sweet potato fried with pesto aioli.
-Back at the apt I fell asleep really early cause I was up at 4:30 while Pat and Mikey picked up Chris at the airport.
Friday:
-Woke up for breakfast at B&O Espresso where I guess Pearl Jam thought up their name? It was a funky place. I loved it! They had petit breakfasts that were just the right size...not too huge at all. Had the first cappuchino of Seattle!
-Headed over to downtown again, and back to the market and Pike Brewery where the guys all got beer samplers and I got a cider. Love it!
-Bussed down to Pioneer Square and Armandino's Salumi which is owned by Mario Batali's dad and makes awesome salami on site. Anthony Bourdain visited there on No Reservations and loved it. I got some cotto salami which tasted like pepper and nutmeg. Yum!
-Fish and Chips at Ivar's on the waterfront. We mostly played with seagulls.
-Happy Hour at BOKA in downtown. Great french fries with truffle oil!
-Back up to Capitol Hill and Chapel Bar for happy hour. This place used to be a small church but now it's a lounge/bar. It was way cool inside. Lots of space to walk around and the balcony upstairs is used for events. They also had about 25 martinis on the menu for $5 during happy hour. Yay!
-Walked (stumbled) over to Piecora's Pizza for food. NY style pizza + hef=yum!
-Back to the apt and hung out till bedtime.
Saturday:
-Visited IKEA to get Pat and Wes some furniture cause they had none. It was really small compared to the Costa Mesa one and even though we got there when it opened (we had breakfast there beforehand), it was still a squeeze when we left.
-Over to Costco after to try and get a TV. Probably should've read the coupon that said "Valid at costco.com only". Boo urns. Got lunch out of it anyways.
-Furniture assembling party at the apt! Mikey made a house for the cats out of the cardboard boxes.
-Walked to the REI flagship store so Mikey could use his gift card. They had a rock climbing wall inside! Pretty cool stuff. Made me want to go skiing again. Boo.
-Headed over to Volunteer Park and Lakeview Cemetary where Bruce and Brandon Lee are buried. Couldn't stop picturing Enter the Dragon and mirror fight scene I analyzed for a paper in one of Steimer's classes.
-Pre-dinner drinks at B&O Espresso again. I had a hot apple cider with rum. It was tasty!
-We were going to get Vietnamese food for dinner, but we walked over and the door said "Cash Only". There was a Wells Fargo atm next door, but since we're lazy and no one was Wells Fargo, we went for Mexican food a block away instead. And Pat said there was no good Mexican food in Seattle...ha!
Sunday:
-Home cooked breakfast today.
-I made the error of wearing boots. Duly noted for future reference.
-Walked downtown (ouch!) to Top Pot Doughnuts, which is way better than the ones that get shipped to Starbucks in LA.
-Limped (double ouch!) to Pike's Market again for Piroshkys. Too soon after doughnuts!
-Hobbled (kill me now please!) back uphill to Capitol Hill
-Nursed my poor feet back to health at the apt.
-Brought Chris back to Sea-Tac for his flight to SFO.
-Had another round of Piecora's and Smith's for dinner. Gotta love those sweet potato fries.
Monday:
-Lunch at Annapurna's Cafe. Destroyed self with Indian food.
-Flew home after a small delay.
-Slept.
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| Weekend recap |
[16 Dec 2008|08:46am] |
Food. That's what last weekend can be summed up as. Food food and more food.
Mikey and I got into the city Fri night a little later due to fog, but Chris picked us up so we didn't miss any trains.
Saturday: breakfast at Brenda's on Polk and Eddy. SO GOOD!!! It's Creole/French soul food. I had an egg and bacon tartine which was a ton of egg all fluffy and scrambled on top of grilled french bread and bacon topped with a spicy tomato relish that had stewed tomatoes, onion, garlic and a whole lot of chili sauce in it. Add in an order of apple beignets and the strongest coffee I've ever had and I'm good!
On the way to the Ferry Building we're running to jump in the car filled with Santas for SantaCon and I hear "Jenna Harbison!". It's my high school friend Liz who went to Stanford and now lives in the city! We chatted for about 5 min till the train got to Embarcadero then headed to the building. She was walking along with a band she's in who are actually all Jewish, so they were playing secular Christmas songs Klezmer style. It was awesome. We tagged along with them for a little as they jammed with the guy who plays the drums on the plaza before the Ferry Building. Then of course, stops at Cowgirl Creamery and Mastrelli's were in order to stock up for lunch.
Lunch was going to be the following at Dolores Park, but mini rain storms threw a wrench in that plan, so we ate at Chris's place. Cheese, salami, asparagus wrapped in proscutto and Folie a Deux wine. Yum!
Dinner was at Walzwerk, an East German place on Van Ness that was ok. Service was horribly slow and the food wasn't so amazing as to make up for it, but it was a hearty meal. Lots of schnizel and mashed potatoes and beer!
And Sunday was pretty quick. A fast breakfast at a bakery in Sunset and back to the airport and onto Long Beach!
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| Thanksgiving and beyond! |
[07 Dec 2008|12:48pm] |
Thanksgiving was crazy busy and fun filled as always. There was a ton of food involved, not to mention wine, beer and cocktails too! Crazy times with the Asuncion brothers!
Yesterday Christmas got into full gear. Mikey and I got a tree (a fake one, but it's pre-lit, doesn't shed and it's the right size for our apartment), made turkey soup from scratch using Thanksgiving leftovers and went to the Belmont Shore Christmas parade. There were so many people! It was a lot of fun though. Lots of marching bands and cool floats. And of course, Gay Pride of Long Beach had the best float! It had theme of "Water Wonderland" and it had glitter covered palm trees and snow machines that shot fake snow over the crowds. It was so exciting!
Next weekend is San Francisco (for about 36 hours) and then the week after that I'm back in MA for Christmas!
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| What a week |
[09 Nov 2008|12:19am] |
Wow. First, my birthday...see the last post for more info. Then Indecision 2008 which turned out to be the best decision America ever made. I say "America" because you elected Barack Obama president. I'm hopeful to what he will achieve but not overly optimistic because I know he has a steep road ahead, but I'm more prepared to travel it with him as my president than freakin' Dubya. Bring it on, bitches! That's all.
But...California....le sigh. I do understand why Prop 8 (slightly) passed. A lot of people, minorities included, attend conservative churches all over the state. I can only hope that the No on Prop 8 majority fights their case so that such a decision will need to be amended by the State Legislature because lawyers argue that a ballot measure is not sufficent methods to reverse a state Supreme Court decision. There is a long fight ahead, and while the country does face much more difficult and significant challenges ahead, CA passing a ban against gay marriage is something I cannot allow to happen. I attended part of a No on Prop 8 rally last night (before heading to LA) and speaking with some of the event organizers who were passionate but not out of control at all, helped me believe that this state, which holds so much sway over national social political opinion, can be remembered for more than passing Prop 8, which is being the state that managed to overturn such a Prop after the fact. We will see how this plays out.
On a much lighter note, SOLA 2008 for RKDC was tonight. All I can say, is...I rock. I say so, my boss says so. That's all. Good night folks.
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| The big two-five |
[01 Nov 2008|12:45am] |
My birthday was great this year! Thanks so much for everyone who posted birthday messages on my Facebook too. It was a great way to wake up (I got lots from the East Coast which came in at 6 am PST). Mikey and I went to breakfast and he dropped me off on the way back cause he had to go to work. Only, when I hear the door open 45 min later and it's....Mikey! Holding flowers and fresh cinnamon buns no less! He arranged for the day off a week ago!
But the best part had to have been seeing Spring Awakening. If you live in LA, you need to see this show before it leaves town on Dec 7th. It's so good! Here's a few videos in case you don't know anything about it:
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| Birthday! |
[18 Oct 2008|09:27pm] |
My birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, and instead of asking me what I want (if you haven't already), take a look here:
( Read more... )
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| Dodgers! |
[21 Sep 2008|12:18am] |
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Two bottles of water, 1 Dodger dog, a bunch of nachos, 1 margarita, 1 giant ass beer, 1 Red Bull, 2 granola bars and 4 hours later, I have a stomach ache but it was worth it cause Manny hit 2 home runs and the Dodgers won 10-7!!!
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| Question: Where have I been? |
[07 Sep 2008|11:18am] |
Answer: around, I guess.
I realized yesterday that I haven't posted here in a long time. Nothing really especially exciting's been going on, so I haven't bothered.
-I got to meet up with Kim in Irvine and Clare in Culver City for dinner in the same week. That was really cool because I haven't seen either of them for about a year. It's weird, because you may live in the same general region, but throw in work schedules and other things and it's harder to get together than you think.
-I organized my first big event as Education Director for RKDC! The Open House on the 17th at Torrance. There was a giant technical hiccup, but we got it fixed and the whole event went great!
-The dentist saga continues. I still have to go back this Wed to have the whole left side cleaned and then I'm done! The bad news is I open on Thursday morning. I hope the novocaine wears off by 4 am. ::crosses fingers::
-I finally got my timing belt on my car replaced. My poor baby is up to 105,000 mi! Yikes! It wasn't cheap either. $800 all together because they had to replace some other sealers too. Yuck. I want a Honda Fit. Preferably a pre-owned, because it won't be that old.
-I've been going to yoga at least once a week now. It's pretty cool. I sort of know the teacher personally through Regina (she came to the RKDC BBQ in the summer) and she also runs a by-donation massage service too. If anyone wants a really good reference for a back massage, let me know! I'll give you her info!
-I have not been taking class as much as I'd like. Monday nights are the hardest day to get yourself off your butt and go, but I will be going tomorrow!
So that's what's been going on with me.
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| Movin on up... |
[16 Aug 2008|11:27am] |
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So I recently got another job! Sorta...it's still with RKDC but now in addition to teaching and admin/grantwriting, I'm going to be Education Director of our program in Torrance! My first big job is to run the Open House event tomorrow. It's not too big and I helped out last year so I know what's going on, but it's still a little scary to think that I'll be in charge pretty much.
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| I still hate the dentist |
[07 Aug 2008|07:23pm] |
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I had my first checkup/cleaning in 2.5 years yesterday. It didn't go as well as I hoped. I thought it would be pretty routine, but since it's been so long, I have super gross amounts of tartar built up. The dentist showed me, and it was disgusting. So, in order to get it all out so I don't get gum disease at 25, they had to put in novocaine because they'd be going up under the gums a lot. I hate, hate hate novocaine. I think I still associate it with having 15 teeth pulled as a kid and it sort of causes me to have a panic attack. It wasn't fun. They ended up only doing the upper right quadrant yesterday, and I'm going back on the 27th for the rest. Wish me luck. Ew.
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| Thursday update |
[07 Aug 2008|03:06pm] |
So I went to Provincetown last weekend. I think my last entry sums up the town pretty well. There were lots of wonderful art galleries too. But the pot building was just funny. I laughed everytime I walked by. And not just because of what I was possibly inhaling.
I didn't bring a camera, so I don't have any pics. Boo urns. Why did I think that would be a good idea? I don't know.
And on Saturday night, my mom and I saw Jimmy James at a little cabaret theatre. He's not exactly a drag queen, since he doesn't wear women's clothes. Just a whole lot of makeup. Kind of androgynous actually. Anyway, he has his own dance album of original music, but he also specializes in singing songs as other famous divas. He did Billie Holiday, a great Bette Davis imitation from "What Happened to Baby Jane?" and closed with this number:
He sang Barbra's part and played another video of Judy Garland singing her part on a screen in the background. I actually teared up a little cause it was so good!
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| Provincetown in a nutshell |
[02 Aug 2008|05:22pm] |
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My mom and I went shopping today down the main street of Provincetown. In a chocolate shop we saw chocolate lollipops shaped like penises. Passing by a psychadelically colored building we smelled pot coming from somewhere upstairs. And walking down the road back home we heard someone having really loud sex upstairs. Awesome.
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| I need a weekend to recover from my weekend |
[28 Jul 2008|01:53pm] |
Last weekend, Mikey and I took another whirlwind trip up to San Francisco.
-We left at 4 am again. I slept a lot in the car and we got into the city at 10:30.
-Mikey did a little research on yelp.com and found an amazing sandwich place called Ike's Place in the Castro. It was super stuffed with goodness. I highly recommend it.
-We Munied over to the Golden Gate. Too many tourists!!! Chrissy Field and Fort Point were really nice though. It was super sunny and I got a nice burn even though I wore sunscreen. Grrr.
-Hopped over to Ghirardelli Square to meet up with Marissa! Yay! Mikey and Chris headed on their merry way and us girls walked down Columbus Ave in North Beach to go bar hopping and have snacks.
-And along the way we found the North Beach Jazz Festival! Gotta love the random stuff. At one point, I hear this song from Grey's Anatomy and I think "it's probably just a cover band singing it." Turns out, it was the actual band who sings the song! So awesome!!! They were unplanned special guests for the show. They're called Bitter:sweet and I highly recommend them too.
-We chilled at Marissa's new place for a bit and then went out to dinner. We ate at Rex's Cafe which was very awesome as well. They were a little slow though. Marissa then managed to get a hold of Pahole which is a feat of nature. He drove in and met up with us, Mikey, and Mikey's friend Jade at a bar on Polk. It was pretty cool.
-Didn't get in until 2ish. Ouch.
-At least we slept in on Sunday. Had a filipino breakfast that is super yummy and then drove over to Ikea, and back around to hit up Full House houses, Mrs. Doubtfire, the Presidio, Baker Beach and Ocean Beach.
-Mikey and leave the city at 4:30 and get in a 11. Getting over the Bay Bridge took for.ev.er. Boo urns.
And I'm still tired. And a little sick. I'm trying to save energy for Cape Cod this weekend, so I may or may not go to jazz class tonight. We'll see how I feel at 6 pm.
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| To Jenna's stomach... |
[20 Jul 2008|02:01pm] |
Dear Stomach,
You and I have had a very interesting relationship over the last 18 hours. First, we go to Lucille's for dinner last night and you're all "Feed me! I'm hungry! BBQ galore!". So I feed you. You don't feel gross at the end of it so I think, "Cool! I ate at Lucille's and I didn't feel like a gross pig afterwards." We go back home and hop into bed early cause we both know I needs to be up at 3:30 to open at Starbucks the next day.
3:30 am comes and the alarm goes off, and....something's not quite right. You, Stomach, seem to have decided sometime during the night that you don't like Lucille's anymore, and around 4 am, you have me, Jenna, on the floor of the bathroom looking at that dinner in reverse. Thanks, Stomach, thanks.
But I can't be too angry because I was able to stumble through a 5 hour shift withour any further mishaps. Still, not happy about this morning. Not happy.
Sincerely,
Jenna
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