San Diego/LA - Day 9, 10 & 11

Sorry for the lack of recap posts, we’ve been in Cali and in Vegas, so we’ve actually had shit to do, but better late than never. It might get a bit text-y, but hell, it’s a blog, I’m sure you’re already skimming through these words right now….

San Diego was dope, it’s a small, laid back beach city that breeds a corresponding way of life and attitude. With the proximity to the beach, surf and skate culture are obviously big, and with the constant good weather comes a large tattoo and piercing culture as well. Teetering somewhere between chilled out and lethargic, people somehow manage to get shit done. If I lived here my ass would never leave the beach.

We crashed with my boy Sean, a dood I basically grew up with, and I’ve known him since elementary school. Arriving in San Diego marked about 3,000 miles for us, so we had to take the whip in for service, getting an oil change and the car inspected. This killed most our time, so we rolled to dinner right after at Ra Sushi, where Sean was bartending. We had some good ass sushi, which was a nice change of pace after eating so much heavy, fried Southern food. We had this crazy specialty roll with spicy tuna, crab, avocado, eel, cream cheese, and the whole joint was lightly tempura battered. So ill.

After dinner, we hit the Tavern, the only local spot that was poppin on Monday, which had this great drink special, 5 bucks for a beer and a shot. The only problem was this place was on some dumb ass red-rope bullshit, for basically a dive bar on Monday night. A little strange, but we managed to wait it out and have a good time inside. We partied with a bunch of Sean’s boys, all super chill doods Philly, Ed, and Dave, and kicked it for the evening. I brought in my Rebel SLR, and Atif and I pretended to rep for some local publication. It’s funny how people have a completely different outlook to being photographed if they think they’re gonna get some kind of fame.

The morning after, we hit the Hash House, a Southern themed eatery that had the most ridiculous portion sizes I have ever seen anywhere on the planet. No lie, this shit was on some retarded. After the meal, we trekked it up to LA, which was actually more like sitting our asses in traffic for hours trying, so it was more like a slow, painful crawl. We stopped in the Fairfax area to peep the local streetwear scene, and we were pretty surprised how much more visible and prevalent streetwear was on the West Coast in general.

Los Angeles is home, so I guess my perspective is a little skewed, but it’s always good to be back and to see the family. I love the Los Angeles culture and places to chill, I just fucking hate the town way of life. I can’t stand sitting in LA traffic, I swear I would die of a brain aneurysm before I turned 30 if I stayed here. But, I do miss the Cali weather and laid back lifestyle, and I sometimes I wonder how I continue to live in a shoebox. At least in Brooklyn I have the roof and windows…..

It was strange to be pulling up in the whip, coming from New York. I had made that familiar drive up the stretch of the 101 freeway to my house, it was a little surreal to be rolling in Atif’s ride and have him sitting shotgun. After grubbing my mom’s home cooking, I did my best to do some work, but after crashing so many nights in the car and partying in San Diego, I straight up passed out once we had a proper bed. It wasn’t even like sleeping, it was like dying for a little, and miraculously regaining conscious the morning after.

Waking up early the next morning, Atif and I had some Vane work to get done, and then headed out to the Fairfax area again to meet with Ric Earth 1 Salazar from Secret Empire Agency to talk West Coast distribution for our upcoming shoe project. Things went well, and it was good to chop shit up with an LA veteran who has seen the entire scene grow and progress. Afterwards, we were starving, so I had to take Atif to LA’s legendary soul food joint, Roscoe”s Chicken and Waffles, which is the most unlikely but delicious combination of foods possible. Although Atif was skeptical at first, after actually eating everything he was convinced that Roscoe’s was serving crack, agreeing that the sweet, savory, and crispy combination of foods was stupid good.

Then we swung by to see my best from high school, Ashley, who is in grad school at UCLA for her PhD in Philosophy. Yea, the girl knows a little thing or two about existing. Her and her boyfriend Dan, who is also at UCLA grad school for Chemistry, are going to make a genius super baby that will probably have psychic powers to rival Professor X. Or Obama. Either way, I await in awe and in fear for that child to come. We chilled and watched America’s Next Dance Crew, which was a nice reintroduction to the rest of popular culture and other shit going on in America that we missed while in the car. That show is pretty ill, such sick dance crews that it’s great that they’re getting some national shine. Too bad Mario Lopez is such an ass clown. Which exec cast his him? They took the first non-black minority guy they could find, and I guess they found his cornball ass. Oh well.

After watching the Jabberwocky’s finale dance, we headed out to Glendale to grab a steak with my uncle and cousins, and I always love catching up with them. After dinner, we headed to Hollywood to sight see the stars and the Mann Chinese Theater. Our night was complete when we finally found the star for Chuck Norris. I heard that Chuck Norris built the Hollywood Sign in 6 days with his bare hands, and on the 7th he took a shit and the LA Clippers crawled out.

Knowing we had a hectic weekend in Vegas ahead of us, we had a chill night playing some Wii at my brother’s spot, where Atif discovered the magic that is Wii Tennis. Plus, his Mii is a deadringer for him, never seen anything like it, it was pretty uncanny. And before we fell asleep, we had to do laundry, so crucial! The next morning, we had breakfast with the fam and made a straight beeline for the City of Sin.

-e