Goth weekend

Hello readers! After rereading my last post, it became clear to me that it was kinda super depressing. I really don't want you guys to think that I'm not enjoying my time out here, or that I regret doing this at all. As my good friend Derrick put it "Even on your lowest day, just remember: if you hadn't done this, you would still be that girl longing for California", and I totally agree. This whole experience has been cliche-ly life-changing for me. Its taught me a lot about the concept of home and what I really want after graduation in the spring, and its given me a new perspective on aspects of my life that I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about. (Can I please mention that while in California I decided what I want to do when I'm out of college? Fuck, that sure feels good.) What I wasn't expecting was how much I'd miss Minneapolis. I wasn't homesick when I moved from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Not at all. I think the first time I felt homesick was just this past year when I visited Milwaukee in the end of June after not being there since the beginning of January. Naturally, I thought it would be the same coming here. But its not. I guess its because I like where I'm at in Minneapolis: on my own, lots of friends, partying, chilling, knowing the area. Life's good.

Anyway, in order to prove to you guys that I'm not giving up on my adventure out here (WHOOOHOO ADVENTURE YEAH), I did two really fucking awesome things this weekend (actually, I just did them because I wanted to. But you felt really important for a second, right?). On Friday, I visited LACMA (the Los Angels Country Museum of Art), and I can tell you that the two hour transit ride was totally worth it: I got to see the Tim Burton exhibit!

My inner goth child LIVES AGAIN! Hahaha. Oh man, but it was amazing. I remember being in middle school and loving his art; stuff like The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and of course, Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so amazing to see his earlier works, and there were a lot of pieces I'd never seen before. I totally feel in love with this one:

I wish I could have taken pictures, but there was no photography allowed. There was an amazing black light room with a totally nuts mobile and the actual Edward Scissorhands suit and gloves and ahhhh! So much cool shit.

 

I spent close to two hours in the exhibit and then explored a few of LACMA's permanent collections, but I had another two hours on buses and the subway to look forward to, so I didn't get to see much of the rest of the museum. I did, however, get a closer look at the La Brea Tar Pits, which was awesome. I hope I'll get a chance to go back to LACMA, and that I'll be able to go to the Page Museum, which is where the fossils that were found in the Tar Pits are exhibited.

 

My Friday night was spent hanging out in my friend Bill's apartment, where we watched Tosh.0. I haven't seen that show in forever, and its a lot crazier than I remember it to be. For example (Grandma, you might not want to watch this):

...woah. Okay.

Saturday morning I get a text from a friend of mine who moved to LA from Minneapolis this past summer asking me if I want to go see the taping of the Spike SCREAM Awards, and I was like "HOLY SHIT YES". I spent the day trying to come up with a costume, because apparently the better your costume is the better your seats are, but my car-less-ness and the fact that I'm poor left me with very little to work with, so I ended up wearing a Misfits shirt, a really short plaid skirt (I didn't remember it being that short, so either the washing machine shrunk it or my butt got bigger...in a good way /winkwink), fishnets and boots (inner goth child released part deux). But fuck, some of the costumes were really awesome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to bring phones or cameras in, so I have no pictures for you. Sad day.

I brought Bill and Jeff (another one of my Korean friends) with me, and we got down to Universal City around 5. After we parked, a bus took the three of us up into the studios. We saw a lot of movie sets on the way up, so that was pretty awesome. The set for the show was freaking sweet. Kind of a circus-sideshow feel, with a lot of cool costumes and vintage-y patterns and colors. The whole thing was set up outside, which kind of sucked because it got really cold, but we had good seats. And they had free catering! Waiters brought burgers, fries, sandwiches, cakes and BOOZE up and down the aisles. Yes my friends, free show AND free booze. I didn't want to be shwasted though, so I only had a couple glasses of wine. I was supposed to be able to order whatever mixed drink I wanted, but the whole thing was extremely disorganized, and even though I ordered from four different people, I never got my gin and tonic. Oh well.

The show itself was pretty awesome, mostly because I saw my FAVORITE ACTOR, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (insert major swoon). And he WAVED IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION. So happy. I'm not really one to get starstruck, but this was different. Ever since I saw Mysterious Skin back in high school, and then Brick, then 500 Days of Summer...ugh, in love. Annnnyway, haha, some of the other celebrities were Quentin Tarantino, Anne Hathaway, Robert Downy Jr., Colin Ferrell, George Lucas, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Bradley Cooper and a bunch more. It was also really interesting to see how the whole thing worked. First of all, I have no idea how the make the audience look so huge on TV. There really weren't that many people there; at least a lot less than I expected. Second, hearing the celebrities fuck up was awesome. A couple of them had to do a couple takes, and the crowd's reaction was pretty priceless. The show had cool pyrotechnics, we got sweet signs to wave when Robert Downy Jr. came on set...god, I just wish I could have taken pictures. I tried to see if any had leaked, and this is what I could find to help you guys visualize the whole thing a little better:

 

But you know, you could always just watch the awards show on Spike TV, Tuesday at 9:00 (I don't know what time zone though). Who knows, maybe you'll see me in the crowd!

Well, I have a long week ahead of me. Three midterms and hopefully doing some volunteering at the school's writing center. I don't have any concrete plans for next weekend, but don't worry, you know I always find something to do.

Until then! <3