all-star spectacular

For the second time since the opening of Staples Center, the LA Kings got to host the NHL All-Star Weekend this year, Saturday January 28th and 29th. 

Being me, I of course had to be there for both the All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday and the All-Star Game on Sunday. 

Here's a photo essay of the weekend-o-hockey-fun!

Saturday: Fan-Fair and the Skills Competition

Oh, hey Drew Doughty. You look a lot better up there than Crybaby Crosby does ;)

Because it's LA, we of course had an All-Star Weekend Sand Castle  :) 

My favorite All-Stars, for obvious reasons

In honor of the 20th Anniversary of Wayne's World, a pop-up Stan Mikita's All-Star Cafe was set up in front of the Fan Fair. They gave away free donuts (that tasted like Krispy Kreme) and hosted autograph sessions and player/celebrity panels every few hours. 

We just happened to arrive at the All-Star Cafe in time to catch the Great One (aka Wayne Gretzky) on a panel with Brett Hull and David Boreanez, talking about the All-Star Celebrity Shootout game Saturday afternoon they were all participating in. (Wayne was not as grumpy as he looks in this photo, I swear.)

We also caught Hall of Fame hotties Mike Modano and Chris Chelios signing autographs. (And I was super-annoyed when some lady who just showed up for the free donuts asked me who they were!)

The NHL Fan Fair had food, kids stuff, autograph lines I wasn't going to wait in, collectibles and a really cool display of all the NHL Awards. Here are the awards with LA Kings on them (minus the Stanley Cup.. you had to reserve time to see that up close).

The Norris Trophy for Best Defensemen, won by Rob Blake in 1998 (photo on right) 

and Drew Doughty last season.

The Selke Trophy for Best Defensive Forward, won by Anze Kopitar last season.

The Conn Smythe Trophy, for NHL Playoff MVP, won by Jonathan Quick in 2012 

and Justin Williams in 2014.

The Veznia Trophy, for Best Goaltender, never won by a King (yet... Jonathan Quick has been nominated twice). But I include it here because, seeing it close up, I noticed that is has a goalie net in the middle of it, which I think is pretty cool :)

The Jennings Trophy, given to the goaltender with the fewest goals against, 

won by Jonathan Quick in 2014

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, for the player exhibiting the best sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, won by Wayne Gretzky multiple times, and Anze Kopitar last season.

Inside of Staples Center decked out (see the walls below the restaurant) for the weekend with logos from all the teams and the names of the four divisions competing.

The pre-Skills Competition intros.

Jeff Carter (#77) and Drew Doughty (the 2nd #8), being from the host team LA Kings, were the last players introduced before the four fan-voted Captains.

Sunday: All-Star Game

Dreeeeew and Carts during warmups.

Prior to the game, the members of the "NHL 100" (who had been introduced in a ceremony Friday night) all walked onto the ice and were introduced one by one. This was probably the coolest moment of the weekend...seeing that caliber of talent all in one place at the same time, in their jerseys. #chills

The current All-Stars went down that line as they were introduced (they skated out from under that triangle thingy), shaking hands with each historic player. Then, after the anthems, the members of the 100, all dropped a puck to a current All-Star to start the game, performing the largest, most talented puck-drop in NHL history!

The final score of "Round 1" which sent my Pacific team to the Final Round against the Metropolitan division, who ended up beating them 4-3 (cuz they were coached by Gretzky ;p).

the u2 experience 2015

I don't know how many times I've seen U2 in concert over the years, but I do know that they just get better and better every time I do experience them live. Saturday night at the LA Forum (which I hate) was no exception (despite its location). 

I knew going in I was about to see a visually stunning, technologically amazing show. And I'd heard that what I'd hear was also going to be amazing thanks to a new sound system the band has installed around the arena, instead of just blaring from the stage. (That was well documented in the reviews of earlier stops on the still-young tour.) But as amazing as all that was, the "innocence+experience tour" is still -- at its core -- about four guys from the North side of Dublin who write beautiful music and make every one of the 20,000 people crammed into the arena feel like every note is meant just for them. 

Their latest album "Songs of Innocence" is now one of my all-time favorites, and it features one of my new all-time favorite songs, "Song for Someone." That was the first song on the album that struck a chord with me. And that was one song I truly wanted to hear live... just for me, and, well... 

love.

I was happy...and I didn't even have to wait that long :)

Here are the 22 other songs Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry also played during the two(ish) hour set....

They started out rocking on the main stage, near my awesome seats. (Paying $40 a year to be a member of U2.com has its privileges!) Then Bono, followed by The Edge and eventually Adam and Larry made their way down the ramp to the small stage at the other end of the arena. There truly wasn't a bad seat in the house.

They also made their way into the massive projection screen that is the centerpiece of the "visually stunning, technologically amazing" part of the show. Here are some of the coolest and/or funniest shots I took (imho): 

Edge inside the screen, and Bono being filmed on the small stage.
(After squirting him down, Bono held Edge in the palm of his hand ;) 

The whole band inside the screen

I loved the whole show. And I am so happy it actually happened. I bought the tickets back in December and it's taken forever to arrive. And just as it did, bad things started happening.  I kind of fear this tour is cursed. First, the whole start of the tour was postponed by Bono's catastrophic bicycle accident in Central Park back in November. Then a few nights before the first show in Vancouver, Larry's father passed away. Then on opening night in Vancouver, Edge walked right off the edge of the stage and luckily wasn't hurt. Then this past Wednesday, the band's tour manager Dennis Sheehan was found dead in his hotel room. 

That loss is still very raw. Bono spoke of him while discussing friendship, and the sanctity of it. And how friends can fight and speak their minds and still be okay.... and how that's so important to do. He said he regrets not saying things to Dennis. And he also regrets not saying things to Michael Hutchence, which lead into the song he wrote after Hutchence died... and it too was beautiful, with Edge on piano and backing vocals. 

I've leave you stuck in that moment, sung with words of experience after the innocence has gone... enjoy:

happy cup-iversary!

Exactly one year ago tonight, I was standing in the lower bowl of Staples Center with my dad watching this happen...

Sadly, I won't get to relive that experience again this season. The Kings' 2013 season ended last Saturday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals when the Chicago Blackhawks (who, ironically, ruined our home opener/Stanley Cup banner raising at the beginning of the season) beat them in double overtime -- the longest game in Kings history -- and eliminated them from this year's playoffs. The Blackhawks will now play the Boston Bruins in this year's Stanley Cup Finals, beginning tomorrow. (And by the way... GO BRUINS!)

Those who know me assumed that game was an extremely upsetting event for me. (I actually received condolence messages from multiple friends and coworkers.) But as someone who's been upset and disappointed for approximately 90% of my 25 years as a Kings fan, that was nothing. In fact, I was actually proud of them. Sure they were eliminated in five games. But they made it back to the Western Conference Finals the year after winning The Cup. Most teams who've won the Stanley Cup in recent years have been eliminated in the first round the next year. The New Jersey Devils, who we beat last year, didn't even make the playoffs this year. So to even make it to the Conference Finals was a big accomplishment. 

On top of that, after quickly falling behind 0-2 in Game 5, the Kings battled back to tie the game 2-2 in the 3rd. Then, with three minutes remaining in the game, the Hawks scored what many assumed was the game winning goal. But the Kings wouldn't go quietly, and with 9.3 seconds left in regulation, Anze Kopitar deflected a shot off of Mike Richards and into the net to send the game to OT. No Kings team of my first 23 years of fandom would've battled back like that. And yes, they were eventually beaten 32 minutes later when Patrick Kane finally got a puck past Jonathan Quick. But they went down fighting and that's all you can ask for... especially from a team that was too beaten up to realistically go much further. The Blackhawks were too good this year, and the Kings were hurting, bad.

In the playoffs, no one talks about injuries. But any Kings fan could tell things were not right with the team, especially the top lines. Hits weren't being thrown. Goals weren't being scored. Skating fast seemed reeeeally hard sometimes.

I was certain Kopitar had messed up his knee again -- that was the only way to explain his lack of goal scoring. But it turns out, he's the only top-line player who wasn't injured. Justin Williams had been playing with a separated shoulder since the San Jose series. Dustin Brown was playing with a torn PCL in his knee. Drew Doughty was skating on a messed up ankle for the last two series. And Robin Regher just had surgery today to repair his elbow that's been damaged since the start of the playoffs.

Considering all that, the fact that they beat San Jose in Round 2 was a minor miracle. So I can't be upset about losing to Chicago.

All I want now is for them to get healthy again so they can kick butt next year... specifically the Blackhawks' butts... and of course the Ginger Twins'. (Me, hold a grudge? Ha.)

And until then, I will enjoy not having to drive downtown twice a week to fight for parking spaces that haven't yet been vacated by downtown worker bees by the time nationally televised games start.

And I will watch this and remember the most amazing two months of hockey that culminated in the most surreal, amazing, fairy tale ending 365 days ago.

Happy Cup-iVersary LA Kings and Fans! It was an amazing ride... and I have no doubt we'll experience it again very soon :)

adventures in my own backyard - the 2013 edition

A little over a year ago, I made a list of places in and around Los Angeles I wanted to visit/experience/eat at. I've made some progress on the list over the last year, so I figured it was time to review and update it, especially since -- as I was planning places to eat my numerous upcoming birthday dinners at -- I've realized that I actually don't want to eat at some of the places on my original list ;)

Read on and let me know if you have any suggestions for places to add in the comments!

Places to Eat

• Church and State -- Removing this. Don't like the menu right now
• Hungry Cat -- Removing this. Had no idea the menu included so much slimey, chewy seafood. Blech.
• Musso & Frank -- CHECK! Went here for my birthday last year. It was yummy!
• The Original Pantry -- CHECK. Went here after a hockey game. It did not live up to the hype.
• Osteria Mozza -- Still on the list... if I ever need to eat at 9:30pm on a Wednesday (which is the only time you can get a reservation), I will go here.
• Pizzeria Mozza -- See comment for Osteria Mozza
• Yamashiro -- Going here this weekend for my birthday!
• The Huntington for Tea: CHECK!
• NEW: The Huntington Gardens Tea Room -- Going at the end of March (if I'm still a lady of leisure... kinda hoping I have to reschedule...)
• NEW: Red O
• NEW: Angelini Osteria
• NEW: The Tasting Kitchen -- Probably for brunch
• NEW: Laurel Hardware
• NEW: El Coyote -- I LOVE Mexican food and this is an LA institution that I'm embarrassed to say I've never eaten at. Bad Kim!

Places to Visit in LA

• Angel's Flight
• Art Deco Tour of LA
• Daryl's Tour of LA 
• Forest Lawn Museum -- To see the art, not dead people
• Getty Villa in Malibu -- CHECK!
• Gold Coast iPic Theater in Pasadena -- A movie theater with reclining chairs and waitress service.
• Griffith Observatory -- To actually look at the stars, not just the view
• Lake Hollywood -- CHECK! 
• LA Library - Ansel Adams Exhibit -- Removing. Missed it.
• Queen Mary - CHECK!
• NEW: The Last Bookstore
• NEW: Bradbury Building. My friend works here... we're lunching next week ;) 
• NEW: Venice Canals -- Yes, I've never seen them. Although I've seen the canals in Venice, Italy, so these are gonna have a lot to live up to. 
• NEW: California Science Center -- To see the Space Shuttle

Then there are the two sad lists of things outside of LA I made zero progress on in a year. But hey, like I just said, I went to ITALY. So I really couldn't care less about Carmel and the Grand Canyon. ;P

Places to Visit in CA

• Big Bear
• Carmel
• Hearst Castle
• Lake Arrowhead
• Lake Tahoe
• Ojai
• Palm Springs
• Paso Robles

Places to Visit Near CA

• Grand Canyon
• Yosemite

summer fundays

Hi all.... long time, no blog. I had to recover from all the hockey insanity. (Sorry about that. I know I got a little Cup Crazy... but can you blame me? ;) Anyhoo, since the amazing event of June 11, 2012 that I still don't quite believe happened, I've been spending time catching up on life... work drama and travels, house and garden stuff, and hanging with friends.

Two weekends ago, I spent the whole weekend pretty much doing nothing but having fun enjoying the wonderment that is Southern California. Living here, I often forget how lucky I am to have a beautiful blue ocean and its beaches and breezes a mere 30-60 minutes on the evil 405 away from me. 

On Saturday, my friend Linda chartered a sailing boat out of Long Beach for her birthday and did we ever have an adventure! The captain almost fell overboard before we left the harbor and lost quite a bit of blood from a gash in her head when she slipped. But let's not focus on the negative :p She survived and we had a gorgeous day out on the ocean, watching sea lions snooze, dodging a sailboat race, and marveling at kite surfers. 

The Queen Mary

Sea lions lounging and a seagull looking for something to claim as "Mine. Mine. Mine."

Sailboats racing away from us amateurs

Wide shot of the sailboat race

Kite surfers... I was totally amazed that none of their kites got tangled up with each other. There were so many of them and they were so colorful!

Then on Sunday, I joined my biking buddy Mike for a trek with his pals down the bike path from Marina del Rey to Manhattan Beach and back -- a good 16+ miles. Super fun and relaxing on what was an absolutely gorgeous day. At one point I just sighed and Mike commented that I must have found my happy, relaxed place :) I did. Sunday Funday bike rides are going to become more of a regular occurrence I do believe... especially on days that look like this:

Looking out at Manhattan Beach Pier and the Pacific Ocean. Ahhh.

happy national margarita day!

Who knew there was a National Margarita Day!?! I didn't till right now, and unfortunately, I'm already a glass and a half into a bottle of wine. However, I had a big margie on Monday night and have plans for another one tomorrow night, so I'll just be celebrating my own personal National Margarita Week :) And till tomorrow's goblet-o-lime-and-te-kill-ya goodness, I'm just going to stare at these pretty pictures:

The Best Margaritas in Los Angeles
(Note: I'm surprised the Casa Vega margarita isn't on there... one of those will knock you out! Although I have had the one from the El Paseo Inn on Olvera Street, and it ain't too weak either ;)

planning adventures in my own backyard

Last Saturday, I decided to make my "Mom's Awesome Italian Tortellini Soup" (yes, that's its official name + photo at right to prove I "cook" ;) and invite some friends over to watch screeners. But instead of movies, we got to talking over the last two issues of Los Angeles Magazine -- February's Classic LA and January's Best New Restaurants. We've actually been talking on and off for eons about all the things we want to do around LA that we never actually get around to. People from all over the US come here to vacation and experience all the cool things this town has to offer, and we really take it for granted most of the time. So we decided to actually make a list of all the things we want to do. It goes like this...

Places to Eat

• Church and State
• Hungry Cat
• Musso & Frank
• The Original Pantry
• Osteria Mozza
• Pizzeria Mozza
• Yamashiro

Places to Visit in LA

• Angel's Flight
• Art Deco Tour of LA
• Daryl's Tour of LA 
• Forest Lawn Museum (as in art, not dead people)
• Getty Villa in Malibu
• Gold Coast iPic Theater in Pasadena (with the reclining chairs and waitress service)
• Griffith Observatory (to actually look at the stars, not just the view)
• Lake Hollywood
• LA Library - Ansel Adams Exhibit

Places to Visit in CA

• Big Bear
• Carmel
• Hearst Castle
• Lake Arrowhead
• Lake Tahoe
• Ojai
• Palm Springs
• Paso Robles

Places to Visit Near CA

• Grand Canyon
• Yosemite

Do you have suggestions for yummy food places, historic/unique places to visit or beautiful nature spots to experience? Leave a note in the comments and maybe I'll add them to my list :)

hot, hot, hot!

L.A.'s hottest day ever - latimes.com

So it was 113 Downtown today. Big whoop. It was hotter than that in my driveway yesterday....

... which means it was probably even HOTTER than that in my driveway today. Glad I was in North Hollywood where it was only 110 degrees. (Holy heatwave Batman!) And I'm REALLY glad I'm going to San Francisco tomorrow, where it will be a measly 81, followed by lowly mid-70s on Wednesday and Thursday.

Before that though -- and speaking of hot -- my fave reality show, Dancing with the Stars, is back! And while Maks is the hottest dancer on the show, tonight the HOT, HOT, HOT award goes to cutie Derek and his star protege' Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey, who kicked butt on their jive. They got three 8's. They should have gotten three 10's. Wow!

cleaning up the coastline

Thousands clear debris from the shore - latimes.com

A group of us went to El Matador State Beach in Malibu to clean up the coast for an hour and a half on a very hot Saturday morning. What did we clean up, you might ask? About a babillion cigarette butts (smokers are disgusting litterers), a bazillion small pieces of styrofoam (they aren't kidding when they say that stuff is forever/doesn't degrade), candy wrappers, a dry cleaners claim ticket, a giant empty liquor bottle, a syringe (empty, with cap on it) and a track suit (yes, I said a track suit... as in Sue Sylvester).

LIZARD! (It's been a year since I took a Lizard pic! There were a bunch of them on the hill leading down to the beach)





















MINE! MINE! MINE! Sadly all the fish were farther out to sea being eaten by seals, so this perfectly perched seagull was outta luck. :(

hockey, music and margaritas

Had a fun day wandering around downtown today on almost no schedule, taking the metro from Hollywood & Western down to 7th & Figueroa. (Cuz we're green like that!)

First stop was the Grammy Museum at LA Live. I've been wanting to check it out for over a year, and was running out of time since the Michael Jackson exhibit will be closing soon and I wanted to see that. So, we handed over our $10 (thanks to the AAA discount ;) and spent a good 90 minutes wandering the three floors of the museum.

One of the coolest things is the "Crossroads" table, which is like being on Star Trek or in Minority Report, swiping images on a giant table to activate graphics and audio that tell you about just about ANY genre of music you could EVER imagine (seriously!).

From there, we went to the MJ exhibit, which had a lot of video of his Grammy moments, a light up floor like in the Billie Jean video, numerous sparkly jackets, gloves (but not THE glove), handwritten lyric sheets, and the suit he wore on the cover of Thriller -- he was even super-skinny then, which is really frightening considering how much tinier he seemed before he died. Anyhoo, it was cool to see, but I kinda expected there to be more to it.

As we finished checking out the main exhibit on the 4th floor, we found this bit of awesomeness -- the Songwriters Hall of Fame listing -- near the stairs leading down to the 3rd floor:

...What makes this more awesome (or odd) is that they felt the need to tell people that David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills were in Crosby, Stills and Nash (duh!), but didn't feel the need to ID Jon or Richie? (Or whoever Galt Mac Dermont is? Okay...) 

Other cool things in the museum: "The Dress" J-Lo wore to the Grammys in 2000; a guitar smashed by Kurt Cobain; the carbon-fiber, temperature-resistant cello Yo Yo Ma played at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics; a thank you note from Elvis' real estate agent; and handwritten letters and lyrics from Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin ... Oh, and a telegram from Mick Jagger explaining to NARAS why he couldn't be a presenter on one of the mid-'70s awards shows because of the Stones' Australian tour and the possibility of airline delays. LOL!

Our one appointment of the day was at 5pm at Staples Center. I had to go "select-a-seat" to get myself out of the evil section 205 that only has ONE aisle entrance (which equals a super-PITA during hockey intermissions if you are on the aisle, like I was last season). I luckily found two seats two rows lower across the aisle in section 206, which has TWO aisle entrances. Hopefully that will be less annoying. We also got to tour the Kings locker room...sadly there were no Kings in it at the time ;) It's super-deluxe with a main room (left pic) for putting on gear, a hang-out room with a kitchen and TV where they probably have team meetings, and then a back locker room where they lock up their normal clothes and valuables during games. Fans were writing all over the white boards and I found the message below on the right to be especially poignant :) 

From Staples, we headed back to LA Live to Rosa Mexicano, the one place Diana will drink alcohol at, which is odd considering it's REALLY STRONG alcohol (in the form of a really good pomegranate margarita). They have good guacamole too if you ever stop in. 

By then it was after 7 and starting to look like it might rain, so we went back to 7th & Fig and hopped a train home. But I will be back to wander again... there are so many good places to eat and discover down there... like there was NO line at The Pantry when we walked by, but we weren't hungry anymore. I need to eat there someday.. it's an LA Landmark! 

round and round

Had a super-fun day today at Griffith Park near the merry-go-round to celebrate month 6 of my friend Shawn's "40 Years of Fun & Adventure" year-long celebration leading up to his 40th birthday this December. We had a great picnic in the shade and then went for a ride on the carousel, which goes surprisingly fast for being 73 years old. :)