In between destinations

I am writing this entry from my hotel room in Flamingo, Las Vegas. I have neglected my blog partly because I had been quite down. But I finally bid a tearful farewell to New York and flew to LA to meet up with my friend from Singapore, before driving up to Las Vegas. By the way, New York was bloody cold. It was so cold that for one minute, I honestly thought my blood was frozen and my ears had fallen off.

Which of course, brings me to the subject of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles blows. Hollywood is bloody awful. There are more homeless people in Hollywood than I can count. Just how many homeless are there in Hollywood? Let's just say that I tripped over two hobos without even realising that they were lying on the pavement. I thought they were rubbish heaps because these hobos just draped a brown, decaying blanket over them when they slept. I tell you, when the "rubbish heap" started raising up, my heart actually skipped a beat. My first impression was that the dead had finally rised from the grave ala Resident Evil. These hobos are also quite shameless. They just came up to tourists and asked for money. Yeah, right.

I will write more about Las Vegas which is infinitely more interesting. But here are some photos of LA and Hollywood for keepsake.

Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame

Lots of characters dressing up as movie characters for tourists to take pictures with e.g. Captain America, Darth Vader. My guide warned me to be careful of three characers on the Hollywood Boulevard. One was Jack Sparrow who tended to get a little too "feely" with female tourists. Second was a crazy and filthy Spiderman who hid in a trash can and then jumped out to throw webbings at shocked tourists. And the third was a Marilyn Monroe who stood above a wind vent and like wind blew up her skirts for her classic pose. Problem is that if one looks up her skirt, one would see something extra. Yeeewww. I only met Jack Sparrow and I stayed far away from him.

Who can resist taking a picture of the star which belongs to the One?

I can't resist stamping my foot at David Copperfield.

Johnny Depp's foot isn't really that big.

I also did the Hollywood movie stars' homes tour where a van brought us around to see the homes of the rich and famous e.g. Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Chan, Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise and Sean Connery. Beckham's castle was so bloody big and well hidden that we can only see the spires from the distance. The best looking house must be that of J-Lo. Tasteful but not to the point of opulent.

I had dinner at the Saddle Ranch Chop House. It is featured in Sex and the City where one can ride the mechanical bull. It is especially challenging if one is drunk.

Skiing sucks! But small-town USA is good

It is official. I suck as a skiier. Not just a bad golfer anymore but also a bungling skiier to add to the list of sports that I suck at. I am depressed. A picture of Blue Mountain and the slope I had to ski down.
It might be the first time that I am skiing but surely no one could be more inept at this sport than me. It took me two days to even learn how to snow plough down a realtively gentle slope and I fall down more often than I can count. Little kids can ski better than me. My colleagues were already learning how to turn on slopes when I was still struggling to control my downhill speed. Damn depressing and down. Why can't I be good at something?

The only bright side to the trip was the food and the chance to see small-town USA. USA is not just bright lights of Manhattan, New York. In fact, most are just small towns filled with people living very simple lives like waitresses in a small diners. Imagine, a small town which consists of less than 100 people and just 5 public places; a school, a diner, a general store, a gun store (yeah, guns) and a church. Now imagine again that you are among the 100 people and grow up in this small town in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. CAN YOU IMAGINE? What do they do for leisure and on weekends (e.g. shoot ferets?) or for that matter, for a living?

Driving through silent, snow-covered forests. I kept imagining vampires jumping out from the trees and barring their fangs. Or a deer bolting from the bushes.

Lonely snowman guarding the junction. I think he was melting. Either that, or passer-bys kept licking it.

(Help, I am melting!)

Snow-covered cemetry in the town.

Typical small-town USA diner in the middle of snow-covered nowhere.

But the food. OMG, it was seriously good. And the portion was . . . gargantuan (yay, that word again). This 12 oz prime beef that I ordered was amazing. The fat around the beef was truly delectable. As you know, I do like my pork or beef fat.

Take a look at the half-rack of mouth-watering ribs that my friend ordered. HALF-RACK. For US$15. Can you imagine what a full rack would look like? They might as well as serve the whole pig.

And to round it off, I had three glasses of whisky for just US$10 in a tavern near my hotel. Oh, and the jukebox at the tavern amazing. I am actually not sure whether there are jukeboxes in Singapore pubs anymore. The jukebox was internet-linked so you could play any songs you like, past and present. It is so good that you can even find the Killers' new song "Human". My friend played some song from Jason Mrez. So, if you have one dollar and can choose one song, what will you choose? I deliberated for a minute and chose "Don't Cry" from Guns and Roses.

With food so good, portions that generous and alochol so cheap, no wonder many Americans in small-town USA have weight or alocohol issues.

It is snowing / Punisher - War Zone

It is snowing.

I just watched Punisher - War Zone two hours ago. There is something to be said about going into something with no expectations. If you have no expectations, you cannot be disappointed.

And c'mon, it is the Punisher. My favourite hero from Marvel. Superman and Spiderman, superpowers and all, are certifable wimps compared to the Punisher. This is seriously the best movie I have watched this year since the Dark Knight.

The whole movie is a 100 minute rollercoaster ride of blood and brain spill. It is violent and fun. If you cannot appreciate this movie for its sheer tongue-in-cheek violence, I should feel your pulse because you must be officially dead. The storyline is simple - Punisher basically kills everybody. EVERYBODY. How's that for awesomeoness? The whole audience was basically cringing from the first minute to the last as Punisher basically "off" everyone by shooting their heads, blowing things up, clefting heads with an axe, punching a doper's head till it burst against a wall, and throwing a thug off the building and he got impaled on spikes. And then Punisher jumped, stomped and broke the dying man's neck. LOL! And the brilliant thing is that this movie was directed by a woman. Who says women cannot direct violent movies that are true to the comics?

Life is perfect . . . . at 4.45 am on Saturday morning

It is 4.35 am on Saturday morning (Friday night) and I do love being drunk. I really do. It makes me forget about my troubles or at least see them in a different and clearer light. I wish I could be this prescient when the day dawns. In Singapore, I can't really afford to be drunk because I drive. This means that anything more than 2 beers and you run the risk of having your driving license revoked if you get stopped at those pesky checkpoints outside St James. But in New York, especially after a party, you can just stagger home in the winter cold while listening to the Killers' new album on your Apple Ipod. Nobody cares because everyone on the street at 4.30 am is either homeless or drunk. A whole new experience in itself as you listen to the song "Human" as you feel the winter cold bites into your skin. " . .. give my regard to soul and romance, they always did the best they could . . . "I will miss all this when I come back to hot and humid Singapore.

Such a buzz from the Cuban party. The Latinos really know how to wind down and party/
The mohijitos are fresh and superb. People from work who are usually stiff as corpses came alive at the party. Hugs and kisses and everything forgotten. Until Tuesday of course.

And for the brief moment when I typed this, life is indeed perfect at 4.45 am on a Saturday morning on 6 December.

The Lows

Aargh. Aargh. Aargh. That is the sound of me angsting over so many aspects of my life. I think I am suffering from food poisoning since I don't recall suffering from such emotional imbalance for a long time now. It must be the 3 Bloody Marys that I had at Prune last weekend. I need to take my mind off things. So I have decided to go skiing and snowboarding at Blue Mountain over the long weekend. Do the elitist thing, rent a car and mountain cabin and do some skiing. One more thing to cross off on my list of things to do.

Oh, I just heard this funny 2007 quote from Governor Arnold "Governator" Schwarzenegger from the VH1 Channel. The Governator said this, and I kid you not, "I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman". Say what? DAMN FUNNY. Everyone was scratching their heads when they heard this.

Oh, just to wind up this short entry and to make me feel better - I had brunch on Saturday at Prune on 1st Avenue / 1st Street. For US$19, you get the steak and eggs. Quite simply, it was the best brunch ever. The steak was fat and dripping with oil onto a slab of potato rosti. The rosti was not like the rubbish one you eat at Marche. It was full-flavoured, tasteful and not like strips of straws. My friend is coming to visit me next week and I am bringing her to eat at this place for sure again.