Knowgonzalo

Tuesday is our full day off. This past tuesday we went to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles and to Sony Studios in Culver City. Little Tokyo was really cool, too bad Chicago does not have one. According to legend (a.k.a according to Joe), there is a Japanese market somewhere in a suburb of Chicago, I hope to find it someday. Little Tokyo had a ton of Sushi places, Ramen shops, Korean Restaurants, Sweet shops and gift shops that carried souvenirs from Los Angeles, the New York Yankees (thanks to Matsui), the Seattle Mariners (thanks to Ichiro) and other Baseball teams with Japanese players.
After our lunch in Little Tokyo we made our way out to Sony Studios for the 2:30pm tour. And guess what, our tour guide was an Alumni of Nazareth High School (in my home town), what a small world this is. We saw a lot of props and costumes, they had items from the Spiderman movies!! Spiderman 2 has to be one of my favorite movies ever, and seeing the Green Goblin mask face to face was quite an event. I just couldn't get over how small it was, William Dafoe (the actor who played the Green Goblin) must have a small head. Too bad they didn't have the actual spiderman costume, that would have been awesome! They took us into the recording studio where singers like Barbara Streisand, whitney Houston, Beyonce and many others use. Also, she said that John Williams (the composer for Steve Speilberg films) only uses this Sony Studio. The acoustics are really nice and he loves to record there. Pretty cool. We saw the set for JOAN OF ARCADIA (which is on Friday nights on CBS) and walked through the 2nd biggest studio in the World: studio 25. She said they are going to be filming SPIDERMAN 3 there!!! If you or a guest would like to know about Sony Studios, you can check out: http://www.sonypicturesmuseum.com/

"Nothing but the best Clark." So goes the great exchange between Clark Griswold and Cousin Eddie in "National Lampoon's Vacation" Or who can forget: "I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself." (Man, my roomate Billy during my Study Abroad Semester in Spain was all about this movie.) But, the reason I mention all this is because I have found a good reason for TBS. In one of my past posts I said that TBS only exists to showcase terrible movies, but I forgot that TBS also plays some of the classics. Thanks TBS, you're a great way to kill some time when you're stuck in Chino, California.

One thing I really like about my position as Tour Cordinator is the interesting people I come across. I've even had one Mexican Dad ask me if I wanted to marry his daughter. I thought he was joking, but he insisted I go over for dinner. He was telling me he was trying to get her out of the house, and I guess marriage with a stranger was the best way of doing it. (Here's a suggestion: college.) The guy in this picture is no exeption, he was a mumbler and wanted a lot of candy. He would leave, go in the store and come out to get more candy. He kept doing this and thought I would not remember him. How can you forget a guy like this? When he would talk I could not make out what he was saying, and even though I would say "what?", he would carry on and keep talking like I understood him. He laughed at his own phrases and kept reaching into the Candy bin. A very cool guy. (by the way, I turned down the marriage proposal.)

On Easter Sunday, my partner and I went to have dinner at this Sushi Buffet place in Beverly Hills called TODAI (they have one in the Woodfield Shopping center in Schaumburg). It was good Easter dinner: A lot of Sushi, a lot of Miso Soup, some Green Tea and a Crepe, and a Lakers loss to the 76ers. Around the corner from the restaurant, this green sign was lying on the floor. There were many more related signs lying around, but, this one caught my eye the most. I mean it's so interesting. For one thing, aren't Seals suppose to be wet? I mean, don't they live in and around water? Another thing that crossed my mind: do they just oppose Wet Seals in Beverly Hills or all over Los Angeles county? None the less, it was an amusing sign to me, and hopefully to you too.

While driving through Inglewood the other day, I noticed a man holding a sign that read: "Jesus saves gangsters too." We all need to be saved I guess, even gangsters. Also, that man reminded me of my 2005 Mardi Gras trip, one of the one going gags of our trip was "the Jesus people" and "the Jesus corner." Over on Bourbon street they have these Jesus people out in the middle of all the sin that is Marid Gras and Bourbon Street and these people try to talk to drunk people over Jesus and Christianity. My friend Zac had a friendly encounter with them ( I wonder what he would say to the guy holding up the "Jesus saves gangster too" sign?). And when it came to "the Jesus corner," well that was the corner of Bourbon and some other street where they staged their crusade. They even had a big wooden cross with a neon sign that read: "Jesus Saves." The Jesus corner really helped us find our way. It was a meeting point for us when we got split up. Jesus and his corner helped us around Bourbon Street and it seems he helps gangsters in Inglewood too.

So this is the typical set up for our events. Crazy, huh? I still can't believe I'm doing this. Brings a smile (and an occasional tear) to my face. As you can see, we have a table that has a banner with our logo. We have two bins that hold the candy and then we have people that distribute that candy. The crown/hat I'm wearing is what we give away to kids.

We had lunch today at a most interesting place. It was a chinese restaurant near Compten. It had everything you'd expect from a restaurant in the hood: bullet proof windows, dirty floors, couple tables, chinese food, fried chicken and Rice Water (yes, I could not believe a Chinese Restaurant had Horchata (rice water))! What I found funny about the place was that is was given an "A" classification by the Los Angeles Health board. HA. But, I will say that this place had some good eatin'. Man, they stock your plate with food! Plus, it was so cheap. I paid $3.50 for chow mein, a side of Terayaki chicken and Orange chicken! Plus, I had leftovers, which became dinner. Man, the people in the hood know how to live. Also, there was this black lady who was screaming her head off at her son. When she started scolding her son, it was the normal: "why can't you be good" kind of scolding. But then it escaladed and boiled over into ear shattering screams. I couldn't believe it: Lunch and a show. Poor kid, he was just bugging his little brother. Big brothers are suppose to bug little brothers, that's why there are little brothers. So yeah, if you're ever around Compten, look up HONG KONG EXPRESS on Manchester.