AllSaints Not For Sale featuring Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

It's crazy how so much is packed in the Hollywood area: there's the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood and Highland, the Pantages Theater, Amoeba Music, the Chinese Theater, The El Capitan, the Egyptian Theater, and the Music Box theater all in close range of each other. Film and music lovers could spend hours watching movies, staring at stars (on the ground), and seeing great bands from all over the world. The AllSaints Not For Sale event was an invite only gig, which managed to have plenty of famous and fashion industry people while still having some real BRMC fans and friends in attendance thanks to the prize winners who'd purchased shirts in advance before the show. Dana was one of these lucky winners and I was her even luckier date.

These special events are always kind of strange because celebrities are milling about and models are serving snacks. Bar tenders are busily attending to the many people who take advantage of the open bar. And who could say no to free drinks and snacks? Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino featherweight boxing champion of the world, was the special guest of the evening. There is plenty of human trafficking in the Philippines, which much of the world knows nothing about. Celebrity endorsements aside, there really is a problem when people are still being bought and sold as slaves - wage slaves, sex slaves, even worse is when it's a child who's adult life ends up troubled due to horrible experiences. It's a heartbreaking thing to know that Slavery still exists all around us according to SlaveryMap.org.

So I forgot to write anything about the show. BRMC were a breath of fresh air in the star studded environment, which I heard included Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York) and most likely many other important people. We saw Dan Russell, his sister Nancy (who works at LACMA), and her friend who was charge of volunteers at TwentyWonder. Robert made a funny remark in between songs as how important we all know that fashion is. This was met by many approving chuckles from the fans. I took quite a few photos, which you'll find on Flickr. I'd say they played for about an hour and a half. The set included 10 +1 songs (thanks to Mel on the Forum for the setlist): Beat the Devil's Tattoo Bad Blood US Govt Weapon of Choice Ain't No Easy Way Red Eyes and Tears Six Barrel Shotgun Punk Song Spread Your Love Shadow's Keeper Open Invitation Check out my videos of "US Govt" and "Open Invitation":

   

Santa Monica to Long Beach and back

It's been a busy day - more so for my boyfriend than me because he worked all night and still drove us to a bunch of different places. I think my joint job/apartment search will lead me to the South Bay rather than Glendale or Burbank. Though I did have a brief yet promising phone interview, there seems to be a lot more good companies and reasonably priced apartments in the South Bay. It's also an easier place to get around than the Santa Monica area and most likely also less dangerous.

My friends are generally helpful in advising me on what to do, but I sometimes like to figure things out on my own. Me and my boyfriend are both a bit stubborn that way - something we both need to work on. I am usually pretty resistant to following other people's advice, I don't know why I can't do that sometimes. My family likes to force their opinions on me and it makes it hard to separate the good from the bad.

So the day involved going all around Santa Monica Place for the Tokidoki x Barbie event, which was packed when we first got there and cleared out by the time we went back. We ate at the Food Court, which was much more than we expected it to be and got some stuff at Hot Topic - which also ended up more than we expected, but at least we got some good deals. I looked at a few shirts at the store when we did get in, but they were not surprisingly more than I'd want to pay.

We stopped at an apartment in Mar Vista just to look and then went down to Long Beach to test drive a Nissan Leaf (but ended up more interested in the Nissan Versa - much cheaper and still fuel efficient). After that, we got some dinner at a nice sit down restaurant - which though more expensive than Santa Monica, was nicer and more relaxing place to enjoy a meal. And they validated our parking, not that we needed to at Santa Monica Place.

The Waiting Game

Sometimes you know something big will happen and you just can't wait for that thing to happen. A lot of major changes have happened in recent months - both good and bad. I think the worst is behind me and what I have to look forward to is better than what I've been through so far. I know it sounds vague, but I honestly feel there is more to my life than a bunch of contract jobs and people I've met that don't bother to keep in touch. I'm not talking about anyone in particular, more like people in general who don't call me back or respond to messages.

I've tried not to be the type of person who doesn't respond, but there are times when I don't feel up to it. For anyone I do consider my friend (which is more than you might expect), I will be there for them (or you if you are reading this). Anyways, I'm kind of in a wait and see mode of whether I can get a job that will allow me to live in LA more permanently while also getting an apartment to allow me to actually feel comfortable living here. In the past, I've known my roommates well enough or gotten to know them and it's no longer the case.

I just hope a job and an apartment turn up in my near future!