I tried to catch up on my sleep a little bit so I didn't get up until 11am and I didn't actually head out until 2pm. I was going to check out downtown to get my full Speed and Terminator fix. Before I headed out I booked a free ticket for a recording of The Price Is Right, a couple of people said it would be fun and I had no plans for Monday.
When I arrived at the subway station there was a big group of kids crowding around the ticket machines so it took a while to even get on a train. They were also on the same train as me and they were screaming every time it jolted, very annoying. I got off at Pershing Square station and immediately recognised the neon lights, I tried to do a bit of walking in Keanu's footsteps. I went to a Subway at street level that looked onto Pershing Square and had a very nice foot long veggie sub. I then walked a few minutes to the financial district and checked out the building from the beginning of Speed and the hill where Harry and Jack jump into shot in their police car. Also in that area I checked out the bank used in Heat and Fight Club. Next was the jewelry (American spelling) district which featured a couple of locations from The Terminator. One was the store front used for Tech Noir where Sarah takes refuge and the other was the alley where Kyle appears. I was slightly unsure of where both locations were but I narrowed it down to only two possibilities and got photos of both. I spoke to a security guard next to one of them and he had no idea what I was talking about.On my way to the Bradbury Building (Bladerunner) a woman was selling "Chocolate! World's finest chocolate!". I didn't buy any, I assumed it would be very expensive. The Bradbury Building was actually closed for filming, I tried to sneak in the rear entrance but there were security guards right around the corner so I chickened out. I then walked to the Orpheum Theater which was featured in Last Action Hero.
I got the subway back to the hostel and got off the train a few stops early. I just wanted to check out the area on foot and there was a pretty cool sky when I turned onto Sunset Blvd. When I got back to the hostel I met another room mate called Jesper, he was from Denmark and doing some acting classes over here. I caught up with some blogging and then went across the road for some vegan chop suey, it wasn't as good as the chow mein but I was making sure I wasn't eating the same thing on consecutive days. Shintaro returned from his day of skateboarding adventure and we chatted in the kitchen until about midnight, then went to bed.
Day 53 (Sunday Nov 14th) "Sarah Connor! Sarah Connor!"
I was meeting Damon at around midday so I got up at 9am to do some planning. He said we might be able to drive to some of my movie locations so I made sure I knew where they all were. The vegan restaurant didn't open until 11am which I thought was strange because they serve breakfast, so I went to the nearby gas station to get a blueberry muffin, a blueberry Danish and some grape Gatorade.
Damon was bang on time and it was so good to see him again. We drove straight to the apartment complex from The Karate Kid, I hadn't even put that on my list but Damon had been doing his own research, my kinda guy! We then drove to Marty McFly's house and then on to Vasquez Rock. It was quite busy on the rock but we managed to get some videos of where Kirk and evil robot Bill and Ted had climbed up. Next was the E.T. house which was a bit harder to find than th other places. Damon's iPhone told us to drive through a hill and it turned out the house was in a gated community, our first two attempts were blocked by gates but third time lucky and there was no gate on one side, seems a bit silly. As we leaving the area a couple of cops were driving around, Damon joked about them arresting us for tresspassing, then saw that they were actually checking his plates and then they turned around behind us. Damon was rather scared for a couple of minutes but it was a false alarm. We then drove to Gamble House which was the house used for Doc Brown's house in Back To The Future. They have tours and a book shop there now but we just got a few photos and headed to Carrow's restaurant where Sarah Connor worked. We also did a rather terrible re-enactment across the road from there of when Arnie pulls a guy away from the phone box so he can check the phone book. Onto Bushnell Avenue where there were three house that were used in the Back To The Future trilogy. We bumped into a couple that were actually at the event the other night. Then Damon agreed to drive a bit out of the way just so I could get to a Masters Of The Universe location. We re-enacted the final scene of the movie where Kevin and Julie meet in the street and realise that it wasn't all a dream. Look forward to that video!
It was time to head home... to Damon's home in Monrovia. I got to meet his wife Courteney, his two month old Presley and his eldest son Carson. We had some very filling Mexican food and I played trains with Carson. It was weird because he's into Thomas The Tank Engine and it was pretty much the same kind of train set that I used to play with twenty years ago. Carson also kept breathing fire on my legs with his toy dragon. After some running around in the back yard I got to read him a bed time story (Carson, not Damon) and then it was time for me to go. On the way back we drove to Jennifer's house which unbeknown to Damon was just around the corner from his house. I'd be seeing Damon again on Thursday so it wasn't too much of an emotional good bye.
I got back to the hostel at 10pm. Shintaro was already asleep and Kim was packing her bags because she was leaving early the next morning. I did some photo uploading and then went to bed around midnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment