MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008

Jamie Morris : Couchsurfer, Hollywood Bowl, Cinespia, and MORE. : Hilary, Lauren, and Jamie @ Swingers
Hilary, Lauren, and Jamie @ Swingers
Couchsurfer, Hollywood Bowl, Cinespia, and MORE.

Since it took me so long to get my blog caught up from my Korea/Japan vacation, I haven't had time to update it this month. So here's the short version of how I spent June. Many nights were spent having dinner and drinks with friends and sharing travel stories, but besides that...

I hosted a Couch Surfer from Sao Paulo, Brazil for 5 days. He was a really cool guy who works as an editor for the Brazilian version of the TV show Super Nanny. I showed him around Santa Monica and Venice Beach, took him to a Dodgers vs Cubs game (I had to explain the rules of baseball to him), and gave him a tour of Paramount.

I went to a few of soccer matches... LA Galaxy vs Columbus Crew (3-3 tie), LA Galaxy vs Colorado Rapids (3-2 win), and a World Cup Qualifier between the USA and Barbados (8-0 win). The USA game set a record for the high score. And of course I watched much of the Euro 2008 finals on TV. Congrats to Spain who hadn't won anything since the 1960s.

Summer is here and that brings my two favorite LA activities... concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and movie screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I saw Thievery Corporation with guest singers Seu Jorge and Perry Farrell along with opening act Bebel Gilberto at the Bowl on the 22nd. Amazing show. Gilberto Gil played with Devendra Banhart on the 29th. Very disappointing... I did not like Gilberto Gil's band. I saw him last year at UCLA performing solo and he was amazing. And last Saturday night I went to the cemetery to see Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

On the 19th, I saw The Who's Tommy at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre. It was the theatrical premiere of EXP3D's 3-D Sound. You wear Bose headphones while watching the show. The music was great and the story was cool, but I did not enjoy wearing the headphones for the entire show. Especially when I could not adjust the volume.

And finally, a few of work events... a screening of The Love Guru at Paramount, a bowling party at Jillian's with the kids from American Teen, and a birthday celebration for A.C. Lyles who celebrated his 90th birtday and 80th anniversary at Paramount (child labor?).

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TUESDAY, JUNE 03, 2008

Jamie Morris : Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction : Buggin' Out @ The G2 Gallery
Buggin' Out @ The G2 Gallery
Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction

This evening I went to the G2 Gallery on Abbot Kinney in Venice to check out the Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction. The Venice Art Walls are the only place in Los Angeles where artists can legally paint graffiti art on city property, but they are in danger because the city is cutting funding for the walls due to the budget crisis. Unless something changes, the walls could close as soon as July 1st when the funding is cut. ICU Art organized the auction of over 80 pieces contributed by local artists. The auction went very well. I think every piece sold. I saw one piece sell for over $2000. I bid on and won "Buggin' Out", the Bugs Bunny painting pictured above that was donated by my pal David "Miner" Cowan. You can read all about him and see some of his graffiti art in the book: The History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art (Volume 1, 1983-1988). If you're interested in contributing to help keep the Venice Art Walls open, visit the Donation Form page.

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MONDAY, JUNE 02, 2008

I'm Back!

It was a long day today... I woke up at 5:30am in Seoul, South Korea and watched the sunrise #1 as I took a taxi and then a bus to the airport. I had breakfast #1 and then caught a flight to Tokyo where I had lunch #1. After a 4-hour layover and a 1-hour delay, I boarded a plane for Los Angeles. We flew over the the Pacific Ocean as I watched sunset #1 as we crossed the international dateline. Several hours later, still on the plane, and still Monday, I watched my second sunrise of the day and had my second breakfast of the day. Around 9am pacific time, I arrived at LAX 20 hours after I left Seoul and still Monday morning. Then I went to work after my 6000+ mile commute. :) Now, it's Monday evening #2 and after 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 1 dinner, 2 sunrises, 2 sunsets, 6000 miles, 3 countries, 2 planes, 2 taxis, 1 bus, 2 scooter rides, 1 day of work, and approximately 34 hours, I'm starting to get a little tired.

All the details from my trip can be found in my previous six posts. My pictures can be found here. Everything about it was amazing. I ate tons of great food, made new friends, attended soccer, baseball, and sumo matches as well as the theatre and some live music clubs. I did some sightseeing and shopping, saw some real geishas, cosplay girls, Mt. Fugi, the DMZ, and got into North Korea, the strangest place I've ever been. I went to a design festival and a shrine festival. I took planes, cars, buses, trains, subways, bicycles, and a ferry all over Korea and Japan. And I had my friend Kyounghae who gave me a full tour of Korea and made sure I tried every Korean dish she could think of. It was awesome.

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SUNDAY, JUNE 01, 2008

Jamie Morris : Japan/Korea Trip Part 6: Seoul : At a Soccer Game in Seoul (Soonhwee, Kyounghae, and Jamie)
At a Soccer Game in Seoul (Soonhwee, Kyounghae, and Jamie)
Japan/Korea Trip Part 6: Seoul

Day 16: Saturday May 31 - Palace, Insadong, Soccer
This morning we did some sightseeing at Gyeongbok Palace where we saw the changing of the guard ceremony and a parade. In the afternoon, we took a walk around Insadong, a neighborhood with lots of shops and art galleries. One place I really wanted to visit in Seoul was a tea house in Insadong called Yetchatjip (Old Teashop), it's a famous old tea room that's supposed to have live birds flying around inside. We went inside and had tea and snacks, but the only birds I saw were in cages. I was a little disappointed with that, but the shop was really cool and the fruity iced mogwacha (quince tea) I had was delicious. After that we met up with Kyounghae's sister Soonhwee (who's now a tv star)and her boyfriend Hyunggwang for dinner. We had could noodle soup, which I've had in LA a few times. It was delicious but really difficult for me to eat. The noodles are so thin and long and hard be bite through. Mine had to be cut into small pieces with scissors. After dinner the four of us joined 53,000 other people in going to Seoul World Cup Stadium for the South Korea vs. Jordan soccer match. The match was a FIFA World Cup Qualifier as the Asian teams attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We sat, I should say stood, in the Korean supporters section with all the hardcore singing fans. My favorite player, Park Ji Sung, whose jersey I got a few days earlier, was in the starting lineup so I was happy. And just before the end of the first half, he scored the first goal of the game putting Korea in the lead. Then, just three minutes into the second half, Park Chu Young scored on a penalty kick putting Korea ahead 2-0 and it looked like it was going to be a sure win for Korea. But, as all soccer fans know, 2-0 is the most dangerous score. In the last 20 minutes of the game, Jordan's Hasan Abdel Mahmoud put in two goals and the game ended in a 2-2 draw, a big disappointment for the home fans, but probably good enough to get them into the next round of qualifying. Here are some video highlights of the game.

Day 17: Sunday June 1 - Shopping, Baseball, Groceries
On my final day, we did some shopping are the COEX mall and near the women's university. We also went to a grocery store where I picked up some kimchi, dried squid, and chestnuts to bring back to the USA. I wasn't exactly sure if I was allowed to bring in these kinds of foods, but luckily LAX was really busy when I arrived and noone noticed my food or North Korean souvenirs. In the evening we went to a baseball game between the Woori Heroes and Lotte Giants. We cheered for the visiting Lotte Giants from Busan (Kyounghae's home team) and actually, most people in the stadium were cheering for the visitors. The game had similar atmosphere to the games I went to in Japan, lots of singing and cheering for the entire game, although the ballpark was much smaller than the huge domes I went to in Japan and it was much cheaper ($4/ticket vs $40/ticket). The quality is a little better in Japan, but the games are fun to attend. The best Korean players usually go to play in Japan, while the huge stars of Japan and Korea end up playing in Major League Baseball here in North America. There are three South Korean players currently in MLB including Chan Ho Park, the first Korean-born player in Major League history, who pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Japan has 14 players in the Major Leagues this year including Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. We left the game a little early, but Lotte was winning 7-1.

Here are my Seoul photos.

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