Show Day in Los Angeles

What an ugly way to start a day, getting up at 5:30 in the doggone morning. Meeting Blaine in the lobby at 6:30 so we can be at the venue by 7. After, of course, stopping at the crackhouse, er, I mean Starbucks. Gonna be a long one today.

First person I run into at the venue is Sherry, one of the regular LA runners. Cool chick. Last time I saw her, she was my runner for 2 days of R. Kelly shows last year at Universal Amphitheatre.

The catering company today is Culinary Underground, who was the tour caterer out with us on System Of A Down during 2005. Two of the guys from that tour, Justen and Jeremy, are with this particular crew today. They're both going out on the Killers tour in a few days. Not the best catering company out there, but super nice guys.

Guess who showed up at the show tonight? Here, I'll give you a few hints:









If you guessed Salma Hayek and her two, um, friends, you win. She was very pregnant, and I'm sad to say that the baby was not mine.

Finally make it back to the hotel around 1am. Blaine tries to rally a couple of us for a drink at the hotel bar, but it's completely overflowing with L.A. "beautiful" people, as it's one of the current "it" bars here in Hollywood. All the shakers, movers, actors, musicians, and posers you could ever want. It's called the Stone Rose Lounge and is owned by Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford's husband).

One of the advantages of being a guest of the hotel (which ain't cheap, believe me - even with our group rates, we're paying nearly $300 a night per room) is that I get an automatic "pass" on the velvet rope. Problem is, I just don't like drinking in places like that. Velvet rope, my ass! And the music drives me fucking crazy: boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss-boom-sss…

Off to bed…