November 2016

I’m on my own.

The crew slowly left over the past couple of days back to Toronto. I feel like my trip has now officially started, considering that I’m now solo.

Yesterday we spent the day checking out a few sites in the city, including Griffith Park and its observatory.

We drove up to the Trail Cafe, where we parked the car. Hiking up to the observatory took about 25 minutes and was totally worth it. Take the time to stop half way up and look behind you to see great views of Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

The Observatory was built in the early thirties in order to make astronomy more accessible to the common folk. Previously, all observatories were inaccessible because they were located high atop mountains, which only dedicated astronomers would take the time to go visit.

The Griffith observatory was used during the second World War to teach pilots celestial navigation. Later, during the 60s, it was used to teach the Apollo astronauts the same thing.

Being Los Angeles, even this place of science has paid homage to the world of film by recognizing the movie “Rebel Without a Cause” for its accurate portrayal of the observatory in the film. Don’t forget to checkout the bust of James Dean in the north-west portion of the grounds.

After filling up on scenic views and science, we decided to head down to Melrose to checkout some of the eclectic stores and tattoo shops. Personally, I was a little underwhelmed with the Melrose strip. It had a similar feel to Queen West in Toronto, but just wasn’t able to pull it off.

Having lunch at Ta-eem grill was the highlight of the afternoon. This place is hands down the best Shawarma in the city.

After having a nap back at the AirBnB the four of us decided to head up to one of LA’s infamous comedy clubs. We decided on the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. This was the same location where Michael Richards (of Kramer fame) had his meltdown.

$20 and a two drink minimum bought us 2 hours of laughs. It was way better than I expected and the comics (with the exception of the last one) kept our bellies hurting all night with laughter.

Tipsy and hungry, we stumbled to the Pink Taco, just down the street. Taco Tuesday didn’t disappoint with $3 tacos.

The next day, after the rest of the crew left, I headed into Downtown LA to enjoy some amazing German food at Wurstküche. Their beer selection is great. I had two pints, a Kölch and a Schneider-Wiesse. The mango jalapeño sausage was decent, I should have known to stick to traditional german sausages.

Getting around town is super cheap with Uber Pool. It only cost me $3.89 to go about 9km. Back home, in Toronto, this would have cost me closer to $13.00. Taking Uber Pool also gives me an opportunity to meet super interesting people. Just today, I was riding with Nicol. She want’s to be a fashion forecaster. Yup! That’s right. A full time job exists for people who can predict the next trends in fashion.

Armed with cheap Ubering and a $50 off for my next 10 Lyft rides… seeing America by ride sharing companies is totally doable.

Tomorrow I’m off to the largest state in the USA: Texas. Keeping an open mind, and I’m looking forward to checking out Houston and Austin.

Dreamstate was a success! This was the best run festival I’ve attended to date. Insomniac really does put the fans first!

The only issue we had was with the weather. Both days it dropped below 10°C. Once you got dancing though, you kept warm. The unicorn hat I was wearing also kept my head warm.

This was Mariet’s first time at a Trance festival, so It was interesting to talk to her about her about the music and culture through the view of fresh eyes. I was happy to be part of her experience!

After checking in to our AirBnB in Los Angeles, Ali’s cousin invited us over for dinner at his place in Beverly Hills. It was a legit house on the hill. His hospitality was amazing with great Persian food on the menu.

My first introduction to authentic Iranian food included: Fesenjan (Chicken in a walnut and pomegranate stew), Sabzi Polo (Rice pilaf with Lamb), Salad Olivieh (Potato and chicken salad), and Kuku (almost like a frittata).

I’m already missing the gym, expected since I haven’t had a workout in almost a week now. Now that we’re in Los Angles for the rest of the week, I’m hoping I can hit a Bodypump class at a Hollywood 24 Hour Fitness.

Last night I realized I made a small mistake! Shaun and Mona are leaving for Toronto on Wednesday at 12:40. I was able to find a flight to my next destination that also departed at 12:40, so I booked it.

It wasn’t until yesterday did I realized that my flight departs Thursday instead of Wednesday! Whoops! So I need to figure out what I’m going to do and where I’m going to stay on Wednesday night.

Well, this is it.

Day one of what I hope will be a year long journey exploring everything this world has to offer.

The adventure starts with a two day trance festival called Dreamstate by Insomniac. The great thing about electronic music events put on by Insomniac is their focus on fan experience, as opposed to ticket sales and profit.

At last summer’s EDMbiz conference, Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella boasted: “Our strategy moving forward is we don’t want to book the [big] guys… I don’t want to be a promoter. My passion is not selling tickets and making money. I want to create an experience. You don’t need to book the big acts who sell out arenas.” – Spin

As such, the term “headliner”, normally used for the big name act, is reserved for the fans themselves.

I’ve never been to one of their events before, so I’m looking forward to experiencing what Rotella’s vision of a music festival should be.

One of Insomniacs more famous and well known events, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), attracts 400,000 fans over the three day festival!

Dreamstate is being held in San Bernardino, California. They will be running four simultaneous stages aptly named: The Dream, The Vision, The Sequence, and Timeless.

There is a group of six of us going, and in an attempt to keep everyone together, I decided to build a totem.

It, unfortunately, did not make it on the flight! All that hard work, for nothing.