SEATTLE SKYLINE

I am in Seattle, WA for business and I will be here for more than 1 week. This is a picture of the city skyline. I took it in the evening today few minutes before sunset ...... the picture is OK, but Seattle is much better and much more than this picture. And the weather in these days is totally gorgeous. It makes me realize that I am so lucky that I will move here to live in December. Mmmm ... maybe in December the sky won't be as blue as in these summer days, though. You have never visited Seattle? In that case don't wait. It is a wonderful place!

ART in SEATAC

ART in SEATAC is not a new game. ART is ART. It is very subjective. Probably you will never two people who Ike the same things. And SEATAC is the Seattle - Tacoma airport. Today I landed here. I will be here in Seattle for few days for work. Flight and landing were just perfect but the luggage situation has been pretty long for me. And while I while I was waiting forever for my luggage I wander around the terminal I found this nice piece of art ...... it is clear that I like repetitions. Not sure why, though.

TRUTH & FREEDOM

Today I read a quote, that made me think a lot ... "The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear" ... I think it did hurt me a little. Because I know it is true.

ROOM for RENT

So, here we are. Leif is leaving and we have to look for a new roommate for the "Tiki Hut", "Surf Club" and the "Hotel California" ...... the way it works here is pretty simple, but interesting. There are 2 - 3 websites where you wan to put the vacancy. westsiderentals.com, southbayrentals.com and craigslist.com. Candidates call. We set an interview. Normally we try to review at least 4 - 5 guys. At the end we take the decision. The person has to fill an application. The landlord runs a check on the credentials and on the credit history, and is telling us if the candidate we pick up is a good candidate or not. Jason, for example, believe it or not, was our second choice when we had to fill Jake's room. But the guy that we picked had an horrible credit history. So there we go. We went for the plan B, Jason. And I amglad that we did. I will let you know who will replace Leif. Hopefully he will be as cool and real as Leif. BTW ... if you never lived here in US, I guess you will wonder what the Credit History is. Well, that is a very long and funny story. I will explain that an other day ... :)

LEIF is LEAVING

Leif is leaving. He is going back to Germany. Out of the blue his company has decided to relocate him to the mother land, Germany. That is so disappointing. I was the one who was supposed to leave LA 3 years and go to Atlanta. And Jake left and went to Shanghai. I am the one who is supposed to move to Seattle. And again an other of my roommates is beating me. Leif's last day here in US will be September 3rd. So we are using the excuse to celebrate as soon as we can. This is a picture that we took at Tony's bar where Christina works some days a week. Tony is on the Redondo pier. And it is just great at sunset.... what can I say? I am really sad that Leif is leaving. Jake and him had been like brothers for me. I know it can sound corny, but it is true. I love them. But I guess I can't hold them. And I am sure they will never leave my life, and that makes me happy ... :D

GARDEN STATE SUNSET

5 days spent in New Jersey with long hours in the office, even more hours working from the hotel room and no much fun. Not sure why but I feel a kind of uncomfortable when I come here in NJ for work. And Ibecause of some serious traffic jam, I even managed to miss my flight on Friday on my way back to LA. And the one that I took, for some strange reason, was almost 1 hour in the runway. So I had plenty of time to take some pictures. I had also the chance to enjoy the sunset ...... I can't really complain about this trip. Business wise it was really good. I really hope that my customer will buy the "box" I presented him. If it will happen I will have the chance to come back for at least an other couple of weeks. And if it will really happen, I won't spend all my time here in Jersey. I am going to visit the city. Promised.

SUNRISE OVER NYC

Last week I was in New Jersey for a business trip. I landed around 6AM in the Newark airport after a red eye flight. And, although I planned to go to visit the city (New York City), I was too busy in the office to cross the river and enjoy the coolest city on Earth (?). So this is the only picture of NYC ...... I guess you can't really recognize it. Me too, I have an hard time to recognise the skyline. But trust me. It is there, at the horizon ... :D

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

The LA SUBWAY SAFARI ended with a concert in one of my favourite places in LA. The Hollywood Bowl. It is a natural amphitheater in the Hollywood hills. And it is just the perfect location for evening concerts, watching a California sunset with the background of the Hollywood sign, enjoying music with friends. So this is our group fo friends ...The cool thing about the Bowl is that you can bring food and drinks inside. Which is actually what everybody do. It is part of the experience. The other nite we went to watch a nice concert by Groove Armada and Cafe Tacuba ...So if your walk the earth will bring you in LA, try not to miss the Bowl. A concert with some sandwiches and a good bottle of wine is really a wonderful way to enjoy a perfect LA sunset. It will definitely make you happy. It made us happy, and I am pretty sure it will made the same to you. At the end of the day, are simple things that make people happy ...

BROADWAY of LOS ANGELES

This is an other side trip during our LA SUBWAY SAFARI. Emily read on her travel book about the Broadway district. It is very close to LA downtown. Here is where there are the old LA movie theatres, now forgotten. Not even used anymore for movie screening. But still architectural masterpieces of the Art Deco period. So we decided to jump out of the metro and check them out ...The movie theatres are in a strand of 6 blocks. And they are really masterpieces. All of them. And it is so strange to happen to know they are here only 4 years after I live here in LA ...The area is pretty run down. But full of energy. Lots of people in the streets. Lots of shops open. But of course you can't expect to see the folks you see in Rodeo Dr. or in Beverly Hills. People is straggling to make the ends here. But again, I still prefer to spend an afternoon walking here, rather than in the fake Rodeo Dr. Here there is people who really have problems to make the ends. And some homeless ...... we saw also people with weird passions. Like this guy waling with a snake on his neck. Really weird passion. At least tit looks weird to me. I guess this goes again in my not understanding of the passion for pets. Cats, dogs and snakes don't make much of a difference to me. Anyways, going back to the theatres. All the theatres are now either closed or transformed in churches. We managed to see the inside of only one of them. Because it is now used as a church, no pictures were allowed inside. But I managed to take a couple of pictures. You can judge by yoursef the wealth of the interiors ...

PASADENA, CA

Pasadena, CA is very infamous among Italian becasue here is where back in 1994 we lost the FIFA World Cup against Brazil. But, of course nobody could care the less here. Probably they don't even remember that there was the FIFA World Cup Final here back in 1994. And so Pasadena is an other stop in our LA Subway Safari. A\Not the first time that I visit it. But it is nice to be here in just 15 minutes ride from LA downtown, when normally it takes the triple by car. No no parking hassle. Aaaaaaaaaaahhh. I loved it.The city is really pretty. The City Hall is a very nice building. And the sky was really blue on Sunday. Which made the white of the building brighter. But we were not in the mood to fully enjoy the beauties of Pasadena. The three of us were really tired. And after we have sacked the refrigerator of Greg, a friend living there, we went to look for some shade.

Emily, Tina and I went to visit a local church, while Leif took a nap in a triangle of grass. Emily and Tina here are posing beside Leif, who is really asleep ...

... pretty funny picture.

LA SUBWAY SAFARI

Hard to believe. But LA has a subway. Amazing, isn't it? Yes and it goes even underground. So, after living here for more than 4 years, I decided to try it. So last Sunday Tina, I, Emily and Leif went for what we did call the LA Subway Safari. The initial idea was to go up and down LA with the subway and check out the different stations. The ticket is only $5 for the entire day. We started in Redondo Beach. The closest station to where we live. And these are Emily, Tina and Leif, proudly showing their $5 day pass ...

On the train, in pure California style, you can bring all the mean of transportation you like. Bicycle. Skateboard. Motorboard. I didn't see any surfboard. But I am sure there was some ...

What is strange is definitely ride parallel to the car traffic along a freeway, like the 105. You feel sorry for the guys driving in those small tiny metal boxes with 4 wheels...

The rest is pretty much like any other subway. Still amazing, if you know a little about LA, think that there is a subway. And it actually goes underground. When we told to our friends nobody really believed it. Everybody wanted to see the pictures. So here are some of the pictures for your enjoyment. Ans yes, I think we will do more of those safari in the next weeks. We want to go to South Central. We want to go to see the famous Watts Towers. Hopefully 3 white *ss like us won't get shot ...