You stay classy San Diego !!!

After flying out to Reno to perform in my dad's show (Scott blogged about it here) we decided to swing by San Diego before making our way back home.  It was awesome getting a few days to see some old friends and take in the nice California weather. Plus I got to catch up on all the In-N-Out burgers I missed.....! Every time we fly in we try to get an afternoon in LA and do the mandatory visit to the vintage room at Guitar Center LA.  Pure craziness! My favorite part is the archtop guitars.  Each one of these babies cost more than my carThis 1958 Gibson ES-335 will set you back $120,000!  WowNext we stopped by my favorite shopGiant Robot.  I picked up the new Jeff Soto, Jeremy Fish, and Takashi Murakami books and also the newKozyndanbunnyfishes.   Afterwards we cruised over next door to eat at gr/eats and enjoyed the AiYamaguchiartwork.

Our new bunnyfish enjoyed the fried sweet potatoes, bananas, and fries. Within my first hour back in LA I got a $145 (US dollar) parking ticket!!!  Aaaahhh!(Don't park along sunset blvd after 4pm).After recovering from the crazy speeding ticket we finally made it toour old stomping grounds- Sunset Cliffs!

It felt great being by the beach again and feeling that nice sea breeze.   I brought my running shoes this trip and made an effort to run along the beach every morning.  It almost felt weird not smelling the HK car fumes....

Santa keeping busy on the west coast.....Gotta make up for all the mexican food I missed out on since I last visited.  We went to Ranchos twice last weekAnd In-n-Out four times!  Check out the Christmas wrapping...soo good.....M-theory is my favorite record store in SD so I had to stop by.   On their wall they put up a hand-written Elliot Smith set list from when he played up in Seattle.  So coolI tried something new this trip and picked up the Guitar Link and a Korg Nano keyboard to get some work done while living out of my suitcase and staying in different hotels.  I was pretty happy with the set up but I forgot to bring a mic and learn more about garageband...We also caught up with Alyasha ( Fiberops/ Alphanumeric) a couple of times which was cool.  We had lunch at the Neighborhood downtown and afterwards cruised over to the 5 & A Dime store (they have some great brands including Alphanumeric, Hellz Bellz, 7 Union, and Benny Gold).  Aly has also been spinning rockabily/garage rock records around town so check out his gigs. One of my best friends Valerie had a hula recital so I was lucky enough to be in town to catch it.  It was cool seeing her perform with all sorts of hula and Tahitian dancers.

We also caught up with my good friend Ricky Kim over at Evil Monito/ 944 magazine but I forgot to bring my camera.  So here's a pic of his monkey.  Thanks for the excellent meal man! Of course I can't go back without watching a good show.  So this time I was excited to catch the Smashing Pumpkins at UCSD.  They sounded great and performed a bunch of new songs.  This was my first time watching them and it was cool hearing my favorite tunes like Cherub Rock and Tonight, Tonight.  DopeBefore I knew it the week was up, hopefully I'll be back soon.....