Anyway, the show was awesome, but you’re probably asking yourself, “Hey, did they mess with some of the super dorky costume crowd?” You bet we did.  Here are the pics from last night.

We ran into some Jedi. Kunal felt the need to rock out with them. I felt like the little one needed a hug.

We ran into a couple of Han Solos.  Larry Solo was pretty amazing.  He had the steady calm of a Jerry Lewis, and the rogueish charm of Ben Afleck in Daredevil.  I assumed that he’s probably pretty lonely in his personal life (just a random guess), so he got a hug too.

Here’s our other Han Solo.  Let’s call him Enrique Solo.  Enrique brought his whole family.  The kid was an awesome Jango Fett (expect for his Go, Diego! backback).  The wife, on the other hand, should probably retire the gold bikini.

We ran into some rebel pilots.  Got the group shot and the obligatory MySpace self-shot.  I wonder which one of them was supposed to be Porkins.

Now I can hear some of you saying, “Hey Steve, it’s not cool to tease the costume crowd. They need something to fill the hole that not dating leaves.”  Allow me to rebut. We had three extra tickets from folks who couldn’t make it.  Rather than find three hot chicks that had less good seats (sorry Kunal), we gave them to a dad and his two kids outside who couldn’t buy tickets to the sold out show.  So I’m a lovely person and can poke fun at whoever I like.  Hurray for karma being a zero sum game!!

Update: Jim’s nefarious motives confirmed.  Here’s a video from the same day about a mile up the beach from where we saw the “dolphin”. Oh yeah, that’s a 10 foot great white.  Excuse me while I rock back and forth in a fetal position in the corner.

Rancho Park Archery Range - This is one of the hidden gems in LA.  You’d never guess that there is an archery range right in the middle of Century City.  Swing by any Saturday at 11AM and get a free lesson on how to properly shoot a bow from the range’s helpful coaches (I’m one of them).  Kids need to be 8 to attend the course and use range equipment.   Complete the free course and you’re welcome to come 10 to noon on Saturdays or noon to 2 on Sundays for open shooting.  Open shooting and use of the range’s equipment is also free.  Awesome way to get outside without leaving the city.  Here’s a map. The range is at the end of the road that goes into the middle of the park just south of Pico off of Motor.

The Getty Villa – The giant Getty Center is cool.  The smaller Getty Villa is way cooler.  J. Paul Getty used a healthy chunk of his oil money to build a Roman villa in Malibu to hold his Greek and Roman collection.  It’s based on villas unearthed in Pompeii.  The Villa is just an amazing place with incredible art.  This is a must if you like classical architecture or sculpture.  You need to reserve tickets and parking ahead of time here.

The Los Angeles Zoo – I’m probably biased on this one.  I really like zoos.  What could be more fun than seeing an elephant?  Try petting a goat.  Oh yeah, they got goat petting.  Not the best zoo I’ve been to by any means, but the kids should have a good time.  Here’s Ben romping around.  Note: Beware of the tram which has a ridiculous  height requirement.  Tantrums may ensue.

Travel Town – This place is just genius.  It’s basically a parking lot for old trains that you can climb on.  If you have a little boy, you realize that this will make his head explode in a combination of glee and overstimulation.  They also have birthday parties on the train cars.  It’s just down the road from the zoo in Griffith Park so you can hit them both in one day.  The also have a small scale train that you can ride.  Be sure to take two adults since you’ll be handing the kids up and down from the engines.  No good way to do this one as a solo parent.  Ben really liked it there.

Lucha Vavoom - Lucha Vavoom isn’t a permanent attraction in LA, but is something you should experience at least once when they come to town.  It’s a subtle combination of Mexican Lucha Libre wrestling and burlesque in the amazing Mayan Theater.  Highlights of previous shows include Mexican wrestling midgets, a very naughty Snow White striptease, acrobatic wrestlers dressed as chickens, and a guy who manages to go from a three piece suit to his jockeys while bouncing on a pogo stick.  Throw in multiple bars set up throughout the theater and have the guy that does the voice for Spongebob Squarepants announce, and you’ve got hipster gold.  Get a sitter and go see something bizarre.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology – This is not  your standard museum.  It’s concealed in a strip mall and pretty difficult to find even if you’re looking for it.  Once inside, exhibits are alternately ludicrous and wondrous.  The last time I went they had an exhibit of flower x-rays.  The inventor of the modern x-ray machine spent the later years of his life creating 3-d stereoscope x-rays of flowers.  It’s one of the more beautiful installations I’ve ever seen.  When you visit Jurassic Technology, go with an open mind and several hours to kill.

Hollywood Aerial Arts – This joint is a full on circus school.  Kim got heavily into tissue (the long scarves hanging from the ceiling) for a while, as well as acrobatic hoop.  For the more high flying there’s a full trapeze out back.  The couple that run the school are great and will prepare you to abandon your empty life and run away with the carnies.

Rose Bowl Swap Meet - I like to wander through the detris of American culture.  The Rose Bowl Swap Meet is where they go to shop.  This is the granddaddy of Southern California flea markets.  Mr. Hotdog compels you to visit this monthly extravaganza of junk.  Don’t eat at the food stands there.  You’ll sorely regret it.

Kidspace Children’s Museum – Kidspace is a great science museum for the little guys.  Ben can kill hours running around the interactive exhibits.  The area out back, however,  may be the best part of this place.  They have a tricycle race track to zoom around and several water areas.  It doesn’t seem to be explicitly allowed, but Ben and all of the other kids always seem to end up in the creek and pond behind the exhibit hall.  Be sure to bring a towel and change of clothes.  Your kids are going to get wet.  Also bring your own snacks.  The snack bar leaves a lot to be desired.  Kidspace is right next door to the Rose Bowl swap meet if you want to make a big day of it.

Taco Bell Discovery Science Center – I love this place.  Ben and I went there for a few hours yesterday.  Lots of activities, noise, and buttons to press.  It’s a very overstimulating place.  They also have the largest artificial dinosaur turd I’ve ever seen (and you better believe I’m keeping an eye out for this stuff).  Look at how much Ben had here.  The open at 10 and start to get crowded around noon.  Saturday is also way more crowded than Sunday.  Head out there early on Sunday and you’ll have the place to yourself.

Legoland is absolutely the best theme park for little kids.  Everything is geared to the under 5 crowd.  Ben had an absolute blast/sensory overload weekend.  Check out the whole gallery here.

Legoland has the most beautiful array of primary colors.  It’s like an acid trip in a Play-Doh factory.

The attention to detail paid by the Lego sculptors is amazing.  Here are some geometric Lego boobs.

Sad: the urinals were not lego. Creepy: the Lego clown watched me pee

Duploland is really fun

Legoland has the best bathroom signs ever.

400k Legos, 4 tons, 5 Lego dorks who build these rather than date

Ben stole my shoes

Ben liked the aquarium.  I always thought Legos float.

The Lego baboon has a red Lego ass

The kid is fast.

Ben grabs his hog and heads for home.  TCB!

Why does DC have a truck that delivers salt? How much are they using?

I got to touch a moon rock.  Sure it’s just basalt, but it’s SPACE BASALT (that’s the best kind of basalt).

If nuclear armageddon had happened in the 80′s, this is the last thing you would have seen.

This is where all the Tang goes

All of the non-tech dorks can skip this one.  For the rest of you: Holy Shit! That’s a CRAY!!!!

I like dinosaurs…a lot.  How did I ever manage to get married?

These two pics make me laugh.  The fossil processing lab has been turned into an exhibit.  I like their sign

I just missed feeding time.

So there you go, my science dork afternoon in DC.  Stay tuned for our next dork adventure: LEGOLAND!  (I’m a little embarrassed about all this actually.  No idea why I feel compelled to share.  *sigh*).

Those of you that have been following my blog for a while can probably imagine why I was excited to get up here…REVERSE PAPARRAZI!  The exciting game of asking famous people to take photos of you (full details here).  I figured I’d be bound to bump into a few famous folks at a boondoggle like this.  Last night it all worked out.

My hosts organized a lovely dinner in town and brought their new spokespeople Michael Phelps and Dara Torres.  Jonny Moseley was also at dinner as there was a ski activity he was involved in the next day.  Oh yeah, three gold medalists on paid to be in attendance.  Time to force them to pretend to be happy to talk to me.

Phelps shot this pic of me and Dara Torres.  Awesome.  Can’t believe that (a) she’s 41 (b) she’s so much freakin’ taller than I am .  Damn it.

Moseley took this one of Chris and me.  He’s a cool dude.  Gave his number to Chris’ wife so she could text him and they could meet up on the mountain for ski tips.  

 

It’s also worth noting that Moseley apparently took ballet for a while.  I don’t think he’d had as much to drink as I’d had, but here he is working through his exercises.

It feels really good to have found a whole new class of celebrity to harass and impose upon.

Update: Just to handle all you naysayers, here’s a pic of Michael Phelps taking my pic.

I really like the Louvre- It is in no way an overstatement to say that the Louvre may be the best museum in the world.  From the architecture of the building itself to the collections, it is just incredible.  I’d been there before, but this time I made a point to check out some parts of the museum I’d never visited.

The Louvre was originally a fortress that was eventually modified into the structure that it is today.  There is a path to the lower levels that include some of the original donjon and the only remaining portion of the medieval complex.  They were uncovered during excavation to put in IM Pei’s pyramid in the courtyard.

I also made it to the Egyptian area.  Some of this really struck me.  How can you not like a culture that would sculpt happy/hungry hippos in a variety of colors?

They also have an impressive collection of Egyptian sarcophagi.  I’d not seen them displayed in a line like this with the lids before.  The interesting part is that a number of the lids were decorated on the inside.  That just seems like a practical consideration from a people that gave a lot of thought to the afterlife.

The Middle Eastern room was really something to see.  The corridor leading into it was amazing and I really like the happy Iranian.  Sadly, my picture of Hamurabi’s code failed to come out. Damn.

I was the biggest dork in France- In a land known for their abiding love for Jerry Lewis, I may just be dorky enough to develop my own French following.  I certainly made a valid try at it while I was in town.  I went on a Segway tour of the city on Sunday and it was amazing.  If you go to Paris, look up City Segway Tours.  Here’s their card.

Segways are great.  Over the course of about four hours on a very cold morning we covered a ton of ground.  Our guide would give us a bit of the history and then we’d zip off to our next destination.  The key to effective Segway driving, according to our guide, is watching out for the four P’s: people, poles, poop and poodles.   It was cold and snowing a bit, but I’d absolutely do it again in a minute.  This is my new favorite way to see a city.  Here are some of my best around Paris.

Check out all of my Paris pics here.

Happy Pills are cool- This is a great store front.  Had it been a pharmacy it would have been very very clever.  As it was only a candy shop, I’ll give it only one very.  Very clever.

Rhinoceroses in denim gas masks are stupid- Clearly, there is no way that denim will act as an effective barrier to most toxic gasses.  That doesn’t make any sense at all.

Barcelona epilepsy puppets are cool- Remember the Japanese cartoons that kept giving kids seizures?  These are their wooden puppet equivalents.

Original Video

Mr. Christmas Log is kind of stupid (but I still like him)- I have no idea what this guy is about.  The holiday market in Barcelona was chock full of Mr. Christmas Log.  He is, obviously, a piece of wood with legs, a face, and a hat.  I suppose I could look up his origins, but it’s almost more fun not to know.

The Gothic Quarter is really cool- The Gothic Quarter is my favorite part of Barcelona.  It’s a maze of narrow streets winding through the old city.  I basically head over there and get lost.  It’s great.  I really like when you happen to glimpse open spaces down narrow corridors.  It’s like stumbling on hidden worlds.  It makes you wonder how much of the world you’re really not seeing everyday.

The Sagrada Familia Church is amazing- This thing is unreal.  Gaudi started construction of the church in 1894 (I think that’s right), and it isn’t slated for completion until 2023.  For a few extra euros you can go to the top of the spire and walk down.  The view is unreal and the architecture is just incredible.

I can’t recommend Barcelona highly enough.  If you ever get the chance absolutely give it a visit.  Ok, I’ve got to crash.

Tapas?- I go back and forth between loving and hating tapas (Pupus to my Hawaiian friends. For those of you in the south, think hot wings for foreigners).  For the first couple of days, it’s really fun to have meals where they keep bringing a variety of small dishes to sample family style.  After a few days however, I want to punch the waiters in the face for their inability to bring me a substantial dinner that doesn’t look like it came off the kids’ menu.  It’s really a question of timing.

Frigging fish…- Tapas choices one evening included this poorly translated gem: “Frigged little fish in andalusian style”.  I wonder if they have a professional little fish frigger in back, or if they buy them already frigged.

So fancy it hurts- We had a round of tapas at a fancy joint that ran from 8:30 to midnight over 14 courses (hey Amit, this is the place we couldn’t get into last time).  Some of it was very good, but I kept getting distracted as my ass was falling asleep.  Their specialties included gold covered macadamian nuts and gold covered chocolates.  I find this to be a pretty poor practice.  Gold doesn’t taste like anything, and I worry that it won’t digest leading to an eventual “golden egg” on my end so to speak.

They also brought out some sort of goo delicately presented in an egg shell.  I unfortunately tried to eat some of the garnish which turned out just to be a pile of rock salt (I had been drinking).

Screw you, hippie!- Barcelona is a town of meat eaters.  Iberian ham is absolutely delicious.  It would be like prosciutto’s cooler older brother.  They serve it at every meal as best as I can tell.  They also have real butcher shops where you can tell that meat comes from animals the way god intended, rather than giving the misleading impression that it grows in Styrofoam trays wrapped in Saran wrap.

Spain has great wine- Spanish wines are excellent and relatively cheap.  That spells good times in my book.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics to show around the wines in Barcelona.  For some inexplicable reason, all of the photos I took while drinking wine came out crappy/blurry.  There must be something wrong with my camera.