Martial arts, Dolphins, Skateboarding, and rollercoasters! OH MY!

It was one helluva crazy/fun/awesome weekend! I'm still recovering... Let's get to the fun!

So Thursday night my awesome friend Jan from NY invited me to the LA launch of his new comic book Justice For Hire at the Von Dutch store in Los Angeles! We arrived to find a huge Oprah bus in the front of the store... I dunno, I have no idea!
Upon reaching the list, the list girls called us "Hot" and then one of them promptly smacked my ass and said to "Get the hell in there". Yeah, it was clearly going to be a great night.
They had some sick motorcycles parked out front and a large boxing ring set up, with a DJ inside - and of course an open bar. YUM.
The store inside was pretty cool, and the crowd was a total LA mixed producer/actor/agent/hipster/etc. crowd, with a few huge fighters mixed in for good measure.
They packed the hizzouse! Apparently there were over 700 people there...
Paul, Matt and I - and my crazy Extendo-Arm (TM) pose with the red brick background:

And we of course all called each other beforehand to make sure we accessorized fittingly.Oy!
Walking around I noticed someone who looked VERY familiar - and I realized it was Lea Thompson (Back To The Future, Caroline In The City)! She looked fantastic and I promptly asked for a photo, which she graciously accepted and couldn't have been nicer to me!
I think it turned out rather nice - she rules!
So after milling around a bit they got ready to start the fights, but not without some gospel singing to kick things off...
Indeed!
Next up several guys (including Jan, on the right) performed some Tai Chi style to beatbox stylings courtesy of the white dude in the back - it was cool!
This poor model girl kept being called out in between fights and performances, but didn't have any signs to wave or anything to do... so she kept her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and looked sheepish. Awwww!

Huge crowd!
These two guys wailed on each other... can't remember their names! I was drinking, okayyy?These guys used sticks to do some rehearsed fights, it was cool... the Asian dude's glasses kept falling off. :)
In between some of the fights, the amazing REALIS performed a Cirque du Soleil style act. It was awesome!
Can you do that? Nah, neither can I. They were such showoffs! ;)
He flipped her in the air quite a few times - frequently soliciting a gasp from the crowd! No ropes or anything, it was pretty impressive.
They danced in between tricks and were so smooth and flawless! Check out this video...

I had the pleasure of meeting Arthur and Shenea after the show and they were both so warm and nice! Usually peeps with negative body fat are rude - but they were so cool! I hope to see you guys again soon, I'm checking out your new show at Cinespace!! Check out their site for more at imaginerealis.com!
A European group named Benefit came out and sang a few songs, they were dope!

The best fight of the night was when Jan faced off against a very big, very angry dude who looked like he ate his Wheaties:
It started off a little rough! But Jan quickly came back and delivered quite a few blows...
And dodged like a ninja! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee INDEED!
RAWWWRRRRR! The crowd loved it, deff the best fight of the night.
LOOK OUT JAN! OMG A HUGE FLYING KICK!
Luckily he survived, altho he did say that he took a knee to the temple - OUCH! He kicked arse tho and I really appreciate him inviting me out to the show, he's an incredibly nice guy and I hope Justice For Hire is extremely successful for him!

After Matt, Paul and I made a brief stop at a bar on the way home, and I really don't know what's going on in this photo.
I'll say nothing other then the fact I was the designated driver. Draw your own conclusions, peoples.
I did my trademark eyebrow thing and Jesse wasn't scared by it, so here's the photo!
(I'm fairly certain that Mark and Pedro were comparing iPhones in the background - YES I DON'T HAVE ONE, LEAVE ME ALONE!)

On Friday night Matt and I headed up to Six Flags to ride some coasters for a special night they were open from 7pm - 1am...
It was so fun! Apart from the super scary dude that was peeing on cars in the parking lot as we walked by (sadly not kidding), we had a blast and rode a TON of coasters!

Along the way we saw an awesome Starburst ad:
Which we immediately had to recreate (I blame Angela, ever since the "It Tastes Good Daddy" incident in Tahoe, I feel the need to recreate weird ads)!
Heh, yeah. The girls that took our picture thought it was funny, at least. Or we gave em something to talk about.

It was crowded but for most of the coasters you could get on and off pretty fast, some had a long wait - I think we did like 9 coasters in 3 hours. :)

Warning: That's the only nice photo of us....
I did warn you. I didn't want to lose my camera on the ride, so we re-created the experience for you, our faithful viewers. That's the face we made on one of the coasters - I can't remember the name, so let's call it SUPER HAPPY DEATH RIDE UP DOWN YES YOU DIE NOW.
This is how we looked on riding OMFG WE ARE GOING TOO FAST STOP STOP STOP PLEASE I'M GONNA DIE ... number two. It was an awesome coaster.*
*That coaster was named after things I overheard people saying.
Lots of peoples... note to Benja: We were the only white folk there. Which fortunately someone pointed out to us "Oh look! The white boys are here!". Heh!

Along the way I ran into a dude that WOULD NOT stop staring at me! I was seriously getting pissy... so I confronted the bastard...
And stared right back! He wouldn't stop! So I just set him on fire and ran away. Heh, that'll teach you!

So we had a blast and I think I got home at like 4am, but not after throwing up a few times. It's amazing what roller coasters will do for your weight loss.
Burrrrp.

Saturday (Yes this is only Saturday people, stay with me) I met up with my lovely Kirsten who was premiering her documentary The Man Who Souled The World, about skateboarding and the ins and outs of Steve Rocco and the crazyness of the skateboarding industry in the 90's. It was quite entertaining and even tho I've never been into skateboarding I really enjoyed it.
Plus Jason Lee is in it, pre-scientology brainwashing, so that was cool. It was at the Swerve festival in LA - God, so many things going on all the time here!

While outside, the beautiful Ang and I decided to recreate Stalker Eyes, you know, cuz there was a tree there, and everyone knows trees at night help set the STALKER EYES mood.

"RAWWRRRRR I'M STALKING YOU! YOUR SHAWL IS MINE!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaah! Someone is stalking me! OMG HALLLPPPPP POLICEEEE! Ooooh shiny! In the sky!"

After Kirst, Paul, Julie, Vince, and Angela met up for some amazing Thai food at Rambutan Thai in Silver Lake... soo good!


We had a great time... they rockorzz my world!
On the way to meet up with Trent and Mike for drinks, we saw a dude on the hood of a police car with like 12 cops - he must have had a bazooka or something for that kind of attention.
T-lizzle and I busted a few moves on the dancefloor and sang along to a song REALLY LOUDLY - the great thing about doing that is that it clears a nice space around you, other people tend to escape from the piercing painful sound. WOO!We had a few drinks after but called it an early night, it was fun!
P.S. Early night = leaving before 2am.

On Sunday (yes, the end of the weekend! BOO!) I met up with my superfly cousins Aliah and Gabriel to surprise my aunt and uncle Karen and David who were visiting from Kansas. It was awesome, I showed up and knocked on the door and said I was the plumber - Aliah and I spoke about the apartment's plumbing problems for awhile, and K&D had no idea it was me. Then I burst through the door! LOL :)

The fun didn't stop there, we blind folded them and took them on a mystery trip...
They were good sports and were blind folded the ENTIRE way!
I love Gabriel's look in this! LOL
I don't think Aliah could be any happier with herself! :)
I didn't mind being in on the fun either. ;)

The discussion of whether to leave them blind folded for the rest of the trip went quickly...
"You aren't blind folded! Is it just me? IS IT?" - Karen"OMFG!!!!" lol the big reveal! Aliah set up a whale watching/dolphin tour of Dana Point!

So fun!
I teased Auntie K that she had a supermodel look the whole ride with the wind blowing in her hair...

Hey cuz!
"Look cuz, seals! Like the sound you make when you laugh!"
Ouch.
Seals!
"Make the seal sound! MAKE IT! SAY MY NAME BIATCH!" I can't make this stuff up.
Auntie Karen practiced her dramatic supermodel point... yes there is such a thing. David wisely pretended to not know her.

She also flashed gang signs at the locals - I explained she's from Kansas and they politely smiled and ran away slowly. Sudden movements cause attacks.
Gabe got a ton of great shots and movies of the dolphins out and playing. :)
But so did I! We saw tons of dolphins, at least a hundred, and they were playing all around the boat, splashing, riding alongside, it was awesome!
JUMP! They made really cool sounds.
TONS!

Yes, I even have video of them. :)
Me and K looking all sunglassified!

Onboard, while sipping margaritas, Aliah and I came up with alter egos... she was Vanessa Marciano, rich bitch Laguna Beach housewife who's husband was never home (leading her to sleep with Juan, the gardener).

She played it WAY TOO WELL. I of course became Gregory Von Sant, trust fund spoiled rich kid and world traveler who never worked a day in his life.
We were way too good at it. ;) LOL

We had a blast on the boat and saw a ton of dolphins and birds, so fun! NOTE: When I took the following pic, I swear, the lady next to me actually said "Whoa! Good thing you have such long arms to take those photos!"!!! :P
After we went back and had a huge home cooked meal including David's famous BBQ chicken (and I made my slightly infamous fat free brownies), and ate till we could eat no more! It was like Thanksgiving in September. I had such a great time hanging out with them, it's so nice to be with family that are so much fun and know how to have a great time. They rule! I just wish they didn't live so far away - thank goodness for planes!

I need a weekend after my weekend... oy! :)