A few weeks ago I headed up to San Francisco where I saw a bunch of my friends, including blog regulars Meeshie, Malibu Judie, and even IndianJones. The weekend was full of all sorts of high adventure including waterfalls, ice cream, and trail mix. Okay, so not much adventure. But neat photos!
After the jump, check out some pics from the trip, as well as a few, brief restaurant notes…
When Carmageddon strikes Los Angeles this weekend, locals may find themselves stuck in whatever corner of the city they find themselves. This could be very bad news for anyone who needs to get from, say, the South Bay to the the Valley, or vice versa.
Well, travelers fear not! You can now FLY over the gridlock thanks to JetBlue. That’s right, the airliner is offering flights from Burbank to Long Beach (and the other way around) on Saturday, July 16th. And it’ll only cost you $4 each way! That’s cheaper than a DAMN CAB RIDE FROM MY HOUSE TO HOLLYWOOD AND VINE (ie. one mile). No word on whether or not the trip includes Terra Blue Chips.
Be sure to book now! There are only four flights total…
Details here: CAR-MAGEDDON FLY-OVER
Thanks to @Erin_Murphy for the heads up…
This past weekend, the good people from Bridlewood Estate Winery shuttled a variety of bloggers and media types up to Santa Ynez, CA to enjoy wine, art, and tranquility. I was one of the lucky ones who nabbed a seat on the mini-coach (thanks to Esi at Dishing Up Delights), which meant that I spent my entire Sunday in the throes of wine tasting MADNESS. Actually, it wasn’t quite madness. It was all a rather refined affair full of mature sips and tasty hors d’oeuvres. And yes, it was awesome.
For those who haven’t been, Bridlewood is a bucolic and downright gorgeous winery just north of Santa Barbara, and I can speak from experience that they crank out some delicious wines. In fact, when I went wine tasting with my parents last summer in the region, Bridlewood was our favorite vineyard (we even emerged with several bottles, much to my delight).
Anyway, this time around, the focus wasn’t just on the wine. It was also on the local artists from the Central Valley of California whose art draws deeply from both Bridlewood and the surrounding environs. We got to meet many of the artists as well as the people behind the wine, and I can assure you it all made for one of those unapologetic “I’m living the yuppie dream” afternoons. If Ina Garten were ever to branch out to California, this would surely be where she’d wind up (and yes, I must always bring everything back to Ina Garten).
Pictures from the excursion after the jump…
As promised, here’s a video of my friend Meeshie and I “drinking around the world” at Epcot. Highlights include belly dancing, fireworks, and an unexpected (for us) concert by Nelson. Hope you enjoy! (and yes, I know the video is long, but we had to go through eleven countries!)
My family vacation continues. Today we went to Seaworld where among other things, we encountered many penguins. With family obligations and limited Internet access, it’s hard for me to keep up with the random pop culture gossip and news of the day, but if it’s any consolation, here is a video I took of penguins!
Greetings from the friendly skies! I am currently flying through the clouds on American Airlines, and since I have nothing better to do, I figured I’d whip out the lap top and write a flight blog. I’m currently headed from NYC to Orlando, or as I like to call it, THE SEVENTH CIRCLE OF HELL ROUTE. Yes, this plane is chock full o’ kids — in the seats, in the aisles, and probably in the overhead compartments. It’s like I’m in an airborne rumpus room. It’s not that I hate kids; it’s just that I severely dislike being in their company. They’re like drunk people: rambunctious, loud, hard to control, and prone to inappropriate urination. And yet when kids do all those things it’s considered cute or “life.” Well, I suppose that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Luckily, there haven’t been any pools of liquid accumulating near me, and most of the children are so excited about Disney that they’re hardly shedding a tear, but still, I’m going a little batty. There were balloons at the terminal, people. BALLOONS AT THE TERMINAL.
I don’t know how long Globe Genie has been around for, but my friend Sly sent it to me this week, and I was immediately intrigued. The concept of the site is simple: click the “teleport” button, and via the magic of Google Maps and Street View, you’ll be taken to a random place on the globe. You’ll be able to look around 360 degrees in classic Street View fashion, and should you be inclined, you can also explore the area with a few clicks. The whole thing is kind of amazing, if only for giving you an appreciation of the geographic diversity of this great wide world. You’ll often wind up on a desolate highway, but the real fun is arriving at some ultra remote location or in the center of a quaint town (usually in France or Italy). Of course, like me, you’ll also find yourself in The Bronx or on some McMansion-filled suburb of Phoenix, which is not nearly as fascinating but no less amusing.
Since I’m crazy, I also wanted to see how long it would take before I landed in a spot that I’d actually been to. It took about three days of casual clicking before I landed on the rather mundane destination of the Garden State Parkway in NJ. Anticlimactic.
Anyway, the good news about the site is that if you land somewhere particularly evocative or beautiful or amusing, you can nab a permalink and send it to your friends. After the jump, a few destinations that I enjoyed (with a few thrown in from Sly too).
Well, here I am again on a trans-con flight with nothing but time on my hands. I was planning on doing something useful like work on my script or write a Jersey Shore photocap, but this flight has proven to be something of an amusing farce so far. I must live blog the events because they are too entertaining for me to keep to myself.
Once again my eagle-eyed friend Malibu Judie has discovered something quite exciting. It appears as though famously disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater may have been a reader of this blog. Two years ago, an “S. Slater” who identified himself as a “JetBlue steward” left a comment on this site (specifically on a flight blog) thanking me for flying with his company. “Thanks again for your business, peeps like you make it fun,” he writes, amusingly foreshadowing his epic meltdown. We can only imagine what happened between then and now to erode that cheery company pride.
Furthermore, the email that Mr. Slater left with his comment when typed into Facebook leads directly to his profile (which includes a happy picture of him in a JetBue uniform holding a bundle of balloons). And so it’s confirmed. Steven Slater reads B-Side Blog! I knew there was a reason I liked the guy.
To read S. Slater’s full quote on this site, check it out here.
