Wednesday March 17, 2010

One of my oldest dearest friends met me to kick off an Irish Pub Crawl today! I have known Scotty Leo for about 13 or 14 years now… He used to come into The Tivoli as the Camel cigarette guy and I was in there all time visiting my friend Karen who bartended. Scotty was good friends with another bartender named Kim (yes, my beloved Kim) and even though Kim and Karen never really got along, I fell right in with their crew and have been BFFs with many of them for a loooong time. Oftentimes we refer to our circle of friends (and actually tons of other people in SoCal) as “Six Degrees of Mike Jenkins.” Kim and Mike dated forever, Mike knew Renee and Sigrid from a job, they were all in the DJ scene, Chris opened up a 18+ nightclub, yadda yadda. I could go on for days about how I know everyone and their connections. Long story short, from here on out when it is a Mike Jenkins connection I will say “6degreesofMJ”

We started at The Field, probably the most authentic Irish pub in all of San Diego, simply  because of the fact that every single part of the bar was shipped here from Ireland. Every bar stool, every bit of decoration, every knick-knack, probably even a few dust bunnies.

I guess I am not the only one who shops at Busted Tees.

What Scotty and I couldn’t figure out is how all of these people have today off? Are they all unemployed like me? Are they just on their lunch break? Are they all Irish and take the day off? Do people in Ireland even celebrate St. Patty’s Day?

I ordered the Irish Sampler, and it was not very good. I should have gone with my gut and eaten at Dublin Square, but I was waiting on Moe and Claw who claimed they would be at the Field for BREAKFAST and finally showed up at 2:30. Talk about tweeker time, Jesus!

After waiting around for too long at the Field, Scotty and I started walking towards Patrick’s but got distracted by the live music at Henry’s Pub.

Watch this band absolutely massacre a U2 classic.

Cute bartender… be patient while I test out my camera all day…

Scotty forgot that you were supposed to wear green today (he doesn’t get out much) so I stuck this on his head. Dork.

This clown was actually pretty entertaining.

Here I did the work for you. I can’t tell if they are a local company or not though.

Scotty had to take off so Moe, Claw and I headed over to Dublin Square which was fucking mobbed but I was able to get a great shot of a trainwreck of a girl. I know for a fact I have been that intoxicated in public and now that I have seen this vision of loveliness I might consider heading home before I am in that condition in the future. Wow. And it’s still daylight. I love how she is holding herself up with the door handle. (look her for her on my friend Joey’s site.)

I asked the boys to act casual and pretend I wasn’t there. Ok thanks guys.

The girls from the Tilted Kilt were cruising around dressed like sluts trying to get people to go all the way down to the ballpark area … most people forget that place is even there. Kind of a brilliant move… I’m pretty sure it was the dimples on the one girl’s back that pushed us over the edge.

On the way to Titled Kilt we stopped at The Tiv, of course. I bet you can guess where all four of these guys were born and raised. If you don’t know then I guess you should probably stop reading this blog because you are dumb and I just don’t need dumb people following me. But if you aren’t from the United States, then you are allowed to continue reading. Just google “wicked retahded.”

I didn’t take many photos at the Tilted Kilt because I was too busy betting Claw and losing.  I thought that the bar was only open 7 days a week during baseball season. He claimed that the place was open year round 7 days a week. It is huge and I was convinced that there would be no possible way that they could fill it and make enough money to stay open down there in the desolate East Village. I was wrong and I lost ten bucks. I only make bets that I am 99.9% sure to win. I suck.

All day we had been making fun of businesses in the downtown area that have gone under and by what thought process did they ever think that they would survive in the current economic crisis. Take this giant 5,000 square foot location for hand woven carpets.

Or a place called:  Wings, Pizza and Things. (no pic sorry.) I thought I would open up a shop called “Bicycle Locks, Gerbils and Tanning Salon” and see how well it did. Ridiculous.

Like I said, be patient while I play with the new Nikon D300.

Our last stop of the day was at Basic where the two of them GRILLED me about who this character was that I was going to Australia with. I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to get up early and attempt SCUBA diving in a pool which is sure to be a full blown anxiety attack. I needed some sleep and I needed to be certain I didn’t smell like booze in the morning. I was asleep at 8:30 and it was awesome.

Before we left Basic a random 80′s song came on that I cannot get out of my head. Do you remember this song?? I love it! Godley and Creme.

Sunday 10.25.09

I fucked up and thought I had an early flight out of JFK so I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to sleep in. I landed in Burbank at 4:30 pm, just enough time for Yesenia to pick Kim and I up and take us to our hotel, grab a bite to eat and head to the show. 96,000 people can be pretty overwhelming and the Rose Bowl is a bit of a mess but we had a blast. They played some really old stuff, and of course the new album is amazing. I have to say I think “Magnificent” is my favorite song off their new album, and I was delighted when they played “The Unforgettable Fire” which is one of my all-time fave classics.

I found this mask down by the concession stands and soon learned that everyone is supposed to wear the thing during the song “Walk On.”It is in honor of a woman named Aung San Suu Kyi who was elected the President of Burma and has been in prison for 14 years since her election. There goes Bono again trying to save the world…. it must be tough between filming ipod commercials and making webcameos on Entourage.

Kim and I were smart enough to leave the stadium early in an attempt to catch a cab back to the hotel. However, we weren’t smart enough to wear tennis shoes and we weren’t smart enough to go the right way to where the taxis were. Good times! We were walking and walking and walking towards what we thought was the main street, and finally walked up to a hippy looking couple in a car and asked for a ride. I prefer to say we car jacked them, but in reality, they were very cooperative and we gave them $40 to simply transport us out of there. The guy was a little pissy, but the woman was very nice. We were dropped off at our hotel and were not smart enough to go to bed. We proceeded to get hammered at this strange place called the 35er (and the only reason I know this is because I tweeted it and went back and read it this morning! lol) and were eventually escorted home by a nice man whose name escapes me. I do remember that he was in our hotel room at some point and I do remember telling him that he wasn’t going to get very far with either of us and that he had to leave. I guess at that point I went face down into the bed snoring and he talked to Kim for 20 minutes about how he liked me. Long story short, Kim has no idea if she gave him my phone number, her phone number or a fake one. I guess I can’t expect her to close the deal for me if I can’t even stay awake… what a lush.