...b-day slideshow...

I'd like to thank my friend, D, for showing me how to embed a Flickr slideshow onto my blog.

NICE!!

...my birthday party...

Since it was my birthday I wanted to invite people over to utilize our fantastic patio. Also I needed a reason to cook for about 20 people. We had a really great time and you can check out some pics on flikr'

Menu:
Turkey Burgers
(seasoned with: lime, lemon, pepper, sea salt, teryaki)
Regular Burgers (80/20)
(seasoned with: sea salt, pepper, cajun rub, rondezvous seasoning)
Pork Chops
(seasoned with: sea salt, honey, cinnamon, butter)

Bean & Corn Salsa
(black and garbonzo and white beans, yellow and white corn, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, 1/2 cup of regular salsa)
Tomato & Cucumber salad
(tomatoes, cucumbers, motzarella balls, dill, olive oil, lemon juice)
Baked Beans
(seasoned with BBQ sauce, merlot, sea salt)

Fruit bowl
(cantelope, strawberry, peaches)

We also had different kinds of chips and drinks and that was our party.

I have the fruit bowl picture on here b/c I was quite fond of it.

yeah for presentation

...star spots...

I have been slack lately so I need to make up for some time on my star spotting. Honestly, it's been pretty slow but this is a list and location of who I've seen and where.

Jay-Z
He was driving a brand new Rolls-Royce near the Beverly Center this a.m. I think he is in town for the BET awards


Emmy Rossum
She ate at the restaurant and is even more beautiful and soft in person. Wow.


Nia Long
She ate at the restaurant too and was really nice. She has about a 2-year old son who is so cool.

Giovanni Ribisi
He came to the Playhouse West (where I'm in acting school) film festival last weekend and was pretty interesting.

Jeff Goldblum
He too was at the festival and is even stranger in person. He is strange in a quarky way..nice guy, though.

Gene Simmons
He's the lead singer from KISS and was at the mall area where my restaurant is. Yeah he really is about 8 feet tall and very unique looking. It was crazy to see him.

That's all for now

my birthday

Well like that time of year when whales mate for a 24-hour period my birthday was a long day full of fun and water and krill. I began the day of my birth by waking up at 6:45 a.m. so as to extend the length of 'my day' and also b/c I had to open our restaurant at 8:00 a.m. I got to work and honestly forgot it was my birthday. It was just another day of work and then about 2 hours in I remembered and just got a huge smile on my face.

"Ha. It's my birthday."

Let me back up. ACTUALLY the way I started my birthday off was to sit at the top of an 8-story parking deck near where I work because I had closed the restaurant Friday night and so at 11:55p.m. I got to my car. The night was beautiful so I decided to drive to top of the parking deck, sit on the roof of my car (Angelina), listen to classical music and just look out at how beautiful LA is on a clear night. So that's how I really started my birthday.

As my shift ended (back to Saturday now) I saw someone who looked familiar to me. Wait? Is that? Could that be? It was Common. Now I know some of you might not know who he is but I am a fan of Common for a number of reasons. I respect his music b/c it's more poetic and less racy. Also he seems to have a bit of discipline--at least in the public eye--to stay out of trouble and is often times involved with great causes such as the (RED) campaign Gap had this year. He has been in a large number of movies including "Smoking Aces" and in the upcoming "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington. Common is...well more like a man of the people...more...common?! He was rocking some dark denim, boots and a white t-shirt. No chains. No bling. No problem.



So I decided to go up to him and say something. This is pretty much 100% against the rules of the restaurant but I was off the clock because my shift had ended. My first problem was wondering how I address this man. "Mr. Common" or just "Common" or "Senor Common" or what? Alas I pushed forward and the following is a word-for-word transcript as noted by the host who was up front:

Bradley: "Excuse me. (no direct address) I know this might be against our protocol but I just had to come up and say that I respect you both as an artist and from what I've read about you in interviews as a person."

Common: "Wow (genuinely grateful) man, thanks alot."

Bradley: "Yeah, I mean someone in your position being where you are in your career and what not it has to be tough to stand firm and not compromise and I really respect that."

Common: (nodding appreciatively knowing I can relate) "Yeah man (insert hand shake) it's not easy these days."

Bradley: "Definitely. Well I just wanted to come up and say that and just say, 'keep on keepin on, man.' (pat Common on the back and walk away)

Common: "Thanks man. Yeah. I will."

So that was pretty cool!

...times have changed

Well my friends the time has come for me to change my phone number..yes..there is a new number that I will be rockin' in my West Coast world. For good reason, I won't be posting it here but keep an eye out for an e-mail, text message and if all else fails you can call my old 704 Charlotte number and get my new one.

Ait.

Much love.

Bradley

ps: favorite purchase lately was a director's cut of Top Gun..."Ice Man, (sniff, sniff) you stink!"

Zion and Vegas

This past weekend I went to Las Vegas for one night and then off to Zion Nat'l Park in UT. I did not go alone but was instead accompanied by Meghan Nash, Carolyn Paul, Tommy Morris and Michael Eller.

Our trip began attempting to fit 5 people, bags and camping gear into a Ford Taurus. Now I'll tell you there is quite a bit of trunk room in the ole Taurus, however, not enough. So our leave time of 1:00 was pushed till about 3ish as we had to change cars into Tommy's 4-runner for the trip. That was by far the right choice. So we departed. We only hit a bit of traffic and after a number of rounds of "top 5" and "kiss, kill, marry" we arrived in Las Vegas. We had a good night of just walking around and being hounded by "card people" who freely give you cards of call girls whom you could call and have meaningful deep discussions about life with. I'm sure that was all.

We tried to get dinner at 2 different buffets which actually closed at 10 O'clock and ended up going to a pizza place to grab a few slices to go. Then we discovered that the place must not get much business because they charged for everything. I mean you wanted grated Parmesan on your pizza, charge; you need a plastic spoon, charge; you want a cup for water, charge! What? This is Vegas, a city that never sleeps with cheap good food and where money is as abundant as mosquitoes in a stagnant pond. Oh well.

We decided to call it a night knowing we had a few large hikes set before us the following two days in Zion.

The next morning we took off and after about 2 and a half hours we landed in Zion. It was massive, overwhelming, beautiful and dangerous! We arrived and parked at the camp site, pulled our hiking gear and took off for a 10-mile (round trip) hike up to Angel's landing (see flickr images). It was a difficult hike as we climbed 1488 feet from start to finish to an elevation point of 5785 feet. The last third of the trail is about 8-12 feet wide with 1000 foot drop offs on either side. Those with vertigo, a bad heart or feeling depressed need not take that challenge. It was pretty awesome. (picture is missing Carolyn who we thought was going to wait for us...turned out she finished it on her own and met us at the top!)



After returning to camp, eating at a little restaurant on the outskirts of the camp ground and getting some groceries, including s'mores elements, we went to bed. I slept outside just because I never had before and realized in the morning I had slept on top of a fire ant hill. How I was not eaten alive is simply a miracle by God!

The next day we had breakfast on the fire and then were off to the Narrows. It's (as you might assume) a hike that is narrow. The beauty is the river that created these massive walls of rock is still there. You walk in the river (varying depths) while being flanked by 2000-foot rock walls on either side. It is one of the most widely known hikes in all of the National Park system and other-worldly. We went about 5 miles in again with an additional a 2-mile detour. It was an upstream hike from the beginning and then had the water on our side as we headed back out again. (see picture and note people on the bottom right for an idea of scale)



After leaving the Narrows we headed back to camp, read, hung out, napped, ate and slept. The next day we took of for LA again and I showered last night for the first time in 3 days and slept in something that had more than an inch between me and the ground.

All in all it was a great trip with tons of great pictures you can view on the right side or click the link for the Zion SLIDE SHOW.