"There will be mojitos"or "I drink your mojito!"

Now that I edit for the dark side ("dark side" being relative, of course, as I know a few folks who work for the defense industry), I don't get the sports perks that I used to. But I do get invited to a lot of community functions.

Some are boring drivel for rich people who need to remind themselves - and others - that they are, despite their bank accounts, generous and benevolent.

Others are fun - take Friday's VIP party celebrating the opening of McCormick & Schmick's at the new GardenWalk in Anaheim.

Shameless as always, I brought two friends and five coworkers for free appetizers and drinks - my favorite being the 16-ounce mojitos. Drinking at my typical beer pace, I had one or four too many and paid the price Saturday - but not before a wild night that climaxed at the Juke Joint, a rockabilly bar in Anaheim.

Saturday night, we headed to the Musink Festival for more rockabilly in the form of Tiger Army. I also snapped this shot of organizer and "L.A. Ink" reality show star Kat Von D among the tattoo vendors. She's the tall, Goth vixen. Daddy like ...

Shop bitchin'

Have my fellow ink-stained wretches and creative misanthropes seen AngryJournalist.com?

My recent favorites? Numbers 673 and 669.

L.A. mana

In response to the "anonymous" (read: Ryan) comment, here are some songs I've downloaded in the past month.

One or two have been out for nearly six months - so that means some of these songs might not make it to the east coast until May Day. It may take longer for those of you on that sad, sagging iTunes teat.



"Wishing Well" and "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" by The Airborne Toxic Event
"A Punk" by Vampire Weekend (Is that a cool band name or what?)
"Time to Pretend" by MGMT
"Hummingbird" by Born Ruffians
"You're a Wolf" by Sea Wolf
"This Place Doesn't Have the Balls to Kill Me" by The Distortions (cool song title)
"Back in your Head" by Tegan and Sara
"Ocean of Noise" by The Arcade Fire

My mp3 player - a $19.95 Craig, not an iYupp - is still churning in spite of four gym trips a week.

Saturday, we're going to see Tiger Army at Musink, a festival spearheaded by Kat Von D.

Why we live here

Warm weather, tasty Mexican food, California girls, scenic motorcycle rides, hearing music and seeing film before the world - last weekend reminded me why I live here.

After nearly a month of rainy days in the 50s, California finally returned to normal. So, on Sunday, we all met up for a motorcycle ride up, down and around Pacific Coast Highway in 80-degree sunshine.

Of course, there were beer stops in Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa.

We had lunch at Fred's Cantina (below), which is atop a steep stairwell and overlooks Huntington Beach Pier at PCH and Main (above).



From there, we moseyed into Costa Mesa for a walk around the Performing Arts Center (pictured):



After that, we headed to the Corner Office for a cold one. Here are Jerry and Karen, and me and Renee:




With clear, warm days forecast for another week, more of the same is planned for this weekend. Gotta love California ...