Rearranging
blog.adamsearle.com now points here
I will post new work here. There are a few exciting things in the pipeline to show off soon...
adamsearle's posterous
USA 2010
Random LA
West Hollywood and Melrose Ave. Checked out a store called Johnny Cupcakes, cool random stuff
Out for dinner on Cinco de Mayo in West Hollywood
Random breakfast at our regular venice beach breakfast cafe
Venice beach on a Sunday afternoon
My new "Presidente" hat. El Presidente looks after his people!
My search for the best sticky date pudding goes international. Here is an the offering from Swingers, our late night diner of choice (has become our de-facto maisys/new orleans!). On the plate are 5 mountains of whipped cream. Under the centre one is a big cookie. Keeping with tradition, I ate half of it. Overall verdict was.. fail
Friday BBQ in the office. Awesome burgers. I'm getting the feeling that red meat is definitely superior here..
Awesome photography from Martin. Taken late one night at work in a neighbouring warehouse
Santa Monica
The coast line, taken from up on ocean ave
California, you are crazy!
Once a week we head down to Venice for breakfast before work. It's a nice cruise down the coastal road
2 weeks ago was the iPad 3G launch around these parts. A big day ;) A didn't have one pre-ordered, and was just going to try my luck buying one from an apple store over the weekend, but luckily I got the hook up from an apple store employee days before launch and had a unit secured for me. Breezed past the line, past the "sorry we're sold out!" announcements, and picked up the last one remaining. I'll save the iPad commentary for another post, but suffice to say I'm enjoying it. Maybe I'll title it "Thoughts on iPad" ;)
I've been dying for a bit of a road trip. Finally we made our way up the coast to see what's north. On the way up we drove through Malibu, and checked out a "cafe" by the beach. What it really was, was something out of this world - a bar/restaurant literally on the sand of a private beach, right up by the water. There was a little electric golf cart style vehicle that drove you from your car down to the "cafe". Awesome place. Could easily spend the whole day there chilling in the sun. Definitely felt like something out of entourage!
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We made our way up to Santa Barbara. Amazing town, so pretty and pristine. Checked out the town hall. Just missed the tour up to the top of the bell tower - meant to be an awesome vantage point. Still, nice place. Crashed a wedding too!
The old mission. Nice place. A bunch of high school kids were having promo photos or something
Driving down State St, I did catch a glimpse of the apple store :)
We stumbled across a mexican street festival for Cinco De Mayo. Food, music, big crowd, everyone having a good time. Apparently it celebrates a military victory a massively under-manned mexican army had over the french. The local 300 story!
Great sunset over the pacific
Back in town we went to an awesome jazz bar. The band were a bunch of really old guys, everyone was very impressed. One crazy dancing couple, where the woman was practically flung from either side of the bar.
As has become the theme of our tour: "California, you are crazy!"
Art Centre and random LA
Been a long time since I've posted here! Quite a busy last couple of weeks.
A while ago we checked out the graduate expo at the Art Centre, up in Pasadena. Amazing college. Coming from COFA back home, I imagine this is what uni would be like with crazy funding. They had an amazing campus, nested up in the 'mountains', which I can only describe as a bridge across two hills. As you drive up towards the campus, you actually drive under it to get to the entrance.
Amazing student works, every one of them was nothing less than "wow". They're meant to be the creme de la creme after all. I found the illustration works the most impressive, followed closely by the transport group - car designers etc. Apparently a lot of transport graduates from here get snapped up by german car firms. One group had a working offroader parked outside, amazing
After, we hit up an awesome japanese bbq place in pasadena. Lovely suburb. So green and well kept
Speaking of food, this is possibly the best steak sandwich I've ever had. From Tender Greens, a lunch place we try and hit up once a week. Incredible considering this was lunch during work
Our crew grew by one this weekend, so we checked out the 3rd street promenade on a great californian saturday
On sunday we went to a famous diner, Rae's. Great 50s feel. Apparently quite a few movies have had scenes filmed here. Discovered a great dive bar just over the road called the Joker. It has been visited many times since.. Tried a PBR, basically the cheapest, nastiest local beer here - simply awful. At least I can say I've done it!
That night we went and saw the Banksy movie, based on the street art movement. Great film, I went in with pretty low expectations and was blown away. Also note, they have tim tams here! Went to an old skool diner afterwards, Apple-something. Feels like the place had a bit of history.
In lieu of a friday bbq at work, we did pizza. Not too bad, but doesn't hold a candle to the gourmet stuff the office orders back home!
It wasn't my intention to make this post as food orientated as it was! Next up, heading north up the coast
A weekend around Santa Monica
Unfortunately I think I got a cold on the flight over, so I spent most of saturday day resting. But I ventured out that night to see my neighbourhood, Santa Monica! Great area, very relaxed and residential in feel. Somewhat ritzy too - some nice cars come by. Everyone is very friendly, says hello to you in the street. Americans (around here anyway) seem fine! ;)
We're very close to east ocean ave, which is the main road with a nice walking path/lookout going along the steep cliff that leads down to the water. If you want to actually get to the water, it's a bit more of a work (driving would be easy). Went out to a cool sushi bar that night. All the restaurants I've been to so far have both tables to sit at, as well as the bar - for eating and drinking. Nice to mingle with the other randoms.
Sunday was action day. In a massive FAIL I got an AT&T prepaid phone+sim with data (!!) with the goal of swapping the sim into my iphone. Fail - SIM is device locked. Lame :( So I'm still without a local sim, and have turned off roaming data as I already have a massive roaming bill from a whole 20MB usage... I digress...
I checked out the 3rd Street Promenade, a shopping and street entertainment area. Music, shops and all that. Cool sunday afternoon tourist place. Visited the apple store there (again.. made it in just before closing on friday after work - had to see a certain new device!) to have another play with an iPad - impressed. It was also a big news day in apple land with the leaked photos, so uh, nice photo of an iPad on engadget!
Shot some video of the street performers too!
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I think the plan for this weekend will be a road trip up to Santa Barbara!
The LA Office
On Fridays we always have a BBQ at work back in Sydney, as part of the office culture. I'm happy to say this has been brought to the LA office too! I was quite impressed with my first BBQ out here. They're keen to be doing it.
The office is in an area of LA called Culver City. Our particular area is in a business park type complex. Spread out buildings, lots of parking etc. It has quite a nice warehouse-ish atmosphere. Feels more like being at a small start up (again!) but in a proper office space. Small focused group, almost operating as a skunkworks unit away from the main Sydney body.
I miss my computer setup from sydney (both home and the office for that matter!) - surviving on a 13" laptop + 20" lcd is more limiting. #firstworldproblems. Due to the time difference between LA and Sydney, work here is 11-8, rather than 9-6 in sydney. It makes for 4 hours of overlap between the offices which is pretty vital for communication. I don't mind the hours much, as I'm used to working later, although it does make it difficult to do much with the evening!
Overall a good atmosphere, I'm looking forward to a couple of months work with the crew
Day 1!
Just checking in really. My flight was delayed 8 hours.. due to a damaged door on the upper deck of the A380 caused by an aerobridge. Probably a good thing they fixed that! The plane itself was great. USB + power for every seat, as well as a good entertainment setup. Laggy interface but good selection of content. Watched will ferrel you're welcome america, some docos, and slept!
Landing at LAX was great. Americans have great support for the disabled. Getting through the airport was quick and the staff helpful. Cabbed it out to Santa Monica, where we have our pad. Alas, the key wasn't where I thought it was to be :) Cabbed it to the office in Culver City and saw their setup there. All good. Checking in - home and work!
The area we're staying in Santa Monica is awesome. 2 blocks (and a freeway overpass) from the beach, expensive but relaxed looking area. Girls running and walking their dogs in the late afternoon when I checked in here.
Went out with 2 of the guys for my first LA dinner of the trip. In 'n Out burgers! US$5.19 inc tax for a pretty good burger meal. Got driven around LA in a colleagues GTI. Easy going first night!
And my journey begins
12 months ago at work I mentioned I'd be interested in going over to the USA, to do some time in out office in LA. I didn't care much about the work - same thing different place. But the opportunity to do it somewhere else, out of my home city, and in California interested me greatly 12 months later I'm on an A380 waiting to take off. The last couple of weeks didn't feel like this moment was this close, but now it's starting to sink in. Not at all nervous, slowly becoming excited. This is the flagship event of my 'year of excitement'. Santa Monica, San Francisco, Silicon Valley ahead. And my journey begins Sent from my iPhone
Hello World
Mic check..
