Getty Center, Mayer Hawthorne and somehow I talk about using the bathroom twice.

You know what's not fun?  Having to pee preeeetty badly when an earthquake hits.  Let's just say that was not a good situation yesterday, and leave it at that.

So, let's talk about my Saturday and how effing awesome it was!  There were a few not so effing awesome parts, but in general one of the best days I've had in a really long time.  It did not start out well when I only had 3 hours of sleep, and then stuffing 5 cranky people into a car at 8:30am led to some..um...raised voices, if you will.  But by the time we got to the Getty Center around noon (we had a few car mix-ups and delays), myself and 9 of my friends were in considerably better moods.  We set out to find what this famed West Coast museum could offer...and so begins a few pictures (if you would like to see more, find my flickr...OH WAIT JK I don't have one of those.  These will have to do) (and sorry for not posting some of the more interesting ones, I just have a policy against posting pictures of my friends so I could only choose ones where their faces aren't clear) (though they will all be up on my facebook):

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The Getty has this thing about fountains. And they all make me need to use the bathroom.

having fun with all the rearview mirrors!

In the interactive "family" part

One of the sculptures outside, which leads to....

...this interactive replication of the sculpture! You can rearrange all the tubing.

entrance

part of the gardens

And then the piece de resistance (I can't put in accents right now, so just imagine that phrase as it should be, please): Mayer Hawthorne.  It was pretty tight getting to see him perform at the Getty.  The show was outside in one of the courtyard areas during sunset, so it was a pretty unique experience.  Now, I love Mayer Hawthorne's music.  The first time I heard it, I started to groove within the first three bars.  It's just some sexy stuff, man.  I was hoping to post music of his without showing you who he was because when you hear it, you simply do not picture some scrawny white dude.  Trust when I say if you dig R&B, soul,  hip-hop beats and some deep, old school MoTown...you will love him.

It didn't seem like we were this far away. Also, this pic was achieved by me holding my camera as high as I could above my head.  Ahh, being 5'3" at shows...good times.  Good. Times.

And some video links if you want to hear a few of the performances.  Not the videos I took since I don't use my YouTube account for uploads, but these do the trick.

Maybe So, Maybe No/Gangsta Luv

Just Ain't Gonna Work Out --skip the first half, unless you want to hear him talk about music stuff. And sing Biz Markie's "Just A Friend."

Shiny and New/I Wish It Would Rain

The night was rounded out with this pretty freakin' good sausage place in downtown LA arts district called Wurstküche.  I'd never heard of it, but my brother and his gf had gone before and he was craving it again. I'm not the most adventurous eater in the world, but he promised it would bring me back to our Belgium days, so I trusted him.

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And while the bratwurst wasn't quite what I used to eat en Belgique and the fries were most definitely not the kind of my childhood, I was still pretty darn satisfied.  I learned long ago to not hold my upbringing against food I eat in America (else I'd never be satisfied with anything), and so I won't.  But the sausage itself was tasty, the bread roll it came in was all sorts of amazing, and I even found I really liked the onions and sweet peppers I opted for as a topping.  For a more detailed review and breakdown of the restaurant, visit Awkward Eats, the food blog my friend Vivian writes!