The dogs days are not over. Im now with all my belongings in Venice Hostel. Adam is North Hollywood. Less is in the hostel. The real-estate agent has disappeared, there is no-correspondence other then a message from her to Les saying she had a heart condition and she would be in touch, its now Sunday and me and Less know its unrealistic to think anyone is working today and that the owner is signing off today, nor the agent coming to give us the keys. Adam, well he doesn't get it, crazy thoughts roll through his head but im to exhausted to try and explain it again.
So the hostel is everything you expect a Venice hostel to be, we meet 2 future allies there, Dougie Fresh, a Kiwi who has been from Austin Texas to Venice in the past 2 months, a great topshelf guy. He's a Dj back home, into drum & Bass, my kinda guy and most importantly not a Yobbo & Ewen Duffas, a brit who shares a unconditional love for music as i, aswell as incredibly talented piano/keyboard player. Ewen actually has been on stage with the late Amy Whinehouse. He was playing a gig back home 2 months before her death, (i remember reading about this when it happened) when Amy showed up and jumped on stage and they performed her hit "Valerie". Listening to him chat about it brought an eerie chill in the air, rest her soul. Im not sure it was the fact i read about it so far away , and then here i am on a balcony drinking a pint with a guy who lived the moment. I find things like this happen to me alot in my life, like the legendary night at Abby Roads where i found myself with some of my best friends singing "have a little help from my friends" by the Beatles in the same studio that it was recorded in so long ago (That night is it's own blog on its own as-well as alot more from my adventures With my brother Kieron and Jack & Neil. Again, something i couldn't make up, it just happens.
So Sunday funday in Venice. New friends, new home. Well temporary home, home is where the heart is and my home is music. The next few days are a blur as we end up stomping around Venice waiting for the real-estate agent to surface. And she does, we are officially homeless as this agent was being shady and had gotten a higher offer on the place and however it unfolded between her and the owner. Either way we were out bid and they gave us our deposit back and left us "out in the cold"they say, but its actually not that cold here. However what the fuck, Venice Real-Estate as we come to find is crazy. Wednesday doesn't come quick enough, Adam's dad Paul is flying in for Namm, he had gotten a hotel for us for Namm. Less had fired up dealings with a 2000 sqft loft in the heart of Venice, it is everything you could imagine, neighbours with Fiona Apple, right next to a house Lindsey Lohan had rented well she stomped around La landing herself in jail. It was minutes from the beach again, minutes from one of the "Top 5 rated hippest streets" in America, Abbott Kinney. Just all in all a rockstar set up, roof top patio , fireplace , 20 ft ceilings blah blah blah. So on one front, the situation sucks but the temporary future looks promising. This place is a risk for Less as he has agreed to put down the deposit on our behalf, and trust me it's alot. If we are to step into this place we will need to take on another roommate as the monthly costs will be high and thus we will be living the high life. In any case the deposit is given and we are locked in to another place, this one bigger and better then the last. I leave Venice with my belongings for Namm, leaving everything else behind at the hostel with Less taking it out and moving it to the new place when we are gone , as we are suppose to get the keys on the up and coming friday. So here i am , outfront of a hostel , picked up late Wednesday night and off to Anaheim for Namm 2013. http://www.namm.org/events/2013-namm-show
Friday, February 15, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Dust Settles. Ola Venice hostel
So when the dust settled, here me and Adam are left in a trail of Lady Boy madness. The one time short lived majestic 123 Anchorage Street , now has a family of floppers taking it over, no room in the fridge for our food and mine and Adam's "weekly lease"was officially up. However things are different since the mirage of Shauntelle was brought to light. When all was said and done, Adam and i along with Less were on the hunt for a new place. Less and been escorted out by Police as Shauntelle had pulled some shady stuff with his contract and we had not heard from neither "Shaun" who handles accounting or "Shauntelle" who handles booking and we are a day past our own lease. This is extremely un-usual as Shauntelle would be like clockwork, 3 days before your week expired asking if you were renewing and demanding payment. Fuck, talk about living week to week not knowing if you have a place to live at the end of it.
So we find a place and commit to it, put in our deposit and start getting our exit strategy in place. Its a weird scenario, Adams dad is flying in for Namm, were headed out with him. In light of all the stuff we have Reid flying home and were in this madness of moving once again. So its the night before we move out. We have heard nothing from the company and are 2 days into a new lease we didn't sign, keep in mind we have until the 28th , as the company doesn't know we are moving out with all the dust finally settling. So me and Adam get a knock on the door, it's Armondo ( Tim; the super intendant from when we moved in, Armando is his replacement. I forgot to say Tim quit the day after we moved in, obviously to do with Shauntelle. The only interaction ive had with Armondo was when we got a knock on our door one day randomly from him and he demanded i take beer bottles down to the trash, to which i replied Go Fuck yourself and went back to bed.
So here we are, we owe money to for these free days we have stayed, however Shauntelle has disappeared in light of Less's "biting" incident. So the knock comes, Armondo is now demanding money. Apologies, a quick backstory, when "the biting incident" happened, Adam had sent an email to Shauntelle stating all the things that have gone wrong since we moved in and asked her to call us regarding the lease , however she then disappeared. So we owe the money, however, we never got the phone call to debate what was going on. So we tell Armondo to call Shauntelle as we were waiting to her from him, i mean her , i'm not even sure at this point. He gets on the phone with her and this weird bantering starts again (reminisant of when we moved in and her & Tim fought about moving the extra bed upstairs) so ths is going on again between her and Armondo and them pretending like we cant hear them. She claims she has been calling Adam back regarding his email when she clearly hadn't, thus setting Armondo up to come hear it from us. You would think in thses sinariors it makes sense just to pass the phone to Adam and resolve the situation , however this is La La land and so Armondo hangs up and says Shauntelle will call us right now to sort it. Nothing happens. She calls Armondo back and says we are not picking up the phone. Keep in mind , were all in the same room. He tells us were not answering, it becomes a weird situation, us just asking to pass the phone, her pretending she's calling. Finally they give and just pass the phone to Adam. The conversation jumps into everything outlined in the email ; ie the fumigation (not telling us), the cockroaches, the revolving door of employees, the 2 floors jammed into 1, the biting, the cops, the no fridge room......the list goes on. Her is where she try s to pull some bullshit with Adam saying we owe 2000 for staying past our lease term date ( all bs) she says its in the contract. ( Fuck him/her whatever. were out. ) im Hungover and would have beat the piss out of that lady boy if she was within walking distance. We have a moment after we hang up and Adam calls back and explains we are moving out the next day and can we have another night. They agree , the end of 123 Anchorage is near. The night would have more interesting things happen as Adam and Reid played a show i hooked up for him at the local bar, Reid ends up sleeping in his car (Ala Venice style) i end up on a roof top with my friend Jess and her roommates stuck because they changed the code on us and it was on my phone that was now dead. One of the girls in jess's building is a camera operator and had a swiss army bag of chargers but none were mine, Reid makes a last ditch effort and goes to the hostel. #boom he finds one and were off to our last night @ 123 Anchorage. The night was over.
The next morning starts off as expected, were packed and out as we agreed. The real-estate agent had set our move in time to 11am. We were out @ 9am , Adam's car once again loaded with all our belongings. So we head over to Starbucks and start our day, as it progresses we start getting anxiety as the agent sends Less a messages saying the owner hasn't signed off on the deal and she is waiting to get ahold of them and thus she is now not coming to give us the keys at 11am and is going to wait to come meet us when the deal is signed on there end. To clarify , our end was done and the agent had said the deal was done. deposit in. Our end signed, however the agent had not got it signed off by the owner. I understand exactly whats going down as my brother is a real-estate agent back home, as does Less as he has a back ground in the industry. Adam however doesn't get it , and because we have some expensive equipment, its put us in a bad stale mate situation with a car loaded with all our belongings and no place to go. Oh Venice, nostalgia hits us, as we think about the battle to get here, when we finally landed what turned out to be a mirage of 123 Anchorage, this palace by the beach ran by a shady lady boy. It was pretty amazing how great life was and how upside down it is. As the day progresses it gets worse, the agent is now not answering our calls. As Less says,"Im hoping for the best, but expecting the worst". Thing is today os such a nice day, a beach day. Everybody is out in full force, and we are stuck homeless in Venice, obviously not the first people like that. As the sun goes down, me and Less agree that this lady is not answering our calls as nobody likes working on weekends. So we head to a pub to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs home opener. Everything goes into plan b, we start working on our plan b offer to a massive 2000 sqft loft with way more risk on our part and alot on Less who is going to bat for us, something i cant express to anyone reading this, Less has worked hard to help us and to maintain a good bromance we have developed. Adam at this point still doesnt understand the process and get wrap his head around whats going on so he decides to take his stuff to his old place in North Hollywood where he still has his place rented to the end of the month. I decide to hit the hostel, belongings in tow.
So we find a place and commit to it, put in our deposit and start getting our exit strategy in place. Its a weird scenario, Adams dad is flying in for Namm, were headed out with him. In light of all the stuff we have Reid flying home and were in this madness of moving once again. So its the night before we move out. We have heard nothing from the company and are 2 days into a new lease we didn't sign, keep in mind we have until the 28th , as the company doesn't know we are moving out with all the dust finally settling. So me and Adam get a knock on the door, it's Armondo ( Tim; the super intendant from when we moved in, Armando is his replacement. I forgot to say Tim quit the day after we moved in, obviously to do with Shauntelle. The only interaction ive had with Armondo was when we got a knock on our door one day randomly from him and he demanded i take beer bottles down to the trash, to which i replied Go Fuck yourself and went back to bed.
So here we are, we owe money to for these free days we have stayed, however Shauntelle has disappeared in light of Less's "biting" incident. So the knock comes, Armondo is now demanding money. Apologies, a quick backstory, when "the biting incident" happened, Adam had sent an email to Shauntelle stating all the things that have gone wrong since we moved in and asked her to call us regarding the lease , however she then disappeared. So we owe the money, however, we never got the phone call to debate what was going on. So we tell Armondo to call Shauntelle as we were waiting to her from him, i mean her , i'm not even sure at this point. He gets on the phone with her and this weird bantering starts again (reminisant of when we moved in and her & Tim fought about moving the extra bed upstairs) so ths is going on again between her and Armondo and them pretending like we cant hear them. She claims she has been calling Adam back regarding his email when she clearly hadn't, thus setting Armondo up to come hear it from us. You would think in thses sinariors it makes sense just to pass the phone to Adam and resolve the situation , however this is La La land and so Armondo hangs up and says Shauntelle will call us right now to sort it. Nothing happens. She calls Armondo back and says we are not picking up the phone. Keep in mind , were all in the same room. He tells us were not answering, it becomes a weird situation, us just asking to pass the phone, her pretending she's calling. Finally they give and just pass the phone to Adam. The conversation jumps into everything outlined in the email ; ie the fumigation (not telling us), the cockroaches, the revolving door of employees, the 2 floors jammed into 1, the biting, the cops, the no fridge room......the list goes on. Her is where she try s to pull some bullshit with Adam saying we owe 2000 for staying past our lease term date ( all bs) she says its in the contract. ( Fuck him/her whatever. were out. ) im Hungover and would have beat the piss out of that lady boy if she was within walking distance. We have a moment after we hang up and Adam calls back and explains we are moving out the next day and can we have another night. They agree , the end of 123 Anchorage is near. The night would have more interesting things happen as Adam and Reid played a show i hooked up for him at the local bar, Reid ends up sleeping in his car (Ala Venice style) i end up on a roof top with my friend Jess and her roommates stuck because they changed the code on us and it was on my phone that was now dead. One of the girls in jess's building is a camera operator and had a swiss army bag of chargers but none were mine, Reid makes a last ditch effort and goes to the hostel. #boom he finds one and were off to our last night @ 123 Anchorage. The night was over.
The next morning starts off as expected, were packed and out as we agreed. The real-estate agent had set our move in time to 11am. We were out @ 9am , Adam's car once again loaded with all our belongings. So we head over to Starbucks and start our day, as it progresses we start getting anxiety as the agent sends Less a messages saying the owner hasn't signed off on the deal and she is waiting to get ahold of them and thus she is now not coming to give us the keys at 11am and is going to wait to come meet us when the deal is signed on there end. To clarify , our end was done and the agent had said the deal was done. deposit in. Our end signed, however the agent had not got it signed off by the owner. I understand exactly whats going down as my brother is a real-estate agent back home, as does Less as he has a back ground in the industry. Adam however doesn't get it , and because we have some expensive equipment, its put us in a bad stale mate situation with a car loaded with all our belongings and no place to go. Oh Venice, nostalgia hits us, as we think about the battle to get here, when we finally landed what turned out to be a mirage of 123 Anchorage, this palace by the beach ran by a shady lady boy. It was pretty amazing how great life was and how upside down it is. As the day progresses it gets worse, the agent is now not answering our calls. As Less says,"Im hoping for the best, but expecting the worst". Thing is today os such a nice day, a beach day. Everybody is out in full force, and we are stuck homeless in Venice, obviously not the first people like that. As the sun goes down, me and Less agree that this lady is not answering our calls as nobody likes working on weekends. So we head to a pub to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs home opener. Everything goes into plan b, we start working on our plan b offer to a massive 2000 sqft loft with way more risk on our part and alot on Less who is going to bat for us, something i cant express to anyone reading this, Less has worked hard to help us and to maintain a good bromance we have developed. Adam at this point still doesnt understand the process and get wrap his head around whats going on so he decides to take his stuff to his old place in North Hollywood where he still has his place rented to the end of the month. I decide to hit the hostel, belongings in tow.
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Tale Of The Shady Lady (Boy) Part #2 Who is in charge Shaun, or Shauntelle?
So in light of the events, were looking at places again. With a more determined approach and wider selection now that we have Less on our side, no credit rating shouldn't be an issue. However time is not on our side, apart from us wanting to get out before the 28th, we all realize with Less having been bit and the house with a weird vibe, none of us can weather this storm until then. Less by this time is in a full blown battle with Shauntelle as it turned out she had previously tried to raise the rate on Less without notice with the intention of getting him out so she could free up one more room to accommodate her relocating the floor below us. That obviously back fired as she had already had an agreement set forth with Less to stay until the 28th at a set rate, the same as us. When this backfired, things became heated between Shauntelle and Less and she obviously ran out of time to solve the issue and the floor moved up, thus sparking the no room and hence "The Bite". All and all i dont think Less really holds it against Kim for biting him but more the company and Shauntelle for forcing that situation and living condition upon us as more like a scam . At the same time Less is fighting with Shauntelle over her trying to be shady and change the rate on him, we are all looking at places knowing full well we need out fast. Me and Adam are also receiving phone calls from Shaun at the rental company regarding our payment, as-well as getting ready for Namm 2013 in Anaheim and Adams dad coming to visit.
We start venturing deeper into the rabbit hole, The days are filled with Shauntelle leaning towards having the cops kick Less out, us trying to find a place and making it to taco tuesdays to keep our friend Reid entertained as he's been visiting right in the eye of the storm. Me and Adam and Reid , head to the roof top and watch a full blown Venice Cops take down out front of our place, the helicopter actually hovered above us flashing the light on the top of our building thinking the guy/sguys had ran up there. Goodnight Venice, send me another day.
Is it Shaun Or Shauntelle causing the trouble?
So we teach Less the game of Asshole, and since then we have played it afew times and ive had my reign as President & asshole or as Less like to call it when he gets in office "The Obama Days". During the beef with Shauntelle, Less had dug up all kinds of information regarding the real-estate company, as he has a background in the industry. Throw the shit in the air, its about to hit the fan, check it. The Real-Esatate company we have been dealing with is not legally registered ,as-well Shauntelle is refusing to give her brokers licence , and the rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper. So over a card game of Asshole, Less brings to light that Shauntelle, is not actually a lady but is a man. This is the part it all unravels and makes sense, the bi-polar conversations, the emails coming from Shaun, but with the signature Shauntelle. The fact she has never been to the place she rents out, the fact that the "accounting department" has another gentleman handling it out of the same office named Shaun. Its all fucked, So Shauntelles gig is up, he or her whatever she likes to be referred to is , i say that out of respect only because she pretends to be both guy and girl; confusing in its own right, The thing that bothered everyone was, her perpetrating to be 2 people. On top of not even being a legally registered Real-Estate agent and then add the way everyone had been treated as customers; Her/His stock dropped large in a short period of time. Add the fact she went and caused a good situation to go bad with the full intention to. Tiss Tiss , you Shady Lady Boy. Karma will get you . Here is a pic Less dug up, buried Deep, deep in the heart of the intraweb for nobody to see. So if you noticed my profile pic in facebook, you now know the story behind it. Let me introduce you to my fake Lady Boy real-Estate agent, one of the shadiest.
Whoever says a picture doesnt say a thousand words.
Whoever says a picture doesnt say a thousand words.
The Tale of the Shady Lady (Boy) Part1; Welcome to Venice
So after bringing in the New Year in Venice, we waited patiently to hear about our submission to a nice spacious apartment on the main street of Venice, Pacific Ave. After contacting both the realtor and contact person that showed us the place it became a little frustrating as nobody could give us and answer as to whether we got the place or not. After some email correspondence, it was clear nothing would transpire until all parties were finished holidays including extended holidays, fare play. After a week of waiting and chatting with everybody except the owner we get our answer back. Denied, due to the fact that the state of California has no way to track or get ahold of our credit from Canada. Ignorance on my part i guess, i should have done my homework. This now poses a whole different challenge, how do we get our names on a lease if everybody rents with a credit check?. Nonetheless Venice is the hottest spot in America in terms of Real-Estate and its famous street Abbott Kinney was rated in the top 5 hippest streets in America, thus making it home to most of the Hollywood eccentric, artistic and elite. After and exhausting search we come across and add for a short term rental. We call it up and speak to an easy going lady, typical salesperson, feeding us her shit. However were exhausted and go check the place out. Its a shared accommodation , a big loft with a roof top patio, fully furnished, picture a hotel that is a dorm room ala collage.
We mull it over and due to our search we decide to give it a shot, she was offering us a room with two beds on this top floor loft, sounds great right? Done we sign up. This is where the plot thickens, the sales pitch is done and we are committed and good to move in 2 days from now. Things are looking good, until it comes time to move. Are expected time to get in was 2pm , however when we call to make arrangements the lady who i should say her name is Shauntelle starts getting rude with us saying we cant go in until 8pm, why you ask? Oh the building is being fumigated , a yearly thing we are told. Flags go up, in anycase Adam is playing a show and we have a car loaded with our belongings as-well as our valuables that we cant keep in the car. We come to a compromise with Shauntelle and she is getting the building maintenance guy to meet us at 5 ( he legal time anyone is aloud back in the building after a fumigation) to check in and drop our valuables and proceed with the rest of our evening. #shady; However we have no other options at this point. So we show up on time and meet a gentleman names Tim, he takes us to the loft and shows us our room, (picture this Shauntelle has us booked in a 10x15 room , with a private bathroom and 1 bed, not 2 as booked. We over hear Tim talking to Shauntelle and him explaining this to her, frustration in his voice as she obviously is trying to get him to jam another bed in this room, that would work if we were the midget from my previous blog post. However we are not midgets and this isnt going to fly, i tell Tim its not happening and we should be in the vacent room at the back with 2 beds in it, he agrees. Then the phone rings, he gets into a passive aggressive argument with her and i request the phone. She trys to tell me that that was the room we are booked in and it has 2 beds, im shocked as she is obviously putting the hustle on. I explain to her the room we booked had 2 beds and that there is no way to get two beds in this room , as-well there is a vacent room with 2 beds and that she must be mistaken, "Can i speak to Tim," she says. Back to Tim it goes, now he is obviously frustrated as she trys to convince him to put another bed in that room and he is holding his ground with a little support from me reiterating "fuck that". After some back and forth banter we get hit with an extra 25 to be moved into the appropriate room .
Wow, welcome to Venice, we are finally here and getting settled, all in all im a little stunned at this Shauntelle lady who has booked us. Well Im over it, off to Whole foods and back into my "All i do is Pound" fitness regiment well i wait for my guitar pedals to be mailed and design my website www.brentbuffan.com and start prepping to shoot my first music video. We take in Venice pretty seamlessly, finding our local spots , happy hours etc. We land at this what appears to be a local dive bar, however thats a mirage. You walk in and there is sawdust on the floor, brilliant ! no spills and if so , easy clean up. but thats far from why im in love with this place, it has pool tabals, no big deal, look into the corner and it has a free popcorn machine, in the air , well some of the greatest oldschool hiphop and 80s tunes out there. Then on the wall i notice, The silhouette Of the great Black Bird glaring at me with the god like yellow background; It's the sign of IMPERIAL, the Costa Rican Budweiser i have searched high and low for 2 years to find with no luck, but here it is in all its glory and served at this tiny dive bar in Venice, there is obviously more to this place then first glance. On the wall sits a shrine dedicated to Dos-Esquis xx "Most Interesting Man" a poster on the wall where a candle burns below him in respect. I inquire; turns out im standing in his local bar, i must meet him, challenge him. So there it is i have my favourite hang out in Venice right there, frosted mugs with my favorite beer and oldchool hiphop, free popcorn and some dodgy pool tables. Hendos Cafe, i salute .
Back to our dwelling 123 Anchorage street. Life starts to settle, our roomates are this oldschool cat named Brian from Philly, hes chilled, likes smoking La la and by day is a part time building inspector and part time actor. Our other roomate, an X Football player named Less. More to come with Less, great guy and good friend. Life was getting good, i started running the beach daily, working out at muscle beach and getting focused on my music. It was soon joined by some Canadian friends here for a 2 week visit, that set off a little bender, and well all this going on we are now informed by Shauntelle that we can only do weekly contracts for our accomidations. She starts to become very rude in her communications and it comes across like she is bi-Polar. Since we arrived Tim is now, gone , we find out later he quite because of Shauntelle, there is now a new maintenance guy who appears and the mirage of 123 Anchorage starts to unfold. We find out Cockroaches had infested the building and thats why it was fumigated, these things are crazy, not big here in Venice but they slowly start to re-appaear in our loft. Adam names the places La Hotel Coocharocha . Apart from the obvious the circumstances become un-easy as we find ourself worrying about renewing our contract every week, crazy right?. Shauntelle becomes increasing hard to deal with and we start receiving calls from a Shaun who works out of there office. We then find out from other residence, that that is there hustle, Shauntelle rents these rooms out in slow season and they keep it on weekly contracts so that when they get a big fish to come in and rent the whole place out for big wood, then they just keck everyone out. Fuck me. We start gettiing into our escape plan and taking on Less our Roomate as an allis as he is thinking and feeling the same way in this every increasing weird living situation, all and all well entertaining our Canadian guests and trying to further our music careers.
The days of stability are short lived as we are told our floor has been rented out and we are to vacate by the 28th, here we go again. Amongst the looking for a new place to live, stomping around town with our friends, attending shows, open mics, designing websites, setting up video shoots , working out on the beach we find ourself with a late night, followed abruptly by and early morning knock on our bedroom . Its Less, he's holding his hand , blood dripping everywhere. I jump up, what the fuck? "Ive been bit, i just called the cops" . he said. "What the fuck?, i mean what the fuck? i repeated, what time is it? and what the fuck?. "There is some random women on the coach ,"Less says,"I went to tap her shoulder because the remote was next to her and i didnt want to startle her , and she turned and bit me, then jumped up and tried to spray mace at me".
Its now 7am and the house has unraveled at the seams, i forgot to mention upon Shauntelle telling us we have to relocate by the 28th she had also kicked the floor below us out early. Instead of them leaving she told them they could stay in the vacant loft above us that she tried to jam me and Adam into. However the floor below us had 3 people living there, one was this lady Kim, she is a typical Los Angeles "Publicist" Im one the red carpet with blah,blah,blah, ill make you famous, blah.....Im a big wheel and yes i rent the apartment below. So moving forward our floor is now in a full blown 4 alarm mess. Me & Adam, Less, Brian (The cat from Philly who just smokes it all away and chills, and now these 3 people from down stairs, who to this day i think the 2 guys were Kim's sons , but they said they were British artists, that did it all ,rapped,made films, performed. However i never witnessed them leave the couch so i wouldn't doubt they were her kids as everything screamed BULLSHIT. So here we are , 7 of us and afew randoms, all on one floor, cops on there way, one girl biting another scream rape, a stoned guy from Philly , no place to put our food in the fridge and its 7am.
Lets bounce, its the 21st and im not waiting this out another 8 days, we need a place and fast. The dream is over at 123 Anchorage, im ready to leave La Hotel Coocaroacho way behind me. So we are on the hunt again, this time with a new roomate in tow (Less and his busted hand)................
Turn the fan on, shits about to hit it. (To Be continued)
We mull it over and due to our search we decide to give it a shot, she was offering us a room with two beds on this top floor loft, sounds great right? Done we sign up. This is where the plot thickens, the sales pitch is done and we are committed and good to move in 2 days from now. Things are looking good, until it comes time to move. Are expected time to get in was 2pm , however when we call to make arrangements the lady who i should say her name is Shauntelle starts getting rude with us saying we cant go in until 8pm, why you ask? Oh the building is being fumigated , a yearly thing we are told. Flags go up, in anycase Adam is playing a show and we have a car loaded with our belongings as-well as our valuables that we cant keep in the car. We come to a compromise with Shauntelle and she is getting the building maintenance guy to meet us at 5 ( he legal time anyone is aloud back in the building after a fumigation) to check in and drop our valuables and proceed with the rest of our evening. #shady; However we have no other options at this point. So we show up on time and meet a gentleman names Tim, he takes us to the loft and shows us our room, (picture this Shauntelle has us booked in a 10x15 room , with a private bathroom and 1 bed, not 2 as booked. We over hear Tim talking to Shauntelle and him explaining this to her, frustration in his voice as she obviously is trying to get him to jam another bed in this room, that would work if we were the midget from my previous blog post. However we are not midgets and this isnt going to fly, i tell Tim its not happening and we should be in the vacent room at the back with 2 beds in it, he agrees. Then the phone rings, he gets into a passive aggressive argument with her and i request the phone. She trys to tell me that that was the room we are booked in and it has 2 beds, im shocked as she is obviously putting the hustle on. I explain to her the room we booked had 2 beds and that there is no way to get two beds in this room , as-well there is a vacent room with 2 beds and that she must be mistaken, "Can i speak to Tim," she says. Back to Tim it goes, now he is obviously frustrated as she trys to convince him to put another bed in that room and he is holding his ground with a little support from me reiterating "fuck that". After some back and forth banter we get hit with an extra 25 to be moved into the appropriate room .
Wow, welcome to Venice, we are finally here and getting settled, all in all im a little stunned at this Shauntelle lady who has booked us. Well Im over it, off to Whole foods and back into my "All i do is Pound" fitness regiment well i wait for my guitar pedals to be mailed and design my website www.brentbuffan.com and start prepping to shoot my first music video. We take in Venice pretty seamlessly, finding our local spots , happy hours etc. We land at this what appears to be a local dive bar, however thats a mirage. You walk in and there is sawdust on the floor, brilliant ! no spills and if so , easy clean up. but thats far from why im in love with this place, it has pool tabals, no big deal, look into the corner and it has a free popcorn machine, in the air , well some of the greatest oldschool hiphop and 80s tunes out there. Then on the wall i notice, The silhouette Of the great Black Bird glaring at me with the god like yellow background; It's the sign of IMPERIAL, the Costa Rican Budweiser i have searched high and low for 2 years to find with no luck, but here it is in all its glory and served at this tiny dive bar in Venice, there is obviously more to this place then first glance. On the wall sits a shrine dedicated to Dos-Esquis xx "Most Interesting Man" a poster on the wall where a candle burns below him in respect. I inquire; turns out im standing in his local bar, i must meet him, challenge him. So there it is i have my favourite hang out in Venice right there, frosted mugs with my favorite beer and oldchool hiphop, free popcorn and some dodgy pool tables. Hendos Cafe, i salute .
Back to our dwelling 123 Anchorage street. Life starts to settle, our roomates are this oldschool cat named Brian from Philly, hes chilled, likes smoking La la and by day is a part time building inspector and part time actor. Our other roomate, an X Football player named Less. More to come with Less, great guy and good friend. Life was getting good, i started running the beach daily, working out at muscle beach and getting focused on my music. It was soon joined by some Canadian friends here for a 2 week visit, that set off a little bender, and well all this going on we are now informed by Shauntelle that we can only do weekly contracts for our accomidations. She starts to become very rude in her communications and it comes across like she is bi-Polar. Since we arrived Tim is now, gone , we find out later he quite because of Shauntelle, there is now a new maintenance guy who appears and the mirage of 123 Anchorage starts to unfold. We find out Cockroaches had infested the building and thats why it was fumigated, these things are crazy, not big here in Venice but they slowly start to re-appaear in our loft. Adam names the places La Hotel Coocharocha . Apart from the obvious the circumstances become un-easy as we find ourself worrying about renewing our contract every week, crazy right?. Shauntelle becomes increasing hard to deal with and we start receiving calls from a Shaun who works out of there office. We then find out from other residence, that that is there hustle, Shauntelle rents these rooms out in slow season and they keep it on weekly contracts so that when they get a big fish to come in and rent the whole place out for big wood, then they just keck everyone out. Fuck me. We start gettiing into our escape plan and taking on Less our Roomate as an allis as he is thinking and feeling the same way in this every increasing weird living situation, all and all well entertaining our Canadian guests and trying to further our music careers.
The days of stability are short lived as we are told our floor has been rented out and we are to vacate by the 28th, here we go again. Amongst the looking for a new place to live, stomping around town with our friends, attending shows, open mics, designing websites, setting up video shoots , working out on the beach we find ourself with a late night, followed abruptly by and early morning knock on our bedroom . Its Less, he's holding his hand , blood dripping everywhere. I jump up, what the fuck? "Ive been bit, i just called the cops" . he said. "What the fuck?, i mean what the fuck? i repeated, what time is it? and what the fuck?. "There is some random women on the coach ,"Less says,"I went to tap her shoulder because the remote was next to her and i didnt want to startle her , and she turned and bit me, then jumped up and tried to spray mace at me".
Its now 7am and the house has unraveled at the seams, i forgot to mention upon Shauntelle telling us we have to relocate by the 28th she had also kicked the floor below us out early. Instead of them leaving she told them they could stay in the vacant loft above us that she tried to jam me and Adam into. However the floor below us had 3 people living there, one was this lady Kim, she is a typical Los Angeles "Publicist" Im one the red carpet with blah,blah,blah, ill make you famous, blah.....Im a big wheel and yes i rent the apartment below. So moving forward our floor is now in a full blown 4 alarm mess. Me & Adam, Less, Brian (The cat from Philly who just smokes it all away and chills, and now these 3 people from down stairs, who to this day i think the 2 guys were Kim's sons , but they said they were British artists, that did it all ,rapped,made films, performed. However i never witnessed them leave the couch so i wouldn't doubt they were her kids as everything screamed BULLSHIT. So here we are , 7 of us and afew randoms, all on one floor, cops on there way, one girl biting another scream rape, a stoned guy from Philly , no place to put our food in the fridge and its 7am.
Lets bounce, its the 21st and im not waiting this out another 8 days, we need a place and fast. The dream is over at 123 Anchorage, im ready to leave La Hotel Coocaroacho way behind me. So we are on the hunt again, this time with a new roomate in tow (Less and his busted hand)................
Turn the fan on, shits about to hit it. (To Be continued)
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Pinkberry vs Yogurt land
The City Of Angels. ala Pinkberry vs Yogurt Land
After the midget episode, Adam & I exhausted resources looking for places to live outside of North Hollywood. We must have looked at more then 40 places, in-between playing Open mics and Adams pre-booked shows. Somewhere inbetween i caught a crazy addiction to Pinkberry, to the point that i have actually broken down all of the items there into a perfect berry storm. Yes , ill share. Step one, sample. always sample. They change there flavours frequently and un announced , not to my approval.
However , heres the moneyshot.
1 Medium ; Chocolate Hazelnut swirled with Salty Carmel
Toppings goes like this;
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries and Mochi Berries (not actually berries, rice cake sort of treats (Topshelf), then on to the bad boy stuff, add Almond Roca & Coconut shavings. Top it with Green Tea Powder ( Macha, my favourite) then hit it with some Vanilla Agovah syrup (not found at all Pinkberry's)
That my friends is the quickest way to a Yogurt addiction. So as i was saying i developed a bit of an addicting guilty pleasure. Thats when i came across Yogurt Land (competitor), this is a to self indulging for me, but to hard to pass up. Its a "pay per weight" self serve version of Pinkberry with more items and cheaper and nobody to make you feel guilty about loading up the yogurt with all the shit (gummi bears, candy etc) That addiction was short lived , back to Pinkberry i sided. (ALL I DO IS POUND)
In anycase, back on the hunt for a better living, off to Venice we go , where the freak flags fly, all day and night. My kind of home. As we begin our search , we find New Years upon us and decide to bring in the New Year in Venice. We meet some great people and find ourself-selves half snapped in an alley reminiscent of a hippie times square. Theres a really amazing image of Charlie Chaplin on the side of a building that cracks a bottle of Champagne at midnight as fireworks light up the beach and sky above. Thats short lived as cab runs over some drunk guys foot and his old lady chases him down throwing gang signs.
The next day , we take a good run up Laurel Canyon to clear our thoughts and bring in the new year in a good way, im uber hungover and crash hard after. We then find a nice spot in the heart of Venice and get our application in and it goes all the way through every channel, right to the owners desk on the holidays. Now we play the waiting game again. Let the games begin.
However , heres the moneyshot.
1 Medium ; Chocolate Hazelnut swirled with Salty Carmel
Toppings goes like this;
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries and Mochi Berries (not actually berries, rice cake sort of treats (Topshelf), then on to the bad boy stuff, add Almond Roca & Coconut shavings. Top it with Green Tea Powder ( Macha, my favourite) then hit it with some Vanilla Agovah syrup (not found at all Pinkberry's)
That my friends is the quickest way to a Yogurt addiction. So as i was saying i developed a bit of an addicting guilty pleasure. Thats when i came across Yogurt Land (competitor), this is a to self indulging for me, but to hard to pass up. Its a "pay per weight" self serve version of Pinkberry with more items and cheaper and nobody to make you feel guilty about loading up the yogurt with all the shit (gummi bears, candy etc) That addiction was short lived , back to Pinkberry i sided. (ALL I DO IS POUND)
In anycase, back on the hunt for a better living, off to Venice we go , where the freak flags fly, all day and night. My kind of home. As we begin our search , we find New Years upon us and decide to bring in the New Year in Venice. We meet some great people and find ourself-selves half snapped in an alley reminiscent of a hippie times square. Theres a really amazing image of Charlie Chaplin on the side of a building that cracks a bottle of Champagne at midnight as fireworks light up the beach and sky above. Thats short lived as cab runs over some drunk guys foot and his old lady chases him down throwing gang signs.
The next day , we take a good run up Laurel Canyon to clear our thoughts and bring in the new year in a good way, im uber hungover and crash hard after. We then find a nice spot in the heart of Venice and get our application in and it goes all the way through every channel, right to the owners desk on the holidays. Now we play the waiting game again. Let the games begin.
Christmas in La La Land
You may not believe it, you may doubt parts of it, but trust me it all happened
So I’m off, onto the life of a
Troubadour. I find myself having a drink in the airport before flying out to a
connecting flight in Chicago and finally off to my Destination, La La Land.
It’s a one way ticket and I have my guitar and a copy of Keith Richards bio
entitled “Life”, fitting. It’s smooth sailing to Chicago in the typical airport
hustle of the holidays, however all is well and its on to my connecting flight
to Orange County, I sit next to this really nice House Dj from Chicago going
home to visit his family for Christmas named Vince, he’s part of a dj crew
called “House wreckers”. We chat and get on well and part ways from the airport
upon arrival with some plans to future collaborate on a house remix of one of my tracks. My good friend and fellow producer on my album Adam, picks me up and its off to a temporary
holding place until we can find our new home in Venice. Adam was currently living
in North Hollywood, in some what of a Mexican Melrose place. Well more of a
Mexican flop house as I find myself sleeping on the floor next to Adam who’s on
his blow up mattress. Mornings would be addressed with some taco truck pulling up outside followed by the same mexican song turned up to 11 underneath us, top of the morning my mexican friends.
So here we go, the next evening would land us on
Christmas Eve, getting ready to go out and hit sunset blvd with the rest of the
gypsy’s and Adam's friend Rob a fellow songwriter. Fast forward, I’m soaking wet and have a great picture of myself
riding a bronze bull and grabbing it by the horns,
Afew time-lapse moments away and we had came across some brother from a different mother smoking a "jeffery"live fast and die awesome i say, this sets us on course to climb a mountain and dance with the Hollywood sign, a moment short lived as that idea was ridiculous , so press forward and were in Denny’s , Adam puking all over sunset, Rob crushing a stack of pancakes and me just taking it in, Merry
Christmas gypsy’s. Next day would bring a very different Christmas of sorts ,
hung over at this Mexican flop house in North Hollywood, hunting for places
outside of this mess over 5 dollar burritos and .50 cent pints.
I come across this add of a workplace/living space in Beverly Hills, that the landlord lives at the same building. So I send them a message and they get back to me that day, somewhere in-between “the grinch”&”fubar2” and some ridiculous chick flick that Adam’s lost roommates are into. In any case , I receive a phone call from the lady who had placed the add for the workspace. She say's its ok to come check out the location that evening, i insist its Christmas, we can wait for a more appropriate time, however she is persistent that its ok and that we should come look that evening. I put it to Adam and we mull it over and given our current situation we decide to go.
As we approach the area, were a bit thrilled its a nice hood , close to Venice & Santa Monica (ie the only two places i enjoyed the last time i was in La La Land). We park and walk to the address, i call her to let her know we are walking up and she directs me to an alley entrance with a garage door 1/4 the way open, lights on; were here. I lean down and go in , Adam following me. #boom , and what to my wondering eyes should a appear, no reindeers, no Santa .......but a midget in a power suite (mustard yellow) with his feet up on a desk in the corner. "Brent" he says, jumping up and introducing himself. This is when it dawns on me that i was not corresponding to a lady this whole time,it was a midget , little person, dwarf ; whatever is politically correct to say and he just has such a high pitched voice.
Ok so it takes a moment but i roll with it. " So where is the place that is for rent" i ask him. To his reply he points to a back room approx 20x15 (brick walls) picture an industrial building, cold brick walls. I look in and see massive amounts of old boxes and Ms dos computers pilled ridiculously high, along with a home made chemistry set , Bunsen burners and all. " Is this stuff going to be moved i ask, "No" he says. "So whos stuff is it" i ask. "Its mine, i just havnt unpacked yet" Alot of thoughts are running through my head at this point, one of them obviously being , how the fuck did this guy collect so many oldschool computers and pile them 10ft high, and teh second, what the hell is the home made chemistry set?
So naturally i ask, "what is it you do"? "Im a drug dealer" he says. "no seriously," i say" what do you do?" He replies , "i make drugs" "What kind? , i ask" "confidential" he replys. Classic response from a midget with Ms Dos computers, this guy.
So i ask him, "where do you live in the building? He then wlks over to the closet in the room and opens the door. My jaw dropped , he had a miniature sleeping bag on the first shelf. He must of seen my reaction, because i followed it up by a casual ,"Oh right, you sleep in the closet". He then hits me with " Thats the difference between a gay guy and a midget , a midget stays in the closet" #boom, what you know the little guys got chops. Now im thinking for sure im on a hidden show. "So let me get this straight, your renting this room full of your stuff to us to live in, well you make drugs and sleep in the closet"? i say. He replies with a serious" yes"
At this point Adam is stunned, and im riding it until the wheels fall off. "Ok , well be in touch" I tell him. As we leave im thinking that that crazy Midget has a meth lab hes trying to subsidize costs until its up and running. In any case, welcome to the City Of Angels, Merry Christmas Hezues.
I come across this add of a workplace/living space in Beverly Hills, that the landlord lives at the same building. So I send them a message and they get back to me that day, somewhere in-between “the grinch”&”fubar2” and some ridiculous chick flick that Adam’s lost roommates are into. In any case , I receive a phone call from the lady who had placed the add for the workspace. She say's its ok to come check out the location that evening, i insist its Christmas, we can wait for a more appropriate time, however she is persistent that its ok and that we should come look that evening. I put it to Adam and we mull it over and given our current situation we decide to go.
As we approach the area, were a bit thrilled its a nice hood , close to Venice & Santa Monica (ie the only two places i enjoyed the last time i was in La La Land). We park and walk to the address, i call her to let her know we are walking up and she directs me to an alley entrance with a garage door 1/4 the way open, lights on; were here. I lean down and go in , Adam following me. #boom , and what to my wondering eyes should a appear, no reindeers, no Santa .......but a midget in a power suite (mustard yellow) with his feet up on a desk in the corner. "Brent" he says, jumping up and introducing himself. This is when it dawns on me that i was not corresponding to a lady this whole time,it was a midget , little person, dwarf ; whatever is politically correct to say and he just has such a high pitched voice.
Ok so it takes a moment but i roll with it. " So where is the place that is for rent" i ask him. To his reply he points to a back room approx 20x15 (brick walls) picture an industrial building, cold brick walls. I look in and see massive amounts of old boxes and Ms dos computers pilled ridiculously high, along with a home made chemistry set , Bunsen burners and all. " Is this stuff going to be moved i ask, "No" he says. "So whos stuff is it" i ask. "Its mine, i just havnt unpacked yet" Alot of thoughts are running through my head at this point, one of them obviously being , how the fuck did this guy collect so many oldschool computers and pile them 10ft high, and teh second, what the hell is the home made chemistry set?
So naturally i ask, "what is it you do"? "Im a drug dealer" he says. "no seriously," i say" what do you do?" He replies , "i make drugs" "What kind? , i ask" "confidential" he replys. Classic response from a midget with Ms Dos computers, this guy.
So i ask him, "where do you live in the building? He then wlks over to the closet in the room and opens the door. My jaw dropped , he had a miniature sleeping bag on the first shelf. He must of seen my reaction, because i followed it up by a casual ,"Oh right, you sleep in the closet". He then hits me with " Thats the difference between a gay guy and a midget , a midget stays in the closet" #boom, what you know the little guys got chops. Now im thinking for sure im on a hidden show. "So let me get this straight, your renting this room full of your stuff to us to live in, well you make drugs and sleep in the closet"? i say. He replies with a serious" yes"
At this point Adam is stunned, and im riding it until the wheels fall off. "Ok , well be in touch" I tell him. As we leave im thinking that that crazy Midget has a meth lab hes trying to subsidize costs until its up and running. In any case, welcome to the City Of Angels, Merry Christmas Hezues.
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