Thursday, August 6th, 2009

4320 LA Challenge: Day 2

And now for the second of three parts in the 4320 LA series, let’s pick up where we left off…

630pm: a private tour of the SLS Hotel including a visit to the Bazaar Restaurant by Jose Andreas. Apparently, the food is out-of-this-world, which is most likely why it’s booked-out up to three months in advance.

730pm: why all this focus on beauty for the V Tweeters?  Botox, waxing, pedicure? I’ll tell you why, we were prepping to mingle with the beautiful people.

900pm: our names are on the door at the rooftop Armani Xchange party at the Mitchell’s Hotel in Beverly Hills; sipping vodka and grapefruit juice while gazing out on a clear and warm Los Angeles night. Don’t get too settled though, there’s plenty more to come.

1100pm: a visit to Pink’s Hotdogs, an LA legend with perennial queues (lines) and a wall adorned with photos of the hundreds of celebrities that have visited, including Gordon Ramsay. The manager wins us over with a hotdog adorned with writing in mustard, “V Australia”.  

1200am: MyHouse is one of LA’s hottest nightclubs, situated in West Hollywood on Hollywood Blvd.  We strike upon an accidental ruse; the V Tweeters are snaffled away and into the throb of this club by security when a huddle of b-grade paparazzi converge on us, believing we are celebrities because we have a lone camera-man (Huw) and huge entourage of producers and production assistants. So LA.

1200am: we, the V Crew are not cool enough to get in, so it’s a welcome break at the bar in the Roosevelt Hotel just up the street on Hollywood. Baseball is on the TV screens.  

130am: retrieve our intrepid V Tweeters and turn to another LA must – Canters Deli, a Jewish deli on Fairfax with the most incredible glass ceiling – a lead-light tracery of autumnal tree branches in gold, ochre, green and occasionally blue.

145am: we don’t stop to eat though; mob rules and it’s Damiano’s Pizza across the road for a late night slice of thin-crust pepperoni pizza

300am: the graveyard shift begins. SLS Foyer. The security guards and cleaners are kind and patient. Or simply puzzled.

400am: the tweets flow

500am: LA stirs – garbage trucks; the hum of commuter cars belying the all-day rush-hour still to come; the first glow of a new day

700am: Matt and Nathan jump into our cars and head to Venice Beach for Muscle Beach, a bike ride on the promenade and (so they tell me) a stirring re-enactment of Baywatch, replete in red life-saver one-piece swimsuits.

800am: I tune out, won’t think about how they look on the beach, and opt instead for my second three-hour sleep.

1100am: V Tweeters relax poolside on the rooftop at the SLS Hotel.

130pm: V Tweeters take in the sights of Beverly Hills on a tour in classic 1950’s convertible Cadillac

300pm: we meet at Channel 9 (Australia) LA bureau for a live hook-up on the TODAY Show. Richard Reid stops by and shows us how to really do breakfast TV, over-the-top style. OMG.

400pm: tour of the Clear Channel radio studios at Burbank and meet KIIS FM DJ Dave Styles to discuss the return challenge: can three Americans go 4320:SYD?

530pm: no trip to LA should be without a stop at the record-store phenomenon that is Amoeba Records. More vinyl, CD’s and pop-culture merchandise than you can fathom. All genres. Who said music was only the domain of the Internet now?

630pm: one of our production assistants, Anthony Sims, enlightens us to the differences between rap and performance poetry while driving and leaves us speechless with a piece that conjures the rush of life in the digital age, the importance of seizing and savouring every moment. These take up several moments in our 4,320 juggernaut.

No need to feel left out, plan your own LA adventure with daily flights from Sydney, departing 800pm, arriving 430pm the same day, it’s an easy escape.  Book now but tweet at your leisure.