Best Night in the Shadow of My Alma Mater

Oh man. Last Friday night? Off the chain good times in Provo, Utah. First, we went to the Karl G. Maser Building at BYU to catch young Scott Lemmon’s Ward Talent Show performance. How was it? Let’s just say it involved a synthesizer, dry ice, laser beams, and a little song called “The Final Countdown”.



So that’s me, Scott, and Mitch.



In the parking lot after the show a car drove by and someone yelled “Brigham! Brigham!” Yup, Spring Break was handing me another surprise reunion and it’s name was Amy Gueck. Awesome.



We were going to go get soup somewhere I had never heard of, but when Mitch saw they’ve opened a Sonic over by Beto’s, well, she decided we’d be having Sonic. No problem with that here.



I’ve been eating corndogs for a pretty long time, but this is probably the best photo of me eating corndogs I’ve ever seen.



When Matt got to Sonic he picked up the phone right away to order, but then he realized he had no idea what he wanted.



A few minutes later he was totally ready to order.



Scott Lemmon, eating towards victory!



So Matt says, “Mitch, take my picture!”



Then we went to this new café-ish place on University called “Vermillion Skies” full of Provo indie kids I had never seen before. We went there to catch Mary Cox and the Pop Rocks, they were like the furry little puppy with razor sharp teeth of rock n roll.





Pop Rocks in the house.



All right, so I have this NYC friend named Rebekah, right? And she was on a California/Utah vacation over spring break just like me, but she couldn’t hang in California. Why? Well, as illustrated here, she had to get her nails done one day and her hair colored the next. Well done.



Also in Utah? Mr. Jeff Rasmussen, here making his triumphant return to my eSite.



Me with Mary Cox.



Rebekah settles for nothing less than perfection in her face-making, and Mitch approves.







This is Jeff meeting the Lemmon boys.



Vacation! Knock it off with the chance encounters! Tessa from 1995/96 was on the town too.



Here Jeff gets to talking with Lani about whether or not being a personal trainer satisfies her soulful Humanities Major soul.



Me, Rebekah, and Mitch talk about something else. Probably couches.



Tessa and Suzanne. Suzanne lives in Utah and can be expected to be found in Utah, but I once chancely encountered her in New York.



Here Rebekah tries to explain to Jeff that she doesn’t like Diet Coca-Cola with Lime.



Jeff, however, enjoys the Diet Coca-Cola with Lime.



You just gotta understand that last Friday night in Provo was a screaming remembrance of the healthy fun they call “Provo.” If you starred in this post, don't be stingy with the comments.

Best Calm Before the Posting Storm

I get a headache just thinking about my next two posts, which will break records for # of photos of people living it up. For the time being, here's some pretty calm stuff.

I spent my last day in California hanging out with Meredith because Grandma was on a tour of Malibu. Here Meredith stands in front of a house next door to the house where they filmed Father of the Bride One. Hey, we can't all remember Father of the Bride perfectly . . . but I do perfectly remember that it was one of the houses across the street from (Great) Grandma Condie's.



We ate chiliburgers at the Boat. Here I am with the boat at the Boat.



Then I caught my SouthWest flight from Burbank to Las Vegas to Utah. I had forgotten about their exit row legroom.



Arriving in Salt Lake the most amazing thing happened. Sariah, from New York, was on her way through security to return home as I was arriving. I barely even remembered that she had been visiting her family. My socks, they were knocked off. On a vacation full of coincidental encounters, this one ranks quite high.



My first few days in Utah were spent with low-key activities like watching Arrested Development Season Two with a cold-stricken Matt Lemmon



Or not taking photos of important things, like meeting *Mitch and her Mom for the first time or eating enormous plates of Mexican food with Annie. Or going to lunch with Grandma Barnes, and watching the Aviator with Grandma. And Spider-Man 2. To my relatives: there's nothing quite like watching Spider-Man 2 with Grandma, ask me to describe it sometime.

But I did take a photo of Grandma, Spencer, Uncle Duke, Aunt Teresa, and that one dog after dinner at their place.



Also

-Maybe I'm very easily amused, but the new Honeymooners movie looks funny.

-Check out this Galang / Super Mario Bros. mash-up. It pretty much works, most of the time.

Best Journey Into the Incredible

Monday night started innocently enough, meeting the Mormons of Santa Monica, crowding a few tables at a Westwood restaurant, ordering appetizers all around and catching up on the gossip on people I’d never heard of or met before.





Across the street you could buy ice cream sandwiches for a buck. Crazy UCLA kids, they’ve got it so good.



Broek meets a lot of people, and sometimes the people she meets are second (maybe third?) generation hippies that live on top of mountains overlooking all of the world.



It wasn’t easy getting to the top of the world. It was a winding drive up Topanga Canyon, and then, after passing these dark gates (later on we’d find they were bought at an auction in London)



We encountered all sorts of shapes in the darkness that flash photographs would reveal to be things like an old, old Rolls Royce



Or an old empty pool



Or a brass deer



Or maybe statues of all varieties (but mostly of the “from an old church” sort)





or a Be-vased water towers that turned out to be homes.



But the main attraction was a gazebo with a firepit and a view I’ll never forget











A little flash photography reveals the paintjob the gazebo had received. Up there, on top of the universe, you can play your music as loud as you like.







This chap on the left is Max, he’s the master of the house whilst his father lives in Panama, swimming in the 80 degree waters everyday with the monkeys and the parrots. You’ll never meet a more gracious host than this Max



Being up there was something amazing. I wish you all could have come with us. Here's the "official website" on the place.

In real life, it's Monday now, and I'm back in New York, dealing with a Noah situation in my apartment.