London - Brit Bowling, the Tate, Nate Cashdollar, and Mor

Never underestimate the power of the American Cashdollar. My first trip to the UK. 5 days of meetings. 14 hours of shenanigans. Thank you to YrPoison for connecting me to this week's tour guide Nate Cashdollar, and to my bud Huw for the invite to Fran's sweet Birthday Rock n' Bowl celebration. (Yes, Londoners interpreting American 50's diner style fun.)

April Highlights -- Now In Video! -- Coachella, Scooby Doo Olympics, London I, etc.

Click to Play

I got tired of trying to batch upload photos to Blogger, so I'm trying to do this in video instead. Let's see how this works.

Laziness, the mother of. . . quickie internet video?

Though of course, instead of going through the tedious task of uploading photos, 4 or 5 at a time through Picasa (30 min. task), here was my process:

1) Dig up Windows Movie Maker on my computer (10 min.)

2) Learn how to use Windows Movie Maker (15 min., including importing photos and the music file)

3) Make Title cards/captions in Photoshop (10 min.)

4) Edit movie in Movie Maker (15 min.)

5) Figure out the right format to save file (10 min.)

6) Sign up for video service at Blip. TV - thanks Geekentertainment.TV for the advice. (10 min.)

7) Post video (10 min.)

8) Edit post and redo my blogger template to accomodate the larger video window (15 min.)

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Still, it's a rare cloudy Sunday in L.A. and I've learned something. So yay.

Coachella and London Pics

All the luv in the world to all ya'll who've made my latest adventures so fun. Check out the pics below.

FYI: I'm screwing around with Facebook these days. Allegedly the photos are completely accessible without an account. Please let me know if that's not the case.

> LONDON: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2471&l=7e68f&id=513662291


> COACHELLA: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2472&l=28746&id=513662291

Hamburg is fun. London is fun if you don't need to wake up.

Just got back from the weeklong business trip to Euro. 3 days in Hamburg. 3 days in Leamington Spa (non-London England), and 15 hours in London.

Hamburg is great. Like a cross between like Amsterdam and Berkeley. Small but full of good stuff to do in a liberal arts kinda way. Oh, and currywurst (bratwurst with curry sauce on top) might rival bacon wrapped hot dogs for late night post-bar crack food.

Now England? Still a blast, but I gotta file an official complaint to hotel operators there: Can you PLEASE wake me up when I ask you to? 1 for 3 is good in baseball, but bad in terms of wake up calls. Please, next time I'm staying there I only want three things: 1) Don't let anyone steal my stuff. 2) Don't let me get bedbugs and 3) If I forget my travel alarm again, wake me up in the mornings.

Good things I saw in Hamburg:
- Currywurst
- Suckling pig
- "Beijing Bubbles", a documentary on punk and rock in China's capital
- Foosball at 3am
- Irish cover band
- HerbstraBe
- Good schnitzel in the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof


Good stuff I saw in London:
- Decent steak in a hip hop bar
- Great jazz on the east side
- Teaching a newbie bartender how to mix a Hello Kitty
- Watching a bad punk band cut a worse interview. (Q: What are your influences? A: Zeppelin. . . and myself)

Shoutouts to Anna and Karim for a killer Friday, and to Helen for the connect.