Nick's Blog

Blog Moved to Wordpress

2009-03-26T11:34:00.001-07:00

The New URL for Nickcast Blog is http://nickcast.wordpress.com update accordingly. See you there!

2009-03-20T21:24:00.001-07:00

Outside Kress 6608 Hollywood Blvd. Starting round 10:30. Everyone invited, see u guys there.

Inside the Apple V.I.P. Lounge

2009-03-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

You might be asking Apple Lounge, do you mean the Apple Store? No, not the Apple Store but the lounge called the Apple Lounge which is located in West Hollywood. It's the newest hip club, where celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Janet Jackson frequent.

Anyways, on Friday night I decided to visit this lounge and since my friend was friends with the promoter we got to get in via the V.I.P. entrance, so imagine a line 30 of people waiting outside a canopied entrance area there's like a gated entrance next door that is V.I.P.. So let me tell you how the whole V.I.P. system works.

ABOUT V.I.P.

To get the celebrity treatment first of all you have to be a girl or a guy who buys a table which is a few hundred dollars, girls get top treatment so my advice if you're a guy is to go with a girl and have her talk to the promoter, the promoter will usually give both of you their card and my advice is if you go again to bring a girl.

ABOUT PROMOTERS:

The promoter is a freelance agent that the bar uses to raise it's head count and table count. So for every person the promoter brings they get like 8 dollars, and then they get a cut from every table they sell. So once you get a card and know a promoter, you can goto another club and tell that promoter you know the other promoter and often times that will get you into V.I.P. in that club as well. But I think the important part is that you make the promoter feel like it was worth giving you that treatment by bringing friends.

Back to the story...

So inside Apple itself there is a outdoor area with a huge couch that is like 30 feet long and an upper room the only room below is the V.I.P. room, so most people are sitting outside. This club is somewhat tailored to the smoker as there is a lot of open outdoor space where you will see people smoking. The Apple Lounge V.I.P. area is a room where you first have to get past the red rope and bouncer, after you do and descend the stairs you open the door and immediately notice that it is a dark area. This night I heard old-school hip-hop music playing, some funky 80s movie I'd never seen before on a plasma or LCD and in one corner a DJ booth that glows red and in the other a bar. Everything else in that room was tables for table service, you couldn't sit anywhere unless you bought a table. That night nobody famous showed up and the only people there were some professional dancers and a choreographer for Janet Jackson.

In-N-Out Burger First Time

2009-02-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

I don't know what your first time was like at In-N-Out burger but let me share my experiences, it happened around the 8th of February, it was a cool 60 degrees outside here in SoCal. The time was around 1AM, me and my friends were done drinking and felt like we needed a snack. I don't really know what it is about the effects of alcohol but I always seem to either want a hamburger or pizza after drinking, upon seeing a brightly lit red sign against the clear blue skys something calls out to me "EAT HERE!"

So as being the chaffeaur for the evening my friends decide that this is the spot and upon pulling in I notice cars lined bumper to bumper all the way out the entrance to this particular In-N-Out on Sunset Blvd. I find a parking spot somewhat by the line going into the drive thru so it was a tight fit into my space to say the least.

Upon stepping through the doors from the dark moonlit sky outside I am instantly thrown into this bright wonderland of people waiting all over, sorta like a bus stop people have their reciepts in their hands. I hear a man call out a number "Number 70".

"There's a secret Menu", my friend says to me. Then he and my other friend proceed to talk about secret menu items at different restaurants and I tell them about how online you can download lists of these things.

The line is short. The man whos very cleanly dressed with a standard uniform was like a teeshirt and a hat maybe like an apron takes my order. "Number 92" the ticket reads, now it all makes sense.

After waiting what seemed like a hunger filled enternity in a bus stop full of lucky winners it was my turn. My friend had ordered Animal Fries which is a secret item on the menu and the other friend I believe just ordered the regular fries. I ordered a Cheesburger and Fries which I think was number 2.

THE TASTE:

1.The Cheeseburger: Wow it was so good, the sauce had this kinda thousand island type vibe that made it ever so much better. The meat was perfectly seasoned and it overall it's one of those tastes you have to experience yourself.

2.The Fries: This is the downer, nobody talks about the fries. They are overcooked so they taste like dried up potato chips which to me tasted like when you put fries in the fridge and then eat them after a few hours. This is the only downside in the whole experience, if you get them Animal Style they get a little softer, but I think it would be nice if I could just buy classic thicker cut non-overcooked fries.

Overall: Recommended for the great burgers!

Meeting Nick Swardson and seeing the stars

2009-02-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Back to day 4, so around 4 P.M. I decided to go explore the city. I found a coffee shop downtown and started broadcasting on JTV. I met some really interesting people on JTV and at the coffee shop in person, on JTV we talked for an hour mainly about Mac Vs PCs and about the weather. At the Sushi Bar nextdoor I think I might have seen Steven Spielburg and studio head looking over some papers together, might not have been them.

At about 5pm I decided it was time to see the touristy areas so I headed over to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel area where around there I believe I saw Wanda Sykes, she was on the phone. Around the corner thinking that was pretty much all of the city I crossed the street and some dude looked familiar.

THE CONVO

ME -"Hey you're that dude"

(I narrow my eye's trying to focus and remember the face)

NS - "Yeah..."

ME - "You're from that movie uhhhh hold on ....

(minute pause)

ME- "Grandmas Boy"

NS - "Yeah..."

ME - "You're name is ..... Crap i forget, well my names Nick"

NS - "That's my name too"

After that he told me his name and then awkwardly I was like hey can there's this site you should check out Justin.tv where celebs are broadcasting, then I named Joe Rogan as a comedian that broadcasts and he said he was friends with Joe.

Later that day at the Gym I saw Ryan Gosling on the way there in a closed bar prob for a private event and when I was leaving Mickey Rourke aka The Wrestler.

Overall some pointers when talking to celebs, don't try to tell them a story you think is awesome because it involves a famous person. Just tell them a funny story that they might think is funny and make as them something random like whats a cool bar or a hidden gem, talk about the weather, give them a compliment tell them something they might want to know about that will be useful for them to know maybe like talk about reducing their environmental footprint, overall don't put them in a situation where they feel uncomfortable and you're not treating them like a non-famous person who is a unique individual, make sure you read all their body language if they look like they're in a hurry just say a few things and go.

Beverly Hills Day 4 - Recap of week

2009-02-05T11:41:00.001-08:00

On February 2nd I arrived in Beverly Hills. The sky was clear blue and the temperature was a cozy 80 degrees. When I first showed up I had driven 6 hours from San Francisco where I stayed the night before at The Mosser which is a great deal only 80 dollars a night by Union Square in downtown SF after driving 12 hours straight from Seattle to San Fran, and trust me I didn't sleep well.

It took me a few days to recover so by Wednesday Feb 4th I was in full energy mode (had like 4 hours of sleep instead of 2 or 3) and it was time to check out Beverly Hills. Upon arrived in the downtown area I realized that even during peak hours it's still pretty slow and the people here are very nice, there's a lot of retired people here who are friendly and talk to you when you go get coffee or food.

THINGS YOU PROBABLY DON'T THINK ABOUT

One of the first things I realized when I moved here is there's a lot of people who are not techies, OMG you think I might be an outcast. No, actually it's like an advantage you know about all these websites that non-techies haven't heard of but might be of interest to them, plus you have the ability to solve their issues they might be having. Whatever you goal is here in L.A. all you need is to know as a technology enthusiast you have more power to get where you need to go than most people and conversations should only touch upon tech unless that's a shared interest but advertising your tech skills is a great asset.

LET ME ADDRESS SOME THINGS

L.A is Fake Let's address the whole "LA is Fake" thing before I continue on with my post. First I think this is a inaccurate statement, what I think the deeper picture is is that people are trying to be cool, I mean you're in a sunny environment where you will probably wearing less clothing articles so it only makes sense to take care of yourself a little more. People don't give you a weird look if you're that dude that doesn't care and just goes out and wears whatever you feel like or you have your own unique style. When it's sunny outside people seem overall to just be nicer to eachother so nomatter what you look like you'll meet really nice people to have a conversation with.

L.A. has bad traffic People always say what about the traffic? but don't realize that cities have different traffic patterns. After living in Seattle I've found that the traffic either goes really slow or its not traffic. In L.A. traffic means mainly tightly packed vehicles going around the speed limit or slightly less most of the time, if you have a car with a decent amount of horsepower it's actually really easy to drive in traffic here and overall it's not as bad as Seattle traffic even if there's more bottleneck areas.

L.A. is expensive - Goto San Francisco first and then say that, after visiting San Fran. In San Fran because of the public transportation agenda you'll often find yourself spending more than you would have otherwise because it's too far to walk to goto the cheaper grocery store or deep down (due to the abundance of save the planet signs) you feel guilty about Global Warming and buy more expensive earth saving products, you'll have to pay for a bus and you will be confronted by gangs of homeless people who push stories about how they lost something and need more than 5 dollars.

Barack Obama 30 Min Television Spot

2008-10-31T01:19:00.000-07:00

I just watched the Barack Obama 30 Minute Television Spot on Youtube and I wanted to say that it's great. If you haven't already check it out.

2008-10-18T17:28:00.001-07:00

At the Spitfire Grill watching the Red Sox game

Scoble to bloggers "Listen"

2008-10-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

So you blog? Good, but how well do you listen to other people who blog? Great question right?

Robert Scoble who many know is a leading technology blogger who works for Fastcompany.tv made an excellent post today about listening when you blog.

Scoble posts some very well deserved advice on his blog and I suggest you, meaning non-bloggers and bloggers.

Scoble makes one of his best points when he says rather pointedly

So, if we’re really in an economic crisis (we are, despite the stock market going up 600 points so far today) how can bloggers really be knowledgeable if they don’t read other people’s blogs and prove that over and over and over again by using these tools to demonstrate what they are reading?

Read More Here

Should bloggers listen? What do you think?