The Los Angeles County Fair

On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to pay a visit to the Los Angeles County Fair with Celeste and several other Emerson alumni. Yeah, that's right... L.A. has a county fair. I was surprised too.

All in all, it reminded me a lot of the Puyallup Fair in Washington... lots of unhealthy fair food, barns full of prize-winning livestock, the Budweiser Clydesdales, game booths with ridiculous prizes and shouting carnies, etc. But, lest we forget that we were in L.A., there was a plethora of uber-tan girls tottering through the hay in stiletto heels and miniskirts. Fools.

We were all mightily dismayed to discover just how much it cost to enjoy the rides and games (six tickets for the Merry-Go-Round? Seriously?) and, according to those who've been in the area longer than two weeks, the costs had gone up significantly since last year. But we sucked it up so that we could partake in carnival classics like the fun house, a gigantic slide, and various games we didn't win. Except for Jared, who was the proud recipient of a stuffed turtle.

The highlight of the evening, though, came when we approached the booth that boasted it was "totally fried." And, boy, was it ever. Deep fried avocado, spam, White Castle cheeseburgers, Pop Tarts, Twinkies, and Oreos hung out alongside the more traditional fare. Everyone ordered something different so that we could sample as many heart-attack-inducing delicacies as possible, though I skipped out on the meaty bits for obvious reasons. Apparently this was for the best anyway, since the general consensus was that the fried White Castle burger was the nastiest thing ever to come out of a deep fryer. And that was including the deep fried Krispy Kreme chicken/jelly donut that was apparently on the menu last year. Yes, you read that correctly. Chicken inside a jelly-filled donut. Deep fried. Huh, wonder why that didn't make the cut this year? Sounds amazing... :-P At any rate, the Oreos won the taste test hands down. Yummy.

The night ended with a round of wine tasting for the womenfolk and beer tasting for the men. This ended our evening on a definitively high note, as our "bartender" was pretty easy on the eyes and more than happy to oblige us with the occasional free glass of something-or-other. We had an unusually large array of dessert wines, which was driving my taste buds kind of crazy by the end. Too. Much. Sugar. Tons of fun, though.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note... last week I was taken along to the ArcLight Cinema, which is pretty much the coolest movie theatre ever. It's got a cafe/bar, really nice theatres, and assigned seating. Crazy! But awesome.