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Birthday Hockey, day 2 of 3
Jan. 14th, 2023 11:59 pmSATURDAY
I woke up about three AM to use the bathroom and take some Sudafed, and arose for the day about 7:30, turning off the 8 AM alarm. About nine we walked to the Hotel Figueroa for breakfast at Cafe Fig. On the way we noticed a series of small shops located in the former Downtown Car Wash, several just opening up for the day, and at least one staffed by a large Hispanic bear with a long curly beard. At the front door of the hotel not leading to the lobby, there was an inscription identifying the building as the former YWCA. We were directed from the lobby down the hall and to the left for Café Fig. The bar was open seating while there was a half-hour wait for a table, so we chose the bar. One of the servers was particularly good-looking, reminding me of a smaller Michael Strayhan. There was also a hot bearded dude with nice ink on his left forearm who stood at the bar beside Gary for a while to ask the bartender a question. We each had scrambled eggs with fruit, toast, and turkey sausage for Gary and turkey bacon for me. I also drank a couple of Virgin Mary cocktails.
By the time we finished our breakfast the rain had begun in earnest. We walked the short distance to the Grammy Museum, across the street in the LA Live complex. We spent a couple hours viewing the exhibits from the top down. The fourth floor housed the permanent collection and a special exhibit for 100 years of Peggy Lee; new additions included Betty White and Peter, Paul, and Mary. There was also a display of the unusual contributions from Seattle to the American music industry. On the third floor the focus was on the Latin Grammy Awards and in particular, Mexican megastar Marco Antonio Solis (with long, flowing hair and a thick beard and mustache). El woof! 🐻 Toward the end of this floor there was an interactive exhibit which could be set up to feature a Grammy for Judy Garland, so Gary took my picture with the exhibit in my Kansas City "from the desk of Toto" T-shirt. Then I got a picture of Gary with the oversized, highly decorated Grammy nearby for the 57th awards. The second floor was occupied by a new exhibit of Bruce Springsteen artifacts and a concert film playing in the Clive Davis Theater. We stopped for a bit and I received an email with instructions for the hockey game this evening, which prompted me to transfer Gary's ticket to his phone. On our way out we stopped by the theater. The performance on screen was early in Bruce's career and Gary remarked on how young he was. We made our exit through the gift shop and Gary picked up a magnet for the fridge which is a miniature version of the award I'd photographed him with upstairs.
We made our way around the corner and back to the hotel, stopping for a few pictures on the way. Where the sidewalks had been thick with people - mostly young dudes - last night, they were pretty much deserted in the heavy rain. We stopped by the snack bar and bought drinks, a parfait for Gary, and a cup of overnight oats with blueberries for me. We returned to the room and turned on the wild card game (Seahawks at 49ers). Gary pretty much immediately fell asleep and I worked on my journal and surfed the net, occasionally keeping track of the football game in progress. Unfortunately Seattle got beaten 41-23. About halfway through the third quarter I took more Sudafed, strapped on the CPAP and relaxed although I didn't sleep. I got up just before five, after the football ended, and dressed for the hockey game.
We left the hotel around ten to six since the premium entrance opened at six. It was a quick walk across the LA Live plaza to the arena. It was a little difficult to find the sign indicating the door we were to enter since it wasn't lit up and the stairs giving direct access to the doors were closed. We were directed down a ramp and around a corner to reach the queue at the foot of the closed stairs. Once we arrived there and the ushers organized us in three lanes, the queue moved fairly quickly. I set off the magnetometer, likely either by my suspenders or the heavy zippers of my leather jacket, so I had to get wanded.
We caught the elevator one level up to our premium seats. They were on an aisle, padded with leather or a reasonable facsimile, and extra wide, which suited us nicely and clearly was the reason for a number of similarly sized and larger dudes to select these seats. This included the gentleman directly in front of me. As soon as we were seated our server introduced herself, while a battery of infinitely aimable spotlights mounted in an oval straight above the glass and shining down created a visible curtain of light, assisted by fog machines. A couple of recorded tunes played, the last of which segued into the same song performed live on the organ. Shortly afterwards, Gary and I were featured on the scoreboard video bopping along with the music. We ordered food shortly after that. As the Zamboni machines started cleaning the ice, the organist played Lady of Spain which we found amusing because of Slap Shot.
The game began uneventfully but there was soon a missed goal opportunity waved off because the net came off its moorings before the puck reached the goal mouth. But it wasn't long before the Kings scored a power play goal on a cross-checking rap six minutes in. This was answered by a New Jersey goal, also on a cross-checking power play, with about 7 minutes left in the first period. A dude in the row behind us questioned why they scraped the ice so much, and Gary explained the "90-second" (we later discovered it's now a full two minutes) TV timeout based on his experience in production and our shared experience of other arenas.
During the first intermission a large mat was rolled out onto the ice and a troupe of about thirty dancers with pompoms performed to Lady Gaga's "Just Dance". It seemed like a lot of effort for such a short performance, but they did well. This being Dodgers Night, the Dodgers' house DJ, DJ Severe, was given several opportunities to spin tunes pregame and during intermissions. We were also handed sunglasses with Dodgers, Kings, and Blue Shield logos. There had been updates on the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. the LA Chargers all evening, including actual TV coverage pregame. The Chargers had an ample lead early on but at the beginning of the second period the final score was announced with the Jags ultimately winning.
New Jersey scored a second goal almost three minutes into the second period. A few minutes later the Kings scored a power play goal on a slashing penalty, and almost immediately afterwards the Devils fired right back with a goal of their own. Then there was a cute segment called Sauce or Pass which involved two young dudes, trivia about the Dodgers, hot wings, and prizes. It closed with the (likely prepared in advance) Q&A: Why did the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to LA? Because it got them further away from New Jersey! The Devils scored yet again before too long, ending the period with a 4-2 lead.
I made a beeline to the bathroom at the start of second intermission. I saw a young dude leaving the bathroom who looked just like Sam Bass - at the age he was when we met in 2004. I also saw a couple dudes wearing what I've come to call "Magritte" sweaters because they read "Jersey" (i.e. this is not a sweater). Throughout the evening there was the Chug Cam: whoever was visibly drinking when the camera focused on them (and a few who weren't) was challenged to finish the drink. One rather hot brown bear was roundly booed for not doing so.
With about 12 and a half minutes left, a Kings player on a breakaway got hooked and ended up sailing into the net instead of the puck. He missed the penalty shot though. LA never regained the lead and NJ scored an empty-net goal with a minute left to seal the deal.
We exited the seating area and I waited for Gary to use the bathroom before we headed downstairs. Gary wanted to visit the team store but it wasn't possible to get there from outside the arena. I stopped to take photos and then we walked back to the hotel. We sat in the lobby for a few minutes to avoid the rush to the elevators. Once we returned to the room we sat in bed, set a wake-up time for the morning, watched the news and surfed the web until it was clearly too late to continue. I got up just after 11:30 to make final preparations for bed, realizing 5 AM wasn't far away. I was back in bed by ten to twelve and soon off to sleep.
I woke up about three AM to use the bathroom and take some Sudafed, and arose for the day about 7:30, turning off the 8 AM alarm. About nine we walked to the Hotel Figueroa for breakfast at Cafe Fig. On the way we noticed a series of small shops located in the former Downtown Car Wash, several just opening up for the day, and at least one staffed by a large Hispanic bear with a long curly beard. At the front door of the hotel not leading to the lobby, there was an inscription identifying the building as the former YWCA. We were directed from the lobby down the hall and to the left for Café Fig. The bar was open seating while there was a half-hour wait for a table, so we chose the bar. One of the servers was particularly good-looking, reminding me of a smaller Michael Strayhan. There was also a hot bearded dude with nice ink on his left forearm who stood at the bar beside Gary for a while to ask the bartender a question. We each had scrambled eggs with fruit, toast, and turkey sausage for Gary and turkey bacon for me. I also drank a couple of Virgin Mary cocktails.
By the time we finished our breakfast the rain had begun in earnest. We walked the short distance to the Grammy Museum, across the street in the LA Live complex. We spent a couple hours viewing the exhibits from the top down. The fourth floor housed the permanent collection and a special exhibit for 100 years of Peggy Lee; new additions included Betty White and Peter, Paul, and Mary. There was also a display of the unusual contributions from Seattle to the American music industry. On the third floor the focus was on the Latin Grammy Awards and in particular, Mexican megastar Marco Antonio Solis (with long, flowing hair and a thick beard and mustache). El woof! 🐻 Toward the end of this floor there was an interactive exhibit which could be set up to feature a Grammy for Judy Garland, so Gary took my picture with the exhibit in my Kansas City "from the desk of Toto" T-shirt. Then I got a picture of Gary with the oversized, highly decorated Grammy nearby for the 57th awards. The second floor was occupied by a new exhibit of Bruce Springsteen artifacts and a concert film playing in the Clive Davis Theater. We stopped for a bit and I received an email with instructions for the hockey game this evening, which prompted me to transfer Gary's ticket to his phone. On our way out we stopped by the theater. The performance on screen was early in Bruce's career and Gary remarked on how young he was. We made our exit through the gift shop and Gary picked up a magnet for the fridge which is a miniature version of the award I'd photographed him with upstairs.
We made our way around the corner and back to the hotel, stopping for a few pictures on the way. Where the sidewalks had been thick with people - mostly young dudes - last night, they were pretty much deserted in the heavy rain. We stopped by the snack bar and bought drinks, a parfait for Gary, and a cup of overnight oats with blueberries for me. We returned to the room and turned on the wild card game (Seahawks at 49ers). Gary pretty much immediately fell asleep and I worked on my journal and surfed the net, occasionally keeping track of the football game in progress. Unfortunately Seattle got beaten 41-23. About halfway through the third quarter I took more Sudafed, strapped on the CPAP and relaxed although I didn't sleep. I got up just before five, after the football ended, and dressed for the hockey game.
We left the hotel around ten to six since the premium entrance opened at six. It was a quick walk across the LA Live plaza to the arena. It was a little difficult to find the sign indicating the door we were to enter since it wasn't lit up and the stairs giving direct access to the doors were closed. We were directed down a ramp and around a corner to reach the queue at the foot of the closed stairs. Once we arrived there and the ushers organized us in three lanes, the queue moved fairly quickly. I set off the magnetometer, likely either by my suspenders or the heavy zippers of my leather jacket, so I had to get wanded.
We caught the elevator one level up to our premium seats. They were on an aisle, padded with leather or a reasonable facsimile, and extra wide, which suited us nicely and clearly was the reason for a number of similarly sized and larger dudes to select these seats. This included the gentleman directly in front of me. As soon as we were seated our server introduced herself, while a battery of infinitely aimable spotlights mounted in an oval straight above the glass and shining down created a visible curtain of light, assisted by fog machines. A couple of recorded tunes played, the last of which segued into the same song performed live on the organ. Shortly afterwards, Gary and I were featured on the scoreboard video bopping along with the music. We ordered food shortly after that. As the Zamboni machines started cleaning the ice, the organist played Lady of Spain which we found amusing because of Slap Shot.
The game began uneventfully but there was soon a missed goal opportunity waved off because the net came off its moorings before the puck reached the goal mouth. But it wasn't long before the Kings scored a power play goal on a cross-checking rap six minutes in. This was answered by a New Jersey goal, also on a cross-checking power play, with about 7 minutes left in the first period. A dude in the row behind us questioned why they scraped the ice so much, and Gary explained the "90-second" (we later discovered it's now a full two minutes) TV timeout based on his experience in production and our shared experience of other arenas.
During the first intermission a large mat was rolled out onto the ice and a troupe of about thirty dancers with pompoms performed to Lady Gaga's "Just Dance". It seemed like a lot of effort for such a short performance, but they did well. This being Dodgers Night, the Dodgers' house DJ, DJ Severe, was given several opportunities to spin tunes pregame and during intermissions. We were also handed sunglasses with Dodgers, Kings, and Blue Shield logos. There had been updates on the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. the LA Chargers all evening, including actual TV coverage pregame. The Chargers had an ample lead early on but at the beginning of the second period the final score was announced with the Jags ultimately winning.
New Jersey scored a second goal almost three minutes into the second period. A few minutes later the Kings scored a power play goal on a slashing penalty, and almost immediately afterwards the Devils fired right back with a goal of their own. Then there was a cute segment called Sauce or Pass which involved two young dudes, trivia about the Dodgers, hot wings, and prizes. It closed with the (likely prepared in advance) Q&A: Why did the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to LA? Because it got them further away from New Jersey! The Devils scored yet again before too long, ending the period with a 4-2 lead.
I made a beeline to the bathroom at the start of second intermission. I saw a young dude leaving the bathroom who looked just like Sam Bass - at the age he was when we met in 2004. I also saw a couple dudes wearing what I've come to call "Magritte" sweaters because they read "Jersey" (i.e. this is not a sweater). Throughout the evening there was the Chug Cam: whoever was visibly drinking when the camera focused on them (and a few who weren't) was challenged to finish the drink. One rather hot brown bear was roundly booed for not doing so.
With about 12 and a half minutes left, a Kings player on a breakaway got hooked and ended up sailing into the net instead of the puck. He missed the penalty shot though. LA never regained the lead and NJ scored an empty-net goal with a minute left to seal the deal.
We exited the seating area and I waited for Gary to use the bathroom before we headed downstairs. Gary wanted to visit the team store but it wasn't possible to get there from outside the arena. I stopped to take photos and then we walked back to the hotel. We sat in the lobby for a few minutes to avoid the rush to the elevators. Once we returned to the room we sat in bed, set a wake-up time for the morning, watched the news and surfed the web until it was clearly too late to continue. I got up just after 11:30 to make final preparations for bed, realizing 5 AM wasn't far away. I was back in bed by ten to twelve and soon off to sleep.