USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

One of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles is Hollywood. And not because of the beautiful people or the celebrities, but because of its history, its aura, and because it’s a globally known icon that represents the American Dream and so much more. Although my major is in Dornsife, I minor in Cinematic Arts and consider myself to be a novice movie buff. So Hollywood is the perfect place to have close by.

Michael Jackson

I wanted to do something special this weekend since it was my last one in town before I went home for the summer, so fellow ambassador Chris and I bought Metro day passes and headed over to Hollywood just to explore.  After the underground Metro ride was over, we arrived at the top of the escalator, and it was like walking into a combination of movies, concerts, and Disneyland. We ran into Marilyn Monroe, Iron Man, and Captain Jack Sparrow, just for starters. One of my favorite sights was the people who weren’t fazed by characters and would casually chat with them as they walked past.

There’s so much to do in Hollywood, but before we could choose anything we got caught up looking at the Walk of Fame. There’s something so fun and fascinating about looking at each star with its gold name, and wondering who each person was and how they got there. Chris and I decided to have a competition: we would walk the entire way and name every person we knew, keeping score the whole way.

The Walk of Fame includes big names from Jennifer Aniston to Kermit the Frog to Elvis, but my favorite moment was when we almost decided not to turn down a particular street and, when we did, we came across the four Beatles. I have been a Beatles fan my entire life thanks to my dad, so this was pretty exciting. Some other notable stars for me were Michael Jackson and Julie Andrews, both of whom also handprinted and signed the sidewalk in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a famous movie theater on the Walk of Fame. Engraved in the cement in front of the theater we saw the handprints and signatures of people as current as the Harry Potter stars and dating all the way back to the 1920s.

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

Signatures In Front Of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

In the end, I beat Chris in celebrity knowledge with a score of 254-246 names recognized. (He maintains that this was quite a close margin, but he doesn’t mention that I was ahead the entire time.) We walked four miles in beautiful, sunny Hollywood and soaked in its history and all of the pop culture. Now I’m craving more — when I get home I’ll definitely have to watch some movies that are set in Los Angeles.

First up? Pretty Woman, whose opening quote is so fitting: “Welcome to Hollywood. What’s your dream? Everybody comes here — this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don’t, but keep on dreaming. This is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreaming…”

Hey All!

I’m becoming quite the blogger, I know. Well this weekend has been just so amazing I have to share! One of my favorite things about LA is how close I am to so many other wonderful cities.

Take, for example, Santa Barbara! I visited for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I drove for two hours with two of my friends, and there I was! It’s a beautiful city, and that weekend it had wonderful weather. We explored the neighborhood, found an amazing juice place (Blenders, which I highly recommend) and just hung out with friends of my friend. On Sunday, we went on a hike, and it was so refreshing and green. Then Sunday night, I was back just in time for my GMB meeting! Lovely trip, short and sweet.

Then this past weekend, I surprised my best friend with a plane ticket to none other than San Francisco for the weekend! Both my other friend and I paid for a round trip and the hotel, and it was very cheap! I won’t talk prices, but man so worth it! We went Thursday evening, and after only an hour in the air we were there! Enjoying the San Fran environment and all there is to see. We biked all the way from Fisherman’s Wharf across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. (For those who care, that would be 10 miles! I’m quite proud!) We also visited Golden Gate Park and even a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. It was marvelous!

I do love LA and all it has to offer, but I also enjoy the close proximity to other wonderful cities around California.

All in all a great two weeks!

“We are never ever getting back together,” sang Taylor Swift as she performed the opening act at this year’s Grammy Awards. Her performance must have looked pretty cool on television, but you know what was even better? Being at the Grammys and watching her perform it live.

One doesn’t just go to the Grammys. One must be invited or have connections in the music industry. Or, if you’re like me, you can be one of 350 people who were chosen out of a ticket lottery of 38,000 to be a seat filler for the award show. Seat-filling isn’t glamorous work. When celebrities get up from their seats, the producers still want the audience to look full. So, they have people sit in the seats while the celebrities are away. Ten minutes before the telecast began, looking quite dapper in my suit, I, along with other seat fillers, were rushed to the front of the audience and told which seats needed filling. I was expecting that I would fill many different seats and was hoping that one of them would be next to T-Swift. But as I sat down, I was told that my seat would be empty for the entire night, and that I wouldn’t need to move. I should preface this by saying I was sitting in the front row next to John Legend.

So there I was, hanging out with some of my favorite musicians and watching some of the best live performances I’d ever seen. When would I ever be able to see Elton John, the Zac Brown Band, and Mumford & Sons perform together? Probably never. When would I get to see Katy Perry congratulate Frank Ocean on his album? Probably never. But it was during a commercial break (which are incredibly busy: the musicians are congratulating one another, producers are scrambling to set the stage, seat fillers are rushing to fill seats) when the most unforgettable moment happened: Taylor Swift walked right by me. We made sweet, sweet eye contact for a good second or two, and they were the best seconds of my life. While she may not be writing a song about me, I can only hope that those seconds were as good for her as they were for me. Possibly the best part about this entire experience was that it was entirely free. While you may not always get front-row seats while seat-filling, and may have to move around a lot to accommodate the “VIPs,” it’s a great way to attend some of the coolest events in Los Angeles.

P.S. To stay updated on all things related to USC and life in L.A, feel free to follow me on Twitter at @JaredBrowSC

Hi everyone!

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve actually blogged… School sort of has a way of bogging you down, especially right before Spring Break. Last week, my computer broke down and many a sleepless night was spent on the second floor of Leavey Library, furiously typing away till the break of dawn. But in a way, I earned my glorious Spring Break, and it arrived with a bang! After polishing off my physical chemistry exam, I finally went to my first concert at Staples Center in LA Live. And other than some shows on campus, it also happened to be my first non-classical concert ever.

… What’s that? I’m such a nerd? Yes, you really did say that out loud.

Well, let me explain. Throughout high school, my playlists consisted primarily of classical music. At intersections, my dad and I would roll down the tinted windows, pump up the bass, and blast Tchaikovsky as our tricked-out suburban van bounced on its shocks. I attended concerts of the Pacific Symphony down in Orange County, always classy coat-and-tie affairs. But ever since I arrived at USC, my music tastes have broadened considerably – I’ll refer you to my profile page, which has my “favorite song of all time” listed as Carly Rae’s “Call Me Maybe.” I had been to some concerts held on the USC campus, all for bands that were famous but that I had never listened to: Third Eye Blind, Cobra Starship, Childish Gambino. But there was one band in particular that I was obsessed with: Maroon 5. And yes, obsessed is actually a pretty accurate word to describe how I feel about them.

As you might know, they’re currently on tour across the world promoting their latest studio album, and when I heard they would be stopping by Los Angeles, my friend and I made plans to claim tickets as soon as possible. As it turned out, when tickets finally became available we checked the site about an hour too late; all the tickets were sold out.

The next day, as I was falling asleep in sitting in physics class, I idly checked my phone and found a brief text from my friend: “I won the tickets.” She had entered a radio contest for the tickets and won. Who actually does that? But as much as I was in disbelief, I wasn’t complaining, since one of the tickets was going to me. And so it was I found myself on the newly-built Expo Line on the Friday night before Spring break, a pair of Maroon 5 tickets in my back pocket, barreling north to LA Live.

Maroon 5 was absolutely amazing. Having never been to this kind of concert before, in the cavernous Staples Center, it just blew my mind… and my eardrums. I found myself on my feet screaming when they took the stage, singing along to every song, clapping during the guitar or drum solos. I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

At one point, Adam Levine took a break from singing – one of the few times I’ve heard his non-singing voice! – to talk and build up energy in the crowd. He talked about how Los Angeles was where he and the other band members had grown up, and that he was honored to be back in this city performing at the Staples Center. Even a superstar like Adam Levine, who had traveled the world many times over and played bigger gigs in larger stadiums, was proud to call Los Angeles his home. The crowd went wild, myself included. I guess we were just proud to be there too.

Until next time,

~Kenneth!

Hey there bloggerstuds,

So I’ve been lacking a blog and realized I have yet to talk about all the amazing things LA has to offer. So here’s a bit about one of my faves.

FIRST FRIDAYS!

First Fridays is this awesome event that happens in Venice. It’s located on Abbot Kinney Blvd, a very well known street in Venice.  Basically, on the first Friday of every month, there is a special event where food trucks from all over the nation come and serve people all day until very late at night (I saw one still open at 3 AM!). Besides the AMAZING food, all the boutiques and stores around stay open late, and these are awesome stores with all sorts of cool things that you would, of course, only find in Venice. SO, here it is. Best night of the month! I definitely recommend grabbing a bunch of friends and going, because the food is awesome, the people will be awesome, and the shops are definitely awesome!

I don’t know how to finish blogs, so here it is.

Xoxo,

Maya