EuroTour 2010, Day 1, L.A. to Paris

Here we are again.  After a 59 day tour across Europe last year, complete with its own Barbie's 50th Birthday EuroTour Apparel, we are headed to Europe once again.  (and she is wearing her EuroTour hoodie today.)  This year we are going for a conservative 48 days.  As you can see, we are nothing but models of restraint.

Nothing beats an afternoon flight that you do not have to rush for.  My friend David offered to drive us to the airport, which made matters even simpler.  I know that many of you will be heartbroken to not have a picture of a Los Angeles taxi ride, but the cookie crumbled this way.

An uneventful ride to the airport brought us to the Air France business class line.  A figurative zoo, filled with human animals being moderately rude and distrustful of each other's place in line.  Amusingly, two NBA players walked up behind us, the Collins twins.  And for those of you who do not follow serviceable yet not-at-all-household-name NBA centers, the Collins twins are 6' 11" twins from Stanford.  They draw a lot of attention, because it is not often that you see identical twins who stand approximately as tall as trees.

Even more amusing is that I once went to the restroom at the Universal Amphitheater (now called the Gibson Theater) before the world premiere of the terrible movie The Chronicles of Riddick.  Not only did I go to the restroom, which I know is remarkable in its own right, but I stood at a urinal with Jason Collins to my left and Jarron Collins to my right.  If you want to feel short, stand at a urinal with a near 7 foot tall human being on either side of you.  Standing in th Air France line with the Collins twins, I let Barbie talk to them while I smiled, thinking, "The last thing these guys is want is for me to say, 'Dude, we totally peed together in 2004.'"  No pictures, either, as I did not want to be the guy who takes a picture of the guys who happen to be very, very tall.

What will excite many more people is that to my left, subtly behind sunglasses, hid Carmen Electra.  She was nice and spoke normally to people around her, just in case you are thinking that this sex symbol might be of the kind with a stick in an uncomfortable place.

The first pic.  As I have said before, the oldest parts of Los Angeles International Airport are its most modern.

We zipped up to the Air France lounge, with another not so famous yet notable person on the elevator.  Who?  Melanie Laurent, who played Shoshana Dreyfus in Inglorious Basterds.  I was This Close to saying, "I absolutely feel that you gave one of the better performances ever given on film, and that you deserved an Oscar for it."  As a Los Angeles, native, I smiled and said nothing.  This is where you think to yourself, "I should see that movie.  (Again.)"

In my quest to keep The Waste fresh, I have added the iPhone app Photoshop Mobile.  Let us play with it now, sitting in the Air France Lounge.

Airport Lounge Candid.

Airport Lounge Candid; desaturated, tinted, cropped, and bordered.  we shall see how often I take pics and play with them on this trip.  Not a bad option for public, "down time."

Time to get on the plane.  Now, as you have seen before I sometimes draw lines on maps to demonstrate where we are flying.  When we got on the plane and I saw the video below playing on the screen in front of me, I though I would take advantage of my new iPhone's video capability.  I have no idea if this embedded video will work well, and the time consuming nature of adding videos will likely result in... not many videos on The Waste.  That said, enjoy this one.



Time for us to go to sleep above Canada and wake up in France.