California, continued .

I had been meaning to blog nearly every day about my daily encounters in California, but I didn't have internet at my base in San Jose (where I stayed while in NorCal). On top of that, I was WAY too busy to actually have time to blog.

It's not going to be as detailed, but let me try my best to recall what I've done for the past week.

DAY 2: DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES.

It was a sunny Thursday, and I was ready to drive once again. This time, my destination was Los Angeles - the Hollywood stars and the fancy homes. I was under the weather, and so felt hindered; nevertheless, I made the relatively easy drive down to LA. The sun was out. Part of the street in front of the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater were closed - the premiere of 'Bruno' was being set up.

After some walking and picture taking, I joined the LACityTours bus tour of Hollywood homes.
My tour time was scheduled for 1130AM, but it left around 12PM. After driving past many famous people's homes, seeing the Hollywood sign from a vantage point, the tour made its way down to Bel Air and that area.

ENTER THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY TRIP - seeing fire trucks and personnel outside of Michael Jackson's home. We didn't see much, and I certainly didn't expect much of it - at the time, I only thought it was a fire alarm issue or something... but there was a man who appeared to be a security guard shooing away a new set of paparazzi that had just arrived. Other cars drove in and stopped and looked; beyond the gate was an ambulance. Two asian onlookers peered in. Pro photogs tried to snap pictures. A 'really tall transvestite' (quoting my tour guide) appeared on the street. A woman left from the house and walked across the street.

I managed to get 4, not-so-impressive pictures. The rest, as described above, came from memory.

Later, after the tour, I really felt like crap, and so went back to my LA base in San Marino. My friend texted me in uppercase letters: MICHAEL JACKSON JUST DIED... to which I replied: Really? I was just at his house!

And thus began the onslaught of media that I STILL see today. My thoughts first flew to work, and how they probably went nuts over this. I wanted to call and tell them what I had seen, to forward them my 4 mediocre photos of fire trucks and his street's sign. I tried to send some, but the photos/email got bounced back. I realized I was 1. lucky to have been there but 2. probably wouldn't be the only one with first-hand photos. I later saw amateur video of what I had seen - someone sent it in as an iReporter thing - and I realized I was just ONE person with a camera at that moment.

I still wanted to feel a little like a reporter - and figured that it might not have hurt to try sending some photos. In the end, I figured it was my journalistic instinct and joy over being at MJ's house during such a momentous / memorable moment that caused me to NOT want to mix my experience with WORK. Some said, "sell the photos!" but I just wanted to tip off my company, my network.

In the end, I was just happy that 'coverage found ME' as a friend put it... and it was an experience I will never forget.

If I really wanted to go nuts, I would've asked to get off the tour bus, walk up to the house with my d90, shoot photos like crazy, and call it into my work. But I didn't - I didn't think much of it at the time - and I'm perfectly okay with that.

Ahh. That's all I thought about afterwards.. my journalistic instincts clashing with my feeling ill and the thoughts of MJ as marathons of his music played throughout the radio stations.

I laid down for the rest of the evening, tylenol'd and fighting illness (praying to God it wasn't swine flu)... and concluding day 2 with a nice italian dinner - salmon and spinach ... one of my favorites.

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As usual, more to follow.