Monday, May 30, 2005

Super Festival Sunday!

Greek Fest, Topanga Days and Malibu Party!

It was quite the Memorial Day Sunday as I participated in 3 completely different events. It all started when my roomate, Alex and I drove up to the valley to go to the annual Valley Greek Festival. We met up with Alex's parents, the Carpenters and my friend, Anthony.

It was about 12pm, and the festival was slowly getting underway. Anthony and I were walking and somehow Burt Reynolds name came up in conversation - due to me seeing him in the movie, "The Longest Yard" the night before. As we were talking, this lady not too far from us started telling us all about Burt Reynolds in a bitter tone. She gave us his California history of how he wasted away his money and sold his Beverly Hills house -- all sorts of random information on him. Anthony and I just listened and asked questions while she went on and on. The lady's name was, Marilyn. She told us that she grew up in the film industry because her father was one of the original 13 guild members. As much as it was an interesting conversation, we came to eat some greek food. So we carried on our way.

The food was soon ready and we just started picking up things to bring back to our table to eat. We tried the sausage, calamari and some more calamari. As we were sitting there chatting and picking at our little appetizer snacks, I suddenly feel this slight caress on my left shoulder and my neck. Then I feel a soft kiss on my right cheek. I look over and there is this woman smiling at me with sunglasses on ---- then she says, "Hii, my husband noticed you from the other side and we saw you. I just wanted to say hello and see how you were doing." Then, just as mysteriously as she came, she left. Her husband walking right near her.

Alex, Anthony and the Carpenters just looked at me asking, "Do you know her?" I was like, "No!!"
Just like Goldmember in Austin Powers would say, "Isn't dat veeeeerd?"

Anthony went to the beverage stand and brought back some "Ou-Zo" for us. If you have never tried it, it is a strong alcoholic beverage that tastes like black licorice. As more food was ready, the Carpenters generously bought our souvlaki dinners for us. The dinner was great. Quite tasty and filling.

There was a lot of greek dance performances going on in the main area. After eating, we ventured over to spectate. We had pretty good front row seats. Alex's mom kept trying to pull me to dance up there with everyone who was doing the greek dancing. But, for me, those steps look so complicated and advanced. I dance more with my hips and to calculate steps -- it was just difficult for me to understand.

Anthony and I decided to take a stroll and explore the other parts of the festival. We saw some cool greek art in forms or paintings and pottery. There was a kids area with lots of carnival games. We found this booth that was selling greek beer, called HILLAS. I actually met the founder of HILLAS beer - Orestis Hillas. I took a picture of him and he also gave me a Hillas Beer button. No free beer.

As we walked back towards the main area, these two girls approached me and asked if I would like a goldfish. I was like, "Sure!" The girls handed me this little goldfish in a plastic bag. They told me that I had to keep his name of Carlos. I took a picture of them since they let me adopt him.

Anthony and I walked and I met Alex's mom. She wanted me to come dance with her -- in greek step fashion. I didn't care at this point. The dance area was full of people so it wouldn't matter if I looked like a fool. I attempted to dance, looking at the person in front of me, copying everything they were doing. Within minutes, it was over. At that point, we did everything at that festival. So it was time to move onto the next one! Here are the pics from the Greek Fest:

Greek dancing	People watching on	More greek dancing
Arts & Crafts	Hillas Beer	2 girls that gave me a fishy

Orestis Hillas - founder of Hillas Beer

Alex and the Carpenters seperated from us and went on their own way. From there, Anthony and I headed out to the Topanga Days Festival in the Topanga Canyon.

The Topanga Days festival is a fundraising event where proceeds went towards the Topanga Community House. We arrived there just at about 5:01pm. They stopped serving beer at exactly 5pm. The crowd was very colorful. It seemed like a lot of hippies and enlightened artistic individuals. There was a bluegrass band on stage jammin complete with a fiddle. For a bit, I wasn't sure if I was at a redneck convention, but I saw some other brothers there, and felt a little more at ease.

Anthony and I walked around, got some smoothies... looked at some art. Just took in the nice vibes. There was a yoga tent offering free Yoga information. We learned a lot about Sahaja Yoga in the little time that we spent there. It was quite --- enlightening, so to say!

We walked back to the main field, and Anthony joined in a game of hackysack. It was fun to watch. After the game faded, Anthony and I toured some of the booths. There was this one lady's work that was interesting. She did portraits of pets using water and oil pastels. I liked her style. After talking more with the artist herself, I found out that she was originally from Chicago and moved to the west about 14 years ago. He name was Robyn, and actually would do a portrait of your pet for you if you give her pics and tell her what the pet's characteristics are. I should be doing stuff like that!!!

Shortly after, Anthony and I left --- once the band played their last song. The event was over. From there we headed to Malibu. Here are the pics from the Topanga Days Festival:

mural on Topanga Canyon Rd	Crowd of people	Bluegrass band
higher view	Anthony Joins hackysack	more hackysack
people	people chillin	Malibu hillside

Anthony and I cruised up the Pacific Coast Highway towards Malibu. We stop off at the Carpenter's house to pick up some guitars, and then head over to the other house where the party is. The house was situated on about 20 acres of Malibu hills, on a beautiful property. We get there to meet Susan, who is hosting the bbq and music party. There was lots of food.... fun interesting people and a big fire.

Around the fire, there were about 6 guitarists playing melodies and songs. The dusk sky slowly faded to night, and all you could see were twinkling stars. It was just beautiful. I haven't seen so many stars since I was in Canada. Or wait... maybe it was Bermuda. Anyways, there was a lot of stars. The air got colder and you could hear the coyotes cackling in the distance. It was good to be around mellow people near the warm fire.

Well, that was pretty much it! My fantastic Sunday of festivals!