price gauging!

Yesterday morning at 6AM, we were lead into our new apartment by the building manager. Now, there are some discrepancies in this new apartment. First of all, not all the rooms are the same size. One is clearly bigger, and it has its own bathroom with a shower, a tub and two sinks. There were two smaller rooms that share a bathroom. And one room that was medium sized, but has its own bathroom. So, we decided, in the name of fairness, to duke it out for the rooms we wanted by price gauging with each other. It got intense, as evidenced by this video...

Buying Patrick Out from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Finally, the rent on the smallest room went down cheap enough that I couldn't pass it up. But before I officially accepted it, I had to give it a brief once over...

Steve Goes Cheap from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Brian got the second smallest room, and then it was down to Patrick and Angel, duking it out over the price of the largest room. It got intense. So intense that we didn't know if the friendship was going to survive. 

Finally, Angel started to bend on the possibility of staying in the second largest room. But first, he had to determine if the room was big enough for him to sleep in. He made his determination in his own, Rod-esque way.

Brian Spoons Angel and Vice Versa from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Finally, it was decided. Patrick was getting the biggest room, then Angel, then Brian, then me.

After a hearty Denny's breakfast, we headed over to Ikea to buy the proper furnishing to furnish our room. This ended up being quite the adventure. More on that tomorrow - After we've finished putting everything together.

leased

We found an apartment! We'll be living in a lovely four bedroom in North Hollywood, California. In celebration of this, I'm posting some photos from Vegas. I wish I could tell you more stories, but remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

First, I took a photo with this ridiculous statue of Siegfried and Roy, which was way too good to pass up.


Then, we saw this ad for Entertainer of the Year - DANNY GANS. Which of course made us ask the question, WHO THE HELL IS DANNY GANS?

Finally, we met up with our old New York friend, current Las Vegas showgirl, JENNY LEE!!

It was a great time.

And tomorrow morning, at 6:30AM, we move into our new place in North Hollywood. Things are looking up for the Ragtaggers!

welcome to la!

Yesterday, we went apartment hunting. We saw many great places, in areas like Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Silverlake. But one of these places stuck out.

It was a four bedroom for 1800 bucks. This is, of course, dirt cheap. When we arrived at the building, the woman in charge volunteered to give us a tour. While walking us around, she took us into the elevator. She started saying that the other elevator had some problems and it got stuck in between floors. Then she jokingly said, "Can you imagine that, how horrible it would be to be stuck in an elevator with two good looking young men."

TWO. GOOD. LOOKING. YOUNG. MEN.

This, of course, meant that two of us were good looking, and two of us were not. It was an odd thing to say. Why didn't she just say a few? Or a couple? Why did she specify TWO?

The entire day we argued who she meant by the two attractive young men. We figured Patrick Cohen was one of them. Then I immediately took myself out of the running. So it was down to Angel and Brian. Brian swears she was looking at him when she said it. Angel swears she must've meant him. The arguments continued. Please weigh in on the comments. Who are the two attractive ones?

We went into a Jamba Juice to discuss the apartments we saw. Patrick parked his car outside and was continuously worrying about if his car was in a legal spot. Turns out, it wasn't. Want to know how we knew? Because Patrick went outside to find his car being towed...



He managed to stop it just in time, but he ended up with a $300 ticket that we agreed to split four ways.

Welcome to Los Angeles. Population, Two Attractive Guys, Two Schlubs.

from the town of bedrock...

On the drive from Arizona to Nevada, we made a discovery out in the middle of the desert that was too good to pass up, even though we were on a time crunch. We saw this...



It was a camp ground made up to look like BEDROCK. We were blown away by how cool, and odd, this was. So, we quickly entered the main office and found out you could take your own tour of Bedrock for only four bucks. We plopped down our money and headed inside.

And for some reason, we took more photos in Bedrock than we did at any other time on our trip. More than the Grand Canyon, even! We're idiots. But we're well documented idiots. I've included some of my favorite photos below, but this is just the tip of the proverbial iceburg.

Say hello to Brian Amyrock, Steven Tsapelastone, Pat-rock Cohen and... uh... Angel Acevedo.

















As you can see, this Bedrock is a little old, and kind of falling apart, but that didn't stop us from fully, 100%, completely enjoying ourselves. We even slid down the dinosaur slide...


Dino Slide from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

hello LA....

Hey everyone,

Well, this evening, around 6PM, we finally made it into Los Angeles. We're currently staying with our friends Ritchie and Jess and we'll be apartment hunting all day tomorrow. I'll put up the Bedrock photos soon, as well as the photos from Las Vegas. And hey, I'll probably keep updating this thing as we set ourselves up in Los Angeles. But for now, I am tired, and must sleep.

they don't call it the grand canyon for nothing...

After leaving Four Corners yesterday, we made sure to pose in front of the Welcome to New Mexico signs. It looked like this...




Our terrain had changed once again, from the cornfields of Iowa, to the flatlands of Nebraska, to the mountains of Colorado, to the Arizona desert. Now, this entire trip, Brian, Angel and Patrick have been giving me a hard time because I'm not impressed by nature. For instance, when we were driving through the Colorado Rockies, Patrick said, "Isn't that amazing?" and I said, "Meh, it's just a bunch of rocks." But, for some reason, the desert really took my breath away. Observe the pictures...








We pulled over to a nearby abandoned gas station to get more photos, when suddenly a tiny little cat approached us and followed us back to the car. It was cute...




The cat quickly hid underneath the car, blocking our path. We obviously didn't want to kill the cat. But Angel, thinking quickly, reached into his car and pulled out some beef jerky to lure the cat out with. It worked and we moved on to the Grand Canyon.

Again, it was absolutely wonderful. We posed for so many photos...







While climbing up the tower to get a better view, Patrick saw a rock formation in the distance. Patrick, a HUGE Superman fan, that has modeled his life after the character said, "I bet I could go out there and climb that."



I thought this was crazy. After all, that rock formation was way, way out there, and ridiculously dangerous to climb. I mean, it did overlook THE GRAND CANYON. Soon thereafter, Angel joined in and said, "I would try to climb that." Brian and I both agreed that we wouldn't try to climb it, but we moved on and forgot about the rock formation. Until this happened...



It's a guy... CLIMBING THE VERY ROCK FORMATION THAT PATRICK WANTED TO CLIMB. We stood there in awe, chatting with our fellow tourists about it, wondering if he would be able to do it, AND/OR get back down. I was convinced he was going to fall off the rocks and die. But he managed to reach the top...




We burst into applause and he raised his hands in victory. The best part is this guy was so nonchalant about it. He was the epitome of calm and cool.

After Grand Canyon, we ate lunch at a Wendy's in Arizona. As we were leaving, we saw a man on line that looked vaguely familiar. Guess who it was?

THE GUY THAT CLIMBED THE ROCK FORMATION.

For some reason though, we didn't talk to him or get a picture. We were idiots. This guy was our hero and we let him go.

But in the parking lot, in Arizona, in McCain country, we saw this...



It was a packed day, and there's STILL more to come. Remember...

four states worth of fun!

After waking up early this morning, we headed on an early morning trek to the monument known as The Four Corners. The Four Corners is the exact point on the US map where the states Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado meet. So, conceivably, you can be in all four states in seconds. And judging by this video, we were - and the results were a little dangerous...


State Nausea from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.


Here are some photos from the Four Corners...










Today was a big day. We hit up the Four Corners, The Grand Canyon, The Hoover Dam and Las Vegas in one day. And guess what? I'm in Las Vegas now. And personally, I want to eat some buffet, then wander around the strip, rather than blog about our Grand Canyon adventures. So, I'm off. But, I will give your a preview of a little detour we took on the ride from Arizona to Nevada. A little detour that was a place right out of history...

goodbye flatlands, hello mountain lands

We departed Colorado Springs this morning, after a big breakfast, courtesy of Michelle. Compared to the flatlands of Nebraska, the Rocky Mountains sure lived up to their name...



There was no highway route. Every route was a scenic one. We ended up driving through many small towns, which looked like they hadn't changed in decades...





Many of the houses and farms had political signs...





We stopped for lunch at a restaurant, mainly because they had this giant tree sculpture.



We also found an amazing motel, connected to a Drive-In Movie Theater, where you can watch movies from your room. We snapped a ton of photos...










We continued on the road, weaving through the mountain paths, until we came upon this...



Now, as you all know, I'm not one for nature and/or physical activity. So when Brian, Patrick and Angel climbed down into a nearby creek, I was quite hesitant to join them, as evidenced by this video...


Climb Down from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

But this was too good for me to pass up. So, I climbed myself down there, slowly, and surely, and we posed for this photo, which Angel got by resting the digital camera on a rock and setting the timer.



After hanging around the creek, we explored the area across the way, which was a hiking trail that led up the mountain. It was quite beautiful...




After awhile, Patrick, Brian and Angel veered off the traditional hiking trail and just climbed the mountain themselves...





I shot a video, as Angel and Patrick climbed up...


Victory! from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

We headed off towards the Four Corners monument at the end of Colorado. However, we were all kind of tired, so we tucked into this abandoned gas station to discuss our plans...



We decided to turn back and stay at a nearby hotel, which turned out to be part of a Native American casino. I'm typing the blog from my room in said casino, while watching "Ghostbusters II," as Patrick Cohen sleeps in the next bed over. We're waking up bright and early to go to the Four Corners, then the Grand Canyon, then Las Vegas. Tomorrow is a busy day and I need my sleep. So I bid you farewell.