Marcus in his "penguin outfit" & me in a dress that matches the pool!
Yesterday was certainly a day and night to remember! Thanks to one of my colleagues at work, a couple of weeks ago, I got hold of an application to be a "Seat Filler" at the
Emmy's (these are the awards for outstanding television programs). I thought it would be a fun thing to do, and so applied, and surprise surprise, got selected! The concept is pretty funny: since the show is televised, they don't want any empty seats in the audience. The nominees who win usually go up on the stage, accept their trophies, deliver a speech and don't return to their seats (probably start drinking champagne back stage :-)), so that is why they need seat fillers: to give the public the illusion of a full audience - no empty seats allowed!
OK, so we knew about a week ago that we were going to be seat fillers for the Creative Emmy Awards. (For clarity's sake, there are two Emmy Awards presentations: one for the
Creative Arts - think make-up, costume design, special visual effects, music composition, cinematography, etc. - and one called
Primetime Emmy Awards, in this one the best lead actors, best supporting actors, best directors, etc. get their prizes. The latter one is the more well-known one where all the stars show up and which is broadcast on national television. It's next week. The one we went to yesterday is a smaller presentation and is broadcast only on the local TV channel
E-entertainment.)
But anyway, since we never ever went to a fancy thing like this before, we were in urgent need of some clothes that would rank up to our seat filler status, haha! Marcus decided to rent a tuxedo at
Friars Tux Shop (it's so easy for a guy!) and I eventually ended up at
One Night Affair, a store that specializes in renting out designer evening gowns. I chose a
Max Chaoul dress in a very pretty color (that's what made me pick that particular dress), a kind of aqua-turquoise color, I loved it immediately! The only negative thing about the whole renting thing was that: a) it is still rather expensive (taking into account that you don't own anything in the end - I always think of "renting" as "throwing money away"...) and b) I wasn't happy at all with the alterations they did in the store (sloppy to say the least) so I spent 2 hours on Friday night fixing the dress myself...
Ah, so much stress... but I guess it was worth it... Saturday came and went and we had the best times ever! The show was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Down Town L.A. (check out the website, it is a VERY NICE location). I actually got to sit in the middle of the fifth row from the front and didn't have to move at all. Marcus had to change seats about 5 or 6 times during the show but still enjoyed it a lot.
After the show (which started at 5 P.M. and finished around 8.30 P. M.) we decided - being all dressed up - to head to Hollywood and have dinner at a nice restaurant. We went to Asia de Cuba on Sunset Boulevard and even though we didn't have any reservations, the lady looked at us from head to toe, smiled and said: "I think I we can arrange something!" You see, it is all about how you look in this Town!!! I usually hate that about this place (and still do!) but last night, it felt good to be treated as a VIP for a change (and I guess that's why they do this... to give people the illusion that they are important... but it blows ass when you're on the other side of the spectrum... which is why I think it is totally unfair and do not like it!)
We had a great dinner, mmm, om je duimen en vingers bij af te likken, om het in het Nederlands te zeggen. Het eten was verrukkelijk (kan ook zijn omdat we zo'n geweldige honger hadden...) We deelden een voorgerecht en een hoofdgerecht (wat hier heel normaal is om te doen aangezien de porties zo enorm zijn). As an appetizer we had duck "ropa vieja" with calabaza and plum sauce and lettuce cups. Main dish was Cuban spiced chicken in a tamarind sauce with Thai coconut sticky rice and avocado fruit salsa. A table outside under the stars and a great view over Los Angeles. What more can you wish for?
Afterwards, we decided to do some barhopping along the strip and ended up in The Standard lounge. Again, there was a line, I asked the girl by the rope how long the wait would be, she looked at us, grabbed my arm and pulled us inside, thus making us cut in front of about 20 people waiting!!! Unbelievable!
Inside, we got some funny comments too. One guy said to me: "Hey, you're dating James Bond!" Outside on the street, a street vendor shouted: "And the Oscar goes to... Sir, who do you want to thank?" Another lady screamed at us from a bar: "You guys look fantastic!" Waw, we never got so many compliments on a night out!
We danced the last minutes of the night (i.e. before closing hour, which is at 2.00 A.M.) away at the Sky Bar and finally felt we had gotten all the use we could possibly get out of those fancy clothes, went home and dove into our comfy pyjamas, all happy chappy. What a night!
P.S. More pictures if you click here, here, here and here. (For some odd reason, Blogger didn't let me upload any more pictures in this post...)
