Hollywood Bowl

Pretty amazing that I’ve lived in L.A. for 6 years, and hadn’t gone to the Hollywood Bowl. Until Saturday night, when I went for the Dreamworks Animated Orchestra Concert. In Japanese, it was 最初の訪問, or my first visit there.

 

The Hollywood Bowl is bigger than I thought it would be, mainly because I couldn’t imagine such a large expanse of a music arena hidden inside the mountains. It certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to be very big from the outside, but part of that is due to the trees and shape of the bowl surrounding the stage, making up a great acoustic environment that allows for the music to really come through. It seats more than 17,000, which is just about how much Staples Center can fit in, pretty amazing for an outdoor stadium in the middle of Hollywood, built in the 1920s of course.

The concert itelf was really entertaining feature Jack Black and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (which I suspect is comprised of most of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra moving from the Walt Disney Hall over to the Bowl during the summer), but the kicker was hearing the live music while watching clips from the Dreamworks animated films, including Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and some other less heralded ones like The Prince of Egypt, How to Train Your Dragon, etc. A nice refresher on which animated movies are Disney (and apparently) all the non-disney ones. The fireworks show accompanying the concert was also pretty impressive, but then again I’m easily entertained by fireworks and get a thrill out of the fact the Chinese invented them. It also allows me to tell the story of how one year in San Diego all the fireworks went off at the same time at a fireworks show (True story). Oops.

I’ve gone on a lot of first dates in the last year or so (and not as many subsequent dates as I’d like), but I’m beginning to be a veteran at knowing the sings of what’s a “good date” and what’s not. Sometimes the nuances are very subtle, and I’ve actually never had any date that I would rate as categorically bad or awful, none where it ended after 15 minutes or my date threw water on me and left in a huff. There’s definitely dates where there’s better chemistry, where both parties are generally interested in each other, and here are some signs to distinguish those:

 

1.)    Your date asks you questions back. Definitely a big one, this is where I don’t have to ask questions consecutively like pulling teeth; the conversation is much more natural and 2 ways, it doesn’t feel like a police interrogation (one-sided) or (as my dad puts it) like taking a census (probably even more one-sided).

2.)    Date laughs at your jokes. Pretty simple, especially for people like me who rely on humor (I think)  to cover up flaws in other areas.

3.)    Date can converse freely in multiple languages. This might be more exclusive to my own preferences, but I like girls who speak both Chinese and English. It’s always good, though, when the language barrier doesn’t get in the way, either my Chinese fails me or the date’s English…..isn’t as fluid as can be.

4.)    Date doesn’t have to leave at a certain time. I’m not sure if this is the standard way for one side to express disinterest or just that I’ve encountered girls who are actually busy the rest of the day, but it’s usually not a good sign if they “have somewhere to be later,” especially after talking to you for a while and some of the other bad signs apply.

5.)    Your date gives something, ANYTHING in the way of a follow-up after the date. In another example of how dating is like a job interview process, a follow-up thank you is an indication that the other side is interested and (unless it says something like “thanks but I think we can’t be any more than friends” – which I’ve gotten) is much better than if there’s no follow-up at all (which I’ve also gotten). No response after the date means the ball’s in your court to see if you want to pursue and get an answer and it’s not a lost cause, but it’s not as good as if there’s some sort of positive response.

 

So yea, dating is like job interviewing, unfortunately. Ganbarimasu! (Keep trying!)

 

Fantasize on,

 

Robert Yan