Last night while driving back from the shoot, I tweeted and mentioned that I needed more friends in LA and asked what was going on in the city of angels. I got a response from celebrity photographer Kevin Ou, who I met through Herman Flores at MH+L magazine.
He DMed me and said that he was on the guest list for the EA Sports NBA 2K10 party but he was working and couldn’t go. It was him +1, so if I wanted I could go and bring a friend. I was totally shocked that he would offer for me to go and also really excited! The party started at 6:30 and since LA traffic is ridiculous I had no idea if I’d get there in time. My thinking, however, was that everyone in LA is always late so getting there about an hour behind wouldn’t be an issue. Boy was I wrong.
I got back to Beverly Hills around 7:00 and then immediately turned around to go to Hollywood to pick up my friend Andie. She LOVES basketball players and it was rumored that Kobe (Bryant) and Melo (Carmelo Anthony) were going to be in attendance. After I picked her up we headed over to Capital City Sports Bar (where we paid $20 for parking!!!!) and made our way to the door.
As we approached, there was a line of people. “Are you on the guest list?” “Yes.” Okay. So we waited. And waited. And last night I have to admit that the LA scene reared it’s ugly head! A ton of “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” and “I’m calling my publicist” were going on. Seriously, I was half considering pulling out a few names of my own but I figured I’d be polite and wait my turn.
My favorite part of waiting was a model who showed up. “Yes, I’m here.” “Okay mam nobody is getting in right now.” “But I’m supposed to walk the red carpet!” (the security guard looks at the empty and dark red carpet) “Uh, you’ve missed it.” “Wait! What?” “That’s been over for about and hour and a half.” “Crap! I’m too late!” Uh, you know you’re an epic failure at life when you a) consider yourself glorious enough to walk a red carpet yet you’re alone and are waiting out front with commoners, b) you are two hours late for said red carpet walk and c) nobody is letting you in because nobody knows who the hell you are and plus nobody cares. Seriously, when are people here going to stop embarrassing themselves!!! Unless you are Jesus Christ, Justin Timberlake or any other person I consider to be on the A+ list (as I like to call it); unless you are recognizable without having to tell people who you are, then you need to calm down and wait it out like everyone else. You are not special.
Here’s the thing I learned about last night: if you are a hoochie and will promise a BJ for after the party, you’ll get in right away. If you show up in a group of eight girls, you’ll get in immediately. And if you know someone inside running the party then you could either be a) whisked in with security or b) left outside to witness your party from afar. Andie and I (embarassingly) waited TWO HOURS! TWO! I mean I am not hot sh*t or anything but freakin’ a, I’m not a dog either. And I guarantee you I was more attractive then the hoes (trust me – they were) getting let in before me. Sure, I know some people. However, I was trying to prove a point. I don’t want to be someone who “knows” someone. Eventually I want to be the person that everyone knows.
I was ready to give up and leave until we were let in. The whole debacle was that the guest list was lost and had they had it we would have been let in, oh, and hour and a half earlier. Wah wah wah. I think this was another lesson learned: right when you give up, someone helps you out and you achieve what you’ve been waiting for. And then you get free drinks.
However, while waiting, we got to stand next to Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Juicy J from Three-Six Mafia AND (drumroll please) DR. DRE! It was like Christmas. I was dying to go and meet him however he left before I got a chance to let him know that my rendition of “Forgot About Dre” makes the angels sing.
Once we got inside we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was an open bar. Score! This sports bar is something only to be found in LA – it looked more like a trendy nightclub than anything. Andie met some creepster who apparently used to be a basketball player (Stephan Johnson or something) and after seeing him basically sexually harass her I decided that was our cue to leave.
On our way out we got swag bags which included in the NBA 2k10 game for Wii and some other goodies. I guess I’ll be sending mine to Stu! 🙂
Kirbie Johnson 