McRibs, Green Day, and Basketball

What a start to this Thanksgiving week!!

Okay, so first of all, the World Famous McRib is back at McDonald's restaurants. Don't believe me? Check out these pictures I snapped with my phone at a restaurant here in LA right before I sunk my teeth into heaven.



It might not look appetizing, but it is really good! I used to eat this fairly often when I was a kid with the mother. The story is, my friend Bryan and I saw a sign for the sandwich at a rest stop on the way to San Francisco two weeks ago. We tried to stop there for one on the way back, but they were closed.

Then on Monday, I drove to a McDonald's in Torrance before interning for some breakfast. What do I see? The big "McRib is Back" sign, and my day was immediately off to a great start. I called Bryan, he met me for lunch, and life was good. Unfortunately for my East Coast friends, I think it's only available at select SoCal locations. I'll be sure to eat one or fifty for you!

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Moving on, I was fortunate enough to get tickets to a Green Day concert outdoors at the Nokia Plaza @ LA Live. They were playing as a part of NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly show. The best part? The concert was completely free! My friend Laura and I went to the show not knowing what to expect. Boy were we shocked.

First, there were a ton of people there. Thousands! We had to wait in line forever just to get to the plaza, but once there, we had a pretty good view of the stage as you can see.


The next weird thing was finding out that this was all for their New Year's show. They made us do countdowns and cheer loudly for their cameras like I had to for every TV taping I've been to, as well as wear Happy New Year's hats. It was weird acting like it was New Year's on November 23rd, but it was fun nonetheless.

Eventually, the concert started and it was absolutely amazing! Green Day played 19 songs over an hour and a half, and it was more fun than I could have imagined. Their music was so good. They were very animated and got the crowd involved all show long. Also, they used a lot of pyrotechnics in the show from fireworks to actual shooting fire. It was fantastic to see and nonstop fun from start to finish. I couldn't bring my camera in, but took some shots with my cell phone. Sorry if they're blurry.




As you can see from the setlist of the show, they played a lot of new and old stuff, and even did a brief cover of "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Sweet Child of Mine." They said they had no designated set list at the start of the show.

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The next night, I was back downtown at the Staples Center to watch my hometown Knicks take on the Los Angeles Lakers. I expected the Knicks to get destroyed, and while they played terrible at points, made it a respectable loss at 100-90.

The Staples Center is a great place to watch a Lakers game. The team is the hottest ticket in town, fresh off their NBA Championship last season. The fans are knowledgeable and into the game. It's also pretty cool to see the numerous celebrities that come out to watch the game. In addition to Jack Nicholson (a noted Lakers fan), Stevie Wonder, and Spike Lee (a noted Knicks fan), George Lopez and Richard Lewis were in attendance.




It was also pretty impressive to see the many great players the Lakers have. It shows why they are a championship team. From arguably the best player in the NBA right now, Kobe Bryant, to Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Derek Fisher, they are a darn good team. Not to mention, they have Hall of Fame Head Coach Phil Jackson at the helm.

Here are some pictures from the game. To see all of my photos, check out my Facebook Album!






P.S. The Staples Center sells McDonalds, and even they are selling the McRib! Don't believe me, here's the photo with the outrageous prices to confirm it:


I said one of the things I had to do before I came to LA was see a Lakers game. I also said one of the bands I had to see at some point was Green Day. I can now check both of those off the list on consecutive days.