The flight to Long Beach was brief. I picked up the rental car and started out towards Los Angeles. The drive should have taken about half an hour, but with rush-hour traffic, the trip was almost an hour. I was exhausted. I had no sleep the night prior and was really getting irritated with the traffic situation. When I finally made it to Santa Monica Blvd., I got to my hotel. It wasn't ready yet, considering I arrived at 10am, and I was told to kill more time. Since Dennis Miller began at 1pm, I only had time to eat before heading for the hills of Burbank.

I parked curbside near a Baja Fresh, since I wasn't ready to go exploring yet. I was hungry. It was delicious as usual, and I started asking around as to how far out Burbank was. Some said 30 minutes, some said an hour, some said 5 minutes. I didn't know who to believe. I approached a security guard and when she didn't know, she directed me to this dude at a coffee shop. When he walked up to us, I could tell that this was a local. He was a tall man, with white pants and a pink shirt, bleach blonde hair...had to be at least 50 years old, permanent tan. This was Hollywood, California. I imagined that this wouldn't be the last time I saw someone so different from a typical East-coast'er.

The local directed me over the hills of Hollywood to Burbank. I was there in 12 minutes, and found Olive Street okay. That was my big concern, since NBC studios was somewhere between that and Alameda St. When I found Olive, I hunted for a parking spot, then eventually walked around their campus to find the line for Dennis Miller. I walked quite a bit, not seeing a whole additional lot where the line was. I was third in line, but didn't know if that mattered much. It was hot, folks. 100 degrees, and I was out there in khaki pants and a black polo shirt. Baking.

The audience liason of the show had informed us that Dennis Miller audiences are to dress upscale, and things like tank tops, shorts, flip flops were prohibited. That didn't stop about 30 of them as the line got larger, full of sloppy (but cool in the sun) people. I was a bit pissed. Mainly because of the heat. They took my camera and evenutally we got inside.

I loved being in the audience here. Dennis Miller's show on CNBC is a witty satirical look at politics, music, sports, comedy, and anything else going on. We were coached as to when to applaud, but unlike Unscrewed, we weren't told to laugh louder than normal or anything fakey like that. The thing is though- we didn't need to. The show was hilarious in its own right. Mogli, the show's primate sidekick, was acting a bit strange, so Dennis had him sent home. Normally, he's really reserved and only performs on cue, but he was a bit wirey, and Dennis didn't want anything to happen to him, so he left.

I ended up on camera a few times as they panned over the audience. When the show ended, I got my camera back and walked around the NBC campus to look for the gift shop. There wasn't much in the shop worth getting. There was some Friends gear there, but it was horribly overpriced. The Tonight Show was the only other NBC show represented in the shop. I made it to the car and headed back to the hotel to try and check in.

The hotel room was so nice, especially compared to the crappy one in San Francisco. I knew this was more expensive, but after a full week of living in a tiny room, I figured I'd want to stay in a bigger place with actual amenities. And, as it turned out, that's exactly what I wanted. Worked out perfectly!

Here I was in Hollywood. Ready to kick off another week of California vacationing. I was tired, but I was excited. Tinseltown, baby!