Well its our last day here on this film in the Art Dept. and I must say i'm a little relived. It hasn't been nearly as exciting a project as "Alice" was but hey it was a job right? So now I am off to join the millions of other "Fun-employed" people around the country and start working for the govt.... aka:Unemployment... But there are a few projects I'll be working on to keep myself busy, maybe I'll post some pics as I am working things out. Anyone know of any jobs in the entertainment industry for a talented art dept kinda guy? Or better yet, wanna go to the beach? :)
I know its a bit long over-due, but I had an oh so lovely weekend with all sorts of fun. Here's the quick round-up....
Friday wa the usual time out with the guys at the Eagle for their new night "Lewd" it was fun and packed with familiar faces. Saturday I relaxed until the evening, when Levi and I made our way over to the bar Pistons in Long Beach. I'd never been there before so it was fun checking out a new place with my cute date. Now, also on the agenda while we were there, was Levi taking part in the competition for Mr.Long Beach Gay Pride Bear Cub 2009... and he won! He'll be on a float in the Long Beach Pride Parade among other small events during his "reign" hehe But I'm proud of him, and he had a blast doing it. Seeing that smiling face up there, was great! And we're also using the term boyfriend now, just for everyone's info, it seemed right so we're going with it. :) Here's a pic of my handsome guy... Sunday we hit up my friend Ernessa's Baby shower, and it had to have been the best baby shower I will ever attend. Good food, some beer, lotsa sun, great company all in all it was stellar....till I got some pollen in my eyes and had a terrible allergy hell kind of night, but I'm never gonna let that mar its beauty! I'm hoping she dug the crazy "Free Dionne" shirt I found for her kid... and some practical stuff thrown in the mix too... like bath toys with a swine flu theme hehehe
All in all it was a fabulous weekend. Hope everyone had a good one themselves... Here's to this weekend being even better!
I can't wait to see this documentary as I once built a model for this crazy artist during his proposal phase for an installation at the Sea-tac Airport... which he later got and completed... This man is a crazy genius and its great that others can finally see this bizarre man's life in action just like I did so many years ago when I got that gig that summer....
Well last night I had a great time venturing into some new places and trying some new things. Dinner was delicious and the company was even better. If you are ever down at the Farmer's Market you need to stop by Pampas and get in line, its delicious!
After dinner we made our way up to WEHO which neither of us are usually apt to do... its kind of a Twink vs Bear/ WEHO vs Silverlake thing, but I'm really glad we did last night. We stopped in to the newly revamped Micky's for a quick drink and I must say they really did the place up great. It looks good, is much more open and friendly, and the sound system finally is up to snuff. Then, we walked around and wandered in to Rage.... ok... I used to go here when I first moved here to dance and just have some fun, but over the last few years this place was like a giant garlic clove and I am a Vampire.... BUT when you see and hear a pretty frickin' hilarious drag show going on.... you throw caution to the wind and stumble on in.
I must say I had a frickin' great time at their show. Apparently you can catch it there every Tuesday and I must say I give it a thumbs up. Below is a picture of Delta Work performing "F*ck Me when you can" a nice parody of "Get Here" by Brenda Russell. I laughed my ass off....
Over-all a stellar time on a nice temperate Tuesday Evening! :)
I love to see someone take such a bigoted ridiculous commercial like this one and remix it with, you guessed it.... The Weather Girls... oh you creative Mos make me giggle. :)
Hi this is a message for Jesus.. Hi Jesus this is Lucy calling from "Pretty Nails"... I just wanted to confirm your nail appointment for tomorrow at 2pm. Thanks, we'll see you then...
Billy and Glen were sportin' some nice penis pillow action that Billy made with tender loving care... hehehe Here we are after a good pillow attack and after inhaling nearly a whole goose worth of feathers... Loads of fun, i'll be back next year, and with reinforcements! We saw this skank at the Standard Hotel Bar before the even sitting by the pool. She seemed so horrified and miserable standing there witnessing all the fun, maybe someone should steal her away from that nice guy that puts up with her... more of the melee!
It was nice to have a weekend just roll on by at the perfect pace with lots of fun stuff to do, and some relaxation thrown in.
Friday was dinner after work with my Uncle Ken, my sis, my friend Mark, T and myself. We hit up Home in Silverlake for some really yummy foor then headed over to the Bigfoot Lodge for a cocktail or two. Since the week had really taken its toll on us, we were all pretty tired, and add into that a huge dinner and we were ready to head home a little early.
Saturday I woke up, headed back home for a quick shower before spending the day with my sister and uncle. We grabbed lunch at Litterati 2 in Century city and then headed to the Skirball Center to see a staged reading of Kenneth Lonergan's "This is our youth" starring Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton, and Missy Yager. This reading was done without a set, costumes, or any kind of framework except for the actors reading and an actor off to the side creating all the sound effects from a door slam to rolling a joint. It was great to see a play pared down to this, it just shows how good the writing is and just how talented these actors are when they are simply sitting on a stool, but you aren't missing a bit of the realism and emotion. I really dug it and am totally in love with Mark Ruffalo.
After a stomach churning trip to the almighty Tommy's Burgers in Eagle Rock, we headed to the Echoplex to see the band "The Sadies" from Toronto. They were pretty great.
I liked the venue of the Echoplex, but must say I could do without the 1,000 degree temperature... it was like standing in hell's mouth with a tiny fan blowing on you intermittently while you stand and drip...
Sunday I met up with T for lunch at his place, and we headed out to the Faultline for their beer-bust LA Leather kick-off party. It was a good time. His friends were there and it was fun to see them and do some people watching. We swear we saw perfect look alikes for Morgan Freeman and the Blair Witch. After the merriment, we had some delicious yellow curry and hit the hey for some snuggle time. All in all a great weekend!
In all seriousness... He was one of the most charismatic and opinionated men i've ever met. He will be sorely missed in this crazy world by the many students and people he inspired in his career and life. For those of you not in the know, as this place in my blog typically shows pop culture icons that have passed, Milan was the head of the playwriting dept. at Carnegie-Mellon as well as a great playwright in his own right.
I am strangely addicted to this Reggaeton song by Pitbull called "Calle Ocho" and I can't stop listening to it...I love the beat and also the strange sampling of that "Bucketheads" song from the 90's....
It's been a hard week... drawn out emotional crud, work kinda dragging in bad ways, and just general malaise.. I don't really want to get into it, but hopefully my weekend will provide some sort of happiness... Just wanted you to know i'm still alive blog... and I miss you.
So I finally popped my Viper Room cherry! but we'll get to that in a minute... All in all it was a great evening. We started out with a really yummy dinner T cooked from this new cookbook he and his roommate are addicted to, and we ate while watching "My Fair Lady" how fuckin' gay is that?! And yes, there were a few moments where we two mo's sang along! How can ya not when the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain?! After a quick shower and change of clothes we headed out.
I felt very LA walking into that little cave of fun last night when T and I went to go see Kris Bradley perform downstairs. This is the same chick who T took me to see on or around our 3rd date. She is amazing. We got some free tickets, so we walzed up and got to say "hi... we're on the list..." like many others before us. The crowd was fun for the most part, except for the extremely drunken friend of Kris' that kept stumbling around and screaming "We love you Kris" every 5 minutes. The bitch knocked over Kris' beer... was bumping into the gay couple to our left repeatedly, and started to dance with some wastoid during her final song RIGHT in front of her. If you've ever been downstairs... it is SMALL and this became so fucking annoying I think everyone in there was ready to put a pillow to this bitch's face. Kris handled it really well and sang the shit out of every song she did. I am so in love with this girl's voice. Check her out if you get a chance on Myspace Music. She's very raspy bluesy sounding, and deserves to hit it big.
As for today, just putzing away the day at work chipping away at my duties and can't wait for the weekend.
It was a weekend... I got an extra day off, meaning Monday, which in the biz is kinda rare unless you're between gigs and that doesn't feel anything like a vacation... more like "I'm never gonna find work again... I suck at what I do and am broke and want to die." Yeah, more like that.
Saturday was pretty good. I try to keep any expectations about V-day to a minimum even when I have someone to share it with cause god knows its just one torturous disaster waiting to happen for most people if you fuel it with any power. The boy kept saying "Sorry, I don't do Valentine's day well." It was fine. I like it being just a nice day with the opportunity to spend some time together and maybe if there is a little card or somthin' then that's a nice treat. I basically, expect nothing. I gave him his card which he thought was hysterical, I knew he'd like it... He's probably the only person I know who would. We exchanged some small gifts, he acted oddly to my opening of the fun little trinkets and stuff he got me and seemed to think something was wrong. I'm never good in these kind of moments... when someone is acting weird or seems perturbed, I kind of mirror it. It was all good, and he was relieved and we went about our evening together. We had dinner at his place and then went out to meet a friend of his for their birthday at a place we both loathe... Needless to say we weren't there all that long and were off to another less "scene-y" bar, then the Gold Coast for one and then bed.
Sunday was spent with some friends watching a Nascar race... The Daytona 500... I like Nascar leave me alone. I hated that the race ended in rain delay... and was called. Oh well, Kenseth isn't loathesome. Sunday night I saw "Push" which all in all was mediocre at best. Dakota Fanning kind of made me want to slap her and burn that little book she kept scrawling in. Thank god the lead actor was hot... why didn't he ever take that damn shirt off?!
Monday, Me and T woke up and had breakfast with his roomie. Then we made plans to go Bowling... On a rainy day in LA it isn't a good idea to show up at any bowling alley and think it will be a small wait. After checking into it, it was gonna be a 2 and 1/2 hour wait... fuck that. So instead, we turned bowling into drinks, hanging out and sushi. Me, T, his roomie, and her friend all went to a place called "Shabu Shabu" and it was pretty good. If you've met me you probably know that I have never had a good sushi experience. I hate the flavor of seaweed and since that was my main concern, I put my trust in the boy and was willing to give it one more go. We ordered the sushi with soy paper instead and it was pretty darn good. I had a great time, the sake helped, the food and company was pretty fantastic... so all in all it was a pretty good weekend. Now back to the week and the grindstone...
It is based on the saying you find on the back of your fries or drink from Whataburger. I like the macabre nature of the saying but it can be interpreted lots of ways... I like the tattoo cause its a funny nod to pop culture, I also like the idea of the body just being a vessel for the soul, and I the other meaning I take from it is if I am empty of passion, drive or creativity I feel useless and it reminds me to keep pushing to avoid just that.
Had a blast last weekend hitting the occasional Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena CA! Billy and Glen were in typical fashion and dressed the part and spent much of the time running in and out of the parade to add to its quirkyness! Always a fun time!
Here's some pics:
Loved this crazy chick!
Post Parade laying in the street with the tortillas...
Me and Marilyn... she wanted a pic with the crazy bird hat guy
Well, I've been working in the motion capture realm for a while now in the art departments of some fun films, and this is a great little video to introduce you to the world of motion capture technology. The films i've worked on over the last few years incorporate a much broader system utilizing facial capture/ green screen and live action elements. This is a quick intro though that gives you the idea.
I also saw these bizarre places in strip malls in New Mexico over Christmas where you can walk in and make a will... anyone else seen these? A scary convenience and there were so many around...
So my holidays were pretty damn great this year it turns out. Heading to Albuquerque was really fun. On the way out there we stopped in Phoenix and hit up a few bars, one of which was the tranny bar Cruisin' 7th where I sang a bit o Karaoke, and Charlie's where we stood in the sweltering heat and fake snow to watch a hilarious drag show that included the scariest version of "The Circle of Life" mashed up with "Do you hear what I hear".... the make-up on this bitch was outta this world and fuckin' scary people believe me!
Meeting the family was great and went well. I had a really great holidays thanks to these people, otherwise the prospect of sitting alone in LA would have been kinda gloomy this year. It's best I didn't attempt to hit Seattle this year as my sister got stuck in Oakland for a while on the way up. And the snow made it a Christmas stuck indoors. My family apparently had a great time just the same. Jen and mom did some jewelry making and my dad snoozed on the couch with a cat on each side... sounds like the usual. At T's sister's place there was a really great party the night before we left where many shots flowed and merriment was had, but when the Macarena began we knew it was time to leave.
I must note on the way back to LA, in Phoenix our room number was 227.... "Maaaary" Its just a sidenote of course for those in the know.
New years consisted of cabbing it to the regal beagle with T and meeting some friends. It was the first year in a while where the midnight kiss was more fun than just a close friend sayin' hi... Kinda nice I must add. Everybody had a good time and we heard there was some sort of fight after we left invovling a few black eyes and some people we know... Shenanigans! The next morning I was introduced to a new tradition here in LA, we went to the Roosterfish bar in Venice at 10am for free mimosas... they are free till noon and T, his roomie, me and their friend M managed to stumble out of their without our dignity around 4pm... good times, bad hangover.
Friday I saw the Reader, here's your complimentary razor blade people... and Saturday saw The Wrestler... Again, a second free razor blade for you... No more depressing movies for me right now. I'm almost jonesing for sappiness enough to watch Mamma Mia people! (Ok, I lie, I'm not that bad off....)
All in all a successful holidays and now this week I started a new movie, this one we will deem "Bars Feeds Bombs." I'm kinda bummed "Malice Fin Underhand" is over, but in 2010 people are in for a treat. Now back to work with me!
Check out my newest guest blog spot on "Fierce and Nerdy" here: http://fierceandnerdy.com/?p=4086 I'm waxing poetic on the fun of quitting smoking and taking you on a quick pop culture tour about the topic... join me!
