Carmelo's new upcoming sneakers from Brand Jordan

Dude should just give it up already. The Melo M3 was the last best car... I mean signature shoe that Nike's Jordan Division has made. Hell, bring back the Vince Carter line for once.

Lost Weekend

I think I know why a lot of LOST fans were upset on why their favorite addictive show lost (no pun intended) over Mad Men for best drama series at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. Here's some visual aid for the answer.

I rest my case. Christina Hendricks makes every man and boy over 16 in the universe make their minds, or hormones, go mad.

As a matter fact, I'm glad I didn't watch the damn awards. I didn't because I don't watch Television that much anymore, and if I did watch the Emmy awards, I wouldn't know about that shows that were nominated. They're all foreign to me, even though they're domestically filmed and aired here in the United States. I saw the results online. I'm sorry for sounding like a 5th grader right now, but how the hell did the Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie win Outstanding Children's Program over Hannah Montana, that Jonas Brothers TV show and iCarly, as well as the Wizards of Waverly Place series? I thought this award was for television shows, but either way movie or series, Selena Gomez won an Emmy.

Alright, now that I got that away, I'll briefly discuss my weekend just recently. I say briefly cause to me, it felt like it went by fast. I spent the whole Saturday at Fontana shooting a wedding which happened to be one of the most unorganized weddings I've ever covered or attended for that matter. The ceremony started 35 minutes late, we weren't allowed to use flash photography inside the church since it was Catholic, the Bride drove herself to and from the church with no Limousine provided, and there were children running around rampant and going wild through out THE WHOLE RECEPTION CEREMONY, EVEN WHEN THEY WERE GIVING THE SPEECHES. They could've knocked the wedding cake over and tipped off myself or the other photographers from our balance while we were moving around. I blame the parents. When I was a kid, my parents would yell at me and my sister and brother if we did that type of shit at a wedding reception. It was a long ass day, spent 17 hours there from 7AM to 12AM just taking photos at the Bride's house, the ceremony at the church, the Bridal party and the Groomsmen at this great park in Rancho Cucamonga, and of course, the reception. That's kinda like a Nurses' shift or something like that.

Then on Sunday, I wanted to keep it low key. I just went to my least favorite place in the valley, the Northridge Fashion Center to get a blue shirt for the Dodger's VS. Phillies game this Wednesday. I managed to get this dope-ass Hawaiian shirt at Sears that was on sale. I can't the last time I ever bought something at Sears cause I usually go to Macy's, JCPenney, or the old Robinson's May back a few years ago when every mall in Los Angeles had it before Macy's took them over. I bought these Nike shorts with the Laker's colors on it, but I retuned it for a refund on the last minute cause I realized that I needed to save up the budget for Wednesday's game, which is gonna be expensive outside of the tickets and parking, and I got a black early '90s looking shirt which I though was good for only 5 dollars. After that, I zipped to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch to get some other stuff, then to Little Ceasers near San Fernando to get some pizza and then finally at home to get addicted to my uncle's iMac. I was surprised he let me keep it for another week.

I ended the day, as well as the weekend, by watching 2 random films online. The first was My Teacher's wife which I thought was underrated and great, minus some of the kissing scene and the typical girlfriend-getting-upset-with-her-man-seeing-another-girl type drama shit. The second was this old-ass movie from the 1970's called Gas Pump Girls. That movie can be easily be mistaken for a porno film cause

1. The puns from the title of the film

2. the middle of the first 10 minutes of the film with the girls topless throughout the scene, which surprised me.

Those women were attractive back then, WAY better looking than today's females. That pretty much the only reason why I watched that movie. Even thing else in that move was weak such as the acing and the storyline, cause it was made in the '70s, and that's just me. I think Christina Hendricks would fit perfectly if there was a remake for that film. I wouldn't be surprised if they let her bare it all even if the move is rated R.

Taking a lot of Breaks

The weekend is already here and I forgot to finish telling y'all about the last weekend. Yes, I'm slow as hell.

Anyway, I was at my uncle's place last Friday editing some photos and shit. Then the next day, I told him I had to leave very early to return my mom's SUV that I borrowed. She called me the night before and told me that I took her SUV without permission, even though I tried to tell her that I was gonna ask her to borrow it to drive up to the Antelope Valley, with the reason being that I can not use my car because of its fucked up brakes and that I had to be up there on Friday so that we can catch up on our work without being left behind. Either way, she still got upset so I decided to leave early in the morning instead of staying up there until Saturday Afternoon like I planned to.

My uncle hooked me up with some fuel money to get back down to the Valley. I then drove down to my mom's place and returned the SUV, to my surprise that my sisters and one of my mom's family members from her side were at home when I got there, without my mom in presence. One of my sisters told me that I have to take them to their church in Glendale, so I did that with my car. My car can handle going around the Valley and commute back and forth to Glendale, not 50 miles back and forth like I did with my mom's SUV.

After I dropped them off, I then drove back home to shower and rest before I have to be at a birthday party to take photos at later. A friend of mine from Junior High has twins who were celebrating their second birthday today, and I volunteered to take some snapshots of the party. I then go on my computer to check my messages and someone posted on Twitter that professional Skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr. was gonna be at his store Primitive in Encino for his signature sneaker release as well as a party for the store's two year Anniversary. It already started by the time I read that, so I grabbed the two Nikons I had with me, my friend's D60 and my non-working 35mm N70 which I only use to hold its 28-80mm lens to change onto the D60, and zipped on my way to Primitive.

I thought that there was gonna be a big ass line outside the store, but when I got there on Ventura Blvd, I didn't see no line, thank goodness. I parked my car in a neighborhood right next to the store and walked into Primitive. I've heard alot about this place. Its a sneaker boutique that carries skateboarding apparel, the store's brand label clothing and a lot of Nike SB merchandise. My friend Suzette works right next to that place. She goes there alot, and always tells me about it. I never got the chance to check it out since its in the Valley, but when I went inside, to myself I was all like "Where the fuck have I been for the past two years?" There was a lot of people there: Skateboarders, sneakerheads, photographers, and attractive girlfriends of those guys I mentioned. It was really awesome to see Paul Rodriguez Jr. himself. I remember when he got signed to Nike SB 5 years ago when I started collecting shoes more, and I would see his name all the time in the sneaker forums. Anyway, I didn't talk to Paul that much cause I had to be at my friend's kids birthday party later, so all I did was posed for a photo with him, got his autograph (I forgot to tell him to put my name in it) and took about two good portrait shots of him. The dude acted really nice and chill. No bodyguards or security around him despite that he's VERY famous in the skateboarding industry. Pretty much like a regular person.

When I was ready to leave, there was a line forming at a table next to the cash register and it had posters of mixed Puerto Rican/Filipino model Justene Jaro with some Infrared Air Max 90's on it. I was told that she was gonna be doing a signing and I was surprised. I was even more surprised when she came out cause she's TOO FUCKING FINE TO THE MAX! (no pun intended) Holy shit, she was perfect all the way. She got curves, tits and everything a guy would obviously think in a woman's body. Hell, she even got the Air Maxes on. I calm down inside and I took some decent shots of her. I mean, it was really hard to get a full body shot of her and her Nikes cause the place got more full after she came out. She was nice when I got her autographed poster and posed with her. They had free Korean BBQ and some custom Nike t-shirts that you can make, but I didn't stay for that cause I had to be at my friends party in Granada Hills. That shit was worth the trip.

I then got to my friend's birthday party for her kids later. It was mostly her family and a few of her friends that where there. It was Alice in Wonderland theme, in which her daughter dressed up as Alice and her son dressed up as the Mad Hatter. I think she got the inspiration from either the OG cartoon version or the Johnny Depp trippy version of the film that came out that year. Either way, they're both made by Disney. I was going paparazzi mode on her kids, I mean, they can pose perfectly whenever I take their pictures. The expressions are really fun to look at while I've reviewed the shot, along with the help of my uncle's Nikon Speedlight SB-600 he let me borrow for the week, which was cool as fuck. A huge shoutout to NICOLE STETTER and her family for letting me take photos of the party and the great barbecue, which I didn't eat that much cause I was too concentrated on wanting to take more photos. I think I took took like 200 to 300 shots there and two-thirds of the shot were her kids. Gonna take me a while to put them together. Thanks again Nicole. I wish your kids the best and a healthy future for both of them.

Sunday and all the days after that are just typical lifeless shit. It mostly involved myself resting, getting into constant arguments with my parents and this job interview in Van Nuys that my little brother and I went to. It was for Loss prevention undercover security at shopping malls. My brother wasn't qualified cause he doesn't have a California Identification card, which is still a regular ID without the driving privileges, but I can still qualify. The thing that changed my mind was that the supervisor and her secretary were being racists towards us and also, there was gonna be a six hour course on Loss Prevention security with an exam you have to pass that cost $300. In other words, you have to pay to start get paid. So we just left and didn't return to that place. Also, I wanna give a big thanks to my uncle for letting me use his iMac for a few days, even though I didn't ask for it.

Oh yeah, I WANT SEPTEMBER 1ST TO START ALREADY! Dodgers VS. Phillies plus the new Santa Monica Place and the rest of the day. With her. Can't wait.

Friday Is For Driving You Stressed

Holy shit, was today terrible. But I'll get to that later.

The weekend, however wasn't that terrible, even though I managed through it.

On Friday, I went to the Chatsworth Superior Courthouse which is right between the Winettka Theater and the Northridge Fashion Center inside a little plaza-like area filled with a shit load of Washington Mutual...I mean Chase bank buildings. I had to do a meetup last year at one of the buildings cause I was selling my $15 iTunes giftcard to some dude there who wants to buy it for 7 or 8 dollars, which I didn't care cause I needed to get rid of it.

But anyway, I was originally supposed to meet with the judge the day before about the traffic violation I got back in March 2009 for 2 things: expired tags and no headlights on, because they pulled me over at night. In defense, I was coming back from Pierce College after my Sociology class (which was the only thing I liked that semester) ended late, and my car which is a base '95 Nissan Sentra, had to manually turn on the headlights unlike most cars that automatically turn on at night. I forgot I was driving without the lights cause I was on Victory Boulevard coming east from Winnetka and that's when I got busted as soon as I approached Reseda Boulevard. Also, that night was the third time I got pulled over for expired tags (yes, I'm that lazy back then, but I was unemployed). I was lucky that this was the LAPD that got me (the other two were the Sheriff's Department and the CHP) otherwise my car would've been impounded, which it did a week later when I went to my friend's house in Simi Valley. I wasn't working that time and I wasn't making that much money, or any money for that matter, and also, my registration was due back in August 2008, which made it much worse. The judge decided to dismiss the whole ordeal since it was ancient history to him and he lowered my fine of $1,047 (which increased from the original fine of $150 the past 16 months cause again, I wasn't working and I was lazy to go to court) to $75 plus court fees which came up to $105. The $30 difference didn't bother me that much, but what did was the way this courthouse has been operated by its employees on that day.

Now usually, the bailiff gives you a form that states the amount of the fine, inside the courtroom, after you stated your case to the Judge. However, we had to go to a small-ass room next to the courtroom to get that same sheet from one of the two clerks with a LOT of people. Think of like going to the DMV and waiting at an In-N-out on a Saturday in the Antelope Valley. The line was THAT long, in the same order the Judge called us to the podium. Its not like that in the Van Nuys or the San Fernando courthouses, but seriously, the Chatsworth courthouse can do better. I had to wait 4 hours to get my form. I was being cool about it, not being in a rush unlike everybody else in the room, waiting so impatiently to the point that they wanna explode. Seriously, there was actually a dude that was about to go psycho towards a pregnant lady there who was also waiting for her fine statement. I made time go by fast by talking to some people there who were unhappy with the way the courthouse is processing the statements and not realizing that everyone has other responsibilities and jobs they have to do later that day.

As soon as I got that shit taken care of, my Moms somehow left a note in my car to give her a call. I don't even know or want to know on how she knew I was in the Chatsworth courthouse. Weird coincidence. She wanted me to get her Mailbox keys she left at a post office and take it to her house. I did that and when I drove to North Hollywood to give it to her, my brakes on my car started to sound fucked up. I had to be at my uncle's house in Lancaster later that day and I can't drive my car all the way up there with that annoying-ass sound. So I told my sister to tell my mom if I can borrow her Ford Explorer to drive up to the A.V. just for that day, and that I'll bring it back the following Saturday. She told me that I should try to catch up to my Moms at the North Hollywood Red Line station since my sister just dropped her off there. I drove fast with my car to the Red Line Station, which is one minute away from my mom's crib, to try to catch up with her to get her permission to use her SUV. Unfortunately, she already took the last Subway after I get there. That scenario looks like a scene from some Ben Affleck/Matt Damon/Will Smith style action/adventure movie. I drove back to my moms place, told my sister that wasn't able to reach her and that I needed the car keys for the Explorer since my brakes were no good, which she reluctantly did. I threw in $10 for gasoline at Arco, which I shouldn't recommend for fuel cause the gas is cheap, performance wise, and it gave my 3.1 gallons which I though was enough to get me there.

I was actually semi-right. The fuel in the SUV lasted from North Hollywood all the way to motherfucking Palmdale instead of Lancaster, which is 8 miles more, thanks to the excessive traffic on the freeways and the streets heading towards the 5/14 freeway border, which is always shit on the Friday rush hour. Keep in mind that this was at 2:00 in the afternoon before work was out and shit. All that waiting on the road for the vehicles to move has managed to consume down the fuel economy courtesy of the 4.0 liter V6 engine in the '03 Explorer. I used to drive that car many times before and during my parents' split three years ago. I really love driving it but the thing that bothered me was the inaccessibility of the front air vents not permitting the AC to the driver and the passenger. Only the rear vents can blow out air. The blockage of the air caused by the people who installed the aftermarket car stereo that my moms ordered back in '07, cause the original factory stereo ate up three CD's that wouldn't come out from the changer. So what I usually do I open the windows or put the AC in full blast to let the air circulate the entire SUV from the rear vents.

I was stuck in Palmdale for about an hour, since I didn't wanna risk driving a few miles north to Lancaster on Rancho Vista road with the tank near empty. Let me tell you, driving with the CHECK GAGE light on the dashboard already illuminated, will start to freak the shit out of you, especially when you're low on cash or driving on the highway. I drove from my church in Sylmar to Northridge in that situation back in December 2007 and after I drove past Plummer while on Balboa Boulevard, the SUV COMPLETELY STALLED ON ME. That shit wouldn't accelerate, startup or anything. Thank goodness that I put the car neutral and let it rolled slowly into the Chevron station on Balboa and Nordhoff. I was supposed to pick up my sister at the Target across the intersection, but again, thank goodness, she came and threw in some fuel in there. This was a few months before gasoline prices broke $4 a gallon later the following year. Anyway, I managed to find some change in the Explorer, and lots of change did I find, which was enough to take me to Lancaster.

I wanted to write about Saturday and Sunday, but I'll write that in a separate post since this one was like writing about the length of the whole entire weekend. As I said earlier, today really sucks major ass. I wanted to spend the day at home to take a breather break from my photography work but unfortunately, I had to go through the excessive usual shit talking from my parents all day. Don't think that I'm gonna live with them for a while, despite the economy problems towards certain unfortunate people my age. I'm doing my best to get out of the Valley and that shit takes a lot of time. Rushing people to do what they need to do puts more stress on them. Later that night, I cleaned my room, did laundry and listened to my old-ass cassettes that I recorded from the old STAR 98.7 FM music broadcasts to get rid of the stress that I endured today. The only thing I'm looking forward to is meeting this wonderful female who's about the same age as me that I've talked ever since I first got into Facebook back in 2007, before 80% of the world didn't have one when it was only for college students. I just can't wait to see her next week. That's all.

Hangin' Tough and Takin' Pictures

If no one is doing anything nowadays to keep themselves busy, then that person ain't gonna get that far later in their lives and their confidence level will decrease before they know it.

I, the other hand, try to do the opposite by increasing it up.

That pretty much the sole reason on why I haven't been here for the first half of this month. Probably ever since I started working for my uncle last month, my schedule has been constantly booked up for weeks by going to a different event taking photos every now and then. Some of those events were planned on my own outside of my uncle's business.

Last week, I drove to Monterey Park to see my buddies' ex-co worker who he introduced me to a few months ago at the Kardashian sister's Virgins, Saint's and Angles jewelry release at Kitson. We became friends after staying in touch with her afterwards and I wanted to do a photoshoot of her. So I did that and then she took me to The Shops at Montebello, which I've never been to. Its a decent mall, kinda like the South Bay Galleria without the third story. Plus, this is the only mall that I've seen so far that has an FYE and a Raider Image store in the same building. The food court looked nice, but the sbarro there didn't even have Cheese Pizza when I wanted to get a slice over there. What the hell? So I just got large French Fries from the Carl's Jr instead just to keep it low. After that, she wanted to get something to feast on also, so we went to iHOP, which is know as the International House of Pancakes, near her house. I haven't ate at that place ever since the day my pops got his '05 E320 Mercedes Benz two years ago. She hooked me up with some pancakes and she got herself some late breakfast. Finally, we went to a park near her place to take some photos of her. I ended the day by driving to my cousin's house in Mid-City to watch a wedding rehearsal there cause one of my family members was getting married the following weekend, not at a church or a courthouse, but at the house where they were practicing the ceremony at. In other words, the entire wedding and reception was gonna be there, but I'll get to that later. Before I went to do the photoshoot and the wedding practice, I had to give my friend Suzette a lift to her job, and I had to deliver some photos to a friend of mine who I also met at the Kardashian's in-store appearance at Kitson.

That's pretty much how every day or every other day has been like, just driving around alot and taking care of stuff. I remember spending the first half of 2009 not being able to do anything like that aside from going to classes at Pierce College every night. I didn't have my own computer during that period cause I sold my black Macbook for financial reasons, and my cell phone camera was my only source of photography cause this was when it was starting, or has already started to get a stable job, and I couldn't be able to obtain one within those months. I remember having this one German lady in her 40's that my moms hooked me up with back in around October or November 2008 who came to my house one day and told me that she was gonna hook me up with a position at one of the Target stores near my house. Things were getting great until I was informed that they were gonna transfer me to someone else, which happened to be a younger woman who looks very similar to Tina Fey, because they had to lay off the previous lady, which sucks. That put me out of contention from my application process at Target all the way back to base one, where I have to re-write all my information and resumes for her so that she can distribute them to different places that are hiring.

I gotta give her some major props for her hustle though, even though things didn't work out between us. Out of all the places she went to distribute my resumes at, half of them called us for an interview and none of them didn't hire me. We even had a meeting about this with her and her boss, who I thing is a conservative jerk who should teach special education instead of treating his employees like they're in special education (hey, its the truth). The meeting was very uninteresting. Hell, it was so uninteresting, that I walked out in the middle of it and went home, cause all he asked me was why wasn't hired at those jobs? Now, I don't even know why he had to ask me that. He could've gone through my previous job records and called the places where I had the interviews to find out and tell me why I wasn't hired at those places. That what his job is supposed to do, to get those people who are un-employed HIRED AND WORKING STABLE JOBS, not just bullshit ass interviews. To me, employers can care MUCH LESS on how well the job-seeker dresses in his Italian suit, or how many big words the job-seeker uses in his answers. They really look at background checks and credit scores to see if that person has either killed someone in the past or from their judgment if they think that person won't be the right for the position, regardless on how well he does in the interview, even if its a perfect 10. That to me is probably the only reason why there aren't that many people unemployed or not working right now. The economic recession has impacted many people emotionally and physically, and they're doing what ever they can to stay active as they're no longer working. Some people even max out their credit cards by paying off their bank loans with money they don't fucking have, which is what cause the whole economy to go in a tailspin, and jobs won't hire anyone they can't trust.

I admit, there's shit I still have to cover and pay off. I could've driven a better automobile or live at my own, or bought a different smartphone every month that came out if I had, or maintain for a lack of a better word, a stable job, and plus, I'd be talking to my parents much more. Honestly, I didn't think that the job market was gonna get worse when I left the Sherman Oaks Apple store back in May 2008. I thought I was gonna work at a different place within a month after I left, but I didn't happen as the unemployment rate started to expand. The job market was so serious during that time, that I've seen former CEOs of small companies applying at fast food restaurants last year, which is sad to look at. Nowadays, you have to know somebody who knows someone that can get you a spot at some retail store at a mall or anywhere which is listed in the Fortune 500.

But aside from job searching during that time, I did whatever I can to stay active around that period. I had a gig by doing some post production at a photographer's house since he never used Final Cut Pro before. I was very fortunate to work with him since he payed me to get by during those days. I had my car towed in Simi Valley, which is the last place to get your car towed at, for having expired tags back in March 2009 since they expired in August 2008, which is my fault cause I didn't pay it on time, and I got stopped by the police many times which is for no fucking reason. I wasn't easy then, along with my pop's new wife who just came here that time living with him in the states and myself and the rest of the world getting used to a guy in his 40's running the country for the first time since John F. Kennedy did back in the 1960s. At the end, all I can say that all that stress has lead me to where I'm at right now, at a perfect position in my life right now with greater confidence and desire to excel more.

Finally, shoutout to Augustine and her new husband Shay Armstrong, who I met only once last year, on getting hitched last Sunday. I missed the wedding ceremony cause I was taking photos at an Omarion performance (dude's a celebrity, and I take pictures of famous people) inside Westfield Culver City mall, which is still Fox Hills mall to me. I managed to make it to the reception that was also at my uncle's house, where did the wedding at. I wish them the best in their marital life together. Another shoutout to Pearl Rios for letting me do the photoshoot of and for the free pancakes last week.

By the way, my little sister started the 11th grade yesterday. Yes, her FALL semester in the middle of August, which is the SAME EXACT FUCKING WEEK summer school is usually supposed to end. I gave up on the LAUSD ever since my brother started his senior year back in September 2009, or since I graduated high school for that matter. But hey, nothing is easy nowadays. People gotta make drastic moves and challenge themselves in order to get by in life, especially at this time.

Eight, One, Eighty One

Twenty nine years ago

It galvanized and changed not only the music industry,

but the way videos are perceived

as an expressive form of art

As the years went on

its roots has started to grow,

And its network changed itself

as an expressive form of real life

Your peers will say "They stopped playing music videos anymore"

even some of the artists themselves admit it.

But despite the different premium channels and forms of mass media on the internet

At the end of the day, they'll still say that they don't play music videos anymore

It should've been called Total Request Life

cause nowadays, everyone is into viewing others personal lives.

It should've also been called True Live

cause everyone wants to see various lifestyles they can't imagine being in

The name started out as "Music Television"

since it says that on the bottom of the logo

Now its...whatever you wanna call it

now that the name is shaved off the bottom of the logo

Why call it whatever you want?

I'd say the same thing while looking at an abstract portrait.

Everyone that's featured on that network is different

even those who view them have different perspectives

As I get older

the videos and music will be newer.

The channel might be out of existence in the future

but not its core foundation it revolutionized

Yes, I typed this and made it up myself. Its been a very long ass time since I wrote a poem that didn't rhyme. If you can't understand it, that's fine. Some poems aren't easy to read. By the way, I noticed a lot of famous people got married this past weekend. Great for the entertainment press, but whats great is how long they can obtain their own personal lives together.