Week in Review: Live!

Man, already broke 100 posts on here so far.

I forgot to recap last weekend since this is the final weekend for September. Its was very decent, probably the best 48 hours so far, unlike other weekends. I mostly experimented with my Nikon N70 35mm SLR camera during those two days. I freakin' love that thing. Makes me reminisce the day that I used to shoot photos with film back in high school. I used the Kodak Ektar 100 speed roll of film. Its recommended for shooting outdoor landscapes, but I took alot of indoor photos with it, so the prints will pretty much be about a stop underexposed. Again, its been awhile since I shot with film. Thanks again for the camera Kent and Robin.

I also got a chance to cover my friend Nicole's house party for a friend of hers on Saturday Night. They had two bands performing there, with Nicole being in one of them. Performance was beyond excellent from both bands. I was very fortunate enough to record a video clip of one of the songs using the Nikon D5000 (which I was shooting with that night along with the N70) video recording feature. I met a lot of great people there, and reunited with some peoples from Junior High that I haven't seen since graduation day back in 2002. Then the next day, I went to my friend Frank's house to watch some NFL games in HD and he showed me the NFL Red Zone feature on his DirecTV service. That pretty much cuts back and forth to whatever game in which whatever team is in the Red Zone, or at least 20 yards in the opposing teams territory. Saves time from switching the channels on NFL Sunday Ticket. There were 4 things in the NFL that was fan-fucking-tastic that day.

1. Randy Moss' one handed touchdown catch.

2 and 3. Speaking of Moss, the Patriots losing to the Jets, as well as Tom Brady admitting that his team sucked. But they'll win in Foxboro once they face New York again later

4. Texans defeating the Redskins in overtime. Game of the week right there. Just everything about that game made it interesting.

5. The Forty-Niners' performance against the champs New Orleans Saints on Monday Night. Even though they lost, the pulled alot of points on the board and maintained the lead for a while. Could've been a hell of an upset had they won.

Yes, that was five, but they were great though. That one of the reasons why I like watching the NFL.

This past week was pretty much stale and dull as usual. Typical family situations, politics of the real world, and the gay-ass fall TV premieres I didn't see (except for House M.D. I saw like the first 10 minutes of it, then turned it off cause it felt like I was watching the sex scenes from Titanic back when I saw it for the first time in 1998). The only highlight of that week was going to Hollywood with a close homeboy of mine from high school. Coincidentally, they had the red carpet premiere for the Fifty-something-Generation X-cougar/chick flick film You Again at the El Capitan Theatre. I witnesses Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver wearing the same dress, which I thought was cool. Plus they both looked fantastic, even though we were at the top of the Hollywood and Highland buildings looking at a distance. Then two actresses that I've never heard of in my life showed up. They were also part of the main cast, and finally I saw Betty White's 80-something years at the premiere. There were some VIP-ish type fans holding fans with her face on it. Maybe those are the same fuckers who organized a petition on Facebook to pull her old ass out of retirement so that she can host Saturday Night Live. That would've been a good time for MadTV (remember that funny-ass shit?) to still be around.

After that, we checked out a Slipknot concert that they were featuring for one night only inside the Chinese Theater. That shit was so fantastic. It felt like I was actually there. I've seen alot of people wearing Slipknot T-shirts and pins through out the past couple of years, but never got a chance to check out their music. Great, great stuff. Then later, we went to Hollywood Hooters across the street to feast on dinner. I haven't ate there since I took my friend Matt Sun there for his 21st birthday back in March of 2008, the day I met Maria Kanellis again at the old Virgin Megastore across the street for her Playboy magazine cover that month. There's a reason why I don't frequent at that Hooter's restaurant that much: the waitresses.

EDITORS NOTE: I'm about to go into single lifeless all male/guy mode here at this point. So all the female readers there, don't feel offended to what I'm about to say.

Now Hooters is known for having attractive waitresses for having... gynormus hooters, so to say. When I went there last time, all of them there weren't so gynormus. Fast forward to Wednesday night, the waitresses were moderately decent and nice and fuckin' attractive as usual, but ours that night wasn't. That bitch was the only waitress wearing a sweater and a pair of jeans, while they should've be wearing a tight white tank top with orange short shorts (and I mean short and tight). She looked like she came from class at a community college. I'm surprised the manager let her dressed like that. Oh, and shoutout to my homeboy Chris Romero for taking care of the dinner. I'm sure as fuck wouldn't leave her a tip, which I do almost every time I go into a restaurant to feast some good culinary gourmet luncheon and/or dinner.

End single lifeless all male/guy mode.

Other than that, that's pretty much my week. By the way, Lindsay Lohan get sentenced to jail again yesterday and.... I'm gonna stop there. I'm sure y'all know the rest. I'm already fed up with that shit. Why can't Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson tag-team with her (not in pro-wrestling) and make movies together cause that's what The Rock has been doing for the past fucking decade so that this publicity shit ever since Mean Girls was released in 2004 would've never happened. But then again, those past six years shows that drugs really does demonstrate wonders.

DEGREES ARE OVERRATED

Want to be a Billionaire so freakin' bad?

Just ask these two. The answers are right there in front of you.

From G's to Class

Two Thousand Four

Two Thousand Ten

The current President of the United States was heavily influenced.

New World Order 2.0

This isn't your mother's communication skills and your father's people skills back in their twenty-something days.

9/11 is a joke... well, not really

Before y'all get upset at me because of the title, that was a play-on-words from Public Emeny's late '80s single.

Back in September 11, 2002, on the one year anniversary of the attacks, I thought every year was gonna be that special day when we drop everything and pray to those who lost their lives in that devastating day. I remember cause on September 11, 2002, I was attending the San Fernando Valley Adventist Academy during my Freshman year in high school. On that day, the school did a special assembly where they paid tribute to the City of New York and the United States on America by singings songs, reciting the Lords Prayer and having Pastors from different churches speaks to us about comparing 9/11/01 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor back on December 7, 1941.

New York is the only place that I can think of that still recognizes and remembers 9/11/01 today for an obvious reason of course. Here in Los Angeles, we kinda did the opposite.

There was a weed convention, a porn convention, a USC home game, a UCLA home game, and some other stuff that happened today. I'm not saying that LA doesn't recognize the attacks, but to me, its unique, and somewhat coincidental, that those local events that I mention were scheduled to be on that day. I remember when I was 13 years old back in September 11, 2001, prior to the attacks, the only things I remember on that date was Jay-Z's The Blueprint album and Fabolous debut album Ghetto Fabolous going to drop in stores on that Tuesday. I say that cause everytime I would watch MTV or BET's Rap City (back when it was good with Big Tigger as one the hosts) and they would always hype those albums saying "IN STORES ON SEPTEMBER 11TH AT YOUR LOCAL TOWER RECORDS OR WHEREHOUSE MUSIC!!!" Those music stores are long gone, as well as the innocent lives of those at the twin towers the Pentagon and the United 93 flight that landed somewhere in Pennsylvania.

By the way, for those wondering what I did and where I was at on 9/11/01? I was on my way to school and I was running really late for Homeroom. Usually, I'd watch music videos on MTV with my siblings or the Channel 5 News while I was eating breakfast and getting ready, but I didn't this time since I was in a serious rush. I rode my bicycle to my middle school and when I got inside the building, I heard my principal speaking on the public address in a way that I never heard him speak in all the days I've been at Frost Middle School prior to that day. He spoke as if some public figure died, and apparently he was right, in a way. Everybody was all shocked and surprised, and through out the rest of the day, we were watching the news coverage in all of my classes, except gym and Algebra cause there was no television set in those classrooms. I don't know how else to describe that moment more, but it did change people's perspective on views forever.

Men have the Shake Weight, Women have this...

which makes everybody happy. Now were both even. I won't be surprised if they have this at Adultcon this weekend at the Convention Center.

My summer was...

I'm just sayin'.

By the way, didn't do much on Labor Day. Just stayed home and slept alot.

Kurt Angle's new wife

For those who don't watch professional Wrestling or have never watch a minute of it 5 to 10 years ago, the first paragraph might be sort of foreign to you. Here's some photos (which I did not take) of his new lady friend and future ex, who happens to be 24 years of age.

I don't even know whether he won or lost, outside the ring. Cause I thought his ex-wife Karen Angle was attractive, but from what I heard, she's now being hooked with Jeff Jarrett.

By the way, I checked out the new rebuilt Santa Monica Place with my friend Frank from my church last Friday. Place was very decent, but they only had store that attracted mostly rich-ass women. I'm surprised that these same stores that were there at the Santa Monica Place are the same stores you would find at Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, which is 6 miles apart going straight down east of Santa Monica Blvd or Wilshire Blvd. The only two great things about that place is the view of the Santa Monica Beach from the Top Deck of the outdoor food court and the two story Nike store, which looked really tight inside.

Let's see what I can make of this Labor Day weekend, probably to me, one the most significant Holidays in the calendar year. This is usually billed as the last summer of the weekend, because after Labor Day on Monday, the school year starts the following day. That ain't the case this year for two reasons.

1. The school year already started (for most schools here in Los Angeles) back in the middle of August, prior to Labor Day weekend

2. I'm not in high school anymore, so I don't need to worry about spending at least $50 on school supplies (those Texas Instruments smart calculators and Jansport backpacks are no joke in terms of prices)

I got to stop fucking around and finish up putting together the birthday party that I shot for my friend Nicole's two kids from three weeks ago, and I've been working on it since then. Unfortunately, meetings, photoshoots, and spoiling my little brother have plagued my focus for this project. I wasn't paid to do this, but I did this cause this is something that I really enjoy doing personally, while other photographers would either do the same or charge them courtesy of this current economy. I'm 90% done. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

McCourt Date at the Ravine

While Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife Jamie were taking the stand on Wednesday, my friend Amanda and I were somewhat "substituting" for them in the stands at Dodger Stadium on that day as well.

When I first created a Facebook account (my first OG account that not many of you remember) back in July 2007, the only people that were on my friends list were the honor students and the smart kids that I knew from Kennedy High and a few from Brooks Institute of Photography back when I was there the previous summer. That was like 10% of my graduating class. Not too many people, or a huge portion for a lack of a better word, had a Facebook or even knew about the site as that demographic was already hooked on Myspace. Also, you need to have a University email address to have a Facebook account. One random day that summer, I was bored and decided to check out one of the groups on there. Then I saw a picture of this one girl wearing these sunglasses that made her look cool and I decided to hit her up. Now I was hitting on a lot of random-ass people during that time and adding them to my friends list. Many of them didn't last too long but she was totally different. Since then we stayed in touched for the next three years and that was the longest I ever kept in contact with someone I've never met before in person, ESPECIALLY A FEMALE.

We finally met on Wednesday, the first day of September. She was a serious Philadelphia Phillies fan, and we made a plan for the past year to watch them play at Dodger stadium on that day. So we went there, and she really liked the place. We were there like two hours before the game even started. This is my second trip to the Ravine this year in a months span and I can't imagine seeing that many staff and employees that are pretty much everywhere, including inside as one of the elevator operators like its a five-plus star hotel or resort. I don't remember seeing the Staples Center having that type of service cause the place mostly has twenty something Security in red Blazers running around the arena. We sat Top Deck which I thought was a great ass view of the whole entire diamond field. As a matter a fact, you can get a great view from any section in my opinion.

In the end, The Phillies beat the Dodgers 5-1. I wasn't concerned about it, but my friend was really happy to see her team win. A lot of people started leaving our section and other parts of the stadium whenever the opponent makes a hit. Other than that, I had a really awesome there with her. By the way, I spent $23.75 at Dodger Stadium.

$15 for the parking

$5 for the Dodger Dogs

$3.75 for a SMALL soft drink

I really wanted to spend more than that, but I had to use some money for fuel in my car in the last minute cause I had to drive out to Lake Balboa park to clear my mind for a bit. I didn't know the park closed at 7, which was too damn early, but I think its to avoid the Loitering there after hours. Anyway, it was still great, and so was seeing Paul Rodriguez Jr. again for throwing the first pitch with Ryan Sheckler, another professional Skateboarder. I then found out later that two of my friends from high school were also at there at the Ravine, probably cause it was a day game. I didn't even see them or know that they were gonna be there. Again, it was fantastic.

After that, we then drove, in her car, to Americana at Brand in Glendale. I made her drive through Highland Park and Eagle Rock in North East Los Angeles for her to get a glimpse of what Los Angeles actually is aside from Hollywood, the Beaches, and the affluent status of Southern California that many people outside this city, or this state for that matter, think of how we live via television programs and the movies. We went got to Americana at Brand, we checked out the Cheesecake factory and ate there at the bar. I wanted to show here the inside of the Glendale Galleria but she didn't have time cause she had to stay here for one day and drive back to Nevada. This was my first time going to the Cheesecake Factory in Glendale, since I've been to the ones in Sherman Oaks, The Grove (which is my favorite Cheesecake Factory spot), and the one at Warner Center in Woodland Hills. Inside, it was as big as I though it would be, but we made our way to the bar. That place had the best Onion Rings I've ever experienced.

Thank you so much Amanda. The ride to and from the game in your car was great, even though my car had fucked up brakes that occurred in the last minute, which was the original plan to ride in. I've met many people from exchanging emails, instant messenger, Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites in person in the past, but this one was something that I thought I could never imagine.