Yes I know I'm late on this but FUCK THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION FOR DISQUALIFYING THE TROJANS INTO THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS. I've said this before and I'll probably say it until they make a movie out of this shit which will never happen. Some people here worship the Lakers, some idolized the Dodgers, I'm not sure about those who devote themselves to the L.A. Kings, but for me, its all about the USC Trojans football team. Out of at least 30,000 or more schools in this country, regardless of any division, why the fuck is the University of Southern California the one taking the heat. Oh yeah, its those agents willing to feed and fuel the athletes with gifts to make them play better and feel good about themselves. Its like steroids without the steroids.
Why did I bring this up again? The game against Oregon yesterday made me very upset. I didn't see the game on TV but the only thing I saw was the score online. Shit, this was at the Coliseum in front of a national television audience. If this was 2005, either the result would be the other way around, otherwise if the score was the same, then Keith Jackson would be speechless or whatever just like the 2006 National Championship game, which I don't want to get into. The only thing you would hear after the game is the Ducks fans texting their colleagues outside the Coliseum that their drive from Eugene to Los Angeles was totally worth it. But sadly, the Trojans aren't playing for anything this year, and for some people, there's no point of watching them this year. I just watch them cause they're the only team that I actually liked for a long time. They beat the shit out of Berkley in their previous home game, which really impressed me.
Another thing that I wanna spill out is that I really dislike Halloween and everything about it. The only positive thing about it is looking at the females dressing up like whores and strippers, but its more convenient if your wife or significant other was with you in that attire, otherwise its gets dried out really fast. Again, I do not like Holidays, including Christmas. I say Christmas cause everyone views it as a marketing tool for the corporate "white collar big wigs" in the Fortune 500 companies to generate such extraordinary revenue for themselves. This person form my church said that its all about getting "free stuff", which is... in a sense, true. I wanna go to a church with somebody on that day, regardless of any christian domination and just enjoy the holiday spirit by watching and listening to the choir telling the story of Christ's birth in songs. I could care much less if I get don't anything in December 25th, cause, that's kids stuff.
Plus its amazing how they're already hyping up the holiday frenzy already since last week, and October is damn near not even finished yet. I was at the Glendale Galleria last Thursday to take photos of Cindy Crawford (who looked the freakin' same after all these years) promoting her signature skincare product at JCPenney. As I was waiting, I walked by Macy's and they already had CHRISTMAS TREES up at their fragrance department. I was like shit, why not make Christmas Day a month early? But that's already been superseded with the annual "Black Friday" shopping event, the day after Thanksgiving. I'm surprised that those traditions are still going on during the recession where the unemployment rate is STILL increasing.
I wanna touch up on that real quick. Yesterday, I saw a 60 Minutes documentary on how those people unemployed had 99 weeks to be financially taken care of by getting unemployment checks during that period until they find a stable job. But unfortunately, after 99 weeks, those people are still unemployed , and they can't get unemployment benefits after that timeframe expires. So now those people, who went to college back when compact Japanese import vehicles like Honda's Civic, Nissan's Datsun line, and Toyota's Corolla gain notoriety during the oil crisis, are not working since they are almost close to reaching their retirement milestone. The sad part is that they also can't find work and be hired cause of the younger generation, or those under 25, are pretty much dominating the entry level lower-end workforce. I don't know whether to view this as ageism, which is like racism towards age, but I've seen people who I thought looked like they should be a CEO or an exec of some company in a high rise building in Downtown Los Angeles working in places my little brother should be working at. Very sad to see this and embarrassing if it was one of your parents in those positions or worse. All I can say is that to those fortunate enough to make a decent living at the least, just be glad and blessed with what you have, and hold on to it tight. I mean, VERY TIGHT, with knowledge. Just remember where it came from and how you got it.
As for myself, the past month has been pretty much a whirlwind. More like 50/50 or 85/15. There have been some fractures in my family recently (nobody died by the way) and it got to the point where I HAD to move out. So thankfully, my mom's knows this Filipino lady who I think she worked with a while ago and she lives at a house in Sylmar and taking care of her disabled family, who are all older than me. There were a lot of rooms in that house, so she reserved one for me. I might be there until everything turns out well at my legal address, but from the looks of things, I don't even know when' I'll move back there, or how long I might live here in Sylmar. Its a weird coincidence cause the place I'm residing at right now is less than 30 seconds from my church and my friend Frank's house. Other than that, I'm doing fine here. Spent a month already here, don't have to pay rent cause lady knows my situation with not getting hired for the past two years. Plus they have a lot of great food, and I've been trying out some Filipino entree's that I've never tasted before, which is fantastic to the max.
I've been very busy like a fuckin' beast for the past few weeks also. I've been taking a lot of photos, test driving a bunch of cars and meeting celebrities. I know that sounds like the shit I've been doing every month for the past year, but this was somewhat a premium version of it. I spent a lot of time with my good friend Nicole Stetter and her friend's group Darger De Milo by supporting them in their recording sessions. Nicole had a lot of people she knew who had a number of parties and kickbacks, so I took photos of those and made some new friends/clients/acquaintances or whatever you want to call it. I can't describe all of those gatherings in detail cause there was a different one every other day which made it look like it was 2007-08 all over again. It was very fantastic, including Aftergloam (one of my friend's music group) bassist Cecilia Navaratte's birthday at Universal Citywalk. I've never thought that I would witness a party where they had a surprise proposal, a bachelorette party, and a drunk 40 something woman who would hit on me in front of her husband, who WAS COOL ABOUT THE WHOLE THING from his own words. Like I said, those events were too indescribable to put into sentences.
One of my favorite things I did this month was test driving the all new Nissan Leaf, which is the first all electric car to have absolutely no emissions whatsoever, meaning no smog checks, no gasoline, no CO2's being emitted into the air, none of that shit. It was in invite event which took place at Westfield Century City mall in Century City that was operated by Nissan of North America. We had to be schooled on the origins and the dissection of the vehicle, and it was worth capturing my attention. We even got to drive it around Century City, which made me and those who also attended the first ever people in Los Angeles to drive this car. Keep in mind that this car is not gonna be out in a year and its still going thorough some approval process from the government. To me, when I was driving it, it felt like you're driving a golf cart with options and a body around it, cause like I said earlier, this car is, as Nissan simply stated it, 100% electric with no gasoline whatsoever. Nowadays, people can care less on what kind of car you drive, whereas five years ago, you were doing it if you pushed a Chrysler 300c or a Infiniti G35 or a Cadillac Escalade. But the recent economic recession has changed a lot of people views on many financial aspects, which is why I wrote earlier that the holiday shopping hasn't changed its traditional habits. Speaking of finances, they didn't say what the price for the vehicle is, but I'm guessing its gonna be between 17 grand to $30,000 at the most. I could go on all day with this car.
Yep, its been a stressful, exciting, interesting, useful, decent, and challenging month this year. I did my best to make it full of positive energy. That's how every month should be, minus all the family drama, negative politics and bullshit. I really need to rest and catch up on the NFL. I've been missing watching some games from editing and scanning all the photos I took this month, but hey, I'm a photographer, so I have to maintain my "Ryan-Seacrest-busy-all-over-the-place" grind.
Oh yeah, major shoutout to Cadillac for letting me drive your whips as many times as you let me this month. Even though I'm a Japanese automobile person, y'all are and always will be underrated and I respect your heritage in the American culture. And shoutout to Tianna Edmonson, the drummer for Aftergloam, for hosting all those kickbacks at your place this month. Its always an experience every time I go there. Also, shoutout to Universal and AMC for re-showing Back To The Future in theaters again for two nights. I FUCKIN' ENJOYED IT! I should've brought someone with me, but it selling like crazy and I spent 15 dollars on a Large popcorn and a Large Cherry Coke (they didn't have Pepsi). Yes, 2 of those for 15 dead Washington's. I've never though I'd see this movie in a large screen, but they remastered it and made it look sharper and clearer. Plus I went home with 5 limited edition posters of the movie they gave away. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with them, seriously. Finally, big shoutout to Amber Marshall for letting go berserk in your Mercedes-Benz CLK convertible last week. Damn, I drove a lot of cars this month.
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