Now How That Mother-Fuckin' Best Was Won

Just another average weekend, with some occurrences that made it decent.

On Friday Night, I went over to my friend Nicole Stetter's boyfriend's sister's birthday party in Van Nuys to do some photography there, but I didn't have time to swing by Samy's Camera to pick up some Black and White 400 speed T-Max Film and my uncle has his D5000 that I always loaned, yet he was at his job all the way in Fresno. I almost bought an overpriced roll of 400 speed Color Negative consumer film at the CVS in Sherman Way and Sepulveda (Sidenote: that store was one of the VERY first places I applied for a job back when I was 16, which I didn't get) I also made a 5x7 print there for the birthday girl, and what's weird was that the clueless staff there charged me .32 for a 5X7 instead of $1.99 which is the original price, BUT WHATEVER, THAT'S COOL WITH ME.

When I got to the house where the birthday party was gonna be at, which was the birthday girl's boyfriend's crib, I was the first one there. She greeted me and I told her that I was going to take that much photos, but I had 3 exposures left on my Nikon N70 that I used for some serious portraits of the party. Later on, more people started to turn up, as well as her brother and Nicole, and it totaled the crowd to about 20 people on average. I enjoyed it. The mood was super chill, also there was a lot of food and the birthday cake was excellent. Thanks again to Illian Herrera for inviting me to your party.

Then on Saturday, I woke my ass up and headed straight to Primitive in Encino. For those who don't know, its a skateshop on Ventura Boulevard that's owned by professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr., providing skate decks, accessories and apparel of the Primitive brand and other skate brands like Diamond Supply Co., The Hundreds, Nike SB, Vans and others. Imagine that its an Active Ride Shop on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue, next to Fairfax High. But that place is one of the kind, and it helps represents the San Fernando Valley culture which is what I like about Primitive cause I grew up in the 818 my entire life. Like myself, you don't even have to skate to shop there. All the staff there are totally chill and the customer service they deliver makes you want to stay there longer. I felt like that was first time visiting the store from reading and typing this paragraph, but I've been going there a few times and blogged about it for the past two years, and I've met Paul and most of the models there on a third of my trips to Primitive. Anyway, I went there to check out the new Spring apparel, said what's up to some of the staff there and I left with a T-shirt that I really liked. I recommend anyone who grew up in the Valley to check out Primitive.

When I got home, I popped on this movie called Heaven which is a VHS (yes I still play VHS tapes) from 1998 that I bought at some garage sale on my way back home. I never heard heard of it but from reading the description on the back of the video cassette, I thought the storyline was interesting. Well, the actual film itself wasn't interesting. I mean why the fuck have a transvestite play as a stripper in the film instead of Elizabeth Berkley (Gen X-ers should know what I meant) or some random Z-list porn star? And everything thing else was just shit. I even researched the film and it gave out little information which showed how terrible it did back then. When it got to the middle of the film, I just couldn't take it anymore. The main character played by Martin Donovan was pissing me off like a teenage virgin dude who can't defeat the boss on a Xbox 360 video game after 400 tries. So I pressed stop, ejected the videotape and just literally threw it in the trash. Not just a trash bin, but the black trash that you pull out to the curb. That how I felt about the movie. I would do the same to Tyler Perry's films if he were to give it to me for free cause I can't stand that asshole (I got into a fight with a recession-ass couple during a screening of The Family that Preys back in late 2008). Later on I had to go to a Nigerian friend of my pops wife's crib to take photos there. I was surprised that they live here at a affluent residential area in the Sylmar/San Fernando/Mission Hills border, but whatever, I didn't give a shit. Only stayed for 2 hours cause I felt very sleepy there and gave me a lift home and 40 dollars as compensation.

Didn't do a whole lot on Sunday except dipping over to one of my homeboy's crib not too far from my pops house and just chilled there for the rest of the day. Picked up some Baja Fresh and watched the 2012 NBA All Star Game instead of the overdone Academy Awards. That was honestly the best NBA All Star Game that I ever watched. Seriously, that shit was a slam dunk contest, and I didn't see the actual Slam Dunk contest on Saturday Night since I had a job that night, but I heard it wasn't entertaining. Nothing can shit on last years Slam Dunk contest in the Staples Center by Blake Griffin which looked like a fuckin' AND 1 streetball act. And I hope Dwayne Wade gets fined or suspended for that punk ass move he did on Kobe Bryant during the game which caused his nose to bleed that lead to a concussion, but I assume some penalty will be enforced on him after this Sunday's game with the Miami Heat at the Staples Center against the Lakers cause that shit will be nationally televised. NOW IF IT WEREN'T FOR TOMORROW'S LEAP YEAR DAY, THEN THAT FUCKING GAME WOULD'VE BEEN AIRED ON MY 24TH BIRTHDAY, AND I COULD'VE ATTENDED THERE FOR FREE SOMEHOW! Still can't believe that shit was one day off.

By the way before I finish, I normally don't give that much acknowledgments to notable figures aside from Kim Kardashian and I made sound like an N'Sync fan or whatever, but major props and salutations to celebrity Jeweler Ben Baller for breaking the ice and tying the knot to wed Nicollete Lacson, a gorgeous Filipina model with a degree in Fashion, over the weekend. I don't personally know Ben, but I first heard about him on NikeTalk back in 2006, then discovered his blog two years later and have been religiously reading it every week ever since. I only saw him for a little bit once at the Platinum Motorsport toy drive in late 2010 and the other great thing is that he's a straight up LA resident who's been around for a long time. Most of the format from my blog posts was inspired from his blogs and his"Weekend Wrap-Ups"pushed me to be a better writer and blogger which is why I have a shitload of paragraphs every week. Check out his blogpage and his thoughts from his recent wedding to Nicolette over the weekend http://ifandco.com/2012/02/28/till-death-do-us-apart/

Anyways, thanks for your time reading and don't forget (which most of you will) I'll be turning 24 in six days. Just saying.

Aniston Wednesday

Now alot of y'all that have known me for the past several years are obviously aware that from time to time, I "brag" or bring up notable figures or celebrities that I've met and took photos of on that said day. Many could care less about several of them that I've encountered but witnessing Jennifer Aniston getting her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame this past Wednesday was worth telling your friends (no pun intended) about.

This is personal to me cause I almost had a chance to get a photo of Jennifer 4 years ago, which turned out to be an epic publicity stunt. I was at Joan's on Third in late 2008 with some other paparazzi photographers waiting for some famous figure to show up since that eatery gets some well-known names here and there. Then this one paparazzi shows up on his bicycle and tell us, as if he were speed, that a big major A-Lister was gonna show up at The Ivy restaurant on Robertson Blvd in a few minutes. He then rides off and us photographers started sprinting towards the Ivy since it was less than two miles from Joan's on Third.

When I finally ran there 15 minutes later, there was a WILD GANG OF PAPARAZZI, SOME PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND A SHIT LOAD OF TOURISTS that were crowding the entrance of The Ivy. Some photographers leaked out that Jennifer Aniston was gonna show up with made some sense of the enlarged crowd. At that time, her and Angelina Jolie were the top two targets for the paparazzi to capture a photograph of since they both fucked the same guy, and I hope to God that his movie Moneyball wins Best Picture, despite that I haven't seen it yet, at the fixed-ass Academy Awards this Sunday. About one photo of those two women doing something can sell for at least 2 grand or 100 times more if one of them were caught drunk late at night on the Sunset Strip. But anyways, we were all waiting there for an hour and a half at least to wait to see if she was gonna exit out of The Ivy until one of the security guards there next to the Valet booth said that she just went out the back and left. That caught everyone by surprise and many of us got very frustrated. Hell, there were some 7 or 8 photographers that went to the back of The Ivy to see if she was still there after he said that, only to see no Jennifer Aniston in sight. This one OG paparazzi told me that out of the many times and years that he's captured celebrities at The Ivy, NONE OF THEM has ever left through the back but always through the front just to maintain their image status. For Jennifer thought, he then said that she caused a hell of a publicity stunt until I saw some crappy photos and this 30 second footage from another paparazzi who was their when she got there earlier...from the front.

To this day, Aniston is a major star, aside from the tabloids and bullshit. She's one of the few actress to have successful movie and television careers with got her a number of awards. Not only that, she was also started her life in the Valley, Sherman Oaks to be specific. The Walk Of Fame ceremony that was for her was pretty much a public marketing spectacle for plugging her new film Wanderlust. The ceremony would've made more sense if at least two of her ex co-stars from Friends showed up for support, but instead we got Justin Theroux from her new film, Adam Sandler who I've seen before two years ago at the Staples Center, and Malin Akerman, who was the most important reason why I wanted to show up. I have a poster of her that came with a Maxim magazine that featured her on the cover which I copped around the time Watchmen came out in early 2009. I brought it to see if she can autograph it, AND SHE DID! One of the chillest actresses that I've met so far. As for the ceremony itself, it went by quick like the many Walk Of Fame ceremonies that I've gone to in the past 6 years and the first one I was at had Jerry Buss getting his star when Johnny Grant was still alive. Not to be a jerk, but Jennifer Aniston is freakin' short with out the high heels. I thought that she was around my height, which is 5'11", but whatever, she and Malin Akerman are totally attractive and looking so very fine. I was even surprised that Jennifer took the time to sign autographs and pose pictures for the fans after the ceremony, instead of walking off like most top A-listers do. I shot them in film with my Nikon N70 so I'll scan them and upload them on my Facebook profile and my Flickr page once they get developed and printed.

But I give my respect to her since she gave up her past relationship and with the tensions and the true Rumors It Had of Angelina giving birth to three kids from her ex. Most people, especially emotional dudes, would go hiding and never to be seen from a Break Up by a Girl that looks Good, yet that Switch only made her a better actress (watch her in Horrible Bosses). She Just Has To Go Along Into That focus she's been having, right now that she has her name were people can walk on, so that years later she can reach The Object Space of recognition as an actress, something similar that a Rock Star might have once he's enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Cleveland, Ohio. By the way, I'll be turning 24 in 10 days, and there are these new Zoom Kobe VII's that will drop on that day, so if you can.... wait nevermind, that's asking too much. I still have cash from the shameless White/Cement IVs release from last week. Anyway's thanks for taking your time reading this, and have a safe drunk weekend.

Putting Lin My Two Weeks

President's Day weekend, Washington's Birthday, or whatever the hell this past three day weekend was labeled, fell way below the curve.

Wasn't able to obtain the Air Jordan White/Cement IVs since the Footlocker I went to only sold 20 of the 25 pairs ( the other five went to the sales associates) There were two people in front of me at the line before one of the sales associates announced that the shoes were sold out after the third person in front of me got his pair. Nothing but random acts of shadyness. This was like the time when I was gonna get a pair Nike Dunk SB "Skate or Dies" four Februarys ago in 2008. I called the Active in Burbank, since that one was closer, every day around the week that they were supposed to drop cause the thing about Nike SB's is that they have no official release dates, the stores sells them whenever the shipment of the SB's come in (you start becoming knowledgeable about this type of this when you have interest in sneakers) I didn't call them on St. Valentines Day cause I was with some girl from Pierce College at the time, and then on the day after I called them, they told me that the Skate or Dies were already gone the day before. That shit was fucked up, but shit happens.

Just like I did with the Skate or Dies, I'll get over myself not getting the White/Cement IV's which I've been thinking about ever since they announced it late last year. Fools were spending their tax refunds on it which was smart for Nike to drop the shoe around this time during the month, as well as the All Star game the week before and Michael Jordan's 49th birthday which many people in line at the Panorama Mall didn't know about when I asked them that. This isn't a upset rant or an outbusrt or some type of therapy reflecting. I'm just telling what happened. And the people that gave up sleeping in bed or bathing for long hours to get these? I'll give props to the ones who REALLY want these just to wear for the lore and historic legacy of the IV's but NO FUCKING PROPS AT ALL to the one ones who've never seen Do The Right Thing or know anything about these kicks and just want to make a quick profit off of them (for example: Flight Club LA is selling these for almost $400). But the bottom line is this: I just wanted the shoes.

Mainly the ONLY positive portion this entire past weekend was watching the New York Knicks defeating the fuck out of Dallas Mavericks on Sunday Morning. Never a fan of both teams, especially Dallas since the swept the Lakers in the playoffs last year and Lamar Odom left Lakerland to go play for Mark Cuban's team which was bullshit. Plus, I think the media should just lay low of the gassing and the overhype on everything about Jeremy Lin from the Knicks, including the writers from Saturday Night Live from last weeks episode that I didn't see, yet I did read about it later. Dude's a excellent persistent athlete based on his performance last Sunday, but please just leave out his personal life in the press and respect the man's performance on the court. Like I said in the previous post, he's just doing his job of Lin-ning... I mean Winning games like every other sports athlete, which got him on the cover of this weeks Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated.

Speaking of Sports Illustrated....

Bought this during the campout, was surprised that all the young dudes there didn't give a damn about my copy of the Swimsuit Issue. I'm just glad to see Kate Upton get the cover this year but wouldn't been more better if she got it last year.

I'll end this here. I felt like myself as some 15 year old High School freshman typing this post about sneakers, basketball and women in swimsuits. Staying on the topic of age, I'll be turning 24 just two Mondays from now, on the 5th of March. SHOUTOUT TO ALL THE FELLOW PISCES OUT THERE! There's gonna be at least two different birthdays every day next month aside from mine. Thanks for taking your time reading this and get me something good in 13 days.

The Love That Never Dies In 49 States

THE MOTHERFUCKING AIR JORDAN WHITE/CEMENT IV'S DROPS IN 3 DAYS!!!

Seriously, I haven't been that hyped up to purchase for a pair of sneakers since the Aqua VIII's back in late 2007. Even this piece about the IV's that I just read on The Hundreds website got me more anticipated (http://thehundreds.com/blog/2012/02/15/may-the-fours-be-with-you/). The photography of the kicks on there are just mouthwatering, making me skip a few beats after viewing it. Its like looking at that hot fine girl in Ninth Grade Life Skills walking into class after being absent every other day wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and having all the Freshman dudes weak and about to pass out, like she just came from a photoshoot. That shows how attractive these sneakers are. Hopefully everyone manages to cop a pair (including myself), as well as for the OG Air Jordan collectors to school the young and rookies about the story and the origins about the IV's, not just getting cause of the damn hype.

Spent the entire Friday evening putting in some work on Adobe Lightroom 4 while the rest of the world was either watching Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks outscoring the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant at Madison Square Garden and/or every dude being forced to watch The Vow with their girl or Safe House with their moms who just want to see Denzel doing his day job by acting. I knew and heard about Jeremy Lin two years before the media starting gassing on him. Dude has been impressively the subject to talk about over the past few days from his last second performances, including that Jerry West type buzzer beater in Toronto the other day, and its great that he doing his best this past few days to help make the Knicks not look like a squished organization. I won't say too much about him since he just got his exposure but at end of the day, he's just doing his job that he really likes.

As for The Vow, they should've just named that shit The Notebook part II since Rachel McAdams was in both films. I've been hearing stores about females shedding tears during the film, which I'm not surprised, but hey, anything to make some sense and dollars around the week of St. Valentines Day. I didn't plan to watch The Vow (and I don't want to), but I was forced to see The Notebook back in 12th grade English, which dropped on home video a year after the film came out. I remember seeing screen caps and everything of that film on every hot girl's Myspace profile back in the day. Atmosphere wise in the classroom, it was just disturbing, even the teacher was pulling out the waterworks. Glad I'm not in high school now (Thank God) to witness the pre-pubescent females there discussing about planning to go as a group or to force their man to go see that flick.

Did the same shit on Saturday by putting the finishing touches on my friend Molly's photoshoot that I've been working on for the past several weeks. I took my time cause I had to be with my little brother that night to go to some kickback in Cerritos he was co-assisting or something. Things were going well with my work until I came across the news that Whitney Houston passed away that afternoon in the Beverly Hilton. From there, I just stopped. Like, I REALLY stopped in surprise.

For about 10-15 minutes, I couldn't fucking move away from the iMac that I was working on in my living room. The ironic part before her death was that I was just playing her 1987 Whitney album on repeat on iTunes during the early afternoon. As a matter a fact, I played Whitney Houston's songs from that album more than anybody else out of my 80's collection about every other day since the start of the new year. That part got me real shook for a while since I just played her music. From as long as I can remember, she's one of my favorite black female artists who can SING from that decade next to Anita Baker and Sade. I was gonna add Jody Watley and Janet Jackson in there but they're more on the lighter bubbly scale. I disregard her fucked her personal life with the drug abuse and the talespin relationship with Bobby Brown, which was the Nick Cannon/Mariah Carey age difference hookups of that time in the 90's. But in honestly, her losing her life was upsetting, and that shit was just the day before the Grammy Awards. I'm surprised that the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party went on since she was scheduled to perform there. Hell, even my moms liked her back then.

I then later went to meet up with the little brother at my pops house (thanks again for the lift Frank). He told me that we were supposed to leave for Cerritos at 6PM but we actually left 50 minutes later since he was still getting things together and deciding which Snapback to rock. I noticed that his car was vacuumed and detailed in the interior and washed on the exterior. As we got on the freeway, he told me that the kickback was actually a birthday party for three people that he knew from the previous kickbacks he's been to. He's gone out as much as I did the entire last year. Then he also said that he had to stop at three different places in the South Bay part of Los Angeles, near LAX and El Segundo, to pick up these Nigerian youth that he knew who are around his age (he's 19 by the way). It turned out to be a dude and three girls who looked like they were going to a club on Hollywood Blvd that night, and I had to be stuck in the back with them cause one of the girls wanted to be in the passenger seat. Therefore, I was squished with some youth who's talking about stuff that I never heard of before and they kept being hooked onto their mobile devices, obviously.

We got to the place at around 9PM thinking that the party already started, yet there was nobody there. So we shot over to a McDonalds that's close by and feasted there for a few minutes. My brother has the guts to go walk across the other side of the street to a Walgreens while wearing a leather jacket and a Eazy-E/N.W.A. Compton snapback, which he also had a Mitchell and Ness late 80's Los Angeles Kings scripted snapback in the car as well. Keep in mind we were just at least 5 miles away from Compton by going west on the 91 freeway but thankfully, he was safe. If this were the early 90's, then we would have to come up with a decent story for my pops to bail us out of the police station. After our dinner, we shot back to the crib and already people were starting to get in. I had to help my brother carry the birthday gifts that he got the celebrants and as we got in, these two random attractive black females inside, who were the birthday girls, squealed and cuddled around him like crazy. That got me by surprise, along with the party being indoors as opposed to it being outside like the previous parties that I've been to.

Later on that night, the house started to fill up with more young people and all kinds of crazy shit happened. I saw some drunk chick about to stab a random dude with a kitchen knife, but thankfully his homeboys pulled the knife away from her and I told them to put away the set of knives in the kitchen cabinets. Other dudes were spiking cups of cheap cola with a bottle of Ciroc and handing them to different girls. The small den were the big screen TV was turned into a small Club MTV-like atmosphere in there. Fools were grinding babes like its prom night or some shit. I was just watching and taking photos of them dancing that my brother made me do with his Sony Cybershot point and shoot. You have no speculation on how many times I been hearing the term "Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks" over the DJ's speakers through his Macbook Pro that supplied all the whack-ass music. That fool should've thrown in some old school OG Latin freestyle plus invite some nice Spanish females into the den and watch as the dudes gets totally sprung during a Nice & Wild joint or playing a bunch or commonly heard techno/house mixes by artists that they never heard of before like Inner City. THAT'S a club right there.

I had to take one of the girls who rode with us all the way back to her home during the party in my brother's Ford Taurus while he stayed at the party. The ride was quiet, yet she told me that she grew up in Nigeria during her childhood and stayed in the city there as opposed to the villages there, and her accent was thick. After I dropped her off, I then jetted on the 105, 710, and 91 freeways back to the party and it was still going on. When I got back into the den, three females grinded on me which I didn't expect. Around 3AM, this elderly Nigerian person, who looked like someone's pops and I assume he is the homeowner of the house, entered with a "What in the fuck is going on here at my house?" expression and the party started to die down as everyone was getting ready to leave. Took some more photos of my brother with his friends, then dipped off to go dropped of one of the four friends that carpooled with us since the rest had other rides and finally got home before 4AM.

Woke up late to see that I got my former place to myself again and made myself spaghetti for brunch. This was the first of 30 Sundays where there's no NFL games until the season starts in September. Even though I don't like to watch television that much anymore (I don't even have a TV in my room at my place in Sylmar) I just checked to see what's not good on cable TV. While looking on the OnDemand feature, I decided to select Marley and Me since that everyone I knew made a huge emotional buzz about this film when it was released four years ago. I apologize for sounding like a generic asshole, but I didn't get choked up like everyone else did at the end of the film, but that's just me. there was a small Chihuahua we had during my first four months of living in Sylmar, who then had her life cut short on the street. Other than that, it was a very entertaining film. Might cop it on Blu-Ray. Totally perfect for families. It was like watching those Charles Grodin/Bonnie Hunt Beethoven franchise films from back in the 90's. Like I said earlier, the ending is a bit somber, especially those who can relate to the experience of raising a dog for a very long time and having a tight kinship in the family. I then went to go visit my friend's sister and her boyfriend who I haven't seen since last Easter, and her son's birthday party that I just missed. I got there late cause I had to stop by my place in Sylmar for a bit. I did stay to watch the first half Grammy Awards. I knew the Foo Fighters were gonna win for best rock group and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters gave a legit speech that sounded very similar to the one he made at last years MTV Video Music Awards, about keeping real instrumental music around instead of relying on just loops and beats in Logic or Pro Tools. The rest of night was just too damn predictable. The homegirl Adele won everything. I knew about that since the middle of last year and plus she can sing. The rest of the show was just uninteresting, so I don't want to recap it. Major Shoutout to Katie and Rudy for re-uniting each other and her son Angel for getting another year added to his life.

One last thing that I want to spill out before I end this was that the public schools around here in Southern California the past few weeks have been looking like as if a comapny's corporate Titanic-ish ship was sinking into the Artic Ocean. Some 15 year old ended his life by jumping off a three story building on Crescenta Valley High School during lunch time cause he was constantly being picked on by other peers. Now from living in Los Angeles for mostly 24 years of my life and hearing common stories about some dude getting shot or a lady getting killed in a drunk driving accident from the rain, this one was just fucking scary, especially if you were one of the pupils who were there or also attended Cresenta Valley High School. That's gonna traumatize the students there for a while cause they witnessed the whole incident. I don't know whether to blame that kid's parents, teachers, his friends, the delinquents who harass him, or just the entire schoolboard because obviously, it won't look good for the campus' exposure. That along with the complete overhaul from the extreme sickness of some of the faculty at Miramonte High School among other problems make public education here just, for the lack of a better word, broken. I can tell that it started to fall apart after I graduated from high school. Teachers and staff are getting eliminated and the ones who aren't are just giving out mostly worksheets and lecturing straight from out of the text book for paychexs without actually teaching from their knowledge like they're supposed to, making the students lack confidence in learning.

I could also talk about the gym classes not taken too seriously unlike the way it was back then when boys had to wrestle each other and climb ropes and girls had to leap over balance beams, but honestly, it just sucks now. The influence with current up-to-date mobile devices nowadays and whatever the peers are up to are as more interesting as having the anticipation to show up to class to learn something interesting. My little sister who's a senior in High School now has told me some wild stories about the mess that's happening in her classrooms and listening to her explain the shit that's taking place at the campus were just horrific to listen to. Seriously, its fucking awful. If they can enable school uniforms and strict dress code polices in public high schools here and for the school principals to bring back paddles, but I don't think that'll ever happen for the time being. Plus its the student's role to know that they have to deal with this shit for four years and its part of their life to endure the negativity and uninteresting responsibilities. We've all gone through it and it wasn't easy. Having to look at every girl that you can't hit on and trying your best to pass an exam you kept failing at isn't easy for teenagers, and many of them have different backgrounds and lifestyle at their homes, so each pupil has to respect that for four years, even if they sit next to someone that they want to push aside. (Not gonna lie, I've done that a few times back in the day and the results weren't pleasing).

Well, that does it for this weekend recap. As for St. Valentines Day, it was honestly a regular day. Just uploaded Molly's photoshoot as well as the photos from Nicole Stetter's kickback last month and some adult starts I ran into. Thanks for taking your time to read this and start thinking of getting me something for my 24th birthday in 3 weeks.

There Might Be Giant Steps and Leaps

Now in the last post I typed, I said that I was gonna go to Amoeba Records in Hollywood to check out fine ass Lana Del Rey doing an appearance in person there.

But apparently, I had second thoughts after I saw THIS SHIT!!!

THAT'S ALOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE THERE! AND HELL, I'M NOT DONE YET. PEEP THE FULL HOUSE INTERIOR PHOTOS THAT I DIDN'T TAKE.

Never in the 7 years that I've been shopping there for vinyl LP's and out of print VHS home videos have I ever seen this store in full capacity where it was 10 people over the fire code, just like one of the overrated clubs just up the street on Hollywood Blvd every Saturday Night, which I'll get to later. I've seen two other performances there before and the crowd was just about a tenth of the madness from yesterday. Even the Stevie Nicks meet and greet that I covered there last summer wasn't that bizarre. I was actually gonna cop the record cause I had the money for it, and for her to sign it. I'm not really a fanatic of her, especially with that surprising unorthodox voice she has, but the girl has a body. Its one of those "post war baby boomers girlfriends who would date greasers cruisin' on Van Nuys Boulevard" type chicks that she is,and you don't see that much of them anymore. But yesterday was just too insane. I mean, no disrespect to the very great, underrated staff at Amoeba, and I said this in the previous post, but HOW IN THE FUCK CAN YOU SELL OUT AN AUTOGRAPH SESSION? Does that mean the record was sold out and not everyone there got a chance to touch her shoulder doing a cell phone camera photo-op with her? I'm gonna check out the Billboard 200 next week and hopefully that and her appearance on Saturday Night Live should put her in the top 3 of the charts at least.

Allright, enough of that shit. Let's get on to the weekend recap.

Spent the whole Friday evening at the DLT's. Was originally gonna stop by there the night before cause it was the homegirl and Marlene's daughter Yvonne's 20th birthday, but they already went out to celebrate. So I gave her a 5x7 photo that I took of her and her daughter which I re-edited with Adobe Lightroom 4 beta software. I also brought some balloons as well and the family and I spent the whole blowing them. Even Yvonne's daughter had fun with them. We were also watching the Lakers game that night, yet they lose to the Nuggets at the last second and during that game they were showing shots of Denver Nuggets head Coach George Karl. Wow, he lost a shitload of weight and looks totally different. Maybe it was from the cancer he had a few years ago that caused it. After the game was over, the De La Torre's then let me sleepover for the night and then they took me back to my place. Afterwards, spent the rest of the afternoon typing up the previous blog post until my photography buddy Ryan Castro hits me up and invites me to this birthday party that was taking place at the W in Hollywood.

Later that night, I met up with him there and he wanted me to help him to take some photos of these two Filipina girls that were celebrating their birthday and one of them is moving to Ecuador to teach there for the next few years. I thought the party was gonna be at Drias, which is a nightclub inside the W hotel, but it was actually at an outdoor parlor just above the entrance to the Hollywood and Vine Metro Red Line station. I remember when that whole area of the W hotel was just a big fucking parking lot for the Pantages theater and the other clubs on Hollywood Blvd at least 6 to 7 years ago before they did construction there. The birthday party was decent and jumpin'. Met some of the celebrants friends and took some photographs of them. The outdoor parlor was pretty much a poor man's version of Drias, yet they did have a bar, a DJ playing loud ass music with a video projector screen showing music videos and several attractive females who try hard to look attractive, but other than that, it went well.

Then on Sunday, I woke up at my pops house and decided where I was gonna watch Super Bowl XLVI at. I called about 4 people but none of them couldn't answer. So I decided to watch the game at home like I've every other past even year in 2010, 2008 and 2006, whereas I spent the odd number years watching the Super Bowl at someone's house and I didn't see Super Bowl XLI cause I had to work that day. Also, nobody was home and I had the entire house to myself until my little brother and my pops wife came around the middle of the third quarter. I then shot over to Lee's 4 Cocktails to watch the rest of the fourth quarter and it was just deja fuckin' vu all over again.

That Hail Mary pass had everyone on serious pins and needles during that moment. For reals. I ACTUALLY thought that one of the Patriots receivers was gonna retrieve it in a crowded sea of New York Giants, BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. THAT MOMENT FELT TOO DAMN GREAT! THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS LOSING AT THE SUPER BOWL, AGAIN! I went wild with all the 6 Giants fans there at the bar. I even did the "Tebowing" pose there. Fuck, it felt like I was watching Super Bowl XLII again 4 years ago. Same teams, different year. The last time I was THAT excited was when the Lakers won against the Celtics at Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals. That ending of that game and the aftermath of it was really one of the best feelings in the history of the world along with getting your driver's license, making out with the most attractive girl and the reaction after showing your strict traditional parents a straight A report card with a 4.0 GPA. A lot of people I knew hated that game the following Monday. Some said it was fixed and some wanted to see Chad Johnson get a ring so that he can shut the fuck up and get his old name back once and for all. I didn't have hopes for this years game unlike the same previous match up from 2008. New England was the favorite to win that game, but that shit proved every one in Las Vegas wrong, including Birdman from Cash Money Records when he made that $5 Million bet for the Patriots. But losing 5 Million is nothing to him, cause that fool can get that money back by co-signing Nicki Minaj's contract to Vivid Entertainment or some other adult company so that he can get royalties for the productions to use her and her uninteresting music in one of the hardcore sex scenes. In all seriousness, congrats to the New York Giants for getting their 4th Vince Lombardi trophy (which is made by Tiffany and Co.) and I don't see the team repeating for back to back titles, but that's just me since the future isn't written yet. I still think that the Super Bowl from 4 years ago was a lot better than this one cause in their first meeting, the storyline leading up to that game was a lot deeper (Tom Brady's unbeaten streak during the 2007 season and Eli Manning to win the year after his older brother won his).

Another obscure thing about Super Bowl Sunday was that the commercials totally sucked dry this year. The Bud Lights ads were soft and unfunny, Doritos has lost its taste (no pun intended), Audi is still showing the whole world the same message like they did when they introduced the R8 the last time the Giants and Patriots were at the "big dance", the Go Daddy.com ad was the fucking worst that I've seen in the past 6 years dating back to the sexy OG Candice Michelle cameo feature that she starred in, don't get me started on the Coca-Cola ad, I missed out on the Pepsi ad, and I'm glad I did, cause my homeboy Frank and I were invading Twitter during the Super Bowl, and Clint Eastwood's two minute Chrysler ad was creepy as fuck. The only commercials I did like were the new Honda CRV Ferris Bueller ad that I talked about in the previous post, the Acura NSX with Jerry Seinfeld (who's a Porsche connoisseur) and Jay Leno ( who's the biggest car enthusiast that should've spent his retirement hosting the American version of Top Gear instead of returning to the Tonight Show two years ago) and finally the two double feature Adriana Lima ads with Kia and some other company called Telafora. Fuck, I used to totally like this woman, then switched over to Miranda Kerr for a while and now it looks like I got her respect back again. Hopefully, I get to see her for the second time this year. As far as the halftime show? Watch about 30 seconds of it since the NFL Films-type 24fps output of the live broadcast got me by surprise. Now I respect Madonna and her legacy ( I own the original 1986 True Blue LP print with the OG poster) as well as the production and choreography ,but that performance didn't get my appeal. I didn't even know that Cee-Lo's unpredictable fat ass was gonna be at the Super Bowl, and I'm glad I missed out on it.

So that's was my Super Bowl weekend. Like I said, I'm gonna be jam packed busy for the rest of the month. I got a few parties and gatherings to be at and of course I have to focus on getting the Air Jordan IV White/Cements on February 18th. I seriously need to buy those cause of the OG shoebox design, the black tissue paper, and everything behind that sneaker. Another thing I'd like to say is that I finally finished reading the Steve Jobs biography last week. My opinion: GO BUY THE FUCKING BOOK!!! If you own at least two Apple computers and several iPhones, this is a MUST READ. Worth the time to learn about that man's life and you will learn some stuff that you never knew about him. One of the best biographies that I ever read in my life. SO much detail. And finally, Nikon just announced the replacement for the D700, which is called the D800. DAMN, THAT SHIT RIGHT THERE?! So much to discuss, seriously. I might have to talk about it after I get a chance to play with it. Anyway, thanks for your time reading.

Busy Shades of Winter

So Superbowl XLVI is tomorrow. Fuck, already?

I used to get hyped up for that day every year, but for tomorrow's game, not so much. It's somewhat of a rematch of the Super Bowl from 4 years ago, with both the New England Patriots and the New York Giants going against each other for the Vince Lombardi trophy in front of over 800 million something people watching around the world. If the Niners and or the Ravens won on their conference championship games instead, then I'd be more interested for tomorrow. And already websites are playing the $3,000,000 30 second ads that will be aired in-between the games. I only saw one of them and its for the new Honda CR-V crossover featuring Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller since the commercial satires some of the scenes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I thought it was another 1980's resurrection "keeping the franchise alive" type bullshit piece, which it kinda is, but I actually liked this ad.

I was a huge fan of that movie back when TBS would play this film every now and then in the early 2000's. I remember reading one of the screenplay drafts of the film on my moms old computer and printing the script which turned out to be about 170 pages! I'd like that more then the film itself but the only difference is that it showed some dark, rebellious moods of Ferris and some of the scenes that were cut off form the final film include him, Sloane and Cameron going to a strip club, visiting a radio station, Ferris going to his pops room to take his savings bond check or something like that and the ending credits clip were it showed Mr. Rooney going on the school bus with the students from his high school was supposed to be somewhere in the middle around the final third part of the film. Plus according to the draft, Ferris had two other siblings instead of just Jeanie, so yeah, the late John Hughes (RIP) cut off alot of shit from the screenplay, even during the principal photography of the production. Bottom line, this is one of the best films made because of the message that it showcase. Its all about just searching and enjoying your life every now and then cause its flies by "pretty fast".

But other than that I'll probably watch the Super Bowl cause everybody else that I know who's never watch a regular season NFL game will be viewing the Patriots V. Giants part II tomorrow, and to watch the ads as well as Madonna still showing that even fifty-somethings (no disrespect) can still be trendy in the "Barack Obama post-recession" era during halftime.

As for myself, I've been more booked and busy since the last time I wrote on here. I did a lot of interesting things, including going to a Burger King which sells Miller Light beer (didn't drink) and taking several photos of attractive female entertainers who fake orgasms, but hey, its my job.

My friend Nicole Stetter threw this one kickback at her place two Fridays ago. I wasn't really gonna attend but then I changed my mind later cause I haven't seen any of my mutual friends in several months including the group Santoros who was performing there. After I heard that they were gonna perform, I thought its was gonna be as chaotic as the last time they performed in Granada Hills, (blogged about here last summer http://justforsneaks07.blogspot.com/2011/07/sporting-entertainments.html)

but it wasn't like that. The crowd grew moderately as the time went by, but it didn't fill up to full capacity like it did last year, and there was nobody swimming in Nicole's swimming pool. When I arrived, I ran into some OG's from middle school and high school that I haven't seen in years and talked with them for a while. Then took some photos of Santoros performing and this one group called Blue Jungle. I've never seen them performed before, but I liked them, especially the lead singer. Never have I seen a female vocalist who would go walking in style onto the crowd and sing right next to the people watching them. Band was terrific and I think they did like five songs. Later on, I chilled in Nicole's room with a few other people as they construct a small jam session. This was one of the best jam sessions that I ever heard, and THIS WAS REAL FUCKING MUSIC RIGHT THERE. Everyone was just brainstorming with different instruments by just playing them with confidence and it was raw. The homegirl D'Ana Joi Spencer (http://awakewithjoi.tumblr.com/) was running things with her ukulele and her fantastic vocal signing skills, with others playing with instruments you would never hear that much in person such as bongos, an organ and the homeboy Victor Diaz (http://victortillas.com/) was strumming along with an Acoustic guitar. A few minutes later, I then passed out on Nicole's couch and somewhat missed out on the rest of that night. I didn't drink but the cold outside her backyard made me tired. Major shoutout to Nicole, Jorge, Uriel Jimenez, Leticia Llesmin, Amanda Welsch, and everyone else that was there that night. That's how a standard gathering should always be like.

I also got a chance to spend some time with my moms and the sisters this past Monday night. Haven't seen them for a month but it was great to catch up with them. We drove around from my sister's work in 24 Hour Fitness in Burbank to Downtown LA near the American Apparel headquarters factory through some neighborhoods in Hancock Park and the Mid-City portion of Los Angeles. Stopped by this joint called Lucy's to get some enchiladas on Pico and La Brea by the suggestion of one of my sisters and I haven't ate at Lucy's since 1996. My family and I used to go there RELIGIOUSLY back in the day and the enchiladas were still made the same after all these years. Finally drove through Century City and I was giving them some brief history lessons and facts about each neighborhood and city we drove by like I was some sort of cheap tour guides. Great time with them. Wish it was like this more often but then again, we're all getting older so its better to do it once in a while.

And if things couldn't get more brilliant, the first day of February started off flawless for me, minus the passing of Don Cornelius earlier that morning. First, I got a chance to do this paid non-photography gig at the Califone warehouse not to far away from my place in Sylmar, where I spent 4 hours unloading boxes from trucks and organizing them in pallets. For those who remember way WAY back in the day at elementary school, before 1994, Califone was this company that made those blue phonograph turntables with the big speaker in front with the words Califone over it in white, and every classroom would have one where the teachers forced us to sing a bunch of songs that we'll never want to sing in the future. But it was alot of work that day. My muscles ached and I had to wear a backbrace which show just how serious the unloading was. The whole process kept me motivated and confident, like I was doing 5 miles on a treadmill. I left with a couple of splinters on my hand from carrying all the wooden pallets for the forklifts. Hopefully they might ask for me again for another gig. Second, I finally got the Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta installed on the iMac at the living room in my place. I downloaded it right after Adobe announced it three weeks ago, but I couldn't complete the installation process cause the passwords were changed on the iMac the week before and one of my house mates misplaced the list. So we finally manage to recover it and already proceeded with installing it. Lightroom 4 looks very similar to the previous version, only with a few small tweaks. I've only edited 2 photos so far cause I haven't got a chance to fully play with it. I'm gonna be using it to edit the photos I took of the kickback at Nicole Stetter's place last week, as well as the photoshoot I did of my homegirl Molly back on New Years day a month ago. The absolute best part of the Lightroom 4 beta trail is that the software doesn't expire until the full final software is released around late March or early April. Usually, Adobe would give about a month for their users to try their software applications, including the Creative Suite package, but for Lightroom 4 beta, its about two months that I get to use this for free. You can't beat that, since Lightroom is the most popular application that photographers use to fix up their work and projects.

Third and finally, I drove over to my friend Tiffany Zhang's place in the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village area. Haven't seen her in person in a year and a half, which was around the time the week after the Lakers won their 16th title. She wanted me to help her create a listing so that she can sell some of her stuff. Then we talked for a bit and she later made me some dinner straight from China, where she's from. Dumplings and dates with sticky rice wrapped around it. I enjoyed it ALOT, and it made me ask for seconds. Had a fun time catching up with her and its been four years of that day since I first met her at the Apple Store in Sherman Oaks back in 2008. Thanks again Tiffany for the delicious food.

I really wanted to watch David Letterman celebrate his 30th year on late night television that night with Howard Stern as one of his guests, but I was really tired from all that work and driving during the way. Letterman just broke Johnny Carson's tenure has hosting a late night talk show from 1963 to 1992, which was about 29 years. I think David has a couple of years to do this cause I honestly don't see him hanging it up, he's been doing this shit since 1982. Major props to him, and in my opinion, he should've gotten The Tonight Show 20 years ago if the NBC suits haven't screwed him over by picking Leno so that they can focus on the "younger audience". They should've left that for Arsenio Hall cause his show featured all of that and he could've been around for a few more years in the 90's.

So that's what I've been up to these past few days and weeks. Looks like February is gonna be another packed month. The new kid on the music block Lana Del Rey is gonna be performing at Amoeba Records this Tuesday at 6PM. I'm gonna try to attend that so that I can see her in person after watching her on Saturday Night Live last month. It might be tricky cause I can assume that there's gonna be a shitload of people there. Not really alot but a decent amount of people and plus she just got started. I'll take some photos and buy her record, but hopefully, I'll try to score an autograph since Amoeba's website said that the autograph session is "sold out". What the fuck does that mean. Is Lana Del Rey's time very limited or something? If she really cares for her fans, then should just not abide by her publicist's rules (if she's has one) and let her stay as long as she wants. The other most important thing, in my case, is to try to pick up the Air Jordan IV Retro White/Cement colorway that releases later this month. It's an original colorway from 1989 and the Air Jordans that Buggin' out went crazy after that bloke in the Celtics jersey scuffed on it in Do The Right Thing. I might have already talked about this sneaker and I'll probably talk about it again later.

Another thing, well 2 things actually, is some stuff that I wanna spit out from my mind. First is those "Shit People Says" video clips. I live in Los Angeles which is a very diverse city and I seen every different races and culture lifestyles in the 24 years that I've been living here. Same thing from watching the movie Crash as well, which is a must see. Everytime I go on the internet to upload some of my photos on a forum my Facebook or website, I always come across a different "Shit People Says" clip, and each one portrays a different ethnic race or some stereotype being portrayed. Honestly, that shit is played out. It was fine when different comedians used to make fun of their own race a few years ago before 2006 because people can relate to what their saying since their speaking the truth. I'm not a racist and I don't like to bring up that topic that much anymore, cause at the end of the day, we're all just regular people with different backgrounds. I'll do my best just to ignore them cause apparently, its becoming the new "trend" this year. Speaking of trends, fuck that one percenter Jack Dorsey and his Twitter suits up in Silicon Valley. Letting people trend about fake celebrity deaths for more than day and y'all can't have your programmers prevent that shit or make some PSA type notice about it? Shit is totally childish and immature using death as a play thing. That fool and whoever else is in charge needs to do a better job overseeing the content. I seriously think Justin Bieber's and Selena Gomez's publicists should tax him 38% of his earnings, not the companies, for everytime their fans worship the young couple on the trending topic. I'm only on Twitter just to plug my photography, so I have to be on there.

Well, that just show that not everything is perfect. Its a wild and bizarre lifestyle everyone endures every 24 hours. We do things and see things that we don't like in front of us. From that hot girl we think who's with a dude that she doesn't deserve to be holding hands with to long ridiculous lines at the courthouses and the Department of Motor Vehicles only to see two out of the 10 booths open to seeing a group of 15 year old teenagers on the subways during school hours unless if they go to a private charter school with a strange schedule. What's important is bypassing all of that distraction and reaching out to where your goals are targeted every day. Most people will receive free stuff without getting anything out of it whereas some people will earn stuff after putting out everything. Just focus on your best, and fuck the rest. Thanks for your time reading.