Time Spent Wells

So last week, I wrote on my Twitter page (@justforsneaks) that I really wanted at meet Claudia Wells, who played the original Jennifer Parker in part one of Back to The Future. Then later, I went on her Twitter page and it said, just out of coincidence, that she was gonna make an appearance that Saturday at Adat Ari El in North Hollywood, just on Laurel Canyon and Burbank. That really got me by surprise after I read that. I've had many chances to meet her in the past and I always wanted to check out her store Armani Wells on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, but I was either working, or just too damn lazy to take advantage of it.
Plus I didn't have anything else to do that night.

On Saturday evening, I drove there right after work on the South 101 Freeway coming from the Topanga Mall to the site where the screening was gonna take place. It was scheduled to start at 9 and they were gonna do some kind of pre-show twenty minutes before that, but I thought I was gonna miss the pre-show segment since I get off work at 8:30, yet I managed to make it there at around 8:50. The screening was held outdoors (think the Pohatchee Drive-In theater in 1955 for those who saw part III) in front of a chapel there, and the place is a Jewish synagogue and a day school since that part of North Hollywood as a dense Jewish population. When I got in, I had to pay a $5 admission fee to be admitted for the screening. I thought there were gonna be a shit load of Back To The Future fans just like at the re-release screening at AMC Theaters two years ago and at the Nike Air Mag presentation in Hollywood last year, but I was wrong.

It was more low-key to say the least. About 25 people were there, and they were mostly families, not random Back To The Future fans. Shit, nobody even dressed up as Marty McFly or the Doc for this. I was in my work clothes (Black Banana Republic Premium Pira Cotton t-shirt, black slacks from when I worked as a swing manager at McDonalds six years ago and Black cheap leather Hunter's Bay shoes from Payless), and I even mentioned this event on the last blog post.

I made in time for the question and answer segment with Claduia Wells. Also, Donald Fullilove, the dude who played Golide Wilson was there sitting next to her, and I saw him at the Nike Air Mag presentation last September. I found a seat and I asked Claudia, with a microphone handed to me by one of the MCs of the screening why she didn't appear in Parts II and III. She explained that she had some personal issues with her family and that she had to acting on hold for a while. After that then she went to a table to go sign some autographs on the "Save the Clock Tower" flyers from part 1. While she was signing for those in attendence, I took some photos of Donald as the line started to decreased. Dude was superchill. Then it was my turn to get Claudia's autograph. That moment felt like passing the drivers test and getting Straight A's on your Report Card, which causes the hottest girl in class to be super impressed at you to a certain measure. I'm not gonna lie, she was really nice and sincere and took her time to get along with me and everybody else that attended, and SHE WAS FUCKING GORGEOUS. Claudia signed the flyer with the phone number that she wrote to Marty in the back of the flyer like the film and also she signed a Studio City magazine, with her on the cover promoting her store, that I got from Du-Par's restaurant back in October 2007. I then asked her if I can take a photo of and with her and she said yes. WOW, I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS SINCE I FIRST SAW THE FILM BACK WHEN I WAS 9 AND A HALF, AND I FINALLY DID IT. Like I said, she was really cool and sweet, but unfortunately she couldn't stay for the screening since she had to go take care of her kids. I then stayed for the rest of the night as they played Part 1 from the 25th anniversary Blu-Ray set like the one I own, and had some free popcorn and lemonade. I'm still surprised that not many hardcore avid fans of the film like myself didn't show up for this. Anyways, MAJOR THANKS to Claudia Wells, Donald Fullilove, Ridoca Isabella Shaldan, Ron Whitaker, Barry and Cindy Cohen and the Valley Rauch group for their time by making this night possible. Here are some photos I took with my phone whereas the rest with Claudia Wells were taken with my film SLR camera.

The projector that was connected to a PlayStation 3 as the Blu-Ray player and the concession  stand with the free drinks and snacks. 

The screen in front of the chapel or a multi-purpose room. You gotta give Michael J. Fox's character "something without sugar".

The "Save The Clock Tower Flyer" and the Studio City Lifestyle magazine with her on the cover 5 years ago she autographed. And yes, that's the freestyle group Cover Girls CD on the top left. I'm a fan of Latin Freestyle music. 

I didn't want to leave the place without Claudia signing the back of the flyer. As Marty would say, "This says it all." 

Gotta give a shoutout plug to her store Armani Wells in Studio City, which is also "On the Blvd" like Primitive and Twin Lemons Collective. 

Some other did over the weekend aside from taking portraits of a lot of rugrats at work was meeting up with a couple of some friends from Aftergloam and their mutual friends at The Great Wall Chinese restaurant in Reseda on Friday evening. I thought it was gonna be a few people but everytime I kept checking the invite fir the dinner on Facebook every 15 minutes, it kept showing that more people were gonna attend. But nonetheless, I haven't seen a few of them in a while, so we just mostly caught up with each others lives and watched the Olympic games on the TVs the restaurant had. It was regular but great as well. 

Well, that completes another weekend recap, even though it was mostly one-sided, but hey, the Back To The Future trilogy is the only film I can actually related to in my life. I learned all the swear words Doc and Marty says and started being infatuated with Nikes because of this film. That's just myself. Anyways, thanks for taking your time reading this. 

Some Don't Like it Hot

Except for Dwight Howard.

Now that he about (keyword: ABOUT) to become the new Center for the Los Angeles Lakers, he's gonna have to get used to the Southern California lifestyle like Steve Nash did when he got signed here a few weeks ago. Yes, I'm talking about the triple digit heat we currently have this week, the paparazzi for whenever he goes clubbing at some club on Las Palmas Boulevard in Hollywood and the traffic from wherever he's coming from to the practice facility in El Segundo. That shit happened with Kobe Bryant at the start of his rookie year. When he was heading to his first practice session with the team by coming from his then house in Pacific Palisades, he got stuck in traffic for a while which got him tardy for practice. I don't know if he got fined since he was young at the time, but I bet his parents had to pay for it cause he was underaged. This is very similar and coincidental to when Shaquille O'Neal got sent here also from the Orlando Magic 16 years ago, and he was a center too. Its crazy how the Lakers now have Nash and Howard, the two people who we prevented from getting a world championship in 2009 and 2010. Hope everything goes well with the new lineup.

Now on to other things. With the exception of The Encounter restaurant, I'M DONE WITH LAX AIRPORT. I never going there to travel or drop off and pick up anybody there anymore. When I went to drop off my moms and sister at the Terminal, they made me wait there to see if there are some stuff from the luggage they don't need so that they won't be over charged and my two other siblings who weren't traveling went in to help her, even though I'm not allowed to wait there for over a minute. One of the security guards at the Terminal told me that I have to move my brother's car, which I drove to the Airport, otherwise he'll write me up. I told him that my moms was in there and that it'll take a few more seconds. Then those seconds turned into minutes. 15 minutes to be exact. I was in pins and needles and started to get impatient cause I didn't even know what the hell she was taking so long, and if she did tell me that she wanted to take out some clothes from her luggage, then we could've paid for parking, but she hates that. Then later that same security guard came back again and he took out his ticket book and I got into the car at that moment. He then ran up to me and then we got into a shouting argument for two minutes. That motherfucker pissed me off. After that, I drove out of the Airport without getting a ticket and just drove up and down Century Blvd until I heard a cell phone ring, which happens to be my little brother's. I then started asking him what's taking so long and he told me that my moms had to take some stuff out of the luggage so that it would weigh less. I then told him that I'm out of the Airport and that he and my other sister should wait outside the terminal so that I can come and pick them up, which I happened to do. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to my moms and sister, but I wish them safe travels.

So yeah, the rest of yesterday was pretty much a piece of shit, but I had days 30 times worse than last Thursday. On a positive note, there gonna be showing a screening of Back to The Future this Saturday at Adat Ari El in my old stomping grounds of  North Hollywood, on Laurel Canyon and Burbank.The address 12020 Burbank Blvd. Even though I already saw the re-release at Citywalk two years ago and obtained the 25th Aniiversary Blu-Ray pack, the best part of the screening is that Claudia Wells, the original Jennifer Parker from part 1, will be in attendance. It starts at 9 and it cost 5 bucks for admission (its just 5 bucks) I'm gonna try to make it cause I've been wanting to meet Claudia Wells for a very long time. So check it out if you're not doing anything this Saturday night. Speaking of which, if you're an serious avid fan of the Trilogy, listen to this 51 seconds of porn.

Yes, that the Edward Van Halen guitar riff from when Marty played in his Walkman to wake his pops up while he was sleeping in Part one. It took me forever to find it and this shit is too rare. I thought it was from a actual Van Halen song, but according to TMZ (yes TMZ) they said that it was just a random guitar piece and Eddie was just fooling around with his guitar. Show how much I really like this film.

Anyway, I'll end this post here. If you have free time today and this weekend, please stop by the Topanga mall and drop in at the Bezold Photography kiosk downstairs between the Vans store and the Kids Foot Locker. You don't have to get your photos taken, but just come and visit me for support. I'm there every Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day. Thanks for your time reading this.

Unexpect the Expected

Judging from the recent events in London, I just wanna say on behalf, that we really suck ass at Basketball, and I'm not talking about Team USA.

For those who do not know, my ethnicity is Nigerian. I was born here in the United States while the two great people who created me were born over there. I honestly didn't know up until last Thursday that Nigeria had a basketball team in the Olympics. I mean, I know there are some other athletes from my relatives' country competing and all but damn, SINCE WHEN DID WE HAVE A FUCKING BASKETBALL TEAM? AND OUT OF ALL OTHER TEAMS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, WE HAD TO GO UP AGAINST THE "110% EXTRA CREDIT A PLUS" TEAM USA BASKETBALL TEAM?!?!

After I found that out, I then peeped the game and already this showed up just as soon as I turned into the NBC Sports Network (the gay peacock-suckers version of ESPN)  just to support for the hell of it, I see this shit to no surprise.

Yes, that was Kobe Bryant with so much real estate on the hardwood floor to execute a rare perfect slam dunk. I though he doesn't do dunks anymore like he used to during the "Shaq/Kobe 3 championships" era from the early 2000's and yes, that score was legit, not some photoshopped screen cap straight out of NBA LIVE 2K-something. By halftime, this game goes worse than worse itself. Lebron, Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Deron "Taper-ass" Williams and the rest of Team USA were just chillin' at the bench being entertained from the score and the game itself, and hell, even the commentators were having a field day. Also Craig Sager from the NBA on TNT was one of the sideline reporters for this game, and that fool was wearing a polo shirt, not one of his loud swagger rainbow suits that he wears every Thursday Night during the basketball season. Again, another rare sight. 

After the first half, I turned it off, feeling all embarrassed and disappointed. I even shut off the Computers and mobile devices cause every one I knew were all surprised about the 50+ point margin difference and talking about it and making jokes about it for a while, including making the front page on the newspaper the following day. But fuck it, its just a game. A practice session. A high school JV basketball game gone bad. That's what I've been telling my little brother about it for two hours (true story) after he got very upset from hearing about the outcome of Team USA versus Nigeria. Again, we suck at basketball. 

So what other stuff happened over the past week. Well, the Air Jordan IV Fire Red colorway dropped last Saturday. I though these were gonna create massive hype similar to the Olympic VII from last month, but somehow, this was a smooth release. I went on Niketalk and the Sole Collector forums to expect people bitching about the shoe being sold out in 15 seconds, but most people there managed to get their pairs. Before I left for work, I went on Nike.com to see the sizes they don't have left. To my surprise, THEY STILL HAD THE BIG SIZES LEFT IN STOCK. From 11-13. I never even planned on copping those IVs, and I already have the Air Jordan IVs in the White/Cement-Grey colorway. 

But that shit on Nike's website was nothing. When I got to the Topanga Mall right when it opened, I stopped by the Finish Line there to see if they had any sizes left just for the fuck of it since I didn't intend to buy this like I stated in the previous paragraph. Place was dead with 5 of their Sales associates just chilling at the cash register counter. One of the sales associates asked me what size do I wear. I was expecting him to say that all of the Retro Fire red IVs were sold out just like in every Air Jordan Retro release, and keep in mind this was 30 minutes after the mall opened. I then told him my size and then he went to the back of the stock room. 

I was shocked when he came out with a pair of Size 12 (yes, that's my shoe size since I was 10, no joke) Fire Red IVs and that assume that this Finish Line, as well as a few other stores here at Westfield Topanga  had a full size run of these kicks minutes after the store opened, which was a first for an OG colorway since late 2007 I believe, otherwise, these would've been gone like the White/Cement IV release I witnessed. By the way, this was the first time ever that the Fire Red IVs were dropped in it true original design without the Lasering and the Mars Blackmon logo from its previous releases. I could've just copped these if I didn't have to buy new work shoes from Payless Shoesource (I got tired of wearing my Black Nike Dunks so I had to get some proper footwear) and some $20+ lunch and dinners the day before. 

Wasn't on instagram (every photographer should have one on their phones to promote their business) the whole weekend that much cause my T-Mobile G2 had no power in it battery and I misplaced my charger until I found it this morning. I had to rely on a cell phone Kiosk upstairs to charge it for 10 minutes which is the most that I can have it charged, but then again, the power went out fast in 15 minutes while I was listening to some MP3s on the device. Whatever. 

Not only did the weekend turned out pale, but it lingered on earlier this morning as well. For some strange reason, my Yahoo Email account (required in order to get a Flickr account) forced me to change my password. Then after I picked up some prints from Samy's Camera, we planned to go have lunch at Islands in Century City, but they didn't have a parking lot and my little brother hated parking on the streets in the westside. So we ended up going over to the one in Porter Ranch instead. It was my first time eating there at Isalnd and I had the Quesadillas while the little brother had the big wave hamburger. That place was really good. I bought him Islands since he's gonna turn 20 one week from now as one of his gifts. 

This whole thing wasn't a negative rant. It looked like it, but just a description of how my week went. I'm already used to dealing with this type of shit, yet its part of life. Thanks for your time reading this, and I'll leave you with this epic photo I took of Scarlett Johannson on 35mm film right after she's leaving her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony back in May, and I LITERALLY had less than two seconds to capture this on film, and I'm so glad this shot turned out great after I got it processed and developed. (had to make the watermarks large so that some conceded, degenerate asshole wouldn't download it and clain its theirs)