San Diego On The Side

Got back from spending 8 hours in the Six-One-Nine last night. I'm driving next time.

Getting there on the Greyhound bus was alright, but getting back had some flaws. Some skinny-ass Ricky Williams looking fool randomly sat next to me out of all the other empty seats on board, including this one empty seat next to an attractive pregnant chick. But when we stopped at Oceanside real quick, he switched seats to sit with another dude. Homeboy just broke "the man code". No dude should ever sit next to another dude, unless there are no seats available. Just wanted to bring that up.

As far as being back at San Diego for the day, man that shit was awful. Haven't dropped by there since last summer. Had to wait two hours for the moms to pick me up, so I used most of that time to walk around Petco Park, which was VERY close by to the station and strolled around the GasLamp district in downtown San Diego. There's literally a different restaurant/bar next to each other as I walk up 5th Avenue just like how there's a different Quincenera boutique store in the San Fernando Mall strip, and each one has a sexy early to mid twenties female greeter/server. Also, you really don't need a car for this area. I mean, you got Petco Park and the San Diego Convention Center (where Comic-Con is hosted every damn summer) like right next to each other which is good enough walking distance. There's also a Westfield Horton mall there, which I didn't go inside yesterday but it is worth checking out for it's Alice in Wonderland-type interior as an outdoor mall. I checked out this place called The Attic, which is San Diego's version of Primitive and Active Ride Shop, but it wasn't as boosted as I thought it was. Place had alot of streetwear brands but they don't carry Nike SB out of all the other Nike shoes they have, so I just took their business card as a little souvenir.  I wanted to look for another local San Diego boutique called 5&A Dime, but I had to get back to the Greyhound station to meet up with the moms.

After she picked me up, we chilled at her place for a bit before we left for the game. I ate some pizza and watched some Pac-12 action featuring the overhyped-ass Josh Nunes and the Stanford Cardinals go against the Washington Huskies. As I was watching that game, I realized that tonight was Thursday and that there was an NFL game going on. So I switched to that only to see an injury timeout that had both players of the Ravens and the Browns gather a Cleveland Browns teammate being knocked out to the ground or something. After 30 seconds, I was like "Fuck this" and then switched back to the Cardinal/Huskies game.

We were supposed to be inside Petco Park at 7PM, but because the moms was behind on certain things, we got there an hour later, which I didn't really mind cause we got the tickets for free and it wasn't at Dodger Stadium, otherwise I'd start trippin'. It was already the top of the 5th inning when we got to our seats that were located at Top Deck. It was my first time stepping inside Petco Park and it felt like going to an Angels game. The whole place looked brand new and the vibe there look like a tourist attraction venue than an actual Baseball Stadium. Plus their Top Deck wasn't as high as Dodger Stadium's top deck view. They also have a big ass park behind the pavilions where families who don't know anything about the sport can just have their kids run around and chill. Its one of those places where you have to check out (not experience) for once if you live in LA. I kept the shit talking to the Padres fans on a minimum cause the moms was there since many of them were going off on the Dodgers whenever they were on the infield. We left at the 7th inning stretch cause the moms wanted to get back to Los Angeles with me before midnight, which I didn't mind skipping since I wanted to go back home also, but it was great to see the Dodgers in their away jerseys for the first time and to check out Petco Park. Oh and I still hate the Padres, who got fucked in the Whale's Vagina thanks to the Dodgers defeating them after I checked the results when I got home.

Anyway, that's just a recap from my quick time down there. Oh and instead of driving on the freeways and trying attempt the "Gangnam Style" with a Flash Mob crew on the empty 405 freeway (saw people doing that shit at the game last night. What the fuck?) this weekend, stop by Primitive on 17060 Ventura Boulevard in Encino for their big sale going on this weekend. They got shirts there starting at 10 bucks so if you've lived in the Valley whole life, its a must to cop something from there. Thanks for your time reading this and have a safe, drunk weekend.

Slickness in and from Seattle

Shit, week 3 the NFL this past weekend.

I really didn't want to say alot about the games from last Sunday, as well as the Monday Night Football game in Seattle, where the Seahawks won against the Green Bay Packers in a controversial Hail Mary catch at the end zone in the final second. The same situation happened in Super Bowl XLVI earlier this year, but the only difference was that it the Hail Mary catch between the Patriots defense and the Giants offense was as legit as the Monday night game. Hell, that game got so much attention, that it turned Las Vegas 180 degrees upside down, by having all the bookies in Vegas receiving $300 million which gave the betters a serious "bad case of the Mondays". Talking about poetic justice, I read this morning after I woke up that one casino offered to refund those who place a bet for Green Bay to win against Seattle right after the craziness that happened at the game thanks to the Foot Locker Employees.... I mean, the replacement referees.

I spent most of Tuesday on Twitter (@justforsneaks) re-tweeting a grip of funny-ass comments from people talking about that ending and making jokes and comparison between the National Football League and the XFL, as well as Commissioner Roger Goodell's phone number being leaked from a fake-ass Clay Matthews Facebook page (that number was real). I also listened to ESPN radio right after the game and during my sleep hearing the broadcasters losing their minds, not just from the Monday Night Game but from the other shit from Week 3, from 3 bizzare overtime games that included the Titans 44-41 victory over the Detroit Lions, to the Sunday Night Football game where the Patriots lost to the Ravens that made Bill Belichick lose 50 G's in fines for just getting a foreign rookie substitute teacher's.... I mean, the replacement ref's attention by touching him. But that Monday night game though, I think its gonna die out as soon as Week 4 gets underway but it will be talked about again once it gets brought up in the future.

Other than that, weekend was super low key. Was supposed to go to a birthday party and an Emmy's after party but I wasn't in the mood of dealing with champagne-steaming drunks. I took my old high school classmate to go witness sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson of Heart get their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday. Haven't been to a star unveiling ceremony since Scarlett Johansson's ceremony back in May, and out of 10 ceremonies I've been to for the past six years, this is the first one that I didn't bring my camera to take photos of the event. Instead, I brought my copy of their 1987 Bad Animals LP that I bought from Amoeba Records a few years ago, but the only thing that sucks is that the vinyl keeps skipping and looping improperly whenever I play it, and its one of my favorite Heart albums since I was bred with their music when I was a kid (the parents always played "Never" "Alone" and "These Dreams" in the car back in the day). We got there at around 7:30 in the morning since I knew that there were going to be several women in their 50's that were going to skip work (or those that aren't working or retried) to not miss this, in which more did show up later, so it was a regular decent crowd. Damn, Nancy Wilson looked freakin' FANTASTIC at her age, and her sister Ann seems chill as fuck just from hearing her voice over the speakers as she was giving her acceptance speech.

At the end of the event after being interviews by at least 35 different media groups, the Wilson sisters signed everyone's Heart LP's (I was the first one they signed) and their new book that they just came out recently. My friend is going to their book signing tomorrow at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove tomorrow and I'm not. Not because I didn't plan on going since I just saw them in person, but I have to go to freakin' San Diego tomorrow to go watch the Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres at Petco Park with the moms. This will be the fourth Baseball park that I'll be visiting (I've been to Dodger Staduim of course, Angel Stadium when it was known as Edison International Field back in the late 90's, and Citizen's Bank Arena during my pops business trip ti Philadelphia back in 2006) and the first Dodgers away game that I'll be attending. I wanted to drive down there but she insisted that I take the Greyhound bus there. Never been on one of those, but it never hurts to accept a challenge.

Anyway, thanks for taking your time reading this and I swear, Facebook is making birthdays more boring and uninteresting nowadays. No offense but I can't imagine anyone with over 1,200 friends which make it have like at least 9 birthday notifications a day or some shit like that. Just wanted to bring that up, and if it you're tired of the constant birthday notifications, you can always deactivate your account and move up to Seattle to watch a rainstorm while drinking Black Coffee and hearing a Nirvana cover band performing acoustically at the OG Starbucks to get you mind elsewhere.

Oh and here's my Bad Animals album that Ann and Nancy Wilson signed, taken from a piece of shit outdated iSight camera from the iMac at my place in Sylmar. They're also from Seattle, if that matters.

Nothing in the Air

Today should've been "National Hooky Day in LA" since majority of Angelinos put their work shifts and college classes on hold to witness the Endeavor Space Shuttle flying over Los Angeles throughout the day, along with the release of the new iPhone 5 that many people broke out of their current two-year cell phone provider contracts just to get. Hell, even parents pulled their kids out of school to witness one of each, or both, and the media was all over this today as it made it the top story for 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the Endeavor. I could've though, but I didn't want to spend alot of time looking for parking and being stuck on weekend traffic in LA. Yet, I did take this photo of some sexy clouds hovering over the suburbs of Encino two years ago from an attorney's high rise office on Ventura Boulevard and spent the day re-editing it. I took it with my then old Sony Cybershot W290 point and shoot, not from a iPhone. 

Other than that, this is just a quick impromptu short post I decided to do just for the fuck of it. Not bashing the Endeavor's arrival, but honestly, that moment of it landing is one of those things you might want to tell your kids about, as the news media has been addressing it I guess. Anyways, have a nice safe weekend, of course. 

Fifth iPhone Avenue and a tribute to Steve Sabol

So last Tuesday, my favorite filmmaker of 10 years and the head of NFL Films Steve Sabol had passed away from Brain Cancer he was diagnosed with for the past year and a half.

For those of you who stay in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, and my other websites (like you should be doing), you'd noticed that I wouldn't shut the fuck up about his death and kept flooding other people's comment walls and feeds with a number of tributes I did to him for the past two days. I'm not gonna make this extremely long or anything, but dude was the main reason I started doing filmmaking back in high school, which then lead to photography just from watching his videos of highlights from NFL games that he and his pops have been producing and conducting for over 40 years. I first got into NFL Films when I was ready to watch Super Bowl XXXVII back in 2003 between the Raiders and the Buccaneers (the Pirate Bowl, the Gruden Bowl which that game was referred to from the coincidental storyline and relationship that coach John had with both teams).

That game didn't start until later that afternoon and I had plenty of time to kill after I woke up. I then went to ESPN 2 and saw that they were showing highlights from the past Super Bowls. Prior to this, I wasn't into the NFL as I am now (I haven't watch any of the games yet this season other than the Thursday Night Opener) and they only things I knew about the league at that time was the popular teams like the Cowboys, Raiders and the New York Giants and the only players I knew were Joe Montana, John Elway, Emmit Smith and Troy Aikman. And on top of that, I watched Super Bowls then cause it was very popular with the commercials and the halftime show. That was it. I then spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the highlights, and in every one of them, Steve Sabol would introduce each highlight by giving a synopsis of that particular Super Bowl. I thought he was some washed up high school football coach from the 80's until two years later that I realized he was the founder of NFL Films. That company is a educational tool for those who want to get into pro football from a history aspect, and I'm saying this with experience. I really liked the way the cinematographers captured the athletes up close with their sound coming from the wireless mics attached to them, along with the slow motion and the behind the scenes in the locker room.

The main purpose of NFL Films is storytelling mixed with symphony music and narration from the deep voice narrators which makes watching their highlights like a movie screening at the Hollywood Bowl. If it wasn't for Steve Sabol and NFL Films, the I would've NEVER got into pro football, or professional sports for that matter, and I would've never enrolled at Brooks Institute of Photography for that summer. Hell, I would've been 30 pounds heavier by fixing and studying computers or doing whatever my moms forces me to do after high school without ambitions. I remember when I used to cop whatever out of print VHS and DVD that NFL Films would distribute, or I would just record some of the old highlights off ESPN Classic. But in short, dude was one of the top people I looked up to next to my parents, Steve Jobs, and Ted Turner (before he sold off from Time Warner and made TBS a piece of shit station). Also, Steve Sabol was one of the only few people in existence to have gone to EVERY FUCKING SUPERBOWL in his life, including the NFL championship games before the merger. Thanks again, Steve.

Alright, so that was kinda lengthy. Not only is photography what I'm good at, but writing/typing is also my second interest as well. I've been blogging for almost 6 years already. Speaking of which, check out this one blogsite from a woman out in New York City who is giving up a week to be one of first in line to camp out for the iPhone 5 in front of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store which drops in all other Apple Stores and other cell providers not called T-Mobile tomorrow. She's been keeping readers in touch about how she is occupying her time in front of the store, and its quite interesting to read. The woman's name is Jessica, if that matters. Here's the link http://iphonewhatever.com/

Thanks for your time reading and have fun skipping work and class tomorrow by standing in lines longer than Space Mountain and the DMV for the new four inch device that Samsung does not want you to purchase.

You're Only Live Once

First off, birthday shoutout to the homeboy Eric Jackson today. Very great person to get to known over the past two years. Here's a Christmas portrait I took of him and his family back in December 2009.

Thanks again to Eric, his brother Steven and his mother Teresa for letting photograph them during that holiday season. 

As for me, last week sucked. Alot of fucking high speed pursuit chases in Los Angeles made the Grand Theft Auto video game series look like a sequel to Gone in Sixty Seconds taking place in the early 90's. There was one in The Valley in which the driver of a purple Chevy Avalance rollin' on dubs (not joking) disappered into someone's random backyard in the Pacoima/Arleta border, like he vanished or some shit cause the California Highway Patrol (not the LAPD since the chase started on the freeway) and the K-9 unit spent the rest of the evening looking for him and they still haven't found the next day, which was the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Also on that day, there was another high speed chase. It had this fool parading the cops all over Los Angeles through Hollywood, the Westlake District and on Figueroa passing the Staples Center and LA Live. The pursuit finally ended when the suspect got out of his white mid 90's Honda Civic and got shot (still alive) by the Police. 

The next high speed chase was by far WAY UNEXPECTED that the other two. A couple of blokes busted into a Bank Of America up in Canyon Country just north of Newhall in the Santa Clarita Valley. Then, like old school stereotypical Bonnie and Clyde shit from back in the day, the took the banks money (which is really other people's money from their savings accounts) and ran off with it. They then sped all the way in their Volvo XC 90 crossover SUV to South Central Los Angeles and did something that nobody in the history of the world would ever do and would never do again... 

THEY MOTHERFUCKING MADE IT RAIN IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD BY TOSSING OUT HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS OF THE BANK'S MONEY OUT TO THE STREETS AND THAT SHIT GOT THE ENTIRE BLOCK OUTSIDE GOING CRAZY!!!!

Now this would be legal if it was their OWN money being thrown away, but since it was the banks and being in other people's accounts, it wasn't legal, which is why the cops were telling everyone in the hood to return the money back to them. It makes sense, but that would be impossible because I assume that most people were already getting set to purchase the new iPhone 5 that was just announced by Apple on that same day. Switching gears to the iPhone 5, that device looks cool. A bigger 4 inch screen and the back is no longer made of glass but with a aluminum finish instead, along with its new A6 processor and the option to use 4G LTE next generation cellular networking which they claim its downloads faster data while using the internet on it. I'm gonna wait till I play with this device so that I can express my full thoughts on it. Right now there are people in New York City who are actually giving up a week of their lives by camping out in front of the 5th Avenue Apple store (the one with the big-ass glass cube that never closes) so that they can be the first ones to cop the iPhone 5. I don't blame them since the pre-order sale last Friday sold out faster than this years Coachella tickets. Very high demand for this device, and Samsung is even playing along, I guess.

The only good thing I did this weekend was driving through Mulholland Drive for some inspiration and clear thinking and I copped myself a couple of vinyls from the 1980's that are out-of-print and extremely hard to find in CD format, as well as a new Primitive t-shirt for the little sister that I'd promised her before her trip to Nigeria over the summer and a lot of stickers. (thanks Ashley and the blokes at Amoeba Records) 

The vinyls are Secret Rendezvous by Cindy Valentine, Strange Language from Romeo Void's lead vocalist Debora Iyall, and a recorded interview of Filipino-American artist Eleanor Academia with some of her songs. I got that record because I couldn't find her Jungle Wave album that I was actually looking for, but this record was good with the interviews. I tired to find Wall Of VooDoo's Call Of The West album, but I was surprised that Amoeba Records didn't have it, since it was as common as the other 3 records I bought. So I went to Freak Beat Records, which is my backup spot in Sherman Oaks, and they actually had it, but it was the very last one and I bought it anyways. Thanks again to Freak Beat for reserving that album. 

By the way, I finally sold the T-Mobile G2 to the little brother over the week, so for those who stay in touch with me on instagram (@justforsneaks07), I won't be uploading that much photos on there that much for the time being, but I'll still be checking and lurking on it thanks to Statigram.com, where you can view a stream of your instagram feed on your computer. What more worse was that they money I got from my phone ($75) was all blown on fuel for the brother's whip and a bunch of magazines for my pops new coffee table, several handsoaps from Bath And Body Works in Porter Ranch (thank you Jackie for the customer service) and other expensive high performance cleaning shit for the two parties he threw at his house. Hey, it happens and I'm already used to it. 

Finally, I checked out the replay of the Season premiere of Saturday Night Live with Seth MacFarlane as the host and Frank Ocean as the musical guest this morning (I didn't see his performance cause I was upset from USC's loss to Stanford and I went to bed early, and the replay cut off the performances). That episode was funny. It had me laughing and MacFarlane was doing a number of voices throughout the show. It would've more interesting and a lot funnier if he hosted around 2005, when Family Guy was back in production and the debut of his other show American Dad. By the way, I once spoke to him on the phone before. I was working at the Apple Store 4 years ago when I was ringing up this lady and she told me to give her a discount since she was Seth MacFarlane's sister. I didn't believe her at first until she whipped out her cell phone and made me speak to her brother, which was really him. Dude did some voices from his show and told me about The Cleveland Show he was working on just a year before everyone else knew about it. After that, I gave the lady her discount. 

Alright, time to survive through another hot-ass week in the Valley and to start looking into my homegirl Vanessa Cuenca's birthday party gathering in Downtown LA this Friday. Haven't seen her in over a year and she's one of the realest persons around my age to talk to about current events and other real stuff. Thanks for your time reading this.

Happy Re-Birth Day

I don't event know how to start off this post. I mean, I know what I'm about to write, but after days of planning this, I still can't seem to write this entry like I successfully did in my previous posts.

Its wild and confusing how we receive or earn something, be it a person, place or thing (money obviously). Then unexpectedly out of no where, we no longer have possession of it, which leaves us confused as to why it was taken from us in this wild reality.

Two weeks ago was Bezold Photography's final weekend working at the Westfield Topanga. Prior to that, I've been hearing rumors from my co-workers that we might close down or move someplace else. I thought that was fabricated bullshit,  until my boss sent me an email saying that the last weekend of August was gonna be the final weekend at the Topanga mall. All right, maybe we might go to Northridge mall the following week after that once I assumed after reading the message. Well, that idea was dropped when I met up with my boss that last Friday of the month for the first time since the start of the month. He said that the Northridge mall didn't want us there cause they already have a studio portrait, so for now, Bezold Photography is on hiatus, which doesn't look good. He also told me that he has another location in Burbank Town Center, yet they already have a full time photographer there. Before I met up with him, I was hitting on this cute girl in front of entrance after I parked my brother's car in the garage. He was in St. Louis that Labor Day weekend, so I had to watch over his whip. It was going well so far and I was about to score on her, but I needed to get my paycheck from my boss so that I can try to achieve a "double play" on her over a plate of sushi for lunch at a high end Japaneses restaurant inside the mall. Well, that didn't happen cause my boss showed up 30 fucking minutes late. I got here on time as I was told, expected him to be at the kiosk already, and the girl said she had another class at Pierce College just not too far from here in 45 minutes. I really didn't want to keep her waiting, so just out of respect, I told her she can take off for her next class so that she won't be late. I would've been fucking upset if I was 5 years younger, but I've dined with unknown females many times before, so this is nothing new.

But back to my boss and the situation with my work. He was there to sell the prints for the customers who came to pick up and had their kids' photos taken the week before. One of the customers raised serious hell on us and said that one of the photos, without going into details, was pure shit. She went as far to get the Westfield mall management and two security guards, and that's what made it much worse. The manager was a female who's around my age, but acts like she came straight from a boot camp in jail with a masters degree. Damn, she went IN on my boss, who twice my age with limited English (he's from Peru but I can still understand his English) and that gave the manager more advantage over him. It was a nightmare to witness this argument, which I was thrown in as well to defend my boss. Finally, we had no choice but to give the customer the rest of her photos for free. It was just me and my boss there that day. He gave me my pay and told me that I could take off right after that shit happened. I wanted to say till 9PM to help him sell the photos to prevent another chaos taking place from the customers, but he said that he'll get through it by himeself. As I walked away leaving him there by himself, I felt emotionally fucked up inside. I'm now back to where I was since the beginning of the year, without a legit job for now again.

I had issues with Westfield's management in the past from when I worked at Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks. Because of them, I vowed never to step inside the Topanga mall and any other Westfield owned mall ever again. I had many great memories going to Westfield Topanga for the past 13 years. I even remember when that mall was just a small strip from the Sears at the south end, all the way to the Macy's at the North end (before it was a Robinsons-May). The Neiman Marcus that's there right now used to be where the old Nordstrom was placed before being currently moved to the corner of Owensmouth and Victory Blvd. I was also there on October 2006 when they debuted the new expansion stores east of the mall along with a upgraded food court (that was the first mall I ever seen where they had REAL utensils instead of plastics and glass plates in a food court) and the Apple Store there was opened that day too. I used to bring majority of my classmates from Pierce College all the time to Topanga in 2007 and 2008 just to chill and act a fool there. Working there did save my summer as opposed to washing cars everyday in triple digit heat in North Hills before I came to Bezold Photography. That was one of the many blessings I was greatful to take use of.

I could've made those last paragraphs a separate blog post, but like I said, I was emotionally drained since I stopped working there and didn't have the energy to type. Some of the things that made me feel up to my feet were going to two Dodgers games and attending Primitive's four year anniversary barbecue event since September started. Thanks again as always to the staff at Primitive, Dawn and Justene Jaro, Shay Maria, Talisa Monet, Alexis Lopez, my homeboys Frank and Zishan for making my Labor Day weekend excellent. Oh and major shoutout to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for upgrading me and Zishan's seats from Right Field Pavilion to Field Level closer to the action and still have us keep the All You Can Eat privileges, which is something that I'll probably never see again.

To me, its still hard to believe that 11 years ago on this Tuesday that many innocent lives were taken away unexpectedly in New York City as well as the Pentagon and United Flight 93. I already wrote where I was on that day on a previous September 11th post I typed to save the time. I'm glad that everyone got through the hardship and now September 11th is a regular day again. I was expecting it to be a national holiday or something cause that shit was intense. Was very fortunate to see the Twin Towers in person on my first trip to new York City back in Labor Day weekend 2000, just a year before they were no longer in existence. Still tripping out about it right now. I remember people discussing and recognizing it up every year just like how elderly pre-baby boomers are still mentioning the attacks on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941, cause that shit was intense to them at their time. Even thought I'm not affected by the tragic events from that day since it took place in the east coast, I just don't feel like doing anything or going anywhere today just out of respect for those who didn't ask or request for their lives to be taken away. That's how crazy that day was, and ever since then, people's views started to change differently, as if we all got re-baptized or something.

Not only is today the day we remember people lives being gone, but on a positive mote, today is also a day for a special person that I know through a good friend of mine in Nicole Stetter who's been given and received another year in life. I first met her at Nicole's house two years ago, and she (along with my other homegirl Chirstina Campa who's birthday is in two days) was the reason why I was there for their birthday party that day. If it wasn't for that night, I can't even think where I would see myself right now. Because of her birthday party that night, I was able to establish a wide spectrum of mutual relationships with others and expand my photography with them. It was there at that night where I saw Aftergloam performing for the first time ever, and if it wasn't for that night, I would've never met Elvis Galvez and his incredible family, and I would've never met Tianna Edmonson and have attend her unforgettable last minute kickbacks in her old garage every month. Just standing next to her and having a conversation with her at a soiree is like that emotion of a pitcher after accomplishing a no-hitter during a perfect game twice in the same season (which is super rare in Major League Baseball). I don't like to see her birthday being overshadowed by a national tragedy, but the bottom line is that she's just too awesome to get to know, and she has a nice smile. By the way, I first heard about instagram from her back in early 2011. Anyways, happy 24 birthday to Annamarie Rhyne today. Here's a photo I took of her in Nicole's room earlier this year. Thank you, Annamarie.

Thanks for your time reading this, and enjoy as much as you can in life before it gets taken away without warning.