Happy Day of the Dead... literally.

True story, courtesy of Hurricane Sandy. 

Sinking Sandy On Other Grounds

I don't even know if I had people in the east coast (New York, New Jersey, DMV area, Philidelphia, The Carolinas) reading this blogsite, but for those who have been reading this, get the fucking hell out of there and don't be like these two women taking gay-ass pictures of them in the storm to post on instagram.

Speaking of photography, the photo below this paragraph is just awesome. It is the best journalism photograph I've seen all morning. THAT'S THE MONEY SHOT RIGHT THERE, and it should be on the cover of the next National Geographic magazine like they did with Dorthy Lange's photograph of the Migrant Mother during the Great Depression. I don't know who the photographer is that shot this (probably somebody from the Associated Press or Getty Images), but that tells a story right there of the girl and her dog being amazed and surprised of Hurricane Sandy.

Why is Halloween Orange?

No comment. Ask the fucking-ass champs. Being frightened is optional. 

The Devil Wears Air Jordans

As a sneaker enthusiast, I can't believe I actually owned a pair of these.

I took this photo of those Air Jordan 1's at my homeboy Frank's crib just right after I purchased these just three years ago. I was actually in Chatsworth to pay off some fines I owe at the Courthouse there during that summer of 2009. I was doing security in the Antelope Valley then and I just got my first check from them which was $1,600 ($300 from that check went to the bank to clear off some bullshit holds I was too lazy to take care of then). So after that, while I was still in a good ass mood, I decided to drop by the Northridge Fashion Center to cop some stuff since I was within the area. I went to Champs to see what they have, and on the display, they have a pair of the Air Jordan 1 60+ pack that was released that summer, and this was a month after they dropped. Then a sales associate came up to me and asked me what size I wanted (similar to the Fire Red IV retros at the Finish Line I blogged about two months ago). I told him my size (12 and 13) and he went to the back to see if it was available. I first, I though we were wasting out times since I assumed that the pack was sold out and they only had the smallest size available, but apparently to my surprise (again, like the Fire red IV story) he walked out with two packs with the different sizes I asked for. 

I thought them shits was sold out as I asked him. He told that somehow, they still managed to have a full size run of the 60+ pack. Reason I thought they were gonna be sold out because of the Black/Red 1's that came with the pack, but I really wanted it for the Boston Celtics colorway of the Jordan 1's that was also included in the pack. (I don't like the Celtics, but I like how the colorway turned out on the shoe) Again, this was a month after it dropped and typically at that point, most of the original Air Jordan retros with the OG colorways are sold out within minutes after the sneaker stores open. Anyway, I bought the pack which turned up to be $310 plus tax IN RETAIL and then bounced with my new pairs of sneakers. I went to Franks house to take photos of the shoes with his camera, but mostly for the Black/Red 1's cause I was planning on not wearing them so that I can sell them. A month later, I sold those Black/Red 1's for a hundred bucks and still kept the Celtics colorway for another year until I sold those to my cousin on New Years Day 2011. 

To this day, I still imagined of what if I never sold those Black/Red 1's and what if I actually wore them. That shoe was retroed 3 times since it dropped in 1985 and they made another retro two years after that. The history behind this particular shoes was unusual if you think about it. 

Right after he was drafted into the NBA, Michael Jordan was invited by Nike executives to come check out a presentation that they did for him and to also have him sign with the company. Michael refused to go because he really (I mean, REALLY) wanted to sign with either Adidas or Converse cause not only were they the top selling basketball sneakers at in the mid 80's, but also, Michael wore when he was playing at North Carolina. Plus the two companies has athletes who won NBA championships endorsing them: Adidas had Kareem Abdul Jabbar who wears them in the NBA and Converse had Julius "Dr. J" Erving wearing their pair, along with Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson as their spokespersons. At that time, Nike wasn't a big company. It was mostly geared towards running than Basketball (the Air Force 1 that released in 1982 sold decent, but it wasn't as hyped as the Converse Weapons and the Adidas Superstar), so that made the company invest and trust in Michael as the tried to sign him. 

In 1985, his parents forced him to go to Nike's headquaters in Beaverton, Oregon, and they went with him so that he wouldn't miss out on this offer. When they got there, the suits at Nike presented him a video presentation of the shoes that they constructed for him. After that, Michael was disgusted and said that he'll look like a clown wearing the devil's shoes. Eventually after Nike kept persuaded him and giving him a 2 Million dollar contract, Michael reluctantly gave in, signed the paper, and the rest, obviously, was fucking history. If he still refused to sign with them, then I wouldn't have stacks to Nike shoeboxes in my room and and several other sneaker enthusiasts wouldn't have stacks of Nike shoeboxes in their rooms as well. I think I'd be wearing Adidas Superstars or some generic Payless shoes had Michael never signed with Nike. That just shows how much impact that pair of those basketball shoes (which was retailed for $65 in 1985) made throughout the years. 

Well, tomorrow I have to go with the little brother to the Newbury Park Adventist Academy in the Conejo Valley so that he can take the ACT standardized test over there, then for the rest of next week it more meetings, worthless appointments and several kids (and adults) dressing up as one of the Angry Birds consuming too much sugar this upcoming Wednesday.  Thanks for your time reading this. 

Internationally Legal and Tender

Well, this happened.....

I'll let the link below to explain it.

Dude pays 780 G's to pop her cherry for a cause  

Taylor Swift is a True Blood

Yes, this is the second time I mentioned Taylor Swift as a blog post title, and no, this post has nothing to do with her or that TV Show True Blood. Though her new record Red has just dropped in stores... I mean on the iTunes store, Targets and Wal-Marts this past week, and it looks likes the shades of the media glamorizing her circa 2009 won't be fading off soon. She should do a collaboration with The Game, which I doubt, but that would be unimaginably sick.

So I met up with my homegirl Cecila in Mission Hills last Friday. Haven't seen her since January, so we pretty much caught up with each other lives. I also gave her an early birthday present, which is a framed 8x10 photo that I photographed of her, with her bass guitar, performing with Aftergloam last year in Eagle Rock. She really liked it, which motivated me to focus in more on my work. Also, she does graphic design and photography as well, so click on the link in the top right of this page with her name on it to check out her website. Her work is very brilliant. Thanks again, Cecilia.

As for the weekends, nothing else I can say about them. They've been stable, so I just used that time to edit some photos, research for some inspirations for future photosessions, plugging my photography business, discovering a lot of unheard 80's music, driving around with my pops, exploring new options like making JustForSneaks Ent. t-shirts (which might be a possibility in the future) and spending countless hours on Flickr commenting on other peoples photos (you can should check out my Flickr photostream on the link of the top right). Yeah, that kinda sounds boring, but hell, doing boring shit pays off well at the end.

I have to go do some stuff with the little brother today and take some papers to Downtown LA, so it looks like I might miss the livestream of Apple's event presentation of the iPad Mini and a bunch of other updated hardware that Tim Cook's gay-ass is going to introduce (they're ACTUALLY doing a livestream for once). Oh, and I want the Detroit Tigers to destroy the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Thanks for your time reading this, even though this should no more than 60 seconds to read this. 

The Less Likely Trail Nixed Flavor

So Pops just fucked up my weekend plans yesterday.

The transmission in his Lexus LS400 just blew out and now he's gonna be driving my brother's whip that I've been using until who-knows-when his car will be fixed. I had a lot of shit planned out this weekend such as birthday parties, meeting people that I haven't seen in a year, networking gatherings at hotels to promote my business and hell, I was even thinking of photographing the Endeavor spaceship as it strolls around the streets of Los Angeles from LAX to the California ScienCenter on Saturday, but it won't happen. I thought he was gonna rent a car or use his wife's Benz for work like he always does, yet, high fuel prices and other matters wouldn't let him do that. Otherwise, had that not happen, then I would've wrote out a dope-ass weekend recap on Monday.

On a serious note, and I don't want to ask for favors, but for those who really, and I mean REALLY are infatuated on viewing my photos (as you should be) and the stuff I type on here that I upload every other day for the past several years, please, do me a fucking simple solid and leave some comments or feedback on them. Hell, fuck "liking" them or pressing the favorite button, JUST LEAVE SOME FEEDBACK (not on all of them, but just the photos you like or find totally interesting). Anything other than "Nice photo" or some fucking bullshit one word response isn't enough. Most of y'all reading this are adults, so a legitimate response would be an issue to type out. I spent about an average of two hours at least to type up an regular blog post and 30 minutes to re-read, edit out some stuff and re-type the second draft of the post. For my photos, I spend about 45 minutes to an hour (not a misprint) per photo retouching, sharping, adjusting the color temperature, and enhancing the images, as well as scanning 35mm prints that throws in some more additional time. A set of photos like a wedding or a birthday party event takes forever to edit, so if you can just use some of your time to look at them and give me your honest opinions about them, that would REALLY help me shoot better next time, seriously. That goes for all the photos I post on my Facebook, instagram, Flickr, and my Nobody Reads Anymore Wordpress blog. Again, just leave feedback or some comments. Many thanks.

Well, I'll end this here. I have to go do some laundry and then I have to head out to the bank later today cause I owe those fools 50 bucks in unexpected overdraft fees. Have a nice, safe drunk weekend, and in closing, a birthday shoutout to the wonderful homegirl Lucy Hakverdian today. She also keeps a blog as well. Check it out and subscribe. http://olive-loo.blogspot.com/

The Best from the Worst

Bezold Photography hasn't gone anywhere.

After a month in hiatus without taking portraits of spoiled screaming kids and their soft parents, I got a call last week from my boss that he wants me to shoot over the weekend. We're not at the Topanga mall anymore, but I had to work at two different locations in the Valley over the weekend: the Lucky supermarket in Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way and the Bezold Photography flagship studio in the Burbank Town Center.

Now why did I bring up the Lucky supermarket? Well, one of my co-workers that brings in the clients lives in Van Nuys not too far from the store and he talked the store manager into hooking us up with the wine supply room there as a small pop-up studio to set up for the portraits. That Saturday, my boss brought a background along with some old school strobes to set up and a old first generation Canon Rebel for me to photograph that delivers very good results in its images. I spent majority of the day there and it was totally slow. I had three clients come in and they were super mad chill. The first one was an lady in her early thirties with her toddler son, another was a regular typical Valley suburban family with a couple and their two kids, and the final client of the day were two elderly Hispanic women with twin girls who are about 15 months. They were my favorite to photograph of the whole day since they smiled alot. Somehow that Saturday went by so quick despite being there for 9 hours.

During the slow downtime at Lucky when there were no customers, I used that time to walk around and browse the supermarket for a bit and read a few magazines. I remember walking to this Lucky several times nine years ago when I lived in Van Nuys with my pops back then, but it was called Albertsons at the time. Now the store is about to be closing in a month cause Albertsons, who also own that Lucky store, is shutting down most of their stores in California. They already closed down the one behind my old high school a year ago. I talked with a bloke who works at that Lucky and he told me that they've been going through alot of shit from cutting staff to reducing hours. He also told me that he's been working there for 20 years and that he doesn't know where he might be transferred to, or if he's actually gonna be working. I would never thing that a store like Albertsons would be falling under since the economy collapsed and shifted since 2008 cause they sell necessary produce and other accessories that everybody needs. Right now they are starting their liquidation sales to rid of everything cause the store looked damn near empty that Saturday. 

Then on Sunday, I drove to the Burbank Town Center (or Media City Center for all the Valley OGs) for the first time in a year to cover at the Bezold Photography studio there. When I was at Topanga, my co-workers kept telling me about that place all the time, yet I don't remember seeing it everytime I go to that mall. The studio is decent and it has a good amount of space. Other than that, it was the same process when I was at Topanga. Families came in with their kids dressed up in vintage clothing, with some of them crying and running around. Again that day also went by quick, but we had 6 clients that day to get their photos taken. During downtime, I was watching some NFL football on a TV that was posted from a smoothie bar across my studio. They were showing the Eagles at Steelers game in which Pittsburgh won the game with the field goal literally at the last second to cut Philadelphia's lead and also some of the Broncos/Patriots game. That shit should've been a Sunday Night game cause of the hyped up rivarly between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady (which is already played out since Manning left Indianapolis) instead of San Diego and New Orleans hosting Sunday Night Football, but props to the Saints for winning their first game of the season without Coach Sean Payton and their key defensive players who are suspended for a while. Again, that day went by quick.

Yes, I'm aware of the fuel prices being spiked for the past week and some stations even breaking the 5 dollar a gallon mark. Hell, even Costco and the independent gasoline stations had to shut down their business cause they ran out of fuel and couldn't afford to buy more. I stopped by my sisters' house in North Hollywood after work and we discussed how times are tough now and nothing is soft and easy as it was in the past. Right now she's grinding by still working at 24 Hour Fitness and interning for this Physician in Beverly Hills. I also stopped by to give her the grey Primitive t-shirt with Rachel Metz's eyes printed on it that I promised her before she went to Nigeria over the Summer.

Its tough as hell now. Actually,  its been like that for the past four years, but I'm not bitching too much about it. Nowadays you have to know somebody that knows somebody in order to work at a decent job cause most lower-level companies and stores are scared and insecure to hire anybody who plans to quit after three months working there after all the money they paid for his uniform and training orientation among other things. I've brought this up many times like somebody's moms from the mid-twentieth century, so if your not doing anything, start doing whatever it is your good at and develop it  to the point where you not only receive some compensation in return, but also enjoyment out of it as well. That's how it was with myself and photography. Fuck, I can even imagine how Economics class is being taught in high school nowadays since the recession. Either the teacher is all like "All right class, your future is fucked and y'all will never find work" or the teacher is probably teaching his or her class the same stuff but with more emphasis so that the student will make smart, legitimate financial decisions after they graduate (or stop attending high school if that matters). All I can say is that just stay tough and manage yourself properly. Start from the basics again if you have to and shoutout to all the moms with minivans and SUVs that have to commute with their kids at least halfway across the Valley during the times of high fuel prices.

That last paragraph seemed predictable and always repeated, but hey, I have friends and acquaintances who lost their jobs the past few weeks and shit hasn't been smooth for them. By the way, I'm thinking of checking out this singer Ellie Goulding doing an appearance at Amoeba Records next week since I heard "Lights" and some of her other songs at the clubs and stores I've been to this past year, and I need to cop some more Vinyls there. If you're down to go, let me know. Anyways, thanks for your time reading this.

Acting Crazy in Los Angeles

Weekend was quick. Went to church and missed out on Week 4 of the NFL.

I watched the movie Falling Down starring Michael Douglas last night. I fucking loved that film. I discovered it from an article I read about last weekend's closure of the 405 Freeway, one of the most overhyped waste of journalism I've ever seen. because in Falling Down, it relates to the traffic that was featured in the beginning of the film. Michael Douglas' character is very similar to Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty (one of the BEST films ever made) in which the subject is fed up of dealing with all the uninteresting bullshit and life's recurring display of uncomfortable negativity from other people, so he does something about it. I don't want to recap the entire film, but my suggestion is just watch Falling Down, and the best part is that it took place in Downtown Los Angeles and Venice Beach in the early 90's.

Speaking of Michael Douglas, I want to check out his biography he just released, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography that is always on the news everyday I wake up. He doing a book signing at The Grove this Friday evening but I won't be able to make it cause I might have to take some photos that day. Last time I saw Arnold was 4 years ago in Beverly Hills after he got his haircut, and at that time he was the Governor of this state, which is something I honestly thought would never happen from watching The Terminator, Twins, and Jingle All the Way among other things before 2003.

Before I finish, quick birthday shoutouts this month to friends and acquaintances:  Ning Young, Quintin Barry, Corina Andujo, Phillip Gonzalez, Randy Mendoza, Elvis Galvez, Justin and Nesi Napod, Lucy Hakverdian, Desiree Elyda Villalobos, Mando De La Torre, Paul Zavala, Cecilia Navaratte, Alberto Mujica, Robin Kanouse, Jon Stetter, and Cassandra Cootz. Anyways, thanks for your time reading this.