Stayin' Primitive and The Olympic Hunger Games

Basically, the social networking world, which consumes about 58% of my time and is also part of my work, will be soft for the next several weeks until the Olympic games will be finished in London.

I have absolutely nothing against the Olympics. I'm just baffled that the last one in China felt like it happened last year instead of 2008, but like I said, as you get older, then time just swifts by very quickly. Shoutout to all the athletes from around the world, especially the one here in the United States of course, for representing their homelands as the compete in various athletic competitions. Just leave the racism bullshit and controversial prejudgment in the paper shredder and let these athletes play.

I got a chance to see some of the opening ceremonies at the bar inside Cheesecake Factory in Warner Center after work on Friday evening since it was close by. There were already showing Poland walking around the stadium representing themselves. I was trying to focus but I was being distracted by some recession-proof horny-ass couple in their early thirties next to me feeding each other with a lot of food AT THE BAR. Those fools could've got a table and left the bar to individuals consuming some liquids, and also, the woman was a seat over left of me and her crack kept showing every time she was about to make out. I really wanted to stay until the United States came out, but as Sweden was about to come out, I just closed out, paid my drink and left the Cheesecake Factory courtesy of the future divorcees next to me that look qualified to star in some failed Thursday night sitcom. They were annoying as hell.

Other than that, mostly worked during the weekend obviously. Started out slow with 4 clients on Friday cause everyone was watching their favorite country being introduced in London, then 2 on Saturday cause one of my other co-workers flaked out, otherwise we could've had more people. Then on Sunday it was back to normal with families letting their kids scream and run around as I try to get their attention to stay still for their photos being taken. No surprise there, but shoutout to Elisa at the Starbucks in Target for the Venti Iced Coffee that took care of my Sunday. And shoutout to the cooks and the Staff at the Cafe Bistro in the Nordstrom for those Sweet Potato Fries. Went there for the first time cause I wanted to try something different since I kept going to the food court in the Topanga Mall several times, and the place looks very look key like the old Playboy clubs from the 60's without the bunnies. Here's how the Fries came out.

That's some creative shit. Totally going back there next time, but I still fuck with these fries as well. 

In-N-Out is a mandatory staple here in the greater Los Angeles area, and yes, I had to toss in the Back to The Future 25th anniversary Blu-Ray set that I just got from the same Target where I got that Iced Coffee. I originally first went to the Best Buy across the street from my work thinking that they have it, but I wasn't able to find it there and that lead to a argument with most of the staff there for 5 minutes after they told me that they have the disc set, but only in their on-line inventory instead of the stores, out of all movies. After I cussed them out, I then went back inside the mall, went to the Target and saw that they had the set, but it was the last one. So I grabbed it and whipped out my Visa card to thankfully see that I was charged 45 bucks for the set when it usually went from 55 to 85 dollars. Been waning to get this for the past two years since they did the re-release back in October 2010 (which was fucking dope as hell), but now I finally managed to obtain it. It has ALOT of extra shit and features inside that set that could last for two days, but I'm cool with it. 

Finally, just want to say happy 4 year anniversary to Primitive in Encino, which is professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr's skating boutique. They opened back in late July 2008 and I wasn't aware of the store then cause I was driving around West Hollywood and Beverly Hills chasing celebrities as a paparazzi during that summer. I have nothing but respect for that store and all the staff there. Major thanks to Andy, Paul, Jubal, Harry, Ashley, Irene and the rest of the staff as always for doing their jobs and distributing apparel that represents the culture of the Valley. Also, their new fall 2012 line just dropped last Saturday and its very superb. Here's some of the t-shirts I got on Saturday. 

The black t-shirt is taken from the opening lyrics of "Under the Bridge" from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers since they're based out of Fairfax High School, and the shirt on the right features the model Rachel Metz. Their shop is on 17060 Ventura Boulevard in Encino, right across from the Chase bank between Balboa and White Oak. You don't even have to skate to shop there. Stop by Primitive if you're not doing anything with a lot of money to blow. 

Anyways, thanks for your time reading this and enjoy the rest of the week. 

Serving Laundry To Others

Well, I was supposed to recap my last weekend this past week, but we're already in this current weekend.

The reason why is because I spent majority of the past week busy taking care of some personal, yet minimal matters with my moms, including on Father's day which coincidently happened to be my little sister's 22nd birthday. That week started off by both my moms and I copping her a inexpensive Samsung laptop as a gift for her. Then the rest of the days went on from paying a $35 oil change for her '99 Altima at Nissan Mission Hills to driving all the way to the Anaheim Hilton to with the moms and the sisters yesterday only to miss an award ceremony that my moms was supposed to participate in, yet they gave her the certificate while they were taking down the sets at one of convention halls there.

Later on we picked up my brother and then headed out to the Hometown Buffet in Burbank and Empire next to the Burbank Airport. I haven't been to a Hometown Buffet since my 21st birthday two years ago and I forgot how worse it's gotten. The food they serve there doesn't have that much of an appeal that it had when my entire family used to go there after church before the parents split up. The place was full because there were a lot of families that were celebrating their kids graduation from elementary and middle school that day and watching all them feasting on the food makes it look like a bunch of virgin dudes consuming 30 boxes of pizza during a Hack-A-Thon session on Mark Zuckerburg's computers at his dorm room. I didn't realized that until I finished my plates of Enchiladas, Nachos and a Salad with the Ranch dressing that must've been stored at the wrong suggested refrigerator temperature. That shit was watery. The Pink Lemonade saved my dinner, but the dinner itself made me TOO FULL. I could barely move from my table. Hell, I felt like I gained 25 pounds or something like that cause I was hurting like crazy. I'm totally done with that place. By the way, shoutout to the fine Amy Winehouse looking Armenian hostess chick at the front counter that charged us for the dinner and table. The line to get inside got expanded like wildness outside when we left and she had to deal with all those impatient families who's kids just graduated.

The family and I then walked to the Best Buy not too far from the Hometown Buffet to kill some extra time. Moms and I was gonna buy my sister's notebook there on Sunday, but we went to the one at Glendale cause they had one that has decent specs at a good price. Again, I felt like complete shit from all that food I ate earlier, so I swooped all the way to the Magnolia Home Theater section at the back at the store, sat at one of the large sexy leather reclining chairs in front of one of their Big Widescreen HDTV sets and STAYED THERE for the entire time. I didn't want to get up while the food was still digesting.

What's also sexy was that a Shakira concert Blu-Ray was being played at the screen in front of me while every other TV screen there had ESPN on talking about the bullshit headlines happening in sports, so I was lucky and fortunate enough to get a good viewing experience. Man, I can believe that its already been a full decade that Shakira has been in the scene. I remember when her song "Whenever, Wherever" first played on the radio and MTV just two months after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York and The Pentagon in 2001. Then a month later, my little brother got a PSone (the smaller compact version of the OG Playstation) for Christmas and the slogan, somewhat coincidental, for that console was "Whenever, wherever, forever". Ten years later, she's still fine doing the same thing and that concert was tight. Felt like I was there in person while I was watching it. I forgot how long my family was looking around the store, but we then left later since I had to go back to my place.

So yeah, that's pretty much my week. Mostly family stuff, along with working on photos for my business. Speaking of which, I did a last minute photoshoot for my friend Nicole Stetter's band Darger De Milo at her place on Thursday night. Shot it on 35mm film. It was fun getting some shots of them and listening to them work on some great new material which looked like an episode of MTV Unplugged. Major props to her group.

By the way, journalism was very weird this week. So many weak headlines. From the dude that founded Thrasher magazine (which I don't read, but I see that magazine alot in skate shops back when I used to buy Nike SB's) who offed himself, to Ron Artest legally changing his name to Metta World Peace (yes, that the name, which looks kind of tight) to a lot of top tier companies being hacked left and right and to Kim Kardashian posting a X-Ray photo of her ass (I really like her and all, but really? Selling yourself like that?) among other things. I don't even want to bring up that 29 year old mother who had to force her 6 month old inside a Microwave and a big "happy" party in New York City last night, which I'll leave that for you to figure out. Now there are other major world issues out there that are more important and valid, but I think alot of the media does not want to publish it because to them, and pretty much everyone else, those have nothing to do with them and they can't do anything about it since it doesn't affect certain people. Plus, those people have other priorities to worry about, like financially raising their kids or those university graduates trying to head start their career by landing interviews for a full time job on their own.

I didn't plan on making this post lengthy today, but somehow it just happened. Not everyone like to read stuff that's very long, which is why I created a separate site on Wordpress where its just photos with a mixture of interesting journalism from pop culture and some of my photography work. Six days from now, it'll be the mid point of 2011. Now before y'all think that I spent three quarters of my life on the social media webscene, that day means a lot to me, which sounds shady as hell but it really is. On July 1st, it'll be my fifth year on Facebook, my fourth year on Flickr, my third year on this site, two and a half years on Twitter and half a year on Wordpress and my website so far, and not to forget , my homegirl Jade Luber's 23rd birthday. For this new start of the "fiscal year" under the JustForSneaks Ent. production name, I'm planning on launching a new site on that day. I've been thinking about it for the past several months and since I'm a photographer trying to get better and better every now and then, I figured I'd expand my creativity to a broaden the viewership and be more recognized. This site will be photography related. So if you're a fan of my work (which you should be) and/or just appreciate photography as an art itself, then you'll like this site. The thing is that I haven't came up with a name for it. Already I have Random Shots for this Blogger-hosted site and Nobody Reads Anymore for my Wordpress-hosted site. This third blogsite needs a name that fits and sounds VERY similar to those other two names and if anybody on here who's reading this that can give me a very appealing name for the new site...

I'll hook them up with free In-N-Out T-shirt of their size and lunch from there.

I'm dead fucking serious about this, otherwise I wouldn't put this up. I like giving stuff away to other people. I'm more of a giver than a receiver which you hardly see now a days, especially in this economic recession. I'm a guy that doesn't give a shit about prices on certain things cause to me, money is just paper that causes problems, if not handled very well. If I feel like spending at least $200 a month on processing film and buying packs of 35mm rolls, I'll do that. If I want to spend my last $40 on packs of Gatorade and Little Ceasers pizza and fresh FinishLine socks to give out to the bums on Venice Beach? Shit, I'll do that... if I want to. That's my kind of philanthropy. If anyone disapproves with that, which has happened to me in the past because of me not having a legit decent job, then go ahead. I'm just trying to be nice. I get free stuff every now and then but sometimes I like to give it to those who I think need it more than I do.

But yeah, just give me a dope-ass title, and you'll get free lunch and a sick T-shirt. For inspiration of the name, just look (and when I mean look, I mean just spend at least 10 to 15 seconds looking at each photo) at my work on the sites below. Its that basic. All I'm doing is showcasing my profession for those who are seriously interested. Its what I like to do.

Here are the links to my other sites (which many of you get tired of seeing on Facebook and Twitter every other day)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justforsneaks07

http://justforsneaks.wordpress.com/

and my Youtube page just for the fuck of it, which I had since March 2006 (before Google's acquisition)

http://www.youtube.com/mitube

again, hit me up on Facebook or twitter or shoot me a text message or write on the comments below if you have a great title for the site. Seriously, who doesn't want free In-N-Out? They can even give you a Double-Double without the beef for those who are vegans. But seriously, thanks for taking your time to do this. Totally appreciate it.

Oh and major shout to my mutual friend Annamarie Rhyne who's going on an epic trip to different countries this summer. I wish you the best and safe travels on your expedition, and thanks to you and Christina Campa for inviting me to your going away party last week.

DEY CAN'T BE BEET!

Here's a monolouge of some observations from this past week.


The New England Patriots got over exposed at the Superdome. I thought that the 4th and 2 situation at Indianapolis was were it got them, but New Orleans took over the whole damn game. Bill Belichick is now suspect in his coaching decisions, especially removing Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker with 5:38 left in the game. Next thing coach Belichick will do is revamp his entire special teams and call audibles during Field Goals and Point After Touchdowns.


So Tiger Woods crashes his Cadillac Escalade into his neighbors tree in the middle of the night and his wife had to use his golf clubs to break the glass of the windows to rescue her husband. Then Tiger get fined $700 for running over a fire hydrant and reckless driving by the Florida Highway Patrol. $700 is pocket change to Tiger Woods. That's obvoiusly nothing to the the richest sports athlete in the world. Just pay the fucking fine and by a new Cadillac and act as if this shit never happened, right. Well, the voicemail heard around the world made his life make a huge 180 a few days later. Again this is Tiger Woods. He can see any woman he wants, even if he's married, he'll probably find a way to leave Kobe Bryant a voicemail asking for advice.




Still on the topic of sports, Allen Iverson returned to the Philadephia Sixers after "retiring" a few weeks ago. There's a reason why I put quotation marks on the word "retiring". To question the "Answer", why? Ask Brett Favre, or Floyd Mayweather, or Ric Flair. A couple of months ago, Jerry Seinfeld said that back in the 90's, when you retire from television, sports or whatever profession you've persued for a long time, you're done FOR GOOD. I can agree to that, but the other side of this is that these people have so much unconditional passion for what they persued in and they dontwant to let it go from their lives. I don't blacme Iverson that much for his decision to return to Philidelphia. They feel like they want to continued doing what they love doing until the can't mentally do it, not because you finish once you turn 65 and live off on Social Security. But if he never left the team, then he could've gotten the Sixers at least two NBA finals victories.







Speaking of Seinfeld, Comcast is planning on buying NBC for $37 Billion. I hope they play vintage Tonight Show with Jay Leno episodes from the 1990's on the E! instead of movies and usless episodes of the E! True Hollywood Stories about rappers wives and rockers wives, except Shannon Tweed and Valarie Bertinelli. Plus Access Hollywood and E! News will form a HUGE "celebrity kiss-ass" conglomerte that will probably dominate Entertainment Tonight and TMZ on TV

Now, we're already in the month of December, the last month of the year, the last year of the decade. Back when I was in grade school, I always looked forward to this month cause that the only time when I could get anything I want "for free". Now the joy of this holiday frenzy had grew out on me. Every time I think of this month, the big corporations and the Target suits up in Minneapolis will be sitting back in their hammocks watching money grow and grow from the Friday after Thanksgiving, to Cyber Monday to Christmas Eve. But come December 26, karma is gonna be yuletide bitch when 60 percent of women will return stuff that "people that the knew" gave to them, which is why in Canada its called Boxing day. By the way, my mom and my little sister have their birthdays on that day.

I think after New Years day, I might be done shopping at Best Buy. During Black Friday, me, my father and his wife had to drive to 3 different Best Buys to look for a particular Home theater system we wanted, unfortunatley those bastards don't have it in stock of out every name brand home theater stereos in the world. But we ended up getting the last few at the SonyStyle in Topanga.

In closing, I'd have to say that I'm gonna have trouble watching TMZ on TV, which is a really funny ass newsmagazine show that shits on celebrity, and I managed to appear candidly on about two or three episodes from my paparazzi days. Reason why I say that is because one of the people there on the show, this Armenian chick with the thick rimmed glasses who appears briefly, is just TOO attractive for some reason. Anna Kachikyan is her name. She's too fine as hell, especially the clothes she wears during this winter season. Maxim better get at her before they fall off like FHM and Stuff magazine did.

Can't believe I went through this post without mentioning Taylor Swift and the Microsoft Store. Weird.