Those That Unlikes The Rest

As unsurprisingly always, I haven't been updating this blogsite for almost the past month. October has been such a packed month that I haven't had at least 2 full days of rest. My sleeping pattern had gotten fucked up and also I find myself still averaging 110 miles a day while driving. Fuel consumption wise, I know that's nothing since I drive a Prius, but shit, I'm somewhere stuck in traffic everyday. Also I'm at LAX picking up people every five days and that is one of the busiest days for me. Its weird cause everytime my assigned airport day approaches, it felt like I was just at the Airport the previous day. In this taxicab job, time goes by VERY quick. Again, I'm only doing this as a side job for now while I'm still focused on photography.

Speaking of LAX, there was shooting incident that just happened over there a few hours ago today as they reported a TSA employee was shot dead at the Virgin America terminal inside the airport. Then all kinds of shit broke lose as the FAA had to ground arriving flights and evacuate passengers who were about to board on their flights to start their weekend vacation or whatever business travels they have to do. I had to mention this cause again, I'm always at that airport every week picking up people (or dropping them off sometimes) and I even typed about my dispute with one of the security there last year.

The Los Angeles International Airport is one the biggest and most important airports in this country, if not the world. Its a gateway entry to the United States for those coming from various countries around the world. In the eight and a half months of picking up customers from there, I got more appreciated at LAX as much as I use to dislike going there before I started driving taxicabs. I've met all kinds of different people from many different states and countries. Hell, I've driven people who have never been to the United States before and I'm one of the first people that they encounter in this country. I've had some who don't even speak a word of English which was very challenging. But to have an incident like the one that just happened there earlier is the very last headline you do not want to hear. From reading the updated news (from various different sources), they said that the bloke just started firing at the security checkpoint and as I'm typing this, the announced that the shooter himself was killed.

It really sucks to hear and discuss about this. Everywhere you go, there's always some type of person that unexpectedly crashes the party and destroys the fun for no unanswered reason. There's all kinds of different people out there, with different personalities. Some desperately want attention while there are some that do not want to be bothered. I was planning on creating a blogpost this past week, but this shit just unexpectedly happened and I wanted to bring it up. Thankfully, I'm not working at the Airport today, yet, that shit blows if I was assigned to work there today.

Aside from all that, I haven't been writing or uploading photos on Facebook too much. I still have hundreds of images that I planned to share on there, but it just that I need to find the right time to work on them due to my crazy schedule. Working on photos to scan, retouch, process, edit and upload takes up so much time. There are time when it even takes me a full day just to work on one event. So keep a lookout for those photographs. I'm also mostly on Instagram and Twitter alot more, so stay in touch with me on those two social networks and please leave some supportive feedback, which is great.

Twitter: @justforsneaks
Instagram: @justforsneaks07

I'm planning on creating two more instagram profiles and a possibility of returning to Tumblr again just to showcase and promote my work. Stay tuned for that as I discuss that later this month. Since its now November, there's gonna be at least 3 different birthdays everyday and corporate companies are gonna push the shit out of manipulating.... I mean promoting and flooding everyone with the "holiday spirit". I don't even wanna talk about the holidays right now, cause as seriously dull as it sounds, I have work that needs to be finished so that I can take my own holiday break.

I'll end this post here. I have to go take the little brother's Ford Taurus to get it serviced right now. Thanks for your time reading this and have a fun, safe November.

1993 'Til Forever: Photosession of Ikenna Nwachuku

As some of a few of y'all know, I did a photoshoot of my cousin back in December 2012 at his place in Los Angeles. I told him that I was gonna get it done by February, but at that time I just received my Taxicab Permit and I was starting on that job at that time, which didn't give me time to work on editing this photoshoot. Now after several months, I managed to proceed working on this, and I figured its best that I share it on the day of his 20th birthday.

I swear, back when he was born in 1993, alot has happened in that year. I started kindergarten, Michael Jordan walked out of the NBA at the peak of his career after winning his third title, as well of the death of his father that summer, the nation was started embracing democratic ideals and policies with Bill Clinton as President of the United States in his first year in office, Jurassic Park was THE hottest movie of the Summer, Universal Citywalk opened,  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Beavis and Butthead got alot of kids in trouble at the school playground, the Dallas Cowboys were killing shit in Super Bowl XXVII at Pasadena and the entire NFL, The Simpsons and Seinfeld on Thursday Nights after Cheers and A Different World finished that year, David Letterman joins CBS to start Late Show With David Letterman (which will be 20 years ago tomorrow), Fred Savage's The Wonder Years ends as his little brother Ben Savage's Boy Meets World starts on television among other events. Pretty much an leaf-turning opening to understanding society for myself even though I was very young.

Anyway, here's are the images of my cousin Ikenna and his ride: the BMW 328i sedan. Used alot of though into it and took my time to make it interesting. I'm so glad and blessed that he and his siblings have been a part for majority of my childhood. Thanks for your time reading 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/

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. 

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.

Lost-N-Jealous

Three fucking months since I last spilled my guts on here.

I haven't forgotten about this site during that time period, but there was so much shit that I had to work out in ways that I couldn't imagine. I would like to discuss it on here, yet many of them were not fun to deal with, so I'll set that away from this post. Typical life learning bullshit that some (or most) twenty-somethings always deal with. Had some tensions with the family for a bit, but thankfully its already been resolved.

My two younger sisters had their commencement graduation ceremonies last month. The youngest one graduated from Kennedy High school in Granada Hills, which is where my other siblings and I attended. I really hate the way they run their admissions to get into the ceremony by having tickets and a bunch of other shit. An example was trying whatever I can to get into my brother's commencement back in 2010. One of the graduation ceremonies that took place there in 2009 made it to the news. I wasn't able to make it there on that day. My other sister got her Masters in Health Care Management from West Coast University. The ceremony took place at the campus of University of California, Irvine in Orange County and damn, the area is well decent. Not to my surprise since I'm familiar with Newport Beach and that part of the OC, but this was my first time at UCIrvine. Campus is just TOO CLEAN, about slightly similar to the other notable UC school at Los Angeles in Westwood.

Now in regards to the ceremony, it was fine. The chairman of West Coast University mostly promoted and talked about the institution by featuring in detail the programs they offered and the student life there. There were a good amount of people there and about 500 graduates were rockin' the cap and gowns, with more than a third in the institutions Nursing program. After the show, we went out and took a grip of family portraits and then headed out to an El Cholo restaurant about less than 10 minutes away from UCIrvine. I didn't even know there were more than two El Cholo resturants (the ones I know are the ones in Western Avenue and downtown LA) That El Cholo we went had more light than the OG one in Western which had a darker ambiance, but the environment and the experience is still the same, as well as the food. Feasted on some Quesadillas while the moms, siblings, one of my sister's long time "besties" from back in the day, and this Filipino couple that I never met before. The guy from the couple was the "photographer" for my sister's event and he was shooting with a Canon EOS 60D and the 18-135mm lens.

Now all of that happened right before Memorial Day Weekend. Colleges and Universities I can understand, but this was the first time that a public high school had their graduation set before Memorial Day weekend. It kind of makes sense since that holiday, which not everyone takes seriously, is the unofficial start of Summer. But then again, the public school systems here in LA are already fucked up with numerous cuts in money and staff, and that caused it to shorten some of the pupil's summer vacation and fragment the traditional school calendar. The year starts in early August instead of September that I'm completely familiar with and ends in May instead of June which I'm also familiar with. Well, not everything stays the same in life and we all have to adapt with the changes that come across us. I myself had to get used to supporting the smart decisions that my younger siblings make as they keep maturing, especially the youngest sister since she's now out of high school. There was a time when all of us would live in the same house and see each other every day. Now, I can't remember the last time when when that happened cause we all moved on and live separately and already we're used to it. Major part of being an adult is just accepting changes in family life, technology, and society as well. We make not like most of it, but we can't do anything about it that much except taking it or leaving it.

As for me, I spent the last six months at a warehouse in Sylmar helping out underprivileged middle-functioning adults at this place called Build Rehabilitation Industries. I was about to work as a washer/porter at Galpin Ford that my friend told me about last year but the last position was already taken at the time. My friend then said that he can get me in as another alternative by just helping out with the clients there at the warehouse for half a year as a quick reference so that I can get that job at Galpin Ford without having to be interviewed there. It was quite an interesting experience at Build for the first half of the year. Dealt with all different types of people that you don't normally see out in the public. Most of them can't read, write, spell or speak clearly and they're all twice as old as me. I did get paid for being there, but the check varies every two weeks since I wasn't getting paid hourly. Sometimes it low (my lowest was 18 bucks) and sometimes on a day that is jumping, the check get high (my highest was $350). But in most cases, I'm wasn't too concerned about the pay there that much. I was supposed to finished at the end of the month, but since the staff there really liked me, they decided to put me in at Galpin Ford for that position, a month before my six month stint ended. The job is alright. I just wipe Mustangs and other vehicles inported from Detroit and I leave work with that new car smell every day. The pay is alot better cause unlike Build Rehabilitation Industries, this one was hourly. I'm working there so that I can get better photography lenses and equipment for the summer among other important things. I wanna improve my skills and enhance my photography business alot more, so therefore, the gig at Galpin Ford is just on the side to make some cash, even though I'm there full time 5 days a week for 8 hours. There'll be some times when I may not like it, but then again its part of every job and I have to just plow through it.

Since the last time I typed on here in the middle of March, even though I dealt with a lot of bullshit, the only thing that was impressive was the sports world here in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers currently have the best record in Major League Baseball right now. Shoutout to Ervin "Magic" Johnson and the Guggenheim Baseball Management for turning over a new leaf at the Chavez Ravine. Went to a game against the San Francisco Giants and thankfully there were no "monkey business" from the intoxicated fans just like opening day last year. Plus there were several Giants fans in the Left Field Pavillion where me and my homies were sitting at, but again, nothing wild didn't happened. Also, it was the first time in forever that the Staples Center had a different playoff game everyday from the Lakers, Clippers and surprisingly, the Los Angeles Kings. When I mean everyday, I mean EVERY DAMN DAY. Hell, there were days when there would be two different games at Staples in the same day, which is rare. We're used to the Lakers making it all the way to the big dance, but they didn't get past the second round courtesy of the confident Kevin Durant and his Western Conference champions Oklahoma City Thunder. We're used to the Clippers making a fools of themselves during the NBA season, yet the shortened season made them alot opportunistic with the talent of Blake Griffin and his teammate Chris Paul who was supposed to be with the other LA basketball team, and like the Lakers, they didn't get that far in the playoffs as the San Antonio Spurs stopped them by showing that they still have some life left in this aging team. Finally, we're used to Kings not even touching the Stanley Cup Finals, or the playoffs for it, every year. Apparently they surprised everyone by winning alot in the playoffs and that sucked in interest to alot of non-ice hockey fans for the past several weeks, including myself. I'm not a fan of ice-hockey at all, but watching them at the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils (who also played against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim back in 2003 at the Finals) suddenly just became too addicting.

To be 1000% real, this year Stanley Cup Finals was the first time I EVER watched an NHL game in its entirety, not just five minutes of it. Plus this was history being made which was another reason why I was tuned in. Viewed most of the games at the De La Torre's place. I felt high and fell to the ground laughing with some weird excitement after the clinched the Stanley Cup at Game Six, and the best part was that they won it at home. It felt like when the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics at home in Game Seven two years ago, only this time it felt slightly different. Reason being is that this win is mostly for the REAL down-ass LA Kings fans who have been season ticket holders since "The Great One" Wanye Gretzky took them to the Stanley Cup Finals back when they played at the Forum in 1993 and the fans before that when they had the same colors as the Lakers in their uniforms (that DID happen cause the Kings and Lakers were owned by Jack Kent Cooke then, now its fucking AEG). I almost went to the victory parade, but I didn't cause one of my friends I was about to go with couldn't make it and also, I wanted to let the real fans enjoy it for once. They really earned it.

Lastly before this post goes on for another 5 years, I'll just recap the weekend since it was one of the best ones I had in a long time. My pops is out of the state, meaning he wasn't available for Father's day yesterday, so I had to watch over his full size Lexus till he comes back. I went over to my homegirl Nicole Stetter's place last Friday evening to give her a belated birthday gift cause it already passed three weeks ago and I haven't her and her partner Jorge Herrea in months. The gift I got her were two rolls of 35mm film: a Kodak 400 speed T-Max Black and White film and a Kodak 400 speed Portra color negative film. Ate homemade dinner that she prepared and also blew some balloons for her twins kids that got them very excited. After that I drove to my buddy Richard's crib and had some laughs there while I listened to his stories as we watched Next Friday on his TV. Then on Saturday, I met up with my old classmate from my filmmaking class back in high school at Starbucks in Mission Hills just to catch up on life and she how she's been doing since we left Kennedy high six years ago. Later on, I drove to Burbank for a pool party that my buddy's girl was hosting. To my amusement, only  about 10 people attended. It was on a very nice day and I kept wondering why they haven't showed up during the afternoon. But it was great meeting some new friends and taking a couple of photos there. Special thanks to Liz and Jeff for inviting me. I left at around 8PM and stopped by In-N-Out to get a Double-Double meal there. That shit is now close to 7 bucks, but then again, money is tight nowadays.

When I got home, my little brother then told me he wanted me to drive him to a Nigerian Youth "Function" party in Gardena with his car. I wanted to decline since I was out all day but because I still had some energy in me, I went to escort him and also to make sure that he's safe. The club was at a lowkey spot in Gardena just a walking distance from my photography buddy Joseph Harris' crib (his website: http://www.cherishedmomentsbyjoeharris.com/). Damn, I still need to drop by there like I used to back in 2009. Dude helped me out alot and saved my ass that time. But anyways, we got there and the interior looks like a scene from Tron mixed with some Electric Daisy Carnival from two weeks ago. Alot of laser lights and shit. About 100 young people around my brother's age (he'll be 20 in August) packed the club, with several attractive Nigerian females, but it kinda hard to see since it was dark. The DJ there fucking sucked. He didn't know when to transition at the right moment but then again, the young bloke is just doing his best. We were there till 3AM and then afterwards we had to drop off one of my brother's female friends nearby and then went back to the Valley by bumping Power Tools on Power 106.

I didn't plan on doing anything on Sunday so that I can get rested up for another long week of work. But after seeing a photo that Nicole posted of herself in her store on instagram (which I'll write about in the next blogpost) I decided to drive down there to check it out. The place is called Twin Lemons Collective and its a thrift store located in the border between West Hills and Woodland Hills, just next to the 101 freeway bridge crossing Ventura Boulevard. I missed out on their opening party back in March and other events that they held there, so I made it a day on Sunday to finally check it out. The place is awesome, like REALLY awesome. Every thing inside the store is authentic and natural, makes it Toys-R-Us for Gen-Xer's again. So many vintage items there that you won't see anymore or can't even find on the internet. Plus the atmosphere and the vibe there just makes it fit at home and fits the mood into its nostalgic theme. I'm very proud of the homies Nicole and Jorge to take so much of their time dedication and pride to put this store together. Wish them the best in everything they accomplish. By the Way, Twin Lemons Collective is on 22311 Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills/West Hills. I recommend y'all should check it out.

I end this post here since I threw down alot so far. I'll try to type some more on this blogsite since things are looking good so far. I say this every New Years Eve, you don't just expect a great year, you make it a great year. Thanks for your time reading this, even though its a lot.

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.

A Back-Words Weekend Recap

I'm typing this blog post from my pop's house in Granada Hills. Right now, he's out of the country for a few days, including Thanksgiving. To you it sounds odd that one's parents won't be around to bake and cut the Turkey and digest the stuffing inside it while watching a ball game either taking place at Detroit or Dallas. I'm used to that already. Between 2000 and 2008, its mostly him or my moms who would spend the entire month of November traveling to Nigeria, and one of them would stay and have the traditional Americana Thanksgiving dinner. But since my pops got remarried three years ago, he's been hosting gatherings at his place where my relatives and cousins would swing by and I'd have conversation with them while on a full stomach.

Its been a month and a half since I slept over at the house, where I spent the majority of my middle school and high school years at while sharing a room with my little brother until I moved back from spending the summer at Oxnard in 2006. All my siblings have moved out the past few months and they haven't stopped by here in a while, and its been already over a year since I moved out to Sylmar. I got here yesterday morning before the rain started to pour like crazy and watched the Green Bay/Tampa Bay game on the big screen HDTV in the living room. I turned it off after the third quarter cause I was feeling really tired and I'd wanted to go lie down on my old bed in my old room that I haven't slept on in a while. I was gone in some random lucid inception-type dreams for a few hours. I woke up later and order Papa Johns pizza cause there wasn't anything good in the kitchen and watched Sunday Night Football while feasting on the $17 extra large pizza that I ordered, and that shit was worth it. The New York Giants were supposed to win that game but they got picked off at the end by one of Philadelphia's defense around the two minute warning, and also they had Vince Young at Quaterback since Michael Vick is out. To me, that was an upset that the Eagles won that game at Giants Stadium... I mean, Met Life Stadium (seriously, fuck corporate stadium names). I didn't watch the rest of the games during week 11 cause they were all too predictable and bland, just like this entire weekend.

Saturday was another ordinary day. Nothing really happened and a lot of people other than my pops are out of town also. Went to my church to catch the last few minutes of the sermon. When it was finished, I went to the potluck room, then went home five minutes later. I was originally gonna go with my brother to a church either in Simi Valley or somewhere in the 818 like Van Nuys or the one next to his place in Canoga, but he didn't want to get out of his bed when I called him that morning which led me going to the one near my house. The rest of the day was just editing and touching up on some photos.

Now the day before on Friday, I attended the opening day of the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show. The showrooms were all the same like last year, just with newer cars, but I didn't really care about it that much. I only attended to test drive every car that they had available outside this year. Before I did that, I ran into Tanner Foust who was talking to some of the other attendees in the Lobby. I met him last year with my homeboy Jeremy while we went to a taping of the American version of Top Gear. He did recognize me for a bit and told me that they're still filming some episode. After talking to him for a bit I went to go drive some whips.

The test drive took up a lot of my time. I drove every car they had except the Dodges, Toyotas, Chryslers (I really wanted to drive in the new 300c and the Challenger), Kias and whatever new compact car that Mitsubishi had that's not named the Lancer. Its not cause they suck, but there wasn't that much time and all the test drives end at 5PM. The whips that I did try out was all the GM cars from Buick, GMC and Chevrolet. They had Cadillac there also, but I driven their cars SO MANY times this year that I'm already used to them. They only difference was that they had the entire V lineup for the attendees to drive and I was like WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!?! I was told months before that the V cars can only be test driven at a closed course track due to its INSANE RIDICULOUS HORSEPOWER OUTPUT PERFORMANCE that made the CTS-V the fastest American production sedan in the world. I never driven their V-series and that would've been my opportunity to do so, but I didn't wanna risk getting pulled over in downtown while burning fuel with over 550 horses. If this was at the desert or someplace completely open, then I'd drive it, but not in the city.

I did however drove the Chevy Camaro SS Transformer edition. That shit can fucking scream. I'd had TOO MUCH fun driving it. Yes, its fast and all, but that was my first time driving a Camaro. I knew the SuperSport was gonna be quick beyond my expectations. One of the funnest cars I've ever drove. I then drove some Lincolns and a couple of Fords. The REALLY stepped it up the Explorer. My parents used to have the second and third generation Explorer, and I wanted to see what the new one look like. The dashboard and the navigation panel looked like absolutely nothing than the previous models, and plus the SUV now reduces emissions and has a decent EPA rating from Ford's Ecoboost technology.

Then I made my way to the Hyundai section and the cars that they had were no fucking joke, especially the 5.0 R-spec Genesis Sedan. Jesus Christ, that whip can FLY! I also drove the Equus Ultimate sedan that has gotten a few talk since it came out and that car was the sleekest, swagged out vehicle I've ever driven since I rode in my uncle's BMW 750LI three years ago. That car has SO MUCH TECH. Cameras on the side of the cars, a control console entirely built into the back seat, a refrigerator and a fucking massage feature for the back seat. That blew my mind, hell I could've rode in the back seat instead of driving it. Shit was Birdman in a Maybach status. Finally I drove the Elantra and already fell in lust with it. I'd recommend that over a Toyota Corolla, a Nissan Sentra, a Ford Focus and a Chevy Cruze that took me away in interest until I drove the Elantra. 10 years and 100,000 mile warranty on this car? You can say no to it, real talk. I didn't drive the Sonata cause I didn't feel like it, they didn't have the Genesis Coupe to drive and I forgot to check out the new Veloster. Shoutout to Hyundai Motors for doing whatever they doing to get to change people perspectives on considering automobiles and making them enjoyable to drive and major props to the staff at the LA Auto Show for another great experience this year.

When it got dark, I wanted to eat at the ESPN Zone just a block away, but the appeal didn't seen to catch on me since there's no NBA season for now. I always go there whenever there's a Lakers game taking place across the street, but not this time. So I left and just walked over to the Five Star Bar to see Darger De Milo perform for the first time without my friend Nicole Stetter. They actually did great as an all male group, no changes to the rhythm at all. Talked and mingled with some of my friends there who attended the Five Star bar and then went home after Darger De Milo performed. I didn't stay till the placed closed like I usually do, but I was at the Los Angeles Convention Center all damn just driving and looking at cars that I'll never obtain.

I'm sure you notice that I've gone backwards in this weekend recap. I don't even know why I did that, but from looking at it, the unorthodox chronological order went from worst to best. Thanks for taking your time to read this and enjoy the Thanksgiving week.

Los Angeles: Locked Out From Its Occupations

Damn, its hard to realize that I've lived in Sylmar for one year already.

Actually more like 13 months. Prior to that, the most I ever lived outside of my parent's house was two and a half months in Oxnard during the summer I graduated from high school. It didn't last long cause of the hiked expenses and the blazed up drunk roommates I was staying with. I moved out initially cause I was having issues with my pops at the time and his wife and my brother had one of ugliest arguments I ever heard. Now fast forward a year later, my brother is no longer living there and my pops and I became cool with each other two months after I left. It felt like I got cheated out of leaving his house or something, but either way, I needed to leave Granada Hills cause in my case and where I'm from, it looks bad for anyone over 22 years without an actual, legit job to still live with their parents.

Now in this economic time, its common to see people over 25 with University degrees move back in with their parents. I don't blame them since many of them have no other option. I've talked about this subject several times in my previous posts and to this day, that topic hasn't gone anywhere. I went to the Los Angeles City Hall in Downtown yesterday to check out the Occupy LA protest that was taking place there. That was my second time going to the site since a month ago when this whole thing started. It was night time when I first went and didn't take that many photos, but yesterday, I managed to make it there around the afternoon with my uncle's Nikon D5000.

I'm telling you, the protesters turned City Hall Park into A VILLAGE! That shit looked like I was at the Coachella camping grounds taking place somewhere in Africa mixed with the Outback and the Amazon Rainforest and a refugee site in a war zone. There were like at least 500 tents around the City Hall building. The protesters there were acting like civilians with their own Zip Code. Everyone there was cool with each other and the whole protest was just too peaceful, whereas in some other cities and countries, it was pretty much the opposite. Over the past month, the Occupy LA marches and protests felt like the Los Angeles Riots being massacred with Christian Saints. Everything there was just too damn surreal. I thought the demonstration of the Occupy movement here in this city was gonna last about a week since the one in New York was already in unimaginable proportions, but its still going on and when I saw a sign there that said to Occupy the Rose Bowl parade in two months, I then realized that this will go on through Thanksgiving and Christmas, which will make homeless look totally jealous during the holidays.

Honestly I'm not really into the whole movement and I don't have any interest in all this. I just went to take photos and some video of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIVPtm_Tifk)since this was major and most of the media hasn't been covering the real side of it, just the madness from Oakland's own version of the Occupy movement a few days ago. I lived here in this city for my entire life and I never would expect to see anything like this in person. This is something that I'll probably think will be talked about for the next 15 to 20 years at least. Not to judge, but majority of the people that I saw there demonstrating, protesting and spending several weeks in Downtown don't have jobs and there are some who gave up their jobs just to show support and express their concern over corporate greed and economic government issues among other things. Hell, I don't even know too much about the background of the Occupy movement. I spent a the past week watching videos from the demonstrations in New York and some of the marches here in Los Angeles. Crazy shit happening the past few weeks. It'll be quite interesting to see how this will end, whenever that will be.

And the Lakers were supposed to start their season last Tuesday Night. Shit, I even had the money to buy tickets for the first game of the "would've been" season. I could've seen some new hot Laker Girls, Mike Brown screaming with panic and flaunting up and down the Staples Center hardwood floor, as well as seeing a Metta World Peace jersey in person and free Tacos. Obviously, the NBA lockout is an absolute waste of time. Mostly talk and discussions and shit. I don't remember too much of the previous lockout 13 years ago cause, surprisingly for a black guy like myself, I wasn't into the NBA that much (the only players I knew then were Shaq, Kobe when he was just barely legal, Jordan, Pippen, Barkley and Penny Hardaway from their signature sneakers they dropped in 1998). Its no surprise that the league isn't aware of not only losing hundreds of millions of dollars from this mess, but losing the fans interest and patience for the sport of professional basketball. I wonder what current NCAA basketball players are thinking about this? Maybe they probably are considering for playing overseas since they pay more or exercising their basic fundamentals of the sport by becoming an assistant coach for pay at a private high school Basketball team in Indiana, the Hooiser State. I bet the blokes from TNT's Inside the NBA are bored with their lives right now. I wonder how this will impact the sales for Kobe Bryant's next signature shoe, the Nike Zoom Kobe VII, since we won't see him performing in those sneakers for a while. For now here in Los Angeles, its mostly Kings Ice Hockey, a USC or UCLA college game which will go by quicker and the NFL three nights a week (Thursday night games start next week) at some local bar with DirecTV.

Alright, got a busy weekend to look ahead on. Gonna be covering a babyshower on Saturday and to test drive some more Cadillacs on Sunday with some Football at a bar again. Thanks for reading and a happy 23rd birthday to the Arlene and Darlene Arias, as well as old foolish-ass Sean Combs.

BIG at LA: Business In Games at Los Angeles

So the Los Angeles Dodgers have been granted $150 Million in loans from the Bankruptcy judge on Tuesday so that Frank McCourt can meet the teams payroll by the end of this week. Which means that the players, Dodgers broadcast announcer Vin Scully, as well as everyone and everything that has to do with the ballclub will receive money that's not even from the team.

And now there's another notion that Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig wants to object this ruling. I think with Seling and the league taking over the team is much better and more efficient than the FOX broadcasting company's $3 Billion Television deal that would've lasted 17 years in which he also intercepted that ideal. The suits have already embarrassed the Dodgers long enough the past two years.

This season even got more worse from the opening day melee scuffle between San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow and the Dodger fans outside the parking lot. I thought the news outlets was gonna cover this for about a week, but that beating was so brutal that the media managed to keep dissecting into this story for the next few weeks, AND THAT SHIT'S STILL GOING ON NOW. Hell I won't be surprised if the keep covering his updates on his condition and those "unruly fans" that jumped on him during the postseason. Doesn't the media realize that the Los Angeles Dodgers have other problems to deal with, both off and on the field in terms of new management in Don Mattingly and the backlash for not making the playoffs for the first time in 3 years? Well... they don't, cause the media creates their own stories, or should I say they take real stories and make some tweaks on it, putting much more of a negative image on LA Sports fans like the reaction of the Lakers NBA Finals victory for example. There are several different ballgames like the Yankees vs Red sox regular season series, if not, the playoffs, and others outside of Major League Baseball that have fights MUCH worse than the one from the Dodgers opening day.

I lived in this city my whole entire life, well, the Valley to be more specific. I survived the Riots, the Earthquakes, the mountain wildfires from living in Granada Hills, and the brutal ass rush hour holiday traffic among other shit. I live in the same city where a different notable figure gets pulled over for a DUI late at night every week just to promote his or her self rather than knowing to face the consequences. Los Angeles was supposed to be known as a place where people want to come and start the rest of their lives there without leaving to another state. Well, that was 60 years ago after the World War II vets came home to start the unprecedented Baby Boom era, in which the influx of families have surpassed the population in Suburban neighborhoods around Los Angeles.

But now LA itself has gone through some other financial troubles, especially the school district. I mean shit, I can't picture starting high school in August and ending the year at the first week of June. That's private school shit. The city and the district had to get rid of the classes and programs in order to meet the budgets needs. Without cool stuff like the music programs and the Physical Education (there are some schools that no longer have that class), the students will feel bored and miserable. But thankfully, there are some after school programs that have these activities provided.

But back to the way the city of Los Angeles being viewed right now. If you drive around LA in its entirety, at first you'll feel like you're set in a movie or a TV crime-drama. Alot of films are shot here and majority of the stories are set here. Almost every movie that takes place in LA has to do with the Police chasing and some dude getting blown up. Unfortunately, its ACTUALLY like that here sometimes. To me, LA is much more than that in a positive way. I don't like how its being viewed like that just like how certain people view Miami as a place where Cocaine rules the night clubs on Ocean Drive. Regardless, I love living in this city just like the song says, and I wouldn't want to live any other place else. But just like another Hollywood couple here in Los Angeles, the divorce of the McCourts really did damage and overshadowed one of the most legendary ball clubs in sports. Believe me, I know about divorces.

My parents are probably the one of the only few Nigerians you'll know that had more than one divorce from each other (think Billy Martin and Geroge Steinbrenner see-saw at the Yankess front office back in the 1980's). Alright, two divorces then. Once back when I was in 9th grade which lasted 8 months and another one which was four years ago. Pops got remarried a year later and the moms is living the single life right now. Didn't care about the first one but the second one took me a while to get used to it. In December 2008, I was a bit upset when the stepmom costed me the relationship of a client of mine who happened to be a model. I said some shit about pop's new wife on Facebook with frustration that time, which seriously offended and ended my relationship with my client. Now if you see her portfolio, she's has several photos taken by 15 different other advanced photographers and also had traveled to different countries for her photoshoots. I can't imagine where I'd be right now if my parents didn't split. I'd still be living on my own, but probably at a nicer more affluent-ish type neighborhood instead of Sylmar. The only thing that matters is that both of them are happy with their lives, which I had to understand after getting into a few arguments with the pops and moving out from his place last year.

I think what the McCourts, both Frank and Jaime, should've done is hold a big-ass community group meeting with Dodgers fans instead of having meetings in the courtroom. It could've took place at Dodger Staduim, the Staples Center, or the biggest town hall in Los Angeles that can accommodate a decent number of those who take this ball club very seriously. Regardless if their divorcing or not, they both could've gone on stage sitting on stools with microphones in front of a thousand Dodger fans by honestly telling them the situation in regards to the teams business itself rather than just letting the fans have to rely on the media and some other source to figure out the problem. Then the McCourts could've spent the rest of the night hearing the opinions from every fan of all ages on what Frank and Jaime should do to fix and solve the problem with the team, so that the fans can feel more comfortable by watching their team play some baseball without the backstage business drama raining out the fans interest of one of the biggest, most recognized baseball teams in this country beside the Yankees. The McCourts could've pretended that there just two regular business owners instead of a married couple while they're at Dodger Stadium proceeding with day-to-day operations and then proceed as a married couple instead of business owners when they're in bed.

Yikes, that's was a nasty image I just threw out in that last sentence. My bad.

But yeah, that's just my view on this whole "white collar" ordeal that has been overshadowing one of my only favorite baseball teams. I went to three games over there in the last 12 months, and despite them losing at all three, I really enjoyed being there regardless. If there's a new owner after this season, that's fuckin' great. I really don't give a shit who it is, just as long as he keeps the players happy, Bud Seling in a good damn mood, and attracts a sellout type crowd at the Ravine every game. I'm just stating opinions like I always do on this site.

Some of you may not like whats been typed on here since discussions on this type of stuff can get very funky. The bottom line is that everyone is different and see a certain perspective that is not similar to someone elses. I read this quote that the homie Johnny Depp (met the dude for four seconds at Penelope Cruz's Walk of fame ceremony two months ago otherwise I wouldn't refer to him as a homeboy) said which I saw on the internet. He said that everyone is weird and that to express it without being scared or worrying about it. In other words, everyone's different, which is why the purpose of alimony is to bring two different people together and collaborate as one for the rest of their lives. My parents tried and failed after 20 years. Same with the McCourts.

SINCE THE LAST TIME I TYPED ON HERE

I went all the way to downtown Los Angeles to meet the Laker Girls again to sign their 2011 Calendar at the Team LA Store at Staples Center, ate that delicious foot long pizza at the ESPN Zone across the street, got denied a new account at AT&T in Encino, ran into Nick Hogan at Westfield Topanga, bummed a couple of rides to get to my Homegirl's practice session with her band in Reseda, met up with some friends of a friend at California Pizza Kitchen in Northridge, raked leaves at my pop's house for two hours, and rode my brother's bicycle to one of my other friend's house today with Panda Express.

All of that while I had a serious flu with a mild fever of 102 degrees.

But now I'm feeling more improved thanks to all the Vitamin D Orange Juice and all the countless medicines.

I FEEL ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE RIGHT NOW

Its not because of some hot girl or because the Cleveland Cavaliers lost by an unheard of margin of 55 points against the Los Angeles Lakers last night. Just a few hours I woke up, I started feeling warm and my body really aches. It aches so bad, that I can't be able to work and update my other blog page, which the link is at the bottom of this page. I just hope that this flu or weakness goes away. By the way, the reason why I wasn't on last night is that the wix.com servers weren't functioning, which wouldn't give me access to my page. I'm gonna go to bed right now, with my sneakers on.

I'll believe it when I see it

Fuck, that shit looks so tight.

These are proposed rendered drawings and architecture for a new stadium built in the L.A. Live complex district next to Staples Center, Los Angeles Convention Center, and the J.W. Marriott/Ritz Carlton Hybrid Hotel. This shit is gonna cost 1 Billion dollars to construct in under a year. I think they should have the big wig corporate fat cats fund for this, just like they're doing with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Another thing. If and when we're going to get an NFL team here, why can't they just play at the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl instead? Saves alot of time and money. Wait, its because Tim Leiweke, the Chief Executive Officer of AEG and the mastermind of LA Live, is doing whatever he can to turn Downtown LA into an offspring of Manhattan and the Las Vegas Strip in Southern California, in which we taxpayers have to chip in due to the city's troubling budget problems. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it was fine back when the Raiders played in the Coliseum, minus Al Davis' numerous dates with the Los Angeles courtroom judges.

Damn, no wonder Ervin "Magic" Johnson sold his stake of the Lakers to help AEG bring and possibly own an NFL team in Los Angeles. I remember when he owned 30% of Los Angeles. Dude has his own movie theaters, a franchised 24 Hour Fitness, and a franchised Starbucks coffee shops among other things. The first of many times I met him was at his own theater next to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza back in 1999. My siblings and I just finished seeing Toy Story 2 there and Magic was there to meet the kids who were attendance. It was something my mom's job sponsored then during the holidays that year, and the did this thing where employees with kids can take them to his theater to watch Toy Story 2 for free, meet Magic Johnson and get a bunch of free Christmas gifts. I didn't want to meet him because I wasn't into the NBA that much then, but my moms got very pissed off and forced me to. So I went and shook his hand and that's all I can remember. Went by very fast.

By the way, the city is doing fine without an NFL team, but it be nice to have one just so that all the critics and the media jerks can shut the fuck up. Lets hope this next NFL franchise learns it mistakes from the Los Angeles Xtreme, who were owned by Vince McMahon's XFL league, and the Los Angeles Avengers, in which the Arena Football league got affected by the recession, and also, I'd like to see a very catchy name and some dope ass colorways for this NFL team, if and when we get one here.

The final week of September and the first two days of October

I felt so fuckin' messed up when I woke up this morning like I have the flu or something. I always tend to fall asleep for the past few hours. I wanted to write this last night but my body keeps feeling like its stuffed with those pink things they put inside the walls during the construction of homes.

Speaking of pink, this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so you're gonna see alot of people wear that color frequently, even guys will sport it also. I don't personally know anyone who was diagnosed with that disease but the only person that I can think of was Gilda Radner, who was one of the first ever cast members of Saturday Night Live as the "Not Ready For Primetime Players" group. She was one of breakout stars on that show in the 70's, but then her personal life was much deeper than her television career. In the late 80's Gilda Radner was supposed to host the Season Finale of Saturday Night Live in May of 1988 (two months after I came here to this thing called life) but it didn't happen cause the writers were on strike that year, shortening the television season just like it did in 2007. The following year she died of ovarian cancer, on the same day of the season finale of the 1988-89 season of Saturday Night Live. That lead to the start of the recognition and awareness of the disease that cause Gilda Radner's passing.

I wrote this cause I was a huge fan of Saturday Night Live 9 years ago in Junior High school. I watched all the repeats they aired on Comedy Central and E! that time and did extensive research on the show's history at the public libraries and by talking to people who watched the show back in the 70's. ABC aired a television movie in April 2002 called Gilda Radner: Its Always Something. I recorded it when it aired, and the VHS tape all of a sudden broke when I tried to play it back the following week. I was really upset that day, cause that was the only time that they would air that movie, and it wasn't out on home video, even to this day.

Anyway I just recap the past week day by day. It wasn't a very great week for a lot of people. There were a lot of deaths that happened among other personal problems. I, for one hand, didn't have any problems this week, cause I made it great.

SUNDAY

Spent the previous Saturday night at South Bay covering a Nigerian party with my uncle at a hotel on Torrance, mostly taking photos of the Nigerian women there who should be models, seriously. I wanted to drive back home since it ended at 3 in the morning, but my uncle freaked out since he didn't want me driving that late (I've done it many times before), so he got me a hotel room in Gardena because we have to be at a Baby Christening on Sunday morning. Then the following morning we drove to the Church, took photos and video of the event, and I left with $200 that he paid me. I then drove to Samy's Camera to buy some rolls of film, and then ventured to the Grove a block up Fairfax. I chilled at the bar inside the Cheesecake Factory there and ate Onion Rings along with their side salad and Strawberry Lemonade. I met this black guy there who was new to Los Angeles and I told him about some of the other sports bars in the Southland. He told me that works for the government and that he came from Florida. Dude was chill to talk to. Then he gave me his business card as I left.

I drove back to the valley cause there was an House warming party/Art showcase at a band members house show just moved into in Granada Hills. I didn't stay too long cause I had to go to Frank's house later, so I just took some photos with the Nikon N70 film camera and gave them $5 as a to show support as a donation. After that I got home, took a quick shower, bought pizza from both Dominos Pizza and Little Ceasers Pizza so that Frank and I can feast at his place while watching Sunday Night Football with the New York Jets against the Miami Dolphins.

MONDAY

The infamous, surprisingly, self-proclaimed "hottest record breaking day in the history of Los Angeles". I so happened to be near downtown Los Angeles on that day taking care of some business and I was wearing my black Nike t-shirt I got from Santa Monica the week before, which was a bad mistake. Before that, I was at Nicole's place to chill for a bit until she had to step out with her kids. Then I drove to the University of Southern California to pick up a T-shirt at their book store. I haven't been inside the campus since I worked at their graduation as a photographer's assistant back in May. For some reason, it felt like a regular blazing Southern California day, since I didn't notice any 113 degrees feeling as I walked around USC. The book store has a lot of pricey stuff there, including USC colored Hawaiian T-shirts for $90. I think certain people call the USC acronyms "University of Spoiled Children" for that reason.

I then drove to Samy's Camera again, taking the same route as I took the day before cause I drove by USC yesterday from Gardena. I went to pick up my film prints that were dropped off the week before to be developed. They came out VERY nice. I then went to the Grove again to take some photos of Tori Spelling and her family for the first time at Barnes and Noble for a meet and greet that night. There were too many mothers and little rugrats screaming in the bookstore while she was signing autographs, but Tori is nice and chill. Finally took a cruise up Mulholland Drive afterwards, which is hella nice to drive at night. I totally recommend it if you're going through some shit or wanna start creating a family by parking at a cliff to glance an overview of the Valley.

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY

I didn't do that much on Tuesday, except dring all the way to Fry's Electronics for an interview that I applied at back in June. I completely forgot that I applied there. I talked to one of the other candidates for the job. Her story was very sad to hear, that she and her fiancé of 9 years both got laid off from their jobs and they have a kid to raise. I felt sorry for her so I had to give her a ride home cause she was planning on taking the Metro and walking to her place, which is in the Canoga/West Hills border, on triple digit weather. On Wednesday, I spent the entire day with my friends from high school Arlene and her sister Darlene taking photos of one of their close friends at different places from Simi Valley to Zuma Beach to a park in Malibu. Shot the whole thing on film. We were gonna go to Fairfax, but it was getting late so we just went back home. The whole experience turned out great. Thanks Arlene and Darlene.

THURSDAY

Spent the latter first half of the day working on my updated Flickr profile. Then I jetted to a studio in Reseda to watch my friend Nicole's band practice for a show they got coming up the next day. It was really hot in there, with the band members practicing without their shirts. The practice lasted for two to three hours and its was great. I wanted to come with them to an afterparty at one of the member's house, but I had to stay and help these other dudes who either work at the studio or must be part of some band group cause their car wouldn't start. I took my jumpstart kit and tried to jump their car, which is a Saturn sedan from the late 1990's. It wasn't the battery but it turned out to be the starter after one of the dudes jammed it with some type of bar, which got the engine to start.

FRIDAY

Went to go see Nicole's group called Darger De Milo perform at the Tribal Cafe in Echo Park near downtown Los Angeles. The place looks like a general store straight out of Laurel Canyon, with a Hawaiian/African theme in the exterior and inside the place. There were alot of underground bands that performed there also, which was excellent. I met this random Nigerian woman in there who forgot that it was the 50 anniversary of the country's independence from the United Kingdom, so I had to remind her. She told me that she does just about everything, from filmmaking to photography to producing and booking acts among other things, and she lives next door to the Tribal Cafe. I wish I got the Darger De Milo performace on video instead of just stills, cause it was just too damn brilliant. Then we chilled at one of the other band memebers place in the West Valley. I known her from Kennedy High since the 11th grade. Thank you Nicole for the ride to and from the performance.

SATURDAY

Was supposed to go to an album release party for this underground band, but I had to take my brother to a Nigerian 50th anniversary Independence youth party in Ontario. Was supposed to take my brother there, but I had to go help with my uncle take photos at a party that night. Was supposed to help my uncle, but he called me in the last minute to tell me that they hired another camera crew to cover the event, so I spent the night watching College Football highlights on ESPN. The Stanford/Oregon game was the most impressive game of the day, yet USC lost against Washington courtesy of a botched field goal kick from the Trojans. Just another stale Saturday. I could've made money that night.....from helping my uncle, not from College Football games.

Well, that was how my week went. If I wasn't doing anything, then there wouldn't be alot to write. Make this month great for yourself, cause there's two more before the end of the year, and it'll be gone within a flash.