It felt like I was just at the House Of Blues in West Hollywood 2 days ago to support and photograph my homies William and Ginger Galvez's daughters and other elementary school kids performing there on behalf of the Rockstar Music Education program that was running the event there. Well, it actually took place this past Sunday morning. William and Ginger have been inviting me for the past two years to attend this annual event that being held every June, yet, I was never available during those times. But since they told me that it was their oldest daughter's final performance with the Rockstar Music Education since she's going to middle school in the fall, I had to cancel everything just so that I can finally check it out.
Prior to this, I have never stepped inside the House of Blues. I've passed by there all the time and have heard so much about the venue. So I carpooled with the Galvez family to the place and when we got there, I saw a grip of kids and their families waiting in line and paying admission fees to get inside. I even saw some kids getting their hair sprayed with different colors for that "rock star" appeal. When I got inside (there was a dude at the door rockin' the Google Glass eyewear piece. Looks futuristic) I though the House of Blues was gonna be a large-scale venue with seats, but without disrespect, the place looks like a club to me. It was also packed with parents screaming and cheering on the kids that were performing on House of Blues stage. Majority of them photographing and taking videos of the show with DSLR cameras and their iPads. The theme of the place reminded me of the old Wild Bills venue that used to be in Buena Park back in the 1990's, but without the western stuff.
Watching the little kids performing and covering rock songs that came out back in the day was very awesome to witness. There were no intermissions since there was a different group of kids going up on stage every four to five minutes per set. They had real instruments and several of them can actually play, including the drummers for each set. THESE KIDS CAN PLAY THE DRUMS. They can even sing too. I can assume these youngsters have been on every talent show since birth, or one of them must've been on TV or something. Speaking of which, one of the blokes from the Disney Channel show Shake It Up was one of the three or four guest judges of the event that day. I wouldn't picture this event from a competitive standpoint, it just a bunch of talented young kids having fun on stage and enjoying their parents. I wish I didn't have to miss out on this for the past two years, and as those kids got older, they look back in their lives and tell their kids that they performed at the House Of Blues stage in Hollywood.
After the show, we went to Cabo Cantina on Hollywood Boulevard for lunch and stayed there for a bit. I had their Quesadillas and it was unique cause I ate some Quesos earlier that day for breakfast at the Denny's next to the Burbank Airport. The Quesos at Cabo Cantina were much larger than the ones I had earlier. Then afterwards, we went back to their place and chilled for a few minutes. The homie Ginger even showed me this Hammock they had that came straight from Honduras. I tired it out since I've never been on a Hammock and damn, it was it was comfortable. I wanted to take an instagram photo of myself resting on it, but my phone was out of power by then. I can't wait till I get the Morphie Juice battery pack later on in future, which gives my iPhone more extra power like battery pack on DSLRs. Many thanks again to the Galvez family for making that Sunday like how every Sunday should be. Here's some of the pictures from that day taken from my mobile device.
The Quesos and pancakes I had for breakfast that Sunday at Denny's.
First time ever at the House Of Blues. Alot of great acts were on that stage: past, present and future.
One of the many young, talent kids putting on some shows.
My friend's WIlliam and Ginger's daughter on center stage. Who else do you know that can be at that fortunate position?
Interior of Cabo Cantina in Hollywood.
The most legit Beer Pong table I've ever seen.
These Quesadillas are for reals.
Here are some more random-ass iPhone 5 photos from this past week that you've might've seen on my instagram, but without the filters. (@justforsneaks07)
Brunch at The Habit in Glendale.
My latest purchase of Primitive Apparel's Summer '13 collection (thanks Ashley and Nicky)
One of my customers gave me this as a tip, but he paid the fare though.
Just like In-N-Out, The Habit also has a truck for events as well. A potential future birthday party idea.
This channel is meaningless until the Kobe Bryant returns to the court.
Yesterday's traffic on the 405 freeway at 12PM since the President made an unnanounced visit to Santa Monica for three hours.
THESE. ARE. EVERYWHERE.
My life everyday for the past four months, including the Starbucks.
Anyway, that's it for now. I have a wedding to cover today in Fullerton and Christine Mendoza is making a rare Valley appearance in my town tomorrow. I can't miss that. Thanks for your time reading this.
Instead of the weekend, I'll just recap the past full week.
I stopped by at Los Angeles Pierce College last Wednesday just for the fuck of it since I had too much time on my hands that day. that's where I took a few classes between 2007-2009 and I haven't stepped inside that school in about a year and a half or two. As I got in, the place looked almost foreign and unrecognizable to me. There were so many changes and construction around the campus and it wasn't like since the last time I was there. The school was empty since the Spring Session just finished. As I walked around, I started recalling so many mad memories during my times here. Few of them were good, yet many of them were not good that I should've improved on. For example, I once got into a heated argument with the school's only photography instructor there. I wanted to transfer some photos I took at the Fiesta Lakers event in 2009 from my SD card to my flash drive on the Mac Pro's there cause I sold my black Macbook a few months prior for cash (it was a rising peak of the recession then) and I didn't have a legit computer at my house that time. He gave me such little time to transfer them and being that those photos were large file sizes to move, the bloke got impatient and then that's when the fireworks went off. Never stepped inside that room after that moment. Other than that, Pierce College looks brand new. The refurbished up to date buildings make me feel old for some weird reason since I'm used to the old style of the campus. Here are some photos I took off the T-Mobile G2.
The old cafeteria used to be there, which is being replaced with this building. I once had a lunch date there with this Russian chick that I kept seeing while riding the Orange Line since I didn't like parking my car at Pierce. The food was alright, but she was on her SideKick III 50% of the time.
My first time seeing this fountain there, AND THERE WAS STEAM COMING OUT FROM THAT SHIT! Major upgrade.
A statue of Pierce College's mascot, the Brahma Bull. Again, this is something new that I've never seen there before.
These stairs are no joke, and it leads up to this...
My favorite spot of the whole entire campus. A scenic view area to see 3/4 of the San Fernando Valley, next to the performing arts building where I took an Acting course there once just for extra units. Unfortunately, they closed it off due to ANOTHER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. WOW. I used to invite females up here several times in between classes or whenever a class was cancelled.
After seeing all the changes there, I walked over to the Westfield Promenade to try on a couple of Levis 501s at the Macy's there, then chilled at the Barnes and Noble there and read this one book which has OG photographs of some youth and young adults skateboarding in Southern California back in the mid to late 1970s. Very similar to Lords of Dogtown and most of the kids featured on the skatebords had long natural (yes, natural) blonde hair and rockin' a pair of old school Vans which also fits the vintage California lifestyle. Then I walked to the Westfield Topanga Mall up on Owensmouth Avenue and just walked around the mall like usual. Nothing special happening there that day, other than seeing the Sony Style there being closed down. One of only stores that I like checking out at the Topanga Mall has always been the Sony Style, and most of the items there are not being displayed. I saw employees inside just cleaning up the store inside. Damn, now I have to go all the way to the Sony Style at the Beverly Center or the one at the Americana at Brand in Glendale.
On Thursday, I witnessed (pun intended, I guess) the Miami Heat winning their second World Championship by defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the NBA, and Lebron James getting his first title that shuts the whole world up. Everyone was upset that he won a ring, saying that it the playoffs was an inside job for him or shit like that. The best part in my case is that I no longer have to hear those "Lebron will never have a championship ring" jokes anymore. They were amusing for five minutes but then got quickly dried out after that. What I didn't like was that Mike Miller of the Miami Heat didn't get the Finals MVP, which Lebron James received, since he hustled his ass on the floor by dropping Ray Allen-type 3 point field goals. I said the same thing about Ron Artest when he made that one desperation 3 pointer towards the end of Game 7 two years ago to give the Lakers the advantage to win the series, yet they gave it to Kobe Bryant instead. Thy have to let the non-big names receive the MVP for once in my opinion. Other than that, regardless if the NBA is worked or scripted from assumption which I doubt, congrats to Miami and especially to the Thunder for displaying their talent and performance despite them not winning. By the way, I kinda dislike Commissioner David Stern. Hell, one of the first two acts he did as becoming commissioner was announcing Michael Jordan's name in the 1984 draft and fining him 5'Gs for rocking his original Black/Red Air Jordan 1s as it violated the dress code then cause of the shoes colors.
Speaking of Air Jordans, I finally copped the White Cement IV's the next day. I 've already told the story about these shoes several times on my previous posts back in February. Drove all the way to Flight Club LA straight from work via 405 Freeway southbound Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard and Fairfax Ave just to get these since I got paid very nice that day. Reason why is that they were doing construction on the Wilshire Blvd off ramps which I usually take to go to West Hollywood from the 405 freeway. Surprisingly they had parking available on Fairfax Avenue that day since its always hard to find. Was about to get the Size 13 but that shit was $400. Fortunately, they had a size 12 which was a $50 difference less that turned out to become $350, and plus they fit more comfortably than the Size 13. After I got the sneakers, I then walked over to Diamond Supply Co. down Fairfax to purchase one of the t-shirts there. Last time I bought a shirt there at Diamond Supply a year ago, the workers there acted bored and uninterested as if they didn't drink coffee or something. This time they were showing kind courtesy and displaying excellent customer service as I asked for the size of the shirt I wanted. I was about to stop by the Beverly Center, but I decided to rush back home to the Valley. Took Coldwater Canyon instead of Sepulveda Blvd to avoid the wekend traffic there, as well as the effect from the demolition of the Wilshire Blvd offramps. Stopped at Best Buy to purchase two blu-rays, which I kept one of them now cause the other wasn't working on my pops Blu-Ray player due to firmware issues.
By far the shoe of the year for 2012. Celebrities, models and rappers were rocking these all over the place since February, more than the Air Yeezy IIs and the South Beach Lebron IX's. Fuck, even Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother was sporting the OG's back in 1989 from his Doogie Howser M.D. days.
Here's a video I took talking about the IVs and everything else.
Fucking glad I finally got them.
Next day on Saturday, I went down to Hollywood to meet up with Gianna Michaels (yes, the adult star) at some novelty store on Hollywood Blvd. There were two other stars there that I've never heard of before, but I wasn't concerned about them. Before that, I stopped by Amoeba Records on the other side to see if I can sell the Moneyball Blu-Ray that I bout the day before, which was the Blu-Ray that I had issues with. I picked Amoeba over Best Buy, not only because I was close to where I need to go, but Its also because I misplaced the receipt. I REALLY didn't want to sell this movie, but the screen on the TV was black for 10 minutes after I pressed play. So I gave it to him and got $3 in return. Yeah, I know, that was totally bullshit but I didn't want to give it away for free. Then later I met up with Gianna, and took only three photos of her... with her clothes on obviously. That meeting went by really short and fast but then again, the San Fernando Valley where I grew up my whole life is know for people like her.
I then later jetted on over to The Grove to test drive the new Cadillac XTS sedan they had there. All I can say is that the car is really nice. Just another luxury car to me, only with some interesting tech. First of all, the gauges are digitized like the Lexus LF-A gauges. Second, they have what its called the Cadillac CUE where the touch navigation screen has a menu display featuring icons similar to an iPad. I kinda think General Motors over did it with that feature on the XTS. There are even other automobile manufacturers that have their navigation systems in which you can check your Facebook updates on it. WHAT?!?! Major plus for the insurance companies I guess, unless if there's weekend traffic and nobody on the freeway is moving that causes the driver for nothing to do other than to... check his or her Facebook status. Man, do I really hate that site, but I bitched about it on my previous posts several times admist the recent events that the company went through (instagram acquisition, Facebook's initial public offering, Mark Zuckerburg's marriage to Priscilla Chan) since I last posted here back in March. And I'm about to approach my five year anniversary this Sunday of joining that site back on July 1, 2007. Time fucking flies. By the way, here's a video I took of the startup for the XTS, where it shows the digital gauges.
So afterwards, I finished driving around Fairfax in the new XTS, which feels like driving a CTS mixed with the Ford Taurus SHO that I drove at the LA Auto Show two years ago, and then the staff at The Grove gave me a $10 AMEX gift card just for driving it. I remember when I got a $25 AMEX gift card for driving a 2010 Kia Serento when it came out back in March 2010. Stayed at the Barnes and Noble there and read another photography book there, only this time it featured epic portraits of A-list celebrities for a photographer named Michael Thompson (not the Showtime Laker from the late 80's, only which it was spelled Mychal Thompson). His work is actually great. Got some motivation from reading the entire book. Went back to the Valley to eat at The Habit in Encino, but I stopped by Primitive first to talk with their awesome staff there. Shoutout to the homegirls Ashley and Irene over there. Feasted at The Habit by using the AMEX card and then headed straight to my pops house to rest.
FInally on Sunday, I did some typical sprucing up around the house and then for the rest of the day played most of my vinyl collection of out of print, hard to find 80's albums (not bragging because its true). I then later walked to O'Melveny park in Granada Hills to meet up with my Aftergloam family there since their member Elvis gave out an open invitation for anyone to come and hang out. Its been months since I was last with them, but we made use of a good time by playing soccer and ultimate Frisbee simultaneousley. Then I listened to some amusing stories that they were telling and then we all went home two hours later.
What a great way to start of summer. Couldn't ask for anything more better that weekend. Oh and don't forget to find me on instagram.I didn't mention it on her since it on Android came out while I was on hiatus from updating this blogsite. My username is: justforsneaks07. I'll leave a few comments on your photos once you start following me on there. Thanks for your time reading.
