Growing and Going So Fast

Obviously, I don't like deaths. I don't like to hear about celebrities in the news that much more. I don't even like hearing about celebrity deaths.

But Paul Walker's death last Saturday was tragic. His life abruptly ended from a car accident at Santa Clarita that he was riding. The worst part was that he was riding shotgun instead of behind the wheel. I do not know him personally and I've never met or seen him in person, yet, that dude was in several well known films, as well as the Fast and Furious franchise for the past 12 years.

I vividly remember the first ever Fast and Furious movie that dropped when I was in 7th grade (going on to 8th grade) back in 2001. I didn't watch it until two years later during my sophomore year in high school. My homeboy Cory was planning to bring a brick of DVDs to class on this one Friday in homeroom when we weren't scheduled to read books on that day. However, there was no DVD player in the classroom, so I volunteered to provide my brother's Playstation 2 to be used as the DVD Player. The following week, just as I disconnected the Playstation 2 to take to school, both of my parents got very heated and started going off about viewing movies in school, especially at the part when I told them that my homeroom teacher wanted me to bring a DVD player since there was none in the classroom. So my parents made me take the DVD player from the big screen TV instead so that my brother's console wouldn't get jacked or something. That shit was heavy.

So I brought the unit to class and Cory selected the first Fast and Furious video to watch in the class. Again, that was my first time watching this film and already, it got me entertained. We only saw the first 20 minutes of it cause that's how long homeroom lasted. After school, I went back to my homeroom to pick up my family's heavy-ass DVD player to take back home. I had to walk home by carrying that shit. I placed the unit and connected it back to the big screen TV as I got home later. Then afterwards that evening, my pops called me and found Cory's Fast and Furious DVD that was left in there. I thought that he was gonna flip when he saw that, but he just gave it to me without saying a thing. I had to wait till Monday to give it back to Cory, so I figured I watch the rest of the movie during the weekend until them. I thought that was a cool ass movie, with alot of street racing action coming from Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's characters in the film.

I didn't think that this film would keep having countless sequels later throughout the forthcoming years. I watched the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift which was just fucking shit. To me, I kept thinking that the producers should quit making these Fast and Furious films since its showing that Hollywood is out of creative ideas and just turning hit movies into brands and franchises as financial gain. Again, it was very sad to hear about what happened to Paul Walker. They were still in the middle of production and Principal photography for the seventh Fast and Furious film which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. My guess is that they will have to continue production by alternating the script which "writes off" Paul Walker's character from the movie or just re-shoot the entire seventh movie again. From a filmmaker's perspective, that shit is alot of money and time to re-shoot a film. Very emotional to many just from hearing this. Hope the best for Paul Walker's family and the Fast and Furious cast and production crew.

That, along with hearing about motherfuckers getting jumped and ran over for a $75 big screen TV set at various stores during Black Friday, was the only downfall of that Thanksgiving weekend. The rest of that weekend was mostly positive.

During Thanksgiving, I mostly spent it with the family, just the pops and the siblings. I picked up the little brother from LAX, with my step-mom's Benz instead of the Taxicab, since he was visiting for the weekend from his University in the east coast. Haven't seen him since he left back in August. It was great catching up with him again. I was planning on going to my homegirl Amber's house for Thanksgiving again this year, but my pop's wife is out of the country for now, so I stayed home to keep my pops company for Thanksgiving. We had the usual blessing and Thanksgiving dinner in the dining table. Its been forever since we've done that. The next day on Friday, I worked at the airport and it was fucking slow. Spent hours in the taxicab holding lot waiting to be sent to a terminal. I picked up a few trips from LAX that entire Friday which was alright.

On Saturday, I went to the bank, the car wash for the Prius since it rained the previous day, and then to Primitive Shoes and Apparel to pick up some t-shirts. I was there the Saturday before for the release of their collaboration pack that the did with DJ Clark Kent and Nike SB. I originally was gonna pick up some of Primitive's Holiday '13 gear that Saturday, but I figured I'd give it a shot to try out for obtaining those Nike SB's. After standing in line for an hour, I went in only to find out that all the large sizes (I'm a size 12) were sold. The only had a 11.5 left which was the biggest. I tried it on, in which it fits. The disadvantage was that the show was too damn tight and a bit light for my feet. Instead, I just copped a t-shirt and a Primitive X New Era that goes with those shoes. Not to be confused, I got the hat and t-shirt two Saturdays ago, and I was at Primitive the recent Saturday just to some more shirts. I'm always there.

The line from the DJ Clark Kent X Nike SB X Primitive 112 collab release. I showed up late which is why I wasn't able to get my size.

Like I said, instead of those shoes, I picked up a Primitive X New Era fitted with a 3M reflective bill and one of Primitive Apparel's new t-shirts from the Holiday '13 line, featuring the "Paint Splatter" design.

Another Primitive Apparel t-shirt that I purchased two days ago. This is the "Lazy Sunday" t-shirt. I decided to get this in the Sea Foam color since I have several black t-shirts featuring Primitive's sexy models. 

After that I stopped by Mulberry Street Pizzeria to get a quick slice of Pizza and then I drove off to Pacoima to my highschool classmate Marissa's place for her oldest daughter's birthday party. Before I landed there, I stopped at Target to get some coloring books and crayons for her kid, as well as some balloons for the other kids that were gonna attend. This was my second time being there. I was there two months earlier for her other twin daughter's birthday party. But this one for her oldest daughter was great. Had some conversations with Marissa's family members and ate alot of the food they provided. I didn't take too many photos there, but here's one of them:

Marissa getting a pretend glitter tattoo by her daughter during the birthday party. 

Later that night, I went to my friend Natasha's crib, another old high school classmate of mine, at the other side of the Valley. I brought my copy of the Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blu-Ray video to watch with her since she's never watched it. I also hooked her up with the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides movie poster that I got from the private World Premiere viewing at the El Capitan Theater a week before it officially came out two years ago and I lent her the DVD version of the film since the video is a Blu-Ray/DVD combination pack. Also in attendance was her boyfriend and her daughter. Its was great catching up with them again. Thank's again Natasha for inviting me.

I'll end this post here. I'll got another tight week ahead of me in this last month of the year. I'll update this blogsite whenever I have some fresh extra time. Thanks for your time reading this.

Memorable Days

It's 3:30 AM on Monday morning as I'm typing this. Damn, as I look back the past three years, she really did made an impact on my life.

If it wasn't for her, I would've been a basic ass black dude being remotely bored with his life. If it wasn't for her, then 90% of y'all would've never gotten professional quality photos being taken by me. And because of her, my photography has improved and increased in terms of business and networking. One of the reasons I stayed in touch with her is cause she also has a similar interest in taking photos as well, in both film and digital. Hell, I even saw her rocking two Canon SLRs (each film and digital) at her twin's second birthday party. Once I saw that, I knew she was legit.

That day, August 13, 2010, pretty much started the whole thing. I already discussed it on this site a week after it happened, but fuck it, I'll tell it again since it was one of my most memorable days of 2010.

The day of my brother's 18th birthday, I first met her at the Robert Frost Middle School class reunion at the Sugar Suite bar in Granada Hills. She was one of the few people that hosted the event. I know there's high school reunions but I would never think there would be one for 8th graders who graduated in 2002. So I went since I was one of the well known people from my middle school who got into fights there and got sent to the office several times for hitting on girls. That school was in a affluent area of Granada Hills and the people there looked like rich private school students since we had to wear uniforms. I was the skinny black kid with the cheap Payless shoes and fucked up haircuts done by my moms with uneven line-ups. But back to the reunion, as I got there, there were several people that I recognized and haven't seen in 8 years. We reminisced about all the crazy shit that happen at Frost and all the teachers we used to piss off. Then later, she came, and not to be disrespectful, but out of everyone that attended, she was the only one that I don't remember from junior high. Everybody else I did remember, pretty much the whole entire graduating class, but not her for some weird reason. She was also well known at Frost. I took photos of the reunion and posted them up on Facebook the next day, and I don't know if I sent her a friend request or if she sent me one, but regardless, she sent me an invite for attending her twin's birthday party taking place a week after that. My photography was increasing that summer just from doing multiple photoshoots and working with my uncle every week, so to gain more confidence, I asked her if I can take photographs of her kids birthday party and she said yes. I was thinking of charging her at that point, but since I offered to do it, I just did it for no charge.

Now as I was about get ready to go to her kid's birthday party on that Saturday, I learned at the last minute that Paul Rodriguez Jr. was doing a meet and greet at Primitive, the skating boutique that he owns in Encino, for the store's two year anniversary. Prior to this, I heard of Primitive a few times but I never stepped inside there and also that year, I was still into photographing celebrities and famous people, so I figured why not just add Paul Rodriguez, one of most popular professional skateboarders ever, into the list.

The thing was that the anniversary party happened around the same time that her twin's birhtday party started. I stayed there for a short bit and took about 20 pictures of the store, the people who attended, Paul Rodriguez, and the rest of the photos were of Filipina model Justene Jaro, who fucking shocked me by surprise when she came out looking tight and sexy by wearing the Infrared Nike Air Max 90s that got re-released that summer. Reason I took very little photos was because I didn't want to take up battery life and storage space for the birthday party I was going to attend later on that day. After I left Primitive, I never thought that I would return to that store unless if there was an exclusive Nike SB Dunk that was released, but a several months later, I ran into Harry Kim, one of the staff at Primitive, at a Thai festival in Hollywood. He was wearing a dope ass greyscale Primitive t-shirt with the Los Angeles skyline on it. I asked him about it and he told me that I should stop by at the shop to pick it up, which I did. Since then, I never stopped going to Primitive and I kept supporting them, just like what I was about to do with her.

When I got to her kids party, I didn't know what to expect. At first, it started out just eating some BBQ that was provided. Then later on, her kids showed up and that was when the show began. I just went all over the place snapping photos like I was at one of the events my uncle and I would cover during that summer. When the party was almost over, I told her that I would make a slideshow DVD of it as I left. I spent the next two weeks on my uncle's iMac working on editing the photos and placing them on iDVD. I made like a few copies so that she can give it to her family members. Here's the video slideshow I made form that party.

A month later after I presented her the photos from her kids party, she then invited me to attend another party to take photos of, but this time it was for two of her friends Annamarie Rhyne and Cristina Campa. It took place at her house on a Saturday Night. There were originally gonna be three bands performing that night, but it went down to two since the last band backed out at the last minute. The performers were Aftergloam and Darger De Milo, and this was the first of many performances that I witnessed and photographed of them. I was even surprised when she was gonna perform with Darger De Milo during that party. That night was were I met so many people who I would be somewhat involved with their lives for the next three years. It was one of the many greatest night ever.

As the months went on, I started going to several different gathering and meet-ups every week. Whether it was a show, a birthday party, or a last minute kickback, I was there just to take photos. Not only that, I kept meeting more people and their families and developed good relationships with them. If it wasn't for that night, I would've never met the homie Elvis and his awesome extended family. I was fortunate to go to the NBA All Star weekend with his brother and brother-in-law at the Convention Center the following year, something that I thought I wouldn't ever experience (thank you William Galvez). But in all seriousness, I really got a hard hit on life since I started hanging out and going around Los Angeles with her and a her friends, from a diverse perspective. I saw the reality of life, meeting different people and listening to the different opinions the spit out. All the late night shows in downtown, and hanging out with her friends family members was like a spinoff of a television series. Fuck, I really enjoyed it.

I really couldn't imagine what my life for the last three years would've been if I never met her. I learned so much about the different aspect of life through her than I would've throughout my entire lifetime.Through her I  experience about the joys and the mindsets of children through her friends' kids, newborns in life (such as seeing Katie Galvez's daughter Marilyn at one day old), experiencing losing life partners (RIP Ashley Davidson), the responsibilities and lives of young and old parents, giving respect to talented musicians and watching them craft their work behind the scenes during their practice sessions, having conversations with other photographers who have doing this longer than I have, staying up late at night till sunrise, driving her friend's cars since they were too intoxicated to go behind the wheel, spending Christmas Day with her family, hanging out at the DLT's, running into Nikolai Frature of The Strokes at the Five Star Bar right after he performed at Coachella that weekend, and witnessing the homeboy Eric Jackson getting married to Jessica Torres this past weekend at Franklin Canyon park, which was a great event. I wanted to stay longer for the reception, but I had to leave early due to work issues. If I never got to experience all of these, I seriously would've been some un-social vocational school student living with my moms and I would've had that one-dimension mentality thinking that too many people having kids is negative and that everyone was too lazy to clean themselves up and get a job. Shit, I would've lost interest in photography if I never met her, cause she was a major part of expanding my portfolio and the main reason why I started blogging a lot more.

Its not everyday that you would run into a blonde hair girl with tattoos and a serious infatuation with BMWs (she named her son after one of them) who would all of a sudden quietly put some kind of a dent in your life. I'm returning all of this by not only writing this long ass piece on her 25th birthday, as well as Memorial Day today, but by saying thanks to her for giving me a boost forward in expecting and looking out for life's challenges and social obstacles. I write all this cause I really do love her, just like the Thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) of her friends on her Facebook page. Even though I haven't seen her that much aside from seeing her at Eric and Jessica's wedding last Saturday (sorry that I didn't stay to watch your Disc Jockey talents) I'm very blessed to have her as a part in my life and hopefully it will continue for a very long time, and that she'll do the same impact she has done to me back in the summer of 2010 to others out there who don't have an true idea with social direction their going.

Happy 25th years of life, Nicole Stetter.

Hanging Over the Balance Inquiries

For some weird reason, I always tend to slack off from updating this site around March every year. Maybe it must be some hidden "senoritis" type birthday hangover that's preventing me from typing.( I just turned 25 ten days ago, if that matters)

But anyway, I've been very busy as of recent. You've been very busy as of recent as well. Its kinda been like that since Barack was sworn in to the White House back in 2009, when the economy just started to suck. Everyone is more focused on their own priorities, yet they sometimes find a way to go clubbing on a fuckin' Thursday night and post drunk photos of themselves all over Facebook. Hell, even the bars will be packed with non-Irish blokes this upcoming Sunday night as they raise their Blood Alcohol Content to the point where their too fucked up to not have to go to class or work the next day or two.

Shit, I don't even have time to go out nowadays. I even missed Primitive's Pain of Beauty premiere at the Arclight in Hollywood on Wednesday night cause I had to be at a mandatory last-minute hearing that night in Downtown Los Angeles.

What was the hearing for? Well, right now I'm currently and just recently employed as a driver in the Los Angeles Department of Transportation in their Taxicab division. I didn't really ask for it, but it was given to me. I been driving their cabs every day for a month so far, with only one day off on my 25th birthday so far. The hearing was for 2 complaints that some of the customers I picked up had snitch on me to the company that I drive for (United Independent San Fernando Valley). But I told them I just got started, and it was settled by having to pay them a $2.00 fine in Money Order.

Surprised that I'm now driving cabs around the Valley? Well, you're supposed to be. Surprises are part of life, from finding out that your first crush in elementary school is getting married for the third time on Facebook, or learning that one of your parents is dating somebody 15 years younger than them. My moms just called me this past week and we had our usual arguments. At the end of the conversation, she told me that I'll be 30 in 5 years, which surprised me as I though of it. Honestly, I really wish that I had one single legit job aside from my photography for the past six years instead of having several different ones. Since 2007, I was a cashier, a sale associate, a stock keeper, a security guard, a paparazzi photographer, a family portrait studio photographer, a paid volunteer at Providence Tarzana Medical Center, a car washer at Galpin Ford, and a warehouse supplier last year which I didn't mention that much on this blog. Hell, I even sold junk food and snacks at a small commissary there for the employees there with a deaf person in his 50s that was my supervisor there. I didn't know sign language, but despite the challenge, we somehow manage to communicate and get along very well while selling Coke Zeros and Frito-Lay products.

I'm only in this taxicab business just so that I can pay bills and shit like that and then later on in a few years I can start focusing on what I really want to do. I had to spend about $500 that I don't have to start and get all the permits and pay the exam fees and drug testing to drive cabs around the Valley, and its paying off well so far. If I never drove my drunk friends to their house in the past or if I never grew up in the 818 and knew every street by heart, then I wouldn't have interest in this job. To me, its just a regular job. Nothing to get excited about since most other better places to work at is very hard to get nowadays. I'm at the banks all the time and I work almost everyday for an average of 12 hours, so you'll rarely see any updates on here or on Facebook. But if you're on instagram, feel free to bother me at @justforsneaks07 so that you can see some photos that you won't see on Facebook.

Even though I missed the Pain Is Beauty invite only premiere on Wednesday night, you can check out the film right here on The Berrics, which is a website that post videos of all things skateboarding. The Berrics also have several other videos of Skateboarder/Primitive co-founder Paul Rodriguez from his web-reality series Life: Paul Rodriguez and a excellent feature on his partner Andy Netkin with his sneaker collection. Check it out. Pain is Beauty link

Anyway, I end this post right here. I'll have some photography and other stuff that I've been working on and will be working on that I'll share with y'all in the coming months, so keep a lookout for that. Anyway, 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/

You're Only Live Once

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Re-Birth Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now How That Mother-Fuckin' Best Was Won

Just another average weekend, with some occurrences that made it decent.

On Friday Night, I went over to my friend Nicole Stetter's boyfriend's sister's birthday party in Van Nuys to do some photography there, but I didn't have time to swing by Samy's Camera to pick up some Black and White 400 speed T-Max Film and my uncle has his D5000 that I always loaned, yet he was at his job all the way in Fresno. I almost bought an overpriced roll of 400 speed Color Negative consumer film at the CVS in Sherman Way and Sepulveda (Sidenote: that store was one of the VERY first places I applied for a job back when I was 16, which I didn't get) I also made a 5x7 print there for the birthday girl, and what's weird was that the clueless staff there charged me .32 for a 5X7 instead of $1.99 which is the original price, BUT WHATEVER, THAT'S COOL WITH ME.

When I got to the house where the birthday party was gonna be at, which was the birthday girl's boyfriend's crib, I was the first one there. She greeted me and I told her that I was going to take that much photos, but I had 3 exposures left on my Nikon N70 that I used for some serious portraits of the party. Later on, more people started to turn up, as well as her brother and Nicole, and it totaled the crowd to about 20 people on average. I enjoyed it. The mood was super chill, also there was a lot of food and the birthday cake was excellent. Thanks again to Illian Herrera for inviting me to your party.

Then on Saturday, I woke my ass up and headed straight to Primitive in Encino. For those who don't know, its a skateshop on Ventura Boulevard that's owned by professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr., providing skate decks, accessories and apparel of the Primitive brand and other skate brands like Diamond Supply Co., The Hundreds, Nike SB, Vans and others. Imagine that its an Active Ride Shop on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue, next to Fairfax High. But that place is one of the kind, and it helps represents the San Fernando Valley culture which is what I like about Primitive cause I grew up in the 818 my entire life. Like myself, you don't even have to skate to shop there. All the staff there are totally chill and the customer service they deliver makes you want to stay there longer. I felt like that was first time visiting the store from reading and typing this paragraph, but I've been going there a few times and blogged about it for the past two years, and I've met Paul and most of the models there on a third of my trips to Primitive. Anyway, I went there to check out the new Spring apparel, said what's up to some of the staff there and I left with a T-shirt that I really liked. I recommend anyone who grew up in the Valley to check out Primitive.

When I got home, I popped on this movie called Heaven which is a VHS (yes I still play VHS tapes) from 1998 that I bought at some garage sale on my way back home. I never heard heard of it but from reading the description on the back of the video cassette, I thought the storyline was interesting. Well, the actual film itself wasn't interesting. I mean why the fuck have a transvestite play as a stripper in the film instead of Elizabeth Berkley (Gen X-ers should know what I meant) or some random Z-list porn star? And everything thing else was just shit. I even researched the film and it gave out little information which showed how terrible it did back then. When it got to the middle of the film, I just couldn't take it anymore. The main character played by Martin Donovan was pissing me off like a teenage virgin dude who can't defeat the boss on a Xbox 360 video game after 400 tries. So I pressed stop, ejected the videotape and just literally threw it in the trash. Not just a trash bin, but the black trash that you pull out to the curb. That how I felt about the movie. I would do the same to Tyler Perry's films if he were to give it to me for free cause I can't stand that asshole (I got into a fight with a recession-ass couple during a screening of The Family that Preys back in late 2008). Later on I had to go to a Nigerian friend of my pops wife's crib to take photos there. I was surprised that they live here at a affluent residential area in the Sylmar/San Fernando/Mission Hills border, but whatever, I didn't give a shit. Only stayed for 2 hours cause I felt very sleepy there and gave me a lift home and 40 dollars as compensation.

Didn't do a whole lot on Sunday except dipping over to one of my homeboy's crib not too far from my pops house and just chilled there for the rest of the day. Picked up some Baja Fresh and watched the 2012 NBA All Star Game instead of the overdone Academy Awards. That was honestly the best NBA All Star Game that I ever watched. Seriously, that shit was a slam dunk contest, and I didn't see the actual Slam Dunk contest on Saturday Night since I had a job that night, but I heard it wasn't entertaining. Nothing can shit on last years Slam Dunk contest in the Staples Center by Blake Griffin which looked like a fuckin' AND 1 streetball act. And I hope Dwayne Wade gets fined or suspended for that punk ass move he did on Kobe Bryant during the game which caused his nose to bleed that lead to a concussion, but I assume some penalty will be enforced on him after this Sunday's game with the Miami Heat at the Staples Center against the Lakers cause that shit will be nationally televised. NOW IF IT WEREN'T FOR TOMORROW'S LEAP YEAR DAY, THEN THAT FUCKING GAME WOULD'VE BEEN AIRED ON MY 24TH BIRTHDAY, AND I COULD'VE ATTENDED THERE FOR FREE SOMEHOW! Still can't believe that shit was one day off.

By the way before I finish, I normally don't give that much acknowledgments to notable figures aside from Kim Kardashian and I made sound like an N'Sync fan or whatever, but major props and salutations to celebrity Jeweler Ben Baller for breaking the ice and tying the knot to wed Nicollete Lacson, a gorgeous Filipina model with a degree in Fashion, over the weekend. I don't personally know Ben, but I first heard about him on NikeTalk back in 2006, then discovered his blog two years later and have been religiously reading it every week ever since. I only saw him for a little bit once at the Platinum Motorsport toy drive in late 2010 and the other great thing is that he's a straight up LA resident who's been around for a long time. Most of the format from my blog posts was inspired from his blogs and his"Weekend Wrap-Ups"pushed me to be a better writer and blogger which is why I have a shitload of paragraphs every week. Check out his blogpage and his thoughts from his recent wedding to Nicolette over the weekend http://ifandco.com/2012/02/28/till-death-do-us-apart/

Anyways, thanks for your time reading and don't forget (which most of you will) I'll be turning 24 in six days. Just saying.

Putting Lin My Two Weeks

President's Day weekend, Washington's Birthday, or whatever the hell this past three day weekend was labeled, fell way below the curve.

Wasn't able to obtain the Air Jordan White/Cement IVs since the Footlocker I went to only sold 20 of the 25 pairs ( the other five went to the sales associates) There were two people in front of me at the line before one of the sales associates announced that the shoes were sold out after the third person in front of me got his pair. Nothing but random acts of shadyness. This was like the time when I was gonna get a pair Nike Dunk SB "Skate or Dies" four Februarys ago in 2008. I called the Active in Burbank, since that one was closer, every day around the week that they were supposed to drop cause the thing about Nike SB's is that they have no official release dates, the stores sells them whenever the shipment of the SB's come in (you start becoming knowledgeable about this type of this when you have interest in sneakers) I didn't call them on St. Valentines Day cause I was with some girl from Pierce College at the time, and then on the day after I called them, they told me that the Skate or Dies were already gone the day before. That shit was fucked up, but shit happens.

Just like I did with the Skate or Dies, I'll get over myself not getting the White/Cement IV's which I've been thinking about ever since they announced it late last year. Fools were spending their tax refunds on it which was smart for Nike to drop the shoe around this time during the month, as well as the All Star game the week before and Michael Jordan's 49th birthday which many people in line at the Panorama Mall didn't know about when I asked them that. This isn't a upset rant or an outbusrt or some type of therapy reflecting. I'm just telling what happened. And the people that gave up sleeping in bed or bathing for long hours to get these? I'll give props to the ones who REALLY want these just to wear for the lore and historic legacy of the IV's but NO FUCKING PROPS AT ALL to the one ones who've never seen Do The Right Thing or know anything about these kicks and just want to make a quick profit off of them (for example: Flight Club LA is selling these for almost $400). But the bottom line is this: I just wanted the shoes.

Mainly the ONLY positive portion this entire past weekend was watching the New York Knicks defeating the fuck out of Dallas Mavericks on Sunday Morning. Never a fan of both teams, especially Dallas since the swept the Lakers in the playoffs last year and Lamar Odom left Lakerland to go play for Mark Cuban's team which was bullshit. Plus, I think the media should just lay low of the gassing and the overhype on everything about Jeremy Lin from the Knicks, including the writers from Saturday Night Live from last weeks episode that I didn't see, yet I did read about it later. Dude's a excellent persistent athlete based on his performance last Sunday, but please just leave out his personal life in the press and respect the man's performance on the court. Like I said in the previous post, he's just doing his job of Lin-ning... I mean Winning games like every other sports athlete, which got him on the cover of this weeks Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated.

Speaking of Sports Illustrated....

Bought this during the campout, was surprised that all the young dudes there didn't give a damn about my copy of the Swimsuit Issue. I'm just glad to see Kate Upton get the cover this year but wouldn't been more better if she got it last year.

I'll end this here. I felt like myself as some 15 year old High School freshman typing this post about sneakers, basketball and women in swimsuits. Staying on the topic of age, I'll be turning 24 just two Mondays from now, on the 5th of March. SHOUTOUT TO ALL THE FELLOW PISCES OUT THERE! There's gonna be at least two different birthdays every day next month aside from mine. Thanks for taking your time reading this and get me something good in 13 days.

TO ALL THOSE FEMALES WHO OVER-WORSHIP TEENAGE POP STARS

Please don't use death treats towards the girl that your favorite celebrity is "dating" or having a photoshoot with, or whatever of that kind of nature. Death is not a play thing. To be honest, you're NEVER gonna get a chance with the both of y'all being together for Heaven knows how long. Think about it for a second, you do whatever it is with him and then what? It gets dry boring after that and plus, the said celebrity has to work everyday. To make it even from a male's perspective, all the hot attractive actresses and models that I used to think about every 2 seconds are now part time and full time mothers. There goes my chance of poppin' their cherries and I'm not to concerned about it... well a little bit.

Speaking of teenagers, I have to go to my pop's house later on cause my little sister has invited a multitude of her friends for her sixteenth birthday party over there. First time ever a non-Nigerian party is being thrown there featuring a bunch of Juveniles expecting to to be disrespectful, and that's where my task as a chaperon gets thrown in. Its gonna be a challenge.

Well, I HAD to do this today

The Armenian Princess is now in the Thirty-Something club, where being an ADULT is at instead of the roaring Twenty-somethings, which is the new "teenagers" nowadays. Holy shit, Thirty years old already? I remember back when she first came on to the exposure scene with Paris Hilton, she was in her mid-twenties back in 2006. All these photos were taking by me, non-stalker, I repeat, NON-STALKER STATUS by the way, and some of these were from my paparazzi days in 2008 and others just random meet and greets.

Happy 30th Birthday Kimberly. Looks like no more crazy parties. Already celebrating right now.