Super Bowl Son-Day

That game was fucking weird. If not, the whole entire Sunday.

I was watching it at the De La Torre's place as I always do whenever a championship sporting event is taking place. For the past two years, I witnessed Green Bay Packers winning over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Superbowl XLV, the Dallas Mavericks getting their revenge against the Miami Heat in that Game 6 of the Finals, that crazy ass walk-off home run by David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals that forced a Game 7 in the World Series that year, and obviously that Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals when the LA Kings shocked the universe by bringing the Stanley Cup all over the town. But this past Sunday was my second time watching a Super Bowl there, and after a long stressful month of January, just being with some homies and their families and their kids made me feel more comfortable.

As for the game, man, fuck it. That shit looked like it was commissioned and produced by a fifteen-year-old who spent his whole life playing Madden '96 off his pop's Sega Saturn. I mean, it was great to see Ray Lewis getting his second ring at his final game (which is the same way that Jerome Bettis and John Elway finish their careers). The actual game itself felt like I was watching a regular season game and that fucking 35 minutes blackout had to be fixed (as in rigged not repairable) cause, shit, IT WAS THE SUPER BOWL. At a Saints game, yeah, but not during the big dance where a over 100 million people are watching it in their 90"  Samsung (I'll get to those fools later) HDTVs that they just spent their tax refund money on. Happened right after that insane 108 yard kick off return that gave Baltimore another touchdown, which made the San Francisco 49ers way out of reach as the score was 28 Ravens- 6 Niners at that point. After the power was restored, San Francisco regained the upper hand by scoring several touchdown to get very close to Baltimore, scoring wise. But after some, literally, last minute chances to get the lead that didn't work out, the Ravens got the win, as well as the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the second time in 12 years for their first Super Bowl win. It would've been epic and much more interesting if San Francisco won, even though I don't like that city's sports teams, yet unfortunately, it didn't happen.

Unlike the previous Super Bowls that I've been watching for almost 10 years, I didn't seen to have that hyped up style feeling. Maybe it cause I'm getting older or is because the players are getting younger. I still find it coincidental that the head coaches for San Francisco and Baltimore were are siblings, which its probably another reason that garners interest for the game just like John Gruden's old team versus his new team back in 2003. The advertisements they aired this year was bullshit and predictable. All of them. There wasn't one I really saw amusement and entertainment in. Also, that Samsung Galaxy commercial they aired that day? Shit, I honestly thought that it was never going to end. No disrespect to Seth Rogen and Judd Apathow, but it was long as fuck. I thought that Samsung had to give up a shit load of money to Apple from that settlement shit last year, but it looked like they wounded up spending about 100 Million bucks for that ad now that this year's commercials are 40 Million dollars just for 30 seconds of air time.  The only best part of the whole entire Super Bowl broadcast was not the halftime show (I wish I was kidding), but Kat Dennings cleavage during the promos for her show 2 Broke Girls on CBS, who also happened to telecast this years Super Bowl (Fox has it for next year).

What sucked the most about this years game was that this was the very first Super Bowl without the late Steve Sabol of NFL Films being present at the game. Like I said during his tribute that I typed up after his passing last year, he's one the only few people in the world that has gone to every Super Bowl since the inaugural game at the LA Coliseum back in 1967, and I've seem to imagine how the film crew is capturing the game without Steve Sabol giving the commands and directions for that day as he's done in the past. I don't even know if his name will be in the credits of the Ravens Super Bowl XLVII highlight video. but I'm sure they'll do a "In Memory of" type tribute. Probably another reason why my excitement for that championship game on Sunday felt out of place.

Anyway, that's it for the recap. Yeah, I know its kinda somewhat biased but that's how I really thought about the game that Sunday. It really felt like a regular game. Thanks again to the De La Torre's as always for hosting this Super Bowl gathering. Probably the only decent thing that I did so far, while the rest of the past few weeks have been personal stuff with the family and shit. I'm just glad I went there yesterday so that I can feel relaxed and stress free for once instead of driving around from The Valley to LA and answering phone calls that you don't want to answer. The only thing now I'm looking forward to is Primitive's Spring '13 line this month and any other surprises that they have. I know I talk about Primitive alot, but its one of the only decent independent sneaker/skateboarding/apparel boutiques that I really like and I support it alot on instagram and Facebook since the store is based in the Valley, as well as their clothing. Plus, its also owned by Paul Rodriguez, a well known professional skateboarder and a son of a famous latin comedian with the same name. Click on the link on the top right to check out their goods and apparel they offer.

Speaking of Primitive, thanks again to the gorgeous Shay Maria for uploading a photo on her Tumbr page that I took of her rockin' the Air Jordan VII "Playoffs" (not Raptors) during the store's four year anniversary Barbecue last summer. That photo got reblogged and favorited over 400 times. Does this mean that I finally consider myself "Tumblr famous"?

Thanks for your time reading this. Stay blessed. 

Second Nurture

A post update on a Saturday? Hey, the Breakfast club had to spend the entire Saturday in detention 26 years ago.

I didn't recap my Thanksgiving weekend from last week cause I didn't feel like typing about it for some weird reason. It was just a regular occasion to me. Went to three different houses which involved alot of football watching and a lot of food, including the Turkey obviously. My friend Marlene De La Torre's daughter Yvonne gave birth to her second daughter on that Thursday as well, which made it alot more special and interesting since I was with their family for that weekend. Spend Saturday and Sunday taking photos of the newborn on film. She's very gorgeous, and I give my ABSOLUTE, ULTIMATE best to her, and her parents Yvonne and Nestor the very best in their new blessing.

Also, week 12 of the NFL was just another Sunday. Bad teams losing to good teams and Denver's Tim Tebow still getting criticized and ridiculed by football fans despite his 5 game winning streak. That bloke is still probably getting the most heat from the New York Jets fans after that insane 90+ yard drive his offense performed in the final minutes of that Thursday Night game. He might somehow get a close break from the Chicago Bears in week 14, but I have a obvious feeling that the "Tebow Time" run will shut down when they greet the New England Patriots the following week. But then again, both of those games are home at Mile High Stadium... I mean Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Remember when Sports Authority used to be known as SportMart more than 5 years ago?

That's it for now. Damn, this is the SHORTEST post I ever typed in a while. And last thing, I hope those who were affected by the power outage and the Santa Ana winds damage to their vehicles and houses around the Pasadena area this past week will get something rewarding by the end of the month. It just sucks to think about those who unfortunate and have to deal with that shit, especially around this time during the holiday season. Thanks for you time reading this.

Booked and Pinned Weekend

The three day weekend was more of that minimum D+ that you had to get in order to graduate from high school. Nothing too spectacular like my friend's baby shower the week before.

Went to Northridge Fashion Center on Friday to buy a St. John's Bay black long sleeve shirt from the JCPenney there. That shit was 10 bucks and its the only place where they sell St John's Bay products, which I've been wearing for the past two years since the Lakers won their tite against Orlando. Damn, I STILL miss the NBA. But anyway, I was about to cop the mockneck longsleeve akin to the one Steve Jobs would always wear. Only difference is that his is furnished by St. Croix and that brand sells their clothing products for over $200 at least, and his black mockneck sells for $190, real talk. I'll just leave the link here to prove my point. http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/product.asp?s_id=0&prod_name=Full+Turtleneck+in+Cotton+%26+Microfiber+Knit&pf_id=PAAFICGMGMCHMCID&dept_id=3032

Tried out the mockneck, then had second thoughts about it, so instead I got the long sleeve shirt instead which is closer to the mockneck. As I was walking around and leaving the mall, I've noticed that the place is now started to get more occupied with people in high school or those in college who look like their in high school. Every thick chick and boots with leggings and every thin dude there with an overpriced snapback of a team they don't even like. Obviously the mall was packed cause it was on Veteran's Day. Plus they already had the freakin' Christmas Tree and the decorations up already. I blogged about the same thing on here about early holiday decorations last year when I went to go take photos of Cindy Crawford in the Glendale Galleria, and that was in October.

I then went to the Westfield Promenade to go pick up the Steve Jobs biography book at the Barnes and Noble there. Didn't stay long, just paid for the book with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got a few weeks ago and dipped my way home. I had the e-book version of it, but it only went up to one chapter since it was a trial. The book is very addicting and like I said before, it details Steve Jobs life very deeply and I learned so much stuff that I never knew about from the previous bios and history of the deceased Apple co-founder, and the book IS THICKER THAN THE ASS AND THIGHS OF SOME HORNY GANGSTER'S TWENTY YEAR OLD EX-GIRLFRIEND IN THE VALLEY! Right now I read six chapters already and there's alot left to go.

Later on I then hit up my friend Tina to go watch a film cause I really wanted to get rid of the AMC movie passes I got last year during the holidays. We went to one of the 3 AMC theaters in Burbank and I can't remember more than one parking garage that was literally full, with no where to park. So we managed to find parking 20 minutes later and had a tailgate like dinner at Fuddruckers right next to the theater. The place was like The Habit mixed with the environment and atmosphere of TGI Fridays, which I only went to once on my sister's 14th birthday in 2003 and I don't plan on ever going back there cause their Onion Rings fucked me up that day. And what makes Fuddruckers separate from all the other burger joints (still haven't tried Unami and The Counter yet) was that you get to pick what size patty and the kind of cheese you want and then you take your burger over to a section where the lettuce, onions, tomatoes and pickles, as well as the condiments, are provided for you to prepare, which I though was cool. After we got full, we the went to the theater, got the tickets and watched J. Edgar. That movie was alright but it wasn't what I expected it to turn out. It mostly focused on the gay overtones between Hoover and his assistant Clyde Tolson more than his 40 something year stint as the first director of the then newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation and the chronological order of the film will get confusing for a while. The film started at 9:30 and it ended at Midnight. I didn't think it was gonna be a long ass film. After that, we left and I went back to my place.

Woke up late as usual on Saturday. My friend's band Aftergloam was scheduled to perform at this small venue right across from Amoeba Records, but the show was cancelled at the last minute sinced it rained that day. I REALLY wanted to attend and I enjoy watching the homies Tianna, Elvis, and their new members Kimi Quinn and Albert Rubalcava putting those instruments to work. What made the day much worse was that the internet/phone service was cut off from my place in Sylmar just like that for the entire weekend. I lived in Sylmar for 13 months and this was the first time that ever happened. Usually when the service is down, one of my housemates has a short cut sneaky way of getting it working, only this tine it didn't budge after we spent the day trying to fix it. But I didn't really need to upload or download anything right now. I spent the rest of the day reading the Steve Jobs book and watching some pro-wrestling DVDs with my housemate for the rest of the night until I was tired.

Then on Sunday, I went to Lee's 4 Cocktails to watch some NFL games there and to digest the unlimited Pepsi and hot dogs that was provided (thanks again Dafnee). The Niners/Giants game in the afternoon was the game of the week. Unbelievable that San Francisco is 8 and 1 with their sixth straight win and I can't say anything about the Indianapolis Colts. On top of all this, the Oakland Raiders are first place in the AFC West, something that I haven't seen in a LONG time. I didn't watch the Sunday Night Football game between the Jets and the Patriots cause obviously tom Brady knows that First place of the AFC East was at stake and didn't want his team to lose three in a row, so I knew that they were gonna win over New York.

That's the end of my three day weekend. It looked like I did alot, but in person, it wasn't that much. Now I have another appointment meeting this Thursday, so I hope this one doesn't get fucked up in the last second like it did two weeks ago. Other than that, thanks for your time reading this and have a excellent rest of the week.

Thanksgiving came early....again.

It was just another weekend for me. Mostly with friends and some excellent pro-football.

Saturday was just mostly spent at the DLT's for my friend Marlene's daughter, Yvonne, for her baby shower that was taking place. I went there for two purposes: to take photos of the event and to show support as well. As I was heading my way over there, I needed to stop someplace to eat since I didn't consume anything after waking up late as usual. I could've gone to my church for their weekly potluck, but instead, I went to this pizza parlor just up a block on Glenoaks and Roxford. The Subway there was my original choice, but since I've passed by that place a hundred thousand times for the past nine years, I decided to try out their pizza for the first time.

It was very decent. I like it, probably the best 5 bucks I spent for two slices. It was run by this Hispanic lady in her late 20's and another girl, who I assume might be her sister or cousin in high school, that's probably doing a weekend gig for some cash. Place was small with a 4 arcade machines and a regular size flat screen TV hovering on the ceiling. They were showing a bullshit episode of True Life profiling this teenage girl who has to deal with their embarrassing mom's that has very large fake breasts and some crying shit. I didn't want to watch that while I was eating in risking regurgitation, so I made the owner of the restaurant change it to the Stanford/Oregon Pac-12 college football game. This Andrew Luck kid is gonna be the talk on the sports world for the next couple of months. I won't be surprised if he gets drafted by Indianapolis next year, if he decides to not play his senior year with Stanford. After consuming those two slices and a cup of water, I then dipped out to the DLT's. Shoutout to Bella's Pizza for the quick, delicious lunch.

The baby shower for Yvonne was pretty much handled like another regular kickback at her place like before. Only difference was that it was mostly women that was in attendance, and obviously, I didn't have a problem with that. I brought a black tarp as a background for a "prom night portrait" style photoshoot that I did for everyone there, the first time I ever did that for any event I did. The stock photos actually came out well, but I might tweak them up a bit. I didn't have any strobes or studio lighting to use, just some of the light that's occupied in the house and the built in flash on the camera. My uncle is getting his SB-600 flashgun repaired. Aside from that, everything else was absolutely chill. Spent the night there and watched a bit of football as soon as I woke up from a two hour sleep, cause I drank some Pepsi the night before that kept me awake the whole night.

I didn't go to test drive some Cadillacs at The Grove on like I said in the last post, but whatever, I drove several of them in Glendale last month. They also had the annual Glamourcon event at the Long Beach Convention Center, which is a meet and greet of former Playboy bunnies from the 1970's, 80's and 90's. I could've gone, but I rather take photos of those models from the way the looked 20 or 30 years ago. Sunday was just mostly spent at the DLT's just checking out the Niners/Redskins game, which ended up with San Francisco becoming 7-1 since Steve Young was the starting Quarterback there in that ball club in the 90's. The rest of the early games were blowouts. I thought FOX was gonna air the Packers/Chargers game in the afternoon, but they showed the Giants/Patriots game that had the shittiest scoreless first half I've ever seen. I left when halftime started (thanks to Katie Galvez for the lift back to my place).

When I got back home, I wanted to rest to make up for the loss of hours that I didn't sleep, but one of my housemates was going off with his karaoke system in the living room, and to be honest, I FUCKING DON'T LIKE BEING IN KARAOKE SCENES. I can't sing for shit, and I'm glad I've never tried it in my life, ever. To avoid hearing him from my room singing every catalog more than twice for the remainder of the time (no joke, EVERY SONG MORE THAN TWICE) I shook over to my friend Frank's house just not too far from where I live. got a chance to see the final seconds of the Giants/Patriots game and damn, that shit felt ALOT like their duel in Super Bowl XLII. Brady losing at home for the first time is like him breaking his team perfect season record in the 2007 season. That feeling was just... damn, with a different New York Giants team. Hopefully, Eli Manning earned a lot of confidence from that game. I also got a chance to see the end of the Packers/Chargers game thanks to Frank's DirecTV Game Mix feature, where its every game in one screen. Resulted with Green Bay still proving why they're the World Champions by defeating San Diego in a crazy 45-38 win. The Sunday Night game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore was brilliant. A lot of defense was displayed and it was worth watching. I still think that Ray Lewis has several years left in the league, but it was a great game nonetheless with the Ravens embarrassing the Steelers fans at their stadium.

That was my weekend. Its pretty much the usual that I do every week, friends and football. Thanks as always to the De La Torre's and the Galvez's for inviting me to Yvonne's baby shower and shoutout to the young female cashier at the Burger King in San Fernando for complementing my red St. John's Bay shirt on Sunday Night. The rest of this week was emotional news so far for some African American notable figures in the news. Dr. Conrad Murrary is finally going to jail, boxing legend Joe Frazier died from liver cancer last night and now this afternoon, hip hop legend Heavy D passed away. I wasn't alive to see Joe Frazier duke it out in the ring, but I was jumping from different nursery schools in North Hollywood every six months with my little sister in the 90's when Heavy D was getting exposure then. I remember glancing on some of his videos back when BET did a top 20 video countdown every Saturday afternoon with a different guest host paying their favorite music videos back in 2005, and a few of them chose Heavy D and the Boyz. I also remember seeing him making special guest appearances in a few repeat episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World.

Damn, his passing got me by surprise. I was coming back from taking photos of Shakira's Walk of Fame ceremony at Hollywood and Vine today (she is VERY fine and I've fucked with her music since Laundry Service back in 8th grade), and found out about Heav's death as soon as got on the internet. I actually could've spent this last paragraph blabbering about witnessing Shakira in person for the first time and how it was the CRAZIEST Walk Of Fame that I've ever been to in 5 years, but two deaths withing 24 hours is just as bizarre as the passings I've seen vanished back in 2009. Just be blessed and thankful for your life, and give back to those who helped you got to where you're at right now. Enjoy the rest of the week.

Wild Card-inal Sin Weekend

Thank God in Heaven that October is finished.

It was a D minus month to say the least, but I really don't need to explain more about it cause its already in the past.... well, except the last 5 days of it that I'm going to recap right now.

My weekend actually started on Thursday Night. I went to the DLT's cause my homegirl Tianna Edmonson of the band Aftergloam was throwing a kickback at her place for the first time in, like forever. I remember when that was frequently common around this time last year. She was showing an double feature of a Halloween episode of Freaks And Geeks and this z-list 80's horror flick that I never heard of. I was about to watch it with her, but instead, I found myself watching Game 6 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals inside my friend Marlene's living room. That game was FUCKING EPIC! The Rangers were two outs away from winning the big dance, both at the ninth and tenth inning, but David Freese and the freakin' Cardinals worked the ass off to demand a Game 7, which they did get the following night. But the whole entire game itself was back and forth in terms of scoring. EVERYONE was talking about it the next day on Facebook, Twitter, the sorry-ass media, and even those who've never watched a Major League Baseball game before. Game six that night reminded the whole world why that sport is still a respected interesting tradition and past time in this country during the middle of the year, cause a lot of people underlook Baseball since they think that there's not that much action and the game takes forever to go on. For me, I've always like that sport, and I used to play it more than Basketball (surprising from a black guy) and Football when I was in Elementary school. But in all honesty, its more of like a social thing when you attend a Baseball game and bonding with you families or friends just to anticipate a surprising homerun.

The next day, I went to the Five Star Bar in Downtown Los Angeles to watch my good friend Nicole Stetter play with her band Darger De Milo for the final time. I was at her very first show, which literally lead to a lot of stuff for me. Been a while since I attended the Five Star Bar. They were showing Game 7 and it was NOTHING like Game 6, cause the Cardinals had the upper hand over the Ranger throughout the whole game which lead them to their 11th World Series title. The last time they won was 5 years ago, when I was taking Broadcasting classes with Mr. Alan Sacks (who's runs a production company that produced Disney Channel films like The Color of Friendship and the Camp Rock films) at Los Angeles Valley College in 2006. I really didn't like both the Rangers and The Cardinals, but for this series, I didn't want the Cardinals to win. I didn't hear the sound from the game cause there were other bands that were performing for the crowd. While I was waiting for Darger De Milo to go on, I spent the time talking with some homeboys and females that I usually see at the Five Star Bar, and I was reading the preview of the Steve Jobs biography as an e-book from my phone.

So far, after reading the first chapter that was only available as a preview, this book dissects the late Apple co-founder's history, even before he was born on how his actual birth parents met, as well as his adopted parents as well. It really made me wanting to read the rest of the book and you're an Apple enthusiast like myself, I totally recommend buying the book. Its addicting and the way Walter Issacson published the paragraphs with so much detail is something you can't miss reading, profiling Steve Jobs' life that nobody else knows, and there were some stuff from reading the first chapter that I never knew.

Now back to the Five Star Bar. As Darger De Milo is about to set up and get ready, I see the homegirl D'Ana Spencer in the building dressed as a hot attractive vampire (it was costume night at the Five Star) and greeted her. The last time I saw her was back in April, which was also at the Five Star Bar. I knew that she was gonna show up, so I gave her an 8x10 of her that I shot of her last year. I was originally going to give her on her birthday last December, but I didn't make it to her dinner party cause I was at Valencia test driving Toyota's new lineup of cars for the 2011 model year. She let me use Nicole's Canon Rebel DSLR to take photos of the band performing, and I didn't plan on covering that night. My homeboy Joshua, the Hear Gallery's and Five Star Bar residential house photographer, was also doing work as well, but it tough for us (myself specifically) to get some decent angles from the front of the stage since the crowd was piled up on the floor. That's no surprise since I used to take photos here alot earlier this year. After their performance, one of the Hear Gallery's other flagship bands, Moondog Orchestra, was the final act and then spent time with the homeboys Frank and Shane, who DJ'd the event, after the show.

There's not reality that much to say about Saturday. I don't even want to mention or bring it up. The whole 24 hours was just too dry and plain. Nothing exciting or noteworthy happened. I even walked to my church and got there at the time potluck started cause I woke up late from last night's show. When I got there, I wasn't greeted by anybody. I even made eye contact with some people and not a single response. I stood in line to get the food, and the Pastor was in front of me, didn't bother to look back. I wanted to say hi to him, but five seconds later, I just dipped the church and went back to my place. I've been attending there for almost 8 years and this had never happened before. I'm not shy or anything. I could've went up to the people myself, but I'm used to receiving attention anytime I enter the potluck room. That moment was just something else. I spent the rest of the day watching random ass documentaries on Hulu, including this one weird bloke who quit his job and sold his house by trying to be famous in 30 days by appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This fool didn't have a camera crew or anything, he filmed the whole thing by himself. If he wanted to be famous, he could've took his video camera and used the money from his house he sold to make a sex tape by paying and featuring the entire strippers from King of Diamonds in Miami, and THEN he'll be famous that way in less than 30 days.

I spent Sunday mostly at Lee's 4 Cocktails in Granada Hills watching some NFL games cause I wanted to step out of the house for once during the weekend. Reason why I went there is that one of my homegirls keeps "checking in" there on her Facebook every Sunday, which makes me wanna try to see what the environment is like to watch a game there. This was my second there since the first time visiting the bar was on her birthday a few months ago, only this time, there was like 5 people in the bar when I entered at Noon, and 4 of them were females, including my friend. That's was rare for a bar on a Sunday, but the Raiders and Packers were on a bye week. More people started showing up later. Aside from losing 50 cents in 5 seconds to a game of pool after my opponent made the 8 ball sink in from the start of the game, I had a good time there. The unlimited hot dogs, interacting with some of the regulars and the Patriots losing to the Steelers on three different flat screen TVs made it worth attending Lee's. Belated birthday shoutout to Dafnee, the bartender there that refill my glass of Pepsi several times.

Finally on Halloween the next day, instead of running into pretend strippers and people dressed as the cast of Jersey Shore and Steve Jobs in West Hollywood, I shot over to Nicole's place for her little Halloween party she was hosting, and its was great to see her kids again. I was the only one there without a costume. Didn't plan on dressing but I wore my black Pierce College long sleeve shirt with my American Eagle jeans and Agassi signature Nikes, so I guess you can say I was dressed up kinda like the late Steve Jobs during his keynotes. The party was awesome to my option. There were alot of kids running around in different costumes, a lot of excellent food was made and everyone there went Trick or Treating for candy around the block. It was the first time in 16 years that I went on a Trick or Treat expedition and this was my third one in my lifetime. The first was in 1994 and my second was a year later back when I lived in North Hollywood. I didn't collect any candy, just pretty much taking photos of the kids collecting the sweets from Nicole's neighbors. When we got back, more of my friends that I haven't seen a a while also showed up and I chilled with them as Monday Night Football was showing on Nicole's living room TV at the same time the kids were consuming the candy they collected. Thanks to the parents of Nicole's kid's father for letting me test drive his Nikon D3100 DSLR with the telephoto zoom lens during the party and shoutout to Jorge and Nicole for the hospitality as always.

So that's the last few days of October I experienced. I don't need to bring up the Kim Kardashian/Kris Humphries divorce cause its not my business and despite the fact that I talk about her and met her many times, I knew that the split was gonna happen. Receiving 17 million from a wedding she wanted for television instead of a marriage, that all I gotta say. Man, she keeps changing ever since I first started to like her four years ago. And I'm glad that Frank McCourt is waving the white flag by selling the team since we no longer have to hear about that piece of shit and his overrated ass ex-wife. I really hope the next new owner doesn't fuck up the Dodgers clubhouse and doesn't rename the Stadium like New Orleans did with the Louisiana Superdome (now the Mercedes-Benz Superdome). Finally, I went to a Sonic Drive-In with my little brother for the first time last night on 15th Street in Palmdale. We were coming from my uncle's place in Lancaster and I didn't want to leave the A.V. without visiting that place. The burgers tasted alot like the ones at The Habit, but delicious regardless. I been driving by that area on the 14 freeway for the past two summers and I NEVER noticed it until last night. This is the closet one to the Valley, so I went there just to say that I went there.

Alright, done talking for now. Thanks for reading and don't shave until the end of the month (females are exempted)

INTERNET SOBER WEEKEND

Yes, its that time again. For the next two days, I have to work with my uncle again to cover some events since last December, handle and deal with some family business, and of course, Super Bowl Sunday, which is a four hour commercial with some Football and a performance from the Black Eyed Peas. See y'all on Monday, and watch your checkbooks.

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.

Money for something, but alot for nothing.

Yesterday really, REALLY disappointed me.

But before I get into that, I wanna give a quick shoutout to my friend and neighbor Suzette. Thanks for taking the time to ride with me to Little Tokyo, despite the fact that freakin' ass RIF.LA wasn't open yet and we were two hours early, and to Hollywood to check out Amoeba Music, that last great American music store on Sunset and Cahuenga. I know you never been there before so I made that happen and I'm glad you liked the experience and the atmosphere of the store and your reaction to seeing a Laserdisc for the first time. Not too many people that I know or don't know take the time to do this type of stuff nowadays, especially during finals week (both college NBA and also a little bit of the Stanley Cup Finals for NHL fans out there). Again thank you and I know that you'll have a successful life and career in years to come.

Plus another shoutout to the UCLA Women's softball team for winning the NCAA title on that day. I'm sure the passing of the late John Wooden gave the team more inspiration and motivation, as well as dedication for staying focused that lead them to defeating the Arizona Wildcats women's softball team. I saw this game at a bar (I'm not gonna say which bar so I'll leave that up to you, and plus I drank pink lemonade and ate bomb-ass queso's there) in Van Nuys by accident cause the owner forgot to change the channel from ESPN, who showed the game, to ABC for the pre show of the Game 3 between the Lakers and the Celtics (which is what I was really looking forward to). The softball game was getting good until at the end of the second inning that he changed the channel to Game 3 on ABC. I saw the first half there, which they were up by 12, and then I saw the second half at home, which they won by 7.

Being a Trojans fan, I'd never though that I would say that about a rival school, which leads me to what I'm about to say right now.

Yesterday, news broke that the University of Southern California will have to forfeit all the victories from its 2004 season and surrender it to the NCAA and that the football team is also banned from the Bowl Championship Series post-season for the next two seasons. One of the main reasons for all this involves Reggie Bush and another athlete that I won't name by accepting gifts from agents and among other things in which I don't wanna go into full detail. I remember when this shit was a current topic around the time when Bush was about to be drafted in the NFL after the Trojans lost to Texas at the Rose Bowl in 2006 (which happened to be Keith Jackson's last ever college game he called). The thing I don't understand is that why are all these penalties going against a the current USC Trojans Football roster as well as their new head coach Lane Kiffin. The guy hasn't even coached a single fucking game here in Southern California and his players were high school freshman around the time when this shit happened and his ball club is still getting penalized for these violations that didn't involve any of them. I don't think they can't do anything about it to Reggie Bush since he's no longer in USC except they want to have him surrender his Heisman Trophy award that he won in 2005. Plus that got a lot of people thinking and realizing on why Pete Carrol went back to coach the NFL just a few months ago. I thought that he was gonna coach at Southern California for another season to help Matt Barkley perform better and get back to one of the BCS Championship games in 2011, which unfortunately won't and never will happen. Looks like he left at the right time. Sneaky Pete, we (Trojans fans) still like you.

I've been a football fan and started learning more about the sport ever since I started high school around 2002. I've liked USC as a whole school and its mascot as long as I can remember, even when I wasn't into sports cause I would always see people doing crazy bets whenever USC would play against UCLA if one of them wins and loses. Plus I like USC cause its been around longer than any other school and also they're the only people that made the LA Coliseum useful. I don't have a favorite particular team in the NFL (If we had a team in Los Angeles, then that wouldn't be the case) but I would treat USC as if they were my favorite NFL team, which they don't play in that league unfortunately. Plus, majority of the athletes that played for them in the past went on to have successful careers and some won Super Bowls in the NFL such as O.J. Simpson(didn't win any Superbowls) , Marcus Allen (won with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1984) , Junior Seau (went to two Super Bowls with two different teams but didn't win any), Keyshawn Johnson (won with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003) , and Troy Polamalu (won with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006 and 2009) among others. Right now the NBA season is almost done for the year, the summer is gonna be dominated with Major League Baseball (which I really like but not the same as football) and the college Football season won't start until the first or second week of September, which is a very, VERY long way. Also, on top of that, the Pacific 10 conference is going to be expanded in years to come by adding more teams from the Big 12 conference, which to me I find wrong but very pleasing with other people. They just had the University of Colorado join the conference today. I mean, I can't picture the Texas Longhorns or the Oklahoma Sooners in the same sentence with the Pac-10, just doesn't sound right, but hey, major sports is also a business.

The bottom line is that the Trojans are gonna actually be playing for nothing in this fall. Despite the fact that if they get high rankings in the BCS standings or a huge percentage in the AP top 25 (which to mean doesn't mean anything), and despite the fact that if they have a perfect season by winning all of their games at very large margins, they're not gonna go to the big dance at the Tostitos Bowl in Glendale, Arizona for the national championship in 2011 and the Superdome in 2012 for that National Championship of that year. The University of Southern California plans to appeal against this whole mess, cause I can't really picture them being disqualified from the playoffs for two years. I hate to say it but it looks like recruiting is gonna be a bitch for a while cause I know there are high school athletes out there who don't wanna play at a highly regarded school that won't be able to go to the postseason and obtain its goal by winning a champion.

And to add insult to injury in the topic of sports before I close, the Walt Disney Company is already closing ESPN Zone's across the country. I'm glad that the ones in Los Angeles and Anaheim are staying open. But the reason why I'm concerned about this is because if I were to go on a vacation to any city outside California that has ESPN Zones that are closed, then where the hell am I gonna eat at? I also wanted see how the fan interaction of that particular city is like without having to go to an actual game or a Hooters restaurant, cause people don't go there just for wings. That sucks.

Looks like my Saturday afternoons in the fall are not gonna be the same anymore. That's just absolute bullshit. My expectations and anticipations for the Trojans I was looking forward to this season is already dashed away. And finally, Reggie Bush is already pro. Dude just won a Super Bowl ring this year and gave hope to the team as well as the city of New Orleans. His business that got USC in this mess is all in the past. Seriously, let's move on.