BIG at LA: Business In Games at Los Angeles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Serving Laundry To Others

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://justforsneaks.wordpress.com/

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

http://www.youtube.com/mitube

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

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