Aniston Wednesday

Now alot of y'all that have known me for the past several years are obviously aware that from time to time, I "brag" or bring up notable figures or celebrities that I've met and took photos of on that said day. Many could care less about several of them that I've encountered but witnessing Jennifer Aniston getting her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame this past Wednesday was worth telling your friends (no pun intended) about.

This is personal to me cause I almost had a chance to get a photo of Jennifer 4 years ago, which turned out to be an epic publicity stunt. I was at Joan's on Third in late 2008 with some other paparazzi photographers waiting for some famous figure to show up since that eatery gets some well-known names here and there. Then this one paparazzi shows up on his bicycle and tell us, as if he were speed, that a big major A-Lister was gonna show up at The Ivy restaurant on Robertson Blvd in a few minutes. He then rides off and us photographers started sprinting towards the Ivy since it was less than two miles from Joan's on Third.

When I finally ran there 15 minutes later, there was a WILD GANG OF PAPARAZZI, SOME PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND A SHIT LOAD OF TOURISTS that were crowding the entrance of The Ivy. Some photographers leaked out that Jennifer Aniston was gonna show up with made some sense of the enlarged crowd. At that time, her and Angelina Jolie were the top two targets for the paparazzi to capture a photograph of since they both fucked the same guy, and I hope to God that his movie Moneyball wins Best Picture, despite that I haven't seen it yet, at the fixed-ass Academy Awards this Sunday. About one photo of those two women doing something can sell for at least 2 grand or 100 times more if one of them were caught drunk late at night on the Sunset Strip. But anyways, we were all waiting there for an hour and a half at least to wait to see if she was gonna exit out of The Ivy until one of the security guards there next to the Valet booth said that she just went out the back and left. That caught everyone by surprise and many of us got very frustrated. Hell, there were some 7 or 8 photographers that went to the back of The Ivy to see if she was still there after he said that, only to see no Jennifer Aniston in sight. This one OG paparazzi told me that out of the many times and years that he's captured celebrities at The Ivy, NONE OF THEM has ever left through the back but always through the front just to maintain their image status. For Jennifer thought, he then said that she caused a hell of a publicity stunt until I saw some crappy photos and this 30 second footage from another paparazzi who was their when she got there earlier...from the front.

To this day, Aniston is a major star, aside from the tabloids and bullshit. She's one of the few actress to have successful movie and television careers with got her a number of awards. Not only that, she was also started her life in the Valley, Sherman Oaks to be specific. The Walk Of Fame ceremony that was for her was pretty much a public marketing spectacle for plugging her new film Wanderlust. The ceremony would've made more sense if at least two of her ex co-stars from Friends showed up for support, but instead we got Justin Theroux from her new film, Adam Sandler who I've seen before two years ago at the Staples Center, and Malin Akerman, who was the most important reason why I wanted to show up. I have a poster of her that came with a Maxim magazine that featured her on the cover which I copped around the time Watchmen came out in early 2009. I brought it to see if she can autograph it, AND SHE DID! One of the chillest actresses that I've met so far. As for the ceremony itself, it went by quick like the many Walk Of Fame ceremonies that I've gone to in the past 6 years and the first one I was at had Jerry Buss getting his star when Johnny Grant was still alive. Not to be a jerk, but Jennifer Aniston is freakin' short with out the high heels. I thought that she was around my height, which is 5'11", but whatever, she and Malin Akerman are totally attractive and looking so very fine. I was even surprised that Jennifer took the time to sign autographs and pose pictures for the fans after the ceremony, instead of walking off like most top A-listers do. I shot them in film with my Nikon N70 so I'll scan them and upload them on my Facebook profile and my Flickr page once they get developed and printed.

But I give my respect to her since she gave up her past relationship and with the tensions and the true Rumors It Had of Angelina giving birth to three kids from her ex. Most people, especially emotional dudes, would go hiding and never to be seen from a Break Up by a Girl that looks Good, yet that Switch only made her a better actress (watch her in Horrible Bosses). She Just Has To Go Along Into That focus she's been having, right now that she has her name were people can walk on, so that years later she can reach The Object Space of recognition as an actress, something similar that a Rock Star might have once he's enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Cleveland, Ohio. By the way, I'll be turning 24 in 10 days, and there are these new Zoom Kobe VII's that will drop on that day, so if you can.... wait nevermind, that's asking too much. I still have cash from the shameless White/Cement IVs release from last week. Anyway's thanks for taking your time reading this, and have a safe drunk weekend.

You can't Judge the Present by the Design of its Wrapping Paper: A Christmas Weekend recap

If you read the last post, which I'm sure many of you have, then you've noticed that I was saying a some short harsh things about the overhype marketing on Christmas Day and how the holiday shopping season overshadows the true meaning of December 25. Understand that this was what I thought of it. Half of it is facts while its mostly opinion in its entirety.

But after surviving the Christmas weekend, I had second thoughts about what I wrote on that day. To me, what I wrote on the last post was just an outside view of that day. I'm gonna write the inside view of it, which was as better as I thought is was. Shit, it was way better, despite all the bullshit situations that I dealt with throughout last week. From the transmission on my compact sedan giving up to my T-Mobile contract expiring, which means I'm without a cell phone for the time being, and somehow last Saturday made me set those (no pun intended) uncalled for problems aside, or pretty much away from my distance.

First, I just wanna let out that I didn't get any presents, gifts or anything under the tree with my name on it. I could care MUCH LESS about getting "free stuff" from people on that day. As a matter a fact, I looked back this past year, and I've noticed I've BEEN getting free stuff every month at the least, and I'm very thankful and privileged for that. I'd be more delighted to get a card with some girl's handwriting on it over a nice wristwatch or a Xbox 360 (by the way, shoutout to the lucky fuckers (pun intended) who's girls spoiled them with that Microsoft console and then some. SHIT!) Bottom line, its all about being with family and close ones, which I've said many times because that shit is true.

Now onto the recap.

I was given orders by my moms to take her and my sister to LAX on Christmas morning at around 4AM. They came at 5AM instead so when I asked them what time their flight is, they told me that its at 6AM. I told them that they should've left their house at 3AM instead but my sister told me that they over slept. We managed to get to the Los Angeles International Airport on time. I helped them unload their luggage at the terminal and then my moms told me to take good care of her Ford Explorer for a week since they're traveling to the midwest of the United States until New Years Day. I think they picked the wrong time to go over there, and I told my sisters to wear a shitload of jackets. After that, I bounced out of LAX in my mom's SUV and headed back to my pop's house by driving on the Pacific Coast Highway and through the mountains on the Topanga Canyon Boulevard pass.

After I got home, my pops talked to my little brother and I about what this day is all about from his point of view in the living room. I'm not gonna front but that got me really touched up for a moment. I sat in my room for about an hour just sitting there, not doing anything. I was thinking and pondering about how we went from my entire family, before the parents split, singing some songs from the Church hymnal and opening our multitude of presents that we got to just my brother taking his new cellular phone and a drum machine from under the tree and going about his business in his room, like it just a regular day. It was a frequent thing that happens every year and I thought that shit wasn't gonna end, but apparently it didn't happen.

After I collected my thoughts, I went to make a surprise visit to my friend Nicole Stetter's place, which is about 5 minutes from my pop's house. Her entire family was there, which is what I liked to see. I gave her a children's book I got back in September that Tori Spelling published, and inside of it was her autograph with Nicole and her kids names written in her handwriting. I held it for three months so that I can give it to her at the right time. I spent some time there eating peppermint brownies that Nicole made, which were very delicious, and started talking about how I didn't like and approve Nick Cannon dating Mariah Carey with Nicole's family since they were watching the Disneyland Christmas Parade on TV hosted by him. Later on, I then drove to my church in Sylmar (I'm an Adventist by the way, not Jewish) to see the annual Christmas program, which to my dismay, they did a regular church service instead. I was only there for a portion of the service, and then I left to go to Downtown Los Angeles to catch the vibe and action of the self-called "Lakers/Heat Christmas Day ratings game". Yeah, I admit, I wasn't supposed to do that on Christmas Day, but sometime, you have to take the necessary risks, and plus, I'm already a legal adult.

I wanted to drive down to park at LA Live but I too the Metro Subway there instead. I wasn't going to the actual game inside Staples Center, but I hung around the VIP entrance to take photos of the celebrities go inside the arena. Hey, if you don't approve what I did, then deal with it, cause that's what I'm really great at in terms of photography. Speaking of which, I ran into some paparazzi that I used to see alot on Robertson Blvd and Beverly Hills everyday back in late 2008, and I knew that they wouldn't rest on Christmas Day cause from having experience in this business, it never shuts down. The reason why I say that cause they're always a "money shot" opportunity waiting to happen within the 24 hours of the day, regardless if there's a serious tropical storm or God forbid, a national tragedy or anything that gets in the way to civilians.

This will probably be the last time I might be taking photos of famous people in general. I'm not too sure yet cause I might be there when the Boston Celtics come to town again on January 30th since that is the other big marquee game on the Lakers 2010-11 season schedule, which draws the majority of A-list stars and plus the game will be nationally televised. You know what, fuck it, I'm done doing that shit. I'll probably go over there, but I'll take someone with me who has a greater interest of taking photos of someone famous, probably someone who's out of state for that matter. If I was 15 years old doing this, I'd be the top of the student body in my class in terms of publicity and recognition throughout the whole school. Hell, even the hot girls would show much interest. But I will never get that experience again, cause as an adult, some people around my age have better things to do instead of hearing what actor you saw the other day.

There weren't that many female stars that showed up to the Staples Center than the males stars to my surprise. Despite the cops and the weak security making sure that shit doesn't go off, it was great seeing Sinbad and Kevin Hart (dude was short as fuck) in person and to see Dr. Dre actually ripped up. I wanted to ask him about the Detox album, I didn't for two reasons.

1. I wanted to respect him since he was a legend in the hip hop industry and one of the founders of Gangsta Rap

2. I was at a far distance and there was a shit load of people surrounding him, yet I can scope him out from a good view.

A few minutes after the game started, I went inside the Nike Vault next to the Staples Center and the AEG offices. They had the whole placed decorated and dedicated to Kobe Bryant's new signature basketball show, the Zoom Kobe VI. To me honestly, that sneaker is ugly and weird looking. It very similar to the Zoom Kobe IVs that came out two years ago, which I regret not buying. They had the live feed of the game showing inside the Nike Vault, but I went to the ESPN Zone to watch some portions of it. It was full inside there, and unfortunately, the Lakers were way behind Miami. by the end of the first half, I left and took the subway back to Universal City, where I parked my moms Ford Explorer at.

I drove down to my cousin's house, who lives not too far from the Staples Center, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to park at LA Live. There wasn't a lot of people there, just mostly family there talking and eating some Christmas dinner. I watched the rest of the game in my cousin's room, where it turned out that the Lakers lost for the second Christmas Day game in a row. Phil Jackson said before the game that he doesn't approve the idea of the NBA playing basketball on Christmas Day and that the players should spend time with their families instead. I won't be surprised if he gets fined for that statement, but yet, I totally support the coach's statement. I think its Kobe's new sneakers since the whole team was wearing them during the game throughout. After that, I went and played some UNO with my cousins to forget about the loss which sucked. I haven't played UNO in at least 7 years and that is the ONLY card game I'll ever fuck with. Forget Poker, Blackjack, 21 (which I used to play against my sister back in the day), Texas Hold 'em and any other card game that I don't know the rules to. They are not as entertaining as UNO is and I had a fun time playing that card game with the family.

I then bounced out early because I had to go deliever another gift to one of my friends' buddies, which is a DVD containing a photoshoot I did for her back in September. As I was driving on the 10 freeway west merging onto the 405 north, it started to pour rain like fucking crazy! I was being very cautious while I was driving in that unpredictable weather condition.

So when I got to to her house, the lights were out. I figured nobody is home so I went to go ring the doorbell to double check. I was about to go to my car until I saw my buddy Arlene and her family opening the door. I thought that Arlene's friend lived there cause I would always see her friend everytime I drove to that house, but then Arlene told me that she also stayed there. I went inside and ate some Carne Asada that Arlene's mother made, which I really liked and enjoyed, and then chilled with them by watching some television and having some discussions about photoshoots. Then I took off home since it started getting late.

I didn't really do much on Sunday, which happened to be my mom's 46th birthday and my little sister's 16th birthday on that day. Yep, they're 30 years apart. They were probably celebrating it in the mid-west over there. I spent the day just working on photos, my website, driving to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch to print out an 8 X 10 enlargement for a friend of mine and watched a double feature at my friend Natasha's house. The movies were the original Wall Street and Defending Your Life through her Netflix. I thought that they had the second Wall Street uploaded on there cause I saw the Blu-Ray on sale at Wal-Mart, which had a lot of people there returning gifts that they got under the tree, but the site didn't have it so we watched the first one instead.

Like I said, the weekend turned out as well as a thought it would be, with the exception of 80's singer Teena Marie passing away on Sunday. I'm not gonna front, but I first found out about the news from Birdman's Twitter account before CNN and all the other news media outlets confirmed it a few hours later. Looks like Twitter is going to replace The Huffington Post as the main source for internet journalism sometime in the future. I wanted to mention about my upcoming website and the important information about it, which also involves this Blogspot page, but I'll bring it up tomorrow since I threw in too much on the Christmas weekend recap. Major thanks to the Stetter family and the Arias family for letting me spend time inside their homes. I take back what I said on how everything is off limits on Christmas day. What I meant to say that everything that is not close to you and that's a distraction to your everyday lives should be off limits on Christmas Day.

One last thing, y'all should watch the Top Gear Holiday Special, the UK version. That shit is a MUST SEE, whether you like automobiles or not. It more like a movie as you watch it, so make sure you got you computer connected to a screen that is at least 46 inches, which some of you must've got with your Holiday bonus.