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.

The Love That Never Dies In 49 States

THE MOTHERFUCKING AIR JORDAN WHITE/CEMENT IV'S DROPS IN 3 DAYS!!!

Seriously, I haven't been that hyped up to purchase for a pair of sneakers since the Aqua VIII's back in late 2007. Even this piece about the IV's that I just read on The Hundreds website got me more anticipated (http://thehundreds.com/blog/2012/02/15/may-the-fours-be-with-you/). The photography of the kicks on there are just mouthwatering, making me skip a few beats after viewing it. Its like looking at that hot fine girl in Ninth Grade Life Skills walking into class after being absent every other day wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and having all the Freshman dudes weak and about to pass out, like she just came from a photoshoot. That shows how attractive these sneakers are. Hopefully everyone manages to cop a pair (including myself), as well as for the OG Air Jordan collectors to school the young and rookies about the story and the origins about the IV's, not just getting cause of the damn hype.

Spent the entire Friday evening putting in some work on Adobe Lightroom 4 while the rest of the world was either watching Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks outscoring the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant at Madison Square Garden and/or every dude being forced to watch The Vow with their girl or Safe House with their moms who just want to see Denzel doing his day job by acting. I knew and heard about Jeremy Lin two years before the media starting gassing on him. Dude has been impressively the subject to talk about over the past few days from his last second performances, including that Jerry West type buzzer beater in Toronto the other day, and its great that he doing his best this past few days to help make the Knicks not look like a squished organization. I won't say too much about him since he just got his exposure but at end of the day, he's just doing his job that he really likes.

As for The Vow, they should've just named that shit The Notebook part II since Rachel McAdams was in both films. I've been hearing stores about females shedding tears during the film, which I'm not surprised, but hey, anything to make some sense and dollars around the week of St. Valentines Day. I didn't plan to watch The Vow (and I don't want to), but I was forced to see The Notebook back in 12th grade English, which dropped on home video a year after the film came out. I remember seeing screen caps and everything of that film on every hot girl's Myspace profile back in the day. Atmosphere wise in the classroom, it was just disturbing, even the teacher was pulling out the waterworks. Glad I'm not in high school now (Thank God) to witness the pre-pubescent females there discussing about planning to go as a group or to force their man to go see that flick.

Did the same shit on Saturday by putting the finishing touches on my friend Molly's photoshoot that I've been working on for the past several weeks. I took my time cause I had to be with my little brother that night to go to some kickback in Cerritos he was co-assisting or something. Things were going well with my work until I came across the news that Whitney Houston passed away that afternoon in the Beverly Hilton. From there, I just stopped. Like, I REALLY stopped in surprise.

For about 10-15 minutes, I couldn't fucking move away from the iMac that I was working on in my living room. The ironic part before her death was that I was just playing her 1987 Whitney album on repeat on iTunes during the early afternoon. As a matter a fact, I played Whitney Houston's songs from that album more than anybody else out of my 80's collection about every other day since the start of the new year. That part got me real shook for a while since I just played her music. From as long as I can remember, she's one of my favorite black female artists who can SING from that decade next to Anita Baker and Sade. I was gonna add Jody Watley and Janet Jackson in there but they're more on the lighter bubbly scale. I disregard her fucked her personal life with the drug abuse and the talespin relationship with Bobby Brown, which was the Nick Cannon/Mariah Carey age difference hookups of that time in the 90's. But in honestly, her losing her life was upsetting, and that shit was just the day before the Grammy Awards. I'm surprised that the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party went on since she was scheduled to perform there. Hell, even my moms liked her back then.

I then later went to meet up with the little brother at my pops house (thanks again for the lift Frank). He told me that we were supposed to leave for Cerritos at 6PM but we actually left 50 minutes later since he was still getting things together and deciding which Snapback to rock. I noticed that his car was vacuumed and detailed in the interior and washed on the exterior. As we got on the freeway, he told me that the kickback was actually a birthday party for three people that he knew from the previous kickbacks he's been to. He's gone out as much as I did the entire last year. Then he also said that he had to stop at three different places in the South Bay part of Los Angeles, near LAX and El Segundo, to pick up these Nigerian youth that he knew who are around his age (he's 19 by the way). It turned out to be a dude and three girls who looked like they were going to a club on Hollywood Blvd that night, and I had to be stuck in the back with them cause one of the girls wanted to be in the passenger seat. Therefore, I was squished with some youth who's talking about stuff that I never heard of before and they kept being hooked onto their mobile devices, obviously.

We got to the place at around 9PM thinking that the party already started, yet there was nobody there. So we shot over to a McDonalds that's close by and feasted there for a few minutes. My brother has the guts to go walk across the other side of the street to a Walgreens while wearing a leather jacket and a Eazy-E/N.W.A. Compton snapback, which he also had a Mitchell and Ness late 80's Los Angeles Kings scripted snapback in the car as well. Keep in mind we were just at least 5 miles away from Compton by going west on the 91 freeway but thankfully, he was safe. If this were the early 90's, then we would have to come up with a decent story for my pops to bail us out of the police station. After our dinner, we shot back to the crib and already people were starting to get in. I had to help my brother carry the birthday gifts that he got the celebrants and as we got in, these two random attractive black females inside, who were the birthday girls, squealed and cuddled around him like crazy. That got me by surprise, along with the party being indoors as opposed to it being outside like the previous parties that I've been to.

Later on that night, the house started to fill up with more young people and all kinds of crazy shit happened. I saw some drunk chick about to stab a random dude with a kitchen knife, but thankfully his homeboys pulled the knife away from her and I told them to put away the set of knives in the kitchen cabinets. Other dudes were spiking cups of cheap cola with a bottle of Ciroc and handing them to different girls. The small den were the big screen TV was turned into a small Club MTV-like atmosphere in there. Fools were grinding babes like its prom night or some shit. I was just watching and taking photos of them dancing that my brother made me do with his Sony Cybershot point and shoot. You have no speculation on how many times I been hearing the term "Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks" over the DJ's speakers through his Macbook Pro that supplied all the whack-ass music. That fool should've thrown in some old school OG Latin freestyle plus invite some nice Spanish females into the den and watch as the dudes gets totally sprung during a Nice & Wild joint or playing a bunch or commonly heard techno/house mixes by artists that they never heard of before like Inner City. THAT'S a club right there.

I had to take one of the girls who rode with us all the way back to her home during the party in my brother's Ford Taurus while he stayed at the party. The ride was quiet, yet she told me that she grew up in Nigeria during her childhood and stayed in the city there as opposed to the villages there, and her accent was thick. After I dropped her off, I then jetted on the 105, 710, and 91 freeways back to the party and it was still going on. When I got back into the den, three females grinded on me which I didn't expect. Around 3AM, this elderly Nigerian person, who looked like someone's pops and I assume he is the homeowner of the house, entered with a "What in the fuck is going on here at my house?" expression and the party started to die down as everyone was getting ready to leave. Took some more photos of my brother with his friends, then dipped off to go dropped of one of the four friends that carpooled with us since the rest had other rides and finally got home before 4AM.

Woke up late to see that I got my former place to myself again and made myself spaghetti for brunch. This was the first of 30 Sundays where there's no NFL games until the season starts in September. Even though I don't like to watch television that much anymore (I don't even have a TV in my room at my place in Sylmar) I just checked to see what's not good on cable TV. While looking on the OnDemand feature, I decided to select Marley and Me since that everyone I knew made a huge emotional buzz about this film when it was released four years ago. I apologize for sounding like a generic asshole, but I didn't get choked up like everyone else did at the end of the film, but that's just me. there was a small Chihuahua we had during my first four months of living in Sylmar, who then had her life cut short on the street. Other than that, it was a very entertaining film. Might cop it on Blu-Ray. Totally perfect for families. It was like watching those Charles Grodin/Bonnie Hunt Beethoven franchise films from back in the 90's. Like I said earlier, the ending is a bit somber, especially those who can relate to the experience of raising a dog for a very long time and having a tight kinship in the family. I then went to go visit my friend's sister and her boyfriend who I haven't seen since last Easter, and her son's birthday party that I just missed. I got there late cause I had to stop by my place in Sylmar for a bit. I did stay to watch the first half Grammy Awards. I knew the Foo Fighters were gonna win for best rock group and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters gave a legit speech that sounded very similar to the one he made at last years MTV Video Music Awards, about keeping real instrumental music around instead of relying on just loops and beats in Logic or Pro Tools. The rest of night was just too damn predictable. The homegirl Adele won everything. I knew about that since the middle of last year and plus she can sing. The rest of the show was just uninteresting, so I don't want to recap it. Major Shoutout to Katie and Rudy for re-uniting each other and her son Angel for getting another year added to his life.

One last thing that I want to spill out before I end this was that the public schools around here in Southern California the past few weeks have been looking like as if a comapny's corporate Titanic-ish ship was sinking into the Artic Ocean. Some 15 year old ended his life by jumping off a three story building on Crescenta Valley High School during lunch time cause he was constantly being picked on by other peers. Now from living in Los Angeles for mostly 24 years of my life and hearing common stories about some dude getting shot or a lady getting killed in a drunk driving accident from the rain, this one was just fucking scary, especially if you were one of the pupils who were there or also attended Cresenta Valley High School. That's gonna traumatize the students there for a while cause they witnessed the whole incident. I don't know whether to blame that kid's parents, teachers, his friends, the delinquents who harass him, or just the entire schoolboard because obviously, it won't look good for the campus' exposure. That along with the complete overhaul from the extreme sickness of some of the faculty at Miramonte High School among other problems make public education here just, for the lack of a better word, broken. I can tell that it started to fall apart after I graduated from high school. Teachers and staff are getting eliminated and the ones who aren't are just giving out mostly worksheets and lecturing straight from out of the text book for paychexs without actually teaching from their knowledge like they're supposed to, making the students lack confidence in learning.

I could also talk about the gym classes not taken too seriously unlike the way it was back then when boys had to wrestle each other and climb ropes and girls had to leap over balance beams, but honestly, it just sucks now. The influence with current up-to-date mobile devices nowadays and whatever the peers are up to are as more interesting as having the anticipation to show up to class to learn something interesting. My little sister who's a senior in High School now has told me some wild stories about the mess that's happening in her classrooms and listening to her explain the shit that's taking place at the campus were just horrific to listen to. Seriously, its fucking awful. If they can enable school uniforms and strict dress code polices in public high schools here and for the school principals to bring back paddles, but I don't think that'll ever happen for the time being. Plus its the student's role to know that they have to deal with this shit for four years and its part of their life to endure the negativity and uninteresting responsibilities. We've all gone through it and it wasn't easy. Having to look at every girl that you can't hit on and trying your best to pass an exam you kept failing at isn't easy for teenagers, and many of them have different backgrounds and lifestyle at their homes, so each pupil has to respect that for four years, even if they sit next to someone that they want to push aside. (Not gonna lie, I've done that a few times back in the day and the results weren't pleasing).

Well, that does it for this weekend recap. As for St. Valentines Day, it was honestly a regular day. Just uploaded Molly's photoshoot as well as the photos from Nicole Stetter's kickback last month and some adult starts I ran into. Thanks for taking your time to read this and start thinking of getting me something for my 24th birthday in 3 weeks.

There Might Be Giant Steps and Leaps

Now in the last post I typed, I said that I was gonna go to Amoeba Records in Hollywood to check out fine ass Lana Del Rey doing an appearance in person there.

But apparently, I had second thoughts after I saw THIS SHIT!!!

THAT'S ALOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE THERE! AND HELL, I'M NOT DONE YET. PEEP THE FULL HOUSE INTERIOR PHOTOS THAT I DIDN'T TAKE.

Never in the 7 years that I've been shopping there for vinyl LP's and out of print VHS home videos have I ever seen this store in full capacity where it was 10 people over the fire code, just like one of the overrated clubs just up the street on Hollywood Blvd every Saturday Night, which I'll get to later. I've seen two other performances there before and the crowd was just about a tenth of the madness from yesterday. Even the Stevie Nicks meet and greet that I covered there last summer wasn't that bizarre. I was actually gonna cop the record cause I had the money for it, and for her to sign it. I'm not really a fanatic of her, especially with that surprising unorthodox voice she has, but the girl has a body. Its one of those "post war baby boomers girlfriends who would date greasers cruisin' on Van Nuys Boulevard" type chicks that she is,and you don't see that much of them anymore. But yesterday was just too insane. I mean, no disrespect to the very great, underrated staff at Amoeba, and I said this in the previous post, but HOW IN THE FUCK CAN YOU SELL OUT AN AUTOGRAPH SESSION? Does that mean the record was sold out and not everyone there got a chance to touch her shoulder doing a cell phone camera photo-op with her? I'm gonna check out the Billboard 200 next week and hopefully that and her appearance on Saturday Night Live should put her in the top 3 of the charts at least.

Allright, enough of that shit. Let's get on to the weekend recap.

Spent the whole Friday evening at the DLT's. Was originally gonna stop by there the night before cause it was the homegirl and Marlene's daughter Yvonne's 20th birthday, but they already went out to celebrate. So I gave her a 5x7 photo that I took of her and her daughter which I re-edited with Adobe Lightroom 4 beta software. I also brought some balloons as well and the family and I spent the whole blowing them. Even Yvonne's daughter had fun with them. We were also watching the Lakers game that night, yet they lose to the Nuggets at the last second and during that game they were showing shots of Denver Nuggets head Coach George Karl. Wow, he lost a shitload of weight and looks totally different. Maybe it was from the cancer he had a few years ago that caused it. After the game was over, the De La Torre's then let me sleepover for the night and then they took me back to my place. Afterwards, spent the rest of the afternoon typing up the previous blog post until my photography buddy Ryan Castro hits me up and invites me to this birthday party that was taking place at the W in Hollywood.

Later that night, I met up with him there and he wanted me to help him to take some photos of these two Filipina girls that were celebrating their birthday and one of them is moving to Ecuador to teach there for the next few years. I thought the party was gonna be at Drias, which is a nightclub inside the W hotel, but it was actually at an outdoor parlor just above the entrance to the Hollywood and Vine Metro Red Line station. I remember when that whole area of the W hotel was just a big fucking parking lot for the Pantages theater and the other clubs on Hollywood Blvd at least 6 to 7 years ago before they did construction there. The birthday party was decent and jumpin'. Met some of the celebrants friends and took some photographs of them. The outdoor parlor was pretty much a poor man's version of Drias, yet they did have a bar, a DJ playing loud ass music with a video projector screen showing music videos and several attractive females who try hard to look attractive, but other than that, it went well.

Then on Sunday, I woke up at my pops house and decided where I was gonna watch Super Bowl XLVI at. I called about 4 people but none of them couldn't answer. So I decided to watch the game at home like I've every other past even year in 2010, 2008 and 2006, whereas I spent the odd number years watching the Super Bowl at someone's house and I didn't see Super Bowl XLI cause I had to work that day. Also, nobody was home and I had the entire house to myself until my little brother and my pops wife came around the middle of the third quarter. I then shot over to Lee's 4 Cocktails to watch the rest of the fourth quarter and it was just deja fuckin' vu all over again.

That Hail Mary pass had everyone on serious pins and needles during that moment. For reals. I ACTUALLY thought that one of the Patriots receivers was gonna retrieve it in a crowded sea of New York Giants, BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. THAT MOMENT FELT TOO DAMN GREAT! THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS LOSING AT THE SUPER BOWL, AGAIN! I went wild with all the 6 Giants fans there at the bar. I even did the "Tebowing" pose there. Fuck, it felt like I was watching Super Bowl XLII again 4 years ago. Same teams, different year. The last time I was THAT excited was when the Lakers won against the Celtics at Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals. That ending of that game and the aftermath of it was really one of the best feelings in the history of the world along with getting your driver's license, making out with the most attractive girl and the reaction after showing your strict traditional parents a straight A report card with a 4.0 GPA. A lot of people I knew hated that game the following Monday. Some said it was fixed and some wanted to see Chad Johnson get a ring so that he can shut the fuck up and get his old name back once and for all. I didn't have hopes for this years game unlike the same previous match up from 2008. New England was the favorite to win that game, but that shit proved every one in Las Vegas wrong, including Birdman from Cash Money Records when he made that $5 Million bet for the Patriots. But losing 5 Million is nothing to him, cause that fool can get that money back by co-signing Nicki Minaj's contract to Vivid Entertainment or some other adult company so that he can get royalties for the productions to use her and her uninteresting music in one of the hardcore sex scenes. In all seriousness, congrats to the New York Giants for getting their 4th Vince Lombardi trophy (which is made by Tiffany and Co.) and I don't see the team repeating for back to back titles, but that's just me since the future isn't written yet. I still think that the Super Bowl from 4 years ago was a lot better than this one cause in their first meeting, the storyline leading up to that game was a lot deeper (Tom Brady's unbeaten streak during the 2007 season and Eli Manning to win the year after his older brother won his).

Another obscure thing about Super Bowl Sunday was that the commercials totally sucked dry this year. The Bud Lights ads were soft and unfunny, Doritos has lost its taste (no pun intended), Audi is still showing the whole world the same message like they did when they introduced the R8 the last time the Giants and Patriots were at the "big dance", the Go Daddy.com ad was the fucking worst that I've seen in the past 6 years dating back to the sexy OG Candice Michelle cameo feature that she starred in, don't get me started on the Coca-Cola ad, I missed out on the Pepsi ad, and I'm glad I did, cause my homeboy Frank and I were invading Twitter during the Super Bowl, and Clint Eastwood's two minute Chrysler ad was creepy as fuck. The only commercials I did like were the new Honda CRV Ferris Bueller ad that I talked about in the previous post, the Acura NSX with Jerry Seinfeld (who's a Porsche connoisseur) and Jay Leno ( who's the biggest car enthusiast that should've spent his retirement hosting the American version of Top Gear instead of returning to the Tonight Show two years ago) and finally the two double feature Adriana Lima ads with Kia and some other company called Telafora. Fuck, I used to totally like this woman, then switched over to Miranda Kerr for a while and now it looks like I got her respect back again. Hopefully, I get to see her for the second time this year. As far as the halftime show? Watch about 30 seconds of it since the NFL Films-type 24fps output of the live broadcast got me by surprise. Now I respect Madonna and her legacy ( I own the original 1986 True Blue LP print with the OG poster) as well as the production and choreography ,but that performance didn't get my appeal. I didn't even know that Cee-Lo's unpredictable fat ass was gonna be at the Super Bowl, and I'm glad I missed out on it.

So that's was my Super Bowl weekend. Like I said, I'm gonna be jam packed busy for the rest of the month. I got a few parties and gatherings to be at and of course I have to focus on getting the Air Jordan IV White/Cements on February 18th. I seriously need to buy those cause of the OG shoebox design, the black tissue paper, and everything behind that sneaker. Another thing I'd like to say is that I finally finished reading the Steve Jobs biography last week. My opinion: GO BUY THE FUCKING BOOK!!! If you own at least two Apple computers and several iPhones, this is a MUST READ. Worth the time to learn about that man's life and you will learn some stuff that you never knew about him. One of the best biographies that I ever read in my life. SO much detail. And finally, Nikon just announced the replacement for the D700, which is called the D800. DAMN, THAT SHIT RIGHT THERE?! So much to discuss, seriously. I might have to talk about it after I get a chance to play with it. Anyway, thanks for your time reading.

Busy Shades of Winter

So Superbowl XLVI is tomorrow. Fuck, already?

I used to get hyped up for that day every year, but for tomorrow's game, not so much. It's somewhat of a rematch of the Super Bowl from 4 years ago, with both the New England Patriots and the New York Giants going against each other for the Vince Lombardi trophy in front of over 800 million something people watching around the world. If the Niners and or the Ravens won on their conference championship games instead, then I'd be more interested for tomorrow. And already websites are playing the $3,000,000 30 second ads that will be aired in-between the games. I only saw one of them and its for the new Honda CR-V crossover featuring Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller since the commercial satires some of the scenes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I thought it was another 1980's resurrection "keeping the franchise alive" type bullshit piece, which it kinda is, but I actually liked this ad.

I was a huge fan of that movie back when TBS would play this film every now and then in the early 2000's. I remember reading one of the screenplay drafts of the film on my moms old computer and printing the script which turned out to be about 170 pages! I'd like that more then the film itself but the only difference is that it showed some dark, rebellious moods of Ferris and some of the scenes that were cut off form the final film include him, Sloane and Cameron going to a strip club, visiting a radio station, Ferris going to his pops room to take his savings bond check or something like that and the ending credits clip were it showed Mr. Rooney going on the school bus with the students from his high school was supposed to be somewhere in the middle around the final third part of the film. Plus according to the draft, Ferris had two other siblings instead of just Jeanie, so yeah, the late John Hughes (RIP) cut off alot of shit from the screenplay, even during the principal photography of the production. Bottom line, this is one of the best films made because of the message that it showcase. Its all about just searching and enjoying your life every now and then cause its flies by "pretty fast".

But other than that I'll probably watch the Super Bowl cause everybody else that I know who's never watch a regular season NFL game will be viewing the Patriots V. Giants part II tomorrow, and to watch the ads as well as Madonna still showing that even fifty-somethings (no disrespect) can still be trendy in the "Barack Obama post-recession" era during halftime.

As for myself, I've been more booked and busy since the last time I wrote on here. I did a lot of interesting things, including going to a Burger King which sells Miller Light beer (didn't drink) and taking several photos of attractive female entertainers who fake orgasms, but hey, its my job.

My friend Nicole Stetter threw this one kickback at her place two Fridays ago. I wasn't really gonna attend but then I changed my mind later cause I haven't seen any of my mutual friends in several months including the group Santoros who was performing there. After I heard that they were gonna perform, I thought its was gonna be as chaotic as the last time they performed in Granada Hills, (blogged about here last summer http://justforsneaks07.blogspot.com/2011/07/sporting-entertainments.html)

but it wasn't like that. The crowd grew moderately as the time went by, but it didn't fill up to full capacity like it did last year, and there was nobody swimming in Nicole's swimming pool. When I arrived, I ran into some OG's from middle school and high school that I haven't seen in years and talked with them for a while. Then took some photos of Santoros performing and this one group called Blue Jungle. I've never seen them performed before, but I liked them, especially the lead singer. Never have I seen a female vocalist who would go walking in style onto the crowd and sing right next to the people watching them. Band was terrific and I think they did like five songs. Later on, I chilled in Nicole's room with a few other people as they construct a small jam session. This was one of the best jam sessions that I ever heard, and THIS WAS REAL FUCKING MUSIC RIGHT THERE. Everyone was just brainstorming with different instruments by just playing them with confidence and it was raw. The homegirl D'Ana Joi Spencer (http://awakewithjoi.tumblr.com/) was running things with her ukulele and her fantastic vocal signing skills, with others playing with instruments you would never hear that much in person such as bongos, an organ and the homeboy Victor Diaz (http://victortillas.com/) was strumming along with an Acoustic guitar. A few minutes later, I then passed out on Nicole's couch and somewhat missed out on the rest of that night. I didn't drink but the cold outside her backyard made me tired. Major shoutout to Nicole, Jorge, Uriel Jimenez, Leticia Llesmin, Amanda Welsch, and everyone else that was there that night. That's how a standard gathering should always be like.

I also got a chance to spend some time with my moms and the sisters this past Monday night. Haven't seen them for a month but it was great to catch up with them. We drove around from my sister's work in 24 Hour Fitness in Burbank to Downtown LA near the American Apparel headquarters factory through some neighborhoods in Hancock Park and the Mid-City portion of Los Angeles. Stopped by this joint called Lucy's to get some enchiladas on Pico and La Brea by the suggestion of one of my sisters and I haven't ate at Lucy's since 1996. My family and I used to go there RELIGIOUSLY back in the day and the enchiladas were still made the same after all these years. Finally drove through Century City and I was giving them some brief history lessons and facts about each neighborhood and city we drove by like I was some sort of cheap tour guides. Great time with them. Wish it was like this more often but then again, we're all getting older so its better to do it once in a while.

And if things couldn't get more brilliant, the first day of February started off flawless for me, minus the passing of Don Cornelius earlier that morning. First, I got a chance to do this paid non-photography gig at the Califone warehouse not to far away from my place in Sylmar, where I spent 4 hours unloading boxes from trucks and organizing them in pallets. For those who remember way WAY back in the day at elementary school, before 1994, Califone was this company that made those blue phonograph turntables with the big speaker in front with the words Califone over it in white, and every classroom would have one where the teachers forced us to sing a bunch of songs that we'll never want to sing in the future. But it was alot of work that day. My muscles ached and I had to wear a backbrace which show just how serious the unloading was. The whole process kept me motivated and confident, like I was doing 5 miles on a treadmill. I left with a couple of splinters on my hand from carrying all the wooden pallets for the forklifts. Hopefully they might ask for me again for another gig. Second, I finally got the Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta installed on the iMac at the living room in my place. I downloaded it right after Adobe announced it three weeks ago, but I couldn't complete the installation process cause the passwords were changed on the iMac the week before and one of my house mates misplaced the list. So we finally manage to recover it and already proceeded with installing it. Lightroom 4 looks very similar to the previous version, only with a few small tweaks. I've only edited 2 photos so far cause I haven't got a chance to fully play with it. I'm gonna be using it to edit the photos I took of the kickback at Nicole Stetter's place last week, as well as the photoshoot I did of my homegirl Molly back on New Years day a month ago. The absolute best part of the Lightroom 4 beta trail is that the software doesn't expire until the full final software is released around late March or early April. Usually, Adobe would give about a month for their users to try their software applications, including the Creative Suite package, but for Lightroom 4 beta, its about two months that I get to use this for free. You can't beat that, since Lightroom is the most popular application that photographers use to fix up their work and projects.

Third and finally, I drove over to my friend Tiffany Zhang's place in the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village area. Haven't seen her in person in a year and a half, which was around the time the week after the Lakers won their 16th title. She wanted me to help her create a listing so that she can sell some of her stuff. Then we talked for a bit and she later made me some dinner straight from China, where she's from. Dumplings and dates with sticky rice wrapped around it. I enjoyed it ALOT, and it made me ask for seconds. Had a fun time catching up with her and its been four years of that day since I first met her at the Apple Store in Sherman Oaks back in 2008. Thanks again Tiffany for the delicious food.

I really wanted to watch David Letterman celebrate his 30th year on late night television that night with Howard Stern as one of his guests, but I was really tired from all that work and driving during the way. Letterman just broke Johnny Carson's tenure has hosting a late night talk show from 1963 to 1992, which was about 29 years. I think David has a couple of years to do this cause I honestly don't see him hanging it up, he's been doing this shit since 1982. Major props to him, and in my opinion, he should've gotten The Tonight Show 20 years ago if the NBC suits haven't screwed him over by picking Leno so that they can focus on the "younger audience". They should've left that for Arsenio Hall cause his show featured all of that and he could've been around for a few more years in the 90's.

So that's what I've been up to these past few days and weeks. Looks like February is gonna be another packed month. The new kid on the music block Lana Del Rey is gonna be performing at Amoeba Records this Tuesday at 6PM. I'm gonna try to attend that so that I can see her in person after watching her on Saturday Night Live last month. It might be tricky cause I can assume that there's gonna be a shitload of people there. Not really alot but a decent amount of people and plus she just got started. I'll take some photos and buy her record, but hopefully, I'll try to score an autograph since Amoeba's website said that the autograph session is "sold out". What the fuck does that mean. Is Lana Del Rey's time very limited or something? If she really cares for her fans, then should just not abide by her publicist's rules (if she's has one) and let her stay as long as she wants. The other most important thing, in my case, is to try to pick up the Air Jordan IV Retro White/Cement colorway that releases later this month. It's an original colorway from 1989 and the Air Jordans that Buggin' out went crazy after that bloke in the Celtics jersey scuffed on it in Do The Right Thing. I might have already talked about this sneaker and I'll probably talk about it again later.

Another thing, well 2 things actually, is some stuff that I wanna spit out from my mind. First is those "Shit People Says" video clips. I live in Los Angeles which is a very diverse city and I seen every different races and culture lifestyles in the 24 years that I've been living here. Same thing from watching the movie Crash as well, which is a must see. Everytime I go on the internet to upload some of my photos on a forum my Facebook or website, I always come across a different "Shit People Says" clip, and each one portrays a different ethnic race or some stereotype being portrayed. Honestly, that shit is played out. It was fine when different comedians used to make fun of their own race a few years ago before 2006 because people can relate to what their saying since their speaking the truth. I'm not a racist and I don't like to bring up that topic that much anymore, cause at the end of the day, we're all just regular people with different backgrounds. I'll do my best just to ignore them cause apparently, its becoming the new "trend" this year. Speaking of trends, fuck that one percenter Jack Dorsey and his Twitter suits up in Silicon Valley. Letting people trend about fake celebrity deaths for more than day and y'all can't have your programmers prevent that shit or make some PSA type notice about it? Shit is totally childish and immature using death as a play thing. That fool and whoever else is in charge needs to do a better job overseeing the content. I seriously think Justin Bieber's and Selena Gomez's publicists should tax him 38% of his earnings, not the companies, for everytime their fans worship the young couple on the trending topic. I'm only on Twitter just to plug my photography, so I have to be on there.

Well, that just show that not everything is perfect. Its a wild and bizarre lifestyle everyone endures every 24 hours. We do things and see things that we don't like in front of us. From that hot girl we think who's with a dude that she doesn't deserve to be holding hands with to long ridiculous lines at the courthouses and the Department of Motor Vehicles only to see two out of the 10 booths open to seeing a group of 15 year old teenagers on the subways during school hours unless if they go to a private charter school with a strange schedule. What's important is bypassing all of that distraction and reaching out to where your goals are targeted every day. Most people will receive free stuff without getting anything out of it whereas some people will earn stuff after putting out everything. Just focus on your best, and fuck the rest. Thanks for your time reading.

Surprise Parties

No offense, there were a lot birthdays this past three day weekend. But just wait till March starts to roll around cause its gonna be massive. Mines is on the 5th that month and only if the damn leap year never took place, then the Heat visiting the Lakers could've been played on my 24th birthday instead on the 4th of March.

And a big shoutout to the homegirl Evelyn Valencia, who I used to sit next to in homeroom back in middle school, for not only her birthday next Monday, but for a very successful delivery as she gives birth to her second child.

Probably the only notable moment this weekend was the NFC Divisional playoff game between San Francisco and New Orleans, who both used to be in the same division before the realignment 10 years ago (damn, its been that long already?). One of the most wildest, zaniest, playoff games I've watched in forever. That shit was like playing chess with ping-pong paddles. The memorable part was when Vernon Davis made that touchdown reception at the final seconds, and many people are referring to it as "The Catch III". The first two "catches" were also done by the 49ers in the playoffs in 1982 and 1998. Very great upsetting game. Didn't think the Saints would lose to San Francisco, yet the Niners didn't lose that many games.

I'm gonna be going out of state for the first time in 6 to 7 years on some business, not a vacation, with two other photographers. I'll be departing on Thursday and return on either on Saturday or Sunday. Just what I totally need, a break from this broke ass gorgeous state and from reading comments by thirsty dudes who would raid some random hot girl that tries so hard to get attention on Facebook and other sites. Thanks for your time reading.

Twenty-Five Questions of Life

You know what, fuck the weekend recap. The first weekend of 2012 was basic typical mediocre shit except witnessing Tim Tebow's epic mindblowing performance with my pops in the NFL's first ever postseason overtime that lasted 11 seconds.

But its been a damn awile since I posted something else on here. I was browsing my homeboy Jeremy's tumblr page (http://pinoykid13.tumblr.com/ and happy early 22nd birthday) and I happened to see a list of 25 unanswered questions that was one of the posts on his profile. I remember when that shit would be on every conceded chick's Myspace every week back in the day and it died out since Facebook took over the rat races. With some time to spare, I decided to have some fun with it. Expecting over-exaggeration on these 25 questions? Hell yes.

1: Apart from tumblr, what do you like to do in your spare time? Answering these questions and Photography. I got rid of my Tumblr after using it for a month and a half

2: Name a favorite of each: food, drink, color. Pizza, Pink Lemonade, Black

3: If you married rich and your spouse gave you $100,000 a week, what would you spend it on? That will never happen, but if it did... Then a fully loaded 2013 Nissan GTR for me one week with a title the first week and I'll let the CHP speed chase me until they reach the California state boundaries , pay off her college tutition in $50 bills and at least 50% of (not off) everything at Tiffany and Co.'s catalog or whatever Kim Kardashian wears for her the next week so that she can't stop smiling, a Canon 1DS Mark IV and a Nikon D4 both with a 24-70mm 2.8mm lens (along with the CRAZIEST telephoto lens available) and a studio with strobes plus a $10,000 bonus each for my 5 of my many homeboys to start their own photography/filmaking business the other week, every size 13 Nike SB Dunks and some Air Jordan Retros at Flight Club LA and Flight Club in New York the following week and invest at a home in Beverly Glen on Mulholland Drive and only fly First Class at Virgin America, Virgin Nigeria and Virgin Atlantic until another recession starts. Oh and I'll buy out the front courtside seats from the bitch-ass talent agents for Lakers games at the Staples Center so that the Laker Girls can rest their fine asses on those seasts instead of floor and I'll make it rain at the Spearmint Rhino or Deja Vu until a stripper gets a paper cut from one of the Hundred Dollar Bills.

4: Name a favorite of each: book, movie, tv show. Book: If I Did It (OJ Simspon's book that was never out to the public,but I read a leaked version) Movie: The Big Lebowski or the Back To the Future trilogy. TV Show: NFL Sunday Ticket

5: If you were given the opportunity to spend 48 hours with absolutely anyone (living or dead), who would you spend it with and what would you do? Every girl that I hitted on since the Fourth Grade, 3 hours per girl

6: Name a LEAST favorite of each: food, drink, color. See number 2

7: What do you spend most of your money on? Junk food, 35mm film, and Pepsi at Lee's 4 Cocktails

8: What kind of underwear do you prefer wearing? Boxers

9: Name a LEAST favorite of each: book, movie, tv show. Anything that's NOT listed on number 4

10: If you were sat on a plane beside your favorite celebrity, what would you do? I'll show him or her the photo that I took of them at Roberson Blvd, Beverly Hills or The Grove back in 2008

11: What is the strangest thing you have in your room? (You are not allowed to explain why you own it.) Recessed lights. Not everybody has it

12: What is a weird habit you have, or people have told you have. (Weird, not bad. No nail biting or any of that nonsense.) Doing a photoshoot with somebody else's iPhone 4S with instagram filters(haven't tried it yet)

13: What would you consider to be the biggest insult to yourself? Walking out of my pops church during the offering collection cause my checks didn't come that week

14: What are five things you absolutely have to have in your dream house? a woman who cooks, a woman who doesn't cook, a third woman in case the other two doesn't work out, a 4G LTE network inside a home, and a heated toilet seat

15: If you could be reincarnated as any animal, which would you chose and why? A human so that I can see watch what I eat this time

16: Which band (current or past) would you want to go on tour* with? (*Travel with, not preform with.) Aftergloam, The Orange Rev and Darger De Milo (my friends bands)

17: Name a favorite of each: band, album, song. Its a long list. Trust me.

18: Why is your favorite band your favorite? Cause its my favorite

19: How many concerts have you attended? Which was your favorite? Least favorite? If none, who do you want to see live the most? Does me attending the 2011 MTV Video Music Award's count?

20: What is one of your favorite song lyrics? (Who is it by?) "I think I'm Big Meech..." Rick Ross

21: Who do you ship? Ground shipping. UPS is expensive

22: What band merch do you own? If any, whose is it and when did you get it? If none, whose do you wish you owned? I once had Billy Idol's "In the Devil's Playground" CD autographed by him at the OG Tower Records on Sunset back in March 2005, but I sold it at Amoeba Records for 5 bucks.

23: How did you learn of the band that is currently your favorite? By the words of their mouth

24: What celebrity do you idolize the most? Used to be Ted Turner until he sold out Time Warner.

25: Which member from which band would you most want to lather in nutella? Which one again?

2011 Year in Review: Final Thoughts and first post of 2012

Oh God, what a year.

Alot can be said about 2011. There were many events and moments that I experienced which I would never see myself in. That's pretty obvious every year, but this is totally special and personal though. Last year was first full year that I had not had a vehicle under my name and to operate for the first time since 2005 and it was the first full year of living out of my parent's house. Signs of Independence as an adult.

It was also a year that I went to more parties and gathering events than any other year. I thought 2008 was the most that I went out, but thanks to my good friend Nicole Stetter, my relationships to establishing new friendships and expanding a mutual clientele has gotten greater, and it made a great role in my photography business. The more people I met, the more larger the networking got. One of the major examples was working with The Hear Gallery, which is a small group that curates art shows and books small local bands to different joints, bars, and venues in Los Angeles from the Airliner on Broadway to The Dragonfly on Sunset and the flagship venue, The Five Star Bar, on Third and Main. I had a fantastic time covering alot of the shows and getting to meet the people that were attending and to listen to some interesting tunes. Going to those shows just displays how a craft in music is performed in different rhythms from various diversities of the groups.

Out of all of them, Santoros is one of the best bands I ever seen perform. They are a Spanish twenty-something group from LA, and their music, to me, sounds like as if you were in a beach in Baja California or Ventura partying in a bon fire with a lot of palm trees and surfing at night. That's probably the best way I can describe it, but its really great. They're fan base is HUGE, for a local group. For example, they did a show at Nicole's house during the summer along with some other bands, including Darger De Milo, and her backyard was full with some of their fans. They rarely do shows in The Valley, and most of the fans who watch come from the outskirts of Los Angeles, to as far as Downey. It took me almost 10 minutes to get through the backyard that night. But despite leaving The Hear Gallery in May, I received a lot of experience from being with them, from the meetings at Frank Venadas' crib to being the very last ones to leave the venues in the middle of the night. I enjoyed it. Big thanks to Frank, Corina, Nadari, Art, Joshua, Shane, Uriel Jimenez and everyone else within The Hear Gallery. Wish y'all nothing but the best in the future.

Now I'll just recap the entire 2011 in just some one liners:

-Attended two of MTV's major awards shows

-stood next to Adriana Lima and Candace Swanepoel at The Grove, and got to witness Miranda Kerr in person

-Reunited with some people that I haven't seen since high school (thank you Cyndi for inviting me to your birthday and Danielle for letting me take engagement photos of you and Perry)

- met Andrew Bernstein, the legendary Lakers/NBA sports photographer responsible for your basketball cards from back in the day

-copped my first top the line Android smartphone

-drove alot of expensive whips, such as the new BMW X3, 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK-350, every new 2012 Cadillac you can think of (except the V-series cars), 2012 Mercedes E Class coupe, Lexus RX 350 (which sucked), 2012 Chevrolet Camaro SS Transformer edition, Hyundai Genesis 5.o R-spec (one of the fastest cars I've ever driven), Hyundai Eqqus and a copule of Buicks, Fords and GMC trucks.

-went to the infamous SupperClub in Hollywood for the VMA afterparty and it was just too much

-covered a birthday party at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point, Laguna Niguel. Totally upscale as upscale can get.

- I never said this, but I briefly appeared in a episode of America's Next Top Model which took place at The Roosevelt hotel. Not a fan of the show and have never watched one episode of it, just went to see the said models wearing bikinis in bathtubs. For those curious, it was episode 7 of the recent season

- Nicole Stetter's wild backyard party during the summer like I mentioned earlier.

-the number of baby showers I covered. Shoutout to my old friends Alberto Mujica, Beatriz Mujica, Marissa Mendoza, Gabriel Sanchez, Yvonne and Nestor for their new blessings. Also, shoutout to Kristy Giannino for her new daughter, despite missing your shower.

-The Hear Gallery's bands performing at Cheetahs gentlemen's club in Hollywood. 'Nuff said.

-Primitive's three year anniversary. Thanks again to Desiree, Alexis, Andy, Paul, Harry, Ashley, Erich and Erich Jr., Roxanne and Dawn for a dope summer Saturday afternoon in Encino.

- the 18 mile bike ride halfway through the Valley with my two homegirls Christina and Cecilia.

-my cousin Ikenna's graduation from Loyola High School. They shut down a portion of Venice Blvd just for the commencement ceremony.

-volunteering at Providence Tarzana Medical Center for 24 of the 27 Wednesdays last year. The food they had at the cafeteria was legit.

-launched a Tumblr profile that lasted only a month and a half. Got tired of it, but I might bring it back.

-shook Tommy LaSorda's hand with the 1981 World Series trophy next to him and received an accidental beer bath during the only game I attended that season. Got complimentary Dodger Dogs for that.

- I finally saw Erin Andrews and Sasha Singleton in the flesh.

-my 23rd birthday party in Burbank. Fucking epic.

-going to NBA All Star weekend in Los Angeles and taking a dope ass picture of Dwayne Wade. Wow.

- getting thrown in the swimming pool in my 50 Nike basketball shorts during the Fourth of July pool party at the homegirl Borrah Jackson's crib. Shoutout to Gerson and the Bootleg League.

-Occupy LA in downtown city hall. Surreal shit.

There were alot of other crazy tight stuff that I did, but those were just some of the majority of the notable ones. It was a bad year and a good year at the same time. Still bummed out that Steve Jobs is gone and that the job market hasn't improved sightly. It was also the second straight year that I didn't buy a pair of sneakers, cause the retail price for Air Jordans has shot up by 25%. Even though the sneaker game wasn't what it was when I got started in it 7 years ago, there are still some kicks that I've been going after. I couldn't believe that the Lakers got swept in the second round of the playoffs. They didn't win at least one game against Dallas. And all the wild surprising marriages and divorces, both celebrity and non-celebrity, makes the whole martial process look like a play thing.

As far as my New Years weekend, it was fun. I almost was gonna have a lame New Years Eve until I swung by my homegirls Amber and Carisa's place later that night. We dipped over to Lee's 4 Coctails and man, it was a scene there. The only thing that was worse was the DJ there that night, and he wasn't even a real DJ, just a dude who was conducting a sing-a-long on his synthesizer. They had the countdown on all the TV's and its a wonder to see Dick Clark still doing his thing every beginning of the year, which is why he's known as the "world's oldest teenager". On New Years Day, I did a photosession with my good friend Molly, who came here to the Valley during the holidays. We did the photoshoot starting at a scenic view on Mulholland Drive, the Santa Monica Place, The Santa Monica Pier, Pacific Park and the Santa Monica State Beach. Again that day was awesome, and I think I was the first photographer to do the very first photoshoot of 2012, way before all the other professional photographers did (except for the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Issue since their session are usually done in the fall). I'm gonna try to edit the photos using LightRoom 3 again.

Well, like I always say every year: just make the new year great, don't let it be great cause it may not turn out how you wanted it to be at the end. Thanks for your time reading this and have fun this year, lots of it.