BERRY CRUNCHY MONDAY
It's Monday. Blah. Lots o' work. Lots. O'. Work.
There's so much going on in the next two months it's a bit of catch up prep time...or something. I woke up this morning to Bobby Brown's 'My Perogative' which is sort of a great wake up tune. I was kind of hoping that MC Hammer would come up on rotation next...but it didn't. But it was still exciting! Plus, the fact that it was about 85 degrees out when I woke up kind of tricked me into a super happy wake up mood. I was ready to pack up and go play outside. Of course, then I realized it was get busy time. Get busy! So, I've been gettin' busy all day long, sort of. I dawdled out, got my coffee...and then realized the shoppe was out of bagels. Pew. So I ended up with a 'nana muffin. Love those breakfast treats! One time when I was younger, my friend told me I was going to turn into a blueberry muffin. He even wrote this long story about how I did turn in a blueberry muffin. All of course, because I ate two a day. One in the morning and one on the way home in the afternoon. Sometimes if I had enough change scrounged up I'd even be prone to stopping by Blockbuster for a bag of cotton candy (I don't really know what was wrong with me) that would be divided up and finished within thirty paces down the sidewalk. But damn boo-berry muffins were so damn good. If he were hanging out with me now, he'd end up writing a story about how I turn into a goldfish cracker, seeing how that's now the snackage of choice. I guess that's better? Crunchy...or soft and spongey. Eww. I'll go for the crunchy. Happy Crunchy Monday!

SHADY SHENANIGANS
Last night was absolutely insane...I don't know how this happened considering, well, I figured it would just be a quick shoot and hop, skip and a jump over to another show for a chill evening. There was some shooting, lots of it, a bit of jumping, maybe a skip, and a bunch of hops. Here's the rundown:
Anna Girl came with me to the Key Club to check out The Grand Marquee...Shys and Wildbirds. The bands started earlier than expected so we missed a bit, but still got to catch the whole TGM set and a bit of The Wildbirds which was awesome. We somehow got lost in the stairwell at one point and ended up on stage in the middle of The Wildbirds show, but that was pretty rad as well. We finally found our way back out and to Sunset Blvd., watched a homeless dude play a diddy and then swung over to On the Rox. Peter, Bjorn & John were having their afterparty there so it was a definite required pit stop, especially considering it was pretty much right in front of us. We bounced upstairs, had a few drinks and mulled about. I spent most of the night getting the death glare from some chick who had a bit too many martinis and decided I wasn't her friend. So I took her picture. Twice. I then continued to hang out with Holmes and Adam 12 for a bit, heard some amazing Bostonian stories from Eric, ran into Bradley, possibly had another drink, and played pass the hat with my lil' knit beanie. At this point Anna and I realized our parking meter was pretty much expired. We had a few minutes to dash over and fill it up but we decided to bite the bullet and hoped for some good karma instead. PB&J did some DJ'ing and then we were off! And holy crap...no ticket on the car! Of course, the night didn't end there. We then headed over to some lovely crib in the hills to hang out with all the bands and rad folks from the Key Club show. And oh the excitement! Ping pong tables! A Gino dressed all in white looking daper. A dog named Milo. More Coronas. Lovelies dancing to rock n' roll. And then...I got hungry. And Anna Girl got the craving for some burrito as well...so after a few more shenanigans and ping pong balls flying past my head, we scooted over to the taco stand. For a delicious 3am breakfast burrito with all the fix'ns. Sometime after that I clambered into sleepville...exhausted and weak limbed, smokey and foggy ill brained.

TWEENER, TWEEKERS & TOWS
So I've actually been following the news a bit more lately, something I rarely do since I don't have television and rely on conversations to fill me in, which isn't really the best idea I suppose. And it's amazing some of the things you hear or read on the news, like last week when they took all the guns away from the Tijuana police. Eek...talk about potential for some serious uprising and chaos. The best part is, they ended up arming themselves with slingshots and a bag of ballbearings. Slingshots!! You've got to be kidding me! That's amazing...but this is even crazier. I just wrapped on a "Prison Break" special for FOX and this morning heard on the radio how Lane Garrison, who plays 'Tweener' on the show, was arrested and is being charged with vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Yikes! The 26 year old crashed his Rover into a tree killing the 17 year old he was with and injuring the two 15 year old girls also along for the ride. That's pretty shoddy. Crappy. No fun. There's a million things I could poke about on here, but I'll just say I hope he took some good notes while sitting on set...or else the next 10 years aren't about to be so pretty.

On a non-media news note, Mokey is getting better, now that he's all poppin' pills and such. Fatty is a happily balanced diabetic. Although, now the car has broken down. And is sitting on the street waiting for a tow and repair. Man oh man, quite the week. Thankfully, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Thus, tomorrow I'll be funnier. Promise. Go see The Grand Marquee tonight at The Key Club. It's free and all ages!!

'TIS WHAT IT 'TIS
Wednesday was mad. Lots of delirious ramblings and a catch 22. Long discussions on blues and too intense reds. Damn cameras. All because it's a "wiki" some said. Ian found it amusing that I wanted to go to CPK...just for their bread and butter. "That's a prison meal." I decided I could throw in some garbanzo beans too. Yep yep. Then there was Awesometown, where most of us rolled around on the floor like monkeys and piggies. "Pig pile!!" First Presto and Filip, then Johnny Love and Lisa. I tumbled to a knee...some girl tumbled all the way down. Shenanigans. There was lots of silliness and I dig it. I also like to play ball.
Mokey won't stop drinking. He drinks over a big bowl a day. So Thursday I took fat cat to the vet. Diabetes they say. "Again?" I ask. Yes, apparently. Fatty has relapsed into his diabetic nature. Oh good times, a pill twice a day!! Way to go fatty!! No more slim jims for you!
Yesterday was finally warm and I spent all day driving, minus the 40 minutes I spent eating with Creeksta and Mike. Yummy cafe's are delicious!! Driving all day...is not so delicious.
JJ has a big bruise on his arm. From snowboarding. Tis' the season. Creeksta has a little sunburn on his nose. Nice.
Saturday is the return of BLOW UP LA!! This one's seriously going to get nuts...GRAY KID, 8-BIT, GUNS & BOMBS...we're gonna get explosive. Let the games begin.

CAT BOOBY TRAPS
So this is the deal...I'm sick again. But not as worse as before...just a wee bit of a sniffle stuffy cough hiccups kind of cold. Which makes you drowsy. And walk around in silly stupors when sober as vinegar spritzer. The weirdest part is I think my cats get a kick out of my foggy brain days as they like to team up and create booby traps all over my apartment. These consist of rolled up throw carpets creating a mound effect in the middle of the floor, a few dried up leaves carried into the main room and sprinkled about that really sort of freaks you out when you hear a crunchy crackle under foot, and the ever so popular stretched out bedskirt which allows for a tangled foot or toe and then face down plop on the floor (or in a best case scenario wobble to the bed). Thanks cats.
So, lots of sleep and bbq's were the gist of my weekend, besides the Hang the DJ's at Echo on Saturday, which was super rad as usual. But this week..oh boy!! It's Awesometown week which means freak out time..plus it's the return of BLOW UP LA on Saturday and holy crap...we have performances by both The Gray Kid and 8Bit not to mention a slew of DJ's. And double hooray, because by tomorrow I'm going to be super ready for some dance mania drunktastic action.
Today however, has been mostly tea sipping and work and although it's been lacking in adventurous travels, oh boy the sightings::: James did a bit of the Electric slide at work which was entertaining, mostly because I still have no idea how to do it and don't really want to, but it's pretty great to see. Then later, I went to get more tea at the shop and saw the greatest crew of oldsters hangin' out with their coffee mugs for 2 o'clock tea time. The best part was they all had matching mugs with their own photos on it. Wow...now that's commitment. And thirdly, the bulky dressed gentleman who stooped outside my window for a few minutes looking for I don't know what but only coming up with a pebble.
Plus, today the new February Paper Magazine issue came out which is sort of fantastic. Our lovely Silver Lake crew was in the 'Neighborhood' section and it's great because we all look clearly hungover and dazed. Thank god for the pillow Ben and I got to sit on for an hour. And the vitamin water. Thanks Paper Mag...we love you and your fluffy pillows.

THE GRAY KID
Is Amazing. Check more out here: The Gray Kid

FAT CATS!

Everyone knows Mokey, my cat, is a fatty. The poor bugger's been at least 15lbs ever since he was a kitten...and now he's pushing 22. I like to proclaim that it's purely muscle mass, he's just a big boy...but it's typical for someone to see Mokey and just stare, saying "whoa, that cat is huge. That cat is seriously huge." However, it seems someone, other than Garfield, may have him beat. Oh you pesty kitties...plump lil' felines just hungry for a nibble. This is hilarious from the AP News...dang those pet doors!

"Tiffany Noreuil, an animal care technician at the Oregon Humane Society, holds temporarily-named feline Goliath, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, in Portland, Ore. Goliath, a 20-pound stray whose girth got him stuck in a pet door while trying to plunder some dog food, is back with his owner. His name isn't really Goliath, but it's close. It's Hercules, says owner Geoff Ernest, who was reunited with his tubby tabby Thursday at the society. Gresham, Ore., resident Jadwiga Drozdek found the feline stuck in the dog door of her home a few days ago, helped free him and gave him a plate of food on her patio."
(AP Photo/The Oregonian, Benjamin Brink)

SPIN ME ROUND' ROUND'

So...the other day I was randomly flipping through the January issue of Spin Magazine...the Best of 2006 issue...and came across coverage from CMJ in New York. And oh boy...I was looking and said oh hey, there's my friend Banana...and there's Mark. And even Creeksta. And wait, that's me. Ohh boy! Yep..good ole' Shadowscene workin' hard in the front row at the NY2LON party with Oh No! Oh My! Fun fun fun...Thanks, Spin...for sending me round n' round.

LAZY DAZY
I had quite the lazy weekend...with an extra bonus holiday thrown in for kicks...which really just threw me off a bit on what day it was and what the heck I was suppose to be doing. But I did get to run around with friends, play darts on Friday, drink 4 too many brews on Saturday, sleep late on Sunday, drink lots of coffee on Monday and watch a ton of great films. I also lounged under mounds of blankets no matter where I went considering it's colder in LA than in Boston or New York...what the heck is that all about?! Seriously freezing out here! So I embraced the lazy weekend and did just about zero work and basked in a thousand laughs. The closing of my weekend was a recap of Napoleon Dynamite which I haven't seen since it came out. And of course there was Clerks 2 which was just amazing. And the inevitable annual screening of Dazed and Confused...at least twice a year for good measure. I've also decided after my round of lackadaisical behavior and brainless movie watching, we should all own a pair of moon boots...most definitely. Those things are amazing. Let's get 'em! And speaking of shoes...check out Kelly:

MONKEYS & SQUIRRELS
I somehow lost yesterday, I don't really know where it went...but I think I skipped a day, or else two just blended into one. First off, Dirty Dave's bday bash at Awesometown on Wednesday was unbelievable! I've never seen so many people wearing BK hats all at the same time...the madness! Plus, there were tons of guys in the ladies room and ladies in the boys room and who the heck knows what else was going on. There were oversized hats, stacks of hats, belted hats, a kissing frenzy and even a birthday tearing off of the shirt. Oh what a slap happy time! Then...last night was the skater park party at Safari Sams. Lots of young'ns tearing it up on their boards, guys pulling tricks with a beer in one hand, spaceships, the 8-Bit robots, the Wylde Bunch covering freakin' Bobby Brown and tales of squirrels and monkeys. No seriously...one of the best conversations I've ever had with Julie was last night where she attempted to tell me about how Squirrel was trying to hump Monkey all day. All over the apartment, romp, romp, romp. Squirrel, being a bunny, and Monkey being a cat really made this quite interesting to listen to and try to interpret all at once. But trying to visualize the scenario was even worse. A bunny...squirrel..monkey...cat? Whatever will happen next?

WEDNESDAY RAMBLINGS
Bigley bought Odouls for the band last night, Trouble Jr. didn't find it funny. Until he realized there was real beer as well. The Deadly Syndrome were amazing, of course, and a horse is a horse. They wore Emily ski masks and it was pretty damn insane. Especially tongues in eyeholes. There were beer waterfalls and hugs galore. Does anyone say galore anymore? I wish I ate a quesadilla, but my bed hit me first. This morning, I ate apples and cinnamon and still needed a breakfast fix. So I dipped into the pretzels. James sings Fat Bottomed Girls in the morning so we listen to it at work. It's amazing. It's pure genius in fact. Kick drums in the early afternoon. I keep dreaming of bumper stickers. Someone tell me what this means. I think I need another cup of coffee...to make my rockin' world go 'round...with Joan Jett and goldfish crackers.

QUAKER--TIME

OATMEAL LOVIN'
Yesterday was lots of work...lots. And by 11:30pm I called it quits and was about to pass out on that amazing blue couch of mine when Bigley and Mancuso stopped by telling me to get out of my "bot cave". So...I did. And off we walked, across the street, to the cafe for some midnight snackage. Oatmeal for me. With yummy brown sugar and raisins and some bronzed banana thing. This has been my random midnight snackaroo since I was a tot. Except then it was just a bit of sugar on the top and last night I had all the fixin's. But apparently...not as many as this guy...check out this crazy poem by Stephen Dobyns:

Oatmeal Deluxe

This morning, because the snow swirled deep
around my house, I made oatmeal for breakfast.
At first it was runny so I added more oatmeal,
then it grew too thick so I added water.
Soon I had a lot of oatmeal. The radio
was playing Spanish music and I became
passionate: soon I had four pots of oatmeal.
I put them aside and started a new batch.
Soon I had eight pots. When the oatmeal cooled,
I began to roll it with my hands, making
small shapes: pigs and souvenir ashtrays. Then
I made a foot, then another, then a leg. Soon
I'd made a woman out of oatmeal with freckles
and a cute nose and hair made from brown sugar
and naked except for a necklace of raisins.
She was five feet long and when she grew harder
I could move her arms and legs without them
falling off. But I didn't touch her much -
she lay on the table - sometimes I'd touch her
with a spoon, sometimes I'd lick her in places
it wouldn't show. She looks like you, although
your hair is darker, but the smile is like yours,
and the eyes, although hers are closed. You say:
But what has this to do with me? And I should say:
I want to make more women out of Cream of Wheat.
But enough of such fantasy. You ask me
why I don't love you, why you can't
live with me. What can I tell you? If I
can make a woman out of oatmeal, my friend,
what trouble could I make for you, a woman?


Thanks, Stephen!! But I think I'll stick to my little cup of oats.

PIRATE PLEASURES
Another weekend come and gone...and what a fuzzy blur it was. Too many antics to remember and lots of naps on the blue couch in between sets of said 'antics.' Friday night I went to the Short Stop for the PUMA New Year kick-off party where Lazaro Casanova had his first DJ set in Los Angeles and teamed up with Flosstradamus and Franki Chan. The best was wandering around in the early portion of the night with Travis after our shots of Goldschlager which I haven't had in a looong time. It seemed everything was amusing to us for a few hours until our minds were too faded to make sense of anything at all.
And then...Saturday...amazing!!! I went to the Wiltern to shoot the My Morning Jacket show. It was super fantastic, talk about putting on a show. I had no idea how great they were. Plus I had my favorite run-ins with Luke, Mark and Airin. It seems it's a guaranteed bonus that they are at the Wiltern for any rad show. From there, it was off to the long awaited Pirate Party for Anne Lee and Dirty Dave. I don't think there was a single person there with less than five drinks in them...considering the girl who passed out in a booth and one who hurled three times on the carpet. Apparently the 4 month old venue wasn't too proud. I wonder how they felt about the frosting drippings from the cake. Or the wax that spilled everywhere from lovely Birch dancing with a candle on his head. Not to mention someone sitting on their "antique chest." And the running around of over 300 people in costume with toy parrots and eye patches, plastic swords and bandanas. Holy calamity! Oh well...you can't have a pirate bar and not expect shenanigans to get a wee bit rowdy. Aaargh!
(Photo courtesy of Rony)

AMAZING MYSPACE
Ok, so seriously...I've heard more than once from various people about getting those weird messages on myspace, or plugs for adult sites, or invitations to private viewings of photos, or the classic late night 'I really want to get to know you' email. My original favorite was "hey baby, you look hott, wanna smoke a fatty with me?" at about 4 in the morning. But better yet is leaving a treasure like this as a comment..not a private message. And so, here is the greatest comment ever left for me today from the magnificent Rob Gnarley...Thanks Gnarley. You're the best! I haven't stopped laughing since...

Jan 5 2007 2:27P

WHATS GOING ON HOT PANTS? WHY DONT YOU DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND CHECK OUT MY TUNES? LEMME KNOW IF YOURE FEELIN' ROB'S VIBE, I MAY GET DARK BUT MY MUSIC IS IRE. IT'S ALWAYS 420 ON MY WATCH SO YOU KNOW IT'S GONNA BE A PARTY WHEN I COME THROUGH HOLLYWEIRD ON TOUR. LET'S GET A ROOM AT THE RIOT HOUSE AND GET WEIRD HONEY. I'LL THROW YOU AND ALL YOUR SKINNY NERDY ON PURPOSE FRIENDS ON THE LIST AND YOU CAN WATCH ME POUND CHICKS AND BEERS LIKE METALLICA DID ON THE JUSTICE TOUR IN 89! I'M KINDA LIKE HETFIELD BUT INSTEAD OF A WHITE EXPLORER I CARRY A WHITE BEER BONG! SHIT YEAH BABY! HELL BRING THAT LITTLE CAMERA OF YOURS ALONG AND LETS MAKE A MOVIE! YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING! LET'S GIVE YOU SOMETHING WORTHWHILE TO UPLOAD TO THE NET! MAKE US SOME MONEY AND START A LITTLE ROCK N ROLL NEST BABY! HIT ROB GNARLEY BACK AND LEMME KNOW WHEN YOU WANNA GET THIS PARTY INTO FIFTH GEAR!

NEW YEARS BOOZE SCHMOOZE
Um...whoa...yes. It's now 2007. And the antics of 2006 have ended..or well, simply moved on into the New Year. This was definitely one of my craziest New Years Eves...spent at Little Radio and cruising around in a fully stocked limo all evening. The greatest was the endless amounts of champagne bottles. I'm not even sure how many we eventually polished off, but I do know for the second half of the evening I was passing them out and carrying one around like my own personal 40oz.
The limo ride was ridiculous, especially after Anne managed to uncork the first bottle of champagne and it sprayed the entire interior, complete to filling up someones heel full of foam and fuzzy bubbly, and to then drip-drip off the ceiling until we realized we should maybe clean that up. Ooooh bubbly! Then, off to Little Radio for the AutoLux, Dead Meadows and Bloodcat Love show. Little Radio was packed with only a little room available for a shuffle. I spent a lot of time in the side rooms, snacking on apples and cheese, lounging on bean bag chairs, and then racing around like a rocket. We all had full intention to head down to the Brother Reade show, but all of a sudden it was 4am, and we were passing out, crawling around, collapsing in the limo. And eventually, we all staggered home. Mmmm. We love you Little Radio...and all the pals that made 2006 an absolutely amazing year!!
See all the New Years photos on Shadowscene.com!!

STICKER-IFFIC
Everyone knows stickers are fun...ever since my first scratch n' sniff I've been a huge fan, especially the bubbly stickers, velvet touch stickers and extra large window covering decals. And finally, the first of the Shadowscene stickers arrived last week, so what better thing to do than hand them out at Shadowscene events!! And oh the fun that can be had with stickers...the joy of wondering where to stick this sweet little stickiness. Apparently, anywhere and everywhere...next time, I'm bringing more stickers!!
This week has been short it seems seeing as it falls between two holiday Mooondays...and the best part was it was another Awesometown week!! This week A-town was nuts, packed with a crazy dancefloor. Daniel Ledisko and Chris Holmes had a bit of a DJ off as I would call it, and got the dance action to full blast mania. Talk about a blissful buzz in the air. I didn't do as much photoboothing as I would have liked too, but there was a little appearance by that dude from that show Felicity...you know the one. Well, at least some of you do. Plus, I did get to see the amazing Gray Kid again, and he even demonstrated a trick with his bubble yum. Shake and pop people, shake and pop.
See all the photos from this weeks Awesometown on Shadowscene.com!!

'TIS THE SEASON
For lots of movies, nog, giving and goodies...
Finally, the one day of madness, Christmas, has come and gone, and now we all get to look forward to the New Year...or better yet, New Year's Eve!!! I've spent yet another holiday season in sunny LA, although this year I really missed the East Coast mania. I haven't spent much time at home in the SS headquarters this past week; most of it's been spent working and racing around for last minute nifty nifts, and of course, doggy sitting!! I'm getting my yearly dose of canine by pet sitting for two woofs this week and helping with a third. I think my cats are pissed off. But oh well. Christmas was a hodge podge of greatness, with a amazing brunch and falafel dinner. The most interesting Christmas to date, where all traditions are tossed aside for once. And it was pretty awesome. One of my favorites was over doing the gift wrap...which Joe and I decided to do with bow mania this year...an entire package of bows on one gift...a glorious case of Guiness. Don't try it at home, and I wouldn't recommend it if you want to make your gift look fancy. Too many bows kind of looks like an alien growth on top of your gift box. Hmmm, not so yummy.
Of course, now I can't believe it's already Tuesday and back to Check Yo' and Awesometown time!!! This week Myles from Bloodcat Love is DJ'ing at Awesometown and starting now DJ Paparazzi is our new head resident DJ at Check Yo!!! Sooo rad, so if you're in town, or back in town, or lounging around...I better see your sweet faces soon.

ROBOT RIGHTS!!
Holy crap, I think I woke up today and a bit of the sci-fi dreaming I was having was pulled into reality with me. Yeah, yeah, so I'm a robo-nerd. But apparently, I'm not the only one. The lovely British are in anticipation of developing robot rights...no seriously. This is crazy because not only does it liken a robot more to a human, but it would also give them the same freedoms and rights as humans. Um, freaky. Can anyone say I Robot? I'm all for Johnny 5 and lovely Rosie from the Jetsons...but it's kind of nuts to think of the possibilities if any of these guys are actually finalized into development. I mean naturally, they should be created to be our little buddies, not to run a country. Robo rights! Haha, who knows, maybe someday we'll have the Cyberdyne System's model 101 (T-800) as Governor. Wait...

Read the full story here: Robot Rights!!
(Thanks Honaker!)

F..F..F!!!
It's been a while, and I'm still trying to catch up and recoop from the past weeks activities. Last weekend was the FLAUNT party, FILTER party and Paul FRANK party!!! All open bar...all nothing less than sheer madness. Check all the photos up on Shadowscene.com!! The best was the Paul Frank party where I had my photo taken with a damn camel. The strangest part was that he was pretty damn cute for a camel, what with the hump and funny hair and all. But the poor thing was outside in the rain and fake snow...desert animal? FRANK's party also had free photobooths and Wolfmother performed which was pretty damn awesome. I ran amuck with Dan, Preston and Har Mar and I meant to go sledding, since they had a little snowhill, but ran out of time at the end of the night. So much fun...and the weekend really led up to a week of continued mania.
Tuesday was super amazing at Check Yo' with the long awaited performance by SPANK ROCK! The show was insane...sooo damn good. We also had Brother Reade and Pearl in the same evening. From there, Wednesday was AWESOMETOWN, which is seriously, just awesome. Thomas came out in costume, I'm not really sure why, but it was pretty fantastic...and we sipped on Hefe's all night. The dance action was quite fantastic as well.
After the 10 straight days of madness, I took a couple off from shooting just to hang out at a couple holiday parties, yet again, with lots of free booze. How does this happen to me!? Saturday I went to the Deadly Syndrome Christmas sweater party. Holy hilarity. John and DSO had some great sweaters, which more or less resembled Easter eggs, but they were rad little sweaters nonetheless. It was so funny seeing a ton of people in ridiculous sweaters. I felt like I was in a little holiday gift box, or a gingerbread house wrapped in tinsel. Mmmm Holiday fun. And seriously, no downtime...this madness just keeps on going!

SWEET BREAKFAST
For about two years now, I have been spending my early mornings, or in some cases the early afternoons, at a little coffee shop outside my apartment. Mary's donuts, as I call it, technically Alex's donut...has been amazing. Apparently, they even have the best donuts in LA according to the LA Times. But the other week, I strolled in for my coffee and snack and Mary wandered over and whispered that she was selling the joint. I was baffled. Why? How? My morning routine was shattered. Where was I to get my coffee fix? What was I to do with those extra ten designated minutes. And wait, no more Mary morning conversations!
However, after getting over the realization that things were about to get a little mixed up, I met the new owners, who are just as adorable as my little Mary, and the good news was they decided to keep the shop open for coffee and donuts. And it gets even better!!! I went in this morning and there was a new sign hanging...Breakfast Sandwiches. First of all, this is amazing, because so many mornings, especially after a rough night, I tend to crave that darn breakfast sandwich, and it's soooo out of my way to get one. But not anymore! And the new shop even has muffins! Holy crap...such a great place, and such a sweet breakfast. Check out the Donut Shop...at Franklin and Dix. I'm not sure what the new name will be, but it's still good ole' Mary's to me. Best Breakfast Sandwich in town.

SHADOWSCENE COMICS
Have you checked out the Shadowscene comics lately? Here's one of the latest (Turbo 1.5)...and you can see the rest of them on the SS myspace page in the blog section!! Our newest releases tomorrow so check back for the updates. Plus..more good news...the Shadowscene comic book is planned to come out next year! Yay!!

SOUNDS AND SUNSHINE
Today was awesome, especially since we got a break from the chill and had some sunshine on a Saturday. Speaking of sunshine, tonight is the afterparty for The Sounds with Tommie Sunshine!! This guy is a sick DJ..and the Sounds will be laying down some tracks as well. I love those guys. Check Shadowscene for some photos in the next couple of days. Tonight's going to be insane!!
I also realized that today is December..2nd...and what the hell. Are you kidding me? Because I swear it was just yesterday that it was July 4th and Halloween. Daaamn time flies. I spent my afternoon with Ho Ho eating sushi and mangos, busting jokes and rhymes and worked on some new robo art stuff. And then we had some cranberries and coffee and perused the magazine stand. Oh...and if you catch this month's issue of URB...HOT DAMN...there's a full page photo of MSTRKRFT and JUSTICE by Shadowscene along with a dozen other random party shots. Check it out!! We also caught an article of our friend Matty who has been doing some rad shit. So grab this issue, it's pretty awesome. Other than that, I think it's time to bust out the dreidels and mistletoe. Maybe hang some lights. But tonight, it's hang the dj's!

THE SADDEST...HAPPIEST GIFTS
So this is hilarious, I was nearly in tears today checking these out online. I don't know if this would be a good or a bad gift..but if you know me, you just may get one for the holidays. The boyfriend/girlfriend pillow. What a deal! They've honestly thought of everything at this point. Even if you don't find the concept funny, the website alone is plenty humorous: Pillow Interview
Bermonster and I were chatting about it online and trying to think of just how these could be improved; possibly a fuzzy chest pillow, silky thigh, hourly gas passing, tummy growling...oh the possibilities are endless. Comedy at it's best this season. Boy oh boy oh boy. It's cuddle time!

CRAZY SILLY ACTION
So this week I had my photo shoot for PAPER Magazine. An upcoming issue is featuring a few of us West Coast eastsiders. And hooray! I was included with a really rad grouping of people, including Leyla from HeartsChallenger...the wonderful ice cream, musical sparkling gal. Yummy treats. We also had Franki Chan, Brooke from White Trash Charms, the owner of the Cha-Cha (love that place!!!) and a ton of other cool folk. Then, I got to listen to Anne Lee and Joe on Little Radio. Apparently Joe stopped by and dropped a few jokes on the air. And I requested only a dozen jams. Hilarious! Finally, it was naptime, followed by snack time and then off to Check Yo' for an amazing show by The Gray Kid and some dance action with Guns N Bombs. Sooo rad. Both performances completely blew my mind. The funniest part of the evening was when a dude grabbed me and said I had to take someone's picture, that it was a great photo opportunity. Then he asked if I liked rock stars. I tried not to laugh. And for a while, as he introduced me to his friend, I went along with the fact that they were pretending he was the guitarist from The Strokes. Needless to say, I pulled the chain pretty quick when I realized it was The Shys...being I guess a bit bashful? Drunken rock stars...pretending to be other rock stars..what? Huh? Oh well, it left me with a few giggles.
But of course, it appears I'm a bit stretched thin and decided to take today to chill, especially since I'm pretty much suffering from borderline strep throat, if there is such a thing as borderline. Oh well, all good things must have rest periods, or something. Ech. Someone bring me tea. Or ale, with ginger. Please.

GOBBLE GIBLIT DRIBBLE
Mmmm...what a week. A week that seemed to feel like only two really long days. Lots of taters and pie, movies and drinks, festivities and sleep. I took the last week to really catch up on things and set some things in motion for next year. All fun!!
Thanksgiving was great, fifteen people stretched out across a long table eating and passing a bottle of tequila along in a series of rounds. I'm not sure if it was the tryptophan or Jose Cuervo but we all passed out about 20 minutes after the big din-din. Who's to say? But it was amazing nonetheless. The best part was that instead of bringing food to the party, I brought my microwave...and a few cases of beer. Nothing funnier than lugging a huge ass microwave down the street for Thanksgiving. Three cheers for innovation!
The rest of my long weekend consisted of lots of naps, numerous brunches, The Burbs and attempts at making apple pies. I got to spend time with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while which was awesome and even managed to hang out in my apartment for more than the usual 4 hours a day. Now, it's back to craziness, with three killer nights back to back!
If you're in LA, check out BOA tonight for a Thanksgiving family-style DJ showcase rock out session with free Svedka. Magic words...my open bar.

WEEKEND RECAP, NIGHTCAP
What a weekend...after all the chaos of losing the wallet and losing lots of sleep last week, I decided to embrace the weekend with minimal work. Friday I checked out the last Deadly Syndrome show for a while. And it was awesome!! The whole Jackass gang stopped by to support all of the Syndromicus-ness. And stuff. From there, we headed to the BFH for some old school metal rock out before walking to Thomas' where the first house party was already in full gear. I busted out the Shadowscene mix to get the dance floor started and quickly traded my Miller Light for a Sparks with the Bermonster. It was an awesome night, full of broken beer bottles, doggies, rock out sessions and couch sitting. Oh yeah, and stumbling, yes stumbling home.
Saturday was another adventure! Sleeping, sushi, meetings and then a last minute call to rescue Tom and Charley out in Malibu where their radiator exploded. Oh pew. But I did get to sip on a Dew Big Slam which I probably haven't done since high school. Yum. From there it was dropping folks off, quick nap and off to The Echo for Hang the DJ's. I photographed away at all the silly antics and then stole Chan's drink and shared it with Trouble Jr. (shhhh). You know whats nuts is that The Echo has hidden cameras and records everything. It was pretty insane. Mancuso was followed by one of the security dudes just for urinating in a stall. Damn. The night ended quickly and with a quesadilla.
Sunday was definitely a lazy day. Creeksta tempted me into a beachy afternoon and we stopped for a mangorita brunch with Shalanna and Bboy followed by a cruise out to Zuma beach. They swam in the ice water and I wrote a short story. yay! We watched the sunset in fragments and then stopped at Dudes, Dales, Dukes...something like that, for a snack on the way home. Snackaroos are great before an hour long drive...seriously. At that point, I decided maybe a little work should be done. I cracked down on the Shadowscene frontier while the others made their way to Howl at the Moon. Damn. And tonight...oh boy...it's The Rapture and The Presets in Hollywood...with an afterparty at Starshoes. Talk about dance mania.

FINDERS KEEPERS
So here's the closure on the missing wallet. This is fantastic. So Wednesday sort of sucked just because I was at a loss of money, ID's and more, but Thursday I moved on, got a new license and closed out any sort of accounts that may have been foiled with. I kissed that moolah goodbye and case closed. But then, Thursday night I get home and check the mail, and alas, a mysterious little plump white envelope is in my mailbox. No return address, skewed writing and two little stamps...postmarked in my own neighborhood. Huh? I open it and surprise!!! My ID, debit card and Arclight member card. What the...? Of course, no money and no Barcelona wallet. But first of all, it really threw me for a loop. Because at this point I'd already moved on and had no need for these materials anymore. Secondly, who bothers to even send these things if you're gonna steal the rest of the stuff? Guilty conscience, anyone? Maybe they just felt like doing the right thing?
Regardless, I now have some lovely duplicates and I do feel better knowing they are not just floating around Hollywood. I was sort of bummed they didn't include a note. Maybe I'll get a holiday card seeing how they know my address...that would be kind of rad. But I guess I'll stamp this one case closed. And now, the ancient question of what to do when you find a wallet with cash on the sidewalk (or parking lot...or taco stand window) has been answered. Simple! You keep the cashola, maybe keep the wallet if you dig it, and then send the cards back in a blank envelope. It's a done deal.

Tidbit: Oh...and don't dress up as a burglar for Halloween...apparently, this plan will somehow backfire.

LOSING IT
So...yay. Good times this morning when I awoke and realized my wallet was gone. Hooray! lost wallet! But the ultimate kicker of this was last night I was carrying a lot of cash, which if you know me, you know I pretty much never carry or have cash. But for random reasons I did, and I even left it in my car for most of the day and night. But, on my way home from Check Yo' I stuffed that wad of cash right into the wallet and made a quick stop at the Cactus. And poof. Vanished!! Aaaargh! And to think, it could have been a lost empty wallet. But rather, it was probably the fullest wallet I've ever had. Gone.
So, needless to say, today is sad. I'm missing my little Barcelona red knitted wallet full of a months hard earned savings! As soon as I realized it was missing I ran out, jumped in my car and drove back to the burrito stand. The little chiquita at the Cactus this morning who was sweeping the parking lot said she hadn't seen it. But maybe someone will...
That poor pouch traveled far, only to end up in a greasy parking lot at 2am in dark alley gutter punk central. I'll give you lots of cookies and goodies if you find it. Even the empty wallet would be sweet, as it's got lots of sentimental value. But even so, it looks as if I'll be spending an afternoon at the DMV to get a new license. I love Los Angeles...the only place I know where I need to make an appointment to visit the licensing clerk. And with my luck lately, I'll be pulled over for not coming to a complete stop on my way to the motor vehicle office.


:( pew.

Sooooo Kooool
Tonight it's the long awaited show at Check Yo' of Kool Keith...Dr. freakin' Octagon!!! I have to say, the entire past month has been ridiculous for Check Yo' Ponytail with MSTRKRFT, Justice, The Horrors, Totally Radd and now this. Amazing. Plus, we received a bit more press in SPIN Magazine too...check it out!! And in other news, the Hear Gallery is relocating, which means there's a bit of a hold on the radtastic underground sub-culture dwelling we all loved so much. But...that also means there's some new stuff in store. While the crew was running amuck in New York, we decided to coin our lovely hotel room "Awesometown". And it truly was awesome; the crash pad for many vodka chugging, freshly tattooed, laptop lipstick lovers. Thankfully Thomas declared himself Mayor of Awesometown, although that didn't really keep things any more under wraps or in any sense of order. But maybe that was the point....hmm. Regardless, what I'm saying here, is that "Awesometown" is now in Los Angeles!!! Starting tomorrow night, our crew is throwing a new event at the Short Stop. And who doesn't already love this place? Now you'll be able to get great hook-ups on booze, gloat at photobooth drunken mania, partake in pool sharkage-ness, and rock out with fun resident DJ's. Oh, how we love little off the beaten path bars...and making them even just a bit more fantastic.
The Short Stop
1455 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Every other Wednesday, starting November 15, 2006

PAPER, PAPER
Um...yeah. So I've only been back in LA for about two days...and it was back to the madness of free Svedka...free drinks, all night long for Day 3 of PAPER Magazine in LA. Last night was insane! Madness! Awesomeness! DJ Franki Chan tore it up, photographers galore, crazy hairdos and body paint, dance freak fantastic-ness, masked masqueraders, booze-booze-booze, happy, happy joy time. From there it was off to Vine bar to continue the crazed antics. Joe and I pretty much annihilated Rony's Photobooth by somehow managing to appear in almost every photo he took, or distracting a pictorial in progress. Sorry Rony!! We love you! Awesometown NYC was back in action, and has now apparently relocated to Los Angeles...oh boy! This basically means, the chaos will now be full-force...for quite some time. There's no downtime when Awesometown's around.
Keep up the mania, get out and check out the rest of the Paper Mag events if you're in LA; they all promise to be wildly fulfilling. Tonight...The Adored & The Deadly Syndrome at the Storefront Open. And yes...more free drinks and magazines. Yay!

HOW LAME! HOW FUN!
Yeah...so this is my travel bits...and I just spent a week traveling, without updating my bits!! Lame! But regardless, you're still getting the update on the Shadowscene NYC adventure, which pretty much started Halloween night and ended this morning. Aargh. I'll just start by saying that the LA Justice/MSTRKRFT Halloween bash was beyond insane...a night that never ended. We pretty much went nuts until 4am at Safari's with the danceteria madness, headed home, kind of packed and then raced to the airport at 6am. The best part was meeting up with everyone who was still intoxicated from a few hours before. And of course, no sleep leads to a bit of fuzzy brained confusion, trouble in the security check-ins and stumbling to catch your plane. Joe went through a full search and I was robbed by security. Oh the harshness of watching them rummage and thieve. No liquid treats for me!
After the crazed airport we all nestled into our seats on the plane and attempted to sleep, which didn't really happen. Five hours later we landed in NYC and headed straight over to BED for the Zombie Prom party...ah the chaos!! Creeksta and Thomas both broke in their flasks while poor Joe struggled to chit-chat with a lost voice. After an hour we were all back in slightly tip-top shape, being chased by Pac Man and a Ghost, pillow fighting, and beer spraying. Brooklyn's Matt & Kim were amazing...and so was the free Monster and vodka. Talk about a savior after being awake for 42 hours straight. Our night ended at "Awesome-town"...our amazing hotel in Soho, where we found ourselves cuddled up and passed out, eager to awake to more Manhattan madness.

BRAIN WAVE MANIA
I’m not really sure what I ingested this morning, but I’ve spent the afternoon questioning and pondering some really bizarre shit. Like who decided to lay the damn keys out on a keyboard the way they are and knew it wouldn’t mess things up. And wouldn’t it be cool to sit around and watch the people who came up with language and spoken word actually create that stuff. Whoa nelly…
And how come ants can just walk and climb forever…if I were that small could I move around non stop all day carrying things thirty times my weight? And what about this metamorphosis shit…why can’t we wrap ourselves up in cotton and come out a month later a renewed being. What the heck!? Regardless, it’s probably just the caffeine talking. I’ve drank about three times my usual amount. For no reason at all…other than the fact that it’s here and available. Thankfully, I don’t live my life by that motto or I’d find myself in quite a few predicaments. Ouch. Someone make the brain stop on the tick-tock.
Oh...here's a gnarly tidbit goodie...ants and robots.

MAJOR BLOW UP
Saturday night was the return of the monthly Blow Up LA at the Hear Gallery...which always promises to knock you on your ass. Which it totally did!! This month was also the celebration of Franki Chan's birthday which came equipped with a huge pinata in the likeness of Franki's head...a ton of bands and ridiculous DJ's. Plus...lots of silly string, paper hats and party favors...and oh the free Tecate!! It was 4am before I knew it and thankfully there's a ton of photos to refresh my faded memory. But Blow Up was just the beginning; this week it's The Kooks at Check Yo', and a lot of silly Shadowscene'n around that I'll have to keep you posted on!!
One thing's certain...the latest in the Shadowscene Botwear is about to break out...and it's in hoodie form. Ah!!! Until then...enjoy some robo sillyness...

READY, STEADY, GO!
I'm tired. Like seriously wiped the heck out. I started on a bunch of production work this week while maintaining the Shadowscene frontier and that pretty much equivalates to 3 hours of sleep per night. Yes!! But I'm still going...trucking along as they say! I now get to play a bunch of video games throughout the day and get a dose of television into my existence so it somehow balances out. Last night I even managed to throw myself from one place to another and catch the tail end of The Deadly Syndrome show. These guys are sooo damn good it eats me up. They have a bunch of upcoming shows so catch one!! Then it was off to some photoboothing and tequila'ness with the gang. Speaking of gang, the Shadowscene crew and friends are embarking on an adventure to NYC and Boston in the next couple of weeks...which is going to be completely retarded if I do say so myself. A minimal agenda and a lot of 'do whatever the heck we please'. Ah...my favorite way to be. Look out NYC.

IN 1984
Who ever would have seen this coming? What happened to the tight pants and high jumping splits!? This is amazing...

OH BOY
The dumbest thing I said today...sitting down at lunch, and as James was served his plate of deliciousness...
"Geez man, I can smell that pickle from all the way over here."

Blank stares...

Thankfully, most of my friends are used to the bizarre outbursts of Ellei J.

FREAKY FUN with FILMS
So I am by far no movie buff, but I know what I like. And ever since I started wearing socks I was a fan of le' horror film. This past Friday was Friday the 13th, (my favorite!), and I got to watch a double feature of the first Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St. at the awesome Vista theater. But just to make it a little more rad, not only was the screening free, but they served out free drinks and popcorn!! What a treat! That place was chaos after the first film ended and those bottomless drinks I'm sure had something to do with it. Lots of hooting and hollering...ah so sweet. Of course, I then ended my weekend with a film that left a bit more of a bizarre impression; The Cemetery Man. What the hell? If you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about. If you have never even heard of it, get yourself over to google now. I laughed, I shrieked, I experienced an abundance of confused expressions and by the end of the movie I was more dumbfounded than I'd like to admit. Of course, this film came with Sprite and Nachos. Hmmm...maybe therein lies the explanation.

SUPER SUPAFLOSS
Hysterical. No seriously. Tuesday night SupaFloss cracked up at Check Yo' Ponytail...I'm talkin' some major hilarity. These guys are awesome. It was major comedy the other night with Trainwreck (Kyle from Tenacious D's new band), SupaFloss and Baby Dayliner. Good fun and laughs. My favorite was the excess on the cowbell and the Chuck Norris impersonator. Oh and of course, watching Kyle tear it up on the dance floor was pretty damn rad as well.

Check out the photos at Shadowscene!!

BOTTOMLESS BELLY
Let's just talk about Joe for a second. I spent most of my weekend with Joe joe and we came to the realization that 90% of our time spent together, we are eating, or planning on eating, or thinking about eating, or watching food network, or cooking...you get the point. So, once we came to this realization, we couldn't help but notice it even more. And boy oh boy does one discovery lead to another. Joe, it turns out, has a bottomless cast-iron stomach. Here's a brief review of two days spent with Joe joe.
Saturday I awake to a feast of Chinese food which we eat by the pool. Joe intakes chow mein, fried rice, curry noodles, sweet n' sour chicken, pork, peas and carrots, bellpepper stuff, and a ginormous Smart water. I eat bits of this along with my own ginormous Smart water.
From there, we head to the Detour Festival in downtown LA where we stop at McDonalds so Joe can get some fries and two apple pies. I have a sip of his Powerade. When we get to the concert, Joe adds some mushrooms to the mix and about 4 vodka cranberries, 4 vodka monsters, and a few shots of vodka. From there, it's off to pick up some friends and stop, amazingly, yet again, at McDonalds. A round of Happy Meals. This officially breaks my no fast food diet. Damn it. Joe finishes my meal because I can't stomach it.
From there, we do some Cha-Cha'ing which includes 3 PBR's for Joe, one for me. An hour later we head home, and on the way hit up a taco stand where Joe picks up 2 tacos and a burrito.
Finally, the night ends. And everyone passes out with full tummys. Oh, but the weekend doesn't stop there.
Sunday morning we roll up and out and head to Sushi Mac. On the way Joe scores a Vitamin water and shares. Sushi Mac witnesses us eat the most we've ever fathomed in one sitting. Creeksta helps out with this. Heading to Shadowscene headquarters we stop at Ralphs and Joe picks up 3 bags of M&M's and an iced tea. I get my own iced tea but only finish half. Now this is all just the beginning. Because seriously, it never ends from this moment on; we've decided to hang out at a BBQ for the rest of the day, where Joe can eat, and eat, and eat. And this is what Joe manages to eat in a few hours:
3 hotdogs
3 hamburgers (one while no one was looking)
2 more hotdogs
1 Chicken leg
4 Hefeweizens
3 Milwaukees
1 bag of chips with Salsa
1 helping of Potato salad
2 Ice cream cones
Ugh. This is where I leave Joe...and not even with a belly ache. And from there, since the night was still young, he proceeded to Safari Sams for 2 PINTS of Jack & Coke, 4 beers on tap, and 2 Sparks after hours. Gotta love him! And if this doesn't make you want to fast, I don't know what will.

COMMON DIGS THE BOTWEAR!
Thanks Common, for proudly supporting the Shadowscene!!

COMMON ZOMBIE TIME
So today, Common is jamming out at Cal State Northridge and Shadowscene was there earlier today showcasing the It's Turbo!!! comic strip and Botwear...and hooray because Common was pretty stoked on his Classic Botwear! For the month of October, you can check out a selection of the It's Turbo!!! comics at the Hear Gallery so make sure you look for them!! Otherwise, just go check the strips at the Shadowscene myspace page. Rad.
Now of course, it's off to Hollywood Forever for the long awaited screening of Romero's Dawn of the Dead!! Where else could I ever watch a classic zombie film in a cemetery with over 95,000 people, and still be in front row. Zombies attack!!!!!

STUFF, STYLE & METAL
Thursday rocked me. So hard. So, so hard. I got to shoot and hang out at the STUFF Magazine Style Awards party, rooftop of the Arclight theater. First off, any party that gives you unlimited free beverages and tons of food is a hit. Not to mention Adam 12 DJ'ing with Franki Chan.
But the fun doesn't stop there. The Eagles of Death Metal kicked some serious ass (as usual). Furthermore, some crazy break dancin' act from Vegas hit the floor and then, this is the funny part, we had a guest beat boxer busting out some rhythm when the cops came. What Hollywood function ever gets broken up by the cops? And apparently, one is required to have a Beat Box permit. What the hell?? Do I need a permit to wear pants now too? Amazingly, everyone still bounced around macking on the free booze. Thanks Stuff, for showing us all a great time. Hooray to EODM for rocking and for all the wonderful companies that gave my tummy some free filling. One never can have enough egg rolls, alcohol and rock n' roll.

MONKEYS AND VIRGINS
So far this week has continued to be full of surprises. First off, our monthly Get Famous at BOA the other night was yet again a success!! Wayne Brady and some of the dudes from Queer Eye stopped by early in the night followed by the freakin' original drummer from the Monkeys. Hey man, that's way cool. Lots of free drinks for the crowd and DJ Paparazzi tore it up as usual!! Plus, last night at Check Yo' we had three absolutely amazing bands. The Fawnhawks ruled!! Followed by Myles' Bloodcat Love and Jason's Dead Ponies. All three bands really played amazing first gigs. Yay!! Rock and roll and dancing madness continues.
Today I spent the afternoon catching up on photos and meetings and preparing for three upcoming art shows. The madness never stops. Now it's off to the Stuff Mag party to scope out the schwag and snap the shots.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

I've feel like I've sort of fallen off the face of the earth and yet so much has happened in the past few days it's been nearly impossible to keep up with. Lots of dancing, lots of madness, a little tonic, a little more vodka. Over the course of a few days I've experienced enough to exhaust me for a year. So here's a bit to just give you a glimpse.
From last week until today, more mexican food than one could imagine, Guest DJ turning a party into the best dance party I've seen in months, burning eyes from endless smoke, Boston chats, long car rides, five people in a pick-up truck, lounging on building stoops, missing out on Axl, designing tattoos, DFA rooftop parties, champagne pre-parties, nostalgic music, empty pools, and finally, a massive accumulation of madness in last nights ultimate chaos...consisting of cowboys, more free drinks, dancing, peanuts, more peanuts, stickers covering my friends and I from head to toe, people too big to be jumping on, jumping on me, ass spankings, dribbling drinks on sweaters, getting punched twice in one day, slapped only once, intriguing waiters gyrating on pianos, watching girls vomit next to the bar, doing splits, people singing songs that go something like head, chest, knees and toes, knees and toes. Being told my friend has been cut off, but he's not even my friend. Getting lost in the back room of a bar. Losing Creeksta in Universal Studios. Finding a phone. Losing the car. Losing the phone. Finding Creeksta. Puddle jumping, coyotes chasing, passing out on sidewalks, Thai food. 5am. Endless nights and forgetful mornings. The rest of it's becoming a blur.

FOLIAGE
Gotta love it. New England is amazing this time of year. And I've come to realize, the only place I've seen any sort of Fall foliage out here in LA is in Beverly Hills. For some reason the leaves on Doheny and Wilshire, Beverly, Rodeo and such all actually change color and fall. I don't know what the deal is, they must pay for some sort of seasonal effect over there and the rest of the city gets deprived. Sidewalks covered in leaves! Yay!! Only in Beverly Hills! But today I had a treat to top it because there's nothing better than getting some real genuine leaves shipped over across the country. Literally, good ole' Mama J mailed an envelope with leaves...pretty rad stuff. My own little New England fall festival in an envelope.

WE GOTS LUBRICATION!
So it's starting to seem as if Anna and I are on a bit of an ask and you shall receive pattern. Although it's a bit more of a mention and it will happen. It began with the cake fight the other night (we spoke of great cake wars, and alas, that's what occurred) and then last night it happened to us again. Anna and I headed down to Safari Sams to see 8-Bit and Leslie and the LY's, and damn, it was awesome! Hilarious! Fun! I'm totally going to score a Bedazzler asap!! At the end of the night, we are walking back to the car, and she starts telling me a story about how one night a friend and her were walking in the same spot and a dozen cars tried to pick them up, as if this were Santa Monica & Highland or some crap. So what do you know...just as she finishes the story a car pulls up to the side of the road and makes an offer, followed by another vehicle that intersects in front of the first and tries to top that offer. Meanwhile, Anna and I are by no means looking like street walkers, so it's all a bit strange and seems we've stumbled upon the hidden hot spot street corner of Hollywood. Naturally, we pass on the offers and get into our car. But naturally, it doesn't stop there. We drive. And then a third car pulls up beside us, and the best part is, they scream at us that they have lubrication. I mean seriously, that's a hard offer to pass on, right? WHAT!? A car full of dudes pulls up next to you and yells that they are lubricated?? What the hell? I mean that's a major selling point, we'd be pretty crazy to turn that offer down. I wonder what movie they scammed that line from? Needless to say, we rolled the windows up and reluctantly passed on the thrilling "we're lubricated" offer then proceeded to embark on a hunt for the 2am quesadilla. Laughing, joking, jumbling around we finally park at the Shadowscene headquarters and nestle ourselves safely inside, spicy quesadilla and tacos in hand.

HOLY MOLY
This weekend was nuts...first off, thanks to 8-Bit for doing yet again, another amazing show on Friday. Crazy drunk robots!!! And hooray for all the cake...and cake fighting. The best was that just 10 minutes before the cake war broke out, Anna and I were talking about how much we wanted to just get a cake and throw it around, you know, just for fun. Then all of a sudden, we were in the midst of what we had asked for. Cake flying everywhere, smeared in hair, shoved in faces. Good sweet sticky fun! And that cake honestly weighed about 40lbs and we somehow managed to let a bit of it last long enough for eating. Yum.
Then Saturday night was the monthly BLOW UP LA at Hear Gallery, another crazy night of dancing and amazing bands. Kissing Tigers and This Blush were both awesome and the freakin' Gangs of Neon came out and DJ'd and man did it get nuts...those boys can motivate a dance floor. No cake fights but lots of neon style embellishment and sweaty dance action. Gotta love the Hear.

HOLLYWOOD STAKEOUT
So last night I went out to lovely Alhambra to shoot the Latino speaker Jesus Andres Bueno. Joe came along for comedy considering he doesn't know or understand a lick of Spanish other than "Hola"! So he stood by wondering what the hell was going on and making up dialogue inside his head. Hooray MST3000 with Joe Joe!! Regardless, I got to run around ninja style and photograph this guy for a couple of hours, and oh the hilarity. There was even a song and dance.
Of course, then Joe and I headed out, stole a couple of golf balls from the nearby driving range for our weird collection of nothingness, and then made it back to Hollywood in 9 minutes. And we had plans. We had lots of plans...Vanguard for free copies of BPM, Social for short lived entertainment, little dark bars for a couple of drinks...dancing...but no.
Instead, we spent over an hour in his car, trying to repair the broken sunroof, considering it was starting to drizzle, and the damn thing wouldn't shut. So for an hour or so we took turns pulling, pushing, holding in clicking buttons, kicking rooftops, punching the padded ceiling and nothing. That damn sunroof is still stuck open. Although, we did spend that hour directly across the street from what we discovered to be a hidden drug house. And by hidden I mean literally buried by shrubbery and in pit of darkness. We watched about 7 people and 3 couples lurk around and make hidden exchanges. Of course, we then looked like we were on a stakeout and apparently we're not very good at it because we were caught!!! Some dude managed to see us just sitting in the car poking around and being up to no good I suppose. And boy did we get the evil glare. Total creepazoid eye contact on a dimlit street stranger to stranger. There were about 30 seconds of awkwardness, a new century stare down and considering Joe and I weren't decked out in our Warriors Shadowbot vests, we opted on checking out of that scene. In other words we decided it would be best to leave. So we did.
All in all, the Hollywood stakeout and attempted car repair pretty much took up our entire night, although we managed to sneak in some Crunch Wrap Supreme before calling it an evening. An evening of retardedness with Joe Joe and Ellei.

IN A NUTSHELL

I went to eat dinner a few nights ago...at this cute little italian restaurant place in Larchmont Village. I decided to order the vegetarian lasagna, because well, why not. Yay veggies! But the thing was, when the plate of steamy food finally arrived, it was more or less cheese. And I love cheese. Love it! But when I was excited for veggies, and wanted all those lovely little nutrients, I didn't want all that cheese! No more cheese! Damn it...there were like four little slices of squash and zucchini in there, whatever that green and yellow stuff was. And a wonderful non-abundance of maybe a piece of spinach. And then the rest of that steaming hot plate was compiled of four layers of pasta noodles and ten thousand different cheeses. More like cheese lovers lasagna. Regardless, for dessert I ordered the New York cheesecake...I'm not kidding. And that thing was fantastic!

Valley Day
So today, I ended up heading out to Burbank to pick up Creeksta from the airport. So much better than working or going to LAX for that matter. And oh the awesomeness! We went to Hugo's for lunch and dipped in on some lime oj wine. A pitcher of it to be exact. With some fluffy rolls and funky salad with jicama. The best part was that the waiter simply kept coming back and filling up the glasses. How dare we leave them half empty! Sip. Sip. Sip.
After lunch, and conversing about swimming in fountains and I don't really remember what else, we found ourselves wandering around in an empty house for sale. Lame house, sweet pool. Loads of fun.

HAPPY FALL!!
Yeah!! So my favorite time of the year is here...finally. I mean, I love the summer, but fall is seriously the most colorful, temperature waving, vital time of the year. And of course, Halloween is the bestest of the best!!! Yes! Yes!
Besides, in a couple weeks I get to partake in the screening of the original Dawn of the Dead at the Hollywood Forver cemetary. Plus...this year is a Zombie Walk in early October!! Oh the crazy clad clan that will be. I can't wait. I simply need some hot apple cider to melt me into the fabulousness of fall.

FUNNY STORY
So I basically shut down for about a week. Let me just say a break and some time off is just what I needed, screw milk, sleep does a body good. Obviously.
So last week the Shadowscene solo art show was confirmed!! Sweet deal!! Yes! So come next month, sometime in October anyway, there will be a crazy art show party over in Beverly Hills with straight up Shadowscene Ellei J art. Nice. But here's the funny story.
So Friday night the gallery had an opening and my lovely friend Anna was working. Needless to say this wonderful woman was quite inquisitive about the gallery and upcoming artist and no matter how many times Anna informed the woman that she just really didn't know much about the art, because she was simply serving the wine, the woman insisted on details and information being revealed. So, when she asked about the next show, Anna naturally let her know about the Ellei J. show. And oh boy did the woman's face light up. Maybe at the final revealing of some gallery tidbits...oh but it didn't stop there. "Oh yes, she says, I've heard of her. Amazing artist yada yada yada". Of course, it'd be amazing if she'd honestly heard of me. But really...that'd be pretty far out and a bit uncanny. Oh Anna...gotta love you for holding back the laughter and playing along with the curious ole' lass. Funny. Nothing better than someone bullshitting with another fellow bullshitter. I kid you not. And stuff.

Can You DIG It?
Tonight was amazing...I finally ventured out minus camera in hand and just embraced the evening. And hooray for cemetary screenings!! Hollywood Forever did me the pleasure of screening two hours of 1979 funky clad males running endlessly in The Warriors. Yes! I haven't seen this movie in it's entirety until tonight. And seriously, any movie with dudes running around in vests, mime costumes, Yankees attire and face paint, leather, random hats and all black is good for me. No complaints here. This movie is awesome!! And plus, where else can you watch a 27 year old film with the starring actress in the audience with you...on her birthday. Sweet Hollywood film screenings!! Lounging around on blankets, huddled with friends for comfort and warmth, wine, crackers and jalapeno cheese...more wine, spinach dip...you get the idea.
From there a group of us headed over to Hear Gallery...where Elina was busted with a can-o'sparks in her bag. So of course we all stopped and stood with her while she was forced to pound the Sparks outside the door because we couldn't bring it in with us. What!! Where the hell else do you go and they let you keep it...and make you drink it! We made it in just in time to watch The Afterhours trash their gear and finish their set. Game over...
Creeksta and I drove off in the Club Tattoo truck...and hung out at El Grande Burrito, which to me seemed to be tucked away in a very intricate wire fenced area in some random neighborhood. But damn, did they have some amazing tacos. Tacos!! An hour under the red plastic canteen lights and a few ounces of salsa later, we migrated...to the land of soft plush pillows and kittens.

HAZY, DAZY, DISCO
It's hazy. It's hot. It's wild. This week has been nuts!!! Last weekend was the Sunset Junction yearly festival. So Sunday, I decided to drop by, or sneak in, and run around with some friends. Yummy food, flashy lights, and random run-ins with strangers and their pets. Good times! We pretty much skipped out on all the bands, but what the heck, it was more about the joy of aimlessly wandering around.
Then, Tuesday night was insane! Matt & Kim played an amazing show at Check Yo' Ponytail with Kill Hannah. Plus, the lovely girls from Rocket are back in town...(yay!!!) and we all celebrated with a homecoming show. Lots of tequila shots chased by Corona. Wheee. Other than that, I've been playing a bit of catch up this week...tee-shirts are flying outta here like a crazy-winged bat. Or something. And I think I'm sinking into a photo collage of life. But now, I'm back and ready for tonights RAPTURE at the Hear Gallery!!! It should be absolutely nuts, especially considering they just renovated the venue and got a new AC and larger bar. Holy crap. I don't know if you know, but that place typically leaves you covered in about a million other people's gallons of sweat. And you're guarenteed to leave with a perm. But no more!! Not tonight! There shall be dancing, and a bit of sweatiness. But no more boiler room action. Sweet...sweaty...disco dancin'. Yes.

Happy Saturday!!! I've spent my afternoon wrapping up some finishing touches on the beta edition of the Drunk Bot Botwear...whee!! And tonight, it's off to hang out in Chinatown to catch The Black Palms first show followed. And if possible, over to Vine Bar for BEER with Har Mar Superstar, The Strokes and more. Wicked.

RANDOM !!!
So today I received a surprise when Shadowscene's Botwear was listed as one of the top features in upcoming fashion!! Botwear was grouped with Morphine Generation, Corpus Denim and Saddlelite Jeans...all amazing designers. I was super thrilled to see my little robot tees aligned up with the others. Hooray!
In case you're not too familiar with the Botwear line, you can check it all out in the Shadowscene store. On average, a few designs are launched each season and there's a TON of new stuff coming soon. Plus, there's a bunch of limited edition hoodies coming out and a couple more giveaways and contest before the years end. Holy smokes!!

STELLAR!!
So..tonight, it's Motorcycle Boy..vrooom, vrooom, at Safari Sams! Hell yeah! The week has seemed to sort of been slipping away. In a sense that well, damn, it's already pretty much over. Today I spent the afternoon running around the park shooting my friends headshots. It was pretty darn stellar to say the least. And of course it was 40 percent headshots and 60 percent playtime. I hope some of you made it out to the Matt & Kim show last night and if not, well you can still catch them this coming week at Check Yo' Ponytail!! Yay!! These guys are amazing. Other than that, it's crazy over on the Shadowscene front...I may be heading down to San Diego tomorrow and but I'll be back in to LA for Saturdays shindigs. Plus...this Saturday is the Har Mar party with Fabrezio of The Strokes...seriously, what!?
Today's word of the day is stellar. Use it.

IT'S WEDNESDAY
Wheee. On my fifth glass of iced tea today, I decided, hey, I don't want any more of this. So now it's on to Gatorade and other finer tasty beverages. It's hot, too hot, again here in Hollywood. This whacky heat wave has got to go. I think it's even got my neighbor on edge as she was screaming off the balcony today ridiculing a squirrel, who in turned just chimped back at her, mockingly. Mocking Squirrel. Heat makes you delirious, and sometimes slow. I've come to the realization that on hot days I develop a minor case of A.D.D. Hot Wednesdays with a.d.d are no fun. At least not yet.

GIMMEE SOME TEA PLEASE
I don't know what it is, but the past two weeks I've been dealing with a new grown fondness, slight addiction, to iced tea. I've even gone to the point of exploring different venues for the drink, deciding where the best tea is. And is it wrong to even call in a pick-up order of iced tea..to go please? In case your wondering, Cafe 101 has some pretty great tea, but nothing beats the Iced Concoction at Birds. Straight up, Iced black tea...mmmm. Or if you want something a bit "healthier", you can always go to the Solar de Cahuenga for some iced green goodie tea. I'm sure there's a ton more I'm missing out on, but I haven't made it there yet. I have however, began the attempt at making the homemade "sun tea." Interesting at best. I think I'll stick to the local neighborhood, a walk down the block, at any hour, for some good to go tea.

SOUNDS like a PARTY
Last night I spent the evening photographing my friend Jessie's birthday bash at Vine bar. However, it ended up becoming the official after party location for The Sounds who are in Los Angeles. Yay! I had the pleasure of running around a swarm of people, observing poor Joe lock himself inside his hoodie after taking one too many shots of Jager, then pouring a bottle of water completely out for photo effect, and eventually crawling up a flight of stairs to nestle into a bean bag. Oh Joe Joe. The funniest part was the birthday present that showed up for Jessie...I'll just leave it at that. And the mad rush of energy that flooded the club 15 minutes before closing. It seems everyone's drinks hit at once. It must have been the excitement of everything bundled in too tight.

Rock & Roll BINGO and Sweet SAFARI!!
First of all, let's just say I was completely drenched from the course of the evening, literally from head to toe and reeked of various booze concoctions. (Thanks to lovely Travis...Franki... and Joe, and all the randoms who partook, partaked, in the spilling of the libations.) Yay!! I'm loving it. And talk about an amazing night. Holy BINGO!! Thursday night I was part of a great crew of sponsors who helped put together and host this month's Rock n' Roll Bingo which ended up being completely awesome and ridiculous!! Tons of giveaways from White Trash Charms, Iheartcomix, Wolfmother Concert tickets, Botwear...and tons more and all proceeds went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Big Brother/Big Sister Program. Hooray!!! We raised $800 and all had a rockin' time.
From there I headed to the GRAND OPENING of SAFARI SAM's where there was FREE BOOZE all night long! Along with live band KARAOKE!!! Thanks James for putting on the best Karaoke show and dance ever. And the cover of Kick out the Jams really put a bowtie on my evening. Yes! Fucking yes!! Sorry Joe for knocking the glass of (free) beer out of your hand during the mosh pit ruffian'ness. But it was worth it. You know it.
Make sure to check out all the photos from each event on Shadowscene's Fiesta page!!!

Cheers, to good times....

If you are reading past this point...well, ok, but damn, this is archaic.
ELLEI'S VISITING BOSTON!
That's right, folks. Ellei will make a visit to Boston on November 9th...it'll be here before you know it! From the smog filled city to the windy city, the journey continues.

on September 8 an important moment in history was made. Vanilla Ice held his finale concert to unveil himself after months of Remaking for a new VH1 documentary. And lucky me, i got to photograph the entire event. Who'd have thought when i was a young'n listening to "Havin' a Roni" that I'd some day be receiving hugs from the man himself, minus the MC Hammer pants and mile high hair, but nonetheless, an evening of water spraying, jaggermeister shots and zaniness with Rob Van Winkle ensued.
Be sure to check out Remaking: Vanilla Ice on VH1 when it airs this winter!

Alas! I have returned to my wonderful world at VH1, where I am now Supervising & Coordinating Post-Production for their very 1st reality show...documentary...special...thing. Look for Remaking with Vanilla Ice & Vince Neil. Yes they were at one time official rock stars and after we're through with them, hopefully they will rock again.
But on another note...well there's not really any other notes.
But there have been journeys! This past year has been filled with a bit of exploration in the mountains. And just last weekend, a bit of fun in Ensenada, Mexico. Whee. Good Times.

Pics to come!

This is the most sad upkeeping of a blog i think i've ever seen. However, it's nice to know it is updated enough that I can remember my own login.
Times in Los Angeles are a-changin'! I've moved on from VH1 & Mtv and into the wonderful world of game show television. Let me just say, working with a bunch of comedic writers and hanging around on a game-show set is quite fun. I was the wonderful Script Supervisor and had all the fun tasks of editing, and making sure Martin Mull was happy with what the teleprompter read. But the wonderful world of Cinemania! will not last long, only a week I'm sad to say and then who knows...

Back from Boston and in LA, fortunately in one piece! ATA has some of the worse seating arrangements I've ever seen. And Boston really is a rainy city. Of course it's pretty gray out here in LA as well.
No complaints from me though. As of now I am a certified H2 driver as well as 350HP Corvette enthusiast. I spent the one sunny day in Boston driving a few of the newest cars on fresh man-made courses. The best was the vette, pushing the pedal to the floor and feeling the back end of the car just drop out, 0-60 in 2 seconds. A week ago I would never have expected to have that under my belt! And pushing the H2 up a 90 degree hill so the only thing in site was the sky straight above. Hooray for gravity!
Speaking of gravity and cars, my big-bad pug Waldo was hit by a truck while deciding to chase it down the street. It's okay, he's fine. Actually he's great. He banged up his chin a little and is now as good as new! Unbelievable! A black cloud chasing the fierce tires of an F-160 only to bounce off, tumble across the pavement, hobble around and transform back to himself in a matter of hours. Of course a little vet assistance goes a long ways!
Three cheers for Waldo-Lucas! And three more cheers to Mokey for holding up the fort while I was away!

For those of you who are still waiting to see some wonderful images of the European Trek 2002, check out these photos taken by Ian Grant during our journey in Paris: the first night in Paris began with a journey to the famous Louvre Museum at night. This place was spectacular and absolutely massive. I returned to it a few days later with Ian and got to check out the Mona Lisa. They apparently keep it behind glass for protection and to keep those flashes away from it, but it doesn't stop people from relentlessly shooting it with the flash cameras. Of course its the smallest painting ever and you can only see it for about 5 seconds before being shoved out of the way.
Another wonderful moment in Paris - The best thing was the Eiffel Tower. So beautiful at night and day. We ran down at the last minute to see the glow of the structure. It was like a carnival below with men chasing us around trying to sell us glowsticks and flags. And I was for some reason too nervous to ride to the top of the tower. Fortunately the view from below was grand enough.
And the highlight of the night, the beginning of a week living on sugar crepes and a wonderful pizza shop in the Latin Quarter. I soon became a regular...

Okay, so I am working at my typical speed, posting an update every 4 to 5 months. I am still living in West Hollywood and have come to the realization that street people in Los Angeles are not as friendly as those on the East Coast. My main encounter with the village of people under the bridges in downtown turned ugly when a homeless man turned on me with his trusty pair of scissors and charged. I felt like one of those fools in the horror movies that just stands still and you are screaming at the television for her to run! And eventually I began walking, quickly. Once in the car I noticed that hordes or them were coming out to see the intruder. That was the end of photographing the streets and people in downtown LA.
I'm still focusing on the band work and designing a few album covers here and there. I'm also working my tail off at VH1/MTV so look at the credits when you watch those shows! Also, don't forget to check out MTV's summer movie special of Movie House airing June 28th where Reese Witherspoon tells eLLei she's cute. More on that later...
As of now, I am packing my bags for a 6AM flight. I leave tomorrow morning to return to Boston, checking out the rainy city for a week and hopefully getting some good shots of the friendlier street folk. Stay tuned...

Hahaha, I am now in Los Angeles and yet again attempting to keep you updated! Of course you are looking for all those wonderful stories of the journey across Europe, the travel log of a cross country trip and the joys of living in the crazy city. And where are they!? I'd love to say look for the book on newstands coming this June but unfortunately-not yet. I am of course, not the laziest fool in the world, simply the busiest. But, as a brief update, not to let you completely down: I am living in the sunny city of West Hollywood, shooting photography for bands, continuing on the street photography collection and expanding my digital horizons. My fat kit kat Mokey has joined me in LA transforming from a squirrel spine-smashing feline to a whacked out indoor cat who now slams jingle socks off the walls at night. And of course he's getting fatter, hooray!
I've also been keeping myself up in the loop of commercial making by starring as a top notch background chick in about 5 dentist ads-so be on the lookout! And in the meantime...stay warm, stay cool and don't get lost in the blur.

It's not really May is it? No way. This is insane. Where have the days gone? In less than 25 days I will be hitting the road again. eLLei in the Jeep driving across country, stopping every 10 minutes I'm sure to take a picture of some hidden mystery in the shadows. No more midnight alley photos in the streets of Boston. I'm moving up in the world, photographing the inner streets of LA.

Patience people, patience. The REAL factual account of my journey is coming....