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....