leftovers

I was so tired when my cell's alarm started going off this morning that I slept in about an hour later than I wanted to. Rick and Melodie said they would be on set starting at 8am because they wanted to finish cleaning up to make sure we got the deposit back, and to get all the b-roll stuff shot. I got out of bed just a little before 8am and I had a couple stops to make on the way. First, I stopped at Target to get a white t-shirt for the final shot, some hair product since I was all out, and sandwich stuff for lunch. I also called Melodie to see if they needed anything else and she asked me to bring latex gloves. I arrived by 9am and had donuts for the small crew working, which was just me, Rick, Melodie, Quentin, and Matt. After we got most of the paint cans loaded into Tiger's truck and cleaned up all the paint spills on the floor, we started shooting the b-roll stuff, which was like shots of paint hitting the background wall and splattering off of the instruments. We w...

I woke up at 6am and got right into the shower so I could start the day. After I got out, Dylan asked what time he had to get up; I told him I was going to go move Tiger's truck into the garage but stop and get donuts first so he could sleep a little more. When I got back, he was already up and showering so I started getting everything put together to load into the truck, and then we made several trips down to the garage. I met Rick and Melodie behind the Egyptian Theatre at 7am, having called Brandon on the way to make sure he was up (he was). Their friends James and Amalia met us there to help out. We realized that there was no way we could load the truck with all the paint and the background walls unless we first took out my drums and the PA; we were going to have to make more than one trip. So, we loaded up the cans of paint and then the custom made sprayers that Rick and Melodie had created in order to make the paint "rain" onto the band, and then the background ...

I felt like the big day had almost come, although today was almost just as big as tomorrow because of all the things I had to do to get ready for it! I had to go to Susan's house to cut checks for work so I did that later in the day and afterward I had to go to Staples because I was out of papers and paperclips in the office, so I also grabbed a few things for the video while I was there. After work, I went to Goodwill and got a shirt and a pair of pants for the video, and got supplies for the catering like paper plates and plastic forks. Then, I stopped at Ralph's to get the bread and meat for the sandwiches and the cheese for the mac and cheese (I already had plenty of pasta at home). Lastly, I went to Guitar Center on Sunset to get my drum throne. I had to tell the guy that I wanted the cheapest one - which was still $40 - because it was going to be ruined by paint in a music video. I didn't mention that I was also planning to still use it even after that! I guess ...

Today was our first board meeting of the new year so I was a little stressed out getting ready for it. It all came together of course and everything went pretty smoothly, despite the fact that it was a little long (over 2 hours), but since we hadn't met in January it made sense. After work, I stopped by Smart & Final on my way home to buy some supplies for catering the video shoot this weekend. I always appreciate a chance to show of my cooking and food prep skills so I had volunteered Dylan and myself to take care of all the food for the shoot. I wanted to do breakfast burritos for the morning, and sandwiches and salads for lunch. I ended up getting all the stuff for the burritos, along with stuff for a green salad and potato salad. When I got home, I made the potato salad first and by the time that was finished, our dinner was ready. I had put two Cornish Game Hens in the slow cooker earlier in the day (I had come home on my lunch break) so we had those with cornbread s...

Today the BID Consortium met in Hollywood at The Palladium which is a big, historic music venue. I had never been there before so I was really excited to finally see it. Our lunch meeting was in the champagne room and a lot of people attended. It was good and informational. There was a new Bottom Feeders blog today and one of the songs listed was "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" by Transvision Vamp (it made it to #87 in 1988). I discovered them when they first came out via "Night Tracks" on TBS if I'm not mistaken. They would show the video for that song and "I Want Your Love" and I went out and bought one or both of those cassette singles. I never ended up getting that into, as I never purchased their album, but later in the 90's when Napster came about I did end up downloading some of their songs and always remembered them fondly. In 2003 when I finally got to see Voice of the Beehive live in Birmingham, Tracey made some comment about Wendy from...

Another day where I had to work, and then go directly to a meeting after work. I guess I should be used to this as it always happens the last Monday and Tuesday of a month, but they always sneak up on me. Today was the C-PAB (Community Police Advisory Board) meeting but it went really fast this time. A lot of people apparently were not able to come tonight. When I got home, Dylan was still at work, as he had to stay late and help out at some NAACP event the Academy was hosting. I thought I would get a whole bunch of recording done but as usual the time went by all too quickly. After hearing the final version of "Alien Nation" the other night so loud in my car with Brandon, Angie, Marc and Dylan, I really wanted to get back to finishing my debut solo album. I started by re-recording vocals on "Underwater Breathing" which I had played for Brandon the other night without vocals. It started out being my 'designer imposter' version of "Clocks" by ...

This turned out to be a busy day. I had to tear my office apart because I still could not find the my handwritten notes from our Advocacy committee meeting last month, and I really needed to type them up and send them out before the board meeting. I really thought I was not going to find them anywhere at this point, as I had gone through every box, pile of papers, folder, etc where I thought they might be, and I had even looked at home and in my car over the weekend. Over my lunch break, I went and picked up my drumset from Rick and Melodie, and then wenat and picked up a bass drum pedal I had found on Craigslist for $25. The guy who sold it to me said it used to be the drummer's from the band Bad Religion! It was missing a spring so I had to take it to the Pro Drum shop, conveniently located just a block from my work, and so they put on a new spring for me and I bought a new bass drum head since the one on my new drums is broken. I did send out a new agenda and noted that I wo...

Although often times I like to get stuff done on Sundays, sometimes I like to just do nothing, like today. I had told Dylan I wasn't going to cook a big brunch like yesterday, but I was pretty hungry when I finally rolled out of bed so I did end up making egg and salsa quesadillas which were yummy. We watched the movie "Rock N Rolla" which we had saved on DVR from forever ago when we had free movie channels through some promotion our cable service was running. We still have "Clockwork Orange" on there which I need to watch sometime. Like a lot of crime/mob type movies, and British movies, it was hard to follow at times but I just had to have faith that it would all come together at some point, and that it did. Plus, it had a gay gangster character and plenty of hot guys in it. I went grocery shopping later in the day as there were a few things I wanted to pick up, and I also had wanted to stop by Rick and Melodie's to pick up my new drum set! I think I m...

I just love sleeping in on Saturdays, especially when I don't have anything I have to do! Last night, Dylan had said he was going to make chocolate chip/almond pancakes when we got home, which didn't end up happening, but it caused me to wake up with a hankerin' for them. So, I got up and immediately set to work in the kitchen. I used the last of the Icelandic chocolate chunks that Kolbrun had sent, mixing them in with the pancake batter, as well as some Trader Joe's Almond Extract and sliced almonds. I made 4 pancakes and left them in the oven to stay warm, while I made some breakfast burritos. But these burritos were special - I put bacon, fresh grated cheddar, tomatoes and fresh salsa in them, and then fried the wrapped burritos in the pan with some butter. Yum!!! It was one of the best brunches I have ever made! With the pineapple coconut syrup we had brought back from Hawaii, the pancakes were almost too rich. .. well, almost! After brunch, I started working...

I missed the last damned day of boot camp! I really wanted to go, because I had never missed graduation day at boot camp before, where we usually play volleyball, and Luther usually brings his special brownies. But, I just could not wake up in time. I was so excited for work to be over, because Dylan and I were going on our date to Puppetry of the Penis, which I had bought tickets for as our Valentine's gift. I had always wanted to see the show since I had first heard of it, when it was playing on LaCienega (at the Coronet Theatre?) years ago. Brandon and Angie came over to have dinner with us beforehand; they brought their own dinner with them from Kung Pao Bistro and I whipped up some BLAT (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado & Tomato) Wraps for Dylan and I. They were delicious! Brandon shared some sweet herb with us and then they drove us to the Coast Theatre down the street from us. It was raining a little at first but then the rain stopped. We got there about a half hour early ...

I didn't make it to boot camp since I stayed up so late working on music last night. Nothing too fantastic happened at work. At home, Dylan and I were going to watch our shows, but it turned out they were not on because of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I have weird feelings about this because I should really have watched the male figure skating. When I was a kid, I LOVED the figure skating so much that I begged my dad to build us a skating rink in the yard and being that I generally would not shut up, I got my way. My dad dug a flat little pool in the yard east of our house and lined it with plastic tarp, then filled it with water. Once the water froze, it was our own private ice skating rink! It was one of the coolest things my dad ever did for us, although he did a lot of cool things for us kids. But this one was really impressive. How many poor farm kids had their own ice skating rinks? Anyway, I idolized Brian Boitano and Brian Orser and would make up my own figure ...

Spirituality is something I think about often and is sort of a mystery to me in many ways, but I do believe that it is supposed to be mysterious. Today I was watching this series on homelessness in LA, specifically Skid Row downtown. I have done a lot of volunteering for homeless causes, mainly PATH, because of how much I am affected by it through my job and just by living in LA. One segment of the series was really interesting and frustrating for me; the one that dealt with God and spirituality. Part of the reason I started volunteering was because I get so upset that so many service organizations are faith based or religion based. Sometimes it's hard for an atheist to convince people that we are still caring, compassionate people who like to do good. I don't pray, and sometimes people who are religious don't really seem to understand that they are excluding me when they talk about praying for this or praying for that. I don't pray for people, but that doesn't ...

It felt like it had been forever since I had been to a boot camp at the park. I used to hate the Runyon Canyon days but now the Plummer Park days are the ones I dread. I did make it this morning, but it felt like just barely. Afterwards I went home and laid down with Dylan, who was still in bed but about to get up, and after assuring him I wasn't going to fall asleep, I promptly did so. I had a meeting at 9:30 at the Braille Center for the East Hollywood BID which I was slightly late to as a result of my accidental napping, but it turned out to be fine. I had stopped by my office on the way to pick up some brochures the Media District had made when we were going through our renewal, which I thought would be helpful for them as they plan their own renewal. Dylan and I met at Fresh and Easy after work for grocery shopping. We got quite a bit of stuff and tried to keep it all healthy. At one point I jokingly tossed a box of Oreo Cakesters in the cart and Dylan just looked at me ...

Since I had went to the trouble of buying a jump rope last night, I was not about to miss boot camp, although I kind of wished I had once I got there. It was a really intense work out and I could not keep up with the other guys. Sometimes I can force myself to keep up with people, at least to a degree, but sometimes I just really don't know what's wrong with me. I suppose it's probably my diet and lifestyle. I think I know all about eating right and what foods to avoid but I just have a hard time implementing it into my actual routine. I guess you could say I am addicted to junk food when it comes down to it, which is just awful. I feel it when I am trying to work out and it makes it harder to eat right when I do try. At work, I found out today that I am probably going to have to move to a different office in the same building which means I really need to get my stuff organized. Thankfully I had already started it, but I've been alone in this office for over 5 ye...

I was so worn out from the weekend that even though Robin pushed boot camp back to 10am on account of it being President's Day, I still couldn't be arsed to get up in time. I slept in until sometime after 11 and then I promptly went to the kitchen to cook brunch. I made omelets with fresh chive and shredded cheddar and tomatoes, with bacon. Dylan made coffee. We watched some DVR and then I messed around on the computer, going through a lot of my music files. I went through the "unassigned" file and realized everything in there was pretty much either crap, or just empty files. I got that cleaned out, and then I listened to all the songs in the "Petunia Bonaparte 5000" file. Petunia is the drag alter-ego of my friend, Nathan, and we started working on songs together last year but life got in the way for both of us and we stalled after getting 4 songs in various states of being finished. Petunia did perform one of the songs, "All the WeHo Boys Say...

Johnny woke Dylan and I up with breakfast in bed! He made eggs with tomatoes and artichokes, and cut out heart shapes from fresh oranges, and black coffee. It was so sweet of him. I got up and took a shower and then packed my bag. We hung out and talked for awhile but then Marc was texting to see when we were picking him up, so we finished getting packed and said goodbye to Johnny. Back at the whore house, Amy and AJ were already leaving when we got there so we got to say Happy Valentines to them and saw them off. Red and Laura had already left the night before, so then it was just Marc, Billie and us left there with Heather and Shantell. My car was already almost loaded up so we just had to put a couple things I had left there in and we were good to go. It's always so hard saying goodbye to Heather and Shantell but I always know we'll see them again soon. The drive back was nice and actually kind of relaxing. A few years ago, Denny had burned me 100 mix CD's of vari...

If you've been following my blog, you know I had been frantically trying to record a cover version of Mr. Mister's "Hunters of the Night" in time for Valentine's Day. It was my valentine to the internet, so to speak, but was also used in an audio slideshow on youtube to advertise my friend Luther's photography business, Double Agent Photo. I had heard this song before because I had always been a fan of Mr. Mister and their songs in the 80's, "Broken Wings," "Kyrie," and "Is It Love" which led me to buy their greatest hits CD. "Hunters of the Night" was the only single from their debut album which was right before their big breakthrough album which contained the aforementioned hits. I had never heard it when it was first released, only through the greatest hits album. Recently, I found a blog via my friend Brad, called "Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the 80's" which lists every song that charted on th...

We slept in and headed back over to the Whore House after we finally got around. We didn't even shower or anything cause I wanted to get over there in time for brunch, since we were using money from the show to pay for the food and drinks. Our original plan had been to lounge by the pool with mimosa's all day, but it ended up being too cold for the pool, which also wasn't full of water at the moment. But, AJ did cook an amazing brunch with eggs, sausage, potatoes and pancakes and we had I think 9 bottles of champagne! I had to lay down and then went into the living room and caught the end of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which was a van movie. A "van movie" is one of the small number of movies from the 80's that my family had on VHS and kept in our blue van when I was in junior high. We watched these movies again and again on long car trips. Anyway, after that a bunch of us went downtown together to go antiquing. There are a couple big antique s...

Today was a big day! I was far too tired after staying up so late, to go to boot camp. I feel bad about missing so many times this week, though. In the morning I uploaded the slideshow for "Hunters" to YouTube. There was not much going on at work. On my lunch break, I went to Goodwill and the special store to get some stuff for the shows this weekend. We are playing for the GLSSN (gay student association at Cal State Bakersfield) tonight and at a bar in downtown Bakersfield tomorrow. I got some t-shirts and jewelry. I left work a little early so I'd have time to pack up the car. I had to bring most of our PA, Amy and AJ had the other speaker and a smaller monitor speaker and the stands but I had the rest. Luckily since we all live now, I don't have to bring the Korg anymore so that saves room. I stopped at Crossroads on my way to pick Marc up and ended up buying a whole new outfit - I'm so predictable. I said I wasn't going to buy any new clothes for S...

The second Thursday of the month is when I arrange the Business Watch Meetings for the Media District. This is sort of like a neighborhood watch meeting, but for businesses. Officer Washingon, one of the senior leads for our area, runs the meeting and together we plan out different topics and guest speakers for each month. I send out the invites and get the food and drinks. Usually I get Subway sandwiches but once in awhile I change it up, and today I decided to get Daphne's greek food from the West Hollywood Gateway (Target) center. Everyone loved it! Our guest was a fireman from LAFD who specializes in emergency preparedness so he talked about that; what to do after an earthquake or other disaster, etc. It was very informative. After work, I rushed to the grocery store because tonight I was having a dinner party with our downstairs neighbors, Dominic and his girlfriend Andria. I had picked out a recipe from Rachel Ray's cookbook, Montalcino Chicken with Figs and Butte...

I wasn't feeling completely back to normal, so I skipped boot camp, but I did go to work cause since I work by myself I figured I'd be OK, I wouldn't make anyone else sick, and I had work I really needed to get done and a meeting at 3pm. I've been packing old files into boxes at work since they are renovating the studio and they're going to be re-carpeting my office. So it's a good time to go through and archive old records and files. I got quite a bit done today because the power went off around 11am. It's bright enough from my windows to see what I'm doing even without power but I can't use the phone or computer (actually, I can use the computer but not internet or e-mail) so it was a good time to work on the archiving. I got almost 4 boxes full and threw away a bunch of junk that I knew I didn't need to keep anymore. The meeting at 3pm was our Clean Committee. We didn't really have any pressing issues and the person from our Clean Tea...

I definitely felt very crummy by the time I woke up. My throat was still sore, and I felt groggy and like I was underwater. I don't know if I even realized the alarm was going off for boot camp, cause I had taken some Nyquil last night and sometimes that makes me disoriented in the morning. I do know I finally got up at 8:45 and realized I couldn't make it in to work, so I called and left a message on Susan's voicemail saying I was out sick. I went back to bed and woke up around 10:30 but stayed in bed for probably another hour, before I ventured out to the living room to lay on the couch (big accomplishment) so I could watch TV. DVR is one thing that has made being sick better, because instead of having to watch dreadful daytime TV you can get caught up on whatever shows you missed. Finally around 2pm I got up and walked in the rain over to Subway to get a sandwich. I wasn't even that hungry, but I had to go to the post office anyway because Amazon had ordered mor...

Welcome to the first "How I Fell In Love With" post of 2010! For those not familiar, this is my series where I detail my various obsessions, which are mainly 80's bands but can also encompass other pop culture figures and phenomenons. Devo is a band that I have been a fan of for the better part of my life. My earliest recollection of them is seeing them in this paperback book I had bought at school through a book fair or one of those flyer things that kids get. It was a book about Music Videos, which were pretty new and all the rage at the time when I was in grade school, with MTV being pretty new but getting very popular. I remember there was a photo of Devo, I think from the inside of the "Shout" album, and it called them "music video pioneers" which I thought was cool. It also gave them impression that they were rather strange, a notion that seemed to pop up in any given reference to the band. As a weird kid myself, this attracted me to them m...