leftovers

Today is my little sister's birthday. I love you, Adrienne!!! It was also the Media District's annual party on the rooftop of Iron Mountain. This is a party that I organized (or helped organize) every year since 2003. So, I was kind of excited about going this year having not had anything to do with it for once. Usually, I was too busy running around trying to make sure everything is going as planned to even really enjoy it. I realized I didn't like my outfit at all, so after work I headed to Ross Dress for Less to get a new pair of black jeans to wear, but when I got there the line was SO long. I timed it and I was in line for over 15 minutes, which actually doesn't seem like a long time, but usually you don't have to wait that long for the privilege of buying clothes. By the time I got to the party, it was about a quarter til 8, and everyone who saw me kept saying "Oh, you missed it, they talked about you!" Apparently, Ron, the board president, had...

I went to the Chamber of Commerce for a tourism committee and afterward it was almost the end of the day anyway, so I went home to get ready for the video premiere party of Invisible Material's video, "Grown Man Cries." I stopped at Ralph's on the way home to get red velvet and carrot cake whoopie pies; normally I bake cupcakes for special events such as these but I had no time. When I got home, I hurriedly burned a CD of my music so that I could give it to Elene - I was going to meet her at Silver Spoon, when our old neighbor Michael aka Big Sweat stopped by. I felt bad that I was already almost out the door, as it seems like anytime he or anyone else just 'drops by' I'm always busy. I tend to overbook myself. In case you haven't noticed that about me yet. So, I was running over to Silver Spoon and was a little late at this point, but it turned out that Elene was running behind too so we ended up getting there around the same time. When she walke...

I was sort of stressed about Invisible Material rehearsal since I wasn’t sure we would have anything that we needed, so I texted Robin to see if he had found a PA and if Jared needed a bass amp, but he said I didn’t need to bring anything because we were just going to rehearse at Cascade, which was slightly annoying since I had driven up to Granada Hills to get my drums and now I don’t really have anywhere to put them. Dylan hates it when I leave instruments all over the apartment. The rehearsal ended up going OK, it was at least nice that I didn’t have to set my drums all up. I borrowed some cymbals from Myles so I didn’t even have to pay to rent them... I don’t know why Myles has nice, brand new cymbals, but he does and he was nice enough to loan them to me.

It was another scorcher - once again, the thermometer registered over 100 degrees. It was too hot to do anything productive and I was just so ready for Dylan to come home! After work I had to go up to Ben’s house in Granada Hills to get my drums, since Invisible Material will be rehearsing in a new space tomorrow which is just an empty studio space belonging to someone Robin recently met (a drag performer who I’ve heard of and I think have even seen perform before). Since Dylan was flying back, I just decided to time it so that I could go to Ben’s and hang out for a little, load up my drums, and then take the 118 over to the 5 to the Burbank Airport. I had just seen the sign for the airport on the freeway when Dylan texted and said he had landed. It looked like the timing would be perfect! I made it to the airport and he had texted saying he was waiting for his bags. The Burbank airport is relatively small, and you can see into the baggage claim area from outside, but...

OMG it was SO hot today. It was over 100 degrees, I’m sure of it. With so much heat, I just couldn’t be bothered to do anything - I definitely was not about to steam clean the carpets and make it even hotter in the apartment than it already was. So, I shut the windows and blinds, turned the AC on high, and Princessa and I had a “David E. Kelly” festival... alternating between episodes of “Boston Legal” and “Picket Fences” all day. I only left the apartment to walk to Fit Food, a new healthy restaurant that is right on our block next to Fubar that I’ve been anxiously awaiting. It was OK but it seemed a little overpriced, which I was already suspecting it would be. It’s nice to have some healthy food available so close, though.

Marc and I met out on Romaine St. so he could hand over Princessa, Viktor’s chihuahua, who I would be dog sitting the next few days while they are all up in San Francisco at Folsom Street Fair. It ended up being a really hot day in Los Angeles, so I decided not to do the steam cleaning today. I thought maybe I’d just do it tomorrow. I ended up working on my song, “Dancing on my Obsession,” which is the mash-up of “Dancing on my Own” by Robyn and “Obsession” by Animotion (commonly mistaken for a Human League song) which I had started to work up for Blender. I finished it and sent it to Cindy for tonight. I met Brad at Hamburger Mary’s around 9:30 so that we could get a good table and have dinner first. I hadn’t even told Brad I was performing, but Cindy got there later and came and told me what order we’d be performing in so that’s when Brad found out. Later, our friend Brent came and joined us. The show started shortly after 10pm and the Boofont Sisters did severa...

I was very excited to have Angie and Brandon coming over for dinner and a movie. Specifically, the movie "Spiceworld." A few months or so ago, Angie said something about needing to watch "Spiceworld," to which I said, "you mean watch it again!" It turned out that somehow she had never witnessed this cinematic masterpiece! So I of course arranged a time for us to have a little viewing party. Now, I guess I forget that not everyone is as huge of a Spice Girls fan as I am. I saw the movie on opening day, back in the Fox Theater in downtown Hays, Kansas... my cousin Andrea was nice enough to accompany me. Since then, I've probably watched it another 25 times or so on VHS and then later on DVD. So I've pretty much memorized all the lines - the good ones, at least. Anyway, I think Angie has grown to appreciate the Spice Girls a little more since knowing me, especially since I've sort of introduced the individual members (particularly Victoria...

I had been contacted by a group of German geography students awhile back who were visiting the US and wanted to tour the BID, so today was the day they arrived in Hollywood. I met them outside my office around noon and first showed them the W Hotel, right next to our office, which is kind of the new eastern hub of the entertainment district. I very proudly pointed out how they worked the subway entrance into the front of the hotel (hoping they wouldn't notice the drug dealers and homeless teenage runaways), and then we walked all the way down to Hollywood & Highland. I pointed out things like the Hollywood Broadway, the multiple Scientology buildings, the Hollywood sign, and the historic buildings along the way. Unfortunately, it seemed like some of them were less than impressed with Hollywood. One of the leaders of the group told me "it doesn't look like what you think of when you think of Hollywood." I agreed with him, but told him it definitely looks bett...

Someone replied to my Craigslist ad! I was so thrilled when I got the e-mail. It's a girl who is a classically trained pianist but she loves 80's music, new wave, synth pop etc. and would like to start performing in that realm. It sounds really promising, so we are going to set up a time to meet soon. I didn't know it last night, but today Brandon and I were talking and he mentioned the lead singer of Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s last name is Rushent and I asked if he was related to Martin Rushent, and Brandon said it's his dad! For those of you unaware, Martin Rushent is a music producer who produced one of the all-time most influential albums of all time (at least for me), "Dare" by The Human League. He also produced a ton of other artists that I love including The Go-Go's and Altered Images. Brandon and I also talked about getting backing tracks ready for the inevitable Devin Tait & the Traitors show - that's what my band is going to be ...

For some reason I finally decided I wanted to get the ball rolling on my live shows with my new solo material, even though I haven't even finished the album, so I put an ad on Craigslist looking for a keyboard player. After work, Brandon and Angie met me outside my office and we walked over to the Music Box. I was so excited to see Kele (Okereke, formerly of Bloc Party) because I love his new solo album. I never got into Bloc Party, even though I saw them perform once downtown at the Detour Festival, but then I heard that Kele was gay, and that his solo album was going to be electro, so I had downloaded the single "Tenderoni" and really liked it and ended up buying the album on CD after it came out. Brandon was excited to see the opening band, Does It Offend You, Yeah? We got the owners' box and VIP treatment since I am friends with the owner, but the only thing that didn't work out as planned is that we never ended up getting drink tickets, so I ended up spend...

We had an "urgent" conference call this morning at 9:30 regarding the Walk of Fame 50th anniversary celebration being planned for November. There has been a change of direction so we needed to brainstorm some new ideas, but there were so many people on the phone and I didn't really have any good ideas so I'm not sure how helpful I was. At noon, I had my first marketing committee meeting. Initially, pretty much everyone had said they could make it but one by one people started letting me know they couldn't make it for one reason or another and it ended up being only a handful of us, but we still got a lot accomplished and discussed a lot of things, so it was really good. I like coordinating the marketing aspects. There was a Hollywood 4WRD meeting later in the day but I had other things I needed to work on so Kerry said I didn't need to come down for that. After work I had the first Invisible Material rehearsal with our new bass player, Jared. He's from...

Ben and James came and picked me up and we went to the Grove to see "Easy A," a comedy movie with Emma Stone (from Zombieland ) which turned out to be really good. The plot revolves around Olive (Stone) making up a white lie to explain why she didn't want to hang out with her girlfriend one weekend, by saying she had been hanging out with a guy and when her friend presses her, pretends that she lost her virginity to the guy. The whole thing takes a very "Scarlet Letter" turn as the entire school instantly spreads the rumour, via text messaging, that Olive has become a big ol' slut. Due to this, she then agrees to help out a fellow student, a gay kid, who is relentlessly bullied, by pretending to have sex with him. This leads to many losers seeking her out and making deals with her, usually involving money, to pretend to have sex with her. Of course the whole thing escalates to comic proportions until something really bad happens and it all blows up, lea...

I got up fairly early and started my big project - painting the living room wall. We've painted several walls in our apartment, but this is the biggest wall. It's right to your right when you walk in the front door and extends from there all the way to the far wall, so it's basically the entry way/dining room/living room wall, and there is a huge mirror hanging from it, a huge painting, all the records and the record player are on a shelf against it, as well as the TV and the easy chair. So getting ready to paint it was no small task. I had to move everything to the other side of the living room, remove everything hanging from the wall (which besides the aforementioned mirror and painting also included at least 5 more framed items). Once I got everything out of the way and removed all the switch plates, I was about to tape the corners when I realized we had no tape! I walked down the street to Tashman's Hardware, which I was excited about because I've never be...

We had to wake up around 5:15am in order to get around and get Dylan to the airport on time, he had a 6:50am flight from Burbank to Portland. There was no traffic or anything and Burbank is such an easy airport, so once I had woken up and gotten dressed, the hardest part was over. Although of course it was hard saying goodbye to Dylan for 10 days! I went right into work so that I could go home early and take a nap before Dudley's party. Today was Park[ing] Day LA, which is where they encourage people to take over parking spaces and make them into little park-type areas to hang out in- it's something that takes place in cities all over the country. I didn't really see anyone taking advantage of it, but the Hollywood Community Studio did do a pavement-to-plaza demonstration project on Hudson Ave in the Entertainment District, right off of Hollywood Blvd., so I took the camera down there to snap some pics and talk to the girls in charge. It was a great idea to do on that ...

Today was another busy day. We had a board meeting for HED, but since the PAL Event was tonight, we bumped the board meeting up earlier since both Kerry and Thad are involved in PAL (which is the Police Activities League). The theme of the event was Disco, so I went to Iguana on my lunch break and bought a shiny black shirt and a pair of gold glittery alien sunglasses, thinking it could kind of not only work for the Disco look but also for the Alien Nation video, which we're going to film next month. The board meeting went well, and then afterward Kerry and I walked down to the Music Box for the PAL Event. Sarah met us there later because she went home to get dressed. There were tons of people I knew there, so during the first part I mingled and visited with everyone. There was a silent auction and open bar, but I just had a couple glasses of wine and I didn't bid on anything because it was all so expensive. There were some great prizes, though. Then we moved inside to th...

I am done with Phase I of the South Beach Diet! Woo Hoo! Now here's the tricky part, where I usually screw up, so let's hope I don't this time. It was payday, which is always nice. After work, I went to the gym and worked out. I meant to get there in time for Spin Class, but I couldn't leave work earlier enough so I just ended up doing machines. Afterward, I went to Fresh & Easy to get some healthy, Phase II groceries, and went home and made dinner.

It was a very busy day today. First, we had a renewal/expansion meeting for Sunset/Vine at the YMCA. We had catering from Chipotle so I had a burrito, which really wasn't on my diet. During the meeting, Brian called with a question for me so I went out to the courtyard and I saw Jonny McGovern (aka the Gay Pimp)! He's on the Big Gay Sketch Show but I've been a fan of his for a long time since his video for "Soccer Practice" and his podcast which Dylan and I used to listen to all the time. Later in the afternoon we had a Sunset/Vine board meeting at AMPAS and that went pretty well too. Our board president just had a baby so he was out, but we got him this cute bomber jacket for his new son that we all signed the card for. After work, Luther and Andrew came over to return the clothes they had borrowed for the glam birthday party they went to on Sunday so we hung out with them for awhile, it was fun.

As soon as I got to work I had to rush over to the Pantages Theater as I was doing a little photo shoot there of one of our past board members. I am charged with the task of completing our "wall of fame" here in the office, where were are going to have framed 8 x 10 photos hung of all our past presidents of the HED Board. I like doing projects like that. So I went and took the picture and I think it turned out well. I've still been doing good on my diet, although Kerry brought in these chocolate treats that she had made and they looked delicious. I had successfully avoided them all day, but then I found myself alone in the office as I was working late, and they were simply too hard to resist.

We woke up and then went out to brunch with Johnny and Bea to the French Market Place, which is sort of our de facto place to take visitors out to eat. It's a fun atmosphere, we like the food, and it's just a block from our apartment. After that, we walked home and then got in the car to go to Amoeba. Dylan didn't want to go to Amoeba, so he just went to the Andrew Christian store with us, bought some shorts, and then he walked home while we went on to Hollywood. Johnny and Bea both had a good time shopping for records and CD's, and I found a Marlene Dietrich record that I pointed out to Johnny and said Dylan would like it, so he bought it for him. After we got back, it was time for our guests to head back to Bakersfield so we bid them adieu and wished them a safe trip home. I worked a little on recording, trying to make progress on my album but ended up working on my cover of Re-Flex's "Hurt" which is what I had been working on back when my computer cra...

I had gone on Facebook last night and saw that Susan had posted this little American Flag on her page to honor the victims of the 9/11 attack and so I put it on my page too, with a little message. It wasn't until after I posted that I realized the flag came from some group called "Being Conservative" or something like that. I decided to leave it, because it really pisses me off how conservatives/republicans like to "claim" 9/11 like it somehow is "their" thing... I mean, it sort of is, since they are the ones who elected Bush and the attacks occurred during his watch, arguably in response to his actions in office. But, of course, that's not the way they frame it. It's like conservatives thing that liberals don't give a shit about our country or our troops. Just because we don't want to keep this country stuck in the past doesn't mean we don't love this country. Just because I may disagree on this being a "christian...

We had a streetscape committee at 10am this morning at the Pantages Theatres building in the offices upstairs. I had never been there, or to a streetscape meeting, so it was pretty cool. After work I went to the gym for the first time in ages and did Yoga, which Dylan, Angie and I used to do all the time on Fridays. It felt so good to be doing it again! After that, I went to CVS to get some pistachios to take to Ben's pool party since I wanted something that was on my diet. I also got a Diet Root Beer. I picked James and Marc up to go to the party, and when we got there, Dylan, Angie, Brandon, and Bernie were already there. Alfred and Adam (Marc's new friend) came later. It was fun, but since I am still on the diet and couldn't drink, it wasn't as fun as it probably could have been. Ben seemed to not be having the best time so we left fairly early. I drove James home and then met Dylan at home. Robin is staying with us so we just hung out with her and watched TV...

I have been doing extremely well on my diet!!! So proud of myself. We had a security committee meeting at 10am which I usually go to, but decided not to today because I had other stuff to work on. It turned out to be a bad one to miss, because some of the "characters" came to the meeting - these are the people who used to dress up as famous characters (without any permission from the copywrite owners, or studios, or anyone else) and stand on Hollywood Blvd. harassing tourists to give them money in exchange for taking photos with them. LAPD did a crackdown on them awhile back and as the BID we have tried to help prevent their return because they are bad for business and are a blight on the District. Anyway, they are of course completely upset and trying to make it seem like they are just these innocent people who are trying to make a living and that the tourists love them - all of which is hogwash, of course. They are territorial and are constantly getting in fights with ...

Kerry was back today, so we had a staff meeting at 3pm. We got some really disappointing news today. The Jefferson Hollywood, the big new mixed-use project on Highland Avenue that I had toured and attended the opening reception for, had called because we put Robin on the list for a low income unit. Dylan got really, really excited and got the form all filled out and turned in and had been stressed over the weekend because he wanted to make sure he did everything right so she could get the apartment. It would be perfect, because she really needs her own place to live and she would love living in that area of Hollywood - so many things right within walking distance and we would be able to visit her much more often, plus she'd be right by the subway. We didn't want to get her excited about it, but Dylan had to call her to get some of the information to fill out the application. But today they called Dylan to say she did not qualify for the low-income housing because - get this...

It's always no fun to go back to work after a holiday weekend, and since Kerry was still gone to the east coast it was pretty quiet and boring in the office today. Brandon sent me a mix of "Bridge to Nowhere," one of the songs for my album, that he and Angie added guitar and vocals to, respectively. It sounded really good! I had plans to go meet Marc and Robert after work for the free Scissor Sisters concert at Jimmy Kimmell Live. I had tried to get tickets but must have been too late, because mine never got confirmed, but they had an extra ticket for me. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had Invisible Material rehearsal so I had to text Marc and let him know I couldn't make it. It was the first rehearsal Robin and I had with just the two of us, since Brandon and Ben have quit. It was much different with just us and it definitely sounded empty and it was a little discouraging, but at least it is making me learn how to play and sing at the same time on the drums. I us...

It was a very nice, sunny and warm Labor Day and although we hadn't planned anything, we ended up getting invited to the annual Liquid Dreams pool party that is a fundraiser for the Tom of Finland Foundation, an organization that Dylan is really interested in volunteering for but hasn't gotten around to it yet. Tom of Finland is an artist who drew these stylized drawings of gay men, most of them are pretty erotic and adult, but the are very famous in the gay community. Anyway, our friend Viktor gets tickets to the event because he helps out with the graphics for the advertising, so we got to go with him and Marc last year; this year Viktor couldn't make it, so Marc took us and Brent. The party was at a house in Reseda this year, on White Oak north of Roscoe (near Ben G's house). The place was a big ranch house with a huge backyard that the owners had done a lot of work on, and dubbed it "the Abbey of the Valley." There was a grotto and swimming pool surroun...

We got up and around, which took much longer than usual since Andrew and Luther take longer to get around than anyone I've ever met. Dylan was very impatient and got into a pretty lousy mood, which always bugs the heck out of me when it's a Sunday and we have nothing to do anyway, so why get upset? Anyway we went to Silver Spoon for brunch out on the patio and finally Dylan ended up getting in a better mood. We had talked about going to a movie with Andrew and Luther later in the day, but after they left we were just lazy and didn't do much of anything. Eventually evening came and Dylan and I decided we wanted to go out for dinner, but as usual we were undecided as to where we should go, so as we have done so many times in the past, we just started walking west on Santa Monica Blvd. This turned into a comedy of errors, as it seemed just as we decided (or settled) and approached a restaurant, they would be flipping the sign to say "closed" or stacking chairs up o...

Amy and AJ were having a housewarming party since Amy recently moved away from Hollywood to live with AJ in her house in Fullerton, which is down in Orange County. It's really far, but the house is so cute and I think Amy will be very happy there. However the drive is always excruciating and today was no exception. Dylan was driving and he just couldn't handle it, he got so stressed out about the traffic and had sort of a break down. So, I told him to pull over and he got right off on the next exit and got out of the car. I switched places with him and got behind the wheel, but I did not get back on the freeway. Instead, I got on this surface street that paralleled the freeway and was actually moving. We took that quite far until I realized the freeway was nowhere in sight, but I figured I was still heading in roughly the right direction. At a couple points, the road would end and run into some other road so I thought I was still going the right way but at some point I ...

We only had a half-day of work since it's the Friday of Labor Day weekend, but we all ended up being so busy and frantic that we didn't get out of the office until almost 3. At least we still got to leave a little early. Dylan is planning a trip later this month since he really needs to go on a vacation, and since I don't have any vacation time yet he is going without me. I was kind of upset because he is going to Portland to see Kevin without me! But I know he will have fun. He's also going to Seattle to see his friend Leah and stay with her for a week. We went to the Drive-In to meet Brandon and Angie, and we picked up Robert on the way since he lives right off the 10 freeway which is how we go to the Drive In. We've been wanting to take him for awhile since it's so convenient to pick him up on the way. The first movie we saw was "Machete" which was great. I really enjoyed Lindsay Lohan as usual, and this was quite a wild role for her. It was ...

I had a 9am street closure committee meeting at Council President Garcetti's Hollywood field office in the morning so I had to get up early and get around for that. Brandon found a huge, 2 bedroom apartment with hardwood floors on Craigslist that he sent and I got really excited about because it was almost the same amount we are paying for rent now, and it's close to Brandon and Angie's. I sent it to Dylan and he said he liked it but he could never live in Glendale, which is where it was. Oh, well. I got some work done on my album tonight before I went to bed, I made new mixes of "Winnipeg Beach" and "Digital Representation."

First off, I absolutely cannot believe it's already September! I feel kind of lucky because I made it through a whole LA Summer without it ever getting too hot. I never even got a sunburn. My boss is gone on vacation, taking her daughter back to the east coast for college, so the office is kind of quiet although we all have our projects that we're working on. Speaking of projects, I decided to finally commit to getting in better shape by starting the South Beach diet in earnest. Today was my first day and I was very good. I just had a salad for lunch and almonds to snack on. I was EXTREMELY excited about some news that came out online today: the titles of the songs on the new Human League record were announced! As you may know, Human League are my all-time favorite band since I was a kid and I have followed them for decades (scary!). I've seen them live many times, including seeing them play at Sheffield City Hall, their hometown, in 2003. Their last album was in 200...