leftovers

At work, I had my Marketing Committee/Restaurant Meeting with Cirque du Soleil today, and I thought it was a huge success! The whole table in the conference room was full, and lots of the restaurant operators showed up. The people from Cirque had a lot of information, and seemed really excited to be part of Hollywood and to work with all the existing businesses in the district. I got some really sad news in the afternoon, I learned through facebook that a good friend of mine had passed away. Heather Mercer, from the band Three Chord Whore, who we had played many shows with and had stayed at her and Shantell's house several times up in Bakersfield, is gone. I didn't really get any more information than that, just that something happened over the weekend, it didn't sound good. I was so sad. I had to tell Amy right away, which I felt horrible doing through IM, but I wanted her to know right away. Heather was such a great person, I liked her from the minute we met, which ...

J ournal Entry November 29, 2010 Back to work after the nice long holiday weekend. I was chatting with Adrienne on IM and she said she is coming out to LA soon! She has a case she's working on that will fly her to San Diego, and then she'll ride the train up to LA to see us and stay for a night. I'm so excited! After work, I came home and started working on the acoustic arrangements for the songs we'll be performing at the Traitors acoustic Holiday show in a couple weeks. I also worked a lot on the mix of "Digital Representation." NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 332 ...coming soon.

We slept in nice and late and then I got up and started cooking. We were going to have another big family celebration today, only this time at our place. Brandon and Angie brought over a ham and we cooked that while we put up the rest of the decorations, including decorating the tree. I even let Brandon hang the little diorama ornament that we always used to fight over - it's been our favorite decoration since we were kids and it's amazing that it's survived this long after all the hi-jinks it has been through. I had made a brown sugar pie, which didn't turn out, and I was sad about that. It was just runny and sugary, it wasn't that great. I guess not all my baking ventures can be successful. The rest of the meal was delicious however, and it was fun having another big dinner with Ronnie there to celebrate with us. But we were in a big hurry, because we were all going to the Hollywood Christmas Parade and meeting Dylan's cousin, Shannon, and her girlfrien...

It was a rainy day. We got up and had brunch, and then Dylan left to take Robbie home so I tried to do some housework. I really wanted to put the holiday decorations up, but I couldn't find the key to the storage closet that we have down the hall in the laundry room. Robbie had even helped me go through our junk drawer in the kitchen and we couldn't could locate it anywhere. I was doing some other housework when suddenly I had this vision of the key being in the hat I wore for Halloween when I was Boy George. It must have been a memory, because I went to the hall closet, opened it up, found the hat, and voila! There was the key! I brought all the big green and red plastic tubs (we have three of them now) filled with holiday decorations, plus the tree and another bag of decorations, back to the apartment and started going through everything. Eventually, I had to stop and get ready for the Invisible Material show we were having at the Viper Room. I was a little worried abo...

Dylan had hoped to go shopping with his mom since it was Black Friday and she had told him she wanted to buy us a flat screen TV for a combined birthday/yuletide present, but unfortunately we had a bunch of errands to run and then we had made plans to go have dinner and see a play with Myles. We met him near the theatre and then went down to Biergarten, which is an interesting place because it's a Korean version of a German restaurant. It was really yummy and we loved the beers they had. It was right down the street from our old neighborhood; from the parking lot you could see The Dover, our old apartment building. Then we went to the theatre to see the play which was called "Summer in Hell," about a couple of cousins who are having sort of an incestuous affair, and then another couple gets dragged into it. It was fun, and the actors were all really good and they all knew Myles so we hung out and had some wine with them afterward.

It was a really nice Thanksgiving! Brandon and Angela kindly volunteered to host the festivities at their place, and to cook the Turkey, so I got to do what I love the most - cooking the sides and deserts! I got up and started cooking while we had the Macy's Parade on in the background, just like when I was a kid. We were really excited because Kylie Minogue was in the parade, performing "Get Outta My Way," which is the song we cover in the Traitors. Thanks to DVR we could rewind it and watch it a couple times since it went by so quickly. I made an awesome Bacon Oyster Stuffing that I found the recipe for in Real Simple magazine (which I had a trial subscription to), green bean casserole of course, and a real pumpkin pie - not from a can! Dylan made the sweet potatoes and he did such a good job! It was a really fun group, we had Dylan's mom, and our uncle Ronnie, along with our friends Rick and Melodie. Adrienne P. and her boyfriend Quinn came a little later and...

Since Thanksgiving is this weekend, we only had a half-day at work. I had found a guy on Craigslist selling a Sabian ride cymbal for $60, which I have been desperately needing, so after work I drove down to our old neighborhood near Beverly and Vermont and picked it up. The guy was a very young Latino looking guy with long, straight hair, who looked like he was from the movie "Wassup Rockers" (fun movie to check out if you haven't seen it). Then I went back up to Hollywood to do my now-annual Thanksgiving run to Food-4-Less. I don't usually shop there but to get the mass quantities of food I need for my pies and everything I make, it really is worth it to save the money and go there. I got home and started cooking away. Invisible Material had rehearsal tonight at the studio on 6th St., but when we got there it was not as usual - the whole place was under construction, with the wall ripped out and the floor tiles all broken up in pieces. It seriously looked like w...

Dylan's birthday was today, and although I hadn't really gotten on the ball and planned anything or gotten him any amazing gifts, it ended up being really nice. I bought him the present he wanted at the last minute and then took him out to dinner at Ketchup, this place on Sunset Blvd. that he's been wanting to go to forever. I was going to have a surprise party there for him a couple years ago, but they were really particular about "parties" and needed me to guaranteed a certain dollar amount for each guest or something crazy like that and I wasn't into it, so we had it at the Dive instead (which is now Street). But, for just two people, Ketchup was perfect; it's got an interesting vibe and a cool menu. We got the famous appetizer of three types of french fries (sweet potato, garlic Parmesan, and Cajun) with five types of ketchup (BBQ, Maple, Wasabi, Ranch, and Chipotle).

Today the Human League released their video for "Night People" on their official website. I watched it immediately when I woke up, but the first time I watched it I was pretty disappointed that the band members don't actually appear in the video at all. Rather, it is more of a short film that documents five different "night people" as they prepare for an evening on the town, go out to their clubs of choice, party with friends, and then head back home. It ended up growing on me after a few times watching it, and I really like the characters and the stories they each tell, but of course it would have been nice to at least have a cameo from the band in there. I guess it's a marketing attempt to disguise the fact that Phil and the girls are older than the average electro band, but I'm not really sure that anyone is going to become a Human League fan at this point in time and not realize that they have been around for awhile. I worked on editing the video...

I got up and around shortly after noon. Dylan was rushing me around because he wanted to go pick his mom up and stop by the grocery before getting to his Aunt Renee’s at 2pm for our Faux Thanksgiving celebration. We ran a little late, but we got Robin picked up and stopped to pick up mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and champagne. We arrived at Mark and Renee’s just shortly after we were supposed to be there. It was just the five of us, plus Dylan’s cousin Shadaya and her daughter Michaela. Renee put out crackers, cheese and other appetizers that we enjoyed while we drank champagne and visited. Then dinner was served - Renee made a spiral ham, potatoes au grautin (we ended up not needing the mashed potatoes we brought), green beans, rolls, and of course more champagne! We had a lot of fun, especially with Michaela, she is so sweet and she is to the age now where she just likes to run around and be funny, to entertain all us “grown ups.” After Shady and Michaela left, ...

The Traitors had a show tonight at The Palms, for Club Strapped, which is produced by my friend Kalil and his wife Karen. When Kalil first asked if we would play, I was a little weary of performing again at the Palms since we had just played there last month, knowing that we would have to bring all of our PA equipment and everything again, and taking the risk that the Palms might have something booked before us which would prevent us from doing a soundcheck. However, I'm so glad the other band members convinced me to take the chance because it ended up being a really amazing show! Karen dressed up as a Superhero (it was a superhero theme) and there were so many people there!! We did managed to set up and do a sound check, which was great because we were doing a new set up utilizing the Palms' house PA as well as ours, and it took awhile to figure out how to get it all to work. As we were getting set up, Uncle Ronnie and Hoagie showed up, and there were already some people ...

What an exciting day for me! I woke up and checked my e-mail, only to find that the Human League had sent out their brand new single, "Night People," since I had signed up for their e-mail list! I had to play it right away, and of course, I loved it! It sounds so much better than the iPhone clip that someone posted on YouTube from when they debuted it in Berlin. I almost wish I hadn't listened to that version, but it's worth it to finally hear the produced, studio version! It's got a really dark bassline sound and lots of weird noises in it, and an almost-chanted vocal delivery on the verses. The bridge section, with the girls singing, is really uplifting and fun, and then Phil really takes off at the end of it, singing "Get away, get away, get away, get away, I wanna know, I wanna go!" I just love it! I played it several times while I was getting ready for work. Then, at work, I found that people started posting the remixes, which had been playe...

Today was the annual dinner for the HED Board, so after our board meeting, we all walked over to Cleo, a restaurant inside the new Redbury Hotel just up Vine Street from our office. I had been wanting to check it out since it opened, but this was the perfect way to do it. We had cocktails in the bar first and then once everyone was ready, we were seated at our table and treated to many different hors d'oeuvres and entrees. The food was really good and it was a great atmosphere. I definitely want to go back soon with friends. We finished dinner and took a group photo outside and then walked further up the street to AMDA, the American Music and Dramatic Academy. One of our board members is the president of the school so she had arranged for a special presentation where the students sang for us, from the 100 years of American Music AMDA Songbook. It was a great and powerful experience, and it's so amazing to see such talent just up the street from us.

It was my bosses' birthday, and my co-worker Sarah had a crazy idea to throw her a surprise breakfast birthday party in her own home! It actually ended up working. We all met a few doors down from her house a little before 8am, and worked with her husband to sneak us all into the dining room while she was getting ready. There must have been around 25 of us, all huddled in there trying to be quiet but all excited for the surprise. Finally, Kerry came downstairs and once she got far enough that her eyes met ours we all yelled "Surprise!" and she was so overwhelmed she had to sit down on the stairs for a minute! We obviously had really gotten her good! In hindsight, it was pretty brave of us to think that we could all sneak into her house in the morning while she was getting ready and make it work, but it did, and she seemed blown away by it. We had brought all types of breakfast foods and coffee, juice, and champagne and it was so fun having a breakfast party before ...

I went grocery shopping after work to stock up on healthy foods for my new diet and exercise regimen. When I got home, I cooked fish and steamed veggies for dinner, and then went for another jog, this time going farther - I went up Crescent Heights all the way to Hollywood Blvd. and over to Fairfax back down to home. It was exhilarating.

In an attempt to turn over a new leaf and preemptively fight holiday weight-gain, I decided to start a diet and exercise program today, so I had a real healthy lunch. Amoeba was having Fred Schnieder DJ'ing and signing copies of his new band's album, The Superion's "Destination Christmas." I was really looking forward to buying the album on vinyl and having him sign it, but stupidly Amoeba only had it on CD. There were people there with the vinyl copy but they must have gotten it online and brought it in. I reluctantly bought it on CD and got in line to meet him. He didn't recognize me so I reminded him that I was in Shitting Glitter and that he had sent me a Minnie Pearl postcard for New Year's. He asked how the band was going and I told him that I had moved on, and he said it was probably for the best as Shitting Glitter wasn't a "very commercial name." Then he said "nice meeting you" so I guess he forgot that we had actual...

I worked on my album this morning, finishing the mix of "Underwater Breathing." It seems the thing I have to do to "finish" them is to keep turning the volume down on individual tracks until it finally stops "clipping" in the overall mix. So, I'm not really sure if this is actually finalizing them or just getting it to be technically not imperfect - in other words, I already sort of had them sounding the way I wanted, and just turning down tracks to prevent from clipping seems like it might also inadvertently change the sound of the songs. We'll see, I guess. Dylan and I walked up to Sunset. Blvd. to have lunch at this new place called Fresh Bites, which looks really nice but it seems to be over-priced for what you get. My sandwich was tiny and cost over $12 total with my drink and a side, so I won't be rushing back there anytime soon. Brandon and Ronnie had gone out to Malibu and had already started construction on the studio, so I went ou...

We got up early and went to pick up my co-worker, Sarah, to head downtown for Homewalk. This is the 2nd year Dylan and I have done the Homewalk, but the first time we've raised money for it. We both had a fundraising goal of $500 and although he was a little short of his personal goal, together we did raise over $1000, with very generous assistance from friends, families, coworkers, and in particular, Aileen Getty, who is simply an angel. It was a really sunny day and I regretted not wearing sunscreen or bringing a hat - I couldn't believe how sunny it was at 9am! The walk itself was pretty easy, but it was great seeing so many people out that early on a Saturday working to end homelessness. Later at home, I finished mixes on a couple songs for my album, "Ventriloquist" and "A Modern Life," which is a new version from the one I did with Mary White a couple years ago. My friends Mark and Aaron picked me up to go with them and Aaron's cousin Tig to Casi...

Since Dylan and I are doing the Homewalk tomorrow and I hadn't yet reached my fundraising goal of $500, I posted a plea on Facebook and within a few minutes I had met my goal! The real surprise was that one person donated enough money to get me there, and it's someone I haven't seen in many years. My friend Brad from back in Kansas who I used to work with at McDonald's and before that we were in band together at Hays High School. Brad was one of the first openly gay people I knew and as I came out, he was one of the first people I could talk to about things. I tried to hide it from him at first, but since we lived in such a small town, it was difficult. One morning when I was driving back to Hays from spending the night at Dustin's place in Russell (my first boyfriend), his friend had seen me on the interstate and somehow or another he put two and two together! Anyway, it's been a long time, but his extremely kind donation is very much appreciated. After w...

Sarah was having a field trip to the Wilshire Center BID for her Streetscape Committee and she asked me to join her. We weren’t sure if any of the committee members were even going to be able to make it, but at least one did. We were looking at the streetscape improvement that Wilshire Center had made, including medians and concrete planters that are planted with Birds of Paradise. Mike from the BID met us there to show us around and give us the story behind the improvements. It was the first time I had been down there since the new school had been built on the site of the Ambassador hotel. Unfortunately, by the time I moved to LA and became aware of the Ambassador, it was already doomed and condemned by the time I could have gone to see it, but Amy always had great stories about it as her friend used to work there when people used it for film shoots and the like. It was a grand old building with a storied history and famously was the location where Bobby Kennedy was...

Happy birthday to my father! I often forget to send a card but I always make sure to call him. I waited for later in the day, and by then he was at a steakhouse with mom, waiting for Adrienne to arrive, so I’m sure he was having a good birthday. At work, I had a meeting with some people from a French TV show who wanted to film our security officers in Hollywood. Kerry was out of the office so I just tried to get all the information taken down, but they wanted to ride with the officers which I’m not really sure if that is something we can allow. The first new photos of the Human League were posted online today! There is a closeup of Phil, Joanne and Susan with a black background and a white streak of lights going through them. It’s really cool and so 2010! There were also a few other “behind the scenes” photos that surfaced on a makeup artist’s blog who worked on the shoot, showing that there are other photos from the session that haven’t been released yet and givin...

It was a really busy day around the office, we had a meeting at 1pm in the conference room for Sunset/Vine BID Renewal (although I didn’t have to be part of it) and then we had their board meeting at 4pm and it lasted almost until 6pm. Afterward, Kerry dropped me back off at my car and I went home to find that Dylan was on his way out to Trader Joe’s to get groceries. While he was gone I watched an episode of Blue Mountain State that he had already watched without me, and then he came home and made a really healthy chicken salad for dinner. We watched Glee while we ate and we both really liked the episode. I feel bad that I was doubting the show this season, because it’s definitely back in top form. I had laundry in the dryer and then I drove down to Marc and Myles’ to return Myles’ cymbals and drop off my electronic drums so he could rehearse. When I got home, I got the laundry out of the dryer and folded it while we watched Raising Hope (one of my new favorite sho...

We gained and hour last night so I actually got up fairly early and felt well-rested. But the day was pretty boring at work and when I got home, I meant to do a bunch of chores and laundry but instead Angie came over to watch “Sid and Nancy” because she had gotten it on Net Flix to watch with me since I had never seen it, and we hadn’t been able to watch it for awhile and she was about to send it back. She, Dylan and I all walked over to Los Tacos to get dinner and then we watched the movie, which I really enjoyed. It’s embarrassing to say that I really didn’t know much about the Sex Pistols; only after moving to LA did I ever even hear any of their music. The movie was fascinating and made me want to learn more about them. I especially loved Sid Vicious.

I kept waking up because of the sun but would check my clock and go back to sleep, until finally it was really time to get up because we were going to Elene’s for brunch at Traitor’s rehearsal at 1. Elene cooked these Dutch pancakes that were incredible, and apparently very easy to make. She also made bacon and eggs, and we had croissants too. I brought stuff to make a breakfast cocktail called “Blueberry Morning” that we (meaning me, Brandon, Travis and Natalie) had invented during “Woodstock Weekend,” which is a story for another blog. Anyway, Brandon informed me I got the wrong ingredients, as a true “Blueberry Morning” is made from Blueberry Schnapps and Sunny Delight, but I got orange juice instead. And, to my utter dismay, the Schnapps was a nearly-neon, bright blue color which is most definitely not found in nature. So, when I mixed that with the orange juice, the drink became a sickly green color! Not like the original “Blueberry Morning” at all which had ...

I slept in until 12:08 which was bad because I was supposed to be rehearsing with Melissa, aka Skates, at 1pm. Luckily, she had left a voice mail asking if we could push it back until 2pm, so I got ready and loaded up the car but still didn’t make it to her place until a quarter after two. It took longer to get to west LA than I thought, even though all I had to do was take Santa Monica Blvd. about 6 miles, it took nearly 40 minutes. I used to sort of perform with Melissa (also aka MQ) back in maybe 2003 or 2004 when she was performing under the name MQ. I first saw her opening for Nina Hagen at the Key Club when she had a dancer named Mickey and her boyfriend at the time, Sean, doing visuals. I thought she was very interesting and we ended up becoming friends and for a few shows I stood behind her laptop and would start the songs, pretending to do something during them when in reality I was just standing there. I did a remix of her song “Catfood” in a sort of Fisch...

Today was Amy’s 40th birthday so AJ threw her a semi-surprise party. It was a semi-surprise because, since it was in Fullerton on a Friday evening, we couldn’t all get there at the same time to start the party. I actually left work 2 hours early and still didn’t get there until almost a quarter until 8pm! Marc and Dylan rode with me and we got there in time to have some of the delicious lasagna that AJ had made - she is such a fantastic cook! The “surprise” part of it came around 8:30, when a stretch SUV limo pulled up to the house to pick us up - Amy had no idea that it was coming! We all loaded in and hit the streets in our party-on-wheels. The inside was really cool; there were all these different glowing lights and color-changing LED lights like stars all over, with these two kaleidoscope type circular lights up near the window that goes up to the cab. The stereo system was cranked and playing a mix CD that AJ had made that was full of songs just perfect for t...

I had set up a lunch meeting at Off Vine Restaurant with Kerry, Chris (the chair of the Marketing Committee), and two gentleman from West Hollywood - one from the convention and visitor’s bureau and one from the Sunset Strip BID. We wanted to just kind of chat with them, pick their brains, and just have a friendly lunch meeting. It was really nice, especially since I live in West Hollywood (or as close as you can POSSIBLY live adjacent to it - I walk out my front door and, in the hallway, I’m in West Hollywood) so it was nice to hear what they are doing. Also, I hadn’t been to Off Vine since it closed down after a fire a couple of years ago. Mary Lou used to take me there for lunch occasionally and I always enjoyed it. After work we had another Invisible Material rehearsal at Cascade. When I walked in, there was some big to-do in the lobby going on. There seemed to be a mob of people with cameras (photo and video) and they were all centered around some guy. One of...

Elene came and met me for lunch today in Hollywood so we went over to Kabuki, which is one of my favorite restaurants. It’s an Asian place that has really great sushi and lunch combinations, soups, etc. We had a nice lunch and talked about a lot of stuff. After work, I stopped by the grocery store to get what I needed to make my dish for dinner club. Tonight it was at Robin and Michelle’s and I hadn’t been there for a long time. They have a new puppy named Lucy who is so adorable! We spent a lot of time petting her or oogling over her. Aaron came, but Mark was feeling sick so he couldn’t make it, and then Jim from boot camp and his partner were there. The food was delicious - Robin and Michelle made these healthy pizzas, Aaron and Jim and his partner brought bruscetta and toppings and other appetizers, and I made sauteed spinach (Elene’s suggestion) with Portobello mushrooms and garlic. Dylan made desert, which was fruit and yogurt parfaits.

I went down to ye olde Senior Center on Melrose to vote today. It was a pretty significant election even though it was mid-term, because in California we were voting for a new governor, senator, and several propositions including legalization of cannabis. So I went to vote first thing. I very happily voted for Jerry Brown for Governor, Barbara Boxer for Senator, my friend John Noguez for county assessor, to create the annual vehicle fee for state parks, and to legalize cannabis. Some of the questions on the ballot I still weren’t completely sure about despite all my research so I defaulted to the Stonewall Democrat’s recommendation as I usually do. We had rehearsal for Invisible Material’s show at the Viper Room which Robin just booked last weekend as sort of a last minute thing, but I’m so excited to play there! Brandon volunteered to fill in on guitar since we don’t really have a guitar player. Robin has been playing but it would be nice to have another guitar to...

Well, I am really hungover today. At my job, I get two floating holidays per year, which I’ll be able to take advantage of in the future by choosing one as the day after LA Pride, and the other as the day after Halloween. Not so much a holiday, but recovery from one. I did make it through the entire work day, which was nice, as I barely got any sleep last night. The surprise of the day was that the Human League’s website went live, and features a very brief (10 second) clip of the new single “Night People”! Very excited about that! They are my favorite band and I have been following them since I was 10 or so. I’m so glad that they’ve never broken up and that they are going to be releasing another new album in another new decade!