leftovers

Today was pretty stressful at work. I think I've mentioned that there is a lot of stuff going on at Red Studios, where my office is located (they are very generous and donate the space to me, since they are part of the Media District). So I was going to have to move offices. I had gotten an appointment with AT&T for them to come out and move my phone lines into the new office, and I've been getting my stuff packed up to move and also trying to consolidate and get rid of a lot of the stuff I've been keeping that I really don't need. One time Susan's assistant Tracey told me not to throw anything away and since then I pretty much haven't; even before then, I tended to hold on to everything anyway. In going through a lot of files and piles, though, I've discovered a lot of duplicated information as well as stuff that I really don't need to save, like other BID's newsletters from years ago and brochure from city programs that no longer even exis...

After the whirlwind of the past few weeks, it was so nice to just be able to come home from work and stay in all evening. I took the opportunity to get caught up on laundry, doing three loads tonight and getting everything folded and put away before bed time. Dylan was sick and had stayed home from work, so I walked to Subway and got us a sandwich and soup for dinner and we watched our shows: Community, Parks & Rec, and the hour-long Office where Jim and Pam's baby was born. They were all pretty funny but of course we loved Community the best since Joel McHale stripped down to his underwear in this episode! Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 62 This little light-up keychain thing that came in it's own case, I don't remember where I got it from but I've never even taken it out of it's case.

I met with one of my stakeholders who took me out to lunch today. He had a lot of really good ideas about things I can do in the District, and in our newsletter. Hopefully I can implement some of his ideas soon. It was also nice to catch up with him as he was one of the board members when I first got hired here in 2002, but he hasn't been on the board since 2005. After lunch, I went across the street to Frosted, a new "cupcakery" in the BID. It's a bright blue building on the corner of Highland and Lexington and they have delicious and beautiful cupcakes. I splurged and had two different kinds, the Orange Cream and the Neapolitan. Yummy! After work I went over to Amy's and then we walked to the Subway. It was nice walking through Hollywood and it was the first time I'd been to the Hollywood/Vine Metro Station since the new W Hotel has been finished; it's quite impressive but a little odd to see a huge high-end hotel opening in this economy. We got to...

I went to measure my new office because I was worried about how small it was, so I plotted it all out to scale on a piece of paper, and confirmed that there was no way that my desk and all my furniture and files would fit in there. I'm not sure exactly what to do. We're scheduling a meeting with the councilmember so we made some headway on that, and then I scheduled an Advocacy Committee meeting for later in the month. I stayed at work late because we had Shitting Glitter rehearsal at Satellite Studios in Silverlake so it wouldn't have made sense for me to drive home and then battle all that traffic heading east again. When I got there, George gave me the bad news that they are closing very soon. I felt bad. Satellite was a great studio, and Shitting Glitter was one of it's first clients. I had found out about it online somehow, and they had offered the first session free so we gave it a try and found it to be a huge step above the studios we were used to rehearsing...

Being wiped out from the video shoot made it really hard to get up and go to work, and on top of that I was supposed to start moving my office, or at least packing it up. I had the security guys come over with the Element and we did move 5 bankers boxes of old files over to Hollywood Center Studios for storage. After work, Bun came and picked us up and we went to the New Beverly Cinema, where we met Brandon and Angie for a double feature of "Fletch" (which surprisingly, I had never seen before) and "Into the Night" starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. I really loved Fletch and laughed a lot. Brandon and Angie left after that and then we watched the second movie, which was kind of long and drawn out but I really liked it, if for nothing else than all the LA landmarks and scenes. Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 59 Media District Farmer's Market Bag, canvas tote. I have several of these and they are very hand, and I didn't ...

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...