Self-intervention

I stayed up so late last night writing this cheesy-ass blog entry (and uploading new pics from Christian's Going Away Party). I don't know why. We watched a really good movie, the broken hearts club, and it just made me happy about my life and stuff. And it was a fantastically good day yesterday.

Well I woke up this morning, re-read it, and was mortified by the sappy crappy I had written.

I hit the little delete button.

I really hope nobody saw it.

If you did, and you're thinking I am the biggest loser, well, what kind of loser reads blogs between 3am and 8am?

By the way...

I looked AWESOME.



(Kristy custom tailored the vest.)

Derelicte, My Ass...

You know how it's, like, kind of weird when your misinformed friend Dan asks you to come to a "theme party" with him and a few other friends and you guys get all dressed up in plastic trash bags and paper hats and look absolutely ridiculous and you get to the party and find out it actually ISN'T a theme party?

Well, I do.



Dan had gotten us all excited and we had made our own little costumes for The Derelicte Party.


It WAS a brilliant idea...







But we got there...



And the only thing Derelicte about it was stupid pictures of Zoolander cutout and pasted everywhere.




Of course Dan did not get the memo...and so we just stood there like retards in our literally trashy clothes while everyone else laughed at us.



We had fun anyway though.

Kind of.

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

So some chick on friendster just asked me to submit my photo and info for the casting of The Fast and the Furious 3.

I have nothing better to do. So I sent my shit in.

Would be weird if something came out of that, eh?

Retards and Range Rovers

I don't get it.

This is like the nineteenth time I've seen it.

A Range Rover with a handicapped license plate/sticker.

How and why in LA do all the handicapped people drive Range Rovers?

I don't get it. I really don't.

I mean...I guess I get it. It's a beautiful beautiful car. But if you're a quadriplegic, who cares what kind of car you drive?

And what about all the drool? Have they no respect for fine italian leather??!?!

Speaking of Range Rovers, the new Range Rover Sport is quite possibly the most beautiful car I've ever seen in my life. Even more beautiful than the actual Range Rover. I think I have a new dream car.



And it's actually somewhat affordable ($55,000).

I mean...

Not affordable by ME...

But by people...

in general...

with jobs...

and handicapped people, apparently.

the wonder of the qus

How wondereful is my lifee?

let su number the wayws.

p[lease.

ok.!

number 1.
meredtith barhnestt. the best. who could ask for a more beautiful wonderful friend. and waitreess. bringin us the BEER. BERR> The gift of LIFE.

Number 2.
The BEER. BEER AT QS. oh god its the best

Numebr 2.
Knowing all the bartenders. TheY ARE so HOT. And they give me drinks. The wonedr of th eq's. hello you could nobt be more wondreulf

Numer 5.

FREE FOOD

from chikens to buffalo sauces to pizza dns americna potatoes. who could ask for more and they are all free. Freee food for healthy fried days. i liek them

tara is callinggn!!! yay.


Ohhhhh!HH! we are both drnunk!!!

i lveo tare. i lwill ad you to the blog. AHDDDDDDDDDDing

AHHHH!H!HH!H!H!H!H!H Bjoern just callied!!!! the potographer!!! He wants to emet me on TUDASY!!! HE WANTS TO EMEEET ME!!!!!

for job?? mebbrye

WHAHHTHTT?!?!??! AN dn ow AC!!! AC TOOO!! calling all laywyerly. everyone ojoins the blogggg!oh it sothe best night evr!!!

i love yuo. ail ove jmy friends. friend soi lveoy you. thank youthankyyouthankyou. tghis life.

Attack of the Friendsters

I used to think that Mike Sacks was the only one... but no. The Southeast Asian friendsters now appear to be after me too!

From: Mercy Melanie
Date: Monday, September 26, 2005 12:41:00
Subject: hi



Message:

How are you? I just see you in User search CA location.

I am from Pillipines. You like?

Can we be friens? Can I add you in my frienslist?

Here's mine..

mercy_melanie@yahoo.com

thanks!

=)

Jobs on the horizon!!!

So I've realized that the best way to look for jobs is to find out where you want to work, and apply without even knowing if they are looking for anyone.

Out of 8 emails I've sent to photographers, I've now received 8 responses.

Even if they are just to say, "sorry, we're not looking for anyone right now". At least they're responses! When you apply to things on craigslist or on anything else, you NEVER get responses. So a big shout out to Ginger for giving me the Headshot Directory from which I've been conducting my recent job search.

Today was an incredible day.

First, I worked out. Then I spent the morning catching up with the wonderful Laura Martin, on a break from the cockroach-infested bathing-in-the-river-fest that is Nicaragua. She's been there a year now and will be there another year, working for her non-profit. It was lovely to talk to her and catch up. Weird how people take such different paths in life and still have so much to talk about and people to make fun of.

Also talked to the wonderful Kathryn Cohen. On IM. But still nice.

I have added them to the cast since hopefully we will see each other in the next month or two.

Anyway. Jobs.

So following my two lovely conversations, I received three emails. One from Mark Atteberry of Idyllic Photography:

Hey Dennis,

Thanks for the inquiry and interest in working with me. Sadly, at the
moment I am not looking for an assistant, I just took a new one on. But
that could change. I have recently started a whole new branch to my
photography business and I am eager to see what happens. I am going to
keep your info on file, if you don't mind. It sounds like you have some
great skills going for you.

Mark Atteberry

One from Juliet of www.theoandjuliet.com (their work looks great, but I don't know about working for another husband/wife team):

Dear Dennis:

thank you for your email.
we are not currently looking for anyone.
however, we were planning for a new office assistant after the new year.
if you haven't found new spot by then. we'd be glad to have an
interview. our needs are more for a personal/ office assistant who
works on the computer/phones for us...rather than a studio/photo
assistant.
you sound well matched to our needs based on your last job..we need our
office overhauled...and have a lot of photo/computer work.
we also need someone who is sharp with great phone skills.
keep us posted after january 5th..if you haven't found a full time job
yet. we are flexible with hours .....

thanks,

juliet

And finally one from Bjoern Kommerell (www.bkheadshots.com), who was actually my first pick!

Are you in LA, Dennis? If yes, let's meet!
Call me @ (323)650-XXXX.

Cheers

Bjoern

I am going to call him right now. Crossing my fingers!!! His work is so amazing.

MegOoOoOoN wins the lottery!

Did I forget to mention that sweet little tambourine-wielding Meghan scored a sweet voiceover deal with a BIG BIG company whose name I cannot mention?



Yeah.

Rumor has it she'll be making in the neighborhood of 40 G's.

Forty-thousand frickin dollars.

That's a lot of kit-kats.

What are you doing here? Go read her blog. It's so much more interesting. The link is just over there to the right.

At least I maybe get to go to Vanity Fair. Surely that's worth 40 G's...

The neighbors upstairs...

So Kristy and I have been plotting to figure out a way to hang out with our hot neighbors upstairs.

We've bumped into them repeatedly. At Q's. At the gym. In the garage. In the elevator.

I know one of them is named Ryan. And coincidentally the person who used to live in our unit was named Ryan. And we still get some of his mail.

So...I came up with a brilliant idea to ask Ryan upstairs if all this mail addressed to Ryan Davis is for him!

But as I type, Kristy has run upstairs to "do laundry". But, she is "out of quarters" and "needs change" and thus must "ask for change".

We'll see if anything happens with that.

Evil scheming Asians we are...

Cool Jobs

Applied to a bunch of neat sounding jobs today:

Jr. Publicist at a boutique marketing/imaging firm in Westwood with fashion and entertainment clients.
- Write press releases, pitch stories, work with clients, design marketing materials. Work on promotional events. Assist Executive Director.

Assistant Art Director at a photo studio
-Assist photographer and production artists to create images for website and catalog. Duties will include styling, setup, prepping images (clipping paths, color correx) in Photoshop. Successful applicant will have some familiarity with the Mac and Photoshop.

Talent assistant
-Well-established, well respected boutique talent and literary agency seeking experienced full-time assistant for head of theatrical. Candidate will deal directly with actors, casting directors and managers on a busy desk with heavy phones. Ideal candidate must be extremely responsible, organized, self disciplined, and able to multi task. Wonderful opportunity for right person.

And now for the crown jewel:

VP at Darren Star Productions is looking for a great assistant … friendly (and smart) boss, willing to mentor, on the Sony lot.

Off to lunch with Emily. Hopefully I'll get a response or two.

Yay!

It's camera time!

Yes. I am in the final stages of being about to buy a brand new digital SLR camera.

After months of contemplation and trepidation, something happened today that I think is going to push me over the edge. The tipping point, if you will.

Chloe emailed me this morning, saying she had an idea for a coffee table book, and she wanted me involved to do the photography. She hasn't told me the idea yet, but I'm sure it is a brilliant idea. And I am very excited at the thought of perhaps having to jet from LA to NY to work on whatever this might be.

So I went to Samy's Camera and Bel Air Camera and Best Buy to compare prices today. Then I came home and messed around some with my reflector and practiced taking pictures of myself.



I think tomorrow might be the day!!!!

Wooohooo!!!

Oh and before I end, I need to throw in a shout out to Jack (the girl). I saw her last night. Jack you are wonderful.

A Day at the Vineyard

Katie picked me up early yesterday morning to drive up to Santa Barbara for a wine tasting at Pete's family vineyard.

Hit a little traffic on the way up, but for the most part the drive was fun and uneventful (see video below).


We arrived and it was beautiful.




Pete had arrived the night before to set everything up. Even the port-o-potties.



About 30 or so people showed up. We had an amazing picnic lunch with wine galore. Sampled several different wines that their vineyard produces, including two unreleased wines (I have no recollection of what they're called, they all tasted red to me). And lunch.

Roast beef sandwich, pasta salad, and COOKIES!!!!

Someone remarked that the whole scene was like something out of an Abercrombie ad (with the exception of my Asian self, of course). Beautiful preppy-looking people. A totally surreal setting completely removed from civilization. And drunken horseplay.






If my life looks like an Abercrombie ad, I'm not complaining.

After lunch, Pete took us on a wild drunken jeep ride through the vineyard.

It was so much fun.



Whee drunk driving.




We drove around and around...



Until we finally pulled up to the top of this awesome hill from which we could view the empire.




After a few more hours, we went into the local town, Solvang, where the vineyard has a tasting room.

The town was kind of Disney-ish and dutch-looking with weird little shops.



We danced around drunkenly.






Way too many salamis later, we went back to the vineyard for camping and drinking and bonfire. And pizza.

The End.

Oh and there was drama.

A weird thought...

So it just occurred to me that our dear departed Christian had a big crush on Meredith.

But if ever they were to be married, her name would become Meredith Barnett-Garnett.

I don't think she'd go for that.

TGI Friday

Thank god it's friday.

My friends are free from the evils of work and school. Finally.

I spent the day remodeling the blog.

Scroll down and you'll see we now have a Cast of Characters!!!!

It's harder to make than it would seem. Doing all the html coding stuff is quite tedious. But I think I learned a whole lot today. I'm getting better and faster.

Went to Happy Hour at Q's with Rach and Bri, the latest of the RI transplants. Euge showed up later. Had a whole lot of beer. Came home. Was planning to check out a bar in Venice Beach.

Instead I worked on the blog more. Until now. 3:30 am. Coding Coding Coding...

I am so lame.

Off to Pete's vineyard in Santa Barbara with Katie tomorrow for a day full of wining, ATVing, and general drunken fun!!!!

An Evening in the Hollywood Hills

Naia invited me to an talk by the Editor-In-Chief of Wired Magazine.



It was held at a big executive producer's beautiful house ---erm, i mean, palace, in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the city. There was a fountain in the circular stone driveway. There were big lofty ceilings. There was a candle-lit pool. A spectular view of the city. A massive food spread and bar. And catering people passing out...cold, dried, thin-crust pizza???

That was a little weird.

While a talk by a guy from Wired doesn't sound particularly interesting, it actually really was. He talked about how the internet and new distribution formats are changing the way media is distributed. He showed us how this internet series, called the Codex, was created by four 17-year-olds (below) with a video camera and a microphone videotaping themselves playing Halo and adding voiceover to create a story. It has been downloaded by 13 million people. At least.



It was just really inspiring because he was basically saying that the old system of using known formulas to generate the "big hits" through a cost-heavy studio distribution system is no longer the only way to be successful. With the internet you can create something totally specific and unique, target it to a very specific audience, and find that niche audience, while making profit on a relatively small number of viewers. It's crazy when you think about how TV shows get cancelled because they have only 3 million or so viewers.

Made me think about a movie like My Date With Drew. Which was so amazingly brilliant. And used the internet to get itself into the hands of the right people. Which then earned it a semi-wide release. Brilliance.

Got to hang out with Bristol a little bit. She works with Ben and Chris Kraft. Awesome girl. Hopefully we will hang out more in the future.

Now I just need to find that brilliant idea.

Yeebee on Women

Women at gay places are like babies or dogs, they make it so easy to meet people. Although, the problem becomes, when you want to go make out with someone, they get bored.

So very true.

Wingman Wanted

I was supposed to go out to Micky's tonight but my buddy flaked out on me. Actually I was planning to flake out on him anyway, but he flaked first. I was kind of relieved. But it made me kind of sad too.

I hardly ever do gay stuff out here.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love hanging out with the friends that I have. Love drinking, love dancing, love standing outside trendy clubs hoping to maybe get in... But while the straight boys and girls are off hooking up (often times with each other) or Double-K is having dating drama with one of her seventeen boytoys, or Eugoogoly is getting hickies, or Demily's having sweet passionate married-person sex, I...have nothing.

No excitement. No drama. No dating.

I went from dry spell to NYC craziness to what I'm pretty sure is now another dry spell.

I desperately want to find a wingman.

A Goose to my Maverick.

Hell, I'll even be Goose if I have to be.

I just want to get out there.

I used to think going out alone was fun. But I think I was just deluding myself.

IT IS NOT FUN.

It seems like the few gays that I actually get along with and enjoy going out with either live in New York, have moved to Japan, or are monagamously coupled.

I want to find a wingman like Yeebee. Someone you can always count on to want to go out. Someone who you can make a total ass of yourself with. Someone who you can take pictures of throwing up and who will still be your friend.

Yeebee I miss you.

MegoOooOooONy's B'day

We celebrated the "22nd" birthday of the lovely Miss Blotto saturday night.

Had a deliciously expensive Italian dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica.

Then proceeded to the Mondo Condo for some pregaming before continuing onto Renee's cafe.



Renee's was fun.

Crowded. Cramped. Low-ceilinged. But fun.

It reminded me of having a party at grandma's house.

Not my grandma's house, which is actually quite the party house, but what one would imagine is your typical grandma-living-in-the-woods's house.

The decor consisted of little framed weirdnesses and creepy dolls (see below).



Munish was visiting!

We drank. Made weird faces. You know, the usual.



Our night ended a bit early when Eugene got in trouble for peeing in public, wasn't allowed back into the bar, and started picking fights with the bouncer. So we went to Jack In the Box and ate bruschetta chicken ciabattas.



Turning 24 is scary.

I'm excited for my birthday party in a month. But these next few years I think are going to be crucial to my career and existence. It's all kind of stressing me out.

In the next few years everyone I know will become either a doctor, lawyer, or richass banker. I'm terrified that at the end of those years, I'll have worked a handful of random odd assistant jobs and I might not have anything to show for it.

I'll still be poor and looking for work.

I've always thought that by the time I'm in my mid-to-late twenties I definitely should have accomplished something of note. Or be settled into a career of some sort. Or at least not be worried about money anymore.

But I don't know. AC, I honestly don't know if I'm going to be able to get you that convertible by the time I'm 25.

A lot can happen in a year I guess. It could still happen.

Oh this is so scary.

I learned how to turn color pictures into decent quality black and white pictures in photoshop today. It's actually more complicated than simply desaturating it. Woohoo!

I should probably go find a job.

Christian's Farewell Ball

Meghan passed out chanting softly...
(click below to play the video)


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I will never cease to be amazed by the power alcohol has to turn an intelligent, beautiful, and articulate individual into a flailing, babbling mess.

We had gone downtown to Casey's lofty warehouse in the murderous bum-mayhem district to celebrate Christian's last few days in LA before he moves up to SF. Erin, an LA native, had no idea such a shithole area of the city existed.

Arrived around 10:30, when the party was still "getting warmed up". (We were guests numbers 7, 8, and 9. Meghan was the first girl to join the party).

Slowly people started trickling in. And before long there was fun to be had by all.

No major stories to report. No hookups. No idiocy. No peeing.

Oh. Kristy arrived too drunk to walk...



All in all it was fun time. Good people. Good drinking. And a good warm up for tonight.

Meghan's "22nd" Birthday Party!

And now I'm off to the airport to pick up Munish.