&*%#ing Stomach Flu

I have the stomach flu.

Might be something I ate. Or someone I associated with.

I had a deceptively delicious dinner with Jessup and Kate last night...that might have done it.

Or perhaps it was the rainy day of shopping with a semi-sick Gershmonster in lovely old Del Guercioville, NJ.

Shit.

Well I am quarantining myself from the world for the next 24 hours.

Oh my god if I am still sick tomorrow I will cry.

Sickness/Lameness

The boys are out partying with other Sasians.

The girls are out at some fancy club.

I am chilling at home with Chloe, feeling feverish, watching the Lizzie McGuire Movie and True Life: I Am A Gunowner, and filling out superhero surveys...

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man 95% Spider-Man 80% Superman 65% Catwoman 65% The Flash 60% Hulk 60% Supergirl 57% Wonder Woman 57% Green Lantern 55% Robin 55% Batman 50%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...


I'll take that.

I'm just glad I'm not a girl.

WHO ATE MY PANINI?!?!?!?

I have absolutely no recollection of my previous posting. Fun times.

We went to Imran's (future site of the NEW YEAR'S EVE WHITE PARTY) and played Beer Pong with malt liquor (bad idea).



After drinking forties. We went to an empty neighborhood restaurant/bar where we did Jaeger shots and ate a random bowl of old popcorn.

New York is weird and not-so-fun on a frigid Wednesday night.

Around midnight, we were sitting around in the restaurant, laughing, and Felix got that crazy look in his eye that he gets just seconds before he blacks out and decides to run away...and ran away. He literally shot up and sprinted out of the restaurant.

I chased him and by the time I got outside he was already getting into a cab. I got in too. We went home.



Most abrupt ending to an evening. EVER. The boys were not amused.

...............................

This morning Felix woke up at 6am to go to work, opened the fridge, and in horror, screamed, "WHO ATE MY PANINI ?!!?!!?!!?"

(Apparently he'd ordered a huge panini the other day and was saving half of it to bring into work.)

Possible suspects: Munish, Myself, Stephanie

The culprit?







Love you Felix!

Beer and driniking and i jhust set foot int he site ofr the heanr ytears partty anbd it is going to be absoluite insanity.

oh my GOD

Arrival in NYC

Cooked delicious Chicken Saltimbocca last night with Molly and Kath.



Hopped on the Chinatown bus to NY this morning. Emerged smelling like a public restroom.

Tash picked me up. Ate sushi. Shopped in SoHo.



Made it to Felix's. My hands are frozen. No more typing.

Arrival in Boston

I arrived in Boston late last night.

Since then I have eaten a coffee cake, a ham, a bacon and egg omelet, a turkey dinner, another turkey dinner, another ham, and a cheesecake crust.

I have also fallen in love with a little dog named Phoebe who has had her bark-box removed. She makes barking motions and faces without the barking noise and it is adorable and I want to cut off her soft little ears and put them in my pocket...but I won't.



We are going to see Brokeback Mountain. Again.

aaaaaaAAAAAACHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever sneezed yourself awake?

I just did.

I was having a wonderful little dream too. Something about middle-school. The big kids were being mean. They were throwing chalkboard erasers at me and making me cough and my eyes hurt.

Weird how the mind can make your physical symptoms into dream-like scenarios in your subconscious (although this actually happened, so it was really just a flashback).

My day today will consist of me trying to make myself un-sick. I have sore throat and nose running and a slight cough.

Maybe I will watch a movie. Maybe I will go to El Torito taco buffet with Chris and Doug. I should definitely pack since my flight is in 22 hours.

But first, I should wipe up this snotfest. The Spencer family will be sleeping in my bed this weekend. Eeeeeee....

Dan's B'day

Today was Dan's B'day. That means he gets to do whatever he wants and I will go do it with him. No resisting. No complaining.

We ate lunch at Del Taco. Quite possibly the most horrible tacos/burritos I've ever eaten in my entire life. You'd think that a poor man's Taco Bell would be...Taco Bell. But no...it's Del Taco.

We then went to see King Kong.

I wasn't particularly excited about the movie, so I didn't really have any expectations.

I didn't dislike it. But it was looooong. Over 3 hours. Entertaining, but absurdly long. And some of the CGI wasn't really up to par. I must say though, Naomi Watts did an incredible job acting if she was just in front of a green screen the entire time.

After the movie we went home and sat around for a b it. I emptied my wallet to reorganize it, and in so doing so I discovered something very strange, an old fortune from a fortune cookie I got almost six months ago:



Weird, huh?

This is back when I was at G&B. Back before I started this here blog.

I don't believe in fate, but I do believe in fortune cookies.

I once got one that read: "You are the greatest person in the world."

I still have it. Somewhere.

.........................................

For birthday dinner and drinking we went to Sonny McLean's. We had some delicious Irish pub food (and buffalo fingers). I feel bad for all the people that have birthdays so close to Christmas, because noone's ever around to help celebrate. I would hate that.

I feel even worse for people like Meredith, whose birthdays fall on Dec 31st or Jan 1st, a day when everyone is partying their ass off, but it's never about you...

We had some pitchers. Played some darts. Had another pitcher. Played pool. Then went home and watched Entourage.

And I'm sick today.

Nobody likes a Mr. Sniffles.

Hopefully I'll be better by the time I get to Boston.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Deliciousity...

Yum yum yum.

I love food.

Food food food. I love food.

We had a most delicious lunch today.

I bet you're wondering where...

I'll give you a hint:



Need another?



Still not getting it?

Well, once upon a time, Meghan, Eugene and I went into a restaurant that I was very excited about eating at. However, upon entering (and seeing all the olds and obeses), my companions got scared and insisted we leave. It was sad sad day. And I have been longing to eat there ever since.

So where did we go?



COCO'S!!!!

Like Friendly's, like Denny's, but...well actually pretty much the same.



Food makes me a happy boy.

Bjoern's Xmas Card

This dude is awesome.

TMI...

I love my girl-friends.

I really do.

I enjoy doing girly things, and talking about shopping and hair and dieting and clothes and celebrities...

But it is important to understand that there are certain topics that are off-limits.

Example:

ThesySurface: i had a brazilian bikini wax today. that shit hurts!!!
Kwanzaa: yuck
ThesySurface: my coochie feels like its on fire
Kwanzaa: AHhhhhhhhHHHHhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Kwanzaa: MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ThesySurface: (ooops, sorry.)

Please let the record show that from this day forward, I do not wish to hear, under ANY circumstances, about the hairs being ripped out of someone's vagina.

Thank you.

Celebrity Sighting

Dan and I saw Cuba Gooding, Jr. yesterday shopping at the Grove.



Dan recognized him immediately.

I had to turn around and yell "COOOOOBA!!!" to get his attention before I could get a good look.

We ran away like schoolgirls.

Subject: Fw: Jose Cuervo Cookies this is good..

From: Vitri Bhandari
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 21:22:27 +0000

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 t!
sp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup j!
ust in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in
the cup of dried fruit, Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets
stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with
a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who giveshz a sheet. Check
the
J!
ose Cuervo again for consistancy.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a
spoon
of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven.

Try another cpu of Ceurvo. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.!
Don't forget to
beat off the turner!

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish
the
Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

CHERRY MISTMAS

A Poem??? For MEEE????

hfactor: dennis kaaawwaaaan
hfactor: does not read the koran
hfactor: or live in san juan
hfactor: but he likes chiffon
hfactor: and hair salons
hfactor: and guys named jon
hfactor: or don
hfactor: or don juan
hfactor: he is graceful like a swan
hfactor: and thereupon
hfactor: he is my buddy
hfactor: ---the end
hfactor is away at 1:33:50 PM.

-Ashwin C., Poet

The Funboy Semi-Formal

Katie and I made a little road trip up to Santa Barbara for some early evening Christmas festivities at annual Hodges Family Christmas party.

Over chips, margaritas, pork stew-y type stuff, and a couple of rambling nurse-ladies, we managed to convince Sam to come back to Manahattan Beach with us for an evening of delight at the Funboy palace.

Having known the Funboys (see sidebar) now for quite some time, I am no longer shocked by their liquor-fueled, party-boy antics which often involves them dancing around half-naked to Japanese techno-pop...



...or running down to the beach in jammy-jams...



...among other things.

So you can imagine my surprise then, when we arrived to find the boys fully clothed in semi-formal attire.



Not only that...but Funboy Central was decked out in Christmas lights and other holiday decorations, complete with a food/drink spread of Holiday cider, egg nog, cookies, and.........MEATBALLS!!!!



We were a little late in the game and weren't really able to catch up to their level of intoxication, and I'm sure Sam was a little bit weirded out, but overall it was an OK time.

And of course there was the Japanese techno-pop (click below for video).


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El Guapo

So, it's cool when your social circles start overlapping.

It's even COOLER though when your social circles start overlapping into your television set.

Early last week, Eve sent out an email organizing a little get together of friends (mostly, I think, from college) at El Guapo on Friday night. I did as instructed and forwarded the invite to everyone I know and love. Two days later, Katie sent out another email for another Friday night event she would be attending, celebrating co-worker SpencerSmith's birthday, taking place...at El Guapo. TOTALLY BY COINCIDENCE.

Eve and Spencer have no knowledge of one another. But of all the places in Los Angeles to enjoy delicious beer and taquitos they both picked the EXACT SAME ONE.

I think it is just fate telling me and Katie that we must see each other at EVERY MOMENT when she is slaving away at her silly job.

All signs pointed to El Guapo, and thus everyone who was still in town came.

It was open bar for an hour and then open taquitos/buffalo wings for another hour. There was double fisting.

So last night I came upon a delightful realization. Within these circles of friends, all who just happened to come to El Guapo last night, there live two very important people in my life. John Krasinski and BJ Novak, stars of The Office.



BJ (pictured above) is friends with Eve from Harvard. But what's even cooler is that BJ and John (who plays Jim, and who used to date VVR) are best friends from high school in Newton, Mass.

Ready for another, even more impressive fact?



BJ, in addition to acting, briliiantly, on the show, serves as an associate producer AND writer of the show. (He wrote Diversity Day, best episode ever.)

I was too impressed for words. A writer-genius exists in our midst.

We are going to have to be best friends.

"I..just...felt...like...runnningngg..."

- Forrest Gump

Phew! Just got back from the gym.

Remember my quest to lose 17 pounds in 17 days?

Well. After a weekend-and-part-week-long eating binge I now only have 27 pounds left to go...in 7 days.

But wait! Kristy's Xmas dinner is tonight! Followed by open bar and open appetizers at El Guapo!

Diet and intensive exercise postponed until tomorrow...

$50,000 a SHOOT!!!!

So Bjoern brought me to the Christmas Party at Nardulli, his photo lab.

It was intimate, but mind-blowing. We got there and immediately the caterer people (from some Thai restaurant called Poon Pepper or something) were hounding us to eat their delicious food. No complaints there.

Fried Wontons, Spring Rolls, Chicken and Beef Satay, Breaded shrimps, Sushi...I was a bad bad boy.

Met lot of interesting people. Met a ton of photographers. One woman, Belinda Rolland, does paparazzi-type event photos but specializes in photographing pregnant women and babies. Another dude, MichaelDar, is gay, awesome, and does more fashion-y stuff. And some other guy whose name I forgot but who also seemed gay specialized in "environmental celebrity portraiture" whatever that means.

I love Bjoern.

I then also met this guy Chad Doreck who was very cute but works as a voiceover artist for a Nickelodeon show called "My Life As A Teenage Robot" and is also the narrator for all the E! shows like "101 Juiciest Hollywood Hookups" and "101 Biggest Celebrity Oops!". Got lots of interesting voiceover tips and tidbits that I'm sure will be useful to my other voiceover artist friends. (Goony, try cold-calling random agents at say...William Morris... and just saying, "Hi, so I booked a national Citibank commercial and wanted to meet with you to see if you'd like to represent me." Basically that's how he got started after he stumbled into his first gig...)

So yeah, all that was very awesome, but the absolute highlight of the evening was when the Nardulli brothers (who own the place) brought me and Bjoern into the backroom of the place to give us a sneak preview of MatthewRolston's new portfolio, hot off the press. Each of the one hundred or so pictures were inkjet printed on poster-sized pieces of parchment and it was all just stored in a big fancy box for whoever it is sent over to to flip through. Basically costing hundreds of dollar PER portfolio to be sent to the editors of Vogue, Elle, etc.

MatthewRolston, for those who don't know, is like one of the best photographers EVER (in my opinion). Bjoern thinks he sucks and is too politically correct. But I love him.

It was so amazing to hang out and mingle with photographers that are actually SUCCESSFUL but feel like they've plateau-ed and are bored and stressed out making over $1,000 a day and trying to get to the next level where they instead work once a week and make $50,000 a shoot.

Anyway...the party ended. I drove a drunken Bjoern home while he rambled on about how his wife (who lives in Colorado getting her Ph.D) drunk dials him on weekends after she goes out with her girlfriends.

Went home. That was my night. It was neat.

Fun with Bjoern!

Forgot to upload some new pics I took of Bristol the other day.



Also...another scene from the streets of fake New York...



Last night I went to do some work for Bjoern. Picked up some new Photoshop tricks and he invited me to come to a Christmas Party with him tonight at Nardulli, his photo lab. Yay!

Also, the other day when I was over at Reason Pictures taking pictures of Bristol, I saw Chris Kraft who used to work with me at the old place. Apparently they're having a Christmas dinner on Sunday. Apparently I was not invited. :-(

Maybe I should try reestablishing contact with the old boss soon. We will see...

Warners and Upcoming Fun

I went up to Warners again today to take Naia's headshots on the lot.

We took pictures on the fake streets of New York City.



Naia then bought me a delicious linguine and meatball lunch.

Yummiest meatballs I've had in a while. Thanks Narns.

I then came back home to find a message from Natasha telling me to leave January 12th open because I'd be escorting her and Katie to the gallery opening for amazing photographer Gregory Colbert, who I coincidentally just read an article about in Vanity Fair just yesterday.

Awesome.


xxx Natasha xxx: brie walsh works for him
xxx Natasha xxx: i have no idea who he is
xxx Natasha xxx: but apparently he is brad pitts fav photographer

Exciting!!!

AND THEN...I had another email in my inbox from the personal assistant to rapper/actor Sticky Fingaz who was interested in getting him (Sticky) some new headshots.



That got me all nervous because I haven't shot any REAL actors yet and well, I'm sure he's shot with many other REAL photographers and will see that I'm just an amateur and, well, it's all just very terrifying.

But still exciting.

Anyway...I'm off to do some work for Bjoern.

Sean Faris is FREE!!!!

Yes my friends, it is true.

Reunion...?



Perhaps now they'll put Life As We Know It back together!!! I think I'm going to start an email/letter writing campaign.

But first I must finish editing some pictures I took today.

The lovely Eve Marson has joined our ranks. Hoo-ray!



Eve is coordinating a big (but chill) night out at El Guapo Mexican Cantina Friday Night. Tell the people! Methinks it will be fun fun fun.

Also, eating lots of guacomole chips makes your poop turn green.

Brokeback and the McM@ster-Carr Industrial Supply Distribution Prom

We watched Brokeback Mountain earlier this afternoon.



It was everything I had hoped for and more. I think it is going to win a whole lot of awards. Heath Ledger better win an Academy Award. He was so good. They were ALL so good. I even suspended my undying hatred for Michelle Williams in order to appreciate the remarkable performance she gave.

Meghan was still crying 15 minutes after we had exited the theater and were in the presence of singing and dancing sexy-Santa-suit clad Rockette wannabes.

But let's rewind...

We went to the McM@ster-Carr Christmas Party last night thanks to Katie & Co. It was a total and complete blast.








There was steak and there was lobster, both of which we ate copious amounts.






All was good in the world until Pete, my eating nemesis, discovered the Secret Cornish Game Hen which nobody had realized was an alternative to our already delicious meals.



He ordered one. And I followed suit.

It almost ruined my night. (I obviously learned nothing from the Veal Fiasco the night before.)

But alas, Kristy and I took a one-hour break following the incredible meal in order to digest and rally. And rally we did. Or I did anyway.



Everyone was looking superfine so we took a crap-ton of pictures.





The crazy Ginger was videotaping...



We couldn't take enough pictures...

...and in almost every possible order and arrangement.




Brianne went with Brian as her date. Yucko face.



There was a major drinking going on.




Great music. Great dancing.















Eeee....but those CAT PEOPLE...



Whew! It was exhausting.



But so good.






We were not drunk.



Really...




We weren't.










Merry McM@ster Xmas!!!