Tag Archives: hollywood

is Sunset Junction a hipster prom?

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sorta.

its also a gay mans prom

its also a hot babe’s prom

its also a street dance party

a place to get your palm read

and a latin american prom

and a carnival right on sunset blvd. so what?

is it too expensive? yes, $20 for a neighborhood fair is too much. so? water should be free but we have bought in to the lie that bottled water should exist. and $4 cups of coffee. we will survive. some of us with our sense of humor in tact.

people who whine that sunset junction is too cool for school or too expensive are the same bores who tell their lovers theyre too tired to have sex, maybe tomorrow.

theyre the same imbeciles who say theyd never live in malibu cuz its too far away. FROM WHAT EXACTLY?

yes sunset junction is a menage of cultures and fashion and hair styles and music. THATS THE DAMN POINT!

of course the people running it have turned their back on the ideal that it should be a non profit event – hi this is LA what on earth do you expect of your neighbors if not greed and capitalism and lies and deceit. and funny hair dos

these are people who would bottle smog if they could.

me, i love sunset junction. i hardly ever see gay guys running around in their underwear and for 1 day a year its awesome.

i love to smell all the delicious foods that are bad for my girlish figure

i love all the dirty tshirts you can buy for five bucks

i love to hear all the terrible bands whos music i wouldnt even bother to steal off napster

i love to play the carnival games and talk politics with the carnies.

this is what youre supposed to do.

youre not supposed to do the same thing you do every weekend. youre supposed to live a little and eat chicken on a stick and dance with the mamacitas outside the reggae ice cream truck.

youre supposed to browse for new posters for your loo

youre supposed to flirt with girls half your age and tell them that if they laugh they have to give you their phone numbers

youre supposed to take pictures of old people with tattoos.

youre supposed to live like a east sider which means not giving an f what any one else thinks, especially those who think that east hollywood silver lake and los feliz are not on the east side.

youre supposed to close yr eyes and pray to Jah and thank Him for all these blessings.

just like youve done year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year.

last night i got to meet and interview a big time huge movie star

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at a famous hotel

i sat in one olde school leather chair and he sat in one.

earlier his people pretty much amplified the nervousness that i felt. they told me that if the questions were dumb he wouldnt respond well. hes no cheerleader. hes no ones monkey.

i had a cameraman with me and the lovely karisa said shed come and there they were.

of course when it came to show time they asked karisa to stay out of the room which was sad because she was relaxing me.

which is the crazy thing because one reason i like her and we get along so well is the same reason that i was in that room about to interview a guy who has grossed between 2-3 billion dollars in the box office: because i like to be nervous.

i like it because i never am nervous. sometimes at work the fit will hit the shan and my body just goes into this weird overdrive and the world slows down so i can catch up to it. it only lasts for a little while so you have to put out the fires quickly but for that brief moment when pressure hits me, usually a forcefield of Cool envelops me and im good.

the other day when i had to lead that panel discussion at that wine bar in venice in front of many of our advertisers that forcefield didnt arrive until minutes before showtime. but last night, even though i just wanted and needed 5 minutes to collect my thoughts, organize my questions, and say a little prayer, i was overwhelmed by handlers, assistants, and weirdo party goers.

only for one minute before the actual interview did i have time to say to myself some encouraging words of hope. in this case it was youre just two bald guys talking.

and then bruce willis came into the room, shook my hand, sat down, and i earned my money.

stay tuned to see the entire interview on video. dare i say it couldnt have gone smoother.

Update: heres the video!

karisa at the roosevelt

ran down sunset to highland and then down hollywood blvd

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saw three hookers.

i think cuz its pretty warm at night, for decemeber

saw these two cops pull over a car and then give me a good look as i ran by.

two people said hi to me.

one person walked past me with his mouth open as far as he could open it.

saw several people dressed up to be out on the town.

saw a wax statue of snoop doggy dogg that looked really real

and saw a woman who looked like a celebrity, but wasnt.

ran past this house where inside two people were talking

and the dude goes its too bright in here and put a blanket over his head

like he was a ghost.

left it on, and went back to the conversation.

saw all these people being interviewed to be servers at my favorite lunch restaurant

ate pie when i got home.

maid came early today

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is gonna be oktotally disrupted my morning routine. thus are the modern tragedies of my-so-called-life.

there used to be a time when i would have to be at work super early so i never saw my maid. but life is better now and i can get into the office at a reasonable hour. problem is, my maid, i believe, is used to being places at the buttcrack of dawn.

anyways its terribly embarrassing for me because when i know shes coming i just let everything go to hell. which believe it or not is different than my normal lifestyle, which to outsiders may look quite similar to a man allowing his apartment to go to hell. but its not so.

i was brushing my teeth when i heard a knock on the door. it was the back door, which is never good. either it means a young lady has come to retrieve her jewels, or it means the maintenance man needs to turn off the water to the building, or it means a homeless man wants money, or it means a small time theif is casing the joint.

or it means the lovely maid caught a fast bus because its veterans day and didnt hit any traffic at all and has arrived before the man of the house has had time to “prepare” for the cleaner.

theres a whole system with my laundry, for example. clothes that may appear dirty, and have even made their way to the floor, are quite clean, and could use some folding and placement in a drawer. those clothes need to be put in a basket marked clean so she can fold and place.

meanwhile there are some unmentionables and unsee-ables that need to be hidden or tucked away or stashed, if you will. i dont pretend that she doesnt know ever hiding place and every secret i have, but i dont want to have those things right in her face, forcing her to make a decision.

the good thing about the early arrival was she told me that she would cook for me. often she makes little meals and places them on a plate with saran wrap over them. then she sits the plate in front of the microwave.

i was able to tell her that often i dont come home for days, that i appreciate her cooking, but she should put it in the fridge so i can enjoy it. sometimes when the delicious treat is fish or chicken my nutritionist advises me to throw the home made meal out. which breaks my heart.

yes my life is so difficult that i dont see how i make it through even one day without heavy medication.

i see a lot of hookers out there

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when i jog.

you might notice one or two when youre driving, but when youre right there on foot theres way more than youd think.

i think is the economy that bad?

but then i think but what about their customers? isnt the economy bad for everyone?

i almost get hit by cars when i run at night.

its dangerous but it keeps your mind off being exhausted, running for no good reason.

theres this mechanic in my neighborhood. i used to take my car there all the time.

most of the cars theyd work on were amazing lowriders and other classic american sedans and convertibles.

then one day out of the blue they have no cars in the lot, not even the old ancient fire truck. and as time goes on we learn that they went out of business for some reason.

today i saw a for lease sign on the garage door.

this is a place that was around for 20 years and then one day it just closes up without any farewell party or any hoo ha of any sort whatsoever?

all the cars just left the lot, sold or otherwise, including a damn fire truck and there wasnt any notice, plea for help, or murder scene?

just one day vibrant and thriving, next day poof gone.

i am both bewildered, and im impressed.

ive dated girls so loud that every step of the way out of the door something was announced to the world.

omg its so bright out. omg its so hot. hey should we bring waters? etc.

how these people moved out a dozen cars, trucks, and equipment for 12 bays, without a whisper is admirable.

clearly the work of ninjas.

scenes from this weekend in LA

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yes thats a sunset while driving down sunset


yes Club Sushi figured out how to fail sitting right next door to the hottest record store in town and right next door to the hottest movie theatre in town and no other great restaurants around for blocks if not miles


and they have some mail they need to read


the sign says “eat mcdonalds, end up like this”. i ate there 2x that day.


the fires are only 50% contained


i like to give the LA Daily News props when they deserve it
they got this hate monger to write to them and man did they do a great job on their cover


this is the car i am lusting

how bad is the economy?

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i took this picture last week but it took me till today to actually see what it was.

this is a billboard for a cable tv special held three months ago.

but whats amazing about it is its on sunset blvd, just west of vine, as people leave the arclight theaters (normal movie ticket price there: $14) or walk one block east of amoeba (the city’s largest record store), they would see that sign. its a very well traveled part of town which is clearly lit at night where tons of people are day and night.

how come you cant sell that space?

people should be fighting for that space yet it waits to get obeyed.

president obama better quit smiling so much and get down to the magic part.

even though i would have preferred

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to have taken a crack at questioning David S. Addington in DC yesterday, who seems to be a master debater and overmatched the democrats who seemingly were unprepared for his responses to the questions on matters concerning waterboarding and other means of torture,

the second best place to be yesterday was here in hollywood for the sunset strip music festival.

even though i will have a photo essay review on Soundboard later today, i will give you a brief synopsis of what went down. first off i had a crazy day at work. i really planned on being out of the office at 6pm for the ceremonies that were being held at the house of blues across from the riot hyatt but my plan is always to be out of the office at 6pm and i am hardly ever out of there by any time other than 8pm. which is fine. i love that office and the people in there.

got home in time to shower, read fan mail, change out of my dress shirt and khakis and make it to the sunset strip where my rock partner for the night, ms ali miller of metromix (who you might recall in this photo with ms sarah silverman) met me outside the security gate of the house of blues.

we got patted down, the dude’s metal detector didnt like my wallet chain, and we proceeded to the press table. no one was at the press table. it said something like media check in but there were two empty chairs and two bottles of water.

apparently we were supposed to be there at 5-6 and even though the rock didnt start till 9, which is what the time was at the time, there was no one to give us our credentials. thats cool. we had phone numbers. they had walkie talkies. we ended up meeting the chief of security and the manager of the club and were escorted in. strangely this is nothing unusual. its hardly ever a piece of cake to get into a show. whatevs, within minutes we had beers in our hands and were enjoying the rocking tunes of camper van beethoven.

oddly theyre much older than they were in the 80s. odder still, they seemed to rock much harder. if you closed your eyes you would have sworn that you were still in the time before grunge back when sonic youth and lydia lunch put out one of my favorite singles and when the campers introduced violin to college rock. after a while they played their hit, but not before bitching that their set was only going to be 45 minutes “we’re having our 25th anniversary show at the Filmore in a few days in SF where we will put on a, you know, real 2-hour show”. and then they broke into a long pink floydish jam which led perfectly into the wacky “where the hell is bill”.

soul asylum followed and rocked harder than they did the last time i saw them at the troubadour or wherever that was. princes former drummer seems bigger than ever before which is a pretty tough trick. but their songs were solid and it was nice to sing along to “frustrated incorporated” again.

we did many shots and drank beers and took a cab down the street to the whisky because even though reliving the days when mtv played videos, the crowd was sorta old and sorta lame and this isnt really why al gore invented the sunset strip. may i add that this is why its great to be with someone 22ish like ali who was yawning the whole time at the house of blues.

when we got to the whisky hair metal rock wannabees tattooed millionaire were on stage and most of them were so young that they didnt even have chest hair. the drummer seemed to be a little light in the loafers and definately light on the snare and the singer/guitarist dude was like mick mars’ brother. and even though it was cheesy and even though i would never buy their record, to me it was exactly what the strip and the whisky and hollywood is all about – a good time with a soundtrack of somewhat screaming metal glam rock.

and a front row of dolled up long haired barely legal girls with miniskirts garters and leather.

went home after three songs from LA Guns who werent bad. and was not sad at all that the dude from Warrant had called in sick.

the hollywood chamber of commerce

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loves me

today announced the 2007 walk of fame recipients:

Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Lauren Shuler Donner, Jamie Foxx, John Goodman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Altman, Erik Estrada, Kiefer Sutherland, Jerry Stiller, Barbara Walters, Dick Wolf, Mariah Carey, Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Doors, Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Leann Rimes, Shania Twain, Sir Tim Rice, Lily Tomlin, Rodney Bingenheimer and Stu Nahan.

Actually thats a lie, one of those people doesn’t have a star, even after that vote.

Meanwhile Scientifc American says that we here in LA are basically fucked as the Big One is coming any minute now. (And if it comes before i get a chance to say it, i loved most of you)

i was just telling matt that i need to join the la press club, and whattya know, word got out and tomorrow the mayor and larry king will meet with the press club.

sadly i cant make it as i have a lukewarm date. theres nothing better than hot dates but this chick is a little under the weather so… who wants to kiss a girl for the first time in that situation.

after a few 40s though who knows.

i did a podcast with moxie today that will be up over at her blog shortly its up. we’re going to start doing them poolside from now on.

today i also got some cds in the mail for me to review. one of them was the grates. its awesome. another one of them is guster. i didnt think i was going to like them at all. i dont know who i thought theyd be. i guess i had never heard them before, i dont know, anyway that one is great too. and the third one is also very good, darker my love. sounds like sonic youth my bloody valentine. very nice surprise.

ive been seeing al gore on tv a lot lately and maybe having that election stolen from him shook him up in the right way because hes way better on tv than ever before. for the glaring exception of the joke he tried to tell tonight on letterman. i bet he’s going to be your next president, america.

finally, pitchfork sends us to myspace so we can hear the best cover of the year The Go! Team doing “Bull in the Heather“.

pitchfork gives them two stars but theyre haters, i give them twenty-two stars, it’s definately better than the arcade fire doing “maps”.