More Phone Pix

I took these too late in the day, but I couldn't bring myself to delete them . Sometime I'll get Joy to show me how I can crop and combine these to make a panorama:






A little virtual tour of 20th CF:

First of all:



Corporate HQ:



New York Street, overlit, sorry:

Inside NY Street:

Murals:









This one too is over-sunlit, unfortunately, and I didn't have time to find its placard. I'll fix both next time I go.

Phone Pix, Checking Out My Town

Snapping Hollywood, Part the First:
Painting Stuff in an Amusing Manner

It seems I have at least slightly underestimated the quality of my phone's camera. I have been dismissing it as close to useless, a Cracker Jack prize included for show on my new phone. I can barely see the images on its tiny screen, where they look terribly pixilated, and when I click to enlarge them at my service provider's website, they look grainy and smeary. But check out what happens to them when, after clicking to enlarge, I download them to the disk:





Not great, but not so bad, either. These are snaps of the amusing art found on some of the mailboxes around my town.



Here is an open birthday card to MLK, still there since it was splashed on a the side of a building a couple months ago.



And here is another mural, painted on one of the sound stages at 20th Century Fox, facing the Pico entrance. I had been working there on Shark a couple months ago when I took this, but gave up on snapping any more of the murals on future visits due to how they looked on my phone. I missed a few great opportunites. Well, I'll be working there (on Shark once more, as it happens), again tomorrow, so I'll get the other paintings then.

Also,I will be taking some more little eyeballings around the only other town I (yet) call home (Seattle being the other and my native city, the future one being Manhattan). And now that I know it may be worth the effort, I'll upload a few of the ones that have been living uselessly on my phone but may in fact be just as good as these.

"GoneGoneGone...

...she been gone so long, gonegonegone so long..."

But I'll be posting soon, just popping in to wave hi while I have a sec. See you probably next week.

Mystery Caller!

At just after 4p this afternoon, I checked the little cell phone to make sure someone at the office hadn't tried again in vain to reach me. He hadn't and all is well, but there on the screen was this little note:

"U don't talk to me any more cutie"

Now then: I've managed to spend almost the WHOLE time from then till now (an hour and a half or so) without it occurring to me that I might have been a wrong number, reveling in the lovely mysteries of the Secret Pal: Whoooo could it BE!? Who am I not thinking of? How awful should I feel for not being able to recognize him (him, certainly?) right away? Are we at all close? Were we? Hmmm!!

After a while I thought to try a reverse look up: I could only find out that it's a prefix for Mt. Pleasant, TX. Who do I know there, I mused. Anyone? Or who do I know from somewhere else, but who has family, work, other connection to Texas? Alas, I couldn't think of a single soul, but not long after came the moment it occurred to me that the sweet, lonely words were probably meant for another girl...

*Sigh*.

But not knowing anything for sure, I do still get to keep the mystery. I love little mysteries here and there in life. They spice things up a little.

MySpace Survey

House of Joy

Bon aprés-midi, Messieurs et Mademoiselles. I'm writing to you on a day I would ordinarily be hard at work, slaving away over various and assorted field reports. Instead I'm at Joy's house, eating Easy Mac, drinking lemonade, fucking around on the internet and listening to iTunes. I mined all the stuff that I'm sure I like from her vast library (I've spent hours on just this) into a playlist I can listen to when I'm here. I also wrote down stuff I'm not sure of, to listen through later.

I will go into work tomorrow to help our poor abandoned Luis, he of the killer sentence composition (if you read Joy's blog you know what I mean). He is unaccustomed to days on his own in there, and may have better things to do than sit around and answer the damn phone.

From there, I will be attempting to get some more background stuff. If I don't manage to get any for Wednesday (it's really a day by day thing, getting background work), I'll be coming back up here to North Hollywood, paying a visit to the call-in service peeps and finally getting signed up with them. It makes the life of someone who does this for a (meantime) living much, much easier.

Joy is in Portland, visiting her awesome bro Brian Backlash for the week. I hope she is having nine tons of fun, that the time is going nice and slow and that she comes back feeling like she got to spend a whole month away.

I'll be spending more time here while she's gone, watering all her plants and feeding any number of her pets, but I think I'll be going home for tonight in a while. My T.V. gets better reception, and Prison Break and 24 are on tonight, so. You know. I've always had my priorities straight. It is just after four now, I should be doing a vlog post in a bit.

P.S. looks like Blogger has not updated their clock for DST

In The House

I love working on a set. I love the long days, I love the actors, I love being enveloped in this other world, I love being excited about the day and my life, I love seeing and experiencing stuff that is completely unique. I love the gruff and too-cool-for-school crew, I love the happy crew, crew rules. They are so fucking great at their jobs it is insane, and you realize the Oscars and Emmys exist so that these people can get close to properly thanked. All that glitz, you realize on the set, is really the least that could be done.












I always have fun stuff I could be writing to you about these experiences... I'll be getting internet service at home again very soon and will have more time for stuff like that. (That should also mean way more frequent posts, I really do love blogging and am always wishing I could be talking to you every day. I will be doing a vlog from Joy's this weekend, so that should be fun times).

Happy Birthday, George Eads!Or, Hooray, Pussy! (the original title), whichever you prefer

I'm dedicating today's post to my current favorite actor, as I'm sure he adores pussy, and today is his birthday.

If you feel one of those lovely urges to immerse yourself in sexual discourse, but no one (or circumstance) seems to be available, click HERE. Just watch it if you're at work.

I snagged this from Blogography commentor Yello Jkt's original link.

Official Stuff of Today:

Amphibian of the Day:

The Pacific Chorus Frog



Word of the Day:

Chiaroscuro

Beverage of the Day:

Bréve



Person of the day:

Joy



Blogger of the Day:

Dave


Have a magnificent weekend !!

Chiming in with Dave

Suck the general public's dick, rude cell phone user. Especially when the general public has a wee kid. Perhaps their parents would rather have him or her wait until early grade school before learning advanced F*bomb usage.

Dave's current entry (Feb 20: "Etiquette") reminded me of my own thoughts on the subject.

From LSHQ,

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

OOOOOOooooo!

Please get off your damn cellular telephone. Are you in a quiet cafe? Are you in the symphony lobby? Are people around you working, resting, waiting quietly? Even snoozing? Maybe they just got their little one to nod off. Maybe they are trying to hear something else. Something that is at far lower decibels than your chirpy-ass larynx, like what the person standing right by their side is trying to say to them, for example. Hey, nobody wants to seem uncaring or anything, but NOONE GIVES A SHIT WHAT RODNEY IN ACCOUNTING IS DOING FOR DINNER.
Thankyou.

posted by Catherine at 2:40 PM

Happy St. Valentine's Day

LoveLoveLove,

Catherine
:)

P.S.: Here is a lovely thought from Whiskey River. It struck me as a good way one might show oneself a little love:

"Practice mental silence: Instead of trying to activate cosmic powers within, we should remain silent in order to see them already at work. Make it your task for today not to try to achieve anything, but to quietly watch yourself being moved about by inner forces."

- Vernon Howard

Happy Friday

I'm still alive. I've been busy at work lately doing video for this big case. I'm done with a particular segment of it, with one more to go, so I'm taking a breather at the moment.

I'm happy that The Colts won the Big Game. According to a surprising amount of people, they were a shoo-in, which I did not realize. Next year, I hope smart sports people will be saying that about the Seahawks. :D

Nothing else at the moment, no news, and I can't think of either of the topics I was gonna mention here...I'll have to start writing them down in a notebook again. Also, less to talk about because I haven't worked on a set for weeks now. Joy has needed the help lately, and Luis has been here at the office, so I can't use the phone to get work. I was thinking about going outside and using my own phone, but I think I'm gonna wait till things are all the way back to normal after this huge case anyway. I'll finish this video and get set back into the usual routine - one more week. Next Friday, one week from today, I'll call to start getting work on set again.

Football Fun, Other Stuff

Yay, it's almost Superbowl Sunday!!! There will be either one of two things: A fabulous party at The Hole, consisting of me and the television, or: Me, going to a sports bar other likely spot to cheer on the Colts with other losers who have only a The Hole of their own and no healthy peeps to hang out with. I say healthy, because if poor Joy were not in a heap on the floor with strep throat, I'd go hang out with her and Jason and their peeps. But she is, poor baby. Please think healing, comfortable happy thoughts for her.

I'm here at work today without her, and with her boss, Rick (Okay, it's our boss, but I really just consider myself Joy's person here. I'm not wrapped up in the company, just here to make her life easier and earn a few bucks while I scramble - if you can imagine tedious scrambling - to get my real work off the ground). Right now making a few video files on the computer of footage taken in the field, then I put those onto CD. That is not my main function here, but I do it. I usually take written field reports and whip them into appropriate shape for this company's clients. I don't have any of that to do today, unfortunately. We are working on a big huge high profile case that the client is asking for by a completely unreasonable due date, so I'll be coming in tomorrow to help out. I'm not too sure how handy I'm coming in, but I think I'm making Rick feel better just being here.

My guess is I'll be back with at least one more entry today. :P

Listening To Myself Talk

This is an entry from my personal journal. I very rarely go back and read old stuff, with this one exception. I need to hear it every few weeks or so. I wish I were better at following my own advice:

Apples to Zen

I thought last night: when you really improve your life, it won't be out of anger or disgust with yourself, and it won't be due to a moment, no matter how remarkable, of inspiration. It won't emerge like a phoenix from a really deep black mood nor be propelled any more than a few feet out of a happy one. It won't even come of being on the right career path or making peace with your past. It will come of making everyday decisions that are in your best interest from the time you wake up until you go to bed at night. Right Action. Since it's tricky to remember what to do and why, since the big picture is not displayed for you when you wake up in the morning and your motivations are so easily lost in the moments of the day, design a way keep them at the forefront of your consciousness. Keep bringing what's important back to your attention. Get something up on the wall here at home, figure out a portable version to take with you. But don't be pissed, don't bother. Really. Get it out of your system. Zen out. Don't just hope for a happy morning, expect it or get it that way. Attitude is everything. Find the motherlode for your sense of humor so you don't lose it when your down like this. And tomorrow? buy a giant sack of apples.

movies/SPORTS

I saw Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday, and some thoughts on that are forthcoming. I have to bring some stuff from my own computer to here at work, including that, writing stuff and a few other entries from my personal journal.

What else? Ah, football. Well, first of all, congratulations to 2007 AFC Champs The Indianapolis Colts and 2007 NFC Champs The Chicago Bears.

I know I'm supposed to be going for my own league, but I have to say my heart is with the Colts this year. I was stung kinda hard by that last loss, maybe harder than usual. First of all, The Hawks hadn't really been doing well, but there was a little energy there toward the end so I got my hopes up for a full-on rally monkey. No monkey. Second of all, Joe Montagne kinda killed my buzz. I was watching the news, and they were filming outside Taste Chicago - my all time favorite pizza place so far in life, FANTASTIC rich, tasty pie. And there was it's proprietor, Joe Montagne, like him, he's cool, so I'm checking out the festivity and hoping he talks about his joint, his hometown and his team. And of course I expected a bit of the usual sort of trash talking on the Seahawks. Well he definitely did that last part, but then he had to go on to also dis SEATTLE. The city itself, my beloved, spectacular hometown. Hmph, I thought, I'd never rag on Chicago THE CITY (As it happens, I don't even boo opposing teams,only cheer my own, but that's just me. I do get it. I mean, there it is, all part of the game). So I felt pretty sore about that, which has bled into my feeling pretty sore about his team. Which of course is not right, so I am in the process of getting over myself. In the meantime, two words, baby:

GO COLTS!!!

Eating Crow

I was crushed, man. But we put up a good fight, forcing overtime and only letting the Bears win by a field goal. Heads up high, guys. You are a great team, and this was a kick-ass season. Looking forward to next year!!

What Will Happen This Weekend:

Interesting Eye

I was hunting around Quattro's blog to see if I could find an image of him, so I could either tell him I think he's really handsome, or lie and tell him I think he's really handsome. A bit of advice: All good men, all gentlemen, all husbands charming and not, everyone's brother, son and dad, all favorite uncles and male cousins, co-workers and fellow bloggers are handsome. No matter what.

This is a slight variation on (and extended remix of) the male half of some advice I got at about age eight:
"All wives are lovely; all husbands are charming."
"But....!", I began to protest.
"Shhh - no matter what!"
"Oh", I said.

The truth is, if Kevin is any taller than me (not hard for most men as I am 63 inches tall), has either most of his hair or none at all, has friendly peepers and a warm smile, I will almost certainly genuinely think he is handsome. The question arises in the first place from the comments under this blog post.

Anyway, in clicking around, I found his online portfolio Optic Chaos. He is a car guy! Here are my favorite images from that:

MMMmmmMenMenMen (this top one is my very fave, the rest are in no particular order):







I wonder what kind of plant this is?:



Q has a keen sense for architecture, this shot had the coolest color:



Très Moderne:



So SoCal:





Cutest girl in the world:

...Panda Hippo Gnu Deer

I dug my New Year's wish from last year, so I thought I'd dust it off and hang it up again:

I wish you the very best that 2007 could possibly have to offer you!

May you have peace, health, happiness, dreams dreamt and come true (or begun to), good sleep, good eats, fun times & safe home.

May all of you drive carefully and be surrounded by polite, friendly drivers.

May you all have plenty of money and all the stuff you want and need.

May your loved ones have what you wish for them and more.

May your non-fake plants stay alive in your care.

May your pets frolic and love you to pieces.

May the world, your friends, the cosmos and your favorite person/sweetie love you to smithereens and be wonderfully good to you.

May you take joy in old friends, deepening your bonds, and may you make marvellous and fantastic new friends.

May you see magnificent movies and talk about them for hours after.

May you drink excellent coffee and have at least a few really fabulous meals with people you enjoy deeply.

May you have love, sweetness and light, all the way through 2007 and far beyond.

With all my love to all of you,

Happy New Year!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, know your blogger better in 2007:

Some things I live for:

The anchoring presence of family (Hi, Tony!) and friends, giving love and being loved

Affection and affinity, being touched physically, bonding non-physically

Being nourished, moved and surprised in experiencing real life

Being nourished, moved and surprised in experiencing the arts

My great big hopes and dreams

All that is natural

Including that which is contrived (contrivance is natural to humans)

Contributing

Creating

Movement and excersize

Enjoyable, fulfilling challenges

Work, action, change, learning

Talking

Thinking

Sunshine

Coffee, chocolate and other favorite foods and drinks

good sleep and other comforts

My favorite people, living and dead, acquainted with me and not

My favorite ideas and topics

My favorite other stuff

You

Most of Day Two.

I'll put things in a nutshell - 'tis the New Year, time to move on!

On the 23rd, I rented a car, which would be a miracle except that I am WAY smart, yo. First, I went to a rental car agency and the guy said, in Down Town Seattle right before Christmas?? You will NEVER find a car; you MIGHT if you go to the airport. So what did I do? I slid right into the lobby of the Westin, sidled up to the concierge and and asked if she could please hook me up with a car. I heart concierges. She not only did, but the nice lady from Advantage Rent-a-Car came to pick me up from this swank hotel at which I was not staying. Which the concierge knew. Neato, huh? If you ever need stuff, just ask your friendly neighborhood concierge.

So then I went up to Broadway and tried to shop for a bit, coming up empty handed but having a good time anyway. I should have gone to The Market and spent that time getting souvenir stuff for the folks in L.A.; hindsight is 20/20 :P. I called Padraic as scheduled (Buying a house anywhere in the West? Call Padraic Joseph Jordan; he is an even better real estate guy than he is a Handsome Irish Bartender - and he is a DAMN GOOD Handsome Irish fucking Bartender. Just ask me for his contact info), and we had a magnificent little lunch date at a Pho joint in Seattle's Chinatown, known there as The International District. He gave me a bottle of his gorgeous homemade Irish Cream, hugs, kisses and good wishes for the New Year. Then Mary Pat called back (I had talked with her dad earlier), and she asked if I'd go have dinner with her usual bunch at Claire's Pantry after Mass. I always love seeing her and her family and the few family friends that get together every weekend at Claire's for dinner. Mr. Henwood treated me, and I knew there'd be no use arguing.

Then I got on I-5 and went up to Mom's. Hi, Mom!

More later.