Celebrities Are Everywhere!

Yesterday morning I was off to see Demetri Martin at a book signing in West Hollywood. I was getting the book signed for my boyfriend, although I kinda like Demetri Martin too.

On the way there, we were sitting at a bus stop on Sunset Blvd. One of those tour buses that always drive around LA started honking and people were waving across the street. I couldn’t see anything. Susie to the rescue (as ALWAYS). “Is that Steven Tyler?”, she asked. Yup. It was. Here’s a blurry picture. Unfortunately there were a ton of cars, he was far away, and our bus was pulling up but I managed to snap this shot..

Next up,  Demetri Martin. He did a book signing and presented his new book called “Point Your Face At This: Drawings by Demetri Martin”. He was really nice and answered questions, signed books and then took pictures. Really laid back and awesome guy.
After Demetri Martin, I wanted to go to a charity auction at Amoeba Records. I’d only been to Amoeba once before and it was awesome! Plus it’s close to the redline and we needed to go there anyway. Before the auction started I ended up buying Season 1 of Ugly Betty on DVD for $5 (awesome). I didn’t end up getting anything at the auction but I definitely want to go back next month. Which celebrity did I see here, you ask? Dave Ross. I actually don’t know who he is and he may not even be famous. This photo isn’t great, but at least you can see him.
Lastly was Jason Mraz, who I unfortunately don’t have a photo of. I won free tickets to see Justin Willman (we can count him as a celebrity too if you want, but he sucked). Towards the end of the show Justin pulled Jason on stage. Apparently they know each other and toured together. Jason took photos after the show with a bunch of people but he didn’t seem too happy about it.

Overall it was a very long but successful day.

Photo Contest!

I tried to enter a National Geographic photo contest, but it was $15. So I googled “Free photo contests”. This is the first I found! Vote for my picture if you have a winkflash account! And if you don’t have a winkflash account, you should join! It’s the best place to get photos printed. I’ve only used it once because I don’t get prints often, but it was really cheap and the quality was great.

The theme is spring so I uploaded a photo I recently took at Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles. BEAUTIFUL.

http://www.winkflash.com/contest/winkflash/browse.aspx?idce=63284

Reasons I Love & Hate Twitter

I have a very strong love / hate relationship with twitter. I think the majority of people have unimportant things to say and they clutter the goldmine that is legitimacy of business, celebrities, and interesting people.

It’s nice that “everyone” has a voice and obviously you can’t limit who can and can’t join a social networking site based on how interesting they are – but you should be able to. Most people should stick to Facebook.

Unfortunately, I’m a hippocrate because I currently have a twitter account (although I acknowledge that I am not important or interesting and I disagree with letting myself have one).

Throughout the lifespan of twitter I have created and deleted 3 separate accounts. The first one [circa 2009] was created to follow celebrities. That got boring so I deleted it. The second time I created a twitter account [3/2011] was when Charlie Sheen went crazy and decided to hire a social media intern. I wanted to be that intern but I needed to send links to all my social media websites. That failed and so I deleted my twitter yet again. The third time I created a twitter account [2/2013] was to prove to Susie that I was better than her by getting more followers. I was ahead of her for awhile but it’s been two months and we’re tired at 20 followers (lol). I’m also over twitter again.

My LOVE of twitter stems from the interaction it allows you to have with businesses (and celebrities). Since I don’t have a TV, it’s a great way to stay updated with local news and events. I also recognize that twitter contests are currently under the radar and in the past two weeks have won two separate contests (a dubstep concert last week and a magic show for this weekend). Susie also won a pair of tickets to an r&b show for last weekend but we decided to pass.

Another example of how a twitter account is awesome in the right hands… World Wildlife Foundation posted a link to a live feed to South Africa. I’m currently watching a live stream of elephants, gazelle’s and other awesome wildlife. http://www.africam.com/wildlife/tembe_webcam#

Why I love & hate USC events

Soon after I moved to LA a friend invited me to a free film screening at University of Southern California. The film (which was AMAZING) was called “Any Day Now” and was followed by a Q&A with the writer/director as well as one of the main actors.

This was the start of something fantastic.

Since then I started going to more and more USC events at the School of Cinematic Arts. Yesterday I saw a screening of “Disconnect” (another AMAZING film that will be in limited theaters starting April 12. See it if you can!). Today a writer as well as a producer from the film “Admission” did a Q&A and tomorrow I am going to a Q&A with the writers from the TV show “Parks & Rec”. I also previously attended to a Q&A with the writers of Glee and Modern Family and my least favorite event was a screening of “Violet & Daisy” because I didn’t like movie and the writer kept talking about how he wrote the screenplay for Precious…

Every time I step onto the USC campus (especially the School for Cinematic Arts), I cry a little inside. I WISH I had been able to attend such an amazing school. It’s depressing when every Q&A ends up with someone saying ‘network with your fellow USC students’ and ‘having USC on your resume is a helpful foot in the door’. I wish I had the opportunity to get more than a state-school education but I suppose it’s better than nothing. Obviously these events are for USC students and alumni (I think I’m the only non-affiliated person who attends), but it’s depressing to be an outsider with a mediocre education and no connections to outstanding professors or fellow students. Not to knock the college I went to, it’s fine, but it’s not comparable to film school.

These events are amazing and I look forward to them all yet they always make me feel a little defeated. But they also give me hope because I’m able to listen to these writers, actors, directors, and producers point of view and hear their stories of success. Even if we come from different places we’re all just people and we all have similar career goals. I also love film and television and being able to brush shoulders with actors and writers is a great opportunity that I would not pass up.

So thank you USC, for being the best school I never attended.

Venice Beach!

When I first moved out to LA, I preferred Santa Monica to Venice Beach. They’re only about 3 miles apart but bring in a completely different crowd. Santa Monica has a cool pier and is cleaner and more family oriented, you can feel somewhat safe being here. Venice is filled with street performers (Santa Monica may be too, but Venice takes the cake), who are awesome to watch… but Venice is dirty. You feel like you contracted a deadly disease after walking out of the public bathrooms and the feeling of safety is a little bit lower. A downside to both beaches is the amount of homeless people but honestly if I was homeless, that’s where I’d go, there’s constant entertainment, the weathers nice, and you have an ocean view.

My change of pace in liking Venice more than Santa Monica is because it’s a GREAT place to take photos. Everyone is doing something that is fun to watch (juggling, skateboarding, rollerblading in circles) and there are tons of places set up that draw in photographers, like the Art Walls and Skate Park, not to mention the actual ocean. It’s a very art based community and it offers a great outlet for locals and a fun photo op for tourists. I dig it. But I’m not looking forward to the summer crowds, it’s already hard enough to find street parking and I’m not paying $20 for a parking lot!

A few of the photos I took in Venice:
Thanks to my camera, Amelia, for being amazing.
A polarizing filter and camera RAW helped a bit too ;]

Happy Easter

Eat lots of eggs.
Don’t eat lots of animals.
=]

Dubstep is a trip.

I’ve never chosen to listen to a dubstep song and through passive listening, I’d say I’ve heard about ten minutes. It’s just not something that I would ever seek out. But when I won 2 tickets to a Flux Pavilion show in LA, I was very excited. Dubstep music definitely has a time and a place and a concert is the only time or place I’d be interested. Plus the thrill of winning something in itself is amazing but I kinda feel bad trying to win contests when I know there are much more qualified applicants. It’d be like a grown women with no kids winning tickets to a Justin Bieber concert.

Aside from the fact that dubstep isn’t my thing, I knew this was going to be a great night.

As soon as I stepped out of the train in downtown LA, I could tell exactly who was heading to the concert. It was mostly guys, and they were ALL wearing tank tops. There were a handful of girls, wearing shorts and some kind of tiny top. I didn’t get the fashion memo and I didn’t want it. I wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a cardigan. It’s great when you don’t have to care.

After failing at finding a cheap happy hour I saw drinks at the venue weren’t as badly priced as I’d expected ($8 wells), so my friend and I shared a couple of drinks until we were ready to dance to some dubstep.

And dance we did.

As the night went on the beats got better and the venue got more and more crowded. We had general admission to the main floor area, so everyone was up in your space. I didn’t get a chance to stay until the end but I’m sure it got even more ridiculous. I kept intentionally elbowing one of the two guy in front of me who refused to give me any space (he ignored my subtle hints). I started towards the back of the section and ended up basically backed against a wall with two d-bag dubsteppers in front, and one miserable guy standing next to me. It was time to go.

The atmosphere was all that you can ask for in a concert. It was loud, it was crowded, it was people having the time of their life. I can’t say I’ll start listening to dubstep or that I’d ever pay to go to a concert, but I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes to party and I hope to be able to go to one again.

So I moved to LA (you probably did too).

I love Los Angeles. I wanted to live here for about ten years and I finally moved out last year. I love meeting people with the same story, which is approximately 75% of LA. It gives us a common bond in new and unfamiliar territory.

In October Suz and I packed up my cute little Honda Civic and drove across the country. It was epic, but I wish it’d lasted longer. I think we took about 5 days to drive because I wanted to get to LA fairly quickly, while still being able to see a couple of cities. My car hit 100,000 miles along the way (I believe somewhere in Arizona), which was a solid sign.

The other 25% of people (those who didn’t drive across country, in a small car, either alone or with one other person) are shocked at my story. Have you really not met anyone else who did this?

This is how all great stories start.

Blog #152

I get obsessed with social media websites and then I give up on them once they don’t work out. I’ve created so many blogs I don’t even know where to find them all. The most successful (and by most successful I mean there was a start and and end, not that there were any followers) was my Tumblr account when I lived in Florida. I attempted to take a photo per day to post on my blog. It was overall successful.

Now I’m in LA. And now everyone has a blog. So I want one too.

This is my blog.
This is my journey.
This is my story.