Buzzed.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Here's Eric!

Yep, went to see the guy on Hollywood between Vermont and Hillhurst (Not Shorty's. The place across the street). Benny is the guy there who gives great haircuts. I got my hair by another guy there who gave the gentlest haircut I've ever had. And it turned out great (albeit slightly uneven in the back, but maybe that's what's so great about it. Artistry in the imperfections.) While I got razorilly shorn, a Buster Keaton movie played on the tv.

Weekend went like this.
Friday: I observed the sabbath by hitting the town with Beej, in celebration of summer. (The cool temperatures at night in L.A. are wonderful). We ate sushi (Komasa) and wandered into a bar where we were the youngest people by at least ten years. Jax in Glendale on Brand is a bar and grill that almost looks like a chain restaurant, except there's live music, and a carousel horse separating the bar from the sit-down area, and brass elephants holding up the banister that circles the bar. The drinks were enormous. The bartenders were strange. It's my kinda place. Lights were too bright which is always strange in a bar that's not trying to scare people away. Beej told me that he predicts the food is amazing. I have my doubts (the clientele may have included gluttons, but no foodies in sight), but I'll find out soon enough. This is a funny place to take a girl on a 2nd date (I mean, I'm not going on a lot of first dates these days, but when I do, to follow up D1, I'm buying dinner and drinks at Jax for my lady friend.) Next stop: Bigfoot on Franklin. Lotsa girls with black hair, bangs, and pale skin. The matching boys with pompadours and moustaches were nowhere to be seen. (Where do the pompadour boys work? Do they have regular office jobs? BJ thinks they're all just students.) Oh, in Little Tokyo, I showed BJ the subterranean store with (in my opinion) the best name in Los Angeles: The Nostalgic Gallery of Fame and Beyond. NGFB, as I don't call it, is never open when I'm there. The window is filled with yard sale treasures and dust. These objects behind the glass don't relate to each other in any way except that they're all old. I like that the store looks back and forward in time. I don't know how, but maybe they'll be open someday and I'll find out what the story is with this place.

Saturday: I slept 'til 9am. Woke up, J Matty J came over, and we went to Eat Well for brunch. My first time at the Eat Well in Glendale. I'll say this: the Eat Well in Glendale is not as good as the one in Silverlake, or at least on Saturday it wasn't. The food was pretty lousy and overcooked. They also couldn't figure out how to make a waffle for JMJ. I wanted to demand that they bring out the waffle at whatever stage they could get it to in the waffle iron. 'Cause they tried and failed. Did it fail in the batter stage or was it somewhere along the line of cooking? Did it burn everytime? While I wanted to demand evidence of the failed waffle assemblage, I didn't, as I'm not really a jerk. I just admire jerks. JMJ and I then went back to my house where we started churning out a sitcom pilot. It was slow going, especially as my ADD was in full effect (por ejemplo, "Let me play you a song", "Let's watch Freaks and Geeks to get an idea of how to handle multiple storylines", "Listen to an M.C. Nuggets song that makes no sense", and my favorite, "Mat, watch me surf the internet. Don't I look cool clicking from one link to the next?"). J Matty J called it a day. He went home, and I watched 7 hours of movies. I'm screening movies for a film festival, which is a lot of fun, but also sort of tough when the documentaries delve into serious matters, and you are really just in the mood to watch that clip from "Jackass" where the guy goes off the mini-tramp into the ceiling fan.

Sunday: I woke up slowly. Ate a hamburger. Went to see "Me And You And Everyone We Know" with A-Scards. I went in, expecting to love the movie. I didn't love the movie, 'though it's hilarious and sweet and all sorts of things I enjoy in fav. films of mine. It's a very strong first feature... Style and tone seemed right on... In the end, I think it just wasn't as satisfying story as I hoped. Nontheless, B+/A-. So much goodness. Was thinking about it throughout the day today. Last night, before I went to sleep, I watched "Little Fugitive". When are they gonna remake LF? It's good stuff.

Today was Monday. I'm still working the temp job at the studio. (This is week 10 or 11, I think). My bosses remain awesome, and say thank-you on a regular basis. Came home and spoke to M-Mars. She's coming to town next week to stay with me. We're starting a t-shirt company. There'll be a website up sometime in the next 2 months. I'll urge you once it's up to go there and spend a ridiculous amount of money on a t-shirt (not Barney's ridiculous, just un poco mucho ridiculous). "Un poco mucho" is one of my favorite things to say. Anyway, I came up with funny images & text that people will hopefully flock to.... Yes... I realize that thousands of people start up t-shirt companies, but mine's gonna be different. How? We're gonna cut holes out of the shirts so people can see your belly button. Lucky for you insecure outies out there, I'm just joking. If anyone knows anyone at the sorts of magazines that feature clothing, please get in touch so I can send them sample shirts...

Not much else to report. So freaking tired. Everyone at work said the haircut looks good. My already-immense self-worth just keeps on keeping on. - Eric

Urban Explorers, Discovery Channel, 6/27-7/1, Discovery Channel

Sophomore year of college, Alex and I lived in a suite with 5 other guys. Great times. This was Fall '98-Spring '99. Ruggles was my favorite dorm at Columbia. Steve, one of the gentlemen from that suite is on a tv show airing next week on the Discovery Channel.

Steve describes it as: "a one-hour program in which I and three other people visit and talk about interesting, forgotten, historic and inaccessible sites in various cities (Such as an old factory, an abandoned asylum, a gold mine, a sewer tunnel, a grain silo, a missile silo, an old brewery, etc.) You'll also see some spectacular urban climbing as well as bits of historical footage that will teach you fascinating tidbits about Al Capone, the grain trade across the Great Lakes, and the historical illegality of bowling."

The schedule for "Urban Explorers" is:

Monday Jun 27 2005 @ 05:00 PM-- Milwaukee
Tuesday June 28 2005 @ 05:00 PM-- Chicago
Wednesday June 29 2005 @ 05:00 PM-- Buffalo
Thursday June 30 2005 @ 05:00 PM-- Pittsburgh
Friday July 1 2005 @ 05:00 PM-- Denver

Tivo it!

Steve's website, all about urban exploration, is www.undercity.org.

-Eric

Splurge...

Eric, of the popular rock group, M.C. Nuggets and the Peppermint Pimps writes in:
I put my credit card to work last week and bought an iMac. The screen is enormous. Once I buy Final Cut Pro, I will finally be equipped to start editing "Paralegal", the cutesy movie I wrote/directed/starred-in last June. I think it's gonna be good but if not, that's alright. I've been writing another short...

The iBook hard drive is gone forever, as are the documents I'd been working on in there. "Looking for 88" and "Replacing Josh" were two scripts I hadn't really backed up. Oh well, you know, I've learned my lesson. Back up your data. It's not too bad. Just sorta a pain in the neck. Also shelled out 85 bucks to a super nice guy for determining that my computer couldn't be fixed. (He's this really nice guy in the valley who does all sorts of computer work and is the go-to guy for broken hard drives.). Apple Store is going to replace the drive.

I drove to La Jolla this weekend and met up with my parents, who were in town, as was one of my younger sisters. It's their ideal town to retire to, and I understand why. It's one of the most beautiful places in America. The real estate prices are through the roof ridiculous...

Just sitting on Matt's deck with Neighbor Matt, I remembered a sort of traumatic moment in my childhood that's more amusing than most of my haircut memories... In 3rd grade, I tried to cut my own hair with scissors. I ended up with a bald spot in the center, right near the front of my scalp. When I entered school the next day, I had a nickname: "Blowhole". Luckily, the nickname only lasted for a day, at the end of which, I begged my mom to take me to a barbershop to remedy the situation. I ended up with my first buzzcut. Which brings me to now... In need of a haircut, I think I'm gonna go to a professional (or at least the cheapest haircut I can find in the 'hood). I'm leaning towards a buzzcut.

I'm going to see Beck on Friday, July 22nd. Note: I have two tix now available for the Saturday, July 23rd show if an friends reading this are interested. They're great f'ing seats.

Sorry I've been so negligent in my blog posting duties. I lost the song I'd been working on when my computer went down. Fear not, I'm working on the song again. "Aloha and Shalom" is the title. Be patient, and it'll be here soon.

And his name is: ERIC

SIDEWAYS

Sunday was easily one of the best 3 days I've had thus far in California. Kat, BNasser, and GLee and I drove out to Santa Barbara to drink wine all afternoon and into evening. The night before, I did some research and pretty much came up with a nice long list of vineyards that we needed to check out in Buellton, Santa Ynez, and Los Olivos, three of which were featured in SIDEWAYS. I didn't really care which ones we ended up visiting as long as we grabbed chow at The Hitching Post ---the restaurant where Virginia Madsen's character waited tables. The three lovely lassies came over @ 10AM ---Brooke brought over some leftover wedding cake from the previous night's catering gig (my third wedding cake this month and the best)---and we hopped into my car and sped along 101N for 2 hours. LA's pretty great when you can get away from it and find yourself in some beautiful country just a short carpool away.
We started drinking around 12:30 and didn't stop till 10. We visited 3 vineyards---Sunstone, Kalyra, Sanford---and one tasting room in Solvang which is an old Dutch town renovated to look like something straight out of Epcot. I'm no wine buff but I so doubt that people can actually taste all the little things you're supposed to taste in wine. I think it was the Sunstone Syrah Reserve that did it for me. In addition to the stewed plum and blueberry, I was also supposed to taste cigar wrapper. I concentrated real hard, but I did not taste cigar wrapper. I mean, do they mean the tobacco leaf or the plastic wrap? Why not just cigar? What's with the specificity? Stewed plum? After the tenth tasting or so, I couldn't make out red from white. All in all, we tried @ 2 dozen different wines, most delicious.
At dinner, we took some pretty lewd photographs. Lots of tongue kissing. Same sex tongue kissing. Or was it just licking? Memory's hazy and the photographs are a little muddled (NOT!). The Hitching Post is a great steakhouse and their Pinot is as good as Miles made it sound in the movie.
I'll post pictures soon.
The drive back, everyone was happy and buzzed. I pumped up the Santa Barbara mix CDs and we sang along at the top of our lungs to OASIS, THE STROKES, THE BEACH BOYS, BIGGIE, and some other karaoke worthy vanguards.

LOVE
ALEX

EXTRA

Tuesday I worked as a Hollywood extra on the set of the brand new OKGO music video helmed by a man whose last name rhymes with LAUNDRY. But first: their show over the weekend was a hot affair as ARoss and the gents played in front of a sea of 13 year old girls and a smattering of fuddyduddies: us, friends of the band. OKGO opened for the Kaiser Chiefs who were a lot of fun to watch though not necessarily a band I'd follow or listen to on my iPod. There's something about a great frontman that makes even the most hackneyed tunes sound fresh. Anyway, the venue was huge---a G+--- and the honies were illegal. Post-show, ARoss invited KVondy and I out to a record label party up in the Hollywood Hills so after a delectable late night double-double at In-N-Out, we drove up the windy road to the party. We were intimidated. Private residence. Immense gates. Lots of cars. We didn't want to crash the party w/o ARoss and he was gonna be late so we decided to park for a litttle while and wait but soon decided to bag it. The music wore us old folk out. Turns out some bands I've only heard of in name were hanging out (Bravery, Hot Hot Heat) but honestly, that doesn't mean anything to me b/c it's not like I would've gone up to them and introduced myself as someone who cared about them in any real way. ARoss and ML eventually stopped by but by then, I was fast asleep.
So yes, music video! Extra work is almost always boring and often grueling and this was no exception except that I could hang out with some friends and read the Times straight through which I hadn't done in a long while. The look was supposed to be Oscar Wilde but it was more Swingin' 60s London. Lots of bright stripes, paisleys, suit vests, go-go dresses, outrageous stockings, etc. The scenario: boozy late night house party. Cool. Hip. Young. Pretty standard, right? Well, this is a mr. laundry film and nothing is as simple as it seems. What made the shoot interesting was the camera setup: 28 PD-150s rigged onto a 4x4 curved speed rail grid locked onto a dolly. Each camera had a different lens---from what I could tell---and as ARoss explained to me, mr. laundry will be cutting from camera to camera (i.e. wide to tight to wide), creating an artifiial ZOOM FX that'll be punchy and awesome and awesome. I don't get it exactly but it should be awesome. In any case, the day went by pretty fast though I wish I didn't buy this DSquared shirt at Fred Segal Santa Monica the day before b/c turns out the wardrobe lady didn't want me to wear it for the video, which of course was the only reason I got the damned thing in the first place. Instead, she had me wear a mustard/brown striped shirt which was shit.

Other than that, I've been consumed by cater/waitering. I haven't seen Eric in a week now. Last night at the opening night party for the King Tut exhibit, I served Drew Barrymore some water---she's very tiny as are JL Hewitt and Luke Perry---and bussed for 3 hours and hauled trash for one. I think my right wrist is messed. But the one thing about working at night is that like yesterday I had my morning free to go out and so a few of us grabbed breakfast at the Grove and watched Batman Begins at 10:30AM. No one in LA works so the screening was sold out.


LOVE
ALEX

june gloom...

got back to los angeles last night from a family reunion in long island. it's been a tough couple of weeks. anyway, i'm back in town and doing okay. grieving/mourning is difficult stuff. a big thank you to all the friends who've been there for me during this time. it's made it a lot easier. - eric

p.s. my computer crashed and the whole boring saga of attempts to save a hard drive (and all the stuff i hadn't backed up) will be told, hopefully the short version.

PART 5!

For those who love the R as much as I do, check it out. Part 5!

http://romulux.com/R.%20Kelly%20-%20Trapped%20In%20The%20Closet/

R. Kelly is the greatest artist since Eugene Atget. Word to your moms and your moms' moms.

LOVE
ALEX

CREW LUNCH

Tomorrow, I cook for the cast and crew of MONOBOOB, a thesis film crewed by most all my friends. For some reason, word's gotten around that I like to cook and do it somewhat well: both true. I'm worried about the food cooling too much from the minute I'm done cooking to the moment lunch is served on set on the other side of town. If there's too much time in between, the chemistry of the chow will change thus rendering the food less lip-smackingly good, which of course is something I can't have b/c I've decided to forgo the whole directing thing and be a set caterer and so my first time out I've gotta hit a homerun. Lots of tin foil? Purchase chafing trays and sterno? A reputation is in the making people!


LOVE
ALEX

A WEDDING

Yes! I've been dying to go to a wedding for a couple of years now & despite my admonishments, none of my friends have been very accomodating. Weddings just seem like fun & here's why. At weddings, people are ridiculously happy so even if you're an awfully ugly person people will be exceedingly cordial to you so in general you me and everyone else at the wedding will feel right and accepted and more confident than usual. If that's the case, then you'll do things you normally wouldn't do like hit the dancefloor and once you find yourself on the parquet, looking like whitey ain't no big deal because people are too ridiculously happy to pass judgement. How wondeful is that? Also, there's gonna be a solid number of new faces at the reception, new faces that you'll inevitably be attracted to and have a reason to interface with when the window of opportunity presents itself (usually under the discoball). This pool of ridiculously happy non-judgemental new faces I think is a reservoir that can only feed one's libido and render one on-the-hunt. So imagine yourself in a room with people who are: A) ridiculously happy B) exceedingly cordial C) non-judgemental D) new but somehow connected E) pretty fucking on-the-hunt horny. How sweet does that scene sound! So that's basically why I think weddings are awesome and basically why I've been begging my fucking lame ass friends to get their asses in the chapel so individuals like yours truly can have a great time on someone else's dime!!
On Saturday night my dream came true. No, no one I knew got married. No, I worked a wedding reception for job number deux. Sure it was a 5pm-1am shift. Sure staff meal wasn't till midnight. Sure I got MAJOR ass chafe. But it was all worth it. People were ridiculously happy, exceedingly cordial, non-judgemental,etc, etc. It was some straight up E-Harmony shit. Wow. When the newlyweds flew in through the salon doors and snaked their way through the crowd and onto the dance floor for their first dance---they obviously rehearsed it; when I get my ass married in the next twenty years, I'm gonna wing it and if my wifey-to-be can't deal with that, then I know I've made a poor decision---I got all warm inside and emoted something treacly which is so not me. I was so happy for them. I was so happy for their parents. For their family. And friends. Fuck, I was so happy I was there to help make the night a special one. That sounds lame but suck a dick: it was awesome. The band was fun and the trip down memory lane DVD slideshow projection was sweet. What made it even more enjoyable was that it was a jewish wedding with prayers and challah and horah (sp?) and all sorts of obscure shit that just made me forget the raging fire at the seat of my pants, a raging fire that got stoked every time I took a step. I could go on and on about the wedding but I'll spare y'all.

LOVE
ALEX

Tough Days.

Eric writes:
Arrived on the East Coast this morning for a funeral that's tomorrow. Very upset and in shock. Not gonna write about it much on the blog, but my grandmother (Mema to me) passed away suddenly yesterday. I'm so grateful I got to have a long talk with her this past weekend. Grateful that such a wonderful, loving, compassionate, awesome person was part of my life. Pretty spent so I'm gonna go to sleep. Thanks to Alex and P-Getz for being such amazing friends these past two days. - Eric

JOB NUMBER TROIS

I've been mulling over the whole tutoring thing for a few weeks now but I gave in this morning after a catering gig got cancelled for this evening. I don't know if I can make enough dough just catering this summer if gigs get cancelled on me like that. I could if I take on more gigs--which I ended up doing for tomorrow night though I did not want to---but I need to have a few evenings free. Shit it's the summer right? Anyway, so I will once again be tutoring lil' Koreans in SAT I stuff. Snoring. But at least I can make my own hours and the pay will be good.

For all you New York readers, I will be in town June 22-29. PARTY. What's hot? What's not? Shizz.

LOVE
ALEX