Inspired to Inspire

Creative Commitment #52

2010-12-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the final installment to the 2010 Creative Commitment. Holy crap, I actually did it! I had no doubts, but it is pretty awesome looking back over the last year and seeing all of the work that was created. I am pleased at a lot of the stuff, some of it was just okay, but some of it really surprised me. I suggest everyone do this at least once... find something they think they love and commit to it for a year (sounds like a lot of relationships, actually... BUT at the end, no matter what, you have a bunch of cool shit to show off!).

As we enter the last week of 2010, I am proud to present piece number 52, "All Is Connected". Not only do I agree with that sentiment, but that idea is paying off in spades these last couple months of this year. All things are connected and we have no idea what each thing that happens to us will affect the next thing and the next... until before we know it, we're somewhere completely different, maybe even somewhere way better than we ever were before. We just have to trust in the Universe and know that all things are connected.

And now... 2011, what do YOU have in store for me both creatively and in life lessons? I think this year is not only going to be AWESOME, I also think I'm going to return to my writing... get some projects done and really start looking at ways to become independently solvent with my talents. Not a bad way to step into the new year!

Creative Commitment #51

2010-12-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah yeah, this one is also late, I get it. It was posted on Facebook before midnight on Tuesday, so back off. Also, it's the holidays.

So basically: amazing woman comes into my life, sweeps me off my feet as I do the same to her, she becomes the inspiration for several pieces... including this one: "Heart and Crown".

Enjoy:

Creative Commitment #50

2010-12-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

Dos mas!! YES! I can't believe I've actually done this. WURD. And I've already gotten some ideas and planning for the last two.

This week has been another incredibly busy one - Astroglyde opened to great audiences (come see us - two more shows left!), the 8th graders finished their presentations today, and I'm beginning preparations for the holidays, travels to Phoenix and San Diego, and then Kenya. Good god, this is all coming so fast. Love it!!

The piece this week was inspired solely by music. I was listening to the radio (KCRW) and just feeling it, moving with a brush and some colors I was feeling. After a few layers and looking at it different ways over several hours, I came to understand this piece. However, I'm still finding new angles of interest and I think I'm going to end up liking this a lot. I hope you do, too.

Week 50 - "Pigface"

Creative Commitment #49

2010-12-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

Man, three left. Crazy. I can't believe I've almost accomplished this. Hahaha!! I totally believe it, but I guess I can't believe I'm almost done.

Plus, I just accepted into the 10th Rogue Festival in Fresno in March to show off my work and (hopefully) sell some stuff. Hooray!!

This week's piece, honestly, is pretty simple. This week is a bit of a bear between tech week for Astroglyde (opening Friday! Check Zombie Joe's for info!), finishing up classes (8th graders begin their presentations on Thursday!), wrapping up a thousand loose ends before winter break, getting ready for Christmas, and preparing for Kenya in January... it's a rough week. SO, I decided I wanted to do something that was simple and that felt good.

I sat down with my watercolors, put on some chill music, sat with it for a while, and felt this out... I thought about doing more, but the more I looked at it, the more compelling I found it. It's good stuff and just what I need. Something grounded and relaxing. Ah.

Humpday, hello! Meet, "Uzumaki III".

Creative Commitment #48

2010-12-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Ah, four left! Insane!!! This means there is only 4 weeks left to the year. CRAZY! Hahaha... this week's piece is another very personal piece. Recently, I reconnected with an old friend, an old friend who inspires me and excites me. Hanging out with Tiara is like a shot of YES and we've been relishing in our reunion. We went for a hike last weekend, and I took a picture of her enjoying the day. I knew when I took the picture that I was going to try and paint it. Heh. So I did. And I think it turned out all right. Sure, there are some differences, the color of her skin and hair isn't quite right, her face has been flattened a little bit, but I do think I captured an ounce of her essence, and I think that's pretty awesome. Maybe this will inspire me to try more portraits... though it does help to be inspired by someone so freaking awesome.

"The Sun"

Creative Commitment #47

2010-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Gods, this is late. My piece last week was a very personal piece. There's a lot of amazing things happening in my life and I am filled with gratitude... gratitude for the people around me, the energies that guide me, the Universe and the abundant love that surrounds all of us. This piece is dedicated to those energies that have guided me to some of the most amazing things in my life.

"Guide"

Creative Commitment #46

2010-11-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

"Advice"

These past few months have been full of changes for me, big changes, life changes. It's caused me to look at a lot of aspects of my life and really consider what I want in my life, what kind of energy I want... and this pertains to people, hobbies, projects, everything - MY LIFE! What do I want?

As a part of this journey, I've been rereading my journal I kept before, during, and after my Vision Quest... this quote: "Anything or anyone that doesn't bring you alive is too small for you" jumped off the page at me when I came across it again. That's some powerful shit. Especially with the way I've been looking at myself and my energy - how I want to approach the world - shining brightly and all that - I've come to the conclusion that I cannot be contained. I will not be contained. I am the font that overflows, not the ewer that holds. This is my nature, always has been, and it's only been because of the outside life that I've let that part of me fade. And even the slightest fading of true being is not okay.

So therefore, this advice is as much for me to remember as it is for me to share.

Creative Commitment #45

2010-11-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Yeah yeah, this entry is mad late and I know. Fact is, though, it was up and posted on Facebook before midnight on Tuesday, so it still counts. I just took my time getting this updated.

This week has been rough... beginning rehearsals and process for Astroglyde, staying at school late, helping with the upcoming (but now postponed) high school show, going to awesome things like the Spook Show at Brookeledge, oh my god, this week has been out of control. So exhausting. And I'm getting ready to leave here in a moment to see an old friend who's in town from NYC and tomorrow, I'm heading down to San Diego to see an old friend there. So much so much so much!! Lovin' life.

Anyway, this week's piece is simply an experiment in using watercolor canvas. I'm not horribly in love with it, but there's also a certain charm to it.

"Experimental Watercolor I"

Creative Commitment #44

2010-11-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

"Shine Brightly"

I just came back from the annual Academy trip to Catalina Island. I love it. I get to snorkel, kayak, hike, hang out in nature, hang out with my kids, meet new people... I freaking love the trip. While there, I was struck with a phrase, a big ol' hippie phrase that I'm sure I've heard from various people time and time again... but it struck me in a solid, deep down way... the way that a memory that's been on the edge of being realized and finally teeters over the edge into the day light of full awareness way. The words came into my head - shine brightly - and I realized that it's something I've been forgetting to do. Shine brightly.

If everyone one of us shined as bright as we could... imagine how brilliant the world would be.

Creative Commitment #43

2010-10-26T23:17:00.001-07:00

"Halloween Tentacular"

I was talking to Jana yesterday about Urban Death and painting... she was talking about how she wants to paint some UD shit, and I think it's a great idea. She's got painting chops and I'm sure it would be rad... anyway, it got me thinking about painting something Urban Death... and well, I came up with this. This isn't at all related to UD, but it is sort of Halloween related. Tentacles, black background... I dunno... it just kind of happened.

I ended up liking it, though, and I hope you do too.

Also, I would like to point out that I am now in single digits. Aw yeah.

Creative Commitment #42

2010-10-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

"It's Easy Once You Get There"

The new piece. I'm thinking a lot about the new life I've got. New opportunities. New possibilities. And I keep thinking about how I need to get over my social anxieties and approach people - whether it be people who I'm attracted to, people who seem fun, who annoy me, whatever. I need to better be able to just say hi. So, the new piece is simple metaphor... climbing the tree can be taxing, but once I get up there, look! the apple is riiiiiight there for the taking.

Creative Commitment #40.5 and 41

2010-10-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

I have been so tired this past week... so very tired. Steve and Shanna's wedding came and went - ate up my weekend and shat out some of the best memories ever. The week before, a friend from the fire community passed away. These two things inspired two pieces over the last week... so I can be forgiven posting super late.

Man, I've just had a full week - on top of the wedding, it's been finishing progress reports, Urban Death rehearsal, Art Walk, dinner with friends... my god, it never ended.

The first piece below, "In Loving Memory," is dedicated to Burning Dan, a wonderful guy who was an absolute inspiration to behold. He passed away unexpectedly last Sunday.

The piece below, "After All is Said and Done," speaks for itself.

Creative Commitment #40

2010-10-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hey, look at that - on time with my blog post.

It's been another week of ups and downs. Adjusting to single life is always a wealth of unexpectedness... this past week has been busy with tons of school work, working around the house, going to Decom, hitting Urban Death... doing the rounds and generally feeling a bit disconnected from everything.

This feeling led to this week's piece. You know, people are like a blank canvas - you can look at them, take them all in in one glance, think you know them and know absolutely nothing about them. Look a little closer and you begin to see facets, you see bits and pieces you might have missed, you begin to see the bigger picture. But then what if that bigger picture still doesn't tell a story? What if that bigger picture just further confuses? This is how I feel sometimes... "Lost":

Creative Commitment #39

2010-09-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

It got freakishly hot this week. It was like, fall arrived, and summer was like, "Oh wait! I didn't really do my thing this summer (which it didn't), so I'm going to roll on in and bake the shit off of y'alls."

This also means I got sick as what normally happens when the temperature fluctuates stupidly. It also meant, however, that we got a wicked thunder storm - something I often dream of. Hooray!

Anyway, here's week 39 - "Heat Wave".

Creative Commitment #38

2010-09-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Holy crap - 14 left. Impressive. This week is exhausting. Was exhausting. Continues to be. I find that burning the candle at both ends helps me deal with any dark feelings rumbling around. Also, trying to be as positive as possible!

Therefore, I bring you this week's piece, "Reborn Optimist"!

Enjoy and comment.

Creative Commitment #37

2010-09-15T17:41:00.001-07:00

While the weekend was full of tomfoolery in Vegas for Steve's bachelor party, the week has been a bit more gloomy as I try to cope with the big changes in my life. The apartment is indeed empty, there is a vacuum here... and *shrug* I dunno... I find myself pondering my own failings as a human being.

Good times!

This week's piece, "Escape the Darkness", enjoy. Or don't.

Creative Commitment #36

2010-09-07T20:28:00.001-07:00

So it's been a rough week. Last week was full of late rehearsals, early mornings, meetings after school, and a general unease about my personal future. Friday came and the die was cast, Courtney and I were going our separate ways after a generally wonderful, beautiful, and memorable 10 months. The details don't matter, but it was an amicable and loving split. All the same, it still sucked... and continues to do so. The apartment is strangely empty right now... ah well. I wouldn't change a second of it for anything though.

Anyway, this week's piece is heavily influenced by my internal yadda yadda. Enjoy it and leave comments if you see fit.

"And the Heavens Wept"

Creative Commitment #35

2010-09-02T17:09:00.001-07:00

Second full week of school and I'm half dead. It doesn't help that this week has also seen evening meetings and the return of 7-11+ rehearsals for an Urban Death remount coming this weekend (DO NOT MISS!).

I'm currently at school, in the midst of my 16 hour day, so I'll make this brief. Then I'm going to get some food. This week's piece is a continuation of last week, I wanted to carry a theme and style. So enjoy "Shadow of a Tree II":

Creative Commitment #34

2010-08-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Ugh.... this post is late. Blah. First week of school and my ass is getting whomped. I'm tired, I'm a little anxious, and I'm still getting my feet on the ground, but I do think it's going to be a good year.

Anyway, two days late, and I gotta get to work, but here's the new piece: "Shadow of a Tree". For the record, it was completed and posted on Facebook early Tuesday night.

Creative Commitment #33

2010-08-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

The summer is finally over for me. This week marked going back to work, and while I am very excited to be shuffling around the Academy, beginning my long transfer from science to drama, I'm still sad to be off my vacay. Ah well.

My final week of freedom was full of good fun - a trip to the desert to watch the Perseids, date night at the impressive Yamashiro, running a ton of errands, making progress in "Infinite Jest", John and Vicky's wedding, and the last rites for Tujunga Manor... may it rest in peace.

This week is going to be full of meetings, planning, free lunch(!), and lots of preparation for what is sure to be my biggest year at the school so far.

So in celebration of the upcoming onslaught of complexity, I wanted to do something simple this week. Also, I've been wanting to paint a tribute to my dear departed friend, Curtis. I pulled out an old sketch I did a while back and toyed around with some white acrylic, gesso, and some paint pens. After a false start, I re-prepped the canvas and did my best to recreate my late buddy.... though with some stylistic choices. Anyway, check out "Curtis".

Creative Commitment #32

2010-08-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not even going to get into last week... it was a good one. Courtney's sister, brother-in-law, and niece were all in town and we spent the week entertaining them and having a great freaking time. We went to San Diego, hit the zoo, we hit Disneyland, wandered around Griffith Park and Santa Monica, rode three different carousels, hung out downtown, went swimming, oh my gosh, there's nothing we didn't do. We also ate a lot. A lot.

And now, here I am, one week... less than one week of freedom left. Man, where did the time go? I'm going to head out to the hot springs again at the end of the week and that's going to be lovely... relaxing with some good friends in the water, watching the Perseids late at night... it's going to be real nice.

Anyway, this week's piece was inspired by recent things going on at the Academy, I present to you another attempt at Fimo sculpting - "Totem":

Creative Commitment #31

2010-08-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

Been another very full, super fun week. All kinds of surprises and good times. I finally fully recovered from Vegas, but then found out that the drama teacher from the Academy had unexpectedly taken a powder... which left the current situation at the Academy (and my position) somewhat unstable. That happened, then on the weekend, I shot a new sketch I wrote with Adam and Candi.... I think it went pretty well. As soon as I get the tapes, I'll edit that shit and get it up for your enjoyment. Urban Death that night was an absolute sell out - with TWO reviewers. Word on the street is that the LA Weekly review is going to be a good one... keep your eye out for it on Thursday! Then on Sunday, Court and I went down to San Diego to celebrate our one year of meeting... we stayed at the Sheraton and visited with her family who is currently in town. On Monday, we hit the SD Zoo - my first time and it stupid fun. Panda bear!! All kinds of bears, actually. Oh, I also finally had all you can eat sushi at Midori with the lovely Ali and it was absolutely delicious. Once a week, I declare, from now on, ONCE A WEEK!

This week's piece is somewhat inspired by the drive home from San Diego Monday night... I wanted to play with color and contrast, play with the texture goo a little more, and throw in a little paint pen. I'm not completely satisfied with it and I may add something more to it, but for now, here it is - "Maximum Sunrise".

Creative Commitment #30

2010-07-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, only 22 more to go. Exciting.

The past week has been full of excitement and fun. On Monday, I left for my first ever cruise with my family over to Catalina and then down to Ensanada. It was great to see my family, we ate like kings every day, drank a bit... saw some fun shows. It was really fun and I'm glad to have done it. The big occasion was the event of my parents' 40th anniversary last year, so that was wonderful, too.

On returning from the cruise, I left for Vegas within several hours of returning. I merely unpacked, did laundry, had a drink, then repacked. Vegas was two days of bachelor debauchery as we celebrated the coming marriage of dear friend John Broccolo. We didn't get ourselves into too much trouble, but we certainly did our best.

And here it is, two days after I've returned and I'm just now starting to feel better. Hooray!

This week's piece is pretty experimental. I got some goo at Blick's a couple weeks back and I wanted to try it out. It took me awhile to figure out what I was doing, but I finally got it figured out and eventually came up with this week's piece, "Dark Sky Over Forest." I considered a more imaginative name, and maybe in time I'll do just that, but for now, that's what it is... and this is what it is:

Creative Commitment #29

2010-07-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

Not much to say this week... I'm doing the finishing touches on getting ready to leave for the week, so I'll keep this brief:

I found this piece of furniture out in the rain early in the year, I brought it in and dried it out. A little later, I puttied in some cracks and whatnot, sanded it down, and primed it. Finally this past week, I picked out a color of paint I liked, painted it, put on that kick-ass knob, and added a glossy finish to the top. Overall, I am thrilled about this piece, this "Undead Furniture."

Creative Commitment #28

2010-07-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

Ah, the summer is rapidly moving on - I'm over the hump and heading back towards working again. Granted, I've still got a good month, but the rest of this week, I'm helping Steve-o out at his camp, next week, I'm gone, and that leaves only a few weeks for hardcore creation and writing. Though, I'm hoping to develop some discipline over these few months here so that when the school year starts again, I'm able to continue working on my writing and art.

Speaking of which, the past few weeks, I've been meeting with Candi and Adam, writing some fancy new comedy sketches to be filmed. We've got some sharp ideas and we're planning on filming in a couple weeks here... gonna be exciting!

Urban Death continues to rock North Hollywood, garnering positive review after positive review - the crowds continue to grow every week. It's pretty awesome. If you haven't seen it, now's the time!

For next week - I'm going to be out of town, but I've been working on a piece of furniture for a little while now and it should be done by next week. I'm still figuring out the proper resin/acrylic top for it so we can eat on top of it, put things on it and it will be all purpose.

This week's piece was a bit lazy, I admit, BUT it's giving me opportunities to keep working with the paint pens (turns out acrylic makes a much better base than spray paint), and I've been thinking about the simple, frightening politics coming out of my home state... also, I've been thinking about going on this cruise coming up and while I am super excited to be going on my first cruise ever, I couldn't help but be thinking of the tourist side of it all... and this piece kind of reminds me of the tourist tchotchkes that people eat up while touring and aren't willing to wander off the beaten path. I could make and sell those!

Without any further ado, I present piece #28, "Simple State."

Also, this week, I started listening to Deadmau5 and I am loving it. So good.

Creative Commitment #27

2010-07-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

This week has been a good one, it was a whirlwind of birthday parties, fireworks, writing, Fallout 3, helping friends move, eating crummy hangover food for dinner, reading, going to see Toy Story 3, watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (YES!), and this week, I'm back to work with little ankle biters via helping out Steve. However, it's only 2 hours a day for two weeks, so I can't complain.

The art piece this week is inspired by my wonderful friend Jordan St. Jean who does a lot of cool postmodern art works with paint and (I think) paint pens, so today I went shopping for some paint pens, got 'em, and tried something out - check out "Think of the Matches":

Creative Commitment #26

2010-06-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, the halfway mark. And yes, I just got a little nervous tonight. 26 more?! But then Courtney reminded me that it doesn't always have to be painting. I've spat out a few short stories in the past week I may put up for projects in the coming weeks, plus, I'm working on a music video for Normandie Wilson -- developing it right now, anyway -- so, expect some variety in the coming weeks.

This piece was borne out of frustration. I spent most of my painting time working on a water color of Courtney and it just wasn't working, I tried different ideas, different colors, different techniques, and I hated it all. Bah!! So, I turned back to the canvas and the fingerpaints and made a companion piece to week #21, "Breaking Waves."

Also, I updated last week's piece a little bit - enjoy!

Creative Commitment #25

2010-06-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

Not much to say this week... just got back from a really wonderful trip to Seattle. I love that town. The culture is so progressive, the weather so wonderful, the arts and people ridiculously cool. It's hard to believe Kurt Cobain came from here. We went back to see our friends Chris and Sarah tie the knot and it was a really great time.

Beyond that, summer school is done and today was my first full day of summer break - it was spent writing, painting, watching movies, and playing some games.... a perfect day, perhaps.

The piece from this week is slightly uninspired, I think, it's not one of my favorites, though I've been wrong before. But anyway, here it is, "City on Fire":

Creative Commitment #24

2010-06-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

The past weekend was another full of social awesome.... in fact, I would say too much social awesome. After partying with Ileana, Courtney, Steve , and Mike Friday night, I was kinda shot for the weekend - unfortunately, I still had Efren's going away party, Lia's birthday party, and Gay Pride Parade all still attend. While I sadly didn't give Effie's party my all (bailed at midnight), it was still a pretty great weekend.

Summer camp at the Academy is going fine... three more days and summer really starts for me. Huzzah!

Oh yeah, and if you're looking for something awesome to do and you've already seen Urban Death at ZJU - go check out Forbidden Zone, LIVE in the 6th Dimension at Sacred Fools. It runs the next two weekends. I saw it last Friday and damn, it was pretty awesome. Plus, my friend Erin's in it!

On to this week's piece. I've been reading a pretty great book called "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television." It's a lot of stuff I've read before, but I really think that everyone should read this at least once - become a little more self aware about how damaging and manipulative TV really is. I'm so glad I haven't had a properly operating TV for over a year and a half now. Woohoo! Suck it, network corporate advertising schlubs! Anyway, yeah - been reading this and I started working on this many hours ago... it changed a couple times as I've been working and it's not really done just yet... I still want to add a pair of antennae to the top of it. Then it will be done!

Anyway, here's "Everything's Just Fine.":

Creative Commitment #23

2010-06-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

The past week, my first of official summer time, has been obnoxiously busy. The last half of last week - after spending my first couple of days running errands, cleaning, and organizing - was spent camping with a few kids from the academy and some faculty members. Irritatingly, the students were better behaved than some of the faculty. *sigh* Regardless of petty whatnots, I didn't sleep all too well and returned to the Valley pretty tired. The day I came back was full of obligations and crap and the following day (Sunday) was full of super fun social obligations. While it was apparently blazing hot in the Valley, I spent the afternoon chilling in Malibu for dear friend, Jason's 30th birthday and then cruised over the canyons for an intimate evening barbecue with a friend from work and her husband. We finished the evening swimming in their heated pool under the stars. Bliss!

This week has marked the first of two weeks of summer camp I agreed to teach. It's going all right. The kids are great if a little unwieldy, but I've got some incredible help so everything's working out just fine.

On to the creative piece for this week... *sigh* not unlike week 13, I'm not super excited about this piece. It began as one thing, evolved into another, then into another, and ended up like this.... this is very reminiscent of doodles I do in notebooks and journals all the time, so it is kind of cool to give it space and color. Anyway, leave comments, let me know what you think, and enjoy "The City & the Night."

Creative Commitment #22

2010-06-01T21:44:00.001-07:00

School's out for summer. Ah, yes. Last week was all about graduation and meetings and all the crap that needs wrapping up. As of Friday, we were done.

The weekend was chock full of fish tacos, time to catch up on relaxing and sleep, pupusas with Ileana, Urban Death opening, Memorial day barbeque and a nail-biting Dodgers game where we came out on top at the very end.

Today was my first day of proper summer and it was spent doing tons of stuff that needed to be done including prepping for the two week summer class coming up next week.

However, not all was cherries and sundaes. On Thursday last, I had to take Miss Curtis to the vet so they could put her to sleep. It was a rough week for the girl and Thursday morning, it was clear that things were not going to get better. Thursday sucked.

So, this week's piece is not only about my love of summer and friends and all the wonderful things of the season, but it's about my love for Curtis. Even though it's simply called "Summer." Enjoy:

Creative Commitment #21

2010-05-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

The week(s) from hell is pretty much over - the car is back, albeit for a price, the fridge will be replaced come Saturday, and the kids are gone. The elbow still hurts and the bills are still left to pay, but I feel like I made it through the woods.

However, there is one thing left... and it's pretty big and pretty sad. My mouse, Curtis, is sick - we think she's got mites. She's been chewing the hell out of herself and I took her to the vet on Saturday. They gave me some medicine and some antibiotics.... but here, three days out, things just seem to be getting worse. I'm going to giving them a call in a few minutes here to seek some advice, but honestly, it doesn't look good.

I know some of you might say, "but it's just a mouse!" Yes, Curtis is "just a mouse," just as much as any dog is "just a dog" or any cat is the same... she's been my companion for nearly a year now and she's very sweet and funny and cute... she's got a personality and she's part of my life. I'm actually feeling worse about this than when Otis was starting to act funny last year - not eating and swimming lethargically. Maybe because I really see this happening and there seems to be nothing more I can do.

I was thinking about Curtis when I painted this week's piece, "Broken Waves." It might not look like much, but I think it says a lot with the organic waves, the negative space and the blue working together and against each other. I wasn't sure which orientation best exhibits this piece and the emotions.... but I found myself stuck with this one:

Creative Commitment #20

2010-05-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes. Last week. The week shall not be mentioned. The week where everything broke. The week that nearly broke me. For those of you who are superstitious or astrologically minded, yes, Mercury was in retrograde. It was one of those weeks.

Tuesday: I get a virus on my computer - twice. I'm up until 2am trying to clean everything out because I don't know how to let things go and take care of it in the morning.

Thursday-Friday: Courtney and I come to the conclusion that the refrigerator is definitely dead again. I call Whirlpool, they come out. The guy gives me a ton of bullshit concerning the warranty and he eventually tells me that if he can't fix it, they'll just give me a $200 voucher towards a new fridge - a very different story than what I got last year.

Friday-Saturday: Car starts making strange noise while coasting. I get up early on Saturday and drive it to Pinky's. On the way there, at a stoplight, the car grinds to a halt and then grinds starting up again. This is not good. After an hour or so there, I learn that it's something dying in the transmission and they need to gut it out to even figure out what it is. This will range anywhere from one to two thousands dollars. I do have a 5 year/60k mile warranty.... my car is 6 years old and has 61k miles. I tell them to do the $600 belt job, too.

Monday: After realizing that Curtis the mouse definitely has a scratching problem and needs to go to the vet, I decide to pour myself a glass of wine. The bottle opener breaks. Then is fixed. But for a while there, things were real bad.

Thus, the inspiration for my current piece: "2600 Dollars." The photo doesn't do it total justice as it's silver and ruby on the black and it shines nicely.

Anyway, enjoy!

PS. I do have a new review up - please go to be reading and enjoy my scathing review of Happiness Runs.

EDIT: Kirkland/Whirlpool called yesterday and they're actually going to honor their warranty and replace the refrigerator. So in the next couple of weeks, we'll have a brand new (hopefully non-freon leaking) refrigerator. Hooray! Eat it, Mercury!

Creative Commitment #19

2010-05-11T22:38:00.001-07:00

Been a great freaking week. After last week's entry, it was a short couple days - including an amazing Cinco de Mayo party at the Tujunga casa - before I hit the road to Santa Cruz for Fire Drums VIII.

Four days of fire workshops, dancing, moving, socializing, etc. followed up in the mountains. The weather was clear and chilly, and the nightly fire pits were stunning. I planned on doing the firewalk, but I missed the deadline for the waiver signing, which was a bummer... however, I did finally fulfill a dream of mine and learn how to breathe fire. That happened on Saturday and while it was a little scary, it was exhilarating. I breathed fire!! Like a dragon! I can do anything.

I finally had to come back to LA and now I'm in the midst of the final week of instruction with our students.

Things are lining up nicely. I got a virus on my computer today, yes, but I killed it with some help pretty quickly (I did, however, then have to go change all of my passwords just to be sure). I got the new phone and it's working pretty good. It's looking like the summer program may not happen which is actually a good thing as I can jump right into vacation and focusing on spinning and writing. Currently reading a book called "Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television"... good stuff. I spent some time reading Harlan Ellison last week and I was kind of shocked at how amazing he was.

Anyway, blah blah blah... here's my new piece for this week. It's based on something I was sketching during Urban Death rehearsal last night... enjoy "Night Fire."

Creative Commitment #18

2010-05-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

Another awesome week. During the past seven days, Courtney's friend, Guthrie was in town and we hung out and played for a few days, the weather's been warming up, school is winding down, and I slogged my way through the terribly boring "The Ruins" by Scott Smith. I'd reviewed the movie a couple years back (see sidebar) and it was terrible, but a friend insisted the book was better. It was not.

The last high school production is done, we're beginning end of the year junk for school, and the end is in sight. Life is good.

The weekend was pretty hot, too. On Friday, we went and saw friend Laura's show at The Eclectic, Turkey Day. It was pretty fun... plenty of good performances and fun writing. There's a couple more weeks, so go see it. On Sunday, Court and I hit the Studio City Farmer's Market and I was oh-so double pleased to see that there is an organic cattle farm up in Buellton that brings pounds of grass-fed beef to the market every week. I bought up a pound of ground meat for future use.

Also, with the advent of me getting my new contract for next year, knowing that employment is on its way for another year, I splurged a little - I bought a Nada chair, some wireless headphones (which work wonderfully), and I ordered a handful of buttons against Arizona's horribly racist sb1070 law. These "I could be illegal" buttons will be handed out at a Cinco de Mayo party tomorrow.

As far as this week's piece, I was inspired, last minute by talking to my friend Jeremy about getting a new Urban Death up and running. I wasn't interested in performing in it, but Jana offered me the position of assistant director and I leapt at the opportunity. The past two days have been auditions and on the way out, talking to Jeremy, I got the idea to try my hand at painting the iconic Bonnet Boy. Here's my first attempt:

Creative Commitment #17

2010-04-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

It was a rough week for inspiration... I've been damn busy and finding time for art was a bit challenging. This weekend was packed with the high school show at the Academy, the OC Eco Mud Run (my first 5K!) and playtime with friends after on Saturday, and Sunday was a chill day with Courtney what with the Menchies, Michael Moore, dinner and 30 Rock. It was a very good weekend, and starting today, a friend of Courtney's is coming to visit... so of course, that meant cleaning and the next few days are going to be full of food and fun.

My piece for this week is something I've toyed with for about a year now. I drew up a sketch about a year ago and a little later in the year, I started painting a version, but ultimately, I didn't like it. It was cold and pedestrian. But this week, struggling for something to create, I came back to it... it seemed appropriate after having just read "The Four Agreements" and this kind of mindset was on my mind.

Also, with all the racist nonsense going on in my home state, I thought it would be a nice gesture. Anyway, check out "At Peace".

Also, picture of mud run.

Creative Commitment #16

2010-04-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

I call the new piece "13th Hour." It's perhaps influenced by my reading of "Let The Right One In" which I finished last week (READ IT!)... actually, it's probably my playing way too much of Borderlands this week -- that makes more sense. Anyway, I was just feeling a little apocalyptic and wanting to try something new. So I did this collage thingy using pieces of "Popular Science" magazine from last December. I put a veneer on at the end which wrinkled everything and I'm not 100% if I like it or not... but Court likes it, so that's always encouraging.

The past week has been full and plentiful. Highlights include a wonderful family dinner over at Steven and Shanna's, weekend shenanigans with Chris, Sarah, Mark, Beth, Jason, Kylie, John, and Vickie... including a kick-ass game of Quelf and a mind-blowing viewing of Kick-Ass.

Things continue to be really great. Fire Drums is just a few weeks away, Moon Circle is this weekend coming up, school is beginning to wrap up... man, life rocks.

Creative Commitment #15

2010-04-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

This week, I decided to keep playing around with the idea of using dried orange peels as art. This one I've had around the house about the same amount of time as the peel from "Killer Chick." It was always clearly a flower to me and I wanted to bring that to the canvas - so here is "Orange Blossom."

In other news, the end of Spring Break was good and relaxing. I got some writing actually done, started reading "Let The Right One In", which is phenomenal. I got the chance to play some Outbreak with the guys who developed it - Outbreak is a super-fun zombie role playing game that is currently in development. I'm helping the guys out by playing in beta testing games and proofreading the manual. This is some great work - keep an eye out for it.

Also, Court and I went to go see How To Train Your Dragon - and I was initially afraid it was going to be a dumb kid's movie, but I gotta say, it's pretty f-ing great. Truly. Go see it.

Also, if you're the midnight movies, artsy type, check out El Topo. Yes. It's crazy.

Creative Commitment #14

2010-04-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

Ah, this week has gone much better with the creative commitment. I think you'll like it.

Before we get to it, though, I gotta say, this week has been pretty sweet. Celebrating the first half of my Spring Break, I did a lot of crap that needed to be done - taxes, reading, cleaning, organizing, phone calls, the list goes ON. And it's been relaxing... finally. Time to sleep in, stay up late, practice staff, watch movies... and on top of all of that, I went to Phoenix over the weekend to visit with my family. It was so good to see them, my mom is feeling much better, her birthday was a couple weeks back, my dad's is today.... plus I got to spend some serious play time with my brother, visit with my grandma and sister in law... doubleplus, I got to indulge on some wonderful trash TV - including the smash hit, Bad Influence, starring Rob Lowe and James Spader. Awesome.

I'm also supposed to have a new review go live today, but it's yet to show its face on Socal.com yet. Just to give you a heads up, steer clear of After.Life... seriously, the review will tell all.

Anyway, on to the art! I call this "Moon Over World 2":

Creative Commitment #13

2010-03-30T23:23:00.001-07:00

Ah, sweet sweet Spring Break. It started out wonderfully with plenty of theater (Urinetown at the Morgan-Wixson and Isms at ZJU), a brief reunion with DK to do DVD commentary, and ending with (finally) my birthday picnic at Verdugo Park (Glendale, not Burbank). The picnic was a delightful success rife with surprises, games, food, booze, and most importantly, the greatest friends in the world. Seriously. I= super blessed.

The art piece this week is a little bit of a mess. I tried some new stuff out and it kind of worked, then I tried some other stuff, and I didn't like it. I started over a couple times... I dunno. I sort of like this, but, you know, they can't all be masterpieces!

"Melt"

Creative Commitment #12

2010-03-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

The past seven days have been triumphant. Sure, I got sick, but I'm pulling out of the final throes of it right about now.

Otherwise, however, the high school production I've been working on with the students all year came to fruition this weekend and it was a rousing success! The kids dug it and I was pretty happy myself. It wasn't without it's share of work, but it was all totally worth it. I got to spend Saturday night with the drama faculty and our better halves drinking and playing games... awesome. And then the health care reform getting passed... just think! Just 8 years ago, our country was being run by a short-sighted religious zealot who didn't think twice about putting other peoples' kids in harms way and now we have a President who is risking so much to make sure that Americans are better taken care of, that they're healthier, happier, and better able to celebrate life... man, things just keep getting better and better.

This week's piece, while not inspired by any of that, I am particularly fond of. The funny thing is that it was born from Courtney asking me to toss some of my less successful art pieces - and it was no bother as I was never really fond of these orange peels that had hardened into little candle holders. But instead of throwing them out, I tossed them in my multimedia box and lo' I found a wonderful use for one of them this week. The other got thrown out.

Meet "Killer Chick." The final version is slightly different with orange legs, but it's pretty much the same thing:

Creative Commitment #11

2010-03-16T23:49:00.001-07:00

Into the jungle of the double digits we go. Number 11 lies directly ahead, and I made it - just under the wire!

The past week has been good... f-ing busy as I get close to the high school play my kids wrote going up this weekend, plus studying new staff stuff, date night (Vegan World is pretty darn good and cheap), there's been the hassle of more plumbing work done on our bathroom (preventive this time, as opposed to cleaning up the shitstorm flood), we thought the fridge had died again (it still may soon, but it's currently keeping cold), parent/teacher conferences are this week, I think I might be getting sick (AGAIN!), and I still haven't gotten 50 Cent's diamond encrusted skull back. It's a shame.

Anyway, here's this week's piece, "Uzumaki II". It's a mixture of wax, watercolor, and acrylic on canvas... perhaps I was inspired by returning to my Japanese lessons last week as well.

Domo arigato gozaimus!

Creative Commitment #10

2010-03-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

So they all can't be masterpieces. This week's piece began as a concept piece - taking slips of paper from Baci chocolates, which all talk about love and stuff, gluing them to a canvas and painting over. It turned out okay and I think I'm going to be doing a little extra touch ups on it, but this is what it is:

In other news, life is good. Urban Death finished up last weekend to a sell out crowd and a late night cast party. Sunday was full of Oscar parties and seeing my friend, Caroline's studio as part of an artwalk downtown.

School is good - busy - less than two weeks before the big high school play, "Liquefied Money" goes up and that's exciting but honestly, a bit anxiety inducing.

Tonight, I started a new double staff class which I am beyond stoked about... and then I spent a good half an hour digging through garbage at my school trying to find my phone that a student hid in a Chex bag earlier in the day. I found it. I hate 8th graders.

Creative Commitment #9

2010-03-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

Past the two month mark... amazing. I no have it in my head that at the end of the year, I want to do a gallery showing of my work from this project... so if anyone has any tips or leads for galleries, please let me know.

The past week was all about recovery, getting better, Urban Death, dancing with Gothies, and an amazing spontaneous trip to Santa Barbara with the Courtster.

This week's piece is an addition to my series of Calaveras. The first two I did about a year ago and they are about change and love, this one is about passion. It may seem a little intense or scary, but I think passion can for sure be that way... terrifying but beautiful. Enjoy.

Sometime over the summer, I may look into making a Death Mask... I think I still have the materials from when we did it in college and I was inspired by some of the work done the middle schoolers at the Academy... thinking...

Creative Commitment #8

2010-02-23T20:14:00.000-08:00

I have barely survived the birthday week.... I got pretty sick at the end of the week, but I made it through, got just better enough to nail the weekend Urban Death shows this weekend - ONE WEEKEND LEFT! Do not miss the show!

Not only has this week been full of fun, sick, partying, and shows, but this past week has found me falling deeply in smit with Dexter. Over the past two weeks, I've consumed the first two seasons and I'm nearly halfway through the third. I freaking love that show.

And maybe this week's piece, "Siblings", is partially inspired by my new infatuation. Enjoy:

Plus, this wonderful wound was had during my work last night... I'm glad I'm a fast healer, this one coulda needed stitches, I tellya!

Creative Commitment #7

2010-02-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Number 7 coming up. It's been an incredible week full of birthday/Valentine's celebrations: crazy sushi on Tuesday, Lucha Va Voom Wednesday night, Office and 30 Rock on Thursday, Friday and Saturday were awesome Urban Death shows with wonderful, sizable audiences, Sunday was a lovely of rest, breakfast, dinner, Volver, and Menchies, and to finish it off on Monday, we hit mini-golf with Steve and Jaymie, then Shanna joined us for a 3,000 calorie meal at Red Robin, and we topped off the birthday celebrations with an evening of Catchphrase, Uno, and cupcakes with Steve and Shanna. Man, Courtney and I packed it in.

Somehow, I found time to finish "Wicked" and last night, I squeezed in this week's piece.

This is a watercolor abstract piece, playing with color and over-saturation. I'm pretty happy with it, and I feel like there's some kind of Grim Reaper action going on in here or something... check it out:

Leave comments, let me know what you think!

Creative Commitment #6

2010-02-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

Ah, the month of celebration is here. Urban Death opened last weekend and all were pleased. I really dig the show and enjoy being in it so much. I've heard from a couple folks that they think it's the best Urban Death yet! Come out and see it!! See us be creepy and wacky, absurd and macabre. It's a perfect way to celebrate President's Month.

On top of all of that joy, I finally snagged a new hard drive for my Xbox (this is a big deal in my brain), school is rockin' along, things are lining up all easy-peasy, the big Boys' Super Bowl party was last weekend and that was amazing as always (plus, the game was pretty great), and then... er, now, the festivities for my 34th birthday begin!

Tonight, Courtney and I hit an early V-Day dinner at Kintaro Sushi and Cold Stone Creamery... brilliant. Tomorrow, myself and 6 other adventurers are heading to Lucha Va Voom - ringside - for the first time ever. Then there's Thursday night Office night with Steve and Shanna, the big show on Fri/Sat, and on Sunday, Courtney and I are planning on driving up the 1 to Santa Barbara. Why not.

Things are great.

Oh, and I'm also reading "Wicked" which is wonderful... really wonderful.

But now, on to this week's piece. I've been wanting, for a while, to do something where I take a larger piece and split it between several smaller frames. So what I've done this week is take a bunch of these frames I've had for a while, paint two different watercolor pieces, and then cut 'em up and re-arrange them into this:

I dig it like it is, but I also like the idea of it being able to be re-arranged whenever the mood strikes me.... thinking about how to hang this...

Creative Commitment #5

2010-02-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

This week's a doozy. It's weird and a little uninspired.... but I'm in the middle of tech week for Urban Death and while I wanted to keep my commitment, I also wanted to keep my sanity. So I played. Playing always helps.

This is the result of paints meeting an old broken Ogg, an LED light, and some army men I found along the way. Think of it as some kind of alien invasion from a psychedelic version of the 1950's. Enjoy:

In other news, life has been all about getting the show ready, playing Darksiders, spending some wonderful time with Courtney... just living large and living full. Oh, I also read "Fight Club" last week and am starting "Wicked" this week.

Oh why must I need sleep??

Creative Commitment #4

2010-01-26T16:49:00.000-08:00

Mixing things up.

This week and next are going to be a little dicey... I'm in the midst of rehearsals for Zombie Joe's "Urban Death: Once Upon A Nightmare." I wasn't sure if I'd be able to squeeze something out this week, but I did it! I went through a phase a few years ago where I was really into Fimo... I didn't know what to do with it, I just wanted a ton of it. It's been sitting in my arts and crafts stuff for a couple years now... so this week, I thought I'd break it out, use some fancy new tools I got with the Michael's gift card that Scott and Jodi got me, and go to town.

The following is what was born:

I may still paint parts of the little guy, I'm not sure just yet.

Also, as mentioned above, "Urban Death: Once Upon A Nightmare" opens next Friday, February 5th. It's directed by my wonderful friend Jana Wimer and it's become a tremendously terrifying and disturbing collaborative piece of horror... I'm excited to share it with all of you and I hope you all can come. The email bombardment will come soon.

It runs Fridays and Saturdays through February, 8:30pm, $15 at Zombie Joe's Underground: 4850 Lankershim Blvd., NoHo, 91601 - 818-202-4120 for reservations.

Creative Commitment #3

2010-01-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

Third week and still running strong.

The past week has been full of awesome, I just have to say before I get into the piece for this week. I finished up my two week run of Wintersession at the school, going to museums and riding the Metro all over the damn place with the kiddos. Love it. Then, I finished off the week by going to Phoenix with Courtney for the lovely wedding of Mark and Beth. Stunningly gorgeous. Plus, I got to spend the rest of the weekend with the fam! We got back here to LA, just as the incredible series of storms began their pounding attack, and went to Steve and Shanna's for Golden Globe/caipirinha nonsense. Yesterday was full of movies and now it's back to work. Ugh. Summer is soooo close, I can taste it!

Anyway, this week, I decided to keep painting. I thought about writing something or using the scads of Fimo I have to build something... maybe even the Legos, but I wanted to keep working my painty skills. I had a thought last week, while tripping through the museums of LA, that I wanted to try a self-portrait.... the results are surprisingly good. While I don't think this picture really looks like me, it does bear a striking resemblance. Check it:

And next week, I think I'm going to do some wood work as I found a nice little piece of furniture left out all alone in the rain that I want to refinish...

Creative Commitment #2

2010-01-12T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here it is, a new week, some new art. I've been spending the past week or so with my students, rolling around to different museums around LA, and it's been tickling that po-mo part of my brain, the part that enjoys experiential art pieces that strangely make you feel a certain way, but you don't fully understand why.

I also have a crap load of new canvasses, paints, and supplies thanks to the holidays... and I've been waiting to play with spray paint again. To be fair, I just want to get busy and CREATE.

I'm in the process of working on a new "Urban Death" show at ZJU, and that's exciting... I finished reading "Save The Cat", and there are some novel new ideas swimming around my brain for some stories/plays I've been working on.... but the itch to create, to put hand to media and make something is strong these days. Gotta keep it rolling... so here's three pieces (two are actually two halves of a single piece) I finished in the last seven days:

Creative Commitment #1

2010-01-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

As promised, I've returned to I2C with some new ideas for the new year. From here on out, every Tuesday, I will create something new - whether it be a painting, a writing, a photo... fire... it doesn't matter, something creative. As I mentioned before, I began to feel like this blog was just me talking about me and the things I do and blah blah blah. Yes, it's nice for far away friends, but with the advent of Facebook, text messaging, Twitter, etc., I just started to feel like I was talking about myself way too much.

So, without further ado, here is the first piece of work for the year. It's a mixed media piece, watercolor, acrylic, and tempera. It's actually based on a picture I drew from high school... I was looking for my most recent skull sketch, but I stumbled across this instead. All my life, I've been drawing weirdly malformed and craggy landscapes with moons... *shrug* I dunno, but it's nice to see one of these painted.

Also, anything you see here is for sale, inquire at thegregk@gmail[dot]com if you're interested in anything that shows up. Of course, all paintings will be lovingly framed and the etc.

I also encourage any and all of you to embrace the new year, embrace your friends and family, and lovingly create with the gifts that the Universe has granted you with. We can all make the world a better place if we contribute.

Big Changes Coming

2010-01-02T18:19:00.001-08:00

I know I haven't posted in over a week... it's been the holidays, going home to see the family, relaxing, getting stuff done, cleaning the apartment, getting ready for school to start again... and I haven't had the urge to write here. I know I've said I'm quitting over the years and I always come back... I'm not sure I want to quit quit, yet I've come so far from when this blog started back in July of '05.

The new year just happened, and as is custom, I've been thinking about my life and goals for the coming year... and one of the things that keeps coming up is creativity... upping mine and making more stuff. Last year, I set a goal to publish a new book - I did not meet that goal. This year, I want to get that book done, get it into Handmade, paint some more pictures, maybe sell some online, I want to sculpt, I want to produce more.... and this blog has begun feeling more and more like a burden, it's been feeling like an exercise in masturbation, in egotism.

So I've got a plan. I've been inspired by some friends over the previous year and I've got a plan. Check back Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning) for the new face of I2C.

Princess Mouse

2009-12-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

I have inadvertently created a princess of a mouse who only wants to eat Cheerios. I awoke this morning to find the above... apparently she dug through her food bowl, tossing out every piece of food that was not a Cheerio. *sigh*

But she is adorable!

And tomorrow morning, I take Courtney to the LAX and it's off to Phoenix... Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice!

Disney for Courtney's Birthday!

2009-12-20T17:58:00.000-08:00

So many exclamation points these days... but there's just so much excitement going on, I can't help it.

Today, Courtney and I went down to Anaheim to redeem her free Disney entry. We spent all day at the home of the Mouse, riding rides, taking pictures, eating, standing in line (there were a TON of people), watching parades.... such a great time.

Of course, we had to catch Fantastmick and the fireworks at the end of the night... really lovely. And then... it SNOWED! Yes!! So cool.

Here's a picture of Courtney catching some of that dubious Disney "snow."

Courtney's Birthday Celebration Begins!

2009-12-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Courtney growing one more year in awesomeness, we partied at Lesli's on Friday and then tonight, we met up with Steve and Shanna for a delicious sushi dinner at Sumo Sushi. Hooray! Sake bombs!

After that, we hit the much lauded YogurtLand -- it was okay, and Ryan and Kate came to meet us, too. Yummy fro'yo... lovin' it.

Then, we had to inaugurate our very own copy of Quelf (which we had discovered the night before at Lesli's), so Steve, Kate, and Ryan all came over and we played a late night game of Quelf. Stupid stupid fun.

School Swag

2009-12-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

School swag is here and I am done done done. Now I've got to get my junk sorted for going home and try to get some relaxation over the next two weeks.

Last Day of Kids

2009-12-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Good thing I didn't dress as Santa today... Ryan would have totally had me beat. Here he is, looking distraught over home-buying woes. Speaking of which, watching him deal with all of that nonsense makes me never want to buy a house... at least not in LA.

Done With Work and Now... CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

Yes! Progress reports are done and I'm so thrilled, I'm skipping yesterday's blog. The consistency of my writing has gone to pot over the last month anyway, but it's the holidays, big changes are happening, and a new year is right around the corner. MADNESS!

I'm a little crazy right now... stayed up way too late last night celebrating no children being at school today. No booze involved, just me and Call of Duty. Oh yeah.

Since the tree has been put up, Court and I have wrapped presents and placed them around the tree.... very nice, very nice. I just wish I could remember what I used to use as a skirt the past few years. I suppose I could check the blog, and maybe I will.... tomorrow.

But now, brain is being turned off....... now.

Out of the Woods

2009-12-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today marked the end of the 8th grade presentations. Some were awesome, some were cringe-worthy, but they're done. And tomorrow, we have to guide our kids through museum day, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Then just finishing up progress reports (I'm finishing my HS ones tonight), and then HOME FREE, B!

Cannot wait. And I'm nearly done with Christmas shopping. Hooray!

Date Night!

2009-12-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Since Courtney and I haven't indulged enough in going out in public this weekend, we decided to have a date night. We grabbed some wonderful Chinese food at the Bamboo Inn (because Cafe Bizou was overrun with people), then hit the 8:30 showing of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, quite the delightfully quirky film. Then we snuck into the 10:20 showing of 2012.

Rare is it that I feel good about not having spent money to see a movie... while the special effects were delightful, the script was apparently written with a kindergartner who doesn't know when to stop. 2 h ours and 40 minutes? Come on.

Regardless, it was a successful date night... super fun to the last drop.

SantaCon!!!!

2009-12-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

Oh man, ever since Kim alerted me to this back in October, I have been so excited. We almost didn't go for money reasons, but we said F it and got us some suits and even though it rained almost all day, it was so worth it.

It was a brilliant, hilarious, ridiculous experience. Hundreds of Santas cramming into the Metro (then all singing "Don't Stop Believing" while accompanied by an accordion), riding into East LA, jumping into bars spontaneously, going to al Tarasco with it's two mariachi bands playing, giving candy to children, ho ho-ing everywhere we went. There was a Super Santa, a robot Santa thing, pimp Santas, elves, car fresheners(!), we even got ambushed by a group of clowns who hated Santa.

Word was that there was a Zombie walk going on in Pasadena at the same time, we kept wondering how awesome it would be if the two groups accidentally bumped into each other.

We eventually got back to downtown, drank. ran around Union Station, tried to get into the Disney Concert Hall bar (but they had already closed), walked down by the ice skating rink and then ended up at the Down & Out bar. Which is HUGE.

Courtney and I left the Red Tide at around 7ish... as they were leaving D&O. Word has it they then marched to Little Tokyo and hit a joint that had karaoke. Awesome.

It was a really amazing event and I cannot wait until next year.

Typical Night at the Boys' Place

2009-12-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

After catching the excellent Astroglyde at ZJ's, we decided to swing by the Boys' house as they were having a little celebration for Paul's birthday.

We got there and it was more than just a little celebration. Cars lined the street and there were plenty of people there. Plus, Paul (the twin) was back in town for the weekend! Courtney and I stayed pretty late, hanging out, talking to people, drinking.

This happened early in the night... looks like they got a jump start on us. This is Chris slamming Mark's head in the clothes washer. Good times.

Taco Night with Steve, Shanna, Courtney, and Adam

2009-12-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

Aw yeah... the tradition continues. Good times on a rainy Thursday night.

Preparation

2009-12-09T23:37:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Courtney's shopping while I was at work today, we are now ready for SantaCon.

The Process of Identity

2009-12-08T22:58:00.001-08:00

First off, I think these are hilarious. These are my and my partner's newest IDs for our job ... while I can understand misspelling my last name, I cannot forgive them misspelling "awesome" as "wesome." Due to the odd arrangement of the words, the names translate as "Captain Commander Kaczynski" and "Commander Awesome Siebrasse."

The woman in charge of IDs and such came into our classroom last week stating that something "went wrong" with our IDs. Working with us is amazing.

In other news, I've found myself assessing my concept of my own identity recently. Looking back over the year, it's been an interesting one. Starting off brand new - single, living alone, no DK, newish job - I've been testing a lot of waters and hanging out with a lot of different people.

Earlier in the year, there was a certain group of coworkers I was hanging out with, spending a lot of time with and they're lovely people, but I don't so much see them these days. I spent some time with the fire community this year, and that's really been wonderful and I intend on continuing that. My relations with other groups/cliques of friends have been waxing and waning... and I just find it interesting the folks who I have been gravitating towards more frequently.

It's funny because I sometimes worry/wonder about who I am, what's important to me, who I want to be... and the fact of the matter is I can be whomever I want to be. I do not need to always do theater or fire or always write or paint... my life is whatever I want it to be, and lately, it's been pretty damn good.

Christmas Tree... Finally!

2009-12-07T22:12:00.001-08:00

My shoddy plastic Target Christmas tree has been sitting in the middle of the apartment for the past four days, awaiting decoration. Court and I have been a bit scattered, not really getting stuff done that we want to get done done... well, not all of it. Most of it. But the tree hasn't been one of 'em.

It's been raining all day today (hooray!), and I came home after a busy busy day and Courtney had a plan for dinner (which was awesome), I called the landlord about the continuing rat ish, and after eating and drinking some wine, Court and I got down to business.

We put on some classical Christmas tunes, some choral stuff, then some sweet Sinatra and Crosby... got that tree decorated and it was really lovely.

We tried to get a picture of the tree with Curtis, but she just pooed in Courtney's hand. A lot.

No Equivocation: Date Night Ruled! Plus MALLS.

2009-12-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ah, date night. Ever since Courtney got out here, it seems like she and I have date night with Steve and Shanna about three times a week... it's a good thing, a really good thing. A great thing, even!

Tonight, Steve got us the hookup to the Geffen and we all got to go see "Equivocation," the current show there. It's kind of a big deal, having won critical acclaim at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and full of amazing performers... and it really was a fantastic show. Absolutely catering to the Shakespeare crowd, but accessible to the rest of us. Love me some good theater.

However the obnoxious woman in front of us who was clearly not into the show (maybe she was confused), her talking during the last minutes was a shame. Ah, I wish I knew who she was so I could publicly shame her on my world-famous blog. Ah well.

In other news, Courtney and I hit a couple malls today to do some shopping (and look for Santa suits!), and I was shocked to find myself feeling kinda jaded in the mall. All my life, I've kind of loved malls... I was raised in one to a point, my Grandma taking me all the time. Today, however, I just found the traditional American cluster of consumerism a bit suffocating and honestly, more than a little obnoxious. All of the greasy adolescent hands grabbing mindlessly for stuff, for clothing, for clutter. We walked into the Disney store and it just felt so overwhelming, a non-stop barrage of buy! buy! buy!

Wow, I used to love the mall... but today it just made me tired and a little sad.

Surprise!

2009-12-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

We had a surprise birthday party for the head of school tonight. This is the best picture of him coming in that I got. *sigh* But we were upstairs in the VIP lounge, not the best angle, to be honest. We had a great time socializing, drinking, eating.... at one point, I was talking to the head of our admissions and I realized just how lucky I've got it with my day job. Such a wonderful crew of loving, talented, sweet (and crazy) people. Awesome.

Holiday Shows, Initiate!

2009-12-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

Thus begins the spate of holiday shows our friends are in that we have to try and make all of them. We started it off with the Christmas Cabaret at the Eclectic Theater. My friend Questa co-wrote this and is starring in it, while my friend Laura exec produced it. It was a lot of fun... the acts they have are really phenomenal, especially Scot Nery, the pancake juggler. They also had a stand up comedian, a singer, and two burlesque numbers. Plus, they had a bunch of booze for us to partake in. Hooray!

So if you get the chance, it's running next Friday and Saturday as well and it's ONLY $10.

A Considerable Town

2009-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is what I did last night: saw Inglorious Basterds (Again! Love it! QT's best!) and then listened to Quentin speak for a while afterward. Awesome.

And tonight... new Office!

I think I may tun this blog into "Damn! My Life Is Good."

CREDO Ready To Go

2009-12-02T16:27:00.001-08:00

Got the new phone, got it powered and my contacts are all transferred over. However, one minor disappointment is that I can't Bluetooth ringtones .. gah .. I got spoiled with my beloved Sony Ericsson 580i (which can be yours for $120!) .. but it's totally worth being with a progressive phone company, having almost three times the minutes and five times the text messages. Mostly, I'm stoked about the progressive part. In fact, I just got an email last night stating that they started a new website: www.OMGGOPWTF.com, in which you are asked to answer trivia questions about the ridiculousness of the GOP and they will donate 10 cents per every correct answer to a progressive cause. This week's cause is Billionaires For Wealthcare, a hilarious and wonderful group that routinely mocks all of the wealthy folks who would like to maintain (and benefit from) the healthcare status quo. I totally wanna hit one of those rallies someday. Someday soon!

The End Is Nearly Here

2009-12-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

I love looking at this calendar... 8 more normal days of school and then, Winter Break!!! I will make it! It will be awesome. I cannot wait. I swear, my 8th graders will not destroy my spirit. Heh... nor will I destroy theirs!

Back To School

2009-11-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

Eh, it was a pretty good day.

After returning to school and seeing my awesome kids, I came home to hang out with Courtney and watch Purple Rain. While it's a patently ridiculous film, I kinda loved it. Gotta love the Prince.

Then after we consumed some awesome, mid-80's kitch, we met up with Steve and Shanna and consumed some awesome Menchies. Love it all.

My life is pretty good.

Hollywood Christmas Parade

2009-11-29T21:03:00.000-08:00

Finally, after all these years, I finally caught the Hollywood Christmas Parade. I always hear about it the day after or whatever, but this year, I caught wind of it from a friend's Facebook status. Boom!

It was great. The weather was lovely and while standing on the hard cement at Hollywood and Vine for three hours was a little rough on the ol' bones, it was totally worth it. Though Courtney and I have to wonder who's running the damn show as there were huge, ten minute gaps between sections of the parade. We think it could have been done in a third of the time. However, it was a really lovely time... plus we got to see Jesus!!

Afterward, we passed by a Scientology event/protest and made our way to The Grill where our friend Andy works. She hooked us up with a lovely tuna tartare dish and then it was home, Jeeves, home.

A wonderful ending to a delightful (and exhausting) holiday week.

The Day After The Day After

2009-11-28T00:35:00.000-08:00

Ah yes... the Thanksgiving coma/hangover has passed and now for a proper day of existence.

While we took our time getting started, by around 3pm, Courtney and I decided to roll down to LA to catch the 30 year retrospective at MOCA. While we did eventually make it to MOCA, we wandered around downtown a bit, spent a bit of time in the very modern Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles... amazing, fascinating structure! Then we explored the area around the Mark Taper forum, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and finally got to MOCA with 50 minutes left to explore.

There was some really cool stuff, including this crazy paper mache bride. We have got to catch the other half of it over at the Geffen MOCA... can't wait!

We wandered through downtown a bit, eventually ended up at Pershing Square where we watched the locals ice skate for a while, then we got back on the Metro and headed back to the Valley for some increible comfort food at the NoHo Diner. Awesome.

A few hours later, we picked up Steve and hit the road to roller disco. Many hours of skating ensued.

Brilliant. A wonderful wonderful day. Truly.

The Day After

2009-11-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

Oh dear god.... slept in so late... body achy, hungover... the day after has no mercy.

Courtney and I didn't get going until after noon or so, then after shaking off the cobwebs, we met up with Steve, Shanna, and Leslie for dinner at El Chavo. I had a gift certificate from the Bridges auction that I've been dying to use and the food was pretty damn good. We racked up a pretty nice-sized bill, stuffed ourselves again, then wandered down to Wacko/Ozzie Dots. I love that place.

Thanksgiving '09!

2009-11-26T22:47:00.000-08:00

Aw man, what a great freaking holiday. I spent it with many of my closest, dearest friends, we ate and drank so much, we played a ton of games (Rock Band, Cranium, Apples to Apples, and a ton of Celebrity). Courtney and I got to Steve and Shanna's around 2:30 and didn't leave until about 3am.

I am so thankful for the beautiful, loving people in my life!

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-11-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

...and I'm making my first pumpkin pie. I'll let you know how it turns out... along with the green bean casserole. Yay for gluttony!

Goodbye Cingular/AT&T, Heloooooo CREDO

2009-11-24T16:28:00.000-08:00

Day two of talking to AT&T turned out really great because, well, I didn't need to talk to them. I called CREDO in the morning and we talked about plans and the whatnot and then I got to the messy part: I stated asking them how I was supposed to go about breaking up with AT&T. The guy I talked was really nice, he had a funny accent... I think it might have been Canadian... but he knew all the answers and the best part was that the answer to this question, "How do I break up with AT&T?", was that I didn't have to do a thing.

Yep. CREDO was going to break up for me. So now, after talking with them for half an hour this morning (I was on hold for 0 minutes as opposed to AT&Ts near hour yesterday), I got a new plan set up, plus 10% off for the next two years - which will equal just about what I was spending on AT&T... but instead of getting 450 minutes and 200 text messages and supporting a company that gave the max to the Bush/Cheney campaign and supports Senators that are against equal rights, I will now be getting 1000 minutes, 1000 text messages, and I be will supporting a company who supports the things that matter to me. Hooray!

Now, even though AT&T gave me a deal for my home line and they were supposed to get my DSL up to speed today, I'm not overly thrilled with the results. So, I'll give it a week or so, then proceed from there.... maybe I'll go with DSL Extreme... read some reviews, seems likes a pretty good little upstart company.

The down side of all of these shenanigans with my cell phone provider is that the CREDO network cannot use the damn Sony Ericsson phone that I have struggled over keeping for the past year... *sigh* Ah well. While waiting on hold with AT&T yesterday, I boxed up all the pieces and will attempt to sell it on Amazon.

Oh! And CREDO actually has their own website - act.credoaction.com - where they list all of the progressive campaigns they are currently supporting and how I can get involved. Now this is a company I can support... you guys should do it too!

Another Great Reckoning

2009-11-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, all of these things are being purged from my life... for money! Hooray! It's been another period of clearing out extraneous crap that I do simply adore, but honestly, isn't making my life any better. Plus, the mere thought of maybe moving again in the near future has made me blanch at the thought of hauling all of this crap with me AGAIN.

So, tomorrow, the plan is to go to Amoeba and try to sell it off. Of course, after spending an hour on the phone with AT&T today... and knowing I intend on calling them again (the wireless division tomorrow... to CANCEL)... who knows what the day will ultimately entail.

Also, since my camera was returned, I feel like the photos have been soft in the focus... herm... unhappy about this.

[EDIT] They took everything. Everything. Except a few loose CDs and the PS2, which they don't take anyway... but they took everything. So awesome. I think they low-balled me a bit with the cash option, considering all they took, BUT it's a local business which does good work and provides a fantastic service to the people of Hollywood... and it saves me the hassle of hauling the shit everywhere.

Now, I've got that massive stack of books to take to Bookman's.

Chili, Meet Curtis

2009-11-22T18:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Steve and Shanna came over to watch Moonstruck with Courtney and I and eat pie. It was a lovely little date. Good times.

Chili was wonderfully behaved while visiting... he didn't pee anywhere, didn't bark (he never barks, really), he was a lovely guest. However, when he saw Miss Curtis, he suddenly got all excited and wouldn't leave Curtis alone... even after I put her away in my bedroom, Chili still thought she was there on the shelf.

Before they left, I took Curtis out to meet Chili... and initially it was very cute. They were both sniffing each other, being politely interested in each other. Then, right before this picture was taken, Chili decided to either lick Curtis or try to eat her... we're not sure. Curtis was then done and decided to run up my arm and then Chili got super excited.

Social time was over. Very cute. Maybe a little dangerous, but very cute.

Vacation: Activate

2009-11-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Man, I fell asleep by 10pm last night. Exhausted. Long-ass week. And today... first day of vacation. I am stoked. I slept in. I played Xbox. I watched a movie. Awesome.

Later on, Courtney and I went on a lovely hike around Franklin Canyon.

Hooray for vacation!

Bubbles In The Sky

2009-11-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

Steve made this wonderful song for my dear departed friend, Otis. I made the video from a collection of photos from my little aquatic buddy. Please enjoy.

Obligatory Political Blog

2009-11-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this for two reasons:

1. It's late and the only other thing I want to write about right now, I'm not sure how to share with you, the home audience.

2. I get so tired of people bad mouthing the democrats as the big spenders. Yes, liberals like social programs, but we're not as fiscally crazy as the media makes us out to be. It bugs me twice as much because over the 8 years of the Bushocracy, the conservatives started doing this thing (or maybe I just started notic it) where they would say the exact opposite of what was true and people would accept it. It's the weirdest fucking thing, but it happened over and over during those horrible years... this is another example of their weird double speak.

Observe the graph. Thank you and good night.

Big Props To Canon

2009-11-18T12:22:00.002-08:00

I gotta say, Canon certainly makes good on their warranties. I bought this lovely camera back in March for my big Japan trip... it's been a great camera, taking sweet photos and all... but as I mentioned before, it had been acting up, saying that the lens was malfunctioning and it wasn't closing. I sent it in to Canon, they sent me an email saying they had gotten it and would repair it free of charge unless anything not covered by the warranty was found - this includes water damage, sand, etc.

I was concerned because I had recently dropped it in the sand (because the side panel had fallen off) and I could swear there was a light grinding noise when it opened and closed recently.

I got the camera back last week (FedEx is a much better way to ship things than UPS, by the way, thanks also for that, Canon) and it works wonderfully. Included was a receipt described the repairs done on the camera. On the receipt, it specifically said that there was sand found in the lens and the mechanism was replaced.

Yet, they did it for free anyway!! Hooray for Canon! Buy stuff from them. Hooray!

No Movember For Me

2009-11-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

Sadly, as I learned (was reminded) last year of my inability to really grow a nice, non-creeper 'stache, I am unable to participate in Movember. Basically, Movember is when dudes grow sweet moustaches during the month of November to show their support of men's health issues like prostate cancer and the etc.

So, instead, I've not shaved this week... which has been aided by long, late nights of playing Modern Warfare 2 (damn you, Infinity Ward!)... it's a weak substitute, and honestly I don't know how much longer I'm going to last as my face is getting itchy, but, there you go... the best Movember I gots.

Attempt At Diplomacy

2009-11-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

So, in frustration from the awful behavior of my upstairs neighbor and in hopes of avoiding a lengthy battle of wills and stomping/pounding, I have decided to try diplomacy first. I wrote a letter to my neighbor above, explaining the situation, explaining that I hear everything they do, I hear their arguments, their TV, when people come over, it sounds horribly loud... yet I have only complained when their dancing queen son decides to blare his radio outside the kitchen, into the courtyard, and cranks up the bass to dance club proportions. I stated that I expect them to show me the same respect I show them and allow me to have some fun on the weekends as I have allowed them.

Hopefully this will cut their behavior off at the pass... my greatest hope is that the son has been cranking the stereo and pounding on the floor without their knowledge and that they give him a stern talking-to.... but sadly, I doubt that's the case.

Uber-Thanksgiving!

2009-11-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

This evening, Courtney and I headed down to the OC (don't call it that) to hang with the gang that lives down there that I see far too infrequently (this is the Chapman crew that I met while shooting Wonderland about 6 years ago).

It was awesome. About 30 people descended on Cat and Dylan's beautiful house in Fountain Valley... much food was eaten, wine was drunk, and much laughter was had. I might even go so far as to say some new friends were made. Love it.

This is a picture of the ridiculous plate of Tabasco turkey and potatoes I came home with... along with a pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and corn tortillas. Don't ask about the tortillas.

Upstairs Woes

2009-11-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my ceiling. This what I mostly see of my upstairs neighbor, but I generally hear a lot more. I'm usually copacetic with it, except for when the teenage kid decides to crank his music and it echoes of the walls outside and the bass reverberates through my building... but I talked to him about that and we've been pretty straight. However, today, while Courtney and I were playing Rock Band at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon, we were treated with the incredibly rude pounding on my ceiling/their floor. This did not make me happy.

We stopped playing the game, but I plan on writing a letter expressing my concern about us being neighbors and being polite to each other and understanding. Lord knows, I hear a ton from them and mostly don't say anything... I expect the same. We'll see what happens.

Would You Like A Pet Kitten?

2009-11-13T11:46:00.001-08:00

While Miss Curtis still lives, having a cat is certainly not something I can do. But my friend Caroline has a couple kitties that she's holding on to and would like to unload... they are ADORABLE. See picture above. If you're at all interested in one or both kitties, email or leave a message. They are very very sweet kittens and I wish I could have them.

Oh, and two new reviews are up for your perusal, Dare and Pirate Radio

New Favorite Thing

2009-11-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling mostly better... still a little coughy, but the Nyquil, the sleep, the Courtney, and the Modern Warfare 2 are all helping.

On to the point of this post, Courtney and I went over to Steve and Shanna's tonight (sans Shanna but plus Adam) and dinner and watched the new episode of "The Office" and "30 Rock." I love love love being totally caught up on "The Office" and being able to watch it in real time. Damn network TV for finally making something good. Again.

Farewell, Dear Friend

2009-11-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

Deep in the canyons off of Mulholland, I found a secluded pool to place Otis in. I had a few words to say and I gently laid him in the creek after I said them.

It may sound stupid to some of you, but I'm really going to miss that fish.

It Is A Sad Day On Coldwater Canyon Ave,

2009-11-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

You will be missed, Otis. You were the best fish friend a guy could ever have.

Never to be replaced. I love you, Otis.

Saddest face of the year.

Made It Back To LA!

2009-11-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

After a rollicking three-day trip across the majority of the United States, Courtney and I made it safely to LA. Of course, I'm now wildly sick, but the trip was a total blast. We drove a lot on Saturday, but we stopped at the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial, and then on Sunday, since we drove so much on Saturday, we were able to take our time and we stopped at the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, and Meteor Crater. Awesome.

Then we spent Sunday with my family, chatting, eating, and I was at that point at the depth of my sickness... but we had a great time.

And today was totally easy. I was feeling kinda crappy, but it was a relatively short drive and we got here easily and in one piece. Huzzah!

And I'm Off!

2009-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

Road trip across the country..... commence!

The Next Great Purging

2009-11-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, to purge! I love it! Last time I did it, I was preparing to move back in Nov. of last year. Now, Courtney will be here in a matter of days, I'm sick of stuff, and I'm just cleaning out tons of crap.

Bag of clothes to Goodwill. Done.

Stack of DVDs to go to Bookman's/Amoeba or Amazon. Done.

Stack of games to Amazon. Done.

Stack of CDs to go to Bookman's/Amoeba. Done.

It feels so damn good. This shelf, for instance, though the picture is murky, you can see that only the top shelp has anything on it... those are only homemade DVDs and games. Prior to last week, it was filled all the way to the bottom with DVDs. No more. Bye!

Feels so good to be a reseller.

Preparation

2009-11-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

As days go on and I plan for some big changes and my camera is missing.. it's becoming harder to blog. Harder? More challenging. Yeah.

There's a lot on my mind, though.... school, reviews, thinking about that Canadian guy who was wrongly extradited and tortured for a year by us and it just came out that he has no legal recourse... I'm thinking about Courtney coming out, my own health and working out, I'm wondering why Curtis keeps pushing her bedding into her water and I'm worried she won't have enough to drink while I'm gone.

Today, however, this funny thing happened: I got up and ready early so I decided I was going to ride my bike to school. I got there and almost immediately was reminded that I needed my car to drive students to CSUN. So, at first break, I jumped on my bike and hauled ass home, ran inside, picked up some stuff, and hauled ass back to school. Then I ran around at CSUN, we ended up running late, and I had to haul ass back to school again to teach my last block.

It was a very crazy day today.

Best Compliment Of The Day

2009-11-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today, one of my students told me I teach math better than the regular, Harvard-educated math teacher.

That felt pretty good.

And sorry for the dumb picture... my camera is currently out of commish... and I don't feel like using the old one.

This Weird Mouse I Live With

2009-11-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

... did this tonight.

... after she dumped a ton of bedding into her water twice.

She's crazy, I tell ya.... crazy.