chase the light

[VICTORIA GALLERY] [VIDEO LINK]
Infamous ladies man and fellow Shrek survivor Felix got married this weekend in Victoria, British Columbia. That’s in Canada, eh.

Alaska Airlines flight 283. The beginning of the nightmare. Alaska Airlines I hate you. I left work early after a late night of packing Thursday and a long day at work. Got to the airport and checked in with plenty of time but there was no plane. I guess they had to find one? They found one on the other side of the airport, but empty. It ended up being an hour late. My flight from Seattle to Victoria only as a 1/2 hour layover. They better haul ass and get me and this plane up there. Alaska Airlines I hate you.

Since my flight left an hour late I was already behind, but they said they would let us deboard first so we could take a shuttle to the other gate. After running around the airport like a chicken getting chased by a cleaver I give in and asked an Alaska gate employee how do I get to “S” terminal. She looks at the screen and tells me that flight has already left. I hate you Alaska Airlines. Now I’m going to have to call the Empress Hotel and hope they don’t charge me. Also the rental car. Long story short Alaska put me up in some skank hotel next to a bar and grill. I only call it skank because I was supposed to be sleeping restfully at the The Empress tonight in Victoria. The plan was to get into Victoria and sleep in before the wedding in the afternoon. Now I was not only up late but had to get up early to catch the flight out in the morning. Sea-Tac is one messed up airport for being so small. Their satellite terminals truly suck. You SUCK Sea-Tac airport. Alaska Airlines, you suck too. Missed flight, crappy hotel I didn’t want to be in, I missed the sleep I needed, and you gave me two, count them, two expired calling cards so I could cancel my hotel and car rental in Victoria. Alaska Airlines I hate you. I’m supposed to be in Canada. So I called the Empress on my own dime and they were cool enough not to charge me for the cancelled night, and the car rental I didn’t worry about. I was going to be there in 8 hours anyway.

Got up the next morning, way too early, hopped on my airplane which was smaller than the Wright Bros. The flight attendant made some crack about it being all guys on her flight. Pretty much a flying weiner party. Got into Victoria early Saturday, picked up the rental car, drove into the city, about an hour and checked into the hotel. The Empress was nice enough to let me check in at about 9am as their normal check-in time is 4pm. The room was even made up, unlike that crap place I stayed in in Ukiah.

Did a drive by of the church to make sure I knew I was going and then did a little site seeing around the city. Got to the church at 1:45 and no one was there. The doors were closed and not a single car in the parking lot. For a wedding that was supposed to start at 2pm this was way alarming. Had I missed the memo? I flew all the way to Canada and I’m sitting in an empty parking lot with a tie on and no phone numbers to call anyone. Finally the door opened about 5 til and a bus pulled up and a bunch of people piled out. Maybe I did miss some memo, because I certainly didn’t hear about a bus. I hadn’t seen Felix in about three years so it was funny to see him al nervous. I’ll spare the blow by blow of the wedding. but of course we stood up and sat down a lot for an hour. Then they kissed and off we went to the reception. I had the bright idea of following the photographers over because I figured they’d get there the fastest. Being locals and knowing the area I’m knew they’d take shortcuts to the castle. Good lord, did they ever. It was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride as we jetted across town bending the traffic laws here and there. I even peeled out at one corner. This mini-van kicks ass.

Got to Hatley Castle and walked around the grounds a bit and waited for the wedding party to finish their photos. The photographer barked at me, “hey, are you with the wedding?”. “Um, yep.”, I replied. “Go hold that bush back”, he yelled. So I went and held a bushy branch out of the way of the photos for the next 20 minutes and promptly got nicknamed “bushman” by the wedding party. Hard to look cool standing in a bush, while holding a bush, and wearing a tie. Oh, and it was only slightly raining. The reception had to be held inside because it started raining and I didn’t know a single person. I sat down at a table and 6 other people joined me. Luckily it was people Felix worked with at EA so I was able to chat to them all night. The guys all went outside to smoke cigars for most of the evening, which I don’t, so I got to chat to their canadian girlfriends, eh, the whole night, eh. Not a bad tradeoff, eh? Got back to the hotel about 11pm and watched a little Canadian, eh, TV and fell asleep after about 6 hours of sleep over the last 48 hours.

I had booked a boat to go out to see the Orcas on Sunday. We left Victoria at 9am and headed out to the west coast of San Juan Island and caught up with the L-Pad of Orcas and they were breaching right and left when we arrived. It was an unbelievable display. Probably about 30-40 breaches within 15 minutes of arriving. This was the exact spot I saw J-Pod last time I was here. We watched L-Pod for a bit and then headed north and caught up to J-Pod which was a few miles north. They had gone into their resting mode where they all lined up and would dive for a bit, basically sleeping. They’d all surface together so we’d see about 20 whales at a time come up for air. Ruffles is still around and I got to see him surface a few times while we waited for L-Pod to catch up with us. All in all a great day of seeing the Orcas. Got a few good video caps of the action.

Monday I had tried to book a flight on a pontoon boat to fly over the Cascade range on Washington’s northern coast but the flight times didn’t work for me. So I hoped in the car and headed up the west coast of Vancouver Island. I’d read about a place called the Sooke River Sinkholes and thought it might be a good day trip. I pulled into the car park after about an hour and paid my $3 day use fee. I decided to check it out a bit before I committed to a longer hike into the river area, so I took just my camera and left my swimsuit behind. Thought I’d see if the water was warm enoiugh to go swimming. As I got to the first little offshoot from the trail I saw a man and woman and their two dogs down by the river. I couldn’t really make much out through the trees, and I didn’t want to bother them so I hiked up about another 50 yards to an overlook. I relaized the next river entrance is probably quite a ways up so I decided to quickly go down to the rivers edge by the two people and check the water. As I started down the path the dogs saw me and kept playing, but the man was in the water with his pantlegs pulled up. He was splashing around while the woman videotaped him. I then noticed he was wearing these pinstriped overalls with red back pockets and stitching that looked like little animals. Giraffes, zebras, kangaroos etc. Then as I got real close he noticed me and yanked something out of his mouth and turned his back to me. Uh oh, red alert, something’s going on here. I kept looking at him from the corner of my eye as I knelt down to touch the water and got a glimpse of what he pulled out of his mouth. A pacifier! Holy shit he’s an Adult Baby! He was playing and acting like a baby for the video and I just happened upon their dirty little secret. That’s what you get for walking around the canadian wilderness on a non-holiday Monday. You think you’re going to be alone. Anyway, I left them behind and walked back to the car to pick up the rest of my stuff to hike farther in. There was one car that I had parked by that was still there. As I walked up I noticed a “Baby On Board” sign but no baby seat. The back seat was down with dog hair all over it and the front seat had a mobile hanging down, and again no baby seat. Many thanks to the many daytime talk shows I know what adult babies are. They walked pass on my way back up the hill and I think they were a little nervous about me seeing the show. The Sooke river was great and I ended up driving farther north to the coast and saw a Bald Eagle. Then late in the day made my way back to the airport and watched a movie shoot while waiting for my plane. No travel woes on the way home.

[IMAGE GALLERY] [VIDEO LINK]
The long pale winter. Need some sun. The mission: Go to see redwoods in Northern California. Accomplished? Hell yes. Occasionally you take a trip that turns out to be way more than you thought it would be. I took off Saturday morning and jetted up to Oakland and hung with Keith a bit. We plowed through a Pizza at Zachary’s [LINK] in Oakland and then I hit the road on my way up to Ukiah [LINK]. Of course with no reservations on Memorial day weekend you stay at any motel that has a vacancy. I couldn’t even tell you where I stayed now. Sunday I got up and drove up to Humboldt Redwoods State Park [LINK], which rules in tall tree sorta way. It’s almost the same feeling as diving in the kelp forests off the coast. Same kind of dappled light and towering columns. After getting out of the car a million times to walk around the forests, I made my way through one grove and down to the Eel river [LINK]. It was a beautiful emerald green and not at all cold, so I jumped right in. Not a person in sight and a whole river to myself. It was friggin’ perfect. After about and hour of swimming around I walked back to the car and headed to the coast. Made my way down Mendocino and back to Ukiah where I had to find another place to stay. As I was coming down the road a big dust cloud caught my eye and I spotted a speedway [LINK]. At first I thought it was a demolition derby because of all the dust and tow trucks I saw. After I pull up to the fairgrounds I find out it’s just regular racing and that the local racers just suck at racing. It was hilarious. People with ballcaps with flames on them and sucking down cotton candy. That’s pretty much my impression of the crowd. Oh and lots of blue eyeliner. After about 10 races I got tired and found a hotel which I had to have three rooms before I found one that was made up. All the rooms had sheets all over, wet towels, etc. They finally apologized with a clean room and some complimentary cookies. I was pretty punchy from being so tired I actually didn’t mind. I just kept dragging my lugagge and cameras wherever they told me to go. Monday I got up and headed back to Oakland where I met up with Keith and Shelli again and we ran through a song I was writing with Shelli. A Bernie Elton kinda thing. She has more to say than I do so she wrote the lyrics. Then home. Nice trip.

Last year friend Eric [LINK] called me up and asked if he could use a photo for a book he was writing. It’s about Maya and is part of the “Killer Tips” series of books. Of course I said yes and had forgotten about it but here it is about a year later. Here’s the original photo from a trip to Bora Bora [LINK]. I’m oddly proud that it’s been imortalized in an icon shelf.

And from the acknowledgements…

…their have been numerous enjoyable fellow travelers along the way, such as Mark Lefitz, Alex Nijmeh, Chris Nichols, Travis Price, Ben Procter, Chris Cunningham, John Goodman, Allen Yamashita, and Eric Beggs, where it all started. Much has been learned (and laughed) from all.

Cool, my name’s in a book. That’s a first. Available on Amazon too… [LINK]

Friday I decided to bookend the last two weeks with related concerts. Two weeks ago I saw Dennis “Domo” DeYoung, and after getting the L.A. Weekly on Thursday I was reminded Styx was going to be at the Universal Amphitheatre. So Friday morning I bought a ticket and trooped across town that night to Universal. I conveniently ran late so I could miss the opening act The Nelsons. Yes, the two very putzy blonde twins of Nelson fame. In fact, just as I arrived at my seat Peter Frampton went on. Observations: he’s small, he’s kinda boring in concert, which completely negates “Frampton Comes Alive”, he’s only got about 5 hit songs, but he’s a pretty damn good guitar player. I forgot how well thought of he was as a lead guitar player. The place went absolutely apeshit over “Do You Feel Like We Do”, “Show Me The Way”, and “Baby, I Love Your Way”. The girl next to me kept singing “ooooo baby, I love your WAYS”. Plural!! At the top of her lungs. It’s not friggin’ plural, stop singing it like that! Ugh. After Frampton finished I went to use the restroom and witnessed one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard. I go into the restroom and of course two guy friends cannot stand directly next to each other at the urinals. Much like sitting next to each other in a movie theater, so I had to take the urinal between them. Facing the wall, the guy on my right looks over at his buddy and yells in my ear with his drunken slur, “DOOOOD, FRAMPTON STILL ROCKS!!!” Then the guy on my left nods his head and in his drunken slur yells back, “OH MAN. DUDE, FRAMPTON WILL ALWAYS ROCK!!!!!” I wasn’t about to argue as they’d probably turn and pee on me. Styx was pretty good. Another of the 70’s bands I can mark off the list of never having seen.

Saturday night was Cinespia at the graveyard. I was in a bad mood and didn’t want to go but was talked back into going since I had arranged the thing in the first place. “Johnny Guitar” was the movie and it was perfectly awful and Joan Crawford couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag, but it was definitely the best worst movie they’ve shown.

Check out the caterpillar eyebrow on Shrek in that photo. Sunday I added to the bonus checks of my friends who worked on Shrek 2. After having seen it opening day, my parents came up for a visit so we headed over to the Arclight and caught a digital screening. It’s as good as the first and in some ways better, but all said and done I’m glad I didn’t have to work on it. Five years of living with Shrek would have been way too much. 2 1/2 was enough of a tour of duty. Maybe the next one. It’s making mad amounts of money [LINK].

[SQUIRREL VIDEO LINK]

Then there were the squirrel attacks in the trees above my patio. Two squirrels were going at it for a couple hours this afternoon. Hissing and yelping. They really didn’t like each other very much. Even the cats got bored and fell asleep on the grass below the trees.

I picked up my little painting today after an aborted attempt with Jill and George yesterday. Two weeks ago I bought another Jett Jackson painting at the Santa Fe Open Studios, but she was going to be at the Beverly Hills Affaire in the Garden and I had her hold on to it. I ate lunch there too and the corn on a cob was awesome. I also had some more bananas and chocolate. Sophisticat is now in my hands. Now to get it framed and find a place in the house. I love paintings, they’re the grandaddy of the art world. Jett’s holding my lil’ painting and standing in front of two of her larger pieces. She’s nice, I like her. The three, no four paintings…

[Random Muse-ing] [Act Like You’re Not Hurting] [Sophisticat] [The Belly of the Beast]

The players: Chris, Jill, George and Kevin. We were cruising up Fairfax towards Santa Monica Blvd. when I mentioned I liked the BMW Z8s. There was a grey one directly in front of us which I was refering to. I said it was nice but it was not worth the $170k price tag. Which immediately prompted another discussion regarding people who buy cars they can’t really afford and how this guy probably was one of these kinda guys. The kind that lives in ratty apartment yet drives a pimping set of wheels. The foolhardy decision making that is. Anyway, we were bagging on the guy when we pulled up next to him to make our turn left onto Santa Monica. I glanced over, and George and I both dismiss him as “Oh, it’s some old guy”. I figured he probably could afford it at that point. Jill takes a closer look and blurts out, “Hey, it’s Kevin Costner!”. Kevin Costner was the butt off our laughter today. Yikes, when he did he get so old?

[VIDEO LINK]

Friday night at Hollywood Park was Sony day at the races and I finally got to prove good ol’ Monica wrong. See the previous horse racing post [LINK]. I bet “$5 to win” and actually won for once. A group of us were invited down to watch the the #5 “Sony” race from the fence and go to the winners circle. It was a $50k purse and I put my money on #6. Winner! My first and last bet of the night. I love to win, it just never happens so I’m gloating. How much did I win? 5 bucks. I didn’t know the horse had 1-1 odds, I just liked the name. That about covered the cost of parking and gas. And the winner is… me.

[GROUNDBREAKING VIDEO LINK]

Sony Imageworks [LINK] is expanding at such a rate they have to build a new building to accomodate us. I think it’s a not so subtle way of saying we’re all fat and don’t fit in the building anymore. Anyway, it took about 45 minutes later while sitting at my desk to put the Taiko drumming and Saki shots together. Duh, we work for a Japanese company! I think the Saki killed some brain cells, now it all makes sense. I’m slow at putting 2 and 2 together sometimes.

[BANG! BANG! BANG! VIDEO LINK]

Not a lot of people realize one of the best kept secrets in the world is Mother’s Day at Magic Mountain. The place is a ghost town. Most of the time you can walk right onto the ride and it’s all very laid back. No mothers want to go to Magic Mountain because they’re all out at the Olive Garden or some other crap strip mall eatery celebrating the Hallmark holiday. Anyway, George, Jen and me cruised around the park for a few hours riding what we felt like and then headed to In-N-Out for dinner. Damn good. The best thing though was the video I shot. Yeeee haw! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! They didn’t even know I was there.

About two months ago I got a call from the fairer parental unit. She was watching PBS and there was a pledge drive. Sheepishly she asked what I was doing Mother’s Day weekend and that “your dad won’t go with me”. How can I possibly say no to anything she asks after that setup? So she asks, hey you like Styx, right? Well, I suppose I kinda did, and I do like the nostalgic aspect of them now. Well, she was watching Dennis DeYoung [LINK] on PBS and really liked the concert. So she wanted to know if I’d go with her on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend. Oh no, it’s not even Styx, it’s the guy they booted out and he’s doing musical numbers and other crap. And personally I have to side with Tommy Shaw on the whole lame theatrical direction Dennis was taking them. So yes I went with my Mom to Dennis DeYoung for Mother’s Day Eve. Better than buying some flowers off the street I suppose. The sheer camp factor alone was worth it. And I was the envy of all at work sporting my new “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto” shirt. Which is on many people’s list as the worst song of the 80’s. Even funnier was that while he was singing it he was doing robot movements. It all ended with a rousing rendition of “Come Sail Away”. 1,700 seats at the Cerritos Center [LINK] and he still didn’t sell it out. Crack me up, rock on Dennis. My mom loved it.

The Santa Fe Art Colony [LINK] had its annual open studios this weekend. I completely forgot to shoot a photo of the Jett Jackson painting I bought, but I’ll pick it up in two weeks. Jett wanted to keep it so she can get a serigraph edition done for it. Cool, I’ll have the original. I now have three paintings by her, this one being the smallest. In the parking lot was a basketball court. Afterwards we went over to the Egyptian Theater to see the film Wages of Fear [LINK]. They’re having a retrospective of the director Henri-Georges Clouzot [LINK]. George met up with us and we had Philly Cheese steaks across the street at South Street [LINK] after the movie.

The train is picking up steam… The Polar Express: Variety states that producer Steve Bing [LINK] has made “one of the boldest moves ever taken by an independent producer” and personally invested $80 million — reportedly half of the film’s production budget — in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming children’s fantasy film. Adapted from Christian Van Allsburg’s Caldecott Medal-winning storybook about a boy who is whisked away on a magical steam engine to meet with Santa Claus at the North Pole, the film is being computer generated by Sony Pictures Imageworks from motion-captured performances of Tom Hanks and others, as illustrated in the teaser trailer here. The film will be arriving in theaters, from Warner Brothers and Castle Rock, November 19.

The guy’s only a year older than me and has invested $80 million of his own money in the film… and fathered Elizabeth Hurley’s kid. Well, as long as my paycheck doesn’t bounce and shows up on Thursdays I’m happy. Ok, back to work so I can make him the money back. The new trailer we’ve been working on should be on the front of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [LINK] in June.

In a nod to L.A., the first screening of the summer at Cinespia [LINK] was Chinatown [LINK]. Hadn’t see in it in about 15 years and it was great. I kept thinking of Blade Runner since their film noir styles are almost identical. I went unprepared without an extra blanket or the candles. By the time the film started it was packed. It keeps growing… The yellow balloon serves two purposes, how to find us when you first get there, and also how to find us after going to use the restrooms. An unexpected bonus. I still think “Filmstock” would be a better name. It’s still one of those underground L.A. things that most people haven’t been to and ruined its uniqueness. So don’t go, it sucks, it’s really not that great.

[ELIZABETH SHUE”S BUTT VIDEO LINK]

So, like Anne Marie and I (who I haven’t seen in over 3 years since we shot this photo at the Metreon in San Francisco [LINK] ) went to the Apple Store today amongst other things, and like oh my God Punky Brewster [LINK] was there! Then later that night George and I went to Abbot’s Pizza in Venice and Elizabeth Shue’s butt was there [VIDEO LINK]! The same butt that was naked in Leaving Las Vegas. Ok, all of Elizabeth Shue [LINK] was there too, but that’s not my point. By dinner time I was craving pizza and had always wanted to go down to Venice to Abbott’s Pizza [LINK] on Abbott Kinney. It gets nothing but rave reviews [LINK] from Zagat’s and other people’s choice polls. I’m happy to report it lived up to those expectations. A perfectly cooked crust, a nice tomatoey sauce, just the right amount of cheese and did I mention Elizabeth Shue’s butt? No? Elizabeth Shue’s butt.

Jill and I headed over in the rain this morning to hit the Brewery Artwalk [LINK]. It’s a twice annual event at the downtown brewery complex where some of the artists open their studios for you to meet them and see their work. I wanted to get there early so that if anything caught my eye I could snatch it up. The first 10 or so studios we went into were just crap but it slowly got better and almost redeemed itself by the end. I say almost because I still left underwhelmed by the quality of work. Robert Peluce [LINK] was the one standout artist I wanted to see and meet but sadly he passed away last Monday. There were some candles lit at the front door of his studios. About a month ago I had gone over to the Glass Garage Gallery [LINK] to see some of his work and inquired about one I liked. It was unfortunately at their sister gallery in Florida at the moment but could be shipped out if I’d like it. So I hesitated and decided to see what he might have, if anything, at the Artwalk and then choose something at that point. Now he’s gone, an absolutely amazing artist that will be missed. Beyond that 90% of the artists were pure crap and you wonder how they can say they’re artists with a straight face. Of course I love people in my paintings so that eliminates almost all of the abstract artists for me. One girls’ studio was beautifully painted all in angels, but not very interesting beyond that, and Christian Ristow [LINK] created these mechanicals monsters that are pretty incredible. You can see what his show is all about here [LINK]. I also got to meet Mat Gleason [LINK] who is the publisher of the local magazine Coagula [LINK]. I recognized him immediately from his photo on the website. I happened upon his website about 6 months ago and love his take on a lot of what goes on in the art world. Celebrity sighting of the day was Donna Mills [LINK], who played Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner on Knots Landing. A Cunningham on TV, had to put that in there. Then we ate lunch at Sharkey’s, went home and I dozed in a 2 hour food coma. A little video… [VIDEO LINK]

Woke up this morning to the sound of trucks and workmen yelling. According to the memo [LINK], “We will be filming in two areas and they are the exterior of the townhouses just south of the Activities Center and then in the meeting room of the Activities Center itself. The approximate hours of filming outside the townhouses are 7:00 am to noon…” Um, that would be me. Errrrr… guess I should have read that earlier in the week. On my way out the door I over heard some workmen, “I thought we were, ya know, filming in a park park?”. The other said, “Well, it’s called Park La Brea, it’s just not, ya know, a park park.” Speaking of, ya know, Park Park La Brea, check out the goofy new video they posted. [LINK]

Saturday night in Oakland was the 6 hour jam session comprised of me, Keith and Shelli (The Beattieles), Charlie, some pizza and M&M’s, and some other guys that I’ve forgotten their names. I even got to spend some of their money on music stuff, which I love because it’s music shopping yet I don’t have to pay for it. Some of the new songs we played this week included “Ballad Of John And Yoko” The Beatles, “Nothing Precious At All” by Stereophonics, “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Rod Stewart, and “Spooky” by The Atlanta Rhythm Section. Sunday morning we went to breakfast in Hayes Valley and I had dessert for breakfast. A nutella crepe with bananas and walnuts, and a 1/3 of a blintz. Then we headed over to “Lark Of The Morning” [LINK] music store to restock a box of noise for Shelli as she had to return a box of noise to someone else. Outside of the shop the band “The Sun Kings” [LINK] were playing and were quite good. All Beatles, all the time. Na na na na na na na Hey-a Juuuude [VIDEO LINK]. People love The Beatles. Which brings me to my next Beatle related item. After spying Keith’s book of the Complete Scores of The Beatles, I one day delivered a copy from Amazon. Of course I also snuck in a trip to La Cumbre in the Mission. Someone actually carved ftp into the pier above. Now that’s pretty geeky.

[IRELAND] [LONDON] [BARCELONA] [PRAGUE]
Finally finished all the photos and videos for the trip to Europe last Oct/Nov 2003. Ireland, London, and Prague have little video clips I shot along the way to get a vibe. Prague is quite extensive, while Barcelona is quite short as I was only there a few days. You can get to the videos at the bottom of each page in the galleries.

Just before midnight I was driving through Carson and decided to check out the oil refinieries [LINK]. They are some of California’s largest and the whole area can process almost a million gallons a day. They always looked like these belching hissing monsters on the side of the highway that I tried to pass as fast as I could. I’m sure the land around that area is just poisoned all to hell. The complexity of some of these structures is mind boggling. Someone had to build all those pipes and tubes and put them together in some working order. After 9/11, the huge U.S. flag went up. I thought we would have weened ourselves off of oil by now. It’s such a dirty business. Right about midnight a shady looking guy rode by on a bike and asked if I was a Laker fan. What goes on in a guys mind that thinks he can hawk a pair of tickets to a guy standing outside an oil refinery taking pictures in the middle of the night?