chase the light

What an insane day. Mission: Next To Impossible. The objective? Secure limited edition “Shag” [LINK] serigraph in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Tiki Room. Then get to birthday festivites by 12:30pm.
Got up at 6AM. Drove down to Disneyland. Pull into parking lot but realize I have no cash. Leave. Find ATM. Go back and park. Ride tram into Disneyland. Buy So. Cal. Annual Pass with parking at box office. Get in entrance line. Start to notice a ton of “island wear”. Obviously Shag fans. My competition to the goods. Gates open, people run, employees say walk, people go heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe, people start running again, employees say walk again. People run. Line forms on Main Street. 1 hour goes by. 2 hours go by. Nothing. Wrist bands handed out. 3 hours go by. Wrist band secured. 300 hundred prints exist. I’m halfway. Line proceeds to stay on Main Street for FIVE HOURS! Hate for all things Disney fills me. Mickey goes by. Alice in Wonderland goes by. Oh hey… cute. Argh, must focus. Finally get in. Secure print #226. Buy limited edition tiki mug while there. 12:45pm. Late for birthday. No time to get annual Pass. Get hand stamped. Ride tram to parking lot. Run to car. Get to picnic 45 minutes late. Mingle. Mingle more. Mingle even more. Check out parents new boat. Go up to house after picnic. Gather gifts from parents including gift card to Apple Store. (Yes! Thank you very much.) Pack car. Head back to Disneyland. Ride tram from parking lot. Heel-to-toe down Main Street. Photo I.D. taken for Annual Passport. Stop and pick up mini cheapo Shag print for office. Ride tram out to parking lot. Jam home. Unload car. Pop three Advil, put on swimsuit, grab new super bitchin’ towel, run to jacuzzi. 9:22pm, I’m in. Ahhhhhhhh….. 10:00pm, I’m out. Check Ebay. Shag print is already online [LINK].

While in line a met a guy who was a buyer for an art collector in Dallas. He flew in from Hawaii the day before with a $30,000 wire transfer to try and buy the 4 original paintings that were also for sale. They were going between 8K to 4k. He flies this guy all over the world to collect original Shag paintings. All expenses paid. He only came away with two prints so the client was a little disappointed. He gets a bonus when he can get original paintings. So he was a little disappointed too. He flew back to Hawaii today at 3:00. Where do people get these jobs? Sexual innuendo alert… I’ve been looking for a Shag like this for awhile and felt this was the one I wanted. These types of Shags usually get more expensive very quickly. I love this kinda Shag and it’s much more amazing in person. Even having to wait in line for five hours I’m glad I finally got a nice Shag on my birthday.

I also finally got to see the parents new boat. It looks a bit like a “Popeye” boat. They sold their old boat in 2 days [LINK]. Unheard of in the boating world. That’s how nice the old one was. This one’s going to take awhile to get into that shape but it’s an even nicer boat [LINK]. It’s about 2 feet longer but 4 times the cost of the old one. That’s a lot of Shags. Hee hee. See what I did there? I referenced something from… oh never mind.

Nicky’s not the smartest cat in the world. Curious, yes, smart, no. He climbed straight up my screen door and was teetering along the top. I had to grab a chair just to bring him down. Scared cats don’t like that. They’re all claws. Of course I had to shoot some vid of the damn thing before I rescue it.

Neighbor Rachel and I were walking down the street to go over her friends house. The plan was to go to the Cinerama Dome to see “How The West Was Won” at 4:00. Just as we got to the intersection a silver Forester goes flying by and runs the red light. The girl in the blue Del Sol started out into the intersection and gets slammed by the speeding car and spins about and goes into the oncoming traffic. The Del Sol then slams head on into the white car after the poor girls airbags have already gone off. The speeder had kids in the car and not wearing seatbelts. What a mess. The kid hit the windshield and busted up his face. The girl in the Del Sol’s face was punctured and taken to the hospital and the guy in white car seemed OK. The bonehead speeder’s kid was crying so he left the scene! That guy is screwed. Ugh. So much for the movie. I’ve kinda lost all interest in doing anything. Three things: wear your seatbelt, don’t speed, and don’t run red lights. Oh, and for your own safety, check the intersection even if the light is green.

Every year there’s the “Art in the Park” festival that goes on where I live. I call it “Fart in the Park” behind its back. Quite honestly it’s a lot of C grade artists hawking art that’s not good enough to be on a refrigerator. But, no matter what art show you go to, there always seems to be one artist who stands head and shoulders above everybody else. That one was Jett Jackson [LINK]. Amazing stuff, and a lot about heartbreak. I could have easily taken 4 or 5 pieces home but chose one because I didn’t want to over do myself. I got all sorts of great stories out of her about her paintings. The one I picked out is called “Act Like You’re Not Hurting”. It’s part of a series called, “Spring Break Up 2002”. It was a whole boyfriend left her for a another woman scenario. Dramatic events manifesting themselves into great work. Her words of advice? Never paint anything bigger than your car. I think she meant for transporting reasons. She was a lot of fun and has a show in October I’m definitely going to. Click for a close up.

Shakespeare in the Park? That’s for pussies. Movies in the cemetery is where it’s at. During the summer months the film geek society Cinespia [LINK] shows movies at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Projected on the wall of the mausoleum of all things. We grabbed a “plot” and set up our snobby cinema food i.e wine, cheese, crackers, etc. The projector is mounted in the back of a truck and torches line the drives of the cemetery. A great night above and below the stars. They really should call it Filmstock. Minus the breakfast in bed for 400 thousand [LINK]. Two shooting stars and a satellite were spotted. Oh yeah, the movie… Cheezy fun film noir, “Pickup On South Street”. Sample dialogue… “Hey Buddy.” “Hey Mac.” “Hey Muffin.”

Ten months of effects work on The Matrix films has finally come to an end. So a drink is in order. Funny, there were more people who partied it up after Reloaded wrapped than Revolutions. The Production Supervisor gave our Effects Supervisor a blow up doll for all his hard work. I think he might actually use it. He probably deserves a Real Doll [LINK], but after the drinks started flowing he was already giving the plastic one the eye.

What’s the most you can get out of people when you ask them to go totally crazy at 8:30 in the morning? They might raise their arms in the air for you. Now that “The Haunted Mansion” is wrapping up it’s crew photo time. There were three taken. Serious, smiling, and “just go totally crazy”. Whoa, slow down everybody… That’s one wild group of rock star’s there.

We lost a coworker recently. He was in Hawaii on vacation [LINK]. It’s incredibly sad what happened to him. I had only met him last week as he was fairly new. He was very fond of Hawaii and always wore a hawaiian print shirt. You know those kinda guys. They always seem to be really nice. In honor of him everybody wore hawaiian shirts on Friday and got together for a picture out front. Kinda nice. Stories like this upset me even if I don’t know the person. Much more than a car wreck or some other accident. I was rescued by a lifeguard once as I was getting pulled under by a rip current. I had been out swimming and was ready to come in when a rip current hit me and started dragging me under. The most terrifying thing you can imagine and I was already exhausted from swimming. I was able to signal but I was already swallowing water when he got to me. Had he been any later, who knows. I’ve grown up around the ocean my whole life but since then I’ve carried a healthy respect of the ocean and will never swim in it without fins. It’s just too unpredictable. Your comfort zone in the water isn’t necessarily a safe one. You think salt water tastes bad? Try it in your lungs.

Fire, carbon, flesh, and ambiance. A lowkey end to a non-laborious Labor Day. Even though I usually cook for one, I like breaking out the big ‘ol Weber grill just to have the flames shoot up about 6 feet when you light the coals. Ladies and gentleman and neighbors… I have made fire! I am Alpha Male. Hear me roar. All the neighbors peered out their windows in fright as I frantically poked the coals to a reasonable level. Then I leaned over the pit and shot close-up photographs which really frightened them. I think they were keeping an eye on me for my own safety. The teriyaki chicken? Awesome. The italian sausage? Juicilicious. The watermelon? Lovely.

Since I’ve been on a bit of a shopping spree as of late, I headed over to Wacko / Soap Plant / La Luz De Jesus [LINK]. They’re always good for some cash outlay by me. Being a fan of low brow art, a couple prints caught my eye. Well, almost anything with tikis on it catches my eye. I bought one by the artist Aaron Marshall [LINK] from Canada. It’s called “You Think I’ll Take Your Order, Boy? You Must Be Fucking Dreaming!”. The ultimate goal though is to secure 7 particular Mark Ryden [LINK] paintings. Four of which are tiki themed and one of girls on a carousel. Pele, Exotica, Tiki God, Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers, The Debutante, Princess Sputnik and another which is fairly rare.

Guised as Ken Ralston’s birthday, it was banana split time again at Imageworks. Anything to get away from the desk.

I got out of work pre-sunset and when I pulled out of the parking structure the world was going through a filter. It was just bizarre. The sky was going nuts and everything had a red glow. Buildings, people, cars, green grass. It was all red from the fiery clouds. No need to enhance this one tonight. An au natural sunset.

Don’t do it little bug! Life is worth living. You are loved. You’re kinda ugly, but that’s no reason to leap. It’s 7 stories straight down. After talking to him a bit I found out he was just their to enjoy the sunset and city lights. Kinda like me, but with a much more dangerous viewing spot. Crazy lil’ bug. Super panoramic of out of focus Hollywood lights.

For years we had the most pathetic excuse for a website. [LINK] For a visual effects company you’d expect so much more. They finally got their act together and it looks like the real thing now. [LINK] I’m glad they kept the Flash to a minimum.

L.A. has the best sunsets during the summer. Brilliant colors when there are no clouds, and brilliant colors when there are clouds. It doesn’t matter. I had to pick my parents up from Union Station in downtown for their trip to Michigan. I went a little early and walked over to Olvera Street and hung out on a bench to people watched. Or they walked by and watched me.

Every other night or so I go out the the jacuzzi and there’s a regular crowd out there that shoots the shit. It’s usually comprised of some combination of the Actor(s), the Director, the Editor, the Graphic Designer, the Visual Effects Artist (me), and Roger. It’s the epitome of what you’d expect from a crowd in L.A. Everybody’s in the business, except for Roger who soaks it all in. Roger is a large black man who has so many wild stories I start to wonder if he’s making half of them up. He’s sort of the unofficial overseer of the jacuzzi. There’s also an older lady who speaks way to frankly and says she’s dated Warren Beattie, Timothy Leary and Robert Atkins the diet guru. Anway, tonight, Actor says he’s going to be on the show “Monk” [LINK] at 10:00. His role? A bad actor in a stage play that gets accidently killed when a prop knife is swapped with a real one. The episode is called “Mr. Monk Goes To The Theater”. [LINK] Since the pool closes at 10:00 we all scurried off to watch. Too funny. Just 5 minutes ago I was sitting in the jacuzzi with Actor, and next thing you know he’s dying on my TV. I love L.A.

Today the Gods of Wireless Networking looked down upon me and smiled. With no real place for my new Apple Airport Extreme, the only logical space seemed to be in the center of my chain of tea lights. It needs its own shrine anyway. The umbilical cord has been cut, I’m all grown up now.

There were two fairly identical stories that came out about “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” this week. One focusing on just the Mongolian Dam including my shot. [LINK] The other on my shot and a few others. [LINK] Of course artists are never mentioned in these things, but that’s the way it goes. I never knew they referred to it as “The Blossom Shot”. I knew it as md09. Imageworks gives random names to shots and sequences in their films. md09 stood for Mongolian Dam #09. The naming of shots is not brain surgery.

A color study of lunch at the Sagebrush Cantina. [LINK] The food is really pretty crappy here.

Jen and Carey celebrated their birthdays with a Beach Blanket Bingo [LINK] pawty.