peaces

So Niller has come and gone. We had a great summer of movies, pool adventures, bodyboarding, video making, BlogTV, stickam and beach volleyball. It’s hard to believe she was here for seven weeks. I feel like she just arrived maybe a week or two ago.  Time flies.

I haven’t been posting in here because I’ve been spending most of my online time in the YouTube community. I know I should post every video I upload over here but I forget…often.

I’ve been doing a weekly show with another YouTuber every Monday morning. We just started so we’re still trying to find our groove.  So far it’s been an interesting experiment.  I have to see if our big camera will act as a webcam so I can do live music shows.  That’s what folks are asking for.  And that would be great to do. Right now, my new webcam, while it has decent picture quality, the microphone just sucks.  And my computer is almost four years old so the mic jack is jacked.

We’ll see what I can figure out.

I’m a tiny bit envious of the YouTubers who are in Toronto for the 8-8-8 gathering this weekend.  But I have such low ambition today that I might have slept through all the events.

Bodyboarding is my new favorite thing to do in Los Angeles.  I’m saving for my own bodyboard, fins and a wet-shirt. Maybe a wetsuit.  At least the shirt because I wore a bikini top my first time out and came back a little roughed up.  I was slammed by the ocean pretty hard my first day out too.  But that didn’t stop me from going two days later.  I’d go again today if I had my own bodyboard.  Soon though.

More again soon.  Is everyone enjoying summer?  Or winter, depending on your location.

If you haven’t heard, Los Angeles county had an earthquake this morning.

Just a quick check-in to let you know we’re all ok! We were in separate places — I was at work, PBX and Niller are working on a film set and the animals were home. Cell service was down for about an hour.  But thanks to Twitter, we were able to get messages to each other — well, not to the dogs. Amazing that we could send/receive messages from all parts of the world but could not get hold of anyone just a few miles away.

This earthquake was a good one. I was working at a client’s office - in a tall building, swinging and swaying for 30 seconds. Enough time to twitter: EARTHQUAKE RIGHT NOW.  haha - priorities you know?

Having been through the ‘94 quake, I learned how to gauge the magnitude. So while we were rockin-n-rollin, I called out, “This is a good one - at least a five, depending on where it’s located!”

It’s been a long while since I’ve felt a decent sized earthquake.  I like these rolly quakes much better than those jolting, bangy quakes. Less stressful, if you can believe that.

I just got home and the animals are just fine. As a matter of fact, I forgot we had an earthquake and just did a once-over. Nothing seems out of place.

If you want to know what’s going on with me at any time, you can follow me here.

Will keep you posted if there’s anything further. But I haven’t even felt a single one of the aftershocks.  We live 35 miles from the epicenter. Here’s a good link if you want to find real-time earthquake information.

Did I mention the fun I’m having in pockets of YouTube communities? Some of us follow each other on Twitter. Some are Facebooking and MySpacing. And some have come to my blog (hi YouTubers).

My MySpace comments section was receiving too many very large images that warped the alignment of my page. They were also filled with blinkies and other pimped out bling. Because of them, my page was slower to load than usual. MySpace is slow and bogged down as it is. So I disabled the html feature a long time ago.

So, my new friend RavenSinger sent this one to me. It belongs here more than that other place anyway. Thanks Raven. So far it’s been quite an exotic week.

We skated at the beach two days in a row. I’m sore and tired but I feel blessed to be in this town. There’s nothing like the beach on a weekday evening - especially a foggy/cloudy day. We practically had the bike path to ourselves.

Then we stopped for a fresh smoothie at our favorite new place over there. Playa del Rey is becoming my new favorite area around here.

It’s the big day (you must be thrilled). I’m turning the big FOUR-OH.  Just for today, let’s call it 20Twenty.  I’m still easing into the role.

I’m scheduled to get my hair cut today. I’ve never been to this place so this could be … interesting.  I’m looking forward to it though. My poor hair is so damaged.  It breaks and falls out constantly. I’m like a shedding dog. Nice huh?

We’re having friends over tonight. We were so excited to finally share our back yard with friends. But suddenly, the weather has taken a strange turn. It’s cold, windy and rainy. It feels like New England, where I was born.  To think last week at this time we were breaking record hot temps.  I wonder if we could be on the verge of breaking record cold temps for this time of year.

No matter. We’ll still have people over. They’ll just have to squeeze into pockets of the house.  We’re celebrating my birthday, a friend’s birthday and PBX’s graduation from Film School.

We took a walk along Malibu’s Broad Beach yesterday.  The wind was unbelievable!  I shot some video of kite surfers, flocks of pelicans and huge waves but the wind kills the audio.  The other footage was of the damage the ocean has done to property along this part … CORRECTION: the damage was done by the property owners along this part of the ocean.  The multi-million dollar home-owners hired private bulldozers to plow beach sand from the water’s edge, creating cliffs so “commoners” can’t walk along the beach during high tide.

It’s terrible.  We are devastated. It is devastating.  The damage is horrendous.  I’ll have to put that video together this weekend.

Off to start the celebration…

It’s 2:30 Sunday morning. I’m not sleeping. Neither are my party-hearty neighbors who have obviously rented a DJ for their all-nighter.  The thudding bass, screeching accompaniment and annoying DJ have been going non-stop since 7PM Saturday night.

We waited till midnight before calling LAPD about a noise disturbance.  My first four attempts received a busy signal.  When I finally reached the Southwest Office (our local branch) I was transferred to dispatch where it rang, and rang, and rang until I was ultimately disconnected.

I called my local branch again to let them know I was disconnected.  The officer kindly transferred me to dispatch a second time, where the same thing happened.  My third call to our local branch was just as futile.  This time I was given a number to call directly (1-877-ASK-LAPD).  I called that number eight times in two hours and was left on hold for over five minutes each time.  I never got through.

This is ridiculous.

I called the Southwest LAPD station again and spoke with an officer who said, “There’s nothing we can do.”  I was also told, “It’s a busy night” and my complaint is “low priority.”

Buzz words that tear through me.  Don’t ever tell a citizen she is low priority.

We live in an area of Los Angeles that is notorious for crime, drugs and gang activity.  How are we supposed to care if we are not cared for?

I expressed my frustration to the officer over the phone and let him know that I believe our neighborhood is consistently low priority for the LAPD.  He seemed to take offense.  He took my name, my address and phone number and assured me that he would call dispatch.
Interesting.  I’d spent two hours prior, being bounced around because there was “nothing they could do” and suddenly he thought he might be able to get hold of his co-workers.

I let an hour pass before I called my friends at the Southwest station again.  The music from the nearby house-party had not only continued, it had gotten louder and thuddier.

It’s been blazing hot for two days in LA.  It was a relief to feel the air cool down a few hours after the sun set for the day.  We opened all the windows to draw the cooler air into the house.

It’s after 3AM already.  We have given up on getting a comfortable night’s sleep.  All windows and doors are closed to silence external noise.  Three fans are blowing on the highest speeds.  And still I hear non-stop thudding through the walls.

Two things bother me about this.

1.  We have some of the rudest neighbors I’ve ever known.

2.  Our division of the LAPD is useless in non-emergency situations, unless perhaps someone were to strangle the DJ, thus transforming the situation into an emergency.

$4.29 = the price of a gallon of regular unleaded at a Los Angeles 76 station.

$4.07 = the price of a gallon of regular unleaded at a Los Angeles Mobil station.

$3.70 = the price of a grande caramel macchiato.

Finally, Starbucks is cheaper than gas.

Reluctantly I joined PBX and a friend for an afternoon movie in Hollywood. I wasn’t reluctant to join for fun. I was reluctant about the movie choice: Ironman. I just think taking two hours to sit still for a single film is a lot to ask in today’s world. In my world today, that is.

Our friend arrived earlier and bought our tickets for us. Naturally we were running late. We knew the movie would probably be sold out so we were concerned about finding seats together. Little did we know the Arclight Theater sells assigned seating. Nice.

I settled into my second-row aisle seat, preparing to nap, because as I said, I had no interest in seeing Ironman.

There was no nap.

Know what I love? When I’m pleasantly surprised by my overwhelming love for a film I never would’ve chosen to see on my own.

By the middle of the film I was cheering for the main character Tony Stark - who I am completely in love with. I mean, I liked Robert Downey Jr. before seeing this movie but now I’m head-over-heals in love with him.

So much in love that when we came out of the theater and saw the above Ironman Suit (pictured) on display - the same one I rolled my eyes at on the way in - I went goo-goo-gah-gah when I read the sign at its feet:

Actual suit worn by Robert Downey Jr. in Ironman

Our friend leaned in and joked, “It might still smell like him.” PBX captured my gah-ness on video (proof coming soon). I felt (and looked and sounded) like a kid on vacation in a foreign land. Sixteen years in this town and I was the biggest tourist-dork in sight.

I don’t care. It was awesome! I’m an Ironman fan. He’s going to save the world.

Oh yeah, and pictured is the car he drove to the red carpet gathering in the movie.

Yup. Starstruck. That’s me. I hate it. But I can’t help it.

I was feeling a little reluctant to play the other night. If you’d like to read more about that, you can do so here. If you’d like to skip the drama and get to the show, here’s how the opening song went … plus a little taste of something more at the end.

Just a quick reminder, I’m playing a short acoustic set tonight (tuesday).  If you’re over 21 and live in the Los Angeles area, there’s no reason not to join us.  Handmade CDs will be available.

Tequila shots at 7:55.  On stage at 8:00 sharp!

Here are the location details.

8911 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 657-0888

Looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!

All it takes is for me to be honest with myself (in here) and my heart starts to lighten up.  I just need to feel free to express these sides of myself.  And the only person with the authority to grant permission is me.  So, yeah, there it is.

I guess this Birthday to come is bigger than I was willing to admit.  It’s been a few years since I’ve had a big birthday celebration.  I’ve been considering one this year.  Perhaps.  We’ll see how I feel as the days pass.

For now I’m trying to remember to do loving things to feel good about myself.  Like waxing my legs and getting a hair cut and doing a week long intestinal cleanse and drinking superfood smoothies and playing music and writing and creating.

It gets difficult to keep my head up when I’m not working.  Money isn’t coming in but it keeps going out.  Funny how that happens.  Not funny-haha.  Not funny at all really.  It’s stressful.

Truthfully, not as stressful as working in madness.  I was sick and losing sleep and gaining even more wrinkles.

Work will come.  I’m putting the energy out there.  I certainly have caught up on lost sleep these past few free days.  I’m ready to return to full time work again.  That’s how it should be.  Work hard for 6 or 8 weeks then take a full week off.  Return completely refreshed.

On the creative life front — Last Friday we were interviewed for a documentary on sex education.  I was reminded of “that movie” and the “pink booklets” the girls got in sixth grade and “don’t let the boys see it.”  Things seem (and should be) so different today.

Saturday we were asked to be extras in a friend’s movie.  We played tourists on Hollywood Blvd, asking Marilyn Monroe for a photo.

Sunday we had a film crew at hour house for an upcoming film shoot in our house next week (unless the date changes).

What’s that you ask?  Is there a video?  Why YES, there is a video that corresponds with our exciting mundane lives!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH LOS ANGELES LIVING - HOLLYWOOD TO HOME 

Enjoy.  Off to record a song.