Terry Tate's World
Monday, November 06, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Roxy, Reagan & Rides...oh my!!
My beloved fans, I have not abandoned you…simply just ignored your for a month. Just kidding. It’s actually been somewhat busy here, with papers and presentations along with exam prepping. But, I have found a break in my ridiculously busy schedule of going to class, working, laying by the pool, chilling in the hot tub and doing nothing to squeeze in a blog.
With only two weeks left in Los Angeles, I’ve been trying to do a little more than I normally would. For instance, this past week was filled with fun adventures.
On Tuesday, myself accompanied by two other Belmont West-ers went to the world-famous Roxy to see a new band called People In Planes. The Roxy itself was fairly un-impressive and I’m not sure why it’s so famous. It’s a 300 person venue painted all black with a “VIP” section where you can actually sit at tables & order food. OOoooooo! This Monday also contemplating going to see Army Navy Band since it’s free at Spaceland in Hollywood.
Also, Thursday, four of us students went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and let me tell you, it was magical. Pictures are up for this event along with a few others, so go ahead and check them out. It was really fun, though I didn’t calculate the fact that on this particular Thursday, every high school would be off for the Easter holiday and would, inevitably, be at Six Flags. So, the lines were a little long, but it was still really fun. I mean, who doesn’t like traveling at dangerous speeds upside down on a steel pipe mounted car that has no way of stopping itself and relies on gravity to bring you inches from blacking out and possibly your ultimate demise? I know I do.
Over the past month, we have also had a few field trips, including The Reagan Presidential Library. Half of the fun of this trip was simply the drive out there. It was gorgeous, though the pictures don’t represent it well. It was also very cool to see all the things he did as president, considering I wasn’t even alive (I don’t think) for at least part of his presidency. It was neeto to learn that the line “Win one for the Gipper” was his in his most famous role as an actor (yes, just like Arnold, he went from actor to government…can we all say Tha Presidenator!!).
Also at the library was the recently retired Air Force One. So, I strapped on my Nelly inspired shoes and boarded that thing, though I was not allowed to take pictures in it (booo!). I have to admit, it was old inside, notably laptops with 8” screens and 500mb hard drives that are 4x the size of the one you’re reading this on. Somewhat comical, but still cool. I wonder what’s on the one they use now…oh wait, that’s right, we already know because all that information was leaked to anyone with the internet and can also be bought at Bazaar’s next to bases in Iraq on USB drives for the equivalent of $40. Good job Secret Service and CIA, way to keep the raps on the single most important transportation device needed to be guarded by you guys.
I’ve also been home for a job interview with, though there may have been some family derived confusion, I totally nailed and knew it because I’m just awesome. No, but really, I am now employed, hence, awesome. Boo ya actually getting paid to intern (who knew?). Pictures from the A-Duce trip are also up…good old beer pong including some random pictures of me giving my roommate Scott a haircut. Yes, that’s right people, I’m officially a “hair stylist” so make an appointment now because space is filling up in my uber-busy schedule. And, if you mention this add, you’ll get 15% off the original $450 price, don’t you feel special?
By the way, I have to give a ‘shout out’ to a new band that everyone should be listening that goes by the name The Gabe Dixon Band. It’s a good mix of pop jazz and funky grooves that is worth a listen to. Plus, you can download the entire first album for free, so why not? ‘More Than It Would Seem’ is a nice track worth special mention.
Finally, I will close by informing “ya’ll” of the road trip I will be taking instead of flying back home. It will include seeing (in order) Mojave Desert, Death Valley, The Vegas, Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, and finally, my favorite stop, D-D-D-Detroit Rock Citaay! Should be a good time. And don’t worry, I have a road trip buddy to accompany me and help start the IV directly injecting caffeine into my veins so I can drive wide awake. Should be a super-d-duperdee time and I look very much forward to bein on the open road and listening to Turn The Page, pretending I’m cool and a rock star going from gig to gig.
So, until next time, I shal try to stay active and create things to write about and write way too much about back to everyone. Have a good one, stay in school…or get a job if you’re graduating (losers) and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do...like working for nothing and being legal slave labor…wait, crap, that’s what I’m doing now and have been for the past year and half. Oh well, see ya in a few weeks (I’ll be home in The Roch May 8th). Ciao,
Jon boy
With only two weeks left in Los Angeles, I’ve been trying to do a little more than I normally would. For instance, this past week was filled with fun adventures.
On Tuesday, myself accompanied by two other Belmont West-ers went to the world-famous Roxy to see a new band called People In Planes. The Roxy itself was fairly un-impressive and I’m not sure why it’s so famous. It’s a 300 person venue painted all black with a “VIP” section where you can actually sit at tables & order food. OOoooooo! This Monday also contemplating going to see Army Navy Band since it’s free at Spaceland in Hollywood.
Also, Thursday, four of us students went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and let me tell you, it was magical. Pictures are up for this event along with a few others, so go ahead and check them out. It was really fun, though I didn’t calculate the fact that on this particular Thursday, every high school would be off for the Easter holiday and would, inevitably, be at Six Flags. So, the lines were a little long, but it was still really fun. I mean, who doesn’t like traveling at dangerous speeds upside down on a steel pipe mounted car that has no way of stopping itself and relies on gravity to bring you inches from blacking out and possibly your ultimate demise? I know I do.
Over the past month, we have also had a few field trips, including The Reagan Presidential Library. Half of the fun of this trip was simply the drive out there. It was gorgeous, though the pictures don’t represent it well. It was also very cool to see all the things he did as president, considering I wasn’t even alive (I don’t think) for at least part of his presidency. It was neeto to learn that the line “Win one for the Gipper” was his in his most famous role as an actor (yes, just like Arnold, he went from actor to government…can we all say Tha Presidenator!!).
Also at the library was the recently retired Air Force One. So, I strapped on my Nelly inspired shoes and boarded that thing, though I was not allowed to take pictures in it (booo!). I have to admit, it was old inside, notably laptops with 8” screens and 500mb hard drives that are 4x the size of the one you’re reading this on. Somewhat comical, but still cool. I wonder what’s on the one they use now…oh wait, that’s right, we already know because all that information was leaked to anyone with the internet and can also be bought at Bazaar’s next to bases in Iraq on USB drives for the equivalent of $40. Good job Secret Service and CIA, way to keep the raps on the single most important transportation device needed to be guarded by you guys.
I’ve also been home for a job interview with, though there may have been some family derived confusion, I totally nailed and knew it because I’m just awesome. No, but really, I am now employed, hence, awesome. Boo ya actually getting paid to intern (who knew?). Pictures from the A-Duce trip are also up…good old beer pong including some random pictures of me giving my roommate Scott a haircut. Yes, that’s right people, I’m officially a “hair stylist” so make an appointment now because space is filling up in my uber-busy schedule. And, if you mention this add, you’ll get 15% off the original $450 price, don’t you feel special?
By the way, I have to give a ‘shout out’ to a new band that everyone should be listening that goes by the name The Gabe Dixon Band. It’s a good mix of pop jazz and funky grooves that is worth a listen to. Plus, you can download the entire first album for free, so why not? ‘More Than It Would Seem’ is a nice track worth special mention.
Finally, I will close by informing “ya’ll” of the road trip I will be taking instead of flying back home. It will include seeing (in order) Mojave Desert, Death Valley, The Vegas, Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, and finally, my favorite stop, D-D-D-Detroit Rock Citaay! Should be a good time. And don’t worry, I have a road trip buddy to accompany me and help start the IV directly injecting caffeine into my veins so I can drive wide awake. Should be a super-d-duperdee time and I look very much forward to bein on the open road and listening to Turn The Page, pretending I’m cool and a rock star going from gig to gig.
So, until next time, I shal try to stay active and create things to write about and write way too much about back to everyone. Have a good one, stay in school…or get a job if you’re graduating (losers) and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do...like working for nothing and being legal slave labor…wait, crap, that’s what I’m doing now and have been for the past year and half. Oh well, see ya in a few weeks (I’ll be home in The Roch May 8th). Ciao,
Jon boy
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Break for Spring!...in February?
Coming to you live from Los Angeles, I have returned from my spring break adventures. My week and a half long adventure took me from Bob Hope airport in Burbank to Denver and Denver University where I was so kingly housed by Lars and his roommate Lasse. I was exposed to the outer parts of the city which has a much slower and what seemed to be down to earth pace than Los Angeles. It was also remarkably warm there, allowing Lars and I to actually go play 9 holes at a municipal course where I proceeded to either shoot par or quadruple plus bogie. Despite the warm weather, Lars and I still went to Beaver Creek one day and shredded the nar on some good snow on a super sunny and nice day. It was pretty boo ya.
I also played my first game of poker ever and was the first our of four to lose all my chips the first game. However, the second, I finished second, and was saved from losing any money on that game. Furthermore, I was also able to see Emily, Lars gurlfriend who was also in Rome with us along with Julia, a third Rome buddy. It was quite fun, got to take over the living room of a nice apt and just sleep in and relax. Good times had by all.
After spending Friday through Wednesday in Denver, I left that afternoon and headed my way to New York to visit yet another roman buddy. After arriving at LaGuardia airport I treated myself to a long overdue game of Gallaga, my most favorite 80’s video game ever that they just happened to have by the baggage carousels as I awaited my escorts. Leah and her friend Hellen arrived just after I managed to lose my last space fighter to the tricky and surprisingly witty and fast invading aliens. From there it was only a short bus ride to go wait a while in the cold at the above ground part of the subway to take us to a 15 minute walk back to Northern Chelsea where they reside. Their “apartment” which is basically the tiniest dorm I’ve ever seen (rooms are literally 6’ wide x 12’ long and house two people via bunk beds, no joke…claustrophobia anyone?) and should never be called anything other than simply tiny boxes in which to slowly but surely drive anyone/thing that lives in them crazy. Upon actually seeing these domiciles in person I lovingly referred to the place as The Box from there on out.
In New York it snowed and was icky-poo-nasty on Thursday, so I laid around all day, slept, talked to friends and family and devised a sight seeing rout which I promptly abandoned once I had the chance to implement it Friday. Once that came, I walked around, starting on 5th street and making my way north past the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, through a major shopping district and onto the southern tip of Central Park. I also went to Time Square and made the mistake of going into the Virgin Megastore which is about 10 times bigger than the one here in L.A. Fortunatly I had to go to the bathroom bad enough to make myself leave after an hour of listening to music and deciding that I “totally needed” about 15 CD’s I ended up setting down and rushing for a potty. Probably something to do with the only meal I had eaten at that time…Mc-fricken-Donalds, so gross.
This is where I through in a little snippet of the “I’m Totally Weird” disclaimer to explain why I ate at McDonalds while I was in New York and profess that I have some sort of phobia about eating in real restaurants by myself. I am not sure if it is the feeling that everyone is looking at the dude eating alone and feeling sorry/pitiful and making fun of him or if it’s just the thought of having the only other seat at your table empty or that they usually won’t let me bring my imaginary friends in with me and share a table of 8 with me and the buddies no-one else can see, but I simply just can’t manage to make myself eat in a legitimate restaurant alone. However, non-legitimate restaurants, such as McDonalds and any other “fast food” joints, are total fair game for solo eating. I know, crazy and mentally deranged, but hey, I don’t feel like taking pills to fix it.
The rest of the weekend I was entertained by seeing Bodies The Exhibit down on the lower west side of Manhattan (http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/) which was a superbly done exhibit on the major functions and composition of the human body. This was proceeded by a lovely dinner in Little Italy, by far the closest anyone has come to matching the infinitely superb dishes at La Hostaria De Moro, a.k.a. Tony’s, the restaurant that we constantly ate at in Rome.
Finally, Sunday I was treated to a lovely stroll down Wall Street and Battery Park along with witnessing the touching scene that is Ground Zero. You wouldn’t think that a giant hole in the ground surrounded by big fences could make you feel a wide range of emotions, but you’d be wrong. My stay was capped off by watching what I thought to be a poorly done Oscars where I was pleased Brokeback Mountain didn’t win every award known to man.
I’m now back in Los Angeles, and quite frankly, I no longer want to be here, or anywhere except back home. I’m sick of traveling, I’m sick of being away and I’m tired of not feeling like I really belong where I’m at. I’m not saying I don’t “belong” in Los Angeles, but I’m only here for a semester and I know I’m not coming back right away and it doesn’t feel like home. I am just ready to go back and that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to bore you guys with my “I’m a spoiled travling student who is bored” speech that I’ve already bored my parents and co. with too often. I suppose getting burned out in Rome was a bad idea before coming to L.A. :-p
Unfrotunatly, we haven’t really had a lot of time, or ideas for that matter, to make a new video to everyone’s entertainment. There are a handful of so-so ideas on the table that we may try to work with, but as of now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. March Madness is only a few days away from announcing the line-up, which is quite exciting and, who knows, may produce some film ideas and good stuff. Keep your fingers crossed.
Ok, I’ve written a fair amount, new pictures are up, go check ‘em out here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/)
Alright, I’m out. Have a good one, be super duper, New York is balls cold in the winter, and have a wonderful day,
Jon Boy
I also played my first game of poker ever and was the first our of four to lose all my chips the first game. However, the second, I finished second, and was saved from losing any money on that game. Furthermore, I was also able to see Emily, Lars gurlfriend who was also in Rome with us along with Julia, a third Rome buddy. It was quite fun, got to take over the living room of a nice apt and just sleep in and relax. Good times had by all.
After spending Friday through Wednesday in Denver, I left that afternoon and headed my way to New York to visit yet another roman buddy. After arriving at LaGuardia airport I treated myself to a long overdue game of Gallaga, my most favorite 80’s video game ever that they just happened to have by the baggage carousels as I awaited my escorts. Leah and her friend Hellen arrived just after I managed to lose my last space fighter to the tricky and surprisingly witty and fast invading aliens. From there it was only a short bus ride to go wait a while in the cold at the above ground part of the subway to take us to a 15 minute walk back to Northern Chelsea where they reside. Their “apartment” which is basically the tiniest dorm I’ve ever seen (rooms are literally 6’ wide x 12’ long and house two people via bunk beds, no joke…claustrophobia anyone?) and should never be called anything other than simply tiny boxes in which to slowly but surely drive anyone/thing that lives in them crazy. Upon actually seeing these domiciles in person I lovingly referred to the place as The Box from there on out.
In New York it snowed and was icky-poo-nasty on Thursday, so I laid around all day, slept, talked to friends and family and devised a sight seeing rout which I promptly abandoned once I had the chance to implement it Friday. Once that came, I walked around, starting on 5th street and making my way north past the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, through a major shopping district and onto the southern tip of Central Park. I also went to Time Square and made the mistake of going into the Virgin Megastore which is about 10 times bigger than the one here in L.A. Fortunatly I had to go to the bathroom bad enough to make myself leave after an hour of listening to music and deciding that I “totally needed” about 15 CD’s I ended up setting down and rushing for a potty. Probably something to do with the only meal I had eaten at that time…Mc-fricken-Donalds, so gross.
This is where I through in a little snippet of the “I’m Totally Weird” disclaimer to explain why I ate at McDonalds while I was in New York and profess that I have some sort of phobia about eating in real restaurants by myself. I am not sure if it is the feeling that everyone is looking at the dude eating alone and feeling sorry/pitiful and making fun of him or if it’s just the thought of having the only other seat at your table empty or that they usually won’t let me bring my imaginary friends in with me and share a table of 8 with me and the buddies no-one else can see, but I simply just can’t manage to make myself eat in a legitimate restaurant alone. However, non-legitimate restaurants, such as McDonalds and any other “fast food” joints, are total fair game for solo eating. I know, crazy and mentally deranged, but hey, I don’t feel like taking pills to fix it.
The rest of the weekend I was entertained by seeing Bodies The Exhibit down on the lower west side of Manhattan (http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/) which was a superbly done exhibit on the major functions and composition of the human body. This was proceeded by a lovely dinner in Little Italy, by far the closest anyone has come to matching the infinitely superb dishes at La Hostaria De Moro, a.k.a. Tony’s, the restaurant that we constantly ate at in Rome.
Finally, Sunday I was treated to a lovely stroll down Wall Street and Battery Park along with witnessing the touching scene that is Ground Zero. You wouldn’t think that a giant hole in the ground surrounded by big fences could make you feel a wide range of emotions, but you’d be wrong. My stay was capped off by watching what I thought to be a poorly done Oscars where I was pleased Brokeback Mountain didn’t win every award known to man.
I’m now back in Los Angeles, and quite frankly, I no longer want to be here, or anywhere except back home. I’m sick of traveling, I’m sick of being away and I’m tired of not feeling like I really belong where I’m at. I’m not saying I don’t “belong” in Los Angeles, but I’m only here for a semester and I know I’m not coming back right away and it doesn’t feel like home. I am just ready to go back and that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to bore you guys with my “I’m a spoiled travling student who is bored” speech that I’ve already bored my parents and co. with too often. I suppose getting burned out in Rome was a bad idea before coming to L.A. :-p
Unfrotunatly, we haven’t really had a lot of time, or ideas for that matter, to make a new video to everyone’s entertainment. There are a handful of so-so ideas on the table that we may try to work with, but as of now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. March Madness is only a few days away from announcing the line-up, which is quite exciting and, who knows, may produce some film ideas and good stuff. Keep your fingers crossed.
Ok, I’ve written a fair amount, new pictures are up, go check ‘em out here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/)
Alright, I’m out. Have a good one, be super duper, New York is balls cold in the winter, and have a wonderful day,
Jon Boy
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Yeay Olympics!!
Valentines Day is, in my humble (but I swear not bitter) opinion, one of the most controversial holidays. “But why, it’s so lovey dovey and sweet and makes me feel like a princess” you may be saying. It is this exact thing, mixing a holiday with such a combustible emotion that makes it so contentious.
On one hand, you have the perfect holiday. You, your significant other, deliciously yummy chocolates and a hot tub shaped like a heart, filled with rose pedals and soaps of which the names are impossible to pronounce and dangerous to the life of your heart when getting the bill. A great way to show that special someone that there’s no one else in the world for you and to be able to display your affection on a pedestal. This is wonderful and I applaud all who are able to pull this off without unintentionally creating a 3rd member of the relationship or coming off as a huge loser.
However, on your other hand (I hope you just looked at your other hand) you’ve got the majority of the country, the single/bad relationship-wrecked who fear a day full of fake or vacant love and hide in the corner, waiting for such a “corporate scheme of a holiday created by corporate giants to boost profits in a slow holiday season” time to end. It’s a big fat reminder of how single you may be, which isn’t always the coolest thing to be reminded about by the entire country at once.
I on the other hand (yes, your third hand) will be smack dab in the middle this Valentines Day. I may be single, but I’m not worrying about it and am going to have a good time making fun of those in relationships along with every single person I can find, putting me in the third group, the group of the group of people who would like to conduct a full scale fight between the previous to groups. I think it might be kind of fun, similar to the commercial where the guy can control what everyone on the bus does “you two, fight to the death, you turn up your radio, you shake your booty, you drive faster.” I will be doing my best to antagonize everyone I can find, but of course, all in good fun, and I hope they do the same to me, because what is a holiday without some good, clean friend and family bashing?? I say no holiday I want to take part of, that’s for sure.
Anyhoo, now that my rant is over, I can tell you AALLLL about the Grammy Awards, which were pretty boo ya. I was what you would call an ‘escort’ as I helped talent and their publicists & others make their way down the red carpet and manage all the interviews they wanted to do. There were so many of us volunteering that I only managed to do this twice in the course of five hours, but it was still a good time. My first celebrity was the infamous Fiona Apple. She seems like there’s a nice person just eeking to get out, but is being suppressed by whatever “chemicals” she may be on along with what appears to be a serious by-polar disorder and manic depression and insecurity. However, I could be wrong, she may not have any of the above, but I’d bet money she does.
Fiona is fairly famous, though, and pretty much everyone wanted to talk to her, so I have to judge what was good, beating certain people off with sticks and allowing others off their leashes to go after Fiona. It was pretty cool, my job was simply to make the artist and their publicists life as easy as possible on the red carpet and I think I did a pretty decent job considering I was a red (or green, in this case) carpet virgin.
The other “star” I got was Masiela Lusha (http://abc.go.com/primetime/georgelopez/en/bios/masiela_lusha.html) who is a young gurl who is one of the characters on the George Lopez show. I had no idea who she was and I don’t think most other people do either, but all she wanted to do was get her picture taken by the paparazzi which was great because then I didn’t have to try to fight to get her interviews, making my job much easier.
After the carpet spectacle was over, they had a few extra tickets and I was able, along with a few other people, to actually go see the show live. It’s funny to think that the cheapest tickets for sale were $175 a piece (the tickets we got) and they were in the complete nosebleed section with our views blocked by rafters and scaffolding rigging the lights and what not. Apparently lower bowl tickets were over $400 a piece, making it one of the most expensive shows I’ve ever seen, craziness. It was a great show, though, everyone who performed live did a very good job and it sounded amazing. It was basically like seeing a giant concert with lots of big starts that had a few commercial breaks. I enjoyed every minute of it and would definitely go again.
Not a whole lot other than that has gone on here in good ol’ Los Angeles, we’re kind of boring. We’ve simply been watching the Olympics with our new best friend, the keg we got to help us make it through all the TV watching we’re going. We’re so fond of our new buddy, that was actually made a short film about him. You can go see it here http://homepage.mac.com/yakyak9/iMovieTheater5.html . We hope you like it. It was our source of fun entertainment while watching the Olympics last night and so far the critics seem to like its presentation. We’re pleased with our first short film and I have a feeling it’s just one of many to come during the rest of the semester.
Along with the movie, I’m just super duper excited about the Olympics. The Winter Olympics are one of my favorite things ever and I’m just pumped to watch them and especially educate a few southerners about the fine art that is Curling, the most underrated sport in the games and possibly ever. I also really like watching Cassie Johnson because she’s ridiculously attractive (she’s hot AND a world class curler, what more could you ask?!). So, I know you guys are going to make fun of me for liking curling so much, but I’m used to it along with the “Canadian accent” I apparently have. I guess it all goes hand in hand. But, if anyone knows Carrie, or even her sister Jamie, or anyone else on the team (Jessica Shultz, Maureen Brunt, Courtney George), I would appreciate putting in a good word for me to Cassie (or her sister, she’s cool too).
Finally, I’d like to plug a “local” band that I’ve liked for a while. They came out with a full length CD a little while ago and are quite creative and funny. Their name is Tally Hall, a band from Ann Arbor who I’ve seen a few times live. Go here to check them out http://www.tallyhall.com/ . They’ve got some good music and funny videos, so if you’re ever bored, you can go there and play around with some stuff.
Ok, well, that’s about it for now. I’ll update “ya’ll” soonly with the happenings of my life, not sure what exciting things are coming up except for spring break in a week and a half and that we might also go to Bear Mountain this weekend to shred the nar for a day, which would be nice so I don’t make a complete fool out of myself when I get to Denver and have a world class skier and friends show me up on the mountains there.
I’ll see you guys soonly, ciao
Jon Boy
The Keg Movie: http://homepage.mac.com/yakyak9/iMovieTheater5.html
Please watch it and let me know what you think, ‘cause we’ll probably make more. Any suggestions welcome and encouraged along with stupid short film ideas for the future (trying to get our hands on an actual movie camera to shoot motion shots).
On one hand, you have the perfect holiday. You, your significant other, deliciously yummy chocolates and a hot tub shaped like a heart, filled with rose pedals and soaps of which the names are impossible to pronounce and dangerous to the life of your heart when getting the bill. A great way to show that special someone that there’s no one else in the world for you and to be able to display your affection on a pedestal. This is wonderful and I applaud all who are able to pull this off without unintentionally creating a 3rd member of the relationship or coming off as a huge loser.
However, on your other hand (I hope you just looked at your other hand) you’ve got the majority of the country, the single/bad relationship-wrecked who fear a day full of fake or vacant love and hide in the corner, waiting for such a “corporate scheme of a holiday created by corporate giants to boost profits in a slow holiday season” time to end. It’s a big fat reminder of how single you may be, which isn’t always the coolest thing to be reminded about by the entire country at once.
I on the other hand (yes, your third hand) will be smack dab in the middle this Valentines Day. I may be single, but I’m not worrying about it and am going to have a good time making fun of those in relationships along with every single person I can find, putting me in the third group, the group of the group of people who would like to conduct a full scale fight between the previous to groups. I think it might be kind of fun, similar to the commercial where the guy can control what everyone on the bus does “you two, fight to the death, you turn up your radio, you shake your booty, you drive faster.” I will be doing my best to antagonize everyone I can find, but of course, all in good fun, and I hope they do the same to me, because what is a holiday without some good, clean friend and family bashing?? I say no holiday I want to take part of, that’s for sure.
Anyhoo, now that my rant is over, I can tell you AALLLL about the Grammy Awards, which were pretty boo ya. I was what you would call an ‘escort’ as I helped talent and their publicists & others make their way down the red carpet and manage all the interviews they wanted to do. There were so many of us volunteering that I only managed to do this twice in the course of five hours, but it was still a good time. My first celebrity was the infamous Fiona Apple. She seems like there’s a nice person just eeking to get out, but is being suppressed by whatever “chemicals” she may be on along with what appears to be a serious by-polar disorder and manic depression and insecurity. However, I could be wrong, she may not have any of the above, but I’d bet money she does.
Fiona is fairly famous, though, and pretty much everyone wanted to talk to her, so I have to judge what was good, beating certain people off with sticks and allowing others off their leashes to go after Fiona. It was pretty cool, my job was simply to make the artist and their publicists life as easy as possible on the red carpet and I think I did a pretty decent job considering I was a red (or green, in this case) carpet virgin.
The other “star” I got was Masiela Lusha (http://abc.go.com/primetime/georgelopez/en/bios/masiela_lusha.html) who is a young gurl who is one of the characters on the George Lopez show. I had no idea who she was and I don’t think most other people do either, but all she wanted to do was get her picture taken by the paparazzi which was great because then I didn’t have to try to fight to get her interviews, making my job much easier.
After the carpet spectacle was over, they had a few extra tickets and I was able, along with a few other people, to actually go see the show live. It’s funny to think that the cheapest tickets for sale were $175 a piece (the tickets we got) and they were in the complete nosebleed section with our views blocked by rafters and scaffolding rigging the lights and what not. Apparently lower bowl tickets were over $400 a piece, making it one of the most expensive shows I’ve ever seen, craziness. It was a great show, though, everyone who performed live did a very good job and it sounded amazing. It was basically like seeing a giant concert with lots of big starts that had a few commercial breaks. I enjoyed every minute of it and would definitely go again.
Not a whole lot other than that has gone on here in good ol’ Los Angeles, we’re kind of boring. We’ve simply been watching the Olympics with our new best friend, the keg we got to help us make it through all the TV watching we’re going. We’re so fond of our new buddy, that was actually made a short film about him. You can go see it here http://homepage.mac.com/yakyak9/iMovieTheater5.html . We hope you like it. It was our source of fun entertainment while watching the Olympics last night and so far the critics seem to like its presentation. We’re pleased with our first short film and I have a feeling it’s just one of many to come during the rest of the semester.
Along with the movie, I’m just super duper excited about the Olympics. The Winter Olympics are one of my favorite things ever and I’m just pumped to watch them and especially educate a few southerners about the fine art that is Curling, the most underrated sport in the games and possibly ever. I also really like watching Cassie Johnson because she’s ridiculously attractive (she’s hot AND a world class curler, what more could you ask?!). So, I know you guys are going to make fun of me for liking curling so much, but I’m used to it along with the “Canadian accent” I apparently have. I guess it all goes hand in hand. But, if anyone knows Carrie, or even her sister Jamie, or anyone else on the team (Jessica Shultz, Maureen Brunt, Courtney George), I would appreciate putting in a good word for me to Cassie (or her sister, she’s cool too).
Finally, I’d like to plug a “local” band that I’ve liked for a while. They came out with a full length CD a little while ago and are quite creative and funny. Their name is Tally Hall, a band from Ann Arbor who I’ve seen a few times live. Go here to check them out http://www.tallyhall.com/ . They’ve got some good music and funny videos, so if you’re ever bored, you can go there and play around with some stuff.
Ok, well, that’s about it for now. I’ll update “ya’ll” soonly with the happenings of my life, not sure what exciting things are coming up except for spring break in a week and a half and that we might also go to Bear Mountain this weekend to shred the nar for a day, which would be nice so I don’t make a complete fool out of myself when I get to Denver and have a world class skier and friends show me up on the mountains there.
I’ll see you guys soonly, ciao
Jon Boy
The Keg Movie: http://homepage.mac.com/yakyak9/iMovieTheater5.html
Please watch it and let me know what you think, ‘cause we’ll probably make more. Any suggestions welcome and encouraged along with stupid short film ideas for the future (trying to get our hands on an actual movie camera to shoot motion shots).
Monday, February 06, 2006
Philharmonics and Beaches
Hello everyone, adoring public. Lots has gone on since I last wrote you a week and a half ago. Spring Break plans have been made, Grammy credentials have been obtained, Super Bowl’s have been one, and Philharmonics have been viewed.
First, let’s start with the spring break. It was quite a toss up this year between being able to hang out w/the roommate for life & crew and hanging w/some of the new friends. The ultimate deciding factor was, as usual, the dinero. The U of Mers were going to Acapulco, a lovely little place where I’d never want to live, but is super fun to visit. Plane tickets were surprisingly expensive and then hotels. I am saddened that I will not be able to join my former college family for what will be an epic spring break, for this I apologize and wish you the best of times.
I will, instead, be mooching couches and floor space for a virtually free trip to Denver and New York. Starting Friday, February 24th, I will be in Denver until March 1st, at which point I will be finishing my trip in New York, taking a bite of the big apple for the first time. I look forward to being able to shred the narr and then hang in central park. Any suggestions for things to do in New York are welcome considering I know not a great deal of information pertaining to the city.
Also, last week Thursday, most of us in the program here went to go see the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform Mozart, Hayden, and Shostakovich, paid for by the school. It was quite amazing, seeing at The Walt Disney Concert Hall where the L.A. Phil performs is virtually acoustically perfect. This mean, in lay-men’s terms that you can hear everything perfectly w/o any mic-ing of instruments to project their sound through amplifiers. Every individual instrument can be singled out and heard by itself by even the completely untrained ear and be heard perfectly at nearly any point in the entire concert hall. It’s an amazing building that has a very striking resemblance to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.
Also on the docket for the past week was going to the red carpet premier for Final Destination 3. Someone at work had an extra pair of tickets for the movie premier and the after party. So the cat and I hit up the red carpet in style and wined and dined with the movie star elite for a night, basking in the glory of our own awesomeness…in the corner of the club, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone too important for fear they’d question our presence at such an event. Unfortunately we arrived a little late and missed all the red carpet hoopla, but it was still fun none-the-less.
I would also like to add that I’m fairly jealous of everyone who got to go to the super bowl, not only because, well, it’s the fricken super bowl, but the Stones played the half time show, which just had to be super duper cool. Detroit rock city with the stones and the super bowl, sounds like a wining combination if I ever heard of one.
Other than the semi-random events that have occurred in the last while, things here are going well. Working the Grammy’s Wednesday, which should be really interesting. I’ll let everyone know how that goes, but I will unfortunately not be allowed to have a camera, so pictures will be at a minimum if any. I’ve just kind of been hanging out around L.A., reading lots of scripts at work and trying to figure out how people deal with the insane amount of traffic for no reason that plagues L.A.
Also, more pictures have been added to the photo website, so you can check there to look at Newport beach, which I went to with the cat to check out apartments and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Some good stuff, you know you want to check it out. Anyhoo, I can’t think of anything else to write at the current moment so I’ll have to catch you cats at a later date, sooner than later, of course. Keep it real back home and lemme know how things are going.
Jon Boy
Photos a la boy... http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/
First, let’s start with the spring break. It was quite a toss up this year between being able to hang out w/the roommate for life & crew and hanging w/some of the new friends. The ultimate deciding factor was, as usual, the dinero. The U of Mers were going to Acapulco, a lovely little place where I’d never want to live, but is super fun to visit. Plane tickets were surprisingly expensive and then hotels. I am saddened that I will not be able to join my former college family for what will be an epic spring break, for this I apologize and wish you the best of times.
I will, instead, be mooching couches and floor space for a virtually free trip to Denver and New York. Starting Friday, February 24th, I will be in Denver until March 1st, at which point I will be finishing my trip in New York, taking a bite of the big apple for the first time. I look forward to being able to shred the narr and then hang in central park. Any suggestions for things to do in New York are welcome considering I know not a great deal of information pertaining to the city.
Also, last week Thursday, most of us in the program here went to go see the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform Mozart, Hayden, and Shostakovich, paid for by the school. It was quite amazing, seeing at The Walt Disney Concert Hall where the L.A. Phil performs is virtually acoustically perfect. This mean, in lay-men’s terms that you can hear everything perfectly w/o any mic-ing of instruments to project their sound through amplifiers. Every individual instrument can be singled out and heard by itself by even the completely untrained ear and be heard perfectly at nearly any point in the entire concert hall. It’s an amazing building that has a very striking resemblance to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.
Also on the docket for the past week was going to the red carpet premier for Final Destination 3. Someone at work had an extra pair of tickets for the movie premier and the after party. So the cat and I hit up the red carpet in style and wined and dined with the movie star elite for a night, basking in the glory of our own awesomeness…in the corner of the club, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone too important for fear they’d question our presence at such an event. Unfortunately we arrived a little late and missed all the red carpet hoopla, but it was still fun none-the-less.
I would also like to add that I’m fairly jealous of everyone who got to go to the super bowl, not only because, well, it’s the fricken super bowl, but the Stones played the half time show, which just had to be super duper cool. Detroit rock city with the stones and the super bowl, sounds like a wining combination if I ever heard of one.
Other than the semi-random events that have occurred in the last while, things here are going well. Working the Grammy’s Wednesday, which should be really interesting. I’ll let everyone know how that goes, but I will unfortunately not be allowed to have a camera, so pictures will be at a minimum if any. I’ve just kind of been hanging out around L.A., reading lots of scripts at work and trying to figure out how people deal with the insane amount of traffic for no reason that plagues L.A.
Also, more pictures have been added to the photo website, so you can check there to look at Newport beach, which I went to with the cat to check out apartments and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Some good stuff, you know you want to check it out. Anyhoo, I can’t think of anything else to write at the current moment so I’ll have to catch you cats at a later date, sooner than later, of course. Keep it real back home and lemme know how things are going.
Jon Boy
Photos a la boy... http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/
Thursday, January 26, 2006
...'Till The Sun Comes Up Over Santa Monica Blvd...
Well, due to the cries of my numerous fans and endless supporters, howling out for a glimpse into what is the whirlwind party, celebration, and just pure awesomness that is my life, I’ve decided to once again start up my we blog, which can be located at http://myjonboy.blogspot.com/ for your convenience.
It’s been a while, what can I say. Travels have been made, time zones have been crossed, currencies have been exchanged, countries conquered, and home finally housing my broke-ass for two weeks before I started it all over again.
Now, I reside in Los Angeles (3712 Barham Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90068) for the next three months. I’m currently interning at New Line Cinema as the assistant to the assistant (Michael Kaczmarek) for Jeff Katz and Luke Ryan…which is fun because then I get two filters for work to flow through, promising I get only the worst of the worst. But so far it’s a great internship. I suppose I’m learning a lot, though I can’t actually say what it is I have learned. All that subliminal stuff you seem to spit out with the proper questions that even seem to surprise yourself when you realize you actually know what you’re talking about.
California is somewhat of what everyone says it is. “There’s palm trees here, palm trees” is how I generally like to describe it here, though I suppose I have a little more space here to embellish. Besides palm trees, California has, thus far, a very static climate, that being one of sunny and 65-70 every day. This is quite the drastic change from Rome’s chill and dampness and Michigan’s perpetual rain and depressing grey. However, despite how “envious” you may be of this weather, if I lived here I know I would be desperate for some kind of season and snow, because this is just too bland to live in for years.
California also has an absurd amount of traffic. Driving here is a joke and takes you at least a half hour to get anywhere. New Line is about 7.8 miles from my apt. according to google maps (google maps is the best, true that, double true) and it takes me anywhere from 25 minutes (in light traffic) to over an hour (medium-heavy traffic) to get home. My hours are 10-7 so I miss a lot of the really heavy traffic, thank goodness. Due to the ridiculous amount of people driving only themselves to work (carpooling is encouraged, but works about as well as encouraging a heroin addict to switch to being a hot air balloon operator instead) there is the everlasting smog that smothers L.A.’s scenery like buying a pair of tickets to see the Rolling Stones will do to your credit report next time it rolls around, beating it into the ground. Fortunatly, it’s been “pretty good” according to the locals since I’ve arrived, but it’s pretty disgusting.
One thing I get asked more so than most other questions is how do I like the beaches and what fun things have I done either on them or otherwise (cough, you know who you are, cough). I’ve only been to the beach once since I’ve been here. It’s actually quite far away (about 40 min to the closest) even though it’s probably only 12 miles away. So far, I’ve only been to Laguna and Huntington Beach, both in the same day. It was very nice despite the cold water and somewhat chilly weather for being at a beach (but hey, it’s January and I almost had a sunburn yesterday from sitting by the pool, so I’m not worried about it). Pictures are up at the photo website from the occasion, which I’ll link at the bottom. Went there with two out of my three roommates, who, btw, are pretty cool. We get along fairly well and should be an exciting semester.
Other than that, I havn’t really done anything exciting here besides the trip to Las Vegas with Frank before school started to go “work” at the Electronic Consumer Showcase…which consisted of simply walking through it in about 3 hours, seeing maybe 5% of what was there. Good stuff. By the way, for all of you gambling deficient, fear not anymore of the green felt and smooth talking dealer that awaits you as you sit down and pour your money into the great machine known as “the man” to many a risk taker for The Winn has solved all your problems. War, yes War, the game you used to play with your grandparents where the larger numbered card wins, has landed on their floor, waiting for you to make your bet. The most brainless way of gambling I’ve seen thus far, even more so than Keno. You simply sit there and watch the dealer either give you money, take your money, or play you in a tie. And that’s about it. It’s awesome and I recommend that everyone try it at least once, if anything to get in touch with the Chevy Chase in all of us (that would be a National Lampoons Vegas Vacation reference, btw).
One exciting thing I suppose I should mention is I’ll be working at The Grammys on February 8th escorting artists down the red carpet and backstage, so that should be fun. I’ll let you guys know how that goes in a while. But as for now, that’s all I’m going to waste your time with. Lemme know how everyone is doing, hope your breaks all went pretty good (if you had one) and that family and friends are well. Keepin it real in the city of angels…
Jon boy
P.S. photos can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/
It’s been a while, what can I say. Travels have been made, time zones have been crossed, currencies have been exchanged, countries conquered, and home finally housing my broke-ass for two weeks before I started it all over again.
Now, I reside in Los Angeles (3712 Barham Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90068) for the next three months. I’m currently interning at New Line Cinema as the assistant to the assistant (Michael Kaczmarek) for Jeff Katz and Luke Ryan…which is fun because then I get two filters for work to flow through, promising I get only the worst of the worst. But so far it’s a great internship. I suppose I’m learning a lot, though I can’t actually say what it is I have learned. All that subliminal stuff you seem to spit out with the proper questions that even seem to surprise yourself when you realize you actually know what you’re talking about.
California is somewhat of what everyone says it is. “There’s palm trees here, palm trees” is how I generally like to describe it here, though I suppose I have a little more space here to embellish. Besides palm trees, California has, thus far, a very static climate, that being one of sunny and 65-70 every day. This is quite the drastic change from Rome’s chill and dampness and Michigan’s perpetual rain and depressing grey. However, despite how “envious” you may be of this weather, if I lived here I know I would be desperate for some kind of season and snow, because this is just too bland to live in for years.
California also has an absurd amount of traffic. Driving here is a joke and takes you at least a half hour to get anywhere. New Line is about 7.8 miles from my apt. according to google maps (google maps is the best, true that, double true) and it takes me anywhere from 25 minutes (in light traffic) to over an hour (medium-heavy traffic) to get home. My hours are 10-7 so I miss a lot of the really heavy traffic, thank goodness. Due to the ridiculous amount of people driving only themselves to work (carpooling is encouraged, but works about as well as encouraging a heroin addict to switch to being a hot air balloon operator instead) there is the everlasting smog that smothers L.A.’s scenery like buying a pair of tickets to see the Rolling Stones will do to your credit report next time it rolls around, beating it into the ground. Fortunatly, it’s been “pretty good” according to the locals since I’ve arrived, but it’s pretty disgusting.
One thing I get asked more so than most other questions is how do I like the beaches and what fun things have I done either on them or otherwise (cough, you know who you are, cough). I’ve only been to the beach once since I’ve been here. It’s actually quite far away (about 40 min to the closest) even though it’s probably only 12 miles away. So far, I’ve only been to Laguna and Huntington Beach, both in the same day. It was very nice despite the cold water and somewhat chilly weather for being at a beach (but hey, it’s January and I almost had a sunburn yesterday from sitting by the pool, so I’m not worried about it). Pictures are up at the photo website from the occasion, which I’ll link at the bottom. Went there with two out of my three roommates, who, btw, are pretty cool. We get along fairly well and should be an exciting semester.
Other than that, I havn’t really done anything exciting here besides the trip to Las Vegas with Frank before school started to go “work” at the Electronic Consumer Showcase…which consisted of simply walking through it in about 3 hours, seeing maybe 5% of what was there. Good stuff. By the way, for all of you gambling deficient, fear not anymore of the green felt and smooth talking dealer that awaits you as you sit down and pour your money into the great machine known as “the man” to many a risk taker for The Winn has solved all your problems. War, yes War, the game you used to play with your grandparents where the larger numbered card wins, has landed on their floor, waiting for you to make your bet. The most brainless way of gambling I’ve seen thus far, even more so than Keno. You simply sit there and watch the dealer either give you money, take your money, or play you in a tie. And that’s about it. It’s awesome and I recommend that everyone try it at least once, if anything to get in touch with the Chevy Chase in all of us (that would be a National Lampoons Vegas Vacation reference, btw).
One exciting thing I suppose I should mention is I’ll be working at The Grammys on February 8th escorting artists down the red carpet and backstage, so that should be fun. I’ll let you guys know how that goes in a while. But as for now, that’s all I’m going to waste your time with. Lemme know how everyone is doing, hope your breaks all went pretty good (if you had one) and that family and friends are well. Keepin it real in the city of angels…
Jon boy
P.S. photos can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/myjonboy/sets/
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