Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Free Music
Enjoy Skull Tape's cover of Whip My Hair by Willow Smith.
Click on the picture to download.
Lego my Eggo
Amazingly enough, the camera at left is made from Lego, and is a functioning digital camera.
Can you dig it?
Get it on sale for 78$ here.
Fashion/Glamor Shots
These are the photos I turned in for my Fashion/Glamor assignment for my Intro to Digital Photography class this week! I'm really happy with the way they turned out (with the exception of the Satellite DISH behind Ashley's head in a few of the shots). My professor liked my photos the most out of the entire class, and out of all the other work I had the least errors. Nevertheless, I still had errors and I have to re-do all my fashion shots.
But here's the good news: I'm on the right track and now I can do it bigger and better for my final portfolio. Updates to come, Stay tuned!
Caught in a Pickle
Last night I went to Hooters on Hollywood Blvd. with some friends for a classy Saturday evening. I tried fried pickles for the first time, which I was somewhat hesitant about doing even though I have a love for regular pickles.
At first taste I was indifferent. I definitely didn't hate it, but I wasn't overwhelmed by them like I am by Hooters' curly fries and ranch dressing (Ranch dressing by the way costs an extra 1.50, and worth every penny). Though the more I ate, the harder I found them to put down.
Now here I am, the morning after, craving fried pickles. I guess I'll just have to wait until next happy hour...
Cause havin 2 chicks is better than no chicks
At left, the Ice Cream Tee you can buy on sale for $14.99 at Urban Outfitters here.
And on your right, The Gossip Girl Rolling Stone cover shot by the famous Terry Richardson.
Resemblance? The girls on the shirt are even wearing the same colored outfits, and have the same pink ice cream. Too bad they're not as attractive as Blake and Leighton or this shirt would be a must have.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Roommate Wanted
Leighton Meester is on the cover of this February's NYLON magazine
promoting her new movie The Roommate out next weekend (February 4)
We've all had psycho roommates. Let me tell you about mine:
By the time I arrived in Los Angeles
I was awake for approximately thirty-six hours. I was running on the energy
provided to me from a few breath mints I consumed at least twelve hours before,
and I was irritable to anyone within arm’s distance from me. This must be how
Courtney Love feels on a regular basis.
I moved to attend art school, and I
was thrilled to be getting out of the tiny valley I grew up in. I was excited
about the culture, the art, the music, and the people in Los Angeles. This would also be the first time I
lived with someone else. I didn’t receive any notification of who my roommates
would be before moving to LA, so keeping with the pace of so many other things
in my life, it would be a surprise.
There was an orientation of sorts
at my apartment building and in typical Connor fashion I arrived late. I walked
in behind a chubby Mexican boy wearing a Jonas Brothers T shirt. I assumed he
was somebody’s kid brother, or that he mistakenly walked into the apartment
complex, attracted by the smell of food. Then I wondered if he was a student and he knew people would
be making their first impression of him by what he was wearing, why would he
choose a Jonas Brothers T shirt? If that was the first thing he wanted people
to know about him, what other interests could he have?
As I reached to grab a registration
number, I saw his hairy little hand reach too. Oh no. He was a student. In that
moment I knew he would be my roommate, my karma is just too negative and this
is how the dice always land in my life.
I was all over the place,
physically and mentally, during the remainder of the apartment orientation and
registration. I missed my call number so I was one of the last people to
receive the key to my apartment. Everyone else was scrambling to find their new
place and I just took the moment to let the animal herds subside while I took a
nap by the pool.
When I awoke from my catnap, the
elevators were free and I decided to bite the bullet and go find my apartment:
643. I was excited about living here. My apartment building was like a nice
hotel. There were waterfalls and grand staircases, fountains, sculptures, and
shrubbery. I had a giant smile on my face walking through the courtyards to my
apartment. I found 643. This was it. I began fumbling with the key trying to
open the door, but the lock was tricky. Suddenly the door swung open, and the first thing I saw was a
Jonas Brothers T shirt. I felt the smile fall off my face.
“Hi I’m Efrain.” I couldn’t tell if
his lisp came from being Mexican or a homosexual.
I had to work really hard to remind
myself that I was in no position to judge anyone. His family was in the room
and I tried to make jokes to lighten the mood, but nobody laughed, and
immediately after I spoke he and his family would communicate in Spanish. Too
bad I ditched all my Spanish classes in high school or I would know what they
were saying about me.
I was tired and clearly this little
Mexican family wasn’t my audience. I threw my name down for a bed and decided I
would come back some other day to meet the other roommates.
I came back the next day to meet
the other two guys. I arrived at the apartment to find Greg. Greg was very
tall, and very skinny. His body shape combined with his flamboyant mannerisms
made him move like a giant spaghetti noodle. He brought a ton of stuff from
where he lived in New York, and wasn’t shy about his worship for Lady Gaga and
Britney Spears. He was very outgoing compared to Efran, which I liked, but I
came to the conclusion I would have a lesser chance of being raped by someone
who worshipped musicians who wore purity rings.
Greg was bringing in boxes upon
boxes of stuff for his room. He brought in books, a flatscreen TV, more shoes
than I have ever seen, and a disco stick. Obviously his worship for Lady Gaga
reached a higher level than I anticipated, he was serving at her altar. I
didn’t know how to address the disco stick so I thought I would avoid doing so
until absolutely necessary.
Efran started to hang up a few
posters of the Jonas Brothers and of the werewolf from the movie Twilight, but
I figured as long as they stayed in his space I had to be okay with it. I was off to spend the weekend with my
family and wanted to avoid these people as long as I could.
When I finally met my third
roommate Brett I was hoping this would be the roommate that I would have some
common ground with. Brett dressed similar to the way I do and he seemed to have
a straighter demeanor than the rest of the guys I was meeting at school. He
looked like he was the long lost brother from Malcom in the Middle. The first
time I introduced myself to him he didn’t make eye contact, mumbled when he
spoke, and as soon as he was done mumbling he walked away. Well fuck. Things
were going…great.
After my family left I was thrilled to be living on my own in
the city, until I remembered I wasn’t really living on my own. I had to face
the music and go back to my apartment. When I walked into my room the first thing I saw was a giant
poster of the Jonas Brothers staring down at me from above the window. It
startled me, and once I regained my footing I observed the mini-shrine that was
growing while I was away. Gross. The creepiest thing was that all the posters
would make eye contact with me and watch me wherever I moved in the room. But
it was his thing, so I had to respect it.
I began unpacking my stuff and
Brett walked into the kitchen so I started up a conversation.
“Have you seen these posters?” I
asked him.
“What posters?”
“Get in here and look at what I
have to wake up to every morning!” At this moment I just wanted someone else to
confirm that what I was seeing wasn’t normal.
“Sweet Jesus.” He laughed. “This
Efran kid is a fucking freak.”
“I’m starting to think so.”
Finally, some verification that I wasn’t as shallow as I felt.
“Did Greg tell you what we heard
him doing last night?” He asked me trying not to laugh.
“Do I even want to know?”
“We were in our room and all of the
sudden we hear this heaving sound coming from your bathroom. There was music
playing and water running but we still definitely heard him throwing up. We
think he’s bulimic.
“Really?” I let out a little laugh.
“Clearly, it’s not working.” Brett laughed. Good, we shared the same sick sense
of humor. Brett and I started talking, and by talking I mean making fun of
Efran. I later added Brett on facebook, and in most of his profile pictures he
was intoxicated. I knew we were going to be friends.
Efreak came home and immediately
parked his porky little ass in front of the TV. All my other roommates and I
had trouble figuring out how to operate the multiple remotes but Efreak had no
problems in turning the TV on and finding the Disney channel. Clearly he knew
his way around a TV. Brett and I were talking in the kitchen when we heard Efreak
hollering from the living area.
“OH MY GOD! I’m so excited!!” He
let out a tiny squeal.
“For what?” Brett and I asked
together.
“The new season of Hannah Montana
starts next week! I thought I was going to miss it during the move!”
Brett and I looked at each other,
equally confused. “Is he serious?”
“Unfortunately
I think so.”
Greg came home later and we all
bonded over our disgust with Efreak. It made me feel better they turned out to
be cool, however nothing would prepare me for my first night with the
psychopath.
I was just about to close my eyes
and go to sleep when Efreak opened his face and started talking to me. “So
Connor, all my life I’ve fallen asleep with the TV on, and since we don’t have
a TV I need to keep the radio on.” He said in a little mexi-gay accent.
“Are you kidding me?” No fucking
way was I going to let that happen.
“No. I really need it to fall asleep. Is that okay?”
“No.” I was waiting for him to ask
me to check under his bed for monsters. I knew guys at my school would be pushing
the feminine side, but I didn’t expect to be sharing a room with an eight-year-old
girl. I was hoping this would be
the worst of it.
The next day Greg, Brett and I hung
out at the apartment while Efreak was spending the day with his parents who
were still in town. The three of us were all sitting on the furniture in the
living area, talking and listening to music, and when Efreak opened the door
the talking and music stopped, we all just watched him. As soon as he squeezed
his little gorilla frame through the door he threw his sunglasses across the
room and let out a grunt.
“Parents are so-WHATEVER!” He
rolled his eyes and looked like he was about to cry. “You guys are lucky your
parents are all gone.”
“No.” Greg, Brett and I exchanged
glances. “We all like our families.”
Efreak retreated to his room, and
the rest of us continued talking, having fun, and being normal without him. A
few hours later he came out of the room holding a rifle.
“What the fuck!” I immediately
stood up and assumed a kung-fu pose.
“Oh this is Jacob.” Efreak said
like it was no big deal.
“Why the fuck do you have a gun?!”
“It’s not real silly, it’s from
color guard.”
“What the hell is that?” After I
asked, Efreak twirled the gun around in the air and did some tricks with it. I
think I’d seen this before on some military advertisement. “Are there
bullets?!” I asked frantically.
“No it’s just wooden.”
I proceeded to inform my resident
advisor the next morning that my roommate hid weapons in our apartment, in
hopes he would get evicted or better yet, deported.
My first attempt at getting Efreak
deported was unsuccessful. I needed to work harder to get him out of my life
and, more importantly, my room. Fortunately for me one of my other roommates
drank from Efreak’s precious Mountain Dew supply. Any normal person would just
address the issue and move on, but being a toddler in a tiara, Efreak chose to
create World War III in our apartment.
It was almost too ridiculous to be real: there I sat on the sidelines,
watching three princesses exchange verbal insults, all over a crappy soft
drink.
“Fake ass bitches!”
“Mexi-cunt!”
“Plastic!”
“Fatty!”
After this little spat produced no
results other than my amusement, Efreak went to the resident advisor to make a
move request. And five days later, he was gone. It turns out my karma wasn’t as bad as I thought; for
putting up with three weeks of the little fiesta Efreak brought into my life, I
was rewarded with my own room, and the cherry on top was not having to wake up
to a Jonas Brothers poster ever again.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Cold War Kids
Last night I went to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live to see the Cold War Kids play a few songs off of their new album Mine is Yours.
The day before I found out that my Survey of Western Art II professor has a brother in the band. I've listened to the Cold War Kids for years but I've never really taken interest in actually checking out their videos or even looking at pictures of them so last night was the first time I saw what they looked like. My professor's brother is the lead guitarist Jonnie Russell.
Monday, January 24, 2011
TRL: It's witchcraft!
"Get Some" is] just a snapshot, but the album is darker, moodier, and the lyrics are heavier. There's less atmosphere, more directness. I was 19 when I recorded my first album, and I've been exposed to many things during these last few years; all the baby fat is gone. I dove into the craziness and did things that maybe I would think twice about when I get older. And I'm a really restless person; I'm tired of the way I sounded or looked yesterday. So it's hard to hang onto this image of me as this young Swedish female in this world. People comment on how you look, it's so unnecessary. I just wanted people to listen to what I have to say instead of focusing on anything else. And, of course, there are a lot of things I'm angry about in the world.
— Lykke Li to Pitchfork Media
Check the first single from Lykke Li's upcoming album Wounded Rhymes out February 28
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Ra Ra Superstar
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I bought a painting from a very friendly and talented artist in Venice today named Ra Ra Superstar. Say what you might about the artists who live in Venice, I find Ra Ra's work very inspiring and unique. His style is a combination of Jackson Pollack and Keith Haring, and his messages are always positive; love and freedom.
For more of his work, check out his Youtube channel here
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Venice or Bust
We went to Venice beach last minute and caught a few hours of sun before the sunset. Like an idiot, I forgot to bring my reflector board which compromised a few of the shots, but I still shot enough to work with. Above are a few random pictures we took in between shots, the actual photos will be revealed soon!
Rehab (Come Get It)
Former child star Aaron Carter entered rehab this weekend. It's not surprising that his lifestyle choices are getting him in trouble now when he has a history of partying. Though, back then his biggest problems were when "someone spilled juice on my Mom's new cushion" and now it's more like "someone spilled their drink on my SCRAM bracelet." It looks like after eleven years Aaron's Party is finally over. 
Saturday, January 22, 2011
I wanna get with ya, and take your picture
After starting my intro to digital photography class a few weeks ago, my love for photography has blossomed. "If you love it so much why don't you marry it?" Well, if I could marry photography, this would be the wedding ring.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Kickstart My Heart
My new customized Nike's arrived today. They turned out pretty rad. It was risky putting red, white and blue together but I think the coloring turned out just right. I just loved the richness of the blue and the bold maroon together too much to let the combination go.
I will definitely be rockin these bad boys for months to come. And if they inspire others to throw a barbecue or set off a few fireworks, then so be it.
easy, eh?
The sidewalks of Los Angeles are usually filled with pedestrians, and Saturday nights in LA Live are no exception. I even dare to say that LA Live is one of the most hectic places in the city on nights when the Lakers are playing. But no matter what area of the city I am walking in, I tend to have small struggles with tripping, falling, walking in general.As I was leaving the cinema in LA Live, still reeling with excitement from TRON, I found myself trapped in a herd of people moving the opposite direction on the sidewalk. In an effort to get out of the group, I made sort of a jump/skip movement to get to the open area of the sidewalk. In my mind I imagined it would work effortlessly and look really cool in the process, but maybe I was high off the adrenaline from the movie.
When I jumped to my left, people were walking toward me on my right, and it just created a very awkward mess. I bumped into/landed on a woman, and when I looked up at her to apologize I realized I was looking right at Emma Stone. She was walking with a friend, and her raspy voice lit up the conversation. I stood there in shock as she carried on, and I watched the back of her blonde head walk around the corner.
I guess the moral of this story is: if you trip on enough people one of them is bound to be Emma Stone.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
somebody kill me
The musical duo to the left recently made two announcements:
1. Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince have reunited their band The Kills
2. The Kills are releasing their first album since 2008's Midnight Boom. The album called Blood Pressures will be available internationally April 4th, and Stateside April 5th.
A tracklist is already available on their website thekills.tv, and with 3 months to go, I'm hoping it's only a matter of days before we get our first taste of Blood.
The Kills - Blood Pressures
1. Future Starts Slow
2. Satellite
3. Heart is a Beating Drum
4. Nail in my Coffin
5. Wild Charms
6. DNA
7. Baby Says
8. Last Goodbye
9. Damned If She Do
10. You Don't Own the Road
11. Pots and Pans
In the meantime, enjoy The Kills' cover of I Put A Spell On You
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
love leafrances!
Special thanks to the lovely miss Lea Frances for all her wisdom and influence. You can (and you should) peep her blog here:
Monday, January 10, 2011
a case of the mondays
Just close your eyes, turn up your speakers and imagine my day:
Waking up early and having a leisurely breakfast in bed.
(What Ever Happened - The Strokes)
Trying to get dressed and deciding you don't really give a fuck because everyone at school tries too hard anyway.
(Hold It Against Me - Britney Spears)
Survey of Western Art class. Hypnotizing in a way that both entices me and puts me to sleep.
(Greek Song - Rufus Wainwright)
Marketing and Brand Development class. Another double whammy; both compelling and frightening.
(Record Collection [featuring Simon Le Bon] - Mark Ronson and the Business Intl)
Done with school and walking home, enjoying the LA sunshine.
(Selector - Mark Ronson and the Business Intl)
Getting home and realizing you have increasingly painful stomach pains and you don't know why.
(Salvation - Scanners)
Sitting in the sauna and freeing yourself from all pain.
(Dreadlock Holiday - 10cc)
Goodnight and have a musical tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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