Happyblox

Ummmmm, No.

I ignored all of George Lopez's Latino references on all his promotional material Fox has been drowning us in because I figured he was busy writing the show and couldn't come up with anything more creative. I ignored the promo they ran a few hours before Family Guy where Lopez says he will broadcasting from a set that looks like "the street" because I figured he was busy writing the show and couldn't come up with anything more creative. . . Well I was wrong, I mean right.... he can't. Forget that Carlos Santana is the first musical guest (announced with an extra thick Spanish accent on his name), coincidence right? When was the last time you saw him on TV, but his opening theme song after he is announced is "Low Rider". George Lopez walks out on stage to Low Rider. George, we know you Latino. We understand this but it takes more to be on television night after night than an ethnicity. If this is all you are going to bring to the table then I wouldn't bother unpacking your bags.

He keeps mentioning that he is shaking up late night but really he is reaching way to high. The last time I saw someone bite off this much more than they can chew was when Catherin Bach tried to fit into her old Daisy Duke uniform for the 25 year reunion. Pathetic. Arsinio Hall fell into this trap to but he was able to crawl back out and survive for a few years based on Hollywood relationships and favors no doubt, but the show was entertaining from time to time and we didn't have to sit and listen to Arsino tell us how black he was all night. Letterman makes no mention of being white, nor does Leno and although Conan talks about being Irish from time to time he jokes about his hair far more and has the comedic ability to survive just about any situation without any ethic fall back jokes.

I give this show 1 month based on ratings and another month based on the network being too nervous to cancel it.

The world is spinning around pretty fast these days, faster than the 1000 plus miles per hour it is usually spinning at. Just about done with Elite Services, waiting on some last minute content, then a launch.

Went rock climbing with Felix, Howie and Abbey and Jennie was there for her first time. She did well. Rock climbing is one of the harder sports to start because even physically fit people are not used to lifting their own body with by their finger tips for a few hours. It takes certain parts some time to get used to. Like playing the guitar, once you got some thick finger tips you find it much easier. I found it to be harder then when I used to climb 10 years ago. (still had my shoes) A lot harder. I was in great shape back then and went climbing almost every weekend, all weekend, all summer long. Today my fingers feel like an 80 year old, my back hurts and I think I still smell the feet smell from the gym, burned into my nostrils. I will probably go a few more times and see if it is still for me. I may have gotten too lazy for rock climbing, and you know what? I also may be okay with that.

The road trip weekend to North Carolina went well. We visited Jennies family and the Challenger ate up the 1200 mile journey with ease. I learned that truckers love this car,blinking their lights at me or flashing their hazards when I pass. It is customary for truckers to blink their lights to let passing truckers know their trucks have passed with enough room and it is okay to come back into the lane. Usually the passing truck with blink his hazards once as a "thank-you" to the trucker behind him for letting him in. They also do it very occasionally to cars they like. I have seen a few hot rods get the treatment on the roads and it was certainly an honor to be communicated with by the most massive vehicles on the roads. Probably not a bad thing either when they are literally the only other vehicles out there at 2 am. Maybe they dig the car because it is mostly Ram parts. Jennie snapped this photo while we flew through Virginia. That yellow bit in the center is the moon. It was pretty sick looking.

While down in NC I entered my first car show. It was a lot of fun. I did not win anything but I also didn't care. Met some cool people and got to learn how to be a contestant in a car show on a nice small scale. Maybe next time I can snag a trophy. I also took a bunch of P.O.V. movies with the car because the North Carolina roads are so nice, I had to share them with the folks on the Challenger Forumz. By the way, the show was at a church and the pastor had 2 early 90's Camaro's entered in the show. North Carolina man, it's like Mars. So that is Dar/th there next to the yellow Buick and the 2 toned Monte Carlo. 

Back in the chair for another round with Eric at Inkspot. He is making my arm art come alive and really delivering on what I had originally had in mind. He is super easy to work with and because he has owned the facility for so long, really knows how to interpret what you are trying to convey into tattoo-able techniques that will come across on skin. I honestly couldn't be happier with the results and I am very relieved that I found someone with the talent to fix what I thought was an unfinished execution to my original design. 

Here Is Something I Will Miss About New York

I just ordered dinner, complete transaction, address, phone number, order and even a few pleasantries in 0:56 seconds.

I will be eating in less than 10 minutes.

FSM bless this city.

Cristin & Mike's Wedding.

This weekend was Jennie's sister's wedding in Jersey. It was most enjoyable. Here are the pictures Jennie got while I got video for a later production. She didnot get much of the ceremony because she took part by reading so she got what she could before she had to go on stage. The bride looked beautiful and the groom looked NERVOUS! Fun was had by all, including the cute dressed up little ones everywhere. Oh yeah and not shown... chocolate fondue.... hell yeah.

A Great Wedding.

This weekend my friends Howie and Abbey held their wedding on the west side of Manhattan. It was the most relaxed wedding I have ever been to even though I had to stand in front of everyone as part of the wedding party! It just went really smooth, the weather was beautiful and everyone looked great. Abbeys dress was the talk of the night.... well except for my dancing of course. Everyone had a great time as the beer and wine flowed like beer and wine and the cupcake and daiquiri sugar high fueled the dancing energy. By the way, not only one of the best wedding bands I have ever heard but one of the best live bands period. And come to think of it I have seen a crap load of live bands.
When I remember their name I will post it. Did I mention the beer flowed?

The Apartment Gets Staged for Staging.

Selling an apartment is a crap load of work. It is not even on the market yet and I spend every waking hour I am not working, packing boxes, moving boxes, driving boxes, taping things, painting things, eating occasional flakes of latex paint and inhaling lots of Spackle dust. Lots of progress however has been made. Only half done and it looks better than when I moved in almost 10 years ago. Wow I am old.

First all the pillars I painted red I painted back to white. Some photos make it look yellow but I assure you it is white.

The back room has been stripped of all its posters and junk. Look at what 10 years looks like on old paint! WOW!

The closet doors needed a coat too so why not right?

Next the kitchen wall was spackled, sanded and painted.

My drawing area was a mess and now it looks Whitesnake white.

painting SKILLZ.

Palin

Look What I Found: Hawk Year One.

Currently I am in the process of going through a deceased family members things at the same time I am going through all my things while packing up the apartment. I learned that the little things you write down and save or the pile of new toothbrushes you have in the closet or your travel itinerary from a trip to Romania in 1972, or your giant pile of push pins from old dress shirts you may need to pin things to your already full bulletin board are really, to anyone other than yourself, useless. I found a eerie parallel between my useless pile of crap accumulated in my 35 years and my relatives useless pile of crap of 89 years.

As I perused her meticulous travel notes from the 70's, written delicately and in perfect penmanship I could not help asking myself what the point is. It's a gloomy area but a curious one at that. What makes a person who they are is absolutely based partially on their belongings because their belongings in a lot of cases are not consumer driven achievements of status or the latest technological wonder to make life easier,they are poems and sculptures, woodworking and paintings. They are meticulously written travel itineraries from the 70's.

I made it a point to learn from this uncomfortable event and apply it my moving and hopefully my life. Leave more good stuff behind. The time it takes me to do some of the things I do can be best spent creating more. It is a lot easier these days with digital art, which is my specialty. It will never degrade and people will be able to see it for as long as we don't blow each other up. Regardless of that though, it's just as easy to loose digital art and I want to leave better stuff for the next generations. I have no plans on going anywhere anytime soon but as a rule I plan to create more drawings, write more posts and songs, record more video, live more.

Speaking of living, the above picture is when life was so simple that a mere $120.00 skateboard was the center of the whole god damn universe. There was nothing else. As you can see I had the paint job totally protected with the rails on the side and the tail guard on the back. Also, you can see a total throw back piece appropriately called "the bird" in purple plastic protecting the back truck's kingpin when you go over curbs. Also there is a nose guard on there too. I would say there is an additional 50 pounds of protective material on that skateboard. Not to mention the little league style florescent green Pro Tech helmet. And those Smith gloves won the award for the smelliest alternative sports equipment award for sure. In fact that is all I remember about them. Wow they stunk. Made my 17 year old snowboard boots smell like daisies.

This is a perfect example of what I was talking about though. A picture. This picture in one generation will be like looking at a color picture of a model T... but cool. Someone will get a kick and probably some kind of use out of this in the future. I suppose some things you produce serve a dual purpose while some things serve the purpose of getting you through life in the first place. You may not have the 30 minutes you spent witting down some itinerary back but you do have the rest of the minutes your around to comfortably acknowledge in the back of your head that you did, even that, the way you wanted to.

Last Nights Storm.

Obama Reverses Bush's Stem Cell Ban.

I am not the most political person you will ever meet but I know what I believe in and the fact that stem cell research was banned because of religious beliefs in this country is disgusting to me. Believe whatever you want but how dare you use your outdated superstitions against the American people and the people of the world. There is no doubt in my mind that not allowing stem cell research has negatively effected the time line for curing some diseases and there are surely hundreds if not thousands that would have survived if research was never banned.

You can;t stop progress, even with archaic ancient beliefs. All you can do is hurt people in the proccess who don't have the same beliefs as you, and they know that. They would rather everyone go by their outrageous laws even if it includes the death of innocent people just to get in good graces with the Church or the rest of his party or whoever. Even to get in the good graces with god would be the exact reason I don't believe in that. No god would ever ask you to slowly kill many so your morals feel safe.

We are such a better country without the Cheney gang.