9 inches of my hair

GONE.

Las Vegas tomorrow

Me and the fam are doing our anual trip to Vegas this weekend. Out of no where, Momma came up to me today and said, "Make sure you take a Chanel bag tomorrow. You're supposed to wear that kind of stuff in Vegas. And make sure you take some nice clothes. It's party time." I don't know about her, but I'm not doing any partying, except for seeing N.E.R.D. tomorrow night at LAX. I thoroughly dislike getting dolled up for Vegas because it is infested with skeezballs and I don't want them even thinking about me. I'll probably play Black Jack for half an hour, then watch a movie in the hotel room and order room service with my brother.

Vegas = not really my thing.

I don't know how long this is going to be up

My mom told me about this this morning so I YouTubed it. Apparently, the kid stole his parents car because he didn't want to go to church because it's too hot in church. Jesus is too hott for ya.

Daniel is going on tour with N.E.R.D.!

I don't know what he's going to be doing, but he's hitting up their US dates starting today in San Francisco. Hopefully I'll get to meet up with him in Vegas tomorrow night. Check out HIPHOPDAN.com.

Endless Bummer

My whole life is being on the wrong side of the country for bands I really want to see.

It's about time

And who better to portray Julia Child? So excited.

Real life thisiswhyyourefat.com

My brother just had this for lunch: chili cheese fries topped with pastrami, pickles and tomatoes. I would die. I am going to submit this to thisiswhyyourefat.com

Basil and bikes

The Dude sent me this picture of basil he took while he was riding. How sweet of him :) And I think that's mint growing next to it. If only the whole world had fresh herbs growing on every corner.

It is so FREAKING beautiful.

My Girl

It's always interesting watching movies I grew up with right now because I catch things that I never noticed when I was little.

Sneaky Momma

Someone bought this last week and didn't tell me until yesterday. Then we discussed this one that was made just for me.

Sunday evening

BIG houses.



My dad was in a huge golf tournament this weekend for our country club. This is his fifth year playing and has won twice thus far. He won his first year, lost the following two years, and won last year. I don't know what the prizes are for winning the club championship, but he gets a special parking spot that everyone is always excited about. My dad never uses it since we live on the course and he just goes through our neighborhood, but his friends are stoked to use it.

This year, my dad did not play very well. He actually played horribly. My mom says she gets too nervous watching him, so my brother and I went out and followed the group. Though he didn't win, we're hoping for next year.


Do not text and drive a golf cart.

Jones' Good Ass BBQ and Foot Massage

San Francisco weekend with RJ and Nick

Nick and I put together a spur-of-the-moment trip to San Francisco to visit RJ. Since he's not coming down to the South side of the state while I'm here, I thought I'd pay him a visit. The drives to and from SF were nice. Nick and I just listened to music that we used to listen to in high school and talked about life and love.

I wasn't at all interestd in doing anything special or anything "San Francisco". I just wanted to hang out with my dudes that I don't get to see often enough. We spent Saturday walking around the park and watching the Redbull Manny Mania that a couple of RJ's friends were skating in. Nick, RJ, and RJ's friend "Nigga John" smoked a bleezy in the park and Nick was stoked. Reefers was everywhere and no one cared at all. We sat on Hippie Hill for a good while and I got a tiny bit sunburned around my glasses.


I was not prepared for how cold it was this weekend. The fog was heavy and the only time I was warm was when the sun was peeking through the clouds.


RJ was really stoked on the little kittens that were hanging out with the crusty kids and I bought seven sticks of incense for a dollar from the coolest dude at the park.

Saturday night we made tacos for dinner, family style. It was awesome cooking good food side by side with the homies while dancing and singing to Mars Volta and Rx Bandits. The guys had two different kinds of chicken and I made skrimp. We made guacamole, rice and beans, veggies, and bought the tastiest tortillas from a market down the street. I think we spent the rest of the night in the kitchen, watching old YouTube videos of Rage Against the Machine playing at Cal State Fullerton, scene kids singing over scene music and recording themselves, not knowing how ridiculous they look or how embarassing it is, and music videos from what the kids seem to be listening to nowadays that I can't believe exists.

Nick and I left EARLY the next morning because we both had obligations in the afternoon. I did both drives by myself, which I didn't mind at all, but it was pretty rough the last hour or two.

All in all, it was a quick trip but our time was well spent. I miss you already Arj.

Preparation

I've been psyching myself out for days about this upcoming haircut. It's going to be relatively short and simple. I feel like after having this outrageous hair for so long, it's time for a change. And I also blame my current hairstylings for my lack of style last winter, and I apologize to everyone that has seen me in tights and a leather jacket all winter long, because although I was looking mediocre, I feel like my hair made up for what I was wearing.

Now I have this theory that with my mediocre hair, I will be forced to wear everything fabulous in my closet that I haven't touched in a year. I cleaned out my closet last week and realized how much stuff I don't wear. Winter is so much more fun than summer because you get to wear layers and layers of lovely clothes so I am thoroughly excited.

I made a comment to Oliver that summer was nearly over and he thought I was crazy. But it definitely is. All the fun summer plans have already been made, so it's just a matter of executing them. Now it's time to think about the fun fall/winter things to do (and wear!).

Zzzzzzzz

Heaven in my mouth

And it's not just because it's gold.

People will never change

It's amazing how people will never change, and I don't mean that in a good way at all.

After what happened to you, everyone honestly thought that it was karma biting you in the butt. All the prank phone calls that nearly ruined innocent peoples lives, the constant harassment, and the shitty too-good-for-you attitude is really old. And even after you finally had to face the consequences for your actions, you're still at your old tricks. If your life is ruined again, don't go bad-mouthing the person that was caught in the middle, because it's probably not their fault.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland teaser

Personally, the only decent movie Tim Burton has done in the last decade was Big Fish, and before that, Ed Wood which was '94. I wish he'd go back to the days where he had little money, no computer generated images, and a DIY sense of style. I'm sure this film is going to be beautiful, but not like he used to be.

My parents are hilarious. Especially my mom

The other day, my brother and I came downstairs to my dad twirling my mom and her going, "whoaAa WhoaAa" because she was wearing a twirlable dress. Then, me and my brother were on one couch and my mom came to sit down on the other and sees a quarter and goes, "[GASP!] A quarter~". Now, my mom and my dad were sitting on the love seat eating these mini Haggen Dazs ice creams. My dad had vanilla and she had strawberry and my dad asked if he could try some. "No!" "Why not? I'll give you some of mine." "No! I don't like vanilla." "Then just give me some of yours!" "Noo! There's only strawberries left. It's a gold mine!"

Oh Candy.

And did I mention that she got the Anna Wintour bob that I don't have the balls to get?

Chris Ballard was on Kids Say the Darndest Things with JoJo

And his name used to be Will.

Planet Earth

My brother and I got my dad the Planet Earth DVDs for his birthday in January, but I've only gotten around to watching the first DVD. I thought about taking the DVDs back to Baltimore with me, but I would much rather watch it on Blu-Ray on a 48".

I have this strange distaste for sea creatures. I think they're beautiful, but I can't stand being in the same water as them (thus the reason I haven't been in the ocean, or any other natural body of water, in almost 10 years). Even when I went to Hawaii in 8th grade, I was screaming in my storkeling gear when swimming with the fish and turtles. I don't think I'm afraid of them, I just feel weird around them. The manner in which they exist bothers me.. I don't know.

My point is that I was amazed at some of the patterns on the whales and other sea creatures, that I was instantly inspired. I haven't painted in a couple months and am fiending for some paints. I'm tempted to go out and buy everything here and keep a set of paints at my parents house. I don't know why I don't already, I'm here often enough.

The video above is a "vampire octopus" that was scaring the shit out of me on the DVD. This video does not do justice to how that thing moves and the colors it exudes when the submarines lights turn off. It's outrageous.

American Apparel

The ex-CEO of American Apparel has been wanting to play golf with my dad for months. And I say "ex-CEO" because this man just sold his company for $290 million and still has shares in the company. The Garment District in downtown Los Angeles is all Korean men and they all know each other. They have the same sewing people, the same dying people, the same friends. Somehow, one of my uncle's is really good friends with Mr. Im (AA guy) and so my dad finally got around to playing a round of golf with him, after two or three cancelations on my dad's part. I guess they played the weekend Michael Jackson died so they got drunk afterwards and danced like MJ.

Anyways, my dad and I were talking business and I asked him, "You know about the controversy with their advertisement and how sexually explicit they are. Did he have anything to do with that?" My dad just explained to me that every company needs to have a concept and this is the direction they were going in. It's a marketing system that works really well, and though some people have negative things to say about it, people are talking.

He was also telling me how American Apparel wasn't always the huge company that it is now. Mr. Im had a hard time for the first many years trying to pay the people he owes money to, and my dad admits to being in the same position, as have many of the other companies downtown. I think he said that for years and years he was hiding from people and owed too much money to tell. It's just interesting how small Los Angeles is, because someone always knows someone who knows someone. My dad said he'd be seeing AA guy really soon and will mention that his kids are avid shoppers. Maybe I'll get complimentery cards that allow me a certain amount of clothes like the CEO from Adriano Goldschmeid gave my dad to give to me.. but this time I could actually use them.

On a completely side note, The Dude and I went to American Apparel on Friday. We rode our bikes there since Artscape was happening down the block and every street from Mt. Vernon to downtown was packed and didn't want to deal with driving AND parking. We got caught in some pretty heavy rain on the way back but it was terribly fun. I've never ridden in the rain before. Lately, the little rides The Dude and I have been going on have been so much fun, to the point of me saying over and over, "That was SO much fun!"

Baltimore in Los Angeles

Daniel has been spending the past week in Los Angeles with Chad Hugo and invited me to a barbeque at his friends house in Echo Park. It was refreshing meeting new people, and the interesting thing was that a lot of them were from Baltimore/graduated from MICA. It was nice being around creative people who could hold up decent conversation. The food was great. The music was great. And the apartment was absolutely lovely. It's strange, but for the past six months, I feel like I'm on a constant house-hunt, judging each home that I step in and seeing how my furniture would fit.

Anyways, keep an eye out for Hip Hop Dan because he's going to be famous :)

Camera shutters

It gets interesting about halfway through.

Discovery Zone

I used to LOVE this place.

Oakley/Gentei party pictures

Oliver just posted pictures from the Oakley party a few weeks ago. That's me playing bartender for the night.

Oliver, where are the photos that one dude took?

Jessica Stam for Fendi

Bye bye Toni Garrn, hello Jessica Stam. My favorite lady.

Everything does not look perfect from far away

A few questions:
1. Do you plan the wide stance, syncro head banging?
2. Do they share straighteners, or do they each have their own?
3. Why?

Anna Wintour

Yay or nay? I want a bob like Anna Wintour and wear faux fur all day.

This pictures reminds me of Tim Burton's Willy Wonka.

Emilio Pucci

I'm obsessed with the idea of purchasing this Pucci dress. It looks better on Maryna Linchuk in a small article on Peter Dundas (designer of house) in the July Vogue and I can't find that photo anywhere on the world wide web.

Nap time

I've been on a napkick. I took a late 3 hour nap on Sunday, a 1 1/2 hour nap yesterday, and a 20 minute nap today. I didn't know why I was so tired all the time and thought I might be depressed or something. But, I'm not the type to be sad all day so I figured out that it was because I wasn't drinking my morning cup of coffee. Note to self: drink your morning cup of coffee.

RIP Dash Snow

Dash Snow died of a heroine overdose last night. Photo taken from Patrick O'dell

Urban Outfitters custom FIXIES!

The world should just be over with. You can make your custom Urban Outfitters bike here.

Does anyone even shop at Urban Outfitters anymore? I don't understand how you can rely on a senseless corporation to dress you into oblivion in "ironic merchandise" and politically incorrect satirical slogans on t-shirts. You're willing to pay 3x as much for "vintage" merchandise that was just produced a few months before in a factory of underpaid illegal immigrants somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Tummy ache

I just woke up from a 1 1/2 hour nap because of a terrible stomach ache. Cold sweats and everything. The Dude was kind enough to give me probiotic tablets in the midst of it all and I woke up to kisses :) A little startled at first, but nice.

Yesterday I took a 3-hour nap at 6pm and missed a Bruno outing. Jake would say, "That's not a nap, that's called sleeping," but I don't care. It was nice. I'm in total nap mode. Now it's time to shred with the Dude.

Doesn't my hair look blue?

There's no place like home

I think I'm secretly homesick. Secretly?

I've been eating these noodles that I've grown up eating at home lately and I just got off the phone with Momma a bit teary-eyed. She's really sick right now and hearing her frail voice made me want to go home this instant. I don't know how I last this long without seeing my parents. I honestly think the only way I can not be constantly homesick is to not think about them all the time. I know, that sounds terrible, but if I do, I'll fall apart. So now, as I type, tears continue to trickle down my face because I realize I will be home soon, but not soon enough.

I hope you feel better Momma.

Quorn chicken ribollita

I saw Giada make this tonight and had everything to make it so I pumped it out. It's super easy and ribollita just means "re-boiled" in EYE-talian. I guess in Tuscany, people would reboil their minestrone some and make this out of it.

Chicken, zucchini, carrots, spring onion, spinach, cannellini beans. I put it on top of some crusty bread and roasted some mushrooms. Nommz.

Dead Man's Bones

Ryan Gosling and Zach Shield's band. Remember how magical it was when Noah and Allie were dancing in the middle of the street and Noah was humming such a romantic tune while they danced under a street light? It's like that, but more hip and 2009. And a little bit sexier. Reminds me of a less magical CocoRosie, but in a good way. A sort of.. nonchalant ethereality.

Oh Ryan, I hope to see you when I go home. Maybe you won't look like you were up 'til 9am doing drugs this time.

1 & 2

Do you know who you are? Because I think I do.. but when I reallly think about it, I don't think I do. But not in the sense that I don't know what KIND of person I am, because I think I'm quite aware of that, but in the sense that I don't really know what I want for my future.

Tammy #1 wants to be a working girl living in New York, traveling and meeting tons of people. She wants to make her own art work and live off of that money, barely making by, yet comfortable. And by "barely making by" I mean splurging on handbags and sunglasses and travel tickets and the most delicious food and an expensive loft on the east side. She wants to be free and independent, able to pack up and head to Darfur to help pass out second hand shoes to kids and give the little money she has left to helping build wells in small villages. She wants to have men at the press of a button, but never obligated to any man but her father and brother. She wants to be bicoastal, traveling from her parents L.A. home and her own N.Y. loft. She wants to have lunch at Pastis with Beau and jump from opening to opening and party to party. She wants to live.

Tammy #2 wants a slower life. She wants to spend weekends gardening, cooking and painting in her spanish style home overlooking the Reservoir in Silverlake. She wants to be happily attached to the man of her dreams and have lots of babies. While being a stay-at-home-mother, she wants to be avidly involved in her children's lives and continue making her own work, in pursuit of being "an artist". She wants to visit galleries and museums in the afternoon and have lunch in Los Feliz with her dearest of friends. The evenings consist of picking up the kids, taking them to their after school activities, and making dinner for her family. She wants to tuck them in and spend the rest of the evening with the man she loves, looking into his eyes while he plays in the computer and she reads a book. She wants to wake up in the morning knowing that it's all worth it. That he's worth it.

So which one? Do I have to choose? Does it need to be one or the other. How do I make the two into one life.

More food

I had to make another batch of pesto because my basil is growing out of control and going to go to seed. Nomz.

Somebody, Anybody

Please find me this cereal. I had it at my parents' house ages ago and I haven't been able to find it anywhere else. It's like Cinnamon Toast Crunch but with less sugar and whole wheat squares. Absolute perfection? I think so. But of course, nothing beats this one.

Simply Delicious

The Dude and I are all about the Simply ________ products. This one is soo good, but I can only drink a teeny tiny bit at a time. And we've also been snacking on blueberries lately--blueberries by the pint. I have to stop him from eating a whole basket because he'll devour through it like it's nobody's business.

Bagelhead

Jake, I have no idea what that is. Ask Oliver, he's the AZN one.



A new “beauty” fad in Tokyo clubs has teens injecting themselves with bags of saline, disfiguring their heads! They call themselves “Bagel Heads” or “bagelheads.”

From nothingbutregrets.blogspot.com

It's official

I booked my flight to and from California and The Dude is meeting me out there a few weeks in and we (him and I PLUS my baby brother) are all flying back together! I'm extremely excited.

Supercult.com // Apneatic.com

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The power just went out, which is weird because I was just talking to the Dude about how the power always goes out in California. It's definitely the whole block because I can see the traffic signal behind the apartment. Please fix this. I was in the middle of watching John Mayer's performance at Michael Jacksons memorial service.

-- Post From My iPhone

Michael Jackson final rehearsal

Comfort

The Dude and I have decided to go green with our light source. That just means we've been using candles around here when it gets dark. It's actually really nice being surrounded by a dozen candles. Yum. Tonight, we've got the candles going and have Mary Poppins on VHS. It's such a beautiful film. Such a beautiful night.

Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke are prime examples of what this generation is missing. Triple threats: acting, dancing, singing. They've got it all down and have it down well. And they're beautiful people.

Rebel8

Seriously

I have a track bike, but this dude is ODing. I've met Prolly a couple times because he used to come down to Baltimore for races and stuff (and because he used to sweat Oliver), but the whole "scene" is so lame. Especially in New York. Dude's are wayy too into it. He landed some "unprecedented variations".

" I've been working on the big spins more and more lately and finally dialed them in. Yeah yeah yeah, I'm well-aware I just posted a video last week, but the one in this video is smoother and tonight I landed some pretty unprecedented variations. This is the only one I got on tape before my digital camera died."

Jon and Kate Plus 8

I've only seen a couple episodes of the TLC show, and in this one one of the girls go, "I'm the most asian in the family!" and another kid goes, "We're all asian!"

I thought that was SO hilarious.

I just read that Kate filed for a no-fault divorce. I can't imagine discussing shared-custody for 8 kids, not to mention caring for them alone. I know a few parents that have waited 'til their kids graduate high school before getting a divorce, just for the kids sake.

Poor Elliot

My brother's friend somehow got a pole jammed into his stomach while riding his skateboard. Almost took off his junk. He has to be in a walker for a few weeks. It's funny, boys being boys, they sticker everything up. Gotta keep it fresh right? He even zip-tyed one of those pencil case things everyone used to have in middle school to the side of his walker.



Elliot is now the father of this kitten that I found in my mom's car wheel 10 months ago.

Bills Bills Bills

I love paying bills, especially when they're all stacked up so I just write check after check and go to website after website. It's weird because it's money out the window, but I still find pleasure in it.