Stay Gold

Pffffftttt. Its strange how much having a real job takes out of you.

Um first of all, LJ started pre-school. Her papi and mom and dad and I all went with her on her first day (Guess who cried? Not the toddler....)

She was a little shy when I was trying to take her first day of school photo


We kept trying to take a normal looking family photo but between my shitty camera, a two year old that moves pretty fast and the fact that its sort of hard for any adult to look awesome at 7:30am, this is the best we could come up with

At least LJ looks cute

Just got back from Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco. I should warn you that I pretty much took photos of the exact same people as last year, but we had fun.

Belinda (gorgeous much?)



And Rob!



He told me that since he works from home now he is required to grow a beard.

Here comes trouble


Actually, I didn't see much of Justin this time around. Belinda and I both commented on the fact that he now looks like a man and no longer the 24 year old smart ass I know and love.

Hawthorne just got back from Tahiti



Not sure why he looks scared shitless in that photo...

Every year the nice organizers of the festival put together a tent for us old folks to hang out in. Generally it reminds me of what a party at the Playboy mansion might look like



It was sort of FREEZING on the fricking island, but I did catch some good sets. This is Miike Snow. I LOVE that record. SO good.

They had a fog machine that kept interfering with documentation





Yeah, my photos are so bad I feel like I should start some sort of creative movement. I think I will call it Blurry/ Shitty/ Arty. I mean, ACTUAL good photography has been so done. I might as well play to my strengths right?

Here are some more Blurry/ Shitty/ Arty of Belle and Sebastian







Oh and also this from Cha Cha in LA



I feel like the artist nailed everyone but Rose. Heh.....

Adorabs

Thanks to Sharlene for the tip on this one. LOVE this.

Fast times

Whew! Its crazy around here! I got a new job at Epitaph and ANTI Records (woot!) and am finally starting to feel semi grown up again. However, going from having tons of free time to a serious job is a little rough. As you can see, I really WILL complain about anything. Mostly its been going a little like this:

Which leads to me often looking like this:



I am super excited actually and just waiting to get the hang of everything. So tis good.

In other news, Ben Ben Goeke rolled into town. I was supposed to go camping with him in Yosemite, but I ended up getting aforementioned job. He was one of my favorite roommates in San Francisco. He makes an amazing guacamole and also had an unparalleled collection of records released in the 70's (including a VERY creepy spoken word album of Shel Silverstein reciting his poems). We sort of pinky swore on this trip that we would always stay friends.



He is super adorable and witty. Two of my favorite attributes.



We went to this awesome bar downtown called Seven Grand. It looked like a Scottish manor complete with Tartan patterns and many, many deer busts.



TJ, Ben's cutie cousin.



And Ben's friend Sharlene who is HILARIOUS. She told me she went through a phase where she only dated dudes who looked (and acted) like Jesus.

She also takes awesome photos. Checks her.

Right before we left the bar, this dude came up to me and told me that I was so beautiful he needed to take a photo of me. With my own camera. Weirdness! So I snapped his instead. He was a creep for sure in case you ever encounter him.



Also been hangin' with LJ as per usual. She is super brill and at two and a half can draw SUNS!

We took her to Canter's the other day and she did the most adorable thing. An older gentleman was hosting and when he asked us to follow him to our table LJ grabbed his hand and let him lead her there. Pretty precious shit. Its a good place. Gun's and Roses used to hang out there.



Mmmmm
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I bought her a panda mask. She was scared of it at first but then she got into it.







So yeah. I guess that about sums up what going on with me. How are YOU?

Amber Waves

Ohhhh the 4th of July. Nothing about commemorating the day makes me feel especially patriotic. But it is super fun to sit and eat yummy food (hello? bacon wrapped, cheese stuffed jalapenos, courtesy of Patrick!) and drink cold beers with your bros. This year I had a couple of different BBQ's to hit up. I was sort of having too much fun to take any photos. But it was an awesome day.

My final stop was Emily's. We had an amazing view of Cypress and Highland Park.





It got pretty loud and sparkly right around dusk what with all of the awesome illegal fireworks which seemed to be in abundance in the area. Some of them were so booming that they would set off the alarms on the cars on the street!

I don't think I have ever seen so many fireworks going off simultaneously. It was rad! Emily's neighbors were setting some off literally RIGHT above where we were sitting. Debris from said fireworks kept landing in our laps. Despite the looming danger, it felt like our own personal display.



I love that I didn't have to fight the crowds to go to a stadium to see some. It made me proud of my hood for sure.

Oh and here is one more I stole from either Sarah or her friend Julia. This is us witnessing the magic.



Lucas has a penchant for spontaneously posing for photographs. Its sort of hilarious that this ability seems to go against his somewhat reserved demeanor.

Also, I didn't have an opener for my beer so some guy attempted to open it by wedging the cap up against a concrete step. It resulted in a jagged glass bottle lip so Lexi was nice enough to give me her lemon half which had contained a yummy shot to drink my beer out of.



I have such nice friends.

Fresh air

LA has a way of quietly slipping into summer. Its nice here year round, but somehow right around Memorial Day, it gets even better. Despite the the gloom of June, the days are warm and breezy. And the nights are perfect. I have tried not to squander it by laying around my house, which some days is hard to resist. But I have had some pretty excellent adventures as of late.

First, got to see LCD Soundsystem a few weeks back. The bass player was amazing. He danced the whole set! Bass players I think sometimes get lost in the shuffle. But not this guy. I did not catch him mid-dance but he is the one in the purple shirt.

The next day Jen took me to the Huntington Gardens. Despite the $20 entry fee, it was awesome. They have botanical gardens from around the world and the Huntington mansion now serves as an awesome decadent museum of sorts.

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Oh the opulence.

Blue Boy



and Pinkie



and creepy baby monsters

This is the Japanese Garden. One of many different types on the grounds.



They also have an old fashioned tea room that would be perfect if you are ever looking for something to do when your mother is in town. Take note!

Then it was a respite weekend with Cara and Joysie! These two have been my friends since we were 15. You can imagine how many memories and jokes we have accumulated in almost 20 (MAN 20?) years of friendship. Its always a good time. I love these ladies.



We didn't really do much of note which was sort of the point, but it was a good time. As per usual, there was a dance party involving only us at a local watering hole with a good juke box.



Oh and arty photos of course.





I get this face a lot from Cara.



I also love this one. Country album cover much?



We ended the weekend by watching Troll 2. It was amazing despite the fact that the movie is about GOBLINS and there actually aren't even any trolls in it. I am pretty sure the budget for the entire film was about $75. You may want to check it out



So all is well and warm and dreamy. Mostly.

Through the hallway of shatterproof glass

Lately I have found myself going to see a lot of music. I was decidedly burnt out on going to shows at the end of my tenure in San Francisco, but despite all of my complaining (expensive drinks, annoying crowds and the inevitable sore feet) its something I quite enjoy.

I checked out The National at The Wiltern the other night. It was grand. I haven't listened to much of them, but they put on a good show. I didn't feel like taking any photos but you can see some here

The tickets were compliments of the lovely Heather Ryan to whom I am forever indebted. I also ran into some blasts from the past, which is always nice. And I must say that The Wiltern green room had a rather diverse offering of soda (Diet Dr. Pepper AND Country Time Lemonade in a can). I suppose such things are only exciting to me...

Anyway, I had also heard that Band of Horses was playing a private show at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I thought maybe it was not in the cards for me to attend, but I got a last minute text from Mr. Awesome, Dan Hadley saying he had been able to get me on the list! I had 20 minutes to get across LA during rush hour to make the show. I don't know how I did it, but I made it before the show started. And what a show it was!

WOW. It really was just one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The show was in the chapel mausoleum on the cemetery grounds. There were only about 100 people there and the band played acoustic. So it was just right. And Dan did an amazing job on the lights, which truly made it that much more rad. I don't really know who the other people were that were in attendance, but it seemed to be a mixture of fans, bored fashionistas and record label types who stood nervously in the back incessantly checking their iPhones.

I kept thinking that it was a pleasure to be there and not have to work. Or do anything, really except sit back with a glass of wine and listen. They played only for about an hour and in addition to many of their beloved songs they did a cover of Gram Parson's "A Song for You". Which was amazing. Its one of those songs that I have been randomly hearing everywhere. I have often lamented that the Parsons version reveals how trashed his voice was by the time he recorded that song. You can hear 1000 cigarettes and late night parties in his voice. But the Band of Horses version was flawless.

A very dear friend has pointed out that one of the ways to find happiness is to simply appreciate simple things. And this was one of those things. I was so thankful to Dan who went out of his way to get me into the show and I guess I was just glad I got to see it. I know I am super gushy. But it was one of the many examples of awesome that are out there for us to pay attention to. So yeah. Good couple of days.