I’m out of town on a business trip until March 2nd, but before I left this morning, my new camera was delivered!  My old Canon SD850 has been very very good to me.  It’s been through a lot and still takes great pics (as you can see below) but you may have noticed the big scratch on the lens these past few weeks.  I’ve tried to crop it out of most of the photos, but the camera was on its last leg.  This is my new camera:

Because of the sheer amount of photos I take, (I took over 450,000 with my SD850), I needed a lightweight, powerful pocket camera with a big screen and Canon’s vivid colors.  I chose the brand new Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS.  It’s got a touch screen for all of the controls and some neat features like a fisheye lens setting and a “wink or smile controlled” self timer.  I toll this photo by winking:

What follows, are two completely unrelated stories that are ultimately about hope and inspiration:

I would like everyone to grab a box of tissues and read this story.  I want you to think about it the next time you get angry while driving.  I know I will.  I’m an admittedly terrible driver, and have been guilty of road rage many times.  I’ve been working on driving more calmly for several years, but living in Los Angeles, relapses are easy.  I hope that the memory of what happened to this family and their little boy will forever stay with me when I’m behind the wheel. Life is indeed too short.

When a porn star and a college student driving through the San Fernando Valley fell into conflict, a Bangladeshi American family suffered the consequences

Los Angeles magazine, February 2010

On the Internet you can watch a four-minute video clip of Ayman Arif dancing. The venue is a bedroom in his Northridge home; his stage, a comforter patterned with sunflowers. Taking his cues from a Bollywood spectacular playing on the television, the four-year-old Bangladeshi American boy wriggles, twirls, and bounds. On his bare chest he wears the pink string sash of the Brahman jester he is pretending to be. His mop of brown hair gives way to a wide forehead, and his dark brown eyes are bright with fire as he sings along to the Bengali-language soundtrack. One moment he’s wagging a stern finger, the next he’s clasping his hands to his heart or pumping an outstretched palm toward the heavens.  

On Tuesday, October 9, 2007, some ten months after her son’s impromptu performance made it onto YouTube, Syeda Arif was readying her family for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr—three days of gift giving, party hopping,overeating, and prayer to conclude the fast of Ramadan. At 30, Syeda was petite, with almond-shaped eyes and a husky laugh. She and her husband, Amir, lived in a Bangladeshi enclave in the northwest San Fernando Valley. Her father had been twice nominated to the Bangladeshi parliament, and Amir liked to say that she made friends with the ease of a born politician.

Around noon in the gathering heat of the day, Syeda buckled her two-month-old daughter, Ikra, into the car seat in her Honda Civic and drove to the home of Romey Islam, one of her best friends. The Islams lived in a modest gray ranch house on Sherman Way near Van Nuys Airport. Its soundproof front windows looked out onto a six-lane river of crosstown traffic that, like the row of palm trees lining the sidewalk, continued as far as the eye could follow. Read more…

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And keeping in the vain of “life’s too short”, here’s another article I highly recommend taking the time to read.  It’s an inspiring look at Roger Ebert, perhaps the best known film critic in America.  Those of you in other countries have probably never heard of him, but I’ve always had a special affinity for Mr. Ebert.  He was a fixture in Chicago where I grew up, and his movie reviews with Gene Siskel and patented “thumbs up or down” are legendary.  Five years ago, when the movie “Rent” came out, I was very excited.  Any regular reader of this space knows that seeing the musical “Rent” in 1996 was a seminal event in my life.  I went on to see the show 15 times in 15 different countries!  While I was a bit underwhelmed by the transition from stage to screen; subsequent viewings of the movie made me appreciate it more.  Upon realizing this, I wrote to Mr. Ebert to take issue with a few of the comments he made in his review of the film.  Imagine my surprise the next day, when I got a personal response from Roger Ebert from his personal email address; and he actually agreed with me!  I thought that was a very classy thing for him to do.  At the time, I had no idea of the huge medical ordeals he was facing.  I read this article last night and it brought tears to my eyes. Roger Ebert is a class act. This is the story of a life well lived and it’s worth your time. 

February 16, 2010, 7:01 AM

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television’s most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped.  Read more…

PLUS: Have You Seen All of the Essential Movies?

By Chris Jones

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It was a very busy weekend at The Hotel Careyfornia, filled with many of my blog’s namesakes, primarily dogs (4), kids (3), and sunsets (2).  Thankfully, there was little mention of Sarah Palin and her redneck teleprompter!  Friday, Seth and Hannah came by with Garbo & Ruby.  On Saturday, David & Rebecca came with the two girls and Chanel the dog (just like last Valentine’s Day, when I went to Gay Traffic School!).  Despite snow in 49 of the 50 United States, it was 75° (24° C) in L.A. and we hiked up to the “new” Hollywood sign.  It’s been covered by conservationists temporarily to prevent land development at one of the last untouched parts of Los Angeles. After a quick trip to Millions of Milkshakes, we headed to The Getty Center for sunset (it’s free after 5:00 on Saturdays!).   We capped the night off celebrating the Lunar New Year with delicious Thai food.  Sunday, Claudio, Ryan, Omar & Chazz came to dance the Valentine’s night away at Avalon.  Tonight, Tyson (who took time out of his busy TV appearance schedule), met me and Chazz for dinner at Hollywood & Highland.  I’m exhausted.  Is it the weekend yet??

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube, my friend Tyson was on the Today Show this morning and the hosts, Hoda Kotb and Dan Abrams proved to be huge douchebags!!  I sent Tyson a text telling him that, and his reply was simply, “They always are…”  (Even Anderson Copper was a little douchey but not as bad as these clowns:)

Tyson was my inspiration for starting this blog over 3 years ago.  After he competed on the TV show Beauty and the Geek we became friends and I was always inspired by his Xanga and how he kept it up.  Tyson and his brother taught Will Smith how to solve the Rubik’s Cube for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness.  He lives in NYC now, but still comes to LA for shows at The Magic Castle and various Rubik’s Cube events, and we always try to get together.

If you’re familiar with comedienne Chelsea Handler, you might know of her #1 rated show on the E! Channel.  Yesterday, Claudio, Ryan, Guilherme and I went to a taping of her show, Chelsea Lately. We all love the show, but we were a bit disappointed by the whole experience. First of all, the security was a nightmare. I think it’s easier to get into a White House State Dinner! The security guards were rude and power hungry and …basically ridiculous. They manhandled us like we were going to federal prison!  Despite the fact that they made me remove my belt (I almost broke into a rendition of “Pants on the Ground“), I was STILL able to sneak my camera inside. What morons. Once we got inside, the guy who was in charge of warming up the audience was a complete tool and very annoying. Throughout the entire show he was waving his arms around like a banshee and really ruining the whole experience. He also made it very difficult for me to take any good photos. LOL. I still managed to sneak a few in though by holding the camera up discreetly. (In my inflated head, that’s what my public wants!) When Chelsea came to our row to sign autographs during a commercial break, I got a little cocky and got caught taking a picture. After the next break they escorted me out of the show (it was over anyway, there was only 1 minute left). When I got to the lobby, dumbfuck security guard #2, asked for my FILM!! I laughingly asked him if he knew what century it was and turned around and walked out the door. He started to follow me, but I pretended to talk on my phone (which I also brought in) and he gave up. Great security Chelsea! What a way to ruin a show!  Such drama for a camera.  Sheesh!!  Every time I watch the show now, I’m going to think of those poor saps in the audience having to endure rude security guards and an annoying warm up act. Oh well, just another day in Lala Land!

 
I had a great time at the Sundance Film Festival thanks to Drew, Christine and baby Lance.  Thanks also to Christine’s parents for watching the baby while we played on Saturday.  My 2nd Annual trip to Park City also coincided with a ski trip that Marcelo and Emily planned with Vonda and Nate.  So the entire weekend turned out to be a mini GLY reunion.  We laughed, shared stories and ate good food.  The best movie we saw at the Film Festival was called “Exit Through the Gift Shop“.  There was a lot of mystery surrounding the film.  We initially thought it was going to be a documentary on the infamous (and anonymous) graffiti artist Banksy.  His amazing street art has been popping up all over the world in recent years, especially in Los Angeles, and now in Utah, just in time for the premiere of his film.  It’s described as:

Take a look:

The worst film we saw was called “Double Take“.  It was about 2 hours too long (and it only lasted 90 minutes)!  It was a documentary about Khrushchev, Alfred Hitchcock and Folger’s Coffee.  Very weird.  Maybe I’m just not intellectual enough to get it, as Christine pointed out on Facebook, LOL: