clouds

  • Star Studded Weekend

    It has been a crazy weekend, but a lot of fun.  It’s after 2 AM and I just have a few minutes to post these pictures and then I have to get ready for my trip tomorrow morning (this morning).  I still have laundry to do and I have to clean the house as Luis & David will be staying here while I’m out of town.  (The Hotel Careyfornia is even busy when I’m not here!)  Claudio’s Brazilian BBQ was a hit yesterday, and he even made feijoada.  Yum!  Chazz is still growing like a weed.  Afterwards I headed up to Santa Barbara to see Tom & Cathy and little Patrick.  Bassam hosted a great party last night and we all had a great time.  Today I came back to LA in time for two Oscar parties.  I thought the ceremony was fantastic this year…the best in a long time, maybe ever!  I got 19 out of 24 predictions right, and won the pool for the 2nd year in a row!  On the way home I walked down DeLongpre because I knew that one of the locks on the garage door of  the Sunset Plaza Hotel is busted.  I was able to sneak in to the hotel and take the elevator up to Sunset Blvd. next to where the Vanity Fair Oscar party was being held.  There were people who had been waiting there all day and I just walked out the hotel door and started snapping photos, LOL.  The LAPD were being assholes though, and it was really hard to get good pictures.  I had to get home but I hung out for about 45 minutes and got to see Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams Frank Langella, Anne Hathaway, Jon Voight, Robert Pattinson, Gwen Stefani,  and that awesome Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto guy, hoisting his Oscar and waving to the crowd!     I don’t have time to go through all of the photos now, but here’s a sampling:


    The Vanity Fair party 2 blocks from my house


    Jon Voight


    That’s Mickey Rourke in the white coat and hat


    If you look closely, you can see Kate Winslet holding her Oscar


    Kate Winslet again


    I’ll have to through the rest of these later!


    Let’s hear it for the boys (and Daisy, LOL)


    Eva & Patrick


    Breakfast with Patick


    Ryan being butch


    Click here for the best of the rest…


    I took this out the sun roof on the way home from Santa Barbara

  • Driving Miss Daisy Crazy

    Claudio & Ryan came up with Chazz on Friday.  It’s only been 3 weeks since I last saw him (when he “read” my animal books), and my how he’s grown!  I’m still dog-sitting for Daisy through the end of the month.  Daisy is 9 years old and I’m sure the last thing she wanted to do all weekend was contend with a playful rambunctious puppy.  She was a trooper though, despite her impatience at times.  I think they secretly had crushes on each other.  Just look how they were sleeping in bed with me when I woke up yesterday morning.  Luckily I had my camera by my side:

    Admittedly though, they needed a few time outs:

    Claudio & Chazz

    Yesterday we went to the beach at Santa Monica:

     


    We almost dropped to our deaths in this parking garage elevator….then noticed the permit expired in 2002!


    I need to add the words, “& Pet Motel” to the Hotel Careyfornia sign above!


    Tuckered out after a long day at the beach


    Best of the rest…

  • Urban Hipster Living & The WTF Blanket

    It’s been a busy week at the Hotel Careyfornia, (bandwidth alert) and it’s going to get busier.  Margie flew in Monday from Kentucky and she brought her little dog, Daisy.  Since she’s working down in Orange County all month and staying in a hotel, I’m going to be watching Daisy.  Tuesday, as already blogged, I hung out with my Iraqi friend Haider.  Last night, Lora was nice enough to invite me over for dinner at their new loft downtown, right across from the Staples Center and the Nokia Theater and LA Live.  We watched Idol and dished all night.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight I brought Pei Wei over to Lisa & Joel’s and visited with the kids for a while.  Tomorrow, Claudio & Ryan are coming with Chazz.  Sunday is my Uncle’s 81st birthday party, and that evening I’m going to try to catch the screening of The Secret Life of Bees with Tony, as Dakota Fanning is going to be there discussing the movie.  Let me know if any of you are going!  Have a good weekend!


    The view from Frank & Lora’s balcony


    Idol buddies!


    Pucker up Frank!


    This is the city…


    LA Live in the background


    These were Lora & Frank’s wedding centerpieces.  Beautiful!


    We had to climb over railings to get back to my car…so urban.  LOL



    The Grammy’s will be in this complex this weekend


    Best of the rest…

    Last weekend while I was at Michele’s party, Lisa sent a picture to my phone of Cole snuggled up in one of those “blankets with arms” you see advertised on T.V. all the time.  They’re called “Snuggies” and they look ridiculous.  Then a few days later, I got this picture of Andy in one of them.  So tonight when I was there, of course I had to try it:

     
     

    Ridiculous right?  Kind of makes you wanna say, WTF??? 

    “I can’t believe a black man’s president…”


    On the way to work this morning I took these photos out of the sun roof driving 70 mph


    Best of the rest…

    I snapped these shots of Daisy tonight.  I think she was sleeping and dreaming when she started doing this, then she woke herself up.  LOL


    ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
    “The ratings for this year’s Academy Awards are expected to be very low because hardly anyone has seen the best-picture nominees. Also not helping — the prospect of seeing Mickey Rourke in high-definition.” — Conan O’Brien

  • Wireless Blogging, Petting Anderson, Peace Tunes & A Spectacular Sunset

    I want to thank Tom & Cathy for a most spectacular gift they gave me that I alluded to last week.    It’s an Eye-Fi wireless SD card.  It saved me so much time last week in San Francisco because the pictures I took automatically went to my Xanga wirelessly (through Picasa which I had synced to a web album) without even having to download from the card!  What a time-saver.  All I needed to be was at least 30 feet from my computer.  As long as my camera was on, the pictures got uploaded instantly and automatically.  Pretty cool!  Thank you both so much. 

    I saw this picture of Obama yesterday and thought it was really nice.  Did anyone catch the “Puppedential Debate” on The Daily Show the other night?  Anderson Cooper is pretty damn funny.  I met him last year at a book signing and he was really friendly (I didn’t meet his his boyfriend).  If you missed it, check out “The Road to the Doghouse” The last frame is my favorite!  Hilarious.

    Also, you may remember my appearance in Seth’s “Peace on Earth” video and benefit song last Thanksgiving.  I promised you guys I would let you know when it was available on iTunes, and now it is.  If you have iTunes installed, you can click here to purchase the song.  Otherwise, just search for “Seth Freeman” from the iTunes Store.  It goes to a good cause!

    Finally, here are some photos I took from my roof of the sunset on Monday night.  Peace!

  • Mile High Club

    On my flight to Orlando today, I noticed some suspicious activity in the front lavatory.  I noticed a guy go in, and since I needed to use it myself, I kept glancing up from my book to see if the “Occupied” light was off.  Then I noticed a girl go in.  The light was on for a while, and I forgot about it and got absorbed in my reading.  About 10 minutes later, I looked up and it was empty, so I went in, and saw this:


    Imagine!  On a flight to Disneyworld!!


    Yes, I keep my camera in my pocket all all times.  

    Anyway, it’s hot and muggy here.  I really despise this city (the result of coming here multiple times a year for the past 18 years).  It’s nothing but a big swamp and tacky tourists traps.  That said, I always have fun at this conference, and get to see a lot of old friends.  I had dinner tonight with Len & Cindy, and then Pam, Tobby & Dean surprised me with a birthday dessert.  The clouds were pretty tonight.  Here are a few pictures.  I have to be up early, so good night!

  • Michael Jackson, Marie Osmond, Tom Cruise & Barack Obama

    What do these four people have in common you ask?  I have NO idea.  But this CRAZY woman’s car seems to make a case for them all being connected somehow.  It was parked on Santa Monica Blvd. while I walked the dogs this evening.  Despite her poor spelling and grammar, I’ve been able to gather she’s bitter about losing her child after reporting some family abuse.  It seems she supports Michael Jackson, as well as a host of other celebrities, from the bitches of “The View” (including Rosie “O’Donald”) to Elton John (all gay people as a matter of fact, including Ellen “Degenaras”)!  I guess if my car looked like this, I’d try to wallpaper it too.


    I used the rest of our walk to take advantage of the gorgeous light at dusk.  These dogs are such great posers!

    Leona was on Oprah yesterday.  It’s good for her, but sucks for those of us who loved her before Oprah annointed her.  Oh well.

  • Some Dizzy Whore, 1804

    It was a crazy day weatherwise in LA today.  It started out warm and sunny.  I’m still dog-sitting, so I took the pups on a long walk this morning.  We sat at a cafe for a while, and I read some more about my new camera.  It certainly has a lot of hidden features…though not quite this many:

    Anyway, here are some shots I took of Garbo & Ruby, and of the storm front that moved through Los Angeles this afternoon.  Being close to St. Patrick’s Day, I was hoping for a rainbow, or at least a pot of gold.

    A dreaded sunny day
    So I meet you at the cemetery gates
    Keats and Yeats are on your side

    A dreaded sunny day
    So I meet you at the cemetery gates
    Keats and Yeats are on your side
    While Wilde is on mine

    So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
    All those people all those lives
    Where are they now?
    With the loves and hates
    And passions just like mine
    They were born
    And then they lived and then they died
    Seems so unfair
    And I want to cry

    You say: “ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn”
    And you claim these words as your own
    But I’ve read well, and I’ve heard them said
    A hundred times, maybe less, maybe more

    If you must write prose and poems
    The words you use should be your own
    Don’t plagiarise or take “on loans”
    There’s always someone, somewhere
    With a big nose, who knows
    And who trips you up and laughs
    When you fall
    Who’ll trip you up and laugh
    When you fall

    You say: “ere long done do does did”
    Words which could only be your own
    And then you then produce the text
    From whence was ripped some dizzy whore, 1804

    A dreaded sunny day
    So let’s go where we’re happy
    And I meet you at the cemetery gates
    Oh Keats and Yeats are on your side

    A dreaded sunny day
    So let’s go where we’re wanted
    And I meet you at the cemetery gates
    Keats and Yeats are on your side
    But you lose because Wilde is on mine

  • Both Sides Now


     

    I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
    From up and down, and still somehow
    It’s cloud illusions I recall
    I really don’t know clouds at all.
    I’ve looked at life from both sides now
    From win and lose and still somehow
    It’s life’s illusions I recall
    I really don’t know life at all.

    I didn’t understand the metaphors in this song when I was a kid, but as an adult I really appreciate its genius.  Speaking of clouds, I’m getting pretty good at taking photos out of my sun roof while driving 80 mph on the freeway!  Check out these shots of clouds I took yesterday morning:













    While I’m on the subject of “both sides”, has anyone been following the John White story out of Long Island?  Calvin Trillin just wrote a fascinating piece in the New Yorker magazine if you’re interested.  Otherwise, here’s a synopsis from NPR.

    Late in 2007, John White of Miller Place, N.Y., was convicted of manslaughter.

    Whiteis African-American. Miller Place is a largely white community on Long Island, 60 miles from New York City. White commutes daily to the city for work.

    The story of how he shot Daniel “Dano” Cicciaro Jr., a white teenager, in front of the Whites’ spacious suburban house was all over the news in December — how White claimed it was accidental and how Cicciaro’s friends and family thought it was murder.

    Calvin Trillin, the author of an article in The New Yorker about the case, says the story illustrates how profoundly segregated a community such as Miller Place really is.

    Miller Place is 0.4 percent black, and a recent study concluded that Long Island is “the single most segregated suburban community in the United States,” Trillin says.

    “People saw what had happened completely differently according to what race they were. Some white people,including Dano’s parents, were outraged that John White wasn’t indicted for murder. And some supporters of White thought that if the races had been reversed — if it had been a white homeowner and four hostilet eenagers yelling at him — there wouldn’t have been any charge at all,”he says.

    Trillin discusses the events that led a group of white teenagers, including Cicciaro, to drive to the Whites’ house late on an August evening in 2006 and threaten White and his youngest son, Aaron, the shooting and its aftermath.

    White is appealing the guilty verdict and is awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for March 19.


    From the New Yorker:

    What happened at the foot of the driveway at 40 Independence Way that hot August night in 2006 took less than three minutes. The police later managed to time it precisely, using a surveillance camera that points directly at the street from a house a couple of doors to the north. The readout on the surveillance tape said that it was 23:06:11 when two cars whizzed by going south, toward the cul-de-sac at the end of the street. At 23:09:06, the first car passed back in front of the camera, going north. A minute later, a second car passed in the same direction. In the back seat of that second car—a black Mustang Cobra convertible—was a seventeen-year-old boy named Daniel Cicciaro, Jr.,known to his friends as Dano. He was unconscious and bleeding profusely. He had been shot through the cheek. A .32-calibre bullet was lodged in his head.  Read more…