Remember that speeding ticket I got last summer?  Well I finally got around to signing up for traffic school before the February 17th deadline.  Unfortunately, because I got the ticket behind the Orange Curtain, I couldn’t take traffic school online.  So when I looked at the list of state approved classes, this is what I found:

The “Gay Community Traffic School” is coincidentally the closest one to my house.    When I called them, the queen on the phone was very friendly.  He told me that the only day available before my deadline was February 14th from 9-5.  I said, “Fine, I’ll take it”.  Then he paused dramatically and said “You know that’s Valentine’s Day, don’t you??”  I laughingly told him I was aware that February 14th was Valentine’s Day, and then he actually asked me if I had a Valentine!  I kind of stuttered in disbelief, and told him “No”.  After that he told me he’d call me the day before to remind me,  and to show up with $32.95 in cash that morning.  LOL.

Apparently this Gay Traffic School is quite popular here and in San Francisco.  To wit:

The Best Place to Meet If You’re Looking For:

A Speed Queen

Calling Erik Estrada. Gay traffic violators commiserate, cruise, and discharge their points at Joey Randall’s Gay…community Traffic School. For eight hours, students trade traffic jokes and play “Traffic School Jeopardy.” Randall says classes are bumper-to-bumper because “people know they’re going to meet others they might be interested in.” An instructor at Randall’s L.A. school teaches in drag, so watch what you say about women drivers. Classes meet weekly. Call (800) 429-4968.

Maybe my instructor will be the one in drag?!  Now that would be blog-worthy!

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Here are some photos from over the weekend with David & Hyun Ju.  We went downtown to meet up with CJ so I could finally give him the Rubik’s Cube that Macky signed for him last summer.  He was so appreciative!  I hadn’t seen him since the competition at the Discovery Science Center last spring, when he was so nice and patient with my little cousin Tommy.

Me with future world famous video game designer Daniel Chan

Then we went to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year, but I didn’t see an ox, just these turtles!

Poolside at The Standard Hotel, downtown Los Angeles

 

I wish they would have told me I still had the damn Bluetooth in my ear!

Taken from the car at 60 mph

The aptly named Sunset Blvd.

Best of the rest…

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

“J. Crew’s stock has gone up 10 percent because first lady Michelle Obama has been spotted wearing their clothes. Which begs the question, Mrs. Obama, how would you feel about wearing a Buick?” –  Conan O’Brien

Update:  Click Here to see how Gay Traffic School went!

David & Hyun Ju flew back from Vegas tonight and we went to Hollywood & Highland for dinner and then to Universal Studios to finally see Gran Torino.  It’s described as a humorous, touching and intriguing old school parable and I loved it.  I’m curious to know what my readers thought though (especially my Asian readers)?  Were its portrayals of the Asian community (specifically the Hmong) fair?  Volumes have already been written about this, and I need not rehash them here.  If you’ve seen the movie, I’d be curious to know what you think.  Though over acted at times by the principles, I felt it touched brilliantly on themes of racism and stereotypes; unlike any movie in recent memory (certainly not any Hollywood fare).  The theater we were in was filled with many different races and people were laughing at some of the more overt jokes and crying during the sad parts (myself included).  Without giving anything away, the payoff for me came at the end, with one of the characters driving the Gran Torino (and everything it symbolizes), down a Midwest highway.  There’s hope in this movie.  Just like in Slumdog Millionaire and just like in the inauguration of our new president.  And with the way things have been going lately, I’m all for anything that gives us a little hope!  Here are some photos from tonight:

The Kodak Theater (Home of the Oscars) (L) & Universal Studios (R)

When Halloween is on a Friday, it makes for a very long weekend.  After surviving several assassination attempts on Friday night, I headed up to Oxnard to photograph Claudio, Ryan, Julia and Susan’s transformation into Abba!  Ryan made the boy’s outfits, and he really outdid himself.

 

 

The GRAND entrance….Take a chance on them…They even did better than me!!

Luckily, the Sarah Palin at the party on Saturday night came with her own moose, so she didn’t have to shoot me!

 

More dancing, featuring The Spice Girls, Abba, Sarah Palin & friends, performing
such classics as Xanadu, Dancing Queen, It’s Raining Men and more.

Best of the rest…

After returning to LA, we went to a No on 8 rally at the bottom of my street.  Then, Luis and David drove from Las Vegas to pay a visit to the world famous Hotel Careyfornia.  We just had time for a quick dinner before they had to jet off to D.C.  All in all it was a great weekend, but I’m tired!  Tomorrow night I’m going to see Tyson at The Magic Castle.  Should be fun!

Here’s some video I shot walking down Santa Monica Blvd.  I was encouraged by all the supporters honking their horns, but then again, this is West Hollywood.

Tonight we went to the Vienna Teng concert at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood.  The show was great.  What a voice….and her piano playing is simply awe inspiring.  She was accompanied by Alex Wong, an extremely talented musician in his own right, who played some amazing insturments.  If you haven’t heard of Vienna Teng, you can check out her music here or two of my favorites below.  If you like her, please support her.  (Direct link for iTunes users)
 

She shares her name with the Austrian home of Mozart and Beethoven. And she herself studied classical piano from the age of five. But there’s nothing old-world about the music of Vienna Teng, whose Zoë/RounderRecords debut brings to mind artists as diverse as Tori Amos, Simon & Garfunkel and Radiohead. “People used to ask what kind of music I played and I never knew how to answer that,” says Teng. “I work a lot with classically trained musicians, but most of my influences are from1970s-era folk music. So now I call it chamber folk.” She adds: “I’m always looking for the perfect pop song combined with an unexpected amount of depth; that’s my idea of great music.”


Alex Wong (percussion, guitar, vocals), co-founder of The Animators, recently released the debut EP for The Paper Raincoat, his project with Amber Rubarth. He also plays in Deadbeat Darling.

“For David – Carey & I say hello from L.A.”

David and his entire family will be coming back to the Hotel Careyfornia next spring…so he’ll get his signed CD then!

By the way, did you notice my new watermark?  Thanks to Jin, I now have my very own design.  Isn’t it awesome?  He’s such a sweetheart for doing that.  What a nice surprise.  Thank you my friend!

I stopped by my cousin’s hotel to use the Wi-Fi and upload these pictures.  Heading to the graduation party now.  More later!  Ciao!

It’s late and I have to wake up at 6 to take the train into Chicago, so I’ll just post a few photos and this quick story.  My Mom got an email (excerpt above) from an old friend recently, who told a story about when I was three years old.  The friend’s daughter’s name was Candy, and apparently because of that, I bit her (to see if she tasted sweet)!!  I guess I had quite the sense of humor even at three.  Poor Candy always insisted on being called “Candace” after that.  Gee, I hope I didn’t scar her for life (physically and mentally).  Candy, if you ever read this, I’m sorry!! 

Before breakfast.

On the way to breakfast.

Cheyenne, after lunch!

A photo of a photo of my parents on their wedding day in 1963 two years before I was born.

Me, being butch at my brother’s office.

Dinner, with Mom & David

And the storms move in again!

 

Death by barbed wire
   

I played around with different hue settings on the camera.

Including tugsten…

…and sepia.

Think Wizard of Oz!

Carey, you’re not in LA anymore!

I flew to “Sweet Home” Chicago today.  I haven’t been home in over a year, and since I have a conference to attend downtown this week, I flew in early to spend some time with my Mom and my brother and niece.  Before leaving Los Angeles thought, guess who I ran into at LAX??

My old buddy Jason Castro

The plane to Chicago was virtually empty, so there was a lot of room to spread out.  The girl in front of me had the cutest puppy with her, and the kids on the plane all had a ball playing with the puppy, as did I. 

It was a beautiful day for flying:

The Port of Los Angeles

This cutie’s Dad is a doctor at UCLA and her Mom’s a school counselor.  Super nice folks!

My brother picked me up at O’Hare, and brought me to his hometown, about 60 miles west of the city.  It might as well be Iowa though!  There’s one tiny biker bar in town, which as you can see from these photos is the “hot spot”.  I find it hilarious that I left West Hollywood this afternoon, in the middle of Gay Pride weekend, and tonight I’m in a Harley bar 2000 miles away in Elburn, Illinois watching drunk Midwestern girls dance on the bar.  Oh, and it was karaoke night.  LOL

As I don’t drink, I was a little out of my element!

The guy in the middle is (I suspect) the only gay guy in this little town.

This pretty much sums up the mind set here

That’s my little brother on the right

A robin laid some eggs in his back yard…Spring in the Midwest

David & Hyun Ju were nice enough to make me a delicious Korean rice cake and kimchi potsticker dinner tonight. 

Fine dining at the Hotel Careyfornia

After that, we went to see No Country For Old Men.  Not much to say about that movie that hasn’t already been said.  “Feel good picture of the year”?  LOL, not quite, but the Coen Brothers are great filmmakers, and we all really enjoyed the movie. 

No, But We Saw the Movie (SPOILER ALERT!)

by Nora Ephron

November 26, 2007

When
they got home that night, she went to get the book. She’d ordered it
earlier in the week and meant to read it before they went to the movie,
but it was a hard week and things got away from her. This was happening
more and more.

Maybe if we look in the book we’ll be able to figure it out, she said.

Maybe we’ll find out what happened at the motel, he said. Why did it skip forward like that?

He said it’s the same in the book.

Who said?

I told you who. The guy I was standing with while I was waiting for
you to come out of the men’s room. He read the book and he said it’s
the same deal exactly. The sheriff pulls up and everybody’s dead. You
never see the scene where they all get shot. Maybe it’s because Javier
didnt kill them.

Who’s Javier?

Javier Bardem. The serial killer.

I thought it was Benicio Del Toro.

Well it wasnt. The guy outside the men’s room said there’s a scene
in the book that’s not in the movie. He said Javier goes to see a total
stranger in some office, who’s never been mentioned earlier. He gives
him the satchel of money and he says, Here’s your money back, now maybe
you’ll hire me to do things like this in the future.

Why did they leave that out?

How do I know? Write a letter to the Coen brothers.

She opened the book and started reading from the end.

He does this weird thing with contractions, she said. He uses
apostrophes for words like that’s and it’s but he doesnt use them for
dont and wasnt and wont. He doesnt use quotation marks, either.

Who?

Cormac McCarthy.

How am I supposed to know what you’re talking about with all these pronouns? he said.

He went to get ready for bed.

I cant believe you didnt know Josh Brolin died, she said.

Well I didnt.

He was lying there in the parking lot.

I didnt see him lying in the parking lot.

Well I didnt see him either, but then his wife turned up and Tommy Lee Jones looked sad, so you knew he was dead.

I thought he looked sad because the mother was dead.

The mother? The mother doesnt die till later.

I thought it was the mother in the swimming pool.

How could you think it was the mother? It was the girl with the beer
in the swimming pool. She was wearing a bikini. The mother was about a
hundred years old. What would the mother be doing wearing a bikini? The
mother dies of cancer. Jesus.

What happened to the satchel of money?

He gives it to a total stranger. I told you.

But in the movie what happens to the money?

She wondered if they’d ever know. Maybe the answers were buried in
the caliche, along with some character who had figured in a story
toward the end of the movie. She hadn’t been able to follow the story
about the character who was buried in the caliche because she was busy
trying to puzzle out what happened to the satchel of money, but the
word caliche stuck in her head. It was pronounced ka-lee-chee. Since
they lived in New York City and were not about to go dig a hole in
Central Park, it didnt seem like a particularly useful word, but you
never know.

He got into bed.

I cant believe you didnt know Josh Brolin died, she said. Who did you think was lying on that slab in the morgue?

The mother, he said.

The mother? she said. The mother?

We came home and watched the Idol results show.  I still laugh every time I see Danny Noriega’s facial expressions for some reason.  He reminds me a lot of Daniel Kueblboeck from the German version of Idol who went on to quite a career for a while.  Looks like we have our new Sanjaya.  I think Danny can sing though, but I’m tone deaf, so what do I know.  LOL

 

By the way, judging from iTunes popularity, it looks like the dreadlocks boy is the favorite so far. 

Tomorrow will be weather dependent.  Hyun Ju’s not feeling well, so we may lay low.  Happy Oscar weekend everyone!

No, not dog dumplings!  I saw this photo on the news tonight.  Apparently, the mother of a 13 year old snow boarder on Copper Mountain took the photo.  Now granted, I’ve been known to sacrifice personal danger to “get the shot”.  But if I was that kid’s mother…I’m not so sure I’d be “focusing” on my f-stop.  (Though if I was his father, I might.  LOL.)  Damn good picture though.

Here’s a shot my brother took in Vancouver last year.  What a beautiful animal.

From coyotes to wolves to huskies, today’s video of the day also comes from Canada:

Here are last night’s photos.  I’m out of town this week (and next) and will be working long hours, so may not update much until the weekend.  Have a good week everyone.

Between casting calls, rising child star Hannah FS celebrated her 2nd birthday in style at Naya’s Garden, a shoe-free, indoor/outdoor playground here in Los Angeles.  Hannah’s parents are a bit on the healthy/hippy side, so before I left for the party I called to ask if there would be (edible) food at the party.  Hannah’s dad, an up and coming musician on the Grey’s Anatomy circuit;  told me that they would have Pirate’s Booty, peapods, and water!!  “Peapods and water!!??”, at a two year old’s birthday party??  I immediately threatened to call Child Services.  Luckily there was also pizza, cake and juice boxes on the menu.  No soda though, and I was advised that it was strictly BYODC (bring your own Diet Coke), LOL.  Here are some of my highlights from Hannah’s birthday extravaganza.