los angeles

  • Swine Free H.C.

    Valesca’s sister, Fabiola, arrived from Brazil on Friday, and we crammed a lot of site seeing into a little over a day.  Chazz was a real trooper too, walking with us for 8 hours around town yesterday.  He slept like a baby, which I guess makes sense, as he’s only six months old!  Click play below for a video of my weekend photos set to music, and my favorites from the weekend reproduced below:


    Free Swine Flu masks for VIP guests of The Hotel Careyfornia


    Don’t you think Chazz should go into modeling??

     
    Baby Jaden, with Jessica…and Fabiola & me on Rodeo Drive


    Don’t worry, I cropped his Mom holding him, out of the shot!

     
    Inside and outside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, site of “Pretty Woman


    Millions of Milkshakes!


    A rare visit (for me) to The Abbey


    Downtown LA


    The Grove


    The Kodak Theater, home of the Oscars

     
    Outside Hollywood & Highland and Grauman’s Chinese Theater


    Santa Monica Beach


    Best of the rest…

  • Idols Dancing with Wolverines? Swine Flu be Damned!


    May & June promise to be busy months at the Hotel Careyfornia.  Despite the recent media hyped outbreak of Swine Flu, we have visitors coming from all over the globe for the next two months.  For those of you worried about your health during your stay at the H.C., the management is pleased to announce that we now provide complementary masks to all guests who book a VIP Luxury Suite or higher.  Richard found this out first hand today, when he paid our fine establishment a visit:

    Richard has never been to Los Angeles, so when I asked him what he wanted to do tonight, he said that a low key dinner would be fine.  He wasn’t interested in the whole celebrity or sightseeing thing.  I figured we’d have a nice dinner at The Grove and call it a night.  When I picked him up though we stopped by the red carpet premiere of Wolverine, just because I wanted to say “hi” to Hugh Jackman:


    Hi Hugh!

    We saw a few more sites….downtown and Hollywood, then went to dinner:


    Downtown Los Angeles


    The Hollywood Sign through the smog

    After a nice Italian dinner, we stuck around for a concert by Derek Hough and Mark Ballas from Dancing With the Stars.  Derek’s girlfriend, Shannon Elizabeth (of American Pie fame) was there too, as was Melissa’s partner, Tony Dovolani.
     


    Tony Dovolani


    Shannon Elizabeth

     
    Mark Ballas & Derek Hough


    Best of the rest…

    On the way out we bumped into Allison Iraheta, the 16 year old sole female, top 5 finalist on American Idol this year.  She was very sweet.  In fact, like Jordin Sparks, I like her a lot more now after meeting her.  On TV, her personality doesn’t come through, but in person, she’s got great energy.

     
    Allison Iraheta from American Idol

    Then, as if that wasn’t enough star f***ing for Richard, we rode the elevator with Alec Mapa from Ugly Betty.  Rich had no idea who he was, but happily posed for a photo.  LOL.


    The straightest and gayest men in universe.  LOL

    We had dessert at the original Pinkberry and called it a night.  So much for a quiet Hollywood evening!


    Best of the rest…

    Tomorrow night, Ken and I are going to see Vienna Teng at The Roxy!  Then Friday, Fabiola is arriving from Brazil.  Claudio, Ryan & Chazz will be here too.  David & Daniel arrive next from Germany with their parents, and then Joelle is coming for her second visit of the year from Chile before moving to India.  After that, I’m off to Tuscany!  It’s going to be a busy few months!

  • 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 carso 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

  • A Gay Traffic School Valentine

    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!


    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!

  • Can You See It If You Open Your Heart?

    This week, Americans are preparing to celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday.  This year, we have much to be thankful for; a new president, a renewed sense of hope for our tattered worldwide reputation and the fact that Sarah Palin is finally back in her kitchen in Alaska where she belongs.  (Click here for David Letterman’s Top 10 Palin excuses for the unfortunate interview she gave after “pardoning” a Thanksgiving turkey while the guy behind her feeds LIVE turkeys into a GRINDER!)

    This Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to participate in a truly memorable and worthwhile project.  My friend Seth, owner of Garbo & Ruby, wrote a song about peace on earth and shot a truly cross cultural video that I hope you will all enjoy.  Hannah steals the show at about 32 seconds, and I make my first cheesy appearance at 39 seconds.  Take a look, but be warned, the song will stick in your head!


    buy from cdfreedom | iTunes coming soon
    myspace | facebook | email | lyrics | credits | the charity
    If you can’t see the video above, click here

    In Seth’s own words:

    On Thanksgiving 2007, I asked myself for what was I truly thankful. I have many people, experiences, and things to be grateful about in my life, and so I gave a heartfelt thank you to the universe for all of them. Then I closed my eyes and imagined what I would really like to give thanks for, and I had a vision of the world and the human race as it should be, helping each other instead of hindering, loving each other instead of fighting, giving to each other instead of hoarding, and it felt amazing. My whole body and mind relaxed and a smile came to my face. I think I even laughed.

    I know that I’m not alone with this experience. I know that there are many people out there doing amazing work every day to make this world the best place it can be. There are countless others who, while they may not outwardly appear to be “peaceniks,” are doing their part in their own way, be it through making contributions to the charity of their choice, performing random acts of kindness, meditation, prayer, or even just taking a breath before they react in anger. Anyhow, in the midst of these thoughts and feelings, a simple song of peace literally fell out of me.

    I had a vision that night of people all over the world hearing and singing this song of peace, and this being a small piece of the tipping point where the majority of the population of the world becomes fed up with conflict, hunger, and injustice and finally leaves the governments of the world no choice but to disarm and refocus their efforts on the greater good. Yes, we singer-songwriters are prone to megalomania. :) But no matter what happens, this song will be out there. Even if it changes only one person’s mind, that will be success.

    So this year, before another year goes by, I’ve recorded the song with a large group of singers. All the proceeds from the song will go to benefit peace on Earth by way of Peace Partnership International.

    Aside from the charitable contributions that people make by buying the song, getting the song into the public consciousness will also have a great positive effect, because these kinds of ideas are infectious. I know I always think twice after reading those “random acts of kindness” bumper stickers ;)

    Peace!
    Seth

    The parts I’m in were filmed on the roof of the Hotel Careyfonia  Here are some “Behind the Scenes” photos that might just show up on VH-1′s “Behind the Music” someday after I come out of rehab for the 5th time following my meteoric rise to the top of the Hollywood elite in this video:

    And if you’d like to see some short “making of” videos, they’re on the song’s Facebook page (click now and become a fan).  If you’re not on Facebook, you can watch the videos here and here.  If you like the song, please purchase it for .99 cents.  All the proceeds go to Peace Partnership International.  I’ll do another post as soon as it’s available on iTunes, because I know that’s how a lot of people prefer to purchase their music.  Thanks to Seth and his inspiration.  I wish you all a peaceful Thanksgiving wherever you may be.

    If you’d like to help spread the word, please recommend this post.  It’s for a good cause!
  • LAPD on Tactical Alert

    Andrew Sullivan wrote this on his blog today, and it’s worth clicking through to read the whole thing:

    Heart-breaking news this morning: a terribly close vote has stripped gay couples in California of their right to marry. The geographic balance shows that the inland parts of California voted for the Proposition and the coast and urban areas voted against it.

    Yes, it is heart-breaking: it is always hard to be in a tiny minority whose rights and dignity are removed by a majority. It’s a brutal rebuke to the state supreme court, and enshrinement in California’s constitution that gay couples are now second-class citizens and second class human beings. Massively funded by the Mormon church, a religious majority finally managed to put gay people in the back of the bus in the biggest state of the union. The refusal of Schwarzenegger to really oppose the measure and Obama’s luke-warm opposition didn’t help. And cruelly, a very hefty black turnout, as feared, was one of the factors that defeated us, according to the exit poll. Today this is one of the solaces to a hard right and a Republican party that sees gay people as the least real of Americans.  Read more…

    I received emails about this all day long from friends all over the world.  They were shocked and dismayed that this could happen on such an otherwise historic day in America.  Tonight however, the citizens of Los Angeles decided to march.  I’m dog-sitting for Garbo & Ruby this week, and since the march was right outside my home, I decided to let the dogs witness a little history!


    The Los Angeles Police Department declared a tactical alert Wednesday night in an attempt to handle opponents of Proposition 8, who marched from West Hollywood to Hollywood to protest the passage of the initiative defining marriage as between one man and one woman.  Read more…
    Here’s a short video I took as I marched with the dogs down the middle of a closed off Santa Monica Boulevard:

    And some of my photos:


    The intersection of Santa Monica Blvd. and La Cienega.  One of the busiest in the city.

  • Touched By A Chaperoned Angel & Obama Idol

    Last night the GMCLA had their 30th anniversary concert at the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.  It was a great venue and a great show, with celebrity guests like the incomparable Della Reese and the less comparable George Takei (of Star Trek and of late, gay marriage fame, LOL). 


    Martin Luther King Jr,’s niece, Donzaleigh Amernathy introducing Della Reese who sang “Touched By An Angel”.

    The event was hosted by Joely Fisher, (from Desperate Housewives) who was very funny and charming.  We were lucky to get free tickets to the concert, but there was a catch:

    Dear
    Friends,

    The GMCLA is offering FREE tickets for youth (ages
    14-24)
    and their adult chaperones for their next engagement at the Disney
    Hall on Aug. 25th.

    For FREE TICKETS
    please contact Jeff Morris (See Attached Flyer for contact information). I know there are many
    of you who meet the age qualifications as a youth. I hope you can make
    it. For
    the rest of you, this
    is a great opportunity for the youth that you serve to be treated to a
    fabulous concert and a tour of the Disney Hall.

    Sincerely,  

    Stephen

    Educational Equity Compliance

    The “rest of you“?  The “youth that you serve“??  Sheesh!  I’m going to be 43 next week and it’s already starting.  LOL.  But hey, a free ticket is a free ticket, so I’m glad Vivek is 21.  LOL.  Anyway, here are a few photos from the evening:


    Vivek on the steps of Frank Gehry’s masterpiece.


    L.A. City Hall, made famous in Dragnet.


    The rolling sails of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, winter home to the LA Philharmonic.


    Why can’t strangers ever take good pictures?


    The less than enticing press line/red carpet, which we bypassed.  LOL


    This is the city…


    The Bank of America building in the foreground and the U.S. Bank Tower (the tallest building in the U.S., west of the Mississippi, which was incidentally blown up in Independence Day), back left. 


    The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, former home of the Oscars.


    This kid was sitting behind us, and tuckered out during intermission.


    Joely Fisher, Della Reese and the entire cast.


    Best of the rest.

    The last time I was at the Disney Concert Hall, it was for the American Idol Gives Back Concert, where we saw everyone from Annie Lennox to Kelly Clarkson (see link).  The acoustics in the building are great and it’s pretty small, which makes it quite intimate.  We sat on the side last night, and still had a great view.  Speaking of American Idol, am I the only one who thinks the stage at the Democratic Convention in Denver this week looks like the Idol stage??

    Hillary’s speech was great tonight.  She’s obviously gotten over the latest portrait of her husband (look carefully):


  • California Dreaming

    Whenever I visit another country, I think of myself as an ambassador for my country.  In recent years, the rest of the world’s opinion about America and indeed Americans has plummeted to new depths.  (After all, we did elect the village idiot twice!)  It’s ironic that I live in Hollywood, because so much of the rest of the world’s perceptions of the United States is formed (falsely) by Hollywood (see:  http://weblog.xanga.com/CareyGLY/563533475/americas-most-influential-export.html).  What I really love though, is getting to show someone who has never been to this country, just a portion of its beauty and majesty.  Of course, in LA, that means celebrities.  LOL.  So yesterday I took Vivek to Cheebo, where we just missed Jennifer Garner.  Later though at Pinkberry, Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky whizzed by us.  We finished the night with an encore presentation of Mamma Mia.  How refreshing it must be for Vivek to go to a movie without having to first go through a metal detector.  Sometimes we take our freedom here for granted.  I’m so happy to be able to share a bit of “California dreaming” with Vivek.  I hope he enjoys his time here!


    A power lunch at a Hollywood hot spot


    Is that the guy from Project Runway??


    Lounging by the pool at The Hotel Careyfornia.


    The obligatory Pinkberry visit and covert picture (no photography allowed, LOL).


    The City of Angels.


    Everybody come to Hollywood, they want to make it in the neighborhood…

                
    Does Your Mother Know – Mamma Mia from Carey Anthony on Vimeo.
    I just love Christine Baranski and she was so great in Mamma Mia.  I took this video in the movie (shhhhhh!!), just because it’s such a fun song and I wanted to watch it again.  The actor who plays her “boy toy” is named Michael Philip.  He just added me on Facebook, and we exchanged a couple of messages.  What a great role for him!  Can you imagine!

  • Dancing Queens, Picturesque Pigeons, Clipping Clooney & Hairy Carey


    Saganaki is a Greek dish that comes to the table accompanied by
    cries of “opa!” and a dramatic fiery flourish. In reality, it’s just
    cheese – but what wonderfully salty, sinfully satisfying cheese it is.  The same could be said for
    Mamma Mia!

    It was a hot, hazy day in Los Angeles today, so Tuan and I decided to go see Mamma Mia at the Arclight.


    Who knew Meryl Streep could do this?!  She was amazing!

    It was so smoggy, you could barely see the Hollywood sign from Sunset Blvd!

    The 2:45 showing of Mamma Mia was actually full!  It’s great fun.  Set in a lush Greek island, with breathtaking cinematography.  It’s a delicious romp!


    Tuan (far right) didn’t think he was in this picture
    There were so many good musical numbers in the movie, but this one was my favorite.  It was so cute!

    When I go to the Arclight Cinerama, I always like to park up on the roof and take pictures.  Today there was this very tame pigeon up there, who let me get pretty close:


    You can barely make out downtown LA on the top left.


    He finally flew off towards the Griffith Park Observatory.

    After the movie, we went to The Abbey and ate a late lunch.

    It was unusually humid today too, and I was so tired of my long hair in the heat, so I stopped by Supercuts on the way home and decided to get my hair cut.  You may remember my last haircut debacle just three weeks ago:

    After that experience, I wanted to be very specific.  So I told the girl I was thinking of a Caesar cut.  She was Hispanic, and she thought I was saying “a scissor cut”. (Think scissor with a mexican accent…see-zor!).  So she said she wouldn’t use clippers!  I said, “Not SCISSORS, CAESER.  Do you understand?”  “Yes, I understand,” she said, “No clippers.”.  We went round and round for a couple of minutes and I could not get her to understand what I meant.  Finally, she asked a girl at another station, and the girl said, “Of course I know what a Caesar cut is!”.  So I switched stations, and later, she whispered to me, “You should have just told her to give you a “George Clooney.”"  LOL


    The finished product.

    Speaking of bad haircuts, thanks to Sam, I was up way too late playing with this awesome site, www.yearbookyourself.com.  The scary thing is, that I actually had many of these hairstyles in many of these years.  (Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I was born in 1965. and my hair was never that long in the 70′s!)  Place your mouse over each picture to see the year it’s from.  (1988 and 1996 are remarkably accurate.  LOL…Time to fire up the scanner!)




    Actually, 1976 is pretty accurate too, and I just found proof.  I was 11 when this family photo was taken in 1976.  That’s me on the bottom left…diggin’ the outfit!  Incidentally, 1976 was the year that Abba’s Mamma Mia, hit #1 in the U.S.  And we’ve come full circle!


  • 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