…There’s a new deputy in town.  This weekend my cousin is getting married and I was honored when she and her fiance asked me to perform the ceremony.  So recently, I was “deputized” by the state of California.  This Saturday, by the power vested in me, I will pronounce them man and wife.  I had to take the following oath to become a deputy:

As an officer of the state of California, I couldn’t be seen driving an 8 year old car, so this weekend I bought a new 2010 Honda Accord EX-L.  My old Honda was never the same after that girl hit me two years ago and it’s been getting progressively worse.  I don’t care much about cars or how they look, but I think this suits me pretty well.  I’m having fun with the navigation system too.  I like being able to say “Find sushi” and have the car show me all of the Japanese restaurants in the area.  Now let’s just hope my new deputy status can get me out of some speeding tickets!

I also ran into Raquel Welch earlier in the week.  She looks pretty damn good for 69 years old!  As someone said, she’s the “original Silicon Valley”.  LOL.  She was promoting her new book, Beyond The Cleavage. 

“Tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge — we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility — we embraced it. We did not fear our future — we shaped it.” President Barack Obama

We got home from Santa Barbara last night just as the President was finishing his remarks.  Though the debate rages on via my Facebook page (thanks to both the Davids); real reform is on its way.  After this vile display last week, it’s pretty clear that the Republicans and the racist teabaggers really thought this was all about welfare:

Anyway, we had a great weekend with very little sleep.  Bine and Lindsay arrived Friday night along with Carolina, Eva, Vonda, Nate, Bianca and Julia.   We had 9 people sleeping in my little condo, so it was similar to this.  Saturday we went to Claudio & Ryan’s for a Brazilian barbecue.  Sunday we spent a hazy day at the beach in Santa Barbara before dropping Marcelo off at the airport.  Two hours later, I got a text that there had been a small plane crash in Santa Barbara, and Marcelo was being shuttled to LAX.  So off to the airport again I went, and we had him for another night!  Everyone woke up at 5 this morning, and we were on our way back to the airport at 5:30 AM.  Next weekend, Bassam, Bine and I will head up to Tom & Cathy’s in San Francisco to see little Patrick and Youenn (who I haven’t seen since we traversed the Alps last summer!) and Mariana.  Should be another great weekend!  Here are this past weekend’s photos:

Lisa, Joel and the boys moved into their new house over the weekend and our family gathered to celebrate.  The house is in Dove Canyon, but it might as well be called Hummingbird Canyon.  There were about 20 of the little buzzers lined up at the feeders to drink (as evidenced by this photo that Lisa sent last night).  They were really aggressive too, and didn’t seem to be scared of people at all.  They were no doubt celebrating the long overdue demise of the ridiculously gas guzzling Hummer.  (I had no idea how culpable Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the destruction of our planet.  What a hummer bummer!  Fascinating read though!)  I got pretty close to take these photos.  I’m still learning how to use my new little camera, but I’m pleased with the results thus far:

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??

  
A week of rare stormy weather was capped off by a beautiful sunny weekend full of friends, flowers and food (porn).  Picasa tells me I took 224 photos this week.  Here are a few of them:

The recent revelations about Sarah Palin in the book “Game Change” have left me giddy and completely unbothered by her recent appointment as Fox News’ newest pinhead.  Let’s face it, even McCain’s own campaign had doubts that someone as vapid and crazy (“It was God’s plan…“) as Caribou Barbie should ever hold the highest office in the land and even hatched a plan to give her a mostly ceremonial role should they win.  So keep prattling on Sarah…and show us all how dangerous, delusional and doltish you really are!  To wit:

“In the days leading up to an interview with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson, aides were worried with Ms. Palin’s grasp of facts. She couldn’t explain why North and South Korea were separate nations and she did not know what the Federal Reserve did. She also said she believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.”

Where’d they find her? Well, on the Internet, as it happens. “McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, spotted Sarah Palin while searching the Internet for possible female vice presidential candidates.” More from CBS News:

“Her foreign policy tutors are literally taking her through, ‘This is World War I, this is World War II, this is the Korean War. This is the how the Cold War worked.’ Steve Schmidt had gone to them and said, ‘She knows nothing,’” Heilemann told Cooper. “A week later, after the convention was over, she still didn’t really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11. And, literally, the next day her son was about to ship off to Iraq. And when they asked her who her son was going to fight, she couldn’t explain that.”"

Finally, a week of spectacular weather and sunsets, was capped off at the Getty Museum over the weekend, where Ryan, Lorenzo, Adam and I enjoyed a sunset for the ages after coming out of the Rembrandt exhibit.  Take a look at the photos and video:

I’ve been trying to get to Din Tai Fung with Lexi & Rita for over a year now, and we finally made it.  We ordered way too much, but the leftovers are always great!  I just wish it was closer!

And finally, it’s nice to know when your words inspire someone.  This was a great way to start the new year.  I’m glad I was able to help you Kevin.  Keep up the good work!

After ringing in the New Year in grand style, we took the weekend to relax a bit.  Home Depot has this great kid’s workshop the first Saturday of every month, so Cathy & I took Patrick.  I wasn’t much help building, but as always I took the photos.  The sunset was spectacular on Saturday and on Sunday I drove the six hours home to get here in time for Ryan’s birthday party.  Lorenzo & Adam flew in from DC, and we all celebrated at Palms Thai.  I’m currently curled up on the couch with Chazz, eating popcorn and relaxing for the first time since before Christmas.  Here are some of my favorite photos and two videos from the past few days.  Have a great week everyone!  Happy New Year.

1/1/10 3:42 AM – Another Update:  The party’s over…I’m the last one up (as I don’t drink)!  All is quiet on New Year’s Day.  The photos are all in the slideshow below, or click the collage.  Oh, and I thought this whole exchange on Facebook was pretty funny:

12/31/09 2:10 PM – Update:  Here’s the slideshow of photos so far.  Our guests will start arriving at 5 and I’ll be adding pictures as time permits.  Happy New Year!!

12/31/09 1:47 AM – I’m finally over the Great Christmas Flu Massacre (the count is up to 10 and still climbing!) and today I drove the 390 miles to Tom & Cathy’s house in paradise.  The drive was actually quite pleasant.  No one lit their underwear on fire and I listened to “Fresh Air” and “This American Life” podcasts the whole way.  I took these photos with my cell phone while driving (sorry for the quality) and posted them to Facebook and Twitter along the way (yes, I can do all that and still drive safely.  But when you text me to tell me to pay attention to the road, it’s more distracting!  LOL).  I only stopped once for gas and the trip took just over 6 hours.