TED: If I controlled the Internet - Rives

The first TED video I posted was by a slam poet/pop-up book creator named Rives. Rives has performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and has won many a slam poetry contest. I am not a fan of poetry, but I love his work. Below is a brief little slam poem about what if he controlled the internet.




Completely inspiring. I actually have one of his poems hanging on my fridge called "Compliment." I just love his imagery. I love that he can take just some simple phrases and make you feel good. Here is one small turn of phrase that he uses (which I plan on stealing if I ever need a good compliment):

But I’m not insisting you’re some kind of goddess,
(I know you’re suspicious of unspecific love poems).
You’re more like a sunflower,
growing in the courtyard of an old folks home--
you mean things to people on a daily basis,
and this petty poem won’t explain
just how “my favorite” your face is,
(but I wish I’d been your bathroom mirror
the day they took off your braces).

Posing with Pictures: Market Fresh

In an effort to bring you, my dear readers, more content, I thought I would randomly choose some photos I've taken and show them off. I'll give a little backstory, make a little love and get down tonight. All of the photos were shot on my pride and joy also known as a Canon Powershot S1. It's a point and shoot camera that has a zoom that just rocks my world.


This was taken at Grand Central Market in Los Angeles during a walking tour of the historic core of downtown Los Angeles.

Sometimes photo assignments can be to capture a color. I think I would use this for yellow. What do you think? I just like the yellows, greens and a bit of blue. Such a common place site, but just bursting with color.

A Few Things

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted anything up for eleven days. I worked on a film festival that completely wiped me out and it took me much longer to recover from it then I would have thought. Apparently, I don't bounce back from lack of sleep like I used to.

Now that I am finally rested, I thought I would put add some new stuff. Instead of just posting them up with today's date, I dated them for when I intended to post them. So, you aren't losing your mind, there is nothing wrong with your rss feed, your web browser is refreshing.

So I cheated a little. I figured I would narc on myself before anyone else could. I'm getting back on schedule now.

*in Stephen Colbert voice* Moving on...

I wanted to direct your attention to the right of the screen. I have added links to some of my friend's blogs and/or websites. If you would like me to add yours, drop me an email. If there is anything wrong with the link, drop me an email. If you don't like the blogs themselves, drop them an email.

I have also heard a few people are having problems with the comment section. I apologize for that. Drop me an email and let me know if it still isn't working. I hope it was just a minor glitch. I do appreciate your comments snarky as most of them tend to be.

Thank you all for coming here and reading my ramblings! I will try to have at least two to three posts a week for you.

Posing with Pictures: Simplicity

In an effort to bring you, my dear readers, more content, I thought I would randomly choose some photos I've taken and show them off. I'll give a little backstory, make a little love and get down tonight. All of the photos were shot on my pride and joy also known as a Canon Powershot S1. It's a point and shoot camera that has a zoom that just rocks my world.



I was at In'n'Out fast food restaurant with my camera playing around taking random photos. I snapped this one and really like it. I like the two shades of white (the white of the table and the white of the cup). I like how the reflection of the sky and trees outside are subtle. I like how my friend, who didn't have his glasses on and squinted at it from across the room, thought it was a velicorapter dinosaur. If you squint at the reflect part of the picture, I think you'll see it too.

TED: JJ Abrams - The Mystery Box

In March 2007, JJ Abrams spoke at TED. JJ Abrams is most known for creating "Lost" and "Alias" as well as directing "Mission Impossible 3." Here he talks about why he is so in love with mystery and where that love comes from. It also shows how creative and funny the man is. I've been a big fan of JJ's for a long time and this just gave me that much insight as to how he thinks. Hope you enjoy this as well.




I thought he explained really well as to how technology should be used in movies and television to enhance the characters and the plot and not for the sake of technology. The example of why "Jaws" is the such a great movie and not because of the giant shark, but because you get invested in the characters. Is that really so hard for movies to do these days?

Posing with Pictures: Dancing About Architecture

In an effort to bring you, my dear readers, more content, I thought I would randomly choose some photos I've taken and show them off. I'll give a little backstory, make a little love and get down tonight.

All of the photos were shot on my pride and joy also known as a Canon Powershot S1. It's a point and shoot camera that has a zoom that just rocks my world.

This week is a two-fer to be explained below:



I believe it was Steve Martin who once said, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." Well, taking photos of it isn't much better. I left the shutter open to capture as much of the movement that I could. I know some people aren't fans of the blurry pictures, but I think they work really well when trying to capture the music in a visual medium.

The top shot of the trumpet player is taken at the Derby in Hollywood. He was apart of a house swing band that was performing. The second photo is of the drummer, Richard Jackson, of the band eNation that was playing at the VIP party for a film festival I volunteered at.

Ever Have That Dream...

This past Sunday morning after I left my house, the strangest sequence of events happened.

It began with going to the Starbucks drive through to get a coffee. I had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before and decided I wouldn't function without some kind of caffeine. I pulled up to the window to see a tip jar. A tip jar at a drive through window. Never have I before in my life seen such a thing and wondered what Mr. Pink from "Reservoir Dogs" would have to say about that.

With coffee in hand, I headed over the hill via Coldwater Canyon. Now there are only a handful of ways to get from the valley into Los Angeles. It is about 8:10am in the morning on Sunday. The entire time I was on Coldwater Canyon (about 10 minutes), I did not see a single car driving in my direction nor in the opposite direction. This has never happened in my experience. This is a heavily traveled road and when I had driven the night before at 2a there were tons of cars.

About halfway over, I noticed the lack of cars and was beginning to worry that maybe I missed some sort of sign that had the road shut down or something. I then drove past a park of about 40 people doing Tai Chi. So after not seeing a soul on the road I suddenly see a bunch moving in slow motion.

At this point, I am now seriously starting to doubt that I am awake. This concern is not disuaged when I get to a red light and David Naughton from "An American Werewolf in London" jogs by listening to his iPod.

I continue driving to my location with a strong belief I'm going to wake up in my bed at any moment and have to do this all over again. I get to where I was headed which happens to be a hotel room filled with make up artists turning three guys into zombies. I whip out my camera and start taking pictures.

Thankfully, despite the odd sequence of completely random events, it was all reality the whole time and I was able to get pictures like this: