A few years back, I had a job right by the Forest Lawn in Glendale. On a particularly miserable and stressful work day, I decided to go for a walk at the cemetery during my lunch break and I came across an older section of the grounds that had beautiful tombstones and monuments. One of the graves even had a bench carved into it, practically inviting me to make it my designated lunch spot, so I did. Several jobs later, I still long for my cemetery lunch breaks on that stone bench.
A few weeks ago I was feeling a little restless, so I grabbed my camera and headed back to the old spot. If you follow me on instagram, you saw a couple of stills that I captured during my visit.
I also did some filming that day, but hadn’t gotten around to editing the footage until recently. Enjoy a bit of darkness accompanied by the musical stylings of Florence + the Machine, because it’s never too early in the year for a good dose of “Memento Mori”.
Life has been strange, crazy, stupid and awesome, all at the same time. Needless to say, my blogging has been on the back burner for several months. I apologize to my readers (all 3 of them) and want you to know that you are not forgotten! In fact, here’s a mix for you all of you. Get your dance on with no pants on.
Hope you are all feeling the exquisite onset of the symptoms associated with Spring fever. I know I certainly am.
Please, slow your roll, 2012! My gawd, this year is flying right by. Once again, Instagram makes it possible for me to remember what I’ve been up to since I can’t remember what I did 10 minutes ago without a visual reminder. Starting from the top:
1. In April I finally got to witness the amazing Garbage, live! As you may recall, I nearly lost my mind with excitement when Garbage announced their new album. All of the L.A. shows sold out in a matter of seconds, so the bestie and I drove up to Vegas to see them. TOTALLY WORTH IT. They were everything I had hoped for and Shirley is sexy as ever. Here’s a clip I recorded of them performing #1 Crush – and why do I always forget to turn my phone sideways? http://www.twitvid.com/embed.php?guid=SKENT&autoplay=0
2. Some friends and I went to check out the Transmission L.A. exhibit curated by Mike D of the Beasty Boys. Sadly, this was right around when MCA passed away, so the mood was a bit somber. We did get to experience lot of impressive, animated installations like the one above. All of those wheels were turning but my phone didn’t really capture any if the motion. Bummed that we missed the Kogi pop-up restaurant at MOCA, though.
3. One of the things I love about L.A. is simply having access. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the presence of cinematic greatness simply because I’m local. I was lucky enough to score a couple of free tickets to a live Q&A with Danny Elfman at Warner Brothers studios to promote the new Dark Shadows movie a few weeks ago. DANNY freakin ELFMAN! He shared an interesting little story about how Johnny Depp recently confessed to him that he stole some guitar picks at an Oingo Boingo concert when he was a young lad, never thinking they would cross paths. Cute <;3
4. I accidentally stumbled upon the iconic, gargantuan donut that sits atop Randy's Donuts! One of those places I had always seen on TV but had never driven by, even though I've lived in L.A. my whole life. Something about seeing a giant donut that just makes you smile.
5. Ah yes, Halloween prep. So it begins. "But it's only May" you say. Puhlease. We normally start decorating/planning effects/building/crafting during the Summer and we STILL never have enough time. This year, one of the new effects we plan on adding is a ghost maid who will appear and disappear through one of the windows facing the street in front of our house. We filmed my friend Leslie in front of a green screen and below is a sneak peek at the end result:
Pretty fancy, aye? Yeah. We ain't messing around when it comes to Halloween ;p
Congratulations for getting to the end of this lengthy and way overdue post!
xoxo
-D
How is it possible that January is already gone? Really, though. Ugh. Anyway, here’s the latest…
My b/f and I have been plotting and scheming with the lovely and talented Anji Bee (vocalist for Lovespirals) who is coming out with solo material and we’re collaborating with her on a sexy music video. That’ll be super fun to shoot and edit! Can I tell you how nerve wracking is it to turn in a music video treatment? Luckily she’s into it and is already brainstorming with us on how to make it even more saucy. Waaaay EXCITED for this!
January was all about getting the kitchen remodeled. By “remodel” I mean taking down the 70’s wallpaper. As some of you know, the stuff was even on the ceilings (see image below). MAAAAJOR PROJECT. D took down some old wood paneling in the eat-in kitchen nook, only to reveal holes in the wall, glue…basically, it’s a hot mess in there. This is a pic of the pendant lamp in the nook that’s coming down very soon. We already have a replacement fixture waiting. Anybody want this one???
Yeah. Didn’t think so.
This is how it looks in there right now:
OH THE HUMANITY. Check out deez holes along the side door (sorry bout the sideways pic).
The next few weekends will be all about making major progress in here. This is the fixture that will be replacing the old one. SUCH an improvement. More timeless, but still complimentary to the house’s mid-century bones.
As for the walls, they’re getting a nice coat of white primer until we figure out what color we want to go with. Choosing knobs for the cabinets has proven to be an unexpected challenge but that’s a whooooole nother story. Expect pictures once it’s all done :)
New bedding in shades of charcoal and purple. Upped the thread count on our pillow cases and REALLY wish we had done that sooner. SOFTNESSSS.
Instead of eating a turkey, I went to Animal Acres for the annual feeding of the turkeys. Also got to pet a giant, adorable pig. *sigh* (click on da pig to visit them)
Had my parents over for a very low-key Thanksgiving. I know, I didn't iron the dang table linens - don't judge me. Oh, and I found the most delicious recipe for caramelized brussels sprouts. OBSSESED.
My dad made what is, quite possibly, the most decadent apple pie I've ever had in my life. I've started calling him Pancho Crocker. I can't even get the recipe from him because he free-styled the darn thing.
Witnessed Black Friday insanity. This image of a packed mall was taken at 2:30 am. Lucky for me I was only there to capture footage for a show that I edit. Zero trampling involved.
Celebrated the Bear's birthday and tried an Irish Car Bomb for the first time. My chugging skills are SO lacking. Bear looked adorable as always, especially with her bear badge from Pygmy Hippo Shoppe (click image below to visit them)
Took advantage of the long holiday weekend to festoon the chicken coop with Christmassy goodness. I am totally into the holiday spirit this year. I even went out and acquired an ugly Christmas sweater at Iguana Vintage Shop! This thing is hideous. Perhaps I'll wear it in a future post.
Seriously, if it weren’t for Instagram, November would be nothing but a blur.
I can’t believe 2011 is already coming to a close. I am going to attempt to hand-make as many X-mas gifts as possible this year. We’ll see how that goes…
I can’t believe I actually have a window of opportunity to post a REAL update. I’ve been editing non-stop, 10 hrs a day, for the last 2 weeks and today I’m finally having a “normal” day. It feels SO good, yet so strange. Sadly I haven’t had much of a chance to enjoy my favorite month of the year because of how busy its been, so I’m living vicariously through other people’s instagram feeds.
Halloween party preparations are coming along but there’s still soooooo much to do. October snuck up on us and here we are now in the MIDDLE OF THE MONTH (OMG). How did this happen? The additional square footage that comes with moving into a house has proven to be a much bigger undertaking than expected. I was watching videos of last year’s party and found myself longing for the ease of only having 1 room to focus all our Halloween effects/decor efforts on. Now we have a front yard, back yard, and everything in between to focus on! I haven’t even started planning the food/beverage situation! I’m up for the challenge and I have a ridiculous to-do list but I’m just gonna have to force myself to be OK with not checking off every single item on that list this year.
The second half of this month should definitely give me a nice dose of Octobery goodness:
-October 18, Portishead. You know that band you love but never thought you’d see live because they broke-up? Yeah. This is one of those bands for me. I am SO excited to hear the haunting voice of Beth Gibbons, live. *chills*
-October 20-24, Vacation / Murder Mystery party in Salt Lake City for my someday-in-law’s 40th wedding anniversary (and NO, they are not Mormon!) I can’t believe we’re taking 5 whole days off during what is THEE busiest month of the year for us. What the hell were we thinking!?!? Well, at least we’ll get to experience a real Autumn for a few days.
-October 29, our Halloween Shindig. This party is going to be THEE biggest one yet and the thought of entertaining that many people is exciting and a bit scary as well. The video below sums up how I feel, quite perfectly:
Hope you’re all having a memorable and sinister October.
-D
P.S. click on the image to get the recipe for that delicious shake ;)