Echo Park Photoshoot

Photoshoot with roommate Jimmy in our neighborhood. Love.

Old Spice Marketing Brilliance

Shirtless Old Spice guy replies on Twitter with hilarious personalized videos

I @replied to Isaiah Mustafa's twitter. Hopefully he response to my question. :D What a brilliant campaign!

Check out his personalized reponses here

Happy Birthday from Colorado

My coworker from Colorado just turned 23.
So I photoshopped her riding a bison and posted it around the office.

Keeping Up with LA

Los Angeles, can yah give me a moment to breathe!?

There is no functional TV in our house and I love it. I spent hours on Eastsider looking at things to do in East LA and learning about my 'hood. My todo list is longer than the list of people who put in Journey in their Karaoke machines... DONT STOPPP!!!

Done:
Lotus festival without the Lotuses.
Sadly the lotuses that once inhabited Echo Park Lake have all died due to pollution.

Can you believe this before and after set? There have been plans to rebuild the habitat; good luck LA county. Nevertheless I had a great time enjoying the culture, vendors and ghetto people who didn't know how to control their children or chiwawas.

Indonesian Dinner at Indo Cafe

The jungles flowed from Jimmy's mouth as he ordered food that "his mom would make him" during our roomie bonding dinner! Please enlighten us with the names of the dish Jimmy in the comments. DELLLLLLICIOUS. So good, I could have nutted on the desserts... oh looks like someone already did.

Out door movie screening at Atwater Village.

A little Trader Joe's wine and cheese while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in a wonderful community park? Yes please. Can you spot the roomies? Ern has never seen the movie before and he found it hilarious! His laughter added to the evening. I didn't realize how ridiculous and entertaining that movie is until Ern would burst out laughing at inappropriate and seemingly serious parts.

"Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted. ... He lived happily ever after!"

And then some Happy Hour Sushi at Octopus in downtown. Sam found this late-night happy hour joint. Score!

Weekday Kickbacks

We are done hosting large parties. Just come over and drink with us when you feel like it. This was Monday night. Lots of drinking, humping.. and we ordered 60 chicken Mcnuggets and consumed it all (shame). Later in the week I printed out mini head shots of our friends and taped them on our door. We drew lines to indicate who had sex with who, but then it just look like a ball of yarn so we removed the lines. (JK) But we did add quote bubbles.

To Do:

5K marathon - Well no. Ern is going to run. Run for the both of us. "RUN ERN RUN.. run as if there was a free dance class full of cute boys with swagger." yes, I will be cheering from the sides.

Neighborhood Hookah - someone told me it was run by the mafia. THRILLING!

Xoia, the new Viet place by my house was a HUGE disappointment, but I'm excited to try out Viet Noodle Bar up the highway. Let's GO!

Ern stumbled upon this marionette theatre in the 'hood and we may check it out.

Missed:

La Descarga's BRAZIL Night!!!

Samba lessons?! Contemporary Cachaca cocktails?! Are you shitting me?! I hate missing amazing things like this! Returning to La Descarga on a busier night is definitely on the list.

Sweaty Sundays - Dance Sex

I don't think the influences wore off this morning... and I am extremely thankful.

I heard of Sweaty Sundays through the New York Times and got a chance to participate with Ern this morning. American Apparel / Hipster dance class in Silverlake at noon. I was sweating so much and Ern was creating puddles beneath him specifically during the yoga stretch. He cleaned the sweat with his socks to avoid a lawsuit. Good thing they were knee-high socks; there was a lot of sweat on the floor.

This is our exercise attire of choice. Pose inspired by Fruits.

There were 50ish people in the class dressed in leotards, spandex and colorful outfits that mirrored Eric Prydz's Call on Me music Video.... actually it was exactly the same as the video with more gay boys and people of color-ish. The energy was high... extremely high and positive. I was jumping around as if I was still at the house club. During particular movements, I felt the same sensation that I felt the night before: euphoria. Particularly when I rolled my body and threw my hands in the air- a rush of chills ran down my spine as if I was suddenly hit by a fan in a sweaty room. I was experiencing dance sex as I stretched my muscles and overworked my sweat glands.

Not the routine we learned, but same teacher.

This weekend movement had been redefined for me. It was about feeling sensations in every crevice of my body internally and externally - and throwing everything I own into the wind pushing my senses to their boundaries while looking and feeling colorful.

Under the Influence in Hollywood

Through the powers of friends, I've stumbled upon two clubs in the Hollywood- space that I thought I would never set foot in.
Mr.Black (NSFW) at Bardot on Tuesday

• no cover
• free vodka from 9:30 - 10:30
• dance music with some catchy pop tag-lines thrown in

I got two drinks every time I was at the bar and winked at the bartender. I danced all night and woke up with a hangover the next day for work. Blah, free bottom shelf vodka. DJ was great.

We were a part of "young Hollywood." Where everyone dress well and thirst to be out of the house on weekday late evenings. There was a lounge area and "Mr.Black" who apparently parades around the club with his ass hanging out.




Excuse my underarm bush. (again)


I told this taco truck that they saved my life and she corrected me, "no.. you guys coming here at night saves our lives."


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Balance at King King on Saturday.

• $10 cover with a print out before 11.
  
• House music

Fuck. But with my roommate's loving plea, "come-on TOSHI.. you'll have fun," I obliged even though house is music my hell. We were stuck in the Hollywood Saturday night traffic and paid the $10 parking to cut the stress; I was anticipating a terrible terrible night. Surprisingly, it was one of my most fun nights, but I think I can completely thank the Influences for that.

Hollywood- what a trashy place. But lots of characters strolling around like some D-list actors.

I was just sitting on the sticky rubber couches hating the noise that was coming out of the speakers when the friends wanted some air. When we came back in, the room started to spin and my feet felt light as if I was walking on balloons that won't pop. We made way to the large dancefloor and high ceiling adorned with Asian characters and red lighting.

In a split second, the repetitive noise that people were dancing ugly to transformed into sensual sounds that moved into my body. My arms lifted from my sides, my legs started to bounce, my hips spun. My eyes widened. I skipped around the club as if I knew everyone. My vision, became clearer as if I just cleaned my glasses with with microfiber. I talked to everyone I sort of knew asking random questions like, "What's your favorite Pixar movie?" When I saw folks looking bored, I would grab their arms and shout, "DANCE WITH ME" even if it was the first time I had ever spoken to them. And I started moving my limbs in planned chaos. Jimmy told me, "stay hydrated." Jae offered me me more gum. I was in euphoria.

All of a sudden someone was playing the bongos and staring at them as I felt every vibration. I was 2 feet away from the bongos and 2 seconds away from taking charge and playing them myself, but I was in control.

My house music smile apparently

2:30Am. Left the club. Went home to exchange massages. When Jimmy pressed his two thumbs down my back, I yelped as I organismed. Our designated driver had 3 gin and tonics and an AMF, so we worked out a back up. I watched Jimmy massage his own hands. I think I got 3 hours of sleep because I was having a conversation with a beat light that I plugged in while playing some sort of trance music... I closed my eyes as I tried to relax on the floor with the bean bag as my pillow and roommates spooning me. Dutch dutch dutch.

Fourth of July 2010

I was such the tourist with my family on July 4th at the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. A little clam chowder and a walk around. My folks decided that my impromptu trip the bay roused a visit to San Francisco. ( I didn't tell them I was in town the week before for pride.)




The winds were blowing at 100MPH, but we stumbled upon the Musee Mecanique which is "one of the world's largest (over 200) privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition." Amazing. Most of those machines were over hundreds of years old.


My dad was jamming to a stage performance of some classic rock songs that prompted me to do some mass downloading. Classic Rock reminds me of my dad.



Dinner at Citrus Club in Haight and Ashbury. I told my mom that I love living humbly, but she didn't get it. She didn't feel safe and would rather be in the suburbs. But you lose so much of the whimsicality charm and character of living somewhere more interesting like Haight and Ashbury and Echo Park.


The weather got too brutal in San Francisco so we headed back home and joined Alysia and her dad on the hill behind my house. The same hill I take boys to make out with them.



Happy Fourth of July. We had front row seats to the neighborhood illegal fireworks show. (It's okay, they're cops.) Here's a collage of the best fireworks I saw that night: