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• Project 33

  Tuesday, Nov 6, 2007 7:02AM / Standard Entry

  
  
  With the passing of another year of my so-called life, I was inspired to take a jaunt around the city recently with my camera before I officially turned 34.  Originally, I intended to go all over town - up/down/east/west.  I wanted to hit nooks and crannies of each area in an effort to get the The Best Of NYC.  There's this impending sense of finality in each thing I do now since I plan on leaving here eventually.   (Heck, I even went down to the Halloween Parade this year since I figured I should do it once while I lived here - lemme tell you: avoid it always.)  I had no idea what I was going to get or wind up doing, but I knew there were images I wanted to capture and be able to look back on and remember.  Things that were quintessentially New Yawk.  With that in mind, I set off with my MTA card, some granola bars, determination...and it started to rain.  Frack!  I refused to let that deter me however and just pulled out an umbrella and still clicked away.  The one thing it did do however was shorten my time out.  It got to be too much after awhile and so all I did was wind up doing the East Side, starting up in East Harlem, going all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge.  I'll call it Project 33 since it was during the last days of my being that age.  When I'm 66, maybe I'll come back and shoot the West Side.  I'm not sure I got exactly what I was looking for, but then again, I never know that about anything in life.
  
  Many of the pics I'm not that crazy about but because I'm a dork, I wanted to have 33 pictures in the collection just because.  A few I really like but since I only was limited to everything east of 5th Ave, my selections are spread thin.  I really like the one of the door buzzer since that will always remind me of going to people's apartments here.  I like the jogger at the Central Park Reservoir since that's me from time to time (yesterday was the NYC Marathon and I caught some of it - I so badly wish I was in it).  I like the shots in the subway as I was tooling around with settings.  And I like the shots in Chinatown particularly of my fried dumpling lady.  Me and that lady, unbeknowngst to her, have had quite a relationship.  I first came upon her place in 2001 when I was rehearsing for a play right next door to the shop.  5 dumplings for $1?  I fell in love the day I found her.
  
  
  

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• Finally

  Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007 2:59PM / Standard Entry

  It's taken far too long, but it looks like we're finally going to have a rough cut of our short, The Felix Awards, done within a week or so!  Damn, talk about slow.  We finished the shoot well over a month ago, but with my partner traveling for a show and me traveling for whatever I traveled for (what did I travel for???), we haven't had a time to really sit down together to begin piecing this all together.  Well, that's finally changed, we locked down our editor and we're well under way.  I'm still scared sh*tless as to what the mess will all turn out to be.  Scratch that, today, I'm just scared sh*tless over everything.  One of those days.
  
  While I'm sad I'm missing out on the Hawaiian International Film Festival going on right now, I'm happy that I got sent this photo from my mini-shoot last week.  That's Miguel Arteta in the middle, the director.  A wonderfully kind man.  You know how some people make a big impression on you even if you know them for just a short time?  Miguel's that kind of person.
  
  

  
  
  

  I'll miss New York when I move out of here.
  
  
  

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• coming from california

  Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007 11:01AM / Standard Entry

  While I've got this song called Going to California by Jake Shimabukuro playing in my head (someone get that guy on AnD), I just came back from California this morning.  I'm a bit fatigued, but fatigue is for the weak.  I spent the weekend out in the Bay for my sisters' 30th birthdays.  What a party.  Check out the accompanying photo.  They had these glasses that were a hoot.  They're just glasses you wear, but when a photo is taken, they black out your eyes like the press does when they try to conceal the identity of someone.  Frackin' hilarious!
  
  I was barely in town and it was kind of a last minute decision but I figure my sisters (twins) only turn 60 once, right?!
  
  

  
  
  

  So I just got back to town this morning off a red-eye and went directly to shoot a little project that I had too much fun doing.  Karin Chien (producer of The Motel, Undoing) asked me last week to be in a short that was a part of a collective of a shorts about Chinatown that she is putting together.  It's sponsored by the Museum of Chinese in Americas and it seems 10 filmmakers will contribute short pieces on New York Chinatown that will be showcased starting in March '08 in the new MOCA space as designed by Maya Lin.
  
  I got the chance to work with a great director named Miguel Arteta who has done lots of TV work including Ugly Betty, Six Feet Under, and Freaks and Geeks.  He was a joy to work with though it was far too short.  Basically, Miguel wrote a short scrīpt about a guy who gets in the way of his trying to shoot a documentary about Chinatown.  It's supposed to be kinda funny, so hopefully it plays that way, but I know fun was had since we sorta just threw ourselves all over Canal Street and created a scene.  At one point, I wandered into a little store that sells knock off fragrances, clothes, and the like and started jumping around, screaming, dancing, and laughing all over the place.  (We told the store folks I'd be doing that and Miguel had to buy 2 $5 ties to appease them.)  It was kinda crazy, but lots of fun.  This was Miguel's ode to New York as he's moving to LA come this Friday.  I was just happy to be a part of it.
  
  I had to hit my producing class tonight (back in school!) and it was all I could do to stay awake at one point.  Ah, some things never change...
  
  
  
  

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• ER is dead

  Thursday, Oct 11, 2007 3:19AM / Standard Entry

  I think I need to give up on ER.  I used to watch the show fervently, but I got busy with life a couple years ago and I still have two seasons stored on my tivo that I haven't watched yet.  Pretty sad.  Now, it's just taking up space.  Old habits die hard with me but I'm learning to cut cords.
  
  

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• el aye

  Saturday, Sep 15, 2007 4:25AM / Standard Entry

  Darn, my trip to LA was cut short by a few days since I got booked on a couple of print jobs back in NYC.  It was hard turning down Asahi and another Microsoft gig, so back to the Big Apple I had to go.  (Look for the Asahi ad in airports all over the world starting next year!)
  
  My week in LA was amazing.  I left the left coast for the least coast back in 1998 and I've always looked back.  Coming out here was not by choice as, at the time, I was torn between an acting career and going to graduate school.  I chose the latter for safety and moved to Philadelphia to enroll in a Master's program for Physical Therapy (yes, I can give a mean massage.)  While in PT school, after 3 semesters of it (and one summer when I went right back to LA to act), I was cast in a stage production at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and I decided to take a "leave of absence" from school since the show was a full time thing for 3 months.  I couldn't pass it up.  Plus, I wasn't feelin' school at all.  They'd actually threatened to kick me out, not because of grades, but because during one of my rotations, the instructor didn't pass me.  That's another story for another time.  Anyway, after the show, I decided to make my way up to NYC, and I've been here ever since.
  
  But to LA...I still look back.
  
  All those friends I made, all those places I went, even all that traffic.  I loved every bit of it.
  
  Okay, maybe not the traffic, but there is nowhere else on Earth that's like the Southland.
  
  So I hit LA last week after finishing our short film (which I now have to start editing - not by myself) for some business.  In addition to a software startup geared towards the entertainment industry I'm helping a friend with, I went out there to meet up with filmmakers/friends/and foes to discuss projects and what our company - 408 Films - is up to. 
  
  Tallk about being productive...I got more accomplished in my last week there than I have in a long time.  It's all very exciting, and I'll have to see after the dust settles, what will really transpire, but I'm liking where this is all heading.  I helped found 408 as a vehicle to help produce feature films with an Asian and North American cross-over appeal and we're just scratching the surface.  I hope to have more to blog about on that in the coming weeks/months/years...
  
  The extra treats to being in LA and catching up with old faces and being fulfilled was eating at some awesome joints.  The best food in all the US is in LA, bar none.  Hawaiian stops like Shaka's and Back Home in Lahaina, chinese spots like Savoy's with the Hainan Chicken to die for, and Saketini in Brentwood that Sung Kang runs - do yourself a favor and go to them all whenever you're in the area.  Also, I got to hit the beach in Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach for some nice, sunny, breezy runs.  I mean, c'mon, who the heck could ever get sick of that?!
  
  
  

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