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Chris

The Simple Pleasures of a Good Bar and Good Conversation

Rustic

Last night was the latest LAist meeting where the writers and editors get together to share some beverages and talk about writing, sex, drugs, being attacked by raccoons and whatever else happens to come up. Its a good time made especially good for me because I got to go back to one of my favorite places in Los Angeles: Ye Rustic Inn in Los Feliz. If you don’t know it its one of those dive places that are great fun, have giant leather booths, pitchers of beer, cute servers and is plenty dark so everyone looks a lot better. It’s definitely one of those places that feel like home to me. Obviously, I’ve spent way to much time in bars. I’m not an alcoholic but I do like my drinks now and again. Although, more and more its again and not now.

Putting that aside for a moment, its also across the street from another great place to go called the Drawing Room. The Drawing Room has one thing in particular going for it besides its similar characteristics to the Rustic: it opens way early in the morning for your drinking pleasure. Consequently, when I used to toil all night on set and then be fully awake at 7AM at wrap, it was nice to go over The Drawing Room and get a cocktail at 8 in the morning. Yes, those are the things you sometimes do after shooting all night on a Friday and finishing up early Saturday morning.

Of course, we went during the week many times too so it wasn’t always confined to the weekends. I gotta say, it sure was nice being young enough and in many ways, dumb enough, to be able to go out and do things like that. Now, as many of my friends will attest, its a pretty rare situation that gets me out of the house at all, let alone out to a bar. I just don’t go out as much as I used to.

Really, I didn’t want to go last night either. Well, that’s not really fair. I did want to go. Its always nice to see LAist people, including one of my favorite people I’ve met in LA the last few years: Tony Pierce. Over at his infamous blog, I read that he feels similarly to me in that he doesn’t like to go places as much as he used to and especially doesn’t like to have to be somewhere according to a schedule. I’m very much the same way. I don’t like deadlines and I don’t really like having to do much of anything I don’t want to do. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of life doesn’t really give a crap about what I want to do or don’t want to do. So, sometimes you gotta be somewhere at a certain time and that’s just how it goes. Yes, deadlines are a bitch.

Anyway, a good time was had by all last night at the LAist meet and many pitchers of Stella were consumed so thanks for that Jake. Also, I met some new LAist people who were very cool and talented and will be a pleasure getting to know further. It’s really great that I keep meeting quality people after living so long in LA and being sorta out of the business. I used to meet a lot of great people on set but now, as my being on set time is far less, it was getting harder to meet people. Although, I have met a few at the “office” so I shouldn’t forget about that.

Something about this town, whatever its other faults, sure seems to attract some of the best people. I guess its probably the lure of Hollywood and fame/fourtune. Or, maybe its the weather? Who knows? Whatever it is, I’m glad it happens. Sure, the traffic sucks and trying to find parking in Santa Monica at 3P on a Thursday makes you want to kill someone but still, this city is home to some great people and some great bars. So, go out and find the place that makes you feel at home. You’ll be glad you did.

Building the Ultimate Millennium Falcon

Legofalcon-1

Awesome. I love all things Lego. Especially all things Lego made into the Millennium Falcon. Go get one for yourself.

Steve Jobs and His Thoughts on Music

Jobsandiphone

This is a very interesting read especially coming from a guy whose company also has DRM on its music from iTunes. Still, you have to give him credit, he sure seems to be pretty darn smart. I guess you have to be to do what he’s done with Apple over the years. Enjoy.

Chinatown Pictures and Flickr Meetup

Went and met about 50 other photographers in Chinatown last Saturday. It was part of the first Flickr Meetup of 2007. In case you don’t know, Flickr is a cool photo sharing community where people post photos and talk about photography and whatever else strikes their fancy. Its a great place to see some cool photographs and meet some interesting people.

At the meetup, we walked around and shot some photos and also had some lunch. A nice bunch of people. Here are a few of my pics from that day.

Chinatown Neon-1

chinatown neon

Union Station Light-2

union station light

Rain Drops Closer-1

rain drops close

A Minor Update and Some Cool Pictures

In case anyone was wondering I have been busy of late. Yes, I know what you are thinking: “what’s with all the excuses?” Well, what can I say except that for some reason I seem to be somewhat in demand. Not so much in demand I guess, but more like time crunched. I have commitments to several things these days: writing for cinematical, comic book resources, running the other business and many other things.

Plus, as of last week I am now the technology editor at LAist so that means they are gonna expect more from me as well. No more just writing what I want whenever I feel the “muse.” Now, I gotta come up with some tech stuff each and every week or else they won’t give me my hard-earned buckets o’ cash. Well, buckets is probably too strong a word. What’s a word that means one small step above absolutely nothing? I don’t know but whatever it is, its small.

Anyway, I’ve been working on all that stuff so this blog, as always, ends up suffering for it. I really wish there were more hours in the day or, more to the point, that I wasn’t such a lazy procrastinator. That way, I could actually make time and have time for all the things I need to do in my life. Perhaps there are some tidbits of info from somewhere in the vastness of the internet where I could get help with my problems? If only that were true. I’ll look around and if I find anything, I’ll get back to you.

In other news, this past week I went to the opening night festivities for the Photo LA show and saw quite a few interesting photographs. I always wish I would make more time to take pictures so seeing these photos I was hoping would inspire me to do it. I think it helped a little but time will tell. I just don’t feel inspired to create as much as I used to. I’m not sure what that means but I don’t like it very much. I hope its just a temporary thing and will pass. Let’s hope so.

So, take a look at some of these photos and try to get inspired. I will too.

Ace

Guice-1

Eastman-1

Callahan-1

Live at Macworld Expo Keynote

Apple iphone with touch screen running osx. so that’s pretty cool.

Apple tv released next month.

Live at Macworld Expo Keynote

I’m here and seated and ready to see the magic of a steve jobs keynote. starting soon.

iPod Stroller and Mac World Expo

Pico-Ipod-1

Now I just need something to put in the stroller. Any suggestions (besides an iPod)? Also, I will be heading off to San Francisco next week to pay homage to the Apple Gods at MacWorld Expo. As I often do, I’ll probably wind up seeing Mr. Apple himself Steve Jobs around the show floor.

So, if you have any questions for him that you would like me to ask, fire away and I will see what I can do. After all, we’re close Steve and I. One year I actually said “Hi” to him and he nodded back. So you see, we’re tight. Other than that, it should be a rather interesting show full of all kinds of announcements and whatnot. Just to start things off, I have a couple of predictions:

1. A new iPod with Video and perhaps even 802.11n wireless to connect it to the next item on the list.

2. The iTV or whatever they end up calling it. Connect your TV to your computer and watch stuff. Fun. But I already do that with my Tivo and now I’ve also got a Slingbox (thanks Dad) so I’m not sure what this will do for me. Although, it would be cool if it did HD. I bet it will or else what’s the point? If it does do HD then expect to see HD programming available at the iTunes store as well.

3. Updated iLife Suite (aka iLife ’07). New apps including a spread sheet program (ala Microsoft Excel) and improvements to iPhoto and the rest of the gang including more Photoshop-like features for iPhoto and better RAW file handling. I also think Apple might wrap all the stuff its done for Aperture into iPhoto and make one nice photo editing suite for the Mac as part of iLife.

4. Last but not least (and here’s the tough one) a new iPod/PDA/Phone that will most likely debut on Cingular first but may even have an unlocked version at first as well. Either way, definitely will be GSM (sorry Verizon and Sprint folks). This new device will not be called the iPhone now that that name is gone (if it ever was available in the first place). No, this new device will be called a name Apple has already spent millions of dollars getting people to know and remember. What’s the name? The iPod.

Ok, that’s it for now. But if I get a chance I’ll drop some more predictions on ya Monday — the day before the Keynote by Steve Jobs where all will be made clear.

Merry (insert appropriate holiday here)

Brickpic

hello all. just a quick not to say i wish you the best for this holiday season and an even better 2007. its been a pretty good 2006 for me and mine and except for a few minor setbacks it all went pretty smoothly. i hope it was the same for you and yours. so, if its so great what could i possibly wish for in the new year? well, couple things at least. i would like to do more writing work, see more movies, have more fun and travel more. that last one is something i vow to do every year and don’t seem to have time for. so this year, i’m going to devote more energy to it.

on other fronts, at LAist we are doing LA-centric end of the year top-ten lists so please head on over and check them out. so far, mine was the top ten tv shows of the year but i hope to get one more in there before the end of the year. maybe i’ll do one about the top ten reasons i prefer the valley to the west side. that might be good. got any suggestions for me? (keep it clean)

at cinematical, most everyone is making their lists of the top things (movies, trailers, posters, etc.) of the year and i’m no exception. some of the comments about my choices are pretty interesting. apparently, i don’t care about international cinema at all and only like american movies. plus, someone suggested we are all just tools of our aol masters at cinematical. we sure have an interesting group of readers over there.

lastly, at comic book resources, we’ve thrown down the year-end roundup of trends in the industry. its a good read, especially if you’re a fan of comic books or are just interested in how things work in the biz. look for more parts of this series coming soon.

again, all the best for the new year.