Minutes

Today I wasn't feeling well, so I just stayed in and didn't go to the office. In the evening I took my dog, Sunset, to the park - not too far from my place, while I was on the phone with K the whole time. K is in Arkansas again, and I try to call her every day and catch up on the interesting gossip of Little Rock. But today I also called her because it was her birthday. While I was in the park, on the phone with K, another girl in the park started taking pictures of Sunset and while I usually can't do two things at the same time, I managed to stay on the phone with K and take a picture of the girl taking pictures of Sunset. But then, by the time I got off the phone with K, the dog belonging to the friend of the girl of was taking Sunset's pictures, was starting to fight with Sunset, so the two girls moved to the other side of the park and I couldn't really get close to them because of Sunset. So I ended up leaving without knowing who that girl was. However, I'm pretty sure she was foreign, and her friend was American.  

Went to an LA Fashion Week show with Y at the Alexandria Bowl Rooms downtown LA. The event was heavily sponsored by the Thai Tourist Authority, and along with the tacky look of the reception area one could really feel that they are in Thailand. Oh and the show consisted of three Asian designers, which attracted, well you know, mostly Asians. Luckily for me, I went with Y, which is half Filipino so I felt perfectly in place, and at times just pretended I was on vacation somewhere in south east Asia. Once they let people in the bowl room area, our lack of VIP status seated us in the 3rd row, which was actually better than the second row since it was elevated. I still felt like I was on vacation, so sitting in the 3rd row did not bother me at all. On fashion week everyone knows that the models are also 3rd row models, because they work for peanuts (which is what they gave us for food in between the shows). But some of the models where actually very elegant, and so were some of the designs - but the chandeliers and the chairs were very elegant, so overall, still on vacation, I really enjoyed it. During the show, while Y entertained me on the left side, on my right side sat an interior designer, also Filipino (I think), MongQ. We did not stay for the third show and went to get another dinner at Manuela, the restaurant at Hauser & Writh. We ordered the half chicken and I had to ask three waiters in they were sure it was the chicken and not the quail. I guess maybe it was a half hen. Or a half hummingbird. When we got back to my place, we had another dinner. I made chicken noodle soup.

Went to a movie screening at the CAA building in Century City with J. The movie, which I am not suppose to talk about, was Deep Murder. Uhm, it was a ridiculous parody intended for apparently, an audience that is very easily entertained. I guess when I watch movies I look for inspiration, and I could not find any whatsoever in this one. It did revolve around a whodunit theme, which I am a big fan of, but aside for a few decent, yet not ground-breaking, cracks the whole movie what insanely dumb and I couldn't wait for it to be over. Once we left CAA we decided to get dinner at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, a place I used to frequent when I first moved to LA. Some things never change, and what a surprise, Ron Jeremy was there. I had the lasagna and J had mozzarella fries. I gave some of my lasagna to J but forgot to warn him about how hot it was and he burnt his tongue. While we were waiting for the food, I called CW to catch up, because I saw that she booked a trip to Hong Kong. We tried to make plans for later in the week but could not commit to anything. She said she's going to Vietnam too, and that I should come as she is going to meet with a mutual friend of ours that lives in Mongolia. While I was on the phone with CW, J was texting with L from New York, who happened to be in LA for the night and asks us to come to the Petit Ermitage. So when we got done with the food, we went to the Petit. The Petit Ermitage is everything that the movie I saw earlier wasn't. It is a place of total inspiration. Its late 19th century bohemian design is done to perfection and every inch of it is a piece of art. We went upstairs to the rooftop lounge and set by the pool with L and some other friends. At some point I decided to take a picture of the girl in the pool and chit chatted with her and her two friends for a bit, however I did not really get to know who they were, so I was left with a picture of an unknown person - a fascinating unknown person. L flew to LA to get his car and drive it back to New York with a friend - an epic coast to coast road trip - as one must make at least once. I never did a coast to coast, but I did go on two major road trips before. Both by myself - if I don't include a visitor that flew to see me and flew back. One in 2008, when I drove from Chicago to LA, and one in 2015 when I drove and stayed in the South for almost a month. There is something very different about road trips. A good road trip instigates a change. And if you want a change, you should go on a good road trip.  

Went to Jazz night at Delilah's with Y and Joined Nick Simmons at his table. Last time I was there, I believe two weeks ago, we played Charades, and it seems that Nick was just itching to get another Charades game going. Other than Nick and myself, there was no one at the table who was also there two week ago. It was a rather small group that included a Brazilian (I think) model (I think) who's name I didn't hear, a big guy with long hair that sat to my right, who's name I can't remember, and a Norwegian singer, Lisa Tatjana, who I sat next to after Y left. I did pretty good at the game - and since I guessed many of the clues it has also became my turn to act them out quite frequently. My clues included: Cage the Elephant (music act), Lord of the Flies (book), Catcher in the Rye (Book), and Hair (Musical). I always try to think of interesting famous people but their names are so difficult to act out. But now that I think of it I could have easily done Mick Jagger - 'sounds like' - dick dagger. I'll have to save this one for the next time I go.

Went with Y to the Opening of Homme Gallery in Echo Park, where Overpass afterhours club used to be. It was a well curated show with artist such as John Paul Fauves, Mike Dargas, Justin Bower and the Popovy sisters. After the show Y and I ubered to Black Rabbit Rose for the jazz night, hosted by Fred Durst. We got dropped off in front of No Vacancy, and walked down to the entrance for BBR. On the way, outside the Thai food express window restaurant I stop Shaughnessy Brown, a stunning persona from New York I have been noticing in the past year. After passing her I decided to backtrack and approach her. We ended up all going inside BBR together and just hanging out for most of the night until I left. When we went inside the jazz show, Shaughnessy jumped on stage and stole the show. If there's a modern day more refine version of Gia, it's Shaughnessy Brown.

Picked up K and went to The Getty for yet another attempt to create content that I can post to my Instagram, as my previous content included parts of the exhibition that couldn't be posted, per bureaucratic restrictions. This time I was assigned parking on the top of the hill, which disappointed K as she wanted to go on the tramp. The restrictions on The Getty's behalf didn't leave me with any options, but include just the billboard for the current exhibitions. We took a few pictures using my Sony RX-1 in front of two different billboards, and found a shot that I was happy with before my battery, that I charge for ten minutes before I left the house, died. Afterwards we walk around a bit, seeing the exhibitions, and taking some more pictures on our phones. From the Getty we went to the restaurant at the Rancho Park Golf Course and had lunch. I had a burger and salad, and K had a veggie burger and sweet potato fries.   

Picked up K, who has returned to LA from Little Rock on Sunday and went with her to an Urban Decay event downtown which she was helping promote. We didn't really know anyone at the event and nothing seemed too interesting, even though it seemed like they invested quite a good amount of money into an In-N-Out food truck, open bars, free tattoos, and some other attraction for the usual LA event goers - which in the case of this one had substantially more girls than guys. At one point I decided to start taking pictures, and used the opportunity to stand in line behind a girl who looked interesting and eventually took a good amount of photos of her. She super photogenic and looked amazing in every picture. Her name is Sierra Swartz, and turns out that she is one of the survivors of the Isla Vista 2014 massacre. She was shot at by Elliot Rodger but managed to escape and enter one of the neighborhood houses. After our little photoshoot, K and I left and went to my place, where I gave her a little gift for our one year anniversary of knowing each other - a framed sheet of stamps of John F. Kennedy, with the riddle I tormented her with for a good two weeks, while she was trying to guess what I got her. It goes like this "What is forever twelve of thirty-five out of forty-five?". She even watched Die Hard 3, under my instructions, to try and figure it out, but alas, I had to give out the second part of the riddle, and by then it took her a quick search in Google to figure out what it was. Afterward we went to Cloak and Dagger. When it ended we got into a loud argument about photography (again...) outside the club and the entire street was staring at us. It just that I believe that any talented accomplished person with good people skills can be a good photographer and she think it requires some special abilities. One of her main points was that she knows a lot of bad photographers. Well, I tried to explain to her that all those bad photographers are also not accomplished individuals. I said that anyone who's famous can be a great photographer because people would be interested in their photos, and they can take photos of their famous friends, and those will be great photos, because famous people look good in photos.  

Today was the Downtown LA Art Walk reception at Gloria Delson gallery where I am showing five pieces at a group show. I took an Uber and picked up C, who I haven't been seeing too much of in the past few months, and got to the gallery around 7:30. I guess I was expecting more people, but then again, I don't think I could even handle the people that were there. I met Qathryn Brehm, the executive director of the Art Walk, who was very impressed with my work and insisted on me coming to the private event she is holding at the Gallery on the 27th for some corporate clients. A few more friends showed up and around 10 we left as a group, headed back to Hollywood to Dirty Laundry where our friend Tauhid Price was celebrating his birthday. There I mostly hung out with the daughter of the owner of Canter's Deli, Jennifer, who at some point manage to get me to dance, but I think it was only when I was against the wall, and her in front of me - buffering any potential embarrassment.

I received an email from doctor Lee with my lab results from the blood work taken on August 9. The results indicated that my glucose levels are too high (pre-diabetes) and that my alkaline phosphates levels are too high (pre-liver faliure). But then I got to the very last line of the chart which has indicated that my iron levels are too low (post-vegetarian). I doubted the first two deviations but this last one seemed very peculiar as my diet consists of mostly meat and a good dose of vitamins. I then noticed that the name on the results wasn't mine - in fact it was a French name. But oddly enough the age and date of the test were consisted with mine. I emailed doctor Lee's office asking if they are sure these are my test results, and then texted K that my doctor sent me someone else's results. She asked if that person has aids. I told her about what he did have, and also his name. It turned out this person is K's previous booker at Wilhelmina and we officially concluded it by checking his birthday. I then received my actual results, which were all perfect except that my iron levels are too high, which I found very amusing. K was still "mind blown" by the fact that she knew the person who's results I received by error. I didn't think much it though, and told her that there are no more than three degrees of separation in LA's west side. In other words, any of my doctor's patient is connected to me by one person or less. This one just happened to be connected to me through K. I was glad my results were optimal as I was worried something was wrong because of some pain I was feeling for a few days in my abdominal area, which I thought could be my kidneys or my liver. I was also glad that I wasn't pre-diabetic.

I rented a U-haul and met Nick at the office in the morning to load in the paintings and everything else we prepared for Artopia. I drove the Uhaul to Union Station and Nick drove his car, carrying four 12' 2x4's that we used as a frame to hang the painting on and serve as a platform for the spot lights to extend from. Both me and Nick worked tirelessly from noon to seven to set everything up for the show and around that time we were only about 85% done. But I couldn't do anymore work and went to change to my show clothes. My very committed crew who now also included Hannah Gantt (originally K was suppose to work, but she was offered $100/hour elsewhere and sent Hannah instead), finished the other 15% and by 8 we were ready, even though people had started to walk in at 7. The effort was worth it. I was very happy with how the people around me performed, and my exhibit looked beautiful - and much more impressive than any of the other ones. The event brought in roughly 700 people, which was less than expected, but after such hard work, I didn't mind having less people, as I felt like just sitting and observing. Luckily some more friends who came and hung at our exhibit took the initiative to entertain the visitors and I was mostly sitting and observing. Grace and Nick were there with me for the loading out and by 1am we were all loaded out. Nick came over and we watched the recording of the fight between Mcgregor and Mayweather. We both predicted how the fight was going to pan out exactly how it did. I didn't care much for the fight nor the solar eclipse earlier this week - the two most talked about events since the presidential election. I feel that people should be more original with the things they care for or entertained by but I guess the search for a common denominator is just too great. Especially now days when our country is so divided.  

I was invited to the Getty Museum to attend an event titled Happy Birthday Mr. Hockey so I asked C if he can go with me because K, who was originally suppose to go got a shoot booked in Little Rock, AR the day before and flew out Tuesday morning. I was commissioned to do some promotion for the Getty so my goal was to find a good picture to take and post it to my Instagram account. We arrived at the Getty a bit early to see the Hockney exhibition before going to the event, which was a conversation between people who have been associated with Hockney, in one way or another. There was no indication that Hockney himself is going to attend in any of the promotional material of the event. Then, as we enter the room of the exhibition, I immediately spot an interesting old man wearing a bright green cardigan and  holding a cane, and as soon as he turns towards us it becomes clear that David Hockney is here. Now, no photos were allowed at the exhibition room, so I was very unprepared and my phone camera set to take pictures in the dark in B & W. C and I approach Hockney and his partner Bing. Hockney immediately notices us, and we introduce ourselves although it is apparent that he is not hearing very well and is making generic responses - however Bing steers the conversation towards and a few insignificant details are being exchanged. I then ask if we can take a picture, and under the attempt to avoid being discovered by the security guard and trying to get it done fast, I left the flash on, and the first couple of pictures are a total disaster. C then attempted it again, but I left the settings still on manual with a slower shutter speed which resulted in a hazy picture. It was right at that time that Hockney was called to make his way to the auditorium where the event was taking place, and consumed with disappointment over the pictures, I miss my chance to fix the settings and take a picture of Hockney of my own. C and I ended up going to the Auditurium were the conversation took place. Even though my invitation was nested under 'press', we received the worse seats in the house, up in the mezzanine, as far as it gets. The conversation was rather tacky, but the moment they invited Hockney in took everyone in the crowd by surprise and the excitement was eminent. C and I later went to this new spot by the Houston brothers in Koreatown called Breakroom 86 - an 80's school themed karaoke club with a live band backing the armature singers. I stayed for an hour and took an Uber back home.

I filled my appetite with only stories and no food, because I went to Dane Lee's pool party at his house and didn't want to feel bloated. I took Grace with me, and it was the first time we hung out outside of work. It was a pretty cozy pool party with Dane's close friends who I mostly knew, but also got to know a few new people and take their pictures. Most of our closer mutual friends were out of town, because in this time of year most people are on vacation from being on vacation. I found out that Grace smoked cigarettes. Later around 11:30 C and Brook picked me up and we went to Delilah's, for Jazz night. I saw Sierra Plowden there and she mentioned she was finally 21, which meant that I knew her maybe even from before she was 16. I left around 1 and went home to finish up some work I needed to get done for the next morning.