Bachelor Party Photos!

Congratulations to my good friend Andy. Here are some awesome photos of our weekend in Chicago, during which we got drunk, walked by Wrigley field, ate some deep dish, won several hundred dollars at a casino in beautiful Aurora, IL, and accidentally trashed Ryan's girlfriend's apartment. In other words fun times.

Bachelor Party Photos

Precious Pictures of Precocious Puppies!

My boss recently volunteered her time to take care of some abandoned puppies until they reach the age at which they are normally adopted. I went over to meet them and take some photos with Betsy. Cuteness ensued.

My MySpace Page

I have reluctantly joined MySpace. This decision coincides with my newly purchased digital camera. Perhaps I will take advantage of this coincidence by posting photos on my new MySpace page once in a while. Check it out.

Find me on MySpace and be my friend!

Wow that copy and pasted sentiment from MySpace is totally Brokeback. But then again, I could have changed it and chose not to, for no other reason than so that I could use that Brokeback joke.

Unpopular opinions

It has become apparent to me that not everyone shares my exact taste in music and movies. The following anecdote will serve to illustrate this point.

This weekend, while out with some friends of a friend, I expressed my dissatisfaction with the concept that someone would willingly spend their 1/3 of a dollar on "Brass Monkey" by the Beastie Boys by selecting it on the Jukebox. To my surprise, my sentiment was not shared by the young woman to whom I was speaking at the time. She professed her undying love for all things Beastie, which made my eyes roll. Not thinking about the ramifications of what I would next say, I blurted out, "Oh, I bet you like Sublime too." I was right.

She was a big fan of Sublime, my all time least favorite band, and seemed more than a little offended that I could possibly have a bad word to say about them. Truth be told, I can think of plenty of bad words to say about them*, but I held back. I've come to accept the fact that Sublime has bamboozled their way via circumstance and timing into a place on a lot of people's list of favorites, and although I find it hard to believe, people also like that "My Humps" song, so what the hell do I know?

Attempting to take the high road, I offered a compromise. Perhaps, if we can't agree on music, movies will be a better avenue of discussion. She, like me, was a film major, so naturally this seemed like a good place to start. So, what was her favorite movie? "Well I really like Martin Scorsese," she responded. Now don't get me wrong. Scorsese is well-respected and loved by fans for a reason, it just so happens, that he's not my particular cup of tea. I find his movies to be sluggishly paced and not all that interestingly shot. But when I said the words, "I think he's overrated," this poor girl just about went into a state of disbelief not unlike the one I fall into when I watch reality television.

Of course after this heresy, I had to be pointed out to the surrounding guy friends that we were with. "This guy doesn't like Sublime or Goodfellas!" I had to shrug a lot at the following onslaught of disbelieving questions. But I stood up for what I believed in, refusing to cave in to the semantic arguments of Pussycat Dolls vs. Sublime (one is a group, the other is a band, so different categories).

I suppose it would be easier to just like what everyone else likes and not be a music snob, but that's not my style. And besides where's the fun in agreeing with the masses?

*The reasons I hate sublime are threefold. One: I feel that the lead singer, Bradley Nowell's death increased the public awareness in a way that wouldn't have happened had he lived, and given the nature of his death, I don't think he should be glorified as such. Two: Their lyrics are uninspired and somewhat misogynistic, or at the very least, just downright annoying. Three: When I was in 10th grade, I took an upper level art class: Sculpture and Pottery. In this class, we were allowed to bring in music to play while sculpting. The young man who sat next to me was the single most annoying person I have ever met. He was loud, obnoxious, rude, etc. My theory is that he probably related to the song "Date Rape" a little too closely. Anyway, he loved loved loved Sublime, and as is the case with these obsessive types, he assumed everyone in the room must love them too. So instead of bringing in their self-titled album that has all their best known hit songs on it, he brought in the most obscure live and unreleased Sublime albums he could find and forced them upon us. In the live albums, Bradley Nowell and co. were so drunk/high that it was mostly incoherent. This went on for a semester and I'm sorry but you don't recover from an experience like that, making it the most influential reason that I hate Sublime. You can say they've just been ruined for me by one bad apple, but I prefer to think of it as my eyes being opened to a truly awful band that most people are just surface-level interested in enough to be fooled by. As evidence: This kid also liked Radiohead's OK Computer album, and despite his best efforts, I can still enjoy that album without getting into a violent rage.

Verdict: Sublime is bad. I rest my case.

Hott photo

Here's Ryan, myself, and Andy at Andy's engagement party a few days before Christmas.

New Years Photos!

Here is a link to Betsy's photo gallery from New Year's Eve. It was a fun night, as the photos will prove. Mainly because, being on the west coast, we had the opportunity, nay the obligation, to celebrate the new year 4 hours on the hour, right in a row. EST, Central, Mountain and Pacific, each more enjoyable than the last.

New Scrubs Season!

It's finally here! The new season of Scrubs starts tonight (Tuesday) at 9:00. Make sure to watch! Also, My Name is Earl and The Office will now be on Thursdays at 9.

Catch ya later my brother.

Top CDs of 2005

Happy New Year!

I clearly haven't updated this nonsense in a while, go figure. Well, I've been meaning to do a best of for the past year, and share my favorite CD's so here they are:

5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Pure indie-rock fun, with a unique vocal style that threatens to annoy but ultimately wins you over.

4. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
This album feels like a brilliant compilation, due to the fact that no fewer than 3 of the members are contributing song-writers/singers.

3. Wolf Parade - Apologies To the Queen Mary
This CD grew on me more than I expected, ending up one of my favorites this year.

2. The Decemberists - Picaresque
Their most complex, lyrical, and dramatic album yet, they took their place as one of my favorite overall bands with this effort.

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
It's only the second in the 50 states project and it's one of the best CD's I own. Beautifully varied and always enjoyable.



Honorable Mentions from perennial favorites:
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Doves - Some Cities

Why is it...

Why is it that British people doing American accents in movies/TV shows can never pronounce the word "anything?" It always comes out "an-a-thing."

Quick Weekend recap

Highlight of the weekend: Meeting Sam Lloyd, who plays Ted the Lawyer on Scrubs, at the Bigfoot Lodge in Los Feliz. Credit Dave with spotting him, and Julie with yelling out his name quite indiscretely to see if he would look. He was a really nice guy and it makes me laugh to think what a big deal it was for Dave and I to meet him, and how everyone else in the bar, had no idea who he was.

There's a first for everything: Much later in the evening, Dave and I stopped at one of the two Denny's within a mile of each other on Sunset. There, while loudly quoting Ted the Lawyer lines, I caught the attention of a table full of attractive young African-American women, one of which proceeded to smile at me and blow kisses at me. When I smiled back they all giggled, and it was like what high school would have been like if I had been popular, or if I had been in some sort of Saved by the Bell style TV program.

Next sunday is our holiday party. If you live in the LA area and didn't get an Evite, email me at Skerr1@swkphoto.com and I will add you to the list. We couldn't find everyone's email address, so it's not personal if we forgot, I assure you.

Have a nice week!