Well, actually...

You know the stuff I said about getting along with my brother?

Yeah, not so much...

A New York City Christmas

Somehow Christmas has already come and gone. I really don't know where time goes, but here's some of what's been going on in the last few days.

(Brace yourself, I have a lot to write about.)

It's been very good to be home. Spending time with my family and friends has been pretty great. I've been especially trying to take advantage of my time with my family, and although we all get on eachother's nerves sometimes, it's been really good. I've even actually enjoyed Matt's company more than ever before, and spent a little time with he and his girlfriend last week when they invited me to watch Rent with them. (Two weeks before New York, how could I pass up an opportunity to watch Rent?)

It wasn't until I was sitting in Church on Christmas Eve that I actually started to think about what Christmas means. During the pastor's message, I realized how rarely I take time to dwell on the fact that God loved us enough to humble himself completely and come down to our level. It's really pretty ridiculously amazing. As I really thought about this, I was overcome with all sorts of different emotions.

This break has been full of emotional highs and lows. Last Thursday, Jessi Hagen, Rachel Mason, and Rachel's sister Phoebe came to visit Kevin and I for a day of fun in the Burgh. We did lots of cool stuff; we went to Heinz Chapel, found our way to the top of the Cathedral of Learning, ate Primanti's and went Ice Skating downtown in PPG Place. It was really great.

Then when I got home, I found all the news about the Crossroads accident. How horrible. I felt and feel so much pain for Keri, her family, and the community that has meant so much to me over the last two years. It kills me that I am disconnected from Crossroads while they are going through something so hard. The incredible strength and faith of her family has definitely helped me find some peace in all of this.

I had a few selfish moments last week when I was feeling bummed out that regardless of how winter quarter goes I won't be spending the summer in New York City. I'd love to be able to be there during the heat of summer to experience the side of the big apple I'll miss out on in winter. Luckily, those feelings didn't last for long, as it's impossible for me to be upset knowing that God has huge plans for me in Namibia. I am so excited for all of the risks, challenges, and hardships that I know I'll be facing. I cannot wait to be ripped out of my comfort zone. I'm terrified, but absolutely stoked. Plus, three and possibly six months of New York in winter is an absolute dream come true and I am thrilled to have whatever time I can there.

I got a chance to go out to lunch with my old youth director Chad and told him about Africa. He is really excited and cautioned me to be ready for the potential to have my life completely changed.

Wow. I'm glad I've got time to get ready. Although I'm sure the next 6 months will fly by, too.

I also got a chance to talk to the pastor at my old church and he was very excited to hear about Africa as well and offered whatever help he could. The support of he and Chad, on top of my family's support is amazing.

Christmas Day was wonderful. Gammy came in from Somerset and took part in most of our present opening. A highlight of the morning for me was giving Mom her gift. I had taken a bunch of pictures of Matt and Jaimie and I and took the three best and framed them for her. There aren't all that many pictures of us kids around, especially lately, so I knew she would love it and it would be much more heartfelt than some random cd or movie or something. As she opened it, she started to cry. The gift was a success.

You can actually take a look at all the pictures I took for her present right here.

I was given some great gifts and some definite necessities for my upcoming life in Brooklyn. One of the highlights was a new phone. My four year old phone died after 20 minutes of use, so I needed a new one badly. I got an enV2. I don't know much about what's hip in cell phone technology, but it seems pretty sweet. Now I can actually talk to people on my phone.

Another highlight was my Not For Tourists Guide to New York City 2009. I definitely needed it, and after owning the Los Angeles version that is pretty much the size and weight of a cinderblock, I'm amazed at how compact and convenient the pocket sized NFT New York is. It should fit perfectly into the pocket of my pea coat.

I also got a double air mattress, which I'll be sleeping on for 3 months this winter. It will probably take up almost my entire room. Don't worry, I post pictures once I get there.

Let's see, other good gifts were $50 to Old Navy (as everyone knows my current favorite store) with which I got a bunch of stylish new warm winter threads. The day after christmas 50% and 60% off deals were clutch. I also got Wall-E on dvd, which the family is going to watch in the next few days.

In the afternoon, we all went to see Marley & Me. Gammy had read the book and was really excited to go see it. It was actually a great movie, thanks to some surprisingly amazing performances by Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. A warning though, if you go see this movie you will cry. I've never felt like that way watching any movie ever. It's a weird feeling knowing and seeing that every single person around you is crying. I had a huge throbbing lump in my throat for like 20 minutes as I tried to hold back the tears, but I couldn't help it, and soon the tears started to fall down my cheeks. Jaimie asked Dad if he cried and he told her, "Of course I did! If you're human, that will make you cry." He was right. You should go see it. I want to own a lab now.

I could talk more and more about the day and the day after Christmas, but maybe I'll wait to do that. The Ogles are headed up to Lake Erie to spend a few days up there together, with some skiing likely on Monday. It should be an excellent time.

If you actually read this whole post, I commend you. I'm sorry it's so long. If you just skimmed, I don't blame you. I haven't written in a while.

I hope everyone's Christmas was excellent. I plan on calling a bunch of people on my new phone soon.

peace out

That's better...

So I was thinking about it, and I've definitely already met Manhattan. This time around, I plan to take Manhattan (and the other boroughs, of course).

Home for the holidays

Well, here it is. The old blog has been spruced up in anticipation of the big New York co-op. I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to call it, and this is what I've decided on for now. I also considered Mr. Ogle Goes to Broadway, The King of New York, No Day But Today, and Carrying the Banner. I'm pretty sure the blog will stay Alex Meets Manhattan, but there's a chance it could become more a muppet inspired Alex Takes Manhattan or Mr. Ogle Takes Manhattan. We'll see.

I stayed in Cincinnati until yesterday morning, and it ended up being the perfect amount of time. Amazingly, I was able to spend time with just about everyone I wanted to. Sunday afternoon was especially great. I went over to Artie's house and spent the afternoon hanging out and talking with him and his young son, Jackson. Artie and I had tried to hang out more since the one time we were able to earlier in the quarter, but we couldn't until now. We caught up, and eventually Artie's wife Lisa came back from the store with their 8-month-old Lincoln. Lincoln is extremely cute, and I had a lot of fun playing with him and helping him walk around the house. They invited me to stay for dinner which I couldn't pass up, and Artie wanted me to tell Lisa my Africa story after he had gotten the updated version earlier in the afternoon. I'd say the afternoon and evening made up for our lost time this quarter.

Coming home, I figured I would wear my lip ring from my Halloween costume to see what my parents would think. Well, at first Dad didn't notice, but Mom did. She didn't think it was real until Jaimie (who had seen pictures of me at Halloween) joined in and said "It was really hard to keep it a secret when you told me two weeks ago!" I hadn't even told her I was going to do it. What a great sister, eh? At that point I just let the chaos continue. Dad was silent, with a very upset look on his face. Mom started to say things like, "Why didn't you get an earring? I'd be okay with an earring, that'd be good! Or a tattoo!" When Mom started saying that Dad told her to be quiet. Once it seemed like they were really convinced, I went outside with Matt to get my stuff out of the car so that Mom and Dad could have a moment of terror to let it sink in. When I came back in, Mom gave me a thoroughly convinced "You will HAVE to take that out while you are here." And I walked up and put my face really close to hers and as she looked at the ring disgusted I pulled it out of my lip. It was really fun and it went on much longer than I planned, but when Jaimie joined in I had to keep it going. Mom is still talking about it today. It was pretty great.

Anyway, now I'm home here, actually excited to spend time with my family. I'm looking forward to time with my friends too. I'm just hoping for the next few weeks to be a major time of focus and foundation-building before the awesome chaos of 2009 begins. Who knows, I might even get some reading done. This afternoon I finished up Erwin McManus's The Barbarian Way. It's an awesome book about breaking out of the idea that following Jesus is something that is safe and comfortable. It's crazy how relevant the book is to my upcoming trips to New York and Africa, considering I bought the book earlier in the quarter before I had any idea Africa would be happening, and that I just started reading the book a few days ago.

Anyway, that's enough for now. I think I'm headed to Matt's hockey game tonight, then I've got Jury Duty tomorrow. I don't expect to update this baby all that many times before I head to New York, but who knows. When I have things to write about and time to write, I'll do my best.

I hope everybody is having a great break! Stay in touch.

much love

What am I going to do without all of you?

I cannot believe another quarter is coming to an end already, let alone the fact that I am somehow in the middle of my fourth year of college.

This quarter has just about blown me away. There have been ups and downs, but in the end it has been amazing. In the very same day, I found out I will be spending winter quarter in New York City (a big hope of mine for a while) and firmly made the decision to spend my summer in Africa.

I definitely want to write about Africa and the crazy story of how I wound up realizing I need to go to Namibia this summer, but I won't do that right now. I'd be sitting here for two hours typing.

Today I just started to feel a little weird, maybe a little empty as the quarter comes to a close. I don't know how to describe it, but it's amazing how time with key people can come exactly when I need it. I can't count the number of times this quarter people have shown up right when I've needed them, and most of those people didn't even realize it.

I am so thankful for the people in my life. I have been extremely blessed.

I am so disappointed that I have to leave again so soon. Luckily, as much as I may have doubted it could happen, God showed up in a major way in Los Angeles, and I can't wait to find out what New York has in store for me.

For the first time in my life, I'm beginning to realizing what it really means to live for something bigger than myself.

I can't wait to see what's in store for all of us.

Only the beginning of the Adventure

So I'm back home in Pittsburgh, doing all the things I wanted and needed to try and do before school starts, realizing I don't have enough time here.  

I don't have a full blog post today, but what I do have is a new facebook photo gallery, which if you read each description, winds up being like a blog post in itself. The gallery chronicles my last 3 days in Los Angeles, hanging out on campus, going to the beach, and going to the observatory. The roommates took me to a kind of unofficial "Goodbye Alex" dinner on Wednesday night before I left, unfortunately I totally forgot my camera. Bummer. 

If I was graduating right now, I think I would most likely be headed back out to Los Angeles. I have definitely become attached to that city and people in it. With a whole two years of school left, its hard to know what to do with those thoughts. Luckily and very thankfully, I am blessed with so many wonderful reasons to live in the moment while at school. Words can't really describe how excited I am to spend time with so many amazing people, and how much I am looking forward to what is sure to be a quarter filled with wonderful experiences shared with many people. 

Here's the gallery. Check it out.

Rock on. See you soon!

Much love,

Alex

Leaving Narnia

On Thursday I fly out of Los Angeles with no idea when I'll be coming back.  

I'm thrilled to spend some time at home and then head back to school for what is sure to be an awesome quarter, but I can't believe how connected I've become to this place. There is a lot to hate about it, but at the heart of the city is an amazing opportunity to take part in a revolution of positive change.  

A few months ago, I thought the lyrics to the song "The Call" at the end of Prince Caspian were cool, but now after an amazing summer they have real meaning.

. . .

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
Till it was a battle cry
I'll come back when you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to war
Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it, too
Doesn't means that you have to forget
Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
Till they're before your eyes
You'll come back when they call you
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when they call you

No need to say goodbye

Ode to Dave Devine

Well, folks, today is my last day of work after six months at Crew Creative, so I thought it would be fitting to write a post dedicated to my most loyal blog-reader, my coworker, Dave Devine:

Dave Devine tries to make you think he's some really mean tough guy, with his motorcycles, black shirts, shaved head, goatee and tattoos, but that really couldn't be further from the truth.

Back in Winter Quarter, I sat between Dave Devine and Ben Black (also a great guy) in our "pod," and Dave was definitely the first person to really make me feel welcome at work. He was the first to really talk to me, the first to find out about my unique interests in things like Disney and musical theater, and first to make fun of me because of those interests.  

Although Dave was almost always the first to make fun of me about something at work, he was also always the first to help me out. If I had a question, I knew I could ask and almost always get an answer.

And regardless of how much I was made fun of by him or by anyone else at work, it was never out of spite or hate, I guess it was just some weird way of showing they liked me, and that was cool to know.

Dave Devine has my blog set as his homepage, which is actually pretty creepy. This isn't really part of the tribute, I just thought everyone should know about it.

Try as he might, Dave Devine is not some hardened, heartless biker.  

Dave Devine is actually one of the best guys I've met at work. He took me under his wing during my time at Crew and definitely taught and showed me a lot, while making me feel welcome and cared about at work.  

I know he'll miss me when I'm gone, and I guess I'll miss him, too.  

*there's your post, Dave

Feeling the Tug

I hope some of you guys were as surprised to read the Olympic Creed as I was. Both the creed and the news story were brought up in Sarah's message about Resilience this past Sunday at Mosaic, but I'll probably get to that later.

Plenty of stuff has gone down in the past week or so, so I probably won't be going into too much detail. Let's see...ahh yes. Last Friday night was Idina Menzel at the Wiltern! Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside the theater. You weren't even allowed to bring a camera in. I put mine in my pocket and snuck it in though. Anyway, this is the only picture you'll get.

My coworker Mike and I grabbed a quick but excellent dinner at Luna Park Restaurant before heading over to the theater. Once there, we hung out in the lobby of the amazing art-deco building and had a drink. It was probably a mistake for me to drink, however, as some of you may know that I have the stomach and bladder size of an 8 year old, and alcohol only makes things worse. In the hour and 15 minutes or so between when we got to the theater and when Idina went on after the opening act, I think I went to the bathroom at least four times. Luckily, though, I didn't have to go once she was onstage.

Before the show started, we saw and stood next to Bruce Vilanch, and yes, he looks like that in real life, too. Before Idina went onstage, her husband Taye Diggs walked through the audience looking for his seat, and walked down the aisle right next to our seats. It was pretty cool. Girls were going pretty crazy and stuff.

Anyway, of course Idina was great. Although the theater was huge, she played it like a small intimate theater, telling stories and interacting with the audience. She just seemed to be having a great time, very confident and comfortable in her own (unique) skin. One of my favorite parts of the show was when she kicked off her shoes and started headbanging to a cover of "Heartbreaker." And then, when the song ended, she still had energy, and had the band do the end of the song again. Even her band seemed to be having a great time, smiling and laughing along with the audience.

Other highlights were of course her musical theater songs, like "No Day but Today" from Rent and an a cappella solo version of "For Good" from Wicked towards the end of the performance. A lot of the stuff from her albums was great, too, including "Brave" and "Where do I Begin" which are some of my favorites.

Of course, Idina finished her encore with the song everyone was waiting for, "Defying Gravity." She performed the whole song while sitting on the end of the stage. The intimacy and emotion of the moment was amazing. Idina is great.

Saturday was a Digital Designer trip to Universal. Amy, Emily, Ian and I spent a fun day at the theme park. Here's a shot looking down into the Valley onto the Universal backlot at everything the fire cleared out. It's pretty crazy. Luckily you can see that the Courthouse building from Back to the Future was spared. And of course beyond the backlot you can see the Warner Bros. studio (wow, the Dark Knight seems so long ago!) and past that you can make out the top of the abc building and the rest of the Disney studio.

Here's a shot of the same basic area in the winter. You can't see as much of the backlot, but you can get a gauge of how big the fire was.  You can also get a gauge of how much clearer the air can be in the winter, ha.

Anyway, at the end of our day, we had a fun dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood in Universal Citywalk. Once we got back to Westwood, we decided to head to the Westwood Brewing Company for a drink and to see if we could catch any of Michael Phelps' race. Luckily we could. How about that guy, huh? What a great story.

Sunday was a pretty regular Sunday, with some running, phone calls on campus, and an afternoon and evening downtown at Mosaic. Jason Jaggard delivered a message on discipline which was very cool, but then the coolest thing was when Erwin came out and introduced John Naber, a member of the Mosaic community and USA Olympic Swimmer at the 1976 summer games in Montreal. At the games, John set four world records and won five medals, four gold and one silver.

Erwin and John spoke about Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, and John's own Olympic experience. They talked about the training and discipline involved in all of their Olympic successes. It was pretty amazing to be able to gain such insight into the world of the Olympics as they were happening. As always, check out the podcast. 

This past weekend, the highlight was definitely a day at the beach Saturday with the roommates. Garrett, Chris, David and I went to Dockweiler Beach, where Goodwin's Church was having a beach day. Dockweiler was pretty cool because it's right at the end of the runways at LAX, so planes are constantly flying overhead. They usually aren't too loud, but every once in a while one of those huge double decker planes headed to Asia or Europe fly over and then you can't hear anything. It was fun though, because when that would happen you could just yell obnoxiously. Anyway, we played some hardcore beach volleyball, swam, relaxed and ate burgers on the beach. It was awesome.  

Saturday night I met Tegan and Ian at Amy's where we hung out, had some wine and ate Sprinkles cupcakes. They were delicious. We ended up watching the movie Crash, which I had never seen, and in a weird way, I found the movie pulling my heart to the city of Los Angeles, where it takes place. The movie was very powerful and amazing, not to mention the opening scene with Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser taking place right on Broxton, a street in Westwood I walk down every single day. I don't know what it was exactly, but it was definitely one of the first times I really felt a pull from Los Angeles.  Weird.

Sunday was a classic Sunday, with a run at UCLA, a few phone calls and a trip downtown to Mosaic. Again, walking to the Mayan Theatre and during my evening at Mosaic, I just could really feel the tug of the city on me. 

I don't really know how to describe it. I mean, I love the city, but there are plenty of reasons why I don't like it, too. I don't think the pull is for selfish reasons, since coming back to LA in the future would involve me giving up so much of what and who I know and love. At the same time, part of my noticing the tug came with my realization on Sunday though that the utopia of love and friendship that I feel at school in Cincinnati will not always exist, and when we start to graduate, people moving all over the country is pretty inevitable. 

At Mosaic on Sunday night I was reintroduced to Mayan all-star Jason Jaggard, and I mentioned to he and Adrian that I has been feeling a tug toward the city, and he told me "Just give in, man! Let it pull! Let it pull!" He said this place needs good people. Although I am definitely far from being "good people," the idea of living and working for healing in a place with so much need and brokenness right under the surface of so many is an amazing thought.

It's really weird having these thoughts with so much time left before I graduate. How much of a different man will I be in 2010? That's crazy. 

For now, my plan is to try to go to New York on co-op in the winter, to not pass up the opportunity to live that life for three months. I've got to say, the City of Angels has taken up a space in my heart that will not easily be forced out, and if nothing works out in the big apple, I'll definitely keep an eye on Southern California.

I am definitely going to try as much as possible to give up all of these decisions, both those in the coming months and those in the next few years. When the time comes, these decisions are not mine, but God's, and I don't want to get in the way.

A few weeks ago at Mosaic, Erwin McManus said that when you truly love God, what you want and what he wants becomes the same thing, and that is when life becomes the most fun. That is what I want. I'm not together, but I'm getting there.  

If anybody wants to get a small glimpse into a little of the city of Los Angeles that I have come to know and love over the almost six months I've spent here, check out this album on facebook, where the shots from church and the marquee are from.  They're not brilliant, but I think they do a good job showing a side or two of LA that you don't see in movies. 

Well kids, two weeks from tomorrow I fly back to Pittsburgh, having no idea when I'll be back. I have to say, though, I am confident that I will be. Man, I have a lot to think and pray about.

Rock on, everybody. 

Resilience

THE OLYMPIC CREED

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

A Champion

A Weekend with Sis

This past weekend my sister Jaimie came to visit, and we were able to do a good amount of stuff and have a lot of fun. Here's the report.

I borrowed Garrett's car to drive to LAX to pick up Jaimie on thursday night. While we were waiting for her luggage, we saw a celebrity, but neither of us knew what he was from. He did, however, get in a limo so it was legit. He looked like he could've played a vampire on tv or in a movie, or I thought he looked like he could've been on Laguna Beach or something. Well, he wasn't. I think probably I'll be watching tv in a few weeks and I'll see him and it'll click.

Anyway, Friday afternoon, Jaimie and I went up to Hollywood for our trip to the Hollywood Bowl to see the star-studded Les Miserables in Concert. Our concert wasn't until 8:30, but we went to Hollywood to walk around so Jaimie could check out the place. She actually was very impressed by the stores in Hollywood and Highland. This Ed Hardy or whoever stuff is apparently pretty popular, so the kids tell me. Who knows.

Anyway, here we are up on the overlook above Hollywood Blvd. with downtown in the background. Good times!

Jaimie and I had a nice dinner at a Crepes place (where we both had paninis), and after some more exploring we walked over to the shuttle bus stop to take the bus up to the Hollywood Bowl.

Everybody had been telling me how awesome the Hollywood Bowl was, so I knew we were in for a treat. As we got off of the bus, we looked around and everybody had picnics baskets full of dinners and wine and whatnot. Jaimie and I were obviously newbies eating before we got there. Ohh well, there's always next time.

Jaimie and I found our seats about an hour and a half before the show and sat down in them. I was absolutely amazed how cool the bowl was. I didn't actually expect to be able to see the Hollywood sign from inside the place, but we actually could!

Aparently the Hollywood Bowl is the largest outdoor amphitheater in the United States or something, holding almost 17,000 people. Can you believe that? 17,000 people on the side of a hill? That's about the capacity of Mellon Arena. Crazy.

So Jaimie and I sat and chatted, skimmed the $1 program, and watched an episode of the Office (Gay Witch Hunt - what a classic!) and the sun began to set as the Hollywood sign faded into darkness in the distance and Hollywood magic filled the air.

So how was Les Miserables in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl? I'm not sure words can describe it. First of all, I had just been expecting the cast to be wearing costumes and standing at microphones or something, and maybe they'd act out a few action scenes or something. But no! Although they slimmed the show down a bit, it was fully acted and performed! The cast acted out every scene out in front of the orchestra. They even used some set pieces, tables and chairs, a gate outside the mansion, and piles of junk on the barricade. The atmosphere and talent more than made up for the lack of a turntable (as much as I love that in the full production).

The performers were absolutely top notch. J. Mark McVey, a Les Miz alum, was an absolutely fabulous Jean Valjean, sounding very much like Colm Wilkinson at times. He poured plenty of emotion into the performance, nailing Valjean's high notes, one of my favorite parts of the music.

Brian Stokes Mitchell, one of Broadway's top leading men, did a great job playing the villainous Javert. I've listened to plenty of Brian Stokes Mitchell on the Ragtime soundtrack, where he played Coalhouse Walker Jr, but you might be able to remember him as having played Hillary's boyfriend Trevor on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Remember the bungy-jumping? Yeah, ouch. I didn't quite love him as much as I enjoy Terrence Mann's Javert on the original soundtrack, but that might just be because I love hearing Terrence Mann's Beast sing "If I Can't Love Her" from Beauty and the Beast.

Wow, this post is definitely shining more light than I'd like on my love for musical theater.

Anyway, Melora Hardin, aka Jan from the Office was actually pretty good as the tragic Fantine. Although she definitely had the weakest voice of anyone in the cast, she worked hard to sell the performance, and did a great job.

Finally, the last major standout in the show was the one and only Lea Michele as Eponine, probably the best character. I saw Lea last summer in New York in the original cast of Spring Awakening, and she was definitely great in it, but her character didn't really have any opportunities to really let out and sing. However, when Eponine sang her first lines, I got chills and knew we were in for something special.

At the end of the first act, all I could think about was how amazing "On My Own" was going to be in Act II, and it did not let me down. Lea Michele was absolutely amazing. She walked out into the audience on the wall between the orchestra pit and the main seating area, and with a single spotlight totally owned what is easily one of my favorite songs ever, period. She held out the last big note much longer than would ever be possible in the real show, but in concert at the Hollywood Bowl, it was completely natural. As she belted out the note, the entire crowd burst into applause. The orchestra paused for a moment, then continued as Lea finished the song to 16,000 people worth of applause.

Oh look, here's a bootleg video of her performance. How did we live before youtube? This may or may not have been the night we went. Either way, it's awesome. Lea Michele, you rock.

It's funny how much going to Hollywood Bowl actually feels like the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater, where you watch Fantasmic at Disney World. Unfortunately there was no historic wave like many of us in the North Allegheny Tiger Marching Band took part in back on that amazing night of January 1st, 2002 (I think that was the date) but it was still impressive how much the Imagineers got the feel and atmosphere of their amphitheater right. Nobody but me would probably ever think or recognize that. In keeping with what I've experienced at Fantasmic, when Les Miz ended, we joined into a huge mass of slow-moving people as we all made our way between the trees to the exit.

Saturday, Jaimie and I went to the Santa Monica to spend the day at the beach. It was beautiful, and we spent the afternoon getting tans, reading and relaxing. At last, my farmer's tan is disappearing, probably right when I leave LA it will be gone. Jaimie and I had a nice dinner outside at an English Restaurant at the beach, then came home, ate some ice cream sandwiches from Diddy Riese, and enjoyed the Olympics.

Sunday, sis and I took a explored UCLA's campus a bit. In the sculpture garden was a lot of art Jaimie didn't understand, and I didn't really understand it either. It's a cool campus, for sure, but I really do miss my home base in Clifton.

After our mini-tour, we went back to the apartment and met Garrett to head up to the Getty Center. After sitting in plenty of traffic, we had a great time exploring the museum grounds and the art inside. There was a super cool exhibit on Bernini sculpture. That work must've taken so much patience.

After visiting the museum for a few hours, we all headed home, and Jaimie and I went downtown to the Mayan for Church. I was really excited to take her there, and it was an awesome service. The dancers performed an AMAZING dance, there was a sweet video about my friend Ben, also the subject of the basketball story in Erwin McManus's book Soul Cravings. Erwin's message was about determination, and making decisions about what kind of a person you want to be. I definitely recommend checking out the podcast.

Leaving Mosaic is going to be one of the hardest parts about leaving Los Angeles. It has just been so awesome and helped me to focus on what's important out here. Luckily I'll have Erwin's books and Mosaic podcasts back in the 'Nati, and who knows, maybe I'll be back here someday, whether its soon or not so soon.

Jaimie really liked church and was surprised to find out how cool the people there were. We drove back home and watched some more Olympics, including the U.S. swimming relay that absolutely rocked.

Phil and I took Jaimie back to LAX on monday morning as the weekend of my visit with sister ended. It was definitely great for Jaimie and I to have some time just the two of us, which we definitely hadn't had very much of. She and I are definitely very different, but we have a lot in common, too. I'm looking forward to how much fun it will be when my sister and I (and hopefully my brother) have families and kids and we all hang out together. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Tuesday night I went with Garrett and Amy to a bar in Hollywood to see Garrett's friend from Oklahoma, Samantha Crain, perform. It was great and we stayed for a while watching the other performers, including this very cool girl Jackie Tohn. That wasn't really the exciting part, though, the highlight was that at the bar we saw Dominic Monaghan, aka a hobbit and Charlie on Lost! He was just hanging out. Then, when Jackie Tohn performed at the end of the night, Seth Green showed up! Both of them were much shorter than I imagined, but Seth Green was tiny!

They were my first non-movie premiere celebrity sightings of the quarter, and they were fairly solid. Garrett and I wanted to walk up to Dominic and talk to him about the ways that he really didn't need to die at the end of the third season, but we didn't.

Well, it's now friday afternoon and tonight I'm going to see Idina Menzel in concert with one of my co-workers. I'm super excited. After all, she's Idina Menzel. Then Saturday is a return to Universal Studios. Should be quite a weekend.

I hope everybody has a great weekend, too!

I miss you and love you all.

Rock on.

Movies, Mountains and the Mouse

Hey Everybody!  Sorry it's been so long since I updated the blog.  Here's a photo update showing you the highlights of the last week or so.  

I think it was Last Wednesday night that the Pineapple Express premiere was held in my neighborhood, so as always, I stopped by to check it out, since it is impossible to avoid while walking from the bus stop to my apartment.  

In terms of sheer number and caliber of celebrities, this was probably the biggest premiere yet. The first person I saw was the one and only Huey Lewis, looking as 80s as ever.  Then of course, Judd was there also, who I saw at the Step Brothers premiere, too.  Then I spotted some more of the Apatow regulars, and bam, there was the one and only James Franco.  (I actually was very happy with Harry's character arc in Spider-man 3)

I saw more people like, Seth Rogen, the girl who plays Seth's girlfriend, and then the big guns arrived. Jack Black stepped out a limo down the street, which was very cool.  Then by far my most famous celebrity sighting yet came when one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Jim Carrey, decided to show up with Jenny McCarthy.  It was pretty hard to get a good picture of them, but if you look in the single photo I did get, you can see Jim Carrey is the bald head with sunglasses.  Oh, and check out Ed Begley, Jr. on the left there.  He's a good guy.  

Finally, here's a shot of the one and only Jon Voigt.  Star of movies like Mission: Impossible and the National Treasures.  I still haven't seen the sequel yet.  I should.  I do like America a lot.  

Let's see, there were a few other celebrities I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention, and there were a few that were at the premiere that I didn't see.  One more person I did see was Stanley the Manley from the Office.  I'll tell you, these Office folk are all over this city.  I'll have a future example when I write about this weekend.

Last Saturday the connections team at Mosaic (people I volunteer with) organized a hiking trip up in a canyon in Pasadena. Needless to say, I was stoked to go, especially finally feeling connected to people there and feeling like I belong.  So a bunch of us went hiking up between the mountains and it was super cool.  

Our destination was this waterfall, a very nice little spot tucked into these tall mountains.  I should've worn my suit so I could go swimming in it when we got there, but I was worried about chafing and stuff on the hike back out of the canyon.  

My roommate Garrett joined the group, too, and I was thrilled to have him come along and get to know some of my friends at Mosaic.  Here's the group, walking back from the waterfall.

After hiking, we all drove back to Cara's house in Pasadena where we ate a delicious lunch of sandwiches, watermelon and other summer foods on her front porch.  

On the freeway driving to Pasadena, Garrett and I passed by the Disney Studio in Burbank. When I saw the water tower with Mickey on it, I sort of started to yell and Garrett got mad. Regardless, he was happy to take a quick pit-stop at the studio on our way back home to Westwood.  

We drove to the studio and wonderfully, the gate to the famous animation building was wide open, allowing me to get this beautiful money shot of the Walt Disney Animation Studios building, formerly Walt Disney Feature Animation, designed by renowned architect Robert A. M. Stern.  

The gate was probably open because the animators are hard at work animating the Princess and the Frog.  In case anyone didn't see it, you can check out the teaser trailer for Disney's triumphant return to classic hand-drawn animation here.  Keep up the good work John Lasseter.  

Unfortunately the main studio gate was locked on this Saturday afternoon. Still, I took a moment to bask under the glory of the Walt Disney Co. archway. 

Peeking through the fence, we saw University of Cincinnati alum Michael Graves' beautiful Team Disney - The Michael D. Eisner Building and the Disney Legends Plaza sprawling in front of it.  I love that it is classic Michael Graves, only instead of pillars, the seven dwarfs are holding the building up. Some may disagree, but I wouldn't say its too over the top.

Here's the wonderful water tower.  Oh, the magic of the Hollywood that never was!

Here's a close-up stalker shot of more Michael Graves and seven dwarf goodness. The coolness of this building almost makes up for the way his Swan and Dolphin Hotels mess up your view inside Epcot. Almost.

Walking around more of the studio, I found this other nice little classy studio gate.  That's the late Aldo Rossi's big ABC Television Studios building in the background.  

This week for some reason the sky and smog decided to clear up a bit, giving us some beautiful views from our office at work.  This is looking north up to the mountains.  The white speck in between the two towers is Griffith Observatory, a highlight from winter quarter, and the Hollywood sign is hidden by these buildings.  

Here is what it looks like through our windows to the East, looking back at downtown. It's only about 6 miles to the city, but some days you can barely see the silhouette of buildings through the smog. This was a beautifully clear day. It looks a lot grosser through the camera than it did in real life.  Still, from what I've seen of the Olympics, it doesn't look like Los Angeles has anything on Beijing.  

LA has a pretty cool downtown. Oh and check out the giant Kung Fu Panda billboard on the side of a building a few miles away off to the left.  

That's it for today. Hopefully soon I'll post about this weekend.  My sister and I are having a great time! 

Take it easy. Miss you all!

I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet

So, the ground isn't really supposed to move....or so I thought. 

Maybe you haven't heard but today in Los Angeles was an EARTHQUAKE!

The quake was apparently a 5.4 and happened at 11:42 this morning, and here's what I experienced:

Everybody in the city seems to be describing the starting moments in the same way, that it seemed like someone was walking around on the floor above us or that someone was wheeling something very heavy nearby. That's how it started and then the entire building began to sway and rock.  Within seconds, it clicked that an Earthquake was happening.  After a few more short seconds, I followed some people's lead and stood in a doorframe.

Apparently our building was built sometime in the 80s, so its not very old and apparently there are these giant wheels at the foundation deep under the building to absorb the shock.  That is probably why we didn't feel much shaking or rattling.  Still, being on the Fifth floor of a solid steel, marble covered building, and rocking what felt like a few feet back and forth was crazy.  Not necessarily scary, but crazy.  Once it seemed like it wasn't going to be too bad, it was even sort of fun.  

Also because of the wheels, our building kept rolling for what felt like a long time after the quake ended.  When it ended, everybody quickly went down the stairs and went outside.  People in other buildings were coming out, too, and a few fire trucks drove by, sirens blaring.  Initial cell phone calls didn't get through, apparently the city's system was overloaded.  

Everybody said an aftershock could come at any moment, and could even be just as bad as the initial quake, maybe worse, and I guess it can happen anytime from a few minutes to a few days later.  I haven't felt anything, even though I noticed the normal everyday vibrations in the floor once in a while.  We all went back inside, and pretty soon the day was continuing like normal.

Like I said, the quake was sort of fun, and it wasn't quite as bad as I had thought my first earthquake would be.  That being said, the news is reporting that this quake was just a reminder that "The Big One" could come anytime.  This one was probably the biggest quake in about 10 years or so, but apparently there is a 99% chance that the big one will come sometime in the next 30 years.  Sure, 30 years is a long time, but in terms of the Earth's life span, that's nothing.  Hopefully it doesn't happen too soon.  

Anyway, I'm excited to have experienced my first ever earthquake, and now I really have "lived in Los Angeles."  

Oh, Los Angeles.  

Good times.  

Live High, Live Mighty (with a few photos)

Wow. I am so disgustingly blessed. There is so much I want to write about right now, so this could be a long post.

Let's see, I haven't even blogged about last weekend yet.

Here is the abridged version:

Friday night was going to a classy but hip wine bar down near USC's campus with my roommates which was a lot of fun, then IMAX the Dark Knight on Saturday morning which was absolutely mind-blowingly awesome, even the Watchmen trailer was freaking sweet (crew just finished the teaser website for the watchmen movie, and it's sweet, check it out). Let's see, then Saturday night was the GLOW festival celebrating the Grunion Run at Santa Monica. I'll tell you more about it if you ask, here's a picture of one of the cool art installations.  This was a giant fan of water being sprayed like 5 stories high with colorful animations projected onto it.

Monday night Amy and I went to the Arclight in Hollywood to see Mamma Mia. The movie was ridiculous, but of course I loved it. Meryl Streep was awesome and looked like she was having a blast. Amanda Seyfried might just make the list of "My Girls," alongside Idina, Amy Adams, Ashley Brown, Lindsay Lohan (pre-fall), Shoshana Bean and Rachel McAdams. (If anyone remembers any other women I have mentioned as being my girl, please remind me. I think I've remembered them all though.) Amanda Seyfried has the best voice of anyone in the movie, and her acoustic version of "Thank You for the Music" she sings over the final credits is absolutely amazing.

Pierce Brosnan's singing voice isn't perfect, but its very interesting and I don't mind hearing it. He is, however, not all that comfortable looking singing on screen, and when he broke out in song in the movie almost everyone in the theater started to laugh. Still, the movie was definitely a lot of fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but is serious when it needs to be. Ian downloaded the soundtrack and gave it to me. It's been pretty awesome.

The arclight was an amazing place to see a movie, and bills itself as the theater for movie lovers. The theater is all assigned seating, the seats are extra wide, the arm rests are double-wide, and there is no late seating. Pretty sweet. There also weren't really any bad seats in the theater. Outside of the theater was the real Bat-pod, on display and it was pretty cool. Inside the lobby was an actual Batman costume from the Dark Knight, 5 clown masks from the bank robbery scene, and a joker costume, as well. Now that stuff was awesome. They also had some of the costumes from Mamma Mia on display, too, which had lots of sequins on them.

Let's see, the rest of the week was fairly low-key. I did, however, come up with a design for my new portfolio website. I've spent a lot of my free time this week and weekend working on the site, and I'm super excited about it. I really do think that it's shaping up to not only be a solid reflection of my work, but a great reflection of my personality and who I am in general, as well. The site is definitely not done yet, and you can't actually view any of my projects besides their preview boxes. I'll be working on the full project views soon.

Even so, feel free to check out what I have up at randlev.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback and criticism. Good or bad.

Anyway, this weekend has been very awesome. Friday night was a nice relaxing evening, after some In-N-Out, Garrett and I watched the movie Walk Hard. It was very funny and John C. Reilly was pretty outstanding in it. He's got a lot of talent. I wonder why he really hasn't done anything serious since his oscar nomination for Chicago?

Anyway, Saturday afternoon, Ian and Tegan and I went cruising up highway 1 into Malibu. We stopped and ate lunch by the lagoon and then walked along the beach and watched all the surfers catching waves near the pier. Our day was absolutely made when we saw a dog in a wetsuit surfing with his owner. The dog was really good and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Awesome.

We walked back to the car and kept driving north on the Pacific Coast Highway out of the Malibu city limits past Pepperdine University right above the ocean. It was pretty awesome driving along the ocean with the windows down, the sunroof open, and the new Jason Mraz album blasting on the stereo. We were living pretty large. Soon we started passing these huge houses with ornate gates at the driveways right on the ocean. There has to be seriously famous and seriously rich people owning those places, they were crazy.

We eventually decided to stop at this beach that looked cool called Leo Carillo beach, I think, and it turned out to be amazing. There were these huge rock formations along the ocean creating these different little coves and private beaches. There were huge mountains across the highway behind us, and the rocky beach made it feel like we were somewhere like Hawaii or Greece. Since I had recently seen the movie, I did some Mamma Mia "The Winner Takes it All" posing on the rocks, and I think Tegan got a few good pictures. Don't worry, I'll post more pictures from all of this stuff on facebook so you guys can see how cool it was. My facebook break ends tomorrow morning, so maybe tomorrow night I'll load some pics up. (My facebook break has been awesome, and I think from now on I'll only check it when A. I need to to find information of someone's, or B. When I receive an email notification.)

After taking pictures we all got in the car and headed back down the PCH through Malibu back to Westwood, while we may or may not have been listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Last night I had a lot of fun going to the Bigfoot Lodge, a log cabin-themed bar up in Los Feliz (pronounced Loas Fee-liss) to celebrate my coworker, Dave Felton's birthday. It was a lot of fun, even my supervisor, Anette came. Dave Devine, however, was a no show. On friday at work I found out he has a pool at his house and something called an aquathrone. If he was social, maybe he'd invite people over. It's weird to think of Dave as a real grown-up, but I guess if he has his own pool then he must be.

Anyway, we were at the bar just a few minutes too late to catch the subway back to Wilshire and hop on the bus back to Westwood, so Ian and I sort of got stuck in Hollywood and just ended up having to split a $30 taxi. It was stupid and expensive, but whatever.

This morning I pushed myself in an intense run through campus and at the track. It was great, and I'm definitely loving running so often out here. I really am starting to feel like I'm in better shape and able to run further often.

My afternoon and evening was an absolutely amazing cap to my weekend. I took the bus downtown with my D50 camera, and snapped a few shots of Broadway as I walked down to the Mayan. Broadway on Sunday afternoon is definitely a trip and a side of Los Angeles you don't really ever get to see or imagine, with the lobbies of all of these old movie palaces sort of depressingly turned into jewelry stores and plenty of storefronts of people selling all kinds of knick-knacks, clothes, toys, and whatnot. Still, its really interesting and I love walking down it every Sunday on my way to church. 

At church, it was definitely my best overall Mosaic experience yet. I was there early enough to help with plenty of set-up, and had a lot of fun just hanging out with everybody else on the connections team and getting to know some new people. I think I finally am starting to find where I fit there. Again I was on sample duty and handed out dixie cups of Raspberry Mocha to people who looked alone and struck up conversation with them. One guy, Eugene, was interested in finding out how he could get involved and meet people, so I told him about the connections team and stuff and pointed him toward people who could give him more information. Another guy, John, had an amazing amount of energy, and I had a lot of fun talking to he and his even more energetic girlfriend, Nicole. The people at Mosaic really are awesome, and getting to know more and more of them all the time is really showing me how blessed and lucky I am to be a part of that community.

It was almost scary how much the message met me with exactly what I'm dealing with right now and where my heart is and what I'm trying to work on. It was absolutely crazy to be spoken to so personally and I was just struck by how awesome God is. And Erwin McManus didn't even deliver this message.

It turns out this girl named Jess lives in Westwood, too, and she said she was happy to give me a ride home, so I opted to stick around to volunteer and usher for both services, which is something I've never done before but have always wanted to do, especially for the added time of interacting with other people and other volunteers. After the 8 o'clock gathering started, Eddie and Liz and I went across the street to the new Jamaican Restaurant that Mosaic is trying to help out across the street and it was delicious. My jerk chicken had major kick to it, but it was delicious. The service and food was great, and our waiter absolutely could not have been nicer. I'll think we'll be going back every Sunday night now, too, which I could get used to.

After tearing down everything in the Mayan and packing up, Jess and I went out to her car, and I was surprised to see a Pitt sticker on the rear windshield. It turns out she went to Pitt on a softball scholarship. Small world, eh? Well, things got even crazier when she mentioned she used to work at Disney in advertising. She told me it was a blast working there, and that she loved the people she worked with. Although she recently switched jobs, she told me she knows a lot of great people there, and that I should give her my resume and she'll let me know of any internship opportunities. She and I will definitely be talking more in the coming weeks (and hopefully I can get a few more rides home) and I might just have to see what connections I can work.

I don't know, would I come back to LA soon if it meant working at Disney and spending another quarter surrounded by everything and everyone I love at Mosaic? Maybe...just maybe.

Am I beginning to be bitten by the LA bug that I never thought I'd be bitten by. After doubting it for so long, could I really be "an LA guy?" Maybe...just maybe.

Who knows. Ideally it would be awesome to work for Disney in New York, especially to work at Yellow Shoes Creative Group, the branch of Disney Parks and Resorts that does all the advertising for the theme parks and cruise line, which I think has an office in New York.

We'll see. I don't know what the future holds for me. All I know is right now I am feeling very much in love with Los Angeles, and am feeling so disgustingly blessed by God. Like I said, I definitely don't deserve this. He is awesome.

I really do miss everyone, and I am very much looking forward to Fall quarter. It will be amazing. Until then, its looking like summer quarter has not and will not let me down in terms of growth, challenges, and overall awesomeness.

I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Wow, this post was like a novel.

Much love.

Why So Serious?

Ahh, at last Friday is here, and last night the biggest movie of the summer and the year, The Dark Knight, was finally released, and finally, I can take the bat out of the bag.

Yes, of course, the movie I got to see on the Warner Bros. lot on Monday morning was indeed The Dark Knight, and it was freaking awesome. Here's my mini spoiler free review.

Like I said, the movie is just so awesome. It's incredibly intense, especially like the first hour and a half. It's not especially gory, but I'd say most people would agree with me when I say that it could definitely be rated R. Kids should not see this movie. In the days since I saw it, I keep remembering parts of the movie that I had forgotten and thinking, "ohh man, yeah, that part was amazing!" The one cryptic thing I've been telling people is there is A LOT to this movie. A big part of me wants to tag another sentence onto that statement, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, so I won't.

As for the performances, Heath Ledger is definitely mind-blowing in his role as the Joker. Really, it is true, he rocked this and can you believe there's legitimate talk of him winning an Oscar? I mean, this is a comic book superhero movie...and someone might win an oscar for it for something besides Special Effects and Sound Mixing!

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman are all great, as well, and my mind continues to have no idea how they got so many huge respected actors to come together to make a Batman movie in the first place with Batman Begins. But then again, I've seen that movie, and it is crazy good, so I guess it makes sense.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is amazing, too, and she just pulls you in and whether you liked Katie Holmes in the first one or not, you will not be disappointed. In fact, seeing the character of Rachel in The Dark Knight, I really don't think Katie Holmes could've pulled off what Maggie had to pull off. Maggie Gyllenhaal, you are awesome.

Of course Aaron Eckhart is great, too, with his wonderfully believable tragedy, but I'd have to say my favorite character in the movie this time around is without a doubt Jim Gordon, as played by Gary Oldman. He does a an awesome job, and I would say he is really the heart of the movie and the glue that holds everything else together.

Basically, everything good you've heard about this movie is true. Its on such a different level than any other superhero comic movie before it. Go see it. Go see it now.


I'm going to the IMAX to see the movie again tomorrow morning at 9am. I know it's crazy, but that was the only time we could get okay seats to the IMAX theater. It will be awesome. The IMAX experience sounds amazing.

Why did I get to see Batman so early? Well, at work I've been doing a bunch of random things for the Dark Knight pretty much nonstop for the last month. In fact, they're not a big deal, but if you go to movietickets.com you can see the wallpaper and "Get movie tickets and Showtimes" header I put together for the site. Over at yahoo.com/movies you can see the wallpaper I put together for that site, too.

The coolest thing I did for the Dark Knight was for the official site. Last week on Thursday night the entire official site for the Joker (which crew made) was "Jokerized" by the joker with drops of blood and one-liners written in red scribbled all over everything. It looked pretty sweet. Well, I got to tag and jokerize all of the pictures in the photo gallery and tag all the wallpapers and movie posters in the downloads section. It was a lot of fun, and I guess that means I am partly the Joker. Cool, huh? Unfortunately the site switched back over to its clean, normal version on Monday night, but you can actually see some of the posters I jokerized over on the Dark Knight gallery at rottentomatoes.com.

Anyway, time to get dressed and head off to work. I just wanted to finally write about how awesome this stuff has been, because its been super sweet.

I predict the movie to be the biggest movie of all time. Well, maybe not, but it will definitely be in the top 5!

. . .

I am secure enough in my masculinity to admit that I do want to see Mamma Mia, as well. What can I say? I love the musical and the movie looks like a lot of fun.

Anyway, I hope everybody has an awesome weekend.

I love you all. Rock on.

Hooray for...Westwood!

So tonight Ian and I rushed home from work to try and see famous people at the Step Brothers premiere. Here is a photo tour of the premiere.

It officially started at 6:30, and we didn't get there until around ten after seven. As we got closer to the Village Theatre, we looked over towards the red carpet and spotted the one and only David Hasselhoff. Unfortunately, he moved quickly and I didn't get a good picture.

Ian and I crossed the street where we met Garrett to try and get a better view of the celebrities.


Here's the first guy I was able to snap a picture of, recently retired New York Giants player Michael Strahan.


After Strahan, Judd Apatow arrived. Judd Apatow directed the 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up and produced many big movies, including Superbad and this movie, Step Brothers.


Mega-star Tom Arnold was the next to grace the red carpet. Anyone else remember the movie The Stupids?


Here's a great shot of my roommate and future Hollywood star Garrett Baker. That may not be an exaggeration, either. I'll know for sure how famous he'll be as soon as he finishes his screenplay, if he lets me read it.


It's crazy the people that come to these premieres. I think it was around now that the son from Married With Children showed up. Then came the one and only Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady. I'd like to have done something popular in my teenage years that I could ride for 40 plus years, too.

Soon after Barry came the person I was probably most surprised and excited to see, the stunning Sonya Walger (thank you imdb) who plays Penny Widmore on LOST.


She looked great and I just wanted so badly to run over and give her a hug and say "I'm so happy for you and Desmond!" Alas, television is not real, and the man she was with was definitely not Desmond Hume. Was that not like the best part of the season finale though? I mean for real. Man I love Lost.

Here's another fun picture of Penny having a good time.


Just then, my new main man Ed Helms showed up in the middle of the street. He wasn't wearing a classy suit this time or anything, so no one recognized him. After I took this picture, he walked right down the sidewalk behind a bunch of oblivious stargazers.


Here's Romany Malco, from the 40 Year Old Virgin, Weeds, and the Love Guru.


Here's Jane Lynch, again from the 40 Year Old Virgin.


As the premiere wound down, I was disappointed that I didn't get there soon enough to see Will Farrell and John C. Reilly. But as I looked back down the red carpet, I spotted the big guys themselves. I did see John C. Reilly's face, but didn't get a good picture of it. The curly haired guy is John C. Reilly, and the guy with glasses on the left is Adam McKay, the director of the movie and co-creator of the site Funny or Die with Will Farrell. You can see him at the beginning of "The Landlord" video. Anyway, here the stars are. Awesome!


Garrett got much better pictures of Will and John C. Reilly, and one of the back of Corey Feldman. I also saw Ted Danson in the distance and saw Jon Heder aka Napoleon Dynamite walk down the street, too. It was pretty much like ten times the number of famous people I had seen until now, and it was very sweet.

All of this happened just like two blocks from my house. How crazy is that? I definitely love Westwood.

All the Stars and Boulevards

So I know its been a long time since my last post. I'm sorry. I guess I just don't have as much motivation to write this quarter. Probably if I lived alone I'd be more likely to write more often. Regardless, here's an update. Enjoy!

Coming home from work last Wednesday night Ian and I walked by the premiere of Meet Dave. We stopped, hoping to look across the street and see someone famous. I looked across the street, and in a classy suit I saw the one and only Ed Helms, aka Andy on the Office. He was talking and posing with Gabrielle Union, star of Meet Dave. It was pretty exciting, and I immediately called Andrew Jarrell to let him know I was looking at Andy. There were guys there handing out tickets to the public to come in and watch the movie. I didn't want a ticket, but it was still cool. I found out the next day that Eddie Murphy didn't even go to the premiere. I guess he had more important things to do.

Here's the pic. Sorry its so blurry, you can still definitely tell its them though. Maybe I need a better stalker lens for a camera.


Tomorrow night the premiere of Step Brothers is happening in the neighborhood. I think Ian and I might try to duck out of work a little early to try and make it back at 6:30 and maybe see Will Farrell or John C. Reilly. Step Brothers looks like it could be very funny.

Saturday a bunch of us DAAP Digital Design kids went to Disneyland for the day. There were five of us, and it was definitely a lot of fun, in fact more fun than I thought it would be. Everybody had a great time, and we hit the park hard. I just knew I had to go on Indy, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and we did them all. The park was not too crowded, we had to wait an hour or so to ride Finding Nemo, but everything else was just like a half hour wait at the most.


On Splash Mountain (probably my Favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom in Florida, but not quite as good for some reason I can't yet explain out here) we made the mistake of putting Ian and I in the front two seats of the log. With the heaviest people in the front of the boat, every single hill we went down caused a huge splash and lots of water to pour over the sides of the boat onto us. Ian was in the front row and got very wet, and behind him I definitely got the wettest I ever have on Splash Mountain.

Surprisingly, I might say that the best part of the day this time wasn't any specific ride, but it was rather when we went to meet the princesses. In fantasyland at the Princess Fantasy Faire you waited in line to meet 3 princesses. You didn't find out who the princesses were until you walked around the wall to walk over to them. I'm not usually one who takes a lot of time to meet characters at the park, but everybody else with me wanted to, so I was happy to go along.

As we were waiting, I found myself getting excited and nervous. I'm fine meeting the characters in full costume with heads covering their faces and all, but the face characters can sometimes make me nervous, because they can look right at you and talk to you and everything. I was intimidated by the thought of it, especially since they're princesses.


Anyway, we walked around the corner to find Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, the classics. Ian and I were the only two guys in the group, and we told the girls that we had to go up to the princesses first to get our picture taking with each princess, then the girls could come over for a group picture. So that's what we did. The first pictures with Cinderella kind of felt like my first School Dance pictures when you didn't know where to put your hands and how close to stand and all, but they were still really fun. All of the princesses were very nice and fun, but Snow White was by far the greatest. She made Ian and I stand like Princes, and then held our arms. It was pretty magical, and that meeting may have resulted in Snow White overtaking Belle as my favorite Disney woman. I don't know though, Belle still has the complete package.

Expect a bunch of amazing pictures to show up on Facebook very soon. I know Emily's Camera has a bunch of them. I'll post a link as soon as I can.

Here's something big and exciting. This morning, I went to the lot of a certain huge Hollywood movie studio where I was treated to a screening of a certain huge Summer movie, coming out in a little while.

It's super fun to go to the studio lots. Its awesome to have to show your driver's license to the security people and get your name crossed off a list. After we went through the metal detector, my supervisor Anette and I sat on the back of a golf cart and got a ride through the lot over to the screening room. It was classic Hollywood. A few of the soundstage doors were open, but I couldn't really see anything inside. I considered just running into some of the trailers to try and see who might be inside them.

I'm not going to go into any details about the movie right here and now, but let me just say that it was absolutely awesome. I really wish I could talk about it with everyone, but alas, I have to wait. The experience of seeing a movie like this before the general public is pretty surreal and crazy. Although I got to see a smaller movie on the lot back in the winter, this was even more amazing and is definitely an aspect of life and the business out here I could definitely get used to. Awesome.

. . .

So, I'm still working to figure out where I fit here and what my purpose is. There are, however, some things I've been feeling really good about. I've done a much better job than any quarter before at keeping in touch with people. I've made plenty of phone dates with friends and had awesome conversations. It's been amazing to see and know that the relationships that were so awesome and positive for me in Spring quarter don't need to die even though we're thousands of miles apart. Its encouraging and awesome to know that when a strong connection is made through God not even distance can get in the way of that. The love and support that so many of us have given to eachother can and will continue. It's just pretty mind-blowing and awesome.

There have been plenty of struggles and challenges this quarter and I know many more are on the way. I miss Cincinnati and everything and everyone that has made it home over the last three years, but I am getting to know some amazing people and having some amazing experiences out here.

I know the more I force myself to take chances and challenge myself, the more I'll grow. Who knows if I'll ever come back to LA? I don't, but I do know the city still has a lot to teach me. And I definitely want to keep learning.

You're all amazing and I love you.

Rock on.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

The week before the holiday absolutely flew by. There's a lot I'd like to write about, but that would make for an obscenely long post. I'll do what I can. Call me for details.

First of all, I don't know if I can post here the fact that the movie website I mostly designed at the end of winter quarter last time I was out here on co-op has finally gone live. Over the last few months, the folks at crew took my static design comps and animated them and built out the full website, which actually turned out pretty slick and cool, with some nontraditionally interesting and I think mostly successful navigation. Like I said, I don't know if I can post details about it here on the internet, so if you want the link, just ask me for it and i'll give it to you in a more private way that the man can't see and track as easily. I'm sure its not a big deal, I just don't want to risk being thrown out of town.

Wednesday Night after work I tried to head up to Universal Citywalk to catch night one of "Wicked Wednesdays" a competition that is running every wednesday night until the end of august. Basically it's like American Idol themed to Wicked. Okay, I know I'm a dork. Anyway, using the buses and subway it took about an hour to get there from work, and I only arrived with enough time to see the last two performers. Luckily they were good. It was cheesy but fun. Three of the ten performers got to move on to the final in August, where the winner gets a chance to have a walk-on role in Wicked. Wicked is produced by Universal Pictures, which is where the Universal Studios connection comes in. Anyway, I might go back some week, we'll see.

After the competition ended, I walked down the hill to the subway to come back to Westwood. It again took about an hour and 15 minutes on the subway and bus to make it back, which isn't actually all that terrible. I got home, and Tran (roommate) and Ian (fellow intern) and I went to the Bruin to see Get Smart at 10:30. It was good, but I definitely wasn't in the right mood and atmosphere to watch that movie. I needed to be in a "thursday night watching the office after hanging out and laughing with a big group of people" kind of mood. So it was entertaining, especially the Concert Hall part, but not as great as I had hoped. Maybe I'll re-watch it in a better atmosphere than a fairly empty movie theater at 10:30 at the end of a long Wednesday. Not that the company wasn't wonderful, because it certainly was.

To celebrate the fourth on Friday, a few of us decided to head down to Disneyland and camp outside the gates of the park and mooch off of the fireworks inside Disneyland. Garrett (roommate) and Amy (fellow UC Digital Co-op) went down and picked up Tegan then headed over to Downtown Disney where we had reservations at a classy italian restaurant.

Here's Tegan and Amy at the restaurant making Mouse Ears. Nobody really does that, but I just let them have fun.

After dinner we went over to the Esplanade and parked ourselves right in front of the giant letters at the California Adventure Gate facing back towards Disneyland. Here's Garrett and I excited for the fireworks. I think we was saying "Roooomies" when this picture was taken. Anyway, you can see the main street train station and the monorail beam in the background. Good times.

The fireworks were great, unfortunately they stopped right in the middle of the show. The lights on the train station came back up, and nobody really knew what had happened. We stood around for a while, hoping and waiting, but eventually we decided the fireworks weren't coming and it was time to head home. I later found out it was due to "winds at high elevations." Bummer, eh? I guess its tough to launch a huge fireworks show in the middle of the city of Anaheim. Like I said though, what we saw was great and it made for a wonderful night.

On the drive home up the freeways, it was pretty surreal driving up the highway being able to see fireworks shows going off all around us. Very cool and a nice cap to the day. We got home, and Garrett and I started to watch Batman Begins but only lasted about a half hour before being too tired to watch and having to go to bed.

Yesterday, Garrett and I went down to Long Beach to do some Kayaking in the cove. Garrett and I did a lot of hanging out this weekend, because we were pretty much the only two guys at our apartment all weekend. Phil was there too, but he's super busy and stuff.

Anyway, here's Long Beach. It was pretty cool. It was really windy, so there were a lot of people kite-surfing so that was cool. It was also interesting, there was a huge port up to the north of the beach, and out to the south was a giant oil rig. Here's a picture of the beach with an American flag, fitting for the weekend.

Kayaking was a lot of fun, and so were the Moon Jellies. Kayaking into the cove was pretty easy, with the wind at our backs, but kayaking back was much harder, coming back into the wind. I'm still feeling the burn a little today.

If you want to see more sweet pictures from summer so far, including Disneyland and Long Beach, check out this album on facebook. Also try and check out Garrett's pictures. He took some good ones.

So basically, I'm seeing so far that I'm definitely going to be making some crazy awesome friendships this time out. It was really cool to hang out with Garrett this weekend. He and I have a lot in common and had a lot of fun. Really, all of my roommates are very cool, and I'm just still feeling very blessed by my living situation. I don't have very much room for my stuff, but its a small price to pay.

I'm definitely being challenged to be taking advantage of my time here as much as possible. I know that I'm not supposed to burn myself out on anything, so I'm going to be working to balance all the things I need and want to be doing out here, whether its hanging out with people, volunteering, staying in touch with people, relaxing, having God time, whatever. I want to find that balance.

It's kind of weird, we passed a lot of huge yachts in the cove kayaking and Garrett and I got to talking a bit about dreams. Thinking about my dreams for my life, they are definitely not where they were even just a few years ago, when my greatest dreams were probably to work at Disney and live in New York and other stuff like that. Now, those are still things I might want to do and have interest in, but I think my deep dreams definitely now are moving away from physical things like that. I'd say now my greatest dream is simply to live life and love people. I want to take advantage of everything each day has to offer, and really connect with and love people in the process. I want the quality of my life and my relationships to be my focus.

That's what I want this summer (and my life) to be all about.

Wow, the post got a little deep, eh?

Well, I've talked the talk, now it's time to walk the walk...and maybe write shorter blog posts.

Time to make lunch then head off to mosaic for the evening.

I love you and miss you all.

Rock on.