Orcas Island & Oly Penninsula Trip

I took a trip up to Orcas Island, which is the largest of the San Juan Islands to enjoy our early Autumn weather and it was the perfect time to travel. The Summer crowds were long gone and most of the beaches were deserted and I was able to enjoy the natural beauty in peace.
The rippling water was so incredibly relaxing and hypnotic and time seemed to stand still as I sat on the beach and starred at the seaAfter spending two perfectly dry and sunny days on Orcas, I awoke to my first overcast morn and took a final drive around the island before taking the ferry back to Anacortes. Some may find the below pic to be dreary and sad but I thought it was incredibly beautiful in its starkness and loved exploring this foggy land.I drove through Deception Pass into Whidbey Island and found yet another almost deserted beach to chill on in the late afternoon sun.
The next day I took another ferry ride which dropped me onto the Olympic Peninsula and I drove west on Hwy 101 to Neah Bay. I didn't realize the Makah Reservation was a dry area and I found myself in a very scary fisherman's motel at night with no wi-fi, cable tv, books or any alcohol.

Oh Dearest Lord in Heaven, please help me during this very dark time!

On the last day of my trip, I awoke at the ass-crack of dawn and took a quick drive to Flattery Point which is most northwestern point in the lower U.S. I took the mile long hike along Flattery Trail to look-out area and relaxed on the wooden observation deck and enjoyed the view.

Have a Hoot-arific day

One of the nice things about being unemployed is that you can catch up with friends over lunch. My friend Jody and I decided to be kooky and we met up at Hooters on Lake Union. This was my first trip ever to the land of orange shorty-shorts and nylons and I was pretty damn curious to experience this bit of "culture" first hand.

The atmosphere wasn't quite as surreal as I was hoping it would be and it turned out to be your typical sports bar with burgers, fries, wings and flat screen tv's everywhere. The best part of the experience was the view of course. Hey wait a minute, I meant the lovely view of the lake but the Hooters gals were babelicious-in that overly made-up kind of way.

The mid-day crowd was pretty Dude-heavy as one would expect. You had your table of blue collar construction workers next to your table of IT geeks. The table next to us seemed to be retirees that were visiting from out of town. My guess is they were from Spokane or some other part of Eastern WA. These gents each bought a calendar of the Hooter gals and I'm sure that kept them occupied for the long drive back home.

The gals were all very nice and perky and cute but they refused to give me a lap dance when they brought my food. Wait, this isn't that kind of place! What if I throw in an extra $5?
I kid, I kid.

Gmoney likes G. Force

My hairstylist just turned me on to G. Force extreme hold gel $13.95 from Osis that is made by some German company called Schwarzkopf Professional That has to be the most boring name ever for a hair product company.

The Germans prove once again that they are the beacons for modern design and slick marketing. I don't even really care if this stuff is any good because I'm such a whore for good packaging. I'm picturing the product developers all with flat tops and running around their pristine lab in white coats and wearing little, round specs.

The best part is that the product is colored Red. Enough with the wackiness, you crazy Germans. I've never put red shit in my hair before but I guess this takes me one step closer to being a Metro.

TV on the Radio: Wolf like me

Not much is happening in blogger-land but my contract at that mighty software company is ending this week and I'll be briefly back in the land of unemployment until I find a new gig. I'm not exactly sad to be leaving because this hasn't been the most positive work experience and I need some time to decompress from it.

I'm thinking of taking some quick trips around the NW and I'm planning a drive to Walla Walla wine country and I've always wanted to take a float plane up to Victoria BC.

In the meantime, please turn up your speakers and enjoy this EXPLOSIVE-rocker from Brooklyn's TV On The Radio on David Letterman.

Production Stills

Here are some production stills from the short film, Still Life that I'm currently editing. I promise to shut-up about the project until it's finished. Photos by Carl Nelson

Co-Producer/Lead Actor Will Chase and Executive Producer/Writer Chris Baily
I go up for the high angle, hand held shot.
Lead Actress Erin gets into make-up
My DP (Director of Photography) James Yi and I (the director) discuss a shot.

Sunday

This is exactly how I've felt on many a Sunday while nursing a hangover from a night spent drinking with friends.

This sketch is one of the props from my short film that I'm currently editing. It's been a slow process so far because I'm learning Final Cut Pro as I go but it's been fun. If all goes well, it'll be completely finished in a couple of months.

Pork Fest

Don't you just love the name Pork Fest? I could repeat it one hundred times in a row and it just never gets old for me.

Yesterday my buddy Andy G and his three roommates and I went over to his landlord/neighbor's annual BBQ at his home in Sunset Hill. It's become quite the neighborhood event over the last several years and the host buys an entire pig and slow roasts it overnight to delicious perfection. There was a ton of food and booze and at least 100 people were chowing down on ribs and pulled pork all afternoon in the huge backyard. It's so popular that they actually printed up Pork Fest tye-dyed t-shirts (ex- hippies). I somehow managed to avoid lapsing into a swine induced coma after the pig out.

Out of curiosity, I Googled 'Pork Fest' and it returned a whopping 668,000 references and that goes to show how much people love a good hunk of sizzling pork drenched in BBQ sauce. With all this porking going on, I was a bit surprised to not find a single, weird porn site amgonst the thousands of hits. Talk about a disappointment!