Hustler of Culture

Missed My Flight BBQ v. 4.0

May 13, 2006 - 6:58 p.m. PST - Santa Monica, CA

We had a blast hanging with friends at our fourth annual post E3 "Missed My Flight BBQ". Thanks to all for showing up and making it so best!

X Marks the Spot.

March 2, 2006 - 1:46 p.m. PST - Los Angeles, CA

Yesterday, my friend and uber designer, Jeff Staple wrote up a nice little blurb about Xzibit on his blog, To Darrin Hudson. I told Jeff I'd show the entry to X today. And I did. He says, "Thanks for the cool post." So there you go.

blast from the past.

shake booty in music videos. check. check. check. check. and check. my master list of things to do in life is speckled with adventurous and abnormal activities. i like to try things at least once, but likely two or three times before i decide if i want to go on with the show (first impressions are bogus). before back up dancers married pop stars (cris judd and kevin federline) and became hot stars in hit sitcoms (courteney cox), being a music video extra/back up dancer was boring and a relatively easy way to make money. let's not talk about rock stars, glitter, wigs and the mundane life of a music video extra. let's talk about how the internet is a wonderful thing and how sometimes, it brings old friends back into the fold.

brian recently found me online. a long time ago, he used to shake his butt for money too. we spent countless hours killing time together for about half a year. we always had a raucous time together but were pretty much just friends on set. he's still living in los angeles. a decade later, he's also still rolling film, but is now older, happier and much funnier. if there ever was a life that had funny twists and turns, it was his. witty. optomistic. sarcastic. wise in a weird way. i always enjoyed chatter with him.

brian told me about all the things he's been up to in the last 10 years. one after another, he spewed stories that had me rolling my eyes while simultaneously laughing my ass off. i told him he had to blog about it. for someone who lives in the undisputed entertainment capitol of the world and who has worked in entertainment, he is sometimes so very clueless about popular culture. it gets him into trouble. i can't wait to catch up with brian in real life sometime soon. for now, i'll stick to reading his blog, life o'brian. monty python would be proud. giggle away!

team hp san francisco tour.

collage courtesy of dan wolfe

our bay area hols are over. we were in town for the beautiful losers opening at the yerba buena. i noticed at the opening and after party that i knew as many out-of-towners as locals. no surprise. it made sense. those traveling were involved with the show one way or another. others turned up for a free peak of street life. several showed to say they were there but complained about it (too many hipsters). note: if you’re really there to see the art, go on a tuesday afternoon, don’t turn up for the opening! it was so best hanging out with everybody. i was interviewed for a documentary on the show. friends made interesting observations -- like how the art was showcased in a funky order (i.e. ed templeton's photos placed next to larry clark’s photos would have been logical). nevertheless, beautiful losers is a treat for san francisco. everybody go check it out. support the arts. support our friends!

i’m happy that the masses are getting exposed to street culture/life. there is a lot of creativity happening from the ground up. it should be shared and enjoyed. it's great that everyone is beginning to recognize that a generation of skateboarders and street hustlers can contribute so much to the arts. harmony, spike and stacy in films. adam, shepard, and eric in magazine publishing. writers, musicians and artists there are too many of you to individually name.

me anthropology.

i made a few new friends in san francisco, but everyone new already knows everyone old. small world stories are all my stories these days and i need something fresh. comrades in music, tech, film, videogames, publishing, art and other creative fields have completely converged. sure, there are plenty of new friends to make but well, i'd like to meet an astronaut -- someone doing something i am insanely curious about and have no connection to. hello, if you are an astronaut, i would like to be your pen pal. the closest i can get to aliens these days is being married to a permanent resident alien and having plenty of extraordinary alien friends. i'm looking for a few anorexic, green-skinned, bug-eyed alien friends too.

i'm meeting people i could've or would've met two to three different ways. for example, jonathan, cofounder of resfest. 1) i met jonathan through tokion in new york city in 2001. 2) good pals pedro, philip and wayne, san francisco-based web gurus have known him awhile longer (when resfest was a basement operation). 3) the res media group is under the palm pictures umbrella. my uncle mike was head of music at palm pictures for a few years. his kids play with jonathan’s kids in santa monica, california. jonathan is directly connected three different ways. he has no choice but to be in my life.

heidi feels our six degrees of separation are now down to one degree. wayne thought, well, maybe two or three. ben's friend, mike, repeated what edward and sharon have always told us -- that there are 500 people in the world who are connected to everybody else in the world. mike and essanee must read the same books. separately, mike is also an old pal of heidi's. she was pleased to see him turn up at one of our round ups. a few nights ago, alan pulled me over and asked me how i knew this guy, pointing at scott. i said i'd met him through jee but that he was also an old friend of our new york-based artist friend, young (who now lives in asia and is surprise, surprise, collaborating with my friend joanne in hong kong). turns out alan knew scott too, having worked together in the past. dan, jee's new beau runs in circles that parallel my own. at the bar a few days ago, he was happy to see some of his old friends rendezvous with our group (mutual friends, bod and yogi turned up with janet). is it possible to tap out this friends circle? have we already?

how relationships form and function have been a long term passion of mine. i documented the wayne chain and refer to it often. maybe someday, i'll study anthropology. in the meantime i'd rather live it then research it.

project sun ball.

ben and i are working on a not so secret gig we've named, project sun ball. the more we talk about it, the more real we can make believe it to be. we are spec'ing a mass exodus to barcelona where we will live and create freely. ben was meant to go not too long ago but found himself a job that requires him to acknowledge san francisco as home base. for someone who loosely calls new york, vancouver, and los angeles home, staying put in one city is a small tragedy.

ben's clever. i asked him if he could build a couple of sun balls and aim it at barcelona (he said possibly with anil’s help). the sun balls’ energy would produce a powerful magnet that would attract creatives forcing them to migrate to spain and start a new colony. we don't know spain all that well. it seems like an inspirational place to live. in the last 48 hours, we’ve been able to recruit a handful of followers/dreamers. so are you coming to barcelona or what?

getting jiggy with the digi folk.

the last 24 hours has been non stop gaming action. old and new. evan's in town. being the civilized folks that we are, we invited him over for dinner last night. when i asked what he could not eat he informed me of his sensitive stomach. after confirming this with david, our friend in common, i decided on an asian inspired grilled catfish, steamed artichokes with a french butter vinaigrette dip, garlic green peas, and some battered zucchini sticks topped with balsamic vinegar. evan tried to use chopsticks to eat his artichoke leaves. funny white boy. fingers man. it's all about grabbing and gnawing. a delish junior’s cheesecake finished us off.

after dinner we dropped by the tribeca grand hotel for new york - tokyo's gamers night groove. the usual suspects turned up: jonathan, eric, marz, danny, sona, jamal, eric k, sam, and omar. evan reintroduced me to raina. i met her about six months ago for eric's book launch when smartgirls jane and robin were last in town. after checking out the old school games and filling up on redbull i was able to strong-arm a handful of people over for an impromptu midnight game of poker.

circle of friends. so best!

sunday dim sum brunch

i've just returned from one of the best trips to the bay area ever. aside from the shite weather following us west (word on the street was that san francisco just had the loveliest three weeks ever and that new york temps hit 70 degrees), i couldn't have asked for a better five days spent outside of the big apple.

gdc brought us to town. it was a great conference for us; finally getting a chance to demo our technology and to get some serious criticism about our game concepts. we rounded up with some of the most innovative people in our industry. our friends are more than kind and generous with their time and opinions. it was nice to see brian again. we ran into franck and buck. silvio worked with buck back in 1996 on pitfall 3d. i can't believe eight years have already passed. all our friends have slowly moved up the ranks. some even staying with the same company for longer than most of us have decided to live in any one city. this generation of game developers came from a variety of non-traditional gaming industries including math labs, consulting firms, comic books, the military, even, law school! the new crop of talent is graduating with bona fide game degrees! it's equally awesome and scary to watch the industry grow.

jump bay area!

souris, fennis, joel, silvionew san francisco jump pictures here

put your money where your mouth is.

who are you going to vote for president? better yet find out who your neighbors are voting for. what kind of people live in your building? neighborhood? in new york city, conservatives live in the upper east side. liberals, downtown. no surprise, sure. but shit, this is absolutely amazing! eyebeam, the nonprofit new media arts organization has delivered us fundrace, an incredible tool that allows you plug in a name or address to search who has made presidential campaign contributions to whom. their mission statement: Eyebeam engages cultural dialogue at the intersection of the arts and sciences. mission accomplished.

i spent the last couple of hours checking out who my colorful neighbors have financially supported. what i found is that i have some pretty cool neighbors.

Wolf Kahn - Artist / Self employed
Howard Dean $2,000
217 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

Albert Zuckerman - Literary Agent / Writer's House, LLC
Howard Dean $2,000
234 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

Brian Sawyer - Architect / Self employed
Howard Dean $250
200 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

Chantal Bacon - Partner / Betsey Johnson
Howard Dean $1,500
222 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

Leora Barish - Writer / Self employed
Howard Dean $500
240 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

William Clark - Literary Agent / Self employed
Howard Dean $250
355 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

William Long - Costume Designer / Self employed
Howard Dean $1,100
349 W XXXX St New York, NY 10011

Edwin Schlossberg (aka Mr. Caroline Kennedy) - Designer / Edwin Schlossberg Inc
Howard Dean $2,000
641 XXXX Ave New York, NY 10011

if you've got more time to kill, look up who celebrities donated too. very interesting. very predictable.

just another new york weekend.

we busted out some cab fare this past weekend. dinners, art events and one very special birthday to celebrate was on the weekend agenda -- lots to do, little time to do it all.

friday was spent mostly kissing danny's ass and making him feel like the king because it was his special day. don't get me wrong, kissing ass in this case is especially fun! the evening started by ordering too much tapas and white marguerites. pants were unbuttoned and the troops were ordered to march on to some busy bar. all the usual suspects showed up to pay birthday respects.

we have friends in common.

i've been scheduling conference calls for the last couple of weeks. a member of our board of advisors gave us a contact to a higher up at a well known executive search firm. writing emails, leaving voicemails, i was booking my calendar as usual.

i got a call friday asking for my first and middle name. huh, weird. the games industry knows me by my middle name. so i said, yeah this is she. rosamund, assistant to mr. higher up proceeded to book a conference call appointment for me this week. as we were about to hang up, she said, "wait. i wanted to tell you, i believe we have friends in common." oh yeah? i thought. and she went on to drop the bomb that she was engaged to my friend, greg in la! we immediately started giggling and chatting like old school mates. i hadn't spoken to greg in a little while but it was nice to hear such amazing news!

rosamund explained how she connected the dots. as she was sorting through her boss's messages, she came across mine and said my name outloud. another mutual friend, ruben, who just happened to be in her office was present and heard my name. he told her, "there's only one person with that name and i know her!" rosamund informed greg of our little star alignment and he explained to her that we were the games company he was talking about maybe four months ago (greg, by the way, pitched us some killer game ideas...ideas that cannot come to fruition just yet). another connection made. cross country. using business as a front. if work could be this fun always!

glad you were born.

we have too many friends and we don't have enough calendar days. dennis said it best last year when we tried to outlook a rendezvous. he exclaimed, "ugh! you have too many friends," as i struck down suggested dates due to birthday obligations. i believe birthdays are the one day you should show up at your friend's event barring tragedy and illness. looking at march, we have eight birthdays this month. not bad. for april...christ...we have 15 birthdays. no lying. i dare not look at may. i'm happy to know all these wonderful people. in order of event, happy birthday to danny, claire, robin, david, mike, jai, siwy, and elena. big ups and big love.

another bump in cyberspace.

i got an awesome surprise email today. you know how you dig through everything hoping for something that reads like a hand written letter? i got one of those from crankyuser. it so happened that there was some convergence in his life and he had to share. i'm happy he did. it's one more example that this world i am so lucky to be a part of is so damn tiny and magnificent!

i noticed that justin had posted an entry on game design questions on gga. i smiled because i had recognized his subject, crankyuser. crankyuser has left comments on my very own blog and i of course have checked out his site. i didn't know much more about crankyuser than what was offered online (lives in seattle, works in games). i knew he left smart commentary on other people's blogs.

but today, we were brought together by flesh and blood. it appears, i had attended his cousin, jeff's birthday party this past weekend. my entry was too close to home and cranky had to comment. i have known jeff for nearly five years now (back at the birth of tokion in the u.s.). but i didn't meet him until we relocated to nyc a few years back.

the chain: crankyuser was introduced to my blog from jane's blog. working in the games industry and being an astute webhead, he was well aware of gga and justin's site. justin linked to him recently. i blogged about his cousin, jeff. et voila, we are now friends and hoping to meet up at gdc. you know the drill.

going places.

i've visited the states in red. create your own map of the usa. i've visited the countries in red. create your own map of europe.

party hearty.

last night i went out again. yes, again. like, this is the most i've gone out in forever. it's fashion week and we're getting a shitload of invites for parties promising free booze, hard to see selectors and beautiful people. because we love to hate, we go. waiting in line for adidas y-3 by yohji yamamoto and v magazine's hosted dance party, i turned to silvio and said, "i can't wait until we're in our 40s and don't give a shit about this stuff." and immediately after i said it out loud, i already knew that i didn't give a shit. silvio says because we don’t care, we keep getting invited. i think he’s right.

i've had the fortune of being on guest lists since college (early 90s). back in 96 after moving to la, i even wrote an essay on how to sneak into parties and eventually legitimately get on lists. it was called, i'm on the list. i'll have to dig it up and post it here sometime. the rules of the game have not changed in a decade. it's simply, talk to everyone and be sincere. don’t expect anything and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. it’s when you get all huffy that you turn people off. never say, “don’t you know who i am?” because the reason you’re getting rejected is because the door girl has no idea who you are. fuck them for being assholes and fuck you for being such an ass.

i know you but we haven't met yet.

so it is. the larger i make my world, the smaller it becomes. the more people i know, the less unique my circle of friends because they all somehow connect to someone else in another circle. my creative crock pot is about to boil over.

in recent times, i’ve signed up for a variety of virtual communities: friendster, tribe, and orkut. i’m enticed by the possibility of making new friends, business contacts and finding activity partners. but i’m quickly finding instead a steady stream of disappointment because i can't keep up with the halls or dashes. i can't muster the energy to cleverly represent myself and worst, my less tech savvy friends don’t want to play with me online anymore making me look like a web washout. as is, i haven’t enough time for the amazing people that already exist in my life so why do i torture myself with more? i want to play with everybody but can’t even find the time for menial chores.

déjà vu. you again?

it's always super cool when old friends re-enter my life out of the blue. a stickler for keeping in touch with everybody, sometimes, people slip through the cracks and years will pass since i last heard from them. if by chance we meet again, if we’re meant to stay in touch, we don’t experience much awkwardness but just sort of pick up from last we left off (even if hair color, size and status has changed). i mean really, if i can easily start conversations with strangers than it shouldn’t be too much trouble to continue a conversation with an old friend. i have friends i haven't seen in years, but one annual phone call is enough to keep the friendship going. i don't have to hear from you often. just poke from time to time, we're all busy, i understand. sure time passes and people grow in different directions but there’s always more to discuss than the weather and how we’ve grown.

living in new york it’s easy to run into friends on the streets. for starters, you’re forced to travel by foot a lot more here than in most other parts of the country. often, i'll run into a friend on any given day. no biggie. however, in sunny santa monica, i’d rarely, if ever would run into a friend on the streets…walking (venice is an exception). in fact, i wouldn’t even run into them on the streets driving! common ground puts you on common ground. if you were already like-minded, you’d probably end up in the same areas of whatever city you were visiting or inhabiting.

no reservation.

in the last 48 hours i washed four loads of laundry, made brunch consisting of a western omelette, bacon, and rosemary potatos, cooked and consumed a roasted turkey with gratin dauphinois dinner, watched the royal tenenbuams, spirited away, the super bowl half time, and the last of the mohicans, played poker, mario kart: double dash!!, and mario party 5, visited game time nation for gamers night groove, and hung out at home a lot, a lot, a lot.

oh, and all in the company of justin, our surprise house guest for the weekend. justin traded laughs for accomodations...not a bad deal!

clever talk for self gain.

last night i cashed in on my third recent invite to attend a party at chelsea's new cavernous, warholesque party space, the marquee. slow from a little cold, i got myself together to put in a little face time at blag magazine’s us launch party.

entering the marquee for the first time i was kind of surprised at how magnificently decadent it was. with a non-descript exterior it’s easy to miss. this divine new discotheque, intentionally tucked away in deep west chelsea is most definitely just another playground for the insiders. the lucky few who make it through the polite but burly doormen are greeted by a long sexy bar. and a little booty shaking is encouraged by a large floor with comfortable seating while an old school chandelier sets the mood from above.

initially scanning the room for the usual suspects, i saw no one i recognized. suits represented in abundance which i found a bit odd considering this was a premiere launch party for the uk’s coolest hip hop magazine. half an hour later, the fine dj was working the crowd, the liquor sponsor’s vodka, ciroc was pouring freely and the beautiful people were piling in from the cold. the place was packing up and i knew i couldn’t hold a conversation for much longer. i was beginning to talk like stevie from malcolm in the middle and knew i had to make a quick exit. nearing my escape, i did run into a handful of friends. air kisses and updates were exchanged as i blamed my illness for having to depart such a fine party.

not so surprisingly, i was also able to meet someone i had just been exchanging emails with just a few hours earlier. that’s new york for you…an inbred creative mélange. there’s no escaping anyone. no doubt, i’ll see you next week and hopefully i'll be back to my usual chatty punk ass self.