JiuJitsu Milestone

dear friends,
one month from now i will be competing in my first brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament. it's the american national championships and it's being held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, about 45 minutes from the valley. it would really mean a lot to me if all my friends came out to support me. it would definitely help with my nerves and would also just make the entire event more fun for me. i'll keep everyone updated as fight day draws closer, but i'm about to explode with excitement and i felt like i couldn't wait to post this. thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to come and support me. this is a big milestone for me and i'd like to share it with all of you.

thanks.

...Why Not Wine Coolers?

Every now and then I go on little binges of spoken word videos on youtube. Lately, I've been way into Steve Connell. He writes some awesome verses and delivers them with tons of passion. I don't want to talk to much about him and confuse people, because most of what I say never makes sense anyway. So just watch these videos of some of stuff. They're a little dated, but still great poems.






Enjoy.


-Dean

Sleeping Beauty

I haven't been updating at all lately, because I'm a lazy prick. But I thought I'd make a new post just to share this amazing picture of Bella. She's so spoiled, and this picture shows her overall Princess attitude.

GNAR x Mad World

It's been a while since I've really hung out with my good friend and fellow photographer Aysha Banos. So, yesterday we decided to get together at her house and do a little shooting. She's got a pretty cool little set-up at her place. Backdrops, a few hotlights and a nice studio flash. She also has an umbrella I would've liked to use, but it was M.I.A. We spent a few minutes setting everything up, and messing around with lighting angles before we got down to business. Aysha is an accomplished photographer and does this kind of stuff all the time, but it was my first time doing a "fashion" shoot. Nothing too fancy, just Aysha in front of the hotlights posing away. I guess when you're shooting models all the time you sort of pick up on the tricks of the trade. She was pretty natural and worked well with my awkward shooting and direction. I pretty much let her do what she wanted with the shoot and I'm happy with most of my shots. A few of my favorites ended up being out of focus, so I'll spend a few minutes today adjusting my viewfinder to the right setting so I won't have to deal with it next time. I pretty much just winged the whole shoot. Adjusting the lighting and white balance as I went. Got a few good shots, although a few of my favorites aren't in here because of the focusing issue.









Check out the rest on my flickr, and be sure to check out Aysha's work. There'll be more posts about the last week or so coming up at the Young Hearts site so be sure to check that out as well. Thanks for reading.

-Dean

Horiyoshi III

Last night was the Horiyoshi III exhibit at the Canvas LA gallery. It was awesome. Pham picked me up around 630 and we sat in traffic for a while on the way to Hollywood. Got to the gallery a little early, and decided to get some pizza across the street. I have no idea what the pizza place was called. It was kind of a hole in the wall, with a B rating from the health services. But, it was the best pizza I've ever eaten. Definitely going back there soon. After that we walked back to the gallery, and discovered we had missed the main part of hte exhibit. I guess Horiyoshi came out and said a few words(in Japanese, of course) and all 8 body suits were on display. We hopped in line anyway and got in within a few minutes. The place was jam packed. First we looked at the new Horiyoshi book, and some of his other art books. Then, checked out his new clothing line. The shirts were awesome but SO expensive. $100 per T-shirt and this awesome cardigan that was $400! Fuckin' ridiculous. Pham got some beer and we walked around a bit. There was one dude getting tattood on the side of the gallery. Watched that for a few minutes. He got some Shichi lions on his calves. Pretty jealous. Most of the pictures I shot in the beginning were on Pham's camera, so hopefully he'll put those up soon and I'll post a link. After watching the tattoo session for a few minutes I decided to walk around some more and look at all the Horiyoshi drawings and paintings that were hanging all over the gallery. Some really awesome work. His attention to detail is mind-blowing, to say the least. Here's a few of the shots I got. Sorry, I suck at centering square subjects.

wish i could read script

brutal

bag-head

Luckily, a few of the body-suit models were still walking around and hanging out in the gallery so I got a chance to shoot a few of them. I felt kinda bad for them, it was a little chilly in the gallery and they had to walk around in thongs and sandals all night. They seemed alright with it though. They were also nice enough to stay posed long enough for me to get the shots I wanted, which was pretty cool. A few of them also let Pham and I take pictures with them. I talked to one of them for a minute. Tried to flex what little Japanese I know. He told me his name was Sato and I thanked him for taking the picture. He's seemed pretty stoked that some weird American knew a little Japanese. Here are the shots I got of the models:

this dude was a total badass

awesome Fudo-myoo piece

Sato-san on the left

We had to split a little early. I had to get to moorpark quickly to play a show with Slam Dunk at some crazy ass ranch/mansion thing. They had parrots, 'nuff said. I'd also like to take this opportunity to announce that I'm now working with Pham as a part of the Young Hearts Collective. We'll be doing various work with photo, film, and paint. I'll be holding up the photo end while Pham does the creative shit. Look out for some of that stuff in the future. Thanks for reading.


-Dean

Seattle: Days 2 & 3

So today is our third day in Seattle, and I'm still falling more and more in love with this city. Yesterday was a pretty relaxing and fun day. Got up around 8:30 and got some breakfast here at the hotel, then got ready to head over to the UW campus for the tour. The tour was awesome. Got to see all the amazing buildings around and campus and checked out one of the dorm buildings, which is fucking awesome. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom this week and it looks amazing. Reeeeeally want to move up here a.s.a.p. After the tour we headed over to Chipotle for some lunch, nothing new, then I had to head back to the campus for some meetings with school advisers and all that. After all the school stuff was done I had some time to sit around and relax at the hotel. One of my old neighbors and close family-friends from back home, Jessica Thompson, goes to the UW now so we met up with her and had some great Indian food. It was great to see Jess, because it's been about 3 years since the last time I saw her. On Sunday, we're meeting up with the rest of her family and that should be great. The Thompsons were like my second family when I was growing up. After dinner, Kat and I decided to head over to a local tattoo shop and see if they had any time to tattoo us. We made an appointment for today, and then decided to go on a little walk around the area. We walked down to the water and caught a great view of the Seattle skyline. Here's a couple pictures from day 2...

Kat in the Harry Potter library

world's largest book (5 ft x 7 ft)

Today was probably the best day so far. We didn't really have anything planned, except the tattoo appointment at 2 p.m. We slept in a little bit, and then just hung out around the hotel room for a couple hours. We walked to Rite-Aid so I could get some sudafed, and so Kat could get a couple rolls of film for a pinhole camera she bought and assembled last night. On the way back, Shiloah, the tattoo artist, called me and asked about the tattoos. Since we were just across the street from the shop we walked in and talked about our ideas and got everything sorted out. After that Kat and I went to this little coffee shop called Cafe On the Ave. I got some hot chocolate that was delicious (and artsy as hell) and a chocolate croissant.


After we had our drinks and pastries we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while longer, and then walked back to the tattoo shop. We were both slightly nervous about how the drawings would look, but when we got there they were exactly what we had in mind. The two of us got matching emeralds (for the Emerald City) and some lettering. Mine said NxNW (north by northwest) and Kat's said "super delicious" in honor of our Super Delicious Seattle Tour '09. We both got them on our ankles. Shiloah was awesome, and gave Kat all types of advice on getting started in the tattoo business and all that. She's a great artist and I could tell Kat really respected what she had to say.

the finished product

After getting tattooed we came back to the hotel, again. I immediately passed out and took good nap. When i woke up we cleaned our tattoos and then went back to Cafe On the Ave for some dinner. Awesome alfredo penne pasta. Then we got all our camera gear together and walked over to Gas Works Park. The place I've been dying to check out since we got to Seattle. It's this old gasworks-powerplant type of thing that they converted into a public park. Lots of grass and hills, and a PERFECT view of the Seattle skyline. We got there right at sunset and it was gorgeous. We spent a while there taking pictures. I could've sat there and stared at the view for hours. It was incredible. A lot of my pictures came out blurry but I managed to get a few great shots and I'm really happy with them. Some of my favorite shots that I've ever taken. Here's the good ones.

best picture i've ever taken

Kat and I lookin' hard

Mom and I

After we finished up at the Gasworks, we made the walk back to the hotel room. I hopped straight on the computer when we got here and uploaded all my pictures. I was a little disappointed at first, because so many pictures came out blurry. But, once I saw the better ones I was pretty stoked. I'm going to get some sleep now. Check out the rest of my shots from here in Seattle on my flickr. Thanks for reading.

-Dean

Seattle: Day 1

Yesterday was the first day here in Seattle. Pretty long day. Picked Kat up the night before and we grabbed our last bit of In 'n' Out before we left for Washington. Had a couple grilled che' with grilled onions; BOMB. We were both pretty tired, and we had to get up early the next morning, so we just went back to my house after that. Finished getting everything together for the trip, then got ready to sleep.

Woke up at 5:30 the next morning, and headed to the airport. Security line was long as hell, but it actually moved pretty quickly. The plane ride wasn't bad. Kat had a few jittery moments, which was pretty entertaining for me. The flight attendant was pretty hot, and sat next to us for most of the trip. Had good conversations with her about Japan, Hello Kitty, and tattoos. The view from the plane was nice. Mostly just smooth white clouds, with random snowy mountains sticking out here and there. Would've taken pictures but Kat had the window seat and we were right on the wing. Kinda lame. Landed at SeaTac around12ish and stepped onto the ground from the plane. Immediately, you could tell how crisp and fresh the air is. Felt so nice to breath air that isn't filled with smog and other garbage.

We came straight to the hotel, from the airport, but it was too early to check in. So, we went downstairs and ate some Thai food, then took a little walk around UW but my camera battery died within ten minutes. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. But i managed to get a couple pictures before it died. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and it's amazing. The architecture on campus is awesome too. All the buildings are red-brick gothic style. It's awesome. I fell in love the second i walked on campus.

One of the eighteen libraries on campus

After walking around the school for a few minutes, we headed back to the hotel and checked in. Settled all our stuff in the room, and then hopped on a bus into Downtown Seattle. We walked around there and took pictures for hours. This city is amazing. So many awesome buildings and parts of town. We walked down to the waterfront, and found Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Pretty siqq. Then we headed to Pike's Market, but there wasn't much action there because it was late in the day and all the vendors were closing up. Got to see the O.G. Starbuck's though. Nothin' special. After that we hopped back on the bus and came back to the University District. Got some awesome calzone, shared pictures with Kat and my mom, then knocked the fuck out.

favorite shot of the day

Totem




Flower's at Pike's Market

Downtown highrise

Some weird sculptures Downtown

Lusty Lady!

Right now, I'm posting from my mom's laptop, and it isn't letting me edit the size of the pictures in the post. So frustrating. It took me an entire day of on-and-off writing to get this far on this long ass blog, and now it won't let me edit it the way I want to. This computer is going out the window in a minute. I'm also a day behind on my posts, so I'll post days 2 & 3 in one post, tomorrow. Again, I couldn't change the size of the pictures, so if some of them get cut off at the edges just click on them and it'll bring up the full shot. Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep now, my allergies are killing me. You can check out the rest of my shots on my flickr, and keep checking back here over the next few days for the rest of my trip. Thanks for reading.

-Dean