Uncategorized

I took these pictures of The Stitches, and The Briefs performing at Long Beach in 2010. Great bands.

Some typography I snapped while in Spain.

As a child, I would spend a large part of my free time inside liquor stores. I would play an arcade game called “Bubble Bubble” or “Street Fighter 2″. Aside from this, I would notice what were on the shelves or racks. Other than the many expired canned foods, there were a lot of unusual items. There would be a big jar of pickled pig feet on the shelf. Next to this a stack of white folded t-shirts for sale.

I appreciate random and inconsistent environments. In a way, it’s helped me developed a lens that acknowledges what’s interesting and what’s boring or predictable. It’s helped me as an adult to channel that in creative ways. So I took the time to illustrate some of the items that stood out and made a quick online sketchbook of what I remember as a child. Check it out here.

Some shots from my 2005 trip to Tokyo.

Growing up I would walk through an alley near my home now and then. My parents would warn me not to for safety reasons, but I did regardless. There were these individuals who seem to hang out randomly out in the alley and mind their own business. Most neighbors would think of them as questionable and would suggest to avoid them if possible. But I was young and naive and somehow ended up getting to know these people. Regardless of what their situation was and why they were always in the alley. All of them had backgrounds and stories to tell. It was something I learned as a kid that not matter how intimidating or impoverished someone may look. They all have stories to tell. So I drew them for memory sake.

I shoot what grabs my attention.

Writing blog post titles in the first person is dumb. The title is an homage to the Ramones song, “Sheena is a punk rocker”. I go to punk shows as much as I can so I’ll be posting images of some bands. Here are some shots from 2005.

Duane Peters

Pat Smear

Here I am in the front cover of the New York Times paper. Well not really, it was the front cover the entertainment section. Still pretty cool. I worked with Harvey Levine and his team in launching TMZ.com. It was a cool experience working there around 2006 and met some cool people along the way. Check out the article here.

I was a senior in college and applied to a bunch of internships. One of them was at Sony, and the other was at a non-network Spanish television station. I got lucky and got offered the internships at both places. I declined the Sony internship simply because at the other place I was given assurances that it will be more of a hands-on experience. And it was true. Right away, the news team got me teamed up with camera guys. They were great mentors and got me up and running in no time. They gave me excellent advice that I still use today. The video is a short reel of my on-location material.

I was fortunate to have access to Hollywood award shows while working at Zap2it.com around 2005. Zap2it.com is a sister company of Tribune Media. I was a designer and developer there. Whenever the Oscars or the Screen Actors Guild awards came around I would be given full media access. My job was to get our photographer’s media drives and take them back to our office. I had a decent SLR camera so I would squeeze between some pretty aggressive camera guys near the red carpet. The camera guys had to wear tuxes so I stuck out because I would wear street clothes. Most were shocked seeing me there, and one of them called security. Johnny Depp in this picture I took, was like, “WTF is that guy doing there??”.