My Super Bowl Party for the Non-football fans

I've come to realize that I truly enjoy hosting parties especially now that I have a little house to live in. Mike and I like to find any sort of event or excuse to throw one for our friends. Some people asked how it went and here's was the timeline.

So the Super Bowl...

2 weeks beforehand
Mike and I decide to have a small party for those people who don't have plans. (ha)

These were my challenges:
• How do I make football fun for my artsier, less footbally friends?
• On top of that, I'm having a majority of vegan and/or health conscious cyclists that would prefer "healthier" snacks
• Prepare for 15 by myself while Mike is bike racing in San Diego
• Honestly, don't care to spend too much

A week beforehand
Mike and I work on a menu. We decide on a healthier turkey chili. He chose a recipe from Rachel Ray. We agree on cornbread, vegetables, and something with guacamole. Head to Costco and Whole Foods for all the ingredients. We expect to make food for 20 and figure if we don't have enough guests, we'll have some leftovers.

I began to start to ask people what they were up to for Superbowl Sunday and let them know I'm going to throw a party unofficially. A reality of this is that most people our age forget about parties and so I will most likely text message or email a few days beforehand.

3 days beforehand

Mike packs up and heads to San Diego for the Boulevard Road Race with his teammate, Dedrick. They are sent on a mission to get beer from Stone Brewery in San Diego, since it's responsible for most of our favorite beers. They'll be back on Sunday just in time for the kick-off.

Sent out a reminder text message for rsvps. Everyone responds! 15 people it is! Suggest that vegan buddies may want to bring something to eat.

I begin to clean up the house and defrosting meat. Pulling out our partyware. I chose nothing remotely football themed. It was just our minimalistic square black and white trays and bowls with plastic flatware. Lots of snazzy napkins from Ikea. Easy to clean, my least favorite part of parties.

Day of the Party

Send out a morning text to let everyone know that if they want to come early, they can watch Babe the Gallant Pig with me. (It's a great movie!) Also decide on what I will wear. Something casual but still accesorized, of course! (As was necessary, because my friends are always adorable 24/7.)

I also put together a playlist of some mellow and fun oldies music (Beach Boys, Jay Z, Lady Gaga) to lighten the mood for when guests get here. Also, I decided to play Babe silently just because. And remember, my guests aren't the biggest on sports commentary.

Baking and cooking commences. (I purposely chose recipes I could do quickly since I tend to be such a scattered chatterbox when guests start to arrive) Guests start to trickle in with even more snacks! A pleasant surprise. Meghan and Gary brought a great walnut salad and a date and banana pie (entirely vegan and raw).

The Game
Mike and Dedrick arrive with their cases from Stone. Excitement everywhere! The chili and cornbread worked well with the Arrogant Bastard and or the Pale Ale. Mixed reviews.

We started watching by first choosing sides. (So what if I chose according to the colors of the uniform.) Who we were rooting for added a lot of drama and excitement as we watched. Most importantly we viewed the commercials searching for our favorites. Since majority of this crowd worked in the commercial industry, there was plenty of funny, yet harsh, criticism. After all, commercials are the best part.

By the time The Who (halftime show/sing-a-long) began, we were all ready for Jocelyn's caramel brownies and the Stone Porter made for a perfect pairing.

All in all it was a great game, great party and we all had a good time. Mike finished off the chili by eating near 6 servings.  So no leftovers there, but we did have tons of Stone Beer. Good lord. We'll have to see what happens on the next one.

when asked about my personal style

I like to tell people that it's Audrey Hepburn meets a homeless hippy hobo named Fred, who I met on the Metro. Fred was pretty cool.

This is one of my favorite movies ... Rebecca, 1940

Rebecca, 1940
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Clearly, I have plenty to learn about ... life

The Oscars, 3D and neon: My thoughts on Avatar, the ride

OK, so the Academy just announced the Oscar nominees for the coveted, Best Picture. And of course, Avatar, was nominated. I can't help but think that Avatar was miscategorized. Rather than Best Picture, I argue that it should be up against Disney California Adventure's Toy Story Mania and Don't Mess with the Zohan for Best Amusement Park Ride due to its common goal of spectacle and amusement.

3D glasses and long lines and bright colors. That fits both Avatar and TSM. Frankly, I enjoyed TSM more because I got to shoot things at things. Both had talented cgi artists and huge corporate backing to develop a well-sought out thrill. Neither of these projects demonstrated a bold educational contribution to humanity's intellect, but rather decided to just please the masses with a great experience. There's nothing wrong with this; especially in economic climate when most people commonly find themselves in terrible situations.

Avatar was an amazing visual experience. The digital artists behind this film did a great job, and were hopefully paid what they deserved. The writers, however, were lacking. Has James Cameron decided that special effects are more of a priority than a good story? Yes. Come on, you have to admit that story was plagued with predictable and cheap resolutions. At least Toy Story Mania fully engulfed me into the world of Toy Story with unexpected outcomes via competition and interaction- banking on the genius of video games. So for Best Ride, my vote goes to Toy Story Mania. Sorry, Zohan, your sense of humor wasn't enough in this category. You weren't even in 3D.

A few steps backwards and rewound, I define film like Wikipedia: "Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating — or indoctrinating — citizens." So by definition, Avatar, is a film and so is Toy Story Mania! But as far as BEST PICTURE, I would expect a more challenging, definitive emotional and educational cultural statement instead of a more crowd pleasing, multi-bajillion dollar "DUH!" and fancy remake of Pocahontas.

Is it a crime that I appreciate simple visual gags?

Artist, Florentijin Hofman, knows exactly what I like.

I like things either very tiny or very big. I also like people in inanimate object suits. I digress.

Here's a photo my cousin, Marisa, took that I enjoy very much.

Your Poisonous Life: My Thoughts on Jersey Shore and Cannibalism

My funemployment has given me the opportunity to become more pop culture relevant. In other words, I have been watching tv. And I couldn't resist checking out the show that everyone's been talking about: Jersey Shore. After watching a few minutes of it, I couldn't help but feel instantly disgusted by not only their poorly chosen wardrobe and hairstyles, but also their unbelievably useless bravado. All so grossly force fed by MTV along with bad music and a neon color palette: this generation's pollution. Plain and simple, this show is terrible, yet everyone is talking about it.

So cannibalism...

Cannibalism, for the sake of this entry, will be defined as a species eating their own species. Gross, right? Well in a sense I'm beginning to feel that with the media. We corn feed and raise the images of people just to shoot them down and eat them alive, because it feels good.

My good Vegan buddy, Meghan, had a brilliant revelation one day. She explains that just as we are particular about what kind of meat and vegetables we eat (i.e. pesticides, hormones, etc), that Cannibals should have healthy options available. She would like to be as organic a human as possible, hence her healthy chemical free diet choices. She will be a healthy snack for the cannibals she might happen to meet later on in life.

Food for Thought

Thoughts, too, can be considered food. After all, this is the fuel we use to motivate and evolve and mature. With this is mind, I would like to offer a feast of organic brilliant ideas for all the thought eaters out there. Not so much a hydrogenated mush of tabloids and reality and marketing ploys and other things qualified to be God's debris.

Our brains (like Krang, the brain-man from Ninja Turtle cartoons) cannot possibly become healthier feeding on the spray tanned vulgarity or those ass-tastic lyrics we find in most pop music or those images of unrealistic body imagery or anything that makes us need unecessarily that we see splattered across our giant flat paneled televisions and laptops and phones.

A Balanced Diet?

As a human participating in the human race, I'd like to suggest that we just expose ourselves to more quality, less quantity. It's just too easy to feed on media garbage. Brain eats healthy then, the rest of idea consumers/thought cannibals in all of us may just flourish.

Although I can't possibly be human without wanting some sugary junk food, however, I promise to only have a little of it. Feed me knowledge. Eat my brain.

If I had an iron fist

I would probably have a hard time clapping hands for Christmas lights next year, but I would surely enjoy using it as a gavel or a meat tenderizer.

A thought on apathy

don't care

I enjoy the intimacy of this video

Not About Love from Zach Galifianakis

and "fat jesus". I heart Zach Galifianakis!

Happy 2010!

For the holidays, I decided I wanted to take a break from everything: work, chores, diet, cycling, and any sense of responsibility. Complete nothingness. And when I set my brain on determination, I get results: a body that's shaped more like a burrito and a goal to looks less like a burrito for the new year.

My holiday with the family was nice as always. Lots of musicless dancing and loud laughter. We ate plenty of good food and made jokes that only we would understand.

For NYE, my friends and I met in Santa Barbara where we stayed a huge house in the Santa Barbara mountains. We had our very own living room American Idol, games, and plenty of pajama time.

New Years Day, we all took a jaunt to Solvang to enjoy wine tasting and sweets and clogs. The day after, Mike and I went with bike pals, Dedrick and Jocelyn, on a lycra-clad ride through Santa Ynez passed cows and mini horses. Satisfied, we ate at the Los Olivos Cafe (a new favorite!) and then just chatted over coffee at the Corner House coffeeshop.

And now, here I am in my living room, basking in the memory of my uselessness as I keep up with emails and attempt to have brilliant ideas. I'm looking forward to the new year not really to bring something spectacular in my life (like say a flying car! i'm dealing with this disappointment currently), but to really let me align all the unaccomplished goals (like drinking more water!) from last year into a more linear pattern and eat them like i would a burrito.

Conversations with my Mother

During her brief visit to Southern California, I was able to tour her around my beachside neighborhood inbetween her classes at CalTech.

Conversation topics included:
- The nature of conformity
- How science can, indeed, be a waste of time
- Her new adventure excursion idea: Hunting wild boar in Tanzania, then cooking it. "A safari cookout! It's doable!"

oh, mother...

Latest Inspiration: Arthur Rackham

Rackham was an English book illustrator.

My dear Santa list of unrealistic proportions

1. A taxidermy albino pheasant
2. Goyard Jeanne gm in black or green or blue
3. A big toenail since ive lost because of my stupid sidi bike shoes.

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Rasta good Samaritan

This morning in front of my local coffeeshop in Venice, a hippy rasta who smelled homeless, helped me flag a bus for an old lady who was late to the bus stop.

Good to start the day with some good Karma rasta man!


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I'm famous!

Melissa Etheridge was interviewed in front of my production desk.

Finally - a post about Mikey's Surprise Race Finish (photos by Lorenzo De Guia)

For Mikey's 30th birthday, I decided I wanted to make it special. But how? With a few co-conspirators, I was able to surprise him with a grand bicycle tour finish on one of his routine training rides. Here is a rough timeline and pictorial in order to prove to you that I pulled this off.

It all began with some vegans...

After a bicycle ride to PV, my bike buddies, Meghan, Gary and Roxy were all at Real Food Daily talking about this great prank we saw online. The one with the fake Tour de France finish. Then Roxy had a brilliant revelation... Mikey's birthday was coming up.
So the weeks passed. I emailed all of Mike's closest friends scheming. With the support of my good buddies, professional fun makers of Group STD, we were able to fine tune details such as a banner and props. With the help of Mikey's teammate, Spase (who was more than eager to be the token naked guy), I was able to coordinate a ride to "lure" Mikey into the finish, complete with video footage.

The night before, Spase made me a map:

Podium girls?

The Prize

Here are the Group STD boys windproofing the banner...

Yes, there is a Kalamazoo! (Mike's hometown) and here is our dapper photographer, Lorenzo.

Gumby made an appearance! (secret: it's Jason). We had some downtime before Mikey showed up. (Aram was text messaging me along the ride to let me know how far they were... 20 mins away...) So Gumby provided us (and others passing by) with some entertainment!

Do some cartwheels!

Climb the tree!

For added entertainment, take the bullhorn!

Text message from Aram: 2 minutes away!

Get into position!

Waiting patiently. Why are you guys holding hands?

He's coming! Naked Spase (with an appropriate 30 written on his butt) alerts the support truck and then us and Gumby!

The post race interview

The obligatory champagne & silly string celebration

Mikey admitted to not know a thing. Despite the fact that EVERYONE knew. Success.

CREDITS: Thanks to Group STD (Rudy, Bongo, Marcus, Dario, Elaine, Melly), The Cyclists (Aram, Joe, Dedrick, Skylar), The Naked Guy (Spase), The guy who had to write "30" on Naked Guy's Butt (Daniel), Gumby (Jason), Action Face Poster (Meespace), Pikachu (Nathan), Podium girls (Cher & Lauren), Banner Boys (Pat & Brian), Eastsiders who woke up early to drive (Alxis & Newton, Jodi), Amazing photography (Lorenzo), the residents of Ocean Ave & San Vicente in Santa Monica, and Mikey for being such a sucker.

roller hobos

I'm happy to observe the growing amount of homeless people wearing rollerskates in the metropolitan los angeles area.

to the people who have blown someone's cover

intentional or unintentional, you have made a contribution to the world's wealth of knowledge. to unravel is to teach and i am more all knowing than i was a moment ago. this had come to me upon my recent feedback on zo's script, my late night attendance of the Hello Kitty goth masquerade ball, and well my recent discovery of my friend's super sleuth alterego.

revelations are interesting because of their instamatic double edged nature. for example, take former president bill clinton and his now infamous "i did not have sexual relations" chant to his then public remorse for the affairs with miss intern-of-the-90's monica lewinsky. the literal reveal = yes he was having sexual relations. the actual reveal = you already knew that! but wow did that suck for billy c. but come on, billy (no pun intended or was it), you have to admit that it was a burden off your shoulders.

now lets discuss unraveling of information when someone else does it for you. i've been watching tons of reality tv and talk shows recently. boy are they all about the "big reveal" and we most certainly are too. and these truths really pack a punch of drama! i too was rooting for gretchen and hating tamra after their internet blog fueled catfight (real housewives of oc). or even in top chef when the judges finally say who lost despite the fact that we ALREADY knew who would get the boot.

or when your teacher taught you that the sun was hot in science class, or that 1+1 +2, or within the process of writing a script, you learn so much about yourself it almost hurts. it's like a self-mutilation of sorts. at the goth party, it was just good to learn that behind the masks are probably freakier people, or just sweet ones. and as for my friend the art thief, there's just so much pride. so thank you, revealers/teachers, for letting me know my instincts are intact and performing perfectly.

84 Year Old Eiko rides 150 mile MS Ride on a singlespeed in a dress and heels!

Read more here: Go Eiko Go!