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Ryan Gillespie
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Aug 11 2008
Only in LA…
Dov Charney of American Apparel puts up a billboard looking for his lost dog.
The Silver Lake and Echo Park area was slammed with flyers this weekend showing this dog, pictured above. And if flyers were not enough, two billboards, back-to-back, at Sunset and Alvarado featured the cute dog asking anyone who has seen it or has found it to contact the owner.
From LAist.
* Update: According to the folks at LA Taco, the dog has been found.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/08/only-in-la/
Aug 11 2008
The Priority Boxes
A friend of mine just received one.
“The Priority Boxes” A global art series.
What would you do if you suddenly received a box via mail, labeled “FRAGILE: Contains Peace”? How would you use it? Would you give it to someone else? Would you sell it? Would you just throw it away?
Such a box is exactly what painter Franck de Las Mercedes has been sending since May of 2006 to anyone who asks him, anywhere in the world, for free.
“The Priority Boxes” project is a public art series that seeks to provoke thought, to make people reconsider their ability to influence change, communicate through art and make art accessible to people from all walks of life.
Sign up for one of your own here.
I signed up for one, and will post when I receive mine in the next month or two.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/08/the-priority-boxes/
Aug 05 2008
Sketch 31
I started my new job on Monday. So far its good, but I’m of course still just settling in. Mainly its a big relief just to have something. I’m looking foward to Friday’s paycheck from the two day temp assignment last week.
On Saturday, one of my friends invited me along to a wedding of one of her high school friends. The wedding was pretty normal (well except for parts being in Korean) until the reception. When the wedding party arrived, each couple was introduced along with music, which they danced their way into the hall to. When no one was left except for the bride and groom, the video on the right is what happened. It definitely made for a more interesting wedding reception. Other highlights included the infomercial made by the groom selling “Jane’s Top Musical Hits,” including him (and friends) lip syncing along to songs from High School Musical, Dream Girls, Hairspray and maybe one or two others, I can’t remember. The wedding was great fun, but I was sure exhausted by the time I got home a little after midnight.
Sunday I ventured up to Thousand Oaks to hang out with my friend who lives up there. I took the Red and Orange lines to Woodland Hills to meet him part way. With the trips on Saturday and Sunday, I’ve now ridden all but a small section of the Green and Gold lines in the Metro “Rail” system (the Orange line is a dedicated bus line). My friend bbq’d some ribs and we watched Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The movie was funny, though not as funny as the first Harold & Kumar movie. It was a pretty laid back afternoon.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/08/sketch-31/
Jul 31 2008
New Job!
I got offered and accepted a temp-to-hire position as an Executive Assistant at Herbalife. The job is in Century City (not far from where I go to church) and pays pretty well.
I’m pretty stoked.
Yay for regular employment.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/new-job/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/oh-happy-day/
Jul 29 2008
Sketch 30
Well the job hunt drought continues. I went into another branch of one of the temp agencies to see if maybe that would help. My gut tells me that they don’t have much going on either.
Last night I went over to a friends place for a dinner & movie party. This was a few of the folks from our regular dinner group…plus a few other friends of the hosts. It was a great time of food, wine and conversation. Something I really needed for sure. We watched a documentary about struggle for the South Central Farm (official site here) here in LA. The movie was called The Garden. The film was good, though definitely biased towards the farmers. It’s still crazy to see the aerial shots of the site when the farm was active compared to what it is now. I actually remember passing by the site while on the light rail to Long Beach a few weeks ago, though I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. Now its just a fenced off plot of dirt, seems pretty silly.
The biggest excitement of the week had to be the 5.4 magnitude earthquake this morning. It happened at 11:42am. I was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden the room started shaking. It took a few seconds to comprehend that it was an earthquake and by then it was pretty much over. Nothing fell over, not even the books i have stacked on the floor against one of the walls of my room. It definitely got the blood pumping though, and was the talk of the news for the rest of the day. They’ve been saying that this is a wake-up call for Southern California, which hadn’t experienced a earthquake of this size pretty much since the devastating Northridge quake in 94. The “big-one” is still coming geologists stressed.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/sketch-30/
Jul 23 2008
Sketch 29
It was a pretty crappy week in the job search department. I applied to a bunch of positions, but didn’t hear a peep from anyone. Most disappointing was the wine store position that I applied for. Oh well.
I tried to get into a free screening of The Dark Knight at USC on Thursday, however not much of the wait list made it in for that one. So I ended up riding my bike over to the Arclight Hollywood and to see a show Friday afternoon. The build-up to the movie was completely over the top, and therefore expectations were quite high. The movie didn’t disappoint. I think pretty much every one of the main actors did a fabulous job in their roles. Sure, Heath Ledger is getting the bulk of the press in light of his passing, but he also did a pretty fabulous job reinventing a character played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson in the first Batman movie. Both Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhardt were great as Batman and Harvey Dent as well. One of my friends thought it might have been a little long, and I can see that position, but I didn’t mind the length either.
Sunday I went and saw the Independent Shakespeare Companies performance of Twelfth Night at the Barnsdall Arts Park in Hollywood. Basically, its free Shakespeare in the park, Th-Su, during the months of July and August. It was fun, and I think I’ll go again, though with a picnic dinner this time.
After spending the morning job searching on Monday, I decided to take a little diversion and do some more exploring of LA. So I got a Metro Day Pass and hit the rails. This time I took the train to Universal City and went up to Universal City Walk. Basically its just a collection of stores and restaurants just outside of Universal Studios. Touristy for sure. After walking around the City Walk, I decided to head back into Hollywood to catch a movie. I was initially thinking about seeing Wall-E at the El Capitan Theater (owned by Disney), however the movie had already started by the time I got there. Luckily, Hell Boy II was playing across the street at the Chinese Theater. Check one more touristy thing off the list…See a movie at the Chinese Theater. Like the first Hell Boy, it was directed by Guillermo del Toro. A great movie as well, and not as dark and sinister as The Dark Knight.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/sketch-29/
Jul 16 2008
Sketch 28
Despite not really having any money, I’ve had a decent enough week.
Tuesday through Thursday of last week, I had a short-term temp assignment at the corporate offices of the Metro YMCA. It was a nice little break from the joblessness, and its especially nice to have some money coming in this week.
Saturday, I went for a short hike in Topanga State Park. On the way back out of the park, I even hiked barefoot for awhile. It was nice. When I got home, I took the bus downtown to catch the evenings show at Grand Performances series at the California Plaza. The artist was Rachid Taha a French-Algerian artist, most famous in the US for a Arabic version of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah. There was a small dance area, packed to the brim, with many French and Arabic speakers around. I had a blast dancing.
Sunday, I went on a hike with Progressive Christians Uniting in the San Gabriel Mountains. We went up to a spot on the San Gabriel River, that is quite popular with the latino population of the San Gabriel Valley cities. The sections alongside the road are a bit overused. We hiked aways down a trail towards the wilderness area, and were eventually able to find some space without other people. We even took a little dip in the river, which was really nice on a warm and relatively humid day.
I’m officially helping out with the 10:15 service at church now. I’m still not that sure how I feel about church in general, but I do like this service…and its nice to be helping make it happen. I’m in charge of making sure things are set-up before the service this coming Sunday.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/sketch-28/
Jul 08 2008
Sketch 27
Well its been a week of worrying about money again. However, I did start a short 2-3 day temp assignment today. Its nice at least having some money flowing in.
Besides job searching, I’ve watched a few movies, been to the beach a few times, and went to a pool party at a house in the valley that a friend is house sitting at (who’s owner has won an oscar).
Pretty low key week.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/sketch-27/
Jul 08 2008
The Wackness
It’s the summer of 1994 and Luke has just graduated from high school. He deals weed to make money. He likes his shrink’s step-daughter. He pays his shrink with weed. A twist on the classic coming of age movie.
I saw The Wackness at the Arclight last night. It definitely brought back some memories, as I am around the same age (graduated in 95, originally class of 94).
The soundtrack is great…definitely a reminder of the times…rap that’s pre- Biggie vs. Tupac.
In the movie Olivia (the step-daughter), tells Luke that he needs to wake up. Stop looking at only “the wackness” of life (the negative) and just focus on “the dopeness” (the positive), like she does.
I think its a good point…but we need to make sure not to be extremely in either direction. Yeah, its not healthy to focus just on the wackness…but likewise its not healthy to focus just on the dopeness. Both exist…and both need to be dealt with.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/07/the-wackness/
