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February 27, 2006
Mega Producer gets by with a little help from his friends..
Thursday February 23rd, 2006
Skateboard P!!! Pharrell Williams concert with a couple buddies at the Arrowhead Pond. On the bill were of course Pharrell William, Bobby Valentino, Keisha Cole, Tierra Mari, and One.
I had to go through about 100 hoops to try to get some access to the event. I have never heard the company who is handling promotion for the concert event. I had to get send an application; send a letter and a business card. After I was approved, I was going through more hoops trying to get tickets and a photo pass. They would only allow one name attached to either the review tickets or photo pass. Too much trouble. I decided to get the photo pass and I made sure that I wasn’t going to taken to a holding area after the song allowance. I was assured I wasn’t going to be, yet when I was sent a photo release with the media rules; it stated photographers would be going to a holding area. I emailed the PR chick about it and didn’t hear from her. Oh well. Off to the Pond.
Picked up Leslie, and took her car to the Pond. I didn’t want to drive it but my car was acting up. The Escalade is a larger car than what I am used to driving and I had to be aware of the size and streets. The drive took about a good hour. Anaheim isn’t too far and traffic isn’t too bad. Just the merging of the 60 and 10 freeway to get on the 57 is horrible.
Got to the Pond, it wasn’t crowded at all since it was only 6. Got to the usual gate 6, checked my name, and parked. Headed into the North Eastern private entrance thingy and checked in. I didn’t have my tickets; tickets weren’t available until later an hour before doors opened. There was some VIP pre party thing going on and had to go to the other entrance. Before I got there, Ben was right behind me. I knew he was going to cover it and I haven’t spoke to him for awhile. We headed on to the other entrance and no one knew anything. The security guards didn’t have a list, the chicks checking people in didn’t know what was going on. It was ridiculous. They had a make shift red carpet with no flood lights, very unprofessional if you ask me.
We stood around trying to figure out what was going on. Security guard asking other people what was going on, someone that looked like he knew what he was doing asking someone else. It was much unorganized. Eventually one of the guards gave us little lanyards with no badges on them. Got to love that. After being dicked around for awhile, and standing there for like 10 mins. We decided just to go to the check in desk, tell them our names, flash our ID cards and get some wristband for the party. We already knew we were on the list, so it didn’t matter.
Took the elevator up to the third floor. I’ve never been up there and thought it was pretty awesome to see. Right when you get off the elevator, there is a Josh Groban concert photo to the left. I guess this is the level where they have all photos of the artists who has performed there. When I was outside waiting, I heard the Clipse going through sound check. When I was up on the third floor, Pharrell was. I went to check it out and it pretty cool to check out a sound check with no one in the audience.
Now to the VIP room which was towards the left, down the hall. It was kind of crackin I guess. There was a table full of Cold Stone cups in the right side of the room. The usual finger foods at the main table, Buffalo wings, fruit, cheeses, crackers, drinks and such. They had a DJ from K-Day tearing it up. Just chatted it up with Ben and seeing whats up with such. I noticed these two chicks, who were pretty cute. Gave me a little eye candy.
One of the chicks knew Ben, it ended up being Julio G from K-Day's daughter and her cousin. What’s even funnier is that I noticed my homie Darry chillin. I haven’t seen him since High school and knew him since elementary school. I used to call his Deuce, well I still do. Just funny if you asked me. Small ass world and such. After chattering it up, headed off to the restroom and down to get my tickets. Section 209, Row D, Seats 5 and 6.
Not too bad, just headed back up to the VIP room. Chilled until it was over. People were dancing it up and enjoying the time. I was thinking weather or not if i should meet with whoever was in charge, and have them escort me back and forth to take photos, or just shoot from my seat. Ehh we shall see. I was thinking I would shoot where I was suppose to and go to my seat when escorted back.
After the VIP room was done, we decided to go to the service floor which pretty much is the backstage area. Walked around down there and there was nothing defining anything down there. We did pass by Pharrell dressing room and Robin Thicke's. I saw another photographer by Tierra Mari dressing room and asked him what was cracking with him. He was totally lost too. I didn’t want to run into the publicist running the concert, and have her make me be escorted. Pretty much booked it out of there and went to our seats.
Saw the other photographers near the sound board. I went over and talked to Wild Don Lewis. He shoots for the LA Weekly, and asked him a few things about what was going on. Initially the photo allowance was 3 songs per artist but he said they changed it to 2 songs. I also asked him what the situation was, and they were seated in front of the soundboard and the publicist was sitting at the far end.
Headed to my seat and Tierra Mari was opening. I pulled out my camera and took a few shots. It kind of weird to be sitting in a seat with a 2 foot camera hover over the people sitting in front of you. The next act was O.N.E. Not too sure about them, at one point they had some big booty chick come out in booty shorts walking around on stage. Before that, I saw another photographer just walking around randomly. I was like, why isn’t anyone stopping him. I caught up with him, asked him what was going on and he was doing his own thing. So, I am going to do the same thing. I flashed my lanyard to the Pond security guard dudes and they left me in to the area in front of the stage behind the barricades. It wasn’t too much of a problem since there were other photographers there also.
Bobby Valentino was up next. It took awhile for him to come out. One of the other photographers told me he was taking long since he didn’t do a sound check. I felt bad talking to the photographer because I guess he was trying to talk to me when we were waiting outside to get in. I didn’t notice at all but I guess Ben and Leslie did. I didn’t mean to be a dick or whatever. While out there, rumors of Jay-Z showing up were in the air along with Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg is the typical suspect. Bobby was so not in tune, it sounded like crap big time. Shot my photos and hung out stage left. There were a lot of people chillin there but what you going to do. After Mr. Valentino was done, it headed into intermission. They weren’t allowing free access to the backstage area from the stage and had to take the elevator down. I have never been at the Pond without it being sold out and tonight was a little over half capacity. Whoever promoted the event did not do a very good job or Pharrell doesn’t have that much of a pull. Who knows?
Headed back to meet up with Leslie and Ben and then went to meet up with the girls from the VIP Room, Dominic and Doreen. Went down to staging/service area also known as the VIP area. Pharrell was chilling and the girls got a photo with him. He was sporting his Ice Cream clothing brand; the shoes, hat, shirt, letterman’s, and pants. The whole sha-bang.
I wanted the whole gang down there because a backstage view is a better and closer view. However the security and the so called fire marshal weren’t letting people to the sides of the stage. Of course I pleaded my case that I was taking photos and was allowed, however the others were not. Hung out until the next act and Tyrese was coming up to me and the door to the stage I was at. He was bitching about why he was coming through the door and not the other. I guess it’s understandable since everyone else was going through that door.
Ran out and took a few photos of him. People hate on him since he’s been all movies and not music much anymore. He had a chick on stage and pretty much groped her while she was sitting on stage. Nothing too special outta him.
Headed back to the back stage and hung with the girls. Met a dude from Dub magazine and saw Omarion heading out to the stage. I didn’t even catch Robin Thicke go to the stage and ran back out there. His first song was on Piano and it seems to have a lot more photographers in the area along with videographers. Those video guys were running into everyone and getting in shots. It was quite annoying.
No one was really following the songs. Robin was saying how his first album didn’t go anywhere. I don’t recall him back in the day but only heard of him when I downloaded a video and Pharrell was on the track. He recently was signed to Pharrell’s Star Trak record label and the beat is totally a Pharrell beat. The last song Thicke performed was “Wanna Love You Girl” and I expected Pharrell to pop out but he didn’t. Oh well.
Pharrell was up next. Went back backstage, nothing was going on really. Told the guards to let Ben to the side and they did. Now for Pharrell, that got everyone out of their seats. There was a chick in the front crying and she didn’t stop even after he was done.
Pharrell started off with “Can I Have it Like That,” went into one song I don’t remember and then into “Frontin” and then introduced the Clipse. The Clipse did their hits which was pretty tight. Reminded me when I saw them and Pharrell at Jimmy Kimmel. One of the tightest shit I saw during this event was when during one of the songs, Pharrell was air producing. Like instead of air guitar, he was acting he was on the drum machine and on some turn tables. It was soo tight, it went alogn with the song and just man so tight to see..
Omarion came out after to perform. I was surprised, I mean I saw him but didn’t think he was there for a reason. As I think about it, I think Pharrell did some beats for Omarion. He did his songs and his dance solos and such. Pharrell was chilling by the DJ and I tried to get his attention to shoot a pic.
The next guest was an oblivious one, Snoop Dogg. He didn’t come up until Pharrell introduced his Ice Cream Skate team which consisted of 2 dudes and his bro. Snoop came out with ice cream hoodie. That looked pretty damn tight. They did the usual “Drop it Like its Hot” and “Beautiful.” At this point, I was already damn tired and once I had my shots, I left towards the back. I did that prematurely because once I stepped foot back there, someone else was on stage and the audience went crazy.
It was friggin Nelly. I noticed Pharrell was looking back to the backstage a lot when he was up there with Snoop. Guess that’s why. What the hell was he doing here? I was totally caught off guard and was so hyped up from it. Some chick behind me kept on screaming, "Show us your girlls Nelly, show us!." Annoying real fast, real quick. When i turned to look at her, that chick that was crying, was STILL crying. They went into “Play it Off,” it was soo tight to see. After that song, Pharrell put him on blast and had him perform “Hot in Herre.” You can tell Nelly was surprised but got into it quickly, then of course into “Grillz.” I haven’t heard much of the song but everyone is saying they hate it because it’s being played too much. I enjoyed the heck out of their performance and went back to the stage.
Met up with Ben and Nelly was running off, while lotta people were trying to take photos with him. It was a human traffic event back there. I looked over to Ben and was saying how Snoop had like 6 huge body guards on stage. I mean I understand it when it was his premiere, but on stage? Goodness. I noticed this dude in front of me look back and I could kinda tell what he was thinking. He was thinking, “This guy is an idiot.” Then I noticed it was Lil Fizz from B2K, what is he doing here? Guess he’s cousins with Omarion and is apart of his entourage. Walked pass Pharrell’s dressing room and the night was finally done.
Leslie and the girls were at their seats watching it from there since the Robin Thicke performance. As for Robin Thicke, the last name was familiar, I mean Alan Thicke from Growing Pains. I didn’t think a thing of it, until one of the security guards asked me and I didn’t know for sure. One of the event dudes confirmed it and was totally surprised.
Met up with Leslie, and left the place. It was barely 10 minutes after the show as done before we got to the car. Usually the exit from the parking would be a pain, but it was such a ease tonight. It was really really weird. Oh well. Headed home in record time, didn’t worry so much about the driving. Got some food and that was that.
You can have it like that....
Posted by Anh at 3:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 26, 2006
Hilary Duff's Older Sis Birthday Party...
Saturday February 18th, 2006
Hayls birthday. Her 21st, finally legal to drink. Hurrays! Her party was at Casablanca in Hollywood. I never heard of the place but when i got there, it was actually called White Lotus. I know that place, but not the other. I found out i guess the owners is changing the name to that or something. Not too sure. MTV was shooting a pilot there, something about C list stars and how they live their life or something. Haylie Duff's boyfriend was hosting the show or whatever. He put on the birthday party too and his energy drink, "Freedom" was sponsoring the whole thing.
I got there around 8ish. I noticed that you can’t make left turns at the lights with no turn signals between certain times. That sucks but oh well. Got the car valet and headed across the street to the club. It started sprinkling, I had this energy and weakness at the same time. I was feeling still under the weather, but I never learn to stay home and relax.
Got over there and noticed right away Long. I met him back at the Laguna Beach thing, hes the owner of Belong Clothing. Chatted with him for a little and waited to get in a bit. I had to wait a little bit, talked to Nancy, who was one in charge. I noticed Mekenzie Rossam from 7th Heaven walk the carpet. I dont watch the show anymore, but when i catch it here and there, Ruthie has gotten older and discovered makeup. Its just kinda freaky to think about, and it doesnt help that this night she was wearing short shorts and had a little booty. Thats all I will say about that for now.
Not too many photographers there, I noticed Michael from Wireimage. He covered Christina Martins birthday party when i was there last year. Chatted with him and he was the buddy for the night on the carpet. Dont know why but they had aerial arts chicks hovering over the red carpet. I wanted to look up and check it out, but i dont wanna look at weird moments while the chick does something. I dont wanna look like some perv or something.
Haylie came and did the red carpet. I complimented her dress and little and took the pictures. Hilary came too but did do the carpet. She came and hit the red carpet with Haylie after awhile. Joel Madden from Good Charlotte said he was going to do the carpet but he didnt. It was quite annoying but he seem to not mind when it was the intouch interviewer. Oh well..
Rumors of certain people showing up, Pussycat Dolls, Jennifer Love Hewitt, The Simpson girls, Paris Hilton and her ex-boyfriend Paris Lazeus or whatever. The Simpson girls werent there because their father was having a his birthday party. Jennifer Love Hewitt was having her own birthday party in Vegas. Why would Paris Hilton be here and so on.
Nancy and I chatted some more. I so recall her from somewhere and couldnt put a finger on it. Whats funny is that her ex-boyfriend is friends with one of my Editors. Small ass world if you ask me. She invited me to her birthday party and wanted me to cover some charity event she was doing in Diego. Im down, never done the theme party thing. Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes. We shall see if i can make it down to Diego.
After the carpet was dead, I finally had a chance to make it into the party. Before I went in, her cake came on in. It had a princess Barbie doll on top of it. Well its her birthday and party I suppose. Man the place was crowded as heck. There was an outside patio area that had a live band. As you walk in, you see the coat check and restrooms. The left side was the patio area along with the sushi restuarant looking place. The right side headed to the dance area and the vip room. Once you get into the area of the dance floor, you noticed the elevated vip section and then the long long club with the bar at the far end. The smoking area is towards your right once the turn right into the dance floor.
Headed onto the VIP area and they werent letting people in at the moment. They sang the happy birthday song when i was still outside, so Im assuming it was a little private time. I checked in my camera and made the way to the bar. Got a a vodka tonic, but not after a long wait. I didnt wait so i didnt mind. Long was there hanging out, and chatted with him and his chick he brought, Sabrina. He kept on trying to get me out to his birthday party. I think he asked me like 5 times to get a straight answer. I just told him id try to make it out and wanted to know where it would be. He party was Thursday and i had the Pharrell and Friends concert to cover.
After the DMV wait at the bar, headed back to the VIP area. The security dude was being a jerk still, saying how he reconigze me and the group. It was totally annoying. I tried to explain to him that I wasnt able to go in yet because I was outside shooting. One of the PR dudes was in there and i tried to tell him whats up. Eventually he told the security dude what was up. At that point, didnt want to stick much anymore. Feeling under the weather was still getting to me. I had a few cupcakes, and got my gift bag, and left out of there. I mean there were some real freaks in there dancing it up, but feeling ill is not a good thing to dance with.
Left the place, it was already dying down anyways. Decided to get some Roscoes's Chicken and Waffles. I kinda wanted Pink's. I usually never leave LA after a night of clubbing without one of them street hot dogs and I never had Pink's, so i wanted it. Roscoe's was just down the street and got that. Wait wasnt too bad. Just the typical waffles and chicken of course. I love it. Then headed on home. All and all a pretty cool night.
Posted by Anh at 6:30 PM
The Semi-Finals...
Thursday February 17th, 2006
Ballroom dancing.. who does that? Really old people and gays right? I’m just stating the stereotypes. I guess last year top rating show in the summer, Dancing with the Stars, changed it all up. They use the word, "Stars" very loosely, what can you do? The word celebrity is such a general title.
Enough of that ranting, and with that, I still decided to attend a taping of Dancing with the Stars. I decide to go due to 2 reasons. Michael Bublé was performing and i had VIP seating and access. Some might know, some might, but all shows with studio audiences have some outside service that fills the seats in for them. Most of the time it’s open to whoever knows of this service and get tickets to sitcoms and such. If you know this route, you are usually showing up early and waiting in line for hours. If it’s a taped show, you will be waiting longer since production can take their sweet time unlike live shows that have to go live at a set time. Anyways, bottom-line I already stated the reasons why I’m going to see some dancing.
Drive wasn’t bad.. The bad thing that had to deal with the driving was actually getting into the studio lot. The turn into the studio, Genesee Ave. The light doesn’t have a turn signal, so you have to wait and wait until no cars are coming or steal a yellow. One light passed and I couldn’t squeeze in since there was no room to enter, second light i get rear ended.. You never expect to feel the thud of someone hitting you but when it happens of course you think what the fuck. I look in my rear view mirror and see the lady in the truck say, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I jump out looked, nothing, she asked if there was damage, i said no and got back into my car. At this point the general audience was lining up outside the gates of CBS Television City, they were all looking and I missed my second light. Third times the charm as always.
Check in with the guard, and parked.. I got there around 2:50ish. Check in with the VIP entrance and they weren’t letting people in until 3:20ish. Just hung out, walking around a little bit and hanging out in my car. At one point I wanted to use the restroom just so i don’t have to do it later. I went into this hanger looking place right before the main entrance for VIPs. Pretty much the backstage area of the studio and i asked the security lady where the bathroom was. She just pointed and said around the corner. Too bad there were 3 entrance type things and no corners. I asked her again like twice and same answer, all while i was walk towards the entrances. I like did a minny mynny mo while still asking and still nothing. Eventually just walked towards the exit door and made my way. I see a line with mostly woman and a few men. But we all know, woman restroom lines are really long and there’s usually never a line at the men’s. I looked up at the signs and made sure it was the men’s. Open the door and walked in briefly and saw an old woman drying her hands with a paper towel and backed up out of there. There was a man who was saying both were only open to women only and if i needed to id have wait. There were a few laughs from the women, but I didn’t even feel embarrassed at all. Honest mistake and they saw me coming and didn’t say anything. Whatever. I just backed on up out of there and headed back.
After some more waiting.. We were led into the studios. We had our names on the seats reserved for us. My seat was at stage right, third row of seats. Sat down, waited for everyone else to filter in before the general audience were seated. Of course the studio and stage looked smaller in person than on television. It’s just funny on how the difference is.
Eventually people were seated and a pre show warming up dude came out. He had various competitions with each side. Dancing, singing, and more random dancing. The dancing was quite funny. There weird 80s old old chicks with feather boas and big hair came and sang locomotion. It was ironically, a train wreck.
After a few games, Michael Bublé recorded his performances.. First song was Moondance with the professional dancers. The female dancer’s grand parents were in front of me. Very cute if you asked me, the granddaughter that is. Next song was Save the Last Dance For Me. Max Chmerkovskiy and Edyta Sliwinska danced that song, and that was a hot number. That was pretty much it for the taped performances and off to the live stuff. Nothing special, just a lot of filler recorded stuff. The only dancing I saw live were the professional stuff and the host, Tom Bergeron. His partner was Ashly DelGrosso, she is a cutie.
Enough of that. I was looking about for Nick Lachey which he wasn’t there nor Drew’s wife. Mark Hamil was there, a row in front of me to my left. I remember talking to his a few years about at The Last Samurai premiere I think.
Now for the results. Drew Lachey was the obvious one and then the surprise was Jerry Rice. I was totally shocked and started the Jerry chant which echoes all over the studio. You knew at that point Lisa Rinna was going to the finals since the last two was her and Stacey Keibler. Of course it went to commercial break and back from it, got the result. That was that. Lisa made a comment about only having a few soul mates in life and her partner, Louis was one of them. I don’t know how I would feel if this dude is all over my wife, dancing and otherwise. I caught a little weird vibe myself but what you gonna do.
Audience was ushered out of the studio. I hung out and noticed Stacy went to say hi to Torrie Wilson. I didn’t even know she was there. I remembered her from when I used to watch wrestling. Media interviews were done on the dance floor with all the usual suspects, Access Hollywood, The Insider and so on. Hung out to check out the dancers and such but left. There was an after show party thing, but it was raining and didn’t want to deal with traffic. Too bad I was stuck in it for 2 hours. Good way to spend my Friday.
I wouldnt be surprise if Jerry Rice takes it all
Posted by Anh at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2006
The New Ipod....??
The iPod... one of the trendiest thing EVER these pass couple of years next to pogs.. Remember them pogs?? Back to the iPod, after only a few years it has been one of the most advance devices we use in our daily lives. From something that use to resemble a white brick to not being bigger than a pack of cards to barely as big as a match box gum cases. While the casing gets smaller and the viewable screen gets bigger and adds the color.
Anywho, you may be wondering how this device can get better. What can Apple do to advance this product besides the usual capicity, black and white versions, longer battery life or bigger screen. Well here are some photos of a patent submission Apple sent on in. I heard about the idea a few weeks ago and it looks like a go. A touch screen ipod with its touch wheel that can be brought up anywhere on the screen AND the screen is possible to be viewed in wide screen. The widescreen will accomidate people ripping DVDS onto their iPod and not sure if the iTunes store offers widescreen format of the shows they have for sell. It also looks like iTunes is embedded into the new iPod. Anyways, here are the patent photos.. You be the judge... Im sure ill be getting one!!
Problem I found with the second image is that it makes it somewhat of a 2 handed iPod. The current iPods pretty much takes only one hand and a thumb. Looking at these photos, looks like there might be 2 new different iPods. The usual one hand one with a touch screen and the wide screen special video one. Is Apple releasing both? or one? Who knows.. Give it sometime and well see the next iPod craze!!!
With all the Apple advancements, why they charging 49 bucks to listen to radio??
Posted by Anh at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack