Live Aid.

(from Wicked Gay Blog)


It's hard to believe that 25 years ago today LIVE AID happened. I remember it clearly because I was stuck with my family on the return leg of a cross-country road trip from Los Angeles. My family had a 'thing' for doing stuff like this. Somehow we made the trip in 3 days going west and just a little bit longer coming back east. Trust me, it wasn't cute by the beginning of day 3. We won't discuss the rest stop whore baths in New Mexico. ANYWAY, because of the 2 family conversion van caravan we had going on with my cousins, I missed the original telecast. I was devasted. I TRULY WAS. LOL. I remember seeing clips of it here and there on TV after the fact, but in a time before DVR's it wasn't until many, many years that I've been able to see it in it's entirety.

Home.

It's day 6 of my vacation here in good ol' Bowie, MD.  I'm at the parents' house just waiting for everyone to get up.  I'm still on west coast time but it's already 9:00am here!!!  Gee -- don't people work around here? Oh wait -- they're retired.  LOL.  Anyway -- it was a whirlwind weekend with the ENTIRE family in town to celebrate my little neice's 2nd birthday.  It was also family portrait day this past Friday.  My baby brother and his new wife came down from Toronto to take part in all the "fun".  Believe it or not, I also survived an entire day at church this past Sunday!  Anyway -- it's time to hang out with all of my friends now until next Tuesday when I fly back to LA.  The only bummer is that none of my friends are responding to me.  Hmmph.  Oh well, time to mow the lawn.  WHAT?!?  Long story.....

Up, up and away.

I look thrilled, eh? Even my perennial eye bags had eye bags! I think I got a total hour and a half of sleep. The plane was full and since I was traveling on a space available pass (courtesy of one of my aunts), I was the last one cleared to go for the flight.  I really can't complain -- for the equivalent of $50+ I got an aisle seat on a non-stop flight across the country.  Oh yeah -- did you notice that I was in the last row right by the restrooms???  It was MOST pleasant after the refreshments were servered and people started lining up for the toilets.  Oh well. At least I'm on vacation for the next 10 days. It will be great to visit family and friends again.

The trip (back home).

It's 3:30am and I've got a flight in 6 hours.  For some reason, I can never sleep right before traveling on long trips away from home.  After scurrying around the last few hours packing and preparing my 'outfit' to wear on the plane, what better thing should I be doing but post my latest mix-set!?!  I actually just finished it last night, but I was too lazy to officially post it here.  This mix is typical me ... hope you like it.  You can find the full track-listing on my SoundCloud page.

(I'm going back to the east coast to visit my family in Maryland and friends in Washington, DC.  I will be away until the first week of June, but I'll probably be blogging on the go.)

One of my greatest fears.

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
Posted using ShareThis

I'm going back home to Maryland this weekend to visit my family.  Other than being my niece's 2nd birthday, the main goal it to take a new family portrait to include my new sister-in-law.  I sure hope my mother doesn't decide on a 'theme' for the photo session.

Vacation Pix.

I need a better camera than the one on my phone! ;-)

Summer Vacation 2009

Catching up (again).

(Ketchup ... get it?!?)

I have so many things to talk about but nothing much really to say... Got writer's block much? Aside from not making any sense as well, this summer has proven to be such a big roller coaster ride for me. First off, the job transfer / promotion that I was vying for didn't come through as I was hoping for. I was hoping to be moved back home on the east coast by now but due to the current economic climate, I was passed over by some local candidates. (That's the answer they gave me at least.) Am I bitter? Yes, slightly, but short of quitting, what can I do, right?

I actually went OUT last weekend. Believe it or not, I actually went out and about in the big city to enjoy the musical stylings of MURK (Oscar G. and Ralph Falcon). The kicker is that I actually went out by myself...to a straight club at that! What?!? It was the first time in over a year that I've been to a club in LA. Come to think of it, it was the first time I've actually gone clubbing at all since my trip back home to DC/NY this past December! I'm not sure what really prompted me to go. I just had that 'itch' I guess. It was fun, albeit short. Gone are the days of my marathon weekends, so my timing was a bit off. I didn't get 'rolling' out of the house until after 1:00am. By the time I got to the club, I only got to catch the tail end of MURK's set. Back in the day, the headliner was always on last. Oh well -- what I did hear was great. I ended up staying until 5:00am and headed on home. Mind you, I had to work later that afternoon at 3:00pm. We had inventory at the store that day --- trust me, it wasn't cute. Also paying $35 for a club night out wasn't cute either. It most especially wasn't cute when I missed buying the $15.00 pre-sale by a few minutes online! Ugh.

I've become much more of a TV-holic nowadays more than ever before. I scored some tickets to the season finale of SO YOU CAN THINK YOU CAN DANCE. As you know -- TV show audience tickets are generally free. Ticket requests are basically available when they're available. For this particular show, I applied for them last year! The same goes for AMERICAN IDOL too. The regular tapings have limited audiences and because of their popularity, I only got called in for the BIG ROOMS. This particular taping was held at the famous Kodak Theater in Hollywood where the Oscars are broadcast from. It was amazing. We had drama, though, trying to get in. I had a specific call time to fall in line and apparently I was directed to the wrong line. By the time I finally got to the correct line, they cut me off by like 5 people!!! I had to then wait for standby seats. A few hours later in a mass of 3000+ people later, we finally got in. You can see pix from our seats here. Oh yeah -- when they tell you that a show is LIVE on TV ... it doesn't necessarily mean that it's broadcast live! The taping I went to was recorded the day BEFORE it was broadcast. I know for a fact that the finale for IDOL was, but this particular one was not. We were there in the theater for over 3 hours and the show was edited down to 2 hours.

Nothing much else to say except that I'm just gearing up to go to my baby brother's wedding in Toronto the first week of September. My passport renewal finally came in this week. I kind of put it off until the last minute. Luckily for me, the normal 4-6 week processing time only took a little over 3 weeks to complete. I'm poor so I'm totally going BUDGET on this trip. I will be using buddy passes from an old co-worker from the airline I used to work for. That means that I will be flying standby LAX-JFK-BUF and then taking the bus to Toronto. Glamorous, eh?

.

Sigh.

It's been a pretty slow couple of weeks for me blogwise.  My motivations have been somewhat distracted with personal family matters that just finally cleared up last week.  There was lots of drama.  There was even more heartache.  I'm not going to go into sordid details -- suffice to say, it's all done with.  Time to move forward, right???  

• Facebook - ON.  
  
• Twitter - ON.  
  
• Podcast / Mixing / Downloading and actually BUYING music - ON.  
  
• Gym membership (finally renewed after a full year of non-use) - ON.  
• Work (just dealing with customers and business in general in a tough economy) - ON.
  

Okay -- back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Happy _____.

Parol. from Michael Almacen on Vimeo
(you can mute the sound unless you wanna hear the dog bark)

I took the video above myself from my doorstep. It's called a parol and it's one of the Christmas decorations my family here put up on their house. I will spare you the continuous 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' 8-bit Atari theme it comes with.  We were already spoken to by the neighbor.  

The holidays are interesting here in Southern California. As an east coast transplant, it's definitely a big plus that I don't have to deal with the bitter cold, inclement weather, and overcoats. It does become a lot cooler than average here, however. The scarves actually start to come out around October when the temps drop below 60 degrees Fahrenheit!  ;-)  Seriously, though, it does kind of creep up on you.  You notice it more at night because the temperature changes drastically.  60 degrees with the sun out in the day is a whole lot different than let's say 50 degrees at night ... by the beach.  Trust me.  By the time night rolls around, you are just not prepared for it with the coats and things.  Just call me a baby -- I'm sensitive!

Anyway -- it's the end of an old year and the start of a whole new one.  I've started to get a lot more blog readers.  For years I used to think that I wrote to myself.  Considering I really don't advertise my musings of a whole lot of nothing, it's not bad I guess.  Thank you to all of you who do read.  More comments would be most appreciated.  Making dj mixes has also become a new hobby of mine.  Give me another year -- I'm sure I'll improve a lot.  As for work ... well, it's work.  There are a few things brewing up for me to jump on when the time is right.  Either way -- it involves some change and will eventually be the deciding factor for me to continue living here in Los Angeles.  I've been here for more than 2 years and I'm ready for a change.  We'll just leave it at that for the time being.  What else ...... ?  Oh yeah, my relationship with my family has changed a lot (for the better) this past year.  We've gotten a lot closer despite being split between coasts.  My brothers are all grown up and adults now.  My parents are now both retired and have a lot of time on their hands as well.  With the birth of my new neice, they've mellowed out big time.  Good for them.  Better for us.  Ha!  Lastly, going back home to DC in late November gave me a big boost on my personal morale level.  Seeing my family again and hanging out with old friends again is something that I miss.  We'll see what happens soon to help remedy that.

The new year is definitely a time for change on many levels.  Without the triteness of setting resolutions, I just wish everyone the best and let's start this one out with a bang.  Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas to ... ME.

The above is a handwritten invoice for some MAJOR repairs on the pick-up truck I drive. A celebration is in order ... NOT! Ugh, what a major bummer to have to go through during this time of year. This is something I was totally not prepared for. Oh well -- there's a long back story on why I'm driving this particular vehicle when it isn't actually mine. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say, since I'm using it, I need to take care of it, right? God bless my parents for giving me some money to help pay this off. Sad, but true. Is anyone 'really' too old to get handouts from your parents???

I'm Back!

Yes, I'm back ... home in LA that is. Never mind the fact that it has taken me almost a week to recover from my 10-day holiday back home in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. It was such a whirlwind experience! Other than being home in Maryland and DC, I drove down to Richmond and even took the train up to NYC for a little bit of shenanigans! I got to hang out with my family for the first part of the trip and the later part I spent it with friends. I even got to spend some long lost time with old friends from high school with the help of Facebook! No matter how hard I try to document my experiences with photos, I always seem to forget that I have a camera on hand to take quick snapshots. Either way, fond memories last longer, right? I really miss home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving here in the US! Apparently my family here in Los Angeles 'honored' me with cooking the turkey for dinner. "Erm, I don't cook!" LOL. In the spirit of it all, though, I actually made an attempt. It's amazing what pre-made preparation kits do! Apparently it's all about the stuffing and the brining bag. We'll see! Happy Holidays everyone!

Buddy Walk.

Yesterday was an awesome day here in the Los Angeles area. Aside from being a little off-kilter due to the daylight savings time change, it was a beautiful and (mostly) sunny day in the upper 60's / low 70's! I participated in the Buddy Walk for the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles (DSALA). It was a short distance walk held at the Santa Anita Racetrack that helped raise money and awareness to those who have Down syndrome. As for my little cousin Olivia, she had my uncle to carry her around the whole way! LOL. We just did one lap around the inner perimeter of the race track so it wasn't that bad. Accompanied by an estimated 2,000 others, it was a great day to be out with friends and family!

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

From Buddy Walk 2008

Uncle Mike.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Yep, I'm an uncle now!!! My little brother and his wife had a baby girl over the weekend. 'Daniela' was born this past Saturday and although a few weeks premature at 5 lbs. 5 oz., she's healthy and doing well.

Japonalian or Italianese.

For Mother's Day brunch today I went with my local family to a restaurant in Lomita, CA called IL CHIANTI. Yes, I went to a Japanese style Italian restaurant today. Only in California?!? No honey, it's a small chain of restaurants and surprisingly it was kinda good! Believe it or not, the entire wait-staff and kitchen were all Japanese. Instead of bread you could substitute it for rice! You could even substitute pasta with traditional Japanese soba noodles too! I love it. The whole experience today reminded me about the CHINO-LATINO restaurants in NYC. "Would you like eggrolls with your beans and (fried) rice?!?"

Google CHAT.

My mom just figured out how to use the IM function with her GMAIL address. She was at work and we spent about a half an hour chatting with each other. One of her replies was, "Wow! This is fun!" LOL. Bless her heart. I was like thinking to myself, "Doesn't she have work to do?"

A toe tappin' good time.

Yesterday was my little cousin Nick's 10th birthday. As a family, we all did "family" things for New Year's Eve. We went bowling of all things and caught the movie HAPPY FEET. What a cuuuuuuuuuute movie. A+!

Happy New Year!

The year 2006 has finally come and gone. For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying my earnest to try to come up with something a little more than interesting to post as my “end-of-the-year” wrap-up. I can truthfully say that I’m pretty much at a loss for words … profound ones at least. LOL. I know for a fact that in 2006, I probably fell into one of the deepest holes of depression I’ve probably ever encountered in my life. After quitting my job with the airline back in February, I distanced myself from my immediate family for quite a long time. Instead of trying to get on with life and move on, I pretty much wallowed in the emptiness of endless partying and drugs and the like. It got to the point where I’d go 3-4 days straight without sleeping trying to keep the party going and going until my body just couldn’t. I started falling for my friends really hard (more so than normal) which led to a lot of unnecessary heartbreak. Oh yeah, speaking of friends … I gained a lot and unfortunately lost a few because of the “party” so to speak. I waited until about my birthday in August to put everything into perspective and make the big jump from DC to LA to start to get things right. In hindsight, I’m still pretty amazed to see how I was able to survive for about 6 months or so without a full-time job and living on my own in a house with roommates. Of course during this time, I depleted all of my savings, spent my 401K, ran up credit cards, and ran down bank accounts. But hey, I did have a good time at least, right? Come to think of it, with all of the various things I snorted, smoked, drank, and ingested, I really didn’t feel like eating a whole lot and lost a ton of weight in the process! LOL.

Craziness, huh? It’s all good though. In all reality, I don’t really regret anything that I have done in my life this past year. Drugs definitely bring out many evils in people you know. You definitely learn how to tell the difference between who your REAL friends are from just mere acquaintances. This is just a statement of fact so please don’t imply that I’m passing judgment on anyone here. I’ve met many cool and interesting people and gained some great true friends in the process. I just definitely could have done other things that weren’t so “interesting” of course, but that’s just life. You really don’t live it until you LIVE IT! I suppose you can just take it all in as one big learning experience and then move on, right?

So it just turned 2007 and I’m glad to say that I’m still alive and breathing in Los Angeles! I’m thankful that I have family here to help me out with a place to live and a car to drive while I get myself back together. I don’t smoke cigarettes as much. I certainly haven’t touched any of those little party favors that are simply known as various single letters of the alphabet since I left DC. I do think about it now and then, but it’s no fun when you don’t know anyone to do with them with. A good thing for now I’m sure. New Year’s resolutions are a bit trite so I’ll just set some “guidelines” to live my life by this year. For starters, (1) I need to get healthier and start exercising and lose some weight in a good way. (2) I really need to find a good job that I REALLY like. (3) I also really want to move and eventually settle in San Francisco. How’s that for being vague yet to the point? LOL. Wish me luck so that 2007 will turn out to be a fantastic year for me!!!

You are always entertaining and delightful.

That was my fortune tonight at dinner. Yes, I went to a Chinese restaurant tonight for Thanksgiving dinner! The relatives I’m staying with were just too busy with work and weren’t up for cooking a big dinner. I thought we were going to go to my aunt’s house this evening. Little did I know that I was in for a pleasant surprise to be heading on down into Los Angeles’ “Chinatown” neighborhood. I’m all about rice (the grain, that is)!

The whole American tradition of Thanksgiving dinner is pretty much a foreign custom to me and my family. It was never one of those long drawn out meals that lasted in the afternoon and into the night to me. Oh yeah, and TURKEY? My mom doesn’t like it so we usually had chicken or roast beef or something. Come to think of it, I don’t think I even tasted a stuffed Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixings until I was a teenager or something when I visited a friend’s family for their observance of the holiday. Of course they thought I was weird I didn’t know what to do with the cranberry sauce. LOL.

It takes two (Part 1).

The photo above was taken yesterday with my Mom. She was still visiting all the way from Maryland. We're both showing off our new haircuts! It was too cute ... me and my mother went to the beauty parlor today to get our hair cut together. She got a mani/pedicure. I almost got an eyebrow waxing. I decided save her the grief of NOT seeing me going through with it. It took her months to get over the fact that I had BOTH of my ears pierced back in the day. (I'll save it for my next haircut in a few weeks!)