Aliki & Baron's Wedding Weekend... a week later

Hey Kids,

PLEASE NOTE: We're on HGTV's show, Urban Outsiders this Wednesday! Set your TIVOs, DVRs, and VCRs now! August 2nd, 9:30pm (or 6:30 depending on your provider. Please check local listings.

Anyway, this weekend we continued Steve's birthday party. Yes, it's an extended birthday even because we were never able to have one big day. We did a small family thing, the Steve & Rick date night, and then a bar night that we literally threw together on Friday... Naturally, I didn't think to bring a camera and take pictures.
This last-minute things is mainly because Steve has been working overtime to create and approve snowglobes for The Disney Store by this week, and I've been finishing up all of my internet segments for Fashion House. Plus, while Steve was at work on Saturday I was writing my restaurant reviews for Metrosource and studying up on the next TV series for MyNetworkTV... but more on that later. Instead, I'll now include this photo of his upcoming Little Mermaid globe that will be out in October for the DVD release.


Last week we went to Aliki Theofilopoulos and Baron Grafft's wedding, which was one of the reasons why Steve and I missed going to Comic-Con. But I DID have enough brains to snap some photos there.











This group shot covers the animation crew attending the wedding, including Becca (who also catered the wedding cupcake tower pictured below), Kat, Farrah, Mary Jo-- Baron and Aliki, of course-- Steve, Eric (development exec on Chalkzone among other cartoons), and Jun who directed Aliki's shorts (among other things as well).
Not only did they have a cool red velvet cupcakes for the wedding cake, but due to certain dietary concerns that had nothing to do with vanity, Becca made them with Splenda. And you know what? They were hella good! I now love her company Blu Ruby, and hope she can move this hobby into a full-time deal.
There's Steve dancing crazy with Mary Jo. They shared offices while animating various Disney films, including Tarzan.
Ahh, that's my man. Don't wear him out.

Fashion House Updates! SF Wedding! One Week To HGTV!

So much to cover today-- let's get started.

At Fashion House, the new Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild short dramatic series on MyNetworkTV, you can FINALLY see some of the material I've been writing.

Until the network launches on September 5th, the website will be showing prequels about the show that offer insight into the characters and storylines. These prequels lead up to the launch of the series, so every day you should have new stuff loaded up on the MyNetworkTV.com website to check out. This link gets you to the archive page, which has the info spot explaining the network, a commercial you've probably seen here on the blog already, and the first five monologues. Sexy people, interesting bits, and they'll just get juicier as time goes on. Check them out every day if you have time.

HGTV News!

The episode of Urban Outsiders featuring Steve and I is still slated to premiere next week (barring any changes in scheduling).

But in the meantime, you can check out these message boards about the show and see what other people are saying. It's going to be so strange to have them talking about our yard next week!

Television Without Pity
and
Fans of Reality TV
(with photos)

Just an FYI, HGTV closed their message board for Urban Outsiders. Not sure why.

Finally... The Wedding in San Francisco

Two weekends ago we went to San Francisco for a wedding. But before that happened we drove to Walnut Creek where Steve grew up. There we had lunch with Steve's mom, Lauretta. If you've read my articles in Instinct Magazine from years ago, this is the woman I wrote about with the Jesus painting that kept watching us. If you haven't read it, I'll probably reprint it somewhere down the line.

Here's Lauretta now with me and Steve...
Then we saw Andrea, Steve's friend since second grade, and her mother...
Then we drove to Palo Alto where we checked into a hotel, quickly jaunted back into San Francisco for our anniversary dinner at Asia de Cuba (Fantastic!) and then back to the hotel so we could sleep and be awake for Piccolo's wedding.

Yes, "Piccolo"... Let me explain.

Steve went to school with a girl named Amy, whom all their friends call "Piccolo" because she played the instrument in high school and was boy crazy like Jenny Piccolo from Happy Days. (Scary, but I kind of get it...) Anyway, here she is with Dave, her husband, at the wedding.

It was at a winery. We had fun.

Here's Steve with Rachel, who we had a great time hanging out with at the reception. Please note the shoes.
Here's Diana (who they call "Stephy"-- evidently, this name change thing was VERY big at art school in the '90s) with the flower girl, who ended up getting a big sister crush on Diana.
Finally, here's Karianne, her husband Tony from the Creative Types blog, Diana and Steve. This was a little while before Steve and Karianne started wildly dancing with cake plates in their hands which sent frosting flying across the reception hall. Good times.
All for now. With such a long blog my work day has started late.

Steve's Birthday

Last night Steve and I went to West, the Italian steakhouse located on the top floor of the Hotel Angelino in Brentwood. This building was a former Holiday Inn-- one of those round ones ones that inspired oohs and ahhs back in the day and then derision in the 90s and 2000s-- but now it's a swank hotel with a fantastic restaurant that features gorgeous views of the city.

Lovely, bite sized appetizers to share, like short rib ravioli and gnocci in a porcini & cheese sauce (all pasta is handmade on site), and brilliant steaks-- Steve had the petite filet mignon and I had the New York strip. We also tasted the best pomegranate martinis ever. Such a great experience.

Then we got home and checked the backyard for this kitty that we helped save one night. It had gotten trapped between our new wood fence and the cement wall that had was covered up with the yard redo. Now it, it's brother and mom all like to sleep on our fence at night. But tonight we just found kitty and mom staring at this...
It's a young possum with the longest tail I've ever seen. I think they're vile creatures. I've hated them ever since I was a kid at my mom's house and went to empty the trash one evening and found a possum hanging by its tail and hissing at me. Huge. I screamed. It was the size of my face. I've since had an aversion to emptying trash. And yeah, I was 21 at the time, but if I met a 21 year old today I'd call him a kid. So there.

Anyway, momma cat hissed at possum when it got onto the ledge and too close to kitty, and then it left. We heard it getting in a fight with another cat not far away.

Then Steve spotted this bug hanging out on our ledge:
Crazy bug. Never seen anything like it. Steve thinks it's a mutant caused by global warming, so we went to bed amidst 80 degree temps and with that thought in our head.

Happy birthday.

Quinceañera, Steve's Birthday, my painting, and more...

Our episode of Urban Outsiders-- if nothing changes this time-- is set for next week! Check it out, August 2nd, 9:30 pm (or 6:30 depending on your provider). Woo hoo!

For those of you that have been reading since Steve and I moved to Echo Park, there was this whole need for me to embrace my non-existent Latino heritage. This included getting my folo (faux cholo) haircut at the local barbershop from Salvador.

Well, check it out. In the trailer for the new movie Quinceñera, which is a coming-of-age story amidst the gentrification of our beloved Echo Park, Salvador and his barber partner are in it! That's Salvador cutting hair on the right-- not sure if he's in the movie for more than a montage moment but I love that he's in it at all. This film was the toast of Sundance, and while I don't think the trailer necessarily shows the complexity and depth of this film, I'm super excited that it's coming out in a week!



Today is Steve's birthday. We're going somewhere to eat, and it's convenient that this coincides with me needing to review a swank restaurant for Metrosource. I hope we have a good meal. More later on that.

Also, the lovely James Huctwith produced another painting and this one happens to be of me from a photo he took back in 2001 (I look MUCH younger now).

James is a professional artist-- as in, he lives off his painting-- and he did a smaller one of me (the younger one below) that we refer to as his "rent" painting since he did so many versions of it. (I think it's because I was in leather pants, but who can say?)

I'd never seen this new painting until now-- though there was one of me shirtless from this same dark, goatee era but I don't know if it ever sold. I do, however, know that I had a stalker in Toronto at one time because of James' work. Ahh, the art world. So exciting!

WORD OF THE WEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!! (July 24)

The word of the week is: Twocan

Definition: Noun. A person who speaks very loudly on a cell phone, as though he were actually talking into one of two tin cans attached by a long wire.

In a scene:
Steve and Rick are having a nice quiet dinner with brothers Jeff and John at a fancy restaurant. Conversation is deep.

RICK: And that was the night my father died...

Suddenly, a cha-cha queen enters (wearing Prada, Prada, Gucci, Gucci), yapping on his jewel-encrusted cell phone as he sits at the next table.


CHA-CHA QUEEN: GIRL! And then I said to Mary, "BLAH BLAH, CHAT CHAT, CARRA CARRA CARRA!"
Our conversation abruptly stops
JOHN (rolling his eyes): What a twocan!

Thanks to John S. for that one. And for more Words of the Week, visit the Archives!

Comic-Con Weekend... and I'm in LA.

I'm filled with a bittersweet feeling this morning. It's Day 2 (or 2 1/2 if you go to Preview Night) of Comic-Con International in San Diego. It's the largest convention in the US for comic books and related popular culture, and I've been going since I was 13 and living in San Diego. That's 21 years folks, it was one of the first dates Steve and I took together (hell, it was our first travel date as well) and because of work I am missing it.

After those first two years simply attending the show I began volunteering so I could get in free and spend my admission money on buying comics. But I soon connected with a group of friends who were the freaks and geeks of society. The drama kids, the Star Trek nerds, the wargamers, the costumers, the dudes who never got out in public but knew every bit of trivial information you could possibly find on movies, TV and comics. Within that first year, volunteering wasn't about getting in for free it was about having a solid group of friends I loved seeing all the time.

And in that group I stood out as one of the crazy cool people. Not just because I knew everything there was to know about Wonder Woman-- which in this group wasn't just amusing it was also respected-- but I was the token gay and to them it seemed so alternative! Wild! Creative!... I was actually appreciated for my queerness, and it was a feeling I'd never experienced until that point in my life.

Those friends have also remained with me-- my girlfriend Anna Maria and I have been roommates nearly every year until now-- and for some it's the only time that I get to see them.

Perhaps this acceptance came because we were all outcasts to some degree, but the bottom line was that I found a second home that allowed me to feel protected, and it seemed only fitting that I would later go on to publish the Comic-Con magazine-- I was helping promote the event that had given me shelter as a young person.

So when I've gotten calls this week from friends in San Diego, all wondering when we can hook up for lunch or a drink, I feel a twinge of sadness. But here's the other thing that I realize...

I can feel somewhat sad, but I can't feel angry or wounded by the situation. You see, during those same years growing up in San Diego, I would sit in on panels where TV and movie creators or authors would discuss the creative process and I would imagine being up there on that stage. I wanted to work in entertainment, I wanted people to see and read my work, and out of all those other friends at the show I was the one who went on to follow the dream (another perk, I suppose, to being gay and not letting those "I can't" fears bog you down). So now I am missing the convention because I'm working on a TV show, and one that the public is already responding to. What I should be is thankful, and so I am. Very much so.

As my friend David says-- who is down there right now-- the show will go on next year, and the year after that. And Steve and I will be able to revisit it then. So this year, I'm going to spend some time working on my fictional novel about the convention and thinking about all the good memories I have from that place, realizing how good it was, is and will be in the future.

Where Can You See MyNetworkTV

Since my good friend, Greg, (okay, a dude who's kind enough to read my blog and comment regularly) asked this question I thought I would answer.

My show will me on the new MyNetworkTV, which is usually the UPN affiliate in your city. Since Greg is from Orange County, that would be UPN 13 which will now be called My13. In fact, when you watch some shows like Tyra, they already have that logo up.

Thanks for asking.

Right now I'm trying to get my second book into the Memoirists Collective, which includes Hillary Carlip whom I love. She's the only person I know to have won a real gong from The Gong Show AND she still has it. But as a result of her cool group who are helping authors get published, I had to start my MySpace page. I also have an Amazon.com author space now up. It's a bit crazy. More blogs and spaces and things than I have time to fill... I'm thinking of running some of my old columns or something. Spare what few brain cells I have left.

Any suggestions, let me know. I'll be happy if I can get my Word of the Week out for this week (remember, it's going to be Twocans...)

Weekend Stuff

Hey Kids,

Just got back from the wedding in San Francisco and it was a busy, beautiful experience. Lots of drinking... and yet the bride's mother totally drunk all of us under the table. She's a piece of work. I'll write more about her later.

Tomorrow I'll be shooting 13 of the 26 internet segments for Desire the other telenovela they're doing here. I'm helping them finish up some stuff. Great experience, but it makes me miss Comic-Con in San Diego. Hoping to shoot down on Thursday night and see it Friday before coming back for ANOTHER wedding this Saturday/Sunday here in LA.

I need a vacation but then they're gearing up for the next telenovela next week, so I'm off and running again. Oh, and somehow we're fitting Steve's birthday into all of this. God help us.

Fashion House Commercials & More

Steve and I leave for San Francisco Saturday morning for our friend Amy's wedding. If you see us out Saturday night, say hello. We'll snap your photo and put you on the blog. VERY exciting. I know.

TheUrban Outsiders producer e-mailed and said there was a mix up and we should be on in August. We'll keep you updated and, again, sorry about the confusion.

Okay, my favorite person on YouTube has posted all the current Fashion House commercials. This is definitely worth wasting time over. The first one with Morgan Fairchild and Bo Derek in a slap fight I've already posted... The same with the "See Pretty, Get Ugly"... but why not check them out again?

And now, here's the teaser for "Pretty People." And yes, he is an Abercrombie model (He bought me coffee once. It wasn't love-- he's not my type, he's straight-- but it was thoughtful.)






And now check out the Monday through Friday montage. Couple things to know... You get to see a very fast look at another hot guy. Woo hoo! Also, at the end it says the program is on "My9". That's the local station. Fashion House will not necessarily be played on Channel 9 across the country. When I get a link showing which stations will play the show in various cities I'll let you know.


Here's a scene where Morgan pokes fun at Bo; I wrote this one... and it'll get better when you see the whole thing during the series.

God these women look wonderful.


And finally, here's one I call "Family Love"... SO good!

One last bit of news: I won't be going to Comic-Con International this year! It's the first time since I was 13 that I haven't gone, and I'm super bummed. BUT... I'm helping produce 13 internet segments and they shoot next week during the convention. Great experience, so I've got to do it. If you're there, have a geek out fest in my name.

Our TV Debut...

...never happened. The episode they showed featured an ex-marine couple who hadn't done anything to their backyard-- as opposed to our yard which was just hideous-- and I apologize to everyone who watched/recorded/posted on their blogs about the event in hopes of seeing us and our amazing transformation. At this point, we have no idea when we'll be on because there's no date/time listing on our summary anymore.

Perhaps we've been dropped. Perhaps it's a big gay conspiracy to not launch a show with a same-sex couple. Perhaps an assistant screwed up. Perhaps it was aliens... Who can say? Bottom line, it didn't happen and when it does we'll let you know.

So our family came over, we ate really yummy food, and then we watched Fashion House commercials on YouTube. Here's one of the montages I like; Bo, once again, is fantastic. I'll post the rest of them tomorrow because these are DEFINITELY worth wasting watching on a Friday at work.

HGTV Countdown Day 1 -- WTF?!

I had a hard time sleeping last night because I was super excited about our episode of Urban Outsiders premiering today. Steve's been anxious for the last few days but I've been on TV a couple times-- including this TV Land special to the right where I talked about Wonder Woman...

I was pretty chill until now, but last night it was so bad that I got hungry again, obsessed about being hungry, had to find something to eat, and then tried to sleep again; by 2am I was out cold, but it wasn't easy.

Then this morning I woke up, saw a friend on IM and sent him a note about the show. And as I went to the HGTV website to send him a link to our episode I found this:
Schedule...
Our Summary...

We're not listed! They have he "Urban Spa" episode listed as tonight (and again in August, FYI) and then when you go to our summary there's no air date at all!

Okay, now when I did the above-mentioned TV Land special the website airdates were all wrong, so I'm not totally freaking out. And HGTV has flipped around our times before on the website. And TV Guide and TIVO have specifically mentioned our episode title for tonight-- not sure if they are currently. So this could just be some new production assistant getting confused because we were the fourth taped but they want us first aired-- who knows?

But I still have to ask... WTF?! We have family coming over tonight! We bought cheese! I made pesto (which we're serving with a lovely penne pasta and grilled chicken)! We're making caprese salad! We got everything for a lovely Italian antipasto platter including olives, marinated artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms, roasted bell peppers, wine... WE BOUGHT BREAD! (said with dramatic flair). It's just really annoying.

So I guess we won't know anything until 6:30pm tonight-- 9:30 for you east coasters because we get your east coast feed. If nothing else, we'll have a lovely cocktail party, celebrate Steve's brother getting a major design job before graduating college, and watch Fashion House commercials... But it would really be nice to toast the garden so if you know anyone at HGTV make a call, would you?

Thanks. Cheers.

HGTV Countdown Day 2 & A Fashion House Commercial!

In just two days (Got that? TWO days!) our episode of Urban Outsiders is scheduled to premiere on HGTV. We're just having family over that night because Steve and I are working too much to organize a big party. We're also gone the next two weekends so maybe at the end of the month we'll have a shindig to celebrate.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be no Words of the Week this week because of the show, the commentary to follow, and the fact that we'll be in San Francisco this weekend at a wedding (which should also provide PRIME blogging material!). But next week's word will be Twocan. Ponder the possibilities...

BIG FASHION HOUSE NEWS!

I love YouTube, especially because two people have posted the Fashion House commercials. For those of you newbies, that's the show I'm working on for the fledgling MyNetworkTV. Check it out:
First you have Bo Derek looking fabulous...
Then you have Morgan Fairchild looking fabulous!

SLAP!

And the logos...
Watch the whole trailer at this link. It's fun, bitchy, and a perfect slice of what's to come. As I get more info that I'm allowed to post, I'll do it.

Wonderful Weekend and HGTV Countdown Day 3!

This is Shannon of the famous LA blogging site Sha In LA. As often happens with bloggers in general and same-city bloggers in particular, Shannon and I have mutual friends. We learned this when Steve was cruising LA blogs and saw pictures of our friends Eric and Phil on her blog at the lovely downtown wine bar 626 Reserve. So I started going to her blog, she went to mine, and after Eric and Phil had their loft-warming downtown this Saturday the two of us finally met.

Fortunately, Shannon is a real blogger and brings her camera with her, so I stole these from her site.
Here she is with me...
And here is Lisa-- my boxing coach and friend-- Steve and myself at 626 Reserve where we had yummy dinner.

The cool thing about LA right now is how downtown is finally being redeveloped but Eric and Phil are on the early end, so you can still go down and find parking, discover new bars, and feel like you're on the inside track for what will be popular in 5+ years. Plus, with Steve and I living in Echo Park, we're only five minutes from downtown so we can visit and yet still have a backyard.

And speaking of backyards....

Urban Outsiders Premiere Watch 2006!

We're on this Wednesday, July 12, 9:30pm or 6:30 depending on your provider. Check listings.

And then we saw Elvis!

No joke, there we were... at a birthday party for Anthony and Karianne's baby. British Elvis showed up. I'd post a picture but I have an aversion to thin British Elvises (Elvisi? What is the plural of Elvis?). And since their baby is only a year old, I think this had more to do with dad than child. But let me just say one thing: I NEVER want to hear Anthony call me a geek again just because I like Battlestar Gallactica because good SciFi trumps dead singing drunks any day. That's all I'm sayin'.

HGTV Premiere and Battlestar Gallactica News

HGTV WATCH: We're still listed as being on the premiere episode of Urban Outsiders next Wednesday at 9:30 pm, but we get the east coast feed on our Dish system so make sure to check out your listings.

HEY BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA FANS!

Our friend Matt Breen over at Out.com wrote this great article featuring an interview with Jamie Bamber-- the dude with the arms. Since the show won't return until the fall, and in case you can't make it to Comic-Con in San Diego and see the cast live, this will be a nice little boost.

And if you have a chance this weekend, tune in to your old UPN network and watch for new MyNetworkTV Commercials. They're now showing spots on Fashion House, the program I worked on-- I saw a couple during the Tyra show-- go figure. Fun, campy, sexy goodness.

WORD OF THE WEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!! (July 6)

The word of the week is: Fag-Wa

Definition: Noun. A legal opinion or decree in queer culture that is given by a recognized authority-- namely someone with ties to the Gay Mafia.

NOTE: I wish I could take credit for this one, but I can't. My friend Brian directed me to the TowelRoad blog for this story:

"Fag-Wa" Issued As Gays Escorted from Pharrell Bash

Drama in Milan.

Pharrell Williams has reportedly apologized to Elton John's husband David Furnish after his security detail led Furnish, Burberry head Christopher Bailey, and Dsquared2's Dan and Dean Caten out the door of a GQ party he was hosting at fashion week in Milan.

In an attempt to get more ladies in the room, the bodyguard flushed the glamorous gaggle of gays out the door, saying: "There's too much sausage in the room."

One guest told the Daily News: "It was disgusting and blatantly homophobic. We left and issued a fag-wa against Pharrell. We hope his next album tanks."

Everything appears to be cleared up now, but we're glad that "fag-wa" had the opportunity to enter the lexicon.

And so are we over at Mondo-Ricko! For more Words of the Week, visit the Archives!

HGTV Airs Our First Commercial!

We finally got to see a small glimpse of our yard on TV with the new commercials for HGTV's Urban Outsiders. They have a really short one where you see Matt and a worker planting an olive tree, but the longer one really features our place.

Here's the announcer: From New York to LA, Matt James is on a mission. He's got a passion for turning impossible places... (insert this image of our backyard...)
(followed by Matt in this image saying, "Sheesh!")
Announcer: ...into lush spaces. (insert an image of someone else's yard.

Now, this IS Matt in our yard... but you'll notice the wood battens are up on the wall, so this is actually when he first saw the work done after being laid up for a couple days.

But here he is trying to wheel things through our tiny alley.
And here's the exciting logo!
Okay, so when is our episode?

Well, the dates have changed again! And once again, WE'RE THE PREMIERE EPISODE. (Okay, I'm done getting excited about this because it could change again. But our friend Jerry called this afternoon excited about seeing our yard on TV. Fun!)

We'll keep you updated as the show goes on, and once it does premiere then we'll really put up some other photos to showcase the yard.