Nov. 15 - National Protest

On November 15th there will be a national protest against Proposition 8. Check here for the location/event details: http://www.jointheimpact.com/

Petitioning

Because I can't say it better - I quote below:

No matter your opinion on gay marriage, Proposition 8 is about discrimination and elimination of fundamental rights and is therefore unfair and wrong. Never before in California's history has a group, who currently enjoys a basic right, been singled out and then had those rights ripped from them by a vote of their fellow citizens. This decision is so radical and so egregious that every voice must first be heard, no matter how unlikely a changed outcome might be.

Please sign and pass it along.

But please - only sign this petition if you are a California resident.

http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/

MEANWHILE - while I was at the hospital and not participating in any important protests... they suggested on the news that it was the large amount of black voters in the state that came out to vote for Obama that ALSO voted Yes on Prop 8. Umm..... hello? Hypocrisy much?

And another MEANWHILE... people keep comparing Obama to Kennedy. Umm ... hello! Kennedy was assassinated... you might want to hush your mouths and knock on some wood.

And once again... MEANWHILE ... the NOonProp8 site has now become the InvalidateProp8.com website. They're now suggesting we donate money and that every time we donate money they'll send a postcard to the leader of the Mormon church since apparently they donated all the money to pay for the ads that convinced people to vote Yes. First of all - their ads were hurtful and dumb and if you had a lick of sense you didn't fall for 'em. So the people that were convinced by those ads were gonna vote Yes anyway IMHO. Secondly, harassing people with an onslaught of mail is just getting into eye for an eye stuff. I think we can be bigger than that. (But then again there was some representative of the church on TV tonight who said something to the effect of, "California voted Yes. The gays need to suck it up." And that makes me want to send a lot of angry postcards to THAT ratbastard.)

Don't get confused!

If you're a California voter I'd just like to take this moment to let you know that a vote in favor of Prop 8 is a vote AGAINST people that you know, that you're friends with, that are members of your family, that you look up to or who look up to you.

It's a vote AGAINST me - as well. I was surprised to learn that some of my friends were confused and thought that to show support for me they had to vote Yes. Don't get confuzzled! Vote No.

(I'm Erin and I approve this message.)

mis·take

mis·take /mɪˈsteɪk/ Pronunciation[mi-steyk]
noun, verb, -took, -tak·en, -tak·ing.
–noun
1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
2.

Oct. 29 - Synchronicty

I've been having TONS of synchronistic occurrings as of late. This was today's from breakfast at Coco's.

No on H8

These are seriously awesome. More awesome than the damn boring No on Prop 8 commercials that I donated money to air. (If you're reading this blog I'm most likely preaching to the choir by posting these but JUST IN CASE.)

Haunted tour in Hollywood

A few weeks ago I went on a Haunted Hollywood ghost tour for the first time. It was probably my first touristy tour of Hollywood and it was definitely my first hunt for ghosties in the area. I would link you to the tour company except for the fact that it was wretched! Oy! I could have given a better tour with less knowledge. The tour guide was more interested in dropping names ("During the day I make movies and I just finished one with Mark Wahlberg. " And, "My good friend (dropped name) was telling me that (something inconsequential).") My mother was there as well and she was irritated to the point of seeking out reasons to call him an idiot (she finally found one later in the tour).

Now the knowledge might be interesting and the the guy who took us to our van was super into the whole thing...but the tour guide/driver was boring. And he drove like a maniac.

The best part of the tour was when we told the Bulgarians in the back of our van that they were on a haunted tour. They were like, "We don't believe in ghosts." Then why are you on the haunted tour? "What is haunted?" HA!

But the guide did drive us by Winona Ryder's house (at some point it turned into a celebrity homes tour??)!! And he did take us to the witch house in Beverly Hills. (Then he told us some bullshit story about it's history.)

I don't know if it's really haunted but we took pictures, just in case, to try and capture some orbs. (The house is being fixed up at the moment... thus the fence.)

Here is how most of the pictures I took came out:

There are actually a few orbs in there!

But then I remembered that I had had so much luck with taking a picture of Julie the ghost (in New Orleans) years ago by telling her OUT LOUD that I was there to take her picture - so I decided to do the same at the witch house.

I said, "Hey ghosts. I'm here to take your picture. SAY CHEEEEEESE!!"

And this is the picture I got of them smiling:

That got the "Oh Shit!" response from me. I don't know about you.

Ghost Tours I've been on in the world:

- Jack the Ripper/Haunted tour of London (by bus)
- Jack the Ripper walking tour of London
- Queen Mary (hands down, the best one!)
- French Quarter in New Orleans
- Mummies in a church tour in Ireland
- Stonehenge (I'm counting it even though there was not really a ghost or alien focus)
- Seattle (the most entertaining simply because the tour guide was funny)
- Newport, Rhode Island (eh...not so sure about that one)
- and now Hollywood (Could have been cool... but the guide was lame...I'm considering taking over his position. Even if I suck my enthusiasm trumps his whole tour.)

In other haunted news - I was watching part of the Travel Channel's Most Haunted Live event a week or so ago when they were roaming around Gettysburg. I was manning the webcams and I swear I saw some mysterious things going on!

Compositing!

Last quarter I studied Compositing as an elective. Though I didn't finish it to my full satisfaction - I decided to share my final project anyway!

Be a Millie!

Since I'm an only child I adopted myself some big sisters. Lorre, director of the upcoming MILLIES movie, is one of them. Watch a little behind the scenes magic and become a Millie with me!

Cooler

Today I've been playing with Adobe's Kuler (pronounced "Cooler") site. (Otherwise known as procrastination.)

Here are some fun themes I made today (which are all downloadable and usable in your Adobe CS3 applications) :

• JHorror (the blue and beige I based my current MySpace Halloween page on)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (grabbed from BSD art)
• Erin by Jenni  (grabbed from a painting JenniPrange.com did of me)
• Raven (grabbed from an image of a raven's wing)
• Suicide Girl Tattoo
  
• Wine Bottle
• Sangria
• Blush Wine
• White Zinfandel
• Merlot
• Fried Green Tomatoes
• Idgie and Ruth

When I was in sad... Engrish cheered up my mind

In Tokyo Lesley and I found this awesome Engrish sign on the wall in "our" station (Nishi-Shinjuku). It was one of the few Engrish signage things I actually found ... most of the random-ass Engrish was on t-shirts and everyday fun items. Well, it turns out that this sign is one of many - it’s a whole campaign of happiness and thanks to Gabriel I was able to see these alternatives:







Now those are entertaining (I think) but most of my Tokyo hilarity came courtesy of the junk souvenirs I bought. (I regret that I sent some out to friends and DIDN’T write down what they said...I should have captured those for posterity! Dangit!) Here are some gems that I KEPT FOR MYSELF:

Fucuckle!! No idea what that means but shout it with glee, my friends! Because the Make-U-Happy Kaori Doll is here! Not much makes ME happier than tiny little smiley black things with skulls.




What does make me happier than scary little wish dolls?? Trees! Definitely, hands-down, trees. Trees help me out when I’m in sad.


But every now and then trees can’t cheer me up and I get down and my muscles get sore. But that’s when I resort to the healtiness of the Pocke-Bow hook.

The plastic massage hook makes me feel safe and cared for somehow.



But the ABSOLUTE BEST PURCHASE I made in Tokyo was this amazing technological invention:



Say it with me... VIRTUAL BUBBLE WRAP!!! Bubble wrap that you can NEVER FINISH POPPING!!! (Unless the battery dies.) This not only has the tactile sensation of popping a bubble wrap bubble - it also makes "the sound." And if you push on it enough - every once in a while you unlock a secret sound. Puppy barks, bells, fart noises. It. Is. Never. Ending. Joy! You can see how much joy it brings just by looking at the packaging!

(I know. You’re jealous.)

Tokyo Times

Last month when I was in Tokyo my gang of travelers and I were stopped by a handful of foreigners (foreign to Japan, that is) in Shibuya on the last night of our trip. Since we'd already agreed to skip the subway (the train shuts down at midnight) and take a cab back to our hotel we decided it wouldn't hurt to hang out with them for a while and chat about Tokyo culture and where to look for panda costumes. It was an interesting moment in life. How often does one get to chat with a bunch of people from France, Italy, Canada and etc. whilst hanging outside of the 7-11 (or as it is known in Japan, the "7 and i Holdings") in Shibuya?



The former-American of the group of foreign guys was this gentleman - Gabriel - who currently lives and works in Tokyo.




Gabriel has a blog about his day to day adventures in Tokyo that I've been reading since we got back. Check it out: New Gabriel Times

And now... before bed... more music.

My favorite song of this week:

My favorite song from two weeks ago:

..

Finals. You know what that means.

Music Video Interlude

I cannot... CANNOT... get this song out of my head.

And since we're on the topic of music from within a movie... here's one of the most beautiful movie music moments I've ever seen.

And now to bring you back up out of the wallow... here's the catchiest groove I've discovered in the past month (and this video fascinates me in its simplicity:

These vids were all from iMeem.com ... my favorite website of the week. If you're on iMeem - add me: http://www.imeem.com/ravie13

And now you know...

Ever wonder about the floating heads? I know I did. And now I no longer have to.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Tsukiji Market (fish and produce)

This is a conglomeration of snippets and pix from my recent trip to the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan.

Our visit to Namjatown!

Oscar Rant

I'm not sure this is really deserving of the title "rant" but anyhoo....

1) Boring. Wow... boring. I miss the shadow people.
2) Jon Stewart .... eh. He didn't suck like Letterman but it just really makes you appreciate Billy and Ellen so much more.
3) The Halle Barre back and forth... not funny. And it went on and on and on like most of the unfunny SNL skits these days.
4) Seriously... could the singing numbers have been more boring?
5) THANKFULLY Atonement won for score and Once won for song and Diablo won for script so the three things I actually cared about (and saw) won.
6) I still miss the Silence of the Lambs year.......(sigh)
7) Where the fuck was Brad Renfro in the Memorium?? (I'm not the only one who noticed: TMZ )
8) The salute to binoculars and periscopes was the funniest thing in the show. That was good... and bad dreams.. also cute. However one of the many montages included montage clips from LAST YEAR'S OSCARS! Is that what they meant by "green Oscars"? Recycled material??

And there ya go..... here's to Brad! (Come to think of it... was Jonathan Brandis ever in a Memorium?? Who else's deaths have they been snubbing? Oscar people - this is how we find out who died! You can't snub people!)

When Feist meets Donnie Darko...

.... you get this video by Bat For Lashes:

Louis Vuitton Murakami

Ebay Auction A few weeks ago I went to the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the MOCO (Museum of Contemporary Art) at the Geffen. This was the first confusing part as it wasn't AT the MOCA - it was at this wing of the MOCA behind the Japanese museum. My friend and I were going on a mission because she'd been asked by a New York friend to pick up one of these Louis Vuitton purses. Neither one of us are "Purse" or "Fashion" people so we didn't really know what the big deal was - we were going for the art! But while there we decided to pick up a second purse (since they are one per customer and there were two of us). The original purse got shipped off to her friend in New York and we decided to eBay the second one.

Beyond the Louis Vuitton store there were quite a few interesting Murakami pieces - my favorite was the animation pieces. There was a great one featuring his characters KaiKai and KiKi (sp?) involving watermelon seeds and poop. Any kid comedy featuring poop is just instantly classic I believe! :) There were also a lot of pieces just generally featuring bodily functions like happy little mutant erections ("My Body is Alive!") and lactation and semen sprays... happily spraying. (Thankfully not live.) All in all - there is just nothing quite like modern Japanese art.


Here's a little something Takashi did for Louis Vuitton (beyond the purse) that features some of that purse art :


Example of KaiKai and KiKi animation:




And here's a specific tour of the exhibition: