Friday 12.18.09

It was a little bit of stress this week finishing unpacking and getting my place decorated for the party on Saturday night. There were 40+ people coming and I was trying desperately to make the place look perfect. This was no easy task and of course my pseudo bf Kim was instrumental in making things happen. Costco, Lowes, IKEA, Ralphs, BevMo, Best Buy (yay! a new camera!) etc… you get the idea. I had a ton of original artwork framed and I also had eight 20×30 posters made of photos that I had taken over the years that had a Christmas or wintery theme. There is a very long narrow hallway when you walk into my place that I like to think of as my gallery… Kim and I were playing museum curator and speaking in our best snooty British voices while hanging the posters on Friday night.

So here is a mini tour of my place:

This first one is pretty self explanatory. You should have seen the look on the guy’s face at the Del Mar Fair when I asked him to carve this 3 years ago.

Now remember, I fell in love with this loft 13 years ago and always dreamed of this hallway as a “gallery” of sorts. Do not think that I won’t be dedicating this hallway to you if it’s your birthday and I am throwing a party in your honor. All of these 20×30′s were shot in the month of December over the years…. gotta love Costco for printing posters in 3 hours for $8.99. Granted, the quality is not the best, but who cares when you plan on changing them out every few months.

^^ RIP Sierra. This was taken in the mid 90′s.

The SD skyline in the early 90′s. I can tell you that the skyline has changed dramatically and there are many more buildings now. The line coming from the right side is an airplane landing.

Sierra and her best friend Vanity, who passed away earlier this year. (This was probably around 1996?)

This was my Christmas card one year in the late 90′s during the heavy “Got Milk?” years. Mine said “Got Eggnog?” and I miraculously caught the very last drop of eggnog coming out of the carton…. WITH A SELF TIMER AND RUNNING AND GETTING INTO THE PICTURE. Pure luck!

Lake Tahoe 2006 for Tiffany’s birthday, we almost got snowed in! I love to take the pink monkey and chuck him in the air next to monuments, and this seemed like an appropriate time to throw him up in the air.

This is Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. I was on my way to Antarctica in 2004. This shot was taken at about 3:00 am from my hotel window, and as you can see the sky is almost like dusk. (The sun doesn’t set in the south pole during those months, remember. Sucks for insomniacs) The white glowing thing is a giant pine tree dressed with lights.

This is somewhere in the Antarctic Peninsula. I don’t remember at this moment where exactly… I mean shit it all looks the same. This is one of my favorite shots from that entire trip. It shows so many different kinds of ice and the more blue that it is, the older it is. We are talking hundreds of years old. Antarctica is one of the driest places on earth and there is very little precipitation… less than 8 inches a year! Cold as fuck, but sunny a lot of the time. I was totally sunburned in small spots on my face only when I returned home. OK, enough discovery channel shit, if you want to see more of those pics check it out here: Pink Monkey Tour. Obvi click on the map at the bottom

This was my Christmas card in 2005. I love to take photos of myself in reflections of things. Call me narcissicist. I think it is interesting and I love it when I look utterly hideous and deformed. One time I was on the Amtrak in the bathroom taking pics in the cheap warped mirror and I almost pissed myself laughing. I gotta find those and post them! Funhouse mirrors rule.

Nothing like a little swine flu hysteria inspiring the tacky lawn ornaments this year. This bad boy is staying there for the rest of my life. I might change out his collar.

Kim did an amazing job decorating. She got those shiny balls over the pipes by attaching a weight to a pot holder and throwing it over the top. Pretty MacGyver-ish if you ask me!

And since I was planning on being out of town all through the holidays I didn’t get a real tree. This is my eco-friendly version, complete with ornaments.

Then! She had the bright idea that we should have hired a midget for the party to greet people at the door dressed like an elf and escort them in while giving them the museum tour. (lightbulb illuminates over head! DING!) We went to the interwebs and searched and found Tiny Entertainment . By morning I had genuine little person scheduled to arrive and greet guests from 7:30 – 10:30 pm. I was so excited knowing that I had a guy showing up like Santa, too. I was planning on telling everyone that the elf had put up all of the decorations while I was sleeping … come on, you’ve seen Elf!

Anyways, I was beat and this was the first Friday in a long time that I actually ate dinner and didn’t get shitfaced at happy hour, so I was feeling like a million bucks on Saturday am. I slept in til 7:00 am and then hit the ground running with last minute errands. I had big plans to chill out all day and get ready for the big soiree in a calm leisurely manner, but I had grossly misgauged my timing and was freaking out by early afternoon.

(I will save the images and explanations of the original artwork because I know you are on the edge of your seat about the midget.)