Samy's Zodos Christmas Party 2013

My work recently had a fun Christmas party at Zodo's Bowling & Beyond in Goleta, CA. It was fun to change it up from the casual Santa Barbara Brew Co. gathering we've always done, fun for everyone was well needed! Thanks for everyone who came out, I think we all had a fantastically fun time. 

Syncopation in San Luis Obispo

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of going with Santa Babylon Crew to San Luis Obispo's dubstep night, Syncopation. Located in the heart of SLO at The Library, the spot had a nice"locals only" vibe. Definitely a college bar but the layout and lighting were promising. We checked out the people as they came in, slowly at first then picked up as the night went on. There were a good amount of people there, more than I thought would be out on a Wednesday. The dance floor was full and the tunes were nice and LOUD, the guys throwing the party were even so kind to offer ear plugs right next to the speakers. Good thinkin you guys, I dig that! I want to be able to hear this music when I'm old...  Anyway, had a great time and had some fun stories, thanks again to Danny for holdin it down.

 Dubstep is for the children

 Lightbulb got BASSed right out the socket! 

 Crew

The Cataracs Ft. Dev – Bass Down Low (Proper Villains Remix)

I'd rather be Dancing to this track right now....

The Cataracs ft Dev- Bass Down Low (Proper Villains Remix) by proper villains

Lomography Digitaliza

After owning this little contraption for months and not knowing how to use it, tonight was the night. My co-worker Patrick showed me how to use the damn thing while he had come over to use my scanner. I am an avid film shooter with this Lomography camera I have, that shoots over the sprockets. I am absolutely in love with the camera but scanning the film for it takes foreverrr. Now with my handy new-found knowledge of my toys,  I can now share with you the world of the Spinner 360 camera. Low and behold....

And the machinery that made it all possible...

127 Hours

I love the internet. From the comforts of my own home I watch TV, but not in the regular sense of it being ordered through Cox but streamed through the internet to my television on Justin.tv.  There are random TV channels that people have set up for movies, TV shows, personal web cams and every so often you have the gem of finding a brand spanking new movie to theaters. So was the case tonight.

As I was about to sit down and scan some film, I flipped on one of the Justin.tv channels and started watching whatever was on. Low and behold, it's 127 Hours. Having just gone to see James Franco win his award the other night and not having caught his new movie yet, I settled in to watch the story of Aron Ralston. I knew the jist of the story, that without telling anyone where he was going Aron fell into a crack in the middle of nowhere and got his hand stuck under a boulder. Watching the series of events unfold in the movie was unnerving and it mad you squirm to see what he would do next. Seeing all the ways he tried to free himself and actually seeing the technique he used to get his arm away from the boulder was almost too much to bear. Director Danny Boyle did a wonderful job using different camera angles and adding music to each scene to make the one man movie/set interesting to watch. If you haven't already gone out to check out this movie, Go, it's definitely one for the history books.

James Franco at SBIFF

Last night I had passes to go see James Franco receive The Outstanding Performance of the Year award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Despite the fact that I crammed down my first real meal in a week and rushed over to the Arlington Theater to not miss a thing, the guest of honor proceeded to be an hour late to his own award ceremony. 8:00, 9:00, same difference. Roger Durling, the creator of the entire film festival, chimed in a few times during the hour to apologize for the delay and to report that James was actually coming from direct from LA. He was coming from the Oscar's rehearsal because he is a host of the show this year, and also happens to be an Oscar-nominee. Once he was in the building all eyes were on him, lights were turned down low and moderator Leonard Maltin cruised through James' filmography and playing clips of his career's highlights.

James Franco's career started over 10 years ago when he starred in the One Season TV show Freaks and Geeks (Watched a few episopes recently, pretty dang funny). From there he landed the role of James Dean for a TV movie and ever since he's been steadily working. I've seen him in a few movies like Spiderman 1 & 2 and Pineapple Express but found out about others I hadn't heard much about, like a Nick Cage directed Sonny and James' latest venture 127 Hours directed by the super talented Danny Boyle. What's so appealing about James is that he is such a diverse actor who is not at all afraid of holding back with his roles, whether he be a gay man or a complete stoner type which he is the complete polar opposite. He is wickedly smart and down to earth, and did I mention he is ridiculously good-looking? What a dream boat, or Captain of the Dream Boat I should say. 

To give him his award, Seth Rogen come out and said some words about James. "I have never seen a theater built inside of a Mexican restaurant," said Seth of the Arlington Theater to start. He continued to be brash and funny just like in his movies, dropping F-bombs and talking about how many times he's been high in front of Franco even boasting, "I've even blown it in his face a few times and he always just walks away." Overall it was a good speech and great Date night. 

Free Snowboards?

I came across this Blog after someone posted it on Facebook, AWESOME. What's even better is that the conversation that's going on with the store owner in the Blog is from Virginia, which is my home state and have many friends that went to college in the town this happened in. I hope someone I know knows where this shop is and can laugh along with me when reading this... http://www.27bslash6.com/f4s.html