Lady Gaga / photography by Steven Klein / Lady Gaga “Fame” / Stardust Visions

Camille Rowe / photography by John Urbano / American Eagle Summer 2012 / Alsiona

Coco Rocha & David Gandy / photography by Carter Smith / Banana Republic / Stardust Visions

Directed by Adam Cameron / Aussie Rootail / LA.b Film & Content

Directed by f+j / HowAboutWe.com / NoSLATE Productions

Directed by f+j / Shoemint / NoSLATE Productions

Directed by Tim Abshire / Qualcomm / Rabbit

Ana Colja & Luke Gulbranson / photography by Richard Phibbs / Banana Republic / Kadota Productions

Catrinel Menghia / photography by Sebastian Faena / David Yurman / Kadota Productions

Alexina Graham / photography by KT Auleta / Glamour / Kadota Productions

Directed by Matthew Cullen / HP Slate 7 Tablet / Motion Theory

Photography by Adam Laycock / Art Direction by Luke Alexander / Nokia Lumia 925 / DesignStudio

Directed by Rex McWhirter / Art Direction by Luke Alexander / Nokia Lumia 925 / DesignStudio

The last video features yours truly as the removed moving object. Yea I am big time. A few more “Benefit” films for Nokia are on YouTube. / Check / them / out.

Most of my live tweeting the past two days has been over-dramatized for entertainment purposes — even though it was my birthday — and even though I did (mostly) spend it alone. But my birthday to me has always been, to quote Damien Rice, nothing unusual and nothing strange, just a little bit older, that’s all.

After two days though, I’m really grateful for being able to take the time to come here. At first I though it would be incredibly strange to be here on this campus alone, since during TAF, we are never alone. I can’t even sleep in at TAF because I want to so badly not miss anything. But now, I had nothing to miss. I wanted to catch the sun hitting the Union at 5pm, but that was it. The rest of the time, I just walked around or drove my golf cart. And with nothing else on mind to worry about — no workshop to film, no video to edit, no conversation to be had — I suddenly found myself, for the first time in a very long time, being able to look at these buildings and lawns and dormitory hallways and reminisce about my own times here, when I was a camper and I didn’t have the responsibilities I now have. On my 29th birthday I got to be 16 again for brief fleeting moments. Forever mother effin’ young.

And then I walked the short mile into town past white picked fences, American flags, quaint storefronts and neighborhood kids riding bikes and smiling past me, and I felt nothing but peace. I approached a restaurant with a local basketball team and their parents taking pictures and the crowd made me think this must be a good place to eat, and it was. I ordered my pork tenderloin (“Best in Indiana!”) and sat down, and the elderly owner (actually his son owns it now) sat with me while I ate. We talked about college basketball and Thailand (his brother lives there) and the history of North Manchester and he offered me a ride back to campus because he looked at my TOMs and said “them ain’t no walkin’ shoes!” but I politely declined, because I wanted to walk back now, in quiet, back to Manchester College, to appreciate it for what it once was for me, and what it will be this week for hopefully everyone that comes.

Los Angeles is truly great and is my current home, and I will live there for years to come, but for me, the midwest will always be best.

#TheRealManchester #TRM

My new friend Dave and his store, celebrating 50 years in North Manchester in September!

I will however, share the end products of “work”, a.k.a. whatever it is that I do to get a paycheck. For the past few months, outside of Formosa Entertainment and Formosa Betrayed (basically the same entity, if you are confused), I’ve been working with a production company that primarily focuses on still fashion photography, as in not film. Working on these jobs makes me appreciate still photography so much more, and I’m learning a lot about the fashion world. I actually had a long post about that, but I could never articulate or pinpoint any specific thought, except that in fashion, there are a lot of boobs.

Anyways, here are some the photos from some of the shoots I was worked on. Sometimes only one still was released, and sometimes a few, I selected my favorites when I could.

Derrick Rose, Frank Ocean, and Timothy Olyphant for GQ. Photography by Nathaniel Goldberg.

I met all three guys. All three guys are very cool. Alex asked me to smell Derrick Rose…AND I DID.

Amy Adams for InStyle Magazine. Photography by Vincent Peters.

Near the end of our day, Amy Adams was leaning on one of these vintage cars, the sunlight was starting to turn orange as it peaked through the buildings, and Edith Piaf’s voice was filling the air with French melodies. It was one of those surreal moments in life where you realize everything is just perfect.

Models for Barney’s New York Spring 2012 Lookbook. Photography by Nathaniel Goldberg.

It was on this shoot that the skill and talent of these photographers really awed me. Nathaniel seemed to find amazing angles in every day locations. PS: I like his personal work.

Selena Gomez for K-Mart. Photography by Greg Kadel.

David Beckham for H&M. Photography by Alasdair McLellan.

Yes ladies. I was thiiiis close to him. In his knickers.

I hope the ample amounts of handsome men in this post make up for the undetermined future post about fashion photography with all the classy naked ladies that come with it. Hurrah!

To anyone seeing this post in combination with my last about baking cornbread carnitas, I swear I’m normally not this Martha Stewart-y. That said, I’m really happy with how these little vampire/cannibal pumpkins turned out. In case you can’t see me, I’m patting myself on the back right now.

The weather is dropping and seasons are changing. Maybe I should blame it on the SADD, but I’m feeling that I should make some personal changes as well. Some are minute — such as rotating my desk so that it faces out my bedroom window as opposed to a wall, but others will range from taking astronomy classes to other topics that probably shouldn’t be in the same post as bloodied jack-o-lanterns. I’ll address one change that I have been wanting to vent on for a few weeks. And trust me, it is not aimed at anyone in particular.

Like most everyone, I project beliefs onto others. One of the things I project is the consideration to reply to a phone call/text message/email. I will 99% of the time respond ASAP. And if I don’t, I will feel guilty about it, because to me it is a very inconsiderate and rude thing to do. Now with me, if I don’t respond to your call/message/email, I’m probably mad at you about something, or worst case…you really don’t matter to me, not enough to warrant a response anyways. I rarely do that though. I will respond to you most likely, because damn it, that’s how people should act. That’s the level of social consideration and responsibility we should all uphold.

1st Disclaimer: Maybe I am just incredibly anal about this?
2nd Disclaimer: I should pray about this clear example of my Perfect Me heart motive.

Thus, when other people fail to acknowledge any sort of communication that I send, I notice it. If it happens once or twice though, I’ve trained myself to brush it off and like any normal person, assume you were busy and forgot — no harm no foul. But if you, as a “friend”, fail to reply to me repeatedly to the point of it being a pattern, I am going to start treating you the same, as an afterthought, nothing more than a simple acquaintance, someone I will politely hope the best for in life, but have no real bond with. So yea, good luck to you, and I hope you grow out of your habit.

On the flip side, I’ve started calling my mom back faster. So hey, room to grow for everyone.

Happy Halloween!

And thus, for her surprise going away party tonight, I wanted to return the favor and bake for her. Do I remember the last time I baked? Nope. Does Ashley probably draw the short end of the stick because my baking can’t compare to hers? Yes. BUT WHATEVER. BAKING = LOVE, RIGHT?!

I decided to make cornbread cupcakes filled with carnitas meat and topped with cheese. Aside from sounding amazing, it also sounds manly! And I drank a beer while doing it. Manly. And I got sports-themed cupcake sleeves. Manly. And then I put meat it in. YEA I DID, BRO.

Not pictured: My baking attire – a neon green tank top thats more manly in the “fabulous” sense than the actually manly sense. WHATEVS I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA.

This was the end result, not bad!

I wish I had put even more meat into it ::snicker::, but no, really, more meat next time. I also left the second batch in for less time, making them a bit less dry, which was good. People actually liked them to boot. So hey! Apparently I can bake something tasty.

Best of luck in Philadelphia Ashley! Remember, I like Abner’s Cheesesteaks on the UPenn campus more than the famous places like Gino’s. Philadelphia Chinatown isn’t bad either. SEE YOU IN DECEMBER!

Sometimes I think to myself how cool it would be to work on any of these shows (or on Friends, or Arrested Development, or Lost), but then I think how it wouldn’t, because I would be depriving myself of the surprise and “magic” that each new episode brings. And then I’d be really sad, because I love consuming TV storylines, especially when done right.

For nearly everyone, whether you work in Hollywood or not, movies are at the peak, and to some, network television is just a medium for shilling goods in advertisements. But I think I’m different. At worst, films will always be acceptable two-hour getaways from the world and at best, be incredibly engaging, entertaining, and meaningful. TV on the other hand, while it can be pure crap (and I watched a lot of crap before realizing what was good…), if you love a show enough, it can become like hanging out with a great friend once a week. And I REALLY wish I could hang out with these guys:

jonizzle.tumblr.com

Huzzah!

Donald Glover drew inspiration from Smash Williams for his character on _”Community” (2009)_. “When you think of the former high school football star, you think 6-foot-2, white, meathead as the model for that kind of character. Since I’m not 6-foot-2 or white, I just thought about what I could bring to it. I thought about Smash Williams from ‘Friday Night Lights,’ like the cocky quarterback, and played around with that.

Awesomeballz.