Travel Tips

my friend ari's jack russel terriers. sara on left and patrick on right. very active dogs. they love to chase laser lights!

busta rhymes' cd "big bang" dropped today, june 13. i thought i'd help him promote it because i sat next to him on a flight from dallas to los angeles.

it happened like this...when he first sat down i was not sure who he was. he had cut his hair and had his nba hat on. before the flight took off, he talked on his cell phones and i could hear the raspyness in his voice. of course i was curious, could it be? i glimpsed over to see the bling on his neck and the big as* diamond studded watch on his wrist. of course the two big burly homies that followed behind him coming onto the flight should have been a give away. anyway i was cool about. i've seen celebrities before, just never sat next to one. when the flight was about to take off, he shut off his cell phones (he had two going) in preparation for take-off. he pulled out his notepad/notebook. he turned to me and asked for a pen. of course being such a good guy, i pulled out a pen from my computer bag and handed it to him. i was still real cool and non-chalantly asked him, "you're busta right?" he acknowledged that he was. being the smart-as* that i was, i said to him, if he wrote a hit jumpin' song with my borrowed pen, he had to acknowledge me in his song. a line something like, "nerdy accountant boy lent me a pen" or "doofus be foolin thinkin he was gonna be in my song" would have been nice to show his appreciation for my generosity. skip to the end of the flight. we were minutes away from landing at LAX so i chatted up busta a little. we talked about our work and he even asked about my work?! i didn't want to sound too dorky so i told him the exciting things i did and he said, "what you do is hot." i was in heaven. busta thought my work was hot?!! now it was not paris hilton saying that but a hip hop artist. anyway busta invited me to hang out with him at the skybar on the hollywood strip that night after his radio appearance at a local station. plus we exchanged phone numbers because he was going to have his manager call me to do some bizness. before i got off the plane, we exchanged fist-fist greetings and i told him, "i'll see you at the skybar tonight."

later that night, my buddy rich and i hit the skybar. the bouncer at the door stopped us short of the door. he asked us whether we had reservations. we shook our heads. the bouncer refused entry to us. so i said to the bouncer that i was here to meet with busta. bouncer dude gave me an incredulous look, kinda like, "idiot boy." so i explained to bouncer boy that i met busta earlier today and he asked me to join him here. the i-wanna-be-an-actor-but-i-have-no-other-job bouncer said busta was not here. so i asked him, was the skybar expecting busta to drop by? bouncer meathead said he had not heard anything about busta. deflated, i decided to text message and leave him a voicemail, to clear up this mess. maybe have one of his boys clear the mix-up here. 2 hours later, while we waited in a bar across the street, still no returned text from busta. i was not down, busta's still my partna'!! go buy his album! peace!

last weekend i took a long walk along the beach, more for leisure and half for a work-out. i came upon venice beach where artists line the walk way with their wares. i was sorta looking for something to hang on one of my walls in my barren place. i stopped by scotty todd's set-up on the venice beach walk-way.

with no art knowledge in me, i started asking scotty some questions. stupid questions: like what did you use to paint that thing? or what is the material that you painted that piece on? i told him i'm looking for an abstract piece because i think you can just hang it up in any ole wall. with objects or 'representation' as scotty called it, you'd have to have a certain theme to the room or wall to hang it. so i said, i want abstract dammit! ok i was not demanding. we talked some more and he said to me, "how about this. why don't you think about what you want in your abstract, non-representational painting. once you've thought it through, email me your ideas."

that tuesday, i emailed scotty some ideas. i told i like the color orange because of my days in holland. i wrote that i also like the color blue for the university i attended, ucla. i told him the wall coloring configuration of my place and that i wanted a non-representational piece. thursday, scotty emailed me, saying that the piece was done and asked me to stop by venice beach to see it. he was even cool in that he said if i didn't like the piece, he would try to sell it at vencie beach. no pressure sale tactic, i like that.

so this morning, i stopped by venice beach for a gander at my 'commissioned' painting. i know commission sounds so snotty huh?! screw you then! :-) my first glance at the piece, i was not taken back. i was sorta in between, not liking it, not hating it. he said, "let me put it against another background" so we stepped over to a white car. perched upon there, i was getting more comfortable with it. i asked him for his 'motivation' and he said, it was like he was expressing his 'inner energy'. he stood while painting the piece, with the piece on the floor. he splashed paint, used a stick for some lines and did some brush touch-up with splotches of orange and blue, here and there. he described that he was not restricted in anyway painting this non-representation. he said he was free, free to create. he asked me to close my eyes and asked what i saw. he said that was his vision while creating the piece.

i liked what he told me. thinking i was an art patron i wanted to understand the artist's feelings while he created his work. i asked him whether he had a name for it but he said that he did not. so i named it myself! i told him, "i'll take it!" he was even cool even enough to agree to drop it off at my place because the canvas painting was too big for my car.

if you'd like scotty to create a piece for you, let me know. i'll forward you his email. he is an artist on venice beach who sells his art on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. If you live in the Los Angeles area, go visit him.

scotty todd and his piece, 'inner energy'. the artist did not have a name for it so i named it 'inner energy' because he described that he gave the piece some of his inner energy while painting it.