Pictures are a tricky thing. Some people take really good ones and others don’t photograph so well. I feel I fall somewhere in the middle. To be fair, I do try to mess up most pictures. I know it is childish, but that is part of the fun of digital cameras- taking 200 pictures in one night.

When I look through old pictures, there is one person I feel I photograph really well with. Aubrey. My first thought is mabe because every time I get to see her I am super stoked and it shows through on the photograph. With her being so far (Chicago/London) I don’t get to see her as often as I would like. But even if you look at the old pictures when we lived in the same town, we are both all smiles. I don’t know…

All I do know is I love our pictures together. We need to take more, Aub! Without further ado, here is Aubrey and I from 2004 to 2008:

I can now blog from my iPhone!

I had an awesome time at the Download Festival on Saturday and have a sunburn on my face to prove it. I have been lathering my nose and checks with cold aloe for 24 hours straight now. I smell like a tropical forest and love it.

The day started with picking up Will and then being a personal escort to Shoreline. (I wear many hats for that man: Merch seller. Escort. Body guard. World Tour Manager. Etc. ) Once we found the five people we needed to find all over the venue it was a waiting game. We both had VIP passes with TALENT written on it. We were both flattered to be given these badges… me probably more than him. Then had a good chat about this and that.

Then Will had his gig. Did an awesome job. He sounded great, even outside and had some goo dlines of laughter between songs. I think he won over some new fans, for sure.

After his set he had some interview stuff to handle. That is the life of a rock star- everyone wants a piece of you. I left and was able to hang out with Burke and Lizzie for a bit. We explored the venue some and saw some great acts. At the VW booth, they had a screen press. Seeing it brought me back for a second. I got a freshly pressed tee for free. Can’t complain about that! Then we grabbed some seats and watched some music. M83 and Flosstradomus killed it.

After a good music session, I drove Will to SFO real quick, for his LA show the next day. I found out he loves Arrested Development. I don’t know how, but he just got a giant slice cooler. Anyone that likes AD is great in my book. I got back in time to see Brand New and Mute Math. Mute Math was kind of AMAZING. The lead singer would rock out on his keytar and do hand stands on his real piano. Not just hand stands, but like break dancer hand stands. SUPER crazy. Plus the whole band would take percussion breaks and while the drummer was soloing, they would gets drum sticks and just start to hit shit. It shounded amazing. True shwomanship.

Burke, Lizzie, and I decided RJD2 wasn’t worth waiting 2+ hours for in the cold after a festival all day long. We bounced. Probably a good thing in the long run- I got to treat my sunburn earlier.

Had an awesome time.

Have you ever had one of those Mondays? You know the kind I am talking about… The ones where all-of-a-sudden in 24 hours you will be in LA living the glamorous life. I had one of those those weeks and have been in the city of angels ever since.

Last night I was lucky enough to go to the Step Brothers Red Carpet premier in LA. It was crazy. I actually walked on the red carpet past all the photographers. I heard them yelling “Patrick! One picture please! Mr. Dempsy over here!” I guess they were mistaken on who I was. The movie was really good. Not Will’s best work- but much much better than recent tidings. (i.e. Semi-Pro) John C. Reily was hilarious in the movie and McKay did an amazing script. While watching the movie, the energy was awesome. Everyone in the room was ready to laugh. Here is an awesome deleted scene from the movie.

Possibly better than the movie was the after party. Celebrities were everywhere! And although it is a Nate rule to not give a crap about seeing a celeb in real life, everyone at the party was the “Who’s Who of Comedy/Kick-Assness” and all idols of me. Here is who I remember:

Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, John C. Riley, Richard Jenkins, All of Human Giant, Ed Helms, the Flight of the Concords, David Hasselhof, Tom Arnold. Tyreese, Most of the FoD Team, Dr. Ken, Adam Sanberg, J.J. Abrams, Ted Danson, Louis CK, Ron Jeremy, David Koechner, Judd Apatow, Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric), and probably a whole slew of other people I didn’t recognize or don’t know.

It was kind of ridiculous. Plus it was super luxurious and so LA with its awkward seating and lights. I had a good time being in the room with all of the funny. In the very beginning of the night I start to sneak pictures of the people- but I felt bad. It is kinda shitty to do that, you know? If I were them, I would hate that shit. Here are some from the start of the night:

Liz Dunn holding the tickets to the show.

The red carpet looks so small from across the street.

The theatre before the show started. Front row in the balcony! BOO-YAH!

Prestige Worldwide (Will & John) introducing the band at the party!

If that awesomy goodness wasn’t enough. I spent today in Santa Monica working and taste testing some wines for one of our verticals. Why were there open bottles of wine lying around? Because Gary Vay-ner-CHUCK stopped by the office to film some stuff. He is a cool dude. I even got a limited edish wristband. Yellow is the new awesome.

Before the shoot started.

During a quick break I snuck in a picture. iPhone 3G FTW!

If he is the Thunder, you can call me lightening.(Without the awkward homosexual inference.)

These just can’t get thrown away, right?

My favorite one… but who doesn’t love a dessert wine?

And to top it all of tonight… I had a great dinner with this lovely lady and her two “sons”. They were good dudes too.

It has been a few days since my acquiring of a new iPhone and I have some mixed feelings, to be honest. Not on its functionality- the actual device is amazing. All the apps are awesome and with the GPS being built into some of the stock applications, it takes them to a new level. The mixed feelings are on my end. Time to break out the pro/con list.

Pros:

• It saved me 90 bucks on being a digital recorder. I have a lot of random ideas that get written on tons of little paper scraps. I was gonna buy a little USB device so I could talk out my ideas and not forget them.
• It saved me 300+ on buying a new digital camera. I love my SLR camera for real photos, but not everything calls for that massive camera. Plus, it is pain having it on a day to day basis.  I wanted something small that can take pictures of everyday fun. The iPhone camera is perfect for that and the quality ain’t bad.
• (I haven’t been able to use it for this yet.) Settling a factual dispute! Who was the starting pitcher for the 1998 World Series Game 1? What is the capital of North Dakota? Was Hitler actually gay? All of these debates with friends can be settled with a quick home link to Wikipedia!
• Lots of convenience. Whats the weather going to be like today and the rest of the week? One touch away. Every picture from my HD to show past events? One touch away. How do I get there? One touch away. What is my schedule like? One touch away. Wanna have a lightsaber battle? ONE TOUCH AWAY.
• Entertainment. The games are fun and in shitty situations, it passes the time nicely. I now don’t fear the DMV, what-so-ever.

Cons:

• I feel it is adding my to internet addiction. With Twitter and Facebook being a few touches away, I find myself searching those sites EVEN more. Most of the time there are no updates to check out anyway.
• Not being able to disconnect. Because I have unlimited data with email on constant refreshing, I can never really let go. Do I need to really be notified of every new email? Especially with work?
• Loss of real-life. Whatever happened to sitting on a park bench and just enjoying the day? Or making friends with the dude next to you on BART while going to the city? Having the device on me at all times now (because it is my phone) gives me reason to break it out a lot when newness might have naturally occurred. Most of the time I try not to take my iPod to situations like this hoping for an adventure to start up and life to spark. In the interest of full disclosure, I do try to be friendly to random people, but I usually keep to myself. It doesn’t mean I still don’t want something exciting to happen.

Although there are more pros than cons, I feel the cons have more weight and are more important in the long scheme of life. I don’t believe in fate and I am worried I might not look up to see my wife for the first time because I am playing Super Monkey Ball. I would much rather make a new friend than check Facebook for the 100th time.

That is why I am mixed. The device is amazing, but is it for me? Or does great power come great responsibility (and restraint)?

Start the hype: GET EXCITED! GO MAD!

Yesterday I waited in line for one and half hours to get my lovely 16g white iPhone. I named her “HeyZues”. The apps are a bunch of fun and I have to restrain myself from buying 50 bucks worth of games. How can I resist Crash Bandicoot? C’MON ON!

On a totally unrelated note. I bought a mango last week and let it ripen. Then I cut it today and ate it for breakfast. It was AMAZING. I think I am going to have to buy a mango weekly.

Hahaha. I found this in my RSS feed this weekend. Life is funny. XKCD is funny.

This show has been helping me laugh for the last week. I catch myself laughing out loud.
…and I just found out his new movie comes out on my birthday this year.

Dear Homosexuals,

Hi, how are you? I am reaching out to you as a community with a growing concern of mine. Before I start, I wanted to set a bit of precedent. I have always supported your community and defended your rights in many debates with people I consider to be ignorant. Along the same lines, I couldn’t be happier for your new found rights in California. I hope the rest of the nation can catch own quickly- and if our current wise president is truly all about states rights, it shouldn’t be too much of problem.
That being said, I have a few problems I would like to discuss. I feel you are being very selfish in some sections of the gay “branding”. I feel you have taken more than your fair share of symbols to declare yourself. First it was a rainbow. I have no problem with this and I think you are more then welcome to this symbol, even though Demetri Martin might have a problem with it. Next it was adapting the color pink because it is a feminine color and you might feel you can identify to a woman’s interest more than a mans. I can understand that. But somewhere along the line the color purple was swiped as well- this is where my problem lies.
Having three symbols of declaration is just selfish to me. Why not just have one very powerful and all-encompassing symbol? I think the rainbow would be great for this. My problem is, I love the color purple. To be specific, I love #330033, also known as very deep purple. I think it is great for shirts and clothing and and very bold and beautiful color. In fact, it used to be the color of royalty- that is why a lot of coat of arms have purple in it. It was the color of royals because the dye for the clothing to become purple came from a very rare snail in the Mediterranean. If you want to have the color purple you had to pay big bucks for the gathering of these snails to crush them and take their extract for your clothing.
All I am asking for is one of the three branding efforts back. If you think about it- it isn’t much to ask for seeing as the straight community doesn’t even have any branding at all! Can we make this happen soon? Thank you. Again, I love what you stand for and am first to acknowledge all of the great people in history who have shaped our world who have been gay.

Sincerely,

Nate Maggio