There's Something You Gotta Know About the Dude...

God, I love Halloween! It's the start of my favorite part of the year, mainly Halloween through New Year's. Yes, I love the weather, the hecticness of it all, the food, and seeing a lot of people in fun party situations.

Last night the husbitch and I got out to two parties...Mudsock had a pumpkin-carving soiree up in his neck of the suburbs, and Rough Draft studios had their annual Halloween funfest. We were the only ones dressed up at Mudsock's, but everyone seemed to enjoy our Big Lebowski themed outfits. Well, they said they did, at any rate.

Rough Draft is known for putting on a good party, and they didn't disappoint this year. Originally they were planning on a roller-skating themed shindig, but that fell through, so they went with a Crime Syndicate theme. The costumes were fantastic, tuned to the party theme or not. We were impressed, as we saw some other Big Lebowski fans, too:



Here we have the Dude("The Dude is not in!"), Maude("What do you do for recreation?"), and the Jesus("You said it, man.")taking time out of their busy quoting schedules to take a quick pic.



The Dude("Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."), the Dude("Hey, careful man, there's a beverage here!"), and Maude("Lord. You can imagine where it goes from here."). Note the Dudes and their caucasians.

Here's Maude("Don't be fatuous, Jeffrey.")and "Rikki Wreakardo" of the "Los Angeles Rolling Blackouts". There's a little sub-group within the Derby Dolls that call themselves the Rolling Blackouts. There's also a local band called the Rolling Blackouts. What a damned good name, I guess. There was a whole derby team of "Rolling Blackouts" last night, and they had some fun skate names. My favorite was "Helen Killer". If that name isn't already taken by a real derby girl I'll go into shock.

A color I hate more than pink...

Can you believe this?! Here I am on the set of CSI: New York, on location in downtown LA. The track that was used was the track the Derby Dolls used to skate on. Thank god we don't skate on it anymore!


Here we have me, Molly Hatchett, Dita Slayworth, and Redjenn showing off the goods.


Post-melee: Frida Fondle, Dita Slayworth, Molly Hatchett, Redjenn, myself. Redjenn and I escaped unscathed...which doesn't surprise me in the slightest! The other girls had two sets of costumes: pre-melee and post-melee. The melee was really fun to shoot, as they all piled up on top of each other and pretended to beat the crap out of each other. Redjenn and I got to run in and start peeling them off of each other. In one take I got a skate to the head, but I doubt if it was on-camera. Damn!



Yesterday we had a 15 hour day. It was actually fun for the most part, as I skated as much as possible for my track fix. I did a lot of powerslides, jumping, and backwards skating on the track in between takes and camera change-ups. Every time I fell, the "audience" of 150 extras applauded. Just about everyone on the crew, including the actresses, camera guys, security, and directors asked us about the Derby Dolls and when we'll be having our next bout. Argh!! Torture, I tell ya!

Gary Sinise!

This week I've been taking part in an episode of CSI: New York that features a roller derby storyline. Not a huge part, or even a speaking role, but hey, I'm wearing a fluorescent green outfit that is noticeable in the background...BIG time. Rehearsal yesterday went well, and Redjenn, Molly Hatchett and myself have been having a grand time skating on the banked track for the first time in five months. So what if it's the old track that an old school loser owns? It's a track, and it's skateable.

Today was mostly non-skating stuff that featured the dead body which CSI stars Gary Sinise and Melina Kanakaredes tut-tut over on the track, as well as various folk meandering around looking for clues. Redjenn and I got to do some high-speed runs around the track right before shooting started, and who was watching us? Gary Sinise. He even came up to us and introduced himself. Gary-freakin'-Sinise! Came up! To us! Wow! Later we got some photos with him and Melina Kanakaredes...too cool!

So at the moment I'm feeling like this:


But tomorrow I'll feel like this:



Because our call time is 6:15AM. That's, like, the morning and stuff! We do all the skating scenes along with a melee, so it's gonna be a loooooooooooong day.

I think I'm going to go prep for bed now.

busy

This is gonna be a busy week. Makes me wanna shove scissors up my nose.

Good Lourd!

Here's more evidence of why I should stay behind the camera instead of in front of it. These pix are from the Derby Doll Quinceanera Friday night. The girls are all dressed up, but the husbitch was the only boy to clean up in any way. Good on him, since he looked nice!

The dress I'm sporting came from deep within my sister's closet. It was a bridesmaids dress for a girl who within a year of being married became a lesbian. I crack up over stories like that.

Blah!

So tonight there's the following Derby Doll fundraiser in lovely Long Beach:


Which has me irritated because of the theme. For those not in the know, a quinceanera is the latina equivalent to a Sweet 16 party...a "coming of age" party, if you will. The boys wear suits and the girls wear big, poofy dresses with tiaras, scepters, and kneel on little heart-shaped pillows. So the big dress motif is being carried over into the Derby Dolls party tonight. And I don't have a big, poofy dress. Which is making me feel like doing this:

I don't really want to be bothered with trying to find a dress at the last minute, and this is most definitely the last minute. However, if I don't, I'll get a load o' crap from the other girls. Not like that's a new thing, but I don't want to deal with it all. Especially since I'd rather concentrate on how I'm going to get all of my Halloween costume components together. Blah.

Last night I went to San Diego for some derby practice. There's a big dichotomy going on at the moment...the newer girls will not play with me(they haven't learned all the blocking tricks to avoid getting hit yet), but the girl who's heading up the league, Bonnie, wants to take me down at any cost. She's the coach's favorite skater by far, so it's reaaaaaaaaaally chapping her hide that someone can stand up against her assaults on the track. Ha! Not that I'm so great...I've just gained enough weight so that it's not as easy to take me down. The eat-everything-in-sight diet is good for that.

Sunday in the Park

These goofy pix are from a couple of weeks ago in Pasadena. Goddam, I look like a total doofus. The cute girl is Crystal Deth, a jammer on my team. She's a Weeble...you can knock her down all you want but she bounces right back up again. I don't know how she does it since she's so small and bony, but whatever works for her!

There's a couple of upcoming Derby Doll-related tapings that I get to take part in the next week or so. One of them is outside, which should be interesting considering the amount of rain we've been getting lately. Skates + water = ouch! The other taping thing is going to be fun because those of us who are participating in it will get a chance to skate on our track for a day or two. WOOHOO!!!!!! I'm sooper stoked about that! As an added bonus, I'll get paid, which is a beautiful thing for my ever-dwindling bank account.

Has everyone gotten their Halloween costume together? I'm still in the process of getting all the components together so that I can get it done by next weekend. ARGH. It hasn't been as easy finding what I've needed as I thought it would be, but then again very little in life is easy. Hopefully everything will come together with a minimum of fuss next week.

Huh?

I'm sooooo wet right now...

On another weird, rainy day, I decided to stop being a bad wife and actually went to the store for some much needed food stuffs. Costco was on the list, and there I saw this:






Which of course went straight into my shopping cart after I did this:


Oh yeah, I'm feelin' good. And healthy, as it's quite a large set o' books so it's heavy as hell. Can't wait to read 'em all, cover to cover. Over and over again. Constantly. Incessantly. I'm stoked!

Fall?!

OK, so it went from warm and sunny to cold, rainy and windy in the space of just over 24 hours. Dang sneaky weather!

Last night the husbitch and I celebrated zvbxrpl's birthday in Valley Village(North Hollywood to everyone else who doesn't live there). I got to suck down some cosmopolitans, which I have to learn to make at home. It was interesting in seeing some industry people who I haven't talked to in eons, and I got to tell everyone that I'm highly unemployed and boy! do I need work! It was good to see friends like Rob, Smedley, Starfish and even Mudsock.

It started to sprinkle outside, so the party was quickly moved from the backyard to inside the house. The liquor was left outside, interestingly enough. Obviously not a Derby Dolls party, as the exact opposite would've happened.

Since we're such the social butterflies, we went to a semi-Derby Doll party afterward. Not many Derby Dolls were there, and the ones who were there were extremely well-behaved. Shocking...shocking I tell you! By the time we got there the sprinkling advanced into a torrential downpour. Weird! We didn't stay long, but it was still fun. I managed to inhale two and a half strong margaritas the short time we stayed. Damn good thing I wasn't driving. At least it stopped raining by the time we left. It hardly rained at all in our own 'hood.

And yes, this morning I was hung over, but all things considered I wasn't doing too badly.

Oh, I'm going to install Illustrator and Photoshop CS either tonight or tomorrow. Woohoo!

One other thing. My thumb hurts. I hurt it on Monday where I managed to peel the flesh away from the side of my thumbnail in a mid-speed fall while skating. Now the flesh has puffed up and it won't heal despite my keeping the ick covered and clean and full of cortaid. It's yucky. I should take a picture of it.

It's Warm Outside

Gotta love LA for the weather. It's nearly Halloween and it's warm and sunny outside. I hate the sunny part, but warm isn't too bad.

And now...

...may I introduce the Angriest Cat in the World.

And she's mine. Oh joy, oh rapture.

Actually, she's expressing my current mood quite nicely, as it's Yom Kippur today. The jewish day of atonement for those who don't keep track of these things. One is supposed to not eat, drink, work, or do anything except sit and contemplate the wrongs that they're responsible for committing in the past year and how to fix said wrongs. A nice idea, really. So being the all-around heathen yet holiday opportunist that I am, I'm not eating or drinking, but obviously I'm online. And I'm hungry already. So I'm contemplating what I'm going to eat when sundown comes this evening instead of the wrongs that I need to fix. Good thing I'm not actually jewish, 'cos I'd be a very bad jew!

Must Get Out of the House

I need to step away from the computer and do something useful out in the world. My eyes hurt.

One More Time for the People in the Back...

Yeah, this is getting pimped a lot, but it's because it's actual fun outside of one's home. Almost-nekkid chicks! It's a sure thing!

Pet Peeve

You want to know my biggest pet peeve these days? The one thing that'll drive me to reach over and pull someone's intestines out through their nose, wrap said intestines around their skulls, squeeze until their jaws pop and then use them as bait for French sharks?

Lip-smacking. Especially while one is chewing gum.

When I was a kid my mom wouldn't let me chew gum. She never said specifically why, she just wouldn't let me do it. Now I understand. If I have to hear someone's lips and tongue smack against the insides of their mouths for more than two seconds I'm ready to kill. Seriously. For fawk's sake, leave the cud-chewing for the privacy of your car or home.

Lucky me, my husband is always incessantly chewing gum. Next time you see him, you'd better be nice to him, for it may be the last time you see him with his intestines on the inside.

Curse of the Were-Rabbit

For the first time in a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong while, the husbitch and I got out to a movie its opening weekend. We saw Wallace and Gromit's "Curse of the Were-Rabbit". Have you seen it? You should. Right now. Step away from the computer screen and run, not walk, to the nearest theater to see it. Really. Go!

Career Suicide

Last night there was a wrap party for the studio that I last worked at. For once, it was fun!
Usually studio parties(especially animation studio parties)can be a bore because they're on an off-night(like a Sunday or Thursday), or the location sucks, or there isn't enough food, etc. This time the party was done surprisingly well. It was held at a bowling alley in the Valley and there was food, drink, bowling and karaoke galore. I got to see and talk to people that I usually don't get to visit with very often and that was really fun.

Got to bowl, but since I fed myself margaritas(either three or four of them, I don't quite remember)instead of White Russians, I kinda sucked. The husbitch did well, and J & C were humoring me by telling me that I didn't suck quite as bad as I really was.

The career suicide part comes in where I saw the supervising director from the show I had worked on("Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island" as seen on Kids WB every Saturday morning, check your local listings for times)and slapped him on the ass as I walked by. Smooth move, Ex-Lax! This is a move that works well in Derby Doll circles, but for work purposes that would be construed as over-the-line at the very least, if not outright sexual harassment. Duuuuuuude. But to his credit he seemed to take my sassiness in stride, bless his heart! The real test is if he'll ever hire me again in the future!

I had a nice hangover this morning when I went to skate in Pasadena. Damn, I'm just a soooooooooooouper jenious!

Cool stuff

I'm sure there's a highly compelling reason why I've neglected this doodle. Damned if I can think of what it could possibly be. In the meantime, watch this cool video:

http://www.cockrockdisco.com/JFDSwpweb.mov

More Doodles

More doodles. Wheeeeeeee!

Scribblescribble...electronically

I've been skating a lot, sleeping a lot, worrying about getting a job a lot, and drinking an insane amount. Now I'm busy trying to finish up a flyer for an upcoming Derby Doll event. So here's me in my beach-going best with my usual charm and grace. Grrrr.