dancrash

"What I discovered very quickly was that if I stayed up all night doing whatever drug it was, I..."

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:19:00 -0700

“What I discovered very quickly was that if I stayed up all night doing whatever drug it was, I couldn’t work the next day. I simply couldn’t do it. A couple of times like that and I said, “Okay, I have a choice. Do I want to work tomorrow, or do I want to stay up tonight?” I made the choice for working. For people who are strongly motivated, as clearly I am, recreational drugs are just that. It’s just recreation. It’s not the real thing.”

- Philip Glass

Never stop learning

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:15:18 -0700

Today has been interesting, and quite a learning experience. About the world, as well as about myself.

My day began by being backstabbed by the people who helped start my career. It was a shock, and I am still somewhat taken aback by how people can do such things. It sucked, but I learned a lot of things from it. I learned that I still put myself in situations that I know won’t end well for me, out of respect for others, which I need to stop doing as much. I learned that loyalty outweighs most things, since the other people involved are too loyal to the cruel person in question to do anything about it.

It also solidified what I have always believed, which is that any good endeavor in life — yes, even a business whose primary concern is with earning money — ought to be founded and operated out of kindness, respect, and an appreciation for the people around you.

The other part of my day was quite different. My grandmother has cancer that is going to kill her. I know, I know, this happens to everyone. Everyone loses a grandparent. But the thing, I’ve already lost most of my family, including my mom, to things like cancer. My grandma is pretty much my last close relative left, and she’s the last one alive who knows the things I want to know, about my mom growing up, about that whole side of the family. Oh well. Shit happens. I’ll survive, as always.

Live and learn. Be nice to people. Life is too short to be an asshole. But I suppose the events that unfolded today would imply that others disagree. Well, it’s my opinion, at least.

Jon on Alec Feld's HDR commentary

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:33:17 -0700

Me: http://dancrash.com/post/42962624/alec-feld-on-hdr-photographs
Jon: LOL
Jon: omg.
Jon: and I thought I was the only one thinking the future and past were black people
Me: hahaha
Me: that's it, you're on the blog now too

Alec Feld on HDR photographs

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:27:00 -0700

Me: regular or hdr?
Alec Feld: regular plz
Alec Feld: people + hdr = lame
Me: ive seen you do hdr photos
Alec Feld: not anymore biatch
Me: haha
Alec Feld: realized that shit is for mexicanos
Me: but you have
Alec Feld: have
Alec Feld: the past is for black people
Alec Feld: the future is for...
Alec Feld: more black people
Me: ok then

I love my iPhone.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:53:00 -0700

I really enjoy my iPhone. The latest example… Well, you’re looking at it. I am indeed typing this blog post on my iPhone while sitting outside the Borders at Sunset and Vine. I’m typing this quickly, too — it’s definitely comparable in speed to typing on a computer. But then again, I’m a typing maniac as it is, so perhaps this is no surprise. Oh well. Time to go enjoy the rest of my day…

Updates

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:57:40 -0700

Things are moving quickly. I’m now a co-owner of a new clothing company. We have yet to fully launch, but our stuff was being promoted at Warped Tour with much success. It’s going to be pretty sweet. I’m putting a lot of time into it right now.

My media blog is picking up a reasonable amount of traffic given how new it is. I’m excited about that, as well. If only I had the time to keep writing big posts every day…

Seeing Wall-E with Brian on Friday at the El Capitan, which is one of my favorite theaters and movie experiences ever. Super excited. Everyone seems to be pretty stoked on Wall-E, so Pixar had better hope it lives up to its potential. I have faith that it will.

That’s about enough updates for now, I suppose.

So my dad is remarrying...

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:25:50 -0700

Those of you know me probably know that my mom passed away in 2005. If you didn’t… well, you do now. My dad of all people has had trouble getting over this, meaning he never really has. He still has her stuff all over his apartment and talks about her constantly.

Which is exactly why I was quite shocked when he called me saying he is engaged.

I knew he had been dating this woman, Janet, and that they were pretty serious. But I also know that they’ve only been dating each other exclusively for, at most, two months. Maybe he was dating her on and off before then. Who knows, he never told me. But no more than two months of steady dating. And he is marrying her.

Oh well. It’s not that I hate her or something. I just want my dad to be happy, and I’m not entirely convinced that this is the way for him to do it. I guess we will see. In the meantime, I guess I will have a stepmother and two stepbrothers. Bizarre.

Look familiar?

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:10:00 -0700

This photo has been plaguing me for years. It probably could’ve gotten me rich by now. How? Well, go type “zombie” into Google and you’ll see why. At the time of this writing, my zombie photo from 2004 is the #1 image result.

And it’s linked to someone else’s website.

In fact, since I originally took the photo on Halloween of 2004, this photo has been received millions of views. It has been used on movie posters, t-shirts, album covers and coffee mugs, all without licensing the photo from me or even asking for permission. This is in addition to its numerous uses on websites, MySpace pages, Facebook groups, as a forum avatar and, quite literally, thousands of other ways.

My laptop with the original was stolen in 2005, so I’ve spent all this time watching its success grow, while being unable to license the original or gain any sort of recognition or money from it. As of last night, I have finally found a high-resolution version of it. It is now on Flickr, and will be on stock photo websites very soon.

I’m too late, mind you. Its popularity has already run its course and there’s plenty of better zombie photos on Flickr. But hey, maybe at least this way people will know that I am the person who took it.

I'd probably do the same thing

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:39:00 -0700

Lally: I went to my friend tyla's house the other night
Lally: apparently she can't find her tarantula
Lally: I left so fast when she told me that

Not tied down

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:54:00 -0700

I’ve lived in California most of my life, but in 7 different cities. The rest of my life has been spent in Arizona, Oregon, and Utah. The bottom line with having been rather nomadic growing up is that where I live really doesn’t matter to me.

It occurred to me today that the only reason I haven’t been looking at jobs in New York (or elsewhere) is that there are people in Southern California that rely on me to be around. I have a rather unhealthy family and am, quite literally, the only one who looks after everyone. But the truth is, if I had no responsibilities to attend to locally, I have absolutely no problem moving. In fact, it doesn’t phase me in the slightest.

I have a few friends who are currently moving around the country, and to them it is such a big deal and, often times, a very difficult process. For me, I could be packed up in a day, throw away 90% of my belongings in the process, and just leave without ever regretting it.

I’ve done it before. I know.

I never keep physical items for very long, I put very little sentimental value in anything material. I moved to Los Angeles with $600 and whatever belongings fit inside my Honda Civic. I only made one trip.

Anyways, this is a rather pointless entry. I guess I’m just realizing that I’ve been raised in such a way that I am not comfortable being in one place for too long. You can probably assume that I will be in the Los Angeles area for at least a couple more years… but I wouldn’t put too many bets on it beyond that.

The summer of Dan

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:09:55 -0700

Geoff remarked one year that the approaching summer would be “the summer of Geoff,” borrowing from the episode of Seinfeld (which we were both rather addicted to) called “The Summer of George,” wherein George plans on taking the summer off and enjoying his life to the max.

This never really happened for Geoff, and allegedly not even for George.

I have been rather useless for the last few years, but I can safely say that this summer will be the summer of Dan. I have enough projects and business ventures to get me through the next millenium. I’ve got some cool vacations planned (“cool” for me, admittedly, is probably boring for most of you) and overall just a lot of good stuff happening.

More importantly, I am fully aware of my negligence in my responsibilities as a friend, son, and grandson. I know I have been one of the hardest people to reach lately, and I promise you, this will all change.

So here’s to me keeping my word and to some truly awesome living. The summer of Dan begins next week.

Last trip

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:38:00 -0700

I am currently in Santa Cruz for what will be the last time for several months. (Or years, if I had my way, but it is likely I will have to come back for something.)

And I wish it were permanent. It’s been far too long. Santa Cruz, you’re a nice place, but I despise being around you. You’re beautiful, but you have nothing good to offer me that I can’t get somewhere else.

I feel stupid for even making these visits to Santa Cruz for as long as I have been. I was supposed to be the one who left and never came back.

Never have I considered Santa Cruz to be my “home” and, in fact, I get offended when certain friends (who have lived in Santa Cruz all their lives) try to tell me that Santa Cruz will always be my home, and that other places are “just temporary stops.” Bullshit. I lived in like 8 places before I turned 18. Home to me is wherever I currently reside and feel comfortable.

That about covers it. I’ll be here for a week, and will be going back home as soon as I possibly can.

Time to move on

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:21:21 -0700

My liver tests came back. I am just fine.

My doctor doesn’t know why they were out of whack to begin with, and I’ll be going in occasionally to keep an eye on them, but as of this moment, I have a clean bill of health. Time to stop being a hypochondriac.

This past month has been one of the most stressful of my life. I’ve learned a few things from it, though. I’m going to put this whole thing to rest, and hope to not revisit this chapter of my life for a long time.

Not out of the woods quite yet

Wed, 28 May 2008 22:53:00 -0700

Sorry about the lack of posting. It’s been an interesting few days.

I do not have a new job yet. I interviewed yesterday at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and it seemed to go really well. More details will follow.

Prior to going into my interview, I went to the doctor and got my liver tested. I went in about six weeks ago and had some liver anomalies, and I’ve been fearing the worst ever since. My doctor’s policy with blood work is this: If there’s a big problem, they’ll call you. If there’s not a big problem, they’ll mail you the results.

It’s been a day and I’ve gotten no phone call. If another day goes by without one, I’ll start to calm down. I’ve been ignoring my phone the whole day out of fear. Let’s hope I can just put this whole thing behind me soon.

Onward, to better things...

Mon, 19 May 2008 01:25:03 -0700

Sorry about the delay in posts, I was too busy failing miserably at the film festival. It most definitely did not do as well as anyone had hoped.

But hey, was a film festival in the little town of Scotts Valley being organized by some crazy 21-year-old who lives 400 miles away really going to be a big success?

Anyways, time to get back to real life, and all the wonderful exciting things that it brings me. If that wasn’t sarcasm, I don’t know what is.

Film festival awesomeness

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:43:01 -0700

Anyone who knows me knows that Video Productions has been my baby for a few years now. We’ve had lots of press over the years, hundreds of thousands of views, but never has there actually been a local festival dedicated to the class. Now there is, and it’s happening tomorrow.

I’ve been freaking out for the past couple weeks about it, since we totally procrastinated, and since I’m not even flying up until tomorrow morning. And yeah, I’m running the event. Whoops. But regardless, everything is coming together and it looks like it’s going to be a good event. I’m excited.

I launched yet another blog

Wed, 14 May 2008 19:17:41 -0700

So about three days ago, I launched a new blog called New Music Economist. It’s just another microblog on Tumblr (just like this one) but I hope to expand it to much more as time goes by.

In this blog I will be posting anything that relates to the merging of the music industry with technology, such as free downloads from bands, music store news, and various other things. So it’ll be nerdy, but still informative and fun.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why it is named the way it is, or just want to know more about it, go read this. Enjoy.

Coldplay's new single is free

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:15:00 -0700

In a brilliant move by EMI, Coldplay’s new single is being given away for free as a 192kbit MP3. Not bad, not bad at all. You can get it here. Their new album seems to be much darker and quite different than what most Coldplay fans might expect, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

In the UK, they’re even giving away a 7” vinyl single in the next issue of NME Magazine. EMI thus far has been on the cutting edge of this stuff, and I hope they continue down that path and inspire the other labels to do the same.

The San Fernando Valley...

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:50:00 -0700

… is extremely gross. I don’t care what anyone says about it, who lives there, or what history it has. The San Fernando Valley is horribly ugly, disgusting, and is always about ten degrees hotter than other parts of Los Angeles. (Definitely not a good thing this time of year.) It has no redeeming qualities and I am ashamed to admit that it is part of Los Angeles.

Working on the film blog

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:07:00 -0700

I’ve been hard at work today on some sort of barebones layout for my film blog. It’s only been, what, a year and a half since I launched it and took it down? Totally ridiculous. I could’ve had thousands of readers by now. Regardless, I’m trying to put together just a super simple design so I can at least start writing in it while I figure out a more permanent solution. Don’t worry, once it’s done, this will be the first place I post about it.