I Like To Call Him Malik...

Hello folks.  So I’m going onto week three of unemployment and it’s starting to get a little old.  As much as I love having all the free time in the world to work out, play Mario Kart Wii, and read comic books (just started reading The Watchmen), I kinda would like to start having an income again.

The one major positive to the whole not-working is I finally had the time to shoot the inaugural episode of my podcast, Venice Music Project.  The VMP has musicians stopping by The Hotel to play a couple songs acoustic, then going out in Venice to show off any one of the awesome spots that make up Dogtown. 

My friends’ Rios and Shahram brought their band Capulet (www.myspace.com/capulet) to town and rocked it out last Saturday afternoon.  Colby came by to help out and brought a twelver of Stella with him, which by the time the band showed up (two hours late) he was a sixer deep.  And unfortunately, since I had no other help on the shoot, he got stuck holding the boom mic all afternoon.  All in all it was a good experience.  I don’t want to give away too much, so please go check out the video for yourself.  Here is the link to the MyspaceTV page:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=33870663

It’s getting a great response so far.  In fact, I want to share with you all Dooner’s shining review (FYI: I called Dooner out in my first email b/c I assumed he would give me some bullshit like we tend to do to each other like “suck donkey balls you shit stain”, so hopefully that explains his response):

 

Now see...you HAD to call me out as the one who would write something non-PG, there-by forcing me to become the A-HOLE (sorry, Mrs. Mallick) everyone hates..."the guy who REPLIES TO ALL".

If you had NOT called me out, all I would have done was reply to JUST YOU saying something along the lines of: "Good stuff Malik (i know his name is Mallick people...I like to call him Malik, after the great Drexel Dragon/San Antonio Spur Malik Rose, OK?). Now, back to me complimenting him..."good stuff, Malik! way to start making it happen out there and keep up the good work!! I wish you all the best in your VMP endeavor...way to stop sucking".

My hope is by the end of the week to have at least a partial website up and running to host all of the videos.  Once that is done, I can officially put the podcast on iTunes.  Also, future episodes will be on Youtube (the running time on Ep. 1 was too long) and eventually on a myspace page of its own. 

Friday night I went down to Irvine to see Capulet play a show and they killed it.  It was a little benefit show at UC Irvine.  While I was there, I also booked a band to do Episode 2.  After the show, we all went out to this dive bar in Newport Beach called Goat Hill.  One hundred and forty-one beers on tap, and what do I get a pitcher of?  Pabst Blue Ribbon.  That’s right.  I got my Stella for Sundays, but my old friend PBR is always there ready to party every other night of the week.

This most recent Saturday I made my first excursion out to the Staples Center in downtown to do a publicity type photo shoot for the Los Angeles Avengers, the city’s arena football team.  I’ve never been into area football, but if that’s your thing, go for it.  I didn’t pay as close attention to the game as if I was just watching it, but from what I did catch, it seemed a little slow for my typical Philly Eagle weekends.  Fans did fill the seats, and cheered and screamed as loud as any obnoxious drunk I’ve seen line Broad Street, but for me, I didn’t feel the same die-hard, live-and-die-by-your-team feeling I experience not only in Philly, but also the little sweaty church called Sports Harbor I attend on Sunday to watch the games now living in California.  I haven’t gone through the pictures yet, but I’m a little nervous I didn’t get what I was looking for.  I was supposed to be getting shots of players in front of sponsor signs, and I got more wrapped up in getting great shots of plays being made than framing up the wall logos.  I’m gonna try to dive into that wading pool tomorrow and hope for the best. 

After the game, I made my way down to La Cita bar in downtown to hang out with one of my favorite bartenders Brian (don’t worry, Devon, you’re still #1), have a couple pints of Tecate, and bullshit about not having any money.  The owners were there hanging out, and we spent the night playing this card game called “Apples to Apples.”  I’m not very good at describing this game, but I’ll give it a shot.  Basically, there is one set of green cards with a description like “high and dry” on it, and players select one card from their hand, the red deck, which they feel has a object on it which best displays what “high and dry” means.  Now, like a rotating dealer in poker, there is a judge who is completely subjective and his decision to pick which red card wins can be based on reasons ranging in spectrum from the best literal definition, to the one that is the most random and makes him or her laugh the most.  First person to win seven cards wins the game.  Very entertaining and a lot of fun.  I must make it back to La Cita more often. 

Quickly, my prediction for the NBA playoffs:  LA vs. BOSTON, Boston humiliates the Lakers in five games.  That’ll teach Kobe Bryant to skip college.

If any of you guys out there are into taking risks on the good ol’ NASDAQ, or you just piddle around with a little Marvel stock like me, please check out Johnny’s new website www.stockmarketjunkies.com.  I’ll also have a link to it on the left there under “Links.” (If you’re reading this on myspace, go to mallickisking.blogspot.com to see the “Links” section of my blog.

That’s my post.  Please please PLEASE check out Venice Music Project.  Episode 2 is coming next month.  Shut your windows and lock all your doors.  Choke on this!