And Then I Needed a Beer

Last week's print was the perfect storm.

Not only did our production server keep dropping offline (which makes it nearly impossible to actually produce any magazines, go figure), but our lead graphic designer's wife, who was approximately nine months pregnant last week, started going into labor on Friday morning -- the most important day of print ... the day with all the hard and fast deadlines ... the last day to fix mistakes in the magazines ... the day that absolutely everything is wrapped up, locked up and sent off to the printer. Our designer had to leave immediately, meaning we were short our Print M.V.P.

And so, it was a very long night for the whole production team. I think that I left somewhere close to 1 a.m., at which time I had been at my computer for almost 16 hours. Yeah. It was awesome.

Maybe my gnarly print story explains why, after I had fully regained consciousness after a night spent sleeping like a log, my boyfriend and I decided Saturday afternoon that we needed to meander south, straight toward the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe and enjoy a few tasty, locally brewed beverages.


Four Peaks beer is sold throughout the state, but neither of us had ever previously been to the brewery, and I have to say that it was a very, very cool experience.

The locale is now both a brewery and a restaurant, although I think it used to be a dairy creamer once upon a time. The building is old and was designed in the old mission-style of architecture. The interior is just one great big, wide open space with an extremely high ceiling and filled with beautiful wood floors, wooden tables and chairs, stools, a long wooden bar, and of course, the enormous metal tanks that hold the different brews.

If you like beer at all, even a little, you will get a kick out of the Four Peaks Brewery. And even if you don't like beer, the place has a fun atmosphere and the food is pretty good, too.

My Own Personal Flight Device

It's print week, and today is Hellish Print's Eve, which means, basically, that today and tomorrow are going to suck. I wish I could skip ahead to a happier Monday, when the new and glossy issue rolls off the press and into my hands... but sadly, I have no magic fairy dust to whisk me forward in time.

...Maybe not fairy dust; maybe one of these instead:



See now. I can be uplifting during print week.

Students, Who Can Tell Me Which Gender This Advertisement Targets?

Our sink drain was slow.

I asked my boyfriend to pick out a product that would solve that problem.

This is what he came back with:

Are you kidding me with this.

Butterflies

It's definitely spring. (Well, technically, it's been spring in Arizona for a while now...)

Here are some photographs of butterflies from the Desert Botanical Garden.



Photos by Sway Sovay

It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive

Hi. I'm still here. I've just been busy. And sick.

Last week most of my free time was eaten up by freelance assignments (not that I'm necessarily complaining!), which left little time for blogging.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of these assignments involved me running around, trying to chat up security guards and Cricket Wireless Pavilion personnel in order to ascertain details on a certain celebrity's appearance in Phoenix last Thursday evening, none other than...

Miss Jessica Simpson.

You can tell that's her, right? Barely? Yeah, I didn't have a lot of time to snap high-quality photos, as I was scribbling down every word this woman spoke.

Highlights included... Let's see...

Well, she tripped and nearly fell while singing "You're My Sunday," but recovered herself.

Tony Romo was not there. (I can't believe lack of presence counts as a highlight, but I was still asked to report on it.)

And oh yes, before launching into "Remember That," Jessica said, "… In love, we all go through a lot of things, and a lot of things unfortunately make us stay there [in the relationship]. No matter what you go through in life, no matter what abuse you go through, take your heart and run so far away."

Looks like the latter is what was agreed upon to be most "newsworthy" in the Internet universe.

The original write-up based on my report is here.

A list of other sources -- including MTV, Yahoo, VH1, and E! Online -- that picked up the info and are also reporting on it can be found here.

Seeing it splattered all over the net, it's kind of bizarre for me to know that I was the one responsible for putting that quote out there. I mean, I know she said it, but this time I was the tiny cog in the celebrity PR machine that made the whole thing move forward.

Weird feeling.

Here's a snippet of video (poor quality) that I took while I was there:

Flaming Lips, Bruno Torfs, a Box of Beauty Supplies and Selling Out

Oh geez. There's so much to post about today that I don't even know where to begin. Let me try to be organized about it.

1. OK, so first of all, I have to mention that ye good citizens of my former state of Oklahoma have declared "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips to be the state's official rock song.

[I could go off on a tangent here about my confusion as to why state officials feel it's important that a state has an official folk song, an official country song and an official rock song, and why they aren't busy cutting budgets and generating more state revenue, buuuuuut... I'm not in the mood to dive into politics tonight.]

I felt like this tidbit of news was something important to point out, seeing as most of my friends here in Arizona fully believe that Oklahoma is filled only with conservative, country music-loving types who would never ever -- ever -- find any good or worthwhile material in the lyrics of a psychedelic alternative rock band. But see now? There are people in Oklahoma who like trippy music, too. And this should not come as a shock, considering backwoods Oklahoma is one of the meth capitals of the world. I think you see where I could go with this.

2. I had never heard of Bruno Torfs until today, but I wish that I had known of his artwork long ago, because it's incredible. He's a painter and sculptor who created hundreds of these gorgeous, fascinating wooden sculptures in a rain forest in Australia, an area which he called his art and sculpture garden. Check out the site for photos of the fantastic forest people he brought to life.
Unfortunately, last month, on February 7, fires overtook the area, claiming lives and destroying all of Torfs' creations. Please take a moment to think of the families whose loved ones were lost, and I encourage you to view the images of Torfs' sculptures, as they are truly wondrous and exist now only in photographs.

3. Remember the beauty products article I was assigned? Well, our LA office sent me a box of goodies, some of which are to be included in the article, but most of which are just mine to keep.

















I'm currently trying to refine concepts for a site on which I will post reviews of all these products, plus others I acquire. So stay tuned for further word on these fun items. Um, did I mention that the total value of the box's contents is about $1,400? (My head nearly exploded when I added that up.)

4. I am a sellout. (...who finds it amusing that Wikipedia has defined the term...) Today I got a freelance assignment that will pay $250, plus reimbursement for gas and tickets. It involves following someone famous around like a bloodhound next week -- which, under normal circumstances, would not appeal to me at all, but it only took me about three seconds today to determine that $250 is $250, and I need CASH. I'll let you in on more details after the event. Wink.

5. Random quote of the day: "You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they -- they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking." -- From the movie The Edge, written by David Mamet

And finally, I present to you: "Do You Realize??" set to animated children's movie clips. Why? Why not.


Photo by Sway Sovay

Girl, the Back of Your Head is Ridikilus

Earlier today I made a stop at a gas station to refill my car's tank. I was nearly finished at the pump, when I sensed someone standing right behind me.

I half turned and noticed out of the corner of my eye a tall young man standing beside a bicycle.

"Hey, that's a nice car," he said.

"Thanks."

"Good color, too. I like that color."

"Thanks."

"Hey, are you Asian? I can't tell behind your sunglasses."

"Um, yeah... I'm half, actually."

"Oh. Oh, ok, that's cool."

[He paused for a moment.]

"Hey... Hey, uh, you got a boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I do..."

"Gawd that suuuuuuucks..." he whined, and then got on his bicycle and rode away.


Kind of awkward. But also kind of amusing -- mostly just because he came out of nowhere and was so upfront about his interests. Made me laugh a little afterward, because I remembered the following Mad TV skits: