Two years ago (almost exactly) I returned from an amazing experience in Los Angeles. From late August to late December of 2008 I found myself swimming through the dreamy haze of Lalaland and have never forgotten it since. I had the incredible opportunity to do some concept designs for the post-production team working on GIJOE (you can see these drawings, as well as many others, on my website HERE), and I even got to sublet from my lovelylicious friend, Elizabeth (a fellow refugee from the island of Montreal) at her beautiful abode in the amazingness that is Silver Lake. I also got to do some concept work for a production company whose offices were headquartered right beside the Paramount Pictures complex on Melrose Avenue which gave me goosebumps every fucking time. I got to work from home — which was incredible — and when I wasn’t working, or laying under the fruit trees in the back terrace chez Elizabeth, I was finding any excuse to zip up and down Sunset Boulevard or head over to Malibu to chill on the beach. Ohhhhh, le sigh…
I’m getting lost in my train of thought, but suffice to say, I would give my left nut to be back in California again. I’m tired of Montreal and feel like I’ve licked my plate clean. I find myself writing this post with the same “message in a bottle” spirit as when I was a young kid at my grandparents’ summer cabin in northern Ontario. Their cabin (which was actually the very same home my mom, her sister, and two brothers were raised in) is actually situated on a small granite island smack dab in the middle of beautiful Silver Lake (a 100% Silver Lake coincidence I’m NOT even joking — I had to come back and add this bracket after I realized it!), and when I was a kid, for some reason I would often feel compelled to write messages, stick them in bottles, and launch them out into the water with the hopes that someone would write back to me at my address; all for the simple thrill of meeting someone new. I was around 8 (maybe pushing 9) and I will never forget the feeling I used to get when I would toss the bottle as far out into the lake as possible. Sometimes I would get mad at myself if it didn’t go as far as I’d wanted it to. I have a good feeling about this message, however, and have no worries about how far this little post-in-a-bottle is going to travel.
Who knows what the future brings. All I know is I miss California terribly and feel a desperate urge to get off this island and out of this city that I’ve licked cleaner and drier than a dog’s bone on a cold winter’s day. I’m a firm believer in the law of attraction (and messages in bottles) so consider this message officially launched. If you know anyone looking for a good designer in the California area feel free to send them my INFO. If it works out, I promise you we will open a very special kind of bottle together in person (OK, twist my rubber arm: two bottles then).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmvFGiutLeo[/youtube]
