(Bi)-Weekly roundup, Part I: Trippy Midsummer Fun!

ManonboogieboardIt's been a wild and woolly week here at the c-trix ranch. Actually, not woolly at all: with L.A.'s delightful summer temperatures back in action (and an additional, fragrant 15-20º here in the Easy-Bake Ovenâ„¢), I endeavor to wear as little wool as possible. Actually, I try to wear as little as possible, period, right now, I'm blogging naked in between two box fans; how's that for a sweaty mental picture?

Well, I'm a sweaty mental, that's for sure. Yesterday, I took a for-reals graphic design job that fell in my lap. I (correctly, as it turns out) suspected I was woefully underqualified from a technical aspect, but after a day spent cooking next to the G5 chez moi, the promise of 10 hours in air-conditioning trumped even my colossal fears. That and free lunch. I've pretty much burned through the contents of both my own and The BF's fridges, and have zero energy for grocery shopping these days.

Patiochairs1But I digress. (Are you happy now?) What I mean to say by all this blathering is that I've not had much time for surfing. Yesterday, for example, I spent 10 hours hunched in front of a 12" PowerBook trying to discreetly search Illustrator help for how to make horsey, 3-D type (on purpose, for the gig) and not notice how cute the guy at the next workstation was (The BF is out of town and I'm goin' CRAZY, I tell you...CRAZY!!!!). Between that, a clutch of fruitless errands post-work and the nascent cold brought on by blazing-heat-to-frozen-interior temperatures, I don't have the time or the interest level necessary to do any serious surfin'. So this special, two-part edition of Weekly Roundupâ„¢ will have fresher news than links, but hey, at least the news here doesn't involve car bombs, rucksack bombs or Republican hubris.

GirlplayingballIn this edition, the newsy items of note:

Not only did my idols, The 2 Blowhards, do me the extraordinary honor of adding me to their blogroll, Michael Blowhard included me in a flattering post about bloggers that Hollywood would do well to pay attention to. After many years of practice I am quite comfortable with toiling away in obscurity as far as Tinsel Town in concerned, but I am rather panicked (albeit flattered) by the responsibilty inherent in being linked from the main page of the greatest culture blog on the Internet. So Michael B., thank you for sending my hit rate soaring into the double digits and my anxiety level into the stratosphere. I will wear something sheer and gauzy with well-placed embroidery tonight in your honor, and in person should we ever meet.

ServingcornThis is turning out to be The Summer Colleen Interfaced with Big, Hollywood Directors As They Slummed in Commercials. I posted elsewhere about my shoot with the lovely Joel Schumacher (and my run-in with Errol Morris, who, for the record, was not so lovely); a coupla weeks ago I shot a little spot with the charming (and prolific) Rob Cohen, who has a little picture called Stealth you can see next week. In fact, please do, and on opening weekend.  I've got to ride someone's coattails to fame and glory, goddammit.

After sending off a picture for my column to a faceless email account, I received some actual correspondence from Andrew Reid, the very nice man behind the Agony Aunts, a.k.a. my advice pimp. He thanked me for the avatar (ooo...fancy!) and mentioned he'd made some tweaks to the site, including a ranking of Agony Aunts by user ratings in addition to number of posts, basically a quality rating to augment the quantity one. Unbelievably, but officially, yours truly is actually one of the more popular Agony Aunts! Of course, just like Britney, Jen and Karl, now that I am on top, the public will be chomping at the bit to tear me down. But yes, I am enjoying my fifteen minutes.

If only I could enjoy it in air-conditioning...

xxx
c