Can't Take Them Anywhere

We went into L.A. today. The heart of L.A. If you know me or even follow my blog, you know I live in Glendale, which is kind of a suburb of Los Angeles. It's nice, but sort of boring at times. It's good if you have children. Low crime, good schools, blah blah blah, you get the point. 

Anyway, we headed over to Golden Apple Comics on Melrose. I've been told that celebs shop there pretty often...just not when I'm there. It's okay, though. The last time I was there was for Free Comic Book Day last year to see my dear friend Sherri Dupree-Bemis. She's the singer and guitarist of the awesome rock band Eisley. She was there with her husband Max, lead singer of the band Say Anything and comic book writer. He was there signing and we got to see Sherri and meet their new baby, Lucy!

So we go there today, the twins see the covers of comic books that scare them. There was no crying and I know they're 5, it's just a phase, but geez! Can I take them anywhere now?

Afterwards we went to Target where Anneka got upset because she couldn't find the Pokemon cards she wanted. Again, there was no crying but geez!

Then we had this sweet moment, driving through Silverlake, we came across this reservoir. It was such a serene scene. The breeze, the palm trees blowing in the wind...Anneka almost stepping in dog poop in the grass. We took some cute pictures, then just stood there, gazing at the water and speaking of memories past.

They start school in 2 weeks. 2 weeks! I have to send my twinsies out into the world to have their own lives...outside of me! I'll be okay. I'll be auditioning, looking for writing jobs, going back to iO West to finish the improv program and taking yoga classes. Yep. I'll be alright...I think. 

"Ruby Over Diamond" by Kashmir

This song is amazing and I'm quite thankful to Stacy Dupree for making this video, many years ago. Yes, it's not perfectly clear and I'm not even sure what year she made this. I believe it was around the time I first met them, so I'd like to say about 7-8 years ago? Stacy is adorable in it with her darker locks.

Stacy Dupree

Of course, since then Eisley has gone on to make more albums and Stacy has gotten married, had a baby and made an album with her husband as the band Sucre.

Sucre

Even though she doesn't sing in this, (her singing is amazing you guys, if you didn't know), the video is fun to watch. The song is called "Ruby Over Diamonds" which is by a band called Kashmir, who are also amazing. And this is one of my favorite songs!

And while you're at it, check out Stacy's band Sucre:

Perma releases new video for "Little Light"

Let me start off by saying, the collaborating of Max Bemis of Say Anything and Sherri Dupree of Eisley make magical things happen. Perma is an amazing band. And of course, so is their adorable little daughter Lucy! Unfortunately, Lucy isn't in the video, but if you pay attention, there's a little pink swing in the tree in the background while Sherri and Max are outside of their pink house!

Check out the new video and try not to fall in love with that little candle stick!

Things I'm Obsessed With Right Now - Jan. '14

Things I'm Obsessed With Right Now:

January 2014

Okay, I haven't done one of these lists in a while, but here goes:





American Dad

I kinda wrote about how horrible Roger is on HelloGiggles, but seriously, Roger is the reason why this show is so damn funny! I've binge watched it on Netflix recently, catching up on episodes I hadn't seen yet. You should too!

Roger as Ricky Spanish

Leonardo DiCaprio

Okay, I'm always into Leo, let's get that straight right now! He's amazingly awesome and awesomely amazing. He's been my favorite actor since I saw him in Romeo & Juliet and I always thought I'd grow up to marry him. That's not going to happen, seeing as how I'm very married and he only dates skinny supermodels. But whatever, to each his own. I still love that man, though. And God help me if I ever run into him somewhere in LA. because I will proceed to lose my shit. Both figuratively and literally.

Eisley and Eisley-related bands

And by Eisley-related, I mean the other bands Eisley members have been in, and their siblings. There's also Eisley spouses.

Eisley

Sherri Dupree-Bemis

Say Anything, with lead singer Max Bemis, Sherri's husband

Stacy King, of Sucre & Eisley

Merriment, Christie & Collin Dupree, siblings 

Stacy and Darren King, drummer from MuteMath

Sherri & Max Bemis! Awwww!

Me, Sherri and Lucy!!!

Yeah, so he knows who I am...mental

I know I don't update my blog as much as I used to. But with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and HelloGiggles, I'm writing for so many different things.

Lately I've been Tweeting a lot about this amazing band called Bastille from England. I was lucky AND blessed enough to get to interview the lead singer, Dan Smith, for HelloGiggles. Now my job is to tell everyone I ever come in contact with to listen to them.

Okay, let me tell you how the interview with. First, I got severely nervous and sick the day before. Okay, it's no secret that I have some anxiety issues (some) but I had to do this interview right. I mean, I'm pretty much obsessed with the band (think how Kat vonD is over Him and Ville Vallo). So speaking to Dan, him knowing who I am, blew my mind. On top of that, I had to be professional. I take my writing quite seriously and I didn't want to come across as just a giggly fan. I'm a journalist!

When I was first connected to him through his management, whom I'd been e-mailing back and forth for a few weeks, she said "Dan, you're on with Angie Grace from HelloGiggles" and he said "Hi Angie!" I went "Hi Dan!", and I swear to God, you could literally hear me melting! How do I know this? I had to record the conversation to transcribe it for the site. So everytime I listened to it, all I could think was "I sound like a fool". I remember shaking, also. After I got the first question out of the way, I realized how normal and down-to-Earth he was! I mean, this guy does not take himself seriously at all! I even asked him how did he feel about being considered a sex symbol and he said "awkward". Okay, I love him. The way he speaks, saying "quite" this and "I'm an awkward guy from London", I wanted to say "You know you're a friggin' rock star, right? Like, girls are obsessed with you".

I held it together. After a few questions, it felt as if we were having a normal conversation, with me asking the questions. Then he started asking me questions, like asking me what did I think of the show "Twin Peaks". I then mentioned that I went to buy tickets for their show and found out they were already sold out and then found out the whole U.S. tour was sold out already and not only was he humble by this, he said that I should ask his management about getting on the guest list and then he said "I'd love for you to come". Yes, I've fucking replayed the tape recorder for all who have visited my house, live here, etc.

I haven't heard from his management about that, yet, but I'm sure they're busy with the U.S. release of the album. He then tweeted me a few days ago when I pointed out the album was #4 on the iTunes chart and he tweeted back at me "It was good to speak to you last week". Yes, I died again. Twice dead.

It means so much to me to be able to know people I truly respect and enjoy their art. Knowing Sherri Dupree of Eisley means a lot to me. Knowing Josh Fadem means a lot to me. Meeting Chris D'Elia means a lot me. Now sorta kinda a little bit knowing Dan means a lot to me. And I just got tickets to go see them live at Jimmy Kimmel for Bry's birthday. Did I mention Bry also loves Bastille? We've both said that Dan is not capable of writing a bad song. He's amazing. Also, he uses the word "Mental" a lot. As in "Wow, that's mental!". Love it.

My favorite Bastille performance, thus far:

Bastille, "Bad Blood", Last.fm sessions

"Things We Lost in the Fire"

"Laughter Lines" (my current obsession)

Bastille on Conan performing "Pompeii", the first time I saw them. Which is weird, because I watch every Conan episode but usually skip the musical guest, unless it's somewhere I've heard of. I think this just happened to come on while we were talking and no one cut it off, then they came on and wow.

Sorta Long, Image Heavy Ramblings

So I've been way too busy! I'm not really complaining, but I'm pretty sure I used to update this blog wayyyyy more!

First off, I've been writing for this amazing site called HelloGiggles! I was asked by Molly McAleer (writer of 2 Broke Girls and co-founder of HG) to be a regular contributor! I have my own author page and everything! Pretty excited about it! I even wrote an article about how I became a contributor to the site, which started with me taking the Warner Brothers studio tour! They really should have me do commercials for their tours!

In the meantime, in between writing articles (Look for my interview with Sherri Dupree-Bemis of Eisley in the next week!), I've been hitting up the comedy clubs, doing research for my own show! Yep, I booked a show, as part of the open competition at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, CA! I've been watching other comics and paying attention to their styles, how they walk the stage, how they handle the mic, etc. I even watch them before they go on stage. I'm doing a few open mics this coming week, trying to get ready and work on some material so I can go out there on the 7th and KILL! I'm really excited!

My husband pointed out to me that all these great things have been happening to me in just a little over a month! There was the studio tour, that led me to meeting the writers of "2 Broke Girls", then I started improv class at iO in Hollywood, I got an Emmy-award winning writer to agree to read my pilot "Jersey Did It" and give me feedback, I got feedback from a former SNL writer, I went to Conan as a VIP and met Conan and he flirted with me, won a contest through HBO for the show "Girls", won several contests just by retweeting a link and got free tickets to go to both the Laugh Factory and the Comedy Store, got to meet and get great advice from Nyima Funk, who wrote for Nick Cannon's "Wild & Out", met several people from the show "Mash Up", including Marc Evan Jackson, met Larry Joe Miller from "According to Jim", Keegan-Michael Key (a huge comedic inspiration), talked to Kelly Oxford and Jenny Johnson, met Brent Morin, who's a stand-up comedian and starring in a tv show for NBC in the fall, oh, and met my current obsession/comedic inspiration Chris D'Elia from the show Whitney. I've seen him perform three times now and got to talk to him twice. Conversations. He knows me by name. He hugged me. Are my eyes x's yet??

There have been a few other things that I'm not reporting yet.

Oh! And I have a writer's workshop with Brian Stack from Conan tomorrow. Then improv on Sunday.

It's great to finally be busy and not bored.

I saw Dane Cook live! Surprised the hell out of the crowd this week!

Chris D'Elia killin' it!

Me and Brent Morin. Has one of the funniest sets you'll ever see! Really nice guy too!

Chris D'Elia and me, outside of the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Love this guy so damn much. Don't worry, Bry was there and Bry thinks he's pretty cool too!

Yep, this happened! Everybody was freakin' hilarious! 

Maribeth Monroe and Andy Cobb. Yes, she's on Workaholics, one of the funniest shows on TV. They're part of The 313 improv. Saw the show twice now at Second City.

This is what I won from the HBO show "Girls". It was all Hannah had written for her book. Also, that same frame is on her wall in her apartment on the show.

One of my articles on HelloGiggles.com

The first time I met Chris D'Elia, at the Comedy Store. One of the greatest nights of my life. I introduced myself and he goes "Oh, I know you from your tweets!" and I said "Yeah, I probably tweet at you too much, I'm not a stalker or anything" and he goes "No, it's cool" and he laughed. When I saw him a week later with  Bry at the Laugh Factory, we were talking outside and I said "I'm way calmer this time. I think I said some stupid shit last time" and he said "Don't worry about it, no you didn't" and he gave me a hug. Sweet guy. 

My lovely friend Comedienne Carmen Barton offered to make this flyer for my show! She took time out of her uber busy schedule to make this for me! Love her to death! She's going to be on NickMom Night Out soon!

Larry Joe Campbell from "According to Jim", and part of The 313 improv!

Me and Nyima Funk and her adorable little baby boy, Moze! This was after another 313 show.

I met Keegan-Michael Key! What a great guy. We talked for a few minutes after The 313 show at Second City. He thought it was cool I was from Second City in Chicago!

Sick or Not

Listening to Eisley's "Lights Out" while nursing this 100.3 degree temperature. Worst yet, Mia threw up in Jontynise's car this afternoon. Yeah. Thank God I saw it coming and said to Bry "Put that sweater on her lap". And she got it on her bunny. That was messed up. So we watched her play and act silly all afternoon, after that and then right before bed, after turning down most of her dinner, was running a fever of 100.5. Great, right? We've been in L.A. for 3 days, 3 days! And guess what, me and one of the twins are sick! It's okay, though. I packed smart and had the Children's Advil in my bag that I checked...and some ibuprofen for me.

But I checked Mia a little while ago, and her temp was 98.4, and she hasn't thrown up again (knock on friggin' wood). What's cool is that my family saw the Hollywood sign today, and the Walk of Fame! The twins had fallen asleep, but Ani saw it, and we went through the hills, and it was amazing!

I'm so glad to be here! Jontynise and her kids are over and we're sitting in my dining room on the rug, sans all of our furniture (it'll be here in a few days), and we're talking about everything. We've talked about filming a new web series that I wrote, and going on adventures! We have this idea of just hopping a bus in L.A. and just seeing where it goes, and you find new places!

So much to do here. It still seems too damn good to be true. And this amazing view.

And Bry and Jontynise are having this conversation and he makes a joke saying "I fart on your crap!" I'm not sure what the hell he's talking about, but I'm laughing my ass off!

Okay,  I'm going to bed. I sickity. Eisley is making me feel better. I feel so blessed right now. Sick or not.

Btw...mom, if you read this before I call you in the morning...don't freak out! Me, the girls and Bry are just fine! Lol

A Week Away from L.A.

A little over a week now...I'm dreaming of sunshine, beaches, the walk of fame, the Hollywood sign...doing a film with James Cameron...ahhhh...about to live the dream, right?

But what if I get there and never get any work? My mom keeps saying "When you're famous"...there's a good chance that'll never happen, I'm aware. I think I'd be happy just acting regularly...maybe? I don't know. Some people need the fame...do I?

I've had a shitty week, which started with a tooth problem that was apparently caused by my toothpaste (Burn in hell Crest Pro Health!), then a cold I caught from the kids, then a really bad migraine yesterday. I was curled up on the couch like a baby, with no one to baby me because hubby was at work and the kids wanted juice and Goldfish crackers. Sucky week. On the plus, we're a week away from L.A.! Oh yeah! Come on, do a dance with me! Are you dancing?! Dance dammit! I would dance for you! That's better. Thanks!

Yeah, so that makes me feel better. That, and my bestie Jontynise Smith passed her exam to get her California cosmetology license (she already had her Illinois one), and that apartment now out there is so good and ours! Oh, and the new Eisley EP "Deep Space"! It moves my heart and my soul. It's romantic and beautiful and haunting and it's so amazing I feel lucky to know Sherri Dupree. Never did I think I could know someone who I thought so fondly of as a musician. It's like knowing Jeff Buckley to me...minus the whole been-dead-for-years-part.

It's after midnight. I should probably jump on the sleepy train while I still can. My aunt and I were having conversations about family secrets and earthquakes, then she ate one of my protein bars and I almost threatened to slap her eyes.

Laters lovelies!

Just a few of my favorite things...

Found it at Kohl's on a rack with a bunch of Valentine's Day clearance stuff. Love it. 

It's hanging on the back of our front door for now.

Found this cupcake cookie jar at Kohl's on that same rack. It's awesome.

My Eisley poster collage, that I collectively share with Bry. Yes, they've signed them. The Who's Next one is from years ago, when we first met them at the Double Door in Chicago.

My notebook, by Gwen Stefani. I keep all of my important stuff in here.

A painting Anneka did when she was 3, almost 4 at daycare. She's 5 now.

One of my favorite movies of all time. The writer/director Tiffanie Debartolo is a sweetheart. I've talked to her in the past. She also wrote this amazing book called "God-Shaped Hole".

My absolute favorite movie of all time. It never gets old to me.

These perfect little twin girls that God gave me and I feel so blessed to have in my life. 

Mia Grace and Laila Raine! This is from their 1st birthday. They're 2 1/2 now.

The gorgeous Anneka Lucia. What an amazingly talented, sweet, intelligent little person. 

So happy to have her as my daughter.

The bestest best friend a girl can have. Me and Jontynise at a diner in Glendale, CA. Love her to pieces. Couldn't imagine life without her.

Bry and Anneka. He's an amazing father. He reads her a story every night. He's a great man...destined to do great things. Well, he has already. My Hubby. <3

Just because I love Eisley

Okay, so anybody who knows me knows how I feel about the band Eisley. I first heard of them probably in 2002 from one of those "You Hear It First" dealies on MTV, you know, back when they actually played music...oh, how that was soooo long ago...anyway, back then, Eisley still consisted of people in their teens and were singing about Sea Kings and going over mountains and stuff. Since then, I've had the amazing chance of meeting them and staying current with them, talking to them from time to time online and seeing them almost every time they come to Chicago and actually getting to speak with them and have real conversations. Some may say my love for Eisley may be a semi-obsessive. I hope to someday have them do the entire soundtrack to one of my films...

But also because of Eisley, I have discovered a lot of amazing music. Most of it indie rock. I just became enthralled with this band called TallHart and Kashmir.

I posted a few Eisley videos for your viewing pleasure, and a pic of me with some of my favorite people in the world...my dear friends EISLEY! (That I sometimes refer to as "The Eisleys", though their last name is Dupree...lol

Eisley "Smarter" off of their 2010 album "The Valley"

I thought they sounded so good and looked so amazing...

Their newest video "The Valley"

and just because I love this song by Kashmir, and Stacy is so pretty. This has to be at least 5 years old or something...

Sherri's tumblr:

http://sdupreebemis.tumblr.com/

Stacy's blog for her solo project:

http://sucrediaries.blogspot.com/

Video I took from the last show I saw live of theirs, May 26th, 2011:

"Better Love"