Hollywood

My week in Hollywood has just finished and I’m now on a plane to Tokyo. Just hearing the Japanese announcements on the airplane’s PA brings back fond memories of my trip here last year and makes me more excited to get there.

(Quick aside. The girl next to Todd is sleeping in the most hilarious position I’ve ever seen. She’s kneeling facing the seat with her legs under the seat in front of her. Her head is face down on the seat of the chair, buried in the cushion. I cannot imagine that that’s comfortable in any way. I wish I had my camera out to take a picture.)

I waited too long to call people so I didn’t get to see all of my old friends, but I did get to see a bunch of them. I stayed at Style’s place, spending most of my time working on CD on one couch while he worked on a new book on the other couch. His new girlfriend, an exotic half Indian, quarter Japanese, quarter something else, hung out with us a lot. She’s adorable and a lot of fun, and they’re in love.

Style is under deadline and stressed as usual, but I secretly think that’s how he likes working. He works extremely hard and always puts out top quality stuff, as you probably know. He’s totally obsessed with his SONOS, which he shows to every single person who walks in the door. I have to admit that it’s totally awesome and that I’d have one if I still had a house or apartment. Style has a knack for finding cool stuff like that – he has a full arcade game called “Panic Park”, which is incredibly cool.

When I go to Boston I usually see Formhandle and Tokyopua, but this last time I had a shorter visit and didn’t have the chance. I was surprised to find out that they’d both moved to LA, so I got to see them while I was there. They’re both fantastic guys – very smart and interesting. I stopped by Formhandle’s place and saw the new Fastseduction.com headquarters, which is very cool.

I also met a bunch of the Stylelife guys, and went to karaoke with them last night. Todd and I knocked the bottom out of it, and had people getting out of their seats to dance. I also made some sweet R Kelly glasses for the occasion. The Stylelife guys were all really cool and “normal”, but not naturals. They told me their stories and it sounded like a lot of them had made some huge transformations.

Dave Faustino, better known as Bud Bundy from Married With Children, who’s part of Style’s Stylelife videos, came over one night to play Rock Band. When I introduced myself he said, “Oh, I’ve read about you!”. It was pretty crazy to have a celebrity recognize me as if I was some sort of celebrity. I’ve met a handful of celebrities in my day, and Dave is probably the most normal one I’ve ever met… very down to earth and friendly.

Apparently he used to live right across from Project Hollywood. He said he saw us all the time and thought that we were drug dealers or something. Pretty funny…

One night we went to this awesome vegan Thai place (whole coconuts to drink! yes!) and I also had the pleasure of meeting Bernard Chang, the top comic book illustrator who has also illustrated Style’s books. He was very cool too… Style picks good friends.

The last night I was there Style had a little party at his house. I met Kosmo from The Pickup Artist, as well as a bunch of Mystery’s friends.

And of course it was fantastic to see Mystery. Every time we see each other, which is unfortunately infrequent, we both spend a significant amount of time apologizing for the past. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the moment I guess, but now it’s hard to understand why either of us let Katya break up our friendship. I’m just glad that unlike every other PUA fued we were able to put it behind us.

Things are going great for Mystery. He has an absolutely stunning new girlfriend who he’s in love with (as he always is within a few days), his business is going well, and he’s become part of the celebrity scene, “which is great,” as he says. One of the most exciting things, actually, is that he got signed up to be frozen when he dies! How awesome! I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but he actually pulled the trigger. It’s not very expensive either, so I’m going to sign up as soon as I can.

Mystery is probably the biggest rap fan I have. I made a song for him a few years ago and he plays it for everyone. His marketing guy, Jorg, told me that he plays it during conference calls. Mystery estimates that 500k people have heard it due to him, but I’m not sure how that could be possible. It’s even the song on his myspace now. Back in Project Hollywood he used to sit around with me trying to come up with better lyrics for my songs.

For a moment Style, Mystery, and I were in the kitchen together bantering with some girls at the party and it felt like old times.

I didn’t get a chance to see Craig or Ross Jeffries, unfortunately. I’m kicking myself for that – they’re both amazing people as well.

I’ll tell you guys… I am one lucky person. Whether I’m in Austin, LA, Boston, Panama, or even online, I seem to manage to make friends with really great people. Hopefully I’ll be equally lucky in Tokyo.