Day One of a Four Day Trip to Los Angeles

I wake up 5 AM east coast time and leave my house in Philly at 6 AM for the airport. My cab driver, a friendly and talkative dude from the Ivory Coast tells me he’s enlisting in the army soon. Which Army? I ask - oh the US Army. Hope you dont get sent to Afghanistan I say. He proceeds to tell me Philly is more dangerous than Afghanistan and tells me how last month he was stabbed by 2 kids who tried to rob him. He was layed up in the hospital for 3 weeks after that. I can’t disagree - Philly is hard core. I watch an Academy Award screener of The Lovely Bones on the airplane. The movie totally missed the mark. Seemed like a huge waste of money. However there were some beautiful moments and the actresses that played the 2 daughters were both terrific. Interesting that it seemed to be shot in Fairfax County Virginia where I grew up yet they kept saying they were in Pennsylvania. All the school books and newspaper clippings said “Fairfax County” as well. When I arrive in LAX it’s pouring rain. There’s debris from palm trees all over the road. I guess those things shed in the rain. People in LA dont know how to drive in the rain so everyone’s acting stupid on the road. I met up with Sebastian Demian at Samosa House to talk shop. Lil B has been working closely with Soulja Boy which is interesting and they’ve been collaborating on some new tracks together, meaning Meet Young Bitch was just the beginning of what should prove to be a fruitful collaborative relationship. Seb has created a new Twitter page for himself in which he espouses the belief of the Based World and grants fans Based-lord status (for example yesterday they bestowed on some kid the level of “Turf-Based.” On the Twitter page Lil B explains what exactly Basedworld means. “Based is a state of happiness attained through the pursuit of positive thinking and creative expression” and also “Once You defeat the negativity, you will feel a positive release.” I’m hoping I’ll get special recognition for the 3 music videos I did for B and be granted special Basedworld nobleman status. Meanwhile we discuss plans for 2010 including a possible collaboration with Jacob Ciocci from paperrad. Seb shows me a DVD of Jacob’s recent work called “2 Blessed 2 B Stressed”, some of which is amazing. He has a penchant for recording directly off the television and the internet and chopping it up, just like myself. Seb puts me on the the new dance craze sweeping the nation called the Daddy Stroke which apparently originated in Dallas, Texas. I proceeded to do the Daddy Stroke in a meeting later that day. After spending some quality time on ChatRoulette.com we watched clips from Damon Packard’s film Grizzly Redux. Packard inserted himself into the 1976 Jaws inspired horror film Grizzly. The first scene of the YouTube clip is hilarious. Packard is the filmmaker behind one of my all time favorites Reflections of Evil, a film which I like to call a modern-day Los Angeles version of Taxi Driver. But it’s more than an observation of madness - the movie IS pure madness. From the mind of a maniac. Highly recommended viewing. Later that day after heading back to the hotel for a minute I drove over by the Beverly Center to a bar called the Roger Room for a meeting with the Peacoat Miller gang (a project I’m attached to direct). David Gordon Green was present and I think it was the first time seeing him in person since Sundance ‘07. He lives in Austin so we always have to speak over the phone. David’s from Dallas originally so the first thing I tell him about is the Daddy Stroke and of course I have to demonstrate it for everyone. David’s editing his new film Your Highness and talked about meeting with Jack Black last week. David and I both agree Jack Black is a terrific actor, I have thought so since first seeing him in a film called Jesus’ Son that my homeboy Mark Webber was in when he was like 16. Cool movie. A very frank discussion of The Carter (which David really like but seemed to be disturbed by) turns into a discussion of 80’s sitcoms as I point out how Lil Wayne, David and I all have one thing in common - an obsession with bad 80’s and 90’s sitcoms. Wayne shouts out Boy Meets World in The Carter. David is a Small Wonder fanatic. We talk about Mr Belvedere, one of my least favorite shows but agree on Silver Spoons and Who’s the Boss. The rest of the meeting is spent discussing how shitty the economic situation is in Hollywood and how nothing gets financed unless a star with both domestic and international acclaim is attached. And that’s like a dozen people basically. But we all remain positive. And of course we all give our opinions on the Golden Globes which I shut off right after they cranked the music up on Michael Haneke during his acceptance speech. David thinks they did it cause his English was bad. I think they just did it out of total lack of respect for a guy that no one wants to admit was by far the greatest filmmaker in the room (aside from Mr. Scorsese of course). Later I walk next door to Real Food Daily to get some soup and have to wait 30 minutes for a piece of sourdough bread. I see Damon Wayans, one of my idols standing with a group of friends at the restaurant. I want desperately to say something to him, tell him how much his comedy meant to me as a kid, how my brother I watched and memorized every single episode of in Living Color and memorized every sketch. Homie the Clown and the drunk bum were my favorites. But I’m always hestitant to bumrush celebrities at restaurants cause I feel like they dont wanna be bothered so I dont say anything and I leave. Meanwhile as I’m driving back to the hotel Biggie’s “One More Chance” is on the radio and the line “Major Payne like Damon Wayans” seems timely. But then I get to thinking how kids probably have no idea who Damon Wayans is now and how Biggie’s reference is totally lost on this new generation of Daddy Strokin’ teens. But regardless I feel inspired to have seen one of my childhood idols last night and I’m sure one day we’ll meet for real. I fall asleep around 1:30 AM east coast time while watching the Lakers game.