If you're going to San Francisco...

I had a very Rory Gilmore moment at my internship the other day. Most of you probably don't watch the Gilmore girls and now you think I'm lame, but let me explain. Rory took an internship at a really prestigious newspaper and the boss sits her down to tell her how she's doing and he completely rips her apart. And because she thinks shes been doing so well, it makes her question her pursuit of journalism as a profession. Mine wasn't nearly like that. But i did have a talk with one of my bosses last week. He talked about productivity and how it's important to be a strong asset to a company. I freaked out thinking that he meant that I was a slow worker and just a technician rather than an asset. I barely slept at all that night thinking about it. But then I went in this week and everyone was super nice and liked my work, so the way I figure it is that he just wanted to pass on his wisdom about the business and wasn't meaning I was doing things the wrong way. He wanted me to take something away from the internship and learn something about the graphic design community. I hope...

I went to USC for only the 3rd time this summer. I visited with Megan and Ashley and we watched episodes of House. We went to El Cholo for dinner. They have the most delicious green corn tamales ever! Unfortunately, they're only offered may-october. Cruel cruel world. The downside was that we got stuck in the corner booth in the back of the restaurant and our waiter completely forgot about us. Ashley had to flag down any bus boys who passed our table. I'm going to miss Megan a lot this year. It solidified the fact that I've got to live with 4 complete strangers very soon. I'm crossing my fingers that at least the girl in my room is nice and easy to live with. I hope to go back one more time before summer is over.



Last night, Brigitte and I went to a BBQ at one of her AFI friend's house in Echo Park. I really like that area because it doesn't seem to follow a grid as much. There aren't any disgusting tract homes that all look exactly the same. We actually passed this awesome bright teal apartment complex with purple trim and I thought about how cool it would be to live there. It felt very much like summer. We bbqed outside, had music, I took my shoes off and had a beer (which I think I might actually be starting to enjoy. gasp!). I think the best part was that it was 80% boys so I met some very cool people. And I ran into some people I already knew who I wanted to see again. Most everyone was a film student from either USC or AFI, or both, so I got lost in the film lingo most of the time and just kinda stared at whoever was talking like I understood what they meant when they were talking about budgets or the difference between a unit production manager and a production coordinator and their salaries. I like film people though. They're mostly outgoing and interesting people, as opposed to a lot of the fine arts people I've met who tend to be a little off their rockers. Who knows...maybe I am too.

Going to Northern California tomorrow...will post some pictures of that when I get back.

I had a funny dream and you were wearing funny shoes

So I bought tickets way back in like March or April for the summer concert of Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl and I almost forgot about it until about a week ago. But it finally arrived and was as awesome as I expected. In fact, it exceeded my expectations because The Shins were the opening band. My love for the shins started when Brigitte introduced them to me a few years ago. I saw them in concert, but it was before I had really learned their songs, and it's never as fun seeing a band if you don't know their music by heart. Brigitte and I got there early because we were in the area already. We decided to park at the zoo, and shuttle there. We bought some delicious snacks and a $2 bottle of wine and had a picnic while waiting for Connor, Scott, and the gang to arrive. They got stuck in really bad traffic and made us miss half of the Shins set, but thanks to Connor running as fast as he could from their car parked miles away, we were able to get in and catch most of my favorite songs. Belle and Sebastian were so amazing. They were backed by the LA Philharmonic, which at times I felt overpowered Stuart's vocals but on the whole blended nicely with their music. I think my favorite part of the night was when a group of boisterous fans jumped up on stage and broke out into dance. The security guards were running around trying to catch them and push them off the stage, but Stuart shouted "No! Let them dance" in his cute Scottish accent. Yet more proof that Scottish boys are the best and I will one day, God willing, marry one. On the way back on the bus, we had to stand because there was no sitting room and I got really nauseous because I was facing backwards. But all was well in the end and I drove home listening to the Belle and Sebastian/Shins mix I burned earlier that morning.




*Picture cleverly stolen from Connor's blog because none of my pictures came out as good.

Good times, noodle salad

4th of July turned out to be very relaxing, but nothing all that new. We've fallen into the tradition of going to Fillmore down the 126 on the way to Ventura (the one place where you can legally buy fireworks). The 4th of July is like my family's Thanksgiving. I gain so much weight from the cookies, noodle salad, sandwiches, fruit salad, and Pink Panther shaped ice cream bars that I ate. Brigitte came with us. We bummed around for a few hours, reading trashy celebrity gossip magazines and David Sedaris articles in the New Yorker. I always like to go to Fillmore because it's the nicest little community. Everyone has picnics out on the football field and waits for the fireworks. The fireworks show was nice, although I didn't take any pictures. The PA system there is horrible. They played the Star Spangled Banner, which was completely garbled so I just plugged in my Ipod and had my own little fireworks soundtrack, none of the songs being patriotic. I'm itching to go on a road trip. My favorite place to roadtrip is San Francisco or to Berkeley so if anyone feels like they'd be up for it, let me know.

Also, at my internship, I've been working on my very first movie teaser poster. It's for a horror movie called Midnight Hour about Bloody Mary. Yes, it will probably be a really weird movie, but who cares...because I get to design it and entirely from scratch! I hope it actually gets used somewhere. This is it in an unfinished state. I also have rediscovered my love for the Arrested Development title designs at the beginning of the show. They are amazing and fit with the show perfectly.

Both images below are Copyright Sarah kamlet 2006

We wish you a Merry Christmas

I had the strangest and most disturbing dream last night. I dreamt that I woke up in an ICU in a hospital and I had suffered a massive injury that had put me into a coma. So I wake up out of this coma to learn that all the people around me are strangers, but they're actually my family. My family now (mom, dad, and matt) were just figments of the coma and everything in my life with them had been made up while I was in this coma. And then I had to start living with this new "real" family and I didn't like them at all and all I wanted to do was to go back into the coma world. Weird, huh?

Yesterday, Brigitte and I went to Buffalo Exchange, which is a used clothing store on La Brea. We parked out at a meter on the street and I got a fucking parking ticket! Came out of the store 20 minutes later to realize that I now owe $65 dollars to the police. Fuck Fuck Fuck. The sign was covered in stickers so we didn't realize we couldn't park there, so we took pictures of the sign. I'm considering contesting it but I'm not sure if it's worth spending my entire day at the courthouse or whether I should just forget about it and fork over the money. At least my car didn't get towed. To end the day though we went to Farmer's Market, which is by far one of my favorite places in LA. I can see myself living and working around there. The Ant Farm, my dream entertainment design firm, is right there and I love going to Farmer's Market to people watch. People watching is a great pastime, until they catch you looking at them from across the market and give you a dirty look. I'd bring my camera sometime if I didn't feel so awkward about taking random people's pictures.

Going to see Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday. I just discovered that The Shins are going to be playing also. Two of my favorite bands! I can't wait.

I'll post pics tomorrow after 4th of July celebrations. I will have probably gained 5 pounds. And as is tradition in my family, we always take a moment on the 4th of July to think about Christmas and vice versa. So here's to Christmas...it can't come fast enough

Hollywood Bowl

One way I can tell that summer is here (and yes, I know it's already July) is that Hollywood Bowl season has begun. I can do every other summery activity (swimming, running through sprinklers, eating watermelon, bike riding, slip n'sliding) and still not feel like it's officially here. But today it is because I went to the Hollywood Bowl last night. My family and I went to see the pre-4th of July fireworks show. The first half of the concert was really enjoyable, with the LA Philharmonic playing songs that were patriotic but we didn't have to sit through any versions of Greatest American Hero. I'm still very bitter about not being able to be the symbols banger when we sang that for 6th grade graduation. I would've been so good too. They played things like the theme of Star Trek and Magnificent Seven and Fanfare for the Common Man. The second half was filled with Kenny Loggins, but I figured I had to sit through him to get to the fireworks. He sang Home for the Holidays and some other crooner songs before singing Footloose, whereupon some crazy man sitting next to me jumped up from his seat and proceeded to dance like one of those mechanical toy puppies you see outside toy stores that wind up and do backflips. Another man close by threw his 2 young children on his back and ran up and down the aisles in time with the beat and his poor kids were hanging on for dear life. I survived Kenny Loggins though and the fireworks portion was beautiful. I'm entranced by all things shiny or sparkly. The visiting conducter was hilarious, which was surprising because I always expect conducters to be very serious with absolutely no sense of humor.

My mom and brother got totally smashed off wine and my mom sang Footloose out the window at the top of her lungs the whole way home. A fitting end to a good night.






This is actually from the other night when Keara, Brigitte, and I went out for drinks. Some old guy came over to offer to buy Brigitte a drink, but Keara and I got no such offer. I guess we are chopped liver.

Wind Fisherman

Now that it's summer I update this thing less often than I do when I'm at school running around busy. This week has been pretty busy too. I've discovered the many states of tired. First, you're just kind of run down and dragging. Then you get this second wind of delirium and giddyness. Then, finally, you get so tired that you get physically nauseous and it doesn't go away until you pass out in your bed from exhaustion and sleep for the next 20 hours. My state of sleepiness was produced by helping out as the still photographer on the AFI film shoot of The Wind Fisherman. When Brigitte told me about it, I had no idea what it was or what to expect. Turns out we were filming at this remote desert location out past Saugus, way down a isolated dirt road and it was soooo hot! The temperature was over 100 degress everyday and the sun was scorching. Luckily I walked away without a sunburn because I kept slathering on pounds of SPF 45 sunblock. It was also supposed to take place in the windiest town ever, so they brought in these 10 foot fans to blow around and kick up the dust in our eyes so we all left with a coat of dust on us. Despite all the annoyances about the weather, I ended up having an amazing time. I met so many creative, talented people who worked their asses off to get the production to come together. I was happy that my only job was to go around snapping pictures, especially when I saw the art department carrying heavy sets around all day. I got to make a slideshow too which will show up on the Wind Fisherman myspace page.

Last night, we got to have a mini-wrap party at the Dave's house (the producer) which was really fun. It's so nice to hang out with film people. They're generally so passionate about what they do, which is something I can relate to. It made me realize even more that film design is where I want to be. I'm a little jealous actually because film people have such a community. I don't really get the sense of that with design. To a smaller extent, yes, but it's not like you go and hang out and have wrap parties with design people when you finish a project. Maybe that will change as I get more into the business. I was so exhausted after last night that I slept until 1pm today. Now that I'm rested, I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl tonight to see the fireworks. And unfortunately, to listen to Kenny Logins accompany the fireworks, which is going to suck because I don't like him at all, but I think just being in the ambience, having a few glasses of wine, and looking out at the fireworks over the hills will overrule any torture at having to hear The Danger Zone.