Three days later, we had a mailbox, two parking spaces, and a one bedroom apartment in Culver City.  We slept on camping mats for less than a week before the barren floors and the white walls started to take shape into something that resembled a home.

I had visited the city twice before.  Once with my family when I was in high school, and once in college with my friend.  With my family, we were only here for a day or two, visiting the normal touristy things like Hollywood Blvd, touring Warner Brothers Studio, and going to DisneyLand.    In college, my friend and I stayed at a hotel with my sister who was there on business and let us stay free at her 5-star hotel!  My friend and I were too young to rent a car, so we traveled the city by bus.  But the point of these two experiences is that I never thought that I would make the city my home.  Besides the great weather, there was never anything that called to me.

So it was actually pretty surprising that I said yes to moving to Los Angeles a year and four months ago.

When I moved out here,  I’d been out of college for almost 2 years, and this was the first decision I’d made leading me towards adulthood.  Everything before had just been small baby steps as I tried to come to the realization that I needed to make money, but ultimately wanting to avoid the responsibilties that came with growing up.   So all the drama and stress that came this year with finding jobs and making sure I could pay the bills is not only an experience in this city.  But when it comes down to whether I like this city, I still don’t know.  Everyday there are things that I wake up to loving and hating.  But as far as years go, it has actually been very successful.

I’ve been keeping a list this year of all the things we’ve done.  This is the list (hopefully) in it’s entirety:

4.24.10. Gibson Amp. Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on TVTour.

5.7.10: House of Blues. Kevin Smith-Talkin’ Dirty

5.21.10. The Echo.  Francis & the Lights, Teen INC.

6.12.10.  Improv. Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier SModcast

6.20.10. Landmark. Cyrus. q&a w/ Jay and Mark Duplass

6.23.10.  Music Box.  Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band

6.25.10.  Grammy Museum.  School of Corman. q&a with Roger Corman, Julie Corman, Joe Dante, Peter Fonda, Peter Bogdanovich, Curtis Hansen (moderator)

7.18.10.  Hollywood Bowl.  The Swell Season, She & Him, The Bird & the Bee

7.21.10.  Improv. SMod’em Steve Dave

7.22.10.  Greek Theater.  Barenaked Ladies

7.25.10. SMODCASTLE. Prima Nocta -SModcast 3D and Having Sex w/ Katie Morgan

7.27.10.  Troubadour. Phosphorescent, J. Tillman

8.13.10.  Spaceland.  These United States

8.15.10.  SMODCASTLE. (first ever) Blowhard w/ Kevin Smith and Malcolm Ingram

9.8.10.  Greek Theater. David Gray and Ray Lamontagne

9.27.10.  Palladium. Black Keys

10.27.10.  Aero Theater. Donnie Darko screening with live commentary by director/writer Richard Kelly

11.12.10. New Beverly. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World screening. q&a with Edgar Wright and cast, moderated by Doug Benson

11.22.10. SMODCASTLE. Southland Tales screening.  q&a with Richard Kelly

11.29.10.  LA Film School.  The Social Network screening. q&a with Aaron Sorkin

11.30.10. Avalon.  The Frames

12.2.10.  Arclight Sherman Oaks.  Blue Valentine. q&a with director Derek Cianfrance

12.4.10. New Beverly.  Godard Double Feature-Breathless and Contempt

12.7.10. UBC Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Edgar Wright, Kieran Culkin, and Anna Kendrick

12.8.10.  Paramount Theater.  127 hours

12.11.10.  New Beverly.  Home Alone

12.15.10.  Troubador.  Badly Drawn Boy, Justin Jones

12.20.10.  Aero Theater. All Good Things. q&a with Kirsten Dunst

12.23.10. Paramount Theater. True Grit

1.4.11.  UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Andy Kindler, Dana Gould and Wayne Federman

1.6.11.  Aero Theater.  The Town/ Gone Baby Gone. q&a with Ben Affleck.

1.11.11.  UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Zach Galifianakis, Todd Glass, Craig Anton, and Jordan Brady.

1.19.11.  AMC Burbank.  Bridesmaids test screening.

1.21.11.  Paramount Theater.  No Strings Attached.

1.25.11.  UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Sarah Silverman, Edgar Wright, Chris Hardwick, and Paul Scheer.

2.2.1.  Egyptian Theater.  Groundhog Day.

2.5.11.  Egyptian Theater.  The Fighter.  q&a with Mark Walhberg, Daivd O. Russell, and Jack McGee

2.7.11.  Aero Theater.  Black Swan/ Pi.  q&a with Darren Aronofsky,

2.8.11. UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Patton Oswalt, Sean Cullen, and Jon Dore

2.9.11.  Sony Studios.  Jeopardy taping.

2.9.11.  Mark Taper Forum.  Stories by Heart with Jon Lithgow.

2.10.11. Sony Studios: Wheel of Fortune taping.

2.13.11.  Paramount Theater.  Never Say Never

2.14.11. Largo.  The Benson Interruption with  Sean Cullen, Anthony Jeselnik, Al Madrigal, and Garfunkal and Oates

2.22.11.  UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jeff Garlin, and Dave Foley

3.5.11.  Aero Theater.  TRON 70mm print.  q&a with writer-director Steven Lisberger, visual effects supervisors Richard Taylor and Harrison Ellenshaw, director of photography Bruce Logan, A.S.C., VFX computer animator Bill Kroyer and VFX crew member John Scheele.

3.6.11.  Paramount Theater.  Rango

3.9.11.  Saban Theater:  Paley Festival.  q&a with Parks and Recreation cast Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, Jim O’Heir, and Donna Meagle; and executive producers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur.

3.11.11.  Aero Theater.  Director Michael Winner’s one man show My Life in Movies and Other Places followed by his film Death Wish

3.21.11.  Egyptian Theater.  Super premiere

3.22.11.  UCB Theater.  Doug Loves Movies with 311 members Nick Hexum and P-nut, and comedian Graham Elwood

3.27.11.  New Beverly. Kill Bill:  The Whole Bloody Affair with intro by Quentin Tarrentino

3.31.11.  Aero Theater.  2001:  A Space Odyssey 70mm print

Work was slow today, so I built a lens today from the mount of a broken Canon 18-55 and an element from inside the lens. It looks like a pancake lens and produces a lot of blur in the images, but I like the effect!