What am I doing awake?! I have to get up for work in a few hours, but because I had such a great time at the Public Enemies, I just couldn't wait to edit and post the photos, so here I am.

But before I start talking about some cool stuff that went down at the premiere, I just want to say a quick thing about the graphic on the left, the Johnny graphic. Personally, I wanted to put up another photo (there were these two beautiful actresses there, one I was expecting – and was so excited to get to see – and the other one was completely unexpected... I had to stop drooling and force myself to take pictures before she walked away, haha) but I chose this Johnny one because he looks pretty tight in it and I figured that since he's the star, he should be the graphic. Oh, and just for the record, I wanted to either put Leelee Sobieski or Rosario Dawson as the graphic (Rosario Dawson was the surprise). Both are absolutely stunning and are well represented in the galley, of course, haha.

So, judging by the photo to the left, I can safely say I learned a lot from the It Might Get Loud mishap on Friday and I think I took amazingly better photos. (almost 1,200 in 90 minutes!). Granted they're still not perfect, but they sure are an improvement over Friday's monstrosities. The daylight helped the photos, and so too did me quickening up the shutter speed (by pumping the ISO if natural light didn't help). Unfortunately though, that meant I had to drop down the aperture and my telephoto lens isn't too great so it gets a little fuzzy if it's under f/5.6 at any length. But I am proud of my photos, I can safely say.

Now, this red carpet was at a much more high-profile location than Friday's. They closed the streets down for this one and huge crowds showed. (They did the same for the Transformers premiere from Monday, but I couldn't go to it - but it turns out I did have the credentials to go, my editor didn't tell me about it though until Tuesday, haha. She accidentally glanced over the e-mail and forgot, and that cost me some extra cool photos and $50, ah well! It probably cost her more since no one from the magazine was there to cover it!) But about the crowds, it felt so cool to pass them and get onto the red carpet. Finally, I was the one who was VIP. I wasn't as VIP as Johnny or Christian, but I definitely was above the fans in the crowds, haha. It felt so nice. I did have a little hiccup though while checking in, but all's well that ends well.

click here to continue reading about the red carpet premiere of Public Enemies....

I haven't really talked about it much in detail, but I got myself a full-time job (enough of this freelance crap!), and fortunately a pretty good one I might add. Where do I work? I work at this small magazine in Santa Monica called Moving Pictures magazine. I was hired as an intern to work in the Internet division a little over a month ago – before they hired me they hired a new editor for the Web site and a new editor-in-chief, so it was new staff all around. When I came in, they had a quarter-annual distribution period, but now they're at six issues per year.

What do I do? Day-to-day tasks include small things like creating photo galleries, adding videos, and general site maintenance. But every so often a project comes up (like the most recent one being a round up '80s-era remakes in one '80s movie remake gallery) where I'm given tasks that ask me to go "above and beyond intern work," according to one of my editors. Those are rewarding, but the main perks come from what the magazine focuses on: film festivals. My latest and current project is photographing the LA Film Festival.

Now that I'm associated with an actual publication, the festival's granted me credentials to attend almost every screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has allowed me access to nearly all the red carpet premiere and Q&As. It really is incredible, and I'm very grateful.

click here to continue reading about the LA Film Festival and the red carpet of It Might Get Loud....

I would've written this back on Sunday directly after the Lakers won Game 5, but Marc was having a little Laker viewing party over at his place so I headed there afterwards. Then I wasted the rest of my night talking to Papa John's customers and convertible-driving cold people (but with their heaters on). I watched the game in the comfort in my own home – I wanted to watch it with fans that really cared, like Shaq.

But wow, how about that parade!

I was looking at LA traffic via Google Maps at around 9 Thursday morning and I was shocked by how much red was on the freeway. I have literally never seen so much jammed traffic on these freeways, and they were all heading towards downtown. From Anaheim, Hawthorne, Santa Monica, Sun Valley, and El Monte: all the roads were packed. They weren't all parade goers of course, but the Laker fans completely overloaded the freeways and created quite a nightmare for drivers, I'm sure. It was awesome.

I didn't go anywhere today. I was glued to the set. Originally, I had planned to go to work, but as soon as I turned the TV on and saw just how many people were crowding around Fig and how many people were flooding into the LA Coliseum, I couldn't turn the TV off. It was as if it were January all over again and Obama had just become President: that's how much of an event this was on Los Angeles television.

And if you watched the coverage of this parade, you'd probably have had your jaw open as far as mine. Not only was the nearly 94,000 maximum seated Coliseum full, but tens of thousands other Laker fans crowded the streets, most of whom probably have never been to a Laker game – that's why this parade meant so much to the city, and it made it more worthwhile since the city didn't dish out a single penny.

click here to continue reading about the Laker parade and Kobe going on Conan....

I found a great Trevor photo for this Game 4 post, but Derek deserves the graphic. No question that Derek deserves this one.

You gotta love it. First half, Lakers were looking horrible. Nothing was going their way and the Magic looked great.

Dwight alone had as many rebounds as the entire Laker team (he now holds the record for most blocks in a single Finals game with 9) and every Laker, minus the coaches, were in foul trouble. There were Lakers on the floor playing together for probably the first time all year, let alone the Playoffs.

But then came the third quarter where the Lakers outscored the Magic 30-14 (after scoring just 37 in the first half). The Magic became the weaker team.

Trevor was huge in the third. He entered the quarter with zero and left it with 13, including a two minute stretch where he scored nine straight Laker points. But the Magic kept the game surprisingly close despite shooting 60 percent at the free throw line (with 37 attempts!) and being +12 in the turnover column.

The game inevitably fell apart for the Magic with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Dwight was at the line and the Magic were up by three. He had to split the free throws (which is what he was doing all night anyway) in order to get the team ahead by two possessions, but instead he missed them both.

His two misses led to the Lakers choosing to take the ball out full court. When they inbounded, the Magic chose not to foul and with 4.6 seconds left on the clock, Fisher drained a humongous three with Jameer Nelson "guarding." I quote the word because calling that a defensive play would be like calling Mickael a good loser: both would be complete lies. But either way, Fish sunk a very clutch and important three that allowed the game to enter over time, the first Finals series to have multiple over time games in over two decades (man, the Finals are boring!)

click here to continue reading about the Lakers, and a few other stuff too....

Okay, I kind of regret saying what I did last night, about how I wanted the Magic to win either Game 3 or Game 4... I feel bad. If the Lakers had won tonight (and they very well could have if the Lakers had played like themselves in the fourth), it would have been a great game regardless of the victor. Of course, the series would still be boring, but the game itself would have been fantastic.

There are really only two things I want to talk about tonight. I won't be flaming Kobe incessantly as I'm sure a lot of others will be doing tonight because without Kobe, the Lakers would definitely not even have had the chance to be where they were in the fourth – the man dominated the first quarter with 17 points for goodness sake!

What I want to talk about though is what happened in the fourth quarter. Not the missed free throws by Kobe – which definitely hurt – but instead what happened near the end of the game, when it looked like momentum was just about to switch in the Lakers' favor (the play ended almost like the graphic to the left, but the graphic is from earlier in the fourth, and Mickael and Dwight are much too close).

33 seconds left in the third game of the NBA finals, Lakers only down by two points: 102-104. Kobe's got the ball. Almost 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Guarded by Mickael with Dwight drifting over. Pau comes to help Kobe, Fish is open not too far away, and Ariza is wide open in the corner. I don't know if it was Kobe's plan, but when he split that double team, it really looked like he was trying to go for the two-for-one. But even if he wasn't going for the two-for-one, why rush the play, Kobe?

What ended up happening was Dwight got his hand on the ball (remember, this play is not portrayed by the graphic above) and Kobe kept running. Kobe and Pau both somehow almost got the ball back, but they both fumbled it. Mickael ended up retrieving the possession and Kobe was forced to foul.

click here to continue reading about the Lakers....

You know, I kind of wish that when the Lakers play one of their three [possible] games down in Orlando this coming week, I wish that they don't end up wining all three. Wait, that makes no sense and it's impossible for them to win all three. What I mean to say is that I kind of want them to lose one of their games in Orlando.

WHAT?!

That's right, I want the Lakers to lose. No no, that doesn't mean I'm flip flopping from my original sweep predictions – the Lakers still could very easily sweep the Magic – and it doesn't mean I'm not a huge Laker fan anymore, I just want this series to get a little more interesting, that's all. I mean, it is the Finals. We'll have that parade down Fig either way, I just want the lead up to be more dramatic.

Okay okay, I can see the smoke steaming out of all your ears, so I will lay another option on the table. Either the Lakers can lose one (definitely Game 4 if not tomorrow night) or someone should definitely get thrown out of the game, or at the very least a "T" for goodness sake!

This series so far has been just super boring. Kobe looking vicious is fun and everything... but why is he looking vicious? For what purpose? There is no real threat. It would be one thing if he were going head-to-head with the league's MVP, but it's just boring when he's against a brace-faced (oh what's that? He got them off?) Superman, especially if the Superman has been playing with rather mediocrity.

Though, I have to admit, last night's overtime was exactly what the doctor ordered. After playing a half that ended 35-40 (and a 15-15 first quarter!), ending the second half with a tie was too much fun, especially that finish! A few seconds before the Lakers inbounded the ball for the final time in regulation (when it was tied 88-88) I texted Imadul, "I hope Kobe misses this shot." Luckily, the text didn't get delivered because Kobe ended up getting blocked by Hedo, who then managed to call time out. When I originally said I wanted Kobe to miss, I wanted the game to go straight into OT, not for the Magic to have one last chance. When the Magic rookie had that chance to win the game with 0.6 seconds left (and he had an extremely good look!), I decided that even though the majority of Game 2 sucked major, I wouldn't hate it too much. Courtney Lee's a bum though, how could you miss two like that, man?!

click here to continue reading about the Lakers, then about Mos Def....

I love how Conan's head is just poking in from the side of that graphic, hahaha. It wasn't like that originally, I had to make it, and I'm glad I did because it's hilarious. Originally, I had his pompadour just poking out from the bottom, but I thought it looked kind of weird so I changed it to this.

Well, after being off the air for five months, Coco Christopher is back!

He's been back on the air for a week now and I have to say, he hasn't skipped a beat. Well, the first two episodes were kind of strange (he didn't even really look at Max until Episode 2 because Andy Richter's back on the show) but he definitely started looking and sounding himself come Episode 3. The crowd is amazing too, 30 second standing ovations at the start of each episode!

So far this week, he's thrown in a couple string dances, a couple hops, a few roams around the outer frames of the shot, a Max and LaBamba cut-to insult, a whole lot of remote videos, a "In the year 2000!" (that is now called "In the year 3000!"), and one "Keep cool my babies!" All in all, it's looking awesome.

The intro of the show is spectacular. I've never felt more proud to be an Angelino until I saw that intro. And Conan's set is very beautiful too, its backdrop is the heart of downtown. The whole set has a nice blue feel to it that, I think, screams Conan. I've always liked Late Night's blue backdrop behind its stage. There have been a couple stories done about this new backdrop and how it resembles Super Mario, but that just makes the set even better.

click here to continue reading about Conan and then the Lakers....

I think it's about time to get my shaver ready since this will probably be my last weekend with a Laker beard.

Now wait a minute! If it were to really be my last weekend with a big, bushy (but amazing) beard, and there are only three more Finals games scheduled between now and next weekend, that would mean I'm calling a Lakers sweep, wouldn't it?

Well wouldn't you?!

Did you see Thursday night's game? 75-100. A 25 point difference in a Finals game! I took a nap in the fourth because it was such a snoozer! Hell, my nap lasted two days, that's why it took me so long to post about it! These games are supposed to go down to the wire, right? The best of the best two teams in the league are playing head-to-head, right! But Some may argue of course that the Magic didn't play well because the team was all jittery since it is so inexperienced when it comes to the big stage, but didn't those same people say that those jitters should only last for the first quarter or, at most, the first half? Why would it last the whole game?

Because those weren't jitters. Those, my Laker buddies, were the Magic's signs of inferiority showing through its play. The Magic can't beat us.

First of all, they shot nearly the same percentage as we did from three point land. They can't keep doing that, their three point play is what got them here. And the other thing that got them here, their so-called "Superman" on the inside, only made one field goal. One field goal! He finished with 12 points, but the majority of those were obviously from the free throw line. He got 16 tries from the line... but only made 10. That's 62 percent, people. For him that may be a good percentage, but you can't shoot that if you're supposed to the superstar of your team in the NBA Finals. You can't let Pau Ga-soft own you on a couple plays. You can't let the Lakers' big men crowd around you and keep you from doing your job. You're the "Superman," you have to take them up with you. It's the only thing you know how to do, Dwight, so you better do it or it's over.

click here to continue reading about the first game of the NBA Finals....