Shiny, Flashy, Loud & Fast

No, not Paris Hilton.

My friend Mike's Viper.

Back in college this was the 'reasonable' dream car of choice, and slightly over a decade later, he's got one.

Still very cool.

He lives up north but drove it down to show off to me since he had a meeting in San Diego this week. When driven, it leaves a wake of chirping car alarms behind it from the roar of the exhaust, which I seem to find highly amusing.

Anywho, today we took it out for a quick tour of Hollywood and the coast. On one hand it's cool to have a car that everyone stares at you in, on the other hand I felt like I was in high school again wondering who in God's name cares whether a bunch of strangers are impressed with your ride.

I gave him a quick tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills before going to visit my sister's store in Malibu then driving back down the coast to Long Beach.

It was a pretentiously laid back day--but next time I go riding in a convertible all day I'm going to apply sunscreen before the day is 2/3 over.

I presume since I let Mike borrow/play with many of my toys back in the day, on the way back he said "Here, drive it." Something I really had no desire to do, but I drove it home anyway.

The unfortunate thing I realized in doing so is that my token desire for a Ferrari is even more token than I realized. I mean, sure, yeah, it's cool having a head-turner like that...but unlike back in high school, college, and possibly through my 20's...I felt just a little cheesy about it for some reason.

I never thought I would say this, but, perhaps the bright yellow exotic sports car is overkill?

I mean, Mike loves it because he seems to be on a mission from God to try and attract the attention of as many easy women as humanly possible, but given all my introspective, presumed maturity-type realizations over the past several years, I just couldn't understand any value in attracting the attention of women or strangers on such hollow pretense.

I guess this all goes back to that fear of being desired for my material possessions instead of me as a person, but in our society it kind of seems like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Oh well, it was fun and interesting to talk to Mike anyway, because he's one of those crazy friends I had back in college that kind of put my more recent life-perspective in context.

I uploaded a few pics to MySpace, but I didn't really want to show that side of things b/c I'm afraid it sends the wrong message about me and will possibly attract the wrong type of attention.

My sister and her business partner's store, Revolution Malibu, was pretty cool though.

To quote Mike "They do Rockstar Bedazzling."...which seemed like a highly accurate assessment.

Well, nonetheless, apparently lots of celebrities and rich people seem to think their style of 'Rockstar Bedazzling' is cool...so check out her website/blog if you're curious.

http://revolutionmalibu.blogspot.com/

Nick Nolte's pajamas? WTF?

Yeah, I know. But she gave me some cool coasters to replace a few that she had given me before that got broken 'somewhere in that blurry part of my story'.

I uploaded a shot of those to the Mobile Photos on my MySpace profile as well in case you're curious.

They actually do have pretty cool stuff there. I'm not necessarily into what's fashionable at the moment or that current 'Rockstar-style' of silk-screening and stitching...but apparently a lot of people much cooler or at least more famous and well-off than me are, so they've got something going on.

That's it.

No more time to report. I have to take my partially sun burnt ass to class to review this week's handful of video editing project submissions.

Talk soon?

lol

;)

+AES