Carlos A Torres – Designer & Photographer

Academy Awards nominations finally came out and now it’s time to try and see all the Best Picture nominees before the winners are announced. Well, from the looks of things, this is going to be quite the task because for the first time in forever, I actually haven’t seen any of the nominated films yet. Something odd also stuck out, there are only 9 nominees where I believe the maximum amount of nominees can be 10. Does that mean they couldn’t find 1 more film to be nominated among the hundreds that come out every year?? How about a nomination for something like Bridesmaids or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or In A Better Life or even Harry Potter? Oh well, I guess they know best :-/

Here are the nominated films, my predictions will come out later:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

This album just keeps getting better and better. Here’s my latest obsession, I’ll Be Waiting.

Ok, so here’s my new years resolution: I’m choosing to use social media even less than I already do. What I’ve noticed is that social media is full of people sadly and badly craving attention. This need for attention actually takes away from all other aspects of life, it takes away from concentrating on actually doing positive things and instead gives people this odd desire to crave negative traits. How do I become more selfish? How do I stop expecting good things to happen? These are the types of attitudes I’m seeing and those are the exact types of people I can’t be associated with and can’t be influenced by. People also tend to make promises they can’t keep, goals they can’t attain, all with the same attention seeking attitude. People should make their goals a reality, keep their promises and then there won’t be a need to boast, especially prematurely. My goal this new year, aside from leaving the stupidities of social networking aside, is to actually concentrate on being a better person, being a more loving person, being a person that reflects God and God’s love more than otherwise. I can’t fully abandon and close accounts due to some business matters but there’s definitely zero need to be associated with something that actually creates more negative than positive in my life. Other than that I’m starting a new training regimen at the beginning of the year and will also be trying to eat healthier overall. Here’s to a great 2012! I’m marching to my own drumming this year.

…For unto us a Savior is born…

It’s very interesting, love, or the capacity to love seems to be something we’re innately born with. As children we love others unconditionally, especially our parents, we just don’t know otherwise, but as we grow up we seem to lose the capacity to love, we lose what was in us innately and instead we’re left searching for something that suddenly evades us at every turn. Not only do we forget what unconditional means but we also forget how to show the love we hope to still possess. As grown ups we add more to the mix. We add greed, we add selfishness, we add deceit, we add mind games, and funnily enough, all in hopes that by using all this we’ll be able to find and retain some sort of love in our lives. I guess the question remains, what is it that happens to that love that was in us, how did it disappear, how did we turn it into something so twisted? I’ve said this time and time again and it continues to remain truth, there are no absolutes in this world, in this life other than God and God’s word. God is the ultimate definition of love, Jesus Christ, the ultimate symbol of love. If you can’t find love, if you don’t know how to show love, if you don’t freaking know what love is, seek God and you will find it. Everything else will be added to you. Here’s hoping we all go back to our childlike ways in the manner in which we express love, in the manner in which we are actually naive about what love is, yet still fully know how to show it and how to express it.

Just picked up the DVD of Adele’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall. This brought back a ton of memories from when I went to see her in Hollywood earlier in the year. A lot of the same stories are in here, a lot of the same nuisances and Adele manages to still be entertaining as can be while being funny, frank, fragile and of course amazing. Check it out if you can or buy it if you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed. Here’s the trailer for the DVD:

It’s a time of Thanksgiving and a time for Christmas, which typically ends up being the only time during the year when we actually do reflect back on what we have, instead of what we don’t have and give some meaningful thanks for it all. Ingratitude tends to blind us, it tends to blind our souls, our hearts. Sometimes we need to be shaken into realization, sometimes it takes a life-altering event, even a life or death situation, for us to realize that we should be thankful for all that we have on a daily basis. We have family, friends, love, more material things than we know what to do with, yet we take it all for granted. We don’t see where those thanks need to be directed and unfortunately for most of us, it ends up being a matter of not being thankful or remorseful until we’ve lost some of what we have, if not most. During these holidays and most importantly, as often as possible, make sure to give thanks for what you have, for who you have. God has blessed us all in various ways, in different ways, in plentiful ways and make sure not to take any of it for granted.

The Major League Soccer season finally came to an end after an extremely successful campaign on the part of my Los Angeles Galaxy. At the beginning of the season I somewhat predicted that the Galaxy would win MLS Cup over Sporting Kansas City. Sporting KC only made it to their conference final and it was Houston who instead advanced, but regardless, the Galaxy took care of business and brought home another championship. MLS Cup was a magnificent event to partake of. Even though I’ve been a fan since day one and even though the Galaxy have been very successful throughout the years, I had actually never seen them win anything in person. I had attended 3 different MLS Cups in the past, Cups that were held here in L.A., but unfortunately the Galaxy had never made it to those finals. My buddy Dave and I were there to witness the domination over Houston and to take in the glee of winning a Cup. Thanks to all those who in bittersweet manner accompanied me to past Cups, only to see some other team win. We still represented even though our team wasn’t on the field but it was all restored as the Galaxy lifted the Cup. Thanks for a great season and here’s hoping for an even better season next year!