Carlos A Torres – Designer & Photographer

Our beloved Yann Tiersen, composer of the music used in the Amelie soundtrack is coming back to Los Angeles in January. He’s going to be performing at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA. Yann is about to release his latest album, Dust Lane. I’ll make sure to pick that up and pass along a brief review. Those of you that know me and those of you who have accompanied me to his concerts before know I’m not missing this for anything. If any of you are interested in going with me, let me know. Tickets are already on sale so I’ll be getting a couple of them shortly. Get a hold of me and we’ll go enjoy the mastery, genius and magic that is Yann in person. Here’s a video of Yann live in Europe!

Yann Tiersen Official Website

I just recently got the latest release from Eminem, Recovery. I can’t stress enough how good this CD is. For a few years now, Eminem has depended entirely on his Slim Shady persona and that had watered down his music and his writing was getting monotonous and lazy but he’s come back strong and with nothing to hide as he relentlessly tells of his personal experiences with a brutal truth. This is raw stuff and one can’t ask for anything better than that, especially from such an eclectic individual as Eminem. The production, the writing, the entire work is top-notch and Eminem is clearly still on top of his game. Standouts include: Not Afraid, Love The Way You Lie, 25 To Life and No Love.

Whether you know me or not I can tell you that you’re not exactly going to confuse me for loquacious unless you’re a great confidant of mine or a very, very close friend but when it comes to writing you’re most definitely going to notice that I’m pretty verbose. I have plans of writing a fiction novel one day for this exact reason and am actually in the process of finalizing a plot for this future work, but I digress. I’m actually here to talk about something peculiar I’ve observed recently. I have no idea why but this has been hammered into my head by multiple people I’ve heard speak recently. We all as human beings have certain sides we show people. We all wake up in the morning and get ready to face each day and to face others around us and most of the time we actually walk around pretending to be someone completely different than who we truly are. I’ve noticed that in order to not only fully see ourselves for who we really are but to actually grasp the reality of the type of people we are it takes a very simple step and situation.
(continue reading…)

As some of you know, I recently received my Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice from American InterContinental University. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and the actual ceremony which takes place in Chicago at the Navy Pier grand ballroom is only a couple of months away. I can’t even begin to describe to you what it feels like to have, in hand, an actual diploma that states what I’ve accomplished. It’s something that became even more important as time went on and the importance became tangible when I actually held my diploma. There is little doubt that Sebastian will be greatly encouraged to finish his university studies so that he can experience this and so that he can surpass what his mom and I have accomplished. It’s going to be awesome to go back to Chicago and hopefully see old friends from that neck of the woods. Scary thought would be if the itch comes back to move over there once I see the city again, a truly amazing and beautiful place. A huge thank you to those who at any point, lent their helping hand as I was studying and going through my classes. I will definitely keep you updated as to how it all unfolds and what it’s like once the ceremony comes and goes. Time to book flight and hotel.

Update 1: OMG! The Chicago Fire will be hosting the Columbus Crew the friday I arrive. I never got to go to Toyota Park for a Chicago Fire game while I was there, I’m hitting this game for sure!

…at least for the weekend. First of all don’t even ask why we were branded the Kool Krew or Cool Crew but one of my buddies and former colleague at my last place of employment is going to be in town for the weekend. Since Super Mario himself will be visiting his old stomping grounds, we’re going to take this opportunity to get together and reminisce and catch up on all the mayhem that went on while we worked together and the aftermath of everything that’s happened since. He’s now doing marketing work for the University of Wisconsin and my timing couldn’t have been better since I gave him a call after not talking with him for a couple of months and we chatted, and what do I get in response, a “what are you doing this weekend?” question. It’ll be a blast to see him again and hang out for a while.

My buddy Michael invited me to his wedding next month. I can’t wait to attend and support him that day in any way possible. Of course, knowing me I’ll take my camera to try and make the most of that day, not just for me but for him also. This is odd but for reasons known only to me, it’s kind of peculiar that he’s getting married 9/11/10. A bit troubling but it’s all good, can’t argue with the blessing that day will bring him. Congrats and much blessings to you and your soon-to-be wife Mikey!

If this were some reality show, this would be the part of the show where I sneak off to some single-camera room so I can confess some drama. Well there’s no drama to confess here, instead there’s more of a praise report to attest to. I don’t know if anyone visits this site, I don’t even know if strangers come by or if friends drop by from time to time so that aspect is completely irrelevant to me, but regardless, this is how I choose to opine and spread the word of what goes on in my life. I’m not exactly going to go into details either so I’ll keep it all as vague as possible. There have been some interesting changes going on in my life and here’s how they’ve occurred. Just last week I was supposed to be at a certain place one day. When decisions that are beyond my control forced me to not be able to be at this specific place, a lot of interesting developments happened.
(continue reading…)

So bloody tired but can’t complain after 3 days of blissful park-hopping at the Disneyland Resort with my baby. Incongruous to my recent nature and to my recent trips, it had to be this way, and it was enjoyable. From California Adventure to Disneyland, it was an amazing time. We went on anything and everything….twice! Standouts include seeing Captain EO once again, getting stuck in rush-hour traffic in Autopia, enjoying some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, checking out the Pixar characters parade (No more Electric Parade…sigh) and of course accidentally running into my princess and getting a picture taken with her. I’ve been so turned off to Disneyland for such a long time, but this time it was awesome! A big thank you to my brother also for hooking me up so we could stay right across the street from Disneyland at a Marriott owned hotel. I would post a video of the entire It’s A Small World ride but I don’t want anyone to require therapy, here’s a snippet of the Pixar parade instead.