Smoooth

This is by far the best best shaving cream I’ve ever used. Proraso is an Italian brand that’s been around since 1907. I used to be a dedicated fan of  Kiehl’s White Eagle, but after reading about Proraso on some hipster shaving blog, I decided to try it (don’t bother asking me why I read hipster shaving blogs).

Anyways, loved it from the first shave. It smells great and only a small dab lathers up incredibly well. Lubrication is by far the best I’ve experienced. It’s also fairly inexpensive – $11 for a tube that will last you 6 months. It’s made with Eucalyptus, Menthol, and Glycerin and leaves your face tingling and super soft. Afterwards, you’ll smell like Marcello Mastroianni. Which is kinda cool.

You can find Proraso Shaving Cream at Amazon and at C.O. Bigelow.

This picture has nothing to do with the words below.

Summer is fast approaching and  I need an intern to help me do interesting things in new media. The perfect intern candidate is a whip smart college or grad school student who is completely conversant in social media and online entertainment in its many present and emerging forms, must have a car, must live in Los Angeles for the summer, be willing to work for free at least 4 days a week and must receive school credit for their summer internship here. Geek cred is definitely a plus!

If chosen, you’ll be part of ICM’s summer internship program and will be working directly for me and networking with all the other interns from the motion picture, television and music departments in our LA office. It’ll be a rewarding and challenging experience (especially the working for me part). Interested? Submit your resume and I’ll get back to the candidates I want to interview.  Carry on.

I'll be there Friday to Monday.

I’ll be attending SXSW Interactive March 13th through the 16th. Lots of clients, friends, execs, CEO’s, buyers, entrepreneurs, geeks, dreamers, videogamers and internet cool kids will be there . I hear it’s going to be even busier this year than last year, but I hope to get a better start than 2008 when I got stuck with a “kids room” after I arrived late to my hotel. Still, I had a great time and met a lot of great people.

Hope you can make it. If you see me this weekend, say “hey”. I’ll be the tall guy with the camera.

Beware the Dim Mak of Count Dante!

John Keehan (aka “Count Dante”) is one of the most fascinating and mysterious figures to come out of the 20th century martial arts world. He broke the race barrier in Chicago by teaching martial arts to students of any color, organized large fighting tournaments attended by the likes of Bruce Lee and Ed Parker, was a hair-stylist to Playboy Bunnies, claimed he descended from Spanish royalty, dabbled in voodoo, boasted he could kill man with a mere touch, liked to wear a cape and took walks around Lake Michigan with his pet lion. Keehan was also involved in a bloody confrontation with members of a rival dojo that left one of his friends dead. He died at the age of 36.

Would you mess with this man?

The masthead to this blog comes from one of his ubiquitous ads found in the comic books of my youth. Watch this video to learn more about the original Deadliest Man Alive.

Thanks to @xenijardin for bringing the clip to my attention.

Get Shepard Fairey’d!

Uncluttered interface. Stainless steel. Chronograph. Gorgeous.

I love my Timex T-Series Watch. Will you look at that face? Clean, stark, simple presentation of the time. Exactly how a watch should look. The case is stainless steel and quite beefy making it feel like a substantial piece of hardware on your wrist. It comes with a high quality leather strap that looks like it belongs on an Omega. It even has a chronograph (but really, who uses that).  Little details like the rakishly angled date nails the utilitarian but high design aesthetic of this watch. The only criticism I have is that it uses a unremarkable Phillipine-made movement rather than a Japanese or Swiss one. Still, it tells excellent time and the best part is that it’s only $64.  Save the money you would have spent on a Panerai and travel to Australia instead. Then you can take your Timex diving – it’s water-resistant to 165 feet. Get this watch. Link

I get a shout out.

I was mystified why I suddenly added 300 new Twitter followers this week until someone told me that my Twitter profile was mentioned by Alex Albrecht on Diggnation. I thought it  was due to my urbane and clever observations on life. Nope. Halo effect.

Movies fired up my imagination as a little kid. I remember loving movies as long as I can remember anything. After a day attending Catholic elementary school, I’d walk to the city library and check out every book on monster and sci-fi films I could get my hands on. In the 4th grade I memorized Vincent Price’s movie credits and talked incessantly to friends about 1920’s German expressionist sci-fi and horror films like Metropolis, Der Golem, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu. Even then I was a nerd.

Influencing my young psyche were Universal’s classic monster movies with Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Wolfman. Through such cinema, fantastical worlds were opened up to a kid living in El Monte, California, a first generation son of immigrant parents from Mexico. Of course, growing up in a traditional Mexican household, I was exposed to the wonderful spectacle of Lucha Libre as well.  Lucha Libre was television’s original mixed martial arts show and I loved it. Burly mas-macho men wearing elaborate masks who fought and flew inside a small ring were awesome to behold. Via a weekly television broadcast, professional wrestlers lived out simple storylines of good versus evil as either rule-abiding tecnicos or no-holds-barred rudos as they fought for supremacy.

El Santo

Legendary among the good guys was El Santo. He was a silver-masked wrestler that always fought for the side of good and usually won in spectacular style. His appeal soon grew beyond the wrestling ring and extended into film and television. He starred in 52 movies and during the course of his career took on all sorts of bad guys including spies, zombies, aliens, robots and Frankenstein – sometimes all at once! El Santo was James Bond and Batman rolled into one. I loved El Santo films for they proved that a man with some training, a mask and an outrageous sense of style could make the world safe from evil. Usually with a flying head kick.

Anyway, it’s my fond remembrances of all the adventure and excitement from childhood sci-fi, monster and masked wrestler films that first made me want to be part of the entertainment community. Then Enter the Dragon, Star Wars and Indiana Jones came along and my fate was sealed.

I guess I’m still that little kid who’s transfixed by the inspiration that story-telling provides and the magical places it can take you. I love this business.

the 6th photo from the 6th page is a ghost. eerie.

Got tagged by Rudy Jahchan to participate in this 666 Meme that forces you to post the 6th picture on the 6th page of your Flickr account, then tag six more schmoes to do the same. Evil. But since I know the Elder Ones will return (prematurely) if I don’t comply, here’s my pic. It’s, appropriately enough, from Halloween.

I call forth:

1. Micki Krimmel
2. Tim Shey
3. Brigitte Dale
4. Cali Lewis
5. Halcyon
6. Ryan Block