Aubrey Up Close

My newest episode of On The Flipside is fresh off a Final Cut render! I’ve spent pretty much all of August in Austin, TX, so why not shoot an episode there as my “backdrop” location!!? For this edition I changed up the graphics a little and had to do subtitles… See the highlights from Nike and Converse’s (inaugural) World Basketball Festival in NYC. Jay-Z performed at Radio City Music Hall, LeBron James hosted kids in Harlem, USA Basketball had an exhibition and NBA players from France, China, Brazil and Puerto Rico all chimed in, in their native language…hence the subtitles! Then we’ve got Matt Barnes doing his annual camp at EA Sports, Golden State Warriors Rookie Ekpe Udoh and CGL Sports Yacht Celebration in Miami, plus a behind the scenes look at the Jacksonville photo shoot for Sweethearts for Soldiers! http://ontheflipsidetv.com/austin/

My final stop during an August-long travel spree for work and play ended in Vegas for Riza’s bachelorette party! The party actually started Thursday night, but due to my work obligations I joined in Friday and as soon as I landed we headed to JET Nightclub at the Mirage.

It was great seeing the ESSJ crew, especially Maureen, Riza and Rowena, who I have known for more than half of my life.

Val, Rose and Carrie were also rockin’ with the best!

The girls from LA LA Land came out to celebrate too….

I will also take credit for coaxing the bride-to-be to dance on the stage!!

Then, we somehow started club hopping on our way to XS and ended up in “King Inc.” for a while, where we met an artist by the name of H*Wood

He has a song called Could It Be You (Punk Rock Chick) – honestly , I’d never hard the song before, but Rowena knew all the words! lol

The next day we headed to Wet Republic at MGM.

It is a CRAZY poolside party out there….

Then, after the girls left I stayed another day to hang out with some of my favorite Kiddo’s…Jayme, Jaylin and Jayson. Sunday after church we went to Hooters…and I had to educate them that “Hooters” refers to the noise an owl makes…

And because I am so “inspirational” to the younger generations…Jayme decided to dress like her Auntie Aubrey!

And before I headed back to the airport, no Vegas trip is complete without stopping by Town Square!

I am extremely honored and flattered that my friend Kebba wrote a verse about me in his song “Get It” …listen to the song below!

The verse goes…

“Hold up, lemme give a shout to A, cuz she get it from Miami to the Bay”

For more about Kebba, follow him – http://twitter.com/iamkebba and his music – http://www.reverbnation.com/iamkebba

Another stop on my recent travels was back home to the BAY AREA! I had to make this special trip and spend time with my Dad before he headed out to the Philippines for a while. It’s one thing to be on opposite coasts, but different continents is a tough one, so spending some QT with my favorite dude was a MUST! My Dad proved to me he can easily beat me in Wii Golf… BUT the best part of this weekend with my Dad was listening to Drake’s CD in the car and somehow he picked up on the hook for “Fancy” (Drake/Swizz track), and for the rest of the night it was “So, you fancy, huh?” lol …and he kept adding “think” to it and would say it with different inflections, tones, accents and implications…FUNNY! Maybe you had to be there… Ha!

Lucky for my Dad he has 3 Angels – me, Ade and Bologna

And I’m happy to report that prior to his send off we got his laptop set up with Skype and G-Chat, and taught him how to use them, so we can see him and speak to him…cuz sometimes the Magic Jack just isn’t enough.

I can’t forget my brother Adam either, who hooked it up (as always), with the Korean BBQ short ribs! YUMMY!

Nothing like Family Time!

I made an Arizona desert stop last week to shoot a couple story segments for a new Health & Lifestyle program I am working on ..and of course had to squeeze in a little time to catch up with a few Phoenix friends and this time it included meeting a couple of new additions.

Here I am with (l-r) Reina, Christy, me and Marette at Geisha

And..Marette brought along her newest “best man” Alijah – he’s such a smiley baby!!

Jaseon is an old school Phoenix homie who’s since moved back to the Bay, but he just happened to be in town to hang…it was like a reunion!!

I also caught up with a fellow TV newser, Caribe and her sweetie Neveah…

I went on a yacht trip from Miami out into Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean (I suppose) for new Golden State Warrior Ekpe Udoh’s weekend celebration. Coincidentally I was filimg a segment for a future episode of On The Flipside! The piece is in edit and I should have it out by the end of the month, but in the meantime, check out a few pictures from the outing… Shouts to Derick G and Daniel for helping me get the images and video shot!

Swimming in the water..one of my favorite things! Gotta have the “noodle!”

And the man of the hour… Ekpe – nice guy. I’m glad he’s reppin the hometown team!

We were even lucky enough to see dolphins swimming in the wild!

To view more photos visit Derick G’s site at: http://tharealderickg.blogspot.com/2010/08/exclusive-party-ekpe-udoh-private-yacht.html

Here’s another “throwback” video from February 2008. Check out my interview and demo with “Weavin’ Steve” … one of the best in the “weave” game!” He has all sorts of extremely creative “Fantasy Hair Designs,” including a “hair-icopter” – yes, it flies… and he even gets me in one of his exclusive looks! Watch the video…

He gave me more of a “patriotic” look! It is ALL made out of hair!

I should probably preface this entry by saying I was pretty indecisive on whether or not to go see this screening. I had just caught Step Up 2 on TV last week and even though that one was pretty painful, I figured why not! At the very least I’ll see some great dancing. Okay, so all that to say… that is two hours of my life I’ll never get back! lol Within the first few moments it was obvious the story was gonna be super cheesy and very forced. The film tries way too hard to be “cool” and to me it comes off very silly. I don’t know if it’s just me getting “old” or being out of it…but the dance battles I remember were never like the ones in the movie and I doubt they’re like that now. So, maybe this film would be better off in a fantasy or sci-fi category! I’m not sure it needed to be 3D, but I guess they needed a gimmick to sell it. I’m sure there was lots of GREAT choreography going on, but again, just too much was happening where you couldn’t even see the full choreo to focus or the camera angles just kept changing up so it was hard to follow. I’m probably old school when watching dance, but I love to see the formations and technique too. Yes, this is a “teenie booper” type flick and I probably should’ve just skipped it altogether… It’s SUPER cheesy with the contrived storyline and lack of chemistry with the actors. And, in addition to the 3D gimmick, the effects came off funny to me too. It was just too “silly” for me!