The last couple of days have been filled with good music, beer and wine and laughs with my dear ole Ma Hazzard. From the first night I have been drinking what we call out here “Black Christmas” it is normally a Black and Tan; a Guiness float over some sort of ale.

There is a local brewery here in Cleveland called Great Lakes Brewery and they put out a Christmas Ale every year. I was lucky enough to discover this hearty brew and it has become my aperitif of choice this year.

Last night we dined at my cousin Milo’s new bar/restaurant Sinergy in downtown Cleveland. It was very nice to see him and we were treated like royalty - god, I love being Italian. We drove back home sufficiently stuffed where we met up with Aimie, my oldest and dearest friend.

My regular readers may remember Aimie from my last visit home. We met in the 6th grade over some sort of hair pulling incident and never looked back. The plan was to make our way over to my cousin’s house down the road. Not being a fan of wine, Aimie raided our closet to find something more to her liking.

I think ma’s new favorite song is our beloved “Moving Into Light”; it is her #1 requested song when we are together. She REALLY REALLY likes it. It was the theme song for yesterday. The woman can certainly rock. She dances in her seat, takes over the volume control and pushes Milo’s speakers to their limit. No complaints here, we share the pleasure of loud music.

With my official business behind me I put the bears on planes to return them to their respective cities and began my week of hanging out in La La La Los Angeles. Besides the obvious sleeping late while curled up on a California King, I went to the beach near Malibu twice and Palos Verdes with Scott. On both occasions I brought my camera without a charge and great upset and disappointment ensued. That beach is so, so nice!

One day I got a real treat when Scott took me to see the Six Feet Under house. I think that SFU is one of the most brilliant productions I have seen. In every character I can see a piece of myself and in the case of one character - Ma Hazzard!

Frances Conroy plays Ruth Fisher, the recently widowed mother. Much like my beloved Ma H, she married rather young and enjoyed a wonderful marriage that made her very happy. She lost her husband and began a journey of self discovery. I have seen a distinct parallel between Ruth Fisher and my dear mother. It reminds me how lucky I have been not only to be witness to such a great self discovery, but also to be part of it by lending my ear as well as my opinions and experiences. I must say that the tour left me a little star-struck. (um, that rarely happens) The house was beautiful and I remembered all of my favorite scenes from the show that took place there.

I finished my 2006 contract last Thursday with the final scene of “When Bears Attack.” It was shot way out in the valley. Low December temperatures would normally send bears hibernating; however, the testosterone fuel cells of these “bears” were ignited by the chill. Before the scene was set up in the cabin, we all shot with Greg for the box cover. I stepped back for a moment from being mauled to get a shot of the bears at play.

This week I have three scenes to film and two box cover photo shoots. That may not sound like much, but I assure you I will be really, really DONE when we wrap things up.

I checked into my hotel room this afternoon and it’s the biggest room I’ve had yet. I have been staying at this hotel for about two years now and I know all the staff by name. Since this hotel is my home away from home(s) coming from the East or from Palm Springs I have grown to adore the people working there. They make every attempt to put me all over the grounds of the hotel so I do not get bored. This room ROX! BW is going to love this one when we have our long overdue date Wednesday.

I got the chance to hang out with my good buddy Greg Thompson Monday night. He is “it” when it comes to photography and he is also a great bloke who seems to sport a new hairdo every time I see him. BW and I always enjoy his company. We went over to “Here” lounge for an amateur drag show hosted by Jackie Beat with tunes by DJ Chi Chi LaRue. Chi Chi played my song while Greg and I were seated on prime bar real estate watching the patrons. I leaned over to Greg and confessed to him that hearing my song gave me serious butterflies. I didn’t puke, but did leave rather early to make an early call. More on that later.

Last Wednesday I was the guest “star” at a night called “Dirty Deeds” at Fubar in West Hollywood. Usually Chi Chi is the DJ supreme, but this night we had the pleasure of DJ Jastin in her stead. He is in a rock group called Nancy Full Force and was nice enough to bring my single along to play for the crowd. He was going to play it while I was dancing on stage; however, I wasn’t quite ready to “perform” the song. I left the stage and went downstairs to watch the crowd’s reaction from a security camera. It was the very first time I heard my song played to a real crowd over real speakers! I did get one enthusiastic piece of praise from a drunken patron, but since there wasn’t an all-out riot I choose to assume the song was well-received.

Thanksgiving was very low key. I spent the evening with a friend’s family complete with 2 kids. It was very kind of them to have me and the food was tremendous. And I was in bed by nine, so the night was perfect all around.

I spent the weekend with Scott conquering Topanga Canyon and the surrounding areas on an intense uphill hike. I love doing stuff like that. I almost always choose the path least taken when it comes to hiking and so does Scott. We found a tiny footpath up the face of the canyon, crawling on our hands and knees sometimes through brush and over rocks. It was a most enjoyable evening and I was in bed at 8:30 sleeping nearly twelve hours.

It doesn’t get much better.