Fashion Sense: Fanny Pack Game

So people often tell me I have good style, you may think so or not, but I do love fashion. I attribute that to growing up and living with my aunts, Bernadette and Caroline, my mom’s sisters that were just two years older then me. They always had Vogues and Cosmos around the house and I would flip through every page, literally… from cover to cover. I mean, I loved super models (Christy Turlington was my favorite, probably still is) and somehow all that fashion seeped into my brain. So, I just want to blog about what I think about fashion every now and then and when I do, I decided to call these post, “Fashion Sense.”

That all being said, this is my first post about it all. Fanny packs… I know, it’s kinda funny and controversial actually, because of the nerdy stigma it has on it. But lately I’ve been digging them. There’s a few things a play here and why I started rocking them lately. First is function, I mean, as style would have it our jeans have gotten tighter and that means less pocket space. The baggy jeans of the 90′s are out and skinny jeans are in and ironically at the same time as all this is going on our cell phones got bigger, way bigger. Our cell phones became smartphones, more or less computers in our pockets, and not only that, now we have tablets that we toting around, let alone if you’re like me and you love taking pictures and your camera phone isn’t good enough (I don’t care if have an iPhone, nothing compares to taking pictures with a nice camera, I shoot with the Sony Nex 5n) we’ve got a lot of gear to carry around. And a bulky phone protruding from your skinny jeans is just not sexy… The other thing is for guys, we don’t have a lot of ways to accessorize, and maybe it’s just me, it’s one of those small ways to show a little more of your personality. So in the picture are two of my favorite ones of recent, the Herschel bag, which contrary to popular belief is not purple, it’s actually “eggplant,” and the Gucci, which I’m not always big on rocking major labels, but was a gift from my girl and it’s grown on me. My choice for getting a bag is that it can hold my camera and tablet and that it looks good. So… go out there rock your fanny pack with pride, join the Fanny Pack Gang, matter fact, post some pics of you sporting one here!

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, I uploaded two video to celebrate the day, for people pro and against. Me personally, I like the day, I don’t over do it or over think it. Me and my girl celebrate each other a lot, as far as going out and buying each other gifts and saying I love you, but it’s a fun day. I always think of Valentine’s Day when I was a kid and passing out Valentine’s Day cards in school, especially like in elementary school, of course I liked getting the candy (I love candy) and I liked writing little notes to the girls I had crushes on.

So watch the videos, hope you enjoy them, if you have a lover in your life, celebrate them, if you don’t, have fun being single… Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone and especially to my girl, Sammy… Can’t wait for tonight to cuddle up and spend some time.

Grammy Weekend 2012: Meeting Skrillex…

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So it’s Grammy weekend in LA, as Hollywood is usually a town run by the film and television industry, it’s a little different this weekend  because the city and all the parties are based around the music industry. It’s actually a really fun weekend as you can imagine. While running into an old friend of mine (and big time music producer these days with his brother Iz[Shout out, IZ]) Bobby Ross Avila at a party Friday night, he asked me what’s the difference between music parties and movie parties. I said simply, there are more rockstars at music parties… And it’s true, music parties are more fun.

One of the great things that happen while on my way out of the Paramount party is I ran into Skrillex. For those of you who don’t know who he is, (I recently was reintroduced to him myself, actually I knew him as a kid… and by another name, hahaha) he happens to be one of the biggest DJ’s in the world right now and up for several Grammy’s this year. Also recently he came out with a hit song called, “Bangarang”. (I included it in the post for everyone to enjoy) If you listen the song, you might hear a familier voice. When we bumped into each other, I just let him know, I love the song and I I think he’s amazing… When he realized who I was, he was excited to meet me too, he said he was geeking out over meeting me, (which was very flattering I admit) and even went as far as to thank me for being the inspiration for the song.

Skrillex is a cool guy and meeting him was a pleasure. He actually ended up having his management contact me and invite me out to a show he was spinning at downtown.

I have to thank my girl, Sammy for taking the pictures and actually was the one that made sure I met him. (It’s always great to have a powerful girl by your side, it’s nice for someone to have your back like that… thanks, babe)

It’s crazy to think that somehow I still continue to be a part of pop culture and in ways you never plan for. Having a hit song on the radio, meeting amazing artist from the new generation that are inspired by the the things you’ve done in the past. This life and this business is crazy. I’m just thankful to be apart of it all. As I continue to work and create the new films and projects ahead, it’s nice to know that people appreciate and are inspired by the work I’ve done in the past.

Much love and thanks to you Skrillex… Long live Rufio and the Lost Boys… BANGARANG!

6 Pack Abs

These days you watch TV and every other guy is ripped to shreds, totally fit and there is some ridiculous contrived moment set up for him to take off shirt and show off his six pack abs…. Now, I’m an actor and have been one for most my life, I totally understand that in our profession you have to keep in shape and be camera ready, but over the last few years, its been getting ridiculous! I was up for a film and the casting folks called up my manager and asked how many weeks am I away from a six pack! So crazy, not the quality of my acting, no, how fast can he get a six pack!

I know, I know, women have been subject to this for years, especially in my industry, and yes, it’s been horrible for them. But we’re men and we weren’t subject to that type of behavior. Hahaha… I mean, seriously… James Dean never had a six pack, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, non of those guys had abdominal muscles bulging from their stomachs, they were just great actors, some of the greatest & coolest actors of their time.. Hell, Elvis never had abs and it doesn’t get cooler then Elvis! Now, I have friends that get ripped out before a gig and you hear all these other stories about all the actors getting in shape to play a role or getting ready for the scene when they have to take their shirts off and it spans from severe diets and intense work outs to straight steroid use! Can you believe it?!?! I mean, steroids? 6 pack abs? How does that enhance the portraying of a alcoholic, single father, or whatever? It’s so unreal, that look… Even for the guys doing it, they push themselves to look like that for that role, sometime for just that day of filming,, they can’t even keep it up…

Its an almost unattainable goal, at least in some healthy way… Whether taking drugs like steroids or depriving the body of food and submitting yourself to some kind of mental torture, passing the line of staying in shape and being fit to place of temporary insanity! All to get that look… Sometimes I see guys at the gym staring at themselves in the mirror, almost infatuated with their own image and I wonder what happen to us… us men, I mean, I find myself acting like that too. Six pack abs, does it make you any better of an actor? Does it make you any better of person? It might even make you a worse person at times… Maybe I’m just bitchin cause I don’t want to go to the gym today… In any case, let’s hit the gym.

New Year’s Poem 2012

 

Happy 2012 to everyone. Here’s a poem to ring in the new year. Like everybody, I have a lot hope for the new year and like everybody I’ve heard all the rumors of the end of the world this year. Well, all that inspired me to write this poem.

The holidays always remind me how much I love my family and it’s been great to take some time off, sleep on the floor of my grandparents house a few days and stay up late singing songs and talking about all of our great family memories.

And now I’m excited to wake up tomorrow, the first Monday of the new year and get going. I have a lot of great things planned for the new year. I can’t wait to get them done and get them out there.

Happy New Year’s everybody!!!! much love, Dante

Hang Loose (Recap)

So I’ve been back from Hawaii now for a few days, just enough time to catch my breath and the people that have been following me on twitter have been wondering what the heck I was doing out there… Well, the truth is I was shooting film with a friend of mine, Kevin… Some of his fans may know him as KevJumba.

A year or so ago I did a film with my partner James Sereno called, “Paradise Broken,” about the darker side of Waikiki and we decided to create a company specifically to tell stories for and about Asian-American and Pacific Islanders. And our next film was this project with Kev, and  this one is called, “Hang Loose.”

Me, Kev and another friend of mine, Benjamin Arthur, co-wrote the movie and after a painstaking few months, we went out to Hawaii with a handful of friends and shot a movie. I know it sounds like a lot of fun and it was, but the truth is, for those who have never made an independent film, it was a crazy amount of  work. We shot a film in 15 days, we’ll actually 16 because we had a day of pick up shots. So basically we worked 8 days straight had Thanksgiving off and shot another 8 days straight and I’m talking 12-14 hour days… That includes the whole crew, all the actors, the director, the camera department, sound, grips, producers, extras… everybody! When I left Hawaii, I needed an vacation from Hawaii! But I think we really shot something great…

The work alone was only half the story, sometimes the greatest part of shooting on location is the adventures of shooting on location. After bonding through the writing process with Kev, we ended up living together in Hawaii along with Justin Chon and one of my oldest friends Akili Jones, who came to Hawaii to work on the film. We lived in a cozy but somewhat primitive flat right off the beach of Waikiki, that we fondly called, “The Philippines.” It was so fun, it took me back to growing up and living in the converted garage of my parents house with my brothers, just like Lost Boys… We all became better friends… It was my first time meeting Justin, that is a really cool guy. See the thing is, we had no tv and came home at night and just talked to each other about the day. We talked about acting and girls and the movie and girls and youtube and girls and… you know how it goes… boys will be boys. We woke up in the morning, sometimes at 5:30am, take turns taking a shower (we only had one bathroom) listened to music, usually classic Hip Hop (a lot of Tribe Called Quest) and danced around while brushing our teeth, especially Kev, while waiting for Dreadlock James to pick us up and take us to work. There was also the case of the missing fob (that’s an electric doorkey fob to get into the building and not anything derogatory) and for that you ask Justin… The shenanigans that happened after that were crazy which included both me and Kev on separate evenings, climbing into the 2nd story of our building and breaking in… Straight comedy, wish we took video of those nights.

Also, my little brother came along to Hawaii to play a character in the movie and killed it… So not only did it feel like family on the set, but it actually was family, even my cousin Xavier was a grip.(He also worked on “Paradise Broken) The rest of the cast included incredible actors, my bro, Dionysio Basco, another old school friend of mine Nicholle Tom, Benjamin Arthur, Katherine Emily, Jenn Fairbank, incredible comedian Augie T and Minae Noji. I really can’t wait for people to see what we did. And also, along with the great acting, the great crew… They were amazing, co-directors James and Ryan, Jay the DP… everyone definitely became our little Hang Loose family, including my girl, Sammy producing from home in LA, she was apart of it the whole time…

I think this is a special project… I hope you guys will too when we get it out there…

Hang Loose (Half way done)

It’s been busy & I haven’t been able to write, but I have a little down time & I figured I’d just check in. Let me describe to you where I’m at… Sitting under a tent in the middle of Waikiki beach surrounded by movie cameras & equipment, sun beaming down on a few miles of sand and plenty of ladies laying in the sun just soaking it in. I have to stop for a second and just make sense of it all. I was talking just a bit ago to Kevin (KevJumba) & Ben (Benjamin Arthur), who we all wrote the script together. It was just a few weeks ago we were sitting in my living room, pounding out ideas and putting them in the script & here we are shooting them on the beach in Hawaii… Its really kind of crazy.

There’s a bunch of folks working with us from our last crew who shot “Paradise Broken,” of course my director & partner, James Sereno, along with co-director Ryan Kawamoto.

It truly is a beautiful day at the beach, we just happen to be working… Yet, no real time to congratulate ourselves, were only half way done.

Paradise Broken

I know I’ve been slacking on my youtube page, I’ve gotten a few comments and yes, I admit, I have been. But, to my defense, I have been quite busy. Been to Hawaii and back for a film festival, and our film, “Paradise Broken,” did quite well, one festival coordinator even said that it’s the best film to ever come out of Hawaii… I’ll take that praise. Been to New York and back and the whole time been writing a new script with Kevjumba and Benjamin Arthur for an upcoming film were doing together.

And maybe I’m just telling you all this because I’m making excuses for myself being a little lazy… In any case, I’m uploading a video with footage from the film that just opened in the Hawaiian International Film Festival and I hope you take it as a token of my apologies for being such a slacker…

& I hope you dig it…

PS… I promise I will upload some new videos and I just got an assistant who will keep me on point… & tape me.

ISA – KevJumba and the crew

Sword Fighting Will Always Remind Me of My Childhood

So here’s a little video that a bunch of you have seen already but I was out of town this weekend (having a good time in Kansas City) and didn’t get to see it all. Watching it now is kind of fun. I can’t believe its been so long since I did Hook and getting together and getting together with Jan Bryant and Dan Speaker was great. These two along with Ted Katzoff we’re my actual fencing instructors and choreographers for the film.

A few friends told me watching this reminded them of there childhood and for me me it does the same, literally, its visiting with old friends… and sword fighting.

I remember being very young, growing up with 3 brothers, watching Star Wars and getting toy light sabers from our parents. And they weren’t the real cool one they have nowadays that make sounds and look like replicas of the ones in the movies. No, these were the ones who’s handle was one of those old, cheap red flashlights and the sword part was some see through PVC pipe… but they were the greatest things ever. We would have epic battles in the garage with the lights out.

And then as a teenager I got to live out those childhood fantasies playing Rufio…

So much has happened since then, but hanging out with Dan and Jan and picking up a sword again had all those feelings come back to me and it was so much fun. You know, it makes me think, I really want to do another film where I can do some swordplay, I mean when can you pick up a sword in real life and do some sword fighting. I guess I can really join a fencing club… (but I’d rather do another movie, you know what I’m saying)

So although I’ve been around this town awhile, I’m still a young man, I hope I get the chance to do another character that’s good with a sword and hopefully be as cool as Rufio… (that might be a hard one to come by, but one can dream)