"Paparazzi" is plural. "Paparazzo" is singular. Nit-picky. That's okay.

Spent part of the day in front of Vis-a-Vis Burger because I thought I saw Mae West in the drive-thru. Sure enough, it was. Snapped a picture. Thought it was mean. Whatever. I was sure the headline would be even more slanderous. Went to the G Weekly building - deleted the picture before I got there. You either get artistically satisfied or you trade your passions for what will sell. Damn shame.

Somedays I think I should stop being a paparazzo and try my hand at reporting. The Andrews Sisters have their LA stop for their "Beer Barrel Riot" tour tomorrow night and I'd love to be backstage conducting an interview instead of being jammed together with other "shutterbugs" guessing their color choice of underwear (if any). I love my job, it's just frustrating. I like the Andrews Sisters even though I'm not really that big into Riot Grrl punk rock. Maybe I'll get a picture of the concert - at least for myself, anyway. Not like G Weekly would buy one unless I caught them having sex with each other. Disgraceful. Just terrible.

There's another paparazzo named Herschel Wigington (did I spell that right?) who, almost exclusively, gets the cover to these gossip rags. What he gains in prolificness, he lacks in dignity, it seems. Has no trouble handing in incriminating photos of my favorite celebrities. Trouble? Let me rephrase that - basks in it! Have you guys seen the cover of Comet this week? We all need to lose a little weight (I'm not innocent of this either), so what's it matter if Jack Lemmon put on a few pounds? Last time I check, Jack Lemmon wasn't an underwear model, Jack Lemmon was funny. Still is. It's all just terrible.

By the way, have you guys ever heard of "The Diegetics?" They're a barbershop quartet that sings exlusively film soundtracks. Downtown Hollywood - if you're ever in the area, you can hear them a mile away. They had a Western-medley going today. Great stuff.

Hello all. My name is Mark Parish and I just had the unfortunate experience of being introduced to the internet. So, let's try this journaling thing, shall we?

Introductions are in order, I'd say. As I said before, I'm Mark. Grew up in rural Illinois with a camera in hand. A series of disposable Kodaks - I was never one of those "fancy" child photographers whose parents bought him all the newest equipment. Oh well.

Anyway, I've always loved people. I made it a hobby of mine to photograph people until once day, I managed to snap an incriminating photo of Jack Valenti, the Queen of Hollywood, himself. You may remember it, it made a pretty big splash. Queen Valenti buying a bootlegged movie from notorious film pirate, Jacob Janszoon. It was all over the papers. Yeah. That was all me.

Ever since then, I've been working freelance around the glorious area of Los Angeles. Hitting all the big gossip rags - Comet, Star Struck, and especially G Weekly.

Paparazzi get a bum rap, I think. The only time people hear from us are when the very vocal minority go outside their moral jurisdiction. I start this journal in an attempt to return my occupation to where it should be - respectable photography instead of "stalkerazzi" or (admittedly by personal favorite slur) "papa-nazzi."

I'll be posting photos occasionally, and hopefully I'll have some surprises as well.

Happy Thursday, everyone!