Also, I need some new TV icons. Various shows. Stat.

Because of where I live and the friends I've been lucky enough to make I get to go to TV show panels from time to time. Every single time I feel unbelievably lucky. I'm positive that at some point, someone will realize what a little imposter I am. There is no way I get to do something so cool. Some are Paley, some are TV Academy, all of them are a blast. Usually it's just not done to be a fan at these things cause that's not smooth enough for the industry, so I try to lie low, not go all fangirly, and generally play much cooler than I am (all goals that are not always met.) This means keeping the fandom to a minimum, not staring at the actors, and definitely, under no circumstances, taking pictures. I have breached this before for awful, unfocused, as they're getting up from the chairs on the fly shots, but really, no pictures. It just feels unprofessional.

But last night.

It's not even my favorite show. On right now or ever.

But um, I still broke all my rules.

I took pictures.

I woo!ed when he walked onstage.

It was a blast. And it won't happen again at the Academy or any other Paley event, probably ever, but last night, it was fun.

(And if Robert Guillaume had been up there, I'd have taken twice as many pictures.)

( My shame, it is hidden. )

Best part? TOTAL POSSIBILITY.

Spotted on LAist this morning:

YAY.

Look at that:



Yea, verily, a thing of beauty. Taking the train to that big sweet mall in Century City, or Beverly Hills, OR THE BEACH.

Be still my beating heart.

Yes, true, at least ten years off, but hey, gives a girl something to look forward to.

I've been running at half steam since Friday night. Went home early with a headache, woke up sick on Saturday, spent all day in bed (instead of meeting an awesome new baby,) and ended that super-fun day with a migraine, then spent all of Sunday in bed as well. Stayed in Monday night, last night, tonight, tomorrow night. Between general feeling like poo, the dreary weather, and the time change-up that now makes most of my outside hours dark ones it's a bleh week here. And my head hurts and I feel awful and I just want to go home, but if I leave now I'll run into the picketers on Riverside. And I cannot deal with crossing a picket line to leave work right now. I am not able to hang at this time, yo. So I'll stay at my desk like a good little coward and wait for 5pm when they all go home. Bleh.

This week blows.

My schedule this week.

Monday-- Employee screening of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" with Ray Bradbury in attendance. He spoke before the screening and it was enough to make me want to read every word the man ever wrote, since I've only ever read 451 for high school. Then I watched the creepy scary movie. I curled up into a ball at the tarantulas in the bedroom scene and didn't uncurl til the lights came up. Remember, I am the girl who slept with her lights on for three nights after seeing "The Ring." Maybe I don't need to read every word Ray Bradbury wrote.

Tuesday-- Sleeeeep. Grocery shoppiiiiiiing. Maybe even cooooooooking.

Wednesday-- Games.

Thursday-- Dexter! Watching Dexter every other week with liebewanze. Every other week means two hours of Dexter. Which is a good thing.

Friday-- Halloween party.

Saturday-- Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera with playmayt. Then bed early because...

Sunday-- MyPC Disneyland event! Technically starts at 10am but might be there earlier if beatnikside wants to take full adavantage of his day with the Mouse. I believe the park opens at 8. We're game if you are, my good man.

It's been a pretty good summer.

I went to eleven shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

I went to San Francisco a couple times.

I met many new babies.

I got to see friends in from all over the world and spend plenty of time with them.

I finally tried the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. AND IT WAS GOOD.

This weekend was my last Hollywood Bowl visit of the season. It also marked the arrival of fall in LA and I had a friend come visit me from Houston. We spent the entire weekend eating, driving, or sleeping, and we didn't sleep that much. From Friday night through Sunday evening we managed to hit Pink's, Knott's fried chicken, Dino's lasagna pizza, Din Tai Fung, Porto's, and Beard Papa. Monday morning I swore to eat nothing but salad the rest of the week. So of course I went straight to Bob's Big Boy for breakfast after depositing my friend at the airport. I had an hour to kill before work.

But Sunday. We saw Rufus Wainwright at the Hollywood Bowl. Doing his Judy Garland show. The last of his Judy Garland shows. Other than the obnoxious over-demonstrative of their fabulousness scenester asshats who moved in front of us just before the end of the first half, the show was a pure delight.



For the first encore Rufus came back out in Judy's tights, blazer, and fedora from Summer Stock. He spent the second in a beautiful black and white print silk bathrobe. No pictures of that, though, just a very blurry Lorna Luft back at my Flickr page. Sorry about the blurriness.

This thing! At the Paley! I'm going!



A rave hit with critics, AMC's Mad Men is—per Vanity Fair's James Wolcott—a "rat-packish safari" through the urban jungle of New York advertising in the 1960s, as drawn by former Sopranos scribe Matthew Weiner. Join the cast and creative team for a screening and discussion of—among other things—just who is Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and why is everyone saying such nice things about him?

In Person:
Matthew Weiner, Series Creator
Jon Hamm, "Don Draper"
Elisabeth Moss, "Peggy"
Vincent Kartheiser, "Pete"
January Jones, "Betty"
John Slattery, "Roger"
Christina Hendricks, "Joan"

I am so excited I cannot even tell you. Have I mentioned this show and how excellent it is? Cause you really should be watching it. All of you. AMC-- it's not just for Saturday afternoon "The Great Escape" marathons with convenient commercial bathroom & sandwich breaks anymore.

Dude.

That should be their new slogan. On a T-shirt or something.

Four minutes! 11 screenings on one night, at the Arclight, so at least 50 seats a theatre, so that's what? At least 550 tickets sold in four minutes? Every screening sold out four minutes after they went on sale?

WHAT THE HELL, LA?

I hate this town.

Sigh. Oh well. Check out what I won't be going to here.

Why must they have it in Orange County? These are the questions that nagged my tired mind last night.

Hit the Orange County Fair yesterday with playmayt to see Chris Cornell and enjoy decadent fair food. The structure of that last sentence should in no way be interpreted as representing my priorities, cause the fair food was way more important to me than Cornell's show. Sorry music lovers, I've never been much of a Cornell fan. "Black Hole Sun" makes me want to carve my own eyes out and stuff them in my ears so that I neither have to see the awful nightmare inducing video nor hear the annoying whiny song. But playmayt's beloved Yogi is in Cornell's band (and a fricking amazing rock star of a musician) so we went. We ate. We conquered. ( Disgustingly in depth food reporting back here. )

We really only indulged in one non-food paying fair activity: we visited the petting zoo and ponied up $2 each for pellets and oats so the animals would love us. Boy, did they love us. Goats and deer like to eat skirts. No, I'm not being risque, I'm serious. They will try to eat the skirt off your ass. Make sure you keep a hold of it if you don't care to flash everyone else in the pen. The llamas were a bit standoffish, but I decided that was because they were pissed that they had to mix with the hoi polloi after the Echolls sold the estate. Wouldn't you be? The ducks hid under a net full of alfafa the whole time. The baby roos (or were they wallabees?) tried to stay out of reach, but were eventually petted. The pigs all either slept or ignored us. The chickens didn't care that anyone was there. The sheep were just after food. But the baby goats. The really tiny baby goats. When I knelt down to pet the littlest ones, the tiny white goat jumped right into my lap for snuggles and pets. Such a dear. I had to pick her up and put her back on the ground. Such little loves. If I had space I would keep a goat. And make lots of cheese and cajeta.

Then Cornell. Opening act Puddle of Mudd was meh to ok, mainly because music where the lead singer sounds constipated is not generally my cup of tea. We giggled and snarked through most of their set until the last song, when suddenly lyrics from "Summer Lovin'" were worked in. We loved it. All the girls in the audience sang along, especially at the "Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far/ Tell me more, tell more, like did he have a car?" bit. The guys just kinda sat there in confused silence. Was a nice table to have turned.

I enjoyed Chris Cornell more than I thought I would. Like I said, I've never been a fan, and pretty much just went along for fair, food, and to see Yogi. I was not disappointed. I had more fun than I thought I would. I knew more songs than I thought I would. And I really liked the newer solo stuff. High points:

The James Bond song. Great song from a great Bond movie. This was probably the thin edge of the wedge in changing my anti-Cornell stance.

"Doesn't Remind Me of Anything." I love this song and totally did not realize it was him. playmayt, I lied. This is Audioslave, not Temple of the Dog. My bad.

Acoustic "Billie Jean." While I have heard it described as 'horrible, like "I dare you to actually listen to the whole thing" terrible.' (and that just this morning,) playmayt and I decided early on that the earnestness was a joke and giggled the whole time. At least, I hope it's a joke. If he's actually serious, then I see the horrible and raise you a burn it burn it get it away from me.

After the show we were hungry again (what? we hadn't eaten in over two hours. that's how it works at county fairs.) so we hit the food stands once again. I gave into my craving for a second Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich, which was also delicious despite the replacement of fried chicken breast with breaded tenders and playmayt had bacon and seasoning salt soaked roasted corn on the cob. Happy times for all. On to sleep. After the hour in the car to get back to civilization, of course. And thus another county fair ended in gluttony, exhaustion, and dazed stumbling to the car. Personal triumph: I managed to not fall asleep in the car on the way home. Yay.

Free Squishees today only at Kwik-E-Marts across the country, and their affliated stores, some little chain called 7-11. Get yourself a blue vanilla (best Squishee ever) and enjoy your Krusty-Os!

I also reluctantly recommend the donuts. Mmm... pink donut...

So wonderful that I wish you could have all been there to experience it with me. Since that's not possible, I broke all sorts of rules and used the handy dandy (extremely shaky) video record function on my camera to snag this, this, and this, as well as the piece below. Enjoy! ( Many pictures back here. )

I know next to nothing about opera and even less about contemporary opera stars and performers, so even had I been told that Sumi Jo was appearing as The Queen of the Night, it would not have meant anything to me. But wow, was she good, even though she was ill and almost didn't sing in the second act. There was a family of horrible opera snobs behind us who had the deplorable taste to boo her during her curtain call because apparently her singing was not up to their standards. I loved her rendition of the second act aria, and am impressed that she's still singing it twenty years into her career. I found a more complete performance of the piece by Sumi Jo as well and enjoyed that at work today. All I know is that it was better then I or they could ever do, therefore un-damn well-booable. They were so horrible and insistant that I finally turned around and said "You do remember that they said she's ill and almost didn't sing the second act?" to which the obnoxious teenage son replied "I've heard people who claimed illness do it much better than that. She was awful." Um, no. Judge for yourself:

He walked from downtown to the water along Wilshire. The music's kinda cool, too. Peeps in Texas, the last three minutes of the vid is my old neighborhood. Sometimes I miss living on the westside. Then I remember that Target is less than fifteen minutes away at all times now. It all evens out.

My weekend still hurts. ( I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. )

A mysteriously large package arrived on my desk this afternoon. My parents already got me super cool screenwriting software for my birthday, so I was a bit surprised by this. They sent the yellow rice and tea I asked for (silly SoCal groceries not stocking the good stuff) but also shoes and awesome books and great jewelry made by my Mom and a SF Giants Mr. Potato Head. That last one. I cannot contain the joy. Impossible.

Oh, and I got a call this morning about a gameshow that molly_drew recommended me for! I'll be auditioning for Merv Griffin's Crosswords next Wednesday at 1pm. YAY! I have a really light schedule this week, which is good because then I should be able to get Act I DONE, provided I don't slack too much, but next week looks crazy!

Monday, June 11th-- The Nemo Subs ride opens! Also gypsie_pie's birthday! And "Big Love" starts up again on HBO! YAY ON ALL THREE COUNTS!

Tuesday-- Disneyland for my birthday! YAY!

Wednesday-- Work in the morning, game show audition in the afternoon.

Thursday-- I'm gonna eat some lasagna pizza and see Knocked Up! Apatow and Rogen FTW!

Friday-- Disneyland with my cousins from NorCal. Also Davebo's birthday!

Saturday-- My childhood best friend's birthday! Also writing in the morning with other Script Frenzy participants, road rally in the afternoon, and cake and presents and games in the evening. I've been told this party is not an option and I will need to skip both Strawberry Alarm Clock at the Malibu Inn and Rebel Without a Cause at Cinespia to attend. Alright. If I must.

Sunday-- Brunch at the Scientology Centre with sinca, playmayt, and sweetcynic23 if we're still doing it and someone wants to get reservations. Girls? After that, possibly Disneyland.

AFTER THAT, I DIE. Seriously, folks. Anybody got a body I can borrow to tide me over through all this awesomeness? Cause really, I'm looking forward to it all, but why did I forget to schedule time to sleep?

Seeing a baseball game in LA can be interesting. Dodger Stadium is one big semantic argument people can actually sit in. It can be called decrepit or distinguished, out-dated or old-fashioned, uncomfortable or historic. I just call it enemy territory and refuse to set foot in it unless a decent team is playing, such as the Giants, Astros, Cubbies or Padres.

As long I can get Gordon Biersch garlic fries and my traditional third inning malted, all will be well. And LA's got a few unique additions to the baseball fun that I like. Watching movie trailers between almost every inning on the jumboscreen is a plus.

Then there's the music. LA's got a great classic organ and a lady who's been playing during the games for years. She's a real treat. I was lucky enough to see the Cubbies play on Sunday. I couldn't quite believe it when "L'Chaim" started playing. What did they follow it up with? Not "Hava Nagila," not right away, at least. No, next up was "Far From the Home I Love." Really? Is it showtunes day? Nope, just Jewish Community League Day. I didn't know it, but a bunch of the temples and synagogues all over LA have softball teams and play in a league. Representatives threw out the first pitch, sang "God Bless America," and a cantor sang the most beautiful rendition of the national anthem I think I've ever heard at a ballgame. And for the rest of the day the organ piped "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "Tradition," and "Wonder of Wonders."

I love this town.






*To everyone and everything except the Dodger post-season, that is. May their season end in August and their boys never know what it is to play in an American league park!

The totally awesome building by the train station that runs movie quotes along Lankershim Boulevard had a message for you:

AFTER ALL, TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY.

And then a stretch limo Hummer passed me.

Interesting town.

Reposting Hollywood Bowl tickets that are still available. Rufus is once again up for grabs. You can thank Def Leppard. :)

7.8 7.30pm-- Mozart's The Magic Flute in concert. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $10. Yay! playmayt's going!

8.30 8pm-- Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and The Firebird by Stravinsky. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $7. Yay! ubbercatta's going!

9.6 8pm-- Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky in concert. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $7.

9.23 7pm-- Rufus Wainwright sings Judy Garland. You read that right. Rufus. Singing Judy. All night. Whatever will he wear for the occasion? Other seat unclaimed, yours for $10. Yay! ubbercatta's going!

That is it! I give in! I will try it! Soon.

Who's in?

You heard me. This is the best ice cream I've ever tasted.

Where: Scoops Ice Cream Shop on Heliotrope in Koreatown.

What: Bacon Caramel, Raspberry Basil, Guinness Tiramisu, and Brown Bread ice creams.


Bacon Caramel Scoop of Heaven

Bacon Caramel-- They must have flavored it with perfectly clear rendered bacon fat because the first taste is pure wonderful bacon, but there are no bacon pieces in the ice cream. It's creamy and so good. It gets sweeter with each bite, and the taste changes the more you eat. The caramel is a swirl, the ice cream only bacon flavored. Amazing, but rich, so a little goes a long way.

Raspberry Basil-- A little too strong on the basil. The first bite is a bit strong, but it sweetens and the raspberry asserts itself as you eat more. It seemed like it would be really refreshing on a very hot day, because the basil tasted very cool in the ice cream.

Guinness Tiramisu-- Delicious. The first taste is sweet, very much the slight spice of the tiramisu and the chocolate and coffee notes of the Guinness, but as you eat more, the sweetness fades and it's like frozen creamy Guinness, the bittersweet chocolate and coffee only in the aftertaste.

Brown Bread-- Based on the sweet brown bread (like at the Rainbow and the Cheesecake Factory.) Really good. Kind of caramelly, like the bread, with little toffee-ey nutty crunchy bits. Mellow compared to the other ice creams, but great.

They let me get three flavors in the one scoop cup for $2. I came home with a pint of Bacon Caramel, Guinness Tiramisu, and Brown Bread for $6. If you're in LA, this is the best deal in town.

cross-posted to food_porn. :)

Hello all!

The summer of the Bowl approaches and I'm still solo for a few shows. The opera and classical pieces, mostly. What is up with that? Never fear, there's still time. If you so choose, you are welcome to come along to:

7.8 7.30pm-- Mozart's The Magic Flute in concert. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $10. Yay, clndestyn's going!

8.30 8pm-- Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and The Firebird by Stravinsky. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $7.

9.6 8pm-- Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky in concert. Other seat unclaimed, yours for $7.

9.23 7pm-- Rufus Wainwright sings Judy Garland. You read that right. Rufus. Singing Judy. All night. Whatever will he wear for the occasion? Other seat unclaimed, yours for $10. Yay, playmayt's going!

Speak up! Who's game?

Spidey 3 was not as great as I hoped it would be, but I enjoyed it for the most part. A little long, a little lighter on character and acting than the first two, but any chance to enjoy Topher Grace and James Franco for an extended period of time is ok by me. Yes, they're fun to look at, but they're also really wonderful actors.

Only in LA moment #792: There's a building at the corner of Lankershim & Chandler right by the NoHo Metro station (where the Red & Orange Lines meet) that was running movie quotes in floor to ceiling letters. It was so cool looking.

HELLO, GORGEOUS.

TOGA! TOGA!

ASK YOURSELF, DO I FEEL LUCKY? WELL, DO YA? PUNK?

YO, ADRIAN!

Goes very nicely with that neon light show at Union Station that Ron made me concentrate on til I could see it. If you casually glance it just looks like flashing colored dots in broken lines, but after really looking I could eventually see that it's a train passing by very quickly with movie stars in the windows: Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy. Very cool.

Have I mentioned that I love this town?