Tuesday, November 30, 2004

"He's Out Of My Life"

KEN JENNINGS' REIGN AS 'JEOPARDY' CHAMPION ENDS



I guess it had to happen eventually. As Alex Trebek said at the conclusion of tonight's Jeopardy episode, "All good things must come to an end." Ken Jennings finally lost.

It was Final Jeopardy and Ken had an unusually short lead over his female challenger ($14,000 to $10,000) and Ken didn't come up with the correct answer. The challenger had wagered $4000 and Ken wagered $5000. It was a shocking moment for everyone, especially the challenger who probably never imagined she would unseat the All-Time Top Game Show Cash Winner, who amassed a grand total of over $2,500,000.

What will life be like without Ken? I've become used to seeing him on the show as a regular fixture for the past six months. It's not that I watch Jeopardy that often, but whenever I do happen to flip through the channels and it's on, it's reassuring to see Ken's happy smile and keen intellect. He is a bright guy, no doubt about it.

Now he will go back to his life in Salt Lake City with his wife and child. He said tonight during the show that he will keep his job as a software engineer. He loves his work and his colleagues at the office. First though, he'll likely be enjoying his last few minutes of fame. In fact, tonight Ken appears on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “Nightline.”

So long, Ken. It's been fun watching you win!

Monday, November 29, 2004

Celebrity Fuck Fest

Have you ever wondered about which swear words are most popular with celebrities? Wonder no more! Someone actually made a short film asking them all to recite their favorite curses.

Check it out here.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Sip Your Antioxidants

A surprising winner in the drinkable antioxidants arena is cocoa.

Warming up with hot cocoa will deliver an antioxidant punch that neither red wine nor green tea can beat, according to recent research. Cocoa is rich in phenols, compounds that fight heart disease, aging, and cancer. To keep your fat and calorie intake low, drink it in moderation.

From RealAge.com (http://www.realage.com/news_features/tip.aspx)

Sunday, November 21, 2004

U2 rocks!!



Anybody catch U2's performance last night on Saturday Night Live? They were simply amazing. I've enjoyed their music for a long time, even saw them in concert back in high school (remember Joshua Tree?), but I wouldn't call myself a fan as such. However, their live performance on TV last night was nothing short of scintillating.

The band totally rocked the house. How four guys can produce so much sound is beyond me. They seem to create a bubble of sound that expands and soars like a cathedral. Bono is still screaming it out after all these years, and even though he had a few croakers, it didn't matter because it was a live performance, as he even reminded the audience at the end of the broadcast ("This is Saturday Night Live, live, live."), obviously referencing the recent scandal over Ashlee Simpson's embarrassing lip-synching snafu on SNL a few weeks ago. They proved that real superstars have the goods live on stage as well as in the studio.

I think the host of the show was Luke Wilson, who is one my favorites, but nobody was paying much attention to the comedy skits. It was U2's show last night and boy did they deliver. They performed their new hit single "Vertigo" and a slower ballad, "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", for the second number. But later they returned for a show-closing rendition of "I Will Follow", their classic debut single from 1980 (can you believe it was that long ago?!).

In the last number, Bono and Edge both jumped off the stage and headed towards the crowd. Bono rubbed up against some of the young ladies in the front row (such a rocker) before playing havoc with the TV cameras. I would've hated to be the poor director during all that chaos, but it didn't matter because the band were hot and so was the crowd.

The show's credits rolled during the last chorus of "I Will Follow" and the crowd erupted as Bono screamed "Do you want more?!" and headed back to the stage to meet the Edge and start an extra song. That performance was for the studio audience only, however, since the broadcast ended before the band continued.

I would have loved to have been in that crowd, but I was completely satisfied by the television presentation. It was quite a moment that will definitely go down in television history as a highlight both for the band and for SNL.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

The Magic Castle



I had a great and rare opportunity to have dinner at The Magic Castle last weekend with some new friends of mine. The father of one of the girls used to be a member of the club years ago and the maitre d' remembered her and allowed her to make a dinner reservation, even though she herself is not a member.

What a truly magical place it is! The Magic Castle was the Lane Mansion, built in Hollywood in 1908. It's a beautiful Victorian mansion built on a hill. A residence for many years, the mansion was turned into the Magic Castle, a private clubhouse and school for magicians in 1963.

As one enters the club, the doorway seems to be a bookcase, to which you say "Open Sesame" and it slides open, allowing you to enter. The gourmet dinner was quite good, and expensive. I ordered Filet Mignon, medium-rare and it was perfect. After dinner, we made our way upstairs to the Palace of Mystery to see the first magic show. Then we went downstairs to the basement area, called the Inner Circle, to the tiny W.C. Fields bar, where another magic show and comedy routine was going on. (They also had Fields' trick pool table on display.) Finally, we caught the midnight show of traditional magic in The Parlour Theater.

It's a huge building full of posters and pictures of famous magicians who were members of the club. Current members include Siegfried & Roy, David Copperfield, Johnny Carson, and Steve Martin, who got his start in show biz doing magic tricks at Disneyland.

For dinner, we were seated at an intimate table in the corner near a beautiful beveled glass window. During the meal, one of the dinner hosts stopped by to greet us and to inform us that we were at the VIP table which was where Cary Grant always sat when he came for dinner at the Magic Castle. I was so excited to be sitting right where one of my favorite stars used to sit!

Overall, it was a magical and memorable evening. The performances were top-notch, the food delicious, and the ambience unbeatable. If you are ever lucky enough to spend an evening at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, don't hesitate to do it. You will have a wonderful time!

Leonard Maltin



I walked past film critic Leonard Maltin on the street in Westwood this evening. I was headed toward the parking lot to get in my car and go home. He was leaving his car and preparing to enter the popular New York pizza place there. We made brief eye contact. He seemed a little nervous. I just smiled.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

50 Elvises can't be wrong!

Just had a funny LA moment on my way to work today. I live a few blocks from CBS Television City and as I was passing, I noticed a large group of people waiting in line outside the entrance gate to the studio lot. This in itself is not unusual because many TV shows are taped there and studio audiences usually wait in line outside until they are brought in.

Well I don't know what these people were waiting for, but it quickly became apparent that they were all dressed like Elvis Presley!! There were probably 50 or more guys all in their white jumpsuits and black bouffants with bushy sideburns and guitars strapped to their backs.

Maybe it was for an audition or something, but it was a pretty funny moment to see a whole bunch of Elvises standing in line together on the sidewalk. Only in LA!!

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Tom Hanks is Brilliant

I had forgotten what a talented and versatile actor he really is. It's easy to become jaded when someone becomes such a huge superstar that their persona begins to overshadow the roles they play, but I've been watching Saturday Night Live's "Best of Tom Hanks" episode tonight and it's been great to see Hanks progressing through his career from a young up-and-comer all the to a big movie star.

The variety of the roles he played and his complete and utter commitment to the reality of each character is remarkable. And he's hosted the show 7 times! That's got to be a record. He's so damn funny every time, too!

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

George W. Bush: Gay or Straight?

I don't get it. GW Bush is always talking about how much he hates gays and how he wants to pass a Constitutional Amendment discriminating against the possibility of gay marriage, yet today he keeps talking about "Man Dates."

"America has given me a man date." "I have a new man date for my second term."

What gives, Dubya?!

Four More Years

Yuck.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Bush will win again

FUCK!!! What's the deal, people??!!

Why God, why??!!

I'm over it.

The whole fuckin' election bullshit. What the hell do most Americans see in Bush? Something familiar? That's all I can assume.

They suck. Anyone with a pulse on the international consciousness knows that Bush is not the guy. If we want to save our country from shame and embarrassment, Bush is not not the guy.

Slap the Candidates

Want to take out some Election Day frustrations?

Visit slapthecandidate.com for some cheap fun!
But hurry, the site goes down at midnight tonight!!

Monday, November 01, 2004

"You're an Asshole!"

Funny song and video: http://filmstripinternational.com/

thanks to flipsycab for passing it along!!

WATER OR COKE?

This is really an eye opener.... Water or Coke? We
all know that water is important, but I've never seen
it written down like this before.

WATER
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so
weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's
metabolism as much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger
pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a
University of Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses
of water a day could significantly ease back and
joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy
short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and
difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a
printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the
risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the
risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less
likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of COKE:

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol
carries two gallons of coke in the truck to remove
blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and
it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into
the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one
hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke
removes stains from vitreous China.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub
the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap
aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals:
Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble
away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked
in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into
the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and
bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished,
remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix
with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke
into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run
through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help
loosen grease stains.

9. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.


For Your Info:

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid.
Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4
days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones
and is a major contributor to the rising increase in
osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the
commercial truck must use the Hazardous material
place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to
clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a coke or a glass
of water?