Dump the Bitch, Paul

Excuse me, I mean SIR Paul.

No doubt you've all heard about Sir Paul's marital troubles. Sorry about that, Paul. It happens to the best of us. Personally, I never thought Miss Mills did anything for him.

Here's a reason why they broke up.

Driving Without Oil

It's taken 30 years, but Brazil has switched from gasoline to ethanol and has become completely independent from the foreign oil market.

ABC News: Out of Gas -- Brazil Replaces Oil With Homegrown Alternative

Warner Bros. to sell films via BitTorrent

The Digital Revolution is on!

Read the MSN Story.

Original "Star Wars" coming to DVD

I'm so happy to hear that the first Star Wars trilogy (now called Episodes I - III) will soon be available on DVD in their original, unedited versions.

George Lucas has a habit of revising and updating his old films with "enhanced" visual effects, new characters -- he even changed the Ewok celebration music at the end of Return of the Jedi.

To please fans like me, this fall Fox plans to release 2-disc sets with the original theatrical versions and the new, restored versions together.

May the Force be with you...always!

'Star Wars' goes back to basics - Yahoo! News

Your next CD deck may be a PC

Dear Santa Claus,

Here's what I want for Christmas:



Your next CD deck may be a PC - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

TomKat has spawned

Thank god. At long last, TomKitten is here!

CNN.com - Cruise, Holmes welcome daughter Suri - Apr 19, 2006

Happy Easter

Celebrity Sighting: Samuel L. Jackson

Hey, I saw one of my favorite actors, Samuel L. Jackson, driving in his brand new, black Mercedes convertible this afternoon in Beverly Hills.

Traveling west on Santa Monica Boulevard, he made a right turn on to Palm Drive. I was waiting at the red light at Palm and Santa Monica and he turned right past me. Unmistakably him, in his black Kangol hat.

Amazingly, Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in over 100 films. And in case you haven't heard the news, he recently surpassed Harrison Ford's long held spot as the biggest box office star in the world.

Yep, he's one bad mother-f*cker.

Pooh turns 80! (Hef too)

Hard to believe that Winnie the Pooh is officially 80 years old. He doesn't look a day over 70 to me.

To celebrate, he got his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony today happens to coincide with the release of "Pooh's Grand Adventure" on DVD.

In other octogenarian news, Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner also turned 80 years young over the weekend. How does he manage to maintain his vast publishing empire AND satisfy three hot young women while staying in his pajamas all day? He gets by with a little help from his friends, of course, and LOTS of Viagra.

Happy Birthday, Hef! You lucky bastard.


Hef gettin' jiggy with Paris Hilton

Jake Gyllenhaal Gets Drunk!

Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal appears to be feeling no pain in these hilarious photos of a pre-Oscar bash with Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee and other celebs, including Uma Thurman and William Hurt.

Jake Gyllenhaal gets drunk at Pre-Oscars - The Superficial - www.thesuperficial.com

Tom Tancredo vs. Illegal Immigrants

"They are 'a scourge that threatens the very future of our nation,' he says."

Border War: Immigration Debate Heats Up - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

Germs: Dangerous or Not?

If you're a germophobe like me, you will find this article from MSN quite interesting. Some good news, and some suprises!

Germ and Bacteria Hot-Spots: 12 Things You Should Know-MSN Lifestyle - Mind, Body & Soul

More Oscar Fun Results

Well, there weren't many guesses for the mystery IDs of these past Oscar winners. Although Cary Grant and Julie Andrews were featured in the major publicity materials for this year's Academy Awards ceremony, these secondary images feature slightly less "vintage" performers than the previous two.

It's pretty easy to guess the male figure is Sidney Poitier, although this photo was from his recent honorary award from 2002, not his 1963 Best Actor award for Lillies of the Field.





The female is another recent winner, Renee Zellweger for 2003's Cold Mountain. The odd ring on her forefinger triggered my memory and hinted that this was a more recent winner.

Plan to Save the Airlines

This open letter has some great ideas.

A Plan to save bankrupt airlines:

Replace all female flight attendants with some good-looking' strippers! What the hell? The attendants have gotten old and haggard-looking. They don't even serve food anymore, so what's the loss?

The strippers would double, triple, perhaps quadruple the alcohol consumption and get a "party atmosphere" going in the cabin. And, of course, every heterosexual businessman in this country would start flying again, hoping to see naked women.

Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing naked women.

Hijackings would come to a screeching halt and the airline industry would see record revenues.

Why the hell didn't Bush think of this? Why do I still have to do everything myself?

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

March Madness in Los Angeles

Today was one of the most unusual days I have ever experienced. Little did I know as I made my way to the Metro station this morning to catch the train to downtown Los Angeles that today I would witness one of the largest public demonstrations in U.S. history!

My first clue that something was amiss was when the train arrived at the Hollywood station. Our Metro system is widely used, but Saturday mornings usually have pretty light passenger volume. Not today. The train arrived completely packed with people. I ran to several different cars looking for space, but they were all full, so I had to dive in with the crowd in hope of getting to work on time.

The train was stuffed with mostly Latino people. They were smiling and engaging in polite conversation, and they were all wearing white T-shirts. Despite the cramped quarters, everyone was in a friendly mood and several people spoke to me reassuringly since they could see I was flabbergasted by the unusually large crowd, and I was the only gringo in sight.

"You OK, man?" one gentleman asked. "You look a little nauseous."

"What's going on?" I asked. "Are you all together?"

He said they were all going downtown to participate in the immigrant rights demonstration in downtown Los Angeles. I hadn't heard a thing about it.

"Where is the protest going to take place?" I asked him.

"We're gathering at Olympic and Broadway, and then marching down to city hall," he replied.

"So you'll be marching down Broadway?"

"Yeah, you can join us if you want," he offered with a smile revealing his gold-lined teeth.

"Oh, thanks. I wish I could, but I've got to get to work today," I said. Inside I was thinking "oh shit" because Broadway is where I work part time on the weekends giving tours of downtown Los Angeles. I knew that any public demonstration on Broadway would definitely affect my tours.

We arrived at the next station to a large group of people who somehow squeezed onto the train with us. The crowds of people waiting on the station platforms got larger and larger at every station. There was simply no room left on the train for more people, and yet they kept crowding on again and again. Luckily everyone was in good spirits, but we were literally packed like sardines together. I couldn't even reach a hand bar so I had to lean on others to keep from falling when the train stopped and started. It was extremely uncomfortable. Beads of sweat began dripping from my face.

"What station are you all getting off at?" I desperately asked my Mexican friend.

"Pershing Square," was the answer. Great, I thought, that is my station as well.

There was no relief from the growing crowds at every train station. At one point it was so bad that the train conductor asked some people to get off and wait for the next train since the cars were so full some of the doors wouldn't close. It was like Tokyo at rush hour, and the train was running several minutes late because of the delays in getting people on and off at each stop. The conductor announced that MTA was ordering more trains into immediate service to accommodate the high volume of passengers.

Finally, we arrived at our destination and everybody got off. I made my way upstairs out of the station and on to Broadway. Sure enough the street was closed to automobile traffic, but there were many Latino people in white shirts congregating. Many of them had banners and flyers with mottos in both Spanish and English, mostly supporting immigrant rights.

"Viva la raza!" someone yelled. Others were cheering things in Spanish I couldn't understand. I was like a complete stranger in my own town. One man said to me, "Good morning, sir." And another gave me a white t-shirt decorated with an American flag and the words "Stand and Salute" eblazoned across the front. "It's free!" he cheerfully explained.

I learned later that although the march had not been well publicized in the mainstream (i.e. white) media, the event had been heavily promoted by Spanish-language radio, and all participants were encouraged to wear white shirts as a sign of peace and solidarity.



Amazingly my morning Historic tour customers made it to the office on time. They were upbeat and very Anglo. The protest march was just officially getting underway as we started our tour. A horse-mounted officer blew his whistle and shouted, "Let's go!" The people started cheering. I took my guests around the neighborhood as best I could through the masses of people. It took some navigating and I had to cut a few things from the tour because of limited access, but we made it through and the folks had a great time.

After the tour, I struggled to make it back to our tour office at the Bradbury Building at 3rd & Broadway. This was almost impossible because by now the crowds were peaking (over half a million people by some estimates) and not only had the march taken over Broadway, it actually was spilling over to side streets and parallel streets like Hill and Spring streets. These streets had not been closed to traffic, so there were hundreds of cars logjammed among the throngs of people who swarmed through the boulevards, effectively shutting down the streets. Horns were blaring, protesters were cheering, helicopters were roaring overhead.



I had to swim against the tide of humanity to make it across Broadway to the Bradbury building. I got as far as the sidewalk and then the momentum went against me and I got swept into the crowd. I couldn't get back to the Bradbury entrance way. Instead I navigated into the Sprint cell phone store at the corner of the building. All the store employees were standing at the windows watching awestruck the scene outside. "Are you OK?" one of them asked me.

"I'm fine thanks, but I'm trying to get to my office inside the Bradbrury building. I got cut off outside," I explained.

"No problem, man. We got a back entrance to the Bradbury building. I'll show you." And he took me through the employees-only area of the store and showed me out through their back door which led to the back door of my tour office just across the hallway. Actually, I knew of the rear entrance from the Sprint store, which is why I went there in the first place, hoping they would help me get inside.

I finally made it back to the office, never expecting the single tourist booked for my twelve o'clock Contemporary tour to actually show up, but he did. Fifteen minutes late, but he showed up. He was a nice man from Toronto, a retired television producer, and he actually offered to reschedule the tour for another day for my sake. But, being the true professional that I am (and a bit of a masochist), I said I would gladly give him the tour since he had worked so hard to get here.

Back out into the streets we went. This guy I gave a special tour since he was the only participant and in fact he had booked also for the ealier Historic tour but couldn't make it in time, so I gave him a hybrid tour including elements from both the Historic and Contemporary tours. He was a friendly fellow and we had a pleasant tour despite the continuing crowds downtown. He took literally hundreds of pictures and had to keep changing the memory cards for his camera. It was bit too much like Austin Powers' as the fashion photographer, if you know what I mean ("Yes, yes, yes! NO!")

By this time, the official march was starting to wind down so not only did we have the end of the "parade" following down Broadway, we had marchers going back in the opposite direction on Hill Street. Police were out in force trying to manage the crowd and the traffic, which was gridlocked beyond belief.

To add to the confusion, there were at least three different film crews trying to shoot downtown today. It's extremely common to see film crews downtown on the weekends shooting movies, TV shows, and commercials. You see their white trucks lined up along the curbs and they often close the sidewalk for filming. Today I'm sure those guys lost their whole day of shooting. Beside the crowds, the noise was unbelievable.

I left my customer at the Cathedral at the conclusion of the second tour and made my way back to the Bradbury building. It was a lot easier this time since the herds were thinning, but there were still many, many people roaming the streets, cheering and waving American and Mexican flags. The street was a mess, littered with all kinds of paper and garbage.

Two hours later now, and things are starting to calm down. Broadway is open to traffic again, but I still hear sirens and helicopters buzzing around outside. I just hope the trains are running with extra capacity by the time I go home.



The picture above shows Broadway Street in Los Angeles where I was trying to give walking tours!

I still can't get over how many people there were in the streets. I've never seen anything like it before in my life.

P.S. MSNBC has an updated news article about today's march. It delves a little deeper into the motivations behind the controversial and emotional immigration issue, which will likely top the agenda for this fall's congressional elections.

More Oscar Fun

Remember those photos of vintage Oscar winners the Academy used for this year's promotional materials? Here are two other photos from that set. These are scans from postcards.

I don't know who the people are yet. See if you can guess!

Are Your Cats Old Enough To Learn About Jesus?

Funny piece from The Onion:

Are Your Cats Old Enough To Learn About Jesus? | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

SI.com - Soccer - Galaxy prez dies on plane returning from match - Friday March 10, 2006 12:09AM

Sad local news.

SI.com - Soccer - Galaxy prez dies on plane returning from match - Friday March 10, 2006 12:09AM

It's Julie Andrews!!

Remember last week when I posted about the photos of vintage Oscar winners in this year's promotional materials? I recognized Cary Grant, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out who the female in the white gloves was.

Well, river selkie is the winner! It is indeed Julie Andrews, as can be confirmed by the photo below. She won the Best Actress Oscar in 1965 for Mary Poppins.



See, I knew she was "close" to Audrey Hepburn!

I Won the Oscar...

...voting contest at the party where I watched the show!



It's true -- I had 13 correct picks for this year's Oscar awards. I was surprised Brokeback Mountain didn't have a stronger showing, though I'm glad it won the awards it did, especially Best Director for Ang Lee. It's very rare to split the awards between Best Director and Best Picture, but Crash was also an excellent film and worthy of the award. This makes two in a row for Paul Haggis, who last year scored with Million Dollar Baby. He's definitely going to get some great phone calls tomorrow.

I'm shocked that the "Pimp" song won instead of Dolly Parton or the Crash song, but I guess the Academy has to skew to the younger crowd to keep the ratings going. Another unusual thing was the use of music to underscore all of the acceptance speeches. Rather than interrupting the speakers to play them off, the orchestra played some cheesy lounge music behind the speeches which psychologically kept the pace of the show moving.

Jon Stewart did a serviceable job but some of his jokes didn't quite play with the stuffy Academy crowd, who were being mocked by Stewart half of the time. It's always weird when the Academy chooses an outsider to host the awards ceremony. I guess they enjoy a little abuse with their praise.

My friends and I got thoroughly drunk on champagne thanks to the great drinking game created by my friend Heidi. This year's "Dead Celeb Montage" really put me over the edge. Luckily a delicious steak dinner helped absorb some of the booze. Wolfgang Puck, eat your heart out.

By the way, that's a real Oscar I'm holding in the photo above. The Academy had all 50 of tonight's award statuettes on display at the Hollywood & Highland shopping center next to the Kodak Theater where the ceremony is held. For the first time, they also had one statuette available for the public to hold and you know what? They are surpringly heavy!

Thanks to The Saint for the photo and the excellent dinner.

Oscar Picks 2006 (hey, that rhymes!)

OK, here are my picks for the winners of the 78th Annual Academy Awards this Sunday, March 5th. I've included only the major categories and my favorites such as Best Original Score. I also offer my prediction for the winners and my personal choices.

If you don't have your own ballot yet, here are a printable PDF version and an html version.

It was a rather weak year for films, until the late fall season when a flood of really excellent films hit the marketplace. Or could it be that the first part of the year was so lame that even a mediocre movie released late in the year seemed good in comparison? Only time will tell.

BEST PICTURE

"Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," "Crash," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Munich."

Will win: "Brokeback Mountain"

My pick: It's a "Brokeback" year without doubt. If any other movie wins the award, it will be a major upset. The momentum behind this film is indomitable and besides that, it's a darn good film. Great acting, directing, cinematography, music; it tells a heartrending, epic love story set in the American west; there's nothing not to love about this film. "Brokeback Mountain" is more than a movie -- it's a cultural phenomenon.

BEST ACTOR

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"; Terrence Howard, "Hustle & Flow"; Heath Ledger, "Brokeback Mountain"; Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"; David Strathairn, "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Will win: Philip Seymour Hoffman, and rightly so because he was and is always awesome! I admire Hoffman, especially for his work in P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights and Magnolia. He's one of the best in the biz.

My pick: Heath Ledger. He dominated this film. What a wonderfully understated performance. He was so real and truthful that I'm actually a bit surprised the Academy even noticed him since there wasn't a lot of "pyrotechnics" in this type of role.

BEST ACTRESS

Judi Dench, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"; Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"; Keira Knightley, "Pride & Prejudice"; Charlize Theron, "North County"; Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line."

Will win: Reese Witherspoon

My pick: Reese. This is not really fair since I haven't seen all the films in this category, but Reese is so popular in Hollywood for being a talented actress and an adorable person. She's consistently good in everything she does and she was great holding her own against Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk The Line."

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

George Clooney, "Syriana"; Matt Dillon, "Crash"; Paul Giamatti, "Cinderella Man"; Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain"; William Hurt, "A History of Violence."

Will win: George Clooney

My pick: Matt Dillon. This I think is the hardest category because all five are wonderful actors who gave excellent performances. Each of them deserves to win, but I think Clooney will walk away with it because he's a favorite in Hollywood and he's an actor who is also finding success as a director (nominated this year for "Good Night, and Good Luck") and that is a huge aphrodisiac to Academy voters. Giamatti was robbed last year for "Sideways" which he should have easily won. But that was last year. Jake won't upstage Heath for "Brokeback" and William Hurt's already won the Best Actor award for "Kiss of the Spider Woman" way back in 1986. First time nominee Matt Dillon is one of my all-time favorites and he's always been something of an outsider (no pun intended!), so I'm going with him. (Huh, I wish I were!)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, "Junebug"; Catherine Keener, "Capote"; Frances McDormand, "North Country"; Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"; Michelle Williams, "Brokeback Mountain."

Will win: Rachel Weisz.

My pick: Rachel Weisz. She's becoming the "It Girl" of the moment and she gave a standout performance in the mesmerizing "The Constant Gardener". Keener and Williams gave fine performances in their respective films, but nobody blew me away. I haven't seen the others, though Frances McDormand is always amazing.

BEST DIRECTOR

Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"; Bennett Miller, "Capote"; Paul Haggis, "Crash"; George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"; Steven Spielberg, "Munich."

Will win: Ang Lee

My pick: Ang Lee. How can you have the best film of the year without being the best director of the year?! I know it's happened before (remember the Saving Private Ryan - Shakespeare in Love split back in '99?), but I'm not sure this is the year for an upset, especially considering how popular and respected Ang Lee is. Having said that, Paul Haggis is a contender because he won the screenplay award last year for the Best Picure "Million Dollar Baby." Miller did a great job with "Capote" and again Clooney is a Hollywood favorite. I haven't seen "Munich" yet, but considering it's a Spielberg film, it can't be that bad!

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, "Brokeback Mountain"; Dan Futterman, "Capote"; Jeffrey Caine, "The Constant Gardener"; Josh Olson, "A History of Violence"; Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, "Munich."

Will win: "Brokeback Mountain", Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

My pick: "Brokeback Mountain" All of these screenplays are worthy of the award, but I think "Brokeback" will continue its sweep of the major categories. Plus McMurtry is a long-time favorite (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, The Last Picture Show, Hud) and it was a notable achievement to take a short story, albeit an excellent one, and flesh it out into a full-length drama without spreading the story too thin.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, "Crash"; George Clooney and Grant Heslov, "Good Night, and Good Luck"; Woody Allen, "Match Point"; Noah Baumbach, "The Squid and the Whale"; Stephen Gaghan, "Syriana."

Will win: "Crash", Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco

My pick: "Crash". A really tough category! I saw all of these except for the Woody Allen film and again each of them are deserving of recognition. But I think "Crash" walks away with it because the film did create a big splash and has had huge legs in Hollywood terms. The film was released almost a year ago and yet people are still discovering the film and talking about it. It impressed a lot of people. Plus, as mentioned above, Paul Haggis is hot now for his success last year with Million Dollar Baby.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Gustavo Santaolalla, "Brokeback Mountain"; Alberto Iglesias, "The Contant Garndener"; John Williams, "Memoirs of a Geisha"; John Williams, "Munich"; Dario Marianelli, "Pride & Prejudice"

Will win: "Brokeback Mountain"

My pick: "Memoirs of a Geisha" As much as I loved the music in "Brokeback Mountain" (I loved Santaolalla's work in The Motorcycle Diaries and Amores Perros), I have to go with my favorite John Williams and his wonderful score to "Memoirs of a Geisha." Williams is the best at enhancing character development through thematic music. In fact, no one can touch him in that regard. And although he's the hardest working man in movie music, with no less than FOUR feature scores this year (!), his music is always sincere and appropriate. I thought he did a wonderful job of blending western orchestrations with traditional Japanese instruments and themes.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Michael Becker and Kathleen "Bird" York, "In the Deep" - CRASH; Paul Beauregard and Jordan Houston, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW; Dolly Parton, "Travelin' Thru" - TRANSAMERICA

Will win: "In the Deep", CRASH

My pick: "In the Deep", CRASH. This is mostly because I haven't seen the other movies! It's a big step for Oscar to recognize hip-hop music as a legitimate art form, but I don't think the Academy is quite hip enough to actually award a song with the word "pimp" in the title. Dolly Parton is a long-time popular favorite and previous Oscar nominee ("9 to 5") but she's never won an Oscar so this could be her year.

OK, that's far more information than anyone deserves to suffer through, so if you actually read this far you owe yourself a stiff drink! So break out the bubbly, get your ballots and pencils handy, and let's hope for an entertaining broadcast regardless of who wins or loses.

In the words of a dear friend, "Oh Oscar, who will your golden light shine upon tonight?!"

Who's Holding the Oscar?

Surely you've seen these posters advertising the 78th Annual Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, March 5th. What hasn't been revealed are the identities of the two "vintage" celebrities holding the Oscar statuettes in the photos.

Well, I thought immediately that the man in the black tux was Cary Grant. It just looked like his tanned, manicured hands. And the French cuffs were a giveaway. Here's a more complete photo to compare (check out the cuffs):



I'm still not sure who the female in the white gloves is. At first I thought Audrey Hepburn, but a subsequent Google image search shows a different dress on Audrey when she won. Second choice Grace Kelly is close; she wore the white dress and gloves, but no necklace.

Anybody want to guess who she is?

Neil Diamond: 12 Songs

If you haven't heard the great new album 12 Songs from Neil Diamond, do yourself a favor and get it. ND fans especially will love it, but casual listeners will certain appreciate the simplicity and sincerity of Mr. Diamond's songs and performances (he plays guitar on every track) and the stripped-down production by Rick Rubin.

The songs are also pretty fun to play on guitar.
It's classic Neil Diamond circa 2006!

Mine's Bigger Than Yours

Yes! The Milky Way kicks ass!

SPACE.com -- Milky Way vs. Andromeda: Study Settles Which Is More Massive

Dubya and Rummy

This is a bad joke, but I just couldn't resist republishing it here:

President Bush and Rumsfeld are sitting in a bar. A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that Bush and Rumsfeld sitting over there?"

The bartender says, "Yep, that's them."

So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honor! What are you gentlemen doing in here?"

Bush says, "We're planning WW III."

And the guy says, "Really? What's going to happen?"

Bush says, "Well, we're going to kill 140 million Muslims and one blonde with big boobs."

The guy exclaimed, "A blonde with big boobs? Why kill a blonde with big boobs?"

Bush turns to Rumsfeld and says, "See, I told you no one cares about the 140 million Muslims."

A Thief With Taste and A New Guitar

I just discovered one more thing that poor crook took from my apartment. As I mentioned before, since he didn't find very much of monetary value in my apartment, he took the item with the most cultural value: my beloved Yamaha guitar.

Today I realize he took not only the guitar and its gig bag, he also took my Beatles music book. That was a huge book with almost all the Beatles songs in full piano score with guitar chord symbols. At least he had some taste. No doubt he's probably some starving musician in need of creative expression. Or maybe he thought, "What can I do with all my free time as a homeless person? I need a new hobby. Hey, I'll take up the guitar, and what better place to start than with the Beatles?!" More power to him.

The good news is, I invested in a new guitar last night! I chose an Ibanez acoustic-electric (model AEL20ETRS) and it is beautiful. I spent several hours on Friday at Guitar Center with my bandmate Frank, but I just wasn't satisfied with anything I played there. My price limit was about $200, and there are some decent models available in that range, but nothing that felt like an improvement on my last instrument and it is definitely time for me to step up a level so I can continue growing as a musician.

So Saturday evening, I met my friend Heidster at Sam Ash on Sunset and we spent several more hours playing various guitars. We were there so long, we went through two or three salesmen. But the staff at Sam Ash were very considerate and allowed us time to play with the instruments until we found the Ibanez (ridiculously pronounced AY-ban-nez, with the long "I") that felt right.

And I got a good deal on it. The guitar lists for $500, but it was marked down to $350. I bought it for $300. It's more than I wanted to spend, but I don't mind a bit investing more to get a better quality instrument and I feel very about the instrument I got.



Actually the financial investment is not only in the guitar, it's really an investment in ME -- and damn it, I'm worth it!

Special thanks to Frank and Heidi, and all those suffering guitar salesmen who have to endure the wishy-washy nature of rookies like me.

I Got Robbed

It's no joke. My apartment was broken into today. Not to quote the Beatles, but they came in through the bathroom window -- cut right through the screen with a sharp blade of some kind.

Fortunately, they didn’t get away with anything of significant value. They took only a handful of things like spare change and a few things that are probably easy to exchange for cash. Based on the circumstances, I would guess the person is homeless.

The items missing include:

-- a collectible silver dollar my Dad gave me for Christmas. It was in my desk drawer (they left the case)

-- a huge amount of loose change that I deposit daily into a giant plastic cup on my kitchen counter (they left the cup and took only the change! )

-- a blue knit cap that was hanging on my closet door (they left the scarf and sweater which were also hanging there)

-- something from the closet (I can see the circular dust ring where it sat, but I can't recall yet what I put there.)

-- a bowl's worth of pot stashed in my bathroom drawer (they left the pipe, screens, and lighter)

-- Worst of all, they took my guitar and its gig bag (carrying case). However, they were kind enough to remove my music book and from the gig bag and throw it on the floor before they left.

Strangely, the thief left something behind. I found a dirty sock, not one of mine, sitting crumpled up on my bed. No idea what that's about.

Here’s the irony of the whole situation: my front door was completely unlocked since I was expecting the plumbers to arrive to clear out a clogged drain. The plumber was actually working in my apartment when I arrived home and noticed some things missing. After interviewing the plumber, I don’t think he had anything to do with the robbery.

What a day, huh? Because of the clogged drains, I haven't been able to use the toilet or take a shower for two days. And I thought it was bad enough to have raw sewage backing up into my shower and bath tub, but to get robbed on the same day.... Talk about adding insult to injury!

So lock your doors and windows, kids. Although my neighborhood is generally very safe, we are clearly vulnerable to theft at any time.

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang!

You may know that today, January 27, 2006 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Most folks are at least vaguely familiar with Mozart's life as a child prodigy, his adult life as a professional musician and composer, and his tragic death at the age of 35 years old.

It's hard to believe that in his short life, Mr. M. composed over 600 compositions, many of them masterpieces. He was proficient in all forms of classical composition: keyboard sonatas, chamber music, concertos, dance and ballet music, songs, marches, operas, oratorios, and sacred music such as Masses and his infamous Requiem. Oh yes, he also wrote dozens of symphonies -- at least 30 of them by age 20!

I had the great privilege during my early musical career to sing tenor with a professional orchestra for Mozart's final and most haunting composition, the Requiem. It was an extremely challenging and emotional experience, considering that Mozart wrote it for himself during the illness that would end his life. Although he was unable to finish the piece alone (a student of his completed the orchestration), it remains one of his most inspiring pieces.

For more information about W.A. Mozart's life and music, check out the Mozart Project.

Why Not, "Emily"?

CNN.com - Why did ABC cancel 'Emily' after 1 show? - Jan 23, 2006

TV executives make me sick. They must be the stupidest people on planet Earth. Why else would they spend millions of dollars on a new sitcom and then cancel it after only one airing? Could it be they hadn't even read the script before OK-ing the huge publicity campaign for the new show?

That is exactly what happened, according to ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson. Six episodes of "Emily's Reasons Why Not" starring super-cutey Heather Graham were filmed, but only one episode aired, to poor ratings. Once the powers that be finally bothered to watch the show, they decided they didn't like it so they pulled plug. That takes balls. It takes even more balls to flagrantly waste your corporate shareholder's money and then casually admit the fact without batting an eye.

Actually, I don't give a crap about network television, but I did watch the first episode of "Emily" and although it was not Shakespeare, it certainly wasn't any worse than the rest of the garbage polluting the airwaves. Besides, I really like Heather Graham and I was hoping the show would be a big hit for her, especially since her face is plastered on dozens of billboards advertising the show all around Los Angeles.

Oh well, I guess it's a big disappointment for everyone concerned and not a nice birthday present for Heather, who turns 36 on January 29th. Happy Birthday, Heather!

War's stunning price tag - Los Angeles Times

War's stunning price tag - Los Angeles Times

Oh my god, we must be the stupidest country on Earth. This LA Times op-ed piece reveals the economic results of the war in Iraq, estimated to cost somewhere between $1 and $2 trillion, with no end to the conflict in sight.

It's a very interesting and well-written article. Free site registration may be required to view it.

King Day

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you, Dr. King, for sacrificing your life so that the rest of us can have an extra day to rest and shop.

He'd be turning in his grave.

Iraq IS in a Civil War

At last someone has finally admitted that Iraq is already in a civil war, not just "threatened" by one as the administration keeps warning, and it's no surprise that the brave soul who has admitted the truth is Rep. John Murtha, who last year blasted the Bush-ies and called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Murtha is now blogging on The Huffington Post and you can read his statement here.

Finally Home

Ugh, what a travel day from hell. Although I had no trouble checking in and passing through security, I barely made my plane in Denver. It was starting to board when I arrived at the gate. Gotta get to the airport plenty early these days. We boarded the plane and sat in our seats at the gate for over an hour due to a "maintenance issue" with one of the engines. That never sounds good. Also there was something wrong with the electrics on this plane because the flourescent cabin lights kept blinking on and on off rapidly and randomly. It was like a strobe effect inside the plane -- and I wasn't even stoned!

At last we pulled away from the gate, only to be stopped on the tarmac because of weather delays in San Francisco (our destination). That was another half hour or more of sitting on the aircraft in the middle of the runway. Naturally the plane was full of families traveling with small children after the holiday and I was stuck right in the middle of them. I actually traded seats twice to allow parents to sit with their kids, spouses, etc.

By the way, I'm totally OVER parents and their precious children at this point in my life. I'm not sure who is most annoying, the kids or their inept parents. You can keep 'em as far as I'm concerned. "Look, but don't touch" is my new philosophy.

The flight attendants kindly put in a movie to help pass the time. It was "Cinerella Man" by Ron Howard. Although highly censored for airplane viewing, the movie was quite entertaining and compelling. Very good filmmaking and performances from the stars Russell Crowe, Renee Zellwegger, and Paul Giamatti. And hell, it had to compete with dozens of screaming children and it won. Thumbs up!

The plane left Denver about 5:30 pm (almost two hours late) and we arrived in San Fran about 7:15 Pacific time. I was certain that I had missed my connecting flight to Burbank since the scheduled departure time was 6:30. "Luckily" that flight had also been delayed due to weather and traffic flow and was scheduled to depart at 9:45 that evening! Yes, two more hours of waiting in the airport.

After chowing down on a Whopper combo from the airport Burger King (I was starving after 8 hours without food), I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading. And after a gate change and some more waiting, my flight to Burbank finally took off sometime close to 10:30pm. My friend Benny drug himself out of bed to pick me up in Burbank at 11:30. At times like this, one certainly knows who one's friends are.

I finally made it home, sweet home after 12:30am. The cat was somewhat indifferent to my return until she caught me in an unguarded moment and reached up and scratched the hell out of my right hand with both her front paws. "Welcome home, asshole!" I don't know what she had to complain about. There was plenty of food and water, and she had the whole place to herself for a week. Jeez!

After cleaning up a bit, settling in and winding down, I made it to bed around 3. Today it's cool and rainy in Los Angeles. Two big Pacific winter storms are bearing down on us and promising inches of rain by the start of the new year.

On the bright side, I'm listening now to Brian Wilson's SMILE (got it for Christmas)and it is dreamy and wonderful. I need to vacuum and empty the cat box (not necessarily in that order), buy groceries, write "thank you" cards, and prepare for my meeting with the tour boss on Friday. Oh yes, I also desperately need to practice for the concert on Saturday night. But what I really want to do is play with my Christmas toys!

Bring on 2006!

Out of 'Time to make the doughnuts'

CNN.com - 'Time to make the doughnuts' actor dies - Dec 27, 2005

Enough Is Enough -- Impeach Bush

If the Democrats have any balls at all, they will impeach Bush at the first confirmation of illegal activity by him or his administration.

The Republicans impeached Clinton for having oral sex in his private office. While that may be illegal in some states, it's not quite the same as disregarding the Constitution one has sworn to uphold. If that isn't at least incompetence, I don't know what is.

I attended a discussion with Gore Vidal on the eve of the invasion of Iraq (almost three years ago) and he said that George W. Bush would leave office as the most unpopular president in U.S. history.

If that's true, do we really have to wait three more years, until January 2009, and let this guy do more harm to our country and to our way of life?

Best Picture of the Year

We have a winner, and it's one of the best ever:

ASIAN FEVER #22

Thanks, Larry Flynt!

And Sydney Makes Three

Yes, I'm three for three in my celebrity sightings this week. OK, Bruce Vilanch and Jason Schwartzman may not be household names, but Sydney Pollack certainly is. His resume as a producer, actor, and director is one of the most esteemed in Hollywood.

The most recent feature he directed was The Interpreter, starring Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, but he's most famous for movies like The Firm, Out of Africa (for which he won an Oscar), Tootsie, Absence of Malice, Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, and on and on. His list of producing credits is longer than his directing credits!

Now Mr. Pollack has produced and directed his first documentary feature, Sketches of Frank Gehry, a fascinating portrait of the architect and his creative process. Mr. Pollack attended a screening of the film here in Los Angeles, including a Q&A afterwards, and I was one of the lucky people in attendance.

It is a remarkable and engaging film, especially if you are a fan of Frank Gehry's other-wordly architectural style. A resident of Santa Monica, Mr. Gehry has designed a number of private residences and public buildings here in Southern California in addition to his world-famous commissions such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. His most famous local landmark is the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.



The documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, and according to Mr. Pollack there will likely be a limited theatrical release of the film in about 20 markets before being released on DVD. It was also supported in part by American Masters on PBS so you will probably be able to see the film on TV soon.

I Touched a Coppola

As if meeting Bruce Vilanch were not enough (!), I ran into Jason Schwartzman at Peet's Coffee in Westwood this morning. Although not a household name, Jason Schwartzman
is the young star of Shopgirl (he stole the movie) and I Heart Huckabees, but he's perhaps best remembered for his brilliantly refreshing performance in Wes Anderson's Rushmore.

I had just ordered my cup of coffee when he appeared in line behind me, wearing a green T-shirt and a scruffy full beard. In ultra-cool LA fashion, I simply acknowledged him and said "I'm a big fan." He brightened and responded, "Thanks man, awesome!" which, if you've seen any of his movies, sounds exactly like him.

I grabbed my coffee and moved on, but it was only a few minutes later I remembered that besides being and up-and-comer himself, he's also the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and the son of Talia Shire.

Oh, and his former band Phantom Planet (whom I saw opening for Elvis Costello a few years ago) recorded the theme song for the hit TV show The O.C.

So there! Now, if I get to see Sydney Pollack tomorrow as scheduled, I'll be three for three!

Brokeback Mountain

This is a good movie. It may not grow to be a blockbuster because a lot of people are still nervous about dealing with intimate relations between men. And that's a pity because this film is not a "gay" movie. It's a love story, and a gripping one at times.

The setting in the Rocky Mountains is absolutely gorgeous. The cinematography alone is worth the price of admission. The two young stars, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, did a great job of portraying two simple country boys who come to love each other very deeply (no pun intended!).

It was surprising at first to see a fairly graphic depiction of gay sex on screen between two big Hollywood stars. There were quite a few gasps and sniggers from the audience. What an enormous risk those actors had to take in portraying these characters!

I was so pleased to see a full house at the preview screening at the Arclight in Hollywood and I hope that good word-of-mouth will get this film seen by many people. It's another winner from director Ang Lee, who became a star with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as Hulk, Sense and Sensibility, and The Ice Storm.

Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, the touching screenplay was written by the legendary Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove, Texasville, Hud, Terms of Endearment, and The Last Picture Show. Pretty good resume, don't you think?

Give Brokeback Mountain a chance. It's worth the effort.

Bruce Vilanch has lost weight!

You've probably seen comedian/writer Bruce Vilanch on the Hollywood Squares or writing jokes for the Oscars. I met him tonight at the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood. I was there at a screening with my boss, but little did I know my boss and Vilanch were old friends. We were standing in line at the snack bar when Bruce came downstairs with a handsome young man. My boss Tony spotted them and called out and it was old home week for a few minutes.

Bruce Vilanch has lost weight. He looked a lot thinner in person than he does on TV, but my boss Tony said Bruce had lost a lot of weight, maybe a hundred pounds. I'd believe it, except he's still got a big double chin since he shaved his beard. Nice fellow.

'Tis the Season

Today may be my first Thanksgiving Dinner outdoors. That's right -- it's so warm here today in Los Angeles that my illustrious hosts are setting the dinner table on the patio out back. It's currently sunny and 75 degrees Fahrehnheit, with a little seabreeze from the west.

My family back in Colorado always pities me here in California since we lack the traditional seasons like most other places. Although I do miss the leaves turning in fall, and the nip in the air before the first snow, I must point out that we do have seasons here in Southern California: fire season, mudslide season, summer, and awards season.

So there!

Summer in November

Jesus, it's hot today!! 87 degrees currently in Hollywood and very bright sunshine. The past few days have been unseasonably warm here in southern California: more of those infamous Santa Ana winds that provoke all the wildfires.

I hope things cool down for Thanksgiving. I don't want to be wearing shorts and sandals, and sweating in the heat, while eating a festive holiday dinner. Just doesn't seem right!

Stars in their Cars

One of the advantages of living in Los Angeles is the propensity for spotting celebrities in the flesh, so to speak. I've seen dozens in the eight years since I've lived here. Most of the time they are shopping, or ordering at Starbucks, or walking the dog with their kids; you know, normal human stuff. I also see them driving in their cars and this week I saw two celebrities in their cars.



A few days ago while driving through Beverly Hills on my way to UCLA, comedian-actor Paul Reiser passed by me in his pretty little black Lexus. It was about 8:30 in the morning and Reiser was wearing mirrored sunglasses and chomping open-mouthed on a big hunk of chewing gum.



Just tonight I saw Owen Wilson in his new little Toyota Prius. I was sitting in my parked car outside my Laundromat when Wilson pulled in beside me. I looked over and recognized his stringy blonde hair, which he promptly covered with a baseball cap after making eye contact with me for several seconds. He then hopped out of the car and made his way across the street into a trendy little bistro.



I was impressed that a big shot movie star like Owen Wilson would drive a tiny economy car, but I guess he's an environmentalist at heart. I'm always too shy to say anything to these people when I see them, but I bet Wilson's a cool guy.



Ah, life in La-La-Land...you never know who may turn up!

Cinerama

I had the rare pleasure recently of watching the classic film How The West Was Won in its original 3-strip Cinerama format at the Arclight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, one of only three theaters in the world equipped for this format. The film itself is a well-known western epic with a huge cast of many great film stars from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, including Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, and on and on. What most impressed me, however, was the Cinerama film technique.

Cinerama debuted in 1953 as the first "wide screen" format. The process used a large camera with three small lenses, one in the middle facing straight ahead and two side lenses angled diagonally toward the center. The images captured by these lenses were exposed on three separate reels of film. To view the finished movie, the theater had to be equipped with three separate projectors, each precisely aimed at one third of the curved screen.



Because of the wide field of vision captured on film (146 degrees), plus the curved screen, the image has a mild 3-D effect. Objects on both extremes of the frame seem closer than objects in the center. The projection reveals frame lines from each strip of film which blend together on the movie screen. This was somewhat distracting at times, but the viewer gets used to it and accepts the three images as one large picture. It's all part of the novelty of the format.



Another challenge of working with this format was the fact that actors in a scene together couldn't always look at each other directly. In order to keep a realistic perspective for the viewer, actors often had to cheat their sight lines toward the camera.

It's amazing how much information was captured by the three-lensed camera, much like a human being's peripheral vision. Incidentally, this caused problems for legendary director John Ford (one of three directors on this film) who ruined more than one take by accidentally stepping into frame even though he was to the side of the camera.

Cinerama also incorporated true surround sound. The following detailed description is from the original Cinerama premiere book, which I found reprinted online here:

"When the shooting crew is out in the field, five microphones are placed to cover all the action that the camera's eyes will see. One to three others are placed well off to one side or behind the camera, to pick up the sound of people's voices, roaring engines, or whatever may be approaching or leaving the scene. Each mike makes an individual magnetic recording on a special six-track sound film. In the theater, five speakers--one for each of the mikes on the set--are arranged behind the screen. When the sound film is run off with the picture, each speaker reproduces the sounds picked up by the mike that was in a similar position on the set. Three other speakers, one on each side wall, and another in the rear of the theater reproduce the offstage noises that the extra mikes picked up. Hence, as a motor boat, for instance, roars across the set, the noise of its engine will be picked up by each of the mikes successively. And that's the way sound comes out in the theater--moving sound that travels across the screen and roars away in the actual direction it's traveling."

(Click image above for full size.)

The sound at the Cinerama Dome was indeed spectacular and the dramatic film score by Alfred Newman, incorporating many American folk tunes, was highlighted with the inclusion of the complete Overture, Intermission, and Exit Music.

Cinerama was used primarily for shooting travelogues. Typical scenes included riding in a gondola in the canals of Venice and flying through the Grand Canyon in a B-25 bomber. Only two feature films were completed using the Cinerama process and How The West Was Won was the second and last, and the only Cinerama film to be restored. It was an enormous blockbuster costing over $15 million to make, with three production crews shooting dramatic action sequences simultaneously in various parts of the country.

Although the format was enormously successful (HTWWW had its American premiere in February 1963 at the Warner Cinerama Theater in Hollywood and ran for 97 weeks at that theater!!), Cinerama's days were numbered due to the high costs of production and exhibition (5 projectionists and a stage hand were required for every performance) and eventually the industry switched to single-lens 70mm production.

At its peak in 1962, there were over 100 Cinerama theaters worldwide and I'm extremely proud to report that the very first theater built specifically for Cinerama was The Cooper theater in my hometown of Denver, Colorado! I saw many films there as a kid, including Return of the Jedi, Pink Floyd The Wall, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sadly the theater closed a number of years ago and was torn down and replaced with a strip mall.


(Click image for more info about The Cooper.)

So much for aethetics. If you ever get a chance to see a film in the Cinerama format, don't hesitate! It's a novelty now, but it's also a lot of fun.

Celebrity Student

Every once in a while we get a student at UCLA who is a celebrity in their own country. We've had actresses from Mexico, singers from Korea, and directors from Japan. But the arrival today of Takeshi Kaneshiro sent our entire student body into a tizzy.



Apparently he is a huge star in Asia, but relatively unknown here. None of the teachers knew who he was, but our students from Japan and Korea and Taiwan certainly recognized him and they wouldn't stop crowding the hallways trying to sneak a peak into his classroom or to snap a quick photo to email their friends back home.

We've had to have extra facilities staff on hand to keep the hallways clear of loitering students and to escort Mr. Kaneshiro quickly to and from the emergency exit before and after class. In fact, I gave up my classroom to his class because that room is closer to the emergency exit and to the administrative offices.

Although he is known for playing quirky roles in off-beat films, most American audiences will know him from Chunking Express or House of Flying Daggers. He's also quite a heartthrob for the young ladies, and being of mixed race (Taiwanese-Japanese) he is fluent in several languages.


With Ziyi Zhang in House of Flying Daggers

Luckily he's not my student so I don't have to deal with the chaos around him, but so far the teachers and students who have met him said he's actually a really nice guy who is here to study English and stay out of the limelight for a while. Yeah, good luck!

UPDATE: Takeshi lasted two days before the attention was too much for him and he left the English program. There were rumors of press and paparazzi on their way from Asia to hound him here. The students wouldn't leave him alone either. Someone apparently followed him into the restroom to take a picture.

Guess it sucks to be beautiful!

Jeff Daniels

Saw Jeff Daniels tonight at a SAG screening in Hollywood of his new film The Squid and the Whale. Set in 1986 Brooklyn, the movie was hilarious and touching. It deals with serious emotional family issues in a humorous but sincere way. Very surprising and fresh.

Jeff Daniels appeared after the film for an interview and Q & A session with the audience. He's always been a favorite of mine, consistently good in every role whether third-billed or starring. With a career spanning 29 years, as he pointed out twice in his comments, he has played in films as diverse as Dumb and Dumber, Gettysburg, Pleasantville, Terms of Endearment, and his first starring role, The Purple Rose of Cairo.

He's worked with some of the biggest in the biz: Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, and...Keanu Reeves (in Speed). His performance in The Squid and the Whale is a fine addition to his already broad palette of roles, and the spin is already headed toward an Oscar nomination, if you follow the early hype.

It is his capability for playing extremely diverse characters which has been the key to his success, said Daniels. Portraying a deranged cop in the drama 2 Days in the Valley and following with 101 Dalmations (which has yet to make enough money to pay any residuals, he griped) demonstrates a wider stretch than the average working actor, in terms of richness of character and budget.

Maintaining a normal family life with his wife and three kids in his home state of Michigan has been the trade-off in place of the typical Hollywood rewards of fame and wealth. Mr. Daniels has made a decent enough living dividing his time between blockbusters and independent features to finance his own dream theater company in Michigan which produces only original works by Midwestern American playwrights.

In person, Jeff Daniels definitely has star quality, but tonight he seemed more like "the star next door", wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots and a brown corduroy blazer with too-long sleeves. And he has surprisingly boyish good looks for a man 50 years old. He has also retained his thick blonde hair, which he kept fussing with during the interview.

Grounded in his success, he encouraged the striving actors in the 300-strong SAG audience to "be ready when your two minutes comes." Everyone who perseveres will have the opportunity someday to shine in a standard two-minute audition, but they must be prepared and in the right frame of mind to make success out of it.

Like the Boy Scouts say, "always be prepared."

Michael Jackson moves to Bahrain

As if this guy's life couldn't get any weirder, Michael Jackson has reportedly moved to the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain, according to the LA Times.

Jackson apparently moved there with his children shortly after his acquittal earlier this year on child molestation charges.

I don't know about you, but I'm not really very familiar with Bahrain. However, I just did some quick Internet research and it sounds like an interesting place.

Bahrain is a tiny island monarchy (665 sq miles) located east of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. The small population (less than 700,000 people) are mostly Arab Muslims, about a third of which are non-nationals.

Economically speaking, Bahrain is very well off due to its petroleum resources and the growing industry of refining imported crude, but the cost of living is considerably cheaper than, say, New York or London.

In 2004, Bahrain became the first Gulf state to sign a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The country gained its independence from Britain in 1971.

Maybe Michael's not so crazy after all. Nah.

Sources:
http://www.bahraintourism.com/subpage1.htm
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ba.html
http://www.bahrain.gov.bh/english/index.asp

Craig, Daniel Craig is the new 007

It's official: 37-year-old English actor Daniel Craig will the newest actor to play James Bond in next year's Casino Royale.

Full story here.

Who will be the next Bond?

We should know for sure by this time tomorrow...

Read CNN's story

The World's Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl "Will you marry me?" The girl said,
"NO!" And the guy lived happily ever after and went fishing, hunting and
played golf a lot and drank beer and farted whenever he wanted.

Eye of the Storm

Amazing blog by a couple journalists stationed in the destruction zone of Hurricane Katrina. They give harrowing first-person accounts of surviving the hurricane and suffering through the aftermath.

Astounding photos as well.

Eye of the Storm

Fill Up Fast!

Gas prices are on the rise again and they may reach record levels by the upcoming Labor Day weekend. So save a few pennies and fill up early if you can.

With the summer driving season coming to an end, we should see some stabilization in the rate of demand, but in the long run gasoline will continue to grow more and more expensive.

Shapes of Things to Come

I'm glad I got to visit New Orleans when I did. The city will never be the same. In fact, it may eventually be abandoned all together as uninhabitable.

Unfortunately the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans and other Gulf cities is merely the beginning of the end for low-lying areas around the world. Not everyone agrees, but many scientists speculate that as global warming continues, more cities will be consumed by the oceans and those areas in the hurricane zone will be the first to go since the rate (and power) of hurricanes and other weather-related disasters is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades.

Perhaps New Orleans, already below sea level, will become like the mythical city of Atlantis, which was allegedly consumed by the sea.

Help the Victims of Katrina

Please join me in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina by donating anything you can to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane disaster relief fund.

If you don't have any extra cash to send now, consider donating all those spare pennies you have lying around! And as if the cause itself wasn't enough, remember your donations are tax-deductible.

It's a sharp reality check to see the massive destruction in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other affected Gulf cities. Hundreds of thousands have lost everything. In some cases their entire city has ceased to exist.

Makes my complaints about having to choose between 2% and whole milk for my coffee seem pretty trivial.

Motivational Posters

We've all seen those tacky motivational posters in offices. Don't you just hate them?

Well here's a web company that offers Demotivational Posters and they are frickin' hilarious! Here's an example:



Check out Demotivators for more...

Boys Keep Swinging

Boys Keep Swinging

These guys rock!

End of the Network All-Stars

With the death of Peter Jennings, all three major networks, NBC, CBS, and now ABC, have lost their network news anchor within the last year. It truly is the end of an era.

Peter Jennings dies at 67

ABC News anchor Peter Jennings dies at 67 - TV NEWS AND INFORMATION - MSNBC.com

I'm crushed.

Which Bowie Are You?

Which David Bowie are you?

An Evening At The Bowl

Had a nice treat Friday night when my tour boss Philip invited me to join his party at the Hollywood Bowl. We had wine and cheese and meats, and a delicious Key Lime pie for dessert. Philip's friends are all show people and artists, so there was much laughter and revelry.

The program was Great American Women, one of the Bowl's "Great American Concerts" series, and conductor John Mauceri was celebrating his 300th performance at the Bowl.

It was a lovely evening -- amazing how cool Los Angeles evenings can be even in the summer time -- and the show featured the Hollywood Bowl orchestra, three great divas, and fireworks!

The divas were opera star Debra Voigt, jazz maven Dianne Reeves (just off the plane from hometown Denver!), and Broadway legend Barbara Cook. Each woman held the audience captive with their unique interpretations of standard classics, both classical and popular.

Most endearing perhaps was 78-year-old Barbara Cook who forgot her words several times, but shrugged it off like a pro, at one point stopping the orchestra to start over. "This song is too good to mess up. Let's try it again, Johnny M," she said.

My favorite piece of the evening was the very first one played by the orchestra, Fanfare From "King's Row" by film composer Erich Korngold. This was obviously a huge inspiration for the music of John Williams and in fact one part of the theme sounded remarkably similar to the opening notes of "Star Wars".

Another highlight was a specially commissioned orchestral suite of Adam Guettel's The Light In The Piazza, which won a Tony this year for Best Original Score. Guettel premiered this suite at the Hollywood Bowl several years before the Broadway production and his glorious score brings back a romantic style of theater music not heard since the days of his grandfather, Richard Rodgers.

[I became familiar with The Light In The Piazza on my recent trip to San Francisco. After our Sideways tour through wine country, Betty played the cast album for me in the car.]

John Mauceri had everyone in stitches with his witty 15th annual "State of the Orchestra" address. What a charming and articulate man he is -- exactly the sort of person you would want sitting next to you at a dinner party.

Niebaum-Coppola Winery

Finally have time to post about my trip to northern California in June. Had a rare opportunity to visit San Francisco while my dear friend "Betty" was there conducting Les Miserables.

We've been to San Francisco so many times, there was not much left to do in the city, so we rented a car and took a drive through Napa Valley. Ironically, we stopped only at one winery and we didn't drink any wine! Apparently Francis is very proud of his wine: just a tasting costs $15.



The winery was the Niebaum-Coppola winery, owned by filmmaker Francis Coppola. It was a beautiful chateau setting originally operated by the Niebaum family. Very elegant surroundings, and a tiny museum on the second floor of the house documents Coppola's illustrious film career. There were tons of his awards (Oscars, Palms D'Or from Cannes, etc.), plus he had several props and costumes from the films on display, including the Godfather's desk and the Tucker automobile from his film of the same name. (Photos by Betty)



Later we drove to the coast to Bodega Bay, infamous filming location of Hitchcock's The Birds. Nice to see that some things never change. It's still a sleepy little fishing village with one major restaurant, The Tides, which is where the villagers were hiding from the birds in the movie. The original restaurant burned down back in the 1960s, but the current structure is on the original site. And naturally it's decorated with all sorts of photos and memorabilia from the film. Tippi Hedren has been back to visit several times on special occasions and several of her autographs are on display. (No photos unfortunately)

Flash:10th Planet Discovered

From Space.com:

Astronomers have discovered an object in our solar system that is larger than
Pluto. They are calling it the 10th planet, but already that claim is contested.

It is the first time an object so big has been found in our solar system since
the discovery of Pluto 75 years ago.

The announcement came just hours after another newfound object, one slightly
smaller than Pluto, was revealed. The new object, temporarily named 2003 UB313,
is about three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," Brown said.

For the full story, visit
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html

"Beam me up, Scotty" -- James Doohan Dead

Beam Scotty up to heaven...

James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty, Dead at age 85.