It's Over

I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. First may I say, nicely done, Ms. Rowling, that was a fantastic journey. J.K. managed to infuse a lot of people with a uniting sense of creativity, fantasy, imagination and love, yes love. It felt really weird to close the book and know that it's all over. Sure there will still be the anticipation of the next two movies coming out, but the story has ended. I am glad I finished reading book seven as I can now watch t.v., surf the web, walk down the street without living in fear of "hearing something". My boss hadn't read any of the books but read the last couple of pages of book seven when it came out and she loved to toy with me, well let's put in in correct terms, to threaten me saying that she was going to tell me what happened. She asked what I would do if she told me and I looked her straight in the eye and told her I would quit. And I don't think I was kidding. That might sound ridiculous, but I really don't know what other solution there would have been, if my boss didn't care enough about me or have enough self-control to keep quiet I can't imagine how I could continue to work for her. But, luckily, she resisted spilling anything and I am now back in control of my life. There is so much I could say right now to summarize my feelings on this book, but I don't want anyone reading this to catch any slight whiff of the outcome, so let's see I'll just say something cheesy like, it's been magical.

Just the Way You Look Tonight

What a group, including my alter ego, Emma Thompson and my #1 crush, Hugh Laurie. Call me nerdy, but I love this . . .

A Bowl of Hollywood

Friday night I had my first Hollywood Bowl experience. I've lived in L.A. about a year and a half now and finally made it to the bowl. It was John Williams night and it was wonderful. I probably cried or at least welled up about five times throughout the night. People who know me won't be too surprised to hear that, it doesn't take much for the water works to start. The first half of the concert was music from various films and the second half was music from John Williams' scores.

My first source of emotional surging was when I heard the oh so familiar first few notes of Tara's Theme from Gone with the Wind. I grew up seeing this movie many times and it along with the book are favorites of mine - so hearing the sweeping melody while sitting in the town where so many of the great early movies were made, staring at the Hollywood sign on the hill just got to me.

The second puddle of tears came from a medley of Doctor Zhivago music. They showed clips from the movie on screens and a mixture of seeing Omar Sharif collapsing at the end of the film and remembering playing the music on the piano at my parents house hit me.

Now this one I'm a little embarassed about - I got a little choked up at the music from Superman. Actually, you know what? Screw it, I'm not embarassed - it's great music and Christopher Reeve's story is sad. When they played Can You Read My Mind? I looked up into the starry sky and yes, it was emotional. I know that's almost as cheesy as Margot Kidder's recitation of "can you read my mind? do you know what it is you do to me?" But probably if I watched that movie again, I'd cry at that also.

Of course, Johnny Williams whipped out Harry Potter, Star Wars, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark as well. People freaked out when the horns started blaring the Throne Room music from Star Wars, the light sabers were a' waivin'.

Good job, John.

Me as a Simpsons Character

Pic Picks

Everyone in our country should go see Sicko. Now, I know some people may have issues with Michael Moore, but whether or not you are a fan of his personal opinions, you need to see Sicko. It is funny, sad, informative and inspiring. I feel like people often want to hide behind the growing political divide in this country and claim that movies like Sicko or Inconvenient Truth are just "liberal mumbo-jumbo", but issues like health care and the environment are for all of us and Sicko is not only a very important film, but also highly entertaining. I laughed, I cried, well, you know. And one of the Cuban doctors is hubba, hubba.

My second recommendation is Ratatouille. It's pretty perfect - funny, heartfelt, smart. I went and saw it at the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood which is usually rad because they deck out the theatre and have some huge spectacle on stage before the movie. For example, before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe there were set and costume pieces all over, a light show and then snow fell on the audience, it was magical. The show before Ratatouille consisted of za-za musical theatre rejects performing tween hip-hop of Disney songs while beloved Disney characters like Micky, Winnie the Pooh, and that Rosie O'Donnell Gorilla from Tarzan(?) danced, banged on pots and pans and chanted "cookin' in the kitchen, cookin' in the kitchen". I think my jaw was stuck open for the entire, excruciating Disney On Ice, minus the Ice performance. Good thing the movie was so rad, thanks, Pixar.

Over it

My vote for "get a cheap laugh" joke . . . Jazz Hands. Seems people still think either saying or doing jazz hands is their original observational comedy. Calling out "jazz hands!" at opportune times may have been funny once, but now everyone and their dog whips out the ol' shakey hands. Bored.

We are the Littles

Bill Hader to star as Tom Little in the much anticipated big screen adaptation, The Littles: Dinky's Revenge.

Cakesicles!

What's better on a hot Summer day than a nice Cakesicle?
I like me some cake and all but cake on a stick seems way too obese.

Workin' 9 to 5, well 8 to 5 actually

What is good about my job?
I get to walk to work
I've read more books than I can count since I started here
Fun co-workers
Every day is Solitair-o-rama

What is bad?
Having to hear my boss deucin' it in the bathroom. I want to tell him he needs to change his diet, because it shouldn't be that difficult, but that might be weird.

Why I almost became a vegan yesterday . . .

I had a few eggs in the fridge which weren't getting used so I decided to boil them for egg salad or whatever. I had put the eggs in the water and started to heat it up and I heard a weird, high pitched, what I can only describe as a chirping sound. I know it was just the water, heat, air, bubbles, making the sound, but it freaked me out. I actually took one of the eggs out and held it up to my ear to make sure I didn't somehow have freakish eggs which had wee chicks in them. They had been in my fridge for awhile so I, for a second, wondered if they had gone bad - and when I say "gone bad" I mean come alive.

Guitar Hero Update

It is great.
My band's name is Neo-Nasti.
I'm a pretty rad fake guitarist, but it's starting to get crazy hard.
The cooler one feels at Guitar Hero the nerdier they actually are.

Got a rocket in my pocket

I walked past a little old 80 something year old man today who was wearing a cap that said "Sharks" on it. Obviously this is some sports team, but when I first saw him all I could think was that he was a former member of the gang from West Side Story and that it was sad to see that his dancing/knife-fighting days were over.

Enormous Hominids

If you missed the first season of Human Giant, I'm sorry. It was rad. The second season should be happening in the Fall on MTV. This is one of my favorite clips.

Human Giant - Blood Oath

Even Stephen Steven

Waiters who are nauseated by food

dj Darryl Von Rokk | MySpace Video

Once

Two thoughts on the subject of "once":

1. The movie Once is fantastic - simple, sweet, sad and I, like probably everyone who sees this movie, went directly to the music store to get the soundtrack after the movie was over (it's sold out everywhere, took a little treasure hunt to get my hands on it).

2. It only takes once to fall in love with Guitar Hero. I tried it at the store and was immediately hooked. I know I'm late on this band wagon, but better late than never. I've never been a video gamer, but after a little taste of Guitar Hero awesomeness I now own a video game system and the game is in the mail. Next month they are coming out with Guitar Hero Rocks the '80's game - can't wait.

Wave of the future, wave of the future, wave of the future...

The Long Beach airport is weird. It makes me think this is what flying probably used to feel like in the early days of commercial flying: tiny airport, weird cafe, walk on the runway, go up stairs to plane. I feel I might see Howard Hughes any minute, well, if not, maybe Leonardo. A fascination with flying is sort of in my blood - my parents both flew and growing up my dad would run outside when he heard a low-flying plane. We used to go to the airport and lay on the ground underneath the flight path right before the landing strip to experience the power of planes flying directly over our heads a la the Baberaham Lincoln/Dream Weaver scene in Wayne's World. I'm eating the B-66 Destroyer burger - apparently veggie burgers like a good fight.

In the beginning . . .

This is my blog. The following entries were written in a word document over the last few weeks as I was too non commital to start a real blog. But I am now taking the leap and getting this puppy started. Hope it doesn't bore. Thanks for stopping by.

5/1/07
To blog or not to blog. I already had the to myspace or not to myspace argument and myspace lost . . . or won? Anyway, I never did create a myspace. Which I guess was just trying to be anti-establishment, although myspace isn’t really an establishment, is it? I guess I just felt cool not having a myspace and if I got a myspace I can’t imagine I would have that much communicating going on, I don’t have that many friends and people from high school wouldn’t find me because I have a different last name, actually different last name or not, I wasn’t popular in high school, wouldn’t have swarms looking for me. I was only tempted to get a myspace in order to fill out the little getting to know me space – favorite books, movies, etc. That seemed fun, but then what? I’d probably just end up looking up weird guys I liked in Junior High, well, okay, I’ve done that, but I’ve never actually contacted any of them, which is best. So no myspace, but what about a blog? I thought that sounded cooler, but then what is so interesting about my life that I should post it online for others to read? Nothing. I guess that only speaks of my having a low self-esteem. Well, so be it. But I do want to write. I do want to have a source to ramble, so at this point it is starting as a journal, but a journal that could potentially be read by others, which I guess is a blog, but I’m just not ready for that commitment yet, so this starts as a little word document and if at some point I get up the courage I will transfer the contents to a blog. I guess if I do a blog and don’t tell anyone about it, no one will really read it anyway (If a tree falls in the woods…). There are millions of blogs, so why would anyone stumble across mine? So, welcome to my fake blog. It will contain random thoughts and experiences of my life, well, duh, that’s what most blogs are. Wow. Struggling. Welcome.

5/1/07
I am a receptionist at a company that sells photo copiers. Yup. Just couldn’t get more boring. The only way I can romanticize this job is by thinking that I am like Dawn from the Office – only without Tim, Gareth, David Brent or anything else interesting about the job. sigh. But it’s just a stepping stone, it’s just a stepping stone, a year and a half long stepping stone, but never the less. I am fervently looking for a new job, something’s gotta hit. In the mean time, however, it’s great experience at what working in a typical office is like. I studied acting and I am starting to write, so the more life experience I can get to inform my art, the better . . . that’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. . . . so what becomes of you my love? when they have finally stripped you of . . .


5/3/07
We have a rat in our office – it got into a girl’s protein shake and vitamins, I bet that thing is ripped. The exterminator left stickie traps for it and the next day there was a huge rat footprint on the stickie pad. It probably thought it was soooo funny leaving a footprint on the stickie trap – yeah, rat, we get it, you’re too strong for us. I bet the rat sits at our desks on the weekends and pretends to be us, it mocks our menial work, it answers phones in a chipper voice and plays spider solitaire. Screw you rat, the old school snap traps are on their way . . .

5/4/07
They found the rats hood. It made a home in the desk of a girl on maternity leave. One of the drawers was filled with empty ketchup packets and a pool of urine. Possibly the grossest thing ever. I work in the front office and the rat was in the cubicles in the back office. We feel superior up here in front. We don’t have rats and filth. Oh, you dirty dirty cubicle workers. They’re not really, but still we swear we could never again return to a desk that we knew a rat had been in. Remember lice checks in elementary school? Thinking, “You have to be pretty filthy to get lice, I could never get lice” but never the less you got just a little nervous when they would start to pull back your hair with that wooden tongue depressor. “Welcome back from maternity leave, by the way a rat was renting your desk drawers while you were gone.”

5/7/07
Over the weekend our rat friend died. And when I say died I mean a snap trap decapitated it and sprayed blood all over the carpet. I didn’t see the actual carnage, I only saw the drops of blood and the little chalk outline left behind. R.I.P. little buddy R.I.P.

5/22/07
Last night at the Dodgers game I experienced the most awesome, random little moment. Beach balls get knocked around all game throughout the stadium. The ball, inevitably, made it to my section and the rebellion of playing keep away from the ushers revved up the spectators. A few rows ahead of me a 50ish, curly haired, balding, Jewish guy stopped the flow of the ball and with a care free smile tossed it with little gusto away. The excitement of the crowd waned a little and in the quiet lull, the obese Mexican dude in front of me yelled, “Homo!” I know this doesn’t sound that funny, but I was crying, I was laughing so hard. The timing, the casting, the use of the word “Homo” was so perfect, you really could not recreate the amazing comedic moment, it was such a perfect thing to happen at a baseball game. It was just so stupid for the Mexican dude to call this little Jewish guy a homo for not bouncing the beach ball up in a manly enough way.

The obese dude in front of me also was cheering along one of the Dodgers, Russell Martin, and he said, “I love Martin, he’s from Canada but it’s all right . . . Come on, Martin, ai!” He was trying to make the age old joke that Canadians say “eh” at the end of all their sentences, but instead he said “ai”, like a pirate. Awesome.

Last thought on the Dodgers game, I think the little races on the jumbo tron are so weird. You know, the animated races, when they have a red, white and blue car racing around a track or something along those lines. It is definitely the most excited the crowd gets, they cheer more when their stupid little cartoon Sprite bottle wins the race against the Coke bottle than when there’s a base hit. Now I refuse to participate, I don’t even try to follow the ball hidden underneath the shell. I am that cool.

5/24/07
So, I happened to glance at the list of top ten searches for the day on yahoo and Bubonic Plague was on there. What? Apparently a monkey in a Denver zoo just died of the plague. The plague!? Black death!? Ring around the rosie!? What the Elizabethan disease? So, the experts are warning us to stay away from rabbits and squirrels. And if you do catch the plague just get some leeches to bleed you healthy again!