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From Flickr… Party Cab

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:52:10 -0800

From Flickr… Party Cab

From Flickr… Trunking

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:27:05 -0800

From Flickr… Trunking

I Think Its Worth Pointing Out Just Exactly How Sore I Am

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:44:53 -0800

Last year I was a good little boy and got a lot of exercise. The upside was looking great in my tux. The downside was… there was no downside. Well, my laziness was not indulged. Some might consider that a downside. Over the last few months, there’s been a lot more indulgence of said lassitude. With negative results on my midsection.

So now I’m back in it. I’ve carved out time three days a week and I’m back to the gym. This has been my first week of this new regimen and man it’s tough. I’m writing this standing up because I can’t imagine how little weight my quads will bear if I try to sit down. (Falling ass-first onto the couch is less fun than it sounds.)

And that’s just after two classes - Crossfit on Monday and Heavy Bag today. Tomorrow’s Crossfit again, with no time to recover. Oy!

I wonder if I can steal the hearing pad from my wife tonight…

From Flickr… That arm

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:58:08 -0800

From Flickr… That arm

From Flickr… Watching

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:54:57 -0800

From Flickr… Watching

Baby's First Oscar, Part 3

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:08:43 -0800

What is the chance that DJ L’il Bit would hit the post button twice in a row? Apparently 100%. Anyway she - who has a Master’s in Screen and TV writing from USC - says that every story comes in three acts anyway, so that makes this kind of appropriate, anyway. Hmmmm, maybe I should study story structure.

Anyway, now we’re on to the dancing bits. I’m not sure I go to the Academy Awards for the dancing.

All the girls said “oooo” for Bradley Cooper. Everyone alway says he’ll be the next big star. But he keeps getting upstaged.

Wow, all those documentaries look incredible. I should watch more documentaries.

Terrifying temporary DirecTV outage! But it’s back. Is this what it’s like to live in New York?

Further proof that the Snuggie’s cool. Thanks, Tyler Perry!

Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino: puttin all the anti-establishment wacky ones in one place at one time, huh? And announcing the foreign language films… You’re not fooling me, Academy.

Poor Argentine guy, trying to keep up in his second or third language.

I know Avatar’s the favorite to win, but that excerpt didn’t make me want to watch it. I am thoroughly bored by the concept of the movie.

Wow, to best actor now? Awesome.

Wow, Michelle Pfeiffer just warmed Jeff Bridges’s heart.

George Clooney’s girlfriend: jealous!

Nobody loves anybody the way Michelle loves Jeff, eh?

How did Jeremy Renner have a 20-year career? Did he start in utero? I need to follow his skin-care regimen.

I don’t know why Jeff wasn’t nominated or The Men Who Stare At Goats, he was tons of fun there. In fact, he played the guy who’s giving this speech right now.

Good insight from another guest here: Jeff Bridges and his wife have the same hair!

Apple is selling the heck out of the iPad here. Nobody in the room wants one. (I don’t think anyone in the room is in the target demo.) Apple fail: the iPhone autocorrect doesn’t know the name of the iPad.

Best Actress smackdown: Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren are sure winners. Who takes this one?

OH SURE, GABOUREY SIDIBE GETS OPRAH TO ANNOUNCE HER. Somebody has already won.

What is Sean Penn talking about? Didn’t somebody script this bit?

Again: if, a few years ago somebody told you that Sandra Bullock would even be nominated for an Oscar, you would’ve laughed. Awesome speech, too.

OK, really, there’ve been no women or African-Americans who’ve won the Academy Award? Moviemaking needs a Rooney Rule.

I just want to say to Kathryn Bigelow, I was the one guy who bought the K-19 DVD, I really liked that movie.

What was that shake of the head, James Cameron? Jealous? Oh, well you are now that your ex-wife just beat you for most everything, eh?

I had the lead in points there for a minute. Just a minute. Now my score defines the line where somebody says ” What’s the lowest score? Did anybody get less than [Wade’s score]?”

OK, now there are a lot of movies I should see… I wouldn’t bet on that though. Despite the fact that movies just aren’t that important to me, this Oscar party was more fun than I’d expected. The whole show was more watchable than I’d expected. And blogging the whole time allowed me to easily avoid interacting with most people and, now, cleaning up. I guess I should pitch in. Or, at least, not stand in the middle of the kitchen.

Baby's First Oscar Part 2

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:39:37 -0800

Sorry, the wife sweetly put her hand on my knee and brushed the “Post” button. The challenges of technology. It’s actually her first blog entry ever. “Blogging’s easy!” she says.

Boy, Ben Stiller is really selling this. Good on him! Looks like everyone in the room is rooting for Star Trek.

News flash: apparently people in the industry like Up In The Air.

Alert: now we live in a world in which Mo’nique has won an Oscar. I mean, she sure deserved it, even just the clip they showed gave me chills, but tell anybody that 10 years ago…

The “whore” joke is not working. The Sarah Jessica Parker weight joke, quite the opposite.

Good job Sandy Powell showing everyone why you won for costume design. Clearly, you’re better expressing yourself through couture than words, however.

Dear Twilight girl, stop fidgeting. And provide some evidence that you were actually “acting” in those movies.

Kathryn Bigelow is starting to clean up here… to say nothing of this albino sound dude.

I always feel bad for these sci-tech guys. If I were them, I’d totally want to be there on this night with all the people who think they’re too hot for me.

JAMES TAYLOR? Sorry, this is awful.

Baby's First Oscars

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:36:12 -0800

It’s not weird that i’ve been in LA for 17 years and not been to an Academy Awards party, right? Finally I’m making it to one, DJ L’Il Bit has taken me to one thrown by a cow-orker at the TV show she works on.

Anyway, Neil Patrick Harris was cute to start. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are pretty funny so far, not too much of any particular kind of comedy, which is nice since I hear these things can get a bit one-note.

Penelope Cruz should’ve let them suffer. That was a joke worth running with.

OK, so far it’s a litany of movies I want to see. Except for The Lucky Bones, that was an awesome book, but I’m not sure I need to see it. Anyway, I thought Waltz was only good in Basterds, but people loved him. The broad appreciation of that film is one of those things that proves to me that I know nothing about movies. (I thought it was good, but it was no Kill Bill.) Waltz sure seemed nice from his speech, though.

Dear Jimmy Kimmel Live ad writing crew, good job, the Clapper makes everything funnier.

Dear Oscar writers, this cartoon bit sucks. End it quickly. But everyone in the room said “awwww” for Up, which must be a good sign, and Up sure got the on-TV applause. Up made me cry and warmed my heart, I’m sure glad it won.

I cannot watch this Miley Cyrus-announced bit without thinking of that creepy duet she did with Brett Michaels. Yech. Thanks for reminding me of that, honey. Anyway, I always root for country music, and I love Ryan Bingham’s stuff, so I’m happy with the winner here.

Ok, a bit on District 9, another movie I wanted to see. I saw about 8 movies this year, which is way better than the 2 I saw last year. I don’t think I’ll get much further than that next year, seeing as I live with someone who works in TV so I see enough stuff there. I have to get out of the house sometimes. (Memo to self: time to finish that Mar Vista neighborhood shooting project.)

Ok, on the way to this one gig I had I walked past a theater playing The Hurt Locker once a week. I need to start seeing movies alone!

Lord, what happened to Molly Ringwald? Yikes!

Wow, I knew in abstract that John Waters made a lot of great movies, but, wow.

(We didn’t need to have Macauly Culkin in this bit.)

It’s amazing how important John Waters was to my generation. Everybody was teary at this segment.

Ok, while I got the song and the short animated film, I’m way behind now that I missed the documentary short.

Well, I'm Jewish and Scottish, so This Entry Will Be About Cheap Scotch

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:16:40 -0800

I love Scotch. This is fortunate, since I pretty much can’t drink any other kind of whiskey. It’s that corn allergy thing — only a nice single malt Scotch is guaranteed to be corn-free. Poor me, stuck with single malts. Well, poor in the sense that I can’t afford a $60+ bottle to enjoy properly. So, at home at least, I drink cheap single malts, usually priced somewhere in the $20s. I have a few favorites, but I’ve been craving to branch out a little more. Recently, I grabbed a few options below $30 at local stores:

What we’ve got here is:

Speyburn 10 Year
The Dalmore 12 Year
Bowmore Legend (NV)

If one Scotch is good, then three must be better, right? That meant there was nothing to it but to have a little tasting.

Bowmore Legend

Typically, I like the Islay Scotches, famous for their peaty, aggressive flavors, the best. So of course I was excited to try Bowmore’s entry-level option. Reviews online are pretty harsh, which I can understand, because this is a harsh whiskey when it hits your tongue. It smells like a proper Islay, smokey and peaty, with a hint of maple. Then you sip it, and it’s… all iodine and burn? But it opens — it’s not a wine, but it opens — and the peat and smoke and maple come out in the flavor. Early or after a while, Bowmore Legend finishes sweet.

The Dalmore 12-Year

This is halfway to Bourbon in my mind. It smells very, very sweet and caramel-y. Fortunately, it isn’t as sweet to actually drink, which is good because Bourbon is sweet enough to make my cheeks sweat. The Dalmore has a pretty syrupy mouth feel, almost like you’re drinking an after-dinner drink. It’s tasty, but it doesn’t scream “Scotch!” to me. And I’m not usually much for subtle. The palate delivers on the caramel nose and color, although there’s some surprising ashy flavors in the aftertaste.

Speyburn 10-year

This tastes like apples and smells like apples. It’s actually quite astounding. If any Scotch could be described as “refreshing,” this is it. If you think you can guess the winner from this description, well, you’re right. It’s just a satisfying, delicious Scotch, with a unique flavor.

The Bowmore Legend is good, if you let it open; a perfectly nice Islay. Nothing special, except at the price — that’s special. The Dalmore is nice but really lacks anything to make it stand out. It might be a good first Scotch, and it is certainly a nice enough tipple, but it’s not unique.

That said, I have few fears I’ll fail to finish off all three. I’ll get back to you in a few months when I buy another round to follow this set.

From Flickr… Right-handed

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:23:07 -0800

From Flickr… Right-handed