Category Archives: life

life

West Side Story Injuries (Detail)

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Thursday night (3 performances left) during the opening number, I started a move, went up on my left toe and came down to a crouched position….when I did, something popped in my left knee….the choreography had me jumping back up a half second later (longest half second of my life), but the damage was done. I made it through the rest of the show alright and saw the chiropractor in the morning. Luckily I had just hyper-extended it, so the muscles were a little stiff, but prone to damage, so I did the next show with a knee brace. Then during that show, I bruised my right thumb during “Cool” (I have to support myself/push myself up with my hands during the show and I did it wrong). I saw the chiropractor again the morning after, but there was very little to do except ice it and use it as little as possible. So now here I am, missing a show that went really well until closing weekend. Oh well…it was still a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And now I’ve got my own West Side horror story!

Other Things
I came up with a really great analogy today. It’s political and probably controversial, but I’m going to share it anyways. My dad told me about a CNN reporter who said something really…you have to read this for yourself.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour says that President Bush is the main cause of Islamic extremism worldwide.

Of course, this is from Rush Limbaugh, so I will be the first (as the poster) to question the bias. If however, she really did say this and this is what she believes, I have a comparable analogy of some merit. If President Bush is the main cause of Islamic extremism worldwide, then William Shatner is the main cause of Star Trek extremism worldwide. Trying to pin a worldwide movement on just one person has very little merit as it is, but this is ridiculous. President Bush and William Shatner were just doing their jobs (I will not accept arguments about Bush…I’m broad-stroking the reality of his job-performance)…they’re not responsible for the extremism movement.

And that’s about all the other news I have…I’ll be posting reviews of my weekend, after it happens, but it promises to be a rollicking good time. Friday night I’m seeing The Bill Handel Extravaganza at The Grove in Anaheim, Saturday night I’m seeing John Williams with some orchestra and the Irvine Ampitheatre and Sunday night I’m going to see my friend Luke Adams as the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in San Diego’s Balboa Park! Enjoy your week/weekend and see you around!

Brief Recap of My Birthday Extravaganza

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Disneyland for a Monte Cristo sandwich at the Cafe Orleans, then an hour fifteen wait for the subs. Then go home, get all dressed up and truck it out to LA for Maxwell Demille’s Cicada Club party/bash/thing.

Robert Picardo (the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager) sang a couple of songs and he wasn’t bad actually. His first “set” was “Swinging on a Star” and “San Fernando Valley”, so he gets like 50,000 bonus points right there because those are two freaking awesome songs that I absolutely love. Then I accidentally kicked him later while doing 20′s charleston – oops! He also made a great star trek joke about three gay Klingons – Maxene, Patty, and LaVerne (The Andrews Sisters) before singing either “Drinking Rum and Coke” or some song along those lines.

Richard Halpern
Awesome performer – oh mammy!/muquin

Rusty Frank was great tap dancing all over the place, the Hollywood Hornets busted out the Big Apple, and Dean Mora and his orchestra were incredible – can’t wait for live album (hopefully they recorded last night’s performance).

I did get recognized for my birthday and the band/crowd sang to me, but no birthday dance…oh well.

All in all a very enjoyable celebration (even if I was very tired).

Adventures in Whittier

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So after rehearsal last night I went to Memories and had a great time. They played a much more eclectic mix including Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” (which for all it’s objectionable content is a b!tchin’ good swing song) and Outkast’s Idlewild Blues which are probably my two favorite not-directly-swing swing dancing songs. After the place closed up (Closin’ Time and Get The F*ck Out were the last songs) I walked a girl out to her car, enjoying the echo of the empty Whittier streets. As I headed back through the back alleys of Whittier to my car, I noticed a group sitting in a circle around the back of a car where someone was strumming a guitar and singing. I went over and sat down. After a couple of songs, he started in on a Martin Sexton song (couldn’t tell you which one, except that it wasn’t Thirteen Step Boogie). Being swing dancers, everybody jumps up and we lindy bomb the parking lot of a swing venue (irony though art a cruel mistress). After that, the guitarist keeps going and somebody breaks out Frisbee’s. An hour later the fun finally comes to an end and we all head for home. Pictures of the fun.

Driving home – fastest way is to head down the 605 to the 405. Get there and CalTrans has shutdown the 605 S 405 S connector, with a recommendation to take WB 7th street as a detour. So I follow their directions and get hopelessly confused. I can’t just take WB 7th street anywhere I need to go, so I make a legal U-Turn and head back to the 405. But they’ve closed off the EB 7th Street entrance to the 405! So now I get on the 405 N with the intention of doubling back next chance I get, which is Palos Verdes Ave. BUT THEY’VE CLOSED THAT SOUTHBOUND FREEWAY ENTRANCE AS WELL! So I race back onto the 405 N and get off at the next exit (Woodruff) and I’m finally able to get onto the 405 SB. What should have been a half hour drive home is now an hour. Apparently, not only was CalTrans hard at work on the 405/22 carpool lane, there was what looked like a fatal accident on the 405 S just before the 605 AND on the 405 N just before the 605. Ridiculously crazy, no?

Oh yeah, another nugget from the evening: Lindy in the Lot. Gather a whole bunch of cars in a parking lot, create a giant circle and turn on all the headlights (think “Cool” from West Side Story the movie). Instant dance floor.

This Is What I Like To Call Delayed Reaction

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I’m posting this a whole week after my reaction, but I just feel like sharing.

Last week, it was Friday June 1st. But it wasn’t until the next morning that I realized it was June now. This was significant in that my birthday was now 1 month away (3 weeks now). It didn’t so much startle me, it was just sort of a realization that 2007 is half over and where did it go? School, another crack at the ol’ girlfriend thing, Disneyland, movies, lots and LOTS of swing dancing. Just kind of a flashpoint for looking back at where the time went.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – The World Premiere and The Midnight Showing

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Pictures. So last Saturday I went to Disneyland at 6 in the morning. Why? Not to sit and wait all day to see celebrities – to take advantage of an empty Disneyland at 6:30 in the morning. I got several great shots of New Orleans completely empty and had an entire Splash Mountain log to myself (probably the only time I’ve ever walked onto that attraction and had the offer of staying on for a 2nd ride). After that I went to Swing Team Rehearsal with the intention of joining some friends later that day in Disneyland for the Red Carpet walk-by’s. But not before going into Jamba Juice and watching Orlando Bloom walk through Downtown Disney incognitos with a little girl (not his daughter…maybe his niece? No idea).
I came back around 5 pm and I’m on the hub right across from Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, by the time the celebrities get to us, most of them were hurrying past because Main Street was a real chore (as can be seen from this excellent review on MiceAge.com by Sue Kruse, or at Mouseplanet…or at Visions Fantastic).

In the category of rushed past waving
Geoffrey Rush w/ Monkey Jack and trainer
Kevin McNally – Joshamee Gibbs
Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
John Voight
Jonathon Pryce – Governor Weatherby Swan
Arnold Schwarzenegger – not on red carpet – walked out of Tomorrowland and across the carpet
Bill Nighy
Keith Richards
David Baillie – Cotton

In the category of walked by waving or sacrificed even more time to sign even more autographs
Lee Arenberg – Pintel (not the wooden eye guy, the other one)
Gore Verbinski
Martin Landau
Chow Yun Fat
Terry Rosio (he threw me 2 hacky sacks!)
Joey Fatone
Christy Carlson Romano
Wilmer Valderrama (aside from Johnny and Orlando, he was the biggest thing on the red carpet…I think it was because he kept signing autographs…half an hour after he passed, he was still working the crowd on the other side of the hub…people would be screaming and you could say, “Oh it’s just Wilmer”)

So after Johnny walked slowly past, I hurried over the DCA for swing dancing and that was my Saturday.

Last night I went to the midnight showing at Big Newport. I got there around 5 to stake my place in line (I was roughly the 5th group in line) but had to leave at 8 for rehearsal…saved my place with an umbrella…and by letting the people around me know. Got back around 11:15 and the line had not only grown length wise, but breadth wise. The best way to describe it like this: every person in line was already saving a place for 10 people, but each of those 10 people showed up with 10 friends. It was ridiculously crowded. And when they opened the doors to the theatre, the line just disappeared in the mad rush for the door. It was ridiculous. Then when we got into the theatre, there were people throwing tortillas…disgusting. Someone dressed up as Jack Sparrow made an announcement about checking under your seat for a medallion for a prize. I didn’t get anything, he didn’t project very well, but it was a very nice costume.

Finally the movie started. I was actually a little disappointed in this midnight crowd. They were rowdier during the trailers than they were during the movie (Transformers, Christian Bale and Steve Zahn as Vietnam POW’s, Live Free or Die Hard, Evan Almighty). But maybe that can happen with a less complex movie like Spiderman 3 and not with Pirates. The movie was absolutely phenomenal. Everything that was promised to us in Dead Man’s Chest was delivered one-hundred-fold. Learn Barbossa’s first name. Meet the 9 pirate lords. See the pirate code (and it’s guitar-pickin’ keeper). Discover Davy Jones’ true love.
The music was really good. The Davy Jones theme (the locket song) was weaved in and out of just about every theme because it plays so heavily into one of the core stories of the movie (the other core stories being Elizabeth, Will and Jack). That core story really ties a heavy element of mythology into the movie which I just love (I’m a HUGE fan of mythology, always have been, though I don’t know why…maybe I really am a fantasy fan). But what a lot of reviews are suggesting is that this makes the 3-hour epic into two movies: Elizabeth, Will, Jack, Barbossa and all the pirate-y fun in one movie and the mythological back story in the other. While this makes sense, I can’t really find a reason to disagree with the decision to make the film 3 hours long and have both stories in there. Although maybe it takes away from what people claimed to enjoy so much about the first film (the piratical banter between the major characters).
Regardless of all of that, the true glory for the movie goes to it’s truly epic final battle. This battle will be remembered long after the pirate phenomenon has faded from memory. I mean you get a small tease of the sheer scale from the trailer, but when you see the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl charging into the maelstrom at each other and hear Barbossa laughing maniacally as he turns the Black Pearl deeper into the deadly whirlpool…I was utterly speechless. It was just gorgeous.
All in all this was a really great film that I can’t wait to see again.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

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That’s right…I’m quoting Rodgers and Hammerstein. But it really is a beautiful morning…that nice cold morning indicative of spring where you can’t wear a jacket because in another hour it’s going to be hot. If only my sinuses weren’t plugged, I probably would have been able to smell that mountainesque air that I so adore. But anyways, this beautiful morning reminded me that there are several things to share with y’all.

I came up with an alternative storyline while watching The Mask the other day. It was right after the scene where Tina (an undiscovered Cameron Diaz) visits Stanley (Jim Carrey) in jail and says she’s going away for a while.

I didn’t see or hear from Tina for a couple of months. Dorian succeeded in taking over the city…unfortunately, being a petty thug, his empire quickly devolved into civil war…Lieutenant Kelloway was killed in the resulting crossfire and in the political backstabbing, I was able to barter my way out of jail.

I know they couldn’t take the story in that direction, but it was an interesting turn for the characters to take…make it a film noir movie.

I saw the midnight showing of Spiderman 3 last week at Big Newport. That’s always fun…a group of geeks cheering at Bruce Campbell and Stan Lee while booing and hissing at Kirsten Dunst. I thought it was an interesting and fun movie, but lots of people are complaining, mainly about the lack of character development for the 3 major villains. I came up with this question:

Can we sacrifice character development for a deeper story connection? There wasn’t enough time really to develop all the characters of the movie…but do they actually reflect the internal conflict in Peter’s life?

But I don’t really know. I’d go see the movie again just to watch that awesome scene in the bar where Dark Peter shows off to upset Mary Jane. And I’m super pissed off that they’re not giving us the instrumental soundtrack to this movie! I’m so frigging tired of them short-changing us. Although I just found out that there’s an instrumental soundtrack for Spiderman 2, so maybe eventually we’ll get one. I really want it because the fist fight between Dark Peter and Goblin 2.0 is really jazzy and very cool.

I keep thinking there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I’ve forgotten it now. So thanks for tuning in. See ya next time and all that crazy jazz.

OH! Now I remember what it was. It was about how depressing my Wednesday night was. Why for? I watched movies. But it was the content/characters of those movies that really depressed me. I watched (back to back mind you) The Last Kiss (TLK) with Zach Braff and The Pursuit of Happyness (TPOH) with Will Smith. TLK was about Zach’s character having a pregnant girlfriend and getting caught up in this “extramarital” relationship with a college co-ed (8 year age difference about) because he was scared of growing up. TPOH (as i’m sure everybody already knows) is about Will’s character scrambling to make ends meet in the early 1980′s because it’s hard to be an adult. The thing was, I got so wrapped up in these two films that I just got depressed about my future, even though I’m doing fine! It was just a really weird trip.

Rockin’ Both Parks

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I can’t really think and therefore I must blog. Makes sense, right? Not to me, but that’s why I keep doing it.

My current favorite video is Super Mario Bros: Frustration on Google Video. Warning: it’s 24 minutes long and incredible foul-mouthed. Beyond that it is absolutely hilarious. Thanks to Danny for finding it for me.

The past week has been intriguing, being that I spent most of it at Disneyland, which is unusual for me (no really, just because I have an annual pass doesn’t mean I spend every free hour at the park). Why for was I at the park? I was using my video camera to capture the audio from the Rockin’ Both Parks campaign with the Red Hot Chili Peppers because I just love it and (ASSUMPTION) Disney won’t pay the Red Hot Chili Peppers the money necessary to sell the soundtracks. I think I mentioned before the problem of not marketing the ride version of the songs (the fact that the original songs have not so family-friendly language), but I’m guessing this is the real reason. That or they’re waiting for some bigger event….THEORY: after Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opens up, Disneyland will release a new Resort Soundtrack featuring the Pirates changes, the Haunted Mansion changes, the Finding Nemo soundtrack and the Rockin’ Both Parks music. I mean hey It probably won’t happen, but I can dream, can’t I? The weekend resulted in a lot of fun though. Friday I went on both attractions simply for an initial recording, but I found out after that I had set the audio settings wrong and recorded no sound. So Saturday, I brought my video camera back in the park when I came in for swing dancing. I skipped the first set and rode/filmed California Screamin’. During the fireworks I got in line for Space Mountain. Memorizing my place in line, I became so entranced with the viewing angle of the fireworks from the Space Mountain line platform that I filmed the rest of the show (I jumped in at the Adventureland section). Afterwards, I spotted my place in line and re-entered it quietly. Then I did my usual thing of being a chatty stranger with the people around me and made friends with the group in front of me. Turns out they were on a band trip from Arizona and this was there last day. Later on in line, the group expanded from about 8 people to 24. Yes, 24 people in line for Space Mountain. That was a fun day for the “how many in your party” cast member. After Space Mountain, I headed with my new friends Grant, Patrick, Jenna, Abby and Ian to Big Thunder. After that, Ian and Jenna peeled away to go do…something (note: the author assumes nothing about this “something”) while the rest of us went on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Then we wandered out through Downtown Disney to their bus (they were driving back all night to Arizona). On Sunday I was meeting with a teammate to study for MousePlanet.com’s bi-annual MouseAdventure Scavenger Hunt. After we finished wandering about Disneyland looking at things we don’t normally look at, I headed into DCA to try just an audio capture of Screamin’ with my digital point-and-shoot still camera (is there a lexicographically cheaper way of getting that point across?). It cut out halfway through and had only one channel of audio, so I was still frustrated in my efforts. So I resolved to go back to the parks and hit both attractions one final time on Tuesday morning (I didn’t have class until 12:30, so I had plenty of time from park opening). So I got to the Resort shortly after Disneyland opened at 9:00 AM and headed to Space Mountain. The wait was a mere 10 minutes and I boarded the back seat (I figured there would be minimal screaming noises absorbed by the camera in the last row) with anxiety. I was holding the camera upside down so that the mike was as close as it could safely be to the speakers of the empty seat next to me (I had already checked the audio input settings). I got off the ride, rewound the tape and played it back. It sounded so gorgeous I almost cried. I looked at my watch and headed to the other park. I got there shortly after opening and walked to the back of the park. Along the way, I noticed how empty the performance corridor was, so I had the PhotoPass guy by the Grizzly River Run waterfall snap a couple of shots. When I got to the ride, the wait was 10 minutes, and presently I was pulling the harness down. I couldn’t hold the camera in the other seat securely (I wasn’t about to hold an expensive camera upside down with one hand on a looping roller coaster), so I placed it right by the speaker situated between the two seats. Unfortunately, the train I ended up with (red) must have had a bad speaker or something because even during the ride I heard lots of scratches. So I confirmed that it sucked and got back in line (still 10 minutes). I waited for the back again and made sure that I didn’t get the red train, which was difficult because the line was now long enough for them to justify starting a third train (green). So I almost had to go red again, but I politely (I thought) asked the cast member assigning seats to help me out. So now I’m in the back of the blue train and I’m giving it one last shot (I can’t afford to stand in the line again..it’s gotten longer) and I get a fairly decent capture. I spend a few minutes filming some random launch sequences and playing around with push-zooms (you know, it’s that really cool effect where the camera is zooming, but it looks like only the background is moving, not the actor?). After finishing that, I left and went to school. And now we’re here on Friday and I’m writing this. Hope you enjoyed my story. Most of the really pertinent pictures are on Flickr…a video should be on YouTube shortly and I’m taking votes now for whether to post my audio files of the attractions online. Vote in the comments.

Well, thanks for sticking around so long!

Shooter and The Punisher (2004)

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All the political intrigue and excitement of a John Clancy novel and a great exploration of political corruption at the highest levels. I’ve always enjoyed Antoine Fuqua’s work…then again I’ve only seen Training Day and King Arthur, but they were both thoroughly enjoyable, as was this film. Aside from that, the film was very pretty, highlighting the beauties of…Canada. That’s right….they filmed most of it in Canada. At least that’s what I garner from the credits. The credits thank only the city of Philadelphia and from what I could see not many other places in America. So it makes me sad…because there were some really gorgeous shots in the film and I think it’s a darn shame that the cities it should have been shot in couldn’t out bid Canada.

While I’m not a Mark Wahlberg fanatic, I do enjoy his work and he does a very respectable job playing a guy who gets screwed by the no-name agencies he worked so hard for. And what was with Danny Glover? Has he had a stroke recently? He was slurring half of his dialogue and it was a little distracting. Well not nearly as distracting as the guy next to me chomping on popcorn or the guy in front of me stretching his arms way up and blocking half the screen. But hey, that’s what I get for sitting in the back of the theatre.

Something I noticed from the credits was that the aerial coordinator and the aerial ground coordinator were most likely related (they both had the last name North). See, ya learn things when you watch all the credits.

Oh…and it made me want to watch The Punisher (the 2004 one). Which was a little unfortunate because I forgot how many gripes I had with the movie. I mean the action stuff was all awesome, but I had huge grievances with the emotional nonsense they made him go through with Joan, Mr. Bumpo and Dave. And don’t get me started with the Russian. While that movie was…is a recreation of the Punisher character, those 4 were (I think) modern creations of Garth Ennis for the Punisher comics from the 90’s. So the fact that they were not accurately translated and misused in the film grieves me. Especially the Russian. He was supposed to be incredibly talkative, but Kevin Nash, while looking the part, is just there for muscle. So I’m going to take that clip of film, record myself acting lines of dialogue from the comic books and edit them in. Any objections?

Daylight Sucks Time

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This is just an update that isn’t show related. I’ve not had a lot of sleep since Daylight Savings Time and I blame Congress. Which of course means I have to once again turn on my Republican brethren because I can’t hold the currently elected Democratic regime responsible for this policy change. So Congress pushed Daylight Savings Time to an earlier date to save energy. Which makes sense…but not nearly as much sense as getting America off the foreign oil nipple. Drill in Alaska, research alternative fuels, do anything. Just help me get a little more sleep! But hey, it’s my own fault. Oh well.