We met a couple of my friends along with two of their friends who showed up. Got VIP passes which literally meant nothing special. It was just a special trip to the 4th floor where we had private access to another bar and kitchen. Meh.

We got GA tickets so we had to stand in the back. It was still very nice to be there, however. Seeing Pee Wee in person was more or less a childhood dream. Not that I ever had a fantasy to meet him when I was young but I DID get a lot of the Pee Wee toys that were out for my 10th birthday. I still even have the playhouse!

If you’d never seen the TV show or movies, you’d think this guy is on drugs or something. I can totally get how his humor seems ridiculous from the outside. But, since we were all fans there, the whole show was really great! The funniest part for me was that he took the whole thing really seriously. It’s as though his show never ended!

What I didn’t realize until after the show tonight is many of his scenes and bits used in this show were taken right out of his show he put on at the Groundlings and Roxy so many years ago. You can find different clips of those shows on Youtube.

He appropriately made fun of his brush with the law so many years ago by saying he was wearing an abstinence ring! As he was showing it to the audience, he starts pumping his fists. There was a whole bit about it and the audience was cracking up.

We got to sit in on the last 20 minutes of a Q&A session too. It’s neat to see him talking as Paul and not just Pee Wee. He seems generally excited about everything going on. He thanked his fans a lot and was so happy that he gets to hear the feedback from everyone now. He said when he was doing the show so many years ago he was so busy he never got to really talk to the fans.

You can tell he knows he’s lucky. Either that or he’s putting on a damn good show. He was born to entertain and is brilliant at what he does.

I didn’t get to meet him personally but I did meet the King of Cartoons up close. Saw a couple other of his actors up close, too.

It was great reliving my childhood for one night. :o)

http://www.smgov.net/smarts/glow/

What I hoped to be something of a laser, light, glow in the dark extravaganza turned out to be an overcrowded, sparsely artistic, lines for everything loitering festival. Not enough lights, way too many people. They even had police holding back people because the pier was overcrowded.

I expected an outdoor rave like party. I got a theme park, boring sheep fest.

The event had so much potential from the photos and sound of it but it was just so unorganized, there was nothing really do to do except people watch and follow the crowds. Certain drugs at certain times might have helped but with so many people all doing the same thing in the same place, I don’t think it would have helped much. I was kinda expecting more of a Bourbon Street type atmosphere but it just seemed like everyone was confused as to where to go and what to do. Someone should have handed out millions of glow sticks at the top of the pier, that would have been amazing.

It was inspired by Nuit Blanche which is held in Paris every year. I’ve never been but I’m gonna guess it’s a little more interesting than this was.

Unless I know this gets better next time (IF there’s a next time), that’s the last time I go to that!

That trip was one of the more memorable occasions in my childhood almost twenty years ago this year. My dad made it a family trip since it was a very big occasion for us. Our very first large screen television with all the works!

We all looked around at a bunch of furniture and electronics while my dad was shopping for the best of the best, probably having already picked out the exact model he wanted from his research in Consumer Reports for the best TV of the day. Once we saw what we were getting, everyone was excited and ready to get back home and hook that TV right up. It could very well have been a scene out of the Simpsons.

This TV has travelled with me to Lubbock, Texas. I then brought it up to Denver, Colorado for my last two years of college. Once I completed college, it went right back down to Houston with me where it was mostly in a room sitting there or a garage sitting there. After a year of figuring out what to do with my life, it moved with me to Los Angeles, California. Then, since being here in LA, it moved three times in two houses and three rooms.

Now, after being in the same spot since about August of 2005, it’s finally decided to stop sending signal on the tube. After turning it on, it almost sounds like when a car that doesn’t catch the spark and keeps cycling until the spark starts it up. Except this sound is completely electronic, basically to the beat of AC current running to the sockets.

Now, I must decide what to do. I think craigslist might be a good option since people usually find value in old junk. I’ve already given away two monitors last year, one of which I had since 2000 and was such a good monitor. I bought a 24″ Dell LCD monitor to replace it and it was mostly worth it (except when I’m trying to design a website and need very accurate colors. LCDs are still not as good as CRTs). Sadly, I grow emotional attachments to my stuff. In the end after it’s gone, however, it’s just stuff and I don’t think about it.

Since I’m leaving in a week to go away for close to a month, I won’t have to even worry about it until I get back. My trip agenda includes Manhattan for a week, Austin for a week, then Houston for over a week. March is gonna be a time of renewal for me. 2008 has been a rough start for many reasons but I feel it’s mostly downhill for a while.

Goodbye blessed RCA TV. You’ve brought me many episodes of the best and worst of television and so many other shows throughout the years for the rest of the family. You’ll be missed.

On the first weekend of November, I had a friend visiting me for her first trip to LA. I love when my out of town friends come into to town and visit me. It gives me a chance to show off the city I’ve spent three and a half years growing to love.

We did all the stereotypical things one would expect when coming to LA: Disneyland, Hollywood Blvd., and the beach. I asked her if there was anything particular that she wanted to do only to receive an apathetic reply. So, I made my own little tour for the weekend.

Following a day at Disneyland, we decided to go to Hollywood on Saturday. The most obvious and tourist friendly place for out-of-towners is the Highland and Hollywood center. It’s $2 parking for 4 hours, accessible to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame.

On this particular day, we had a nice quick lunch before walking out and noticing that Hollywood Blvd. was blocked off. The one thing she had kinda requested was to see the hand and foot prints at the theatre. As we walked over there, we noticed a bunch of lights, microphones, cameras, and slowly people congregating. Then we noticed that the theatre was off limits. Turns out there was a premiere for the movie Fred Claus.

We eventually decided to stick around since apparently the premiere festivities were about to start. I grabbed my camera and looked like a paparazzo perched to the side amongst a little crowd near the entrance of the red carpet. Eventually, black cars drove up and let out celebrity after celebrity, many of whom I couldn’t name or had no idea who they were.

After standing there taking photographs of whomever I could, a guy approaches us with a stack full of passes in his hand. “Does anyone want a pass to a screening?” he asked. Sounded good to me. So we both tried fighting for passes not thinking much of it. Maybe it was just some random screening of this movie on another weekend. Our diligence paid off as we were the last two tickets that he had in his hand.

After receiving the tickets, we looked on the passes to see what date this screening was for.

Hey, wait, isn’t this today’s date? I asked.

“It sure looks like it; what time is it?” she replied.

The premiere start time was 4pm on Saturday, November 3rd. Wait, that was… we had the golden tickets to this premiere! We walked to the entrance of the red carpet and they let us right through! I walked my very first and only Hollywood premiere!

As we passed on the left portion of the red carpet, we passed all the celebrities on the right as they were doing interviews with the media. I got a good look at most of the celebrities up close and even met a couple. Premieres are all they’re cracked up to be too: free everything and unlimited access to all of it. Hollywood knows how to party in style

The strangest part of the whole experience for me was after the movie was over. We waited a couple of minutes for the crowd to die down before making our way up the aisle. Then, as if on cue, stands up Vince Vaughn, Fred Claus himself. How many times in your life do you see a movie with the lead star, only to see him in person after the movie is over?

Only in Hollywood.

I got a phone call last Tuesday evening for an invitation to a screening of the movie Atonement. Once again, not expecting anything, I got to see a pretty decent movie with some very mature and deep themes of romance, lost hope and lifelong regret.

The screening finished followed by a Q&A with the director. Then, the surprise turned even better: all the leads were in attendance. It was quite a treat to hear each of them talk about different elements of the movie and how it was all put together. Keira is even more attractive and radiant in person.

In a span of a month, I attended two events which were spontaneous and unplanned surprises. People back in Texas ask me when I’m moving back, expecting me to be ready to go back to what I had before and continue life in Texas. As far as I’m concerned, I’m enjoying the availability of events like this and look forward for more to come. I’m just having too much fun to actually go anywhere else.

Driving is in my blood. I do it often and I enjoy it. It’s a mobile comfort zone. I’ve made many long distance trips and endured many hours alone while driving from point A to point B. I mentally prepare myself for long trips since some drives can be tedious and boring. I also learn and adapt to visual cues to make my drives more interesting.

In college, there were the trips I made between Houston and Dallas on I-45. I know the amount of time it should take to make the trip. I know how the outlet mall in Conroe is the cue that either I’m completely out of or getting closer to the metropolitan and suburban of Houston. I remember Highway 79 at Buffalo is where I used to turn in order to go to my grandparent’s house in northeast Texas or the way to Lakeview church camp. Fairfield is the beginning of the Dallas half of I-45. I know the exact point about 30 miles south of downtown Dallas that I can see the neon green outline of the Bank of America building at night. The McDonalds in Huntsville is where I’ve spent many rest stops with my friends going to and from church camp. Right before I get to Madisonville, I know I’m exactly 99 miles from downtown Houston. My dad and I stopped at a closed gas station between Conroe and Huntsville for a few minutes because the rain was coming down so hard. There used to be a hill between Corsicana and Dallas just east of the freeway that had “GOLF” clearly spelled out.

When I lived in Denver for two years, I spent two 8 hour days with an overnight in Lubbock. Brenham is where the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory is located! When 290 turns into 36, I spend about five hours of my drive on 36 ending up in Abilene. One time when I was driving through Abilene, I found a college radio station that happened to be playing one of my favorite composers, Kurt Bestor. I instantly fell in love that day. There’s a stretch of Highway 84 that has a lot of plateaus and rocky hills. This is the precursor to the next day’s drive or reminder of the previous day’s drive. After leaving Clayton on Highway 64, about 15 minutes into the drive to Raton, there’s a huge hill across from Mt. Capulin Volcano that keeps my attention for about an hour. It’s a beautiful drive. From Dumas to Clayton, there is little of anything to look at except corn fields and silos. Dalhart is your last chance for Blue Bell Ice Cream before you leave Texas. About 15 minutes south of Raton, a hail storm pounded my car and I almost got into an accident. Trinidad, Colorado has this one hill that looks like stair steps. Colorado Spring signifies the last leg of my journey or the beginning of the rest of my trip. Just north of Colorado Springs is the Air Force Academy’s chapel, a place I’ve been to exactly three times. Between Trinidad and Pueblo, the best music to play while you see a train going down the track with mountains in the background is Kansas’ “Song for America”. In fact, this song is appropriate for a lot of this trip.

I saw the movie Into the Wild a week ago. I don’t watch movies as often as I wish, and I come across movies like this even less often. Although the subject of the movie has its controversies, the message was very well delivered and quite thought provoking.

Throughout the movie, I continually thought of different people I know who would identify with this scene or that scene. His journey, the scenery, his misfortunes… so much brought back memories of my own journeys and behaviors. For each person I thought of, I could relate my own experience and memory of these scenes just as much. This kid had a lot of angst and loneliness trying to find the way to his purpose and I understand what that’s like. This kind of loneliness is being in a car for many hours and allows you to process anything you want. It’s you, the radio, and your thoughts.

The kinds of solitary experiences Christopher went through brought me back to the countless hours I spent in my drivers seat. The kinds of inductive reasonings and theories he would often expound upon, including the memorable quotes from several well known authors, were identifiable and familiar. It made me miss those solitary times I spend in the car. I think that’s part of the reason I like to be on the road; the open road is my freedom, my independence and my endless possibility. It reminds me that there’s more to live than just the routines and habits we develop. If we continue to do the same all the time, we lose the opportunities to make the memories that change us. Living outside your element is the experience which helps you see those new possibilities.

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fairness… give me truth.” -Henry David Thoreau

I was absolutely a kid of the eighties cartoons. Voltron is one of my earliest cartoons in which I was obsessed. I wanted so badly to own all of the five lions that made up Voltron. Sadly, the closest I ever got to owning Voltron was a smaller, static version of Voltron which didn’t come apart.

Loving cartoons of the eighties was less about the cartoon as it was owning the latest, greatest toys: Voltron, Transformers, GI Joes, Thundercats, Silverhawks and so many more. I think my most treasured toyline was the Silverhawks since they were so shiny and metallic.

I was a total sucker for eighties marketing to children.

I went to see it last night in Pasadena expecting it to be good, but it blew me away. I laughed so hard that I cried, not once but twice. This movie is truly one of the best out there.

[*********partial spoiler! - don't read until you see the movie unless you don't care*********]

If you have seen it, there’s a part where along the trip where Dwayne finds out his impairment and starts to go insane in the van kicking it and pushing on the ceiling. Then you see the van slow down to a stop by this random neighborhood. When I first saw this scene, after an instance of not recognizing it I suddenly realized that the neighborhoods you see in the background look familiar. Eerily familiar. In fact, I suddenly knew. That was MY neighborhood! The mountains in the background, the houses that you see, those are the same that I live in and drive through everyday! I’ve jogged on those sidewalks and drive on that road everyday! I was just in shock to realize they shot that scene no more than a mile or so from my house! It makes me wonder when they acutally filmed this (although I’m sure I was at work or something anyway).

Go see the movie. You won’t regret it!

I was riding the bus back home a little while ago when I was checking the daily news. Seems that there was more to that plane crash than I first realized.

Early this morning as I was working, I caught myself staring out at the beach as I typically do. This time, however, I immediately saw like 5 helicopters hovering above what I soon realized was just north of the Venice shoreline. Then a couple more showed up and there were a total of 7 helicopters flying around, hovering and looking auspicious.

Something happened.

Not too long after that, the local news station websites started breaking coverage of a small one engine plane having crashed anywhere between 150 and 300 feet south of the Santa Monica Pier. Initially it looked much further away until I saw a webcast coverage from CBS 2 News. This was literally just a a mile or two away.

Well, there’s not much we could see because of being on the 5th floor. Sometimes it would be nice to work up a little higher!

The day passed by and the search and rescue/recovery boats were sending divers out around the area trying to find a 3rd victim. They already pulled out 2 bodies from the bay, a man and a woman.

Not thinking too much of it, except for its tragedy, as I checked out the news tonight I found out that one of the two victims was a host of probably one of my two or three top game shows, Press Your Luck. Peter Tomarken was only 63 years old.

The worst part about this whole tragedy is that Peter and his wife were on their way down to San Diego to pick up a lady who needed medical attention at UCLA Medical Center. They were involved with a volunteer program to help others get from one place to another. The plane’s engine failure was the cause of the plane going down.

In Memory of Peter Tomarken

Press Your Luck Scandal – This dude actually figured out the system and literally cleaned out the gameshow for almost an hour!

Pilot Episode of Press Your Luck:

The night began pretty sorely. I invited my friend Byron (Magic Mountain co-worker) and we had some wine and dinner before heading to the theater. Three things happened to us right before we go to the theater.
ONE: We had a ticket waiting for us on the car. It turns out that even after reading the signs on the curb, I misread AM for PM! So we were illegally parked. Dang it!
TWO: I went to turn on my camera and IT HAD NO MEMORY. I left my freakin’ memory card in my card reader on my computer. I could have been sick.
THREE: Byron had no battieries for his camera! And he didn’t notice until we were already in the theater.

These three things could have made this night turn to crap, but we quickly got over it by the time the show started.

So, at around 11:20pm, the show started. A quick video presentation with some flashbacks of the three seasons accompanied by Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger. Soon there after, the audience was introduced to a very intoxicated Seth MacFarlane, the creator, the voice of Peter, Stewie and Brian, and the emcee for the night. We were the 2nd of 2 shows for the night and between shows Seth and the gang had a few drinks.

Seth slowly introduced the panel, which included some of the writers and most of the actors who make up Family Guy. And so it was complete! Let me just say, Seth MacFarlane was probably the tallest of the actors and Seth Green was the shortest. And Mila Kunis was definitely the hottest.

And so the reading of the script began. It took them over an hour to get through the script from “Once Upon a Weinstein” which never even broadcast on Fox in the original 3 seasons. We all sat there, almost knowing every line and eagerly waiting in lots of anticipation for the funnies to be heard. It was really cool watching the actors voice out all of the characters.

There was a large screen above the actors and writers as they read the script. The director of the show had a lot of fancy video techniques as they read, including a split screen of two actors and sometimes a picture in picture of one actor as a few others were reading. One of the biggest laughs with these effects was when Seth and Seth were reading to each other. Seth Green caught on that he and Seth McF were basically staring each other in the fact on screen (when in reality they were 4 chair apart with the 2 girls in between). So, Seth started playing with Seth and eventually they made out on screen and groped each other. It was great, drunken fun!

After the reading completed, we saw a live performance of Seth McF and Alex Borstein of an upcoming song from the live album. Turns out this is the same song which was performed last year at Alex’s one woman show (where I actually met Alex at an after party).

Lastly, we saw a couple of clips from the upcoming season, including the season premiere and another minute and a half. Let me be one of the first to say that the first two minutes of Family Guy’s fourth season are going to wet your pants. It’s not necessarily because of what they do but because of what they say. Such an easy laugh, mind you, but totally worth watching!

So, in conclusion, if you haven’t seen Family Guy before, you are missing out.

TWO weeks AND COUNTING! Be there, May 1st, 9/8C on Fox.