insomniac plays in traffic

Le Greek, C'est Chic

2010-09-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful weekend at the fabulous Getty Villa in Malibu.

Friday night, I scored tickets to Elektra, a play inspired by the Sophocles version written by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Electra is the annual outdoor production of the Getty Villa - each fall they do a classical tragedy or comedy in the Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater, a classical outdoor theater based on ancient prototypes.

I was glad that Mr. Insom could make the performance with me, or else I would have had to gone with someone else like my dad, and that would be kind of weird.

Here's the plot. Elektra's mom Clytemnestra has her husband (Elektra's father) King Agamemnon killed. Elektra mourns and laments his death and lives for the day when her brother Orestes will return and exert justice by avenging her father. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the sheer anguish and emotion with elements of the Greek argument structure. It was like I was watching Law and Order: 400 B.C. The play does speak to the all-consuming effects of vengeance and how it can eat away at the soul, but as both Mr. Insom and I agreed, there's some shit you can't let slide.

Tickets are currently sold out, but I called Saturday morning and lo and behold, they had two tickets available. :) If you're interested in watching it, they sometimes get tickets released, so if you're lucky and/or persistent, you might be able to see it too! It was really good and I highly recommend it. If you go, the seats are general admission and there isn't a bad seat in the house. Bring lots of warm clothing. Like I was wearing a scarf, a pea coat, one glove (don't ask), a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and ski socks and had a blanket on my lap. I guess my Michigan invulnerability to cold has finally wore off.

The next day we went back to the Getty Villa to check out their new exhibition on the art of Greek theater. More Greek! Parking is $15 (yikes!) but admission to the Villa is free. One important point: You have to get your timed tickets ahead of time. You can't just show up without a ticket or you'll get turned away.

When we walked in, a couple had just started doing what appeared to be an engagement photo shoot. The Getty Gestapo put an end to that real quick.

The museum is dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. I must admit, that I had preconceived ideas of what a museum specializing in antiquities would be - a bunch of broken statues with no noses and boring labels. But I'm happy to report that I was wrong.

Well, mostly wrong.

I mean, come on. Does this statue really need to be here? No head, arms, or legs? A headless armless torso? They really need to put this back in storage.

After seeing all that drama on Saturday night, I was in the mood for some light-hearted comedy. This is supposed to be comedy, but to me this old man looks terrified.

Now we're talking. Hee hee.

Showing someone your ass is always funny, I guess.

The Getty Villa was recently renovated and opened in 2006. It was modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a first-century Roman country house in Herculaneum buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The grounds of the Villa are beautiful. You have views of the Pacific Ocean and paths weave between the gardens, fountains, and statues. Shame it wasn't one of our typically beautiful Southern California days with bright blue skies.

Lots of cool architectural details, like the beautiful floors.

This stunning floor is a replica from the Villa dei Papiri. It is composed of alternating triangles of Numidian yellow and africano or dark gray Lucullan marble.

There were some lovely ladies on display.

This is the head of Julia Titi, taughter of Emperor Titus (ruled A.D. 79-81). Apparently, real jewelry once adorned her head.

This Roman bust is extremely well preserved, especially for being so delicate. Made in 150-160 A.D., it showcases the artist's skill in the three different ways the surface of the marble is finished - textured for the hair, highly polished for the skin, and smooth for the clothing.

Here is the hall of men. I took it as my mission to find the hottest man in the room and the one that hopefully had other redeeming qualities.

This guy must have been quite the looker back in the day. Hot. This is Emperor Caligula.

Wait a sec - the label says that "this idealized portrait bears little resemblance to the negative descriptions provided by Roman writers; it is sculpted in the serene, Classical style favored by his family, the Julio-Claudians." Ugh. How disappointing. He'd totally be one of those "athletic, thick hair, average height" trolls that are on Match.com if he were around today.

This guy seems like a better contender.

Emperor Commodus (180-185 AD) of Gladiator fame. It's such a shame that 80% of my knowledge of the ancient world has come from movies.

You can see how much detail the curatorial staff provides on the labels. It's not just Bust of Man, Marble, 180 A.D. They often provide artistic details about the pieces as well the historical, socioeconomic, or cultural context that each object is embedded in. I find that sort of background so interesting and it really helps me appreciate the object better.

But back to judging the men on their hotness. Not hot.

This is the bust of an old guy from A.D. 90-110 whose features "convey gravitas (dedication to civic duty) and severitas (self-discipline), qualities admired by the Romans." I say they convey fug.

Although the artists did great work with the adults, they weren't too good capturing kids, in my humble opinion.

Like this

reminded me of the tattoos I've seen on the interwebs.

This kid looked a little better, even with the severe bowl haircut

but this one was sort of creepy, with the missing eyes and all.

Let's go back outside to cleanse the visual palette, shall we?

Um, file these under crazy eyed statues...

One highlight was all the stuff about wine - a whole gallery's worth.

Judging by the artifacts they left behind, the Greeks and Romans seem like a fun bunch of people to party with.

Bacchus with his consort Ariadne.

There were lots of "interesting" wine cups on display.

Here we have the "Wine Cup with A Sexual Encounter", about 470 B.C.

Says the helpful label:
"This wine cup depicts a sexual encounter between a young man and a woman who is probably a hetaira (professional entertainer). Complementing the erotic pleasures found at symposia, such scenes frequently decorated vessels designed for use at these parties."

When I think of symposiums, I think of those boring panels at conferences where people stand behind lecterns and try to figure out how to get the Powerpoint to work for 14 minutes. But apparently back in the day they were opportunities to lounge around on couches, get drunk, and have fun with prostitutes. Where did we go wrong?

"Wine Cup with a Satyr", 520-510 B.C. Get your freak on, girl.

Naked young guy with naked older man. Rock on.

This poor guy's had a little too much to drink and is puking all over his staff. But at least he hasn't forgotten to completely walk around with no pants on.

And we have a jug depicting a singing man peeing into a jug held by his naked servant. Because a party ain't a party unless someone's peeing in a red plastic solo cup, or whatever the contemporary equivalent is.

Then it was time to put an end to the frivolity and move on to the warriors.

I loved this piece - "Storage Jar with Two Warriors"

Again the label provides some interesting context: "The composition on this storage jar - an armed warrior on his knees, threatened by the weapon of an attacker - was favored by Greek vase painters. The scene recalls literary accounts of hand-to-hand combat between Greek heroes and their Trojan adversaries in Homer's epic poem The Iliad, which recounts events of the Trojan war."

I'm so glad they brought that up, because my first thought when I saw that jar was the Brad Pitt fight scene from Troy.

I liked this little Roman gladiator guy that might have been carried as a productive amulet in 100-200 A.D.

So cute, yet tough and ready for business.

Beautiful detail on this jar.

Warrior lion takes no prisoners.

Then we found the kids area. Well, the sign said "family" and since we're a family of two adults, we didn't feel the least bit self-conscious about going in and playing.

First step was to make etchings from raised drawings. Fun. We had to hunker down to sit in the small kiddie chairs, but we made it work.

But then something else caught our attention. Using some handy props, you could make cool silhouettes and make poses alongside cutouts of running men and an angel so you'd look like the pottery we'd been staring at. Neat-o.

Like this dad is posing trying to kill his daughter. Hmm.

I had to wait for some other dad to go before it was my turn. He was just holding his baby and sticking it in the silhouette, trying his best not to get in the frame. Super lame. Own it! I had to show these chumps how it was done. I grabbed a Trojan helmet, a shield, and sword and went to town.

As Tyra says on ANTM, it's all about the extension.

Extend!

Pose from your finger tips!

Use the entire space!

Smize!

Ah, good times. Then we drew on pottery, Grecian style.

Here's Mr. Insom's contribution. (Alec is also known as doggy insom)

When we walked back into the galleries, we got a kick out of this piece. It kind of looks like Mr. Insom's masterpiece.

I loved these decorative vials that were used for holding aromatic oils. The detail on this little piece was exquisite. So fragile! This piece of Corinthian pottery was made in 650-640 B.C.

After walking around for a couple of hours, we were starving. My initial plan was to complete our Greek weekend with the LA GreekFest in downtown LA, but we were ravenous. We headed to the cafe before leaving the Villa.

There are tables inside, but the courtyard's where it's at.

He got the Caprese Style Roman Burger - beef steak tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, aioli, balsamic gastrique with a side of garlic fries. It was fantastic - nice and juicy.

I got the Sweet Corn Ravioli - Crispy pancetta, wild arugula, truffle cream sauce. It was good and I enjoyed the pancetta, but I kind of wanted Mr. Insom's burger.

We were both happy with dessert - a sweet bruschetta - grilled sourdough, semi-sweet chocolate, market berries, fresh mint cream. Delicious.

We ate our delicious food outside and gazed at the ocean in the distance.

It was a really fun day - a perfect way to spend time together. The Villa is so much better than the Getty Center, in my humble opinion. I highly recommend a visit!

King of Whales!

2010-08-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

I read a post on Hidden LA (totally recommend that site and their Facebook page, btw) about how Blue Whales have been spotted off the coast of Long Beach and desperately wanted to check for myself. I took Mr. Insom whale watching last year at the end of the California Grey Whale migration and we didn't see a damn thing other than some sea lions perched on a buoy. It was a big fat fail. However, we were on a nice boat with only three other people and we enjoyed being out on the water for a couple of hours, so still was pretty nice. (I'd link that tour, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.)

But I really wanted to see some whales (and if I was lucky, even some dolphins) and the thought of seeing a blue whale was so tantalizing that I was willing to wake up at 8am on a Saturday to do it.

The outfit I chose to get me to the blues was the Blue Whale and Sea Life Cruise at the Long Beach Aquarium. Leaving every day at 11:30 and 3:00, the cruise is 3.5 hours long and gives you views of the harbor, the Queen Mary, and more oil derricks than you can possibly imagine.

The boat is comfy enough - we were sailing on the Christopher. There are bench style seats in the back of the boat and padded seats in the front.

There's a counter for snacks - popcorn, candy, and even beer. lol

You're free to walk around the boat at all times and stand near the railings if you prefer.

In my opinion the best seats are where I was sitting - up at the top of the padded seats in the front, preferably on the side. Like see this woman with the major hardware whose hobby is photographing whales and birds? You want to sit where she is.

Camera lens envy. :( lol

Shots of leaving the harbor. When we started at 11:30am, there was a light marine layer and the skies were gray, but it quickly burned off and we had blue skies for most of the trip. The sea was smooth and calm.

Beautiful island for vacations?

Nope - it's one of the THUMS oil islands disguised to blend in to the surroundings. These are manmade islands that were once owned by several oil companies, but are now under the umbrella of Oxy. They tap into the massive Wilmington Oil Field below most of Ocean Boulevard, downtown Long Beach and the port.

[blog detour: I've become rather interested in the history of and contemporary oil production in the Los Angeles area. I mean, I grew up next to an oil field and currently live blocks away from an oil derrick. I find the coexistence of these things with LA's urbanity so interesting and somewhat sobering. After some research, I'd love to do a blog post on this. Anyway, back to whales!]

The blue whale is the largest mammal and possibly the largest animal period to ever inhabit the earth. How big you ask? Time for some blue whale fun facts!

Blue whales can grow up to 100 feet (~30 m). Lengthwise that's the equivalent of two city buses and longer than an NBA basketball court.
They can weigh up to 200 tons. That's about 8 DC-9 aircrafts or 15 school buses.
In fact, their tongue alone weigh as much as an elephant. About 100 people can fit in a blue whale's mouth.
A blue whale heart is the size of a Mini Cooper and can weigh close to 2,000 pounds (~907 kg). Its heartbeat can be detected from two miles away and a human can easily crawl through its major arteries.
Blue whales can produce sounds louder than a jet engine (188 dB vs. jet engine's 140 dB) and can communicate with other whales up to 1,000 miles away.
A single adult eats about 4 tons of krill (tiny shrimplike animals) a day.
The spray from a blue whale's blowhole is almost as tall as a three-story building (30 feet or 9 m). A toddler can fit into its blowhole.

Wait, is there something on the horizon?

Thar she blows! It's the Balaenoptera musculus!

The blue whale is blue-gray in color, but often with lighter gray mottling on a darker background. So beautiful.

Its dorsal (top) fin is small and triangular or falcate (curved) in shape, and is located three-fourths of the way back on the body.

As baleen whales, blue whales eat krill, little shrimp like creatures, by straining them through series of 260-400 fringed overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw.

We got to see a piece of the baleen (along with a sea lion skull).

In the summer, the blue whales are eating 4 tons of this stuff or more each day. This means it may eat up to 40 million krill. The krill are pink, so guess what color the blue whale poo is?

Yep.

Maybe if you eat this, you'll have pink poo too.

They are fast, strong swimmers, capable of reaching 30 mph (48.3 km/hr) when alarmed, but they usually cruise along at about 12 mph (19.3 km/hr).

The flukes are broad and triangular. The rear edge is smooth with a slight median notch.

Blue whales often travel in pairs and we spent most of the time following a pair (perhaps a mother and offspring).

Look at that spout!

They would do deep dives and raise their impressive flukes and then rest for a bit by swimming just under the surface and coming up for frequent breaths.

Because of their enormous size and speed, blue whales were safe from early whalers, who could not pursue them in open boats with hand harpoons. But in 1868 a Norwegian, Sven Foyn, revolutionized the whaling industry with the invention of the exploding harpoon gun and by using steam and diesel powered factory ships and catcher boats. He also perfected the technique of inflating dead whales with air so they wouldn't sink after being harpooned. The whaling industry began to focus on blue whales after 1900. A single 90-foot blue whale could yield up to 120 barrels of oil, and the blues were killed by the thousands.

When blue whales surface, the ocean changes color slightly - it goes from a deep blue to sort of a greenish color just before they surface. Good for us whale watchers, but bad for the blues when they were being hunted. All hunters had to do was aim and the telltale spot and fire.

The slaughter peaked in 1931 when over 29,000 were killed in one season. After that blue whales became so scarce that the whalers turned to other species and, belatedly, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned all hunting of blue whales in 1966 and gave them worldwide protection. Recovery has been extremely slow, and only in the last few years have there been signs that their numbers may be increasing. Pre-whaling population estimates were over 350,000 blue whales, but up to 99% of blue whales were killed during whaling efforts. Presently, there are an estimated 5-10,000 blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere, and only around 3-4,000 in the Northern Hemisphere.

That's kind of a downer, I know... but it definitely made me more conscious about the things that I personally can do to make the ocean a better place for marine life. Chantal our guide mentioned the pacific garbage patch and how bits of ground up plastic are now replacing seashells on our beaches. I'm definitely more committed to decreasing waste now.

In addition to blue whales, we also saw some fin whales. The fin whale is the second largest whale and is characterized by a prominent dorsal fin.

It's one of the fastest whales and is capable of bursts of speed of up to 23 mph (37 km/hr) leading to its description as the "greyhound of the sea." Once blue whales were off limits, people began hunting these as replacements, so now they're on the endangered species list too and are just a fraction of their original numbers.

We stopped following the whales and headed to the rigs in deeper water to see some Californian Sea Lions.

They like to hang out on this buoy.

I felt bad though, because they got annoyed by our presence and jumped off into the water. Our guide Chantal said they they jump on the buoy and it must be a real pain in the ass to get on that thing.

I got even more unnerved when I saw what we were heading to.

Call me naive or uninformed, but I didn't even know these things were even out here. In light of recent events, I'm praying that they take every possible safety precaution they can.

At any rate, they seem like a cheery bunch.

And like some people have mentioned, these oil rigs can be a safe haven for fish and other marine life. Until something goes horribly wrong, I guess.

Sure enough, the sea lions appeared to be having a fine old time on the platforms.

Uh oh - SHARK!

Just kidding! As we were heading back, we ran into a school of bottlenose dolphins in the harbor. They swam alongside the boat, to the delight of many. They are quick and a bitch to capture with a camera.

We also saw some common dolphins. These weren't as big and were even a bigger bitch to capture with a camera.

I don't know what would be worse - to have a name that insults your physical appearance or one that insults your self esteem. Poor dolphins. But at least they're not on the endangered species list...

Looking through my pictures, I realized that I should have taken some video, as the static image doesn't quite give you the same sense of awe at being in the presence of one of the most magnificent creatures on this earth. I found some on youtube though.

If you live anywhere within a couple hours of Long Beach and you don't get seasick, you really should take a few hours and do this. Time is of the essence! Peak blue whale times are July and August. Mr. Insom was out of town, so he couldn't go with me and I liked it so much I'm thinking of going again so I can take him as well.

Prop 8 Report: Parents Just Don't Understand

2010-08-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

As you might remember, I was pretty involved in the No on 8 campaign, both before the 2008 election and afterward (see ranting blog posts around Nov 2008). I was devastated when it passed and wanted to know what the hell happened and how I could prevent another injustice from taking place.

Last night I attended a briefing on the Prop 8 report. Written by Dave Fleisher, the report is an independent examination of the No on 8/Yes on 8 campaign. Interviews from thirty decision makers/consultants on the No on 8 campaign along with real-time polling and media reveal very interesting insights.

Dave presenting his work...

Why is this still important?

The No on 8 campaign was the biggest effort to fight an anti-gay measure to date.
The No on 8 campaign raised more than $43 million, setting a new, higher standard for what the LGBT community and its allies can accomplish in the face of anti-LGBT attacks.
It is important to learn from our mistakes. Our track record on anti-gay measures isn't too good. 1 win (which was reversed two years later) and 34 losses. It makes perfect sense for the opposition to use the exact same strategy which is why we need to be prepared for the next battle.

Here are some of the common perceptions that were bandied about in the aftermath of the election...

Myth: African Americans that came out in historic numbers to support Obama were responsible for the passage of Prop 8.

Fact: We lost among African-Americans and many other groups. But we lost the most ground during the campaign among parents with kids at home, and among key parts of our base, especially white Democrats, Independents, and Greater Bay Area voters. These are groups where we moved backward. Almost three-quarters of the net movement toward the ban was among parents with kids under 18 living at home. Approximately 500,000 of them moved away from us.

Myth: Too much attention was spent on the major cities - not enough resources were devoted to more rural areas like Fresno and the interior of the state.

Although rural areas would have benefited from more support, the parts of the state that most needed additional attention were those already in our base. The geographic area that had the most voters moving away from same-sex marriage was the Greater Bay Area (San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties). Same-sex marriage lost 31 points in the Greater Bay Area during the campaign - Greater Bay Area voters opposed the ban by 33 points at the beginning, but by only 2 points at the end.

Myth: It was a close race - after all, we lost by only 600,000 votes.

Fact: While we did lose by 600,000 votes (52% to 48%), there was a lot of "wrong way voting." People that were against gay marriage voted No on Prop 8 and vice versa. Because one polling company asked two questions during their polls (i.e., How are you going to vote on Prop 8? Do you support gay marriage?) they were able to measure the extent of wrong way voting. And while both sides had wrong way voting, more people that were opposed to gay marriage had subpar reading comprehension skills (big surprise there). If all voters had correctly understood how to vote to express their opinion on same-sex marriage, Prop 8 would have passed 54% to 46%, by a 1,000,000 vote margin. To reverse the result, we start out 1,000,000 votes behind.

In mid-September both sides were in a dead heat. But between mid-September and election day, approximately 5% of voters—at least 687,000— moved to favor the ban on same-sex marriage. The result was a 10-point swing in favor of the ban.

In the final 6 weeks, the margin between Yes on 8 and No on 8 rose until it peaked on October 22 (happy birthday to me). What made the situation even worse was that absentee ballots started on October 6th and 42% of Californians voted absentee in the 2008 election.

But what accounted for the change? Why did we go from even to being behind?

Remember the Two Princes spot from Yes on 8?

This killed us.

You can actually see the erosion of support for No on Prop 8 (blue line) as the Two Princes ad gains a foothold.

The only ad that managed to stem the hemorrhage and build up support for No on 8 was this ad with Superintendent O'Connell. Around Oct 22 when the O'Connell ad has begun, the blue line begins an upward surge.

Unlike No on 8, the Yes on 8 campaign had a message that was clear and consistent: a pro-gay change is being imposed “whether you like it or not” that poses a real, immediate danger to children.

This chart is hard to see, but it displays the number of Google search results for various Prop 8 messages over time. The search term that was most prevalent was "Prop 8 schools" (blue line) and coincided with the media saturation of the Two Princes campaign. The messages that were indicative of the No on Prop 8 campaign were less prevalent - "Prop 8 Equality" (green), "Prop 8 Discrimination" (red), "Prop 8 Hate" (purple).

This is all that we covered last night, but if you want more information you can check out the report yourself.

Or you can watch this video.

Or if you like, you can come to an in-person briefing on the report by author Dave Fleischer where he'll share data that show why we lost, offer recommendations for how we can do better, and take questions and suggestions from the audience.

Tuesday, August 10th
7:00 - 9:00pm
The Village @ the LA Gay & Lesbian Center
1125 N. McCadden Pl. LA 90038

Hollywood Bowl - Carmen

2010-08-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I finally got to see Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl. He was conducting Bizet's "Carmen" - his American opera debut.

He was in a word, dazzling. I now see what all the fuss is about. His movements were sharp at times and languorous at other moments as he coaxed the music from the orchestra. Most of the audience appeared to be in attendance to see him. He did not disappoint and received the largest ovation. Carmen was cool too.

If you're interested in seeing Dudamel, the Bowl is probably your best bet... He will conduct the LA Philharmonic this week on 8 p.m. Tuesday (Gerswhin and Bernstein) and 8 p.m. Thursday (“Bolero” and other Latin music). $8-$99. (323) 850-2000 or www.hollywoodbowl.com

Doggy Destructo

2010-07-30T11:20:00.001-07:00

An interlude...

Doggy insom loves large stuffed animals. He drags them around, sleeps with them, places them in his mouth and thrashes his head around from side to side... they're his big buddies. But the thing he loves most to do with his big buddies is to rip them apart. Sometimes he'll run upstairs and bark at a closed door. Once opened, he runs inside and grabs his stuffed animal and drags it back downstairs. He loves those things.

His favorite stuffed animal is this large Boxer that we found at Target. Once we saw how much doggy insom loved it, Mr. Insom bought like four of them. Why would he need to buy so many, you ask?

The Boxer starts out like this. Cute, no? We called him Marmaduke.

The first thing to go is Marmaduke's tail. Then the eyes. Then the cheeks. Then an ear. Then doggy insom rips open the mouth or throat and spews stuffing everywhere, digging into the gaping wound to remove clouds of stuffing piece by piece.

To try and keep Marmaduke in commission, Mr. Insom will perform a series of corrective "surgeries". We call them surgeries because the only needle and thread we have in our possession consists of suture kits.

So Mr. Insom will grab a pair of clamps and instead of doing this

Does this

Doggy insom sits at his feet, expectantly awaiting the outcome. At times he will place a concerned paw on Mr. Insom's knee, as if to say, please take heed, doctor.

The results are deemed a success because they close up all the gashes, but create a rather Frankendog appearance. Doggy insom is given Marmaduke again and over time, rips him open again. Mr. Insom takes the injured Marmaduke and stitches him up again, but with each surgery the outcome gets worse and worse. The cycle repeats. Mr. Insom gets frustrated at seeing his handwork ripped apart, but I think it's hilarious.

Here's Marmaduke after repeated surgeries. Yikes.

He basically consists of four legs and a ear. I told Mr. Insom that we should just bring out a new stupid Boxer (I think we have two left), but he insisted could he repair the damage. He's all about rationing the Boxers. lol This didn't even look like a dog anymore.

At any rate, sensing vulnerability (or perhaps making the ultimate play to get a new Boxer), doggy insom went to down on Marmaduke, much to Mr. Insom's chagrin. Poor Marmaduke was on borrowed time and only had three days left.

Time of death, 12:18am.

Grand Performances: The Ring goes Hip Hop

2010-07-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

I love summer in Los Angeles... so many opportunities to hear music outdoors. You have the Hollywood Bowl, the Greek Theater, the Ford Amphitheater if you feel like paying for music, and then you have all sorts of FREE venues where you can enjoy listening under the stars without the dent in your checking account.

My introduction to Grand Performances came under the umbrella of the LA Ring Festival (yes, more Wagner!) To celebrate the LA Opera production of the Ring Cycle, there were dozens of events sponsored by cultural institutions and groups around the city as part of the LA Ring Festival. You could listen to the principal singers discuss the challenges of singing Wagner at the Hammer Museum, ponder the ethics of doing performing Wagner in a multicultural community like Los Angeles, watch the "Light of the Valkyries" planetarium show at the Griffith Observatory, or check out an exhibit at LACMA that explored the myths behind Der Ring.

I decided to attend a performance of Gangsta Wagner by the daKah Hip Hop Orchestra
- a fusion of hip hop and motifs from the Ring Cycle at Grand Performances. I had never heard of Grand Performances, but it is a concert series located at California Plaza in the heart of downtown Los Angeles that "presents free performing arts that reflect the best of global culture and inspire community among the diverse peoples of Los Angeles." Sounds good, no?

Here's what I've learned after going to one concert:

Show up early. This is probably an obvious one, but this place fills up quickly. We got there 10 minutes beforehand, I wound up sitting on a damn planter for the entire evening.
If you get there early, there are lots of different seating options - a sort of amphitheater set up, plastic chairs, or there are always planters.
You can bring food. The food shops at CA Plaza stay open during the concert, but it looked like most people brought there own stuff.
You can bring booze. This probably should have been number one.

So the concert I saw featured Double G (aka Geoff Gallegos, co-founder/conductor/composer) and daKah Hip Hop Orchestra DaKah - was great... the group features youngish musicians of a variety of backgrounds with one main interest - a love of classical and a love of swagger. lol

Gangsta Wagner

And not to disappoint the hip hop heads in attendance, DaKah played a nice selection of more contemporary music. To commemorate the passing of Guru, they played a medley of Gang Star.

I was feeling it. The crowd was feeling it. At various points the fountain behind the performers would shoot out bursts of water which created a really nice effect.

One of my favorite things about this performance was the diversity of the audience goers. Different ages, different races, different interests, families, seniors out on the town, hipsters... it was quite beautiful.

Every once in a while I get that "only in LA" tingle. I got it that night.

I saw Double G at Die Walkure (the second opera in the Ring Cycle) at the Dorothy Chandler the following week and I was able to tell him in person how much I enjoyed the performance. It was cute - he was with his wife and some other people and they were all, "oh - look at that! How nice!" after I left. I probably was the only person in the Founders Circle that recognized him. lol

I totally plan on seeing either the Lula Washington Dance Theater this weekend or Pacha Massive and Non Stop Bhangra. There will even be a 7:30pm Bhangra dance lesson before the show. Aaaaalll riiiiight! Plenty of opportunity to make use of the dance floor they provide. lol

Welcome to JazzReggae Fest!

2010-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Why yes, I'm catching up on old blog posts... lol

Memorial Sunday was spent listening to music. Before I checked out Flight of the Conchords at the Bowl, I went to the UCLA JazzReggae Festival. The festival is held over two days at the Intermural Field on the UCLA campus - students get in free and the tickets are fairly reasonable $26/day for hours and hours of music. Headlining the Jazz or Hip Hop day were Raphael Saddiq and Q-Tip. Previous headliners have been The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Eyrkah Badu, and Jill Scott - basically any of the "conscious hip hop heads"... Young Jeezy, need not apply.

It was hella hot, but nice to see so many folks out and about.

UCLA doesn't typically look like this. lol

This old guy was busting a move.

Lots of places to get food and stands to buy stuff. I ate a chicken patty. Yum.

I caught Foreign Exchange on the stage. They were good. I really should have cropped these pictures, but I'm feeling lazy.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay for any of the headlining performances. Shame. I love Bonita Applebum and Electric Relaxation.

The Reggae day featured Damian Marley and Nas who were performing songs off their recently released album "Distant Relatives".

One of my favorite songs from the duo is Road to Zion

Marley performed "Welcome to Jamrock" - a sure fire crowd pleaser and I overheard them doing their encore performance of Bob's "Could You Be Loved?" while walking Doggy Insom when I returned to UCLA the next day.

I really should have gotten tickets for the Reggae day of the festival. I'm sorry I missed this :(

I guess there's always next year!

Gott damm, it's Rung. :(

2010-07-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

So last week marked the ending of my first Ring cycle. Sadness. My dad and I attended the last opera, Gotterdammerung, the grand finale where everything goes up in a blaze of glory.

It was bittersweet. On the one had I was looking forward to seeing more of Freyer's magnum opus, but on the other hand, I was so sad it was ending. It's been a great run. Because I've been sitting in the same area of the concert hall for each performance, I've seen the same people over and over again. I had lunch with them, chatted during intermission, and by the end of the cycle we were hugging goodbye. It was sweet. Most of my companions are a lot older than me, and I think they think I'm some sort of young protege. lol I even bumped into someone from my alma mater - go figure!

Since I've covered the first three operas in such a nuanced fashion, I figure I should do this last one as well.

Opera 4: Gotterdammerung

Okay, this one is kinda weird.

So it begins with Siegfried and Brunhilde happy and in love. Brunhilde is sort of tamed - she's all, go forth and have adventure, I'll mind the house and have dinner on the table when you come home. The two sing this beautiful and touching duet while holding this cloth as a symbol of their union ("Apart, who shall separate us? Separate, we shall never part!").

Of course this is opera, so you know trouble's a-brewing...

And this guy's the trouble brewer barista.

His name is Hagen and he's the half-brother of Gunther and Gutrune. He's like, I have a great idea! You guys want to get married right? Gunther, you can marry this hottie named Brunhilde and Gutrune, you can marry this guy named Siegfried. One small problem is that they're currently in love with each other, but I can fix that. I'll give Siegfried a magic potion and he'll forget all about Brunhilde and fall in love with Gutrune. And this potion is so amazing that Gunther can make Siegfried hook up him with Brunhilde.

Hagen is like the worst matchmaker ever! But Gunther and Gutrune must be really desperate because they're like, when do we start?

At first Hagen's costume seemed sort of cute - his short fake puppet legs dangle. But as the opera wore on, Hagen started to become this twisted demented image of evil - a tribute to the acting skills of the singer.

But will Siegfried fall for such a dastardly trick? Well, he almost got poisoned in the third opera and it's been well established that he's sort of an idiot. He spent the last opera trying to figure out what the hell fear was, so that gives you an idea of his mental capacity.

As he wanders about searching for adventure, he stumbles into Gunther and Gutrune's house. Poor guy has no clue his life is about to be totally screwed. They give him the potion, he drinks it - apparently ignorant of the lessons learned in various afterschool specials. The potion works - he forgets all about Brunhilde and is totally in love with Gutrune.

Not only that, since Siegfried is the only one that can breach the magic fire to get to Brunhilde, he tells Gunther that he will alter his appearance with a magic hat so that he looks like Gunther. He will take Brunhilde by force, claim her as his wife, and then give her to Gunther
The two pledge a blood oath - slitting their wrists in the process.

Meanwhile, evil Hagen is visited by his dad - none other than Alberich, the dwarf that stole the ring in the first opera and started this whole damn thing. *spoiler alert!* Hagen promises his dad that he'll kill Siegfried. The two are really pleased by this because they are EVIL.

Brunhilde's sister (one of the Valkyries) comes down from Valhalla to warn her of the evil nature of the ring and instructs her throw it in the river to give it back to the Rhinemaidens. Brunhilde's like Oh you don't - Siegfried gave this and it's a token of his love.

Siegfried comes a-knocking disguised as Gunther and wrenches the ring out of poor Brunhilde's hand. He drags her back to Gunther's house.

When Brunhilde is brought the castle, she realizes that the guy who conquered her was in fact Siegfried when she sees him holding the ring. She is PISSED. She's even more pissed when he goes off with Gutrune. She feels betrayed and she accuses him of infidelity. Gunther is upset because his honor has been tarnished.

Hagen's whips up an army of vassals into a blood thirsty rage. He suggests that Siegfried swear an oath that he's never touched Brunhilde, knowing that Siegfried doesn't know what he's doing because he's all drugged up. If he's proven a liar, he dies.

Brunhilde's so pissed that complains to all the vassals and enters into the plot to kill Siegfried with Hagen. She tells evil Hagen that Siegfried can be killed with a stab in the back.

The truth comes to light and armed with the knowledge of Siegfried's Achilles heel, Hagen prepares to strike.

Hagen, Siegfried, and Gunther go hunting. Guess who doesn't make it back from the trip? Hagen stabs Siegfried in the back with a spear and goes about his business.

The death of Siegfried was really moving and has some of the most striking music of the entire cycle. Lots of drama. lol

Gunther is kind of upset by the whole nasty affair and when he raises an objection, Hagen kills him too. So now there are two dead bodies on the stage.

At this point, Brunhilde's like - okay, things are pretty bad now. She starts a funeral pyre and jumps on her trusty horse and rides into the flames, intending to purify the ring with her burnt ashes for the Rhinemaidens. The Rhinemaidens claim the ring, drown evil Hagen, and the entire world is consumed by fire.

Fade to black.

How this is played out in Freyer's opera is that everything comes crashing down. Cutout ravens float away to reveal the prompters cuing the singers. Lighting rigs fall on to the stage and a large spotlights shines out into the audience. Puppet cutouts sail upward, spinning crazily. The entire world that Freyer has created gets destroyed. It was thrilling and my heart was literally pounding with the excitement.

To see this all from the best seats in the house for free has been so amazing and I am completely grateful to my benefactor. :) I can say without hesitation that to date, this has been the most amazing musical experience that I've had in my entire life, even better than this night. And gott damm, do I love this friggin city.

The Ring: 14 hours in 4 minutes

2010-06-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Okay. Let's do this. 14 hours in 4 minutes.

Opera 1: Das Rheingold

The dwarf Alberich starts the whole thing in motion by stealing the gold from the Rhinemaidens. The Rhinemaidens are seductive young beauties and as Alberich flirts with them, one by one they clown him and call him ugly. He gets pissed. When they brag about the gold and tell him that the only way someone can take it is if they renounce love, he's like - sure, why not? It's not like I'm getting in love from you guys. Screw love!

Only problem is that this gold when fashioned into a ring makes the ring holder super powerful. And power is like a drug.

Meanwhile, Wotan, god of everything, has got the two giants Fasolt and Fafner to build Valhalla, his pimped out crib. Once completed, the giants are all - hey give us our payment! You said we could have Fricka's sister! (Fricka is Wotan's wife.)

Wotan's like oh eff - my wife will kill me. His buddy Loge (god of fire) tells him about this ring that Alberich has and the two go down to Niebelheim (land of the dwarfs) to steal it. And they do - remarkably easy, too.

Alberich is pissed and puts a curse on the ring.

Since its gold gave me
measureless might,
now may its magic bring
death to whoever wears it!
...
Whoever possesses it
shall be consumed with care,
and whoever has it not
be gnawed with envy!
Each shall itch
to possess it,
but none in it
shall find pleasure!
...
Thus, in direst distress,
the Niblung blesses
his ring!

Sure enough when Wotan gives the gold/ring to the giants Fasolt and Fafner as payment for services rendered, they start fighting and one of them kills the other. Just like Cain and Abel. Fafner turns himself into a dragon and sits on the gold and ring.

Wotan's like, oh shit. Maybe this curse thing is for real, after all.

Fade to black.

Opera 2: Die Walkure

So this one woman Sieglinde is in this really lousy marriage. Her husband hits her and is all "serve the meal for us men!" One day this hot guy named Siegmund comes knocking at her door and there are instant sparks. Unfortunatley, Siegmund is running away from people who wanted to kill him (red flag #1). Then Sieglinde finds out that the people that are chasing Siegmund are acutally related to her hated husband who now wants to kill Siegmund as well (red flag #2). And then Seligmund finds out that Siegmund is actually her twin brother (red flag #3).

But Wagner is a total romantic, and their love and resulting duet is one of the highlights of the cycle. Placido Domingo at the ripe old age of 67 knocked this out of the park. The half black/white face thing symbolizes their twin nature as well as their half divinity.

Sieglinde points her brother/lover to Notung, his trusty sword that was stuck in a tree by his (her) father Wotan, Excalibur style. Many men have tried to remove the sword, but all have failed. He pulls it out with ease, symbolizing their union. Now he has something to fight the husband with.

Wotan wants to protect his son Siegmund, so he asks his daughter, the fierce warrior Brunhilde of the Valkyries, to lend a helping hand.

But there's trouble. Fricka, Wotan's wife with the crazy long arms, is the goddess of marriage and fidelity. She was like, "uh huh - oh no they didn't! Bitch cheated on her husband and they're twins. This is some Jerry Springer shit, yo! Turn your back on your boy. Don't even think about helping him anymore." Wotan's like, "Fine. Slow your roll." But he's sad about it.

Brunhilde was fully prepared to ride into battle and defend Siegmund. But now her dad Wotan was like, absolutely not. You can't because my wife said it wasn't cool. But Brunhilde knew what her Wotan really wanted, so she helped Siegmund anyway. That's my girl.

Brunhilde helps and tells Siegmund that he must come with her to the saftey of Valhalla, but he doesn't want to leave his love (sister) Sieglinde. Brunhilde is touched and protects Siegmund from the jealous husband's spear.

But you can't go against Wotan. He finds out and he pissed. He breaks Siegmund's sword and vows to punish Brunhilde.

Brunhilde tries to get shelter from her Valkyrie sisters as they ride into battle to pick up fallen heroes. No dice. Loved their costumes and their horses. The figure in the middle is a symbol of Wotan.

Wotan arrives and sentences his brave and fearless daughter who rides with her sisters in battle to the life of a mere mortal. She is to be put to sleep and awakened by the any man that stumbles across her. Her dress changes from black and white to black, white, and red - symbolizing her new found mortality.

She begs forgiveness and explains that she was just trying to do what Wotan really wanted to do deep inside. She wanted to protect Sieglinde and her unborn child. She was touched by the fact that Siegmund didn't want to leave Sieglinde behind when she came to take him to Valhalla.

Wotan relents, and changes his punishment. Instead of being woken up by any man, she will be awoken by a true hero.

Farewell, you bold,
wonderful child!
You, my heart's
holiest pride.
Farewell, farewell, farewell!

If I must reject you
and may not lovingly
greet you again with my greeting,
if you may no longer
ride beside me,
or bring me mead at table;
if I must lose
you whom I loved
you, laughing joy of my eyes:
then a bridal fire
shall burn for you,
as it never burned for any bride!
A blaze of flame
shall burn round the rock;
with devouring terror
let it scare the fainthearted;
let cowards run away
from Brünnhilde's rock!

I'm not going to lie - tears here.

He gets Loge (the devil looking fire man) to encircle her rock with a magic blue fire that can only be broached by someone who knows no fear.

Die Walkure ends. LOVED this one.

Opera 3: Siegfried

This one's kind of like a fairy tale.

Okay, Siegfried is the incestuous child of Siegmund and Sieglinde. He's also the hero.

He's been raised by the dwarf Mime and Mime's basic goal is to get the hero to win back the infamous ring. But he hates Mime and minces no words about it.

Much you've taught me, Mime,
and much I've learned from you;
but what you most sought to teach me
I never succeeded in learning:
how to tolerate you.

Ouch. Total dysfunctional relationship. It gets worse. lol

Siegfried knows that his father had this great sword, but that it got broken. So he decides to forge it again himself, in my favorite male aria. Super catchy with the ho hai!s

Seigfried needs to learn fear, so Mime takes him to the dragon Fafner that is guarding the gold and the ring. He's crafty, that one.

After he conquers the dragon, Mime plans to poison Seigfired so he can have the ring all to himself. Seigfriend kills the dragon/Fafner pretty easily with his fancy new sword/light saber.

After he licks the dragon blood off his hands, he can understand Mime's murderous thoughts. So he kills him too.

Then a bird tells him about a beautiful woman (Brunhilde) guarded by a magic fire that can only be awakened by someone that has no fear.

When he sees her, he is overcome by her beauty. He kisses Brunhilde and she awakens with one of my favorite arias of the entire cycle.

So beautiful. (This is the part when the guys sitting next to me burst out in racking sobs. Tears are one thing - but keep that shiz quiet.)

They sing a love duet and awakened by the love of a woman, Siegfried changes colors. That is quite the consummation.

All is good... for now... lol

LA Opera: Four Gold-en Rings...

2010-06-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

So if you've been anywhere in earshot (IRL or virtual) from me in the past few days, you've heard me ranting and raving about LA Opera's production of the Ring, or if you want to to get technical - Der Ring des Nibelungen. It has turned me into a veritable madwoman.

(Warning: A nuanced, in-depth analysis of all thing Ring and Wagner is clearly beyond me as I'm just a neophyte, so you'll just have to settle for my slightly incoherent ramblings.)

But if you read nothing else, know that regardless of your affinity towards opera, it is worth seeing at least one of these for several reasons.

The plot is really interesting. Like Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? Virtually any comic book? It's all here. You'll see dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods, serpents, warrior women... it's truly epic. It's not your usual love triangle which ends up with a woman sprawled on stage in Act 3 - here the whole shebang goes up in a blaze of glory.
The music is varied and beautiful. You get the Ride of Valkyries (cue Apocalpyse Now helicopters), but you also get beautiful love duets. Check out the beginning of the entire work in Das Rheingold - that E flat minor opening evokes the bottom of the river, the womb, the primordial muck that we all arose from... so primal and beautiful. Then the music rises as you travel from the depths of the murky bottom up through waves until you break through the surface. The best prelude of any opera I've ever heard - amazing how much visual imagery is present in the orchestration.
There's lots of dialogue that is quite witty. Like in Die Walkure when Wotan's wife Fricka is on the warpath and demands an audience with him, his daughter Brunhilde makes a hasty exit saying:

I prefer not to engage
in skirmishes like this,
much as I love bold
men's battles.
So see how you survive the storm
I am glad to leave you in the lurch.

Heh. Funny stuff. Even powerful Brunhilde can't deal with domestic strife.

There are four separate operas that comprise the Ring cycle:

Das Rheingold
Die Walkure
Siegfried
Gotterdammerung

Typically, opera companies will perform one of them during a particular season - they stand on their own perfectly fine. Wagner makes sure to put a little exposition at various points to give folks the background from the previous operas and each tells a coherent story with exciting climaxes.

But if you have the chance to do the entire Ring cycle in a crazy crash course, it does have some benefits. A major one is that it is easier to remember all the motifs or musical themes that Wagner uses to connect the story. So for example, the joyous song praising the gold from the Rhine sung by the Rheinmaidens in Das Rheingold is repeated at the start of Siegfriend (but in a more sinister fashion as the pure Rhine gold has been corrupted into a ring by power-hungry creatures). Another benefit is that it's easier to remember all the complex relationships with the characters. And finally, apparently there are Ring Nuts who travel around the world to watch the entire cycle - having these back to back (to back to back) performances definitely cuts down on travel time.

Now on to the LA Opera rendition... A bit of background - Los Angeles Opera has only been around for 27 years and in order to be mentioned in the same breath as the the Big Kids (i.e., SanFo, New York), Music Director James Conlon felt they needed to put on the entire Ring Cycle. And so began the Herculean effort.

They brought on director Achim Freyer who is a modernist influenced by Brecht (I tried to read some more info about him, but couldn't understand a damn thing). The production is, well, a little "out there." lol Think Salvador Dali meets George Lucas meets Jim Henson.

At first I was worried about having a totally avant-garde production as my introduction to the Ring, but after watching the first two operas, I fully get Freyer's world. Not only do I get it, I want to strap on a papier-mache puppet head and cavort on stage with a bullwhip and a ball gag in the blue spectral light.

There's something so fantastically beautiful and other worldly about it. It looks like a surreal painting. Many of the costumes are tricky to move, so singers often deliver their lines with only arm gestures. A large scrim is placed over the stage (occasionally projections are placed on it) but it gives the performance a sort of uni-dimensional quality that makes it even look more like art.

It's amazing that the singers were able to give such nuanced performances wearing such outlandish costumes (designed by the director and his daughter).

Aberlich, the catalyst of the story who steals gold to make the eponymous ring from the Rhinemaidens after renouncing love, wears a large dwarf head that completely covers his face.

Fricka, wife of Wotan (the sort of head Zeus god) has eerily outstretched arms with light-up hands. She's the god of marriage and home and hearth, so maybe the arms are supposed to symbolize her nuturing nature. Or maybe it represents her far-ranging reach into the lives of everyone on stage (she gets Wotan to turn his back on his children).

Wotan has black facepaint on for most of the operas and wears a metal cage around his head. His disembodied eye that he sacrificed to marry Fricka lights up and is positioned at different places on the stage - on the bottom corner, on top in the rafters, etc.

Loge, god of fire, and someone whose crafty ways led conductor James Conlon to term "the first lawyer" looks like a devil. With four arms.

I don't know if I'm my way to Ring Nut status, but I am sort of wondering what it would be like to see a more traditional staging of the work... I'm not quite ready to go the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, but a quick google search has informed me that a certain opera company in a certain large metropolitan city that I'm intimately familiar with is going to be doing Das Rheingold and Die Walkure during their 2010-2011 year... Sounds like a date. :)

Anywho... more to follow!

Two lumps, Please: Flight of the Conchords @ the Hollywood Bowl

2010-06-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

After hanging out for a couple of hours at the UCLA Jazz/Reggae Festival, I was whisked off to the Hollywood Bowl by Mr. Insom for concert #2 of the day - Flight of the Conchords.

Pulling into the parking lot, I was handed a white piece of paper that specified all of the things we were not allowed to bring in upon pain of death and dismemberment: cameras, recording devices, umbrellas, blah blah blah, alcohol (?!), glass bottles (?!!!). I was beyond pissed. One of the best things about the Hollywood Bowl is sitting outside with a bottle of wine and drinking. How dare they try and take that away from me! Besides, I had already selected a perfect bottle for the evening - Les Jeunes Rose, a Grenache/Mourvedre blend from Curt Schalchlin, the young owner and only employee of Sans Liege Wines. Sans Liege is in its second vintage and does small batches (as few as 200 cases for some varietals) and I'm totally going to become a club member.

It's okay, said Mr. Insom, we can just buy a bottle. What?! Hellz no. I wasn't about to let something like a stupid piece of paper prevent me from my perfect summer evening wine so I could shell out $30 for a bottle of Yellow Tail. I headed to the Hollywood Bowl store to look for a container I could transfer my wine into. Found a coffee mug. Price: $15.00 Yikes. And only enough room for about two glasses. Nuts. Looked around some more. Saw something behind the counter... "Hey could I see that sports bottle?" I examined it closely. It looked big enough. Definitely not glass. Turned it over and saw the $3.00 price tag. I broke out into a grin. The guy behind the counter saw me inspecting the bottle.

"Are you thinking of putting a bottle of wine in there?"
"Of course not - that's against the rules." I'm no dummy, dude.
"Well, if you were, it would fit."
"How interesting. Good thing I'm not."

I pay and make a beeline for the exit. A woman sees me leaving the store and asks me where I got the sports bottle from. I point the way, adding that it was only 3 bucks and it fits a whole bottle of wine. Her eyes light up and she gestures frantically to her buddy. I rinse out the bottle, and walk back to the car to christen my sports bottle.

Victory.

Okay, now that I got my wine adventures out of the way, let's talk about the show.

What can be said about Flight of the Conchords, that hasn't been said already? They're from New Zealand. They sing funny songs. They have regular band meetings with their manager Murray. They are beloved by white people. This performance at the Hollywood Bowl wrapped up their spring tour that traveled through Europe and the United States. I was impressed that they were even going to be at the Bowl - it seats over 17,500 - but they had a nearly sold out house. Lots of "Mels". Heh heh.

We had to get their early to pick up our tickets. It was nice to eat a leisurely meal and hang out in our seats as opposed to rushing like we always do and trying to eat quietly during the performance. lol Plus, we had time to check out our fellow audience members. Mr. Insomniac spotted Timothy Olyphant, who is starring in the new FX drama Justified. It's pretty good and he's pretty hot in it. I give the show mega bonus points because Walter Goggins of FX's retired The Shield is also part of the cast and I am a huge fan. Anywho, here he is. You'll have to take my word for it.

I got a kick at how sparse the stage was. Just some stools, mic stands, and some odds and ends in the cavernous band shell of the Bowl.

I was so disappointed when the guys decided to leave HBO after only two seasons of their Emmy nominated show. Watching them sing on stage is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I like the fly dance moves, their charmingly realistic apartment, the supporting cast (Murray!), and their wardrobe. I regret not showing up in one of these numbers.

I think they were really able to flesh out their characters through the HBO show. The guy sitting next to me who was "in the business" (who isn't in this town?) said that HBO had offered them the chance to come back whenever they want in whatever format they wish. I can see how writing 12 30-minute episodes and original songs can be pretty demanding - so here's hoping they find room to do a one hour special or something.

They opened with the Robots - one of my favorite songs! - and Jemaine embedded a nice Ahnold Schwarzenegger impression for a cool California touch. Sparing no expense, they were accompanied on most of their songs by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, which actually consisted of a lone cellist named Nigel.

The set list:

1. Robots
2. The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)
3. Hurt Feelings (Tears of a Rapper)
4. If You're Into It
5. Albi
6. Jenny
7. Korean Karaoke (Oh, Dance, Baby)
8. 1353 (Woo Song)
9. You Don't Love Me Anymore
10. Think About It
11. Business Time
12. Song for Epileptic Dogs
13. Inner City Pressure
14. I'm Not Crying
15. Boom!
16. Back On The Road
17. Bowie
18. Demon Woman
Encore:
19. Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor / Rock the Party
20. Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros
21. We're Both in Love With a Sexy Lady
22. Sugalumps (Ballad version)

In between their songs, they did their adorable little patter.

Was this person filming in high def? Sheesh. Crowd participation gone wrong (but oh so right) during the Epileptic Dogs

Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor/ Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros / We're Both in Love With a Sexy Lady / Sugalumps (Ballad bump 'n grind loverboy version)

For the encore performance of Suga(r) Lumps Bret and Jemaine danced along the pool circle of the bowl and hung out in the audience.

See how awesome and exciting it was from my typically horrible iphone Hollywood Bowl pics?

Now here's a video from robotronik:

Can I just say that we received strict instructions not to bring in any cameras? lol How do these people do it? I love how from the moment the concert starts you see the LCD screens of tons of people's digital cameras. I guess I was more concerned about sneaking in my booze than picture taking.

All in all, great time. I bought this t-shirt. :)

When you wish upon a star...

2010-05-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

Everyone has dreams as a kid. Some dream of fame. Some dream of riches. Well, I dreamed about eating at restaurants.

And in particular, I dreamed about eating at this restaurant.

Anyone recognize it?

Here's a hint.

Here's the last hint.

Yep - it's that restaurant located inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland - the Blue Bayou. When I was a kid, I would get on the Pirates of Caribbean ride exclusively to see a flash of the really cool restaurant that seemed filled with sophisticated adults doing sophisticated things. Well, I also got on the ride so I could make plans to grab some of the glittering treasure, but that's neither here nor there. The best part of the ride was seeing a glimpse of this restaurant and imagining how amazing it would be to make my own visit. During the Southern California two-fer deal where a ticket to one park got you a free ticket to the other neighboring park, I knew my moment had finally arrived.

Our reservation was at 11:30am and that was the time we pulled into the parking lot. Not good. I had called the restaurant and pushed back our reservation to 11:45, but that meant we still had to hop on the stupid parking tram, wait in line for tickets, and maneuver through strollers to get to the restaurant. Lord. We stepped onto the escalator that would take us from the Donald Duck parking structure down to the tram. It was packed with families and so I was in for a long slow ride down to the ground. No way to push past these people. If our reservation was canceled, my Disney dream would be ruined AND I would be out the $194 it cost for our park tickets. I moaned to Mr. Insomniac that I hated Disneyland already.

But through the grace of Walt himself, we made it just in time. I even was so bold as to request one of the coveted water view seats once we got to the restaurant.

Next door to the Blue Bayou is the uber-exclusive Club 33. Club 33 is a members only club/restaurant located in New Orleans Square at Disneyland marked only by an inconspicuous 33. I read somewhere on the internet that Disney’s imagineers scoured the color spectrum and discovered the shades least noticeable to the human eye. The color that they painted the door with ranks the highest and they call it “No-See-Um Green". Sneaky.

The restaurant offers the best dining in the park and is only place were people can get alcohol. Apparently, membership is rather pricey ($thousands) and there's a 14 year waiting list so my best chance to get into this place is be invited. I won't hold my breath. lol A rather exhaustive fan site will tell you everything you need to know about the place.

These people stepped up to the door while I was doing goofy poses.

And lo and behold, they were let inside! I strained my neck for a look up the magical hallway, but didn't see anything. Dang.

Oh well - At least I had a seat at the second-most exclusive restaurant at Disneyland. If you want to go here, make sure you make reservations, or else you'll end up like these guys.

And before I knew it, we were seated at our table.

The vibe was relaxed and romantic. Disneyland can do a great job with their faux environments, and this was no exception. I knew I was in a large windowless room, but it didn't feel like it at all. It felt like I was dining alfresco in a romantic courtyard on the bayou on a summer night without the pesky mosquitoes. There was a pleasant hustle and bustle, but nothing too loud and there was definitely a more adult vibe in the space. The dim lighting made for crappy pictures, but a très romantique lunch with Mr. Insom.

It didn't even feel like I was at Disneyland, which is probably the largest compliment I could give. It was like I was on vacation (from my vacation)... lol

Our waiter was incredibly attentive, and provided great service. Warm bread for the table...

Both entrees came with a choice of New Orleans gumbo or "cajun-inspired" salad.

The salad was surprisingly good - very fresh tasting with lots of layered flavors. I didn't get the cajun inspiration, but it was tasty.

I'm real picky about my gumbo. This one was just so-so.

I had the Royal Street Seafood Jambalaya, a "robust combination of jumbo gulf shrimp, mahi mahi, tasso ham, andouille sausage and chicken, tossed with Cajun~style 'dirty rice'" for $29. You pay a lot for the ambiance here, but the food isn't bad either. The jambalaya had a nice heat to it. Not for little kiddy mouths - no sir!

Mr. Insom had the Beef Short Rib ($30) which was slow-roasted, then finished in a Zinfandel demi~glaze. Sides were a some sort of yummy potato gratin and broccolini. Nice and tender.

And there was a special birthday candle for Mr. Insom on his iced tea. No, it wasn't his birthday. I sort of lied and said it was, so they would get a sense that it was a special occasion but not have to go into the whole "Since I was a little girl I wanted to eat here but my mom was a single mother and something like this would have never fit into our budget and I'm just trying to make this dream a reality after waiting for 25 years" saga.

The meal ended with a complimentary chocolate mousse with little Mickey Mouse sprinkles. I was kind of guilty eating this, but felt that if Walt had known how important this meal was to me, he'd be totally cool with it. Oh, and the mousse was really good.

A wonderful time - and so awesome to finally have my one of my dream meals! I wish I could have stayed in there all day.

Now that my bucket list lunch was over, we had the entire park at our disposal.

Here's what we did.

Ride 1: We used the way cool Easy Pass to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Nothing better than whooshing past suckers standing in line. The ride was fun. Yay Disney!

Ride 2: We then stood in line like suckers for 90 minutes to go on the new (to me) Indiana Adventures ride.

When you're a kid and you wait forever for a ride, when you're done you're like "that was totally worth it!" because you're on this endorphin/adrenaline high. That's not the case when you're an adult. I declared that the ride was "bullshit" and that I was done waiting in lines. Boo Disney!

So we walked around and looked at things.

Ride 3: Pirates had a short line, so we went on that. And I got to snap a picture of the Blue Bayou from the boat.

I ate a churro. Of course.

We watched pin traders. Pin trading is a real big deal at Disneyland... there are all sorts of collectors who are really into it. They had all their pins in these big binders.

I saw Mickey get double teamed.

I took a picture of people setting up camp for the fireworks that were at least 3.5 hours from starting.

We listened to Fake Elvis sing songs to people who were really, really into it. Rushing the stage? Really?

I ate chili in a bowl that wasn't too good.

Ride 4. The Haunted Mansion was always one of my favorites as a kid... had to check it out. And it had a short line.

It's a shame that Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion movie was so terrible - Disney could have had another Pirate franchise on their hands. What were they thinking?

I miss Boomerang Eddie.

I ate a corn dog that was awesome at the Stage Door Cafe.

I ate chicken fingers that made me kick myself for canceling the Napa Rose reservations I had.

Looked at the fireworks...

We spent some time on Main Street.

I went and watched some of the first Disney cartoons. They were cute and they made me chuckle.

Walt Disney had an apartment above the fire station near City Hall. Disney would hang out in the apartment during the construction of the park so he wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Holmby Hills and legend has it that staff would look in the window to see if a light was on and Walt was home. Now it's on all the time to symbolize Disney's eternal spirit.

Here's a link showing the inside of the apartment and Walt's contemporary modern decor.

The shopkeepers displayed on the second story windows on Main Street are actually super-duper Disney employees. Way to go, Hideo!

And leave it to me to find a museum in Disneyland. It was interesting though. lol You know that Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln thing on Main Street that no one ever goes into? That's where it is.

Ride 5. Around 11pm Mr. Insom decided he wanted to Critter County. Alrighty. The line to Splash Mountain was really short - really, really short, so we were like, let's do it! Go, short lines! Splash Mountain is also known in some circles as "Flash Mountain" because some adventurous women who don't plan to ever run for public office like to show Disney employees their breasts during the large final downhill section with the automatic photo op. A simple google search will bring up the NSFW link with the bewbs, and this SFW link talks about how Disney's cutbacks may contribute to the return of Flash Mountain. Uh oh.

We practically walked up to the ride and waited for a couple of minutes before we were assigned a log. Now this is where I made a critical error. I assumed that people would be in the front of the log and we'd be in the back. This was not the case. We were by ourselves. I was fully exposed. And then I started thinking. Splash Mountain... Might I get wet? Like really wet?.... Hey - maybe the line was so short because people didn't want to get soaked at midnight. And then I started panicking. I didn't want my clothes drenched. And just where was this hill?

My Flash Mountain moment.

Note Mr. Insom taking full advantage of my protection.

I ate a cupcake on the way to the car to distract me from my wet clothes.

All in all, a great time at the Happiest Place on Earth (TM), even though we only went on 5 rides in 11 hours.

Now I'm going to use my two-fer pass to go to California Adventure during their Food/Wine Festival. After a few wine tastings, I'll definitely be happy. :)

Spectating at the Lakers Game

2010-04-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

Warning: this is going to be the most trivial and inane Lakers post ever written, so if you want an actual factual account of the game, you can go here. If you want pictures of celebs and stupid Laker girl outfits, then by all means proceed.

We had some guests in from out of town, so Mr. Insom scored some Lakers playoff tickets. Yay!

Example of my basketball ignorance...

Me: Who's that idiot on the ticket?
Mr. Insomniac: An obscure player. You might have heard of him - Magic Johnson.
Me: Oh... right.

Weezermonkey helpfully provided a recommendation to Corkbar for a pre-Lakers meal which looked awesome, but we got there too late (surprise, surprise) and had to settle for The Farm of Beverly Hills at the closer LA Live. I enjoyed my burger, though.

This was only my third Laker game, and my second one at the Staples Center, so that was cool.

I'm not a fan of basketball. It moves so fast, I can't tell what's going on. People are jumping around, they run here, they run there... I lose interest. It's the oddest thing. Meanwhile, people are totally in it. They're yelling at the refs, waving around rally towels, standing up... I honestly couldn't care at all. I had a complete disinterest. It was so strange - the more people got excited, the less excited I got.

What I am into though, is sending bragging texts to my family members. The one to my dad went something like "I'm at the Lakers sucka!!!!!!!!!!" That was pretty sweet. I told Mr. Insom that he needn't give me any more Lakers tickets, as they are totally wasted on me. He agreed. lol

So what do I when other people are watching the game?

I chatted with our friends and waited for those candid shots of people dancing wearing Laker gear on the jumbo-tron and watched the Kissing Cam. I love the kissing cam. Very entertaining.

My other past time is locating and photographing celebs, paparazzi style. It's like birdwatching, but with people. lol

First we looked for the easy target. There he was, Jack Nicholson.

Then things got more challenging - the next one we found was Julia Louis-Dryfus.

We saw Charlize Theron who I apparently see all around town.

We found that 90210 girl during halftime.

And I saw Common as well. He's cute.

Kid rock was across from us under the basket wearing a black ski hat because it's super cold in the Staples Center. He got put on the jumbo-tron.

Adam Levine of Maroon 5 was in the corner.

And somewhere were David Beckham (dang), Andy Garcia, and David Spade, but we missed them.

The game was pretty tight all the way through. Very suspenseful for people that weren't me. I practiced my sports photography. Obviously, I need more work.

Everytime I see Ron Artest I think of his fight with Ben Wallace and Detroit fans. People in Michigan talked about that for weeks. lol

When Kobe was at the free throw line, everyone would chant "MVP! MVP!"

"MVP! MVP!"

Until he missed a shot. lol

The Laker Girls started off wearing these traditional outfits. Cute.

Then at some point during the first half they changed into these monstrosities. Poor girls.

Their socks and shoes were really white. They kinda looked like those scrunch slouch socks the Hooters Girls wear. Then they put on sparking purple outfits that are still on my SD card at home. Oops. I'll add them later.

But the most exciting moment by far was the halftime. Craig Calloway fricking nailed a half court shot to the tune of $235,000. The entire audience leapt to their feet and cheered their hearts out. It was amazing.

The Lakers won and pretty streamers shot out.

After I snapped this picture, these two idiots chastized me for taking a picture of someone who was drunk or something. They said, "you shouldn't take a picture of that." I said that I didn't know what they were talking about. Then they wanted me to take a picture of them. I said sure. You see how stupid they look? They were even stupider in real life.

And that's how I totally squandered my last Laker game. :)

Birding at the Ballona Wetlands

2010-04-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning my friend Ionic and I headed to the Ballona Wetlands to take a tour of the freshwater marsh.

The Ballona Wetlands is one of the last significant wetlands in Los Angeles county and is a veritable oasis for countless wildlife and Anglenos weary of the urban grind. The marsh is located on Lincoln and Jefferson, and is surrounded by the communities of Westchester, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, and Culver City.

The marsh has a public trail and is open from dawn to dusk. Guided tours are given every second and fourth Saturday of each month from 10am - 11am by volunteers of the Friends of Ballona Wetlands.

Hundreds of years ago, this particular area of Los Angeles consisted of sand dunes and marshy water that flowed out to Santa Monica Bay. Indigenous Americans lived in harmony with the land and all was good. Not surprisingly, in the past 200 years, we've managed to take a thriving piece of the planet and royally eff it up. We need beachfront condos, after all.

Over 900 acres of the wetlands were destroyed to make Marina del Rey, the world’s largest boat basin, and its shopping centers and high-rise condos. Playa Vista also took a good chunk of wetlands.

Then some genius thought it would be really cool to put up these ugly McMansion subdivisions in Westchester.

The current 600 acres of wetlands are 25% of the original size, but are now fortunately under government protection and owned by the state.

Here are some of the reasons why wetlands are so important:

They provide a rest stop for migrating birds, some that make the arduous journey from the southern tip of South America to Northern Alaska.
They protect young fish from predators and the open ocean
They filter groundwater.
They serve as a flood barrier
They purify the air.
They are an educational resource and valuable open natural space for the community.

Even though the freshwater marsh is located next to a busy street, when you get closer inside, the main thing you hear is a cacophony of bird calls. And gloriously, there aren't many people around. We must have seen only a dozen people on the trail during our time there. This is my new favorite spot to get away from the congestion of the city.

There is beauty everywhere.

We listened to the beginning of the tour as our guide discussed the history of the Ballona Wetlands, but broke away on our own to do some bird watching.

Hundreds species of birds have been identified at the Wetlands, and a reported 50 species have nested there. People come from all over to check out the birds...

Ionic took a biology class in college that focused on bird watching and it's one of her hobbies. I'm happy to come along and try my best to shoot pictures of my fine feathered friends. It's also much easier to come with her than to be on my own because she can identify many species on the spot, while I'd have to page through Peterson's for 10 minutes.

The Common Moorhen was probably my favorite bird - it had a striking red bill and beautiful colors.

A fellow birdwatcher helped us identify the moorhen. We're actually toying with the idea of starting a meetup group to get some more people out birdwatching... :)

The Common Grackle has a really annoying call. Every time I saw it, I'd say "release the grackle!!" It never got old. lol

It was really hard to take this American Coot's picture as it kept diving underwater to eat whatever the hell it eats. It was cute.

We saw two hummingbirds, but this is the one that we were kinda sure on the identification...
Rufous Hummingbird

The Canadian goose flies really fast. Hence the blur.

This is probably my best shot of the day. The Double crusted Cormorant was very close to us, and it wasn't going anywhere. Why?

Because it was busy turning on the charm for this lady cormorant. It was slowly flapping his wings and doing a fine looking mating ritual. I felt like one of those National Geographic photographers... lol

That feeling quickly subsided however, when I failed to get a picture of this Killdeer.

I've always loved the Red-winged Blackbird. An elegant black with the perfect splash of color.

Yes, Mallards are everywhere, but I still think they're neat. When I was a kid, my mom used to take my brother and me to a park and we would feed oats to them.

A rather shoddy picture of a Ruddy Duck...

If you've been clicking on the links and seeing the pro images, you're probably thinking that my versions are somewhat lacking. lol Well,Terry Sohl's ruddy duck was taken with a Canon 20D, 400 5.6L, so if anyone's looking for gifts for my birthday... or maybe if I put ads on my blog I can afford one in 1,000 years. But until I pluck down the $1,700, I am (you are) just going to have to make due with my crappy pics. :)

We weren't sure about this bird, but our best guess was a Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

This was another one that was hard to determine - we thought it was a Viero. I suppose I should have mentioned that Ionic had a basic pair of binoculars that cost $10 and I had a zoom lens. We're not the most fancy birders... lol

We saw two Shorebirds.

The birds we saw looked like the ones in the linked picture, but the picture doesn't specify what type of shorebirds they are. I like how that website stresses that shorebirds "are among the most difficult birds to identify. Some species are quite similar to other species." We gave up after trying to match the beak shape, legs, back, chest, tail, with dozens of birds.

Great Egret - Imagine how awesome this picture would have been if the egret was actually in focus... lol I loved this bird's graceful neck and in flight they are a thing of beauty. They're also easy to spot as they were only birds that were stark against the landscape.

Snowy Egret

I did take one of these, but it was really sucky and I'm too tired to dig through the images to try and find it. You'll have to trust me.

Pied-Billed Grebe If you look closely, you can see the pied-billed grebe in the bird group shot at the end of this post...

Something that looked like some sort of goose, but never moved and we never got a clear view... I'm counting it anyway. lol

Other birds that we saw that I couldn't get a picture of:

and even the grandest of them all, a Great Blue Heron. I was bummed I didn't get a shot of it - all I saw was a large blue gray streak flying across the water.

So in total, we identified 24 species of birds in less than two hours. And even better, we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to do it!

It's amazing and inspiring to see that even after two hundred years of human impact, when wildlife are provided with a safe and sheltered space, they will use it and thrive.

(Can you see the Pied-Billed Grebe?)

If you're interested in doing some birding at the Ballona Wetlands, here are some websites you might find useful:

LA Marathon: Running Down A Dream

2010-03-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Yay! Sunday was the Los Angeles Marathon... :)

I'm a huge fan of marathons - mostly because they remind me of my mother. She's run 10 marathons around the country (LA, Long Beach, San Francisco, Chicago, New York) and there's nothing I love more than cheering her on. I find it so inspiring.

Unlike previous years where the course just makes a big circle around downtown LA, this year the marathon went from Downtown LA @ Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica, traveling through many popular communities, as the "Stadium to the Sea" route.

My plan was to watch the elite runners go by Beverly Hills at mile 16, and then watch the regular folk wheeze their way along further down the course.

So that entailed me getting up super early at like 8:30. On a Sunday. (shudders). There's like no one up that hour. The streets were deserted.

Via Rodeo.

Rodeo.

Along the course were dozens of bands and cheer stations. Mile 18 had a cheer alley - a cheerleading competition judged by Cheer LA. Playing at Wilshire and Rodeo in front of Bvlgari was Red Light Cinema. There wasn't a lot of (okay, any) people around this early in the race, but I'm sure that later on they were playing to a packed street.

Niketown had their own little cheer party going on. You could make signs...

... grab pseudo-cow bells

... or groove to the sounds of the Black Eyed Peas from the resident DJ.

Or if you are a tad more adventurous, you could have volunteered to be one of the Nike green people.

Folks began arriving with chairs, balloons, and signs to stake out places along the route.

I took the opportunity to do some window shopping...

I got a kick out of Barney's marathon-themed window display... someone should totally run in a Bottega Veneta gown next year.

And of course there were plenty of cute dogs in attendance.

Love this little guy.

When I arrived, the wheelchair racers were finishing up.

I waited for a while for the elite runners. I thought I had missed them because I couldn't wake up at the time I wanted and had to huff and puff my way to the race course. When we saw the helicopters hovering in the sky, we knew they were coming soon.

Here comes the women's pace car!

And there they go. Amazing. Honestly, I don't think I could run as fast as them if I started sprinting along the route with them. And they've been running for an hour and a half!

The men came next... I shot some video of them doing their thing.

The winner Wesley Korir is near the front of the pack in the orange jersey.

I found this great article about him detailing his early "training" in Kenya (e.g., running 5 miles to school before the bell rang and he got in trouble), his life in Louisville, and being exposed to tribal violence on a trip back to Kenya.

After the elite runners had passed, I went back home and got all my stuff together for my real spectating. I know a thing or two about Marathon spectating. lol I always like to station myself somewhere between miles 20-22 (aka The Wall). I borrowed a ipod boom box from my mom and a folding chair. I packed a backpack with drinks, food, snacks, noisemakers, and my camera. I carried balloons. And I made signs. Oh the signs.

I had inspirational.

I had funny.

I had colorful and artistic courtesy of Mr. Insom.

The night before I had perfected my Marathon ipod playlist:

"Gonna Fly Now" (Theme from Rocky)
"The Final Countdown" (another cheesy rock song, popularized by the awesome Gob in Arrested Development)

"Eye of the Tiger" (of course)
"I Love L.A."
"Let it Rock" (a new addition which worked out smashingly)
"Dancing Machine", Jackson 5 (this song allowed me to bust out my fly dance moves)
"Crazy", Gnarles Barkley (which is a catchy, upbeat song but I realized the chorus probably didn't work so well - especially the part that goes "I think you're crazy, maybe you're crazy" lol).

Once I got sick of those songs I added James Brown's "I Feel Good", and the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There".

I was ready.

I met my cheerleading partner, AJKnightfan at the VA just after mile 20. She had brought along a chair, a cooler, and her adorable dog Vega. We set up camp and cheered our hearts out, ipod speakers blaring. The weather was perfect - overcast and not too hot/sunny - I didn't even need the baseball cap I had packed. :)

I had a great time. The runners loved our signs - many took pictures of us or posed next to our signs. The "Pain is temporary, Pride is Forever" was especially popular, as was the "If it was Easy, I'd do it!" They enjoyed the music - lifting up their arms in Rocky tributes, encircling their eyes during Eye of the Tiger, singing along to the Staples Singers, high-fiving us, thanking us for being out there, or just smiling.

I loved these guys. On the front of their t-shirts it said "Steven: The Son" and "Richard: The Father" ...

And on the back it said this...

Some people were having a real rough time, though. This guy spent a good 10-15 minutes lying down on the grass in major pain. A police officer checked on him to make sure he was okay.

I totally had to get a picture of anyone wearing Michigan gear. :)

And there's always someone in an outlandish costume. I saw Marilyn Monroe and Stitch, and this guy that really likes Fed Ex for some reason.

Of the 25,000 people who entered, 242,348 finished. Not bad! Wesley Korir had the fastest time (2:09:19) and received $25,000 for being the top male, but since Edna Kiplagat managed to cross the finish line first (women are given an 18 minute head start), she received the $100,000 Battle of the Sexes bonus. Last year Wesley won the Battle of the Sexes, so it's all good... lol

I was happy for Wesley - he won last year and he's the first back-to-back winner in eight years. And he had just gotten married a couple of days earlier to a former teammate on the University of Louisville track team.

I loved one of his comments at the end of the race... "I really loved the course; it was amazing. I couldn't believe I was running through Beverly Hills and someone was screaming my name. Somebody knew me in Beverly Hills!"

I wished that he was talking about me. :)

PaleyFest #2: Live action Curb Your Enthusiasm

2010-03-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

NSFW warning: Assume all Curb Your Enthusiasm Clips have adult language

Sunday night marked the last of my PaleyFest panels. (sniff) Honestly, I feel as though I should be getting a special certificate of merit in Television Viewing after all of this.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was the final panel and the evening opened with a series of favorite clips from the show. We saw Crazy Eyez Killa in all his glory, Cheryl escaping a car stuck in a car wash, Larry eating the animal cracker baby Jesus, Vivica Fox cussing out Suzy and slamming a door in her face, Larry clubbing a black swan, Larry picking up a prostitute so he could use the carpool lane, Leon having a discussion with Kramer... One of the largest laughs was from the ski lift scene.

On the stage were Richard Lewis, Cheryl Hines, Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, and Bob Einstein (Marty Funkhouser).

Curb Your Enthusiasm began as a HBO special that showcased the behind the scenes life of Larry David as he prepared for a stand-up show after a 10 year absence from the stage. Larry realized that his actual life was pretty boring, so he concocted a fake wife and manager. Because it was supposed to be a documentary, it had to be improv, he explained. Besides, Larry added, he hated the idea of memorizing lines and he once took an improv class and it seemed like fun. And with that, Curb was born.

Noticing that the show montage looked good on the large PaleyFest screen, the moderator's first question was if there was any talk about a Curb Your Enthusiasm movie. Larry's response: No, nada. I don't think so. No plans.

Okaaaaayyyy... Later on in the evening, we got a more receptive response about the possibility of a eight season - "pretty good chance... working on some stuff." Any changes in store for the show? "Zero. No change. They're going to be more annoying, more obnoxious."

Next up was a moderator question about whether or not the Seinfeld arc would be repeated in a future season. I cringed, knowing that this question wouldn't go over so well. lol I also didn't like the Seinfeld season too much - in fact, my favorite episode last season was the one country club that barely featured the Seinfeld crew where Larry kills the black swan with a 9 iron. But yeah - the question didn't go over well and Larry said that there will be no more references to Seinfeld, no more reunions, and that Seinfeld questions were not appropriate tonight. He was sort of joking, but I knew he was actually serious. lol

In replying to the "How'd you get on the show?" question, Bob innocently replies that he knows Seinfeld, which brought the house down.

Cheryl admits that at first, she didn't think she was right for the part (Larry: Why, too pretty? Cue audience laughter.) because of the age difference.

Her agent told her to just show up - "maybe there's a role for a waitress or something" - but Cheryl liked Larry immediately and the two clicked. At the time of her audition, she was a personal assistant for Rob Reiner and when they asked her at the audition to stay to run through a couple more scenes, she was concerned about picking up his laundry. A mere four hours later, she had the part, which is virtually unheard of in Hollywoodland. Apparently, they were looking for an unknown and they liked how she was "sassy" in her audition. Now that she's been on Curb for a while, she's shocked at how actors work outside of the Curb universe. Everyone talks about everything, everyone has a process, and they're very serious about what they're doing - from why they're wearing high heels, to why they're walking down a sidewalk. ou have to stop yourself from ad-libbing

Richard Lewis has known Larry since he was 14 years old and describes their two minute meeting that began their time on Curb together.

Larry: We should work together. What do you think?
Richard: Fine.
Larry: Ok - I'll call you.

He then goes off on this tangent about how he surreptitiously spritzed himself with water during the scene where he's moving furniture for a blind man because he needed sweat. Larry jumps in - I would have let you keep the sweat. Richard: no you would have said it's too much... it's too much. Basically, it felt like we were watching a live action version of Curb featuring Annoyed Larry and Neurotic Richard.

Susie explains that she had difficulty at first calling Jeff a "fat fuck" until Larry pulled her aside and told her "he's my friend. I know the guy - he'll have no problem." Larry adds that he saw Susie roasting Jerry Stiller and that he knew from the clubs that she was "really filthy" and a perfect match for the show.

One of my favorite Susie scenes is when Vivica Fox cusses her out.

Larry mentions that it was the happiest days in his life to see that, but Susie disagreed saying that she thought Susie would have gotten in Vivica's face and not taken things so meekly.

Watching the cast interact with each other, it's clear that they are playing larger versions of themselves. Jeff Garlin is expansive with a truly infectious laugh - you can get a taste of it in the above clip. Richard Lewis is neurotic and whiny. Larry David is surly. Cheryl smiles a lot. Bob cracks jokes. Susie seems much calmer - so I guess she's the only one that's different. lol

The moderator asked the actors what scenes their fans mention as their favorites. This question kind of draws a blank. Jeff says that Curb fans pretty much just tell them that they like the show - that "they're not typical TV watchers, not stupid people. They compliment you and move on their way." Susie doesn't get off as lucky. People everywhere ask her to tell them to go fuck themselves, or to call them a fat fuck, a challenge because, she's "not always in the mood." Many times fans will quote lines from the show, which poses a problem because the cast doesn't memorize lines and often don't remember what specific words they've said. Case in point: one man in Canada asked Cheryl how her vagina was doing. (I didn't remember that episode either. lol)

The biggest problem is fans pitching show ideas - both Richard and Jeff have that problem. Jeff went as far to say that he's heard thousands of ideas and not one of them has been any good. Apparently, Larry is the main person that comes up with ideas. In fact, the only person that has come up with an idea that was used was Cheryl (the scene when her plane was going down and Larry told her to call back because the cable guy was at the house). But, she added, if I knew that phone call would be the reason for Cheryl leaving Larry I wouldn't have said it!

Susie says she hates it when people come up to her and say that they're Larry David. She wants to respond, "no, he's a genius and you're an annoying accountant from Great Neck." Jeff adds that sometimes men tell him that their wife is just like Susie and everyone in the theater goes ooooo!

Richard for some reason tells a story about how Larry and him were having dinner at a restaurant. They'd ordered about 20 dishes and just when the food comes, Larry gets a phone call and runs out the restaurant, saying that Steve Martin had just called and that he was supposed to play poker with him. With no apology, Richard pointedly adds. Larry says something about how important it is to have that sixth person in a poker game, but when Richard continues complaining, he leans across Cheryl and dryly apologizes. Larry seems pretty annoyed right now and everyone on the panel is like WTF is going on. lol
An interesting discussion happens when the moderator asks Cheryl why her character loves Larry. Cheryl laughs and turns to Larry for the answer while Jeff butts in - Can I answer? Because it's in the script! Cheryl laughs and says that Larry makes her laugh, is intelligent and Larry butts in - people only see us fighting, but when the cameras aren't there, we really get along very well. Conflict creates comedy. Why do people need to see us kissing? Who cares.

Another question from the moderator: Is the show too offensive?
Larry: No. I do have a line - sometimes ideas don't make it in. The line's pretty far out though.
When asked if he had any examples of something being too offensive to make the show, Larry says no. Okaaaay then. Bob asked if he had problems with Jeff screwing his mentally ill sister on the show, and Larry responds that he had no problem with that.

Question from the moderator: Where did the role of Leon come from?
Larry: I heard people were taking in people after Katrina.
Okaaaay then. But then he adds, to the crow's delight that he thinks there will be more Leon next season. Excellent!

Two of my favorite Leon moments

and if you liked those, you'll probably get a kick out of this mega Leon montage.

One of the main themes of the night was describing the process of Curb. They don't rehearse, they don't have lines, and they don't discuss the scenes before hand. There's a basic paragraph of a couple of sentences that provides the structure (mostly describing major actions), but that's basically it. And sometimes, Jeff adds, they don't even know what the paragraph is until the scene is ready to be filmed. He remembers taking his place in a room, and right before the director yelled action, he asked the assistant director what was going on because he forgot the structure. Because of the fly by your seat of your pants structure, Susie commented that the actors have to listen a lot to each other.

Curb is sort of the anti-actor show. Larry admits to hating anything actorly. One guest star on the show started talking in character and wanted to discuss his character's previous motivations and Larry responded, "we don't do that on this show." Characters organically evolve without any navel-gazing by the actors. No scripts, no rehearsals, no Method. Jeff gushes, "I can't tell you how happy that makes me" because the entire process is "designed for the way I work." Most of the time on set he's thinking about what's for lunch (his words, not mine).

Bob tells some off color jokes, to the audience's delight, and Larry just sits there with a scowl. When Bob finishes, Larry asks Richard Lewis if he'd also like to do some of his act. Larry doesn't seem too happy - not sure if he's acting or if he's legitimately pissed to be here. Either way, it's fricking hilarious.

Time for audience questions! Not for the faint of heart, as folks get snarky answer from Larry and insulted by Bob.

Audience member #1: Where did Wendy Wheelchair come from?
Larry: Don't remember.

Audience member #2: (British accent) Are Cheryl and Larry -
Bob: Will you knock off that fake accent?
[audience laughter]
Audience member #2: (British accent intact) Are Cheryl and Larry going to blah blah blah
Larry: Oh, we don't know.

Audience member #3: (reading from notecards) Curb Your Enthusiasm makes it a point to showcase individuals of different race and ethnicities and explores the differences and similar-
Bob: Are you armed?
[audience laughter]
Bob: What are you reading?
Larry: She's prepared.
Audience member #3: - differences and similarities. Is it your contention that we need to foster a better sense of humor in dealing with each other?
Larry: Yes, I think we should laugh at ourselves. [He continues on this vein for 30 more seconds, but it's totally insincere. lol He doesn't really care, nor does he have any real desire to analyze his show.]

A couple of audience members get some good questions in that are actually given some answers.

Audience member #4: Can you talk a little about directing improv? How do you get everything?
Answer: They have two cameras filming at all times, sometimes three. One is always Larry. They try to cover as much as they can.

Audience member #5: Will you be featuring your Toyota Prius next season?
Larry: [pause] Point well taken.

At the end of the audience Q&A, security swarms the stage. Larry makes a beeline for the stage exit, and the other cast members sign autographs for a few minutes before leaving as well.

PaleyFest #1: Modern Family

2010-02-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

(Note: Other PaleyFest posts can be found here and here)

If there's one thing I love in this world, it's my family.

If there's two things I love in this world, it's my family and television.

How much do I love TV?

I have canceled social engagements because I wanted to watch a show live (as opposed to watching it on the DVR an hour later).
I saved the finale of Six Feet Under for two years on my Tivo, just so I could watch the ending whenever I wanted.
I watched Season 4 of The Wire in 17 hours (I took about a four hour break to sleep).
I have reached "Couch Potato" status on the Television Without Pity forums.
One of my goals in life is to be a Nielsen family.
I judge people who watch Two and a Half Men and According to Jim.
I have a special TV position and outfit. Yes, it involves the Slanket.

I love to watch TV and I love to talk TV. So when weezermonkey gave me the heads up that PaleyFest was around the corner, I made sure to dust off the ol' credit card.

PaleyFest is a 13-day series of panel discussions about specific television shows that feature actors, writers, directors, and producers talking about their craft and respective series. All of the panels are located in Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, a beautiful art deco theater with crappy parking. The Paley Center for Media sponsors PaleyFest, natch, and it examines the intersections between media and society by "leading the discussion about the cultural, creative, and social significance of television, radio, and emerging platforms for the professional community and media-interested public." I have yet to go to the Paley Center even though I love museums, I love TV, and I drive by it on a regular basis. One day...

And about "dusting off the ol' credit card"? Apparently through Goldstar you can get tickets to many of the shows for $5 - probably the amount of change you have in your car and under the sofa cushions. Wish I had known before my splurge. Do I sound bitter? Good.

The opening night featured one of my favorite new series, Modern Family - a show that, in my humble (yet incredibly astute) opinion, has made the family sitcom relevant again. The writing is sharp and witty, with plenty of irreverent moments, but also gives you that feel-good family sitcom glow. All of the actors are hilarious with spot on comedic timing and perfect deadpan expressions as they deliver lines to the camera during the mockumentary sections. If you're one of the few that haven't been watching it, you should check it out.

Walking into the theater, I was concerned that no pictures would be allowed during the event as there was a sign that said "no recording" and the usher that I asked said that cameras weren't allowed. But midway through, I saw some people taking shots with their point and shoots, so I was like, alrighty then, and proceeded to pull out the DSLR with the zoom lens. lol

The way this particular session worked was that someone made some opening remarks about the Paley Center/PaleyFest and pointed out a Paley that was sitting in the audience. Then we watched a video introduction to the PaleyFest featuring clips of all the featured shows and like little TV dorks, we applauded for our favorites. Glee and Dexter got some of the loudest applause. CougarTown and Vampire Diaries got some of the most perfunctory. Womp womp womp womp.

We saw an un-aired episode of Modern Family. I was annoyed because I prefer my comedies without a laugh track and I couldn't rewind when I couldn't hear the lines over people's guffaws. Then Billy Bush (yes, that Billy Bush - did you know that George W. is his cousin? The things you can learn from a wikipedia page...) strolled on the stage to moderate the panel and throw out questions. After he was done, the floor was opened to members of the audience to ask questions.

Appearing on the stage were:

Steven Levitan (Creator/Executive Producer)
Jason Winer (Director)
Ed O'Neill (Jay)
Sofia Vergara (Gloria)
Julie Bowen (Claire)
Ty Burrell (Phil)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell)
Eric Stonestreet (Cameron)

It was a frolicking good time. Everyone looked great. Sofia Vergara is simply stunning in person. Just drop dead gorgeous and oozing sex. The cast seemed genuinely happy to be with each other and at PaleyFest. As they repeatedly stated, they aren't typically together on set - most of the time they just film with their respective families - so they seemed to really appreciate the time to be together.

Some highlights:

Ty Burrell who plays Phil, the clueless dad that believes WTF stands for "Why the Face", imagines Phil as a "dog who can talk" with a brain like meadow. He gets his inspiration for the character from an amalgam of people that he knows - they annoy you, but they wear you down and you can't help but love them. He also hates seeing his "Franken-brow" on screen.

An audience member asked about Barkley, Jay's grotesque dog statue that freaks out Gloria. I love Barkely, being partial to freaky animal sculptures myself. Apparently, after the episode was taped, Barkely made his way into the corner of writers room where he proceeded to freak them out (one poor person working late at night by himself was startled by his grotesque face nearly a dozen times).

Honoring Levitan's request, Eric Stonestreet who plays Cameron, the lovable sensitive gay linebanker, demonstrated his transition from Eric to Cam by walking across the stage. He morphed from a hetero gorilla scratching ape man to fabulous hand gesturing Cameron before our very eyes. He draws upon his mother for his inspiration for Cameron.

Time was spent explaining the inspiration behind several moments of the show. Levitan introduced his family by explaining that his wife doesn't know how to use the remote (like Claire), his daughter's webcam accidentally revealed his boxers to her friend during a Skype session (like Haley), and he shot his son with a BB gun (which to my knowledge hasn't happened in MF, but correct me if I'm wrong). An altercation that Ed O'Neil had at a Brentwood gas station became the infamous Fizbo gas station bully smackdown.

One of my favorite moments of the evening was when Ed described one of his favorite moments of the show. During the remote controlled airplane episode, his character Jay flies an airplane into Phil's face. At the end of the episode, Phil is sitting on the couch with ice on his face and Ed's character apologizes to him. Julie Bowen as his daughter Claire walks over to him and thanks him with a kiss on the forehead in an impromtu ad-lib. As he recalls this, Julie Bowen gets a little choked up and folks in the audience go "Awww!"

Because the cast shoots their scenes separately, shooting is pretty quick which Julie Bowen explains is a bonus because it keeps things fresh. Sofia and Ed report something that they have in common - they both like to shoot fast and go home.

Creator Steven Levitan mentions that Julie Bowen has been so kickass in her role of Claire, the uptight mother of three with horribly bad luck on escalators, that other creatives are now writing roles and searching for a "Julie Bowen type". The audience erupted in applause and Bowen humbly replied that that is a great compliment.

My other favorite moment was when Ty Burrell (Phil) was recalling moments when he's been recognized as a result of his newfound fame. He tells a story of walking with his wife in Central Park under a bridge to the strains of a discordant tune on a two string violin played by a homeless man. Just as Burrell and his wife pass him by, the man looks at him straight in the eye and says, "Never since Frasier, has a show come on the air knowing its tone so completely..." The rest of his sentence is lost underneath the waves of laughter from the audience. It loses something in translation, but trust me - this was hilarious.

Another moment that won't be as funny on paper (or screen) as it was in real life.... Ed O'Neil described an example of how funny Sofia can be. She was going an interview with someone and she asked Sofia, "When did you first know that you were beautiful?" and Sofia responded (now picture Al Bundy speaking in a Spanish accident here): "I always knew I was beautiful. My mother was beautiful... My grandmother was beautiful..." Heh heh. It's funny cause it's true. The woman is fricking beautiful. I'm glad she has this role and I like what she brings to it. I smiled when she said that it's nice to not to have to worry about having an accent.

In response to a question from the audience, Eric Stonestreet stated that yes, Cam and Mitchell will have sex at some point during the series. Stonestreet seemed very grateful for his role - when he told friends in Kansas that he was going to Hollywood to become an actor, they joked that he was going to be the next lifeguard on Baywatch. He also doesn't mind appreciation from his gay fans - he's just happy to have fans period.

Billy Bush's favorite moment (like I cared) was the moon landing, when Cam and Jay's butts accidentally touched in the locker room. The director points out that they had to fight hard for those butts. The network wanted them to blur out the butts, but they managed to talk them into only pixilating the butts. Someone brought up that everyone saw Andy Sipowicz's butt in NYPD Blue, so what's the big deal? Things have changed, the director says sadly. They're worse. Never did I think Andy's butt would be a highlight in modern culture, but there you go.

After the audience Q&A session and the panel had offically ended, the stars took time to sign autographs for their adoring public.

Why I love Los Angeles...

2010-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

I love Los Angeles because every so often, you have an experience that you couldn't get anywhere else that will last you a lifetime.

There I was Friday night, minding my own business, browsing through my google reader. When suddenly this headline on LAist caught my eye: "Radiohead to Play Los Angeles to Raise Money for Haiti"

Um, come again?

Apparently, Radiohead is in town recording their next album and decided to stage an impromptu benefit concert to raise money for Haiti. From their website:

Radiohead for Haiti

We're doing a show this Sunday (24th January) to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The venue is The Music Box Theatre at The Fonda in Los Angeles, doors at 7pm. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam Haiti relief fund. We're trying to raise as much money as possible, so tickets will be sold by auction at this site from 8pm tonight until 11am Saturday (PST):

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004434FC1C86AC

We're in the middle of recording at the moment, so you'll be catching us on the fly.... but if you're up for it, then we are too.

See you then
x

Philip

This is when my heart starts beating really fast. The Music Box is one of those small old Hollywood theaters - seating a max of 1,500 people. The last time I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl, I was one of 18,000. If I were to get the tickets, this could literally be a once in a lifetime performance. The fact that all the proceeds were going to aid the people of Haiti was the perfect excuse for me to spend the money. I hadn't made a donation to Haiti and was planning on making one, just not quite as large as what was required here. lol I checked with Mr. Insom - "Can we get these?" "Sure." Awesome. After a nail-biting Saturday morning spent frantically clicking refresh on the Ticketmaster website to make sure the prices hadn't spiraled further upward, I had them. Two tickets to possibly the best rock concert of my life.

Doors opened at 4pm (I misread the email and thought it was 5pm - doh!) - I got there at 2:50pm and was one of the first 100 people in line. I had come prepared. In my possession were the following items: a hand cranked flashlight, two sweatshirts, binoculars, a huge bottle of water, dim sum leftovers, headphones, not one but two books, and a fully charged iphone. The pièce de résistance was a large cushy pillow (actually one of doggy insomniac's beds lol) that allowed me to sit on the concrete for hours without my ass getting numb. I set up camp and took a deep breath... the sun was shining and pleasantly warm, folks around me were in good spirits, I had plenty of stuff to occupy myself - I was content.

At 4pm, everyone in the line inched forward to pick up their tickets from the box office. I was under the impression that the concert seating was straight general admission and knew that there were two sections: the main floor pit which was standing only and the balcony which had seats. I had gotten to the line early so that I could run to the balcony. I'm short and the prospect of staring at some giant muscle man's back for 2 hours wasn't very appealing. I wanted to be up high so I could see everything and get clear sound.

I got my ticket stub and was blinged out in a colorful assortment of wristbands.

It actually turned out that when you bought your tickets, you were automatically assigned to one of the two sections. Fortunately, my yellow wristband meant I was designated for the balcony and I was happy, but some people were looking to switch.

And still others were just looking for any ticket at all.

Photo by Chris Victorio, OC Weekly

This approach is a tad more dignified than this guy offering to give a ticket holder a little action from one of his porn starlets.

After we picked up the tickets and got bedazzled with wristbands, back in line we went. Once the sun went down, it started to get really cold. I wish I had Mr. Insom around for warmth, but he was in a bar next door watching the football game.

He spent the last 10 minutes of the game in line with me constantly hitting refresh on his ESPN app and complaining bitterly it being a tied game. Whatever dude. lol

When the doors finally opened at 7pm I went straight up the balcony and got a great seat... Second row, right side, one away from the center aisle. Perfection.

I could have been in this mass of people, but instead I had plenty of room and a great sight line.

Photo by Chris Victorio, OC Weekly

At around 8:30pm, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood walk on the stage with acoustic guitars and without any sort of preamble, begin plucking the first strands of "Faust Arp" off the recent In Rainbows.

For the second song, "Fake Plastic Trees", Thom takes the stage front and center and strums the familiar riff. His vocals are so earnest, so I don't know if it's the 4 hours of sleep I had the night before, the fact that I've been at the Music Box for six hours waiting for this moment, the copious amounts of pot smoke swirling around, the alcohol I've drunk, or the awesomeness of the song, but tears are just running down my face. I can't believe I'm here, I can't believe I'm watching this, I can't believe how good it sounds. I literally get chills when the electric guitars and distortion blaze in halfway through.

With the exception of the band instruments the stage was bare, as was in keeping with the nature of event. No splashy backdrop, and the band used the standard light rig. The stripped down set allowed the music to take center stage and the small venue was an intimate setting. At times, an electric hush would fall over the crowd as we all stood transfixed by the music.

The band was loose and comfortable - Thom invited the audience to sing along in case he forgot the words and when they had a false start on a song, he quipped that "it's for charity". Later on, a woman yelled, "I love you!" to which he responded in a decidedly British fashion, "I love you too, dear."

Photo by Chris Victorio, OC Weekly

Check out a slide show from someone who's allowed to take a DSLR camera inside at OC Weekly
Here's another slide show of 43 images that has some great shots.

There was little mention of Haiti, actually. Oxfam International had a booth in the lobby of the theater, but no mention was made by Radiohead themselves. The representatives at the booth mentioned that all of the money would go to “Water and sanitation. That’s what’s needed most.”

I could see some other musicians doing a long spiel about the devastation, how important it is to get involved, why they decided to do a performance, etc., but Thom only offered a heartfelt Thank You after a few songs at the beginning of the show. When O'Brien handed Thom a paper with the totals from the night which were $572,754, with a guy named Peter spending the most money for his pair of tickets - $2,000 each, he dropped an F-bomb. (i.e., he said an astonished "Fuck me!", 10 years - lol)

One of my fellow line buddies mentioned that he was stunned that the ticket prices reached the amount that they did. Uh really, Thom? Do you have any idea what your ticket prices go for on the scalp market? lol

All in all, my concert experience was amazing. Although you'll hear a lot of people singing along in the youtube videos, thankfully, I hardly heard anything from the front of the balcony. And during some of the quiet songs, like "Exit Music for Film", the crowd would ssssh! the woooooo! people. Gotta love a concert that employs collective shushing.

Photo by Chris Victorio, OC Weekly

This is what my crappy iphone pictures looked like at the Hollywood Bowl:

This is what my crappy iphone pictures looked like last night. Still crappy, but at least you can make out actual human figures.

I am so glad I wasn't among the throng of people on the floor. I just knew that I would have been smashed against the back of some behemoth. Look at them packed in down there. Yikes.

Apparently there were plenty of celebs in attendance (Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Flea, Sookie and the Vampire, Drew Barrymore, Daniel Craig, Aziz Ansari) but I didn't see anyone. They might have been in a VIP box in the back of the balcony, but it looks like ol' Charlize is with the people - I see her everywhere!

Photo by Chris Victorio, OC Weekly

There were at least three rows in the center balcony set aside for special people that apparently didn't have to wait 5 hours in line like us plebeians.

For a group that was in middle of studio recording, they exercised a flawless, high energy concert that went far back in their catalog. At one point sitting in front of the piano, Yorke remarked that playing these songs was a like "memory exercise". lol Jonny was furiously thrashing his guitar and Colin was leaping in the air.

The rhythm section was so finely tuned. Drummer Phil Selway and Colin Greenwood (bass) stayed in constant communication throughout the show and provided the perfect backbone for the richly layered sound on "Weird Fishes".

Try to ignore the non-Thom singing.

Loved Thom's performance on "Nude". His movements really captured the ethereal nature of the song.

Again, try to ignore the singing from the videographer. I know it's hard. Ugh.

Thom sat down at an upright piano for the first set of encores, and began with a solo of Everything in its Right Place. Hauntingly beautiful

When he was finished, a fan yelled "Thank you!" to which Thom replied, "Thank you for spending ludicrous amounts of money."

Youtube video of the only new song that they performed: "Lotus Flower"

Much to the dismay of Mr. Insom ("What? No 'Creep'?") the concert ended with "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" off The Bends. I admit that I thought it was an odd choice to close out a concert, but I liked how the last line song ("Immerse your soul in love") sums up the entire purpose of the evening.

I'm still glowing. Not even walking into my office at work this morning to find it overrun with ants has put a damper on my smile. I had the best 2 hours of my life yesterday. :)

Set list:

01 Faust Arp
02 Fake Plastic Trees
03 Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
04 The National Anthem
05 Nude
06 Karma Police
07 Kid A
08 Morning Bell
09 How To Disappear Completely
10 A Wolf at the Door
11 The Bends
12 Reckoner
13 Lucky
14 Bodysnatchers
15 Dollars & Cents
16 Airbag - Yorke asked the crowd Just or Airbag? They went with Airbag
17 Exit Music

Encore #1

18 Everything In Its Right Place (Thom)
19 You And Whose Army?
20 Pyramid Song
21 All I Need

Encore #2:

22 Lotus Flower (Thom)
23 Paranoid Android
24 Street Spirit (fade out)

Caring con Christmas Community Cervice

2010-01-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

One of my ongoing community service activities here in Los Angeles is Reading to Kids. It has a pretty low time committment. Each month on a Saturday, Reading to Kids sponsors reading clubs at elementary schools in downtown Los Angeles. They select and bring the books and arts and craft supplies. Volunteers read the books to the kids and help them do a thematic arts and crafts. Last month we read a book about what animals do when it's winter and our craft project was making a snowman. Easy peasy. I like it because I get to hang out with kids for a few hours, and then go home without them. It's a win-win.

Anyway, at the last Reading to Kids session, the group leaders made an annoucement about another community service opportunity - Operation Santa, sponsored by the Pasadena Jaycees. Teams of three people - an elf, a Mrs. Claus, and a Santa travel to Pasadena-area homes on Christmas Eve and hand out toys. I thought it sounded like fun, so I signed up with some of my other Reading to Kids buddies.

The first task on December 23 was to sort the bags and boxes of donated toys. People would bring various barrels full of unwrapped toys and dump them in a large heap in the center of the hall. We little helper elves would grab said toys and put them on various tables according to their category.

There was a table for cars and assorted vehicles and a table of "non-car boy toys aged 7-11" for kids that wanted things that go zoom or boom.

Another stack consisted of board games, educational toys, and books. I kept my eyes on the Candylands. Those might come in handy in the future.

There was a table for the few Barbies and all her many illegitmate sisters like Bonnie, the Snow Queen, and Connie. Hopefully, they don't look at the packaging too closely. Another table for baby type dolls rounded out the more "girly" toys.

Other categories were arts and crafts, toys for infants, inflatable balls of all types, and toys for teens (which basically consisted of DVDs, keyboards, cell phone charms). By the time we were done sorting all the toys, we had huge towering piles.

One young volunteer (at my urging - heh) buried herself in a mountain of stuffed animals.

There were some pretty good toys - someone showed me an Edward action figure - hopefully one of the Twihard volunteers didn't pocket it. There were a bunch of Build a Bears in their cute little boxes.

Step number 2 was to begin assigning toys to specific routes. We got a random route that had a number (mine was 41) and we had to gather a certain number of boy toys aged 7-11, a certain number of infant toys, a certain number of girl toys, etc. I suppose this intermediate step was to prevent volunteers from going wild trying to grab the real Barbies for their specific route. That didn't stop me from trying to grab as many Barbies as I could for route 41, even if I knew my actual route would be different. I am a competitive toy snatching witch.

The resulting bags by age/sex were stuck on chairs to await step 3.

Step 3 is where things got really fun. Volunteers were assigned routes consisting of 18-23 houses and handwritten kid letters addressed to Santa. We were to read the letters and create a bag of toys for each house by selecting from the bagged route toys created in Step 2.

Since I had participated in the previous steps, I knew where all the good toys were and I was kicking ass and taking names as we gathered toys for our respective families.

One kid wanted something Dora related. I pulled out a Dora the Explorer card game.

Another kid wanted a bracelet. I dug in the bag and found a sparkly necklace.

One girl was into scrapbooking. I found her a stamp set.

One boy wanted a remote controlled car. Hmm. We didn't have anything available with batteries. I just gave him a regular car. Oh well - can't win them all.

A girl said she was interested in dinosaurs. I traded a stuffed pig for a stuffed lizard from nearby volunteers and grabbed a dinosaur book off a table when no one was looking.

One teenager wanted a video of High School Musical. Dang. Nothing HSM related in the whole place. But then I remembered the Step Up 2 DVDs I had squirreled away for route 41 in the morning.

My assigned route was 40, right next to the toys that I bagged for 41. The people from 41 never showed, so I decided to do some "exchanges" when the need arose. I got a Step Up 2: The Streets DVD and left a Thomas the Train DVD in its place. Remember, I am a competitive toy snatching witch.

I proceeded to exchange liberally from route 41 for the rest of the day. Soccer balls for four square balls, arts and craft sets for rubix cubes, baby dolls for Barbies.

The boys were pretty easy - they typically wanted some sort of sports item. Pretty much each bag we packed had some sort of football, basketball, or soccer ball in it.

We bagged each bag for each house and labeled them with the address, the order number, and attached the kid's letter.

I volunteered with a good friend, but we couldn't come up with a Santa, so we had to get one that was assigned to us. Here he is.

Next time I want my own Santa. It's hard spending 8 hours with someone that you just met.

When we were finished sorting and bagging toys, we brought them to my Honda Accord. It was going to be a tight fit, but we managed. I sequentially organized the toys (houses 1-8 were in the back seat, houses 9-21 were in the truck) so we would be ready to go for the big night.

After we had packed the toys and did a trial drive of the route, I gave thought to my Helper Elf costume. We were instructed to wear street clothes, as they didn't have costumes for us. We'll see about that.

I made a stop at Mood with the intentions of making some sort of scarf or something. First things first, I have a sewing machine. I don't have a needle or thread. I don't know how to sew. If something needs sewing in our house, Mr. Insom busts open a suture kit and some clamps and uses a curved needle and synthetic thread to do the necessary repairs.

This important fact, however, didn't stop me. When I arrived at Mood, the choices were dizzingly numerous and varied.

I talked with a salesperson that conviced me that I could make my own elf costume out of felt and a household stapler. I was to take a shirt and use it as a pattern and draw a chalk outline, then I was to staple the two corresponding pieces together and turn it inside out. Voila - an elf costume!

It didn't go quite as smoothly. Another case of insomniac woefully overestimating her abilities. The resulting product was too embarassing to even document. I threw the "garment" on the floor and doggy Insomniac proceeded to use it as a dog bed.

Time for Plan B -> Buy elf outfit.

As the evening fell upon Christmas Eve, all the volunteers gathered together to go over last minute plans. The Mrs. Clauses listened intently to how Santa was the star of the show and their role was to make sure he didn't spend to long at each house - "we got to check on the reindeer, Santa!"

The Santas practiced their Ho ho hos.

One final group photo before we headed out...

It was a good time.

All the kids were so happy to see us - there were a lot of "Santa!" shrieks - and parents were very appreciative as well. We took lots of photos with family members and handed out mini candy canes. We brought along extra toys as well, so when we met other children along the way, we'd hand them a present of their own. One little boy wearing too little clothing for the chilliness of the night saw us as we were heading to another house and he shyly smiled and said "Hi, Santa". Since I was the Helper Elf, I carried a crapload of the extra toys in a sack on my back and I asked him, "what's your favorite sport?" and when he replied basketball, I pulled out a basketball out of my sack and handed it to him. His eyes opened wide in surprise and said, "thanks, Santa!"

I got to see the teen girl that I stole, er, "exchanged" the Step Up 2 video for and she exclaimed, "I love this movie!"

We finished at around 8:45pm and headed back to the hall to return extra toys. I grabbed some cookies and began the trek home where I would perform a reprise of my Helper Elf act later that evening with Operation Cardboard Christmas.

A great way to spend the holiday. :)

Insomniac's Big Adventure (at MoMA)

2009-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

I love museums. :)

On Sunday, my last day in New York, we attended the opening day of the Tim Burton exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It was a total stroke of luck that of the three days we were in NYC, one of them coincided with this exhibition. When I lived in NY, I loved MoMA and I hadn't been back since the remodel.

Do you remember how impressed I was with my ability to wake up at basically 4am when you factored in the time change to go to the Statue of Liberty?

Sunday was a different story.

If I'm really tired, I don't wake up. No matter what. If you tell me to wake up, I say "10 more minutes". If an alarm wakes me up, I hit snooze for 10 consecutive times or I turn it off. I have zero recollection of any of the events that take place during this period. It's like I'm sleep zombie.

I had the day planned out:

Wake up at 8am.
Have breakfast at Es-a-Bagel
Arrive at MoMA at 10:15, 15 minutes before the doors opened.
Use our previously purchased, already printed out tickets to be among the first to enter the exhibit when the museum opens at 10:30 to avoid crowds.
Leave at 11:30 to make our 12pm reservations at Bouley
Head to airport

Here's what happened.

Mr. Insom: Um... it's 10:40. Don't we need to be somewhere?
Me: *bolts upright in bed* OMG!

Perfect plan ended with me missing my flight and catching one a couple hours later. lol

But first was my third museum in 24 hours, lol.

Free timed entry tickets for the Tim Burton exhibition are suggested on weekdays and required on weekends, and you can buy them when you buy your online admission. Both Mr. Insomniac and I really enjoyed it and you should definitely check it out if you're able to before it ends on April 26, 2010. I'd suggest going as early in the day as possible - even though they limit the number in the gallery, when I went it was pretty packed in there (granted it was opening day, but still).

From the MoMA website:

This exhibition explores the full range of Burton's creative work, tracing the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work in film. It brings together over seven hundred examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, moving image works, concept art, storyboards, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera from such films as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, and Beetlejuice, and from unrealized and little-known personal projects that reveal his talent as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer working in the spirit of Pop Surrealism. The gallery exhibition is accompanied by a complete retrospective of Burton’s theatrical features and shorts, as well as a lavishly illustrated publication.

Some pieces are humorous.

Others are early representations of his movies.

Some are scary.

Others are sweet.

The exhibition was quirky, beautiful, eye-opening, wondrous, disturbing, and enchanting. It's not every day you get to see inside the mind of someone like Tim Burton. He has such a uniquely bizarre slant on the world which I appreciate. Several pieces the featured art are simple musings or ideas used to communicate his ideas to other people in making films. For example, Johnny Depp describes how he knew everything about the character of Edward Scissorhands after Burton showed him this sketch.

If any this sounds remotely interesting, please check out the exhibition website - it has all sorts of goodies on it and paints much better picture of the exhibit than I'm currently doing. lol

If you can't get to MoMA, or can only spend a short time there because you have to head to lunch and catch a plane to take you 3,000 miles away, you can pick up a book on the exhibition.

You can get it at MOMA online or for a few dollars cheaper at Amazon.

We were lucky enough to get one of the last remaining copies of the more extensive book - The Art of Tim Burton. This book will not be available on Amazon, but can be purchased on this website.

The book was edited under the guidance of Burton and consists of 430 pages with 1000 illustrations, and includes film concepts and hundreds of drawings, paintings, photos, and sketches from his personal archives. It is grouped into thirteen chapters that examine common themes in Burton's work, from his fascination with clowns to his passion for misunderstood monsters, to his delight in the oddities of people. Many of Burton's friends and collaborators offer their thoughts, insights and anecdotes about Tim Burton's style and artistic approach to life.

And of course I couldn't leave MoMA without visiting my favorite painting in the collection. :) I love galleries that allow no-flash photography. Why can't they all?

I spent some time looking in the new Monet Gallery that houses the full group of Claude Monet's late paintings in the collection. These include a massive mural-sized triptych (Water Lilies, 1914–26) and a single-panel painting of the water lilies in the Japanese-style pond that Monet cultivated on his property in Giverny, France (Water Lilies, 1914–26), as well as The Japanese Footbridge (c. 1920–22) and Agapanthus (1914–26).

It's so restorative to just be in the presence of these pieces. They are definitely evocative of the outdoors and are so calming. It must be so strange to live in such an urban environment like New York City - I appreciate the many different available avenues to get a dose of nature.

Dining Room

2009-12-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Does anyone that reads this blog really need an introduction to the Dining Room at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena?

Crib sheet:
1. Michael Voltaggio is the head chef of this restaurant.
2. Michael Voltaggio is about to win Top Chef and he was the past chef of the incredibly awesome Bazaar
3. I've eaten several tasting menus this year, and this was possibly the best one. No shit, folks.
4. Contrary to what the judges' comments might lead you to believe, Voltaggio isn't some culinary clown with a liquid nitrogen tank. The man knows flavors. He knows how they work together. Everything I ate was delicious first, dazzling technique second.

Here's something you may not know... I've been hearing that the Dining Room was scheduled to shut down at the end of the year for much needed renovations. It turns out that those renovations have been postponed until March - with the Rose Bowl and the National Championships scheduled in Pasadena, I guess The Powers That Be thought it would be prudent to keep the restaurant open for the influx of tourists and guests headed to the area. Whatever it takes to keep Chef Mike Voltaggio happy, is a-okay in my book.

Is the decor really that bad?

Crib sheet:
1. There are clipper ships all around the restaurant.
2. The place is stuffy.
3. You can't really tell where the kitchen is.
4. There are clipper ships all around the restaurant.

According to our server Ryan, the renovation promises to take down the dreaded ships and create a window to the kitchen. The terrace will be extended, so the restaurant will have less of a horseshoe shape. It will still be in the same style as the rest of the hotel, just less stuffy.

This will be a good thing. It's hard to see someone like this guy wanting to come into work in this place every day.

I became incredibly annoyed when the woman sitting at the table nearest to us began snapping pictures of her dishes with a flash. Picture taking is fine, but a flash is a no-no. One, flash makes your food pictures look crappy. Two, flash disturbs other people. Three, if you're taking flash pictures and disturbing people, restaurant staff might prevent me from taking my unobtrusive non-flash pictures.

When I first saw my yellow-red cast pictures inside the restaurant, I got depressed, thinking that all my pictures would turn out like Aureole's.

At Aureole, I longed for a white card to create a custom white balance.

Mr. Insominac: You should just use the tablecloth as your white balance.
Me: *scoffs* That's lame.
WeezerMonkey: You should just use the tablecloth as your white balance.
Me: ohemgee - Genius!!!!

But alas, the tablecloth was a weird off white. Would this affect my pics?? I pulled an agenda from a Thursday meeting out of my bag, frantically hoping for a side that was blank. Found a blank side. Snapped a photo. Played with the menu settings for a couple of minutes to figure out how to create a custom white balance.

I shot this picture of the white piece of paper.

Using this custom white balance, this

turned to this.

Victory. I literally could have frenched my camera, I loved it so much. Time to rock...

Amuse bouche - sour cream and onion potato chips. Tasted like... sour cream and onion potato chips! Point, Voltaggio.

We were offered a selection of breads. We both chose the bacon roll (shout out to Bacon Diva!) and the honey whole grain bread. Accompanying the breads were two butter choices - both were delicious.

Japanese Shima Aji with pickled baby peach, sea sponge, bonito. Inspiring layered flavors. Wonderful.

Truffle brioche roll. This is what they eat in heaven, I believe.

By this time we had amassed quite the collection of butters.

Langoustine with young fennel, porcini mushroom lasagna, broth. Delicious. I pretty much just grunted my way through this one.

Foie Gras with blood red orange, salsify, aerated brioche. I was a little leery of this dish - I had a passion fruit fois gras at wd-50 and I thought the fruit dominated the foie gras. This was perfect, although I probably could have done with a touch more orange. The brioche was sublime.

At first the presentation looked a little bland.

Boo-yah! Now we got some color.

Halibut Cheeks with scrambled cauliflower, lemongrass-scallion froth. I've never had fish cheeks. They were much heartier than the body of the fish. This was a perfect transition to the more meatier courses.

Pastrami Pigeon, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, rye. Salty goodness. Katz deli, eat your heart out!

Wagyu Short Rib, Flavors of Pot Roast. Carrots, potatoes, apples, beef so tender it will make you cry... Simple food at its finest. Kevin wishes he could prepare comfort food like this. lol

Raspberries and cream (dipping dots - hee!)

Did you know that Chef Voltaggio is also the pastry chef?

This dish had all sorts of flavor components - coconut, banana, kiwi, . Put it altogether and I nearly melted down the chair. And I don't even like dessert. Mr. Insom got this dish, and we went half-half. This was one of our favorite dishes of the night.

I got the "Fools Gold" 0 Chocolate, Salty Hazelnut Praline, and Milk Sorbet. This sort of reminded me of the dessert we had at Redd in Napa. It was a nice rich finish to end the meal.

Petit fours - passion fruit gummy with edible wrapper, fennel macaroon, dark chocolate lollipops with explosives.

Things I would change:

1. I want more food. Another meat course and dessert course would have been nice. Although I could barely walk out of the restaurant after eating all of this, so I'm not sure how that would really work. I suppose I'll just have to go back.

2. Cocktail menu?? Other reviews that I read mentioned a cocktail menu. When Mr. Insom asked for it, they said that they didn't have a cocktail menu, but had a full bar. Come on, Mikey. Whip up some cocktails - I know you can do it.

3. More prompt initial service. I hate waiting forever for a menu when I know I'm just going to order the tasting menu. I'm going to be sitting for the next couple of hours - let's get this party started quickly. The service during the meal was great and our meals came out at a pretty even pace.

All in all, a beautiful, wonderful, delicious meal. I'm so thankful to have Michael Voltaggio within a 30 minute (sans traffic) drive.

"Quick, Mr. Insom! Take a picture of the Hotel Langham sign on our way out!"

Awesome!

Once upon a time, there was a moth

2009-12-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

*taking a pause from NYC posts *

On the last Monday of each month, The Moth holds a StorySlam in Venice, CA at the Air Conditioned Supper Club. The Moth is non-profit live story-telling organization that was founded in New York City. Why is it called the Moth? Because the founder, George Dawes Green hoped that people would be drawn to storytelling as moths are to the flame.

Their mission statement:

The Moth is dedicated to promoting the art of storytelling. We celebrate the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection. We do so by helping our storytellers to shape their stories and to share them with the community at large. One goal of The Moth is to present the finest storytellers among established and emerging writers, performers and artists; another is to encourage storytelling among populations whose stories often go unheard.

I regularly listen to Moth podcasts and always thought it would be cool to see some stories told live. The entry is $7 and you want to make sure to get there early for the best parking as you'll probably end up parking in the surrounding neighborhood.

I parked in the Tsuami Zone. I am such a risk taker.

I ran into two friends from my No On Prop 8/Vote for Equality volunteering and we grabbed some booze and some snacks before the stories began.

I had a (two) cocktail with Grey Goose Poire, St. Germain, and sweet and sour. Basically, I get any cocktail that has St. Germain in it. So boring, I know.

An order of frites, s'il vous plait.

Chicken quesadillas.

Angus sliders.

Tasty bar food. Nothing to write home about, but it did the trick.

And now let the festivities begin!

The theme for this particular Moth slam was AMBITION. Ooooo... looks like we could hear some good ones!

The rules of the Moth story slams are simple.

1. No notes, no papers, no reading.
2. No monologues
3. Stories should be under 5 minutes long.

After your story, you are graded by three panels of judges. The panels for Monday night were "Little Engine", "The Casting Couch", and something I don't remember.

If you're interested in telling a story, your name goes in a totebag and if you're one of the lucky people to be chosen, you get your 5 minutes of fame. Here's our host with the most.

Here's the thing about LA Moths. I've been to one, but I think I can safely make this assumption. A lot of the people that performed were, as we say, in the business. I like stories told by every day people. Not people who work the stand up comedy circuit.

The guy who won on Monday was a stand up comedian. He was good and funny. His story was about being a part time boyfriend to this girl in Alaska... He would clock out at around 10:30pm and another guy clocked in at 11:00pm for the good stuff. Our hero spent his time taking her to restaurants and walking her dog.

This woman told a story about working at a non-profit during 9/11 in New York City... She began by exclaiming that all non-profits are full of shit and ended past the allotted six minutes with a rushed account of how her non-profit boss was sending stalkerish letters to herself. Weird.

This guy told a story about how some television personality that he was dating was fucking the fashion photographer at her PETA shoot. Um, weird. And this isn't your therapy session, dude. And the anger which he told his story was a bit unsettling. Oh and he announced midway that he was drunk and lost his place in the story. He got bad marks on that one. lol

Another guy described his failure at putting together a replica of a Cutty Sark ship. At one point he was like FUCK YOU CUTTY SARK!! I laughed and laughed. That was the best part. Aside from that, not so much.

The first guy was gay. That's pretty much all his story was about.

Another woman told a story about hating her kid. Well, let's examine this further. It's not that she hated her kid, she just said something to that effect to be shocking. She didn't think she should have to spend all her time changing diapers and wiping drool. Instead, she wanted to do go on acting auditions even though she hasn't had any commercial success in 14 years or something. AMBITION!

And then there were two Latino storytellers that both featured soccer. I'm not being stereotypical, I'm just reporting the realization that one of them had. lol

But these were two of my favorite. The guy who was a little heavyset talked about how his father's ambition for him was that he become a world class soccer player, even though he wasn't the most athletic kid. The story ended with him lying stretched out on the field bleeding from a ball in the face. Nice and on topic. Yay!

This woman talked about how she wanted to be cool so she did some pot, and was horrified when the really cool girl passed on the pot and everyone thought that not smoking pot was cool. And then she played soccer with the cool girl thinking she could kick her ass on the field. She stole the ball from the cool girl and was about to make a goal when her crush stole the ball from her. The woman realized that her crush actually had a crush on the cool girl. AMBITION!! Actually, I have no idea how that relates to ambition.

My favorite story was probably this middle aged guy's. He was in London studying with some prestigious Shakespeare organization (Royal Shakespeare Company?) when he heads to a college production of a Tennessee Williams play. He's taken by one of the female leads, and proceeds to take her to a local pub. About an hour into their flirtatious banter, he realizes that he has no idea what her name is. Don't you hate that? You're sort of past the point where you can do a "What was your name again?", but our hero recovers nicely - he asks the fetching young lady, "What is your full name?" She responds, "[blah blah] Oliver." She doesn't say blah, but I forgot what the storyteller said. Whatever. Anyways, the storyteller says jokingly, "any relation to Sir Lawrence?" And she goes, "He's my father." He tries to focus on how hot she is and how he wants to do all sorts of carnal things to her, but he's obsessed with Sir Lawrence and the chance of meeting him that he totally blows it. See? That was a good one.

The last guy talked about trying to avoid a "JunCo" during his senior year of high school by quitting his drug habit and doing a bunch of extra-curricular activities like running for student body president. He was hoping to go to Cal State Northridge. I don't remember if he succeeded. AMBITION!!

And that was it!

Next month the theme will be Cars.

Moving on up... to the Eastside

2009-11-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning Mr. Insomniac was busy with the conference that paid for his airfare, hotel at the Benjamin, and a stipend, so I decided to explore the history of New York.

I woke up at 7:30 and caught one of the first ferries out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. For you to understand what a feat this was, let me remind you that Thursday night I was in Palm Springs and had about three hours of sleep before I had to catch an airplane. I didn't sleep on the plane ride because, well, who the hell can sleep on a plane ride? Dinner at wd-50 on Friday night ended well past midnight. And of course I was still on West Coast time which meant that 7:30am was actually 4:30am. Ay Dios Mio!

But I woke up with little fuss, hopped on the 5 subway to Battery Park and was on my way. I love the NY subway. Such an efficient mode of transportation. I missed the first ferry at 8:30am, but caught the next one at 9:00am. Getting there early helped me avoid the long lines and although the ferry was packed going to the Statue of Liberty, most people got off at the Statue, leaving a much smaller group that were headed to Ellis Island. Excellent.

The early morning made for some cool shots.

What a glorious beacon. Even my little shriveled jaded heart swelled at the sight. I thought of Emily Lazarus's "The New Colossus". Such a noble sentiment that makes me proud to be an American.

After reading weezermonkey's blog post about Ellis Island, I really wanted to pay a visit myself.

In operation until 1954, Ellis Island processed over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers. The main building was restored after 30 years of abandonment and opened as a museum on September 10, 1990.

Even though the main building has been fully restored, museum officials left parts of the actual wall untouched where people had drawn pictures or written messages.

Like this drawing of a boat with what appears to be a Greek flag...

Or this portrait...

Here was the process immigrants went through...

1. 99.9% of first and second class passengers? Proceed to #4 unless you have two heads or something. Folks below deck - go to #2.
2. Time for six-second medical inspection! Having trouble carrying your suitcase? Bizarre rash? Missing limb? Puking in the trashcan? Then here's a white chalk mark on your coat! Time to get medically inspected...
3. Legal inspection! You a commie? Or a Bolshevik? Then time for your hearing before the Board of Special Inquiry!
4. Welcome to America! *insert rousing Sousa march*

For most of the immigrants, it was the model of efficiency and people were on American shores in under four hours. Only 2% of people were turned away back to their homeland, typically for having a contagious disease or if they were thought to have the potential to be a "public charge".

By 1916, it was said that a doctor could identify numerous medical conditions by just glancing at folk. No fancy lab tests or examinations needed - it was like they were a team of Gregory House MDs!

Can you imagine if you had to get examined with one of these babies? "Welcome to America! Now this will be a little cold and you'll feel a slight pressure..."

I got a kick out the intelligence tests to rule out the "mentally deficient."

They had to devise tests that could be understood and performed by people even if they were illiterate, never had any formal schooling, or had never held a pencil.

Ellis Island was like a full-fledged campus - there were hospital staff, dormitories, facilities for changing money and purchasing travel tickets, baggage sorting, meals, etc.

Of course, not everyone had such a fun time getting to America. And then quotas were instituted because too many immigrants were coming in. Or the wrong kinds.

I just try and remember the founding ideals of this country. They've never led me astray.

I could have easily stayed at Ellis for another hour, but I had to hurry if I was going to make my next destination.

Upon embarking from the ferry I took a moment to reflect at this sculpture and accompanying flame.

For three decades this sculpture stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center. "The Sphere" was conceived as a symbol of world peace and although damaged during September 11, it now represents indestructible spirit. It was placed in Battery Park on March 11, 2002 as a temporary memorial and an eternal flame was ignited on September 11, 2002 in honor of all who were lost.

Next up was a guided tour through the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, a museum that tells the stories of residents that lived in a tenement at 97 Orchard Street on the lower East Side. Similar to Ellis Island, the apartments of 97 Orchard Street had been shuttered for nearly 50 years (only the building's store front was in use as the building's owners didn't feel like putting in the expense to bring the apartments to code). Purchased for $8000, it consisted of 20 3-room apartments.

Through diligent research, museum staff have uncovered the histories of several residents such as the Moore family, Irish-Catholic immigrants coping with the death of a child in 1869 and 14-year-old Victoria Confino, a member of a Sephardic Jewish family who lived in the tenement in 1916.

I took the Getting By: Immigrants Weathering Hard Times tour which focused on how immigrants survived economic depressions at 97 Orchard Street between 1863 and 1935. The German-Jewish Gumpertz family experienced hard times when the patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873. Natalie Gumpertz managed to keep her daughters afloat by mending and repairing dresses, as most working class women only had three dresses to their name. The Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family lived through the Great Depression. Their story is particularly interesting as they have first-hand accounts and recordings of the daughter describing her memories of living at 97 Orchard Street.

Here's our tour guide doing his thing:

No pictures were allowed inside the tenement apartments, which is too bad. You can definitely get a feel of what life must have been like living in these buildings. They were cramped and dark. At first, only the parlor rooms had exterior windows and all lighting was kerosene and oil lamps. The walls of the hallway are stained with soot and it will probably come as no surprise as there were several fires in the building.

When 97 Orchard first opened in 1863, all the toilets were outside. It wasn't until 1905 and the passage of the Tenement House Act which mandated that landlords install 1 toilet for every 2 apartments, that hallway indoor toilets were installed. The building was shuttered before a law passed that required one toilet per apartment.

A little bit down the street is an abandoned bath house or something. I wonder what the story is behind this... I believe our guide said that it was an old bath house used by tenement residents.

Currently the Lower East Side is getting gentrified like all parts of Manhattan, but is also home to a new group of Chinese and African immigrants. It's sort of amazing to think that generations of immigrants have chosen to make America their home and are doing their best to realize their version of the American dream.

After all of this, I truly had a new appreciation for New York City and the urban landscape in general as the heart of this country.

I planned the perfect end to my "immigrant day" with a stop at Katz's deli for a pastrami sandwich.

(I love that No Horn Honking sign.)

But when I got there it was a complete madhouse - with 4 dozen people jammed at the counter waiting to place an order with the two people behind the counter. I couldn't deal.

Since I had to meet Mr. Insom who was by now done with his course, I headed back to midtown - but not before grabbing a slice of cheese pizza. Hey, Italians went through Ellis Island just like Russian Jews! I would have preferred the pastrami though. :(

Bouley

2009-11-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

My last meal in New York consisted of a pre-fixe lunch with two of my college friends at Bouley, or as I like to call it, Nirvana in New York. Bouley received two Michelin stars and is located in Tribeca. I always enjoy seeing my friends even though it's typically once a year... it's so sad that all of my college buddies live on the East Coast. :(

From the moment I entered this restaurant, I was in utter rapture. The foyer is lined with floor to ceiling shelves of apples. The display was stunning visually and the smell was intoxicating. I lingered there for several moments, deeply breathing in the scented air.

As I was seated at the table, I marveled at the unusual (read: non-white) place settings and assorted fresh flowers on ample display. I felt like I was in some sort of enchanted greenhouse - such a welcome respite from the concrete jungle of New York! Sitting in the dining room I forgot all sense of place and time.

Amuse bouche - some sort of cheese in tomato water with infused olive oil. A refreshing way to begin the meal.

The accompanying apple bread wasn't at good as Aureole, but it was still tasty.

It was a beautiful dining hall - warm and subdued, with lots of muted color.

First course: Porcini Flan, Dungeness Crab, with Black Truffle Dashi. I loved the presentation in the mini copper pot. Even better was the dish itself. I think this cauldron of goodness was the best thing I ate all weekend. It had such a pleasing assortment of flavors and was the epitome of warm comfort food. It was in the same league as those fois gras ravioli in the chicken broth that I had at L'Atelier.

For some crazy reason, one of my friends didn't want either of the appetizers, so she asked the waiter for a green salad. It wasn't on the menu, but the chef whipped up a beautiful version.

My second course was a roasted Baby Skate, Seasonal ramps Dressing, Fricasée of Green Asparagus.

I got it because it was skate. I mean, how many chances am I going to get to eat one of these things?

Yum.

My other friend (and Mr. Insom) opted for an additional third course in place of the second course, so she got fresh Washington State Black Cod, Organic Buckwheat, Sunchoke Cloud, Black Onion Powder. The presentation was a little bizarre, but it tasted delicious. I don't know why everyone was deviating from the set menu. lol The chef was cool with it though, and they didn't even charge extra.

My third course was an All Natural Pennsylvania Chicken, Fresh Almond Purée, Black Truffles, Organic Crosnes, Buttermilk and Tarragon. Very tasty. I would have liked more solid veggies though - all the puree kind of reminded me of baby food. But the flavors were spot on.

Mr. Insom got the Long Island Duckling with a Balinese Pepper Crust, White Truffle Honey, Julienne of Snow Peas, Tahitian Vanilla-Glazed Turnips, Verjus, Ginger Dressing

Our pre-dessert treat was a raspberry sorbet with pear nectar, which wasn't on the scheduled menu. It was a little too sweet for me, but still good. I felt a little bad because I was keeping an eye on the clock (I was trying to catch a plane) and had to request that the dishes come out a little faster. I think this is why we got this instead of the coconut soup with passion fruit and yogurt sorbet which I would have enjoyed as a palate cleanser.

Fortunately, we still got the good stuff when it came to the final dessert. Hot Valrhona Chocolate Soufflé with Vermont Maple and Vanilla Ice creams and Chocolate Sorbet.

There were a few other options for dessert, but no one at the table was interested. I mean, how can you compete with a chocolate souffle? And Lordy, this was delightful.

More food! Mignardise!

And more food! Dark and white chocolate truffles!

And more food! We were each sent home with a brown paper bag containing a lemon tea cake the size of my hand.

Total cost for all of this? $48. Awesome deal. :)

Hairy Aureole

2009-11-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

Since we had tickets to see Hair at 8pm, we made 5:30pm reservations at Aureole, Charlie Palmer's Michelin one-starred restaurant that borders Time square. Their theater prix-fixe menu is a bargain at $55/person.

I really need to get one of those white balance cards - no matter what I tried, all my pictures had this red cast to them. (sigh)

Our meal started off with a selection of warm bread. I opted for the apple bread and it surprisingly delicious. It's hard to tell from the picture, but on the top was a slice of baked apple sprinkled with cinnamon. It was fantastic - I didn't even want to eat bread, and I ate like three of these things.

An amuse bouche - oyster with caviar.

Shiitake mushroom soup with pork and shrimp dumplings, pickled enoki mushrooms, and citrus juices. This was again really tasty. I'm of the school that any dumpling is a good dumpling and the citrus provided a nice acidity to the mushroom soup. My spirits definitely started to perk up.

Instead of the soup, Mr. Insom got the piced pumpkin ravioli with guanciale, huckleberries, pumpkin seeds, and arugula walnut pesto.

My main course was a Scottish salmon with kim chee, edamame, shiitake mushrooms, and sweet and sour sauce. It was beautifully presented with vibrant colors all around. It was also cooked perfectly... this was one of the best salmon dishes I've eaten in a long time. The sour elements in the sauce paired well the with citrus in the mushroom soup from before. I wasn't even interested in doing "half-half" with Mr. Insom. (That's where we trade dishes halfway through the meal.) He's not a fan of half-half, but that doesn't stop me from invoking it when the need arises. Tonight I wanted to keep my meal for myself.

He got the pecan crusted L. I. Pekin duck breast with sweet potato puree, black trumped mushrooms, and blackberry duck jus. It was also really good, but I was totally digging my salmon.

Prelude to our dessert -

For our dessert, he got a dark chocolate torte with ricotta sorbet and scotch butterscotch sauce.

It was good, but I liked mine better.

If I didn't want to do half-half during the main course, I definitely didn't want to do it during dessert. I might have stabbed someone for taking my plate away from me with the butter knife. I had a chilled concord grape soup with orange sherbet and graham streusel. I ordered this as a lark - since he got the chocolate torte, I'd figure I'd get the other selection. I was flabbergasted at how good this was, though! The concord soup was a rich velvety purple color with some sort of spicy kick. I thought it was ginger but the waiter informed me that the dish had crispy scallions and pickled mushrooms. Whoa. Floating throughout the soup were little crunchy bits of the streusel that had a texture similar to Grape Nuts. Hee - grape nuts in grape soup!

Warm donuts were served in an adorable paper cone.

And a madeline was given to us for later. I lost mine... :(

Such a wonderful meal!

Now time for Hair!

Getting to Hair was quite the adventure. For some reason, google maps had the wrong address for the theater. Consequently, we found ourselves sitting in crazy LA rush hour traffic six blocks away at 8pm. We literally sprinted in the streets to get to the theater, which probably was the most strenuous workout that I've had in months. At one point I seriously thought I was going to hurl due the large meal I had just eaten along with several glasses of wine.

But we made it - climbing into our seats the moment the curtain rose. Hallelujah!

It was an awesome show. :) Even though I have been listening to the soundtrack since I was in the 7th grade, I had never seen a live performance of it. You can totally see why this musical was so groundbreaking, both in terms of the content and music as well as the staging and direction. I loved the choreography - it was so organic.

It was totally worth flying across the country to see! :)

Top of NY

2009-11-25T00:23:00.000-08:00

New York! I love this town. As a prelude to a couple of New York posts, here are some pictures from the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Top of the Rock).

Here's the famous Christmas tree covered in scaffolding. The tree lighting ceremony is Dec 2 an they're currently thinning branches and putting up lights.

A brief foray into Central Park... I appreciated what was left of the fall foliage.

Next up, food and foreigners.

Palm Springs: Traffic and heat - what's not to like?

2009-11-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

One of Mr. Insom's colleagues was attending a conference in Palm Springs with his wife. They made plans to spend the weekend in Los Angeles so we could all hang out. Unfortunately, Mr. Insom forgot that we had made plans to go to NYC that same weekend, so if he wanted to see them, we had to drive out to Palm Springs on Thursday.

This wouldn't have been horrible if (1) we could leave at any time of the day on Thursday or (2) I didn't have to catch a flight at 7am the next morning. But alas, due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up leaving at 5pm, right smack dab in the heart of Southern California rush hour.

Ah good times. We left at 5pm, got there at 8:30pm. It took us more than an hour to get out of Los Angeles.

I had hoped that we could swing by the Palm Springs Art Museum, but we barely made our dinner reservation as is. This was actually my first time in Palm Springs. I really have no desire to go there. It's hot as Hades and there's really nothing to do except spa treatments and bake in the sun. I don't hate spa treatments, but they grow tiresome. I get tired of people poking and proding and just want to push their hands off of me.

Unfortunately, by the time we rolled up, it was pitch black so there wasn't much opportunity for taking in the beautiful scenery.

Dinner was at Johannes.

I had snails.

I had lamb.

Mr. Insom or someone had the house steak with California fries.

We had a trio of desserts - chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and an apple strudel.

It was okay. The company was nice and I remember enjoying the food, but there was nothing really memorable. You want to know what was memorable?

Waking up three hours later to take a 5 hour plane trip.

Fowler Museum: Tea and Baskets

2009-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we went to the Fowler Museum on the UCLA Campus to check out the Steeped in History: The Art of Tea exhibition. The exhibition ends on November 29, so you have to get moving if you want to see it and you really should. And it's free!

The Fowler Museum explores global arts and cultures with an emphasis on works from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas, past and present.

I think that the Fowler is the most underrated museum in Los Angeles. I've only been there a couple of times myself, and to be honest, I had never heard of it until a few years ago when I was doing research for my dissertation. I had never even set foot into the space until my visiting friend Nellie requested a trip to take a look at a couple of items in their collection that she was writing about in her dissertation about Congo ivory sculptures. But now it's my favorite museum in the city.

Why do I like it so much? It creates the most fascinating, well-researched, and comprehensive exhibits that I've ever seen. And what's more, they provide such a rich contextual background for the displayed objects and offer a distinctly multidisciplinary approach in their interpretation. It's like a glorious mash-up of an art and history museum, with a heavy dollop of ethnology.

Stepped in History brings together art from three continents and many centuries, including rare Chinese ceramics and paintings, 18th- and 19th-century Japanese ceramics and prints, extraordinary English and Colonial American paintings, historic photographs and documents, tea-serving paraphernalia and furniture from many countries, and much more—to tell the fascinating story of tea.

The opening begins with a display of fragrant teas from around the world.

The first section focuses on China, the birthplace of tea. Origin stories are discussed, like Bodhidharma, who accidentally fell asleep after meditating for nine years and cut off his eyelids, disgusted by his weakness. They fell to the ground and took root, growing into tea bushes. Think of that next time you're sipping on a chai latte. At any rate, people in China have been drinking tea for thousands of years.

These YiXing loose leaf teapots were unglazed and simply rinsed with water to clean. The gradual buildup of sediment enhanced the flavor. Different teapots were used with different teas.

Shallow bowls were used in the summer while the taller thicker bowls were used during the winter for added insulation.

Interspersed between objects are featured poems and writings about tea.

Seven Bowls of Tea
Lu Tong

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat.
The second bowl banishes my loneliness and melancholy.
The third bowl penetrates my withered entrails, finding nothing except a literary core of five thousand scrolls.
The fourth bowl raises a light perspiration, casting life's inequities out through my pores.
The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones.
The sixth bowl makes me one with the immortal, feathered spirits.
The seventh bowl I ned not drink, feeling only a pure wind rushing beneath my wings.

Moving on to Japan we learn that tea was first brought to Japan through priests and monks. They appreciated tea's ability to keep them alert during meditation.

Tea caddies.

In the Japanese tea ceremony, five elements come together - fire (brazier), water (jar), earth, (tea bowl), wood (tea and the tea caddy), and metal (tea kettle).

Woodcut of tea ceremony.

As ships sailed back and forth, trade opened and tea was introduced to other parts of the world. In the early 17th century in England it was all about coffee, tea, and chocolate.

Thomas Garway is said to be one of the first coffeehouse owners in London to begin selling tea. He provided a helpful account of its virtues in his advertisements in the mid 1660s:

It maketh the body active and lusty.
It is good against Crudites, strengthening the weakness of the Ventricle of Stomack, causing good Appetite and Digestion, and particularly for Men of a corpulent Body, and such as are great eaters of Flesh.
It prevents and cures Agues, Surfets and Feavers, by infusing a fit quantity of the Leaf, thereby provoking a most gentle Vomit and breathing of the Pores.

In addition to art and writing, the exhibition had examples of tea-inspired furniture and fashion. This silk satin tea gown could be worn for afternoon tea or dinner at home, but was not formal enough for evening outings.

Other examples of European tea luxury were in abundance.

But where did the British tea come from?

Well, they started by trading with China. But then China wanted actual cash for the tea, and the British was no way - what we have here is a trade imbalance! So they put on their thinking caps and were like, what could we trade with the Chinese so we could keep our cash? I know - Opium! With the Dutch introduction of the pipe expanded the use of opium as one addiction was traded for another. By the 1830s, 3 million Chinese were addicted. Crazy.

And just to muck around in other parts of the world, the British established tea plantations in India. In Darjeeling and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) plantations were created where the workers toiled in really crappy conditions. Social tension arose as workers of different economic and religious groups were forced to work together. By 1920 more than 1 million Indian laborers were producing tea for export and Chinese tea had virtually disappeared from the world market.

But if the British liked their tea, you know who liked it more? The colonists. Here's a fact I didn't know - the colonists were actually drinking more tea than England. They really liked the stuff. England forced them to only import it from them to eliminate foreign competition. When they added taxes to tea, the colonists went apeshit.

This was such a fascinating exhibit (I only touched on a small portion of it here). It reminded me of Mark Kurlansky's book Salt: A World History. There's such a fervor nowadays to know where your food comes from. This exhibition gives you the full story behind tea.

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art was the other major exhibition on display. This was also really remarkable. Grass Roots showcases the art and history of humble yet beautifully crafted coiled baskets in the American South and Africa. It explores the ways in which these utilitarian objects got gradually transformed into art and markers of cultural identity.

Borrowing from African traditions, baskets in America were initially used as a farm tool for processing rice on the plantations of South Carolina. Using a wide winnowing basket called a fanner, workers could separate rice grains from their husks by tossing them in the air.

Slaves that had experience with rice were valuable.

I love how the exhibition showcased artists themselves. Videos showed artists crafting baskets, selecting grasses and materials, and teaching younger generations various techniques.

Rice features prominently in many West African ceremonies. Weddings, rites of passage, and funerals include gifts of rice. Antelope headdresses were worn by Bamana men in Mali during dances to call on the spirits for a successful rice harvest.

I also appreciate how the exhibition makes an effort to include contemporary artists.

Contemporary baskets are typically made of sweetgrass, bulrush, and palmetto leaf. With increased development, the natural habitat of the sweetgrass is fading and basket makers are forced to travel farther to find their materials.

Since natural materials have become scarce in Africa, artists use materials like plastic coated telephone wire, synthetic threads from imported rice or flour bags, and castoff items from nearby factories. Traditional forms meet modern materials.

Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives is the permanent exhibition and it alone makes the Fowler worth a visit.

It organizes its collection of objects in several themes that encourage contemplation about how objects and art intersect with people's lives around the world.

For example, one theme explores the link between knowledge and the communication of history. Painted vessels from Peru document the lives of historic people who left no written records. Burmese marionettes serve as memory aids, designed to assist owners and audience members with the recollection of events, people, and sacred places.

Another theme of art as facilitator in transformation allows the museum to present objects such as funeral masks worn during morning in Gabon and New Ireland, power figures from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexican devotional paintings.

After Steeped in History, I took Mr. Insom to get some, what else, tea. I've passed by Espresso Profeta a couple of times and it looked like it had a nice patio, so we trudged in.

I thought it was cool how they had all these teapots on display and for purchase.

One green tea for me! Let's ponder about Bodhidharma's eyelids.

Mr. Insom brought the tea theme to a screeching halt when he ordered a soy cappuccino. He said it was the best he's had in a while, so I guess it was okay. I guess.

Disclaimer: When the guy at the counter saw me snap snapping away, he inquired if I we were tourists. Mr. Insom mumbled something about a blog, and then the guy gave us a free cheese bread thingee! It was freelicious. lol Granted, the place was about to close and they probably would have had to throw it out or something, but suh-weeet.

A nibbled muffin.

Good times.
Good tea.
Good exhibit.
Go to the Fowler. Did I mention that it's free?

Insomniac out.

Aquarium of the Pacific: Where every fish is your personal Moby Dick

2009-11-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

This post begins my never-ending quest to take decent photographs in an aquarium.

I arrived so full of hope and anticipation.
I left dejected, body and spirit broken.

What follows is the true accounting of events between 9am and 11:00am on Sunday, November 8th...

Let's get the details, first. I'm talking about the Aquarium of the Pacific, located in Long Beach along the edge of the harbor.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is one of the largest aquariums in the United States. Its more than 500 species fill 19 major habitats and 32 focus exhibits and take visitors on a journey throughout the Pacific Ocean's three regions: Southern California/Baja, the Tropical Pacific, and the Northern Pacific. They have a movie theater where they show animated films, a cafe that offers sustainable seafood, and even offer cruises of the harbor and marine life.

The aquarium is open every day of the year except Christmas from 9-6pm and ticket prices are $23.95 for adults, $11.95 children (3-11), and $20.95 for seniors.

I suppose my first mistake was thinking I could do this place in two hours. I had to leave Long Beach at 11am so I could attend an awesome food event in Studio City. I was just going to power through taking pictures like a madwoman. No signage reading. No calm contemplation in the face of the blue deep. No learning. Just pictures.

Actually, my real first mistake was probably waking up at 5am after a few hours of sleep to take Mr. Insomniac to the Long Beach airport and having several cups of strongly caffeinated green tea with my dad.

But anyways, I digress, and I haven't even shown a damn picture of a fish.

Because I had to leave early, and because I was desperately trying to avoid the calvary of strollers and screaming youngsters and well-meaning parents feeding their kids wrong information that descend like locusts, I showed up at 8:50 and was the first person through the doors.

Since the Aquarium is unlikely to have "adults only" days, I *highly* recommend showing up early if you go on a weekend. You can have a whole gallery to yourself for like 10 minutes. lol.

I made a beeline for the sea lion exhibit.

It was really amazing. I was in the area alone until I was joined by a single woman. For some reason the sea lions were really active and were incredibly interested in us watching them. They pressed their bodies against the glass, tried to eat our hands, looked at us with those adorable eyes, and followed us as we moved around the exhibit. I was completely enthralled. I love having these sorts of transformative experiences in museum settings.

I'll have to hold on to the memories though, as my pictures sure as hell didn't do the experience any justice.

I was incredibly frustrated with how the fish kept moving. What is their deal?

If anyone wants to offer me photography tips - I was shooting with a 35mm 2.0 lens and a 50mm 1.4 lens and a zoom lens.

It wouldn't be an aquarium post without the obligatory clownfish.

Lots of Nemos.

I love creatures that know how to stay still and aren't behind reflective glass.

Things you can touch. Don't stick your finger in the hole though, or you'll die.

I touched the crap out of this stingray.

Best sign ever. That scratching hand looks like it's doing some real damage.

I think my best pictures were of the jellyfish. Though meeting one in the wild will have you begging for a group golden shower, behind glass these creatures are a thing of beauty. Slowly drifting along, their tentacles undulate in the water and their arms look like see-through gossamer.

I was also able to capture the colors fairly accurately, unlike all the other pictures I took.

For some reason, there was a Chinese dragon parade in the lobby. I went with it.

I went back to the sea lion exhibit before I left to see if my buddy was still around. Sure enough it was crowded and he had fled.

Why is that parent walking his child along the edge of the exhibit?

Since this experience didn't go as planned and I didn't get a real chance to explore the museum in detail, I plan to go back. I think I'm going to do one of those nerdy behind the scenes tours. It made sense for me to get a membership ($50) and I got one free ticket for Mr. Insom with my membership packet. :)

Stay tuned for more underwater frustration!

Dracula at Disney

2009-11-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

Well, not exactly Count Dracula... but close.

Are people still doing Halloween blog entries? lol

For Halloween we returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall for their annual FrightFest. That's not what they actually call it - I just made that up. But every Halloween they show a classic silent black and white horror film and pair it with live organ accompaniment. Past movies have been Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and scheduled for this night was Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

I've been to two concerts at Disney before, and neither of them involved the organ that is prominently featured in the hall. Designed by Frank Gehry and Manuel Rosales of Rosales Organ Builders, the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ contains 6,314 pipes ranging in size from a pencil to a telephone pole, and is voiced with a wide dynamic range.

More nerdy organ facts:

Lowest note is CCCC whose frequency is 16 cycles per second, which is C below the lowest note on the piano.

The highest note has a frequency of 10,548 cycles per second, which is an octave plus a third higher than the top note of a piano.

The organ was shipped from Germany by sea in six containers; total weight is over 40 metric tons.

So I was pretty excited to get to hear the organ in its proud unadorned glory. Another plus? I like vampires.

Unlike our usual habit, we actually made it to the theater an hour early. Shocker! Much better than running from our car to our seats like we did last time we came to the Disney Concert Hall.

Because we were early, and hadn't eaten, we decided to grab a meal at the cafe.

The cafe offers a selection of cold sandwiches (roast beef, tuna fish, etc.), salads, and wraps. It also has a hot carving station that serves a choice of two proteins and sides. I got the mahi mahi with lemon caper butter sauce and Mr. Insom got roasted pork au jus. Both were served with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies. I liked the grilled veggies the best. Hmm. Oh, Mr. Insom's tomato soup was really good too - nice and garlicky, the way I like it.

There were several people walking around in costume - I saw a scary clown, an adorable boy that looked like Ichabod Crane complete with a stuffed raven perched on his shoulder, musketeers, superheros, and lots more. If people weren't in costume, they were wearing festive orange or quirky accessories like devil horns. I think next time I might go in costume - I was wearing something black with amber beading, but I could do better.

But see, this is what happens when you arrive with enough leisure time. You're able to people-watch and stroll along the halls in contemplation.

I got Mr. Insom to take a couple of stealth pics before the ushers informed us of the no pictures rule. Why can't you take pictures with no flash before the concert? So lame. Anyways, we were greeted with the movie poster projected on a large screen and lots of demonic red lighting.

And were seated next to the organist where I could watch him make movie magic. It was really cool. I'm not that familiar with organ music - the only piece I really know is Bach's Toccata and Fugue and I was amazed by all the different nuances and subtleties that the organ can make. At the first notes during the opening credits of the movie, the crowd burst into spontaneous applause.

The organist, Clark Wilson, informed the audience during his opening remarks that silent picture organists and composers could make as much as $60,000 a year in the 1920s. Whoa. I was glad that we were seated with a clear view of the action and took several glimpses at Wilson making his movie magic. :)

Nosferatu is a classic film that is on most of those Top 100 Films Of All Time That You Must See Before You Die lists. The plot follows Bram Stoker's Dracula novel very closely - so closely that Stoker's estate sued the makers of the film and all prints of the film were ordered to be destroyed. But fortunately for us, copies had already been diseminated around the world and now the movie is in public domain on the internets and everywhere else. Whee!

The other unusual thing about Nosferatu, is that unlike subsequent vampires, Count Orlock was rodent-like, associated with rats and plagues, and didn't have the typical suave seductress vibe going on.

Observe my photographic evidence.

Hot.

Sartorial hot.

Angsty emo lukewarm.

Smoking hot.

And then we have the Nosferatu vamp, played by Max Schreck. Hmm.

*warning: spoilers ahead! But like you didn't know how this ended anyway... *

But anyways, in the movie, young Thomas Hutter pays a visit to Count Orlock to talk to him about some property. All the local villagers warn him against it, but he doesn't care. Sure enough, he shows up at the castle, and Count Orlock brings major creep-vibe. Just look what happens when Hutter accidently cuts his finger...

Then Orlock looks at a cameo of Hutter's wife Ellen and is all, "what a lovely throat." Uh - uh! Oh no you didn't!

Things go from bad to worse when Orlock decides to purchase a house next door to Hutter. He spends most of his night spying on Ellen and doing mind control stuff and creeping everyone out.

Ellen has a plan to destroy Orlock and lures him to her bedchamber. He travels to her room in his iconic pose.

For a pure (viriginal) maiden, Ellen sure takes to Orlock. Even though Orlock isn't your traditional seductress, he does appear to have a way with women. When his hand reaches her breast, she looks a little, um, passionate.

Orlock kneels by her beside and begins feeding on her. This was one of my favorite images from the film. Really creepy.

Consumed with blood lust, he loses track of time and is greeted with (and killed by) the rising sun.

All joking aside, I enjoyed the movie and thought the organist was marvelous. The audience gave him two curtain calls and a standing ovation.

Sure there were times when the audience tittered a bit (like when Orlock walks from the shipyard to his new house while carrying his own coffin), but was also some beautiful and inventive shots, great acting, and genuinely creepy moments. Moreover, the drama created by the organ added a whole new dimension.

Nosferatu also contributed to the mythology of vampires by being the first source to posit that vampires are unable to stand sunlight. And unlike the novel Dracula, when Orlock bit someone, they didn't turn into vampires, they just stayed dead.

All in all, a great way to spend Halloween. :)

And if you're interested in watching the entire movie, it's available on youtube in its entirety...

It's not always sunny in LA

2009-11-04T00:38:00.001-08:00

Last night we had all sorts of cool foggy weather going on. Spooky. It lasted for about 20 minutes and then it was gone.

I get excited when we have something other than 75 degree weather here.

That's it. It was foggy. I took some pics, and watched Million Dollar Listing. The end.

Disney at Disney

2009-10-21T13:09:00.001-07:00

As an early birthday present, Mr. Insom bought tickets at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to watch "The Disney Symphonic Legacy", performance featuring works from Nightmare Before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White.

One year we saw Joshua Bell (if you haven't read the Pultizer prize-winning story in the Washington Post of him playing undercover-style to commuters, you really should).
This year it was all about Disney - which was apropos and actually the first time an all Disney program had been played in the Disney Concert Hall (go figure). I'm not a Disney affectionado, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

But before I get into the details of the performance, I've got to talk about this extraordinary venue.

Designed by Frank Gehry and acoustically designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, the Walt Disney Concert Hall has been lauded as one of the most premiere concert venues in the world. The entire complex is on 4 acres and consists of the 2 outdoor amphitheaters, garden, smaller recital hall where pre-concert talks are given.

I loved how he went from this

to this

It serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale and is the perfect blend of form and function. Gehry originally intended the building to be covered in stone, but changed his mind, partly because he felt that the shiny surface would work well in the changing and reflecting light of the Los Angeles sun.

Speaking of reflecting sun, here's an interesting little tidbit I learned on wikipedia...

Parts of the concert hall were initially made with highly polished reflective panels which were amplified by the structure's concave walls. Nearby residents of neighboring condominiums suffered from a reflected sunlight glare that was concentrated in a manner similar to a parabolic mirror. The resulting heat made some rooms of nearby condominiums unbearably warm, caused the air-conditioning costs of these residents to skyrocket, and created hot spots on adjacent sidewalks of as much as 140 ºF!

After complaints from neighboring buildings and residents, Gehry Partners conducted a computer analysis of the building's surfaces identifying the offending panels. In 2005 these were dulled by lightly sanding the panels to eliminate unwanted glare and prevent people from being fried.

I find this sort of hilarious.

These tree columns in the lobby are wrapped in douglas fir and provide structural stability as well as a graceful entry.

Douglas fir panels create the soaring overhead canopy in the auditorium. That particular wood is used throughout the venue because of its aesthetic similarity to the wood used in musical instruments. It creates a warm and cozy atmosphere. It sort of feels as though you're sitting in a great big barge or ark.

Every corner you turn in this place offers an interesting view.

This is how it looks at night.

This is how it looks at night with a crappy iphone camera.

The hall seats 2,265 people and honestly, there are few bad seats in the house. The seat you select should depend on the particular performance. The musicians are on slight risers and the back of the theater isn't very far away from the stage at all.

For our performance, we were on the front left side of the front orchestra which gave us great views of the singers during the Snow White piece.

However, I would have preferred to be further back and higher up (like maybe the East and West sections or the upper orchestra and terrace) because there were lots of cool percussion elements in the Nightmare and Pirates pieces that I could barely see. These orchestra west seats would have been cool, for example.

Sitting behind the orchestra and the choir would have been awesome too for the first half of this concert. One of my favorite things about participating in music performances was the communication that goes on between the conductor and the musicians. As an audience member, you aren't privy to that, but if I were to sit in the orchestra view seats, I can get that experience.

I just bought tickets to see Elgar's cello concerto (squee!) in March (since it's a concerto, I got direct center seats at the back of the orchestra section so the cellist will be facing me), but the next orchestral concert I go to, I'm totally doing the orchestra view.

My seats:

On the program was

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Concert Oveture* (Danny Elfman)
Sleeping Beauty - Suite (Peter Tchaikovsky)
Pirates of the Caribbean - A Symphonic Portrait* (Hans Zimmer)
The Lion King - Suite (Elton John/Hans Zimmer)

~~Intermission~~

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - A Symphonic Retelling* (Frank Churchill & Larry Morey)

*World symphonic premiere

Conducting the orchestra was longtime Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor John Mauceri making his Disney Concert Hall Debut. When he approached the podium and turned to the audience, thunderous applause drowned out his introduction. He marveled at the concert hall, especially how the audience has a visible view of the stage from all vantage points, and served as a thoughtful host for the evening by providing plenty of detail about each of the performed pieces. He also arranged and prepared all of the works for performance.

I love love love Nightmare Before Christmas. It's right up there in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas territory for me. I would love to see it on Broadway. And I thought Danny Elfman did a marvelous job with composing the score and songs. This was the premiere of the orchestral version of the overture, and Elfman was in attendance. I would have walked by him as I have no idea what he looks like, but since Mr. Insom was an Oingo Boingo fan, he pointed him out to me.

As much as I enjoyed Nightmare, I thought Pirates was the highlight of the first half. It's amazing how much of the character of those movies is directly derived from the music. From the jolly "a pirate's life for me" to plaintive "heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die," that movie had many memorable music moments. With the help of a full choir from a local university, Mauceri managed to capture all three films in a three movement piece. Really well done.

The first movement, "The Living and the Dead," featured etheral and ominous sounds from a wordless choir of the hereafter. The second movement, "Jack Sparrow," was a rousing tribute to the bad boy pirate. "Hoist the Colors and Drink Up, Me Hearties," opened with a melancholic boy soprano singing the song from the third film complete with clanging tubular bells which shifted into a triumphal march. And of course it wouldn't have been a Pirates musical moment without a lusty choral rendition of the original song ("drink up me hearties, yo ho!") from the ride that still runs at Disneyland.

The final selection (and what most of the audience was waiting for) was Snow White.

No, not slutty Snow White... pure and virginal Snow White who liked to sing with furry woodland creatures.

Yep, that's the one. Mauceri adapted the original Snow White script and score into a semi-staged reading for 10 singer-actors, orchestra, and choir and the result was a resounding success. As he described pouring through the "yellowing manuscripts" of 1937 in his attempts to create this abridged version, the audience listened in palatable rapture.

The dwarfs were seated on right hand of the stage, the other three characters on the left. It must be have been challenging to do these roles - unlike a typical stage performance, you're not looking at your fellow actors, but instead facing the audience. There were no elaborate costumes, no props at the actors' disposal. All they had were their bodies and voices to convey the characters.

Many of the songs were familiar - "Whistle While You Work", "Someday My Prince Will Come", "Heigh Ho" - but were experienced in a richer way during this piece.

Snow White was appropriately saccharine sweet, and Ashley Brown was pitch perfect in her role.

The evil Queen brought the homicidal crazy in spades and made a nearby little girl cower next to her mother. I knew the actress Ruth Williamson from Nip/Tuck, and she was amazing in this performance. Pretty scary! I remember my little brother hated Snow White when he was a kid because he found it terrifying. After watching this, I can easily see why.

The dwarfs inhabited their namesakes well and provided many hilarious moments. Doc did a great job blustering and Grumpy had a scowl on his face for most of the performance. Great job with the acting - I enjoyed them very much.

I was most impressed by the duet with Snow White and her little whistling bird friend (a couple of the sopranos in the choir), especially since I can't whistle. Those women were like whistling sixteenth notes! lol

When the performance ended, it was as though a spell had broken and the audience lept to their feet to give an extended ovation for several minutes. I can't remember the last time I've witnessed such excitement in a concert hall.

As an encore, the performers did "True Love's Kiss" from Enchanted which pokes good-natured fun at Snow White and the assorted Disney canon.

I left with a smile on my face. Disney's not all bad after all. :)