Ice Lolly Sticks, Jazz Chickens, & Ninja Sheep

Within the last month, E and I have been to the Kodak "The New Home for the Academy Awards" Theatre in Hollywood twice to see British comedians. It's a nice, posh theater and feels more intimate than it looks on tv. Last month, we saw Ricky Gervais, who was quite hilarious. His stand-up persona is not too far off from his David Brent character on the UK version of The Office. Very funny and very raunchy.

Tonight was a special treat. We saw probably my favorite British comedian and definitely my very favorite transvestite--Eddie Izzard. Tonight he happened to be an "off duty transvestite," as he put it, which is fine by me. He looked quite dapper in his jeans, coat with tails, and facial hair. Not only is he downright funny, but he is intelligent, often joking about history or current events. But, along with that he can be downright silly as well. He's just brilliant. Oh, and early in the show, he said something about a hamster!

I've been lucky enough to see some of Eddie's shows he did in the past year or so at The Coronet (before it became Largo). He'd come to L.A. for a week or two to test out material for this tour. I really loved the thing he did about bees, but it didn't make the cut. He did do the one about the giraffe trying to warn the other giraffe about a tiger. Maybe only Ren knows what I'm talking about and maybe I'm just crazy. There was also plenty of the usual badger and spoon talk as well.

We got sweet t-shirts tonight. I'm planning to wear mine to an upcoming event, so I can't say anything about it yet.

Gifted

I'll admit it. I love presents. Who doesn't, right? I was just thinking about this because it seems like people have been extra generous lately and have given me stuff, without even an occasion as reason. I really appreciate it and hope I thanked everyone proficiently. I also hope to get better about the "just because" gift to people I care about.

Yesterday, I received some music from a friend, who shall remain anonymous. I didn't ask for it and really did not expect 10 songs, but was thrilled. It made my drive to work a little more fun this morning too.

Here are a few other things I've received lately:

One of my friends finds the best hamster stuff. Check out these erasers! Gah! I will of course never use them for anything but cuteness. And to teach my hamster about the evils of fast food.

The Wegmans tote bag and Naughty Naughty Pets pet journal were sent to me all the way from an pal in Boston! It was a very thoughtful and moving gesture. Thank you again!

E felt guilty just picking up free comics this past weekend, so he bought First In Space and Korgi for me. For the record, I just took the freebies from the two places I went to.

P.S. If anyone is wondering how the Kids In The Hall show was, it was GREAT! The five original guys performed at a tiny local theater. All new material, all really funny. I talked to Dave Foley a bit and was a total dork. And I sold a Snapple to Jason Priestly.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

I've been intending to do some sort of week-in-review post for oh, a week or so now. It's been a busy one and an overall good one. I'll just touch on some of the highlights, thus far.

Last Saturday, after our lovely walk among the coyotes, we decided to take in dinner and a movie. E still had a couple of tokens for the Holly Trolley, which is to help people bar-hop and avoid the parking hassles in Hollywood on Thursday through Saturday nights.

• The Good: We parked at Hollywood & Highland and sat at the counter at California Pizza Kitchen. We were served and ate in near record time. Also, we really enjoyed Hot Fuzz. In spite of nearly being late, I was able to get some popcorn too.
  

• The Bad: After dinner we missed the Holly Trolley. So, we walked quite quickly to try to catch it at the next stop. We ended up walking to the Arclight, which isn't that big of a deal, but we had full bellies and had already gone on a good walk. As we were cutting it close on time, we had to walk really fast. I hate getting sweaty when I'm not intending to, so I was kind of annoyed. After the movie, we had trouble catching the trolley to go back, as it did not follow the route that is listed online. We walked back about halfway and caught it, but they would not take the tokens. The Holly Trolley sucks.

• The Ugly: Drunk people in Hollywood on a Saturday night are awful. Especially the ones that scream right in your ear as you are innocently descending to the depths of the parking garage.
  

Having gone to a late movie on Saturday night, we overslept on Sunday.

• The Good: We ended up having an early dinner at Birds and catching the free Asssscat show at the UCB Theater. Mo Collins was the guest monologist and she was pretty funny. She's also really, really skinny. I wanted to buy her a sandwich.
  

• The Bad: We missed out on the L.A. Times Festival of Books. Maybe next year. I say that every year. I've never been to it.
  

• The Ugly: We did go to the once-a-month L.A. Comic Con, which is pretty lame. The ugliest part of this is that I'm only now finding out that an artist I really like (David Petersen) had been there.

I'll group various things from last week here:

• The Good: Awesome episode of Heroes this past Monday! I'm sort of bummed that the season is winding down.
  
  On Tuesday, I saw Tim Finn play at Largo. I'd never seen him perform and it was a treat. He was mesmerizing and I could have listened to him for hours. It never hurts to see someone good in such an intimate setting where they are only 20 feet away.
  
  Thursday night was opening night of the Silver Lake Film Festival. I chatted with some nice guys about The Office while waiting for the theater to open and I met a really cute dog.
  
  We got to see Circle Jerks perform for free.They sounded great.
  
  On Friday night, we saw a block of short films that, in general, did not suck. That was followed by some pumpkin pie.
  
  I had a bit of a day of beauty on Saturday, starting with getting my hair trimmed, getting my annual pedicure, and updating my highlights. I also managed to stop in a couple of comic shops for Free Comic Book Day and picked up several issues. We saw a great documentary called King of Kong. It's an excellent companion piece to a film we saw at Sundance called Chasing Ghosts, which features many of the same people.

• The Bad: Overall, the film festival organization has left much to be desired. The opening night screening started really late. On top of that, I didn't even enjoy the film Fay Grim. There was a lot of confusion, delays, and general clusterfuckery the following night for the shorts program as well. I'm glad my pass is free.
  

• The Ugly: Shopping for a baby shower gift at Babies 'R Us. Now I know why people hate that place. I felt so tired Thursday night that I left the Circle Jerks show after a few songs. My house remains a disaster. Little Guy is limping again. My feet before the pedicure.
  

Today, I'm helping some friends with their table at the Santa Fe Art Colony Open Studios, possibly having coffee with a friend (too overextended), and volunteering at the Kids In The Hall show at the Steve Allen Theater. I'm confident that those will all be good things.

I've Got A Case Of The Mondays

The weekend was good. Very busy with very little sleep. So, today I am paying for it and feeling really tired. It probably doesn't help that I started my day by being taken for a walk by a large, strong pitbull mix! I'll give you some of the highlights from the past few days:

• On Friday night, we saw Casino Royale, as I briefly mentioned in a previous entry. I'm definitely not what you would call a James Bond aficionado, but I really enjoyed this movie. The casting was great and the action was exciting and not campy like in many Bond flicks.

• I worked for a few hours on Saturday, instead of 10 like I normally do, which was nice. I was out in time to see the Swazzle puppet production B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog. I was very excited to see it, as one of the characters was modeled after my hamster. It was a very cute and funny show. Tinker, the hamster, stole it, of course.

• After napping from 9:30pm to 11:00pm on Saturday, we went to The Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. We go to this fairly often, but being a variety comedy show, it is always different. I was excited to see Jello Biafra, who performed a couple of essays...one very political and one related to music. The guest who intrigued E was Hans Fjellestad, who directed the film Moog. He performed some weird music. Not bad for $5. The show ran really long though and we didn't get to bed until 3:30am.
  

• We slept for a few hours and then got up early on Sunday for the 30th Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade. We took Rusty with us and met up with a couple of friends. I've uploaded some of the hundreds of photos I took to my flickr site.

• In lieu of a much-needed nap, I ended up baking brownies (!) to take to some other friends' house who invited us to dinner. Of course that entailed going to the store for ingredients. I was skeptical, but they actually turned out pretty tasty.

• Before dinner, we met up with our hosts for the free Sunday night Asssscat show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood. That's another case of never knowing quite what you're going to get, but it got pretty out-of-hand last night. Funny, as usual, but really bizarre in ways I'm not prepared to discuss.

• It was fun to end the weekend with a yummy homemade meal in the company of good friends. And the brownies were indeed a hit.
  

If You Like To Laugh...

...go see Borat! It is hilarious! I always loved the Borat segments the best on Da Ali G Show, which HBO is re-airing tomorrow in case you've never seen it. The movie was laugh-out-loud funny. According to an upcoming article [spoiler alert] in Newsweek, there is a rumor that people over 35 will not find the film to be funny. As much as I hate to admit that I am over 35 (just barely!), I'm happy to report that it's just not true. I think humorless people who don't "get" satire (of any age) will not think it's funny and may even be offended. All I have to say to that is open your eyes and lighten up. Besides, laughter is good for your health.

While not officially participating in NaBloPoMo, I am striving to do at least a post-a-day in November. I imagine that on some days, like today, I'll end up with more than one due to my night owl tendencies (see previous).

Like A Fungus

I'm not hungry right now, but I'm going to eat my words. I've bad-mouthed 30 Rock, declaring it "not funny." However, I just watched the past two weeks' episodes and yeah, it's growing on me. I actually laughed out loud a couple times. I noticed two big differences in these shows from the previous ones. No Jane Krakowski and limited Tracy Morgan. Not only was the interplay between Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin quite amusing, but the weakest link was missing and the most annoying person on the show was somewhat subdued with minimal screen time.

Anyone up for a one-minute dance party?

The Jill And Julia Show

Due to financial contraints, we really haven't been going out to many non-free events lately. Besides The Hollywood Bowl, for which we bought $1 and $5 tickets months ago, we haven't gone to many movies or live music shows. However, last week, we decided to splurge and go to Largo. Two very talented women, Jill Sobule and Julia Sweeney, performed together and even debuted their own theme song. Jill sang many of her wonderful songs and Julia told fabulous, funny stories. The hilarious Greg Proops opened for them and, as usual, had me laughing so hard I was crying and nearly peeing in my pants. What a bonus!

Jill and Julia will be performing together again at Largo in October (not sure about Mr. Proops). If you are in the L.A. area, you might just want to check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Good Things

I've certainly had a weekend full of distractions from my previous week-from-hell at work. I'd be lying if I said things were 100% perfect over that past few days, but isn't that life? Among some expected unpleasantness, there were many, many good things.

E and I enjoyed the annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night. I always enjoy the program as I am pretty ignorant about most classical music, but do recognize quite a bit of Tchaikovsky's pieces. Every year, the evening ends with the orchestra playing his 1812 Overture, accompanied by the USC Trojan Marching Band, and some glorious fireworks. If you are in or near L.A. and haven't seen a pyrotechnics show at the Bowl, I recommend it.

I had planned on getting an early start on Saturday and possibly checking out this month's Felt Club with a friend. That didn't quite work out, mostly because I was feeling very ill from an antibiotic I'm currently taking.* E and I did stop by the craft fair, very briefly, much later in the day. I was distracted by another objective though, which was to find out if Meltdown would consider my book for its self-published section. Much to my surprise, the buyer took a quick look and said he'd buy three copies from me. I got really excited and subsequently turned off my brain. Only after E and I did some calculating, did I realize that I'd actually paid the store a small fee to sell Hamster Haiku. Oh well...my book is for sale at Meltdown!!!

After leaving Meltdown, we took a quick detour down to Melrose for a quick slice at Albano's, our favorite place for pizza in L.A. Luckily, it agreed with my troubled gut.

We'd purchased tickets in advance for Miranda July's show at the Steve Allen Theater for Saturday night. It was a fun and very interactive show. In fact, E and I were picked near the beginning of the show to participate (one of my worst nightmares!) and it actually turned out okay. Our selection was based on us being the couple in the audience who had been together the longest. We were whisked out of the theater, given ill-fitting shirts to put on over our clothes, and brought on stage with Miranda where we answered questions about how we met. Her assistants then led us to the backstage area where there was a bed. They instructed us to lie in various positions (spooning, back-to-back, etc) with our eyes closed. There was a video camera above us and we were being broadcast onto a screen onstage while Miranda told a story relating to us (we were 'Donny' and 'Fiona'). Back in our seats, we enjoyed the rest of the multimedia program, which continued to tell Donny and Fiona's story. The groovy thing was that at the very end, Miranda wrapped up the story by bringing it around to our story, complete with details we had shared while up on stage. Initially, when we were chosen to participate, I was mortified, but it ended up being very cool. We even chatted with Miranda briefly afterwards and she seemed quite pleased with our "performance." Apparently, several people thought we were actors who were just part of the show.

After the theater event, we ended up going to a low-key party to see a friend of ours who lives in England, but was in town visiting family. It was good to catch up, not only with her, but with some of her other friends that we haven't seen since she moved.

I slept in later than planned on Sunday. I did manage to get up and take care of some chores and errands. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, but we didn't make it outside until nearly 5pm. We did take a nice walk around the neighborhood though for about an hour-and-a-half. Then we hopped in the car and went to Asssscat, a free improv show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Even though E and I were, by far, two of the oldest people in the mostly college-age crowd, it was a good time with lots of laughs.

Yes, I'm tired and up late again, but I am off from work Monday. Another good thing.

*Part of me my** hellish week was contracting some random infection in one of my fingers, which continued swelling and being quite painful.

**What the hell? I've turned into a pirate or a leprechaun!

A Tale Of Two Eddies

There's good news and there's sad news.

Last night we got to see Eddie Izzard perform at the Coronet Theatre, a pretty small venue. He's one of my favorite comedians and definitely my favorite transvestite. Last night he wasn't in drag and was a bit scruffy. Still as funny as hell. I appreciate his humor because there is intellegence and knowledge of current events behind it. Thanks Ren for clueing me in that he was in town again this week. I knew I'd missed him last week and had no idea I'd get another chance! So, that's the good news. I needed a laugh and got several, sitting pretty close to one of the funniest men on the planet.

And now, the not-so-good news. Moose, the dog best known for originating the role of "Eddie" on Fraiser, died last Thursday. He had a long life and enjoyed retirement for the past six and a half years. He was a published dog-author and Rusty and I thoroughly enjoyed his book.

Rarely A Dull Moment

It's been a long, busy weekend for me. It started Thursday night and then I was off today because I have to work this coming Saturday. I've started to write about my weekend a couple of times, but was being too wordy.

In short, the past several days have included friends, s'mores, arts, music, crafts, annoyance, good food, comedy, creating, more music, more friends, classic cars, more comedy, some sleep (not enough of course), some organization and cleaning (also not enough), and a couple of unexpected celebrity sightings. I guess it hasn't been too different than a lot of my weekends, but it just seems like it has been exceptionally busy.

I'm finally taking a bit of a breather to update here, upload some photos and listen to some music I picked up almost two weeks ago. Currently playing and enjoying Panic! At The Disco's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. I still have laundry, reading, creating, and organizing ahead of me tonight.

Where Have All My Weekends Gone?

This past weekend flew by, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, like most of them do. And most of my weekends are three-dayers (I'm off on Fridays), except when I have to work on Saturday and then, well, it doesn't even feel like a weekend. A few highlights:

• I finally got my non-iPod mp3 player cleaned up to make room for podcasts.
• I met up with Ren for some lunch and conversation. I still need to get on what we discussed.
  
• We had dinner with a couple of friends we hadn't seen in awhile, at a favorite restaurant we hadn't been to in awhile.
  
• We went to a midnight comedy show and stayed after to put up our portable screen for a film event the next morning.
  
• We attended the screening of Paradise Lost 2: Revelations Sunday morning at CFI West. They also showed a snippet of the first documentary, which I'd like to see in its entirety. There was also a Q&A with the Free The West Memphis 3 Support Group. Check out the website if you haven't heard about this story. I'm personally sickened by our supposed system of "justice." Ick.
• We got dressed up for a good friend's 40th birthday party, which was held at The Hollywood Entertainment Museum, on the original Cheers set. The museum itself is kind of lame, which is probably why it's closing its doors at the end of the month. It was fun, but I regret not having a camera with me to get a shot of the cake that was shaped like two giant cupcakes. I know a couple of you would have appreciated it!

Weekend Update

Jenn was right. I need one of these. I did wake up this morning, around 5:30, when one of my five alarms went off. I even got up to pee and then decided I could sleep for another 20 minutes. So, three hours later, my cell phone wakes me up...it's a co-worker calling to see if I'm coming in. I should have arrived at work an hour earlier. Happy F*&#ing Monday!

I did have a very busy and fun weekend, which could account for the start-of-the-week fatigue. I'm off on Fridays, so my weekend usually starts on Thursday evening. Since we had some friends coming down from San Francisco on Friday, my weekend started with a cleaning frenzy. We stayed up until 4:30 am Friday, got a few hours of sleep, and then resumed readying the house until that evening when our guests arrived. The four of us had a fun dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Ruen Pair.

Since the purpose of D & R's visit was to find an apartment to move into next month, my Saturday was fairly open. I took advantage and slept in, really late. Then, I teamed up with Ren and headed over to Felt Club, a mini craft fair behind Meltdown Comics. No crafts were obtained, but I did buy a few books. There were several other things I wanted to purchase, but am holding out for Comic Con and/or freebie hand-me-downs from Ren. I was drawn to a little indie book called "The Suicidal Dog," and knew I'd probably buy it before even looking at it. (Yes, I do occasionally judge a book by its cover or title!) So, I picked it up and it turns out it was written by a friend of mine who I haven't seen in awhile! That sealed the deal for sure.

Following our perusal of the glory of Meltdown, which may now be my second favorite store, behind Amoeba Music, we headed back over the hill to Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank. I had a brown sugar cinnamon cupcake that was delicious! I'm not quite the cupcake connoisseur that Ren is, so I was surprised to see how she ate hers. That Ren is always the practical one! My cupcake lunch was followed by a lovely little nap, as Eric had gone out with our friends to show them some different areas of town.

Once Eric, D, and R came back, we made plans to go to the Arclight and see Thank You For Smoking. The movie is a brilliant satire and is laugh-out-loud funny. However, it also makes you think, so you get a little bit of everything. Great cast and performances too. We followed the movie with a late-night dinner at Fred 62. Our houseguests were exhausted and got some sleep before driving back up to the Bay Area Sunday morning.

As usual, my sweet dogs got me a couple of cute cards and gifts for Mother's Day. They gave me A History of Violence on dvd and a fun Punkee Monkee. I'm not sure if the recent gender confusion issue is to blame, but there was no acknowledgement from my hamster. Hmm...let's see who gets to roll in her his ball tonight!

Eric and I spent Sunday at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market (I picked up some old Duran Duran buttons!) and the Renaissance Faire. An old friend is the general manager of the faire, so we got comped in. After a quick jaunt around the event, we headed back to Hollywood for AsssCat, a free improv show by the Upright Citizens Brigade. We finally tried the chicken at Birds, which is what the restaurant is known for, and it was really good.

So, yeah, I guess I have reason to be tired. But, there is no excuse for going back to bed once you're already. That just makes me a loser.

Thanks For The Laughs

Eric called it. He predicted that Trey Parker and Matt Stone would not let Isaac Hayes leave South Park quietly. I don't know who else watched the season premiere, which ended up being a very special Chef episode. It was hilarious goodness.

Put The Puppy In The Bucket

We went to a free screening of the film The Comedians of Comedy at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. It was hilarious! Funny nerds. You can't lose. There was a Q&A after the film with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianikis, Michael Blieden (director), and DJ Paul (producer). Michael Penn did the music and was brought up for the panel, but did not field any questions.

I did have one celebrity sighting at the screening (of someone not involved in the project). Alan Cumming was sitting in the same row where we sat. I really ought to start bringing Ren along to the Egyptian. First, Ron Perlman and now, Alan Cumming. Next thing you know, I'll see Alan Rickman there and if she is not with me, well...let's not go there.

I *heart* Emo!

Last night was the next to the last Monday that Emo Philips will be performing at the Steve Allen Theater in L.A. He's been there since July and I've gone to a number of the shows. Eric and I have talked to him several times, so now he recognizes us as regulars and even let us give him requests for jokes for the last show. I couldn't think of anything except one about his mother going through his socks and underwear ("it tickled!") while Eric, of course, thought of the more intellectual French, existentialist seagull joke. That is one of my favorites too.

Having gotten various things signed at previous shows (photo, cd, t-shirt) I decided to get a photo with Emo this time. He even had a matching jacket for me to put on! And he told me to mess up my hair like his!

I'm going to miss my Monday nights with Emo. *sniff*

Low Budget Fun

This weekend's (includes Thursday night since I was off on Friday) activities included:

• Pictures at an Exhibition at the Hollywood Bowl ($1 tickets)
  
• Late night improv competition at Improv Olympic West (free)
• Vaudeville show at the Steve Allen Theater (free since a friend was performing in the show)
• Dinner at Simply Thai in Los Feliz with the lead performer, some of the musicians, and the director of the vaudeville show (not free)
• Fantazius, an art, film, music, fashion, and poetry event at the Spring Arts Tower in downtown L.A. (free with the catch of running the projection system for the short films and poetry reading)
• Pizza slices at Albano's on Melrose (not free)
• Midnight comedy show at the Steve Allen Theater ($5 per ticket)

Lots of fun for not too much money. There are actually a lot of low-cost and free things to do in L.A. We mostly spent money on food, which wasn't that much. I ended up spending more at Target this evening when I ran in for a few items than I had on entertainment for two for the entire weekend!

Emo Night

Once again, it's Monday night which means seeing Emo Philips at The Steve Allen Theater. It doesn't matter that this is my 4th time seeing him in as many weeks, I know I'll laugh my ass off. I really like his non sequitur style of humor. One of my current favorite quotes of his is:

"Someone asked me if I was a Scientologist. {Laughs} I said, 'No, I'm not even into non-evil forms of stupidity.'"

I'm still sort of recovering from the weekend. It was way too short, as always. I think I'll run off and get some caffeine before going to the theater for Emo.

**Updated with photo 08/16/05**

Long Weekend Complete with Fighting Robots

My long weekend is not one in the good sense. It's going to be a very long weekend in the sense that I have to go to work both days and have plans at night. So, I'm very happy to not be at work today.

Tonight's agenda includes Live Robot Warfare, which sounds pretty cool, if not loud. I'm not very fond of really loud noises, so I'll just plug my ears if I have to.

All day Saturday and Sunday I'll be taking a continuing education course at work. Since my department is sponsoring the course, most of my co-workers are going and we did not get to take the normal education comp days we get to take.

Tomorrow night I'm going to try to make a quick appearance at a friend's art show before heading over to CIA for Rasputin's Minstrels, which will include the traveling marionette puppet show of circus sideshow freaks. I love it. Following that show, there is midnight comedy that I just may have to skip seeing as I have to be somewhere at 7:30 am Sunday morning. Okay, how much does that suck?

I've listed a few fun things to do in L.A. this weekend. I also want to plug a movie that is opening today in L.A., N.Y., Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia called My Date with Drew. It will be opening in many other cities including Phoenix, Vancouver, and Boston on the 12th or 19th. You can look up theaters on the movie's website. I saw a screening a few weeks ago and the film is a very charming documentary. So, I'm doing my part to spread the word about this small independent film that really needs to bring in some box office this weekend! If I'm still awake Sunday evening, I may try to see it to help their numbers.

Saturday Recap

We got a late start yesterday, so our lunch became dinner at The Counter in Santa Monica, my favorite place on the West Coast for burgers. They also serve up some scrumptious fried dill pickle chips, a delicacy we'd only had once before in Alabama. Good stuff.

I'd hoped to stop in the Giant Robot store, but we got there after they'd just closed. Another day perhaps.

After some driving around, checking out a funky video store in Hollywood, and avoiding a fight that was occuring outside of a Quinceañera, we headed home for a brief stop. Not wanting to call it a night, we thumbed through the L.A. Weekly to see what was going on at 11:45pm.

The Weekly jogged our memory about an event we'd talked about going to, but had forgotten. It started at midnight and was about a 10-minute drive (at that time of night) away.

The Tomorrow Show was well worth the $5 admission price. The 2-hour comedy show was funny, absurd, entertaining. A couple of known people (such as Emo Phillips) performed. As tired as I was at 11:45pm, I'm really happy I didn't just go to bed. I'd have really missed out.

P.S. Tip of left index finger is still numb.