The Real Housewives of N. San Diego County

What a busy week! Not only was there the end of Maker Faire, lunch at Pixar, lots of driving, viewing the elephant seals near San Simeon (photos soon, I hope!), more driving, work, Iron Man, more work, some cool interactive media, the Rose Bowl Flea Market, Ren Faire, and the premiere of a friend's film, but there was more driving and Duran Duran!

Jenn already recounted the good and the bad of our trip to the middle of effing nowhere to see my favorite '80's boy band. She was kind in that she did not mention the fact that I drove about 30 exits past where we were supposed to get off the freeway. We're lucky we didn't end up in Mexico! Luckily, we did find the place where old diabetics go to smoke and gamble in plenty of time for some good food and even better music.

Well, she also left out the amusing conversations we heard from the women behind us at the show. They were chit-chat about all of the cocaine use, etc. that occurs in a certain school, but gets ignored by the administration. That was followed by comments of how great the school is and how they will all send their kids there. Huh? It was a little chilly and one of them said, "Remember how you called and asked if I was wearing my slut outfit tonight? It's so cold, so of course not!"

The kicker though was when one of the fans said, "As soon as my house sells, I'm getting lipo. He doesn't like that idea, so I'm thinking we're going to need some sort of prenup." (I peeked and she wasn't even fat!)

The important thing is that Duran Duran rocked, in spite of Simon forgetting some of the lyrics to "The Reflex." And yes, I'm still trying to catch up on photo uploads and blogging, which will happen soon.

The Strike Affects All Of Us

I am in support of the Writer's Guild and what they are trying to accomplish. No, I'm not a writer or even in The Industry. But, as the WGA strikes, we are all affected, in some way or another. I have some very good friends who are actors, another who is an Emmy winning editor of a very popular television show, and one who works post-production on a drama. They are feeling the pain of their livelihoods being completely shutdown.

But, let's talk about ME and how this whole thing impacts my life, or specifically how it had a direct effect on things this very night. About a month ago, I got word from fellow SoCal Duranie (shut up!) that we could get free tickets to an outdoor mini-concert Duran Duran was to do in Hollywood. I secured my two tickets and found a friend who was excited to go along. This free event was in conjunction with the band's appearance on a late night talk show and they were going to perform five or six songs on the stage behind the building on Hollywood Boulevard.

Of course, due to the strike, the program is in reruns and so...no free Duran Duran show. So, as you can clearly see, we can all potentially suffer and should get involved to get this industry moving again.

Granted, I haven't even bought the new Duran Duran album and probably didn't deserve a free show after all. Part of the reason is that I didn't really like the first song I heard. I blame Justin Timberlake.

Badass

The following is an excerpt from a conversation that I had with my 24-year-old brother, Scott, on the phone yesterday:

S: I went to the mall and got a Judas Priest cd. I LOVE those guys!

J: Yeah? Cool.

S: Oh, and guess what else I got? Duran Duran! Rio! It's from 1982.

J: Duran Duran? Very cool! Rio has my favorite Duran Duran song on it.

S: "Rio?"

J: No. "New Religion" is my favorite Duran Duran song.

S: Oh. And then I went to Hot Topic and got an Iron Maiden t-shirt.

J: Scott, you're a badass.

S: *giggles* Thanks, sis!

Dream A Little Dream

When I woke up this morning afternoon, I had a text message that Duran Duran was playing at a Trader Joe's, somewhere in the greater L.A. area. Granted, it was hours earlier, but it was a nice gesture. It reminded me that I had a dream with a couple of the band members (Nick and Simon) Friday night. It was a strange dream and lots of weird things happened, most of which I don't remember. One thing I do recall is looking at a black and white photo of Nick Rhodes and me at a funeral. My Mom was in the picture too, but I have no idea who died. When I told E about it, he insisted he must have been the one who had died, but I remember him being in the dream too.

I did wonder why in the world I was dreaming about Duran Duran, but then I remembered I'd read a few pages in the biography I'm reading before going to sleep. Besides, Nick Rhodes is still dreamy after all these years, so why not?

From His Villa In France...

...Nick Rhodes shares some good news.

Make With The Clicky

Okay, I totally stole that title from Ren, but only because I love it so much! I don't know why, but it just makes me giggle.

I know there are at least a couple of Duranies (current or former) who stop in here from time to time and most have confessed to being John Taylor girls. I'm personally a Nick Rhodes girl . There's a free podcast interview with John and Nick about a compilation album they released of music that inspired them. It's Part 1 of the interview, but I can't seem to find a Part 2.

Have you heard the story about the guy whose apartment was turned into a hamster cage, complete with human-size wheel? Revenge can be so sweet.

Speaking of hamsters (yeah, I didn't hold out that long), the Brits really have an affinity for the adorable little rodents. MTV UK televises hamster races! Check out this promo. Good times!

I spent some time reconfiguring my photoblog. Take a look and let me know what you think. The archived stuff looks pretty bad, but reconfiguring it was screwing up my links that have gone to various photo challenge websites, so I just let it be.

Please consider seeing An Inconvenient Truth this weekend. It is playing in Los Angeles and New York right now. It will open in other cities soon, so in the meantime, if you can't see it, at least check out the website. I have made it sort of a rule to not write anything of substance get very political or whatnot on this blog, but I really believe this is an important film about an issue that means a lot to me.

Since I've seen An Inconvenient Truth already, I may just have to check out X-Men: The Last Stand this weekend. Even if the movie sucks, at least I know there will be some eye candy.

Unbelievable

It's hard to fathom that it was an entire year ago this weekend that we saw Duran Duran in concert, were given a brand new car, and had our huge 10th anniversary party. Where did the 365 days in between go?

Now I'm struggling to wrap my head around the fact that it has been eleven years since we got hitched in a Vegas chapel, surrounded by a few friends. It amazes me how so many things have changed in that time period and then how many others have remained the same.

The Sky is Falling!

We went to the midnight show of Chicken Little in Disney Digital 3D. It was cool. We decided to spend the bucks and go "VIP" at the El Capitan and I'm glad we did. I went in with fairly low expectations for the film itself, but it was entertaining. I laughed out loud several times. Besides that, the 3D was amazing and hopefully this new technology will take off.

Since 3D is having a bit of a popularity resurgence, it's not surprising that there is a 3D part on the new Duran Duran Live From London DVD that I picked up last night. Even cooler though, is the easter egg of the full anime video that played during their shows. (Enter '16' while on the main menu).

I finally got all of my photos from the past week's adventures uploaded to my flickr site. Go there to see my various Halloween costumes, lots of dog photos, farm photos, West Hollywood Carnaval photos, and of course U2. So much went on last week, it may just be easier to let the photos do the talking. I guess the only "events" I didn't get photos of were the two haunted yards we visited before going to West Hollywood on Halloween and the Paul Reubans Q&A at Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

I think I need a nap.