Juxtaposition

I introduced Ami to the GIANT hamster puppet I got for Christmas.
He nibbled a bit, but I took it away in case it wasn't good for him.

All The Boys With Their Homemade Microphones...

...have very interesting sounds.

It's kind of bad when I get this behind in blogging*. I go for days being really busy and/or thinking I have nothing to say and then all of sudden, I want to share what is almost now a week's worth of stuff. And mostly just the good things. However, I don't want to write one of those long and winding posts that I have trouble finishing in one sitting. (Let's hear it for ADD!) So, here are some highlights**, in reverse chronological order (sort of):

• After having a fairly crappy start to the week and having things almost not work out, not only did I get to see one of my favorite bands, The New Pornographers, play last night for free***, but I also got free ice cream and met Jemaine from my new favorite show Flight of the Conchords!!! Oh, and I bought the last live-and-only-sold-at-shows cd. It was the one taped to the merch counter. Oh, and did I mention that I MET JEMAINE!!!???
  

• I was able to score some half-price tickets, for pretty decent seats, to Ave. Q, which I loved! I'd read some shaky reviews and it's not for everyone, for various reasons (some people just don't get puppets), but it worked for me and really, that's what's important. At least to me. It's all about me.
  

• Wired NextFest was pretty cool. All sorts of new-fangled technologies were on display that will hopefully come to be used in health care, energy efficiency, entertainment, design, education, etc. Favorite exhibits of mine included the video game you play with your live pet hamster (!) and meeting a former soldier who is using two C-Legs. I took photos at the event, but have yet to post them.
  

• Pink Martini always puts on a great show and closing night at the Hollywood Bowl was no exception, even if the show went on a bit long. I blame Carol Channing for that though. Thomas Wilkins conducted and I confirmed that he is my choice to take over as the new director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Like I have a say in the matter. Oh, I wish I did!
  

• I only had to wait six months to see Ira Glass speak in person again. As usual, he was a joy to listen to and we got free t-shirts and tote bags from USC when the show ended!
  

• Due to the above event, we missed the actual performance of Puppets After Hours, which took place under a bridge downtown. We stopped by anyway to chat with the myriad of puppeteers we know who were either in or watching the show.
  

• Again, we missed a party some friends had, but they told to come over anyway for some midnight hot-tubbing and swimming in their gorgeous hillside Gilligan's Island-esque pool. We enjoyed the view of The Valley, which is much like the one E.T. saw.
  

• I was home alone for a night and decided to bake. It was from a box, but got good reviews when I shared it with friends the next day.
  

• Even though I'm not much of a baseball fan it was fun to take in a free Dodgers game with friends. Too bad the home team sucked (bases loaded, no outs, yet managed to strike out...come on!).
  

• We to a test screening of a horror film, which isn't a genre I enjoy. We did get to hang out with some friends for a late dinner and that was a good time and the best part of the night for me.
  

Wow, I actually do a lot and realize I keep complaining about not having a vacation in a long time. My life is often like perpetual summer vacation. I was also supposed to go to a film fest in the mountains among all that, but stayed in town to support a friend. I love my city and all it has to offer. Maybe I don't need to leave it to appreciate it after all.

*You can follow me on Twitter if you want more frequent (and far more nonsensical) updates.

**If you want more details, let me know.

***Thanks, Metroblogging Los Angeles!!!

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.
  

Thanks For The Memories

Last night's show at The Hollywood Bowl was one I was simultaneously dreading and anticipating all summer. It was the last performance for John Mauceri, the beloved conductor and Director of The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for the past sixteen years. I can't recall when we first starting going to the Bowl, but I have such fond memories of Mauceri as being so personable and down-to-earth. His passion for film music was clear on the annual "Movie Nights" he programmed. Before going to our seats, we went to see the special Mauceri exhibit that is currently on dislay in the venue's museum. I wrote a letter in the book provided and thanked the maestro for making classical music so accessible, especially to someone like me who has very little background in and knowledge of it. I've definitely learned a few things from him over the past several years.

To end his tenure at the Bowl, John Mauceri compiled quite an event with guests that included Broadway singer Kristin Chenoweth, members of the Joffrey Ballet, Miss Piggy, and Kermit the Frog. It was a fun, but bittersweet, show that ended with fireworks. After the smoke cleared, we got to meet Eric Jacobson, a friend of a friend who, for the past five years, has been performing the Muppets formally puppeteered by Frank Oz. He's doing a fantastic job, as everyone who was at last night's event saw when Miss Piggy was doing her thing! He's a really nice guy too!

We'll miss John Mauceri, but I hope he enjoys his new career as the chancellor of an arts school in North Carolina. Apparently, he's heard about the strawberry scented rainbow farting unicorns that live there.

As a bonus last night, not only did we run into some friends that we haven't seen in a while twice, but E spotted Summer Glau walking up to the gates. I was spacing a bit, but did see her from behind.

A Few Weekend Things

• A 24-ounce bottle of Bana-nina Tropical from Galco's Soda Pop Stop - $1.49

• A friend's puppet show, complete with the gorgeous puppets he created - $10

• Joe Sib telling great stories about The Ramones, Steve Jones, and Joe Strummer - Priceless
  

Hamster Inspiration

My friends Sean and Patrick Johnson are part of a fun and talented live puppetry company called Swazzle. They perform amazing shows at libraries, all over California, primarily in the summer. Swazzle is premiering two new shows this summer and have booked at least 125 gigs so far!

I'm really excited to see B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog and Rex and Boots, Super Sleuths, not only because I always enjoy Swazzle production, but also because they both feature dogs! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that B.A.R.K. also has a hamster character. I saw Patrick's sketch of the hammy and loved it.


I later found out that he'd seen photos of my hamster, Ami, and added a white stripe around the middle of the Swazzle character since hers is so cute. Here's a glimpse of the puppet. I think it's brilliant and can't wait to see it in action!

Sean confirmed that the puppet does have the white stripe around the middle. Isn't it adorable?

Illustration and puppet construction by Patrick Johnson.
Photograph of hamster puppet courtesy of Sean Johnson.

Let The Fun Begin! (Or The Most Boring Post Ever)

How did it get to be Saturday morning already? The weekend is just beginning and I'm exhausted already! I normally work Monday through Thursday, four 10-hour days, with Fridays off. This week I took Monday off and worked Friday, due to some staffing issues. Same amount of hours worked, but different configuration and I'm tired.

I left work on Friday and went straight to Target to get the rest of my costume for Monday. We're doing Peter Pan and I'm John Darling, one of the kids. I already had glasses, an umbrella, and a hat, but needed to get a nightshirt and slippers. So it's done, it's easy and yeah, I get to wear pajamas to work!

I then headed over to see the first performance of Twisted, "a terrifyingly hilarious experience in suburban lawn art," by The Fright Gallery. Eric did some video work for the show, so I've seen the set evolve and some early rehearsal. It really has come together and the audience had a great time. If you are in the L.A. area, this is a fun, free thing you can do this weekend.

We ran home and had a quick bite to eat before heading over to CIA for this year's Puppet Slam, put on by the L.A. Guild of Puppetry. There were a lot of fun performances, including several by friends of ours.

Now I'm waiting to be able to put the laundry in the dryer so I can sleep. Tomorrow we have a picnic, which is a potluck, meaning we have to get stuff to take, followed by another evening at CIA for The Zombie Ball, a charity event benefiting the National Search Dog Foundation, a cause I can get behind. The night may end up being capped off with a fashionably late appearance at a Halloween party some friends are having.

Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour!

Looks like I'll be needing that extra hour of sleep since I'll be up early Sunday morning for the Walk for Paws with Rusty. I didn't even bother to do any fundraising since we just recently did a charity walk. I'm planning to get involved with part of the organization that the walk is benefiting, so I want to participate and just make a personal donation.

After the walk, we are heading up to Faulkner Farm (finally! I've been dying to go!) to visit the pumpkin patch, go on a hayride, etc. We are supposed to be getting a break from the cloudy, overcast weather this weekend. I'm hoping for good sunshine at the farm so I can take some nice photos.

On Monday, I'll lots of Halloween fun at work. Since I work with kids, we get to be really goofy. After work, we'll give out candy for a bit at home, then head to West Hollywood for the annual Halloween Carnaval. It is always a blast with outrageous costumes and people. We are possibly going in our ketchup and mustard bottle costumes and taking Rusty in his hot dog costume. The official website is discouraging pets though so we'll see.

The U2 tickets I have are for Tuesday night, but I'm desperately trying to trade them for Wednesday's show as we have tickets for another event on Tuesday night. I've posted a trade requrest to craig's list and a few other places, but no takers yet.

I apologize if you have read this far, hoping for some witty commentary or insightful information. I'm really boring myself and beginning to see double due to fatigue, so I'm going to call it a night.

Dog Tired

It's not unusual for me to be pretty tired on Mondays (or any day for that matter). Today is exceptional though. I'm so tired, I hurt. I want to cry. I may before the day is over. I wish I was a dog or a cat (no, not actually...I'm not a Furry, for you sickos who are thinking that!) in the sense that if I wanted to just curl up on the couch or floor and sleep for 17 hours or so I could. It's important to have dreams.

At least I have good reason to be tired. My weekend was jam-packed with activity and very little sleep. Friday night included live robot warfare courtesy of Robochrist Industries at The Steve Allen Theater at The Center for Inquiry-West. No, it is not a cult as I overheard someone supposing at the event. It is actually an organization that is anti-cult and promotes skepticism and humanism. I've never defined myself a secular humanist, but have found that pretty much describes how I think and view the world. Okay, so that was a bit of a tangent.

Anyway, the live robots were cool. There was a band, Captured by Robots, that played first followed by the fiery robot show. There was a lot of political symbolism with a whole blood-for-oil type theme. Another band (I think called Stigmeta) played a soundtrack to the destruction.

As the Robochrist Industries team cleaned up the wreckage, we headed over to Rosemary's Billygoat Odditorium in an attempt to catch some short films a friend was showing. We missed out, but stayed and chatted for a while. Eric had his 3D video camera set up with him, so lots of people were asking questions. I wanted a drink from the cooler that was in a coffin in the middle of the space, but they were all gone.

I had to be at work at 7:30 am both Saturday and Sunday for a continuing education class. It was good, overall, but my brain got really full shortly into Sunday's session and I was done. I'm not sure how much I absorbed on the second day.

After class on Saturday, I went home and napped, briefly, before changing clothes. I drove back to Hollywood for a friend's son's art show at UponShop Records in Sunset Junction. I only stayed for a very short time and then headed over to CIA for Rasputin's Marionettes. I was mistaken and thought I'd see the puppet show of circus sideshow freaks they've done before. No, they have an entire new show and the opening acts were all part of the show. I really didn't care for it too much. It was a minstrel show with the performers in black face, etc. Good puppetry, but the acts and songs were very redundant. Plus, the show started about 2 hours late. I will just stop here before I launch into a huge rant.

So I think I'm justified in feeling a bit overly fatigued today. Since I'm working this upcoming weekend, I have tomorrow off and I plan to sleep in. I'll definitely need it as I'm going to watch last night's Six Feet Under tonight. I cried during the promo last week, so I just know it's going to be a very emotional episode.