Pasadena Playhouse

This financial crisis stops being funny when theatres have to close. The Pasadena Playhouse is closing, read the article in the LA Times here
Joking aside this is really a tragedy.

Bob Newhart at the Aero

This sounds like a really fun event. Two Bob Newhart films, Cold Turkey and Hot Millions with an interview with Bob Newhart in between. I haven't seen either of these films but Cold Turkey sound pretty funny. If you can just remember back to a time when almost everyone smoked, instead of now when almost no one does.

Here's the synopsis' and clips for both films from the Aero facebook fan page. You really should join it if you haven't already.

COLD TURKEY, 1971, MGM Repertory, 99 min. Norman Lear directed this comedy about an ad exec (Bob Newhart) who launches an unusual publicity stunt for big tobacco: A cigarette company will give a cash prize to any town in America that can quit smoking. When it looks like one town will actually pull it off (led by minister Dick Van Dyke), the ad man stops at nothing in his hilarious attempts to get someone -anyone - to light up.

HOT MILLIONS, 1968, Warner Bros., 106 min. Dir. Eric Till. When con artist Marcus Pendleton (Peter Ustinov) gets out of prison, he assumes the identity of a computer programmer and uses his new role as a way of embezzling cash. His only problem is figuring out how to hide it. Bob Newhart plays a paranoid assistant at the corporation Pendleton is fleecing.

You can get advanced tickets here






This is apparently very rare footage of The Beatles Apple store in London. I can't believe they had a store, it seems so materialistic.

Legion

So last week Sony was nice enough to invite me to come see Legion on the lot opening day. If any of you followed me on facebook or twitter that day, you know I was a little scared to see it. The commercials look pretty violent, and I can be kind of a baby. But you know what I really liked it.

I did spend a fair amount of the movie with my hand over my eyes, but there was a great message under the carnage. I should say up front that I respect all religions, but I haven't much patients for zealots. That said I thought the movies message was about people who blindly follow their religion word for word.

The premise of the film is that God has lost faith in Man and has sent one of his angels down to wipe us off the face of the earth. I can see his point, we really are screwing it up lately. But the angel, he sends down, still has faith in us and he decides to prove to God that we aren't a complete lost cause.

Now God isn't easily convinced so he sends another angel down to wipe us off the face of the earth. This angel is a "do as your told" kind of angel so whatever God says is good enough for him. the two angels argue over it, boiling it down to giving God what he asks for or giving God what he needs. Of course it turns into a fight to the death.

We also have a scene were the angel, who is trying to save our bacon, is running off a list of our failings and slips in, following archaic books with war, hate, and pettiness. I'm guessing he means the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc... and not the Illyad.
He also holds up one boy/man as an example of why there is still some good left in humanity. He loves a girl who is carrying someone elses baby, and he is just generally selfless and caring.

So my point is the film has this great message about being religious but not being literal about it. That the real lesson is kindness, and even God can be wrong sometimes. So pass same sex marriage already. OK maybe that's part is just me but you get what I'm saying.

So go see it and see for yourself, also if you like zombie movies there is some of that thrown in too. That's the part I covered my eyes for.

Conan's Farewell

Here is Conan's farewell, which I think is incredibly classy. Frankly I've never stayed up late enough to watch his shows, but after this I will make an effort to do so when he finds his new home.

Lady For A Day on TCM

Early tomorrow morning TCM is running Lady For A Day, The 1933 one. There's another one from the 50's (I think) with Bette Davis that I don't really care for. For my money this is the one. Set your DVR's it's on 7:30 am EST and 4:30 PST.
It's about a penniless drunk women, Apple Annie, who sells apples every day to a gangster, who thinks they're lucky. Apple Annie finds out that her daughter, who she sent to Europe for school as a child(I have no idea how she swings that on apple money), is coming home with a fiance. Apple Annie has pretended to her daughter that she is rich and her health is what has kept her from visiting. So the gangster comes to her aid and it's all very sweet. Just watch it.

Peer Pressure @ LA Moms Blog

I have a new post up on The LA Moms Blog all about Peer Pressure. And how ultimately I'm probably more a victim of it than my daughter. Check it out if you're not to busy smoking and getting tattoos.

Meteorite Men on Science Channel

I am coming to realize that I do like reality TV. Just not American Idol and The Bachelor. I like all the science shows, and PBS documentaries, translation I'm embracing my not so inner DORK.
Here's a new "reality" show I think will be good. Meteorite Men is a new show starting tonight at 9 on the Science Channel
It features two guys(Geoffrey Notkin and Steve Arnold) going around looking for meteorites. "Meteorite Men uniquely combines adventure with science," said Debbie Myers, Science Channel general manager. "Steve and Geoff are helping us learn more about the universe by bridging the gap between the earth sciences and their passion for finding and studying meteorites."

Seriously, I really am excited to see it tonight. I saw them and a clip form the show at the press tour last week and it looks really good.

AMC's Breaking Bad

Saturday I went to the Breaking Bad press panel at TCA (which I sometimes call the press tour, because I think people know what that is). I have been resisting watching Breaking Bad, for the sole reason that I just don't want to get hooked on anymore shows. Everyone has told me how great it is and in preparing for the panel I watched a bunch of mini episodes on Hulu. Long story short, I think I'm hooked and I haven't even seen a whole episode yet. Which means I have 2 months to catch up on the first two seasons before the 3rd season starts March 21st. If you haven't been watching I recommend you do the same.
I love the creator/writer, Vince Gilligan's, description of the show. He says Breaking Bad takes Mr. Chips and turns him into Scarface. That is exactly what it is. Bryan Cranston plays Walter White a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, in an effort to pay for his treatment and provide for his infant child and an older special needs child he turns to making Crystal Meth. The show is dark but very funny.

On another AMC note. After the days panels I went to the bar with a my fellow bloggers Mar Vista Mom and Yvonne in LA for a drink and some food. I made the mistake of ordering an old fashion. They always look so good when Don Draper makes them on Mad Men. Well let me tell you, unless you like a big glass of whiskey don't do it. I had to send it back after a few sips, and went back to my Chardonnay. I guess I shouldn't start chain smoking either.

Discovery Networks Press Tour

I had a great time today seeing all the shows that the Discovery Networks will be rolling out this year. There were some great ones and some odd ones, but the one that stood out was The Fabulous Beekman Boys. You have got to watch this show. Sadly it doesn't premiere until June on Planet Green, don't worry I'll remind you.
This is a show about a New York couple(Josh and Brent)who buy a farm in upstate New York and all the adventures that entails. Josh and Brent are immediately likeable. They are struggling with managing the farm and their relationship and you are pulling for them to make it on all fronts.
There is also farmer John, the man with the expertise who is teaching the "boys" all about farming. Farmer John seems like a soft touch, especially when he talks about his goats. I look forward to finding out more about him. What I know now is he lost his farm and wrote a letter to Josh and Brent asking if he could keep his goats on their land. There's a story there.
You can check out the whole Beekman story at Beekman 1802 you can also buy some of their goat milk soap, which they tell me is fantastic.

PBS Press Tour

Today was one of my favorite events of the year, THE PBS PRESS TOUR.
I love it. I get to see all the new shows coming to PBS, and all my favorite PBS celebrities. That's right, though I would never think of asking George Clooney to stop and take a picture with me, I can't help myself and accost Henry Louis Gates,Jr. and tell him I love him at the PBS press tour.
PBS has this power over me. I blame it on Seasame Street and Electric Company. They hooked me when I was young and I didn't know what I was getting into. Now they've got me strung out on Nova, Antique Road Show, Masterpiece:classic and regular, Frontline, and lets face it anything Ken Burns.
I'll be posting upcoming shows as their air dates come up. I believe the first one is Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s Faces in America. This time he tracks the lineage of various celebrities including Kristi Yamaguchi, Yoyo Ma, Dr. Oz, Eva Longoria, and several others. It air Wednesdays Febuary 10th- March 3.

Got Milk/ Jerry O'Connell is a God

Yesterday I attended a Got Milk event at The Westwood W Hotel, which by the way is lovely. They were announcing Rebecca Romijn as their new Got Milk spokes person, with her two beautiful twin girls. We got lots of information about their " Great Gallon Giveaway" They're giving away hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk all across the country and you can enter to win a year supply at whymilk.com. You can also help raise funds for families in need at facebook.com/milkmustache.
But what I really want to tell you about is Ms. Romijn's husband, Jerry O'Connell. He is the nicest celebrity I have ever met, almost ridiculously so!



Here's what happened. In my usual illiterate way I was was trying to spell Rebecca's name for the whrrl I was doing on the event. I had some idea but whenever you put a J and an N together you question. It was just at that moment that Jerry was walking by me to get a bottle of milk (I swear he was) and our eyes met and I knew he knew how to spell her name. So when he said hi, I said hi back and then I said "How do you spell your wife's name?" and he told me and I was right. So like the cool cucumber I am, I acted like I made a touch down or something. He laughed and assured me that it took him sometime to learn how to spell it too. Nice right? Well, that ain't all...
Then I was struggling with a bunch of trash my daughter had given me and I said I need a trash can and then said I would just stick it in my purse so I could keep whrrling. You know what he did? He offered to take my trash for me, I refused, he insisted and then he took my trash. My own husband probably wouldn't have done that for me.
So what I'm saying, is Jerry O'Connell is a wonderful guy who is helpful and kind. We should all watch anything he does. Because really folks nice is IMPORTANT!!!
And of course drink your milk!

The Subject was Roses

This is an amazing cast. I'm going to see about getting tickets ASAP. It's at The Mark Taper Feb 10 - Mar 21

Here's the trailer of the 68 film with Sheen in the soldier role.


Here's the press release blurb:
When it comes to family, there are three sides to every story. A young man's return from World War II becomes a catalyst for an emotional tug-of-war in which love is a prize and a weapon.

Martin Sheen returns to the play that earned him a Tony Award nomination in 1964: now as the patriarch of a family forced to confront its own privatized emotions and buried truths. Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) complete the family triangle struggling to reconnect after years of emotional distance and rediscover the beauty in the simple gift of roses.

"This is a timeless, important play with characters so rich and believable that your heart goes out to them, wishing they could break out of old family patterns. These are people we can all identify with. It makes for compelling theatre."
- Michael Ritchie, Center Theatre Group Artistic Director

THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES
Feb 10 - Mar 21, 2010

Mark Taper Forum
135 N. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Audience Services:
213.628.2772

Tonight at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica

Wednesday, January 6 - 7:30 PM

The Cinematheque re-opened the Aero Theatre five years ago. In thanks for your support, please join us for a free Anniversary screening and reception: SHERLOCK JR., 1924, 45 min. Buster Keaton’s sublime comedy about reality and illusion, where projectionist Buster literally dreams himself into the detective movie he’s screening!

Check here for details

The Great Interview Experiment

The great mind behind Citizen of the Month, has organized an interviewing project where all us bloggers interview one another. Below is the interview I did with Fresh Widow and here is the interview Sincerely Jenni did with me.
Enjoy!

Fresh Widow
1. What have you learned, that you might not have otherwise, from the loss of your husband?



Oy, I have enough answers to fill a book! I almost can’t believe how innocent I was a few years ago.



1. I learned that “these things” really do happen. Cancer, car accidents, heart attacks, and other things that kill aren’t reserved for news stories or for someone else. And “shit happens” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

2. Denial gets a bad rap because it helps you enable alcoholics, but it’s a helpful coping tool when you’re fighting for your life against really dreadful odds.

3. I learned that modern medicine has huge limitations and many gaps, even in the most advanced nation in the world that pays the most for care.

4. I learned that you can’t know how your partner will act when the chips are down, even after 15 years, even if you get along well, even if you’ve had some practice together.

5. I learned that you’ll never know who among your friends will be steadfast and who will be chickenshit.

6. I learned that love is not enough, you have to be practical as well.



Basically? A bunch of shit that makes me sound “deep” at cocktail parties. J





2. What word would you pick to replace "widow"?



If I introduce myself as a widow, it’s sharp: “You don’t look like a widow” is what they are thinking, with a gasp and sometimes a step back. But it’s not the word that’s the problem. In fact, in the above example, the word brings up the reality harshly: it isn’t only old people who experience loss. This is the battle young people who are coping with loss find themselves fighting every day, that their peers don’t “get” loss, understand what’s to be expected, and in a sense, really don’t want to.



So for the past few years I used the word in a defiant sense. I wanted to take back and own its power, the way gay people have with “queer.”



However, really, if I’m talking about folks other than myself, and if I wish to include as many people as possible, I prefer to say “widowed people,” because in truth, what unites us is an experience: that of losing your partner.





3. How has your first marriage and subsequent loss affected your present relationship?



Mr. Fresh and I do talk about mortality pretty often, but that might not be so unusual in a second marriage in our 40s anyway, I don’t know. For both of us, we are very influenced by the failures of our first marriages: even though mine didn’t end in divorce, as his did, I think a lot about where Gavin and I would be if he’d lived and I see mostly the problems we had. I don’t have to keep making those compromises now that he’s dead. Don’t get me wrong, we were happy, but it’s five years after his diagnosis right now.



I think in general second marriages can have many advantages: at our age, both partners should understand their weaknesses and preferences fairly well, know how to compromise, be more pragmatic and less idealistic. In addition, unlike a young couple they don’t have to be concerned with what their families or communities think.



We’re entering into partnership and parenting more informed and more mature.



In some ways, my loss scarred me less deeply than his divorce scarred him – although my loss came far closer to ruining my (and my child’s) life and health.



4. Would you ever attempt NaBloPoMo again?



Yes! But not while I’m moving and trying to do a freelance job and starting up a couple of other interesting projects. That was just plain dumb.



5. If Heaven exists (which I believe, you believe), what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? (I love this question from The Actors Studio Show)



It is a great question! I’m sorry to disappoint you but I really don’t believe in Heaven. But I do think it’s important to us all as we go through life to imagine that there’s some scale or evaluation at or near “the end.” I think many of the transitional periods we go through in life involve stopping at “weigh” stations and judging how we feel about what we’ve done so far, whether we’ve made a contribution. So to me, this is a question about life, not the afterlife.



And as a Unitarian Universalist I do tend to shy away from the single, omnipotent, Caucasian male deity. However it does make the storytelling easier.



So let’s say in my version it should be George Burns as St. Peter in a wing chair in front of gates that are truly pearly. What does he tell me? Truly the real God is an excellent listener. And I’m my own harshest critic. So let’s imagine he gives me a chance.



Supa! We’re happy to have you. There is chocolate. Let’s summarize what you’ve been through so far but please note, there are no wrong answers.

Were you loved? Oh yes.

Did you love? Yes.

Did you do the best you could do? Most of the time.

Did you enjoy yourself? Yes, thank you.

Thank you, and welcome.

Mad Men Season 1

I've been rewatching Mad Men season 1 on On Demand, one episode at a time every Monday while I eat lunch. I'm up to episode 6, just shy of half way through the season. At first I thought I would be bored watching it all over again, but I'm not. I get new insight with each episode, I didn't get with the first viewing.
For example, I had no idea that it was Peggy not Don that first used the phrase "this never happened". She says it to Pete when he comes home from his honeymoon to assure him there will be no ramifications from their one night stand before the wedding.
Don and Rachel's attraction seems clearer at least from Don's point, after reseeing their scene on the roof of her department store. Rachel tells him about her fathers lack of attention and her mother dying in childbirth and I think our Don sees himself in her because of that.
It is also clearer why Betty does all that weird stuff with the neighbors son, who I think she identifies with. She says something about him in one of her therapy sessions about not being cared for properly by the person who is suppose to be. Which I think she feels about Don, I mean who wouldn't.
One strange thing in todays episode. They show Adam being born(Don's half brother)and uncle Mack is there. Adam is Don's father's son, so all I can surmise is that Mrs. Whitman wasted no time hooking up with "uncle" Mack once her husband died.
Joan says something odd in episode 6 too. She won't eat in the hotel room she and Roger are having their nooner in. She says food that close to a bed reminds her of a hospital??? What is that? I think we'll hear something about that in the future. Maybe she was ill or who knows. It was just random enough to catch my attention.
There are a million (ok that's and exaggeration) other little tidbits tucked into these shows.
So go back and watch them!
Here's an interesting little synopsis of Episode 6 of season 1. Enjoy


Only 8 more months till August

The Joffrey at Dorothy Chandler

The Joffrey Ballet is doing Cinderella at the Dorothy Chandler January 28th-31st in Los Angeles. If you're interest I have a 10% discount code, use the promo code Fairy here. It's only good through tomorrow so act fast.
I remember seeing The Joffrey as a little girl, I think it was even Cinderella, and loving it. Hope you get a chance to see this.

Here's their press blurb:
The Joffrey Ballet returns to the Music Center with Sir Frederick Ashton's Cinderella, widely considered one of his greatest full-length ballets. Performed in three acts, the classic rags-to-riches story comes to life in a stunning ballet set to Serge Prokofiev's brilliant score, with breathtaking sets and costumes designed by David Walker.

If you're not in the LA area check the Joffrey Site for shows in your area.

Damages January 25

Hooray!!! Damages is coming back. I know I'm way out of the loop, with the holidays and all I totally missed the announcement. Thank god for buses, that's where I get all my news.
The preview clip looks very exciting with Lily Tomlin, Martin Short, and Campbell Scott joining the already fabulous cast. Check it out.
Here it is:



Hopefully we'll get at least 13 episodes like last season. I would love if they would do more, but I won't hold my breathe.