Razor sharp and dead-on

I love Tina Fey...Sarah Palin not so much

I'm Telling Everyone

Go see Tell No One. It's great and has you guessing through the end. It's based upon a book by Harlen Coben; I'm thinking about reading it.

West Coast Inequities

The Olympics are tape-delayed so that most people can watch the competition comfortably after work in their time zone but important things like the Democratic National Convention are broadcast live throughout the nation. The Convention is timed so that those people on the East Coast and Midwest can watch the convention when they are home from work but those of us on the West Coast miss all of it because we are still at work. Something's not right here. Another reason that I may eventually breakdown and get cable and TiVo. Or, another, more, cynical person would think that the satellite and cable companies encourage this inequity so that people like me, resistant to the allure of additional crappy TV stations, will eventually break.

"Live" Olympic Games

Living on the West Coast is interesting sometimes. Right now, I'm watching the Olympics which NBC is broadcasting "live." I know this because of the NBC Live icon displayed on the top right-hand corner of my TV screen says it is so. Yet, somehow, I am able to find the results of the games online prior to the end of the competition. Hmmm...perhaps is this tape-delayed for the West Coast?

Profile in Gas Prices

April 27, 2008

June 28, 2008

Star Sightings

Los Feliz, my current 'hood, has its fair share of celebrities who live around here. I always get asked by my non-L.A. based friends, if I've seen anyone famous lately. Most of the time, I don't -- or I guess I should say -- I don't recognize anyone. There are times I walk past someone and think to myself that person looks as if s/he could be famous but I fail to place a name to the face. Los Angeles is loaded with extremely good looking and extremely skinny people. The beautiful actors blend in with the better-than-average-looking-civilians. It's the ugly and fat people who stand out.

The past month, though, I seem to have run into several famous actors. They were:

• Tobey Maguire who was at the Arclight, a movie theatre near me. (My guess he was there to see the Indiana Jones movie as it was opening weekend and Indy was being shown on 95% of the screens in that multiplex.) Spidey watching Indy, proving that L.A. is indeed surreal.
• Scarlett Johannson who was walking in Griffith Park.
• Giovanni Ribisi who I spotted at the carwash. Actually, I probably wouldn't have recognized Giovanni Ribisi except that he was reading a script while he was waiting for his car and the script had "G. Ribisi" watermarked on it. Dead giveaway.

Anyway...Stay Dry Midwesterners.

First Day of Spring

Here in Southern California, Spring means putting away our long-sleeve cotton sweaters for another 10 months. Sounds of glee upon seeing forgotten-but-beloved tank tops which haven't been worn for the past eight weeks can be heard throughout the Southland as the tanks are pulled out of storage and placed in the dresser drawers where the sweaters used to reside. Older folks begin renewing friendships by greeting neighbors and friends with stories of the tough winter of rainy, 50-degree days and 40-degree nights, wondering how they miraculously survived another hard one. Meanwhile, young people and middle-aged people alike, worried that beach season is just around the corner and after over-indulging during the winter, call their gyms to make sure the Pilates class still is scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 p.m. while promises to begin to eat healthy again are renewed. And, everyone takes advantage of the extra hours of daylight at the end of the day and goes to the ocean for the last few weeks of whale watching season. Spring training is followed by baseball fans and Opening Day is celebrated. Los Angelenos wonder if the Dodgers have a chance against their hated rivals, the SF Giants. At least, Barry Bonds isn't playing this year and Joe Torre have taken over managing the Dodgers, they say. Yes, my dear friends, Spring is an optimistic time here in La-la land.

The Oscars

The big event around here is The Oscars Ceremony. The Kodak Theatre is less than five miles from my house so traffic will be horrible tomorrow and I'll try to get all my errands done today. I'll definitely stay in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake neighborhoods, where the traffic won't be quite so bad tomorrow.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I've seen most of the films nominated for best picture. The one movie I'd not seen is Atonement. I read the book a few years ago and loved it; so, I'm somewhat hesitant about seeing the movie. I imagine this film as being a huge, sweeping melodramatic movie and the themes from the book are somewhat lost in the movie. This, of course, is an unfair judgement since I haven't seen the film but I am just lukewarm about seeing it. Perhaps, if it wins Best Picture, I will go see it or I may just wait until it comes out on DVD and I put it in my netflix queue. I eventually will probably get around to see it.

Of the rest of the films, I liked to absolutely loved them. To me, Juno was a smart, quirky but somewhat forgettable film about a teenage pregnancy. Of the four, I found it to be the one I liked least. Ellen Page did an excellent job of making Juno a likable and funny character but I've had my fill of precocious teenagers and their angst.

The other three movies provide us with some excellent character studies in moral turpitude, greed and evil to differing degrees. Daniel Plainview of There Will be Blood is to me the simplest character. He is competitive and becomes completely destroyed by his lust for oil and to win. Much like Daniel Plainview drilled the oil out of the fields, the oil drilled his sense of morality out of him. He is the essence of greed.

The title character in Michael Clayton is the most morally ambivalent of the three and the weakest. As his law firm's "janitor", he's the go-to person to clean-up their clients' jams and messes. The irony of the movie is Michael Clayton needs to be fixed himself. He is flawed, tired, broke, unhappy, and slightly (or perhaps more than slightly because we don't see exactly how MC fixes those problems) unethical. I loved watching Michael's transformation throughout this movie. Out of the three characters, MC is the one who is most relatable and the one who is probably the most likable.

Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men is the strongest of all three characters. He is a sociopath and evil human being. Whereas Michael Clayton vacillates within that ethical gray area without hardly any moral code of his own, Anton Chigurh operates completely outside of any social norms; however, Anton Chigurh has his own moral code and is driven by that code. He is more amoral than immoral. The audience learns nothing about how he became this monster. He only wants the money and has no regard for human life in his quest to find it. Only once do we see him conflicted about he will do and we don't see how resolves his confliction.

The evilness of Anton Chigurh was only one theme of the movie. In many ways, No Country for Old Men was the most complex of the three and I'm sure I missed a lot of subtleties of the film I may see during the second viewing. There Will be Blood is the most visually stunning of the three. The one scene where Daniel and his crew finds oil in Little Boston is beautiful. It's also nicely scored. It's too bad the score was not eligible for an Oscar nomination.

Michael Clayton is my favorite movie of the three. It's completely low-keyed and is this idea and character driven thriller movie. The gray color palette in which this film is shot is completely befitting of the movie. Truth be told, it surprised me how much I liked it. I guess I was expecting a courtroom drama type movie but instead saw this wonderfully complex character revealed. This is the film I hope wins Best Picture tomorrow.

Rose Bowl Flea Market

Every second Sunday of the month, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena hosts a giant flea market, one of the most famous in the world, according to its website. I went to it today and, besides some sore feet, it did not disappoint. The market circled the perimeter of the stadium and extended well into the parking lots. Vendors sold everything from socks to hand-made furniture and evertyin in-between. Artisans pedaled their wares. Dealers tried to unload toys I remembered from my childhood as antiques. Clothing designers offered their designs in effort to become recognized. There was enough bric-a-brac to appeal to those who love kistch and to those whose taste is far more pretentious.

It's a huge market and one can be easily overwhelmed by the tons of stuff available. I had a few things in mind I hoped to find -- mainly, I wanted to find a small and cheap piece of furniture, perhaps a bookcase, to hold my CDs and DVDs. After I paid my admission price of $8 and entered through the main gate, the first section, and the most central, to greet me was the food court. It sold mainly the same fare onewould find at a street fair. I walked through the food court to check out the football field. No one was allowed on the football field but one could see what they called "a bird's eye view of the field." Well, it was a football field all right. I used the opportunity to sit down, read the map and plan my course of action.

The faint remnants of the 2008 Rose Bowl still remain. One can still read USC and Illinois on the end zones, even though the names have been spray painted over by green paint.

I walked the perimeter of the stadium . At first, there didn't seem to be a lot of organization to the market. The clothing vendor tents were right next to the tents which belonged to the furniture vendors. The jewerly makers were placed next to them. Also, truthfully, I was a bit disappointed because most of the stuff was same things I could find at a street fair or farmers' market.

A vintage prom dress

After I walked around the stadium in 45 minutes, I ventured into the parking lot area and this was where the real market was. I realized that the perimeter was the "new" section and the parking lot was the "old" section. This is where I could find antiques, costume jewelry, vintage clothing, old movie posters, mid-century modern furniture and Mexican ceramics amongst other things. It was a huge estate sale over acres of black asphalt. I did not find anything that could be made into a nice CD holder but did manage to buy socks (3 pairs for $5), a Madeleine t-shirt ($10), an antiquie Mexican candleholder ($15), and a handmade throw pillow made of blueish teal raw silk ($35).

All-in-all, it's a must do again. This market is perfect for someone who is decorating a new apartment or house, likes to collect specific items, such as depression-era glass, or likes to wear vintage clothing. I'm about $85 poorer, a bit sun-burned and have tired feet but it was a fun way to spend a sunny and warm Sunday.

A rose at the Rose Bowl.

Happy New Year