My First Love

In light of the new Herbie movie coming out soon, I recently purchased the Disney Herbie DVD's to add to my collection. As a child, I was a huge fan of the Herbie movies. Herbie had a special place in my heart. I'd forgotten how special that place was until this weekend when I watched 'The Love Bug' for the first time since I was a kid. What a great movie! I would love to own my very own Herbie someday. I would have to purchase a 1963 Ragtop VW Beetle and restore it to create my very own Herbie. Then we could ride off into the San Francisco sunset and live happily ever after. :)

If you too, would like to create your very own Herbie, click here for instructions.

The Pool and I

Yesterday the temperature here in Huntington Beach reached 88 degrees. That's the hottest it's been since I moved out here. To celebrate such an occasion, I took my first dip in the pool shared by my small apartment complex. It was great. The manager told me I was the first one in for the year! I'm glad that it was me who was the first. Hopefully this will be the start of a lasting and meaningful relationship.

168 Film Project Screening this weekend

The short film that I helped out with a few weeks ago at Big Bear Lake is being screened at the 168 Film Project Screening this weekend. Our film made it in the top 20! The film is called, "Feast". If you're in the L.A. area, stop by Friday night and see it! Check out the festival website too:

http://www.168project.com

What is funny?

What is funny? I've been trying to work that out in my mind lately. I went to LA twice this past weekend to hang out with some new friends that I met while working on a short film at Big Bear Lake. Saturday night we went to ACME comedy club, a place where one of the new people I've met takes classes. I was looking forward to this show because, Matt, the guy who works and takes classes there (hmm, wonder if it's cool to put his name on here), has been encouraging me to look into taking comedy classes at ACME. They teach you how to do improv/sketch comedy and a lot of people have gotten started in comedy through taking classes at ACME. So, I was looking forward to this show to see the "end result" of ACME.

We walked in and bought our tickets, and, oh wait, I can rant now about the stupid credit card service charge. The tickets were $15 each. At the ticket window was a Visa/Mastercard logo and so I chose to use my Visa Sharecheck card. I always prefer to use that because I can track what I spend and it saves me trips to the ATM for when I really need cash. So, after giving the very nice lady my card, she informed me that it would be a $2.50 service charge to use my card. That's just ridiculous. I realize that the credit card processors charge this company money for every credit card transaction, but come on. From my viewpoint, when you charge someone $2.50 to process your credit card, it takes your level of creditability and professionalism down a notch. Luckily, I had a 20 in my wallet, so I escaped the evil service charge, but then I had to borrow a dollar from a friend after the show so that I could tip the valet guy. But I needlessly digress.

The stage was awesome. It was very close to the audience and it felt very personal and welcoming. They did a great light show at the beginning and then started out their first of many small sketches for the show. The show was called 'A Day In The Life of ACME.' They preceded each sketch with a clock showing the time as the day progressed. The first sketch had promise because Wil Wheaton was playing a Starbucks barista and did a great job parodying the typical Starbucks employee. His facial expressions are great. The other person in the first sketch, Laura House was also very funny in her excitement over the new Starbucks drink. But this was where, in my mind, the fun ended. Don't get me wrong, overall, I was entertained by the show and glad I went, but also, overall, I didn't think the show was funny. I felt like the comedy was predictable and "un-relatable". And I know I am sometimes an overly critical person, so I am trying to balance my tendency to be too critical and expecting perfection, vs. the reality of the show. I know the audience laughed a lot during the show, so some people thought it was funny, but it just didn't work for me. I did think that the peformances where great and that the actors involved were very talented. I just didn't like the material. Please get some new writers.

So that's what I've been thinking about a lot this weekend. What is funny? As I've watched TV shows and movies, and if I laugh, I've been analyzing what makes me laugh and why. I think the "why" is the harder question. That's the part I've been working on. I love humor in my life. I love laughter. Sometime (lots of times) my dry, sarcastic, smart-ass humor gets me in trouble. I think someday I'd like to involve comedy more in my life and to do that, I feel I need a better handle on it. If I'm going to trash this ACME comedy performance, then I need to be able to provide a solution or shut up and get out of the way.

Coachella 2005

On Saturday I went to the music festival, Coachella. It's only a 2 hour drive from my new home without traffic, and I didn't want to pass up this opportunity to attend this great annual festival. After I arrived at Indio, CA, where the festival takes place, it took 2 hours to park and to wait in line to have my bag searched. Next time I will make sure to show up earlier to avoid those lines. Another tip for next time is to bring a friend. It was difficult to stay engaged in the concert after about 6 hours with no one to talk to and standing in the scorching, hot desert sun. Of course there were thousands of people standing around me that I could've said "hi" to, but I don't talk to strangers. :)

The first act I saw was The Raveonettes. They're from Sweden I think. They were fun to watch, but musically, it just wasn't to my taste. They did do an awesome rendition of the 50's song, "My Boyfriend's Back."

Next up was one of my top 5 favorite bands, Snow Patrol. They are from Ireland and they, in the most simplest term, rock. I have never seen any of these bands perform live before, so it was a treat to see the people behind the music. Snow Patrol were so nice and fun to the audience. They performed 2 songs from their upcoming album and the second song was strikingly beautiful. You could tell that it took the crowd away. There was silence in awe of the song afterwards.

Keane, from the U.K., was up next. That dude has an amazing voice. It's very high and girly, but amazing. Their performance was great and the crowd loved it. Singing along to every song was fun. The lead singer has a Mick Jagger type peformance. He comes across as an egotistical rock star, but I think that was just part of the performance. He had very kind words to say to the audience and he seemed very grateful to be performing at Coachella. On a side note, I like to "like" the rock stars whose music I enjoy.

After Keane, I stepped out of the crowd and explored the art of Coachella. Coachella is a music and arts festival, so there is all kinds of unique art around. I know there is a specific term for the type of art at Coachella, but that escapes me at the moment. Let's just say that canvas and paint are typically not involved.

I observed Wilco next from further back and by that time I was so physically drained that it was hard for me to enjoy the performance. One of the main attractions of Coachella was that Coldplay was going to be there. I love their music and have never seen them perform live. They were the headline band for Saturday and didn't go on until 11:30 PM. After listening to Wilco, I realized that I couldn't last any longer and made the decision to leave early. It was heartbreaking to give up on Coldplay; my mind was telling me to stay, but my body was saying no. I had a great time at Coachella and I am very grateful that I got the opporunity to attend. Next time though, I definitely need to arrive earlier and bring a friend to make the festival so much more enjoyable.


The Raveonettes


The crowd at the main stage. (There were 5 stages.)


Snow Patrol


Keane

Click here to see a movie clip I took of Keane performing.




Bicycle Ferris Wheel.


Bicycle Circus


Baby Art? Not sure what this was.



Recycle Bin Art


These guys were freaks. I appreciate their artistic freedom and their desire to express themselves creatively, but they were still freaks. :)