Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Big Cheese

We had another big event last night for the DVD release of Ratatouille, held at Social Hollywood. It was actually a really cute, fun, and majorly expansive setup, far larger than I had anticipated. I was wishing last night that I had brought my camera to take pictures of the extravaganza, but it seems that I never have my camera with me at the opportune times. My coworker took a couple photos on her phone, so below is one of the inside bar area. In addition to that room (and all the delicious gourmet buffet food) there was a huge entry room that housed a "Cars" Blu-ray setup.








But by far, my favorite part was the French inspired patio where an all night tasting of high end cheeses and wines ensued. My god, was that fantastic. I definitely gorged myself last night... if you know me, you know how passionate I am about cheese. The top notch cheese that was being served was a triple creme sheep's milk that goes for over $100/lb!! The best part: the cheese server noticed how enthralled I was with their offerings so he packed up at least a quarter lb. of that triple cream, as well as some fantastic aged Gouda for me to take home. I have about $60 worth of delectable cheese in my fridge at home, all compacted onto one tiny plastic to-go plate. I got the cheese shop's card, and it turns out they are local (as opposed to the wine experts, whom I believe were not). However, I don't see myself heading to the valley to spend $25 on a slice of cheese any time soon... unfortunately.

Before I could enjoy the open bar and wine/cheese tasting, however, I had to help manage the red carpet. Notable names included Brian Dennehy, John Ratzenberger, Patton Oswalt, the Oscar winning creators of movies like Toy Story, The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille, and probably my favorite of all, Cheech Marin. No, I didn't shake any hands, but I did rub some shoulders, literally... it gets crowded on the carpet. Oh, and I also shared an intimate moment with THIS guy, who had the audacity to grab the glass of Cafe Boheme from my hands and take a taste for himself. Sure, I could have said 'no' but I have too many fond movie memories of him from childhood as 'that guy who's in everything'. I hold him near and dear.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Okay, Stop.

No really. STOP.

Get out. This is the cutest thing I have ever seen. It had me laughing out loud in my office.

As you readers probably all know by now, I have the most adorable twin nieces and baby nephew. I know that's a bold statement, but it's oh so true. Please take a moment to absorb the wonder that is my nieces' Halloween costumes. I couldn't dream of not sharing such a visual.

(For all the stress involved with having three kids, two of which are twins, at least my sister has fun with it.)





Monday, October 22, 2007

Darjeeling Limited movie review

No real spoilers here, however if you want to be completely surprised by the movie, I'd wait to read this. Sometimes I don't like to hear people's reviews until after I've seen the movie myself...

I saw Darjeeling Limited on Saturday. I adore Wes Anderson movies and this one was no exception; I obviously loved it. I am always amazed at the care he takes in seemingly every single shot. The composition - the objects, placement, angles - is intricately deliberate. He must not only be extremely meticulous, but also have a very specific vision of each piece of visual stimuli that his viewers experience. I can't imagine that he wings anything when filming, however I'm sure it's the case that he's an artistic genius and every now and then he does improvise. The colors were amazingly vibrant and the whole thing was a visual masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

As for the characters...

I absolutely love that Anderson uses a varying line-up of recurring actors in his movies, specifically because the actors he has chosen are so fantastic. As you can gather from the trailer, the three main characters are brothers. Before seeing the movie I thought it was kind of funny in an odd way that he chose three people who couldn't be any more clearly NOT brothers... Owen Wilson with the blond hair, Adrienne Brody with his tall and slender physique, Jason Schwartzman being short and stouter in comparison, and none have similar facial features. But I quickly got over that and realized that they were perfectly cast for the characters they are portraying. Beyond the main characters you get some fun surprise familiarity with other characters, but I won't spoil it by saying who.

As for the story line...

I don't really hate to say it, but the plot was a little light-weight. I don't hate to say it because I still loved the movie anyway. But truth be told, it lacked the involvement that Anderson's movies usually have (sort of the way Bottle Rocket lacked activity, for lack of a better word). After I left the movie and was thinking about it, there was only a couple of those stirring turns in direction that his movies usually express, and even those were subtle. The one truly pivotal & defining scene in the movie was quite reminiscent of the Kingsley/helicopter scene in Life Aquatic and the Richie/suicide attempt in Royal Tenenbaums, so I guess you could just say that the one action packed scene felt very familiar.

But that one criticism aside, when asked what I think of the movie, I intend to respond, "beautifully fantastic." The dialogue and visuals really made it a pleasure to watch.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Life in the fast lane...

...is actually not that racy at all due to all the damn traffic in L.A.

Hi folks, how are you today?

This 'fast lane' I speak of is really just a metaphor for the Hollywood lifestyle and celebrity happenings. Oh wait, I think you already knew that. Regardless...

I work in Public Relations. Entertainment PR. It has it's ups and downs, as does any job. Given the nature of my job, and being that I live in LA (AND that we handle high-profile DVD releases), one of the 'ups' of my job is that I get to work the red carpet for big events and release parties, thus rubbing shoulders with some of Hollywood's finest. Now, I don't fully understand the pattern of my behaviour (ya, I put a 'u' in there) when it comes to being in the presence of celebrities. Sometimes I get really star struck to be working an event with some obscure actor that few people know of, but whom I really like (for example: Jay Chandrashekhar. It was quite exciting, actually; I went up and introduced myself to him and told him what a fan I am, how great Broken Lizard is, etc... had to be there maybe). Other times, I'll be standing next to George Clooney in line at a local eatery and treat the situation like he's just some Joe Schmo. But whatever the situation, on thing is for sure: I always like to name drop.

So, the "Hollywood's finest" representative I will be meeting and working with on Monday is Richard Gere. And also, maybe Marcia Gay Harden. Our event is in honor of the DVD release of the movie The Hoax and also the 11th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

Generally speaking, when it comes to events that host big names, I will pitch the story to the major local news media and various cable networks, while my bosses spearhead the cash cows, very specifically: Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and Extra. Well, for whatever reason (I did not press them for the answer) my bosses can't work Monday's big event so they handed the responsibility over to me. They did all the coordinating, but now I am to act as the liaison between Extra and Richard Gere. He is receiving a special award at a tea party (no, I'm serious) before the red carpet and main awards ceremony, and I must at some point during this tea, make an interview with Extra happen.

It's fun and exciting to be responsible for something that my industry regards as such a major placement (even if it's not representative of my own personal values). But there's one thing that I just can't seem to get a grasp when it comes to these major events and media placements... I wonder why, after the weeks of endless preparation, the day of the event arrives and we are always still scrambling to make something happen that should be as effortless as a phone call or email and subsequent schedule pencil-in. It's a five minute interview. How come the publicists can't just say, "Okay, we'll plan on Richard being ready at 5pm for this brief interview." They already agreed to the interview, and he's already going to be present at the tea from 4-6pm. So why do they have to be so non-committal about a time. It just seems that everyone's schedule would flow so much more easily if the talent - pardon me - the talents' handlers could just meet us 1/8 of the way, by giving a verbal time agreement. All he's going to be doing is sitting at his table, sipping some tea anyway.

Ha. I had intended for this entry to be of bragging nature, not ranting nature, but such is my train of over-thought I suppose.

Anyway, I really hope I don't botch this up. Everything should go smoothly, but it's often the case that we'll plan something a week in advance, speak very explicitly about the plan with whoever's manager, and then we show up and not a single word would have been relayed to the main player of the plan. It's ridiculous. I get it, they're busy people. But doesn't that just mean that the managers and publicists should be the type of people who can adeptly handle busyness? And shouldn't the reporters, who deal with perpetually tentative schedules, be a little expectant of slight delays or changes in plan when they arrive places? It's like everyone arrives and is stressed out, and the person in my position becomes the bitch who is forced to be on the receiving end of all this stress.

Honestly, I just turned an 'up' of my job into a 'down'.

Now that you've witnessed the progression of me going from little miss big shot to thoroughly stressing myself out, wish me luck! In all reality, it will still be fun and exciting. It's just the preparation that is a bit painstaking. I'll fill you in on how it all goes after Monday.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Midnight Outings

So I got in a bit of a tiff last night at my local watering hole. Probably not the best judgment on my part, mostly because it occurred with a long time resident drinker, so chances are I will run into him again. And so the story goes…

Because my good friend from college, Megan, is in town, she, Emily, and I went out to a couple bars. Going out on week nights is actually a rare occurrence for me these days (these days meaning in the past six months to a year), but I made the exception for our visitor. First we went to Barney’s Beanery because Emily wanted to play pool. I'm not too fond of the college scene that is characteristic of Barney's but we just don't know of any other fun pool halls in the Hollywood area that actually offer more than one table - so if you readers know of any, I beg of you, PLEASE COMMENT!!

After having our fill there, we headed back to our neighborhood to hit one of our more frequented bars, and the closest bar to our apartment, Three of Clubs. Megan and I went to the bathroom, immediately after which she left to go meet up with some other friends. I come back to the bar stool where Emily is sitting, only to find her hunched over the bar, fading fast from consciousness. I then see a group of four just-under-forty-something guys standing around her. One shorter, dark haired fellow is leaning over Emily talking to her, though she looks to be unaware of it. To me, it appears as though he is attempting to take advantage of my decision impaired friend. So I begin to shoo him away with comments along the lines of, “she doesn’t want to talk to you”, “leave us alone”, and, “we have boyfriends so get outta here,” among others. Sure, I ran my mouth a bit – because you know, I get feisty – leaving him struggling to get in his own phrases like, “are you done yet?”

Well our Good Samaritan friend gets very offended and explains that he was only trying to see if my friend was okay, since she didn’t look to be in the best of shape. I utter a bashful, “oh…” I apologize and explain that in a scenario like this one, it is often the case that the man in his position is some over-aggressive walking penis who wants to exploit our drunken state. Then something strange happened. After hearing my apology, explanation, and then follow-up apology, Good Samaritan gets even more heated. He starts berating me for my indignation. I say, “listen man, I apologized. I swallowed my pride, told you you were right and I was wrong… I put myself in place. I was being light-hearted in my feistiness, not hateful. I’m sorry. Can’t you at least chalk it up to being an entertaining exchange?”

No. No he couldn’t. His rant continued with a lecture about how he’s been coming to this bar for fifteen years and how disgusted he is with the evolving clientele, who apparently waltz into HIS local spot and take over the place with their drunken antics. I’m thinking to myself, ‘it’s midnight at a dimly red-lit dive bar in Hollywood and this guy is complaining that he’s surrounded by drunk young people… what did he expect when he walked in here, an orchestra?’ I tell him that I’m not just another wet behind the ears Hollywood newbie; I grew up down the street and have been coming here for 10 years, since I was 14 and they let me pass with my 24 year-old sister’s ID, even though she was such a regular there that they knew her by name. This only angered him more.

His friend standing closest to us finally chimes in, saying to Grumpy, “what’s the problem? She said she was in the wrong and apologized. Why are you still talking about it?” I exclaim, “thank you! Thank you very much. Let me shake your hand. What’s your name?” He tells me his name, and then I turn to the other two on-looking friends to gather their names. They look a little clueless as to what is going on and state that it’s too loud to even hear what we’ve been talking about this whole time. As we introduce ourselves, Sour Puss says, “what’s the difference? It’s not like she’s even going to remember any of your names in the morning.” “Ha!” I gloat, “joke’s on you – I don’t even remember your names right now!” And immediately realized that such a statement actually does not help my case. (I in fact remembered one name at the time. Rick.)

Then a very useful piece of information surfaces. Jerk Face mutters something about just wanting to have a good time at his local spot on his birthday. Ah yes, it’s all coming together now. He’s upset about getting older (perhaps he was celebrating the 40 year milestone), the infestation of drunk whippersnappers at the bar he’s been a veteran at for 20 years (yes, at this point we are up to 20) and most likely also that he is sans lady friend and just got three snaps in a Z formation from some cute young feisty girl. Even though, mind you, I was polite and apologetic and wished him a happy birthday.

We left the scene and I just kept thinking about how I should have said something like, “don’t take it out on me because this bar is retaining a young clientele and evolving but you clearly are not, since you are still frequenting the same bar as when you were 18, back when that was the legal drinking age.” But I guess I wasn’t quick enough on my toes.

At least I won’t feel awkward the next time I go there since obviously all faces with wrinkles look the same to me.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I wish my baby had deep pockets, so we could run around, spending all her money, and painting up the town.

Warning: this post is just a long play-by-play of my vacation weekend. May cause disinterest or confusion.

What a wonderfully fantastic weekend. On Thursday evening Josh and I boarded a plane together for the first time, headed to one of my favorite places: Colorado. I have intensely missed Colorado since I moved back to Los Angeles over a year and a half ago. Luckily, I still have several close friends who have either remained in Boulder or moved to Denver or Frisco. Earlier this past summer, my group of 6 sistas from college had a four day reunion weekend, in honor of Megan & Emily's birthdays. It was then that I vowed to return to Colorado once a year to visit my college town or spend some time in the mountains... "going home" I call it, since I grew far fonder of that environment and way of life during the 4+ years I lived there, than I am now of LA.

Well, this year I got lucky and made it back to Colorful Colorado for a second time within 4 months (I can't believe my girls' reunion was almost four months ago! Oh how time flies). The occasion - as if I need one - was The Great American Beer Festival. Now, I love beer. And I'm not saying that as a drunk. I'm saying it as a person who loves the taste, variety, and process, and as the girlfriend of a man who brews his own beer. So as I was saying, I love beer, and I love Colorado. However, I attended the festival in 2005 when I still lived there, and I don't know that I would have made the trek back to CO (mostly due to cost) solely for the festival and if I didn't have Josh eagerly chomping at the bit to keep a tally of all the new beers he could be trying. So we went for it.

Kelly picked us up from the airport at 11pm, after a long day of nannying that started at 8am. Needless to say, she was a bit too exhausted to hit the town. Instead she offered to drop us off downtown (Pearl Street) so I could show Josh some of my old stomping grounds. I was the one driving home from the airport, in fear that Kelly might fall asleep at the wheel, and it required no thought to decide where I should drop us off: The Mountain Sun. I've blogged about The Mountain Sun before and anyone who knows me from Boulder knows about my obsession with this pub and brewery (like I said, I love beer). In fact, I've talked about this place so much that, aside from the beer festival, this was what Josh was most excited to visit. He commented on how it's interesting that after hearing about it so much, he had a very particular rendering of what it should look like in his mind, though it turned out to be very different from what he had pictured.

So Thursday night was pretty mellow. After the Mountain Sun we met up with Jeff, who now lives with Kelly, and hit my favorite bar, The Pearl Street Pub & Cellar (aka "The Pub"), and then The Sundown Saloon ("The Downer"). Friday was really the best day. It was beautiful out - luckily, because it was rainy and cold Saturday and Sunday. So Josh and I borrowed Kelly's sweet ride, the Red Dragon X675 scooter, and I gave him a tour of Boulder. For lunch I showed him the deliciousness that is The Smelly Deli. Based on its nickname, one can gather that people's opinion of this eatery is not positive across the board. But man do they make a fantastic gyro. We walked all throughout campus and I showed him the Anthropology building (because coincidentally enough, he was an Anth major in college also) and old framed pictures of the campus around the turn of the century (obviously, not the most recent turn). Then we headed to Chautauqua Park, where we went on a walk-hike and found a shady lookout area to lay around in (I know, you're throwing up a little in your mouth right now). But wait! That's not all.... we then went to the Boulder Creek for a peaceful stroll, before it got too cold and we had to head to Happy Hour to meet some friends.

Just a note: I really wanted to have amazing pictures to show form this trip, from my new low-mileage camera, but, well... I'm a dumbass and kept forgetting to bring it with me. I can't tell you how many picturesque settings I wanted to capture of our day in real nature - sometimes I forget what it looks like, living here in LA. But twenty minutes into each walk or hike I realized that I left it in the scooter. And at night, well at night I apparently forgot that I even owned a nice new camera and that it was just an arm's length away, in my purse. Boo. I got about 6 pictures from the beer fest, and they're basically multiples of the same thing. :( Hopefully soon I'll get used to being the proud owner of this mystical device called "digital camera".

Friday night we got Happy Hour at Centro, where Jeff works. Can't beat $2 rum & cokes and delicious fresh discounted tacos. Our dinner destination was Hapa, where Kelly clued me into Momokawa Pearl Sake, which is by far the best sake I have ever tried. We ran into an old friend, Courtney, who works at Hapa and we caught up for a bit. From there, we met up with Jon and Scott at The Pub. I was very pleased that they not only made the trek from Denver to hang out with me in Boulder even though they knew I would see them the next night, not only did they actually take the bus to get there, but I only had to apply a minor amount of pressure to get them to come into town. I was expecting to have to beg, plead, threaten, and then guilt trip them into it, but no. Fancy that - made my night! So Friday night's sequence was actually a lot like Thursday's... after Josh and I kicked Jon and Scott's asses in pool and then cleaned up the blood soaked floor with the rags of their pride, we headed to The Downer, where I really think Jon and Josh bonded; you know you can breathe a sigh of relief when your boyfriend goes to the bathroom and your best guy friends use that time to give the thumbs-up seal of approval to "the BF" (were Jon's exact words). Lastly, we hit up The Attic, for the latest last call in town.

Saturday was basically a day of preparation for the beer festival. Josh and I had a great time, as was to be expected. We probably tried around a hundred beers (yeah, I did the math). Given the number of brewers that presented, I easily could have spent those hundred 1oz shots on beers I've never tried. But ya know what? I just love Colorado's micro brews so much that I had to survey all those old favorites that I can't get around here. But I wouldn't call that a waste by any means. One thing the brewers do at The Great American Beer Festival is try to get attendees to sport namesake fake tattoos. The reps ask the girls if they can apply tatts to their chests or upper butts. Although a brewery tattoo applied to the chest by an overweight middle aged guy named Budd wreaks of class, I decided to forgo that offer. Instead, I warmed up to an upper arm application. I'm still sporting flaky remnants of my Newport Beach Brewing Company tattoo, which I made the exception for since they have a beer called "Balboa Brown" and that's where my dad lives (plus all their beers were really yummy). My second fake tattoo was a sneak attack from one of my all time favorite breweries, Boulder Beer Company. I was just standing there enjoying some Planet Porter when I felt a smack on my shoulder and a stream of cool liquid trickling down my arm. I was completely taken off guard but the tatt had been sealed before I even had a chance to react.

After the festival ended Josh and I met up with Scott and Jon who were watching their two home teams, The Indians and The Red Sox respectively, duke it out. I have absolutely no recollection of who won. After attempting to play pool and failing miserably, the four of us then proceeded to bar hop around Denver. The bars we went to were surprisingly empty - strange for a Saturday night I would think. I must say that I most enjoyed the semi-wet and cold adventures that occurred en route to each bar on the streets of Denver. Thanks for good times, fellas.

Sunday we had high hopes for going to a museum, but when that rainy morning arrived all we could think of was getting some greasy grub in our bellies and vegging out on Kelly's couch back in Boulder, before our evening flight (which we almost missed and ended up sprinting through DIA "Home Alone" style to catch the slowly closing doors). Now Josh is completely in love with Colorado and keeps suggesting a move to either Denver or Boulder. Although I love it there too, if I am moving to another state, I kind of want to move t somewhere I haven't lived before. Discussion of Portland has taken place, but who know what will happen.

Alright, there's my LONG recap of my weekend trip to Colorado. In light of the gloom outside, I hope you're having a warm and cozy day!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

...and I will be satisfied not to read in-between the lines.

I was taking one of those silly personality quizzes a minute ago and was asked the question, "If your friends had to describe you with one word it would be: Loyal, Witty, Outdoorsy, Daring, Fun". I asked five different friends for their opinion on the matter. I think it's both very amusing and interesting that just about every single person said something different:

Emily: Witty
Josh: Fun (although I had to harass him to give a single answer because he thought it was a trick question and stuck by his initial response of, "I think you're ALL those things.")
Karen: Loyal
Rob: Daring
Katie: "either Fun, Witty, or Loyal"

Outdoorsy was the only that didn't get chosen, even though I do consider myself an Outdoorsy person (I suppose I'm not as characteristically 'outdoorsy' as I am those other things).

Anyway, I think it's interesting that each of my friends perceives me in a different light. Do I present myself differently to each of them? Do they perceive me a certain way based on their own individual personalities? I'm guessing it's a combination, that based on my different friends' personalities, I let different aspects of my own personality shine through.

I guess it wasn't really a "silly quiz" after all.