LA Story

Well, I just flew back from Los Angeles on Saturday night (I flew out there on Wednesday), and I must say that four days there is not enough. The city is great, the weather is great, the people are awesome and the atmosphere is incredible. My only complaint is the driving...too much traffic and too great of distances, but what are you gonna do? Definitely my kind of town.

I had the pleasure of taking in a number of the sites of Los Angeles while I was there, including Disneyland (yes, I know, technically that's Anaheim...) and Universal Studios Hollywood. I also went on the backlot tram tour at Universal, and had the opportunity to see the special effects stage for the new Grinch movie starring Jim Carrey, as well as some set pieces for the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie starring Robert DeNiro. I have some pictures I'll be sure to post up as soon as I get them developed, including a great one of the front of RBTV (Rocky & Bullwinkle TV), with Robert DeNiro's face (as Fearless Leader) on the façade of the building.

We also took the time to have dinner at Planet Hollywood in Beverly Hills, and ran into a few celebrities there. Most notable were Quake designer John Romero, who was there with a huge entourage of people swallowing up almost half of the lower level of the restaurant, and Rob Schneider, who was there with a bachelor party taking up the entire upper floor of the restaurant. Schneider was surprisingly short (I knew he wasn't tall, but I didn't realize how short he really is), and looked pretty greasy...of course he may have just been hung over.

Of course, you can't go into Beverly Hills without having a look around, and it's a pretty amazing neighborhood to say the least. One minute you're driving through super plush streets with incredible landscaped lawns (and a brand new Lamborghini being delivered to its new owner!), the next you're in a slum with garbage (and people) pouring off the sidewalks into the streets.

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to visit the LA/Orange County area, I'd recommend spending only one (full) day at Disneyland, unless you have kids. Universal Studios is the place to be! There's an amazing array of shops there, along with of course some great rides (including Jurassic Park and the newly opened Terminator 2: 3-D ride). Disneyland may be a little more interesting in 2001 when the new expansion opens, but for now it's a little too kid-friendly for my tastes. Also, you absolutely must spend a few hours driving through the residential districts in Beverly Hills, then head down Sunset and up Wilshire for some amazing sights. The Ferrari dealership is worth a look as well, what with the Ferrari F40 sitting the showroom.

We also went into a few CD and video shops while we were there, and it's pretty obvious that DVD is big in LA. Being from Canada, I had never seen a Circuit City ad before, but it's worth noting that the CC ads I saw while in LA made no mention of (the dreaded) Divx at all. In fact, the only thing in the full page ad for Circuit City which I saw in the LA Times was DVD, DVD and more DVD. Their DVD prices seemed OK, but when I did the currency conversion I determined I can get the same thing marginally cheaper here.

Before I went to LA, I figured it would be "too big" a town for me. After visiting, I can definitely see the appeal. The place is beautiful, and really buzzing with activity all the time. Definitely a place I could live. My only concern would be, of course, earthquakes (and there was a 5.0 while we were there...we slept through it).

As a nice side story to this whole little jaunt into La-la land, on our flight back into Canada we were blessed by the company of none other than the inimitable Jackie Chan. We had a nice little chat with Jackie, and he very graciously posed for a photo with us. Hopefully I'll be able to bring you some more information on the new film he's shooting here in Calgary soon. It's called Shanghai Noon, and it's a Kung-Fu/Western/Comedy/Action movie. Sounds like fun, and knowing Jackie, it'll have some amazing stunt work. The film also features Owen Wilson (Armageddon) and Lucy Liu (Payback). Anyhow, like I said, I hope to have (much) more information on that one for you very soon.

Gary Hatch was the first person to correctly identify last week's quote as being from Chevy Chase's classic comedy, "Fletch". On the subject of comedy, Very Bad Things comes out on DVD this week. For those of you who haven't seen it, you haven't seen a black comedy until you've seen this one. I laughed for days afterward, and I'll be one of the first in line to buy it (like there'll be a line...it made what, about $40 at the box office?).

Also out this week in the theaters is the one, the only, Star Wars: Episode I, of course. I have my tickets already, do you? I'll be there opening night, but because I was on a plane when tickets went on sale, the earliest show I was able to get tickets to was 11:10PM. No biggy, at least I'm seeing it on opening night (and I'll be there EARLY). It's worth noting that The Coliseum (Calgary's biggest movie theater) is showing the film starting at 12:01AM on Wednesday, and it's showing on at least four screens. There's a show once an hour over a twenty-four hour cycle, so by my calculations (given that the Coliseum can hold 600 people in each theater), that theater alone should be bringing in around a quarter of a million dollars on the first day alone. Yikes! This movie's gonna be bigger than big, at least for the first while. It's staying power lies, of course, with audiences.

This week I thought I'd reach into (what should be) a classic action movie for the quote of the week. Here goes...

"I hope next time we meet we will be drinking tea."

The quote isn't obvious, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

Until next time...line up for Star Wars!