Stick with this Video

Stick with this video until the end... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

The BookShelf

Next batch of books have gone through the SPC system - I can recommend 3 out of 5.

The Tourists - Jeff Hobbs

The book focuses on 3 "friends" or maybe acquaintances who graduated from Yale and the women who captured their fantasies. The story picks up as the 4 lives intersect again 10 years later. The 1st guy has married the girl, the 2nd guy left college, came out to the closet and has become a famous/rich designer and the 3rd guy continues to pine for the women while also having an odd non-sexual/but sexual realtionship with the 2nd guy. I guess the idea of the book was to focus on how people's secret fantasies, careers and families lead them down paths that they come to regret... or maybe the point was to show the everchanging desires of men or maybe it is just that the author wanted to shock the reader with people who have no morals. The book got a lot of good reviews - I am not sure what they read - I was frustrated with the low morals and their changing sexual personas.

The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell is a commentator on NPR's This American Life and writes American History-type of books. (She is also the voice of Violet from The Incredibles). Wordy Shipmates focuses on some of the original settlers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island - Winthrop/Williams/ Hutchinson. Early in the book, Vowell basically set out her premise that the early settlers were just narrow-minded bullies. Instead of being an interesting snapshot of early New England - it was a narrow-minded judgemental shallow effort. I was really not impressed with the book and not sure I will pick up any others by Ms. Vowell.

Band Fags - Frank Anthony Polito

I am not sure if this was an autobiography, but there was a sense of honesty in this story. It follows a kid (a band geek) in the early 1980s trying to figure out his sexuality and his place in high school. He has a close friendship (possibly love) and the 2 friends do everything together - joining band, falling in and out of love with both boys/girls and trying not to be beaten up. It is pretty sweet story with both laughs and sadness. It is an entertaining book with a lot of laughs - a John Hughes movie with a gay undertone.

The Other Queen - Phillipa Gregory

After watching The Tudors and reading a book on Anne Boleyn - I was looking forward to the next chapter of those crazy British royals... unfortunately I was unsatisfied with this attempt. The story follows Mary - Queen of Scotts as she and her cousin Queen Elizabeth battle for control of the British throne. Mary is held captive by a English Lord and his wife. The storyline bounces between Mary and the Lord and then the Lady... the jumping between the narrators got frustrating. The dialogue was weak and the tension was fake - I would pass on this story.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

For the last 2 years, I have seen this book in bookstores around the world. I bought it and it has been sitting on my shelf for probably about a year. Two weeks ago, I picked it up and was incredibly surprised by this kids book. The book thief is a young girl who lives in a small town outside Munich Germany during the beginning on WW2. The book has been compared to the Diary of Anne Frank - with a big difference being this viewpoint of the war is from a girl on the German side. It is a funny, sweet and sad book - but worth the time.

March in London - -Sunny???

I just finished a quick trip to London - getting in on a Sunday afternoon and leaving Thursday morning - not enough time to get used to the time change - but enough time to fill my days with long meetings.

On this trip I stayed in Knightsbridge area of London at the Pelham Hotel - which is a pretty small boutique hotel - with very British size rooms. I am not sure what the hotel was before it became a hotel - so the rooms basically fit into pretty small little pockets around the building. My room #5 was just big enough for a quick visit - very nicely put together but small.It was an unusual week in London because temperatures were hitting the 60s degrees which confused a lot of the Londoners - the shiny light in the sky was odd for them. I had some time on Sunday to walk around - partly to try and stay awake so that my first night sleeping would be sound - yea that did not work so well.A lot of the area around Knightsbridge is made up of small streets with shopping and small flats. I found my way to lunch on the 5th floor of Harvey Nichols (One of the high end stores) - had an okay burger with chips.I stopped by Harrods - they were not having any sales so no buying for me. I also swung by the Princess Di and Dodi statue just to pay my respects (and kinda wonder what the hell were they thinking)..I did find a Starbucks that was able to make me a green ice tea - it sometimes is a bit of an ordeal to walk them through the process of making the ice tea. The teas are never exactly right - but close enough. So I was happy with my green straw - except as I look at these pictures I realized how tired I was that Sunday..

Could I be Nick Jonas

I am a little behind on my posts. A few weeks back I went to the premiere of the Jonas Brothers Concert in 3D.The premiere was held in Hollywood at the El Capitan Theatre and my fans came out in force (or maybe they were there for the Brothers - it was kinda of hard to tell)!!!It is always odd to walk down the red carpet because half of the screaming fans are trying to figure out if I am someone that they know (and should they ask me for my autograph) and the other half are irritated because they totally know that I am a "suit". In the theatre on each of the seats, there place a Jonas Brothers mask (except they forgot the eyeholes)... When I left the theater there were still a couple hundred girls (and a couple of guys waiting for the Jonas Brothers to come out). I was one of the first out of the movie and they were not thrilled to see me - except when I gave away my mask and glasses to one of the girls.. then they were happy to see me.

On the Road Again - March 2009 style

I fly out this afternoon for a quick trip to London. Arrive Sunday morning - spend Mon-Wed at the Disney Channel offices and on the Thursday morning flight home.

Meeting up with Beth G, Jacob A and Danny B...will try to teach another set of Starbucks locations about green ice teas and hit at least 2 Prets.

Right now the schedule looks slammed - but I am hoping to find time Tuesday night to see a show in the Westend (not sure if it will be in the cards this time).

Racking up those United Miles - I just need to find a reason to use them.

My Favorite Show

This past Thursday night, Veronica D and I headed to The Pantages theatre to see Rent - The Broadway Tour. The show had 2 of the original actors from the Broadway run from 1996 - Adam Pascal (Roger - the wannabe rockstar) and Anthony Rapp (Mark - the aspiring filmmaker). This is the 5th time I have seen the show - twice in NYC, 1 in London and twice in LA.

I remember the first time I saw Rent was with Mary O in NYC and I was mesmerized. When my parents and Annie came to visit me in NYC, I took them to see RENT. I remember that it took a while before they figured out that Angel was a guy. Not sure my parents knew quite what to make of the show.

The NYC show was in a small theatre, but because of the huge fan following the theatre was always packed - people knew the songs, screamed before La Vie Boheme started and became a part of the play. Going into the Pantages, I was not sure what to expect. The Pantage is a massive location - but the audience was just as electric. The original actors were amazing, the energy was amazing - it was perfect... RENT continues to be my favorite show.

Back from the Road

I went out to New York for a couple of days for some work and some fun. On this trip, I stayed at the Essex House which is located next to Central Park South - unfortunately my view was on the other side looking over at Carnegie Hall.During the day, I felt like I was running between Midtown Manhattan and downtown... but most nights I spent going to shows on Broadway.The first show I saw was You're Welcome America - A Final Night with George W. Bush. It was a 90-minute one-man show with Will Ferrell basically going through W's life and giving us a deeper story. Who knew that W was involved in a 4-way relationship or that he had a special relationship for a summer with a guy named David Rothschild... or that Condi Rice and him are really, really, really close (she has a sexy dance). It was a fun show - not perfect - but worth the ticket.The second night our team had dinner down in the meat-packing district at Del Posto an amazing Italian restaurant run by Mario Batalli - the goal was to celebrate the launch of our new brand Disney XD.

Friday night, I headed to the Broadway Theater to see Shrek - the Musical. It is packed with a bunch of broadway stars - including John Tartaglia (the star of Johnny and the Sprites) as Pinnocchio. The show was definitely made for kids - since I am not one who loves broad/slapstick humor - part of the show kinda went over my head. They did a great job translating the movie onto the stage. A couple of the stars were amazing - primarily John Tartaglia and Sutton Foster - they pretty much stole the show. If you have kids this show would pretty much be right up their alley. Saturday morning, I met up with Heather Mc (one of my favorite people from ND).We spent part of the day walking through midtown (grabbing Green Ice Teas) and then to see August:Osage County. The play was absolutely amazing and it is easy to see why it won both a Tony and Pulitzer. The play follows a family in Oklahoma who have dirty secrets, massive drug/drinking issues and a lot of shocking revelations. A couple of times during the play I found myself totally surprised with what I just heard or saw on the stage - I laughed and shuddered. I highly recommend this play. After the play, Heather and I needed something sweet to get our minds back to reality - the play was that good. We stopped by Cosi for some homemade Smores.Heather was honestly not that good with the marshmallows - she burned either the marshmallows or the wooden stick.Before we left for the night, we got one more picture.Before I left NYC I hit one more show - Disney's The Little Mermaid. The showstopper of the evening was the woman playing Ursula - she had the audience clapping and laughing constantly with her songs. This musical is not as huge as Lion King - but it will leave your kids happy - it has the same type of feeling as Beauty and the Beast.

I jumped on a Sunday flight back to LA - unfortunately due to the weather it was a very very bumpy ride.

Some more Culture

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before - David Yoo

Albert Kim is in the middle of high school and he has done a good job staying away from everyone - which has prevented him from getting beaten up. During his summer job, Albert gets a job with the hottest girl (Mia) at school just after she broke up with her quarterback boyfriend. Just like a classic John Hughes movie, Albert and Mia spend the summer falling for each other. During the first week of school, Albert is thrilled with his new found dating status... until Mia's ex-boyfriend is diagnosed with cancer. So while Mia spends her time taking care of her ex, Albert spend his time trying to prove that she is being used. It has a pretty witty sense humor - a nice John Hughes flashback.
Superpowers - David J. Schwartz

5 college students wake up after a party with some odd powers - 1 has speed, 1 has strength, 1 can fly, 1 has the power of invisibility and the final one can read people's thoughts. After learning how to control their powers, they decide to prevent crime in Madison. What started out to be a humorous story - starts to spiral out of control.. For example, when you are extra fast - your entire life becomes extra fast - including your aging. When you can read people's minds - you can go crazy because of the noise. The author did a good job transitioning the story from a humorous adventure to an emotional story - it could be a good movie.

United States of Tara - Showtime

Toni Collette plays a mother of 2 kids who also has a couple of other personalities....T - the slutty 15 year old, Buck - the middle age gun-toting trucker and Alice - the perfect housewife. It is entertaining - a little irritating a couple of times - I did want to slap Tara a couple of times. So far it is still DVR-worthy.

Trust Me - TNT

What would one of my favorite series Mad Men look like if it was based in 2009... I guess might be something like Trust Me. Eric McCormack and Ed Cavanaugh play partners in an ad agency. It does not have the originality of Mad Men and I did not find myself routing for the characters. I also found their creative ideas - kinda sucky... I will give it a couple more airings -- maybe it will get better.

Random Shots

Over the last few weeks, I have found myself working pretty late - both in Burbank and in London. It did not really hit me until a few nights ago when I walked to my car and realized that all of the other cars were gone. Usually there is at least some other person somewhere in the Disney Channel building... It was a bit spooky - I felt like I had seen this scene in many horror movies - I did walk a bit faster to my car...
My place is located a block away from the CBS Radford Studios. It is a pretty large studio lot and every couple of weeks there is notice on the door from Film LA - to inform residents about either filming on the street in front of our place or loud noises in the area. This notice was because CSI:NY Season 3 was filming a scene and there was going to be a House explosion on Saturday. Saturday night, Michael G met me downtown to see the new musical at the Ahmanson Theatre - Minsky's. The story focused on a Burlesque house in NYC during the end of the Great Depression. It was created by the same group that was behind Drowsy Chaperone and you see and feel the similarities. Really broad humor and kinda stale jokes - I have to say that none of the songs stuck with me (except there was this kinda awkward song about Bananas)... not a good sign.

Library Update

Kiki Strike: The Empress Tomb - Kirsten Miller

This is the 2nd book in a tween series, which focuses on a group of girls who have formed a secret society of investigators. The group is led by an eccentric albino-esque girl, Kiki Strike, who finds NYC adventures. Book 1 focused on an underground city and the treasure, criminals and secrets that they find. Book 2 is an adventure which focuses on pickpocketing squirrels, a Chinese treasure and secret father. Think of the series as Nancy Drew meets Scooby Doo meets a little bit of the AV Club... somewhat entertaining

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson

Daniel is a teenage boy with one special talent he is able to "create" anything - he can imagine and create imaginary friends, recreate his murdered parents or make a full 3-course dinner. His power comes from his alien roots. Daniel was brought to the earth by his parents to hunt other aliens bent on destroying the earth. Daniel's parents were killed and now this kid trying to finish their mission. Definitely not a complicated book and it was written to be turned into a movie - easy read.

A Prisoner of Birth - James Archer

Easy, compelling and entertaining read. Chapter 1 focuses on Danny who after getting engaged to his girlfriend and grabbing a beer with his best friend, gets into bar fight and then we find Danny in jail for killing his best friend... The book basically unravels the conspiracy against him and his struggle to break out of jail, clear his name and get back at the men who have plotted against him. The book to totally unbelievable but entertaining - a beach (or snow cabin read for my East Coast friends).

1 Week in Knightsbridge

I just finished a week in London - unfortunately because of work, I spent most of my time in 3 places - my room, the Tube and the office. This was not one of the most exciting trips.

On this trip I stayed at the Knightbridge Hotel which is run by the same group who run my favorite hotel (the Soho Hotel) - so it has the same ecclectic style and dress dummies in the room. My room had view towards the Harrods department store - it looked a bit like a scene from Mary Poppins. After I checked in Sunday afternoon, I walked around the area to keep myself awake. I spent a good chunk of time in Harrods hoping to find something to buy, but with the exchange rate and awful sale prices, I left the store empty handed..Every single day that I was there the temperatures never got above 31 degrees, so it was a lot of sweaters, scarves and big boy jackets. In order to get the office in time, grab some breakfast and have time to stop by the Chiswick Park Starbucks I left the hotel around 730am - this meant I was in the low of the low temps. I grabbed the tube a couple blocks from the hotel (South Kensington Station) to the office (Gunnersbury Station) and then walked to the Starbucks in Disney's complex. By day 3, the barristas knew how to make my Green Ice Tea - I have to say that it was not as good as my SoCal Green Tea..At night, I would walk down Chiswick High Street - grab some dinner and grab the tube back to the hotel. Each night as I waited in the crazy cold at the Turnham Green Station, I kept wondering why I decided to tube it back... I never quite learned my lesson - -take a taxi. For my birthday dinner, Beth G, David L and Dan B took me to a sushi place for a pretty quiet dinner. I am not sure how, but I convinced them to take the tube back... you can tell it is a bit chilly. Beth G and me at the Stamford Brook station.Beth G and David L.

Christmas in Reno

Before Christmas Eve Mass, we stopped by a friend's new Sports Bar - Amendment 21 for some Buffalo Wings, Blue Cheese Bread and Pizza - nothing says little Baby Jesus like Buffalo Wings.After the wings headed to Our Lady of the Snows for 1 of the 3 masses that they were holding at the same time. I think we were in some type of Cafeteria for our mass. The priest gave a pretty good homily at the Bus of Life (which

After mass, we headed home for some Wii playing and some Kitchen Nightmares on Fox. I am pretty sure that I beat Madison on this game.

The boys - Bobby, Max and Me

I helped Annie put together this year's puzzleAlissa, me and AnnieThe whole family

Snowy Reno

Reno was a bit snowy this year - here is a shot outside the front door.The Sommerset hills where my family lives.

Coming in threes

People always say that deaths come in 3s - I think bad books come in 3s too.   This afternoon, I just finished the 3 bad book in a row - each one was more irritating than the last.

New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

This is the 2nd book in the Twilight series.  I read the first book about a year ago, when it started to be called a phenomenon.  The story (which is probably well known by now) follows a teenage girl (Bella) as she falls in love with a vampire.  The book was okay - but I felt like I had to read the #2 book since the Twilight movie sparked such huge attendance (I always try to keep in touch with DC's audience).  I was probably in the middle of New Moon, when I found myself hoping that Bella would die - she was so annoying.  Even near the end of the book, when the pace picked up it was too late for me.  I have officially moved beyond the Twilight series.

Second Chance - Janet Green

A friend recommended this book, calling it the Big Chill for the new generation.  Yea - I did not get into The Big Chill and a Second Chance had 1 more chance than it deserved.  The story followed 5 friends who met in high school and were brought together because of a death of 1 of them.  The 4 remaining friends spent the rest of the book whiny about their lives - I don't love my husband anymore, I am sleeping with a famous actor, I am single and pregnant, my wife can't get pregnant... Shut-up!!! Not worth reading - it was a bad Lifetime movie from the 1980s with Melissa Gilbert.

The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold

A few years ago, I read an amazing book called Lovely Bones about a family whose teenage daughter was killed.  The story was told from the point of view of the dead daughter as she watched over her family.  I had high hopes Almost Moon - but wow I hated it.  The opening line of the book is "When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily".  The rest of the book follows the murdering daughter as she tries to hide her crime and the disgusting things that she does afterwards.  The main character was sick and wrong in so many ways - not sure how Sebold created her.   I really disliked her and the book - Alice Sebold definitely let me down.

Little Brit of Shopping

I spent today trying to get some Christmas Shopping done. I headed out to the Americana which has been decked out in Christmas lights and water features. At one point, I got stuck in a huge crowd of people outside of the Barnes and Noble. After looking around, I found out what caused the traffic jam. The new Kitson LA store was covered with Paparazzi snapping pics and then the next thing I knew Britney Spears walked right past me.
She was doing a little Brit of Shopping.