Turbo, Fox Lot, & Griffith Park w/ The Irishman

Woke up this morning and realized that I had to edit my next MASH podcast as it's due in two days and the next two days are packed with activities. So I got up at 7am and began stringing out all the audio clips. A few hours later I was about halfway done but I had to call it a day. Will have to finish the rest of it tomorrow at some point.

My buddy Thomas is visiting from Ireland this week. He's here in Los Angeles a few days before heading down to San Diego for Comic Con. Thomas is one of my friends who I instantly bonded with, it doesn't happen often and I can actually count how many times it has happen on one hand. I remember when I first saw Thomas at the Guild table during SDCC a few years back.. he's cute and he's accent in adorable but there was something more, a kind of kismet. I knew we were going to be good friends. Of course we don't get to see each other that often (a few times a year) but the times we do spend together are very special to me.

Today I was picking him up from his hotel down in Van Nuys and we were driving into Los Angeles for a screening at the 20th Century Fox lot. But before that we grabbed a bite to eat at the near by Islands. After lunch we drove over to the Fox lot. I figured this would be a treat for Thomas as he has never been on this lot (they don't do tours) and he really enjoys TV/Movies behind the scenes stuff like me.

We were going to a pre-screening of Dreamworks animated movie Turbo. We got to the lot and made our way to the theater. It's always fun walking to the theater as you have to walk past a few sound stages. We found the theater, got our 3D glasses (yes it was in 3D) and found some good seats and waited for the movie to start.

My review of Turbo. If you don't know what Turbo is here's a quick synopsis: All his life, Theo the garden snail has lived a slow lane life with dreams of speed at the Indy 500. Suddenly, a freak mishap gives him the ability to move at super speed, which puts Theo and his brother at a failing strip mall. They are discovered by Tito, a goofy fast food worker, and his crew of racing snails, and a wild idea is born for Theo to race with his heroes in Indianapolis. Now, this gang of misfits are traveling to that city to dare pursue the impossible dream, which will require all of Theo's speed as Turbo to have any shot at achieving.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's super cute and perfect for the family. I loved the voice actors, and the story was very heart warming. It was funny and had some cool action/tense moments.

Again I saw this in 3D (PGA screening) but it wasn't necessary, but like with Pacific Rim it really didn't bother me and I don't think I ever really noticed it. 

Both Thomas and I really enjoyed this movie. I would give Turbo a solid B+

After the movie we walked around the Fox lot. We took pictures of cool murals they had painted on the sides of the sound stages.. my favorite of course is Star Wars but they also had a really cool Simpsons and Die Hard one as well. We walked around the back lot that looks like old New York City streets. We found plaques on the sound stages that listed all the movies and tv series that were shot there. That was cool knowing that 30 to 40 years ago some big big movies were shot at that location. We took pictures and video and were heading back to the parking lot when a security person stopped us and said that pictures and video were not allowed. They didn't mention us randomly walking around the lot (which was cool) just to not take pictures or video and luckily for us we were already done with the pictures and heading back to the car.

We left Fox and headed all the way across town to Griffith Park. Last year when Thomas was here he mentioned in one of his video blogs that he didn't know where any of the hiking paths were for Griffith so I decided to show him around a bit and go for a hike at Griffith Park.

It took us a little over an hour to drive across town (about 10 miles) but we finally made to Griffith Park. We parked near the Merry-go-round and the first place I took him to was the "Old Zoo". This is where the LA Zoo use to be. There are still cages there that use to hold the bears, monkeys and tigers and you can walk around in them.. it's pretty cool.

Afterwards I took him over to the other side where there are four or five trail entrances and we choose the one I knew the best. We hiked and talked for over two hours. It was tiring but I loved the company I was with. We didn't quite make it as far as I was hoping to go as we had to turn around because Thomas had plans in the evening.

I dropped him off at his hotel, picked up some dinner and went back to my place and crashed. It was an awesome day spent with a great friend seeing a fun movie and getting some awesome one on one time. Gonna be doing Magic Mountain the day after tomorrow with him... can't wait.

You can watch Thomas' daily vlogs that he posts on you tube. This one covers today's activities.