Harry and I went to Magic Mountain tonight for Gay Night. I have gone almost every year for the past six years or so. Harry and I are huge roller coaster fans but since we got Daisy (our dog) we haven't been able to go. Now that Daisy is a little better about staying home alone and the event was only five hours, we decided to go. It was awesome and so much fun. We manage to ride seven roller coaster in a few hours. Magic Mountain opened a new roller coaster last summer and we have been dying to ride it. Tatsu is a roller coaster where you hang from the track like you are flying. After X (the best roller coaster ever) I didn't think this was going to be all that great. We waited over two hours in line and the excitment grew. We finally got on and it was fun. Towards the end of the ride there is a inverted backwards loop. And all I have to say is OH MY GOD!!!!!
I love roller coaster and have never really been surprised or scared of any of them. Well we were going along and it was fun and then we hit that inverted backwards loop and my heart started to race as we picked up a huge amount of speed and G's. I started to freak out and yell OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD. This had the best drop I have ever felt. I got off this ride and was shaking. IT WAS AWESOME.After a great night we started to head home and while exiting Magic Mountain and before getting on the freeway there was bumper to bumper traffic. I finally got down the hill and was about to go through the light to the freeway and the person in front of me slammed on her breaks and I did the same but hit a dip in the road and couldn't stop in time and rear ended her. We pulled over in a parking lot where another accident involving three other cars were park and exchanged info. There wasn't much damage to her car and my front right side was dented a bit. So a great night didn't end the way I planed. Now I have to see how much my insurance is going to be raised and I have to see how much it's going to cost me to fix my car. Oh well.. life happens.
They are filming a scene from an episode of NBC's new series Heroes right outside my office/edit bays. I saw all these people in the hall way and one of the workers told us that they were shooting a scene pretending they are at FBI headquarters. Greg Grunberg plays a LA cop who can read people's minds and he teams up with an FBI agent.. those are the two principles actors here. It's very cool...
Well as some of you may or may not know.. after 12 years of courting, my brother is finally getting married to the lovely Lora. They had planned to get married on my birthday Saturday Sept. 23rd but the reception area wasn't available so they moved it to Sunday Sept. 24th. Of course I am part of the wedding party so I have to be there on Wednesday for the rehearsal. It was alot of fun. My brother has said in the past that he is not nervous about his ceremony, but he was nervous during the rehearsal. I also picked up my tux today, black suit with black shirt, lilac vest and lilac tie. So I have my tux and I know where to stand.. I'm ready for Sunday.
Just wanted to share with everyone my two favorite gay romantic comedies. I saw Touch of Pink about a year ago on DVD and just fell in love, it's funny, sweet, caring and just a great movie.
Here's a synopsis of Touch of Pink; Alim is an Ismaili Canadian who lives in London, thousands of miles from his family, for one very good reason--he has a boyfriend. His ideal gay life begins to unravel when his mother (Nuru) shows up to find him a proper Muslim girlfriend and convince him to return to Canada for his cousin's extravagant wedding. Nuru was born and raised in Africa. She was fond of watching Doris Day and Cary Grant classic movies, and wanted to be like her. After the death of her husband, Nuru leaves her young son Alim in Africa with her sister and immigrates to Britain, hoping to leave behind her grief and start a new life. Alim is four when she leaves him. Nuru returns after being rejected by the England, and suffering racism. Nuru and her sister Dolly immigrate to Canada with their families and Alim grows up in Toronto. Fast-forward to the present. Nuru is going to attend her nephew Khaled's wedding but feels that she is missing part of herself because of her separation from Alim. She longs for him to marry a nice Ishmali Muslim girl and raise a family in Toronto. She goes to London to convince Alim to come home. What she does not know is that Alim is living with someone in - but that someone is not Muslim, nor a female - but a male Caucasian. Watch as events unravel this mystery for Nuru when she finally gets to meet her son's life-mate.Harry and I went to see Guys and Balls in the theater. It's in German but has English subtitles. And since Harry is from Austria this was a must for us. We walked out of the theater and both of us were willing to go right back in and watch it again. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Here is a review of Guys and Balls that I really liked; Guys and Balls, another German import, about a star goalie named Ecki who's booted off a "straight" local soccer team after he's caught tongue-wrestling with a guy. This old-fashioned, feel-good flick, which chronicles Ecki's scheme to exact revenge, nabbed a bunch of honors, including a 2005 Outfest LA Audience Award for best feature. Sort of a cross between The Full Monty and Bend it Like Beckham, this sweet, irresistible root-for-the-homo-team story lives up to its clever title. I compare it to The Full Monty not because the guys bare all (sorry, fellas) but because Ecki's revenge plot involves assembling a motley crew of misfits to take on his former soccer team in a big grudge match. Unlike much of queer cinema, which relies on buffed eye candy to gloss over the shortcomings of a film, Guys and Balls has cast normal guys with beer guts, shabby clothes and—gasp!—body hair.
Among Ecki's new teammates are the closeted barfly soccer fanatic, the beautiful Turkish waiter with a crush on Soccer Adonis David Beckham, the wiry soccer whiz who looks like a boy but is really a lesbian, the pair of hunky Brazilians, and the effeminate bookseller who is really straight. Got all that? My favorites are the leather-daddy threesome that Ecki finds at the dungeon-esque Steel Pipe bar. The tender scenes of them snuggled in their black vinyl waterbed together, shot from above, are oddly heartwarming. One of them is actually a real daddy, now divorced, who has a thing or two to prove to his distraught young son. The star of the newly formed gay team, at least in Ecki's eyes, is Sven, the male nurse. The two boys fall head over heels for each other, but complications arise when Sven discovers that Ecki is using the team more for personal vengeance than for the love of the game.The team finds a coach in an alcoholic, homophobic, has-been soccer star who warms up to the boys after watching their pathetic practice attempts. Predictably, when Ecki reveals that he's gay, his father pretty much disowns him. He finds loving support from his sister, Suzanne. In the do-or-die showdown between the bros and the homos, the stakes are high. Not only is Ecki fighting for respect as a gay man (and, by extension, for all gays) but he's desperate to regain his stature as an athlete, and as a son. Remember, this is Germany where, like much of the entire world besides the U.S., soccer is not just a sport, it's a religion. Will the gays prevail? Will Ecki win back Sven's heart? The climax may not be a surprise, but it's engaging nonetheless. Like a kick-ass soccer match, Guys and Balls wants nothing more than to entertain, and on that level it scores big. Though the screwball comedy is yet another take on a coming out tale in the "I'm gay, so what!" vein, the refreshingly appealing ensemble and richly textured narrative elevate it beyond standard fare. The curly-locked Brückner makes a winning screen debut as the innocent yet determined Ecki. To be sure, the film churns out annoying been-there-done-that gay platitudes, such as when Suzanne says about Sven, "Why the heck does every nice-looking guy have to be gay?" And the logic of actually assembling such a gay team is painfully strained. But, for the most part, these lapses are easy to forgive.
Directed by Sherry Hormann, who reportedly knew nothing about soccer when she signed on, the film boasts lively field action sequences that register as authentic. Unless you're a pro, you'd never know the actors also had no soccer experience and were required to join a training camp to polish their moves before cameras started rolling.Watching Guys and Balls, it's easy to see why films with sports themes are such a hit with gay audiences. It's about the triumph of the underdog, overcoming prejudice, self-discovery, and extracting the hidden joys out of life. And, of course, helping to dissolve the taboo of gays playing sports in a straight world.
Happy Birthday Star Trek (Sept. 8, 1966)... 40 Great Years and counting. We live in a very sad world at the moment and Star Trek always showed what the human race could achieve. It had a crew that said discrimination was a thing of past; it had a future with no poverty; it had an economy that was driven by progress and achievement, not simple wealth accumulation; it had science as a guiding force, not mysticism or superstition; it had technology as a means to explore, not just make life easier; and, perhaps most importantly, it had a peaceful mission at its core, not one of conquest.
With The Original Series, the Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and finally Enterprise. And along the way 10 motion pictures. I couldn't imagine a world without Star Trek, let's hope for 40 more great years.
Well today I took my jeep in to get an alarm installed. I have been wanting to do this since I bought it back in September, but things kept popping up and funds have been unavailable. Well today was the day, I took it in and paid $700.00 to have install very cool alarm. Of course I find out that none of the doors are electrical so they couldn't install the automatic door openers and a few of the extra opinions weren't available. But I did get the perimeter sensor since my Jeep can be topless and I don't want people to be able to grab anything from inside my jeep. So while this was going to take four to five hours to install I decided that I would have lunch with a friend and go to the movies. I wanted to see Superman Returns ( I know I can't believe I haven't seen it yet either), but it wasn't playing anymore so instead I went and saw Zoom with Tim Allen. I thought it was a cute movie. Kind of like Sky High but with less of a story. It seems just when this movie gets going it ends. Also the final battle is about two minutes and resolved way to quickly. I like the idea of the movie just needed more of it.
Sunday is usually a laid back kind of day. It's "Kids day" so I normally don't go to any panels that day and normally finish up buying whatever I want to buy before we head home. But this year I was volunteering at the California Browncoats fan table. From 9:30am to about 1pm it was controlled chaos. It was so much fun meeting fellow fans of Firefly and Serenity. We sold tons of t-shirts, buttons, stickers and so much more. I did very good and didn't buy everything. After working the booth I then strolled around a bit longer and checked out a few things. At about 1:30 I headed upstairs for the Browncoats charity drawing, which I had bought 20 tickets. I sat there for about two hours as they read off ticket number but alas I did not win any of the 123 items. After that I found Tom and we headed back home.
There wasn't much going on Saturday in regards to the panels, at least not much that I wanted to see. So I planned on spending most of my time down in the dealers room or roaming around taking pictures. But there were two panels that I wanted to see. At 10:30 there was the Lost panel. I have gone to this every year (this being year three) and every year different actors show up to promote this show. This year we had Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Daniel Dae Kim (Jin). It was a packed house over 5000 people and they talked about the upcoming season but kept very tight lipped. After that panel and in the same room was The Simpson panel. The creative time behind this show came in and discussed several things, the big thing was seeing unfinished clips from the big Simpsons movie coming out next year. Both panels were great
After the panels I picked up some lunch and went back down to the floor where I took tons of picture ( which you can see on my website) and continue to check out all the geeky things. At 8pm there was a special screening of "Done the Impossilbe" it's a fan film about how the fans of Firefly fought to get our beloved but cancelled TV series made into the big damn movie Serenity. When then did dinner and back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Friday was my first full day at this years Comic Con and I would have to say that it didn't disappoint me. There were crowds, lines, people in costumes and plenty of geeky things as far as the eye could see. Every year I sit down with the program schedule for each day and make lists of what I want to see and who I want to see. Of course there is always conflicting event happening at the same time so I pick which one I really want to see and have the other ones as back up just in case I can't get into the one I really want to see. There were 12 events/panels that I wanted to see but 0nly three were "must" see.
When the doors opened on the huge dealers room ( about the size of a football field) I started to look at all the goodies. I only needed a few action figures but was also buying some figures for friends that couldn't make to comic con.. so I started to shop. I knew that I had about an hour before I needed to get in line for the Warner Bros presentation. I knew that they weren't going to be showing any new footage from the new Harry Potter so it went from a 'must' see to if I had time panel and once I was on the dealers floor looking at all the cool things I decided that it wasn't so important and skipped it.Around Noon I knew that I needed to get upstairs and get in line for the one thing that I really have been looking forward too, the screening and panel for Heroes. Heroes is a new TV series that will be premiering on NBC in the fall and they had a special sneak peak at a 70 minutes comic con exclusive cut of the pilot episode. Then the entire cast but two came in and spoke to the crowds of thousands. The pilot was awesome and it was so cool being one of the first people to watch this great new TV series. The cast was funny, charming and taken back by the response from the audience. Eveyone must watch this new TV series.
After the Heroes panel I went back down to the dealers room and continued to go through the crowds of people and shop for items that I needed. About and hour after that my nerves were starting to get frayed. I can only take the crowds for so long and my feet were starting to hurt.. so I decided that is was time for lunch. I went upstairs and found a semi-quiet area and sat down for a much needed rest. After lunch I really didn't want to go back down to the floor so I decided to go to another panel. And so for the next few hours I went to the Star Wars Day: Lucasfilm's Star Wars Spectacular, which really is one big sales pitch for what games are coming out next year, but was still fun. I also went to The Jim Henson Company: Power of the Dark Crystal and found out about some upcoming movies and event from the Jim Henson Company. Now being 7pm I was tired but Tom and I wanted to see if we could get into one more panel, SNL Saturday TV Funhouse. We got in line, which was huge but the room filled up and we couldn't get it. We decided that it was time for dinner and then back to the hotel to rest up for Saturday.
I'm sure I'll be posting the going on's down there when I get back.Well it's been an interesting four day fourth of July weekend. It started off really good.. going up to my Mom's cabin in Green Valley Lake for four days relaxing getaway with Harry and Daisy. Got up their Saturday night, relaxed all day Sunday, walked around the Lake and had a really nice time. Monday we went off-roading, which was alot of fun and did some more relaxing. But while off-roading I got a message on my cell phone, it doesn’t work in Green Valley but where we were off-roading we got reception. So I checked it and it was the EP of the show I'm working on panicking about getting a bunch of things done by Wednesday night. So I called him and tried to calm him down a bit. But of course now I'm worrying about work and getting all this stuff done before Wednesday night. I asked Harry if we could go home a bit earlier because I wanted to go into work today on the fourth and try and get a headstart on things. He was fine with that, both of us aren't really into fireworks and we wanted to beat the traffic home. So we got up Tuesday and started to pack up the jeep and head home. We got out of the mountains and was about 80 miles or so from home when the temperature gauge on the jeep started to rise and kept rising until it was in the red and I started to pull to the side of the road when I realized that I was losing horsepower. Well we managed to get to the side of the road and I called AAA. Come to find out that I have the basic AAA and they only tow 7 miles for free and for every mile after that it's $8 a mile. Well us still being 80 miles from home it would cost be about $640.00 to tow the jeep to our place. I called my brother who lives in Corona and talked with him and told him what has happened. He suggest I bring the jeep to his place about 20 miles and he can have his friends take a look at it and he would give us a ride home. Well after waiting in the 100 + temp, which Daisy was just dying in, the tow truck came and towed the jeep to my brother's house. I'm still not sure what the problem is. But the jeep overheated and may have cause the head gasket to blow, which is bad but even worse it may have cracked the engine block, which would mean we would need a new engine. Anyways we got home about 5pm and just crashed on the couch. What started out as being a great relaxing weekend turned into a stressful and costly weekend and I’m still waiting to hear the worst of it. Oh and I didn't go into work to get that head start like I wanted to. So tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day.
Oh I forgot to mention in my last blog that when I picked Sean up he mentioned that we only had two more outings left. I asked him why he said this and come to find out that his mom got a job in Idaho and his family is moving mid August. He knows it's for the best but was very upset that we just started to get to know each other and he has to leave. He very sweetly asked if I can move there too. I assured him that he'll get another big brother from idaho to hang out with. Not sure what I'm going to do next. I assume once he leaves I'll have to start again with another "little' brother, but I'm sure there are plenty of kids out there who need a mentors.
Last night Harry and I went to a charity screening of the movie Serenity. Even though the movie is long gone from the big screen "Browncoats" as Firefly/Serenity fans like to be called decided to put together as many screenings on this weekend, being Joss Whedon's birthday. I don' t know the total number of theaters but I do know it's over 50 theaters all over the world had screenings. Luckily enough a group that I belong too SoCal Browncoats put together a screening in Pasadena. I volunteered to videotape the event so I ran around with my DV cam and took video of the line, which went around the corner, talked with fellow fans and had a great time. Seeing Serenity on the big screen again was AWESOME and seeing it with Browncoats was even better.. everyone cheered, applauded, cried and laughed at inside jokes all at the same time. And the even better part is we raised $4000.00 dollars for Joss Whedon's favorite charity ' Equality Now".
Another highlight of the night was the raffle. They had a ton of Serenity/Firefly stuff to raffle off. And even thought I didn't win the big big prize (ticket to Flanvention Con this year) I did win a very cool "Can't Stop The Serenity" T-shirt signed by Joss Whedon himself. It's funny because they had another raffle at the Flanvention last year and I won a Serenity comic book signed by Joss Whedon as well.. guess I'm lucky when it comes to winning things that Joss signed. All in all a wonderful night and a great experience.
Well just a few hours ago I was walking towards Jonny's, it's a cafe at the Sunset Gower Studio's where I work and a blonde woman dressed in doctor scrubs was walking towards me. I made it to the door a few seconds before and held it open so she could walk in. She looked up and gave me a big smile and said "Thank You". I said "Your Wel...come" while realizing who she was. First I have to say that I don't normally get star struck because in my line of work you see star here and there but this one is part of one of favorite TV series of all. Denise Crosby is her name and if you are a Geek that name should ring a bell. If not she played Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation, among many other guest roles in TV and Movies. She was only on half of the first season but came back several times in guest appearance and made her mark in the Star Trek realm.
Anyways I walked in behind her and she saw a group of people standing over on the other side and went to stand behind them. I of course going to Jonny's twice a week knew where to stand. Well a few second past and she realized that she was standing with people who were waiting for there food. By that time more people started to line up behind me. Our eyes met and she gave me a "oops" kind of look and started to walk back over. I waved my hand and said she can get in front of me since she walked in right before me. She gave me a smile and said.. "no that's okay"..but I insisted that she get in front of me. She laughed and said Thank you, you're very sweet and squeezed my shoulder. I have to tell you that my inner geekboy was about to burst. I am not one to bother stars when they are on lunch or not in there "working" mode. But this was very difficult not to gush over her and tell her how much I loved Tasha and she was a great actress.
She ordered her Cobb salad and went over to the fountain drink area where I once again stood next to her as she filled up her ice tea and me my diet soda. She gave me one last smile and then went to wait for her food while I went outside to sit out in the patio. Not sure why I got so excited to see her but I did and I couldn't wait to get back and blog it... this was a blog worth event.
