Man Fabric, Clockwork Couture & the TARDIS

Was up early today as Lisa wanted to visit the Garment district in downtown Los Angeles. I have been to a few of the districts like Jewelry & Flower but never the Garment/Fashion district so I enlisted my friend Jes, who goes down there many times a month. As I said we were up early and on the redline (subway). Once in downtown we had to walk about 20 minutes or so to get to the district. Once there Lisa was in heaven. And I have to admit I never seen so many different kinds so fabric and colors. We spent several hours walking around checking out Jes' favorite stores. I even managed to find a "fun" print that I purchased a few yards of so I could make a pillow case out of. It was a fun experience.

Afterwards Lisa, Lydia, Jes and I met up with Dallas and had lunch in NoHo. Jes headed home while the others went to a local "thrift" store, but it's not like your regular thrift store. This store sales clothes that were used in movies and TV. It's called "That's a Wrap". This was my first time here and I have to say the clothes were nice but were still a bit pricey. I don't think any of use purchased anything. While there Lisa's friend Amy joined us.

We then headed over to my friend Donna's store Clockwork Couture. It's a steampunk inspired type store and it's pretty awesome. If you're a fan of the Guild, Donna and Clockwork Couture is the place that supplied us with all the steampunk items and clothes for Season five. Besides the steampunk stuff they also have a TARDIS and a Dalek from Doctor Who that you can take pictures with. It was a fun visit.

Afterwards Lisa headed off to Griffith Observatory with her friend Amy while the rest of us went home to crash. Another fun but tiring day.

Whimsic Alley, Tar Pits, Beach and More

Today I played tour guide for me friend Lisa who is visiting from Ohio. First place we went was Whimsic Alley, if you don't know what this is, it's a Harry Potter store in Los Angeles. It's set up like Diagon Alley with individual "stores" within the larger store. It's a must visit if your a Harry Potter fan. Today was even extra special as it's "Black Friday" and they were having some major discounts on their Robes, Scarves, Ties, Vests and so much more. Lisa was fortunate and found some house robes at 75% off but I wanted to get some Hufflepuff robes but alas they did not have my size in stock so no new robes for me.

Afterwards we headed to the La Brea Tar Pits, we walked around and saw the sights for a half hour or so. We then drove through Beverly Hills/Rodeo Drive on our way to Santa Monica. We spent several hours walking on the beach and pier.

We headed back into Hollywood and down the Sunset strip before going over the hills into Studio City to visit Greg Aronowitz's Barnyard Studios. We spent an hour chatting with Greg and checking out off the cool things at his place. We then hit three industry/craft stores (Namies, Kit Kraft, Carter Sexon) before having dinner at Pitfire Grill and then calling it a night.

It was a long day of walking and sightseeing but it was loads of fun showing these places to Lisa and Lydia. Tomorrow we have more sight seeing stuff to do.

Star Wars Teaser Trailer

Disney released a teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII). I thought the teaser did exactly what it was suppose to do.. tease us. It made me excited to see a new Star Wars film and I can't wait to see more footage as it's released. Of course the internet has gone crazy and the haters are flooding Twitter and Facebook with negative comments, it's disheartening. From the rolling droid to the new/old light saber to not seeing the "legendary" characters (Han, Leia and Luke) people are bashing it left and right.

Now before anyone gets up on their high horse and says that everyone has their right to their opinion let me say I agree with you, but I might add, when it's constructive. Most of these haters complain just to complain. This is 88 seconds of a movie that just finished shooting a few weeks ago and won't be out for another a year and a month. It's seven quick clips that tell us nothing about the story, the characters or pretty much anything. But they did introduce us (visually) to the three main lead characters of the trilogy.

Would I have liked to see more.. oh heck yeah.. and I know I will in due time.

STAR WARS FOREVER!!!

Happy Thanksgiving & Boxtrolls Review

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm spending this Thanksgiving at my brother's house with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece. As well as my dad and several of my brother's friends, Lora's family and my friends Lydia and Lisa. There were a total of about 18 people here for dinner.

I was doing the bulk of the cooking for Thanksgiving dinner with the help of my sister-in-law Lora. Everything went fairly well, besides the juices over flowing and causing the oven to smoke moments before everyone was going to arrive. But with the help of my brother the crisis was adverted and everyone seemed to love the dinner. Many went back for seconds, which is always a good thing. My main goal for the meal was to serve everything hot, that's always the tough part when making such a large dinner with many items. But from everyones positive reactions I'd say we did a pretty good job.

Afterwards a group of us sat around and watched one of my screeners The Boxtrolls. I had never seen this but from the previews it looks cute. Here's a quick synopsis: A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children's novel 'Here Be Monsters' by Alan Snow.

Overall I enjoyed it, it didn't thrill me as other animated shows have but it was entertaining. For me I loved the stylized look of it as it was done "old school" stop animation. The story was good and I enjoyed the characters. Would I buy this on blu-ray? Probably not.. I have seen it and I will watch it again with folks who want to watch it but it's not something I can watch over and over again. I give The Boxtrolls a solid B-

Disneyland & Minions

Today I went to Disneyland to hang out with Lisa and Lydia who started their Disney adventure yesterday. Today is also Lydia's birthday and I wanted to celebrate this special day with her at the happiest place on Earth.

The three of us had a blast, the park was packed being the day before Thanksgiving but we did manage to do both Disneyland and Disney California Adventures. It was fun to experience the parks through Lisa's eye as she had never been here before. It was a long day of walking around but we ended our day by watching the Aladdin stage play (which is always amazing). As I said that ended my day but not theirs. They were staying at a local hotel so they went back to Disneyland while I made my way out to my brother's house were I'd be spending Thanksgiving tomorrow.

One geek thing I want to share with you guys.. I had no idea they were even making this movie so this trailer came as a complete surprise but I have say I love it!!

Dinosaurs, Mario Bros, Sherlock & Screeners

Today both of my house guests Lydia and Lisa were off to Disneyland (I'll be joining them tomorrow). So spent the day working on podcasts and watching more of my recorded TV. But there are several cool geeky pictures and videos that I wanted to share with you all.

First up is the release of the trailer for the next Jurassic Park movie called Jurassic World. It looks pretty cool and I have to say it reminds me more of the original and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm not a watcher of Dancing With the Stars but this routine really caught my eye. It's pretty awesome.

BBC released a picture from the next Sherlock Christmas special in 2015. It's a long way off but I'm liking their old school look.

And today I received two more sceeners. First one was The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I have heard good things about and the other one was Boyhood and all I really know about this movie is that it was shot over 12 years with the same actors. I look forward to watching both of these movies.

Another Visitor

Well my friend Lydia is visiting for a few weeks from Switzerland and today my friend Lisa arrived from Ohio and has never been to Los Angeles so I'll be playing tour guide this week.

The real tour will begin tomorrow but we just had enough daylight left to go hang out at Vasquez Rocks. Lisa is a big geek like me and on her "must see" list was the famous Vasquez Rocks. When we got there the winds were blowing hard but we did our best to climb and not getting blown off.

Afterward we headed out for a late lunch / early dinner at Sizzler become heading back to my place to hang.

Day of Rest

Today was a lazy Sunday, I didn't really plan anything today. Lydia was off with friends so I have the place to myself so I just chilled and caught up on ton of TV that I haven't been able to watch while working. It's nice to take some time off from the "real" world and just relax and enjoy some make believe worlds.