Hollywood

Last night we celebrated the birthdays of Aly & AJ with a big bash at Les Deux in Hollywood. My girlfriend fiancée and her cohorts planned the whole thing and it was pretty rad. The girls made a grand entrance on a caravan of roaring motorcycles, the Plain White T’s performed, and I spent most of the time eating sushi from the Geisha House and visiting with Frankie and Becky. MTV was there filming for “SuperSweet 16: The Movie” (debuts July 8 on MTV), so the paparazzi was out in full force. (I posted some photos to my flickr account, but there are a ton more at wireimage.)

After last night’s 6.7 mile run — Death by Doheny, I call it — my girlfriend and I headed to Hollywood to catch The Perfect Victim (previously mentioned here) at The Knitting Factory. These kids put on a damn good show. The lead singer is energetic and bounces around the stage like a young Billie Joe Armstrong. The songs are slick and powerful, with a ton of punk-hard rock guitar riffs. I could have done without the drunk girl sprawled in a pool of her strawberry-daiquiri vomit outside the front door, but that’s just life in Los Angeles. If you get a chance to see them, go.

We found yet another fabulous restaurant last night: Memphis. (map). This “Southern Style Dining” establishment is located in Hollywood in “the last remaining residential house … left on this highly commercialized street.” It’s quirky and fun to eat in a restaurant that used to be a house. The lighting is very romantic and the food was excellent. I had the jambalaya appetizer and the fried chicken and ribs combo and — I have to tell you — it was the best piece of chicken I’ve ever had. Dinner for four, including appetizers, plenty of libations, and a nice gratuity, came to about $300, which is really not that bad for a good place in LA. The service was only so-so, but I think the place was a bit understaffed; it was a slow Wednesday night. If you have a hankering for a taste of N’awlins and you’re stuck in SoCal, I highly recommend it.

[click to continue...]

Tricia and I had dinner at Citizen Smith in Hollywood last night. ‘Twas quite an adventure just getting there. We didn’t have directions or know the address when we left the house. Cingular’s 411 service is frustratingly bad. It’s all computer-aided voice prompts now and they inevitably connect you to the wrong number the first time you try. Once we finally got through to the restaurant, it took three calls to find an employee that apparantly knew exactly where the place is.

So. We were an hour late for our reservations. (This is shockingly not uncommon in Los Angeles.) We were seated right away, though, because it wasn’t very crowded. There was some confusion with the waitstaff and after getting our waters it wasn’t for another fifteen minutes before Gerron, our waiter, realized we were in his section.
He recommended and beautifully described the night’s chef’s special: Linguini with clams. Tricia ordered that and a red wine and I got the pork chop and a pinot grigio.

[click to continue...]

I saw cage 9 and becky last night at the Viper Room on Sunset. Both of them were surprisingly good. Becky’s singer has a great voice, the lead guitarist mixed in some really decent riffs, and Mr. Reeves handled the bass much better than I had expected — no complaints at all, really. There wasn’t enough volume on vocals, so I couldn’t catch most of the lyrics, but what I did hear made me want to hear more.

by Peter Lefcourt (Editor), Laura J. Shapiro (Editor), William Goldman
I’m about 70% into this collection of essays by Hollywood authors and scriptwriters and I love it. I devoured that much of it in one sitting and then had to put it down because I wanted to savor it a bit more.

The first story - by Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame - sets the tone for the book. Alda writes about the first time he felt the thrill of creation while working on a script for an episode of the famous Korean War television series. After Alda’s three-page story the editors deliver a barrage of mini-editorials by some of the most famous creative minds in show business. There are essays by well-known talents such as Lawrence Kasdan, Steven Bochco, and Cameron Crowe that will excite any fan of good writing.

I want to make it very clear that the book is *not* an instruction manual, a tutorial, or a “how-to”. There are no chapters detailing how much writers earn in Hollywood, how to “break into the biz”, or to what address you should send your script for “Ally McBeal”. It is simply a collection of stories written by prominent Hollywood writers about their experiences the first time they ever got paid to write. “Simply” is not a word, though, that should be used to describe this book. If you are a writer, or are fascinated by the process of writing - and by that I mean putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and creating a story - you will love to read about these authors’ first times.
[click to continue...]

How cool is this? My girlfriend went to the V for Violet Fashion Show and Launch Party Saturday night and was photographed by the paparazzi!

I was lucky enough to catch John Williams conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl for John Williams’ Movie Memories. The set list on the site isn’t complete, though. Yes, they performed all the pieces listed - an amazing collection of music - but it was the encores that were truly incredible. When the show was “over” he returned for the main theme from Star Wars, then for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and finally to do the NBC Nightly News theme. I’m not ashamed to say that there were tears in my eyes for most of the night. This man has created some of the most recognizable, emotional, captivating musical pieces in history. From E.T. to Superman, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Jaws … To hear the cheers when the familiar fanfare to A New Hope shook the night, to see the dozens of people waving mock lightsabers in the audience, to feel the music … It was extraordinary.

<understatement>
One of the little differences between California and Florida is the weather.
</understatement>

Today we are under a “Severe Wind” warning. What the heck does that mean? In Florida we were always under “Thunderstorm” warnings or “Tornado” warnings” or “Torrential Freakin’ Downpour” warnings. I don’t really know what to do to prepare for “Severe Wind”. I wore a hat.
Here’s a list of interesting characters that have been within five feet of me in the last two weeks:

• Bruce Willis
• Paula Abdul
• Seal
• Bob Dylan
• and the girl who plays Ava Savalot on the 1-800-Collect commercials (I can never remember her name …)