Opening In Select Cities!

I have finally been able to reap the benefits of living in one of the "select cities" that gets movies before the rest of the country. Katie and I went to see "Corpse Bride" today, which doesn't open until next week for the rest of the country. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I'll reserve judgment for a little while. But it makes me a little happy that I got to see it first! Marvel at my sophistication, for when you see the movie, it will already be old news to me!

In other news, tomorrow is the Emmys, and everyone around here is pumped. This city thrives on back-slapping events like this where the important people get to dress up and look important and get awards from other important people. There's talk of an "Emmy party" in our apartment so people can congregate and pick their winners and curse the losers! It sounds like grand fun, to be sure. I'll be sticking around because there's promise of home-made Mexican food.

Today Katie and I went to a taping of 'Family Feud' hosted by Richard Karn, who is better known as Al from 'Home Improvement.' First, I don't think playing the part of Al was a stretch at all for this guy. He still dresses and talks and acts like Al, and playing the host for an aging game show seems like the kind of thing Al would do after Tool Time ended. Also, and this part was not included when we agreed to go to a taping, but they don't just film one show at a time, they film three. I don't know if anyone is still familiar with 'Family Feud' but one show is just about all you can take at a time, and then add to that the part about mandatory clapping and cheering, and it gets to be a bit much. But it was fun to see how taping works, and all the stuff that goes on during the commercial breaks and stuff. I just need to be careful to read the fine print on the complementary tickets, because I've set a personal limit of one live taping at a time.

Finally, Tracy's sister Melissa came in to town, so Tracy, Melissa, Jess (the other roommate) and Katie and I, and another nice young lady Kate all went out to dinner at Mako in Beverly Hills. This was a rather unique dinner experience, both in cuisine and atmosphere. The food was something called 'Asian fusion' which translates into taking all kinds of non Asian food and cooking it in a wok. I had quail, which I don't think they have much of in Japan. Also, the food came in tiny, tiny portions, and the idea was to buy like 12 plates of food and share it between the six of us. It was weird. I liked it, but I prefer a restaurant where the menu is tailored to each individual consumer. I'm old-fashioned and decidedly un-trendy like that, I guess.