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Blog Appétit!

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on August 4, 2009| 9 Comments

Yesterday evening David and I were invited to a special preview screening of the new Meryl Streep/Amy Adams film Julie & Julia here in Century City. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the film beforehand … only what I saw from the few trailers I had seen. I remember watching a few eps of The French Chef starring Julia Child when I was younger and I’ve always loved her so … the movie sounded fun:


It really should come as no surprise that the film is a veritable tour de force. Meryl is simply amazing! The whole film is thoroughly charming, I loved it from start to finish. It’s interesting, Julie Powell — the food blogger whose book the movie is based on — started her blog in August 2002 (which you can still read online HERE) … the same month and year that I started my first blog (August 13, 2002 to be exact). I really love her story … seeing it come to life on the big screen was a true revelation. While the film focuses mainly in the “relationship” between Julie Powell and Julia Child, it also focuses on each woman’s relationship with their respective husbands. The movie is funny, poignant, romantic and very, very sweet. David and I really loved it … as did the audience, who audibly gave their approval throughout the film. Foodies MUST see this movie, you simply must. I do encourage all y’all to check it out when it opens in theaters this Friday. I won’t be surprised if Meryl gets nominated for her performance as Julia Child. She looked like she was having the time of her life in this role, it was really fun to watch. To be honest, it’s a movie that I would see again ;)

Incidentally, Julie Powell is still bloggin’ … you can read her blog HERE.

This afternoon our friend Marissa is flying in to LA from NYC on her way to Hawaii and she is spending her 3 hour layover with us … it’ll be amazing to see her in our neck of the woods. Tonight, I’m meeting up with my friends Tamar, Ollie and Caleb to get our Book Club started … we haven’t decided on a book just yet so I presume we’ll get that sorted out tonight … along with our club’s secret handshake ;) I promise to share our Book Club progress along the way.

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‘Funny People’ Is Not Funny, People

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on August 3, 2009| 43 Comments

After spending part of my afternoon at AT&T Wireless replacing my piece o’ crap BlackBerry Bold with a BlackBerry Curve 8900 (without much grief, I must admit … the guy helping me was prolly the nicest AT&T person I’ve ever worked with), I met up with Josh, Darion and his friend Eric for a movie last night. We decided to see Funny People … which, IMHO, was a terrrrrrrible mistake:


At 2 1/2 hours, Funny People is about an hour too long … and entirely not that great. The film is really 2 movies in one … the first half is kind of entertaining, marginally funny and really touching. The strength of the film lies in the poignancy of the story of a comedian who learns he has a deadly disease that will most assuredly kill him. The second film, and THIS IS A SPOILER SO DON’T READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, is about how the comic beats the odds and beats the disease … and then he immediately reverts to being the cheating asshole he used to be before he thought he was dying. To be fair, I kinda liked the first half of the film … the strongest performance came from Adam Sandler when he played that poignant part when he thought he was dying. After an hour and a half more of the seemingly unending movie, I really was trying to think of ways to kill myself in my seat to end my suffering. Judd Apatow is really trying to make this film his masterpiece, his comedic Lord of the Rings if you will. While, in my opinion, I have to say he failed miserably I do give him props for taking the risk. The movie starts out OK and then falls apart and drags on endlessly … ruining any of the good stuff that exists in the film. Not even Eric Bana‘s hotness could save it in the end. It’s a shame, I had high hopes that this movie would be good. Blah!

I was much more entertained yesterday when I was finally able to watch in full the 13th episode of Dollhouse titled Epitaph One. This ep will be included on the Dollhouse Season 1 DVD set and is NOT TO BE MISSED:


I don’t even want to give hints about the ep because it really works best, I think, if you see it cold. I will share that the ep takes place 10 years in the future after the last ep, Omega, of Dollhouse Season 1. Joss Whedon is a damn genius, I loved EVERY SECOND of the ep. You simply MUST pick up the Dollhouse Season 1 DVD set which is available for sale NOW!!

Tonight David and I are going to a special preview screening of Julie & Julia. The movie looks cute so, I’m excited. Happy Mondy, y’all!!

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Sick & Tired

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on August 2, 2009| 33 Comments

Blah. I spent all of yesterday holed up here in our place because I wasn’t feelin’ too hot. I’m not ready to use the “s” word just yet but suffice to say, I was in no condition to go out and hang out with anyone. Instead, I stayed in and finished reading Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s Stone and started reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:


Reading the Harry Potter books again, after reading them all and knowing how the whole saga ends, gives new meaning to a lot of the events in the earlier books. I’m just amazed at JK Rowling‘s genius. She had a plan from the beginning and orchestrated the HP book series masterfully. I cannot find one inconsistency … well, except for the fact that in Book 1, Hagrid tells Dumbledore and McGonagall that he borrowed the motorcycle he used to deliver baby Harry Potter to the Dursley’s home from Sirius Black. Unless Hagrid borrowed his cycle before Sirius was imprisoned in Azkaban, this little plot point doesn’t work … or does it? To be honest, it’s the only thing that made me think whether or not it fit in with the rest of HP lore.

That’s pretty much it … I didn’t do much else … but go to bed early and sleep late. I’m feeling better today, I have some errands to take care of and a piece of crap BlackBerry to replace so I’ll deffo be heading out shortly. Darion wanted to get some people out for a movie later, I’m gonna try and do that too. Hope all y’all’s weekends have been more exciting than mine ;)

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‘I Pick Things Up, I Am A Collector’

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on August 1, 2009| 16 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, David and I caught a matinee showing of the new horror film The Collector at the Beverly Center. The movie was written by the guys who wrote SAW IV, V and VI … but we went to see it anyways. Not only did former Nine Inch Nails drummer Jerome Dillon do the music for the film, it looked like a fun gory SAW-type movie worth seeing:


The film is pretty much what you’d expect from the SAW writers. It’s pretty gross, full of suspense and inventive ways to maim and kill people. If you like the SAW films, you’ll like this one too. From the way it ended, it’s bound to be it’s own franchise. I have to give the film high marks for the fun use of the Bauhaus song Bella Lugosi’s Dead … and for the inventive use of bear traps. To be honest, I’m surprised there haven’t been any other SAW-like films in recent years … but, I guess since Horror Porn has kinda gone out of style, it makes sense.

I was supposed to go over to Darion’s place last night for game night but I really wasn’t feeling very well. I ended up staying home to read. I mentioned previously that I was going to read the unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye titled 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye by a Swedish author called J.D. California. Unfortch, the book is kinda unreadable. The plot line of this new “sequel” tracks Holden Caufield‘s adventures as he escapes from a nursing home. Yeah, no thanks. Instead, I started re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for the first time since 1999:


I’m really anxious to re-read the entire Harry Potter series again so … you gotta start at the beginning. I’m already a few chapters in (Harry done already bought all his school supplies at Diagon Alley) and I just marvel at how much of an amazing writer J.K. Rowling is. She’s really talented … I hope she writes more tales in her future.

I was supposed to go to the cemetery screening of Some Like It Hot at the Hollywood Forever cemetery here in Hollywood tonight but I’m still not feeling too hot. I may just do something low key with friends … or not leave the house at all. Blah. I hate feeling sick in the Summer :(

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‘Who Gonna Check Me, Boo?’

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 31, 2009| 16 Comments

Lawdy, lawdy … the second season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta premiered on Bravo TV last night and, for the most part, brought the LULz. While it wasn’t as jam-packed with the drama as I would’ve liked, it was really entertaining to watch … and provided one knock down, drag out fight that was pretty epic:


I was pretty shocked to learn that NeNe and Shereé have mended fences are now friends again … who both hate trashy-ass Kim. Good stuff. So now that Shereé doesn’t have NeNe to fight with, who’s she gonna mess with? Some fool party planner named Anthony, that’s who. If you saw the ep last night, you saw how this unprofessional idiot started gettin’ smart with Shereé — his client — on national television. Shereé, the self-proclaimed “boss bitch”, stood her ground and almost whooped the fool’s ass when he got in her face. People she almost called Pookie in Cleveland to come help her whip some ass … but, in the end, she took care of biz all on her own. After the jump, check out video from last night’s fight to see how it all went down … More »

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That’s What ‘Friends’ Are For

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 30, 2009| 39 Comments

David and I have this thing we do where we record all the reruns of the hit 90′s series Friends that air on the various cable networks and we save them for watching while we eat. I realize that many families do not watch TV while they eat but, well, we are not one of those families. This practice is an old one for us … we used to eat and watch Golden Girls eps but since we’ve watched the entire series a couple of times already, we moved on to Friends:


Altho I spent much of my day reading The Catcher in the Rye (I’m almost done), I had to make time for food … and, of course, Friends. This info isn’t really all that important but it was part of my day yesterday. I’ve been trying to keep things pretty quiet this week because next week is going to be a bit bizzy and then I fly off to Detroit for the following weekend. In the meantime, David and I are just trying to keep things as normal and boring as possible … but with all the Friends to watch, well, it’s not all that boring ;)

Tonight, David and I are meeting up with Kirsten, Darion and his friend Eric for sushi dinner … it’ll be nice to see those guys. Who knows what hi-jinx might ensue?!

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The ‘Rye’-t Stuff

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 29, 2009| 30 Comments

Spent a quiet night in last night … just putzed around the house and read. I’ve started reading the classic J.D. Salinger book The Cather in the Rye …


… mainly because I want to read the unauthorized book 60 Years Later: Coming through Rye by Swedish author John David California:


As you may or may not know, California‘s book has been published in the UK but has been barred from publication here in the US due to copyright restrictions … it’s an unauthorized sequel to Catcher that Salinger (now 90 years old) himself is not happy with and sued to halt US publication. I managed to order a copy from Amazon UK but want to reread The Catcher in the Rye before tackling this forbidden sequel. It’s been AGES since I read Catcher so I figured I’d read it again before reading the unauthorized sequel. I had forgotten what a fun book it is. Did you know that in 1981, The Catcher in the Rye was both the most banned AND most taught book in the US? Reading is fundamental, y’all. Some friends and I are talking about starting a book club so I’ll be reading for that soon PLUS I’m really anxious to start re-reading the entire Harry Potter series again. I’ll be in full book worm mode, y’all.

Anyways … yeah, kept it quiet yesterday. No plans for today. Life is good ;)

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Little ‘Orphan’ Esther

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 28, 2009| 42 Comments

Last night David and I finally got our asses to a movie theater to see a movie, something I’ve been wanting to do for weeks now, and we decided to see Orphan. To be honest, David isn’t a big movie person but I know he likes scary movies so … Orphan was our pic. I heard that there is a twist ending so I did everything humanly possible to avoid finding out what it is — and I am so glad that I did cuz that movie mind-effed me so bad, I totally didn’t see it coming … and was left ENTIRELY disturbed as a result:


To be honest, I can totally see how some folks might hate the movie and think the “twist” is stupid but those people are no fun. Orphan is full of great suspense and circumstances that make the almost implausible story totally believable. I ate it up — hook, line and sinker! I ain’t gonna lie … I was creeped out … but the ending, HOLY SHIZZ, wow … I was quite literally left slack-jawed. Kudos to Isabelle Fuhrman who plays little orphan Esther, her performance was stellar. I also loved Aryana Engineer, for a child actress she was really great. The movie is ridiculously fun, I loved it. It deffo should win the award for best use of blacklight paint — hands down, genius! DO TRY AND NOT FIND OUT what the twist is if you think you’ll see the movie. Hearing about it first will sound dumb and will ruin the movie … if you see it cold and go with it, you will be horribly surprised :)

I spent much of the rest of my night going thru my concert ticket stubs from all the shows I’ve seen over the years. Since about 2004, I’ve been tossing my concert tickets into a box but from 1991 – 2004 I kept them organized in albums. I decided it was time to catalog my tickets so that’s what I did. I also did an accounting and figured out that I’ve seen Tori Amos 41 times (soon to be 42), Nine Inch Nails 20 times (soon to be 28), Marilyn Manson 13 times, Prince 11 times, Liz Phair 10 times, Juliana Hatfield and Britney Spears 9 times and Siouxisie & the Banshees/The Creatures/Siouxsie 8 times. I’ve also seen Garbage 6 times, Madonna 5 times and Morrissey 3 times … but the aforementioned acts are my most attended shows. And, much to my chagrin, I remembered that my first concert was C+C Music Factory. I’ll go hide my face in shame now.

No plans for tonight … we’ll see where the day takes me.

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A Rivers Runs Thru It

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 27, 2009| 10 Comments

As I mentioned earlier, I was able to attend the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers which taped here in SoCal last night and will air on Comedy Central on Sunday August 9. I’ve been invited to previous roasts but when I heard they were roasting Joan Rivers and that Kathy Griffin was hosting the roasting … well, I couldn’t pass it up:


To be completely honest, I was laughing too hard to take any pictures of the event. I was seated right smack dab in the middle of the room in prime position to see and hear everything. I was able to hang out with my friend Marc Malkin from E! News and we enjoyed the roast together. People, the jokes are really offensive and not for the PC of heart … but they are funny and, as is the tradition of roast jokes, wholly inappropriate. You’ve gotta tune in on August 9 to see and hear for yourselves. Watch THIS site for all the deets on the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers.

The night was really fun … but I was most excited that David returned home from his weekend away. He jetted off to hang with some friends in Cleveland, OH and came home last night … it’s nice to have him back home where he belongs. Not sure what we’ve got planned for today but I’m thinkin’ I want to see a movie. We shall see.

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Passing The ‘Torchwood’

The TV Guide
Posted by: Trent on July 26, 2009| 6 Comments

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be spending my Saturday watching the EPIC 5-part miniseries/3rd season of Torchwood called Children of Earth. I had just started the eps when I blogged yesterday and have since finished watching all the eps. I mentioned that BBC America is airing all 5 eps all day long today from 1 to 8pm (the marathon is in full swing on the East Coast, it begins here on the West Coast in about an hour) and strongly urged all y’all to check it out:


Having watched the entire Children of Earth mini-series in full, I’m afraid I’m going to have to INSIST that y’all tune in today or pick up the DVD set when it gets released this coming Tuesday. There are some TV shows that just manage to get everything right … Torchwood: Children of Earth is one of those shows. I know there are some who are upset with some of the events that transpired in the mini-series but I found the entire thing perfect. Yes, there is tragedy but not all stories are happy endings. I’m thrilled to pass along the news that Season 4 of the series has been picked up by the BBC so that means there will be more Torchwood goodness ahead. Check it out if you can today, I think you will LOOOOOOOVE the series.

Tonight, I’m attending the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers which will be hosted by Kathy Griffin. I’m pretty excited, it should be really fun … I’ll do my best to tweet from the event. I’m also excited that David returns home from his trip tonight … he’s only been gone for a few days and I miss him muchly. I hope your Sunday is going well!! Enjoy it!!

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