This past week when I was in LA, practically everyone complained about the weather. Oh, it's so cold. Oh, it's raining. Oh god, it's below sixty degrees. Well, here I am back in CT, aka the purgatory between New York and Boston, and it's freezing out, literally, my driveway is covered in an icy slush, and it's sleeting outside. And it's been dark outside ALL DAY. So to all those in LA, sure you may have the occasional riot and earthquake, and yes your governor is the star of Kindergarden Cop, but you have NO RIGHT to complain about the weather. Anyways ...
So LA was a good if busy time. Although I was only there for less than a week, it seemed a lot longer. Things started on a bad note with a terrible plane trip from Hartford where I was sandwhiched between two three-hundered plus pound men for five hours from Cincinatti. And they smelled really bad (not to perpetuate any stereotypes or anything ...). But anyways the Ramada Inn in Burbank proved to be a good call to stay it, since it had a free shuttle to all the major studios in the area. The only bump was on Friday when a non-English-speaking driver took me on a mad dash around Burbank thanks to his inabilty to find the Disney studios, with two Ellen Degeneres-obsessed women in the backseat offering me their encouragement that I would make it to my appointment at Touchstone TV. But hey it all turned out alright. I had a great talk at Disney with a contact I had there. I had an okay interview at Warner Bros, and a very positive interview at the NBC Page Program. I also interviewed at Film Colony ( a production company responsible for bringing many of Tarantino's movies to the screen) and met up with a few BU alumni who were very nice and helpful (and which led to one of my few celeb sightings on the trip; Ashton Kutcher at the CBS lot). I also had a nice evening out at the Universal CityWalk, and enjoyed some good food there (also sampled LA / West Coast staples like Weinershnitzel and Chic Filet).
Then it was off to THE OC, Newport Beach, for the weekend. There I met up with Bradd "former IBA captain" Kern for some quality time sampling the OC's food and nightlife (and his selection of like 500 TV channels). We also checked out Laguna Beach, home of the terrible MTV reality show of the same name, but the place itself was very cool, and left me suitably spent to wake up at 7 am the next morning for my flight home to CT.
So I probably won't hear from any of the LA place I interviewed until January, so until then I guess I can relax a little more than I have been (yeah, right) though I want to continue plugging away and still look into NYC stuff. So far, I don't hate LA like a lot of people seem to, but it also probably doesn't have the same appeal to me as NYC. And by the way, the traffic in LA, for the uninitiated, is freakin' ridiculous. The Sunday morning I left, it took 35 minutes to drive from Newport beach to LAX airport. The previous Friday night, it took OVER 2 HOURS to drive from Burbank to Newport Beach, due to the horrible traffic. And I'd tell you what that cab ride cost, but I'll save myself the seizure and just say that the fair was obscene, and more than the cost of an X-Box. Oy.
Already not fun being back in CT. Plus it's Channukah tonight which is kind of a depressing holiday when you're 22 and have little disposable income. No presents to look forward to ... sniffle ... and the weather was so crappy today I couldn't even bring myself to go out and do some shopping. Well soon I'll be rich and famous and it will be eight crazy nights for all indeed, and I'll have a TIVO, all the good X-Files seasons on DVD, and a massaging chair.
Speaking of material possesions, it seems a lot of people are doing end of year best of lists right around now, with many doing music lists now because most of the major releases for the year have come out. Well to add my own contribution, I will say that one album stood out for me as easliy the best I heard in a long while, though of course I probably didn't hear as much new music this year as in year's past due to lack of access to downloadable songs and the TERRIBLE radio stations in CT of which there is NOT A ONE that plays exclusively new rock music. First of all, here's two albums that kicked my ass this year:
Best Return To Rocking-ness - Aerosmith: Honkin' On Bobo - So you might know that I am a huge Aerosmith fan (those of you who haven't talked to me in a long time are probably laughing that I would still say that). Aerosmith's 90's comeback is what really got me into rock n' roll, and I even loved their Get A Grip follow-up, Nine Lives, which probably few others did. Then came the surprise success of that lame Armageddon song, followed by Just Push Play, an attempt to modernize the band into the digital age that in my opinion, sucked badly. Honkin' On Bobo is a return to the classic, blues-y Aerosmith with an ... album of blues covers. Sure, it's still different from the classic Aerosmith we all know and love, but it's good. It makes you want to jam along on a Harmonica. A return to form for America's Greatest Rock N' Roll Band.
Best Album by a New Band - The Darkness: Permission to Land - When I first heard I Believe in a thing Called Love on the radio in Boston, I knew that this was a band that was old-school. They were unapoligetically flamboyant, bombastic, and over the top. And they rocked. This album may not be incredibly deep, but it is incredibly fun, and will have you banging your head and belting out the choruses to power ballads like it's 1989.
Best Album - Green Day - American Idiot - Wow, is all I can say. This album is politically relevant, musically diverse, and yet classic Green Day despite being a rare rock concept album, it is to young adulthood what Dookie was to the teenage years. I have to agree with Stephen King's EW column this week that this is a rock classic album and will only be more highly regarded as time goes on. The highlight is probably the eight minute long Jesus of Suburbia, a sprawling punk rock epic that will kick your ass. Check it out if you haven't already.
OK, that's it for this long rant. Happy Channukah!
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