Catching up, heading out

March 20th, 2008 · No Comments

A quick re-cap of the last few days, weeks? As soon as I got back from Colorado, my back started killing me, a combination of working on the car, sleeping on a couch, and getting old, apparently. By Wednesday, I couldn’t take it anymore, and sought “Urgent Care,” which I received, along with a prescription for some muscle relaxants and extra-strength ibuprofen (as well as Vicodin, which I thankfully did not need). By the time Neil and Melanie arrived from Alaska on Friday, I was better (the two days off, spent finishing “The Wire” and the DVDs Aimee rented for me while lying in bed all day, helped), and we enjoyed a salmon barbeque out on our deck, as well as a trip to the Groundlings on Saturday night – lots of fun, makes me want to see more comedy, more often.

Ss

Sunday night, we saw John Pizzarelli singing songs (made famous) by Sinatra at the Disney Concert Hall, which was a lot of fun, and Monday, I caught the Rutles> reunion at the Egyptian. I hadn’t seen the film in years, and enjoyed the event, especially hearing Neil Innes and Eric Idle talk about the Beatles’ reactions to the film. I was a bit taken aback by the number and magnitude of the Rutles fans who lined up around the block – who were all those people? I sat next to Jeff Lynne, who had a bit closer tie to the whole thing than most folks in the audience.

Tuesday night trivia (we won by a single point in an improbable come-from-way-behind victory, after two weeks of second place and a third place before that) was supplanted by our first trip to PaleyFest at the ArcLight, for an evening with the cast and creative team behind “Chuck.” We were out in force to support our own buddy Chris, co-creator and writer on the show, who got to tell his stories about how the show came to be, but was overshadowed, as was nearly everyone else, by Zach Levi and Josh Gomez geeking out about video games. Which is not to say that it wasn’t entertaining, but the whole evening seemed to go off the rails a couple of times. We were back again last night for the “Friday Night Lights” event, hoping that our support might collectively bring on a third season of the show, or that we might hear news of its renewal at the event itself. No news came out last night, but it was great to hear how the show comes together, and hear from some of the cast about what an interesting, different experience it is making the show. I don’t watch much TV, but boy, that show, especially the first season, is really something else.

So, now it’s Thursday night, and we’re all packed up for our trip out East – ten days at home for Aimee for spring break, and a weekend in Boston for me, plus a week in New York for Orphans, a.k.a. The 6th Orphan Film Symposium. It’ll be my second time at Orphans, and the conference’s first time in New York, which will be interesting. It’ll be a chance to catch up with folks in New York, as well, and a nice change of pace.

Tags: Film · Los Angeles · Travel