dolphins at play

On the same visit to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage that I mentioned previously, we also had a chance to look at the dolphins in the exhibit. Many of them were very young and very playful.

"24" - season 7

Wow, can you believe that they started the seventh season of "24" like that? They always have a bang-up start to the season. I love that they've been jump starting the season with two hours on Sunday, and I can't wait to see what will happen in the two hours they're showing tonight. I also love that they run all the episodes at once, but it means the show only runs from January to May. It's so weird in May for them to say, ok, see you in January, so I always look forward to getting new episodes in January, and I'm so glad the show is back.

What, you didn't see the season premiere of season seven of "24" last night?

Well, neither did I. They have about half the episodes of the new season done, but with the writers' strike, everything came to a halt. They decided that instead of running the episodes and then possibly not being able to finish the season, not knowing when the strike would be over, they were going to hold the show until the strike was over and production resumed so they'd know they could run the show like they normally do.

The past couple years, they've started the new season over MLK, Jr. weekend, with two hours on Sunday night and two hours on Monday night. But this year, I get no "24". Stupid writers' strike.

I'm all the more frustrated because they released a trailer of the new season in the U.K., and it looks kick-ass. And I had no idea who would be returning to the show this season. So I'm doubly frustrated and mad.

Here's the trailer to tide you over until the show actually starts. Or to piss you off too, knowing what you're missing.




Come back soon, Jack.

killer clowns (from outer space and elsewhere)

They had to actually conduct a poll to figure out that clowns are creepy? No duh. I don't think I've ever gotten the whole "clowns are fun and funny" thing. They're creepy and weird. Hasn't anyone seen "Poltergeist"? Or "It"? Heck, don't people know about Krusty the Clown?


OK, and here's my weird clown story. I used to take the 101 freeway to work, heading towards the Hollywood area. One day, in traffic, I noticed that the car in front of me had nudged the car in front of it, but it wasn't a serious crash or anything. I expected to see the two drivers get out to have a quick look, so I was just waiting until they were done and would get out of my way. And then I noticed the driver getting out of the car in front of me. It was a clown. No, seriously, it was a clown in full costume - clothes, face makeup, the works. He (I think it was a he, but who can really tell?) got out, looked at the front of his car/the back of the car in front of his, exchanged a couple words with the driver of the other car, and then they both got back in their cars and drove off.

This is one of those experiences that only happens in L.A., right?

Sheriel and Prince Eraccoon

We spend a lot of time at Disneyland, and we subsequently know the various shows pretty well, especially Fantasmic, their nighttime spectacular. If you're not familiar with it, it's hard to describe, and any description is bound to fail miserably at conveying how amazing a show it is.

There are lots of different elements to the show. During various times, images are projected onto water screens that are created on the Rivers of America. At other times, there may be characters or other elements on the stage. At still other times, various manner of water craft ferry different characters around the River. Lots of music and singing and fun, and scary bits and funny bits and cool bits and fireworks and great stuff.

See, I told you a description would fail miserably.

In any case, the talent who perform the various characters in Fantasmic also play the characters in other parts of the park as well. We discovered that Fantasmic performers even do walkaround characters.

A couple years ago, we were at Disneyland on July 17, its birthday, and we were having lunch at the Big Thunder Country Picnic the only summer it was open. Mmmmm, chilled fried chicken and vegetables on a hot day. Yum. Shame that they only did it that one year. Anyway, they had a character at that picnic, and for whatever reason, it was Meeko the raccoon, one of the sidekicks from the Disney film "Pocahontas". We had a great time watching him interact with other people and small children, but we had even more fun when he came over to play with our group of about 8 adults. We happened to discover that Meeko was *very* familiar with Fantasmic, and when he wanted to recreate a particular segment from Fantasmic, we knew who had to be the volunteer.





Happy Birthday, Sherry!

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Well, I do, and not just because I was there for almost 24 hours last year. But, I'll be heading back to San Jose in February of 2009. According to this Playbill article, a revised version of the Broadway musical "Tarzan" will be making its way to the American Musical Theatre of San Jose at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts next February.

"Tarzan" originally played on Broadway for a little over a year in 2006/2007. I am a huge Phil Collins fan in general, and I also happened to love the animated Disney film of "Tarzan", so when I heard about the musical, I eventually decided that I wasn't going to wait for it to make the rounds - New York wasn't that far away and there was no reason I couldn't go there. So I went.




I saw the show twice, once from the orchestra and once from the balcony. From what I knew of the show and its staging and from having seen "The Lion King" from both the orchestra and balcony, I knew that the experience was different from each of those two vantage points. It wasn't like I could see "Tarzan" any time I wanted to and seeing something once wasn't going to be enough for me to remember as much as I wanted to, so I decided to go twice to see it from different locations.

Generally, I liked the show. There were a few elements that I wasn't crazy about and one particular element that I thought was pretty stupid and completely unworthy of being in a professional production much less on Broadway proper. However, there were other elements that I really liked and a couple specific things that really just blew me away. I was very impressed with Josh Strickland, who played Tarzan, and Jenn Gambatese, who played Jane. I liked some of the new songs written for the show and some not so much, but the love ballad, "For the First Time", was incredible. I've still got my notes from having seen the shows, but I could never figure out a proper way to organize all my comments. Maybe someday, I'll be able to fashion a coherent review out of them.




In any case, I'm interested in seeing the show again, and San Jose is only a short Southwest hop away. I might be going to see the show twice again, depending on the configuration of the theatre. I figure I'll decide when tickets become available. I'm interested in seeing what elements they're going to change as well as to see what new people will be like in the show.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty

Several years ago, on one of our then-yearly visits to Las Vegas, we went to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. We enjoyed looking at the dolphins and the different big cats in the various exhibits. We came across one white tiger who apparently decided he needed a few more greens (and dirt) on this day and was having a great time just tearing up the turf.

Have a look.



Nice kitty!

"Law and Order", "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"

"Law and Order: SVU" - The episode started out a bit slowly, but it really picked up. At first, I thought Erika Christensen as the FBI agent was a bit stilted, but as the story developed and her character was more flushed out, she was terrific. This episode was very disturbing in that it showed Olivia completely affected by what happens and what she witnesses. So often, she encounters horrible things, and you wonder how she manages to deal with it. In this case, the look of abject horror on her face when they discover the torture room and the torture table and the many instruments of terror was just incredible. The idea of what the women had to endure, hours of unspeakable torture, and even watching videos of women who had been tortured before them, all the while knowing they would eventually be killed was just horrific. Then when they were reviewing the scene, you could see they were just focussing on the professional aspect because to feel anything about what they're seeing would be devastating. When they find the last victim, still alive, the FBI agent makes it worse by trying to cut her restraints with one of the implements, sending the victim into a frenzied panic attack. And then you get to the twist at the end, when Olivia is confronting the FBI agent over her part in the investigation, and then the very end, with the line "one of the rules of chasing monsters is that you can't become one of them", and Olivia screams as the FBI agent shoots herself. You also see that this situation stays with Olivia, through the conclusion of the investigation. Very powerful episode.


"Law and Order: CI" - This episode was slightly different than normal episodes because it was very personal on a work level, as opposed to some of the personal life stuff of the characters that has come out previously. A police officer is killed, and it turns out he was the partner of Alex's husband, who was also killed in the line of duty. The investigation becomes more complicated and eventually points back to the murder of Alex's husband, and while Bobby is putting the pieces together, Alex plaintively says to him that this isn't just one of his puzzles. They eventually do figure out that the recent murder of the cop is related to the murder of Alex's husband, and she has to relive his death all over again.


"Law and Order" - I loved the subject of this episode. A pregnant woman is hurt in a bomb explosion, and in the course of the investigation, it's discovered that the bomb was meant for a doctor in the same building. The doctor had previously pinpointed a genetic marker for being gay, which was embraced by the gay community as it bolstered the nature argument. However, the "gay gene" could also be detected in fetuses, which meant that gay children could be detected long before they were born and thus, could also be aborted, so the gay community was then against further research on the subject. It turns out that the bomb was planted by the gay brother-in-law of the wounded woman. At the last minute, the woman's father inexplicably provides an alibi for the brother-in-law, but the detectives discover that the alibi comes at a very high price. The baby had been tested and had indeed showed signs of having the gay gene, and since the grandfather was severely homophobic, he agreed to alibi his comatose daughter's brother-in-law in exchange for his son-in-law aborting the supposedly gay baby - his potential grandson. The gay brother finds out about the deal and confesses fully to thwart the abortion. It was indeed a very powerful episode that touched on a lot of interesting issues. I still have a concern though. It's only the second show of the season, but so far, no full trials and therefore, no summation. How long are they going to do that for? I guess this means they realize how much they're missing with Jack now being in the DA's chair? I'm not optimistic about how the rest of the season is going to be.


"Celebrity Apprentice" - The previews seemed to indicate that it would be a good show, but the confrontation between Gene Simmons and Donald Trump over Trump's daughter was really just a red herring. Yes, Gene was mildly dismissive of and rude to her, but nothing major and when confronted by Trump over it, Gene apologized. The challenge this time involved Pedigree pet food, and each team had to make a public service announcement advocating dog adoption. Hydra came up with the brilliant idea of centering it around Lennox Lewis and a lovable dog. The commercial was amazing, with images of Lennox playing with the dog. The music alone that starts the spot is enough to make your eyes start to tear, and then the voiceover just adds to the emotion of the spot. Someone later on questions whether Lennox Lewis is well-known enough to be identifiable and that they should have identified who he was, but to me, it didn't matter. The image alone of the big black man turned into a puddle because of the little dog was enough. Empresario on the other hand decided to focus on several dogs, none of which had the same impact, especially since the voice-overs (supposedly of the dogs) were just awful. In the boardroom, the hispanic news lady picked Nadia Comaneci and Carol the supermodel. I think Nadia was fired ultimately because she was so weak and didn't stand up for herself (similar to Tiffany from the week before), but you have to figure that news lady is going to be headed for the door if she's in the boardroom again. Her biggest mistake was really in picking Carol as one of the two to rejoin her instead of picking Marilu. And on a side note, what in the heck was with the matching yellow and black outfits on the women?!?!?!?!?


"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"

I'm a huge fan of the Terminator movies (though T3 not as much), so I've really been looking forward to seeing this show. I was not disappointed.

The series is set up to fall within the timeline of the known story, but you get enough information so that I don't think you're lost if you're not familiar with the movies. The timeline of the show starts about 2 years after the events of T2. (I love the nod to history by having their last name be "Reese", the name of John's father.) John is now 15, and Sarah has never gotten over her wanderlust or fear, as manifested in her continued nightmares about John being killed by terminators, and even though she has recently become engaged, she takes John, and they run. When the fiance goes to the police with his concern about their disappearance, he unwittingly alerts an FBI agent who has been pursuing Sarah and who fills him in on Sarah's history with the mental hospital, Miles Dyson and Cyberdyne.

Sarah and John have meanwhile started a new life in New Mexico. John makes friends with Cameron, a pretty girl in his new school who turns out to be much more. When a substitute teacher tries to kill John during roll call (that scene of him stabbing into his leg to get at the concealed gun was gory and great), Cameron steps in front of the gunshots, and John gets away, with Cameron later incapacitating the terminator and rescuing John again, much to his amazement. Later in the story, the fight scenes between the two terminators were spectacular. They did a great job in deciding to make John's protector a slim attractive girl this time. This is completely against what you'd expect and very different from the terminators in the movies. It also makes for great action scenes when the little girlie takes on the big bad killer terminator and basically kicks his ass.

It also seems to be a trend (a la "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Alias" and "Chuck") where the seemingly defenseless girl has killer abilities. John also reminds me of Buffy in that he's a teenager who just wants to live a normal teenage life, but he has a much more important calling that he reluctantly must live up to and which basically ruins his normal life.

Sarah wants to run again, but John convinces her to try once again to put a stop to Cyberdyne, so they return to the Dyson residence. When the FBI agent was showing pictures of the Dyson family, I noticed they weren't the same as the people in T2, and I wondered about that change and didn't know if it was a matter of getting the previous actors' permission. But since they had to actually return to the house, the recasting made sense. They of course have a new Mrs. Dyson since Dyson's wife from T2 has been playing Lt. Van Buren on "Law and Order" for some time now.

The trio then head to a bank at Cameron's instruction, and she arranges to have bank personnel lock them in the vault, which comes in handy later as it takes the terminator some time to break it down. It turns out that parts to create a gun that will defeat the terminator have been stashed there, as well as a machine that basically teleports them elsewhere. When they arrive, causing quite a scene as they arrive naked, Sarah asks where they are, and I love Cameron's response: "Same where, different when". They have travelled 8 years in the future, to 2007.

When the second episode picks up, they have set up residence, and Cameron says there are other resistance fighters in that time, who she takes Sarah to for help, but they discover that the entire group has been killed.

They think they're safe in this timeline since no one knows where they went, but it turns out that their arrival and specifically Sarah was caught on a camera phone, alerting the FBI agent of their presence. In addition, unbeknownst to them, the terminator was blown up but was teleported along with them, and apparently, its component parts can exist on their own, so he eventually manages to put himself back together again.

After the first attack, Sarah rails against Cameron for bringing them there, but Cameron reveals that in the regular timeline Sarah died in 2005, of cancer. After all the fighting she did with unnatural forces, the irony is that she was killed by a natural force even more malevolent. Sarah then goes to an old friend for fake IDs, but the friend is now out of the business and refers her to his nephew, who has taken over. After some negotiation and interaction, they finally get their new IDs. During the course of the episode, Sarah refers to Cameron as "tin man", and it takes a while for Cameron to get the reference, but she then tells Sarah that John never told Sarah, but John's favorite memory was of Sarah reading "The Wizard of Oz" to him. Fittingly, we find out later that Sarah's new name is Sarah Baum.

While Sarah and Cameron are out, John has been instructed to stay indoors, but cabin fever gets the better of him, and he heads to the local mall to get a sense of normalcy but in the process finds out about his former potential stepfather. He heads to his stepfather's house and inadvertently runs into him. The stepfather can't believe what he sees, but he doesn't seem to particularly notice that 8 years have passed but John looks exactly the same.

Sarah eventually goes back to the old friend's house, worried because of what she overhead his nephew say, and she's concerned that her friend may be ratting her out. Cameron ends up killing the old friend, which stuns and upsets Sarah. I wasn't sure why Cameron killed him, but we find out later that he was about to talk to the FBI agent with a promise to give him good information. We also see Sarah going in for treatment of her developing cancer.

So far, I love what I've seen - good action and good story. I think it's going to be difficult to sustain a television show with this premise, but I'm eager to go along for the ride to see how it turns out. At least there's more going on than just the terminator. Not only are Sarah and John running from the terminator that wants to kill John, but they're also running from the FBI agent who doesn't buy the "machines" story, and they also now have to figure out who took over Miles Dyson's work and to once again prevent the coming of Judgement Day.

Fu's Palace - Chinese restaurant on the west side

I headed over to Fu's Palace for lunch today. Many of my co-workers love the place, and it's a favorite lunch spot. But I like it for different reasons. Yeah, they've got lunch specials. That's what a lot of people get. I personally find the entrees on the lunch specials list to be boring, and they tend to be the over-sauced, Americanized dishes which aren't really my preference. I've learned that if I order off the regular menu, I'm a lot happier.

One of my favorite things at Fu's Palace is the sizzling rice soup. Not all Chinese restaurants offer that since it's a lot of work to make. The regular soup portion contains vegetables and different meats (in this case, chicken, shrimp and pork), and the broth is piping hot. Poured into the hot soup are pieces of rice patties, which are made from the cooked rice that's stuck at the bottom of the pan which have then been deep-fried, almost like puffed rice cakes. When the fresh deep-fried rice is put into the hot broth - voila, sizzling. I love the flavor of the soup, and they have a good selection of vegetables and meat, and the rice is perfectly done. Some places can start with rice patties that are too thin or too thick or not fresh enough, and the staleness of the rice definitely comes through. But not at Fu's - it's delicious and a definite recommend. If you've had it before, you'll love it hear. If you've never had it before, this is a great place to give it a try.

I also had an order of the pan-fried pork dumplings. It arrived at the table very hot, and one of the things I like about Fu's is that it also comes with a dish of vinegar and sliced ginger to go with the dumplings. Not too many places seem to offer that but it adds great flavor to the dumplings.

Fu's also has really good hot and sour soup - great flavor and lots of bits in the soup. I brought an order of that back for a friend at the office.

Here's a website with some reviews and more information as well as a link to the menu.

Fu's Palace
8751 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
310-271-7887

Who's guiltier?

I found this story in the news recently.

So who should be in more trouble, the husband or the wife?

I think the husband should be in more trouble. He's cheating because he wants to cheat, and he's spending money to boot. The wife is at least making money.

Kind of like "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes but without the happily-ever-after.

So I waited with high hopes
And she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant
I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady
And she said, "Oh it's you."

German polar bear cub

I love polar bears. But what's cuter than a polar bear? How about a polar bear cub?




Zoo officials took the cub away from its mother after the mother showed signs of possibly hurting the cub, so zoo officials will be hand-rearing the cub.

Here's the news story.

And here's the German website for the polar bear cub.


This link has videos of the cub, and they seem to be adding new videos all the time, though unlike the pictures link, I can't seem to find archives of older videos. But then, I can't read German.




Awwww.....