"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" - spoiler movie review

The release of a new "Star Wars" film is always an exciting time for me. In this case, though, we didn't go to a midnight screening like we've been doing, but then, there are a lot of things that are different about this film. This is the first animated version of the saga that I've seen, and it was really bizarre to have the Warner Bros. logo in front of the movie as opposed to the more familiar Fox logo and fanfare.

I enjoyed the film overall, though there were some hurdles I had to get over, one of which was that I had a splitting headache, so I was a bit more fidgety and had a harder time concentrating than usual. As I mentioned, this is the first time I've seen an animated version of characters that I know, and they were very stylized animated versions to boot, so even though I'd seen the trailers for the film, it took some getting used to the different look of the film and characters. There were a few times when shading seemed a bit odd, so Jabba the Hutt had these really weird looking blotches on him in some of the close-ups, but when they cut to a further back shot, he looked more normal again. The other thing to get used to was that characters which I knew and which I associated with particular actors were now being played by other people, voices I didn't know. The only people to reprise their roles were Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku. Ben Kenobi was voiced by someone who had some semblance of a similar accent as Ewan McGregor, but the voices of Anakin and Padme were ones I didn't recognize at all.

I've read some criticism that the film is aimed towards younger kids, and I have to disagree with that. I'm not sure if that was because of the inclusion of Rotta, but I thought he was funny (Ahsoka has a great line about him being so sick that he's turning every shade of green than the one he's supposed to be.), and maybe people are likening him to the appearance of the Ewoks in Episode 6, but then, I've always liked the Ewoks anyway. I also think that the animation aspect, and more particularly the stylized animation, is going to turn a lot of people off.

This film is set in the time between Episode 2 and Episode 3. The Republic is in the midst of their fight with the Separatists, and Count Dooku is still running the show for the Separatists. Jabba the Hutt's infant son (apparently named Rotta) has been kidnapped, and both the Republic and the Separatists promise to rescue him, knowing that whomever is able to safely return Rotta will then be able to count the Hutt clan as an ally, and with the Hutts controlling the Outer Rim, each side needs their alliance to be able to move their ships freely in that area.

Ben and Anakin are pulled from a battle with the Separatists to go on this mission instead, Ben to try to negotiate an understanding with Jabba himself and Anakin to rescue the Huttlet (I love that term.). However, all is not as it appears as the kidnapping was actually engineered by Dooku, with the help of Jabba's uncle Ziro. Ziro hopes that with the death of the child, and hopefully the destruction of Jabba himself, he will then be able to ascend to leader of the Hutts. Dooku uses this as an opportunity to set up the Republic as being the kidnappers of Rotta, hoping that the Separatists' return of him will ensure Jabba joining the Separatists against the Republic.

Anakin's mission is made a little more difficult by the appearance of a padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who has been assigned to him by Master Yoda. Anakin had been against the idea of having a padawan, and Ahsoka is a bit idealistic and headstrong and naive, so the two have to learn to work together. The interaction and dialogue between the two of them was actually quite nice, especially since Anakin is given a padawan who's even more headstrong and reckless than he is. I also laughed at Ahsoka's objection to be referred to as a youngling and exasperatedly corrects people with "padawan".


Ahsoka Tano


The Republic forces eventually manage to thwart Dooku's troops, and Ahsoka is able to return Rotta to daddy Jabba, and Padme reveals Ziro's and Dooku's part in the kidnapping, thereby cementing Jabba's alliance (for now, at least) with the Republic.


In addition to Ahsoka, another new character (to the theatrical story anyway)introduced is Asajj Ventress, who works for Dooku and who had been assigned to guard and then return Rotta and if nothing else, to thwart the Republic's attempts to rescue him. She is skilled in using a lightsabre, and there's a really good battle sequence between her and Ben. I love her character.


Asajj Ventress





I didn't much care for Ziro - what was up with his Southern/Texas accent?

I loved the battle droids - they had the best lines.

This site has a lot of information about Rotta aka "Stinky" as Ahsoka liked to refer to him. During the film, I leaned over and whispered to the husband that the Huttlet reminded me a lot of Baby from "Dinosaurs". Well, I'm apparently not the only one to have thought that, as the picture below was taken from the site I linked in this paragraph.


I'm the Huttlet, gotta love me.(Credit where credit is due, I stole that line from the husband.)


As you'd expect in any Star Wars film, there were some nifty new machines that I'd not seen before, on both sides of the fight.

The Republic had armored transports that could climb up the side of a mountain that were pretty cool. You can see them mid-climb in the picture below.





There was a new fighting droid in Dooku's forces which was odd because it looked like a soda can lying on its side with legs.





The spider droids were pretty cool too.





And I really liked the walker droid with the rotating head/turrets.





And of course, back in action were Destroyer Droids, or as Ahsoka referred to them, rolling balls of death. I loved that line.





Many people might not know who R2-KT is, so I don't know if people would have noticed her appearance in the film. We were pretty excited to see her, and we figured it had to be her - where else is there a pink R2? - but since she's never mentioned by name, we weren't sure. Well, here's an article that mentions how R2-KT came to be in the film. How cool is that?





I'd like to see this film again since I've now gotten over the non-Fox, animated, weird voices confusion that was distracting for me during the first viewing. The movie was a lot of fun, and it's great to be able to see "Star Wars" on the big screen again.


On a side note, we happened to wander into a KB Toys store before we saw the movie. I was wearing my Celebration IV t-shirt, and a clerk asked me if I'd seen the new movie yet. I told her I was going in about an hour, and she preceded to start trying to tell me what she thought of it. I quickly cut her off, so all I heard her say was that she thought it was just ok, but I didn't hear anything else she said before she finally stopped. Some people might think I was rude for cutting her off like that, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why people feel the need to tell me what they think about a movie, especially when I've not asked for their opinion, ESPECIALLY when I've just told them that I'm about to go see the film for myself. And worse than that, if you're going to tell me you really liked it, that's one thing, but WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU FEEL THE NEED TO TELL ME THAT THE FILM I'M ABOUT TO SEE, A FILM I'M OBVIOUSLY VERY INTERESTED IN SINCE I'M WEARING A FRICKIN' SHIRT ADVERTISING MY INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT, IS JUST OK?

Have I mentioned that I hate spoilers, and yes, I consider opinions to be spoilers too.

graciousness in being second

At this point, it would be hard to not know who Michael Phelps is. Even for those not watching any bit of the Olympics, his quest and successes are plastered all over the news.

Having already won 6 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps was getting ready for the race that could potentially win him his 7th - but this was going to be the most hard-fought race for him to date at these Olympics. He had two main competitors, Serbian Milorad Cavic and fellow American Ian Crocker, who would be challenging his attempt at that seventh gold.

I happened to be listening to the race on the radio shortly after 7pm when it happened, and Phelps was trailing for most of the race - 100 meter butterfly - which is one full round-trip lap in the pool. Cavic was first after half a lap, with Phelps trailing way behind in seventh place. But true to form, Phelps poured it on during that last half-lap. He was gaining ground on leader Cavic, but it didn't sound like he'd have enough to catch him. And then the race was over. And impossibly, Phelps had indeed won - by a mere one-hundredth of a second.

Last night just after 10pm, I remembered that NBC's Olympic coverage was starting at 10pm, so I quickly turned on the TV. They were covering the women's swimming race that I'd heard right before Phelps' race, so I knew I wasn't too late. I then had the opportunity to watch the race myself, and as they were nearing the end of the race, it did indeed look like Phelps wasn't going to be able to catch Cavic. But then it was declared that Phelps was the winner. And then came the repeated replays. When I'd heard the radio account a few hours previously, they had said that Phelps had probably won the race at the very end, that Cavic had taken his last stroke and was gliding to touch the wall, whereas Phelps took another half-stroke and slammed himself into the wall. The analysts were attributing his win to the last push that came with the last stroke, which is what gave Phelps that one-hundredth of a second edge over Cavic.

Cavic's disappointment at not winning the gold is understandable. To be that close, to lose the gold by a mere one-hundredth of a second, has to be disturbing. The Serbians actually filed a protest over the end of the race, so an investigation had to be conducted to make sure the right person would be declared the actual winner. Given how close the end was, it's not surprising that they'd want it looked at carefully. The tape was reviewed, and while the results could not be seen on a regular-speed replay, they were able to slow the tape down to one frame every 10-thousandth of a second, which showed that Phelps actually touched first.

From the article mentioned above:

Cavic still wasn't sure he actually lost, but said he would accept FINA's ruling.

"I'm stoked with what happened," Cavic said. "I don't want to fight this. People will be bringing this up for years and saying you won that race. If we got to do this again, I would win it."

Cavic watched the replay himself.

"It's kind of hard to see," he said. "I know I had a long finish and Michael Phelps had a short finish."

I can understand that Cavic felt that he won, and from the regular-speed replays, you can't really tell, especially since Cavic's hands were under the water while Phelps' were out of the water. He admits that he couldn't tell from the replay, but in that case, it would seem that the touch-pad would be the ultimate decider in who touched first, and the touch-pad registered Phelps.

The comment that I really object to, though, came from someone in the Serbian delegation.

"We filed the protest but it is already over," said Branislav Jevtic, Serbia's chief of mission for all sports. "They examined the video and I think the case is closed. The video says (Phelps) finished first.

"In my opinion, it's not right, but we must follow the rules. Everybody saw what happened."

The video says Phelps won, but somehow, that's not right, but they're going to graciously agree to follow the rules? What the hell does that mean? If the video and the touch-pad indicate that Phelps won, how is that not right? Both of them were wrong, but the eye-ball view was better? And it's no gracious move to accept the facts, no matter how heartbreaking it might be for your country. He seems to be implying that there's a taint to this win, that somehow, the win was improperly conceded to Phelps. I think that the Serbian delegation's challenge actually made Phelps' win even more solid. Without it, it was just the regular replays over and over again. But since the super-slow-mo version has been looked at, and from that, it was clear that Phelps was the winner, there's now no question.

Being relegated to a silver medal by one-hundredth of a second is not an enviable place to be in. But if you've been beaten fair and square, with evidence beyond question, you have to accept second place graciously.

disappointing geeky movies

I found this article called "10 Geeky Movies That Should Have Been Great, but Weren't". It was an interesting read, though obviously, it's subjective from the point of view of the writer. Here are my comments on the choices.

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (aka Mummy 3) - I'm glad I'm not the only one who was disappointed in the film. I still don't get how Roger Ebert is apparently saying (according to the ads) that this is the best Mummy yet. What the hell is wrong with him?

"A.I." - This is a film that a friend and I seriously disagree about, but I won't rehash the argument here, other than to direct any interested parties to the review of the movie that I wrote here. To reiterate a point I made in the review, I highly recommend reading the original short stories upon which the movie was based. Those were awesome.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - I seriously disagree with this inclusion because I thought they did a good job with re-doing the film. Sure, Johnny Depp was no Gene Wilder - but then, he wasn't trying to be. His Willy Wonka is a slightly different character than Wilder's. I enjoyed the film.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - I've had a difficult time really forming an opinion on the film because I still know the books so well. In general, I thought they did a good job, and I enjoyed seeing the film. I didn't particularly care for the new bit with John Malkovich, but I think that was my only objection.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - I don't remember that much about the film, and while I didn't regret having seen it, I remember that it didn't quite hit me the way I thought it would. I do remember that Sean Connery was fun to watch in this film though.

"Matrix 2/3" - I saw the first film and enjoyed it, but I wasn't into it enough to watch either of the sequels. I've heard a lot of people express disappointment in the second film, though I think the third film was better received.

"Waterworld" - There was almost nothing about this film that was really worth mentioning. About the only useful thing was that I was able to refer to Kevin Costner's subsequent film "The Postman" (which I didn't see) as "Dirtworld" based on the trailers I saw. And I also disagree about the Universal Studios stunt show - the "Miami Vice" version was so much cooler.

I haven't seen the other films on the list so am refraining from commenting.

But I will add one more: "Total Recall" - I'd read the original short story called "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick and loved it, so I had been interested in the film, but I was really disappointed with where they chose to go with the story. I highly recommend reading the source material.

magical memories - Dance-a-thon with Madonna

Among many other things, AIDS Project Los Angeles holds various fundraising events throughout the year, including AIDS Walk Los Angeles. Back in the early 90s, I walked one year and then ended up getting involved with the company that puts on the fundraising events for APLA, so I did a lot of volunteer work having to do with AIDS Walk L.A., both in getting more volunteers to help and working the day of the event as well. I'd been doing this for a while, and then they decided that in addition to the walking event, they would also hold a Dance-a-thon - similar idea except that participants got pledges for the amount of time they were dancing. I was again involved with various volunteer activities during the planning phases, and I also volunteered to work the day of the event.

The day before, all the event-day volunteers attended a meeting so we could be told what we would be doing the next day. I was never able to find out how they decided who was assigned to do what, but to my surprise, my day-of-event position was going to be assistant to the entertainment/show co-ordinator. I know I'm getting her title wrong, but that's a vague description. There were various celebrities who would be showing up during the course of the 5-hour (I think that's how long it was) dance event, and there were bands playing in addition to the DJ music, and there were all kinds of other things that would need to be taken care of that day. Yeah, that's who I would be assistant to. It worried me a bit at the time because I'd never done anything like that before, and I was a probably mid-20s female and not particularly assertive. Yeah, ok, I was a little different back then.

So the day of the event came, and I showed up when and where I was told. There were various badges that people wore which gave them access to different places. Because of my position, I had an all-access pass. I also had a clipboard with all the information I'd need for the event, as well as headphones and a radio with mic and probably other apparatus on me. I was still a bit nervous, but the person I would be assisting was very nice, and she explained how things were supposed to go. I was basically going to be her shadow, and I would have to know where and what she was doing at all times. There would be calls over the radio for her on a regular basis, but if she was in the middle of something, she'd have to turn her radio off, and in that case, I was to respond to whatever calls came in for her, and I would either have to resolve whatever the issue was or bring the matter to her attention when she had a minute.

At first, I was very tentative, but as the day wore on and the event time drew nearer, there was just too much to do, and I got more comfortable with my position. It wasn't really possible to be a shrinking violet under those circumstances - too many people needed her attention, and she couldn't be spending every minute answering their questions, so that's what I did. Earlier in the day, I remember showing the guards at every checkpoint my badge so they'd know to let me through. As the day wore on, and especially once the event started, I barely paid attention to the guards or even whether they could see my badge. I was running around everywhere, and I think my demeanor made it clear that I was allowed to be wherever I was going, and it probably didn't hurt that I had the clipboard and headphones and mic, and if they'd been paying attention during the day, I was usually around the show runners.

Madonna was *the* major celebrity at the event, and there was a lot of talking in code about when she arrived and who would be escorting her and such. I paid attention only enough to know what was going on, and at some point, I was running around looking for someone or something (I can't remember details), so I was going from room to room. At one point, I wandered into a room that seemed like it had a crowd of people in the middle. People happened to part enough for a second that I noticed it was Madonna sitting on a couch surrounded by her entourage and such. I registered that it was her, but since she wasn't who I was looking for, I moved on. When I told the story to various friends later, they were all surprised that I wasn't more impressed with seeing her. Yeah, she was a big star at the time, and it was cool, but I was doing a job that I had gotten really into and had really gotten to like. She was just another part of it. I'd also been involved in various activities where I periodically ended up being around some levels of celebrities, so I wasn't nearly as star-struck to begin with in general.

I don't remember very many specifics about the rest of the day and the evening. I know that I got bolder in knowing what my responsibilities and authority was, and as the day wore on, I spent more and more time answering the calls for the person I was assistant to since she was off-radio a lot. I remember someone pushing hard for something or to be able to talk to her, and whereas I probably would have been flustered earlier in the day, I was not so by that time and made it clear what could and could not be done.

The event went well, and I was exhausted by the end of the day, having spent the greater part of probably 12 hours on my feet, but I remember having such a good time. I'd had some part in being involved backstage at a show before, but nothing on the scale of this.

I was involved in volunteering for that company for a few more years and then for various reasons, moved away from them, and while there were some not-so-fond memories, there were also many really nice moments associated with that time, but this particular event is what I remember best about my involvement.

Jagerhaus - restaurant review

There are a few German restaurants that I like, but unfortunately, most of them are all located in Solvang, which is a bit of a drive, so I had been looking for something a little more local. In early 2006, I found out about Jagerhaus and checked out their menu, which looked good, so the husband and I had tried it out for dinner. We liked it enough that we ended up going back to have dinner with a group of 11 other people, and everything went well - our table was set up when we got there, we got great service and great food. When we were perusing the menu, we noticed mention of breakfast being served, and we talked about trying it sometime. However, we're not generally in the Anaheim area on the rare times when we're up for breakfast, but last weekend, we did find ourselves in that position so decided to finally try Jagerhaus' breakfast.

The restaurant is in a little strip mall, so there's plenty of parking, which is nice. There were quite a few cars in front of the restaurant, and it turns out that Jagerhaus seems to be a popular breakfast destination since it was fairly busy during our time there. We were promptly taken to our table and then looked at our menus to see what we'd have for breakfast.

I'm one of those who has food rules - certain foods can only be eaten at certain times of the day/for certain meals. I'm not generally one who has breakfast foods at night nor do I really have lunch/dinner foods for breakfast (unless it's something like cold pizza, which is the perfect breakfast, but I digress), and there are rare exceptions that I make for that, usually depending on what time I got up that morning. Since it had been a very early morning that day, it didn't feel as much like breakfast as if I'd only been up for an hour or so.

Denver omelet happens to be something I really like, but I figured it would be silly to order something like that at Jagerhaus. They do have standard American breakfast faire, but what caught my attention was the German omelet. I'm a huge fan of sauerkraut, but I consider that a lunch/dinner food, not something for breakfast. I wasn't sure how I would like sauerkraut in an omelet, but I figured, what the heck, if I'm going to try this, Jagerhaus would be the place to do it, so I decided on the German omelet with polish sausage, sauerkraut and onions. When I gave my order to the server, I then found out that the omelet came with toast, so I asked for wheat. It turned out that the husband had decided on the same thing (except he asked for rye toast), and we also got an order of the potato pancakes to share. I also had a large grapefruit juice.

When our food was brought to us, we were surprised that the omelets also came with a side of scalloped potatoes. If we had known that, we probably wouldn't have ordered the potato pancakes, so I wish the menu had made mention that the omelet came with toast and a side of potatoes. Obviously, we found out about the toast when we ordered, but it would still be nice to know what accompaniments are included when you're deciding what to order.




The omelet was very delicious, and it was a very generous portion - it had ample amounts of sauerkraut, polish sausage and onions inside the omelet, and I didn't find the sauerkraut to be weird at all. Obviously, it wasn't as sour as I would normally prefer with lunch or dinner, but I don't think that would have gone well with the omelet. It was a good taste of the sauerkraut without making it overpowering of the rest of the omelet. The potatoes were nicely cooked as well.

One order of the potato pancakes comes with two pancakes as well as a side of applesauce. Some places also include some sour cream, but that wasn't included here. The pancakes were pretty tasty, and since I don't like to put the applesauce on the pancake, I had the applesauce after I'd finished the rest of my meal.





As I mentioned, our meals came with toast, and the wheat toast that I ordered was very thick cut, which was nice. One thing I've always thought was odd for restaurants to do is to give you hard butter to go with your toast. I picked up the pat of butter to undo the wrapper, but I found that the butter was pretty much hard all the way through. To me, that makes it impossible to spread on the bread. We noticed that the plate for the potato pancakes was pretty warm, so the husband put a pat of his butter on the plate for a while, which softened it enough to make it spreadable. I just skipped the butter entirely and had my toast dry.


Generally, we enjoyed our breakfast. The only problem we encountered was that the service was *very* slow at times. We didn't need a lot of attention since once they took our orders, there wasn't much else to do other than to bring our food, but on several occasions, we had to ask two and three times before our water glasses were refilled, and when we were done with our meal, we ended up waiting for a while before seeing our server so we could ask for our check. I don't remember having this problem on our previous dinner visits, so I'm not sure what the issue was, but it's not something that would prevent me from returning or recommending the restaurant.

As I mentioned, we're not in that area much early in the morning, so it's not likely we'll be there for breakfast very often, but it's definitely something to keep in mind for anyone who finds themselves in the area during that time of the morning or even for lunch or dinner.


Jagerhaus
2525 East Ball Road
Anaheim, CA 92806
(714) 520-9500

Wall-E - more toys and cutest videos ever

Yeah, OK, so it's been almost two months since "Wall-E" came out, and I'm apparently still obsessed with the movie and all the toys. We finally had a chance to see the movie again this past weekend, and I still had the best time.

We had to drop by a Toys R Us anyway to look for some Star Wars toys that were supposed to have been released this weekend (we didn't find them), but we did find the ever elusive Space Adventure Wall-E toy, which is listed on Thinkway Toys' website in the Wall-E toys section.




The husband has been wanting this since we first saw it on the website. I think the only thing left that we're waiting for that's shown on Thinkway Toys' page is the electronic truck play set, which I can't seem to find any release information on.

Oh, and I had mentioned previously that we'd only seen InterAction Eve at Disneyland, and that was some time ago, and we've not seen her anywhere since. Well, we came across two boxes of her at Toys R Us - maybe they've finally started to make more?


So a friend had told me a week or so ago that the Disney Store had gotten more Wall-E toys in. When I'd been in a store a while ago, they didn't have much stuff, other than some cute t-shirts, one of which I bought for myself. So I finally got around to visiting a Disney Store on Monday, and oh my goodness - they had Disney Store exclusives that I hadn't even heard about. They had three smaller figures (of Wall-E, Eve and M.O.), but I wasn't interested in those. The ones I was interested in were the remote control Wall-E and Eve figures, different from all the other ones I've seen or heard of. Or have.

By "Disney Store exclusive", they must mean the actual stores themselves, because I went to their website, which actually takes you to DisneyShopping.com, and there was no hint of the two robots. The only mention I could find about the Eve robot was in this ebay ad, which shows the toy.





I can't find anything that talks about or has pictures of the Wall-E version, which says it has a head and arms that extend and retract, which none of the other Wall-E toys do. Of course, I had to buy them. I'm not sure who makes these two toys, since I don't see the Thinkway Toys logo on them, like you see on their other products, and neither is included on Thinkway Toys' Wall-E page. Once I have a chance to open them, maybe it'll have more information about the manufacturer. They do look pretty cool, though, and they're also supposed to talk to each other, like the InterAction Wall-E and Eve. And no, I don't think these are the same - these are advertised as doing things that those didn't. The controllers are also different - Wall-E's remote control is actually colored to resemble him.


And then, of course, there's the granddaddy of all Wall-E toys - the Ultimate Wall-E, which is now available for pre-order. Toys R Us has it for $249.99 whereas it's $259.95 at DisneyShopping.com. However, I would presume that both places will add shipping, and this is definitely not a toy that I really want shipped to me in case something is wrong with it, so I expect we'll see if we can pre-order it in person at a Toys R Us store. If not, then we'll have to decide if we're going to bite the bullet and pre-order it anyway or just wait and hope we can find one actually in stores.

Toys R Us claims the toy will be released in September, but I've found other sites, including this one, which says it won't be released until October.


I found this picture searching the net for Wall-E info. Don't they make a cute family?





When we had previously visited the Disney Store, we noticed that they were periodically showing a short Wall-E vignette on their giant video screen. I found it online, and here's the one they were playing.

Wall-E playing with a hula hoop.




Well, then I found a whole bunch more, which were apparently created to be used in different places to promote the release of the film.


Here's a short one of Wall-E and Eve playing baseball.




Here's another short one of Wall-E playing with a soccer ball.




In this short bit, Wall-E investigates the camera.




In this vignette, Wall-E encounters a scatter of bouncy balls - I *love* this one.




Here, Wall-E comes across some cups - this one is tied with the bouncy ball one as being my favorite because it combines so many cute elements. The first time I saw each of these two, I literally laughed out loud.




Wall-E finds a magnet.




Wall-E encounters a fire hydrant.




Wall-E is break dancing. ("Wall-E 2: Electric Boogaloo"?)




Hip-hop Wall-E.




This one uses similar elements of hip-hop Wall-E when he meets the Mac. Yes, I *do* mean THE Mac.




Wall-E plays with a basketball.




This longer video shows InterAction Wall-E and Eve talking to each other.




Yeah, still obsessed. And much poorer. And waiting to become poorer still.

I resemble that remark - sort of

Someone sent me a link to this New Yorker cartoon. No surprise as to why, huh? ;)

I do have to say that I've never actually ordered in that fashion, although I have pointed it out to a server at more than one restaurant when I've noticed a typo on the menu. In one of those cases, the server ended up bringing it to management's attention, and the laminated dessert menu was actually corrected. There's been another occasion when I ended up notifying the owner of a group of restaurants about an error in the spelling of one of the restaurant names on a document, which was then corrected, but that's a story I won't repeat in writing.

And then there's a favorite restaurant where they seem to like to use quotation marks for the oddest things on a special menu, and during one particular dinner, it was actually brought up to the special guest of that dinner. On another occasion, it turned out that the odd usage of the quotation marks ended up being correct. Maybe I'll tell that full story on another blog post sometime.

Whatchutalkin' bout, Willis?

Gary Coleman seems to be in the news a lot considering he hasn't done anything really worth mentioning in quite some time. But I suppose it's really just the train-wreck quality of his life that garners attention. I heard a story about a week or two ago that he was going to try his hand at baseball. Ummm, ok. But then I heard that it was going to be similar to Billy Crystal's prior experience with the New York Yankees in that it was going to be a one-day-contract kind of thing, but at least in Billy Crystal's case, it was for the Yankees, and love 'em or hate 'em, their standing and place in baseball history cannot be denied, and Billy Crystal has been a huge, long-time Yankees fan, so this was the thrill of a lifetime for him. In Gary Coleman's case though, he was playing with the Madison Mallards, who are members of a summer collegiate baseball league. Yeah, I know, you were probably thinking he was going to play with a Little League team instead. In addition, it looks like it was supposed to be some kind of publicity stunt, both for Coleman and the Mallards, who are a dismal 12-21 in the second half of their season.

But the outing didn't quite turn out as they both probably expected since Coleman never actually registered an at bat. Here's a story with details of what happened.

At least the Mallards won that game, but my question is, who the hell is paying $20 for Coleman's autograph?


Oh, and by the way, Gary Coleman (pictured on the left below) should not be confused with Gary Cole (pictured on the right below).

Yard House - restaurant review

We used to spend a fair amount of time at Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, mostly because we often frequented a particular restaurant there, but we haven't been going very much in the past year or two. We had occasion to go to the Pacific Theatres there last weekend, so we met up with a friend and considered Yard House for dinner. I'd seen/walked past the restaurant there many times before but had never eaten there or even looked at the menu. After perusing the menu posted outside, I was surprised at their fairly extensive and interesting menu, and we decided to give it a try.

It was a little early on this particular Saturday night, about 6pm, but there was already a wait. As we waited, we perused the keg room, where the kegs of beer available on tap in the restaurant were kept, and it was a pretty impressive room. Depending on the particular location, they have between 100 and 250 different beers on tap. About 10 minutes later, we were taken to our table, and as I walked past the large oval bar, I noticed that there were tap handles all around both sides of the bar. Wow, yep, lots of beer on tap.

There were so many things that sounded good on the menu that it was hard to narrow it down to just one choice. I did finally make my decision, and we put in our orders to the server.

As a starter, the husband and I had decided on the lobster, crab & artichoke dip - maine lobster, blue crab and artichoke hearts baked with a four cheese blend served with tortilla chips and grilled flat bread. Some time thereafter, a runner came to bring us an appetizer, but they had mistakenly brought the spinach cheese dip. The server happened to be there, so she took it back to the kitchen and then came back to tell us that there was a mix-up and apologized, and shortly thereafter, our correct dish was brought out. The dip was very tasty, and I liked having both the flatbread and the chips to go with it.

For an entree, our friend had ordered the grilled shrimp caesar - grilled shrimp (which I think were skewered on lemon grass stalks), hearts of romaine tossed with an egg-free caesar dressing topped with croutons and fresh parmesan cheese. The salad looked very good, and the shrimp looked quite nice, and he seemed to enjoy the salad very much.

The husband ordered the miso chilean sea bass - glazed with miso, (baby) bok choy, carrots, edamame and jasmine rice. He's had this same dish at The Cheesecake Factory and loves it there, so decided to give this a try. He liked it ok (though it came with a huge portion of rice, most of which he left on the plate), but he said he did prefer the version at The Cheesecake Factory better.

I had decided on the porcini crusted halibut - porcini cream sauce and white truffle oil with asparagus and (baby) bok choy over parmesan mashed potatoes. On the menu, both my entree and the husband's had indicated that it came with bok choy when in fact it came with baby bok choy. To me, that's a huge difference. I actually much prefer baby bok choy, and that's also what I've generally seen in non-Chinese cooking. I loved this dish - the halibut was nicely cooked and flavored, and the sauce wasn't too heavy. And it came with asparagus too, which I love. It did come with a large helping of mashed potatoes, and like the husband's rice, I left much of it on the plate.

Our server was very good, very nice and our drinks were timely refilled. I also liked the atmosphere of the restaurant - not too fancy (even given some of the higher-end entrees on the menu) but fun. I could see it getting much more crowded and louder later in the evening though.

We were all too full for dessert so passed on that.

As I mentioned previously, the menu is extensive, and there were a lot of entrees that caught my attention. They have a number of fresh fish options that change daily that can be prepared either flame grilled, blackened or macadamia nut encrusted. They also have chicken garlic noodles (minced chicken, asparagus, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, smoked tofu and edamame) and lobster garlic noodles (tossed with lobster, shrimp, crab, fresh spinach and shiitake mushrooms), both of which sounded really good (except that because I only like spinach in very specific preparations, I'd have to figure out whether I could eat that or have to pick them out of the dishes), but I'd have to see if they're garlicky enough for my liking. I happen to love garlic, so when something is advertised as being garlic something-or-other, I expect to be able to really taste the garlic and, even better, see it. They also have a (mac + cheese)2 (pretend the "2" is raised - it's supposed to be m+c squared) that sounded good too - roasted chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, wild mushrooms, cheddar and parmesan cheese with campanelle pasta and white truffle oil.

The orzo scallops have accompaniments that sound amazing - seared sea scallops over orzo pasta, with sun-dried tomato pesto, shiitake oyster and crimini mushrooms with white truffle sauce. Heck, they even have New Zealand lamb chops - herb crusted, shiitake mushrooms, corn risotto cakes and balsamic glaze.

With the many and varied menu choices, and the overall good experience we had, I'd definitely like to return, whether to the Pasadena branch or another. They have about a dozen locations in California, three in Arizona, and single locations in several other states.


Yard House
330 East Colorado Boulevard, Suite 230
Pasadena, CA 91101
(626) 577-9273
(inside Paseo Colorado)

speaking of the Olympics

Google often has logos themed to a particular important event for that particular day. Today's logo uses the mascots from Beijing in an Olympic-themed logo. It's very cute.




I think the one in the front whose head/hair is on fire is funny. Love that they incorporated zodiac symbols in the design as well.