Recovery ...
Still trying to shake this running nose that came with the set of sore throat and cough last week from Vegas. Other than the non-stop nose issue, I feel perfectly fine.
The weather here lately has been very odd. It feels more like the midwest with the ever changing patterns. 
When we use to get rain, it will last like a day or several hours. Instead it lasts maybe 10 minutes and then its sunny again. On top of that it has been going from super cold for several days to very warm ... not typical for the SoCali's! Can't explain it ... but then again don't really want to. I just want mass rain on the weekends then I will be happy.Above is one of the pics I took on the road to Vegas last week. The skies were so blue and the clouds so puffy, it was one of the best scenic drives I have ever taken on that road.
Movie Review:
Recently I watched a film called Bride & Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson. It is directed by the same lady who did "Bend it Like Beckham" and its a great mix of Hollywood and Bollywood.
I am not familiar at all with Jane Austin's Pride & Prejudice but from what I have been told, this is a pretty good version of it with a comedic and musical twist. It has several dance and musical numbers you would find in a Bollywood style film. Aishawarya (sitting on the bed in the below photo) has to be one of the most beautiful women on the face of this earth.
I won't go into the story because its kind of complicated and too long for me to type. But again, if you are familiar with Pride & Prejudice then that is all you need to know. I give this film **** (4 out of 5 stars) and its rated PG. Its odd though because there was no kissing ... I think for Bollywood one kiss can change the rating from a G to PG and two kisses from PG to R! This film is now out on DVD by Miramax Home Entertainment.
Q&A Section:
Some questions asked from the previous post. First one was about the "Female Star of Tomorrow" and who that is. Her name is Jennifer Hudson and she was a contestant on one of the seasons of American Idol. She is starring in the upcoming film "Dreamgirls" with Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles and Eddie Murphy. She plays Effie White and its based on a Broadway musical about a trio of black female soul singers that cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960's.
The next question was in regards to Dakota Fanning and her award that she won. She received the "Best Supporting Actress" award from ShoWest from her recent rolls in both "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruise and "Dreamer" with Kurt Russell. The difference is because Jennifer Hudson recieved the "Tomorrow" award because she basically isn't a name in the business and this could be her break-out role so to speak. Dakota has been acting for the past 6 or so years (she is currently 12) and has a large body of work which include "I Am Sam", "Uptown Girls", "Hide and Seek", "The Cat in the Hat" and "Man on Fire" in addition to the previous two listed ... and that is just some of her credits.
The last question was regarding the percentages of who was in the green room. I really don't know what the point was given who was in there. I don't think some of those folks should have been there but that is me.
"According to Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power! Well that football field out there tonight, that's our universe. Let's rule it like Titans!"- Denzel Washington as Coach Boone in "Remember the Titans".
Duckburg Gazette * ShoWest 2006 Edition
Zoooooooooooooooooommmmm ……
Just watched a movie this evening and it turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. Disney Pictures presented from Pixar Animation the film “Cars” tonight at ShoWest. Featuring the voice talents of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and John Ratzenberger along with many others.
The story is about a young rookie car on his way to California to try and win the Piston Cup and hopefully a real time sponsor, Dinoco. On the way to the big race, he gets sidetrack by a little town off route 66 called Radiator Springs. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is the young and friendless finely tuned racing machine that gets into all kinds of trouble in Radiator Springs but learns the value of true friendship.
A good animated feature that goes up to the next step for Pixar. The animation was amazing however the overall story was decent. It ranks up there for me in Pixar films but not my top favorite. The end credits were extremely funny all the way to the very end and the dedication/short tribute to Joe Ranft was very touching (passed away last year in an auto accident, voice talent of Heimlich in “A Bug’s Life” and other Pixar features).
John Lasseter (Director and creator of Pixar) presented the film this evening. Feature is rated a STRONG G and opens in theatres this June. **** (4 out of 5 stars).
Other ShoWest happenings … so much is going on and so very little sleep. Meeting after meeting, can’t enjoy a nice sit down anywhere before I have to get to another appointment.
The convention itself is being held at the Paris Hotel and portions at Bally’s Hotel (both of them are connected). I get to actually stay at the Paris this time and it’s a nice hotel.
But some highlights have been the “Cars” screening and some cool cocktail parties where I got to meet:
All of these folks were extremely nice and on Monday I met Lisa Lu who apparently knew my grandfather very well. She is here at ShoWest representing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
That is about it on the ShoWest Vegas report. The photos within this blog are taken from an amazing photographer who made real photos look like they are miniatures! I thought they were cool and thought someone might think so too.
Questions from previous post: I think I can remember at least the highlights from the week. :)
I end this blog with this … “That's cool, baby..You know how it is...rockin' and rollin' and what not.”- John Travolta as Danny Zuko in “Grease”.
Burg or not to Berg ...
So the question was posed to me about the difference between "Burg" and "Berg". Well both are from the German language and "Burg" simply means town or villa I guess. The world "Berg" means mountain (typically one that is covered with ice).
So an iceberg means ice-ice-covered moutain.
Did you know that Steven Spielberg means Steven Playmountain (with ice)?
Oh hey look, I learned how to insert pictures! Not as hard as I thought but its still early and I could screw things up very easily.
Next week is my annual convention to Vegas called ShoWest I was actually hoping to dodge out of it this year because its just so tiring and when I did think about it, I figured I might not have a job during this time frame ... well, since I am going it didn't work out that way. Sometimes you just want a break and this year it looks like it will be a TON of work. Last year was awesome though ... probably one of the best times I have had in Vegas because I didn't have to do anything!! Just live it up and I did ... on the company's dime :p
So with that, may not blog for a bit (even though this is only the 2nd blog) because I will be traveling all next week. Besides, who knows if my week next week would be blog-worthy if I wasn't going ... I'm just saying.
I end this posting with this ...
"Never give up! Never surrender!" -Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith playing Commander Taggart in "Galaxy Quest"
My First blog ... wow, how exciting is this. I will hopefully learn how to input photos eventually but I am not that tech savy, eh!
I'm not sure how often I will blog either but at least I have a space to do so and ... well ... bore the minds of everyone, then I shall take over the world!!!
For starters ... why "Duckburg Gazette"? Well, why not? I am a big fan of Scrooge McDuck and from the series of DuckTales they lived in Duckburg ... well Duckburg must have had a local paper right? Chances are it was called Duckburg _____ . I just simply put in Gazette because to me it sounded more ... duckish? So with that, is the story of the "Duckburg Gazette" and history was made ... (fade to black).
About me- maybe some other time.
What to blog about? To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question ... hence, we blog. I would like to blog about my day last Wednesday (3/1/06). I got invited to the IATSE (cinematographer's union) Publicist Awards luncheon. It was a pretty cool event and I have never been before. Jimmy Kimmel was the host and he was really good at it too. He said we should all spread the word and how the Academy Awards are called "Oscars", the Publicist Award should be called "The Pubie" and I agree! Nice ring, easy to remember and just plain fun!! So back to the award luncheon, presenters and other guests included: Teri Hatcher (kind of annoying), Hillary Swank (The Next Karate Kid!!), someone from a soap opera, Delta Burke (nice person), Marcia Gay Harden (nice person) and KIRK DOUGLAS (WOW). I got lucky during this lunch and snapped a photo with: - Delta Burke
- Marcia Gay Harden
Some folks from WB won an award and they mentioned Dan Fellman a couple of times. That was pretty cool they remembered the distribution side of the business. Plus he is the dad of my former boss Brett who was an awesome boss among bosses.
That is about it, I typically do not write much because I simply don't have much to say. But this being the first blog and all I felt ... I don't know, fingers have a mind of their own sometimes. So in closing my first blog I would like to say ...
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY CHRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTMAS! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!" - Santa Clause in "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians". 
"Ice Age: The Meltdown" which is the sequel to "Ice Age" opens this Friday. Folks tell me it is funnier than the first one. The first one I thought was really good and Scrat is seen more in the newer film. Did you know that Scrat was almost not going to be in the first film but test audience loved the character so much, they added him throughout the story as a side story much later. I like when studios do in fact listen to audience however with that said, sometimes you may get a dumb audience and then you are screwed later on.
