Way Of All Flesh

After a harrowing couple of days when I realized Amazon had defaulted to my old delivery address, Wednesday finally saw the addition of a new member to our little household:

Yep, thanks to Nikon's affordable entry-level solutions, I have joined the DSLR revolution, and am already overjoyed at the great vistas of photographic opportunity that now stretch before me.

On Friday we helped Kristina move in with Neil, and it was probably the most exhausting moving experience I've had here yet (and this after moving all of Kevin's books the other week). We were somewhat undermanned, and had to get her couch down five flights of stairs, but after seven hours we had them installed in their fancy new digs, and could leave them to wonder why the lights weren't working. That evening we went to check out Seven Grand, a new whisky bar located in the heart of Downtown. Evidently we finally managed to attend an LA bar while it was still cool, since Mr. Vince Vaughn showed up a couple of hours after us. Awesome.

Beau and Mary had a small BBQ on Saturday (their building has a grill and a hot-tub on the roof), and we spent a good chunk of the day making delicious contributions to their already impressive bounty. To wit, a double batch of chili (made with a whole bottle of red wine, baby!) and six blue cheese stampedes:

That's a 1/3lb of seasoned beef, wrapped around a molten core of blue cheese. Yum. Being on a rooftop during magic hour was a perfect opportunity to try out the D40, which yielded some spectacular photos. More of these are available here.

I'm currently sifting through the 500+ shots I have from Del and Jenna's nuptials, so stay tuned for a major photo update of that nature.

Del and Jenna tied the knot this past Sunday, and can finally get down to the unpleasant business of consummating their union. The ceremony was outdoors, at a National Park in Orange, and the June Gloom burned away just as we arrived. This left nothing but gorgeous California sunshine and pleasing arborial shading to be guzzled up by the hungry lens of my D40. I think I need to stop relying on the auto-focus quite so much, but the results were astounding nevertheless. Check out the rest of the photos here.

Today Lisl and I went to see Knocked Up at the Los Feliz 3, which greatly exceeded my expectations. I am by now a committed Judd Apatow fan (I even got round to watching Talladega Nights this weekend), and the man continues to entertain. I may even like this movie better than The 40-Year Old Virgin. It continues in the vein of imaginative blue humour to which we are now accustomed, yet somehow feels a little more mature and, dare I say it, real than past offerings. It helps that a lot of the Freaks and Geeks cast are back in front of the camera, a group for whom (after a recent repeat viewing) I have a lot of love, and that the script speaks powerfully to the pop culture of my generation. Basically, anything that references Total Recall is good in my book.

Inspired by the success of those nutty Jericho fans, the campaign to save Veronica Mars has gone into overdrive this week. Having already succeeded in raising enough cash to buy a half-page ad in yesterday's Hollywood Reporter, the new plan is to inundate the offices of CW honcho Dawn Ostroff with Mars Bars. The campaigners maintain they have already bought up every available Mars Bar in the continental United States, and have now hatched a scheme for their mass importation from overseas (see AICN's latest article). I truly believe Veronica Mars to be one of the best shows on television right now: smart dialogue, compelling plotting, and a cast of variously empathetic, hilarious, or delightfully evil characters. Rob Thomas is a master of televisual prestidigitation, stringing you along with snappy character-work and then pulling the rug out from under you with deliciously shocking plot developments. He believes he still has stories to tell in Veronica's universe, and the conclusion of season three would certainly seem to support his claims. It would be a true shame if this show were allowed to die at this stage, to be replaced by more reality-dreck. Family Guy and Jericho both proved that it is possible for the viewing public to make a difference in these situations. I implore you to get involved before it's too late, and to check out this great series if you haven't already.

Go Pirates!

There's a new billboard at Sunset and Fountain, looming o'er our favourite strip-mall (wherein lie the laundromat, liquor store, Agra Cafe, and Tang's Donuts):

I mention this not in hopes of generating a discussion on the relative morality of such public advertising, but because the billboard features an image of Jenna Jameson, and I am minded that any poor soul choosing to attend this event with the expectation of meeting this buxom beauty is more likely to come face to face with this:

I guess this is quite old news, but the tragedy of Jenna Jameson is a source of great sadness to me. I always thought Classic Jenna was a smoking hottie (to use the parlance of our times), so to witness this surgical nightmare has been quite harrowing. If plastic surgery should prove only a trend, I can't even begin to imagine what future societies will make of our folly (that is, if their simian masters allow them to comment on such things). Click here for more horror.

So while I'm on the subject of the billboards at Sunset and Fountain, I noticed an interesting convergence the other day. The scandal surrounding Captivity's advertising is (again) a subject of old news, but nevertheless said movie has continued to have a strong promotional presence about our fair city. What interests me is that the ads originally said it was coming out in the last week of May, but I guess it has had its release pushed back repeatedly in the last few weeks:

(Click here for a larger version.) So what we're left with is two posters with conflicting dates, no doubt reflecting the film's hasty retreat from summer blockbusters like Pirates and its infamous antecedent Hostel Part Two. This phenomenon is repeated if you look up Sunset in the other direction. I guess I was interested by both the curiosity of this event and the material record it presents of Captivity's continuing travails. Will we ever get to see Elisha Cuthbert tied up and tortured? I guess I don't really care. But I am intrigued about the bears promised on the bus-stop posters:

UPDATE: Lisl's friend Scott pointed out that they'd updated the billboards yesterday. Aren't you glad I noticed this when I did?

Been back in England for almost a week now, and quite enjoying the break from the LA heat (though I suspect the rain could get old...). The bad news is that even saveveronicamars.tv seems to have given up all hope for an eleventh hour series renewal, so I guess we can all officially move on to the mourning stage of the proceedings. I re-stumbled across a webcomic about the show which speaks to the difficulty of inducting new disciples, but by way of rebuttal I should mention that even my Dad has now started down the dark and quirky path to Neptune.

This feature over at IGN, regarding the legal necessity to rename the F.E.A.R. franchise, tickled the part of me that loves playing with words. You know which part I mean.

Tomorrow we leave for Venice! I hope it doesn't rain there.

Oh, and even though I cannot know the precise identity of anybody reading this, I can nevertheless state one fact with absolute certainty: at least one of us is now a licensed California driver.