24 Hours: Dunkin' Donuts

While traffic was nothing at 4:30AM, by 7:15 it was surprisingly heavy. I popped over to the new Dunkin' Donuts on Washington near Costco that used to be a Foster's Freeze. You know, the old hole in the wall where you could get ice cream AND corndogs/burgers/fries? It was uber disappointing to see such an awesome spot close up but I'd rather see a doughnut shop replace it than some artisan yoga shoppe or some crap. I didn't grow up with Dunkin' but do love a good doughnut. One recently opened in Santa Monica where mo's waited in line for hours for sugar filled deep fried goodness. Californians are weird, man...anywho, there were only a few peeps in front of me but I could see how this could get jammed up real quick as people are so indecisive. Especially when they need to make potentially a dozen or more choices. I stuck with the classics, Crullers, chocolate glazed chocolate cake and their seasonal specialties, Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake and Reese's Peanut Butter filled squares. They also had an array of breakfast sammiches available but I was headed to the gym for a fasted workout. The chocolate was quite good as was the air filled cruller. Next up, food coma from the frosting, cream and sugar rich squares. See ya in line at Tim Horton's!

24 Hours: Planet Terror

On a fateful Friday night and Saturday in May of 2013, I went to four movies in just over twenty-four hours and managed to squeeze in a workout too boot. As fate would have it, I've embarked on a similar quest of cinematic, muscular pumping, junk food eating, booze swilling adventure as today I randomly woke up at 3:47 AM feeling fresh and terrific. Perusing Facebook I noticed that Friday night was The New Beverly's From Dusk Til Dawn marathon screening all three films plus Grindhouse: Planet Terror in 35mm from owner Quentin Tarantino's personal collection. I figured I had nothing else to do, hopped in the car, braved no traffic, passed Danny Trejo's under construction taco joint and arrived in West Hollywood just before 5:00 AM. From Dusk Til Dawn 3: Hangman's Daughter was barely a third of the way in so I plopped down to check out two-thirds of a flick I've never seen. To refresh, Dusk was a collaboration between F/X wizard Robert Kurtzman and writer/directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Released in 1996, the film is notable for being half a heist movie and half a vampire horror masterpiece. It was also George Clooney's first starring role after breaking out on hit TV show, ER. Suffice to say, the moody, funny, sexy and gory thriller has long been one of my favorite films and provided me with one of my life mottos: "I may be a bastard but I'm not a fucking bastard."

Part 3 takes us back to the beginning as the pre-Titty Twister serves as an outpost in wild west style Mexico 100 years ago. We witness the origin of Santanico Pandemonium (played by Salma Hayek in Dusk and Ara Celi here), future vampire queen of the joint. I missed both direct to video sequels back in 1999 but was impressed at how good it looked on the big screen. With an estimated $5 million dollar budget, the costumes, sets, gore and mayhem all still hold up between a few cheap looking F/X shots. A few familiar faces pop up like Michael Parks, Rebecca Gayheart, Danny Trejo and Orlando Jones while Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero's KNB EFX Group takes care of severed limbs, fake blood, beheading vampires and slashed throats galore. I'll have to go back and check out both sequels now and relive the glorious Direct to Video 90's. Right after the credits, Planet Terror started up with fake trailer turned real movie, complete with sequel, Machete starring recurring theme of the night, Danny Trejo! Then it was time for the main event. I saw Grindhouse in it's entirety in 2007 and absolutely adored Robert Rodriguez's John Carpenter style zombie flick Planet Terror while utterly despising Tarantino's talky Death Proof (it's grown on me, great car chases, Kurt Russell for life). A costly flop at the box office that allegedly rattled Tarantino's confidence, I've rarely seen it screened around Los Angeles. It recently played at Hollywood Forever during Cinespia but I loathe the crowded and crappy experience that is their outdoor events.

Opening on a dark and scary night in an unnamed town, we meet various military, science and shady business types (played by Bruce Willis and Naveen Andrews among others) as they discuss "the shit" before tanks of green, toxic gas get exploded and sent into the air. From here, anyone who comes into contact with the green shit mist starts to decompose and violently attack the uninfected. We meet a motley crew of townsfolk from the local strip club, police department, soon to be award winning BBQ joint and hospital that includes Freddy Rodriguez, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin, Rose McGowan, Jeff Fahey, Tom Savini and mother fucking MICHAEL BIEHN. Yes, folks, the main reason I went to see a movie at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday was to see The Biehn up on the big screen. Rodriguez gives him a terrific entrance as Sheriff Hague with a moving hero shot showing the badass leader and his ample crew. From there it's pus filled, bone breaking, shovel smashing, finger biting, car exploding, machine gun leg, dick melting, helicopter chopping, pocket bike racing mayhem at it's finest with a terrific synth score inspired by Carpenter work from the 80's. The film still plays great with it's awesome cast, gross out f/x and throwback movie vibe that comes with fake scratches, poor color timing and missing reels.

Watching the film and knowing it was made more or less in Robert Rodriguez's backyard in Austin, Texas was inspiring as it was disappointing. As the film was an experiment and a pretty solid value, $50 million for two films featuring loads of movie stars and could have been the return of something really cool in Hollywood, a night out at the movies with something for hopefully every genre fan. Instead of being a modern throwback to star studded affairs like The Great Escape how Ocean's 11 was, Grindhouse sadly did not find it's audience. Everyone involved does a terrific job, it looks fantastic and you get all kinds of bang for your buck. Plus it was arguably Biehn's last meaty role in a decent sized movie. Here's hoping Aliens II remedies that in the next couple of years. Two more movies on deck for the day, pass the coffee and doughnuts!

Fall Flicks: The Martian

It's a busy week full of movies here with three in the can and another three on the horizon this weekend. Last night it was an impromptu screening of new Ridley Scott flick The Martian starring Matt Damon. Based on a self published novel (on a blog, no less) turned Amazon best seller by Andy Weir and adapted by Drew Goddard, The Martian has been building buzz for quite some time after the well received trailers. Matt Damon averted P.R. nightmares after a few quotes about diversity and openly homosexual actors were taken the wrong way. But in today's climate, what isn't taken the wrong way? It reminds me of Van Damme saying you could sue him for using the F word and be "mentally abused"...Man I'm not cut out for this world...Anywho, the flick opened to a boffo $55 million last week giving Damon a nice career boost and delivering Ridley Scott's first bonafide hit in years. All in The Martian is a good time at the movies, it's light, funny, slightly terrifying and incredibly well made even if it all unfolds in a pretty straight forward and ho-hum fashion.

Up on Mars, the crew of mission Ares III are hit by a severe storm where astronaut botanist Mark Watney (Damon) is struck by debris, separated from the party, presumed dead and the remaining members evacuate the planet. Of course he's not and must now figure out a way to survive on the uninhabitable planet and signal NASA. On Earth, directors, media, engineers and others carefully plan how they're going to explain Watney not dying and how they can rescue him without jeopardizing more astronauts along with their public standing. Eventually the Ares III crew is informed that Watney is alive and must decide if they'd be willing to risk their lives and careers to go back for him. Like I said, The Martian is a good time. It highlights science, problem solving, team work and humanity in a light tone. Kind of like how the last Twilight movie was an X-Men flick for non-comic book readers, The Martian is an intelligent science movie for people who conjure up images of hippies and nerds with pocket protectors when they think of free thought or space exploration. It's a very human story that that doesn't get too cerebral or technical while packing lots of laughs and a few breathe stopping sequences of Mars and space set destruction.

The cast is huge, starting with Damon and includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Chiwetel Ejifor and Donald Glover. It's been highlighted that Mackenzie Davis' small role of a NASA satellite analyst was originally written as an Asian woman in the book. As if the film didn't have enough white folks running around including two central redheaded female characters. I wonder if this came from Scott, the casting department or Fox as it's a pretty nothing role so why even take the time to change the ethnicity from the book? But this is Fox who you know, white washed the entire county of Orange for TV and kicked Jubilee to the curb in favor of a lame ass Rogue in X-Men. Oh well, Scott did make Black Rain which cast lots of great Asian actors while decapitating Andy Garcia. Not like he pulls a Seth McFarlane and continually uses Asian characters as the butt of jokes and stereotypes.

Inevitable comparisons to last year's space epic Interstellar have been rightfully avoided as they're two different types of films. Although Damon and Chastain are in both, The Martian is a breezy good time with a classic rock soundtrack while Interstellar was an emotional experience that dealt with big ideas like the end of the world and alternate dimensions. I appreciated Chris Nolan's ambition and use of emotion which will make it stand out in my memory more so than The Martian. I'd see it again though. 3D is ok, some storm sequences make good use of it but never felt like I was there.

Paneled Goods: Divine Right

Oh man the 90's, the most action packed decade in comic books! I grew up during the Image Comics boom, reading and collecting the science fiction tinged and kinetically violent WildC.A.T.S., Brigade and Backlash and later thanks to .25 bins picking up runs of Prophet, Youngblood, Cyber Force, Savage Dragon and more. I'm not sure when I grabbed Jim Lee's Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Farady but at a recent show picked up the first several issues in a collected edition for a few bucks. I have the entire run sitting in storage halfway across the country which was not going to help me after getting hooked again. For any comic book fan, Jim Lee is one of the luminaries; his crisp, exciting art coupled with his nice guy attitude has served him well from being a young upstart at Marvel to laying claim to the highest selling comic book issue of all time to creating imprint Wildstorm at Image, selling that to DC and now running the shop as Co-Publisher. DC has recently re-released Divine Right in a graphic novel and included several tie-in issues along with some sketches from the man himself. It's on Amazon but if you're reading this from the west side of Los Angeles, check out Pulp Fiction on Sepulveda where most graphic novels are 30-50% off.

Starting in 1997, Divine Right introduces us to Max Faraday, a part time pizza delivery guy and college student with a hot older sister and thinks he's cool but really isn't best friend. Always on the internet, Max has struck up an online relationship with Susanna Chaste but never met her in person. Remember chat rooms from the 90's? Phew, flashbacks! One night, Max randomly downloads the Creation Equation, a mystical formula that goes way back and from beyond our universe. Basically, Max has downloaded the powers of God but doesn't know it. Soon enough he's being chased by aliens and rescued by members of The Fallen: Brande, Tobruk and Exotica; wizard, warrior and babe types who know all about the Creation Equation. International Operations, Wildstorm's version of S.H.I.E.L.D., gets involved so we get universe familiar faces John Lynch and Caitlin Fairchild along with the members of Gen 13, along with former agent resurrected from the dead Christy Blaze helping to guide and protect Max. It's only a matter of tick tocks before members of The Rath catch up as of course they have their own nefarious plans for using the power of God.

Reading Divine Right again after all these years was at once familiar and nostalgic while at the same time exciting, fun and surprising. You get 1997 style chat interfaces, computer windows and comic book-ness, you know, all dudes are super buff and chiseled, all women are super hot, big action scenes and one liners. There's a lot of juvenile humor and male fantasy turned on it's head while providing several strong female characters. What surprised me was how deep the story goes into the Wildstorm universe and in watching Max change as a character. He starts off innocent and kind then when corrupted by power and threatened by evil, he suddenly feels he knows what's best for the entire planet, becoming an "evil" force himself. I also didn't remember it drawing in so many characters from the Wildstorm U like Gen 13 and Lee's awesome super powered team WildC.A.T.S. but it all fits tightly together since the CATS were always fighting alien warlords and whatnot.

Lee writes and pencils here with assists from the likes of Scott Lobdell, Carlos D'Anda, Albert Deschesne, Rachelle Brissenden, Richard Starkings and Scott Williams to create a big, exciting and vibrant tale of huge adventure, faith, love and action that takes us from a crappy apartment to an alternate version of Heaven and back again. There's character and ideas layered deep throughout as each issue starts with a passage from the bible as well as one from Max's personal slacker manifesto, recurring bits like Whak! cola are a nice touch as are the fantasy sequences that turn out to be horrible nightmares. The detail and scope in Lee's work is always impressive as each panel is filled to the brim with characters in ornate costumes, giant vistas and of course, action. This is what I feel comic books were made to be, larger than life, epic adventures that explore life's themes with manly men and womanly women. It's a fantasy, it's a break from reality so let's really revel in it and go for it. Next up, rereading some WildC.A.T.S. and Backlash!

Premiere! Bone Tomahawk

It was back to Hollywood last night for some Happy Hour at Boardner's, much better deals than Pig & Whistle, for the west coast premiere of Bone Tomahawk! I've been pumped for this flick since first hearing about it, I mean come on, a gothic western with cannibals starring Kurt Russell?! The screening officially sold out and the packed audience included no less than Clu Gulugar, Sid Haig, Martin Kove and Quentin Tarantino! #ActionMovieBro David J. Moore was in the house, his action movie opus The Good, the Tough and the Deadly hits shelves this February, featuring a couple of things by yours truly, so be on the look out for that and for accompanying screenings and signings. Beyond Fest maestros Grant, Christian and crew kicked things off in ridiculously awesome fashion as usual, shooting and winging tee shirts into the crowd along with DVD's.

Bone Tomahawk takes place around the turn of the century in the quiet town of Brighton Hope, population 200 and something. A couple of rustlers run afoul of a tribe of savage cannibals dubbed troglodytes who kidnap Samantha (Lili Simmons), the wife of local cowboy with a broken leg Arthur (Patrick Wilson). Along with Sheriff Franklin Hunt (KURT RUSSELL), his old timer deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins) and cold blooded dandy Brooder (Matthew Fox), the quartet sets out to rescue Samantha. What follows is a beautiful, funny, brutal and gorily violent adventure that had the audience laughing, cheering and cringing throughout. Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler, the first time director makes good use of his deep cast, wild west setting and hardcore if not over the top violence. It kind of reminded you of The 13th Warrior, the vikings, men on a mission flick as it was an odyssey to battle a strange and unforgiving enemy. But as a western. The dialog has a certain panache and tilt to it and the actors all deliver their lines in their own special ways. You had hot head Arthur, overly calm and deadly Brooder, funny/dumb/crazy Chicory and Hunt right in the middle. There aren't any huge gun fights or horse chase sequences but Zahler makes effective and shocking use of violence throughout. Beyond the poster names, familiar faces like Sid Haig, David Arquette, Michael Pare and Sean Young pop up briefly.

After the film, Zahler was joined by actors Matthew Fox and Lili Simmons for a podcast interview with Jeff Goldsmith from The Q&A:

- Zahler went to NYU, is a huge heavy metal fan, wrote fanzines, worked full time as a caterer then started writing. Can finish a script in 30 days, a novel in 45 or so. Has had 22 scripts optioned but only one produced by a random international consortium.
- Simmons started off at Disney, landed an agent through her manager. Currently wrapping up series Banshee.
- Matthew Fox grew up in Wyoming with no TV until his teens, encouraged to read a lot of fiction by his father and graduated with an Economics degree before booking commercials and acting jobs.
- After so many projects optioned but never produced, Zahler wrote Bone with an eye to direct and get something made. Friend and partner Dallas Sonnier secured financing.
- Small movie, under $5 million to make it. At one point $1.8 million was mentioned, phew!
- Kurt Russell was attached from the beginning and stuck with it for two and a half years. Zahler describes him as having the energy of 5-10 Kurt's.
- Fox loved working with Russell and Jenkins, described them both as easy going guys, excited to be making movies, down to earth and totally supportive.
- Fox grew up riding horses and had a crazy mare to work with but ended up taming the creature.
- Film shot for 21 days, partially in upstate New York.
- Not much music in film, didn't want to use it as a crutch.
- Inspired by R. Rider Haggard and books like King Solomon's Mines as well as micro-budget horror films. Wanted to create his own race and gave them a distinct look and feel.
- Original script was 128 pages and basically shot all of it. Miraculously never fell behind.
- Fox doesn't choose roles based on anything much more than the material presented. Studied photos of people from the era, impressed with how they carried themselves and used it in film.
- Zahler and Fox are developing a crime/mystery TV series.
- Film is going to be released uncut and unrated.

Of course much more was discussed but you can catch the full podcast when it's released. A great flick that I hope lands on a special features loaded Blu-Ray soon! Beyond Fest keeps on chugging this week with He Never Died, Men & Chicken, Too Late, Eraserhead, The Mind's Eye and The Phantom of the Opera among others with guests like Henry Rollins, John Hawkes, Bernard Rose and more scheduled to attend. We'll be back for Dog Day Afternoon followed by a chat with Al Pacino!

Tell Me a Question: Julian Kabab & Flashgap

Covering The PEACE Fund Celebrity Poker Tournament provided a unique opportunity, the chance to throw some questions at Julian Kabab, the French, 24 year old CEO of Flashgap. Like a reverse Snapchat, photos and videos appear for 3 seconds then are available again the next day at noon so you can relive the event. Inspired by The Hangover, when the friends find a digital camera that houses evidence of their debauchery filled night, Flashgap looks to bring the fun back from a night out. Their motto: Together. For better or for worse.

You're young and driven but how long were you debating creating Flashgap? Did anything push you to just go for it?

The decision to create Flashgap was the fastest in the entire process. But I spent a lot of time searching for the right persons with whom I wanted to build it. I've always known I wanted to launch my company and build a product people would really enjoy using.

Flashgap started with you and your friends wearing GoPros all night and evolved into quick videos and snaps. How did you whittle down the essence of what the application currently is?

The important thing about the insight isn't the GoPros strapped to our foreheads for our nights out but the mornings during which we woke up in the same apartment and discovered all together what happened last night. Laughter and jokes are stronger after the event then when you are actually living it.

The app started in France but is now available in America. Were there any major differences between users or their settings?

We haven't really noticed. People use the app in many different ways. My favorite user case scenario is the one of using it at a distance. When our users party in London and have friends based in L.A., they can create a Flashgap together to discover what both groups did.

You were inspired by The Hangover, any other movies sparking a future creation?

Minority Report ;)

Thanks to Julian Kabab for chatting, check out Flashgap HERE and get ready for yesterday.

Workout of the Day: Fast Man

The first time I worked out on an empty stomach was in high school. I got nauseous and hurled the glass of water I'd had earlier. As a natural morning person, in college it was hard to force some food down the gullet before training and by my late 20's, I was used to working out on an empty stomach. I believe it was Dolph Lundgren who first introduced me to the notion that as your body sleeps overnight, your blood sugar is constant and low so light or moderate exercise in the morning should theoretically go to body fat stores for energy. Guys like Arnold, Van Damme and The Rock all advocate morning cardio on an empty stomach while recently I've been hearing about Intermittent Fasting from the likes of Terry Crews and Hugh Jackman. Basically you eat within a window of 8-10 hours a day as it's thought that it takes 12 hours for the body to enter the fasted state so you'll burn more fat before your first meal. While former NFL player turned jacked actor Crews says he eats a few meals and a protein shake between 2:00 and 10:00 PM, Hugh Jackman claims he crams in 5,000 calories to bulk up for Wolverine between 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM. The cast of TV show Black Sails apparently work out at 10:00 AM, have their first meal at 12:00 PM then close up eating shop by 8:00. There's books and blogs about it so after some light reading I figured to give it a try.

Since I'm already working out mornings doing cardio or weights on an empty stomach, I figured I'd just go with it. For pre-6:00 AM cardio I'm doing the usual ab-aerobics suggested by Frank Zane where I just do 60-90 seconds on a piece of cardio equipment like incline treadmill, stairclimber, stationary bike, jump rope and a Gazelle thingy. Only doing each exercise for a minute takes the monotony out of it and before you know it, you're breaking a sweat and 10, 15 or 20 minutes in. I follow that up with some ab exercises and trunk twists, stretch, cool down and call it a workout. For weights in the AM I'm a two bodypart, three superset three times kinda guy. For chest and biceps this Tuesday morning it was Incline Dumbbell Press with Zane Incline Curls (where your chest is against the bench and arms hanging), Dumbbell Fly and Concentration Curls then Gironda style wide dips with Reverse Curls. I finished up with a single superset of Chins and Push Ups just cause. Some calves, neck and forearms and I was done in under 40 minutes.

My fasting approach so far is more or less aiming to eat between 9:00 or 10:00 AM to 5:00 or 6:00 PM. That way I'm fasting for my first workout and if I do a second session, I can have a meal afterwards. Of course like all eating plans it works better if you stick to whole foods, lean meats, vegetables and fruits. Super foods include avocado, coconut oil, green vegetables, nuts, free range chicken, whole butter and whey protein while the usual bads like pasta, bread, potatoes and deep fried goodness should be inhaled moderately. One style of fasting is to have any kind of calorie free drink, though coffee is allowed, so it's water, tea, even diet pop during your 14-16 hour fast. My energy or focus levels haven't been too effected and I've felt lighter and tighter since starting the process. They say it takes three weeks to get into a habit but so far so good!

Premiere! The Invitation

 
Beyond Fest has been in full effect since last Thursday night's premiere of gangster flick Legend starring Tom Hardy with writer/director Brian Helgeland stopping by for Q&A. Things have been pedal to the floor ever since with a Better Off Dead reunion, Evil Dead double feature with Edgar Wright, Bruce Campbell and surprise guest Sam Raimi along with 600 foam chainsaws then a rare concert featuring Italian composer Frizzi. We finally made it Monday night for the west coast premiere of The Invitation, a single location ensemble piece about a dinner party featuring old friends who haven't seen each other in two years after a family tragedy. We saw a clip at Comic-Con and you just knew some weird shit was going to happen. Directed by Karyn Kusama from a script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the flick stars Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michiel Huisman, Mike Doyle and John Carroll Lynch. It was a packed house and the lobby was set up with posters from various films playing throughout the festival. But the pre-show clips of random horror, trailers, Rocky III training and whatnot lent terrific additional energy.

The Invitation starts with Will (Green) and Kira (Corinealdi) on their way to Eden's (Tammy Blanchard) home in the Hollywood Hills. Eden happens to be Will's ex-wife and they used to share the house. It's been two years since they split and their circle of friends haven't seen much of either since. Past secrets and pain are revealed as present plans unfold leading to a final act that I thought involve aliens. While it wasn't Invasion of the Body Snatchers at a dinner party, there's the same sense of dread and questioning who your friends are that made for a funny, intense, violent and raw 100 minutes. It's a simple flick so I don't want to spoil anything but it's definitely worth checking out as performances are solid as is the ambiance and shocking conclusion. After the film, director Kusama, writers Hay and Manfredi along with actor Marshall-Green took to the stage for Q&A. Non-spoiler basics:

- Kusama and Hay are married in real life.
- Hay and Manfredi have been kicking the idea around since about 2000.
- Play on reality and legends of Hollywood Hills' various crimes and oddities.
- Kusama met Green at a coffee shop who thought he was a loitering lurker, liked his lack of ego or vanity.
- Diverse cast reflected reality of living in Los Angeles.
- Nice to work in modern day, independent horror or sci-fi as big ideas can replace big set pieces.
- A week before shooting, ensemble cast and filmmakers spent time with each other alone, in pairings and groups to work out dynamics and tone.
- Edited in Kusama and Hay's garage much to neighbor's chagrin.
- Worked hard to keep the tension up throughout, where to throttle, where to let go, etc.

It's a little tough to talk about since once you see it or talk about it, you can't unsee it or untalk about it, know what I mean? A great night and a solid flick, bring on the west coast premiere of Bone Tomahawk aka Kurt Russell's gothic western, with cannibals! See ya at The Egyptian.

Gotta Drank(&Gamble)! Cielo at Morongo Casino

Banning has it all put together pretty well, a few minutes before Morongo off the 10 is a large shopping and eating center with Best Buy, Wal-Mart, BBQ and whatnot then just past the Holiday Inn and airport is Morongo Casino. It's a strange sight to see as it's the tallest building by far in more or less the middle of nothing besides small housing developments, farms, mountains and giant windmills. But the place looks new and clean besides the indoor smoking. You've got the glitz of slot machines and neon signs, several restaurants, table play in the middle and a High Stakes room. We ventured to the joint a couple times over the weekend to partake in the buffet, Friday night you can get  1 lb T-Bone steak while Saturday and Sunday there's Prime Rib! If you sign up for their free rewards, you get an automatic $5 off so you're a fool not to. The offerings were quite expansive with salad, sushi, Italian, Asian, carved meats and more. It was a 30 minute wait for steaks but there were plenty of other delicious options. One of them being the Turkey Pot Pie. Good lord I'm getting hungry just thinking about it now! I'm not sure if I'll ever have a better plate of buffet food than the one of Turkey Pot Pie, steamed vegetables, stuffing and Prime Rib I cannonballed on Saturday.

After feasting we headed up to the 26th or 27th floor to Cielo, their skyhigh steak house. You know me, I love eating/dranking up high and have done so now in places like Oklahoma City, Portland, Seattle and Calgary. It's a nice spot and wasn't too crowded yet as we sipped on Old Fashions and watched trains go by, cars run four way stops, people floating in the lazy river and wondered what life was like out here. Down on the floor we played a few slots where you could pick from Garfield, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Britney Spears and THE PHANTOM machines. I would have slammed some evil and some slots but it was already taken...We lost a few bucks playing roulette on a computerized set up but it was fun. All in a pretty nice place and I would definitely return if there was a musical act coming through I was into. Upcoming acts Melissa Etheridge and Incubus do not qualify.

Gotta Eat! Gramma's Country Kitchen

 
Steps away from our lovely Holiday Inn in Banning is Gramma's Country Kitchen, a local establishment filled with crap on the walls, nice folks and awesome food. The decor is homey with brick interior and lots of signs and decorations on the walls like...your grandma's house, I guess. Big wooden booths, pies on demand and signs for steak specials made me feel very comfortable. I opted for their Chicken Fried Steak breakfast which came with two eggs and choice of sides where I went with pancakes and BISCUITS AND GRAVY. Our sever was kind and the food came out fast. I snapped a quick photo, not realizing how white it all was with the plates, double portion of gravy and over easy eggs. The Chicken Fried Steak was great, crispy on the outside and fork tender inside. The gravy was excellent as well, not too salty or heavy and the pancakes were light and fluffy. I wanted to eat more, my mind wanted to but my body just wasn't having it. If I can't have Bob Evans, at least I can have Gramma's.

Con-Man: Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival

On Friday morning we ventured out to Banning, California past Riverside and next to Morongo Casino for the Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival at the Museum of Pinball. This is a private eSports facility that's only open to the public a few times a year so we figured on making a weekend out of it. Driving out east is about the closest I get to feeling like I'm back in Ohio or the middle east of America as traffic is lighter and there isn't much to see besides fields and a surprising amount of semi-trucks. We posted up at the Holiday Inn which was surprisingly nice with a separate living room, kitchenette area, a little gym and a substantial breakfast that included eggs, cinnamon rolls and BISCUITS AND GRAVY! The Pinball Museum is tucked away by the airport in a nondescript series of structures. It wasn't very crowded with people but there were tons of games to be played. The Museum is split into two halves, one with arcade games and the other with pinball. We walked around the arcade a bit with classic games like Pacman, Galaga, Super Mario Brothers and a crazy Japanese version of Tetris where you play as a Disney character. Then you had your Street Fighter, Fatal Fury and King of Fighters section and another with shooters like Area 51, a Time Crisis with the machine gun, etc.

Over at the end was a red carpeted area set up for competition and early YouTube show host Jace Hall was holding it down. While there were plenty of 80's games, I was disappointed in the lack of 90's button smashing brawlers like Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or X-Men. Rather than finding a holy grail title like Alien VS Predator or G.I. Joe, runners up like The Simpsons and Airwolf weren't working. Instead we found solace in the driving games section with Spy Hunter, Star Wars and the most fun game of the day, Crazy Taxi! Basically where you drive around picking up fares and are on the clock but cause wanton destruction on your way to KFC, Tower Records, the train depot and other spots.

 
Across the hall was the pinball section where the museum really had some historic and cool things. One room was set up with old school shooting games where you fired at model planes and cars or flashes of light signaled bullet hits. Pinball wise you had a ton of early models and lots of new age, flashing lights, licensed ones like Maverick, Hook, Last Action Hero, Robocop and Judge Dredd. There was also a bar on the pinball side with $7 cocktails so it wasn't too shabby. There were panels and competitions throughout the day then food trucks and a DJ outside. At $50 to get in, it was a bit expensive for what amounted to about 4 hours of being onsite and like I said, even with 800 games to play I was disappointed in the selection. But it was only one part of the weekend and a solid one at that. The next open event is ArcadeExpo scheduled for January, apparently you can camp out on their multi-acre compound for that one.

Ask Me a Question: Toy Story 20th Anniversary

Welcome back from the weekend! Ours started on Thursday night in Beverly Hills at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater where we saw awesome nights of Enter the Dragon and Jurassic Park. Tonight, it was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first digital, full length animated film, Toy Story aka 20 Years of Being An Animation Game Changer. This was a bit of a departure as they didn't screen the film and have Q&A, instead it was a two hour discussion/lecture on how Pixar came to be and produced Toy Story, forever changing film. Actor, writer and director Jon Favreau was our host as Pixar luminaries John Lasseter and Ed Catmull took the stage first to discuss the origins of the studio and the road to the film. A trailer for Toy Story played first, which was kind of funny as it was digital then put on film for 35mm projection. Lasseter and Catmull shared the dream of producing the world's first full length digital feature and their journey started in the 80's.  There were photos, sketches and videos to accompany the friends as they talked about working with George Lucas then being spun off and picked up by Steve Jobs. Catmull was witness to Jobs negotiating with Disney which saw Pixar come out with a three picture deal. After testing the waters with the memorable Gummi Life Savers and Listerine commercials, Pixar wanted to do a 30 minute special but were told if they could do 30 minutes, they could do 90.

Toy Story morphed from a little Tin Drummer Boy into space action figure Buzz Lightyear and Woody the pullstring cowboy was inspired by a Casper doll Lasseter had as a child. It was interesting to see that originally Buzz was a G.I. Joe sized, 3-4" action figure while Woody was 12" before they ended up being similar sizes. It was also interesting to hear how the story progressed, that Woody started out as an a-hole and that after their first storyboard session, Disney had little faith in the film. At that point, Lasseter asked for two weeks to work on the story and that's when his team stepped up, basically injecting what they thought was funny and Disney greenlit the film. In the early days they shared one computer and Lasseter was the only animator so a photo of him sleeping at the office was projected. When they started growing, technical wizards like Galyn Susman joined who helped work out the coding work of digital animation while Ralph Eggleston drew it all out with chalk. A funny anecdote from the pair was that to research the scene where Buzz and Woody are riding in the back of the Pizza Planet truck, they drove around at night with Ralph laying in the back, checking out the light as it passed in and out. It was a very educational, entertaining and funny affair, I just felt bad for the little girl behind us in line who thought she was seeing the movie. Oh well!