AFI Fest, Part I: Reviews of Field N*ggas, Baskin, and the Lady in the Van

AFI Fest doesn't just offer a great selection of films - all the tickets are free! That doesn't mean getting them is easy. I spent about two hours online when they were made available, dealing with website glitches, things disappearing from my shopping cart, etc. Many films seemed to be immediately sold out.  The "voucher" system for galas led to people having to camp out to get a chance for the big films. But for the smaller films or the daytime screenings, I found it was no problem to get in, although showing up 45 minutes early was sometimes necessary to get a good seat. If you didn't get tickets online, you could also show up early and wait in a rush line and probably get into most screenings. This will be the first of two posts offering short reviews of the six films I saw.

Friday, November 6 - Field Niggas

The theater was full for Field Niggas. We saw a videotaped introduction by the director, Khalik Allah, as he was not able to attend in person. The film presents late-night life on the busy Harlem corner of 125th and Lexington. The audio and filmed footage don't sync up, so you will hear a person talking but it isn't always the person you see on screen, or at least you can't be sure. Many of the people are high on K2, and although I have not tried it, I felt like I too was high on K2 while watching the film due to its woozy, dreamlike cinematography and the asynchronous audio. The film is only 60 minutes long, but since there is no narrative, it tends to drag. I found myself wanting to know more about the people that we only saw in brief snippets. It was a bit like Slacker in that way - we just see glimpses of people.  I left the film feeling a little nauseous. I feel it is artistic, and the cinematography is beautiful and colorful, but it lacked character development that could have made it a truly moving documentary.


Monday, November 9 - Baskin

The trailer made me very excited for Baskin, but the film didn't deliver. It's a Turkish horror film that tells the story of five cops who respond to a distress call from another cop and end up at a creepy dilapidated building in the woods, where of course a cult is performing violent rituals and in need of humans to sacrifice.  None of the cops are particularly likable, so we don't care too much about their fate. The middle sequence of the film, where the cops arrive and start exploring the building in the dark, is very suspenseful but the final act doesn't really go anywhere. It does provide some gross-out moments, and the high priest (Mehmet Cerrahoglu, a parking attendant making his acting debut) is quite mesmerizing. Argento was cited as an influence, and the film does have a supernatural bent. It mixes the supernatural with low-grade torture porn in the Eli Roth vein, but never quite has the squirm factor that Roth's films do. The director Can Evrenol revealed during the Q&A that the script was written very hastily, after Roth saw his short film and asked if there was a feature-length script. The director fibbed and said he had a script and then had to write it quickly.  Hopefully, he will spend more time developing his next script.  The title also makes no sense. When asked about it, Evrenol admitted only that it was kind of an in joke and that he had some regrets, since it gets lost in search results on twitter for Baskin Robbins. The theater was only about 1/3 full, but it was a 1:00 PM weekday screening.


Monday, November 9 - The Lady in the Van

It's always a treat to watch Maggie Smith, and this role is totally in her wheelhouse. Based on a true story, The Lady in the Van tells the story of a homeless lady in the van who creates a stir on a nice upper middle class block of Camden Town by daring to park her van there. The playwright Alan Bennett is the neighbor who treats her with the most compassion. When overnight street parking becomes restricted, he agrees to let her park the van in his driveway. As the years go by, they trade quips and Bennett learns more about her true identity and what brought her to this lowly state.  Smith is really just a smelly version of her Downton Abbey character, so it doesn't require her to stretch much. Still, it's a pleasure to watch, even if it's not groundbreaking cinema. It's kind of a like a story you might have read in "The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met" section of Reader's Digest and enjoyed but quickly forgot. There was no Q&A at this screening, and it was a full house.


Stay tuned for Part II - Reviews of Chronic, The Lobster, and Sworn Virgin.

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Courtney Love and the Kansas City Choir Boy Take Culver City

As a long-time Courtney Love fan, I couldn't pass up the unprecedented opportunity to see her on stage a mere two miles from my condo. She is currently co-starring in Kansas City Choir Boy at the Kirk Douglas Theater, running until November 8.  

This was my first time to this theater and it was arranged for this show with seats on three sides of the action. The staging area for the musical was quite small, and it felt very intimate.  This is not the kind of show I normally like, as it has very little narrative, but I found myself really enjoying it.

Todd Almond wrote and stars in the musical, as the unnamed Kansas City Choir Boy, who recounts his relationship with Athena (Courtney Love) in flashbacks after seeing a TV news report that she was murdered in a park. Girl meets boy in Kansas City, girl dreams of being an actress, boy writes music, girl leaves to pursue dreams in New York, girl meets a tragic end, boy struggles to go on and seeks her inspiration from beyond the grave.  That's about as much of the storyline as I could gather. It's never really explained why he doesn't want to go to New York with her, since he has artistic aspirations, too.

Besides the two principals, there's a group of women known as the sirens who form a Greek chorus. The choreography for the sirens kept things interesting, as did the creative lighting.  At times the sound mix was a bit muddled, so it was hard to make out what the actors were singing. A string quartet plays at some points and provides refreshing interludes. The songs were appealing, but I couldn't hum any of them a day after seeing it.

Courtney is mesmerizing with her alabaster skin and commanding presence, however she doesn't have much to do and her character isn't really developed. She basically functions as a muse.  At one point, she appears in a black dress that is just spectacular. It's hard to keep your eyes off her. I have been glad to see her in Empire and I hope she continues to focus more on acting. Her singing voice is not for everyone but since the material here is rock-oriented, it works. It would be even better if the script was developed further. It's more of a sketch than a fleshed-out story. 

There's palpable chemistry between Almond and Love, and anyone who has loved and lost will find something relatable in the show.  Almond based it on his own experience growing up in the midwest and watching TV news and seeing the face of an actress he had been working with who had been murdered in a park.  

After the show, there was a talkback, and most of the audience admitted they had no idea what they had witnessed or what the story was about.  One woman mentioned she had not been familiar with the music of Cyndi Lauper before seeing the show - clearly, she had her singers with the initials CL confused! Most enjoyed the show for its creativity in lighting, staging, and music. The musical is only an hour, so I think it can get away with its vagueness without wearing out its welcome.  

Although I bought tickets through Goldstar Events, we ended up in the front row, and I felt a bit starstruck to be so close to Courtney. A girl next to me could hardly sit in her seat due to her excitement at almost being able to touch the rock icon. I realized the last time I was this close to Courtney was way back in 1994, when I saw Hole on their Live Through This tour at a small club in St Louis. 21 years later, she is still mesmerizing, raw, and a very real presence in an ethereal musical.  


Kansas City Choir Boy official website

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Clifton's Cafeteria - Reborn!

I've been waiting impatiently for Clifton's Brookdale Cafeteria to reopen.  I loved the old cafeteria - it was such a unique slice of classic Los Angeles. It brought me back to childhood memories of eating in cafeterias in St Louis with my grandmother. And its kitschy woodlands theme made me think of Disneyland - especially when we ate there on Charles Phoenix's Downtown LA as Disneyland tour. No, the food wasn't anything special, but the desserts were good - and where else in LA could you get jello? It was fun to explore the multiple levels and look at the historical photos of that location and the other locations that had different themes.  

Andrew Meieran bought Clifton's in 2010, and he closed it for renovations in 2011. I was sad, yet excited to hear it was in the hands of the owners of the Edison. Then the waiting began. In 2011, I went to a Twin Peaks art show at Clifton's and in 2012,  I went to a Chinatown screening in Clifton's. These were soft openings but who knew that the real opening would still be 2 years away?? I was an event planner. I really wanted to host the company holiday party there, and I inquired every year. Of course, the year I leave my job, is the year that it finally reopens. Now that I've visited, I have to say I'm very impressed and it was worth the wait - however, it's not quite ready to host a company holiday party.  

I waited until Clifton's had been open for a month before I visited last night. We went on a Tuesday night @ 8pm.  I was pleased to see the first floor still maintains most of the original look, and the design throughout the place pays homage to the original Brookdale woodlands theme.  However, the new Clifton's has more of a Yosemite lodge meets Natural History Museum aesthetic than a Disneyland Country Bear Jamboree. It's kitschy yet taking itself a bit too seriously, like a hipster declaring, "I like Clifton's - and not just for ironic reasons!"

The first floor houses the cafeteria. There's a pastry/bakery counter right when you walk in, and some retro candies that you can pick up as you wait on line to get your tray. It was not crowded when we went, so we breezed right up to the trays and an attendant explained the cafeteria layout. There are food stations, rather than a continuous cafeteria line, and you can skip around and get what you like. We opted for fried chicken dinners. I was enchanted by the jello parfait and my boyfriend Dave got a chocolate mint cake.  We both got sodas from the Coca Cola Freestyle machine - a nice modern touch. Our meals totaled $37, which is certainly quite a bit higher than old Clifton's prices. I have to say the food was not up to that price point and, in fact, was worse than Hometown Buffet. The chicken was kind of dry although the breading was good. Stuffing and mashed potatoes were cold. The piece of bread was so stale I could have chipped a tooth on it.  The highlight was the jello (hard to mess that up) and the giant slab of mint chocolate cake, which was moist and delicious.  I was not expecting the food to be great, but was really disappointed that it was barely edible.  Clifton's definitely needs to step up its game here. After all, it was known as a cafeteria and it opens at 11am - people are going to come for food - not just fancy cocktails.  

We took our food upstairs to the second floor, and there were many tables that were littered with discarded trays and food. We found a clean table toward the back. Soon after we sat, someone came and cleared all the trays, but it seemed like things weren't running totally smoothly.  I imagine it's hard to figure out staffing for such a large venue, considering much of the space wasn't being used on a weeknight. Also on the second floor is the base of a giant tree that anchors an atrium that lets you look up to the third and fourth floors. This open design is really striking and cool.  The bar on the second floor has a creative drink list and three different souvenir mugs ($28 each, including the cocktail). I got the owl mug and it's really cool.  There are glass cases with a stuffed buffalo and a deer on this floor, and more dead animals on the third floor. I'm not real fond of this, but I think it works with the theme.  The presentation looks just like the Natural History Museum dioramas.  There's some comfy seating as well as tables.  There's a slide show behind the bar that shows vintage Clifton's photos. They also kept the tiny little chapel-type room. There are interesting things in all the nooks and crannies, and the place is worth exploring.

On the third floor, they have kept some original murals and there's a small stage. One side of the floor is just a seating area without much adornment. The other side of the floor houses the Gothic Bar which has a very striking altar to alcohol and a list of drinks with names liked Electric Sheep, Forrest J and the Two Rays. My boyfriend asked the waitress if the Two Rays were Bradbury and Harryhausen and she didn't know. She admitted the drink names had changed several times since the bar opened, so she knows the drinks but not the meanings of the names.  There's a meteorite on the bar. Bartenders were very friendly.  I had the Forrest J, a scotch cocktail that was really good. Dave had the Electric Sheep, a vodka drink featuring "vintage apple." 40s music played throughout the bars to set the mood.

We could see a bar on the fourth floor and were told that floor would be a tiki bar opening in a few weeks, and there will be a fourth bar in the basement that will have a speakeasy vibe.  

Clifton's is immense. It could well become a very successful multi-level nightlife space. I would certainly go back for dessert and drinks anytime, but I don't think I'll eat a meal there again until they address some of the problems with the food. I think in all the ambition around the design of the place, the basic ingredient - cafeteria food - got overlooked.  But if the place is going to be open at 11am everyday, then there's a significant lunch crowd that won't be coming back if the food isn't decent. I can appreciate that with a space so huge and plans so ambitious, it will take a little while to get all the kinks ironed out. I've been waiting for years and will gladly give them a little more time.  It's nice to see a piece of classic Los Angeles revered, revived and reinvented. And they kept the jello! 

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Concert Review: Duran Duran - Jimmy Kimmel Live

I love the opportunities that living in LA affords me - like seeing Duran Duran up close and personal! This was my second time going to a Jimmy Kimmel Live concert. The concerts take place on an outdoor stage behind the theater where the Kimmel show tapes.  The first time I went, I saw Spandau Ballet. It was an excellent show but had a much smaller crowd than today’s show and a shorter set.  

There were two ways to get tickets for the show. You could apply for free tickets through 1iota.com or you could make a $15 donation to cancer research through the Mastercard Priceless program and be guaranteed a spot. I figured the Mastercard ticket holders would be let in first, and I dislike cancer, so I donated the $15.  

We arrived at 4:00pm to get in line. There were about 40 people in line ahead of us.  We had to wait in the sun for about 90 minutes while listening to the band do their soundcheck behind the fence.  They let us in at 5:30pm and we got a spot in the 2nd row from the stage! We then watched the Kimmel show broadcast on a video screen as it was taping. At the end of the show, Jimmy Kimmel came out on stage to introduce Duran Duran. The band’s segment was being taped to air on a future show.  

The band kicked off the set with “Pressure Off”, the first single from the new album “Paper Gods.”  They looked and sounded great.  I’ve been a Duranie for 33 years, and I’ve seen them in concert probably 7 or 8 times but I’ve never been able to see them perform at such close range. Simon came right up to the barrier and sang to us several times. I could have easily collapsed like one of those preteen fans in the “Sing Blue Silver” documentary.  And why did I forget my fedora?  

They played two other songs from “Paper Gods”:  “Last Night in the City” and “You Kill Me With Silence.” Album producer Mr. Hudson joined the band on stage and played guitar for “You Kill Me With Silence.  We got to hear all the new songs twice and Simon made several false starts on “You Kill Me With Silence.” He apologized and said it was such a good song that he wanted to make sure he performed it perfectly. None of us in the crowd minded hearing the songs over again. We are now well-prepared to sing along at the Hollywood Bowl show later this week!

Simon asked us how long we had been waiting and if any of us were hungry before launching into “Hungry Like a Wolf.”  They played this one a second time too, to get it perfect for TV.  The crowd went wild when they played “Save a Prayer” and we all sang along, especially on the greatest pickup line of all time: “Some people call it a one night stand, but we can call it paradise.”  They also performed “Reach up for the Sunrise”, which isn’t my favorite, but I reached up anyway.  

The whole show lasted just over an hour, which is pretty awesome considering some of these Kimmel freebie concerts are only 3 or 4 songs.  The band seemed to be in great spirits. I think the new songs are really catchy and I’m glad to see the Duran boys back on top again!

Check out all my photos and videos from the show.

Ten Life Lessons I've Learned from Being a Die-Hard Duranie

Duran Duran concert review from 2005

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Top 10 Reasons Why I Don’t Care If Ghost Hunters Comes Back

If you’re a follower of Ghost Hunters, you’ve noticed they’ve been missing from the increasingly-crowded televised ghost-show lineup for a few reality-show seasons now. It seems like the longest hiatus the show has ever had. In fact, there didn’t seem a time when Ghost Hunters wasn’t on the air unless one of their spinoffs or associate shows were bookmarking their spot for the summer.

I was a very early adopter of GH in 2004 and watched all the episodes for the first few years. They were refreshingly professional seeming (aside from the comic relief of Brian Harnois). I bought their books and oogled their ghost hunting gadgets sold for a time on the Sci Fi channel website. I even watched and wrote about how Ghost Hunters International fell short of the original show. I was there during Brian Hornois’ dramatic departures, kerfuffles with Andy Andrews,  Steve Gonsalves’s fear of all sorts of shit, Dave Tango'a rise to prominence, (he’s my personal favorite for his level-headedness but I was also there when the cast exposed his naivete with pranks early on), Amy Bruni’s baby, Kris Williams’ quiet awesomeness that took a season or two to warm up to, Britt Griffith,  Adam Berry, K.J. McCormick, Donna LaCroix, Dustin Pari, (and his injudicious use of backwards hats), Joe Chin, Barry Fitzgerald in the UK episodes and many others who came and went over the years.

Somewhere around 2007 or 2008 I started falling asleep through episodes. Part of this was just being dog tired at the time. But part of it was because the shows were becoming repetitive. However, by that time my husband was hooked. He didn’t miss an episode come hell or high water, even catching one episode on Hulu in 2010 on a laptop the week we moved to New Mexico and didn’t have our TV. 

Then we dropped cable for a time in 2013 and GH wasn’t available anymore on Hulu. What was up with that? First GH was on Hulu; then it wasn’t. Looking back, I wonder if GH wasn’t starting to slip under the weight of its behind-the-scenes goings on. 

Now, the show is forever lingering as a promise on Sci Fi’swebsite. The lineup seems fractured and release dates for the reboot have come and gone. No one seems to want to pull the plug.

I, for one, can live without more Ghost Hunters episodes. And here is why:

1.       Redundancy.
It’s hard to tell the shows apart anymore. When we look back and reminisce, they all run together. Has the show been on too long?

2.       Disturbing Departures. 
When Grant, one of the show’s founders, left in 2014 the shocking and mostly unexplained departure betrayed probable hidden conflicts within the cast.

3.       Subset of Disturbing Departures: All the Cool Girls Leave.
There have been great guys on the show, but the girls have been exceptional. They never squealed and shivered at spooks. They were confident, brave and smart. So why are they gone?

4.       Subset 2 of Disturbing Departures, Many Iterations of Jay’s Kids and Dogs.
Jay has attempted to replace the girl-gap with a rotation of his daughters (and one dog).  For some reason although these daughters seem confident and smart, it just feels like we’re getting more Jayness and not more girliness.

5.      Subset 3 of Disturbing Departures, the Very First Departure, Brian Hornois.
Actually, I don’t know who left first, Brian or Donna. They both left in 2007. But Donna left without much fanfare. Brian’s departure was a plot point on the show. He was clearly a point of pain and it’s easy to see why his erratic and undependable behavior necessitated his release from the series. However, to his credit, Brain did inject some life into the show every time he failed to correctly coil up an extension cord. He seemed to serve as some kind of personality catalyst for the rest of the cast. Without him, the show deflated a bit. Which brings us to…

6.       The Personality Problem.
The current menagerie of ghost story, ghost hunting, and ghost psychic shows are full to the brim with personality. New shows have goofy, hyper lead investigators (Zak Bagans), quirky angles (a cop and a physic who prescribes chaos magicians) , psychics aiding celebrities, hillbilly ghost hunters. I’m not saying the gimmick is alright. I’m just saying GH has lost what few charismatic players they had. Jay and Grant were a duo with personality. Jay and Steve Gonsalves are not. Jay alone is not. In comparison to other shows, the cast now seems bland. Professional is good. Bland is not.

7.       Spin Off Failures.
Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunters Academy didn’t last although the academy did give us Adam Berry who was an interesting addition at first. Remember the inn in New England that Jay and Grant purchased? Can this be turned into a spin off?

8.       The Credibility Issue.
Some ghost shows rely on personality. Some shows rely on trumped-up scares. It’s a hard line to walk. Ghost Hunters once had a bit of comedy and personality (with some on-the-air dramas). It seemed at some point in the last five years GH was going for more scares and less science. Then they seem to pull back. The show has always seemed to struggle with what kind of show does it want to be. In any case, both science and show credibility have suffered.

9.       Paltry Evidence of Research.
That inn in New England reminds me of a question that has been bugging me for years: why doesn’t anyone invest in a clearly haunted house and study that on TV for a few years? Why aren’t any eccentric Richie Rich’s investing in ghost research? They’re investing in alien research. Why not ghosts? After ten years and multiple ghost shows, have we any decent proof to show for ourselves? Something we can take on a TED talk? In fairness, it’s not really possible to judge televised research. The very format is deceptive. But we all pretend here, right? “It’s a TV show” is my husband’s favorite mantra. TV prevents me from ultimately taking anything seriously. So I’m pretending disappointment here with the repetitive evidence we’ve managed to accumulate over the last decade. Because it’s a TV show, this particular viewer is getting bored with “compelling EVPs.”

10.   Jay.
At the end of day, we’re left with Jay. God love him for hanging in there, but he’s too stern to lead, he’s not causal enough to narrate, and he needs a charismatic co-host to counter-balance his solid-guy Jayness. He once had a role to play: be the hard guy. He’s like your friend’s dad who is too serious and hard-ass so you never go over and play at their house. He wasn’t flexible enough to morph into a welcoming, friendly host. I’m led to believe Jay might have a serious life, so he’s a serious guy. But real life characters and TV characters are too different things. Jay needs Grant’s lightness to offset his Jayness.

So it probably goes without saying we all miss Grant. But I miss Brian too and his honest dishonesties, his “Run, Dude, Runs!” I miss Donna and Kris. I even miss announcer Mike Rowe. I miss the days when the show seemed somewhat more of a team and less of a Jay-logarchy. Jay has his strengths, (he’s organized, passionate, and definitely an influencer), but carrying the show on his back ain’t one of em. The problem with this show is that I miss too much. I miss more than they can likely replace.

   

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A Night at the Jack FM 80's Flashback Prom

I got a second chance to to to prom, 24 years later, and it was way better than I dreamed. When I heard that Jack FM was hosting an 80s Flashback Prom with A Flock of Seagulls performing and Richard Blade DJing, and that the date coincided with my 6th anniversary weekend with my boyfriend Dave, I knew we had to be there.  But the only way in was being Caller 13, and I’ve never had luck with radio contests.  For 2 weeks I tried and failed. Once I got through, but I was Caller 2. Mostly I just got busy signals. My last ditch effort was entering online. I didn’t have much hope that would work, but I was thrilled to get a call on Tuesday that my online entry had been chosen. That only gave me a few days to find a dress and prepare for the Friday prom - paging Annie Potts!

I didn’t date in high school. I went to a tiny all-girls Catholic school with no brother school. We had proms, but I didn’t know any boys to ask, didn’t like getting dressed up, and several of my best friends weren’t going either. I didn’t give it much thought. I was a nerd and mainly obsessed with getting good grades to get into a good college. On prom night, I remember driving my grandma home from having dinner at our house. We passed an airport hotel and I pointed out to her that my prom was being held there that night. “Why aren’t you there?!” she asked, incredulous. “I don’t know. It’s not a big deal to me,” I said. She seemed quietly exasperated with me and, after I got back home, I heard her on the phone with my mom. My mom said I just didn’t seem to be interested in boys and was a late bloomer. It was odd that my grandma’s disappointment registered more with me than my peers’ opinions, as none of them had made a big deal out of my decision to skip prom. I wondered if I’d just made a big mistake. Over the years, I regretted not going whenever I would hear others’ prom stories, good or bad. I regretted missing out on the dating training that many got in high school.

Fast forward to the Flashback Prom! I felt lucky to be with Dave, who is always willing to dress up and go to any theme parties I plan or want to attend. He doesn’t really like to dance, but he was excited to be part of prom with me and committed to making it special. One trip to the mall helped us put our look together. 80s fashion is back in style, lucky for us. I found a fuschia and black lace dress at Torrid on clearance for $17. If I had more time, I'd have gone thrifting to look for a hoop dress, but this would suffice. Claire’s boutique, site of my semi-traumatic ear piercing in 1984, had the feather earrings and fingerless Madonna gloves I needed. The tuxedo shop didn’t have vintage tuxes but suggested the Miami Vice look. Dave found a white tux. Don Johnson was one of my earliest crushes (immortalized in my poem, Sestina for Sonny Crockett), so this idea seemed perfect.  A jaunt to Target completed our looks with an aqua tshirt and slip-on sneakers for him and glittery nail polish and blue eyeshadow for me.  I got my hair done big and curly (Thanks, Audrey!).  

On prom night, we drove over Coldwater Canyon to Sportsmens Lodge, and I admired the view of the valley and thought about how much I wanted to live in LA when I was a kid and how it still feels somewhat dreamlike to me that I live here, even 11 years later. Sportsmens Lodge was the location of Dave’s and my first Thanksgiving together in 2008 and it’s the kind of retro banquet hall I really like. We saw some kids at their actual prom in another ballroom as we walked to our party.  The ballroom was decorated with balloons and 80s wall appliques like Rubik’s Cubes and cassette tapes. Pretty in Pink, Coming to America and 80s music videos were playing on the screens and a DJ played 80s tunes.  Everyone was dressed up in 80s fashions and having a great time.  It was fun to be in a room full of people our age who look back on this era fondly.  Lots of ladies were looking at Dave, who looked very dashing in his white tux. I felt proud to be with him and he was a great date, making sure we got appetizers, drinks and danced a lot. When A Flock of Seagulls came on, he even pushed to the front to remove a couple of balloons that were placed in such a way that they blocked the lead singer’s face.  We had fun dancing to the band, close to the stage, as they went through all their hits from “Telecommunication” to “Space Age Love Song” to “I Ran.” Everyone sang along.  

After the band ended, Dave made sure I got a pic with the singer. Richard Blade did a DJ set and that was a thrill for me, as I remembered watching his syndicated afternoon video show Video One before we had MTV. He is a classic 80s icon and gave me my first exposure to many of the new wave bands that I still love today. I asked Richard if he could play “Save a Prayer” or something slow.  He said, “Beautiful choice.”  But as the evening wore on, he only played fast songs. We danced all night anyway and had an awesome time.  Finally, it was the last song - and it was a slow dance - the best possible choice of song “True.”  This has been our song since we danced to it when we saw Tony Hadley perform a free concert on Fremont St in Downtown Vegas (see review and videos from that show). When we danced to “True” together, and it was in the high 90s on a Vegas summer night, we were surrounded by drunk and high people, the homeless and various downtown Vegas oddities. Picture dancing in the middle of the Star Wars cantina. Yet, I felt like it was just me and Dave, being serenaded by the classy Tony Hadley.  So true...funny how it seems...and that is how I felt again at this prom, although there were lots of other couples in tight embraces on the dancefloor. It didn’t surprise me afterward that Dave had requested that Richard play the song - after Richard had not been able to fulfill his request to play the somewhat less romantic “Ghostbusters.”  (Hmm..prioritizing "Ghostbusters" over "True"...we do still have some issues to work on ;)

Afterward, we went to Mel’s Diner, for the traditional post-prom late night breakfast.  We played some more good tunes on the jukebox. I felt so glad to finally have a prom night with the man I love, not just a random date - a man who goes outside his comfort zone and shares my zest for life and sense of humor. Together we find joy in so many things around us and support each other through the down times. After 6 years, he is still the one I want by my side for all my future adventures. I know this much is true.

See more of our prom pics here.

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Concert Review: Festival Supreme

Jack Black and Kyle Gass planned Festival Supreme to be a "Coachella of Comedy" and if you gauge the comparison based on number of hipsters in ironic tshirts, overcrowding, and long lines, they succeeded. The Santa Monica Pier doesn't really work as well as a setting as the polo field in Indio does.  There was a lot of crowding and too much standing required, but overall, I'd say, as at Coachella, the lineup was worth the suffering. It was a quite a collection of titans of comedy.

I arrived around 2:15pm and saw the queue was snaking up the pier and around the block that houses The Lobster restaurant. The festival was starting at 2:30pm. There were no staff or volunteers managing the queue, so I inadvertently jumped part of the line and avoided having to wrap around The Lobster. There had seemed to be 2 separate lines, and I thought both were leading to a merge.  This meant I got into the venue in 30 minutes, whereas some others waited about an hour and missed the opening acts.  I heard some people say they had circled The Lobster twice because the queue process was so disorganized. Nobody was laughing at this point.

Once inside, I caught some of Garfunkel and Oates set on Omega Stage - the biggest of the 3 stages. The sound kept cutting in and out on them. They kept a good attitude and sang one song off-mike to those in front. Jack Black came on stage to help out and the sound came back. They were given a few extra minutes to finish. I hadn't seen them before and got a big kick out of their catchy tunes like "The Loophole" and "The College Try."  After their set, I went over to Club Intimacy to watch The Abe Lincoln Story.  Their set was fun but not too memorable. I was excited to see them because they feature The Millionaire from Combustible Edison on guitar, but they don't have that same loungey, quirky vibe.  My favorite song they did was "Get High and Go to Work."  

Next, I went to The Mighty Tent for Eric Idle.  The tent was packed for Eric's set and the food vendor row was very close to the margin of this tent, so it caused a bit of a cluster with the food vendor and bar lines merging into the tent crowd.  Jack Black came out to introduce Eric, but Billy Idol came out instead! The crowd went wild, as Billy broke into the Lumberjack song.  Some silly banter ensued between Eric and Billy about which Idol or Idle was actually supposed to perform, and Billy eventually ceded the stage to Eric and his bandmate Jeff Davis.  They ran through an entertaining set that included many classics like "The Penis Song" and "Drunken Philosophers." They also brought Billy back onstage to join in for "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". 

I went over to Omega Stage for Fred Armisen. He was performing as Ian Rubbish, wearing a Rod Stewart-ish wig and acting like a British punk rocker, fronting a band that included Leigh Gorman from Bow Wow Wow on bass, Steve Jones of Sex Pistols on guitar, and Clem Burke from Blondie on drums.  Unfortunately, the music wasn't as cool as the lineup.  It felt sort of like failed performance art. 

At this point, my feet were hurting from standing for 3 hours.  There were a few picnic tables that were full, and no other seating options other than the hard pier - unless you had VIP tickets which granted access to Rusty's Surf Ranch.  I went over to Bubba Gump's to sit at the bar, have a drink and catch some of the USC vs ND game.  I then headed back into the festival, intent on seeing Patton Oswalt in Club Intimacy. There was a human traffic jam in the narrow passageway that went alongside The Mighty Tent and led to Club Intimacy. Inexplicably, there was a large booth for LA Weekly in the middle of the narrow passageway, and this was also the only way to get to the bathrooms (if you didn't have access to the VIP bathrooms).  People were using the narrow gap between the LA Weekly booth and the wall to try to get through, squeezing as if in a cave. It was like a soccer riot in the making. Eventually I got to the front of the passageway, only to be told that Club Intimacy was full. I was bummed I couldn't see Patton, plus I then had to push my way back through the crowd. There were no staff at the start of the jam to let people know they wouldn't be able to get into the tent.  I watched Princess on Omega Stage - Maya Rudolph's Prince tribute band.  Like Fred's act, these musical acts were funny for a song but not for an entire 20-30 minute set.  I did enjoy their version of "Darling Nikki" complete with backward vocals. 

I decided to try my luck at getting into Club Intimacy and endured the tunnel of crush again. Again, the staff said the tent was full, but this time I ignored them and waited. Once we were allowed past the walkway entrance, the tent wasn't full at all. I wondered if that had been the case during Patton's set too.  I watched Hannibal Burress who was pretty funny. After all the musical acts, it was a treat to see some good old fashioned stand up.  Then Tig Notaro came out and she killed it.  I love her deadpan style.  I have been a fan since I heard her Taylor Dayne story on This American Life. I headed back to try to watch some of Zach Galifanakis only to hear him wrap up at 7:10pm. He was supposed to start at 7:00pm so, unless he started early, he only did 10 minutes. This was a disappointment to the packed crowd in The Mighty Tent.  

My feet were again killing me, and I wanted to watch the end of the football game, so I went back over to Bubba Gump's, only to discover they had removed the bar stools, probably because it was so crowded. I walked all the way to the end of the pier to Marisol but they didn't have the game on in the bar, only for table service.  Dejectedly, I went back to Bubba's and propped myself up on the bar to watch the last few minutes of the ND victory.  I then successfully pushed my way back to Club Intimacy for Sarah Silverman, who did a very funny 20 minutes of stand-up.  I'm told I missed a very funny set by Triumph, with cameos from Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman, and more.  I also missed Adam Sandler.  I saw a little bit of Mr. Show Experience - the funniest part was Brian Posehn and Scott Ian of Anthrax as fake metal band Titannica. 

Now almost 7 hours into the event, I got a burger and a beer and tried to ignore my exhaustion to get fired up for Tenacious D. They did not disappoint with a set that featured a giant squid and a giant Metal god.  They also brought out Andy Samberg's band Lonely Island for a great medley of tunes such as "Diaper Money" and "I'm on a Boat."  The D did songs off their most recent album such as "Roadie" and "Death Starr." They also did classics like "The Metal" and "Tribute."  I left toward the end of their set to avoid being in another crush that I was sure would ensue at the end.

Event planning is hard - I know, because I do it for work, although not on this grand scale.  I think if they do this again, they either need a larger venue or to sell less tickets. They need more staff and volunteers to manage the crowd and the entrance queue.  I also think there should be at least one stage with seating.  It feels kind of unnatural to watch stand-up while standing, and standing for so long wears on you if you're not dancing. Some of the layout problems such as the narrow path to bathrooms and Club Intimacy and the proximity of the food vendor lines to the tent crowds can be rectified if they have more space. LA State Historic Park downtown would be a good option.  I think this was a very cool festival with an amazing comedy lineup, so I hope they do bring it back.  Thanks for the laughs, Kyle and Jack! 

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