HMS Bounty - Los Angeles Restaurant and Bar

Three of us ventured to the HMS Bounty last night - inspired by a cool website called Los Angeles Time Machines, we are planning on making excursions to some of the historic restaurants and bars listed at that site, especially the ones we haven't ever been to. This was my first visit to the HMS Bounty - originally called "The Gay Room" when it opened. It is on Wilshire in Koreatown directly across the street from the former Ambassador Hotel where the Cocoanut Grove was located (the ruins of this hotel are still - barely - there; as of this writing you can still see a few letters from the word "Ambassador" on the side of a piece of the building still standing). The HMS Bounty is a dark, old-fashioned looking restaurant decorated with a nautical theme - faux portholes and paintings of ships on the wall. The long wood bar is backed by strings of red, white, and green lights, a ship inside glass and other decorations. Referred to by some as a "dive" this place seemed pretty nice to me, with a good vibe. We sat in one of the comfortable red booths for dinner and all had the "Famous Baseball Steak", medium rare, which was really juicy and tasty and came served with some yummy mashed potatoes au jus and broccoli. Later we sat at the bar - a friendly spot with lots of regulars - for a few low-priced stiff cocktails. The HMS Bounty is a neat, historic place - with good food to boot. By the way, it is attached to the historic Gaylord Apartments (once a hotel) - you have to walk through the lobby of the apartment building to get to the restrooms. There are a few display cases off the lobby with historical memorabilia inside, menus, vintage movie star items, even an open hotel registry book from the 1920s. I would like to go to as many historic restaurants in L.A. as I can before they end up shutting down - a restaurant called Monty's in Pasadena, quite local for me, sadly shut it's doors before I had a chance to get there. I just dread the day when a place such as, for example, Musso and Frank's in Hollywood closes down and is replaced by a Cheesecake Factory!

Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremonies - the Good. NBC Coverage - the Bad.

THE GOOD - Last night was the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics - I have seen probably every Olympics Opening Ceremony since I was a kid in the late 60s/early 70s and they seem to get more lavish every time - all I can say about China's ceremony last night is WOW - - it was stunningly spectacular, in a brand new amazing arena they call "The Bird's Nest". Two-thousand and eight performers creating this gigantic perfect set of moving circles, not to mention the entertaining opening where over two-thousand fast-paced drummers performed on lit drums in amazing synchronization - must have been a lot of practice to get the precision so perfectly in time. The ceremony included so much more including a full audience all waving different colored lights (looked real pretty), lots of brightly colored Chinese costumes, a huge LCD screen on the floor of the arena, and greenish-lit men creating Busby Berkeley style images on the arena floor while just one young girl floated high above - photographed from above they were just beginning to show some formations when NBC cut in the middle of it to go to a commercial - and that leads me to:

THE BAD. NBC's coverage was pretty horrible - really shameful. Not "Live", yet still cut! Couldn't they show the ceremony live in the morning for those who have the opportunity to see it at the Live time? (or if they just won't - what about pay-per-view coverage with no commercials and optional commentary?). Since NBC had it on tape - why not just insert the commercials into the tape without removing any of the ceremony. It's like they taped it as if it were being broadcast LIVE and - okay, what seemed like about every five to seven minutes of show they cut away to more commercials. When they came back from the commercials, the ceremony was "in progress" - so the viewer never gets to see what was shown during the ads. Oh brother.

The Parade of Nations marching in took about two hours, but was still entertaining - the whole march-in area surrounded by cute Chinese "cheerleaders" in matching red sashed, white mini-dresses and go-go boots as they danced and clapped alongside all the athletes as they went by (yes, the girls appeared to be getting pretty tired as this moved into the later parts of the parade). One more note: since the Chinese have no alphabet the order that the nations walked in wasn't alphabetical but based on the number of strokes in the Chinese character, the NBC announcers said not to worry - if you need to know the next three nations to come into the arena just look at their graphic at the bottom of the screen. Um, dumb NBC - orange-ish writing on almost the exact same shade of orange - or was it just my TV? This was impossible to read, even with my face right up to the screen! I did enjoy watching this ceremony a lot, it was an amazing spectacle put on by China - I just wish NBC would treat a large international event like this with a lot more respect to the viewer by giving us a whole lot better coverage than they did.

I Don't Like Earthquakes!

Well, yesterday there was an earthquake at about 11:42 am - it shook fairly hard, and went on fairly long - I was really shaking - not just during it, but quite a few minutes after! They are calling the quake, centered in Chino Hills, a 5.4. Anyway, scary stuff - but I must say this one, though the biggest I've felt in years, was in no way even remotely comparable to the terror of the two "Big" Earthquakes I have been through - probably the two scariest events of my life. In the 1971 Sylmar earthquake we lived in Northridge, I was ten years old, and I was pretty traumatized for awhile after that. During the quake I just lay there in my bed as it shook - in shock, I guess. But for days, weeks, even a few months after I was scared to go upstairs in our house - every time I did it seemed like there was an aftershock. We didn't have electricity or water for what seems like at least a week, in my memory anyway - good part though - no school for a couple of weeks, and we did get to go to restaurants for all our meals for several days (all I can remember is going to the "Copper Penny" coffee shop again and again). The 1994 Northridge earthquake was very, very scary too. I lived in Agoura and - though they tell you to go under a doorway during an earthquake (today the news is saying that is a myth - go under a table) I just sat up in my bed during the quake, screamed (I think) and watched the TV set at the end of the bed lift up and down off the table. Wooo - just thinking about all this makes me shake!!

Big Brother 10 Begins

Well, Big Brother has become my most favorite of the reality shows in recent years - I have seen close to every episode of every season. So, season 10 started Sunday night and they have decided to eliminate the secret couples, hidden twins, and long-lost family members from the mix of this season's contestants - for the first time since something like season three, they said, no one in the house knew each other prior to entering the house (okay, we'll see if they stick with that the whole season). The thirteen contestants were described as something like "a mix of races, occupations, and ages from around the country", but to me it seems like close to their usual mix of mainly white twenty-something actor/actress wannabees that are from some southern state but currently live in L.A. and stereotyped characters (yeah, there's a "gay rodeo cowboy" and a black "son of a preacher"). Well yes, there is a seventy-five year old man this time (the oldest contestant ever on a reality show, they said, and I believe that's true), and there is a Korean gal and a Portuguese gal (described as an "East Coast firecracker" on the CBS website - the stereotypes continue).

The first night's episode didn't feature anything particularly that stands out in my mind with the exception of first: instead of *competing* for the first head-of-household title, they had the contestants choose the HOH on the steps outside the house before they entered - before anyone had even spoken to each other. I thought it was pretty obvious that the oldest man, Jerry, who looks very grandfatherly, would win HOH, and he did. Second: a longish-haired blonde named April announced at one point, as the whole group sat on the couches talking, that her breasts were "real" and as nearby obviously breast-enhanced chicks such as Korean Angie gasped in shock, April went around letting different men touch them to confirm them to be real. When she got to old Jerry at his spot on the couch, she prompted him to participate too - which he did (then he said something to the camera in the diary room like "they're real - as real as real can be", hmmm isn't that so similar to the line spouted recently by the Bachelorette's Jesse as he was falling for Deanna and described his growing passion as "it's real - as real as real can get"). The first two nominated by Jerry for elimination are loud and obnoxious fifty-something Renny and a young man who she got in a fight with thus disrupting the household and leading to said nomination, a 22-year old bodybuilder and jerk named Jessie. I guess I have to root it out for the one older gal on the show to stay in the house for awhile, so I would like to see Jessie eliminated first. I am, so far (some of the contestants didn't get very much air play, so hard to say at this point), rooting for old Jerry to win - he seems kindly and very sharp - a good mix to get him far, I hope.

Fireworks - L.A. Fourth of July

Okay, the other day was the Fourth of July - - now when I was a kid, the Fourth of July meant going to our local park, having a picnic on a blanket in a park completely filled to the brim with picnickers, then watching fireworks when it got dark. We normally went to Northridge Park, the closest park to our house - but in the 70s my dad started taking us to Granada Hills Park because the festivities included, in addition to the picnic on a blanket and sack races and fireworks, the "Miss Granada Hills" beauty pageant (held outdoors amongst the picnicking families with stage and ramp). We were all for this - and the park got a massive crowd! In those days you rarely saw people setting off their own, practically professional quality (where do people get these?) illegal fireworks, but lately - boy, this year the area where I live in L.A. seemed almost like a war zone with the massive amounts of fireworks, firecrackers, smoke, and boom, boom, kabooms that went late into the night - at least until two in the morning. It makes me a bit nervous, what with all the dry brush around here - from the roof of our house you can see fireworks going in a complete circle around us, we can even see both Dodger stadium and Rose Bowl fireworks when they are having them. This year we went to a barbecue where we sat in relative's steamy backyard covered bar area in 100 degree heat and had your typical fare of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, beer, wine, ice cream cones, and heavy drinkers - oh boy!

Rachael Ray's Cobb Salad Turkey Burgers

Lately I have been liking to watch some of the Rachael Ray Show in the morning, her daytime talk and cooking show. For dinner last night I made one of her recipes - the Cobb Salad Turkey Burger with Oven Fries. The fries were extremely easy to make, basically just some olive oil and spice blend mixed over potato wedges and baked. Came out really tasty too. The burger was easy too, but had a lot more steps, chopping, and the like. Also, there are several different things that must be prepared and then the whole burger, which is served on an English muffin, assembled in order at the end. Yum yum yum - this was SO good, loved it. Mind you, I must mention, even though this is a "turkey" burger this is far from a "health recipe" and seemed to be laden with calories - - I was absolutely stuffed after this, what with the burger (which I made with a bit less meat than the recipe called for), two slices of bacon, the blue cheese sauce on top, guacamole, and, oh yes, some sliced hard-boiled egg. Really good taste, a very nice dinner that hit the spot. Here's a link to Rachael's recipe: http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/cobb-turkey-burgers-oven-fries/

Wicked - Pantages Theater in Hollywood

Last night I saw Wicked at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. It ended up being real good - a really lavish production, I must say. The costumes were spectacular, the story a clever spin on "The Wizard of Oz", the vocals excellent, and most of the songs were pretty good. The way this was staged was really quite amazing - I loved the big show-stopper number right before the intermission where they sing "Defying Gravity" and the "Wicked Witch" rises up into the air and appears to really gravitate via the lighting that is done for this number. Neat gigantic bat creature floating overhead, a booming-voiced mechanical "Wizard" that comes rolling out onto the stage, the lighting up of the Emerald City all in green lights - very cool, and love those winged monkeys. One of the best shows I've seen at the Pantages in a number of years. And hey - Jo Anne Worley, well remembered by me from those days when I used to watch Laugh-In every week when it was originally on (yes, I was a mere tot then) - was in this production. I used to go to this theater a lot back in the 70s and 80s when my dad would get season tickets - the sound system is WAY better now, and luckily the absolutely gorgeous art deco interior, original from the 1930s, is still intact (love the deco mirrored powder room in the left-lobby ladies room) - bravo.

Three Starring Robert Montgomery - Movie Reviews

For Robert Montgomery's birthday last week, Turner Classic Movies featured a day of his films. Robert Montgomery has become one of my most favorite 30s/40s actors in the past year, and he's a real adorable heartthrob too (I must say) - - watch out when he's dressed in white tie and tails (wooo) - - I seek out seeing more and more of his films. On this day I watched three (ended up I had seen the first one before, but well worth watching again). Here's my plot summaries and reviews for these films:
First up, was Another Language (1933) - Pre-code sitting room melodrama - Arriving on the French Line is just eloped couple, mama's boy Victor (Robert Montgomery) and new bride Stella (Helen Hayes), who is introduced to her new hubby's family for the first time. This close-knit family are very gossipy and judgmental and pronounce Victor "henpecked" as they just don't seem to approve of anything Stella does. Jump to three years later where conflict is rampant - seems every Tuesday is family dinner night at Victor's mother's house (she was never very happy about the elopement OR her new daughter-in-law) and Stella regularly makes excuses not to go - - and mama manages to get sick every-time Victor and Stella want to go on a trip. Victor is no prize of a husband either as he sides with his family against his wife every single time. Stella finally makes an appearance at a family dinner where she meets young and handsome Jerry, Victor's nephew. Jerry finds he has lots in common with put-upon Stella and quickly falls in love with her. Stella is kind to him and enjoys talking to him, as he seems like the only true friend she really has. Troubles ensue. This is a really excellent film - it features a very intriguing story, is well acted and believable. 9/10


Next, watched Lovers Couragous (1932) - Well done melodrama starring Robert Montgomery as Willie Smith, a young Englishman with a wanderlust who travels about the world running through a string of different jobs - hotel boy to cowboy to finally ending up in South Africa where he's busy working as a tobacconist's assistant. Soon a beautiful young lady enters the shop, Mary Blayne (Madge Evans), the daughter of an admiral and engaged to marry an English Lord. Crazy about each other, they secretly meet - but when Mary's rich daddy finds out, Mary is shipped back home to England to get married. The Lord is a much older, rather pompous old guy mainly interested in hunting and hounds, you know the sort. But Willie is soon back in England himself - in pursuit of his real dream, that of becoming a Playwright. Possible SPOILER: The night before her marriage to the Lord, Mary finds out he's back and runs away to marry him. Now the story becomes a tale of a poor starving couple struggling to make ends meet while he is writing and attempting to sell one of his plays. Troubles ensue for these two. Quite entertaining - the star power is working in this one with a nice chemistry between the two leads; good script too. 8/10


The third film was not as good as the first two -- Live, Love and Learn (1937) - Romantic comedy about struggling artist Bob Graham (Montgomery) who marries Julie (Rosalind Russell) the society gal who is used to the good things in life, then brings her to live in his shabby one-room flat - and she don't mind a bit! Privacy is an issue for them as Bob has a drunken roommate (Robert Benchley) who sleeps on his couch, plus the walk-in-without-knocking landlady's boy (Mickey Rooney in only ONE brief scene - shucks). Julie sees everything as great and even is happy to encourage hubby to turn down a $2,000 check from her rich uncle. Sudden success for Bob the artist and he immediately starts spending his new found money including a huge, stylish new luxury penthouse for them to live in - and wifey is just *not* happy as she believes he has sold himself out to the idle rich as he paints rich people's portraits and ignores his roots. With lots of star power in this film - Montgomery, Russell, Benchley, and even old reliable Monty Woolley as a man who owns a gallery and wants to exhibit the paintings of his new discovery - you would think the film would be better than it is, the problem is simply a poor script. I found this film a bit dull and tedious, the plot somewhat implausible, and absolutely no romantic chemistry between the two leads - it was always hard to ever believe them as a happy couple (easier when they are not so happy). So so, best for Montgomery and Rosalind Russell fans only. 6/10

Popcorn Night

I love popcorn, plain and simple. I normally prepare my popcorn simply popped in a little vegetable oil, poured into a big bowl, then lightly salted (or I try to go light on the salt, anyway) - no butter, for health reasons. I recently acquired a red Whirley-Pop popcorn popper and I'm loving it! Makes good popcorn, no burnt or unpopped kernels either - I like that. Now, it came with four packs of "Real Theater Popcorn" (with, quote, "Secret Ingredients Used By Movie Theaters!") which makes the perfect amount of popcorn to fill the popper to the top and tastes just like the yummy buttered popcorn you get at the movies - real good. I sometimes go on a popcorn kick and crave having a big bowl of popcorn every day (usually to eat while I'm watching a movie or show) - I'm on a kick like that right now, thus this blog entry. After several weeks it normally fades away and I sometimes go months without popcorn. Okay, nostalgia time - when I was a kid all those years ago, Wednesday night was popcorn night at our house. My dad would pop up a big bowl, then we would sit on the couch in front of Laugh-In or one of those shows (gee, what *was* on on Wednesday night in the late 60s?) - my sister would sit on one side of him, me on the other - we would each reach our hand into the bowl at the same time so we got the same amount of handfuls of popcorn (yeah, you know how kids are!). Good times!

The Lovers, 1958 - A Film Review

Yesterday I enjoyed watching a Netflix rental, the 1958 film "The Lovers" (Les Amants)". My review:
French language film about love and loneliness, expertly directed by Louis Malle. Here's a short summary of the plot: Jeanne (played by Jeanne Moreau) lives in a very lovely house in the French wine country outside Dijon - she has a young daughter, loyal servants, and a well-to-do husband of eight years, a newspaper publisher who is way more interested in his job and listening to Brahms records than being with his wife. Lonely and bored, Jeanne spends lots of weekends in Paris with her best gal pal Maggy - and those weekends get to be more and more frequent as beautiful Jeanne has fallen for a magnificently tall, dark, and handsome (Maggy knows 30 women who would do anything to have him) polo player who is madly in love with Jeanne. The husband begins to get jealous and oddly insists she cut her latest trip to Paris short and invite Maggy and the polo player to come back and stay with them for a few days. But when Jeanne's car breaks down on the way back home, she gets a ride with an attractive male stranger who is then asked by the hubby to join the group for dinner and stay overnight. Now we've got dinner and conversation round the table with hubby, wife, Maggy, the polo player, and the stranger and - Possible SPOILER - the whole situation becomes a sort of farce in Jeanne's eyes - until a night of passion leads to a complete life change (and I won't go into the details of this as it's too much of a SPOILER).
This film is very passionate, with almost a third of the film devoted to the love scenes between Jeanne and her lover, with an amount of in bed (and bath and boat) love-making and a touch of nudity that, though seemingly tame now, is surprising for a film made in the fifties. The film is interestingly photographed in black-and-white, and the plot, though slow moving, completely held me captivated - I really became interested in this woman's story. Jeanne's voice is sometimes heard as voice-over narration, telling her thoughts in third-person, like reading a storybook. An excellent film all around. 10/10

Survivor Fans vs. Favorites Finale

Well, another Survivor has ended - this one was a very entertaining one, what with all the trickery and dumb plays (like not playing the immunity idol when you've got it, then finding yourself voted off, and right after a different player did the same thing - um!). Since all my faves - Yau-Man, James, and of course, Ozzy, were already voted off by the finale, I was pretty much pulling for Cirie since she did such a fine job of pretty much manipulating the entire game throughout the season, I thought. I can't say I was real pleased when Amanda and Parvati made the final two (gosh, I was pulling for Cirie in that last agonizing immunity challenge) . So between those two, I really thought that Amanda would win Survivor hands down (though I personally didn't care who got the win between the two of them) - quite a surprise, I must say, when Parvati ended up winning. Okay, yes poor Erik made the dumbest move ever in Survivor history (so far anyway!) and I've seen them all. I was just, like, "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it" when Probst was asking if he wanted to give his immunity necklace up to another player - then he does it and gives it to - of all people - the evil queen Natalie. One last thing - - I thought Amanda and Parvati were close to unrecognizable when they appeared on the final reunion hour - so much make-up! To me, both of them looked much cuter when they were on the island with their hair just hanging or tied back, and no make-up, but maybe that's just me.

Frankie Month

It's Frank Sinatra month on Turner Classic Movies and ya know I love Frankie, so I'm going to try and watch as many movies as I have time to fit in. Last week I watched Higher and Higher (1943), an early Sinatra film that I used to watch fairly regularly, but haven't seen in a number of years.

Here's my plot summary and review: - - romantic comedy/musical about a household of servants who love to break out in song as they work understairs to serve a man named Drake who is about to have his New York mansion foreclosed because of debt. So - the staff (unpaid for the last 7 months, but still willing to work for this guy, by the way) joins forces to form a "corporation" to try and get money to save the property - their method is to have the attractive scullery maid (Michele Morgan) try to hook a wealthy man to marry by posing as Drake's deputante daughter, just back from Switzerland (which I guess explains her accent). She's pretty inept at playing up the deputante - she just seems to love being a maid too much, it seems, as she keeps getting caught dusting things and washing the front steps - stuff like that. A man is found quickly for her - one Sir Victor Fitzroy Victor - problem is, she's madly in love with the household valet (Jack Haley) who seems oblivious to her passion despite her constant not-so-subtle mooning around and gazing into his eyes, etc. So how does Frankie fit into all this, you may ask - well, he plays himself as a neighbor (and *what* a nice neighbor to have - ooh la la!) who lives in the next-door house and has befriended the scullery maid by waving at each other from opposite windows.

Okay, so this film is fun, light entertainment boosted up to the hilt by a very young and handsome Sinatra crooning his heart out throughout the film (according to my dad, as my Aunt Billie used to say in the day "When Frankie sings, *all* the girls swoon!"). Most of the songs are not super catchy, but with star turns by the likes of Sinatra, not to mention Jack Haley, Dooley Wilson, and a really young "Velvet Fog", Mel Torme, everything is very enjoyable to watch. One number that I've always remembered to this day is when the teenybopper maid (Marcy McGuire) sings "I Saw You First" with Sinatra ("Ooh Frankie"). A silly, but quite a fun romp. rating: 7/10

Startin' Up

Okay - I have been wanting to start my own blog, but what to write about - what to call it? I want my blog to be a sort of personal diary talking about this and that, what I'm doing, thinking, etc. Well, my biggest hobbies are this - I love to "Eat", cook, try new recipes, host parties and entertain - I even collect cookbooks. I also love to "Play" - I like to play games online, on my Playstation, play board games - you get the idea. But most of all - I love to "Watch". I'm mainly talking movies, movies, and more movies - I love films from all eras from the silent days to now. A huge movie buff I am - so, naturally, it's what I think about and write about the most. I watch a few TV shows too, mainly of the reality show variety, or retro TV (you know, of the "I Love Lucy", "Leave it to Beaver" sort of thing). So - I'm calling my blog "Eat, Play, Watch". And so it begins.