Oh, Lord....Minnie's at the Hotel Cafe again.

Just found out Minnie Driver's playing the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood Saturday night. It'll be my 3rd concert of hers since August 2007 - the last one being in April. Going to see Minnie perform for the 3rd time in less than a year is like seeing her for the first time - always a pleasure.

Read more!

I love Minnie Driver! And I MET HER! AHHHHHHHH!

(Above - Minnie. Not Hotel Cafe)

And this time, she looked at me twice from stage tonite. And I MET HER!

I know - I sound like a little girl. (sigh) Ohhhh...Minnie. "Oh, Minnie you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind - hey Minnie!" That was stupid. Anyway, I saw Minnie Driver tonite/Saturday (again) at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood (again). Blogged about here in August and she kicked off my Women Celebrities I Love feature.

This time, I was alone (again) 'cause no one could go (I only found out she was playing a week ago), but THIS TIME I got there early enough to get a table about 15 yards from the stage. Whoooo! She looked gorgeous - very motherly (she's pregnant). Gorgeous, barefoot (really) and pregnant and God dammit she sounded wonderful.

When I saw her last (August) I stood in the back and I hadn't heard her CD yet. I purchased Sea Stories the next day so every song she sang tonite (plus some I hadn't heard before) I knew like the back of my hand. She has excellent stage presence (she is an actress on F/X's The Riches) and she sounds EXACTLY like she sounds on her CD. LIVE + Minnie = A+. I treasure that quality in a performer. Even the best don't always have that feather in their cap.

I shared a table with two girls from Germany and three other guys who live here in LA (but none of them are from LA - Georgia, NY and London). So, after the show Minnie comes out into the audience to greet friends and the guys from NY and London go get their picture taken with her. I had my camera with me - but I opted not to do the picture thang...for my own reasons. Instead, I grabbed her arm and said to her, "Your music moves me" (which it does - seriously...she's one of the two best female voices I've heard in over a decade) and then I said, "Good luck to you" and I walked off. She was very gracious which made me love her even more and I wanted to kiss her but I didn't want to go to jail.

Go to her myspace site and sample her stuff - please. You HAVE to listen to "Beloved" and "Stars and Satellites" (my two favorites). Both are from Sea Stories (album) and there's also her other album, Everything I've Got in My Pocket. When I hear her sing I wanna just reach into the speakers and pull her through them and set her in front of me. Soulful shit - and she writes her own stuff. Oh - she did a Marley cover and also the song "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks which kicked ASS (at first none of our group could figure out who originally did that song but then I guessed it before Driver announced it on stage - yeahhhhh for me!). Man, I hadn't heard the song since I was a kid.

The guys said they'd email the pictures they took of Minnie - I'll post them when I get'em. I did manage to snap this shot of her Audi in the parking garage though. At least that's what some people told me (I covered up the license plate for her sake).

I'm depressed. I want more Minnie. Now every time I hear "Waterloo Sunset" I'm gonna think of her...

P.S. I met Jonathan Silverman in the alley (Weekend at Bernie's). I told him I knew it was "you" but that I couldn't remember his name. Swift move, Jeff. Bet Johnny liked that one.

P.S.S. She lives in Malibu (Malibu sticker on windshield). Jason - she surfs.

Read more!

A Walk in Culver City

For the last year or so, I've been walking 15 miles a week. Pretty faithfully, I might add. One big circle around Culver City, California. 4.8 miles. I round up. And I've always wanted to document my walk with photographs. It was a perfect day today - it had rained the night before so the air was clear, no smog and everything just felt CLEAN.

So...let's go for a walk.

I've seen these muscle builders at the community center before. This is part of a regional qualifying competition. I didn't ask a lot of questions - just took the shot and got outta of there. It's prit-ty intense - those bodybuilding competitions.

I've been in Culver City now for - it'll be two years in April. Here's a quick history of the city.

Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a significant center for motion picture and later television production, in part because it was the home of MGM Studios. It also was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company from 1932 to 1985. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment now have headquarters in the city.

Culver City was founded by Harry Culver in 1913, and the city was incorporated on September 20, 1917. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918. In the 1920s, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) built studios there. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard.

Home to Sony Pictures Studios (originally MGM Studios), Culver Studios, and the former Hal Roach Studios, hundreds of movies have been produced on the lots of Culver City's studios, including The Wizard of Oz, The Thin Man, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Rebecca, the Tarzan series, and the original King Kong. In fact, the Yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz is still inside the lot on Stage 27 of Sony Studios. More recent films made in Culver City include Grease, Raging Bull, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, City Slickers, Air Force One, Wag the Dog, and Contact. Television shows made on Culver City sets have included Las Vegas, Mad About You, Lassie, Batman, Arrested Development, The Andy Griffith Show, and Jeopardy!.

A girl I dated works at Sony - I've GOT to get a picture of the Yellow brick road!

Local movie theater.

This guy's on one of the lot buildings at Sony. He's got three arms - not sure what his story is.

This is Lincoln Street. And it's the prettiest road in Culver City and my favorite part of the walk.

'Tis o'bit a Ireland on Lincoln Street. I've never seen anyone walking about outside this place. Always wanted to ask them if the owners were Irish.

Birds of Paradise. I trimmed a few of these on "idiot's" property in Bel Air. They make great floral arrangements in the house but they can be messy as they have a tendency to drip.

The LA river basin.

And why not a little culture while walking? National Public Radio's West Coast HDQ is here - I listen to NPR daily. KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic gives me my much-needed dose of new, hip adult indie music that I don't get anymore from Top 40.

I have a mile and a half or so to go yet on my walk, but I veered off to get a haircut down the road. So we're done. This is a shitty way to end my walk, I know. But all good things must come to an end. Maybe it'll serve as a wake-up call. I despise graffiti. I think anyone caught tagging should get an automatic 5-year jail term. A bit much? I don't think so. Can you honestly tell me that if these gang bastards for once thought that spraying property would land them in jail for that long instead of a getting a fine and a slap on the wrist they wouldn't think twice? And for the stupid taggers who ignore the law and continue, cut a hand off - works in Asia for theft.

Where will your next walk take YOU?

Read more!

Carson Daly is a Scab

I never liked Carson Daly. Now he's crossed the picket lines of the Writer's Guild strike and is taping segments for his dumb show, "Last Call". He said after NBC paid the salaries of the workers for the first month, he couldn't in good conscience stand by and let this happen to his staff and crew.

Understandable sentiments. You're still a scab, you putz.

Read more!