LA BREA CAR PITS
First off, it's Sunday, 12:17 p.m. local time here in Los Angeles. That is, Game 7 of the Cavs-Celtics has yet to tip off. So I just want to prognosticate right here, right now that the Cavaliers will win.
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Have spent the past five days here in lovely Los Angeles. A few highlights: Meeting up with my old friend Steve Hymon, a former Sports Illustrated reporter who now writes the "Road Sage" column in the Los Angeles Times. That is, when anyone in L.A. writes in to the region's largest newspaper to complain about traffic, Steve is the man who reads those missives. How would you like to have that gig?....Last night I saw an off-, off-, off-, off-Broadway play. So off-Broadway that it was in Hollywood. It was entitled "Cellphone Funeral" and it starred my friend J.P. Hubbell, (you know him as "S.W.A.T. Leader" on CSI: Miami). The conceit was that a gay man died (he is run over by another gay man who did not see him as he was checking out yet a third man while driving) and his family, not knowing much about his adult life, invited guests based solely on the names he had in his cellphone. Memo to my family: If I should expire in an untimely fashion, just post it on this blog. That way we'll keep the guest count very small...
...visiting the Pink Taco restaurant at the Westfield Mall in West L.A. Being inspired by the idea of the restaurant sponsoring what could be the worst summer tour ever, a double-bill of Pink ("Don't Let Me Get Me") and Taco ("Puttin' on the Ritz")....seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and having the following thoughts:
1) What are the odds that NBC already has "Animal Instincts" in development?
2) Can I be the first to suggest "Peter, You Suck" as a "Best Song" Oscar nominee?
3) Russell Brand: nice job stealing the movie. "I was going to listen to it, then I just carried on living my life." And you were even funnier on Letterman last week. Why do Brits have so much more charm (and a better vocabulary) than we Americans?
4) Females always get jobbed on nudity in films. We men get to see Kristin Bell naked while the two men who have provided more male nudity than anyone I can think of the past five years or so are Will Ferrell and Jason Segel. I'm not complainin', I'm just sayin'.
5) The Dracula musical isn't entirely original. If there is anyone alive reading this who attended Fairview Elementary School in Middletown, N.J., in the 1970s, you may remember an ingenius musical the school put on (I believe it was in 1977 or '78) entitled "The Monster Mash". Had all the same elements, and it's still one of the best plays I've ever seen, even though I was only 11 when I saw it.
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Lying on the beach in Venice yesterday (90 degrees, not a cloud in the sky) and contemplating what a sublime place this is to live--unless you have a beef with "The Road Sage". Thinking about choosing an address here based purely on music. By that I mean, if you were going to live in California (Phantom Planet), would you live in Los Angeles (X) or Beverly Hills (Weezer) or Santa Monica (Everclear)? Perhaps you'd first settle in a lower-income area, but then move Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A.), even if it meant being a transient living alongside the Ventura Highway (America), renting a room from a Little Old Lady From Pasadena (Jan and Dean), holing up at the Hotel California (Eagles) or just camping out at Beatnik Beach (Go Go's). Yeah! Yeah! You could be a Valley Girl (Frank Zappa) by day and then cross over the hills and enjoy the Hollywood Nights (Bob Seger). Or maybe you'd head north to San Francisco (the Village People) where you'd be able to revel in the Sausalito Summer Night (Diesel).
Too many options.
By the way, overheard at Majerle's in Chandler, Ariz., the other night: two women in their early 20s are sitting nearby when Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" begins playing. One girl says to her friend, "That's so weird. I'm looking around at the TV and I don't see The Hills on anywhere."
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Watching that LeBron commercial where he plays the defense attorney and wondering who else recalls that it's directly ripped off from an episode of "The Brady Bunch". Did the ad guy who pitched this sell it as his own idea or did he just hope no one else had seen it?
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Last week I extolled the virtues and amenities of "The Valley Ho" in Scottsdale, Ariz. But for a more affordable resort with less drug dealers hanging out at the pool, you should definitely check into The Smoke Tree Inn.
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Cavs-Celtics update: It's 50-40, Boston, at the half. Bill Woten, author of "Game 7: Inside the NBA's Ultimate Showdown", informs us that the home team is 61-6 when leading at halftime in the history of Game 7s. Then again, David Stern may just want LeBron in the NBA Finals.
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NBCSports.com's John Walters goes into the world of college sports and well beyond. From Notre Dame to the latest in pop culture, JDub tackles it all.
If my radio leads me to L.A., all I know is it's a long day, living in Reseda. And being a lifelong East-Coaster, I can't think of a geographic place I've heard more without knowing how to spell it.
Wasn't Reseda in Karate Kid as well? Perhaps it only exists in pop-culture references.