Whew!

Another jam-packed weekend! I guess I had it coming since the previous weekend I hardly left my apartment. The new and, sadly, last Harry Potter book was released on July 21 and I didn’t want to have the ending spoiled for me, so I laid low. Plus, I ordered my copy from Amazon’s UK site (I have the British version of the first six as well), and had it sent to me from our London office. So I knew that the soonest I would get it was Tuesday. It didn’t arrive until Wednesday, and I stayed up until 2am to finish it. Now I’m in the process of re-reading them all from the beginning. Well, re-reading isn’t entirely accurate. As I have all the audio books except #7, I’m doing a combination of reading and listening. I’m about half way through Sorcerer’s Stone, and I’m amazed at the way that JK Rowling was able to bring characters and plot points all way to the end.

Anyway, back to the weekend. Friday night was another trip to the Hollywood Bowl. For the first time in all the times I’ve been there, I had tickets to sit in one of the box seats. Not only are box seats expensive, they’re also very hard to come by. Many are leased year after year by the same family or entity and passed down in wills and trusts. Plus, I wanted to make the cost worthwhile in terms of what I was seeing at the bowl. I mean, if it’s just the Philharmonic, one might as well be in the back row as the first.

A few years ago, I learned that my company has pairs of box seats that they make available to employees for purchase at face value. They provide a list of the shows and employees can join a drawing for the opportunity to purchase the tickets. Well, after several tries, I was finally successful. So last Friday night, my friend Susan and I made saw Wayne Brady and Gladys Knight at the bowl! And the show was fabulous. Wayne sang a few Sammy Davis, Jr. songs to open the show, and after intermission Gladys came out. I’ve never seen her perform live before, but after this can’t wait to see her again.

Friday afternoon a friend of mine asked me to join her and some of her co-workers on Saturday afternoon in the company suite at Anaheim Stadium. I’m not much of a baseball fan, but this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The suite was located about 2/3 of the way up the third-base line and would comfortably hold 15-20 people. It was really cool to see how the other half lives.

Then on Sunday, I finished off the weekend with a brief trip to Disney’s California Adventure with a couple of friends. While they both had been there before, neither had been to the Animation attraction where Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast helps you find out which Disney character you most resemble. Carrie was Ariel and Carolyn was Nala. Then we went to Ursula’s Grotto where you can insert your speaking or singing voice into a brief scene from various Disney movies. We sang Heigh Ho from Snow White, and then Carrie and Carolyn did a brief scene from Lion King playing young Simba and his Uncle Scar. We finished our visit with a nice lunch at the Storyteller Café restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel.

Sorry that I don’t have any pictures. I lost my camera sometime this weekend. I think I left it in the suite, but I’m not sure. Someone at the park is looking to see if it gets turned in, but I’m not counting on it. Despite that, it was a great weekend.

What a Weekend!

FRIDAY

Things kicked off Friday night with a trip to the Hollywood Bowl. I was joined by three co-workers for composer John Williams’ annual bowl concert. It’s an evening of movie music, featuring many of John’s most memorable scores. The highlight of the evening is when the orchestra strikes up music form one of the Star Wars films. And this year we got two because in the main program they played music from the throne room scene at the end of the first (okay, many of you know this as the fourth episode, but since I choose to ignore the prequels it’s still the first one to me). Then one of the encore pieces was the Imperial March, otherwise known as the Darth Vader theme. Truly awesome. And as always, when the Star Wars music plays, the light sabers in the audience are proudly displayed. In years past, I’ve even seen people dressed up as Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, but no matter what, the light sabers make an appearance.

SATURDAY

The following morning, I left my apartment at 5:45am, because I needed to be at the Disneyland Resort by 7am. Mark and I were scheduled to take the new Segway tour tour at Disney’s California Adventure theme park. They conduct the tour prior to the park opening so that we can ride around unobstructed. We had been waiting a long time for this tour, even before we went to EPCOT in February 2006 and did the Segway tour there. Despite the frigid temperature (it was in the upper 30’s – Fahrenheit), it was the highlight of the trip. So when we found out recently that the tour here was finally up and running, we were very excited. There was a short-lived snafu when they couldn’t find the reservation, but once they found it we were met by our tour guide Robert and escorted backstage by our tour guide, Robert. We were given muffins, fruit, juice and coffee and then some brief instructions on how the Segway operates. Then we went outside and the fun truly began. Robert was joined by Ashley in leading us through the training session. We spent about 20 minutes learning the basics of how to operate the Segway – starting, stopping, turning, up and down hills. There were two others on the tour with us, a married couple named Chris and Krista. Krista was a little anxious when we began, but within five minutes declared that she wanted a Segway for her birthday! A few minutes later, Chris offhandedly stated that his wife was getting a Segway for her birthday!
Once training was over, we proceeded to tour the park. The only other people out there were a few maintenance workers, so it we had the place all to ourselves. It was truly glorious. Believe me, if I could find a way to justify the expense, I would have already bought one for myself. They are so easy to operate and so much fun to ride. If you ever have the chance to ride one, definitely do it. You won’t regret it.

SUNDAY

Yesterday, I saw what might just be my favorite movie of the summer – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I live just down the hill from Universal Studios and City Walk, where there is an IMAX theater. So I decided to see Harry there, especially since the final battle was being shown in 3D. It was great. Phoenix was not one of my favorite books, but the producers and filmmakers made a terrific movie.

I’ve actually seen a number of movies over the last month or so. Eventually I hope to post some brief reviews of them soon.

Not So Fast, My Friends

Is anyone really surprised that despite the jury’s verdict and the sentence imposed by a Republican judge that Chucklehead has made it possible for Scooter Libby to avoid going to jail? While I’m not surprised that Chucklehead has intervened, I’m a little surprised that he did so before the appeals process had run its course. I was really looking forward to seeing of one of these people paying for their crimes.

The White House deliberately announced the commutation just before July 4 because they knew that most of the country would be distracted by their holiday plans. Also, the American people have become inured to this kind of crap. This Administration has lied and prevaricated and dissembled so many times that no one blinks an eye anymore. That said, at some point if there’s any hope that some vestige of our Republic will be intact when these unconvicted felons finally leave town in January 2009, the American people need to rise up and say they’ve had enough. In Michael Moore’s film, Sicko, a former British official states that the French government is afraid of their people. Why? Because the French people let their government know when they’re not happy and hold them accountable. That’s a notion that we seem to have forgotten here. Bush, Cheney and the rest of them work for us. They only continue to act as if they are the masters and we the servants because we allow it.

In closing, if you are not a regular viewer of Keith Olbermann’s program Countdown on MSNBC, I strongly urge you to start watching. His has been one of the few voices of reason in the media. He’s not a Democrat; he’s just a guy who has little use for hypocrisy and mendacity, both of which have been on daily display since Chucklehead began his reign of terror. Yesterday Keith did one of his special comments, a semi-regular segment that he does when circumstances warrant it. This time, he flat out calls for Bush and Cheney to resign. I urge you to watch it here. Then I urge you to make three telephone calls – one to your US Congressman and one to each of your US Senators – voicing your displeasure with the commuted sentence. If every adult in this country would do, I’m convinced that our elected officials would have no choice but to listen and take action. Like the bumper sticker says – If the people lead, leaders will follow.