May & June promise to be busy months at the Hotel Careyfornia.  Despite the recent media hyped outbreak of Swine Flu, we have visitors coming from all over the globe for the next two months.  For those of you worried about your health during your stay at the H.C., the management is pleased to announce that we now provide complementary masks to all guests who book a VIP Luxury Suite or higher.  Richard found this out first hand today, when he paid our fine establishment a visit:

Richard has never been to Los Angeles, so when I asked him what he wanted to do tonight, he said that a low key dinner would be fine.  He wasn’t interested in the whole celebrity or sightseeing thing.  I figured we’d have a nice dinner at The Grove and call it a night.  When I picked him up though we stopped by the red carpet premiere of Wolverine, just because I wanted to say “hi” to Hugh Jackman:

Hi Hugh!

We saw a few more sites….downtown and Hollywood, then went to dinner:

Downtown Los Angeles

The Hollywood Sign through the smog

After a nice Italian dinner, we stuck around for a concert by Derek Hough and Mark Ballas from Dancing With the Stars.  Derek’s girlfriend, Shannon Elizabeth (of American Pie fame) was there too, as was Melissa’s partner, Tony Dovolani.
 

Tony Dovolani

Shannon Elizabeth

 
Mark Ballas & Derek Hough

Best of the rest…

On the way out we bumped into Allison Iraheta, the 16 year old sole female, top 5 finalist on American Idol this year.  She was very sweet.  In fact, like Jordin Sparks, I like her a lot more now after meeting her.  On TV, her personality doesn’t come through, but in person, she’s got great energy.

 
Allison Iraheta from American Idol

Then, as if that wasn’t enough star f***ing for Richard, we rode the elevator with Alec Mapa from Ugly Betty.  Rich had no idea who he was, but happily posed for a photo.  LOL.

The straightest and gayest men in universe.  LOL

We had dessert at the original Pinkberry and called it a night.  So much for a quiet Hollywood evening!

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Tomorrow night, Ken and I are going to see Vienna Teng at The Roxy!  Then Friday, Fabiola is arriving from Brazil.  Claudio, Ryan & Chazz will be here too.  David & Daniel arrive next from Germany with their parents, and then Joelle is coming for her second visit of the year from Chile before moving to India.  After that, I’m off to Tuscany!  It’s going to be a busy few months!

I’ve had some time to formulate my opinion after attending a free screening of “The Soloist” the other night, starring Jaimie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.  There were many things I liked about the movie, and overall I think it is worth seeing.  A few things though, bothered me.  I had some initial questions before even seeing the movie.  I knew it had originally been scheduled to be released last November, in time to garner plenty of Oscar buzz.  The release date however, kept changing; never a good sign for a film.  For a good analysis of why this happened, there are a couple of good articles:

For those of you who don’t know, the film is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who becomes schizophrenic and homeless. Jamie Foxx portrays Ayers, who is considered a cello prodigy, and Robert Downey Jr. portrays Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist who discovers Ayers and writes about him in the newspaper.  Rather than watch the movie’s trailer (which gives entirely too much away), I suggest watching this recent piece from 60 Minutes about the real Nathaniel Ayers:

The film preaches an important lesson about how we treat the mentally ill and indeed, the thousands of drug addled homeless people inhabiting LA’s infamous skid row.  I couldn’t help thinking as I watched it though, that Foxx’s portrayal of Ayers was a bit too affected.  In 1985, when I was a sophomore in college I started working in three group homes for the developmentally disabled.  It was the best job I ever had.  I actually got paid to have fun with the “residents”, and as a starving college student, I also got free meals and a place to do my laundry.  I would take them bowling and to movies, shopping and the like.  We would go on road trips to the Special Olympics and day trips to amusement parks and concerts.  I would teach them life skills and generally just try to be their friend; and in the process they taught me volumes about compassion and the joy of living.  Many of the residents I worked with had severe schizophrenia, much like Nathaniel Ayers.  I felt the movie was not quite true to the ailment and tried to tie up the loose ends a little too neatly.  What can you expect from a Hollywood film though??  (Personally, I thought “Shine” did a better job of portraying its subject’s illness.)  That said, it’s a touching story, and it’s a film that will hopefully make people think about attitudes towards the homeless in our society.  In fact, after the screening Tony and I stayed for a panel discussion led by homeless advocates who work in L.A.’s skid row.  They spoke eloquently and poignantly about the problem and how it has changed in Los Angeles since recent initiatives poured money into system.  If anything, I hope the movie will open a dialogue and change the way some people treat the homeless.  Making eye contact and saying hello can sometimes go a long way!

Here are a few pictures with the kids from dinner tonight:

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“Newspapers across the country are going out of business. It’s pretty scary. So congratulations to the New York Times this week for winning five Pulitzer Prizes. I read about it online on Google News.” — Jay Leno

It’s been a busy week at the Hotel Careyfornia, (bandwidth alert) and it’s going to get busier.  Margie flew in Monday from Kentucky and she brought her little dog, Daisy.  Since she’s working down in Orange County all month and staying in a hotel, I’m going to be watching Daisy.  Tuesday, as already blogged, I hung out with my Iraqi friend Haider.  Last night, Lora was nice enough to invite me over for dinner at their new loft downtown, right across from the Staples Center and the Nokia Theater and LA Live.  We watched Idol and dished all night.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight I brought Pei Wei over to Lisa & Joel’s and visited with the kids for a while.  Tomorrow, Claudio & Ryan are coming with Chazz.  Sunday is my Uncle’s 81st birthday party, and that evening I’m going to try to catch the screening of The Secret Life of Bees with Tony, as Dakota Fanning is going to be there discussing the movie.  Let me know if any of you are going!  Have a good weekend!

The view from Frank & Lora’s balcony

Idol buddies!

Pucker up Frank!

This is the city…

LA Live in the background

These were Lora & Frank’s wedding centerpieces.  Beautiful!

We had to climb over railings to get back to my car…so urban.  LOL

The Grammy’s will be in this complex this weekend

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Last weekend while I was at Michele’s party, Lisa sent a picture to my phone of Cole snuggled up in one of those “blankets with arms” you see advertised on T.V. all the time.  They’re called “Snuggies” and they look ridiculous.  Then a few days later, I got this picture of Andy in one of them.  So tonight when I was there, of course I had to try it:

 
 

Ridiculous right?  Kind of makes you wanna say, WTF??? 

“I can’t believe a black man’s president…”

On the way to work this morning I took these photos out of the sun roof driving 70 mph

Best of the rest…

I snapped these shots of Daisy tonight.  I think she was sleeping and dreaming when she started doing this, then she woke herself up.  LOL

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“The ratings for this year’s Academy Awards are expected to be very low because hardly anyone has seen the best-picture nominees. Also not helping — the prospect of seeing Mickey Rourke in high-definition.” — Conan O’Brien

Remember that speeding ticket I got last summer?  Well I finally got around to signing up for traffic school before the February 17th deadline.  Unfortunately, because I got the ticket behind the Orange Curtain, I couldn’t take traffic school online.  So when I looked at the list of state approved classes, this is what I found:

The “Gay Community Traffic School” is coincidentally the closest one to my house.    When I called them, the queen on the phone was very friendly.  He told me that the only day available before my deadline was February 14th from 9-5.  I said, “Fine, I’ll take it”.  Then he paused dramatically and said “You know that’s Valentine’s Day, don’t you??”  I laughingly told him I was aware that February 14th was Valentine’s Day, and then he actually asked me if I had a Valentine!  I kind of stuttered in disbelief, and told him “No”.  After that he told me he’d call me the day before to remind me,  and to show up with $32.95 in cash that morning.  LOL.

Apparently this Gay Traffic School is quite popular here and in San Francisco.  To wit:

The Best Place to Meet If You’re Looking For:

A Speed Queen

Calling Erik Estrada. Gay traffic violators commiserate, cruise, and discharge their points at Joey Randall’s Gay…community Traffic School. For eight hours, students trade traffic jokes and play “Traffic School Jeopardy.” Randall says classes are bumper-to-bumper because “people know they’re going to meet others they might be interested in.” An instructor at Randall’s L.A. school teaches in drag, so watch what you say about women drivers. Classes meet weekly. Call (800) 429-4968.

Maybe my instructor will be the one in drag?!  Now that would be blog-worthy!

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Here are some photos from over the weekend with David & Hyun Ju.  We went downtown to meet up with CJ so I could finally give him the Rubik’s Cube that Macky signed for him last summer.  He was so appreciative!  I hadn’t seen him since the competition at the Discovery Science Center last spring, when he was so nice and patient with my little cousin Tommy.

Me with future world famous video game designer Daniel Chan

Then we went to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year, but I didn’t see an ox, just these turtles!

Poolside at The Standard Hotel, downtown Los Angeles

 

I wish they would have told me I still had the damn Bluetooth in my ear!

Taken from the car at 60 mph

The aptly named Sunset Blvd.

Best of the rest…

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

“J. Crew’s stock has gone up 10 percent because first lady Michelle Obama has been spotted wearing their clothes. Which begs the question, Mrs. Obama, how would you feel about wearing a Buick?” –  Conan O’Brien

Update:  Click Here to see how Gay Traffic School went!

Last night the GMCLA had their 30th anniversary concert at the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.  It was a great venue and a great show, with celebrity guests like the incomparable Della Reese and the less comparable George Takei (of Star Trek and of late, gay marriage fame, LOL). 

The event was hosted by Joely Fisher, (from Desperate Housewives) who was very funny and charming.  We were lucky to get free tickets to the concert, but there was a catch:

The GMCLA is offering FREE tickets for youth (ages
14-24) and their adult chaperones for their next engagement at the Disney
Hall on Aug. 25th.

For FREE TICKETS
please contact Jeff Morris (See Attached Flyer for contact information). I know there are many
of you who meet the age qualifications as a youth. I hope you can make
it. For the rest of you, this
is a great opportunity for the youth that you serve to be treated to a
fabulous concert and a tour of the Disney Hall.

Sincerely,  

Stephen

Educational Equity Compliance

The “rest of you“?  The “youth that you serve“??  Sheesh!  I’m going to be 43 next week and it’s already starting.  LOL.  But hey, a free ticket is a free ticket, so I’m glad Vivek is 21.  LOL.  Anyway, here are a few photos from the evening:

Vivek on the steps of Frank Gehry’s masterpiece.

L.A. City Hall, made famous in Dragnet.

The rolling sails of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, winter home to the LA Philharmonic.

Why can’t strangers ever take good pictures?

The less than enticing press line/red carpet, which we bypassed.  LOL

This is the city…

The Bank of America building in the foreground and the U.S. Bank Tower (the tallest building in the U.S., west of the Mississippi, which was incidentally blown up in Independence Day), back left. 

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, former home of the Oscars.

This kid was sitting behind us, and tuckered out during intermission.


Joely Fisher, Della Reese and the entire cast.

Best of the rest.

The last time I was at the Disney Concert Hall, it was for the American Idol Gives Back Concert, where we saw everyone from Annie Lennox to Kelly Clarkson (see link).  The acoustics in the building are great and it’s pretty small, which makes it quite intimate.  We sat on the side last night, and still had a great view.  Speaking of American Idol, am I the only one who thinks the stage at the Democratic Convention in Denver this week looks like the Idol stage??

Hillary’s speech was great tonight.  She’s obviously gotten over the latest portrait of her husband (look carefully):