…with “The (sing-along) Sound of Music“.  Yes, it’s that time of year again.  Our annual viewing of Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s classic, The Sound of Music, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1965, the year I was born.  It was a perfect night to be at the Hollywood Bowl.  To learn more about the show and what goes on there, check out my blog entry from last year.  Here are some photos and a video from tonight.

Hooray for Hollywood!

The costume parade started at 6:00.

July 1, 2007 & September 19, 2008.  Look how much Hannah has grown!

Hannah is so smart she could even say (and remember) Vivek’s name!

Hannah liked my brownies better than the dessert her Mom brought!

And liked to feed me!


Nighttime falls…

The third place winner in the costume contest was a lady name Sue (who was nice enough to comment on my blog) and this little boy.  They dressed as the mountaintop field from which Julie Andrews sang the title track; and the helicopter that filmed her!  Pretty clever!

The 2nd Place prize in the costume contest went to Austin & Sophie, who were dressed adorably as “A needle sewing thread…”  (Austin’s Mom is a fellow Xangan who found my pictures through Google and wrote to me.)  That’s Charmian Carr on the right.  She played Liesl in the movie and she still looks great.  She’s is 65, going on 66.

And the grand prize went to these cuties dressed as the notes, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do.  They won a cruise on the Mexican Riviera. 

What a doll!

Grrrr, why can’t strangers ever hold the camera steady?

This guy’s costume was great!  He was dresses as Christopher Plumber.  LOL.  Get it?

I thought this was cute…a father and son holding hands.

Best of the rest…

There are 3 parts to this video.  The first part is the end of the costume contest and the introduction of the movie.  The second part is the opening song (“The Hills are Alive”) with Julie Andrews doing her thing.  Part 3 is “Edelweiss” where 18,000 people hold up their cell phones in the dark and it’s quite a sight!

Last year when I went to the Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl, I posted this photo:

Soon after, I received this message:

HelloCarey, I am a CareyGLY blog reader and I have always enjoyed yourwriting. I was very surprised when you posted the pictures fromthe sound of music sing along night at the Hollywood Bowl.  One of thepictures you posted of someone in the crowd was a person I dated tenyears ago!!  I am so very surprised that you have become the messenger; ) Thank you!! Daniel from L.A.

The guy dressed as Maria in the photo above, was the guy Daniel had dated.  He didn’t do drag at the time, though Daniel suspected there were tendencies.  Long story short, Daniel and I ended up meeting and the Xangaverse got a little smaller!

I’m getting tired of blogging about my car, but yesterday I went to have a SMOG inspection as it’s required after 6 years (that corrupt industry is a whole other blog topic for another time).  My car failed the electrical test.  The guy at the testing station asked me if the car had recently been serviced or if the battery had been removed.  Of course I told him yes.  What I learned was that it takes about a week of driving to get the electrical system in sync to pass the California test.  I payed $50 for nothing.  I wish Honda of Hollywood would have told me that.  Then, on the way home, the gas gauge suddenly showed “empty” when it had been nearly full the day before (and I’d only driven ten miles!).  So I went back to Honda of Hollywood.  They put it up on a lift and determined there was no leak, and the gauge just must have been stuck from the accident.  Grrrrrr!  Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning.  So here’s the letter I’m going to send to the president of Honda of Hollywood.  What do you think?

Dear Mr. Robertson,

My name is Carey _______, and I’m the person who owns the 2002 Honda Accord your body shop took 4 months to repair.  First, let me start by saying that Peter, in your body shop, was always courteous and professional to me, but that did not make up for the fact that this damage:

took nearly four months (to the day) to fix.   It’s clear to everyone involved (including people I spoke to at Honda of Hollywood) that this car should have been totaled, and I must question the integrity of your business to embark on fixing a car that should have been in the junk heap in March when the accident occurred.

This whole situation would almost be comical if it weren’t for the fact that I am currently facing out of pocket rental bills of over $1500 for an accident that was not my fault.  In addition, I have had to take several hours off work to rent, return and re-rent cars in the four months you were supposedly fixing my car.

I have been a Honda customer for over 20 years.  I have used Honda of Hollywood exclusively to service my car since I moved to California six years ago.  I am mortified by the way this situation has been handled, and have documented it extensively in the public domain on my blog.  In fact, if you Google “Honda of Hollywood Customer Service” my blog is the #1 hit.  I have saved every voice mail your shop ever left me.  Many of them repeat the same untruths week after week.  (I lost count how many times the car was going “across the street to have the engine put back in”.)

Sadly, now that I have the car back my problems persist.  Yesterday morning I took my car to get a smog inspection as my vehicle registration required after six years.  The car failed the electrical portion of the test, apparently because the battery had been removed for so long.  Your employees knew that I needed to get a smog inspection, and no one informed me of the fact that I had to “drive around for a week to get the electrical system in synch.”  After wasting $50 on that test, I realized that my gas gauge that had been nearly full an hour before, was now empty.  I drove back to Honda of Hollywood (for the third time in three days), and they proceeded to put my car up on a lift to check for a gas leak.  They had me stand under the car (a clearly posted OSHA violation) to tell me they couldn’t find a leak, and that the gauge had probably just been stuck.  (I won’t even go into the fact that you had my car for four month as apparently ran the tank empty not replenishing it before you gave it back to me!  When I had my accident in March, gas was practically $1 cheaper a gallon than it is today.  Classy!)

When I walked across the street to talk to a Sales Representative about trading it in for a new car, they looked at me like I was crazy.  The bottom line is that you collected nearly $14,000 from the insurance company and after four months I still have a loose driver’s seat, a stuck gas gauge and who knows what other problems.  I suppose I’m going to have to consult with an attorney, as well as the Better Business Bureau, but I want to give you the opportunity to make this right.  I know that you are a respected leader in the Hollywood business community.  I also know that a few honestly well tagged Google hits can drive business away from any company in the 21st Century.  I hope that you will do the right thing here and correct this egregious wrong.  I await your reply.

Sincerely,

Carey ______

On to happier things…
Here are some photos from this weekend:

Pad Thai lunch with Parvesh & Bhavin

Tressa and I by the orange tree with the sun in our eyes.

Spaghetti dinner at Aunty LuLu’s

Strawberry shortcake for dessert!

Tressa giving her favorite cousin a relaxing massage while Cole laughs in the background!

Amos and I went here after Rock Sugar had an hour and 1/2 wait!

This is a bit much!

Fried clams on the half shell!

Jessica & Hannah at brunch yesterday.

Jessica, Seth & Hannah

I don’t feel well today.  I’ve had the chills all day.  I get hot and then cold and then hot again.  In fact I’m sitting here with the ceiling fan going and a heater at my feet!  I really hope I’m not getting the flu.  I’m flying to Portland Wednesday and we’re renting a house at Cannon Beach for a few days.  I can’t get sick!!

It was a long, hot weekend (100° + today).  Believe it or not,  I’m too tired to write tonight, so I’m just posting a few pics from yesterday and today, and will try to get to bed before 4 AM for once.  I can’t stay up for 29 hours straight like Jad.   (Of course, I’m not 21 anymore either…I’m exactly double his age….we share the same birthday 21 years apart.  The day I turned 21, September 6, 1986; Jad was born.  Kismet?  Ugh.  No wonder I’m tired.  LOL)

Another gorgeous day on Sunset Blvd.

Paul & Matt take advantage of the pool at the H.C.

Arielle soaking up the sun

Hannah & friends

Garbo & Ruby trying to stay cool

Sophia & Daddy

Jessica and her other babies

The most diverse park you’ll probably ever find

No, the bar at The Abbey wasn’t open

    
Sand Castles & Sesame Street.  The perfect end to a perfect day!

When I was in San Francisco the weekend before last, I posted this video on YouTube, that was set to the theme song of our GLY group of friends.  It was a video of the sunset at the beach and of a 3 year old playing soccer with our friends.  The music I used in MY video was from the soundtrack of Rent, a CD I probably bought 5 times before MP3s and iTunes became widely used in the mid 90′s.  I OWN the song….I’ve paid more than enough for it over the years.  So imagine my surprise when, within 5 minutes of uploading the video, I receive the following email from YouTube:

At first, I was pissed off at the intrusion, but when I thought about it, it was pretty cool.  YouTube had actually reached an agreement with a greedy corporate record company, and if they wanted to place a subtle ad on my video page to advertise the “Rent” soundtrack because people liked the song “Seasons of Love” that I put on MY video, then I guess that’s not so bad.  Right? As long as they let me keep my video, I was OK.

When I posted the same video my Facebook page though, it was a different story.  It took them a few days, but today, I got this email, and found this when I logged in to Facebook:

This was my reply to Facebook:

A closeup:

Why do I have a feeling this entreaty will fall on deaf ears?? 

---

I had dinner with Seth, Jessica and Hannah tonight.  I’ve been on an Indian food kick of late, so we ate at India Sweet & Spices in Los Feliz.  It’s a gawdy cafeteria style restaurant, that plays Bollywood movies on a big screen all day and night.  LOL.  Good food though!  Look how much Hannah has grown in the past year:

May 2007

April 2008

We took the dogs on a walk and I liked this house :)

Click to view the rest of the photos from tonight.

 
From: Carey Anthony
Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:04 PM
To: Lisa, Dar, Jenn 

Would anyone object if I got them all the latest Wii sensation: **

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/superpiipii.html?cpg=70H

Amazing Virtual Pee Experience from Japan As any good geek should know by now Japan has some of the wackiest and most unusual products anywhere. So when we were visiting Tokyo recently and saw lines of Japanese schoolgirls waiting to play an amazing new game for the Wii called Super Pii Pii Brothers we were only a little surprised. After all with games like WarioWare and Raving Rabbids the Wii is no stranger to crazy gameplay mechanics… but it was quite unusual to see the “strap-on” style accessory and peeing action that Pii Pii Brothers provides. Normally ThinkGeek doesn’t carry video games, but we were so blown-away by Super Pii Pii Brothers that we immediately got our trusted Japanese importer on the phone and arranged to bring over a limited quantity of this amazing Wii game along with some cross regional boot discs to allow play on USA Wii consoles. The play mechanics are simple. Prepare yourself by strapping on the included belt harness and jacking in your Wiimote. A series of toilets are presented on screen and the challenge is to tilt your body to control a never-ending stream of pee. Get as much pee in the toilets as you can while spilling as little on the floor as possible. Sounds easy eh? Well the toilets open and close whack-a-mole style and occasionally the stray cat or other cute critter pops up. Spray a cat for extra points. Get too much pee on the ground and your game is over. With realistic fluid dynamics for the pee and over 100 different bathrooms from bars and palaces to automatic Japanese style toilets you’ll be entertained for hours. And wait until your friends see the multi-player mode with dueling pee streams… According to the Japanese text on the box “Super Pii Pii Brothers promotes good bathroom skills and allows women to experience for the first time the pleasure of urinating while standing.” What we say is that virtual peeing is damn fun! Product Features: Video Game for Nintendo Wii Provides a Virtual Peeing Experience Amazing Realistic Pee Fluid Dynamics Imported from Japan Comes with game disc and Wiimote belt harness Includes cross regional boot disc to allow play on US Wii consoles Minimal Japanese text makes game easy to understand if you can’t read Japanese Over 100 different peeing environments with multiple toilet and urinal styles Up to two players can compete with dueling pee streams **Oh, and by the way….it could be worse

_______________________________________

From: Darlene
Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:06 PM
To: Carey, Lisa, Jenn 

OMG….that is hilarious!  I think Lisa’s boys would LOVE IT!  
________________________________________

From: Lisa
Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:21 PM
To: Carey, Mom, Jenn 

Screw the boys…I wanna pee like a boy!!!!  My birthday is in October,
but if you can’t wait, I’ll be 36 1/2 on April 15th!  I would LOVE to
start celebrating 1/2 birthdays!  
________________________________________

From: Jennifer
Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:38 PM
To: Carey, Lisa, Mom 

EEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!  LOL!!  Yes, the kids would love it!
But my little girl is not going anywhere near it!!!

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:33 PM, SETH FREEMAN wrote:

Check out the song that my friend Seth (Ruby & Garbo’s owner) submitted for the American Idol Finale Song Contest.  It’s quite catchy and has a good hook.  I can see Jason Castro singing it all glassy eyed or David Archuleta being lowered from the ceiling in angel wings with a 10 foot span.  LOL.  If it wins, I’m there!

It was a crazy day weatherwise in LA today.  It started out warm and sunny.  I’m still dog-sitting, so I took the pups on a long walk this morning.  We sat at a cafe for a while, and I read some more about my new camera.  It certainly has a lot of hidden features…though not quite this many:

Anyway, here are some shots I took of Garbo & Ruby, and of the storm front that moved through Los Angeles this afternoon.  Being close to St. Patrick’s Day, I was hoping for a rainbow, or at least a pot of gold.

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people all those lives
Where are they now?
With the loves and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived and then they died
Seems so unfair
And I want to cry

You say: “ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn”
And you claim these words as your own
But I’ve read well, and I’ve heard them said
A hundred times, maybe less, maybe more

If you must write prose and poems
The words you use should be your own
Don’t plagiarise or take “on loans”
There’s always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who’ll trip you up and laugh
When you fall

You say: “ere long done do does did”
Words which could only be your own
And then you then produce the text
From whence was ripped some dizzy whore, 1804

A dreaded sunny day
So let’s go where we’re happy
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Oh Keats and Yeats are on your side

A dreaded sunny day
So let’s go where we’re wanted
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose because Wilde is on mine

I’m dog-sitting for Garbo & Ruby for the next week.  We took a 3 1/2 hour walk tonight.  I forgot my gorillapod, but snapped a couple of blurry shots in Beverly Hills.  When we got home, I showed them the trailer for this new National Geographic special about this crazy guy who lives with wolves.  I was hoping to elicit some good howls out of them, but they were too tired, and just thought I was as crazy as the wolfman. 

 

I stayed up nearly all night, reading things online, taking “candidate matchmaker” quizzes, watching Hillary on David Letterman, and listening to Barack’s book on iTunes.  By the way, if you’re a US citizen and you’re not registered to vote, you’re an idiot.  If you are registered and didn’t vote today, don’t talk to me and don’t make excuses.  You’re LAME (or you’re a felon).

So after compiling all my pros and cons,

No, not like this!

here’s how it went down:

I had a new polling place this year…the garage of an apartment building the next block over.

It was like walking into the bowels of hell!

Seth & Hannah voted first, and she has her sticker to prove it.

It was actually quite crowded and I had to wait in line.

Should I or shouldn’t I?

Is a vote for Hillary a vote for Bill?

This year’s boring ballot initiatives.

Before I left, I even exchanged phone numbers with a cute election worker.  LOL, you gotta love West Hollywood.  You can vote with celebrities and make a date at the same time!

Do you think Hannah knows that I just voted for a woman??

Jessica, Hannah and I.  Girl power.  LOL

My results:

   

Crude joke of the day  (Can you believe Chappaquiddick was almost 40 years ago!!??)

HILLARY’S
FIRST NIGHT AS PRESIDENT

 Hillary
Clinton 

 Was sworn in today as
President 

 She has disposed of Bill and is spending
her 

 first night alone in the White
House. 

 She has waited several years for
this. 

 FIRST
NIGHT 

 Suddenly! 

 The ghost of George
Washington appears to her, 

 and Hillary says,

“How
can I best serve my country?”

 Washington says, “Never tell a lie.” 

 ”Ouch!”
Says Hillary, “I don’t know about that.”

 SECOND
NIGHT 

 The next night, the ghost of Thomas Jefferson
appears…

 Hillary says, “How can I best serve my
country?”

Jefferson
says, 

 ”Listen to the people.” 

 ”Ohhh! I
really don’t want to do that.”

THIRD NIGHT

 On the third
night, the ghost of Abe Lincoln appears… 

 Hillary says,
“How can I best serve my
country?”

 Lincoln says, 

 ”Go to the
theater.”

So yes, in the end, I ended up voting for Hillary.  I do think Barack Obama will be president some day, I just think he needs a little more time in the Senate.  Barack in 2016!!  Now it’s on to the summer conventions and the election.  In other breaking news, you HAVE to watch this.  Screw the elections. Screw Natalee Holloway.  This is IMPORTANT NEWS!! 

Between casting calls, rising child star Hannah FS celebrated her 2nd birthday in style at Naya’s Garden, a shoe-free, indoor/outdoor playground here in Los Angeles.  Hannah’s parents are a bit on the healthy/hippy side, so before I left for the party I called to ask if there would be (edible) food at the party.  Hannah’s dad, an up and coming musician on the Grey’s Anatomy circuit;  told me that they would have Pirate’s Booty, peapods, and water!!  “Peapods and water!!??”, at a two year old’s birthday party??  I immediately threatened to call Child Services.  Luckily there was also pizza, cake and juice boxes on the menu.  No soda though, and I was advised that it was strictly BYODC (bring your own Diet Coke), LOL.  Here are some of my highlights from Hannah’s birthday extravaganza. 

We just got back from the Hollywood Bowl.  It was a great night…except for one thing.  My beautiful new camera is gone.  I don’t even feel like talking about it now…it will just make me sad.  Luckily Seth brought his camera, so I was at least able to take a few photos with that.  Here are a few of my favorites.  To see the rest, skip down below.  Good night!

This morning I’m having breakfast on my patio and I hear this loud horrible boom.  I look across the street and this is what I saw.  I ran and got my camera.  I wish I’d gotten the video of this dumb wench getting out of her car and looking up at the garage wondering what happened.  It was if she had no concept of what she’d just done.  She was tilting her head, like a dog tilts his head when you ask if he wants to go for a walk.  LOL.  After getting unstuck, she drove away…but I had my camera set on high resolution, so I have her license plate clear as day.  Damn women drivers!!

The building was FUGLY anyway.  Maybe they’ll repaint it.  It’s filled with vapid commercial actresses who are always letting their dogs shit in my yard and not picking it up.  I wish she have done more structural damage!

So, Mika Brzezinski, on MSNBC, had a histrionic, possibly staged freakout during which she refused to lead with the Paris Hilton story, called her producer out (by name) for scheduling it atop her newscast, and even tried to burn the paper with the Hilton copy. Staged or not, does she have a point?  Read and see more…

Tonight we went to the famed Hollywood Bowl to see the “Singalong Sound of Music“.  The show was sold out and there were 18,000 people there.   The “pre show parade” started at 6:00 and featured hundreds of people dressed as characters, songs or things from the movie!  I was thinking of putting a nun habit on my head (with a soccer ball of course…see below) and having a pack of cigarettes rolled up in my shirt sleeve, and saying I was “A problem like Maria”.    The kid who ended up winning the costume contest was dressed as “How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand”.  The costume was brilliant, and he won a trip to the Mexican Riviera!

If you haven’t ever been to the “sing-along” version of the Sound of Music; they basically play the movie, and all the songs are subtitled.  Everyone sings, and sometimes acts out.  You’re given a “goodie bag” with sprigs of edelweiss and other assorted Sound of Music memorabilia.

The Hollywood Bowl is such a magical place to be in the summer.  It’s nestled within the Hollywood Hills, just outside a major freeway, but when you’re there it’s like you’re in the middle of nowhere.  It’s so quiet and the acoustics are excellent.  It’s one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world.  It’s been around since 1922 and has hosted everyone from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.  I wonder what my pictures would have looked like in 1922??

Here are the rest of the pictures in living color.

Song of the day