The Terrible Catsafterme

Less than two weeks before my trip to California, an Our Gang buff named Brian Fisher contacted me through Facebook and advised me that he had been reading this website and seen my love of the Laurel and Hardy film locations; he himself had located a few locations used in some Little Rascals films by searching street views through Google Earth. Although I had an incredibly busy day ahead, I thought that it would most certainly be worthwhile to check these out during my visit. So Jimmy and I got up extra early and made a stop in Culver City before we headed to Burbank for the Hollywood Show on Saturday, October 9, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

There were two weeks between my little road trip to Chicago and my little air trip to California. Not a lot exciting there. I finished my 1974 Oscar nominees and continued with Two and Half Men. I had a couple of good lunches at work, one with Brandie at Benihana for teppanyaki on September 29, 2010, one with Tim at Tan Thai Cuisine on October 1 – both delicious. Right smack in the middle of these two weeks was my 39th birthday. Nothing exciting there either. I ended up spending it at home, watching some 1937 Oscar nominees, eating Burger King, and taking a nap. I justified the boring day by notifying everyone that I would be celebrating the following weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

When I last wrote about Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo, I mentioned that it is not one of my favorite of the Master of Suspense’s films. While noting that it was a stylish and visually engrossing masterpiece, I found that it was not all that entertaining. Since that time, my opinion has been somewhat revised. While it would still linger near the bottom a top ten list, I have since come to appreciate the delicious story along with the stunning pallete on which Sir Hitchcock paints. So having said that, perhaps you might see how visiting several of the filming locations from Vertigo while in the San Francisco area was a top priority.   Read the rest of this entry »

Erin, Nate, Chloe, and I made the four and a half hour trek from Plains, Georgia, to Destin, Florida, pretty uneventfully on the afternoon of Sunday, July 4, 2010. It was kind of a bummer to spend a good portion of the holiday inside the Volvo – while my family back home was enjoying a picnic at my Mom’s house, but we would be making up for it the rest of the week. Our journey took us through Alabama – which I didn’t realize until after the fact – where we stopped at a Wendy’s in Eufaula not long after crossing the border. By 6:30pm, we were in downtown Destin, Florida, tourist community of the white sanded beaches nestled in the middle of the Florida panhandle. Read the rest of this entry »

I skipped the continental breakfast at our comfortable Super 8 motel in Monterey on the morning of Monday, June 14, 2010 – opting instead to chat online with Erin for a bit while Bob gathered his morsels. We didn’t have to get up too terribly early that day as the cemetery in town that we were going to visit didn’t open until 8:30am. It was the Cementerio El Encinal (or Cemetery of Many Oaks). We weren’t visiting any graves here. We were dropping off. Not a body, but a marker. Bob had spearheaded some fund raising to put a stone on the unmarked grave of Viola Richard. Read the rest of this entry »