"Hey, I'm smokin' in any jacket." - Sam Malone, "Cheers"
When I first watched the classic teen beach romp film Beach Blanket Bingo, there was one thing I couldn’t get out of my head: the red hot Donna Loren crooning It Only Hurts When I Cry. I even downloaded it from LimeWire and put it on my iPod. That’s it. That’s my story. Donna Loren’s story continued though with another slew of beach films. Among them Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, and Pajama Party. Read the rest of this entry »
For some strange reason, I had thought that Martin Landau was dead. In fact, when I met his daughter Juliet Landau (who played Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), I had mentioned to her that I had been a big fan of her father – implying that he was no longer with us. In fact, I practically accused my friend Bob of being nutty when he told me that Martin Landau would be appearing at a Hollywood screening of my very favorite film North By Northwest at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Saturday, April 24, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
“Sweet Baby” was the pet name that Rebecca Howe (played by Kirstie Alley) gave to her rich lover Robin Colcord (Roger Rees) in one of my all-time favorite sitcoms Cheers. And one of my favorite lines from the show comes about when Sam asks Rebecca how she was going to break it off with Robin. She replies, as she is reduced to comical Lucy-esque tears, “That’s it, sweet baby!” While in London, England on Friday, April 2, 2010, I got a chance to meet the sweet baby himself, Roger Rees – although at the time, I didn’t even know who I was getting my picture with. Read the rest of this entry »
After a week of laundry, packing, and cleaning as I prepared for my house guest who would return with me, I was ready to hop on that plane Friday morning, April 23, 2010, and head to California for the second time this year. The last time I had planned to get to Dad’s house before an early flight, I had botched the alarm clock and caused all sorts of panic – but this time, I arrived bright and early around 5:30am, made it to the airport with time to spare, and was taking off at 6:40, sitting next to a smelly individual on the way. Read the rest of this entry »
With a grand total of about five hours sleep, my night’s rest on Monday, going into Tuesday, March 30, 2010, held the record for the most consecutive minutes of shut-eye during the week of my London trip. Bob and I got up that morning at around 6:30am, got ready, and headed down to the continental breakfast in the basement floor of the Central Park Hotel. I was very disappointed that it was so skimpy. For some reason, I had expected the amazing buffet that we had gotten in Guatemala and I had seen in many of the hotels in Europe. But this week, I survived on a couple of buttered croissants and the occasional bowl of mushy raisin and bran cereal. Read the rest of this entry »