SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2006

Jamie Morris : Nacho Libre - Dia De Los Muertos : Jamie at the Cemetery
Jamie at the Cemetery
Nacho Libre - Dia De Los Muertos

I actually saw two good Paramount movies this week. I missed Nacho Libre when it came out in June, but I picked up the DVD this week. It's really, really funny. Same kind of humor as Napoleon Dynamite. And on Friday, I saw Babel which is definitely the best movie I've seen this year. I liked it a lot - probably because I like travel and languages. On Saturday night, I went to the Day of the Dead celebration at Hollywood Forever cemetery. I had never been before, but I'll certainly go again. Dozens of altars, music and dance performances, mexican food, vendors, parades... it was great. Here are some pictures I took of the altars.

link to this post

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2006

Whiskey Drinking Indians

The weekend goes by too quickly. On Friday, I went to a screening of Flags of our Fathers. I didn't really care for the movie that much, but I did learn something: Drunken Ira Hayes was a real guy. All this time I thought he was someone made up by Johnny Cash. It turns out that he was one of the guys who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. After doing a little more reseach, I found out that "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was written by Peter La Farge, who was raised on an Indian Reservation and served in the Navy during the Korean War. The other movie I saw was The U.S. vs John Lennon which I enjoyed quite a bit. Maybe I just like peace movies better than war movies. But at least I gave war a chance... Also this weekend, I watched the Kings blow a 2-0 lead against the Ducks and end up losing in a shootout. Can I get a refund on my season ticket? I went to the pub at 5:00am on Sunday and watched Manchester United beat Liverpool. I watched Michael Schumacher's final Formula 1 race on TV. And I went to see a good band called BASA play at the Temple Bar.

link to this post

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2006

Jamie Morris : Thanksgiving in Rio : Christ the Redeemer watches over Rio
Christ the Redeemer watches over Rio
Thanksgiving in Rio

I've been wanting to go to Brazil for the past few years, but never gone around to actually going. This year is going to be different. Even though I've already taken a big trip this year (Germany - World Cup), I can't let a two-day holiday go by without taking advantage of it. I'm leaving on November 22nd for a ten day trip to Rio de Janeiro and Salvador da Bahia. It's a pretty short amount of time to go all the way to South America, but I'll get to see the two cities I want to see most. I've got a lot of activities already planned and booked. One of the things I'm most excited about is going to a soccer match at the Maracană Stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the world. After spending 5 days in Rio in the south of Brazil, I fly to the Salvador in the northeast. Salvador is know for its African influence. It is here that many of the slaves that the portuguese brought over settled. The people are darker skinned than those in the south and have lots of culture. A lot of great music has come from this area. It's also famous for its old colonial buildings. I can't wait. I'm ready to go now. I am going by myself, but a travel agency helped me get my hotels, airport transfers, and set me up with some tours. And I'm hoping that I'll get to meet up with some of my brazilian friends from Orkut.

link to this post

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006

Win Win Lose Lose Lose Lose

The Kings just finished their six-game home stand last night and they didn't do so well. They started out with two wins (St. Louis Blues, New York Islanders) followed by four straight losses (Dallas Stars-twice, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild). Hopefully, they'll get back on track. I guess I'm not going to the World Series since the A's lost in four straight games. Oh well. The good news is that I'm planning a trip to Brazil next month!

link to this post

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006

World Series Tickets!

It would probably be completely unfair if I got to go to a World Series game in the same year I went to the World Cup, but it might happen. This week I was selected in a random drawing to purchase tickets to a World Series game in Oakland and today I was able to get tickets for Game 2. The catch is... Oakland has to come from behind and win 4 of their next 6 games against the Tigers. It could happen. Go A's!

link to this post

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2006

Jamie Morris : Opening Night: Kings vs. Blues : Staples Center
Staples Center
Opening Night: Kings vs. Blues

The Kings may have lost their opening away game last night in Anaheim, but tonight they beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 in their opening home game at the Staples Center. I watched the first two periods from my season seats down by the ice in section 106 and watched the third period from a luxury box (more comfortable, but too far from the action). The Kings looks like they've got a pretty good team this year. The most impressive has been 19-year old Anze Kopitar who scored two goals against Anaheim in his first ever NHL game and then got three assists tonight in his second game. The Kings start the season out with six consective home games in the first two weeks, so I'll be at the Staples Center a lot.

link to this post

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2006

Jamie Morris : Roger Waters at the Bowl : Floyd the Flying Anti-War Pig
Floyd the Flying Anti-War Pig
Roger Waters at the Bowl

Isabel and I went to the Roger Waters "The Dark Side Of The Moon Live" show at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. I'm not really a Pink Floyd fan, but I did go see them once at Foxboro Stadium in May 1994. This show turned out to be quite good, but we had a problem with our seats. We bought the tickets several months ago, and since then, the Bowl has does some renovations and the seats we purchased no longer exist. We had to find a manager and have our seats reassigned which was kind of annoying. I don't see why they didn't do this before the night of the show. The first set was a mix of Pink Floyd songs, the second set was The Dark Side of the Moon, and the encore included "Another Brick in the Wall". Good show.

link to this post

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

Why are people so crazy about this movie? I went to a screening of it tonight, and it's not horrible, but it's certainly not good. It had a few funny parts, but it's more awkward than funny. For the first 30 minutes of the movie the people in the theater were laughing at every scene... even the ones that weren't funny. I guess that's what hype does to people.

link to this post

MONDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2006

Pandora. Pasadena. Punk Rock.

It's time for another weekly update. On Thursday, I went to the Pandora Town Hall Meeting at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood. Pandora is an internet radio website that allows you to type in a song name or artist name and then creates a radio station based on songs that are musically similar to ones you like. On Friday, I went to a scary movie called The Descent. I spent Saturday in Pasadena shopping, eating, and seeing a movie (I saw Jackass again). I waited in line to get into the new H&M store, but it turned out to be pretty disappointing. It's very small and it only has women's clothing. It's very different than other H&M stores I've been to in the USA and Europe. Tonight I went to see American Hardcore - a documentary about the early 80s hardcore punk scene. I was impressed with the number of bands that were covered.

link to this post
More Posts From Jamie