SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2008

Jamie Morris : Dodgers Return To The Coliseum : The National Anthem
The National Anthem
Dodgers Return To The Coliseum

Tonight the Los Angeles Dodgers returned to their original home, the LA Coliseum, for an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox in celebration of the LA Dodgers 50th Anniversary. The Coliseum was the original home of the Dodgers from 1958-1961 before Dodgers Stadium was built. The game attracted 115,300 people which is now officially certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as "Largest Attendance At A Baseball Game." The previous record was 114,000 set in December 1956 during the Melbourne Olympics. The Red Sox ended up winning the exhibition 7-4, but noone really seemed to care. It was more about the event itself. I had a seat in left-center field and the first Red Sox homerun landed about four seats over from me. That was a bit scary because you can't tell where it's going to land and you're so packed in, there's nowhere to move. There were lots of Dodgers greats, past and present, at the game. Broadcaster Vin Scully was honored before the game and spoke about opening day in 1958. He's now 80 years old and has been working for the Dodgers for 59 seasons.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2008

Walking Across America

This weekend I hosted Evan, a 22 year-old CouchSurfer with a very interesting story. When he was seventeen, he did a lot of sitting around playing video games and weighed 300 pounds. So he decided to change his ways. He started to travel. He traveled all over Europe and even hitchhiked from England to China which included working on a cargo ship to get from England to Europe. He lost a lot of weigh and had some incredible adventures. Four years later, he found himself back in his hometown (Petaluma, California) and started putting on weight again. So now he's doing something he's always wanted to do: walk across the United States.

He started in Petaluma, which is north of San Francisco, and walked south all the way to Santa Monica. My friend Sheila and I took him out to dinner last night and I let him crash on my sofabed on his last night on the west coast. Now he's heading east. He's planning on walking all the way across the southern United States and then up to Massachusetts. He admits that he might have to hitchhike through some parts because the cities are too far apart and he can't carry enough water to get across the desert in his backpack, but he plans on walking as much as possible and CouchSurfing and camping the entire way. No hotels for this guy. Today he's walking to his next stop: Los Angeles.

It reminds me of a story I read on cnn.com two weeks ago about an older couple who decided to sell their business and bike around the world.

It was a great weekend to be passing through Santa Monica. While it was probably hot in LA, it was beautiful here. My legs actually took me quite a ways this weekend. I rollerbladed over 25 miles (Santa Monica to LAX and back) and biked about 15 miles (Pacific Palisades to Venice Beach and back).

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SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008

Jamie Morris : Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street : On the Bonaventure Hotel Patio
On the Bonaventure Hotel Patio
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

This afternoon I went to a matinee of Sweeney Todd, the musical, at the Ahmanson Theatre. It's a thriller based on the legend of Sweeney Todd, a 19th century London barber who slits people's throats with his razor and then bakes his victims into meat pies. Mmmmm. It's not known for sure, but the story may actually be based on a real person. The show was great. My favorite part was the fact that the cast played the music on their instruments as they were acting and singing, rather than having an orchestra performing the score. I haven't seen the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film yet, but I'm going to pick it up when it comes out on DVD.

Also, today was the start of the Formula 1 season. The Australian Grand Prix was quite an eventful race. There were so many crashes, only 8 of the 24 cars finished the race. I can't remember this ever happening, especially when it wasn't raining. It's going to be a busy week for the mechanics because the next Grand Prix is just one week away in Malaysia.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008

Jamie Morris : LA Derby Dolls Roller Derby : LA Derby Dolls: Sirens vs. Fight Crew
LA Derby Dolls: Sirens vs. Fight Crew
LA Derby Dolls Roller Derby

Tonight I checked out the LA Derby Dolls, an all-women's banked track roller derby league. Tonight's game was between the Sirens and the Fight Crew at The Doll Factory in Historic Filipinotown. They have games about once a month and they always sellout. After the national anthems (the Filipino and American national anthems were both sung), the teams were introduced. The players have names like Broadzilla, Crystal Deth, Amber Alert, Kung POW Tina, and Paris Killton. The game has four 12 minute quarters with a 30 minute halftime break. The rules are pretty easy to learn and it's a lot of fun to watch, especially with the announcers giving the hilarious play by play. I'm definitely going back next month.

Also since my last update, I finally used some of my Kings season tickets and saw a couple of games against Ottawa and Montreal. I'm not renewing my tickets next year. It's partially because the Kings have done so poorly in the past two years, but it has more to do with the scheduling of the games and the teams they play. Sometimes there are 4 games in one week, sometimes there's no games for weeks. They play some teams 4-5 times each season, and some teams haven't been here in years.

I also saw a few movies in the past couple of weeks: In Bruges was hilarious, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days was amazing (but not hilarious), and I Am Legend was a complete waste of time (luckily I did not pay for it).

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