MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008

Jamie Morris : Miss Li, Marya Roxx, and Iron Man : Miss Li @ House of Blues
Miss Li @ House of Blues
Miss Li, Marya Roxx, and Iron Man

I think I'm too old to stay out late on Mondays. The night started off with a preview screening of Iron Man at the ArcLight. I ended up liking it a lot more than I though I would. It's a really fun movie, but I'm still more excited about Indiana Jones although I'll be in Japan when it comes out. After the movie, I went over to the House of Blues in Hollywood for the Musexpo 2008 international showcase and saw a couple of bands. First was Marya Roxx, a 21 year-old hard rock chick from Estonia. She reminded me of a heavy metal version of Avril Lavigne. She was entertaining on stage but the songs weren't that great. Next was the act I came to see, Miss Li from Sweden. She plays piano and sings cute songs that mix pop, jazz, and lots of other styles. She was really good live. Here's one of her videos:



Then I went home and got not enough sleep.

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SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2008

Jamie Morris : S.W.A.T. Charity Car Show and Memorial Drive : Riding in the Cobra
Riding in the Cobra
S.W.A.T. Charity Car Show and Memorial Drive

This morning I went to the Motor4Toys S.W.A.T. Support Charity Car Show and Memorial Drive at Pierce College in Woodland Hills with my friend Les and his AC Cobra. The show was to honor Randal Simmons, the first SWAT officer ever to be killed in the line of duty, and his injured partner James Veenstra and their families. There were thousands of cars on display and several hundred went on the four-mile police escorted ride on streets surrounding the college. There were lots of cool cars. My favorite was a blue Ferrari. Maybe someday it will be my first car. Until then, I'll ride my Vespa. After the show, they auctioned off a bunch of things with the proceeds going to the families. I wanted to bid on a 2.5 hour ride in an LAPD helicopter during one of their shifts, but it went for over $2000 with all the Ferrari owners on hand.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2008

Jamie Morris : Biking, Green Apple Festival, SuperClasico : Biking at the Beach (Elliot, Kristina, Jamie, Michelle)
Biking at the Beach (Elliot, Kristina, Jamie, Michelle)
Biking, Green Apple Festival, SuperClasico

I think summer has arrived early. While it's been too hot in most parts of LA the past few weeks, it's absolutely perfect here at the beach in Santa Monica which means it's been perfect for biking. I've been riding on the beach bike path every weekend lately now that I've fixed my flat tire issue. It turns out my crappy pump wasn't inflating my tires enough and it was causing my rear tire tube to puncture and go flat. So I invested in a Topeak JoeBlow Pro Floor Pump with a built-in pressure guage and my problems seem to be solved. I also replaced my piece of junk $10 bike computer with a Cateye Strada Wireless Bicycle Computer so I should be good to go for the summer.

On Sunday, I stopped by the Santa Monica Pier for the Green Apple Festival, an Earth Day music festival going on in 8 cities around the country. When I arrived, the School of Rock Hollywood Allstars were on stage. It was a bunch of teens performing Pantera's "Walk" which was pretty funny. Then an even younger kid with long hair and sunglasses came out and sang Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher". I wish I had gotten there earlier because that was the last song.

And tonight I rode my Vespa down to Carson for the first Honda SuperClasico of 2008. The SuperClasico is the rivalry between the two Major League Soccer teams in Los Angeles (LA Galaxy and Chivas USA). It was a great game. The game went back and forth for awhile with the score tied at 2-2 in the 62nd minute. But then the Galaxy scored three unanswered goals in 10 minutes and won 5-2. Landon Donovan got a hat trick. Beckham got an assist. Good game!

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FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008

Jamie Morris : At The Mission Tiki Drive-In : 50th Anniversary T-shirt Design
50th Anniversary T-shirt Design
At The Mission Tiki Drive-In

Tonight I went to a drive-in theater for the first time. I saw a double feature at the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre in Montclair, CA. There are four screens at the Mission Tiki, each showing a double feature of first run movies for only $7/person. The movies I saw, Forbidden Kingdom and Rambo, were not that great, but the experience was really cool. Watching a film stretched out in reclined car seat is a lot more comfortable than sitting in a theater. You don't need to attach speakers, you just tune your radio to an FM station to get the audio in your car speakers. It was great. The only problem was, since you're still in LA, the sky doesn't get that dark and if you're watching movies with a lot of dark scenes like I was, the screen isn't as easy to see as if you were sitting in a dark theater. But overall, I liked it more than being in a theater.

I also saw a few films in real theaters recently as well... The Sigur Rós film Heima documenting a series of concerts they played last summer in their home country of Iceland. Really good music and really good scenery, but really hard to stay awake for after a day of work. I think I fell asleep once at one of their concerts a few years back as well. It's just too relaxing. The other film I saw was The Bank Job, a really good film based on the true-story of a famous bank robbery in London in the 1970s.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008

Jamie Morris : Young@Heart Chorus Live On Stage : Young @ Heart at the Wilshire Theatre
Young @ Heart at the Wilshire Theatre
Young@Heart Chorus Live On Stage

Tonight I saw the Young@Heart Chorus perform a special show at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills. Young @ Heart is an elderly singing group made up of senior citizens from a Northhampton, MA housing project. The performers, most in their 70s and 80s sing songs from the 60s to the 90s and their really good. Tonight they sang songs by The Ramones, Nirvana, Radiohead, Queen, Sonic Youth, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springteen, The Rolling Stones, and more. I haven't seen it yet, but there's a new documentary film about these guys in theaters now called "Young At Heart". Here's the trailer:



And here's a music video they did for "Staying Alive" that they showed during the concert:



There are lots of other great clips on YouTube. If they ever play a show near you, you have to go.

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MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008

Jamie Morris : Posh, Becks, Kate, Donita, Juno, and Drew! : Victoria Beckham and Kate Beckinsale
Victoria Beckham and Kate Beckinsale
Posh, Becks, Kate, Donita, Juno, and Drew!

I had a bunch of celebrity citings this weekend. On Saturday, I saw Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page in the crowd at the Fight Crew vs. Tough Cookies roller derby game. L7's Donita Sparks was also there singing the national anthem. Does that count? Drew and Ellen were obviously doing research for their upcoming roller derby film Whip It! which is written by an LA Derby Doll. Then on Sunday, my favorite spice girl was in attendance at the LA Galaxy vs FC Toronto soccer match with her pal Kate Beckinsale. David Beckham and Landon Donovan weren't able to keep the Galaxy from losing this one 3-2. Hopefully El Pescadito will be back soon.

Also since my last posting, I saw a few movies... Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Stop-Loss, and Shine A Light. Even though I'm not the biggest Rolling Stones fan, Shine A Light was a really cool show.

And finally, last week I started a beginning Brazilian Portuguese class at Beverly Hills Adult School. They offer really cheap language classes and they just started offering Portuguese, so I'm very excited. The first class went really well. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss a couple classes next month while I'm on vacation in Japan and Korea. More on that later...

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THURSDAY, APRIL 03, 2008

Jamie Morris : We Got Sexy Football : Beckham Scores His First MLS Goal
Beckham Scores His First MLS Goal
We Got Sexy Football

After starting the season with an embarrasing 4-0 loss in Colorado in which leading scorer Carlos Ruiz was injured, the Galaxy came home to beat San Jose 2-0 at opening night in the Home Depot Center. David Beckham scored his first MLS goal by putting a pass from Landon Donovan right between former Galaxy goalkeeper Joe Cannon's legs. The two combined again a few minutes later when Beckham lobbed a ball to Donovan who chipped it over Cannon's head and into the goal. This was the "new" San Jose Earthquakes first game. These original Earthquakes played for 10 years in San Jose before moving to Texas and becoming the Houston Dynamo. The new Earthquakes are owned by the Oakland A's owners and contain a bunch of former Galaxy players. Which led to some "Galaxy Rejects" chants. Speaking of chants, I ended up sitting (standing actually) in the Angel City Brigade supporter's section. It was a good enviroment with most of the people in the section standing and singing songs for most of the game including classics like:

(to the tune of "We're not gonna take it")

We Got Sexy Football
We Got Sexy Football
We Got Sexy Football
And You Dooooooon't

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