Gate 4 of the WB lot

I was invited to attend a press screening of the upcoming film The Astronaut Farmer starring Billy Bob Thornton for a review at Film School Rejects. I was also invited to the press day event where I could ask questions to the stars of the film, but it's during the day while I'm at my real job. No matter though, I'm always excited to see films in general, never mind for an advanced showing or for free. In the past, I had been able to see Crash and Little Miss Sunshine before mass audiences this way too and a couple of others.  

So last Thursday, after work I headed up to the Valley, which is a big hike from West LA, especially during rush hour. It took a little under two hours to go like what was probably 20 miles total. I took some windey back roads to avoid the highways though and only got lost once when I had to enter someone's HUGE driveway and turn around. When I finally arrived, I was told to pull up to gate 4 and provide security with my details since my name was on their list. Meanwhile, gate 4 is iconic, it leads right to their famous WB water tower shown in their branding, logo and of course in Animaniacs. I started to get a little star struck by the lot itself and it's history. I've been to Sony recently to see a taping of King of Queens, but there's something very old school Hollywood about Warner Bros, as if I could hear the score from Casablanca playing in the distance and Katharine Hepburn peddling a bike past my car. Check-in and parking went smoothly and I snapped a picture of the water tower with my camera figuring it would be too dark to appear correctly but it did. 

The theater for the screening was basic and was on the second floor above regular office space, although James Cagney screen shots were framed along the corridors, otherwise you'd think you were about to watch a school lecture. So far the best screening room I've ever been to was at the bottom of the Tribeca Grand Hotel to see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (the seats were like LaZ Boys. Anyway, I digress, the event was well attended with press filling the non-elevated theater. I didn't mingle but read the FAQ and materials I was given on the credits and back story of the film.  Then the movie started, minus coming attractions and I scrutinized and enjoyed. I originally had no intention of seeing this film in theaters, but was surprised to find that it was quite enjoyable. 

You can read my full film review at Film School Rejects--The Astronaut Farmer.

Speaking of films, I also finally NetFlix'd Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which was pretty powerful and interesting, albeit depressing. It's up for Best Documentary at this year's Oscars; I'm rooting for it. 

In other Web appearances, check out my little rant on my office's blog about Public Relations is in need of some PR—myths about our field. 

Forgive me for I have sinned

According to the “Top 10 Sins of blog Usability,” #10 is sending mixed messages. The article by Linda Bustos and sent via SiteProNews reads, "the focus of your blog should be decided before your first post and then committed to. Random blog entries about a melee of topics might work for a personal blog read by friends and family, but is not a good approach for a serious, professional blog. The lifeblood of any blog is in its loyal subscriber base. And readers are more willing to subscribe to blogs that talk about their area of interest on a consistent basis. Or start a separate blog on that topic and cross-link your blogs."

I guess When Tara Met Blog has committed a sin then since my site jumps from being a travel blog to a food blog to whatever I'm doing or liking blog. I guess that’s ok since it’s not technically a professional blog, but I do have a professional degree in writing and my blog has been around for over 2 years with a good deal of traffic and attention, so shouldn’t it be considered a 'professional' blog? It's just one covering unprofessional topics. Anyway, for those who’ve been here before know that although my blog topics can be considered random they do have my personal touch to them. I generally describe my posts as a telling of adventures, mishaps and observations in my life.  Enjoy.

Only angels have wings?

Not any longer. The fashion world has angel fever and wings are appearing on clothes, purses and in jewelry.

I've been wanting some wings ever since Jennifer Aniston sported some throughout the film The Break Up. So, I just ordered a very pretty Guardian Angel gold plated necklace ($16.50) and earrings through SimplyMyStyle.com. They also have them in silver, but being Italian I love gold ;)

 

The founder of SimplyMyStyle, Angela Blair, says The Guardian Angel set is also a favorite of hers. The site has many new jewelry styles at reasonable prices and the personal customer service that I experienced when ordering was really awesome and the set came in a cute plastic Chinese take-out box. 

I was sent

these lovely flowers, which arrived at my office from my sweetie. They are an assortment of tulips & roses, and have crab apples on sticks and floating at the base of the square vase. Definitely original and eye catching.

This is actually my first ever Valentine's Day that I'm not single. It brings the card giving "friendship" holiday to a new level. When coworker jokingly said she hated my boyfriend when she saw my flowers and another said they loved him. Hehe. I love getting flowers at work. Now I'm crazy flower lady instead of package lady.

We actually had went out for dinner yesterday though at Border Grill, because it was also our one year anniversary since our first date, which works out because we didn't have the dinner crowds due to VDay. Tonight we're chilling at home with some red champagne that we got from our trip to Temecula in December.

I wasn't the only one to get flowers this week though, I sent my mother two dozen assorted roses in a red vase. I only hope they make it to her door in the current bad winter weather on the East coast. 

Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone. 

The pirates life for me

My mother’s dream vacation of sailing the virgin islands unfortunately started off with a few hitches. My mom and stepdad arrived two days before us to stock the sailboat with supplies and food, but found the boat had a flood in the engine and generator which needed immediate attention. Not good. My stepdad spent the next three days working hard with an electrician and boat handyman to fix it so we could get up and running. As a result, our sail was delayed two days even after we arrived, but the last five days made up for it and there are worse things than being “grounded” in St. Thomas anyway ;) 

Once the boat was up and sailing without worry of a fire or other such difficulties we sailed to a new US and British Virgin Island each of our five remaining days, mooring at Jost Von Dyke, Marina K in Tortola, Norman Island, Peter Island and St. John. We snorkeled almost every day and sometimes even twice, we also went kayaking and did some light hiking and exploring. Once we started sailing though we were probably on land less than 5 hours total our entire trip, since we lived in the water and on the 47 foot boat called We Be Jazzin. Each night it would rain and we’d wake up to close all the hatches on the boat and suffocate until things cleared up which luckily it did each day.

I think I must have picked up a little head cold on our seven+ hour plane ride to Puerto Rico and jump over to St. Thomas though since I had a sore throat and runny nose throughout our trip and even passed it along to my mom and boyfriend near the end. Luckily, being in the warm air and beautiful islands it was hard to stay sick, I only really felt it at night as I tried to sleep.

At Norman Island we re-visited Pirates (formerly Billy Bones), which is a fun bar where everyone writes on the ceilings and walls. Unfortunately my scribblings from 1998 had been painted over with newer graffiti. However, I found a free beam to write/advertise the following:

I wonder if anyone will visit here because of it? I spotted someone else had done the same and wrote stickfiguremusic.com up in the rafters and I just checked it out, so who knows. Would be interesting to have someone spot it and then come to see what I'm about. 

Overall I’m rested, tan and had a lovely vacation. I’ve never seen such clear waters or such amazing reefs. Everyone got along well, I held my own in Scrabble competitions (came in 2nd), finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and even got to swim with a turtle. I also bought a big bead necklace that looks like this one offered at Newport News but in red and chunkier like those Hawaiian beans. Here are some photos from the trip: