Watchmen

I don't know anything about this comic book series, other than hearing the name mentioned from time to time in passing.

However, I saw the trailer for the new movie and it looks pretty cool, I must say.

It's directed by the same guy who directed "300", which, visually, was amazing.

So, it'll be another big production that I'm looking forward to in the coming year (like "Star Trek", The Day the Earth Stood Still" and anything with Dwayne Johnson, of course).

If you haven't seen the trailer to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (with Keanu Reeves), you may enjoy it here...

Looks like cool effects AND Kathy Bates is in it too...

Enjoyable.

Emmy Nominations

The funny Kristen Chenowith and Neil Patrick Harris got up early this morning to announce the Emmy Nominations.

They also ended up being nominated themselves, which was a nice surprise to each of them, as you'll see by the clip above. They both made the normally bland reading of the nominations a bit fun for a change.

I'm very happy that several of my favorites got nominated this year. People like Kathy Griffin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Glenn Close, Jean Smart, Cynthia Nixon, Laura Dern, Tina Fey, Tim Conway, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Gless, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Steve Carell, Sally Field, Mary Louis-Parker, Judi Dench, Chandra Wilson, Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest, Alfre Woodard, Laura Linney, Michael Emerson (Ben on "Lost") and James Spader.

I'm also happy to see that "The Office", "30 Rock", "Brothers and Sisters", "Amazing Race", "Extras", "Boston Legal" and "My Life on the D-List" were all nominated shows in their catagories.

I am VERY happy to see that the horrible remake of the movie "Sybil" didn't get anything.

I do love Jessica Lange, but I hope that she was able to collect a nice paycheck and then take a LONG vacation after that fiasco.

Here is the complete list of Emmy Nominations if you'd like to take a peek.

Here I go again....

I'm really looking forward to this movie opening this weekend.

I saw the play a few years ago and had such a good time. The way they used the ABBA music within the story is a lot of fun and you can't help leaving the theater humming many of the familiar tunes.

Besides Meryl Streep (who is always good and can actually sing), the movie also has a couple other of my favorite actresses....Christine Baranski and Julie Walters.



I know it's opening the same weekend as "Batman", so its box office will certainly pale in comparrison.

But, I think the movies are geared towards completely different audiences. So, let's hope that women drag their husbands/boyfriends to see "Mama Mia" after they've sat through "Batman".

If the movie is anywhere near as good as the play, it should be a fun night out!

Update: Seems that "Mama Mia" opened in the number one spot at the UK box office last weekend.

Take THAT "Hancock" (which I also enjoyed)!

Hey Mikey!

Well, I was able to get caught up on my TV last night and watched the latest episode of HGTV's "Design Star".

Turns out that they eliminated the annoying gal, Tracee, that I mentioned last week AND the gay cop that I was rooting for, Mikey V. Tracee definitely deserved to leave and, since they had to choose another one based on their hosting abilities....I guess that Mikey V. also had to go.

He was a little Sylvester Stallone in his delivery.

Ironically, over the weekend, it was also reported that Mikey V. had a brief gay porn background when he was younger. Evidently he filmed a few S&M videos back in the day. There was no mention of it on the show, thankfully.



I think it'll be interesting to find out if he actually went back to the police force now that it's all out in the open.

I imagine the handcuff jokes might not ever end if he did....

Puttering around the gardens

Since our flight wasn't supposed to leave Denver until 9:10 last night, we checked out at noon, stored our bags at the hotel, then headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens for the afternoon.







Although the temperatures had scooted back up into the 90's, we still managed to balance our time between shade and sun enough to avoid bursting into flames. They had a nice variety of plants and water features covering quite a few acres of land on the outskirts of the city.









Botanical gardens are always a nice way to spend a few hours in any city. Of course, if you're deathly allergic to bees, you might want to have a plan B (or at least have a syringe of antibiotics nearby to have someone thrust into your heart in case one of the gazillion bees nearby decides to pay you an unexpected visit).









This particular plant sounds like it would be best stored near your manscaping supplies...



After we were done plant cruising, we headed out into the Cheesman Park area (just outside the gardens). It's a lovely residential area with cool old houses and apartments and a large park (and former cemetary) that looks towards the city.





We wandered around there for a bit, then, with a few more hours to fill, got a ride to the nearby Wrangler bar where rumor had it they had a famous beer bust and BBQ every Sunday.



You pay $8 at for a plastic cup and then there are people wandering around with pitchers of beer and they just keep refilling your cup for the next four hours (or until you pass out from all the hurling).

It would seem a shame to miss this "site" on our trip, don't you think?

Since we needed to leave for the airport around 6:30, we didn't get anywhere near as intoxicated as I'm sure most of the Marys (around 800) that were packed into that bar/parking lot did.



We got back to the Curtis Hotel, grabbed our luggage, said goodbyes and then headed to the airport. Of course, once we got through security and to the gate, it turned out that our flight had been delayed for an hour and a half....so, we ended up not getting back into LA until after midnight.

It's probably just as well that we didn't know about the delay while we were at the bar. I think it would have been very easy for us to have had a few hundred more beers and then found some ridiculous way to justify a reason to stay one more night...cause we're having "SO much fun!" (ie-drunk off of our asses).

Those kinds of "revelations" always make so much more sense when you're drunk, than when you wake up the next morning with a raging headache and an intestinal typhoon sweeping its way through your system.

We were just lucky....this time.

Oh, I also got an email today from Anne, the woman in Scotland that I ended up hiking with up Arthur's Pass in New Zealand. It was so nice to hear from her! She was great fun to hang out with and, with the way she describes Scotland, it only makes me want to go visit that country even more.



So many places to see, so few winning lotto numbers...

Grrr....animals

It finally cooled down to about 85 today, so we headed off to the Denver Zoo.

There were quite a variety of animals there and they all seemed to be pretty happy, all things considered (I mean, they are confined and hardly living the dream-life somewhere in the wild).











This one looks like Dame Maggie Smith...



It also seemed that we encountered a variety of animals who had partied a bit too hardy the night before....







After many hours wandering around the animals and a surprising amount of Far Side-looking people (oddly shaped people with small heads and large bodies), we headed back into town.

On the way back, we stopped by the Brown Palace Hotel. Contrary to its poo-sounding name, it's one of Denver's oldest and most famous hotels and was named after the infamous Unsinkable Molly Brown (portrayed by multi-talented Kathy Bates in the movie "Titanic"), a Denver native.






Molly Brown moved into this historic hotel after selling her large mansion (also a city landmark) in the city.

She lived here until she died (Molly Brown, not Kathy Bates....she's still very much alive).

It's a beautifully ornate old hotel. So much detail and history....you feel it as soon as you walk in. I'm sure it would be an amazing place to stay, if one has boxes of cash to spend. We didn't....so we breezed through, took a few pictures and a set of salt and pepper shakers....then left.





After that. we walked down the famous 16th Street Mall, got something to eat and then headed back to the hotel for our last night here in the city.

I can't believe how fast our trip has gone. We weren't able to get up to the mountains (the Alpine train doesn't run in the summer) or to Boulder (after we got here, I got several emails from people suggesting we go there), but we got to see a very nice variety of sights and people right here in the city.

It's been a great visit and I look forward to heading back this way again.

Artsy Fartsy

Today was a chilly 98 degrees, so we decided to head to a cooler destination...the Denver Art Museum.







The new museum has a very modern design and is connected to the old museum next door by a bridge tunnel. Again...no need to go outside once you're inside.

Enjoyable.







This guy was on pins and needles....



They even had a Phyllis Diller display...



There was also this weird looking 3D huge scruffy head with moist lips...the only thing missing was the BO smell.



Speaking of weird....this museum, like all of them around the world, had their share of creepy dolls.







On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Capitol Building...very governmenty, isn't it?





Denver has a very good energy about it and, unlike LA, everyone can walk around downtown and not have to worry about being harrassed by a homeless person or drug addict every few steps.



A very nice change....