Friday, July 11, 2008

Ironman and Bugs Bunny

On my last day of freedom before tour kicks in,
Wendy and I went to the 2 exhibits at the Academy of Motion Pictures, home of the Oscar...

the first, a mind-blowing collection of hand-drawn animation cels laid out in such a way that each looked like a jewel in a crown. from Bugs Bunny lathering the head of an unsuspecting victim with his toes...to the gorgeous 60's drawings of Gay Purreee...Sleeping Beauty's dragon battle...and Queen Malecifent...Lock, stock & Barrel from Nightmare...
SO many of these pieces I wanted to look at every day, no photos allowed though, so i can not show them here--but they will live in my mind. Amazing what a human can create.

Upstairs at the exhibit of set decoration, photography was allowed. They had assembled several set pieces from GET SMART, INDY 4, SPIDERWICK, MUMMY 3, IRONMAN and more. The attention to detail, incredible. Can you see the name on the checkbook on Indiana Jones' desk? The tiny labels in the Spiderwick set? The tiles on the floor of the Jet Li character in Mummy 3 are the only thing made here in USA, all the rest was crafted in China, as accurately as possible, copied from original pieces. The tile was reproduced from an original, but the work was done here. Going with Wendy was fascinating, as she was able to tell me, step by step, how things can be recreated.












Outside, we took off our shoes and put our feet in the sinky green grass outside the Academy, our version of Graumann's cement footprints.



These exhibits are free, up until August 24th. Go see them: 8949 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA.
your homework: go to the movies and help to support this kind of amazing work....

tomorrow I leave on tour, and i will not have many days of down time. Will try to post as often as I can.

Friday, July 04, 2008

kitty's latest tour dates

getting things organized to go back on the road, these seem to be the most up-to-the-minute dates...
time to get back on the tourbus!

JONAS BROTHERS w/AVRIL LAVIGNE


7.12.08 Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7.13.08 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
7.14.08 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
7.15.08 San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View
7.16.08 Wheatland, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
7.17.08 Concord, CA Sleep Train Pavilion

7.19.08 Denver, CO Coors Amphitheatre at Fiddler's Green

7.21.08 Omaha, NE Qwest Center Omaha
7.22.08 St. Louis, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7.23.08 Indianapolis, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center

7.25.08 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium & Star Pavilion
7.26.08 Hartford, CT New England Dodge Music Center

7.28.08 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
7.29.08 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte
7.30.08 Raleigh, NC Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek
8.1.08 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
8.2.08 Saratoga Springs, NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center

8.6.08 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
8.7.08 Boston, MA Comcast Center
8.8.08 Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
8.9.08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
8.10.08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
8.11.08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden

8.14.08 Bethel, NY Bethel Woods Center for The Arts
8.15.08 Buffalo, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
8.16.08 Homdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center

8.18.08 Washington DC, Nissan Pavilion
8.19.08 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater
8.20.08 Atlanta, GA Lakewood Amphitheatre

8.22.08 Cleveland, OH Blossom Music Center
8.23.08 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
8.24.08 Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre

8.26.08 Pittsburgh, PA Post-Gazette Pavilion
8.27.08 Philadelphia, PA Susquehanna Bank Center

8.29.08 Syracuse, NY New York State Fair
8.30.08 Allentown, PA Great Allentown Fair
8.31.08 Essex Junction, VT The Champlain Valley Exposition

9.2.08 University Park, PA Bryce Jordan Center

9.4.08 Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre
9.5.08 West Palm Beach, FL Cruzan Amphitheatre

FLY HOME!!!!

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

HELLBOY 2 and the week of magic....

Drew came home to see me at the same time as Red came home
from tour
and FabLo came to visit from Minneapolis...
thanks go to Pantagruel Val for picking her up at LAX...

it was Grand Central Treehouse.

It was also the same time that George Michael came to town,
so we had a little roadie reunion.
and can i just say: his show was amazing---
some people have it! He thanked the crowd for
spending their non-existant money on his show
and also congradulated CA on being a place where
he can legally marry his partner.

if i can ever retrieve the photos of Red dancing
that I took on her iPhone, you can see the dazzling video screens
and the blur that is our Ace, dancing with stars in her eyes...
GM is tall, handsome and by all reports, a dream to work for.
this is good news. Mel and John are both on that tour,
and they are some of my favorite roadies.

The next day was Malena's Midnight Chocolate event.
photos!

Malena vamped up the store mannekins with her corsets and her Gothic Statue of Libertyness style:




here are some of the jewelry designs...




i lost count of Maddy's bat cookies that i comsumed...perfect blend of purple and melty sugar...mmmm



Cesar showed up!

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we stayed until the late hours...
Lorraine saved the day by getting the correct cups and the luscious strawberries...

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now, here is whre Quiche would tell me to end my blog, but i have to continue...so much happened in just a short time..

we went to the flea market where we all found treasures,
mine being a print entitled "House of Shadows" numbered 5/8 and signed by Welch dated 1961.
when i saw it, i knew it had to be mine, i didn't care that it had some festering masking tape on the back,
and a hideous orange mat framing it. I was ready to bargain, and when the sweet old guy, said, "five bucks"--i couldn't believe my luck. I will give this beauty a new life. future heirloom!

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Spinky found a dragon bracelet, that the seller was telling us the "drummer for Duran Duran" was just looking at it, funny, I said, he is in Europe on tour---DOH! then he said, well, maybe it was Billy Idol. slick! Red bought two oustanding neckpieces, an in-perfect-shape Monet long drop and a faux opal (fopal?) tiered number.



QUiche found the stunning amethyst necklace, a woman stopped her on the way, to alert her of its' value, and sure enough, when we looked it up on line, she found that she was the tomb raider deal-breaker. Best deal of the day!

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that afternoon we went to the Vista to see WANTED. Glad that Quiche and Malena liked it, i had a few problems with it,
but some delicious action sequences....bending bullets and an unbelievable train wreck....and of course, Angie.

that night, it was full-on karaoke!
here Drew wails on Metallica's Whiskey in the Jar at Quiche's request.
there are some more photos, but must get the a-ok from our MMM.

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the next day Quiche was leaving, so we went over to Melrose and shopped among the dead things in Necromance, I needed a wedding present for a friend who collects that sort of thing, yes, Chris X is getting married. Sending out the best wishes!!!

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It was coming up on Drew's last night in town, before he went back to his tour. Malena and MIles invited us to see a pre-release screening of HELLBOY 2, which really delivered on the goods.
Any movie that starts off with snowfall and Christmas music, you know I am in.
Terrific monsters and while I don't want to give anything away,
i am rethinking the myth of the Tooth Fairy.
They even gave us each sawed-off Hellboy horns. Remind me to photograph Malena in hers, she looked so cute in them--

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Meeting Guillermo del Toro after the screening was dreamy, and since they took our cameras away, I made a little sketch--
he is a visionary artist and a very funny warm heart of a man. I missed the first Hellboy, although I am a big fan of the BRPD comics, but I didn't need backstory or re-cap, this film stood alone. I highly recommend it.
I will be hard-pressed to beat this week. We still have half the year to try though...
leaving on tour next week-----xo