New* Things #5: Boomtown Brewery

Boomtown Brewery is, like many DTLA breweries, tucked away a bit but it’s worth heading off the beaten path to check it out. I’m a fan of the Mic Czech and Bad Hombre beers and it’s a decent spot to watch a game. I’ve been here for their karaoke night but the space is a bit too big and the stage a bit too high for my liking. I always prefer my karaoke as a sing-a-long rather than a solo performance and this is a kind of place where groups will cheer on their friend but often go back to talking when someone they don’t know is up on stage. The vibe was so off for me that I didn’t even bother putting my name in. They do have a Tuesday night trivia night that I might try to check out one of these days though.

In the end, it feels like it’s best suited for a place for a big group event - birthdays or corporate parties but I feel that way about a lot of breweries. It is definitely not a place to go in you’re looking to mingle and meet people. Even the pool tables feel more like a group signing up for the table rather than a running game. It is still a great place to go if you’re waiting for the doors to open at The Morocccan Lounge, which is right down the street.

New Things #4: Jesse Roper

I was wondering if I should count this as two new things because this is also the first time that I’ve ever seen opener Ali Angel but I feel like that’s too much. For my 500 New Things challenge, I’m only going to count the headliner of concerts. Although in this case, I will say that I might have liked the opener more. And I did laugh when she performed this song because she opened by saying the song is “She Says It’s Alright” but that a lot of people think it says “Jesus said it’s alright” and I have to side with the lot of people because it absolutely sounds like that.

Unfortunately for Jesse Roper, he had a couple of sound issues to deal with and his opener is apparently from LA so she had a bigger crowd than he did. Always a bummer to see the crowd file out after the first act. Still, Jesse didn’t let him phase him and he came out and put on a great show. I learned from Jesse from my addiction to MLB The Show ‘26. He has a song on there and I dug it although I did think it had to be a cover since it has such a classic feel to it.

All in all, not the most memorable evening of the year but it was a good Saturday night.

New* Things #3: The Morroccan Lounge

The Moroccan Lunge is a small music venue in the northern part of Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. When you first walk in, there’s a bar area and then the stage area is in the back. They claim that the capacity is 250 people but that seems like it would be VERY uncomfortable. One pro-tip that I learned is that there is a kind of bench in the back of the stage area to sit on but you are also allowed to stand on it so for more packed shows, that’s probably the second best place to be if you can’t get near the front.

The sound guy did not have the best night. The vocals were sometimes too loud and the keyboard player for the headliner was set to 0 for the first two songs. When he launched into a solo, everyone was kind of staring at him in confusion until the lead singer finally said, “Wait, can any of you hear him?” After a loud NO! and the singer saying “C’mon, turn that shit up!”, the sound guy finally turned the volume up on the keyboards.

Still, I like smaller shows and this is a solid venue. Based on tonight, I would recommend it as a date spot but that’s because the music in the bar area was low. I went on a date here years ago and it was a disaster. The music was loud, I couldn’t hear my date. We went for Live Band Karaoke which was a mess because you put your song in and then there’s basically a lottery to see who sings but if someone else chose your song, then there’s another lottery to see who gets to sing. Given this set-up, you’d think they would show which songs are going to be played but, no, it’s only like one or two songs ahead that are listed, and since you can only put one song in, you could just stand there with no hopes of ever getting on stage. Which is what happened to my date and I. It was just not a fun night but this latest visit gives me hope for the future. Well, for others, I’ve given up on dating. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

Recxpectations: Digger

New Thing #2 is Digger, the latest from Alejandro González Iñárritu and Tom Cruise. The Google synopsis is: “After unleashing a disaster that threatens to destroy everything, the most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove that he's humanity's saviour.”

Since it’s a new blog attempt, I’ll re-explain that Recxpectations are my spoiler free approach to movie reviews. I think a key to the moviegoing experience is people’s expectations going into the film and these posts are my attempt to tell people where I think there head should be - they are my Recommended Expectations - when they go into the theater. Because I also think lower expectations are better, these are usually a bit more pessimistic but I think they are always fair. I still try to be somewhat objective in my approach but over the years of doing this, I came to realize that that objectivity is kind of impossible. My feelings on the film will always infect this approach so it makes more sense to acknowledge where I myself am coming from while still trying to be as open minded to the fact that each person reading it will have their own individual response to the movie.

EXPECT: ANOTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER LECTURE
I feel like this film boils down to two or three monologues and the rest is just kind of noise. I refer to these as Tik Tok movies; films where, if all you caught was three highlights on TikTok, you really wouldn’t have missed much. Much like the last big environmental disaster movie “Don’t Look Up”, this isn’t a film that is going to change any minds. It’s another expensive sermon to the choir.

DON’T EXPECT: A TON OF LAUGHS
The film is supposed to be a hilarious satire. I didn’t find it funny at all and I wasn’t alone. The theater I saw it in was packed and there was only a smattering of laughs at the jokes. A surprising amount of the humor is pretty base; maybe the more clever jokes went over my head but I wouldn’t call this a smart movie, in terms of the comedy.

EXPECT: A CULT INDIE COMEDY
A few people in the audience did find the film literally laugh out loud hilarious. When the film ended, one person vigorously applauded but a few people scoffed at him for doing. The couple that was walking behind me after the film agreed that the film was “interesting” but it wasn’t a very energetic or inspired utterance. This seems like a film that will have an island of very vocal supporters in a sea of detractors and I’m very interested to see how the film ages. I feel like Iñárritu’s movies haven’t been doing well as the years go by. Amores Perros is still held in high regard and I feel like the fans of Biutiful are getting a bit more vocal but Birdman usually only comes up when people talk about questionable/forgettable Oscar winners and The Revenant’s critics seem to be taking over the narrative on that film.

EXPECT: A CHALLENGER FOR WORST B-STORY OF THE YEAR
There’s a side story in this movie that reeks of Tom Cruise demanding it be added to help give his character more depth. I could be dead wrong about that but either way, this film’s side story would be hands down the most unnecessary one that I’ve seen in years if Lobo in Supergirl didn’t exist. I feel like Jason Mamoa’s character was added simply to get guys to the theaters; in the film itself, that character was completely unnecessary. Now that I’m typing this, Lobo is still worse but maybe I’ll make him most unnecessary character of the year and give most thrown in/half-assed b-story award to this one. I can’t imagine that there will be a worse one in the next few months.

MY TAKE: There was enough to this film that I wasn’t bored - although I did think the end started to drag - and the script makes some interesting choices along the way that elevates things but ultimately, I can’t say that I really enjoyed my two hours in the theater. Compared to “Don’t Look Up” - a film I truly disliked - I’d say that this is a much better movie but a worse comedy. I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from seeing it but if you’re on the fence, I kind of doubt that it will win you over. I think most people - like the couple from my showing - will leave the theater halfheartedly thinking it was interesting… and then they’ll never think of it ever again.

New* Things #1 - Alamo Drafthouse

Well, I was heading towards a day that would have been an F on Day Grader but I salvaged it by getting out of the house and knocking off four new things - two of which were new new. So let’s kick off the chase to 500 New Things!

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is my go-to spot because I have their monthly pass. I have the basic version - they recently introduced a new Unlimited version of their season pass - and I basically just have to go to two movies a month and I break even. Usually that isn’t two difficult but this year has been rough; just a lot of movies that I have no interest in. And I almost cancelled my ticket for yesterday’s movie but my aforementioned F day - I was basically on the couch on Instagram watching people get pranked all day - pushed me towards getting outside and actually doing something, anything that day.

While I like my season pass, I’m sad to say that the Alamo has gone the route that many companies go when they are bought by a big corporation. Alamo Drafthouse was struggling and pretty much needed to sell to stay alive so I can’t blame them but once Sony bought them and took over, the quality of the food crashed. They used to have a really good soft pretzel and now they switched to giving you three flavorless soft pretzel rods. I’ve spoken to other people and they felt the same way about the food. They also initiated an order by phone approach to getting your food and drinks which is annoying to me; I don’t want to have to pull out my phone in order to get a refill of soda during the film. And I’m definitely getting a refill because a glass of soda is almost 9 bucks.

My other concern is that I’ve run into more movies that don’t have morning or late night shows. I love going to the movies to kick off my Saturday but I feel like the 10am showings have disappeared. And during the week, I usually don’t get off of work until 8 or 9 and I’ve run into a number of films that don’t have a showing after the 7pm one.

Finally, the theaters are small so if there’s a big film that needs to be seen on the big screen, it’s probably better to go to the Regal at LA Live for those. The Regal also has 4DX which I recommend everyone try once. Make sure it’s a movie you don’t really care about that also has a lot of different weather conditions for the most fun. It looks like The Odyssey was a crazy time. I saw the first Jurassic World there and I have to say, the distractions of 4DX made me enjoy the movie more than I should have. When the film popped up on streaming, I put it on and was amazed at how much I didn’t like it without the bells and whistles of 4DX. Which reminds me, techinically, 4DX is something new now so I need to go back and try it again.

Dead Ideas: Day Grader

One feature of the new blog heading into and being 50 is going to be throwing out old ideas that I never did anything with. This one is a more recent idea but I was trying to think of new social media angles that could hit with the younger generation because I feel like it’s time for a new outlet to emerge. Facebook is way past its prime. Instagram feels dated. I’m sure there are a couple newer ones that I didn’t even bear about but what’s next?

My idea was an approach where you take photos or write about your day and give yourself a grade. So it’s a social media outlet that also kind of works as a Yelp as you could hashtag what you did and people can see how the grades were. But, on the Yelp angle, I feel like the focus needs to change from judging the restaurant to explaining how the person felt about the visit. Yelp has a lot of issues but it always annoys me when you see a restaurant get bad reviews and then the review complains about the valet or the person next to them was being too loud.

Anyway, it’s not a great idea but I thought about it yesterday because just two days into October and I’d have given myself an F. Maybe a D because I did get up and go to the gym but beyond that it was more of the same - taking too many breaks while working, not getting enough done, wasting the evening on the couch. Instead of watching a new movie I fast forwarded through “Hannibal” which is a movie I have never really liked and I still don’t.

And I hate to say it but day three of October isn’t getting much better as it’s almost 11am and I’ve done nothing but list three football cards on eBay.

Anyway, I do sometimes still wonder what the new approach to social media could be and whether the Friendster —> MySpace —> Facebook Era is over and that form of social media will die with Zuckerberg but I feel like there’s gotta be something out there and something that isn’t as harmful to kids.

The Skydance is Falling!

I should think of a category for my random missives but I haven’t thought of a good name yet.

There was a bunch of big news out of Skydance today. One that people have glommed onto that has zero importance IMO is the name of the new company. David Ellison has decided to keep Skydance, the name of his 20 year old production company, as the name of the new behemoth that he and his dad have purchased. People are bashing the decision but I think that’s mostly because they want to bash Ellison. To me, it makes perfect sense. First off, it’s just the name of the overall company. Does anyone care that Facebook and WhatsApp are part of META? Does most of America remember that Google is actually Alphabet? And personally, I feel like Disney would have been better off changing their overall name. It’s weird to me that Disney+ now has all of his grown up fare on it and isn’t a kids friendly destination and also the Disney name wouldn’t be facing the brunt of hate from Star Wars stands who aren’t fans of much of anything that’s come from the franchise since the Mouse House took over.
Also, just in terms of just plain basic facts, the guy who was in charge of Skydance bought the Paramount and WB/Discovery so it’s just how it is; they are owned by Skydance now.

There’s also one of my deeply held truths - few brands have less meaning than major motion picture studios. If Jeopardy or trivia nights had a category with film titles and people had to name the studio that made it, I think most people would struggle. Smaller companies have brands - A24, Neon, Blumhouse, etc. - but when is the last time someone saw the Paramount logo before a trailer and sat up at attention? How many filmgoers have ever said “Man, I miss 20th Century Fox.”? Yes, Warner Brothers and Paramount are iconic, old school brands but they have long passed the era that they meant anything.

The bigger issue was that Pam Abdy and Michael Deluca were let go from running Warner Brothers’ movie division and now one person is going to oversee both Paramount and WB. Again, I think Hollywood is terrible with brands so I do wonder if this means that both studios will basically just be extensions of Skydance, which would be a shame because Ellison’s output is mostly IP based - sequels, remakes, reboots, and the occasional movie based on a best seller. Abdy and Deluca didn’t have a spotless record - nobody does - but they have taken big swings and I feel like they hit more than they miss. It would have been nice to see them hold onto WB and that would be the studio for original fare while Paramount because the new Skydance and just made franchises and Tom Cruise movies.

Ultimately, though, I feel like with most Hollywood mergers, this one isn’t going to work. The level of debt that the Ellison’s are taking on is insane. The entertainment world is in complete disarray and the mediums are changing more and more every day and I’m not sure there’s really been a single exec who I think has figured any of it out. In one of the weirder twists, Netflix seems to be the most tuned in; while all of the studios are trying to figure out how to be Netflix, Netflix seems to be pivoting to be more like YouTube.

It will be interesting to watch this all unfold and a bit worrying since almost half of the megacorp is owned by Middle East interests but my hope is that people are inspired by this to create their own smaller studios, which probably is the smarter idea anyway since in the more fractured entertainment world we have now, niche products are often a better investment. Horror has blown up but I really believe that if a company focused on quality romance and rom-coms, they could blow up like Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. I definitely think a crime/heist/thriller company would be an easy brand to establish.

In the end, does it really matter? I know in terms of fewers jobs and what not, it’s a huge blow but in terms of entertainment and the business, Skydance seems like it is going to be more of the same just with a new name. I have a low regard for most of the people running these studios and nothing I’ve seen out of Skydance makes me think it’s going to get better or that they are going to come up with the next big innovation that rehapes the business. Except maybe moving out of California but, let’s be real, that’s already kind of happened for the working class of Hollywood.

Goals for 50: No Wasted Days

One of my goals for my next trip around the Sun is to make the most of every day. I’m getting older so my days are getting numbered so let’s not waste any. That being said, a relaxing day is not a wasted day; everyone needs time to recharge or just rest their head. But there’s a difference between relaxing and simply being inactive. I need to stop wasting hours scrolling on Instagram, aimlessly surfing the web, or staring at shows/movies that I’ve seen before. I’ve been inactive for way too much of this year and I really need to become more productive. I have a thousand projects that I’ve meant to do, dozens of scripts in various stages of development (and no, I’m not giving up on that dream just because I’m old now), and just basic hygene issues that I let slide. I seriously considered doing a morning post of “Today’s Underwear” just to keep me honest about changing my drawers every day.

Like with the 500 New Things challenge, the No Wasted Days goal is an old idea that I’ve failed at time and again. I think one year I called it The Year of Living Actually. But it’s a sound goal and one I shouldn’t abandon just because I too often surrender to my debilitating laziness.

Another goal that I need to make good on to help this one is locking in when I’m working. One of the issues with remote work in reality TV while being single and childless is that you can work whenever so there’s less pressure to really get things done on any given day. Obviously, there are deadlines but on a random day, I can say, “Well, why don’t I just take a break for 20 minutes” and that break will inevitably become an hour of doing nothing at all (again, being inactive rather than relaxing or being productive) and now suddenly I’m going to be up late or working on the weekend to finish up what I was supposed to be doing. I will say, after almost 30 years in reality TV, it is getting harder to focus on the inanity of the genre but it’s how I pay my bills and, to be honest, I have no other skills so it HAS to be the way I pay my bills - I literally can’t imagine what kind of job I’d pivot into if I needed to find a new income source - so I should recommit myself to being focused for the 8 - 10 hours of the workday.

On that note, I also have to remember to go outside every day. That might sounds sillier than the underwear one but my last show was a mess and combined with an addiction to MLB The Show, I probably averaged leaving my apartment only three days a week this year. It’s not healthy -physically or mentally.

OK. That’s enough for this morning. Off to take care of another goal - getting into a good workout routine. Right now, I’m just doing a very basic, simple workout to get back into the flow of things but this weekend I’m going to put together an actual* workout to follow.

* By actual, I mean something I threw together after looking at a variety of workout sites. It’s probably not a workout any actual health professional would recommend but I need to just get myself into passable shape before I attempt to make good on a real workout regimen. Baby steps!

One Last Try

OK, as I close out the final days of my 40s, I’m going to give the blog one last chance. And if I’m going to give the blog one more go, I might as well restart my favorite challenge 500 New Things! I started it this year but my last job really sucked the life out of me. The problem with working from home is that you can really get in a rut. Add in that i was dealing with East and West coast co-workers and I found myself working long hours; for the year, I’m probably averaging leaving my apartment 3 times a week. I can’t blame work entirely, my addiction to MLB The Show also ate up a lot of time. But I’ve kicked that habit and am ready to take back 2026!

One change to the New Things challenge is that I think I’m going to wipe my slate clean. Everything is new! Not only does this make it easier for me to get to 500 but I also think it will be fun to revisit old movies and, with so many restaurants/bars closing in LA, I will get to go back to some of my favorite haunts and help support them. So it’s more of a 500 Things challenge but that’s not as catchy as 500 New Things so I’ll keep the old name.

The 40s have been such a wasteland that I don’t think I’m going to do anything special for my birthday but I am going to try to go out for more dinners with people this year. That’s probably better than a party anywhere. I’m LA, you invite 50 people to party, 30 say they can make it, half of those people cancel the week or day of the party, and a few just don’t show up so you’re left with 10 people. And honestly, if 50 people did show up, you usually only really get a chance to spend quality time with 10 of them so it doesn’t really make a difference. In short, parties are for young folks.

My goal right now is to do some sort of diary-esque entry like this every morning and then I have a few other ideas for posts - compiling some of my favorite stories and retiring the stories that I’ve told too often over the last few decades. Maybe a weekly post about my favorite news stories of the year. We’ll eee how it goes. I’m keeping the bland, basic set-ip of the blog but hope to find some new tweaks as the year goes on.

I can’t imagine more than 10 people will read this but this go around is more about keeping me honest and challenging myself to show some follow through that I’ve lacked for, well, my entire life.