More Embedded-- Help Me Win!

So the EMBEDDED premiere was last night, I watched and thought everything looked great! It was a very cool show and I'm excited for the rest of the series. If you missed the show, you can catch it on current.com/embedded or on Hulu.

To promote the show, Current is having a contest called "Embed Embedded" where you get points for posting a special video and every time someone watches it. Since Facebook doesn't count, I'm posting mine here, and it would be great if all you blog readers could help me out! The contest tracks every time someone either watches the video or takes the video from where you have posted it and posts it somewhere else. For the more tech-savvy among you readers, please take this cool video of Silversun Pickups and post it as many places as possible. For everyone else, just push play! It's a cool little acoustic sing-along clip of Silversun playing their song "Panic Switch and encouraging you to sing-along (our graphics guys did an awesome job with the bouncing ball, so props to them). Enjoy!

What's Falling From The Sky?!

First precipitation in Los Angeles, and it only took two months! They're predicting snow in Ithaca, but here in LA, all anyone's complaining about is the rain. It's not ever real rain by the way, barely a drizzle, but it's enough to throw everybody off their game. The normally bad traffic is now TERRIBLE, the streets which have been caked with oil are now like a Slip n' Slide, and everything's flooding, thanks to a city structure unequipped to handle more than a few inches of water. I'm actually enjoying it though, never thought after three years in Ithaca I'd actually want to see rain, but it's refreshing to have a change. It can't be sunny ALL THE TIME. That's just boring.

Mos Def "Quiet Dog"--Embedded Preview!

Posting this clip to promote EMBEDDED, which premieres tomorrow night at 11 on Current TV! Check it out!

Couples Retreat

This past weekend, Callie and I exercised some of the nice perks that interns get and went to see a free screening of Couple's Retreat down on the Universal lot. Very cool to be there on the weekend, we got to park in one of the executive garages and walked around the empty lot. Production lots on the weekends are like schools during the summer time, empty and quiet and being there just feels wrong. Thankfully, we found the screening room without too much trouble (callie had been there for a CSI screening) and got our seats just as the movie started. One of the best parts about seeing a movie on the lot, NO PREVIEWS. The movie was just OK, typical Vince Vaughn schtick, Bateman was good and Kristen Bell (my dad's favorite TV detective) was cute as usual, but it got long in the middle and didn't really pay off. Long story short, free was the way to see it. Fun times on the lot.

Turnovers and Launches: Internship Update

A few weeks in to my internships (actually, at the midterm point which is pretty nuts to think about) and things are really heating up. The assistant in the office with me at Simon West left to go be the assistant for the head of LakeShore entertainment, and in the fast-paced turnover that left us with a temp for a few weeks, I have basically undertaken full assistant duties for the days when I am there. It is much more stressful and consuming than before, but it's a great feeling to know that I can do the job, and it will be a great asset on my resume as I look for work in a few months.

Over at Current, this week marks the LAUNCH of the music dept.'s brand new show EMBEDDED!! This is a big deal for everyone in the office, as our launch has been pushed like three times already, everyone is excited to start getting stuff on the air. You can check out EMBEDDED SITE for sneak peeks and bonus clips, and make sure to tune in this Wednesday, October 14th on Current TV! The premiere episode features our production crew following Mos Def as he tours around Japan, and future episodes will highlight Ben Harper, The Decemberists, Thievery Corporation, Common, and Silversun Pickups, as well as feature many other great artists and bands. Be sure to check it out!

Celeb Sighting #9: Mr. Monk Gets a Salad

Ran to the Paramount Cafe the other day, because the boss had a late meeting which went over the normal lunch hour and I had to make it there before lunch service was over. The place was almost empty (as were the soup tureens), but I did get my latest celebrity sighting. As I waited in line to get soup and salad, I noticed the guy in front of me looked very familiar. when I looked again, I realized it was Tony Shaloub! He was getting his food with a group of what looked to be kids or young relatives and a few adults and was looking for trays to put their stuff on. After he found some (resourceful detective that he is), he almost offered me one, before realizing that I wasn't with his group. Very cool sighting, and probably my most "up close and personal" one so far.

Do You Want Fries With That (Burrito)? Eats in LA #9

Continuing on our quest to sample every fast food we won't be able to have once we've gone back to the East Coast, the other day while down at Albertson's in Burbank (our New new favorite grocer), we decided to make a Del Taco run. I was unsure of what to get, they offer so many products, but I decided to stick as far away from the standard Taco Bell fare as possible, and ordered the Shredded Beef Tacos Del Carbon. "Del Carbon" essentially means that these tacos are served with just meat and a blend of onions and cilanto on corn tortillas (rather than standard flour).

(author's note: I did both.)

The tacos are no frills, they came wrapped in tinfoil, but they were tasty, the beef was very flavorful and the corn torillas gave nice texture. I also loved the cilantro blend, it is a taste that is growing on me in my stay out west; I noticed they even offer it as a topping at Subway. Anyway, the tacos were great, but what was weird to me were the french fries. First of all, I didn't realized that getting the meal meant you got fries, like Taco Bell I assumed it just meant an extra taco ir something but no, it was a whole mess of fries. Why serve fries at a Mexican place? If they were special fries, maybe, but these were standard, crinkle-cut Ore-Ida crap that looked straight out of the freezer. Why? Unnecssary. I will probably venture back to Del Taco at some point to sample more of their selection, but I'll pass on the meal. No Del Taco, I don't want fries with that.

Out on a Tuesday? Rebecca's 21st

A few weeks ago, our dear roommate Rebskies decided to go and turn 21 on a Tuesday. Callie and I, being the only ones of our friends able to go out for such an event, accompanied her out as designated driver, and drinker, respectively. For family and propreity reasons, most of the pictures from that night cannot be posted, but we did have an excellent time. Starting out at the Pink Margarita, where some Hollywood hipster types took about ten minutes to change Reb's "I'm not doing tequila shots" tune, we moved on to The Room, then to a scary club where let's just say we were NOT in the racial majority, and finally, a cool rocker joint called The Burgandy Room, where I knod of wish we had been all along. Rebecca had a great time, met her "long lost sister" and got a bunch of free drinks. I also had a good time, until my alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning to go to work.

((Figured this one was appropriate enough--the only one who's really identifiable is the bartender, who claimed that Rebecca was just like her sister and proceeded to give her many free drinks. Needless to say, after this, we packed it up.))

Beach "Clean Up" and Sharkeez (Eats in LA #8)!!

A few weeks ago, my roommates and I made the good intentioned, but ill-planned, decision to sign up for National Beach Clean Up Day. It sounded like a nice thing to do, an opportunity to give something back to our newfound city. The one detail we overlooked was that it was on a Saturday morning. Early. In Redondo. Not wanting to be "those girls" who bailed on their commitments, we rolled our butts out of bed and showed up...only to discover that we were the only ones (aside from the rommates of the RA who organized the event) to show. We headed out to Redondo Beach and did a good bit of clean-up work on what turned out to NOT be sandy beach, but inside a giant rocky barge on some inlet. It felt a little...not safe, but at least we were doing good. I'm not sure if this is the exact marina, but it looked alot like the rock formation behind the boats in this photo:

After about an hour of cleaning, one of the guys in our group mentioned that his cousin lived in Manhattan Beach, just a little ways down the PCH. He also mentioned that there was a breakfast place she liked to frequent, which offfered a $4 full breakfast meal on the weekend. He also mentioned that this place served free mimosas for an hour with your breakfast. Needless to say, by this point, we were already driving. We hit up Sharkeez, a nice little mexican bar, designated our DDs, and ordered our food and drinks. The breakfast was decent, especially for the price and the mimosas were good. Maybe a little too good for some of us, as evidenced by the behavior in the car as we sat on the 101 on our way back home. However, all in all: first Pacific Ocean sighting, a little do-goodery, cheap eats and free drinks? Good Saturday.