Back in Sacramento

It was a great five days of fun, that I wish was a bit longer. Apparently they have some cool events happening next weekend, like a soap box derby for grownups in downtown Los Angeles. Oh well, there's still fun when Firefly alumni visit SoCal just before Thanksgiving...and I have to use up my free ticket voucher from Southwest sometime.
My pictures from the Emmy bleachers were better than I thought, but would have been perfect with an ideal picture from Christina Hendricks. I also wish I had snagged a seat filler gig, but I will try for that next year. You can see my Emmy photo album here.

As for other photos, here's that Fox promo ambulance letting people know about House...



Then there is this, the premiere of a romcom with Kristen Bell called When In Rome. Apparently she plays a girl who steals some coins from a "fountain of love", and suddenly three guys are trying to woo her...and yet Lee Pace is in the movie as the guy she doesn't want. Yes, I know...
The issue isn't the movie, but how it's being premiered...



This is at a vacant theater at Melrose that's being rented out for one night, and the name of the movie is taped on a blank marquee. Now, I also hear they aren't giving this movie a wide release until January, but this should have been done better, like a silk-screened sign. Not only that, it was supposed to be shown last month. I guess The Ugly Truth and All About Steve scared them off.

So, my future travel plans include a Firefly weekend, where I will stay in a Travelodge just a few blocks away from the con (shades of the Wolfram and Hart Revue). After that, it depends on whether the Oscars pity me and let me on that bleacher, too, next March.
Hmmm...700 seats, 145,911,256 entries.
Well, maybe I'll get a better TV by then.

Can Twitter Make Me A Star?

Probably not, but still....

it's been a few months since I joined the Twitter Nation, making pithy one-lines to people famous and unknown alike. Robin Sachs, aka Ethan Rayne, actually tweeted me back. So did Amber Benson, although I can't tweet her back. I'd like to thank her for the praise.
Ditto Miracle Laurie, who tweeted me when I asked if her ukulele band's list of cover songs included disco. Let's say it wouldn't be out of the question.

However, I have achieved a slice of fame thanks to two recent contests. One came from the Twitter feed from Inglorious Basterds. It asked to compete the phrase "I'm a basterd because...". Well, I remembered my blog that talked about being the first Americans to see the movie, thanks to Comic-Con. I said that "Christoph Waltz ain't a dance." Come to think of it, I should make it into a t-shirt around Oscar season. That should be worth a few hundred votes, while seeing the movie will produce a few thousand. Anyway, I was one of 50 people who got a modest prize pack of a t-shirt and soundtrack CD. The real fame came from actually having my entry featured in the winners list. It's still on the movie's Facebook page.

The other contest came from a site called Coin That Phrase. It asks people to come up with new catch phrases that may fit whatever situation comes to mind. I once described the Los Angeles wildfires this way. It cost only three bucks, too. I may try that for Dollhouse t-shirts.

Then they had one on catch phrases for the Emmys later this month. I came up with two: "Emmy for Best Alliteration, Don Draper and Liz Lemon (tie)". I though that would work since Tina Fey and Jon Hamm did appear on 30 Rock.
Instead this one did: "Emmy-thing is possible, if you believe" I'm hoping the TV Academy may buy it from me, but only if the attendees think it's cool. Otherwise, the fact that I am part of this year's Emmy gift bag is a little piece of fame that I hope to promote somehow.

Despite this, it hasn't led to a massive number of people wanting to follow me on Twitter. If I wanted that, and didn't care who followed me, I'd beg every spambot to target me.

Still, it may be possible to be a celebrity blogger, such as Perez Hilton, but it's clear you can't be a celebrity Tweeter. Conan O'Brien has made sure of that.
But so what? It's fun to do, and so is the blogging.

Why does Emmy not like Bonnie?

The Daytime Emmy award nominations just came out. Bonnie Hunt's show got three nominations, but she didn't. Neither did the show. However, The View is up for major awards. So, I suspect Barbara Walters told Emmy voters not to vote for Bonnie because they couldn't voter for a show Walters never watches. If that's the case, the Daytime Emmys don't exist for me this year.
Or it could be how Bonnie re-created her appearance on that show, and got more laughs than the "View Girls". Hey Barbara, do your homework!

On the other hand, the Emmys are well known for ignoring those actors who do a great role, and get snubbed. In the 50's and 60's, it was Jackie Gleason and Andy Griffith. In the 80s, it was Angela Landsbury. In the past ten years, it's Buffy and Joss Whedon in general. Despite the big splash Dr. Horrible has made, I am confident the Emmy organizers won't honor it only because they haven't made a category for it, or will try to fit it into one. If they did, Joss would say "Thanks, now how about Felicia Day?"

The good news is there will be a second season, and it will have a new executive producer that used to work for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Does this mean the show will be Kimmel-ized?
Maybe it already has...

Bonnie's mom=Uncle Frank
Nick and his band=Cleto and the Cletones
Don=maybe Guillermo

Then again, David Letterman did it first with Paul Schafer, Biff Henderson, Alan Kalter and Hal Gurnee from the NBC days.

It's a step in the right direction, and hopefully it will go far enough to get people to really take a look at Bonnie Hunt.

Emmy week is here!

Last year, I was in Los Angeles, hoping to get close to the Emmys. That could mean taking a picture of the Shrine Auditorium, getting a peak of the Red carpet, or even taking a picture of one of the grandstands from E! or The Insider. I won't say how close I wound up becoming, but it was a nice view.

I didn't even think about going back this year until I found out the 60th Emmys would be held at the Nokia Theater, located across from Staples Center. So, I am hoping to get close to the Emmys again. Getting inside the Nokia is fairly unlikely, but they'll be plenty of banners and bleachers outside. The Nokia seems to be the new Awards venue in L-A, except for the Oscars because the Kodak Theater was made for that show.

Aside from waiting for Emmy Sunday, and whether a Buffy alumnus will finally bring home the gold, I do have the usual tickets to the local talk shows. I have a ticket to Kimmel, along with one for Ellen DeGeneres. Her show should be interesting because she's now at the Warner Brothers lot. I'll see if it's bigger or whether a tour bus comes in before she's taping. At the last second, I also decided to get a ticket to Bonnie Hunt. That one could be tricky because it's in Culver City instead of Burbank. If the hotel where I am staying is sympathetic, I will be able to get there by the deadline. I'll have one free day for swag hunting.

After this, I may have to cut back on trips to Southern California. Naturally, it's due to high gas prices affecting ticket prices, and also hotel prices as well. I'm actually staying near Echo Park, but the place looks nice. I may even be wild enough to actually walk from my hotel to Dodger Stadium. It's not that far, and the Giants are playing that weekend, but I may have to carry a cross blessed by a pastor who knew Willie Mays. If I'm dumb enough, I just may go.

But overall, I may cut down to just twice a year....the Paley Festival, if there's a show I'd like to know more about, and Comic-Con, which is actually a working holiday now. I already have the ticket and the hotel room. All that's left is the plane ticket.

So, here's to a fun time....and big success for Mad Men, Pushing Daisies, and Danny Strong.