Odds and Ends From L-A Shopping

Anyone visiting Los Angeles or Hollywood wold want to go to one specific place to start his or her vacation. It can be the Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, the Staples Center or even Television City. After a while, you know L-A almost as much as your own town, and you want to look for something different.

Since I have been in L-A several times, from attending the red carpet premiere of Serenity to attending conventions and certain special events, I've been at the point where I look for parts of L-A that I have not seen. That was true recently when I found out which Red Line station is a stone's throw from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Angel's Flight, and a parade of defunct movie houses.

When I took one of those tour buses, I was told about a swap meet every Sunday at Fairfax High School, which is not too far away from Television City, It's where I got stuff like this:

I went back recently, and got even more amazing stuff. The biggest find, no doubt, was this MTV relic from 2000:

It's not a real "all access pass", but I'm guessing this must have made teens back then feel like they were real insiders. I wonder how many fans tried to bluff their way backstage with one of these.

This one was a surprise: a pin from KRON San Francisco with I think was a picture of a sports anchor from the early 1970s:

Now, a CBS Price Is Right ticket from 1980, complete with promo postcard

How about a page of stationery from Walt Disney's The Rescuers?

An extra large postcard from MarineWorld, owned by ABC 42 years ago before it eventually became an amusement park in Vallejo

If you work it out right, you can get one-of-a-kind Hollywood history at reasonable prices. I even got two American Idol TV taping tickets for 30 bucks...autographed by the final two that year, Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. It's tough enough to get these tickets for that price without autographs. What's more, I got them at a pawn shop in Santa Monica.

But back to the Fairfax Trading Post, this has got to be the most surprising: a ring pass for a boxing match at the Trump Plaza from...the 1980s, maybe? Just check out the face of the guy on this pass. Happy, ain't he?

So, when I head back to Los Angeles for Oscar weekend, I may not have time to head back to Fairfax, but there's always Goodwill or Out of the Closet, where I got an official Jimmy Kimmel Live cap...and a very rare Buffy crew cap (movie crew, not TV crew). Who knows what I'll find next time?

Happy Birthday, MTV, But Your Party Should Have Been Bigger

Today is the 30th birthday of a cable channel that has changed the world, but whose relevance ain't what it used to be.
Over the weekend, VH1 Classic has been rotating 12 hours of what it considers the best of MTV, Music Television, over the past 30 years.

12 hours? Not a month, at least?

What bugs me is that to limit itself to 12 hours, they leave out a MASSIVE amount of history. They will be airing the first hour of the network three times Monday. We get a fair amount of Mark Goodman, and cameos by Nina Blackwood, JJ Jackson, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn. It's like talking about the Declaration of Independence and barely talking about the Founding Fathers. Sure, they give us clips of Club MTV (such as a very nice performance by Debbie Gibson), 120 Minutes, the final TRL (why not the first one, you knobs?), Jackass, Unplugged, House of Style, Remote Control, Cribs, Beavis and Butthead, and contest promos.

But come on! Why not turn VH1 Classic into MTV Classic, where we get bumps of the VJs, and throw in both Julie Browns (especially Just Say Julie) and Adam Curry? Why not have ENTIRE VMAs? Who wouldn't want to see the year Dana Carvey hosted, or the first one? How about the retrospectives the network had in 1999? Show whole episodes of Remote Control, especially with Denis Leary and Adam Sandler? Heck, show where the VJs are now. It's sad the original network doesn't think being 30 is important enough to throw itself a birthday party. I'm sure Katy Parry, Gaga, Rhianna, P. Diddy, and Pitbull would love to be on the decorating committee.
On the other hand, maybe MTV didn't want to admit hitting the big 3-0 because it's afraid the kids won't trust anyone over 30...like maybe CNN.

Martha Quinn had her own take on the big 3-0, and her brthday wish speaks volumes. Bless you, Martha! You were so great as a VJ, Canada had to invent its own version of you.




OK, so let's admit You Tube, Vevo really, has replaced MTV as the main source for music videos these days. Let's at least honor the channel that started it all.
Well, when August 2nd rolls around, and China doesn't foreclose on us because our government's financial expertise is worse then Bernie Madoff's, this will all be forgotten.

I will give VH1 Classic credit for showing MTV's first hour with the original ads. It just reminds us what we had back then, especially Superman II, a gum that's no longer available, and cologne that would be rejected in favor of Axe spray.

Now they're casting audience members?

I went to the Universal Citywalk hoping to find the red carpet where the guests to the MTV Movie Awards would be seen just before the big event. I never found that carpet, because it was inside the Gibson Amphitheater. That meant you had to pay 155 bucks to see the show and the guests march and pose.

While I was disappointed, I was surprised to see this...



At first, I thought it was a crowd of teenagers trying to find the hottest night club in town. Then, I found this sign...



Now they're casting budding actors for award shows, as audience members...and getting paid.
So, so they add this to their resume, "Third row in stunning yellow mini at MTV Movie Awards"?
This is silly, They should add typical teens to the audience, too.
Like these guys...



I remember MTV actually gave out comp tickets to the VMA's last year so they'd have crowds for the music events. I just hope talk shows don't decide that casting audience members looks better on TV than getting ordinary people. I am sure Bonnie Hunt or Conan won't try that. Could the Grammys do that, though? Let's hope not. Ordinary-looking people should have the right to bask in the light of big-time stars...from a reasonable distance. It was that way during game shows of the recent past. Just saying.