When I first saw the trailer, I wondered: What is this? How do those late 19th century western images fit in with the “other world” and alien thing? I liked the music. Somehow I felt I was supposed to know who the hell John Carter was. It took me months to find out…
For my birthday I organized an epic fifteen course Italian tasting at Il Grano matched to twelve handpicked wines from my cellar. Chef/Owner Sal Marino really delivered with one of the best modern Italian meals I’ve had…
I have to admit that the trailer for this film had me cautiously excited. It exhibits a certain style of fantasy storytelling that appeared cool and unique. Serious, yet referential to the source material. Visually original, but not silly. Still, I was worried…
I played through all five classes in beta and decided to level the Barbarian first. Herein lies my detailed chronicle of the 1-60 level experience and thoughts on Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno…
E3 has bought us an extensive new gameplay video for Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic survival game, The Last of Us. Aside from the recently released Diablo III, this is my most anticipated upcoming game, and I suspect I’m not alone.
The day I took my Italian Wine Specialization exam a bunch of us went to lunch. One of the instructors, Diego, took us to Obika Mozzarella bar in the Century City mall. I usually loathe mall restaurants, and I detest the parking at CC for sure, but this place turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
The season finale has a lot of threads to cover, the extra long “previously on” clip covers no less than eleven major plot lines! Amazingly, the episode manages to do a pretty damn good job with them — even when many only get one scene.
We drove 45 minutes to visit this hole in the wall because it was rumored they offered the best Peking Duck in the Los Angeles area…
Round 2 of my byzantine Naughty Dark Contest is over and there are three lucky winners to announce!
Normally I take Marvel super hero movies with a grain of salt, but considering the buzz around Avengers and the fact that it was written and directed by Joss Whedon, I was fairly excited…
With Episode 19, Blackwater, the normally highly fractured narrative of the show lasers in and focuses on a single place and night: The attack on King’s Landing by Stannis and its defense…
Tar & Roses is a new American tapas-style place in Santa Monica, loosely in the vein of Rustic Canyon or Gjelina. Despite the relative crowding of this market, it’s a welcome addition in my book…
I’m excited to announce that The Darkening Dream recently won some International Book Awards!
One wonders if Tim Burton ever works with anyone other than Johnny Depp. But the issue here isn’t really Depp’s deadpan Deppist performance, which is certainly one of the better things about the film. It’s basically in the meta creative choices and the writing…
Here on the eve of battle, things are moving fast. Ten hours can hardly retell 1040 pages, so this episode packs in a lot of story in a very rapid way.
This is very much a thinking man’s thriller. It’s a slightly Momento-esque time travel film supposedly filmed for a mere $7,000!
I’ve wanted to go to chef Michael Voltaggio’s Ink since I first heard of it last fall. One glance at a few photos of the food told me it was the kind of place I like. The interplay of textures and flavors — not to mention the “dust and ball” style plating — is highly innovative.
The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s new game in development, has a cool new trailer. Check it out!
Dave Phillips, the awesome artist I commissioned to illustrate my time travel novel, Untimed, has been quietly cranking away. A couple of weeks ago he finished the rough versions of all twenty-one images. I thought I’d use this post as an opportunity not only to show off his brilliant work, but to shed some light on the process.
The title of the episode refers to the return of Jaime Lannister, who after a five episode absence, is back with a vengeance. This is the section of the story, in the middle end, where things move very rapidly.