DINE OUT - DINE LA WEEK IN LOS ANGELES

Stumbled upon something on accident, and it's awesome.

This week is DINE LA week in LA, and participating restaurants have put together specific tasting menus for next to nothing.

Tonight a friend and I dined at Luna Park, on La Brea, and I had:

- Warm Goat Cheese Fondue with Grilled Bread and Sliced Apples
- Breaded Pork Cutlet, Mashed Potatos, mushrooms and String Beans
- Make Your Own S'mores - Molten Marshmallow, Bittersweet Chocolate and Housemade Graham Cookies

The grand total? 15 bucks.

You can't beat that. Check out the restaurants, make your reservations, and try out some amazing meals.

DINELA ends February 1st.

At the Ahmanson: The Color Purple

As my Christmas present for my mother, I went and bought tickets to the Color Purple and 'My Fair Lady'. Mom is a theatre fan, but she won't really think of going on her own, and she's expressed some bitterness over the fact that I'll go to the plays like 'Avenue Q' or 'Jersey Boys' with my friends rather than her, so I think this was a nice surprise.

Unlike London or New York, Los Angeles doesn't have quite the theatre reputation it deserves, and when the big Broadway musicals come to town, I do what I can do see them.
I heard great things about the Color Purple, but the only thing I really remembered about the story was watching the film in the theatre as a kid, with my mom and my sister. I remember having to go to the bathroom and being generally fidgety (I couldn't have been more than 8) and having my mother get so frustrated she got up and took us home. Needless to say, not much of it stuck.

Still, I was really pleasently surprised. The story had a lot of heart to it, even if it was hella depressing at first, and the singing was out of this world.

Highly recommended for any Los Angeles people looking to do something a little different.

Gina Carano is a Beast.

Looking at some of Gina Carano, aka CRUSH's fights on youtube, it becomes increasingly apparent why she looks so friggin' easy going during the filming of American Gladiators.

Quite simply, when you fantasize about kicking people in the head as a child, a little rough and tumble with a big ass Q-tip is nothing.

Two New Episodes of Chuck Tonight

If you're not watching Chuck, you should be. Luckily, you get two chances tonight, when NBC premieres that last two original episodes shot for Chuck before the writer's strike struck it down.

Check out this preview, then tune in tonight on NBC.

Heath Ledger Is Dead

No, it's not a joke.

http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/22/heath-ledger-is-dead/

That is just... man.

I have no words.

TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Turk

Before I get on with my review, allow me to have a geeky TheShield!Casting Moment and squeal over the unexpected pop up of Catherine Dent as SkepticalFBIagent. Hooray. Catherine is awesome.


Moving on.



In the third episode, Sarah Connor, battling killer's anxiety, gets the work trying to track down the origins of SKYNET. She finds a load of nothing and decides to go to Miles Dyson's widow for help. The widow isn't exactly pleased to see her, but does seem rather resigned. She reluctantly points out a former intern of Dyson's, who is now a cell phone salesman. He is adorkably cute, and instantly smitten when Sarah heads over to the store to investigate. Things get complicated fast, however, when Sarah discovers he has built a super computer in his closet that can outthink other chess-playing computers and appears to have moods. Reluctant to kill him, Sarah burns down his house, instead.


Meanwhile, John and Cameron, posing as brother and sister, attend their first day in school, and Cameron encounters the terrifying reality that is having to deal with teenagers. She does fairly well for her first couple days, being called a bitchwhore and making a new friend who proceeds to fling herself off the top of the school building.


Also, FBI guy finds more and more evidence that Sarah Connor might not actually be insane, the creepy robot finds a creepy scientist and shows him how to regrow skin, then kills him and takes his eyeballs, and the last remaining resistant fighter from the future stalks Sarah.


Verdict:


A solid episode, but there needs to be a little less of the whole 'fish out of water' thing with Cameron. The whole awkward robot trying to fit in scenario was played out a while ago, and smacks of sitcom-y cliche the likes of 'Small Wonder'. As much as I liked that show, that is not a good thing. Still, Summer Glau continues to be a strong actor in this episode, the first in which she has had no fight scenes.


John is still a whiny bitch, but, thanks to being forced to watch a girl jump to her death and literally restrained by Cameron, he has good reason. His argument to both Sarah and to Cameron that if he's going to be some great hero, he should act like it, is a nice step forward.

The SKYNET storyline is moving slowly, but the talk of chess really does fit well. With the storylines floating around each other, setting in their places, it does indeed feel like the show takes place on a chess board; the pieces lining up, matching, getting ready for the ultimate checkmate.

American Gladiators 104: It's a Step, Not a Kick (ballchange)

Monday is here, and that means more cheesy, ball-busting action.

The competitors:

For the Women: A really really annoying lawyer lady who also played women's football and apparently thought that somehow made her special versus a really spunky tiny lady who had been signing petitions to get American Gladiators back on the air.

For the Men: A really really cute hard-bodied 25 year old rock climber who wanted to give his widowed father and brother someone to root for, and an older firefighter with three adorable sons.

Things we learned from American Gladiators THIS time around:

1) It's not a kick, it's a step. - in an effort to disengage the firefighter lady from the platform is 'Earthquake' , Crush saw fit to press her boot onto the firelady's head, forcing her down. And then she laughed about it. Which was kinda awesome. Even more hilarous was her battle with the second contender, who managed to hang out, kick free, and was therefore caught dangling from the platform as Crush held onto her, squishing her and offering her congratulations.

2) When it comes to the pyramid, Wolf sees Red - Wolf can quickly become annoying with that howling he does, but the man knows how to kick some ass. He owned the pyramid, flinging the contender around like he was a piece of candy. It was kinda awesome to watch.

3) Small and spunky wins the race, but only if you're wearing shoes. - Losing your shoe does indeed sabatage any chances for a win. When our petitioner lost her shoe and then decided to fling off the only one she had on, the audience was befuddled. Even worse was the moment when Christine stared up mournfully at the travelater, it became clear to both her and us that her loss of traction lost her the race. It was a sad, sad moment. Particularly because the annoying lawyer lady won. Only because she had shoes.

On the other hand, our other small and spunky contender, the male rock climber, wore shoes, and kicked ass, with a new eliminator time of 1and a half minute. Hooray.

4) Whiners can win. And yet, not really. Lawyer lady pissed me off. For a football lady, she just would NOT.STOP.WITHTHECOMPLAINING. Even before the eliminator started she made a comment to Hogan that she 'wasn't feeling well' because she had been in the water alot. Suck it up, biyotch.

Thank god for small mercies, however. Even though she won, the dreadful eliminator time was just not good enough to pass up Venus, which means she doesn't advance.

Not to be a bad sport, but ha.