Saturday, May 30, 2009

Travel Tips

Friday, May 22, 2009

Star Trek: Movies, Movies, Movies all week



Earlier this month I decided to go to the movies out of the blue during the week, which I do not normally do. As I like to see more than one movie at a time, especially if I am actually paying myself. Which I usually don't, so since I had free tickets and Star Trek was actually playing a day earlier than initially advertised in the papers. So I saw it on the Thursday before it's official release date. Now I am not a Trekie (or Treker) by any means, but I do like Star Trek in general as well as most (good/well written) Science Fiction. So I wasn't as upset as most people when it came to the new creative team changing or tweaking so many things about the original and their giving the original series a reboot as it were. Which in this case involved time travel...A plot device that Star Trek films have to stop relying so heavily upon in the future, as this make the 5th Star Trek film to do so. If you count the numerous television incarnations, time travel accounts for almost 10% of the total amount of episode plot lines. But it actually worked surprisingly well in this film since they essentially reset the Star Trek history or continuity as we know it. Meaning they are free to do pretty much anything they want with the subsequent films, picking and choosing elements from previously established history as they wish. And what's even better is they effectively or potentially eliminated all of the nonsense surrounding the bad Star Trek films, and could even completely redo them if they wished as well as correct any of their respective flaws. Such as the horrible Shatner directed Star Trek 5 and the other odd numbered films that just plan sucked!


The pictures that you see to go along with this Blog were taken months before the films actually finished shooting. My former university, CSUN or cal State University Northridge, doubled for Star Fleet Academy. Which is why I was able to get some many shots of cadets going about their business as it were. If I knew for sure that some of the major players were going to be on campus, I would have taken more pictures of stood around longer. But if you live in the LA area like I do, then you have seen countless movies and TV shows being filmed, and it can all get to be rather tedious. Plus I was getting guff from security who claimed I couldn't take any pictures, but that was actually bullshit. CSUN is a State school, which means it's funded in part by tax payers dollars. As such it is technically public property, and you cannot tell people what they can or cannot take pictures of on public property. Even if you are filming a movie, which is something not everyone knows.


back to the film itself. Some of the casting itself was brilliant, and I especially liked how Zachery ( something) portrayed Spoke. I actually felt sorry for his character, and Vulcans are one of the fictional species where they have a very rich and interesting back story or full characterization.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Griffith Observatory: First time in a long time!



Yesterday I went with some friends to the Griffith Observatoryin Los Angeles. You know the one with the really big telescope and the laserium shows that everyone gets stoned for and watches, especially when they use Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin as the soundtrack. Anyway I have been to the Observatory a few times in the past, but I haven't actually managed to do any hiking. Which was our goal yesterday. Actually our goal was to walk to the Hollywood sign and take some pictures, something I have been meaning to do for over 10 years now, but that proved to be undo able. From the Observatory it is a several mile hike uphill and not in a direct sort of way. So we simply didn't plan or manage our time appropriately for such an endeavor. Though we did make plans to attempt the hike in the near future. Hopefully we will all have time before I leave for Europe later on in the summer. Plus the Observatory/Griffith Park and the surrounding mountains were breathtaking, so we all got some really good pictures and I finally got to use the Wide Screen feature on my camera.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Travel Whore: The 1st Blog Ever!



Okay everyone this is my first attempt at a Blog aside from the half assed ones on my MySpace pages, but I gave that up a long time ago ( Facebook rules!). So please do forgive me as I tend to write everything in a very stream of consciousness sort of way or format, as that is just how my mind seems to work. Which incidentally I do not think lends itself very well to the printed page...or in this case the printed screen. It is also not every one's cup of tea for writing styles. Unfortunately I am also a horrible speller and tend to forget to include words from time to time that are actually quite important to the story or actual narrative of unfolding events. So I do hope you will understand if this Blog is slightly less than perfect as it were from time to time. It is many a bit of fun and to showcase some of the places I will visit this summer while in Europe. Specifically Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and if there is time, Morocco, Ibiza, France and Italy, as well as all the places I have already been to throughout the US and Europe during my many travels. My Blog will also feature some of my other interests such as films ( I use to be a film critic and go to the movies at least once a week here in LA), Food ( going out and cooking), collectibles ( I collect a lot of shit) and various other tidbits and whatnot. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please feel free to message me here, below, or via travelwhore@rocketmail.com, and travelwhore09@gmail.com .

Which reminds me, I actually tried to get a few different email addresses with just TravelWhore, but it is not as easy as you would think. Hence the dash or hyphen in my Blogspot web address. Anyway I will start to regularly update this Blog during my annual summer trip to Europe which starts next month! So be on the lookout for that and tons of pictures of me and my friends adventures. Until then please take care of yourself and Enjoy! My next Blog should be sometime this weekend after I have seen Angels and Demons and some other films at the local Movie Theatre.