New Favorite Songs

The High Road, this beautifully sad song is by the band, Broken Bells. A collaboration between Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and James Mercer (lead singer of The Shins). Mercer's vocals have been described as taking off for other worlds, then rolling back into a gospel-ly chorus in falsetto.



This next song goes in a different direction. While doing some research about MTVU.com, Mtv's new spin-off website for college kids, I spotted an artist that I met last week named Dev. The hardness of the songs reminds me of the Beastie Boys mixed with M.I.A. I'm so pleased to share this new, amazing artist!

Short Animated Films

I was curious about the Oscar's Best Short Animated Film nominees, so I hit up google. Here are the links if you'd like to check them out.

Logorama -- winner
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Logorama was clever and unique with the usage of brand names and mascots -- reminiscent of Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can art. The Pulp Fiction references made me laugh and my unexplainable crush on the Jolly Green Giant has now increased substantially.


Wallace and Gromit in Loaf and Death was, in my humble opinion, slightly better than Logorama. The thrilling story of a serial killer offing bakers is more fluid and even though Gromit doesn't speak, he is beyond adorable. Wallace and Gromit's creator/director, Nick Park, has already won four Oscars (nominated six times), so it's nice that this year someone else got a bit of glory!

Oscar Pool Winner

Congratulations Austin! He raced past the pack and won the pool with correct answers to 15 of the 18 categories and therefore will receive a gift certificate to Burke Williams. Although there is only a prize for the winner, huge kudos to Shawn in 2nd and to Adeeb and Kim in their tie for 3rd. It was a tight competition!

And thanks to everyone else for participating too. This year's pool was the biggest one to date. (Okay, yes, this is only the 2nd year!)

Shawn's Birthday

Happy Birthday Shawn!

To celebrate, Austin rented a 3-bedroom house in Palm Springs for the weekend and thoughtfully paid extra to have the pool heated to a tropical temperature. YES!!

Here we are at Wang's In the Desert celebrating. Technically Shawn was born at 3:00 am, so we were a little early!



I got frisky with the Wang's soldier. . .or was it the soldier's wang?



The birthday jubilee continued at the stunning, Jonathan Adler designed, Parker for brunch.


Andrew with a glass cowboy hat meant to be a coffee table ornament as seen below in the picture with Shawn and Austin. Andrew is such a fireball!


Birthday boy and his lovaaah!


Delicious Huevos Rancheros.


Studs


Group shot in front of the funky decor.


The Cahns and their bodyguard


I tried to strike a pose like Hamburger Mary until I realized that she had something that I didn't!

Office Fun

One aspect of my job, aside from not being a good bodyguard, is to work on tour advertising -- whether it be full-page spreads in newspapers, gigantic billboards or television commercials. After finalizing the 15- and 30-second tv spots, wouldn't you know it. . .Dubai wanted a 60-second version. So the amazing Jon Shults, emailed this new ad for approval. Notice the venue where Rod is performing -- Jon sure knows how to have fun while working!

Tourists

More pictures from Duma and Alexis's visit. Here we stopped at the Mulholland look-out to view the Hollywood sign.



Hollywood, I love you.



How cool does the Hollywood Bowl look nestled into the hill?

Erewhon

Whole Foods' nickname is Whole Paycheck because no matter how little you think you are buying, the final tally is always surprising. I wonder how often the cashiers see bulging eye balls during a shift?

Whole Foods, however, has nothing on Erewhon Natural Foods Market. I am a sucker for healthy food trends -- in the past, I've rushed out and purchased acai, goji berries, wheatgrass, and coconut water. I can't say that any of those provided the miracles that were advertised, but at least the acai tasted good.

Recently, Arnold's Chinese herbalist, Dr. Drew, recommended switching from peanut butter to almond butter. Sorry Jif and Skippy, but you are loaded with saturated fat and unnecessary sugars. That same day, Arnold dispatched his housekeeper to buy almond butter and remove all jars and thus temptation of peanut butter from the house. Yet after a few weeks, the almond butter jar remained in the fridge unopened. Waste not, want not. I decided to give it at try. Not as smooth and creamy, but also not bad and with added benefits. Thus, I went to the health food store and bee-lined to the almond butter section.

This is what I found:



FORTY-ONE DOLLARS? That wasn't even the most expensive jar! Erewhon, are you for real?

Oscar Pool

Click on the link below to join in my Oscar pool! It's an exciting night and you could be a winner too by choosing who will be going home with trophies! As a reminder, please vote for who WILL win, not who deserves it the most or who you wish would have won!

I skipped the pool last year, but the 2008 winner was Andrew Cahn. Will he reign for two Oscar pools in a row?

SUBMIT YOUR BALLOT HERE

Farmer's Market

To Alexis's incomparable delight, Duma came to LA for a visit. My planned breakfast spot, Hugo's, had a 30 minute wait, so we ventured to the Melrose Farmer's Market to make our own breakfast. Here are Duma and Alexis buying blood oranges.



These strawberries were as sweet as they were red.



Red, white and PURPLE potatoes.

Friday Night Sushi

As I have mentioned, the weekly routine is Friday night tennis with Jason and for the past few weeks, with the extra bonus of Alexis while she is on the West Coast. We are both getting pretty good at tennis, even through all the laughing we do at each other's moves. Last week, ZERO balls over the fence!

Off the courts, Alexis and I had a competition in the car to see who could find a close sushi spot fastest using her iPhone and my car's navigation. Alexis won by a landslide because the iPhone gives reviews and info, while my car simply lists nearby sushi spots. Yet another reason to get an iPhone.

If there was any doubt about our selection, the awning at Kikokawa said "natural and organic" sushi, so we were sold. Although the magical and unique aspect of this sushi spot is its live food, we ordered more standard items. Here's chef and owner, Satoshi, firing up our yellowtail and jalepeno.



For me, what really makes this a stand-out spot is the quality of the food. The ginger is picked in-house. The wasabi is made in front of your eyes. And the fish was sublime. I'm also a sucker for creativity and silliness. Check out our Dragon Roll. Love the edamame eyes!