A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Since we wanted to try and see The Tonight Show again on Thursday, Ryan, Connie and I were on the road by 8:00 and hit the NBC studio by 8:30. But once again all we could get was standby tickets. We decided we would give it a try today anyway, since this would probably be our last chance to see it. We had to be back to the studio by 3:30 since taping was at 4:30.

From Studio City we made our way to Hollywood. It was pretty hazy out so you couldn’t see the sign in the mountains. We walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made our way down to Mann’s Chinese Theater. We looked for some key stars and ‘hand and feet’ prints such as the cast of Star Trek, Harrison Ford, and the characters of Star Wars.

Connie needed a dress for our evening at The Magic Castle so we spent some time at a mall called The Grove. After we finished up we headed back to the car and toured around some of the more affluent areas such as Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. There are definitely some impressive houses and properties to see in the Hills. We are pretty sure we saw at least one famous person’s house since there was a star tour bus in front of it and all of the passengers were taking pictures of it. We drove down Rodeo Drive, but didn’t have enough courage to actually go into any of the prestigious shops.

We had lunch at Canter’s, a famous L.A. deli / diner. I had a Fairfax sandwich that has a ton of corned beef and pastrami on it. It was good.

We killed some time before heading back to the NBC studio to get in line for The Tonight Show. There were a ton of people already lined up so we checked in with the other standby people. After about fifteen minutes the standby people were told to go join the lineups. There was a group that was entering the studio and we were told that they were special guests of Jay Leno’s. You’d expect there to be about ten or so guests. Nope, there were about one hundred. Jay has lots of friends.

There were pages armed with walkie-talkies walking up and down the line counting each person. But whenever they were asked how many people could fit in the studio, they would always claim that no one knew exactly how many could fit or how many would get in. So we’re not really sure what they were counting for. We just wanted to know whether we were getting in or not so we didn’t have to waste our time in line, but the pages loved their “power” and would give information to no one.

Shortly before 4:30 one of the pages informed us that no one with standby tickets would be getting in today. It was obviously disappointing that we would not get to see the show, but what really cheesed us off was that we didn’t need to wake up so early, and could have still accomplished the stuff we wanted to do. The one upside of not getting in was that we would not be rushed, or more likely late in getting to The Magic Castle.

There is a dress code for The Magic Castle and I didn’t bring a suit in my luggage. Luckily Ryan had a suit that fit me so we were in business. Since we didn’t want to be stuck in formal wear all day we ended up getting dressed in a parking lot on Hollywood Boulevard in the back of the car. The paparazzi only managed to get one shot.

We only had four blocks to drive, but it was rush-hour and it ended up taking nearly forty-five minutes to get there. It was insane, and funny at the same time, but we still arrived at the castle in time. Here’s a little description of what The Magic Castle is all about.

The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic. The purpose of The Academy is to encourage and promote public interest in the art of magic with particular emphasis on preserving its history as an art form, entertainment medium, and hobby. Beginning with a charter membership of 150, the Academy has grown into a world-renowned fraternal organization with a membership of nearly 5,000.

You can only get into The Magic Castle if you are a member or if you are invited. At a previous visit with some co-workers, Ryan was invited back by one of the members. The castle is an old mansion with a restaurant and rooms for magic performances. There was also a haunted piano that played by itself, and took requests. We asked it to play Moonlight Sonata and the theme from Cheers.

The first show we saw after dinner was a close-up performance. In these shows there are 22 people in a small room and you are extremely close to the magician. The performer focussed heavily on coin tricks and it was real cool seeing it up close. Right after this performance we went to the main room which actually had a stage, and was a more typical magic show with lights, music, and all of that jazz. The room held about 100 people, but was still not very big. We sat right at the front.

The first magician in this room performed with his wife and was incredible. This is probably the best magic I have ever seen live, or on TV. It was so weird seeing this stuff from so close up. It really blew our minds. I participated in a card trick where the magician’s daughter picked a card I chose. She was about 2. His finale included him making his wife disappear while levitating under a sheet. He was wearing a vampire cape and wrapped himself completely up in it. When he opened it up, it was not him, but his wife wearing the cape. He was somehow at the back of the room.

The second guy in this room had a lot of humour in his act and was awesome as well, but I definitely preferred the first guy. Throughout the night we saw another close-up performance and 2 Prestidigitation performances. One of the more impressive tricks was when a magician had a person from the audience circle the page number and the headline of any story from a newspaper with a red marker. He opened up an envelope and had a xeroxed copy of that exact page – with the red marks. It was unreal.

We finished up at about midnight and headed back home. All I can say is that The Magic Castle is easily one of the greatest things I have ever seen. It’s one thing seeing these illusions on TV, but seeing them up close and personal is incredible. This may end up being the highlight of the whole trip. You can see more pictures of the day here.

I was up around 7:30 this morning and read a bit of news on the net before jumping in the shower. Ryan was gone to work by 5:30 and Connie and I watched some sports highlights while we had our morning coffee. Let me tell you, the ESPN version of Sportscenter is the way to go as opposed to TSN’s version. Here you get 25 minutes of NBA highlights followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports – the way it should be. In the Canadian version you get 25 minutes of hockey highlights (and to be more precise, that’s 25 minutes of Leafs highlights) followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports.

We needed to stop by the NBC studio to pick up The Tonight Show tickets so we headed out at about 9:00. The traffic was decent and we rolled into Burbank and Studio City in good time. When I went in to get the tickets all they could give me were stand-by ones. The deal was that you show up at 3:30 and you’d know if you were getting in by 4:30. Since we didn’t want to hang around this area of the city all day and then end up not getting in, we decided it was best to do some schedule shifting.

We decided to go to the Getty Center today, and try The Tonight Show another day. Since we had no idea how to get to the Getty Center we tried to call Ryan at the office to get us directions off of the internet. We needed to find a pay phone since neither of them have a cell phone. I’m serious.

We couldn’t get a hold of him so we just asked a guy at a gas station and he filled us in on where we needed to be. We were now on our way to see some art. For those who don’t know what the Getty Center is, here’s a blurb from their site.

The Getty Center presents the Getty’s collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views.

Connie and I were most interested in the photography exhibits they had. The first one we saw was Sigmar Polke: Photographs, 1968-1972. His work was known to be experimental and I honestly didn’t care for them. Below is a picture of Connie enjoying old Sigmar’s photos. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be taking pictures in this exhibit, but I managed to sneak a few in….before I was told it was forbidden and sternly reprimanded.

Another photography exhibit was The Old Order and the New: P.H. Emerson and Photography 1885-1895. His pieces focused on images of, “the isolated region of East Anglia in England during the late 19th century, a time when traditional life and work along the Norfolk Broads were increasingly threatened by advances in modern technology.” I did like his work, but there were a lot of his pieces, and they all seemed to become very similar near the end.

The photography exhibit I enjoyed the most was A Place in the Sun: Photographs of Los Angeles by John Humble. From the Getty site.

John Humble (American, b. 1944) has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for 30 years. During this time he has created a strong body of photographs inspired by architecture and its surrounding natural environment, often focusing on the incongruities and ironic juxtapositions of the Southern Californian landscape. This two-gallery exhibition features approximately 35 color photographs, many of which were acquired by the Getty Museum in January 2006, with the generous assistance of the Getty Museum Photographs Council, which also underwrote the accompanying publication. Both the exhibition and book celebrate Humble’s distinct view of Los Angeles. From the concrete channels of the Los Angeles River to brightly colored commercial buildings, his photographs of the built environment capture that which is instantly recognizable yet very often overlooked.

We made our way through many of the other exhibits, but you have to understand that the Getty Center is huge, and you could spend a lot of time in there. We saw a ton of paintings and sculptures, along with a really neat look at the process they used to determine whether a so-called 15th century cabinet was the real-deal. The centre also has an incredible garden to walk through.

We decided to head back home shortly after 3:00. Traffic was brutal at some places, but cleared up and let us actually go above 20 km/hour. When we got back, Ryan had also just arrived from the office. We had some dinner and watched basketball before heading to the hot-tub for a dip. Connie didn’t join us since she needed to go buy a dress for a show we are seeing tomorrow called The Magic Castle. From what I hear it is supposed to be awesome. Check back for details on Thursday.

I’ve also posted some picture from the day here. There aren’t many, and I’m a little disappointed I didn’t have my big camera with me at the time (since I thought we were going to be at The Tonight Show today), but there were still some decent shots.

We were a little delayed getting out of Calgary due to the weather. By the time the plane was de-iced we were running about 20 minutes late. The flight was packed with families heading out for Easter vacation, but everything was decent. I’m glad it was a new WestJet plane so I could pass the time watching T.V. I got to watch a documentary on perpetual motion machines on the Discovery Channel, and an episode of Star Trek : The Next Generation (“The Emissary”).

After arriving in L.A. the first thing I noticed was that LAX looks like it was pulled straight out of the 70s. That airport needs some upgrades – not was I was expecting at all. I made my way down to the luggage claim and saw Connie pull up outside. She circled around the area a couple times while I waited for my bags to come.

We rolled out of there in no time and headed for their place in Rancho Cucamonga by San Berardino. It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive back to their place. We stopped at In-n-Out Burger for some drive-thru since I hadn’t eaten in some time. Connie said I needed to try it before I left – “best burgers as far as fast food goes”, was her claim. For the record, it was quite good.

We just hung out and watched some TV when we got back. Ryan left specific instructions for me not to touch his new surf board. He also called numerous times to remind me. I took it out to the parking lot and did a dry-run. It wasn’t that great. He got back to the house around 5:00 and we just chilled and went out for dinner. Pretty low-key day.

We decided to twiddle with the schedule slightly. Tomorrow (Wednesday), Connie and I are going to go to The Tonight Show taping (guests include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Robert Rodriguez, and Brandi Carlile) while Ryan goes to work. We have to line up for the tickets in the morning since they didn’t arrive in the mail in time.

I’m just sitting at my gate in the Calgary airport to take off for L.A. I was up nice and early this morning – around 3:15. My cab arrived at about 4:15 to take me to the airport. No problems in security or customs in either departure city so that was good. There was a bit of a wait for my luggage at customs so I just decided to go grab some breakfast while they sorted it out.

The weather in Calgary is brutal – snowing and blowing. Looks like I picked a good time to get out of here. The weather in L.A. looks solid – mostly sunny and reaching about 21 degrees celsius this afternoon. Ryan is working today so Connie is picking me up at the airport. Everything is on time and I should be landing at LAX at about 12:49 pm local time.

Anyway, that’s it and I’ll check in again to let you know I made it.

On another note, it is now confirmed that Jeffrey is online 24/7. I got on the net this morning at 4:00 to check the status of my flights. I kid you not, Jeffrey instant messages me about one second later.

“Dood, you’re gonna be late.”

Granted, it is was 6:00 in Montreal, but come on!