A performance "Ta-dah" for...

Just got back home from yet another phenomenal concert by the Scissor Sisters. This time the venue was the Shrine Expo Center, the largest venue that I think they've used in the Los Angeles area.

I had never been to a concert in at the Shrine before. When I got there, I discovered there was $20 parking (BOO!), so after looking aimlessly for parking on the streets nearby, I sucked it up and went to the parking garage.

I parked the car around 7:30-ish and went downstairs to the area in front of the Expo Center. I took place in the security line. And with perfect timing, Jason and Jim arrived. Jim went off to get in line to pick up a ticket while Jason and I went for our frisking...yipes!

We get through the security line and shortly after we see my friend Rachel. Jim gets his ticket and we all head in.

The venue looked like a big open gymansium with a stage set up at one end. First word that came to mind...PROM. However, this was a big gay prom.

It's like every homo in town was there. And there were all kinds of all shapes, sizes, and colors. There were twinks, bears, otters, manatees...There were blind gays, gays in wheelchairs, gays on scooters...There was Lance and Reichen just a few feet in front of us with a gaggle of hot gay guys. And everywhere I turned there was somebody I knew like Darren, Daniel P., and Alex from the "Amazing Race."

Jason, Jim, I staked out a place while we waited for some other friends to join us. Rachel was trapped in drink line land. Soon after, UHJeff, Jon, and Afnahn arrived...but soon after that they along with Jim went to the Bermuda Triangle that was the drink line.

In the midst of all this...the opening band Small Sins performed. They were all right...not sure if I'd buy their album, but as far as opening bands go, I enjoyed them.

Ted arrived having gone to a dinner and met up with Jason and me. In the meantime, I get a text from Jon saying that he saw Joshua Jackson (Pacey from "Dawson's Creek") and that he was still stuck in the drink line with the rest.

The Scissor Sisters finally hit the stage around 9:30/9:45?? And it was like seeing an old friend. The energy, humor, and fun of their previous shows was still there. This time, though, that had a wider range of songs to pick from for their set. The majority of the songs were from "Ta-Dah" with a handful of songs from the debut album thrown in for good measure. The set consisted of (not necessarily in the order in which they were performed):

Take Your Mama
I Can't Decide
Tits in the Radio
She's My Man (which KICKED butt live)
Laura
Lights
Paul McCartney (another great song live - I actually think this could be single-worthy after hearing the reaction of the audience)
Kiss You Off
Everybody Wants the Same Thing
Mary
Comfortably Numb
Music is the Victim
Land of a Thousand Words

And the encores:
I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
Filthy/Gorgeous

It had a great party atmosphere. The crowd was into it. Good times all around. The only downside was the venue. Parking fee aside, it just wasn't conducive for not-so-tall people like me who constantly had to maneuver to peek through the sea of head backs.

All in all, it looks like the Scissor Sisters are off to a great start for the North American leg of their tour. If you're outside of L.A., look up when they're heading to your town and check out a show. You won't be disappointed!

Here are some blurry pics I was able to snap from where I was standing:



Jake and Ana Matronic during "Mary"


Del Marquis :-)

"Ta-dah" Today

The new Scissor Sisters album "Ta-Dah" has been finally released in the U.S.

And I love it!

Hands down, it's my favorite album so far this year. It took a few listens, however, to warm up to as opposed to their debut album from 2004 which basically grabbed you by the balls from track 1 and didn't let go.

Several tracks have already burrowed a permanent home in my ear drums. As I've mentioned before, the Leo Sayer-tastic single "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" is a winner. That segues into my favorite track off the album: "She's My Man" (the bastard love child of Elton John's "All the Young Girls Love Alice," "I'm Still Standing," and "Hey Papa Legba"). If it wasn't for the 5+ minute length of the song, I'd say that it would be the pick for the next single. The two Queen-esque music hall numbers "Intermission" and "I Can't Decide" are two more faves from the album.

"Spot the Influence" is a game that works quite well with some of my other favorites from this album. There's the Duran Duran vibe of "The Other Side" and the Blondie "Call Me"-era disco rock of "Kiss You Off." (YAY, Ana Matronic!) The addition of a brass section to some of the new repertoire recalls the horn flourishes of the attempted dance rock on Elton John's 1985 album "Ice on Fire"...but much more successful.

The only thing that the album could have used was a big epic number like the fantastic "Return to Oz" from their debut. It also would have been cool to have a really crunchy disco-rock number like "Music is the Victim" from their debut album. The closest to this on the new album is "Paul McCartney," an awesome frenetic dance-pop number that really doesn't sound like anything Macca ever did.

Overall, "Ta-Dah" is a harder pill to swallow than its predecessor, but one you won't regret once you get it down. It's a great solid collection that proves the first album wasn't a fluke and it's one that's going to be hard to top this year.

Can't wait to see them in concert on Thursday at the Shrine Expo Center...anybody else going? Very intrigued to hear how some of the new tracks translate when played live.

GO BUY THIS ALBUM...NOW!

OK, UK!

Just saw this...

Another way the Brits are cooler than us...

Pick up "Ta-Dah" tomorrow! I've had a chance to listen to it beforehand and it's excellent...More on why in a post later tonight or tomorrow...but do yourselves a favor tomorrow and head to your local music store and pick up a copy!

Disney World! (Day 6)

aka..."Another Day of Wetness...of Another Kind"

It was also another day at EPCOT. But it began with the discovery of my first bug bite of the trip!

So, the first stop at EPCOT...The Land!

It's the home of...

The line was a bit long so we nabbed a Fastpass...

1:03 PM to 2:03 PM??? So odd...usually they're for more round numbers...

Despite what I had read on the 'net, the Living with the Land boat ride was open! There was no more tour guide, but it was neat seeing the futuristic greenhouse. Mmmm...nine-pound lemon.

The boat ride interested us so much that we found out more info about the "behind the seeds" walking tour...

We discovered there was an extra fee for going on the tour and that the tour lasted one hour...Pass...

On to Soarin!

Which was exactly like the California Adventure version...which means it was great.

After the ride, we had lunch at the Seasons food court where lo and behold...they had...

Mello Yello! Yay for watery Mountain Dew-lite...

Before we left, I took one more snap...this time of the classic Epcot symbol for the Land pavilion...

From The Land we went to The Seas...The Living Seas to be exact...

...where there were fish...

...fish...

and lots of pretty fish!

There were also stingrays...(RIP, Steve Irwin)

But there was a lot more to see...so it was back outside to see the rest of Future World...

And on to the Universe of Energy...aka Ellen's Energy Adventure. I must say, in spite of losing the two great classic Energy songs, the Ellen version was still quite charming. And where else can you see mustache-era Alex Trebek on a big giant movie screen?

As we left Energy, it started raining...a lot...so we zipped over quickly to Innoventions...

...where we killed some time as the rain subsided. We even tried out a Segway scooter...

Wheeeee!

The rain died down and we made our way to World Showcase to see some of the countries we had to rush through last time...

There was the UK...

...where we spent some time in the Rose and Crown pub, home of a pub singer/pianist that serenaded us with such great British classics as..."Piano Man," "Fly Me to the Moon," and "Don't Ask Me Why"...huh?

Morocco...which had a belly dancing kit for sale!

And as you can see, it was Mororckin'!

And finally, there was Japan which had for sale an interesting set of "crackers"

Were they crab-shaped crackers or dehydrated crabs that cracked when you bit into them...we'll never know!

I DO know I bought a damn lot of chocolate from the UK store. Damn you for taunting my sweet tooth!

The rain made a big return later in the evening...causing all of us to get into poncho mode (as shown here by Mark and Darren)

And thus ended our last full day at Disney World. It's packing up, shopping, and staying dry before we head home tomorrow!

I hope you've enjoyed these daily trip blogs...now it's time to get to bed for the big return to L.A. tomorrow!

Disney World! (Day 5)

aka "The Day We Really Didn't Go to Disney World..."

Instead, we went to the best "'Disney park' that isn't on the Disney property"

Hooray! I had only been to the park once...and that was briefly during my one-week stint helping start up the production of "Beat the Clock" in Orlando. And even then, I only had time to see about the 1/2 the park! Not only that, but I was on my own then as opposed to being with eight of my closest friends.

So, this morning, we hopped into some taxis and made our way the Universal Orlando Resort and before we knew it...

Since I had the whole day to check out the park, I was able to appreciate things a bit more. The theming, I have to say, was top-notch...rivaling that of any Disney theme park.

The first stop...Marvel Island. We headed straight to The Hulk coaster. As we discovered with all the thrill rides, they have test seats outside to make sure you can "fit" in the seat...

And thankfully, I did...only to have a face like this throughout the whole ride...

After the ride, we went to the nearby gift shop...

...needless to say, Ted was like a kid in a toy store...

Oh, wait a minute...it was pretty much a toy store!

Then, off to...The Amazing Spider-Man!

...in 3D!

For those of you not familiar with this masterpiece of an attraction, it's a dark ride-meets-motion simulator-meets-3D-movie that's just all heaps of coolness.

Hands down....THE best theme park attraction...EVER!

We also went on Dr. Doom Fear Fall where I found a sign that would make a wonderful reality show...

..and quite an appropriate sign for me...

Marvel Island was a cool area...

...but there were many other places to see...like Toon Lagoon...home of this very neat Flash Gordon storefront...

Cue up the Queen theme to the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie for full effect...

Even after our experience at the Kathy Griffin...I mean, Kali River Rapids, we ventured on to the Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. It made the Kali River Rapids look very tame.

I mean, there was wetness...

lots...

and lots...

and lots...

...of wetness! Look at my back!

Miraculously Darren stayed pretty much dry compared to us!

But that all changed with the even more wet Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls...In order to preserve my camera, I held back on using it.

From Toon Lagoon, we went to Jurassic Park...

...where we achieved a triple crown of wetness by riding the Jurassic Park River Advenutre.

All of this water fun made my butt a tad moist. No...don't read into that...

Upon finishing with the aquatic rides, there was a dryoff session...

...though Tim needed a whole new wardrobe because he was drenched!

But the water theme didn't end quite yet...We checked out Poseidon's Fury...

...which again had excellent theming...


Then, it was on to Dueling Dragons...the ride that at one point was originally meant for the aborted Beastly Kingdom section of Disney's Animal Kingdom...

We did the Fire side and Ice side before I got roller coastered out. I was ready for something a little more low key like...

Little did I know that it wasn't quite "low key." There was lots of spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning...oh, the dizziness...

And at the point, we had made a full circle around the park. Before we left, we made one final trip to Spider-Man...our third of the day...

This go 'round, we took a little extra time to take some pics in the queue area:



Unfortunately, our final run at Spider-Man was ruined by a back row filled with a VERY loud family that talked throughout the whole ride. BOO ON YOU! (Though they probably wouldn't have understood me had I said that...)

Thus ended another productive day at a theme park...

And thus ends the last of our full theme park days on this trip. The next couple of days will probably be a grab bag of different things like checking out the other Disney resorts, hitting the pool, and making some return visits to the parks. Who knows?

Whatever happens, it's quite amazing that we've done SO much in just a few days!

Disney World! (Day 4)

It was Day 4 of the big trip to Disney World and today's park was the Magic Kingdom.

I saw something at the store which expressed a little bit about how I felt...

Why for? My parents were driving up from South Florida to meet up with me. This was the first time I've seen my dad since Thanksgiving and his first time meeting my friends. At last...my L.A. and Florida worlds will have truly collided!

We began the Magic Kingdom day by grabbing a quick breakfast at the Main Street Bakery. In addition to getting some breakfast...we got quite a bit of attitude from Paola the cashier. She had quite an issue with Ted trying to get his cast member discount. It's like we were asking her to pull out money from the cash register to give to us. Yeesh...not the most magical way to begin the day!

At the very least, we got some useful advice from the napkins...

Sorry Donald, no scraps for you!

The first attraction of the day was Stitch's Great Escape!, the show that replaced one of my personal favorites, Alien Encounter.

To put it simply...it's Alien Encounter...dumbed down...to the point where you leave going, "that's it?"

Oh how I miss you, Alien Encounter! So what if Alien Encounter was a bit on the scary side!? At least it had a little oomph to it as opposed to this one which had little nudges on the shoulders and a big waft of the smell of chili dog up your nose. Blarg...

A little trip to the gift shop by the exit brought about the discovery of a peculiar pin...

And Leland doing his best Jack Sparrow...

To cleanse the palate of the Stitch, we moved on to Space Mountain (YAY!) and the Carousel of Progress (YAY!). Carousel is cheesy, but you can't help but sing along to "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!"

We took a little jaunt on the "Ride Formerly Known as the WEDWay Peoplemover" (now the Tomorrowland Transit Authority)...

...before we made our way to Liberty Square...where the group finally got back at me for sticking my video camera in front of their faces so much during the trip...

We hopped over to Splash Mountain next...

...where the wet factor wasn't as bad as the Kathy Griffin...I mean, Kali River Rapids...

And we had some fun on Big Thunder Mountain...

After a trip to "it's a small world" (we discovered that the title is supposed to be all small caps...go figure!), it was time for our early dinner at Cinderella's Round Table.

There, my parents met up with all of us...

What a dinner it was! None of us had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. The food was good and the little mini-show was good. As Tim pointed out, there may have been a little bit of a mouse problem...

...but the Fairy Godmother assured us all would be well...especially when she gave Leland her magical touch...

Everybody pretty much gave the place a thumbs up...


And what's that? A creamy dessert?

...nah...it's the horseradish and cream for the tasty prime rib that a few of us had. Delcious!

HERE was dessert...

Chocolate Mousse Cake! Hooray!

We all went to Mickey's Philharmagic next and got a little 3D...

I highly, highly recommend this next time any of you go to the Magic Kingdom. I loved this even more today than the first time I saw it. It's such a great smorgasbord of Disney characters old and new. And it's got lots of Donald Duck, one of my favorite characters who we just don't see enough of anymore...

I finally gave into my boycott and tried out the Winnie the Pooh ride. I've had a grudge against this ride ever since it replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom. However, thanks to a cast member's tip, I saw a little homage to Toad at the Pooh Ride. There's a pic in the ride that shows Mr. Toad handing a deed over to Owl. Awww...

Frankly, Pooh's no Toad, but I'll still help him out if he's ever in a pinch to get out of his "hunny hole..."

...please...don't read into that. I beg you...

We all checked out the Wishes! fireworks show before we took advantage of our extra "magic hours."

As the night drew to a close, we hit Adventureland and saw Jungle Cruise, the Aladdin Magic Carpets, and the Pirates of the Caribbean...

Now, I've gone on and on before about how much better the Disneyland version of "Pirates" is compared to Florida's, but after riding the Florida version tonight..."Pirates" is still a damn good attraction.

The Jack Sparrow additions work well here too. But I'm still creeped out at how lifelike the Jack animatronic looks!

We did one more trip to Tomorrowland before we left...

...hitting Space Mountain for a 2nd go-round. We also did the Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers attraction where I proved once again that my aim is awful. It's even harder when you're working solo steering the vehicle and firing at the targets. I'm not even going to share my score.

All in all, it was another VERY productive day. In fact, we've hit pretty much all of the major spots at Disney World.

So, tomorrow, it's time to go off property to hit Universal's Islands of Adventure!

Disney World! (Day 3)

aka..."Ride, Interrupted"

Day 3 of the big Disney World trip the first stop of the day...EPCOT CENTER!

We did World Showcase last night so this morning it was...

And we began with...Spaceship Earth! In spite of the retirement of the "Tomorrow's Child" theme song (sniff!), the ride was still fairly intact...and there was sufficient warning that it was a SLOW-MOVING ride...

It was SO slow-moving, the ride STOPPED just before we arrived at the exit area...We were stopped for a good 15 minutes or so...

...enough to get us to launch into some scintillating conversation about fiber optics and how dated EPCOT Center was seeming...(I mean, Jeremy Irons' copy at the end talked about how we're APPROACHING the 21st century...WHAT?!?)...

Needless to say, I wasn't amused...

We finally "returned" to present time on Earth only to leave it again on "Mission: Space!" And there was a little something new from the last time I was there. Now, visitors had a choice between the more intense orange mission and the tamer (and more vomit-less) green mission.

Of our group, Tim and I were the only ones who opted for the orange...

We survived the G-forces and Gary Sinise to make way for one of my sentimental favorites...Journey Into Imagination...starring FIGMENT!

For some reason, Figment didn't seem to take well to Leland...

You know, as much I love Figment in the new ride, it still needs a little Dreamfinder in it...and NOT just with a punny sign on the door that says "Dean Finder." Oh, and this ride stopped in the middle as well! AHHH!

The group was aching for a something with a bit of oomph, so we went to Test Track...the home of odd signs like these:


What are they supposed to mean?!?!?!

The rest of the gang pretty much had their EPCOT fill by lunch so we took a bus over to the next destination..

We hit Tower of Terror first and it confirmed that the one at California Adventure does not do this attraction justice. Disney-MGM's version wins hands down and is one of the all-time best attractions in any Disney theme park.

After the tower, we had lunch at the 50s Primetime Cafe. The waiting area had some cool living room setups.


And you know what a big meal together means?...Group pic!

Next stop...The Great Movie Ride. Another in the line of rides that need a bit of updating. The good part...we got the gangster scene! Rarely get that...The bad part...the ride stopped down! It looks like the mechanics are taking a vacation as well...

We then ventured to the Backstage Tour...or should I say, the "Much More Truncated than the Tour I Remember Growing Up With" Backstage Tour. No more Residential Street! NO MORE GOLDEN GIRLS HOUSE!!!! BOO! Such travesties started to wear down our group...

I started to lose it a little myself...

While at Disney-MGM, we met up with my friends Dustin and Matthew who happened to be visiting from L.A. as well...

After another trip on the Tower of Terror...it was dinner time at the Sci-Fi Drive-In...


By the time we were done, the park was long closed...

And it was time to head back to our hotel...Tomorrow...it's the Magic Kingdom!

Disney World! (Day 2 - Part 2)

aka "Around the World in 3 1/2 Hours..."

After a little rest during which I posted the last blog, we continued our 2nd day at Disney World by heading to the World Showcase at EPCOT.

We waited at the bus depot...and waited....and waited...until about a half hour passed and our bus to EPCOT finally arrived!

We arrived at EPCOT and made our way towards the World Showcase. We decided to take the clockwise path and headed to Mexico.

After entering the pavilion, we went straight to the El Rio de Tiempo boat ride. There was no wait (and pretty much no wait with any of the rides there at World Showcase). Ahh...it was 1982 all over again...from the Village People-meets-Santana dances on the projection screens to the "Small World"-reject village to the "If You Had Wings"-ish makret film scene..NOTHING has changed with this attraction. I left amused while some others were perplexed.

But no time to lose...it was on to the next country. NORWAY!...Home of the thrilling Maelstrom...

Ted and I were psyched!

It was great seeing that nautical smorgasbord of fjords, puffins, polar bears, trolls, vikings, and oil rigs that I remember growing up with.

Tim and I capped off our Nordic adventure with a little viking sword play...

And I did a little splurging buying some Norwegian chocolate. Mmm...DAIM bar!

Next up...Germany...home of the pretzel and beer stand...and after that...Italy...where Leland did a little wine tasting...MMMM!

As the time for the Illuminations show drew closer, we went to our final World Showcase attraction...aka the last remnant of EPCOT's 1982 version of "the future's gonna be great and prosperous!" philosophy...The American Adventure!

We finished off the night at EPCOT with the new Illuminations...which unfortunately was pretty lame compared to the old Illuminations. The new Illuminations was basically nothing but a little bit of extra lighting on the World Showcase countries accented by lots of fireworks and a giant LED globe that floated in the middle of the lagoon.

What happened to the cool music score with individually tailored sections for each countries? What happened to the specific lighting for each country like the "Moulin Rouge" sign in France? What happened to all the lasers? Lame, lame, lame...

It made me weep for Marie even more...

In fact, the most amazing thing about Illuminations was how shortly before the show, it seemed like it was going to rain, but miraculously it STOPPED during the show.

Hmmm...does Disney have a deal with mother nature?

Next blog...FUTURE WORLD!

Disney World! (Day 2 - Part 1)

A quick blog before we head off to the evening's Disneying...

First off, a pic from last night's Mannequins outing that I forgot to upload...The VERY cool disco ball dancers...

The park of the morning...Animal Kingdom! We kicked things off by trying out the brand new Expedition Everest...I was VERY excited!

Great theming...There was even animal poo in the waiting area.

Ahh...scat, and not the Ella Fitzgerald kind. The ride is Big Thunder Mountain meets the Matterhorn all with a giant Yeti! And switching tracks! Unsurprisingly, we did an encore later in the afternoon. Next up, the Kathy Griffin Rapids...I mean, the Kali River Rapids...which lead to nothing but wetness...

More wetness...

And nothing but wetness...

In the midst of our safari-ing we saw a hippo...

And our trek through the Animal Kingdom ended with lunch at the Rainforest Cafe...where this elephant kept making noises at me...

...and Tony enjoyed some coconut shrimp

Next stop...World Showcase at Epcot Center!

Disney World! (Day 1)

Here it is...the first of many reports straight from the big trip to Walt Disney World!

Things got off to a great start as Tim had called a limo to take Ted, Larry, him, and I over to LAX.

Some pics to whet your appetite...

First, here's the whole gang at LAX before we checked in to our plane...


Next up...all of us having a drink at The Adventurers' Club at Pleasure Island.


After The Adventurers' Club, Scott (who was also in Florida) met up with us at 8-Trax.


And finally...a fountain!


Coming up tomorrow...Animal Kingdom!

Ok...

Just a little more than a week away from my trip to Disney World. YAYYYYY!

CRIKEY!

Stupid stingray... :-(