Sunday I went to a screening of the new movie "The Lost Coast" written and directed by Gabriel Fleming. It's about three high school friends who re-unite in San Francisco on Halloween. With one of the trio set to be married, they re-live the tumultuous emotions of their adolescence and a trip to the "lost coast" of California.

Sorry to be a downer but this movie was slow and plodding. I was rooting for it to end.

Fleming (above right) and two of the performers were on hand afterwards to answer questions. At least that part of the program was interesting.

No Mickey Mousing Around

The REDCAT Theater is performance space under the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles. I went there for the first time tonight. The occasion was a screening of early works by filmmakers.

Following the screening noted East Village entertainer Carmelita Tropicana performed something between a stand-up routine and a dramatic interpretation of the trials and tribulations of being Carmelita Tropicana.

The highlight of her act, I suppose, came when she hiked up her dress to reveal a Chinese Food Take-Out container dangling between her legs. Reaching in she threw chocolate kisses into the audience. What a sweet surprise!

Plates, Trains and Automobiles

Went up and back to the San Francisco Airport yesterday for a meeting in San Mateo. The concourse in Terminal 3 between security and the gates always has the most interesting displays. But normally I'm walking on the moving walkway and don't slow down to take a look.

But yesterday the moving walkway was shut down and I had to do all the walking myself! It gave me a great opportunity to look at the displays of ceramics from Santa Catalina Island. Beautiful display cases filled with plates, tiles (above), candelabras and trinkets. Who knew Catalina had a history of producing ceramics?

If the walkway had been operating I wouldn't.

The Directors Guild on Sunset Boulevard was the site of a screening of several short films this evening. I was disappointed by this collection of 6 shorts. They seemed more weird than entertaining to me.

Monday night I went by the West Los Angeles classic coffee shop, Dolores Restaurant. I was pleased to learn that a new owner was responsible for the exterior paint job and fixing up the neon sign which had seriously deteriorated.

A small remodeling opened up the interior of the restaurant but the charm and the food remains the same.

Sunday night I stopped by the Ark Theater on La Cienega Boulevard to see "Capsized Flotsam" written by (and starring) Donaco Smyth. The story centers around a novelist suffering writer's block who discovers a way to take a fantastical journey to a library that holds every book that has been written and EVERY book that will be written. He discovers a novel that he has written in the future and decides to memorize it and return to his house and write down what he remembers.

Advertised as an Edwardian comedy a la Oscar Wilde, I've suffered my own writer's block on blogging about it. Some parts of the show lived up to its billing -- especially the Alice-in-Wonderland-style library scenes, but much of it felt like a slog. And though I admire Smyth's ability as a playwright, I thought he was terribly miscast (by himself, no doubt) in the lead role.

I don't like to rain on other's well-intentioned parades, but if you bill yourself as being as talented as Oscar Wilde then you should be prepared to take some criticism.

Hooray for Hollywood!

The Pasadena Playhouse is offering the premiere production of "Looped" about Tallulah Bankhead.

Written by Matthew Lombardo, the show uses a real life incident as its stepping off point -- a 1965 session in a Hollywood recording studio where Bankhead was to loop one line from the film "Die! Die! My Darling!" What should have taken five minutes instead took over eight hours.

Co-starring Chad Allen as the executive overseeing the recording session, this play looks at Bankhead's humor, idiosyncratic style and self-destructive behaviour.

Valerie Harper, as Bankhead, gives a very impressive, powerhouse performance. Rhoda doesn't live here anymore.

Playwright Lombardo previously wrote the entertaining "Tea at Five," about Katharine Hepburn which starred Kate Mulgrew and also ran at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Went to see a Sony Pictures Government Affairs screening of "Hancock" in Culver City on Thursday night.

After seeing a preview I was really excited by this invitation. Sadly, I thought the movie was just so-so. Will Smith plays a super-hero with great abilities and a chip on his shoulder. He doesn't like the adulation and prefers getting drunk on a park bench to practicing his calling.

The first half of the movie -- explaining the set-up -- is great fun and the special effects are impressive. The second half of the movie takes an unexpected turn (one person I was with on Thursday said he saw it coming from the get-go) and the story bogs down.

But it is interesting to see a superhero with human emotions (good and bad).

The Culver Hotel stands across the way from the movie theater where the "Hancock" screening was held.

This landmark is most famous as the hotel which housed the Munchkins in 1939 during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz." The Urban Legend is they really trashed the hotel with their nightly out-of-control parties.

Matthew Broderick has a really good movie out called "Finding Amanda." I saw it Wednesday night. Broderick plays a nearly washed-up TV sitcom writer with gambling, drinking and drug addictions and a marriage on the ropes.

His family learns his niece is working as a prostitute in Las Vegas and Broderick's character volunteers to go "save" her. Of course, his real motivation is time in Las Vegas away from his wife.

Both funny and emotional this little film hits the jackpot (in a non-addictive way).

Spent Tuesday in San Francisco and San Mateo for meetings. I had some free time after my meetings so I thought I'd take public transportation to the San Francisco Airport (about 5 miles away).

I was a little more complicated than I expected. I took the Cal Train north. The photo above is the San Mateo Cal Train station. Then I transferred to a BART train going north. Then I changed to a different BART train going south to the airport. Finally I took the SkyTrain from the airport BART station to Terminal 3.

It was fine by me, but would have been a hassle had I had luggage.

I just happened to get on the "bike car" which, as you can see, was filled with bikes. That's so Bay Area.

Sometimes the formula works. Such is the case with Patrick Dempsey's new movie, "Made of Honor" (which I finally saw on Monday night). Dempsey plays a guy with a female best friend. He doesn't realize how much he loves her until she's engaged to another. Of course, the outcome is completely predictable. But the script is fresh and it's a lot of fun getting to the inevitable conclusion.

The Other Broadway

Spent Saturday morning on a walking tour organized by the Los Angeles Conservancy of the Movie Palaces that remain in downtown Los Angeles on Broadway between Third and Ninth.

Around 1910 nickelodeons and vaudeville theaters began to appear on Broadway. The opening of Sid Grauman's opulent Million Dollar Theater in 1918 established Broadway as a venue for motion pictures, and helped cement the street's reputation as the city's principal theater district.

By 1931, Broadway between Third Street and Olympic Boulevard was the West Coast equivalent of New York's Great White Way. With a dozen major theater in a seven-block stretch, the Broadway district contained the highest concentration of movie palaces in the world at the time, with a combined seating capacity of more than 17,000.

Construction of the Chinese, Egyptian and Pantages theaters on Hollywood Boulevard in the late 1920s, however, prompted a shift in theatrical activity, eventually resulting in the emergence of Hollywood as the city's first-run theater district. Hollywood retained its dominance until the 1960s when the Westwood Village theaters began to attract premieres and large audiences.

Despite the loss of some theaters downtown, the Broadway Historic Theater District has remained largely intact, providing a rare glimpse into the past when theaters and theater-going figured prominently in the fabric of urban life.

Volunteer Tour Guide Reem Baroody did an outstanding job leading our group for the three hour tour. I had lots of questions and couldn't stump her once.

Opened in 1918, Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theater was one of the earliest and largest move palaces in the country, boasting 2,345 seats.

The architectural style known as "Churrigueresque" was used for the exterior.

William Mulholland and the Metropolitan Water District occupied offices in the Million Dollar Building until the 1960s.

Longhorns adorn the exterior of the Million Dollar Theater.

Built in 1931, the Roxie was the last theater constructed on Broadway before Hollywod usurped its position as Los Angeles' principal theater district.

The Roxie has been converted to retail use.

The auditorium is now used as storage for the electronics store. In its day the movie screen was breathtaking for its size.

The back of the auditorium of the Roxie Theater featured a soundproof "Crying Room" where mothers could take their fussy babies and still watch the movie.

In a nod to functionality, the chair armrests included an ashtray so breast-feeding mothers could keep on smoking.

The Los Angeles Theater is the most elaborate theater along Broadway. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside on Saturday. That's my one complaint about the tour.