Didn't really expect to see a moose in downtown Los Angeles. But there it is high on the wall at Clifton's.

Thursday night I saw a play with the gulp-inducing title of "Adam Baum and the Jew Movie" at the Hayworth Theater on Wilshire Boulevard near downtown Los Angeles.

Turns out to be a really good play about a Jewish movie studio head in 1946 who hires a non-Jewish screenwriter to write a movie about the American Jewish experience without making the picture "too Jewish."

It's an interesting look at anti-semitism and how the Jewish studios heads at the time created a vision of the American Ideal without open images of Jewish people in it.

I wonder if this "owl" above the marquee of the Hayworth Theater actually keeps any pigeons away?

The Future

I spent Sunday afternoon in the mountains just south of Los Gatos for the end of Junior Statesmen's Montezuma Leadership Conference. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the students running Junior Statesmen -- America's largest student-run organization.

This annual conference is held at the place in Santa Cruz County where Junior Statesmen (www.jsa.org) was founded nearly 75 years ago.

High School teachers remain an essential cornerstone in Junior Statesmen's operation.

This student gave his outstanding Graduation Speech while holding his laptop where he'd written his speech. Who needs pen and paper anymore?

Spent Tuesday night on the campus of UCLA with students attending the Junior Statesmen's Los Angeles Symposium. I ran a campaign simulation where the students put together campaigns for and against four ballot measures facing California voters this November. It was fun to see how the students went about tackling the assignment.

Went to see the new Ben Stiller comedy "Tropic Thunder" on it's opening day last night. It's pretty darn funny but I TOTALLY get why advocates for the developmentally disabled are so up in arms over this movie.

It's not like there's just one or two jokes about the slower amongst us -- the "joke" is pretty much an essential part of the story.

But mostly I was blown away by Tom Cruise's reputation-changing performance as an out-of-control studio executive. Whatever his faults, he obviously has a sense of humor. Perhaps this film is his first step on the trail of redemption.

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Made my triumphant return (and probably only visit this summer) to the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night to see their concert-version production of "Les Miserables."

Of course, you can't go wrong with this show and the talented cast -- laden with Broadway luminaries -- sung the heck out of it.

And they proved you can even do the show without a giant turntable on the stage.

Memorable performances were turned in by:

Michele Maika as Cosette -- played Eponine on Broadway.

Michael McCormick as Thenardier -- played Oscar Shapira in "Curtains" on Broadway and at the Ahmanson.

J. Mark McVey as Jean Valjean -- played Jean Valjean on Broadway and for seven years (2,912 performances) in London's West End.

Lea Michele as Eponine -- played Wendla in "Spring Awakening" on Broadway.

Brian Stokes Mitchell as Javert -- won a Tony for "Kiss Me, Kate."

Ruth Williamson as Madame Thenardier -- unforgettable as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn in the 2000 Revival of "The Music Man."

John Lloyd Young as Marius -- won a Tony as Frankie Valli in "Jersey Boys."

The Hollywood Bowl before the show began.

Friday night I went back to the Renberg Theater in Hollywood to see their latest edition of "The MisMatch Game."

I first went a few months ago and had a blast. When I learned about the latest edition I thought it would be an excellent way to celebrate GeezBob's birthday.

We both thought it was hilarious. And these performers sure are talented at coming up with quick, witty and raunchy matches.

Dinner Friday night was at the New York-sized restaurant (read: small) Bowery Bar & Bistro. (www.theboweryhollywood.com) On Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, I thought the food was good, reasonably priced and the staff did a good job making us comfortable given the confined space.

I Drink Your Milkshake

Had a very unique theatrical experience Wednesday night when I went to see Theatre 40's production of "The Manor" at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

It's an "interactive" show that unfolds as audience members move from room to room in the mansion. The audience is divided into thirds and led by different "servants" through the house. All audience members see all the scenes, just in different orders. I was in the group led by "Ellie, the mute maid." She'd snap her fingers to get our attention and off we'd go.

The show is based on the real life story behind the mansion -- as they say in the introduction, "the names have been changed to protect the guilty."

Greystone Mansion was built on a ridge in Beverly Hills in the 1920s by oil magnate Edward Doheny as a gift for his son, Ned. The Doheny name was tarnished when they were ensnared in the Teapot Dome scandal. Ned Doheny was accused of delivering a bribe to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and was killed in a murder-suicide inside the mansion.

I last visited Greystone Mansion, now owned by the City of Beverly Hills, in 1975 or 1976 as a student at MOBOC -- an experimental "traveling" school without classrooms I went to for the 7th and 8th grades. I so miss the 70s.

Celebrity Sighting: Saw Bryan Batt, from the cast of "Mad Men" walking down the street near where I live on Wednesday. I shouted from my car that I like his work on the show and he thanked me and waved.

Much of the play takes place in the Living Room.

Recently Greystone Mansion was used to film the final scenes in "There Will Be Blood." The unforgettable "just a bastard in a basket" scene was film in this room

A wall in the backyard.

A fountain in the back yard. The high-rise in the background is the famous Sunset Towers on the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Celebrities like Elton John, Cher and Joan Crawford own units in the building. Can you imagine what their HOA meetings are like?

Fish Pond.

A light fixture near the entryway to the Motor Courtyard.

This is a view looking towards Los Angeles from the front porch of Greystone. The tall buildings in the middle line the Wilshire Corridor.

Thursday night I went to see an interesting documentary entitled "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."

The height of his journalism career was a little before my time so the entire film had a sense of recent history to me.

Much of the movie centers on his coverage of the 1972 Presidential election for Rolling Stone magazine. 1972 is the first Election Night I remember (I was 9). My Mother was very upset George McGovern lost and my Grandparents (her parents) were very happy Richard Nixon was reelected. That's when it dawned on my different people have different opinions about politics.

Entertainment Cavalcade

Went to see the very fun "A Very Brady Musical" Saturday night at Theater West in the Cahuenga Pass.

Any adult fan of "The Brady Brunch" will enjoy this satirical look at the "perfect" 1970s step-family.

It's no surprise there are lots of glancing references to various episodes of the TV show because this musical is Executive Produced by Sherwood Schwartz, the original creator and producer of "The Brady Bunch" (as well as Gilligan's Island). His son Lloyd Schwartz co-wrote the book and directs the show. And his daughter, Hope, co-wrote the music and lyrics along with her husband, Laurence Juber.

I guess it's only fitting this show is "A Family Affair." Oh wait, that's a different TV show from my childhood.

Unfortunately, the witty script is only marginally aided by the somewhat talented cast.

And was I the only one confused because Bobby is taller than Peter?

You gotta run out and see this one.

"Frozen River" is set in upstate New York, on and off the Mohawk Reservation which straddles the United States and Canadian border. (It was filmed near Plattsburgh, New York -- a place I've actually spent some time.)

A Mother (whose unseen husband is a gambling addict) is barely holding on as she tries to raise two boys, ages 5 and 15. The five year-old is the picture of innocence while the 15 year-old sees through everything, on the verge of becoming a man.

The Mother gets involved in some shenanigans on the Mohawk Reservation, making lots of bad decisions all for the right reasons.

The film does a great job of representing how Native Americans and "whites" see the world differently.

The acting -- all around -- is superb. It's like you're looking at these characters' lives through a hidden camera.

Ben Kingsley rules! "The Wackness" is such a fun movie.

Kingsley plays a well-to-do New York City psychiatrist with lots of problems of his own. For instance, he trades therapy sessions with his high school aged drug dealer for free pot. The length of the session determines the amount of pot.

But the two develop a mentor/mentee relationship that actually seems pretty genuine.

The title derives from a scene when one character describes her outlook on life as looking for "the wackness" instead of obsessing on "the dopeness."

I felt old during this scene.

"Tell No One" is an exciting thriller out of France. A young couple, very much in love, are spending some time by a small lake when they are attacked and the wife is killed.

Cut to eight years later and the husband begins to receive messages he believes are from his late wife.

Secrets are revealed.

Wednesday night I was in a test audience at Universal Studios for a new comedy starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Elizabeth Banks called "Role Models." Co-written by Rudd, for the sake of all three careers hopefully this turkey will never see the light of day.

I like all three actors and fear this is the kind of movie that can alienate an audience against a performer, permanently.

The movie is just more offensive than funny. Yes, I laughed at times -- but when did it become OK to have child actors deliver lines saltier than a sailor's bar story?

And what's up with the parents of these children? Are they so desperate to have their little darlings become famous they don't care what's in the script?

Where's the Children's Welfare Department when you need them?

Last week I went to see a quirky little comedy called "Kabluey," written and directed and starring Scott Pendergast.

It's about a family's black sheep who takes a job dressing up as an internet company's logo.

There are lots of holes in the plot but if you just go with it it's quite a sweet movie.

Ironically, something went kabluey in the projection room the night I saw the film. First there was sound but no picture. Then there was a picture but no sound. The 7:30 screening finally got going around 8:00 p.m.