Bob Baker's Marionette Theater now a Landmark

I was delighted to read in the L.A. Times this week that the Bob Baker Marionette Theater has been granted landmark status by the Los Angeles City Council in a 14-0 vote. Although the theater has been continuously performing marionette shows since the Kennedy Administration, Tim and I hadn't discovered this gem for ourselves until a year-and-a-half ago.


The Bob Baker Marionette Theater. (12/06/2008)

Our first taste of the Bob Baker Marionettes was in December 2007 when we saw a mini show as part of the Disneyland Tour of Downtown Los Angeles we went on with Charles Phoenix. During the Fantasyland section of our tour, we went to the theater to watch a scene from the marionette production of The Nutcracker.


We saw the marionette production of The Nutcracker. (12/09/2007)

Afterward, we were privileged to see a private performance and audience Q&A by the legend himself, Bob Baker (who, at age 83, looked far younger than he actually is). Baker's marionette work can be seen in the 1960 film G.I. Blues where Baker perfomed alongside Elvis Presley. Baker's work can also be seen in the 1954 Judy Garland film, A Star is Born, as well as a childhood favorite of mine, Escape From Witch Mountain (1975).


Bob Baker (left) discusses the art of marionette puppeteering. (12/09/2007)

In addition to marionette work, Baker was in charge of the special effects in Bedknobs & Broomsticks (1971), one of Tim's all-time favorite movies. Baker's special effects work can also be seen on the original Bewitched and Star Trek television series.


Inside the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. (12/06/2008)

We enjoyed our experience at the marionette theater so much, that we went back a year later to see the full-length version of The Nutcracker. It was really cool, and totally surreal. It's like being in a time capsule from every decade over the last 50 years.


Bob Baker demonstrates Mr. Bojangles. (12/09/2007)


Admittedly, the theater is not much to look at from the outside. Aside from the unassuming marquis sign, the theater's exterior consists of simple white-painted cinder blocks that belie the richly-colored theater you'll find inside. One of my favorite areas is the hallway leading to the bathroom, where you can see many of Baker's original sketches for marionette designs.


Original marionette sketches line the wall. (12/09/2007)

For nearly 50 years, this theater has been putting on shows six days a week. So if you ever get a chance to check it out, DO! It's a treasure for both kids and adults alike. And best of all, after every show they serve ice cream in the connecting party room. It's not to be missed.


James & Tim at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. (12/06/2008)

The Bob Baker Marionette theater is located at 1345 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA, 90026. (213) 250-9995. Performances are Tuesday - Friday at 10:30 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. General admission for the show is $15 for adults and children. Reservations recommended.

The Moonlight Rollerway Jubilee

Roller skating rocks. Even if you're terrible at it like me, there's something incredibly fun about strapping on those well-worn rented skates and risking life and limb on the thickly-varnished skating rink floor. So when we learned our favorite histo-tainer and Kodachrome King, Charles Phoenix, was planning an entire night of activities surrounding this fading pastime, we were all over him like a bad suit!


Jon, Tim and Amy at Glendale's Moonlight Rollerway. (05/17/2008)

The event — dubbed the Moonlight Rollerway Jubilee — was a roller skating show spectacular featuring: A Charles Phoenix retro slide show celebrating the history of roller skating; a live Hammond organ performance by roller rink organist Dominic Cangilosi; A live skating show featuring a cast of more than 60 costumed skating performers; and an after show all-skate party. And did I mention free ice-cream and punch?


The Moonlight Rollerway's rules and dress code. (05/17/2008)

The event was held at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale. Even though I hadn't been there before, walking up to the door instantly brought back memories of elementary school birthday parties at the Golden Skate in San Ramon where I grew up. My little sister Anna, age 8, still attends birthday parties there (here's a blog post about my first time taking her there).


The world's greatest roller rink organist, Dominic Cangelosi. (05/17/2008)

We arrived a few minutes before the show, quickly grabbing our seats for the slide show. While we waited for the slides to start, we were treated to the musical stylings of Dominic Cangilosi, a roller-rink organist who has held that profession since the late 1940s (apparently he's the only organist to be inducted into the Roller Skating Hall of Fame).


Charles Phoenix whizzes by in his gold lamé suit. (05/17/2008)

It was the perfect appetizer for the roller-skating themed slide show. Like previous Charles Phoenix slide shows, this one was educational and hilarious at the same time. I was particularly fascinated by a photo of a now-demolished skating rink in Santa Ana called Skate Ranch. According to Phoenix, it was Southern California's most stylized rink, looking like a big red barn (it has been said they even had live chickens wandering the grounds).


A skating champion and her seaman. (05/17/2008)

The highlight of the slide show were photos from a 1940 wedding where the entire wedding party — including all 18 bridesmaids and groomsmen — was on roller skates (the bride and groom had met at a skating rink). Imagine our surprise when Phoenix told us that the bride in the photo was in the audience! Gramma Cookie Gantz, as she's now known, stood up and waved to the wildly-applauding audience. What a great moment.


Grandma Cookie Gantz and Charles Phoenix. (05/17/2008)

After a break for sugary snack bar treats, the show continued with amazing performances by the Moonlight Rollerway's reigning United States champion skating performers, Team In Sinc, and other skating stars. For the next hour plus, we were dazzled as the performers took us through every major decade of skating's golden era, from the 1940s to the 1970s.


James and Charles Phoenix. (05/17/2008)

The performances, especially those by the older teenage troup, were stunning. They were not only well choreographed, but also fully costumed. No shortcuts for these guys. I tried to get some photos of the event, but they didn't come out so hot. But I did manage to get a few good video clips.


Disco Inferno on Skates. (05/17/2008)


The evening culminated with the all-skate party. Tim and Amy were the definite stars of the night, making several rounds around the rink. Meanwhile, Jon and I each made it around once. But it was enough to satisfy our skating fix for the near future.

So as Charles Phoenix would say, here's to roller skating and YOU!

One Chutney Squishee Please

Tom picked us up after our redeye flight back from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Because he actually volunteered to pick us up for our 4:30 a.m. arrival — yes that's 4:30 a.m. — the least we could do was buy him some breakfast. So we decided to take him to Homer Simpson's favorite retailer, Kwik-E-Mart for some coffee and doughnuts.


Tim and Steve check out the real-life Kwik-E-Mart. (7/13/2007)

As part of a promotional tie-in with The Simpsons Movie being released this month, 7-Eleven has given 12 of its stores a makeover to look like an exact replica of the Springfield landmark. As it so happens, one of these 12 stores was in Burbank, not too far from Tom and Christine's place.


Today's donuts at tomorrow's prices. (07/13/2007)

Not only do the stores look like Kwik-E-Mart, they are also stocked with other favorite products from the Simpsons, including the pink-sprinkle doughnuts, Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal, Squishees and "Radioactive Man" comic books (although all that was left were the doughnuts and Simpsons Monopoly games). The converted stores also feature life-size cutouts of favorite Simpsons characters.


The Squishee machine. (07/13/2007)

It actually turned out to be a good time to go, since you could just walk in (normally there's a long line, says Tom). We picked up a half-dozen of the iconic pink donuts, as well as drinks. And as much as I was hoping to find it, they did not in fact have a chutney-flavored Squishee as they do on the show. Rats!


Steve & Marge under the Bank of Springfield sign. (07/13/2007)

Besides Burbank, you can find Kwik-E-Mart stores in such other cities as Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mountain View, Orlando, New York City, Seattle, Vancouver and Washington DC.


Mmmmmm. Chili dogs. (7/13/2007)

If you'd like to see a quick YouTube video of our adventures in the Kwik-E-Mart, click the image below twice. If the image doesn't show up, here's a direct link.

Did Somebody Say McDonald's Taro Pie?

Who knew that in Hawaii you can get breakfast sandwiches with Spam? Another local favorite is McDonald's Taro Pie. To see a YouTube video of James' review of the Taro Pie, click the image below twice. If the image doesn't show up, here's a direct link.

Tim and Jenn's Hawaiian Scuba Lesson

Ever wanted to see Tim in a wetsuit? Now you can in this YouTube video filmed during their scuba lesson. Our favorite moment was at 02:25 when Jenn finds algae in her mouthpiece. To see it, click the image below twice. If the image doesn't show up, here's a direct link.

Teddybears at the El Rey

Tim & I, as well as Jon & Amy, went to see the Teddybears at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. The concert was awesome!


Inside the El Rey. (05/02/07)

Teddybears, originally from Sweden, do an amazing job at blending rock and electronica. The opening band was Honeycut, who were pretty good too.


Teddybears at the El Rey, photo courtesy of Pingaling. (5/2/07)

Surprisingly, it was my first time inside the El Rey Theatre, despite having lived around the corner from it for about six years. In fact, it was my poll location whenever I voted (although the polling booths were only in the lobby).


Teddybears at the El Rey, photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta. (5/2/07)

We had a celebrity sighting too. Well, not much of a celebrity unless you watched Top Design, the reality show on Bravo. We saw Andrea, the one with the bad hair that made it to the Final Four (she’s wearing the hat in the picture below). I kept trying to get Tim to tell her, "See you later, decorator!" the lame tagline they use when they sent a designer home, but he wouldn't do it. :)


This was our celebrity sighting of the night.

Even if you haven't heard of Teddybears, you may have heard their music, which is used in a lot of commercials. Intel Core 2 Duo, Cadillac and Heineken are some of the companies that use Teddybears music in their commercials. Double click on the images below to see some of the commercials (if you can't see the images, just click on the headers for a direct link).

Cadillac


Intel Core 2 Duo


Heineken

Flat Stanley's Tri-State Adventure

My little sister Anna's 2nd grade class recently read the book Flat Stanley. It's about a boy who was flattened by a bulletin board. As it turned out, Stanley was able to use his condition to his advantage when he realized he could be mailed to various locations across the country for adventures.


Anna wanted me to take Flat Stanley on an adventure. (04/07)

Anna's class made their own Flat Stanleys so they can mail them to friends or family members willing to take Stanley on another adventure. Afterward, we had to send him back, complete with pictures and souvenirs, so the kids can put together a presentation for the class.

And guess who the recipient of Anna’s Flat Stanley was? You guessed it.


Flat Stanley poses with the "Welcome to Orange" sign. (04/07)

We started out by taking Stanley around the city of Orange. He had fun here in Orange, but ever the adventurer, Stanley wanted to do more. So we took him to Disneyland. He enjoyed the happiest place on earth, however he still wanted to venture out on a road trip and color in a few more states on his "states I've visited map."


Flat Stanley went to Disneyland. (04/07)

To get multiple states into his visit, we took him to the tri-state area where California, Arizona and Nevada intersect. (The cities are: Needles CA, Bullhead City AZ, and Laughlin NV).


Flat Stanley in Bullhead City, Arizona. (04/07)

Stanley especially liked Laughlin, since there was an abundance of casinos for him to go to. Who knew Stanley was such a gambler? Believe me, he was throwing down Hamiltons like he was Aaron Burr! In the end, however, he was only $15 down by the time he quit for the night.


Flat Stanley with the statue that welcomes visitors to Laughlin, NV. (04/07)

Unfortunately, he lost more money in Needles, CA than he did at the casinos. The reason: Flat Stanley was driving too fast and got nabbed by the California Highway Patrol.


Flat Stanley got pulled over for speeding near Needles, CA. (04/07)

Despite the speeding ticket, Stanley had a great time. We even made a YouTube movie of his adventures where you can see lots more photos. Click the image below to watch it! (If you can't see the embedded image below, click here for a direct link).

Flat Stanley YouTube movie

A Friend Like Genie

Most people know that two of the things I love the most in this world are Disneyland and Musical Theatre. Naturally I was thrilled when in 2002 Disney announced that they would be staging a Broadway-style live show at Disney’s California Adventure called “Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular.”


Aladdin is playing at the Hyperion Theater at Disney's California Adventure. (08/26/2006)

Since it opened in 2003, I have seen the show dozens of times (which was easy, since we had an annual pass). So imagine my excitement when I learned that a friend of a friend had been cast as the Genie in the show! The friend of a friend’s name is Ryan Knowles, who’s the best friend of our pal Justin.

Of course as my luck would have it, he wasn’t cast as the Genie until after our annual passes expired. But when Justin brought up the idea that Ryan might be able to sign us into the park (not to mention put us on the VIP seating list and even get us into a meet-and-greet with the cast) I was on it like white on rice.


James poses with the Aladdin cast. (08/26/2006)

Despite my enthusiasm, we ended up missing out the first two times we made arrangements to go see Ryan in the show. Making it worse was the fact that we sort of screwed Ryan over, since he had re-arranged his schedule to accommodate us. I felt horrible about that.

When I spoke to Ryan over the phone to apologize, he was incredibly nice about it. He even invited us to try again this weekend, which we finally did. And it turned out to be a fantastic experience!


Ryan as the Genie, posing with James. (08/26/2006)

We met Ryan just outside the theme park at 10:30 a.m., when he had to report to work. We didn’t quite know what to expect since it was our first time meeting him (a fact Justin disputes; he’s positive we met him at a party a few years back). Just as he was described, Ryan turned out to be super friendly.

After he signed us in, he ran off to go into the makeup chair for his transformation to the Genie. We just rode a couple of rides until the 12:20 showtime (including the new Monsters Inc. ride that wasn’t yet open when our passes expired last October). As it turned out, Justin ended up meeting us there too, which was a big surprise, since we expected him to be on a flight to New York that day (his flight was postponed by a day).


James & Ryan, before his Genie make-up. (08/26/2006)

Let me just say, the show was off the hook! Ryan’s performance as the Genie was worlds apart from the previous Genies we’ve seen in the role. Ryan’s Genie was more like a character within a character. And the jokes were way funnier than what I had seen before (although the Genie follows a script, there are moments where he can insert new jokes, usually relating to some current events).

For example, one thing that I have in common with Ryan is a love for Liza Minnelli. And during the show, Ryan even snuck in a special Liza Minnelli joke that he normally doesn’t do, which made me howl with laughter.


James and Justin. (08/26/2006)

Afterward we got to take pictures with Ryan, as well as some of the other cast members, which was fabulous. Thanks again, Justin & Ryan, for what turned out to be an awesome experience.

BTW, if you’d like to see a video clip of Ryan’s work, click the link below. This video was edited together from several performances, which is why the audio and video don’t always match perfectly (I say that just so you don’t think Ryan is lipsynching). Here's a single-camera video-clip of the same song.