Where the heck is Phil?!@?

Hello my readers (I hope I have some) I am writing to both strangers and friends to apologize for my lack of due diligence. I have been working out some personal stuff and am still in process, but I am now trying to get back on track. For those in the loop you know what's up and thank you all for being there. For those on the edges of it, I'm fine and all concerned are ok and things can only get better. For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it we are moving on. So I'm about 3 weeks behind and will endeavor to catch up with my experiences in the next couple of days. Both exciting and thought provoking of the "industry" and of my adventures in catering... ok they might not be thought provoking but at least you laugh about something. So in a nutshell this is my way of trying to address the lack of entries and to assure you that there will be a better attempt on letting you know my crazy opinions. And now a trailer of a film I can't wait to open in theatres.

LACMA Gala Event

So yesterday was another day at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art. I was brought in to help with food for the Board of Trustees and also some hospitality for Martin Scorsese. Now I'm still mad at him for copying "Infernal Affairs" a Hong Kong film and winning and Oscar but I am a professional and will give him the best service anyone deserves. Anywho it was a little crazy at first. I would never judge a company on how it makes mistakes, we all do that. It's how they recover from them that defines how good a company is. With that being said my friend and supervisor was Mr. Grace under Pressure. He was thrust into the fray a half hour before me with incorrect information and only 20 minutes to set up his setup. He pulled it off and made everyone happy. I was just Kato in the this mix but hey it's all good. We served mini cookies and biscotti, Fruit with MANGOS yum. Earlier we served sandwiches but when I got there it was just the cookies and fruit, and vegetables. Plus don't forget the Fiji water. One of the board members owns a part of the company I believe so that's all they have over there. Not too shabby. So things went pretty smoothly then we went home 'nough said. Here are some pics of the food :) There was food we put out for the Board, and hospitality for Mr. Scorsese.

Movie Marathon Today

So I'm totally avoiding working on my lines right now. At least I'm doing something productive ha ha. So today is one of those days that my friends and I sneak into a movie theatre with one ticket and we watch a bunch of films 4 to be exact, so to protect myself and my friends I'm not telling you which theatre hee hee. Here are the my accomplices. So we saw Avatar, Daybreakers, The Book of Eli, and Leap Year. I was given some good advice about how to talk about these in a blog so here we go with bullet points.



Official Avatar Movie

AVATAR: Great Film

• Awesome SFX
• Acting good
• Formula driven plot

Those are all the points I can think of right now. You have to watch this in 3D and IMAX is preferable. This was actually my second time watching it. I enjoyed just as much as the first time. I don't know if you guys enjoying this but I started noticing imperfections in the film versus last time. You can see where the actors missed a CG point and the line of site didn't match up or the CG didn't move as natural in certain places like when Sully first starts running it looks a little off. Definitely the same themes that James Cameron has been pushing in most of his films about Corporate Entities crushing the little guy. Definitely worth seeing.


Daybreaker: eh it's ok might want to wait for the DVD

• Good cast
• Interesting Plot
• Lame execution

So yeah for you Vampire fans out there, this film did try but it fell short. It didn't know whether to fall on the science side or the fantasy side of the Vampire genre. You had these amazing actors but the director was really bogged down in exposition and trying to build this world for the audience. It just seemed that it could have been more powerful in other hands but oh well, it will be on Syfy channel in 6 months. On the other hand the message it says about Pharmaceutical companies was right on the nose.


Book of Eli: Another film for Denzel Washington fans to love

• Great classic themes
• Good for John Carpenter fans
• Pretty predictable except for the plot twist

It seems to me there seems to be more post apocalyptic movies these days. Here's another one, something terrible happens concerning Man being a douchebag to Man in a war of some kind that wipes out most everyone. So think Waterworld with no water, or any Mad Max film with no accents, or Tina Turner which made all the difference. It was really good and the themes regarding philosophy were pretty on the nose yet another movie with a soap box. The plot twist in the end was like Usual Suspects, where your like "ooooohhhh now have to see it again knowing what I know" If your a Denzel fan then go see it, but it's not a must see.


Leap Year: Ugh wait for the DVD if you have to see it on a date

• SLOW pace
• no empathy for the characters
• very VERY predictable

Ok so this goes to show you why chick flicks are called chick flicks. I was really looking forward to enjoying this film because Amy Adams was so good in Julie & Julia and her love interest was the bad guy in the Watchmen. It's so obvious where this movie was going from the trailer. I kept watching this thinking didn't Meg Ryan and fill in the blank actor do this film already, and didn't they do it better? It was cool that it was done in Ireland, and it had it's good moments with the actors but it took to long for them to get anywhere, and I found it more interesting to go to the bathroom and pop a zit than to wait for the climax of the film.

Well there you go, my MLK day was spent staying away from the only rain LA gets all year. Oh and just to amuse you a pic of me and the cast of the "Death at a Funeral" the remake. Hope it is as good as the original. Here is the Trailer minus me of course ;)

First Day of Thoughts

So excited with my new hobby... do you call it that? I was staring at this screen wondering what to call it. Worked today at the Dorothy Chander Pavilion, and helped run a Cheese and Antipasti buffet for 250 even though the guest count was 500. It's what the client ordered. It's a good thing that people didn't come out, it was raining. We had plenty of food. It's funny before I started working in food, I would have no idea what things were like many of our guests today. I could guess what everything was without looking at it, and it would never occur to me that they were anything else than what they were. We had Pita chips which we made in our own kitchen. Olives, Hummus, Grilled Bell Peppers, Grilled Eggplant, Olive Tapanade (don't know if I spelled that right) and various other things, one thing I noticed that we did different today was Mozzarella seasoned with Pesto (yum). It looked very good, and it's funny we garnished the cheese with a little bit of Grapes, which is what disappeared right away. So as usual one of my pet peeves against guests happened again, after we as servers run around, and I do mean run around ragged looking for serving utensils and tongs to serve items, the guests come up and pick up the food with their fingers. In this day and age you would figure people would be responsible enough to no pick up food with their fingers especially when they have to move the tongs out of their way to do it. It kills me. Oh well what are you going to do. Catch the H1N1 then call it a day. I feel that people in the Food industry are less likely to catch things because of how much we are regularly exposed to those lovely bugs. The one MAJOR upside was that the guests were very pleasant. It helps pass the time when people are nice and have a sense of humor.

Tomorrow is a big day of Movie watching for me, right now I am as mentioned before I am watching Julie & Julia, which is great by the way. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci my God, they are amazing in their roles. More about Movies tomorrow in the meantime you can look over the food that was served today.

My first attempt at Blogging

Here is my first official post, I have been inspired by both my girlfriend and being berated by one of my best friends of not sharing my insights and opinions. Also watching Julie & Julia doesn't hurt either. Anywho I will be putting down my thoughts about 2 major things in my life. The entertainment industry that I am trying to break into, and Fine Dining Catering which is what I am doing in the meantime until I "make it". So I will have 2 major subjects what is going on in the entertainment industry, and what I am doing in it. The other being my thoughts of what's going on with Fine Dining since I keep seeing things at work that drive me nuts!!!! Let me clarify that, I see guests that don't know how to properly eat, or watching weddings that have been destined to fail thanks to a horrible client, or a bridezilla, or even dare I say it, an upper end manager mucking up an event that is already up and running. I found myself at a party once saying things that work and don't work at wedding receptions, and noticed all the women within the immediate vicinity were leaning in as if I was EF Hutton. So I'm going to put my thoughts down on here and see if anyone finds what I say has merit. Here goes nothing!!! :)