tommEE pickles' blog

Top Chef Masters Featuring the Magic Castle Starring Max Maven, Neil Patrick Harris, Ed Alonzo and Andrew Goldenhersh

2009-07-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

10:00PM
and
11:00 PM

TOP CHEF MASTERS

MAGIC CHEFS

“Top Chef Masters” brings together distinguished chefs Anita Lo (Annisa), Douglas Rodriguez (Alma de Cuba), John Besh (Restaurant August) and Mark Peel (Campanile). The Masters find their hands tied in the quickfire challenge as they must cook an egg with one hand tied behind their back (All Stars Challenge, season three of "Top Chef"), and then must create culinary magic to awe their high-profile guests which include Neil Patrick Harris. One chef moves on to the Champions Round.

I sometimes think, am I a good magician then...

2009-07-02T08:54:00.001-07:00

...theres Marti Brill (miamimagicians.com), I don't think I need to comment. It's just funny what gets booked for childrens parties. Egotistic, boring and was his act from a Night at the Roxbury?

If you can't see the video, click here

Holy crap, watch out for the upcoming movie

2009-07-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was reading this morning about the Yemen flight IY626 that crashed June 1st. Out of the 154 people on the plane, there was one 14 year old survivor. Not much has been released as of yet but holy crap.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8128690.stm

I hate being sick but at least there is AGT

2009-06-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

The weekend was fun but the week has been hell. I have been sick.

Friday I was at the Castle and I bumped into Yigal Mesika. He saw me playing with my reel and mad fun of me. We compared hookups and then we all saw Sylvester the Jester. After the night ended, I got a DVD from Dan Sylvester regarding the Sylvester Pitch.

I have been sick since Monday and it's driving me nuts because I have chores to do but no energy.

Tonight was America's Got Talent and to be short a second magician has made it past the judges. The two magicians are Jay Mattioli and Drew Thomas. I wish both good luck. I have seen better magic on the show before but I think the show is trying to be less controversial about magicians in the beginning.

At the moment, I just took some Nyquil even though the Surgeon General put out health advisories today about the level of Acetaminophen. I am hoping to be healthy enough for work tomorrow. I have to get to the Magic Castle soon to catch Farrell Dillion in the Parlour.

Delivery.com blues

2009-06-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

I am a food delivery service fan, especially when I can go to a website, check my order and pay with a credit card. I was happy up until lately. There are two services out there Seemless Web and Delivery.com. Seemless Web doesn't has higher delivery costs and doesn't cover as many restaurants as Delivery.com. In the past couple months Delivery.com ended credit card processing with it's restaurants. Last week I didn't have access to cash, this presented a problem. I emailed Delivery.com and received this as a response:

Jun 26

Dear tommEE,

Thank you for using Delivery.com. At this time we are no longer processing any credit card orders for some restaurants on our site. We are currently waiting for them to contact us concerning this and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

Aneudy Neris
Delivery.com
Customer Service Representative

I am no longer using Delivery.com

Part of America's Got Talent

2009-06-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

So if you have survived the digital television switch over of Obama's administration, you might have been able to catch America's Got Talent on the NBC network.

They have a new host, I don't know who it is, never seen him before. He doesn't make me laugh and actually makes me miss Jerry Springer. That is sad.

There hasn't been a lot of magicians seen yet. One magician got past the judges. His name escapes me the moment but he did a pretty familiar illusion that was praised pretty more than it deserved. I think the show is trying to be nicer to magicians.

The show seems to be keeping the same pace and it is only in the first week of three hours of auditions. I think next week is all auditions as well. The first night's show is on hulu at http://www.hulu.com/americas-got-talent

Oh my Billy Jean, no more child support payments

2009-06-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

TMZ: Michael Jackson Dead at 50

LOS ANGELES (1010 WINS) -- TMZ is reporting that Michael Jackson has died after suffering cardiac arrest.

Paramedics apparently responded to a call at Jackson's home around 12:26 p.m. He was not breathing when they arrived, according to the L.A. Times.

The paramedics apparently performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, which is about two minutes from his home.

The news comes as Jackson, 50, was attempting to make a comeback with dozens of sold out shows this summer in London.

Netflix, you have upset me again

2009-06-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

Why to these movies get removed? Did they lose their copies? I know maybe Land of the Lost got removed because new royalties for the titles or something but why these movies?

Your Queue

The following movies have been moved to the Saved section of your Queue:

We are not able to ship them at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

200 Cigarettes
Class of Nuke 'Em High

Bummer

2009-06-23T17:39:00.001-07:00

Ed McMahon, longtime second banana of 'The Tonight Show,' dies at 86

San Jose Mercury News - Richard Severo - ‎21 minutes ago‎

Ed McMahon, who for nearly 30 years was Johnny Carson's affable second banana on "The Tonight Show," introducing it with his ringing trademark line, "Heeeeere's Johnny!

From my Magicopolis performance

2009-06-15T12:39:00.003-07:00

MVI_3787
Originally uploaded by Readiness

A couple weeks ago I performed at Magicopolis Bar Show and my friends shot this video

From my Magicopolis performance

2009-06-15T12:39:00.001-07:00

MVI_3789
Originally uploaded by Readiness

A couple weeks ago I performed at Magicopolis Bar Show and my friends shot this video

A flashback to 1989

2009-06-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

I don't want to date myself by saying where I was in my life in 1989 but a film came out that swept the console users that dominated the adolescence years of that generation. The film? Of course I am talking about the four time nominated for a Young Artist Award epic Venture "The Wizard". A far fetched film about a boy and his two friends run away from home and hitch cross country to compete in the ultimate video game competition. Almost like Karate Kid mixed with Over The Top but with younger kids and video games instead of Karate or Arm Wrestling.

The film is playing at The New Beverly Cinema tonight at 7:30pm. I know that Cnelson, Readiness and I will be there, who else will show?

Short but sweet

2009-06-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I went to an E3 after party. It was at 6pm till 10pm at Hwood. I went and saw Pinguino, Dave, Keith, Jenny, Eliot and Jose. We ended up there until 10pm when they turned

on the lights and flushed out all the geeks that were not dressed for the nighttime club events. We ended up back at Club kM with two cases of Corona. We went back to Hwood before they closed and it's blurry what happened. My friends have stories, they remember better.

Last night I went to the Castle and met up with Dave and Pinguino. We got to see Shoot Ogawa perform in Hat and Hare. We watched Jon Armstrong in the Museum. Then in the parlour we was Arthur Trace. Later Jon Armstrong gave us his presentation of Deep 3. It was pretty good, and better than the original handling.

Tonight I am going to try to go see Steve Spill perform at Magicopolis and then I will be watching the Bar Show at 10pm.

Who designed the backdrop Conan? Shigeru Miyamoto?

2009-06-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Serious Lunch posted that the Conan Tonight Show Background looked like Mario World.

Check out the animated comparison here: http://www.seriouslunch.com/misc/seriouslunch_conan.gif

Boxee, it looks like Hulu is the bully giving you wedgies

2009-06-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

I have been checking out Hulu Desktop lately and it's really good when it works. Sometimes when I launch the player, it doesn't work right away. On the other hand I have been waiting for Boxee to finially come out with a Windows version. I went to thier site this morning and saw this:

"first, thanks for coming to check out boxee, the best way to get all your entertainment in one place.

we're sorry to say boxee for Windows is not publicly available yet. we told Maximum PC that it would be, but since speaking with them we've had to react to a few situations and shift resources around, delaying the launch. we want to get boxee for Windows to you as quickly as possible, but we also want to ensure boxee works well across all the different flavors of PCs before we release it.

we hope to release boxee for Windows closer to June, but in the meantime we continue to send out a few thousand weekly Windows invites. you've been automatically added to that pool, and we'll send you a note as soon as the Windows version goes public.

best,

avner and team boxee

twitter.com/boxee"

This has to be a joke right? Boxee was at CES and was chosen to be one of the top things. I would have bet money on them but it seems that there are many other things out there that are better. Heck, I am using Media Portal in my bedroom and it's fine for what I need.

You suck Socal Time-Warner

2009-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just recently, I saw SoCal Time Warner take away 2 of my favorite channels without explanation or questioning. They removed Mark Cuban's HDNET and HDNET Movies. Here not only did I see the coolest movie trailer show but also I have seen movies as The Great Buck Howard, Humboldt County and The Girlfriend Experience.

I wrote affiliate sales questioning this but I don't know if I will find out any information. This is what I think sometimes leads to piracy and file trading. When movies and shows are not available, people will use other means.

Three days of Doc and a magical time

2009-06-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, I feel exhausted. Not just because of the fun but too much excitement as well.

I spent Friday night at the Magic Castle with Erik Tait. We got a chance to see Doc Eason perform at the bar and it was great to see the master in action. He not only has a bulletproof memory but a salesman behind the bar. It was cool to see the real Doc too, having a drink, smoking a cigarette with Erik and I.

After Erik decided to go home, I went through the back door to go to the front of the Castle to settle my tab. When I got to the main bar, I saw Keith, Jose, G, and another guy I wasn't familiar with. I asked what was going on, Keith responded with 'Hwood'. I got my car, parked it at H & H and headed to the club 'Hwood'. Keith got me in, past the ropes and into the club. I found out later that Keith's neighbor is the owner. We drank until it was time to leave and drank for free as well. We then headed back to ClubKM for some fun. Keith was fire breathing, wrestling with Jose, I was just very drunk.

Saturday about 3pm I left Hollywood to go back home and catch my breath. I needed to get my act together for my performance later that evening at the Bar Show at Magicopolis.

I got to Magicopolis about 9:25pm and saw Stephen Bailey there. We chatted for a bit and I got started on my drinking to get ready to perform. A bunch of people showed up for me, I wish I had more strangers or off the street people. I did notice Keith, Jose and Jenny didn't make it and they were at Shade over on Will Rogers Beach. Either way, there were a bunch of people there. I did four effects, it worked out OK except the acoustics were weak so I could have spoken up.

The funny quote I had that evening was "Where can I not touch you?"

After the show we headed to Britannia where it was loud, crowded and warm. It was fun though. Toward the end of the evening we met a really drunk guy Wally who I did magic to. It was funny.

Sunday came around and I had a bit of a hangover. I stayed inside nursing it for a while. Around Noon, I headed into the Castle for a lecture from Doc Eason. I bought his notes, some nuts and bolts and he had great advise. As I left, I shook his hand and said seeing him 3 days of the week he was here was awesome and I would drop him a line.

Scott and I went to Dr. Presto's Magic Mansion at 9pm. The show was great. I talked with Farrell Dillon a bunch. He asked if I would like to perform at the Magic Castle Friday and Saturday the 12t& 13th. I said 'sure'. So if you missed me at the Bar Show, there is another chance to see me.

I love local Santa Monica news, especially about celebs

2009-05-31T12:05:00.001-07:00

Lori Petty -- Tanked Girl

Posted May 31st 2009 10:50AM by TMZ Staff

TMZ shot Lori Petty leaving jail early this morning after she was arrested Saturday night for felony DUI and allegedly hitting a skateboarder with her car.

The incident took place at around 9:00 PM in Venice, Calif. We're told both Petty and the skateboarder suffered minor injuries, but neither was taken to the hospital.

Petty was booked into jail at 1:21 AM on Sunday, and was posted $100,000 bail.

Petty was famous in the early 90s for starring in such movies as "Tank Girl," "Point Break" and "A League of Their Own."

Lazy but so much to do

2009-05-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog the last couple of days. Here is what happened.

I went to the Santa Monica Hacker Drink Up on Wednesday.

Thursday night I went to the Magic Castle and saw Doc Eason who is super awesome. I also saw Steve Darci which was really great and then Michael Weber in the Parlour and he blew my mind.

Tonight I am in the middle of bleaching my hair and then I will dye it. I am planning on seeing Doc Eason perform at the W. C. Fields Bar because that is where his heart lies I believe. I don't know if Erik is working Magicopolis tonight and I might stop in there. (Just found out, he is not there so nope)

Tomorrow I perform at the Bar Show, 10pm at the World Famous Magicopolis in Santa Monica. It's their one year anniversary. It is free and there is no drink minimum. I will be drinking :)

Hope to see everyone there.

Project Runway Update

2009-05-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

This Just In: Lifetime Releases Project Runway Pictures

Today 8:21 AM PDT by JENNIFER GODWIN E-Online

Mike Yarish/Lifetime Networks

Project Runway: Check out these four fresh Project Runway Photos from the show's new network, Lifetime. Project Runway season six premieres Aug. 20.

Check out the newest pics from Project Runway season six!

KENLEY COLLINS ARRESTED: Project Runway Finalist Charged With Throwing Cat At Fiance Zak Penley

2009-05-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

My Tivo recorded a past episode of Project Runway and I almost forgot about the crush I had on Kenley Collins. When I did a Google Stalker Search of the beautiful flower of a woman, I found this arrest from two months ago. I don't know how I missed it. She sounds exactly the type of girl I have dated.

People:Originally posted Wednesday March 18, 2009 05:25 PM EDT

Project Runway season 5 finalist Kenley Collins was arrested in Brooklyn Tuesday after allegedly attacking a male with a laptop.

According to the New York Police Department, Collins, 26, remembered by Runway fans for her brash manner and 1940s style, was charged with two counts of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment after potentially striking a male in the head and face with a computer.

According to earlier reports from TMZ.com, the reality star allegedly attacked her sleeping ex-fiance' with her pet cat, water, several apples and the laptop. The Web site also reports that Collins is currently being held in jail.

Welcome to my jungle

2009-05-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

If you can't see the video, click here

Come see tommEE pickles and his comic friends Saturday!

2009-05-25T11:11:00.001-07:00

The Bar Show! - One Year Aniversary!!!!!!

A Guy Walks Into A Bar Special.

Host:	Magicopolis
Type:	Music/Arts - Performance
Network:	Global

Date:	Saturday, May 30, 2009
Time:	10:00pm - 11:55pm
Location:	Magicopolis
Street:	1418 4th St.
City/Town:	Santa Monica, CA
	View Google Map

Phone:	8052089452
Email:	ComedyBarShow@gmail.com

Description

Yeah kids, we've been here for one year! It's the one year anniversary special. We have a big time planned for everyone involved. It's finally here, it's the much talked about A Guy Walks Into A Bar Special! All your favorite guy walks into a bar jokes will happen (except for that one where the guy pees on the bar. That will not happen. Then again, it's a bar, it might.) Plus, we are featuring The Bar Show's favorite son Tommee Pickles as our magician.

On The Show:
Erik Tait (Host/Comedian/Magician)
Tommee Pickles (Magician)
Doug Driesel Jr. (Comic)
Scott Bowser (Comic)
Ed Galvez (Comic)
Alysia Wood (Comic)
Allessandra Rissoti (Comic)
Lizzy Cooperman (Comic)
Val Myers (Comic)
Max Goldberg (Comic)
And Many Other Special Guests!

While I wait for my hangover to vacate

2009-05-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

I watched a bunch of movie trailers and I can't wait for the summer blockbusters to start.

Movies I want to see

Movies I don't want to see

From Hollywood, tommEE pickles

2009-05-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

If you can't see the video, click here