Christopher East

Random news and notes for a random Tuesday:

• Finished off season seven of MI-5 over the weekend.  It was definitely not as strong as season six, but I thought it was solid; the first few episodes were top-notch, and although there were some kind of obvious moments, the final two episodes were pretty compelling.  Bring on the next season!
• I finally got my bass fixed, only to get it home and find out my cable is shot, so I can’t plug it into my amp or computer.  Something to deal with next weekend…I’m looking forward to experimenting with real instruments in GarageBand.
• Speaking of which, the second album has been on the verge of completion for awhile, but I’ve been a bit stalled on the music lately.  My goal is to finish up the Futurismic slushpile soon, so I can start writing in the mornings, then working on tunes during my lunchbreak…at least until we reopen to submissions.  (Too many activities, too little time!)
• We started watching the original The Prisoner over the weekend, which we have on Blu-ray.  I’d only seen the pilot once, several years ago…I was shocked at how weird the show is.  So far I’m loving it; looking forward to the rest of the series.
• Hockey playoffs are underway, and my nerves are frayed — after the past couple seasons, I’d forgotten what it was like to actually care about who wins playoff games.  Hopefully one of these nights the Kings and Sabres can both win on the same day!
• Jenn and I are both planning to go to Wiscon this year.  Hope to see some of you there!

Finally, I didn’t post at the time, but Jenn did — earlier this month was Oslo’s first birthday.  Happy birthday, Ozzie!  Here he is, celebrating in true cat fashion…asleep.

It was kind of a long, rough week, so Saturday came as a welcome respite, and Jenn and I spent a busy and celebratory day together.

First we went to Jenn’s studio in Burbank for a screening party of the new Slangman’s World episodes.  For those who aren’t aware, Jenn has been writing and voice-acting for this animated kids’ show, the next incarnation of which is debuting on Georgia Public Broadcasting tomorrow.  The new shows are a blast and it’s an exciting time for the studio as they anticipate further production.

Then we drove south to the Staples Center in downtown LA to watch the home opener for the Los Angeles Kings.  We’ve never had so much fun watching our team get destroyed.  The visiting Phoenix Coyotes, a team in financial disarray and with its ultimate future still in limbo, shredded our defense to win 6-3.  Decked out in our home blacks, we had fun anyway, and both of our jersey picks — Alexander Frolov and Anze Kopitar — scored goals, leading us to conclude that had we just worn four more jerseys, we might have pulled this one out!  Better luck next time, fellas…

In the aftermath of this busy and exhausting day, we stayed holed up at home on Sunday writing, drinking coffee, napping, watching TV, and generally chilling with the cats.  I also joined my first-ever World of Warcraft PuG raid, an overpowered Molten Core run this morning.  I usually hate pick-up groups but for some reason I got talked into this one, and had fun.  I also came out of it with this awesome screenshot of my orc taking aim at the final boss:

Overall a great weekend, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Life should always be all weekend-y!

Random, recent observations…

• I half-watched I Love You, Man (2009) from across the room last weekend while playing WoW, and laughed enough that I felt like I should have been paying more attention.  The premise is paper-thin, but Jason Segal and especially Paul Rudd are pretty funny in it.  (The whole “slappin’ the bass” thing was killing me…)
• Evidently I’m the only Southern Californian who fears getting run over when accessing my car while street-parking.  Everyone else here just seems to assume that the world will get out of their way.
• I still believe reality television is fundamentally bad for you.  That said, uh, congrats to Antonio…
• If Dean Lombardi trades Alexander Frolov, I will personally kick him in the nads.
• Blog posts I keep meaning to write:  “Los Angeles vs. Iowa City,” “My Dream Supergroup,” “10 TV Characters Who, for Good or Ill, Have Contributed to My Behavior”
• I’m going to start calling Facebook “Guiltbook.”  Please don’t take it personally if I don’t download your aps, people…there’s only so much time in the day!

And speaking of Facebook, Oslo is now a proud member of Catbook…here he is chilling on the piece of cat furniture we’ve taken to calling “the Lounge.”

Ozzie in the Lounge

Saturday marked the final game of the season for the Los Angeles Kings.  Jenn and I made our way down to the Staples Center to say goodbye to the team, which has become something of a tradition since I moved here — this is our third consecutive home finale (!).  Alas, it was another year for the Kings without a playoff spot, but they definitely improved this year, and sent us into the off-season with an exciting 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks.  The Kings goals came from Handzus, Harrold, and two of our favorite players, Alexander Frolov and Wayne Simmonds.

Provided our general manager doesn’t do anything stupid, like trade Frolov (which sadly seems possible right now), the Kings should take another step forward next season and challenge for a spot.  They’ve finally got a promising goaltending tandem with Quick and Ersberg, and for skaters they’ve got a solid core with Kopitar, Brown, Frolov, Handzus, Stoll, Simmonds, Moller, Doughty, Johnson, Greene, and some up-and-comers like Purcell and Boyle who should fill out the roster next season.  A couple more pieces could really help them get in.  Everyone’s talking Marian Gaborik from Minnesota, which would be exciting if he could stay healthy.  (I personally think we could use Ales Kotalik to help us with shootouts, where we really struggled this year.)

I also said goodbye to my hometown team, the Buffalo Sabres, whose season also came to an end this weekend.  No playoffs for them either, and looking back I’m still wondering what happened to the shockingly good club of a few years ago — and why their GM decided to hang the future on Roy, Pominville and Connolly instead of Drury, Briere, or even Dumont.  This team fell apart without Miller and Vanek in the lineup, and I’ll be very curious to see what they do in the off-season to get the team back on track.

I must not be a complete die-hard hockey fan, because now that both my teams are out of the playoffs, I could care less who wins the Cup.  The playoffs make me grumpy, anyway, so maybe it’s just as well.    Meanwhile, better luck next year — until then, here we are in our team colors!

I’m referring to hockey and editing, of course! Or wait, maybe I meant mutually exclusive…anyway, a general update:

Yesterday Jenn and I hit the Staples Center for our second-to-last home hockey game of the season, and the Kings kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild. The team seems to have settled down now that the trade deadline has passed, and they played a solid game, especially on defense. The goals came from Quincey, Calder, Kopitar, and Purcell, and then goalie Jonathan Quick held off the Wild in the third period for the win. Go Kings! (And go Sabres! Yes, I have two teams now — shoot me!)

I’ve been keeping busy lately with my usual editing business, both at the day job (er…night job) and “at” Futurismic (i.e., my armchair and cyberspace). The submission workload has been a bit busier than usual lately, and I’m happy to report that the slushpile quality has been improving — lots of good stories, worthy of consideration. Other than that, not much to report!

Jenn and I just got back from a hockey date at the Staples Center. I was hoping to get to post the “Kings Win!” picture we took last time, but no such luck. The Kings went down fighting, a 3-2 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers. However, we did get to witness a rarity — with the goaltender pulled, the Kings tied the game with about a minute remaining to get it to overtime. Aside from being horribly officiated (on both sides) it was a pretty good game, and we had fun.

In the true spirit of Valentine’s Day, there were three fights and several “scrums.” (I put “scrum” in quotes because Jenn still isn’t convinced it should be a word. Bonus points for a correct definition…hint: it has nothing to do with soap.)

All in all, it was a fun afternoon!

1. The Kings pulling their goaltender in the last minute of the game and actually scoring. (They lost in the shootout, but hey, we’ll take the point.)

2. Sarah Michelle Gellar at the movie theater. (My friend Jon thought he spotted Stellan Skarsgard, too, but I must repeat: Sarah Michelle Gellar at the movie theater!!)

Last night we went down to the Staples Center to see the Kings take on the New Jersey Devils. Before the game, Jenn took “Kings Win!” and “King Lose” photos of me, to post here depending on how the game turned out. Well, it went like:

Yep, the Kings got spanked 5-1. The Devils converted their way-too-many power plays, and only Frolov, Boyle, and O’Sullivan seemed to have much jump for the Kings. Because it was a game with discounted tickets, the place was packed with half-assed spectators who clearly didn’t understand or care about hockey, and were constantly obscuring our view…overall, not a good night to be a Kings fan. Oh, well…!

On the bright side, we ate giant pretzels and drank coffee and cheered our team, and at least they didn’t get shut out!