Andy Gavin's Blog, page 162
January 2, 2013
Reading in School Made Me Who I Am
Reading doesn’tseparatethe men from the boys, itseparatesthe educated from the ignorant. Seriously. There is no other conduit for absorbing information and broadening oneself that is so accessible and so efficient. Every medium has its advantages, but the book has it all in regards to breadth and depth. There are books on more topics, and more specific topics, than any other format. Probably by several orders of magnitude. And nothing holds as much information in as few bits.
So I read a lot i...
December 31, 2012
Hedonists climb the Peak
Restaurant:Saddle Peak Lodge[1, 2, 3]
Location:419 Cold Canyon Rd,Calabasas, CA91302 (818) 222-3888
Date: December 27, 2012
Cuisine: Modern American
Rating: Greatambianceand terrific game oriented food.
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For the last Hedonist dinner of the year, we return to Saddle Peak Lodge. It’s pretty much the perfect venue for a winter food and wine blast, with charming lodge interior, a crackling fire, game driven food, and awesome wine service. For those of you who don’t know, Hedonist events have amazing w...
December 28, 2012
Men in Black 3
Title: Men in Black 3
Cast:Will Smith(Actor),Tommy Lee Jones(Actor),Barry Sonnenfeld(Director)
Genre: Sci-Fi Action
Watched: December 1, 2012
Summary:Surprisinglydecent
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I picked this up because of the time travel angle, but it turned out to be a pretty fun film. It’s not high art, and in fact it doesn’t have anything new to say about time travel, or anything else either. It’s also aridiculousromp. A clear guilty pleasure.
We begin with a goodvillain: Borris the Animal. He’s plenty zany and has one...
December 26, 2012
Hunan Chili Madness
Restaurant: Hunan Chili King
Location:534 E Valley Blvd.San Gabriel,CA91776
Date: December 23, 2012
Cuisine: Hunan Chinese
Rating: Great, spicy, cheap
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For the second time this week, I was invited to head back east into the San Gabriel Valley for some moreChinese(my earlier adventure can be found here).
This time we tackled the hot and spicy cuisine of the Chinese heartland, the Hunan province.
Here is just a sampling of the pickled chillies and vegetables they make here for use in this smokey, eart...
December 24, 2012
Whelping Characters
My novel Untimed was conceived as a fusion of ideas. Lingering in my mind for over twenty years was a time travel story about people from the future who fell “downtime” to relive exciting moments in history (until things go wrong). I’d worked out a time travel system but had no plot or characters. Separately, in 2010, as a break from editing The Darkening Dream, I experimented with new voice techniques, especially first person present. I also read various “competition.” One of these was The L...
December 20, 2012
Untimed officially for Sale!
Both the paperback and Kindle versions are available. If your stocking is stuffed with a brand new Kindle, or you already have one, or you read on the Kindle app anywhere (iPad, Android, etc.)…
Buy it now!
The e-book launches at the low, low price of $5.99, certainly a bargain given that it took me a year to write. Plus the book is lavishly producedwith acover by award winning fantasy artist Cliff Nielsenand there aretwenty-one gorgeous interior illustrations by Dave Phillips.
For those of yo...
December 19, 2012
Hedonists Cook the Goose
Restaurant: Sham Tseng BBQ
Location:203 West Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA. 626-289-4858
Date: December 17, 2012
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Awesome goose!
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It’s time for the next Hedonist adventure, this time out into the San Gabriel Valley for some really serious Cantonese.
The interior is typical of Inland Empire Chineserestaurants.
We had a private room and (for a Chineserestaurant) excellent service.
The menu. Haha. You can find one in English here.
Parker 90. “This 100% Semillon made from rel...
December 16, 2012
The Hobbit – An Expected Review
Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Director/Stars:Ian McKellen(Actor),Peter Jackson(Director)
Genre: Fantasy
Watched: December 15, 2012
Summary: More is more!
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On a technical note: I saw The Hobbitat one of LA’s leadingtheatersin a digital 3D projection (with active glasses) using the new High Frame Rate (HFR) 48 fps recording and with Dolby Atmos sound. This was all pretty damn impressive, and let’s take them apart. I didn’t see it in IMAX, but I find that projecting a normal 35mm image on...
December 14, 2012
Il Grano – Only 19 courses?
Restaurant: Il Grano[1, 2, 3, 4]
Location:11359 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.310.477.7886
Date: October 27, 2012
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Modern Italian to die for
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After my stellar birthday meal at Il Grano, and with the closing of Drago, Il Grano has become one of my favorite westside Italians. Last Saturday, what started off as a “quick Saturday dinner” turned into another epic feast.
The sleek interior space.
From my cellar, Parker 93, “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, from v...
December 12, 2012
Crash Live Action Tribute
This Crash Bandicoot fan tribute video by 18 year-old Mat Hill is some really good fun.
“Homebrew” visual effects have come a long way since I was a kid. Hey, Hollywood visual effects too! Mat did a great job inserting the game elements here. And all very much in thetongue-in-cheek spirit of Crash. Enjoy!
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