Good morning kids!  I wanted to bring to your attention a rock show happening tomorrow night NEXT WEDNESDAY March 10, at Chain Reaction in Anaheim.  A band called Back Pocket Memory, or BPM as they’re also known, is going to playing a show at about 7pm.  Why am I telling you about some random rock show happening next Wednesday?  Well I know all these guys.  They’re from Burbank, where I grew up.  In fact I used to play in a band with a few of them before BPM started.  Maybe I’m biased, but I think these guys rock it out.  I’m fairly certain I’m not alone in that thought, as they have definitely proven themselves recently.  Last year they won a battle of the bands contest that took them to Germany to compete in a world showcase and this year they’ve been invited to play the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX!  They were also featured on NBC4LA.com’s local music spotlight last week.

I hope many of you can make it out there.  They will be opening the show, so there’s no excuse of “I don’t want to stay out too late.”  To get tickets, just show up the night of the show, or contact the band on their Facebook page.  The BPM members will have tickets for you for $10.  So…..go!  I’ll see you there!

Update!!  It’s NEXT week March 10….not tomorrow!

Dear Something Corporate,

My husband and I were just listening to one of your best songs, “If U C Jordan” and we were wondering if you couldn’t just let bygones be bygones and get your original lineup back together?

Smooches,
Gina

Upated: They will be reunited and performing at Bamboozle Left at Anaheim Stadium this March! OMG!

That’s right kids.  The rumors were all true.  While it was originally thought that Captain EO would return for the special Halloween celebration Disneyland had in 2009, there simply wasn’t enough time to do it up right.  According to the Disney Parks Blog the official date for it’s return is this Tuesday February 23!!!  Also, according to the blog site, there will be a special Captain EO announcement on the Disneyland Twitter account next week.  So if you have Twitter, follow them to see what it is!

I was lucky enough to be in the first audience to see the movie since 1997 last week when they were doing some special cast member testing.  It sounds great and was so fun to watch in 3D again.  I think this will be a huge success due to fans who remember it from their younger days and also for the new generation who have never seen it before.  Also, be ready for a few new surprises that didn’t exist in the original run. :-)

Anyone going opening day??  Maybe we can have a good old fashion IRL (In Real Life) meetup!

Cleanin' up for a good time.

OK, well, actually Supercross came back 2 weeks ago for the first race of the season.  But as they have for the last several years, they will be running 3 separate weekends out of Anaheim Stadium.  This Saturday is A2 (Anaheim 2), and it is sure to be a MESSY race!  With record rainfall this last week, the dirt in the stadium will be saturated to the core, meaning the mud will be flying.  It may be terrible conditions for the riders, but it doesn’t get any better for the fans!

If you’ve never been to a Supercross race before, it is a great time.  Check out my post from last year’s Supercross event for pictures and a quick rundown of what goes on.  Tickets are still available for A2 this weekend and A3 in 3 weeks.

Doooooooo iiiiiiiiitttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!! (I know, I’m lame.)

Hi gang, here’s a little promotion for a friend of mine.  This Tuesday, my friend George, a.k.a. DJ Vytal, will be spinning Top 40, Hip Hop and House music at Proof Bar in the Santa Ana Arts District.  I have been the last 2 nights and it is a LOT of fun!  And the best part, there’s NO COVER! (In Orange County, this is a big deal).

DJ Vytal doing his thing.

So if you have no plans Tuesday night (and you don’t have to be up early Wednesday) come down and hang out with me and my friend George!  And don’t worry about coming to an empty, awkward bar.  This place gets full and is TONS of fun.

If you find yourself at Knott’s Merry Farm this year be sure to check out the Barn in Ghost Town for a nice display featuring some familiar characters from the venerable theme park’s past…

If you don’t know who that is in the picture above, it’s a (non functioning) animatronic from the famed and long-gone legendary dark-ride Knott’s Bear-yTales. The Bear-yTales website notes the attraction took you along “various adventures of the Bear-y Family. Along the way, you’ll see Frog Forrest, the Candy Company and bakery where everyone is making boysenberry pies and preserves, the Gypsy camp, where Sara tells your fortune, and the spiders and creatures of Thunder Cave. And you can’t forget the Weird Woods, home of Crafty Coyote, or the trilling conclusion at the Country Fair.” The Boysenberry smell piped into the attraction was the best!!

Interestingly, KBT was replaced by Kingdom of the Dinosaurs in 1986. That ride (also quite good) closed in 2004 and you can find some of the former set pieces in the Timber Mountain Log Ride; such as the evil red-eyed wolves.

It’s nice to see Cedar Fair making use of old Knott’s props and historical ride pieces throughout the park. Now if only they would scale down the thrills and beef up the family entertainment. A nice new Peanuts dark-ride or even a new concept dark-ride altogether would we a welcome addition.

That’s right kids.  It’s that time of year again.  Time to put on your winter outfit (which this year may just consist of a long sleeve t-shirt) and venture out to the Orange Circle for the annual Tree Lighting and Candlelight Procession.  It takes place this Sunday December 6th.  It starts at 3:30pm and goes until about 7pm.  There are booths with hot chocolate, sweets and goodies set up for you to peruse and enjoy, but it really gets good just after dark (5:30-6ish??).  That’s when the singing starts and the story of Christmas is told.  If you have kids, this is great for them, but my wife and I love it even though we don’t have kids.

It’s because of occasions like this that I really love Old Towne Orange.  When I attend these events, I forget that I’m deep in the middle of a big Southern California city.  I feel like I’ve been transported to a small town in middle America.

B and I were walking thru the spectrum when we started to notice the amount of people walking around in blankets… sleeping bags along the parking structure…. people camping out. How could I have forgotten about New Moon opening?

New Moon has already broken records for presale tickets.  What always surprises me is the mixed audience.

According to these ladies (who kindly let me lurk around them) the people at the front of the line got there at 8:30 am!

They had been in line since 6:30 pm and they had quite the layout.  Do you see the luminaries?

See more of the New Moon mania after the jump…

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Camaro and a Transformer from the movie.

Love them cars and auto shows.  The OC Auto Show is one of my favs as it is small enough you can see it in one afternoon and still have seen it all.  The other nice thing about it is that it isn’t all concept cars so you have plenty of opps to kick tires, slam doors and sit in your favorite cars.  Well, mostly you can do that.  The exotics are still behind bars where you can only ogle them and lust deeply in your heart for a chance to place your rump in them and imagine the pure enjoyment of running one through the gears.

Probably the most popular showcase was the Transformer Camaro.  At that little spot people are qued up 20-30 deep waiting for their turn for a quick pick in front of the group.  On the sidelines were people equally deep trying to sneak in their own pic without the line.  What ever if you don’t mind other people in the pic with your loved one if it works for you it works for me. (more…)

My family and I were lucky enough to be invited guests to Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party being held on select nights this October at California Adventure.

We visited on October 2, and luckily, it wasn’t too crowded and the weather was just right.  My son, dressed in his “most intimidating knight costume we were able to find on the internet” was of course, extremely excited to be there.

When we entered the park, we were handed some trick-or-treat bags and right away, Disney gets you into the ahem, spirit of things.  The giant sun wheel above the fountain had cool light projections on it, and it presided over a fun, DJ’d dance party.  Also entertaining were the whirling projections being cast on the ground, which all the kids were either sort of freaked out by, or jumping on.  There wasn’t really a whole lot of in-between. 

Treat stations were set up all over the park, and the lines for some were quite long, but the staff tried their best to keep the times down.  And to be sure, the candy and treats were first-rate.  Normally my son would sort of scoff at raisins as a Halloween treat, but they were packaged in some very cool Cars-themed boxes, so that made up for it.

It was great to see all the families dressed up in their costumes, many of them going as a theme.  There was a family of Incredibles, a father and son who were Woody and Buzz respectively, and even some caveparents with their kids as dinosaurs.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone being so happy and enthusiastic, seeing as how Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday.

Even though the fireworks show is held in Disneyland, it’s still possible to see quite a bit of it from California Adventure if you’re in the right place.  Just as a heads up, some of the rides in the park are still being renovated.  But, the best one is of course operational, and that would be Toy Story Mania.

So, I recommend getting some advance tickets (save yourself some money!) and have a great time!