Just started my first week of classes yesterday at my new school The College of the Canyons. My first class was on the subject of improvisation, which was a challenging, tiresome, yet fun experience for me. Since my family hasn't moved yet in our new home at Valencia/Santa Clarita, I'm temporarily staying at the house of my sister's boyfriend's family, who have been very kind and generous to me as I try to behave as properly as a houseguest should.

And I might be going to San Francisco for the first time this Labor Day weekend.

Saw the touring production of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (based on the Frank Oz film starring Steve Martin & Michael Caine which was itself a remake of a '60s Marlon Brando-David Niven film called Bedtime Story) at the Pantages last Saturday. Despite being 15 minutes late and missing the new opening song they made especially for the tour, it didn't dampen my overall enjoyment of the show. Norbert Leo Butz was a live wire reprising his Tony-winning role as the crass young con man Freddy Benson (originally played in the films by Martin and Brando) to the delight of the audience. He was so much full of energy on stage that he basically stole the whole show from the equally talented cast. This is evident in his first song "Great Big Stuff" (the low quality video was taken from the original Broadway production):


After that I bought the soundtrack and went home. All I had to say was I had a ball, I had a blast, and it was a shame it couldn't last, to paraphrase a lyric from one of the song. And I was lucky since I just learned the Broadway production will be closing next month.

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Lately for the past few weeks, I have been riding the Metro train going to LA and Pasadena, sometimes by myself, sometimes with my uncle or dad or mom, and it's been a really enjoyable experience despite taking long to reach LA from my nearest station in Long Beach. At least I get to go out a lot even despite the hot weather.

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So Pluto is no longer a planet, which means my very eager mother served us noodles instead of the usual Neapolitan pizza. Oh well, at least technically it's still a planet, only its now a dwarf planet which could lead to further discrimination in the solar system for the likes of Xena or Ceres.

Philippines declares war on invading catfish, other "alien species"

The headline is worth a chuckle, so now the government is going after xenomorphs and Wookies alongside Islamic terrorists?

Hilarious article about Wikipedia from The Onion

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More Mel Gibson madness, courtesy of The Daily Show:

Dammit! The recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd with Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris is closing on September, and to think I was planning to see it when my family goes to New York on October (their contracts were until Thanksgiving). First The Light in the Piazza (good thing I saw the PBS broadcast plus there's an upcoming LA production), now this. So I'm only left with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone, Spamalot, Wicked, and Jersey Boys to look forward on the Great White Way. I would add Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but I decided to watch the touring production at the Pantages instead which has the added bonus of Norbert Leo Butz reprising his Tony Award-winning role.

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Mel Gibson's recent drunk driving arrest where he said some rather offensive things about the Jews reminds me of the classic South Park episode "The Passion of the Jew". Here's a clip from that episode showing crazy Mel Gibson in action: