Pink's is easy to spot once we hit La Brea and we're even lucky enough to get a parking spot right in the back, even though the line is wrapping around the building and at least 50 people long. Yep, for HOT DOGS. The most impressive menu item had to be the LA Lakers dog, which featured I believe three full hot dogs in a pita, topped with chili, cheese, and bacon. We didn't go that insane, though, but the dogs we did have were DAMN good. Dunno if it was the chili, the dog itself, or a combination of both, but believe the hype -- Pink's hot dogs are GOOD. It was worth the trip and the 30 minute wait. It's fun to look at tall the signed 8x10's on the wall inside the place while you eat, too.

3:00 PM

Next on the agenda: A trip to Venice Beach. Mark Galluzzo, director of the film RSVP (starring Jay Mewes) invited us down to his pad which is just a block off of the Venice Boardwalk to show us around. He's even cool enough to set up with his parking spot (put up a reserved sign and all) so we don't hafta search around. The place is simple to find, and we even get to drive through the nice small town of Santa Monica on the way in (though, unfortuntaely, also had to spend some time on the 405 freeway, whose legendary traffic had us bumper to bumper for miles).

4:00 PM

We find Mark sitting outside of his place in the front yard along with his friend Danny and wife Bethan. We take a seat and rap about a few things (he's got some great stories from "RSVP" to tell) and then take a 15 second walk up to the famous Venice boardwalk (yep, he's THAT close)! It's a beautiful California day, sun shining, slight breeze in the air, TONS of people checking out the vendors and the shows. It's a VERY cool place. I find myself wishing I could spend the entire trip just chilling out at the beach (which is very wide and full of deep, soft sand). Mark and Bethan take us up the boardwalk to their favorite local pub, a friendly little place with some great beer on tap, which goes down way too easily as we sit outside and chat more about films, the website, and other stuff. They're good people, and we were blown away by their kindness and hospitality to a couple of strangers. I felt right at home there, it was just a fine way to spend our first day in CA. Mark even picked up the tab for our beer, and Bethan was kind enough to offer us an invite back down to cook dinner for us. Unfortunately, we never got back there, but we'll hafta take her up on that offer the next time we're in town. Thanks, it was great meeting everyone in Venice!

6:30 PM

After Venice, we figured it might be a good idea to go check into our hotel before they gave our rooms away to someone else. So, it was back to Burbank and the Hilton to drop off the baggage, clean up, and get ready for round two (even though by this time, we really should just be catching some ZZZZ's). Next stop: Universal Studios and Citywalk, for a chance to grab a spot of dinner and see The Matrix in one of their huge theaters.

8:00 PM

We didn't have a lot of time to eat anything before the flick started, so we thought this Italian chain called Buca Di Beppo would be a quick stop, since their pasta is mass-produced and ready really fast, family style. Boy, were we ever wrong. The place was a mess, disorganized, and, believe it or not, THEY WERE OUT OF SPAGHETTI (and pretty much every other noodle known to man). We ended up being served some sort of macaroni noodes in meat sauce, which didn't even taste that good at all. Major bummer. We had even considered checking out Cameron's Ghost of the Abyss in Imax 3D, but the slow service threw that idea out the window. From the time we sat down, we didn't have anything to eat for 45 minutes, and the place wasn't even that busy! But hey, we left the waitress a good tip anyway. It might not have been all her fault.

10:00 PM

The Matrix is FILLED with people, and even though it's playing on something like 4 screens, it's still nearly impossible to get a ticket. Sadly, our theater didn't have stadium seating, but the kickass sound system more than made up for it. LA audiences really seem to get into the film a lot more than our boring Harrisburg crowds -- There was a lot of applause and cheering happening throughout the flick, and folks even got overly excited after the new Terminator 3 trailer ran. Gotta admit, they DO make that movie look pretty exciting, maybe there's hope for it yet.

As for The Matrix: Hmmm...It probably wasn't a good idea to watch that one after being awake for 24 hours straight. Somehow, it just seemed to lack the charm and originality that the first film exceled at. Sort of a letdown, actually. Maybe I just expected too much. It was tough to stay awake during the flick, and maybe part of that was the lack of sleep, but the more I think about it, the movie wasn't that thrilling either. Let's hope they make it right in the Fall.

MONDAY 9:00 AM

After sleeping as late as possible to try and catch up on all that was lost on Sunday (it doesn't really work), it was time to set the game plan for Monday. We knew that we wanted to meet up with DVD producer JM Kenny while we were in town, and, as luck would have it, he calls us late in the morning to invite us to his production facilities for a tour and for some lunch. JM, by the way, is the guy responsible for that excellent Mallrats Special Edition DVD and documentary, the Dogma Special Edition DVD and documentary, and most recently, An Evening with Kevin Smith. He was also the first guy to integrate video with audio commentary tracks, a practice becoming more popular these days.

9:30 AM

Since we have a few hours to kill before meeting up with JM, I decide that I want to try and track down a place that I've been wanting to visit since childhood - The Price Is Right studio at CBS. I've been watching that show and dreaming of winning big money and prizes since I was like 3 years old. The place is right off La Brea, and since we now knew where Pink's was, it was simple to track down. The booth for tickets for the show is right at the studio itself, but as I'd heard, tickets are booked up about a week solid. Next time we're coming out, someone's gonna hafta pick us up some tix ahead of time. I'm winning that car.

But hey, now that we're there, I can't resist the urge to snoop around a bit -- So we take a walk up towards the studio and notice the HUGE crowd of ticket holders, all sitting outside with their nametags and numbers, hoping to be picked for the audience. It's a surreal moment, so close yet so far! Nothing more to see, really, but I do stop into the little Price Is Right gift shop and get myself an official TPIR shot glass to add to my collection - For the ridiculous price of $7.00.

11:50 AM

We meet up with JM and he sets us up with some visitor's passes. NME (NEW MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT) is very secure due to their having a lot of advanced material on the premises. They've even got an FBI-guarded vault for times when film reels are brought in months in advance of release to allow them to prepare movie trailers, poster art, and the like. NME does it all, really -- From the aforementioned trailers and posters to commentary recording, DVD menus and editing, sound mixing, and more. JM takes us into a few offices where we see folks preparing the Stargate SG:1 and ER DVD sets, and even quietly walks us into the recording studio where Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy were finishing up the commentary track for "A Mighty Wind". It's amazing how early they record those things these days, as "Wind" is still playing in theaters. NME has a very slick facility, and it's fun shaking some hands and meeting some of the folks responsible for putting together all of these DVDs that we've been watching for so many years.

After the very cool tour of the facilities and a stop in JM's office, where he hooked me up with a copy of the just-released Dances With Wolves Special Edition DVD that he worked on, JM took us across the street and treated us to a fantastic lunch at this cool little Mexican restaraunt. It really hit the spot. Thanks JM! We could have spent all day hanging out at the offices and watching everyone work, it was cool, fascinating stuff.

1:00 PM

We spend a couple hours checking out the downtown Hollywood area, the walk of fame, the handprints at Mann's theater, and make sure we know where the El Capitan theater is...Since well be coming back to see Jimmy Kimmel Live later tonight. There's also a great location in the galleria to take photos of the Hollywood sign. Hey, sometimes you just gotta be a tourist.

After that, we took a couple hours of downtime back at the hotel bar, threw back a couple beers and just relaxed a bit, since we'd been on the go for the past couple of days. Then, after a quick bite to eat, it was back into Hollywood to line up for the TV show, which was a fascinating experience. Chris swears that he spots Chuck Woolery just "hanging out" outside of the parking garage as we're pulling in.

7:00 PM

First off, we'd reserved our tickets ahead of time, so checking in was easy. But we learned something interesting during the process of waiting to be seated. If you want a good seat at these shows, it's best to be a hot chick. Hot chicks that showed up well after we did were all given differently colored tickets, and let into the theater early, for seating right up front. Next, overly excited and rowdy folks got selected by a pre-screener for preferential seating as well. Luckily, we had checked in early enough that we still got some decent floor seats for the show.

9:00 PM

Watching a live broadcast was a lot of fun. Jimmy's guests were comedian Kathy Griffin, Indy 500 Champ Helio Castroneves, a 5 year old who rapped (and brought the house down, no less), and co-host for the week, Ed McMahon. The broadcast itself wasn't overly funny, though, but it was still fun to be there. Actually, TV viewers miss what the best part of the program every night -- About 10 minutes before the show goes live, Jimmy comes out to greet the audience, has a seat as his desk, breaks out the classifieds in the local newspaper, and proceeds to make live prank phone calls right in front of the audience! Three hilarious phone calls were made in which Jimmy basically just put on some phony voices and comfortably ad-libbed his way through, sipping from his coffee cup as he continued to mess with the unsuspecting folks on the line. Of course, the phone audio was played through the auditorium's speakers so we could hear the entire calls. Great stuff. Could have watched a whole hour of that.

There's also a warmup guy named Don who jumps around like crazy for an hour before the show and between commercial breaks to keep the audience as pumped as possible. Clapping seems to be a constantly needed asset on a TV show. As the house band played through the commercials, Don insisted on non stop clapping from the audience. Somehow, I didn't quite see the point in clapping in rhythm to that extent. My hands hurt. The applause signs, which they brought over from "The Man Show", tell us "Applaud, you bastards" or to "Shut the F*&k up" when silence is needed. I can follow along with that. Not too tough.

TUESDAY

This being our last full day in California, we figured it was time to hit one of the studio tours in town. Word had it that the Warner Brothers tour, while the most costly, was also the best in town, as it was a real tour of the actual lot itself, not something set up JUST to show the tourists like some other places do.

10:00 AM

The detailed 2 and a half hour tour took us into an exclusive museum full of some classic props and an entire floor devoted to Harry Potter. Following that, we were taken on a free form cart ride throughout the entire lot, making quite a few stops along the way. Some of the more memorable locations: The exterior sets of Chicago used weekly on E.R. (The hospital front, ambulance bay, L-Train stairwell, and more). The entire set is outside, but features fully retractable coverings and a weather system for simulating darkness, rain, and snow. It's amazing how realistic they make it look on TV. The E.R. cast and crew were on the lot but filming on the interior hospital sets at the time. Normally they wouldn't be working this late, but the hospital will be remodeled early into the season next year, so they're finishing up the first few episodes of Fall 2003 to give the crew the entire summer to build the new sets. An interesting little tidbit there for ER fans...

We also stopped and sat in at the Friends set for a while, where we got to check out the Central Perk set as well as the multiple sets that were set up for the Barbados finale from this year. Those sets apparently remained standing because next year's episodes are picking back up in the Barbados location as well. Normally, Monica and Joey's apartments would have been there as well. Still, it was neat to see and sit in the audience of the most popular sitcom on television today. We learned that some episodes of Friends have taken almost 11 hours to shoot (the average being around 5 hours), and that the cast and crew practice all week long on an episode before filming the final version on Fridays. Sometimes, rewrites are done during the final taping if the audience reaction isn't what they want, and scenes are tried several ways in front of the audience to see what elicits the biggest laughs.

Some other cool stuff we got to see on the Warner lot: The tallest soundstage in North America, where they've worked on The Matrix, A Perfect Storm, and A.I. We also were taken into their largest mixing facility, which had been closed to the public until just recently due to their working on The Matrix: Reloaded in there. Because of the summer months, not too much was happening on the lot while we were there, though we did see a lot of "Acme" stuff that's going to be used in the upcoming Looney Tunes: Back In Action film (We saw crates marked "Acme Bumble Bees", "Acme Rockets", and "Acme Contents: One Guard Dog". Looks like that should be a fun one. We also drove by an outdoor set being used for a motorcycle movie featuring Ice Cube.

Other exterior stuff we saw: The Central Park set used recently on Friends, the swampland used in "Adaptation" (one of the best flicks of last year), the alley where the famous Spiderman/Mary Jane kiss took place...Tons more that I can't even recall at the time. It's amazing how many memorable movie and TV scenes took place right on this very lot, though.

All in all, the Warner Brothers tour is recommended if you're in town. If you want to see a real, working studio where a lot of movie history has been made, look no further. This is the tour for you.

1:00 PM

Gail confirms with us that the screening is still on schedule for tonight, and that it will be taking place at a theater called the Pacific Galleria in Sherman Oaks. As with most locations in the area, it's only about a 15 minute drive from the hotel in the zippy little Focus.

On the way, I insist that we stop at a place called Boba World, as I was told that there's this new drink concept that's only available in the California area -- Japanese teas and mocha beverages with a bunch of gelatinous rubbery balls in the bottom called "boba". Sounds bizarre, but strangely fascinating. Gotta try one. So, we make a quick pit stop at the Sheman Oaks Boba World on the way to the galleria, and I pick up a thai blended tea with boba in the bottom. The guy makes the drink as usual, then puts the cup into this strange little machine which sucks it in, then spits it back out with the little boba inside and a vacuum-sealed top. An extra-wide straw to suck up the boba along with the drink is provided. It's quite strange to take a sip and suddenly get a couple of chewy globs along with. Tasted sort of like tea-flavored gummy bears. Apparently, Starbucks might jump on the boba bandwagon soon. You read about it here first.

2:00 PM

Another side-stop: Beverly Hills. The sign and the palm trees lining the roads are unmistakable -- We couldn't resist driving up and down a few blocks and down Rodeo Drive, checking out a shopping district that most can only afford to window shop at, and homes that only those will millions of dollars could afford to own.

4:00 PM

We locate the galleria and the theater with ease. Everything out here in California is so damn nice! The place is like this spacious outdoor mall, full of restaraunts, a HUGE Tower Music & Video, and the multi-level theater. It's right on Ventura Boulevard (it's cool seeing so many familiar-sounding movie freeway and street names while we're out here), so there's a lot of activity and stuff to see.

6:45 PM

Not having actual tickets in hand, we figure we'd better head up to the theater to make sure we were going to be able to get in. Now THIS is what I call organization. They've got a line of ticket holders waiting in the wings, yet without tickets, we ask where we should go. We're pointed to a guy holding a clipboard for "Special Guests" and give our names. We're immediately let into the theater, ahead of everyone else, and directed to a reserved area in the theater (the entire back row). We feel special.

After we sit there and watch this huge theater fill up with people (pretty much every last seat and THEN some), "Jersey Girl" starts right on schedule. A man announces that we're one of the first audiences to watch the film, and that it's not representative of the final product, especially as the music is concerned. The audience applauds, the lights go down, and the film begins!

The film really does seem complete, opening titles are there, everything's been nicely edited together and flows. Even all of the songs for the film seem to have been selected (though that may change) but the score did seem mostly absent (or I didn't notice). I'll have a full, non-spoiler review of Jersey Girl for the site soon. It's a very different direction for View Askew, but a welcome one. This will finally be the View Askew film that your parents, and even your grandparents, might "get".

After a jam-packed 3 days, we're totally spent and decide to duck out and head back to our rooms after the show. For a moment, we're tempted to try and see if we can sit in for the focus group, but Kevin's nowhere to be found and the reps running the screening seem to be in a big hurry to get everyone out of there.

WEDNESDAY 9:30 AM

We're back at the Burbank airport and ready to board our flights back home. Everything's on schedule, and it looks like it's going to be the hottest, sunniest day here in California yet. Damn shame we hafta leave all this for what looks to be a cool, rainy forecast for the next few days back in Pennsylvania.

We'd like to thank Kevin for inviting us out to the west coast for a few days, and for the rare opportunity to check out Jersey Girl up on the big screen so early. Thanks also to Gail for keeping us in the loop, as always! And finally, thanks to Mark and JM for their hospitality while we were in town, and to everyone who sent in suggestions on things to see and do while we were there. Let's do it again real soon.