MY BETTER HALF...

This woman is cleverer, funnier and stronger than I am. So she can certainly kick YOUR ass...

LEAST ACTION HERO...

So many deadlines and dinosaur incursions, so little time...

JOURNEYMAN...

Lay back and think of the air-miles I'm earning...

This is default featured post 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured post 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

Archive for April 2009

FAR FLUNG...

Okay, time to play catch up after a week too busy for blogging. So, I arrived in LA on 21st after a relatively speedy and trouble-free flight. I decided to take the optional and very good-value upgrade to Premium Economy and so got some space to stretch. No-one else was on my row, so I also managed to lay down and get some sleep.  Arrived safely and was through customs and to the Westin less than an hour after landing.  Met up with Carmel and the gang thereafter and started the prep for the con.
It had been 100 degrees the day before but it was a more managebale 80 when I got there and continued to srop to about 60 during the week - then again, we were inside most of the time.  On Wednesday Valoise Armstrong offered to take me along to share a private tour of the LA Times, courtesy of one of the senior editorial staff. Fascinating trip and a ton of history!  (And only days after reading the Michael Connelly novel which has a large section of the story set in there).  Thursday evening I headed over to catch up with Kerry, locate the Leverage offices. Kerry had tickets to the Palin Festival's Fringe showing/panel which was fun. (Two lots of J J Abrams viewings in a week). We swung by Kerry's palce on the way back and I reminded Wesley and Willow who I was!The con got underway on Friday after lunch. I still felt a little jet-lagged, but Carmel had kindly arranged for me to have my own room, so I'd managed to get enough sleep. As well as Gillian and Donna, it was good to catch up with Brandon Jerwa (Highlander comic writer), Adrian, Valentine, James Horan and, David Abramowitz, of course. The first panels went well with only minor blips and we even *almost* ran to time. The huge line-up meant early starts, so I was up each day before 7:00am for around an 8:30 start. Grabbed food when I could and frequently had to run with the microphone, so all in all the HLWW workout worked well :) The Eyeborgs screening on Friday night went really well and I finally met Michelle, the film's publicist after a ton of e-mails! Saturday night was the cabaret and the guests excelled themselves. Kerry took part in Donna's 'HL scene' compelte with the legendary dolls. MUCH hilarity ensued. All the cast and crew were on fine form over the next two days. I did the best I could to keep things running smoothly and the general consenses seems to be a did a decent job of it.  Richard Ridings was his usual fun self and with his daughter accompanying him, he was also the proud dad (and has every right to be, his daughter's got a great singing voice).The con finished Sunday. We decided to scrap my planned quiz as the auction ran over, but that was fine as I hadn't managed to formulate all the qiestions in the time I had anyway.  A few hours later we all collapsed into the bar and I finally managed to stay up a bit and grab SOME alcohol after a 'dry' weekend. All in all it was a huge success and people (guests and con-goers) eem to be singing our praises.

Currently I'm at Kerry's and will be until Fri am when I leave on an early flight to Iowa. Grabbed a drink with fellow journo Abbie Bernstein and then later with Elizabeth Neff who's in town doing PR for Deborah Gibson this week and it was good to catch up with them both. Now I'm balancing writing more for Impact, taking photos and grabbing some RnR and repacking for the onward journey.

In the meantime, I got some photography time in and nice shots of the birds outside Kerry's house...

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
2 comments »

BOLDY GONE...

Yesterday was interesting. Dragged my bags across from Covent Garden to Golden Square where I was able to leave them at the Paramount offices. Saw Star Trek in the morning - complete with a security guard standing next to me with night goggles-machine to make sure that as a veteran of twenty years I didn't pull out a massive VCR an dstart recording the movie in the screneing room (he dropped them in the dark, irony's a bitch, isn't it?) The film is a good sci-fi romp. All the cast do well (gotta love Simon Pegg as Scotty) and the CGI explosions burst forth in just the right resolution and quantity. As with almost every J J Abrams production (think everything from Alias and Lost through to Mission Impossible) there are plot holes you could fly a whole Battlestar Galactica through and he's more interested in questions than delivering specific answers but he keeps things zipping along at a merry pace and with a big geeky grin, so much you'll hardly notice. It'll live long enough at the cinema and Hollywood will prosper etc etc.

The press conference was an unmitigated mess. For some reason it appears SKY had turned the event into a programme for their movie channel and therefore we had a 'not-as-hip-as-he-thinks-he-is' host who fluffed the sound-schecks and started with a rather unprofessional 'Here's J J Abrams with... some of the cast...'. Equally we were told that Sky viewers had sent in questions and so it would be split 50/50 between our questions and theirs. Silly me, I thought this was a PRESS conference. After a false start, we began again with questions and answers being repeated word for word  and the table we put our tape recorders on had a speaker that didn't work. It wasn't Paramount's fault per se, (PRs Debbie, Jenny and Sarah usually do us proud) but I get the feeling that after the press had gone (and our mobile phones were returned to us) J J probably  unleashed some vulcanic nerve-pinches for the embarassment caused.

After having a drink with Paul Simpson, Johnny and Molly and managing to get a splinter down the nail of my finger (annoying rather than excrutiating), I picked up my bags and made my way to Yotel at Heathrow's Terminal 4 with relative ease and grabbed some dinner. Typed up as much as I could of the press conference, watched Ashes to Ashes (meh)  then grabbed about 4-5hrs sleep before waking up around 4:00am and deciding to finish the article.

Now in Terminal 1, having checked in for the United flight pretty easily. The flight is ontime for a 10:35 departure and I hopefully have a bulkhead seat, so will be able to stretch out just a little bit.

I have my ritual Michael Connelly novel to read on the flight (an advance copy of his latest: The Scarecrow) and so all is good. However hoping the next 11 or so hours pass quickly and the real fun begins...

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
0 comments »

BOLDY GOING...

So... on my way. Left the house at about 1:45 this afternoon and I'm currently on a pretty crowded train to London. Good job I reserved a seat as there'll be a fair amount of people standing for the rest of the journey. As that doesn't include little old ladies, I'm holding onto my seat for all its worth :) Just hope my luggage isn't squIshed before I even get to Heathrow.

Should get into London around 5:20 and will be at the Travelodge around 6:00. Will take it relatively easy tonight and just get some Impact writing done. Up bright and breezy in the am to do the early Trek screening and join in the fun of the press conference in the pm. The lovely ladies at Paramount are letting me store my luggage at Golden Square, so I won't have to haul it all over London tomorrow during the day.

Reasonably sure I haven't forgotten anything too drastic (except the Jaffa Cakes on the counter, dammit). I have my passport, ticket, ESTA, wallet, schedule/reservations info and a ton of Verbatim/Cutting Edge/Verbatim stuff with me. Hoping to have reduced the considerable weight by about half when I travel onwards from LA in about 11 days time.

A lovely sunny day to be travelling on... in fact, if it's like this in LA when I eventually get there, there'll be no complaints (though, yes, a few degrees warmer so I can grab a dip in the pool would be, like, TOTALLY awesome!).

More later...

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
3 comments »

PACKING THEM IN...

No London or Wolverine on Thursday, then.  But I may get the chance to meet up with Val in Leeds for a quick drink prior to us heading out to LA. The absence of the trip to the Great Smoke means I have to do a bit of re-organising about my departure (now definitely heading to London on Sunday rather than Monday before flying Tuesday) but it also frees up some of my time tomorrow to get other necessaries out of the way.

I'm already 3/4 packed with just the basics to add. I'm also taking some copies of The Cutting Edge to the con. Slowly but surely I'm getting through everything I need to do on my List.

And, catching up with the masses I FINALLY saw the clip of Britain's Got Talent that everyone's been talking about. Wow. I know I sometimes like to fly in the face of public opinion, but... I won't forget THAT in a hurry: Click Here

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
3 comments »

WAITING FOR GO.DOT

I can see it now... it's going to be one of those weeks where everything is going to be hurry up and wait. A week from now I should be well on the way to LA - possibly somewhere over the mid-west at this point -  and fretting that I've forgotten something like a toothbrush...but in the meantime I'm at the mercy of an electronic communication system and, more accurately, the people using it.

I was supposed to be going down to do press with Hugh Jackman and director Gavin Hood for the upcoming Wolverine film on Thursday. Perfect timing as there's a possible screening of the new Star Trek movie that evening and I could have stayed down a few more hours on Thursday (to avoid having to get a hotel on Sunday night or be up ridiculously early on Monday to travel down for the Trek press then and then onto the airport). However Fox cannot confirm any timings at the moment and less than 36hrs before I'd have to be en route and train costs growing by the second, I've ahd to call time on the trip unless things change. I'm the best there is at what I do, but even I need some sleep and time to pack!

Equally, with my old MiniDVcamcorder now broken, I purchased one on ebay for a very reasonable amount (the auction ending last Friday). Noting that the seller indicates it can take four days to receive the item and Easter might affect that I message'd them and asked if it was going of any later than today (Tuesday) could they let me know as I'd be prepared to pay a little extra to ensure it arrived in time for my trip.  As of now there's been no response to three e-mails requesting info. I can see the camera arriving the day after I leave and the seller just shrugging. Peh. Fingers crossed it's already on the way!

In between packing and writing - including writing a piece to fill a gap left by another writer with his own deadlines - I'm also waiting on news of a few interviews and a design project.

In the meantime, I must cut down on the chocolate. But right now, it's a whoooole different wait problem.

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
0 comments »

MIND OVER MATTERS...

Sitting waiting to be seen by the doctor, I noticed Elvis standing silently in the corner. He wasn't saying much but it occured to me that in an area where doctors evaluate how your head is doing, this was a somewhat cruel and unusual situation. Thankfully it was a cardboard cut-out and he and the four-foot bunny-rabbit in a nurse's outfit a few chairs down were not  hallucinations. Possibly. Uh-huh.

The doc's given me a clean bill of health, technically. He told me in specific detail what had happened back in November ( the brain: imagine a main river with lots of side-streams... it was a side-stream that got swollen at one crucial point and momentarily threatened to break its bank. If it had, or if it had been the main river, Celene Dion would have been warbling as I sank... and let's be honest, no-one wants that. He told me that forty is a young age for this have happened and while there was no serious chance of it happening again - same chance now as the average person in the street - it's still a case of being in the 20% or so where they have no explanation for why it happened at all (I don't smoke or have high blood pressure which are key contributary factors). So that doesn't quite put my mind at ease. Literally.

However, asking about regular exercise, it appears I have a Get out of Jail Free card in that he simply doesn't advise I do any regime for a while. So I'm trying to do more walking and I need to cut down on the chocolate that has been my crutch since the end of last year, but if I can lose weight without actually having to work up a daily sweat then that's fine by me. Mayhaps I should start after Easter. It also should mean that if I go with the Post Office's annual travel insurance, I should be fully covered - Thomas Cook's more complex policy would have seen me pay over £350 for just one trip and wouldn't have insured anything above the neck.

So, ladies and gentlepersons....Mosby has left the Neurology Building. Thankyouverymuch.

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
3 comments »

HARD DWAYNE

Well, just on my way back from doing press for Race to Witch Mountain in which a certain Mr Rock (Dwayne Johnson) gets the star-billing. And a nice guy he is too... he enjoys the promotional side and never seems to take himself too seriously and had some pretty good pragmatic insights into making the transition from arena to silver screen. He's a genuinely good actor and while Witch is strictly for the ankle-biter brigade and demographic, it'll do no harm to his résumé . And he's certainly a nicer guy than the security-guard who greeted me on arrival and quite literally strode up towards me saying "You'll have to..." and gave his wrists a literal 'shoo-ing' motion to indicate that he didn't want me sharing the same public corridor as the advancing Mr Johnson as they headed towards the lifts.  Still, I guess the aloof, jobsworthy idiot bodyguard was just doing his job. Mr J himself probably wouldn't dream of it.

Spent the rest of the day in London. I passed the time by helping out friend and colleague Dina at the Daily Mail National Home Exhibition by taking some shots of her  with interviewee, Rusty Lee (Rusty and the Rock... sounds like a 70s show, no?) . For non-UKers she's a celebrity cook of old, a big bouncy lady with an infectious laugh and seemed very pleasant. Grabbed some quick drinks and a chinese with Dina later and then headed for the station, the train and an hour or so of transcribing.

Tomorrow I have my non-obligatory but hopefully non-eventful check-up at the Neurology Department at the hospital and that should underline the fact I'm  fit and fine to travel without being waylaid with any obscenely high and unnecessary insurance premiums.    Two weeks today I'll hopefully be settling in at Yotel ready to fly off to LA. Betwixt now and then there's some Wolverineing and some Star Trekking to fit in.  And packing.

Hopefully not in that order.

[CLICK ENTRY TITLE TO READ FULL POST] - Posted by JOHN MOSBY
On - -
2 comments »