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Just a quick update late at night to let anyone who’s reading know that’s coming soon.

Check out A Year At The Academy for an all-too-detailed look into my Company year at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It’s being updated more frequently than this blog for the time being.

I’ve been so busy with Max Brenner this past week that the blog has been a bit neglected. I’m off tomorrow, so hopefully I can squeeze in my reviews of Off-Broadway’s “Burleigh Grime$”, which is now closed (and for a good reason), and the films “Hollywoodland,” “You, Me, & Dupree,” and “Clerks 2″.

Also, I may be prompted to share some random thoughts that have been stewing in my brain — thoughts about Muppets, t-shirts, bras, people with the name Ricky Johnston, musicals, and current weather conditions… although not in that particular order.

It’s great seeing new people come and visit the site. I encourage everyone to leave a comment on any entry — I really enjoy checking them out. Just today, I took a look at two from people who’ve commented on old entries… and I couldn’t be happier.

Allright, well — I’ll see everyone back on here tomorrow. Have a good day ’til then!

I’m dead tired as I write this, at midnight on Monday.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time at Max Brenner over the past week — in fact, there’s only one day in the past seven where I haven’t been inside that building. I’ll say this much about it — the food is fantastic, the drinks are great, and the desserts are to-die-for. We’ve been busy as hell during this friends & family week, between relatives of the higher-ups and investors and such, and if the “buzz” around the area is any indication, we’re going to be doing a hell of a lot of business once we open.

I encourage everybody to stop by, starting this Thursday, to get some chocolate. It may well be the best chocolate you’ve ever had in your entire life (this is NOT a sales pitch, yet a FYI from a self-diagnosed chocoholic).

Working there has been fun. Although I think the place suffers from a lack of streamlining, it’s in far better shape than Hard Rock was at this point last year. I actually enjoy my job, which is not-all-too-common in America, and since I know the employees enjoy working there, you’ll enjoy eating there.

To say that I like my job isn’t to say that I’m not dead tired. I’m not looking forward to working tomorrow morning and following that up with a round of school for five hours (followed by a rehearsal). Speaking of school, I’m chronicling my journey through the third year at AADA at A Year At The Academy (*Shameless plug, huh?*). Check it out.

I’m surprised I’m not a bit more frustrated that I haven’t had much downtime this weekend (I wanted to see “Clerks 2″ and AT LEAST catch tonight’s “Entourage”)… but maybe that’s because I’m calming my nerves with episodes of “Lost”… frantically trying to catch up so I can play along with the Lost Experience (which I think is the coolest thing to happen towards marrying TV to the internet).

So, yeah, I wish I had something more worthwhile to blog about… but I didn’t want this to be a one line entry that read:

“I’m tired.”

Well, that’s all for now. Good night, folks!

I’m getting to see “Hollywoodland” next week for *free*.

Huzzah!

Thank God it’s finally a normal fucking temperature here in New York. It took a fuckload of rain to do it, but the job’s been done. Could I, perhaps, enjoy an 80-degree temperature tomorrow? Stay tuned.

More Max Brenner training today. Target opening date - next Thursday.

Clerks 2 this week!

So I had my first practical training day for Max Brenner today.

Fucking amazing.

Still some of the best chocolates I’ve ever tasted in my life.

We spent so much time going over dessert preparation, we didn’t even really touch espresso bar training today. I guess we’ll save that for another day. In the meantime, we got to “sample” every one of the desserts we made today.

I’ll be damned if my caloric intake for the day was less than 1,000 on chocolate alone.

I have over 140 different recipes to memorize in the next 10 days… but I think it’ll be worth it. Check the New York Times soon for a review, as a food critic was in this afternoon.

I can’t believe the weekend’s gone already. Perhaps it’s because I have a purpose on weekdays again.

The first activity consuming my time from Monday-Friday is school. As of this past Monday, I’ve gone back to classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as a member of the 2006-2007 Academy Company. As a result, you’ll be able to see me peform at least four times in the next eight months. There’s no admission charge to see the shows, so you have no viable excuse to meet them (except for travel, illness, death — you know, the normal ones). I’m blogging my experience with my classes over a A Year At The Academy, the blog I’ve been keeping since the beginning of Second Year. I’ll keep pimping that site out with links on this one and on my Myspace.

I’m also starting work at Max Brenner tomorrow, after weeks of speculation. Although this is probably bad news for my sleeping habits, it’s good news for my wallet, which almost was in danger of starvation. Check out their website for the menu (which looks absolutely delicious).

“Entourage” is on tonight. I’ll be there. I’ll probably also be glued to my seat for “Chappelle’s Show” tonight, as well.

Jason Bateman fans — log on to BBC - Brilliant But Cancelled and check out the pilot for “The Jake Effect,” the show he *almost* did before “Arrested Development.” It’s pretty funny, and I think it should be re-optioned, but that’s just me. By the way, this is a great idea for a site — an aborted sitcom graveyard. Apparently, BRAVO puts this stuff out on DVD as well. Speaking of aborted shows and DVD, who else is waiting for “That’s My Bush!”?

I’ve gotta run for now, the cats are screaming in the other room. I’ll have a review up later for “Burliegh Grime$”, playing for another few hours at New World Stages on 50th Street. If you really can’t wait for it, here’s a quick review: it sucked.

Later!

It’s so hot outside it’s ridiculous. It’s certainly July in New York, and this week’s been the worst. Yesterday, I managed to work up a sweat walking 10 minutes to the subway station (not really that much of an accomplishment considering how much I sweat, but, still… a bit ridiculous). I think I’m going to need to obtain a fan somehow. Fortunately, it’s supposed to rain today. Unfortunately, it’s also supposed to rain tomorrow, and both days are supposed to include heavy, heavy rains. This will most certainly slow down my transportation time. Additionally, there’s no guarantee that the rains will actually bring the temperature down. According to Weather.com, it doesn’t look like they will.

According to the latest e-mail, I’m supposed to start my training at Max Brenner this coming weekend. Hopefully, we’ll be open shortly thereafter. I can’t wait to show this place off — it’s gorgeous, and the chocolate is the best I’ve ever had in my entire life (and I’m a chocaholic, so that should mean something).

I’ve been back at school for two days now. For a more detailed description of what I’m up to when I go there, be sure to check out A Year At The Academy.

If I can have only one celebrity endorsed food preparation object…

it would be this one

I’ll admit it… before this flick, I had never seen another movie in the Superman franchise. I was, however, pretty excited about it. I’d known Bryan Singer to do amazing things with comic adaptations (see X-Men and its sequel), and I knew he would do far more justice to the Man of Steel than some other directors would have done (*cough* Tim Burton *cough*). Additionally, I was pleased to learn that Singer’s involvement with the flick would mean that all previous versions of the script for this movie would find their way to the trash (which was bittersweet… for as happy as I was that the version of Superman which found Lex Luthor turning into a Kryptonian would be forever destroyed, being a longtime Kevin Smith fan I was slightly upset that his Superman Lives script would never see the light of day).

Also… I was going to see this movie, a multi-million dollar summer blockbuster, in IMAX 3D. How could I not be stoked?

Direction & Story
Although I’d never seen any of the other Superman films before, it was blatantly obvious that this entire film paid hommage to those that came before it (well, the first two, anyway) while advancing the storyline of the character. Although the plot may have been a bit simplistic, I thought it was fun to be taken back to an era where movie characters didn’t have to be in a state of constant conspiracy against one another… and stories were simplistic. The plot for this movie may well have been an old-fashioned comic book plot, which is perfect for The Man of Tomorrow. Stylistically, this film looked like an old-fashioned movie with a more modern day backdrop… which, personally, I loved.

Acting
I don’t think this movie could have been cast more perfectly. Brandon Routh looks and acts like Christopher Reeve, which is very cool and very creepy at the same time. I’ll admit it, I was insanely jealous of the man whilst watching this film. I want to open a superhero franchise picture (but, then again, who doesn’t?). I did wonder, at first, why they would re-cast Lex Luthor if they went out of their way to keep an authenticity to the original Clark Kent and resurrect Marlon Brando from the grave. I mean, Gene Hackman’s not dead… I’m sure he could have done it. On the other hand, Kevin Spacey was absolutely fantastic. I loved every minute of his performance… I just wish there would have been more of it. Even James Marsden, who annoyed the crap out of me as a cocky, unpersonable Cyclops in the X-Men films, eventually won me over. No complaints in this department.

Special Effects / The “IMAX 3D Experience”
So, I don’t think it was worth it to see this movie in the IMAX for almost $15. Granted, it was a learning experience, but I do wish it could have been a less costly one. This film was the first to be shot in 2D and be digitally enhanced to 3D… and, in some scenes, it shows. Certain objects that should have more depth to them (e.g. a house) appear flat, although their flat outlines do pop out against the rural backdrop. Other scenes look absoltuely amazing. That’s the other thing that should be mentioned — the entire movie is not in 3D… only certain scenes are. At first, that concept annoyed the crap out of me, but as the movie progressed I realized that an entire 2-and-a-half-hour long feature in 3D would have made me vomit. Perhaps that’s because the IMAX screen is 6 stories high… I’m still optimistic about the 3D releases in the future on conventional movie screens (when you’re *not* seated in the second row). I will say this about the IMAX this time around, though — I went to see Matrix Reloaded in IMAX when it was released, and all I could think about was Keanu Reeves’ razor burn in some scenes. This was not the case in this film. I do not feel that the IMAX screen was a hinderance.

Other than the problems I may have encountered with the IMAX or 3D portions of the film, the special effects were amazing. Superhero movies don’t always have the best special effects. Hell, I can tell a practical Spider-Man from a CG one anyday… and I even detected the CGI claws they gave Hugh Jackman for X-Men United… but I don’t have that complaint here. After seeing this movie, I trully believe that a man can fly.

Additionally, the Marlon Brando animations are really well done… aren’t they?

Overall
Superman Returns lives up to the hype. It doesn’t exceed it, but doesn’t fall short… and is worth normal ticket price. Don’t be duped by the allure of IMAX 3D… it’s simply not worth it yet. I’m eagerly anticipating the next release in the franchise… and I’m praying that Bryan Singer comes back.

Well, it’s finally gone. I know I thought it would happen several times in the past — but, this one’s official. In fact, I signed the car over to Teplitz… so the Millenium Falcon is headed towards the dump. A sad, sad ending for a dear friend.

Last Blogsome entry on this topic

Old Xanga Entry
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Although running through my monologues constantly is strenuous, there will be a “Superman Returns” post tomorrow. Mark my words.