National Velvet: The Review!!!!

Cover of National Velvet (Book and Charm)

An ambitious version of National Velvet is currently playing at The Hollywood Improv Lab Theater, conveniently located adjacent to the world famous Improv, on Melrose Blvd. I say ambitious, because the smallish nature of the stage almost got too crowded, as the nine player cast barely fit when they were all in the scene. However, judicious use of the entire auditorium, per Dagwood's direction, allowed for the cast to fully shine.

For the two or three of you that haven't seen the original movie with Elizabeth Taylor, or read the book the movie is based on by Enid Bagnold, National Velvet is the story of a young orphan named Velvet, adopted by the Browns. In turn, she adopts a wild horse nicknamed, 'Pie.' Pie shows such promise, that Velvet wishes to enter the horse in the Grand National in England, and ride her herself.

This version is based more on the book than the movie, and this stage adaptation moves the story into the future, complete with flying cars!!! The year is 2060, and the Browns live in Americus, Georgia. Miss Ada is now the Brown's flying car, as opposed to the donkey of the original version. From the website:

“The story is set in a future where modern marvels, imagination and growing up all join together to form a festive, and sometimes somber look at life's challenges in making big dreams come true!”

A few technical snafus did not mar otherwise fine performances by the entire cast. Athena Velasco as Velvet has the unenviable task of carrying the play, which she pulls off with nary a hitch. Mi is portrayed by Darren Numer, who as the ranch hand of the Browns, and Velvet's unlikely friend and mentor, carries the role with a good English accent, which serves him well in one scene where he narrates Velvet working the horse around the ranch, to the point where I thought he was watching an actual horse in full gallop. Ron Karl, a veteran of stage and screen, plays Mr. Brown, and delivers his performance with that precision. Alexandra Smothers plays his wife, Mrs. Brown, with a Southern accent that constantly reminded me where the play was set, despite my need for them to do a straight adaptation. Wayne Baldwin as Mr. Cellini didn't get enough time on stage for my money, due to the demands of the part he portrayed. I wanted to see more from him. He does play a judge at the end of the play, as most of the rest of the cast doubles up in this capacity. Again, the stage is almost too small. Mary Huse, Natalie Piechowski, and Anthony Chavez don't get enough time on stage as the rest of the adopted Brown children, either. Sydney Hines sings a resounding version of Amazing Grace when the time comes. If you haven't already, I'm sure you'll see more of them on TV and in the movies in the future.

One may ask, why is there still a Grand National Event in England, when flying cars are the norm, and this small oversight wasn't addressed, however, I willingly suspended my disbelieve, and enjoyed the performance, which is excellent entertainment for the whole family. National Velvet, This Time She Flies! Plays this weekend @ 2 and 8 pm both days, with a possible extended run through June. Price, Free!!! You can't pass this up. The Improv Comedy Lab is located at 8162 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA.

Twitter Blog: Whoa, Feedback!

Twitter Blog: Whoa, Feedback!
For those of you that missed this.... Apparently, they need to re-engineer this function, so it works with the increased load. At least, that's how I read it....

Stay tuned....

#TwitterBlackout

Now, maybe it's because I don't have enough followers, or at least, those that care that Twitter will be down @ 2p PDT today, because, I couldn't get the above mentioned hashtag to trend. And in about 3 hours, it will be too late. Does everyone know that Twitter is going down for maintenance, or just me? I know the Twitter guys know. They're the ones that announced it. Of course, on my Twitter home page, which I rarely if ever visit because I use TweetDeck, it states that Twitter is going down tomorrow @ 2p. But if you click the link for status, you're directed to the Twitter blog that says, it's going down today. @ 2p. PDT. So, maybe I'm ahead of the curve, or I've missed the panic entirely. Maybe I need to contact the #hashtagmafia for help, I don't know.

What I do know, and as we have discussed previously, is that it's big.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Why I wish to #SaveChuck

Image via Wikipedia

Well, I already mentioned why in my last post, so, you can simply scroll down, however, it bears repeating. Or, maybe it bares repeating, who knows? Ok, I know I've done that joke in other places, therefore, here's what you need to know, that may or may not be new.

I'm going to boycott NBC if they choose not to pickup Chuck. I'm sure there's another network out there that would love to broadcast a show with this loyal fan support. I've already said everything else that I need to say already, so, no need to repeat.

But NBC to you, you have been warned.

#SaveChuck, or Save Chuck, for the Twitter Deprived

Image by Cara_VSAngel via Flickr

I won't ask again. At least, politely. For those of you that don't know, or maybe haven't heard, which is almost all of you judging from the ratings, Chuck has yet to be renewed by NBC. Why is this a painfully obvious mistake? Well, if you're not a TV watcher, then you can stop reading here, and get back to whatever social media platform you read this from, while I continue.

Ok, now that they've gone away, I can really get into the meat of the rant. Not to be confused with, the chicken breast sandwich I ate during the season finale, but I digress. Chuck is truly one of the few shows on TV right now that is truly family entertainment. It's one of my kids' favorite shows. For those that don't know, I have a son 12, and a daughter 14. Their names are not important at this point, and they may have appeared elsewhere.

What is important, and what NBC seems to have overlooked, is that of all their programming this season, we as a family weren't really watching much beyond Chuck, and Heroes. And with their dubious decision to play Jay Leno every night @ 10pm in the fall, we'll be watching them even less. I heard at one point that NBC is/was in 4th place, and as far as I know, they may still be there. Canceling this show, may result in them staying there awhile longer. NBC has alternatives when it comes to this show, and they don't have to leave it in its currently daunting time slot when they bring it back next season.

Alternatively, NBC Universal, which owns the USA Network, and the SciFi Channel as well, has other places they can show a 3rd season of Chuck. I'd prefer it stay on NBC, however, these would be acceptable alternatives to outright cancellation.

Now, for the mercenary portion of this post. While not the main reason I'm doing this, there is a contest going on, and this is hopefully two of my five entries, if I use the above banner. I don't expect to win the contest, it's simply given me the opportunity to talk about one of the last few things on TV that is truly a joy to watch. Appointment TV is the current term, I believe. I'd hate to have to cancel my appointment.

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• 'Save Chuck' latest in efforts to rescue shows (cnn.com)

Mega Red Packet - The Real Deal Or Just Plain Hype?

I've just signed up for the Video Lounge access at Mega Red Packet and before I forget, I am writing in to tell you this.

Vince Tan, Edmund Loh and Stephen Luc are teaming up to release the Mega Red Packet on 4th May 2009. In case you've not heard of these dynamic trio here's a quick background on them...

Vince Tan is a World Internet Summit speaker and the same man who pulled off the Biggest Firesale event in Year 2008 which broke the 6 figure record in just 3 days and then brought in $170,000 in only 10 days.

If you use Private Label Rights products often for your Internet Business then I suppose Edmund Loh doesn't need an introduction; he's the person behind more than 260 Private Label Rights titles under the PLRGold brand. Just late last year, he teamed up with expert video maker Stephen Luc to pull off a product launch called PLRGold: Videos and raked in $100,000 in 10 days too. Collectively, the dynamic trio has made more than a million dollars in sales.

So what is Mega Red Packet all about? (since it's 3 months after the Chinese New Year)

When I first visited the Mega Red Packet website, it branded itself as a "Recession Show Stopper". I didn't think much of it initially since a lot of Internet Marketing opportunist won't let go any chance to cash in on the latest trend. But I take back what I said when I saw the Video Lounge area.

Vince, Edmund and Stephen have produced and positioned Mega Red Packet to turn the tide for many people who are not only struggling in their pursuit of building an online business but also people who are affected by the current recession period.

Mega Red Packet is focused on this core of success: product + traffic = residual income. This is the closest definition to push button marketing where all the work has been done for Internet Marketers of all levels - whether you are new or seasoned. The Mega Red Packet team has invested nearly $100,000 and 6 months in conceiving this push button program and infrastructure, which gives the user a variety of products to get reseller and Franchise rights to new, original products and sell.

Mega Red Packet is NOT about potential. It's about empowering the Internet newbie to have his string of proven businesses in the form of Reseller Memberships for you to take full control of, and Franchise rights to proven Internet Businesses so that they can be put into the shoes of these 3 top Internet Marketers. The new Internet Marketer can now leverage off the credibility and proven model that the dynamic trio have discovered over the collective 11 years of marketing experience.

Traffic generation is another topic of great interest to some, and a great struggle to many others. The Mega Red Packet collection solves this more efficient and effectively than anyone, myself included, can ask for.

Vince, Edmund and Stephen are also taking this chance to launch their newest home study course named "Traffic Leopard" - aptly called 'the next generation of traffic building' that features a series of proven tactics to drive in traffic to your website, accompanied by a rich archive of case studies as used and experimented relentlessly by all of the 3 top Internet Marketers.

There's also the Traffic Networks where Vince and Edmund have negiotiated with some of the top traffic building site owners to give generous credits to members of Mega Red Packet.

All in all, there's more goodies in store in Mega Red Packet that I believe every Internet Marketer must look forward to. It's ground breaking and non-conventional, not something you know so well of. Literally, all the work is done and I haven't even talked about the new Private Label Rights products and software they are releasing in the Mega Red Packet event, that lets you do instant One Time Offers, Upsells and even Cross-Sells.

You can take my review with a pinch of salt but I strongly urge you to check out the site now and sign up for the free access to the Video Lounge (worth $297) and get onto their Advanced Notification List. (by the way speaking of that, they are also going to pick randomly 3 different names from the list to give free copies of Mega Red Packet on their launch day - you could be one of them!)

Click on this link and sign up for the Video Lounge and Advanced Notification List access for free now before the big event kick starts on 4th May 2009:

=> http://megaredpacket.com/?aff_id=8904