$5 Tuesdays: "The Grey"

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This week's $5 Tuesday movie is "The Grey", starring Liam Neeson.

I waited a few weeks to watch this movie because I was on the fence about whether it would be good or not.  I really like Liam Neeson because he plays a hardened bad ass so well, but I always joke that every suspenseful thriller movie he's in is just a different take on "Taken".  While "The Grey" was entertaining, I would explain it to friends as "Taken" in Alaska with Liam Neeson as the kidnapped person, nature as the kidnapper and giant wolves as the hunter.

$5 Tuesdays: "Safe House"

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Every Tuesday, I take a nice drive down the coast into Palos Verdes where every movie at the Regal Promenade 13 theater is $5.  Since I've had this relatively inexpensive weekly routine, I've realized that I watch a lot more movies than the average person, making it difficult to watch movies with friends because I've seen all of the ones that they want to see.  Well, I'm not going to cut down on the number of movies that I watch, but instead, I've decided to share my thoughts on each week's movie in a series I'd like to call "$5 Tuesdays".

This week's $5 Tuesday movie: Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds.

A Conversation With Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman via

I was talking with my father the other day and as a non-user of Facebook, he asked me what I primarily used Facebook for as he felt that following what your friends were eating and what they were doing to be so trivial that he deemed it unworthy for his time.  I told my dad that while I agreed that seeing a random plate of someone's food and the all too often I'm-posting-about-my-bad-day-to-get-sympathy post can get quite annoying, I primarily used Facebook as my source of news.

Thanks to Facebook and my in-the-know friend Tim, I was able to attend a curated conversation with my favorite actor, Gary Oldman.  The evening, which was presented by Film Independent, was hosted by KCRW's Elvis Mitchell; some of you may know him from his show "The Treatment" which features interviews with different artists from the entertainment industry.

House Watching In Manhattan Beach

"Sunset" by me, iPhone 4s

I've been taking advantage of the current non-winter in Los Angeles - at the time of writing, it's 72 degrees and sunny - by going to the beach whenever I can, even if only to enjoy a cup of coffee and the sunset.  I go to the beach quite a bit, as it's only a five minute drive, and I love to walk the bike path that follows the coast.  There's always a decent crowd of people on the bike path that are just walking, roller skating, cruising or sitting on the wall that separates the concrete from the sand.

While people watching has always been fun for me, my favorite pastime is looking at all of the multi-million dollar homes that line the beach and wondering what it would be like to live in one.  Allow me to share with you some of my favorite mansions that line the Manhattan Beach coast.

Graffiti For Gearheads

Found in Manhattan Beach, CA