Celebrity Friday: Serena Returns To Tour With 6-0 6-0 Win

Serena Williams returned to the WTA Tour this week after her 4th round loss at Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli to defeat Anastasia Rodionova 6-0 6-0  (ouch) at the Bank of the West tournament in Palo Alto, CA. It was her first hard court match on U.S. soil since the 2009 U.S. Open semifinal where the defending champion was eliminated from the tournament by a point penalty on match point after verbally berating an official who inexplicably had called a foot fault on a second serve at 4-5, deuce.

Bartoli won this tournament by defeating Venus Williams last year, so we shall see if she has to go through another Williams sister to defend her title.

MOVIE REVIEW: Beginners

Eschewing the appeal of spending two hours in the dark watching the pulchritudinous Ryan Reynolds in form-fitting costumes in Green Lantern, the Other Half and I decided to see the art-house film Beginners at the Laemmle's Playhouse 7 instead.

 Beginners is a very small film which has been getting quite good buzz (an 82% rating on rottentomatoes.com). It has a pretty acomplished cast, including Ewan MacGregor (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) and Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music). Plummer plays Hal, who is the father of MacGregor's Oliver. After 44 years of marriage Hal, at 75 years old, tells his son that he is gay and no longer wants to be theoretically gay. When the movie begins Oliver is in mourning for Hal, who has died from liver cancer a few months before after having spent an unspecified amount of time dating Andy (Goran Visnijc from E.R.) and enjoying the "gay lifestyle" with a group of dozen or so senior gay men. This entails having a movie night (watching The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, dancing in clubs to loud house music, having fabulous dinner parties and various excusions around Los Angeles). Oliver meets Anna at the very first party he has been dragged out to by his friends since his dad's death and it happens to be a costume party. He goes as Sigmund Freud, complete with a wig and lots of tweed, while she appears to be a mime and allegedly has laryngitis and can only communicate through written notes on a pad. The first thing she writes is "Why are you so sad?" This is a very perceptive remark and marks the beginning of their relationship.

As an Angeleno, Beginners is a fun experience because it is shot all over the city and one can watch the movie trying to figure out exactly where they shot what. Besides the geographical hook, Beginners is anchored by a pretty affecting performance by Christopher Plummer, who is now over 80 years old and playing a younger man. Shockingly, Plummer has only been nominated for an Oscar once. I suspect he will be nominated and may even win for this role, depending on the competition, of course.

The best parts of the movie usually involve the presence of the Jack Russell dog Arthur, who actually gets subtitles detailing his thoughts about the actions of the humans around him. The plot is centered around three "love stories": Anna and Oliver, Hal and Andy and Hal and Oliver's mom.

The movie is quite affecting and well worth seeing.

Title: Beginners.
Director: Mike Mills.

Running Time: 1 hours, 44 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R for  language and some sexual content.

Release Date: June 3, 2010.

Viewing Date: June 18, 2011.

Plot: B-.

Acting: A-.

Visuals: A-.

Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: (3.5/4.0)

FOOD REVIEW: Blue Dog Beer Tavern (Sherman Oaks, CA)

Exterior of the Blue Dog Beer Tavern

Twice-fried french fries with a bacon cheese burger

Vertical view of bacon cheeseburger and fries

As I continue my exploration of the best burgers in Los Angeles I was dragged into the valley for a plant-related errand by the husband so we decided to check out Blue Dog Beer Tavern in Sherman Oaks. Blue Dog Beer Tavern was mentioned in the now seminal LA Weekly article 30 Burger n 30 Days.

I had the Blue Dog Burger (Grilled Mushrooms, Bacon and Caramelized Onions topped with Swiss Cheese and Root Beer Bourbon BBQ sauce; price: $12) with the House Fries. Both were absolutely excellent.

The burger was medium-rare, perfectly juicy and well-maintained with a large toothpick through each half. The fries were crunchy (probably twice-fried), with the skin-on and maintained their temperature well. They went well with the BBQ sauce (provided on the side) or the basic ketchup provided.

The Other Half had The Burger with Cheese, $10 which he also enjoyed. If you're ever in the Sherman Oaks area near where the 405 intersects with the 101 I strongly recommend you stop by and have a burger at the Blue Dog Beer Tavern.

Name: Blue Dog Beer Tavern.

Location: 4524 Saugus Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.

Contact: 818-990-2583.

Visit: May 30, 2011.

AMBIANCE: B+.

SERVICE: A-.

VALUE: A-. 

FOOD: A. 

OVERALL: A- (3.667/4.0). 

True Blood Season 4 Starts TONIGHT!

WIMBLEDON 2011: Venus, Rafa, Vera, Schiavone Win 1st Round

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Venus Williams  was the first on on Court 3 and finished her first round match 6-3 6-1 before the rain came and suspended all play on all the courts but Centre Court. Before that happened, Rafael Nadal 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon champion dismissed American Michael Russell 6-4 6-2 6-2.

With the roof down 2011 French Open finalist Francesca Schiavone was able to pull through a first-round win over Jelena Dokic 6-4 1-6 6-3. Last year's Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva won her first round match over talented American youngster Alison Riske 6-0 3-6 6-3.


All eyes are on tomorrow's repeat clash between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, who last year played the longest match of all time in the 1st round of Wimbledon, the most memorable match of the year.

Other first round winners were 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Stanislas Wawrinka. 

MOVIE REVIEW: Super 8

The Other Half and I saw J.J. Abrams' Super 8 last weekend. It was billed as his homage to the classic Steven Spielberg movies of the 1970s and 1980s such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. Interestingly, Spielberg is listed as the producer for this film.

The story is set in the 1970s and is centered around the lives of four young teenaged friends who live in Lillian, Ohio, a small. mid-Western town. The main protagonist of the film is Joe Lamb, a 13-year-old who lost his mother in an industrial accident and whose Dad is one of the deputy sheriffs of the town. His best friend is Charles who is trying to make a zombie movie with his Super 8 camera. While filming late at night the kids witness a horrific train derailment, which looks like it was caused intentionally by their biology  teacher. The military shows up to clean up the train wreck, which was apparently a military transport. The audience starts to see people around town disappear in strange circumstances, providing us brief glimpses of what could be some kind of alien creature.

The movie is very suspenseful, with some amazing set pieces (the train crash sequence is incredible) and there were moments when either myself or my husband literally screamed out loud in surprise. Abrams skillfully deploys the "children-in-danger" motif which occurs so often in Spielberg's films to great effect and combines it with a coming-of-age story. The later aspect of the plot was less interesting to me, and the resolution of the alien creature storyline is full of Death Star-sized plot holes but overall Super 8 is a very enjoyable theatrical experience.

Title: Super 8.
Running Time: 1 hours, 52 minutes.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use.
Release Date: June 10, 2010.
Viewing Date: June 12, 2011.

Plot: B-.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: B+/A- (3.4167/4.0).

WATCH: Final Trailer for Final Harry Potter Movie!

The movie is released July 15, 2011, in 3D and 2D. It looks amazing (much better than Part 1, which was a bit disappointing), I may actually re-read the book before seeing the movie since it's been 4 years since the book came out.

Queen's Club Final: Tsonga v Murray Postponed To Monday

Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will face each other on the Queen's Club Aegon Championships final on Monday due to inclement weather.

MOVIE REVIEW: X-Men: First Class

The Other Half and I succumbed to summer movie marketing and went and saw X-Men: First Class in its opening weekend, at a matinée screening at the L.A. Live Regal Theaters. We had previously seen the earlier X-Men movies directed by openly gay Bryan Singer and we were curious to see how Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn would re-boot the franchise. I'm not as big a "Gay Geek" as Wonder Man (who is?) but I do remember collecting the X-Men comics briefly in the mid-1980s.

Overall, I was impressed with X-Men: First Class. The highlights for me were Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Magneto and the decision to set the film in the 1960s during the Cuban missile crisis. Fassbender is very easy on the eyes, and he's a good actor to boot. By placing most of the action in 1962, the director was able to distinguish this X-Men from the others and most recent super-hero films. Instead of the super-intelligent computers and futuristic gadgets that clutter most summer blockbusters this movie features retro styling and very un-sophisticated electronics. The heart of the film is in relationships, the three most notable are between Fassbender's Magneto and James McAvoy's Charles Xavier, Xavier and Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and Magneto and Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw. Bacon makes an excellent villain, and it is a generally accepted principle that the strength of a superhero entertainment can be measured by how effective the main villain is portrayed. The ongoing metaphor of mutant powers and sexual orientation (i.e. both of these are traits that you discover when a teenager, you may not share the trait with parents and you can be ostracized from society for actualizing the trait) is an incisive hook for a gay viewer like myself.

There are problems with the movie, however. For example, who the heck are these mutants? The "first class" of mutants to be educated and trained by Professor X feature a few that I was familiar with (Mystique, Beast and Banshee) but many more that I had no clue about (Havok, Darwin, Emma Frost). Emma Frost was controversially (among fan boys) played by Jennifer Jones of Mad Men fame, and although she looks amazing, her performance is a bit wooden. But at least she has lines to deliver, which is more can be said for Dr. Shawn's sidekicks Azazel and Riptide who have awesome powers (teleportation and wind control) but puny agents, because they are literally speechless. I was somewhat disappointed with McAvoy's Xavier because I thought he (but I concede it may be due to the script) did not do as an effective job as Fassbender did of displaying his character's motivations. It is very, very clear why Magneto is suspicious of collective efforts and humanity, in particular. It is not very clear why Professor X is so sure that he can work within the system to allow humankind and mutantkind to live and work together towards a common future.

One negative outcome of setting the movie in the early 1960s is that issues of race and gender are generally downplayed, or worse crop up in ways which discomfit those of us familiar with the 21st century. (SPOILER ALERT) Of course the first mutant to die in the movie ends up being one of the few Black ones, and the other (multiracial) mutant ends up on the side of Magneto, the putative future villain in the X-verse. The gender issues are even more problematic, with most women in the movie being shown scantily clad, even when they are given impressive mutant powers (c.f. Emma Frost). There's a reason these films look like they are designed with the viewpoint of a straight (white) 13-year-old boy in mind,despite the audience being a whole lot more experienced and diverse than that.

It will be interesting to see if they are able to make a sequel to X-Men: First Class. There are many, many great stories set in the X-Men universe (Dark Phoenix, anyone?) and hopefully, Vaughn will bring his fresh eye, and Fassbender and McAvoy to future depictions of these stories.

Title: X-Men: First Class.
Running Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language.
Release Date: June 3, 2010.
Viewing Date: June 6, 2011.

Plot: B-.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: B+.

Overall Grade: B+ (3.333/4.0).

Tsonga Upsets Nadal On Grass At Queens

Fresh off winning his 6th French Open title on Sunday, Rafael Nadal went to London on Monday and played in the Queen's Club tournament which is a warm-up for Wimbledon which starts on June 20th. Like last year, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7(3) 6-4 6-1. Tsonga will play British qualifier James Ward while Andy Roddick will play Andy Murray in the other semifinal. So, presumably Tsonga will face Andy in the final. Tsonga has never done well at Wimbledon but perhaps this breakthrough could signal a change for the better.

Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon final over Tomas Berdych in straight sets 6-3 7-5 6-4, after Berdych eliminated 2009 champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.

CA-GOV: Brown Declares June LGBT Pride Month

PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Since its founding, our Nation has endeavored to fulfill the Constitution’s promises of liberty and equality. In the struggle for equal rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people, a historic turning point occurred on June 28, 1969, in New York City, with the onset of the Stonewall Riots. During these riots, LGBT citizens rose up and resisted police harassment that arose out of discriminatory criminal laws that have since been declared unconstitutional. In the four decades since, civil rights for LGBT people have grown substantially, and LGBT pride celebrations have taken place around the country every June to mark the beginning of the Stonewall Riots.

California has been a leader in advancing the civil rights of its LGBT citizens. And while further progress is needed, it is proper and important to recognize and celebrate the substantial and important gains that have been achieved.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 2011 as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 8th day of June 2011.

___________________________________

EDMUND G. BROWN JR.

Governor of California

Get Ready! Season 4 of True Blood 4 weeks away!

HBO's True Blood is one of the best things about Summer. Season 4 is starting in four weeks, on Sunday June 26th.

WATCH: Trailer for "X-MEN: First Class"

 

Hat/tip to TowleRoad