Now's your chance to play programmer. Downtown's refurbished Fox Performing Arts Center, a venue revitalized by $32 million in public funding, belongs to the community. So how about having a go at selecting the talent?
Who would you book for The Fox?
Tell us by posting your comment here.
Wire reports
Dorito's made the big crunch in a measurement of interest in the commercials played during Sunday's Super Bowl.
TiVo Inc. said the snack company's ad featuring a boy telling a man to keep his hands off his chips and his mom was stopped and played back in 15 percent of homes with the digital video recorder.
The secretly filmed CBS promo with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey came in second, followed by the Snicker's ad with Betty White and Abe Vigoda flattened in a football game.
American Airlines has added another revenue generator to its arsenal. Now instead of an ample supply of free-to-use blankets and paper-like pillows (or for the traveler that errs on the side of hypochondria -- a petri dish of human germs), the airline will begin charging passengers $8 for a blanket-pillow set that they can take with them once their flight lands.
According to other media reports, the set includes a $10 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond as well.
Other airlines that now charge for pillows and blankets include:
US Airways $7 "Power-Nap Sack" includes a blanket, neck pillow, eye shades and ear plugs.
JetBlue's $7 pillow/blanket combo.
-- Kimberly Pierceall
kpierceall@PE.com
People who want to camp at Lake Skinner Recreation Area during the Temecula Balloon & Wine Festival can make their reservations beginning March 9, according to a press release from the festival.
The event takes place June 4-6.
Prices range from $80 to $200 for full hookup with power, water and sewer dump. The prices do not include tickets to the event.
Event tickets cost $20 for a day pass to $72 for a day pass with food and wine pairings. Three-day passes cost $50.
Reservations will only be taken online at the festival's Web site, http://www.tvbwf.com, according to the press release.
The Riverside County Park District's Web site, http://www.riversidecountyparks.org/, has a notice up that it will not be taking reservations for the event.
For more information about the event, visit the Web site or call 951-676-6713.
Fielding Buck, fbuck@PE.com
The fifth annual Tournées Festival: New French Film, hosted by the University of California, Riverside, starts Feb. 11.
The festival, presented by UCR's French Program and the Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages, will feature screenings of five films in 35mm with English subtitles at the University Village UltraStar Cinemas. The festival wraps up Feb. 25.
The event's theme is "Liberté, Identité, Modernité!" and plays on the ideals of the French Revolution, which recently celebrated its 220th anniversary, according to a festival advisor.
The University Village UltraStar Cinemas are located at 1201 University Avenue in Riverside. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; screening begins at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors with ID.
The following films will be screened at the festival:
Feb. 11 - "The Class" ("Entre les murs") - The winner of the 2008 Palme d'Or at Cannes, this unsparing, unsentimental film, directed by Laurent Cantet, is about a teacher attempting to teach the French language to his multi-ethnic students, many of whom hail from former colonized countries. In an unusual example of art imitating life, the film was based on the best-selling book by real-life teacher François Bégaudeau and is a hybrid documentary-and-narrative work.
Feb. 17 - "Love Songs" ("Les chansons d'amour") - This modern musical set in present-day Paris is sensual and minimalist. Ismaël and his live-in girlfriend, Julie, open their relationship to include Ismaël's coworker Alice. Then tragedy strikes and Ismaël's life is upended.
Feb. 18 - "I've Loved You So Long" ("Il y a longtemps que je t'aime")
- Featuring a beautiful and subtle performance by Franco-British actress Kristin Scott Thomas, this film is about a woman re-acclimating to life outside of prison. Scott Thomas plays Juliette Fontaine, who is taken in by her younger sister, literature professor Léa. Tension increases as the reasons for Juliette's absence are revealed.
Feb. 24 - "The Beaches of Agnes" ("Les plages d'Agnes") - On the eve of her 80th birthday, Agnès Varda, often referred to as "the godmother of the French New Wave," decided to make the autobiographical "The Beaches of Agnes," guiding us through her extraordinary 55-year career and poignantly reminiscing about her husband, the filmmaker Jacques Demy (best known for "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), who died of AIDS in 1990 -- information that Varda makes public here for the first time.
Feb. 25 - "The Secret of the Grain" ("La graine et le mulet") - The Best Film winner at Cannes, this drama takes place in the southern French city of Sète, where the patriarch of a large and vivacious North African family is an elderly dockworker. When his job of many years is suddenly no longer secure, he decides to restore an old boat in the harbor and turn it into a floating couscous restaurant. It's a wildly ambitious project, and the increasingly ailing Slimane will need the help of all of his family members to pull it off.
Many felt this year's commercials during the Super Bowl failed to rise to the level they have in previous years. Some were met with a chorus of groans, others elicited a nervous laugh. Some watching thought there was an excessive amount of hitting and slapping and/or other inappropriate behavior, but all agreed this year's commercials seemed to follow a theme - there was a definite attack on manhood.
Which one got the best reaction around your television? Which one did you like the best? Share your thoughts. Click here to take the poll.
Participating restaurants will repeat Denny's Free Original Grand Slam day 6 a.m.-2 p.m. on Tuesday.
The restaurant chain promoted the promotion with Super Bowl commercials that depict Tuesday as being a rough day for hens that lay eggs.
To find out more about the Denny's deal, visit this Web site.
Fielding Buck, fbuck@PE.com
Rosa Maria's serves up hundreds of its locally famous garbage burritos every day at its four locations throughout the Inland Empire.
Click here to see Inlandsocal's video about the garbage burrito.
Restaurant owners estimate one in every three orders include the one-pound burrito. If you're feeling extra hungry you can order the XL garbage burrito which weighs a whopping two pounds.
Calling all garbage burrito fans - tell us why you order it!
Oscars, shmoscars. This weekend was all about the best and brightest in Hollywood animation.
-- Courtesy E! Online
At Saturday's 37th Annual Annie Awards, Pixar's Up, the little gem that's also in the running for top honors at this year's Academy Awards, was named Best Animated Film and Best Directing in a Feature. The Oscar contender stole the prize from the likes of Coraline, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret of Kells.
Elsewhere in the animated realm, Walt Disney Studios knocked out a majority of its competition, taking home a total of six Annies, including three for the hand-drawn critical favorite The Princess and the Frog, while DreamWorks Animation garnered five Annies for their numerous made-for-TV productions.
Here's a rundown of the winners:
Animated Feature: Up
Home Entertainment Production: Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder
Animated Short: Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5
Animated TV Commercial: Spanish Lottery "Deportees"
Animated TV Production: Prep and Landing
Animated TV Production for Children: The Penguins of Madagascar
Animated Effects: James Mansfield, The Princess and the Frog
Character Animation in TV Production: Phillip To, Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space
Character Animation in Feature: Eric Goldberg, The Princess and the Frog
Character Design in TV Production: Bill Schwab, Prep and Landing
Character Design in Feature: Shane Prigmore, Coraline
Directing in TV Production: Bret Haaland, The Penguins of Madagascar "Launchtime"
Directing in Feature: Pete Docter, Up
Music in TV Production: Guy Moon, The Fairly OddParents: "Wishology-The Big Beginning"
Music in Feature: Bruno Coulais, Coraline
Production Design in TV Production: Andy Harkness, Prep and Landing
Production Design in Feature: Tadahiro Uesugi, Coraline
Storyboarding in TV: Robert Koo, Merry Madagascar
Storyboarding in Feature: Tom Owens, Monsters vs. Aliens
Voiceacting in TV: Tom Kenny as SpongeBob, SpongeBob SquarePants
Voiceacting in Feature: Jen Cody as Charlotte, The Princess and the Frog
Writing in TV Production: Daniel Chun, The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XX
Writing in Feature: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Winsor McCay Award: Tim Burton, Bruce Timm, Jeffrey Katzenberg
June Foray: Tom Sito
Ub Iwerks Award: William T. Reeves
Special Achievement: Martin Meunier and Brian McLean
Certificate of Merit: Myles Mikulic, Danny Young and Michael Woodside
Actor Gary Coleman (Diff'rent Strokes) is 42. ABC News anchor Ted Koppel is 70. Actor Nick Nolte is 69. Comedian Robert Klein is 68. Actor/producer Nick Nolte (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tropic Thunder) is 69. Actor-guitarist Creed Batton (The Office, The Grass Roots) is 67. Actress Brooke Adams is 61. Actress Mary Steenburgen is 57. Author John Grisham is 55. Singer Vince Neil of Motley Crue is 49. Singer-guitarist Sammy Llanas of The BoDeans is 49. Actress Mary McCormack is 41. Guitarist Keith Nelson of Buckcherry is 41. Actor Seth Green is 36. Bassist Phoenix of Linkin Park is 33. Bassist Jeremy Davis of Paramore is 25. Drummer Max Grahn of Carolina Liar is 22. Actress Karle Warren (Judging Amy) is 18.
Courtesy IMDB.com
Riverside resident Eric Harnden led the second meeting of the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire group Wednesday. Membership continues to increase and group leaders are hoping to continue to get the word out about filmmaking in the region.
Inlandsocal was at the group's February meeting, click here to see the video.
-- Article by Eric Harnden, President of the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire
Wednesday's meeting of the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire was a real treat and the response was an exciting surprise. There were approximately forty people in attendance, a huge jump from the eight that came to the first meeting.
Since the group is new, the reasons for these first meetings were to 1) establish the group, 2) introduce filmmaking enthusiasts to one another and 3) start to organize the group and structure of the meetings. I've found with related past activities, like when I ran a 48 hour film project team, that it takes a number of meetings before things find their groove.
Because one of the main purposes of the group is to help filmmakers, we surveyed the group to see what they expected from coming to these meetings, how they would like the meetings to run and what they wanted to see at future meetings.
Having gone to numerous successful film related and other types of enthusiast group meetings, I am patterning the basic structure of the "IFIE" meetings after those. Taking from the desires of the group, we will be holding a structured format agenda with announcements, education, presentations, show and tells, networking time and raffles.
Filmmaking is a dynamic process and I fully expect these meetings to have a dynamic life to them but one thing's for certain, there are a lot of independent filmmakers and related crew, talent and artists here in the Inland Empire and we are here to help them do what they what to do, create films.
Because of the overwhelming response and anticipated growth of the group, we are looking for a bigger venue in which to hold our monthly meetings.
To find out about more about the group or when and where the next meetings will take place, please click here.
Love chocolate and tea?
Kaleo Indigo, a licensed massage therapist, soul memory discovery facilitator and holistic healthcare practitioner will host an event Feb. 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Palm Springs, to introduce his new tea "cha-colat."
Attendees will enjoy a variety of hot teas in a variety of tea pots and cups and bring home a gift basket of teas. The event will be held at the Palm Greens Restaurant at 611 S. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.
For information or RSVP for this event, email Kimberly Nichols.
