Two charities close to my heart are the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. This disease is usually diagnosed at a very young age, 2 years and up. CF is a defective gene that causes the body to produce a thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs which leads to life-threatening lung infections. This mucus also prevents the body to break down and absorb food.

Forty years ago this terrible disease took the lives of children before they were old enough to start school. However, today with the help of advances in research, medical treatments and donations the survival age for a person with CF is more than 37 years. Sadly, CF is still a fatal disease. These two foundations accept donations to continue the effort in finding a cure for this horrible disease.

Just doing my part for TV.

We boarded the plane and found our window & isle seats in the 6^th row. Our seats look huge compared to the seats we usually sit in. I particularly enjoy the large armrest between our seats. Awaiting us are two sets of ear plugs for the movie, two bottles of water and blankets neatly folded in specially designed pockets attached to seats in front of us.

Once in the air we are offered complementary beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Since it is New Year’s eve, Deutsch starts of with a glass of Champagne. Since I am unfortunately feeling a little under the weather, my choice of bubbly is ginger ale. Due to the stealth of our flight attendants, each of our glasses always seems to be full. Now the good stuff starts. We are each offered a small bowl of warm mixed salted nuts. I’m afraid that I was so distracted by my warm nuts that I forgot to whip out my camera to document the beginning of the food. The attendants continue to refill the beverages and nuts until dinner. Oh yes, I said dinner. I never knew that in these days of airline cut backs, they are still feeding the lucky bastards seated in the first six rows.

At first when I heard they were serving dinner I was a little worried. Since the upgrade was only issued late yesterday, I was sure that they would not have had time to get us our vegetarian meals in order. My First Class meal opportunity may be missed! However, once I perused the menu (the MENU?!?), my worries were laid to rest. I did remember to take pictures from here on out. Some photos may be a little dark. I avoided using the flash for fear that my fellow First Class companions would mock me…. a lot. I also didn’t want to give anyone a heart attack with a bright flash on an airplane. I figured better to have dark pictures than an undercover airline Marshall jump me. Handcuffs may have ruined the rest of my First Class experience.

Mojito Shrimp served with Somen Noodles and a Combination Salad featuring fresh seasonal Greens and Chili-cucumber with a Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing and a whole wheat roll.

Eggplant Ravioli Pasta filled with a rich Eggplant Puree, topped with Bechamel Sauce and a light Marinara Sauce.

The Ravioli was delicious.

For dessert I had the Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae with my choice of hot fudge and pecans to top it off. Yum!

Now for the movie portion of the flight. I was happy to find out that they were playing The Illusionist, one that I had recently missed in the theaters. It stars Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell. I was thrilled to get in one more movie to add to my 2006 list. It was an enjoyable movie, but predictable.

After the movie we were offered freshly baked Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. To accompany the cookies we were given a choice of milk, chocolate milk and/or sparkling water with lemon. I chose the later.

As we make our decent we are treated with good-bye Ghiradadelli chocolates. Dark chocolate with white mint filling, what more could one ask for? I saved mine for later that night after I had chilled it in the fridge.

That concludes my First Class experience. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please keep your fingers crossed for future upgrades. For an interesting flight food read, check out Airlinemeals.net.

It is 2007! Happy New Year! I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for you and your loved ones.

]]> http://www.bloggingcrap.com/2007/01/flying-american-airlinesfirst-class/feed/ 1 http://www.bloggingcrap.com/2007/01/2006-summary-of-all-the-crap-i-didnt-blog-about-part-two-concerts-movies/ http://www.bloggingcrap.com/2007/01/2006-summary-of-all-the-crap-i-didnt-blog-about-part-two-concerts-movies/#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:36:00 +0000 michele http://www.bloggingcrap.com/2007/01/2006-summary-of-all-the-crap-i-didnt-blog-about-part-two-concerts-movies/ Concerts

This was a good year for concerts. The past couple of years I just slacked with music. I made a goal for myself this year to get back into the music scene. Here is a list of the concerts and venues I went to .

Sisters of Mercy – House of Blues in Annaheim
Coachella Festival – Empire Polo Field in Indio, CA (see picture of line-up below)
Ministry & Revolting Cocks – House of Blues in Annaheim
Artic Monkeys & We Are Scientists – Wiltern
She Wants Revenge – Wiltern
Yes, I Killed Him – Lava Lounge
Nouvelle Vague – The Fonda Theatre
Massive Attack – The Hollywood Bowl
Beck – Element
Sonic Youth – Wiltern
Cake – Wiltern (Almost, I was had to miss this concert due to a cold)

Movies

This year I have seen 41 movies. It may be difficult to believe, but this has been a slow movie going year for me. Early 2007 I will have to cram in all of the Golden Globe and Oscar nominated movies. Good times! Here is a list of the movies I have seen. The * symbolizes the movies I particularly enjoyed.

King Kong*
Casanova
Match Point*
The Producers
The Matador*
Munich*
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story*
Underworld: Evolution
Failure to Launch
V for Vendetta
Thank You For Smoking*
Poseidon
Da Vinci Code
Brick*
An Inconvenient Truth*
The Break-Up*
X-Men: The Last Stand
Lake House*
Click
Superman Returns
The Filth and the Fury
Pirates of the Caribbean II*
A Scanner Darkly*
The Devil Wears Prada
Clerks II * (Q & A with Kevin Smith afterwards)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Little Miss Sunshine*
Scoop
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby*
Crank
Idiocracy*
The Last Kiss
Hollywoodland
Fearless*
Little Children*
The Departed*
The Queen*
Casino Royale
Stranger Than Fiction*
The Holiday*
The Illusionist*

Look for Part Three of my 2006 summary in a
couple of days.

An evening of culture would not be complete without dinner before the show. Since the theatre was in Westwood, an area we are not familiar with, we ventured to a new restaurant. Deutsch performed his usual restaurant search through the internet and found us an Italian place, Tanino. It was nice, a little stuffy, but nice. We shared a half bottle of a red wine blend. To our defense, we only had a half bottle because it’s never a good idea to consume a lot of alcohol right before a sit-down performance. I learned that the hard way when we saw “The Producers” (on Broadway no less) and almost fell asleep during the first act. Anyway, I digress. Both Deutsch & I had the bland pumpkin tortellini in a sage cream sauce. It sure sounded good, but was a let down. To make up for our disappointment, we indulged in flour-less chocolate cake. It was an improvement, but nothing to shout from the mountain tops. I think we will continue our Westwood restaurant search.

We went to the Geffen Playhouse and saw “Boston Marriage”, written and directed by the great David Mamet. With only a cast of three women, it is an interesting ensemble of Rebecca Pidgeon, Mary Steenburgen and Alicia Silverstone. This Victorian period comedy took place in only one setting, a drawing room. In the usual Mamet way, the dialogue went at a furious rhythmic pace. Between the accents, cryptic dialogue and quick pace, it was easy to miss something. Which I’m sure I did, more than once. On the heels of Brokeback Mountain, this play deals with unconventional relationships in an unforgiving time. All three performances were enjoyable, but Alicia Silverstone was the stand out of the women. I must admit, I was not expecting much from her theatrical abilities. However, Alicia was a pleasant surprise. She had great comic timing. She may have had the smallest role and the shortest stage time, but she took her character and ran with it.

It was definitely an enjoyable evening, especially for a Monday night. We even had celeb spottings at the play: director Kevin Smith and actor Dennis Haysbert. We are even thinking about seeing the production “1984″ this week. Hey, this culture thing is kinda fun.

Congratulations to Brokeback Mountain, Crash & Jon Stewart. Brokeback Mountain was the expected winner for most of the categories it was up for. However, it was a happy moment when Crash was the surprise winner for Best Picture. Both Brokeback and Crash were my favourite* movies of the year. Even though Jon Stewart had mixed reviews, I thought he was great. I hope he is invited back next year. Kudos to the show for trying to inject more humour* throughout the evening. That is a keeper. However, what was up with ALL the film montages? They can definitely lose those.

As for the fashions, I was very underwhelmed. Nothing stood out except Charlize and her parrot, oops, I mean bow. Everyone looked very nice and safe (= boring). If you missed the fashions, check out In Style, E! Online and the Oscar website.

By the way, the Oscar picture above is me holding the real thing, an actual Oscar. Let me tell you, those suckers are heavy! I never thought I would ever get my hands one. Oh yes, I have my ways!

*Favourite & Humour – Alexa, that was just for you (sorry y’all, it’s an inside joke).

My wonderful husband, Deutsch, made me a very special Valentine/Oscar dinner. The reason why it was also an Oscar dinner is due to our annual Oscar Challenge. The Challenge is simple. Before the Academy Awards, we both vote for a winner in each category. At the end of the show, we tally up the numbers and the person with the most predicted wins is the “Dinner Guest”. The person who has the least predicted wins is the “Host/Chef”. The Host is required to serve a several course meal with two rules: 1) Make dinner from scratch; 2) Prepare something that he/she has never attempted before. Unfortunately for Deutsch, he has been the Host more times than the Guest.

This year he out did himself with a fantastic African meal. The menu consisted of three courses. For the appetizer, he started with West African Peanut Soup.

It was so rich and flavourful. A perfect soup for a cold winter night. A meal on it’s own with a smooth blend of peanut butter, tomatoes and rice. He garnished it with some roasted peanuts, that gave it an additional texture. It’s a definite keeper.

For the entree, he prepared a terrific Marrakesh Vegetable Curry served on a bed of couscous.

This dish had so many wonderful vegetables: sweet potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, spinach, zucchini and carrots. It was definitely colorful. It even had some odd (but great) ingredients like cinnamon, raisins and orange juice. He was worried about the success of this dish, but he shouldn’t have been. It was delicious!

His final dish was dessert, Eastern Africa’s Kashata.

It is described as something in between candy and cookie. I found it to be more similar to candy. In fact, I thought was very much like peanut brittle. It is a mixture of sugar, coconut, peanuts and cinnamon. Deutsch was most concerned with this dish, fearing that the final product was a total disaster. Obviously, he did not try it before he made his assumption. It was fantastic. A great little snack to tame that wild beast known as the Sweet Tooth Monster.

The final note is to my Valentine. Thank you for your wonderful gift. I am aware that you were fulfilling your Oscar Challenge duties, but I also know that all your love went into your meal for me. I am a very lucky girl. I love you. My only wish is that on March 5th (Oscar night), I am victorious once again. The challenge is on, baby!

Congratulations to She Wants Revenge on their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. As much as I want success for them, I must admit that I will be a little sad to see them make it big. Of course, my reasons for this are completely selfish. I enjoy seeing them perform in small, intimate venues. With their CD release and TV appearances, I’m sure they are going to be more difficult to see live and their venues will only be getting larger. All my selfishness aside, I wish them best of luck and hope that their CD soars to the top of the charts. My little band is growing up.

Should any of you want to sample their sound before their CD is released, check out their MySpace page. You can also view a couple of their videos on the She Wants Revenge website. To our Toronto friends, they will be playing Lee’s Palace on February 9th. Go check them out.

Best Dressed Females

1) Sandra Oh – She looked so beautiful. She didn’t pick a cookie cutter dress. She took a chance on something different and it paid off for her.

2) Keira Knightley – Beautiful and elegant as always.

3) Three way tie between Sarah Jessica Parker, Maria Bello & Renee Zellweger – Sarah looked perfect as usual, with the exception of the hair. I’m surprised she isn’t wearing a neck brace this week; Maria was also wearing something different. Just beautiful; Renee was graceful as always, but she looked so sad.

Looking at my top 3 list, I can see that my favorite color for the evening was white. Hey, no one is more surprised than moi.

Worst Dressed Females

1) Mariah Carey – Why is it that everything she wears looks whorish? It’s beautiful dress. Try to imagine it on, say, Julia Roberts. Beautiful. But on Mariah…

2) Alanis Morissette – Where do I start? The dress didn’t fit! Alanis honey, fire your stylist or if you don’t have one, get one. Tell Ryan Reynolds that he needs to tell you the truth before you walk out the door. Now, for the hair. All I have to say is in your case, brunettes would have more fun. Natural works for you.

3) Three way tie between Pamela Anderson, Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) & Penelope Cruz – Pam, you paid for those DDD’s, why not flaunt them?; Ellen’s dress looked like a table cloth. A very, very nice tablecloth, but in the end it’s still something people eat off of; Penelope looked like she was hiding her hair stylist under all that hair. Her dress was a miss as well. The good news is that it looked like she put a little meat on her bones.

I find it sad that two of my worst dressed are Canucks. Come on girls, you are setting a bad example. Thank goodness Sandra Oh saved the day. All in all, I have to say it is getting increasingly difficult making the worst dressed list. The gals have been so scared shitless by the media, Joan Rivers and people like me, that they are dressing safe. Well, safe is just no fun!

Best Dressed Males

1) Adrien Brody – He has a sense of style. He looks different and doesn’t care what the critics have to say. That’s plain old sexy!

2) Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow and Crash) – He just looked so handsome.

3) George Clooney – He always looks good. It’s probably all that confidence.

I feel sorry for the men at these awards. They really only have a choice between suits and tuxedos. Yes, women really can only wear dresses, but they have choices with color, cut, length and material. Even if a women wears pants, it’s no big deal. However, if a man showed up in a skirt, a mauve tux, or a sequined tie, oh boy, he wouldn’t hear the end of it. You’re off the hook guys, I do not have a Worst Dressed list for you.

Final Comments

To Gweneth Paltrow & Rachel Weisz and the rest of the pregnant women at the GG’s, you looked beautiful. It can’t be easy trying for find a dress that makes you look regal, elegant and glamorous when you are dressing for two. Hats off to ya.

A fashion oops: Rumor has it that the vintage Chanel dress that Reese Witherspoon wore had been draped on Kirsten Dunst at a Golden Globe party three years prior. Oops!

To see the fashions for yourself, check out People magazine’s Best & Worst Dressed; People’s Best & Worst Hair and In Style’s Fashion Slideshow.

As for the television side of the awards, no one show dominated the stage. I must say I was elated when Canadian girl, Sandra Oh won for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Grey’s Anatomy. I wanted her to win for three reasons: 1) She’s talented and deserves to be recognized; 2) As I mentioned earlier, she’s a Canuck; 3) I wanted to see her dress. Ok, at least 1 out of the 3 reasons is legit enough for wanting a person to win an award.

For a complete list of the Golden Globe winners, check out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s website.