"California! California! California!"

Name that movie! Imagine a kid with a red lunch box in the back seat of a car....

Anyway, I went to California and tried out for the show. It was lots of fun; I really recommend it. I also recommend staying in the Radisson and sleeping on Sleep Number beds. I do not, however, recommend eating breakfast at the hotel. Unless you like paying $11 for yogurt and granola. (I had Mountain Dew from the vending machine. Breakfast of Champions.)

The Sleep Number beds were nice, though. That Lindsay Wagner knows what she's talking about. At first it was fun just to play with the bed, going from firm to soft and back. But then, when I went to bed . . . aaaaahhhhhhh! I had a stiff back when I got to California, but the next morning it was gone. I am very glad I decided to fly down there early rather than the morning of the auditions.

The auditions were in the Radisson, in your standard hotel conference room. There were 20 of us in my batch of applicants - attorneys, college professors, electrical engineers, me . . . They took our pictures (a bit dicey for me, considering the testy relationship between my hair and humidity in general) and had us fill out some pretty standard forms.

Next up came the written test. I'm not really going to discuss that here (since I can't) other than to say that it was much less stressful than the online test. Really, the online test was the most stressful part of the whole process. After the written test we all got a chance to play the game with the real game clicker thingies, and they chit-chatted with us a little. Then it was all done and time to go home!

Unfortunately, my flight wasn't for several more hours and I hadn't packed a book to read by the pool. So, after lunch at the hotel (a little more reasonable than breakfast) I decided to just take the free shuttle back to the airport, where I could buy a cheap paperback and people-watch until it was time to go home. I read a book all about the MIT blackjack team (finishing it just before my flight took off) and here I am home again.

I'm cautiously optimistic, so look for me on TV in the next year or two.

great big movie list meme

Or in other words, Elliott's to-do list of movies to have me watch.


The list looks like it’s IMDB’s Top 250.

The rules are simple:
Bold movies you have watched and liked.
Turn red movies you have watched and loved.
Italicize movies you saw and didn’t like.
Leave as is movies you haven’t seen.

• The Godfather (1972)


• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)


• The Godfather: Part II (1974)


• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)


• Pulp Fiction (1994)


• Schindler’s List (1993)


• Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)


• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
• Casablanca (1942)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Star Wars (1977)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Rear Window (1954)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• City of God (2002)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• Psycho (1960)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Memento (2000)
• Sunset Blvd. (1950)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
• The Matrix (1999)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Se7en (1995)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• American Beauty (1999)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Amélie (2001)
• The Departed (2006)
• Paths of Glory (1957)
• American History X (1998)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Third Man (1949)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• Alien (1979)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Shining (1980)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Leben der Anderen, Das [The Lives of Others] (2006)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• Boot, Das (1981)
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Forrest Gump (1994)
• Metropolis (1927)
• Aliens (1986)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• Rashômon (1950)
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Hotel Rwanda (2004)
• Sin City (2005)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Modern Times (1936)
• Some Like It Hot (1959)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• The Great Escape (1963)
• Amadeus (1984)
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• Touch of Evil (1958)
• The Elephant Man (1980)
• The Prestige (2006)
• Vita è bella, La [Life Is Beautiful] (1997)
• Jaws (1975)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• The Sting (1973)
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Full Metal Jacket (1987)
• The Apartment (1960)
• City Lights (1931)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Cinema Paradiso (1988)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• The Big Sleep (1946)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Notorious (1946)
• Salaire de la peur, Le [The Wages of Fear](1953)
• High Noon (1952)
• Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
• Fargo (1996)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Ran (1985)
• Oldboy (2003)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
• Gladiator (2000)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Diaboliques, Les [The Devils] (1955)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• It Happened One Night (1934)
• The Deer Hunter (1978)
• Life of Brian (1979)
• Die Hard (1988)
• The General (1927)
• American Gangster (2007)
• Platoon (1986)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Graduate (1967)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Crash (2004/I)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Heat (1995)
• Gandhi (1982)
• Harvey (1950)
• The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• The African Queen (1951)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
• Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• The Conversation (1974)
• Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
• Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ] (2000)
• The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
• Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das [The Cabinet of Dr Caligari] (1920)
• The Thing (1982)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Sleuth (1972)
• Patton (1970)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Glory (1989)
• Out of the Past (1947)
• Twelve Monkeys (1995)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Spartacus (1960)
• The Terminator (1984)
• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
• The Hustler (1961)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Magnolia (1999)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• In Cold Blood (1967)
• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
• Dial M for Murder (1954)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• A Christmas Story (1983)
• Casino (1995)
• Manhattan (1979)
• Ying xiong [Hero] (2002)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
• Rope (1948)
• Cinderella Man (2005)
• The Searchers (1956)
• Finding Neverland (2004)
• Inherit the Wind (1960)
• His Girl Friday (1940)
• A Man for All Seasons (1966)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)