Cleveland Rocks (Sometimes you can't buy tickets on your own)

The great news of the day is that I now have 4 (four) tickets to the U2 show in LA on April 6th. There is a great (and long) story about how I managed to get them, but now I'm getting tired so I'll make it short.

I woke up early to get in line at the Burbank Ticket Master, but I was way back in the line. After they finally did a drawing to determine the order I was all the way back at 15 or 16. To put things in perspective, usually only the first 5 or 10 people get tickets because shows like this sell out so fast. Today the first two U2 shows sold out in about 2 minutes, and extra shows they added went quickly too.

I was sitting in the middle of the line and trying to call the ticket master phone center at the same time. Of course I couldn't get through, so I just kept hitting redial and getting nowhere. Then the guy behind me in line said "hey, try this number. I just got through. It's in Cleveland so it isn't busy." Sure enough, I got in on that number just as they were opening ticket sales for a 4th concert. I managed to reserve three tickets on the spot, and my brother Steve later managed to get one more online.

Thanks goodness for Cleveland.

-chc

Air Supply: 80's Wuss Rock or Sensation of 2005?

The other day at dinner I had a conversation with some friends about that 80's rock sensation (if you can call them that, and I suggest you don't), Air Supply. At the moment none of us could remember "that one song they did." Tom finally came through with "All out of Love," which was the one everyone was thinking about. Don't ask me why we had this conversation...

Fast forward to today. I was browsing around the itunes music store and was surprised to find that Air Supply is still in action. They just released a new CD this month, in fact. By new, I mean the disk has all the same songs as the one they release last year, and the year before that. All of these albums, in turn, are compilations of their greatest hits from the 80's. Is it really necessary to put out a new collection in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005 when you haven't had a hit since 1984? I guess it doesn't hurt.

-chc

Where is the Hollywood in this blog anyway?

It struck me just now that I really don't write anything about "Life in Hollywood" anymore. I probably should have titled this blog "Life in Burbank" in the first place, but that just doesn't sound as good.

I don't write anything about work either because, well, I can't. I like my job too much, and blogging doesn't mix well with work when you have confidentiality agreements.

There are a few interesting things I can write about though--like the Premiere I'll be going to this weekend or the other random things I'm doing here and there. And believe me, there are always plenty of things going on. Some are noteworthy, some not, but you get to read about them either way...

-chc

What day is it again?

I had a moment today when I honestly thought it was Thursday. The same thing happened yesterday and I thought it was Wednesday. I guess it's just because these last few days have been packed full of "stuff." I've also been dreaming about work, which means that in my mind I almost have worked a whole week. The worst part was that I finished all of my big projects in my dream. Then I woke up to learn that I hadn't even started yet.

-chc

A Busy Sunday

It looks like it'll be another busy day. It seems like it is only on the weekends that I finally get the chance to catch up on all the random things I need to do. I made a list yesterday (actually four lists) of all the stuff that needs to get done. There's nothing too exciting--mostly just things to do/clean around the apartment and people I need to call back. I also need to figure out I'm teaching tonight at Confirmation class.

The truth is that probably half of the things on my list will get pushed to next weekend. I guess that means they were never that important in the first place. Perhaps I should get one of those Franklin Planner Systems (TM)...

-CHC

Sleep Wins--Again

I was supposed to wake up at 6:45 today. I don't know what I was thinking when I first agreed to that, but I obviously wasn't thinking clearly. Saturday is my sleep-in day, and I don't let too many things interrupt that.

I guess it isn't surprising that when my alarm sounded I hit the off button and reached for my phone in the same motion.

Dialing.....Dora.....ring ring

Dora: hello?

Me (more than half asleep): Need sleep...don't wait for me.

Dora: But...

Me: You can tell me about it later...Have a good time...(click)

It didn't quite go like that, but it was pretty close. Dora, Mark, Nabor and I were all supposed to drive to the Cathedral together. Seriously though, who wakes up to go to a voluntary conference at the Cathedral at 7AM on a weekend? Apparently lots of people do, but as of today, I'm not one of them. Maybe next time...

-CHC

Solon, MI--Does it exist?

I had a conversation with some friends yesterday (Jennifer, Jeremy, Andy and Ryan, here is your shout out....) about Solon, MI. Jeremy is acting in a play that takes place there, and he said it's close to Traverse City. Of course, I figured I should have at least heard of it.

It turns out that Solon it does indeed exist, but it looks like it's basically a township in Cedar. Since I've been to Cedar maybe twice in my life I guess I can forgive myself for knowing nothing about it. We all need our fix of Michigan trivia once in a while...

Now moving along to holden-corbett.com trivia. Did you know that the genealogy pdf's are our most popular download? Steve's songs and family videos follow closely behind as the most requested features on our site. At our current rate, we'll transfer over a gigabyte of files by the end of the month! Amazing!

To my relatives: Keep sending the content, and I'll keep posting it!
To everyone else: Please comment! We want to hear what you think!

-CHC

Dill's of the West

Some of you might remember a place called Dill's. Not the "New Dill's"--The original. It was the place to be each St. Patrick's Day, not to mention every Wednesday night when the Family Band was playing. I'm excited to say that I have just found the Dill's of the west.

Welcome to Dimples. This is the proverbial place where "everybody knows your name." It's just like the old Dill's, only it's smaller and there's no Family Band. There is also quite a lot more "good karaoke," if such a thing exists.

Even Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding) and Shaun Weiss(Goldberg from The Mighty Ducks) graced the stage with a song or two.

I'm definitely going back next Monday.

-chc

TGIF

What happened to TGIF anyway? Remember back in the day when you knew exactly what you were doing on a Friday night? There was only one thing to do. Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters. Could you ask for more? Of course not. Don't be ridiculous.

It's shaping up to be a busy weekend. I'm waking up early tomorrow to help with a friend's video shoot. Then there is movie night tomorrow evening and another film shoot all day on Sunday. Thank goodness I get Monday off so that I can sleep in for at least a day.

In holden-corbett.com news, be sure to check out all of Steve's new songs. What's that? You don't want to pay a dollar each? Good news--they're free. That's just because we all knew him before he was famous.

-chc

The Site is Finished (almost)

I've made the mistake before of failing to post because I didn't feel that I had anything really interesting to write. Not today! I have nothing to say, but I'm writing anyway--just because I can.

Actually I have a couple of quick things. First, I'm excited to announce that all of the links on this site now work in one way or another. Sure, the first genealogy page is just a placeholder for now, but I feel some kind of relief in knowing that it no longer creates an error. The other links actually have content, believe it or not. There are some interesting family biographies and documents if you are patient enough to let a 7 MB PDF download.

In other news, it finally stopped raining. Don't worry. I am far away from those mudslides on the news. It was getting pretty bad in some areas, though. I guess it's lucky for me that I don't have that house in the hills yet...

-chc

Sunny Socal

What happened to that good ol' California sunshine? After being in the Midwest for a week I've come back to nothing but rain. It's crazy. I had to drive to Hollywood today to help a friend run auditions for his film, and the roads were just really bad. I'm not talking about a little bit of water collecting on the road...I'm talking about mud and rock slides closing down a whole lane of traffic. I think I would honestly rather see snow!

Speaking of snow, here is a picture from New Years (courtesy of Ben). I've also updated the Christmas pictures and slideshows in the sidebar for your viewing enjoyment.


Left to Right: Scott, Chris, Matt, Charlie, Ben

-chc

Back at Last

After some serious server problems (hard drive failure--all data lost), we're finally back on the air. It may take me a while to get back in the habit of posting, but I'm excited to have the outlet again.

One good thing that came out of losing this site for a while is that I learned that some people actually do read this. Some people I don't even know--go figure. Anyway I'm glad to be back, and I hope everyone will start reading again.

-chc