Happy New Year!

Hmmmmmm...wonder what 2008 has in store for us?

Hilarious Argentine Commercial

for the adult beverage Fernet Cinzano

Farewell Maxjet

Well, as I speculated in my blog of December 17th, Maxjet has gone under.

Here's the message from their website:

IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM MAXJET
Information below regarding those who have booked travel

Dear Friends of MAXjet:

It is with deep regret that I must inform you that MAXjet filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 24 December 2007. With today’s fuel prices and the resulting impact on the credit climate for airlines, we are forced to take this drastic measure. Our top priority is to assist our customers, particularly those who already have begun their travel with us, in securing alternative flight accommodations.

MAXjet has contracted with Eos Airlines for seats on Eos’ scheduled all-Premium service to accommodate passengers awaiting a return flight between New York and London. Passengers needing return travel between London, Los Angeles and Las Vegas will be contacted regarding their flight re-accommodations. Any customers who choose to make flight accommodations directly should seek a refund from their point of purchase (credit card or travel agency) for the unused leg of their journey.

We have also secured hotel rooms in London, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles through early January 2008 which we will provide to affected passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted.

On behalf of the entire MAXjet family, we extend our apologies to you for the inconvenience. We are extremely saddened to discontinue a service that we so passionately believe in, and we thank our loyal flyers who helped build MAXjet since our start in 2005.


Sincerely,

William D. Stockbridge
President and CEO

What's up with Maxjet?

This could be the beginning of the end for Maxjet. Last Friday they halted trading of their stock with no reason given. A vacuous blurb on their website thanks customers for flying Maxjet and says that they will continue uninterrupted flights. Hmmm, no mention of them yanking IAD service (where they're headquartered, no less), no mention of the extremely shaking financing.

Don't get me wrong, I like Maxjet and love the fact that they've shown that there's a market out there for those willing to pay, say $500 - $1,000 more than steerage for a comfortable, humane experience, but don't have $8K to drop for a trans-Atlantic round-trip flight. Till this all shakes out, it would be in your best interest to book EOS, Silverjet or Virgin Atlantic.

Zachary Quinto (Sylar) is Spock 2.0

Zachary Quinto, now on hiatus from Heroes, is busy shooting Star Trek, an origin story partly set at the Starfleet Academy, as Spock (check out the arched-eyebrows behind the HRGs)

Zach, who is often recognized as Sylar (''People are sometimes really scared of me...but I laugh at them''), is jittery about next year's Comic-Con, where he'll contend with rabid fans (count me as one of those) from two separate sci-fi cult hits. Nimoy's reaction when he learned that Quinto had taken over his role sums it up best: ''You're screwed.'' Hmmmm....

Heroes - Volume 2 Finale - Powerless

Last night's finale, this volume cut short due to the writers' strike, left a lot of unanswered questions. How come Sylar has never killed Mohinder (who I find very annoying this season)? How can Nathan be dead since he now has Adam's blood? FYI, before the strike he was supposed to collapse from the Shanti virus. Why on earth did Mohinder bring Maya back to life? What happened to Niki? Why doesn't Matt go on a diet? How long will Adam be buried in the coffin? Why didn't Peter have his shirt off?

Darren Hayes Unplugged

It was with much excitement that Lorelei and I met at the Canal Room this past Wednesday to see Darren Hayes for the 2nd time this year. He is on a U.S. acoustic tour promoting his new double album. He was fantastic, as always, and is so fucking hot!

Cautionary Tales

Just finished last week's episode of Heroes. Wow - does this mean that HRG is now like Claire?

2 episodes behind

Yes, thanks to spending Thanksgiving week in the U.K. I'm 2 episodes behind in Heroes. Note to self, get caught up before next Monday's finale.

I had a great time hanging out with Billy, Susan, Pepper, Barbara, Josie, Mario, Peggy, Gary, Astro, Daniel, Jason, Barry & Teddy. Here are a few pix from the trip.

4 months ago

Tonight's episode of Heros was really good and as we only have 3 episodes left the story lines are getting tighter and drawing together. I'll have to watch next week's episode online as Teddy & I will be in Edinburgh next Monday (a side trip to Thanksgiving week in London).

Homemade dessert

Teddy made dinner on Monday (a spicy, yummy veggie chili) and this delicious homemade dessert...

What happened to fall?

Several weeks ago we were in the midst of an unseasonably warm October - with highs in the mid 80s. Now in early October and it's in the 20s & 30s. Summer to winter in the blink of an eye.

Heroes Creator Admits Mistakes

Tim Kring has acknowledged that there have been problems with Season 2:

• Starting the season off with a slow buildup
• Introducing new characters like the lame-ass Maya & Alejandro and Monica in story lines that didn't flow with the rest of the show
• The Hiro storyline in feudal Japan was way too long
• The love story lines between Clair & West and Hiro & Yaeko

He said that the complaints have been heard and that they're doing something about it. The December 3rd episode will be the end of the "Generations" story arc and a new ending has been filmed for it that will more firmly make it a season finale.

Elena Adelia Pepper Cometti

at last, Pepper's arrived! Read her first blog post here.

I'm looking forward to meeting her a week from Saturday.

The Merry Widow?

I laugh every time this ad pops up on yahoo mail. This woman looks like she's ready to go spend the insurance money and party.

June 14, 2008

Peter & Caitlin flew to Montreal and then teleported to Times Square and an empty NYC. They found a flier on the street for a mandatory NYC evacuation on June 14, 2008. Season 2 is finally hitting it's stride.

What do the following have in common?

• a McDonald's commercial
• a Slice commercial
  

Give up?

Teddy's in them all.

Heroes

with the exception of Mascara Maya & her twin brother, both of whom Sylar should kill immediately, it's getting really good now...Matt's father, Monica, Nathan's reflection (how Niki/Jessica), Sylar's back, Peter without a shirt...

Facebook

I signed up for Facebook last week-end after Billy convinced me that it rocks. I like it a lot more than MySpace and a million times more than Friendster. The problem is that I've spent every free minute on there, it's so addictive.

Now if I can just get Teddy Armstrong to sign up for it, but as you can see, he's resisting so far...

ABBA-The Music @ Royal Albert Hall

I flew to London for the 3rd time in less than a month to go to the ABBA-The Music concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Waterloo performed and were in top form as always. It was great catching up with some ABBA friends - Jason & Barry, Andy, Frank, Sandra, Ursala, Paul and Julie to name a few. I was sorry that Achim was stuck in Dortmund as he had to study and Teddy was stuck in New York as he had to work. Word was that Anita & Helga were there, but we missed seeing them.

Here are some pix from the event and a video of Waterloo doing, what else, Waterloo. And yes, that's Jason screaming at the end...

Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy & Teddy in London

Last weekend Teddy Armstong & I flew Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy to London for Billy's big 4-0 Hat Party. It's a surprising good product for only about $150 - $200 more roundtrip than coach. There are pre-departure drinks, printed menus, plentiful food & snacks and a comfy, if not terribly spacious, seat. We flew the old-school version on the 747-400s shown below. The newer seats already installed in the A340-600s is 3" wider, has 2 degrees more recline and has several inches more pitch. We flew downstairs on the outbound and upper deck on the return. A nice experience with plenty of bonus miles thrown our way.

Teddy enjoyed London very much, even though I fucked up and we missed the Jack the Ripper tour by 3 minutes - we'll have to do that the next time! Highlights of the trip, other than Billy's party, were shopping at Harvey Nicks & Harrods, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.