What to do in Hollywood on Grammy night.

You can watch the shindig on TV or you can spend $500 on a ticket to the Nokia Center or... you can walk up to Sunset Blvd and hang out outside the Warner Music after party. Usually this doesn't work because security is as tight as Rihanna's gown. Even the paparazzi are not allowed, but somehow last night, Campbell, J and I sauntered past cops and a formidable security team and just blended in. We stood coolly right where all the limos and black Ford Escalades pull up to get checked in. Some of the talent got out there, others rolled down their windows. Over the course of a couple of hours, we got our fill of Grammy stars:

We saw Beyonce applying some last minute lip gloss, Bruno Mars stepped out for a smoke a few feet from us.  Seal, his window rolled down, literally sang for us as his limo crept by.  Jeff Beck hung out nearby. Producer legend David Foster nodded and smiled at J as if acknowledging a future star.

Neil Young - yes, the legend himself - walked right past us as I lamely cheered "Yay Ontario!" Not more than 5 minutes later he re-appeared from the party and we joked - "Great party, eh Neil?" He laughed, nodded and mumbled something, I think - "Best four minutes of my life." Then he and his entourage jumped back in his limo and took off.

Here's some other folks and bands we saw close up and personal:

Arcade Fire

Zack Brown Band

Vampire Weekend

Malan Akerman (27 Dresses)

Michelle Branch

Heidi Klum

Kathy Griffin

Florence and the Machine

Natasha Bedingfield

Black Keys
Jeffrey Ross

Eve
Paramore

Also plenty we recognized but couldn't place. And according to the security team - Christina Aguilera and the legend Quincy Jones passed by - damn those tinted windows!

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures - the price we paid for being allowed to hang out there and be cool with the security team, one of who complimented us for our stamina. "You guys are real troopers!"

After a while we went around the corner to Boa Steakhouse where a lone papparazzo started snapping pictures of our own J Hether. "Hey girl, how's it going, you're an artist, right?" She nodded and posed. "I knew it, I could see it."

Go Big, Go Home, Gome Back

Hello Blogfans,

You people have been asking me what's going on, what happened, why I stopped blogging - so many probing questions and I really do not have a good answer. All I can say is, you got to me, and so blog again I will and must.

It's been about 6 months since I last wrote here. What happened to the adventurous couple who left their homeland on a crazed if not foolish journey south of the border in search of the American Dream?

What happened is we went back home.

But then we came back.

Here is what I wrote sometime last August upon our return. Why I did not send it, I'm not sure. Maybe I needed a period of anonymity. Maybe I had nothing to say. Maybe I was afraid Homeland Security would change their minds (if they even have minds). In any case, here's what I wrote:

As most of you now know, we are not going coming home with our tails between our legs (especially because we do not have tails). We came home only to return, this time with paper in hand and feet just a little more planted on the hollowed Hollywood ground.


Yes we are legal! Against what I thought were insurmountable odds, I have been successful in acquiring that elusive "O1" visa - for an "alien of extraordinary ability in the arts of motion pictures and television" or - "Aeaampt". Whatever -it means I can get a social security # and work as an actor.


J gets the "O3 Visa" which allows her to exist in the USA legally as the non working spouse of a temporary non-immigrant worker or- "Nwsotniw"


When I think back on the six months, it's been a great ride. We scored an awesome apartment in West Hollywood and we met Paul McCartney on a hiking trail. Everything else was a bonus -  new friends, great frozen yogurt, fish tacos, Marianne Williamson and Dustin Hoffman lectures, Ben Kingsley in the laundry room, Jody Foster at Urth Cafe, Miley Cyrus at Gay Pride, Andy Dick everywhere (huh?)  - all our super fantastic visitors, Melrose shopping, crazy Sader, Red Rock happy hour, Disneyland, open mics and showcases... but mostly well - just the excitement of being where the action is. Taking a risk. Dreaming a bit.


So things take a turn now. Game is on. Stakes are raised.  At 50 - much like my old man did when he quit journalism and went to law school - I am shaking things up and creating a new beginning. I've done it before - moving from Ottawa to Toronto to open Song Bird 2 - then moving to Vancouver to embark on a 2nd career. This one feels like the biggest challenge yet. New strange country (they don't say "eh" here), lousy economy and with no real certainty of establishing myself here, I am forced to do what crazy religious people do - have blind faith, trust, pray


I will have much to report in the coming weeks and months. Blogs will be shorter but more frequent. Oh and by the way, the border people are very nice when you have your papers in order. They like aliens with papers. 


Okay, so I didn't exactly come through on that promise, but I will try my best, in the midst of a busy pilot season, to fire out some posts on a semi-regular basis. The journey continues and the suspense is palpable. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a crazy ride. Oh, did I mention it's 80 and sunny out there?


Eh in LA