LA Podcast Festival

     Recently I had the good fortune to apear on my good friend, Jackie Kashain's podcast, The Dork Forest... again. As somebody in the audience pointed out, I am the most frequent guest of the show, but don't tell her, because I want her to keep having me on.

    This particular episode was live from the Los Angeles Podcast Festival and it also featured another good friend of mine, actor Paul Adelstein.

     We discussed many things. One subject which is near to my heart and to Paul's is The Beatles. The morning of the show, I threw together a Beatles trivia quiz...  and I have to say, I don't think I stumped Paul.

     Below is the link to the episode. You should listen. Below that, is the quiz. Not in any particular order and I don't think we got to all the questions. Feel free to email me your thoughts on the quiz AND the show.


 http://tdf.libsyn.com/tdf-ep-145-live-at-lapodfest-with-paul-adelstein-and-murray-valeriano


BEATLES TRIVIA

1. What was the first Beatles single released in the US?  

2. What musical instrument did Paul make famous?  

3. Which Beatles Album contains only material written by John and Paul (it is also the FIRST album to contain all Beatles material)  

4. What future prog rock drummer/singer appeared as an extra in A Hard Day’s Night?  

5. Paul claims he dreamt the rhythm and melody for “Yesterday” so, before he wrote the lyrics and came up with the title he refereed to the song as what title?   

6. What is the official name of the White Album?  ____________   Extra Trivia: it was going to be titled  “A Doll’s House” but they canned it because a prog rock band called, Family had a similar title:  "Music in a Doll’s House."

7. Who was the first NON BRITISH artist signed to Apple Records?  

8. April 4 1964, the Top 5 slots on Billboard were occupied by all 5 Beatles songs..  name 3 of them.

Extra Trivia: Also, 7 other Beatles songs were in the top 100.

10. What was the first SOLO Beatles song to reach number 1? 

11. In 1965, Rubber Soul featured the first Beatles song with a sitar, what was it?  

12. The first US appearance was Washington Coliseum on August 26 1966 marks the last live performance of the Beatles (not including Apple roof top) where did that take place? 

2011 Oscars

Here are a few pics from the Oscars, more detailed blog to come. The first is at the end of the Red Carpet. The second was taken by my friend Emily Shubin, who I believe was Audience Coordinator. You can't tell, but we're talking to Scarlett Johansson. If you want, you can read the No Country For Old Men Oscar blog down lower.

Robert Schimmel

I was very fortunate to work with and get to know Robert Schimmel over the last couple of years. He was a great person and an amazingly funny comic.

Robert turned his battle with cancer into a funny and moving live show. He touched many people with his story. The audience at Robert's shows were always filled with people who were affected by cancer. Whether they lost a loved one or were a survivor or were in the thick of the fight, they would come to see Robert and laugh.

I used to sit in the back of the Brea Improv and watch Robert interact with his fans. Many of the them would thank him for helping them through their struggle.

I remember one particular night a guy walked up to Robert with a T-shirt that read "Cancer Sucks." The man got about as far as "Hi, Robert..." before he broke down in tears. Without any hesitation, Robert walked from behind the counter and embraced the man while he cried. It turns out, the man had lost his father to cancer and while he was sick, the two would listen to Robert's CD's and watch his DVD's in the hospital.

I will never forget Robert, his comedy and the conversations we had. I feel fortunate to have known him. It's sad to see him go. He had so much more to say and so many people to help.

Flink

My friend Sess Hyman does this cartoon Flink. She made this for me. Check out the rest of her Flinks at:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=2020313&id=1218261513

This Week in Music History

August 22, 1980, Prince decides that nothing says Rock and Roll more than a pair of high heels and assless chaps.

A Boy Named Sue... or Natalie

I have heard this question most of my adult life,

How does an Italian guy from New Jersey get a name like "Murray?”

It’s a good question. Here’s the answer:

I am the youngest of three boys. I have two older brothers; one is seven years older than I am, the other is four years older. Whenever girls hear that, they always say the same thing, “You’re the baby of the family! That is so cute!” Yes, getting wedgied, Indian burned and beaten up on a daily basis was adorable...

But hey, that’s a story for another time.

While my mother was pregnant with me, she decided I was going to be a girl. Let me emphasize here that this decision was based on absolutely nothing.
Not a sonogram, not a doctor’s opinion, not even a psychic prediction. She just figured she had two boys, the third baby HAD to be a girl.

Not only did she decide I was going to be a girl, but her and my father went as far as to paint my bedroom pink and buy me dresses and girl’s onesies. They even picked out a name for me, "Natalie Valeriano."

Well, August rolled around and I popped out... a dude. Which, by the way, was the first of many disappointments I would end up being to my parents.

Again, a story for another time.

Now my parents are screwed. They have a baby boy and no name for him. They figured they couldn’t name me the name they picked out, it was a name for a little girl and not a little boy. Personally, I don’t see what difference that makes. Apparently, I was gonna be sleeping in a pink bedroom and wearing dresses for the first two years of my life, how much more emotional damage would be done?

As luck would have it, my mom was reading a book at the time by a guy named Robert Murray McShane. I don’t know if the book was any good, but my mom liked it enough to name me after the author. So there I was, Robert Murray Valeriano.

But wait, why didn’t they call you Robert? You ask.

Well, I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. We didn’t move to New Jersey until I was older. A very southern thing to do is call your child by their middle name.

From day one, I was called Murray. Nobody ever referred to me as Robert. Actually, they didn’t refer to me as Murray either, they referred to me as the little boy in the dress.

But again, that's a story for another time.

Oscar Party

As a lot of you know my wife Mary worked on "No Country For Old Men." She is the costume designer for the Coen brothers… and mine if you think about it. My wardrobe tends to reflect whatever movie she's working on, because she buys me clothes when she’s out shopping for the movie. It was great when she was designing "No Country," because she bought me a lot of cool cowboy shirts… Man, did I dodge a bullet when she turned down "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert."

"No Country" won a bunch of Oscars this year including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Script. We were fortunate enough to be invited to the after party at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. For those of you who don't know, that's the place where John Belsushi died of a drug overdose, but they cleaned up since then.

Speaking of cleaning up, Mary looked hot in a sexy 70's number and I looked pretty good myself. No tuxedo, but a black Hugo Boss suit with a pocket square… suit provided by Mary – another purchase while working on a movie with a bunch of guys in suits.

A lot of the winners showed up at the party. Joel and Ethan Coen, Tilda Swinton and the guy who won for Best Documentary – about an Afghan taxi driver beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention at the Bagram Air Base – Man could that guy party!

Best Supporting actor, Javier Bardem rolled in with his entourage of Spaniards, who relentlessly hit on everything in a dress. They moved from one unsuspecting victim to another. It was like watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. I don't know how many women made it out of there alive.

The highlight of the evening was Javier standing on the end of the bar drunk and singing the Rolling Stone's "Sympathy for the Devil" into his Oscar statue. Given the circumstances, I would have done the same, but I probably would have chosen "Brown Sugar."

Sadly, we're not a picture taking family. Mary and I went to Hawaii together and the only picture I took was of Mary throwing up off the side of a catamaran. But if you look close, in the background, you can see a small part of the Na Pali Coast… it's really beautiful.

So we don't have any pictures of the night.

Well, I have one.

I made my friend Jess take it. It's of me and Diane Lane. Diane Lane is older than I am, but I somehow look like I could be her father. I'm looking into botox this week.



And you can see my pocket square.

What you can't see is my fourteenth vodka and cranberry that I'm holding out of frame. Which is how I got the nerve to ask Diane for a picture in the fist place.

In one drunken breath:

"Hey Diane, I'm Murray. Mary and I had a barbeque in Sante Fe. You came. Smile."

CLICK.

She still has no idea who I am.

If you haven't seen "No Country For Old Men" I highly recommend it. I'm glad it won, because it really is the best picture of last year... And if they didn't make it, Mary would have had to take another movie and I could be writing this blog dressed like a fifteen year old pregnant girl.