Location: New York City, New York, USA Address: 132 E 23rd Street Date: Nov 2014
One of the most memorable scenes in Meet Joe Black is how Joe Black actually became Joe Black. Susan (Claire Forlani) meets a young man (Brad Pitt) at a coffee shop and they are both smitten. As they walk away each of them turns several times to say something but they never do.
Brad stops once more in the middle of a busy intersection. This is East 23rd Street in Manhattan. He would be crossing in the far right crosswalk of the photo above. A car almost hits his bag and he steps back. He bounces off a van and then again over a yellow New York City cab. You will have to watch the whole movie to see if he survived.
At the time of filming this scene, there was a pizza place we think was called the Gramercy Eatery. For filming purposes it looks like they put up a brown banner to cover over the restaurant name. When we arrived to take our photos it was now Mike's PAPAYA and there was a slightly different green pizza sign mounted on the building. This is now another lost filming location as the whole building has been torn down and replaced.
The middle of the road where all the action took place is still there. This is where Brad Pitt, a dummy and some CGI all worked to bring this scene together. The building you can see down the street is the Metropolitan Life Tower located beside Madison Park. While you are visiting New York be very careful and never stop in the middle of a busy street. Even if you thought you saw Brad Pitt, wait until you are safely on the curb before looking back.
Location: Burbank, California, USA Address: 3400 West Riverside Drive Date: Feb 2014 Website:vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com
We have a copy of The Mask on DVD that we got for free inside a box of cereal. The movie was also a box office success and starred Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss. When Stanley finds a special mask he puts it on and is transformed into... well, into Jim Carrey doing his stand-up routine.
When we visited Warner Bros. Studios, we were lucky to see some of the filming locations from this movie. The first location is found on Hennessy Street of the backlot. Stanley lives in the apartment pictured above. It is the building with Hardware written on it and fire-escapes on the front. When Stanley first puts on the mask he becomes a green faced cartoon-like character. He ends up bouncing down a hallway and out the window of this building. He is flattened when he hits the ground below. A car honks at him for being in the street. Stanley pulls out a tiny little horn which lets out one giant-sized windshield shattering " Bahooogahh!"
Later in the film Stanley is once again wearing the mask. This time he finds himself face to face with a street filled with police. The building above played the neon lit Warwick Hotel.
When faced with this predicament, The Mask breaks into song and the police are surprised to find themselves losing control and dancing along. The song he sings is Cuban Pete. This song was previously made famous by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame. All of the action takes place just beyond the dumpster you see in the middle of the road above.
At one point The Mask leaps into the air and slides down a light pole beside this theatre (right hand side of the photo above). The dance sequence continues and finishes with a conga line before The Mask sneaks off once again. Our golf cart also snuck off once again as we continued our tour of the studio.
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is a private school specializing in science and technology. Ray Stata was a graduate in 1957 and contributed to the construction of what is now the Ray and Maria Stata Center.
The building is also known as building 32 and was designed by architect Frank Gehry. Gehry is well known for creating unusual buildings around the world.
The Stata Center opened in 2004 and looks like it belongs in some sort of cartoon world.
There is no shortage of skewed walls and odd angles.
The shiny roof on some portions of the building further distorts whatever it is reflecting.
Windows appear to be different sizes and look as if they were glued onto the building after it was finished.
A second level balcony offered even more unusual views. We wondered what it would look like if we were peering out one of the funny windows. Then again we don't quite have the qualifications to be accepted to MIT.
We took a peek into one window and came face to face with a dead ringer for Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies. It appears that some research is being done behind these curvy walls. Who knows what future graduates may come up with? At least the Stata Center will give them something to think about.
This Easter weekend we thought it would be a good time to take a look at our top 10 bunny encounters. Here they are in no particular order.
1 )Lop-Eared Rabbit
A friend of ours used to care for a very cute lop-eared bunny. A lop-eared bunny is a bunny whose long ears hang (we guess you could say lop) down. You will notice all of the other bunnies in this blog post have ears that stand straight up or sit back on top of their heads.
2) Bugs Bunny
One of the all-time favourite bunnies is Bugs Bunny from the Looney Tunes cartoons. He is among a short list of animated characters to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The outline drawing of Bugs Bunny (above) was in the Warner Brothers Studio's Museum.
3) Flemish Giant Rabbit
From Bugs Bunny we go to Big Bunny. A Flemish giant rabbit can weigh up to 10 kg and grow to about 30 inches long. It is one of the largest domesticated rabbits. The bunny above was at the Toronto Zoo for a short time and shared an enclosure with the wombats and wallabies. Perhaps it had outgrown its previous living space.
4) Arctic Hare
While we were in Churchill, Manitoba we spotted this hare just across the road from our lodge. While it may not be the smartest thing to do in polar bear territory at night, we headed outside to try and get a closer look. Luckily, he stood still long enough for us to get the picture above. It took us some time to determine if this was an arctic hare or a snowshoe hare as both inhabit Churchill. We read about one having bigger feet or ears than the other. Some reports said that one has bigger eyes or fluffier fur. We made our determination by the black on the ears. As far as we can tell arctic hares (like this one) have black just on the top tip of their ears while snowshoe hares have a black edge that may cover the tip, but runs further along the ear as well.
5) Lionhead Rabbit
A lionhead rabbit is bred to have a mane around its face like a lion. They end up looking like little balls of fur with ears. We wondered how they can even see where they are hopping. When taking pictures, the bunny below did flash us a look from beneath all that fur just to let us know he was in there. The lionhead above is from Prickly Ball Farm and the lionhead below is from Far Enough Farm.
6) Rabbit Balloon
Artist Jeff Koons had a piece of his art appear in Toronto's Nuit Blanche 2009. It was simply named Rabbit Balloon. It featured a giant shiny silver bunny that was floating inside the Eaton Centre. This bunny also once floated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007.
7) Tortoise & Hare
In Boston's Copley Square is a sculpture of a tortoise and a hare. It was installed as a tribute to runner's of the famous Boston Marathon. It is based on the popular fable of The Tortoise & the Hare. The fable tells the story of a rabbit who was so confident in his ability to outrun the tortoise that during a race he ran ahead and took a nap. While he napped the tortoise passed by heading for the finish line. The hare finally awoke and tried to catch up, but it was too late.
8) Cute Bunnies
We think that all rabbits are cute. There is something special about a tiny bunny that you can pick up and hold in your hands while it sits quietly twitching its little nose. These cuties are from the Toronto Zoo kid's section and from Jungle Cat World.
9) Chocolate Bunnies
Chocolate shaped like eggs is good. Chocolate shaped like bunnies is good. This bunny above is a box from Teuscher Chocolates and hides a chocolate truffle in its belly. We like chocolate.
10) Eastern Cottontail
The one rabbit that we have encountered the most is the eastern cottontail. Actually we have eaten more chocolate bunnies and watched more Bugs Bunny cartoons than we have had encounters with eastern cottontails. Let's try that again. The eastern cottontail is the wild rabbit that we have encountered the most. Sometimes when you least expect it you look out into the yard and there is one munching away on something. Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail!
Location: Maui,Hawaii,USA Address: 799 Poho Pl. Date: Feb 2017 Website:www.mamasfishhouse.com
Mama's Fish House is rated as not only one of the top restaurants in Hawaii, but in the USA. We have been lucky enough to eat at Mama's twice during our Hawaiian vacations. What makes Mama's so special? Well, for starters it is located on the beautiful island of Maui. Even the Jack In The Box in Kahului gets extra points for its island location.
Mama's Fish House is also situated on a small, secluded section of beach with a light breeze and the soothing sound of waves.
The first time we visited Mama's we had a reservation. If you want to ensure yourself a good table we recommend that you reserve before you even arrive in Maui. We had a lunch reservation on the last day of our trip before heading to the airport. We were earlier than our reservation time so we had to wait for our table. While we waited we enjoyed the view and even spotted sea turtles in the water below. Before we knew it our table was ready.
We were lucky enough to be seated with a beach view (below).
Mama's always has great food, great atmosphere and great service. One thing they do on their menu is print both the fisherman's name and the location where the fish was caught. They do the same thing with farmers to show their support of the local industry and how fresh their food is.
On our second visit to Mama's we did not have a reservation, but we got lucky. Parking spaces are limited so there is only valet parking. We drove up to the valet and they asked if we had a reservation. Just as the valet was telling us "Sorry", a spot opened up at the bar.
The bar is a small section where you could eat, but it is not as nice as having a proper table.
After leaving our car with the valet we walked down the stairs and across the front of the restaurant. On the way we were greeted by a brown anole before arriving at the hostess. We were lucky again as now the hostess informed us that a table had just opened up.
From appetizer to dessert everything was always delicious and perfectly prepared. It is well worth the higher price tag. Their signature dish is crab stuffed Mahimahi with a macadamia nut crust. It was delectable.
After enjoying our dinner we headed back out to the beach.
A group of people had gathered near the water's edge. We then noticed that two of the rocks seemed to be loose. On closer inspection we realized that once again we had found green sea turtles off of Mama's Maui shore. These two turtles were enjoying a feast of their own.
A Hawaiian green sea turtle is called a honu and is said to be good luck. Getting a table at Mama's Fish House is also good luck and a delicious meal you won't soon forget.
Mike's PAPAYA
