My dad's portfolio

If you go onto imdb.com, my dad doesn't have the largest page. It isn't because a lack of trying, but it's just that most of his work has gone as uncredited. Not too many people know that he created the radars in Top Gun or added special effects to the last episode of Cheers. And of course, with all the Simpsons gear around the house, you know how much of a big part he was with the show.

Anyways, last Saturday, we were flipping through the channels and my dad told me to hold it on one of our non-premium channels. "Repo Man" was starting and he wanted me to watch the opening. He started to tell me how they had little time and my dad had to put together a title sequence with no money. My dad, as resourceful as he was, went to the nearest AAA and grabbed a bunch of maps because he was a member. He worked through the night and by the next morning they had their opening.

The next morning we flipped open the LA Magazine in the sunday section and they had an article about the fifty greatest movie title sequences in the history of film. You can guess what was one of the films, but the man who got the credit was someone my dad never met.



Repo Man Title Sequence(The first 2:16)

Oregon/California 2008

We made our annual trip(I can call it that because it's our second time now) up the coast to visit her family for Christmas. We went up the coast this time to stay at the Vintage Inn in Yountville for the 2nd time. We made sure not to miss the champagne brunch, where I rediscovered corn beef. We also were able to get reservations this time at Bouchon, which I Yelped about here.

Gold Beach, Oregon

We divided the trip by staying up in Crescent City one night which was memorable only because my back is still hurting from the Travelodge. Irregardless, it's a beautiful drive. One that has to be done in the summer though to take advantage of more sunlight.

You know whos

Christmas was fun again, but the highlight was some of the stories Barb's grandmother told us. The best was how she moved from Oklahoma to Illinois as a little girl in the 1920's. Oh yeah, by stagecoach!! Who'd thought they were still around?

There' no business like snow business in the Siskiyous

The part we were most worried about was the drive back down. We thought we were going to be going through a snow storm so much that Barb bought chains. Luckily, we were able to make it through the Siskiyou's quickly enough that we even had time to stop by the North Face Outlet in Berkeley. That was Barb's doing.

Mt. Shasta, possibly on fire?

We spent our last two days of vacation with Dave and Helen in Cambria. Our place was right on the ocean and was beautiful. The meals which I have yet to yelp about were really good both in Cambria and Paso Robles. The only bummer was wine tasting because I had a slight cold and it felt like only 20% of my taste buds were functioning. But since it affected everything, I could tell the difference between the good and bad and I think we found our white wine for the wedding.

Sunset at Cambria

And finally, if you're on the 101 driving through San Luis Obispo, we had to stop at Firestone's for the tri-tip on the way back.