What's New?
--2013--
December 2013
On December 5, Sherry takes Fred out all day. First, they go to Dr. Ana Shahnematollahi for more test results. Then they stop to get Subway sandwiches for lunch, and go to Sherry's apartment to eat and to watch a DVD of the French animated feature The Painting. Then to the San Fernando branch of the L. A. County Library where Sherry picks up a reserved DVD, while Fred gets a haircut at the next-door Champions Only Barber Shop from the owner, Gary, who is going out of business and retiring next month. On December 7, Sherry and Fred stop at Subway for sandwiches for lunch, then Fred spends the day at her apartment, eating lunch and working on a new anthology and watching a DVD of Animal Treasure Island.
On December 11, Sherry and Phil Muchnik take Fred out for his 73rd birthday. After stopping at Phil's home to pick him up, they go to Pasadena to the Yard House for a big lunch, then to the ArcLight to see Frozen. On December 13, Sherry and Fred see the cardiologist Dr. Mark Lensky, who says that Fred is in excellent health considering his condition. Then they stop for Subway sandwiches that they eat at Sherry's apartment and watch the first two stories of a DVD of the six-story Les Contes de la Nuit, directed by Michel Ocelot in CGI stop-motion silhouette animation; before going to Burbank for an exhibit of "The Life and Work of Eyvind Earle" at the Center Stage Gallery. (Earle is best-known as the art designer of Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty, although this exhibit is of serigraphs of Northern California landscapes that he painted toward the end of his life. Very impressive. The Center Stage Gallery specializes in fine-art books and prints by CAPS members and Disney artists, since it is so close to both groups.) On December 18, Sherry and Fred pick up a book at the North Hollywood Library, then get Subway sandwiches for lunch, and go to Sherry's apartment to eat them. Fred finishes watching the DVD of Les Contes de la Nuit. On December 20, Fred finishes writing and submitting his Funny Animals and More (volume 1?) to Theme Park Press for publication next February.
On December 21, Sherry takes Fred out for Christmas. They go to Solley's Deli in Sherman Oaks for lunch, then to Best Buy in the same shopping center where Sherry buys Fred a set of DVDs of the first eleven episodes of Michiko & Hatchin, then to a Pacific Theater across the street to see Thor: The Dark World. On December 26, Sherry and Fred go to Montrose to get Arlene Thiel, her friend Phil Muchnik's sister, who is visiting from Paris, and they go in Sherry's mini-van to The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. (Phil is supposed to go with them, but he has a cold.) They see an exhibit on "Junípero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions". (The Desert Garden, which Fred wants to see the most, is not wheelchair-accessable.) Arlene sees the Gutenberg Bible.
November 2013
On November 2, Sherry takes Fred to lunch at Solley's Deli in Sherman Oaks, and then to June Moffat's 90th birthday party for Len at the LASFS clubhouse. On November 6, Sherry takes Fred out in the mid-afternoon to get a Subway tuna sandwich for dinner at her apartment; then they go to Universal Studios to see a special evening publicity screening of Despicable Me 2. (They had already seen it, but it is very good.) On November 9, Sherry and Fred go to the Burbank Center to see Free Birds, but the parking garage is full, so they return to Sherry's apartment and Fred reads a book to write a review of it for Animation World Network. On November 13, Sherry takes Fred to a Subway for a tuna sandwich lunch, then to her apartment to watch a video of A Monster in Paris. On November 15, Fred and Sherry go to Montrose to pick up her friend Phil Muchnik, then the three go to Pasadena to see Free Birds at the ArcLight, followed by lunch at the Yard House restaurant. On November 18, Fred and Sherry get Subway sandwiches for dinner at her apartment, then go to an ASIFA-Hollywood evening screening of Ernest & Célestine at the Laemmle NoHo 7 theater. On November 24, Fred and Sherry get Subway sandwiches for dinner at her apartment, then go to an ASIFA-Hollywood evening screening of The Wind Rises at the Walt Disney Studios. During a Pre-Reception, Fred has conversations with old friends Bob Miller and Dave Bennett. On November 28, Sherry takes Fred for a sumptuous Thanksgiving luncheon at Solleys Restaurant, followed by going to her apartment for a long post-luncheon nap, watching Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice on DVD, and a light dinner. On November 30, Sherry takes Fred to Loscon 40. They have lunch and dinner with Michael Burlake and Roz Gibson. Lex Nakashima gives Fred a French bande dessinée. Sherry buys two T-shirts. Fred stuffs himself with See's chocolates in the Con Suite.
October 2013
On October 3, Fred goes out all day with Sherry. First they go to Dr. Ana Shahnematollahi to get more medical test results. She says that they are good, but that Fred needs to drink more water. Next they go to the Home Town Buffet in Van Nuys for lunch. Next, to Sherry's apartment where Fred reads books and gets a new royalty statement from Stone Bridge Press for $70.70 for his Watching Anime, Reading Manga (still selling after nine years, in an electronic edition since the trade paperback is out of print). Then to the North Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library to get a reserved book for Fred. Then to Solly's Deli in Sherman Oaks for dinner. Finally to the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, where Fred autographs his latest book for the LASFS Library, and votes for the club's 2013 Forry Award recipient, where Fred's candidate wins by one vote. On October 10, Fred gets an e-mail from his editor at FurPlanet Publications that his Five Furry Fortunes is almost ready for proofreading for its January 2014 publication, and he is asked to edit a new Furry anthology for July 2014 publication. Later, Sherry takes him to the Burbank Center to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 again. Afterwards they go to lunch at Fuddrucker's. On October 18, Sherry and Fred go to lunch at Solley's Deli, and then to Sherry's apartment where Fred does research in Furry convention program books borrowed from Roz Gibson. On October 19, Fred sends a proposal for a new anthology of Furry short fiction to Brick Tower Press, the purchaser of Fred's Furry! following iBooks' bankruptcy in 2006. On October 26, Sherry takes him to the Burbank Center to see Gravity. Afterwards they go to lunch at A Taste of India, where they both have lamb vindaloo. Also, Fred gets an e-mail from Theme Park Press offering to publish a collection of his Funny Animals and More weekly column for Cartoon Research, if he will prepare it for book publication. On October 31, Fred gets a scan of Terrie Smith's cover for his Five Furry Fortunes, to be published in January.
September 2013
On September 13, Fred and Sherry go to the UCR Library in Riverside to visit Dr. Melissa Conway. Fred does research into fanzines and helps sort his collection of buttons & pins. On September 22, Fred and Sherry go to an ASIFA-Hollywood preview of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, the week before it is released, at the Cary Grant Theater on the Sony Columbia lot in Culver City. Afterwards they go to lunch at Solley's Deli in Sherman Oaks. On September 28, Sherry takes Fred to the Best Buy in Sherman Oaks, where Fred buys the anime Soul Eater DVD because it looks so weird -- 51 half-hour 2008-'09 TV episodes, very Shinto but set in Death City, Nevada, America. "The plot of the episodes follows Maka Albarn, a 'meister' of the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), and her living weapon, Soul Eater, as she seeks to make the latter into a 'death scythe' through absorbing the souls of evil humans. [...] They must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, in that order; otherwise, they will have to start all over again." Then they go to lunch at Solley's Deli in the same shopping center, and then to Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Mission Park/Eagle Rock to stock up on exotic soft drinks.
August 2013
On August 2, Sherry and Fred drive to pick up Sherry's friend Phil Muchnik in Montrose, then they all go to the Yard House restaurant at Paseo Colorado in Pasadena for lunch. Afterwards, they take Phil home, then go to Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Eagle Rock to shop for exotic soft drinks, then to the Glendale Public Library to get a reserved book, then to a McDonald's near Fred's convalescent hospital to get him a strawberry milkshake, before returning him to his hospital. On August 9, Sherry takes Fred to the office of Dr. Ana Shahnematollahi to get more medical test results. She says that they are good, but that it is time to schedule other annual tests.
Afterward they go to lunch at Solley's Restaurant & Deli in Sherman Oaks, then to Sherry's apartment where Fred reads magazines. On August 9, Fred receives his first copies of his new book, What Happens Next. On August 10, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Planes. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Burbank Center Fuddruckers. On August 14, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Elysium. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Burbank Center Taste of India. On August 16, Sherry takes Fred to Valley Presbyterian Hospital for an electrocardiogram ordered by Dr. Ramesh Arora. Afterwards they go for lunch at the Home Town Buffet in Van Nuys. On August 22, Sherry takes Fred to Dr. Yvonne Arafiles, dentist in Panorama City, for his quarterly teeth cleaning. Afterwards they go for lunch to the Outback in Burbank's Empire Mall. On August 29, Sherry and Fred go to dinner at Solley's Restaurant in Sherman Oaks with Lee & Barry Gold. Fred gives Lee a copy of his What Happens Next, and Lee gives him her Bloodslut, Wild Blood, and Aristo Blood trilogy.
Afterwards Fred and Sherry go to the LASFS meeting, where Fred gives the club librarian a copy of his What Happens Next. On August 30, Sherry takes Fred to Dr. Mark Lensky for a checkup. He says that Fred is good but considerably overweight for being wheelchair-bound. Afterwards, Fred and Sherry go to lunch at the Outback. Fred starts to receive the submissions for his next anthology, Five Furry Fortunes.
July 2013
On July 3, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Monsters University. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Burbank Center Fuddruckers where Fred has a messy hamburger. On July 4, the Anthrocon 2013 convention in Pittsburgh starts, and Fred's What Happens Next anthology goes on sale. On July 5, Sherry takes Fred to the UCRiverside Library, where they have a pleasant conversation with Dr. Melissa Conway of the Library and Sarah Allison of Special Collections. Fred does much research in his fanzines for a new history of Furry fan conventions.
On July 12, Sherry and Fred join Sherry's friend Phil Muchnik in Glendale at the Americana Mall to see Despicable Me 2 at the Pacific Theatres Glendale 18. Afterwards they go to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. On July 18, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Turbo. Afterwards they go to a Louisiana Seafood Gumbo lunch at Michael's Bar & Grill in Burbank. On July 24, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Pacific Rim. Afterwards they go for lunch to Fuddruckers. On July 31, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see R.I.P.D. Afterwards they go for lunch to Fuddruckers again.
June 2013
On June 1, Sherry and Fred attend one day of the 3-day CaliFur IX convention at the Irvine Marriott Hotel. On June 3, Fred finishes the editing of his new anthology, What Happens Next, and gives Teiran, his editor at FurPlanet in Dallas, the go-ahead to have it printed. On June 5, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 theaters to see Epic. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Home Town Buffet in Burbank. On June 13, Sherry takes Fred to the offices of Drs. Ramesh K. Arora and Ana Shahnematollahi to get the results of heart tests. He gets generally good results except for his liver. Afterwards Sherry & Fred go to Solley's Deli in Sherman Oaks for lunch, followed by driving to the Center Stage Gallery in Burbank for a one-man exhibition, "Past, Pencil, Future"; the fantasy art of Peter Clarke. Practically nobody else is present, so they have a long conversation with Clarke and he gives them a private tour. On June 14, Fred goes to Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City for a CAT Scan. Sherry is unable to take him, so his convalescent hospital arranges for his transportation by ambulance.
On June 20, Sherry takes Fred to Dr. Sanjay Logani, an ophthalmologist in Reseda, to have his vision checked. Dr. Logani says that Fred's vision is 20/20 with his present glasses, which he got just before his stroke in 2005; his vision has not deteriorated any. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Home Town Buffet in Van Nuys. On June 28, Sherry takes Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Now You See Me. Afterwards they go to lunch at the Flavor of India restaurant at the Burbank Center where Fred has lamb vindaloo, followed by dessert at Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop.
May 2013
On May 2, Sherry took Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Oblivion. Afterwards they went to lunch at the Burbank Home Town Buffet. A few days later, Fred caught a bad cold that lasted for almost two weeks. That and Sherry's need to frequently visit their mother in Laguna Hills kept Fred from going out for most of May. On May 22, Sherry took Fred to the Burbank AMC 16 to see Star Trek Into Darkness. Afterwards they went to lunch at P. F. Chang's, then Sherry took Fred to the Baskin-Robbins in San Fernando for a chocolate mint malt, and then to get a haircut at the Champions Only Barber Shop. Gary the barber came out to Sherry's van to cut Fred's hair. On May 31, Sherry took Fred to a medical checkup with Dr. Mark Lensky, an electrocardiologist, who said that Fred's heart is okay. Afterward, they went to lunch at the Home Town Buffet in Van Nuys.
April 2013
On April 4, Sherry took Fred to Dr. Yvonne Arafiles, dentist in Panorama City, to get his teeth cleaned. She found a missing filling, so they made an appointment to have it replaced. They went to Big Jim's Restaurant & Bar in Sun Valley for lunch, where Fred had a burrito especial. On April 6, Sherry took Fred to the Burbank Center AMC 16 to see Oz the Great And Powerful. The VFX were impressive, but James Franco played Oz as such a negative character that it was impossible to really like the movie. Afterward they went to the Burbank Home Town Buffet for lunch. On April 24, Sherry took Fred to Best Buy in Sherman Oaks to get a new computer since his existing one was six years old. The Best Buy was in the same shopping mall as Solley's Deli, so they went to lunch there afterwards. On April 25, Sherry took Fred to Dr. Arafiles to get his filling replaced, then to Big Jim's Restaurant & Bar in Sun Valley for lunch. Fred found that not all his files had been transferred from his old computer to his new, so on April 27 Sherry took him back to Best Buy to have his new computer updated. Afterwards they went to lunch at Solley's Deli again.
March 2013
During March, the RainFurrest 2013 convention began to publicize that Fred would be its Fandom Guest of Honor (in absentia). On March 9, Sherry took Fred to see the "Illustrating Modern Life" exhibition at Pepperdine University in Malibu. This was Fred's first visit to the University. Fred had previously reviewed the catalogue of the exhibition and wanted to see the original paintings. The Pepperdine campus was very beautiful. The exhibit was on two floors in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. The paintings, mostly 1890 to 1940 cover paintings for such popular magazines as Collier's Weekly, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post by such artists as N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, and J. C. Leydendecker, were extremely impressive. The catalogue reproductions were mostly the same size, while the original paintings were all sizes from about postcard size to gigantic As they left, Fred & Sherry discovered another gallery while looking for the Cultural Arts Center restroom; the Mallmann collection of decorated hand fans, mostly of ivory painted in Oriental motifs. On March 11, Sherry took Fred to the Burbank Center AMC 16 to see Jack the Giant Slayer, but the theater had changed its schedule without warning, so they went back to Sherry's apartment where Fred watched a DVD of the Indian animated feature Roadside Romeo, in Hindi with English subtitles.
On March 14, Fred agreed to write a new weekly column on animation, Funny Animals and More, for Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research website. On March 18, Sherry and Fred returned to the Burbank Center AMC 16 and enjoyed Jack the Giant Slayer successfully (its main problem is that it's Too Long), followed by going to lunch at the Home Town Buffet in Burbank, which has a larger menu than the HTB in Van Nuys. On March 20, Fred and Sherry went to the UCRiverside Library, where Fred did research into the history of s-f fanzines. On March 28, Sherry took Fred to the Burbank Center AMC 16 theater to see The Croods, which he had gotten the art book to review the day before, Afterwards they went to lunch at the Burbank Home Town Buffet. On March 30, Sherry took Fred for a day at Wondercon at the Anaheim Convention Center. First they had a very good lunch at the Marriott's Cafe del Sol restaurant. They had barely gotten their registration badges when Fred met a couple of old friends; Larry Lau from ASIFA-Hollywood, and Rod O'Riley from lots of Furry places. Fred did not get anything this year, but he talked with two publishers that had been ignoring his requests for review books, and hopefully he will be added to their review lists. Sherry got some bracelets. Wondercon was much more pleasant this year without any rain. They were ready for dinner before the Marriott restaurant opened for it, so they ate in the hotel's Degrees patio bar instead. Greg Koudoulian came by while they were eating and gave Fred a book.
February 2013
On February 2, Fred's sister Sherry got a telephone call from Saddleback Hospital about their mother, who was 100 years old last September. She had fallen at home, could not get up, and called the paramedics on her cell phone. She was all right, but the hospital did not want to release her to return to living alone. Both Fred and his sister, and now lots of medical personnel have been arguing that she is too old to live alone, so she finally agreed to sell her house and move into assisted living. On February 7, Sherry again brought Fred to her apartment for a takeout Cajun dinner, and then to the monthly CAPS meeting, where they listened to a discussion on freelance comic book publishing practices and toured a gallery exhibit of art owned by member Bob Foster (mostly non-comics landscape paintings, though with one late 1970s watercolor by Carl Barks of funny-animal non-Disney ducks).
Fred did not leave the hospital on any other outings during February (another trip to the UCR Library was cancelled), due to Sherry's need to spend time getting their mother moved into assisted living in Laguna Hills.
January 2013
On January 2, Sherry took Fred to the IKEA restaurant at Burbank Center for an early lunch, followed by seeing Jack Reacher at the AMC 16 theater. Good, but the novel One Shot is better. On January 5, Fred and Sherry spent all day at the Anime L.A. 9 convention at the LAX Marriott Hotel. The convention was fun, but it was incredibly crowded and they had trouble pushing Fred's wheelchair through the crowds. Committee chairman Chaz Baden later said that 5,001 attendance badges were issued this year, compared with 1,100 at the average Loscon at the same hotel. On January 10, Sherry brought Fred to her apartment for a takeout Cajun dinner, followed by attending the monthly CAPS meeting in Burbank to see a presentation by "Paul Roman Martinez, author-artist of a web comic turned graphic novel, The Adventures of the 19XX, an Art Deco-influenced "Dieselpunk" comic with a healthy merchandising program. We'll learn about how he builds his worlds, and how he builds his income." Too much emphasis on how he gets funded through Kickstarter. On January 17, Sherry took Fred to Valley Presbyterian Hospital for a 11:00 a.m. heart stress test, but the hospital had finished giving stress tests for the day. The test was rescheduled for the following week. Fred & Sherry went to lunch at the HomeTown Buffet in Van Nuys.
On January 20, Sherry and Fred went to the Laemmle Playhouse in Encino to see The Rabbi's Cat, in French with English subtitles (very witty and original), followed by lunch at Solley's Deli. On January 22, they returned earlier to Valley Presbyterian Hospital for the heart stress test, which took all morning, followed by a bacon cheeseburger at McDonald's.
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