We live fairly close to two big AMC theaters out here in Burbank, and this past weekend my roommates and I discovered that both have IMAX screens.

For those of you unfamiliar with IMAX, let me attempt to explain its awesomeness to you. An IMAX theater has a huge screen. HUGE. A floor-to-ceiling kind of screen or, in some cases, one that is actually dome-shaped and covers part of the ceiling. IMAX film is also intensely high resolution. That’s why I suggest you see films starring good-looking people in IMAX rather than ones starring uglier people; you see every detail of their face (good or bad). These theaters also have a crazy sound system set up. It is like that old school THX surround sound business on steroids (all of my techie TV friends are laughing at my lack of appreciation for a good sound system right now).

When I was younger, we would regularly take trips to the local museum, which had an IMAX screen, to watch documentaries about things like the Titanic. Of course, at the museum most of the audience was either below the age of twelve or old enough to have been on the Titanic, so it wasn’t exactly a college student hangout. It had never dawned on me that feature films could be shown on IMAX. That’s why I pretty much wet myself when I learned that “The Dark Knight” was playing on IMAX in Burbank (okay, not really…but almost).

So last Saturday, since it was cloudy out, we decided to go see it (even though we have collectively seen it at least a dozen times). I got to watch a GIANT image of Christian Bale beat up bad guys while listening to his absurdly raspy Batman voice for two and a half hours. I swear the bass was so loud that I could feel my seat shaking every time he spoke (”I’m not wearing hockey pads…”).

We were so thrilled at the whole experience that we ended up returning the very next day to watch Coraline in 3-D. (Coraline wasn’t technically in IMAX, but the 3-D was definitely cool). Good movie, kind of creepy. You should see it.

The theater trips ended in time for the Academy Awards on Sunday night. There were plenty of unofficial ICLA gatherings in the Oakwoods to celebrate, but I stuck around my place for the most part to catch up on some work. On Monday, everyone at school and at work had something to say about the ceremony. People in LA are crazy about the Academy Awards! Since I drive right by the Kodak Theatre every day on my way in to work, it has been interesting the past few weeks watching the red carpet and all of the equipment get set up outside. It’s quite the production.

Well, it’s getting late here at the Pendleton Center and I need to take off so I can go grab some food. Happy Tuesday night, and we’ll talk soon!

Last week, a friend of ours told us that there was a knoc k on her door and she opened it to discover it was Jay Leno. Apparently he came through our apartment complex taping one of his “Jaywalking” segments and, sadly, did not come by our place.

But that’s all right, because I met him a few weeks ago when I got the chance to attend a taping of The Tonight Show. The experience was, needless to say, moderately phenomenal.

It all started when I learned from a friend that our awesome PR professor, Cathryn Boxberger, could get tickets to Leno tapings. Naturally, I asked her about them the first day of class, and before I  knew it I had a set of tickets to the Tonight Show for the very next week!

In an effort to save me from a lot of writing and to you from a lot of boredom, I’ll try to summarize the experience in five key moments:

1. Turns out the tickets I had were VIP tickets. Which means no waiting in line, just sitting around in a waiting area before being escorted to the front of the line that everyone else had to wait in for hours.
2. Leno’s guest that night was Rainn Wilson (Dwight from “The Office”). Anybody who knows me knows that I love “The Office”. I was thrilled.
3. The Tonight Show doesn’t really like having old people sit up front. Apparently they hand pick younger-looking people and pull them to the front of the studio in an attempt to convince viewers at home that Leno’s biggest fans are young, hip people (in other words, people totally unlike Leno himself). As a result, we were somehow chosen to be a part of the “young crowd” and were escorted to the front row of the studio. FRONT ROW. I was twenty feet away from Leno’s desk and Rainn Wilson.
4. As Jay came out to do his monologue, we discovered that we were literally inches away from where he stood. I shook his hand at the beginning.
5. Later that night we watched the show on TV (it isn’t done live, they tape it earlier in the day). And I saw the side of my face… MORE THAN ONCE. Guess I’m a celebrity now.

And that was it. One of the best things I’ve done since being here, all thanks to the wonderful connections at ICLA!

Our first weekend here in LA, we took a hike up to the famous “Hollywood” sign. I first thought that this would be a very touristy thing to do. Every time I have been out to LA, I notice sunburned people with fanny packs and white visors taking pictures of the sign from those big tour buses. But what I never realized is that you can actually go to the top of the mountain where the sign is located. Fortunately for me, the wonderful ICLA staff knows all about it, and helped us organize a group hike!

So off we went. The hike started out in a neighborhood at the base of the mountain. Once we got to the trail, I immediately observed a few things:

One of the first experiences I had upon arriving in Los Angeles was ICLA’s Orientation Extravaganza (and by “extravaganza” I mean series of orientation sessions). We talked about everything from traveling to classes to housing to–(gasp)–rules. The two-day program ended with a group trip to a taping of “The New Adventures of Old Christine”, a CBS sitcom starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of “Seinfeld” fame).

There are a few things you should know about attending a TV taping. First, you get paid to do it. Seriously. Show up for the filming of a half hour TV show, see the stars, see the episode before the rest of the world, and get paid. Sounds like a deal, right? Well, there’s a catch: tapings tend to take several hours.

We arrived at Warner Bros. studios for the taping and left the studios a good 3 or 4 hours later. That’s a lot of television. A lot of laughter. And a lot of repetition. There’s good news though…they feed you (a small amount of) pizza, and you get to see the stars in action. We were kept occupied during downtime by a comedian who told cheesy jokes and publicly embarrassed audience members, which was fun. Nothing’s better than watching your friends participate in a dance contest against senior citizens (*cough* Joyeta *cough*).

So back to this whole “getting paid” concept. I have to credit ICLA for thinking to organize a group trip there. Our fantastic Programs and Services Coordinator, Jon Bassinger-Flores (or “Jon B-F”, as many students call him), takes all of the money we get from attending the tapings and uses it to subsidize the costs of tons of events throughout the semester. This means we could get super-cheap or free tickets to various sporting events, amusement parks, concerts, movies and other attractions. Seems like a great deal when you realize that by sitting still for a few hours (which is surprisingly difficult for me), you could be saving a lot of money!

As a whole, it was a great way to jump-start the semester. I know the TV-R kids were especially excited to see production people in action (I was more confused by all of the cables and lights). But I must admit that seeing the whole process that goes into taping a sitcom gives me much more respect for the actors and especially the crew. They all put hours and hours of labor into each episode. Looks like a tough job to me, but they seem to have a blast!

Well, I suppose this is just one of many flashbacks that I have to share with you. Stay tuned for more in the upcoming days…