CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME: Some thoughts on my arrival into lovely Southern California for what may be as long as a week for work stuff (which may explain some lack of blogging from me over the next few days):

• Man, the Bose Noise Cancellation Headsets provided by American to its Business Class passengers really work. Watching The Bourne Ultimatum on the tiny little "Digital Entertainment Device" they gave to us was a pleasure (and, man, does that hold up--if The Fugitive was nominated for Best Picture, this oughta be, too).
• I always forget coming into Los Angeles that it's surrounded by mountains. Never having lived anywhere where there's much change of elevation in the metro area, it's really a refreshing thing to see change of elevation.
• Man, Santa Monica is strange. I'm in a hotel right on the beach, yet a block away are horrible craphole motels, and then another block away, what appears to be a massive tourist trap. It's a little freaky (and, yeah, got lost on the way to the hotel and got to navigate through the random streets of Santa Monica).

My Year of Flops Case File # 101 Graffiti Bridge | The A.V. Club

THEY DON'T CARE WHERE THEY KICK, JUST AS LONG AS THEY HURT U: Almost to the end of his magnificent "My Year of Flops" series, the AV Club's Nathan Rabin tackles Graffiti Bridge:

Graffiti Bridge was designed as both a sequel to Purple Rain and a vehicle for Ingrid Chavez, one of a series of talented young singer-songwriters Prince nurtured creatively. And by “talented young singer-songwriters,” I of course mean “talentless skanks” and by “nurtured creatively” I mean ...

Yeah. I've seen it, and Rabin captures the fiasco accurately. (The soundtrack, however, is pretty great - "Still Would Stand All Time" is one of Prince's better ballads, and I have a soft spot for "Elephants and Flowers.")

In other AV Club news, Patton Oswalt tries a KFC Famous Bowl, and Anthony Bourdain sits down for a long interview.

What's Alan Watching?: 30 Rock: Damn good coffee! And hot!

THE DEVIL'S TEMPERATURE: There may not be a lot to say about Thursday night's until-the-strike's-over final episode of 30 Rock, but anything still worth saying is worth mentioning here. I thought it was just-okay for a 30 Rock episode, which is still yards better than almost anything else on television, with the musical sequence being its highlight. One of Alan Sepinwall's readers noted that none of the show's writer-characters appeared in the episode, which seems like the right touch. So grab a Jewish doughnut, and let's get on that train to the floating city of New Chicago.

[FYI: the annual ALOTT5MA Award for Funniest Half-Hour of Television of 2007 was awarded to the "Source Awards" episode of 30 Rock -- yes, ahead of "Cleveland" or "Greenzo". I thought it took the biggest comedic risks and they all paid off ("They're remarkable people, the Blacks"), and Wayne Brady + LL Cool J > Emily Mortimer. "Didn't you tell me to live every week like it's Shark Week? And that nothing's impossible except dinosaurs?"]

WEEKEND FUN: This is the greatest list ever and this is just plain funny (and OK, a little mean, but more funny).

R.E.M. singer charmed by Huckabee - Yahoo! News

THOUGH HE DID REFER TO LAST NIGHT'S GOP DEBATE AS "A TOURNAMENT, A TOURNAMENT, A TOURNAMENT OF LIES": So, for whatever reason, Michael Stipe [heart] Huckabee, which opens up a question: is there any celebrity whose endorsement would matter to you? Is there any celebrity whose endorsement matters, period?

COULDN'T WE MASH THEM UP INTO "BRIDEZILLA ATTACKS NEW YORK?" Next weekend poses a dilemma for many ThingThrowers with two ALOTT5MA faves squaring off at the box office--so, who you got--Katherine Heigl or J.J. Abrams? (And seriously, the press notes for Cloverfield, which contain some spoilers, make even more fascinated.)

WONDERMIKE: We were talking in the other thread about memorable political moments in our lives, and I have to confess that I was really moved by the sight last night on my way home of hundreds of people waiting in line outside City Hall just to shake the hand of our new mayor, Michael Nutter. Mind you, his predecessor was so unpopular that he couldn't get people to line up unless he was giving away iPhones, but still, it says something about the hope that we invest in our politicians that so many well-wishers were there.

I attended the inaugural celebration Tuesday night, enjoying some Chickie & Pete's cocktail shrimp, Sid Booker's fried shrimp (as good as Jim Leff claimed) and various and sundry non-shrimp items from purveyors around the City, but headed home before what ended up being the true highlight of the evening, thankfully captured on YouTube: our new mayor, a former club dj himself back in the day, rapping his way through "Rapper's Delight". Now, that's a memorable moment.