Photos of the Day: Snapshots from THE MANDALORIAN's Panel at PaleyFest LA...

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! Just thought I'd share these pictures that I took during Day 1 of PaleyFest LA...which was held at the Dolby Theatre (home to the Academy Awards) in Hollywood last night.

It was on Day 1 that a panel for The Mandalorian was held...right after the latest episode (Chapter 21—"The Pirate") was screened. In attendance at the panel were The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, Lucasfilm executive Dave Filoni, director Rick Famuyiwa and stars Pedro Pascal (who plays the Mandalorian himself, Din Djarin) and Katee Sackhoff (who portrays Bo-Katan Kryze).

There were no juicy tidbits revealed in terms of where Season 3 of The Mandalorian was headed, nor info about other Star Wars Disney+ shows currently being filmed or in post-production, but it was great to see the cast and crew behind one of the most popular Star Wars shows ever in person.

There are only three episodes left in Season 3— Can't wait to see what kind of cliffhanger it will end with! Even though Season 4 probably won't premiere till late 2024 or early 2025...

And yes, that is my director's cap for my short film The Broken Table which I'm wearing in the photos below! Carry on.

My Webpage Is Up for Photos That I Took at the 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show!

I'm over three months late, but just thought I'd end January by letting y'all know that I finally created a webpage containing 60 pictures that I took at last October's Aerospace Valley Air Show in Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), CA! Click on the link below to view the images...which I captured using my Google Pixel 4A phone and Nikon D3300 DSLR camera.

It was so cool to see such aircraft as the F-35 Lightning II (all three U.S. variants from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, that is), F-22 Raptor, SR-71 Blackbird, B-1B Lancer, NASA's now-retired SOFIA flying observatory, and even the full-sized Darkstar movie prop that was used in last year's Oscar nominee for Best Picture (it's so cool typing that), Top Gun: Maverick, in person.

Not sure if I'll drive down to Edwards AFB again this year (especially considering that Google Maps made me take a crappy route on the way home last time, heh), but if I do, I'll be sure to get more pics of F-22s, F-35s and B-1Bs conducting awesome aerial demos above the Mojave Desert! I missed out last year since I was still looking for a parking spot at the Southern California airbase when these aircraft were strutting their stuff in the sky.

It took me about two hours to park my car once I entered Edwards AFB before I got to enjoy the Aerospace Valley Air Show...but oh well. This event was worth it!

LINK: Click here for more photos that I took at the 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show

Wakanda and Mamba Forever...

Just thought I'd share this photo that I found online showing Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant at the 2018 Academy Awards...when Kobe won an Oscar for his 2017 animated short, Dear Basketball. Boseman sadly passed away yesterday at the age of 43—after battling colon cancer since 2016. 2020 has obviously been a rough year...and it's clearly been a devastating year for the African-American community. From the deaths of Kobe Bryant, George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Elijah McClain and many others, as well as the recent shooting of Jacob Blake to this evening's tragic news, it definitely seems like fate is testing the resilience of the black community. It would be a cliché to ask for 2021 to be a much better year for people of color (and the whole world, in general), but that's what we need right now.

In the four years that he was battling color cancer, Boseman gave us Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Marshall, 21 Bridges and Da 5 Bloods. Boseman was a true hero for how he showed much perseverance in the face of such adversity. May he join Kobe and many others in an eternal legacy of greatness... Rest In Peace.

Batman Rises as GOTHAM Comes to an End...

Farewell, Gotham. The series finale for the DC comic book show—which lasted for 5 years on FOX TV—aired tonight. In the span of an hour, we saw the definitive rise of Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), Catwoman (played by Camren Bicondova during the show's 5-year run; portrayed by Lili Simmons in today's episode) and the Joker (or J, played by Cameron Monaghan)...as well as the Caped Crusader himself (David Mazouz donned the Batcowl even though a taller actor wore the Batsuit in that memorable last shot of the finale).

I enjoyed how this final season of Gotham was inspired by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy...with the Bane subplot paying homage to The Dark Knight Rises, and the opening scene of tonight's finale borrowing from Hans Zimmer's memorable music score for The Dark Knight films. And of course, Cameron Monaghan's take on Jerome Valeska in the previous seasons was an awesome echo of Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance as the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight. I also watched the series finale of the Superman TV series Smallville in 2011, and Gotham blew it out of the water with a much more satisfying introduction of an iconic DC superhero.

The only other comic book show that I watch on TV is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll see how that series ends. With Avengers: Endgame opening in theaters tomorrow (I'm watching it at a 10 AM matinee), the producers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. should get a clearer picture on what direction this series should take as it heads toward its inevitable finale. Anyways, to get back to topic: I'll miss you, Gotham! Glad to see Batman begin again—on the small screen, at least. That is all.

The Mamba Is Now an Oscar Winner...

Congrats to Kobe Bryant and animator Glen Keane after their film Dear Basketball won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short tonight! KB24 continues to be a champ...

Kobe Bryant Got An Oscar Nomination Today...

So not only did the Black Mamba win five NBA championships and earn seven MVP trophies (four for being an NBA All-Star, one for the 2007-'08 NBA regular season, and two for being the MVP of the 2009 and 2010 NBA Finals, respectively) with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he may also take home an Academy Award for Dear Basketball, a short film that was presented during Kobe Bryant's jersey retirement ceremony at STAPLES Center last month!

Dear Basketball got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. Congrats to the Mamba!

(The Academy Awards air on ABC TV at 5 PM, Pacific Standard Time, on March 4)

Photos of the Day: A Book Signing at The Grove in LA...

Yesterday, I went to The Grove near Beverly Hills to attend a discussion and book signing by Lily Collins...the daughter of music legend Phil Collins and an up-and-coming actress who appeared in such films as last year's Rules Don't Apply, 2013's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and the 2009 Oscar-nominated movie The Blind Side. Ms. Collins was totally awesome in person. She read an excerpt from her new book Unfiltered before giving her take on it and talking about what motivated her to write her first publication. Afterwards, she spent the next two hours signing copies of her book and taking pics with around 300 fans who drove to Barnes & Noble to see her in person. Some attendees even flew 2,000 miles to see Ms. Collins in Los Angeles... Pretty cool!



There are two other book signings that I plan to attend this May—but I won't mention the people appearing since I don't want to jinx these events. Carry on!

The Year of New Horizons and Star Wars Has Arrived!

NASA

Happy New Year, Everyone! 2015 promises to be a mega-year in terms of movies and space exploration...with our first close-up glimpse of two dwarf planets about to take place in a few months, and the follow-up to The Avengers and the long-awaited first installment in the Star Wars sequel trilogy set to come out in theaters by this Christmas. In terms of the dwarf planets, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive at asteroid Ceres this March—while the New Horizons spacecraft will make its historic flyby of Pluto this July (the probe will begin Pluto encounter operations on January 15). On the manned side of spaceflight, a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station this March to begin a year-long mission aboard the outpost that should provide intriguing data about how humans will someday fare during a years-long journey to and from Mars.



On the movie aspect of 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron will continue Marvel's winning streak at the theaters on May 1, while Disney (which owns Marvel) will enhance its overall winning streak when Kylo Ren (shown above) unleashes the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens on December 18. Other potential blockbusters will storm the cinemas as well...like Furious 7 (April 3), Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15), Jurassic World (June 12), Terminator: Genisys (July 1), the James Bond film Spectre (November 6), Part 2 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (November 20) and Mission: Impossible 5 (Christmas Day). In terms of M:I-5, I hope it's as good as 2011's Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol...but I sure as heck hope that it doesn't eat too much into The Force Awakens' box office take during the holidays! We'll see if Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt proves a match for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) when they hit the big screen once more.



On a personal note, two close high school friends of mine are planning to get married (to other folks, that is) by the end of this year. Good for them! For financial reasons, I'm just hoping that their weddings will both be in-state (California, FYI). One of them already is. Cross my fingers that the other one will, too! Heh.



January 2015
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Jan 6)
-Taken 3 (Jan 9)
-72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (Jan 11)
-College Football Playoff National Championship in Arlington, Texas (Jan 12)
-NASA's New Horizons spacecraft begins Pluto encounter operations (Jan 15)
-Blackhat (Jan 16)
-NASA's SMAP satellite is launched to low-Earth orbit (Jan 29)



February 2015
-Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona (Feb 1)
-Jupiter Ascending (Feb 6)
-57th Annual Grammy Awards (Feb 8)
-Kingsman: The Secret Service (Feb 13)
-Fifty Shades of Grey (Feb 13)
-2015 NBA All-Star Game in New York, New York (Feb 15)
-Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (Feb 20)
-57th annual Daytona 500 in Florida (Feb 22)
-87th Academy Awards (Feb 22)
-Focus (Feb 27)



March 2015
-NASA's Dawn spacecraft arrives at dwarf planet Ceres (Mar 6)
-Chappie (Mar 6)
-The Coup (Mar 6)
-The first qualification motor test-firing is conducted on the 5-segment solid rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System, in Utah (Mar 11)
-Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (Mar 13)
-2015 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament begins with Opening Round Game (Mar 17)
-The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Mar 20)
-A total solar eclipse will be visible over Europe (Mar 20)
-Get Hard (Mar 20)
-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko launch on a one-year mission to the International Space Station (Mar 27)
-Conclusion of the March Madness tournament prior to the 2015 Final Four games in Indianapolis (Mar 29)



April 2015
-Furious 7 (Apr 3)
-2015 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana (Apr 4)
-A total lunar eclipse will be visible over western North America, the Pacific, east Asia, Australia and New Zealand (Apr 4)
-NCAA Final Four Championship Game in Indianapolis, Indiana (Apr 6)
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Apr 8)
-NFL Draft begins (Apr 30)



May 2015
-Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1)
-NFL Draft concludes (May 2)
-Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15)
-Pitch Perfect 2 (May 15)
-Spy (May 15)
-Tomorrowland (May 22)
-Start of the 2015 French Open tennis tournament (May 24)
-99th Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 24)
-San Andreas (May 29)



June 2015
-Entourage (Jun 5)
-Conclusion of the 2015 French Open (Jun 7)
-Jurassic World (Jun 12)
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo, including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, to the International Space Station (Jun 13)
-Inside Out (Jun 19)
-Ted 2 (Jun 26)



July 2015
-Terminator Genisys (Jul 1)
-Start of the 2015 Tour de France (Jul 4)
-Minions (Jul 10)
-NASA's New Horizons spacecraft makes its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto (Jul 14)
-2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati, Ohio (Jul 14)
-Ant-Man (Jul 17)
-Trainwreck (Jul 17)
-Pan (Jul 24)
-Poltergeist (Jul 24)
-Conclusion of the Tour de France (Jul 26)
-Point Break (Jul 31)



August 2015
-The Fantastic Four (Aug 7)
-Masterminds (Aug 14)
-Straight Outta Compton (Aug 14)
-Launch of Japan's fifth H-2 Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station (Aug 17)
-Sinister 2 (Aug 21)
-Hitman: Agent 47 (Aug 28)
-Start of the 2015 World Rowing Championships in France (Aug 30)



September 2015
-SpaceX's Dragon ship launches cargo to the International Space Station (Sep 2)
-Jane Got a Gun (Sep 4)
-Kitchen Sink (Sep 4)
-Conclusion of the World Rowing Championships (Sep 6)
-Triple Nine (Sep 11)
-A partial solar eclipse will occur (Sep 13)
-Black Mass (Sep 18)
-Everest (Sep 18)
-The Intern (Sep 25)



October 2015
-Victor Frankenstein (Oct 2)
-London Has Fallen (Oct 2)
-The Jungle Book (Oct 9)
-Vacation (Oct 9)
-St. James Place (Oct 16)
-Jem and the Holograms (Oct 23)
-The Last Witch Hunter (Oct 23)



November 2015
-Start of the Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok, Thailand (Nov 1)
-Spectre (Nov 6)
-The Peanuts Movie (Nov 6)
-Conclusion of the Asian Archery Championships (Nov 8)
-The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Nov 20)
-The Good Dinosaur (Nov 25)
-The Martian (Nov 25)



December 2015
-Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (December 18)
-Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 (Dec 23)
-Mission: Impossible 5 (Dec 25)
-The Revenant (Dec 25)
-The U.S. Marine Corps' F-35B Lightning II fighter jet officially becomes operational and ready for combat (TBD)
-China launches the Barcelona Moon Team's lander and rover to the lunar surface (TBD)
-Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus freighter launches cargo to the International Space Station (TBD)

70 Years Ago, Today...

This day marks seven decades since D-Day occurred at the shores of Normandy, France, in World War II. While Memorial Day was less than two weeks ago, today is another occasion to honor the brave soldiers who lost their lives in this pivotal battle against (Nazi) tyranny. Dramatic language aside, I'll probably mark this historical moment by popping in my DVD of Steven Spielberg's WWII epic Saving Private Ryan later...



On another note, I went hiking with Nancy again early this morning. Even though we went to the same trail that we visited on Memorial Day, here are photos that I took during today's excursion. And yes, I'm planning to take pictures of the trails every time we go hiking together. And no, I'm not gonna post images of Nancy herself unless we ever become a couple. Carry on.