Whilst I'm doing the Hollywood thing and living here, I may as well offer up any Hollywood stuff---got an invite from Variety to see a pre-release screening of Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby," and I was there to write about it, so I'll write about it. Ebert and Roper gave it a hefty two thumbs up and couldn't stop talking about this unusual film, so I went. I love Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman anyway, and Hilary Swank has an Oscar nomination at least buttoned up, I should think, for her superb performance. She slam-dunks one long scene with Clint...simply as good as it gets. This was another Malpaso (Eastwood) film, and excellent---except for one annoying thing: I'm not real keen on movies with voice-overs to help you tell a story you should be able to tell it with your characters and plot---it's a cop-out---and this otherwise excellent film has Freeman voicing over all through the film ala "Shawshank Redemption," but in Shawshank, the voice-overs were just right...in this one, they are way too many and annoying...and most of them are unnecessary. I'll go one better, ALL of them are unnecessary, much as Freeman has a wonderful delivery.

It's a classic Hollywood formula film, but done with Clint's deft hand as always. I know he likes Freeman...maybe he just likes to hear him talk. I'd rather see Morgan ACT any day. Clint wrote the music for the film, and most of the songs were written by his son. His gorgeous little daughter has a cameo in it as well. What a cute, charming little girl she is. I still think his best film was "The Bridges of Madison County," and of course, that had a lot to do with Meryl Streep. She WAS that film. But Clint's direction in Million Dollar Baby was 100%....although there was one scene the cinematographer cocked up badly (with lighting and color balance) and I'm surprised they let it through, or at least didn't try to correct it in post.

The writing was great...some really good lines, and a couple of terrific, funny ones...in fact, one movie classic funny one...when you see the film, you'll know the one I mean. It's early on.

There was some acoustic guitar in this film...so I'm covered.

Do you know that almost ALL Hollywood films---blockbusters to the one I saw tonight---follow a formula that was recognized and laid down by Aristotle 2350 years ago??? That's right. He was one sharp son of a bitch. Not only films, ALL great stories in film or book or play form follow Aristotle's paradigm. Even Shakespeare slips right in there neatly. Aristotle recognized that all stories that captivate can be played out in three acts. Act I is the setup---who's who and what's what; Act II is the conflict---the story, and Act III is the resolution. It gets more refined than that, of course, but I'm not giving that away...people pay big bucks for that! It's diabolically clever, though, because there's one story we never tire of hearing, though it can played out in a million different ways.

I saw the film at "The Grove," a new complex adjacent to the old, classic Farmer's Market on Fairfax in Hollywood. It's a kind of Disneyland Main Street and it works...outdoor cafes, quite European in feel, and everything you want within a one minute walk---book store, an Apple store, superb cinema complex, boutiques, myriad restaurants....very nice, if a bit planned and twee. It's certainly popular.

There are lots of Armenian people here in LA, and my transmission guys and my dentist are Armenian, and they are the loveliest people you'd ever want to meet....really friendly, trusting, welcoming, and down-to-earth. My dentist, for instance, was working on loosening a tooth to pull it one day and woke up the nerve and I jumped and went, "Agghhh!" and he said, "What?" I said, "That really hurt!" And he leaned down (he looks like Yul Brynner) and looked me sideways straight in the eye and said, "How much?" I creased up laughing and he yanked it painlessly.

I always look for a dentist with powerful arms, and my dentist has them. Much more control.

My scouse (Liverpool) friend, Kenny, who is married to the stunning Nikita, half his age (and a foot taller than him), had an impacted wisdom tooth and was quoted $1,500 to have it surgically removed by an oral surgeon. He called and asked me about my dentist, and I said, "go over there and talk to him." Kenny did, George worked on Ken for an hour and fifteen minutes---no pain, but he had to cut away the bone and all that, and when Ken asked him for the damages, George said, "Well, normally, it would be $220, but since you're a friend of Paul's, $175." Ken couldn't believe it. George feels he makes plenty of money to support his family as it is, and wants to keep his prices down to help all his patients. And dentists in the eastern bloc countries had to do everything---there were no oral surgeons back there......not pussies like many of the dentists here. The Armenians just got on with it. And George's practice is a bit like a bazaar...people wander in and out with icons and all sorts of things to trade...it's really informal. None of this bullshit "Doctor" stuff. It's "George."

When I first met George (a Russian girlfriend turned me onto him) I held out my hand to shake hands over the doorway into his office, and he frowned and pulled me into the office THEN shook my hand. I looked at him questioningly. "Never shake hands over a threshold....you should know that!" I like it. Now every time I see him, we hug each other hello and goodbye. Tell me, how many times have you hugged YOUR dentist? If I can't pay him fully for the work he has done, I pay him when I can with no paperwork or questions asked. Pure trust.

Leo and Sam, brothers-in-law transmission specialists and mechanics, are cut from the same Armenian cloth. My transmission blew big time and I didn't have the money to fix it, but I needed my car. They were recommended to me by the car rental agency and I had my Explorer towed in to them. The bill would be $1,300 for a rebuild AND a new torque converter (about half the going rate). I could only pay them a pathetic $300 and it would take three months to pay the rest. They didn't know me from Adam, but said they would do the work and they did, and trusted me to pay them when I could. This isin LA! Well....we have become the best of friends and I send all my friends to them and they all get treated first class and with the best prices. When I have little niggly probs with the Explorer, they will fix them and refuse to take any money. I have to force it in their shirt pockets, and then I get, "Paul, don't embarrass me...just keep your money! Here, stay and have lunch with us." Wonderful people. I wish they could all be rich...they deserve it....and would know how to spend their money doing good things for family and friends.

So, to George, Leo, and Sam...here's to you. LA gets a bad rap...deservedly in some respects...but in others, if you dig a little, you meet some really lovely people here.

Have you ever had Malaysian food? Well...if you like Indian, Chinese, and Thai food, you are in for a TREAT, my friend. Malaysian food beats them all, hands down. And I LOVE Indian food. LOVE it! My dear friends, Rick and Val, who are Canadian and English in that order, live in Concord, northern California. They wanted to take me out to dinner and Val looked in the paper and found some great reviews for this new Malaysian restaurant called the Banyan Tree. We went, and were BLOWN A WAY! Everything---EVERTHING we ordered was su-fucking-perb beyond belief. Incredible food. I won't even try to describe it, except that it's quite spicy...but with subtle layers of flavors like you have never tasted....just try some, you'll thank me. Never tasted anything like it. This place was packed out on a Monday night...so it was a GOOD Malaysian restaurant!

I met Rick in 1970 in Barnes, where I lived with Lesley---I will tell you all about famous, crazy Lesley in a future blog---Rick was an actor, singer, songwriter, artist and good at all of them, the bastard. He plays keyboards and GUITAR (badda-bing!). Rick was married to Min at the time, and they had two lovely daughters named Flea and Chrysta...Flea is now married to mad John Keeble, the drummer in Spandau Ballet, and Chrysta is married and has a band called Workshy who are famous in Japan...both girls live in London.

When they were young, Rick was driving Chrysta someplace and they came across a huge billboard of the current Trower (guitarist....guitarist!) album, "For Earth Below," the cover of which I did and is all red with a red circular shape. Pubescent 10 year-old Chrysta piped up, "Look dad, Paul's tit!"

I've had many interpretations of that cover, but never one as colorful as that!