The American Masters Dinner presented by Mercedes-Benz took Friday night as part of the second annual All-Star Chef Classic. An event space located on the L.A. Live campus was transformed into Restaurant Stadium, “a state-of-the-art venue [that brought] over 300 fans ‘kitchen-side’ in an intimate VIP setting, where they [were] as close to the action as possible without being in the heat of the kitchen. “
On Saturday the Los Angeles LGBT Center held its 45th Anniversary Gala & Vanguard Awards presented by Wells Fargo at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. The night featured “awards presentations to influential people and companies in the LGBT movement, a seated dinner, silent auction and special celebrity appearances.”
The theme for the evening was “Celebrate our Superheroes.” And celebrate we did! George and Brad Takei were the International Vanguard Award Honorees, Cort Lane accepted the Corporate Vanguard Award on behalf of Marvel, and Zev Yaroslavsky received the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award. Holland Taylor and Tab Hunter were on hand as presenters.
Last night Infiniti of Beverly Hills which “is the premier automobile dealership of Beverly Hills and the surrounding area…that prides itself on delivering the highest level of customer service before, during, and after a purchase” hosted a launch party that acted as the grand opening for its new dealership.
As I arrived I noticed there was a spin on what we all know as the traditional red carpet experience. Infiniti switched it up and went with a purple carpet. It was a great choice on their part; it was both hip and chic. Katherine McPhee of Scorpion, Dylan McDermott of Stalker, and Michelle Monaghan of True Detective were among those to walk the purple carpet. Julian Gold, the Vice Mayor of Beverly Hills, Michael Bartsch, the Vice President of Infiniti USA, and Seth Waskow, the General Manager of Infiniti of Beverly Hills were also on hand.
This past weekend the Longines Los Angeles Masters took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This event which was created by EEM World is “a unique global event concept created to bring Equestrian Show Jumping to the forefront of the international sporting and social scenes.” This was the first time that The Masters Grand Slam which includes events in both Paris and Hong Kong came to LA. The Masters’ competition offered class formats that were designed specifically with grabbing the attention of both equestrian aficionados and those that are new to the sport in mind. The most prolific riders and Show Jumping horses in the world competed for prize money that equaled one million dollars during the four day competition.
As someone who has been following this series since the very beginning, I have mixed emotions. I am pleased with the final movie, more than pleased actually, but at the same time I am saddened that it’s over. Since I picked up Twilight, the first book in the Twilight Saga, I have been living in an alternate universe. I have been following the lives of fictional characters and becoming more and more attached as I turned each page. It’s finally starting to hit me that there will be no more page turning or midnight screenings. It’s bittersweet, but boy oh boy what a way for the saga to go out!
We at XOJOHN got the chance to check out an exclusive preview of the Lucent Dossier Experience titled “Lucent Encounter” at The Liberty Theater in New York City.
Hale and Hearty launched its first ever “Chef Series” on Wednesday at its 40th Street and 7th Avenue location in Manhattan. The “Chef Series” is a 6 week competition featuring 6 of New York City’s top Chefs. The chefs participating in the series are David Burke, Michael White, Chris Bradley, Nick Anderer, Michael Anthony and Bill Telepan. Each Chef put together their own soup for Hale and Hearty that will be served for 1 week at a time starting Oct. 29th. At the end of each week a portion of the soup’s sales will go to the charity of the chef’s choice.
While checking out the 2012 CMJ Music Festival/Marathon I had the opportunity to be a part of some really cool and informative panels. An interesting panel that I got to check out was the Tattoo U panel. This panel was about any and everything tattoos. The panel was made up of Jordy Trachtenberg, a music industry veteran and devoted tattoo collector, Jason June, a tattoo artist at Three Kings Tattoo, Jes Irwin, a tattoo artist, Alex McWatt, Founder and tattoo artist at Three Kings Tattoo, and Todd Weinberger, the Creative Director at Inked Magazine.