Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Category: odd stuff

  • Please Touch

    So there we were, at the Getty Villa. It’s quite a place. Situated on the Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu, it’s like the little-brother museum to the spectacular Getty Center. The Getty Center’s further inland, on a hilltop overlooking the Sepulveda Pass, and looking like Tony Stark’s place in the Iron Man…

  • Michael Jackson, One Year On…

    I’m not a fan of the talented-but-damaged song-and-dance performer, but nevertheless… see more Lol Celebs

  • Testing the Audience

    We just got back from Las Vegas. It’s a long drive through the desert, with nothing but country music on the radio. If you’re ever thinking about it, you have been warned. The last time we did the trip was around 1980, and that was by Greyhound bus. Back then it was essentially still ’50s…

  • What’s in a Band Name?

    Ever wonder why new bands always have such weird names? Because the simple ones are all used up, is why. Google for just about any common noun and you’ll find at least one band using it, usually with a MySpace page. They may not have any track record, they may not even have any songs…

  • Stand by for Action

    Okay, maybe that’s a bit too dramatic… but there are some changes ahead. I started this blog almost by fluke, not really intending to do anything with it, hence the dumb name and the dumb picture… I’d created a Google identity so that I could comment on other people’s postings, and one day when I…

  • Saw it/Heard it, Can’t Quite Believe it

    To put it delicately, what passes for normal in LA can seem a little bizarre when you move it out of context. While I’m away from home I tend to email back the odd observational nugget just to liven up the correspondence. Here are a few examples from last month. “Coming up next. They’re blind…

  • The Simpsons and Me

    If you read my ‘back in LA‘ post a couple of weeks ago you’ll know that while walking in one of the city’s State Parks I was met by two Golden Retrievers, dripping wet and happy to share, closely followed by anxious family. And if you read on into the comments section you’ll know that’s…

  • Pretty Good, Show Us Your Bum

    When we went on Splash Mountain in Disneyland last year, that’s what my kid told me to listen out for in the ride music’s lyrics. Hear it for yourself… You can look up the actual words online, but where’s the fun in that?

  • Still on that Real/Fake Experience Theme

    Remember the big fire at Universal Studios in 2008? They lost some backlot structures and library material, all replaceable, and King Kong. The ‘Kongfrontation‘ attraction, in case you didn’t know it, involved a giant robot that picked up the bridge that your tour tram was crossing, and shook it. Life sized. A giant robot! King…

  • For Virtual, read ‘Nothing There’

    Back when I was working on BUGS we grappled with several ‘virtual reality’ story ideas and none of them ever worked out. We finally concluded that they never would; an action show is about real perils, not perils that you know are merely perceived. When you send your characters into a virtual reality you’re essentially…