A Day at the Races: The Breeders’ Cup Classic 2014

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Erin

A Day at the Races: The Breeders Cup Classic 2014

By Erin

This past weekend, was a pretty exciting one with the Breeders’ Cup in town. The gates swung open for the start of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic late Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita Park, in sunny California. Bayern, bolted out of the seven spot in the gate, took a hard left and bumped into the favorite, Shared Belief, and the 14-horse field quickly became a scene that has caused much chaos and discussion over whether or not Bayern should have been disqualified or not. I personally don’t think he should be DQ’d as these are animals, not machines, one cannot control their first few strides out of the gate. Here are just a few exciting photos from the afternoon at Santa Anita!

Bayern, at 6-1 odds, warming up before the big race.

For Bayern, it was of the upmost importance to break to the front, where he was able to use his speed from the start. When he is able to break to the front, that is when he wins his races.

California Chrome, getting ready for the race.

California Chrome ran his heart out, but it just wasn’t quiet enough. He finished third, by two heads. Bayern’s and Toast of New York’s.

How they ultimately ended up placing, Bayern (red), Toast of New York (blue), & California Chrome (black/purple).

Bayern was able to hold California Chrome and Toast of New York off as they ran down the stretch to give the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his first Classic victory. The winning time from Bayern was 1 minute 59.88 seconds.

Bayern, Toast of New York, & California Chrome

Big Hero 6: Thoughts From the Cast & Creators

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Erin

Big Hero 6: Thoughts From the Cast & Creators

By Mindy Marzec

Last month I had the great privilege to see a screening of “Big Hero 6” and attend a press junket with some of the film’s creators and voice actors. It was a fun afternoon at the Disney studios in Burbank, CA, and I want to thank Erin at Horsing Around in L.A. for the experience! My review of the film is coming up, but first I wanted to introduce you to some of the creative geniuses behind “Big Hero 6,” then be on the look out for the scoop on the short film that runs before it, called “Feast,” tomorrow!

First we got a little background about how the film was made from Don Hall (Director), Chris Williams (Director), and Roy Conli (Producer). They were asked about how the project came to be and how similar it is to the original Marvel comic of “Big Hero 6.”

Don: “The project came from my love of comic books. It was a dream project to take these things (Disney and comics) and combine them. We inquired about the project because I liked the title, found out it was a Japanese super hero team and then became more intrigued, then actually read the comics and got really intrigued. And so when we met with Marvel and said, ‘We want to do Big Hero 6,’ they loved it, they loved the idea we were going to do, and they said ‘don’t worry about setting it in the Marvel universe. Do your own thing. Use your own creative and create your own world.” So then we created San Fransokyo, because that’s what we do first, right off the bat, what’s the world we’re dealing with here? We love fantasy and we do fantasy very well, and so we wanted to create a fantasy world. That’s what led to this mash up of San Fransokyo. We wanted this world to not be super powered beings walking around, there’s a reality to this world. And then super technology became everybody’s super power. So a lot of these little decisions took us farther away from the comic book.”

What about criticism from Marvel fans?

Don: “One thing about our process is, no matter what story you think you’re going to tell when you start out, it is going to be something else by the end. That’s just the way it is. (Changing the story) was always going to be that way. I will say that Duncan Rouleau, who is one of the co-creators of the original comic, just saw (the film) and loved it.”

Alexander #VeryBadDay Movie Review

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Erin

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Movie Review

By Erin

*I attended a screening of this film as a guest of Disney for purposes of this post. All thoughts and opinions remain my own. All photos and videos are courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.*

Today is one of those days for me. I started to come down with a sore throat last night, my back is killing me, I ended up having to call in sick to work today, which I rarely ever do, and I needed to finish up this review when all I want to do is sleep. Not the best way to start off your day! It looks like I am in good company though as the Cooper family is having one of those days too, which you can now go see for yourself in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day! No matter what kind of day you are having; good, bad, in-between, the Coopers will have you laughing out loud and making whatever kind of day you were having seem like the best day ever in comparison.

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is based on the 1972 beloved classic children’s book by Judith Viorst. It was one of my favorites growing up, I still have it and love to read it to my students. To make the book into a movie though, they of course had to elaborate quite a bit, and add a lot of crazy events to create a feature-length film. It does stick to the horrible day theme very well as we follow the Coopers on all of their hilarious misadventures together as a family.

The movie starts out with Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould)– who is an 11-year old with a birthday coming up, experiences the most terrible and horrible day ever, which started out with getting gum stuck in his hair, and just keeps getting worse with one calamity after another. When he decides to tell his super cheerful and upbeat family about his most disastrous day, he gets little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. The rest of his families lives appear to be pretty perfect. #Blessed.

The movie continues and soon Alexander learns that he’s not alone when his mother (Jennifer Garner), father (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn’t had one. Or they just won’t admit to having one. The important part though is that they all stick together as a family and get through the day.

Horsing Around In LA

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A Day at the Races: The Breeders’ Cup Classic 2014