I wanted to leave word with all you merry holiday-makers: the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa is offering a special holiday rate of $149 for the next ten days, from December 18th to 28th (Bruce’s Lawyer Steve’s Note: This rate is based on availability, and you don’t actually have to be merry or a holiday-maker).

Conveniently enough, not only is this reduced rate just in time for a couple of upcoming holidays, namely Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Boxer’s Day, etc., but there’s also a little thing called my half-birthday (Steve’s note: Bruce has birthdays every month)! Leave all presents at the front desk. Hint: some of my favorite gifts from last year were French hand soaps, star fruits, and wind chimes.

So if you want to come by the hotel, this is a great time. When booking, you need to provide the request rate code LLOB when calling the reservation line or use the promo code SPC when booking online here.

This is Bruce, signing off.

Life imitates art, right? Or is it the other way round?

Consider this: Yes Man, the new movie starring Jim Carrey and coming out on December 19th, is actually based on a non-fiction book, Yes Man, by a writer, Danny Wallace, who forced himself to say “yes” whenever he would normally have said “no” for six months. (Side note: Sometimes I wonder why I said “yes” to this blog in the first place. I expect it was the caviar they offered. But that’s neither here nor there.)

So, are you with me so far? Now, that true-life book, turned into a fictional movie, was being filmed at our very own hotel last winter – see the picture below – where the movie production team had hoisted a giant sign over our front facade declaring, “Yes is the new No!” Here’s where it gets meta: locals thought we were hosting a real conference and started calling to make reservations… for something that didn’t actually exist. So people wanted to be a part of something totally fictional.

Was that all very confusing? Not terribly, I hope. But think about it: art imitates life, with the movie and the book, and then life wants to imitate art, with the public calling to be a part of the fake conference. Brilliant, eh? There’s a reason I have a PhD in astrophysics.

Mostly I just want to encourage you all, if you happen to be seeing the new movie, to try and spot our marvelous hotel. It shouldn’t be too hard. It’s the one with big giant sign around it, shouting, “YES!”

This is Bruce, signing off.