A bill to ban bump stocks, Burbank's new e-sports arena, what to do in SoCal this weekend

"Oh no, that's not going to happen," Marinucci says. 

The Department of Justice didn't comment this week on it, but you got the message from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. She says the president's going to be laying out his responsible immigration plan over the next week. She wants pushback. And remember, our [attorney general] Xavier Becerra is right in the middle of legal battles with Sessions over the moves to slash federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. That is a continuing drama.

Women are not feeling they have to wear a dress. There’s some cool jumpsuits on the runway. High fashion designers are making fully beaded ones. And some are lacy and fun, so if you were doing a city hall wedding or doing something more offbeat or low key they could wear jumpsuits to the actual wedding or to other parties or change into it for the reception.

One of the big ones we’re seeing everywhere but a lot with California couples is bridesmen and groomsmaids — this idea of having a co-ed wedding party. Brides will have man of honor instead of maid of honor. Groomsmen are having best lady, best woman, best gal. I think it’s really reflective of our culture of being less gender stereotyped. 

Cannabis is showing up at weddings in fun ways. Couples are hiring a bud tender to come in and have signature strains of cannabis for guests to partake at weddings. Also THC cocktails. It’s a cool thing to note in California because it’s more accepted there where laws are more relaxed. People are creating cannabis lounges, so in a separate area sort of like a cigar lounge.

Neon signs have been trendy for home and office decor but not necessarily at weddings. Couples are getting a neon sign of a hashtag and it becomes an art piece in their home after the fact. We had a cool wedding in So Cal. They were lighting artists, and they did an entire neon light installation all over ceiling and all over the reception space.

Videographers are making 30-second video trailers that are quick turnaround for the couple to post to Instagram or Facebook. Thirty seconds is a really good amount of time for social media platforms. 

"Overwatch is a game where you have two teams of six players who each pick a hero with special abilities. They're playing against each other head to head. And it's all about strategy and communication and coordinating how to work together to outsmart and outplay the other team."

"One of the most compelling parts of any kind of sporting experience is going in person, cheering alongside fans. All of the fervent passion that you see in sports, we have in e-sports."

"When you walk into this space, what you see is a large arena space where you have on one side stands with seating and on the other side, you have the stage which is an e-sports stage.



So, we don't have a field. What we have is a stage where you have players who are looking at each other playing games on the same stage ..."

"With the Overwatch stage, what you see is two sides. You have six players on each side of the stage and each of them during the game play will actually be inside the game playing on their on a computer against everybody else and that might not be interesting to look at you think. But there's more.



On the other side of the arena, we actually have an analysis desk. So, just like with sports how you have commentators talking about the action, keeping players up to date, giving insight that might not be very well known, we have the same thing.



The analyst and the commentators play a really big role in making the competition exciting and showing how the game play progresses."

"With that, there's a lot of entertainment breakthroughs that happened here in this very facility and we're excited to be at the forefront of the next generation of entertainment breakthroughs."

"We've gone to really great extents to build this facility in a way where it can accommodate even our most complex games and then, as we look towards the future, what we're thinking about is...what are the other things that we can do to update and create new awesome features in this facility."

"One of the things that we believe in as Blizzard is creating these really monumental experiences for our fans, all around the world. We believe that wherever fans exist they should be able to take part in really compelling and really exciting e-sports competitions.



So, for us, Blizzard Arena here in Los Angeles is a really great step in that direction and I think that as we look forward, we'll definitely continue to think about how do we bring the fan experience to our fans everywhere."

I showed up in a sport coat, and a sweater, and a nice pair of slacks. And the meeting went for like, 12 hours… on a Monday. It went until like, one in the morning. I felt like I was in a heavyweight fight. So then, at the very end of the day, it’s 1 o’clock and we’re standing outside of the suite we were meeting in at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and he said, ‘Where you staying tonight, cause we’re going to meet back at 6 AM?’ So, I’ve got five hours and he says, ‘Where you gonna sleep tonight?’ And I said, ‘Well, I thought that I was going to stay here’… and he says ‘No, nobody is staying here.’ So we’re arguing out in the hallway and he finally acquiesces and lets me stay there. I didn’t know it until the next day, but the heat was turned up as high as it could get. I’m sweating for like 12 hours. And so the next day, he asks me, ‘So what’d you think of Monday... any concerns when I left here?’ And I said, ‘Why are you asking?’ And he said, ‘Because I did everything I could yesterday to see how tough you were going to be, to see what you would put up with, to see how you would handle all the different things. He said that, 'The heat was up, we didn’t eat, I knew you were going to be dressed nicely, and then I wanted to see if you would stand up for yourself in the end.’ 

One of the great things that I learned through this whole experience with the Dodgers at that period of time was, there’s only so many things in life you can control. And when you’re the GM you’ve got a bunch of things that you need to look after. And so, could I help them with the bankruptcy? Absolutely not. Could I help them with the divorce? No. What I had to do – and when I was talking to Joe Torre or Don Mattingly about it – it was really, okay, this is your responsibility, this is my responsibility, how do we get the team as good as we can get it? That’s what we need to do.

It’s not easy to win. If it was easy to win, the Cubs wouldn’t have taken 108 years to win…. That’s why sports is such a draw and why so many people watch it, listen to it, attend it– because it’s unpredictable…. And it’s tough to do. It’s a frustration point for me because you just can’t say, well, a whole season is lost if they don’t win the World Series. Do they want to win the World Series? Oh my goodness, do they! Have they done everything that they can to do it? Absolutely, they have. Have they been preparing for this really, really diligently for the last 12 months? Absolutely. Since they got beat by the Cubs, from that moment on, they’ve been focused on October.