Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Rock and Roll All Night (Sleep) and Party Every Day (Work)

- Yesterday I'm sitting i nthe artist's entrance to Ellen, acting as CB, waiting for the guests to arrive. I just got there, didn't even have the list yet for who was going to be on that day. All of a sudden, a towering figure strides past the crowd of people in the hall using the restroom. Holy crap, it was Gene Simmons of KISS!!! Well, meeting a member of KISS in person is about the closet you're going to get in real life to meeting a comic book hero. I am a big fan and have been for a while now - my brother and I saw KISS in concert last summer with Aerosmith and it was great, it really converted me - their show was arena rock at it's best, and truly larger than life. So yeah, I completely freaked out. I panicked and couldn't remember the phone number to call up to the office to have someone come down to pick up the guest. I told the Demon himself to hold on one second, and I ran to the nearest page and asked what the number was. But by the time I got back to Gene, the head of guest relations for Ellen had already come out to escort him to his dressing room, so I had no chance to tell him how I was a big fan, etc. I did glimpse Paul Stanley and exchanged greetings while he was exiting the building after the show, but otherwise didn't get to see any of the other band members.

The reason that KISS was on the show was pretty kickass too. See, it was a big surprise for this kid on the show, like 9 or 10 years old, who miraculously recovered from a terminal form of cancer. While he was sick his biggest wish was to meet his favorite band, KISS. So they came to sing him Happy Birthday and present him with a signed guitar ... how cool is that? That kid must have flipped out. I met his family too and they seemed extremely nice (they've also been on the Today Show and a few others), so congrats to him. But yeah, I mean forget about pop-stars of the moments and reality TV stars and even the latest modern rock emo fad band ... these guys are honest to God, larger than life, arena-rocking, anthem-shouting ROCK STARS and it was a big thrill to see 'em in person, even if I only encountered the legendary Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley for a few brief moments. Rock N' Roll.

Some other guests on Ellen that day: Vince Vaughn (didn't talk to him but talked to his makeup artist for like 10 minutes), Missy Elliot (had a posse of like 50 people with her and arrived like 2 hours late), and Adrian Brody and Faye Dunaway (didn't meet them). All that dancing and girl power on Ellen though can really drive a guy like me insane after a while though. Far removed from her sapphic stylings though is the dry humor and pop-cultural wit of Dennis Miller, where I spent all day today. As I've said, though I disagree with many of his politics, I still really enjoy Dennis Miller's humor and like working on his show - it's very laid back and the people are pretty cool there. And unlike Leno, he is an inventivel, genuinely original comedian who brings his own personality to the show and gets creative with his humor, even if some of his metaphors go right over 90 percent of the population's heads. It's also a nice change of pace to see a show where they actually talk politics in a somewhat insightful way, with an intelligent edge to the humor. Today was pretty cool because they had the woman who plays Kirsten Cohen on the OC (which Miller initially mistakenly referred to as "The Ock" while reading off the teleprompter, pretty damn funny). They also had the actor from Joan of Arcadia who does the voice of Fat Tony on the Simpsons, and who also played Ricky Roma (Al Pacino's chaacter) from the original theatrical production of Glengary Glenross (one of my all time favorite movies). Sweet. Now it's back to the "oh my god, stand in the wrong place and it's the end of all civilization" atmosphere of the Tonight Show for the rest of the week. No guests I'm really excited aboot either. Oh well.

The main thing I'm focused on now is the new apartment. Gotta furnish it so I can do basic things like sit, eat, and sleep.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

- Why is Veronica Mars not on tonight? Dammit UPN, I don't care about America's Next Top Model.

- Did watch Gilmore Girls tonight. Good episode and though I was surprised at the ending it was all heartwarming and stuff (yep I'm just a big softie - and yes I was happy to see Luke and Lorelai back together). You can always count on this show for a mixture of the fastest spoken and most multi-layered dialogue on TV with simple, character based stories that are easy and fun to follow.

- 24: Last night's episode was another good one, though where do they go from here? They are at the point now where the entire focus of the plot is about to change. But seeing as how Jack and co. just stopped nuclear catastrophe, what is left for them to do? It had better be good. Curtis really whupped some ass in this episode. I echo the sentiments of those who want to see a hit squad of Jack, Tony, Curtis, Palmer, and maybe Michelle just go out on a team mission and whup unprecedented levels of terrorist keyster. And they are finally done with the crazy daughter storyline ... which was basically a long convoluted way to remove Madeline from LA Femme Nikita from power and reinstate Tony. It's funny how one lame subplot doesn't seem too bad since in past seasons they would have simultaneous lameness occur between Kim's deathrap of the week escapades, Palmer's wife's evil plan of the week, and the various other plot threads, from Chase's baby, to Jack's wife's amnesia, and so on. 24 = still the best show on TV? Yep.

- Goodbye NYPD Blue. I never really watched it regularly, but I remember watching the pilot in a class at BU last year and thinking "wow, that was really, really good." Definitely a ground-breaking show that pushed the limits of what could be done on network TV.

- Rumor has it that the WB is seriously reconsidering newcomer Brandon Routh as Superman, even though shooting is just two weeks from starting! The possible replacement? Smallville's Tom Welling. I say that they should have gone with the cast from Smallville all the way or not at all. Having Welling as Superman and not Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor is just going to be annoying and confusing to fans. I think the producers of Smallville really could have established their show as the basis for a new Superman movie franchise if they had maintained a higher quality and also better ratings over the last few years. But Welling IS Clark Kent from Smallville, and you can't just disassociate him from that universe for a new film franchise that won't include any other aspects of the show's continuity. The funny thing is that Welling may really look the part, but the reason he's been ablr to flourish is because he's surrounded by great talents -- the actors who portray Lex, Lionel, Chloe, Johnathan and Martha Kent have really helped carry Welling and the show owes its success in large part to its strong supporting cast. To bring Welling into a movie series without them seems a bit besides the point. If Routh can play the part then keep him, but I think WB has to sit down and rethink its plan for this movie. For instance, why associate it with the old movies as they've been stating - saying that the new one will be entrenched in the continuity of the Christopher Reeve films? That makes no sense. While I have some trepidations about Batman Begins, at least they are being smart and wiping the slate clean and starting over. If the WB wanted, they could make an awesome movie with the smallville cast that could please fans of the show and also bring in a hige new audience. Or they could start anew and just file Smallville away as a fun show that was good for what it was but wasn't box-office material. But to take a middle road, either by casting Welling alone from Smallville or by using Routh but tying into 20-year-old movies just seems confusing and misguided. Just hire ME and I promise I will do WB and Superman good. It'd be money.

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