Cuz Stone Cold Said So

Tale of Two Dennis Miller Shows:

Show #1 - usual stuff, some interesting if slightly drawn out political talk, less than enthusiastic crowd including the expected group off sketchy looking Eastern Europeans Who Don't Speak A Word Of English. Did meet some cool people who work at the show who I had never spoken to before, one of whom interned at Conan about eight years ago. After the show grabbed some lunch and then came back, slightly giddy, because I learned that Show #2 was going to potentially kick some ass ...

Show #2 - total pandemonium, thanks to special guest STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN. Yep, he must be making the media rounds, because after making the ticket-yielding appearance at the Late Late Show he came by Miller's show to promote Wrestlemania. And legions of diehard WWE fans came along with him. Suffice to say that Dennis Miller's show, usually barely able to fill its seats, was overrun with Austin 3:16 T-shirt-wearing, "What?!?!"-chanting, wild, out of control hardcore wrasslin' fans. Nice. Well I had to hold back my inner wrestling fan and try to stay professional, although the repeated chants and general arena atmosphere of the crowd made me so hyped that I couldn't resist chatting up the fans a bit and flashing a few NWO 4 Lyfe signs for old time's sake. though I did have to lay the smack down a few times by telling the rowdier audience members to please quiet down and not yell stuff out. Man, the Dennis Miller crew had no idea what hit 'em, but I was quite amused at how wrestling fans are able to turn any event into a powder keg of over the top, WWE-style mayhem. Gotta love it.

IN OTHER NEWS ...

- The barstools I ordered arrived at my apt today. So now I can finally eat cereal in the morning at my kitchen counter. Yes! Now I just need a couch.

- First electric bill for the new apt arrived as well ... dammit.

- Oh yeah, I've been meaning to give my 2 cents on the new Americanized version of The Office, now that I've seen the first two eps. Well, while it is a nice change of pace from the usual American sitcom format, I'm sorry to say that it pretty much sucks. The first ep was a near word for word translation of the British pilot, and came off like a pale imitation of the original, and in any case was simply not funny, thanks to being dumbed down and overly simplified from its source material. I had high hopes for the second ep, since it was an original script and seemed like it'd play more to the strengths of the American cast members. Well, it did kind of do that, with a more outrageious, less subtle script that seemed to be more fitting for the less subtle characters in the show. But again, just not that funny. Steve Carell's version of David Brent is the only character with any life on the show, but he is too one-dimensional and very grating after a while. But basically the worst thing is that the American characters have exactly one dimension to them while the British ones were much more multilayered, which was evident as soon as the first few eps of the BBC series were aired. This made the humor of the original so natural and real seeming that the show was often hilarious, since like a Christopher Guest movie the dialogue had that improvised feel where the jokes have a natural, unpredictable flow. My grade for the U.S. Office: Episode 1: D, Episode 2: C

Tommorow: Pretty easy day at work, and then, finally, SIN CITY.

FINAL THOUGHT: Aw yeah, Indiana punked the Miami Heat tonight, with another classic, 30+ point performance by Reggie Miller. I can't wait to see what the Pacers can do in the playoffs this year - hell, bring on the Heat, Indy is 3 and 0 against them this year. And a note to TNT, ESPN, and ABC: The Lakers are terrible this year, they now almost certainly will not make the playoffs, and they are barely even trying at this point in the season - so please, GET THEM OFF MY TV.

And that's a wrap.