Wednesday, April 20, 2005

A Man Named Puck

Well it's been a while but today I had a real Hollywood moment. Okay, well, not exactly. You might describe it more as ... surreal.

So all's quiet on the NBC ticket office front. It's the late afternoon, not much is happening. The phone rings, and some guy is asking about reserving tickets for the Tonight Show. Sorry I say, we don't do that. But wait he asks, not even for ... nope not even for you. Wait, who did you say you were again? You know, PUCK? From THE REAL WORLD on MTV?!?!

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamnnnnnnnnnnn.

While my enthusiasm for the show has really waned in the last few years, I used to be a bigtime Real World fan and that season is the one that really got the ball rolling - you know the one, with Puck, Pedro, Judd, etc. The one from when MTV was still great, when The Real World was truly revolutionary, and an obnoxious smartass named Puck caused viewers to tune in week after week. And he was on the phone, asking for Tonight Show Tickets. Wow.

And not only was he on the phone, but he was pretty darn chatty. He was actually really cool, and was talking about everything from why the Real World is so lame now (duh, cuz they won't cast anyone as unique as him!) to a meeting he once had with Jay Leno (something about hand buzzers?) to why The Surreal Life won't cast him (after I recommended he get on that show), to how he couldn't believe how someone as young as me could have been watching his Real World season (hey, it was a long time ago now, but it was all the rage in middle school, I explained). And then the kicker - I give him the number for Doctor Phil, as his wife was interested in attending that show. So like five minutes later he CALLS BACK and is like "Danny (I had told him my name), this sucks, there's no tickets for Dr. Phil!" And then we talked for a little bit longer. Crazy!

What else do I have to report?

Last night of NBA season! New Jersey wins, Cleveland loses! No playoffs for Lebron, but Vince Carter, aka Half Man - Half Amazing, is back and gunning for Shaq and the Heat, in what is definitely going to be a marquee matchup. Reggie Miller plays his last regular season NBA game in Indiana, and gives a moving, tearful goodbye to the fans (after a vintage technical foul call which almost saw him get ejected in his last game!) But dammit all, he's not done yet - it's Miller Time - aka the playoffs, baby! Indiana vs. Boston in Round 1. Now I am a Boston fan, but come on, this has gotta be Reggie's year! (see previous posts for rants and ruminations on Reggie's greatness) This is going to be an awesome ride so let's get it started. Nothing beats the NBA playoffs, and this is likely the last time in a while that I'm going to have a real personal investment in who wins, so I'm going to be glued to the games.

RANDOM STUFF:

Smallville: Nice ending, but ultra cheesy episode that was painful at times to watch despite some entertaining moments, especially the scenes in which Ma Kent channeled the spirit of a valley girl teenager (she was possessed ...). But please, this is what, the 5 billionth time that they've used mind control and/or body-swapping as a plot device? How many times have they done a story where the characters don't act like themselves because of some crazy mind-altering scheme? It's like every other episode, seriously. And it is LAME. Hire me as a writer, please.
My grade: Well my mind-controlled, EVIL self says: Best. Episode. Ever. My real self says: Some decent stuff going on, but GET A NEW PLOT. What's that grade again? I give it a C.

Meanwhile, hold the phone, the underrated and much-improved JACK AND BOBBY had a GREAT episode tonight. This show is back to dealing with the BIG issues - faith, religion, family, morality, growing up - and it's doing a great job of living up to its epic premise. THIS is what a show about the future US president should be about. Excellent job by all involved and what could have been a cheesy after-school special-esque episode about teen pregnancy was a well-written, complex, and mature look at the issues involved that had no easy answers or solutions. Well done. My grade: A

EVEN MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS:

- Raise your hand if you read my blog.

- There's a new Pope, who used to be a Nazi. Yes, he was forced into it, but, still. Kind of ominous if you ask me. Plus he sort of reminds me of the Emperor from Star Wars. Discuss.

- Blast from the past: Super Dave Osborne was on today's Tonight Show. Remember him? I kind of do, vaguely. Didn't he have a cartoon show at some point?

- For reasons I'm not totally clear on, I have a subscription to Time Magazine. Have to say I don't like it. I'm a Newsweek kind of guy. And Time is definitely the Tucker Carlson to Newsweek's John Stewart. All I had to do was look in disgust at the pandering cover story in the latest issue of Time regarding Ann Coulter, which made me feel slightly ill while reading it. Give me Newsweek and the brilliant editorials by Fareed Zakaria any day.

Final Thought: (it's not an original one, but it was today's Question of the Day ...) If Number 2 pencils are so widely used, why aren't they Number 1?

2 comments:

Monkey said...

(Randomly found your blog tonight while randomly surfing blogs - yep - exciting life I know)

Puck!?!? I had to go look him up - yep - he looks vaguely familiar - Tonight Show, Dr. Phil - what tickets DID you hook him up with?

I've got you bookmarked cowboy - I like your style and you have some interesting things to say. (You get a new reader named "Monkey" - nice huh?)

Have a looky at my blog - you may get a kick out of it - you may never speak to me again:

http://monkeycage.blogspot.com/

Have another surreal day on me.

Christine M. Williams said...

"- There's a new Pope, who used to be a Nazi. Yes, he was forced into it, but, still. Kind of ominous if you ask me. Plus he sort of reminds me of the Emperor from Star Wars. Discuss."

Pope Benedict XVI was required to join Nazi Youth when he was 14 years old. Being a member was compulsory and did not make anyone a "Nazi" or all German youth at the time would have been Natzis. Later he was pressed into service in the German army but defected at the risk of getting shot on sight. He was never a member of the Nazi party.

Pope Benedict has written about living under Nati rule, saying that he watched the government manipulate truth to use it for their own ends and saw the importance of defending truth so that totalitarian regimes cannot repeat the actions of the Nazis.

It's unfair to characterize the new pope as a Nazi. The Jewish people should take comfort in the fact that he saw the horror of World War II first-hand, and that he worked closely with Pope John Paul II who made great strides to both right wrongs made against the Jewish people and further a relationship between Christians and Jews.