Darkseid of the Moon

Well it's 2 am but since I can sleep sorta late tommorow I decided to jot down some stuff for you all ...

The week of fun continues (and for once, that is NOT sarcasm).

After Monday's frikkin' sweet day at Universal Studios, yesterday was another day that made me appreciate how cool my job can be. Sure, most of it was a grueling day working at the ol' NBC ticketbox, but at about 5 pm things got a lot cooler. First off, I had my long-awaited interview with the primetime programming dept., and it seemed to go pretty well. The three young women I interviewed with were great and it quickly turned from a formal interview into a lively discussion about NBC and TV in general. Only potential problem is that like ten pages are all applying for the assignment, so who knows what will happen. If I get it though, I will be completely psyched - it will be an awesome opportunity to be around scripts and around people who can really help me with my writing. Looking forward to hearing back from them one way or another.

Then after the interview I threw on some jeans and headed out to join many of my fellow pages for a special edition of Ellen. See, Ellen had a huge outdoor show yesterday which featured a mini-concert by Gwen Stefani! Now this was pretty cool because Gwen is not necessarilly someone who I'd ever end up seeing in an actual concert, but I was a big No Doubt fan and she is, clearly, an awesome performer. So it was pretty cool to see her perform Rich Girl with Eve, as me and a buncha other pages stood right up by the front of the audience. Not a bad day.

Continuing the streak, today was a pretty cool day at Ellen, just because it was very laid back and their were plenty of classic shenanigans that ensued. One of my fellow pages, a pretty crazy character who is never one to pass up the spotlight, actually got so into the pre-show dancing that he was pulled onstage, where he ate up the attention, playing to the crowd and drawing applause with a hilariously outlandish array of dance moves, from splits to breakdancing to some stuff that I don't quite know how to describe. Unfortunately the tape was not rolling to capture this moment, but I simultaneously laughed my ass off and cringed in embarrasment. Suffice to say I was thoroughly burned out from busting out killer dance moves all day in between escorting people to the bathroom and chowing down on some quality Ellen catering. But luckily I was able to return home just in time for a much-anticipated night of TV (more on that later, of course).

And of course tommorow is going to be big. After working at the Tonight Show for the first time in a while, I'm going to be heading home to watch Pacers-Pistons, game 6, then heading off to the 8:50 showing of a little milestone movie, STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH. So yeah this has really been a good week. But hold up, I gotta pause for a little aside ...

Holy crap, I cannot believe that tommorow I'll be seeing the last ever Star Wars. While I don't consider myself an ultra-diehard Star Wars fan by any means, the franchise definitely is special to me. I remember as a very young kid, I had a bunch of action figures from various toy lines. There were the Justice League-ers, the Marvel heroes, He Man, and then there was Star Wars. I remember I had Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and some weird alien dude. I don't remember when I first saw the movies, but I do remember I loved all things Star Wars, whether by osmosis or whatever I don't know. I had the kids' book versions of all three movies, and that filled me in on the stories. I also had the tape-books. Remember those? I think those were my first real exposure to the whole universe. I had a book about Wookies - it was wonderfully illustrated and was about the first meeting between Han Solo and Chewbacca - at the time it seemed like just about the best story I had ever heard. My grandmother can attest to that as I can remember making her read it to me about 5 billion times (she is the best storyteller ever, so books were always better when she read them). Now I used to watch Reading Rainbow, like, all the time. And there was one episode that went behind the scenes of Star Wars and showed how they did the makeup and all that. And I remember being positively fascinated with that one episode and always hoping that that one would be replayed, and when it was, I was in heaven. And then there was this one Star Wars-themed episode of Muppet Babies - oh my god when that one would come on it was the greatest. What a great show that was, if not for that show I think I might not be doing what I am doing. And I remember going to Disney World, to MGM Studios, and first going on Star Tours. Today, that ride seems almost quaint. But then it was pure magic. Even the line was amazing. You were there. Inside Star Wars. How could it be any better? So sure, by the time that the original trilogy was rereleased in the late 90's I had seen the movies a few times here and there, but it wasn't the actual movies I loved - yet - it was just the concept of other worlds - of Star Wars, that I had always been fascinated with. But I remember seeing each rerelease as they came out with my brother, and it was that experience of seeing the films on the big screen, as they were meant to be seen, that for the first time made me a devoted fan of the movies themselves - the individual moments, the action scenes, the flow of the story. Now when I saw the first prequel, well, at first, I was in awe. Yep, it seems stupid now, but I remember going to class the next day unable to think about anything but Star Wars. The more I thought about it though the more I thought ... hmm, that kind of sucked. Repeated viewings only reinforced my gradually increasing disappointment. Byt the time Attack of the Clones came out when I was in college, I was excited but only mildly so. I enjoyed the movie but not immensely. I was let down in many ways, and never had that initial post-viewing buzz like I did after seeing Episode I. Still though, I had chills when that opening John Williams theme came blaring over the speakers. There was the power of Star Wars, that old magic, struggling to break through. And hopefully, it will again. Like many, I'm sure, I am ready to be blown away again. This is it, this is the big one. This is the last great blockbuster, the end of an era. Sure, my generation came to the game a bit late. Sure, Lord of the Rings set the fantasy trilogy bar to new heights and showed that there is always a Next Big Thing waiting in the wings. But this is, sorry Neo, The One. There's never been another story quite like it, and when you love stories like I do you have got to love it and hope that this final chapter is going to be good, because that's how it should be and what everyone's been waiting for. The franchise, like the story it tells, is transcendent - mythical in that way - everyone's got their own story. Tommorow, for that particular chapter, is the end. I'm excited, I'm pumped. Bring it on.

TV ROUNDUP:

GILMORE GIRLS SEASON FINALE:

Excellent episode, but what is happening to Rory? See, I knew playing a lady of the night in Sin City would be bad for her. Now she's quitting Yale? Oh well, at least it's something different for the character. And nice ending with Luke and Lorelei. Some people at work were bashing this show the other day and saying eveyone on it talks the same. First off, totally untrue. Everyone is SO distinct and unique on this show - that's what makes its dialogue so amusing to listen to. It's talky, yes, but MOST shows are very un-talky, if you think about it, which is equally unrealistic in its own way. The haters need to recognize, this is probably thebest written show on the WB, and one of TV's best. My grade: A-

LOST:

Wow - on one hand, this was undeniably an amazing, amazing episode. On the other hand, this seasons and the series as a whole is ultimately going to be judged by endings and answers, which we are, maddeningly, no closer to after tonight's episode. We know that the Black Rock is in fact ... a giant ship? Um, okay. We know that there are people called "The Others" who are dangerous and make their presence known by warning beacons of black smoke. Again, um .... yeah ... And we know that there is a hatch, which is signifigant, but we have no idea why ... oh yeah, and that giant monster that we've never actually seen is revealed as being the island's "security." Can we be any MORE vague? Next week's season ender better do a helluva job of answering at least a few questions or else this show is just really going to be pushing my patience. But back to my first comments, the character arcs in this sp were done wonderfully. The launching of the raft was just done so well, it felt so epic and grand and mysterious and like a feature film, not a network TV show. The moments between Jack and Sawyer, Locke and Danielle, Jin and Sun, and Michael and his son were some of the best exchanges we've yet seen on the show - all very emotionally charged. And come on, if you didn't get a little teary-eyed when Walt's dog started swimming after him as he sailed away on the raft, only to finally turn around in futitilt - well, you are a cold-hearted person. I cannot wait for next week's double-length finale, but I am just not fully confident that it will be satisfying, plot-wise. But, taken on its own, this was a damn good hour of entertainment that hit all the right emotional notes. And special mention must be given to the show's music, which here really stood out as suitably grand when needed and also very eerily Twilight Zone-like when appropriate. My grade: A

SMALLVILLE:

In this extra-long season finale, this show's great cast, who I have really grown to love over the years, really shone. But oh lord, were they stuck in a mystifyingly nonsensical plotline. So much credit should be given to Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover for their roles as Lex and Lionel Luthor. Rosenbaum as Lex in this ep was just awesome, really convincing (take note Hayden Christianson!) as a guy who was on the precipice of turning fully to the dark side. Tom Welling has developed great chemistry with his female leads in Lana, Lois, and Chloe, and all four of the show's young leads were really on here. But this ep was forced into having to wrap up a year's worth of truly terrible plot threads, and it did it by throwing out a ton of WTF moments that ended with a big fat "to be continued." These weren't cool, well built-up cliffhangers. There was a weird spaceship, Clark suddenly in the Antartic, and a comatose Lionel with Kryptonian symbols running across his eyes. WHAT. THE. HELL. IS GOING ON? Still, this episode was littered with great moments. The idea of a Superman, in my mind, is an extremely powerful one, and this episode evoked some of those epic images that the concept of superman brings to mind. Clark saving a kid from the falling meteor storm, Johnathan Kent telling his son to go and embrace his destiny. All good stuff, matched by the usual kewl f/x, music, and production values we have come to expect from Smallville. I am torn because this show does some things really right and others really, really wrong. So please, next season, give these great characters some equally great stories! My grade: B / B+

P.S. - the Batman Begins preview after Smallville looked daaaaaamn good. I can't wait for that one (and don't woryy, more on THAT later).

Oh wow, with all that I almost forgot that tommorow, once again, could be REGGIE MILLER'S LAST EVER GAME. I have a bad feeling that this really could be it, as the Pacers are really outmatched in this series against Detroit. But as a wise talking dog once said, "Ya Gotta Believe!" And I will be watching and hoping that my favorite athlete survives to fight another day. Because when everything's on the line, when it's the big game, when the team's back is gainst the wall and the odds are not in their favor ... well, everyone knows that that, well, that is, and has been for a long while: Miller Time. Once again: GO PACERS!