I Fought The Law ... And the Law Won - Plus BU Reunion, Avril Encounter, and More!

Well this weekend was a nice change of pace from the usual shenanigans.

Can you say BU reunion?

Yep, the bad boys of Boston descended upon the smoggy LA landscape. Chris Agra, one of my roommates for three of my four years at BU, came up from Phoenix Thursday night for the weekend. Friday we were joined by Josh, our neighbor on Sleeper Hall's sixth floor from freshman year (West Campus!). Chris and Josh attended the Tonight Show, sat in the front row for a show featuring Selma Blair and everybody's favorite chick with attitude, Avril Lavigne.

OK, okay, I'll skip right to the good stuff. Now last time Avril was on the show we had a brief encounter where "hello's" were exchanged in the backstage Tonight Show area. What could top that? Let's see ... so me, Chris and Josh are grabbing some lunch in the NBC commissary. Me and Chris are in the sandwich line, and suddenly I notice that almost right next to me in line - there she is - pleasantly ordering a sandwich - Avril Lavigne! I tried to inconspicuously motion to Chris, but he was oblivious! And then, I get in line to pay for my food, and I see Chris paying, and I see him once again standing RIGHT NEXT to Avril, and yet again he is totally unaware that the diminuitive girl standing next to him is in fact the voice of "Complicated" and "Happy Ending." So as me Chris and Josh are eating our lunch, Avril and some friends are eating only a few feet way on the porch of the NBC commissary. Wasn't it only a year ago that me, Chris, and fellow roommate Aksel would take study breaks by blasting Sk8tr Boy and jokingly belt out it's oh-so-cheesy-yet-irressistably-catchy lyrics? Sadly, that is pretty much the extent of our encounter (flipping out to full fanboy effect in the middle of NBC probably would have been pretty embarrassing ...), but hey, still, pretty freakin' cool, and not a bad day at work.

The concert itself at the show was great. I mean I doubt I'll be attending an actual Avril concert anytime soon, so seeing her perform was one more chance to see someone live who otherwise I probably never would. The first song she did, "He Wasn't," I hadn't really heard before, but it was great, very upbeat and catchy. The second song was "My Happy Ending" which ya' gotta love in all it's cheesy teen-angst splendor. Okay, those of you who know me know that I am not usually one for this type of pop music, but come on, this stuff is catchy as hell and hey at least the girl actually plays guitar and sings! So sue me, I enjoyed the hell out of Avril Lavigne's performance on Friday.

SIDENOTE:
I just want to expand on a related point where someone at work was trying to tell me that she doesn't like Avril because she's only a teenager and therefore doesn't have the experience to write about "real" issues. Hello?!?! Last time I checked rock and roll was all about channelling one's inner teenager! All the better if the artist in question is a teenager or close to it and not some 70 year old. But rock music is about rebellion, lust, love, fighting the man, frustration, angst, anger. I don't want to hear some rock song about a second divorce or about those crazy weekends shopping at Home Depot. Obviously there is a place in the world of rock for the Bruce Springsteens and Bob Dylans of the world who take on important social issues and whatnot, but come on, if you're looking for meaningful insight into the human condition, READ A BOOK, don't listen to pop music.

And then ...

Friday night me and the BU-crew hit up Universal Citywalk for some dinner, where we were joined by some of the NBC page 'pack, and then drove down to Josh's apartment for some quality hanging-out time. Saturday me and Chris rocked Hollywood, including some touristy stuff and a stop at Barney's Beanery. And today I drove Chris back to the airport and the weekend was complete. In between those things lots of Soul Caliber was played (got my ass whupped ...), and a good time was had by all. So here's a shout out to everyone from BU - here's to the good old days of college (which I have now been done with for a whole freakin' year! damn, that went quickly).

Oh hey, I must say congratulations to fellow BU alum, fellow former Overexposed writer, and fellow former Conan intern Mike D, for recently landing a virtual dream job - working as an assistant editor / writer at the world's best source of fake news - The Onion! Now that is a sweet gig.

WHAT ELSE?!?!

THE LAW WON ... DAMMIT ALL ...

So this whole traffic ticket thing is driving me nuts. Tommorow is actually my court date but I am pretty sure that everything is taken care of via online bail pay. Sonova - I cannot believe that I am going through this much hassle because I didn't fully stop at a stop sign that was RIGHT OUTSIDE OF MY APARTMENT. Now I have to do some kind of traffic school just to get this off of my driving record. I was talking to a Burbank cop at Leno and he was telling me he wasn't surprised that I got the ticket because the cops are leery of my apartment complex, since apparently there are a lot of reckless young people who live there, wannabe actors and whatnot. Still, am I one of those people? NO! Every day I see people driving around doing unbelievably reckless, stupid things, and their records are probably cleaner than Martha Stewart's kitchen. This sucks. All I know is that I hope all of my payments and everything are in order, and that there's not like a warrant put out for my arrest. If there is, well, I guess you won't be hearing from me in a while.

But now I feel all paranoid just driving aroud Burbank. There are cops everywhere! On the other hand, I REFUSE to be one of those people who is all like "oh dude, I hate the police" like they are some big rebel or somehting who is all anti-authority. Okay, so the cops of LA county are not exactly Officer Friendly who visited your third grade classroom, but still, come on, your average psuedo-rebellious-living-off-their-parents-twenty-something (NONE of which work at NBC - hahahaha!) most likely HAS NO LEGITIMATE REASON to "hate" cops. I will say that I have a strong resentment of the jerk-off cop who thought it was a good use of his time to give me a freakin' ticket for NOT FULLY STOPPING AT AN EMPTY DRIVEWAY OUTSIDE MY OWN APARTMENT. But, BUT - I still respect your average cop and would rather have a run-in with a cop than some psycho who wants to drive-by shoot me while I'm traveling down the freeway.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

- Watched Raging Bull the other day for the first time. Amazing movie, incredible acting by DeNiro (there's my original statement of the day for ya).

- Just after I wrote my recent rant on the stupidity of teaching religion in science class, Time Magazine published a cover story on the very issue. Good article and one which, despite the magazines sometimes-conservative leanings, could not help but admit the pointlessness of countering scientific evidence with biblical stories presented literally as a viable alternative. And now some museum is going to show humans coexisting with dinosaurs despite all evidence to the contrary? The lies people will tell themselves ...

- In the world of entertainment, I honestly don't get those who are hating on this summer's crop of movies. Are you crazy, it's been the best summer for movies in a while. You have possibly the best superhero movie ever in Batman Begins. You have an actual GOOD Star Wars movie. You have a Spielberg alien epic, War of the Worlds, with the best action scenes we've seen in a while. You have a Tim Burton - Johnny Depp collaberation, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that is once again magical. Another great Russell Crowe drama in Cinderella Man. A surprisingly moving documentary in March of the Penguins. A new Bill Murray-at-his-best comedy in Broken Flowers. I mean, come on - last summer you had Napoleon Dynamite, Spiderman 2, and ... what? King Arthur? Troy? I, Robot? So if you come out of the movies bummedo ut because you just wasted 10 bucks on Dukes of Hazzard or Deuce Bigelow, remember - you have nobody to blame but yourself.

Hmm, are those policemen with billyclubs walking into my apartment complex? Wait, I failed to pay my ticket you say? But hold up, it was for not fully stopping in front of a stopsign right outside my apartment! That's like getting fined for not stopping at the end of your own driveway. Come on, that force isn't really necessary. Okay, put away the tazer. Yes, I do work at NBC. You don't care? Stop! Put that thing away! I'll go willfully. Wait! One phone call ... at leat let me publish my blog entry ... dammit, this sucks. Okay, gotta go .... helllllllp meeeeeeeee ....damn you, Burbank police department .... DAMNNNNNN YOUUUU!!!!!!!!!