Live From Universal Studios Hollywood: One Last Time!

And so, once more, change is coming.

Today marks my last day over at Universal Studios. While I'll basically be continuing with the same job, at least for now, starting Monday, I'll be in the Pinnacle building in Burbank where NBC has offices. Very nice, swanky offices I might add.

And, oh yeah ... did I mention I will have my OWN office?!?!

Oh yes, you read that right, humanoids (note how i'm already more condescending now that I have my own office).

Seriously though, this move will be interesting. I'll be sharing office space with NBC's new media group as well as the folks at Bravo. Yes, Bravo, home of Project Runway and Inside the Actor's Studio. Look out.

I will be continuing, basically, with the same I-Tunes job as usual, though with some added responsibility since former I-Tunes guru Lloyd Scott is now over at MGM. Again, this should be interesting ...

They do seem to run a tight ship over at the Pinnacle building though. The office manager there made it pretty clear that there's to be no jeans worn to work, and implied that i had best be in by 9 am every day. I know, I know, no jeans and 9 am is par for the course for most, but I guess I've just been spoiled over here in the wild wild west of the 2160 Building on the Universal Lot.

And even though I don't think I've had a chance to REALLY take advantage of my time at Universal, it's still been cool. Universal - the home of Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Wolfman. King Kong, E.T., and Jurassic Park. Back to the Future, Jaws, and dammit all, Van Helsing. It's been fun. Right now I can walk out of my office and peak into a giant soundstage and see an army of workers constructing a giant replica of Noah's freakin' Ark for the new movie Evan Almighty with Steve Carell. I work in a lot that is connected to friggin' theme park. How cool is that? I'll miss eating outside in the Backlot Cafe and pretending I was famous as the tram tours rolled by. I'll miss the commisary, with its elaborate wall-collage of classic movie posters from the golden age of cinema. I'll miss my occasional lunch-runs to Citywalk. It was cool to work on a movie lot, no doubt about it.

I do wish I had had a few more laid back days here where friends and I could have blown off work and gone to the park to ride Jurrasic Park and The Mummy. And I never really felt like I saw anything REALLY cool going on here that would have been the quintissential working-on-a-movie-lot experience. And yeah, as I've mentioned many times, being on this crazy-empty 7th floor had its perks, sure, but being so isolated was kind of maddening at times as well. Although ... as I sit here, writing on my blog, watching a tape of last week's MTV Movie Awards, and multi-tasking like nobody's business ... man, I don't think I'm going to be in this position again anytime soon. I've had it pretty good, folks. Now, onto the next phase. Bring it on ( I think ...?).

OTHER STUFF:

- Nachoooooooooooo! Tonight I venture out with a band of lucha-libre faithful to see Jack Black don the sacred mask of the luchador. Should be good times, and I personally am standing by my prediction of a $40 Million + opening weekend. Remember folks, there's a lunch riding on this, so a lot is at stake here! What do you think? Post your predictions NOW.

Nacho Libre - over or under $40 mil opening weekend? What do YOU think?

But come on people, I've heard the critics, and obviously I won't know what to think of the movie until I've seen it for myself. But can any fan of movie comedy honestly trust the critics when it comes to movies like this? Hells no, I say. Now I am always curious what the critics say about movies. EW, Ain't It Cool, Ebert, whoever. But I remember EW calling Napoleon Dynamite one of the worst movies of the year it was released! Now yes, different strokes for different folks, but that's why you can't trust reviewers when it comes to comedy, especially the quirkier ones that don't fall into one specific subgenre (ie sports comedy, romantic comedy, buddy comedy, action-comedy, etc.) where there is an already-established canon of great movies to make for ease of comparison.

I mean, let's look at some of my favorite comedies, most of which have big followings. Many not only did poor box office, but got poor reviews upon release. Wet Hot American Summer - one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, yet most critics either panned it or misguidedly praised it as a satire of 80's summer camp movies, which it wasn't really. Big Lebowski - John Goodman should have won a freaking Oscar for this, yet upon its release the movie was totally misunderstood by most critics. Yet it reamins one of the best movies of all time, period. Mallrats - in it's own way, as funny as Clerks, yet critics HATED it even as it established the cult of Kevin Smith. Napoleon Dynamite - one of the most unique comedies ever, and deserving of its huge following, yet critics panned it as condescending and lacking heart which I think is anything but the truth.

So yeah, screw the critics when it comes to most comedies. Just about the only modern comedies I can think of that receive universal praise from fans and critics are the Christopher Guest mockumentaries (Best in Show, Waiting For Guffman, A Mighty Wind), and I think that's partly due to those movies wearing their intelligence on their sleeve rather than hiding it beneath the layers of lower-brow (but still gut-bustingly funny) comedy that movies like Lebowski have.

I mean, I don't think most movie lovers are going to protest the poor reviews for the latest Rob Schneider vehicle, but ... critics are always WAY behind the curve when it comes to cult comedy.

Look at the Simpsons ... what critics were hailing it as one of the best shows ever when it was actually in it's prime in the 90's? People were too busy calling it subversive and a poor influence on kids to recognize its brilliance. Only much later did the mainstream press look back and say "oh yeah, it WAS pretty good."

Get my point? Good.

Nachooooooooooooo!

NBA FINALS:

Wow, Miami is back. Ladies and gentleman, we have ourselves a series. At some points in this series, with Shaq, 'Zo, and Payton on its roster, Miami has reminded me of the ill-fated Houston Rockets dream team of the late 90's with aging stars Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwuan, and Scottie Pippen. Each star seemed to alternatively relive their glory days on given nights, but it was rare that the team was firing on all cylinders. Of course, Shaq is probably more effective now that Hakeem was at the time, and then there's Dwayne Wade. The team will go as far as Wade can carry them, so it's definitely anyone's game right now. Things just got a lot more interesting.

TV:

Remember when the MTV Awards shows were like THE must-see programs on TV, filled with hilarious sketches populated by the likes of Mike Myers, Ben Stiller, and the like? I do. At least to me, as a kid, I waited in anticipation for the MTV Movie Awards each year as well as the Video Music Awards. just finished watchign this year's movie show on tape. A few funny moments from Steve Carell, Topher Grace, and Jim Carrey, but dayum, this was mostly weak sauce. Not exactly a shocker, I know. But come on, Wedding Crashers as Best Movie? Wasn't even Best Comedy of the year, let alone best movie.

- According to my friend Adriana, who is keeping a cool diary detailing her adventures studying overseas in Hong Kong ... my blog is BANNED BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT~! I had a feeling that this blog was an international incident waiting to happen!

Check it out: http://chinatravelschinatravails.blogspot.com

THE WEEKEND:

Lots of stuff going on, including Nacho, and the 2nd annual Page (and former Page) beach bonfire. If only i played the guitar ...

Alright, signing off one last time from the 'lot. (Pretend Back to the Future theme is playing in the background). Great Scott!