My Looking Glass

Ladies & Gentlemen, Weird Al

My sister snapped this shot of Al and her friend (who I cut out of the picture) at the after party (see previous post). Believe it or not, she said it was nearly 2 and a half hours of delightful entertainment. She'd not only go see Al again, she highly recommends him to anyone with a sense of humor. She said he's got a cult following of rabid fans, and there was a petition being circulated to get Al in the R&R Hall of Fame.

I didn't take any pictures of Neil Flynn (The Janitor), even though my camera was inches away in my purse. He's totally good looking in real life. I knew he was tall, but seriously, he's at least 6 foot 5 if not 6 foot 6. He also has piercing blue eyes. He and his comrades in Beer Shark Mice were great. For anyone who has never been to improv before, they had someone from the audience shout out a location (sushi restaurant), and away they went. They riffed for close to an hour to mostly nonstop hilarity. There was a man sitting in front of me, probably at least 75 years old, who was practically wetting himself with laughter. Good times.

When we left the club, the Santa Ana winds had started blowing. Of course since then, they have been the genesis of total devastation. Early yesterday when the only city ablaze was Malibu, I was getting ashes here, about 50 miles south. Now that most of Southern California has exploded, there's no relief for anyone, anywhere. At this point, the closest fire is about 30 miles away, but the sky has been essentially obscured all day with soot and blowing ash. At my house, it's finally cooling off a little (that is to say, at 6:00 p.m., it's down to 86 at the beach), but having the windows open means you're choking on the smell of smoke. I can't imagine what the firefighters and residents on the scene of these fires are dealing with. Keep your fingers crossed that we get a break in the weather.

posted by LA @ 5:34 PM 7 comments

Beer Shark Mice

Any Scrubs fans reading this? I got a group together tonight to see Beer Shark Mice which is otherwise known as Neil Flynn's (Janitor!) improv troupe. My sister wanted to go, but she has a friend in from out of town who invited her to another gig tonight, including the Weird Al after party.

Let me just repeat that so it sinks in:

Weird. Al. After. Party.

My sister chose Weird Al over The Janitor. See, if you live in Los Angeles, you can see The Janitor doing improv every week, but it's not every day, week, month, or year that you get invited to a Weird Al after party.

I just need to say that over and over so it sinks in, such is the absurdity.

posted by LA @ 3:30 PM 7 comments

Where's Ffleur?

Ffleur, where are you? Your blog is gone and so is your email address? Miss you, girl. Hope all is well and that you check in on comments, even if you don't want to continue blogging.

posted by LA @ 8:58 PM 8 comments

NotEinstein Say Whaaa?

Okay, I realize I didn't go to medical school, but I don't think you need even a minute of medical training to know there's something seriously wrong with this statement:

"The eschar surface area was about 5 x 8 centimeters square and was triangular shaped."

Dr. I.M. NotEinstein dictated that fine line of poetry today. Feel my pain.

posted by LA @ 6:11 PM 10 comments

Perspective

What a difference a week makes in television. Now that more shows have premiered, let's start picking them off, one by one.

Cavemen, as predicted, did indeed suck. But it sparkled like the Hope diamond compared to the show immediately following it. Carpoolers was positively horrendous, so bad, in fact, I fell asleep during it. My brain refused to remain conscious while that pile of manure was being excreted on my screen. I had to spray my living room with Glade when it was over. I'd give Carpoolers a score of "abysmal" and Cavemen a score of "abysmal plus."

Edit - I'm glad you stuck to your ethos and passed on Cavemen.

I caught a full episode of Reaper this week, and honestly, I wasn't impressed. To be fair, I think my demographics fall well outside that of the target audience. It kind of smelled of day-old Velveeta and crackers to me, but the kids might like it. For me, I won't be back.

Last week, I thought Big Bang Theory was funny. This week, I can't in good conscience recommend it, not even to frenemies. I predict cancellation, although it shouldn't be cancelled before Cavemen and Carpoolers.

I continue to despise Private Practice. I read in a TV critic's blog that the network rearranged the order episodes were to be shown, and what was to be episode 4 was aired this past week as episode 2. So either continuity is to be damned, or the writing is so vapid, there's nothing stringing the shows together to even worry about. The episode they moved up this past week featured a story line where a pair of newborns had been swapped at the hospital nursery several months earlier, and now that the switch has been uncovered, the two mothers were forced to exchange the infants. Of course, the mother who had trouble conceiving in the first place gave birth to a baby who won't live past 5 years of age. So highly melodramatic was this episode, that it was clear that Shonda Rhimes and ABC are trying to suck in viewers who are prone to over-sentimentality. I don't like being manipulated, and next week, I'm going to turn the television OFF between Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.

I liked the Pushing Daisies premiere. Brothers and Sisters had a solid opening this season as did Boston Legal. Ditto The Office and 30 Rock (MILF Island! HAHA!).

My beloved Mad Men has only two more episodes left to finish out it's 13-week run. As the season draws to a close, the seeds that were planted early on have grown and are being sown with delicious results. I'm probably going to go into a period of mourning when the final episode airs October 18, so please be gentle. I'm delighted it was renewed, but the new season doesn't start until June. In the meantime, I'm going to pillage Jon Hamm's IMDB page and watch every past performance I can get my hands on.

posted by LA @ 12:13 AM 7 comments