As I'm staring at
their table it hits me like a ton of bricks:
I feel baaaaaaaaaaaaad for Nick Lachey. It's
honestly why I can barely watch even one segment
of their show. Nearly every moment Nick has a look of
frustration on his face as if to scream: "What, the
hell, was I thinking..."
So Jess and I saw
Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson at the Outback in
Burbank last Saturday night. They were eating with her
parents and I believe her little sister. Scary,
but I know the whole family from that VH1 story
on Jessica that is repeated ad infinitum. The entire
wait staff was all giggly and staring. I have to admit
though, I had to look over a bunch too because it
was like an HDTV version of their show. Just kinda
surreal. But then it hit me...
This
overwhelming feeling of wanting to pat
Nick on the back and buy him a beer. And
it's not just because she's stupid about
TUNA
or BUFFALO wings, or any other piece
of common knowledge. That's just life
experience, and she's obviously been
sheltered. But she's stupid about
EVERYTHING. Anyone see where Nick was
playing her his new song he was working
on? And she just laughed in his face and
said it sucked? I mean what the fuck? I
wish that was this entry's video. Couldn't
find it though.
It's as if she's
too stupid to form constructive criticism and just
blurts out shit. I always relate to him, because
he seems sensitive about what he does, is trying to
create his own "persona" outside of 98 degrees...it's
all pretty stressful. It's like he's riding this wave
that at any moment can crash down. You need your wife
to be supportive, to be helpful. She's honestly too
stupid to even realize that. Especially amazing
considering that they're both in the exact same
profession and she has to go through those feelings
too. Whew.
And on top of all
that, the whole world is now seeing this because of
the show and the amount of embarassment he must
feel...whew. It's gonna get to him. They might make it
5 more years, but I highly doubt it. Her being stupid
is one thing. He can at least feel like a father
figure and teach her, care for her, protect her...all
that. But if at the same time she just wallops his ego
around every fuckin corner. Goddaaaaaamn. That shit
will not last. And I don't mean to be so
shitty to two people who have certainly heard enough
of this, but in the strangest of ways, my heart goes
out to Mr. Lachey. Seeing them in person just made it
hit home harder...but I didn't buy him a beer. There
were enough on the table already.
Miller Light if
you were wondering...
The LA press
releases finally went out yesterday. I'm fairly
certain it won't garner any press, but it at least
puts my name and story in their heads when I send out
future ones. Changed it up a bit:
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
SMALL-TIME WEBSITES
BEWARE.
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX CRACKS DOWN
ON FANSITE POSTING PICTURES OF THEIR
SHOW.
LOS ANGELES - Mar. 10,
2004 - Star of the critically-acclaimed
one-man show: "Adam and The Trinitrons",
Adam Kontras, is getting more than he
bargained for when he decided to do a
little guerilla marketing. Kontras
attached a sign with his website,
4tvs.com, onto a building outside of the
studios of "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" in
hopes that it would be viewable on the
nationally syndicated talk show that
shoots against a backdrop of windows in
Hollywood. It worked so well that the show
had to rework their camera positions to
avoid the sign and it only appeared during
one segment. Satisfied, Kontras took down
the sign and wrote about the story in the
journal section of his website including
pictures of his sign's 43 seconds of
glory.
"It garnered two funny
emails from a guy in Boston, but otherwise
there was very little reaction. It was
pretty harmless unfortunately" Kontras
said.
Apparently the
producers of the show felt otherwise as
they forwarded his journal entry to their
lawyers because of the screenshots used to
tell the story. A few days later Kontras
was served a cease and desist order from
Twentieth Century Fox to take down the
pictures.
"There are thousands
of fansites with screen captures of shows
that easily fall under the "fair use"
section of the copyright laws. Fox is just
targeting me for getting my sign on their
show." Kontras said.
The "fair use"
exemptions of the copyright laws are
generally vague and depend on the courts
to define them on a case by case basis.
Kontras is confident that his site, and
every other fansite showing pictures of
celebrities and television shows, are
safeguarded as they're communal sites
sharing pictures and ideas with other
fans, not profiting from the pictures with
advertising revenues. Kontras has no
advertising on 4tvs.com and simply keeps
the journal for friends and family
following his journey in L.A. In fact,
only now are complete strangers checking
out his "sign entry" on the site since the
cease and desist was ordered.
"This would've been
the non-issue of the century had Fox not
gotten the lawyers involved. Now they've
got every tiny website in the world
protesting their overuse of the copyright
laws while reading about my sign. Thank
you letters to the law firm are
forthcoming." Kontras said.
Kontras is currently
finishing up pre-production on his final
stage show about the fictitious boy band:
Adam & The Trinitrons. It's a one-man
show in which he plays all 5 characters
on-stage with 4 televisions showing
pre-recorded versions of Kontras as the
rest of the band. The final show in the
Trinitron Trilogy ironically deals with
censoring the band due to the current wave
going through the country since Janet
Jackson's Superbowl "malfunction". Kontras
will premiere the show at the end of May
in LA and is currently booking a college
tour for the fall. For more information
you can follow "The Journey" at
4tvs.com.
About Adam
Kontras:
At 19, Adam was the
youngest talk show host in 610 WTVN
(Columbus, Ohio) history running his late
night "Late Show" for over 3 years. His
production skills soon landed him the job
as Production Director across town at
CD101 where he continued the "Late Show"
tradition on the FM airwaves. It was here,
Adam started building his one-man show,
4tvs, which would eventually take him to
Los Angeles just 2 years later in January
of 2000. He quickly made waves on the net
starring in a Movie Review show (with his
TVs) for Hollywood Screentest.com called
Movie Minded. In 2001, he reworked his
one-man show into a boy-band parody; The
Trinitrons, that got him into venues such
as The Ha-Ha Café and most notably
The Comedy Store. He's currently writing a
sitcom pilot and bible with the characters
he's developed in The Trinitrons and is
set to premiere the final stage show of
the Trinitron Trilogy in May.
# #
#
Again, can't
really imagine it being newsworthy out here other than
the fact that it concerns the enigma that is Ryan
Seacrest. It is also kinda cool that I show how
well the sign worked with the now illegal famous
pictures. Who knows. As I said two entries ago,
unless they bring it up or it's written about again -
the story is over. I see they've now put
PLANTS in the friggin window to avoid copycat
sign makers. Classic. Funny shit though. Good chapter
in the Journey for sure.
Oh and I did
send out a DVD to Media Morsels to thank them for
their article. Wrote 'em a quick note:
Couldn't be more
sincere about what that first article meant. Seems so
little now, but it truly did inspire the hell out of
me. I was absolutely certain that was the start
of it all. And as much as Darryl drove me crazy with
his inability to even listen to the show others were
writing about, looking back it really is good that he
didn't. I would not be happy being in radio right now.
Not only would the "what-ifs" antagonize me forever, I
simply have more to produce than what can be heard.
Radio does indeed have that limit. Hard to accept that
sometimes when you're so caught in the day-to-day
journey, especially considering just how well received
the radio career was. Worlds away man...
For all intents
and purposes, the script is done. Basically meaning,
by the time I find the 4 replacements amd get
all the scheduling done, I'll have written the final
song lyrics. The only other barrier is my actual hair.
I'm about 3 months from it being the appropriate
length for Dewey without going with wigs. Of course if
you remember this was kind of the whole point to this
final show and the tiny bits, was finding wigs and
having the ability to do new trinitron shows at any
given moment without growing hair...
...but that plan
is starting to show chinks in the armor. The way I see
it happening now is simple: I make the final
show, and the 3 bits that would be playable on TV.
Quick little 2 minute set-ups to give everyone the
idea. If anyone ever wanted more than that, I
guaran-goddamn-tee you I would find a way to make it
happen. So basically, if you gave me one week and
wanted a 3 minute trinitrons for a show...it could
happen. But until that day comes, I'm not gonna kill
myself over being ready for that.
I guess the
bottom line is, and a tad bit unsettling to write, I'm
looking well past "The Trinitrons" in terms of how
I'll make it in this city. The Trinitrons are
continuing for more artistic reasons than anything
else. There's still a great story to tell, and it's
still a visually impressive show that I believe will
be spotlighted on television at some point this year.
But my "way-in" to the industry is most likely
not going to be through the show. And to tell you the
truth I absolutely LOVE writing this paragraph. It
proves to me once and for all that no matter how often
I feel down on myself for wanting so badly to "make
it" in this ciry, I am at heart an artist. I care
about the product I create first and foremost and get
fulfillment from that...more than the financial
success or career aspects of the endeavor. Granted,
I'll be fighting the latter tooth and nail until
I succeed - but I know what place that will have
in my heart. Good to know.
Strange how things
shift sometimes. All I can say is the Adamazon effect
lives on boy. That section of my site catapulted me
into a self-awareness I just never had before.
Can't beat it. It makes me feel like the luckiest man
on the planet.
