to walk

1:30 AM, Thursday, October 6th, 2005:   I don't believe I've mentioned my absolute obsession with The Daily Show in the past year as I've tended to be less political until Katrina. That bitch fucked everything up didn't she. Suffice to say, it has been nothing short of brilliant all year. Around election time last year Jon pretty much threw all neutral views aside and rallied against Bush and used humor to do so. At the time I was actually a little peeved in the same way I was with Michael Moore. The truth is bad enough - and when you are so obviously biased, it kills the message...   ...now however, he's my fucking hero. As a wise man once said: "This isn't just a dream, we're past the time to talk" and Jon's delivery of his view and his spin on the news is some of the funniest and most poignant moments in television history. So obviously my first stop in NY was the show.   I went online well over a month ago and there were no tickets available until the November, but there was standby - and if you got there early enough, you could get in. So early I was and Chad and I (the guy I'm staying with) were #3 and #4 in the line. However the VIP list was overloaded and some people with tickets didn't even get in. Alas, we waited afor hours and hours for nothin' 'cept a good bum quarrel.   It was kind of a huge letdown because the studio was a helluva walk only to wait all afternoon and walk all the way back for nothin' but a woman yelling "Kick my ass now mother fucker!" ;-). Little did we know it was part one of three long waits for absolutely nothing alllllllllll day.   So Chad mentioned this thing called "Movieoke" where people would do the lines to a movie while it played on the screen. Now that's a type of karaoke I could get into. Heh. Sounds like a cool idea right?     The website showed the start time an hour early, so we sat at a coffee shop for an hour, then once it was time... no one showed up but the people that run it and their friends. When Chad originally went it was packed. So some of the organizers got up and did it and it was really...poor? I just don't know how to say it constructively. It was a great idea with horrendous execution but the lady who started it has gotten national press so... who am I to say it's poor? Basically - you write down a movie and a scene and she goes up to the video store, finds it, and fast forwards to find the scene (sometimes on VHS) and then plays it with subtitles and no sound. It's unprofessional to say the least. Then they stand in front of the projector covering up the scene. The above picture is just a well timed shot. Right off the bat, I would take about a month out - pick 100 great scenes - edit them down and put them on a couple DVDs and make booklets with the scenes for people to pick from, and over time add suggestions. That would organize it much better for the audience and the performer. Secondly, put the screen above or beside the actor completely to allow the audience to watch either/or, or choose to focus on both together. Some people like trying to sync it perfectly - some like doing artistic renditions of the scene...as it is now - the performer completely gets in the way. Those 2 things would help it gain mass appeal. It would go over very well in LA, but again - only if you did a lot of editing work...you can't just limit it to the basement of video stores. Where "any video" could be picked up. Besides, no basements in LA. Heh.   The point however was - yet again, we waited for hours and nothing. We finally left having no one come and paying $7 for a bottle of beer. Nice. But Chad was talking with some friends, we were gonna meet 'em at a bar - so we were off again... guess what happened? No show. It was actually appropriate to end the night. We waited for...christ an hour after they were supposed to be there... nada. On the cab ride home I had to laugh. It was the daily no. Allllll day. Waiting and waiting with absolutely no pay-off every possible way. LOL. Strange start to the trip for sure...   Tomorrow will be WTC Site and the "bench". Should be a good entry. But hey - bum quarrel outside of the Daily Show. That's good times.   Adam   FEEDBACK