Thursday, June 30, 2005

this is that new song i told you about 20 years ago

I guess I'm no rock and roll fun. I passed on the Sleater-Kinney show. I'm just having a case of the Wednesdays. However, I did do something. I went across the street to Dr. Awesome's house. He's got the horseshoe pit set up, so we threw a game and had dinner. It's the strangest thing. There's different birds on his side of the street, and way more bugs. There were like forty billion mosquitoes in his back yard, and there aren't any in my yard. We live 50 feet apart. I don't get it.

After the shoes, we ate dinner while watching some episodes of "What's Happening!", which he has from Netflix. I was so happy, because the dvd he has contains one of my favorite episodes of any tv show ever. I'm sure you've all heard me talk about this episode before. I talk about it a lot. The Doobie Brothers were playing a sold-out show at the kids' high school. As per usual, Rerun fucked it up. He was supposed to get tickets, but he went to a hamburger stand instead. Then some other shit happened, and Raj had arranged an interview with the band, but no tickets. Rerun unknowingly got mixed in with some guys who were bootleggers. They gave him front row tickets and a tape recorder, but he was too dumb to realize what was going on. Rerun fucked it up by dropping the recorder during the show, which was spotted by the band. And apparently, everyone in the venue. It got dead quiet. Later, the band decided not to be mad at the boys if they turned the bootleggers in. Here's where it gets good.... Just to prove a point (that the band doesn't make money, the label doesn't make money and the public gets a shitty recording), they played the tape. You couldn't hear the show at all. The only thing you could hear was Rerun eating popcorn. Man, if that isn't good shit, I don't know what is.
Anyone else remember this episode?

I also got around to watching "Coffee and Cigarettes". After having it for so long, and talking about it for so long, it was a monumental disappointment. I wouldn't suggest getting it. I mean, I like Jim Jarmusch, and I just didn't like this very much. I mean it was okay, but not really great. It's really 10 or so short films pieced together. All of them are scenes where the characters are drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and talking about coffee and cigarettes. One of the shorts has Jack and Meg White. One has Bill Murray and GZA and RZA from Wu-Tang. One has Cate Blanchette in a dual role. One has Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. All these people play themselves, just having scripted conversations. Despite the potential cool factor in all of that, it doesn't really impress me.
I should have three new movies by the weekend, and I can't remember what they are right now.

now playing:
The Beach Boys -- Pet Sounds Sessions
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds (Sessions)

5 comments:

Reid said...

I know one person who remembers that episode very well...

Interesting that there was a show that was taking a moral stance on bootlegging, though. Out of all the social issues that they could go off on...

Anonymous said...

"Which Doobie do you be?"

I'm still tring to get over the fact that you have a friend named "Dr. Awesome". What do you call him to his face? Docter? Awesome? Ted? Say, what give?!

From here out, I request that all of my acquantainces and friends refer to me in their blogs as "Captian Righteous". Or perhaps "Constable Dope". Take your pick. Whether this actually blossoms into a full fledged nickname for me, only time can tell...

d-lee said...

Yeah, that was a pretty lame moment in the history of the show. It may have marked the beginning of its demise. While other shows were using celebrity cameos to tackle real issues (like Diff'rent Strokes did with Nancy Reagan/don't do drugs and Kareem Abdul Jabbar/corporal punishment is wrong), the producers of What's Happening used the faux-issue of bootlegging as a sorry excuse to use the Doobie Brothers in a "very special two-part episode".
However, it was actually Diff'rent Strokes that was playing the "very special two-part episode" card way too much. It seemed like there weren't any one parters. Maybe they also played the "important issue" card too much. I guess that's one way to get people to watch the show.
By the way, Dr. Awesome is usually called "D.A" to his face. The long-form nickname was applied by another friend of ours, and he knows full well about it.

Reid said...

Normally, I don't think that people should be able to come up with their own name, but "Constable Dope" is just too good to pass up.

d-lee said...

actually, i liked "captain righteous" a little better, but "constable dope" lends itself to the abridged "C.D.", which is pretty damn cool.