A huge Truth About Mike bouquet of congratulations goes out to Kid Spin, Ben and the rest of the cast and crew of Wah Do Dem (What They Do). The film won the Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature) at the L.A. Film Festival last week. This award comes with $50,000 in prize money. From what I understand, this money will be used to further promote the film.
I attended their release party and the second (of two showings) at the festival last week. The film was very well done. The best compliment I heard about it was during the question and answer period after the movie. A woman from Jamaica stood up and complimented the crew on making such an accurate portrayal of Jamacian people and life in Jamaica. Needless to say, even though I am not even connected with the film, her words gave me goosebumps.
Well done and well deserved, guys!
Congrats again!
As an aside, thanks to NEIL for picking up the drink tab at said release party. When it comes to the bar, NEIL is definitely not cheap. He really knows how to let the dogs out.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ll be back on schedule next week with my usual “Miley Monday” installment.
Some people call Las Vegas “Sin City” and the moniker is probably merited. After all, there is no other place in the world that feeds into the seven deadly sins more than Las Vegas. If someone ever wrote the true book on Vegas, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride would probably be the chapter titles.
Even with all the excess of Vegas, there are often moments that happen in that city when the magic of Las Vegas is truly exposed. These moments contribute to what makes Las Vegas a special place.
I was walking from having dinner at the Wynn to the Palazzo theatre when I came upon one of those Vegas moments. I stumbled upon a band playing some music in a lounge type area. I always stop when I hear live music because, well, who doesn’t like live music? Hopefully, it will be something I can expose myself to more often while living in San Francisco (wait, what?).
Anyhoo, I listened for about half a song and the band was decent but nothing special.
And then amazing happened.
For the next next number, they introduced a female member of the band. She then proceeded to belt of out a version of the song “At Last” that would stop traffic. The best compliment I can give it is that it was so good, it almost made me drop my beloved iPhone.
Pitch, pace, key, intonation – you name it; They were all perfect. She hit every note as if the song was written just for her. No combination of words can truly describe it, but a single, solitary word comes close:
Magical.
One of the band members invited people up to dance. In what had to be at a world record pace, the dance floor filled up. Many of these folks would have fit right in with the cast of Cocoon. With those sounds coming out of that woman and the transformation of that lounge into a dance hall, Vegas once again put on her magic. It was like a flower, popping up through the dry, lifeless land of the desert.
I scanned the dance floor and the looks on the dancers’ faces. You could literally feel and cut the love emanating off of those couples. They all looked as if they were transported back to the day they met. It was intoxicating; A room full of strangers from all over the country, almost all spontaneously swaying in unison to the most beautiful sound in the state.
It is scenes (and sounds) like these that make you forget the things that are bothering you. It makes things you’ve been worrying about seem trivial. Furthermore, they simplify life. They stop the clock, put it on its end, and make it seem more manageable. They are an almost tangible and tactile representation that ultimately, times are good and that even better and brighter days lie ahead.
These scenes seem to happen in one place more often that almost any other.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I know I threw up the “Gone Fishin” batsignal, but I can’t not write this one. I’ve been itching to write this one since I heard the news yesterday.
February 3rd, 1959 is known as the day the music died. The reason for this is Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson all perished in a plane crash that day.
Growing up, one of my favorite movies was La Bamba,the story about Ritchie Valens. Even today when it is on, I have to stop what I am doing and watch it. I’m not sure if it was Lou Diamond Phillips’ funny hair, his crazy brother (wonderfully played by Esai Morales), or the fact that it was a story about the minority kid getting the cute white girl.
I’m glad I was in California yesterday, of all days. I had just spent a few hours sitting with my 92 year-old, bed-ridden grandmother and was in the car. I was headed to Santa Monica to watch the Sox game at Sonny McLean’s (the official Southern California Red Sox bar) with my friend Hope. At 2:56pm Pacific time, a text came in from NEIL that I will never forget:
“Heard that Michael Jackson died.“
Shocked, I turned on the first AM station I could find and it was the CBS radio affiliate in LA. They confirmed NEIL’s text and even mentioned that the website TMZ was reporting that MJ had actually died. Every other news outlet was reporting that he was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, but not reporting that he had died. There were also reports that people were streaming to the UCLA Medical Center and the traffic I was stuck in seemed to confirm this.
At 3:22, the station reported that the L.A. Times had confirmed Michael Jackson had died citing local officials. My heart sunk. The “King of Pop” was dead and I was stuck in a Los Angeles traffic jam. I had just driven from LA where Michael Jackson was and on the way to Santa Monica, where Farrah Fawcett had died just hours earlier. I felt like I was driving through purgatory.
I arrived at Sonny’s and took at look at the bar. Three of the TV’s had the Sox game on and one of them was on MSNBC which was running wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage. I grabbed two seats between the TV showing the Sox game and the TV showing MSNBC. It was funny to see almost every TV in the Californian watering hole turned to the Red Sox game. Except for the palm trees you see when you look out the window, the bar could easily be in Quincy or some other nook in the Commonwealth.
The game was a stinker. I had been eagerly awaiting watching John Smoltz’ debut as a Red Sox, but my glance kept sneaking over to the only TV not showing the game. Masses of people were seen at the hospital and they even showed footage of Jackson’s body being transported by helicopter to the L.A. County Coroner’s Office. Someone remarked that it felt like we were watching the events of the OJ Simpson debacle. Another guy loaded up the jukebox with Michael Jackson songs and they played in the background as an eerie reminder of the day’s events.
Before I left Hope, I told her that I would always remember where I was when I heard the news about Michael Jackson. I also told her that she would always be part of that memory. I don’t know why I said it, it just seemed like one of those “in the moment” things worth noting. As I drove back down the 405 to my uncle’s house, it seemed like every station in LA was playing Michael Jackson music in tribute. This is when the magnitude of MJ’s death hit me. Station after station, it was hit song after hit song. The man was an international, musical superstar in every sense of the words. He was the truth.
I thought of La Bamba yesterday because for me, yesterday will always be the “day the music died.” Michael Jackson was my John Lennon. He was my Elvis. “Thriller” was the first album I ever owned. He’s the first man who ever inspired me to want to get up and dance. He is the biggest musical superstar of my lifetime, sang the song I danced to at my wedding, and he changed the world.
These days, it has become “cool” to mock Michael Jackson. Sure he was eccentric and sure he brought a lot of it upon himself, but nobody can question the man’s musical talents. This is how I will choose to remember MJ. I will remember him for the myriad of chart-toppers he sang, for the “Thriller” video and for making music that, growing up, seemed like it was on a different level than anything else I was hearing.
A small part of me died yesterday. It died wearing a sparkly glove on one hand and doing a reverse dance move called the moon walk. However, it will never be forgotten.
Instead of writing about how I sat next to a cute girl on the flight who raved about San Francisco and spoke about how she loved it there and had friends out there, let’s change it up a bit.
For me, LA is much like New York in that I love visiting these places for short periods of time. There comes a time between the 24-48 hour mark that I start to get antsy and want to leave. Here in LA, it is the traffic (Laker frontrunner car flags everywhere, btw) and the fact that the city is so spread out. The reason I flew here instead of San Francisco is that I have a lot of relatives here: NEIL lives here and my cousin T-Lo’s family (his son Kyle is the cutest kid ever) are here along with two uncles, my grandmother and some cousins on my father’s side. Also, I’m going to try and check out Kid Spin’s movie premiere at the L.A. Film Festival next week.
The only thing I really, really wanted to see in LA was the Conan show. I’ve been here a bunch of times and have seen all the traditional touristy things. However, I’ve always loved Conan (Letterman too, actually) but never could watch him because he was on so late each night (12:30am). Three weeks and 14 shows ago, he took over the 11:30pm time slot and Tonight Show reigns from Jay Leno (thankfully).
Yesterday, I got a chance to see him and I’ll break down the day diary style (in Pacific time, of course).
5:30am – I awoke early because of the time difference. Wednesday night, I pretty much threw out the idea of going to Conan because the only way I could get tickets was via their standby system. The stand by system is going over to Universal Studios at 10am and getting a standby ticket. After you get a standby ticket, you had to return at 3:30 to try and get in the show. Getting one of these tickets does not guarantee admission to the show. You would only get in if there were no-shows. Since I was up so early, I figured I’d give it a shot.
7:30am – I headed out the door for Universal. On the way, I grabbed some gas and hunted down a Carl’s Jr. loaded breakfast burrito which NEIL and T-Lo raved about. Their raving was merited. Good stuff. All in all (with stops) , the drive from where NEIL lives in Laguna Beach to Universal took just over 90 minutes in LA traffic. Not fun times.
9:15am – I arrived at Gate 3 at Universal. I ended up being about the 30th person in line and met some nice people. The people ahead of me were from Minnesota and the people behind me were from California, about 200 miles north of LA on the coast.
9:30am – They opened the gate and lead us into the holding area.
9:50am – A woman came out and explained the whole standby process. She empathsized that getting a ticket didn’t guarantee admission and not to bring any cameras when we came back at 3:30. She also mentioned that only 20 people got in on Wednesday night but 70 people got in on Tuesday night. Wednesday night made sense because “The Rapist,” I mean Kobe Bryant was on the show. You have to figure that she weren’t many no shows for his appearance. After all, non-consensual sex between a NBA star and an unsuspecting hotel employee is pretty much commonplace these days, right?
10:00am – She passed out the standby tickets. Each person could get a ticket for up to two people. I got one for two people, hoping I could convince NEIL to leave work and come to the show with me. My ticket was numbered 24th and I was pretty confident I’d get in. The NBC website said there usually was 100 seats given away each show.
10:10am – As I was walking back to my car, I ran into my friend Mike. His wife is a producer on the show and I had sent him an email Wednesday night asking if he could get me a few tickets (apologizing for the short notice, of course). He was at Universal dropping his wife off for work. When I saw him, he told me he would work on getting me in. I explained that I had a pretty low number on the standby list, so I should be all set. I asked him to still try just to make sure I got in. Good thing he did.
10:15-3:15pm – I spent the next part of the day driving around LA. I went to Hollywood Boulevard, past the Chinese theatre and even grabbed a few beers at the famous Red Sox bar Sonny McLean’s in Santa Monica. I also spent a lot of the time trying to convince NEIL to come. At around 11:30, Mike called me telling me he could get me one ticket on the VIP list. Upon hearing this great news, visions of Eva Mendez on my lap danced through my head. Ultimately, the only thing the VIP list got me was a guaranteed admission (huge, actually) and a later check in time (4pm).
3:15pm – One of the cool things about getting to Universal early was that I found a great parking spot. Across from Universal, there is a park that had free two hour parking from 8am-6pm. I parked there when I grabbed the standby tickets and went back there again. It is directly across from Gate 2 where I had to enter. I figured that if I parked around 3:45 I’d be good during the taping of the show.
3:45pm – I arrived at the VIP meeting area to find a line of about 25 people. There, I met the first of many pages working the show. His name was Rafael. He let us know all of the procedures and gave us wristbands. He advised us that the taping was from 5-6pm. He also told me that McLovin was on the show along with Eva Mendez (which I knew). They were very strict about their no cell phone policy and told us to turn them off right away. He also said that using a cell phone in the studio would be grounds for dismissal. I saw Mike again and he came over and said hello.
4:00pm – They started to let the regular, ticketed guests in. Rafael said they would let two or three of those groups in and then let us in. Apparently, VIP’s aren’t worth the best seats in the house. At that point though, it didn’t matter. I was just happy to be getting in.
4:10pm – Our group was lead into the studio. It was a short walk and we had to go through a metal detector. Also, we were advised to go to the rest room if needed because it was our last chance. Again, they mentioned the cell phone thing. There were a ton of pages escorting us where to go. They were all dressed similar to Kenneth from “30 Rock.”
4:12pm – I finally was seated. Seeing the set was surreal and it is a lot nicer in person than on TV. It was very cool to see the set of the show I have been watching every night since it started. There were a ton of lights and flat screens above our heads. Above each flat screen was an “Applause” sign and the theater was ice cold. As the people were being escorted in, I kept an eye out for the people around me in the standby line.
4:20pm – The theater was finally full and there was no sign of the people I met in the standby line. They didn’t get in. If it wasn’t for Mike and his wife, I wouldn’t have gotten in either (thanks again Mike and Rachel!!!).
4:30pm – The turned up the music really loud, presumably to get people pumped for the show. Security was pretty strict with people trying to secretly use there cell phones. Even though I wanted to snap a few pictures of the set, cameras were completely out of the question.
4:35pm – Some comedian came out. His job was to warm up the audience. He also explained the applause meter and made us practice our applause. At first, he really wasn’t funny. He then started picking on people in the audience and his schtick instantly became funnier.
4:50pm – The comedian introduces Conan’s announcer, Andy Richter. Richer serves no real purpose on the show except an occassional cut to him laughing at Conan’s jokes. True to form, he didn’t do anything at this point except introduce the band, the “Max Weinberg Seven.”
4:51pm – The band comes out and totally sparks up the crowd. There were really high-energy and a few of them even came out to the audience while they played. They were fantastic and that was when I finally realized, “Wow, I’m actually at the Tonight Show.”
4:59pm – I was amazed at the amount of people around the set. There were tons of pages, camera men and even some dudes up in the back in suits. On the stage there were people in front of monitors, a stage manager running everything and rent-a-cop-security dudes all over the place.
5pm – Taping begins. Conan comes out, does his monologue and the show pretty much runs on the same timeframe as it would on TV. He was brilliant per usual, very tall and between takes seemed very businesslike. They did a bit with the USC band which was great. and the only real bad segment was the Twitter Tracker. It just wasn’t funny and should probably be cut from the show (*cough* Rachel *cough*).
5:25ish – Eva Mendez comes out. Two words: Smoke. Show.
She was actually very funny and someone who seemed like she would be really fun to hang out with. Definitely hotter in person. During the commerical breaks, a producer guy would go up to Conan and talk to him. Also the cue card guys would get into position and useless Richter went up and talked to Eva Mendez. I can’t blame in for that, though. Hey-Zeus, she is hot.
5:40ish – MCLOVIN! I was surprised at how young he was. I thought he was older than 19 and seemed like one of those kids you’d pick on in high school. It was probably smart for him to not mention that he was a Celtics fan with the Lakers parade being the day before and all.
5:50ish – The worst band I’ve ever heard, the Dead Weather came on. Mendez, McLovin and Conan all moved closer to the stage and watched on. I could even see them nodding their heads and tapping their feet. I bet they were just pretending to be into it, because there is no way any sane person would enjoy that noise.
6:00pm – Taping ends, but not before Conan, Mendez and McLovin do a few quick promos for local newscasts. Conan thanks the crowd for being a great audience and then leaves. Mendez and McLovin leave arm in arm (Go McLovin!).
All and all, a great day in LA, mostly thanks to Mike and Rachel. Thanks again guys, I really appreciate it. Please let me know if you are ever up in Boston (or if I move, San Francisco).
Now, off to San Francisco for the weekend….
Have a great weekend, everyone! Make the most of every day.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Maverick for helping me move (and storing) my recliner. Thanks to Flah for helping out for three straight days on the yard and my neighbor Tim for letting me use his tools.
Greetings from California!
Welcome to what could be the first of many “Truth About Mike” west coast entries.
A week ago, I set a goal to get my house ready for sale by yesterday. It was an ambitious goal, but I always work better with a deadline. When I started, my lawn and yard were overgrown and the house was cluttered, dirty and a mess. It was probably in the condition same any single guy’s place would be in. At one point, my realtor even suggested pushing everything back a week. I wasn’t having any of that talk because July is typically a very bad month for selling houses due to vacations. I wanted to get the house on the market right away.
Over four out of the past five days, I spent at least 12 hours working on the house. Tuesday, I spent 19 total hours working on it, finally going to bed at 4:30am. At one point, I was crawling around on the floor because of how sore I was. I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder on anything in my life and (as sad as this may sound), it is probably one of my greatest accomplishments.
Those 12 hour days consisted of cleaning, organizing, yard work (with lots of help) and a basic overhaul of everything in the house. I was opening boxes I haven’t opened since we moved in six years ago and gave away seven pieces of furniture. I learned that Lowe’s closes at ten, where I could drop off used clothes and books, how great Kid Spin and Flah were at yard work, and where dumpsters in town where it was easy to drop trash after dark were.
When my brother came to pick me up for the airport yesterday, I experienced a feeling I haven’t had in a long while. The feeling consisted of relief, excitement and joy that I had accomplished my goal. It was a goal that seemed very unrealistic when it was first set. When he pulled up, I was putting the finishing touches on the last room. He took a quick walk through the house and commented that it looked like a different place. My realtor came over yesterday and she was amazed at how great the house looked. The pictures above are “before” and the pictures below are “after.”
The house went on the market yesterday. We are holding our first open house on Sunday. To be honest, I am not optimistic about the prospect of selling the house; it is a really tough out there. However, since serious thoughts of moving to San Francisco entered by head, everything seems to be falling into place to do so. Tune in tomorrow to hear about my flight out to California and what happened to make me even more excited to make the leap.
Getting the house into the condition it is in right now over the course of a week was no small task. I learned a lot about myself and some of the people in my life. Now, I truly know that I can accomplish anything. Moving to one of the most expensive cities in the country 3,000 miles away with no job will seem like a walk in the (dog) park compared to the past week.
It really is amazing what one can accomplish when motivated.
If I could lift my arms, I’d post some before and after pictures of yesterday’s yard work. I’ll post some soon.
I went from “worst yard in the neighborhood” to “toast of the town” all in one day. A few of my neighbors commented on how good the yard looks. The neighbor across the street couldn’t believe how much we got done in one day (4 hours actually).
There is no way in hell I could have gotten it done without the following three people:
Flah – Mr. Wheel Barrel. He came in expecting the worst, but commented that it really wasn’t that bad. He had so much fun that he is also coming back (along with four others) in the morning. We need to mulch and finish up the job.
Alex – Thanks for bringing the axe. I haven’t seen Alex in months, but he committed to help without hesitation. I’m proud to be an honorary Sterzin. You’re a true friend.
Most importantly…
Kid Spin – A yard work animal and current MVP of my quest to sell the house. He was here early and left last. He also climbed out of my upstairs window to clean out the gutters. The. Man.
Also, he is the executive producer of the film Wah Do Dem (What they do?) starring Norah Jones. He is headed to LA this week because his film is premiering at the L.A. Film Festival Saturday. This is quite an honor as 4,600 films were submitted and only 200 were chosen for the festival. Hopefully, he can sell it to a studio “Entourage” style. Good luck, dude!
Thanks so much guys. You really came through for me in a (granted, self-imposed) stressful time of need.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ll be back on schedule next week with my usual “Miley Monday” installment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I know I threw up the “Gone Fishin” batsignal, but I can’t not write this one. I’ve been itching to write this one since I heard the news yesterday.
Instead of writing about how I sat next to a cute girl on the flight who raved about San Francisco and spoke about how she loved it there and had friends out there, let’s change it up a bit.
10:00am – She passed out the standby tickets. Each person could get a ticket for up to two people. I got one for two people, hoping I could convince NEIL to leave work and come to the show with me. My ticket was numbered 24th and I was pretty confident I’d get in. The NBC website said there usually was 100 seats given away each show.
3:45pm – I arrived at the VIP meeting area to find a line of about 25 people. There, I met the first of many pages working the show. His name was Rafael. He let us know all of the procedures and gave us wristbands. He advised us that the taping was from 5-6pm. He also told me that McLovin was on the show along with Eva Mendez (which I knew). They were very strict about their no cell phone policy and told us to turn them off right away. He also said that using a cell phone in the studio would be grounds for dismissal. I saw Mike again and he came over and said hello.
Those 12 hour days consisted of cleaning, organizing, yard work (with lots of help) and a basic overhaul of everything in the house. I was opening boxes I haven’t opened since we moved in six years ago and gave away seven pieces of furniture. I learned that Lowe’s closes at ten, where I could drop off used clothes and books, how great Kid Spin and Flah were at yard work, and where dumpsters in town where it was easy to drop trash after dark were.
