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Anchorman Premiere

I gained an unfortunate curse in college. During my time working with the Cornell Concert Commission, I had the “professionalism” thing drilled into my head so much – and had to work in role model positions enough where I had to practice it – that I find it hard to get excited over celebrities when I see them in person. They are, honestly, just people like you and me.

What this leads to is a slightly surreal situation when I see one – “Oh, there’s ______. Yup.” What I don’t normally have to deal with is seeing more than one at a time, but when this does happen, it leads to an exponential growth of the surreal feeling I get.

No time has that ever been more true than tonight – for the Anchorman seminar I talked about a few weeks back (note how the card says “Special screening”) was not in fact a seminar. It was the NYC Premiere.

I can only write about what happened as though I’m retelling it in one big gasp of breath. The story is too disjointed for regular sentences.

So.

At around 6:30 James Lipton got out of a big humvee and then Al Sharpton came out from down the street with two girls on his arm (turned out to be his daughters!) and then George Whipple went by and we freaked him out by saying hi (the eyebrows went up!) and then we talked to other people in the crowd none of whom had tickets and then finally we were let in around 7.

And at the reception Al Sharpton was in the corner and James Lipton looked lonely and Amy Poehler looked really bitter (she’s a little hard to recognize with the makeup off) and then the crowd just gradually grew and we saw some journalists we didn’t recognize and the finger food was decent and there was a giant table where they were pouring scotch and more people I didn’t recognize came in and then Kenan came in and Katie said he was in Burgertime (instead of Good Burger) which made me giggle and then she started going for autographs and got Kenan’s and Zoe Saldana and then managed to get Tina Fey’s and I heard Tina say “Aww that’s so SWEET!” to her at least four times and then we saw Will Farrell progressing slowly down the interview line and Katie managed to step on James Lipton’s foot and said “I’m sorry Mr. Lipton!” and he apparently REALLY does talk like he does on tv, and then Paul Rudd came in and okay this crowd was too much so we went to get seated.

After considering the placement of the reserved seats and our leg room where we were sitting we moved up behind two reserved seats which happened to belong to Bill Kurtis who was the one that was going to be interviewing Will Farrell in character and then we saw the other reserved seats start to fill in and Jimmy Fallon was less dressed up than I was (shock, awe) and Gwenyth Paltrow was sitting in Christina Applegate’s section, right next to her in fact, and she looked pretty good for having just had a baby, and there were more SNL cast members like Molly Shannon and then okay time for the movie to start but wait there’s Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins and their kids wtf are they doing here?

Bill Kurtis gave the opening speech and took a shot at Michael Moore which caused an exchanged glance between Sarandon and Robbins, but afterwords Kurtis gave Robbins a reassuring pat on the shoulder, very strange and the movie started. During the movie Bill and Tim were laughing by far the loudest out of anyone in there and at one point Christina Applegate got up to go out of the room but when she came back she sat on the stairs about five feet from me for the rest of the showing which was rather amusing but then again I was directly behind Bill Kurtis so what the hell and I’ve never been at a movie with so much applauding and cheering and laughing, are all premieres like this?

*deep breath, calm down*

Okay, here’s the serious movie review: Go see it. It was quite funny. The plot isn’t deep, and it’s a pretty typical “wacky lead character” comedy, but there’s so much oddball stuff, so many fantastic cameos – at least three Mr. Show alums, as well as the best comedy fight scene in the history of film with essentially FOUR cameos, including someone I’ve mentioned in this writeup already – and Steve Carrell literally steals the most laughs I’ve ever seen. Like Dodgeball, you will find yourself laughing at goofy shit and not caring. See it with the kind of friends you see screwball comedies with, and you’ll have a good time. And stay all the way through the credits.

As for Will Farrell’s in character interview – apparently Ron Burgundy had some homosexual relationships. By “some”, I mean “eleven” – straight from the horse’s mouth. The Q&A was not quite as funny as the movie was, but it was fun watching Will Farrell improv.

And then, it was over, and we headed out (it was late and I was sort of dead tired of people watching), and I think at least one idiot paparazzi accidently took our picture.

So. Yeah. Kind of a crazy night.

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Recommended

I Heart The MTR

In my mailbox yesterday:

On the back:

Please Note: It has come to our attention that Ron Burgundy does not exist, but is in fact a character portrayed by one Will Ferrell, late of Saturday Night Live and the feature films Elf and Old School. Bill Kurtis does exist, however; the documentary producer, host, and news anchor will interview Mr. Ferrell, who will appear in character as Ron Burgundy.

All of this confusion will be resolved by the new film Anchorman, a comedy directed by Adam McKay and costarring Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, and Fred Willard, which will be screened in its entirety at this event. Anchorman, produced by Judd apatow (Freaks and Geeks) and Shauna Robertson, excutive produced by David O. Russell, and coproduced by David Householter, will be released nationwide on July 9.

We apologize for any inconvenience or emotional distress caused by the above.

Tickets for members were $20 – and given that includes seeing the movie before release, plus watching Ron Burgundy LIVE, I think that’s a fantastic deal. It’s also two days before the next Tinkle Show, which means that’s going to be a hell of a week.

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Recommended

QQQ

Last weekend was quite busy in terms of arts consumption. Having taken in one movie, one broadway show, and one concert – all excellent in their own ways – I felt stuffed and incapable of ingesting more culture into my already full content-hole. But behold, it’s all digested and now ready to come shooting back out of me in the form of reviews.

The movie? Quentin’s latest, Kill Bill Volume 2. After being mildly disappointed with the first, I came into the second with my expectations lower. This quickly became needless because the movie destroyed my notions of what QT could achieve and constructed new, loftier expectations for all future movies. The only bad thing I can find to say about this movie is that some of the scenes ran long. Outside of that, it was gravy. Particularly standout was Michael Madsen’s performance as Budd, both absofuckinglutely brilliant and nuianced. Go seee it now, and if you skipped the first part, rent (don’t buy) the DVD first so you aren’t lost.

The show? Avenue Q, which we were fortunate enough to see thanks to my parents. The phrase “Sesame Street On Crack” seemed apt after we left; it was brilliant and hilarious and still somehow touching. Standout songs include “What Do You Do With A BA In English / It Sucks To Be Me”, “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”, and “Schadenfreude”. John Tartaglia and Stephanie D’Abruzzo were both excellent in every role they handled. If you ever come to the city on tourism and want to go to a show, this is the one to see.

The concert? The previously mentioned causing-the-shitting-of-bricks Quannum World Tour. Now, I’ll come right out and say this wasn’t as fantastic as I had hoped. The problems with the show were, in my eyes, represented in three seperate “artists”. DJ D-Sharp, while amusing at first, mugged too much and merely added annoyance to the show. The Lifesavas Movement, while decent, were in the end forgettable, and since they were out almost as much as anyone else, it deadened parts of the show. Finally, Gift Of Gab (on his own or as half of Blackalicious) is certainly a gifted rapper, but his delivery was crap live. There were times when he just didn’t seem to be paying attention to the beat and was just spitting the lyrics out as fast as possible.

So what saved the show? Obviously, part of it was DJ Shadow. Shadow’s set was nothing to write home about, as it was good but short. The primary reason he brought it all together for me is because he’s so goddamned focused. Even with 5 MCs and 2 other DJs sharing the stage, he’s got his head to the vinyl, very serious, never mugging for the crowd. He is the eye of the hurricane. (Also, his use of a dvd turntable – surely to be widespread by next year – was a huge bonus.)

But equally stunning was Lyrics Born. Not only did he have the crowd eating out of his hand most of the night, but his vocal range and talent is astounding. I’m going to actively seek out his solo cd because he is just incredible. Do yourself a favor – go to the Quannum website, flip through the records at the bottom of the page till you find the I Changed My Mind single, and play the album version. It’s one of the best hip-hop songs I’ve ever heard.

This weekend, Katie is back in Maryland, so I’m all alone for a few days. I’m planning on playing Beatmania to-de-excess, hitting up the MTR again to finish the programs from last week, and maybe getting some UT2k4 in. We will see.