The Stealthy Couple, Part the First

Oh dear.  I'm sorry for being so late.  Eric assigned me to this issue because he was off visiting with MB.

 

He gave me some notes for the beginning of the week.  After that I'll come back and tell you about the rest of the adventure, which here will mean "a series of unusual events":

 

On Monday I went to my new class, a level two class.  I soon realized that since I would be at IO West on Monday and Tuesday nights for the next eight weeks that I'd probably have to eat out at least those two nights of the week.  So that week I went to my favorite place in Westwood (I work at UCLA), for a teriyaki chicken bowl.  Though cheap it was actually satisfactorily filling.  The other night I tried a Thai place about a block from IO West.  It was a place that I knew about because of a fellow intern on Tuesday nights.  She usually brought some in before her shift.

 

I got out of work early enough that people I'd already met.  There was George, another fellow intern on Tuesday nights, and another classmate who made up her final level 1 class at mine.  I observed that this class seemed different than the last one.  Here, the classmates seemed "cool," like jocks or something, but perhaps just short of being self-consciously so.  They were all very funny from my first impressions of them in class.

 

Here too, I saw some overlap with my Meisner class from a year ago in things like the warm-up exercises and, of course, the concentration on the relationship between the two characters.

 

The teacher, too, seemed very passionate about improv and brought a bunch of books to loan on the subject.  He also seemed quick to laugh at--er with our scenes and very supportive.  The class ended with all of us in a circle telling each other what we learned that day.

 

Tuesday I used the new system for displaying ads for shows projected onto the screen above the stage at IO West and in the TVs in the bar.  The new system was actually pretty neat.  Instead of PowerPoint, it used Windows Media Player to display animated titles.  I had only to cut and paste these clips into a playlist that would be looped between shows.  I no longer could design the titles as I had on the old system, but the new animations looked great anyway.

 

I also called the lights for the "Cast of MADtv" show.  I actually received some email about my internship, and its relationship with MADtv.  To reiterate, I don't work on the sketch comedy show, I work on a long-form improv show starring MADtv's castmembers.  Otherwise, it is completely unaffiliated.  My job is to pull the lights at the end of the show, effectively deciding when I think the show should end, which joke should close the show.  And on this particular night I did a pretty good job.  I even met Keegan-Michael Key for the first time.  I stopped short of telling him I was the guy who puled the lights at the end of the show.  I usually heard positive feedback from them through the house manager.

 

This was also the final night of Goal one of three Harold teams that follow the MADtv show.  It's a team that features at least three teachers of level six classes and is usually very consistent.  The show was packed for their show.  So needless to say it was pretty easy for them to kill.

 

The next day I would meet MB at the airport for a second time.

 

Ok, so I suppose here is now where I'll continue.  I mean the airport meeting was not filled with any danger, nothing to report there.  But oh, do I regret telling this tale as you'll see at the end.

 

There were the usual exchanged gifts and such, a Carl Hiassen and Doonesbury book for MB and a loaned Calvin and Hobbes book and a given Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton collection on DVD for Eric, which they both watched.

 

How appropriate since the next night they'd be going to the Silent Movie Theater.  This would be a markedly different trip for MB since Eric now had a job.  She would meet Eric after a day of tourism.  On this day they both decided to dress slightly more 1920s than usual: Eric in a vest, newsboy cap, and tie; MB in a more exotic teal and brown skirt, matching brown sweater, and occasionally Eric's hat.

 

They met at Farmer's Market for dinner, Brazilian food at the outdoor food court, then walked to the theatre.  It was still too early so Eric showed MB where he used to work on Melrose.

 

Once inside the theatre, they sat down and grabbed a pillow, all the seats had them in place of cushions.  A school field trip filed into the theatre and comedian Josh Fadem, who runs the Acid Reflux Hour at the Ramada on Vermont Sunday nights, introduced the film, and organist.  It would be "Sparrows" starring Mary Pickford, on the keys was a man who met her, Bill Mitchell.  But before that would be three shorts and an intermission.

 

The first was a Felix the Cat in which he visits Fairyland.  Without sound the cartoon relied on word bubbles, not unlike comic strips.  The humor was also much more surreal than the two of them had expected, Felix would be puzzled and the question marks that would float out of his head would be used as a ladder to climb his way up a castle.

 

Next followed a short about an incompetent musician from a large and poor family who struck out on his own and then struck a deal with a scam artist.  His playing was so bad that people would throw free stuff out of their windows at him.  Through a series of fortunate events he became rich and returned home.

 

The final short was a Laurel and Hardy short in which the boys are in the navy on leave.  They pick up two girls who encourage our heroes to get into fights and things.  Eventually they get to a busy highway on their way to some place of recreation and the girls get them to instigate fights with nearly everyone in the traffic jam.  My, I was surprised at its near mean-spirited nature which here shall mean that I suppose I don't think Laurel and Hardy conducted themselves in behavior that befit officers.  It was after this film that there was an intermission and the organist moved from the piano to the organ, the main picture was a drama.

 

"Sparrows" featured Mary Pickford as the leader of a band of child slaves in a southern baby farm.  Hmm, I suppose the feature length film was not unlike The Bad Beginning, from Lemony Snicket in that regard.  In every other way it probably was different.

 

Friday was a walk down Sunset Strip, which featured several landmarks from Eric's trip to LA in 2004.  MB wanted to visit the Whisky-a-Go-Go, so they walked past that and then went for pizza and a book shop.  While they ate pizza there was a news story about several high school kids killed on their way to a baseball game in a bus accident.  It reminded Eric of his trip to LA in 1999 when he and his family were on their way somewhere and got lost in Griffith Park, on the radio were reports of Columbine as it was happening.

 

In order of address the landmarks from Eric's 2004 trip were:

* The Viper Room, Johnny Depp's rock club where there was a party to which he was invited by a manager.  It was also where River Phoenix died.

* The Chateau Marmont, where the after-party following the NBC showcase was held, and John Belushi died.

* The Laugh Factory where the NBC showcase was held and Michael Richard's career died.

 

They got to more familiar territory when they got to Sunset and Highland.  They decided to stop into Mel's Drive-In for some dessert.

 

The LA Marathon would be on Sunday and so they decided to avoid Hollywood all together and go to the beach at Santa Monica instead.  So on Saturday they were free to go to the zoo at Griffith Park, in between Hollywood, Burbank, and Los Feliz.

 

Eric typed in the directions into metro.net the trusty site that provides itineraries for public transportation trips throughout Los Angeles County.  Oh, there I go again, being sarcastic. Sorry.  You see, this time it wasn't trusty.  And here I go attempting irony on the written page, it's actually rather difficult.  I wonder if I'm living up to Eric's idea of what the blog should be?  I don't think the issues I've read of his included so much self-doubt.

 

I wish I had known what would happen, then I could inject some doubt into Eric's plan for the day.  You see, it was all very simple.  They would take a bus downtown and transfer to another one that would go to directly to the zoo.  I should have warned them against things that were too good to be true. 

 

They were to get off at Broadway and Ord and switch there.  But the buss passed Broadway entirely.  Eric half-joked that he was afraid they were being kidnapped.  They both looked for something that would indicate where they were going, flipping through MB's guidebook and various MTA maps.  Nothing matched up with where the bus seemed to be going.

 

They hurriedly got off.  Eric reasoned that rather than keep going in the direction of the middle of nowhere, they get off the bus and try to find their bearings.  They could always take a bus back in the opposite direction.  I fear they must have suffered the early effects of the marathon on LA roads in the form of public transportation detours.

 

Eric asked a woman walking out of a store where they were and she searched for an answer and chuckled, "America?"  She then proceeded to help them find someone who could tell them how to get to the zoo.  A shopkeeper and this new friend, a word that here means annoying and unhelpful person, gave the two lost souls some convoluted advice and they took it with, well not salt, it was a bit hot for that.

 

As they attempted to walk in what would hopefully be the right direction, the word "right" which here means "mysterious," Eric turned his head, surprised to find the woman who helped them earlier.  "I don't usually come to this neighborhood, I'm here on an errand.  You should be careful," she said in a condescending, and slightly racist tone.

 

MB and Eric found a store and picked up some water and turned around.  They finally found the street they were supposed to be on but were not sure exactly where to go from there, except to try another bus.  Things had not been looking good, they had seen a dead cat on the way.

 

And so it was, a desert road, water, a backpack and uncertainty.

 

To be continued...

 

Thank you, I'm reporting for Eric Cheung.  I'm on MySpace and Live Journal.

 

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Dearest Loyal Reader:

 

I apologize for the tardiness of this note.  In fact, I didn't have time to spwllcheck it.  You see I was ordered by Mr. Cheung to report only on the first half of the events, saving the thrilling conclusion for this Saturday.  After the conflict with the reporter who chronicled MB's last visit, he decided to take charge, and lay down some ground rules.

 

Suffice it to say, I have tried my best to tell the tale of this second trip (a word which here shall mean an instance in which someone falls down), of MB to LA to visit EC.  Eric would want it that way.  I hope you enjoy the second part of this adventhre.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

A reporter who shall remain nameless.

 

PS-I also apologize for my excessive homages to Lemony Snicket.  I hope Eric doesn't mind, I hear he liked the film.  Here the word "homage" shall mean "not plagiarism."