The Stealthy Couple, Part the Second (The Anti-Climax)

Hey folks, I'm back.  So, how was your substitute teacher?  You didn't shoot any spitballs or paper airplanes, did you?  Well I hope you were nice.  Everything's okay here.

 

Basically we waited on that "desert road," as MB called it, munching on granola bars.  I decided to take a look at the sign to see if we were going in the right direction.  It seemed as good as any.  Finally, we got on some bus.

 

It would be the first of four more to get to the zoo.  There are a lot of zoos and museums throughout the world that allow admission to people that work at other museums and zoos, such as MB.  The Museum of Science also provides full membership privileges to employees.  As the Museum of Science is affiliated with the ASTC, a consortium or museums, and the AZA (American Zoo Association), we had a reasonable expectation of getting in for free.  But it was not to be.  In addition, since it took more than three hours to get to the zoo, we had less than two hours to see everything, and only an hour to see the animals they put away early.

 

"Put away, like in a cardboard box somewhere?" I suggested.  I'm not sure what I think of zoos, in relation to how animals should be treated, but I wanted to see some elephants!

 

So we speedwalked through the place to see what we could and then walked across the street to the Gene Autry museum of the American West.  It had just closed but the cafe was still open because there would be a play there that evening.  There was not more hot food but the chicken caeser salad was very good and filling.  The whole place was nicer than I expected.  I'm not sure what my expectations were exactly, but I wanted to check it out.

 

The next day was supposed to be the hot one, so we went back to Santa Monica Pier, in part to avoid the marathon that would cut through my neighborhood.  When we got to the beach, and approached the water, we actually felt it get colder.  So, like last time, we went back to the pier and went on the rides and stuff.  When we were in line for tickets someone gave me their bracelet, so I didn't need tickets (I wanted to go on more rides anyway).

 

Monday and Tuesday I was back at work and would go to IO West at night, but we still met for dinner.  One night at the Mongol King BBQ in Westwood, the other at Tom Yum, a Thai place not far from IO West.

 

While I was at work MB spent her time in Westwood one day and Museum Row on Wilshire the other.  Pictures of neato buildings were inevitable as were any opportunity to step into the past vicariously though architects and curators.  To make hypotheses about industrial archaeology and travel mentally through time were exhilarating experiences for MB.  I suppose the same could not quite be said for smelling the La Brea Tar Pits.

 

While I was in class on Monday, MB stepped into the past once more, via the film "Zodiac."  Meanwhile I was in a scene in which my partner complained to me that after five stores I still look fine in my skirt.  In another scene, in which we switch characters midway, my partner established that I wanted to sing Kelly Clarkson songs at karaoke.  I realized something.  I think the people in this class are making fun of me.  Granted I'm a bit...different, but I'm proud of that fact, for the most part.  I think they might not know what to do with me yet.  But I felt pretty good about what I was doing.  Naturally, we switched right before I was supposed to sing and after some guidance from the teacher I turned the scene away from actual singing because that was an irrelevant flourish to the scene.

 

The format for a Harold is diagrammed as follows (all based on a one-word suggestion):

 

Opening

Scene 1A

Scene 1B

Scene 1C

Group Game

Scene 2A

Scene 2B

Scene 2C

Group Game

Scene 3A

Scene 3B

Scene 3C

Closing

 

The third act is usually pretty loose, and not necessarily as diagrammed, but serves to tie together threads from all parts of the Harold.  All A scenes follow the same plotline as each other and the same applies for B and C.  In between each act is a game that involves everyone on the team and serves to brainstorm for the plot developments in the next act and to comment on the show so far (which is to say that it doesn't necessarily break the fourth wall).  In that way it is similar to the opening of the show.

 

It was this group game part of the Harold that we worked on in class.

 

Forgetting MB just saw a movie about a serial killer, I greeted her at the movie theatre from Ivar.  She was facing Vine, the opposite direction.

 

The next night, the plan was that we'd go to IO West, the night on which I was scheduled to intern, and she'd see the shows thanks to my passes.  There was, however, a corporate event, and the Cast of MADtv show would be the first one of the night.

 

So to kill time, we went to Amoeba Music.  Upon leaving someone handed us free passes to a movie the next night.  It was a test screening for a film that used thirty-five Beatles songs to tell the story of college kids in the 1960s.  It was several hours after MB would leave.

 

Instead of calling the lights of the MADtv show, I called the lights for the last two of the three Harold shows that followed it.

 

To kill time before the bus, we went to Winchell's Donuts.  As we got to our table, we realized the derelicts weren't having conversations with each other, but with themselves.  We left.

 

At LAX I noticed some TV reporters and hoped that everything was okay.  It turns out the plan MB would fly back on would be delayed.  It was now Slam Dunk One for the Lakers and some high school students.

 

Speaking of flights, my Uncle Ringo is leaving for Asia on Tuesday, probably for quite some time.  So on Friday I met with him and his brother, my other uncle, to go to The Baked Potato to see a friend of his play drums in a jazz fusion trio.

 

The Baked Potato is a legendary, but intimate club with wood paneling walls plastered with posters of jazz musicians, a bar, reddish carpets, and a small stage.  It almost has the feel of a living room.  It almost feels family run, and quite informal.

 

As for the music, I'm not really a fan of fusion, I don't know many that are, but it was fun to hang out with my uncles anyway.

 

And so I'll do the same tonight, once more before he leaves.

 

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

 

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