The Death of a Disco Dancer
May 26th, 2005What a day. And I wasn’t the one being interviewed by a major network’s morning show (name withheld at insistence of publisher’s lawyer).
I’ll let Heather talk about her day. God bless her for being “on” for 9 hours. But for me, the whole day was spent at work wondering if everything was ok (it was, but Heather was frazzled). Heather had unplugged the phone so Leta could sleep and she could be interviewed. I called the babysitter to see if she had heard from Heather and what the state of things were at home. Heather does not believe in having a cell phone, so I had to resort to a status report from the babysitter. God help us if there is a catastrophe. Yes, having a network TV crew in your house constitutes a catastrophe, but maybe not one in the biblical realm.
I arrived home from work early and was immediately in the hot seat. I had a mic wired up and was answering some intense questions. I don’t do TV so good. I tried to remember the advice that so many had given to Heather: Sit up straight. Talk in sound bites. Don’t swear. Don’t answer questions that make you uncomfortable. Anyone who has had more than 38 seconds of conversation with me knows that I don’t do “professional” well. I’m wordy and nervous talky and like to go off on tangents and use my hands. Plus, I look off into space as if I’m searching for just the right intellectual bullshit to spew. It’s embarassing.
Hopefully all of my stuff will end up on the editing room floor.
On top of the craziness of this day, Heather’s three-year old iBook decided, mid-interview and mid-over the shoulder camera shot, to die. The computer still works, but the video portion does not. Heather looked at me as though I had to pull every bit of tech ninja mastery to rescue her hard drive once the crew left or else I’d be missing one gonad. They were stoked because they’d get some shots on the auxilliary upstairs computer and thank God for that.
I’m copying the iBook’s hard drive as I write, via FireWire™. Pain. FYI, Heather has nearly 80,000 emails on her iBook. If she doesn’t reply to your email, BACK OFF. 80,000 people. 80k. On a three year old iBook.
I’m a little ripped on Pinot Noir (because after watching Sideways, somebody won’t buy Merlot any more) and wondering what our next iBook steps will be. I’m going to call Apple after this entry is published and see if we can’t qualify for the logic board swap program…
The TV crew were very nice, I have to say. Once we know if/when the piece will air, I’m sure there will be celebratory postings and more Pinot for all. And then we’ll feel ever so whorey and I’ll be super faggy about how I looked on camera and it will be an embarassment both to my psyche and to the the family. Chuck will lecture me about “owning” my maleness and not being a “pussy”. I’ll welcome this. o
May 27th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
You should never let a movie, no matter how good (and Sideways is nothing else if not one of 2004’s best) influence your taste in wine. Let your palate decide. If you like it, drink it. I have to second Dale’s recommendation–Malbec is quite the tasty red.
May 27th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Sideways was waaaay great. Way!
If you need a pinot paella refresher, you know where to find us. I didn’t email because, well, yeah. Mini is assimilating to the household, his father is very tough on him though. Thanks for all the help in that arena. Hi, Armstrongs!
May 27th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
In the “Sideways is nothing else if not one of 2004’s best,” I’m afraid I’ll have to side with “nothing else.” I think Sideways would have made a fantastic short film but IMHO it was about an hour and half too long.
(And I didn’t even watch it on a plane…)
Just my opinion, of course.
If it caused the Merlot and Chardonnay crowd to branch out then that’s great, but the folks who decide to go nuts over Pinot Noir just because of Sideways or who travel around trying to duplicate Miles’ and Whatshisface’s path are about on par with folks who dress like Klingons when they see Star Trek movies or white kids to try to act like inner city gangstas. It’s cute for a few minutes…
May 27th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
“Love. Peace. And harmony. Love, peace and harmony. Oh, it’s very nice, very nice, very nice…but maybe in the next world…”
Can’t wait to see the show and you may need to put an “Amber Alert” on Chuck…me loves him.
Lots of luck!
A smudge of excrement from NYC
May 27th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
i kind of think being interviewed by the press is like entering a special circle of hell wherein every awkward moment of speech you’ve ever had descends from your memory and spews, tourettes-like, from your frothing mouth. i was recently interviewed by our baltimore citypaper, and i could not have come off sounding less articulate or more retarded. heather’s a trooper though, and seems to be equipt with some sort of anti-retardo speech shield.
anyway, good for you both. you kids are, like, SUPAH-STARS!
May 27th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
ps: have yet to see Sideways, but i recommend both Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and Garden State, the combination of which i’ve determinded is equivalent to a glimpse into my soul (not that you’d wanna glimpse my soul, but, uhh, that’s some good shit).
May 27th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
“determinded.” heh.
[bangs head against wall]
May 27th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
We still drink Merlot after watching Sideways; but we always refer to it as “f***ing Merlot”.
May 27th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
I second the motion of drinking the de-lish Rioja. And concur with the folks saying you should drink what you like. Don’t be sheeple!
May 27th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
People: read before you post. Oh God, please read. Before. You. Post.
In other news: MERLOT MERLOT MERLOT MERLOT oh and p.s. merlot
May 27th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Do you think that if and when the network place tells you when the show is going to air that you could post the date here? Just so I know when to freak out and beg somebody to tape it for me.
May 27th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
please note that if one insists on re-reading what one writes prior to publishing everyone misses out on the delight of happy accidents like “determinded.” or, in a different medium, this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sugarfreak/15507340/
hooray!
May 27th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
Funny proofreading story… (Okay, it’s funny to me.)
The CEO of a tech company that I worked for a number of years ago had a “town hall” meeting in which he attempted to deride us for not keeping a positive attitude about the company’s future (the company ended up acquiring the engineering and sales assets from another tech company, then changed its business plan to “sue everyone who uses Linux.” Luckily I was out of there before that happened).
On one of his PowerPoint slides he wanted to itemize how important it is to focus, but on the slide the word “focus” was spelled “fucus.” Imagine the fun we employees had with that.
“Dude, you guys need to fucus more!”
“You don’t fucus enough!”
On and on… Ah, such fond memories.
Anyway, I’m with sweetney: proofreading prevents happy accidents. Down with proofreading!
May 27th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Am I the only one who hated “Sideways?”
May 28th, 2005 at 12:06 am
Just had to stick up for the people who drink more pinot after watching Sideways. I, being a young person, had never tried pinot noir. Sideways made me acknowledge its existence, I tried it, and I really loved it. I don’t think of it as trendy, nor do I care what *is* trendy. If a movie leads you to try something new, you’re not shallow simply because the movie was successful.
OK sorry to get defensive on your blog
I love both of your writing and photos, and hope to catch the interview.
May 28th, 2005 at 7:48 am
I don’t think any of us have problems with people being turned on to Pinot Noir by Sideways. I think the problem we have is with people who drink Pinot Noir because one character in the movie liked it. Emulating characters in a movie is fandom at its most sincere but you have to admit it’s still very, very strange.
If a movie gets people to discover new wines, fantastic. Just make sure you’re drinking the wines because you (the collective “you”) like them, not because a basket case in Sideways likes them. (You can do much better than Pinot Noir, by the way. Read some of the recommendations in the comments and branch out. Pinot Noir is actually kind of bland IMO).
May 28th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Is there a Pitchforkmedia for indie wine snobs?
May 28th, 2005 at 11:55 am
You’re soaking in it… I declare this thread of comments to be the new Pitchforkmedia.com for wine snobs.
Um, yeah.
May 29th, 2005 at 7:30 am
Hate Merlot. Hate Pinot. Hate wine in general, actually. Gimme a large bottle of Pernod instead
Hope you got your house back to normal after the invasion of the TV crew!
May 29th, 2005 at 11:41 am
The comments here are so refreshing. After a week of dealing with support for my iBook, I talked shit about Apple on my blog the other day and I think it made at least one reader cry. He started frantically pointing out the flaws in PCs. I never said I was going to buy a PC, all I said was that I was probably going to keep buying these crappy, overpriced computers even though they are so crappy and overpriced.
I love my iBook. But it’s a dysfunctional, abusive relationship kind of love that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone else.
Which is to say congratulations on all the television and the Leta walking and all the other general yay cool awesome yummy goodness.
May 29th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
Seeing your world spliced and diced will be weird. Sometimes it’s better to never see the ” dj “.
All this wine talk makes me want a PBR.
May 30th, 2005 at 10:18 am
my iBook did that at christmas. It was a 50 dollar board plus labor, cept I can do labor:)
The logic board is for a different video problem I believe.
May 30th, 2005 at 10:25 am
Jon - just to say I love Heather’s photo today, and I’m sorry to learn your father isn’t with you any more. It’s a nice tribute and a nice photo
May 30th, 2005 at 11:40 am
Crap. Now I have to Tivo that ADD crap-fest that is GMA. Thank God for fast forward. The Armstrongs are worth the five minutes a day it will take me to zoom through it looking for Chuck pooping on national tv. hehe, can’t wait.
May 30th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
Is there nothing internet people won’t get worked up about?
Let’s have a frank discussion about capri pants.