January 12, 1997

Now Landing On Planet Itara

My obsessions do fade; no really, they do. Give it time.

Last night, as you might have seen in Ceej's entry, the usual suspects were over at Rob&Laura's. Darin and Rob set up the living room TV to play M.U.L.E. on the ancient Atari 800. I sat in the family room and played on the computer, as I am trying to make up for lost time, and R&L have the new Eric's Ultimate Solitaire.

At 11:30 I went into the living room and asked Laura (who was watching Rob, Darin, Ceej, and Lance play M.U.L.E.a trading game played on planet Itara, which, natch, is Atari backwardsand cuddling Nutmeg) if I could watch TV in their bedroom. "Why?" she asked.

"I want to watch Saturday Night Live," I asked. Then, since this is such an unusual request these days, I added: "'Cause of the guest host."

She bounced Nutmeg in her arms as she turned on the TV in the bedroom. "Kevin Spacey?"

I nodded, blushing crimson.

It wasn't a very good episode, even if they did get John Cleese and Michael Palin to do the dead parrot sketch. (I said, "I know what's so weird about this! They're looking one another in the eye!"as opposed to the usual SNL thing of reading cue cards). But I was pleased that the show didn't do any of the intensely juvenile, scatological stuff I've seen so often.

In fact, I think it went way too far in the opposite direction (influence of Mr. S? unclear): the William-Hurt-guests-on-David-Letterman featured dead-on impersonations of Letterman, Paul Schaffer, and William Hurt...but probably needed the audience to know who the hell William Hurt is. The screen tests for Star WarsChristopher Walken for Han Solo, Walter Matthau as Obi Wan Kenobiwere good ideas, but didn't work, not the least of which because the audience didn't seem to know who Walken and Matthau are.

My favorite part was the guest host intro part: Kevin says, "I know that when most people think of Kevin Spacey, they think, 'Comedy', but I'd like to show you my 'Sentimental' side." He proceeds to sing this ballad, while on the screen subtitles roll about how SNL had to let him do this because he's a psycho and threatened them. "Psychiatrists agree, Do not make any sudden moves around Kevin Spacey."

On the way home, Darin asked me, "What are you going to do if you ever meet Kevin Spacey?"

My actual response was, "Hope that he is in fact gay," but what I should have said was, "Hope he doesn't have web access."

Just to complete this KS wallowing, here are some gratuitous Kevin Spacey links:

Today Darin went out to lunch with a friend of his (he made the plans before he knew I was coming up). In fact, he's already returned, and I've realized that I haven't eaten lunch today. In even worse news, our TV set (first the microwave, now the TVwhat is this, the 70s?)seems to be dead. This kind of cuts down on the effectiveness of the satellite dish. And tonight's the Simpsons/X-Files crossover!

Maybe I should try reading a book or something.