January 25 -- The King Of Culver City

Tuesday, January 25 -- The King Of Culver City

Bruce Hornsby, "Spirit Trail" (disc 1)
October Project, "October Project"
Stan Kenton, "New Concepts Of Artistry In Rhythm"
Kirk Franklin, "Kirk Franklin And The Family"

almost forgot to write about one of the coolest things that ever happened to me. Nothing life-changing, just cool.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I drove up to L.A. to go see a taping of "The King Of Queens". I left work early, and we hit the road in our Beetle.
I don’t know exactly what hell is like – and I hope I never find out – but I’d imagine it is an awful lot like Los Angeles traffic. It was only 3:30 or so when we absolutely stopped, up around LAX (Los Angeles’ airport, which is probably just as bad as the freeways). It took us at least half an hour to go the last five miles. It was kind of entertaining, though, watching planes come in, two or three every minute, swooping down right over the high-rises. We also passed one of the coolest things I've ever seen -- a larger-than-life donut on top of a building. We swore that we would go back after the show and get some of the tasty treats, but for various reasons, we never made it.
We got to Sony Pictures Studios around 4:30, just in time to ask an overworked security guard where to go, and plop ourselves down on a bench with several others who were waiting to go into the show. Now there are two things that really try my patience -- waiting in line, and not knowing what is going on, and I had plenty of each of these that night. But we managed to keep ourselves amused watching the people around us. Everywhere we looked, there were people on bikes, in trucks, occasionally in limos, all having something to do with those moving pictures that show up on our screens. We saw probably a couple dozen people walk by with cases that carried large string instruments -- guitars? cellos? I'm still not sure -- and I wondered why they brought the musicians into the movie studio, when they could have just recorded them at a recording studio instead.
Finally we went into the studio, a much cozier place than I expected. The seats were only a few rows deep, but almost a football field long, and there down in front of us was a whole television world -- the "King Of Queens" living room, kitchen, courtyard, and a restaurant of some sort. We watched the crew make the last finishing touches -- they must have spent fifteen minutes swapping out and rearranging a plant on top of the refrigerator. Meanwhile, a comedian who functioned as our host tried to make us feel comfortable and get into the filming (since we were the most important part of the show, of course).
The taping itself went really fast -- they were done with a half-hour show in 2-1/2 hours, a remarkable record when you consider how long it takes to reset things between takes. There were some great bloopers -- including one just seconds into the start of the filming. The episode itself didn't seem as funny as some of the ones I've seen on that show, but I think that might be because it was dragged out more than we were used to. The one we saw is called "The Schmenkmans", and should be on in a few weeks or so. Probably the best thing about this whole experience will be sitting there watching the final product, checking out which scenes were cut and which were scrapped, spouting off the punchlines before they say them on TV, and feeling like, in some miniscule way, we were a part of the whole thing.


	almost forgot to write about one of the coolest things that ever happened to me. Nothing life-changing, just cool. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I drove up to L.A. to go see a taping of "The King Of Queens". I left work early, and we hit the road in our Beetle. I don’t know exactly what hell is like – and I hope I never find out – but I’d imagine it is an awful lot like Los Angeles traffic. It was only 3:30 or so when we absolutely stopped, up around LAX (Los Angeles’ airport, which is probably just as bad as the freeways). It took us at least half an hour to go the last five miles. It was kind of entertaining, though, watching planes come in, two or three every minute, swooping down right over the high-rises. We also passed one of the coolest things I've ever seen -- a larger-than-life donut on top of a building. We swore that we would go back after the show and get some of the tasty treats, but for various reasons, we never made it. We got to Sony Pictures Studios around 4:30, just in time to ask an overworked security guard where to go, and plop ourselves down on a bench with several others who were waiting to go into the show. Now there are two things that really try my patience -- waiting in line, and not knowing what is going on, and I had plenty of each of these that night. But we managed to keep ourselves amused watching the people around us. Everywhere we looked, there were people on bikes, in trucks, occasionally in limos, all having something to do with those moving pictures that show up on our screens. We saw probably a couple dozen people walk by with cases that carried large string instruments -- guitars? cellos? I'm still not sure -- and I wondered why they brought the musicians into the movie studio, when they could have just recorded them at a recording studio instead. Finally we went into the studio, a much cozier place than I expected. The seats were only a few rows deep, but almost a football field long, and there down in front of us was a whole television world -- the "King Of Queens" living room, kitchen, courtyard, and a restaurant of some sort. We watched the crew make the last finishing touches -- they must have spent fifteen minutes swapping out and rearranging a plant on top of the refrigerator. Meanwhile, a comedian who functioned as our host tried to make us feel comfortable and get into the filming (since we were the most important part of the show, of course). The taping itself went really fast -- they were done with a half-hour show in 2-1/2 hours, a remarkable record when you consider how long it takes to reset things between takes. There were some great bloopers -- including one just seconds into the start of the filming. The episode itself didn't seem as funny as some of the ones I've seen on that show, but I think that might be because it was dragged out more than we were used to. The one we saw is called "The Schmenkmans", and should be on in a few weeks or so. Probably the best thing about this whole experience will be sitting there watching the final product, checking out which scenes were cut and which were scrapped, spouting off the punchlines before they say them on TV, and feeling like, in some miniscule way, we were a part of the whole thing.