A goodbye

As I was on my way out of the office today, I heard news which I knew was inevitable but still wasn't prepared to hear...Rod Roddy had passed away. The game show world truly lost a legend today. On top of that, he was one of the nicest, most talented ones. There's already a lot that's been said about Rod in tribute posts on the web and message boards. I'll just say that one of my first memories watching TV was linked to Rod in that one of the first shows I remember watching growing up was "Whew!" Rod's voice and charismatic personality were a presence in the many years of my TV viewing that followed from his infamous tag line on the final "Hit Man" to "Press Your Luck," and of course, "The Price is Right." I was fortunate to get a chance talk to Rod whenever I'd drop by "Price" and I gotta tell you, he could not be any kinder and more appreciative of his fans. A true gentleman...There is a bit of an emptiness in the game show world without his distinctive voice calling on "Come on down;" his great, energetic warmups; and his all-around good nature. Thanks, Rod...thanks for the many years of joy and fun you've given us for all these years...Thanks for being part of what inspired me to get into this wonderful business!

Choctober!

It's not October...It's not Rocktober...It's Choctober! YAY! Had another drought of posts. Much of it is due to me bouncing back and forth between here and Reno helping out with getting the live "Price is Right" show at the Harrah's up and running and the shock from seeing Schwarzenegger win the election.

Todd Newton has been doing the live "Price" show for the past few weeks and unsurprisingly, he is doing a FANTASTIC job. I've never seen anybody besides Bob Barker so comfortable and confident in that role.

Some quick thoughts and musings of the past couple of weeks...

- Just found this at the store today...Reese's Inside Out. It's basically what it says...A peanut butter outside and a chocolate inside. Have yet to break one open, but I'm fascinated and frightened at the same time.

- Got suckered into watching the DVD of "Wrong Turn" the other night. It re-affirmed my hate of slasher films.

- Steve Burns's CD ROCKS.

- I need to really start my Christmas shopping...NOW.

- Ooooh...Trivial Pursuit DVD edition. And it's about pop culture! Woo-hoo!

- Saw special screenings of "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Clue." Both were EXCELLENT. "Nightmare" featured a little Q&A with Tim Burton before the movie was shown. "Clue" was done Rocky Horror-ish over at the Nuart in West L.A.

- Had a visit from my friend SF from high school. He's one of my best friends actually from my Florida days. He was and still is one of the sharpest and funniest guys I know. It was great catching up with him and meeting his girlfriend. I also got a chance to show them my pad and introduce them to my friends. Needless to say, the combination of TB and him proved to be quite unstoppable when it came to the barb-slinging over dinner.

And the biggest news...I've joined a gym. Yes, you're reading this right. I've joined the gym. I'm beginning my road towards meeting my goal of gaining a bit more poundage. Needless to say, being the weakling that I am and never having lifted a weight in my life, it's been a challenge, but I had my first personal trainer session last night, and I gotta say, it kicked my ass, but I felt like I accomplished something. I have one more free session and then I get to decide whether I want to continue with a trainer or just leaving things to my own devices...Needless to say, I'm a bit sore as I type this.

Oh well...

I guess I have to practice saying the words "governor" and "Schwarzenegger" together. My favorite quote of Arnold's today was one he said after he placed his vote. He said, "It is up to the god now." "THE god?!?" The god of WHAT? Thunder? California? Pumpitude??

Saw "Lost in Translation" this evening with SH and JN. I really, really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't. It had its moments and Bill Murray was great, but the pacing was just too slow for my tastes and it just didn't hold together. I dunno...I seem to be in the minority in this.

My new theory

Tigers are taking over the world...First, Roy gets mauled and then there's the tiger in the guy's apartment in New York...Beware of the tiger...'nuff said...

Lookee, lookee...a new Reno pic!



That's about as close to the dollar as I got all day.

Smorgasbord

Had a blast of a weekend...This Saturday was the big "red shirt" day at Disneyland. Those of you in the know will know what day that is. :-)

In keeping with tradition for the past three years, my roomies and I went with a bunch of friends again this year and the night before we had a little shindig. TB had a couple of free passes to Disney and to decide which of us got them, we played a some games. Thanks to DF, one of the games we played was the new "Survivor." LL served as our Jeff Probst quite well and shook things up by asking all of us to get into a tribal switch a few challenges into the game. I was victim of the tribal switch have to jump from my tribe (which was winning at the time) to the other. Unsurprisingly, I was voted off right away after my new tribe lost its immunity challenge. D'oh! GD emerged as the sole survivor and to decide who got the second pass we got into a round of "Apples to Apples." DF won the pass from game. Before we knew it, it was already 1 AM and we called it a night. A couple of people stayed the night while the rest of the gang went back home for a good night's rest before the big day.

The next day TB cooked up a nice big pancake breakfast and we all left for Disneyland around 11. We got there and was greeted by a sea of red. We took things pretty laid back. No agenda. No deadlines. Just hanging out with friends hitting whatever attractions and shows we could see. We saw the Haunted Mansion Holiday which as always was GREAT. Made me want to see "Nightmare Before Christmas" again. Had quite a nice trek on the "Jungle Cruise" with a tour guide that could have totally passed off as Graham Elwood's younger brother. He even sounded like Graham. Crazy...We capped off the night by watching Fantasmic and then dragged our weary bodies home around midnight. It was a lot of fun, and I have to say it was probably the most fun I've had on a red-shirt day in the three years that I've gone to them. We bumped into many a friend along the way there including TKB, CI, WT, and SH. Fun, fun times despite the fact that ALL of the mountains were closed with the exception of the Matterhorn and throughout the day Indiana Jones, Winnie the Pooh, and Matterhorn were experience tech difficulties.

Today was pretty fun as well. Had a first meeting with JB, another person I had been chatting with online for some time. JB also used to go to Harvard so did some reminsicing about Cambridge and the like. Spent the evening at home and watched the premiere of the WB's "Tarzan" with TB, LL, EB, and JA. In grand tradition of past WB dramas like Dawson's Creek and Young Americans, this show was heavy on the eye candy. Though, for a Tarzan, Travis Fimmel's Tarzan is quite coherent compared to past Tarzan's. And for goodness sake's his hair stays so perfect. I was stunned when I saw Lucy Lawless in the promo for next week's show. She looks NOTHING like she did in Xena. And to use a TB-ism, SHE would make a perfect Wonder Woman.

It's two, two, two pics in one post...First, here's a pic of a bunch of us with the big cheese himself from Disneyland yesterday:



Clockwise (from top left): MH, Mickey Mouse, JA, TB, DF, GD, and me

And finally....



This is me trying out "Hole in One" at "Price is Right- LIVE" in Reno. It was then that I realized that I not only suck at regular mini-golf, but "Price is Right" mini-golf as well. Even on the second putt, I couldn't make it.

I'm back!

Wow...this has been the longest period of non-blogging I've had in a while. "Where have I been?" you ask?

I've been in the biggest little city in the world...aka Reno. No, I wasn't busted by the folks at Reno 911...I was helping to launch the new "Price is Right" live stage show at the Harrah's Reno.

I'll have more details in the days to come as well as pics galore, but to make a long story short, it was a hell of a lot of fun and a hell of a lot of work putting it together. It makes me have an even greater respect for the staff that puts together the real show for CBS.

So far, the live show has been doing quite well. We've been getting nothing but positive response from our guests and there seems to be a buzz a brewing about the show. The interactive keypads which the audience uses throughout the show have also been well received. Granted, it's not the actual show, but it's probably as close as you can get without heading over to CBS Television City. If you're in Reno between now and December 8th, you should make a point to check out the show. Our first host, Jeff Trachta, is really doing a great job. And it goes without saying that Todd Newton will do an excellent job when he starts doing the show in a couple of weeks.

In the midst of setting up the show, I went back to LA briefly for a weekend and played at my friends' AS and MH's party. They had the first-ever "Burbstock" in which their musically-inclined friends performed and jammed at their house. I did a set of some of my original songs and topped it off with my cover of Debbie Gibson's "Lost in Your Eyes." It was a little nerve-wracking since this was the first time I'd done anything like this in over four years. I think my odd little trip into comic pop was treated with a resounding "huh?," much like it had back when I used to do this in college. Ahhh, how things never change. :-)

Anyhoo, as much fun as it was helping to get the show off the ground, I'm so happy to be back in L.A. Spent the first full day back in town just relaxing and getting my bearings back together. Came back home last night to find a nifty new game table that the roomies bought. Foosball, pool, ping-pong, and more...oh my! TB, LL, JA, JS, and I engaged in a little foosball combat at which point the debate brewed as to whether "spinning" was allowed. LL, DF, and I are pretty sure that it isn't. JS and TB say otherwise. Any foosball experts out there know the rule?

Had my first full night's of sleep in weeks last night. Slept in and just spent the rest of the day vegging. Hung out with DF for lunch. This evening I went out to the Abbey and finally met SH in person. He and I have been bouncing IMs back and forth with each other for the past month or so. For one reason or another, we just had not been able to get our schedules to work out in regards to meeting each other. As always, as I got ready for our meeting tonight, there was that anticipation and nervousness of meeting somebody online after talking with them through the miracles of zeros and ones. Are they going to be as cool as they seem with their typed retorts or are they going to be a social introvert? Will there be things to talk about or will they have been already tapped out thanks to the IMing?

Fortunately, all those worries were thrown out the window minutes into our hanging out this evening. He's an awesome guy...and is from Australia, so there's that added benefit of talking with somebody with a really cool accent. Geez, that sounds silly...especially coming from somebody who works at a company where half the people in my department have an accent. Nevertheless, I think it's still cool :-) I met a few of his friends too who were quite fun as well. Amongst the myriad of things we talked about were Aussie game shows, so that was quite neat. Mmmmm...$ale of the Century.

Downloaded the new Ben Folds EP, "Sunny 16." It ROCKS. "All U Can Eat" is my favorite new Ben Folds song. So simple, yet so great.

I must get to bed here...Here's the first of the live Price pics...