My Harmontown Evening

So, depending on whether you know me in real life, you may or may not know that I went to Harmontown tonight.  If you don't know what Harmontown is, I'm not going to explain to you here.  Go listen to the podcast, it's amazing and engrossing and funny and weird and, like most television, best when enjoyed serially.

Afterwards, my friend Matt and I went to The Drawing Room along with some of the folks from the podcast and I expressed my love and admiration for Spencer (who looks precisely like a Dungeon Master SHOULD look, ie very wise and bearded) and talked briefly with Dan Harmon who I THOUGHT had been putting Sam Cooke songs on the jukebox which would've been awesome but instead was getting money from the ATM which was completely normal if not totally awesome.  But he was hella chill and cheersed me and I felt too weird to engage him in a conversation about his inadvertent Lindsey Weir costume which probably would've taken some explaining and man, it's like, I'd really like to just talk to these guys (Jeff Davis included, he's so adorable & I was gonna say impish but really it's Deanish) but even at a tiny bar post-Harmontown I feel like I'm imposing which is my own constructed bullshit & probably partly Matt's fault (sorry, Matt) but that doesn't mean it makes me feel magically confident (which I usually am, BTW, magically confident is kind of my middle name) or anything.

There's this weird paradox with comedians-as-celebrities where, because these days they often share a lot of their real, personal selves with the public, they seem more accessible.  And man, I can't wait until I live in LA and can go to Harmontown every week and become the token queer chick and all of that.  It'll happen.  But until then I just feel like an asshole talking to them.  They don't want to talk to me.  They want to talk to their friends!  And while *I* think I'm awesome, thinking that in public makes me an asshole.  Or maybe not, who fucking knows.  I still can't really figure out what's going on with some of the Harmontown regulars who are, as my friend Katie would say, totally Aspy.  Part of me wants to act just like them and put myself out there, and part of me hates them for being just as narcissistic as I myself definitely am.

I think that last sentence sums up a lot of aspects of LA culture.

In conclusion, Sir Dan Harmon:  I am even more awesome than everyone else (yes, I am an "awesome" girl, Dan).  I enjoyed the "Fag" anecdote as much as I enjoyed the faggot episode of South Park, which is to say A WHOLE FUCKING LOT...but wish you had called for at least one of us gays to join your multicultural coalition (I would've been much more funny and MUCH less creepy than the Puerto Rican girl).  I could sit in a tiny room and watch you all play Dungeon and Dragons FOR YEARS.  And wearing that coat with even semi-baggy jeans makes you look like you're in a half-hearted Lindsey Weir costume.  JUST FYI.  All you need is a brunette wig and to get Jeff wicked stoned so he can be Jason Segel.

Wish I could be there for Jarreth week next week.  Come on tour to San Francisco.  Next time, make the jukebox your bitch.  And I love you all forever, in the least creepy and most narcissistic way possible.

Thus ends my first LiveJournal entry in many a year.

Lauren On Conan

So Monday I went on my grand Conan adventure.

I picked up my friend Matt, a comedian and USC grad who writes this awesome blog which you should all be reading, and we headed over to the Warner Bros studio in Burbank. We parked and then went down to the check-in area, which was on the ground floor of the parking structure. "That sucks," you might be saying, but it was shady, with cold water to drink and bathrooms and benches and even a smoking area out back for those so inclined. When we arrived we were given a number (18), so we didn't have to stay in a line or anything and Matt and I, after a failed attempt to walk to Forest Lawn Cemetary, hung out and shot the shit talking television and comedy and LA life for a few hours until it was time to go to the studio.

As we lined up in order and started walking two-by-two, the pages kept calling out "Team Coco, stay to the right!", which I thought was a fun touch. We weren't just there to fill seats and applaud when prompted or to be on Lopez Tonight, we were on a team and we were fighting for something! What were we fighting for? I'm not sure. Conan's right to be awesome and hilarious, perhaps? Sure. Let's go with that. Anyway, Team Coco was herded past a bunch of Star Waggons (that is how it is spelled) and into another waiting pen, where we chilled for about 15 minutes before being led past the stage where The Big Bang Theory is filmed and into stage 20-something. The first thing I noticed, besides a giant, upside-down Quaker Oats canister, was the security guard who looked like Andy Richter crossed with the crazy Quaid brother (...Randy?). I don't know if he's Andy's brother or if they hired him because it'd be funny, but either way...it was funny. Then we were led into the studio.

Summer Discussion Points!

So it turns out that summer isn't a great time for writing lots of blog posts when you're traveling and have family visiting and are otherwise working full-time. And since Psych is the best show on USA it's not coming back until the fall, and so I haven't had those recaps to write. I should really stop apologizing at the top of every post for my sporadic behavior, but REALLY I should just stop being a slacker and write about the things that I want to write about. So here's a mish-mash of what's been on my mind and my screen lately.

Ice Loves Coco

This is it, guys. We have reached the pinnacle of reality television programming. I'm not really sure what it is about Ice Loves Coco that has me so enthralled, but I do know one thing: Ice sure does love Coco. I mean, if there is one person in this world who loves somebody the most that you can love somebody, it is Ice loving Coco. And the great part is that this isn't some gross Hugh Hefner shit - Coco also loves Ice. That she chooses to express her love by being quite "traditional" and "domestic" is 100% her business, especially since in return she gets all the shoes she can fuck. Maybe it's because Ice-T is awesome, maybe it's because Coco is mesmerizing, but I am certain that this is the best example of the "follow a minor celebrity around their daily life" type of show. That reminds me, I need to go buy my dog a doppelganger coat for her interview with the dog agent to get all the Hollywood dog jobs and whatnot. Good thing I didn't forget, I've always dreamed of my dog having an agent. HAHAHA just kidding famous people are weird and not like me at all even if they do eat hamburgers and wear pants (I don't wear pants).

Louie

Louie is back!!! You should watch it. Louis C.K. said on The Daily Show, "You don't have to be smart to laugh at a fart joke, but you have to be stupid not to." I said, just now out loud to myself, "You don't have to be smart to watch Louie, but if you don't I will call you terrible names." So I watch because I don't like to be mean but I also don't make empty threats. Also, because it is awesome. Thursdays at 10 on FX and I only take the time to look up the air times of shows I really think you should be watching SO don't make the 20 seconds it took me to find that out worthless and just watch a great half-hour of comedy, please.