Last night was Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, the NPR News Quiz live from the Chase Auditorium Proctor's Theater in beautiful downtown Schenectady, New York!
First, the dinner review:
My guests were my married friends, B and A. We stopped into Bangkok Bistro for a bit of dinner before heading to the show. Bangkok was hopping. It's a small location that obviously used to be something else back in the day. There were painted tin ceilings and beautiful scenes of Germany on the wall (I can't remember if it was a mural or paper, but it was old). The overly loud music was a constant stream of female country singers (this is an incredibly weird thing for Upstate NY). To say the place lacked a Thai influence in the ambiance and decor would be the understatement of the year. It was an interesting blend of historical Schenectady, the Old World and maybe that $3 Chinese Lantern gave it a bit of Asian flavor. It took over ten minutes for our waiter to come by and another twenty before he brought us water. Our food took another half hour after that. Our waiter barely looked at us. Luckily the theater is a block away because we weren't finished until fifteen minutes before show time. The food was ok, but nothing to write home about. I mentioned that the place was hopping, and it was, but there couldn't have been more than 15 tables in the place and there were plenty of waiters. The prices were outrageous for the portions. Most of the Thai in this area is a bit more expensive, but my favorite restaurant, Capital Thai in Albany, charges much less for a lot more food. On a scale of 10 I'd give the food a 4 and the service a 2.
Let's go on with the show:
We made our way over to Proctor's, it was my first show there. The theater was jam packed with NPR junkies and everyone seemed to be in good spirits despite the fact that we felt like a herd of cattle as we made our way to our seats. Apparently the theater has recently undergone extensive renovations and it showed. The theater was spectacular!! Dozens of chandeliers, intricate designs in the ceiling and beautiful walls and seating were looking new and and really gave you the feeling of stepping back in time.
The stage was simple (but opposite what I had imagined), two podiums on stage-right, one with the name Carl Kasell (squee!), and the other, Peter Sagal. Stage-right held two tables, the one in front had three seats for our panelists and another in back held five or so of the people listed at the end of the show who make the magic happen (Doug Berman, Emily Ecton, etc.).
After a brief introduction by local NPR super star, Alan Chartock (who reminded us that the fund drive begins in June and that we should call 1-800-323-9262 to become a member of WAMC!)* the lights finally went down. A rotating ball with spinning, colorful lights swept across the stage and theater as Sirius (by the Alan Parson's Project...you know, the song from the beginning of the Bull's games!) played overhead, sending the audience into fits of laughter. Our panelists, Mo Rocca, Amy Dickenson and Charlie Pierce were greeted by the enthusiastic crowd. When Carl was called out on stage, everyone went nuts (at least I did!)! Peter Sagal was next and I was struck by his lack of hair. Don't get me wrong, ain't nuthin' wrong with a bald man, in fact it can be quite sexy, but in my mind Peter had these wavy, thick locks of golden hair. The rest of him was just as handsome as I'd imagined.
Peter gave us the rundown of how it all works. The main difference between what you hear on the radio and what I saw last night was that on the radio you don't hear the flubs or the dirty answers that are sadly edited for broadcast. Peter also informed us that when they go on the road they like to have a local celebrity join them on stage. Of course this was hot discussion over dinner. Who's going to play Not My Job? B had suggested Eliot Spitzer, I told him NO WAY after the way Wait Wait had roasted him in the last month. A suggested that it might be our new governor, funny man, David Paterson. That, I would've loved! So when Peter prefaced telling us about our guest, he said that this was no joke...I leaned over to B and said, you MUST be right! Peter did confirm that several months ago the show was approached by Mr. Spitzer's staff who informed them that the governor was a fan of Wait Wait and would love to do the Not My Job segment. Whoops!! Instead, we were visited via phone by Adam Savage of Mythbusters. B and A were thrilled, being huge fans of Mythbusters. I've never seen it (no cable), but Adam was clever, charming and armed the panel with many jokes that would continue throughout the evening (although we'll see if the ones about elephant dung will make it to air!). Adam also informed us that we were the largest audience he'd ever addressed while not wearing pants.
The panelists were delightful. It was so cool getting to hear Charlie Pierce laugh in person. Amy, Mo and Charlie played off of each other throughout the evening and truly looked like they were having a ball. Much of the comedy was visual: Amy stroking an imaginary beard, Mo discouraging the audience from hinting at answers, all three of them crossing their arms at poignant moments (something you'll understand when you hear this week's show). It was great to see them really having fun with the live audience.
The show was followed by a short bit of housekeeping (this is where the magic comes in!). Peter, Carl and the panel were each instructed what lines they had to redo (either for sound purposes, flubs or cleanliness). After about five minutes of that Peter and Carl wandered into the audience for a bit of Q & A.
Carl informed us that in the old days, when it came time to record the message for an answering machine he would get on the NPR jet and fly to the winner's house and crash for a week. ;-) Another person, who today I'm sure is thinking to herself, oh my gosh, I can't believe I asked that, asked Carl why she knew his voice. She said she obviously knew him from the show, but had heard his voice elsewhere but couldn't place it. After a stunned silence from Peter and the crowd everyone roared with laughter. Peter told Carl to go ahead and tell her about his day job. "From NPR News in Washington, I'm Carl Kasell" gave rise to massive applause from the audience.
It was great fun. I'd love to see another taping (although Peter did remind us that we were nuts for paying for tickets when we could've listened in our pajamas for free on Saturday morning). These folks seem to love what they do and it was very cool to be a part of that NPR magic.
*The fund drive is crazy out here. Alan spends a ton of time on the air trying to generate donations. He once sang the phone number to Camptown Races so that's how I hear it in my head. But I've heard him read the number in a hoarse voice so many times over the years I think I'd remember it even with Alzheimer's.
I saw this commercial yesterday morning at Faux Real and spent the entire day singing the Loo Loo song and wishing I had a bidet. Watch it, it's the best thing ever. Enjoy!
Last night we cranked Iron Maiden as we went about our business. That early stuff just kicks so much ass! One thing I didn't do with my earlier reviews was post much in the way of music. BUT we have these really cool old releases that include a second cd with live material and B-sides. These go out to Davey and Tony, if you haven't already heard these, enjoy. If you have heard them, listen again cuz it's damn good.
First up, Burning Ambition (Harris), the B side of the UK Running Free single from 2/8/1980 (I wasn't born yet, but I was at least in the womb!! Were you yet Davey??).
Next we have Drifter (Harris) (live), the B side of the UK Sanctuary single from 5/23/1980.
Killers Bonus Disc (w/Maiden Japan!!)
First up, Total Eclipse (Harris, Di'Anno, Burr), the B side to the UK single Run to the Hills - 2/12/82:
I haven't posted much lately, been busy with real life and feeling uninspired to write. We're still rounding out our X-Files project. We finished The X-Files: The Game for the PC over the weekend. It totally rawked. I'm a little sad that full-motion video games never took off. This was my third. The first I ever played was Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria. It was a pretty mild game and the acting was terrible but it was also one of the first. My second, and favorite, was Jane Jensen's Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (Gabriel Knight is still one of the best series of all time AND has the best video game music I've ever heard).
The X-Files: The Game was a lot of fun, the acting was really good (for a video game), the puzzles were intuitive and it felt very much like being right in the middle of an X-File. If you can get a hold of a copy and have the system requirements to play it (as in, if your system is OLD enough to play it!) grab it on half.com.
Tonight we're starting The X-Files: Resist or Serve for the Playstation (which we've borrowed from a friend). It's supposed to be a survival horror along the lines of Resident Evil so I'm very excited about that!
We're also listening to all of our Maiden again in preparation for the concert. We now have every record and dvd that they've released, so expect me to finish my Maiden reviews (you know, the ones that I abandoned a year and a half ago!).
Other than that, tomorrow night is Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady (it will be my first show there, I'm excited) and Saturday is the Spin Doctor's at Tulip Fest. Should be a good rest of the week!
Happy Wednesday folks!
And get some answers.
What is Life?
Life's a Long Song.
It's The Song We Were Singing.
This would've been cooler with album art. It was there in my files when I loaded this. Growl.
Show us something you love about Mexico.
The food.
PS: I know I've shared before, so some of you know - but DON"T pour your bottled water over Mexican ice. It defeats the purpose entirely.
...that I have tickets to see Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! for Thursday night? Feeling jealous? You should be! :-)
Good morning, by the way.
We listened to the Spin Doctors' latest album for the first time last night. For the most part the album was excellent. There were a couple not so hot songs, but on the whole it was a cool listen. The original line up of Chris, Aaron, Eric and Mark was back and it's the best they've ever sounded together.
Sugar is dedicated to IG, she must have been the inspiration for this song (congrats on the new job, btw! But if it doesn't work you, you can go after these guys for muse royalties):
This one is a number by Chris, it's a long one, and not their typical style, but I really dug it:
We're going to play Val's jukebox. I snapped a random shot of my iTunes album art screensaver. It's a little blurry, but feel free to pick something from the selection and I'll try to post it by tomorrow morning. Feel free to request a specific song or if you want me to pick something from the album.
If you have questions about one of the album covers, just drop it in comments. Note that some mp3s (like game music) use a photograph that we chose for the album cover. From the top left, columns are A, B, C... and rows are 1, 2, 3... Have fun!
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Recent Comments
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Valerae said:
Paula would've been awesome, but really, everyone on that show is funny. Being a big fan of Northern Exposure, I... read more
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jaypo said:
p.s. the only improvement would be the addition of Paula Poundstone. read more
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jaypo said:
[this is good]I'm greeeeeen with envy! I so love that show. We get it on Saturday mornings. Maybe I'll hear you snorting... read more
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Valerae said:
You should write them and suggest it!! You never know with this crowd!! :-)Mo was hi-larious! read more
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Carl Kassell !!!<swoons> read more
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