XPost: alt.tv.mst3k, alt.fan.mst3k   
   From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu   
      
           Sorry to be belated, but here's a trip report.   
      
   	I don't get into New York City as often as I might, given that   
   I live in central New Jersey and it's one fairly convenient bus ride   
   up to the Port Authority.  Probably that's just because it's so close;   
   you know how it is to overlook stuff that's conveniently nearby since   
   it is so easy.  But various events will pull me up to the city, such   
   as going to a TV show taping, or going to a Cinematic Titanic event.   
   Such was one in late September.   
      
           Although I made a couple tries at getting someone to go with   
   me, I didn't succeed and didn't really expect to.  The brother who lives   
   in-state might be interested in going but he's got a wife and four-year-   
   old child to take care of.  The brother who lives out-of-state had a   
   two-week-old child to care for.  (He had, for an earlier Cinematic   
   Titanic show, arranged a get-together for me and a bunch of his friends,   
   and was supposed to include him, but work summoned him at the last minute   
   so I was just there with strangers.)  My sister, well, she doesn't so   
   much get the whole watching-an-awful-movie-for-the-fun-of-it thing.  Most   
   of my other friends I know only on the Internet where they can't really   
   get to New York City for a show since they live in, for instance, San Jose.   
      
           So what the day amounted to was a chance to go into Manhattan   
   to whatever I felt like in the afternoon, and head over to the show in   
   the evening.  Here's where I thought of one of those obvious things:   
   there's a lot of bookstores in Manhattan.  There are many books I have   
   not yet read.  Oh, yes, we could work something out here.   
      
           Although I got several used book store locations, I ended up   
   taking the time just to go to one, The Strand.  They advertise themselves   
   as having ``18 miles of shelves'', and that might well be the case.  It   
   was certainly a satisfyingly dense collection of books.  Considering the   
   size of my Strategic Reserve Reading Pile, I would have to be careful   
   about what I picked up and just why.  Caution was particularly recommended   
   as I didn't have any list of books I really urgently wanted to read; I've   
   been trying not to add to my list given the Strategic Reserve Reading Pile   
   so mentioned.   
      
           But I did pick up a few things, including a biography of Fred   
   Allen (and I just resisted also picking up a biography of Jack Benny   
   for the other side of the argument), which turned out to defy the usual   
   rule about biographies of comics by being a pretty chipper story about   
   a guy who was mostly reasonably happy; and a collection of short stories   
   by Chad Oliver, a neglected science fiction writer whom I like and who   
   tends to write stories not so action-packed or or emotionally charged as   
   Clifford Simak would.  When I noticed they had math and science texts   
   in the basement I looked over to see if I might find a copy of either of   
   my textbooks on the shelves.  Sad to say, they didn't.   
      
           They'd had a calendar of squirrels when I entered, but apparently   
   only had the display copy on hand.  Too bad; I know someone I could have   
   given it happily, and who would have received it happily.   
      
           Between my starting time and the time spent wandering the store   
   I had got reasonably close to the show's start time, so I got back up to   
   the vicinity of the Best Buy Theater --- last time I was at Cinematic   
   Titanic in Manhattan it was the Nokia theater; remember Nokia? --- and   
   marched my way up.   
      
           My first time in the theater I had got perfectly well lost since   
   the actual seats are ... ah, you have to enter, and go to the right, and   
   down the steps, and turn backwards, and down the hall, and turn right,   
   or something like that.  The point is it's not laid out like the average   
   Broadway theater, as best I can tell, and it may be as much as a quarter   
   of a mile underground.  But after that first experience I was something   
   like an expert in navigating it: I stopped at the souvenir guy's desk to   
   buy a couple Cinematic Titanic DVDs (I haven't bought them online, since   
   I seem to just not be very good at buying stuff online), and realizing I   
   didn't know how or just where to buy something simple like a Diet 7-Up I   
   went in to take my seat.   
      
           I'd got tickets fairly late, partly because of this online buying   
   stuff again, partly because I thought maybe I'd find someone to go with,   
   and of course that didn't happen.  I bought a ticket in the middle   
   section, which seemed to balance the nice-and-close aspect with the   
   not-too-expensive aspect, at least when you don't account for how   
   Ticketmaster insists on getting its cut of over $375 per ticket as a   
   ``convenience'' fee.  I realize everybody hates Ticketmaster and their   
   ``convenience'' fees are a scam, but, I hate Ticketmaster and their   
   ``convenience'' fees are a scam.   
      
           In the hour between the doors opening and the start of the show   
   they played tunes from the Nerd Music Suite.  I can't define this kind   
   of music precisely, but, you know what I mean.  The kind you get on mix   
   tracks made from Allan Sherman and They Might Be Giants sources.  And   
   about half the row beside me didn't bother coming in while the Nerd   
   Suite Overture played, but waited for the performances.  Maybe they had   
   a harder time deciding what books to buy.   
      
           The show proper started with about an hour of performances from   
   each of the Titans, but Dave Allen, who's not included in the riffing   
   for no reason I'm aware of.  Maybe he just likes doing the introduction   
   bits instead.  I can't imagine fans not accepting him, given that he's   
   funny and personable enough.   
      
           Several of the gang's pieces were similar to ones done in   
   previous shows: Trace Beaulieu reading from his book of poetry, for   
   example, or Joel Hodgson doing stage magic, or J Elvis Weinstein   
   singing with Dave Allen.  One bit which returned which I didn't care for   
   was Frank Coniff's fat jokes about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.   
   Goodness knows I don't have any love for Christie, but fat jokes are   
   lazy, and that they were self-aware ``isn't this lazy'' lazy fat jokes   
   doesn't improve them.  He did a few gags which had more substance, that   
   get at Christie's politics, which needed the lazy fat jokes to set up,   
   but I don't think the payoff was worth it.   
      
           Missing, and I think sadly so, was Mary Jo Pehl on-stage alone.   
   She had some time with Dave Allen, and good for that, but nothing like   
   her scrapbooking bit done at the Princeton show last April (where she   
   guided a fan into making a scrapbook to remember the experience of   
   making a scrapbook).  Pehl is compellingly funny, particularly in   
   person; I wanted more of her.   
      
           The movie proper was _East Meets Watts_, in which a Chinese   
   guy comes to San Francisco so he can get handcuffed to a guy from Los   
   Angeles and they can go fight drug dealers hovering around the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)