The One Where We Meet Celebrities

We almost got to be part of the audience for a taping of @Midnight. Almost.

We're fans of the show and had "priority" tickets to see a taping. The tickets were supposed to guarantee us a spot. Nope. A huge crowd turned out that evening to get into the show. The seats filled up with about a dozen of us priority ticket folks left out.

Yet, there was still hope. Some of the guests of the VIPs were nice enough to give up their seats to let about a dozen of us in. My wife and I barely made the cut. We were about two minutes from getting into the show when Anne Wheaton, wife of Wil Wheaton, one of the comics that night, showed up. We got bumped out of the audience, but we allowed to watch it on a monitor backstage.

The comics we almost saw: Wil Wheaton, Aisha Tyler, and Kevin

Pereira. Kevin say hi to everyone backstage before going on.

We had no one but ourselves to blame for not getting in. Had we shown up 10 minutes earlier, we would have made the first cut. Five minutes earlier and we would have made the second. Despite knowing this - and my respect for Anne's work on behalf of animals - I had the urge to do a Sheldon Cooper-channeling-William-Shatner scream of "WWWHHHEEEAAATTTTONNNN!!!!!"

While backstage, I see the man himself — Chris Hardwick. Now in my fantasy, I would have spoken to Hardwick, made him laugh, leading to more conversation, and ultimately, friendship. Through him, we would have met Felicia Day, and through her, Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Nathan Fillion, the cast of Mythbusters, and other celebs. We would all hang out on Saturday nights.

What I expected to happen was Chris would address every one backstage with a "Hey, thanks for coming out," before going on stage.

What actually happened was that I was gesturing to my wife to show her Chris was in the room. Chris, about to talk with a friend of a friend, thought I was gesturing at him and gave me a polite, perfunctorily nod as if to say "Yeah, I see you." He finished talking with the friend and headed out onstage.

I thought my wife would say something like "He's cute" or "He looks smaller/bigger than he does on TV." What she actually said was "I'm disappointed with his jacket."

Chris and the panel of comics just killed it that night. Much of the good stuff, however, was rather blue (two phrases for you — clit balls and hobo cum) and didn't make on air. Nerdist posted a link to some of the stuff the TV audience missed here.

We had a good time, got a couple of free @Midnight t-shirts and a promise of an email for VIP tix to a future showing. I won't believe the tix promise until I'm sitting with the audience and the cameras are rolling.

On Saturday, we were at the Emmy Costume exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (henceforth referred to as FIDM). This is a great exhibit featuring about 100 costumes from 20 different shows including Sleepy Hollow, Orange is the New Black, Agents of SHIELD (I refuse to do the little dots. It was an effort to make "shield" in caps), Downton Abbey, and Masters of Sex. And it's free, people.

I was in the midst of jockeying for position in the media horde during the exhibit preview when I found myself alone with the gorgeous Ming-Na Wen of Agents of SHIELD. On the show, Ming-Na's Melinda May is always scowling and looking tough. I was totally unprepared to see such a radiant smile. I melted like butter in a hot skillet.

She was a great interview — gracious and funny (on show costume designer Ann Foley — "she's great — but she didn't make my tits big enough. Oh, I bet you're going to make that quote big, aren't you?") Later in the evening, she and a friend sat on the same bench with me and my wife. Squee! I even wiped some water off the seat for her. Hey, I would have done that for anyone, not just for a fanboy hottie.

Imagine her sitting next to you on a bench.

Later, I went hunting for actor Michael Sheen. I didn't interview him. I just shook his hand and told him I loved him Frost/Nixon. He was very gracious too.

Ming-Na and Michael knew they were walking into an area filled with media, so they were prepped and ready to be at their best. Still, I can tell when someone talks to you not because they want to, but because it's part of their job — I'm looking at you Penn Jillette. I can also tell when someone is genuinely nice — I'm looking at you Joseph Teller. Ming-Na and Michael are the latter. I suspect Chris Hardwick is the same, but it's hard to tell from a brief nod from someone about to hit the stage.

Celebrities don't owe us a chat or an autograph or time for a picture. The only thing they owe us — and this goes for everybody on this planet — is this: don't be a dick. Some badly fail at meeting this minimum standard for humanity - Bieber, Brand, and LaBeouf come immediately to mind.

It is a great joy when someone whose work you admire turns out to be a damn fine bloke or bloke-ess. My admiration for Neil Gaiman, which was pretty damn high already, soared when I followed his posts and interviews during his trip to Jordan to meet with Syrian refugees at the request of the United Nations refugee agency.

Now, I have no idea what Michael Sheen and Ming-Na Wen are really like. They could have bodies buried in their basements for all I know. I do know that for a brief moment, they engaged me, smiled, and were gracious. And for that, I'm now an even bigger fan of both of them.

QUICK HITS

Back to the original purpose of this blog. There's some cool, cheap date opportunities out there, people. There is so much stuff I just want to cry at the things I can't get to. Here's some things I think are worthy of your consideration:

- The fore-mentioned FIDM Emmy Costume Exhibition opens to the public July 22 and runs through Sept. 20. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. It's free.

- Shakespeare in Griffith Park. The Independent Shakespeare Company is back this summer, performing Twelfth Night and Taming of the Shrew. This is a great bunch of performers and the setting in the meadow of the old zoo grounds is terrific. Pack a picnic and show up early. It's free, but you will be hit for a donation. Give what you can. Let's keep these guys going.

- Going Retro. On July 27, the Wilshire Ebell Auditorium is hosting a show celebrating music from 1900 to the 1930s. Presented by the Los Angeles Theatre Organ Society, this show will feature the retro ensemble Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys (regulars at the Cicada Club), ragtime pianist John Reed-Torres and theatre pipe organist Tony Wilson. As of this writing, Goldstar had discount Tix.

- The Bob Baker Marionettes are doing a free show on Aug. 6 at the Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena. These folks are masters of a vanishing art form. Again, pack that picnic and get there early.

Lots of fun stuff going on. Get out there and enjoy life.

Movie costumes, a shuttle, and music

Sorry for the long gap between posts. A back injury and lingering cold kept me and the mrs. home for much of the past two months. We're only just now getting out and about.

One of our more recent dates was to see the opening of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising "Art of Motion Picture Costume Design." This is FIDM 22nd time hosting this exhibition and I believe it's their best.

There are some 100-odd costumes from more than 20 movies included in the exhibition, ranging from "The Invisible Woman," about the woman who was mistress to Charles Dickens, to "The Great Gatsby" to sci-fi adventures, including "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."

At the reception I had the good fortune to interview Michael Wilkinson, an Oscar nominee for his work on "American Hustle." Michael said he spent eight months researching the 70s for ideas for the clothing, including looking at arty photographs of the time and perusing mail order catalogs. He nailed the look.

Several of the "American Hustle" costumes are included in the exhibit, some that Michael built from scratch and some that among his finds in storage units and rental shops. One of his finds as a vintage Bob Mackie dress worn by Amy Adams. The dress, Wilkinson said, made Adams "feel like a million dollars."

Costumes from American Hustle.

Next to the motion picture exhibition is a smaller, but no less stunning exhibition of 19th Century Wedding dresses from the Helen Larson Collection. There are 10 gowns on display, one from each decade of that century, and accompanying accessories that are of the period.

The dresses are part of a mind-blowing 1,400 piece collection that Larson assembled over 50 years, beginning in 1946. FIDM is trying to raise $2.5 million to buy the collection from Larson's estate. Are hopes are with FIDM in acquiring the collection. It would be nothing short of tragic to see it sold off piecemeal.

Dresses  from the Helen Larson Collection.

FIDM's exhibitions are free. The movie costume exhibition runs through April 26. FIDM's galleries are located at 919 S. Grand Avenue (corner of 9th and Grand). The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

QUICK HITS

SPACE SHUTTLE

If you haven't gone to see the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center, you need to put a visit on your must-do list. The orbiter is beautiful and inspiring. And how often do you get to walk up to a real manned spacecraft?

Endeavour, up close.

You need to get timed tickets in advance to see it, but they are only a couple of bucks apiece. You will have a line (a line that traverses much of the center), but it moves very quickly. Space-related artifacts on display include Endeavour's tires from its last landing, a real mission control center (from the Rocketdyne folks who monitored the first minutes of launch), and, of course, the ever-popular space potty.

The science center makes for a great day outing. Parking runs about $10. We like taking the Metro Expo Line, which saves us the parking fee and the often horrible traffic around Exposition Park.

MUSE/IQUE

The second half of MUSE/IQUE's "Uncorked Series" will start on Monday, Feb. 24 with the presentation of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring." MUSE/IQUE's is partnering up with A Noise Within, a very fine repertory company, for this show.

Here's a description of the show from MUSE/IQUE: "Aaron Copland’s 1945 Pulitzer Prize winning composition Appalachian Spring sounds like America - gutsy, beautiful, complex, and always emerging to new ambitions. MUSE/IQUE musicians with a wild collection of instruments team with dancers to revive the visceral WWII energy of the music while our collaborators at A Noise Within provide dramatic surprises in their stunning performance space that literally brings the action right to the audience."

The show will be A Noise Within's theater at 3352 E Foothill Blvd in Pasadena. The theater is right off the 210 Freeway and there's plenty of free parking.

This definitely isn't a cheap date with tickets at $50 each (sometimes you can find discounts on Goldstar), but we got our money's worth at two of the previous Uncorked shows we went to. I also put forth a recommendation because of the work these folks do in bringing music to foster kids.