Blasts from the past

Is it ok to be incredibly thrilled over a Geico commercial? It’s just that I saw one featuring that dude from the Police Academy movies who made all the funny sound effects. The ad itself actually introduced him as “that dude from the Police Academy movies who made all the funny sound effects.” This guy’s entire career, including being name The Onion’s Man of the Year, can be summed up by simply stating “he’s the dude from the Police Academy movies who made all the funny sound effects.” That my friends is the definition of fame.

So I have to say that last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was probably the best of the season. The writing hasn’t been as spot on this year as it has been in past seasons, mainly because I’m not sure what the focus is this season. Season One was Ted pursuing Robin. Season Two was Lily and Marshall getting married. This year has Ted scoring skanky chicks while Marshall sells out. It really hasn’t found its rhythm yet.

But this episode did finally deal with the fact of how in the world are Ted and Robin acting as friends after breaking up. This is one of those sitcom events that HIMYM is centered enough to try to address because in real life once you break up with someone you never see them again. Especially after a year long relationship. The awkwardness and the fact that you never truly stop feeling something for the other person (at least in my experience) makes a transference to friends status extremely difficult. Not saying that it’s impossible, not saying that I haven’t done it myself, but it is not an easy state of affairs.

Oh, and Barney got slapped again. You have to like any show where a major ongoing plot line is one character slapping another. That definitely would have made Everybody Loves Raymond more interesting. Well, that and actual humor.

I’m kind of low on topics tonight so I’ll just talk about an upcoming concert that I’m probably going to attend. It’s certainly not one that I ever expected to occur a few blocks from my apartment. Well, at least not since I graduated from college. See, The Lemonheads are going to play Record Bar in a few months. Or at least Evan Dando plus a couple of guys that he is calling The Lemonheads are going to play Record Bar. To be honest, I don’t even think that Evan could name the other guys in the band.

Even though I was never a big fan I’ll go just because they were the type of band that I really wanted to see when I was in college. That’s what makes the show so weird and I’ve seen more than a few of these. You take a band that was if not on top of the world could at least see the top and revisit them a decade later and see what has happened. I’m not sure what it is like for the band to now find themselves playing for a hundred people in Kansas City. I know on some level they view it as their job and in some cases they are still playing the songs they love. Just look at the Camper Van Beethoven clip I posted this week, they’re still having fun (usually as Cracker) but playing to smaller crowds. In other instances it’s kind of sad as even the band realizes that they have reached an age where they know of nothing else to do with their lives.

True, I’m at that same point in mine. It’s just as scary for me, I just don’t have to do it in front of an audience.