Best Celebrity Sighting Ever!

So as I mentioned last night Kim and I spent the weekend in our adopted home of New Orleans. If my math is correct (and let’s be honest, it always is) I’ve been traveling to New Orleans myself for eighteen years and have spent the last five years with Kim by my side for events that have included our first date and our wedding (though not on the same trip). I’ve come to the conclusion that I have spent more time in New Orleans than any other city where I did not have a mailing address and I believe I have spent more time in NOLA than I did in Overland Park, Kansas which is by all accounts a good thing.

Anyway, as is our tradition no trip to New Orleans for us complete without at least one random and totally insane moment. We’ve found ourselves VIP members of a Mardi Gras Krewe, being introduced to Paul Prudhomme and caught up in the celebration of the Saints Super Bowl victory. We’ve also apparently caused one store in the Quarter to change its policy after we entered the store without recalling that a) we had been in the store the previous day, b) we had spent a good hour looking at everything there and c) had apparently purchased a four foot long alligator. That store is now one of our favorites, mainly because they sold us a four foot long alligator.

This trip was no different and may have set the bar for complete randomness. Over the years Kim and I have become defacto members of the Krewe of Barkus, which is the Mardi Gras parade dedicated to the dogs of the city. Meaning that everyone dresses up their dogs in costumes and marches them through the French Quarter and in the process help to raise money for Animal Rescue New Orleans and encouraging the adopting of rescue dogs. It is a total blast and a cause that we both support (particularly Kim who has been doing this for years and has her two adopted dogs that I have been absolutely blessed to know.) As a result of this and the friends that we have made over the years we are lucky enough to have VIP access to the viewing stand; which really means that we have access to the balcony of a bar to watch the parade.

So we are up there, joking around with some people we had just met and others who remembered us from years past. At one point we look down to the street below and Kim turns to me and goes “Isn’t that Jesse from Opposite Worlds?”

Now I wrote a week or two ago about Opposite Worlds, a Sy Fy channel reality show that is a weird mix of Big Brother, Survivor, Captain Caveman and Twitter advertising dollars. Kim and I might be the only people who have actually watched the show and were certainly the only people who, in a Mardi Gras crowd, could pick out one of the villains of a third tier reality. Kim, in all her persuasive glory, got one of the guys next to us to yell out “Jesse!” to which he turned to us, smirked and waved. Kim and I immediately yelled out “We voted for you! We wanted you to win!” to which he replied “So did I!” At which point Kim and I just burst out laughing.

I’m sorry but that was so random that it made our trip. That was the last celebrity that I expected to see and it was just a brilliant random encounter that only meant something to the two of us. That is why I love going to NOLA, you just never know what is going to happen. As always, I have to thank all of our great friends who live there and show us unbelievable hospitality every time we make our way there. It is incredibly appreciated.

Wednesday Night Music Club: This is a Lydia Loveless song from her Indestructible Machine album and was the first time in ages I’ve heard something that just made me stop and swear at how good it is. This is from when she was 21 years old and there is no way that a 21 year old should either be able to write or sing like that. People are comparing her to Neko Case, which might not be a fair comparison but I remember seeing Neko in concert in 1999 and my reaction was the same and I don’t know if I can name anyone else who just made my jaw drop with just her voice like these two did.

Opposite Worlds: Your Utopian Dystopian Reality Show

There is no moment so exciting as the release of a new reality television show. The show could be awesome, like The Pick Up Artist, could introduce a new celebrity to the world, like Mystery on The Pick Up Artist, or could lead you to question the entire worth of the male of the human species like, well, The Pick Up Artist. Over the past few weeks Kim and I have our new reality show obsession in SyFy’s “Opposite Worlds”. (Let’s ignore the fact that a) SyFy isn’t spelled right, b) reality shows can’t really be considered science fiction and c) I will never forgive this channel for taking Mystery Science Theater 3000 off the air.)

Opposite Worlds is basically Big Brother with a twist. The show started with twelve contestants placed on two teams. One team lives in “The Future”, which basically looks like your house would if it was designed as an Apple store. Everything is white and sleek and there are flatscreen monitors and tablets everywhere. The other team lives in “The Past” where they are in what is vaguely a cave with a lot of straw and dirt. Also, the team in the past must wear brown and what appears to be a combination of body suits and animal skins at all times. In between The Past and The Future is a glass wall so both teams can look at each other at all times.

(I have to comment on the outfits. In the future everyone wears white, skin tight outfits. The women’s outfits have strategic cutouts to show significant amount of skin. The past can best be described as caveman chic. Apparently style is vitally important in what is meant to be the distant past.)

Gameplay is basic reality show fare. Both teams compete head to head in a competition to determine which team gets to choose if they live in the past or the future. This already led to one of my favorite reality moments of recent memory. In the first competition it was a one on one duel in which you would run up to a platform, grab what is meant to be similar to an electric cattle prod and then duel on the platform until someone falls off. As soon as they said the rules I told Kim “Ok, I wouldn’t even bother with the prod and just tackle the other guy when he reaches for his.” Which is exactly what Jesse did, driving his opponent off the platform and breaking his leg. This happened roughly ten minutes into the first show. Jesse was disqualified for the round but a) his team ended up winning anyway and b) the guy with the broken leg had to leave the game. But other than the first significant reality show injury I have seen in ages this is nothing more than your typical Survivor competition with the winner logically staying in the future.

Then things get a little more interesting. Each team nominates someone to be protected and the viewers vote which of those two people will decide who from each team will compete in the “Duel of Destiny”. Yes, every single part of this show has to have some incredibly complex name as opposed to say “the elimination challenge.” So it makes it like the first season of Big Brother in that the home audience has a major say in how the game progresses. They also track Twitter through some strange algorithm to determine who are their most favorite and least favorite players in the game and they get rewarded and punished appropriately. All in all it is a pretty neat concept with a Big Brother atmosphere but where it is much tougher for one alliance or team to just dominate the game.

What makes the show work is that being in the past really does suck. Since they are filming this live the nationwide cold snap has caused the team living in the past to be miserable even in California weather. Though they aren’t roughing it by Survivor standards they are definitely at a disadvantage. But, that just makes them the underdogs and causes the viewers to vote to help them out. Likewise, playing the reality show villain role and scheming gets you punished if you are annoying while someone like Jesse who shows remorse after injuring a guy goes from being the most hated to most liked in the span of a week. Plus, you get the wonderful reality show trope of the luxury of a spa day in which two of the women get treated to luxury and the most gratuitous shots that you could have on basic cable. Replayed at least three times. Admittedly it did help drive their Twitter popularity rank.

Ok, so it isn’t high drama. It’s a dumb reality show without much in terms of strategy so far and you feel more for the contestants who are sitting there for a week in real time for two hours of television. It must be an absolutely boring shoot as it is forced isolation with no real competitions most of the time. But it is just goofy enough and the contestants are just likeable enough to make it interesting. I mean, they played a pick up game of Quidditch this week. What else can you ask for?