SOLO POP: STAGES

 

Jem is frustrated.

Jem: this bubblegum-pink hair is not enough. i really want to make it as a singer. not a fluffy singer, a singer of substance, my role model in all things life is Cher.

Jem: but this is WAY harder than i thought it'd be. it takes a lot of fucking MONEY!!! i'm not a trust-fund kid, why do you think i wear makeup at night? i'm fucking POOR!!! i was raised in Watts by a single mother who had a song in her heart, Pop Rocks for cash, and an electric bill for a necklace. i want to sell out stadiums in Seattle and visit Australia!!! i don't have a manager, roadie, backup singers, or anyone helping me, that costs, i'm doing this dream ALL ALONE ON INSTAGRAM!!!

the lead singer of Black Lab: i'm not TRYING to sound like David Bowie...

Ben Shelton: isn't there a clock in tennis now?

Sascha Zverev: i suddenly have 2 Grand Slams so the press has to call me Sascha from now on. the clock stops as soon as i start bouncing the ball because that indicates the point is about to begin. so theoretically i could bounce the tennis ball forever until Time ends...

Melissa Maker posts her latest on Instagram Stories.

Melissa Maker: at first people are commenting on how avant-garde it is, the shadows falling at different angles giving the illusion of shape. what everyone fails to realize is this is actually a silhouette of my full naked body!!! what you're seeing is my WHOLE bare back!!! subtle, sultry, with a faint of gold.

Love Death + Robots: you gotta give us credit, we're not shy about showing animated human penises...

African player scoring his first goal for English football: i get back on defense, but i'm not thinking about soccer, i'm thinking about the small Kenyan village where my mother gave up the ghost...

Safeway: you can still get the discount if you're fired...

dad: British old people are ALL lucid...

A Midsummer Night's Dream: not Midsommar...

Carrot Top: i did not try to commit suicide. but the divorce from Frankie Muniz has been hard.

Frankie Muniz: my wife is not that porn star...

Carrot Top: i'm gonna dye my hair blond with frosted tips. i need a change. i remember your nice little show.

Frankie Muniz: i should have never done the Malcolm in the Middle revival, i thought it'd be like church, but it's brought me nothing but bad luck.

Hayden Panettiere with a giant POOF of panettone frizzy hair: there's a lesson in there in preserving the past, leaving well enough alone, not tinkering with perfection. Malcolm in the Middle was of its time: those quirky late-'90s.

Rod Serling: military stories are boring, werewolf soldiers give you someone to root for...

hikikomoris: guys, we can at least throw away our trash. throw away our trash in a place NOT our room. who wants to live in their own filth? we can be depressed but CLEAN.

the Black Books intro song: Radiohead "Airbag..."

Simon Pegg: did i copy David Brent or did David Brent copy me?

Ricky Gervais: it doesn't matter, we're all gonna die and there is no God. i can say anything at the Golden Globes, these are my people...

Brush Strokes: shows about British middle-class life in the '80s give you the morbs...

Howard Lew Lewis: i've been reading about EVERY EPISODE of EastEnders on Wikipedia for 9 hours now...

Mr. Roper: know how i can unclog any toilet? i got this plunger off an Italian plumber named Mario when i went to Italy and Japan without Helen for our honeymoon.

Mario: plunger, plumber, get it?

Seine-feld: Elaine Benes is more of a French woman anyway. it's in the way she dances. Kramer is a mime. 

Jem: one thing i HAVE going for me is i'm a brilliant songwriter. but you SEE?!!! i poured my heart and soul into this Vaporwave electronica song i just composed, put it on Instagram, it got 1 like and 0 comments!!! it's enough to make any artist give up.

Eye Luggage: i know, but working at Taco Bell is only fun that first week. i was the like. i'm your biggest fan, can you sign my tit in bubblegum-pink magic marker?

Laertus: every time i think of Jem, i think of TaB soda and Pop-Tarts...

 

LUCID OLD MAN: WAIT TIL YOU'RE OLD TO LIVE

 

dad: creature, i listen to your prayers. don't wish for things to be reversed, it's not fair to your mom, it's not her fault things are the way they are.

me: i know. but i am so TIRED.

dad: it won't be forever. it may seem like it's taking 100 years, but after the 100 years, it ends. everything ends...

Indiana Jones  parkouring pyramids: how does my hat stay on? trade secret involving a baldcap and a stapler. if you call me a heretic one more time i'll disappear into this sand waterfall.

Selsun Blue: that '80s YMCA shower smell...

Mac: i like my men like i like my towels: frilly.

Oprah: you wouldn't lie to me, would ya Lance?

Lance Armstrong: i mean it is DIFFICULT to lie straight to Oprah's face like that. to look into her dewy eyes and not be sincere.........people think i died five years ago...

Love Death + Robots "Suits": have you ever seen a trucker hat with a merry-go-round on it?...

Love Death + Robots: we REALLY like cats...

relationship: two people talking.

Black Books: three characters not enough? just add a fourth random guy who was at the bookshop to play poker and the jazz sax, changes the whole group dynamic...

Bermuda onion: Epcot Center...

Lane Kiffin: with my personality i really should just go back to USC and stay there...

Drew Barrymore: so we're going back to the '90s? Poison Ivy should be the fashion plate we all follow, HER clothes, not Cher Horowitz's clothes.

the Buffalo Bills: you would think we'd've been one of the original two NFL teams...

the Gilmore Girls theme song: sounds like the Gimme a Break! theme song...

Brother Peewit: i was the only monk in attendance at King Charles's AI summit because being in the Medieval cartoon Smurfs, i am naturally British...

King Charles: i am here today to warn of the dangers of AI.

Brother Peewit: and i am here in my capacity as representative of the people, i'm advocating on behalf of humanity, to keep humanity. to save the world.

Bill Nye: same as me but we're on opposite ends of the spectrum...

Brother Peewit: the only way we can escape AI might be we'd have to all hide in monasteries...

they're gaining on us!!!: the word gaining is only used in this car-chase scenario.

Nell Carter: i'm gaining on you. i'll soon be the same weight as all you skinny daughters in this family i tend i am NOT jealous of...

trash can: is a trash can a trash can if it is never emptied?...

Tamsin Greig: if there's ever a biopic of Everything but the Girl...

Velvet on PBS: i told you a drama about Macy's would work...

me: why don't you ever come to me in my dreams?

dad: phrasing.

me: why don't you visit me in the dreamworld?

dad: but i'm that spider on the toilet every morning you go to the bathroom your bare toes in the hot-pink shag-carpet bathmat at 5AM AFTER your dreaming.

me: wait, that's you? YOU'RE SPIDER-SAMA?!!!

LUCID OLD MAN: THE ETERNAL KILLING OF TIME

 

my dad takes me to the Casbah Theatre in Berkeley to watch Macross: Do You Remember Love?

dad: isn't this the type of stuff you did at college, creature?

me: it was so long ago that i remember...

dad: i want to experience what my son experienced. don't worry about the future, there'll be caregiver robots, right?

George Jetson: maybe.

Rosey the Robot: ...

Steve Buscemi: it's okay, call me John Waters now, that's what my whole career of doing weird stunted-growth roles was FOR!!!

Stevie Nicks: listen to my music with lit pumpkin candles all around you in the room. don't forget the door wreath.

Clint Howard: i have no complaints, being the brother of a famous director, Opie and the Cocoon guy and the guy from the Weezer video. that afforded me the luxury of time. since i didn't need to worry about getting food, i could pursue my sole passion in life: doing the weirdest shit possible.

the seats in the theatre are dark and stuffed and torn and filled with bubblegum wad. but at least they aren't lecture seats.

dad: this is a worrisome anime film. a troubling movie.

me: all '80s anime movies were apocalyptic.

dad: no it's not that, it's this one character with the bouffant gold hair who's a real man's man in the space army. he says that a woman secretly wants to be dominated by a man.........see the thing is, that might actually be true...

Jen R: women want love, that's it. 

dad: what do you think?

me: i wouldn't know.

dad: what about that woman you've kept on about for years?

me: i'm taking it REAL SLOW with Jen, i do NOT want to mess this up...

dad: i have no grand long-lived wisdom to impart to you, i have no idea how someone like me got married...

plaid pants: not necessarily a sisterboy from Portland, Maine. simply going golfing after the show.

Charles Nelson Reilly: i'm the only normal one on Match Game, not Richard Dawson. stop trying to imitate me, Richard Dawson!!!

Richard Dawson smoking a cigar on set: i can't be funny in my own voice.

Anthony Bourdain: i was The Bear in real life...

Gilligan's Island theme song: whether you like it or not, this was your first sea shanty...

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: it's the same Master Control Program from Tron!!!

Sarah Cortez from The Terrors of Jordan Mendoza: that girl you COULD have taken to the St. Cyril's Encino Spring Carnival in the '80s...

Jacob Soboroff: all i do is protests. i go to protest rallies. i interview people at marches. i never cover something like a melting glacier that causes monks to switch religions. it's a noble profession.

Archer: ironically, i use a gun, not a bow and arrow...

Palm Springs: because writers are desert wanderers...

Monica Seles: The Pick-up Artist (1987) was a great acting experience for me...

Victoria Jackson: have you ever called a woman a creep?

you know the world is sick when: a school goes out of business...

the walls of Hell are paved with Jack In The Box buttermilk ranch sauce.

Randolph Mantooth: i'm saving the angels in Heaven.........in my firetruck, ironically...

Haywood Nelson: what's happening!! i wasn't scared of the Satanism in Evilspeak, i'm a Scientologist...

dad crosses his legs in the sunken theater by placing one leg on the lap of the other leg forming a graham-cracker triangle.

dad: remember when a fan in the stands asked Steffi Graf to marry him in the middle of her tennis match? her response was, "how much money do you make?" she just RUINED that moment. that could have been a sweet fairytale, a rags-to-riches story. you know me, i'm always looking for the Romantic in things. it would have been a funnier line if she had said "yes."  

LUCID OLD MAN: DIRTY WATER

 

i was FLOORED when i opened my front door that crisp morning and he was standing there on the welcome mat right in front of me.

me: DAD?!!! is that really you?!!! where the hell have you been the past 24 years?!!!

dad: out. you know, going to libraries and stuff.

me: you look good. your mind is a steel trap that's been treated with wine.

dad: i'm smarter than when i was 14.

dad: look at you, son. only a dad can tell the truth to his son without consequence.

me: what? i just woke up.

dad: that's the problem, you always look like you've just woken up, both meanings. even at noon. do you really want a wife? it's not about a job, it's about looking like an artist. look at your shadow over there, you look like Big Bird. you look like a bird, not a human.

Doing Time on Maple Drive: the emotional scenes in this are used by suburban acting lessons to teach the students how to display crazy anger...

another old man, not my dad, knocks at my door from Meals on Wheels. he looks like Santa.

old man: how's your mom doing?

me: she's taken to the infusions well. only thrown up once.

old man: and how are YOU doing?

me: thank you for that, Santa man. it's been HARD. nobody ever inquires about caregiver stress.

old man: see? Santa isn't a creep for knowing all about you. he just wants to know if you're okay.

Embrace of the Vampire: the woman photographer who seduces Alyssa Milano, she was an ancient siren. 

Alyssa Milano: too bad she didn't bite my glorious breasts, that would have been hot.

the wearing of pajamas: family-structure stability in the '80s...

Moby: my ENTIRE music career was so that by some miracle someone like me would end up with Natalie Portman. when that didn't really happen, boy was i lost...

Jennifer Capriati: why not an indoor tennis Grand Slam tournament? on carpet. i'm trying to get back in the game here, you know? if i become tennis commissioner i can salvage my life: get a man, have a kid, put black D.A.R.E. stickers on my minivan.

Catholic priest: as long as you don't become a Catholic pest...

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: it's the Engine Room from Star Trek: The Next Generation, that blue warp core that looks like a giant baby's circle-stack toy.

Sundays: are for soccer now,  not football...

the last line of New Radicals "You Get What You Give": you're all fakes, run to your mansions, come around, we're Lech Walesa!!!

Disturbia day dress: goth sundress.

Nikki McCann Ramirez: i'm your Janeane Garofalo '90s boho best friend in the sneakers navigating you through modern politics...

a dentist at Fedco: you can chew Clorets gum instead of brushing. they're green so they're good for the environment. they're pillow-shaped so you can relax.

Jackie Fitzgerald and Walker: we had a party last night to celebrate the weather getting cooler. sorry for the noise.

me: no worries, i like New Radicals "You Get What You Give" being played by a house band for 6 hours.

Jackie: i'm more into Bach and opera but because Walker has long straight blond hair he is required to play a black bass guitar in an electric band.

New Radicals: we are not Third Eye Blind...

Embrace of the Vampire: our vampire teeth are subtle...

Martin Kemp: boring ending for Alyssa Milano to go back to her milquetoast boyfriend. if she had taken a sumptuous chance and went off with me, we would have lived forever, so there would have been a sequel like those godawful Twilight movies. i look like if Chris Kattan was sexy.

Alyssa Milano: sorry but ballet is boring. spandau sounds like a stretchy yoga nylon.

Prince: it's weird how this movie was filmed in Minnesota...

Adam Levine: you were a dead frog in bed.

Maria Sharapova: that is scandalous, Adam. okay, you know what, i'm gonna pay tribute to Debbie Harry: i'm gonna go on The Muppet Show---the good one, the '70s one---and kiss Kermit the Frog in his sockhole.

Clint Howard: the next time you see a buffet pan with ONE tater tot in it, think of my face.

army cook: i'm if Anthony Bourdain and Adam Arkin made a man.

Love Death + Robots: cartoon Black Mirror...

Lucky: our Coinstar is quiet as it gives you your slip for all those jangly clanging coins, the buttons you push are QUIET. we're not rowdy. we're a dignified library. i mean where else can you get the PARTY SIZE of Funyuns?...

Billy Corgan: Neath the Darkest Eves, it should have been Neath the Darkest Eaves!!!

Allen Ginsberg: you will NEVER spell my name right...

Downtown Carmel: tiny NARROW sidewalks...

me: i can't believe you're 90 years old like mom, dad.

dad: i have all my faculties. i can run a faculty at any cozy college.

me: you can FINALLY write that book. the book you REALLY wanted to write...

dad: i play marbles with the neighborhood kids and whip their asses before it's time to go inside for dinner and Pac-Man.

me: that's the first time you've ever said the word "asses." it's rad how you have a long flowing white beard now like Gandalf the first wizard you taught me about.

dad: especially since i have curly hair... 

dad: i am a creature of the world, creature.

me: i miss your nickname for me.

dad: i am an animal of Earth, son. i sense all around. clearer than i ever have before. i smell. i SMELL things. i don't wanna talk about Trump, he'll give me a heart attack. i can smell the dirty water coming from your sink, your dishwasher, and your washer.

me: the kitchen sink smells funky, the bathroom sink smells like mint. i washed my clothes for the first time in ten years after your visit.

dad: i am at one not with the life on this planet but with its death...