PRO NOK HOCKEY: MAN IN RICOCHET

 

dad: so how are you finding being a professional Nok Hockey player?

me: i'm good in Los Angeles. when i get to Bahrain my skills falter.

dad: don't slapshot the wood puck at the wood block, you'll never score a goal like that. you gotta use the angles.

dad: wait is this box hockey? the game we played as kids? 

me: kinda.

dad: what's up with the hair?

me: yeah i know. i was trying for something but i just look like a dolt.

dad: a dolt, not an adult.

me: like these big curls here, you see? i grew it out because i was lazy. i was going for the Carlos Alcaraz with his wavy Spanish luxurious locks. but my hair is none of those things.

dad: you look like a wet mouse. you know what this is, right? your hair was my hair when i was a 50-year-old man.

me: yes, that must be it, it's my subconscious tribute to you. after all, these are your hair genes.   

Skye Lee: never has a woman made you feel more guilty about watching porn...

Patti Deutsch: college is going to four colleges in four years, right?...

Avery Schreiber: my entire career was: Doritos. my entire life was a bag of fucking chips!!!

Space Adventure Cobra: same villains as Voltron...

Jem: and the female bounty hunter is me!!!

Luigi: swim your fat ass, Mario!!!

cutting lines: don't cut these lines.........from the script.

Ericka from Lucky: pro hack: place all your items SIDEWAYS in your grocer bag.

Ericka from Lucky: sometimes finally getting chips again is enough to make your week.

Billy Corgan: my audition for David Lynch was my song "My Blue Heaven..."

Selma Blair: i'm not Martina Navratilova...

Gemelli: imagine being the hospital where the pope dies...

new Burger King chicken nuggets: they're just our chicken fries in nugget form...

John Lennon: Don Draper's not a hippie!!! I came up with the "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" song for Coke!!!

Julia Roberts in Dying Young: "to see if you shit," that was a funny line i had to deliver seriously while crying...

Klimt: kinda cool how this movie ends with tits.

Wolf Blitzer: may her blessing be a memory.........wait...

Fosters Freeze: Sunshine & Happiness.........we're not a cult...

the Fosters Freeze mascot: ...

traffic reporter: our camera NEVER works!!! our camera shot ALWAYS ducks out during the live broadcast!!! i'm getting sick of this fucking shit!!! are we still live?...

Billy Corgan: you know we rock stars never notice what we're wearing on stage. do you remember that Kurt Cobain wore a hot-pink shirt the first time he performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live?...

dad: i want you to think back to when we watched Black Books together.

me: you were long dead.

dad: yes but i must have planted the seed of the show into you, described it for you, we were locked into any memory about books or bookshops, especially used bookshops.

me: i do have a vague recollection, a blurry notion. you described the show in an Irish accent.

dad: you must be like Manny in Black Books in life, creature. you see how Manny is always on his toes, jumping around, running from room to room, thinking about the next task he has to accomplish, the next pile of books he has to manhandle. always be moving. always be shooting out of that back curtain.

Bernard Black: emphasis on the first syllable of my first name. did you know my middle name was Ludwig? as in that famous composer, he wrote music books. no, i will NOT do another Britcom, they're too hard. they use two cameras instead of three. six episodes a season? i'll reconsider and do more Black Books ONLY if there's an episode were Tamsin Greig orgasms over ME!!!

 

  

PRO NOK HOCKEY: THAT WOOD BLOCK IS THE GOALIE?

 

me: i'm a pro Nok Hockey player now.

Jen R: well good for you. ah those Nok Hockey memories, thousands of tabletop boards atop trash cans in an empty grey-carpeted HUGE auditorium on the UCLA campus.

me: summer theatre camp, the '80s. 

Jen: those days are never coming back. but you've somehow hung onto them this way, impressive.

dad: i'm your sports psychologist.

me: DAD?!!! you hung the moon.

dad: for you, literally. i was the architect of the '80s, i am what made the '80s the '80s for you.

me: yes, i only realized this like last year. all that '80s magic was YOU. but you were never a pushy parent, a football dad.

dad: nor a ballet dad for that matter. how are you doing on the circuit?

 

me: i just need a little refresh on the rules and i'm sure the results will follow.

dad: is the middle circle blue or red?

me: that's tricky. when do you put the wood puck on the red circle?

dad: i think it's like when it goes out over there? off the board into the potato salad? the wood block at the top of the Goal Zone mountain is supposed to be the goalie.

me: that blew my mind, i had no idea. i thought it was just the place where you take your thumb and forefinger and shoot that cool squeeze shot with the wood puck banking it into the goal.

dad: the Shocker. i think you mean carroming. my little plastic hockey stick is blue...

Kayce: what kind of name is that for a Yellowstone cowboy? the epitome of a man!!!

All Souls Day: we have to let the Saints have their day BEFORE us, the important people, we're just the nobodies...

a naked Rebecca Lowe and a naked Leslie Sbrocco are at Premier League Fan Fest in Denver.

Rebecca Lowe: you're used to eating food, but i'm eating your cunt.

Leslie Sbrocco: needs wine.

a naked Shorey Wesen: hey i want in on this too!!!

Leslie: PBS babes only.

Rebecca: PBS stands for Premier Brand Soccer...

Billy Corgan: why was "1979" our highest-charting song? we have WAY better songs than "1979"!!! "By Starlight" is a perfect song, not just a perfect wedding song. "Cherub Rock" continually gets a 100 on Guitar Hero. it's just so frustrating.

Morrissey: i'm gonna do a cover of "Monster Mash." all Smiths songs sound like "Monster Mash..."

Pizza My Heart: we deliver.........in a Scooby van...

Walker: Pizza My Heart is where i get ALL my food...

the TRUE Super Mario Bros 2, 1986, Japan: it was more like Super Mario Bros Second Quest.

Little Mario: that leaf windstorm tho!!! and me without my coat. as a full-grown man i'm one foot tall...

Luigi: everyone forgets that this was timed. you only had five minutes to complete a level, you had to HURRY!!! move your fat ass, Mario!!!

Brulee in One Piece: Brett Somers...

Meet the Press: kinda cool how the 3 Roundtable guests all sit at that tiny LOW circular coffee table before they go on air.

Tim Russert: the on-deck circle...

Luke Russert: but why those TINY chairs, dad? they're like chairs from a kindergarten, nobody's adult butt can fit in them.

Tim Russert: not even Twiggy's butt when she was on Meet the Press, i remember my dad interviewing her for Meet the Press...

Bill Parcells: look at me bouncing this football like it's a basketball, that is cool.

women's college soccer: oh yeah, you're watching this...

i'm lying on the couch.

dad: supine, remember when you had to wear a back brace?

me: i blocked that out until just now. 

dad: that's why you didn't go to prom. you're thinking to yourself that you remember seeing that leaf windstorm in the Mario game, you just forgot about it.

me: yeah, yeah, it's coming back to me now!!! i saw that leaf windstorm at Toys R Us!!! the screen was behind glass. the cool neighborhood skateboarder kid was playing as Mario of course, i was always just a watcher.

dad: remember when i told you about that movie about the guy with cancer who was bored at the dinner table because his future wife and new best friend were dumber than he was, they didn't go to college, they couldn't understand his art-history references, he answered every question on Jeopardy right like i did.

me: YES!!! well i finally saw Dying Young. i had to ask you what leukemia was as a kid when you described it to me. 

dad: now we can talk about how it was baffling to all of us how Vincent D'Onofrio never made a play for Julia Roberts. at least Vincent should have told Campbell Scott that he'd be there for Julia after Campbell died, you know?

me: you're a good shrink, dad.

 

 

KURT LODER ON THE CASE: A NESTLECOCK DESERVES A FAMILY, TOO

 

Kurt Loder is interviewing that guy with the ponytail and glasses who writes for Rolling Stone...

guy with ponytail and glasses: so i know people never believe me when i tell them this, but Generation X regards Kurt Cobain as their John Lennon.

Kurt Loder: yeah. may Kurt Cobain continue making records well into the 2020s...

guy with ponytail and glasses: i mean, music forever, right?

guy with ponytail and glasses: you see this black ponytail i have? when this ponytail of mine turns grey, i will do what you do, i'll interview a bunch of people for a PBS special about music that stresses that music belongs to ALL of us. i'll keep wearing these glasses throughout my entire existence. 

Kurt Loder: who?

guy with ponytail and glasses: Emmylou Harris and Herbie Hancock.

Kurt: where?

guy with ponytail and glasses: you know the Severus Snape Castle next to the 7-Eleven in the Bronx?

at the Golden Globes.

Michael Douglas: stick that Golden Globe you just won where the sun don't shine!!!

Julia Roberts: Michael? are you okay? have you ever won a Golden Globe?

Michael Douglas: um, i don't know. does it really even matter? sorry about that, i forget it's the '90s, i have to regulate my five drinks a night with a gram of coke...

Bridget Fonda in Singles: i just want a man who will say "bless you" when i sneeze.

Father Navin carrying pepper: i'm ugly, i look like a leprechaun...

Circus Trix: Trix cereal in the shapes of circus tents, trampolines, bowling pins, flavored cotton-candy, popcorn, and shelled peanut...

Susan Lucci in Lady Mobster: we don't sound like gangsters!!! we sound like a bunch of soap hunks and soap skirts!!!

Christopher Kimball's Milk Street: we still use a printer...

Tejana: we're unsweetened tea yet somehow raspberry-flavored...

Carl Jung on his deathbed: i wish i had been more like Carl Sagan...

lentil soup: i dare you to eat this when it's not Christmas...

Shia LaBeouf: July 28th? come on, the divorce was due to the HEAT of being smackdab in the middle of summer!!! give us another chance, baby, i'll wear black to bed, i promise!!!

Mia Goth: have i ever been goth in a role? surely i played Mrs. Dracula in something...

Cutting Crew "(I Just) Died in Your Arms": the official song of Class of Nuke 'Em High...

Cutting Crew lead singer: i'm not Sting...

Stephanie Jeronymo: will you become a stripper? this is the most important decision we all have to make in our lives...

Kurt is at his therapist's.

Kurt Loder: why did you become a therapist?

Marilyn Manson: it's my way of giving back after all the destruction i caused. i love people. i want to heal the world. i know how young people REALLY feel about life, i want to help them navigate those difficult feelings.

Kurt: old people have real feelings about life, too. and why specifically did you become MY therapist?

Marilyn Manson: that New Radicals guy was spot-on about me. he's more radical than i could ever be. "You Get What You Give" is my all-time favorite song. hell, i saved Paris Jackson from killing herself, why not you?

Kurt: you HAVE saved me!!! i don't need to do this anymore, i'm done with therapy, i'm done with you. job well done. i'm cured. don't worry, i'll get a facelift on my tired face... 

 

KURT LODER ON THE CASE: BECK HANSOM

 

Kurt Loder is at Beck Hansen's sprawling mansion surrounded by palm trees.

Kurt Loder: tropical.

Beck Hansen: thanks, man. are you tired?

Kurt: no i just look that way. 

Kurt: so you see the confusion.

Beck: no worries.

Kurt: i thought it was Beck Hanson, i thought you were the eldest Hanson brother who went off on his own, went solo to do his thing.

Beck: compelling narrative. is Hanson into experimental?

Kurt: i wouldn't know. how do you feel about the "You Get What You Give" lyrics?

Beck: it was a gutcheck. it made me change religions. that New Radicals guy's gonna guest-vocal on my next single.

Kurt: so it seems all is forgiven. this whole thing wasn't a publicity stunt, was it?...

Beck: i'll call you a Hansom cab to pick you up and ferry you the fuck outta here.

Kurt: why? i mean why the Hansom cab?

Beck: just in keeping with my eccentric nature, that's all.

at Hanson's sprawling mansion surrounded by palm trees.

Kurt: i'm not gonna take the tropical bait.

middle Hanson brother: you know the New Radicals song really made me think. here i was thinking this whole time we were doing serious music here, like Nirvana music. turns out everyone thought we belonged on something called Kidz Bop?

Kurt: so you're not the boy from Home Improvement?

middle Hanson brother: no but i did go to Harvard. to study music theory.........for my concept album...

Dying Young: the love story of Michael Stipe and Cher...

Cousin Itt: i always win the Halloween costume contest...

Will Smith: you know the Men In Black dance i do with the alien? that was my tribute to Michael Jackson...

PBS: we're showing the documentary Swamp Buggy Fever because PBS Florida is a thing...

tin trash cans in the '80s: recycling wasn't a thing in the '80s, no brown and green bins. no wood board over the cans to keep the wombats out of the trash, we used iron chains on the trash cans...

Jim Cantore: weatherstripping is not a nude weatherwoman on TV, it's not seeing Jen Carfagno naked in the Weather Channel bathrooms which i did by accident...

Easter Island: we're technically the tropics...

Dying Young.

Campbell Scott: i wanna fuck before i lose to the leukemia. i put out a newspaper want ad seeking an attractive nurse.

Julia Roberts: a newspaper want ad? how quaint.

Campbell: oh and i'm sure YOU think you're just the most beautiful woman who ever walked uphill sidewalks. 

Julia: no, my mouth is weird. when you smile you look deranged. are you the son of a soup scion?

Campbell: a minestrone magnate, yes.

Julia: do you realize that nobody has EVER seen me naked?...

the Match Game 1970s set: the same set where Karen Carpenter sang "Close To You" and "We've Only Just Begun..."

Peg Entwistle: hiking to the H was longer in those days because the sign was HOLLYWOODLAND...

Swami: ...

Peg Entwistle: was Thirteen Women a good motion picture?

Swami Yogadachi: with deepest regrets i predicted this motion picture would be lost to the sands of time like a circus troupe...

Frankie Muniz: my wife told me over breakfast, "you're not the boss of me now." i should listen to my own show!!!

Kurt is at his therapist's.

Kurt Loder: you should have seen me today.

therapist: gangbusters?

Kurt: no it was a total disaster. i couldn't remember any of those guys' names, i got them confused. i should know this stuff, i should be more on the ball. i work for MTV for Jesus sake!!!

therapist: music journalism is a young man's game. what are you, 40 now?