BERKELEY CITY COLLEGE: STINGO'S CHOICE

 

William Shakespeare: yeah, the DP, the donut pillow. 

Shakespeare brandishes a donut pillow out of his frilly backpocket and presents it to me after bowing like Willow.

me: i don't get it, aren't donut pillows for pregnant ladies?

Jen P shoots me a glaring stare.

Shakespeare: AND for those with hemorrhoids. you have hemorrhoids.

me: what's my grade?

Shakespeare: you have to make up a LOT of time for me, eons of time. you'll be writing plays for me until you die.

me: i mean there are worse ways to go. and live. i love writing plays. ORIGINAL stories each time i'm assuming?...

Shakespeare: not cool. that was a low blow, sir.

Jen R: this donut pillow is weird, it has a giant gloved hand in the front.

Shakespeare: cuz imma SLAP yo ass every time you sit down to write.

me: thank you, i felt that.

Jen P: wait, is there something else to this deal?

Shakespeare: he has to write the plays on this stage. not at home. during the dark hours.

me: appropriate.

Shakespeare: the off-hours when there are no spotlights. right, Rod Serling? and now i'm passing the mic to a gentleman far superior than I in the inner particulates workings of playwrighting, Mr. Peter MacNicol.

Peter MacNicol: i won't do the Baby Dance. so, Sophie's Choice, by FAR the best thing i ever did.

Meryl Streep: that's for sure. mine is more complicated, i mean remember that 2007 movie Dark Matter? 

Takahashi: only i do.

me: and me. it helped me get through Berkeley.........the other college life...

Meryl: it was an extremely obscure movie, not even shown in art-house theatres after Virginia Tech, and yet i was in it. i do indie films?

Takahashi: this movie bridged the U.S./China gap. we're all humans who are unfairly intellectually shafted...

Peter MacNicol: so you have to reframe Sophie's Choice and look at it as if the film was about MY choice.

Mardith: after all the progress Ms. Streep and others have made for the Cause?

Peter: but it's done subtly, secretly, invisibly, the events in the movie are because i decided thinking to myself that i wanted Meryl happy so i'd let go of my pursuit with the other dude, i forgot who he was, with the Errol Flynn mustache, handsomer than me, i look like a baby ogre, so she would be HAPPY. if she's happy, i am happy. she likes debonair over druggie? because i could never please her sexually, despite what she said. 

Meryl: i was just being nice. i'm a good actress.

Peter: in that vein, YOU must choose: Jen P or Jen R?

Jen P: bad choice of words, now i see a penis vein...

me: this is tough, i mean if i had been with Jen P FROM THE START i wouldn't have to make the choice now...

Jen R: that's cold.

me: i'm glad i wasn't, meeting Jen R was the greatest moment of my life.

Jen P: that's cold. what am i, gas-station chopped liver?

Talia the cat: i know why you love black cats, i am a black-and-white cat, you never thought about that, huh?...

Trinity the cat: we know you're alive when you fart in the morning.

me: thanks, me too.

dad in a dream, we're at the Sherman Oaks Galleria mall food court.

dad: Mr. Agassi, can we get your autograph? my son's a huge fan. he never wore hairspray in his life till now.

me: dad, that isn't Andre Agassi, that's Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell PLAYING Andre Agassi.

dad: that's disappointing, i wanted it to be Hugh Jackman. or at least Jimmy Fallon. i'd even take Andy Roddick playing Andre Agassi...

Andre Agassi: i come from Degrassi...

in that same dream i hydroplane right though a GIANT puddle right at the Spanish-style doors entrance to the La Fiesta Mexican cantina/restaurant on the top floor. the patrons swigging Patron inside do not need to utter a word, their disappointed faces tell the tale in that dark room. with my tale between my legs i hangdog sulk out of the restaurante without stepping foot in it and look for a Foot Locker to dab-dry my wet toes...

Abby Magers: don't take teachers for granted. we're an endangered species nowadays. who's gonna teach your kid the stuff that matters?!!! who's gonna teach your kid Romeo and Juliet?!!!

Shakespeare: please join my teaching troupe at Berkeley, no invitation required, you would quickly rise up the ranks and ascend to take my job. like a tornado. i wrote Romeo and Juliet on the back of an In-N-Out Burger napkin...

Mitt Romney wearing a hockey mask: SURPRISE!!! i'm the good guy. biscuit in the basket...

Seinfeld: no hugging, no learning.

Jen R: this upsets me.

me: Jen R, i'm gonna hug you and never let you go.

seagull: i'm making a nest out of McDonald's french fries...

Parker Lewis from Parker Lewis Can't Lose: i'm Corin Nemec. i'm a real person, not a meme. i play a mean Andre Agassi. is this the line for the audition on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley? i don't want to go to actual SCHOOL here...

Tony Hawk: you ordered DoorDash.........FROM YOUR CHROMEBOOK!!! you have achieved sandwich and skateboarding nirvana.

Jen R: $700?!!! for a race?!!! do you get your money back if you don't die?

me: instead of walking the Big Sur Marathon, let's buy a car.

Jen: not for the marathon, for us.

me: strangely there is NO TRASH here the next day...

Jen: but there ARE 3000 outhouses encircling your neighborhood block...

Gordon Ramsay: bibs are only good for Red Lobster...

Mordecai from Regular Show: transform your life. at the mall. life-skills workshops, food, prizes, no naked birds in booths.

Rigby: karate is a life skill...

me: do you know what Berkeley tastes like?

Shakespeare: no, teach me, smelly squire. i'm a fucking sponge.

me: Berkeley tastes like a Burger King Whopper...

Big Sur Marathon: to stage this event takes Lorne Michaels money.

Lorne Michaels: and one '80s Joe Jackson synthesizer keyboard in the middle of the road.

Jennifer Hudson: i wonder what my cat is doing.

Talia: Macavity? i drove him to the dentist...

Lake Bell at Berkeley Beach: is that a lake ball or marimo?

lake ball: we're not The World's Largest Rubber-Band Ball.

Henry David Thoreau: hey, mariner mama, stop rummaging through my Walden attic upstairs!!!

marimo: not Martian, Japanese...

Super Mario: that marimo is straight out of a video game's underwater level...

Dr. Gregory House, adjunct professor at Berkeley: do i LOOK like a golfer?!!! how many total Vicodin pills did i pop in my mouth throughout the entire run of the show? 

Cuddy: you never took the Vicodin with water, it was weird. if you'd drunk 8 glasses of water a day you'd be a mellow yogette like me now.

House: patients who drink water are pansies. my body craves sugar, not sugar pills. why didn't i die from Vicodin overdose before the show started? Vanquish would have been safer, i'll take a good leg with a gimp stomach. they lie, they use Advil for the placebo...

Danielle Collins: shot tolerance is not cum to my face, it's a tennis term. SO MUCH DISRESPECT, am i right, Stephen A. Smith?

Stephen A. Smith: yep.

Danielle Collins: you'll miss me when i'm gone, i was the only one who could have PROVEN that college is worth it...

Susan Dean: is Danielle Collins famous enough that they'll fund me playing her in a Tubi Original Movie or something?...

Hurricane Point: the finish line is the starting line this year...

Billy Corgan: ...

Hurricane Point: because of the slipout. don't want a slipped disc from running in a way no human was EVER supposed to run? 

Cupid: the marathon was meant to a joke... 

Hurricane Point: get those slip-in Skechers shoes, no laces to trip you up...

Catherine Mary Stewart eating an apple: see? whether it's the arcade game of The Last Starfighter or Night of the Comet, the arcade was a community building that has vanished now like churches...

Pac-Man: without community-building buildings, there is no society...

Ear Horn: dearie it's one thing to produce spells, it's another to be spellbinding...

Wayseer: the new goth in town. but i wanted to be a surfer, a waverunner...

the day after the Big Sur Marathon.

Boc walking alone on a long and winding path: yesterday there were a billion people trodding this path.........and a billion barking dogs...

Sasha Grey sleeping in one of the leaf beds of The Treehouse: you use rags for the flooding toilet water. you wash those dirty rags in the clothes washer which starts flooding...

Confucius: ...

PX Base Exchange: how badly do you want to be in the military? is it worth it to get Jordache jeans, churros, and other mall goods first before the general public? do you have a kid who REALLY wants to see Challengers?...

Hurricane Point: where all the hurricanes in California pass through...

Leslie Sbrocco: i'm not threatened by a Monterey Mama who calls herself hot. i just can't pull off that sexy Cruella de Vil half-black half-white hair...

Jerry Seinfeld eating a cookie: ...

Monterey Mama: you have to be either age 30 or age 60 to pull off Cruella hair.

Cruella de Vil: it's not the same as salt-and-pepper hair...

Boc: the Big Sur Marathon was a nightmare, SO MUCH NOISE POLLUTION brought to Carmel.

Mickey Mouse: there was a race this morning? a rat race? i didn't hear a peep.

Minnie Mouse: because you never bring me to orgasm. you're not a dirty rat.

Mickey Mouse: i live in the Carmel SUBURBS.

Minnie: yeah the only place that sucks in Carmel is when you live right next to the highway...

Peyton Bilo: it's Poli Sci, but all the cool drummers spell it Poly Sci...

Wellow, Somerset: where all the Storybook International episodes were filmed...

the Storybook International luter: strangely i'm also the village luthier, i make violins but only play the lute. my name is John? it should be Labeau. clogs? the toilet? what's a toilet? no, those are wood Skechers i'm wearing on my feet...

Jen P looking perturbed for two and a half months: SO WHO THE FUCK DID YOU CHOOSE?!!!

me dipping my saltines in French onion soup: oh. well i guess it's gotta be Jen R, right?

 

CONSIDER THE LOBSTER

 

Golden Girls/Scooby-Doo crossover.

Blanche: why is this pooch sniffing my pussy?

Shaggy: don't mind ol' Scoob, he's just searching for Scooby Snacks.

Bea Arthur removes the bad guy's mask.

Bea: STANLEY?!!!

dad: USC Uber Alles, let's go, let's do this, let's protest!!! wow, i haven't been back at my old faculty building in 40 years...

Phoenix: i need a Chinese copper pot and Chinese copper spigot from San Francisco...

Catherine Smart: i was smart to leave Christopher Kimball when i did...

Guinness: too many casks of beer carry the casket...

soggy salad: sexier than soggy soup.

Boc: ...

soup with a nail in it: ...

toasted vermicelli: Medieval rice but not burned at the stake, more like trolley toast.

Nancy Faust: yes, i am Mrs. Talbot's daughter...

Mrs. Talbot: she hated baseball.

Nancy: i made a deal with the Tickler...

at the yoga shoppe.

Luke Russert: sex?

Tai: no, Luke, that is NOT my subtle body...

the next morning, Luke Russert puts an ad in the paper for a sublet...

me: you like walking?

Jen R: sure.

me: let's walk a marathon together, the Big Sur Marathon, it'll bond us in pain. exercise pain.

Jen: nah, i get foot skin tags. lots of pus, it gets messy.

Boc: i'm entering the Big Sur Marathon this year. but it's ironic, i can't go on my normal walk in the morning because the cross perpendicular is blocked. by the marathon...

Eddie Murphy: why the FUCK am i unloading the dishwasher at 6:30AM in the morning?!!! i'm the biggest star on the PLANET!!! i'm raw, baby!!! explain this, woman.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: i'm your wife? well it is the early '80s on SNL, so i guess. you do look cute doing the dishes in your red leather pimp suit.

Jen: Sears LIVES!!! garish as ever!!! it's an antiques store now, a BIG-ASS bodega. no wine, i promise. no Bodego shorts. they're selling my merchandise in there: pink grandma sweaters with diamond-shaped holes cut into the sleeves. the art of the hunt. fallen wish, you know?

me: you can beat this world with your crazy. but am i enough for you?...

Poe crow: we ain't ravens, we calendar birds...

Trinity the cat: i am circumspect about all things in life...

bacne: those Oxy Stridex acne pads in the '80s were doused in salad vinegar.

Snake from Degrassi: The Zittles was my band at Degrassi Junior High. after band practice i'd smoke pot with little cartoon mice-people. i was in 7th Grade mind you...

John Green: turtles all the way down.........the day i lost my mint-condition '80s TMNT action-figure toy collection with rare blue Ooze...

Chris Cornell: the day i tried to live.........maybe i shoulda stayed in bed and played with my toys.........i had electric guitars but maybe i needed He-Mans...

Melissa Maker: spam calls?

Lucio Rossi: yeah, it sucks.

Melissa Maker: try Maple SPAM...

Lucio: SPAM doesn't suck...

calendar wolf: inside me there are Two Wolves? 

Groundskeeper Willie: feed it. like your lawn. only one wolf...

Jen R: hey Alejandro, can we get some of those chartreuse reflecting safety vests you wear for us? we're walking a long parking lot here.

Alejandro: i am reflective of my good friendships in life, you guys.

me: that's a good idea, i'll grab one for Jen P, too...

Baltic, Connecticut: where Mystic Pizza REALLY took place...

Leslie Sbrocco: it's weird having water with pizza...

Robert Blake on SNL: i'm doing a sketch about battered women.........i mean there's so much Inception on this stage i'm drowning in it...

Robert Blake: and then the sketch continues with Froggy from The Little Rascals in zebra prison stripes...

Christopher Nolan: have you ever taken the usual walk down the Berkeley campus?...

The Masked Singer: okay now we're just doing Power Rangers villains...

Mitt Romney playing NHL hockey: and you thought I was cold?...

David Foster Wallace: consider the lobster. the pain of this sentient species, the anima soul in all animals. don't let the lobster turn its animus on you. just have chowder, plain chowder, chowder implies potatoes, potatoes are all you need!!! lobster chowder is redundant and obscene.

Stephen King on a lobster parade float in Maine: luxuriant lobster chowder?

David Foster Wallace: NOTHING HAPPENS at the AVN Awards. they're boring like the Oscars. did i ever win an Oscar? i should have like Spike Lee. porn is dead. that slight tingle you get in your pants every once in a while is momentary. a fleeting freckle.

George Gaynes: i feel a tightening feeling in my pants.

O.J. Simpson: let it go, conservative talk-radio host, i'm dead.

David Foster Wallace: i know, right? what a waste of the airwaves when you could put poetry on the air 24/7, let's bring poetry back...

Madame Pons smooching Takahashi in the Hillavator in Pacific Grove.

Madame Pons: no, babe, don't push the OFF button.

Takahashi: don't stall it? but i'm scared being on a Redwood tree, i need space to eat my medium-rare-plus steak.

Madame Pons: medium-rare-plus steak doesn't exist. like Darth Vader. the two of us must restore the reputation of taxicabs.

Darth Vader's voice stuck in a tree: why do you think taxicabs are zebra-checkered flags now?.........the colors of good vs. evil.........i'm good...

King Kong (1933).

Fay Wray on a boat: why do you hate me so?

Popeye wannabe: women are annoying.

Fay Wray: yeah. it's 1933 so let's just move on and talk about something else...

movie guy: nah, 'twas beauty killed the beast.

dead King Kong on the NYC sidewalk after a bit of a fall opens one eye and smiles that Nosferatu smile of his.

King Kong: now THAT's a mic drop.

at the Oscars, Billy Crystal gets wheeled out as Hannibal Lecter.

Billy Crystal: i'm sorry, Fay Wray, didn't mean to frighten you, i know you're an old lady and 100 years old.

Fay Wray: you think i'm scared of your lame act? i acted with Kong!!! KONG!!! King Kong was misunderstood. sure he smelled his fingers for my cum after grabbing my cooch, but he was just curious. do you see how LIFELIKE King Kong is in 1933? that's because a mad scientist named Ray Harryhausen or some shit breathed life into King Kong's eyes by making him stop-motion. as Seth Green can attest, stop-motion characters come to life in a crude CREEPY AS FUCK herky-jerky way. 

Seth Green: Robot Chicken would not be the success it is if we had done 3DCGI. AI can't do what we do!!!

Jen R: monastery is a commitment.

me: like marriage.

Jen: wouldn't it be more fun to be married to me?

me: yes.

Jen: but do we have a deep spiritual connection?.........that is the question...

Jen R: Ro for weight loss? after they cancelled Roe v. Wade? HELL NO. have you seen that GHASTLY Ro Stick? you stick into the flabs of your stomach. midsection malaise. like a back-alley operation...

Kirk Cousins: what up with that pick?!!! yes i throw a lot of picks...

Boc: it has to be DOWNPOURING, not drizzling, for you not to take your usual walk...

Leslie Sbrocco looks intently at a calabash gourd.

Leslie Sbrocco: i'll have one of those with a bottle of wine...

Morgan Bolling: ...

Stormy Daniels: i didn't wear a mushroom dress. you were high on mushrooms. this is a frequent occurrence on porn sets. 

Toad: ...

Stormy Daniels: i'm surprised it was you, Toad...

Jean-Luc Picard in a Mr. McFeely hat: can a man just have a diet of tea and coffee?

Jennifer Hetrick: can a woman? what would our kid have been like?

Jean-Luc: Lore before he went crazy.

Jennifer Hetrick in stamping cowboy boots: my name is Vash because my pussy is more vast than the universe...

the stomach alien from Alien: carrageenan, yeah, why do you think your milk is so damn sugary? excuse me while i spit.........i don't smoke...

Guardian Caps: we look like Chiclets...

Gemini from American Gladiators: ...

Rafa Jr.: come on, dad, let me see Challengers.

Roger Federer: no way!!! ask your mother.

Rafa Jr.: can i, mom? 

Chris Evert: yes. there's only one threesome scene. this is how Two-Lane Blacktop should have been...

Jen and i at Burning Man.

Jen R: do you hear that? i'm not vomiting.

me: just allergies?

Jen: Burning Man has an actual invisible spiritual dome over its revelers that protects them from the outside world...

Jen and i by the fire.

me: happy weekend, my babies. TOMORROW: Burger King.

Jen R: but have you ever had the Large Fries.........from Burger King?...

me: good point, babe. avert your eyes, McDonald's... 

TLAYUDAS

we're at the Destinos ranch.

Jen R: i'm here for the ranch eggs. 

Liliana Abud: why don't you try the tlayudas?

me: what are those?

Liliana Abud: see? you don't know because you never made it that far in the Destinos telecourse!!! you stopped watching at Episode 10, Episode 11 was the Oaxaca Episode!!!

me: i wanted to, believe me i wanted to watch more TV, it's not my fault, we didn't have a substitute teacher that day.

Pati Jinich bows down to Liliana Abud on a red muleta.

Pati Jinich: i'm doing that thing everyone did to Gloria Swanson on the theater balcony after the premiere of Sunset Boulevard. you are my hero, Lil!!! you were the first one to make it big in the States from Mexico.

Liliana: then why don't you wear any of my business suits, chica?!!! you can't wear cowgirl jeans forever!!!

Jen: Pepcid AC, AC stands for After Lunch in Latin? great, NOW you tell me. 

Pepsi, Where's My Jet?: ...

Jen: no salad for me thanks, my budgie Bogey is sick, raw apples you see. no milk. unless it's chocolate milk. chickpeas in soup, that's GENIUS!!! you're combining soup with salad!!! gargantuan garbanzos, por favor!!! let me check my watch, yep it's sundown and Passover and i'm your Seder seductress!!! i'm making you chraime.

me: chrome is what i need my pan in.

Jen: McDonald's Filet-o-Fish in an Italian red sauce. my tlayudas of course have to have the bitter herbs so i'm adding banana peppers. 

Rod Serling: and a dash of goldenrod from me, the Rod Man.

Larry David: i'm just here waiting to be cast in the next Woody Allen movie...

Jenny Baranick: what is non-stick? what does that actually mean? because all of my pots and pans have been non-stick and scraped to death. just make cookware out of oil.

Mel Kiper: so i'll have a special order. take the crust off breakfast pumpkin pie and put it on a pizza with NO CHEESE.

Lindy Lenz: Mel and i are getting a quickie divorce...

Carmen Dongo: don't. just don't. don't go after the name. i have a very healthy emotional spectrum, when i'm at America's Test Kitchen Christopher Kimball sees to that. i do NOT call him Chris. i'm a professional, not a professional cryer. onions don't make me cry, my mama does. my mama sold spice on the street. fuck Modelo, okay? fuck Modelo.

Jen: no more potatoes from Idaho. i'm switching to cilantro lime rice. i'll get my potatoes from Bakersfield, California, a Bakersfield baked potato that i won't be able to eat because i'll be wearing a gas mask.

me: so that's why i couldn't smell baked potatoes my whole life.

Takahashi: do NOT enter Alien Fresh Bakery from the front...

E.T.: they sell E.T. Fresh Jerky, it tastes like what happens when you don't catch your ship...

Mulder: tastes like E.T.

Scully: imagine the two of us at Starfleet...

John Candy: HAPKA!!! how are we fine folks this afternoon?

Jen: look at my sleeves.

John Candy: why do you have holes in the shape of diamonds cut into your sleeves?

Jen: to make them breathable. i'm the Queen of Diamonds, i liked Alice.

John Candy: so YOU i'm here to help?

me: please don't point at me, i'll be honest, unlike the rest of Canada i'm terrified of you. you make me scared.

John Candy: aw don't worry about it, it's just a little tlayuda, you know?

John  gets out his GIANT SHOVEL and forms a GIANT TORTILLA from a tiny ball of maize caged in his fingers. 

me: see?    

John: did you know the flour tortilla was invented in Bakersfield, California?

John is about to FLIP his monster tortilla over as he regales us with a showbiz tale.

John Candy: yeah Eddie Murphy was the biggest star in the world at that time, i did NOT appreciate him egging me on under his breath, calling me fat, the fat jokes got old fast, you know? and that was the ONLY time i EVER did SNL, too, it should have been a fete, a celebration of Canada comedy coming together with New York comedy...

Melissa Maker: matzah, maize, momentous memories. 

Trinity: that cat birthday cake was a giant ball of yarn, everyone missed that... 

*plop*

John Candy: THERE, now THAT is a tlayuda taco!!! oh and i built you a combination Taco Bell/KFC in your backyard in keeping with the tlayuda theme...

at the Berkeley encampments on the lawn.

Jen R: i came here driving a burning car. i mean protesting nowadays is a full-contact sport. why is Robocop scanning my forehead to check my ID, of COURSE i'm not a student here!!! do you see the smile on my face? i'm having FUN at school!!! because it's not art school!!!

coffee: why do you like me so much? i'm bitter...

Dutch oven: my red color.........POPS.

Shakespeare: i stopped writing. i gave myself a life vacation...

Uncle Sigh: sorry but i gotta get outta London NOW. i can't bear the Meghan Markle treatment anymore.

Queen Elizabeth: i never liked honey...

Spain: be gone, Begona!!! but leave your begonias, they were planted in Martha Stewart dirt...

by the bigscreen.

Laertus: did you see that Jamal Murray buzzer-beater?!!!

Anthony Davis: yeah, now i know what it's like to be at a Phish concert...

Takahashi: that shot swung the series!!!

The Pope: can you get that show Swing on non-pay cable?...

Swing: yes that dude's a hippie douche, but you WISH you were him...

LeBron James: Antman? what are we doing, man? what are we doing at the replay center? he should be named after a Seattle doctor...

Jane Goodall: that really was a successful Earth Day, thank you to everybody.........for doing all those things...

Stephanie Abrams: you're welcome...

Stephen A. Smith by the darts.

Stephen A. Smith: would i give up sex if it meant a Knicks championship? a Knicks ring? a Knicks CHIP?!!!.........but i already DO!!!

Molly Qerim: why are you looking at me?...

Spike Lee: *stroking chin* Stephen A. Smith in the Capital One Final Four commercials, interesting.........i guess we kick Charles Barkley out of our group...

Elon Musk: the Tesla Taxi, so you won't blame me anymore, you'll blame your driver as usual...

at Check Please: Bay Area Salinas/Seaside Edition.

Leslie Sbrocco: my tits are so close to you now...

foodie #3: i don't have a car. too expensive. but i splurge on unnecessarily expensive lunches for some reason...

at mall karate.

Takahashi: the Mitsubishi Starion, the only staring contest you'll ever win...

George Costanza with brick wallet: ...

Zack Morris: better than a brick phone in your backpocket...

Christian University of Michigan: ...

Danny Cevallos playing bar games: you take one took at me and you question your sexuality...

Hope Harrington at the Bump Trial: Janis Joplin LIVES!!!

Janis Joplin: Texas to Bakersfield, California...

Julie Patzwald: my spirit animal is a calendar wolf...

New Coke: we tried to bury the competition of Pepsi by TASTING like Pepsi. 

Pepsi, Where's My Jet?: ...

Pepsi: you can't get rid of us, we're like skin tags.

lawn sweeper outside: leaf blower.........without the noise pollution...

Beck: i'm listening.........i can hear again...

Boc: a walker in the middle of the road suddenly JAUNTS and becomes a jogger pretending he's a bike...

Safeway parking lot: meant to drive in, not to WALK in...

Eylea.

Cat Stevens: i am NOT Salman Rushdie, it would be BEYOND CRUEL to have him do this commercial...

Tony Hale: why watch your tiny TV screen while onboard a fucking Greyhound bus?!!! live in the present moment of BEING ON A GREYHOUND BUS!!!...

Progressive staircase.

boy in tux: um, is my prom date coming down these?

girl's dad: she ditched you, son.

boy in tux: it's just as well, this house gives me the creeps, it's the same house Tom Cruise was in in Risky Business...

Draymond Green: the NBA is about honor and integrity, following the rules to a man. there is no Playoff Mode of which you speak, we players play hard EACH AND EVERY NIGHT for our fans and for our families in the regular season. we can rest when we do the Olympics.

Bank of America dude: so my dog got a diploma but i still don't have one from Berkeley. not sayin just sayin. there are no student loans after puppy school, it's a quick and tight six-week program, it's like night college...

Crunch bar.

Pepsi: yeah we had to buy this airport to pay that kid with a jet...

TSAer with wand: Crunch bar? they were HUGE at Halloween in the '80s, they've completely disappeared now...

me: i'm starting to lose my nostalgia tingles again.

Jen R: fear not, old sailor, i gots the medicine. i know how much you yearn for that feeling of '80s UCLA Nok Hockey.

me: so much so i BOUGHT a Nok Hockey table for my very own use in my bedroom!!!

Jen: sure but have you done THIS?!!! WHEEL IN THE AIR HOCKEY!!!

me: OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!

Jen: your very own personal air-hockey table. 

me: let's wheel this to my garage or something, i don't think the cantina locals are digging it.

Jen: at least without cerveza. 

me: can i kiss you on the lips? at last? it would be pure ecstasy for me, you know.

Jen: instead of all that lovey-mushy stuff, how bout you beat me in air hockey and then we'll talk...

 

 

BERKELEY CITY COLLEGE: THE DREAM DIES IN STAGE DARKNESS

Jen R: they shrunk the King Size Twizzlers, i swear.

William Shakespeare: okay this is it. penultimately. 

me: why does so much of my life depend on this ONE decision?

Shakespeare: methinks thou doth protest just the right amount. tis life, kiddo.

me: i was so depressed this morning i didn't even laugh at Waldorf and Statler up there in the Lincoln balcony seats, i always get a chuckle out of those two.

Tim Burton in the booth: that's cold.

Chuck E. Cheese: rat's all, folks!!!

Shakespeare: tell you what, let me walk on it.

Boc: a brilliant idea!!! just don't walk ALL OVER the decision.

Shakespeare: i'm feeling rather peckish at the moment, famished even, last week got me all foody. you seem to know your way around this magical place, show me all the sights and sounds and smells of Downtown Berkeley, all the choice spots to eat, drink, laugh, cry, and mess with the cops. feed me down, influencer.

me: i'm not an influencer, i'm just a guy with a blog for boredom.

Boc in Zegama Nikes: trash walk, it's not what you think...

Super Mario: when i go to a pub to take a bath, i'm not expecting to take my wrench in with me. why does the pub bathtub always clog IN APRIL?

Melbourne: see that Corvette Ion Spider in the driveway? of the motel. that one is my new baby. Intratravel license plates, i can go from 0 to Canada in 60 seconds...

Boc: it wasn't a trail of trash at first...

me: so this corner used to be a Burger King, now it's a Red Lobster. as you can imagine, the rent went up. we constructed a whole new Red Lobster just for you, sensei.

Shakespeare: much obliged.

me: just don't bulldoze the Mr. Chan's next door!!!

Bell + Howell Bionic Spotlight: the entire basis for our company is that humans should NEVER come together and be as one...

Boc: you lock the door, you take your first JAUNT, you're on the cusp of beginning your walk.........and there's a small swath of cardboard in your lawn...

Michael Weiss: it's this weird thing on Instagram where you're obsessed with a girl for two days but on the third day you need to take a break, no more pictures of her.

Julia Ioffe: let's try this on Wednesday...

at that Berkeley cafe i used to take Jen P to.

Jen P: that's cold. you don't even remember the cafe's name?

me: it was so long ago.

Jen P: that's cold.

me: you know this no-soda all-water diet i'm on? i know i'm gonna be healthier, but i FEEL plain. i feel PLAIN INSIDE.

Jen R: how high with ice cubes does this cafe's icemaker need to rise before water doth flow?

Ice Cube: wanna get high?...

Berkeley bums: now the Supreme Court is invading the freedom of our sidewalk brothers up in Oregon. that's true freedom, that's what freedom really is. is no space sacred? where are the wildlands now? the wild lands untouched by a man's mind.

Chris McCandless: right? i just got back, i took the LONG way round. i wanted to get the back of my hand stamped with a rave stamp that said Alexander Supertramp but they ran out. luckily there's a Supertramp concert coming up on the first in the forest, hoping to get my wrist pierced there...

Jen R: what are you in the mood for, Chris?

Shakespeare: the nom's Bill. 

Jen R: food mood.

Shakespeare: what are those fluttering white tents? they scare me.

Jen P: organic honey made out of Allen Ginsberg's home.

Allen Ginsberg: i had the first solar panel in the world. and my bees are FIERCE flyers.

me: and that mall over there houses Saturday-morning karate taught by zebras. 

Shakespeare: zebras as animals? 

Jen R: no, like Regular Show zebra people who talk. and kick and punch and meditate. 

Jen P: ready for the natural steam baths atop our only mountain above Strawberry Creek?

Shakespeare: i knew the Japanese aesthetic would eventually land here so we could all cum underwater in hot bubbles. Sakespeare. but why do they call this spot The Steam Rooms?

Jen R: i can't hate this time, you have me beat here, you will ALWAYS look better in a bikini than i ever will.

Jen P: thanks, babe. for the next man i guess.

Jen R: try a woman.

Jen P: the Steams are getting a facelift?

Jen R: the rooms are so the steam will give everyone a facelift. on their face.

Salman Rushdie: was Allen Ginsberg my long-lost brother?...

me: what's your favorite thing about Taco Bell?

Jen P: when the melted cheese sticks to your taco wrapper preventing you from lifting the taco from the wrapper so you can eat said taco.

Jen R: you can park your bike INSIDE...

at the cafe.

waiter: delighted to make your acquaintance!!!

Jen R: isn't that a coffee creamer? yeah i like Deee-Lite, too.

Lady Miss Kier: ...

Jen R: what happened to boas, ya feel me, girl? i dance like you in the shower pretending i'm a stripper.

Lady Miss Kier: our biggest gig ever was the Carmen Sandiego game show on PBS...

Madame Pons in the wind.

Madame Pons: soda substitute? try kombucha served at LUSH even though we are not a cafe...

Kirsten Dunst on the Berkeley stage eating a plum tart: i'm one of the grandest actresses there is. and yet if i could put one TV show on an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind loop, it would be The Bachelor...

Bill Withers underground in a dingy downstairs punk club: ain't no sunshine when she's gone. i didn't see sunshine for nine months building toilets for the 747 in Washington, D.C. here's a bright idea: stillsuits aboard electric planes...

apple-cider vinegar: it itches. it's kosher. it won't get rid of skin tags. good for Halloween salads...

Boc: THIS is what i like, the weather is such that i have to TAKE OFF my sweatshirt...

hardboiled egg: so hard, so tasteless, not spongy or light or airy at all.

Doryce: like me, i'm not fluffy.

April: springy only in Spring...

Doryce: and in my bed in December.

Gladyce: i'm airy.........in the good way...

Julia Ioffe: it's just Instagram, it doesn't mean anything.

Michael Weiss: i'm finding that out the hard way...

Ninja Kamui: that climbing-up-stairs kick is so cool.

Bruce Lee: i invented that kick 100 years ago...

Muscle Man from Regular Show: MY MOM beat you once at karate, sir.

Bruce Lee: i remember you two at the mall, your harried mom kept continually berating you in public, calling you a bitch, calling you Mitch the Bitch, you were acting up like a kid on Ritalin but still. 

Muscle Man, crying: my mom has problems.

Bruce Lee: want me to move in with you guys?

me: soda substitute?

Jen P: LITERALLY drink the Kool-Aid...

Donna Evans from Storybook International on a forest stage in the woods: i'm one of the most beautiful women who ever lived. 

Elizabeth Taylor in the eaves covered in eggshells: but i had a better booking agent than you, toots...

Ear Horn looks at Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor: i mean dearie...

Strawberry Shortcake: if you put the frozen strawberries in the refrigerator, they turn into a red glacier...

Titanic: ...

Jim Belushi leaning against college lockers: i had the greatest life plan ever: carry on in Hollywood, my career was in memory of my brother John. whenever someone saw me on TV, they'd think of John Belushi.

John Belushi: life mission. look at my face, am i getting zits again?...

Boc: my walking is LIGHT exercise, like John Candy...

foamy firefighter: we need better solutions, both meanings...

RFK Jr. giving a lecture on campus: i will NEVER be as cool as Ross Perot...

Boc: The Barnyard has become my personal park.

seagulls: we're squawking like banshees, we're scared of the cicadas. the impending cicadas.

turtle: that isn't a poo, it's my cousin. he looks like a poo-shaped leaf...

Martin Scorsese singing: he ain't heavy, he's my brother.........who's heavy poo like Marvel.

Marvel: and you're light poo. we're brothers-in-arms no matter what but you're a small man...

Ana de Armas: i mean if Marvel calls...

on a stage decked out and blocked to be a courtroom.

Sam Waterston: do you like my understated acting on Law & Order? because TV-lawyer histrionics would never go on in a real Manhattan courtroom while the witness was speaking...

witness: *wink wink*

Red Panda at the Warriors game: when i twirl these bowls on top of my head in a pile, i wear the pants in my family. by not wearing pants. by wearing a sequined skirt and heels. imagine an acrobat's sex life...

Red Panda's husband White Panda: if this is Rong i don't wanna be right...

basement bar at a frat: see? some basements CAN be cool...

we're all at the Red Lobster.

Jen R: spill it, teach. 

Jen P: you mean muse

Shakespeare: alright alright alright. my belly is full and sated though i didn't consume actual food, i et but 10 Twizzlers and a half-drunk can of beer from a drunk on the dirty sidewalk. that's gotta be illegal. the streets here make me cry. 

i start to shimmy and shake and sweat.

Shakespeare: your letter grade is.........P.

Jen P: ...

me: so the whole time it was Pass/Fail?!!!

Shakespeare: no, P is the letter grade on an A-F scale. that makes me laugh.

me: what does it stand for? what does it signify? how should i be feeling at this gone moment?

Shakespeare: and i'm giving you a D.

me: DP? i don't like where this is going...

Jen R: this is turning into OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL if you know what i mean...

Jen P: yep. it's only four years of sexual humiliation and then you're free to be a lifelong career woman... 

Shakespeare: wait which woman did you choose?!!!

i quickly dip my Cheddar Bay biscuits into a Chinese teacup full of gochujang sauce i ferried over from Mr. Chan's next door.

Shakespeare: OH COME ON!!!

 

DUNE: PICARD WITH PUG

 

Jen R: pitted olives can mean olives WITH pits and WITHOUT pits.........think about it...

me: you're the most important thing ever to happen to me.

Jen: heavy. wow. 

me: i hope you always remember that.

Jen: heavy stuff. that's more like mother/son stuff, you know?...

Jen: what's the rush?

me: our quinoa date. i'm racing over to your yellow atelier. on foot. this corner?

Jen: that's tea-stained atelier. burned at the edges and corners to give it that old-timey paper look.

devil comet: worry not, my religious brethren, it's all science and ordinary.

Codrus: that's what we WANT you to think.

Carl Sagan: the weird thing is i look like a Catholic priest...

Greykid: i'm getting a face tattoo to make myself look like a Birman.

Mike Tyson: ...

Greykid: i'm gonna go through the cat door in the front door to Karl Lagerfeld's mansion to swing by and cheer up old Karl after his beloved Choupette died. 

Mike Tyson: i'm done with boxing. next up: temple priest...

at Wild Fish restaurant in Pacific Grove.

Madame Pons: so the Love Canal Disaster was something about not getting an orgasm.

Takahashi: using chemicals on Earth the wrong way. 

Jen: New York, amirite?

Doryce: superannuations are gilfs.

Bustamante: my Paiute people will rise again!!! 

El Hormiguero: the Spanish Bill Nye, the host was on SNL in Mexico...

Shoreditch office: where the REAL The Office UK papers company is...

Talia the cat: i like Funyuns.

tea tree oil: it needs to be on the thumb.........the back of the thumb, not the fore of the thumb...

going cold turkey on soda: drink cold water, not sugar water...

Whole Hog Cafe: no way on EARTH is this The Good Earth restaurant from the '80s!!!

Elizabeth Taylor: imagine BEING FORCED TO WATCH Raintree County...

Michael Jackson: hey all the pot shops and cannabis counters in Seaside are closed...

Bob Hearts Abishola: great show, IMPOSSIBLE to type online...

Seton Hall: yeah Anderson Cooper played for our Wiffleball team in the '90s...

Chris D: Chris Di.

Princess Diana: ...

Chris Diamantopoulos: learn it, love it, put it in a gyro.

Michael Weiss: i won't be your clown show anymore!!! stop gawking at me!!! thus i have quietly stopped posting on Instagram...

Jacques Pepin: you thought only YOU knew the word bedraggled. but i know the word bedraggled...

Claudine Pepin: oh yeah, the arugula at Berkeley...

Carl Sagan: i miss red marker circles all over my blueprints...

John Michael Talbot: when you're a country-rock guitar god like me, you get to have a wife while being a monk. monk wife. i am beard goals. my name sounds like tabernacle Eucharist and table wine, that's a good lunch. for the record, Codrus is an asshole, Cotard's nice, and Minster's funny as fuck.

motherhouse: where Fuerza and The Pope live and fuck.

Galan: i'm a witch from El Salvador. no worries. 

bum in the middle of the freeway intersection: another day, another dollar...

Mardith: how does one find their spirit animal?

Tai: a LOT of Morning Meditations. but watch out for that trickster fox spirit...

Julie Patzwald: my spirit animal is the fox who got his after that whale ate Donkey Pinocchio.

at the mall.

Eye Luggage: what are you seeing?

Julie Patzwald: the eternal Bored vs. Busy seesaw pendulum. at See's Candies. and Grape Scope mouthwash.

Bustamante: i've been shoveled at Shakey's.

Julie Patzwald: pizza kilns emit harmonic rings of fire.

Trinity, Talia, and Snowball: we're gonna combine our cat magicks and SAVE MALLEE MAKER!!!

Mallee Maker: thanks, my cat dinner guests, i felt those heal vibes on my Birman face. i'm named after a famous French new-wave lawn-croquet documentary director...

gorgeous char: when you fry eggs in a Dutch oven...

Morgan Bolling: i'm a gorgeous character, a gorgeous real-life anime character, look at my Alita eyes!!!...

Nashville, Tennessee: our smudge ain't that churchless Wiccan smudge, our smudge is smudge from handling a newspaper about gas and oil...

propane: ask Hank Hill, he's the King of this country, somehow propane is better than electric...

Sophie Scholl: i fought for Anne Frank.

Anne Frank: sometimes life is the only school you get.

Olympics: OOOH, we thought we were making SALAD kits...

lost episode of Family Ties.

Mallory: i'm not your daughter. and i'm not being a moody teenager.

Meredith Baxter-Birney: then who is?

Mallory in cowboy boots: Boots Mallory.

Meredith Baxter-Birney: this is so Lifetime Movie.

Snake from Degrassi: skin tags, they're like popping zits, it can get messy...

Mardith: MR

Madame Pons: Mr. Right?

Mardith: Mercury Retrograde. 

Madame Pons: isn't it time at your age to settle down with Mr. Right, spirit daughter? look at me, look at my face, it's too late for me...

Gatorade Fit: everybody, move your feet and feel united, oh oh oh, Vince Lombardi, move your feet and feel united, oh oh oh...

sillage: woke and desirable.

Eye Luggage: Dune and go.

David Lynch: i'll keep quiet. 

Alejandro Jodorowsky: people forget i didn't actually FINISH MY Dune.

David Lynch: yeah. i went over to Blockbuster with my Blockbuster Card to get your Dune VHS tape cassette but the nice pimpled boy in the front said they didn't have it. at this time. they didn't carry it. because it never existed.

Alejandro Jodorowsky: if it wasn't for my Dune, there would be no Alien franchise...

David Lynch: first order of business, throw away ALL the Zardoz props...

Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn: do we dine at this dune?... 

David Lynch: i got sand in my pants. sand in my shorts...

E.Z. Taylor: can you surf Spice?

David Lynch: so this is Star Wars for adults. but shouldn't space opera have more sex? more graphic sex?

Harrison Ford: imagine if Star Wars was Rated R...

Carrie Fisher: i don't WANNA imagine that!!!

Toto: Toto and Sting, a match made in space heaven, it's like Bowie and Eno...

space: if it's space, it's synth...

Kyle MacLachlan: i'm new to the film business.

David Lynch: stick with me, kid...

Kyle MacLachlan: this is why i was so EAGER AND EBULLIENT as Paul Atreides at the start of this film, i'm ready to get this acting thing started!!!

David Lynch: and friendly. i'm not used to friendly.

David Lynch: so the Spice stuff is cocaine. obviously. this is the '80s.

Frank Herbert: psilocybin, i was shrooming it up a storm with Alan Watts in his mushroom pod house.

melange: a mix. with Sunny D or something.

prescience: foreknowledge, insight, the science before science.........magic...

Virginia Madsen: i'm the head at the beginning of this film. hey Channing Tatum, when are you going to also adapt The Head on MTV into a feature film?

the year 10,191: just to make sure...

Patrick Stewart: it's weird having Picard be an underling. snorting Spice is a way better way to interstellar travel than the transporter aboard a starship, one hit and you've traveled light years!!! these aren't lightsabers, these knives will inflict a Tron cube on your opponent...

Codrus: the Bene Gesserit, now THOSE are hot nuns!!!

Francesca Annis drinking orange juice: you see, this is the crux of life, which is hard, when you get older it's almost impossible to find a life partner again. if i find one, it's for the BETTER to share your life with someone.

me: THANK YOU!!! FINALLY someone speaks the truth!!! you can't live this life alone!!! the whole You Are Enough thing is bollocks!!!

Mandisa: i speak truth about life the way Anthony Bourdain did. Christianity is not a strong enough shield. it's not easy to go back once God has betrayed you. you are so scared that it's all just nothing, terrified of that thought, that nihilistic notion, you don't want to go there. but in the back of your mind.........this is real talk, people. real life, folks.

Reverend Mother: why'd you bear a son instead of a daughter?

Francesca: the sex with his father was EXTRA kinky, i couldn't help it. we used '70s beads in space. don't worry, he'll star in The Bear and be loved by the next generation of daughters.

Reverend Mother: ready for the test?

Paul Atreides: yes.

Reverend Mother: stick your hand in my box.

Lorne Michaels: it's not the SNL box with the dick.

Paul: is this the lion coin thing? are you old Audrey Hepburn?

Audrey Hepburn: i never got old...

Reverend Mother: your hand is being melted off by nuclear waste. your hand is being cut off by Jackie Chan.

Paul: nah, Jackie Chan is too nice for that. 

Reverend Mother: where is your hand now?

Paul: it's with the cut ear David Lynch has in his trailer.

Reverend Mother: it's all in your head.

Paul: that makes sense, Kwisatz Haderach can't be a real thing.

giant sandworms: where's Michael Gross? we're obviously metaphors for wanting a big penis but not having a big penis. are we one with the Spice? we ARE the Spice!!! we're Spice Worms. not to be confused with the Spice Girls...

King Kong: did i kill you worms, too?...

Paul: yeah so the stillsuit here, you can survive in the desert for 200 years if you drink your own pee through this tube.

Fremen leader: THIS PROVES HE'S OUR MESSIAH!!!

Paul: you're cute. i've seen you in my dream.

Sean Young: nice line, you got game. i bet you say that to all the girls. i'm Chani the chola and i'm into Fremen firemen.

Paul: why are your eyes blue?

Sean Young: i drank a lot of Windex as a kid. Puck was my younger brother. i was in EVERY risky sci-fi venture of the early '80s...

Duncan Idaho: are you filming this on a potato? expensive cheap-looking space sets. i need the Toto beard to cover up my John Davidson face...

Boc: what a disgusting display having the symbol of gayness and AIDS in the '80s be this repulsive villain with pustules all over his face. the nonchalant sexual assault on screen is shocking.

Baron Harkonnen: can anybody here recommend a good acne cream?

Snake from Degrassi: ...

Baron Harkonnen: why am i the only person in this universe who can float?...

Baron Harkonnen: these aren't harsh conditions, i was on the Rhoda set...

Brad Dourif: i have triangle hair, i look like a Rocky Horror reject...

Brad Dourif: Piter De Vries, my son was on Star Trek: The Next Generation...

Mentat: like gum.

Roger Eno: i'm a monk now...

Sting: like my codpiece? you thought i'd be wearing this same codpiece during my climactic battle with Paul at the end, huh? everyone was disappointed about that...

Linda Hunt: yeah these spies are the same Star Wars flying balls, not the Spaceballs balls.

Paul: you have a creepy crone look. like you're the matriarch of a bunch of dwarfs.

Linda: that's what all nuns are, double agents. we hunt space magicks.

Doryce: Paul you are the young man of my dreams but you are unattainable...

Woody Allen: weirding module, so it's a sex machine, a sex booth...

Jared Leto: has anyone seen Leto? wait i'm in the wrong movie...

Sean Young: i know, this is confusing, right?...

Paul's dad: come closer, Baron, i want to kiss your angelic lips with my German mouth.

Baron Harkonnen: your breath stinks. and you want to be a dentist? pipe dream, tell your folks. i feel PINK and stink, alive at five, like a TMNT villain. clever, putting a bomb in a tooth...

Paul and Francesca spelunking down the endless caves...

Francesca: this is getting Oedipal...

Paul: do you find me attractive, mom?

Francesca: maybe when you looked like Cillian Murphy...

sietch: a community stitched together by ideas, not color.

Paul: i am Muad'Dib for i enjoy doing Mad Libs with my pencil. i get first dibs at Bea Arthur. 

Bea Arthur: maybe when you looked like Frank Sinatra. or Pee-wee Herman.

Trent Reznor: ...

Trent Reznor: i liked Dorothy's ex-husband Stanley.

Francesca: so you're saying if i drink this Fiji Water childbirth will be a breeze from now on and i'll get Terrence Malick for a husband, a husband who will BE THERE for me!!! and the kids. 

Alia: my cat is Talia...

pug: so my name is Daryl. i'm meant to show the Atreides family as Renaissance rulers from space. Space Europe. they traded space kingdoms for a pack of Garbage Pail Kids cards. can a dog get some Fiji Water?...

sandworms: Spice is our poo.

Paul: in keeping with the stillsuits...

Chani: how did you come to our desert planet?

Paul: i slept with Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" playing in my mind...

Chani: is there any way off this desert planet? i'm not wearing the Leia chains...

Paul: trip on shrooms whilst eating Golden Grahams cereal. i started mind-traveling after eating pickles and before i knew it one of the Dune characters was a giant pickle in a jar...

dad: this Dune 1984 film takes me back to reading sci-fi paperbacks in my den in the '80s eating nothing but Thrifty square ice cream on a card table...

the Beast: having my cut head there in the middle of the shot on screen is just silly, i love this film.

Alicia Witt: for a little kid like me to have to say the word Kwisatz Haderach, that deserved hazard pay.

David Lynch: and here come the MEMES!!!...

David Lynch: Kwisatz Haderach, give a dog a bone, this old man is going home...

Laertus: oh the end credits tho, they're the most beautiful end credits in film history. the actors gently breathing looking at you with plaintive eyes.

Eye Luggage: i know, right? they're so ethereal, so dreamy, so watery, in a lucid dream by the sea, Vangelis music nipping at your earlobes...

David Lynch: doing the whole internal-monologue thing saved a FUCKLOAD on money. g'night folks.

me by the fire. a fire in a fireplace inside one of those Dune interstellar spaceship things. with gold Spice wisps coming off the flames.

Jen R: Burger King?

me: Burger King. happy weekend.

Jen: Burger King had the Dune 1984 toys!!!