Day at The Daily Show

We've been fans of the Daily Show since way back when it was hosted by Craig Kilborn - before he got weird and moved on to host The Late Late Show. Back in the day when their tag was "When news break, we fix it." So it was really fun to get to go see a taping of the show last Thursday.

It all began with waiting in line for a couple of hours, being entertained by our fellow in-line-standers. People our age, not old tourists from Arkansas like the type you see in line at Letterman. There were some aging hippies, 20-something hipsters, 30-somethings playing hooky from work, and generally no one that stood out as someone who lives outside the tri-state area.

After our obligatory wait in line, we were led into what appeared to be a black box theater with a facsimile of the set of the TV show. It was fairly small and charmingly low rent. I suppose when Jon Stewart jokes that Comedy Central is cheap, he is not exaggerating all that much. The feel of the place is more community access than late night talk show.

We were joking that the guest would probably be some former government worker who has written a book, based on the fact that the guest the night before was Neil Young. Sure enough, it was some guy who was fired from a government job for writing a book critical of the administration.

The show was fun. Before taping began, Stewart came out for a Q&A with the audience. He answered questions ranging from hosting the Oscars ("the goodie bags are unbelievable. You get certificates for lots of stuff, plus you get to choose one production assistant that they will kill and stuff in the bag for you") and hair styling ("This? Do you think someone would do this to me? Of course I do my own hair") to whether he changes diapers at night ("Well, no. I usually wear flannels instead.")

After the show we just so happen to walk by a little Brazilian restaurant on 9th Avenue, "Rice'n'Beans" and figured it would be a good mom's cooking. The place is a hole in the wall and it's hard to even put your coat on without bumping into anything. I want to go back sometime and try the Bacalhau, a staple of Brazilian cuisine that I've never tried, even though I grew up there. My mom refused to allow it in the house because it smells really bad when you cook it - it's dried salted cod, so you picture the foul odor of dry fish. Yummy!

We rounded up our evening out with a drink at the Boxer Bar in the Village. We had to kill sometime because the trains on the North East Corridor (that's Jersey if you're not from around here) were not running. Somebody decided to end it all by jumping in the front of the 7:29 to Trenton. It was about 12:30 am by the time we finally made it home. Didn't get to watch ourselves on TV, but that's OK. We'll be back.

Musings on TV

Consistent with my leaning towards becoming either a professional slob or a full time bum (I haven't decided on which yet, lots to consider and frankly it just takes too much effort), I flipped on the telly. Since I'm not working right now, I no longer have to pretend to work by surfing the web. I can simply let my brain slowly turn to goo by watching television.

To my surprise, NBC was showing a bull riding competition. It's wasn't like what you'd expect of a rodeo. This was in some sort of arena filled with an awful lot of people, not off on a ranch or anything like that. They even had the commentators; you know those who profess to know what was going on in the mind of the rider, just like they do with other spectator sports.

Perhaps calling bull riding a sport is a bit of a stretch. Seems to me to be more like a skill like bowling, except with much higher stakes since the most extreme bowling injury pales in comparison to having your head pounced on by a very angry bull. But who am I to bash any kind of activity, sporting or otherwise, in which my people give all the other participants a run for their money? It's not often that Brazilians dominate a sport or, um, activity, whatever you call it.

Regardless, I still don't understand why bull riding is on TV. In fact, I don't understand why a lot of stuff is on TV. I suppose no one does, really. Maybe the thing with bull riding has to do with watching people fall off - which they inevitably do, usually in less than eight seconds.

I also don't know why people enjoy others falling, crashing or otherwise injuring if not their bodies, certainly their egos before thousands of seemingly adoring fans. Take figure skating for example. I don't particularly care to watch it, unless the contestants fall down a lot. It makes it far more entertaining than a flawless triple lux or whatever they call the flippy jumpy thing.

I'm not sure who watches most of the crap that is on TV. The though of having to sit through a rose ceremony of the Bachelor makes me want to vomit... bull riding seems like a culturally sensible alternative by comparison. And that is so very sad. Thankfully, my local library has an absolutely amazing collection of documentaries on DVD. I'm about half way through what they have available. I may be going though a couch potato phase, but at least I can say I'm learning something....