So secretly I'd been looking forward to seeing 30 Rockefeller Center not just because I have a crush on Tina Fey but hey, if that's not enough reason then let's settle simply with the history of NBC. I grew up on NBC. Preferring it, as I did back then McDonald's over Burger King, privately enjoying its number one status. I always saw ABC as an underdog, and therefore couldn't help but root for, with its too-blue colouring. In any case, I'd been looking forward to attending a taping of the Conan show the minute it occurred to me as a possibility. Well, to be truthful, I think the first time the idea occurred to me, I was probably watching the show at 21 or something, wishing I'd one day go to tapings like Conan's. And so there we were, on Tuesday afternoon, and I forgot the e-mail printout at home. We needed it to get in. ¶ Now Pauline is much better at this sort of forgiveness than me. Generally, I'd be angered if Pauline "forgot the printout at home." But there we were: I'd screwed up and Pauline was cool with it. We could print it again, after all, we just needed to find a FexEx Kinkos. If you were to have told me, at, again, 21, that Kinkos would still be in my life some ten years later, I would have laughed a plenty. To me they just coasted on the scene, haven't been challenged, suck, and without any good reason, continue to grow. You know? Anyway, I guess they aren't that bad, because they did save us that day. ¶ Getting to the actual studio where The Late Show with Conan O'Brien is taped is a pain in the ass. NBC understands this, which is cool; Security is a necessary evil when you consider what a fool might do. But it's also a pain because you're lining up on the concourse level of what is essentially just another office tower with lots of people working, eating sushi in the food court, and pissed off at all the gawking tourists (present!). ¶ The NBC pages are as friendly as you might imagine an NBC staff to be (Kenneth!). Not overly friendly, but definitely friendly, and on top of things. I like that. I like seeing people on top of things. It gives me confidence because it's reassurance that we're ultimately the best species ever (art!). This is largely what is becoming my lasting impression of New Yorkers. ¶ There are a pair of free XL "audience member" t-shirts waiting for us as we exit what feels like the second elevator in this process and they win me over. We're seated very near to the front. An enviable seat. The kind one almost never gets. There's a best-of DVD that plays and it does warm us up. It certainly caught me up as I've sadly become a lax viewer. The old bits are still funny and the newer bits are as well. There's still a vibrancy at and to the show, that's for sure. Conan O'Brien is a consummate professional, of this there is no doubt. That's probably my clearest and meatiest impression of the show.

Labels: Heroes, Nostalgia, NYC

¶ 10:54 PM
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