Apollo! Apollo!

**soundtrack to this post: The Head and the Heart - Lost in My Mind  -- right click & open in new tab **


**note: this was in fact last week's entry which I decided to postpone posting until I watched Apollo! Apollo! again or finished reading Bossypants.  About halfway through Bossypants...so....**

Not a 30 rock fan?  Let me start by saying get your life together - buy a Netflix subscription with instant viewing and figure it out.  You can thank me later.

Now that that's out of the way...exciting news!  This past week, I spontaneously attended a "Talk with Tina Fey and Steve Martin" promoting Tina Fey's new book - Bossypants.

To those of you in California interested in buying said book, be forewarned that Borders has pretty much died across our great state because as of the beginning of last week, nobody had given ME the memo!  The night before the "talk" I typed Borders into my GPS and drove to three separate abandoned buildings in sketchy neighborhoods (Compton, I'm looking at you) and slowly came to the realization at the third building that it couldn't be a coincidence all these GPS Borders locations were dead-ends...

My powers of deduction amaze even me sometimes.

So that's how I ended up at Nokia Theatre Tuesday night bookless while surrounded by 4,999 other fans who had the foresight to not only buy but READ Tina's new book.  I was looking pretty lame with my copy of Anne Lamot's Bird by Bird that I bought after my high school graduation because Tina Fey praised it non-stop.  That's right all you fans who think you're better than me!  She was my graduation speaker and that's a bond that goes deep! BAM!

But I'll get back to that....  As for the main event - it was great!  Reminded me of when I went with my mom to an event at Radio City Music Hall a few years back where John Irving, Stephen King, and JK Rowling all read excerpts of their work...pretty amazing.  Just fun to be in a space like that with readers ... what I'd like to think of as a special type of fan.  

Read what LA times had to say on the event HERE.

Then there was the audience Q&A session at the end of Steve & Tina's witty banter where one fan asked the inevitable question of what Tina's favorite 30 Rock episode is.  I swear to god as soon as I heard the question  all I could think was "Apollo! Apollo!" Am I psychic?  Well, Tina Fey stating Apollo! Apollo! is her favorite episode 5 seconds later would suggest so, so YES!  I am definitively psychic. 

So why Apollo! Apollo! ?  It is not my favorite episode despite it having the typical crazy ties to my life which keep me watching 30 rock -- friendcest, 24 references, Liz failing to take up running... But having said that, the episode is great in that it's arc focuses around Alec Baldwin's character throwing a 50th birthday bash for himself and finding an old video of himself opening birthday presents as a boy and getting so excited over his birthday gift that he vomits.  Determined to find out what the gift is, buy it, and be that happy again he has experts come in to decipher the video and it's finally a deaf woman who identifies what Jack's saying as "Apollo! Apollo!" (Click here for proof I'm not lying) See, the gift was a Apollo rocket ship figurine.

Boring plot summary aside, I do love this episode in it's own way because it's about recapturing the wonder and joy you had as a child.  Now...I have an AMAZING photo of myself on the steps of the MET wedged between my sister Steele and best friend at the time Emily Baldwin where I must be about 6 or 7 and have this REDICULOUS look on my face like I'm so excited I'm going to vomit (or start "lizzing").  That has never in fact happened to me but I think it's the closest I ever came to it.  So while I couldn't find THAT photo for this blog, dear readers, the below photo - my favorite family portrait - is a close second:

This is the one photo I have framed in my apt that I take with me wherever I go whenever I travel.  I have NO idea what Steele and I are doing (other than totally rocking our hipster p-jam matching sets)  but it's amazing.  I also love this photo because it proves that I'm a natural blonde.

Rewatching Apollo! Apollo! reminded me of the things which still keep me this happy and connected to my younger self through the years.  Between re-watching the episode and reading my amazing signed copy of Bossypants (that Tina signed post-the event) and bonding with Steele over it (she finished the book in like a day and has already given away all the funny parts)  I have felt pretty content this past week.

Thank you new iphone and your LiveNation app for finding that Nokia Theatre event for me.  I love you now more than ever even if I still don't quite know how to use you as an actual phone.

CTOWN OUT!