Birthday, et al.

I'd like to give a recount of my birthday, which ended up really being a good one. As some of us know, I turned 21 on last wednesday. Thanks, Casey, for the online birthday wishes. Also, thanks to John Albanese for the online birthday wishes as a response to Casey's.

On Wednesday, I skipped 2 classes (Masterpieces of Western Art & Architecture, Intro to Symbolic Logic) in order to go to see a live taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. 2 friends of mine and I arrived at 30 Rockefellar Plaza in midtown Manhattan, already in a huge state of excitement. We presented our ticket reservation email and recieved 3 "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" wristbands and 3 paper tickets. We then had to wait for an hour, and then got ushered into a complex system of waiting areas under the auspices of a bunch of NBC pages. This was the worst part of the birthday weekend.

We finally made it into the studio, which was really something. I managed to score a seat on the aisle about 3/4 of the way up, which was a prime location. The show began with a "warm-up" comedian who was OK. Then Conan O'Brien came out and really got the crowd riled up by dancing with this one old guy in the audience in a really outrageous manner. Then the taping began. It was a VERY good show, and I don't think I'm just saying that because I was there in the studio. They had a bit about a 2 audience members who got "seat upgrades" into these seats on the stage where there were seat massagers, larger size seats, a curtain separating them from "coach", and a bunch of other funny gags. Then Conan interviewed Billy Bob Thornton, who was really folksy and talked, among other things, about how he came from a poor family in the South. Then, for the second bit, they had researched this girl's myspace website prior to the show, and they did a piece where the deconstructed it and analyzed it and made fun of it. The highlight of this bit was when James Lipton from "Inside the Actor's Studio" came out to read an excerpt from her myspace blog about how she saw Bill Clinton on the street one day. Then Conan interviewed Mr. T, who was really outrageous and talked, among other things, about his catch phrase "I pity the fool." Then a country band played a song.

I almost forgot to mention Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7. They truly are the greatest band in television. They rocked out during commercial breaks and kept the energy up for the crowd.

After the taping was over, Conan thanked the audience, and we left on the elevator to the Rockefellar lobby. When we got out of the elevator, Mr. T was there taking pictures with people, so I got a picture with him before he got into his limousine and travelled away. Also, James Lipton was exiting the building but he was eclipsed by Mr. T's presence so only an NBC security guard was taking a picture with Lipton.

After the show, I decided to try alcohol at a restaurant called Applebee's. My friends thought it was a trashy place to get my first drink, but I insisted. They bought me a $12.50 glass of Makers Mark bourbon on the rocks and an order of mozzarella sticks.

Then the rest of the weekend was filled with other activities, e.g. going to a party at Rachel, Lauren, and Kate's apartment, going out to dinner with friends, an improv show, etc.

In other news, I've been enjoying my classes a lot. Some of the authors and texts I've been enjoying are: Plato, Aristotle, Sergei Eisenstein, Hugo Munsterberg, Franz Kafka, The Baghavad Gita, The Rig Veda, and The Upanishads.