A Near Brush With Hollywood
My bicycle commute to campus today was interrupted and lengthened because the bike path that I take through a mangrove swamp to get to school was blocked off due to the area being used by the television show "Burn Notice" for filming. I dropped an f-bomb on cop, but luckily it was a thoroughly exasperated outburst, not angry or staccato at all, but more like Eeyore. Plus I said it like "Fuck-oops! It's hot out here." The cop didn't seem to mind, then very politely explained to me the situation. I asked if I could just be in "Burn Notice" instead, but that was a no-go. Not that adding an extra mileandahalf to my bike ride was all that painful--it was actually relatively mild out today (only the upper 80s, not quite as humid).
But once I got here to school, I looked up "Burn Notice," 'cause I guess it's one of those shows, like CSI:Miami, or the old Miami Vice, that takes place in Miami, but doesn't haven't the helpful "Miami" in the title. Or maybe, it was just passing through Miami this week. Who knows (I didn't look like looking any more fully into it (notice also, the lack of links to Burn-Notice-information-having webpages)). But, sadly, it turns out that Bruce Campbell is in Burn Notice! Damn. I should busted through that barrier, gotten a chance to meet him.
He gave a talk at CMU once, which I attended, but I didn't have a chance to stand in the autograph line to meet him (I had to go to Horn Choir or something similiar). My friends though, rather (anecdotally) famously, got Bruce (his talk was super entertaining, also, by the way) to sign a gas-station picture of Jesus and my friend Brett's copy of the DVD of the movie Willow--particularly funny because Bruce Campbell wasn't in Willow (and also, my friend Nick said his name was Dick, so Bruce signed the DVD with the phrase "Hey Dick" on there as well). Super guy, that Bruce. Wish I coulda, like, sweatily biked right past him.
My hope now is that, for the sake of the show, they decided to upgrade the path into some higher level of awesomeness (I'm holding out for an improved walkway across one of the two outlets from the swamp to the bay). ("Holding out" seems like the wrong phrase--more suitable for Scott Boras clients--what do I mean?)
But once I got here to school, I looked up "Burn Notice," 'cause I guess it's one of those shows, like CSI:Miami, or the old Miami Vice, that takes place in Miami, but doesn't haven't the helpful "Miami" in the title. Or maybe, it was just passing through Miami this week. Who knows (I didn't look like looking any more fully into it (notice also, the lack of links to Burn-Notice-information-having webpages)). But, sadly, it turns out that Bruce Campbell is in Burn Notice! Damn. I should busted through that barrier, gotten a chance to meet him.
He gave a talk at CMU once, which I attended, but I didn't have a chance to stand in the autograph line to meet him (I had to go to Horn Choir or something similiar). My friends though, rather (anecdotally) famously, got Bruce (his talk was super entertaining, also, by the way) to sign a gas-station picture of Jesus and my friend Brett's copy of the DVD of the movie Willow--particularly funny because Bruce Campbell wasn't in Willow (and also, my friend Nick said his name was Dick, so Bruce signed the DVD with the phrase "Hey Dick" on there as well). Super guy, that Bruce. Wish I coulda, like, sweatily biked right past him.
My hope now is that, for the sake of the show, they decided to upgrade the path into some higher level of awesomeness (I'm holding out for an improved walkway across one of the two outlets from the swamp to the bay). ("Holding out" seems like the wrong phrase--more suitable for Scott Boras clients--what do I mean?)
3 Comments:
Well, I'm glad you turned back, since while "tased in back by cop while bicycling through mangrove swamp towards Bruce Campbell" seems like the core of a good story, it also seems potentially injurious.
I think the real takeaway from your experience is that swearing like Eeyore is a hilarious concept.
I'm actually a big fan of Burn Notice, or at least the season and a half I watched on Hulu before they started getting weird about what episodes were available. It reminds me a lot of classic 80s TV shows like MacGyver and the A-Team in that the main character basically has a "mission" to accomplish each week (generally a good deed he reluctantly performs for free because he's a softie), which he neatly wraps up by the end of each episode while psuedo-educating the viewer about the finer points of modern spy-craft. There is an overarching plot involving government cover-ups and his love life, but unlike much of modern television, which Nate has heard me rail against, it generally doesn't feel the need to get too dark or worry too much about character development, but is instead happy to fill its proper role as episodic entertainment. And Bruce Campbell is quite good as his sidekick.
I was reflecting on meeting Bruce Campbell the other day. Really, I was just thinking about how odd it was that I had him sign that Jesus picture, which I later disassembled and used the glass, which Campbell signed, to frame a glossy photo of him I purchased on eBay. As soon as I brought the picture home, I kept thinking "Why the hell did I have him sign the glass? What if the picture falls off of the wall?"
I wonder where the Willow DVD is ... We definitely did our best to confuse Bruce Campbell that day. ("But I wasn't in Willow ..." "Just sign it.")
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