[ Post a Response | EVEN DeepER Blurting! ]
Posted by Kenneth Morgan
on 6/15/2009, 8:52 pm, in reply to "The Outside Stuff: Week 34"
This time, Kenneth Morgan has a good time in Philadelphia, even without cheesesteak.
*****
As the sort-of, self-appointed travellin’ man of DBNS, I end up having to write to you about all the places I go that are even vaguely connected with MST3K. This year, though, I ran into a couple of problems, both of which are outside of my control. First, the U.S. economy had a few, shall we say, unpleasant things happen to it of late. Second, my boss made some rather unwelcome adjustments to my salary level. (Don’t worry, she doesn’t read these things.) Thus, it was unlikely that I’d be making any big trips this year, unless the price was really right, the event was really interesting, or my cash flow really increased. (Or I really wanted to go.) So, I guess I’ll be saving on hotel rooms and air fare in 2009.
However, this doesn’t mean I won’t be taking some small-scale trips this year. And, it just so happens, one of them is our subject for today: the Cinematic Titanic live show in Philadelphia last night.
As you may recall, last year I took a trip to Minneapolis for a show from CT’s 2008 tour, where I saw their memorable staking of “Blood of the Vampires”. It was a great show, but it was a long trip. I really hoped that, sometime in the future, the Cinematic Titans would do a show a bit closer to Joisey. Well, ask and ye shall receive; they did. I found out a while back that this year’s tour would include a show in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love only about 90 minutes away by car. I may not be brilliant, but I know a good deal when I see one. I got tickets pretty darn quickly.
“Why tickets, plural?”, you may ask. Well, I have no trouble driving to and from work, or to and from the farm. However, I’m not really big on city driving, especially unfamiliar city driving. To be blunt, I get easily frustrated and I’m a pretty rotten navigator. So, I prevailed upon my brother Bri to act as chauffer, given that he knows the roads better, is a more skillful and cool-headed driver, and he likes MST3K. So, I got us both tickets for the show.
Well, things seemed OK. I got directions to the Trocodero, the show’s venue, and they seemed pretty easy to follow. My tickets were e-mailed to me, so they were saved in my computer’s memory. And, due to my attendance at a professional event (the NJALA Conference in Mt. Laurel) on my usual day-off, I got a comp day and didn’t have to take vacation time. Everything was falling into place when Friday, June 12, arrived. Then, there were complications.
First, there was a family matter that I had to take care of that proved to be very taxing. (Things seem OK now, though.) Then, I fell behind on schedule on when Bri and I were planning on leaving. Then, the household printer wasn’t working right, leaving us ticket-less just before departure. This necessitated a quick trip to the Library to use their computer to get my merchandise from Ticketmaster. And, if that wasn’t enough, we ran into lots of traffic on Rt. 1 on onwards, mainly people getting away to the Jersey shore for the weekend. You can imagine that I, nervous fellow that I am, was getting pretty concerned. Okay, let’s be truthful; I was at my wit’s end.
Then, we got a hopeful sign. Turns out that Bri, who had calculated our travel time, had thought that the doors at the Troc opened at 6PM, with the show starting at 7. Turns out the doors would actually open at 7, with the show at 8. We both literally breathed a sigh of relief, since we were now pretty much on schedule, and talked about stuff like work, the possible whereabouts of one of our former radio colleagues (shock jock, last we heard), and how the people at Suncoast in Easton recognized my “Grosse Pointe Blank” reference. There was some heavier traffic getting into the city, but nothing unmanageable. In time, we reached our exit, pulled into the nearby parking garage, and headed for the theater.
As it happens, we might have gotten there a bit earlier. There was a pretty long line waiting outside, maybe about a block long. This gave Bri momentary pause, but I was OK, having stood in mile-long lines at “Star Wars” Celebrations, not to mention both ConventioCons. We took up position and waited. Not too long afterwards, things started moving. As we had tickets in hand, we got nudged into a faster-moving line and got to the door. To my surprise, there was a quick security pat-down at the door. Nothing extensive, though; Bri said it was really no different from any other concert he’d gone to. So, we were in.
Neither of us had ever been to the Trocodero before. I’ll just say that the place isn’t as fancy as, say, the State Theater in Minneapolis, but it does have a lot of character. (I’d later learn that the theater had been around for more than a century. Most impressive.) I took a moment to use the men’s room (long drive and all), then stopped at a merchandise table, just like CT had at the other show. This time, I bought the DVD of their take on “The Wasp Woman”. The seating was general admission, so we decided to try and get a seat in the balcony, where the bar was located. Unfortunately, my chosen seat would’ve been blocked by a post, and the bar didn’t allow you to take drinks to the theater seats. (It’s OK, Bri is responsible with liquor and I only get ginger ale.) So, we went downstairs and found a couple of spots. It was crowded and close to showtime, so we passed up the refreshment stand and got seated.
There had been a change from the last show I’d seen. There were now a bunch of slides running on the screen up to showtime, including fun facts about CT, tour dates, and vintage movie audience announcements. (You know, “No public displays of affection will be tolerated”, that kind of thing.) Around the same time, they started up some music and I started to relax, since the first song was the Blues Bothers’ cover of “Groove Me”, followed later by Allen Sherman’s “You Went the Wrong Way, Old King Louis”. Well, after about fifteen minutes of this, the show finally got started. (“Took you long enough, Ken!”)
CLICK BELOW FOR THE STUNNING CONCLUSION TO OUR STORY!
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
Watch out for snakes.