Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

A Grand Adventure/The Last Good Year

Wow. Looks like I'm off on a grand adventure.

Just hanging around the house tonight, and then I get a call from one of my old instructors at NAIT. Does anyone out there know about the MuchMusic VJ Search? Well, this year, MuchMusic decided to take their annual contest and turn it into a lame-ass reality TV show. And, they're coming to Edmonton to shoot some stuff. According to my instructor, they needed a driver; someone to ferry the crew around Edmonton and help lug around camera equipment. And, lo and behold, I'm the only one of the list of recent graduates who's old enough.

Long story short, I'm spending the next 3 days as a crewman on the MuchMusic VJ Search. It pays $175/day and it gets me out of the house.

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll find some way to screw it up.


I was kicking back and watching some Deep Space Nine reruns this morning, and I managed to catch Trials and Tribble-ations. You know, the classic 1996 "Star Trek 30th Anniversary Tribute" episode that featured time travel hijinks and the DS9 crew mucking about in the background of The Trouble with Tribbles. Ya know, I'm surprised no one's tried to edit the two episodes together yet. Nothing fancy...just take The Trouble with Tribbles and splice in the scenes of Sisko and Dax tiptoeing around in the background.

But then, that got me to thinking about 1996. Pierre Burton, Canada's favourite historian, declared 1967 to be "Canada's last good year." I think many a Trekkie will agree that 1996 is "Star Trek's last good year." Star Trek: First Contact was about to hit theatres, Deep Space Nine was hitting its stride, and Voyager was still new enough to warrant the benefit of the doubt. And, with it being the 30th anniversary, there was a celebratory air to the whole thing.

And, of course, who could forget the live, 30th anniversary special? As one critic put it, "an awards show without the awards." It was really, really...lame. When you know the headlining musical act is Kenny G, it's lame to the ultimate.

However, I do remember Ben Stiller being part of the special. Back in 1996, he was still a B-list celebrity, but on the rise. I'll never forget what he said. "When I was a kid, people called me a nerd because I liked Star Trek. And now, I'm on stage with Captain Kirk and Kenny G. WHO'S THE NERD NOW?"

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