Aaron's Iron Laws of Partying

I will be leaving the wonderful world of college in a few months since I graduate in December, so as my gift to all current and soon to be college students I give you Aaron’s Iron Laws of Partying. Two quick notes, I am maybe the last person on Earth to be giving party laws but I am going to anyway and I call them Iron Laws because people will pay more attention to them. So here we go. Also important note this is from a guy’s perspective.

Iron Law #1: A Keg Does Not Make a Party

How many times has a friend called you up and told you he was at a party, so you decide to leave your perfectly comfortable living space, stop watching that great TV show you were watching, figure out what clothes to wear and drive all the way to this “party” only to find out its six dudes playing beer pong near a keg. Just because you have your friends over and have a keg that does not mean it’s a party nor gives you the right to call it a party.

Iron Law #2: Classify Your Party

Teenagers got something right, they classify their parties. It’s a party or a kickback. These are two terms are closely related but shed a huge amount of light on what you are actually doing. A party is 20 people or more, a kickback is less then that. But we don’t call it kickbacks because we are not teenage girls so instead we say “chillin” or as the Cottonwood House made famous a “box social”. So if you have a keg and 10 people, you are chillin’ with your friends NOT throwing a party. Okay? Good.

Iron Law #3: Guy to Girl Ratio

There is really only one statistic you can use when trying to figure out if a party is good and that is guy to girl ratio. If the ratio is over 2:1 (and that’s the absolute maximum) you do not have a party. What you have is what is referred to as a sausage fest and no one wants to go to a sausage fest.

Iron Law #4: Entertainment Must be Provided

A keg is all the entertainment I need but you can’t call yourself a party without any of these three things: cards, a card table and a beer pong table. You may be able to get away without one, but without all three and your party’s classification changes to a chillin’ (unless it is really big).

Iron Law #5: Forgive and Forget

Sometimes it’s just not happening. Your friend tells you there is going to be a party so you go. The party has all the elements, a keg, peer pong table and drinking games. However there are about 10 guys to every girl and only 20 people there. Sometimes people have the best intentions but their parties can’t get off the ground, it’s not their fault it was just a bad night to be partying.

There you go, 5 Iron Laws of partying from someone who has thrown one party in his life and ended up ditching his own party to go to the neighbor’s party. But hey, one could say I have observed the masters of the Old Cottonwood house for three great years.

Mission Implausible

The recent split between Paramount and Tom Cruise has apparently forced the retirement of Ethan Hunt of Mission Impossible fame. That isn’t stopping Paramount from going on with the franchise. Rumor has it Paramount is set to offer the job to Brad Pitt and pay him whatever it takes. The deal could make Pitt the highest paid movie star in the industry. Pitt will not play Ethan Hunt, who will also be getting the boot from the series. The question is, do we want to see a MI4? Did we even want to see a MI3? I have a plot line for MI4: Ethan Hunt goes rouge and teams with a sleazy millionaire (Daniel Snyder) and a beautiful seductress (Katie Holmes) and tries to take over the world and its up to Brad Pitt to stop it. I would watch that in a heartbeat.

This message will self destruct never.

A Worthy Premier

Last night was the debut of NBC’s great new hope, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. This is probably NBC’s biggest pilot in years, in terms of star power, hype and the fact that it seems like the entire network’s primetime hopes of a return to glory ride on this show. It has the cast, it has the plot and it has the right people behind the scenes. So how did the first episode do? Well it did great in my opinion. It was, dare I say, riveting. The behind the scenes look at life on a sketch comedy show is an interesting subject that is not often seen on TV.
I think the cast was awesome. I was really surprised with Mathew Perry, I managed to watch the entire episode without once thinking about Chandler from Friends fame. This is the perfect role for him, if he did a comedy it would probably fail because no one would see him as anything other than Chandler. Going to drama, with subtle comedy, was a great move that is going to work out. The rest of the cast is really solid too, although Steven Weber playing an asshole will be hard to watch but the same theory that applies to Perry applies to him (for those who don’t remember, he played the great Brian Hackett on Wings).
Ultimately I kept looking at the clock on my cable box, getting disappointed that it was creeping closer to 10. That is always a good sign. I think NBC has a hit on its hands and there is a 0% chance they won’t cancel it after three episodes. Keep watching on Mondays at 9pm.

Fall TV Preview

Welcome to the fall TV preview at Double the Blog, right off the heels of another awesome Emmy Awards (Anything Conan’s hosts is awesome) I am going to do my best to preview the upcoming year of TV. I figured since I always to a TV year in review, why not do a preview? So let’s kick it off with everyone’s favorite fallen on hard times network, NBC!

NBC-
In his opening monologue Conan made reference to how NBC was “relying on Howie Mendel” to save their network and also mentioned how the Emmys would get cancelled “half way through” the show. Funny because it’s true, NBC has long screwed themselves by canceling shows instantaneously to the point that I was afraid to start watching a new NBC show. Well that’s all about to change this year because almost every one of their shows is new or relatively new. The network is currently home to maybe the three best comedies on TV (The Office, My Name is Earl and Scrubs) and its fall line up is about 99% new shows. So lets delve into some of the headlines.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip-
If this show fails, I will be shocked. A behind the scenes look at Saturday Night Live? The dude that brought us Sports Night and the West Wing heads up this show. I think that enough is reason to think it will be good. Returning to TV since the end of Friends, Matthew Perry is one of the lead actors in this movie. Usually actors or actress in super popular comedies can’t succeed ever again the TV market. I think Perry can because he is not doing a comedy like Friends, more of a comedy-drama like this. Also included is Bradley Whitford who is pretty solid. One of my personal favorites Steven Weber (Brian from Wings, and an actor NBC has been trying to get on a show for ten years since Wings went off the air), DL Hughley (who is not known for his acting ability, he even admits this on the show preview and makes reference to Soul Plane) and Amanda Peet. I think the show is worth watching, because it is NBC’s new baby and there is no way they cancel it anytime soon.

30 Rock-
So the summary states this “The inner workings of a variety show provide the fodder for this comedy”. Kinda sounds a little like the show above. I think its trying to be almost the exact same thing, only more comedy then drama. Maybe NBC is hoping one of them work. This show is littered with former Saturday Night Live members. It is driven by Tina Fey, and I always thought she was pretty funny and had good writing talent. Alec Baldwin is also in it, I like Baldwin in comedies. If he can be like Ben Stiller’s boss from Along Came Polly the whole time then he would be hilarious. Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch also star. It has potential, but I don’t trust NBC to keep it on long enough.

Heroes-
The show is a look at the lives of ordinary people who have super abilities. I would say think of this show as all the non Spider-Man scenes in Spider-Man 2. If it can be like that, it would be worth watching. It could be an interesting drama, but I am not quite sure what to think. I’ll probably tune in for the first few episodes.
Friday Night Lights-
The movie was good, but can it sustain a series? I’m not sure how this series could last beyond a year because all their guys would have to graduate, but then again you would say the same thing about Lost or 24. These shows that seem like they could only last for one year are the new hit thing in today’s TV. As for a longer inside look at big time high school football? Count me in; I think this one is worth watching.

Continuing Watching- The Office, Scrubs, My Name is Earl


FOX-

Till Death-
Brad Garrett didn’t wait till long to jump into a sitcom that was not that much different then the one he was currently in. I like Garrett, and the show also features Paul Finch of American Pie fame. I can’t see it working however, the rule is that you can’t play the same character from a hit TV show unless it’s a spin off. Luckily for people who want to watch, it’s on FOX and they tend to stick with shows for a while. So you never know, but I don’t expect much.

Happy Hour-
Hmm a sitcom based around a time in which you drink cheap drinks. Hey I love happy hour as much as the next guy, but can it become a sitcom? Actually the show is about two guys living together, with a girl neighbor and things happen to them. Sounds like every other sitcom ever. Oh yeah it runs on Thursday nights, so, um, cancelled.

ABC-
It seems like every ABC show is the same now, hour long drama followed by hour long drama. I did enjoy Invasion last year, its sad they cancelled it and replaced it with pretty much the EXACT same type of show. That’s an NBC move if I ever saw one.

The Nine-
This is pretty much just like Invasion. A bank gets robbed and 52 hours later the life of nine people have changed and the rest of the season long show is dealt in flashbacks and how these people are coping with what happened. Only something happened and you can be damn sure it’s going to take until the season finale to play out. Sounds exactly like Invasion. Count me in I guess, I don’t mind the very slow moving drams.

CBS-

The Class-
This show is about a guy and his fiancé who originally met in third grade, but they met again years later and fell in love. So apparently they decide to reunite their 3rd grade class. That’s the sitcom, no that is all there is too it. How could this show last? I don’t even know anymore, sometimes the best ideas sound stupid at first. Although CBS is now the leading network of producing high quality sitcoms, I would pass on this one.

Keep Watching: How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men.

Okay those are some of the new shows from the fall networks, lets hope some new hit shows, coupled with the returning goods make for an awesome year of TV.