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October 01, 2007
Chico and thAmanda
 |
| It was nice to read about Amanda Detmer returning to town to receive
a Chico High alumni award for her contribution to the
arts. Her death scene in Final
Destination certainly contributed to my
liking her as an actress. So did Saving Silverman, because Neil
Diamond kicks butt (or in the Northstate, butte). I'm not trying to be
mean or facetious regarding Detmer's death scene. She appeared
to be a
main
character
in
that
movie,
and early
on as
the plot line is unfolding she steps off a curb and gets splattered by
a bus. It was probably the most abrupt character ending I've ever watched. I remember seeing Amanda and her brother (Matt?) at Shakespeare in the Park years ago. If I had guessed then who would be famous I would have said the brother. I assume lots of Chico people knew Amanda Detmer before she became famous, I certainly didn't. But she was my neighbor across the street when I was finishing college (mid 90's). We said hi a few times, and she had a pug dog named Melvin. I think she said it was named after her dad. What's more interesting about those days is that I had a friend who was trying to "break into" Chico's theater scene. The further she got into her studies and off-campus theater productions the further she moved away from our group of friends. She made a few attempts to invite us to the cast parties, but they didn't really work. Drama junkies seem to form a rather insular society with a clear hierarchy. I saw the same thing when visiting my brother in San Francisco. He was part of the national poetry slam movement. The performing artist parties always seem to devolve into second or third tier people vying for attention with louder and louder exploits. Out come the bad british accents and the raucous and rude poetry. Then the Kings and Queens of the scene breeze in, spend a few low-key moments, and flitter off to another party. This leaves the room to talk about them. During that time I heard a lot of things about Amanda Detmer and how she achieved her successes. None of it was bad, which really says a lot. I think it was Detmer's success that caused a lot of Chicoans to push harder into the national acting scene. My friend moved to southern California after college, made a couple of commercials that were shown nationally, and I think still works tangentially in the the entertainment industry. We lost touch with her, but I did give her a cold call at my company's last Christmas party. And on Friday night ran into her sister at Duffy's, which brought those days to mind again. Chico has produced at least a few celebrities. And they run through a range of occupations. There's Aaron Rodgers of the NFL, Amanda Detmer of Hollywood, Ken Grossman, or more appropriately his beer, and even Anthony Watts has received the national spotlight recently. Our University has picked up some less than desirable accolades over the years, but I'm guessing those issues haven't really hurt enrollment. I think the successes some of our residents have can be attributed to the special place that Chico is. Our politics are sometimes hard, our people are bright and energetic, and we have a bubbling cauldron of youth thrown in. I'm still waiting for my turn in the sun. And I'll be pissed off if staff writer Laura Kleinlittle gets noticed before I do. She does do a good job though, and looks smashing in a bikini. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Anthony Watts, see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at October 1, 2007 08:34 AM
Comments
Careful what you ask for.
Several years ago I was in a public toilet at Zoo Station, Berlin. No I wasn't looking for a good time. I looked up at the grafitti scrawled on the back of the door and amongst other vulgarities I see a pearl of wisdom that says:
"Hey Andy, why didn't you tell me that it was going to be the most embarrassing 15 minutes of my life"?
CI Challenge:
Richard Burton making better use of my 15 minutes.
Posted by: tj glenn at October 1, 2007 01:48 PM
CI Challenge: A young Lon Glazner in his college years after a rough morning delivering the E-R.
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at October 1, 2007 01:58 PM
I keep trying to solve the CI challenge, but Amanda's picture keeps distracting me.
Posted by: Anthony at October 1, 2007 03:09 PM
TJ,
I had about 10 seconds of fame when interviewed by CNN in the late 80's. My squad was one of the units deployed to fight fires in Yellowstone. The reporter asked me if fighting fires was like going to war. I responded along the lines of...
Last time I checked nobody's shooting at us. But the first aid training and other organization skills we practice fit pretty well with what we're doing out here.
They edited out the first part but ran the rest nationally. Had they run the whole statement I'd be placated. Being a smart-ass in all 50 states would have met my need for fame.
But you're probably right, nobody wants to be the next Richard Jewell.
Lon
CI Challenge, not Richard Burton.
Posted by: Lon at October 1, 2007 03:31 PM
Mark S.,
I wish I was that clean cut back then.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 1, 2007 03:36 PM
Anthony,
It is a rather flattering photo. That's probably why it sits in the number 1 spot of a Google image search for Amanda Detmer.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 1, 2007 03:44 PM
I saw that dude under the rio lindo channel/hwy 99 bridge the other day. I think his name is "damn bike riders and their airsoft guns!"
Posted by: TrevHastings at October 1, 2007 04:59 PM
I would have thought this would be the perfect challenge for Tempra. No old cars or military helicopter trivia. Semi girlie performance artsy topic. Hairy guy...
I remember Amanda when she was hired on at Caffe Sienna, which used to be my downtown office. Mike Oliver really had an eye for talent when it came to baristas. I had a crush on a different girl that worked there, who I thought was even more beautiful, named Meadow. On our first date, we went up to the frisbee golf course and hung out for awhile with a guy and his hang glider. Then, right in front of us, he jumped off, stalled and crashed into the cliffs. I kept my cool dealing with him at the time, but I was a nervous wreck for a couple weeks afterwards.
Those were some good ol' days...but I'm sure glad all the black and white ghoulie make-up finally went out of style.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at October 1, 2007 06:43 PM
That's funny, I once had a crush on a meadow named Girl.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 1, 2007 07:22 PM
Re. the CI Challenge: No, I never dated that guy.
Posted by: Tempra at October 2, 2007 06:57 AM
Of course Meadow was a name typical of her parents that lived on a commune back in the early seventies. She was a city girl at heart. Our late eighties friends would have cursed their kids with names like Morticia, Herman or Cousin It.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at October 2, 2007 08:57 AM
That's funny, I once had a crush on Cousin It.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 09:41 AM
CI Challengers aren't making a very solid showing on this one. I don't want to give this one away just yet.
I would say that in general that hairy fellow was a good ol boy. He led a life complete with drug hazzards, and is no longer with us.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 10:01 AM
Denver Pyle. His most recent well known role was on the Dukes of Hazzard. He was also on the Andy Griffth show as "Briscoe" and on the Grizzly Adams show where I think he single handedly added all the "grizzled" portion of the show.
Though I have no idea how he and Amanda could share any connection. Yecch.
Posted by: Anthony Watts at October 2, 2007 10:23 AM
Anthony,
Warm... but not correct, and there is a very obvious and reasonable connection between Der Hairmeister, and the alluring actress this post refers to.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 10:54 AM
Waylon Jennings ? He sang the Dukes o Hazzard ballad and had drug problems, but I don't see a Detmer connection. Double yecch.
Posted by: Anthony Watts at October 2, 2007 11:15 AM
Anthony,
Yes, that's Waylon Jennings. I've added a YouTube video above with the connection. Keep an eye out for the guy in the background, he's pretty familiar to country music lovers as well.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 11:24 AM
BTW "Athony" is my evil holographic brother, who doesn't blog.
Posted by: Anthony Watts at October 2, 2007 11:47 AM
OK, wait, so what IS the connection between Waylon, Willie (who I think I saw back there) and Detmer? The connection between the challenges and the blog itself is becoming like some sort of twisted Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. In fact, he's probably in there somewhere, too.
Posted by: Tempra at October 2, 2007 11:50 AM
BTW "Athony" is my evil holographic brother, who doesn't blog.
Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson appear to be in the background of the video, but again whatever connections to Detmer you are making are too thin for me to get.
Posted by: Anthony Watts at October 2, 2007 11:52 AM
Tempra,
Waylon sang a popular ballad "Amanda". That's the connection.
He also sang a song called "Put Another Log on the Fire", oddly enough written by Shel Siverstein who wrote the children's book "The Giving Tree", but that's a challenge for another time.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 11:54 AM
Anthony,
The song is called Amanda. It's about someone named Amanda.
Amanda, Amanda, Amanda...
Londa
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 11:56 AM
Well being half deaf, I can't understand wailing country music lyrics anyway, so I turned the sound off. So rather than accuse you of blog discrimination of the handicapped, I'll just say that this has been a disappointing excercise in futility. Yechh!
next!
Posted by: Anthony Watts at October 2, 2007 12:02 PM
Sore winner!
Lon
Posted by: Lon at October 2, 2007 04:34 PM