Living Life on the Edge

Mr. Rip and I live life on the edge, and by “the edge” I mean the periphery.

On Saturday, we went to the Ross Park Mall on a mission. We were there to buy a stove.  Believe me it was time. Our current stove was probably manufactured the year they invented the electric stove.

We entered Sears on the floor where the appliances are located, we knew exactly the model we wanted and in record time, we were the proud owners of a new stove. We could have gotten out of Dodge, er, the Mall, right then and there, but I wanted to check out the one-day sale at Macy's.

As we started towards the store exit, we noticed several Sears salespeople gazing outward wide-eyed.  I heard one of them exclaim, solemnly, to the others, “It’s my worst nightmare out there.” He was trembling a little. 

Undeterred, we walked out of Sears into a huge sea of people who were waiting in line for…something. As we ascended out of the mob below on the escalator, Mr. Rip immediately began using his fine investigative skills, honed during repeated viewings of The Mentalist and History Detectives.

“There must be a Famous Person here,” he surmised and then added meaningfully, “note that they are all young females in line.”  I looked and saw that it was true - there were thousands of pre-teen and teenage girls in line.  We wondered just what teen sensation was at the Mall today.

A couple of hours later as we were leaving the mall, there were still thousands of young girls waiting in line.  Our curiosity got the best of us, so I politely asked one of the teen girls in line who they were waiting to see.

"There is a Famous Person here," she answered sweetly. Aha, Mr. Rip was right!  

"What Famous Person?" I asked.

"Oh, Bethany Mota," she answered, obviously sure that I would have no idea who that is.  "She was on Dancing with the Stars." Of course, I did know who Bethany Mota is because she was on Dancing with the Stars.  She is a video blogger who takes an anti-bullying stance on her blogs.  She danced with Derek, and they came in fourth in the most recent season. 

I was gratified to learn that all these young girls were waiting in line to meet an anti-bullying advocate and not some misbehaving untalented under-dressed attention-hungry tongue-wielding singer. Then we went home.

So, there we were at the Mall when thousands of girls were waiting for up to four hours to see Bethany Mota.  We had no idea that Bethany Mota was at the Mall and no interest at all in meeting her despite our approval of her as a role model for kids, but we knew who she was because of DWTS.

Because that’s how we roll. We are quasi-informed casual observers of today’s pop culture.

The other big event last weekend was the Super Bowl.  Mr. Rip and I never see the Super Bowl because we are always ushering at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre when it is on (except when the Steelers are playing, in which case PPT cancels that performance).  So, while the nation was watching the Super Bowl, we were watching a particularly wonderful production of “My Fair Lady” from front row center.

Strangely, we didn't even need to see the Super Bowl to find out what happened. The Patriots beat the Seahawks after a very controversial final play by the latter, Idina Menzel sang the National Anthem (after her less-than-super live performance of “Let It Go” on New Year’s Eve), and Katy Perry did the half-time show with the help of Lenny Kravitz, Missy Eliott, and a couple of dancing Sharks.

I didn't have to go out of my way to see clips of the game, and especially that final play.  It was all over the news broadcasts.  Not only did I understand what happened, when I was included in the inevitable Facebook Message conversation debating the final call I had an informed opinion. Yes, it was a bonehead call by the Seahawks-they should have run the ball.

I had to watch the video of Idina Menzel to see if she redeemed herself, and I would say that she did.  She was a success by her own modest standards because I would say that she definitely hit more than 75% of the notes in the song.

As for the half-time show, well, they had me at “Lenny Kravitz.” All in all, though, the entire half-time show (which I watched on YouTube) was wildly entertaining, including the dancing shark on the left, who improvised his movements for the most of the dance after losing his way part way through.  I sympathized, as I have found myself in that same situation on stage more than once, but never with an elaborate costume like that to disguise me.

Meanwhile, back at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre the cast of "My Fair Lady" was pretty much flawless. I did not detect any false moves or notes from them like those exhibited by the Seahawks, Idina Menzel, or the Left Shark.