Too Much Larry!

I don’t want to know my neighbors.  I don’t want them dropping by for a cup of sugar, to bullshit, to ask me favors I don’t want to do.  Move their cars when they’re away in the U.K.  A next door neighbor actually asked me that.  And you’re afraid, if you don’t do this…  Then I agreed to take him to the airport.  Neighborly, right?  Well, he wanted to stop at the post office, I kid you not, and as I motored to LAX he said it wasn’t that bad, if he missed his flight, we could go back tomorrow. TOMORROW?  I put the pedal to the metal, thank god that guy finally moved.

His replacement?  Never uttered a word to him.  The guy living in the house on the other side, I didn’t know a single thing about him until he had a garage sale just before he moved out.

And everybody I tell this to gives me shit, like I’m some kind of social leper.  And then tonight, on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Larry David says the same thing!  Loretta’s mother talked to the neighbors?  You don’t talk to the neighbors!

I used to wait for the next album by the band.  To see what they had to say.  By the seventies, they had me waiting two years, but it was worth it.  Then they became beholden to the machine, making me listen to six singles on the radio, even on AOR, and touring the same damn project for four or five years.  Music became bankrupt, emotionally before financially.  But TV is going through a golden era.

That’s where they take chances.  Films are made for the entire world, so some non-English-speaking denizen in a developing nation can understand them.  But what about me?  Do I have to see the same stars in inane plots?

They take chances on TV.

Or so they tell me.

I’ve cut back my viewing time.  And "Entourage" has become a joke, stupid.

But tonight Larry David returned to TV.  Not TV, HBO!

And in one fell swoop he convinced us the nineties were not a hoax, that there was something of cultural value during that decade, otherwise known as "Seinfeld".  Jerry may have been the star, but Larry was the inspiration, the talent.  When I told him this outside the AMC theatre years back, that "Seinfeld" was only good when he wrote it, he got pissed off, he didn’t want to hear it.  That’s what we love about Larry, he’s got a type of Asperger’s, where he doesn’t give a shit what you think, he’s just going to speak his mind.

Temperature?  I’ve got a war of the thermostat with Felice.

Who’s coming to the party?  If you don’t want to know, you never go.

In tonight’s episode, Larry ended up hitting home in a way far superior to any record, in this screwball comedy there was more truth than in the "New York Times".  People eating out of your refrigerator, infidelity, you watch and you finally feel at home, like someone else understands and is like you.

They say that this year is about a "Seinfeld" reunion.  It’ll be good to see the old gang, but Susie Essman is enough.  You do remember that episode, don’t you?  Wherein Larry cut off the doll’s hair and Susie said "Larry, YOU SICK FUCK!"

Susie’s the only one who can see truth, the only one who calls Larry on his bullshit.

Oh, wait!  I forgot to mention Cheryl!  Who wants nothing to do with her ex, but is still going to use his name to get a restaurant reservation!  She’s broken up with the underwear magnate, but contrary to Larry’s wishes, she doesn’t want to get back together.  Because it’s just too much Larry. Around the house, all day.  At least when he was working…

And like any schlmiel, and we’re all schlmiels, the fact that there are a few misogynists treating desirable women poorly does not mean that the rest of us aren’t thrilled to be in a relationship, aren’t thrilled to be getting laid, Larry instantly says he can fix the problem.  There’s no negotiation, we’ll beg, we’ll change anything to get back into the relationship we once had, to return to your good graces.  This must be the set-up to do the "Seinfeld" reunion, the process of winning back Cheryl.

But he’s got to get rid of Loretta first.  And you know you can’t break up with someone who’s sick! Hell, we judge all those people who do!  But sometimes, do we want out of the obligation?

And what kind of fucked up world do we live in where Bob Einstein is a bigger star than his brother Albert Brooks?  Marty Funkhouser…  That’s real.  We all have friends we hate, that we can’t tolerate.  But we continue to connect because…of history, or they’re the only ones we can count on in a crisis.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is life itself.

I used to say that about records.

Tonight I sat in front of the screen feeling fully alive, thrilled that I’m gonna get three more months of this.

It’s about letting creators do their own thing.  No executive could write this show.  Executives are people who kiss ass, who employ duplicity to get ahead.  Whereas Larry’s all about truth, he can’t help but reveal it.  And we revel in his revelations.

Comments are closed