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....Rock the House, VH1s brilliant new show that takes it and its sister station MTVs emergent obsession with fandom (see "Becoming" "Wannabes" "fanography", etc.) to awesome new levels. I saw two of the first three episodes this weekend and the show seems to be tailor-made for dorks by myself.
The conceit - We've all seen MTV Cribs, where we tour the fabulous private playgrounds of the famous and semifamous. Many of you, perhaps, have also seen The Learning Channel's While You Were Out, a sister show to the more popular Trading Spaces. The gist of While You Were Out is that one half of a married couple* contacts the network because they want to remodel/redesign a room in the house as a "gift" for their spouse. TLC arranges for the spouse to be absent the balance of a day, and then shows up with designers, paint, furniture, etc. in tow and proceeds to redo the room with a budget of 1000. Invariably, the spouse comes home and has a heart attack. The designs usually range from the tacky to the chintzy, though they do have some clever ideas from time to time.
VH1 has smooshed these two shows together, so that a the spouse of a super-fan (often creepily so; actually, strike the "often") of a particular rock star contacts VH1 so that the star, in concert with a designer, can redesign a space in their home in their own style, while that spouse is out for the day.
The first episode I saw featured "Weird Al" Yankovic, the premeire novelty recording artist of the late 20th century. Al and the designers transformed the wood-paneled den of the fan into a bad-trip fun house of "riffs" on various pop artists (for example, in hommage to Roy Lichenstein, a missile nosecone protrudes from the ceiling, surrounded by a four-color explosion) , because, you know, Al riffs on famous songs. Hawaiian drapes are sung, a goldfish aquarium coffee table is created, and Jackson Pollock's name is taken in vain, all before the man of the house returns from Vegas to find his room painted bright yellow and filled with tchotchkes. Oh, and the show is sponsored by Sony, meaning that everyone gets a flat panel TV and cool stereo. Niiice.
The second episode featured Tommy Lee's number on fan, a dimunitive mechanic from Illinois, who, although approaching his 30th birthday, had a disturbing number of ripped-out magazine photos of Tommy Lee taped up all around the house. This fan's spouse sacrifieced the garage for the occasion, which was festooned with hot-rod flames, chromes accountrements, an espresso machine (as Cribes afficionados know, Tommy Lee has a Starbucks in his house), and a coffee table made of drums. Sadly, no "chinese basket" was in evidence. Tommy Lee even took out one of his piercings and sterilized it for the camera in preparation for giving it to the dude (oddly, we didn't see the presentation).
When the guy came home, and saw Tommy Lee standing in his new rockin' inferno of a garage, his eyes reflected such adoration for Mr. Lee as I've never seen. The little dude was in love, and it was sweet. His wife, who arranged the whole deal, kept trying to talk to him, but he couldn't take his eyes off Tommy Lee, who looked touched by the affection the dude had for him. Lots of hugging ensued, and some quoting of Tommy Lee lyrics in tears finished the episode off.
I don't know how they can top this, but an upcoming episode features Snoop Dogg, and you know that's gonna be good. So who would you have redesign your crib? My choice would be OutKast (when are they gonna have an Andre 3000 Cribs?). |
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