TNG Rewatch: We'll Always Have Vegas

I watched We'll Always Have Paris yesterday while I was trying (again) to get back to work. In spite of the fact that it's is a Picardisode I could never find my way to loving this one. Once again, it just feels like a leftover story from TOS. I could totally see Kirk pseudo-struggling with having to save his old flame and his old flame's new super science husband from said super science husband's research mistakes. I do like that Picard won't really let himself indulge in a holo-recreation of the day he left her sitting around in Paris on her own and I've always liked the Three Datas ending--even when I was a kid. I suppose it's just that I know that this show gets a lot better and this episode pales somewhat by comparison and I'm eager to get past this (even though you wouldn't know it by how slow I've been moving through this season--but things here have been crazy. I mean, a week ago, I was on my way back from a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas.)

We live in LA so it's not really a huge deal for us to hop over to Las Vegas for a couple of days. And, of course, there's a lot we love about Vegas. Mostly all the magic shows. Really just the magic shows. I'm not overly fond of the rest of it. Anyway, I've gone on and on about Penn and Teller before  and I have a long history of loving their show etc. And (actually, I'm not sure how I never mentioned this before but,) Penn was on an episode that Scott wrote earlier this season and said if we ever came out to Vegas to come by the show. So, of course, we did. And we went backstage and met Penn and Teller who were very cordial and lovely and the whole experience was very nice.

In fact, it was more nice than they knew. Because one of their new tricks involves a little white rabbit and this time (I've seen this trick live twice now) the rabbit was called, AshleyRose. (If you've just found this blog this is significant because my name is AshleyRose, nice (probably!) to meet you) Penn swung the rabbit up into the air Lion King style and said again, "Everyone meet AshleyRose!" and then again, "AshleyRose."

Penn introduced the rabbit to an audience of hundreds but it was a joke for two people. Me and my husband. The words had significance to Penn, Teller, Scott, and me. And that's it. And that's really rather wonderful and special. (It also doesn't hurt that Penn happened to associate my name with a little, white rabbit.)

Several years ago, when I was in first grade, and my parents had just divorced and I'd gone in and out of homelessness and/or home insecurity and it would be over a year before I saw my dad again and I'd been in three schools over the last eight months, I happened to see a promo for a televised magic special. It was Penn and Teller's Don't Try This At Home. Something about them... their irreverence, their dangerousness, their scofflaw attitude... I loved it. I was trying so hard to hold it together and in many ways I relied on the steady hand of Trek during that time but just as much, I needed to scream and I needed to bark and I needed to see magic happen and then, in the same breath, see how easily it's unraveled. I wrote the date of their special on the calendar in the hallway and kept an eye on it until the night it aired. I've been a Penn and Teller fan ever since.

I never would've thought, when I was writing two magicians names on a calendar in crayon that someday I'd be sitting in their packed house when one of them suddenly barked, "Everyone, say hi to AshleyRose!"

That's pretty magical.