Stu News and Photos

For those of you who are bored with technology or Hollywood, feel free to move on with your day. Maybe the lawn needs attention. As for the rest of you, it's possible that the following will not prove dull.

Y'all heard about Twitter, right? If you haven't, it's a web-page that acts as a public billboard - Anyone can go to the page and type out a message, then have it go out to everyone else in the world. A truly remarkable piece of technology that effects society in a variety of ways.

Ok, so I'm on Twitter the other day, maybe a week ago, and I was getting my mom's latke recipe out to the world, publishing it on my blog and my FaceBook page and such. One place I mentioned it was on Twitter. And as I was tweeting, it occurred to me that I should send it to Joshua Malina.

Right, so who's Josh Malina? A fair question. He was a featured actor in the last few seasons of The West Wing, he was part of the cast of Sports Night, and he appeared as supporting cast for a bunch of great films, like A Few Good Men, From The Earth To The Moon, In The Line Of Fire, The American President. He's also done single episodes of some solid television programs, like House M.D. and Numb3rs and C.S.I. and Grey's Anatomy.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Malina. He brings a certain vibe to his roles that I find instantly connectable - He's like my imaginary version of me, cool, super-smart, and charming. He also provides an expert level ability to deliver a funny line. So I dig him quite a bit. What follows is a bit of Josh as Will on The West Wing, where his character first meets The President Of The United States:



Let us go back in time for a moment. Way back when, when I joined Twitter, back in April of '07, y'know, like last decade, I spent a month or so on a serious star-stalking jag, finding out what celebrities used Twitter, following them, reading their tweets in the hopes of interesting tidbits or passable moments of entertainment. In searching for famous tweeters, I discovered that Josh Malina used Twitter. I began following him, reveling in his real-world commentary. (I get how facile this appears, and yeah, I'm ok with that.)

So I'm reading Twitter a few months later, when I notice that, among the other folks I follow on Twitter (like family and friends and the occasional astronaut and movie star), there is a tweet from Mr. Malina that reminds me of one of my favorite Malina roles, which was Will Bailey on The West Wing. In a moment of false bravado, I replied to his tweet with a quote from Will Bailey. He read it and replied back to me, something apropos, but I forget the words right this second. Regardless, it was a cool moment, like running into Phil Jackson at the local movie theater, except in this case I could hide behind the internet and be brave - with Mr. Jackson, I just gawked reverently.

Ok, so now we come to the finish line - A few days ago, I posted a link to my blog entry for mom's latkes on Twitter. Feeling brave, I sent a tweet to Josh Malina, which read: "@JoshMalina Seriously, this is my latke recipe, based on my mom's. Made 'em tonight, very much the yum. - http://tinyurl.com/y93r3vx " - And, to my amusement and delight, he wrote back, saying " @stumark Looks good. All respect to your mom, but I deeply believe that you'll get a far superior latke by hand grating. Try it!"

Yes, i'm a geek, I admit it. It's a label I wear with pride. Why? 'Cause Josh Malina gave me some Twitter love.