I used to work for a fansite which is now defunct, and while there I taped an interview with Kate Flannery, Meredith on The Office. It occurs to me now that the site is dark the interview is nowhere on the web, so, to that end… here it is in transcript form. She’s a pretty funny and cool lady, and super talented. If you’re not already a fan, go check out The Lampshades; you’ll thank yourself for doing so.
Schinders Hi, I’m Schinders and I’m here with Kate Flannery, Meredith, on The Office. Knowing that we are FanLib, the first thing I want to ask you is, what are you a fan of?
Kate I am a fan of the fans. I like the fans. I talk to the fans. We all have these MySpace pages that we started the second season of The Office, only because our computers didn’t work the first season. And it’s actually been kind of cool to talk to people that are – actually having access to the people that they are admiring. I mean I wish I’d have access – I still don’t even though I’m on the Office (laughs) but it’s kind of interesting. I actually was a really big fan of Annie when I was a kid, and it’s so funny I just saw that documentary which is called … Life After Tomorrow, which sounds like a soap opera – and it’s all these girls that I admired when I was a kid and it’s their lives now which is kind of a strange mix of not what anybody expected… and … it’s just really really weird – it’s like a weird thing – so it’s kind of a full circle for me. I don’t know why I mentioned that first, but I was always obsessed with that show so I wish I would have had the access back then that the kids today have now. Read the rest of this entry »
My friend Christine is giving her son his first Teddy Bear for xmas, so of course it will be a Steiff. We had a whole discussion of soft vs. articulated, how one shouldn’t cut the ear tags (like my mother did), and favorite Steiffs of our childhood. She was surfing the interwebs while we chatted and found this Steiff Bear from Neiman Marcus- it’s just too, too.
There have been, thank God, some great moments waiting tables through the years, but last night was especially good. I was busying around the burger joint, went over to a new table, “Hi, how are ya, blah blah blah.” The guy had a black sketch pad/journal on the table, with a painted cover. I said, “Hey, that’s cool, is it a Baseman?” He looked at me and said, “I am Baseman.” I was blown away, and apologized, but fawned shamelessly.
He gave me a postcard to a show in he’s doing in Barcelona, and like a dork i asked him to sign it, explaining that i never do that, and shit on actors, but he’s Gary Baseman.
Anyway I served the rest of their meal like a normal person. Blah blah blah. At the end of it, while chatting with his – date? girlfriend? wife?- he was sketching with his pen on his placemat/menu. When he was done he gave it to me and signed it. It’s a nekid girl floating across the menu.
Aaaah!
How freaking cool is that?
I promised if he came back i’d fawn less.
Gak! I’m in one of those terrible phases where there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Perhaps I should stop sleeping. Short of that… Things get lost in the cracks, like this blog. Each day I think about posting, and each day I go to bed thinking about posting. But here I am, actually writing something for this. So there. But it’s gonna’ be fast.
Celebsighting: One of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Kings Road Cafe – no I don’t know which one it was.
Celeb sighting: Fisher Stevens walking his dog down Abbot Kinney – I almost knocked him down; I was stepping on cracks in the sidewalk.
When did Abbot Kinney get so gentrified? I knew there was a PinkBerry there now, but wow, it’s upscale boutiques from Venice to Main Street. And it’s become a “destination shopping” area; all along the street on a Saturday, women flit in and out of stores, pollinating the cash registers. As much as it’s weird, there are a couple really lovely additions to the block. At the south end of the street there’s a really cool – if overpriced – used bookstore and The Farmacy (same as the one in West Hollywood) has opened a clean, bright Venice location.
Proposed new names for the street: Hampton Kinney, South-by-South-West Hampton, and South Abbot Beach.
Not only did we have a fun of ton manning the FanLib booth, but Melanie and I had a great time wandering the Javits Center and taking pix! Here she is with a storm trooper.
We saw Jedi and Indiana Jones and sexy harem ladies. We got schwag and stickers and pins. Melanie got interviewed by David Price of The Middle Show. He asked her when nerd girls got hot; she said they always were. That’s why she’s my best gal.
The highlight of the show, obviously, was Gaiman. Bill Hader intro’ed him, talking about what a rabid fan he is, how Gaiman’s brought him career luck, and doing some impressions of celebrities in Gaiman roles (Vincent Price as Coraline was hy-larious!). Mel videoed him doing Pacino “spitballing” idea on the set of Sandman… imagine Pacino as Sandman…
Anyhoo, Neil was fantastic. Funny, charming, generous of his time and spirit with his fans. He read some short stories, and then the third chapter of his new novel, The Graveyard Book, about a boy raised in a Graveyard by dead folk mostly. The book’s due out in October. Here’s a crappy picture of Neil reading.
I found footage of Neil talking about the CBDLF, from the very beginning of the reading, but the reading itself isn’t up yet. I’m sure someone will post it, there were lots of people with handheld digital cameras.
What a fantastic day.
On a completely different note, Happy Passover all. If you’re not a Jew, and you find it hard to remember what we do at Passover, just remember that while Passover and Easter are celebrated at the same time of year, our food is the opposite of Jesus: unrisen. Good Yontif!
I used to work for a fansite which is now defunct, and while there I taped an interview with Kate Flannery, Meredith on The Office. It occurs to me now that the site is dark the interview is nowhere on the web, so, to that end… here it is in transcript form. She’s a pretty funny and cool lady, and super talented. If you’re not already a fan, go check out The Lampshades; you’ll thank yourself for doing so.
There have been, thank God, some great moments waiting tables through the years, but last night was especially good. I was busying around the 
Gak! I’m in one of those terrible phases where there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Perhaps I should stop sleeping. Short of that… Things get lost in the cracks, like this blog. Each day I think about posting, and each day I go to bed thinking about posting. But here I am, actually writing something for this. So there. But it’s gonna’ be fast.
Celeb sighting: 
The final piece of the Kate Flannery interview is up at 