Who is That Egomaniac at the Next Table?

Tonight I attended a benefit for East West Players, an Asian American Pacific Islander theater group in Los Angeles. It was fun, partly because George Takei was one of the speakers. John Cho presented an award. Both Sulus! I was in Star Trek heaven. Why does George Takei’s sonorous and beautiful voice just make me want to giggle with joy? Is it just my happy childhood memories of hearing that voice saying, “Aye, Aye, Captain!” to William Shatner?

During the benefit, I sat next to a couple, & the woman asked me, “Where do we recognize you from? Are you in the industry?” I told them my name. No, doesn’t ring a bell. Where else might we know you from? I started naming bands of mine that they might have seen; “No, it wasn’t that…” I named the various music videos of mine that they might recognize me from; “No, never heard of that.” As this process went on, I was feeling more and more chagrined – even as they kept prompting me to try again, scraping the barrel of my musical efforts, they hadn’t heard of a single thing I’d done. But if you’d been overhearing my end of the conversation, I would have sounded like a total blowhard, relentlessly listing all my exploits to these strangers.