An incredibly weird story
One of my many favorite "horrible" TV shows in the last couple of years has been VH1's The Pick Up Artist. If you've never seen this show, well, you probably aren't missing anything, but go ahead and click on the link if you haven't eaten anything recently. Here's how the show works: there's a "Master Pick Up Artist," named Mystery, who has spent the last few years of his life mastering the "art" of picking up women and the show is a reality series in which a group of guys compete to become the "Next Pick Up Artist."
Mystery is either really crazy, really smart, really full of it, or all of the above. Just a quick look at his picture might make you lean towards "crazy," but if you watch the show, it certainly seems like he is roughly as successful at picking up loose women at bars as he claims. Don't worry, though, I don't watch the show because I'm a dedicated disciple of his attempting to learn his technique and apply it here in Switzerland -- watch the show enough and the whole thing is fairly ridiculous looking -- but rather I watch it for the nerdy charm of the goofy competitors that they choose for the show. The nine or ten contestants start off the show as the nerdiest, most inept bunch of dweebs you've ever seen; early episodes involve the guys going to a bar and generally getting shot down, doing horribly embarrassing things, or just looking foolish. As the weakest link is eliminated each episode, and the guys receive "training" from Mystery each week, by the end of the series, the final few left seem to be genuinely successful at picking girls up.
The "pick up scenes" are filmed at clubs using "hidden" cameras and VH1 triple-dog swears that there are no actors or actresses present and that everything is as it appears. Of course, the show seems to follow such an obvious "meta-script" that it's hard to believe that VH1 doesn't creatively edit the raw footage in order to create narratives. Also, the show has had controversy in the past when it was revealed that the "nerds" that they started with maybe weren't all that nerdy and that maybe they had lied a little bit about their initial inexperience and ineptness.
Keep with me here, I promise it gets good!
Season two just finished airing, and as Chris "Moon" Moon an Dan "Monzy" Aminzade -- good friends and fellow fans of the show -- were visiting recently, we decided to download the episodes off of the internet and watch them for fun. Little did I know what I would find.
To cut to the chase: I know one of the guys on the show. Oh yeah, I do. Where do I know him from? If you guessed "Harvey Mudd College," no points for you as that's way too easy. As Andy pointed out when he saw the show, "I feel like I went to school with all of these guys." Anyway, one of the contestants introduced himself as "Simeon" and was 27 years old and from LA. Sure, there are plenty of guys named Simeon who are 27 and from LA, but how many are named Simeon Moses? There can be only one.
Simeon Moses was a prospetive student at Mudd when I was a Freshman. He came to visit the campus for a couple of days and was randomly assigned to stay with Neville and Mike, who lived in the same dorm as I did. Neville told me that when Simeon first showed up to the dorm room, he saw Neville using a graphing calculator to do some homework and his first words were, "Hey, is that a TI-85? Do you have any games we could trade??" The legend of Simeon Moses grew from there.
A lot of us met him during his visit, and I don't think anyone could forget him. He was hyperactive, incredibly geeky (even by Mudd standards), but very friendly and outgoing. He was a really memorable character, so much so that all future prospective students were referred to as "Simeon Moses" or "Simeon Moses II" or "Simeon Moses Prime." He became almost an instant legend at college, and although Mike and Neville were not exactly sad to see him go after his visit, we were all excited by the fact that he promised to send in his acceptane letter as soon as he got home and that he was coming to Mudd! I'm not sure how I know this, but ultimately, I think he failed calculus the second semester of his senior year and the admission offer was rescinded, thus denying him his rightful place in the Harvey Mudd Pantheon, but his place in our hearts was secure. Ironically, "Simeon Moses Prime" did attend Harvey Mudd College, so his memory lived on.
So, Simeon Moses was a contestant on the Pick Up Artist (Season 2). How did he do? Oh, he only won the show and became The Pick Up Artist!!!!
If you've every watched the show and though, "man, those guys are phonies," let me assure you: Simeon Moses is no phonie. You can judge for yourself whether or not he becomes a successful pick up artist or if VH1 has just suggestively edited the footage or used hired actresses, but you cannot question where he came from.
Pretty bizarre....
I know it's been forever since I last posted, and I know this isn't much of a post, but I promise more in the future. The following topics will be covered: French Rap; Chris Moon and Dan's Visit; Me, Chris, and Loren's visit to the Alps, and more!
Mystery is either really crazy, really smart, really full of it, or all of the above. Just a quick look at his picture might make you lean towards "crazy," but if you watch the show, it certainly seems like he is roughly as successful at picking up loose women at bars as he claims. Don't worry, though, I don't watch the show because I'm a dedicated disciple of his attempting to learn his technique and apply it here in Switzerland -- watch the show enough and the whole thing is fairly ridiculous looking -- but rather I watch it for the nerdy charm of the goofy competitors that they choose for the show. The nine or ten contestants start off the show as the nerdiest, most inept bunch of dweebs you've ever seen; early episodes involve the guys going to a bar and generally getting shot down, doing horribly embarrassing things, or just looking foolish. As the weakest link is eliminated each episode, and the guys receive "training" from Mystery each week, by the end of the series, the final few left seem to be genuinely successful at picking girls up.
The "pick up scenes" are filmed at clubs using "hidden" cameras and VH1 triple-dog swears that there are no actors or actresses present and that everything is as it appears. Of course, the show seems to follow such an obvious "meta-script" that it's hard to believe that VH1 doesn't creatively edit the raw footage in order to create narratives. Also, the show has had controversy in the past when it was revealed that the "nerds" that they started with maybe weren't all that nerdy and that maybe they had lied a little bit about their initial inexperience and ineptness.
Keep with me here, I promise it gets good!
Season two just finished airing, and as Chris "Moon" Moon an Dan "Monzy" Aminzade -- good friends and fellow fans of the show -- were visiting recently, we decided to download the episodes off of the internet and watch them for fun. Little did I know what I would find.
To cut to the chase: I know one of the guys on the show. Oh yeah, I do. Where do I know him from? If you guessed "Harvey Mudd College," no points for you as that's way too easy. As Andy pointed out when he saw the show, "I feel like I went to school with all of these guys." Anyway, one of the contestants introduced himself as "Simeon" and was 27 years old and from LA. Sure, there are plenty of guys named Simeon who are 27 and from LA, but how many are named Simeon Moses? There can be only one.
Simeon Moses was a prospetive student at Mudd when I was a Freshman. He came to visit the campus for a couple of days and was randomly assigned to stay with Neville and Mike, who lived in the same dorm as I did. Neville told me that when Simeon first showed up to the dorm room, he saw Neville using a graphing calculator to do some homework and his first words were, "Hey, is that a TI-85? Do you have any games we could trade??" The legend of Simeon Moses grew from there.
A lot of us met him during his visit, and I don't think anyone could forget him. He was hyperactive, incredibly geeky (even by Mudd standards), but very friendly and outgoing. He was a really memorable character, so much so that all future prospective students were referred to as "Simeon Moses" or "Simeon Moses II" or "Simeon Moses Prime." He became almost an instant legend at college, and although Mike and Neville were not exactly sad to see him go after his visit, we were all excited by the fact that he promised to send in his acceptane letter as soon as he got home and that he was coming to Mudd! I'm not sure how I know this, but ultimately, I think he failed calculus the second semester of his senior year and the admission offer was rescinded, thus denying him his rightful place in the Harvey Mudd Pantheon, but his place in our hearts was secure. Ironically, "Simeon Moses Prime" did attend Harvey Mudd College, so his memory lived on.
So, Simeon Moses was a contestant on the Pick Up Artist (Season 2). How did he do? Oh, he only won the show and became The Pick Up Artist!!!!
If you've every watched the show and though, "man, those guys are phonies," let me assure you: Simeon Moses is no phonie. You can judge for yourself whether or not he becomes a successful pick up artist or if VH1 has just suggestively edited the footage or used hired actresses, but you cannot question where he came from.
Pretty bizarre....
I know it's been forever since I last posted, and I know this isn't much of a post, but I promise more in the future. The following topics will be covered: French Rap; Chris Moon and Dan's Visit; Me, Chris, and Loren's visit to the Alps, and more!
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