Tag: jj abrams

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

So, I was able to sit down for a couple of years and pump out a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

And now, you can follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp. This week saw all sorts of conversations about the horribleness of Wolverine and the promise that Star Trek would easily dethrone the big cat with claws at the box office this weekend.

***CONTEST – THE FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN***

What was just a fleeting opportunity to promote another DVD turned into something of a curiosity to me.

I had never heard of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, for the most obvious reason that it was on the BBC in the late 70’s, but after watching a few clips I have to admit I am more curious to watch this and am wanting to give you rascals the chance to see what could be just the thing to get me going as all my other shows on television are dipping below the surface, not to return until the fall.

I have a few copies of the series on DVD. If you’d like a chance to win one just shoot me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and let me know your favorite BBC program. It’s as easy as that.

More about the show:
Michael Scott of “The Office” didn’t write the book on career disillusionment. Back in the “˜70s, Reginald Perrin was fighting his own demons at Sunshine Desserts. The BBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin” starred brilliant actor Leonard Rossiter (Barry Lyndon, 2001: A Space Odyssey) and aired from 1976-1979 to great critical and popular acclaim. The darkly-comedic series featured an outstanding cast of Britain’s best ““ Pauline Yates (Darling, “Peacekeepers”), Sue Nichols (“Coronation Street”, “Crossroads”), and Geoffrey Palmer (A Fish Called Wanda, Tomorrow Never Dies). This spring, E1 Entertainment brings all 21 episodes, plus “The Reginald Perrin Christmas Special” to DVD for the first time. THE FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN: THE COMPLETE SERIES arrives in-stores as a 4-DVD set on May 12 for $59.98 SRP.

The DVD release of “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin” is sure to excite classic British comedy fans, as will the revival of the series by the BBC this fall. BBC One has announced that Martin Clunes (“Doc Martin,” Shakespeare in Love) will play the title character in “Perrin,” which will be written by the original series writer and creator David Nobbs with “Men Behaving Badly” writer Simon Nye.

Eccentric sales executive Reginald Perrin is disillusioned with his life and unrewarding job at Sunshine Desserts. As the stresses of his mundane life surface, he pushes the boundaries of acceptable behavior at work. Finally, Reggie reaches a breaking-point, his mid-life crisis leading him to an extreme attempt at escape. He leaves his clothes on a bench at the beach, and fakes his own suicide. Instead of starting a new life somewhere else, Reggie tours the countryside assuming a variety of disguises ““ from buck-toothed pig farmer to pompous explorer. In his attempt at finding fulfillment, he discovers he truly misses his wife, and he returns home to start a brand new life. But, will he fall back into the same old routine again and again?

STAR TREK – REVIEWED

“How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.” – Isaac Asimov

After thinking about the highest compliment I can confer on this film it would be this: I want to see this movie again.

Something I didn’t realize I’ve missed after all the films I’ve seen in the last year is the innate sensation after the credits roll when you know you could sit through another viewing. That moment when you honestly could sit back down in the theater and watch the movie all over again with the same pleasure as you did before it started the first time. What JJ Abrams has managed to create is a summer film that bridges the chasm between those who have simmered in the Star Trek universe broth for decades, and explains to some degree why the franchise was in such dire straits as the latter films sputtered towards extinction, and those of us who just want to be entertained by a thin story and giant explosions.

JJ delivers on all the elements necessary to crafting a great mass market summer film starting with an opening reminiscent of BAMBI, FINDING NEMO and any other Disney film when a child needs to learn the tragedy of life from the get-go. What the first 10 minutes feel like is JJ finding his groove and to lay the foundation of what’s to come; the sequence establishes the tenor and mood of the entire film. So many times you have an opening sequence that seems so well-crafted that the next hour and 50 minutes couldn’t possibly live up to the great first chapter when you realize there was never enough in the tank to go more than a mile. JJ seems ballasted by not only knowing what is needed for every moment to feel weighty, in that every moment feels like it belongs and adds something extra to the overall whole, but his world as he’s creating it feels real.

Now, reality as I’ve come to define it after seeing STAR TREK is one that has rules but has to convince others to believe the reality. Keeping in mind we’re talking about warping star ships, phasers, drills that are miles long that can burrow into the center of a planet, interdimensional time warps and scads of other nuanced things that simply are not real. However, JJ and Co. manage those observations in a delicate balance of delivering superb special effects but not leaning on them like a crutch, an awful disease that many directors have succumbed to as of late. It’s the actors, deigned with the opportunity to bring a fantastical script to an even more apparent reality, that deserve some notice and praise.

Chris Pine (James Kirk), who up until this point charmed me in his turn as a twisted and demonic hillbilly in SMOKIN’ ACES, does a superb job playing the would be/will be Shatner. He carries himself with a hint, a whiff, of obnoxiousness that makes his role one that exudes a swagger rolled up with the classic underdog trope of a boy who needs to become a man. His boyhood mischief, his bar room brawls are nothing more than flimsy set-ups to show the depths of which he’s lost in his own PR and male bravado as a Lothario that never can seal the deal with Uhura (Zoe Saldana). But, and this is key, it’s the moment when Kirk meets Bones (Karl Urban) when you can feel the velocity of this film taking hold and never relenting. It’s also the time when we meet up with a young Spock (Zachary Quinto) who lives on planet Vulcan. What’s silly, of course, is to suppose this is all happening on a real planet removed from the safety of Earth’s natural berms and landscape but Abrams wills and makes Vulcan seem like a planet; the effects here are slight but rich in impact. He gives his situations, and all situations from start to finish, a polish, a thin veneer, of reality. Yes, Vulcan exists. Yes, cops of the future do ride motorcycles that fly. Yes, it is possible to beam from a ship to a planet’s surface; all the while, mind you, of never compromising the intentions of the actors in the scenes they’re in.

Kirk’s eventual rise to power as the ship’s captain is an intriguing one if not completely predictable, and there is a lot of goofiness to be had in the moments leading up to the logical blocks that are put in front of him from even being allowed ON the Enterprise, but these are all quibbles with the film’s focus on creating a summer movie. You could find yourself straining at wondering at the logical issues concerning the film’s villain Nero (a one-noted and camouflaged performance by Eric Bana) and his actions, however, this would take away from the sheer delight in wondering at the sight of John Cho (Sulu) kicking in some Romulan head during the film’s first real hand-to-hand combat scene, witnessing the fate of the first red shirt to go into battle and feeling the physics involved to make me believe that this all seems plausible as a viewer. Suspension of disbelief is not enough in this film as JJ takes the effects to a level that should cement this movie’s place as one of the more intensely enjoyable movies of the summer movie season.
[ad#contestbox]
As well, when you consider all the personalities that need to be juggled, from introducing an entire ship’s worth of STAR TREK regulars to the plot that can get a touch convoluted if not completely unbelievable, Abrams manages to make you care about each one of them. Now, the depths to which we care can be debated but for the core cast of regulars there isn’t one throw-away moment for any of them especially when you consider the handful of characters that seemed to be much for lesser directors of recent summer films. It is important to give everyone the chance to be meaningful to the film’s progression, for if they weren’t why even be included in a script and, at that point, if they were I could guarantee a troubled film, and JJ does that. From Chekov’s minor miracles to Simon Pegg’s (Scotty) delightful and atmospheric comedic relief at a moment when the film delivers one of the more emotionally charged scenes STAR TREK is a record that knows what speed to play at without ever speeding up or slowing down unnecessarily. The movie is filled with enough crags and crevices which bring us to the penultimate moment but to explain them would spoil the fun of witnessing the birth of a franchise that finally is able to appeal to those like me who are familiar with the characters but aren’t beholden to the rigid back history of the iconic series. This isn’t to say, though, the film doesn’t have some issues.

The musical cues seem a little too ostentatious at times and threatens to take over the production and, unless you’re Ray Charles, there is no way not to notice the copious use the many lens flares that JJ seems to use as if he were a little kid just shown how to fire a gun; he loves using both almost to the detriment to the picture. The writing, as well, could be picked apart and dissected like a splayed open frog in biology class but, really, if you’re going to take issue with a summer film which is specifically designed to generate income and to be one of the few movies to help a studio make its annual nut you need to understand a few theories of basic economics. Which isn’t to say JJ has to make an inferior product, and he absolutely does not, but it’s important in understanding that the movie is not some artistic vision that can stand up to scrutiny if you were to compare it to a film like MILK. These kinds of films, these summer films, are made to entertain and to hopefully coming back for more. I already know this film is a special one in that I am already thinking about when I can see it again.

Forget WOLVERINE, STAR TREK is the real beginning of your summer.

ERIC LANGE of LOST

There’s this great Night Court episode that has always stayed with me ever since I saw it air decades ago. Harry, played by Harry Anderson, has to convince a very deranged woman who is brandishing a grenade in his court that what she sees on television is not reality. The blend of humor and the very not funny threat of someone dying was emblematic of a series that blurred the line of what a sitcom was. So, too, is my love affair of Lost.

A program that has dared me to leave it more than once and a program that keeps finding ways to bring me back, Lost provides audiences with the kind of drama that looks to challenge traditional methods of storytelling on television. So, it was with great anticipation that I was able to talk to Eric Lange, who you all know by the name Stuart Radzinsky and rocks a beard like no other on that show, wherein I was able to find out more about the man who has become synonymous with supreme jerkitude on the series. The “others” may be mysterious and wanton in their violence and malevolence towards others but Lange is just plain mean.

It was a pleasure, then, to talk to the actor playing Radzinsky. What I found was an actor just excited to be playing a role like this, in a series like this. His passion for the craft was something refreshing when you consider how far gone other performers can get when they stop seeing the ephemeral winning lotto ticket in their hand. Eschewing any question that even tiptoes the line of “What can be expect from the season finale…” I instead wanted to know more about him as an actor, a working actor, and what this opportunity means to his career.

From ditching the series as a viewer to realizing the importance of bug spray there couldn’t be a better jerk on television who I hope finds success after he finds his way off the island. The series finale airs this upcoming Wednesday, May 13th on ABC.

CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I’ve been reading a little bit about you as an actor and what led you here to Lost. I’m really just curious to find out, at least to start off things with what happened from 1998 and 2001 where there doesn’t seem to be much from you?

ERIC LANGE: ’98 and 2001? Well, to be honest, when I first moved to LA I couldn’t get an agent or get anyone to represent me theatrically so I was doing a lot of theatre which is sort of my roots ““ theatre and commercials ““ and every now and then I got friends to come to a play I was in and toss me a job here and there. That’s what the Bold and the Beautiful is and my early, early jobs. But really they were just from people that knew me at the time.

So it’s really all I was doing.

Then after that it just of moved into commercials. I was doing commercials for about 7 years here and making a living that way and saying I was a working actor but I obviously wanted to be making movies and scripted television. So then I ended up doing another play years later and a friend of mine brought her manager to the play and he picked me up. After that things moved relatively quickly because I had all that time here doing commercials and theatre to just sort of marinate and get ready for the day I was going to be able to get into rooms and I would be able to work relatively quickly. So that’s sort of the reason for that gap.

CS: Certainly after that it looks like Lost is the longest time you’ve spent on scripted television.

LANGE: Yes. I had smaller recurring things on other shows earlier. LAX, the Heather Locklear/Blair Underwood show I was on for just a little bit and just prior to Lost I did a show called 26 Miles which was like a 6 episode pilot basically. It was made to be sold as a half season and then a network or studio would pick up the other half of the season. So, that was 6 episodes and that was my longest stint and now Lost is a little past that, so you are correct.

CS: So how did this come into your life? Was it one of those things where you were just out on auditions or were you asked to audition for it?

LANGE: Yes, my manager called and said you need to audition for this or that and I was particularly excited about this because I wanted to do something on that show for so long I just had the highest respect for it and wanted to be on there. The show I had done previously, the 26 Miles pilot, I had about 6 months before that started and I was going to do it and I had to change rather drastically. My hair was always rather short so I spent all this time growing my hair out and this beard and so I thought if I’m ever going to be on Lost, now is the time to do it. I got the beard, the long hair, I can pop out of the jungle. I could say I was on the plane, or I was an accountant, or something.

(Laughs)

So, I just went in to audition. It’s not a typical audition with them. Usually you go to meet the producers in an audition ““ and the writer ““ but with Lost because everybody is in Hawaii you’re really just reading for the casting director and somebody films you and they mail the tape off and you either get it or you don’t. So it felt like such a simple process for what became such a great job. You know?

CS: Yes, and an interesting character too. We all know how he ends up but it’s really interesting to see how he gets to where that finite end is. Could you speak a little bit about how… I read in a previous interview where there really wasn’t so much direction given to you regarding these origins of the character but you were allowed to make him up – as it were?

LANGE: The original audition ““ I know I’ve spoken about this before ““ but they didn’t even have the name Radzinski on the audition side it was this Marty Jankowski guy. So that’s who I was auditioning for initially. So, when I got the job they called and said you are playing Radzinski and the name sort of rang a bell. I wasn’t sure why it was so secretive but that’s how a lot of things are on that show. I ended up googling him and found all these web pages about him and immediately got very nervous about the shoes I had to fill.

It was evident that there were a lot of fans that were curious about him and what he knows and why he offs himself and all these different things and I though, boy, I have a lot of people to please. So I ended up calling my manager and said is there something they want me to know? Now, knowing where we are going to take him eventually, or if they will, knowing where he ends up in the bible of Lost, is there something they want me to know now that I could put in play and the answer was a pretty definitive no. They said, “No, if we want him to know something we’ll tell him.” It was good in a sense because I had the information about where the guy’s going to eventually go and I had the scripts and the words they give me are rather strong clues to what kind of person he is. But I did get to work a fair amount on my little back story and sort of create this guy from scratch. The guy we’ve heard about but never seen.

CS: And you mentioned something about Lost having something close to a bible. The pantheon of fans out there…that there’s no detail that goes unnoticed with the people who really dig this show. How was that knowing that every tick, every peculiarity is poured over? I don’t know if you ever now gone back to see what people are talking about and see if people are really on the mark or off the mark with about what’s to come later on in the season?

LANGE: You mean in terms of what they were picking up about him before him even being seen or since I started on the show?

CS: That’s interesting. I would be interested in hearing both. First of all, we caught glimpses of him and now that you are fully realized ““ what people are saying now about the character.

LANGE: Well, you know. Let me think. I just want to make sure about what you are asking. You are asking how I feel about what people are saying about the guy now that he’s out there?

CS: Correct. Now that people have had the chance to see you, what are they saying about you?

LANGE: Well, I don’t have a lot of fans. Let’s put it that way.

(Laughs)

I’m hoping people are enjoying it but obviously he’s a thorn in the side of our heroes at this point and it is interesting that he’s so hot blooded. That does contribute to someone who could put a shotgun in his mouth. He’s a wildly passionate individual and it was sort of assumed early on that the guy had some wild knowledge about a lot of things and now we find out that he was the architect of the Swan so he’s been credited with being a genius or scientist. But, no, the few things I’ve been sent from friends and from what I’ve seen on the internet is pretty hard to read sometimes.

(Laughs)

I’ve been called all sorts of names. He’s a problem child but in terms of my fears about living up to the expectations of the fans. I just said I’m going to make what I make and hopefully they can get behind it. The thing to me about playing people like that is as long as there’s justification for the way they act, people can get behind it. And with him, we are sort of catching him in the middle of a period for him. In the middle of building the Swan and his work with Darma and so I just created this thing in my head that he was sort of told a story that he was going to be this big deal there and when he got there there were all these other people running around and touching his stuff and running projects and he sort of wanted to run the show so that’s the place I’m taking it from now but there’s got to be ways to justify the way he’s such a complete pompous ass he is and certainly leaving people curious enough without just hating the guy and writing him off, which is a danger.

CS: Correct. And this is one of the, and I don’t want to say tightest written series on television for sounding too hyperbolic, but looking at the scripts you are being given week after week, how do you respond to something when you are used to going on some of these shows, doing an episode and then leaving. Looking at a script where you are not allowed to know some things but know others… how does that all work in a cohesive sense when there are so many things going on at once?

LANGE: It’s tricky because you don’t know anything really. You know that at the end of some episodes that if there’s a story line left untold you assume that they will come back to it. So you do see some sort of arch but don’t know exactly where it’s going to go but it’s actually kind of exciting. I remember being in Hawaii at the hotel and the day that the scripts would come out running down from the Lobby wondering what the heck am I going to be doing this week. It’s been exciting. When you do one spot on one show you are gone. You don’t get that kind of thrill.

Every now and then it’s a little jarring, oh my goodness the things they have me saying and doing, the character they are forming as I find it in the script week to week and sometimes I find it a bit jarring and I have to go into my justification pile as say why is this important to him. And the bigger picture that this is sort of like war to him. He’s sort of like a general in an army and there are possible enemies lurking around and gaining information and that’s life and death. A lot of things on Lost aren’t life and death. But it’s a pretty curious thing. I sort of see him as a policeman who is jus trying to protect what they built and what they are working on and he just happens to get quite agitated when things don’t go his way, if any of that makes any sense.

CS: It does. You are now the 4th person I’ve talked to from the cast in the many years it’s been on. You hit a central theme when you say it’s all a matter of life and death and everyone who I’ve talked to says life off the set and in the set while you are working on it couldn’t been a more congenial and open and warm place to be.

LANGE: Absolutely.

CS: How have you responded to that sort of climate as an actor?

LANGE: Coming from doing one show at a time, mainly a guest star here and there, you sort of get thrown into this family that you don’t know but they have been working together for years and you are trying to look like a seamless part of this giant machine they have created. Sometimes the families are friendly and sometimes because they know you are leaving that week there is really no attempt to make any conversation or environment where you might feel more comfortable. Going into Lost when I first got the job I only knew I was doing two episodes. That was the deal. So I thought, well two episodes but I was a little intimidated because of the size of the show and the scope of that show and I thought, “My God, what if these people are monsters? What if their ego’s have gone to their head because they are on this giant train that is Lost?” And I could not have found anything farther from the truth.

I mean, from day one they were the most down to earth, friendly, there was no ego involved, just acceptance and I felt like I was part of the crew right away. They were really wonderful in that way. And when you are comfortable like that you are just able to do better work. You feel better about yourself, you can trust in what you are doing better and it’s just nice to have that support. But throughout my entire stint there I just grew closer and closer to those people and have a huge amount of respect for them on their behavior on the set and their generosity really. And, the crew is the same way. The crew is a lot of Hawaii based people, very down to earth, very kind and really it is funny how sort of light hearted the set is. It’s not that anyone’s careless about their work but it really is like a very friendly place to be. I had an absolute blast there.

CS: And one of the interesting things about the show itself too, for how many years it’s been on, you don’t hear anything about any petty sort of in-fighting or anything associated with some programs that are on a very long time that most succumb to. Any ideas of how they’ve managed to avoid needless drama?

LANGE: I don’t know. I’m always amazed when I hear about the drama on these things. It’s like you think when you get a job on that level you would just be happy to do you job and go home. I think part of it has to be because they are so removed. Being there in Hawaii is like you own little camp. Like you go to Lost camp. And they are not right there in Hollywood hearing about the bickering that goes on or seeing the power plays that get pulled. I think to some degree everyone just really likes being on the show and happy with their jobs and happy to be a part of something that has such an impact on culture in television. But, I think the distance is a big thing because when you get there it’s not like Hollywood. It’s Hawaii ““ a much different environment and relatively laid-back, peaceful place to be. I think it engenders that on the set as well.

CS: One of the things that I think makes you a perfect representation of Lost is that I read that you bailed on the series for a little while and then came back to it as you boned up on your part. I would think that any Lost fan agrees that this season just outshines ““ the writing is better, it’s tighter…How do you think they found their groove back? What’s your take on why it’s so good this season?

LANGE: Well, my take is that ““ I did. I hate to say it but somewhere at the end of season 3 I thought, boy, they did such a good job the first two seasons at peaking interest and creating mysteries and things I was just so curious about and wanted answers to, and they kept stretching them out.

And now my belief about why they did that is because they didn’t know how long they were going to be on the air. They didn’t know how long they were going to have to keep these things a mystery.

So I think for a while there it sort of felt like they were treading water. I don’t know if this is the fact or not but I got the sense of having to keep these story lines afloat because what if we are doing this for 10 years. And now that they have given themselves an end point, now they see a finish line and they are saying, what do we need to get in before the finish line? And it’s much easier to plot and plan and really build things on a more detailed level I would guess, episode to episode knowing they only have this many to go. So I think they are really sinking their teeth in and challenging audiences and giving everyone a great run for their money and a great piece of television.

CS: One of the other things that you brought up was that largely, the production is very picturesque. It’s done outside in Hawaii. What kind of challenges does filming on a beach, in jungles, in that kind of humidity present from day to day?

LANGE: That’s where I give props to their crew. I see these guys in season 5 and a lot of these guys are Hawaii based so they are used to working in that and used to working some adverse conditions and they are incredibly adapt at it. It’s amazing to watch how quickly and with such economy they can get these major shots set up and pulled off. And people running around the jungle with a steady cam. They are not running on boards. It’s dirt and mud. We had a couple days where it was very rainy and there was just mud everywhere. It’s so humid. I was there at relatively decent conditions given the time of the year. But it was 85 ““ 90 degrees and very humid and you got the bugs in the jungle. There were days I came off the set with many mosquito bites and I learned very quickly to take the bug spray when they offer it to you.

(Laughs)

But it was kind of fun. It feels very genuine as an actor. You are out in that. It’s not a sound stage with a bunch of plastic trees. You are in the jungle. It’s really exciting that way. But, it’s not a show for the faint of heart. There’s not always a trailer right next to where you are shooting but it makes it kind of fun. I always felt bad about complaining about anything because I’ve watched the show and know the things they have been through and this is nothing.

CS: I am amazed when I read an interview when someone from Lost says they are always trying to ply them for information about what’s coming next ““ to the extent that everyone dodges the question. It makes me feel uncomfortable, must make you feel uncomfortable. But, as the series now trends toward the end, do you feel, now that there is an end in sight, that we can expect more of the same of what we’ve been given this season?

LANGE: Oh yeah. My sense of it as it gets from this the new episode forward would be the variable forward the last episode Some Like it Hot was relatively, some themes in there, but it was relatively lighthearted for an episode of Lost. I think it’s partly because from here on out it ups the ante all the time. It becomes a great roller coaster ride. I think that the rest of the episodes to come and the finale should be some stupendous television. It really is quite an action packed end of season from this point forward.

CS: Having already taped the finale, when you reflect on it, how do you see your time on the program itself and what it’s done for you professionally and as an actor?

LANGE: My time on the program? I can’t say anything other than it was a dream job. It really was. To be on a show that you are already a big fan of and to have it go as well as it did for me ““ great challenge as an actor and befriend the people that work on that set ““ it was just nothing short of spectacular for me. And professionally, it really is amazing the difference between working on one level of show (and I won’t name names) and then working on Lost.

When my third episode aired, and I hadn’t really heard anything on the street and I went out over the weekend there must have been 10 different people that came up to me and said, “Are you Radzinsky? Lost is a great show.” So out of the blue people are starting to come up to me and things like that. It’s just a testament to the audience and kind of impact that show has.

You never know where your career is going to go or what opportunities are going to come to you or not but it certainly in terms of it’s stature I think it’s the biggest thing I’ve been a part of. I hope it does great things for my career, obviously but I’m already getting a sense that it is a bit bigger than you in some ways.

CS: I have to imagine ““ I know everyone talks about acting ““ “It’s just a job…It’s just something I do” – do you get some sort of thrill when you get recognized for being on the show?

LANGE: Yeah. I went to some art fair this guy walked by me and just yelled, “Radzinsky!” Like that’s my name, you know? And I turned around and said “Yeah?” and he said “I’m such a fan of the show” and he was with a friend and they introduced themselves and just the nicest people. Coming from theatre you do a role, you do a show and you get instant audience feedback. You get applause, you get laughter, you get validation that what you did meant something to somebody. But on television you never really get that. It just airs and who knows what anyone really thought of it. So it’s always nice to have people come up to you and say, “Hey, I dig the show” or “Dig what you’re doing.”

It’s just confirmation that you are on the right path in some way. It feels good that whatever it is you do makes somebody a little happier than they were before, I guess to put it simply. So yes, it’s a great feeling.