at the beach house and ive been reading it on my commutes to work.

I had been reading the paper, but I stopped paying for it and even though they kept delivering it, there is a small part of me that is still a Christian and I don’t want to go to Hell over the friggin LA Times. Plus, books are just so much more convenient in a crowded bus or a walk or while waiting for my ship to come in.

It’s a crazy book. Hopeless romantic and yet bitterly cynical. Elements of heavy drinking and even possible drug use(!).

“Take good care of her.”

“Is that all you’ve got to tell me?”

“One small thing more: the get’s no good.”

“There isn’t any get yet.”

“It’s kinder to shoot the get.”

“Kinder?”

“Better.”

p. 65, Scribner paperback edition.

The fact that this convo takes place in Madrid near the Prado warms my heart because I had such a wonderful time there not too long ago with my irreplaceable friends and my sexy ex.

But back to the book. I miss Hem. I know I talk shit about him and only talk about Buk, but only because very few ever write about Buk and writing about Hem is like writing about how great “Citizen Kane” is.

“Garden of Eden” was his last novel. Unfinished. Narcissistic. Sexy as hell. and Dirty. I don’t know what’s going on with the chick wanting to cut her hair off and get tanned to nearly black and pretending to be a boy – even in bed. And requesting that her young husband pretend to be a girl. But it’s nice to see Hem even more twisted than ever. What a sick little puppy you were, Papa. So many lines to read between in his books. As in soooooooooooo many.

And who doesn’t love how he drinks. He really does have so much class. I don’t know why, when I was younger I thought that it was more heroic to champion the Everyman and his beer and scoff the young rich white American abroad who’d know all about wines and champagne and schnapps and all that, but now that im older i appreciate the educated. Maybe cuz I know of the subtleties a bit now, and appreciate them. And not because I have any class, I don’t. It’s just all part of the grand dance and the romance.

I will be returning to Madrid again one day and I totally appreciate the fact that Hem took his time when he was in Europe and wrote about it the way he did because unlike the US that changes every 5-7 years, Europe hardly ever changes. Probably cuz their workers are so lazy. So it’s great to read about a journey taken 80 years ago and the same art is on the same walls and the same Fondas are still trying to gyp the American tourists out of their anchovies on the little bread plates.

And it’s really nice to know that hot girls are treated exactly the same way today as they were back then, regardless of what the country is called.

But sweetest to my heart, it’s great to know that the undying need to get fucked up has been flowing through the veins of Americans and others forever.

Ashley made me feel a hundred this morn when she said that she got her first kiss 5 years ago.

“That was a quarter of my life ago,” she said.

And then took a picture in front of her father’s bookshelf, who apparently likes to crack open a book or two himself.

Hopefully he only collects those Chinese swords.

That’s right, I am a hundred years old.

rode the elevator with TSK this morn. it’s been a while. neither of us looked that amazing so early. i lie, i looked sweet as hell. ha, i wish.

one of the things that i promised to myself that i would do more of this year on this site is AOL IM interview people. i emailed a nice young girl whose story you should know if you havent known already and she emailed me back. but when i got home to actually chat with her she was online but blew me off. maybe she read a few of my latest entries and got scared off. win some, lose some.

so today ashley is going to drive through the desert with her ex-boyfriend who will deliver her to her newly purchased condo in newport – not irvine as earlier misreported. she cracked me up this morning by calling me at 7am complaining of insomnia cuz she cant wait to get here. she said she stalked me and looked at all my metafilter posts because i told her that some guy wrote that he — whatever.

it’s bagel day, i got nothing to say, other than props to Kid Rock for busting with the belt buckle. apparently the chicks dig it.