The Rolling Stones

Voodoo Lounge

Rolling Stones Records/Virgin

“Blinded by Rainbows”

(M. Jagger/K. Richards, 1994)

Did you ever feel the pain

That he felt upon the cross

Did you ever feel the knife

Tearing flesh that’s oh so soft

Did you ever touch the night

Did you ever count the cost

Do you hide away the fear

Put down paradise as lost

Yeah you’re blinded by rainbows

Watching the wind blow

Blinded by rainbows

Do you dream at night

Do you sleep at night

I doubt it

Did you ever feel the blast

As the semtex bomb goes off

Do you ever hear the screams

As the limbs are all torn off

Did you ever kiss the child

Who just saw his father shot

Do you ever shed a tear

As the war drags on and on

Do you ever touch the night

Or is it just another job

Do you feel the final hours

Put down paradise as lost

Yeah you’re blinded by rainbows

And faces in windows

Blinded by rainbows

Do you dream at night

Do you sleep at night

I doubt it

Do you ever fear the night

Could it be the war is lost

Do you fear the final hour

Do you kneel before the cross

You’re blinded by rainbows

And watching the wind blow

Blinded by rainbows

Do you dream at night

Do you scream at night

Do you smell of fear

Is your conscience clear

Are you caked in sweat

Are your clothes all wet

Do you see the light

Is the end in sight

See the face of Christ

Enter paradise

I doubt it

things i learned thanks to my referall logs

by tony pierce

the reverse cowgirl was at the la press club drinkfest and wanted to ask me why i felt shunned that the LA Times didnt interview any LA bloggers for their California Living section feature on blogging. she says that she was afraid that if we didnt get along i wouldnta asked her to have lattes with us later. somehow i thought 6’2″ supervixens, who wrote very sexy things for a variety of publications wouldnt be intimidated by lil ole me and my friendly come-hither ‘fro. i guess we were both wrong.

a peppy blog called “day old bread store,” linked to me about something i wrote a few days ago. appropo.

fat nathan loved the fact that i linked him in a primo part of my blog. he said it was like the feeling he got hitting his first homer in little league. skinny guys like me never had that feeling, but im glad he was happy. im pretty big with fat guy readers, im starting to see.

a los angeles gay guy agreed with me about the l.a. times sucking. he has a cat called Big Puss and Little Puss which reminds me of Karisa’s Bad Kitty and Good Kitty. Good Kitty, she tells me, is acting mighty gay, humping his brother and all. i told her, maybe he’ s just pussy-whipped. and i laughed and laughed. but she didnt laugh. ashley tells me my jokes suck. i caught her covering her ears the other night.

laughing boy straight outta massachusettes, predicts that i will be dating Apple spokesperson ellen feiss by thanksgiving. although it’s true that i do have an attraction to the pasty, stoney, blue eyed dreamy types, meesh and moxie can tell you that due to my terrible ego, i get very competitive to hot babes who not only have better websites than i, but who also have own fan sites! fall from grace a little, ellen and then maybe i’ll change my mind. with that said, i am quite popular among the massholes. gratefully.

this superhot 23 yr old from austin has me in her links section and i have no idea why.

these superhot goth twins from san antonio still hate me, but keep my writings in their archives, and i really cant understand why either of those things are true. maybe texans are loco. hopefully sara will conclude something along those lines after she has settled down a spell.

her nickname is fat sarah but you can tell by her photo essay that she doesnt live up to her name. but sarah says hi to me vurtually, over at the dub side. right back at you, spartan girl. told you i do well with fat folks.

xfoo thinks im amazing. what i think is amazing are those blue periods.

and finally i learned that im this guy’s number one referal. even when he’s not putting up pictures of hot babes next to his posts, he still whips my ass. and i love how he has a real-time referall log that seems to publish (also in real-time) right to his page. magic!

p.s. anyone who wants to pick me up at my house tonight after work and drive me across the street from zancau chicken to pick up my laundry should email me. cuz then i’ll be their best friend.

i grew up in chicago, my favorite paper was the Tribune,

for most of my life i remember Bob Greene as the nostalgiac-infested milquetoasty columnist for the Trib, and not surprisingly i never liked him as a writer.

until saturday.

saturday squeaky-clean bob green, so much a goody-two-shoes that he makes the narrator of The Wonder Years sound like Marilyn Manson, handed in his resignation to the Tribune after an anonymous email (that did not mention Greene’s name) led management to believe that the columnist had an “inappropriate” sexual relationship with a teen girl of legal consentable age several years ago.

bob greene, who makes bob costas look like ozzy osbourne, allegedly met the girl while doing a story, took her out to dinner, and engaged in sex, the Trib reports today. everything was cool until the woman tried to reach greene twice this year, according to the Trib, who in retaliation sicked the FBI on her!

that prompted the email, most would suggest, which prompted the investigation by Trib Corp’s HR dept. and the Trib’s managing editor, and very quickly Greene’s resignation.

but my question is, what are they not telling us?

since when is a columnist having sex with a barely legal girl reason enough to step down from a artistically mediocre but wildly successful syndicated career that included reporting for “Nightline,” “Oprah,” and AP? didnt our last President have sex with a young woman of legal age and got to still be President? is writing for the Tempo section of the Trib a more honorable and refined profession applicable only to the highest echelon of chicago society– or at least those without sin?

Greene was, ironically, hailed for several columns and a series that he wrote for the Trib denouncing child abuse which made him a great guest for Oprah whenever she wanted to talk about tortured and exploited children or child abuse. With a gigantic career based upon an aw-shucks tone of blue collar tales of midwestern values, couldn’t one little fling many years ago get absolved after a teary apology and a heartfelt acceptance by his huge, loyal, forgiving following?

or was it more than just a little fling?

i smell something curious in chicago.

so we head over to the Tribune’s arch-rivals, the Murdoch-owned Sun-Times, who today reports that Greene’s 1984 book “Good Morning, Merry Sunshine,” about his daughter’s first year was released to the surprise of many of his colleagues who, the Sun-Times claims, didn’t know he was married or a father. say what?

equally mysterious comes from the NYT which writes, “The dismissal of a journalist for personal conduct, as opposed to professional lapses, is uncommon,” and they include a snippet from the Tribune spokesperson, who suddenly doesn’t want to speak.

“Gary Weitman, a spokesman for the Tribune Company, which publishes the newspaper, said yesterday: ‘We’re not going to say anything more than what the statement is. He is no longer an employee,'” reports the paper of record.

some spokesman.

my favorite quote from this midwestern meltdown comes from my favorite shock jock, steve dahl, who paved the way for howard stern so smoothly that dahl is the only active dj who stern doesn’t diss.

from the Sun-Time: “Popular radio host Steve Dahl, who, with Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, made comic fodder of Greene’s often-sentimental columns in a weekly ‘Bob Greene Watch’ segment on WCKG-FM (105.9), said he was surprised by Sunday’s announcement.

” ‘I always thought he’d get fired just for being a bad columnist,’ Dahl said.”

Exactly. But now Greene is suddenly interesting. His resignation has left those at Romenesko’s letters section scratching their heads and me wondering why Murdoch hasn’t scooped up this good-boy gone bad.

The main reason i disliked Greene was because he always seemed so sticky sweet and fake writing about the wonderfulness of this checker game in the park, with this story about a woman who has made americana bunting for 35 years. Greene is a guy who went on the road with Alice Cooper in ’75, why would he bore us with middle of the road snooze fodder despite walking the same halls with the dean of chicago columnists Mike Royko? hadnt he learned anything?

well now i want Greene to come clean. i want him to show the world that he is a writer. writers cover both sides of the human experience, good and bad, and columnists are given the wonderful benefit of including their own personalities into their narrative. warts and all. Finally Opie has a wart, a huge one, apparently, and i want to see it.

Squeeze that mother and tell us all about it, bob greene, just like your forefathers would have done, just like you probably are dying to do, just like everyone wants you to.

finally you have found something worthwhile to write about.

you think a middle aged man getting all worked up over a 18 or 19 year old girl isnt something that happens from time to time in the midwest? you dont think that the guilt that must have followed this veteran writer wasnt unbelievable? you dont think theres any modern day drama that includes phone calls and emails from the young woman which culminates in the FBI and an anonymous email to the tribune’s website tip line?

bob, if you dont write this down and submit it right now, then you really dont know much about what is newsworthy or interesting, or timely and my man steve dahl is right, you probably should have been fired a long time ago.

i know it might be embarrassing. but that never stopped you from writing all those bad columns and appearing on oprah.

{update: Instapundit, who is always on top of these things, has a link to Boomer-bashing column about this matter. Scalzi also agrees with me that Greene talents were minimal, and adds that the writer “telegraphed” his daliance in a novel he wrote about several men leaving their families to hit the road and find themselves… and hot babes.

ashley says i dont look 108

i say that will earn you another night’s stay at the casa del vista.

the daisy princess brought both the bears and the raiders good luck this weekend and i told her that her reward would be a milk shake at johnny rockets on melrose and a sweet blog entry all about her.

ashley is a superhero of her own. all the cool kids love her. as you might know, we have a pretty special relationship. i let her date other dudes and i only get sorta jealous, she lets me date and when she gets in my house she goes straight to the caller ID and says “who’s this? who’s this! OMG get enough calls from this girl?” i think it’s funny.

on saturday me and jeanine went down to the historic jewelry district of downtown LA and we picked up some jewels to make my mom a necklace for her 60th birthday, which is coming up. as a beverly hills jeweler, jeanine travels downtown once a week and knows her way through the maze of bizarre bazaars. everyone has codes on their merchandise. when we found something and asked the lady how much, she looked at the three letter code and came up with a number. it was fascinating.

i think we got a pretty decent deal, and great quality and then jeanine made it that night. and on the side she made ashley a necklace which we surprised her with on sunday afternoon. unfortunately my camera is still in the shop, but i will be happy to post a picture or two later this week when ashley uploads pics from her cam.

sunday morning we had breakfast and watched the bears eek out a win over the falcons. then we picked up her necklace and zoomed over to drew barrymore’s favorite burrito place and made it back to my house to watch the new anna nicole episode (have i mentioned that i think her lawyer, howard k. stern is a massive dweeb? almost ruins the whole show.) and then we watched the incredible Sopranos season premiere. then we watched the chris rock “bigger and blacker” show from ’99 which ashley had never seen somehow and she loved.

we adjourned to the boudoir as we both had to wake up early this morn. ashley is a perfect angel at dawn. such a natural beauty. she chirps good morning. she sings little melodies. she clears the tables of wine bottles and taco shells before i can even get out of the shower. its sorta like dreaming. she pulls a brush through her hair and the glitter is activated. we drove to my office this morning and first i wanted to fill her tank with some gas and i swear to you, this hooker is in the mini market at the gas station, and she says, “honey, would you mind driving me down just a few blocks?” and i said that i wouldn’t mind, but the girl who checks my caller ID might.

she laughed. the armenian behind the cash register laughed. the two mexican girls purchasing frappuchinos in their plaid skirts laughed.

then the armenian said that my pay pal credit card was denied. then everyone laughed again. except for the hooker.

and me.

the armenian said, “for you, tony pierce, i give you $12 gas on the house because you make me laugh so much.” the girls gave me one of their frappuchinos and the hooker showed me her g string.

aren’t you happy nothing in here is true?