today is raymi the minx’s birthday

shes 23

i often call raymi the worlds greatest blogger but thats only in her dreams.

im of course the worlds greatest blogger, but raymi is my favorite one.

she does everything right. everything perfect. everything the way it should be.

she blogs every day, she shows you everything, she tells you everything.

she writes about being mad or sad or good or bad. she takes photos of just about everything other than her poop.

she videos herself cooking and cleaning and drinking and mixing drinks and dancing and stripping and riding in a car and lounging with sass.

raymis always up to something. shes always doing something.

her blog is in motion.

hyper motion.

its her secret sauce.

it makes it perfect.

it doesnt hurt that she can look great in anything,

it also doesnt hurt that her bf is an excellent photographer, and an absolute gentleman with excellent taste in music.

oh im sorry did i say boyfriend, i meant fiance.

its amazing that raymi hasnt become a reality tv star by now but thats probably because shes from canada.

americas toupee.

upon which raymi is the hello kitty barrette.

today is @ev ‘s birthday

when he helped create Blogger.com he was just ev, but now that he helped create twitter he is @ev.

@ev is partially responsible for the busblog and one of the main reasons that i have stayed loyal to Blogger.

@ev is not just a really smart man but almost everything he has touched has broken

and then it turned to gold.

recently @ev went to washington to meet with our president of the united states @barackobama. i believe that one thing he was able to teach the president was how to deal with things when they are broken and breaking so that you can reap the rewards once it’s fixed.

anyone can create something good. but how many can create something thats good, that has flaws, that runs across negative issues, that can then come out victorious in the end?

not many.

our economy is going through that right now, and who better than @ev to coach @president about the @disaster.

one thing i like about @ev is he keeps his team small. the Blogger team was about a dozen people or less. currently, believe it or not, the Twitter team is just 25 people. i also like that he took a good chunk of those blogger teammates and had them work with him at Twitter.

i also like that he is leading this new thing and not some douche from silicon valley.

i trust @ev.

i think everyone does, which is why Twitter is secretly doing so well.

happy birthday @ev! thanks for blogger, which has gotten me everything in my adult life that i could ask for, and now its fun to teach these crazy people at the LA Times about blogging and twittering (two things i do a majority of my days.)

bottoms up!

update: just found this interesting video interview i did with @ev in November of ’06 when Twitter was just a few months old. for some reason it got edited poorly in the middle but its still cool:

grates were on fire last night

being monday spaceland was packed because admission was free and there were two, count em two big bands fixin to play: nico stai and australias the grates.

grates took the stage first at 10pm which was a huge mistake for nico because Patience has a way of stealing a crowd and making you forget that there are any other bands in existence.

she woos the boys she woos the girls, she dances like a freak with ants in her pants, she smiles she jokes she is clearly having the most fun of anyone in the house and that joy is contagious.

silver lake and particularly Spaceland can come across as too-cool-for-school and judgmental and jaded and for the first half of the 45 minute set the crowd just stood there and watched. they may have had smiles on their faces but they didnt bop their heads they didnt dance they just witnessed their own baptism.

it wasnt until near the end of the set did they realize “oh, theyre good and these songs are instantly approachable and easy to get. fine, we’ll allow ourselves to party” and thats when the dance party started.

which was too bad for nico and his band of jersey boys because when a crowd peaks at 10:45pm on a school night and you dont hit the stage till 11:15 then once again the grates have won.

we know this in part because the grates’ merch sold out (except for Mens shirts, size small, perfect for the echo park hipster on your twitter feed) and there were plenty of crud from everyone else.

because i got there a tad late i got to see the entirety of spaceland entranced by Patience and it took a while to wend my way into the main rock area and then a few more song to get to the front row. no one was moving, no one was leaving to get beers, and no one was peeing. they all wanted to see what magic was inside this trio (plus their pal on keyboards).

that mystery remains but you can investigate it on their US release Gravity Wont Get You High, and their import only (get it on ebay) Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

word from the band is they will return to the states in the summer so get ready to find a new band to totally love.