why didnt anyone tell me that Wilco’s drummer

went to my high school and played on the Lancer marching band drum line? JUST LIKE I DID?!?!?!

notice he says “one of my instructors from high school” around minute 1:40?

give it up for mr. snoeck!

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Kotche

Kotche went to Lake Park High School in Roselle, IL, where he was a member of the drum line in the Lake Park Marching Band, and later the University of Kentucky, where he honed his musical skill and technique and obtained a bachelor’s degree in music performance. Glenn was also a member of The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps from Rosemont, Illinois in 1989, playing in the snare line.

i will never talk ish about wilco again.

i havent always been mr rico suave

in fact there was a time when i was a virgin

it was during that era that i met an amazing blonde girl at a rock show.

her friend worked with me at the record store and i was all your friend, tell me she doesnt have a boyfriend. turned out she didnt. so i said tell your friend no matter what she cant say no to me when i ask her on a date.

she said, teller yourself and gave me her phone number.

now to be honest, i dont know how anything worked out back in those days because no one had cell phones: you actually had to call a number and hope that the beautiful young lass was home when you called.

else you had to leave a message.

and in those days you couldnt leave a message and review it and try again if you sounded like a shmuck. in fact the odds were pretty good that, since there was no such thing as call waiting, that the owner of the phone and answering machine, was listening to you leave the message live as you left it. call screening they called it.

somehow i got her on the phone. somehow teenage tony even got a date with this native californian girl. and somehow there we were at the movies and then at the fatburger sharing a shake.

and then, somehow, there we were making out in the back seat of my grandmothers cadillac off a street in westwood village.

somehow things were going so fast, faster than id ever expected, cuz to be honest, i didnt think id even get her on the phone.

life will throw you curveballs america. no question about that.

but sometimes life serves up something so wonderful and beautiful and sweet

right over the plate

that you dont trust it.

and you just stand there with your bat in your hands

frozen.

thanks to the miracle of facebook, the other day that friend friended me on facebook, and i snooped around her friends to see if that amazing blonde girl really existed

or if it was just a figment of my ridiculously creative imagination that my memory had labeled

natural blonde who reminded me of jennifer jason leigh in fast times

and there she was.

the second to last girl who ever knew the innocent tony pierce.

brad pitt is filming at our building

thus paparazzi are filming our building

security here is tighter than i have ever seen it. in fact the parking lot gates now have canvas tarps around them so the paps can shoot into Craft Services to watch Mr. Jolie nibble on his egg rolls.

i will have more photos this week as the media circus escalates.

but in the meantime, heres a tweet by our media columnist Jim Rainey from this morning:

Paparazzi all around LA Times building. Foreign dignitary? US political candidate? No Brad Pitt in building filming Money Ball.

Great book if you havent read it yet. Not sure how they can turn it into a film, but i guess thats why Hollywood gets paid the big bucks.

sunday i went to the cubs game with karisa

we were late.

i had a cubs hat on. and the same snoopy cubs shirt ive owned since high school.

karisa wanted to “tailgate” but theres no tailgating at dodger stadium cuz of obama.

but we went to this echo park liquor store anyways and got two 22ouncers (sapporo for her, and a mickey’s for me), two airplane bottles of booze. and a coke. when i walked out of the door this hipster was all “Cubs? Really?”

i was all Really.

he was like, why arent you at the game? i was all, we’re fixin to go! and he was all oh great the Cubs are losing by like 5 already in the 2nd inning.

whatevs dude. get outta my way so i can illegally tailgate. but because we were so late there was a totally free parking space about 100 yards from the dodger stadium gates. so we parked, cracked open our beers and got a nice layer of buzz going for our walk into the park and through the parking lot.

got to the game. cubs were down by 7 at this point and it was already the 5th. got a few more brews. shots. dogs. got our seats in the front row next to fair pole in mannywood.

talked to two nice ladies from Oklahoma. i was all, do you women know of the Mad Pony girls? they were all nah. turned out the mom was taking her daughter to LA for the first time. the daughter had just gotten a cheerleading scholarship. she was going to be a freshman at a little college in OK. they were nice.

enjoyed the game, sobered up. cubs called it quits pretty early. sorta sad. but as always, its very nice to see so many cub fans outside of chicago. we’re a loyal tribe.

one day we will have our day.