Monthly Archives: December 2017

it’s 80 degrees outside. it’s not even noon.

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im probably gonna go for a little hike because the rest of the country is freezing and

i have just so many podcasts to get through.

jk

the one thing that friends and coworkers have asked me about in 2017 is

when will i have a podcast.

while it’s true that i am an incredible conversationalist

and i love LA deeply, all of it, and i know some interesting los angelenos

and we are missing a huge chunk of LA stories now that we are in a post-LAist, post LA Weekly world

i have always been slow to jump on a bandwagon.

and doesnt it seem like everyone has a damn podcast?

and doesnt it seem like theres maybe one or two worth a damn in the whole wide world?

sure those are some of the things that people said about blogging during the blog boom of ’03

but i think there is something magical about the hyperlink

that a cast will never achieve.

also in the next coming years i wanna do something big.

is a second rate radio show something big?

developing…

 

did madonna meet elvis, did luke love laura

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did this beautiful blog, a peace symbol between canada and america hit its lowest ebb in 2017?

didnt we all?

over the last few days amber and i have seen a bunch of movies, ordered too much sushi pizza

and last night spent my christmas gift card on an electric kettle, buck fifty glade candles and tube socks.

etienne once put as many of my white socks into a bag and set them on fire in an unforgettable face time.

when i got home i showed her that those were simply the ones i was going to turn into a sweater

and i had two drawers dedicated to over the calf

and to the knee.

but time goes on and you really should recycle out all the old socks in your life.

so i bought a good dozen, a couple new pillows,

some cheese

and a thick roll of duct tape for the washer dryer im doing things with.

got some half price christmas lights for her little makeup room and you know what, LED lights arent very bright.

which makes two of us.

what if you had your little raft

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and you successfully ran away from home

you and your bff Jim

and while others were getting stuck in the weeds

or eaten by alligators,

you got the mellow streams and the gorgeous vistas

and you think river rafting running awaying

is a super cool chill ride.

when later someone says, dude i couldnt even get an oar in without some freaky prehistoric beast eating it

can you really give that person advice?

yes.

you can say go down this route.

do this one thing.

try these metal oars.

but when you say it you should say it nice because gators can freak some people out pretty damn bad.

dropped off my computer at this joint on Hollywood that says they can transfer my old hard drive to a portable drive

and its been there two weeks now and they called me to give me an update on it

and im thinking to myself how hard is it to get Stuff A over to Place B

but then i think about huck finn and jim

and those swirly dark shadows on the side of the river

 

and maybe life isnt as easy for some as it might as have been with you.

so be cool.

when andy warhol was asked what he thinks of his critics

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he said

oh… they’re right.

being a writer or an artist or even a person in the world walking around dealing with other people

there will be a still small voice in your head that says

the most terrible negative nonsense

about how you are horrible at this, or mean to that person

or stinky or old or naive or out of touch or phony

and there will be this little

tiny

teensy

faint

peep

that says

tony pierce you are the best in the fucking world

and i love you.

at least thats what mine says.

and if you are going to put yourself out in the world as a public writer or artist or musician or

just dude proclaiming here i am here i am here i am

the echo you get back will often be a mixture of stfu with oh god please stfu.

there is no way to handle that dynamic

other than handle it.

and from my time in the crosshairs, the best way that i have learned to deal with it, is to learn from mr warhol

and just flat out agree with them.

and then when they’re trying to figure out what just happened,

go on and do your damn thing anyway.

and do your best to make your thing bad ass

cuz lord knows now theyre really gonna let you have it.

saw this really good movie last week called Wonder

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in it is a line that has struck me

If you have a choice between
being right and being kind,
choose kind

i am definitely guilty of keeping it

a little too real,

especially here on the internet.

but to live up to that quote would be quite an interesting little enterprise, let me tell you

especially here on the internet.

theres that other saying that goes,

take it easy on people bro, you dont know what they’re up against.

unquote.

which this movie brings home in a special way. because some people seem like they have it one way, but behind the scenes something is completely different. just  like how pictures of downtown LA make it look so beautiful.

but when you get in there…

it’s a different type of beautiful.

drove this old korean guy across town today. he sat in the front. talk talk talked with a heavy accent.

told me how he got pulled over by the cops in the 60s in LA and he admitted to the cop that he was too young to drive

and the cop said, get it together, and sent him on his way.

told me that he wants his little son to be good at piano.

i was all i would love to be good at piano.

and we got to his spot and he said,

i apologize if i spoke too much. in korean culture, a man should be quiet.

i said my man you’re in america,

let it out.

it doesnt feel like christmas this winter in LA

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it’s hot, it’s windy, it’s dusty

somethings going on weird and it’s made me sick twice in the same month.

today my boss sent me home cuz i was coughing and snorting and looking half dead.

so i worked a little at home and passed out on the couch thanks to the benadryl.

amber was home but then hiked to griffith as i snoozed

then she ubered to her company party as i researched for next week.

all while having Mindhunter on in the background, and now Somewhere.

is this what its all about Prince asks me from the tub

is this how you turn the corner, Michael meows from the sink.

the back door makes some noise and then amber arrives, cold cheeks, smiles, cookies tucked in her bag

heels clicking

scarf.

“i like this movie,” she says.

stockings

hair.

“but i forget what it’s called.”

10 years ago today i started working at the LA Times

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it was a dream come true.

it had been something i had been thinking about since i had been in college.

and there i was.

and my shirt and sweater were dumb, and my pants were weird, and i didnt know what shoes to wear

and part of me was thinking “you’re the Blog Guy, you can be weird if you want!”

and most of me was thinking, “you gotta be able to get the print people to like and respect you SELL OUT SELL OUT!”

i dont think ive worn that shirt ever since, and i gave that sweater to the poor last Christmas.

totally forgot it was famous.

thats me and then-publisher David Hiller who right after that picture was taken said, “youre the blog expert, I have a blog but it isn’t very good. Do you have any advice?”

i said, “Mr. Hiller, I have some bad news for you. You have a great life and I have learned a little pattern over the years: Good life, crappy blog. Crappy life, great blog.” He laughed and I don’t think he ever blogged again.

as you can see from the stats at the bottom of this, 2017 will be the least prolific year in the 16 years of writing this blog. this will be post #311 this year with about two weeks left. some years i wrote 800 or 900 posts. OF GENIUS!

why so few this year?

is it because i have had a Good Life?

sure, let’s pretend that that’s the reason.

#goodlife

kurt cobain liked lists, so here are my favorite films by year

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1925 Seven Chances
1926 The General
1927 Metropolis
1928 Steamboat Bill, Jr.
1929 The Taming of the Shrew
1930 The Blue Angel
1931 M
1932 Freaks
1933 Duck Soup
1934 It Happened One Night
1935 A Night at the Opera
1936 Modern Times
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1938 Room Service
1939 The Wizard of Oz
1940 His Girl Friday
1941 Citizen Kane
1942 Casablanca
1943 Stormy Weather
1944 Double Indemnity
1945 Spellbound
1946 It’s a Wonderful Life
1947 Miracle on 34th Street
1948 Oliver Twist
1949 The Third Man
1950 Sunset Boulevard
1951 The African Queen
1952 Singin’ In The Rain
1953 Roman Holiday
1954 Rear Window
1955 To Catch a Thief
1956 The Ten Commandments
1957 Throne of Blood
1958 Vertigo
1959 Some Like It Hot
1960 The Apartment
1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
1962 The Miracle Worker
1963 The Birds
1964 Marriage Italian Style
1965 The Sound of Music
1966 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
1967 Belle de Jour
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1970 Two Mules for Sister Sara
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1972 The Godfather
1973 Enter The Dragon
1974 Young Frankenstein
1975 Dog Day Afternoon
1976 The Bad News Bears
1977 Star Wars
1978 Animal House
1979 The Jerk
1980 The Blues Brothers
1981 Stripes
1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1983 Scarface
1984 This is Spinal Tap
1985 The Breakfast Club
1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
1987 Evil Dead II
1988 Coming To America
1989 Do the Right Thing
1990 Goodfellas
1991 Cape Fear
1992 The Player
1993 Jurrasic Park
1994 Pulp Fiction
1995 Empire Records
1996 Happy Gilmore
1997 Gummo
1998 The Truman Show
1999 Being John Malkovich
2000 Bring It On
2001 Moulin Rouge!
2002 8 Mile
2003 Old School
2004 Kill Bill: Volume 2
2005 The 40 Year-Old Virgin
2006 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
2007 Superbad
2008 The Dark Knight
2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox
2010 Scott Pilgrim vs The World
2011 The Artist
2012 Moonrise Kingdom
2013 Spring Breakers
2014 The Lego Movie
2015 Mad Max: Fury Road
2016 Rogue One
2017 The Last Jedi

saw star wars the last jedi at the 1030 screening

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i hate being spoiled. i have no idea why people love to ruin movies for others.

and yet they do which is why i go to movies the night they come out – if not sooner.

everyone at work were all jacked for the show, which got me into it so i got my tickets a few days ago

almost to see if i could

and thankfully every theatre in town was showing it all day and all night

so we got some on the left side about halfway up at the AMC Burbank 16 and i gotta say, what a great theater.

it was a big room, stadium seats, and the sound was great.

the movie was fantastic. wayyyyy better than i expected: scary, thrilling, at times funny. some lessons for one and all.

one of the lessons i learned from just watching it all was

BE BETTER THAN YOUR HEROES

im sure this director and Lucas and so many others were in awe of Kubrick’s 2001.

but for decades they sat there in that awe and made one mediocre space film after another.

but this guy, this Rian Johnson, he was all, i know this is the Star Wars universe, i know you love Chewie and R2 and the rest

but im gonna do something a little bit different here.

in a way its a bit Star Treky which is funny because Trek has found recent success being more like Wars.

but then he brings out the big guns be them ships or cannons or Walkers or bombers

and is all,

say hello to my little friend.

we all have little friends.

don’t be afraid to use em.