my guess is $1 million, not because it’s incredible inside
but because of its location
and it’s backyard.
ok lets check zillow and see how far off i was…
$996,316
welcome to my ted talk
i was guessing at how much this house costs
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Monthly Archives: June 2021
i am doing things
things are being done.
im fixing things. i am making progress. i am learning.
i am growing. it is not always easy. sometimes it hurts.
sometimes it’s good.
i feel like ive jumped out a plane with no parachute
but
if i splat, i splat but i dont think so for some reason
things are coming a lot.
i was getting ready to go to the bank tonight as i was on the phone with my mom
it was late at night.
she said, why are you doing this late at night with the homeless and the crime
and all these very scary things.
and i said
in so many ways
i am the scary thing.
xbi do or di
do you know how weird it is
imma hollywood the hell outta hollywood in a way that doesnt usually get done
and i wonder why
how is it that im christopher columbo?
sometimes you have to do the thing.
i remember once in high school we were in basketball practice
and my athletic career was ending sooner than i would expect
but on that particular day it was us against the Better squad
and the coach had taught them this great defense
and i was on the other team and i dribbled the ball up the court and i just drove straight through the lane to the rim and easily laid it up.
sometimes the best route is right to the hole.
let everyone else pay attention to this edge or that niche or that sliver.
sometimes its good to just say ung
imma give you a month of hollywood that
all these places that talk about hollywood never touch.
and never will.
so weird to me.
i had such a fun and beautiful day today
that when i got home i felt a little bad for someone who i interviewed a few weeks back
because he and his family have been met with so much sadness and tragedy
and then an ex cop on twitter insulted him
i know we all have good and bad days and parts of days but today was all good
first i got treated to lunch at a steakhouse in burbank my the lovely elise thompson
who has also had some sadness and tragedy in her life.
elise beautifully covered food for me and many other things at LAist and i havent seen her in far too long but i am so glad we connected again
she introduced me to the man in the photograph who i will be telling you more about later because i will be podcasting him very soon.
then i quickly got ready to go to the Cubs Dodgers game which is always such an event
i drove halfway, parked, got out, took the bus the rest of the way
or so i thought, but it turned off which is maybe why things are so bad around dodger stadium
if they even stop busses from going there maybe thats why life is so crazy around there
enjoyed the game, chatted with Doug Smith who i believe has been at the paper for 40 years. maybe longer. he’s still very dapper, in a suit, we talked a lot. he climbs trees!
we talked about sailing. traveling. concerts.
he has only seen one concert his whole life: Joe Cocker at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ben Welch put it all together. he’s got 20 people who report to him now.
met some of the new guns at the Times. solid folk.
the cubs were losing so i went down a level and talked with the people working at the dodger dog stand. one lady had worked there over 20 years. she was having a bad day so she told me everything. the cost of the food, the profit margin, the gross sales, her PIN number. fascinating.
lets just say, the Dodgers have no business selling $19 cans of beer. theyre already rolling in it.
got on the bus home. forgot that i parked back near the stadium, so i took a Lyft back, that guy was great. got home. there was a note from a pretty girl asking where i was.
and thats just a bit of what happened.
and now i wanna work but im tired.
and tomorrow imma interview the Hollywood Blvd Joker
and then take the cats in to get their annual dealie bob.
i really wish i had time to work.
because what we are doing is gooooooood.
mikeys hookups is incredible
tiny little store but they seemingly have everything.
i went in there today to get my laptop back
and there was a guy getting helped so i didnt mind walking around a little
listening to them playing REM’s first record
when i saw this on the front window
and the thing is it would be great to sell stereos and computers again
but im pretty sure i have to go all in on this podcast thing
but it is tempting, lemme tell you, because that place seems so great.
i may quit going to therapy.
its the only gloomy thing in my week each week.
she rejects me. every week. i dont need that right now. i need emotional support.
i need her to say crazy things like omg i talk to a lot of people every week and i look forward to hearing from you and asking you hard questions and watching you answer them.
kurt vonnegut tells a story, i think this is it, where on this planet the humans are in cages in the zooo
and the inhabitants of the planet are hands with an eye in the palm
and when the humans try to entertain these Tralfamadorians
they close their hand, so they wont have to see the idiocy.
i feel like shes closing her hand on me every week.
im trying to pull off a miracle.
podcasting is impacted with super talented, interesting, famous, stars.
how on earth am i going to be any reasonable sized hit in the near future?
and by the time i realize im destitute will mikeys hookup even need another person
im surprised they even need a sign that place is so great.
my only Plan B is to dress up as Darth Vader, go to Venice, and get tourists to sit on a folding chair
then i sit at the canvas and paint
but i only have one color
black
and it turns out im not painting portraits of them
im painting a death star
and when they ask how much
i point to a sign that says
everything.
then i flip it around
and it says
give me everything.
which im pretty sure you can do if youre dressed as darth vader
Such a good day today
It was good for many reasons including its nice to talk to people after all this time not talking to people.
It’s also good to have a plan and when you do it you see it coming together.
One of my ideas about this podcast was to let people i know nominate people they know for me to interview.
This is a bit of a stretch for me because i like to be in control of things and i think i know it all and i like to pretend that i know all the people, but we know that’s a lie.
So Elise, who was one of my editors at LAist, knows an author who has written tons of books about music and Hollywood and today i drove out to his beautiful home and we talked for three hours.
Turned out he knows a bunch of people who i worked with at Licorice Pizza
Not only that but he loves baseball as much as i do, and music and LA
Weirder still, he was in SF the same exact years that i was and booked a jazz club there that i went to a few times
But because he’s about 8 years older than me he had stories and had seen things that I hadn’t and it was fantastic.
I am so filled with happiness right now that i want to write a love letter to a pretty girl but for once in my life I’m stopping myself because i cannot follow through because i really have to put everything into this thing.
I get a day off tomorrow and i will pick up my MacBook from the shop, but i gotta say, this iPad has been pretty damn good.
One thing happened today in the interview i didnt expect – two actually. The first was the batteries died when they shouldn’t have. The other was a microphone fell out of its hole. Scared the hell out of me because in these long interviews you dont wanna have to redo anything and when i interviewed Bree last week her whole interview got ruined.
I’d really love to figure out a fail safe way to do these, but the better audio quality you have the more complicated the equipment is. So you just have to bring extra batteries i guess.
Another thing that was weird was he lived really close to the castle i learned about when i first wanted to do this.
Life is so weird. LA is too. I am very happy. Maybe i can use my esp to have this girl write me and say
I will get money together and make it out there and have a little summer vacation with you tony.
5y3vvvcv uwvgv g343
I’m typing in the dark on an iPad at 152am and i cant see
My real computer is in the shop because some how i blew out one of the speakers and as they were fixing that there was something else that needed to get fixed and since its all under warranty they’re waiting for a part
So I haven’t been blogging much because that’s my baby and this is not which is why you;;;ll see how things automatically get capitalized but also weirdnessess
Everything’s coming together with the podcast. It’s a minor miracle.
I couldnt have done it without my editor Jordan. He does great work and cheerleads me which is really all i need.
I figured that’s what i need with a therapist, just someone to say you got this G
I need a weird, supportive, totally positive person who believes in me.
Watched a lot of tv today.
Cooked with these new pots and pans that are super against burning anything. Love that. They;;ll make it hot but not black.
Did some eggs potatoes cheese turkey bacon this morning and rice a roni spectacular for dinner and man.
Gotta get these pots for my mom.
Game changer.
Friends – i have the greatest
Anna said I’m in town, lets hang.
She’s a magical person so i said sure, when where.
She said I’m crashing with jeff and Erin so i said i dont even know where that is.
She said aren’t you alive? Haven’t you all been friends since the 80s? I said yes but when you have kids and dogs and lives you dont always break bread with each other and dont they live very far away up in the hills?
Turns out even in rush hour traffic they live 37 minutes away.
Ben and Soomi drove all the way up from Long Beach and we sat in the backyard under the biggest tree, we pet the best dogs, and shared so many stories.
FIVE HOURS and it went by like that.
Such good food. So many great tales. No one judged me as far as i can tell
If anything they said they loved me.
And loved my perspective.
I was all, awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I love my friends so much.
I am so lucky to have known them for most of my life.
I hope i bring them a smile once in a while because they put the happiness in my heart whenever i am around them.
Am i a bully online?
I think the answer is hell yes.
But I shouldn’t be proud of that.
To be completely honest I’m not sure how to act online.
People say dumb things. They do dumb things. They vote in dumb ways.
I have made giant mistakes too in the things i do, say, and the people i have voted for.
And I’m not sure i would have taken kindly to a stranger calling me stupid.
But i will say, every now and then someone will show me the error of my ways
And I block them.
Fuck them.
So there’s good ways and bad ways to do things
Here’s the bad way; build people’s expectations, and then not fulfill them.
Especially when it comes to money.
But it could be other things like time.
A man’s time is the most valuable thing he can give you.
Because time is precious and limited and it has value.
So if someone says that in exchange for their time you will pay them money, and he gives you that precious time, and you do not give them the money, then someone is the bad guy.
I must admit, sometimes i am the bad guy. And i do not want to be the bad guy. Ever.
Have i let down others? Have i not fulfilled expectations? Yes. Yes.
So going forward i tried my best to only promise things i knew i could deliver on.
And not just that, but if i promise people that i would give my precious time, inherent in that promise was i would give 100% of my attention on it and all of my heart and all of my experience and all of my best ideas.
Because fuckit, why not.
When the sun comes out i want the whole sun. I dont want fucked up gloom. I want holy shit bright ass vitamin C shining down from the sky.
So the other day i was given expectations. Then the deadline came and went and it was extended. Then i said you know what it doesnt look like my side of the expectations are going to be met.
And a person was mad at ME even though i was the victim in the arrangement. I had delivered what i promised and they did not. So I said lets just pause until the clouds part.
Yesterday i was not given the money that was owed me, no no. Instead i was removed from having access to things. As if i was the bad guy. As if i was in the wrong.
Sometimes you have to lead by example. Sometimes people take that the wrong way. Sometimes people expect you to give give give. Sometimes people will talk talk talk but not ever say the thing that matters.
But it’s cool.
Good things will happen.