i had such a good day today driving the people around
my favorite may have been an asian woman from kazakhstan
with a russian accent and a scent
she said was arab
but the one i need to write
about told me about nearly dying off fentanyl
but luckily her bf
had 4 narcans
what i want doesnt exist
coming out
in pink cursive
to the ticket agent
today was a struggle but it worked out
the biggest struggle i have in my life is the blog post for my podcast
they can take forever.
the problem is i put all this pressure on myself because im the only Blog Editor the LA Times ever had and so my blog posts of my baby, Hurrrr in LA can’t suck
meanwhile no one cares about blogs and Medium puts up this fake paywall pop up that i despise bc i bet it turns people away
i cant wait to move to Substack, i just have one question i need answered. maybe i should do that tomorrow.
IN ORDER to make these blog posts not suck, i feel like i should have lots of pictures and tweets and for it to go on and on
no one cares about that either. people stop scrolling after a while.
diminishing returns.
but in my head i know what nugget they said in this segment and in that one and that one and i wanna highlight all of them, but at some point you have to stop.
today i stopped earlier than i would have but when i did i was able to do all the other things to publish an episode and it didnt go out until like 830pm
best of all when Maebe saw it she liked it.
not everyone agreed
sometimes guests tell me if they liked it, sometimes theyre shy to hear their own voice and never tell me. sometimes i have to write back and ask are you ok with everything? and they say yeah! sorry!!
in other news a beautiful woman said she had a sex dream about me
me?
and also we are now a week from the cats not shitting on something in the house.
not sure if the extra love or rainy weather has kept them in check but if they go another week i may open up some more doors in the house for them to explore.
it must be so weird never to go outside.
Any time you pick up someone from LAX with no luggage, you’re in for a treat.
she made me do three things i hate
because im perfect, people talk to me
actually i dont know why people talk to me, i ask lots of questions.
but sometimes people want their thoughts out there and so they manifest people like me with two turntables and a microphone and boom their tale is out there in the world.
believe it or not, this doesn’t always ring the right way with some people. those people get mad at me for not telling the story the way they would.
a few years ago i wrote about how the biggest church in my neighborhood was taking COVID more seriously than my own church, the Christian church. that article is now being brought up again.
as is normal, if someone tweets at me, i will do them the respect of tweeting back.
heres todays volley:
GenXLdy:
Okay, benefit of the doubt, you are out of touch as you don’t seem to know much about the human trafficking, child abusing, elder neglecting, fair gaming cult you live next door to. Lara – now there’s a story. Let’s see some real journalism.
me:
I also live close to a Catholic Church. Should I write about mass child abuse, the hiding of priests, their belief that if a priest confesses a sin in the confessional then it’s all good?
I also live near hospitals that turn billions of dollars in profits while underpaying employees and overcharging patients. If I go into that hospital should I also frame each visit with all of their sins?
Here’s how I do things: when I meet someone, I let them talk. I let them show themselves. I have 115 episodes on hearinLA.com including three with one of Scientology’s harshest critic here in LA.
There may be a day when members of lots of churches wants to talk with me, just like how in my most recent episode a 20-year Freemason answered all my questions.
This practice of condemning everyone and anyone who doesn’t 100% echo and march in lockstep with the loudest of protesters and do things exactly as they would is ridiculous and anti-GenX.
Gen X does what we want, gives no shits, and leads by example.
I have been fair to everyone I have encountered in my neighborhood, including Lara, and did not press charges on her for swinging her stick at me because I feel badly for what has happened to her in the past.
I invite you to listen to any of my podcast interviews and you will see the only agenda I have is in helping people of LA a chance to tell their story and to talk about their neighborhoods. I don’t frame it by saying LA is stolen land, that America has been run by white supremacists, or that this planet is a ticking time bomb of climate change.
Likewise when I talk about churches or businesses I don’t frame those the way you believe “real journalism” should be presented. I get to the point and tell the story at hand.
If you want to do it differently, be my guest.
i finished the blog post from hell
there is somethign wrong with me
i cant concentrate with squat
it took me a month between the last episode and this one
yeah i had a lot going on in my life but i wasnt writing for setlist much
i had free time for once and i squandered it
i dont know if pills are the answer
what i think might be the answer is getting a stop clock and always be aware of time somehow
it flies by
i miss going to the movies
i miss a lot of things.
ok
this episode, #115 was so good. im so lucky to have this podcast.
i was published in a bunch of Black newspapers this month
hows that for Black History Month?
the first was about the issue of Beyonce not winning Album of the Year Grammy even though she has more Grammys than anyone
What Does Beyonce Have To Do To Win Album of the Year?
it was in the Sacramento Observer and others
and yes i answered the question. of course i did.
then right before the Super Bowl I wrote
Will The NFL Get More Black Head Coaches? Don’t Bet On It
my beloved Chicago Defender carried it, which was great because Da Bears was one of my prime examples because
they have only had 1 Black head coach in their 105-year history
and that one got fired after a 10-7 season.
so yeah, on top of the world.
if i only wrote for Black newspapers id be the happiest man alive.
but i also love writing about music
and my Usher Super Bowl Special on setlist was so fun to make.
she was such a good girl and i failed her
i like to think i have all the answers.
i like to think i can see into the future and inside people’s hearts
and sometimes i can.
peoplesupport – we hired like 400 ppl. 1,000+ came through me and i whittled them down with help from nicollette and shannon. but ultimately it was my yes or no and i used my spidey senses
the minute i saw amber i knew she was, like me, not here to bullshit you.
we could talk about almost everything, do anything. fuck fight and feast.
the one thing we couldnt talk about was her eating disorder.
she would get so mad
then i would get mad back bc i took it personally and say
you have to trust me by now ive been here through everything, just tell me about it, whats the root of it? are you afraid of losing it? do you think i wont bone you if you gain 50 pounds? i’ll tell you what every pound you gain i’ll lose a pound or gain a pound of muscle.
just know i want you alive
and she is not alive and i was her closest person for years and years and when she left me she died
so how am i not supposed to think this is my fault?
what i do think though is shes in a better place, cheesy as that is
but she did have a heart of gold, was nice to the richest ppl you ever met and the poorest.
here we are backstage at the Bill Maher show and shes with a General
once we drove up the 5 to deliver lost luggage to the four seasons in Frisco and we stopped over to get some almonds at a farm and met the farmer and his daughters and ended up talking to them for a good half hour, maybe more
ABOUT NUTS
and weed
once i said can i touch you anywhere? she said yes please. i said even in pictures. she said yes xbi. touch me anywhere. even when we fought she never said not there.
she loved interviewing people and putting their style on instagram or on her blog
i think this is a lady gaga show we went to. i took a leak and came out and she was interviewing this woman.
all she wanted to do was lift up everyone else. me too, but she was a mile ahead.
one day during covid, she had been laid off from the hotel bc the hotel was closed
and she said come in here.
she had a little office in my livingroom closet. she decorated it nice and during covid we were locked up in a 1bd hollywood crash pad. it was built for med students and serial bachelors who never had more than 1 person in the place for too long
it was not meant for two. so she built her own land in that closet. so cute.
she was looking at craigslist and she was all, they want Exotic dancers. are white girls from van nuys exotic?
she’d pose anywhere for me. wear anything. accept all direction.
if only i knew how to take proper photos. if only i had money.
if only i knew how to really be a good boyfriend to her.
she would gather things guests at the hotel would throw away. like totally full bottles of shampoo. and then she would make and give care packages to the homeless.
here she is with Walter, a guy who has slept on the street as long as ive been in this apartment. someone i would never have known, certainly not his first name if it wasnt for Amber.
she loved helping these people. she gave them $20 bills even though she never made much at the hotels.
she treated everyone the same. even shepard fairey.
even the general.
even walter.
if anything maybe she treated walter better bc none of those other mfers got kickass shampoo.
today is ambers birthday
i feel like ive had the luckiest life ever and now im running on bonus time
ive had the greatest friends, the best girlfriends, i got to see the coolest music, and i had the most amazing jobs where they paid me actual monies.
when amber and i first kissed it was at the def leppard kiss concert at the forum
we had been on three dates and i wasnt sure if she liked me
turned out she was getting her hair blown out for every date and wearing all new dresses and stockings
i couldnt believe she kept saying yes to dates and as she told me later she couldnt believe i wanted to be out there with her
when you are a black kid in the suburbs of chicago and you think of california girls you think of blondes who live in bikinis and work in beverly hills
there she was. and there i was in my 50s. and not doing so well on the job front. she did not care. we hit it off and loved LA so much and drove everywhere and talked with everyone and we stayed at a whole bunch of hotels thanks to her discount and
i think about her every day and today i was playing some lady gaga while i took my shower
amber was a little monster. we saw her 2x together.
and then right after two songs that i never get randomly but i love
miley cyrus we cant stop and madonna causing a commotion
and i thought, thats amber saying hi
hi baby