DENNY’s PARKING LOT – REDDING

when you check into a motel, namely the vagabond motel in redding and the sweet lady gives you a cord and tells you that thats all you need to hook up to the free dsl internet dont believe her. she means well but she doesnt know everything.

she did know where Movies 10 was and gave me a map. so when i wasnt able to blog last night for your asses i went to Movies 10 instead of Movies 8 across town and i saw King Kong.

six word review of King Kong: Holy Fuck Holy Fuck Holy Fuck

it was three hours long. everyone knows its three hours long. but even the good people of Redding couldnt not flip open their cell phones and see who was texting them or what parties were happening, and believe it or not but some people left a few hours into the movie.

maybe because it was too intense? maybe because some people in Redding suck? maybe because in every town you have your bad apples and its best that they leave the movie?

i loved it.

and then i went to my room and listened to the rain come down and i listened to the radio then i turned on my ipod then i turned on my tv and then i went to bed. a night without the interweb. weird.

cant say i loved that.

so this morn i went across the street and got a grand slam breakfast to go, i checked out, i called Chris up in Oregon and told her i was gonna be there by dinnertime. and then i tried to take a picture but the battery had died and somehow this boyscout hadnt brough a back up or three AND hadnt packed one of the two battery chargers.

whoops. well then my mom called and told me that i better not spend too much time in this parking lot blogging. and i said mom, some people are into coke, some are into kiddie porn, im into blogging and i must blog and i will blog and you cant tell me what to do, im 112 years old. and she said i just love you and i dont want you driving in the rain and the dark in the woods of oregon and i said gotcha.

so im listening to my favorite channel on Sirius which is 75 Standards. all the best from the rat pack and tony bennett, i love it.

but mommas in my ear so i gotta make like a tree and scram.

next update will be in Umpqua Oregon – home of the deers that jump right over your car as you drive!

and Lane and Sutter, i will hit you up on the way back down! for some reason i thought you guys were in the StL

SAN FRANCISCO – last night i made it up through the grapevine

and into northern california and right on schedule the rain started drizzling on me as i was crossing the bay bridge entering the City.

it was very weird being back to san francisco, but i remembered it perfectly and only got a little lost making my way to my travelodge on lombard. i know, how do you get lost getting to lombard and steiner, but i have a knack for taking the long way to places.

the weather was warm and only a tad wet when i got there, and now that ive spent the night here, let me say that the Travelodge on Lombard next to Steiner in the Marina is an excellent value at $58. i had a clean comfortable room with cable tv, and hbo, but best of all free hispeed wifi which im writing you from right now.

as soon as i checked in i changed clothes and picked up the Jessicas at Tim at their hotel at the Civic Center then we saw mark johnson standing in the rain so we got his ass too and made it over to North Beach Pizza in North Beach because when youre rolling with Chicagoians you can fuck around if they say they want pizza.

after a few pies and beers we went to mc browns favorite bar, Mr. Bings, where we had a few rounds as Mr Bing watched the Denis Leary !#@$!@#$ Christmas Special, which was pretty funny. then the girls wanted to see strippers for some reason so we walked across the street to the Lusty Lady and spent a buck in the booths and got about $20 worth and hightailed it out of there.

then at the corner of Broadway where a Carls Jr once stood, right across the street from City Lights a fat dude in a yellow tshirt that had a picture of a baby chick and a magnet tried to get us to come into his crappy nu-bar. $3 drinks he promised. but the Jessicas werent impressed so they asked “first round free?” to which he balked. and then they said “first round free for the ladies?” and he let us in.

terrible reggae/rap super loud and yuppies. my drink was terrible but we were already sorta buzzed so we headed out of there quick-like and i never have wanted to go back in the past so badly when that was just a simple hamburger place.

next stop was the Mint for karaoke. it was 1am and it was packed. the girls got lucky and the gay dude running the show let them sing right after last call. they did a beautiful job of the Tommy James number “i think we’re alone now” and we hightailed it to the Safeway before they stopped selling 12 packs of corona.

mr johnson lives in the duboce triangle about a block from where shira and chris used to live and about 3 blocks from where me charlie layne dan don and hickey used to live on haight. so we drank our beers in his beautiful victorian as his wife snoozed away in the very back of the flat.

it was super nice to actually party and hang out in a real victorian after spending so much time in bars. when visitors are in town its good to let them get the real experience.

then at 4:15am i took them home and crawled into my bed.

at 8am some little kids were stomping in the puddles and i almost took out my .45 and silenced the sweet angels, but i fell back asleep for an hour until my momma called worried that i hadnt made it to SF.

so here it is 10:51am and as much as i would love to hang out with the Chicagoians in San Francisco, theres some massive weather going on right where i am about to drive to so i think it would be best for me to get a head start on the t-storms and get as much dry driving done until the rain makes it impossible.

frisco, love ya. you were good to me and i appreciate it. this is a great city to visit and im glad i once lived here.

more pics on my buzznet + kitty bukkake + erin + ryan

if you want someone to come over and keep you up till 4am

leah reading stiff just let them know that youve gotta go to bed early.

no other than anna kournikova came over to my house last night and the bitch wouldnt leave. it was like lets make up and be friends again and i was all ewwww you have ricky martin germs or whoever that gaydude is.

she was like hes not ricky martin, as if.

the cd that i listened to the most this year was tsar’s band girls money.

and in honor of them and to bring good luck to my trip i will rock blog it right now an invention i just created.

what you do is put on the cd and start blogging and dont stop till its over.

tsar
band girls money
tvt records, 2005

the dual guitar attack is what rock n roll is about. modern day rock. maybe in the olden days it was the twinkling piano but we’re in the post punk post metal post-alternative netherlands right now unsure of who we are or what we’re doing or who is the mightiest rock band of all

and tsar starts off their sophomore cd with a cry in the wilderness, a scream from a butterfly, a call of here i am here i am here i am.

next on my mix after the title track is I Wanna Get Dead which proclaims early “i got a lot a photographs of people i hate” and later “its hard to take a stand with all the women on your lap”. could be the best pop song of the year and i believe i hear a champaigne cork pop.

im going to get in the car in about a half hour and drive to san francisco with a banjo on my knee.

wanna get shot to hell, wanna get dead

up up down down

next on my mix is the epic Wrong which is my favorite song on the album. thats how you should make cds by the way. start off with both barrells, which in this case was band girls money, then follow with something with a quick start like Wanna Get Dead and then comes your best hitter who can go long, wrong.

“did the system lift your star too high.”

ive done most of my packing and the good thing about driving is you can just load up the trunk with ridiculous items like ipod alarm clock radio. 500 cds. four different jackets. cans of beefaroni. four pairs of shoes. a loaf of bread.

everybody’s fault but mine bats cleanup. its ominious bass opening creeps you out and that riff returns and the kids arent making riffs like this out there in the top 40 and you really should reward people who do this. its not easy.

fine her name wasnt anna kournikova but i started calling her that because i wanted her to leave but she wouldnt leave and i kept saying to myselef are you crazy youre demanding that this gorgeous girl get away from you but dude i had to pack!

i paid my rent in case i was trapped up there in a snowdrift and told the old lady that the housesitter didnt speak english.

star time bats fifth to show off how deep this lineup is. people asked me about the fact that its “only” 37 minutes long. and i never told them this but i wanted to say to each of them, id rather have a solid 37 minutes than 20 minutes of quality and 40 minutes of filler.

tsar doesnt have any filler.

my brothers are all proud rockers.

to the left you have leah face from vacant.cc who ive been reading for a very long time so its an honor to see her reading stiff which was a huge success and i want to thank everyone who got it.

all of the autographed ones sold out fast but the unsigned ones are still on sale at the busblog store.

conqueror worm is a weird space song about a worm.

when people ask you about ’05 tell them that bush admitted to spying on america and tsar wrote a song about a worm that ends so beautifully you cant even believe it.

which is then followed by Straight which makes this a great record all of a sudden.

ive got a chemical smile, im a moustashe man.

im straight.

stray-eight.

people say theyre straight but they bend like a hook.

what? i mean what? can you really say that? and this is where the dual guitar attack gets you. nobody has this. and a real guitar solo thats really two guitar solos. then the break down and then the return. the glorious return.

the return of rock.

listen to those seven songs for seven days in that order, and i promise you that you’ll hear the return of rock.

hell in 1999 i was looking for a little action, dropping out of school and working for the xbi.

and even if i dont know where i am, dude i know where im at.

shalom.

next up batting ninth if you can believe it is tsars new single love explosion. i talked with jeff after the troubador show and he told me that the video for love explosion is exactly what hes always wanted, so i cant wait to see it.

i wonder who will play the horns in the video?

which lets us finish the cd with the matt welch co-written you cant always want what you get, and again where are you hearing this sort of guitar these days? its the return of rock. and when you add those seven songs with kathy fong, destoyers, i dont wanna break up and teen wizards you dont even need you and jim, which is why tsar hasnt really played that one much, which is shocking since it was their closer for years.

ok so thats rockblogging rock stars. as the horns of this song send us out i wanna send shoutouts to mark in frisco who i will drink with tonight at the 500 club and jessica from elgin roots who i will party with and her two friends from chicago. and i hope the rain doesnt get me before i get there so im out.

leah + the saugeen stripper is right behind Christmas + zulieka + black helicopters

Two bits of news about Rivers Cuomo

yesterday that you may have missed out on.

The first was an AP story that confirmed that even though the singer of Weezer has sucessfully completed his two-year bid at celebacy, and is half way through his third year, he is not close to ending his fast.

“Weezer singer staying celibate”

NEW YORK (AP) — Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo is continuing his celibacy past his self-declared deadline.

The 35-year-old frontman earlier vowed to remain celibate for two years. Although that deadline expired six months ago, Cuomo still doesn’t expect to jump back in the sack anytime soon.

“It’s been two-and-a-half years now, actually,” Cuomo tells Blender magazine in its new issue, on newsstands Tuesday. “The vow is over, but I wanted to keep cruising.”

Though he’s a lead singer for a popular rock band, the bespectacled Cuomo says it’s not difficult to manage restraint.

“Abstinence doesn’t require as much self-discipline anymore,” he says. “We never had any serious groupies, anyway. Our generation got screwed.”

and then in yesterday’s Harvard Crimson, the bespeckled emo king listed his top 20 songs of the year:

2005’s TOP 20-ISH SONGS (Not Including Weezer)

By RIVERS CUOMO

“Pon de Replay” — Rihanna

“Mr. Brightside”—The Killers

“Let Me Hold You”—Bow Wow and Omarion

“I’m Sprung”—T-Pain

“Must Be Nice”—Lyfe Jennings

“Seasons of Love”—Rent

“Best of You”—Foo Fighters

“You and Me”—Lifehouse

“Don’t Cha”—The Pussycat Dolls

“Make Her Feel Good”—Teairra Mari

“Because Of You,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” and “Since You’ve Been Gone”—Kelly Clarkson

“Hollaback Girl”—Gwen Stefani

“Just a ’Lil Bit”—50 Cent

“Don’t Phunk With My Heart,” “My Humps,” “Don’t Lie”—Black-Eyed Peas

“Oh”—Ciara

“We Belong Together”—Mariah Carey

“Lonely No More”—Rob Thomas

Apparently he hadn’t heard the Tsar cd Band Girls Money.

Weezer is currently on tour in Japan where they are also filming a live DVD.

raymi + golden fiddle + sean bonner + erin

tomorrows kristinponys birthday shes twenty two.

myabe twenty three. who knows.

thats the thing about kristin, twenty two sounds just as good as twenty three when it comes to her.

we’re celebrating her birthday right now because tomorrow im driving up to frisco and it looks like there may be a little rain when i get into no cal.

this afternoon mc brown let me out of work a little early so i could get the handyman before he left, and i was also able to get the tires rotated and a nice little jiffy lube oil change.

funny thing happened… when i was pumping gas in beverly hills in the late 80s the old people used to always ask me to check the air in the tires.

i was all equipped with an entire uniform: polyester dark blue stiff pants, a sweet dark blue with orange trimmed longsleeve undershirt with a patch that said my name, a powder blue collored shortsleeve shirt with a patch with said my name, i had a dark blue jacket with my name on it if it got cold, and they sent a shoeman around once a year to fit us with steeltoe black work shoes.

and they gave us a tire gauge which we put in our pockets.

only old people ask you to check the tires.

old people will get out and watch you check the tires.

youd think the elderly would simply buy a three dollar tire gauge if air pressure was so central to their lives.

but instead they took their perfect cars into an full service gas station and paid fifty cents a gallon more so they could get out of their cars and watch them check their tires.

the mexicans i worked with felt extremely insulted by their lack of trust in creeping out of the car to literaly look over your shoulder.

but i told my friends to watch how they also got out and checked when the whiteboys had rushed the car. its not racism, its what old people do.

and then i showed them how its done.

what you do with an old person is perfect the head fake.

make like youre going to the drivers side front tire and when the old man turns his back to close the door you slink all the way around to the passenger rear tire and take reading before he can catch up with him.

then you head fake left to the drivers rear and when he leans that way you jag right to the passenger front tire and take that reading. then fake right again and sweep all the way around to the left and make sure the gas tank hasnt finished yet. if it hasnt check that tire while grampa gets blocked out by the hose.

then you have one left.

wait for the gas to fill the tank, replace the cap and put the nozzle in the side of the pump. look at the tire and tell the old man 5 bucks says its perfect. and watch how the old man wont bet you. he cannot admit to his mania. he will not admit to his madness. and hes on a fixed income, if hes wrong he cant get any flan at el pollo loco.

but you both know that tires right on the money, all the other three are.

plus half those old men were millionaires and if theres one thing i learned from most millionaires its this: they didnt become millionaires by losing a lot of bets.

so today i took the car into jiffy lube and they charge $35 which is a lot for an oil change but they pride themselves on vaccumming your shit and checking all your fluids and making sure theres enough air in your tires.

id be a fool not to jiffy lube my automobile before taking it up through the woods in probably a terrible rainstorm.

so i made sure to buy a new pair of wiperblades. ten bucks each. big spender.

so the chickie reads off the twenty odd things that they did and she said that the tires were checked but they were fine so i asked the dude if he could just check the two front ones for me because they seemed a bit low

and i felt like an old man.

check the tires sonny.

but dagnabbit werent i right they were a good 15 pounds low.

fuckers.

so they got no tip. even though its Christmas. check my shit bitches, im going on long car ride to nevermind.

and in oklahoma a super girl who i got to meet this year was born on this day.

unsom + simpleton + ilisu + wes in calgary

people want to know what i want for Christmas

and lately i’ve had to delete some comments that have asked me this question because all i want for Christmas is for people to enjoy the busblog.

plus those sorts of questions are embarrassing.

in the past ive asked for an ipod and youve given it to me, i asked for a trip to aruba and in a matter of weeks you gave that to me, ive asked you to buy my books and tshirts and youve totally stoked me, and youve even flowed to my car fund.

the busblog’s sole purpose is not to raise money for my slacking ass – never mind those ads you see on the left. that over there is a hallucination. that over there is a post unto itself.

the busblog’s sole purpose is to get me laid.

and i must admit that the busblog has come through with that in wild and beautiful ways, so thank you and thank you and thank you.

the secondary purpose is to entertain you. sadly this year youve been more entertained than ive been laid. but as long as someone wins then im happy. this year has also been the most popular year ever for the busblog, which is bizarre because nothing crazy happened here this year. there were no scandals, there were no outrageous experiments, there werent even that many photo essays.

to me, the most interesting things that happened this year on the busblog is that i got fired from E!, quit Look Look, joined Buzznet, and somewhere along the way quit my 10 year pot habit. oh and i went to canada.

yes i introduced podcasting to the busblog this year, and ive improved on the photos thanks to a new camera and crazy wild access as ive i traveled to new york, chicago, and vancouver for your asses.

and starting tomorrow, now that ive secured a well-known housesitter, im going to hit the road again to take pictures and tell stories for you, my faithful readership.

yesterday i installed Sirius radio in my $800 car and the plan is to drive to San Francisco and party there tomorrow night, then head up the coast and hopefully make it to Koos Bay by Wednesday night, then spend the next few days with my xgirlfriend in my home away from home Umqua, Oregon, then if the roads are clear i want to drive up to Kurt Kobain’s former hometown of Seattle and Aberdeen.

then if things work out perhaps i will return to vancouver for a day or two.

so it dawned on me that if people are insisting on giving a gift to the busblog, heres what you can do: chip in for gas food or lodging.

i plan on staying in cheap hotels, meeting cheap girls, and eating at greasy spoons. but if i could stay at slightly better joints i could access the free wifi and upload my pics quicker.

if any of you would like to help out with that then killer, just paypal and in the Notes section leave your blog’s url and i’ll be sure to thank you and link to you while i travel.

if you cant pitch in please dont sweat it, this is in no way a hard sell or a plea and there are millions more-worthy people than me, but if for some reason you wanted to buy me a cd or a gift certificate to Best Buy and send it to 4845 fountain #15, LA, CA, 90029, all id say is thank you, however a mere flowage to the busblog would probably be more helpful.

this roadtrip hopefully will help segue into a bigger and better 2006.

i have some interesting new developments for the busblog starting early next year including a second blog. but dont tell anyone. but if you do tell them that the goal for this second blog is to be even better than the original busblog. and thats only one new development.

to me 2005 was all about upheaval and change and shedding the skin of 4 years at E! and landing in a far more nurturing place called Buzznet. and trust me when i tell you that in the same way that feeling oppressed and unloved at E! helped fuel the beginning of the busblog, feeling wanted and respected at buzznet is helping fuel the next phase of your favorite blog.

just please understand how appreciative i am to all of you. half the shit i do or get away with would have never been possible if you hadnt had my back. being a blogger can very much feel like being a voice in the wilderness, but because of you this particular blogger has a stronger megaphone and for that i thank you and thank you.

many people come to blogging as a springboard for fame, to get a better job, or to get their political agendas out there. i came to blogging and ive stayed in blogging simply to blog and to be a blogger. i have no other aspiration other than to be the best blogger i can possibly be. to me this is where its at and i wouldnt change places with anyone ever. so thank you for being here with me.

now watch me hit this drive.

zona boy + matt chokshi

from this year’s worstseller, Stiff

my flesh had melted into my bone, i was on fire, and yet somehow i was shiverring.

i was greeted by a man in a Santa suit with a clipboard who extended his white gloved hand who said, “welcome to Hell.”

i shook his hand and a buzzer went off in my palm.

“i dont have time to give you the grande tour, my apologies, we have to get you suited up and we dont have much time.” he said.

i said a little prayer as we wound our way through the dark caves lit by torches and occasional flourescent tubes.

no need to pray down here, we can read your mind, and the prayers only go on your permanent record and used against you in nasty little ways, my guide esped to me and led me to a giant cave filled with Santa Claus suits.

quickly i can tell you the purpose of Hell, it’s not to punish you, it’s to torment the Creator. tomorrow is His birthday. it’s our assignment to water it down, to trivilize it, to ruin it, to distract people’s thoughts, to do everything we can to take the Holiness away from it and make it seem like a child’s birthday party.

but it is a child’s birthday party. it’s Je–

my mouth was zippered shut.

we dont say the J word down here.

my mouth was unzipped.

Xmas isnt just a child’s birthday, it’s a lot more than that, pastor, dont be coy. yes it’s Someone’s birthday, but we dont want it to be about Him we want it to be about every other child in the world Except Him. comprende?

i nodded.

Santa Claus is the greatest acheivement of Hell. we have successfully intergrated our fake-out on the entire planet. anywhere you go you are more likely to see a picture of the white jolly elf than the Creator of the Universe. even in Latin America where people name their children after the Messiah you will see Santa. Even in Bethlehem, even in church.

within minutes i was in the familiar jacket, boots, gloves, fake beard and cap. and i was loaded onto a bus and before i knew it i was back on Earth.

Home.

i couldnt speak the words that i wanted to.

i stood outside a shopping mall ringing a bell. people put money into my cauldron.

all i could say was ho ho ho.

because it wasnt Hell, i was capable of saying Merrrrrrry Christmas, but it was an ironic one. A celebration of theft. I thanked people for their money. It wasnt going to the poor or the sick or the needy. It was going to Hell. my new home.

after lunch i was collected, my money was counted and i was reassigned to the throne inside the mall where little kids sat on my lap and mothers cooed and fathers smiled for the first time in a long time.

pictures were taken and little kids told me what they wanted and i lied and told them that they would get everythign that they wanted.

were you a good little boy this year?

yes, Santa.

were you good to your mother and your father?

uh huh.

were you good to your brothers and your sisters?

i was good to my sister, but i dont gots any brothers.

did you clean up your room like a good boy?

i dont gots a room, santa claus. i sleep on the couch.

the little kid laughed like it was the silliest question ever.

i just wept.

but theres no crying in the Santa suit.

all that came out was ho ho ho.

flagrant + the pants + smelly + sunken