very sweet girl from canada. kira is her name-o.

tonight we hung out at matt and emmanuelles. lots of our friends were there. including a bunch of our friends with their babies. some of the kids were playing in the dirt as if it wasnt dirt. love that.

solomon was playing along super well. dinosaurs. the kids love dinosaurs. no idea why. the kids dont have plastic versions of pit bulls or stingrays or piranhas. but dinosaurs? no problem.

sadly we couldnt hang for as long as we would have liked to because the sun was setting and i wanted to show her some of LA while it was still light out. so we tried to drive up to Griffth observatory but they dont let you do that any more. theres busses that go up there but you cant just drive up there. you need to get reservations.

not cool.

so we tried to go around the back way but they figured that one out too. so we drove up to where kim used to live. when kira saw the hollywood sign she squeal. sorta scared me a little but i stopped and she took a picture.

then we drove around hollywood. then we went to thai elvis. then we got that shit to go. then we watched the bears game which was unbelievably good.

i was trying to stay cool during the game but it was pretty impossible. i was pacing and yelling at the screen and jumping up and screaming. mighty not cool. then before we knew it the bears had won by 18. and it was still only 10pm and i was feeling good and she was feeling good and she had been a trooper by not only watching the whole game but being a really good sport about it, so we went to the Rainbow and had drinks.

she asked if any celebs went there. i said yes. but it was sunday night. so no stars were there. then we saw a dude who looked really familiar. she was all, yeah he does look familiar. and then we realized that he was one of the losers of Rock Star. but we couldnt remember if it was Rock Star INXS or Rock Star Supernova. but we knew it was him because he had letters tattooed on his forearm that matched up sorta when he sang with both hands.

hard to explain, but yeah it was him.

we played “fake tits or real tits” all night which was fun.

then we went to the grocery store, then we watched south park, then we watched IVTV and she said, college in Canada is nothing like that. i was all, oh every college in the US is like that.

and now its 421am and im getting sleepy but im glad we could have this time together.

tonight we’re gonna see the red hots at a tiny club and i cant wait.

seriously

in a way thats sorta a compliment, but i dont think anyone would ever pay me to do an instant commercial, a term, raymi, i just invented, see i can invent things too.

LAist got the exclusive to the location of a free ticket giveaway for an upcoming show the Red Hot Chili Peppers are gonna do at a small club. Say what you will about their records, live is the only way to truly judge the Peppers, who dominate on stage.

Woodstock with the flames shooting out of their heads. Nuff said.

This afternoon I talked to the kids first in line, and played with the Zune, which was definately not as bad as some of the reviews ive read on the blogs.

if i was Zune though i’d say something simple like

like an ipod with a radio in it.

it also has a bigger screen and lets you zap songs to your friends so they can listen to it for three days or three plays.

see im sounding like a commercial again.

what are its drawbacks? for some reason it has a thing that looks like a wheel controlling the thing, but its not a wheel.

it is bigger than an ipod but not by that much.

theyre gonna need something to make it better than the ipod. apple is so far ahead of the game that even their new accessories for it are awesome.

if i was Microsoft, i would just sell it for $199 and force Apple to make their money off iTunes. but right now i dont see a reason why people would leave the most loved new product to come around since the dvd player. unless it was hella cheap.

good thing bill gates isnt that cutthroat any more.

anyways theres a little game you can do with this video.

its four minutes long. write down how many “right ons” you think i can squeeze into the four minute thing and then watch it and see how you did.

happy veterans day!

wrote me today. Then we caught each other on Google Chat and I asked if I could post this email to share with you and she said “click” which is Ugandan for “fuck if i care.”

Dearest Tony,

Today is All Saint’s Day here in Uganda, so it seemed completely appropriate to write you a quick letter. You, after all, are quite a saint. Even if the Catholics here don’t know Saint Sonny Isla Vista, they should and they will. I know you said not to write to you, but I really wanted to.

It was SO wonderful talking with you the other day. Thanks for getting calling cards and enduring the madness that is involved with calling me here in Africa. It felt like I was in Santa Monica and you were in Hollywood like the olden days. Although, this time I was sad because I knew I wasn’t hoppin’ in my car to cruise to the Eastside for some fun with you or that you were headed to the Westside to stroll around Venice. I’m a bit homesick these last few days. It’s been a while since I’ve been homesick. Last night all I wanted was to order Chinese food, put on my sweats and watch movies: a whole mess of them. I’ve been getting restless here lately especially in my room at night. The evenings are starting to get really boring. There’s only so much African music, BBC News and reading I can do before complete boredom creeps in. By the way, there is a great song here that I think you would like. I don’t know the singer but the song is called, “African Queen”. A friend was able to download it when she was there last week, so you should try to find it. Such a sweet, simple song! The peeps there need to hear it!

I’m thrilled and completely thankful you are sending me electronics! My parents have been great about sending other things, but thanks for coming through with the electronics. They wouldn’t know about speakers and mp3 players and such. I can’t wait to take pictures (because everyone back home needs to see what’s going on here and I need to start documenting these moments) and I really can’t wait for new music. I think listening to music will help alleviate the homesickness when it hits. What a great idea! MP3s for a CD player! Throughout this letter I will include some requests if you don’t mind. I would be happy if you could include: Nelly (not Country Grammar but the other album with “Air Force Ones”…PLEASE!! I love that album…The other volunteers make fun of me because of my Nelly obsession but I couldn’t give a crap. I want to be able to dance around my apartment at night. Plus, I’m getting FAT here (which everyone is quick to point out) so I’m hoping with some good dance/hip hop, maybe I’ll be more inclined to dance around my room like a maniac.

When I was looking through The Onion you sent – I had no idea who many of the new artists were (both album releases and those performing LA shows). So I’d be game to hear whatever you want to send. Also, I can’t get the song, “I would for you” out of my head by Jane’s Addiction. If you could add that song, it would be awesome. I brought some Jane’s with me but not that song. I would also really like some Eminem (“Lose yourself”…), Lauren Hill, “Miseducation of Lauren Hill”; Old Michael Jackson, “Thriller”, and maybe some stuff from the Jackson 5 and whatever else might be good. I have lots of Janet, Madonna, Prince, Weezer, etc. but I missed a bunch of music when I was ransacking your cd collection. I also have a lot of jazz so I’m good there. You know me and my tastes in music so I know you’ll send some fun stuff. Also, not sure what you think about this, but Teresa (the volunteer who lives here in my village) just got a DVD player from her mom. So if you are sending music, maybe you can include some videos or movies or a bunch of Jon Stewart that we can watch on her DVD player. The other thing is that I can recharge batteries with my solar charger. If you get me one set of rechargeable batteries for the CD player I can recharge and reuse them. Is that cool?

I’m supposed to be continuing to build a client database today. I’m about ½ way but thought this would be a better use of time for the moment. I know I’m whining and don’t mean to but some days I really miss you and the rest of my friends. Of course I’m glad to be experiencing this experience but it doesn’t mean some days aren’t challenging. I miss talking with people who understand me without me having to explain, slow down, omit vocabulary etc. It can be trying at times.

Thanks for all the great goodies you’ve been sending. I took some of the magazines you and your Mom sent (Ebony, US weekly, Oprah) for some of the Sisters I work with to check out. One of them didn’t know there were Black Americans in the U.S. There is a new volunteer who just came 3 weeks ago from Florida. Her name is Courtney and she came to my site to see what I do and to get a taste of being a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer). Well, almost every Ugandan assumed she was Ugandan because she is Black. She is going to have a unique experience compared to those of us who are white. They couldn’t understand why she didn’t speak the language and how she could be Black and not be from Africa. Her parents and grandparents were also born in the U.S. and still, some of the Ugandans didn’t get it. We tried to explain history, slavery etc. but some still had a hard time understanding. Crazy. So Sister Josephine is enjoying the magazines. She asked where she could get Proactiv. Haha.

By the way, thought you might like to hear, my Mom is also a packrat and saves EVERYTHING. When I talked to them last weekend she told me she found a “Thank You” card you sent her after she came to San Francisco to take care of me when I broke my back. She was tickled to have rediscovered it. I didn’t know you did that or if I did I don’t remember. See? Saint Sonny.

Had fun today. Did some planning with my supervisor, played with some of the kids, so that helped a bit. Today is Teresa’s birthday (the volunteer I mentioned earlier) so I’m going to buy some beef in town (a first for me) and make her chili for dinner. She has been talking about chili a lot so I thought a musungu meal would be fitting. I also dropped off some flowers in a makeshift vase (a Bond 7 Whiskey bottle with the label removed) on her doorstep. By the way, Bond 7 whiskey is probably the most perfectly terrible whiskey on the planet. But in a pinch, and with no other alternatives, what’s a girl to do? Jeanine would be proud. Please give her a big hug for me and tell her I miss her and love her very much. I’m glad she got a new job and a new place. How fun!

I’m off to have an All Saint’s Day feast with the sisters. Should be good. I eat lunch with them every day but today they were talking about getting chicken liver to accompany our meal. Excited about that.

Love you my dearest Saint Sonny! I also miss you dearly.

from west virginia asks, “When are we getting your thoughts on the revolution?”

when i was on my trip around the country i wanted to poke my head into west virginia to see mr holywriter but there was a storm heading across the nation and i had to make it to memphis as fast as i could.

it hit me right outside of knoxville anyway but apparently i could have gotten into rougher stuff, but still, i should have gone to west virginia.

LAist was on fire today. we had 20 posts.

we got linked by Fleshbot for a story i did yesterday called “Decision ’06: Which Porn Star Looks Most Like Britney”. it was just an excuse to post a picture of teagan presley after defamer said most people think she looks like the former mrs federline. every time i go to that blog i think “why dont i come here every day, again?” whats my problem with boobies? i have the same question about Nerve. instead im on instapundit and yahoo fantasy hoops all day.

i thought about joining review Me and reviewing things on the busblog for cold hard cash but maybe thats not such a great idea right now.

i was pretty happy with New Rule: Ken Mehlman Is Gay

but the best post was written by the mighty Zach who had 5 or 6 posts today (!) who gave a sweet overview on the newest LAPD beatdown.

i got to write about the dude from post secret coming to sign books today, i got to post a video of the Deftone’s doing a Weezer cover, a creepy anti-gay kiddie film from the early 60s, and an Anne Sexton poem

i told people how many millions the black LA fireman got for eating spaghetti which his captain secretly added dog food to and then laughed when he unsuspectingly ate it ($2.7

and i told people where they could get free gas for four hours here in hollywood.

but probably the best thing i wrote today was this one about how a district in the val is gonna spend $55,000 on shopping cart removal. So if you live in Van Nuys you can dial 311 if you see a shopping cart hanging out looking like trouble and within 48 hours it will be removed from your sight.

there was a good picture for it too.

as for the revolution, the thing that strikes me as ironic is the idea that if bush and cheney were simultaneously assassinated nancy pelosi of all people would become president of the united states.

its ironic because the way bush and cheney have almost literally said fuck you to the entire world, not just americans, but to the world, would make them juicy targets, i would think for some nutjob who wants to really change history.

therefore the two men who used fear as way to do whatever they want, now cant do what ever they want, and probably live in a little bit of personal fear.

it made me a tad sad for the little tyrants.

i didnt wake up till 2. i had to vote at this weird sceintlogy place. and then i met courtney love and she was super bizarre.

theres a tom waits song that i play almost every day it’s called “i dont wanna grow up.”

when i see awful plastic surgery, i dont wanna grow up

its tough having heroes. to me courtney is a hero. yeah there are people who will argue that she killed him but those people are boring.

courtney love was and still is a real punk rocker. punk rockers dont fit into your little box of them. they dont wear the uniform, they dont play by the rules of the day, they dont save their punk rock husbands from being slightly more self destructive.

i was able to get on the press list of the book signing at the virgin megastore on sunset.

courtney was late so we had to wait an extra half hour, and since you never know what the hells gonna happen with courtney love, most of us were a half hour early. but there could be worse places to be than in the west hollywood virgin megastore book department in the rock section.

i was totally way better off in there than the 100 or so people who had to stand outside in the warm santa ana breezes as the sun set. i used the time to flip through and then read a lot of her diaries, which is the book that she was signing.

lots of interesting pictures. some of kurt, some, like the cover, snapped by the man.

theres one picture thats so amazing. its frances bean asleep on a couch with her shoes on hugging a guitar.

when i finally got to meet her i didnt have anything to say. probably because i had everything to say.

so instead of saying, when are you gonna bring hole.com back or why dont you have a tv show all i said was, i saw you play with juliette lewis a couple halloweens ago.

and her response was, “yeah i heard shes got grohl playing drums on her new record.”

which you could read a million ways.

she wrote my name huge in the book and scrawled her name.

she had just taped the tonight show with jay and was wearing the same outfit.

she didnt look very rockstarish. she looked like she was trying to dress up to try to get her daughter in a private school that was probably gonna say no.

i took some video and theres some photos on LAist

afterwards i wanted to see the motley crue + aerosmith show at the hollywood bowl but the traffic was so bad going up highland that it gave one the idea that because of the 82 degree temperature at 8pm Everyone in la had decided to go see aerosmith with motley crue at the bowl.

because i have no patience, i went to Von’s and stocked up on food.

matt good called me about some funny blog war thing. i found out jeanine just got an apartment in pasadena. and i found out that the word of the year is

macaca.

and then i found out that this girl who i thought thought i was the fugliest man on earth said that no no she just really had to pee

two years ago i wrote a blog post called “How To Vote”,
Dave Markland made a short film using the post as the script.

Over here is the original text, and above is the final dealio.

of the damn house and went to the beach.

the goal was to ask people why they werent at work.

“hey why arent you at work?”

but the people were lame and all tourists or sadly unemployed.

one of the interviews with the unemployed was pretty funny and i will have that up on LAist tonight.

which brings us to some questions that have been asked in the comments:

mike asks: a novel eh?? synapsis? price? s&h? reason why you’re going to autograph one and send it to me? good good.

a. its a coming of age tale about an undercover superhero before he joined the organization. if its any good it will be sold at christmas. but all signs point to sucky.

Phil says, Yea an ebay store would be a great thing to set up so suckers like me in australia can buy a copy of said book. Do it tony

a. if there is a book you’ll be able to get it via cafepress, which ive released several books through before.

Chris coos, Ahhh Karisa ! You made my day. Please write to me. Yes I still would love a date ! If you are not seeing anyone.

a. karisa has been off the market for quite some time now.

xTx asks, hi tony. i’m worried about you and all of your writing and your carpal.
Is it all better? I sure hope so.

a. the carpal came back the other day but the experts attribute it to the PSP play, and not writing/blogging. the trip around the country pretty much cured everything. my good friend amy langfield gave me a book called “It’s Not Carpal Tunnel” (it’s repetivite stress syndrome). so with the use of a little better laptop, and a whole lot less work-stress, my carpal is slowly fading away. thanks for asking!

mike sez, So what’s going to be your excuse when your Bears lose next week and the Giants get home field for the playoffs?!?

a. the bears will beat the Giants by two touchdowns.

JaG asks, Speaking of ads, what happened to that girls ad thing idea you once mentioned?

a. the Busblog Babes Ad Network? i dropped the ball. i suck.

Leafs Fan asks, Do you have a paypal link?

a. but of course

is even though my hits have gone down since i started doing my thing at the LAist, the ads havent really slowed down. and if anything now im feeling guilty that im charging what im charging for those ads.

which makes me want to write more over here because there is a theory that the more you post, the more your hits go up.

which would allow my sponsors a better value for their dollar.

its weird that i care about them. i always thought getting ads would make me feel obliged to mention them or not to talk shit about them, or edit what i talk about, but theyve pretty much stayed over there and ive pretty much stayed over here.

but i am grateful for them sponsoring this blog and i feel they deserve better than the amount of traffic that theyve gotten here.

maybe they dont care. maybe its not the people who arent here that theyre worried about, maybe its you, those who are here, the base of the busblog who theyre interested in.

and maybe thats who i should be interested in pleasing.

not the hit counter, not the corporations, not the girls on myspace who say nice things in my inbox.

but whatever i’ll start updating twice a day anyways. cuz i should.

the bears lost yesterday on purpose. in order to fulfil the super bowl shuffle path to glory. you must lose to the fish, no matter how bad they suck. then ye shall win it all.