came in the office a little early because i had to park next to the meters. so instead of flip flopping around the corner in my rob, i actually omg motivated and got the hell out of the house. the cougar, im sure, will complain that i just wanted to get away from her, but the truth is i have this early morning meeting that i would like to be a little more prepared for, going forward.

also i have an intern who starts today and i want her to have stuff to do. check that, there are tons of things for her to do, i just wanna be organized in what to assign her.

anyways to reward myself for getting here so early i splurged and got the #3 at McDonalds, the bacon egg and cheese biscut and large orange juice. soon as i walked into the office, people are pointing at my bag, someone said, “youre gonna kill yrself”, etc etc. my response was “this is the way i wanna go down”, but if only these people knew that if karisa wasnt in my life – and now eternally in my ear – i would be eating this every morning.

and really, if God wanted us to look forward to our 70s, hed make our schweens get longer the older we got.

i still think theyre doing it wrong.

but i wanna get her a new iPhone

shes all, no you should have the new one, i just want yours cuz i know it works.
im like, no no, the new ones only cost $199, so its not a big deal for me to get you a new one and i dont know if its a lot of effort to transfer phone numbers over and all that.

plus, i said, you dont want my porn.

my mom was all, yeah, i dont want that.

little does she know you cant store porn in an iphone… easily.

the truth of the matter is my lovely mother has a hard time accepting gifts. shes great in giving gifts. she will make you toilet paper cozies. she will go to Kohl’s and buy you a silk shirt. back in college when i needed her to write me a check to help me pay the rent, no prob. but teller you want to buy her a little phone so she can enter the modern world – drama.

funny, really. and i guess i have the same problem with receiving. it’s hard.

when i was a lad i went to this day camp in the woods. it was a church run camp. they had all these brothers running the place. thank God they didnt touch us because they could have cuz it was in the woods and most of the kids were poor and black so who would have believe us.

anyways in one of the bible study classes one of the brothers asked us if we believed in Heaven. almost all of us raised our hands. but we were dumb kids taking bible study instead of playing basketball. clearly there was something wrong with us. but the brother said, thats good but a lot of people in the real world Don’t believe in Paradise. in fact only 1/3 believe in Jesus – who is the epitome of Heaven.

a kid asked why that was.

and the brother said, because people have a very hard time accepting Good, therefore accepting God is nearly impossible.

later that day i saw a 10 year old kid slam dunk. it was a pretty magical camp.

a lovely woman felt motivated by something i said at a thing i had to speak at. one in which, if i remember correctly, i was very nervous at.

Writing Everyday

“If you think you are a good writer, write every day,” LATimes.com blogs editor Tony Pierce said not too long ago at a local Ed2010 networking event in April.

Pierce also added, “If you think you are a great writer, write twice a day.”

These two sentences have stayed with me over the past few months. Almost every journalism organization or group will have at least one panel discussion, seminar, etc., a year about why journalists should be blogging. But Pierce’s reasoning makes the most sense to me.

Others tend to focus on the associated technology of linking, tagging, etc., and the luxury of writing about anything you want. Then, even if everyone was doing it, why would anyone want to read my thoughts on a daily basis?

The thing is it isn’t about you the prospective Sara Shereen Post regular reader. It’s about me.

read Sara’s entire post here

my former cohort bree is doing a beautiful job blogging from the road on the warped tour. last year they tried to get some pink haird chick to do it in some fancy car, but the truth of the matter is if you want blogging done you needs to get a blogger.

bree is a consummate blogger, she loves the power pop/punk that fills the stages of warped. shes young, fun and hot, so she fits right in, but most of all shes a super hard worker so there arent excuses like omg my battery died or omg there was no wifi. she makes it happen and because of that we have a very good idea of what life is like on the road with Warped.

so check out her great photos and vids.

all photos by bree (who is pictured in the upper right with the dude)

as if their words dont matter. as if we have forever on this toilet earth. as if we’ll get around to our brilliant thoughts tomorrow. as if tomorrow we’re not gonna have different stories to tell or new reasons not to write.

as if a demon doesnt get his wings every time you dont post.

your blog is there for you to tell us everything. you have nothing to lose. we have everything to learn from you. so why dontcha.

think about the tv yr watching or blogs yr reading or books you just put down or movies you just saw, and liked. what if that person listened to the devil in their head that day and bought into the bullshit that it doesnt matter? what if bukowski said f it im old im fugly im fat, what on earth do i have to share with the world? i aint twain. i aint hem. i aint shakespeare.

al gore invented this thing for us to rock. every day. not just once in a blue moon. not just when everythings perfect. but in thick n thin. when yr tired and when youre strong, when yr sad and when yr thrilled. the universe deserves every color in the crayola box, so bust.

you know who writes when you dont? all the people you hate.

its because the foolish and evil and f’ed up and wicked dont have the devil telling them a million reasons why they should take a nap instead. because the devil wants them to write. and get on the radio. and infest comments. and whisper in your dreams.

write for the angels. tell’em what theyre missing. explain why harps and clouds and hymns and flying around is for the birds, and how summer is here and the beer tastes better.

tell em how your heart is broken. tell em that yr dreams are blossoming.

tell em everything and then more and then more and

then watch what you learn

because noone can read what you havent typed up.

not even u

three of whom will be starters.

nearly sweep cardinals this weekend. most wins in the majors.
injuries smimjuries, this appears to be the year

C Geovany Soto, CUBS
1B Lance Berkman, HOU
2B Chase Utley, PHI
SS Hanley Ramirez, FLA
3B Chipper Jones, ATL
OF Ryan Braun, MIL
OF Kosuke Fukudome, CUBS
OF Alfonso Soriano, CUBS

P Aaron Cook, COL
P Ryan Dempster, CUBS
P Dan Haren, ARI
P Brad Lidge, PHI
P Tim Lincecum, SF
P Ben Sheets, MIL
P Edinson Volquez, CIN
P Billy Wagner, NYM
P Brandon Webb, ARI
P Brian Wilson, SF
P Kerry Wood, CUBS
P Carlos Zambrano, CUBS

reserve:
3B Aramis Ramirez, CUBS

now in color!

Notorious bWg: 100 greatest american women of all time?

that would be boring as it would be my mom times 100.

bloopy: shouldn’t the sugarhill gang count as three people on your list?. . .

they should if they were as important or more important individually as opposed to collectively. same goes for N.W.A, who you could argue were extremely successful and creative individually, but in my opinion their group activity was far more revolutionary than their solo projects.

Steven Allen Adams: If I were to move to LA, with my background, would there be enough freelance writing work for me to make a decent living out there?

the top three reasons people come to LA are to become an actor, a musician, or a writer. add to that the fact that we are in a recession and i would recommend that before you leave the world of cheap rent for the land of high rent, i would suggest that if you are coming here for any of the three most cherished plumbs that you establish yourself in any of those fields Before coming to LA. or work on your waiter skills before heading out here.

Andrea: Is there anywhere in the country that you would NOT want to live? What’s your favorite way to spend a holiday?

switzerland didnt impress me. and i dont believe theyve ever produced a really good rock band which is telling. one could argue Celtic Frost, but thats a reach. my favorite way to spend a holiday is to sit in my bed, order takeout and pretend the girl kissing me doesnt have morning breath.

sass: Did lcc actually want to come out and play with us or are you forcing our awesomeness upon her?

lowercase carmen might not be the most prolific blogger, but shes a really good writer when she writes. sadly she doesnt write in her blog, which is funny. but maybe thats the pisces in her. meanwhile she really does wanna warriors on you and come out and play, and i hope you guys return the flavor and let her enter yr coven.

Elspeth: If we get a reverse 9-11 phone call in the middle of the night, to evacuate NOW, can we come and stay with you? We have only 2 dogs … it’ll only take an hour and a half from Santa Barbara …

for some reason my neighbors almost all have dogs. not just dogs but big dogs. why they choose to have such large animals in such small apartments is beyond me. why they choose to let their dogs dig holes in our courtyard and they dont replace the holes with dirt is also a mystery to me. life is a cabaret i guess. so come to the cabaret. meanwhile i hope the fires mellow out in The Good Land.

Dan: With regards to that whole question about the rights of the community vs. the rights of the creator. Can you elaborate on this further? I am having trouble understanding or coming up with any possible scenario where the owner of content should not have the right to remove said content from public display. Especially since, on the internet, there rarely is such a thing as completely removing it. Arguments of revisionism aside, what is freedom of expression without the freedom to decide want you want to express and for how long?

Upon further thought, I think when it comes to science and government, such “created” content should be available and should stay available as long as it is relevant or useful. But should that apply to individuals’ journalistic or personal [written] work? Should it apply to music?

What do you think?

i think that love makes people act crazy. which is why if we’re going to outlaw any mind altering drugs we either outlaw love first or dont outlaw anything.

since love isnt outlawed, neither should be the things that sprout from love as long as they dont physically harm anyone.

Scott: So the big question is, was the girl pink because what she was drinking or was that just her natural color. And what did the blue stuff taste like?

the girl lived in a universe where there was no concept as skin color, which is why she was so put off by the fact that bryn took so much stock in his when it had changed to blue. the blue stuff tasted like diet dr. pepper.

The WordSlinger: Dude, I saw the WSJ article on the cuts for the editorial staff at the LA Times. I hope that doesn’t affect you man.

anything that happens at the Times affects me. we are a far more collective unit than most realize. meanwhile we are part of the global economy which is also going through some very dramatic adjustments. financial shifts are hitting people in the real estate world with record foreclosures, in air travel, in las vegas, pretty much everywhere. to quote the cheech and chong film, things are tough all over. but i appreciate your concern.

invite us all to list our favorite record for each year we’ve been alive. since im so ancient, lets just do the last 50 years of my life

1958 – Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely
1959 – Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
1960 – Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain
1961 – John Coletrane, My Favorite Things
1962 – Patsy Cline, Sentimentally Yours
1963 – Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
1964 – John Coletrane, A Love Supreme
1965 – Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas
1966 – Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
1967 – The Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground and Nico
1968 – Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet
1969 – Led Zeppelin, I and II
1970 – Grateful Dead, American Beauty
1971 – The Who, Who’s Next
1972 – Randy Newman, Sail Away
1973 – Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
1974 – Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping
1975 – Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
1976 – AC/DC, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
1977 – The Ramones, Rocket to Russia
1978 – The Cars, The Cars
1979 – The Clash, London Calling
1980 – AC/DC, Back in Black
1981 – Journey, Escape
1982 – Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
1983 – The Police, Synchronicity
1984 – Prince, Purple Rain
1985 – The Replacements, Tim
1986 – Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill
1987 – Guns ‘n Roses, Appetite for Destruction
1988 – Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A
1989 – Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
1990 – Jane’s Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
1991 – Nirvana, Nevermind
1992 – Dr. Dre, The Chronic
1993 – Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream
1994 – Weezer, The Blue Album
1995 – Rancid, …And Out Come the Wolves
1996 – Weezer, Pinkerton
1997 – Mariah Carey, Butterfly
1998 – Kid Rock, Devil Without a Cause
1999 – DMX, …And Then There Was X
2000 – Tsar, Tsar
2001 – Jay-Z, Unplugged
2002 – Christina Aguilera, Stripped
2003 – The Darkness, Permission to Land
2004 – Kanye West, The College Dropout
2005 – Tsar, Band Girls Money
2006 – The Format, Dog Problems
2007 – Matthew Good, Hospital Music

but she cant

she can hide in the day but the night betrays
shes the only one who makes my home phone jingle
shes the only one who drunk dials
shes the only one whos ring smiles

knock knock when the door just intime for the fireworks
crack crack went the last of the black cats
ugh ugh went the old man
not yet went the quick prayer

sparkly strands braided in her hair
rubber bands on too pale wrists
how on earth are those real
public education aint said ’bout this

whispered kiss me every time you hear a bang
or a pop
or a crackle

and i did and i did and i did and i did