this is what i call the most wonderful early birthday gift

from our good friends at Sirius Satellite radio:

For Those About To Rock… AC/DC Radio
Exclusive Limited
Engagement Channel

When: On Now
Channel: 29

Hear the high voltage sounds of AC/DC 24/7, including classics like “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Back in Black,” and preview tracks from Black Ice, the band’s first studio album in eight years.

The channel features exclusive interviews with band members Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, Brian Johnson and Phil Rudd, who share their personal insights into their music and their career.

i know its just a marketing ploy to get people pumped about Black Ice – as if one needs any artificial stimulation – but for huge fans of the band, like moi, this is pretty exciting.

several bands have their own channel on Sirius: the Dead, Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett… i think they even let R.E.M. have a channel for a little while. the problem is you get burnt out of the artist pretty quickly. for some reason i dont know if that will happen with the AC/DC channel since they have so many records.

and theyre all oh so different.

but seriously, its exciting. i am finding myself getting pretty bored with The Buzzsaw because they play the same Kiss / Def Lepard / Skynyrd / Metalica / Maiden tunes, so it will be nice to have what i really want every once in a while, which is angus reeling off one solo after another

and those classic tunes of love.

although nothing in here is true

if i were to have to pick Best Nude New Blogger of 2008, it would be a tough choice between two ladies from Ontario: Ali and Sass.

obviously there are no losers in such a decision as one should be happy just to be nominated. however i would have to give the slight advantage to Sass right now. Ali had a great blog going, she was raw, emotional, funny, hell – even nude for some of it. but then she pulled an elliott smith kobain on it which is truly frowned upon on this blog.

the first rule of blogging is keep blogging. all the chatter about this or that just might possibly be the devil himself trying to get you to click that Delete Blog button and im sorry but that button shouldnt ever exist.

i still heart ali, alot, and her new blog is really good, better than a lot of blogs out there, and its nice to see some of the pics i took of her on there, and its interesting to see a slightly different dimension to our girl.

however, Sass, despite her cutesie zucking speech stylingz is pretty hard to top right now. there has been some great improvements to her blog throughout the year, the most dramatic being that she no longer blurs out the faces of her friends.

other plusses includes videos, lots of posts, many photos, great design, and running features like I’m Not Naked where she shows off whatever shes wearing that day.

for fashion snobs like me and you, it’s killer.

then to top off an already successful summer of love(?) this week sass provided us with a no-pants sleepover housewarming photo special which showed canada in a brightly colored and diverse way that i havent seen on the blogosphere.ca in quite a while.

my only question is, how come raymi, fil, christie, et al werent in attendance?

have no fear though bloggers, theres still a few more months left in this calendar year for the race for Best New Blogger ’08, so take off your pants and get to bloggin.

My answers to questions

posed to Raymi, starring photos from an abandoned porsche in the LAT parking garage

1) When did you start your blog, and why?

i started blogging in august of 2001 because i was bored of my dumb job and i hated life and i didnt wanna hang myself or jump off a bridge. i wanted to escape. i wanted to tell my story. i wanted to run to a world where i had some say because i had very little say editing the closed captions. i wanted to explain what the xbi was and how pissed i was that they put me on that assignment. i wanted to have a living record of what i was up to and what chopper one was all about if/when i got shot. i wanted to impress the ladies of true hollywood story, i wanted to explain that a man really could get dates when he had no car in LA, i wanted to prove i mattered.

2) What is your favourite aspect of blogging?

the absolute freedom to write whatever, whenever, and about whomever. basically if youre not full of crap you are free. ive seen lots of bloggers who find themselves stuck in corners because they have agendas or axes to grind or people to protect or appearances to keep up. but if you’re truly keeping it real the freedom is amazing and you can do some really creative things. several times a day.

3) How does your blog represent Canada?

it evokes freedom, beauty, and the rough individualism of americas 51st state. minus the royalty but extra poutine.


4) What do you hope that your readers take away from your posts?

i want them to know that theyre not alone. that they have a friend in hollywood. a magical friend who might save their life when they might not expect it. but who probably doesnt wanna have a drink with them, in hollywood. anywhere else. iowa, illinios, vancity, but not LA. i want them to know that if i can be successful by clicking and clacking on a keyboard then they sure as hell can cuz i wasnt ever any good at school, im bald im old im fat and theyre probably better than me in so many ways, thus if they start blogging their lives can be better too.

5) What tips do you have for new Canadian bloggers?

do what sass did and rip off/befriend/idolize/mimic raymi in every way possible.

6) Do you use any other social networks (twitter, facebook, etc)?

yes. but mostly to get dates. so im not doing it in the pure sense of spreading my deep philosophical ideas about. im doing it so as to inspire sins of the flesh. and to brag about the cubs.

7) Tell me a bit about your book (and others that you may be working on), and how it relates to your blog.

ive written several books. blooks is what theyre called. the first was Blook. it was crappy. then came How to Blog. that one was way better. great cover too. then came Stiff, my favorite thing i ever made. i got mad when Stiff didnt sell a million copies so i stopped making blooks. i would like to change all that and make a new one in a month or two, but id also like to work out so that the ladies would start loving me more. so who knows which one will happen. ultimately books are dumb. read things online, save a tree forest.

8) How would you classify your blog?

beautiful lies posted every day for your ass.

if theres one thing i like its symmetry

the sound of two hands clapping.

the sight of four legs kneeling.

the taste of eight m&ms melting.

the feeling of sixteen shot glasses clinking.

the smell of 32 cookies baking.

the thought of 64 k processing

the words one hundred and twenty eight miles per hour

and the dare of you and me

in a closet.

i also like eating my mistakes.

photo by sass, who has no pants

cramer last year (august 2007) told you

it was gonna be like this

“Sometimes I wish I just didn’t know anybody, so I could just sit here and say ya know what, go buy some Washington Mutual and take that yield, unfortunately I know too many people and I am too darn old.” 8/07

“Could Mortgage Crisis Take Down WaMu?” – ABC 9/11/08

“…WaMu, which lost more than $6.3 billion over the last three quarters because of growing problems in its mortgage portfolio, might seek to sell some of its far-flung assets, such as branches in New York.” – Money & Co., 9/12/08

“WaMu lowered to junk by S&P” – CNN, 9/15/08

as lehman brothers goes under

sal and richard get down on live tv.

the irony is XM and Sirius were also in financial difficulties when they agreed to merge, and yet even after the proposed merger was not deemed a monopoly the FCC still dragged its feet (seemingly on purpose) which damaged both companies.

the question is, will the government also block (for more than a year) the sale of Merrill Lynch to B of A.

something tells me that because it doesnt involve Howard Stern, this sale will sail through.

h/t lisanti tumblr

do you know what im tired of?

people going crazy over tina fey on snl doing sarah palin.

back in my day pretty much every sketch on snl was great. and not just cuz someone looks like someone else.

sure it was good, sure it was better than everything else on the show. but all that sketch did was show how weak the writing is on snl.

youve got all summer, youve got dozens of writers, and home schooled family feud is all youve got?

also lil wayne was better on the mtv vma than snl. wtf.