yes i know, who goes on vacation a week before vacation. my family thats who.

i know it doesnt make any sense. and especially it doesnt make sense with your family cuz youre just gonna see em a month later at christmas too. and they will say why dont you spend more than 4-5 days with us at christmas. and etc and etc. but thats the fact jack and theres not much i can say about it.

good news is JustAGirls friends are gonna be in LA during the week that im out so they can house sit my many mansions, so at least i know my baseball cards are protectd and my plants will get watered.

but i wanted to show you lindsays credit card thing. its from bank of america. and i want to say that this is genius. im pretty sure she got an account there simply to get a hello kitty mastercard. i say its genius cuz i got an account at BofA just to get a Cubs visa card. mine was a debit visa, but same diff.

with all the banks going under and all businesses going down, i think it was pretty brilliant to work in the things that people want in with what they need. we need debit cards, we want to see the things that we love when we go through the drivethru, so why not mush em together.

have a great monday, rockstars.

if theres anyone who enjoys the delicate dance of courtship its me. if theres anyone who understands the importance of pace its the busblogger. if anyone in LA realizes and appreciates the finer parts of the curve of a neck its you cuz if anyone saw your knees buckle as teeth grazed your shoulder in the parkinglot of the pinkberry it was us.

its cute how youre trying to stay in control or regain control or assume control but control young girl is an illusion and justlikethat its gone just like me if lame priorities are held higher than more important ones.

youre gonna have one last chance to ride in my dirty car. a magical machine given to me by the readers of this url. and when you get into that car, if you choose to, you will be presented with the long arm of the law. and that arm is going to rest where it should, on your smooth tanned thigh. and there isnt gonna be a gucci purse in its way, and there aint gonna be a whine or a sigh or even the cutest cry. its gonna be greeted with your hand, which will rest on top of it.

the stereo will magically switch over to sirius 11 which now hosts the led zeppelin station and the bs will end and the games will end and the jokes will end and the phoniness will be over. theres a time and place for those things and you’ll know when to role play but faking like you dont want me close is not the type of acting hollywood has been waiting for.

if youre good you’ll get pulled pork wednesday, so iron yr skirt. and if youre bad you’ll get dessert.

leather, mohawk, ripped shirt, safety pin(s), british flag, 2 minute songs, etc

but to me punk rock is about freedom, its about creative expression, its about trying to do something new.

to me kayne west in a marching band outfit at the grammys warning them that he better win something or theres gonna be problems is punk rock. to me the dixie chicks singing that theyre not ready to play nice is punk rock. even though its ruining the advertising model of the very industry that pays my rent, craigslist is punk rock.

i love punk rock so much because in my heart i am punk rock but no matter what i do i always end up mainstream and dull and hanoverpark,illinios.

i get mad when my heroes grow old and stop being punk rock. i get disappointed when the very kids who are so ready and willing and able to be punk rock arent even rock like people who think riding a bicycle on streets for social “change” is punk. unless youre doing flips, if youre on a bike when you do it, its probably not punk. its a lot like people who call themselves “mavericks”.

kroq is no longer punk. mtv is not even close to being punk. and video games which has all the ingredients to be quite creative and subversive and envelope pushing is so not punk rock.

any time you call your shot and drain it and point before during or after is punk rock.

sometimes people dont even realize when theyre being punk because sometimes when youre in the eye of the hurricane you dont even know theres a storm around you: you are in the middle of the slam pit thus you dont get touched. david letterman is often punk and yet no one notices. that can be sad.

in a way, for a short time when i was there, LAist was punk rock and often times now they are, and definately the Daily Nexus was punk rock when we accepted our best in california awards at the formal annual dinner in dresses.

sammy davis jr marrying a white woman when it was illegal in half of the usa was punk. n.w.a’s entire discography was punk. ee cummings and w.c.williams was punk. howard stern getting millions of people to pay for what they once received free is punk. the simpsons were punk. ev giving back all his investors money plus interest so he could move forward with twitter was punk. van goghs entire life was punk. tuesday was true punk rock.

so could a guy playing techno music on a laptop be punk rock?

in theory hell yes. which is why punk is so important for change and hope and art.

or never been to the hollywood sign

until today, at sunset, with your girl karisa, who knows all and kicks butt

why didnt we climb down the hill and hang out under it?

watch george from abc news do just that:

today he shares with us his presentation from the Web 2.0 conference about why Congress needs to change

as some have said of others, he gives good powerpoint.

kevin rose & al gore. the man who invented the internet, and the man who is steering much of its more interesting traffic

first question asked of the Vice President via the Digg users: why isn’t pot legal?

if you ever come into our newsroom is how quiet it is

many people have headphones on, most talk in normal tones on the phone, and a lot of communicating is done on email or through instant messenger. so when you go downstairs to head out to lunch or to head home, as soon as you get close to the Spring Street lobby you can hear it: an intoxicating buzz from thrilled people who want proof of what they saw on tv and online.

all week ive been showing you blurry pictures from my iphone of the masses of people lining up to get wednesdays newspaper. ive been doing it because every day we at the paper think its going to end soon. but its not ending. the more we reprint the more they buy. and every time we go through the lines to get to work its so energizing in the wake of seemingly never-ending layoffs. the economy continues to tank the real estate market continues to sink and the businesses small and large continue to deep six yet in the midst of it, this week, there was something to celebrate. something huge. its weird that our building happens to be the center of this weeklong celebration, but you take the good with the bad, next week someone will probably be protesting us for something just like they did a week ago.

anyways today one of our columnists sandy banks wrote a beautiful piece about the people waiting in line for newspapers. i made me tear up a few times, so i would like to share some of it with you.

For three 12-hour days, our lobby has been jammed, and sales will go on through this weekend. “We get a new batch, and a half-hour later they’re gone,” circulation chief Jack Klunder told me. “But we’ll just keep printing.”

It caught us in the newsroom by surprise. More than 350,000 extra copies have been sold. “It’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” Klunder said, as we watched, amazed at the line that just kept growing.

For years, we’ve been hearing that print is dying and we’ve been pouring energy into online features aimed at extending our reach.

But you can’t flip the pages of a cyber Times or post a framed blog on your wall.

“I want a piece of history, in black and white, to hold in my hands,” Connie Jackson told me as I moved through the line Friday, talking with readers about why they had come.

She bought eight copies of the paper and three replica plates Thursday, then came back Friday for more. She plans to frame a front page and mount it on her wall, and send copies to friends in other cities “who want something to remember this moment.”

Indeed, people havent been standing in line for just one or two papers (still fifty cents), but they have been scooping up “posters”, replica steel plates of the front page, even buttons and tshirts from entrepreneurs on the sidewalk.

“I’m getting everything you’ve got, as many as I can buy,” said Adrienne Foster, a college administrator who lives near downtown in Lafayette Square. “So everybody I know can be a part of this.”

In line behind us, Margaret Kean was listening. I could tell she wanted a chance to talk. She’s white, and has two adult biracial sons whose father is black. She grew up in the 1960s in Detroit — “a mile from the riots” — and moved here with her sons “so they could avoid trouble.

“This is my story, my kids’ struggle,” she told me, tears spilling from her eyes. “Now I know my belief that things are changing is right. I tell my sons, ‘You have no excuse not to succeed.’ . . . This is one of the most perfect moments in life.”

Banks continues with Kean who shares with her something that ties together this modern world with what brought us here:

She also saved a text message her son sent during the campaign. On Friday she showed it to me:

“Rosa Parks sat, so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can FLY.”

I read it aloud, and we both stood there crying.

lots of emotion out there in that line. and if youre in LA and want to witness some of it we’re selling papers today till about 4pm, and tomorrow from 9am (i think) till 4pm. i dare you not to get caught up in it all.

starring your questions with pics of people waiting yesterday for wednesday’s paper:

JackassJimmy: Tony, How come listening to podcasts in itunes on my windows box causes it to crash but nothing else does…not even music in itunes?

its because streaming huge podcasts takes up way more RAM than relatively small songs. a half hour podcast (which is pretty short) has to be buffered in your computer’s short term memory before it’s played. as the podcast is played the RAM is constantly filling and emptying which takes a lot of work for your computer, especially if you have other programs open too. you might wanna clear your cache before you listen to a podcast next time, this might not fix your problem (more RAM is the more permanent solution) but it might do the trick for right now.

Krista: Where is the best place in the world to celebrate the new year?

canada, for sure. vegas comes a close second. but sloshing through the snow in a foreign land is pretty rad. especially with people named raymi pitt and krista.

Matt Welch: Why don’t you wipe the hand lotion off your camera lens? When am I going to see you next?

my iphone camera has never delivered the best photos. sorta reminds me of lots of the pics i used to see on a certain warblog which will remain nameless. but you’re right, if im gonna use that thing as much as i do i should get it cleaned. its over a year old. you will probably see me mid november at petes house.

Keira-Anne: Dear Tony, How come I feel like you love Canada less than you used to? Sincerely, Keira-Anne P.S. xo

my love for canadah will never fade. its real, its true. problem is my work is way more demanding than ever before so its hard to verbally daydream about our 51st state. but wasnt it just a few weeks ago that showed you pics of me with the current playmate of the year who is from ontario? video of me interviewing her to come.

zona: are you going to promote your new film at Sundance or will you join the boycott of the Mormon State? I just wanna know cause I’m moving to Salt Lake and was hoping you’d get me into all the cool parties at Sundance

ive never been to sundance and have no desire to go. im way more about sxsw. as for boycotting utah. some of my best friends live there. plus no one from utah voted in the california elections, so if anyone wants to be pissed they should be angry at cali residents or the governator who vetoed similar legistlation – twice.

Ali: Gears of War 2 or Resistance 2?

im a lover not a fighter. you should work out your virtual aggressions in hotter ways.

Radiohumper: Did you hear what happened to your colleagues at Buzznet yesterday? What’s the best way for bloggers to use any social currency to help your homies who are fighting the good fight?

i did hear about it and i loved the photos on LAist. the best way for bloggers to do anything is to continue blogging about things, using digg and reddit, linking to their posts on facebook, and spread the word via twitter. the Lord has given us many ways to tell compelling stories. seems to me that this election and its fall out contain some amazing tales that people wanna know about, so everyone should share their stories with the world. the world is listening.

bluescityref: Milk, Regular or 2%?

i used to always have a half gallon of whole milk in my house. i blame karisa for convincing me that i should eat my cereal without milk. the only time nowadays you’ll ever see me with milk is when i have an upset stomach – i will drink chocolate milk which i believe is 2%.

Sarah: How come you go on dates with [censored] [girls] who say that have mono, but they don’t? Valid question.

as you know, sometimes i will date young women who are probably younger than i should be with. when youre young you dont know that you can just be straight up with some people. you might also think that a guy with a blog that says “nothing in here is true” might enjoy a lie or two. truth of the matter is the way to my heart is to keep it real, give me a reason to trust you, and just have a good time. lifes short.

timmay!!!!!: how long will obama’s honeymoon last? how long should it last?

the day after the president elect was voted in i listened to a few minutes of rush limbaugh and the honeymoon never even started in that circle of the mainstream media. rush was picking apart barrys acceptance speech like the broadcaster had taken a red pen to the thing. however, if you look around downtown LA, or near my workplace, you will see that the honeymoon is very much still happening. we’ve printed over 250,000 extra copies of wednesdays paper. men are selling tshirts and buttons and bottled water to folks waiting around the block for those historic newspapers. its a pretty awesome sight to see and hear. good feelings should last as long as possible, but that doesnt mean that one should resist being critical to the most powerful man in the world.

Sycz: Tony, what can the Cubs do?

1. break hearts. 2. inspire beautiful dreams. 3. shock the world. 4. all of the above.

bloopy: whopper or big mac?

grilled chicken at either mcdonalds or jack in the crack.

katie: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ or http://ihasahotdog.com/

i like dogs a lot more, so the latter please.

Mike: C’mon Tony… Vancouver… New Years…

yes…no…maybe…

Sharp (aka Azreal Darkskies): What’s a quick recipe that tastes awesome? (no cop-out answers like frozen foods)

you have come to the wrong blog if youre seeking cooking advice. i havent used my oven in years. heres how i cook if im in a pinch – open can, dumb contents into bowl, put plastic wrap over bowl, shove in microwave, cook. eat. repeat.

keir: If Jake Peavy goes to Chicago, who should the Cubs trade for him?

we dont need any more pitching. we need to teach fukudome how to hit american pitchers.

!! yay!

no need to stand in line around the corner of my workplace, simply put your question in the comments box and id gladly answer your questions in a timely manner.

rock!

dude, wheres my apple juice?

the posters all over town said Hope or they said Change

some even said Progress.

however, the vending machine in question has gone from apple and orange juice (good) to orange and grapefruit (not so good) to now orange and grapefriut and cranberry (wtf!).

does the vending machine fellow think we need something to mix our vodka with? a little lesson for you sir, real drinkers order their stoli neat.

but seriously, who would prefer cranberry juice over apple?

but at least this is better than when they had pretty much nothing other than gatorade. but not by much.