an angel came down to canada and gave us the lovely ali who for a short time was named suzie. even in the bible peoples names changed so why should blogging be any different?

needless to say new years eve or coachella or santa barbara wouldnta been the same without our hippie girl from another world.

so please lets celebrate alis 23rd birthday with peace love and soul baby.

but the son of a gun can duck

and said “before we eat fondue we’re going somewhere, bring winter clothes and $11.50 and dont ask any questions”

i was afraid it might be ice skating because i had never ice skated before, which i know is a shocker since i grew up in chicago

but for some reason i never did it

the other night i did it

then we had wine, then we had booze, then we had this red bull challenger, then i had beer, then i had champagne

and ate shrimp and beef and gingerbread house

and strangely i got really sick early yesterday morn

and my legs were sore

so i slept most of the day and watched Arrested Development marathon that i recorded from thanksgiving – and Volver in honer of Carmener who is in Barceloner

and slept more

and didnt go to Stevie Wonder

but will see the Lakers with a hot young thing tonight. but first lunch with Kariser

so later!

as a year end special, in todays ask Tony you will have your choice of asking me a question, or special guest star Sass (who doesn’t think you people know who she is), or special guest Keira-Anne or special guest Karisa or special guest Ashley (who doesnt believe you people remember her)

its the season of giving i guess. so no lurking go ask these fine ladies questions!

how is it that your girls seem to have so much more fun than us in the states?

Keira-Anne: SO much fun last night!
me: seeing your new apt?
Keira-Anne: i saw it. i’m indecisive.
but i went out with the girls.
and me and lindsay went to a slutty store and snuck in the change room together ;0
😉
and we went to the arcade you and i went to and watched 70s porn

me: and made out?
Keira-Anne: and i drank, drank, drank
no, we tried on slutty santa outfits
me: and took pics?
Keira-Anne: [heck] ya
me: yay!

Keira-Anne: merry xmas
me: ahahaha. thank you
Keira-Anne: that should’ve been my damn xmas card pic this year

me: im gonna share your goodwill right now with the busbloggers

Keira-Anne: do it!
there’s a few pics on there

keira-anne previously on the busblog: oct 2007 interview spectacular + keira’s 24th bday interview

in a pretty cool tradition involving sometimes cold temps, alcohol, the “celebration” of finals, and running around campus in underwear, the UCLA Undie Run took place last year even though the cops really wanted it to go away this year.

LAT blogger of the UCLA What’s Bruin blog, and former LAist Sports Editor, Adam Rose not only shot this video, but edited it, added music and wrote a good post. in these days where people are losing their jobs due to budget cuts and the crappy economy, Adam is proving that if you have the skills to pay the bills, and the nose for news (or in this case semi-news), and a great personality, you will survive.

i said amoeba. she said wheres that?

i said, are you a cop?

she said, i mean which one?

i said, are you a space alien?

she giggled but didnt answer.

i said, not that i would mind, ive made out with a few who i suspected of space alienry, but this would be the first confirmed encounter.

she said, do you want to meet me or not?

and then i thought if this chick swears she’s lived in LA for years, yet doesnt know where amoeba is, we probably dont have much of a future. so i hung up.

he spoke to a crowd of less than 10,000 at the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City right near Hollywood. it was not a sellout.

earlier that week he spoke to bigger crowds back east. at one event Oprah was on stage with him and people had mixed feelings about her influence. it would be the last time they shared an event like that.

but here in LA he had actors and musicians warm up the crowd for him. kumar from harold & kumar was there, 86-year-old James Whitmore was there. Ne-Yo and The Goo Goo Dolls performed. They all said how much they thought of Obama and what a great job he’d do. i posted a huge story in LAist and included lots of pics.

when it was time for Barack to speak i wasnt all that impressed with him. i had heard him before earlier that year speak at a park and i hoped he’d have injected a little more soul into his voice. i was hoping his words would sing more. but they didnt. the people in the crowd cheered cuz they had Hope and they wanted to Believe. but Obama, as we would see throughout his campaign isnt a snake oil salesman, hes an even-keeled gentleman.

hes not a salesman, hes not a preacher, he’s not trying to push on you something that you dont already want. and it might be one reason that he won. (another reason might be because the other party ran an embarrassing race, who knows?)

but last year at the Gibson, Barack spoke to the crowd and the whole time i thought, could this guy really be the next president? as a black man myself i was sorta hoping that maybe he could pull it off, but as i took the tram down the hill to the subway i had all but written him off. i was all, nice night, interesting lineup of entertainers, but bro couldnt even sell out a place for $10 a ticket that Marilyn Manson could sell out for $50 a head – how is he going to get a country who voted for Bush twice to pull the lever for him?

which is why you should never quit and why you should never count anyone out. cuz not only did he win over Jesusland, but he seems to have won over the entire planet as well. sure there are pockets of doubters, but it seems to me those pockets are just as willing to be wrong as i was.

right before i saw Obama speak a year ago i wrote a post on the busblog, part of which i’d like to share with you:

im about to hear barack obama speak

a black man who’s winning in some of the polls as he runs for president of the united states.

in california just like in the rest of the world, anything can happen, so have your suit ready.

if you are really being you, and not selling out, and not pretending, and not saying the things that you think people want to hear, you might be pleasantly surprised with what people say in return.

i go to enough rock shows to know that the kids dont wanna hear what the last guy said. they dont wanna see what they saw last week.

they wanna see you.

so have your dress shoes ready and have your black socks in em and waiting.

even though he lost to Hillary in California and several other states, it still hasnt really sank in to me that he’s about to put on his Presidential black socks pretty soon. and once again, im pretty happy to be wrong about first and second impressions sometimes.

so i am gonna ask you for direction here

recently there was a little scandal involving Prez-elect Obama’s speechwriter. on his Facebook someone found a picture of him “groping” a cardboard cutout of the next Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. i put groping in quotes because im not exactly sure if you can grope cardboard.

Dee Dee Myers, who in the past worked as the Press Secretary for President Bill Clinton seems quite sure that you can grope cardboard. and finds a lot wrong – if not disturbing with the photo of Obama’s speechwriter and the cutout image. an excerpt from her piece in Vanity Fair:

What’s bugging me is his intention. He isn’t putting his hand on her “chest,” as most of the articles and conversations about the picture have euphemistically referred to it. Rather, his hand—cupped just so—is clearly intended to signal that he’s groping her breast. And why? Surely, not to signal he finds her attractive. Au contraire. It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration.

And it disgusts me.

Oh, I know: If Hillary can get over it, why can’t I? Her spokesman, Phillipe Reinnes, tried to make light of the incident. “Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon’s obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application,” he told the Washington Post in an E-mail. Obviously, she has no interest in making a federal case out of this particular incident, particularly as both the Clinton and Obama camps work on letting bygones be bygones. She has to pick her battles, and for her this ain’t a hill worth dying on.

But there is a larger issue at stake. At what point does sexist behavior get taken seriously? At what point do people get punished in ways that suggest this kind of behavior, this kind of thinking, is unacceptable? At what point do we insist there will be consequences? Clearly, that didn’t happen during the recent presidential campaign, when Hillary was—as I guess she is now—fair game. The press, the pundits, and the public could say things about her (“She’s a shrew!”) and to her (“Iron my shirt!) that were over-the-top sexist—yet got almost no reaction.

So my questions to the female readers of this blog are these: am i crazy that when i saw the photo of the speechwriter and the cutout, i didnt think anything of it? is Dee Dee putting too much energy into this? is she the crazy one? or is “groping” a cardboard cutout of a public figure an incredibly sexist thing, that as Ms. Meyers suggests should be punished?

im very confused in this matter because as you can see from the photos above, real and fake groping appears to be rampant in the world, especially when theres a camera around and people are feeling free.

top photo by hessiebell, middle photo by Kerplunk Whoops, bottom photo by thatswherebatslive all via flickr

while she excused herself to powder her nose the dude next to me clinked my glass as we both watched her walk into the ladies room.

im going to jail tomorrow, he said.

oh yeah?

got popped with a beer between my legs this summer while driving and the bastids want $600.

judge said pay $600 or go to jail? iasked.

yep. i can do three days easy.

ever been in before?

yep, for two months.

ah, so yeah i guess three days will be nothing.

well, he said, its still gonna suck but heres my plan.

i ordered another baileys and a cosmo for my date.

he said, you can show up any time before 10pm and it will count as one day. but im gonna show up wasted and pop a few sleeping pills before i turn myself in. then im gonna sleep all day on the second day. then they let you out around 5pm on the third day, so really, thats the only hard one. that third day.

but its really just a half day, i said.

well, its a full day, i’ll probably wake up at 8am, eat the green sandwich, and bide my time till 5.

i debated whether one should buy a fella a beer after he tells you hes going to jail for dui, but i was at a bar, and he was drinking, and its Christmastime. so i said why not and got him a shot.

my date was taking her sweet time so i said, lemme ask you a question, why not raise $600 somehow?

he said, id have to pee in a cup for a month. no way would i pass that. and if i failed theyd throw me in jail anyways.

my date tapped my shoulder. she didnt want her cosmo. she wanted to get my fireplace going, it turned out. so i downed my baileys and offered her girlie drink to my bro

who gladly accepted.