shes now 22

i have no idea why she doesnt like this photo, maybe because smelly danielley is all up in her grill? maybe its a pisces thing. anyways ive been reading carmen for years now and when i got to meet her two summers ago i think i was as starstruck as ive ever been meeting a blogger.

for some reason i didnt think she was real until she was right there in front of me.

i like that. it doesnt happen that often, but when it does it makes me happy that i left my home. staycations are overrated!

carmen lives in montreal just to show off. her english is parfait and im sure her french is too. she hints at wanting to go to grad school at usc or ucla but those would just be beautiful dreams. deep down canadian girls embrace the snow and ice and gray skies. the endless sun and palm trees would just confuse them and make them want to run home immediately.

sigh.

around christmas carmen visited her grandma in italy and blogged about it and all was well. she also dabbles in modeling and enjoys hello kitty. so if you are in MTL and want to deliver a belated birthday gift, now you know what to get.

bonne anniversarie, carmen!

: this scene in the blues brothers was shot in LA

in hollywood, to be exact, at the hollywood palladium

a place ive been to a gazillion times, and should have recognized in my favorite film

but i was lost in the movie magic and believed that it was a ‘barn’ somewhere up near wisconsin

and this is kanye defending oj and even himself

these days its hard to get excited about live performances, because we’ve seen it all.

but kanyes unpredictability and genius creates an electricity on stage that very few of his contemporaries can match.

xcept tsar, of course

why dont we just smile and do this every night?

i said you said a mouth full.

she said all talking ever leads to is me getting to know you and the more i get to know you the more i dont want to do this every night.

i said, to know me is to want to know anyone else.

she said and lets not ever go to your house again. lets just travel a lot and do this here.

i said, perhaps we could agree to a code. text me with a 1 if you want me to speed over to your house, text me a 2 if you want me to get to LAX in an hour with my bags packed.

she said on the plane we’ll just hold hands and read magazines.

i said, no talking.

she said, none.

i said im esping to you right now.

she said, im trying not to hear it because its a lot like talking.

i said im esping that i love you.

she said, see, thats almost exctly like talking.

i said but im esping something nice.

she said doesnt matter nice turns into not nice. its like the seasons. there you are sitting on the beach in july and all that means is decemeber is just 4-5 month away.

we stopped, then we were quiet for a while. then i esped but what if we promise just to esp nice things.

she esped but then what of the mean things/ if you esp nice things then the silence becomes the mean things. the silence is golden. dont make it not golden.

and then a crazy woman in a bacon car sped by and we laughed.

promise you’ll never speak to me again, she said, with tears of joy in her eyes.

oh i promise i said

and this morning i woke up at noon because my iphone chirped notifying me that as i dozed i had received an sms text message.

a simple digit glowed in the screen.

i saw it, disrobed, except for my top hat, and knew she was doing the same.

three of our young metro reporters, on their day off, left LA at 3am to drive to phoenix so they could cover the story that wont end up in the paper (though it did get posted to our killer music blog, Pop & Hiss last night), but it was too important to miss. yes there still are a lot of journalists who care about the story first and know that if it’s newsworthy it will reach an audience, but the first step is to go and then write it down.

the first four graphs:

Reporting from Phoenix — Zack de la Rocha, lead singer of the rock band Rage Against the Machine, helped lead a rally through the streets of Phoenix today in a bid to end the practices of an Arizona county sheriff who Rocha said had “deputized vigilantes” and created a “state of terror” for local Latinos.

Thousands of people marched about four miles from the Steele Indian School Park to the U.S. District Court of Arizona on Washington Street, chanting “No more Joe” and “Arpaio escucha, estamos en la lucha” –- which translates from Spanish to “Arpaio listen, we’re in the struggle.”

At issue is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s enforcement of federal immigration law. Some activists say he has unfairly targeted the Latino community. Arpaio says he is simply doing his job and told The Times in a phone interview that today’s protest would not “deter” him from fulfilling his duties.

“Without the proper warrants, he raids the homes and workplaces of janitors and gardeners,” De la Rocha told demonstrators at the end of the rally. “At routine traffic stops he detains and deports mothers, violently separating them from their children, who are left abandoned.”

often times without the press being there to document events and protests like these, important stories dont get reported, so hats off to Ari B. Bloomekatz, Paloma Esquivel and Nathan Olivarez-Giles for their extra effort and commitment to their trade.