best rockstar ever

at the idol pre party. she told me her name but i forgot it, but yes, she’s a gaucho and lovely and during the show we leaned over adam and talked about this seasons talent show (adam hadnt seen one single episode) and bonded.

until i dated myself. something i should probably just get used to as long as i keep my mouth open.

“bon jovi was the best show ive ever seen” my dear said at one point.

bon jovi?

there are just a few things that i hold in lesser regard than the pretty boys from jersey:

1. suicide bombers
2. san diego
3. the new york yankees

you know, bon jovi… i saw bon jovi on their first arena tour, i told her, unable to play it cool.

they opened for the scorpions. probably before you were born, 1983.

she said, i was born in 1982.

i sit corrected, i said. youre my little runaway was their big hit at the time, i went on.

she lightened up, or perked up, or something, but everything was up.

i booed them then, i said, and id boo them now.

deflated she ignored me for the rest of the show.

for some reason they didnt serve booze at the nokia for the idol finale shows.

people said it was because of all the kids in the place, but i saw only about 20% “kids” and what was the fear about having them there? the possibility that a few of them would have fake IDs?

all the kids there were accompanied by pretty powerful parents who were either in the tv or music biz. most of whom were just as annoyed as the teens that the nokia also had a rule against cameras and cell phones for this live event.

the camera and cell phone rule was something i could live with, even thought it was weird to be so detached from the two things that i had apparently made part of my body because i missed it the second it was gone and ran to it the minute i was allowed to reunite with it.

i was cool with the lack of cams and cell phones because if theres one thing that bothers me about rock shows these days is that like vonnegut space aliens, as soon as the rock begins all these arms raise up like periscopes holding cameras that not only disrupt sight lines but gives you the feeling that people arent as into the moment as they are trying to capture the moment for another moment in the future.

ive seen youtube. none of these people know how to properly document a rock show, therefore i shouldnt see anyone with cameras at shows. and people who try to film using cell phones – why even bother? for a 20 second shakey bad sounding clip?

maybe there should be a premium version of youtube thats curated by people who really care about good concert documentary video, likewise something over at flickr. when you go there youd see entire songs filmed properly with quality audio. charge us $5 a month to see stuff there. id pay. youd pay too.

but even though idol was being filmed live, if they had allowed cameras, people would still sit in their seats and try to video it to prove they were there. certainly not to blog – the perfect place to show that you were somewhere.

people should just get better friends.

my friends are perfectly fine with just believing i was places. hell they even believe this blog, one that clearly states that its fiction.

do you know where im going this weekend. im going to san diego.

the place i loathe and matthew good loves.

probably the only thing we cant agree on.

i will take pictures.

Matt Welch: 1) Your four favorite writers at the LAT
2) Your four favorite bloggers whose first name begins with the letter “Z”
3) Your four best names for a new awesome (and sadly non-existent) magazine based in L.A.
4) Your four thoughts on sportswriters no longer quoting people in (mostly Latino & black) dialect, as in “Fo’ fo’ fo’.”

1. completely difficult question for a myriad of political and professional reasons, as many of the writers here (over 200 of them) blog and i am supposed to view them as an Octomom looks at her offspring “i love every one the same”. But here are four that I found myself reading a lot lately: Geoff Boucher, Dan Neil, Steve Lopez, Todd Martens, Scott Sterling, Mark Milian, Margaret Wappler, Jessica Gelt, Alie Ward, August Brown, Patrick Day, Andrew Malcolm, Johanna Neuman, Carolyn Kellogg, and Lindsay Barnett. Next month would probably be a different list, so make sure to ask me again then cuz now no one is gonna wanna say hi to me in the halls. But the music bloggers kicked major bootay this month cranking out 69 posts over just 3-4 days for Coachella. A better question would be, who am i more jealous of this week (it changes very quickly), this week it would be Chris Lee, a guy who got to interview Angelina Jolie last year and last week topped it by getting to interview Sasha Grey.

2. zaymi the minz, zlenda bautista, ztx, and zatt welch

3. Better Than Frisco, 90069, Hell A., Boink

4. Sports should continue to break the rules and feel free to quote people the way they express the most flava. Sportswriters however should be respectful of people’s dialects, for example they dont quote every “uh” from white players, so they shouldnt quote every knowwhatimsayin from my brothas. Sportswriters should always be having fun. Sportswriters should avoid anything that causes them to get punched in a locker room.

Basart: 1. What blog that you read religiously five years ago but is now dead would you like to see revived?
2. Without giving away any secrets, what blog should the LAT start up that it currently does not have?
3. What blog would you most like to guest-post on (or would you even want to do such)?
4. Why are all of my questions about blogs if I hate blogs?

1. flagrant disregard. big time.

2. there are about 5 in the back burner that id love love love to bring to the front burner. but one that’s not even on the stove i know we wont make any time soon is The Bad Blog – where every day we just collect and present stories of Americans acting badly, like that lady who killed her grade school aged son and buried him in the playground under the sand. it would get hits and comments and links. for surely.

3. Jezebel

4. because you secretly love blogs and secretly want to write for Pitchfork.

vinny: 1)why are the cubs on a losing streak?
2)Where is the best burger place in Las Vegas?
3)Are you actually going to buy a Kia Soul?
4)If a pretty girl from Vermont adds you as a friend on facebook and you have no idea who she is so you don’t add her, but than she messages you and says sorry wrong person. But you keep messaging back and forth for awhile, do you add her as a friend and hope for the best, or just leave it alone?

1. i blame the bullpen, milton bradley, and mike fontenot.

2. In N Out over by the Palms.

3. Probably not because Karisa would unfollow me on Twitter

4. pretty girl in Vermont you say? if you dont friend her, i’ll take up the slack for ya

g/d: -1-why no Beats in this generation?
-2-who’s writing do we have to watch?
-3-should every wall be blank for banksy?
-4-to link or to be linked?

1. because Kerouac ruined everything and made people believe that it was about him and his crappy writing than Burroughs and Ginsburg and their crappy writing.

2. xTx (nsfw) on many many levels.

3. stencils are over, so no. but street art shouldnt be a crime.

4. people who dont link are missing the point of blogging. it is to help expand yr readers’ minds, and although your writing might be unbelievable, someone elses work is probably better, so share that with the people you allegedly love.

timmay!!!!!: 1. did you know that kim is good friends with someone who knows someone in gang of four?
2. what’s your favorite song on foreigner 4?
3. hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades?
4. whatever became of the fourth estate?

1. death is the friend to most cool peeps. so this does not surprise me.

2. im not sure if this was my record or my sisters, but i did play it a lot, in part because it was produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange who we all know as the African master who was behind the dials for the Boomtown Rats and then Highway to Hell and Back in Black. “Jukebox Hero” was a fun song to air guitar to so i’ll pick that one.

3. motorhead would not approve if i didnt say spades.

4. its still around. for example the original abu ghraib torture pics probably wouldnt have come out so quickly if it wasnt for 60 Minutes II (and Dan Rather) followed by the New Yorker. Without the Washington Post it’s unlikely that the neglect at Walter Reed would have come out so quickly. And without our very own LA Times we wouldnt have known as quickly about the horrors at King / Drew hospital.

Could the “4th Estate” be more aggressive, biting, and intense? Sure, but you could look at any profession and say doctors should be cheaper, buses should be more on time, and restaurants should be more delicious. but thats the beauty of competition – there will always be someone who is working a little harder to be better. and even though newspapers, magazines, and tv news dont make as much money as they used to make, they all want that extra scoop, so even though it might not seem like the press is exposing one watergate a month, its not like we’re not trying.

its tony. its ask tony

last night karisas brother came into town so we all went to sushi over by birds.

we ordered way too much. we drank way too much. and apparently i no longer can rock the wrinkled shirt like no one else.

sloppiness is wasted on the young, i suppose.

cubs are on a four game losing streak so today you have to ask four questions.

tell me the truth as you see it. is this red car cool lookin or ugly

dont obsess about the color, just the shape and look. thumbs up, thumbs down.

if you wanna say why, go for it.

i call those people communists

from her award-winning online diary:

finally tracked down some edamame. don’t ask anyone in a suburban supermarket for it, they don’t know what it is. also, don’t ask them when you are dressed like a wizard, either.

for the record i love her blog and wish there were more like hers.

foto by fil

as in its a seriously real business and the commercial isnt a parody?

thats what the AP is saying.

The catchy jingle for The Red House Furniture Store says it all, but doesn’t totally do it justice: “Where black people and white people buy furniture.”

It’s helped make The Red House an Internet sensation thanks to a campy YouTube ad that’s gotten nearly a million views by using racial harmony to sell sectional sofas and grandfather clocks.

The commercial is so low-budget and off-beat that some people can’t believe it’s real.

“For a while, we couldn’t do anything but answer the phone. ‘Yes, we’re a real store. Yes, that’s a real ad,'” said vice president and manager Steve Patalano.

at first i thought it was real, then someone or something convinced me it was fake. now im being told its real.

if any of you have details to prove its fake, please lemme know.

otherwise enjoy the racial harmony and creative success of the video commercial.

believe it or not but id never been to the nokia before. i hadnt even been to LA Live before

and its a little sad that it was american idol that got me there first.

but i quickly got over it.

believe it or not but it wasnt all that crowded at the “plaza”, probably because most people probably thought it would be swamped there.

but nope, pretty much just the people who had tickets.

because of that, the contestants and stars didnt need any artificial buffers

indeed, just the opposite.

hi heather locklear – who politely signed a few autographs for the fans

hi bo bice

hi big tall dude from tv.

hi reuben studdard

the girls screamed loudest for daughtry

and seriously everyone was generous with the autographs. very sweet.

lots of signs too.

you didnt even need a ticket to get to the red carpet.

or much talent.

they didnt let you have cameras or phones of any kind in the show, so this is the only image i have (taken afterwards) of where adam got robbed, but got to sing with santana queen and kiss.

in summary, it was very surreal and fun to go, but i didnt buy a tshirt.

last night i was offered a ticket to the american idol finale which is taking place here in downtown LA.

even though i pretend that im above idol, and that im cooler than the madding crowd who would text IDOL to 5701 (standard rates apply), i am neither above anything or cool.

i texted last night. i watch almost every week.

and now im excited that even though i successfully handed my ticket to someone else that a second ticket ended up on my person and now im being ordered to go to the Staples / Nokia center called LA Live to see special guests sing for me and america for the finale.

im being told that no cameras are allowed. or cell phones. so im not sure i can document for you what i am seeing.

but my pics are hardly any good anyways, as karisa often tells me, so maybe its all for the best.

but if the super dooper surprise musical special guest shows up and they are who i think they are, then it will be worth the effort of leaving work a tad early to witness it in person.

either way you should turn on yr tv cuz what im hearing, its gonna be pretty rad