for a while

we should enjoy a nice music video.

this is bob dylan busting with a sweltering “all along the watchtower” at the rock n roll hall of fame in 1995.

like prince and lou reed and even bruce its nice to watch singer songwriters shred on lead guitar.

one could only imagine how intimidating that might be after a guy like hendrix covers it and basically makes it his own.

dont you find it a little unsettling that Tom Cruise not only knew the future

but demonstrated it in a film right before our very eyes?

it sorta freaks me out a tad, i can admit it.

the folks at 10gui are mighty on top of things:

This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers.

i think bros on to something

i bet if you asked him he’d tell you that this is the best song of the year

jay-z is fine

rihanna is perfect and haunting and sexy

and kanye steals the show with better rhymes in this song than in his whole last cd

then john wooden would politely ask you to exeunt.

last night i went out with two of my ex’s. we saw bob dylan. he was amazing.

not only is he older than the hills, but hes got more class and more style than everyone in hollywood combined.

he only addressed the crowd once.

“well, hello, friends.” i believe he said, near the end of the first set.

his voice is strong, his pace is swift, and for fun he has decided to lead the band via the organ.

and when he wanted to belt out solos he did so via his trusty harmonica.

it was a dance party, friends.

we came for the poet laureate of rock, but we ended up dancing to the most unlikely of songs. and judging from Dylan’s smile from behind the keys, it was all in his plan.

annoying people dressed as hippies roamed the crowd, twirling, but the headliner had already been there and done that. these were modern times. he was there to rock, he was there to sing, and he was there to play that harp.

the results were contemporary. even the finale of “all along the watchtower” was re-arranged in such a way that it could easily be placed on one of those greatest hits packages and renamed like how the police foolishly did with “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86”.

dylan has always reworked his tunes live and we were all kept on our toes throughout the night, but mostly we danced.

afterwards we ate tacos and spoke of love.

it was beautiful, and if you are in LA you should go go go to the show tonight and or tomorrow at the palladium cuz the kids just dont rock like this and youd never ever know that bro is 68. hes got more inside of him now than most have at half his age.

randy lewis here at the times wrote a beautiful portrait of last night’s concert that sums it up in a more professional way.

1. Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking (Bob keys, Donnie lap steel)
2. Shooting Star (Bob center, harp)
3. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (Bob center, harp)
4. Dont Think Twice, Its All Right (Bob guitar)
5. Cold Irons Bound (Bob center, harp)
6. Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) (Bob keys)
7. My Wife’s Hometown (Bob guitar)
8. Stuck Inside Of Mobile W/ The Memphis Blues Again
9. High Water (For Charley Patton) (Bob guitar)
10. I Feel A Change Comin On (Bob Keys)
11. Highway 61 Revisited (Donnie lap steel)
12. Nettie Moore
13. Thunder On The Mountain
14. Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob center, harp)
—encore—
15. Like A Rolling Stone
16. Jolene
17. All Along The Watchtower

setlist via expectingrain

photo of the marquee of the palladium by bronwynlewis

be funny

im sure this ice cream is not Baskin Robbins quality, but man, what a show to get it

and tomorrow we might get three to six inches

and people are waaaaaay freaking out.

this is how things are here.

we didnt even stay for motorhead

Beyonce Z: Why and how did Barack Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday?

several reasons. firstly people outside of the USA didnt like bush/cheney very much, it seems. it’s hard for us to realize that because we elected them twice. it reminds me of how kobe bryant is treated outside of LA. anyways, obama got the award because they couldnt give it to the american people.

also it was a very shrewd way for a small country to influence world politics without bombs or standing armies or threats. its sorta genius because lets say obama wants to send tens of thousands of more troops to afghanistan… hes gotta think damn i just won a freakin peace prize, how am i gonna pull this off?

i think thats the real reason the righty commentators are pulling their hair out, because that prize was a huge blow to the hawks, and a diss to their old administration which they were apologists to.

xTx: My (sorta) question is: How cute are your neice and nephew!!!!!????

yes theyre cute. but arent all lil kids cute? i mean look at this picture of dylan with his little angel? they say God makes kids cute so we dont eat them. im starting to think thats true because i had some soft shelled crabs the other day and i was all, what if crabs had figured out how to do that to people before we figured out how to do that to crabs? i thought, id probably have been a pretty delicious appetizer as a kid, but now im probably too fatty,

Gage: Is there a movie based on a book that you wish had never been made?

yes Catch 22 is one of my favorite books of all, and the movie is ridiculous. im glad they created M*A*S*H to make up for it.

Douglas Arellanes: I saw that Vin Scully commentary over the TBS video that you linked to this morning. It was a thing of pure beauty hearing his voice. How come he isn’t on the teevee by default? I know I haven’t lived stateside for a while, but damn, you’d think they’d put the guy on the regular broadcasts, right? Or is Hank Williams Jr. in the booth for TBS?

its because we allow lawyers and insurance companies and lobbyists to run this nation. because theyre oh so smart! scully works for Fox, TBS is owned by Time Warner / AOL. our only hope is that if there is a freeway series on Fox then they’ll boot out the ridiculous Joe Buck and replace him with Vin. but what will probably happen is they use Buck as the main guy and waltz in Vinny like he was some trained monkey, which would ruin everything. if i ran the world Guns n Roses would reunite for the anthem and Vinny would work the mic solo.

Sass: Who is your favourite Sesame Street character and why?

i liked Snuffaluffagus because he was such a mystery. everyone else was way too hyper and predictable but Snuffy was huge yet no one ever saw him. i loved that.

g/d: How many hungry man T.V. dinners can a person consume in a week? And why no hungry women T.V. dinners?

there was a time when i ate tv dinners exclusively. it was also a time when my metabolism worked over time. it was a good time. sadly i was so poor i thought that only rich people could afford anything from the Hungry Man line. me, id shop at the Grocery Outlet which had foods that were about to expire. they guaranteed everything, but still lots of their stuff was shady. still, they had some 99 cent tv dinners that id stock up on. i ate about 7-10 of those a week. i didnt die or get sick. so id say the answer is 13.

there are no hungry women tv dinners because women like fruit and the only fruit ever in tv dinners are those weird raspberry concoctions and that really bad apple pie like mush. also, because as the dead sang – women are smarter.

adriel: just got a job offer that i’m totally excited about. at my current job i’ve got drama and skeletons and a fling gone wrong. not to mention i never felt like i fit in. so why am i scared? why do i feel like i don’t want to leave?

what you are experiencing is totally normal and common. our brains try to protect us from death and even though we know that change is not only natural but Good for us, our brains believe that staying put is safer than entering into something new, even if that new thing is clearly better than the old thing thats bumming us out.

trust me, i know this situation well. i worked for years at a company that constantly stressed me out, under paid me, and disrespected me. i knew that working there was doing nothing for me professionally but i stayed there for far longer than i should have because staying put in 5 feet of crap feels safer than venturing out into something new, because omg what if that new place is secretly 7 feet of crap and we’ll all die?

move on baby. change. grow. let your dreams come true.

Ali M: So, in the New Super Mario brothers game thats coming out on Wii, they’re incorporating something called the Super Guide, where if you die 8 times you have the option of watching the “computer” beat the level for you. How do you feel about this system, particularly in the context of modern philosophers’ views of the “culture industry”?

i dont like it. mostly because we learn about life thru video games. infact the most important lesson that i learn from video games is “try to think of a new stragey” or “how about putting the Babblefish in your ear”. life doesnt have a Super Guide mode. people need to struggle a little in these games. i know that learning curve can be frustrating, but how great is the reward when you figure out how to do stuff?!? i think it should be if you die 50 times.

zona: I’m in a clever “ask Tony” question slump. how do I shake it?

you should be thinking of these questions all week. fridays dont sneak up on us. people should be taking notes, asking their friends, praying to the Lord, and polling strangers. but alas, you did figure out a good question, so congratulations.

Krista: I’m with zona on the questions, so stumped right now so here are two spooky Halloweenish q’s: do you believe in ghosts and have you ever seen one?

im a super born again Christian, which is weird because even though i dont believe in ghosts nor have i ever seen one, i see weird things out of the corner of my eye all the time and im terrified of ghost stories. in fact the best way to scare the crap out of me is to take me camping and late at night start telling ghost stories. i might even poop right there in my pants.

PatZ: Is it ok, as an older brother, to not so subtly hint to your sister’s boyfriend who is significantly older than she is (and me for that matter), that he’ll have a very very very bad day if she comes home upset? and on that note, at what point is being the older brother rendered useless.

there are very few duties that an older brother is required to perform. through childhood our job is to terrorize our siblings as much as possible in extremely creative ways. but once we’re older our main job is to protect our siblings against creepy old dudes who could possibly break their hearts.

i recommend you take this old guy out for one of those molsen canadians and say “listen i have no problem breaking yr face if you break her heart. in fact im the asswipe if i dont do it. so if thats your longterm plan, best step off right now cuz no judge in the country would side with your ass.”

Andrea: What’s your favorite fruit? I’m currently eating an apple.

even though i drink apple juice every day, and i love orange juice and naked juice’s blue machine (loaded with blueberries), the only fruit that i can tolerate eating in its natural state are bananas. im weird.

Lindsay: Why are the only people that contact me on dating sites (a) high school drop outs, (b) fans of nascar and (c) obsessed with dirt bikes and/or motorcycles?

the other day i think i figured out your conundrum. youre a really great girl. maybe a little too great. i think that freaks out intelligent, successful, and normal dudes. because to be any of those things you have to avoid the mystery box that blows up in your face. and you are definately a mystery box because there seems to be nothing up your sleeve. there seems to be no crazy person inside that beautifully wrapped package. and intelligent successful normal dudes arent used to that. of course that will make a gurl turn into a crazy person, but before that happens, only crazy losers will take a chance on the really sweet girls who have no amount of crazy in them.

the only solution is to move to LA.

jackassjimmy: If one has a super secret notebook they write in anyway, when is it time to hang up the blog?

everyone thinks they have the perfect excuse to stop blogging. they convince themselvs that theyre too busy, they pretend that they have nothing to write, they swear that their bosses and loved ones will discover their writings and cut them off. truth of the matter is we all have complex exciting interesting lives that the rest of the world can learn from.

secret journals are awesome. theyre what lead to blogging. but theres something exciting and dangerous and mind altering that happens when you share your life with the faceless masses in public. so i say write your deepest darkest secrets in your secret journal first, then write more stuff in your blog, and try to make that blog content edgy and scary for you to reveal. push yourself. im not saying that writing a secret journal is safe, but blogging in public should and could be a way for you to grow. so dont miss out on that part of your human development.

josh axelrad: are the tony influences in my own fledgling blog at axelrad.net/blog so blatant and rapacious i ought to put a big seal at the top saying “i stole all the good parts from tony?” i’ve been staring at tony for years thinking, this is how it’s done. and now i’m just a crook and it’s rotten.

people have been ripping off er influenced by the busblog for years. i find it ridiculously flattering and it keeps me writing. with that said, and no offense, but other than some of your design, i dont think youre copping my style too much.

for years i thought everyone would see the busblog as an unholy alliance of bukowski and salinger. i thought the influences were oh so obvious and embarrassing, but the more i did my thing the more it became my own lil style. sounds like youve already hit that mark, which is great. congrats. and if you can ever teach me how to count cards id be honored to be thrown out of a vegas casino.

Mike: Movie of the year?

thanks to the return of my truest ive seen more movies this year than in any other year. so far my favorites are: The Hurt Locker, Star Trek, Zombieland, Whip It, and Capitalism: A Love Story.

strangely all of the above have flaws that i cant get past.

except for Zombieland.

monkey: raisins or no?

there are very few fruits that i like. i tolerate raisins but i prefer Dr. Pepper.

alecia: if everyone blacks out, who do you blame the puke on?

the cat. always blame the cat.

i ran today in the cold. but at least it wasnt midnight.

i saw so many thing.

a guy with white plastic over him as a sheet as he made himself comfortable under a tree

two teen girls with what appeared to be letterman jackets

a man looking over a fence

two churchmembers taking out the trash

two asian dudes from a different church talking about the bible

three mexican guys standing right by where charles bukowski used to live

a cheap desk upside down in the grass

a home made sign that instructed the parents of the “football team” where they should drop their kids off

a guy thinking about peeing right by my house

a guy with a flashlight instructing those about to attend the play at the small theatre where to park

and if a meteor hit, thatd be the last thing we did.

so feel free to Ask Tony whatever you damn well please