sometimes you dont.
sometimes you get the parking spot
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Monthly Archives: February 2016
had a good night driving last night
first ride was a dbag but as Ernie Banks used to say, sometimes you have to go backwards to get a running start.
next ride was fantastic, it was this guy who does security for musical acts.
for a while he was doing the weeknd, which ended last night after the grammys cuz the singer had a huge mansion party which i guess was the end of his tour.
this security guy had been doing this forever, like 30 years. he said the weeknd is a very sweet, shy, quiet gentleman
and super nice.
he even compared him to michael jackson, which from my vantage point is a bit of a stretch, but what do i know, i havent been working with the guy for a month.
i said, when you protect him do you have to protect his supermodel gf? he said yes.
i asked how long did you have to work last night? he said late late late.
i asked do you get OT? he looked at me. i said, overtime? he said i heard you, no we have a flat fee, and it is very generous.
i had just picked him up at a cigar shop on wilshire near brentwood.
we talked about various rappers and others who he’s protected over the year.
finally i said, omg did you hear paul mccartney couldnt get into Tyga’s party last night?
he said yeah. he said, that was the fire marshall. anybody would have let Paul in
except for the LA Fire Marshall. they’re the strictest.
and when i got him to his hotel he gave me $5 and i was all, awwwww thanks g.
next ride was to the airport and after that i got some in n out and called it a night.
you know what i love: The Grammys
you know who almost always gets it wrong: the Grammys
unlike almost every other tv show the Grammys has a chance every year to present the all time greatest performances of the past with the best of today
and they hardly ever do it.
i dont know, but it sure seems like to me they are so concerned about today that yesterday gets shoehorned in like it’s a Have-To instead of a Get-To.
im sorry but you GET to have the Eagles with Jackson Browne on your stage. You get to have Stevie Wonder, you get to have Joe Perry. And no, you dont Have to have Pitbull or Pentatonix or Carrie Underwood.
and for the love of Miles Davis, you don’t have to have Justin Bieber or Skrillex
ever.
with Kendrick and Adele and Taylor and Lady Gaga there is already a great parade of current stars delivering today’s sounds, you dont need Demi Lovato, but fine, she’s fine. But should the Grammys be about “fine”?
If I was running the Grammys i’d have one litmus test for performances: the Holy Fuck test.
the cast of Hamilton, Kendrick, Gaga and Adele made me say Holy Fuck and there were artists in the building (Beyonce, Ice Cube, Foo Fighters, Stevie Wonder) who could have delivered but either weren’t invited to rock the mic or were paired up with lesser thans.
the goal of the Grammys shouldnt be about record sales, it should be about documenting amazing artistry in a controlled environment for a tv show. that, all by itself, will trigger sales.
if you make that the standard, it will lift all boats, including Bieber’s, if you truly belieb he has talent.
a pretty girl once said the busblog is unbelievable bc i never write about sadness
i was all, you werent reading when the cubs lost in the playoffs during Bartman
but heres some sadness for you bb
my computer stopped working last week
my hot water tank blew up on friday
my landlady asked me to write a letter last month to request a washer dryer and she has yet to respond
she did tell me that the hot water heater would be replaced today, but it wont.
my favorite paper printed a total frickin lie about my workplace today in its front page column
and now i have to take a cold shower, which wont be my last one, apparently.
so there you have it hot babe, some reality in a blog where nothing inside is true.
ps my computer was fixed this weekend faster than normal, for free.
one hot babe called me salvidor dali and another called me suave on vday
and the cubs will win the world series this year.
on love
i am an extremely lucky and grateful man.
ive been so fortunate to have felt love from so many different paths
my family, my friends, the readers of this very blog, and the women of world.
in return i have reflected that love back.
i also have great love of sport, music, television, and fast food restaurants.
love is intoxicating and surprising, encompassing and fleeting.
you never know when it’s coming, how long it will last, or why it came to you
so you do your best not to fuck it up.
but the best type of love you cannot fuck up. you really can be yourself and all will be well.
through my window i can hear a group of young people singing uptown funk.
the words might be projected from a large karaoke screen.
this would be the opposite of love.
i want lightning to strike it.
i want bruno mars to read about it in the paper in the morning.
the opposite of love also comes like a thief in the night
no warning. no reason. just cuz.
for yr ass.
as it is all a giant gumbo that we call life.
one day there will be a girl who says take me
and the next day there will be drama that says take it.
but love, real love, will break through the darkness
like stars twinkling
in the black night.
i was 20 years old when i first went to europe
in fact i turned 21 in florence, italy.
but before i made it there i traveled from London to Paris to Switzerland back to Paris then to Munich then Denmark and then Sweden.
in Sweden i met a bunch of 20-somethings who hosted my stay
and they reminded me of a lot of my friends who i grew up with in Illinois.
one guy in Sweden, the class clown, sorta, showed me his key chain
it only had three “keys” on it.
he told me, in broken English,
“this one is my house key, this one is my car key”
and then he held the bottle opener and said,
“and this, this is the Key of Life”
everyone laughed.
the other day while i was at the Apple Store, i realized that i too have simplified my key situation to his.
wherever you are, Hans, here’s looking at you.
hey do!
OK Go can still make a damn good video
OK Go is one of the weirdest bands because they still not only make music videos but rely on them to get a big bounce when they drop new records.
In fact, I don’t think there’s an OK Go song that anyone knows that doesn’t have a well-choreographed and fascinating video to go along with it.
Today the quartet released “Upside Down & Inside Out” which finds the boys in an airplane that allows them the simulate zero gravity.
And for the first time they utilize dancers to help them assault the viewers’ senses.
For a band that has a long list of excellent music videos dating back to 2006, it’s a joy to say that this one might be their best.
eight years ago today we launched the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar blog
have i told you im the luckiest man in the world? i am.
it seems like just yesterday, i had held the position of Blog Editor at the LA Times for just a few months when i got an email from the Sports Editor Randy Harvey who said the NBAs top scorer was interested in blogging for our paper.
because i was new i assumed that this happened all the time and it was going to happen all the time. but alas it was the one and only true celeb who would blog regularly for us. and despite the hiccups that we had it was a dream come true.
as a kid i idolized #33. the book about his life was my favorite book in grade school. so to work with him on this project was almost as surreal as being the damn blog editor of my favorite paper.
my terms were simple, if he really wanted it to be a hit he had to have a real blog post every day. was he up for it? he told me he was. he told me about all the books he’d written and all the interests he had. and sure enough he DID have a lot of interests and he was able to mesh those with the current events of the day and he churned out a fascinating, controversial, edgy blog that was much more than just about sports.
when Herbie Hancock won a bunch of Grammys, boom there was a recent picture of Kareem (a huge jazz fan) with Herbie. when one of the Manning Brothers was in the Super Bowl, there was a picture of Kareem with both brothers. he wrote about movies, health, politics, race, and yes, even sports.
my belief about a blogging athlete was changed because of my experience with Kareem. at first i thought it would be difficult because most athletes and musicians have this image that they feel compelled to uphold through LACK of communication to the world. i thought it would be hard for someone to be able to write every day because of their schedule, but even though Kareem’s calendar was packed, he made time for it.
and best of all he was not afraid to keep it real.
over the years i spent there we had other athletes who asked to do what Kareem did and i asked them a few questions: can you keep it real, can you write every day, are you gonna be freaked out if and when the commenters turn on you? they all backed down.
here are a few of the mentions the blog got when it launched.
rock on, Cap!
do you know i love you? i do?
its 92 in the shade. what year is this? where are you? where am i? in the hills of beverly. texas tea. black gold.
its so hot the winter is vacationing here. its so hot el nino was all, nah it’s too hot.
its so hot my computer really is broken. unrepairable says the repairman.
its so hot im thinking about putting some grammer things in my words.
the computer is so on the fritz im writing to you via esp, because i love you.
the busblogs been rolling for a million years so its seen its fair share of broken computers, effed up internet, injuries.
you just rub some dirt, tussin, or spit on it and shake it off, theres a game we gotta play.
former cub Moises Alou used to pee on his hands which i was thinking about doing but i dont think we need to.
i think i just need to break open my credit card and get that macbook air.
i was gonna use that money for something extravagant and wonderful.
like Coachella?
like SXSW?
like a waterbed?
maybe a little computer is the right move after all.
i do?
dear tony, would you ever leave LA?
sure, for the right opportunity.
i love california. i’ve lived here for the last 31+ years.
today, in the second week of february, it’s nearly 90 degrees today.
the sky is blue, im wearing a short sleeved shirt.
if my cats wouldnt sneak out, i would have my windows open as i snooze tonight.
yesterday i walked a few miles in the middle of the night because i was in such a great mood and it was gorgeous outside.
i listened to the Clash and Kiss and all these great tunes via Spotify and i didnt want my little walk to end.
could i do that in NYC? probs but i woulda been frozen.
could i do that in Japan? probs but i woulda stopped at a bunch of sushi bars.
hollywood has been my home since april of 2001, i know where everything is and where everything used to be
but in a weird way that now makes it boring.
in a weird way i wanna learn new things.
dont you wanna be learning all the time?
isnt that why kids are so happy?
isnt that why they grow? cuz their brains are giving them new life?
isnt it awesome when we meet someone new and they show us their house and theres like a giant projection tv in their house surrounded by all these VHS tapes of all these great movies? isnt it fun to look at all of those movies? isnt it fun to walk into their back yard and sip on a beer as they smoke a cigarette?
isnt it nice to smell the smoke in the hair of a girl you barely know while she lets you get close enough to smell all of that?
LA has let me nuzzle up to it for quite a while and trust me, im honored, but the Good Lord has given us a big big globe to explore, Dora
dont you think we should get out of our bubble, homer?
i do.