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

pretty girl knocked on my door last night right as i was putting my avocado mask on. i noticed my iphone had three text messages on it. the last one said “i’m coming ovr 2 c u” which is cute if youre 19 but our girl was decidedly not 19.

no matter who it is, any time i hear a knock at the door late when im not expecting it freaks me out. first thought is “cops?” then its “cops after me?” then its “crooks?” rarely is it “crazy busblog fan?” it’s never a good sound. its never “hi pizza guy, and i couldnt find the right address, so heres a free pie.”

anyways at some point she started crying. maybe it was my mask. i kept looking over her shoulder because em didnt look like em. he looked a lot younger. like way younger. like whatever “drugs” hes been on over the last years, i hate to say it, but it should be bottled because he looks thin and healthy and young and his face is so clear. its truly amazing.

he looks really angry for some reason. as she accepted kleenex i thought, do women come to eminems house unannounced and get away with what this chica was trying to get away with? “lets go have a few drinks at hollywood and highland – its still early.”

midnight is early?

one thing i like about no longer being editor of LAist is people no longer assume that i know every little thing about this fair city. or at least the emails saying “yo im coming into town, and i wondered if you have 5-6 spots that i shouldnt miss while im here?” which is nice but the places i go to are different than what people who have never been here would go to.

likewise at midnight thirty locals rarely have drinks at hollywood and highland on a school night. girl cant you see my hairs up in rollers!

thus the tears. the water works, the sniffling, the but just one drinks!

never have i wanted a girlfriend as a means as an excuse before.

i think i need to move to a gated community. wanna know why? because i thought i was tivoing jimmy, but after Anonymous came by to take the young lady away i noticed that i had indeed not tivoed the show and i missed the interview.

as i rewound the dvr it did allow me to see the mike tyson interview, and bro definately needs the eminem diet.

hes making sweet vids like this:

today i had the funniest conversations ranging from bacon to “molesting” ducks to possibly going to the finale of american idol tomorrow.

now that i think about it, it was a pretty crazy day from beginning to end. it kind of reminded me of when i sold tvs on commission at Federated Group in West LA in the olden times. some of those days were so busy that there was very little time for lunch or breaks or anything other than reacting to the odd things being thrown at me – many of which were really great.

like having one person buy a $700 vcr while another person said, yes but i need two $1000 tvs right now. and no one else can help. its nice busy.

speaking of idol i think adam totally won it tonight.

starring a picture of karisa costarring a tale about moi that got zero comments? i blame karisa. thus i guess no more pics of the blonde westsider. ok. i get the message.

ive been running a little. usually i take a route that sends me past charles bukowski’s old apartment.

a year ago no one cared about it. check that, two years ago no one cared about it. then they wanted to make it a Landmark and his widow was all omg he barely did Anything in that place, and the owners were all omg the building is a dump and we wanna raze the building and make condos. but the city of LA did the right thing and protected it

and now the bungalows have been done up pretty and theres nice landscaping and the whole place looks great. and i dont wanna think that building owners are liars but those ones sure look that way cuz how hard would it have been to just do what they did without all the drama?

anyways last night i ran and normally theres a time when i start feeling a little burst of energy and i get all cocky and i think oh i can run an extra mile now, but funny thing happened on the way to bukowskis house, i never felt better.

the whole 2 mile run i never got a burst of energy, but i plodded away and made it home, took a shower, and thought wow i must really be 102 years old.

then today i saw this picture i took yesterdsay of claire and dave digging in on a beautiful pink box of donuts and i thought, why am i denying myself the pleasure of donuts if my body is just going to get old and deteriorate no matter what?

if the Lord didnt want us to eat donuts, why did he make so many donut trees?

and then i fell asleep before midnite.

omg danielle posted! + omg the pants posted! + omg zulieka has no pics!