the first sign is that weirdo interior store Period, best known for their bloody-looking sign appears to be out of business now.

next is the huge huge huge super graphic on the storage building on Highland near Santa Monica Blvd that used to advertise all things Apple.

i know the city is trying to crack down on super sized billboards but it hasnt stopped the practice from happening all over town, why just pick on this building?

meanwhile across the street the seedy Del Taco best known as a hang out for some of the cities more interesting transexual prostitutes shut down just other day.

so if you wanna chill with the gents in the dresses, looks like you’ll have to chill at Donut Time across the street.

ch ch ch ch changes

but i love love love tourists

LA usually has more than its fair share of outta towners

but come summer time they’re all over the place with their maps and their cameras and it makes me feel so happy. maybe because it reminds me of when im a tourist.

so i took my truest to santa monica beach for lunch at the end of the pier

despite the fog and unseasonably comfortable temps, it was pretty packed on the pier

our view was great and the meal was great and the two margaritas were stroooong oh boy

and just like on hollywood blvd they had people dressed up in costume and for a buck you could take a picture with them. its a tourist tradition.

for two bucks i started a new tradition

sorry tony stark

ask me anything dealie to the Corinthians

Hey Tony, When will Flagrant come back? I really miss her.

ah flagrant. anorexism herself. and whatever swedish finnish dutch name that she also goes by that ive forgotten because remembering the sweet paranoia from that blog is so bittersweet.

flagrant whose blog won the Anna Award several years in a row has been nothing but a blank space on the internet for going on a year and a half now.

maybe she sees it as a clean white space, thus an improvement on the web. but i wouldnt.

her daily struggles with weight and beauty and money and privacy and dealing with this world despite knowing that as The Wire said “if you dont play you cant lose” were fascinating and eloquent.

she always surprised us with her extreme measures and measured tones.

she never bored us. she never obeyed the rules.

often shed delete things or change things so as to cover her tracks or take back some gifts and it was beguiling and added to the mystery.

she doesnt even tweet that much any more.

my guess is she either married that one doctor she was with or a new one. and he tolerates her demands and provides her with the comfort that she so wanted.

and now they travel the world and she shoots beautiful photographs and all is well and as we all know: great life, bad blog.

because the reverse is bittersweetly also the case.

the first is going to be the “remember when this blog ruled the earth?”

remember when the busblog would write about politics and everything was awesome and people would come streaming over here to watch me rant and rage and fight? remember when some commentors were all “omg tony you went too far. i love you but please dont ever go There again.” and id write three more posts immediately going There each time and planting my freak flag There?

imagine what an old school busblogger wouldnt have done about a dude named weiner rockin the mic on the house floor pointing his finger at republicans who want to pretend that they dont wanna give 9/11 first responders health benefits.

weiner.

sigh.

and this blog chronicled that sunny disposition.

it made no sense because at the time i was barely making ends meet, i had no real reason to think that things would work out but god did they ever. i had everything i really wanted.

in a very short period of time this blog will have its 9th birthday. it seems like such a tiny birthday but man has there been a lot of water under that bridge.

the wine, the women, the song.

the last thing i want to turn this into is the whine, the bitching, and the blues but i have a bizarre knack for seeing into the future and its very hard for me to see any light at the end of this tunnel.

they say that unless libras are madly in love it doesnt matter if we are on the cover of Time and Newsweek, we will be miserable. i think thats an exaggeration, and i definitely have a lot of love in my life, but i can tell you first hand that it doesnt matter what i’ve done with my career, i still have all the same highs and lows that i had when i had zero career.

this week interviewing bruce willis and having all of that go so smoothly i felt on top of the world, but monday i had the mondays and here we are at friday and somehow i have the mondays too.

what on earth is wrong with me? what is the answer? all i want to do today is read bukowski and try to decipher some of his genius formula and attempt to channel that into something creative but its now time to shower and make magic for the man.

satisfaction a young lady once told me is appreciating whats in front of you and ignoring what is not.

so i lifted my shirt and said enjoy the glory then baby.

and then we were both asked to leave the cathedral.

my newspaper delivered daily

and my rock stars crazy

and its all because im no longer the mayor of the LA Times.

see that screen shot from this morning? i have 100 checkins for my work.

meanwhile every time i check in, foursquare tells me that the “mayor” of the Times is a guy who hasn’t even been in our building 100 times.

how am i supposed to feel about that?

truth of the matter is i dont care who the mayor of any of these places is, and its very nice that foursquare is currently saying that our mayor is a lovely and hardworking young gentleman fresh outta college.

but what worries me is, if they cant figure out something simple like 100 is more than 20 then what are they really doing with all that amazing personal information that i give them several times a day like

where i am

what im doing

who im with

what im buying

what im eating

what im drinking

people i love and would die for dont know all those minute details

yet these faceless Anybody’s are constantly compiling not just my personal deets but everyone who uses their stuff. so what are the doing with it? and what are they telling people about it?

if you cant even get the easiest part of the “game” right, then what are you doing with the more sensitive stuff that’s not so easy?

a lot of social media and hell even blogging is a trust game with strangers.

and for the most part most of the people have been pretty cool with each other.

but at some point someone is going to feel stupid for sharing such information with people they know nothing about.

i think i have reached that point with foursquare.

and while we were waiting to be introduced to the talent, we found ourselves in the same room as a big tall handsome tv news personality.

one of the things i like to do is make up stuff when people ask how karisa and i met. particularly when shes dressed like she was last night.

“i answered an ad on Craigslist.”

“her family played against mine on Family Feud, hosted by that dude from Home Improvement”

“i met her on the bus on the way here.”

“my toilet was clogged, i called Rotor Rooter, and she knocked on my door.”

“we’re undercover agents for a secret arm of the CIA called the XBI. shes my decoy. look, i have your wallet.”

last night i gave this guy a new one, “shes my kid’s second grade teacher and im trying to improve his grade.”

sometimes the fiction is better than the truth.

yesterday he stopped by Facebook’s HQ and accapellaed them parts of new songs from his forthcoming cd “good ass job”

this is what happens when he loses the voice box tricks and cheesy synths – hes back to being the kayne who took over the world not that long ago.

glad to see chi town represented so well again.