it’s friday, which means Ask Tony
we havent done this in a few weeks, so im gonna expect some great questions
plus im in the 312 right now, so watch how the answers will be more polite, and warm hearted.
unlike this car in burbank last week (you should love people for who they be)
and the screen said three simple letters, and i ignored them: xbi
turns out a guy 5’6, 150 lbs was being transported from one suburb near my moms house to another suburb near my sisters house.
both his hands and feet were shackled. he was in a car with two cops. at some point he overpowered one cop and got the other one to uncuff him.
from what i hear he then cuffed both of them and walked into a wal-mart-ish store where he bought water and new clothes.
then he carjacked someone and drove off.
he was never seen again. which is why the xbi called me asking if i would help.
“im on vacation.” i said, “plus im no longer a super hero. im a blog editor, furthest thing from a super hero.”
BUT YOURE RIGHT THERE! they said.
crazyiest coincidence ever, because as i was driving downtown this afternoon i saw a helicoper hovering at a few thousand feet. not circling, just sitting there in the air perfectly hovering.
then on the freeway i saw two undercover cars with their lights on speeding up the freeway. they were all going to where they thought/think the guy was.
to add even more craziness to all of this: the guy isnt even that bad of a guy, hes a purse snatcher who also did some holdups with a toy gun. he’d actually be great for the xbi if he wasnt a crook. which is why i think they want me to get him.
but im retired. im thru being cool. but i do like that the reward is “substantial”.
later my mom called me all in a panic because they put my neice’s school on lockdown.
my mom was all, everyones afraid for their kids.
and i said, mom, you know i love those kids with my whole heart. (when i drove in from the airport yesterday i got two happy meals, so i could eat a little something and give them the toys).
but i said, “if you want that guy to surrender, just stick him in a house with those two for about 35 minutes. the best thing that could ever happen to Rolling Meadows (isnt that just the sweetest name for a town), would be if you volunteered those kids to subdue that dude.”
thats not very nice, my mom told me.
i know, its cruel and unusual.
i like how even the baggage claim merry go round thing said hi
i like how the toilet cover thing is still at o’hare
i like how green everything is. and damn look at the trees!
i love you midwest, i am glad to be back home.
hows my family? awesome. my little nephew is bigger, my sister lost weight i think, and my mom is gonna retire, today i think. yay!
and even though im in chicago, im missing LA already
one thing i might not have turned you on to yet is the Kogi bbq truck.
its korean bbq mixed with a mexican style taco truck.
the lines can be so long that people often have to wait upwards to an hour to get their tacos.
trendy, but for all the right reasons: deliciousness.
heres a guy who specializes in street food reviewing it
with a banjo on my knee
uncle tomdog is gonna housesit fer me while im gone,
so if youre in LA treat him right.
i will take lots of pics of my neice and nephew,
and i hope theyre still as cute as cajun girl
cuz i didnt see my boss all day so i wasnt able to say bye
which might have been just as well cuz it would have been sad.
we had a great run. three million to twenty million in less than two years. the hard way.
three blogs in the technorati top 100.
meanwhile the site as a whole became the fastest growing big newspaper site over the last year.
during a time when most big newspaper sites, because of a variety of serious reasons, have either lost audience, or barely increased at all.
it is the end of an era, and a very classy era, all because of her.
speaking of ends, one more thing you should know about my boss. early on it could have very easy for her to say hey i think its in everyones best interest to get rid of the busblog. and i would have totally understood. but she said no the blog editor should have a blog, and she loved the busblog, especially on ask tony days.
i believe the reason i didnt see her today was because they were trying to drain every last drop of magic from her brain.
in which case i hope they work overtime.
video thanks to mark johnson and darryl sweet
from my In Box
On Sale Friday! Devo!
night 1, DEVO will perform “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”
night 2 it will “Freedom of Choice”. Both albums will be performed in their entirety.
With every online ticket purchase, you’ll receive 3 exclusive, never-before-heard DEVO demo versions of: “Turn Around,” “Whip It” and “Red Shark.”
November 3rd & 4th / Music Box @ Fonda / Doors: 8pm / $42, $52, $102 (includes a meet & greet!) / on sale 9/18 @ 10am
meanwhile god bless the Silversun Pickups for being just enough like smashing pumpkins to harken back past memories, and being just enough original to create new ones.
and videos like the one on top are my favorite sort of lo-budget + humor to make everything go down so smoothly
hung out with these people
he rocked harder than all of the previous bands on that stage combined
when he raised his hands, the crowd raised their hands. it was an evil, wonderful ballet
even satan himself was there. er, santa. someone.
there were fights. there was slamdancing. there were panicked people. there was love.
there was also a firehose filled with foam. and one ozzy.
the results were hilarious
only bad thing about the fest was if you werent drinking in a club,
you had to drink in one of the beer gardens.
although it would be nice to drink on the street,
this randomly selected woman didnt seem to mind
neither did this fascinating woman
who had stars autograph her arms,
which she then turned into tattoos
speaking of tattoos. if you’re a nice lady with a tattoo like this, i will talk to you.
speaking of the law talking to the miller lite girls, hi.
speaking of learning one thing every day.
who knew that elmer valentine cofounded so many killer places?
most days im lucky to find my car keys.
wanna know something crazy? i really liked the kottonmouth kings
yes theyre just a group of white rappers trying to be hard while yapping about weed
but they’re reeeeeeallly into weed. they got this one guy who walks around with a backpack of it
and they got this guy who’s literally smoking the entire set
he was also in charge of the signs
cute, but after a while youd wonder, why’d they let the guy smoking the weed be in sign guy?
i mean this guy was really inhaling
and exhaling
one minute youd see backpack o dope guy bustin on the megaphone
next minute youd see crazy sign guy smoking another jay
after a while everyone looked high so i bailed.
and ran into my favorite american idol
who told me to say hi to you guys
so, like, hi!
because of the climate of the economy, often these parties were sad for other reasons, but this one was sad because Meredith was so smart and nice and perfect for her job.
they laid out a nice spread and there was a small bar for wine and beer and Meredith choked up a little as she reminisced about her time here. And just as is her style she said things like “it was great taking credit for things that I had nothing to do with”, but the truth of the matter is, even if she didnt assign us to do it, or order us to pull it off, we were able to do it because she created an environment where everyone Wanted to kick so much butt.
people provided little gag gifts, and one of our former bloggers (see even EX employees love her!) arranged for an autographed pair of suspenders and an autographed 8×10 glossy would make their way to the party.
of course, CNN security was called when they found out that they were the pair that Larry was wearing at the time, but hey, what can we do, we love her and we’re sad that shes going to our biggest online competitor. its almost like Babe Ruth going to the Yankees. except worse.