when we first met lauren she was blogging with her sister kristin on the sweet blog madpony.
if memory serves, the busblog was their first permalink which is how we found the fifteen year old and her barely legal sister.
as time has passed the girls have won awards, gone to college, gone to law school, and have turned into fine young ladies. total southern belles and beautiful examples of oklahomas finest.
according to laurens facebook, last night she purchased her first legal lite beer.
megan and i went to a gas station and purchased one budzilla after midnight. unfortunately, he did not ID me, but i offered him my ID anyway. i then did the birthday dance and flounced out of the gas station. megan took a photo with me and my budzilla. truly a memorable moment in history right here. In this photo: product that i can buy because i am 21 (photos), Lauren
how time flies since the first time she was interviewed on the busblog.
happy birthday blonde pony! kiss yr sister for us!
*if you missed the madpony experience, you can catch some of it via the Wayback Machine (hint June 17, 2004 was their last post)
i do it because in the ten commandments it says to keep the sabbath holy. and you can say oh saturday is the sabbath or oh sunday is the sabbath, but i once talked to this rabbi who said just pick one and stick with it. so sundays my sabbath.
so on sunday i cant keep all of it holy but i can keep the part of the day when im reading the bible holy.
anyways i was reading it and out of the freakin blue this animal starts talking in the middle of the bible story. how could i not remember this story? its so completely random!:
So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road.
Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the LORD went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”
Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.
When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, on the border formed by the Arnon, at the extremity of the border. And Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not send to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?” 38Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” – Numbers 22 21-38
dissed by yr ass. if youre not reading the bible youre missin out.
i gotta say, i sorta got over NiN about a year after all those crazy videos came out. to me it all seemed like the same song. dude screaming about some shit. keyboards getting knocked over. black hair black clothes black noise.
then it became sorta electronic and shit. i didnt get it. still dont get it. whats the big deal. cuz hes hot? how is he hot with short hair?
i heard he has a super hot girlfriend who’s deaf. thats hot. that i can live with.
maybe i will download the record when everyone has it and the bittorent is faster than it is now because who doesnt love passionate crazed fuckthelabels music?
although i didnt get In Rainbows either.
on paper radiohead is fine but im too old for fine. i want great. if God gave you the ability to play guitar then play the fucking guitar. if God gave you a face like Thom Yorke then fucking sing like you have a face for radio.
sing like you mean it. dont wimper. dont mumble. dont not look the camera right in its unblinking eye.
i dont think wil has so much a problem with me as he has a problem with his friends over at blogging.la. in the example that you are linking to Wil is trying to throw out some props to me, but he knows he can’t unless he throws in a diss because it will piss off his bros bonner, markland, et al whose undies are (still) in a bunch because i mopped the floor with them via LAist.
they wanna pretend that our success at LAist was due to covering things outside LA (something we did less than 2% of the time), LA Observed wants to pretend that we blew doors because we covered medical marijuana and omg sex (something we did far less than 1% of the time) or that we had easy-to-find Digg icons (you call those icons easy to find?)
and now Wil wants to say that we lapped our competition because i “trolled” my own comments (as if thats even possible – if markets are a converastion, ala Cluetrain, then comment threads are for sure conversations). Wil just wants attention. he’s been on the busblog for years and he knows that one of the things that i was known for years and years before i ever got paid to blog was mixing it up with commentors in the threads of the comments and in the posts.
the fact that i did it at LAist too was just one of the many many reasons why that blog was more interesting than the others. when i was hired in june of ’06 there were several blogs that covered LA. two of them even had slight leads during stretches before my arrival. after i recruited people and got the machinery in order and the game plan set, our TEAM pummeled them and not only did the other blogs fail to adjust so as to compete against us but they stood there and began to *lose* traffic, a trend that appears to continue today.
when i got hired by the Times to run all of their blogs, as a token of good will i allowed an exclusive interview with blogging.la where they could ask me any question in any way that they wanted. tragically instead of being a gentleman about it (and basically shaking hands after the end of a hard fought game) their editor in concert with their publisher chose to take the opportunity to spread lies about LAist in their comments (is that “trolling your own comments”, wil?) and then chicken out when called out.
very sad, very lame, amazingly childish; but thus is blogging – a glorified high school playground populated by so-called adults.
but wil is right to point to my how to defeat blogger burnout post of almost four years ago – it’s a classic – an excerpt:
heres when you will experience “blogger burnout”:
1. when your internal dialogue gets hijacked by your concerns about what your readers will think. 2. when you are afraid to write down what you are truly thinking about at that moment. 3. when you believe the lie that some people just arent capable of good writing. 4. when you believe the lie that there is a certain way that you “should” write anything. 5. when you get more involved in punctuation, spelling, or aestetics than saying what you want to say. 6. when you get caught up in traffic, hits, popularity, readers, and/or fame. 7. when you believe the lie that what you think doesnt matter. 8. when you believe the lie that what youre about to say has been said before and/or written down better. 9. when you forget that most ideas can be expressed in less than 15 minutes. 10. when you dont set aside a little bit of time each day to update your blog.
i was always willing to explain to anyone, even our competition, how i was able to attract and retain more readers than them. and im still willing. i have always been one to give out free tips in the busblog, and i still am. if you put “how to blog” into google, my olde post comes up first, because those concepts still hold true (most of em). and i am still using those principles while coaching great writers at the LA Times,
which were the exact same principles that i used while coaching great writers at LAist. and all of their scoreboards tell happy stories. it’s not my fault if our competition’s scoreboards can’t say the same.
so Wil, if you wanna take me to task in an interview at WWiE or over at Suicide Girls, get your facts together, have all your little friends dig up all the little dirt you think you have on me, and we can do an unedited IM interview.
or take it back.
or you can continue to carry the water of your friends who seem to want to continue to whine over sour grapes. i have never been the one in exile, i have never been one to back down from a challenge, i have never been one to puss out in an IM chat. i have always been an in-your-face blogger who knew how to get hits through writing shit down. my successes were built on teamwork, love of blogging, and hard work. you can try to diss me or my cohorts any way you wish, but the truth and facts and scoreboards are on our side.
Matt Welch asks: When are you coming to visit your bro(s) in DC?
as you may know, i was born in washington dc, and my half-brother lives and works there. and, as you may know, our paper has a bureau there. however i am deeply in love with my job and im a loyal servant of my boss, who i adore, and am i completely committed and devoted to my work. so most days i dont even leave the building let alone consider leaving the state.
however i have a brilliant idea for a blog, and who knows, i might have to head to the east coast to make it happen properly, so you might get a strange knock on yr door one of these nights from a very light skinned brotha.
also, yr wife needs to update her blawg.
bicyclemark: Have you watched The Wire? (note if no, then please please, Im your friend and I highly demand that you start, I promise you wont regret)
Everyone at the Times watches it because it’s allegedly great, but also because this season is about the newsroom that one of our former editors took over in baltimore. i watched the first episode and didnt get it, so everyone said oh man you gotta watch it from the begining so i went to Target and season 1 was like $60 so i figured id get it off ebay, but then i realized i was about to get a blue-ray dvd player so i held off but then i decided not to get a blue ray dvd player but one that upconverts instead but then i saw one that upconverts AND records then i was all, wait im gonna spend like $350 to see a fucking TV show? season 1 of a tv show, and i have 3 more to watch? so i just went to jack in the box and forgot about all of it.
xtx: Did you break up with Lost so you could go fuck Big Brother?
i am the most loyal man alive. i adore Lost and last night’s episode was so good. however i am pulling several 12-hour days at work, so i barely have any time to write about this or that let alone all the beautiful complexities and midfucks contained in this seasons best drama on TV. last night i didnt leave the office until 10pm so when i got home i didnt get the shit fired up till 11 and i was almost nodding off by 1130pm… but it was soooooo damn good. fuck!
Travis: If you were a dinosaur, what dinosaur would you be?
miguel: I’m going on a weekend trip with a semi-girlfriend to San Diego. Besides doing some bargain shopping in Tijuana we don’t have any plans. I know you hate the place but there’s gotta be something redeeming about it. Any tips?
the only redeeming parts of san diego are the restrooms on your way to ensenada. but even they have disease and shame so just pee against a beemer and get back into your car and keep headed south. your semi girlfriend will thank you. but dont forget to bring your passport because thanks to 9/11 instead of bombing saudi arabia now we all have to show our passports at the border even if we’re americans. fuck diego.
Dan: Know of the Australian band Silverchair? And if so, have you heard their latest two albums (Young Modern, and Diorama)? What do/did you think of them, if you remember?
i remember the cobain lookalike kid. i hear he grew up a tad. other than that i havent heard a thing. and unless he plays with his teeth occasionally or behind his back im not interested.
creepy dude: What’s the weirdest drug induced incident that ever happened to you?
check one two. is this mic on? ive been around the block a few times. i went to U Can Study Buzzed, and i studied a lot. now im basically straight edge because im old and gray and bald and fat and most of what i learned off drugs i learned in college where it was safe.
but since you asked i will tell you since we’re all friends. alcohol is the most powerful and dangerous drug i ever encountered mostly because it’s underrated and overabused.
one night me and all of my friends decided to have a dress up party. all the boys wore suits, all the girls wore cute summer dresses. the Brothers Steve wore tuxes and Coulter was the bartender. even the moon and the stars put on top hats and busted with monocles.
we were buzzed, not drunk. none of us were drunk. pleasantly pissed as the brits say. but booze and love was in the air. maybe one dude rolled a joint in the back of the santa barabara house that we were partying in but i dont think i even got a contact high.
sometime shortly after the band played – out of the blue and totally unexpectedly everyone started making out. and by everyone i mean everyone. the boys the girls the everyones. and it wasnt drunken sloppy omgiloveyouman kissing it was hi baby smooches which lead to deeper kisses which lead to omg youre great at kissing hey come here mary you should kiss tony. etc etc.
i went to the bathroom and there was my bro in the shower with two girls. kissing. not showering. no water running. no clothes off. just three people in the shower as if That was what was supposed to happen. they saw me, smiled, and went back to making out. taking turns. taking little sips of whatever was in their red cups.
i walked a girl home who was crying because the boy she really liked kissed everyone but her. and when she got home she wiped her tears and kissed me for a good five minutes. then i kissed her g’nite and skateboarded home.
all of my other experiences with drugs were totally expected, wonderful, weird, scary, freaky, fucked up, wild, etc., but when it happens with just a little bit of something and a whole lot of magic, thats really weird, for me. good weird, but weird.
Curtis: Tony, Today as you may already be aware is Leap Year Day. As a reader of your blog thing, a question comes to mind as to your plans for a once in a 4 year holiday. How does Tony usually spend a once in a four year holiday celebration extravaganza? Ok, long question, but ya know what I mean right? Holla.
tony doesnt usually spend any particular day in any particular way except for on 9/11 i always watch Fahrenheit 9/11. other than that i hate ritual except for saying my prayers at night before i fall asleep.
Blank.FM: I’m thinking of moving to Los Angeles with 5 grand and no job. I don’t know LA. I want music and clubs. I’m more interested in the music scene and surrounding myself with fellow artistic individuals.
Where do I go? How do I prepare? More importantly, how much are apartments, and what are generally good areas to consider? Gas a killer?
More than one question, I know. But you get the general theme.
General google stuff, but I like the busblog first hand account.
for music and clubs there are only two places for you to live. hollywood or east hollywood. because the music is better the further east you go, i suggest moving to echo park, los feliz, or silver lake, which is also home of artistic people.
use craigslist. start a blog. tell everyone you know. because of the housing bubble you might get lucky and be able to rent a little house for the price most people are paying for 1 bdr apartments ($1,400/month). if you dont know anyone in town and/or are relatively young, you might also try scoring a roommate.
gas is $3.40 a gallon. the subway is $5 a day. and since this is the busblog id have to recommend a buspass.
i spend my days curbing frequent intense urges to throw mary’s ugly screaming babies in the trash can. what the hell was i thinking moving into this house? she is fucking loco and my days are spattered with frozen rage-face when i hear the constant stream of MOOOOOOOOM JADA IS EATING HER CEREAL! MOMMMMMMMM! MOMMMMMMM OLLIE GOT WATER ON HIS SHIRT MOOOOOOM! OW LET GO! MOMMMMM! WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HOWWWWWWWWLLLLLL STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP AIEEEE STOMP STOMP until i become so painfully agitated i actually pass out, clearly this is very healthy. anyways when things started to unravel i was like i’ll just quietly deal with it as penance for my foolish and gullible choices and maybe keep an eye out for a nice dude with a non baby filled house but everyone in the general south sound area is criminally boring or they have aids or babies which i equate in terms of ineligibility. seriously if you think about it, how immoral is it to have a child in this day and age. how do people live with themselves. the greatest thing i have contributed to this world is a pile of bloody goo in a free clinic hazmat bin: the gift of resource management.
I decided to stop by Julie’s place of travajo tonight which as it happens is also one of my favorite places to go. I had a slow day which translates to bad devil thoughts ruling the brain/mood/general outlook on life. When devil thoughts gain a few laps it is hard to even try to win the race. Its like the wrong things are on my mind or I’m off track yet on the track It doesnt make sense, you are responding. And that is what I too am thinking This doesnt make sense. But in what way? IN this way: I never pictured my life to be like this. Well, then how did you picture your life, danielle… And then, I dont have an answer. I never really pictured my life ahead of an ephemeral spontaneous what’s next mentality (which I like by the way). Whatever that means. The devil thoughts are so slimy that they weasel their way in to discredit me, to make me feel bad, to make it harder for me to fight. So, I shift directions or so I think… Goals. Hmmm, I think. Goals. I dont know. Should I say be happy? Ha.
danielle also has more, infact she posted omg twice the other day.
welcome back to america, ladies! by the way, fellas, both of these beauties are single and lookin to mingle so get on it.
meanwhile up in canaduh, single suzie hasnt posted since tuesday and if she needs a topic on the table, perhaps she can write about what she would do with me if say she had a week to spend avec moi in a party town and a sweet hotel suite…
im going to be headed to austin for sxsw in about 10 days and i know im gonna run into people who are either gonna ask me for tips on how to make money blogging or introduce me to some of these make money bloggers and im just gonna take another sip of beer and head back to the bbq.
theres a word for people who try to make real money blogging.
its the same word they have for people who try to make real money fucking.
lost.
blogging should be something that you do for love. something that you do because you wanna send and s.o.s. to the world. something that you do because you want to be creative and express yourself and get the attention of the hot girl who youre too shy to say hi to.
when people write songs for money or manufacture bands to make money we know what those records sound like – total shit.
we will be talking about bob dylan for generations to come because fucker kept it real. still keeps it real.
blogs that do it for the sake of money are so clearly full of bullshit that they never make it to the top. which doesnt mean that the How to Make Money Blogging blogs arent successful or have good ideas – they are and they do (some of them), but theyre never written by people who could write a real blog about something that would interest a large group of people.
which shouldnt be the point either.
what the Blogging Experts dont tell you in their how to make money blogs is that there are about 100 people making money blogging today out of 130 million. you have better odds marrying and divorcing britney spears for the money. so do that. those 100 people, by the way, are on the Technorati Top 100, and those people probably arent millionaires, so befriend a trainwreck pop star or play the lottery.
plus some of those 100 are bloggers who have been doing it for years and year and who are actually pretty fucking great at what they do.
heres another thing those make money blog writers wont tell you: most of the blogs in the technorati top 100 are group blogs, meaning you have to share that revenue with 5-10 people. meaning no one is getting rich. plus you have to blog 6 times a day. plus you have to network like crazy. plus you have to write about the exact right shit at the exact right time.
a few years ago you could be a right wing hack and probably make a few bucks. today you’d be better off writing about iphones and grownup toys. but still you have to compete with the boing boings and the engadgets and the gizmodos and techcrunches and all of those sites have several writers, so how are you, alone, gonna compete?
you arent. and you shouldnt. you should give up on making money blogging and do what you shoulda done in the first place – write for the joy of writing.
i do it because in the ten commandments it says to keep the sabbath holy. and you can say oh saturday is the sabbath or oh sunday is the sabbath, but i once talked to this rabbi who said just pick one and stick with it. so sundays my sabbath.
but if you are, theres some new Nine Inch Nails music for your ass
the fact that i did it at LAist too was just one of the many many reasons why that blog was more interesting than the others. when i was hired in june of ’06 there were several blogs that covered LA. two of them even had slight leads during stretches before my arrival. after i recruited people and got the machinery in order and the game plan set, our TEAM pummeled them and not only did the other blogs fail to adjust so as to compete against us but they stood there and began to *lose* traffic, a trend that appears to continue today.
we were buzzed, not drunk. none of us were drunk. pleasantly pissed as the brits say. but booze and love was in the air. maybe one dude rolled a joint in the back of the santa barabara house that we were partying in but i dont think i even got a contact high. 
