is the fact that today is our pal karisas birthday.

karisa who is one of my best friends ever.

in a perfect world she and i would live in a town where they made television programs, for if we did, i would produce a show called the karisa j show where in each episode we’d make karisa cook something, fix something, build something, and interview some one.

if the style network had any viewers it would be perfect there, but now im thinking mtv.

only problem is karisa isnt interested in being a star. publicly, that is.

tonight i would have loved to take her out for a delicious steak dinner at her favorite place, arnie mortons in beverly hills, but considering the circumstances it wouldnt be prudent. therefore i think i will walk over to the armenian butcher shop and see what theyve got fresh-like and grill up a few steaks.

the karisa show would also have to have a Book Minute because karisa loves books. i keep telling her that the karisa book club would dominate all over the oprah book club because who the hell ever wanted to read what oprah was reading?

ive met some multitalented freaks before but none as purely nice and fun as todays birthday girl

on a personal note, thank you for everyone who has written and called and commented, your nice words have made all of this much more tolerable and the epiotome of bittersweet.

join us now in reliving some of the moments where karisa starred in the busblog

her 79th birthday

jean skirt night pool party

karisa dissing the angels

karisa’s 80th birthday and the photo essay

karisa and kerrie

upsidedown drinking

karisas 44th birthday

me and karisa at the xbi christmas party

a pre christmas email

a trip to isla vista

a trip to the sunset junction 2004

we often do laundry

sunset junction street fair 2003

they called it a “layoff” but everyone else in my dept still has a job
and i had more seniority than all of them combined

even though i know it was an unfair termination and i will get to sue and win
im still shocked, and im sad, and i want to cry.

to everyone who i was lucky enough to work with at E!
i will miss you, i learned a lot from all of you,
and i hope that if we dont keep in touch the normal ways
you’ll pop onto the busblog from time to time

my old lunch buddy + my old desk + when ll cool j played my work

i know you dont know who bauhaus is, and thats one reason why you were cool with us leaving the show right after weezer threw his black glasses into the crowd,

but peter murphy apparently took the stage by being lowered from the rafters and he sang all of Bella Legosi’s Dead completely upsidedown to the adoration of every wannabe vampire in the crowd, which as you remember, there were plenty of hiding behind parisols during the afternoon and melting in the warm sunshine of palm springs

i know you dont know an awful lot about rocknroll, but singing while acting like a caught bat is pretty rockn

i also heard that the chemical brothers had a light show going on in the raver tent that should have had a warning sign declaring it unfit for people on hallucinegons because reportedly it just wasnt some flashing lights on either side of the turntables, it wasnt just a police car light on a riser, it wasnt just a smoke machine under the gogo cage,

from what my sources tell me the back wall was a screen where some incredible graphics were being projected and then at the perfect time the entirety of the tent was flooded with stained glass effects making one instantly believe that they were no longer simply attendees at a show but lab rats whose senses were being monitored for over stimulation.

and we thought the traffic-free car ride was nice.

teenage fanclub via an ipod being pumped through a stock car stereo was what you and i were listening to when spoon took the stage and singlehandedly raised it up and spun it on their finger like a basketball, occassionally spinning it to keep up the momentum and once they were bored they grabbed the stage and smashed it into the the mountains to the south.

all of this while we were contemplating a fosters freeze at the el pollo loco.

this is what i promise you, cute girl who let me drive her car,

next year if you dont have a boyfriend or a fiancee, i will take you to palm springs on friday night, we will make sweet love all night and rise early for the entire saturday show, we will drive back to the hotel and make nasty dirty love and pass out, sunday we will attend church service and go to the second night of rock, and afterwards we will recap the experience in the comfort of a hot tub, then we will sleep tangled like monkeys and drive home happily monday morning at noonish.

what we did this weekend wasnt bad, it was good for a dry run, but next year it needs to be done right.

especially since tsar will probably be there.

save ferris + raymi + vortexia + christie

shes not going to be 25 as i recently reported on this blog. yes, this blog that states quite clearly that nothing in here is true.

she is not going to be 26 or 27.

shes not going to be 23 or 24.

shes not going to be 32 or 42.

shes going to be 30. 30 years old.

its so easy when you see someone you respect mildly freak out, to say oh its cool its cool everything is gonna be ok, youve got a perfect life, youve got a great truck, a good man, a perfect cat, a great apartment, cool friends on both coasts, and a killer bod with eyes that can get you pretty much anything you want at any time

which is why i dont look at her in her eyes for fears that she will ask me for something that im not so willing to give up, like my virginity.

but i remember turning 30 last year and it was a nightmare for me.

if it wasnt for all that capt morgans and those cheerleaders dressed as catholic girls then i probably woulda jumped off the golden gate bridge.

age does matter, but numbers matter even more. they represent something that maybe used to mean something but nowadays dont mean anything at all.

when our parents were 30 most of them had at least one kid but probably two, they had a mortgage, they had been married for a while and their television probably only got two stations clearly.

now we have hundreds of stations that come in clearly PLUS we dont have the financial and parental burdons of that previous generation. we’ve done it right. shit. in many ways we’ve got it made.

the sad part for karisa is that shes never had a kickass perfect idealio job that totally matched up her myriad of skillz and then compensated her properly. she and i worked together many moons ago and we saw people walk around us making mad green and we would laugh at each other as they passed by and sometimes we’d commiserate and id say its just like what led zep says, your time is gonna come.

sadly our time is taking its time so we have to hang out in hollywood drinking and waiting on that bus to unending success. i have to say that im lucky to have someone like karisa to wait with. and my other friends of course. but karisa is a special friend because she didnt go to school with me, she knew me when i was nothing and stayed friends with me when i lost all that i had.

and when we finally start living the lives of trapped people stuck in their high paying gigs, tied down with car payments and mortgages and IRA accounts, drowning in diapers and private school tuitions, we can always remember when the worst thing in our lives was the numbers attatched to our names.

and im glad that shes finally 30 cuz ive been calling her 30 for at least 3 years now.

too beautiful + keanuholic + sk smith + golden fiddle

slept in, dicked around until noon, took a long shower, hopped the fence of my neighbors and stole ten minutes in her hot tub,

viewed some adult materials

then received a phone call from an xgirlfriend who lives by the beach

i said i took the day off she said come over i said nah im just gonna lay here upside down on this couch and not do shit

she was all five hours at coachella shouldnt wear you out That much

i was all it didnt i just want to see if i can be the laziest man in the world today

she was all i lived with you for five years, youve already won that crown a few times.

so i got on the subway

got off on highland

followed a super hot model looking chick up the escalators

lost her in the sunshine

took the fairfax bus down to wilshire, transferred over to a 720 rapido and she and i had pizza in westwood.

i wore shorts.

i knew my morning post hadnt posted but i didnt care. it was dumb anyhow.

for some reason i always forget how many asian kids go to school at ucla but all you have to do is spend lunch there for like an hour and it starts to become obvious and if you ask me thats what america is supposed to be, not a melting pot really, more, to me, at least, like a nice beef stew.

chunks of this thing over here

bits of this shit over here.

at coachella they had these dudes changing the trash liners on the field and i was all hey bro can you tell me where the media tent is

and he said perfectly im sorry i dont speak english.

i was so chilled out that i was impressed that a dude could get work without speaking english

today i was that chilled riding the bus and eating pizza. wonderfully thin cut pizza.

but i wanted more.

ive been gorging lately. we went over to rite aid and got an ice cream sandwich which i demolished.

she had dinner plans that she had to get ready for so i asked her if i could borrow her skateboard and she said of course and i rail slided down to the street and ollied over a marching band.

took the bus east down wilshire to meet the hawaiian girl at the miracle mile mcdonalds which is never very busy because it doesnt have a drivethru.

because ive been ravenous i got a kids meal six piece nugggets because i love that crazy hot mustard.

she picked me up and we drove to my place

but first we went food shopping which was funny because it was at this huge place called Foods Co which is like a grocery store and a Costco at the same time in that theres not a lot of decor, it looks like a wharehouse, and you have to bag your own food at the end.

a crazy day off but better than sleeping all day or laying upsidedown watching tivo.

although im stoked that i recorded supernanny.

flagrant + danielle + alecia’s coachella photoessay + one minute video of weezer live saturday, a film

04/30/05 MB ’05 Tour: Day 6: Indio, CA – Coachella Festival
4/30/2005 5:17:29 AM – by Karl Koch

…Having attended last years Coachella, I can say the crowd that gathered for the Weezer set was comparable to the monster crowds that assembled for the Pixies and Radiohead sets last year. An amazing SEA of humanity, soaking in the weez. Some familiar weezer fan faces right in the front row too, waiting all day thru all the earlier bands to ensure their front row experience!

As weezer took the stage I jostled into the 100+ strong pit of photographers down front looking for fresh angles on what was clearly emerging as an epic night, before escaping to the stage where another crowd was gathered, this time of VIPs geting a close view from the side of the stage, (as VIPs will do), digging the show and providing challenges to a too-polite photographer!

Rick Rubin was there, loving every minute of the set, which was actually his first ever weezer show, despite having been working with the band for over 2 years. He was particularly stoked on “Hold Me.” Standing nearby and taking it in were Anthony Keidis of RHCP, Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion/Epitaph Records, and Chris Katan of SNL fame (?!). From the soundboard area came the report that Cameron Diaz was watching the set, and reporting to her friends that “Weezer is a heavy metal band!” (?!?)

Earlier in the day Perry Farrel stopped by weezers dressing room and said hello and that he was looking forward to the set. Spotted when we first drove into the Coachella grounds was Jason Lee, just chilling out with some budrows. And back at the hotel checking in when we were checking out was Peter Hook of New Order. (“Hook. Aytch Dubble-oh Kay.”)

Circling overhead for most of the day was a small plane trailing the letters “WEEZER MAKE BELIEVE NEW ALBUM MAY 10” (see pic). Sweet!

Setlist:
Say It Ain’t So
Photograph
Undone
Peace
Pity
Garage
Hold Me
Island
Drugs
Beverly Hills
Hash Pipe
Buddy Holly

alicia is twenty + weezer fan + if we had stayed + a trip from to to lax to oc to coachella

told the coachella crowd how nice it was to be there, i raised my churro in agreement.

we pretty much all raised our churros in agreement.

its soft in a good way, this the desert festival which yesterday featured the return of bauhaus, one of the first shows by weezer in years and the only southern california appearence in allah knows when, americas sweethearts wilco, two turntables and a xylophone of the chemical brothers, silverlakes own rilo kiley and the hottest ticket from this years sxsw spoon,

among others

like coldplay who are soft in a bad way.

we didnt stay for them, we showed up like dodger fans, ridiculously late, and left selfishly early.

but while we were there we were able to experience a peaceful easy feeling without feeling like we just acted like yuppies,

which is tough to do when you lay out $85 a ticket to hang out at the polo fields outside palm springs with a bunch of people who will probably give coldplay a big hand.

but the secret beauty of this festival isnt its diversity, which is incredible, dont get me wrong,

its best secret is its comfort.

lush green grass, friendly staff, lots of room, good sound, good visuals including trippy light everywhere including on palm trees and shooting out into the nightsky, not too many people, and a well organized parking lot made the journey arrival and show a totally fun time.

and i did appreciate the vip hideaway so thank you good people of goldenvoice for stoking me.

wilcos gentle altcountryindie vibe was perfect as the sun was setting

everything was perfect.

sometimes the desert can get so hot that 90 degrees can seem mild so the breezy 85 high was a delight

but i might be the wrong person to ask, i had just gotten my tax refund sent to me and there were no lines at the vip tent bar

and i wasnt driving us home.

weezer took the stage just as the darkness eveloped the sky.

rivers too remarked a few times at how beautiful the night was, he introduced his band shyly ending with

…and my name is rivers. we are weezer.

understatements by rockstars at huge festivals are not normal so i raised my salty doughy pretzel to the bespectacled genius who shredded his leads all night.

as we sped west on the 10 through the night we giggled missing out on all the traffic soon to follow us in our wake and i made sure that my date for the evening knew how grateful i was to her for allowing us to take a pass on coldplay by treating her to an iced coffee at starbucks in palm desert and a sundae at mcdonalds in los feliz

next year i will for sure rent a hotel in palm springs or if im terribly adventurous, a tent and camp out like the kool kids.

next year i will probably not buy a ticket for my date for the day from a toothless dude standing by the road at a slight discount because if the ticket had been a fake we would have been out some healthy change

next year i will also probably stay away from the pound cake handed to me by the all too generous hippie girl because had i not eaten it i probably would have gotten up a little earlier than 3pm today. but the colors were amazing.

the drudgie doth protest too much + kitty bukkake + i saw jim at coachella and met his sister

she’ll say shes in town which is about once a week and she’ll pick me up at work and drive me home.

and maybe first we’ll stop off at the best buy or a boutique on melrose or at arbys or at amoeba and at first shes a fucking cold fish because shes mad at me about something and holding it in or if things are going well we’ll tickle each other walking down the aisles or i’ll put my hand on her ass because its meant to be there and she’ll slap it away

and say omg i cant believe you just did that or i’ll walk in her path and sorta direct her into the wall by my intentionally retarded walking or i’ll just walk superclose to her and pretend im not and alls great until we start getting to my house

and then she breaks up with me.

sometimes its cuz she’ll swear shes in love with enrique. sometimes its cuz she swears im in love with the swedish chick or the hawaiian chick or clipper girl or my true love or the cuban or raymi or martha washington

or some one. sometimes its cuz she says my apartment is always so fucking filthy or cuz the tabloids would go nuts if they ever found out or its cuz my dicks so big it hurts jk or cuz i watch too much tv or cuz all we ever do is fuck or cuz i dont wanna marry her or cuz like boys ii men we’ve hit the end of the road.

at this point i dont even pay attention to the reason cuz to me all it is are the demons in her head turning a good thing into a bad thing. the opposite of turning water into wine, these demons turn omg omg into whines.

i dont mean that in a mean way i mean that in a sad way like doesnt it suck that someone cant just enjoy the enjoyment someone who cant begin the beguine someone who is in a position where something that makes them so happy also bums them out so much that theyre willing to stop the one thing that truly gets their juices flowing now that shes put down her tennis racket

and broadened her horizons.

so either we’ll sit in her limo and fight for like a minute and then she’ll cry and then we’ll work things out in like minutes and cuz im an idiot i will agree to whatever she proposed which is usually no more lovin and then before i know it we’re making out, and the evening always ends in a series of one last kisses.

one more juicier and delectable and memorable
than the last.

i’ll whisper something like its cuz im black isnt it and she’ll chuckle and kiss me so deep and hard as if she wants to remember this for forever too cuz it is amazing and so unlikely and very good when its good

which is all of the time except when shes breaking up with me.

she was all who are you going to coachella with and i was all i dont know if im going and she was all but you have to go and i was all but everything got screwed up it was a mess the only reason i wanted to go was if i could get a photo pass and i got one then i didnt then i did again and now i dont and she kissed me and rubbed her cheek against me as we stood in the hallway leaned up against my bukowski poster and she said do you have backstage and i said i think so and she was all then you have to go and i was all eh

i have worked for the xbi directly and indirectly for nearly 15 years now, i went to the greatest college of its day with the coolest people, ive made out with the hottest girls, ive seen all the greatest concerts, i told her with one hand down the back of her jeans palming her thonged tanned ass digging my knee just a little higher than necessary, ive done it all and now i know why all the great poets died before fourty.

and anna said well thats why the lord wants us to have kids, so it’ll give us something to do, something that makes us appreciate our free time and our opportunity to listen to a zillion bands in the heat of the desert.

and i said fine then i’ll go. which wasnt the answer that she was looking for nor was my response when she asked me who i was taking.

but the joke was on me for after anna left and i called my wouldbe date and asked her if she would like to go to the show with me and after she said yes i asked her what band she really wants to see

and did she say weezer or the raveonettes or m83 or k-os or wilco or sage francis (pictured, with bunny mc),

of course not

she said snow patrol bauhaus and coldplay.

coldplay?

and the reason you want to date smart girls gentlemen is not for their taste in popular music

its so that they can tell you right before you say you dont want to go they can tell you hey go see spoon while i watch coldplay, thats probably whats gonna happen at eleven, all the boys are gonna see spoon and all the girls are gonna see coldplay

and tomorrow i will have pictures for your asses.

doc breaks it down + ipod table + blinkorama + kimbalina

today i had the best day of the year

im still in a hazy fog of happiness. i was invited to return back to the greatest classroom ever and sit at the head of the table and teach. later i was asked by someone what i taught, what the book was about, what were the themes.

and i said the book was about sex drugs and rock n roll.

a few of my closest friends were there, my favorite teacher was there, the class was packed, nearly everyone had read the book and were giving their two cents. it was super nice.

they told me the terrible news that the college paper, the daily nexus wasnt good anymore, and right away i told them that that only means that they should write for it.

i told them that since the college of creative studies doesnt have any grades or tests or finals, i started writing at the nexus to not only practice writing, but to get paid to practice, and that nothing was better than having 10,000+ people read your shit every day.

i didnt say shit.

afterwards i gave my teacher a copy of Blook, which i had saved for her for over a year and a half now. then we walked to isla vista and had pizza at woodstocks. and it was delicious.

not only did she tell me that i did a good job, and that aj and i worked together very well in the class, but that i should get a masters in creative writing and persue teaching college. a million people have told me that, but when she said it i said ok. she never lead me into a bad thing. although at the top of her list of recommendations, above princeton, stanford, and cal arts, she kept talking about uc irvine.

i was thinking, i dont wanna be an anteater.

then she went home and our little happy group of close friends began drinking, eating, and then someone slipped something in our drinks which made us very fond of one another, and we sat infront of the biggest fireplace that ive ever seen and listened to jeanine serenade us on guitar, a piano was played, aj spun the most wonderful curtis mayfield slowjams and this morning i woke up

sick

in santa barbara, and told my work that i was sick and they said cool cool

and i hope i get better quick because the pixies will hit the stage in about four hours and twenty minutes.

utter wonder + brett lamb + blogumentary + little bicycle mind