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everything every thing ev

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when i first moved to LA the beverly center was incredible

we would go to the hard rock cafe and try to spot celebrities

they had movies on the top floor in tiny theaters, it shouldnta even counted as the movies but i saw a bunch there. one or two with michele even.

down the street was this kinda gay dance club called odessey. i didnt know it was gay.

i just thought the girls kissing were fascinating.

i had this oversized white shirt that fell off the shoulder

black parachute pants

little kung fu black shoes that cost two dollars

i looked like a Culture Club groupie which was what you wanted to look like if you were

new wave

fuck if i knew what i was but i knew i wasnt gay as soon as this old guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked if i wanted to dance

today the poor kids cant even get outta their houses. although the traffic on the 101 was seemingly back to normal today at 4pm as i was driving in circles around hollywood

interviewing a helicopter pilot.

driving because my phone cuts out usually after 20 minutes in my home but this time it did it in 5 minutes just as i was preparing to move the interview to the car

he was cool about it. he was cool about everything. we really hit it off.

in 45 minutes we talked about maybe 15 different things. all relevant. all solid.

if i just made it a Q&A it would be speed reading.

im mad at the world tonight, though, at 1:20am.

i keep telling myself everything happens for a reason everything happens for a reason

even though is that even true? has that been proven somewhere?

do dudes who go into comas and come back from the afterlife say oh yeah bill everything happens for a reason.

no.

they dont tell bill shit.

they tell bill, the drinks are fucking free up there!

you know what i miss because of this coronavirus

spitting

ugh, a music war

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Every morning I kiss my GF and tell her to run away for several hours because I am going to dive head first into the septic tank and fish around for chunks of gold which I will then place into a list of COVID stories.
 
I am a sensitive man. I may not seem like this affects me, but when every day there’s a 9/11 of deaths and illnesses and suffering, it hurts me because, these are people and I love people.
 
Who cares if you have a pre-existing condition? I am a relatively healthy man but if I did from the Rona they will say oh he had high blood pressure. As if I ordered it off Amazon too many times. If my GF dies they will say oh but she had the diabetes. As if she begged for it. These were both conditions nature delivered to us which we take meds for and try to eat in healthy ways. Then this hidden killer as I call it gets you in the middle of the night and yr gone.
 
So delving into that pit of news every day is emotional for me but it’s important to the website I work for because it brings eyeballs and if there’s one thing you know about me it’s that I have been figuring out how to get eyeballs to web sites since 591 Haight Street in 1994.
 
I try to do it in a sensible, informative, respectful way. The other ways may be effective to, but I like the straight and narrow path.
 
The problem with that dive into the muck is I am a terror to deal with for hours afterwards. Here it is 5 hours later and I am still a mess, in part, because the failing NYTimes in a link on this list below, says that by next month we will see 3k deaths every day. That’s more than a 9/11 a day. People alive and flipping the TV will not see the fourth of July. I have a thick skin for many things but not that.
 
Usually after I make that list I lay down for a few minutes or I take a nap or I have a shower. Today I had to take a meeting. I don’t like meetings. In my world all meetings should not only be emails, but they should be Tweets.
 
The only exception to that is if it is a motivational meeting where the boss goes around and praises everyone individually and we all clap for everyone. I ran LAist for a little while and we never had one meeting. We had drink fests once a month, BBQs at my place and sometimes work would come up, but never meetings.
 
Am I weird. Very. Should I expect that the world would act like I do? Nope.
 
But because I am weird I get uptight a lot. Nowadays more than ever. In part because I feel like at 53 years old I should be given the benefit of the doubt that I have not only been around the block, but I have been around This block and I etched my name in the old oak tree.
 
Because of that I never want any one to ever say no to me. An insane request. It’s a Trumpian come-from. Obama would never say that. He wouldn’t even think it. Obama would never say, I went to Harvard. I got Michelle to marry me. I got white people to vote for me. Are you crazy to disagree with me about anything?
 
But I am not Obama. Hell, I lost to Larry freaking Speer. By only one vote, but I lost. And I am glad I lost because I didnt wanna run that ship, I wanted to write. And I am writing now. And it’s great to write every day. It’s great.
 
It’s great.

went to the beach

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saw my bro, called my mom, at fast food, looked at the people, listened to howard.

i kept my hand on ambers leg for most of the journey.

got home Prince had puked, i think Michael has fleas

watched the Bulls doc, got super inspired.

i know im not the MJ of anything but its interesting to watch someone be so dedicated to something for no good reason. because really who cares if you’re The Best

theres always some jackhole about to get born whose gonna see what you did and genetics and luck and training and study is gonna kick your ass at it and hes not even gonna have to face the people you had to mow down

so why bother?

how about just be yourself and dont worry bout no one else? is that so hard?

life is crazy ill tell you that. i never thought i would be here doing this right now topless on a computer that fits perfectly on my knee and i can open Photos and copy and paste and boom boom boom

but Jordan does make me wanna do bigger things than I am used to. i was transcribing this piece that was only supposed to be part of something but i made it its own thing. who knows if my boss will allow it to be its own thing but its just right as a standalone. then in a few days i can make another standalone and another.

mooshing doesnt always do what you want it to. sometimes a pipe is just a pipe. sometimes many stories is better than just one long one.

i just want to live in a world where nobody says no to me they just let me make things. new things. because — and this is a hard thing for me to explain properly — when i do something it’s not just it, it’s part of something

it’s building blocks. it’s connected. it’s books in the bible. it’s words in a sentence that turns into a paragraph that eventually equals a page.

my whole life ive just wanted to do. and for some reason i find myself around others who want me to stop or slow or fit into a box. i may look normal but im so not normal. there is no box for me. who else would go in it with me? not bukowski, i dont drink any more. not ee cummings, i dont poetry any more. not jd salinger, im west coast. so who? no one. not one blogger because im one of the last. not one journalist because im secretly a blogger.

no one, im alone. defenseless.

n pure

ish.

i got a new laptop

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totally overdue.

i had an old fella. you had to trick it into working sometimes. like open up the Photos or unplug the charger.

problem with that is it could only really go for about 45 minutes on its battery.

so i took the stimulus money i got about bought a macbook air which they say is for kids but all i do is write and watch porn and HTML and do fantasy sports and blog, and from what all the people on YouTube say, the Air will do those fine.

two things ive noticed after a few days of using it

its fucking fast.

its addictive

the screen is too small – im used to a 17″ and this one is 13″.

the speed is worth the screen size trade off.

what it really makes me want is the 16″ bad boy but that costs $3-$4k

the good thing about the little size is it fits anywhere. right now i got a pillow on it so it doesnt heat up m’balls.

its trying to get warm but it’s so wee it doesnt have the capability.

life is crazy right now. everythings nuts. things are backwards. bad things could happen at any moment it seems. bad things ARE happening at any moment.

its good we are staying inside.

it’s good i have a new computer.

it’s good you are there.

i’ll write something good with this because the keyboard is magical and it allows me to write from any position. ive been needing that.

the spirit will get through me with this.

you’ll see.

here’s what i wrote for Los Angeleno in April

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Pretty sure this is the most productive I’ve ever been as a reporter. Even with LAist I didn’t produce these many original pieces in one month.

Of note: interviews with American Apparel founder Dov Charney about what his new company, Los Angeles Apparel is doing to help curb the pandemic, a visit to a Walmart in the Valley as it gets new pallets of toilet paper and paper towels, features on a radio journalist from KNX and an outgoing Pulitzer winner from the LA Times, an interview with an ICU doc in Palm Springs who uses the controversial cocktail to try to save lives of coronavirus patients, a feature on smokeless weed with several fascinating people, and a bunch of news wrap-ups all about the terrible virus that changed everything.

And I took some cool pictures.

Coronavirus: Fountains of Wayne Co-founder Dies; Covered California Extension

Dov Charney’s New Passion: Face Masks

Coronavirus: 1M Global Cases; Furloughs Hit Disney

Coronavirus: Richard Simmons Returns; News Viewership Up

T.P. Hits the Shelves — ‘This is Like War Rationing’

Know Your Journalist: KNX’s Claudia Peschiutta

Coronavirus: County Extends Stay-at-Home Order; Supplies Stolen at Naval Medical Center

Hydroxychloroquine and You: Breaking Down Fact and Fiction in the World of COVID-19

Coronavirus: 33% of Angelenos Say They Will Run Out of Money Within 3 Months

Celebrating 4/20, but Without the Smoke

Coronavirus: Yesterday was the Deadliest Day in California So Far

Know Your Journalist: L.A. Times’ Geoff Mohan

Coronavirus: Governor Shuts Down O.C. Beaches

mike pence doesnt wanna wear a mask

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because he wants to look people in the eye.

i can see that.

i can see everything.

i can see why people disagree with me or misunderstand me or want to slow my roll.

hell, i slow my roll nearly every damn day. im slowing it right now.

im a bit nervous about what my roll might look like if it wasn’t slowed down.

when i was little my roll was outta control. i ran fast, i walked and talked fast. i thought fast. people thought i was hyper.

deep into my college years someone gave me incredible weed and my roll slowed almost to a stop and i was all omg.

im not sure i liked it better, but to be honest i think i was less annoying to others. which is good. im still annoying. i’ll be annoying when i die. and after. and for years to come.

not my fault.

and thats why i wear a mask.

this dream will fade

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yes I realize it’s 419am

I have now interviewed a model, a cam girl, and another

they were all so nice. so sweet.

was that their game face? are they that happy? Maybe?

I’m mostly happy but there are moments.

It’s funny. Some girls I’d date and I’d think they’d be great but they’d probably try to force me to be more this or that.

But then I realize I do that to ppl.

I’m a terrible hypocrite. Which is why I try to clamp it down whenever possible.

Stick to the Bible. Love your neighbors. Do unto others.

Be cool.

Maybe my favorite is give to the beggars.

You won’t ever go poor doing that in fact it makes me feel great. And for some reason it surprises them. Maybe bc I dress so badly?

Other day we gave a bunch of shrimp to a guy buy a Denny’s off ramp. That was great. Imagine you’re hungry then suddenly out a car is a guy saying like shrimp? And handing you all this peeled cold cocktail shrimp and that sauce?

I truly think God is with you when that happens and that’s why you feel good. That right there is the Holy Spirit.

He just loves that nice part.

beach day

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amber wanted to get out of the house

but I wanted to see what Ventura beach was all about

so we drove up there and right around Calabasas my oil light goes on

I’m leaking oil it appears

So I say let’s go to that Kanan Dune Albertsons

The place is huge. Surely they have motor oil.

And fortunately they had synthetic oil, on sale, for my ass.

Somehow we also picked up $81 of other things

Saw a family with four little boys. Everyone had a popsicle.

Perfect idea I told the dad.

When we got to the beach I interviewed two life guards and a dude who runs the motel that looks over the beach.

Like it’s Right There. Sand up against the wall.

$150. Small. Good bathrooms. Old. Not super clean. Incredible views. $99 mid week.

If someone wanted to pay a writer to write a book, that’d be the spot they should rent him for a summer to write it.

weirdest disaster ever

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dear people in the future. how did you get there?

we have a leader who is super dooper exclamation mark the wrong guy to be flying this plane.

it’s like he seeks out mountains to crash into.

but whats crazy is the mountains lean over at the best moments and dodge him

you wouldnt even believe what he talked about this week, or tweeted, or ESPed.

he huffs and puffs and gets so angry and then does cowardly things.

you wonder if it’s cuz hes old or because he has been “rich” for so long

and people, even journalists, will give you a pass sometimes if you are a “billionaire”

so suddenly all these people are asking hard questions.

like, “what did you mean when you said what you said yesterday?”

or even harder questions like, “when did you last speak with the North Koreans?”

this dude straight up said, on tv, in a press conference, in 2020 America

“i’m not going to tell you.”

which isn’t really comforting.

im not even sure it’s legal.

anyway, i hope you can read this bc it means he hasn’t blowed up the joint.

 

just a little

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Today Amber and I were walking home and we passed our local, cool, homeless man. This guy has been in my hood for 15 years or so. Probably longer. I gave him my winter coat this winter and I swear the Lord rewarded me with an increased ability to read minds. Not that I needed it.

As we approached him we saw two nurses from one of the hospitals hand him some bags of their left over lunch. When we passed him I asked how he was doing.

It was 6:30pm-ish, he was setting up his sleeping bag and luggage so he could go to sleep on the sidewalk in front of this apartment building. The sun was still up and shining on him. He was sweating. He said he was fine. I asked if there was anything he needed.

Usually he tells me no. But this time he said he could use some water. I figured I’d walk a few blocks home, get him some bottles, drive over, drop them off and drive back. But Amber said, lets just walk backwards a few blocks to a liquor store and hook him up.

JUST A LITTLE ONE he yelled. OK I yelled back, admiring his reverse psychology. Or was he being serious? Only the angels know.

Got to the liquor store. One of those tiny Mexican ones. Not sure if there was any liquor in there, tbh, because i’m basically straight edge since my girl is.

Got a nice jug of Crystal Geyser with a handle. And as I was about to pay the nice man with a mask, I was all, “look at all that TP. What are you a millionaire?”

Dude laughed. No seriously where did you get all that?

He said, Mexico. Tijuana.

I was like, is it terrible? He said, no my friend, it’s toilet paper.

And then I asked if I could take a picture and he said sure.