we’ve had a pretty good decade together havent we? you betcha.
k, then can you talk to Mr. Clock and tell him to give me a frickin break. every night im trying to make something happen and its 225am or something insane.
tomorrow im supposed to meet Casie at noon and id really just like to sleep all day.
but thats no way to spend the last days of vacation.
i also have the worst stomach situation.
sushi for lunch with soft shelled crab followed by poutine and shawerma from a truck is no way to treat the thing that youve abused the most in yr life.
plus that super big gulp of Capt Morgan courtney poured me followed by the molson canadians pauly kept broing me.
how am i even awake right now?
ah thats right, the 630p nap.
i think companies should factor that into bonuses now that we’re in this neverending recession.
most companies (that arent AIG or all of those banks we bailed out) have a hard time giving their employees raises. so in lieu of that they should offer either a few extra personal days off, or what i would be stoked for: permission to nap in their cars for a good 20-30 minutes after lunch.
does wonders for me. probably because im so ridiculously olde.
heres a video of my neice who i promised id post this
young Kyla needed to get a hair cut. her mom (my little sister) said “hey how about we cut it real short and give the hair to little girls who have cancer?”
of course when i heard that was going to be the plan i showed little 6 yr old Kyla a picture of Sinead O’Conner to freak her out.
worked!
anyways after she got her hair cut she came home and wasnt at all pleased.
of course thats when i pulled out the video camera and conducted this interview which she originally didnt want to do, but afterwards gave me permission to put on the busblog.
2 minutes later she demanded that it go on youtube as well.
sadly ive been too busy so sorry Kyla that it took so long.
had some excellent sushi at Sushi Time on Queens Ave. and then went ice skating with the kids, and it dawned on me why so many of the female canadian bloggers seem to have such a hard time with the canadian dudes
its so simple really
there are no ugly girls in canada.
for every snowflake theres two hot babes.
not just hot but willing, funny, worldly, adventurous, and down to party.
theres no reason at all for dudes to work for it.
one day theres going to be a hot babe revolution up here and theyre gonna either beat the dudes into submission or storm the gates of america.
flew outta Chicago with limited problems. yes there was a new rule that said that flights to Canadia would not allow carryons on their airplanes, but thankfully it did not include purses, laptops, camera bags, and emergency equipment. you know, what carryons used to mean way back in the day before people shoved their rolley luggage into the top of the plane because they were too special to go to baggage claim like the rest of us. lemme tell you. suddenly there was room in the overhead dealies. even moreso on my flight because when you fly on Saturdays or midweek, the planes arent packed. ah luxury.
got picked up at the airport by the angel of toronto. my flight was delayed so Miss C drove in circles around YYZ for an hour(!) so when i got into her car i lifted my shirt like The Situation to brighten her day. then to brighten my day she drove me to the hugest christmas light show on one house in all of north america. witness:
hi baby Jesus:
two points Santa:
after being amazed we ate at a place that only served shrimp if it was ontop of steak. sweet. then i checked into my hotel and Carrie was all, make sure they give you a room that looks out over where there will be fireworks and a huge concert and ice skating on new years eve. so i said cool and they said anything for the busblog, duh!
omg view:
walked around last night. it was negative a million degrees but i felt great cuz i was in a foreign land. gotta give it up to the homeless of TO, those are some committed gentlemen. saw one guy just sitting indian style outside the 7-11 begging. couldnta been a colder night. saw another guy sleeping in a little bank enclave which was smart cuz it was heated in there. but he had one hand down his pants and some of his ass cheek hanging out. brought a smile to my face. then saw two people who didnt look all that homeless, just looked like they couldnt find a hotel room, sleeping over some grates all cuddly and toasty lookin. but how could they be?
anyways many props for their outdoor adventurism. i had two jackets on, a sweater, a cubs “toque”, a scarf, and gloves and i could only walk around maybe 4 blocks before i had to call bs on myself and run back to my room. but before i went up i noticed a LOT of activity at the ice rink outside. they were testing the lights and the sounds for the upcoming NYE celebration and tons of kids were skating out there in the middle of the night. and what really made me happy were two poutine trucks next to the rink. will definately hit up one of those trucks tonight.
then in my hotel all these kids were on laptops in the lobby and playing chess and playing what i will call Knee Hockey. they run around in their knees on the carpet with tiny hockey sticks slapping at plastic pucks. OH CANAADA!!!
probably because of all the late night excitement rocking the land of lincoln.
if theres one thing you can say about my mom its she likes to be early for airplanes.
thus my flight to Toronto tomorrow afternoon means i will be at O’Hare tomorrow morning.
thanks, Testicle Bomber!
speaking of my mom, she hates watching Da Bears or my Cubs live on tv. she thinks she will jinx them. so tonight she had her hands over her ears and was screaming as i was giving her the 4th quarter play-by-play of Brett Favre making that sweet comeback at Soldier Field.
she was also pissed at the ESPN announcers kissing the ass of the 40something quarterback.
“What’s the longest four-letter word,” she asked me. “That’s how I feel about Brett Favre.” Later she screamed, “KILL HIM! BREAK HIS ARM!”
god she hates him.
everywhere she tried to escape in this house i followed with a remote control. this woman lives alone most of the time (when the grandkids, her kids, or her friends arent here) but because shes the perfect host she has equipped her home with a tv in each room (sorry thieves but theyre all Montgomery Ward models circa 1888). but the other day she got AT&T Uverse on all of the sets so it was easy to turn on each set to monday night football.
finally i trapped her in one room when the game went into OT and i said, ma, just enjoy the end of this game. its the second to last game of the season. so we sat on the edge of a guest room bed and watched that glorious ending which found Da Bears victorious. then we watched every post game wrap-up we could.
such is the life of fans of a team that rarely wins (any more).
earlier i treated her to her first sushi dinner. she loved it. she also loved drinking sake for the first time.
i will miss her when i take off tomorrow. and hopefully next Christmas i wont be as crabby as i was the first half of this trip. the bitter cold and strange ways that my family does things takes some adjusting to. and murphys law, now that i have conformed to their practices its time for me to debauch in canada and return to the rock of hollywood.
SERIOUSLY CANADA WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR NEW YEARS?!?!?!
see what hes doing? hes brushing the snow off the hot tub
there are fewer joys that i have than lounging in a hot tub with a cold beer on vacation.
and strangely even though i enjoy hot tubs, and i live in LA, rarely do i find myself in a steaming tub of warmth.
and even though ive been chillin at my sisters casa for the last few days, we havent even considered dipping into the triple digit tub.
crazy huh?
well that streak is fixin to end when i streak across this house in nothing but some cubs trunks and haul ass across the deck and tempt the below freezing temps to soak and sip and think of you and you and you.
long and beautiful story short: LA is a strange and wonderful small town disguised as a huge sprawling metropolis and one strange and wonderful night in West LA, mere blocks from where i sold tvs in the 80s, i got to play with one of my all time favorite rock gods “in the garage”.
when Weezer moved to LA in the early 90s, they rented a small guest house in the back of an asian couple’s home on Amherst Ave near Pico and Bundy. Rivers, Matt Sharp and one of the friendliest nicest dudes you’ll ever meet, Justin Fisher shared the pad. i believe rivers had a room, matt had the other room, and justin slept in the ceiling aka the attic.
they probably chose the place because there was a little garage that they were allowed to convert into a practice room. this was the “garage” from the classic Blue Album track “In The Garage”. its also the same garage that they filmed the above video “Say It Aint So”.
because life is bizarre and magic happens in LA, guess who Justin was dating back in 2000? a woman named Shannon, who just happened to be Matt Welch’s first girlfriend. because so many of my friends remain close with their ex’s, Matt of course was still tight with Shannon which is how i met her. in fact when i was putting together a small HR dept for the internet start up that i was a Recruiter for, i hired Shannon to work with me.
one day Shannon told me that they were going to have a party at her house. she had moved in with Justin in the Amherst House and had graduated from the attic to one of the proper bedrooms because Weezer had made it big and moved out. i had heard stories from Justin and Shannon that Rivers was extremely shy and if he made it to the party that i shouldnt be surprised if he didnt want to talk or seemed, well, superdooper shy.
Weezer released two of the best alt rock records ever in 1994 and 1996 with The Blue Album and Pinkerton, respectively, but rumor had it that Rivers was so emotionally distressed with the original reaction to Pinkerton that he pretty much shut down. indeed =w= didnt record again until 2001’s “The Green Album”. so when i went to the amherst house that night and saw Rivers sitting in a chair in the corner he was still firmly in his funk, re-evaluating Pinkerton.
he was bearded. painfully bashful. and barely acknowledged me when i told him straight up that Pinkerton was easily one of the top 10 records of the 90s. he smiled, looked away, and continued talking and listening to Justin who sat near him.
meanwhile in “the garage” people were playing with some of the rock equipment. there was a guitar, a bass, and a beat-up drum set.
after a few beers i noticed that whoever was on the drums was horrible, so i poked my head in there and saw Justin on bass, so i asked the kid if i could take over on drums and he graciously handed over the sticks.
within a few minutes there was Rivers. he had a notebook. my memory fails me if it was a 3 ring binder or a spiral notebook, but inside were all of these songs and all of these guitar notations.
he asked me, “do you know any Nirvana?”
sarcastically i slurred, “who?”
and friends, we rocked out to 3-4 nirvana tunes. in the garage.
i excused myself before my head exploded.
over the last few years rivers has extended that priceless gift of rocking out with some lucky fans through some rare Weezer Hootenannys, during a solo swing (see second video above) and on stage during some of their shows. but to be able to do it in the garage, at a somewhat typical party in LA, is something that i will cherish forever.
my truest saves Africa for 2 1/2 years (3/6/06 – 9/9/08)
if there was any doubt that she was a fallen angel, they went away when the sweetest girl flew away to deepest darkest africa and taught the world to sing.
her dream had always been to join the peace corps. one republican bf after another did their best to crush her dream. they told her she was too old. they told her she was too young. they told her that because of this that or the other thing she wouldnt be allowed in.
but she did that this and the other thing and on a super sad day she flew to massachussets, home of the corps, and the powers that be looked into her big blue eyes and said we are going to teach you everything you need to know, but if youre hearts not in it you will be sent home. likewise if you dont have what it takes you will ask to come home because this aint no Real World on MTV this is one of the poorest countries in the world where many of these folks have never seen a white person
a place where so much is against the law – like two ladies kissing – and it will get you sent to jail for a decade. a place where you have to boil yr own water. a place where orphans are orphans because their parents died of AIDS but the whole village thinks it was just some Evil Spirit.
a place where little kids hobble around with one arm and one leg and big smiles. a place where they dont speak english, in deed you have to learn the african tongue.
she didnt blink, indeed those eyes just got bigger and bluer and her heart pounded because she was up for a Big Game. she was up for something more important that quality assurance at a dumb dot com in santa monica. she was up for something life changing and dangerous and wild and crazy and important and helpful and holy and beautiful.
she went to africa and it was weirder and wilder and woolier than she expected and she loved it. others quit immediately. she hung in there. others freaked out about the bats and the rats and the superstitions and the lack of tony pierces but she stuck it out and in fact thrived.
little kids cried when they saw her walking down the street because they thought she was a ghost. Mzumbo! they yelled (white girl!) and in their language she laughed and said “thats Ms. White Girl” and they stood frozen in awe and then jumped back into the jungle (later to be totally wooed by her).
she danced in the discos in the main city, learned where to rent dvds in the little city. and figured out how to turn nothing into a Piggery in the tiny town. and when she left they cried and danced but mostly cried.
these are people who have seen great tragedy in their lives. theyve had huge reasons to cry, but when our little angel had completed her task they wept like Dick Cheney was going to replace her.
ive done some mighty fantastic things in my life dreams, but nothing compares to the time that the whitest girl you know who shops at Whole Foods, listens to NPR, drives a hybrid, and tears up during reruns of Gilmore Girls toughed it out in the motherland and left the place better than she found it.
a true inspiration to everyone she touches. and one of the finest parts of the 00s.
cuz i knew id be busy/trifling… but heres your answers anyway: late, cold, but with love from the midwest
Joe: Yo Tony! Have you heard LCD Soundsystem’s “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House?” Gotta love two bass players and breakin’ it down with the cowbell, no?
Didn’t this song drop like exactly two years ago? I even think they’ve played the Hollywood Bowl since this appearence on Letterman. I think its an ok song, nothing to get me to download for my Cowbell Hero, but since this generation hasnt had the benefit of being able to experience Devo or Talking Heads at their peak it doesnt surprise me that the likes of LCD and Lady Gaga make the year end Top 10 lists. But its better than the rise and fall of the boy bands, i suppose. Still i wonder what would have happened to Art Brut if King Missle had been a new band in 2008.
alecia: these are like the fanciest comments ever holy ish! i am overwhelmed!
okay my brain hurts i’m hungover here we go- how much do you like bacon on a scale of i like bacon just fine -> without bacon i would shoot myself in the face? there is no option for not liking bacon.
also ooo i’m inspired: what is the worst hangover you’ve ever had? (my worst is tied between 2-3 day hangover following 21st birthday & the hangover i recieved after the first night i got into a bar on my fake id. both involved copious amounts of shots. only with the second one did i also wake up to horrendous regret involving a brown-bagger dude that i would later pretend not to know. i am a good person.)
they are fancy. i wish they hadnt been thrust upon all of us Haloscan users. and Blogger should really be nervous because Haloscan was the best alternative to the default blogger comments and now that this JS-Kit nonsense is here, it will make me feel better about my inevitable switch to WordPress sometime next decade. but i do give them props for listening to all of the negative reaction and creating the fix so that the order of the comments reverted to the first comment being first and the second being second. but still, i hate these comments and im thrilled that i dont get the 30-60 comments per post that this blog usta get cuz i wouldnt have been able to handle the negativity that this would have attracted.
i love bacon as much as the next red blooded american which means i hold it right below God, country, apple pie, kompassion, mom, porn, and satellite tv. had four slices this morning but dont tell my nutritionist cuz shes a hater.
worst hangover ever? baby theres been so many. im sure some of them should have happened in college but we didnt have that much access to the hard liquor on account of our lack of ends. thus it was all cheap beer and party favors, most of which dont produce hangovers. the other thing about college is you were able to sleep in. hangovers are usually the result of being forced to awake after just a few hours of shut eye. so yes, i dont remember many hangovers because my brain hates bad memories and does an excellent job of clearing that cache. so the answer is last thursday.
Sass: What’s an orphan to do for Christmas in LA? Where are all the babes I can make out with come New Year’s? Will you please pass on a big hug to Meredith R. Mistletoe and Aunti Raymi for me when you are in babe central, Toronto because I miss them very very much? Add lowercasecarmen to that list. And all my other friends. You know who they are.
Christmas orphans should go to the area known as Skid Row and hand out food and faulty American Apparel goods. and the best time to do such things are any day thats not Christmas or Thanksgiving (cuz the poor are more than taken care of on those holidays). not only will the gifts be well received and mucho appreciatedo but the warmth in your heart will radiate you for the rest of yr life, if not thru the end of the year. and for those of us who have more checks in the Naughty column than in the Nice one, its good to try to even the score. likewise i will hug all the ladies of the GTA as i can – in your name of course.
Andrea Wow, fancy. Wha’ts your favorite holiday tradition?
My favorite is the part where i leave the warmth and comforts of sunny california and jet off to the midwest followed by the Great White North. its like the opposite of when the canadians go to Cuba for Christmas. i also like that i never prepare properly. currently i dont have a good snow coat with me or anything for my feet other than sneakers. of course in my Hollywood bachelor pad closet i have snowgear that could withstand 0 degree Soldier Field monday night football, as well as hiking boots.
Mike: Are you as mad as everyone else Haloscan was bought out and now charging?
I am a capitalist. the busblog has enjoyed a fair share of socialism thru donations, but it has also done quite well straight up selling crap. ive sold my afro, ive sold books, i even sold my soul (but in fairness it was for rock n roll – still waiting on that). so i have no problems with people selling their company to another or omg charging money for useful products. in the past ive given Haloscan money each and every time that they asked because as Jamie so eloquently wrote “sometimes the comments are the best part”. haloscan comments were a centerpiece of this blog for a very long time and when JS-Kit said “pay up and upgrade within 7 days or lose your archived comments forever (unless you download em and do something with them)”, i handed over the $10 and expected $10 worth of upgrades, for you, the children of the world. i dont believe ive received my moneys worth, yet. but Santa brought puppies, so who am i to whine?
monkey: change (not the money kind) – love it or hate it?
i love change when it means that girls i have the hots for suddenly become single (looking at you Toronto), love change when it means my Cubbies have signed free agents or traded for much needed bullpen help. dont love change when it means favorite stores and eateries have been replaced by chains or other businesses. also dont love change when it means open spaces have been built into frat houses or banks. if i had to pick between everything staying exactly the same or everything totally changing, id probably pick the staying of the same, even though i really dont like the state of todays music. but if lack of change meant we only let black men be president of the usa for the next 199 years thats something i could live with.
Matt Welch: Boo the new comments thingie! Also, why did the Cubs have to be so racist against Milton Bradley?
you know im more sensitive towards racism than anyone. but uncle milty was racist to himself. instead of paying that white 2nd basemen who hit 20 homers $5 million a year, Sam Zell gave $30 million (for 3 years) to Mr. Bradley instead. and what did Milton do in return? he acted a fool. almost to the levels of Lee Elia. so am i glad that the cubs got a crappy ass pitcher who they will probably put on waivers in exchange for Milton, who gets to enjoy the zenlike company of my favorite Japanese all star, Ichiro? no. i wish we could have traded him to the taliban for three goats and a rusty cage. but when i was doing some last minute christmas shopping i snickered when i saw that none of the 2010 Cubs calendars had Milton anywhere in em.
sometimes people dont know when they have a good thing going. sometimes people will come to your apartment and they’ll be all, you should paint. or you should move your fridge to your kitchen. or you should get a washer drier. or you should lose 20 pounds. sometimes folks dont realize that everything is just right, like in that three bears story, sometimes people are right when they say you should change stuff. like they’ll say maybe you should at least Try sushi before you say no to it. or they’ll say maybe you should graduate from making out with 19 yr olds. or maybe you shouldnt settle for riding the bus and only earning $35k a year. but haloscan comments were so simple and so good, i agree with you, they did not need to be evolved. if they wanted to improve them a tad by letting people log in via twitter or facebook, then fine. but the evolution shoulda ended there.
Ben: How are you liking the Echo comments system?
oh em gee.
Adriel: hmm…telling me i’m not a member of my own blog? oh well… what is your favorite christmas music? mine is emmy lou harris, vince guaraldi, and take 6.
when Napster first appeared i was really poor. i had just taken a job as a customer service dude for $12 an hour. i had also sold or given away all of my cds. and vinyl. i was on a mission from God – long story.
anyways when Napster happened i downloaded all of these Christmas songs. as many as i could. for some reason i was entranced with Christmas tunes. i compiled a cd of the best music and burned them on a disc. i created a cover and named it The Eazy-E Christmas Album. strangely people thought it really was the negro you love to hate singing chestnuts about deez nuts – and they didnt listen to it! instead it was Dean Martin, Springsteen, Sinatra, Run DMC, and the like.
needless to say, after a while i got really sick of Christmas music, and not every Christmas is wonderful when youre a bachelor. but im happy to say that this year, for some reason, was the first year that i really got heavily back into Christmas music. maybe its cuz im really happy this year, and im stoked to have my truest back in the USA and im stoked to be healthy and successful at work, etc. and i feel very fortunate that i work with cool people, have a great boss, and am able to take advantage of Amazon who this year had a wide variety of Christmas music available for $3 or less on certain days.
the music i liked the best this year came from Bing, Ella, Dean, as well as those canadian rockers who covered Do They Know its Christmas, Taylor Swift, and Mahalia Jackson.
speaking of Jacksons, i burned a cd this year of Weezer and the Jackson 5 doing Christmas tunes.
thats what we listened to when we opened gifts this year.
“What’s the longest four-letter word,” she asked me. “That’s how I feel about Brett Favre.” Later she screamed, “KILL HIM! BREAK HIS ARM!”
when Napster first appeared i was really poor. i had just taken a job as a customer service dude for $12 an hour. i had also sold or given away all of my cds. and vinyl. i was on a mission from God – long story.