the palm trees have no expectations.

they just stand there proudly and glorious, varied and tropical.

they dont yearn to be oaks or miss their childhoods.

they dont whine to be transplanted or bitch when theyre trimmed.

parrots nest in their holey bits, ants march up their lower parts,
squirrels scamper, dogs piss,
tourists lean,
but theyre not mean.

o palm trees of foreign lands
watching patiently above the rock bands
who play on balconies next to the sea
o palm trees please talk to me

tony

palm tree!

youre nuts

palm tree!!

you need some rest

omg!

palm tree of the desert, palm tree of my dreams
palm tree of the summertime, palm tree of the forced rhyme

butterflies adore ye
so ignore the jealousy
of the maplewood, and the evergreen
and the wipporwill and the lesser trees.

but where are your coconuts
or bananas, where are your fruit cups
or fandangos
where is your toy suprise
wheres your blue eyes
wheres your hanging branch
for our tire ride?

oh palm trees of my day dreams
swaying gracefully in the heavy rains
never shiverring, always solid gold
soon you’ll make the
best
telephone pole

– busblog, 2/4/05

top of the ticket makes editor and publisher

the times’ oldest and most popular bloggers get some love in one of the best newspaper-centric blogs out there. today it’s about how they will cover the conventions.

This time around, newspapers plan to cover the conventions in ways that seemed unimaginable eight years ago. The most obvious sign of change is the number of papers that have embraced — and now emphasize — blogging. Doyle McManus, Washington Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times, says, “I think that four years ago, newspapers were very tentative and uncertain as to whether blogging was something we ought to do at all.”

Now, McManus is a believer. Two of the most popular newspaper political blogs in the country come from Tribune newspapers: the Chicago Tribune’s “The Swamp” and the L.A. Times’ “Top of the Ticket” blog, which McManus says has been the paper’s “most successful blog all year, even more than the [Los Angeles] Lakers blog.”

The men behind “Top of the Ticket” are veteran Times reporters Andrew Malcolm and Don Frederick. The idea, as presented to senior editors in the early spring of ’07, Malcolm explains, “was to have a virtually ’round-the-clock blog with one man in D.C. and one in L.A. writing on a wide-ranging array of unpredictable subjects … to explain the political process in an unpredictable way, with some attitude.” According to Malcolm’s numbers, “Top of the Ticket” attracted 2.68 million views in May 2008 alone.

So what do Frederick, Malcolm, and their editors have on tap for the conventions? Videos, live chats, interviews with leaders and celebrities, “anything we can think of,” says Malcolm. The paper will also have a full-time videographer on hand and likely will contribute to Tribune’s television coverage. Malcolm will cover the GOP confab in St. Paul, while Frederick will head to Denver.

Malcolm’s agenda is typical of the methods other reporters will employ to help bolster their papers’ coverage. “We will be somewhat more focused on covering the conventions on the Web,” says Richard Stevenson, political editor for The New York Times. “Having a real-time update system will allow us to cover other aspects of the convention, rather than taking that single snapshot for the daily paper.”

top of the ticket is currently 94 with a bullet on technorati.

did a post last night on the olympics blog called

“how is it live if it’s been blogged?”

i sorta love it.

mostly because i saw it happen the other night during the men’s swimming, and then yesterday morning i didnt see it happen again, but then last night during the women’s gymnastics NBC totally did it again: they put the “LIVE” bug on the screen out here on the west coast when it was clearly a tape delayed event.

click here
for the post/column/outrage. i just dont get it.

been working hard on our Olympic Blog

which i gotta say rules infinity.

your Vancouver brethren mr. kris krug is in beijing snapping photos, eating frog guts, and breaking hearts with our man robert scales of rain city studios (who has been in china for the last year).

caught kris on Facebook chat and asked pretty please if we could use some of his pics for the blawwwwg and he said sure thing bro.

and i gotta say, i had no idea it would turn out this good. but thats what you get when canada and america work together. as the d would say “thats bleepin teamwork!”

isaac hayes aka chef is dead

long live shaft

“The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill today.” – AP

proof that exercise will kill y– shut yr mouth– im only talkin about

ironically my favorite song of his is Chocolate Salty Balls from South Park. ironic because of its last line.

karisa just did a mini triathalon

and wants more – an exclusive interview

me: still alive?

Karisa: i am!!!

me: good! congrats!

Karisa: thanks! 🙂 it was really hard
the ocean was awful. i got stuck in it for awhile
they had to pull a lot of people out! but i made it in
had a really good bike, slow run though
but it was great practice for the la tri!
i am tired though! woke up at like 3:30a.m.

me: i was just going to bed then!

Karisa: as people should at that time. people should not get up then!

me: what were the lengths of this mini tri?

Karisa: 1/4 mi swim, 20mi bike, 3.1 mi run

me: amazing

Karisa: haha- not really. eye opening though
my poor friend kim got a flat tire!

me: that’ll teach her for being poor! only the rich should tri

Karisa: ha ha 😉 i can’t wait to do another one so i know what to do correctly

me: ok im bloigging this cuz youre obvs delirous

Karisa: hahah- huh? why so? the la tri is LONGER
that is going to be nutso: 1mi swim, 22mi bike, 6.2 mi run
i hav e alot of work to do! i can do much better than what i did today
i ate/drank too much and got too nauseous for the run
have to balance that out better
it was funny- they wrote our age on our leg for some reason for the race
so you could see how old the people you passed/passed you were

me: wtf!? just to rub it in?

Karisa: haha- i know!
well- it was to make sure you were in the right ‘wave’
we went out in waves. i was wave 7. i passed a 77 year old dude though!!!
which is so great! can you imagine? 77!!!he was so rad

me: damn gramps!

im bummed the bears couldnt get brett favre

but of course they couldnt.

im bummed the cubs werent able to play yesterday cuz they woulda won.
im bummed i wasnt able to go to the fancy hollywood party, but i had to work.
but at least it was interesting work and part of it involved writing on our olympic blog.
im bummed the cougar doesnt understand the difference between dating and being married
im also bummed she cut her hair because for some ridiculous reason it looks hot that way
im bummed its friday already cuz i want to go to vegas and im not really ready
im bummed big brother is poop this summer
im bummed the new randy newman record seems like a sleepwalk
im bummed i get so tired so quickly nowadays because it makes me feel olde
im bummed its 100 degrees in vegas this weekend cuz thats sorta hot even for me
im bummed im not in first place in any of my fantasy leagues
im bummed i dont feel like doing a pineapple express review for you (go see it now)
im bummed your summer intern isnt as great as ours. look at this story bro wrote yesterday
im bummed artie is in rehab cuz that means he hit rock bottom while on vacation
im bummed i havent gotten my bike fixed yet
im bummed i might not be able to go to vegas cuz what if i hafta work this weekend
im bummed theres not a hot tub in this mansion
im bummed the latest teen doesnt have esp so she could drive over with some ice cream
im bummed that i have actually very little to be bummed about because that means that very little in here was true.

photo by tama leaver via flickr

ladies and gentlemen, the LA Times has its first Technorati Top 100 blog

out of 125 million blogs, our very own Top of the Ticket has broken into the highly competitive Technorati Top 100! Not that long ago there weren’t any LA Times blogs even in the Top 2000, but because of the hard work of the bloggers, their editors and copy editors, they were able to take that blog straight up to the top.

congratulations Andy, Don, Scott, Diana, Meredith and everyone else who was involved in this huge accomplishment!