dear this week

how you gonna beat last week?

last week started with da bears winning ugly on monday night football which lead to me buying drinks for so many people at the hot babe bar that i had a little hangover on tuesday

we wont talk about what happened last night

wednesday was sushi with sarah and ali followed by sonic youth and pavement on thursday with ali

friday was zz top and tom petty at the bowl with the truest followed by lady gaga and yoko ono on saturday

yes you heard me right, yoko and gaga and perry farrell with mike watt

and Joseph Gordon-Levitt from third rock with two angels

and the RZA from wu tang and kim and thurston from sonic youth and carrie fisher and vincent gallo and sean lennon who played guitar and bass and piano and drums so well we didnt at first think it was him. easily the most interesting show ive seen all year.

and then last night was Allen at karisas house with her oldest brother and his wife and many friends

and bbq and beer and stars on yr head

and giant pixie sticks and lies and booze

and hot dogs and burgers and polish food and 7-11 cheese

and little dogs who peaced out and semi ran away during all of it because she didnt get enough food.

this week you have a tough act to follow lets see what you can do

last night i got to meet and interview a big time huge movie star

at a famous hotel

i sat in one olde school leather chair and he sat in one.

earlier his people pretty much amplified the nervousness that i felt. they told me that if the questions were dumb he wouldnt respond well. hes no cheerleader. hes no ones monkey.

i had a cameraman with me and the lovely karisa said shed come and there they were.

of course when it came to show time they asked karisa to stay out of the room which was sad because she was relaxing me.

which is the crazy thing because one reason i like her and we get along so well is the same reason that i was in that room about to interview a guy who has grossed between 2-3 billion dollars in the box office: because i like to be nervous.

i like it because i never am nervous. sometimes at work the fit will hit the shan and my body just goes into this weird overdrive and the world slows down so i can catch up to it. it only lasts for a little while so you have to put out the fires quickly but for that brief moment when pressure hits me, usually a forcefield of Cool envelops me and im good.

the other day when i had to lead that panel discussion at that wine bar in venice in front of many of our advertisers that forcefield didnt arrive until minutes before showtime. but last night, even though i just wanted and needed 5 minutes to collect my thoughts, organize my questions, and say a little prayer, i was overwhelmed by handlers, assistants, and weirdo party goers.

only for one minute before the actual interview did i have time to say to myself some encouraging words of hope. in this case it was youre just two bald guys talking.

and then bruce willis came into the room, shook my hand, sat down, and i earned my money.

stay tuned to see the entire interview on video. dare i say it couldnt have gone smoother.

Update: heres the video!

karisa at the roosevelt

rage was incredible

they know know peers. everyone has gotten old, theyve stayed intense

we were in the pit. the whole time. my arms are stinging from peoples’ plastic wrist bands scratching me all night due to the slamming and pushing and sweating

oh and the sweating. my matthew good shirt was drenched as we left the place. it was so nice walking around hollywood in no shirt and an equally sweaty karisa next to me who couldnt revel in the freedom i was enjoying.

the place was such a sausage fest that they turned one of the ladies rooms into a mens room. it was so latin that when the opener openers, a mexican band played, everyone cheered.

it was such a great rock show that as everyone was exiting they all cheered some more. rage pumps you full of energy an they havent lost a step since they first kicked their way onto the scene some 17(!) years ago.

remembering the decade gone past

– meeting karisa (march, 2000)

thank god this decade is ending so i can retire from telling this tale.

i was working at a dot com. my job was to hire people to do online customer support.

i had hired hundreds of people in a very short period of time. so many people that i had two very talented young women in my dept who worked for me.

because we were also hiring people in st louis and elsewhere i was training the women to do the hiring. at some point they were doing the testing and interviewing and i would do the final interview and typically id hire whoever they had recommended. rarely would i overrule them. actually i dont think i ever did.

one day karisa came in.

after she took the tests and everything she ended up having to interview with me.

the eyes are what get you so i looked away. i focused on her resume. i tried to avoid eye contact because i didnt want to hire her just because she was pretty or had a cute accent. so i talked to the paper a lot, but couldnt help noticing her boots. she had these doc marten boots.

eventually it was over and karisa went home and i told the two girls, i dont care who you hire out of that bunch but make sure you get her.

a week later on a monday i did the orientation training with all the new hires and i noticed karisa wasnt in the group. i asked the girls what happened and they said she said no to the job offer.

i was all, ladies, she knew the salary before she came in, she saw this amazing bank that we transformed into a call center. she met you, she met me, she doesnt get to say no. and they were all, fine, then you get her to come back here and say yes.

so i got on the phone and i called her and karisa told me that she was making more money at a company off pch. i said, but why did you come in here if that was the case? and she said, well i really dont like working for that place. and i said, i promise you you will like working here, with us.

and she quit and started working for us.

for less money.

karisa.

throughout the decade we ended up doing one or two interesting things.

fine, just one.

but we’ll get to that next time.

maybe one reason i enjoyed the 00s was because for a lot of it, i got to know karisa better than almost anybody.

and maybe one reason why we’re still friends is cuz i wrote very little of it down.

im hungover, america

karisa loves kathy griffin – who knew? last week she was all, are you gonna be in town thanksgiving weekend? i was all yup. she was like would you go see kathy griffen with me thanksgiving saturday?

turned out the d-lister had a friday and saturday show at the Gibson (formerly the Universal Amphitheatre) so i got to try out my theory that any time there are multiple dates at one location people literally give away their extra tickets for the second show.

karisa wasnt so sure about this theory and insisted that we show up at City Walk early. we get there and theres a long line. ruh-row. i asked the dude in the yellow jacket what the line was for, if it was to buy tickets. he said nope, that huge line is to redeem vouchers for free tickets, then he pointed to the empty line to buy tickets. karisa asked him where do you get the free tickets? he said he didnt know.

so we walked around City Walk to see if someone was passing out free tickets. no such person. so we split up and i went back to the long line to see what i could see. one guy offered me pit tickets for $50 each. hmmmm. no thanks. then this lady overheard me asking other people if they had extras. she had a little girl with her. translating.

thurdy dollares each, she said. i looked at the tickets to see if they were for the right date. what does COMP mean? i asked the lady and the little girl.

twenty dollares each. the lady said. twenty the little girl said. nice translating.

how about 20 for both, i said. total. the lady scrunched her face. as i was leaving she said ok ok. and i gave her the money and we then ate sushi at what was advertised as the best sushi place in LA. ha.

kathy was funny as hell and we got a little tipsy and karisa was all lets try to meet her. so we went to the back stage door. they were letting people in. this one guy was waving people through. so i joined that pack with karisa behind me. one guy with a clipboard said “hes not with our group. AND NEITHER IS SHE!” but rule number 1 of sneak club is ignore all haters.

we breezed through like it was a state dinner and drank some free drinks, met kathy, took some pics. afterwards karisa tried to hotwire a tour tram. and i left my cell phone in her car. of course.

i dont think youre ready for this belly

tony pierce belly cubs hatgonna try to blog without saying omg everythign was so awesome omg my life is so great.

going on the ninth year of writing the busblog and the question today is what new ways can i talk about my days, which are all awesome, duh. even the sad parts are interesting.

funny thing happened the other day. truest was over so i wanted to impress her with my PS3-playing skillz.

i was all, “ok i can only play this game for 10 minutes because i get super nauseous”. it was an off road racing game, and i was kicking major bootay and i swear to you i was sick in the head and the stomach for a good two hours.

maybe a bad two hours is how i should say it.

yesterday karisa took me on a bday hike. we hadnt hiked for half a year. im not the best person for an experienced hiker to hike with because a) i dont like to share my 40’s, b) i like to flash my big belly at the paps (pictured, right) c) im in no damn rush and like to enjoy the views d) i have LOTS of toxins, and when they get sweated out, even the flies are all what the heck!

anyways we went up temscula canyon which is in between brentwood (where OJ used to live) and pacific palisades (where he used to golf). it was a beautiful day. 80 degrees maybe? not a cloud in the sky. and apparently because ive been running twice a week i didnt suck so bad on this hike. in fact it was a pleasure from top to bottom.

afterward we ate monkfish at the Reel Inn. karisa says that monkfish is “the poor mans lobstah” and i gotta say it does have that sort of texture. quite good.

then i went home, read the bible, got in a very short cleaning groove, and read more of the bible.

somewhere in there i started watching this black real world thing called “College Hill” on BET. very funny. no Tool Academy, but really good. people are crazy, yo.

speaking of crazy, this week is gonna be nuts.

this week i have tickets to Regina Spektor, a discussion with R. Crumb, and a Halloween costume party with Danielle K. with musical guests Sea Wolf. then somewhere in there will be a birthday party for a good man.

and somewhere in there will be me considering putting my PS3 and half dozen games up for auction because theres enough things in real life that make my stomach turn for the worse, i really dont need that in my friendly confines.

bababooey to you all

karisa invited me to go to the fantasy factory

taylor swift at whole foodson friday and it was sponsored by Monster energy and it was the x games post party

so i said fine.

then i thought better for it all.

she told me she had two single gfs who loved the books i had written. turned out karisa has them laying around her home. not the girls, the books.

but the problem was they were both asian. now i like asian girls as much as the next guy, maybe more. but the last two girls i was serious about (or leaning on being serious) were both korean. which is asian. and both of those deals went horribly wrong.

i am still probably a little scarred.

and scurred.

so i didnt go. instead i hung around the rooftop hot tub of my bud and stared off into the deepest darkest night.

just then a little voice whispered in my beer. or ear. or bear.

“your man bruce springsteen is playing in your old home town on your mamas birthday.”

sweet home chicago?

“yes! and you should go.”

but my momma doesnt love bruuuuuuce

“yes but that minnesota girl does. and best of all, she now lives an hour away from chicago.”

the little voice was not only all-knowing, but super chatty. wth!

still i was undecided.

“bruce is playing Born to Run in its entirety on that night. take the poor girl. and lose some weight.”

and after an email, i had a date.

two conversations with karisa about alan iverson

on gchat

November 3, 2008

10:58 AM me: AI traded!

10:59 AM Karisa: if only i cared about basketball… 😉

me: yeah but i thought that was your man!

Karisa: alan iverson? no

me: im so confused

Karisa: i’ve never cared about him

me: why did i think you loved him?

Karisa: no idea

11:03 AM me: AHAHAHAHA. this is exactly the same convo we had almost 2 years ago

11:04 AM Karisa: did you google it?

me: i deeeeeeeed omg i have to post this on the busblog

11:05 AM Karisa: so i said i didn’t care about him?

me: ahah yep

Karisa: ahahahah! that is pretty funny

December 19, 2006

8:30 PM me: did you hear your boy AI is going to denver?

8:31 PM Karisa: al?

me: allen iverson

Karisa: i don’t really give a crap about basketball, tbh

me: i thought you loved hijm!

Karisa: ? since?

me: PeopleSupport days!

Karisa: no. i remember having a conversation with you about watching him when i was a big college bball fan in h.s.
but not since then. not necessarily a fan
the only bball player i ever liked really was reggie miller. i have no idea why
and of course the celtics in the mid-80’s 😉

me: wow i must have been wasted that day cuz i thought you loved him

Karisa: you must have

me: although now reggie miller is ringing a bell

Karisa: nope

8:35 PM me: youre gonna hate your christmas gift then

Karisa: haha 😉 what should i get my bf for xmas?

me: a blonde and a redhead of course

more proof how horrible my memory is. something that any of my close friends know, even those who i talk with almost every day.