September 2004

Take a look at this site. Powerful.

Be well, everyone.

This is a first for me, I have to say. Here it is early evening on the day that both the NFL football season and the new Joey show start and I have nothing to say. I am not feeling particularly creative today or for the last day or so. It’s odd, really, usually can’t help myself. I just don’t shut up.

One thing I really like is discussion. Especially with people who can have an intelligent one. Many of my friends are capable. Some, sadly, are not. I don’t judge them or think badly of them that’s just how they are. Our group is chock full of brains and opinions for the most part, though. Or, at least opinions. Sometimes, they are even informed opinions. Sometimes, not so much.

Whatever the origin or basis in fact (if any), my friends are perfectly capable of arguing their points well past the time it takes for your average iced grande soy two-pump mocha. But, I just gotta love ’em anyway. They keep slugging away. Nothing like passion.

It’s probably because a vast majority of my friends work in the entertainment industry and are all pretty darn creative. They also like attention and to hear themselves talk so that plays into it as well. Either way, it makes for some entertaining afternoons at the local (the local Starbucks I mean. We really don’t go to the pub much, sadly).

What does all this mean in a world where we are at war and terrorists kill children at a school and husbands murder their wives and children go to bed hungry or where people live in the streets without medical care or shelter and a giant corporate culture takes more and more and gives less and less?

I don’t know, I was just trying not to be so dark today. Almost there too. Crap.

Later.

As usual, I forgot some things during my rant from last night. President Bill Clinton’s surgery went well and he is recovering nicely. Good luck Bill. I wish you well.

Also, the Genesis Spacecraft has returned to earth. Sadly, it crashed and did not get snatched out of the air as they were hoping to do. I wonder what info it will give us? We will see.

Later.

However you slice it, I have returned. Back from the wild that is the hometown of Encinitas, CA. It’s a great place and a great place to have grown up (as much as I did grow up). It has all the small town charm combined with great weather and pristine beaches. All in all, one of the best.

Although I have not officially lived in Encinitas since 1989, I still have a soft spot for the little beach town where I first learned to swim in the ocean, kiss a girl, drink a beer, smoke a joint, drive a car and get in a fight. Not necessarily in that order or all at the same time, however. I’m sure we all think back fondly on the places where we learned the important early lessons of life like don’t try to mix rum, beer and tequila or that those street vendors selling hot dogs on Aveneda De La Revolution in downtown Tijuana are to be avoided at all costs.

The proximity of Encinitas to Mexico (only about on hour drive) was another reason it was such as great place to grow up. When you are only eighteen or nineteen and want to go to a bar, you need to head south of the border. I still remember a little place called The Long Bar where you could get a 24 oz giant Corona for only a buck. Such a deal.

That’s not to say that all we did was drink. Although, it did occupy much of our weekends. Every weekend it seemed that we would pile into the car looking for that elusive party with three kegs and two bands on streets with named like Alga or Mozart. Once in awhile, we actually found it too. And a few times, we threw one ourselves. We even made a few bucks in the process.

As we could not actually sell beer, we gave the beer away for free and charged five bucks for a plastic cup to put it in. Capitalism at its best. How come none of us have ever gone into politics I wonder? Those juvenile records are sealed after all.

I could go on as I am feeling particularly nostalgic of late. I like to remember the times when everything seemed possible and we had all the time in the world. When it seemed summer lasted forever, even if it was only three months. A good time was had by all.

In other news, we reached a milestone in the War. Our 1000th U.S. casualty. I find it a little odd that we refer to the people who did this as “insurgents”. After all, they live there, we don’t. If you think about it, are we really the “insurgents”? Dictionary.com defines “Insurgent” as:

in·sur·gent     P   Pronunciation Key  (n-sûrjnt)
adj.
1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.

Mmm. I guess we are the established authority now (Sorry, I mean the Government of Iraq is) so the people that do the attacking are the insurgents. Although, when we first went to war, we were in revolt against the established authority, or at least helping the process along by destroying the established authority, so I am still confused. Oh well, I don’t really have to understand it do I? After all, I voted for the other guy.

Please don’t send email or post comments about how I don’t support our troops or that I hate America or that I love Saddam Hussein. That’s bullshit. He was an evil man who tortured and killed thousands. He deserves the same in return. And, I fully support our troops who go out and do their jobs under extreme conditions. Willing to fight and die as ordered. They are to be commended. I don’t think I would want to be there. I’m sure our President and VP sure would not want to be there. They did everything to avoid it, didn’t they?

To be honest, when I first saw evidence presented that Saddam had WMD’s and that he had a clear link to Al Queda I didn’t have a problem with us going over there and taking care of business. Now that we know that their were no WMD’s or any link to Al Queda and that it was all a “mistake”, I feel like we were duped. I’m just disappointed that they had to drag Colin Powell out to paint the picture. I’m sure he feels bad about it. At least I hope he does.

Maybe its because I don’t like President Bush or the VP or Rumsfeld or any of those other people. I just don’t feel like they are honest people and I don’t feel like we went to war for the right reason. I do think we need to finish the job and move on. As soon as possible. I don’t want to see us with a permanent base in Iraq. I don’t think that will go very far towards President Bush’s plan of “peace in the greater Middle East”. Or any peace for that matter.

At some point Iraq will have to be able to govern itself and we will need to get the hell out. No other countries in the “Greater Middle East”, at least the Arab ones, are going to give us the time of day until that happens. Luckily, their aren’t too many of those. Or, could I be mistaken? I wonder?

Lastly, I would like to suggest something radical. Or a couple things. What the hell? Here goes. What if we gave the Palestinians their own country? We did it for Israel, why not Palestine? Give it a minute.

Also, I think its time for Russia to let Chechnya go. Give it up already. I know that may seem like giving in to terrorism or whatever but someone, somewhere has finally got to say “enough of this bullshit” and make the first step. Life is full of compromises, get used to it.

Try doing something for the greater good for a change. You might like it and it might just work. Ok, sermon and lecture over. I am officially off the soapbox. We now return you to our program of dance music.

I promise, more upbeat posts about butterflies and puppies soon. I’m not dark, dammit. It just turns out that way.

Later.

Happy LD everyone. I for one will not be laboring at all on this day. I think I will spend my time deciding between beer, wine or rum. Well, I guess that could be considered work too.

Have a good one.

Later.

I had several what I like to call “LA moments” lately. First, I was almost killed be not one, not two but three different drivers. It seems that when people move to Los Angeles, they either forget how to drive or perhaps they just never knew how in the first place.

In all fairness, LA is not the easiest place to drive in. We have some of the worst traffic and some of the worst drivers anywhere. I have driven in many major cities that claim to have bad traffic like Seattle, New York or even Tijuana but LA really has the worst.

Also, many people are moving here ever day chasing their dreams of stardom or whatever and they often bring cars with them or end up buying one quickly so that adds to the traffic. Also, if they have come from New York or something and never drove there, they are definitely not used to driving here. So, that makes it even worse.

My other “LA moments” were in the form of celeb sightings. If you live here long enough, you will see famous people. They live and work here so you really can’t avoid them. I usually see them in one of three places: Starbucks (or Coffee Bean), Whole Foods Market (celebs like their organic stuff) or in traffic, stopped at a stoplight or something.

If you spend as much time at Starbucks as I do, you will see famous people. They have hectic lives and as such, need caffeine as much, or more, than I do. In the last week or so, I saw several famous people including Ben Affleck (who I seem to run into quite a bit. He may be stalking me) Slash from “Guns and Roses” and now “Velvet Revolver”, Michael Richards (Kramer from “Seinfeld”), Gary Oldman (a bunch of stuff you’ve seen), Tim Allen (from “Home Improvement”) and the guy who did the voice of “Roger Rabbit” in the movie, Charles Fleisher.

That’s not all but that’s the ones I remember right now. If you see famous people all the time you start not to notice them as much. Really, they are just like everyone else you know, only shorter with bigger heads.

If you do come to LA, here are a few places you can go to see famous people and also interesting stuff. We actually have culture here, so be sure to visit The Getty Museum. Also, got to Whole Foods Market in Santa Monica, Brentwood or on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. Also, try Starbucks in Studio City at Laurel Canyon and Vantage, Starbucks atop Beverly Glen in the Hollywood Hills or Coffee Bean on Sunset Blvd. next to Mel’s Diner.

Also, you can try other clubs and bars on Sunset Blvd. like Bar Marmont, right next to The Chateau Marmont Hotel . Also, the Skybar at the Mondrian Hotel is another celeb spot. However, its not easy to get into the Skybar so stay at the hotel or know someone at the door.

Ok, that’s enough of that for now. I don’t want these posts to get so big that people get bored and stop reading. Plus, there are so many things that are great about LA that I couldn’t possible cover it all here. I will try though and will do this at least once a week. It will be a nice break from the rants and raves.

Besides, some of you may travel to LA someday and will want to know where to go and what to do. I’ll help if I can. As long as you promise not to stay too long. We have enough people here already.

Later.