Awe
This is my brother and sister-in-law, and I "live blogged" this photo and the ones below it from the Gypsy Den tonight. The guys were totally fantastic as they played Beatles tunes to a standing-room only crowd. I need to sleep, but tomorrow I'll share more pictures, taken with a real camera, not a phone.
Calabasas Represents
Roger sings Norwegian Wood, Chris represents CHS and plays percussion.
Opposite Day
Yes, all of a sudden, Kurtis is on drums and Roger's on guitar. Next, they'll be playing Calvinball.
Desmond's Babe
Molly, showing her dad how it's done.
CR
Chico, Roger (right, left)
KJMB
Kurtis, Joe, Mark Barry (right to left)
Arrowhead, the Bottle not Lake
This was a test... THAT WORKED! I just set up mobile blogging on my phone. I'm going to be going out later tonight and will do some live remote blogging from
the Gypsy Den. They're closing the restaurant for a private party tonight, celebrating their 12-year anniversary with
Trainwreck Theatre playing Beatles' music. Normally, this concert is in the summer up at Lake Arrowhead, thus the attached photo. So watch for some live shots later tonight. I wonder if I can send sound bites?
SURPRISE!
Oh, now here's a big surprise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Friday that taxing enormous oil industry profits is not the way to calm Americans' anxieties about pain at the gas pump, and that his "inclination and instincts" are that major oil companies are not intentionally overcharging drivers.
The rest is here:
Bush rejects calls for tax on oil profits .
Hypocricy at its Finest
"The FDA says there's no -- zilch, zero, nada -- shred of medicinal value to the evil weed marijuana. This is going to be a setback to the long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking crowd."-- Rush Limbaugh
Guess what? Rush got arrested again today for drugs! I can't wait for him to find a way to blame this on Hillary Clinton. And do you think he'll offer the long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking crowd an apology? Nah, I don't, either.
You can read all the sordid details about this jackass here.
Shameless Promotion of Friends
Thank (insert your favorite diety here) it's Friday. Before the weekend gets going, I have two separate announcements for friends of mine. First, if you live in any of the following cities, check out the super-talented
JOHN HOSKINSON playing solo acoustic shows in a city near you, especially if you live in Chicago or Europe. Tell him LA sent you, actually, you'll need to tell him Lani sent you because he doesn't know me as LA. Buy his album,
Miscellaneous Heathen, you will love it.
Here's the schedule:
May 04, 2006, 8:00 pm - Uncommon Ground - Chicago, IL
May 05, 2006, 2:00 pm - WLUW-FM - Chicago, IL
May 05, 2006, 8:00 pm - Gunther Murphy's - Chicago, IL
May 12, 2006, 8:30 pm - The Caernarvon Castle - London, England
May 15, 2006, 8:00 pm - Live Music Lounge - Berlin, Germany
May 16, 2006, 8:00 pm - Gallery Wallywoods - Berlin, Germany
May 19, 2006, 8:00 pm - Small Music Theatre - Athens, Greece
May 20, 2006, 8:00 pm - The Angry Portrait - Ioannina, Greece
May 23, 2006, 7:00 pm - FNAC (in-store)- Athens, Greece
May 24, 2006, 8:00 pm - The Cavern Pub - Liverpool, England
May 25, 2006, 7:00 pm - The Cavern - Liverpool, England
May 27, 2006, 8:20 pm - Night & Day Café - Manchester, England
Jun 10, 2006, 5:00 pm - Victoria Gardens - Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Secondly, check out
Michael Miller on the season finale episode of The Gilmore Girls (WTF, Michael?) on Thursday, May 9, 8 pm on the WB. He'll be playing his song, Mary, and can be seen in the "troubador" scenes. Check out his album
When We Come To, it's great.
Okay, I have to start baking. Tonight is "knit 'til you drop," and everyone is required to bring provisions. I'm making banana cupcakes.
JOTW
Thanks for the photo goes to
Jake Watch, my favorite new irreverent website.
I love it when Jake is goofy!
What is he doing? Singing karaoke? It appears so.
Oakland - The Good
This past weekend I went to the
The Knit and Crochet Show in Oakland. This was one of those group trips where a bunch of us from my stitch and bitch group go to buy and sell yarn. It's nothing short of a total fiber orgy.
This was a very comfortable, medium-sized show. I was working a booth, and it was an easy, steady crowd of friendly and enthusiastic knitters and crocheters (aka hookers). One thing about knitters is they are nice.
Really nice. And it's always a pleasure to talk to them, see what they are working on, exchange ideas, and share the craft with them.
Another set of people I met in Oakland were public transportation workers. This guy pictured here was a real character. I was taking my walk, looking for things to shoot (with the camera), and this guy came out of his bus and asked, "don't you want to take
my picture?" I told him I absolutely wanted to photograph him, and as you can see, he willingly obliged, posing like a true professional.
One of his colleagues from another bus was nearby (apparently, I had chosen "bus driver park" in which to walk), but when I turned the camera on him, the man literally ran and hid behind a tree, begging me not to take his picture.
Of course, like most people, one of my favorite things to do in a new city, or even an old one, is eat. One night, a big group of us went to
Caffe Verbena, right across the street from the hotel. It was delicious, and I dined on (get this) pan-fried emerald gnocchi with
peas several ways and mint pistou. They literally served peas several ways - in pods, shelled, and pea shoots. Each had its own sauce, and they were all delicious. I'd never had gnocchi (a favorite of mine) pan-fried before, but I recommend it. One side was crispy, and the other side was the usual consistency. Everything on the plate was green, from the gnocchi (in spinach pasta), the peas, the mint pistou, and the pesto the shelled peas were served in.
Also green is this fantastic deco building, the former home of I. Magnin (click it to see the fantastic detail). It was a few blocks from the hotel, not too far from the Paramount Theater, also pictured. I discovered that Oakland has a handful of totally gorgeous deco buildings, I style I love, but I didn't get the chance to shoot them all because I was on my way to dinner with a dear, old family friend, and we were very hungry. She took me to a wonderful neighborhood right above Lake Merritt (five stars), just below Piedmont, and we dined at the
Grand Oaks Restaurant, where I had prawns in angel hair. I believe it was here that I lost my sunglasses, but so far, my phone messages have remained unreturned, so perhaps not. The important thing to note is that I loved this particular neighborhood. It's one I could re-explore in the future. Just sayin'.
Another Lake Merritt hot spot for the children is
Fairyland. Yes, that's right, you heard me. Fairyland. You actually can't enter Fairyland unless you have a child with you. I hadn't met the screaming kid on the airplane yet, so unfortunately, I was forced to skip this attraction.
After dinner, we had coffee over in Jack London square which has become a pedestrian area not unlike The Grove in Los Angeles. The coffee house was very, very urban, and I wasn't 100 percent certain the woman I was with, who is my parents age, would be comfortable there, but she totally was. It was really cool that she was, and we talked about old times with our families.
All in all, it was a great trip. In the next post, I write about my little run of bad luck and the subsequent hissy fit I threw upon returning home, but I'm past that now, and cooler heads (mine) are prevailing. But don't expect my disposition to remain serene and placid for long. I'm going to Las Vegas in two weeks, my least favorite city ever, and I'm sure to bitch and complain heartily about it. In the meantime, I will focus on the charm and character I discovered in Oakland. It's there, you just have to be open to seeing it.
Oakland - The Bad
When I returned home from Oakland on Sunday, I was in a foul mood and wrote some cryptic line stating it was a "simultaneously good and bad" trip. Since then, I've failed to write another word about it, and I feel kind of guilty now, because in doing so, I've possibly over-dramatized the bad. Let's chalk "the bad" up to a series of unhappy coincidences that were sheer bad luck combined with an uber-case of PMS and call it a day.
So what exactly was the bad? In a matter of a couple of days, the following shit went down:
1) I managed to lose not one but
two pairs of prescription glasses (one set of sunglasses and one pair of regular specs).
2) My 10-day-young cell phone stopped working. Dead. Pissed. Me. Off.
3) On the flight home, and this always happens to me, I was seated directly in front of a
screaming terror of a child being held by a young and ineffectual parent. Not only were his blood-curdling screams piercing my ears, but his angry kicks were pummeling my mid-thoracic and lower lumbar areas.
Add those three items to the fact I was PMSing, and you can see why I was so grouchy.
But then I saw Sedaris and felt better.
Then, one of my friends on the trip emailed me to let me know one pair of glasses was found and would be returned to me Monday.
Then I went to Cingular where they replaced my phone.
And I appear to have suffered no permanent damage from the kid screaming in my ear, although I'm reasonably certain that nobody on that flight had sex later that night because that child was an effective birth control method as any.
So those three items darkened the mood of an otherwise perfectly lovely trip, and I admit that I'm just a hormonal bitch.
These four pictures were taken from my room on the 15th floor at the Oakland Marriott City Center. On the left-hand side of each picture, you can see a BART station on either side of the street.
Oakland - The Ugly
Oakland, California.
The city across the bay from one of the most naturally beautiful cities on earth, San Francisco. The city with the bad self-esteem problem. The city of crime. The gray city of the silver and black. The city with union woes. The city of apathy. The homeless city. The city most sorely in need of a good publicist.
Let's face it. Oakland has had a long-standing bad rap
and bad rep.
I hadn't visited Oakland for many years. As a young girl, I lived in a nice, middle-class Oakland suburb. Before my parents were even married, my father owned a famous restaurant here. The restaurant is now gone, and so is my father.
So as I do most places, I stole away with my camera and shot some street scenes. Overall, Oakland is in the process of a long, slow gentrification. It's improving, but I didn't have to venture more than a couple blocks from my hotel to find evidence of urban decay and apathy. What's sad is that these pictures were taken across the street from a nice park. The area is urban, but not menacing, and I had not the least trepidation about walking this area alone.
Yet still, people throw their rejected furniture and other household items on the sidewalks, propped up against chain-linked fences dividing city parking lots from walkways.
Oakland has definitely come a long way, but it's still a city in transition. There is still some way to go.
Just Say No to Tax Breaks for Oil Companies
Ouch. Last year's energy bill gave oil companies
$2.6 billion in tax breaks. Gas is over $3/gallon and climbing, and the oil companies are making record profits. Why are they are getting tax breaks? To break the backs of honest working Americans once and for all? Hello!
Here's a petition you can sign, courtesy of Senator Joe Biden, calling for the immediate repeal of those breaks. It's nonpartisan, all-American.
Sign the petition and pass it on to your friends.
(Thanks to
Mike.)
The Signs Are All Around You.
Oakland, CA
April 20, 2006
Sedaris
In the comments of my last post, Putas asked about David Sedaris. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Sedaris is a writer, a humorist, a satirist
par excellence. You might catch him on NPR or read him in the New Yorker, and if you're really lucky, you'll go see him read his work, take Q&A, and sign books, like I did last night at the Long Beach Terraces Theater. His delivery reminds me of Woody Allen except that Sedaris is Greek, not Jewish; from the South, not New York; and is gay, not married to his step-daughter. Other than that, they are exactly alike.
I found this from a bio online:
David Sedaris may well be the closest thing the literary world has these days to a rock star—his speaking engagements are now consistently standing-room-only, a far cry from his early days as a housecleaner in New York City. Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true experiences of his job as a Macy’s elf clad in green tights, reading his “SantaLand Diaries” on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. His sardonic wit and incisive social critique have since made him one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which Sedaris slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. David Sedaris supports an organization called
Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled. This is from their website: "...he delighted the audience by praising the organization and the monkeys: “
It makes you want to throw yourself in front of a bus just to get one.”
You can listen to some Sedaris samples
here.
The rest of this tour is sold out with the exception of a special charity event in Boston for Helping Hands, but you could probably check Craig's List, Ebay, or show up and try to get tickets if you are in any of these cities on these remaining dates.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX. 7:30 p.m. Presented by Arts & Letters Live, a literary and performing arts series at the Dallas Museum of Art. Tickets go on sale beginning December 16, 2005. For tickets call: 214-373-8000. Website: www.ticketmaster.com SOLD OUT
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. For tickets call: (310) 825-2101. Websites: www.performingarts.ucla.edu or www.ticketmaster.com/venue/90201 SOLD OUT
Thursday, April 27, 2006 - Van Duzer Theatre at Humboldt State, CA. For tickets call: (707) 826-3928. Website: www.humboldt.edu/centerarts SOLD OUT
Friday, April 28, 2006 - Marin Veteran’s Auditorium, San Rafael, CA. For tickets call: (415) 499-6800. Website: www.ticketmaster.com SOLD OUT
Saturday, April 29, 2006 - Sunset Center, Carmel, CA. For tickets call: (831) 620-2048. Website: www.sunsetcenter.org SOLD OUT
Sunday, April 30, 2006 - Flint Center, Cupertino, CA. For tickets call: (408) 864-8816. Website: www.ticketmaster.com SOLD OUT
Monday, May 1, 2006 - The Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver, CO. Series subscription tickets currently available by calling (303) 871-7720 or at the box office. Single tickets on sale in November by calling (303) 357-ARTS or online at www.ticketmaster.com. SOLD OUT
Tuesday, May 2, 2006 - Lillie & Roy Cullen Theater, Houston, TX. For tickets call: (713) 227-4772. Website: www.spahouston.org SOLD OUT
Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - Boston Symphony Hall, Boston, MA. Reception and Benefit for Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled. For event tickets call: (617) 482-6661 or online at www.celebrityseries.com. To reserve seats, or for tickets to both the reception and event call Anne Stein of Helping Hands at (617) 787-4419 or by e-mail at annes@monkeyhelpers.org
David will be touring the US again in October of 2006.
Weekend Wrap-Up
I'm home from my simultaneously good and bad weekend trip to Oakland. I'll elaborate tomorrow, but suffice it to say, I'm beat. I saw David Sedaris earlier this evening (only a few short hours after getting off the airplane), and please take my advice and go see him if he performs in your town. He is reading all new material, possibly some of his best ever; it's totally hysterical. If you go, you may notice the big signs warning you not to take pictures. Just ignore those signs.
Houses I Love
I'm going out of town later tonight and won't be back until Sunday night when I fly in and go almost immediately to see David Sedaris (and I cannot wait for that). So I leave you with some homes I love, the last two in particular. Have a good weekend, everyone!
Shake-Up in the Bush Administration
Oh,
this is interesting! That's two Press Secretaries Bush has been through now (remember Ari Fletcher?). Karl Rove "giving up" some of his responsiblities (read: power) is significant, without question. Expect caca to fly soon.
White House Shake-Up Extends to McClellan, Rove
By NEDRA PICKLER, AP
WASHINGTON (April 19) - White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove gave up some of his responsibilities and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation Wednesday, continuing a shake-up in President Bush's administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff.
Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet made the announcement.
Just over a year ago, Rove was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy coordination. That new portfolio came on top of his title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Bush.
But now, the job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan.
The move signals a broad effort to rearrange and reinvigorate Bush's staff by new chief of staff Joshua Bolten. Bolten moved into his position last week; Kaplan was his No. 2 person at the Office of Management and Budget.
At least for the time being, the promotion of Kaplan would leave Bush with three deputy chiefs of staff: Rove, Kaplan and Joe Hagin, who oversees administrative matters, intelligence and other national security issues.
Appearing with Bush on the South Lawn, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercely with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: "I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary."
Bush said McClellan had "a challenging assignment."
"I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity," the president said. "It's going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days."
McClellan is expected to remain in his job until a successor is named. Among those under consideration are Tony Snow, a former White House speechwriter under the first President Bush, former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Dan Senor, a former coalition spokesman after the invasion of Iraq, according to Republican officials.
McClellan was named press secretary in June 2003, not long after the United States invaded Iraq and had first been a deputy to Ari Fleischer in the job -- a White House position with daily public visibility rivaling virtually everyone there except the president.
After the announcement, Bush and McClellan walked across the lawn together and boarded Marine One, but a problem with the helicopter's radio kept it grounded. The president and his staff were forced to take a motorcade to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., where Bush boarded Air Force One for a flight to Alabama. McClellan and Rove rode in the president's limousine to the military base.
McClellan came back on the plane to the press cabin and shook hands all around. Someone said it was a sad moment, and McClellan replied, "It is sad on some level." He said he would accompany Bush on a trip to California this weekend and remain on the job for a couple more weeks.
4/19/2006 11:29:24
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
50 Worst-Ever Albums
Here are the top 50 worst-ever albums, according to Q Magazine. I know a lot of you saw this at Dlisted, but I had to repost it here so 1) I, confessed music junkie, wanted to make comments, and 2) my non-Dlisted friends would see it. My sister is going to shit when she sees the Traveling Wilburys are on this list!
OST = Original Sound Track
The list:
1. Duran Duran – Thank You
2. Spice Girls – All Their Solo Albums! - Indeed. All the Spice Girls albums, too.
3. Various – Urban Renewal: The Songs Of Phil Collins - Urban renditions of Phil Collins songs? Oh hell no!
4. Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music
5. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
6. Naomi Campbell – Babywoman -
What? She made an album? Oh, you know that sounds nasty!
7. Kevin Rowland – My Beauty
8. Mick Jagger – Primitive Cool
9. Westlife – Allow Us To Be Frank
10. Tim Machine – Tin Machine Ii
11. Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water - Haha! Take that, Fred Durst, you jackass.
12. Tom Jones – Mr Jones
13. Bruce Willis – The Return Of Bruno (snicker)
14. Terence Trent Diabolical – Neither Fish Nor Flesh - I gotta tell you, I love Terence Trent D'Arby, and this album sucked. It was such a letdown from Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby which was a GREAT album.
15. Various – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band – OST - I've got this on vinyl.
16. Spice Girls – Forever
17. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – Dylan And The Dead - I've got this one, too.
18. Crazy Frog – Crazy Hits
19. Goldie – Saturnz Return
20. Mariah Cary – Glitter OST
21. The Clash – Cut The Crap
22. Robson & Jerome – Robson & Jerome
23. Alanis Morissette – Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie - I'd put Jagged Little Pill on here, too. I can't stand this "artist."
24. Lauryn Hill – MTV Unpugged 2.0
25. The Cranberries – To The Faithful Departed
26. Vanilla Ice – Hard To Swallow
27. Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled
28. The Rolling Stones – Dirty Work
29. Various – Christmas In The Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album - WTF?
30. Michael Jackson – Invincible
31. Stevie Wonder – Woman In Red
32. Ace Of Bass – The Sign - I totally agree.
33. Billy Ray Cyrus – Some Gave All
34. Fishspooner - #1
35. Puff Daddy – Forever
36. Kula Shaker – Peanuts, Pigs & Astronauts
37. Shania Twain – Come On Over
38. Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Pt2
39. Big Country – Undercover
40. The Others – The Others
41. Paul Simon – Songs From The Capeman OST
42. Babylon Zoo – The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes
43. The Travelling Wilburys – Vol 3
44. Kiss – Music From The Elder
45. William Shatner – The Transformed Man - Why didn't Shatner just retire after Star Trek?
46. Oasis – Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
47. Ozzy Osbourne – Under Cover
48. Milli Vanilli – All Or Nothing
49. Neil Young And The Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rocking
50. Beck – Midnight Vultures - Beck is a Scientologist, enough said.
Next year, we can revisit this list and expect to see the debut albums of both Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline in the top ten.
The Skinny House
This house is a Long Beach Historic Landmark, probably more for its legend than anything else (see below)! It's 860 square feet, less than 10 feet wide! It was apparently built on a bet that a house could not be built on a 10x50 foot lot. It's known as "The Skinny House," and is reportedly the skinniest house in the United States.
The following is the LB Historic Landmark designation info with my photos below.
16.52.170 The Skinny House.
Pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 2.63 and with the recommendation of the planning commission, the city council designates the following building as an historic landmark in the city: The Skinny House.
A. Location, Description and Reasons for Designation. Located at 708 Gladys Avenue in the city of Long Beach, this three story, eight hundred sixty square feet, half-timber expression of Old English Tudor architecture exterior is compressed onto a ten foot by fifty foot residential lot which was created by an oversight in a real estate transaction at the corner of Gladys Avenue and Seventh Street. It was acquired by Newton Rummond in payment for a one hundred dollar debt in 1931 - in the depth of the depression. Friends said it was too small to be useful; Rummond declared he could build a home on it; a friend dared him to do so - and he did. It was built by a group of unemployed craftsmen who gained employment from the publicity this created when it was completed in 1932. Thousands toured the home where the craftsmen's names were displayed by their handiwork. The house's fame spread and it was featured in Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not as the nation's narrowest home. Visitors included such notables as Walt Disney and have continued by the thousands at open houses held by a succession of owners over the half century. Occupants have routinely lauded the layout and design as being comfortable and convenient far beyond what would be expected in eight hundred sixty square feet on a thirty-eight foot by ten foot footprint. In 1959 when it was discovered that the house had leaned four inches north, it was straightened to vertical again.
Fug
I can hear the groans now. "Oh no, spare us! She's posting more pictures of g-d houses!" But there's a twist this time. I usually show you pictures of homes I love or that I think are remarkable in some way. These houses are only remarkable in that they are horribly ugly! What the hell are these people thinking?
I'm sorry, I probably should have provided barf bags for you. When I see this house, I have this urge to look up phone numbers in the Yellow Pages.
Here's a Victorian gone horribly wrong.
A Soldier's Op-Ed
Thanks to
Mike for
this article, Coming Home — Disillusioned . Here's a short excerpt but I encourage you to click the link to the Seattle Times. Registration is not required.
As I watched the Iraq war begin, I completely trusted the Bush administration. I thought we were going to prove all of the left-wing antiwar protesters and dissenters wrong. I thought we were going to make America safer. Regrettably, I acknowledge that it was I who was wrong.
Normal Hospital Fare
One of my hobbies is observing life and creating my own crackpot theories based on what I see. One of my most profound and oft-proven theories is that the more crazy shit you see, the more immune to it you become. And that can't be a good thing.
Take working at a hospital, for instance. I've worked for a hospital for almost ten years, and you see a lot of weird shit when you work for a medical facility. I've been fortunate to telecommute the last few years, but even though I work at home, I have to go in a couple times a month to sign paperwork so I get paid. The more I'm away, the more I notice how crazy the everyday hospital life is. And I've started documenting, beginning now.
(click twice)
Move Over Toothy, Make Room For McDreamy
I'm so tempted to blame
Flix for my new obsession with Patrick Dempsey. He wrote a
very favorable review for Grey's Anatomy, and so I tuned in to see what it was all about. And he was spot-on. It really is a great show, good writing, rich characters, catchy music, the works. My interest is probably exacerbated by the fact that I love medicine so much that I work for a hospital; but let's face it, the show's success far outweighs its medical audience.
Anyway, in the last several weeks since I started watching it, I've enjoyed the show so much that I went out and bought the first season on DVD. This is where the trouble began. First of all, I've got this obsessive component to my personality that, when I really love something, I can't get enough of it. And this little quirk led to me making the purchase of the first season on DVD one evening after work, going home, and
watching the entire first season - nine 1-hour episodes, back-to-back - in its entirety! Yeah, I said it. I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth. It was like Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough. You might start out with a small bowl, but you're gonna end up eating the damn carton in one sitting, it's that good.
And so it was during this 6-1/2-hour binge of Grey's Anatomy that my obsession with Patrick Dempsey was conceived, reached full gestation, and was born. (For those of you doing the math, a single, one-hour episode is actually 43 minutes; 43 minutes x 9 episodes is 387 minutes, divided by 60 is 6.45 hours.) So not only did I go to bed that night sometime after 3:00 am, delirious and emotionally raw (the show makes me
feel, damnit), but I was dreaming of Patrick Dempsey's hotness when I finally put my head down on my pillow.
So as you can see, it's not really fair to blame this entirely on Flix.
But let's face it, Derek Shephard (Dempsey's character) is hotness personified. Those eyes, that smile, that hair, that stubble, that flirty manner, the dry sense of humor, that boyish charm, the way he wields a scalpel around the corpus callosum. God, it's just intoxicating! There's a reason they call him Dr. McDreamy. And damnit, Sunday nights can't come fast enough for me!
So move over, Jake. McDreamy's star is rising in my sky.
Pink on a Gray Day
Waiting for Toothy
So I thought I was bad with my obsession over solving the Toothy Tile mystery. I'm a mere amateur. Check out
this website,
Waiting for Toothy! She makes me look like a casual onlooker!
Besides, I have a new celebrity obession brewing, someone I haven't mentioned, but someone who is slowly but surely eroding the very foundation of the Jake obsession, so hot is this man.
Anyone care to take any guesses before the big reveal?
Sad
Remember
this story? I'm sad to report that Mr. Arthur Winston passed away in his sleep this week. Below is the story.
Los Angeles Transit Worker Dies Just After RetiringLOS ANGELES (April 15) - Less than a month after retiring on his 100th birthday, longtime Los Angeles County transit employee Arthur Winston died in his sleep, his family said Friday.
The man co-workers celebrated as Mr. Reliable had recently been admitted to a hospital for exhaustion and dehydration, but returned to his home April 6. He died Thursday evening.
To his former colleagues at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Winston was more than a model employee known for his energy, punctuality and longevity. He was a legend.
Winston missed one day of work in over 70 years, and that was to attend his wife's funeral in 1988. In 1996, he received an "Employee of the Century" citation from President Bill Clinton.
"He leaves behind a great legacy," said his grandniece, Yvette Chappell-Ingram.
Winston worked at the MTA and its predecessor agencies for 76 years. For decades, Winston reported to work at a bus yard at the crack of dawn to supervise a crew of workers as they cleaned and refueled the region's bus fleet.
"Arthur Winston's life of service will stand as an unparalleled example of dedication to principles, commitment to excellence and pride in the American work ethic," said John Catoe, the MTA's deputy chief executive officer.
Winston was born in Oklahoma and said he began picking cotton at age 10. His family headed west when droughts and storms ruined several crop seasons, and in 1924 he found work with the Pacific Electric Railway Co., a forerunner of the MTA.
He left the company in 1928, returned six years later and stayed until his retirement last month.
In an interview last month, Winston credited his father for teaching him a strong work ethic.
"My dad got us out of bed whether it was raining or snowing. We got up at 6 o'clock, no matter what," he said.
At age 99, Winston was responsible for a crew of 11 employees who cleaned, maintained and refueled Metro buses.
When he retired last month, Winston was offered a new job as an honorary spokesman for the 99 Cents Only stores.
"I'll be on the move. I'm not going to sit and mope in the house," he said at the time.
Silly Wabbits
I'm early, but I found this graphics toy and couldn't wait to share. Happy Easter, y'all!
What's My Age, Again?
UPDATE: A couple more pictures - one color saturated - for Joy.
After months of indecision, I finally bought a new phone tonight to replace my 5-year-old Nokia dinosaur. I settled on the RAZR because I like the size (both the slim design and the way it reaches both my ear and my mouth), the long bettery life, and the fact that it has an alarm clock. The alarm clock is something I can't compromise on... did you know some phones don't have them? At the last minute, I lost my mind and got PINK! I don't know what happened. I saw it and thought it was really cute, and decided, "oh, what the hell." I can't wait for my brother to see it. He's going to look at the phone, look at me, and say "I don't even know you anymore." Seriously, you guys have no idea how far outside my comfort zone it was to get a pink phone. Did I mention I have 30 days to go back and trade it in for black or silver? Yeah, I've got an out just in case I wake up and say to myself, "what's my age again?" This might be my first real symptom of a midlife crisis.
A Different Kind of Drill, Available Only at Select Home Depots
Here's a scene you'd only see in Texas or Signal Hill, California.
Oh, now here's a big surprise. 
"The FDA says there's no -- zilch, zero, nada -- shred of medicinal value to the evil weed marijuana. This is going to be a setback to the long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking crowd."
Thank (insert your favorite diety here) it's Friday. Before the weekend gets going, I have two separate announcements for friends of mine. First, if you live in any of the following cities, check out the super-talented JOHN HOSKINSON playing solo acoustic shows in a city near you, especially if you live in Chicago or Europe. Tell him LA sent you, actually, you'll need to tell him Lani sent you because he doesn't know me as LA. Buy his album, Miscellaneous Heathen, you will love it. 
Thanks for the photo goes to Jake Watch, my favorite new irreverent website. I love it when Jake is goofy!
This was a very comfortable, medium-sized show. I was working a booth, and it was an easy, steady crowd of friendly and enthusiastic knitters and crocheters (aka hookers). One thing about knitters is they are nice. Really nice. And it's always a pleasure to talk to them, see what they are working on, exchange ideas, and share the craft with them. 
Another set of people I met in Oakland were public transportation workers. This guy pictured here was a real character. I was taking my walk, looking for things to shoot (with the camera), and this guy came out of his bus and asked, "don't you want to take my picture?" I told him I absolutely wanted to photograph him, and as you can see, he willingly obliged, posing like a true professional. 
Of course, like most people, one of my favorite things to do in a new city, or even an old one, is eat. One night, a big group of us went to Caffe Verbena, right across the street from the hotel. It was delicious, and I dined on (get this) pan-fried emerald gnocchi with peas several ways and mint pistou. They literally served peas several ways - in pods, shelled, and pea shoots. Each had its own sauce, and they were all delicious. I'd never had gnocchi (a favorite of mine) pan-fried before, but I recommend it. One side was crispy, and the other side was the usual consistency. Everything on the plate was green, from the gnocchi (in spinach pasta), the peas, the mint pistou, and the pesto the shelled peas were served in. 
Also green is this fantastic deco building, the former home of I. Magnin (click it to see the fantastic detail). It was a few blocks from the hotel, not too far from the Paramount Theater, also pictured. I discovered that Oakland has a handful of totally gorgeous deco buildings, I style I love, but I didn't get the chance to shoot them all because I was on my way to dinner with a dear, old family friend, and we were very hungry. She took me to a wonderful neighborhood right above Lake Merritt (five stars), just below Piedmont, and we dined at the Grand Oaks Restaurant, where I had prawns in angel hair. I believe it was here that I lost my sunglasses, but so far, my phone messages have remained unreturned, so perhaps not. The important thing to note is that I loved this particular neighborhood. It's one I could re-explore in the future. Just sayin'. 
Another Lake Merritt hot spot for the children is Fairyland. Yes, that's right, you heard me. Fairyland. You actually can't enter Fairyland unless you have a child with you. I hadn't met the screaming kid on the airplane yet, so unfortunately, I was forced to skip this attraction. 
When I returned home from Oakland on Sunday, I was in a foul mood and wrote some cryptic line stating it was a "simultaneously good and bad" trip. Since then, I've failed to write another word about it, and I feel kind of guilty now, because in doing so, I've possibly over-dramatized the bad. Let's chalk "the bad" up to a series of unhappy coincidences that were sheer bad luck combined with an uber-case of PMS and call it a day. 
So what exactly was the bad? In a matter of a couple of days, the following shit went down:
Add those three items to the fact I was PMSing, and you can see why I was so grouchy. 
So those three items darkened the mood of an otherwise perfectly lovely trip, and I admit that I'm just a hormonal bitch. 
Oakland, California. 
So as I do most places, I stole away with my camera and shot some street scenes. Overall, Oakland is in the process of a long, slow gentrification. It's improving, but I didn't have to venture more than a couple blocks from my hotel to find evidence of urban decay and apathy. What's sad is that these pictures were taken across the street from a nice park. The area is urban, but not menacing, and I had not the least trepidation about walking this area alone. 
In the comments of my last post, Putas asked about David Sedaris. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Sedaris is a writer, a humorist, a satirist par excellence. You might catch him on NPR or read him in the New Yorker, and if you're really lucky, you'll go see him read his work, take Q&A, and sign books, like I did last night at the Long Beach Terraces Theater. His delivery reminds me of Woody Allen except that Sedaris is Greek, not Jewish; from the South, not New York; and is gay, not married to his step-daughter. Other than that, they are exactly alike. 
I'm home from my simultaneously good and bad weekend trip to Oakland. I'll elaborate tomorrow, but suffice it to say, I'm beat. I saw David Sedaris earlier this evening (only a few short hours after getting off the airplane), and please take my advice and go see him if he performs in your town. He is reading all new material, possibly some of his best ever; it's totally hysterical. If you go, you may notice the big signs warning you not to take pictures. Just ignore those signs.
I'm so tempted to blame Flix for my new obsession with Patrick Dempsey. He wrote a very favorable review for Grey's Anatomy, and so I tuned in to see what it was all about. And he was spot-on. It really is a great show, good writing, rich characters, catchy music, the works. My interest is probably exacerbated by the fact that I love medicine so much that I work for a hospital; but let's face it, the show's success far outweighs its medical audience. 
And so it was during this 6-1/2-hour binge of Grey's Anatomy that my obsession with Patrick Dempsey was conceived, reached full gestation, and was born. (For those of you doing the math, a single, one-hour episode is actually 43 minutes; 43 minutes x 9 episodes is 387 minutes, divided by 60 is 6.45 hours.) So not only did I go to bed that night sometime after 3:00 am, delirious and emotionally raw (the show makes me feel, damnit), but I was dreaming of Patrick Dempsey's hotness when I finally put my head down on my pillow.
So I thought I was bad with my obsession over solving the Toothy Tile mystery. I'm a mere amateur. Check out this website, Waiting for Toothy! She makes me look like a casual onlooker!
After months of indecision, I finally bought a new phone tonight to replace my 5-year-old Nokia dinosaur. I settled on the RAZR because I like the size (both the slim design and the way it reaches both my ear and my mouth), the long bettery life, and the fact that it has an alarm clock. The alarm clock is something I can't compromise on... did you know some phones don't have them? At the last minute, I lost my mind and got PINK! I don't know what happened. I saw it and thought it was really cute, and decided, "oh, what the hell." I can't wait for my brother to see it. He's going to look at the phone, look at me, and say "I don't even know you anymore." Seriously, you guys have no idea how far outside my comfort zone it was to get a pink phone. Did I mention I have 30 days to go back and trade it in for black or silver? Yeah, I've got an out just in case I wake up and say to myself, "what's my age again?" This might be my first real symptom of a midlife crisis.
