'sexyback'? more like 'gayback'

i'm sorry, but this is the gayest thing i've ever heard - loves it!

futuresounds -- justin timberlake

(currently mired in post-travel chaos; the oh so substantive and insightful postings to which you've become accustomed here at ye olde robot will return when my sanity does)

cleveland rocks?

in cleveland, flying back tomorrow. i've been here probably ten times, and i finally decided last night that i like it. it is better than some other cities i can name and have recently visited.

one complaint, though -- and maybe this is specific only to the brand spanking new marriott in which i am staying, but: there are still men out there who think it is ok to wear polo cologne as well as brut by faberge (and who apparently ride elevators, exiting them one floor before the elevator reaches me).

stories and pics from our travels across this fair land to come.

gays: 1 freak with doctorate: 0

damn you, defamer!

i was minding my own business, just trying to occupy my feverish mind with a quick jaunt through defamer.com, when i come across this item from 'variety':

David O. Russell is tackling television for the first time, teaming with Josh Lieb ("The Simpsons") for an hourlong dramedy set up at FX via Sony Pictures Television.


Pariah partners Gavin Polone and Jamie Tarses will exec produce the untitled project, a sort of "Upstairs, Downstairs" set in a Los Angeles country club. Russell ("Three Kings") is set to direct the pilot; he'll co-write and exec produce with Lieb.

josh lieb and i were in the creative writing program together at the south carolina governor's school for the arts when i was a wee lad of seventeen. so hurray for josh and all, but was that a parade i just saw passing me by?

in other news, heading to virginia, this week for a college friend's wedding, then onto cleveland for a few days of business meetings. oh yes....you heard me right, josh lieb...CLEVELAND! who's jealous now?

news you can use

thank you, jesus!

we interrupt our normally scheduled workload...

...to bring you this little tidbit we came across today in a cnn.com story, "dentist admits to killing wife, girlfriend, 14 years apart." embedded in the middle of the text was a hyperlink entitled:

(Watch the dentist's former father-in-law tell him to burn in hell -- 1:17)

someone has fridayitis in the link-title-writing department, methinks.

ok, back to the saltmine.

matt lauer - the new murrow?

ok, kidding. but he really does go after bush in this clip. also, i think i lost the enamel on at least three teeth from grinding them while listening to bush talk. nails on a chalkboard? more like nails in my eyeballs, both my feet, through my eardrums, and everywhere else i have nerve endings.

lauer corners bush on torture

chewing the right thing

my favorite food is fried cheese, but i've tried to improve my eating habits over the last years, in part to offset my other vices, which i'm not going to list here for your reading pleasure.

primarily, this has consisted of buying food that is as close to real as is possible, so organic anything, no corn syrup (except for that damned coffeemate french vanilla creamer that i got hooked on years ago by accident -- i swear there is black tar heroin in there -- though even this i am moving away from as a friend suggested i substitute with vanilla torani syrup made from cane sugar and organic half & half), no bleached flour, preservative-free whenever possible, etc.

so same friend who suggested the creamer alternative is, along with her cohorts, leading a food revolution over at the ethicurean (the title of this post is their official slogan). her endless proselytizing -- er, gentle prodding, i mean -- has made a believer out of me, and i am putting my money where my mouth is and have proudly signed up for delivery of our very own CSA box, which comes tomorrow.

i never thought i'd get excited about vegetables, but as ms. nicks says, "children get older/i'm getting older...too." bring on the ruffage!

some nights are better than others

a cool desert breeze, a nearly full moon, good friends, cold beer, and grilled meats. no need to recap when phriedz has already done it, including pics:

the 2am buzz

scha‧den‧freu‧de

loyal (and early) readers may remember that i do love me some neko case, so imagine my glee when i obtained tix for the mister, phriedz and little ol' me to see her play live at pappy and harriet's, where i do believe i'll have my ashes scattered when its time for me to shuffle off this mortal coil.

now, imagine my pure hatred when shenobi-won-kenobi informed me that not only is she seeing neko case as well this weekend, but it will be at the hollywood bowl.....with willie nelson. and ryan adams. if i weren't a gentleman, i might have to call her a nasty name and curse her good fortune. and kick her dog, for good measure.

instead, i'll go the christian route and share my favorite ryan adams song with you, which i will not get to hear for myself, reverberating through the balmy canyon air in acoustic perfection from allegedly 'kick ass seats,' as unnamed and undeserving others will. seriously, i'm really happy for her. in fact, i could just shit.

so, now that i've swallowed all the bitter pills i can fit in my mouth, here 'tis:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Magnolia Mountain

(confidential to ms. won-kenobi: loves ya like tom loves katie, except for real)

apologies to randy newman

even though i have hella work to do, i decided that lunch out somewheres was in order, even though i spent most of the morning at physical therapy (the highlight: wearing the office-issued orange tank top and blue shorts for my pilates...i felt so pretty).

the mister and i went to favorite neighborhood haunt palermo italian restaurant for their lunch menu - which is the same, prices and all, as their dinner menu. only difference was we weren't stumbling into the restaurant after downing pitchers of stella over at ye rustic (you know who you are, guilty accomplices!).

anyhoo, lunch was fine. then we had to run by the ATM, blah blah, and ended up driving around the nabe looking at some of the houses we almost bought during our two years of looking. long story short, i realized, as i pondered why it was so smoggy out the ocean's way and yet so startlingly clear in the valley (there are many spots here where you can spot both at the same time), that i really do heart l.a., even the nastiest bits (of which there are many).

i can't stand randy newman, so there will be no mp3-ing of his l.a. anthem, but i'll throw this one -- my 2nd favorite l.a. song, btw -- your way:

Los Angeles - Frank Black

NOW i get it!

i've been reading the book 'laurel canyon,' a history of the l.a. music scene in said canyon during the 60s & 70s, which takes me back to my college freshman days, days in which i was determined to keep the spirit of woodstock alive...in 1989! oh, those sandalwood-scented days of pot and top ramen. anyhoo....

...in the book, they talk about coke(aine) being so ubiquitous that it was built into recording studio budgets. in fact, it was so ubiquitous that one record label, in order to promote the single 'you're so vain,' distributed coke mirrors with carly simon's horse-like visage embossed on them. i was really shocked.

in a separate conversation over the last few days, phriedz and i were discussing state fairs and reminiscing about the prizes one could win if one were adept at the tossing of the rings, for instance. and then i realized: all of the little mirrors i collected as winnings at the state fair game booths---like the one with reo speedwagon's logo or the one with 'dirty deeds done dirty cheap' emblazoned on it--were actually coke mirrors! like, duh! of course, i also thought the roach clips one could win at the state fair were for wearing in one's hair (i blame my aunt for this, though i'm sure if i'd sidled up to her and sniffed the clip in her hair, it would've smelled distinctly of 'roach').

anyway, i just hate that it took me more than two decades to figure all this out. i wonder what i'll discover in another twenty years when my synapses wake from their near-eternal slumber and fire up again?