potato, potaaato

now that my man edwards is out of the race, having a little trouble figurin' who to vote for, and we have to decide soon cause we are voting absentee. strange to have so many great candidates when we are usually stuck with the likes of kerry. is everyone having this hard of a time choosing between these two? actually, i answered my own question as some friends are having an obama fundraiser party tonight, but i'm still not there.

now, back to something easier to ponder...cute dogs!

why happy meat is important

http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/01/30/downer-cow-video/#more-2610

halloween head

karen black monday

news you don't need to know

* the '07-'08 creeping crud continues unabated its march to the sea via my worn out body. as of friday, i will have been sick for one month exactly, with about four days of respite in there somewhere during my first course of antibiotics. almost through my second course and still sick as a dog. and at the chinatown hilton in san francisco preparing to go into a meeting with a potential high-drama quotient. 'lord help,' as my grandmother would say.

* the list of unpleasantries could continue on and on, but suffice it to say, '08 ain't so great.

* 'the wire' is awesome! thanks to everyone who kept telling me to stick it out. i'm obsessed! 'lost' on the other hand -- lemme off this island, skipper.

* 'cloverfield' was a lot of fun if you can get past the atrocious acting and the fact that the thing that's laying waste to manhattan ain't that scary. go with no expectations whatsoever and it totally delivers. my apologies to everyone who had to listen to me hacking a lung during the show.

* i've never read any joyce carol oates before and i picked up 'blonde' to take on vacay over the new year. i have a passing interest in marilyn monroe, so i figured it would be a good intro into oates-land. it's slow-going, but it's pretty amazing. how does this woman write two books a year and still have time to create what i think may be one of the best ruminations on the nature of hollywood i've come across?

* checked the weather earlier and the 7 day forecast for l.a. is rain every day. what the eff? there's gonna be some hills a-slidin' and some roofs a-leakin' pretty soon. the bright spot -- leaving for miami a week from tomorrow. first trip to south florida and we're armed with a definitive list of vintage shops, plus maps! life ain't all bad.

* i'm with andre 3000 on the kate-bush-is-the-shit thing --- "waashing macheeeeeeeeennnnnnnn!" i mean, come on! and that's just the new stuff. then there's this, which is just beyond:

where the gays are

this curbed la post about where l.a.'s real estate-buying gays are heading next is funny and scary at the same time

fluffernutter

now, back to our regularly scheduled cotton candy coverage --

best star sighting ever last night! jack mcbrayer, who plays kenneth on '30 rock,' at the arclight. he was with scott speedman of 'felicity' and one of those myers brothers (not sure if the 'mad tv' one or 'saturday night live'). also spotted: seth green of 'robot chicken' and 'buffy the vampire slayer'(note to darliament: he was teeny!)

there was also a premiere there for a movie called 'the air i breathe,' starring (amongst a cast of thousands) sarah michelle gellar, but we couldn't be bothered with hanging around long enough to see who should walk down the red carpet (ok, we were hustled out of the way by a security guard, but still....)

the movie we went to see was 'the orphanage' and i thought it was capital-s spooky, one of the best horror movies i've seen in years -- very hitchcockian and also reminiscent of 'the haunting.' there are some way creepy images and lots of jump-out-of-your-seat moments. thumb up!

where do i begin

coming from the south like i do -- and having left it lo these many years ago -- i sometimes get snapped back to how backwards it truly can be. this week has been one of those times.

to make a long story short, i've had several communications with a to-be-unnamed family member this week about the 'threat' of barack obama's potential presidency. this person's fears were founded upon an email chain that is making its way around the country (i've learned this isn't isolated to the south) with a bunch of xenophobic and (to my mind) racist claims against obama.

in my opinion, here's the bottom line: some people are afraid of having a black man as president and they will go to extreme lengths to not only rabble-rouse, but to mask the ugly fact that they are racist dildos. 'cause he's not a radical muslim (he's not even muslim!) and he's not a trojan horse that al qaeda is using to come in and take our malls away. he isn't 'against the flag' and he doesn't 'refuse to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem' and his mother wasn't an athiest, and blah blah blah. in my opinion, this is all because he is african-american as well as -- as i've seen claimed several times in this discussion -- "basically a foreigner" because he grew up in jakarta and other exotic locales. like hawaii.

here's the whole enchilada, laid out

i haven't decided which democrat i'm voting for, but you can bet your sweet ass i'm now leaning towards obama.

david on the cross

david cross (of whom i am a big fan) co-starred in the new "alvin and the chipmunks" movie, which i saw with my five year old nephew over christmas. while i thought it was pretty bad, he declared it (halfway through in a stage whisper) "the coolest movie i've ever seen!" i did enjoy pointing out disney hall and the hollywood sign and saying "that's where i live!" considering his mother has decided her sanity is more important than trapping herself on a plane with him for five hours.

anyway, i passingly wondered what david cross was doing in a movie like this, and i now have my answer in this very convincing blog post. enjoy!

ribbit

surprisingly enough, we'd never ventured to the massive rose bowl swap meet until this morning. holy lord! it was a calvacade of really useless shit, really amazing shit and lots of owl figurines. in other words --- heaven.

oh yeah, there was also this van o' frogs:



and no, they weren't for sale. personal collection only. i am sure the driver is oft ticketed for driving while infrogicated.

a few other random thoughts:

* suddenly i find myself on some '70s chanteuse jag. while cooking beef grillades with buttered grits last night (delish!), i happened upon bette midler's second album on my ipod (circa '73) and was thrilling to the all-over-the-place cabaret on some good '70s dope vibe (i can't believe bette or manilow were ever that hip -- i mean, have you heard 'surabaya johnny'? that is some seriously weird shit, yo!).

now, after just finishing up some work i've been putting off and having the house to my lonesome for the rest of the afternoon, i decided to treat myself to some vintage linda ronstadt. i never really liked her in my childhood (her heyday), and i've only ever really liked her since as part of 'trio,' her harmonizing country supergroup with dolly parton and emmylous harris, but over the last few years -- when i've found myself in a bar with her on the jukebox, or when one of her early songs makes it way into a film -- i get this little voice saying "this is not bad" chirping in the back of my head. and, because i find myself this afternoon filled with some big emotions courtesy of our unrepentantly assholish next door neighbor (who thinks it is ok to hang over our shared fence and give a loud critique of our recent restoration work as i sit 10 feet away watching and listening to him do it, unbeknownst to him given the installation of our new privacy shades which allow us to see out without him seeing in), i decided i needed to listen to a big voice to match. and la linda is providing it as i write -- big as the heartland, that voice. i love it! strange to be converted so late in life into a linda ronstadt fan (but she ain't ever bringing me around to that post-70's stuff -- "somewhere out there"? more like "somewhere out there listeners are coating the floor with their own vomit listening to this shit."

also, check out the hotness that was '70's linda:

i was wondering why my showers were starting to feel like standing in the rain on planet clorox

...and now i know why. seems the silverlake and elysian reservoirs -- one a few blocks from our house, the other close by drivewise -- has got the cancer. cancer-causing chemicals, anyway.

sounds like the threats to our health were minimal (didn't they tell that to the 9/11 workers, too?), but i am not looking forward to taking dog strolls around an empty, three-mile radius concrete pit over the next six months.

your next president

i know there are a few republicans out there reading this blog, so i implore you: please don't vote for huckabee. why, you ask?

behold:

just flew back from vacation

...and boy are my wings tired!

not even 24 hours back on mainland soil and i am sitting a the palm springs airport, two hours delayed for a flight to sfo and now unable to make a meeting. oh well. the upside: only $50 to upgrade to first class, so guess who's having champagne at 30k feet? me, that's who!

will share some pics from the tropical idyll soon, but in the meantime -- if you have ever worked in an office, rush out and pick up "then we came to the end" by joshua ferris. i read it on vacation and was enthralled. what starts out as a breezy, age-of-quirk comic story about a chicago ad agency coming apart at the seams during the dot-com implosion turns by the end into a strangely affecting, thought-provoking piece of literature. fantastique!

feliz ano nuevo, blogfriends!