OMG LINKME Tastes Like Depeche Mode
|
DECEMBER 12, 2007The incredible Lisa Smith is back from Morocco, where she spent a back-breaking two years in the Peace Corps helping local artisans to increase their efficiency and market. I only got to see her for a few hours on one day (with a huge lunch at Moriarty's) and a couple hours on the next with Stimulus Children's Theater out at the Pathways School. She's moving to Connecticut, where she will start at a job kind of similar to what she has been doing - helping artisans sell their goods to audiences far and wide. I still have the purse and wallet she sold to me back during our Mediterranean cruise last year. I found the wallet in a pocket of a jacket I hadn't worn in a year... yeah. Though that was my first time, Stimulus has taken their show on the road to Pathways several years running - the administrator's daughter was a Stimulus alumni and he was very keen on the group... even if our routine was definitely not as good as it was last month. It was definitely a worthwhile trip, as I got to see what the facilities were like for students with neurological disorders (aka autism, Asperger's, Down's, etc.). As you may know, the government is obliged to provide all students with free public education until they graduate or until they turn 21. Unfortunately (or not, since I really have no idea if it is or isn't), most of the students at Pathways stay there until they turn 21, which I assume is when they graduate. I'm not sure where they go after. The administrator had a really interesting family history. He apparently got interested in helping children with neurological disorders because of an elder sister of his. She had some disorder that outwardly showed itself in increasingly violent seizures (probably epilepsy, but he didn't say). At some point, the seizures would probably have killed her since the falls, injuries from flailing and breathing problems might have become intolerable. Living with such a sister meant having bells all around the house so that one family member could warn everyone else if a seizure was happening - whereby everyone would drop what they were doing and come to the rescue. The most interesting part of this was the decision by his family to start with operations on the elder sister. These operations removed parts of her brain that were considered non-essential but which added to the seizures, the point being that if they were removed, they wouldn't cause seizures AND the patient would stay alive. Since a lot of this was very experimental (it being the 1950s and all), they only figured out which areas to remove by wiring up the rest of the family to electrodes and seeing which areas in the brain fired up for certain activities, and then avoiding those parts. The family was the closest the doctors could get to a "baseline" for the sister, thus the choice. At final count, they removed an entire hemisphere of the girl's head - and she survived! It was one of the first hemispherectomies performed with a surviving patient, who lived for decades afterward and held up a job at the state library (as proof of some mental function anyway, I don't know how 'with it' she was). Dinner with Caroline, Brian and Wendy (from Mayer) at Supper. Great place for dinner, and I loved the duck breast tartine. Caroline seemed to love the foie gras, so I assume it was quality ethically-challenged duck livers (she didn't mind the unethical part of it, so long as it tasted good... cruel, we said). Wendy is looking well and working up at CHOP, eventually hoping to become a neonatal nurse practitioner (I think that's what she said). I think that's the last I'll see of Caroline, Brian and Wendy for a while... at least until the next time I roll into Belgium (only Caroline) or Caroline rolls into Philly (which would mean I'd see all of them together at some point). I get along fine with Brian but I don't think our interests overlap that much. And Wendy? Well, we got along like two peas in a pod at dinner but I have pretty much no excuse to hang out with her. I never knew her that well to begin with, and I guess I'm better for only seeing her once in a blue moon rather than not at all. DECEMBER 7, 2007 Yes, I'm doing it. Coming your way April 19, 2008. Fair use. DECEMBER 6, 2007Caroline is in town! I had a great lunch with her at Bliss the other day, and we caught up. She really frightens me sometimes. Like some other daring people I know, they go on great holidays by themselves to secluded or unorthodox places... just asking for trouble. Caroline apparently went backpacking in Cuba and Costa Rica for 3 months by herself. Smart idea! She also visited Colombia with her mom (who also was a daring adventuress in her own right, the nerves of steel must run in the family. As well as the Swiss passport, which affords more cultural protection than a US one.). She advised me to visit Cuba as well. I was like, sure, I'll add it to the list. Never mind that trying to become a US citizen, the Cuban visa or entry stamp might just add stupid obstacles and invite suspicious questions at this point. SHe's off to more school... all the best people keep deserting for this idea of 'higher education.' And then they go off and get $100k jobs at some international joint, aka joke's on me. When I was in Paris, I really wanted to stop by Brussels just for a day. Caro's family really liked me when I was there, and I actually really liked all of them. I wouldn't have minded stopping by, taking them out for a meal and leaving again (no need to intrude on hospitality so quickly), but alas, we had too little time to make a sudden side tour. They have this beatiful house out in the country next to a medieval village. I ate fresh fruits and vegetable from their garden every day while there and got crazy relaxed. When I am rich and lazy, I will get a similar setup. Man, it was ridiculously refreshing to just sit out in the country, do nothing and live simply for a while! Walking the dog through winding streets with large forests all around, fresh air, and all just a 20-minute train ride from town. DECEMBER 5, 2007If there's one thing I learned in Europe, it's that I forgot to pay attention to European music. Man, is there some good stuff out there. Brenna asked me to pick up some bad Dutch hiphop, so I was already looking out for some stuff... but I found it was very easy to get good stuff, about as easy as getting "bad" stuff. Most of it was shoved in my face on the music channels (no, not MTV, but their own versions). I noticed that the Dutch top 40 lists had a lot more American stuff, but the UK and French top 40 lists had a lot more of their own stuff. Perhaps it's because of how big the music industries are in each respective country? I don't know my music economics that well: would be interesting to know. Anyway, I put together some hot playlists from some of the stuff I could get. Man, it's SO freakin hard to get the French and Dutch stuff. At least Virgin can cross-sell from its UK to its US versions, but FNAC, etc., don't import. I found that I could get some of this stuff on Amazon UK but MAN the shipping is ridonculous. Besides, with the euro/pound being as they are, the price of the CD is out of this world. Hello, YouTube... Linkme: CLUB PLAYLIST 1  Jennifer Ayache from Superbus and "Bob Sinclar". Fair use. Girls Aloud, though extremely girly and teenyboppery in their original cuts, are great for remixing into club hits. While none of their songs are club anthem-worthy, they're still pretty good as filler material. I include a cut of their cover of I Think We're Alone Now, since they score big points on the "I remember that song, awww" factor. The other songs just make up some good club beats. I particularly like the ATB number since the one vocal line is just so great. Not super-catchy, but just strange enough to be so singable every time it comes around. One note: there are a shitload of great French DJs spinning dance tracks over across the pond. Bob Sinclar is for some reason burning up the charts over there, and I can see why. Love Generation is my favorite of his tunes, and it does great... even with some of the crazy long remixes that are like 12 minutes long. He's not Jamaican; he's just some French DJ who dips into everything from Caribbean soul to acid jazz. David Guetta is a pretty awesome DJ. Not a lot of excessive buildup beats, concise mixing and good vocal lines make up a catchy song. Mondotek's Alive just kills me - when it starts playing, I'm up there doing my 80s dance moves just because I can't stop myself. Listen to it, it's crazy. Linkme: HIPHOP PLAYLIST 5 A Dutch heavy mix, since there are a lot of really good Dutch MCs and rappers. Some of these guys do gangsta rap, but I really don't believe that they're anywhere near the gangsta scene. I mean, they may put a cap or two in a fella, but man... I can't see Amsterdam as a crime capital. I mean, it could be, you never know, but... whatever, has nothing to do with the music. The sounds their producers like to cut into their numbers are kinda different than what we're used to in the States, so the feel of some of the songs is a little different - though you can obviously tell what genre each song is in. They don't stick to all the normal chords, and their riffs feel like they are pulled off of different scales. They even do sampling a little differently. I can't even explain all the differences; they're just there. Regardless... it's all good stuff to listen to while sitting around with your homies. Linkme: HIPHOP PLAYLIST 4  Aussies Hilltop Hoods and UK rapper Kano. Fair use. Sprawling over the world a little more... Australian hiphop has a lot of great artists, only a few of whom I've sampled here. Urthboy, in particular, is really good. He heads up a couple other hiphop ensembles but has some solo stuff too which I feel is much better than the ensemble stuff. There is some good South American rap and hiphop out there, but more often than not, it's more reggaeton than anything else. I like reggaeton only sometimes, as I find the beats become VERY generic very fast. I'm sure a reggaeton fan could argue that it's not, but I have my prejudices already :) Serbian hiphop is not too bad... if someone can intro me to some more good Serb/Bosnian MCs, I'd be grateful. Though there are a lot of German MCs, I find German doesn't flow as easy as some other languages do in tight flows just because it's a little heavier. This doesn't mean there aren't really skillful German rappers who "rise above"!  French rapper La Fouine. Fair use. Linkme: HIPHOP PLAYLIST 3 Here comes the first insertion of two big genres that we don't see at all in the charts in the States. Since they've got a large Arabic and Afro population in Paris, the Arabic pop/hiphop and Afropop music should then be popular. Which they are. The last track is a particularly good example. Magic System is a big Afropop group that has all sorts of REALLY danceable hits in France, and boy, are they danceable. It's immediately identifiable as Afropop (of which I formerly only heard in really dusty world music sections of US music stores, but which is way more catchy than any of the samples in those sections). Amine is an Arabic R&B superstar. He has a really girly-type voice, but his kind of voice modulations is heard a lot in Arabic music. He apparently can sing in both French and Arabic. In both this mix and the next, he does a duet with Leslie, a half-Vietnamese R&B hottie (kinda like a Kelly Rowland type... FYI, Kelly Rowland features Amine on the international release of her last CD). The song (Sobri) is a lot more Arabic sounding than, say, On Va Samize, but no less danceworthy with all the traits of a normal R&B/hiphop number. That's another thing - the different international versions of CDs typically have remixes with artists more well known in their market. This may cover their hit single, or it may just be a bonus song thrown into the international version. It's stuff like this (which may be basics for a record exec) that's really interesting to pick up.  French R&B and Hiphop vixens. Fair use. Linkme: HIPHOP PLAYLIST 2 The amount of good female R&B and hiphop talent in France is pretty amazing. There's a whole bunch, nto all of which I was able to get. In particular, I liked Koxie and Zaho. Koxie is not trying to do typical hiphop, seems like, since her songs are more intent on being cute and cool at the same time (as opposed to just cool). You'll see what I'm talking about if you listen to some of her stuff. She is really good though! Zaho is more of a straightforward hiphop artist. She did a cover of that Timbaland and Nelly Furtado song with her own lyrics which is just amazing - and I can't stop listening to Hey Papi. It's awesome. Linkme: HIPHOP PLAYLIST 1 Akala and Kano are awesome Brit MCs. Just Jack is kinda hiphop, kinda space... don't know quite where he's at, but he makes some great songs. Catch his "Stars in Your Eyes" some time; that's also just great as a chill tune. I haven't finished my Pop remix, but there's a bunch of really great artists. There's this one song from one of the former Sugababes (yeah, basically the Spice Girls after the Spice Girls disappeared, and speaking of Spice Girls, they have a reunion tour planned and have a new single out. Crazy!) that's killer catchy. Some hip dance beats from Brit Sophie Ellis-Bextor, though a lot of the songs skitter over the edge into Kylie Minogue territory - which may be purposeful. There's uber-trendy Kate Nash and Lily Allen of course, but I prefer Lily Allen. Her songs are WAY more catchy and not just weird. Lucie Silvas, Melissa M and Jenifer are also of the girl singer-songwriter bunch who have some good stuff. May be too indie-femme for some people, and too pop-slut for some (Jenifer can be accused of this), but they've got skills undoubtedly. Listen to some Emily Loizeau; she's amazing. If very sad. Scouting for Girls is from the UK, and they've got some real hot powerpop. VanVelzen, similarly - they're a Dutch band and totally sound like they could be a US band if you're relying on accent alone. Tokio Hotel (whose lead singer may or may not be a real woman) has some good moody rock stuff. If you haven't listened to Vanessa Paradis from the early 90s, you really should. She's not just a hottie bimbo married to Johnny Depp; she has some good songs. My favorite is this 60s Temptations-like number called Be My Baby. NOVEMBER 10, 2007I called Brenna Kelly for her birthday, thinking I was 3 days late... but I was actually 3 days early. She sounded pretty happy that I remembered. I felt like a douchebag for missing a bunch of her past ones, and I've been missing her, so I made sure to get it right this time. She's at school in Michigan, and things are REALLY going her way. She always gets what she needs, I guess because she works (and worked) really hard for all of it. Caroline Varin is still out in Cuba, as far as I know. As part of her education in sustainable development, I'm pretty sure - but she does not seem happy about it at all. I also found out Marie McManus is engaged! I was like, whoa! I could never figure out what to do with her back at Penn and we graduated before anything could... so I feel really glad that she's at a great place now. Basically, I've been on a drive to get back in touch with all my old friends, since I'm pretty bad with that. (I've also got to remember to call Elizabeth Bauman on Monday.) I'm going to rant a little bit. Hold on to your britches. I have a relative who apparently is in some sort of gangster feud with another countrymen - with all the requisite whacking and "tukang pukul" thugs to teach each other lessons. I guess that's how you do business in Indonesia. You do business like the old Mob bosses - first of iron in a velvet glove. You treat your family right, but rob everyone else blind. My great-uncles own the biggest telecommunications and logistics companies in Indonesia, and god knows how many shallow graves there are scattered around that country as a result (and fat bribes paid out, for that matter). Robber barons, the lot of them! Speaking of robber barons and bribes, who did Suharto pay off so that the Indonesian Supreme Court could declare in his favor AGAINST Time? And is Time Inc. gonna pay Suharto a couple million dollars as damages for committing libel (they said that Suharto stole billions from Indonesia which I'm PRETTY sure is true)? I also have some relatives who allegedly have some drug business in Asia. No surprise. All the biggest clubs are WAY fuller of drug dealers and junkies, and so much more obvious then they are here in the United States. Though it's a death sentence if you're found transporting it, it's still a huge moneymaker and getting away with things, I assume, is so much easier because the atmosphere is so conducive to bribes. How do you think all those US and Canadian companies got into the country to mine oil and gold and destroy the environment in Irian Jaya, Sumatra and the outlying islands? Covering up tons of deaths, toxic waste spills and now over-acidic soils plus an oil test drill that went wrong (unleashing a 8 month and still going hot mud flow sinking a lot of prime land back into the sea)... all that must take a lot of money. Yay for bribes! With all these rich relatives and rich friends of the family (it's disgusting that I actually know a lot of billionaires), it really pisses me off that my family kisses their collective rich asses so much. I stay out of it as much as I can, but the rest of the family does a lot of kowtowing to these guys. Sure, it does bring them business and salaries, but the general attitude is of subservience and no self-respect. Yes, we can cancel the entire family's plans so we can put up with some rich dude suddenly stopping in for a day and wanting to go do whatever HE wants to do (this is during Christmas holidays, which makes me even angrier). It also pisses me off to no end that some of these people have the affront to look down on those of us that earn less. My cousin works for me, and they asked if he was earning $80k a year working for us. The answer was no, and they were like, that's not worth it. I was like - what's the other option then? Not earn any money? Not to mention the fact that they looked down on me for not going to medical school. I don't know what they think of me now, earning a bunch of money running an Internet marketing firm and not being the slob they took me for. I don't need their approval at all - I just hate their rudeness since I always hear about it, them being family and all. As a sidenote, USC is such a poor excuse for a school. I don't know their standards, but somehow they let in a lot of rich Indonesian kids who cheat their way through college and graduate knowing nothing. It's not called the University of Spoiled Children for nothing. There are unethical people there apparently, as these kids actually do pay somebody to do their work for them. The hacks who do this work get paid a LOT of money for this (probably more than usual just so they can keep their mouth shut). Now, I'm sure this kind of thing happens everywhere with rich kids who bring a lot of money into the school and just want to chill out... but it doesn't have to be quite so obvious. NOVEMBER 1, 2007I've been tinkering with video ads for a while today. Basically trying to figure out better way of monetizing blank space on your site. Video is interactive and better than AdSense text links, I would think, since I'm already desensitized to those and never click on them any more. The Bidvertiser ones look so much like the Google and Yahoo ones on a quick glance that there's always the fear that you'll get porn if you click on one of the ads (Viakgra! Feet specialists near you!). Anyway, one of the new ads can be seen on this page. It's called a peeker video, and is pretty cool. Since my company already does crazy good with normal banners, we're trying to get into other specialities... it really pays to be diversified. I should really stay off Facebook. While "super-connected" can sound good, it can become weird when you're hungering after what everybody else is doing 24/7. Just like Twitter... what is it really? I could tell you that it's a self-promoted stalking tool, but that would be looking at it in a bad light. Really, everyone wants just a little bit of attention, and some more than others. Haha, if I go too far into that, I might start criticizing myself for having my own website. I'm in marketing and marketing is all about selling yourself. Not selling out, per se, but getting across the point about who you are to a targeted audience. One day, somebody will Google me, read this and think that i was a very thoughtful person. On the flipside, they might assume that I had a giant ego. OCTOBER 30, 2007I saw Gone Baby Gone last night. Pretty good... a lot more depth and harder subject material than I though Ben Affleck would take on his first directing project. From his past stuff, I was expecting fluff. I guess that's the reaction he wants to provoke: Ben is actually more serious and artistic than we give him credit for. Hopefully it lasts. I also started investing a bunch this week. Started buying really heavily into mutual funds, and getting started with a new business stock trading acount. No reason for our hard-earned profits not to start growing themselves. Imagine... we ignored our money for a long time, and it was just sitting in a low-rate money market at 2.9%. With average stock returns of 8-15% and inflation at higher than our measly rate, we were definitely losing out. Brian wants to experiment in penny stocks, so we may try that a little bit. Should be interesting. We're pretty much invested in average growth/blend funds with a slant toward internationals. Obviously we have reasons for that, however arcane, and so far they've proven... well, profitable.  Lexy, Norman and I at Lexy's birthday. Photo by Alexis Lerro. Had an amazing party this past weekend. I managed to drink a huge amount (along with whisky shots during the show... but did anyone know about that? Nope! Or at least I hope they didn't... haha) and stay engaged the entire time. I really was deathly tired right before, so the fact that I stayed to the end and was as funny and memorable as I could be on so little sleep was a godsend. I lived through Stimulus' initiation ceremony... which was so not a big deal even though they built up a load of hype on it right before. I also learned who I really, really like - and it scares me a little. But I digress. OCTOBER 23, 2007I went to Denver a few months ago for Media Breakaway's annual conference. Basically, an event trying to bribe us into generating more business with them. I have definite issues with the way they run things, but that's another story. Last year, they dropped lots of money on suites at the Rockies' game, but this year, they cheaped out. The extent of it was stripped-down hotties at a club. Even so, there were some drunk sugar daddy ad execs spreading the love with thousand dollar magnums of Cristal and other champagnes. One of the bottles was $9,000... dunno what it was. I don't think I've spent that much on alcohol ever. I was just thinking of it because of New York next month. Ad-Tech is considerably more tame and business-oriented, but New York is always a treat. Parties and open bars up the wazoo, and Spamalot on the 6th.  The cast of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and I, Evil Charlie Brown. Photo by Shira Bender. Working on You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Surprisingly, I have more leeway in the job than I thought. I thought they'd keep me in my place as act 2 accompanist, but I'm making a lot of decisions that are over-riding or superseding Aaron and Elizabeth as MDs. None of them are very vocal about what they want musically - I'm not even sure what their overall vision is. I think Elizabeth is a little disappointed about something, and so got discouraged (but she's PERFECT as Sally). Aaron lets himself get pushed around. I know it's tough, but they're lucky to get a cast that works well together and makes up for their lack of experience with enthusiasm. No diva-ness, and everybody's patient... even though they clearly could use some work and the show starts WAY earlier than any other musical. OCTOBER 3, 2007In two weeks, I will be attending an engagement party for my cousin Louisa. She's marrying into a Serbian family, so we'll see if there will be any weird ceremonies and traditions. The wedding, when it comes, will be in Chicago by request of her fiancee. It's going to be strange - only a few of our relatives will be at the engagement party, while the whole crowd of his relatives will be there. Well, at least I can relax... not the same pressure as I had at my friend Jonathan's wedding a few weeks ago. I grew up kinda simultaneously with him, and while I'm closer in age to his brother David, I can say that I was around for a good portion of his younger life. Now he's a dentist and doing all sorts of fancy stuff in North York, and now having fun with his posh, hot wife. A few rich, beautiful society girls at the wedding... I at least got one entree into their circles because I didn't botch the wedding music. One is a opera singer training for a professional career at the Mannes School of Music. She's got an awesome voice. And everything else is just super too. In November, I'm headed off for my yearly European jaunt. I feel like such a douchebag for having a "yearly European jaunt," but since I've been for three straight years, I probably qualify. This time, I'm hitting up Paris and Amsterdam with my brother, who will mark his first time to Europe. I'll be able to hit up all the museums I didn't last time (the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, etc.). I've used up my Continental gift certificates, Hilton HHonors Points and more than a few of my Visa Extras points to get me some swanky flights and stays. If I can time it right, I might be able to see a few of my friends there as well... Matt Kalamar, definitely, and maybe Caroline, Becca and anybody else I can dig up that can fly for a quick trip to Paris.  Louisa and I at an expensive Vancouver "ranch". As I do on a random basis, I've been keeping up with the political news. Blackwater, for example, had me riled today. More than $1 billion in contracts, rampant disregard for both Iraqi civilians, US Army soldiers and US civilians on the ground, disregard for Army planning, etc. Halliburton's $2.7 billion profit equal to 50% of the cost of Gulf War I.... their PROFIT. RUsh Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly being retards as usual, with their racist and insulting sentiments. And then their outraged accusations of everyone else "spinning." I'm fine that they can spit out crap, but they don't take criticism like men - I'm sure it's good for ratings, but do they have to be so blindingly obvious? And then Hillary beating Obama with fundraising... that has me totally surprised. Why is she so attractive to donors? Obama is a lot more daring in his positions, a stance that seems to go well with what Americans are feeling these days according to those recent New York Times and Washington Post polls (aka against war to begin with, for pulling out troops, etc.). Funny how Democrats seem to be saying and doing nothing, even though this is the perfect opportunity. Public is with you, Republican scandals are never-ending.... grow some balls, Dems, please. I think I've managed to burn a bridge without seriously meaning to do so. By basically stonewalling and dropping communication with an old buddy for several months, I basically lost out on our friendship. I guess I don't yet have the balls to start doing something about it, but it's hard to do for so many reasons. We were going to go into business together, but my gut told me his business savvy was not up to par and so I would decline to work with him - a fact that should not have interfered with the other facts of our friendship, but did because I was too embarrassed to tell him so. I delayed it because I had a few business trips, then delayed it some more, and it kept going. At the moment I stopped talking to him, I think he had also just resigned from his job. Therein lies the other reason: I have no idea if he intended on making his living from the business venture, and if he hasn't done anything with the other partner, I don't know if any blame is on me. I'm sure there is some... but I never legally agreed to anything. I'm more concerned that I did not break the hard facts to him personally, and that means I screwed up on a personal level. Bah. I'm sorry, and that does make me a partial douchebag. I just got asked to help out on "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." I've worked on the musical a few times, once in community theatre back in 4th grade, another in middle school during 7th grade and again now... totally different capacities each time, of course. I get to work with Stimulus this time, which will be a first. I've worked, I think, with every other group on Penn's campus that does musical theatre. JUNE 19, 2007Back from Ireland and cleaned up all the work stuff. Several networks dropping out of the incentive industry, so that made a few waves. We're dealing with it pretty well - signed on a few great clients and developing some great sites to increase our volume. By the way, as a soft sell (the only one, I promise), we've got shopping cashback at AEROPOSTALE, TARGET (10%!), CIRCUIT CITY, STAPLES, BEST BUY, BARNES & NOBLE, AKADEMIKS, APPLE ITUNES, the APPLE STORE, AVON, GAMESTOP and much more at http://shopping.instantprofitz.com. Got $800 credit from Continental for hopping off the flight to Dublin. Stayed a day in New Yawk with a couple people (sketchy HoJos was full, so we got a room at the Days) and saw Tarzan. Jane is hot. Me like Jane. Show was pretty ehh, though the beach scene was pretty cool. Flight to Dublin, drinks at the oldest pub in Ireland, Jameson tour and quick whisky guzzle, quickie tour of downtown... and then off on a 2-week whirl around one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It's all green, I kid you not. Miles and miles of rolling green-ness, and more green I have not seen back here in the United States. Crazy. So I'm sitting at this old Irish abbey on top of a hill and for MILES, you can see down into the surrounding countryside and I think... this is the most peaceful place EVER. It's so quiet. I liked Limerick, despite its moniker of Stab City. I didn't get stabbed, and I met some cute chick who was drifting off a bachelorette party and... damn, that really made my time in Limerick. I found some awesome restaurants there and had the best fish fry I can remember - though lots of fish fries came after that that were pretty damn good. The weird thing for me was the mixing. Old people and young fashionistas, all rolling it like it was 1979, in the same pub. Sitting next to some mom and pop couple and their friends (who are into their 4th round) and in come these 20-somethings looking for a lay, and there's no thought of "ohmygod, the scene is, like, so awful tonight". Well, at least they stayed for a while, so it couldn't have been that bad. In another town, I did the same thing (going by myself this time), and there I was, the only Asian in a bar full of crazy wacko Irish people singing karaoke badly. Same vibe, hotties and oldies doing the limbo too. They all love "You'll Never Walk Alone" over there. Dunno why.  Neha, Joel and I in Eireann. Slainte! Photo by Joel Bronstein. I went to stay at Caroline's place in Belgium some of the time. Getting the hang of the trains was fun (with heavy luggage, two layers on a hot day and lack of sleep) but once I was at her house - it was like heaven. Her family is just great, and Caroline's fights with the family are just SO amusing to watch. Sister is a budding singer, Mom is a retired (I think) film person and Dad does equity. Quite a well-read, well-traveled household. Another girl from Brazil was there, and hitting up the salsa clubs with both of them (awesome dancers) was great. Especially when every salsa-dancing gigolo was making eyes at my two chicas - I was the MAN that night. The doors open wide on a good-sized country estate in a medieval village, with pretty gardens and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. So peaceful there. I could have stayed there forever. Good news. I may be able to go back there some time. I can be good with people when I make the effort :) My house is beginning to be PIMP. My room is totally set, with furniture courtesy of IKEA, garage sales and deaths of old ladies with antique furniture. The movers brought over my piano and the fabulous ass statue a few days ago. That's what I'm calling the marble carving that looks, from various descriptions, like a woman's ass or a vagina. Great conversation piece. Next project, TV stand and sofa. Next project after that, painting the stairs. Then landscaping for the backyard... and finally, a deck for the roof. My spot will be the happeningest spot in all of the Fitzwater crackhouse developments. MAY 8, 2007This is my first blog posting in a long time. It's not even at the usual spot. Oh well... the point is, I'm re-inserting myself into the modern world here. Just like the rest of those drivel-spewing snobs, I'm here to provide to you, dear reader, a lengthy dissertation of all items within my purview. Here is my life, my needs, my loves, my wants, my utter being - presented to you in such an imprecise manner as to invite misinterpretation. Saw Rachel tonight for dinner... she's doing really well. I'm always amazed at how far that softspoken girl goes, and how comfy we are even after so many months of not seeing each other. Staff dinner with Alexis, Norm and Brian at Loie's tomorrow night. Also, Mother's Day at McCormick and Schmick's on Friday. Saturday is the huge gala... that's gonna be a tough day. Rehearsing all morning, playing for Monty's reading and then performing America the Beautiful and one other piece at the gala. Man, I still have to find the music. And pay for my spot. Haha, Ben's probably frothing for the moolah right around now. Ireland next week. I am excited, as I should be. I will be hanging out with Neha Bidet-ha, Keuts and Glassman. Monty and Nord will be there, but I can't see drinking up a storm with either one of them. I am looking forward to spending some time with Katelyn (hopefully she's still in Belfast), and definitely seeing Becca in London and Caroline in Brussels. This trip will be heaven before the work grind. Bah.  Katelyn and I at the White Party. Photo by Katelyn Allen. I'm looking forward to watching Heroes in a few minutes. Latest episode, courtesy of modern technology. The only show I have ever watched religiously, and for good reason. Good job, writers. Introduce normal people in normal situations and give them extra stress: dealing with being an ordinary hero. If I could have any power, I'd be taking Peter Petrelli's power. I don't think having a power would be cool unless someone else was there to sympathize and mull it over with. Who better than the person who is donating their power to you for all the time you're in contact? |
