YAHOO!!! - My
favorite type of entry! A tradition that started in
Japan has lived on and I get to tell little
anecdotes I always mean to write but forget from
time to time.
1)
Happy Birthday Sir Paul, you start off my randoms with
another astonishingly creative effort for anyone...let
alone a man who is turning 65:
What a great
title...
Do yourself a
favor and disregard the initial reaction to scoff at
McCartney's first album on the friggin' Starbucks
label. Go buy it somewhere else if you have to, but
buy it. Be as inspired as I continue to be with a
man who could've packed it in 30 years ago and who
doesn't just sing standards or play the old hits...he
creates, and creates, and creates. He is constantly
trying to do something new and puts himself out there
again and again. I hate to do it, but I yet
again bring up Billy Joel who did what most
singer/songwriters do at a certain age and just gave
up. Toured singing piano man for over a decade and
then when he finally releases a new song after 15
years it's a friggin Frank Sinatra rip-off.
I don't mean to be down on him, it's human
nature...and what McCartney continues to do is most
certainly from another planet. There are some
brilliant songs on this album and the only thing that
keeps people from really raving about it is that it's
that old familiar voice. Now almost a curse because it
automatically makes people hear his work differently.
Anyway, gotta move on - but thank you once again
Paul.
2)
So I'm taking a run around my
neighborhood. I've got this new routine
where I run for 30 minutes, but stop
every 5 minutes to drop and do 20 push-ups
and 20 sit-ups, then continue running.
It's pretty much the worst half hour of my
life but the results are good. Anyway, so
this car comes up beside me and the guy
looks at me, almost breaking his neck as
he passes. As if he knows me. The guy is
in his late 40s, early 50s and I've never
seen him before in my life. He parks ahead
of me, gets out of his car and opens his
trunk...then stares me down again and gets
back in his car and follows me. ?! I made
a little
animation
to show you because it's just too friggin'
strange to describe without a visual. I'll
let you watch...
...isn't that
spooky? I mean the guy wasn't intimidating at all, but
he had more than enough chance to look at me and see
I wasn't the guy he thought I was. And if he
by some ridiculous chance actually recognized me from
CBS I can't imagine this was the reaction. I really
have no explanation for it. Just one of those random
things in life.
3)
So Scottie Pippen's penis is two feet long.
I told you these were randoms. This is one of
those stories I thought about awhile back and it
just made me laugh and laugh. In 1995, when I was
in the locker room with the Bulls
(an
old WTVN entry that's actually
up),
Scottie was late coming out of the showers and came
out with just a towel around his waist. I was there
with the rest of the reporters, including a woman, and
I remember how unfair I thought it was that
they had to put up with that. But anyway - he sat down
to put his socks on and his head peaked out of the
bottom of his towel at which point myself and the
woman reporter immediately turned around trying to act
like we didn't see what we just saw. It then dawned on
me as I looked down at my own distance from my
crotch to my knee that what I just witnessed
belonged in a fucking museum...and Mr. Pippen is a
foot taller than me. So when he finally got
dressed and we were interviewing him I kept staring at
the length from his waist to his knee in utter shock.
It had to be over 3 feet, and his monster
peeked out about 2-3 inches from his knee
SITTING DOWN. So you do the math. Now maybe
there's just some "reporter's code" about never
mentioning such a thing for fear of making the athlete
angry, but for fuck's sake feel free to anger me if I
ever throw that over my shoulder in public
view. Criminey.
4)
They did fully recover my 500 gig harddrive for the
hefty price of $2000 plus a new drive. Gulp. I'm now
trying to desperately negotiate the price on the other
drives as I am not only completely out of money since
the CBS hiatus is gonna reach 4 months, but I'm
also in debt up to my ears and living on fumes at the
moment. This will however be the last time I ever deal
with this again. Rest assured. I have set-up a
RAID 1 system over 3 Terabytes and every single thing
I do will automatically be saved on a mirrored
drive - forever. If a drive gets filled, I will
take it, put it in a safety deposit box and replace it
with another drive giving me 3 working copies. This
simply is never happening again. The peace of mind
knowing that everything I do is being saved on a
mirrored drive without any extra work on my part is
almost impossible to describe in words. What an
absolute nightmare this has been.
5)
What hasn't been a nightmare (except for the waiting)
is my new baby:
In putting
together Living Room Live this last time I completely
destroyed my laptop and part of the long negotiations
with CBS were about a new system so I can
continue to edit and prepare each show for them.
Although I'm fairly certain none of us involved ever
want to go through that process again, the end result
is going to be an even more advanced show (think Price
is Right bit - EVERY week) and my own piece of mind
that I don't have to stay up for 2 straight nights to
get it done in time. With 4 intel processors at 3ghz a
piece and 8 gigs of ram - I will be an editing,
rendering, and compressing machine. In a cruel twist
of fate I had to leave for Columbus the day I got
this puppy and am jonesin' somethin' awful to get back
on that thing and finish what needs to be done before
I start editing on it. Unfortunately I get back
Wednesday night and shoot Thursday morning so pulling
off the first episode by Sunday at noon is gonna be
TOUGH. I'll pull it off though. Also - the tower is
the most massive thing I've ever witnessed. I thought
the UPS lady was bringing me a washing machine.
Had no idea these things could be so big.
6)
From 1990-1995 I kept a detailed audio journal
about everything going on in my life at the time.
I know, big shock right? I've been in the process
of transferring it from tape to digital audio files
slowly reconstructing who this Adam character was in
the 90s. It's easily the most surreal thing I've ever
gone through. And I don't have a few
tapes...I have 15 hours. So it's absolutely like
being there. From covering the gulf war to losing my
virginity, the memories and visuals that flood through
your mind as you spend time with yourself as a kid
is... well to me it's wonderful. Because what better
lesson in who you are than understanding where you
came from? I have to say however, I can't
see these ever being public. Besides boring most
people to fucking tears, it's really like...my soul.
You know? I mean I write these entries
knowing they're going to be read. To say these were
never meant to be heard by anyone but me is an
understatement and some things aren't even
voyeuristically fun to listen to. It'll probably be a
great tool for the day when I have teenagers, but
I think more than anything it's taught me that I was
who I am now - by the time I was 14 years
old. Almost disarmingly so. My mom says that was true
at 5, but what I mean is that I really seemed to have
a grasp on who I was and what my place in this
world was even as a teenager. I embraced my talents
and dreamt as big as possible. I was ridiculously
passionate about my beliefs, I constantly saw the
good in every girl I was ever with and wanted
desperately to help them. All the while dealing with
hormones and a sex drive that was almost
unbelieveable. I don't know how teenage boys function
sometimes. My GOD when I listen to myself at that
age... the angst is just... whew. There's a
marked difference in me before and after sex
that is pretty remarkable. What a transformation your
teenage years are. Anyway, thought I'd mention it as
it's really been an eye opener.
7)
A week later however, the only eye opener about the
Sopranos seems to be just how many people still
believe in the "Meadow Ending". People, there'd be
proof by now...wouldn't there? Just a crazy, crazy
social experiment on stress and memories. Just
fascinating. I however don't feel a whole lot
different than I did when I wrote about it a
couple entries back. Recently a spokesman for HBO and
some comments by David Chase really fueled the "Tony
got shot" theory and I have to admit - they've
been building up to that for 9 friggin episodes. And
then the scene, from the onion ring communion, to the
"Member's Only" jacket the supposed killer wore
(the name of the episode when Junior shot Tony), to
Bobby mentioning it all just "goes black", there is
certainly more pointing to him being dead than being
alive - but it's all still somewhat frustrating. As
I mentioned before, it's out of place with where
the last 9 episodes took you - hell, as was the whole
episode. I mean, all the sudden Phil's crew turns
on him and comes to Tony? Everything works out? Huh?
That was feasible the first couple of years, but just
seems lazy after the dark winding road we've been down
the past few months. Time will tell however.
I have a feeling Chase comments more before its
all said and done. Everyone says he had a
specific ending in mind and a few people know
it. Good stuff.
8)
Speaking of good stuff, "Knocked Up" is brilliant. I
haven't seen a more well-balanced comedy since When
Harry Met Sally. No weak points at all to me,
constantly funny...and at the end it's still a date
movie and you sit there as the credits roll wanting a
baby. Fastest 2 hours I've spent in a movie theater...
well since making out with my girlfriend in "Dances
With Wolves". Heh. Those audio journals man... lol.
Anyway, I just had to mention it somewhere
because I walked out of that theater shocked.
All the recent comedies, although they've had
funny parts, always drag at some point when it
comes to the love interest, or whatever moral they
feel is necessary to throw in there. I don't know what
it was about this movie, but it just never did
that for me. And the performances were absolutely
perfect. So hats off to everyone involved and Mr.
Apatow, prepare for the chorus of "Well it wasn't as
good as Knocked Up" no matter what you do next. That
means you've made it. :-)
9)
While I'm singing the praises of someone other than me
(hahaha) let me tell you all to buy this video camera
immediately:
Canon's new
HV20
For under $1000,
this puppy is not only able to do full 1080 high
definition - it can pull of a true 24 frames per
second progressively. To those who aren't
techno-geeks, that means it looks like film.
A lot like film...and in high definition. There's
even more fancy attatchments and things you can do to
bring it closer and closer to film - but out of the
box, I've gotta tell you, you'll destroy a pair of
pants the first time you see what this can do. I
simply cannot wait until I can really put a short
film together with this puppy. It looks like that'll
be the wedding. Good times. Oh and will the freakin'
format war declare a winner already so I know
what type of burner I need to buy for my own
high-def movies? GODDAMN it's annoying having no
medium to put this shit on. GRRRRRR.
10)
Mr. Obama. Whew. Anyone actually think he won't get
shot? Is this the most eerie parallel to 1968 and
Bobby Kennedy? I've been jokingly calling him Barack
O'bobby Kennedy recently because it just seems so
primed to work out like that. He keeps gaining steam,
and I just don't see how he's going to be able to
campaign in the south at the beginning of next year.
If you think this country isn't ready for a woman
president, they're surely not ready for a black
one. And am I missing something with Hilary? I can't
listen to her for more than 15 seconds without the
hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Im not
saying a woman can't be president but for the love of
non-bleeding eardrums - it can't be her. Every,
single, sentence she speaks sounds like a nagging wife
or mother. Every single one! I know she's a
brilliant woman who I do believe would do wondrous
things for this country - but I am not sitting through
4 years of listening to that shit. No way. Even for
universal health care.
11)
Speaking of which - had a chance to see an advance
copy of "Sicko" this weekend and it's pretty spot-on.
Whereas Fahrenheit 911 annoyed the fuck out of me
because the truth was bad enough and you didn't need
such dripping bias on Moore's part, "Sicko" really has
little room to counterpunch. It's certainly heavy
handed and he only shows his side of it... but
you're hard pressed to hear these stories and find
many other reasonable explanations. The bottom line
(and Moore didn't invent this), the healthcare system
is set-up to reward companies for giving
less care. It's the only way they make money.
The system is broken and has been for a long time.
Other countries DO do it better. That isn't
anti-American and this isn't a news flash. I hope
it is however a wake-up call for Americans on a couple
points. One, go get in fucking shape already. Want to
avoid the health care system? Eat less, move more -
that way you don't have to rely on them. And two,
think long and hard about where your fear of the term
"socialized medicine" comes from. The concept isn't
evil. It's been fed to you as evil your whole life.
It's a scare tactic. Our firemen are socialized
because it's a need of the SOCIETY and we don't
think twice about it. Imagine if firefighters or
policeman were run by insurance companies. Imagine
talking with someone on the phone while your house is
burning down trying to explain who is at FAULT or
trying to get pre-approval before they send someone
out. Ridiculous right? So is our healthcare system.
And the rest of the world thinks we're insane for it.
No, they know we're insane for it. It's capitalism at
it's most dangerous. I mean, my father pays more
for health insurance than he does for his friggin'
mortgage. And he's considered one of the lucky ones?
Whew...
12)
And finally, let me reiterate once again that I'm
incredibly happy with Donna and have been for
quite some time. It killed me to have to announce
everything last entry in such a defensive mode, but
I felt there needed to be an explanation. Yes,
I'm saddened that people continue to treat me like an
idiot savant that must be horrendous at
relationships, but I know that it's the opposite. If
I was horrendous at relationships Jess and
I would still be together. It was love that
allowed us to let go, and we are both beeming
because of it. So just realize that my state of mind
is very peaceful and ready to take on the challenge of
blowing everyone away each week with the
Egos.
