I've been stuck in the editing bay since 8am this morning with little time to anything other than work. I locked my first show since I've been back, and was reminded how much the network can manage to suck the life and creativity right out of a show. It's not just THIS network. It's every network. If you could see the original versions of things before it goes through the network, I guarantee you would enjoy television much, much more. So, I locked that show and started another. The office is closed on Monday, but since I'm freelance, I don't get paid for the holiday. If I don't want to lose a day of pay (I don't), I have to make up those 8 hours during the other 4 days of the week. I worked 10 hours yesterday, am working 12 today, and 10 tomorrow. My days off are now Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll still end up with a three day weekend, which will hopefully be plenty of time to paint my office.

The song of the day is "Give a Little Bit" by the Goo Goo Dolls off their 2006 album Let Love In. I could have easily picked a handful of other songs by the band, but I heard this on the radio on my way home last night and remembered how much I like their version of this song. I liked the Fleetwood Mac version, of course, but the Goo Goo Dolls managed to cover a great song and make it new and fresh instead of ruining what was great about the original.

I spent a good deal of yesterday prepping for my office makeover, which included emptying out my office. I'm getting rid of most of the furniture in there, except for my desk, and I needed to empty out both large book cases so I could move them. I've always had a very personal relationship with my books. I don't like to let them go. If I've read it, I have to keep it. If someone loans me a book and I enjoy it, I still have to go out and buy it to put on my shelf. Ever since I was a little kid, I've had fantasies of living in some huge mansion where I can have my very own library, the walls lined from floor to ceiling with books I have actually read. Since I want to slim down to one book shelf up there, I knew many of my books would have to be permanently boxed up to go into the garage.

As I was boxing, I have to be honest, I noticed quite a few books that don't really need to stay in my collection, and I think I'll need to have a book sale. I'm pretty sure I don't need any of the textbooks from college, or a thesaurus (since I can do that online now). Nor do I need the lines of paperback science fiction books I read in junior high and high school, or the pulp fiction I picked up for an easy read in the airport. This photo is of the boxes of books I have temporarily stored in my spare shower while I paint and carpet. This doesn't include the other 6 boxes in my garage with things like my Nancy Drew collection in them. When I was a kid, my father used to take bags and bags of books to a used book store and trade them in on more books. This would sort of defeat my purpose. Then, I would just have another round of books I'd have to decide on keeping or trading. Considering the books and furniture I need to dump, I'm seriously considering a garage sale.

The song for the day is "Operation Spirit" by Live off their 1991 album Mental Jewelry. I saw this song on MTV when I was young enough to still watch it, and they were young enough to still play them. The band members were still incredibly young when this album came out, and I was impressed by the depth of their music, especially the lyrics of this song which really spoke to me. This wasn't a big hit for them and they would go on to become a much bigger band, but this is the song I will always remember them for.

Work yesterday was a bust. I showed up at 4:45 to surprisingly find plenty of parking spaces. We've totally outgrown our space, so people showing up at night can usually not find spaces and have to park up the street and move their cars later. There wasn't just one space open, there were like 10. Something was afoot. I went inside to find the entire Post department empty. Offices were open, lights were on, but computers were off and there wasn't a person in sight. I thought about Vanilla Sky for a moment before I finally ran into someone else. As it turns out, our network had gone down at 4 and they had sent the day people home. It still wasn't up and we wouldn't be able to work until it was. We waited and waited, tried to entertain ourselves, moved aimlessly from room to room looking for interesting conversations. It was a bit like The Breakfast Club but without the essay or the moronic Vice Principal. The SAN had never went down any time I'd been there. I'd heard that it had before, but was usually never down for more than an hour or two. At midnight, they finally cut us loose and sent us home. That's right - an entire boring shift with not a minute of work to show for it. At least I got paid.

No wonder Wally didn't want to go to work yesterday, which is why he was hiding behind this tree, making me chase him around and around it. The lack of work meant he got a ton of attention at the office last night, leading many of us to believe that Wally may have deliberately peed on the SAN to make it go down.


I went out today and tried to figure out what color paint to do the office in. I now have a bunch of paint swatches in different shades of brown. Shall I pick Madras Curry? Chocolate chip? Or perhaps go crazy with Earthly Glimmer? I next went to a carpet company someone recommended as being able to give a good deal. I was just going to look and get an idea, and the next thing I knew, I was getting pressure to make a deal and put a deposit down today. I decided to go back and look in a few weeks when I'm more ready to shell out the dough and get it installed.

The song of the day is "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe off their 1996 album Villans. Have you ever heard a song on the radio, and you don't know who the band is or who's singing it, but you know you absolutely MUST go out and buy the CD? That's how this song was for me. I love the emotion of this song, the story of which is based in fact. If you don't know it, you should definitely check it out.

Since I've only been working 40 hours a week, and only playing in one hockey league, I've found that I have way to much time on my hands. You would think that I would have taken advantage of all this extra time by doing things like writing, going to the beach, taking Wally on hikes, cleaning up my front yard, etc. However, I've ended up spending my of it doing things like watching several episodes of "The Two Corey's" in a row and napping.

I've decided I need a project, so I want to completely redo my office. This is a good time to do it because since I'm not working on something like BL, I'm not editing at home and using it. Here's a photo of what it looks like right now:

My office has been that color for 5 years, and I'm really tired of it. I wanted to do something bold which is how it ended up like that, but it doesn't match the earth tones of the rest of my house which looks more like this:

I've decided to paint the office some shade of brown. Since I have to move most of the furniture to paint, I thought I'd take advantage of the situation and finally get new carpet put in this room and my bedroom. The carpet is what was originally in there - a horrid shade of light gray which is disgusting and dirty from having a dog in the house who occasionally gets sick (and doesn't always have the sense to do it on the tile). I had thought of getting Design on a Dime to redo the room, since it would be pretty easy to arrange, but a) I'm too much of a control freak to let someone else have that kind of control, and b) I think I swear too much to be on television. I don't think they'd like the big reveal to go something like this: "What the fuck did you guys do?!"

Today, I visited a carpet store and the guy is coming over soon to give me an estimate. I also went to a futon store, since I want to get rid of my little couch and replace it with something my rare guests can actually sleep on. Next, I need to figure out what sort of paint I want to get, and start boxing up everything in my office. I also have a ton of books that are overflowing two bookshelves, and I need to figure out what I want to do about that, since getting rid of the books is not an option. Stay tuned for more decorating updates.

The song of the day is "Black Metallic" by Catherine Wheel off their 1992 debut album Ferment. I really should look into more of the band's music, because I've always loved the sound of this song. This song was the biggest U.S. hit for the UK band. Back in the mid-90s, I became friends with a guitar player in L.A. who used to come over to my house to jam with me on bass. He was a much better bassist and taught me how to play this song on the guitar so he could play the bass line. I wish I could still remember how to play it.

A couple of you asked yesterday about the Nike/iPod running system. I'll try my best to explain it, because I've never actually used it myself. First off, you need an iPod Nano. Apparently, it will only work with this model of iPod. Second, you need a Nike + iPod Sport Kit which retails for about $29. Thirdly, you need a pair of Nike+ running shoes. The iPod Sport Kit comes with a little sensor that goes into a little pocket beneath the insole of the Nike+ shoes. It also comes with a receiver that plugs into the iPod Nano. According to the Apple web site, "As your run or walk, the sensor sends information to your iPod nano, tracking your time, distance, pace, and calories burned. If you choose, real-time, spoken feedback can even alert you to milestones throughout your workout." So, while you're running, if you've set in a distance, a voice will break into your music and tell you, "You have one more mile remaining." Once you finish your run and get home, you can then transfer your workout data to iTunes and nikeplus.com. "There, you can evaluate your performance history, set goals, and even challenge other runners to a virtual race." Not bad for a $29 product. I hear it actually works pretty well.

And since many of you also asked - I'm pretty sure I beat Mason. While a lot of little kids did run the actual 5k (and many finished before me), I don't think Mason did. I think he was either there to walk or do the little kids' run later in the morning. He had a big support group, though. They all had matching orange t-shirts that said "Team Mason" on them. There must have been about 10 of them. He was super cute. I was going to go over and get a photo of myself with him, but I didn't want to creep out his parents.

The song of the day is "Glutton of Sympathy" by Jellyfish off their 1993 album Spilt Milk. I'd never heard of these guys until someone gave me a mix tape with this song on it back when the album was new. I loved it instantly and had to go buy the whole CD which is great through and through. If you've never heard them, I recommend checking them out. I was going to post the video here, but YouTube seems to be cracking down more and more on material with a copyright.

I did the 5k run for the CCFA this morning. It's the first organized run I've ever done. I wouldn't exactly say I've been training, but I've tried to run the same distance 2-3 times a week over the past month or so. I will say now that I should have planned my training route up and down some hills instead of over flat terrain. As it turns out, the UCLA campus has a decent amount of hills on it. I was sure it would take me forever to run it (I can usually run 5k in about 33:00), especially when I was only 10 minutes in and saw the leader of the pack doubling around already (he finished in just over 15:00). I didn't have a bad run - I finished at 31:07, which was about 111 of 246. That's just barely in the upper half, in front of...well...people walking, old people, and people missing limbs. A little part of me died inside when the guy pushing the baby jogger sped past me. Here I am entering the finish area. I really had to sprint to beat the old man behind me.


Since I'd never been to an organized run, especially a charity one, I didn't know what to expect. There were lots of booths set up from drug manufacturers who make medication for the disease, along with places like Whole Foods (good eating helps if you have Crohn's) and Nike (pushing their iPod integrated running system). I got a ton of swag from the drug companies. I've always wanted a Pentasa stapler! I wonder how annoyed the GI doctors of the city will be when all their patients come in saying, "Hey, what about THIS drug? Why am I not on THIS? They promised it worked the best!"

After the event, a Bluegrass band hit the stage. I abhor Bluegrass music. It's every little bit of country that makes my skin crawl multiplied to the nth degree. It became even worse when I realized they were performing Bluegrass covers of songs like "Take It On the Run" by REO Speedwagon and "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones. I'd also like to point out that I've never been to a public event where the number of port-a-potties were about twice what they really needed for the size of the group. At least they took into consideration the disease everyone was there to fight against.

The song of the day is "A Lifetime" by Better Than Ezra off their 2005 album Before the Robots. Someone commented when I wrote about "Hotel California" about liking songs that tell a story, and I've always liked that, too. It seems pretty rare that many modern musicians do that. I've liked this band since their 1993 debut album, and this song really caught me the first time I heard it. It's about a girl on her way to her high school graduation who gets in a car wreck and dies. Her friends go to her wake, run in, steal her urn and take it down to the beach to spread her ashes and fulfill what they knew would have been her final wishes. Interesting story, and a great song.

I'm doing my 5k run tomorrow morning. I haven't been running as much as I would have liked, but am reasonably sure I can make it to the finish line without walking OR passing out. As long as the route isn't through a hilly neighborhood. Little 7-year-old Mason, who I was once ahead of in fundraising, managed to raise about twice as much money as me. He certainly had the cute factor going for him. My friend, Madeline, is coming to the run with me and has promised to jog alongside Mason and trash talk him for the whole 5k. Thanks to all of you who donated money and helped me raise nearly $2800 for the cause.

I'd like to plug a new blog today. Remember my friend, Rob, who came to visit recently? He's decided to try to blog, as well. It shouldn't be hard for him, considering he's a big time webmaster for Tribune Entertainment and works for the FOX and WB affiliates in Seattle. (Yes, Mishy - he found your post about the "internets" being broken quite humorous). He promises to blog both about his work as a webmaster for the news department, and about his personal life as a gay man on a mission to change his wardrobe in Seattle. I guarantee you'll find his blog either informative or entertaining. (No pressure here, Rob!)

The song of the day is one that's been stuck in my head for about a week. It's called "Save Yourself" by a band called Sense Field. While the song was originally released off the band's 2001 album Tonight and Forever, I came to know it when it was used on the Roswell soundtrack. Call it Emo or whatever you need to, but it's a great song. I don't know anything else by the band, but I could listen to this song over and over again. This video sounds a little different from the one I'm familiar with, but close enough:

When I payed for my dinner at Rubio's this evening, I got three brand new shiny one dollar coins as change. I'm a big fan of the one and two dollar coins, because it seems like every single foreign country I've ever visited has them and they seem, for some reason, to be easier to use. The U.S. Mint keeps making new and different dollar coins every few years, but they seem to give up in frustration when the dollar coins aren't embraced. I'm not sure who hasn't yet figured out that if you want people to use the dollar COINS you need to stop making the dollar BILLS.

This nerdy looking 17-year-old is George Hotz of Glen Rock, NJ - the wonder boy who became the first to unlock the iPhone making it possible to be used by service providers other than AT&T. Currently, T-Mobile is the only other major carrier in the US that is compatible with the phone's cellular technology, called GSM. However, smaller companies use the technology, and it is the primary technology for mobile phones in Asia and Europe. Hotz used a soldering iron to modify the inside of the phone, along with some software hacks. He posted the hack on his blog today, and a second phone which he unlocked was put up for sale on eBay. I can only assume all the bids are bogus at this point, since the price when I checked it was at nearly a billion dollars. The young Hotz spent about 500 hours and most of his summer vacation working to unlock the phone.

Hey! I just noticed that there's now an "Add Video" option on Blogger. I'll have to find something to upload to see how that works.

The song of the day is "Purple Rain" by prince off the 1984 soundtrack album from his movie of the same name. I must admit, I've never been a huge Prince fan, but have really enjoyed some of his music, including this song. I can also say I've never seen this movie all the way through. I doubt it's worth it, but some of you may think differently. At any rate, a great song, from a great soundtrack.

We lost our championship game last night. It was a very tight game and I would say our teams were very well matched. We were up by one goal with less than 6 minutes remaining in regulation when they scored to tie it up on a power play. The game went into overtime, and they scored the golden goal. I'm not going to say it doesn't totally suck to have not won the championship, but at least we got to go to the game, which is saying a lot for a team who had never played together before three months ago. We still finished the season in first, and they can't take that away from us. You can see the game breakdown here. Here are some photos of the game, courtesy of Kings Fan and my point and shoot camera. If you see someone in red wearing #11 or a red helmet, that would be me.


The song of the day is "Lonesome Loser" (sigh) by the Little River Band off their 1979 album Under the Wire. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this 70s soft rock Australian band, and this song is no exception. And today, it seems a little fitting.

Welcome to Wally Wednesday - here he is from a few weeks ago with his girlfriend, Mobay. Mobay is Madeline's great dane. Unfortunately, Wally has a habit of going for much older women and they keep dying on him. Mobay is his third. Poor Wally.


Our big game is tonight. I've been playing "Eye of the Tiger" all day to psych myself up. What we really need to win is a montage.

I found this shot, inexplicably, in some random stock footage of suburban Atlanta, GA. I've been trying to figure out for a week what the sign originally read when some prankster kids changed the letters around to say this:


A Robek's Juice opened up in Pasadena around 6-8 months ago. Every day since they opened, this guy has been out there in a banana suit. This isn't the greatest photo, since I shot it with my iPhone while driving by this afternoon, but he's a little, old hispanic guy. On the one hand, I'm glad someone has been more than happy to employ him - he seems to have a full time gig. On the other hand, after all he may have been through in his life, I feel bad he's relegated to standing on a street corner in 90 degree heat wearing this banana costume.


Finally, can you tell I was hungry when I went to the grocery store this afternoon?


The song of the day is "Mutual Surrender (What a Wonderful World)" by Bourgeois Tagg off their 1986 self-titled album. I really liked the few songs I heard by this duo back in the 80s and was always a bit surprised that they never seemed to get off the ground here. I used my other favorite by them, "I Don't Mind at All" before. If you don't remember "Mutual Surrender," check out this really poor quality video. At least you can hear the song.

Even though I hate anything that remotely looks like reality TV, I was curious to watch the show The Two Coreys with Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. While I loathe reality television, I do love me some 80s, and I thought it would be interesting to watch these two has-beens sinking to this low of agreeing to do this show. (In fact, Feldman is the executive producer, so I'm sure it was his idea in the first place). The show revolves around the two Coreys as Haim has come to visit Feldman and stay for a few weeks with he and his wife. Haim is a slob, not working, can't seem (for whatever reason) to get laid, and a smoker and meat eater. The Feldman's have a stable relationship, apparently that Corey is doing work of SOME kind (I can't imagine what), he's a clean freak, both he and his wife are vegetarians and involved with PETA. As for the wife, as far as I can tell, she's a whiny little bitch who complains about everything Haim does. It's both embarrassing and entertaining to watch as Haim continues to push as many buttons as he can to see where the limits are. I'm ashamed to say I will tune in again. Also, according to the web site for the show, there is a Lost Boys 2 in the works which both Coreys will return to, along with Keifer Sutherland's half brother, Angus. All I have to say is...wow. Really, wow. I can honestly say I can not wait to see it.

Our championship game is tomorrow night. I don't want to say we're the underdogs, but the other team is pretty good. They play well together and have some 18-year-old Junior Kings playing with them. I'm expecting our Captain, James, to give this speech in the locker room:



The song of the day is "Here Comes the Rain Again" by the Eurythmics off their 1983 album Touch. Who knew when "Sweet Dreams" hit the charts that this duo would have such a long and successful career? This is another of their hits that I really liked. Considering the hollow poppiness of so much music from that decade, the Eurythmics had a much more mature sound and a deeper, more angst ridden tone. It's no surprise that they outlasted so many of their contemporaries. I still love Lennox's voice.

I had a very odd dream last night involving John Slattery, the Santa Anita race track, a wrap party, and my hometown of Vancouver. I'd chalk the Slattery part up to having watched Mad Men before going to bed, except that he wasn't even in the episode that I watched. Santa Anita? Perhaps influenced by the last Psych I watched. The rest, I have no idea. And no, I was not on anything. What is it about my dreams that I don't even shoot for a George Clooney, but get a character actor? Although, there certainly is something about Slattery that I've always liked.

I read today that Ryan Seacrest is going to host the Emmy Awards. Why does he have to keep infiltrating everything on TV to make it unwatchable? And what has to be done to make him go away? I'm just saying.

The song of the day is "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads off their 1977 debut album Talking Heads 77 (I guess they used up all their creativity writing the songs). I couldn't get into the band when I was younger. I just didn't get them. But I've grown to have much more appreciation for the Talking Heads over the years, especially this song.

Whoo-hoo! We won our playoff game last night and advance to the Championship game. The team we played came out strong in the first period, and I worried that if they kept playing like that, we would have little chance of winning. They scored first in the 2nd period, but we came back two minutes later with a goal. We scored again with 5 minutes left in the 2nd. The game was still pretty tight until their goalie knocked one into his own net in the middle of the 3rd. They still played hard, but I think that sort of caused them to lose faith. For the third season in a row, we will compete for the championship. At the risk of using a lame Lakers term, we may be in for a three-peat. Thanks to fellow bloggers Diane and LA for cheering from the stands...or at least sitting drunkly in the stands.

I believe I've alluded before to how not in touch I am with news and world events. I tend to only read the headlines on the internet and stay away from actual newspapers, which generally put me right to sleep (and leave ink on my hands). So maybe someone can inform me if I'm missing some key information. It's regarding the horrible mine collapse in Utah in which 6 men were buried. I understand they've had rescue attempts going, but have been able to find out anything about the state of the buried men since the accident happened two weeks ago. In the process of trying to rescue the buried miners, three more men have died in a cave in. That's now 6 lost, and 3 dead. I don't want to sound callous, because believe me, my heart and thoughts go out to the families of all the miners and rescue workers involved in this disaster. My question is...does anyone know how long they will attempt a rescue? Will they keep digging until they ultimately find men or bodies, regardless of the amount of time that has elapsed? And additionally, does anyone (Sage maybe?) know what the longest miners have been buried and still rescued is?

The song of the day is "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister off their 1984 album Stay Hungry. Sure, the song was a catchy one-hit-wonder, but how 'bout that video? I love Mark Metcalf as the angry father screaming at his kid as he reprised the role of Neidermeyer from Animal House. When you see the video on TV, you can see the spit coming out of his mouth as he yells. As for Twisted Sister's "style"...a guy in makeup and what looks like tasseled football pads? I vaguely remember a scheduled concert in Portland for them back in the day that had to be canceled due to lack of ticket sales. Go figure.

If any of you have read this recent article, you have probably come to the same conclusion I have - Ethan Hawke is a sniveling little child. In the article, he talks about the stress and pressures of a celebrity marriage such as the one he had with actress Uma Thurman. "It's unfair when one person's career is taking off and the other is really suffering," he said. (You mean when HER career is taking off and YOURS is not?) "The person you share your life with isn't in the mood to support," Hawke says. "You want to have a pity party for yourself, but they're off to the Golden Globes and you don't want to go because everyone is going to think you are jealous." Right...everyone will THINK you're jealous, but you're really NOT. I wonder when he gave this interview if he really thought he'd be able to pull this off as one actor talking nonchalantly about celebrity marriages in general. Hawke continues, "Joanne Woodward put her career on the back burner for that marriage (to Paul Newman) to last. And something's got to give." Stupid, stupid Uma for getting rid of poor, sensitive Ethan. (By the way, Ethan, I hate to point out the obvious, but you're no Paul Newman).

A guy I work with is in a band. I know they've been playing around a lot and getting known a big. He has cool Duran Duran hair that he somehow pulls off right in 2007. Anyway, they're called Folio and they're inspired by early 80s synth pop music. Check out their MySpace page and give them a listen. As I'm sure you could have predicted, I like their sound. (You can purchase songs on iTunes if you happen to like it, too). It does have that retro 80s sound but still manages to sound new. They're playing a free show up at Universal Citywalk next Saturday for an Indie 103 thing. I think I may go to check them out.

The song of the day is The Cure's "Let's Go To Bed," released as a single in 1982 after the release of their album Pornography. The song would later appear on a compilation album. As with much music of this type, I was never a huge fan of the band but loved, love this song.

I've read before that you can be moved, detained, or even arrested for wearing anti-Bush clothing or holding anti-Bush signs anywhere the President is appearing. I had heard that during a parade, people who were protesting Bush were only allowed to be in a single spot along the route. Sort of seems a little anti-freedom of speech, don't you think? Jeff and Nicole Rank wore such shirts to a speech the president was giving at the West Virginia State Capitol on July 4, 2004. Their shirts had a photo of George W. on the front with the international "no" sign stamped over it. The back of Nicole's shirt read "Love America, Hate Bush," while Jeff's shirt back read, "Regime Change Starts at Home." The couple were asked to cover their shirts and they refused. They were handcuffed and arrested that day. The couple sued the federal government and today won a settlement in the amount of $80,000. If only we could all make money off our dislike of Dubya.

Since I've been running a lot lately (which means a few times a week), I've also been using my iPod much more than normal. A problem I've always had with running with an iPod is the headphones. I've been using the over-the-ear-
and-behind-the-head phones for a long time since I haven't been able to find anything better. I see everyone else using ear buds, but every time I try to use a pair they're either really painful after a few minutes, or they fall right out of my ears the moment I move. I thought I'd be stuck with my old sweaty Sony headphones forever. Then I did some looking around on the internet and found these Sennheiser MX75 sport ear buds. They have an extra padded knob on them that holds them firmly in place in your ear. I'm now able to run and move around as much as I want and they never fall out, and they're also comfortable enough for me to forget that they're in. I'm not usually a product plugger, but these ear buds have been a great find and because they're Sennheiser's, they sound AWESOME. If you've had the same problems I have, you might want to give them a try. They're only about $35 on Amazon.

The song of the day is "Lust For Life" by Iggy Pop off his 1977 album of the same name. Of course, I've heard of Iggy Pop, but I never knew much about him. In fact, I didn't know that he's the one who sang this song until recently. It's another great example of the early punk movement and its ability to stay fresh even 30 years later. If you don't think you know Iggy or this song, take a look at the video - you'll recognize it from half a dozen commercials.

Virgin America, a new branch of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, took flight for the first time on August 8th. The airline currently only operates between Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. A look at their current introductory fares makes me want to book a flight in first class just for fun - only $149 each way between here and the Bay.
These are the planes of the future and wired for everything a gadget geek like me would need, from 110v plug ins at every seat, USB ports, and two WiFi ports on board for an in flight network. That's right - now you can chat with other members on the plane while listening to your iPod which has zero chance of running out of juice. The planes also feature mood lighting, leather seats (with massage capability in first class), a bank of 3,000 MP3s on board and on-demand movies at every seat. Additionally, you can order fresh food when you want it via the touch screen at your seat. Also, the flights are cashless - swipe your card for whatever you want and you're done. And for you game players, no more solitaire - say hello to Doom and other such games. A review I read said the interior of the plane felt like "a big happy iPod." It sounds like heaven. I can't wait to take a trip.

The song of the day is "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones off their 1978 album Road to Ruin. It's a catchy song that I always find myself singing along to in the car. The band formed in 1974, and though they didn't have a lot of commercial success, they toured nearly non-stop for 22 years until their breakup in 1996. Oddly, the band's three founding members — Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone—died within eight years of the band's breakup.

It's Wally Wednesday! Here's a photo of the boy taking full advantage of the Huntington Dog Beach from last Friday:


I noticed today in the IMDb that casting has finally been announced for the film version of The Time Traveler's Wife, one of my all-time favorite books. Many directors have been attached and then unattached over the past couple of years, but it appears the film might finally be in pre-production. I'm not sure how happy I am with the casting of the two leads - Eric Bana as Henry De Tamble and Rachel McAdams as Claire Abshire. I am even less impressed with the guy who finally drew the straw to direct - German Robert Schwentke, who aside from doing Flightplan, hasn't really done much of anything at all. Because of the amount of time travel and aging involved in the story, I knew this would be a very difficult movie to pull off. I hope Schwentke can manage it and make the movie worthwhile.

The song of the day is "London Calling" by The Clash off their 1980 album of the same name. While the band had two previous albums, this was the first to break wide open in the US and would become an influential album in the history of rock music. I love the sound of the British punk music from this era, and still think "London Calling" sounds as fresh today as it did back then.

I was ecstatic when I woke up this morning to find the season premiere of Weeds on my Tivo. I absolutely love that show, and the only thing I don't like about it is that it's only 30 minutes long. Right as everything gets interesting, the show abruptly ends, resulting in another week of waiting for the next episode. If you haven't watched this show about a young widow in Los Angeles supporting her family as a marijuana dealer in the suburbs, I highly recommend it.

Just as entertaining was the pilot for David Duchovny's Californication. The role of Hank Moody, emotionally bankrupt writer and divorced father, is a departure for Duchovny from dour Fox Mulder of the X-Files. I love Moody's sick sense of humour and inappropriate behaviour. I had a few favorite moments from this episode. I think the best might have been when Hank was having sex a girl he picked up at a book store who punched him in the head (twice) in the middle of her orgasm. He would later discover she's the 16-year-old daughter of his ex-wife's current fiance (oops). After watching only the pilot, I've already got the show on my Tivo as a season pass, and can't wait to see what else Hank Moody has in store for us.

The song of the day is "If You Leave" by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark released in 1986 on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. OMD, a popular band in the UK, had their biggest US hit with this song (which, ironically, was virtually ignored in the UK). I loved this movie, and love the soundtrack nearly as much. I can't hear this song without thinking of Duckie and the gang from this movie.