Not this again: NYC threatens to become the 51st state (NY Times)
I have never been this much behind a political agenda in my life. I usually don't even vote. But if we could secede, I would just about wet myself. What the hell do I have in common with Utica, Schnectady, or Reincliff anyway except an addiction to alcohol.

Much kindness to the Mud Truck lady who cooled an altercation between me and the Russian junkie who tried to cut me in line. Her soft words were a unicorn poster on the pre-teen bedroom wall of my heart.

OK. I totally dogged this from MetaFilter: Step one: record an embarrassing video of yourself (WMV link). Step two: Let the video fall into the hands of the internet masses, and become the hero you've dreamed of(also WMV).

David Lee Roth goes all Ted Nugent on some speed addict
This sounds so "Scarface," if you ask me. Not something your Ice Cream Man would do: "They heard two men yelling at each other," Pope said. "Mr. Cooley [the intruder/addict] was lying on his back in the front lawn, and the resident, David Roth [the karate-kicking, balding former Cali hotbod], was standing on the second-floor balcony pointing [a shotgun] at Mr. Cooley."

To Aaron Sorkin, on the occasion of your abandoning:

How could you leave "The West Wing"? How could you hurt me so? Where will I ever again find TV dialog that crackles with the sizzle of a trillion onomatopoeic verbs whirling into infinity? On "Third Watch"? I don't think so. How will I ever again be able to reconcile the ironic with the patriotic? You know I get misty at Old Glory's unfurling in the opening sequence of your soon-to-be-erstwhile show. You know how my eprit d'corps goes through the fucking roof when those French horns kick in. You know that when the hour is up, I return to the dark harbor of my Neal Pollack, Get Your War On, and collection of Homies, don't you? Do you understand how special that makes you, you fucking cokehead!? Oh, oh. Sorry. I didn't mean that. I apologize. See how angry I am?

There goes the neighborhood.
I thought "West Wing" was over when they started bring in cutie pies Christian Slater and Matthew Perry. Now it's really dead and gone. They should, though, do an excellent jumping of the shark. I suggest Prez. Gideon, or whatever his name is, sky-draw a crack pipe with Air Force 1.

The birthplace of Nestle Quik is no more.
"But last October, [Nestle] announced that effective Friday, it was closing the plant, the birthplace of Nestlé's Quik, the home of the Crunch Bar, the maker of mountains of morsels for chocolate-chip cookies." NY Times

I Need a Mariachi Band
Don't we all need one. And look how nice they were, they wrote it in another language too for people who are foreign.

CNN gets in on the Pollack action
Old news, but mainstream: Neal Pollack wants to become a rock star.

Writer ZZ Packer is called Zed Zed Packer in England
On a side note, shouldn't The Ridiculous Rev Billy Gibbons sue her ass?

Separated at Birth

Al Pacino looks a lot like Bob Dylan.

The Datsuns

Personally recommended to me by Jason Newstead (via the pages of "Guitar World" magazine): The Datsuns

Linguistic stuff: Sometimes words change meanings

"Shut up! is the latest example of a linguistic phenomenon called amelioration, whereby a word or phrase loses its negative associations over time. A classic example is "nice," which meant "stupid" up through the 13th century." Wall Street Journal.

I'm obsessed with Asperger's syndrome

A novel about it: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

A nonfiction about it: American Normal.

Toys: Homies

Let's see, these things surfaced, oh, about two years ago and were popular like all get out. The Times writes about them today. They are so precient and hip. Run out and collect the Hoodrats now, though; they're cool.

Things to do when you're bored

Find aaron from 601 am on friendster.com

Envy people with money

Would you like to play a game?

Vivendi leaving the U.S.: I think this is really because of that freedom fries thing.

"Also, Messier (former CEO) is suing the company for $20 million, claiming he was cheated out of his bonuses. On that front, Foutou (current CEO) says, “We will pay him nothing.”

Neal Pollack Steps to Frey-boy

Oh, just read it.

*Ping,* You're Busted

The RIAA is using the instant messaging apps built into file sharing networks Kazaa and Grokster to warn users about copyright infringement. Part of the message reads: "It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL." Does anybody even use the IM on those things? Can't you just block all incoming IMs? More disturbing is that the RIAA will collect the addresses of all the users it contacts. Now, all they have to do is lay into ISPs to provide information about those users. Is there such a thing as a reverse class-action lawsuit?
SFGate.com

Lara Flynn Boyle: The Mick-Jagger-Stomach-Pump Story of Our Time

"We had Lara Flynn Boyle [slated for a cover story] and the reporter decided to ask her about this rumor he picked up from the internet—don’t ask me why he decided to do this—before the photo shoot. He asked Lara if it was true that she bleached her asshole. A day before we’re supposed to go to print and the photo shoot was going on, [Boyle’s people] were saying, “We’re not doing this shoot,” which would have left us with a blank cover. So after begging and pleading and hours with various lawyers and managers, I found myself having to write a letter that said ‘I, Maer Roshan, promise that Talk will not mention Lara Flynn Boyle’s asshole or publicist.’ I thought, God, all that journalism school and here I am writing letters about Lara Flynn Boyle’s asshole."
From Gay City News

See how big stuff is

Drag things around and compare the size of stuff. Too many spaceships, but the Star Wars worm thing is cool. And BIG.

Apple starts a music service

This is a quote from a Salon article about the Apple music service: "Apple uses the AAC music format, which sounds better than MP3, and some of the songs it offers are encoded straight from the master tapes, Jobs said, which means the tracks will be of better quality than the comparable CD. You won't find that on Morpheus."


Um... you will in about six months.

This is the must-see show of the year. And I don't mean that ironically. Motorhead will rock you to till your spine shatters, Maiden will terrify you with tales of constant battle, and Dio will be small, so small he will be impossible to see from anywhere but the front row. But his howl will make for many sleepless nights.

Four Unconfirmed White Stripes Rumors

1. She's his Dad.

2. Their crazy plan to reinvent themselves by dressing in only magenta and white.

3. "Visionary fashion statement" actually grew out of their part-time jobs at Target.

4. Meg knows how to play the drums

Thanx to SpazOut New York

Apple steps up to the plate with an e-music offering. This could be a boon to Apple and online music sharing, or it could be another Apple bust. My guess is that Apple launches it to mediocre success and the Microsoft storms in and makes it profitable. Poor idealistic Jobs. I wonder if when he's on that plane, he says to himself, "I am Icarus."