Friday, September 08, 2006

Sorry Folks, Bandwagon's Full

What do these three guys have in common? Evidently they're all Longhorn fans. McConaughey I can understand, b/c he was a student there once, and Armstrong lives in Austin, but Jake Gyllenhaal?? Come on. I haven't seen a bandwagon jump like this since I started rooting for the Spurs back in 2003. He even admits in the article that he's not even really a fan of college football at all but watches the big games. Yeah, that's dedication, man. And yes, I do realize that I sold my ticket to the Rose Bowl and went to Hawaii. I stand by my decision, so kiss my ass. You know who you are.

So, for the record, we've got Lance "Is it too late to reconcile with Sheryl Crow?" Armstrong, Matthew "Wooderson" McConaughey, Jake "Brokeback mother-f'ing Aquaman" Gyllenhaal, Chuck "Potato Sack" Norris, and Cowboy Troy (who might be the worst singer of all time). Marvelous. Is there any other crappy celebrity out there who hasn't pledged allegiance to a college football team that wants to get on board real quick, before it's too late? Seriously, we'll leave the doors open until gametime tomorrow. Maybe Kevin Dillon, Nicole Richie, Chris Parnell (nothing but love for you, Parnell), Kathy Griffin, and George Takei will show up on the sidelines sporting their burnt orange. Is it that hard to find somebody who is a better celebrity fan than Matthew McConaughey?? Really, he's our best one?? The rest of these punks can't even carry his jock.

(I just had to duck a roundhouse kick. Man, that thing came out of nowhere! Ok, I'm through ranting.)

HOOK EM!

I'm Just Skelaxin

So, I mentioned that my doctor gave me some muscle relaxers the other day. This is what he gave me. Skelaxin. This has become my new favorite variation on the word "relax" since I heard someone say "chillax" a few weeks ago on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." So, after I pop one of these puppies and curl up with my heating blanket, I'm just gonna be skelaxin.

According to the packaging, adverse reactions can include nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal upset, drowsiness, dizziness, headache, and nervousness or "irritability." It then goes on to state that other adverse reactions (b/c those weren't nearly enough) can include hypersensitivity reaction, characterized by a light rash with or without pruritus (whatever the hell that is), leukopenia, hemolytic anemia, and jaundice.

Yikes. Thanks, doc, but I think I'll take my chances with the pulled muscle.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

I'm sitting on the couch (big surprise there, right?) watching tonight's episode of Rockstar: Supernova, and I'm waiting for the effects of my muscle relaxers to kick in. I've got this pain in my neck and shoulder that has gotten steadily worse over the past 3 or 4 days (give or take 8 years), so I went to the doctor today and he told me he thinks it's probably a pulled muscle. I'm no doctor, but I don't see how I could have pulled a muscle while doing absolutely no exercise whatsoever, but I'll take the pills he gave me for a few days and see if it gets any better.

Anyway, like I said, I'm sitting on the couch watching tonight's episode of Rockstar: Supernova, and I'm wondering why I haven't been writing regular recaps of each episode this season. I mean, I am completely obsessed with this show, and what do I enjoy writing about more than music and TV? Probably nothing. Maybe I'm not as good as the folks over at Television Without Pity, but we're less than 20 minutes into tonight's episode and a few things are jumping out at me. My comments are live, by the way. Minor edits, but if I make predictions, I'm not changing them whether I'm right or wrong. Here goes:

- Brooke Burke is pregnant?? Damn. Does that mean she's remarried? Maybe, but at the very least, it means she had sex with somebody as recently as a few months ago. In a perfect world, I'd have more details for you on that, but it's far from a perfect world.

- Dave Navarro (with new band The Panic Channel) is going to join Supernova on their upcoming tour as one of the opening bands. Also opening on the tour is the House Band (are they going to call themselves "The House Band"??), with "our favorite rockers" joining them. If there's a concert I'll be more upset to miss in 2007, I don't know what it will be, but I just don't see myself dropping what will probably be upwards of $50 a ticket for a novelty act, even one as good as this one.

- The rockers each drove to the studio today in a Honda Element. They couldn't have all ridden together? It's a freaking SUV, for crying out loud! Nice, guys. Way to cut down on gas. Like I said, it's not a perfect world. Evidently whoever gets the encore tonight also gets the car they drove up in. The other four are heading back to the dealer. I hope Lukas didn't already get makeup all over the upholstery in his car.

- My man Toby gets the encore and the car (Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh). For some reason when they announce this, Magni stands up triumphantly and raises his arms. I guess they've become friends or something. Toby dedicates it to Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. For some reason, that confuses me a bit. I was surprised he didn't dedicate it to "that random dude The crowd loves it, again.

- Storm is the first rocker in the bottom three and she sings "Wish You Were Here" rather unmemorably. Is unmemorably a word? "This one's for you, mom," she says afterward. It's like she automatically thinks she's a goner and wants to get in a shout-out to her moms in case there's not another chance.

- Dilana goes next, with her crutches that look like they were stolen from a hospital owned by Steven Tyler. She sings "I Want You to Want Me," but she's having a hard time keeping up with the "punk rock" version that she's singing while hopping around on her one good leg. Also, it sounded like she might have forgot the entire first verse.

- Lukas gets the third spot, leaving Magni and Toby (a.k.a., the clear frontrunners) to sit and watch from a safe place. He sings his original, "Head Spin," again, which is about his mother, and dedicated to his mother. Man, Dilana's mom must feel like crap. Lukas kills it, giving it a much better performance than the one he gave it last night, which was a really good one to begin with.
- If I had to guess (and if not, what am I even doing here), we're losing Storm, but I'm going to go out on a short limb and say that one of the ladies is going home tonight for sure. If it's Storm, then her kickin body and positive attitude have gotten her farther than her voice would have, and if it's Dilana, then she's had the sharpest drop in the history of sharp drops. She pretty much owned this competition for the first 4 or 5 weeks, then some other folks (Magni, Toby, Ryan) caught up, and the past 3 weeks have just been a tailspin for her.

- Lukas is safe, and the three boys are watching as the ladies take their abuse. Tommy Lee just pulled the lamest move I've seen in rock and roll when he said he can't make the decision b/c it's too hard, so he made Jason Newstead announce who's gone. Punk. Newstead axed Storm. I'm a genius.

Next week, one of these rookies is gonna get called up. I'm psyched. I gotta say that I hope Magni wins this competition, but Toby and Lukas are also pretty awesome.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I Sipped Bacardi Like It Was My Birthday

I turned 30 a few days ago without much fanfare, which was fine with me, though I'm kind of surprised I didn't post anything on my birthday. Oh well.

Amanda came downtown to meet me for lunch, and she surprised me by giving me a new guitar for my birthday present!!! I was pretty f'ing excited, I will tell you that. I haven't played since my old guitar was stolen when our house got robbed on the St. Patrick's Day Massacre of 2005. Then Thursday night I got another surprise when my friend Neola from Jackson walked into my apartment. That one really threw me for a loop. Evidently I'm pretty easy to surprise, b/c everyone knew she was coming but me.

Had a "birthday party" Friday night at this dive bar in Santa Monica called "The Speak Easy Cocktail." This place rocked. Good jukebox (which we pumped a bunch of money into), strong drinks (I don't know if they were cheap or not b/c I was getting them handed to me by everybody, but I imagine they were), a couple of pool tables, and a Scottish bartender named Ruth. Ruth bought me a drink also. My roommate Josh told me he thinks I might have drank a whole bottle of scotch, but I doubt that. Although it might have been close.

Today Amanda, Neola and I were having lunch and walking around on Melrose, and I bumped into Toby from Rockstar: Supernova. I shook his hand and said "You fucking rock, man, keep it up and good luck," to which he responded, "Cheers, good on ya, mate." Australians are funny.

I'm gonna get some posts about our trip to Hawaii up here soon, with a few pictures, but in the meantime, if you want me to email you the ophoto album, just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send them along.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Vegas Baby. Vegas.

8 hours after getting back from Maui, I left for Vegas to meet my buddies for our fantasy football draft/weekend of partying. It was a great weekend, though one with very little sleep. We were like a walking Sports Guy column. No more details - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I can say that we all had a fun dinner on Saturday evening.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Beach at Ka'anapali on Maui

This place is absolutely paradise. Will update more when I have a chance, but might not be until after I get back.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

28 Shuffle

I have to admit I stole this from some other music blogs I've read, but I don't really care. I put my iPod on shuffle this morning, and these are the first 28 (b/c that's how many lines are on the pages of my legal pads) songs I got. Not bad, really, considering the fact that there's a good bit of crap on my iPod.

1. Ryan Adams - Please Do Not Let Me Go
2. Metallica - Last Caress/Green Hell
3. Ben Folds Five - Evaporated
4. Bruce Springsteen - Missing
5. The Guess Who - Cardboard Empire
6. Ben Harper - Welcome to the Cruel World (live)
7. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Go Daddy-O
8. R.E.M. - Beat a Drum
9. Elliott Smith - A Passing Feeling (live)
10. Turin Brakes - By TV Light
11. Grateful Dead - Till the Morning Comes
12. Bob Schneider - Better
13. Bob Dylan - Watcha Gonna Do (Studio Outtake)
14. Paul McCartney & Eric Clapton - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (live)
15. Ryan Adams - Amy
16. Guns & Roses - You're Crazy
17. Snoop Dogg - Too High
18. Metallica - The Prince
19. U2 - New Year's Day
20. Jimi Hendrix - 3rd Stone from the Sun
21. Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers
22. Sufjan Stevens - Riffs & Variations on a Single Note
23. Radiohead - Go to Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)
24. Third Eye Blind - Deep Inside of You
25. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Waiting in Vain
26. Bush - Machinehead
27. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
28. R.E.M. - Suspicion (live)

Monday, August 07, 2006

How to Eat Like a College Student

After Saturday's fitness experiment (where Amanda was very excited to see Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tom Cruise's hot wife from The Firm and co-star of fellow Jacobs Camp alum Ginnifer Goodwyn in HBO's Big Love), I had to go home and rest. Big day ahead. There was a Texas alumni barbecue down in Redondo Beach, and they were bringing in Salt Lick Barbecue for the occasion, as well as all-you-can-drink Shiner Bock.

We got to the barbecue around 5:00, and they were supposed to start serving dinner at 5:30. No dice. More like 6:30. At least they had beer and the DVD of the Rose Bowl to keep everybody happy until the food was ready.

I haven't had Salt Lick in years, but it's like riding a bike, you just don't forget how to handle a Salt Lick meal. Step one: starve yourself all day, so you're really really hungry by the time the meat hits the table. Check. Step two: drown (and I mean drown) EVERYTHING on your plate in sauce. Meat, bread, potato salad. Everything. Check. Step three: eat your first heaping plate of ribs, sausage and brisket (leave the chicken alone) as fast as possible, so you don't realize you're full until well into the second plate. Check. Step four: when you start to falter during your second plate, drink a little Coke in order to burp a few times and make some more room in your stomach. Check. Step five: when you realize you're not going to be able to handle much more, eat the sausage first. Everything else is just there to keep the sausage company while it waits to be eaten. Check.

I went at this stuff like my life depended on it. I was so stuffed that I could barely eat lunch the next day. That night we went to a party that some friends of ours were having, and I just sat on the couch the whole time nursing a bottle of beer and a glass of room-temperature Sprite. I was like an overfed baby, I just wanted to lie down and burp until I felt better. When I complained to Amanda that I was so full it hurt, she said, "Well you were shoveling it into your face! You need to learn to eat smaller portions." I responded by telling her that I do know how to eat smaller portions, but that this was Salt Lick, this was different. True, I was in pain (something that didn't happen 10 years ago), but if I had it to do all over again, the only thing I would change would be to try to smuggle some extra sausage out in a cup or a ziploc bag.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Survived ... Barely.

I am DYING! Amanda and I just finished taking a class at Barry's Boot Camp, where my college roommate Mark is a trainer. Damn. It's a good thing I was sweating so much, so you couldn't see the tears running down my face. More on this later, I have to eat breakfast before I pass out.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Sometimes LA Rules

Despite the lack of A/C in our apartment, the traffic, the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get anywhere, the distance from most of our family and friends, and the cost of living, sometimes living in LA is just awesome. Last night, Amanda and I went with a friend of ours who has a good hook-up to see an advance screening of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. A good movie is a good movie, and a free movie is a good movie, but a free good movie that hasn't even come out yet is just awesome. I wrote a review of it over at The Water Cooler, but you should all definitely go see it when it comes out this weekend, it was hilarious! Super-duper!!