My Life

My grandmother’s wake and funeral were — of course — very, very sad. I think one of the things that bothered me the most was the music at the wake. It was so … depressing. Now, my grandmother was 86 years old before she was killed by the incompetence of morons; she wasn’t exactly a fan of rock n’ roll. So I didn’t expect them to be playing Def Leppard in the funeral parlor, y’know? But anything would have been better than the canned funeral parlor soundtrack.

I can only hope that when I’m gone someone has the balls to bring an iPod to the wake. And please — if you’re going to even have a wake for me — do it in a house for the love of God. And bring some Maker’s Mark and vodka. If there’s one time when it should be completely acceptable to tip one back, it should be at my freaking wake. So anyway. Don’t play “Ave Maria” or Mozart (although I do loves me some Wolfgang). You don’t have to blast the stereo or anything and start a dance party. But at least listen to something I would have liked.

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Awesome. When I woke up today I thought to myself, “I really hope that there is someone pounding on the other side of the wall behind my head with a hammer all day.” It looks like my wish has been granted!

Last night Tricia and I went to see Tamar at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. She played a great set and we had a good time. We didn’t get home until after 11, and I couldn’t get to sleep.

I was up until 1:30am reading Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. What a crazy story! Can you imagine seeing a 50′ tall wave of molasses barreling towards you at 35mph? And the ten-year legal battle that followed was one of the country’s first major class-action lawsuits. Truly a fascinating tale.

Tonight is our big engagement party at the Viper Room. We’ve got the club reserved for the night, which is pretty flipping cool. (Give me a ring if you want to get on the guest list.) Our good friends Von Cotton play at 9pm and our other good friends becky start their set at 11pm. It should be a pretty wild time.

How the hell did that happen? I could have sworn like two or three weeks ago I was just turning 30 and it was only a year or two before that I turned 21. If it wasn’t for the fact that I am happier now than I ever have been before — and I have felt that way pretty much every day since I turned 9 or so — this whole 6/26 thing would really bother me.

Tomorrow I will be 34 years old. This amazes me.

PS: It’s not too late to get me something nice.

I bought a CD today. It was a little bit strange. I can’t remember the last time I bought an actual compact disc. I’m sure this isn’t the first one I’ve bought since I moved to LA seven years ago, but I know that since I got my iPod the number of CDs I’ve purchased is in the single digits. That is somewhat incredible.

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I am sure that there are still plenty of people in the world that don’t know this yet, so I have a bit of an announcement to make. I am now officially off the market.

It feels a bit awkward to write about it here, which is strange because I have used this site to talk about almost everything else that’s happened to me in the last seven years. And getting engaged is certainly a biggie. Most everyone knows that Tricia and I have been dating for about six years now.

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For Valentine’s Day this year I enrolled my girlfriend and myself for a class at Los Angeles’ coolest cooking class: hipcooks. Our class was “The Surprise Guest”, the only one available when I registered. We made an endive appetizer, roasted honey pear salad with tarragon dressing, pistachio-crusted swordfish with a light curry sauce, herbed couscous, and for dessert a chocolate bark with poached pear decorated with raspberry coulis. Our instructor, Alison, was wildly perky and made the experience incredibly bouncy. We had a deliciously good time and I would gladly do it again.

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Postings will be sparse for the next few days. I’m in Vegas with my dad. We golfed today and will be golfing again tomorrow … and the next day … and the next day … This is my third or fourth trip to Las Vegas since I moved to LA in 2000. I’m not much of a gambler, but I think I have finally deciphered the game of craps. I turned $20 into $225 and had a blast hanging out with my dad at the new Hooters Casino. I’m taking a ton of photos and will update when I return to the City of Angels.

My dog decided to cook himself yesterday. We have one of those in-wall electric heating units in the bathroom. Sometimes we leave it running because the cats like to snuggle in front of it when it’s cold. While I was watching USC crush Michigan in the Rose Bowl, my girlfriend asked me if I smelled something burning. I immediately jumped and ran into the bathroom; I was thinking that maybe one of the magazines had caught fire. But no. It was Budrick the Lion-hearted. He was standing with his rump on the heater slowly cooking himself. The stench of burning dog hair was overwhelming.

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Okay, Dean got me into this. The idea is to share five things about yourself that people may not know, then tag five bloggers so they can rinse, lather and repeat.

I was tagged by Speaking Freely, who was tagged by MarketingGuy, who was tagged by Aaron Shear, who was tagged by Avinash Kaushik. The game was started by Jeff Pulver.

I’m going to pass it on to Kelly, Josh, Sunil, Steve, and Mikey.

(It’s been a long, long time since I joined a meme.)

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A short list of things I never (or at least unbelievably rarely) do:

• … wear a shirt to bed
• … wear “tighty-whities”
• … use deodorant / anti-perspirant
• … use cologne
• … wear black socks
• … use after-shave
• … get car-sick / sea-sick; vomit
• … use shaving cream
• … use my blinker
• … drink milk / eat cheese
• … bet on sports
• … floss
• … remember the Alamo

Once again I found myself in trouble at the Los Angeles International Airport, and once again it was (arguably) my own damn fault. Last Thursday I flew Southwest to Providence, Rhode Island to testify in court on behalf of my dad, who was in the midst of a textbook “frivolous lawsuit”. I detest being late in general, and even more so when it comes to flying. I am the guy that gets to the airport at least two hours in advance. My adventure began almost as soon as I got out of my friend’s car.

I was told by the Southwest skycaps at the curbside check-in that my flight was canceled. “What?! Why?!” I exclaimed. I was told by the first skycap that it was because of inclement weather in Rhode Island. He directed me to his superior, who told me that it was because of a mechanical problem with the plane. (Much later in the day I would be told that the flight was canceled because there simply weren’t enough people wanting to fly from LA to Providence that day to justify sending an entire plane on the route.) She took my luggage and got me on the next flight, due to leave for Phoenix in three hours.

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Last night we went to dinner at Aroma in Silver Lake and then caught a new band — Castaneda (website, myspace) — at El Cid. My girlfriend works for a music management company, so we often find ourselves out seeing new music in LA.

Castaneda is a really polished act, and I was surprised to learn that last night was only their second ever live performance. They’re very, very good for a new band, with a sound sort of like The Killers meets U2. I am a fan of the five-piece band genre — lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboardist — and these guys were great. You can (and should!) listen to four of their songs on their myspace page. (The songs were recorded in their house!) “The Same” is the track I like best.