2011: Year In Review

Hey, Kids! Remember MySpace? Me neither. Remember when we used to fill out survey type things on the internet? Kinda? Yep, that's pretty much what this is. It's a tradition, I guess. The hardest part is trying to remember what the hell happened this year, so if I forget anyone or anything, whoops!

1) DRINKING BUDDY OF THE YEAR

Always begin with the awkward. Good call. I don't drink, so I always have to qualify this. Burritos- Gerry. Nobody does 'em better. Comedy- Cam and Chris (Coleman). We've been to so many shows this year!

2) LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD (longest known friend) -

Wayne. Goddamn, I cannot get rid of this guy! I keep trying by being his polar opposite but we just can't finally tell one another to fuck off. Maybe next year, man.

3) NEWCOMER AWARD - COOLEST NEWEST FRIEND?

Can I just say Cuddlahs? Nah, let's be more specific. I definitely had a lot of good times with Vicky, Lenny, and Coleman. Vicky and Lenny are always so welcoming and I feel like we always have 10 more hours worth of conversations to have at the end of the night. And Coleman, well, there aren't many people you remain friends with that you met while they were in costume. Think about it. Special mentions should made for Alex (Woloby) and Seth. Alex flew across the globe to hang out with me. ME! That's how I look at it anyway. Seth was a great surprise of the Starfish Circus II. His joy and enthusiasm couldn't have been more welcome.

4) HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR?

Oh man... Doing stand up was definitely a high, despite my excruciating anxiety about it. Meeting some of my favorite comedians and being welcomed by them was tremendous. I couldn't have expected it. And being recognized by them, despite how many people they must come across, blew my mind. Greg Behrendt treated me like I had been on Oprah and not the other way around. The Sklar Brothers couldn't have been nicer (Go Cards!). Sadly, Randy was right about Pujols leaving. Graham Elwood knew me by name and didn't Palm Strike me dead. Paul F. Tompkins couldn't have been more welcoming and had I not been so awkward, we would've hung out, man! But I think the ultimate moment of the year was having Dave Anthony tell me that I'm funny. I know that he isn't the type to throw that around and it was validation of what I've been doing both naturally and specifically. To have someone so wickedly funny tell you that they laugh at your stuff, means so much.

5) LOW POINT OF THE YEAR?

Bombing was pretty awful. I still contend that the audience should've been more well informed. Rupert Murdoch. Watch the news! I think the lowest points really are those moments of self-doubt that I keep going through. It's stalemated my stand up and really made me step back to try to figure out what it is I want to do. That's not all bad but it's definitely hurt some of my more productive impulses.

6) BEST HOLIDAY?

Easter? There was candy.

7) YOUR SONG FOR 2011?

Shit. I don't know. I think I may have only bought one new album this whole year. Blink-182's "Neighborhoods," for those of you wondering. Can't think of any one song that struck me in particular this year.

8) MOVIE FOR 2011?

I really enjoyed Super 8. X-Men: First Class was really good. I really did enjoy Drive, despite its flaws. Same with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. I really enjoyed Sucker Punch and I don't care who knows that. Red State was great!  I can't say that I have a favorite. Perhaps I'll update this.

9) WHO DID YOU SPEND VALENTINE'S DAY WITH?

It was a Monday, so probably nobody. Nothing's really coming to mind about it.

10) WHAT WERE YOU FOR HALLOWEEN?

For the second year in a row, instead of dressing up I went to a "haunted" thing in L.A. As you can imagine, the effects and detail put into Halloween stuff in this crazy town are pretty spectacular. Super fun with Gerry and Hanah.

11) RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR.

I gotta say I'm still reeling from The Counter. That sounds kinda pathetic considering it's just a burger joint but hey, fuck you, I'm simple. And they had parmesan fries. And fried pickles! I've also gotta get back to Pie 'N Burger and not get weirdly ill like I did on my birthday.

12) KISS OF THE YEAR?

There were some on a ferris wheel that were pretty awesome. I'd like to again apologize to the family of four in the carriage behind us. 

13) BEST DECISION MADE THIS YEAR?

Finally biting the bullet and doing stand up. No matter what comes of it, I can say that I lived down that fear and was successful at it more times than not. I'd also like to add the decision to be more open to new things and people. I never thought I'd make friends on the internet and that meeting them would be such a joy. Clearly, I don't know everything.

14) WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR?

Shit, I don't know. A lot is up in the air right now. I just want to continue to have fun and make good friends.

15) MOST STUPID IDEA WHEN DRUNK?

I don't have those. But my food intake has been ludicrous this year. Goddammit. Get a grip, fatty.

16) TV SHOW OF THE YEAR?

Louie. Jesus... Portlandia also ended up being a surprise. Breaking Bad is amazing. The Walking Dead has not disappointed thus far. Game Of Thrones was great! Justified! 

17) MOST LOYAL FRIEND?

Gerry is like a brother to me. He's the first person I call when I need to talk. We don't always agree... Do we ever? Eh, it doesn't matter.    

18) BIGGEST DOUCHEBAGS?

RUPERT MURDOCH (look him up!), Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Bill O'Reilly, Pat Robertson, Disney Corp., Vischal (sp?) at Universal, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Andy, Kobe Bryant, Nyjer Morgan, Ron Paul, the dude behind me at Starfish Circus II, Fred Phelps, Jerry Sandusky, George Lucas, Dan Lozano, Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Sheen, Ashton Kutcher, etc.

19) BIGGEST CUNTS (not literally)?

Michelle Bachman, Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, Shirley Phelps-Roper, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Crickets, Anne Coulter, and those other blondes on Fox News. Update: Almost forgot that cunt Courtney Stodden!

20) NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION?

Be better, do better, give everything I can, and get everything I deserve.

Podcasts

Hey, kids!

I thought it'd be a good idea to list all the podcasts I'm currently listening to on a frequent to semi-frequent basis.  I'm not going to review them and they aren't in any sort of order.  Well, they'll probably be in alphabetical order.  Here you go:

1. The Adam Carolla Show

2. After Hours Audio

3. ASSSSCAT Podcast

4. Bill Burr - Monday Morning Podcast

5. Blowhard - SModcast.com

6. Comedy And Everything Else...

7. Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast

8. Comedy Film Nerds

9. The Dah Theory!!!

10. The Dork Forest

11. Doug Loves Movies

12. Heidi And Frank Whole Show

13. Hollywood Babble-On - SModcast.com

14. How Did This Get Made?

15. I Love Lard

16. Jay And Silent Bob Get Old - SModcast.com

17. The Joe Rogan Experience

18. The Long Shot Podcast

19. Mike Detective

20. The Nerdist

21. The Pod F. Tompkast

22. Pop My Culture Podcast

23. Sklarbro Country

24. The Smartest Man In The World

25. SMinterview w/ @ThatKevinSmith - SModcast.com

26. SModcast - SModcast.com

27. Tell 'Em Steve Dave - SModcast.com

28. This Week With Larry Miller

29.  Uncast

30. Walking The Room

31. Who Charted? w/ Howard Kremer

32. WTF w/ Marc Maron Podcast

That's all of them for now.  They're spelled exactly as they are on iTunes.  They're also all free, except for the Heidi and Frank Show which streams free weekdays 10am-Noon but I paid to podcast it.

:-P  Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!!!

This Is My Kind Of Shithole

Hey, Kids!

So on Monday of last week, I went to a comedy show out in Hollywood and had the good fortune to hangout with professional comedians, Greg Behrendt and the Sklar Brothers (Jason and Randy, for those interested in first names).  They were gracious, enthusiastic, and welcoming to me both as a fan and a human being.  It was really awesome and if you're as big a comedy nerd as I am, you'll know that this was huge, like in dreams come true sort of proportions.  I think it's the same as getting to go backstage and meet your favorite band. You can also imagine the magnitude of doing that if you were thinking about becoming a musician.  Well that's what standup is to me.  It's something I've thought a lot about doing (probably too much) as a way to stoke my creative fires, much like I hoped this blog would. I mean, I like my day job, but I don't see myself doing it forever and it has little creative output.

Film had been my inspiration (and aspiration) for moving to L.A. but I find that my love for the art wains.  I mean, I love movies, and I could talk your head off about how but it's a much less immediate creative outlet.  Like if I have an idea, and I write it down (or script it), it could still be 3 months to 2 years before I shoot it.  I enjoyed directing immensely.  But it can be a long and grueling process.  Whereas in standup, if I have an idea, I can get up on stage and try it within that week, if not that night.  That's not to say that it too won't be hard.  It will, as is demonstrated by the fact that I haven't done it yet.

I've been close.  I went to my local (Burbank) open mic at Flappers a couple months ago and nearly got up and told the story of how I lost my virginity to about 30-odd strangers.  The only thing holding me back was it's a much longer story than the 3 minutes you're allotted to perform.  Since then I've been keeping notes of potential bits in my phone; musings mostly.  Once I get a few thoughts straight in my head and get over the fact that I might suck at first, I'll get out there.  But that's not what this blog is about.

So anyway back to last Monday.  After I got I home, I received a very lovely (dandy, some might say) message on my facebook wall from Greg Behrendt about the night, and it got some attention from friends of mine.  Envy some might say.  It was then that I further realized (because I'd been realizing it for a while now) that not everybody has the opportunity, just the opportunity, to have these moments.  These... "I love L.A." moments.

Like if I go for a walk at work, I pass the line to get into the Tonight Show w/ Jay somethingorother.  To me, it's a side walk.  To them, it's a tourist attraction.  It's funny because I grew up in San Diego (a tourist destination) and worked at the Convention Center (a tourist destination) and so it's like I've become numb to it.  It's routine.  It's my day, whether it's a good one or a shitty one.  But it's a place where people WANT to BE.

The major difference between L.A. and San Diego, besides the sheer volume of people and the traffic, is people often call L.A. a shithole.  My friends in San Diego all did.  The people in San Francisco all do.  And I'm pretty sure people all over do.  And they're not entirely wrong.  There are shitty people here.  Probably more than average.  But I'd bet the same could be said of any major metropolitan, e.g. New York.  Obviously celebrity culture has given Hollywood a black eye.  But to have had my experience last Monday and to have tickets to see Prince this Friday (MOTHERFUCKIN' PRINCE!), I can draw no other conclusion than "Where else are you gonna get THAT?!"

The entertainment possibilities are endless in this town.  If you are a fan of anything, you need to be here because it is here.  IT is.  I'm not trying to be braggy.  I just want people to understand that despite whatever reputation this town has, there is a ton of awesome going on here.  I figure I miss more great shows on any given day than your town will see all year.  Everyday here is Sketchfest if you know where to look.  Everyday is Comic-Con.  Everyday is Coachella.  I can go to a comedy show one night, an art gallery the next, and an indie rock show the next, and on and on...  It's almost overwhelming.  And you know I'm not a terribly prideful guy, nor am I a "rah-rah" my city's great your city sucks guy.  I could usually give a shit.  But I don't know, something about L.A. speaks to me in a way that I can't quite understand, and most people usually scoff at.

I guess my hope is that the next time you think about L.A., you'll have a better understanding as to why people come here.  It's not all about becoming a star.  There's just as much opportunity for greatness as a spectator as there is for performers.  If you know what you like and find it, you can be around it and be a part of it.  Every city has a bit of that, but L.A. has all of it.  You just have to part the smog to see it.

:-P   Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!!!

No Glee For Me

Hey kids,

So I was at a party about a month ago and a friend recommended that I watch the show Glee.  I tried to politely decline but was bombarded by the rest of the party guests who were Glee watchers or "Gleeks" as they're known by themselves.  Needless to say I didn't get a chance to properly state my reasons so here we go:

First off, when I was in high school I had an interest in taking drama classes but the only plays that they put on were musicals.  I cannot sing.  Not remotely.  Well, that's not entirely accurate.  I can carry a tune but I have no desire to sing publicly.  So effectively, musicals ruined any aspirations I might have had about acting.  Musicals in general don't bother me.  They're certainly not high on my list of shows to watch though.  I have an older sister so I've seen Grease and West Side Story more times than I'd like to admit.  I've also gone and seen productions of these shows that my friends have been in.  But I've never seen myself in them.

Secondly, and most importantly, I'm 28 years old and I couldn't give a shit about high school kids.  There.  I said it.  There seems to be a fascination lately about teenage celebrities like Miley and Bieber and shows about teenagers like Glee, 90210, Gossip Girl and so on.  When I was in my teens I'm sure this shit was fascinating to me too.  But "I'm a grown ass man, dawg."  So why would I watch a show about people whose biggest problems are whether or not they get to go to prom with Johnny.  Waa-waa-waa!  Who gives a fuck?!  If that's your idea of drama, you are either trying to escape all of the real issues of today or you are so privileged that these meaningless pursuits are all you have to worry about.  This probably the same reason that shows like The Hills were popular too.

I've been to high school.  I've been a teenager.  Believe me, it's all bullshit.  Much like the no bullying campaigns say, "It gets better," well it gets worse too.  Life, I mean.  Problems multiply, financial strains, mature relationships, figuring out who the fuck YOU are, and that's just staying within the personal level.  If you pay attention even marginally to the news, you'll see war, genocide, poverty, starvation, and general nincompoopery.  So when Sally gets a big zit before her big speech in home ec., you can see why those problems might fail to ruffle even my ball hairs.  Sorry for the visual.

And no, a bunch of kids singing popular songs is not enough for me.  The original versions are fine.  Song writing is more impressive than song performance.  It always has been and it always will be.  If you've ever tried to write a song, you know how hard it is.  Everyone of us has been in a chorus.  Because it's not hard, and it rarely sounds good.

So I'll pass, Gleetards.  Well, that's meaner than I meant to be.  Same goes to you, Twilight and Harry Potter.  As George Carlin once said brilliantly, "There's too much attention paid to children."  And as the proverb goes, "Youth is wasted on the young."  And get off my lawn.

:-P    Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!!!

Season Totals

Hey, kids.

Well, my first season of Men's softball in Burbank ended tonight.  I've added up all my stats to the best of both my recollection and math skills.  They are as follows:

17 for 27 batting = .629 avg

Not bad considering the rustiness I've felt and being in a new league.  I'm hoping to improve this for sure.  One odd thing is that all but one hit was a single.  I hit a double tonight finally.  I think that has to do with the speed of the players in the league and I've been pretty conservative on the bases.  If I can hit balls that skip by an outfielder, I can run for days.  The main thing I need to focus on as a hitter is waiting for the ball.  I think I have a tendency to step too early and then swing a bit flat-footed.  Then it's nothing but arms.  I'll generate more power if everything moves together toward the ball.

13 RBIs

Actually pretty good considering we only played 8 games.  I was hitting 3rd in the lineup most of the year,  a position where you need to be productive, so this feels good.

13 Runs Scored

I set out to score at least a run a game and almost scored 2 so this feels good as well.  This shows that my wheels are still working somewhat.  I definitely could've been more aggressive on the bases but I didn't trust my legs to do what they've done in the past.  I definitely need to do some sliding practice to get over the fear that I'll burn/skin the hell out of my legs.  That'll help me feel more confident as well.

Fielding:

I couldn't tell you how many errors I made this year.  It's not because it's SOoo many but that I don't keep track.  One of the major things I need to do is be more tough.  I get pretty nervous when a teammate throws the ball hard or in the dirt.  I need to be more sure of myself and my hands and not be afraid to put my head behind my glove.  It's the best way to see what the ball is going to do but it's obviously dangerous too.  But if I do it more on balls in the dirt, I'll feel better than I do bailing out on them.  I need to take some more grounders if I can and focus on getting my body in front of the ball, not panicking, and keeping it in front of me at the very least.

Overall not a bad year.  Our team was a good group of guys and we played much better the last 3 or 4 games.  I love when we battle and don't give up.  There's no shame in it and we can walk proud even after a loss.  One thing I wish I could change is our pitchers attitude at times.  He can go from playful to rage in one swing of the bat, his and theirs.  He got warned in at least one game and I'm surprised it didn't happen more.  Tonight he and I argued, which was the first time that's happened, about plays he thought I should've made.  They were mostly grounders between myself and the second baseman.  I knew I could've done more on them and the last thing I needed was an on-field lecture.  Whatever advice can wait for the dugout and a scolding helps no one.  If I'm pissed at you, I may not be able to concentrate on the next hitter.  Anytime someone makes a mistake, and we all do (this ain't the pros), the best thing to do is let it go and be ready for the next opportunity.  Hopefully this will improve going forward.  I can't say for sure.  I think I held my own and when we got into the dugout, I was waiting to give him an encouraging fist bump, letting it go as best I could.

Well, I hope somebody read this the whole way through.  If so, there's a check box below for: funny, interesting, or lame (my addition).  Check it if you're so inclined.

Baseball season started today as well.  It's a great time of year.

:-P  Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!!!

Here I Go Again...

Hey, Kids.

So I've been having really weird sleep patterns for the past couple of weeks, hence I'm writing this at 5am.  I have usually had trouble falling asleep initially but now that isn't an issue.  My problem now is that I fall asleep almost right away but wake up about 3 to 4 hours later and then I'm unable to fall back asleep.  Or if I do fall back asleep it's around 5am and when my alarm goes off at 6:15am, I'm dead tired and snooze till at least 7am (lately) but once as late as 7:30.

I'm not sure what's causing it.  I haven't changed anything in my diet.  I mean, I've been trying to eat a bit better and to diversify my light snacks.  I've been buying apples and fat free cherry Yoplait but I can't imagine either of those causing it, nor do I eat them everyday.  I can't say that I'm stressing about work because things have been pretty steady there and I don't take it home with me.  The one thing that has somewhat corresponded with this quasi-insomnia has been the fact that I've started going on hour-long walks at night; usually around 7-7:30pm.  It's not like it's particularly taxing, nor is it that energizing (if it were you'd think I'd have trouble falling asleep initially).

There was one night where I had a weird dream that woke me up but most dreams aren't any weirder than dreams normally are.  But it does seem like I wake in the middle of dreaming.  It's not like I jolt upright in a cold sweat or anything.  It's like I'm dreaming away, REMming it up, and my brain gently says to itself, "Well that's enough of that" and I gently wake up to see 2:45am staring at me in harsh red alarm clock writing.  And as soon as I'm up, my brain starts firing off on all sorts of shit; seemingly things I had thought about prior to going to bed.  And also weirdly, I usually have some song from the day stuck on repeat in my head.

On weekends, it seems like my body makes up for it and cashes in this sleep-debt and I seem to sleep upwards of 10-11 hours.  Since I stay up later on weekends than weekdays, this means I might end up in bed till 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  Well, generally more like 1ish.  While I generally have my weekends free, or have evening activities planned, it still kind of kills the day (the daylight more specifically) so it's hard to imagine getting out to the beach or taking a road trip as I always fancy doing but never seem to.

So tonight (this morning?) I've just decided to go with it and do what my body, or more likely my brain, wants.  I'm awake, brain.  Ya happy?!

Anyone have any ideas, similar experiences, thoughts?  Keep in mind I'm not having trouble falling asleep initially and when I wake up in the wee hours, it's too late to take anything, e.g. melatonin, sleeping pill, etc.  I'd rather not take sleep aids though I usually need melatonin to drop this rhino on Sunday nights [after sleeping in as I do].

Anyway, here's hoping today my workday doesn't suck.

:-/  Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbthzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Hef

Hey, Kids!

I usually wake up on Sundays feeling shitty and tired; much like a hangover minus the BAL or regret of what I might have done the night before.  Nope.  I'm just a man with a fatigued body and a hungry mind.  While I eat my breakfast and try to muster the energy to be productive in even some small way, I try to engage my mind with some form of media.  It's a somewhat passive engagement, I know, but it's all I have the strength for in my slumbery stupor.  The thing that is oddly important is that this media not offend me visually.  I am eating after all.  So I usually turn to sports.  They're fairly banal visually speaking.  I mean unless a player is constantly spitting (I'm talking to you Matt Garza), it's pretty easy to watch without drawing up any queasiness that I feel so much more vulnerable to in the mornings.  Of course right now there are no good sports to watch on a Sunday morning being that football has ended and baseball, my true love, has yet to start (from a televised perspective).

So I've been turning to Netflix.  But not just any old movie will do.  I find myself unwilling to watch a narrative film because I feel like the experience might be tampered by my mood. I find myself turning to documentaries.  It's weird because I think that it's okay to watch them regardless of my mood much like I'm okay with watching them with the lights on; something that I'm not happy about with narratives.  You don't have to be as intently focused it seems.  It's like watching the History channel to me.  How many of you turn off the lights to watch that?  So anyway, that's generally how I spend my Sunday mornings: watching documentaries.

This morning I watched Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, And Rebel.  It was a very thorough depiction of his social significance in American society.  It got me to thinking about my perceptions of the man.

I think that most people my age think of him based largely on his personal life, and the wackiness that we've seen of it on The Girls Next Door.  It's generally shown him to be an out-of-touch old man surrounded by young women.  I think in most people it's the last perception of someone that sticks and if this were my last perception of Hef, it'd be a sad one.  But thankfully this documentary served as a very welcome reminder of the large amounts of good Hef has brought to the world.

He and his magazine have been completely inclusive in terms of race.  It can't be stated enough how significant that was, being that the magazine was started in the early 50's.  Hef has long embraced jazz music and it's stars which were largely black and Playboy has had in depth interviews with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Jesse Jackson among others.  I can't say for sure how many of the bunnies were black but Hef's stance on racial equality was so public, both in the magazine and his TV show, it bordered on revolutionary.

Hef has also been an avid proponent of free speech, and not just in the case of his own magazine, but also in the arrests and trials of Lenny Bruce.  Hef literally lent Lenny Bruce the Playboy lawyers to defend his case.  This is hugely important to me both because I firmly believe we should have the right to say whatever (and I mean WHATEVER) in most civil forums and also because of my love of George Carlin.  Without Lenny Bruce there'd be no George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Maher, or David Cross because their language itself (the words) would be restricted and worst of all their ideas would be restricted.  Can you imagine what it'd be like if they got arrested all the time because some bureaucrat didn't like what they had to say or how they said it?  I've held firmly to the idea that comedians are the philosophers of our time, in the Socratic sense (except comedians make a living), in that they publicly question policy using logic and rational thought; things you may not always find in music or painting or literature (though you can, see Rage Against The Machine or Kurt Vonnegut).  So this was a deathly important battle.

Certainly watch this documentary to see and hear all of this in more detail.  I think it's important.

So back to Hef, I certainly understand the criticism of his magazine.  I have some of my own.  It's certainly relatively tame in modern society where EVERYTHING can be found with a mouse click.  But I think that that might actually make Playboy kind of quaint and classy in a way today.  What has bothered me about it was the proliferation of breast implants and the airbrushing away of ethnicity that I've seen, though only sporadicly as I've never been a subscriber to Playboy nor have I ever owned a single issue.  But I've perused...

Everyone who knows me knows I very much love breasts.  I don't know why and I don't care to examine it.  So it's definitely been troublesome to see the number of women getting implants sky-rocket.  I'm not against a woman trying to better herself, if that's the aim.  If it's a point of self esteem, that is, an attempt to gain some I completely understand.  It's no different than trying to lose weight.  It's about feeling better about yourself.  But the idea that silicone is the only way into Playboy and that bigger is always better is where I draw the line.  I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a picture on the internet and thought, "She'd probably be just as hot without those implants."  Or even worse is when you see the thumbnail of a photo and think the girl is gorgeous, click on it for a closer look, only to be repulsed by the amount of scarring she has from the surgery.  It's sad, and an unfair tradeoff if you ask me.  But I must acknowledge that this does go beyond Playboy.

It's also no secret that I've been a fan of latin women for a good long while now.  It probably has a lot to do with where I grew up.  There've been a few times where there's been a latina centerfold in Playboy and it seemed as if they tried to "airbrush the brown off" of her.  I can't say that it always happens but I can say it has.  Again, this issue may be larger in society than just the pages of Playboy but I can't help bringing it up when thinking about the magazine.  It may have to do with where Hef's tastes lie but that's purely speculation.  But if he asked me, I'd say, "Embrace the exotic, Hef."  There's certainly nothing wrong with our cornfed white girls but variety is always a good thing.

But to bring all back to Hef as a social and cultural icon: I think it's important to look past the characature of Hef that you may have and look at American culture and how it has progressed since that first issue of Playboy with Marilyn on the cover.  I don't know if it could've gotten here without him.  There have certainly been excesses.  But I fear to think what things might have looked like had we not had a choice.

Watch the documentary and make your choice.  Or don't.  See if I care.

:-P  Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbth!!!

A New Home, A New Hope

Hey, Kids!

Welcome to the new home of my blog.  It's got the complete archive of blogs from both MySpace and Facebook; minus some shitty "what do you think of me" surveys.  Do check out the writings of the past because there's definitely some high quality shit to be found.  Even some of the included surveys contain gems that you'll only find here.

Hopefully, this new site will also be where I'll get back to writing longer form pieces, both "journally" and conceptual.  It'll be good to get back to it.  As you can see [on the right] I was pretty prolific for a casual blogger so it can become a useful tool for me once again.  At least comedy will be born.  Well, a boy can dream...

Thanks for reading, even if this is the only one you'll read.

-Aaron