bEnTguY

….with couchsurfer Jun.

Kickass guy from Osaka who cooks a rockin set of Octopus Balls!

Which tastes nothing like chicken. Jun and I talked a lot about the uneasy friendship between our countries, and the similarities in the way we approach work. I think our country has an inordinate amount of school and workplace shootings, and he believes the only reason Japan doesn’t is because it’s harder to get a gun.

That’s reassuring, no? Anyway, Jun was only one week into a one YEAR around-the-world journey….again reminding me that all it really takes is the willingness to be without a place to live, sleep, play, and work.

Which sounds tougher than I think it really is….but still scary.

Jun might be back in March! (”After I go to South America and Mexico…”) I hope he comes through again.

Big love.

I heart my friends.

I don’t know what I like more, watching Noah age, or the piano music he’s aging to.

Noah took a photo of himself everyday.

For
six
years.

Spotted on the I-15 today on the way to breakfast.

Good luck, Phillip.

Yves Saint Laurent is the new dead.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more….
—bryon

For some time, I’ve been trying to get a group of people together to brave the beauty of Yosemite for a weekend. After a lot of talk, we’ve finally got a weekend together —

Nature Freak 2009 will be Memorial Day Weekend - May 23, 24, and 25.

Assorted family, friends, hitchhikers, and couchsurfers will converge in Yosemite Valley for a nice weekend of hiking, biking, climbing, riding, canoeing, and maybe even some volunteering. Photo-walks, a day hike starting at Tuolumne Meadows, and one from Glacier Point down into the valley are high on my list, and no doubt the list will get bigger as the weekend approaches.

Details are forthcoming — but for now..

Save the date, bitches!

I’ve been on a Murder She Wrote kick lately. I enjoyed the show, the few times I got around to watching it, probably because it kept a 70’s tradition alive in the 80’s– namely, the tradition of an out-of-work actor who needed a few bucks showing up for a guest show. The practice was growing scarce after Fantasy Island (Sonny Bono) and The Love Boat (Charo) dried up.

But Murder She Wrote. Each episode is a treasure chest of D-listers. Adrienne Barbeau as a ruthless television producer. Jerry Orbach, before Law & Order, as a broadway producer. Little House on the Prairie’s Karen Grassle as the wife of a college professor. Anne Ramsey from Throw Mama From the Train (”OWENNN!”) in the featured role of “Fat Lady” in season one.

It’s gold, I tell ya.

Shaun Cassidy, Tom Bosley, Dack Rambo, Gabe Kaplan (Mr. Kotter), Ron Pallilo (Horshak!), Jeff Conway, Eddie Albert, James Coco. If you look real hard, you’ll spot 10 year old Joaquin Phoenix in the first season, too!

But, after watching about 12 episodes on The Hallmark Channel this month, I’ve come to the realization that…..

Jessica Fletcher is a cold-blooded, calculating, stone-cold murderous bitch!

Think about it.

Jessica shows up at a college to give commencement address. That night, a professor is murdered.
Jessica shows up at a broadway show that her nephew Grady is working on. That night, the director is shot.
Jessica shows up at a TV station to do an appearance. That night the host gets killed.
Jessica shows up at a network soap opera set. That night the executive producer is shot.
Jessica gets on a greyhound bus for Boston. During the f’ing ride, a fellow passenger is stabbed!

Jesus Christ, how much evidence do you people need? This old bag is the John Wayne Gacy of Maine! She’s the Ted Bundy of the literary world!

How have the police overlooked this Black Widow of the Eastern Seaboard?
And Where t.f. is she now? Slipped away to a foreign country, no doubt, where she’s eating the corpses of everyone who ever tried to catch her, ala Hannibal Lecter.

Is it just me?

Right?  

How excited am I that Cher is finally moving into Celine’s old dressing room at Caesar’s Palace?

I’ve been all over the place to see her, from Seattle to The Hollywood Bowl, and today comes word that she’s moving into the theatre right across the freeway from where I work.   
I’m abandoning Wayne Newton. Screw him, he drives too fast.

It’s time to start stalking someone more fun, more fabulous.
ummmm….in that non-dangerous, don’t-be-afraid-of-me kind of way.

The first show is May 6th. Get the dirt, and tickets, by clicking here.