All I want for Christmas...

...is an Apple. Not "The Apple"...already have that on DVD. But the new Apple iMac G5. It looks soooooooooo cool and the price ain't bad either!

Rotten to the Core

A quick update of my adventures over the weekend...

- Doug introduced me to the movie "Wet Hot American Summer" Friday night. Funny, funny film. Ya know, I never was a huge fan of "The State" when it was originally on, but I've been consistently entertained by their post-"State" work like "Viva Variety," "Reno 911!", Stella, etc.

- Went to a great birthday party for my friend James on Saturday. Partied atop the Fiesta Cantina in West Hollywood. It was a luau theme. Free margaritas, free food, and a good crowd. There was even a roasted suckling pig! EEEE! I dunno, but I've never fancied eating food that still has its head nearby. :-)

- Yesterday, a bunch of us trekked about an hour north of the valley to Oxnard for a little mini-golfing and bumper boating at Golf 'n Stuff. Drew and Larry tied for the best score followed Ted and Shaun tied for second. I don't even wanna talk about my score. I think, for once, that I didn't have the highest score. That honor befell on my friend Tim. More details and photos to come in a new photo album I hope to put up here by Labor Day weekend...

- Finally, we capped off the weekend by subjecting some friends to a viewing of Menahem Golan's 1980 epic "The Apple." (BEWARE! - If you do actually plan to see this film, you might not want to read too far down that page...there are spoilers a plenty.) The look of sheer shock amongst the newbies was worth sitting through the film again. A tip for those of you repeat "Apple" viewers: Watch the DVD with the subtitles on during the musical numbers. Only then will you truly appreciate the horridness of some of the lyrics. Ted, Tim, Tony, Larry, and I have this dream of putting together a tribute album of the movie's soundtrack with popular musical artists covering the songs from this true monument to campy craptacularness. To you other people wise to the ways of "The Apple," whom would you like to see do covers of songs from the movie? Click the comments link on the bottom right and spout off!

OK, this has gotta stop...

Looked up the stats for my website today and of the people that found my website using a Google or Yahoo! search, 22.2% used the keyword "myfriendsbottom" to find my site.

C'mon, now! More than one person typed in the word "myfriendsbottom?!?" What were they looking for in the first place?!?

Had the iPod on playlist mode today so no, "Unusual iPod Shuffle Moment of the Day"...

Yes, that's the "Angie" theme, DAMMIT!

My friend Sam pulls through again with a great article...

Tunes, a Hard Drive and (Just Maybe) a Brain

Oh, how often this has happened to me...How my true colors are revealed thanks to the "shuffle" option on my iPod. There was the time "Uncle Fucka" popped up while I was in a car with co-workers. There was time the "Come on Down!" cue from "The Price is Right" popped up in the middle of a date. Ya know what...I think I'm gonna start a new feature...Odd iPod Shuffle Pick of the Day.

What about you iPod users out there?...what are some of your awkward iPod shuffle moments? Click the comment link on the bottom right corner of this entry and confess! Confess your musical sins!!!

AND HOORAY! Found "The Apple" on DVD at Tower last night for a mere $9.99. Most fun part...there was another person in the DVD section who plucked a copy for himself. We shared our "Apple" moments. Ahhh...the cult of this cult film is growing!

Thank you for being a terrorist?

Thanks to my friend Sam for zapping this link to me:

Golden Girl Causes Terrorist Scare in Boston

So apparently she's with the Al-Sophia network...

Word is President George W. Bush is responding to this by declaring war against the cast of "Empty Nest."

An update on the update to the update with a little "weekend update"

The Photo Album pages are almost all switched over to the 2.0 look.

Weekend was pretty good. Doug, his sister, his sister's friend, and I went down to the Harrah's Rincon to check out "The Price is Right - Live!" There we were joined by my friends Shaun and Albert. It was a GREAT show and quite the interesting experience for me because I had never gotten a chance to watch the stage show version of "Price" from the audience. Very cool experience. After the show I was able to catch up with Todd Newton and Randy West...who, by the way, work very well together as a team.

Here's a pic of Doug and me in the casino showroom after the show wrapped:



Ya know...I think this may very well be the first pic of Dougie and me that I've put up here on the website. Well...there he is! :-) Ain't he a cutie? We're getting closer to the nine-month mark. I can't believe it...I really, really lucked out.

After the show, Shaun joined us for the drive back to L.A, so it was a packed car. Still, it was a great drive back. No traffic...Some good tunes popping up on the shuffle play on the iPod...Caught up a little with Shaun...talked a bit about his situation and how he'll probably have to head back to Australia soon. If that's the case (which unfortunately it looks like it will be), I'll have to rally the troops and figure out a way to give him a great sendoff. :-/

One of the highlights of the drive back was the view as night fell over Southern California...



Mmm...purple skies...

We all then converged back at the house to join several more friends in playing a game of AtmosFear, the DVD game I got Larry for his birthday. AtmostFear is basically the more high-tech version of that old VCR game, Nightmare. Around the fifteen-minute mark of the game, I totally got lost and became transfixed on the creepy guy that would randomly appear on the TV screen and insult all of us. Blarg!

Several drinks, some slices of pie, about a half-hour of Ted trying to search for a clip of "Song of the South" in his Disney Treasures collection, and a game of Apples to Apples and Cranium Hoopla later, we all called it a night...

This year seems to be the year of finding new music I really like...A new friend of mine, Tony (which makes this the third Tony whom I'm friends with...I think...), turned me on to Har Mar Superstar. The music equation machine came up with this formula...Throw in a bit of Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Beck, and add the looks of Meatloaf, and you've got Har Mar. The video for his latest song "D.U.I." is fantastic.

If you're reading this Albie, a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the west coast...

Less than two days until the release of "The Apple" on DVD! HOORAY!!!!

An update on the update

All righty...so far the Bio and the Faves pages have been updated looks-wise.

Next on the list are the photo albums. I may get around to adding some new pics to.

And finally, I've enabled the "Comments" link on the blog, so you can now post up comments to my blogs but clicking the "Comments" link on the bottom right of each blog entry.

More to come...

Call it "The Swan" of webpages

As you can see...the webpage is getting an extreme makeover...Hopefully, everything will come together in one nice uniform look in a month or two...

In the mean time, bear with me as the webpage gets a bit schizophrenic while I figure out some HTML code here...

Sign I'm not a kid anymore

Was munching on some Crunch Berries cereal today...Actually said for the first time, "geez, that's too sweet." I looked on the side of the box and saw an ad for Cap'n Crunch Choco Donuts...they make "chocolatey milk!" **SHUDDER**...My teeth rot just thinking of it.

Dougie was right...this is EVIL stuff...

And ever notice that Crunch Berries are like the bastard child of Cap'n Crunch and Smurf Berry Crunch Cereal?

Now, Batman cereal...that was damn good stuff...

A Couple of Quickies

First of all...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....DAMMIT!...Charla's been Philiminated (thanks to Television Without Pity for that term) from "The Amazing Race." DAMMIT! Phil teared up! I almost teared up! OH, sweet sweet Charla, how I'll miss you and your side-of-meat carrying, chocolate/caviar/ostrich gorging, "I got electrocuted" presence. Chip and Kim, Bowling moms...please don't fail me now!

And...I've always found a little bit of chest hair to be a turn on, but I have a threshold. This guy is WAY beyond the threshold. Finally, the myth that Asians aren't hairy is debunked! My friend Sam suggested that Hair Boy and William Hung get together and form a band...Hmmm.....Hmmmmm...

Things you notice after midnight

I was doing my usual daily log in to Friendster today and I noticed the following. For those of you who use Friendster, you'll know that on your home page, in your "Friends" section, it displays only a handful of your friends. Under that inital dozen or so that pop up on the front page, there's a link that says "See My (insert number here) Friends" which then takes you to a page that expands that list of friends. Will I clicked that link and notice that the URL to that page read as follows:

"http://friendster.com/friends.php?statpos=myfriendsbottom"

!!!!

[Insert joke here]

Break the Burbank

I dunno...that was the best one I could come up with...Fun weekend...

Checked out the Game Show Congress in Burbank yesterdasy. It was a lot of fun. In addition to seeing the familiar faces, it was nice to meet some new ones. It was particularly fun to finally match an actual face to the various names from the game show online forums and webpages. The luncheon was great...got a chance to introduce myself to Jack Narz and I have to say, I HEART Betty White even more than I did before. She's still a sharp one and she seems like such the sweetest person.

I've pretty much decided what my favorite place to eat is in Burbank...the PF Chang's behind the Media City. Doug and I took his sister and her friends to dinner there on Friday and yet again, it was a wonderful meal. The service there has consistently been good and the food is great as well. Mmmm...Banana Spring Rolls...Mmmmm...

Spent some time out of the valley Saturday night...Ted and I went to Mike's housewarming shindig in West Hollywood. Such a cute new place he has...And, the best part was seeing a number of friends whom I had not seen a quite a while.

Guilty purchase of the week...A DVD mini-collection of Styx videos. Mr. Roboto!!!! While we were watching this with my roommate, the idea of putting Styx's music to a musical was brought up. And then I remembered...it's kinda been done. The music school from which I took accordion lessons (shhh...no laughing...ok...yes...laugh...I don't care...I hate you all...) :-) Anyhoo, as part of the annual music competition/festival we'd always enter, the school would take part in the "showband" competition. What did that involve?? Putting together a musical revue. One band did a "Name that Tune" parody on year, while another did the music from "Cats." One year, our school did...STYX. They basically took the "Kilroy Was Here" concept album and acted it out throwing in a number here and there form the "Paradise Theater" album. Ok...I definitely had "Too Much Time On My Hands" to type this out...Good night everybody!! * cue "That's All Folks!" theme *

IM of the day

Ahh...nothing like a chain of news links via IM...

First, my friend Mike sent me a link to this article...

480-pound woman dies after six years on couch

Showed it to Jim who then one-upped it by sending me a link to this one:

Man trying to lose 800 pounds

...which makes me wonder...What's with all the stories about overweight people this week?!? And how and why are my friends finding them?!?

Jacko and Zach-o

So I watched "Man in the Mirror" Friday night and I have to say...I was hoping that it would have been a bit trashier. The movie was quite neutral neither depicting Jacko as Public Molester #1 nor as a saint. Nevertheless, there were some memorable moments including...

- Diana Ross appearing in Michael's dreams and talking to him
- Elizabeth Taylor saying "let's go to rehab!"
- Michael Jackson saying "It's Armageddon...Pack up the kids..We're going to Neverland!"

Last night, saw a movie on the other end of the spectrum..."Garden State"...Wonderful film...I highly recommend it. I have even more respect for Zach Braff after seeing it.

Picked up another new really good CD this weekend, Keane's "Hopes and Fears." They're kinda like Coldplay, but a bit happier. :-)

All right...a new trend that's starting to eat at my wallet...Plug-n-Play retro games. In the past month, I've picked up TV Games' "Ms. Pac-Man" and "Atari Paddle" collection and Radica's "Space Invaders" and "Sega Genesis" collection. The Genesis one is pretty amazing...the fact that it can hold six games including "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Golden Axe" in a Genesis controller and a little box. It's also pretty amazing that I still can't play these games well. And nothing beats "Circus Atari" played with an actual paddle...oh wait, I stand corrected..."Warlords" with a paddle kicks major butt. Now, if Nintendo could take their Classic NES series on the Game Boy Advance a bit further and do some plug and play collections with an actual NES controller, that'd be pretty sweet.

Out with old...

Finally got off my duff and started revising the "Favorites" and the "Bio" sections of my website.

Oooh...just hours away from the VH1 TV movie about Michael Jackson. A few friends are coming over to watch tonight. I'm serving up white chocolate pretzels..why? Well, because like Michael Jackson, they're white on the outside, a little darker underneath, and totally twisted on the inside.

Speaking of TV, my summer hooks this year are "Amish in the City" and of course, "The Amazing Race." My picks for this year's "Race" are Chip and Kim (who've really won points in my book the past couple of episodes), the bowling moms, and of course Mirna and little Charla. Oh, sweet, sweet Charla...where to begin? Carrying the side of beef on your back? Munching down on a sea of chocolate and meeting up with the little chocolatier? Or getting zapped by the electrical fence? Even though she seems small, she's sometimes too much to handle...and I mean that in a good way. I'll be dancing around like crazy if she wins this thing...

YAY for another Scissor Sisters concert at the end of September. I can't wait...I can't wait...I'm the one you want...It's all I wanna be...so come on baby make a...oh wait, sorry, broke out into a little Olivia Newton-John there, whose concert I'll be missing because of a work-related event. Grrrrr... :-Z

Finally...eating a plate of Pigs in a Blanket at 9:30 in the evening at IHOP...not such a great idea...* BURP *

The Worst and Best of the Weekend

Last night, a bunch of us went to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and caught a double feature two of the worst movie musicals in history: "The Apple" and "Can't Stop the Music." It was a delightful romp in craptacularness.

I hate to admit it but "The Apple" was even more tolerable the second time viewing it. I'll dare say that I even liked a couple of the songs so much that I wanted to search for a soundtrack...which hasn't been in print since 1980. One can only hope the DVD release of the movie later this month might spark a re-issue of the soundtrack. While I enjoyed sitting through another viewing of it, it's still a trainwreck. During the ludicrous ending, I just loved seeing the expressions on the faces of my friends who hadn't seen the movie before.

After "The Apple" came the palate cleanser of "Can't Stop the Music." I don't think I had ever seen this movie in its entirety...I can see why. But hey, what other movie brings together Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner, and Village People together in one happy universe? I have to say during the closing number, the title song, we were practically screaming, "Please stop the music...please!" It actually made "The Apple" look decent.

A few lessons were learned during this wonderful double-feature:

1. 1994 never really lived up to the silvery polygonic vision of the future the director of "The Apple" had.

2. Mr. Topps kicks ass.

3. Leathermen aren't supposed to get nervous!

Today, Doug and I had lunch at the Claim Jumper in Northridge and on our way back, we did a little detour when I noticed a sign for a store I hadn't seen in years: BEST.

Not sure how national of a chain BEST was, but it was one in a line of those catalog showroom stores, much like Service Merchandise and Luria's (which I think was a Florida-only store). Essentially, it was a department store that had the items sold in their catalog on display in a showroom. Then, you'd have to fill out an order card as to which ones you wanted to buy. You'd give it to the cashier, pay for the order, and then go to a pickup area where the goods you bought came down from a warehouse area via a conveyor belt. I had distinct memories of the BEST store in Plantation and getting the catalog every fall at my home. I think I even recall seeing a Mr. Game Show being sold in one of the catalogs.

Well, back to this afternoon...We followed the sign for the BEST and turned into the parking lot to discover...



...that it was an old store that looked like it hadn't been open in years. Anybody out there know when the last BEST store closed? I seem to remember the one in Plantation closing around the early 90s. This one in Northridge couldn't have closed down too long ago.