Oh Dog, you Sleuth!

I was so excited today when I got in a cab on Broadway and saw the flatscreen TV built into the seat partition since I had never seen one before. Especially after reading this article on the train this morning. I thought the little program wasn’t as bad as the NYT described. During this cheesy ‘documentary’ about the glories of the Upper West Side (Zabars, Big Nicks), there were commercials AND a mute button to shut the whole thing up. I guess this will ultimately become incredibly annoying but it was an improvement to that cloying passive aggressive message from Elmo (speaking of himself in the 3rd person [always creepy]), he says, “Elmo wants you to be SAFE.” And then he elaborates some other demands. I’ve heard this message (there are lots of warning celebrities, but I always seem to get Elmo) so many times, that I’ve started to think he is only using this safety pretext as a way of trying to make me feel guilty for other things in our relationship. You can hear it in the strain of his voice.

Sunday night on the roof.

Williamsburg, Monday night.

Ordering a car near the Union Pool Hall.

Saw The Weather on Monday night at a bar in Williamsburg called BQE. Jeremy said it was a who’s who of Raleigh people and swore someone there was wearing a favorite sweater of his that was lost years ago. I liked the show and it was fun and unusual to get drunk on a Monday night. I hadn’t been in that part of town for months. The last time was a Sunday morning at the end of the summer when it was incredibly hot and humid. I went to some hip shoe store to buy a pair of sneakers. It was one of those hip retail spaces that was kind of set up like an art gallery. And they didn’t have the right size for my feet and I couldn’t stop sweating because it was so unbelievably humid. Finally I asked the saleswoman for a paper towel and all she had was toilet paper which used try to dry off with and it crumbled all over the place. Then I slinked back home to find everyone lounging around in the air conditioning watching “The Marathon Man” and I vowed never to go shoe shopping in Williamsburg again.

Otherwise, I’ve gotten too busy to run this site by myself so I’ve hired a staff to design some new features.

Some of Katherine’s pictures from the blizzard:

7th Ave.

Prospect Park

And some pictures that Neil took last week in L.A.

Little Tokyo

Downtown L.A.

Brooklyn

The building I always try to see from the plane

Sitting in traffic on Atlantic Avenue tonight completely cleared away 2 weeks worth of Southern California culture shock.

Some Hollywood buildings

Fairfax, near Olympic

near Cross Roads of the World, Sunset Blvd

Sunset Blvd.

The newly remodeled Cinerama Dome had these terrible buildings surrounding the main dome, but fortunately the sign hasn’t changed. This font makes me weep with joy.

L.A. subway, Hollywood Blvd stop

I’d been curious about this mall, which completely swallows up Mann’s Chinese, for a while. It was under construction forever and starting this year is the home of the Oscars. I guess this building is only interesting to silent movie fans since it’s an unironic (?) tribute to D.W. Griffith’s ‘Intolerance’.

I lived off Hollywood Blvd the first year I was out here and it seemed like a joke that this thing was being built because the strip was still kind of seedy.

But I found new malls all over the city and this literal reinterpretation of Babylon is not a joke.

Sunset, near Fairfax

lobby of Arnold’s production company on Main Street, Santa Monica

6000 block of Sunset

runaway, 6000 block of Sunset Blvd.

a very strong emotional attachment, off Hollywood Boulevard

suishi menu, Main Street, Santa Monica

I had a full day all to myself on Sunday and got a chance to roam around L.A. I was so excited to check out Amoeba records because I used to spend entire weekends looking for vinyl. I felt instantly OBLITERATED by the size and activity in this place. My old routine would entail a quick inventory of nearly every item in a store. On a weekend, when I would do the rounds of my four or five stores, I would notice the most minute changes in their stock. Fortunately, I gave up this insanity when I moved to NY. But being in this place the size of two or three football fields with about five hundred people buzzing around… well… the old impulse came back. And I felt profoundly unhappy. So I went for a walk around the block, which lasted about three hours and then I went back in and bought two CDs.

Otherwise, the most exciting thing has been the webtv in my room. I was geeking out about how different things looked. Sigh…

a bar in Hollywood

view from hotel window

Cool article in the NYT today about new hot street in the neighborhood, Fifth Avenue, and it even comes with a checklist of restaurants. I love it.

Burger King drive-thru, Santa Monica, 1a.m.

middle of winter, Santa Monica

looking towards the ocean

Up all night again working and I didn’t leave a three block radius. Trying to follow the news and work all night on a lipstick commericial has put my head in a weird place. I walked past a guy online here ordering duct tape off Staples.com. I can’t explain why that pissed me off so much.

Chateau Marmont

Last night I ordered all this food and when the delivery driver showed up, the first thing he said was, ‘Look, if you’re going to give me a two dollar tip, then you can keep it.’ So I gave him $12 and then he opened up and started telling me what it was like to be a carpenter in showbiz. That guy was cool. Or psychotic. He was kinda scary.

Anway, this is the place I’m staying. Last night, I took an Ambien before I drove to the hotel so I’d be good and sleepy by the time I got there. It was one a.m. and I figured I’d get a good night’s sleep. Tina stayed behind to work all night. But the room was strictly in her name and I needed to get the key from the front desk. There has been a different concierge every night. Last night there was a new guy as well. By that point, I was so groggy from the pill, that I stumbled to the desk like a drunkard. I really began to freak out when they didn’t want to give me the key. I was like, ‘But I can’t drive right now, I’m about to black out from my sleeping pill.’ I vaguely remember panicing. And then falling asleep.

I woke up in my room this morning. Then drove to the editing room and found Tina asleep on the couch. She told me the hotel called her last night and asked who I was and I got on the phone and was freaking out. I remember none of it.