I know this is not an official video, but I think it’s well done.

Anyhow, I nabbed tickets to see My Bloody Valentine play at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 10/2! You don’t know how excited this makes me. As with most things, I was late on the MBV bandwagon. I didn’t really cherish them until 2000 when Fatkid reintroduced them to me. Listening to them now makes me wanna cry and masturbate at the same time but not in the fucked up emo way. You know?

I am in the middle of reading In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat by John Gribbin, a nice introduction into the world of quantum physics and the history leading up to those theories. Yes my inner geek has a major hardon from reading this book. I’m up to the part where Niels Bohr theorizes the structure of an atom in a way that attempts to tie classic physics with these new theories in the early 1900s. And how Max Planck help led the way to all of these discoveries reluctantly.

Yup. That’s me.

So with my 29th birthday last week, I am now on blood pressure medication and vicadin for my sciatica. Acupuncture didn’t work. Chiropractor didn’t work. So here I am on pain meds and physical therapy.

But most importantly, I am now sports editor for LAist. That’s right, a fag is a sports editor. So everyone can kiss my ass. Ok back to crying myself to sleep.

More than a month ago, I helped Cathi move in with her now hubby Tyson. In the ensuing days I had an achy back. Nothing unusual, but I sensed the pain would move and reside in my buttcheek. Which it did.

Under normal circumstances I’d be uncomfortable for about a week, then the pain would go away.

But not this time. The pain in fact got worse, spreading down to my thigh where it would shoot around randomly. Walking would put me in such pain, I would be tearing up. And don’t let me sneeze. A sharp pain in my buttcheek would send me in the fetal position.

I was slathering on Ben Gay like Britney Spears would snort coke (allegedly). The pain would die down for an hour or two, but it would inevitably come back with a vengeance. It doesn’t help that at work I spend my time sitting down in my cube then running over to the printer and go back and forth like a trained monkey. By last week I was hobbling like an 80-year old. By Monday my leg started going numb.

I can’t tell you how this has made me feel like an old man. Thoughts of amputating my leg have cometo mind. The worst is the fact that I want to go shopping for a nice outfit for my birthday, but I can’t walk around that long without the pain becoming completely unbearable.

So I did what any normal person would do: go see an acupuncturist on Wednesday night. I was stuck with needles down my spine and leg, and the needles on the back of my thigh were hooked up with electric currents. It was really nice. Since then my leg has been getting progressively better. Today I was able to do some housework without having to use any Ben Gay.

Hopefully by my birthday on Thursday the pain will be gone.

Speaking of my birthday, Friday night. 8pm. Cobras & Matadors. Tapas. Sangria. Booze afterwards. Yum! Let me know if you wanna come if you didn’t get an evite.

I was supposed to have a productive Sunday.

I was going to wake up, do laundry, rearrange my living room, go to Target, go grocery shopping and maybe get some nookie time permitting. Well I woke up (one thing accomplished) at around 7:30 this morning with a pounding migraine. Neither coffee nor food nor a shower did anything to calm it down. In fact I just got queasy. So I took a nap two hours after I woke up, and woke up just in time for the Lakers game against the Dallas Mavericks.

After the game, I took another nap and didn’t wake up until 7. So with my day down the crapper, I’m just resigned to watching Alien on the Fox Movie Channel while writing this.

Anyhow yesterday, I discovered the best thing since golden showers: Amazon’s MP3 store. It’s guilt- and DRM-free. And they have a good selection. I got the new Xiu Xiu album and Lou Reed’s Transformer among others.

Well I think it’s back to bed for me, and a hell day tomorrow at work. Oooh! Aliens!

My concert partner-in-crime Angie and I went to see them and opener No Age at the El Rey this past Friday. She had never listened to either band, and I’m a huge huge fan of the Liars.

I didn’t catch the name of the band who warmed up the crowd, but they were the standard LA freak-noise hardcore homage band that populate the Downtown all-ages scene. Then No Age came on, and they were great. They have the vibe of those late 80s or early 90s indie bands. Sorta like Dinosaur, Butthole Surfers, Big Black and the like. Very fun set.

As for the Liars, well they just blew me away. This was my first time seeing them live, and they just crushed every song. Even though lead singer Angus Andrew’s back exploded in January, he still had the energy despite sitting on chairs through most of the set.

The highlight of the set for me was when they played “We Fenced Other Houses with Bones of Our Own” from They Were Wrong So We Drowned. Although some people people hated the album, I thought it was a brilliant piece that successfully straddled the line between experimentation and pop. Plus it’s a concept album about witches. How brilliant is that?

Overall, the show was an exorcism of our collective laziness complete with the trance-inducing drums and falsetto chants. It whipped us all into a frenzy and put a smile on everyone’s face. Every beat had a life unto itself, and we were all there helpless just riding that rollercoaster.

It was a goddamn fun show, and you’ll see me there next time when the Liars come to town.

And for that I apologize. Things have been hectic at work. I guess when you are the only staff accountant at a start up company at year-end, things get very very crazy. For a good couple of weeks in January I was pulling in late hours barely having enough time to come home, make dinner and go to bed only to have everything repeat (much like Groundhog Day.)

But here is February, and with it is the month of shows. I just saw Autolux at the El Rey last Friday, and will be seeing Siouxsie with Rasputina next Saturday and the Liars with No Age the following week. I am so excited about that.

And it looks like May will be pretty crazy too with Ladytron and the Kills performing. Look at this here video from the Kills and tell me you are not clenching your sphincter in anticipation for their album.

YOU’RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST and I want to know 36 things about you. I don’t care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine … You’re on my list, so I want to know you better!

BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.

1) Ever been in a relationship lasting over 5 years?
A.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A.

5) Favorite book?
A.

6) What was the last book you read?
A.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A.

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A.

9) Worst Habit?
A.

10) Best attribute?
A.

11) What is your favorite hobby?
A.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A.

15) Best thing to ever happen to you?
A.

16) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A.

18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm…careful!)
A.

19) What scares you?
A.

20) If you could change one thing about how you are, what would it be?
A.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A.

23) Ever been arrested?
A.

24) Cake or pie?
A.

25) If you won $100 today, what would you do with it?
A.

26) Tell me something you wanted me to know about you.
A.

27) What’s your favorite place to hang out?
A.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A.

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A.

30) Do you swear a lot?
A.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A.

34) Strangest place you’ve had sex?
A.

35) Do you believe in an afterlife?
A.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A.

Well that was a mighty hangover. It took me a full day to recover. I sat around the house yesterday watching bowl games trying to stem the flow of vomit from rising up from the bowels of my being.

With that pleasant thought out of the way, here are the things that I liked in 2007.

Albums

1. M.I.A. – Kala
2. Menomena – Friend and Foe
3. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
4. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
5. Liars – Liars
6. Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
7. Shellac – Excellent Italian Greyhound
8. Justice – †
9. Blonde Redhead – 23
10. No Age – Weirdo Rappers

Songs

1. M.I.A. – Paper Planes

2. PJ Harvey – The Mountain

3. Menomena – Boyscout’n

4. Arcade Fire – The Well and the Lighthouse

5. Liars – Plaster Casts of Everything

6. Shellac – The End of Radio

7. Deerhoof – +81

8. Okkervil River – Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe

9. Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

10. Battles – Atlas

Stuff

1. Moving – For the first time in my life, I live in my own apartment. Scratch that. I still have my cat Squee who owns the place. But there are no other humans to bump into.
2. LAist – When they issued a call for Dodgers writers in March, I submitted a little corny piece. The other Dodger blogger just dropped out after the first several weeks of the season, and there I was blogging into the unknown. This is probably the best thing I have ever done. For reals.
3. Getting laid off – For the first time in a very long time I was not working for a month. I wasn’t desperate for a job and just enjoyed being able to the mundane things. This was the first extended break I’ve had since college, and boy was it nice.
4. Getting a new job – I now have a job that I like and that challenges me. I’m very happy with it (with the exception of the goddamn commute) and hope to be there for a long time.
5. Relationships – My stab at having one this year was hopeful. But everything that’s bad about me (selfishness and boredom are a couple that come to mind) came roaring through yet again. It didn’t last long, but it served to confirm that I’m just not ready for one yet. Eh.

Coming into 2007, ex-Roomie and I talked about how it was going to be a year of upheaval. Boy did it not disappoint. Looking at this list, I think all the changes have been positive. There is always room for improvement, so I look forward to continuing that this year. I don’t do resolutions, so there. Happy New Years everyone!

It was supposed to be a nice little jaunt to the Good Luck bar for a drink or two. It’s a very rare occasion when Cathi gets the hankering to go out for drinks, so since the opportunity presented itself it was prudent of me to go grab it by the balls right?

One of the best things about where I live now is the fact that these places are within walking distance, so I broke out my gloves, iPod and all and headed down to the bar.

When I got there Catherine and Tyson were in the back room, so we sat and chilled in the corner and shot the shit. Everything was ok until this group arrives.

This Korean girl whose hair can best be described as a two-leaf clover with 10-foot high pompadours and an outfit Fergie would die for asks me quite nicely if she and her group of five could sit next to us. I politely oblige scooching closer to the corner to try and give them more room. The group of five quickly becomes a group of 10 or 12 surrounding us and forcing us deeper into the corner of the sofa. However we don’t really have a problem with that.

That is until the camera comes out. Now in such a dim-lit place as the Good Luck bar, the flash of a camera can be quite harsh on the eyes. It’s much like watching those Japanese kids cartoons that induce seizures. But these out-of-towners which we surmise to be from Torrance are having a good time, and what’s the harm of a picture or two?

Then we realize that a picture or two becomes a complete documentary of their night out into the glitzy underbelly of the Eastside, their proof of accomplishment from the minutes they toiled on Yelp. Tyson asks one person in that group if they could stop the documentary since the flash is really grating. That one request then turns into a complete affront to their having fun. It’s almost as if we were the cops raiding their rave and trying to confiscate their drugs. Whatever.

As the verbal vollies started to come to an end, Ms. Geisha Pompadour lashes out, “Why don’t you guys get a life?”

Which quickly got me thinking, wait, do I have a life? Well I go to work everyday, a cog in the well-oiled capitalist machine being a willing participant in the demise of civilization. In return I get money which helps give me the illusion that I am prospering rather than rotting my soul. I have friends, and we enjoy each other’s company (I assume) which helps buffer the rotting a bit. I do go out to bars every now and again to give the illusion that I am still in the part of my life where I’m wild and willing to take a ravenous bite out of culture.

But hold on a minute. They’re the ones coming to a neighborhood bar thrusting their presence upon everyone in the bar while taking pictures every second as if their presence needs to be confirmed. One picture missed is yet another denial of their life. So in the end is it really us who needs a life?

I mean granted my life isn’t all glitz and glamor. There’s the paying the bills, making sure I have enough money in my bank account to pay bills and all of that rot. But at least I’m not going into a Torrance bar with my group of friends and taking pictures incessantly. I’ll leave that to Sir David Attenborough.

In the end, after they left our area and continued to document their night, we still had an enjoyable time.

I got through re-reading this book this week, and it made me remember why I so loved this story. This was one of the required readings I had to do when I took the class On the Superhuman in UCSB taught by the incomparable Dr. Laurence A. Rickels. Or was it his Psy Fi class?

Whatever the case may be, when I saw the trailer for the movie this summer I knew I had to reread the story. I mean it had been 1998 since I read it, and years of booze, debauchery and chemical reactions have made certain synaptic connections a bit fuzzy. (I guess you could call those years my early 20s, but isn’t that the case for most people?)

The trailer just left me a bit hostile. Never mind the fact that I don’t like Will Smith, but the plot of the movie didn’t jive with me. From what I’ve gleaned, the beginning of the movie is more true to the original story. It details Robert Neville’s day-to-day life as the last man on earth. That’s sort of hard to fuck up, right?

It’s the ending where they deviate from the book and apparently where it completely bombed. From what it sounds like, they dumbed things down to create a sort-of happy ending. I guess there’s a colony of surviving humans in Vermont, and things are all right in the end even though Will Smith sacrifices himself.

In the book, the ending is much more Twilight Zone-esque where a group of vampire/human hybrids who learn to live with their disease come after Neville. Right before he’s executed he realizes he has terrorized this group much like the dead vampires have terrorized him. His last thoughts are, I am legend.

I guess that’s the problem with studios. To maximize their bottom line, they have to slaughter a story to fit a pro-religious hopeful ending mold to sell tickets. Whatever the case, it is yet another instance where I’ll just stay away.