my best new friend...

yr a bomb that goes off in my heart...

yesterday was my birthday.

it was one of those birthdays where i didn't make a big deal of it.

no cake, no big celebration. just lots of phone calls and messages from loved ones.

it was a beautiful day of feeling really lucky to be alive and very grateful for my life today.

with each passing year i've become more and more confident that life is really only about one or two things.

family and friends... well, LOVE, really.

it's the only thing you can take with you.

something to write home about...

Larry David's recent blog on the Huffington Post describes pretty accurately the nail-biting and anxiety that is taking over your life if you're rooting for Obama. the problem, if yr a liberal or democrat, is that you can't bring yourself to fully accept that we really are ahead in this thing. we've been trained in the last eight years (even before that, really, with the Clinton impeachment) to never be surprised by the ability of the right to find new ways to scare America back into their way of seeing things. and also, by the Dems ineptness at holding the public's attention once we're actually willing to read past the headlines to find out what's really going on (i.e. the financial crisis).

i voted for Clinton in 1992. it was the first election i was old enough to vote in. i was elated that my guy won and even more pleased when he turned out to be such a good president. because, let's face it, we're really just taking a shot in the dark with these people aren't we? when Gore finally conceded to Bush in 2000 after weeks of legal bickering, i was completely devastated and heartbroken. i held a "Funeral for Democracy" party at my house. my wife at the time and myself were the only ones in attendence. soon after, i began the slow decline into the not-so-recreational drug use and apathy that got me sober. not that i blame that on the election or Bush directly... mostly i blame Ralph Nader and all of my friends that didn't vote. for Bush-Kerry 2004, well i barely remember the year of 2004, let alone the specifics of the election. but obviously, with an incumbent, war-time president i wasn't holding my breath. i knew America would never change directors in the middle of the epic saga: "The War On Terror." kind of sounds like a John Wayne film if you say it with the right inflection... "'The War On Terror', at a theatre near you..."

so here we are in 2008, with my hopes up because of a youth culture with enough computer savvy and information channels available to them to get past the fear-driven propaganda and a politician who actually makes sense to them/me/us when he speaks. my iPhone glued in my hand, scanning CNN.com every half-hour or so to check poll updates... that can seriously impede your ability to drive, incidentally. i've heard more horns honking because the light has turned green in the last two weeks than i can count. and Candy, my poor girlfriend, having to patiently sit through my diatribes and ruminations on why McCain is such an F'n A-hole and Obama just HAS to win. having conversations with someone who's staring at their phone, only to get responses like "i'm sorry honey, what were you just saying?" things have gotten a little better since the debates ended, actually. the anger has subsided and now it's just down to a deep feeling of worry and a mild sense of dread.

i guess i'm just waiting for the bottom to fall out. since it usually does... but what if it doesn't? what if he wins? to have a person in the White House that actually thinks before he acts... a person that makes decisions based on facts instead of feelings... and to be a part of the first generation to put someone other than an old-ass, white-ass, dumb-ass in office... now that would be something.

with a loose tooth and a crooked smile...

you really can't beat Knott's Berry Farm on a Sunday in the off-season.

no lines...

no sweltering heat...

just ride after ride after ride...

a little boys dream come true...

they say patience is a virtue...

getting what you want when you want it pretty much rules though.

and span the length of the isle of Manhattan...

last week we were in New York to tape a performance on "One Life To Live." yes, the soap opera. it will air December 30th and our performance is at a New Years Eve party thrown by one of the characters on the show. high art. anyway, while we were there i got to see two amazing shows. the first was Mickey Avalon at the Blender Theatre. now, i had actually forgotten this until Mickey (real name: Yeshi) reminded me after the show: that he used to sell t-shirts for my previous band Campfire Girls at some of our Hollywood shows back in 2001. Yeshi was just a youngster then. it was incredible to see him onstage, by himself, carrying the whole show and killing it to boot. i felt like a proud parent.

the other show was Death Cab For Cutie at Radio City Music Hall.

after scrambling (unsuccessfully) all day long to get tickets because it was sold-out, i finally decided to just go to the venue and scalp some tickets.

the first person i approached had one front-row ticket.

i won't cheapen the experience with words.

three reasons why Bear is the best guitar tech in the whole world...

1. he labels everything, and i mean EVERYTHING. i wouldn't be surprised if his name was tattooed on his man-tool.

2. the inside of his work box looks like it has been prepped for surgery.

3. he has a robot-shaped pencil sharpener.