The Required Michael Jackson Post

There were several things I wanted to write about and get out of my head before what’s to be a long work weekend (except for Sunday when I get to hang out with KathyT, yay) gets cranked up. One of the things I was planning to write about was NOT Michael Jackson.

And even yesterday after the news hit that he’d died, I still wasn’t planning to write about it. But after 24 hours of reading various convos of all kinds in many places, this getting brought up and that getting brought up, the wheels kept turning in my head and, next thing I knew, I was writing about Michael Jackson.

Since it’s music-related, I posted it on my music blog instead of here – and I know not everyone that follows the Zone follows that one as well – but if you wanna read it, it’s here.

Tuxedos & Oscar Just Kinda Go Together Anyway

I hadn’t been by one of my fave blogs in a while, Abbie the Cat Has a Posse, so when I stopped by tonight I was distressed to learn that Abbie had been missing for a while (for real) earlier this month.  Upon further reading, I was relieved to discover that he had been found, thank goodness.   Not really surprised he turned up – a 20-lb. tuxedo cat wouldn’t get overlooked very easily, I don’t think – but certainly glad he did, after what was apparently a pretty large effort by many folks to help find him, and his owner, known as The Guy, is understandably relieved.  Hopefully Abbie will get back to blogging and report on all his adventures away from home soon.

And, if by chance you missed the Oscars tonight, The Squirrel Queen live blogged the whole thing, so drop by and catch up if you have a mind to.  Apparently red was the in color this year, and you know, I’m sorry, but Cameron Diaz just sucks anyway.

My New Best Friend at LAX & Other Los Angeles Tales

Well, now that come to find out I’ve been shamed out of my self-imposed temporary blogging exile (laughing), I guess I gotta write something. There is just so much of nothing going on here right now and, no pun or blonde jokes intended, but my mind is pretty much a blank lately. So keep your expectations low and we’ll all be satisfied, I reckon.

There’ve been a couple of things on the back burner for a while now, including my last-minute-planned trip to L.A. in March, when the Hoodoo Gurus were doing their mini-tour through the US. Now that I think about it, there isn’t that much to tell about the trip, but here were a few of the more interesting things (besides the obvious, which was the concert and which was fantastic as I knew it would be):

• The Phoenix airport is very nice and very pretty, and there appear to be a lot of nice shops and restaurants in it. However, I would not really know because it is WAY too spread out with no quick way to get anywhere, and judging from the conversations around me on the flight to Memphis from Phoenix, apparently most connecting flights that land there are scheduled to give the passenger no more than 30 minutes and, in most cases, 20 or 10 to get to the gate for the connecting flight, and apparently hardly any connecting flights are scheduled with gates in the same terminal. I have never had to bust my ass so much in an airport (and coming through both ways) in my life – I had a limited window of time to get to L.A. that night, and not only was our flight late leaving Memphis, but my connecting flight’s gate could not have possibly been any further from the gate where I arrived, and the door was closing as I hit the gate and barely made it on. Not quite as bad, but almost the same situation, going back to Memphis the next morning. However, I think I was one of the lucky ones on the flight out – most of the people around me on the plane had ten minutes or less to make their connecting flight, so likely they didn’t make it.
• Got off the plane at LAX, start walking toward the front door of the terminal and who is walking right towards me, then past me, but actor Sean Penn. Someone later asked me did he look like he wanted to punch someone, but no – he just looked hurried and a bit stressed like most everyone else in the airport terminal – hope he wasn’t having to go to Phoenix! And this makes the second time in my life I have seen an Oscar winner at LAX (the first being actress Sissy Spacek on my trip out there way back in 1979).
• I can’t say enough good about the Super Shuttle from LAX. As stated, I had a VERY limited time window that trip and one major bout of delay with flight or shuttle service could have wrecked my entire trip. Instead, I actually made it to the restaurant where I was meeting friends for dinner before the show a half hour before they got there. Yay for the Super Shuttle.
• Also a big thumbs up for Canter’s Deli on Fairfax, which was where I met up with my old friend Jimm, who was still living in Australia when I last saw him about a decade ago, and his lovely wife Wendie, who I was meeting for the first time. We had a great dinner and a wonderful time visiting and my only regret is that I couldn’t try everything on the menu, which all looked fabulous, but the menu itself could take you more than an hour to read because there are SO many wonderful things on the menu. Hooray for the most excellent Philly sandwich there, though. Yum.
• A great big giant thumbs down for the security people at the El Rey Theatre. Their overzealousness was completely unnecessary, given the act involved, but I’ve since learned from some of the locals that the security there is well known for being asses for no real good reason. Thanks, security jerks, for a great big black mark on a trip I had flown thousands of miles for and to spend a whole 13.5 hours in your fair city. Except for the one female security person who was the one who checked my bag and ID and did indeed see I had come all the way from Memphis and was the only one not acting like a total shit after the show. Yep, I did indeed see and enjoy the show but their behavior post-show was despicable (even towards the band’s own crew!!!). Partially my fault for having made these trip plans at what was the very last minute, but the security behavior in general just left a lot to be desired. I know certain members of the band brought the behavior to their management’s attention and I intend to do the same. Anyway…
• I spent the night, basically, in LAX because there just wasn’t any point in getting a hotel room when I was going to be in L.A. so short of a time – the show was not over until around midnight and I was gonna have to be on a plane back to Memphis (and go thru security and all that) at 6:30 a.m. It was very much NOT comfortable and all and I nearly froze to death, but I survived it… other than the fact I would have liked to have smacked a certain smartass airport security person in the mouth that morning, but I didn’t want to go to jail, so I didn’t. Note to LAX management: Mark your airport security areas where you want people to line up and to go CLEARLY. Because next time, after I have slept five hours in your airport and am not quite awake, and I’m the second person to go thru security and therefore there are no lines with people lined up like cattle going in whatever direction or the other, and some smartass on your security staff decides to holler out, “What, have you never been in an airport before?” rather than pointing out the direction I need to go or something else possibly, oh, helpful? I’m smacking her in the mouth next time. Just sayin’.

So that’s pretty much the basics of that trip. It was fun and I’m glad I went, but I don’t think I’ll ever do something crazy like that, going all the way to L.A. and spending a whole 13.5 hours there before flying back, again. I was exhausted for two weeks or more after. Of course, I’d been in Chicago for barely two days just days before that, so that probably didn’t help.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll catch up on one of the 541 memes I’ve been tagged for, who knows. We’ll see. Hope everyone had a good 4th!

Bud Bundy Busted

My kinda sad pop culture reference of the day, as per The Smoking Gun.

Man, I would probably still have TV/cable if Fox were still in its glory days like way back when.

In other news, I’ll probably stick to short post bits for a while, I am getting entirely too warm to deal with thoughtful blogging.  They are coming to look at the AC on Thursday (which presents a whole new batch of stress in itself) and I am preparing for a fight.

It’s Too Early for That Dress

Just a quick check-in with various ramblings… I am super covered up and will be for the next several days, but thought I’d take a minute to do some Graffiti-ing before I have to delve headfirst into housework hell for the next day and a half, while I’m waiting for dinner to finish cooking (roasted garlic & parmesan fettucine Alfredo).

So, this week has been simply awful, but at least I’m thru working for a little while. It’s just almost not worth it to try and really take vacation time off… I worked ’til almost midnight one night this week, and ’til 1 a.m. Wednesday night, just trying to catch up before I take off. I can’t say that it was exactly helpful when the private line to the office rang at 11 p.m. last night and I picked it up to hear a guitar blaring the riff from “Ballroom Blitz” by The Sweet, heh, but it was much-needed comic relief… my pals, the clowns. (snicker)

So anyway, yeah, I’ve got a lot to do as Australia converges on Memphis this weekend… well, one Australian anyway, my buddy that’s coming to visit. I think it’s going to be very amusing to take an Australian to lunch at the Outback Restaurant, don’t you? I think he’ll be completely disgusted. (giggle)

Some other interesting tidbits of note lately… first someone I recently renewed acquaintance with via e-mail asked me something and then informed me that they’d always thought KC and I were brother and sister, yuck, and was surprised to find out we weren’t… but the funny part was when they thought I was the older one (I’m not, I’m almost exactly a year younger) because, and I quote, I was “always so much more mature than him”…. big snicker. I loved that!

Then this same person with the mistaken identity problem tried to make me formerly Greg Breit’s ex-girlfriend, which is really funny… Greg and I have always been fond of saying that we’ve swapped a lot of spit on numerous microphones over the years but have never, ever actually done the real swapping-spit thang, heh. Anyway, it was enjoyable to listen to how totally messed up this person’s conception of all of us was (tho on the other hand I guess most of it would be kind of understandable that someone could make mistakes like that) and it was fun to set ‘em straight on who was who and with who and what and all that, and I guess it does get confusing seeing as how there’s a number of cousins and siblings or half-siblings and such among my old crowd.

In other news, I’m awaiting the new Westerberg release with somewhat bated breath after having heard some early reviews, and am currently into the latests from Eve 6 and Hole… and does anyone else think Courtney Love singing “It’s too early for that dress” is like total irony.

Well, I’ve got to go, and I know I’m still behind and have much e-mail to answer, but I just am not going to be able to get to it for another week or so. I’m ignoring the coming weekend like the plague because I hate it, always have and just wish it would go away, I’m a total you-know-what-Day scrooge, but if you must have one, have a happy one…

We’re All Stars Now

Apologies to many, I am still behind with a capital B… and the thought of really tackling my e-mail keeps putting me to sleep, seriously. My schedule is so whacked out at the moment I’m just trying to maintain, so bear with a little longer. Happy Birthday today to Tim Vine, a juggler of many hats that I’m just in awe of.

Hmmm, I was going to write some stuff that was probably, tho not really intended to be, a pretty big bummer so I deleted it, for now anyway.

I tell you something that’s bugging the crap out of me tho… are my eyes deceiving me or is that Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, i.e., Washington from Welcome Back Kotter, in that Salon Selectives commercial that’s being run a million times on TV right now? Ack, I’m getting to be like Greg worrying over goofy junk like that. (snicker) So much for horoscopes, nothing particularly lucky or unexpected happened yesterday, figures.

Well, I’m glad today’s the last day of September, I always look forward to changing the Wall over ‘cos I get sick of looking at whatever month’s up.

Urgh. I have fought this soooo hard on Lynnster principle (which is, of course, different from just general average garden-variety principle, but I digress)… the new Marilyn Manson single is actually starting to grow on me. I didn’t want to like it but I’m afraid I’m starting to. Of course it’s certainly nothing even remotely close to Westerbergian or Faulknerian or Lennon/McCartneyan or anything such, not even close… but yeah, I kinda like it in some off the wall way.

I’m not sure what this is a sign of but I’m sure it’s a sign of something… not much else except that I’m pleased to note that starting October 1st (and actually they’ve already started doing it), Memphis International Airport is no longer charging a fee for parking in short-term parking 30 minutes or less. Being that I am almost always at the airport for less than 30 minutes, at least 99% of the time anyway, I think this is a righteous turn of events. Yeah, it’s certainly some of the littler things in life that make Lynnster happy… reckon that’s all for September, I have no more Septembery stuff, see you in October when I’ll have Octobery stuff maybe. Ciao…

I Bet You Never Listen

So, I’m listening to Howard Stern the other morning, which I only get to listen to for about ten minutes a day somewhere between about 8:35 & 9:00 a.m. because I live somewhat disgustingly close to the office, and Marilyn Manson’s on the Stern show chatting happily away. I, however, am in a bit of an tizzy. I don’t like Manson, I think he looks disgusting and don’t think much more highly of his music. Yet I’m in utter fascination… because this guy has got a great voice. Not singing voice – I hate to hear him sing – but a great speaking voice. Yeah, I’m twisted and have some kinda weird audio fetish… it’s going to get me into trouble someday (well, it probably already has, actually). A guy with a great speaking voice is a good thing. Pity it had to be probably the male that most disgusts me on earth otherwise…

Anyway, nothing much more for the moment, other than the fact that I have a dog that eats cat food and a kitten that eats dog food, sigh, we seem to have a bit of a species confusion problem around here lately.

Sorry I haven’t managed much to get back to my e-mail box this week, those of you that don’t know why already will hopefully understand why when I get around to you, for once there really is a good reason behind my absence of sorts… ’til later…