"You see I'm coming back to work after a 7 month absence...well I was fired than I was re-hired. I know that per week I can live off of $200 because unemployment taught me that. Anyways..."
im going on summer vacation soon. i have a house sitter (pictured, below in the previous post)
i just dont know where i wanna go.
thinking about chicago to see my momma. thinkin about nyc to see nyc.
but this video makes me think about going to frisco for a lil while.
i lived up there for a few years, surrounded by friends and even spent a few important summers as a teen up there, one in particular feeling up a girl named mary.
and yet i havent been up there in quite a while.
ten things i miss:
1. haight street teenage bums 2. house of nan king 3. the 500 club 4. the f market trolley 5. arts cafe 6. brothers in law 7. truly med 8. 16th street 9. how amazing the gg bridge looks at almost every angle and weather condition 10. the bars on lower haight
i still cant believe i worked an entire baseball season at the old 'Stick
while i was on this panel discussion people were talking about how can you fit in blogging into your life.
while i was arguing with my nutritionist she asked how can you fit going to the gym into your life.
while i was flirting with this $cientologist who was on a smoke break she said how can you really fit Jesus into your life.
while i was talking about the new Smoosh cd, the new Arcade Fire cd, and the old Menthol single my mom asked how do you fit so much new music in your life.
while i was in the midst of a Yahoo! Fantasy draft my opponents said hurry it up im trying to fit dinner into my day.
life is about priorities and multitasking. and the easiest of all of those choices is blogging.
a person can sit in his cubicle and in the time it takes before a 4:15pm meeting he can get a few ideas out onto the web, add a picture of his coworker Doing Work, and say a few things of value.
so heres some value: life is a struggle between doing the things you wanna do with the things you think you hafta do.
there is always eight minutes to blog.
standing on a ledge saying something daring only takes a moment.
dear america, and parts of canada. im very confused
the other day i gave you what i thought you wanted.
you asked for a rundown on the sunset strip music fest, and i delivered.
not only that but i lead with the lovely and talented karisa, her new bff mary, and all the howard stern fans should have loved seeing Melrose Larry Green.
but there were no comments of praise and thanks.
are you saying you no longer want these things?
i gave you a photo of the powerful and influential dr lou adler, the man who brought cheech and chong to the national spotlight, the gentleman who sits next to jack at laker games.
and yet nothing.
we wont even discuss the fact that i showed you a food truck that serves up salad, or a video of smashing pumpkins rocking out on sunset strip
because i also delivered upon you Jesus himself.
and still no one clicked the comments and said omg tony you rule the entire universe.
there was a time when this blog would average 30-40 comments per post.
there was a time when id walk down the street and the ladies would raise their hands and the boys would say yo there he be.
there was a time when the busblog was the homepage for men and women around the world and there was nothing better than not just the posts, but the conversations held therein.
and trust me, i was not delivering photos of the Messiah. so whaddup?
clearly its the system itself. the Echo comments are inferior to when they were owned by Haloscan, so true.
consider your lack of communication as being heard loud and clear.
things will change here.
in the meantime, here's Jesus dancing with a dancing girl on the Sunset Strip.
the question asked in one of the comments below was How the Heck was Sunset Strip Music Fest?
id like to get into great detail but i was pretty hammered. as was karisa and mary when they met Melrose Larry Green. Larry blushed when we asked if we could get a snap with him. that made me blush.
then we saw Jesus. i mean Dr. Lou Adler. the founder of the Roxy and the Rainbow, the man who made Cheech & Chong famous, the producer who recorded among others Sam Cooke & The Mamas & the Papas, the man who produced the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the guy who sits next to Jack Nicholson at the Laker games. i asked him if he ever thought that the Roxy and Rainbow would ever evolve to such a cool street fest and he just smiled like the cool cat he is.
there was food trucks galore. and being LA there was even one that served salads.
Common rocked the East Stage, and on the West Stage was Slash with Fergie, and later the Smashing Pumpkins.
pumpkins played 90 minutes and delivered all the hits, including a drum solo since it was the sunset strip and all. speaking of, i want more drum solos at concerts, people!
fun fact: you can always tell when im drunk because my one eye closes up half way. you can always tell when karisas drunk because she holds you close and tells you she loves you
and then we saw Jesus with a nice lady with Lolita glasses. so yeah, great day.
ive often said i dont like being on panel discussions and tonight i was faced with why
even though i have a website with my name in it, and even though i fake it reasonably well, (not so) deep down i am ridiculously shy
and i know myself well enough to realize that if i have my mouth open the odds significantly increase that i will say something embarrassing to either myself or my employer.
but people invite me to these things, and i battle the fear of being boring with the fear of making a fool outta myself and a lil demon whispers in my ear something along these lines:
you are tony pierce OF COURSE you are going to say something stupid, so just dont Also be boring. and ps you cant hide who you are.
those voices make their way to my stomach. which is the magic 8 ball of my soul. so for lunch i ate a sensible salad. and when i left a little early to change clothes at home i went to Vons and got a nice spicy tuna roll
because what could be better for a soon-to-be-upset stomach than supermarket sushi?
but relaxed at home for a few minutes. snacked. ished, showerd, and shaved. got into some traffic. made it to the santa monica with 4 minutes to spare.
and when the time came for we, the panel to be introduced, thank God, the host of the show took the floor (pictured above) for 10 minutes because suddenly it got really hot in the room and i ran to the mens room to powder my nose cuz i was fixin to die.
got back just in time as the panel had introduced themselves, it was my turn and we were off.
all went (seemingly) well - other than the sustained hiss i got from one member of the audience after i told the crowd of attractive young women that if they all dont have a photo of themselves as their Twitter icon then they're missing a great opportunity if attaining followers was one of their goals.
i even got a few laughs.
but right at the end someone asked what my favorite blogs were. and i said, well it might seem like pandering but i have often said my faves have almost exclusively been women and most of them happened to reside in Canada.
i explained that two in particular was one raymi the minx and one keira-anne. and, because time is of the essence, especially near the end of a two-hour discussion, i described one as "sweet" and the other as "saucy".
somehow all i was projecting was that i liked them because they were both easy on the eyes.
and i got called out.
a followup question came from the back along the lines of "other than being hot what ELSE do you enjoy from these female bloggers?"
and your hero thought, this is exactly why your stomach did not want to be here. this is precisely why i should just stay in my pajamas and hide behind the glow of the macbook. this is specifically why i attempt to remain comfortably numb in public - because when i drop my guard the unedjumacated politically-incorrect sexist pig leaks out and everyone can see.
but luckily i was able to explain that yes people like raymi and keira and so many others may lure you in with their beautiful photos but once you get beyond the image and get to the actual content you get to see not just who these fine women are but you learn a little about the cities and country that they live in. you get to learn about their struggles, insecurities, hopes, loves, dramas, families, and stories.
after the show the young lady who had put me on the spot was super sweet and apologized for what was probably seen as an awkward moment, but i told her not to sweat it, that it was honest and great because all we had been talking about was to be honest in our blogging and tweeting and there she was actually living it.
anyways if we hadnt been rudely interrupted by one of the only other dudes in the place i wanted to tell her that right now my favorite summer blog is also written by a young lady, but an AMERICAN
yes, Alecia's asian vacation is the type of travel writing that can only be seen in blogs for its honest, not trying to be anything other than what it is, educational, funny, weird, filled with pictures, and so so many interesting tales.
someone got bored and left me a lot of questions on my formspringr
q. did you hear the latest? people in iraq had their first ever irish pub there after american troops left. they had a blast!
a. did you hear the latest? that joke bombed.
q. how many licks does it take to get to the centre of your heart?
a. i <3 how you canadians think its ok to spell like dirty frenchies.
q. only 2 days left in august. are you ready for september yet?
a. are you kidding - i have my calendar-flipping finger all lubed up and limber.
q. if you had a credit card with an unlimited spending limit, what would you buy first?
a. but you see, in your fictional scenario i'd still have to pay off said purchase, so nothing. i hate having bills of any sort. use cash bro. its in the bible. sorta.
q. what favorite food do you like to make these days with cheese?
a. i do everything i can so that i never have to make anything called food. if i cant get it via a drive thru or at a sushi bar i have failed.
q. light hearted conversation usually leads to laughter. are you able to laugh these days on a whim?
a. sure but its not heartfelt. its more of a nervous laughter. a creepy one.
q. in the circle of life, who is it in yours that is always a few sandwiches short?
a. those who leave formspring questions. zing!
q. how comfortable are you with your friends online that you have connected with out there in real as well?
a. there are those you want to sleep with and those you want to drink with. both sets i can handle for about 4 hours then i wanna be alone again.
q. if one of your friends in cyberspace was about to become homeless because of unforseen circumstances, would you let them stay with you?
a. probably not. i rarely enjoy having house guests, especially those who might not ever leave.
q. have you ever met really funny people while doing your laundry?
a. no. mostly super sad people because WE ARE DOING LAUNDRY AND DONT HAVE MACHINES IN OUR MANSIONS
q. what are some of the things you do on saturdays that open a new door to your boundaries of thought?
a. dude my thoughts have no boundaries. thats part of the problem/
q. what is your most funniest japanese phrase or saying.. ?
a. what have you people done with the forks!
q. name 3 things that are funny about yourself.
a. my double chins, my pregnant belly, and my funny bones.
q. would you like to come out for some cheesecake?
a. sounds cheesy
q. have you seen others out there of late trying to make a real difference for others? what has been the most inspiring so far?
a. i have met some people in the peace corps. i think i love them.
q. who is your favorite european artist? .. music wise.
a. the clash
q. what has been your favorite item of clothing from the Gap?
a. you just want me to say thong dont you
q. did you notice the tree's are starting to change color already , yet!!!
a. did you notice you added an apostrophe for no good reason?
i dont like doing panel discussions, but someone cool invited me to partake. so if youre in LA and want to see something you wont see very often, read below. but first an example of old school social media
from the invite:
Hello L.A. Edsters. Our friends at Demand Media (which is seemingly always hiring, btw) have agreed to play host to our next Ed 2010 panel discussion. This one will be a brown bag discussion on social media and how to use it to better your journalism career and your publication's online attention.
We'll have four panelists discuss these and other issues and then we'll open the discussion up to you guys. Most important, we'll give Edsters some time to network (socially) after the event.
MORE DETAILS:
Our esteemed panel of social media experts include Tony Pierce, blog editor for Los Angeles Times (Twitter: @busblog), Rachel Globus, editor, Answerbag.com/Demand Media (Twitter: @mediajunkette), Sheigh Crabtree, Vice President of Audience Development at Perfect Market (Twitter: @sheigh), Debra Eckerling, Freelance journalist/manager of Write On Online (Twitter: @writeononline). Before we start the panel, Jeremy Reed, Demand's SVP of content (Twitter: @jebreed) will welcome everyone.
REFRESHMENTS: Sodas and waters will be on hand.
PARKING: There is a public parking garage on Second Street, next door to Demand Media's building. The fee is $5. There is also parking in Demand Media's garage for $6. If you're parking on the street or in the public lot: someone will be at the front door of the building to let you in. Ring the buzzer near the main entrance to enter the office.
Why don't I like panels? I'm not convinced that anything ever comes of them. Is the web better? Do people do stuff smarter? Do people really learn in ways they don't learn from just reading the sites and blogs?
I know I live in LA and schmoozing makes the world go round, but schmoozing makes my gut churn 'round. I hate it, i avoid it, and i can count on one hand the positives that i have experienced either professionally or personally from contact i have made while wearing a "Hi my name is Busblog" sticker.
But like I said, some cool people invited me and I look forward to being on a panel with my former cohort Sheigh who is a quiet leader on the web.
and when the time came for we, the panel to be introduced, thank God, the host of the show took the floor (pictured above) for 10 minutes because suddenly it got really hot in the room and i ran to the mens room to powder my nose cuz i was fixin to die.
