Author: brian

i think i’ll start ’05 by looking forward before looking back, mostly because resolutions i should get started on right away, whereas best of ’04 lists should not theoretically change depending on the first few days of the new year.

even more importantly though, perhaps i should take a second to leaf through last year’s resolutions to see which i accomplished, which should carry over, and which were utter failures…

resolutions for 2004, with results:

— read an average of 2 or more books a month.

failed at this, reading only about 1.5/month, a low in recent years. decided this was okay, since i went out so much more, actually living life instead of reading so much about it. hope to find a happy medium this year.

— write here regularly, become better writer, try writing something that isn’t a weblog post.

did pretty well at this, right? you should probably be telling me. and i also have a new project to be unveiled shortly, so that last part worked out as well. will try to keep up at this and you’ll see on the new stuff soon.

— talk to more people who aren’t already my friends.

not bad, i’d say… getting better all the time. and made friends with some of my neighbors who are awesome, so that’s pretty sweet.

— much more importantly: actually talk to girls instead of just looking.

well, i’m still bad at this, but i take consolation in the fact that everyone i know is also bad at this. maybe this year we will all simultaneously improve, wreaking havoc on the female population.

— more quantifiably: get at least one number per month.

i told myself last year should be the ‘year of the ladies’, and i did date two people and sort-of-see a few others over the course of the year, so i didn’t do too badly — but to be honest i totally forgot about my monthly quota so i can only assume i didn’t quite measure up to this one. and for now i have a lady friend (yes!), so the requirement is waived until she gets sick of me.

— a sub-goal of the previous: get at least one number from someone i meet at a concert.

technically succeeded, but that business ended really sourly, so i’d like to think something more positive still needs to be accomplished in this arena.

— ride my bike more, and more regularly.

utterly failed. sometime in june i think i rode it after having neglected it for months, and the tire popped before i got four blocks from my house.

— learn to cook more real food.

also utterly failed. i didn’t even try with this one, but as with the bike, these two were more pie-in-the-sky resolutions anyway.

— cross an ocean.

totally accomplished! prague was beautiful and exciting, i have a passport, and i have to say i’m probably most proud of this one.

— sleep with someone who works at my office.

possibly could have at one point but thought better of it in that case. have not sought out other opportunites so far, probably wisely.

— visit new american cities i’ve never seen.

hmmm… spent too much money crossing the ocean to do this. do airports i’ve never seen count?

— have an affair with an older woman.

yeah, i still am only attractive to the younger ones, it looks like. oh well, in a few years time women that qualify as ‘older’ compared to me won’t be in the sexy range any more, so then i’ll be in the perfect place with my appeal to the young. i can sleep with 27 year olds when i’m 30 instead of now, that would be fine with me.

coming soon… new resolutions for a better brian.

here at my desk after all those days off, i can’t help but wonder if there has ever been some quantitative study done on exactly how low productivity is the day after a long break. if i were more motivated i might even search for such a study.

in lieu of that, i will only wish the world a happy new year. i think the same thing every time the calendar flips, which is, “i hope i don’t get the feeling this year that my best days are behind me.” so here’s to everyone: may your 2005 be your best year yet.

the ending of a year of course means best of lists, and the beginning of a new one means reflections and resolutions, and i’m sure i will get to all of that in the next week or so. but, like i said, first day back… you understand.

i can’t help but think that today, when i went to the cost plus world market, the group of people walking in as i left were speaking french as a joke for my benefit, and/or were hired by the store to legitimize the ‘world market’ tag on the store name. i’m fairly sure i’ve never heard french spoken anywhere else in los angeles. i’m convinced it had to be rigged.

even so — it’s good to be back. loved seeing the family, and got so many nice generous things from them you’d think they really love me or something. but there’s something to be said for sleeping in your own bed, then waking up and eating at your favorite philly cheesesteak stand. and now the next thing to be excited about: a vegas new years. oh yes, my friends, oh yes.

on the way to work this morning i was already happy because it’s only a half day in addition to being the last work day before i fly home for christmas. relaxing and family and food and presents are all cheerful things, as were the great first presents i got this morning from my lady friend.

the icing on the cake though was driving past a chevron station and seeing a guy in full mariachi outfit pumping gas at 8:42am. i guess they need gas too, but i suppose i didn’t picture them driving beat up old fords — in my head they always arrived via burro. also: wouldn’t that big hat be tough to fit under the roof of a car? it probably has to be removed and allowed to ride shotgun.

either way, those sequins still command respect glittering in the morning sun. feliz navidad everybody!

several post-lets to catch up since last i wrote:

saw the life aquatic last week. refuse to comment until more people see it and i can discuss it with them, because i don’t want to affect their opinion on it by influencing their expectations beforehand one way or the other. let me know what you think once you do catch it though, because it’s pretty obvious that every wes anderson fan will be going in the next few weeks, which i will at least say they should be doing.

also went and saw a city on film show at the knitting factory side lounge last week, which was an excellent time. the fact i knew the box office guy through a friend and got hooked up almost made up for the fact that a bunch of people were talking over the music — which is so rude and unforgiveable in such a small room — and then just ditched the last half of the set leaving the place almost empty. i would have felt bad for him if i wasn’t having such a good time myself just listening once it quited down.

caught the life and death of peter sellers on tivo with the lady friend over delicious wine and cheese she brilliantly picked up, which was a great thursday night. the movie was worth checking out for sure; probably close to top-ranking on the list of what i’ve seen in the narrow ‘bio-pic’ category. the bottle of wine she got also had a part of a story on the back about an alligator attack, to be continued on later bottles from the same winery. very cool.

then over the weekend it was road trip up to nor-cal to hang out with the guys, specifically josh who is newly returned from lithuania for the holidays. despite having to drive through the thickest fog i’ve ever seen and not rolling in until nearly 1am, we still managed to stay awake and party until around 6 in the morning. sure, the next day we were all a wreck and we stooped as low as going to see national treasure (awful. truly awful.), but it was so worth it.

lastly, i know i should have worked a little harder to find some indie rock christmas song for the final pay day song of the year, but the market’s flooded anyway. instead, how about a song from novi split, who opened for city on film, from their split EP which i picked up at the show. another solo project, another sad guy with a guitar, but i really felt for the scrawny little emo guy. the EP is solid too, specifically the last track, so check that out and get your own christmas music.

to all the jerks who may refuse to think of me as an adult with a bonafide and promising career in the business world just because i still act and dress like a rock-concert going college kid with skate shoes and a backpack, you’ll be happy to hear that i went on my first business trip yesterday. totally official and important, i’ll have you know.

the good thing about this was that it was an important and beneficial step in me becoming a better professional, and the experience was good, i’d say. face time with clients and all that. the bad part was that this was not of the glamorous visit to another city and stay in a nice hotel and have power lunches variety. this was of the wake up at 4:45am to get to the airport on time to fly to northern california for a few meetings, some of only marginal importance, and then fly right back by sundown variety. it was exhausting and somewhat of a pain. but i did get an awesome breakfast sandwich and some frequent flier points.

and for those jerks on the opposite side who think i’m all sold out and professional and grown-up, you can just shut up knowing that i still carried an eastpack backpack with a batman pin — briefcase? attache? what are those? — still wore vans, and even went to a rock concert the same night, which i got into for free because i knew the girlfriend of the dude working the ticket counter. so eat that.

long live treading the line between reality and indie idealism.

i’m sorry johnny walker, i am, but i hated you this morning. hated you passionately. sure, i loved you last night when the open bar gave me all the access to you i want, giving me the courage to dance in front of coworkers and not feel stupid wearing a jacket and tie (with shirt still defiantly untucked and unbuttoned at the top, thank you very much) and smile stupidly right at certain girls i would normally divert my stare from quickly when caught.

but today, when i woke up at 11 still wearing my clothes, jacket and tie at least shed on the floor nearby, still wearing my contacts, and awfully dehydrated, you were definitely not my friend. once i changed and went back to sleep, then woke up again at 3pm (yes, 3pm for god’s sake) with a horrible stomachache, only to watch you pour violently and repeatedly out of my body a few minutes later at the alter of the porcelain god, you were not the delicious and merry buddy on the rocks from the night prior. you were a stinging, hateful alcholic demon that had to be exorcised, and i had no love for you at all. it didn’t help that i was unable to even keep down toast, toast for the love of god, until almost FIVE, you son of a bitch. why did i deserve that?

i know, i don’t know when enough is enough. i was even disappointed at the last round when i couldn’t get more of you and had to settle for water (lame). so maybe the blame isn’t all mine; maybe i’ll even be able to forgive you someday (next weekend?). but today you kept me from being able to see the life aquatic, and made me lose most of my afternoon. consequently, i am no longer speaking to you (for now. see you soon! great party though!).

i love my ipod. sincerely, openly, and fully. i get in the car and shuffle the whole thing, and even though i have one of the older models that only holds 5GB, that’s still around 1100 songs to randomize for driving music. it’s wonderful.

however, and perhaps others have also noticed this, the bri-pod (as it is named) seems to have some ‘favorite’ songs that no matter how often i turn on shuffle, always seem to come on more than others for some reason. conversely, i am fairly confident there are some tracks in the thing i have never once heard come up on shuffle (where are you, texas is the reason song i first heard on a high school friend’s mix tape, called “if it’s here when we get back it’s ours?”).

anyway, i wonder what it says about me or my ipod that these seem to be its most preferred tracks:

— smoking popes – ‘do something’

(far and away favorite. i hear this like every three days, it’s creepy.)

— dismemberment plan – ‘do the standing still’

— promise ring – ‘a broken tenor’

(my favorite song of theirs, luckily.)

— modest mouse – ‘ohio’

(my least favorite song of theirs that made it on the ipod, which is unfair. i almost want to cut it just to break the curse.)

— jay-z – ‘encore’ remix from the grey album

— rancid – ‘radio’

(and i never skip this one, out of all these)

— neutral milk hotel – ‘king of carrot flowers pt 1’

(amazing song, and now i know all the words.)

— that song off the first streets album, where an intelligent pothead and stupid beer-drunk hooligan debate the merits of their respecitve drugs of choice

— the instrumental interlude tracks from minus the bear’s highly refined pirates album, much more than the actual songs

(which i only put on for the rare instances i want to listen to the whole cd at once. rip off.)

— bon jovi – ‘livin’ on a prayer’

(which, i swear, is on there for road trip purposes only — the sole acceptable situation in which it is okay to both blast and sing along to this track, aside from maybe a biker bar.)

now there’d be a weird mix cd, don’t you think?

but am i the only one who has noticed this phenomenon? i mean, if other people’s ipods have a top ten i’d like to know what they were — and make sure they weren’t cooler than mine.

so a month has passed since the Big Bad Election of 2004, and it’s far enough behind us to think about moving ahead on a personal level. luckily the world hasn’t ended just yet — although bush’s second term hasn’t actually started yet either. Give the man time and i’m sure he’ll find a way as we watch the war get worse not better and the value of the dollar dip instead of recover. we have to believe in him; he is the president after all.

but the thing that reassures me is that my interest in following democratic politics hasn’t waned much if at all. in fact i probably read as much news this week as i did in october, and if not riddled with a little case of “i live in a blazingly blue city in a big blue state, how can i really make a difference?”, would be otherwise ready to do some protesting or activism or whatever to fight the far-right monster should i get the opportunity to do something meaningful. i mean, if there’s one thing my life does not have right now, it’s fighting, so why not fight the biggest enemy of them all, ignorance? all in due time though i guess. for now i’m mostly just reading up and thinking, “go dean go.”

that’s weekday brian of course. weekend brian mostly drank with his cool lady friend at the viper room, then a lot more with his buddies while watching football (trojans #1 start to finish, bitches!) and playing video games (so far, i still think halo 1 is more fun to play linked up), then a lot less and just chilling instead with the same cool lady friend. twice in one weekend is a big deal, right? or at least it is if she lives in the valley (yuck).

life isn’t fair sometimes. like the fact that because i have to buy christmas presents, i was trying to save money by not going out to meet my roommate at one of our favorite local bars last night, which means that he got to see david cross hanging out there for over two hours, and i didn’t. they didn’t talk to him and i probably wouldn’t have either (usual policy of don’t bug celebrities unless you have a reason to start a conversation or opportunity to gracefully say, ‘i appreciate what you do’), but that would have been a great one to add to the sightings list. at least i know he has been to that place though; it sort of validates it as a destination.

in other news items, i happened upon this trailer for ong bak which looks HOT. give me the release date, stupid trailer! when can i check my local listings?

and also, i caught and episode of tom goes to the mayor last night after putting tivo on the case, thanks to a tip that the mr. show crew was involved. previously i thought it was just an ugly half-hearted attempt at animation. turns out it sort of is that, but it’s also a semi-animated comic strip written and voice acted by that crew (odenkirk produced), featuring the D in the ‘bear traps’ episode at least. i wouldn’t say it was great, but it was weird, different, way random, and funny. gino, however, was not down, so be warned it might be a let down if you’re not openminded and forgiving.

and lastly in further cartoon news, a new animation show is playing in LA in february 2005 at the nuart! i can’t wait, the first one was a joy. the dates aren’t listed on their site but sign up for their email list like i did and you might get the same insider updates. nothing like planning three months early to go to a movie.