Lawrence.com

July 8, 1974

Help me, I'm drowning. Get me outta here!!!!

Lawrence...out on the East side

KCMO

Married a longtime Larryvillian and Borg-ed my way in.

Poor

Writing, reading, chasing people down the street while screaming obscenities (preferably me, not them; but I've got some give there), building a huge wall of writer's block that prevents me from writing more than a page at a time, dodging traffic, waving banners praising Kansas' "Free Quebec from Canada's Tyrannical Rule" movement, . Oh yeah, and I write CD and book review for KC Jazz Ambassador's JAM Magazine.

The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes, any of the Best American Short Stories or the O'Henry Award Collections, any of the Paris Review books, The Plague by Albert Camus, Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas, 1984 by Orwell, The 39 Steps by John Buchan, any of Graham Greene's "entertainment" books (i.e. The Power and the Glory, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, etc.) and The Shining by Stephen King - no current author does a better job of showing a regular man's descent into madness.

Anything Hitchcock, anything Film Noir, anything quirky, spaghetti westerns, films with dystopian views of society (so I guess Michael Moore movies would fall into that category too, huh?) but not really anything big and flashy so that would rule out almost any movie that falls into the top ten lists for moneymakers and rules in most award-type movies.

Iron & Wine, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, The Shins, The Beatles, Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five, Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, early Dylan, Cake, The Eels, Citizen Cope, Daniel Powter, The Doors, Doris Henson, The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, Son Venezuela, Five for Fighting, Foo Fighters, Fountains of Wayne, Jack Johnson, The Jayhawks, Josh Ritter, Joshua Radin, Keane, Kings of Leon, Low Millions, some Mark Knopfler, Mason Jennings, Nick Drake, OK Go, Old 97s, Ray LaMontagne, Razorlight, Scissor Sisters, The White Stripes, Wynton Marsalis (most Jazz really), MTO/Steven Bernstein and Martin Sexton (but only the song "Diner").

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Ghosthunters, The Office (Brit and US versions), Lost (starting to regain interest), Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, CSI:NY and Las Vegas (but that crappy Miami one), Reno 911, Strangers with Candy and the best -- Colbert Report and The Daily Show.

Nanowrimo.org (for one month at least), slate.com, NPR.org, www.zoetrope.com and www.triggerstreet.com/gyrobase/index, www.kcjazz.org.

Cup O' Joel, Godjilla and Art on Lawrence.com, The Daily Howler at http://www.dailyhowler.com/.

India Palace

Magazines are the tops (says Mel Torme's floating spectre and I agree), then literary journals.

Man, I hate fanny packs. I would much rather carry a man-purse. We are talking about European carry-alls right?

Fourty-flaventy United States dollars.

Elevate with pylons or invent hover-cars. Just hurry up and decide dagnabit!

I just hate coming home smelling like smoke, having blood-shot eyes and coughing and horking up odd-colored phlegm after going to a bar/restaurant. Otherwise, I say smoke to your lung's desire. Oh and if my candidate loses in '08, I will definitely be blaming it on the smoking ban.

Is that a bar or a new restaurant. I can't keep up with all these new places coming and going.