busblog

one of the bad things about being part of the xbi (or the canadian version, the cix) is that the agencies like to poison its agents

even if youre the boss’s daughter.

at some point you feel like youre gonna die.

and the way the crazy doctors are inside the xbi

they might even tell you straight up you are gonna die.

a few weeks ago your girl was told she could quite possibly have

HIV, cancer, or shingles or godknowswhat.

I was all, you dont have those things. She was like. I know.

But she was getting terrible rashes, she was dizzy

all she could do was sleep and vomit.

i said send me a picture. she sent this one.

i said no of the rashes. but she was on to me.

then the other day i got this email:

Not dyyyyyyingggy

Not caaaaaancer!!!!!

I have a genetic cholesterol thing and its got to be treated with some months of drugs, that caused my dizziness. And i have an infection. My liver.

So tomorrow i already have 2 doc appointments.

It can all be treated with drugs!!!

And my liver infecion might have caused my lil tumors AND my rashes and so i still have to get a catscan amd control my things but my hair will grow back and ill be normal soon i hope!!!!%!

Im soooooo happy

Your praying worked!!!!

but apparently theres still a little praying left to do, so when you say yours tonight feel free to give etienne a shout oot

canadian rock n roll superstar matthew good is celebrating his birthday today

with his growing family in his kickass hobbit house.

many americans dont know his music which is sad because it’s deep and powerful and meaningful.

if i ever get married, for sure theres gonna be Apparitions playing somewhere in there.

but one of the best things about Matt is he tells it like it is.

“it just seems strange to go through life and not say what you think,” today’s birthday boy told Mike Bullard in 2001.

“What’s the point,” Matt asked. “You only get to do it once.”

happy birthday my man! thanks for keeping it real.

see, id read the new yorker if their covers were always great

dear diary

today is friday which means i had to set my alarm to 11am so i could take a shower, and move my car before noon.

fortunately monsters university was playing at a bargain matinee in glendale at 11:30am

it was a good movie but a few things irritated me:

somehow the people in the theatre were eating their popcorn at ridiculously loud levels

didnt even know that was possible, but either these people were STARVING

or my spidey senses are on a super high level.

meanwhile in front of me two people just WOULD NOT STOP PLAYING ON THEIR PHONES

this was a good movie. no need for you to tweet to yr friends how good it is. while youre “watching” it!

very distracting and if i had some popcorn i would have thrown it at them.

note to self.

austin texas, sxsw, a few days before st. patricks day

i was talking to a fantastic young lady named moka

true, i had been drinking. for several days. as that is what you do there.

and you talk and talk and listen to very smart people and later you hear great bands.

but maybe for 80 percent of the time theres a drink in your hand

and you are in some of the coolest bars and rock clubs in america.

for example as i was talking with moka we were in historic antone’s on 6th street

home of the famous blues club opened by 25 year old clifford antone in 1975

antone was forced into starting the club that would later springboard the careers of stevie ray vaughn because he was kicked out of nearby university of texas because of a drug charge or something.

while in antones talking to moka before the sondre lerche show sipping on a Lone Star

i said, i know ive only known you for 15 minutes, but can i take a picture of us

im probably going to forget all of this.

click.

in todays Trayvon Martin case, George Zimmerman’s attorney’s first fumbled when they faced a more focused Rachel Jeantel, the Haitian-born friend of the victim who was on the phone with him right before he was killed.

the defense fumbled when they tried to discredit her by harping on her reading abilities, her neighborhood’s colorful way of speaking, and whether or not “cracker” was a racial word.

although Jeantel’s testimony occasionally contradicts itself, she is a reliable witness in what she is capable of being: someone who was on the phone with the victim as all hell broke loose.

by trying to use typical trial strategies against someone who is emotional, defensive, and likable, they are using a sledge hammer on a screw.

but the biggest mistake they made was totally expose themselves as being ignorant towards the basics of Twitter when, while trying to discredit another witness, accused her of following George Zimmerman when indeed someone else with Zimmerman’s name (a Zimmerman fan, most likely) was following her.

there is a cardinal rule on tv law shows that says “dont ask a witness a question that you dont know the answer to.”

an addendum to that should be “don’t accuse witnesses about how they use social media that you have no clue about.”

Zimmerman should ask for a mistrial right now because his council is a sloppy rag of fail.

if you are reading these words it is partially due to the fact that many years ago i was in a Poetry 10 class at UCSB

and i asked the teacher, Robyn Bell, if she could help me with a 14 page epic love poem,
the stamp, that i’d written that summer while being an ice cream man.

after reading it she said things to effect that it was very very good.

and asked me if i always got bad grades like the one i was getting in her class.

i said yes.

she said, dont worry about that, many creative people get bad grades.

then she said, as a matter of fact, i normally teach at a college here called
the college of creative studies, where there are no grades
or tests, or finals, or grade point averages.

and then she invited me to apply.

needless to say it was the greatest educational experience ive ever had
in part because it gave me the confidence and time to do the one thing i really wanted to do:
write for the award winning college newspaper, the world famous daily nexus.

probably the finest college rag ever.

many of my co-horts at ccs were inspired by robyn in one form or another because
simply put, she is a magical person.

i could try to give you examples of her personality and how kind she was and gracious and encouraging, but others are that but they’re of this realm.

robyn has a spirit about her that radiates so many positive vibes that you just want to vibe right back.

she will let you make mistakes, she will alert you of them, and wait for you to figure it out and make it better. shes got time.

one thing she corrected me on was my juvenile use of the word gay and its offshoots.

“i know your characters are often chicago based boys who use common, present-day language, but try to have them say things we don’t expect.” was a little tiny note, in pencil, next to paragraph in question.

challenge accepted.

robyn taught some of my favorite classes including a poetry class where every week we had to write in different forms: sonnet, limerick, acrostic, narrative, etc. it was the one class i didnt feel like i made the best poems. very challenging but robyn made me feel like it was ok to fail as long as i tried.

during one of the classes she invited us to do something different for 5 minutes.

she said, write the worst few lines you can.

bad poetry pop quiz

pretty much the funnest and funniest 10 minutes of the year. because after we wrote them she had us read them out loud.

so in many ways robyn helped me learn to write better and coach better.

i just ripped off her easy going, extremely supportive style and prepared for magic to happen.

happy birthday to everyones favorite ucsb teacher

which is weird because

1) i dont watch Jimmy Kimmel every night but for some reason i was enthralled and impressed by her

2) i didnt think my mom ever watched Kimmel

3) i thought her appearance was way tamer than her current video for her hit single (it’s #5 on Billboard)

anyways heres what moms texted me this morning:

“I was embarrassed for Miley Cyrus last night on Jimmy Kimbel. Her dance was not for tv even at night on non-cable channel.”

FCC, i hope you’re still a voracious reader of the busblog because my mom could use a better job than the one shes got right now

and she seems like just your cup of tea.

i dont think my mom saw the interview because in it she talked about how she and Snoop Lion are BFFs now

and says maybe its cuz they enjoy the natural wonders

“we’re more alike than you’d think,” Billy Ray’s daughter said.

he’s the man behind the crazy rhythm that made this Stones cover original-ish

and the man behind the infectious beat.

rock on rock rocker!

so in its honor, here’s yr boy Matt Welch belting out the title track