You've got to be kidding me

This settles it, I'm going to either have to be rich and powerful, or move to less ridiculous country where the government can't arbitrarily bulldoze my house.
"The land of the free? whoever told you that is your enemy"
-RATM "Know your Enemy"

Pax Romana

So I have a movie idea in mind, and I'm giving it away. I just want to watch it. The rise of Augustus would make a hell of a movie, I'd definitely want it directed by someone like Scorsese, Coppola, or De Palma. Imagine scarface meets the godfather meets I claudius . The movie would open with the brutal assasination of Caesar with Brutus and the others walking back in slow motion to the capitoline surrounded by bodyguards. This story's got consolidation of power on a ridiculous scale, it's got large scale battles, assasinations, intrigue, it'd make for a hell of a picture. Now I just need someone to make it so I can sit back and watch it.

Like a feather

So last sunday thanks to an awesome friend I got to go to a Nikka Costa show at Templebar in Santa Monica. For those of you who don't know who she is, you should make an effort to see her live, cause the woman's got a set of pipes, and man can she move. When she first stepped out on to stage I thought she was relatively unattractive with a slightly porsine face. But when she started singing and dancing she became unbelievably hot. She is a great singer with a vocal style that's anywhere from funk, to blues, to janis joplin on a bender. She can sing, but she can also wail with serious intensity. I'd heard her music before the show, so what really caught me off guard was how she moved, she has this efforless quality to her dancing, which wasn't dirty, but somehow still makes you feel underaged. She wasn't doing anything particularly special in terms of movement, it was just that she was so natural and at home that it made her ridiculously hot. Grace isn't the right word, and saying that she was the movement sounds too new agey, but I think ya get the idea, she's got oomph.

Jst a little side note, one thing that surprised me about this show was how little people had dressed for it. Okay, I know it's a Sunday, but come on, this is LA, not San Francisco. I'd expect the crowd to have a little more effort than that.

Old farmer kills leopard with bare hands

Don't mess with this guy's crops

How many bush lackeys does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Craig's got a funny list of bush lightbulb jokes on his blog (CoDvG)

Carousing...in style

In order to show some of my Euro colleagues a good time last week, I organized a party bus to pick us up from our hotel, the mariott in the heart of the thriving metropolis that is santa clara, and take us to suite one8one in the city where we would meet some of my local friends to dance and drink. The limo drive up from the hotel started fun with a trip to the safeway liquor aisle and very loud music in the bus. To give the reader an idea of the scene inside I'm just gonna list some first names : Harsh, Paolo, Gianfranco, Fabio, Fabia, Javier, Maurizio, Sergio, Carlos, Andreas, Carmelo, Francesco, Giandomenico, Enrique(yes, the group was as shady as it sounds). You can't make up a list like that, we were drinking campari OJ's, rum and OJ's, crown and cokes, and of course, roman cokes (just say it, it'll make sense). Now for those of you who have never been in a group of 15 drunk spanish and italian men, let me tell you, it is comedy. These guys were hilarious. When we got to the club we were greeted by a cheerful bouncer who denied 3 of our companions entry because they didn't have id ( being europeans the concept of carrying id at al times is completely foreign to them) so we sent them back to the hotel in the limo bus on a 1.5 hr round trip, but at least they had booze onboard. When we got into the club it became clear why the bouncer was so happy to see this group of 15 dudes ( and one girl), the place was dead empty except for people I had invited. It was like my own private party at the club. Luckily enough female friends had come out to balance the Euros, and everyone had a good time. I spent the whole night dancing and drinking, hanging out with tons of friends I haven't seen in a long time. The evening really took a turn for the hilarious when we piled back into the limo and things degenerated into adolescent ice fights and italians tackling eachother across the bus. Next time I'm back stateside I'm definitely doing this again.

Return to the US

Yes folks I am once again back in the US. This time it's only for about a week for a conference, but it's still good to be back home. When I hit LA ( a couple days late thanks to meetings and flight issues) I grabbed drinks with two college friends who had just bought houses(one closed on that day). It was kind of a sobering moment because my big life holding purchase is a new suitcase for my travels, which for me at this stage means exactly what a house means to them. Then again, I really like this life. I've had a year that I'm never gonna forget, but this whole travel thing is a little rough, I never thought I'd come back home and have cultureshock. Also, it's damn near impossible to find a good cup of espresso in palo alto.

Dancing ascii cat (trust me it's worth it)

Once again continuing with my love of ascii is this CoDvG link to a dancing ascii cat. This thing is fantastic and can easily eat up 30-40 seconds of valuable email and surfing time.