NPR: This American Life

Please tell me you have heard of "This American Life". It's a radio show that is produced by NPR Chicago, and hosted by Ira Glass. You can subscribe to it through your iTunes, and I suggest you do. Each week there's a new episode that revolves around a simple subject, like "break ups", "something for nothing", "the super", or "prom" for example. (the "prom" one was actually pretty moving.)

i know showtime has started airing episodes, which feels weird to me. the radio version of the show is so much better! trust me! download one on your ipod, listen to it on your way to work, and enjoy! episodes average abotu 45 minutes and are usually broken down into 2 or 3 stories under the same subject. you will be hooked, moved, or will learn something.

let me know what you think...

From the Local 7

What up! I'm blogging from the "Big Blue Bus" local 7! Big Blue is what the call the busses of Santa Monica. They are pretty nice, and I'm not just saying that because they are blue. Initially, I got on the rapid 7, which is dark blue, and wouldve made me miss my stop because its a limited stop bus. The driver told me to hop off and grab the light blue 7, that will make my stop.

I miss public transportation! LA is trying to get better at it, but most of these busses don't run all night long. In NYC you never had to wait for a late night subway to come through more than 30 or 40, I think. But with these busses in LA Magi and I waited over an hour for one to pick us up. Luckily though, we had bikes with us and biked the majority of the way back to mar vista and santa monica from hollywood (true story!).

Well, I'm going to sit back, relax, and enjoy my commute! Just wanted to say "good morning"!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Steelers 2-0

YES! I love when the Steelers devore teams from Ohio. And now Ben is like 10-0 against Ohio teams, and I love that too. (As you can see from the above picture of me flicking off a girl in a Browns jersey. She deserved it, she was 1 of 2 Browns fans at the bar last night.)


We took Brother to the Shark's Cove in Hermosa Beach, just a quick 12 miles south of Santa Monica. Since moving to LA, every Steeler fan I've ever come across has told me to go watch a game at this bar. I'm glad I finally listened. There were about 50 tvs in various sizes, and all of them were tuned into the game. The only down side is that there was only one toilet in the ladies room. Boo! I can't be waiting in line while the Steelers are punching the Browns in the face, I mean c'mon!

I wish I felt like typing more, but I'm assuming that if you're reading my blog, then you probably watched the game. You know about how the wind was a factor and that Big Ben played with a separated shoulder. He's a god, he feels no pain!



Up for next week: Away against the Eagles, 1:15pm PST

what's worse?

my friend julie roo's the day when she sees rain, and she currently resides in the outskirts of pittsburgh, pa where puddles are rarely out of style. apparently today, it's raining quite a bit in the 'burgh. you can read all about it on her site, here.

although i didn't need julie's blog to tell me that it was raining in pittsburgh
today. on my daily commute into work, i'm often found on the phone with one or both of my parents, where at least 20 minutes of the conversation is about the weather. and since i live in los angeles, i rarely dominate that portion of the phone call. the most i say is "it's 75 right now", remember this conversation is taking place at 8:45am. so, as you can imagine today, both parents had A LOT to talk about. my mother kept saying "it's raining cats and dogs" and my dad said it was because of some hurricane. this is how out of touch i am with the rest of the country, i responded, "what hurricane?" well, you can bet that as soon as i got to work, he had me turn on cnn, and very quickly both my father and i were watching the coverage from opposite ends of the country discussing the red jackets the reporters were wearing to the plastic bags that were covering their hand held microphones, we even made our guesses as to when hurricane ike was going to hit. (i said it's slowing down, and will hit tomorrow morning. he said late this evening.) and please keep in mind that my only brother, his only son, is flying to la this evening over the very storm. although i'm sure with advances in astrophysics the pilot will just take a more northern flight pattern to get to la. (brother, if you're reading this, i'm sure you won't feel a single bump:))

but with everyone up in arms about the rain they are experiencing in pittsburgh, i have to note that today, here in los angeles that it is so dark and dreary that i would kill to see a rain drop fall. the view out of my cubicle today is just so overcast and gross, that it's like we just need a good storm here to wash away all the dirt, grime, and pollution. with the experience of living here for almost three years, i know that this *storm won't come for at least another two months. and that, my friend, is the worst part. living with this dark, dreary landscape, waiting for rain. at least in pittsburgh, it gets dark, it rains, and then it dries...(well kind of) all in the same day. here, it'll probably stay gross the whole week brother is here, and probably for the rest of september. then, maybe, in november we'll experience a "wet" season.

so, i ask, which is worse? using those cute rainboats you bought, or never getting to. :)




*a storm in la - rain falling for more than five minutes

Seth Comedy

Seth MacFarlene creator of "Family Guy" and other things in our universe just launched a website today that I thought I'd share with all of you.

(I was sick of the video just starting when you came onto my blog, so I deleted it. You can just click on the hyperlink above, and it'll take you to the site. PS - you're welcome)

He's coming!

now that steeler season is in full swing, and we are looking swell after week 1. i can shift my energy elsewhere. my little brother is coming to sunny socal for a visit! he flies in direct from pittsburgh on friday night and is going to be here until the 21st! yippeee! we are going to have an awesome time!

here's the to do list:
*tailgate at the USC vs. OS game. we do not have tickets, we are just going to tailgate the shit out of that parking lot. it is my experience that those on the west coast have no idea how a proper football tailgate works. we'll show 'em!
*watch the steelers destroy the browns on their own field.
*i set brother and his girlfriend up with audience seats for the live performance show of "america's got talent". last show i sent him to was "american gladiators", and he hated* it. i had to assume him that "america's got talent" is no "gladitors".
*camping at malibu creek state park.
*turtle racing (if there's time)

that's a pretty good list right!
i can't wait to see him!



*he hated being in the audience for "gladiators" because the arena is huge and the audience sits there while they set up for one shot then another. it's like a 12 hour day for that audience. he ran away after 4 hours of sitting there, i don't blame him.

I went to Jack Johnson, and all I took were these lousy pictures...

So, Magi and I have been DYING to see Jack Johnson since we moved from NYC to LA. It was one of the last concerts we tried to see in New York together before we left. He was playing in Central Park, and we thought that we'd wander on up to the gate and be granted access in. We, of course, we not allowed in without tickets. We didn't even have pieces of paper to pretend were tickets, but what we did have was a bottle of wine, blanket, and loads of snacks to nosh on while we listened to Jack on the other side of the fence. We did manage to see pieces of the show through the fence that night. We shook it off thinking that he'd tour again next summer. SYKE! He didn't tour again for 3 years! Thanks "Sleep Through The Static" for getting this dude away from the surf to come around the globe entertaining us ladies. Anyway, here are the pictures I shot. They suck. I did have my Flip video camera as well, I'll get those posted all in due time.


The show was amazing (i'll find a set list to post here) it was at the UCLA Intramural Field, which I was skeptical about, but in the end turned out to be really cool. I hope they do more stuff there. Jack's show on Sunday, August 31st was the last stop on his summer tour and he tore it up! There was a big ol'Hawaiian lady that came out and sang with him. Culver City Dub Collective and Rogue Wave were there too to open. I can't put into words how disappointed I was in seeing Rogue Wave live. I have enjoyed their myspace page from time to time while wasting away time at work, so I was looking forward to seeing them live...I guess I can be marked as a sucka now.

The last picture was the slow trickle of people leaving the show. They looked like sheep, and I said to Magi after snapping that show that, "It looks a lot cooler in real life". Did I mention we had a phenomenal time!?

See you in another three years Jack!