late night

late night tv.

There is nothing like it. Television networks compete for a broader audience and lure viewers with musical groups and special guests. How many networks are there? 3? Does FOX count as a network? They all compete for more viewers, which equates to more money, and a better ability to advertise. And the only way anyone is going to grab my attention is through clever programming and subliminal advertising.

I've always liked David letterman. I've gone through phases of not caring too much for late night talk shows, but I've always liked Dave. I think its his witty gross humor that make him funny. He's always bothering people in NYC and messing with CBS interns. Paul and his band aren't that bad, and compared to other shows, Paul's band has evolved with Dave to become more of a staple to the show. Other late night talk shows have little if any relationship with the house band, with the exception of Conan O'Brien (I'll talk about him later).
so I like Dave's show, big deal. That must make me anti-Leno...

I don't hate Jay Leno. I think he hasn't changed much in the past few years. I can tune in to Leno's show and see the same crap I saw two years ago. His show's format has a few jems that are worth watching. jaywalking consistently proves how stupid Americans are, and the majority of his guests are up to par with whatever these late shows can come up with. If he was funny I'd watch his show, but I don't see the "grab factor" that I get with dave's show. So if I had a choice, I'd watch Dave. But the night is far from over.

The king of late night is Conan O'Brien. I don't care who you are, he rules the television after Leno is over. If I had a choice I would abolish all other talk shows and just have the Conan show. I feel bad for whoever shares the same time slot as conan, because I don't know who they are, and I obviously am not watching their program. Conan has credibility as a writer for other shows and his program is consistently unique and worth watching. His quirky behavior either terrifies his guests, or ads to the madness. His interesting personality is able to grab a wider audience from the polarized Leno/Dave battle. Conan rules.

Everything that comes on after Conan O'Brien is crap. I miss Craig Kilborn. While its true that the Daily Show is now John stewart's masterpiece, it was Kilborn that started it with his smart sarcasm. Even though the late late show wasn't the best show, it was a reason to keep watching television into the early morning. Carson Daly can kiss my butt. His show is a horrible excuse for a waste of time. Daly is one person I wish would be erased from television completely.

I'm tired.

better than tv

I'm working again, and I'm glad that I'm doing something more than just watching *M*A*S*H on tv or playing an endless stream of video games. I'm still waiting for another check from the government to help me pay off my credit card and get me started on a few things that I've thought of these past few weeks. It seems that I'm always thinking of something new to try on top of the growing list of things that I've already got. It keeps me busy and if I ever get around to finishing anything, then I'll feel pretty good.

I think its important to try new things every now and then. Maybe make something that you never thought possible before or learn to do something really complicated. Maybe its just me, but I enjoy the challenge. I don't finish everything I start, but I have fun doing things that make the time go by easier. Sometimes people just don't do enough.

I'm hungry. I'm going to eat something.

music ideas

I don't like to sleep in anymore. I feel like my day is practically wasted if I don't wake up by 9 every morning. I don't see the point of sleeping for 13 hours if I can get by on just 5 or 6. I guess I just grew out of sleeping all day sometime a while ago. My girlfriend loves to sleep in and it doesn't bother me too much, but with the proper initiative you could actually accomplish something before 12 p.m. on a Saturday. Hmm... Imagine that.

I'm planning a new music endeavor this summer. I haven't started or finished anything musical in almost two years. I don't know why I feel the itch to do it again. I was talking to a friend of mine and we got to talking about some of the music ideas we had a few years back. This was probably inspired from the lack of interesting music in the local scene and the possibility of playing live again in a new local venue. Being financially able to do it this time, I want to be able to start a new music project that is different from anything I've ever done before. I've lost interest in other types of music and my general distaste for the radio and the emo/indie teenie bopper scene. This time I want to go back to my electronic music roots and make some noise. I'm really excited this time.

so I've started the slode project. Updates will be posted at:

www.myspace.com/slode

when I figure out what I'm doing in the coming weeks. This is going to be very unorthodox. I'm planning on some unique recording and performance methods for this project. I think it will at least get a new sound out in the local scene. By the end of the summer I'll have a new disc of recordings, and I've planned some shows in the fall.

along with my projects, I'm helping my friend with a disc of his songs. His new project is called the indecision and updates can be found at:

www.myspace.com/theindecision

I think he's written some great music. I hate myspace but everyone has an account these days, and it takes two seconds to set up and get the music out. If anyone actually reads this they can follow these links or the links to the right and get the information.

more will come, and I'll post more later.

read books

I haven't written anything in a long time. I guess I just never got around to it. Maybe I was too busy trying so hard not to do anything. There you go. I hit the nail on the head.

I went to the local bookstore tonight. I like to walk around and look at people and read books for fun. The cafe/coffee place was crowded tonight, and since I don't like coffee I didn't try to sit down over there. Today I wasn't so interested in the people as much as I was in what kind of stuff everyone likes to read these days. I guess they finally decided to rearrange the best seller shelves, much to my amusement. There are a few titles that I looked for but couldn't find. Asking for help is asking too much. I'll go somewhere else next time.

oh, and if you haven't read "The Da Vinci code" go hang yourself or consider yourself a lucky person. I guess predictable fiction is the popular thing these days. In my opinion Brown's earlier novel "Angels and Demons" was better, more interesting, and not as predictable... I guess since the movie comes out next month, Brown's publishers are squeezing the life out of anyone that hasn't read the stupid thing yet.

magazines are all the same. All of the music mags have bands that I've never heard of on the covers. Everyone of them is too "emo" or "indie" for my taste. i'll just stick to downloading mp3's of obscure 90's alternative thank you very much. I'm so out of touch with the youth of today. I could care less.

by the end of the night I just came home and put on a beatles record. I like simple music. All of it calms me down and keeps my mind off of anything that causes stress. I guess I'm just tired.

yeah right

Sometimes life is rough. Sometimes you never stop to think about all the good things that come your way until a string of bad luck makes you wonder. I would say that most people sooner or later have a bad day. Sometimes it feels like a page out of a book or a scene from a movie.

I was late for work. When I came to a halt at the red light I knew that something was wrong. My car had sputtered and died and I was speechless. Turning the key didn't do much, and my car's engine struggled to turn. I tried this five or six more times and after a horrible noise my car came back to life. I wanted to make it to work on time. Today was like every other day. Coming to another stop I looked down at the oil pressure gauge to see it fall to nothing. My car dies again and to make matters worse there are 5 cars honking their horns impatiently behind me. Turning the key didn't help, my car struggled to turn on and it seemed like an endless row of cars had bypassed me angrily. As I sat there I almost laughed to myself, things like this happened to everyone. A guy pulled over and helped me push my car into the parking lot in front of my job and I was relieved to be a least out of the busy intersection.

I knew this was going to happen. Bad things seem to creep up when you're in a hurry. I should have done something. During the past few weeks I've noticed the lack of fuel efficiency and even short trips to school and back would eat a serious chunk of gas. On top of that my car was so sluggish and noisy that it made me nervous to go anywhere. I can't blame the cold weather everything something goes wrong, but I think it had an effect on it. Today was like any other, I had to get to work on time.

While I sat there in the parking lot trying to start my car, one of the guys that helped push me out of the road asked to see what was going on with my crappy car. We popped the hood, and he tried to start the car. After a few tries an loud bang shot out with a large black cloud from the tailpipe. This, on top of everything else, was the least of my worries.

Being late to work I slipped into the backroom trying not to draw attention to myself. I had a valid excuse if anyone bothered to care. I geared up for another endless shift, and as I was about to begin I heard my name over the intercom. Something was up. I never like talking to my bosses, and frankly I didn't think they cared much about what I did at work so long as the job got done. I was used to being assigned useless tasks, and this was probably another chance for my boss to explain important employees principles. As I entered the office I realized it was a trap.

Nothing says I love you like "we're laying you off."

?

i hate myspace.com

i do.

shut up

College level algebra teaches you many things. Mathematics, being a cumulative type of subject, requires that you remember everything that you learned from kindergarten up until the last time you attempted to pass another math class. Algebra is the one thing that state educators believe will help you start a business or earn your degree. Something about it defines a person, and being able to say you passed algebra to get your degree in communication says a lot. None of your teachers however will ever tell you the truth about algebra: it's useless. useless until you procreate and are forced to do your teenagers homework late Sunday night.

So why am I forced to listen to captain-know-it-all ask question after inane question? Every class has one of these people. They ask so many questions to the point where it is useless for the teacher to even say anything. I can tell that my professor is getting aggravated about it. I think that the entire class despises the interruptions.

I'll just sit back and watch the show begin. . .

stop sign #2

The second you arrive at Traffic School, you know you're in for a long night. Most of the chairs or rows in the back are overflowing with people that have the look of disgust on their faces. Eye contact of any kind is not permitted. My best bet is a seat located near the exit for a clean get away once the lesson is over. Getting comfortable doesn't help much, because these classes are designed to either scare you or make you sick, so that you never go ten over the limit or forget to use your blinker ever again.

This is what happens: Officer so and so swaggers through the door and announces that the regular officer that usually teaches the class is out for the evening with what ever problem he can think of. And usually the officer opens the night with some questions if any. This is where the trouble begins. From the start of class it is evident that this situation has put too many people that cannot coexist with each other in the same room. For the convenience of someone who has never been to traffic school I'll break it down:

The Obnoxious I know everything I shouldn't be here type. These people are perfect drivers and should never have been pulled over in the first place, based soley on the fact that they try to answer ever question correctly. More than once they try to justify their moving infraction and try to get out of the two to three hour class. These people are usually cell phone gabbers and cutter offers on the freeway who feel that their rights have been violated.

The Quiet, let's get this over with type. The everyday person who was probably in a hurry to get somewhere, lost track of how fast they were going, or how many stop signs they've ignored. While in traffic school they show little if any effort in discussion because they just want to get it over with. Most normal people fall into this category including myself.

The Mad woman. This woman feels like she never did anything wrong in the first place and that every police officer is a liar and a betrayer to American society. This frazzled woman would probably rather spend the night screaming at her kids than take traffic school. Most often she is patiently asked to calm down or shut her mouth during the course of class.

This person should not be driving a motorized vehicle person. Usually an old grandmother, this person constantly answers questions wrong, and really wrong at that. For example, one time during class this old woman tried to explain to the rest of the class how a four way stop worked in her mind. Apparently each car was supposed to go one at a time in opposite order. I remeber looking around the class with the same puzzled expression as everyone else. The officer had to stop her from embarrassing herself any further. This person likes to smile at everyone in the room as if we are her adopted grandchildren, while unfortunately never paying attention to what is being taught.

The rest of the class is mad up of combinations of these elements. As class goes on it becomes apparent that the police officer teaching the class is either trying to scare you with gruesome statistics or grossing you out with slides of fatal traffic accidents. By the time you start to leave, you either want to throw up or never drive again. Since this last time was my third time in traffic school, none of this phased me and I was left to let my mind wander. My lack of concentration was cut short from the woman who had just sat down behind me. It started slowly, but grew. She was breathing so loud. It was as if someone had cut her nose off and sentenced her to breathe like a horse. I could no longer hear what the officer was saying through the wheezing and sniffing that I actually plugged my ears. The thought of sitting through another three hours of traffic school was nothing compared to the torture of heavy breathing lady.

Needless to say I will never. Ever. Speed again.