NPR Money Time It's that pledge drive time of year now. I am so frustrated with our local NPR station these days and their constant repeating of shows and news that I think I may just donate a dollar in protest. Damn recession. My favorite pledge drive is the one for PBS, where apparently freakos take over and broadcast hours of crap-tac-lar entertainment to get money. Did i just see Barbara Streisand? Is that Riverdance? Has Antiques Roadshow been on all day? It's amazing. But, then i guess us young whipper snappers don't give enough money.
Kingsbury Manx in NYC April 4th opening for Clinic is the Kingsbury Manx - and at the killer-diller Bowery Ballroom.
Jacko EEK EEK I wonder if crazy ol' Michael Jackson still has that monkey? (secret message to someone else: bubbles. I named him bubbles, not you.)
At. Lanta. We went to Atlanta this weekend. What a town. Maybe it's because of growing up in a town that never had any money and never expanded until recently, but if you want to see a great and disturbing example of urban sprawl, go there. I have had many pleasant trips to this city, but this time was all wacky. My lil Brother lives in a recently annexed area, and everything was new and stupid. Every restaurant was done in the popular theme restaurant style, and everywhere you looked was apartment complexes. Maybe we have been spoiled living in non-traditional places, but it was crazy there. I would go nuts. And driving everywhere. Augh. He was telling me about his commute to school, and it was something nutty like taking 30 minutes to go 2 miles. Love the little brother - hate the suburbs.
Terrorists - Try Atlanta Atlanta's airport looked secure and all, but they just waved us through with our big bag of metal electronics and things that normally catch the eye of the airport folks. Not the most confidence inspiring. So, terrorists, you have your new Logan. By the way, this was my first flight post-the-unfortunate-9/11-incident. Crazy security here in NYC, and it was kind of cool to see National Guard troops in LaGuardia.
Special Sauce My parents met us there in Atlanta, and it was my dad's birthday, so he got to pick out the place he wanted to eat. They picked their favorite place and ended up eating there two nights in a row. The first night (we were not there yet) they had a fine dinner with my lil' bro and his fiancé and drank wine and ate crab cakes and swordfish. The next night we all go there, and we get this server who we'll call Rick. Well, that was actually his name. Rick was real friendly. Mom ordered some wine, and he said, "I will need to see some id's". Lil' Bro didn't have his, and his girlie, my mom, and Mrs Robot had all left theirs in the car. He insisted on seeing everyone's id before serving any wine. What we didn't realize was that he really meant "everyone". After we fished all the ids out of the car, he had to check them all. Even my mother's id. Even my just turned 60 years old father's id. The only problem was that lil' bro had left his at home, so Rick left our table and came back with the manager who then made small talk with us while sizing up my lil' bro to see if he was old enough. The manager, after 2 minutes of awkward small talk, nodded to Rick that lil' bro appeared old enough to sip some wine. It was like we had been pulled over by the cops or something with the manager hovering over our table. Rick then told us that his dear mother had come in without her id and he could not serve her. And to top it off, she got mad and didn't speak to him for two weeks.
Rick then recommend that the dish we ordered - some sort of shrimp with potatoes - was a lot better if we ordered it "ala Rick", which meant that there was some sort of extra sauce for dipping. Lil' bro and I realizing that we had the opportunity to make fun of something for the rest of the weekend jumped at the offer. It was a good meal, and we both smirked like dumb kids when Rick came back and made some sort of funny sauce remark, which we then joked about all that night to the point that I can't even remember what he originally said. I think it was, "How do you like my sauce?"
I don't mean to make fun of Rick in a public forum. He seemed to be nice enough.
Buckner and Garcia They have their own website now, and they document the whole process of creating their hit, Pac Man Fever. Awesome.
AMAZON + UPS WOES Being a good lover and all, I ordered some gifts via the popular amazon website and chose to have them next day aired ('aired' is that a word?) so that my dear lover would have them in time for her birthday. I ordered the stuff that weekend, and figured they would be here by Tuesday, well in time for her Thursday birthday.
Tuesday rolls around (as it is apt to do) and no package, but I do get an email saying that there has been a problem with my credit card. Tuesday? WTF! Why didn't they tell me this when I ordered it - or at least on Monday. Ugh. I go back and re-enter my credit card info. Maybe I will have it Wednesday I think.
Of course I don't get it Wednesday. Thursday, her damn birthday, I still have nothing so I check the ups site and they have it scheduled to be delivered, except to the wrong address. WTF! When I went back to change my billing address it appears that my shipping address switched back to my default, which was my old job.
Thursday afternoon I run out and buy all the stuff I ordered fro
