To Vegas and Beyond

Just got back from Las Vegas. Kind of a kitschy kind of place to spend a holiday season according to some....but I go there every year and find it to be great fun! Stayed at the Orleans and Cris went with me this time....really good food at the hotel and we had a great room. Brad asked me to gamble $5 for him on slots and we won $130 on his $5...pretty exciting stuff. My parents are great, as fun as ever and my mum made me all these new scarves and hats for the cold Canadian winters. I'll add in some pics later.

Went to Hoover Dam and experienced the entire spectrum of human personality. We had a tour guide that must have come from the Billy Shatner School of Tour Guidism, a old disgruntled ex-military guy who told us to take our pictures and get the hell out before we became a security problem....ands lastly a cool guy who told jokes about having to walk through two states on the tour. While the damn dam was impressive; I found the first glimpse you get of Lake Mead to be the most beautiful. All that gorgeous water amidst the backdrop of the desert mountains was amazing.

The trip back was difficult. I'm sure some of you heard about Comair having a computer foul-up that cancelled/delayed a bunch of flights. Ours was delayed and did not allow us enough time to make our connection. We had to stay in Cincinnati which I have dubbed The Customer Service Capitol of the World. We were treated like a total inconvenience by practically every service person there. My first truly bad experience in Ohio. DELTA AIRLINES!!! YOU SUCK!!!!! Oh yeah, and Cris almost got beat up by some rednecks that accused him of stealing 35 cents out of their bin at the security checkpoint.

The earthquake/tsunamis that took place in Asia on Sunday are just so hard to believe. Please donate some money to aid the people affected by this terrible tradgedy. click here to choose and organization and donate Also you can donate to the red cross through Amazon.com....if you already have an account with them it's as easy as 123. Amazon.com American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund It's up to us to help bring this world together. The disaster in Asia is everyone's responsibility so please give as much as you can.
All the best in 2005 and beyond.

XOXOXOX

The Power of a Plastic Ring~

Check out this ad for plastic rings. It's silly and weird and I like it.

The Carrotbox

Can it be????? It's Smuly T!

Check out Shmuly's birthday pic...



Shmuly is looking for a new leading lady in his life since the bitter breakup with Elisha. His wit and vivacity (not to mention good looks) are legendary. Act now! (Elle, I can hear you singing showtunes from here) :-)

Head, and shoulders, knees and toes....knees and toes. Head, and shoulders, knees and toes....knees and toe wo wo wo woes. Eyes and ears, a mouth and a nossssssssse, Head, and shoulders, knees and toes....knees and tooooooooooooowes.

Pantera Guitarist Shot and Killed at Show

Fuckin' guns. GRRRRRRRR....I get so angry that people can just walk into a gig and shoot someone....in Columbus Ohio of all places. People run around shooting other people like they're playing Quake or Doom or something. It makes me sick to my stomach. If you want to go out and shoot a deer for something to eat more power to you...but HANDGUNS should be ILLEGAL. These days it seems people buy handguns specifically to protect themselves from other people with handguns. It's a never ending cycle of violence. Darrell Abbot was only 38 years old. What a waste.

Yahoo News Article

Why Not Taze Myself a Little Before Breakfast?? Here's why....

This was posted anonymously on "A la Gauche: Political News and Commentary from the Far Left" (which you should read..Fiscal Republicans who tend to alienate everyone with badly timed angry flames and who furthermore use excuses like "I was only joking but no one truly understands my sense of humor"....need not go any further)

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two AAA batteries, etc., etc. There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul), reading the directions (that would be me, not Gracie) and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and blood target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie for a fraction of a second and thought better of it. She is such a sweet kitty, after all. But, if I was going to give this thing to Toni to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised.

Am I wrong? Was I wrong to think that? Seemed reasonable to me at the time.

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, Tazer in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a loss of bodily control a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. All the while I'm looking at this little device (measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference, pretty cute really, and loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-a batteries) thinking to myself, "no friggin' way!"

Friggin' way - trust me, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best. Those of you who know me well have got a pretty good idea of what followed. I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, "don't do it buddy," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny lil' ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad (sound, rational thinking under the circumstances, wouldn't you agree?). I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for the hell of it. (Note: You know, a bad decision is like hindsight-always twenty-twenty. It is so obvious that it was a bad decision after the fact, even though it seemed so right at the time. Don't ya hate that?)

I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY DAAAAAMMMMN!!! I'm pretty sure that Jessie Ventura ran in through the front door, picked me up out of that recliner, then body slammed me on the carpet over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, soaking wet, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position.

Gracie was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!" (Note: If you ever feel compelled to mug yourself with a Tazer, one note of caution. There is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself. You're not going to let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. Then, if you're lucky, you won't dislodge one of the prongs
1/4" deep in your thigh like yours truly.) SON-OF-A-BITCH that hurt!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at this point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they get there??? My triceps, right thigh and both titties were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, as my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. give or take an ounce or two, I'm pretty sure. By the way, has anyone seen my testicles? I think they ran away. I'm offering a reward.

Tweedle Dees

Interesting day today. I don't usually record other people but there is a band in town that does Children's music and I spent today recording a new CD for them. It's amazing how you can record a 20 song CD in 2 hours when you have talented one-take wonders in the room. (they were amazing) Been working on the mixdown and mastering this evening...I think it's sounding great.

Finished all the painting and off to get the furniture tomorrow. Soon I will have a lot more room for making music! Yippeee.

Night sweet world. Sleep tight.

New and Found Photos

Didn't seem to get much done today...I did take some new shots not only for my site but for the SOTY contest. Checked out Found Photos and saw this shot which is just amazing.....


He/she looks so deep in thought.

Found photos is getting quite a bit of press these days, they had an article on the NY Times. Tomorrow I MUST paint! No more procrastination.

Snowy sleety rainy stuff for your enjoyment.

It was a blah day. I felt it all over. I tried to make myself feel better by wearing my pink star sunglasses given to me by some guy at the Bureau en Gros. Do you believe someone would just give these away? He must have loved them because they were all scratched up. Hmmm.......maybe he took them from a child and was looking to dispose of the evidence.



Do you believe that it's December 2nd already? That's insane. It goes so quickly and yet we still continue to act like we have all the time in the world.

Yeah, yeah. Tito, give me a fuckin' tissue.

Ron Sexsmith Show

Wow. It was a great show last night at the Cabaret. The opening act was Sarah Slean http://www.sarahslean.com/main.html She had a great hour long set despite some equipment troubles. Go to her site and check her out!

Ron was as always great. I think I like him so much because his songwriting is always surprising to me, it's not predictable and there is a sincerity in his demeanor that just blows me away. He was having a bout with laryngitis but still managed to give a great performance. The guys in his band are amazing and they really seem to all feed off one another. I came away from the show feeling great....went to bed singing "Not About to Lose" and work up singing "Cheap Hotel". I was hoping to hear that song last night but didn't. They played it on last years tour so I figured they would not play it this time 'round.

Here are some photos from last night....hard to get a decent pic not using a flash and without a tripod.




Enjoy! Thanks to Elle for being such great company.

Darkstone Eyes are Shining

There's only so many video games one can play in a day or you start to look like this.....

This fine looking male head is courtesy of Kevin Ford.

Today was my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday Jim! I tried to call but he was out. I wore giant round olive colored earrings today. Whooopeeee yaaaaaahaaaa. Whoooooohoooo. Excitement like this almost never happens. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

NEWSFLASH! W NOT IN MONTREAL...TWAS ANOTHER OFFENDER

Your replies to this blog are still visible. Actually, we were all fighting over nothing as I was misinformed. W was not even in Montreal...my blame was placed on the wrong person although it was meant more for the amusement of my close friends. I got a new title out of it at the very least. :-)

XOXOXOXO
The Not Very Smart Misinformed Charlatan Blame Placer

Poached Eggs and Salad Brain

This is my new blog. I visited Emma-Lee and noticed she had this wonderful new blogging service. So please visit her at http://www.emma-lee.com She's very talented. Buy her album if you are able. It's well worth your money.

I was supposed to record some music for two very nice ladies today.....and my condenser microphone would not work. I recently dismantled my studio for a recording project with my drummer in the US and some settings were changed. I have two words to say about this.....PHANTOM POWER. I feel pretty stupid for making them reschedule when the fault was all mine. Bad....bad Lobelia. (smack)

So, with the problem solved....I hung out with Mr. Earl.



Went to a wedding on the weekend...The former Ida Paterno.....I'm the freakishly tall one with four eyes.



Noelle is now here and I'm off to make Benedict Florentine to go with my salad brain.