I've come to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum.

Busy week, Mon Hatesexy Peeps. Sorry for the non-writing, but I've been hyperfocused on lots of other stuff, and haven't had a chance to even peek in and say howdy.

Last weekend we spent a LOVELY pre-paid weekend (pre-paid when we weren't broke, that is!) at the Parker Palm Springs, that fantastic mid-century-modern hotel I mentioned a month or so ago. MAN OH MAN. Vegetarians: I'm sorry to report we ate PAIN that evening for dinner. I had veal, Trix had Fois Gras, and yes, we felt HORRIBLE about it, but man oh man was it delicious. I had to go there at least once in my adult life (the Animal Gods are still SCREAMING for all the veal parmesan TV dinners I consumed from ages four through nine).

Wednesday night was one of the coolest nights evah, at least since I've been in Los Angeles. I attended a party of complete Beach Boys geeks at the home of my friend, erstwhile archivist Alan Boyd. I met lots of people I only previously knew through my former Beach Boys website The Smile Shop -- always severely cool to put a name next to a cyberpresence. I took a whole smackload of pictures, including one extremely geeky pic of me and Brian Wilson bandmember Nelson Bragg. And most interesting of all, I met this guy:



-- Mr. Domenic Priore, author of Look, Listen, Vibrate, Smile, THEE tome on the Smile phenomenon which I basically have memorized. He was an incredibly friendly, approachable, hip-as-fuck dude in person, and he knows his stuff like nobody else. It was fantastic to finally meet him in person. Great guy, 100%.

Last night, we watched John Carpenter red-headed stepchild They Live. You seen it? Okay, you need to. First off, the aliens look like this:



And yeah -- that HAS to be where Shepard Fairey got the idea for his OBEY company, no? Second of all, it stars ROWDY RODDY PIPER, who is actually surprisingly likeable and gets saddled with some of the funniest tough-guy lines in history, including the title of today's blog entry. Third: Yadda yadda yadda political allegory, but man, the view of the world through the magical glasses that remove the aliens' glamour is just FUCKING CREEPY, okay? For THAT ALONE it's worth seeing.

Tonight, late at night, I'm off to Minneapolis again for a weekend with the birthfam, thanks VERY MUCH to my birthmom Gigi, who very kindly bought me a plane ticket. It's my birthgrandad's birthday, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandpa Beaner who looks like me in 20 years (yeah -- TWENTY -- he's a young lookin' cuss. Native don't crack!) Plus, I get to hang out with the Peanut, which is just automatically cause for celebration. Poor Trix isn't coming, but I see a fabulous weekend ahead for her, too. At least she doesn't have to deal with another two days of MUSIC HEAD.

I'll keep y'all posted after the weekend.