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september and october

there's a new blogger in the world and his name is nathan henry. he was a fellow new year's reveler. read all about how he thinks the monte cristo is a breakfast food. silly boy. and although he hasn't linked to my page (ahem), i'll be nice and give him some traffic.

i've been lax on recapping my new year and the days proceeding it. i have no real excuse but pure laziness and that i actually am somewhat busy at work these days. but let's see what i can do: operation surprise gailie bird all went a according to plan. it was a little rough going in the beginning when northwest baggage handlers decided not to come in to work that night, preventing betsy and jessica from getting their luggage on time. never mind that they were there for three days and each had a carry-on as well as two suitcases. (jessica, you lived in spain for a year with only what you could fit on your back!) but it was all worth it to see gail's face when her two southern cohorts were standing in front of her in the quiet woman. the day following consisted of playing new york city tourists, which was lots of fun despite the freezing temperatures. we even got to see the final performance of "the music man" starring robert sean leonard, eat delicious italian food and drink frozen hot chocolates at serendipity. note: if there's a two-hour wait, don't worry. just slip someone some money and you can cut the ten lovely women waiting patiently for a table. on to new year's and the apollo theater. there's not much to say except that it rocked. big time. despite what some others are saying, i thought david cross was funny even though i missed that lady di punch line. the strokes sure know their rock and roll and gbv kicked ass as always though i really think bob pollard was far less drunk than he should have been on new year's (or on a stage for that matter.) but for me and my fellow sixteen revelers, it was a night of way too much alcohol and a whole lotta fun. you can see the evidence at catherine's and cormi's blogs. and now, folks, i'm tired of typing.

this is like something out of one of those "er" episodes "you won't want to miss:" three-year-old shoots and kills rookie police officer father.

you just can't go out and have a good time in cambodia any more. the government must really hate karaoke bars.

merry christmas, everyone. right now michele and i are at the lazars playing with jared's new playstation 2. we're learning the fine points of ssx tricky. you wouldn't think snowboarding with a joystick would be that difficult.

just doing a quick update on my very own and very cool ibook. brian, you're the best.

adios, everyone, see you next year...

we should have figured this would happen. i'm also curious what would show up if they started doing tests on other new yorkers years from now. there's no way that horrible stench we were breathing in for weeks couldn't be dangerous to our lungs.

in doing my part to check out all the golden globe nominees, i saw "moulin rouge" last night. except for watching it in annoying letterbox bigger than i've ever seen before, the movie was really good. bizarre, interesting, funny and a great score to sing along to. i am curious whether nicole kidman and ewan mcgregor sang all their own songs, because they both sounded really, really good. after doing some searching on the internet, i found this, the official site of the original moulin rouge in paris, which i actually saw when i was there. interesting stuff on the history of the nightclub and the bohemian artists who used to hang around there.

maybe i was wrong about frat guys all along. sometimes they think of the coolest pranks.

i have to admit that i'm pretty ignorant about international issues in most cases unless there's a war going on, of course. generally, i skip over the international section entirely and go straight to national and city news. that's why i only find about things like this once the shit hits the fan.

maybe now i can finally afford an apartment in nyc.

here's another piece on how project greenlight picked the wrong winner. i'm actually getting more and more annoyed as i watch each episode, because they make it out to be like this guy was handed this great opportunity on a silver platter so therefore he has no right to complain about anything or asking for more money for his movie. but isn't the point of the project to give a guy with no connections to hollywood but who has the drive and capabilities of becoming successful a chance to make it? if they want to show him what it's like to be a director, he should be asking for all that shit and more. it shouldn't just be like "hey, we went out on a limb for you so just do as we say and play along and you'll get your movie made." no, he should be standing up for what he wants and really learning how to make a movie. then again, i'm not so sure badmouthing miramax all the time on camera is really the way to go about it.

paddington bear gets a makeover for the new millennium.

this really pisses me off because i give these guys money pretty often. it turns out those uho guys collecting money in the water jugs are ripping us off. the post reports that eighty percent of the donations go to the people running the booths and not to help the homeless.

that was quick. tom and drew get divorced.

maybe i should go back to school to take a class on the simpsons.

had a pretty good but mellow weekend this time around. got to see "ocean's 11" friday night. good stuff. and even if it wasn't, can you really beat staring at george clooney and brad pitt for two hours? i'm interested in seeing the original now. but i think one of my favorite parts was brad pitt teaching poker to the guys in teen beat these days. saturday i spent the day at giants stadium, watching a terrible game but at least they won. there's nothing like the majority of the crowd leaving at half time when their team is winning. too bad i wasn't at the cleveland game, it would have been a bit more interesting. and after hours of playing with wires and plugs and making one trip to radio shack, i finally got my dvd player working and tested it out with "legally blonde", which was as good as you'd expect it to be. i probably should have gone with my first instinct of "harold and maude" but there's plenty of time for that some other day.

thanks to mom and dad, i'm now a proud owner of a brand-new dvd player. can't wait to figure out how to hook it up and spend a whole weekend watching movies. woo hoo.

this guy is making recordings of live shows and selling them. i'm confused what the news is here. isn't that what tapers at dead shows and the like have been doing for years? maybe it's now news because the bands are cooler indie kids or something.

last night, i watched the kindertransport documentary on hbo, which was excellent though obviously very sad. i'm always so amazed by the strength of people in the holocaust, how they were able to survive so much. imagine being torn away from your parents as a kid and sent to another country and just hoping you'd see them again but more than likely it was a final goodbye. it also always hits me that when i have kids some day and they start learning about the holocaust in school, there won't be any more survivors to tell their story and it will just be another history lesson without any personal anecdotes from visitors.

another pita-goer was saying recently how her pot connection told her prices went up because of september 11 with that tighter security and all. it appears to be true. i'd make a joke here but i'm feeling very unfunny at the moment.

it was a great weekend all around with lots of celebrations. golden boy's party friday night was lots o' fun. i was a bit nervous it might be a replay of his small july fourth shindig when michele and i were the first to arrive but a happening party soon followed, complete with a mugsy in attendance and various other review folk, some who talked to me, others who didn't, but i won't hold it against them. i think the highlight of the night though was the random partygoer who came to the party knowing no one with an evite in his pocket. turns out chris and his roommates didn't know the girls who invited him either. the dude stayed for four hours, got drunk and left, never knowing a single person in attendance. saturday night was more drunken revelry down in little italy for an early gail birthday celebration since she headed off to russia today. yesterday was spent in westchester making latkas with mom (happy channukah everyone!) and doing load after load of laundry. gotta love the free washer and dryer at mom and dad's. my celebrity sighting of sunday night: scott weinberger, the reporter with the big ears on channel four. he and his family were eating dinner next to my family last night in this random little tavern/pub. i thought it a bit much to ask for an autograph.

i know what my next car is going to be. the snoop de ville. (last item)

who wants a met on my team? later, justice.

did the school really think that high school boys wouldn't download porn if given their own computers? there must not be the same crop of 15-year-old boys these days.

this one's for gail, who used to go to unc games with her dad and watch michael jordan play back when she lived in chapel hill. now she'll just have to hope uva will do better this year.

i finally caught project greenlight on hbo last night. i'm interested to see what develops along the way with the film they wound up selecting. i was happy for the winner (he did have a cute little girl and all), though you have to feel bad for all the guys who made it to the finals and then got shot down. but this salon story is making me reconsider. turns out pete jones gets a little too high and mighty and caught up in the whole hollywood scene. though i guess that's what you should expect from someone who actually wants to get into hollywood. but to bitch that miramax is impossible to work with is a little much, considering they're giving the starving filmmaker the dough to make his dream come true. and i really just have to say it, no matter how superficial i sound: really, how cute are matt and ben. did y'all notice that alcoholic ben had a beer or cocktail in his hand most of the time? for the first few hours of deliberations he was drinking diet cokes, but once it got to the final hour, he switched to beer. i'm thinking we can follow his downward spiral throughout the series.

i don't mean to laugh at people's mental illness, but i couldn't pass this one up.

i love some of the words page six uses. of course canoodling will always be my favorite, but i am now going to start calling puffy "his diddyness." there's such a ring to it.

does anyone else find it funny that marky mark beat up his own bodyguard? i mean, what's the point of having a bodyguard to protect you if even you can kick his ass?

i don't know who decreed monday night as the new night to go out, but i completely disagree. you see, today's only tuesday and i now have to get through the rest of the week before i can happily sleep off my hangover. went out for a co-worker's birthday but i was drunk before i even got to the party because we stopped for a few at the park bar. then we had another here, which looked like it could have been in "goodfellas." i think i'm now finally feeling sober again.

i never read the story in vanity fair about the after-hours lives of the women of capitol hill, but i did read a similar one a few months ago in rolling stone. apparently the women of capitol hill aren't too happy about the story.

after months and month, ginger is finally revealed. as cool as this thing sounds, i still think grown men and women look absolutely ridiculous riding around the city on scooters. i can't imagine this high-priced one is going to make a difference.

this is taking the whole chaste till marriage thing way too seriously.

this guy knows what i'm saying about britney and her mixed messages. my favorite part of the article is when britney says she wore the elvis suit to promote her vegas concert because "elvis is from vegas" and that she wanted to sing a remake of "i love rock n roll" because she loves pat benetar.

argh.i just wrote this lengthy update about my weekend (not that it was all too exciting, but i was boasting how i'd finished all my holiday shopping and painted pottery at our name is mud friday night and listened to brian sing his first solo for deep treble saturday night) and the site just screwed it up. grrr.

i would just like to joyfully announce that i finally received my poster from e! online for winning studio boss this past summer. (last summer!) i was so excited to open the huge poster tube only to find an oversized poster of "the score" and not a big picture of ben affleck or josh hartnett from "pearl harbor" like i had hoped. not that there's room for any posters on my wall, especially since my two roommates are still awaiting their posters for winning. and i'm getting a little nervous that e! is not doing the game again for the oscar movies, considering christmas is right around the corner, which is when it all starts happening. and i had even gotten other people psyched for it too. damn them.

we'll miss you george. the man gave us some of my favorite beatles songs, including "here comes the sun," and that one in the eighties that went "it's gonna take a lot of money..." whose name is escaping me right now. it had that video i used to love with the teenage boy at the carnival trying to win a doll in the claw game for his girlfriend. i believe there was another video for it as well, with george sitting in a chair in a lodge-type place with animal heads on the walls. that was george harrison's song, right?

ryan beat me to the punch on several links today, including osama bin laden in the running for time's man of the year. i'm curious if the editorial board will really have the audacity to go through with it. it is true he's had the most impact on the world this year, but shouldn't the title be considered an "honor"? my prediction is they're giving it to giuliani. the man can do no wrong these days.

i finally got around to reading last week's times magazine profile of an ncaa basketball player. the only reason he went to college instead of straight to the nba is because he isn't a giant. he's attending a college that has a 0 percent graduation rate for basketball players. he doesn't even know what classes he is enrolled in. and yet the basketball program gave everyone on the team their own laptop computers. to download music or something i guess.

this week's wanda chat on e! has some of the kids from "undeclared" on it, including judd apatow. the show wasn't on for some reason this week, but for all of you who still haven't caught an episode, check it out. it's definitely not as good as "freaks and geeks" but it's got something.

here's an interesting story from the voice about the life of a street peddler. i didnt' realize some of them travel all over the country peddling their wares, i just assumed they picked one city and stuck with it.

apparently there's some major hatred of the strokes out there. i think it's just people sick of the hype and the overabundance of press they're getting. phooey on them.

i might as well jump on the bandwagon and tell everyone my way cool plans to welcome in 2002 (so glad we can finally stop calling it the millennium). i'll be spending it up in harlem with 11 of my closest u of d friends rocking out to guided by voices and the strokes and laughing at david cross's jokes. i have a strong feeling harlem will never be the same. besides the fact that i've never had new year's plans earlier than the morning of december 31, i haven't seen some of these people in more than a year and a half! and now i hear there may be a limo in the picture. oh boy oh boy...

saw "thirteen days" last night, which i thought was really good and interesting since i really knew nothing about the cuban missile crisis. i also learned today that i really know nothing about history, but to save myself some embarassment, i won't tell you what those facts were. but the most important thing i learned from the movie is that kevin costner can't act to save his life. can someone explain to me the accent that was going on? i'm guessing it was supposed to be a boston one, but it sounded more like a very slow forrest gump who might have spent a few years in england.

no more scott brosius for the yanks. or for major league baseball, for that matter since he just announced his retirement. i always liked him, but it might have been his uncanny resemblance to my cousin doug.

does "the west wing" hate the media?

bob ross and his happy little trees. we actually did a bob ross painting contest about a year ago in our office. they purchased the video and painting kit and had three people attempt to follow along. not quite as good as the master, but the alcohol may have affected the outcome.

if anyone wants to buy me a channukah present this year, i wouldn't mind getting this.

while taking a break from the wretched giants game last night, i watched part of britney's vegas extravaganza on hbo. my friends and i began debating whether it's ok that she's trying to be such a sexpot yet claims she's still so wholesome and innocent. if anyone had any doubts as to the image she's portraying, just watch the finale where she stands there drenched, her ultra-low pants just barely above her crotch and her already-tight shirt clinging to her while she's feeling her chest. i say it's ok for someone to show their sexy side without having to "go all the way" and therefore britney isn't really sending out a mixed message. who says your outward persona is really what you're all about. but then gail told me jessica made a valid point. she thinks she is sending a mixed message because her target audience is too young to distinguish between an act and what is real, which i guess makes sense. any other thoughts out there? here's my desperate attempt to get some e-mail.

sorry there were no updates friday but i was busy on our office field trip to atlantic city. oh yeah, how cool is my office, spending the working hours strolling the boardwalk, playing on the beach, visiting cheesy museums and gambling away our salaries at the taj mahal? i didn't win anything, but compared to how much my officemates lost, i was golden. but the drunken revelrie into the wee hours of saturday morning were worth it.

how about that: jonathan franzen wins the national book award. and he thanks oprah in his acceptance speech.

here's where my political ineptitude starts showing. most everyone know of my love for "the west wing" and i think it's partly because the show seems so realistic and the writing is always so strong. but that's why i'm so confused by something. ryan, perhaps you can help me out on this one. last night, michele posed a good question that none of us could answer: when would the democratic party have other people running in the primaries when an incumbent was planning on running for re-election? does this actually happen in real america? i always thought the primary was just a formality for the incumbent's party. the only explanation i could think of is the democratic party doesn't know what will be with bartlett and the grand jury, so they better play it safe in case he isn't allowed to run again. does anyone else have any thoughts?

good news for all your smart folks. "jeopardy" is doubling its dollar amounts later this month. now if they could only do something about getting a new host. every day i watch, the more the anger builds.

ooohhh, for all you fellow crossword lovers out there, take a stab at the times' first puzzle.

the new york times is celebrating their 150th anniversary with a whole special online section. i haven't looked through it all yet, but this story is unbelievable. did you know that during world war ii, in six years only six articles landed on the front page of the times about hitler exterminating jews? according to max frankel, the times, like many other papers around the country at the time, hid this part of the story on the inside and focused more on the war and all the victims rather than just the jews. plus, since the times was owned by a jewish family they feared that the anti-semitic population might view them labeling it front-page news as more of a personal thing. and it wasn't until two million jews were killed that an editorial about the holocaust appeared.

guided by voices are going to be on hbo's "reverb" tonight as are weezer and peter yorn. i'm still trying to catch the old 97's one that i missed.

before september 11 this would have been bigger news. but what's up with it being legal for 17-year-olds in michigan to own a firearm? they can't even vote on the subject yet they can open fire any time they choose.

i just checked out golden boy's photo essay about "moving in, moving on", and i have to say i really enjoyed it. i'm not one to ever throw anything away, much less things that have such meaning attached to it so i really give chris credit. in fact, in a desk drawer in my room in my parents' house i still have a huge envelope filled with letters, pictures, poems, movie stubs, drawings and all that fun stuff from my first real boyfriend that i couldn't imagine ever parting with. every few years i've even taken out the contents to reread and remember. but then again, i'm such a pack rat that i'm pretty sure i have every book report i ever wrote, diary i ever kept, and art project i ever made stored in my parents' attic somewhere, and until they move, i have no plan of discarding that stuff either.

the onion helps you choose a health club.

i just learned from brunching shuttlecocks that the kentucky quarter is out already. i finally acquired the vermont one a few weeks ago and now i have to be on the hunt again. but their ratings of the state quarters thus far is pretty funny, especially the one for kentucky.

ryan's mention of derek jeter's new apartment led me to this rider of a j.lo contract. i love reading the ridiculous requests of celebrities who think they're such hot shit. the sad thing is it's some schmuck's job to make sure she gets just what she asks for, including keeping her evian at room temperature.

yo la tengo playing channukah in hoboken. maybe now's the time for me to hear what they're all about. i don't mind supporting my fellow jews during the festival of lights. speaking of channukah, i came to the realization last week that it's a lot sooner than i thought it was. less than a month away and i have no idea what to get anyone.

this is america after all: putting trademarks on disaster.

i'm with betsy on her film club thingie. it's a great way to get out and see movies you always want to but never get around to, have deep, meaningful discussions and drink coffee, plus it's all over a lot faster than if you're reading a book for a book club. not that i'm against book clubs. i actually have always wanted to do one, but my lazy self and the stress of finishing on time just gets to me. right now i'm reading "the poisonwood bible" so if anyone has any thoughts on the novel, send them my way.

my one big gripe about arizona: they are absolutely way too obsessed with the diamondbacks winning the world series! they seriously have nothing better to do than flaunt it any way they can. not only did my cousins have to rub it in with newly purchased t-shirts and pennants from the victory parade, but everywhere i turned someone else was wearing a piece of d-backs apparrel or discussing the game. friday night while out with dan and his friends, i was lucky enough to sit next to a girl who does pr for the team and got to hear all about how great they are and what it was like in the clubhouse afterward and how cool all the players are. saturday afternoon i walked in the house to have my cousin doug greet me with the news that they were replaying game seven in it's entirety and that i had come in just in time to wach the ninth inning all over again. come on, people! i give you one year and that's it! the series was sooooo last week! don't you guys have better things to take pride in like cactuses and golf courses and harvest moons and circle k or something? enough already!

i got back from an all-around great weekend in phoenix early this morning and with all that's going on in queens today, it's a good thing i made it onto my flight. one other guy and i were the last standby folks allowed on. everyone else on the flight seemed to work for the giants and had gone to the game. the weather was in the eighties all weekend long. spent lots of quality time with the little cousins listening to them sing "america the beautiful" over and over again, playing with fake nails, playing beauty parlor, watching "rugrats", visiting parks, going swimming, lounging in the jacuzzi and picnicking under the stars. also had a great time with dan and his friends who are all really, really nice. i was introduced to the midwestern pastime of euker (sp?), a fun card game that's even more fun when accompanied by some brewskies. saturday night we checked out the band strangefolk in tempe and a really neat irish pub owned by guiness that, according to dan, was built in ireland and transported over here whole. there's a long story that comes with seeing the band that involves smoking some extremely potent stuff from telluride that i'm not quite sure was so pure. not usually a good idea to accept tokes from strangers that friends of friends met online, but hey, you only live once, right? plus, it made the lights at the show do things i never thought they could and the music sound all the better. i just kept tuning into this one line that the lead singer (who, in my altered state, looked like a cross between ozzy osbourne and dave newsom, for all you review folks out there) kept repeating that went something like "it's not bad to feel good when you're at a show," and i kind of made that my mantra for the rest of the night to get me through it.

the great ken kesey died this weekend. i was planning on seeing him read "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" at the 92nd street y this february for the book's anniversary but i guess not. maybe i'll reread it for a third time to pay homage to him or something.

a few weeks ago i told you about the wonderful discovery of halloween peeps. now michele has informed me that at duane reade today she spotted snowman peeps! can it be that you can now get that marshmallowy goodness in all shapes and sizes all year long? maybe they'll add turkey peeps and dreidel peeps to next year's stock. or they could have uncle sam peeps for fourth of july or big suns for the summer solstice or leaves for the start of fall. i see big things happening here, people (or should i say peep-le? oh, how i crack myself up). now if they could find a way to keep mallomars (which are made in hoboken by the way) on the shelves all year long, i'd be a really happy girl.

i know it's the the south (that's a joke all you mountain brook readers) but c'mon, dressing like this for halloween and thinking you wouldn't get in trouble?

last night i finally got to watch the much anticipated premiere of "24", the new real-time show on fox. so far i'm intrigued but it seems as if you really wouldn't be able to miss an episode, which could be a pain. but my roommates agreed that the little twist at the end on the plane with the photographer was pretty cool. i'm still wondering what they're going to do if the show gets picked up for another season. will there be another major crisis occurring the next day?

i'm leaving for phoenix tomorrow where the forecast is in the mid to upper 80s with pure sunshine for the next few days. oh, happy days.

geoff's girlfriend libby is in the times today. all about post traumatic stress disorder and the september 11th attacks. speaking of geoff, his sketch comedy group, three jews and a persian, are performing again. hilarious stuff that i suggest y'all check out. this weekend and next at the producers club. if anyone wants to come with me next weekend let me know.

jacko thinks he has anthrax (second item). yeah, i'm sure that's the mysterious illness that's turning him into an alien.

the emmys were a lot more fun to watch last night than the yanks, because at least my favorite shows won most of the awards. rock on, "west wing!" too bad i missed last week's episode because i screwed up the taping while trying to watch baseball. if anyone has a copy of it or even just wants to fill me in on what i missed, you know where to find me.

during my fours years in delaware, i never made it to the annual punkin chunkin contest, but always wanted to. and i just love how it's gotten national attention over the years. i vaguely remember it even being on letterman a while back.

good weekend all around which started off nicely by leaving work two hours early friday since there was not a lick of work to do. i wound up spending way too much money at the cd store but came home with some great new tunes. finally saw "hannibal" but shouldn't have wasted my money. not one scary scene in the whole movie. just over-the-top gore that was mostly laughable vs. disgusting. saturday afternoon michele and i went down to the photo exhibit from september 11th. some really powerful photos. they extended the show till christmas so all you new yorkers now have no excuse not to get down there one afternoon. saturday night after sharing a pitcher of tasty sangria, brian and i did a little salsaing in a fancy, trendy bar in new brunswick to avoid watching the rest of the horrendous yankee game. new york, what happened to you? i don't even want to discuss last night's crushing loss either.

i just archived my entries again because something is screwy with my edit/delete page and the help at pitas.com seemed to think this might work. so if you want to read what else i wrote today (of course you do!) just click on the september october archive link.

catherine's pita
betsy's pita
leanne's knee
chris's blog
ryan's pulp
nathan's babaluga