monica has a great duplex. it's crammed bottom to top with neat door handles, intriguing antique items and absolutely cool furniture. she has replaced just about anything replaceable in her place. all the light fixtures and knobs and sink protrusions and colors and well. everything. right now it's a bit of a mess because there are lots of boxes lying around. waiting to be organized and filled. monica is a box person. and she's kind of OCD. so i was careful not to put my grimey hands on anything. she has a big cabinet full of oatmeal orange soap. and she has a retro refrigerator from the sixties. and a matching oven. why is everything old cool again? i'll leave that topic alone for now.



anyhow. monica is a free lance interior designer and i'd been wanting to see her duplex in pasadena for the longest time. i finally saw it. and explored it. and i was stunned. i felt like ariel. "gadgets and gizmos a plenty...." stop me when your ears hurt. everything cool you've seen in furniture stores, she has. but more likely she has a better, more original version of the cheap mass produced knock-off. everyone should really see her place. it's quite amazing. she said i could stay in her closet if i come up to visit more. her tiny closet reminds me of the secret bathroom in ally mcbeal. it's very cozy.



i also went furniture browsing with monica. you can imagine how much more exciting furniture browsing is with someone who knows what they're looking at. everyone should have an interior design friend. monica offered to let me be her handy man if she goes on jobs in the future. so if this flute thing doesn't go. i can become a furniture helper. fun hunh? i'm moving up in the world. watch out.

big day.

i've been thinking about whether or not having a girl who listens and loves hip hop is a qualification for a significant other. i think, on one hand, that music is really just an interest and is just a miniscule part of the whole. but on the other hand, i need good music around me. at all times. i don't do well in silence. especially in cars. i need music. also, because i tend to be a car music hog (yup, i'm a bitch like that) i think it might possibly be important that me and this whoever listen to the same music. not that hip hop is my life, because really, i didn't grow up with it. nor do i pretend to live it. but it's kind of important. music is kind of important. don't you think?



i've known....two, possibly three, girls who have had nearly the exact same taste in music and hip hop as me. and that alone was a foundation for a friendship. factoring all that audio chemistry into a relationship equation would result in loveliness. i think most people don't mind hip hop. but i kind of would like someone who absolutely adores it. and not lauryn hill adores it. because who doesn't like lauryn hill? i want them to like and appreciate tribe. and the roots. and mos. and pharcyde. and if a girl loves gangstarr. it's pretty much over. that would be like cupid posing as a song, shooting arrows directly into me.



however. taking into account all the things that need to be compatible in a relationship, is music really that important? it's not my primary interest. and i'm semi-decently accomodating to other types of music. so, what am i looking for? what's my point? i'm not sure. i'm gonna have to think long and hard about this one.

rancho santa fe has been named "america's richest town" by cnn. wow. i didn't think rancho santa fe would win at anything. but i suppose it makes sense. janet jackson has a house there. so does jewel. but they won't let me in the gated community to hunt them down. our PO BOX is in rancho santa fe but we technically live in del mar. what does this all mean? rancho santa fe beat out shining lights like bloomfield hills, MI (number three). we know people from there don't we?



"rancho santa fe holds the dubious distinction as the site of the worst mass suicide on u.s. soil. The 39 members of the heaven's gate cult killed themselves in 1997, believing they were shedding their earthly "containers" to catch a ride on a spaceship trailing the hale-bopp comet.

the nba playoffs are over for me. the celtics. total disappointment. my second team-- the kings. useless. now i'm reduced to cheering for the nets against the lakers. the same nets who only beat the lakers once. by two points. with shaq out. so basically the playoffs are done. paul pierce. disappeared. antoine walker. disappeared. the whole celtic team. missing.



and how about those kings? the warriors with the flashy names and the flashy behind-the-back passes? they suck. hedo turkoglu. suck. doug christie. brick layer. vlade divac. flop this. predrag stojakovic. *airball* and don't even get me started on cwebb. the leader of the kings. the "i'll pick but i won't roll" power forward. the "i like to sit outside by the three point line even though i don't shoot threes" type of six ten player. the "i like to complain everytime i miss a shot." if he even takes a shot. he likes to make crazy weird passes. that sometimes works. but sometimes doesn't. i've seen him make two post up baskets in two games. what the?!? chris webber. you suck. sorry. plus the kings hit a tad over 50% from the free throw line. way to go. "aren't these guys supposed to be professionals?"



however. mike bibby is a stud. he couldn't miss down the stretch. sure he looks funny. sure he sucked for my fantasy team this year. sure he was a waste of a second round pick. but damn. he was the dictionary definition of clutch tonight (not to mention throughout the playoffs). swish. swish. swish. swish. money. it's really too bad he has to play with a team of losers. i'm a bitter bitter man today. no celtics. no kings. only the lakers. with kobe and his ego. i think i'm going to cry.

went to watch culture shock san diego's third annual bust-a-groove competition this weekend. tightness. that's all i can say. there can be no better dancing than californian hip hop. although some of it gets tired and repetitive, the few innovative acts are more than enough to make up for the boring parts. and for this particular competition, 80% of the acts were clean as hell so it was tough to be bored.



dope stuff on stage: uc riverside showed up dressed as nerds. nerds! with big glasses and hiked up pants. dope ass. this one group, devious, should have won the whole thing. they busted out a light saber segment where they used the *wherng* sound as a beat. coolness. and then they closed it with "september," one of the all time greatest songs ever. kaba was of course incredibly good. they are too clean. too good. too everything. they probably suffer from everyone imitating them. they used nirvana for a part. and it worked. go kaba. culture shock san diego closed it all out with a super -insert exciting adjective here- act. they had themes and props and all sorts of cool stuff. i think we need to buy the tape. this was definitely a good year. formality won it with a little kid. total undeserved. but they had a little kid. who was half the size of the trophy. they were good but they rolled on the gimmick.



i can't really say that i miss dancing after watching the show. because i never danced like this. and to say that bust-a-groove triggered my feelings about "dancing" would be an injustice. but hell. i miss dancing.

"True love is the best thing in the world. Except for cough drops. Everybody knows that."

-Max the Miracle Worker, The Princess Bride-