Members of New Edition came by my office today and had lunch with us. It was rather mind-blowing to be talking to people like Johnny Gill, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe (Gill also had a solo career, and Bell & DeVoe are two-thirds of Bell Biv DeVoe) who make up a large chunk of the content on my personal mixtapes from my childhood still sitting in my closet here in my apartment. It was like my mixtapes came to life. I'll get pictures of me with Johnny Gill and Ronnie DeVoe tomorrow. The rain, while appreciated, brings out my nesting instincts. It makes it very hard for me to wake up and get out of my nice warm bed (with flannel sheets!) in the morning and go to work, knowing that on the way I'll be battling stupid L.A. drivers who don't know how to drive in the rain. My God, there's water falling from the sky! What do we do? Quick, let's panic! But the Red Sox managed to win to fight another day, and the miracle just may occur that this might actually be the year. My neighbors probably didn't appreciate me screaming and swearing at the TV tonight though. Some season-appropriate music for anyone in the rain or gloom... in case it sounds familiar, it was used in the end scene of last week's Rescue Me. Right-click and save as, but enjoy the melodic goodness. Rubyhorse - "Fell on Bad Days"

Okay, so PlagueWatch 2004™ is still on, and it's getting frustrating. We're on Day 12 right now, and while I seem to be getting somewhat better, I'm still not all the way there yet. Friday night, I went to see Los Lonely Boys. Holy crap, they put on a great show. The opener, Ingram Hill, had played an acoustic set in my office earlier that day, so it was interesting to hear how different they sounded plugged in. And then we went backstage and hung out with them, where I also met Josh Kelley. The funny thing is that his speaking voice is nothing like his singing voice. Saturday night, I hung out with Mikey and Joelle, Fran, Wendy and Fran's sister Gracia, GC and her husband, Becky, Yvonne and Eden, her husband and a friend. We hit CPK in Long Beach and then the Queen Mary Shipwreck, which I unfortunately bailed on when it got late and I ran out of steam due to The Sickness and it started raining. The moronic thing is that (well, aside from the stupid L.A. drivers who think "Ohmigod, it's raining, I must slow down to 20 mph!") I woke up at 5am on Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain and, through my sleep haze, this is what penetrated my brain: You know, my car could really use a wash... maybe I should just pull her out of the garage for a few minutes. Okay, so I'm not saying that I actually like the new U2 song, "Vertigo," quite yet, but the iPod commercial featuring the band is going a long ways towards making me not hate it. But does anyone else notice that in the beginning of the song, Bono counts in Spanish, "One, two, three, fourteen!"?

It's Friday, and there's cause to celebrate: Not only is today PAYDAY (wheeeeee!), but for the first time in nine days, I woke up and was able to breathe. I'm told that breathing is good and that it's popular with the kids. I still feel infected with The Plague™, but now at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Thus, I have decided to help you break out your boogie shoes. Right-click and save as, then listen in an area where you're able to get up and groove. Morris Day & The Time - "Jungle Love" (oh wee oh wee oh wee oh) Head Automatica - "Brooklyn is Burning" Gorillaz - "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)" N Trance - "Stayin' Alive"

With my head in a fog and yet another 1,500-word column due in less than 24 hours, I have writer's block. Again. And the damn Red Sox blew it. Again. Well, you know what they say about the Sox -- you can count on them, they'll always let you down. By the way, is anyone coming to the Queen Mary Shipwreck with us on Saturday? Check here for details. So I saw this thing at Joelle's, and I figured why not? Name THREE of your... 1. Pet Peeves: Bad grammar and/or spelling, bad drivers (especially slow ones in the left lane) and when people don't set the clocks on their VCRs or microwaves and they just blink "12:00" over and over. (I know, it's a little strange, but I've been known to set other people's clocks just to make it stop flashing.) 2. Favorite Sounds: A great song just when it's needed, the roar of a car engine under my command on the open road and the stark silence of a city while snow is falling. 3. Favorite Flavors of Candy: Dark chocolate, those cherry candied fruit slices, York Peppermint Patties and Butterfingers. (Sorry, I've got a sweet tooth the size of Texas, I couldn't settle on just three.) 4. Biggest Fears: Losing my eyesight, losing my hearing and getting some kind of terminal disease. 5. Biggest Challenges: Losing weight, learning patience (believe me, I haven't learned a thing) and learning to live life for now and not worrying about why I haven't accomplished certain life-steps yet. 6. Favorite Department Stores: Best Buy, Circuit City and Target. 7. Most Used Words: (in no particular order) "Dude" (sorry, but I guess I have acclimated), "stellar" and "awesome." 8. Favorite Pizza Toppings: Cheese, hamburger and sausage. 9. Favorite Cartoon Characters: Brian & Stewie on Family Guy, Fry on Futurama and Master Shake on Aqua Teen Hungerforce. 10. Movies Recently Watched: 1941, The Rundown and Daredevil. Yeah, I know. Daredevil wasn't worth it. But it was on cable and I needed something to watch while I was camped out in bed all weekend. 11. Favorite Fruits: Fuji apples, strawberries and bananas. 12. Favorite Vegetables: I don't have any favorite vegetables. Lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers are tolerable.

Things Currently Pissing Me Off: - The guy who called and woke me at 7am today to try and sell me something, even though my number is on the do-not-call list - Way too much freakin' Bob Marley on the radio - My impending dentist's appointment - The Plague That Will Not Leave Me Alone™ - The Los Angeles Times for calling Jack White of The White Stripes one of the last remaining great singer-songwriters - Our idiot president - The Osbournes, especially Kelly - The New York Yankees Allow me to reprise a picture I took last year...

Christopher Reeve died. Everyone's got their Superman stories... here's mine. Many years ago, before his accident, my mom kissed Christopher Reeve. Yes, my dad knows -- he was there. We had a small family tradition that when my parents picked me up from summer camp, they'd take me to a ski resort in the area that, during the summer, opened an alpine slide, and we'd go for a few runs down the alpine slide. When I got to the bottom of the run one time, my dad came running over and said that Superman was there. Thinking it was just some guy in a Superman costume, I said something along the lines of "yeah, sure" and started walking towards the lift to do another run on the alpine slide. Dad then said, "No, it's really him -- Christopher Reeve is right over there." For some reason, I remember getting very nervous, so I said I'd go over and say hi after going for another run anyways. When I got back down to the bottom of the mountain, my dad was waiting for me and we both went over to the picnic table where he was sitting. My dad and I told him we were big fans of his work, and then my mom said, "Me too!" and kissed him. Christopher turned a little red and laughed a little nervously -- the rest of us just laughed -- and from then on, my mom has been able to say that she kissed Superman. Rest in peace, Christopher Reeve.

At this moment, what I'd like more than anything is for someone to stick a vacuum cleaner up my nose and suck out everything in my head, especially since it feels like someone (and I'm not quite sure who!) filled my skull with a combination of insulation and cotton balls. Yesterday, my temperature went from 96.2 to 101 to 97.5 in the space of a single day. So in lieu of actual content, since I'm not exactly thinking straight, here's some songs for my head... and yours. Right-click and save as, homequiches. Bush - "Headful of Ghosts" Tin Star - "Head" Jesus & Mary Chain - "Head On"

My apartment is conveniently located two doors down from a 24-hour supermarket, which has facilitated such activities in the past as Late-Night Drunken Baking™. However, the thought occurred to me a couple of days ago that, were there to be a catastrophic event like, say, an earthquake, it wouldn't bother me so much that I have very little nonperishable food in the house because I could just stroll over and loot the place. It also comes in handy when it's midnight and I suddenly discover I have no more NyQuil, and it's no hassle to throw on an old pair of jeans and stumble over to get some materials to put me out of my misery. By the way, even Klingons think Kerry would make a better President. According to a straw poll of a handful of Klingons living in the greater Portland, Oregon area, 75% said they'd vote for Kerry, with 25% writing Satan in on the ballot. None said they'd vote for Bush.

I am just bursting with fruit flavor right now. I've ingested enough Benadryl to put down a small bull elephant, which will hopefully halt my metamorphosis from a slightly warped human being into a sneezing, mucus-producing machine and put me out of my misery for the night. Especially since tomorrow I have lunch plans to go sight-seeing (translation: check out the scenery at Fred Segal) and then see a taping of Bill Maher's show in the evening. Did I mention that I saw Marg Helgenberger in my building's lobby today? She's cute... but tiny. And since I'm tripping out on Benadryl, I'm just going to finish up with some graphic humor for y'all:

Let's take a look at the tally, shall we? Four hurricanes and a volcano eruption in the space of a few weeks... Might I suggest that someone or something might be pissed? Oh, and remember how Kerry forgot Poland? Well... Poland is leaving our little Iraq party by the end of next year. And now, I present to you -- one man overcoming the odds:

Okay, so I punch up My Yahoo to see what the hell's going on in the world (since all day, I was barraged with HOWARD STERN -- I think it's in his contract that his name must appear like that -- and I just needed to reassure myself there was a world outside of the radio industry), and I see these two headlines back-to-back: U.S. Report Finds No Evidence of Iraq WMD Iran Says It Has Processed Tons of Uranium Any chance our illustrious leaders got confused? I mean, the two countries are right next to each other... and they're spelled almost exactly the same...?

All freakin' day, I've felt like my brain was like a '74 Buick spinning its wheels while stuck in the Alabama mud. You know how I say that every day is a battle to make sure my moments of stupidity outnumber my moments of brilliance? Let me tell you... today, brilliance got creamed. The Huns of Stupidity overran the Gentle People of Brilliance in a complete free-for-all melee. I didn't get a chance to see the VP debate, but from what I heard, the two were pretty evenly matched, so I don't think there's really going to be a clear "winner." I don't want to persuade anyone to vote my way because everyone's got to vote their mind (though I don't understand why some people want to vote the other way, but that's their right), but I do want to persuade everyone to at least vote. Our troops are over there in Iraq right now, fighting and dying so that those people can vote, so why should we take our ability to vote for granted? But I will get political just a little bit more. This reworking of a classic is just dark enough to reflect the mood of the country... amazing what transposing the song into a minor chord can do, eh? Right-click and save as, homeslices. A Perfect Circle - "Imagine"

The pounding of the roofers working on the building next door is synching up perfectly with the pounding within my skull. It doesn't help that they woke me up this morning at 7:15am. Isn't there some kind of noise ordinance that says no loud, sustained booming noises are allowed before 8:30? (Bonus points to whoever can ID the reference...) For the first time in months, I was cold when I got out of bed. Fall is officially here, and I love it. (Took damn long enough!) I knew there was a reason I put the flannel sheets on my bed -- though it makes it infinitely harder to get out of bed in the morning when you're crawling out of an extremely warm and comfortable into the cold harsh morning of your week's longest workday. Here's something to ponder: Why does Ticketmaster charge an additional service fee to e-mail you your ticket but it's free for them to send you an actual one? You'd think that an automated response with a relatively free e-mail (I know there's some base cost involved in purchasing the server, paying for the electricity that powers it and the bandwidth to send out e-mails) that requires no human interaction would be more cost-effective for them than to have someone actually print out the ticket, put it in an envelope and send it off, making the company pay for the envelope, the labor and the postage.

If you go into my archives, you may find reference to someone I was very close to... someone who was one of my best friends, who I ran all over Los Angeles with, who I'd known for years (since college). Things That Shall Not Be Discussed occurred, and we went our separate ways for almost two years. I've been thinking about her for the past few weeks. Seeing places around town that we'd talked about going to but never did, hearing songs on the radio that reminded me of her or were by artists who we'd seen live in concert, places we'd actually explored together... things of that nature. And I began to wonder what she was up to. According to our college alumni directory, she lived only a few blocks away from my apartment, but no phone number was listed. So I Googled her and found her work number, which I wrote down but never quite got up the courage to call... because I didn't know how I'd be received after all this time, especially since the last time, when I made overtures, things still seemed strained and she didn't seem receptive to getting to know me again. Then I punched up My Yahoo this morning, and here's what my horoscope had to say: What's wrong with making the first move? Nothing -- especially if it's a long-lost friend you've been thinking about nonstop. Don't let this madness continue. Call them. Now. I don't believe in astrology. But it hit close enough to home that when I got home from work, I called the number I had -- her work number. Strangely enough, she was still working, and even though she was on deadline and had to get back to work, we talked for half an hour. Yes, things were a little odd at times, but it felt... comfortable. Like it would be easy to pick up where we left off. Or at least from before Things That Shall Not Be Discussed occurred, since, oddly enough, years earlier I'd been in the position that she was now in. (Hard to talk about these kinds of things in an abstract sense, but surprisingly, there are some things I'd like to keep to myself -- or at least off the Internet.) She's going away for a couple weeks on business, but I am really looking forward to seeing her again when she gets back. And even though I don't believe in this astrology crap, the impetus still came at the right time and I'm really glad that after almost two years, I finally called her.

Meghan clued me into this whole thing of the top 10 cover songs, which apparently people will be posting tomorrow morning. Whether I'll be coherent enough to actually type on a Monday morning is questionable, so I'm posting my list tonight. In no particular order: - Guns 'n' Roses, "Sympathy for the Devil" (orig. Rolling Stones -- say what you will about the Stones, but they just didn't rock as hard as G'n'R) - Lazlo Bane, "Overkill" (orig. Men At Work -- much more sedate, especially in the beginning, but still with urgent undertones, which is why I think I like the cover better... the song deals with some emotionally distraught subject matter, so it shouldn't sound as happy as the original does, in my humble opinion) - Goldfinger, "99 Red Balloons" (orig. Nena -- punk version of the '80s! Yar!) - Reel Big Fish, "Hungry Like the Wolf" (orig. Duran Duran -- this half-lounge, half-ska version is just all kinds of fun) - Cake, "I Will Survive" (orig. Gloria Gaynor -- and maybe, just maybe, the words in the original should've been "I should've changed that fucking lock"...) - Tom Jones with the Art of Noise, "Kiss" (orig. Prince -- hearing Tom say "Think I better dance now!" is just the best) - Ben Folds, "Tiny Dancer" (orig. Elton John -- just Ben & his piano) - Jimi Hendrix, "All Along the Watchtower" (orig. Bob Dylan -- yes, Hendrix's version is a cover and is not the original, the fact that Dylan has publicly said he prefers Hendrix's cover notwithstanding) - Buckcherry, "Anything, Anything" (orig. Dramarama -- and while the cover is great, part of the reason why I like it more than the original is that KROQ plays the original every five minutes) - A Perfect Circle - "Imagine" (orig. John Lennon -- this almost dirge-like version evokes almost as many emotions as the original... just much different emotions) Honorable Mentions: - The Belle Stars, "Iko Iko" (orig. The Dixie Cups -- you've heard this, it was in Rain Man... but actually, what I really prefer is the 12" remix I have of The Belle Stars' cover) - Travis Morrison, "What's Your Fantasy" (orig. Ludacris -- nothing like a white boy with an acoustic guitar covering a completely outrageous, misogynistic rap song) - The Blue Hawaiians, "Martini Five-O" (orig. The Ventures -- this laid-back tripped-out version of "Hawaii Five-O" is just stellar) - William Shatner & Joe Jackson - "Common People" (orig. Pulp -- it's just odd to hear Captain Kirk do a spoken-word version of this song) And now, a couple of songs to kick-start your week. Right-click and save as, then turn up and blast until your socks are properly rocked off enough to get through your day. Five Eight - "Square Peg" Graham Coxon - "Freakin Out" (yes, Graham used to be in Blur) Edited to add: There's apparently a whole bunch o' people doing this list of songs thing, so check them out too: Alien Fur, Bitchalicious, Brooks Blog, Chapati Mystery, Cheleblog, The Dune Shack, I See Monsters, Sheets & Blankets, Shoulda Said and Write On Megs.