Do you believe you’re missing out?
Everything good is happening somewhere else.
But with nobody in your bed, the night’s hard to get through.

Well, Jesus Christ, I’m not scared to die,
I’m a little bit scared of what comes after...
-- Brand New, ”Jesus Christ”

[Ed. note:  No, I’m not suicidal; no, I’m not turning Christian.  Read between the lines.]

With beginnings come endings, and it seems there’s been a lot of endings going on lately.  But I suppose it’s all part of the great circle of things, and I have to keep reminding myself that at least it’s not the end of the world, and things do go on.  Despite the fact that I am Mr. Instant Gratification, I also realize that bouncing back happens eventually, and I just need to let time pass and things will even out on their own, which I’m realizing will come more quickly than I originally thought as time appears to be speeding up as I get older.  It’s almost like I’m learning patience and wisdom in my old age or something.  But as the magnet on my fridge says, “Things are always okay in the end.  If it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.”

That said, I’m planning on being way immature this weekend, as The Best Friend™ arrives in town for the first time since my birthday party back in December.  The plan is this:  (1) Pick her up from the airport.  (2) Drink our faces off, and have immense amounts of fun running around acting like morons.  (3) Return her to the airport a couple of days later.

In other news, my landlord called today and said that the apartment upstairs from me is opening up at the end of next month and asked if I knew anyone who might be interested.  If you’re looking for a very good-sized 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment in a small building in a great, great neighborhood and location on Los Angeles’ Westside that’s below market value, I highly recommend this place.  I’ve been living in the building for 3 1/4 years now, if that’s any indication.

People who know me know that I’m an absolute freak about radio.  It started when my parents would leave a radio in my crib when I was a baby, and it really kicked in when I discovered a local radio station about to go on the air when I was in high school and walked in and demanded a job.  Anyone who works in the industry will tell you that once you’re in, it’s like a drug, and it’s damn nigh impossible to walk away from it.  It gets in your blood.  It bonds you to the people in your industry, and it becomes a part of who you are.

When I broke the story in late 2005 that Infinity Radio (now CBS Radio) was going to end 20 years of rock in New York City and change 92.3 K-Rock to “Free FM,” where they’d air talk personalities all day and rock only in overnights and on the weekends, I took it personally.  Not only did I have friends who worked at the station, but I almost felt like it was an insult that CBS would be willing to get rid of such a heritage station and leave the biggest (and best) city in the country without a rock station.  And I suffered as the new Free FM sank in the ratings until it was the lowest-rated FM station in New York, knowing that when I eventually went back to the city I was born in, the city that holds such significance for me, there wouldn’t be a rock radio station for me to listen to.  It was almost like the city was missing a piece of something that made it so special.

Until today.  I should’ve seen it coming, and I speculated that it might happen, but I was still surprised when a co-worker called from New York and woke me this morning to say that Free FM was stunting.  The talk days were over.  And at 5pm Eastern today, the talking stopped and the music started again.  92.3 K-Rock was reborn.  And again, in some ways, I’m taking it personally.  I feel like a good part of New York has been restored, and I feel happy that I know that when I go back to New York, there’s a rock station waiting for me.  Even better, my friends who were still there kept their jobs, adding relief to the happiness.

I don’t expect people to understand.  I realize that radio isn’t as much a part of everyone’s life as it is mine, and I realize that it’s not as important to everyone as it is to me.  But I’m hoping that despite how people rail against the radio industry and say how awful it is these days, we won a little victory today — CBS Radio realized they made a mistake, and now they’re trying to make it right:  Introducing 92.3 K-Rock, Mark 2, The Rock of New York.

Okay, opinion time again (and I have to admit that I do like having something of a built-in focus group with you guys):  Supposing you’ve been invited to a wedding that’s taking place in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.  Given that you can’t take off work for the day, would it be rude to ask if you can show up to the evening reception only?

True story, happened to a friend of a friend:

Woman was standing in an ice cream store getting a cone when Paul Newman, who also happens to live in her town, walked in.  Woman says to herself, “I’m not going to get all flustered or fawn over him or anything, I’m just going to play it cool.” She gets her change and walks out — and then realizes she doesn’t have her ice cream cone.  Woman walks back into the store and says to the guy behind the counter, “Excuse me, I think I forgot my cone.” Our fearless hero Mr. Newman steps in and tells her, “Lady, you put it in your purse after you got your change.”

Quick hits:  Parents arriving tomorrow — first time I’ve seen them in four months, so you can understand that there’s been a lot of consternation and handwringing going on at Remix Central.  Got a job offer, which I plan to turn down.  Feel like I haven’t slept in 2 days because, well, I haven’t — between having to be up at 6am Wednesday (which threw off my sleep schedule badly) and being woken up every hour last night by The Girlfriend™’s Dog, I’m a little fried.  The Best Friend™ is coming to visit in 2 weeks, which is making me go “eeeee!” on a regular basis.  Mildly obsessed with the new MacBook Pro, which is cooler than cool (which, according to OutKast, makes it ice cold).  Found out I’m going to Minneapolis for a convention next month.

So, what’s new with you?

When you’re faced with difficult decisions, it’s only a natural impulse to want to crawl into bed and listen to depressing music.  Having a new remote control for your brand new MacBook Pro’s iTunes just makes it all the more easy.

So now JV & Elvis are gone.  Yeah, I heard the phone call in question, and it was in poor taste, and I personally didn’t find it all that funny.  And the Opie & Anthony bit that’s got everyone up in arms wasn’t all that funny to me either.  But I still think people need to develop thicker skins.  It’s hard to believe that a movie like Blazing Saddles came out only 33 years ago — arguably one of the funniest movies of all time, it is also one of the most offensive.  But sometimes we all need to realize that we have to laugh at ourselves, because if we don’t, then we all turn into conservative humorless politically correct people with huge 40-foot poles shoved up our asses.  What JV & Elvis did was offensive, sure.  But they didn’t advocate killing anyone or causing harm to anyone.

In other news, I was at the gym on Saturday, and they had The Matrix Revolutions on the TVs.  Thing is, they had the sound off and the closed-captioning on… and they left all the swears in, despite the fact that it was mid-afternoon on basic cable.  I’m awaiting the Parents Television Council to descend upon the deaf community for allowing such smut in the open.

When those fires were burning on Tuesday, I had an incredible view right out of the window behind my computer monitor — could see the actual blazes on the Hollywood hills as they approached Griffith Observatory, and the amount of smoke pouring into the air made it look like a giant volcano had just erupted.  I’m told the view that night was amazing and awe-inspiring, and I brought my camera to work on Wednesday morning, hoping to take some great pictures.  I had that dual feeling of being a little sad that the fire was pretty much out when I got there because I wouldn’t be able to take those pictures, yet I was also horrified that I would be sad over the end of something so destructive simply because of my own personal desires for a stupid photo.  That said, the whole damn L.A. basin is still hazy and smoke-filled, which is wreaking havoc on the allergies of thousands.

In other news, I am excited beyond belief to be seeing Nikka Costa in an intimate venue tonight.  She’s one of my Desert Island Top 10 Artists, and tonight I will be creating pools for small children to splash around in with how much I will be drooling over seeing her perform again.

Good news, everyone!  The show that I believe to be the best show on TV right now, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, returns to NBC’s lineup later this month!  Check it out starting May 24.  Hooray!

In not-so-good news, my best friend’s house was broken into last week.  Some tweaker kicked in the front door and ransacked the place, stealing a bunch of her stuff, including jewelry that may not have been worth a lot monetarily but had a ton of sentimental value.  The guy also stole the Powerbook that I sold her a couple of years ago, so I’m going to once again sell her my Powerbook with all my programs and stuff installed (which will also replace some of her MP3s and digital photos), meaning that I’m going to be upgrading to the new MacBook Pro.  In some ways, I feel like it’s kind of become a tradition for me to pass my machines down to her.

And now, the interactive portion of the blog:  I need your fashion opinion.  Here’s the thing… I pretty much perpetually wear jeans.  Work, play, going out, whatever, and they’re pretty much all I feel comfortable in.  So when it’s warm outside, I change to jean shorts.  However, The Girlfriend™ seems to think that jean shorts convey an image of… well, trailer trashyness to some degree, and that anyone who wears jean shorts would probably also be prone to rockin’ a mullet.  I obviously disagree.  So the question is — jean shorts:  acceptable (even if they may not be the epitome of getting dressed up) or acceptable only in places like Arkansas or Barstow, California?

I probably would disappoint some people by saying that I actually do like Fall Out Boy, and I have both their CDs.  They may not be rewriting the rules of musical genres, but I find their stuff catchy and entertaining.  They’re fun to sing along with in the car, and I find it interesting that they keep making references to the movie Closer even though I don’t understand why.  But I have to admit that their latest single, “Thnks fr th Mmrs,” sounds a lot like a modern-day Broadway showtune… or maybe a parody of one.  I keep thinking it might be something out of South Park, or maybe even something as serious as a Rent-meets-Les Miserables kind of show.  I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it was a little bit of an unexpected realization I had while I was blasting the track on my way home today.

My writing partner and I were on deadline for a column on Tuesday night and had already interviewed a guy, I was preparing to transcribe it and write the column on it when the guy called and said his boss told him he couldn’t talk to the press on the topic so he was going to have to ask us to yank the column.  Ugh.  (Yes, we managed to cobble something together at the last minute.) Anyways, so another co-worker came over to my desk and asked, “So, your guy had to pull out?” Without even thinking, I responded, “Yeah, I hear that’s a popular method of birth control among the kids these days.” My co-worker completely lost it and was laughing hysterically for 10 minutes.

And for you geeks in the L.A. area, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (or JPL, for those of you in the know) is having its annual Open House the weekend of May 19th.  Yes, it’s the same weekend as the KROQ Weenie Roast.  Decisions, decisions.  But at least you can have a backup plan if you can’t score tickets to the Weenie Roast y Fiesta.

I have to admit that this story on Cory Kennedy has me a little bothered.  Basically, it’s the story of a 15-year-old who was photographed by some guy who had kind of a popular L.A. nightlife website, and they started dating, and he put her pics up all over, and she turned into this worldwide celebrity.  No kidding.  Invitations to party and hang out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.  Designers asking her to wear their clothes.  Fan sites dissecting her wardrobe and praising her up and down and eating up every little thing she did, to the point where a video of her eating Indian food while listening to her iPod became one of the most-viewed movies on YouTube. 

Have we become so starved as a society for culture and role models that we turn to this, a 15-year-old from Los Angeles?  Is one person really that interesting that people follow her every move, that they have to gush over everything she does and even the most mundane thing about her becomes a must-see item?  She hasn’t contributed anything.  She’s an average club-going high schooler from Los Angeles who happened to stumble into worldwide popularity and fame and hobnobbing with the elite for no apparent reason. 

Ask a high school kid who Jackie Robinson was, and you’ll probably get a blank look.  But I’d almost be willing to bet money they’d know who Cory Kennedy is.