The Happy Dance Chronicles

November 6, 1998: I had been following the NPR coverage of the midterm elections for the past few days, basking in gleeful schadenfreude over the Republican's disappointing performance. As I pulled into my apartment's parking lot on the evening of the 6th, I heard on NPR that Newt Gingrich had decided to leave Congress altogether. There was much booty-shaking during the trip from my car to the front door.

September 28, 2005: I took today off to go to the Pasadena DMV. As I was getting paperwork together in the car, NPR made the initial announcement that Tom DeLay had been indicted [warning: .pdf link]. I subsequently performed what may have been the first cabbage-patch ever seen in the DMV parking lot. (Even better, I was out of the DMV with my new California license plates in less than an hour. Ha!)

It looked like my own congressperson- Rep. David Dreier- was going to be selected to replace DeLay as majority leader. That lasted for all of an hour. It now appears as though Roy Blunt will succeed "The Hammer." This is unsurprising; with ire toward Bush at an all-time high, and with the ethics allegations against DeLay and Bill Frist looming, the Republicans probably didn't want to piss off their religious consevative base by appointing a majority leader who is widely rumored to be a closeted gay man.

Some fun: DeLay-Jesus Comparison

The worst search string ever. Possibly not safe for work.

Chris Moll, who is probably the finest producer in South Florida (I know him from my stint as pianist/organist for timewellspent), got a wonderful write-up in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times. Find it here.

I can vouch for the radness of Chris's "Project X;" I played piano on a few of the songs and was just listening to a raw mix of the album yesterday. It's gonna be awesome.

UPDATE: Project X now has a name: The Postmarks. I'm listening to more polished versions of the songs right now with tears in my eyes; it's absolutely gorgeous.

Today's creepy Google searches leading people to my slice of the Internets were:

"bush to the bathroom"
linda lovelace "recent photos"
church of the JEDI
hot redhead girls
whitesnake video footage
pictures of strippers snorting cocaine

I'm still alive, but busy. Hence, the lack of updates.

WAYS IN WHICH I AM BECOMING A TOTAL LOS ANGELES CLICHÉ CASE

Propositioned by Scientologists; check.
Lost my cell phone during "sushi happy hour" at Chaya Venice; check.
Gone shopping on Rodeo Drive; check [purchased a couple of ties at Brooks Brothers]
Weekly clubbing expeditions to West Hollywood; check.
Suffer through a vile, hour-and-a-half long afternoon commute; check.
Per Bette Davis' advice, take Fountain Ave. to shave a little time off of said vile commute; check.
Walked around Beverly Hills in a suit, talking on a cell phone and probably sounding like a total asshole: check.

An amazing photo essay with images of New Orleans from before, during and after the hurricane.

10 minutes of flyover footage can be found here.

[both links via this metafilter thread]

I've been in kind of a haze ever since the hurricane hit New Orleans.

A thousand bloggers are writing about the disaster and the disgraceful response on the government's part. I don't see much need to reiterate the other reportage; you've all heard it, read it, seen it. The past couple of days, I have spent the commute to work each way listening to NPR and shaking with rage. Not hyperbole.

Here are a couple of things that you might want to look at, if you haven't seen them already:

Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera lose it on FOX. Warning: This is a direct link to a WMP file, and it will probably make you completely furious. It's worth watching regardless. Rivera is forever redeemed in my eyes.

An 18 year-old steals a bus and drives dozens of refugees to the Astrodome. That kid is my new fucking hero.