Snookie Goes to Bollywood

The confirmation email came in ca. midnight on Monday. Frantic, my friend RKR--he's been drumming in NY for a few years, but you can never really take St John, NB out of the boy--ran down to a mutual friend's: "my audition tomorrow is for Lady Gaga's touring band! Do you have anything cool I can wear... like something [Uncle Dorvid] would wear?" "What's a lady gaga?" our friend asked, before remembering he'd misplaced a shirt I had sent to his place (to save on shipping) a few months earlier. Sure enough, it turned up at the bottom of his closet, and RKR wore it throughout the 3-minute audition. Gags went with someone else, but we are all the better for it.

Another friend made the bold decision to quit a law firm gig to write children's books full-time, which is way cool but maybe not quite as cool as a dude a fourth friend met. "VICTORY!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air and ordering everyone to join him for a victory shot. He had just won an extended cellphone argument with his gf about whether her new male friend liked her. "I'm not the kind of guy to get jealous," he explained, "I mean, look at me: I'm a champ."

And, last but not least, Pizza Snack! I have no idea what the deal is, but I love it.

Post-Presidential Nicolas Sarkozy Projects (Brainstorm)

1) Recording Serge Gainsbourg’s entire catalogue with Jack White
2) Starring in a Little Nicky remake directed by (in order of preference) a Baldwin brother, a Wayans brother, or Zach Braff
3) Setting a world record involving pizza or hot dogs
4) Convincing Eric Clapton to rededicate “Tears in Heaven” to him (otherwise settling for “Wonderful Tonight”)
5) Starting a Guess Who blog
6) Writing cryptic missed connection postings for Rob Lowe on The Craiglist

Professione: reporter

What's the only thing better than a great story? A story within it. For Hamlet, the play's the thing. Velasquez's mise en abyme intrigues although it's entirely hidden from the viewer (we only see the back of the painted painter's canvas). Deathtrap is more bombastic.

I just saw The Passenger and yes, Antonioni is the coolest. Weaving through Gaudi's Palacio Güell, a girl he just met (Maria Schneider) tells Jack Nicholson's David Locke that "people disappear every day." He agrees, "Every time they leave the room."

Back in a fantastic London, Locke's estranged wife is trapped; obsessively watching documentary film he shot in Africa, she tries to piece the final act together. The ghost's camera is turned on him by her, a witch doctor, and us. It's revelatory.

Pride Is a Fool's Fortress

Break highlights:
1) Sage tea with dark chocolate.
2) Discovering the incorporation of the English-ish words coolly (adj. Wow, that is so coolly!) and excite (adj. I'm excite!) into Hebrew slang.
3) Israeli Ben Savage, a 17-year-old on all four legs of my trip who inexplicably became my nemesis. He seemed to enjoy a good stare down.
4) Mountain biking to sites like John the Baptist's birthplace.
5) My twin brothers' bar mitzvah (held here).
6) Just before his bedtime on the eve of my flight, my littlest bro sadly played "Dust in the Wind." His camera shyness is SEW outweighed by his cuteness.

The Bristol Stomp

1) These Boca 45 selections make me smile.
2) We've all heard (at least some of) Biggie's '94 Madison Square Garden performance . It's raw and moving, but you wouldn't put it on your Zune. This Brixton Academy show from the following year, however, is totally in the slideshow.
3) Beatles covers are a dime (US) a dozen but this two-hour mix by J3 is like WOW.

My Stupid Stepbrother

In the spring of 1916, Hugo Ball (pictured, right), read "Gadji beri bimba" in Zurich and Dada was born. Almost literally replicating the feat, my stepbrother Gorgid (pictured, below) just fashioned a cone for himself and exclaimed: "What irony, approaching sarcasm even, must we artists feel for our hollow, empty epoch?" He calmed down three junior mints and fifteen minutes later. I think he's reading the Doggy News on the porch with Marbles now...