February 2005Eddie will be performing next wednesday, thursday, friday and saturday (March 2nd - 5th) at:
The Coronet Theatre 366 N. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048
Tickets available starting Monday, February 28th at 17:00 PST and are priced at $25.
TO BOOK CALL (US): 310.657.7377. NOW!
For the record, while I'm a bit grumpy and misanthropic today, this post probably sounds much more gloomy than I actually feel. Just a heads up that in reality I'm doing pretty damn good, and am not in some kind of deep funk or anything.
I realized today that I hate people. This includes most of my friends who I really like. I hate them too. They're all annoying. Let me 'splain.
Most of our friends fall into at least one if not several of the following categories:
Take my cousin for example (as a complete side note, I absolutely can not write "cousin" without writing "cousing" and then correcting it).
Now I only use him as an example because a)he illustrates many of my points, b) he is the most amusing example, and c) I don't think he ever reads this. So this not to pick on him, just to illustrate my point.
He has always been like a brother to me and is one of my favorite people in the world to hang out with. I thought it would be so great when we moved to Austin because then I'd get to see him all the time! The first barrier to this is getting a hold of him. It is such a farce that we've come to call it the "Casey lottery". If we do actually reach him we jump and yell and celebrate winning the Casey Lottery. As you could probably guess, Casey does not have a cell phone, nor does he want one, and in fact is vehemently against owning one, bu that's another story.
The strangest part of the fact that he is never home is that when we do see him he usually can't ever stay away from home for very long because he has to get back to take care of his pets. This makes any kind of trip out of town next to impossible. There is a whole sub-irony to that fact due to how often he is watching other friend's pets for them while their gone (which seems very often), so you would think he'd have a plethora of people willing to do the same. He can't ever leave home for too long, and yet he's never home. It's a mystery/enigma burrito. Of course we often hear about other trips he took to camping or go out of town with other friends, so that pretty much leaves the option that he hates us.
If you do manage to get a hold of him, finding a time to actually do anything with him is a whole other hurdle. Even if we manage to get together with him for some particular purpose (like filming part of our movie yesterday), as soon as business is done he usually has to go. He's tired. He has to wash clothes. He has to go kick his dog. Again, leading to the inevitable conclusion that he hates us.
Another big part of his presence being as common as ice skating on the river Styx is the fact that he is very popular and unfortunately has many friends who are extremely demanding, guilt trippy and far more aggressive and effective than we are at grabbing his time. He's obviously hanging out somewhere all the time, but it's not with us, nor are we ever invited. There's this whole separate group of friends who we know and like, yet can't crack into ourselves. It's the secret Casey society, and we don't know the handshake.
There was a time when I thought we would make the greatest roommates ever. At one point I proposed this to him since he lived in a three bedroom house all by himself, and he very politely shot me down saying he was enjoying living by himself for the time in his life. That was fair enough actually, but it was kind of the crushing blow that made realize the cold hard truth: My high regard and brotherly affection for my cousin was not a two way street.
This is an important fact. Important because it is a recurring theme in my life. Whenever there is someone I really want to be good friends with, it is rarely ever reciprocated. I've written before about being so excited to find old friends and wanting to strike up th old friendship only to be met but polite indifference and only when I initiate contact.
I have decided this must be Karma. Karma because I, in fact, am a totally crap friend. I suck at keeping in touch with people, and have let more great friendships fall by the wayside than some people ever have. So I guess it's only right that the people who I really want to hang out with and get to know better, or foster real lasting friendships with don't always feel the same way. It was quite a realization to me. If you believe in anything like karma then it really does fit.
Thus I have become a huge misanthrope and it only seems to get worse as I get older. People are annoying. Even my friends. They probably say the same about me.
Unfortunately it was only in my dream last night. I dreamt Jess and I went on a whim to visit the lovely Kleinseseseses and when we got there Min was there too! So the big question is: Where the hell were you Soupy?
Once again the Kinetoscopic Wonderment festival draws nigh (for those who don't know my film won Best Film and People's Choice at the first fest last year). I didn't think I would be able to get anything together this year, but in a last minute push I wrote a script I like and am scrambling to get it all filmed and edited by the deadline at the end of March. I'm really afraid that there's no way I can get it in under the ten minute mark, but we'll tackle that bit of track when we get to it. This train is a'rolling, baby!
I have officially decided that I no longer want anything to do with Valentine's day. Jess and I were talking about it last night, and I think we pretty much agreed that it's a totally fabricated holiday just to make you spend money on cliches such as flowers, candy and other things which mysteriously go up in price in February. We both really just felt like sitting around the house and watching Lost (which we downloaded since we missed it last week) and 24 on TV, so that's just what we did. We picked up some food so Jess didn't have to cook, watched some TV and snuggled on the couch. It was nice.
I also really identified with Will Smith's take on it in my People magazine. He and his wife don't do Valentine's either. They'd rather do the same kinds of romantic things, but do them spontaneously. I totally agree with that. I don't want to to do something because I'm supposed to do it on this particular date. Not to mention that things like going out to dinner are exponentially more of a pain in the ass when everyone else is trying to do it on the same night.
The point is that I am all for romantic gestures and gifts, but do them of your own free will when it will be a surprise, not when the commercial holiday factory tells you that you have to or else you're a bad person.
In conclusion, I love my wife and the fact that we agree on this just reinforced all the reasons which I do. I enjoyed our simple night at home far more than any templated idea of how we should have spent the evening. [mob voice]Valentine's day is dead to me.[/mob voice]
We went to a friend's birthday party tonight touted as the 20th anniversary of her 21st birthday. Therefore, we were encouraged to wear out best 80's gear. I was quite proud of mine, and Grr looked good too!
I also would like to issue an apology. I apologize to [insert name]'s mother that she was cursed with such a sad pathetic little troll. I can't feel anger or frustration, only pity for this poor waste of primordial soup.
"Who is [insert name]?" you may ask. Well it could be anyone! It's up to you! Insert that politician who you dislike. Maybe it's your boss who's an incompetent fool. Maybe some creepy internet Troll who needs professional help. It could be anyone you would like to put in the blank! Maybe it's ME!
Maps. Hell yeah. I loves me some Google. It's still in Beta but has much promise. Very cool already.
We have found our store for home furnishings. It all started when we decided we needed a new bed. An actual bed. We currently sleep on a futon with 2 futon mattresses. This isn't bad, but they develop huge craters where our bodies lay and we have to flip and swap mattresses to keep things remotely sleepable. I used to balk at bed prices as they are quite exorbitant in my opinion, but lately I've tried to think more along the lines that anywhere you have to spend one third of your life deserves some attention and expenditure.
I sent an email out at work asking for suggestions as to where to buy a bed, and one response suggested Eurway, if you don't mind a slightly funkier style. Hey! That sounds like us! We like a slightly funkier style! Maybe even a lot funkier! Probably, on average, 47% funkier! The web site looked promising, so we went to the store here in Austin last night. We were in heaven. Being in the store was so much cooler than even the website. We could easily spend way too much money there furnishing an entire house.
We settled on the best mattress they have, The Gabrielle, and the Newton frame (because it was both cool, and the cheapest frame, while also being very sturdy metal). Next Thursday we can pick it up and be sleeping in luxury.
On a side note continuing our story from yesterday: I rented a car in the morning, and by noon the mechanic had out truck fixed. It wasn't the fuel pump again, thankfully. It was the fuel pump relay which only cost us $110 to get fixed up. If anyone needs a really good mechanic in Austin who has very reasonable rates, will go to your vehicle (for much cheaper than a lot of other mobile mechanics) and who seems very friendly and cool (I never even met him; he told me he'd leave the invoice under our door mat and I could just mail payment to him), I highly recommend Auto Medics.
As most of you probably know, [joe walsh] life's been good to me so far.[/joe walsh] So I guess for all my luckiness, it's time to pay a few dues. In the grand scheme of things though, I still really can't complain as my "dues" are really quite minor, however life is kind of comedic when it decides to throw things at you in rapid-fire bursts as more often happens in movies and television.
Tuesday night I decided to go ahead and do out taxes online. I usually take the band's income on my taxes and everyone else just pays me their share. This, unfortunately makes doing my taxes much more complicated as I have to fill out extra forms for self-employment and blah, blah, blah (which usually one of the other band guys does for me since I agreed to take it all under my social security number on the condition that I didn't have to do my now complicated taxes).
As luck would have it, there were various circumstances which meant I didn't have to do that this year, and thus my taxes would once again be easy. In fact, so easy I could do the 1040EZ form! Ahh, how long it has been since I could use the 1040EZ!
Last year we got a nice big refund back, so I eagerly start my online entering to find out what big refund we'll be getting this year! Unfortunately, as I get near the end, the program tells me that I can't do 1040EZ since I started contributing to my 401k in December. One measly month of retirement fund and I have to do the regular 1040 which, judging by the lack of letters after its title, is not all that EZ.
Luckily, it really wasn't that much more painful so I finish it up and wait for my big refund! More money towards the Prius down payment. The big moment comes and I find my refund will be... -$230. I owe $230. Boo. We suspect that this is because Jess learned the hard way what I had already learned the hard way many years ago: if you follow the directions on your tax form when starting a new job, you will have too many "allowances" and end up owing. The directions clearly say "if (blank) then put one" and then has you total all your "1"s to find your total allowances. What they don't tell you is that you will end up owing money if you actually take that amount. So while I take 0 or 1 allowances usually, Jess took 3 as the directions indicated, and thus it looks as if Restoration Hardware didn't take out any Federal Income Tax.
I go to bed a bit depressed. The next morning I get up and we do our usual morning thing which ends with us getting in the truck and going to work. Usually. When the truck starts. Which it is not doing this particular morning. The truck turns over, but won't start much like it was doing when I had to have my fuel pump replaced just a little over a year ago. My immediate thought is "Well, I guess we're not going in to work today." Luckily my wife has a clearer head and more wisely calls or friend who lives nearby to beg for a ride.
Once at work I set about the task of finding a mobile mechanic who will go to my truck and fix it. I find that this plan is scuttled since I have the key with me at work and the truck is at the apartment. I decide that I'm going to try and rent a car, go home at lunch and drop my key off. I call the car rental place right by our house but they can't pick me up from work because I'm out of their area. I call the one by work and all they have available are SUV's which cost more to rent than smaller cars. I give up and accept the fact that I'm just not going to get anything done until the next day.
Just for comedic effect, when I went to make my lunch, I turned the little cap on the mustard and it spat a shower of tiny blobs onto my bitchin shirt.
This morning I rented a nice car, and the mechanic is going to try and get to it today depending on his schedule. As I said, in the grand scheme of things I really can't complain as life is good. I have a kick ass job (I can only think of 2 people that I actually know who give me job envy: Will, the Director of Development for a production company, and my uncle Brown who is a Director of Photography, although with him it's more tangential since that's not exactly what I aspire to do). I spent yesterday playing with our new toys: a steering wheel and pedals to control my armored/armed battle vehicle in the game I test. We have a Prius on order. Even though we owe taxes, it's not much and we're making decent money with which to pay them.
Even with such a great life, I'm often nagged by a since of something just under the surface though. A sense of dissatisfaction of some sort. A sense of unfulfilled dreams and ambitions. Nothing major, just slight stresses which are normal with life. Stressed about time, health, money, decisions, my extreme laziness and unproductiveness. While it all can be annoying, I also find some of it good in that I think it's important to have dreams, ambitions, and further goals. I think it would be much more scary if I was just completely content with my current lot in life and resigned myself to the thought that this is the final stage of my journey and that I have crossed the big finish line and will coast out the rest of my (hopefully) many remaining years.
Perhaps a little dissatisfaction is a healthy thing. As life get better, it's necessary to adjust your sights and recalibrate. Of course I'm sure it's much easier to do as you move up in life as opposed to readjusting to a move for the worse.