Lists! Lists! Lists! I have been carefully crafting, shaping, listing lists my whole life. A list for every aspect of my existence. Listography. I can measure my life out in lists. And like a living organism they are constantly changing, growing and dividing to create new little baby lists that grow and do the same. When I say this song is top 25, you better believe it’s been documented. So here is this latest concoction: a list of my Top 10 Favorite Movies. (Know that it is liable to change tomorrow for this is the nature of lists).
I was watching a band play up at the Owl Bar this weekend and this guy across from me catches my eye. For some reason I feel like I know him but I can’t figure out how. My friend who knows him tells me he used to be on the 80’s TV series China Beach. Then I freaked out and realized he was Boonie, the surfer bum, Brian Wimmer! I got so excited because I grew up on China Beach and had the biggest crush on Boonie. I’m positive nobody my age or even ten years older has ever heard of China Beach. But there I was sitting across from a guy who shaped my childhood in the same way Sesame Street shaped normal children's childhoods.
This series was the best. Emmy winning even. Every episode was a mini movie, as close as TV came to film. I remember watching China Beach with my mom when I was a little kid. I’m sure I was too young to understand what it was about, but I loved it. I still can remember this episode perfectly.
For all you China Beach fans and for my mom who was the biggest fan Click Here
(sorry I can’t embed the video you’ll have to go to the link)
My family and I went Kauai for Christmas. After we got back my mom was reading US weekly and there was a section of all the celebrities that went to Hawaii for Christmas. She sees that Sarah Jessica Parker (my mom loves Sex and the City), her husband Matthew Broderick and their son were in Kauai the same time as us. So she shows my dad. My dad, who could care less about celeb gossip, looks at the picture of the kid and is like “I saw that kid!” So my mom looks at the caption and realizes they were at the same beach the same day as us. Apparently, we were just chilling right next to SJP and the fam! My dad was watching that kid play in the sand all afternoon.
Through out American history there has always been a city that has exemplified the American spirit of the times. In the 18th century it was Boston, representing political radicalism. In the mid 19th century it was New York, the symbol of the melting pot. The 20th century Chicago, American dynamism. And today….our very own Las Vegas the symbol of our national character and aspirations. A city devoted entirely to entertainment! A city of billboards, of consumption, of mass production. They have even successfully mass produced Elvis. Where things are quick and ready to sell, like McDonalds, even marriage has a drive through window in The Vegas. It’s the American way!
So I spent a couple days in the American City. And Las Vegas, the “Kingdom of If” always convinces me, with its trickery, I was intended for something better. Where people roll the dice and hope to change a decade of bad breaks and an unhappy life with an eight. "Gimme an eight! Dang! Screw it how about some whiskey straight and that all you can eat seafood buffet for 9.99!"
Vegas the Goddess of Luck, with all its neon and glitz, was not smiling kindly on my friend Mikey on the roulette table. If only he wagered on red!
A few days down there gives me a false sense of importance. Oh boy but it feels kinda nice.
Went to L’atelier, Chef Robuchan's famous restaurant. We did the nine course Chefs tasting menu. It was incredible everything was like a painting.
Then I finally saw a Cirque du Soleiel show, “Ka.” I was shocked at how good it was. It was incredible! Collapsing stages and crazy monkey trapeze artists and falling sand. It was like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon meets Lord of the Rings slash Narnia. Except that it didn’t really have a story. But that didn't matter cuz you were too busy being like "Whoa."
In the Vegas you can always wear shades cuz the sun never sets in Vegas.
