The weird thing about television is that just when a show has gone from a creative peak to an absolute nadir is that it can then shock you midway through it's third season and have one of it's best episodes ever.

Spooks aka MI5, in the US on A&E, is one of my guilty pleasures. The first two seasons were completely riveting. The third started rather well, but then went limp and boring. Two of the three main actors had decided to move on and the storytelling seemed to limp along until they were disposed of, but... they're gone now. And the episode eight was right up there with the best of the first two seasons. I'll be holding my breath until next week...

Gee, I'm sorry, you pretentious Pitchfork indie prat, but everyone I know that heard this album loves it. You obviously don't 'get' it. Too straight perhaps? Too afraid to like bubblegum pop music maybe?

And Bubble Pop Electric is the song I keep skipping over cuz I find it annoying and somewhat out of place on an otherwise fantastic pop album.

Meh meh meh...

WANT WANT WANT!!!

So... a little over a month ago, I mentioned going to my friend Kris' birthday party in Lafayette. I briefly mentioned meeting someone new at the party.

A couple of weeks ago, he came to New Orleans and spent a really incredible evening with me, going to dinner, attending a play, going out for drinks and meeting quite a few of my friends over the course of the evening. A really great nite, all in all.

This past weekend, I spent four days in Lafayette. And I didn't stay with Kris & Victor.

Over the course of the weekend, I found myself not only falling very hard for a guy, but for his culture and his city as well. This is potentially big. It's one of those things that comes along when you're not expecting it at all. It's one of those things where you find someone who's completely outside of the mold of your expectations of what you think you might be looking for, but, somehow, it's also ten times better than what you thought you were looking for.

What I know is that it's exactly 25 days until I get to see him again. I know I need to change my cellular plan and probably my provider, based on the number of cellular minutes I've burned in the past two days. I know that I've always advised all of my friends against relationships that involve distance, but I'm learning that sometimes the heart thinks otherwise. I know that I'm feeling things inside my heart and my brain that I haven't felt in ages.

I know that I want to try to make the best of this. I know that this situation wants me to make the best of myself.

I know that right now... I'm smiling.

The video for Mosh has me reevaluating my feelings about Eminem a bit... although I wish he'd gotten it out there in time to perhaps actually encouraged a few people to have registered to vote when they still could have...

anyways... Fuck Bush indeed...

This is the hottest sexiest sweetest thing I've read in a very long time... (thanks to PJ for the heads up...)

omg... and I got the new STARS album, Set Yourself on Fire, today!

It's FUCKING AMAZING, as I knew it would be. You can order from the Arts & Crafts Store. It's only out in Canada so far... but it's cheap!

I need to write about this past weekend also...

My friend, Kris, had his 40th birthday party this past weekend in Lafayette. Dave (the ex) and I drove over in the midst of the tropical depression to attend. Kris and his significant other, Victor, were incredibly gracious hosts. When I went to print the directions to drive there, I discovered they also contained a confirmation number for a hotel room that they had reserved and prepaid for us, along with a note stating there could be no discussion about the fact the room being paid. (Hah... like I'd argue about that!)

The drive over with Dave was quite nice. He just got back to New Orleans this week after spending a few months travelling, reaquainting himself with the States after his two years in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer. He's thinking of settling back in NOLA for a while and attending nursing school. An idea that I think is fucking fantastic.

So, we got to Lafayette and settled in our rooms just in time for the shuttle to arrive to pick us up. Yep... the shuttle. Victor drove over and picked up those of us who were staying in the hotel.

The party itself was a fucking blast. I really had no idea that I'd be seeing so many faces from my past, friends from 10-20 years ago. There was a lot of hugging and laughing. And there were new friends to make as well.

I was quite happy to drink myself a wee bit silly on Glenlivet and waters, interspersed with a couple of glasses of Veuve Cliquot. Yeah... they had a very nicely stocked bar also.

But... the best part was just hanging out with Kris, Victor, Chad, Buffy, Wende, Dave, Stacey, Jared, Michelle and a couple of other old friends whose names I'm brainfreezing on right this moment. Well... there was another really good part also... a new friend who I met midway through the party who may have monopolized the rest of my evening perhaps (and the greater part of the rest of the weekend...). You're not getting any more info on that... except that I certainly hope to see him again when time permits... and, gee.. um... to mention that maybe they shouldn't have gotten me a hotel room after all, since I didn't sleep in it...

When I arrived home from work today, I had an email from Poppy, asking me if the story she just posted on her website could possibly be true. I immediately doubted that it could be true. So, I did something that couldn't possibly have ever occurred to anyone else to do... I picked up the phone and called all the local B&N stores and asked to check to see if they had the book in stock.

Well, golly gee... of the four stores in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area, two of them had the book in stock. Those two being the larger more urban stores as opposed to the much smaller other two.

And unless I missed a memo about the annexation of New Orleans by New York or California, I'm thinking that this book has evidently been stocked in Barnes & Noble stores outside of those two states.

I'm quite vexed by lefty goths deciding that the Evil Corporation that is B&N is out to get them considering the fact that of late, the right wing fringe-types spend a lot of time obsessing over the fact that we're evidently trying to keep conservative books out of the hands of the public.

Let's review a couple of facts. B&N as a chain is very committed to making any book that you want available to you. Censorship of any type simply isn't part of the culture of the stores. Almost every book published makes it onto our shelves. Do a few slip between the cracks? Sure. Does every book make it into every store? Nope. The larger, two (or more) level stores get a much larger selection than the smaller one level stores.

Shockingly, my store even employs a goth and a couple of near-goths. And every Friday evening, a local group of them meet outside our cafe for coffee (which I'm pretty sure they purchase instead of stealing).

And the idea that a book would not be stocked because it would be stolen is ridiculous. I'm very familiar with shrink numbers for specific departments and trust me, there are entire sections and authors we'd have to remove from our shelves permanently if that were a factor in buying decisions. And I have a very hard time imagining that a buyer for B&N would make such an unprofessional statement to anyone at the publisher. Shame on them if they did. But... I doubt it happened.

Anyways... I hope my incredibly complicated experiment with phoning stores (I know... I know... I'm a little more brilliant than most people...) puts some minds at rest.

The Goth Bible is most certainly available in B&N stores outside of New York and California. As is Unfit for Command...

I am so ashamed to be a resident of Louisiana today. I love New Orleans so much, but I've always been ambivalent about the state itself. But, realistically... is there a state in the union today where we are not so hated that a similar ban would not pass?

Hate... that's what it's about. And fear. I'm feared and hated by the majority of the people I pass in the street every day. Nice...

I'm sitting here drinking grapefruit vodka and 7-Up, slightly freaked out because I've decided to stay in New Orleans for Ivan. 90% of my friends have left for Texas, but I feel weird work and dog responsibilities that keep me here. And I just don't think that we're probably going to get the worst of the storm.

Of course... if I'm wrong... I could find myself underneath 20 feet of water around 30 hours from now... but... I guess we'll see...

Kind sirs, be assured I am alive and well. Of late I find myself quite discouraged at the thought or producing any discourse of note. However, I feel impelled to make a brief appearance to point out at the most interesting occurence... Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is currently residing as the #2 bestseller on Amazon and the #3 bestseller on Barnes & Noble.com.

Don't be left out... get a first printing while you can still find one in the stores...

I have a huge void inside myself tonight... I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.

It's hard to think that after nearly 800 pages of a novel that you'd not want it to end, but I miss it terribly now that it's done. It was absolutely one of the most satisfying novels that I've ever read. I'm not particularly given to raving about novels about magic and fairies, so to so thoroughly make me a fan of one is a great achievement. It's an astonishingly well written story in which magic is both completely mundane and utterly fantastic. It's really quite perfect in both style and execution and the story never falters for one second or one page.

I imagine that this novel has a fair chance of storming the bestseller lists this fall on both sides of the Atlantic. It's the perfect book for all of the adult fans of Harry Potter, but it far surpasses anything that the Potter books have ever achieved.

Advance copies are selling on eBay and abebooks for around $70. I wouldn't for one second think of selling my copy for twice that much.

In case you don't already know... Running With Scissors has a new show starting soon...

Awwww... I just noticed what Richard has to say about me in his links.

But.... mancutie???

I am totally hooked on the song "Your Cover's Blown" which is a 'b-side' on the Wrapped Up in Books CD Single by Belle & Sebastian. It's, IMO, perhaps the best song they've ever done.

And completely adore Walking Machine by Revl9n, which you can purchase from Other Music or listen to at Fluxblog. The best way I can describe it is B52s meet The Knife. It's my happy fun but sort of depressed song for the summer.

While this is a really lame news article with little information in it, it makes a very true statement. New Orleans IS becoming the Hollywood of the South. When I was visiting Manhattan, one of my friends there made a comment about how often you run across movies or tv shows being filmed in the streets and I just laughed. It's probably just as common and almost more likely here in New Orleans now.

Celebrity sightings have always been common here, because famous people like New Orleans as much as the common folk. But, over the last year or so, it's ramped up quite a bit. "Nicholas Cage is at DBA every night and someone swore he saw him at the Corner Pocket the other night." "Christina Ricci ate at Sake Cafe Saturday. She hates sushi though."

And the red and white cardboard signs that are used to restrict parking on streets used to spark a little excitement in me, "oooh, a movie's shooting on my street." Now, it's more like, "another movie?? geez."

I think it's great though. For once, our leaders did something right. And if anyone reading this is in contact with Parker Posey, tell her to drop by the Barnes & Noble in Metairie and say hi... I heard she was in town...

Ok... I saw another one... another fall tv pilot. This time it was the one I've been absolutely dying to see, LOST. It's a JJ Abrams show, the creator of FELICITY and ALIAS.

The premise is pretty simple. It starts in the aftermath of a plane crash on a tropical island. 48 "survivors" have to come to terms with the fact that they're not going to be rescued and that some very scary creatures share the island with them. And, naturally, more than a few of them harbor secrets of their own.

I loved the premise when I heard it and after viewing the first two hours, I'm there this fall. This show could totally rock... think Gilligan's Island (without the humor) meets Survivor meets Jules Verne.

There's also a fansite here.

Oh yeah... and for you Lord of the Rings fans... LOST features a hobbit with a habit...

I'm very very very excited because today I got my hands on an advance copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Neil Gaiman recently commently in his webjournal that he believes this to be the finest fantasy novel written in the last seventy years. I'll let you know...

And if you don't believe me about the Dark Materials... trust the words of Michael Chabon as written for the The New York Review of Books.