Archive for April, 2002

Five favorite scenes from “COPS”

Monday, April 29th, 2002
  1. Two guys are caught–uh–enjoying one another’s company between two houses in a residential area. One speaks only Spanish, while the other speaks a kind of fractured English. When the second man is asked why his fly is down and there’s grass all over his back, he plays it off legit: “I doan know! He breeng me back here…maybe kill me or something and steal my money!”
  2. Man is thrown off bus for disruptive behavior. Police, curious about the metallic sparkle on the tip of his nose, search him and discover a plastic bag with half an inch of liquified spray paint in it. Further searching reveals several pairs of ladies underwear–still on the teeny hangers–stuffed under his waistband. Every mother’s nightmare; their son on a binge of spray paint huffing and panty theft.
  3. Woman pulled over for suspicious driving speaks gibberish: “You can squeeze my wrist all you want, whoremongers, but you ain’t gonna get nothing but my wallet.” Sublime.
  4. Enormous, naked, bleeding, cracked-up man in barber shop must be subdued by five or six officers.
  5. Man coerces estranged girlfriend (smoking a butt in a beaded fringe t-shirt) to talk to him by offering money, a carton of cigarettes, or a steak and shrimp dinner.

Five animals I had to deal with

Monday, April 29th, 2002
  1. Corn snake in bedroom, 1984
  2. Mother Opossum on the back porch, 1994
  3. White mouse, captured under 5-gallon bucket, 1980
  4. Turtle in side yard, 1977
  5. Imaginary alligator in bathroom, 1972

Five cases where less is more

Monday, April 29th, 2002
  1. Hair gel
  2. Puns
  3. Expressions of sympathy
  4. Novelty records
  5. Comments on a breakup

Five quotes I’ve always enjoyed

Monday, April 29th, 2002
  1. “What are you guys, some kind of head fuck band?”
    (Guy with a mullet at a Bacon Ray show, 1995)
  2. “As far as I’m concerned, all you new wavers are in purgatory.”
    (Doorman at Backstreets, 1990)
  3. “If he’s not, he’s missing his best bet.”
    (Sam’s Dad, asked if their interior decorator was gay, 1984)
  4. “The heft of your rhetoric far outweighs the fragility of your insights.”
    (Mac Miller, upon reading my first paper for Vonnegut class, 1986)
  5. “If you played with your fingers, you’d sound like Stanley Clarke.”
    (Sound man at Yanni’s to Mike Coleman, 1993)

Five restaurants on The Simpsons

Thursday, April 18th, 2002
  1. The Texas Cheesecake Depository
  2. Professor P. J. Cornucopia’s Fantastic Foodmagorium and Great American Steakery
  3. The Spaghetti Laboratory
  4. Face Stuffers
  5. P. Piggly Hogswine’s Super Smorg

Five things Walter Hudson reportedly ate for breakfast every day

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. 1 lb. of bacon
  2. 2 lbs. of sausage
  3. Dozen eggs
  4. Loaf of toast
  5. Coffee

Five favorite SF MUNI lines

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. L Taraval
  2. 22 Fillmore
  3. N Judah
  4. 5 Fulton
  5. 66 Quintara

Five favorite dining utensils

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. Fork, four-tined
  2. Large spoon
  3. Knife, serrated
  4. Salad tongs
  5. Slotted serving spoon

Five favorite bands (10th grade)

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. Adam & the Ants
  2. The Who
  3. Black Sabbath
  4. The Police
  5. The Beatles

Five things I variously wanted to be as a kid

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. Accountant
  2. Lawyer
  3. Minister
  4. President of a Bank
  5. Funnycar driver

Five TV shows I once lived for

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. The Kids from C.A.P.E.R
  2. The Dukes of Hazzard
  3. Mission: Impossible
  4. Lancelot Link
  5. SWAT

Five things I’m glad I didn’t have in high school

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
  1. Back acne
  2. Siblings
  3. Ulcers
  4. Access to hard drugs
  5. An affinity for sports

Five places that make me nervous

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Hooters
  2. “Just stopping by this one guy’s house for a minute”
  3. Bars where women sell shots in test tubes
  4. Rooms containing teenagers
  5. Anyplace people are praying

Five words I suspect have never been used to describe me

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Reserved
  2. Bootylicious
  3. Thrifty
  4. Laconic
  5. Hospitaliano

Five things I hated about working in an office

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. “Wings night!”
  2. Softball
  3. Asking/being asked “how was your weekend?”
  4. “Sign the birthday card…pass it on”
  5. Boss picks ass while walking down hallway

Five things about Elvis

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Frequently ate nothing but mashed potatoes and piping hot coffee
  2. Liked watching girls wrestle in their underpants
  3. Had a chimp that did dirty things to visitors
  4. Hated his own movies–especially the scripts and his acting
  5. Gave all his “guys” matching mobile homes

Five favorite bible characters

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Job
  2. Paul
  3. Jesus
  4. Moses
  5. God

Five bad signs about the band onstage

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Large gong behind drummer
  2. > 3 guitar players
  3. Teleprompters
  4. Anyone wearing own band’s t shirt (bonus if it’s for the current tour)
  5. Opening with a cover

Five snapshots from the day pot “took” (1984)

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. At home, I hallucinated that Suzie was a limited edition Elizabeth Taylor Denny’s children’s menu (complete with punchouts and maze game)
  2. Completely unclear how I made it to work (as busboy at a steakhouse)
  3. Foolishly attempted to pick up 40-lb tray of dirty dishes; I ask to go home (”very, very sick”)
  4. Grandma picks me up. She has a nose bleed. She talks compulsively as she drives northbound into southbound US 19 traffic.
  5. My eyes roll back in my head. Grandma prays aloud as she careens off the road. This is a true story

Five good dreams

Monday, April 15th, 2002
  1. Eaten by a large purple dragon. He flies around, and the lavender sunlight shines through his translucent skin as I sit nervously in his stomach, 1971
  2. Score big touchdown and fall in end zone. Stunning blond girl my age (12) stoops down, smiles and kisses me square on the mouth, 1979
  3. “It’s a small world”-style boat ride through the Ringling Museum, 1992
  4. I fly in deft circles around our 12 x 12 living room, 1974
  5. Slow-motion camera work captures my concentration as I crouch and then effortlessly leap over Melissa’s (the fireman’s daughter) house, 1976