Manlio Rules

A special Xmas/Holiday gift for those of you who read Manlio Rules. Here is the first song that i’ve recorded over a year.

sleep.mp3

Hope you like it.

I hate Los Angeles. It’s too bad, because i’ve actually had a decent bit of fun in this city, though admittedly most of that was on very quick jaunts to bars that certainly would have become boring if given enough time, and in the company of people who were fine for that moment and likely intolerable after a day or two.

I hate LA because even in the airport one sees things that are entirely unnecessary, from the men and women who are dressed to the nines to get on their flight, to the long line outside the admirals club (and i get the feeling that most of these people are just looking for the one day $50 pass), to the asshole who was just breakdancing in the quiet waiting room. I’m not kidding. Breakdancing. And of course there are no less than 3 stores to buy perfumed jeans and pink tight t-shirts, just in case you realize at the last minute that you’re at the airport and have totally forgotten to pack clothing. i think it’s a shame you can’t smoke in airports anymore, because this one would at least then be rife with cigarettes, thus blurring out all the assholes who’ve decided that it’s imperative to bring their little dogs in red holiday sweaters on the goddamned airplanes.

I realize that there are many people out there (and i’ve met them) who hate New York City, or are afraid of it, and give me that wary glance when i mention how much i enjoy(ed) living there. They often say something like: “well, New York’s a little big for me. i’m not sure i could handle it”. and that’s great, except the super secret of New York that they don’t tell you on the brochures or in the commercials or certainly not on the college tours, is that almost no one in New York leaves the 15 blocks surrounding their apartment, unless of course they live in midtown and work in the financial district, in which case they just go back and forth. I lived in NY for 6 years, and only after moving 5 times to 5 different neighborhoods did i finally realize that NY isn’t really a big city, it’s about 8 little cities that all happen to be right next to each other. Now Los Angeles, that’s a big city. and it’s a big city because everything is spread out and you have to drive everywhere, and i get the feeling that one does this even after drinking 7 whiskeys. San Francisco has a similar problem, especially because it’s next to impossible to find cabs in SF unless you live in the right neighborhood and are looking at the right time of night. otherwise, you might as well start walking. I know a woman who one time paid a pizza delivery guy $20 to take her about 15 blocks in San Francisco. and it’s ridiculous, but it happens all the time because there is no logical public transportation in SF and all fun neighborhoods are bordered by some of the scariest places i’ve ever seen, and i’ve walked around Trenton at 2AM.

In any event, i hate LA, and i’m tempted to go try to weasel my way into the admirals club, if i wasn’t sure that i’d be sitting next to some asshole who wants to breakdance.

before i hop on a plane for my 10 day east coast jaunt (a little boston, a little providence, a little motherfucking New York City for new years, bitches! yes i called you all bitches.) i just wanted to give a little wrap up of the week.

• Went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in maybe 8 years. number of cavities? 0. that’s right, the null set of cavities. awesome. i did, however, have “acid erosion” on my teeth, which sounds disgusting. apparently i’ve had acid reflux at some point in the past 8 years. less awesome. so i got 2 fillings.
• I’m calling endgame on trivia at Tonic. Last night we won for the 3rd time in 4 weeks, and the crowd there is starting to get annoying. One dude hit on Aubrey using the beach bully tactic of saying: “what’s a hot girl like you doing with 5 computer geeks? you should make time with a real man.” i don’t think he actually said those words, but it was close. Douche-tastic. i vote that we leave them to their mediocre trivia and find someplace a little more challenging.
• Silversun Pickups playing tonight. i’m not sure i’m going, i should probably do laundry for the trip and clean up. but that’s not rocktastic.

and i assume all of you east coasters know my travel schedule. if you don’t, it’s Boston from the 23rd to 28th, NYC from the 28th to 1st. can’t wait to see all of you.

i think the best thing about the holiday season is the week before everyone leaves on vacation. There’s less people at work, everyone has checked out at least a little bit, and you’re going to tons of “last event before holiday” type stuff. which usually ends up meaning we all drink a lot.

Accordingly, i attended Sean and Aubrey’s “White Elephant Xmas” party on Monday night. For those of you who don’t know what a White Elephant is, basically everyone brings a wrapped gift, then draws numbers out of a hat, and you pick gifts one at a time. except, you can choose to “steal” a gift from someone who has chosen before you. So, if i have number 5, i can either take a new gift, or steal one of the gifts from 1-4. Then they get to choose if they want to steal a gift or pick a new one. And so on.

The first problem i had is we were supposed to “re-gift” something and bring it to the party as our gift. Now, i have a lot of crap. A lot. but i couldn’t really figure out what to give away, so I decided to do a charcoal sketch of something xmas related and bring that. here’s what i ended up with:

i know, not my best work, but not bad for an hour or two on a sunday afternoon. The problem was that as the party approached, i got nervous that no one would actually want this sketch, except for me. So i quickly scoured my junk box for something else to give away. i ended up taking micah’s snow globe, because he opted out of the party. and something else, but i can’t say what that was, because someone who reads this blog gave it to me last year and i feel a little guilty at giving it away. Suffice to say, the person who ended up getting these things was very very excited, so i think it all worked out.

oh, and i got a little meditation fountain that has water and LED’s. which is pretty sweet. Other presents included:

- a purse made out of jean pants
- a sex book (3 guesses as to who brought that)
- a nice piece of art
- a talking homer simpson (i almost stole this, but Kevin seemed so happy with it that i couldn’t do it)
- a hula girl (no, not a real one.)
- a series of plastic hats

and that’s all i remember. i was pretty drunk at this point, thanks to Eris’s egg nog, which was both delicious and somewhat addictive. and i probably didn’t need to have 3 cups of it on a monday night.

First time up in Tahoe (ever), was this weekend. I did the WFH thing on friday with hopes of leaving around 3PM and getting up there by dinnertime. then the following things happened:

1. I had a drum lesson till 3:30 (16th notes on the hi-hat!)
2. I couldn’t find my damn right foot sandal, and spent 20 minutes looking for it (to no avail)
3. I had to make 3 trips down to my car because i still dont’ have a good snowboard boot carrying strategy (boot bag?)
4. I knocked my passenger side mirror off while trying to get out of my garage (but i fixed it using some ingenuity and some glue)
5. There was an accident on I-80, so we put off leaving in hopes of missing the traffic (success!)
6. Sean couldn’t locate his wallet so we spent 20 minutes at a rest stop on 50 looking for it. (it was eventually revealed to be back at his apt)

all said and done, we got there at 11PM, which is actually a little earlier than i think Matt, Neil and i would have made it there (sorry guys).

We drove to Kirkwood saturday and i did my first day on snow since last Feb in vail. speaking of that, remember when all my blog posts were 1 paragraph with almost nothing other than a description of exactly what happened and some vague emotional descriptions of said event? good times.

Anyways, the snow on saturday was pretty decent, and my new snowboard boots are great, much better than last years “bruises on the calves” model. I still need to get some of those padded shorts so when i land hard on my butt (which i did once while going really fast and catching a toe edge and flipping over) it doesn’t hurt 3 days later.

So, one problem i’ve found with west coast skiing is that i have A LOT of trouble sleeping in high altitudes. Basically i wake up what seems like every 15 minutes and generally have bad dreams in between. if anyone has a good altitude sleeping strategy (Ron suggested Ginko Baloba) i’d love to hear it. I’m sure that drinking a bottle of sake, 5 beers, and a good portion of Aubs’ sake did not help the situation. I blame everyone but me.

Sunday we came back, i had dinner with Ron and worked on my White Elephant gift for tonight. more on that tomorrow… or whenever i get around to writing about it.

So, last night we won trivia. again. i know, i shouldn’t be getting bored with this, but that’s 3 weeks in a row that we’ve finished first or second, and in none of these weeks did i feel like we particularly rocked out. Micah suggested that we start measuring ourselves “off the curve”, or by how many questions we get right overall (out of 50), which reminds me of when i got so good at SoulEdge the summer after Sophomore year that the only thing that was even moderately challenging (aside from Brian Panks’ unblockable Sophitia move that he used repeatedly) was to set the AI to max difficulty and just practice for an extended amount of time.

But i’ve been thinking a lot about the proper build of an awesome trivia team. Not that i have any complaints with my team, which included a whopping 9 people last night (though only 3 of us were there the whole time). but here’s what i’ve come up with.

1. Pop culture whore x2. responsible for movies, books, music. 1960-present.
2. sports nut x 1. must know all sports, from boxing to bocce to baseball. 1940-present. must also have at least some idea of world records etc..
3. Political Impresario x1. Responsible for current and past world leaders, cultural events, and current affairs. should be able to list all US presidents in order.
4. Science dabbler x1. Basic familiarity with the periodic table, anatomy, and prescription drugs. comes up at least once a game.
5. English Major/Lit Geek x1. Shakespeare quotes, Pulitzer prize winning authors, knows pen names, etc…

i know that 6 people is a little high for a trivia team (not ours), so here’s how i will now meld my team into super trivia super stars of superness.

1. Doctor/Nurse who happens to be a tv/movie fantatic
2. Writer/Editor who loves the sports
3. Political Lawyer who doubles as a music snob

note that i am NONE of these.

last weekend i decided that it would be fun to go to the Live 105 “not so silent night” featuring the Killers, Modest Mouse, the Shins, the Raconteurs, etc… I was incorrect. don’t get me wrong, the Killers played a really solid set for what you KNOW is a “phone it in” show for them. i would say they did like 40 minutes, no encores, goodnight Cleveland. Oh, and apparently i hate Modest Mouse. who knew? Also, that venue (the bill graham civic auditorium) is maybe the worst place i’ve ever been to see a show that wasn’t called “the Siren Festival”.

saturday was silly. if you’re ever debating between going to something (in this case my company’s holiday party) and sitting home on the couch eating pizza, and it’s even a little bit difficult to make the decision, then chances are the party must really suck. this is similar to when i was having trouble in philly making it to improv because i kept wanting to stay home and watch wrestling (to be fair, this was 2000, when wrestling was going through it’s Neo-Renaissance). and i decided that if i was having trouble getting to rehearsal because of wrestling, then maybe it was time to quit the group. and that guy Dennis from that group still owes me $600. I will take it from him in souls.

Sunday i was introduced to a great little beer tasting place, and bought myself some blueberry beer. Which is delicious.

oh, and if anyone knows why i can’t seem to get a clean mic signal into Live, that would be very helpful. anyone?

If there’s one thing i learned at Floyd, it’s that 4 whiskeys on an empty stomach is usually a recipe for a long, brilliant night.

Last night i put the same theory to the test, except i replaced whiskey with vodka, and Floyd with Mezzanine. the verdict? well, i’ll let you decide.

Forsaking dinner, I met up with a few people at 111 Minna, where they where having an opening for that new book on small scale sustainability of the environment (what kind of mint?), and how that can translate to larger scale sustainability for the world as a whole. At least i think that’s what the book is about. You can see it on Amazon.

After that we rocked on over to Mezzanine, where the Faint was playing with Ratatat. I’d never seen either band live (i skipped out on a Ratatat show a few years ago in NY), and i was very impressed by both bands. if you haven’t seen either of these bands live, do it. seriously, right now… i’m waiting… ok fine, do it later.

Now, i’m not one to tell stories about other people getting too drunk, but one of my friends got a little extra sauced at the show. In truth, it was probably my fault, because she kept saying: “i need to go home soon”, and i kept smiling and nodding, assuming that when she was ready to go, she’d go home. Then i noticed that she was having trouble standing, and i realized that i had casually ignored the “umm… i’m drunk” warning signs. No problem, i’ve had years of experience with this. I grab our coats, maneuver her out and into a cab, and head for Russian Hill, figuring that i’ll take the cab back to the Haight after i make sure she gets inside ok. She insists that we stop for Pizza, wherein the following things are said (in no particular order)

her: I’ll have a slice with lots of meatballs.
me: I’ll have a plain slice
her (to pizza guy): He’ll apparently have a pu**y slice.

her: we need one bottle of water
me: we should get two
her: one!
me: seriously, let’s get two
her (hitting me repeatedly in arm): ONE!

her: why are we still sitting here?
me: because we haven’t gotten our food yet.
her: we got food?
me: yes, we got pizza.
her: well, where is it? make them get it faster!

her: what are these?
me: this is the garlic bread you ordered.
her: i ordered garlic bread?
me: yes
her: well, you’ll have to eat most of it.

and i will just say that her slice of pizza, after she was through with it, looked as if it had been eaten by a bear with poor fine motor control.

I got home and decided that 1AM was the perfect time to lay down a solo to the song i’ve been working on. and you know what? it was!!

[12:59] shf smells: go to the xmas party
[12:59] manlio27: blah
[12:59] manlio27: here are my reasons why not
[12:59] shf smells: free booze
[12:59] manlio27: i can’t drink there!!!
[12:59] manlio27: it’s in san mateo
[13:00] manlio27: i’d have to DRIVE
[13:00] shf smells: ok
[13:00] shf smells: nuts to that

quick hits from the last week. the theme is “blah”

Last wednesday Sean, Micah, Jess, and myself went and won trivia at Tonic. To be fair, there wasn’t a ton of competition, and the score we ended up getting usually ends up a 3rd place victory, but hell, we all need a little 1989 world series now and then. If you don’t know what i mean by that, then don’t worry about it, it’s really not that interesting.

the post victory fun-fest:

Then we headed down to the Hemlock and met up with some people. i didn’t stay out too late, or at least i didn’t think that i did, but thursday was much tougher than i wanted it to be.

thursday was a pretty blah day all around. work was blah, i didn’t have bunches of fun at the bar that night. practically the definition of blah.

Friday I went home to watch my netflix, only to discover that the CD was cracked and broken. this is the 2nd time in 2 weeks that this has happened to me, and while i understand, it’s definitely a blah experience. oh, but i did go shopping on Friday and bought some new clothes. so that was good. better than blah.

Saturday i… hmm… i don’t know what i did saturday. certainly nothing exciting. blah.

and yesterday I worked on my music a little bit, wandered Haight St., and lounged. all of which was better than blah.

this week in the adventures of blah, our hero goes to a few shows, hopes to successfully defend his trivia throne, and debates till the last second whether to even to go his company xmas party.