Today is January 7th, 2009 and this is the fourth letter in the Long Ass Game.

Today is January 6, 2009 and this is the third letter in the Long Ass Game.

Today is January 5th and this is the second letter in the Long Ass Game.

Today is January 4th, 2009 and here is your first letter in the Long Ass Game.

Hollywood “discovered” New Mexico several years ago and has been shooting on location here ever since.  New Mexico has amazing landscapes, mountains, deserts, plains, rivers, uncluttered vistas and big beautiful skies.  We also offer shockingly massive tax breaks to out-of-state production companies, but that’s another story.  I was at a party Saturday night with a bunch of those movie type people and I learned New Mexico is being called Tamalewood.  I’m not sure what I think of that yet.

Anyway, a PA was telling about being on the set of Crazy Hearts and that Maggie Gyllenhaal is quite the diva.  She was polite about her bizarre and multiple requests and needs but also insistent they were urgent.  The better scoop is that she and Jeff Bridges allegedly employed method acting to prepare for their sex scene with lots and lots of intimate rehersal time in her trailer.  It was fortunate they completed all their private rehearsals prior to her boyfriend flying in for the weekend.

It must be Balloon Fiesta because it began raining Saturday afternoon and hasn’t really stopped yet.  It seriously hasn’t rained since July and the advent of Fiesta brings rain every year.  It’s ridiculous.  Anyway, I am triply glad I got my lazy ass up Friday morning at 5:30am to go see a couple of balloons set up and take off.  Because I am a dedicated Albuquerquian, I took pix for you all to enjoy.  It was still kind of dark at 6:45, so the pictures are a bit grainy and you will deal with it. Please note that hot air balloons get great mileage as long as you don’t care where you go.

Pix after the jump!

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Tom Petty started a band, Mudcrutch, in Florida some thirty years ago; they got signed but broke up in the recording studio. Not so long ago, he decided to get them back together and make their debut album. This is from the liner notes:

Drums, wires, old friends, etc.
Recorded live, drums, vocals, harmony, everything
Arrangements done on studio floor
Made in 10 days, no headphones
Los Angeles in August ‘07
A lot of love
Enjoy

More blah blah and a song (which plays automatically) after the jump! (more…)

I met a guy today (a fabulously gay one) who is a TDD translator. The technology has advanced to the point that he and the deaf person are connected via web cams; the deaf person signs to him and he then tells the hearing person what the deaf person said. Then he signs to the deaf person what the hearing one said and so on.

This seems like a nifty system; except for the weirdest part of the job. He has, on more occasions than one might imagine, had to translate phone sex. Remember, he is on camera to the deaf person, so he can’t laugh, no matter how ludicrous the messages he is conveying might be. And I wonder if, near the end of the phone sex, does he have to make the sign for “O” and then, I guess, just keep doing it over and over and then maybe one long one? Maybe moving it from left to right really slowly? How do you a capital sign language letter?

Ugh. Anyway - let’s see the guy from Dirty Jobs try that one on for size.

Someone told me that she thought SATC was overrated. Her reasoning was that 40 something year old women having sex wasn’t interesting or controversial.

I feel like she has missed the point. The movie had precious little sex in it. For me, the movie, the series and the book were about near mythical true friendships between women. And outrageous fashion, of course.* Being able to watch four women, all so different, maintain and strengthen their friendship over the years. They weathered cancer and babies and miscarriages and break ups and they fought and made up. They illustrate the beauty of unconditional friendship.

I think, when women watch SATC, they all wish they had friendships like that. To have even just one friend whom you can call at 11pm on New Year’s Eve and tell her you are alone and sad. You say, “Sorry, no, I’m fine,” and hang up when you realize you woke her. How loved you would feel when that friend comes across town, in the rain and cold in her jammies, to eat Chinese food and drink wine with you. Just so you aren’t alone after splitting from your husband, even though that friend thinks you were wrong to split up with him. To have a friend like that…it’s what we all want and so few of us get. Is it as rare as a free one-of-a-kind Vivienne Westwood wedding gown? I don’t know.

*I shudder to think the kind of cash they got for the product placements in the movie. Louis Vuitton and bluefly.com alone must have spent a bundle. And the teal blue bird in her wedding veil was absolutely awesome and I thought of the Fug Girls when I saw it and smiled.

The news broke this morning that the legendary Bo Diddley has left us. My heart is breaking to have lost this man, this musical genius who brought so much, created and altered music forever; for this man who got so little for his innovations, who was treated so shabbily. I’m not sure I am even using complete sentences right now, I’m so upset.

I am remembering last winter, I was really sick and watching crap TV. According to Jim was on and Bo Diddley guest starred and I was so grateful to have randomly chosen that channel. That show is shit but Bo Diddley elevated it as he did everything. He was always himself, so sure and sharp tongued and just…ack. I could go on and on but I won’t.

I’m trying to upload two songs to go with this tribute post but I’m going to go ahead and publish it now while I listen to a CD of his.

Who do I love? I love you, Mr. McDaniel. Thank you for changing everything.

Videos and mp3s after the jump.

If you don’t know who Bo Diddley was and would like to learn more, click here.

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