March 8, 2002
3:46pm Friday

STOP WHISPERING, START SHOUTING

I've been on cultural holiday. First I saw a play ("God's Man In Texas") and then I saw "Iris" and then I saw "Amelie" finally and then I saw Rufus Wainwright at the Anaheim House of Blues Wednesday night. "Everyone's a star in Anaheim," said Rufus from the stage. The dude who played before him, Timmy Timmelson, was pretty good. Teddy Thompson, I mean. He stayed onstage with Rufus and played guitar and sang backup along with Rufus's sister Martha, who's a little bit of a freakshow. They ended the night with two encores, the last of which was a Frenchie song sung by just the two siblings with him on piano and her center stage in front of the mic. I couldn't help but think that it was a decades-old replay of what they probably did in front of their parents' friends when they were eight. Hey Martha, Hey Rufus, why don't you sing a little ditty in French for the guests? Now curtsy. (Not you, Rufus. Martha.)

The other night Gray said, "Radiohead guy needs to go back into the womb to get fixed." I notice in the Pablo Honey photo he's wearing sunglasses. Lazy eyes are just fine! I broke out this old Radiohead because Timmy Timmelson, nee Teddy Thompson, went on about how he'd tried to write a song like the Strokes and the song he played sounded very much to my ears like Stop Whispering. It's amazing to me that the Strokes still don't seem that big in LA. They've stayed bizarrely East Coast - you'd think the airwaves were separated mid-way by a lead radiation shield. Although I don't listen much to KROQ so what do I know what they're playing. I just found out that the music director at KROQ graduated from my college a year before me and has been bigwig music lady for six years already. I'm so desperately unsuccessful.

I need some new shoes. People laugh at mine regularly, that's how dire it is. But shoes are damned expensive these days. I went to a place with numbers in its name on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena last weekend and they had some really cool stuff, all in the $100 range. When did that happen? I'm a little out of touch. I would like a pair of leather bowling-style Pumas.

I sent off two scripts today, one electronically (Final Draft can save a "secure" copy - why I didn't figure this out before fumbling with RTF to Acrobat transfers I don't know) to a pal at a studio with the idea that maybe he'll pass it on to an appropriate cable channel executive if he gets the opportunity, and the other to a friend with a manager who's only looking for new clients if "the script is great." Is mine great? I don't know. It's so hard to maintain perspective.

Anyone can play guitar.