April 27, 2002
12:06pm Saturday

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

It's so rarely I tell a lie that when I do it takes over my life. I don't know if it's the writer always looking for story drama part of my head, or if it's just that I'm so unpracticed that I give it a lot of energy, but man, I get elaborate. Insofar, I mean, in that I construct these far-reaching scenarios so that if I'm asked a question from any angle I've already answered it and I can cover my ass. And the ironic hilarious thing is is that nobody ever asks any questions. My personal lying scenario took place Thursday and was rather benign, really, and had to do with a friend who came to town who didn't have a car and was staying in Santa Monica, and she wanted us to drive there and we didn't want to go and I was seeing her the next day anyhow, so I constructed this huge lie about why we couldn't come to dinner. And when I actually saw her it didn't come up once so my pet brain-hamster got a lot of exercise on his wheel for nothing. People who lie all the time must be little balls of chaos inside, I don't know how they do it.

Along that same note my bad-friendosity turned into gigantic good-friendosity because I wound up driving her from Burbank to Hermosa Beach during 405 rush-hour traffic yesterday and then had to come all the way back to Burbank (110 fwy home) in still-rush hour traffic. The trip, aside from getting to hang out with this friend who I barely ever see, was not for naught because I stopped by my favorite record store in Redondo Beach and got good stuff for great prices: Joseph Arthur, Teddy Thompson, Angelique Kidjo CDs, plus Hardknox and Tenacious D promo mix singles. Nice. All that for $12.97 ­ can you beat it? I entertained myself on the drive home by listening to the new music and taking rush-hour photos, replete with windshield bird turds.

So, to recap the last 72 hours: Panic Room and Frailty (oh good GOD, avoid it); dentist for more drilling at 8am; printed and sent scripts (I'll know soon how the dramatic thriller is received by the development community); Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills for a performing arts thing; art show at Pierce for the hell of it which made me want to dust off my Holga toy camera and buy some Cibachrome film; Burger King off Kanan where the Coke slushie machine didn't work; hanging out with old friends and little kids ­ the kid part of which was pure, sheer chaos; almost to the Final Cut Pro monthly users group meeting for the first time but was convinced by Gray it would be filled with 40-year-old bearded nerds staring at me so I lazied out; shopping for food; lunch with the same friends and same chaotic kids; then driving driving driving, CDs, more driving driving driving; dog park, then Weinerschnizel. Which brings me to this week's Hollywood moment. Moments. Three star sightings in one day, check it: Paolo Seganti, who was "Damian" on As The World Turns (we all watched it in college and drooled) at Whole Foods in Studio City; Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I don't know his name) at Vons in Burbank; and then Meghan from Felicty at Weinerschnitzel across from NBC after the dog park. And Wes Bentley from American Beauty at Vons two weeks ago, but I forgot to mention it then. Gray said, "Go up to Meghan and say, 'What's up with the crappy flashback episodes?'" But I didn't. People, even celebrities, have the right to eat their weiners in peace.