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Download PokerStars Monday, February 28, 2005
Last Day of February I don't have to spell Feruary anymore. Thank God. It's the most mispelled month for me. Hardest day of the week for me to spell? Tuesday. Least difficult member of the Jackson Five to spell? Tito. ![]() "Fuck the Oscars! I won an Indie Spirit Award instead." In entertainment news, I won Jenna's office Oscar pool. First place won a bottle of Pinot in homage to Sideways. Gothamist has some pretty good Live Blogging Oscar coverage. Here's a good article about the Spirit Awards called At the Anti-Awards Ceremony, a Definite 'Sideways' Tilt. By the way, I wish I was this guy! Oh yeah, and this guy! Recent Poker Playing Music... 1. Shuggie Otis 2. The Grateful Dead 3. Ben Harper 4. Velvet Underground 5. Sam Phillips | Permalink | More Feelance Pauly I have 10 articles due for the month of March and I am looking to write more. I am almost done with one, so I got 9 more to go. I recently had two published: Marcal Luske player profile and a book review on The Tao of Poker by Larry Phillips. Check them out. Recent Writing Music... 1. The Duhks 2. Marcia Ball 3. The Mavericks 4. Solomon Burke 5. Bob Marley | Permalink | Sunday, February 27, 2005
Sunday Link Dump: Phisheads, Potheads, Stolen Sperm, and Thomas Friedman ![]() Trey and Mike during Y.E.M. at IT. Phish was nominated for two Jammy awards for Tour of the Year (Summer 2004) and DVD of the Year (PHISH IT). Mike Gordon received a nod for Best Download of the Year (12/31/04 with Benevento/Russo Duo in NYC). Chong's Marijuana-logues = Up in Smoke. Here's a bit: "The Marijuana-Logues" has canceled its spring tour after its star, Tommy Chong, was barred from performing in it because audience members were frequently lighting up during the show.And this made me chuckle: Man can sue over stolen sperm. Here's a spurt: An appeals court said a man can press a claim for emotional distress after learning a former lover had used his sperm to have a baby. But he can't claim theft, the ruling said, because the sperm were hers to keep... Phillips accuses Dr. Sharon Irons of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" after their affair six years ago, saying she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant.And my Sunday's are not complete without a Thomas Friedman op-ed piece. Here are four from Freidman: 1. The Tipping PointsI have finally caught up on my Freidman reading. | Permalink | Miami Part II: Sunshine and Daydreams "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." - William Faulkner19 Feb 2005, Miami, FL... I woke up and wrote for a while avoiding all temptations to check my email. I sat outside in the early morning sun to read the local paper. When Jerry woke up, we headed off to the Hard Rock in Hollywood to meet up with Shappy. We all went to college together many moons ago in Atlanta and have mellowed out over the years. If you think I'm crazy today, you should have met me thirteen years ago. I was a disheveled lunatic. I think it was the steady diet of Taco Bell, Jim Beam, and mushrooms that drove me insane back in the pre-internet days when Kurt Cobain was still snorting China White and I had a penchant for young, promiscuous, self-destructive, alcoholic Southern girls who could have walked straight off the pages of a Tennessee Williams manuscript. ![]() I first started playing a lot of cards in college when I lived in my fraternity house. We played a lot of Spades before and after dinner and even held house tournaments. My Spades partner was my good friend Jon Schanzer. During the long, hot, boring summers, we'd often play Spades to break up the down time in between hitting golf balls off our front lawn into the parking deck across the street or visiting one of the many Gentleman's Clubs all over Atlanta (ok, they were strip bars... Cheetah, 24K, Tops N Tails, even the Gold Club and my favorite The Pink Pony). Again this was way before the internet was more accessible and we didn't have cable TV. We played poker too. Lots of it. Our wild sessions would include guts games like Four Barrel, Kings and Little Men, seven-card stud, and five-card draw. No hold'em at all. Jerry used to host games at his apartment. After we got the girls across the hall hooked, two tables were going on nightly. The games would last until sunrise and we'd try to get Smooth the three-legged cat stoned. Cards was an activity we participated in frequently in college, and that's where the origins of my journey as a card player began. We even took trips down to the riverboats in Biloxi, Mississippi (Casino Magic anyone?) to play blackjack and Caribbean Stud when they first legalized gambling down there. Man, I should write a book about my gambling life during my frenetic early twenties living in the heart of Dixie Land. I have hundreds of stories about endless card games, skipping school to follow the Grateful Dead all over the Southeast in a hallucinogenic fog, and sordid tales about drunken binges during Mardi Gras and Jazzfest in New Orleans. By the way Shappy was a loose cannon in college and could party it up like a rock star. In his apartment, he had a photocopy machine and his pet iguana named... Iggy. I can't make shit like that up. Shappy had a lizard named Iggy and that fucker ended up eating my stash... sort of. That's a long story and due to legal reasons, I cannot go into the specifics of Iggy, the marijuana munching iguana. Those are some warm memories and deserve to be preserved in a novel someday. Anyway, back to the Hard Rock casino... Shappy arrived early and met us inside at the poker room. We walked through the outdoor mall filled with different shops, art galleries, and restaurants to get to the poker room. It was 11am and everything was still opening. When we got to the sign in desk, we requested to sit together at the same table. We had to wait until they decided to open up a new table. ![]() The wait wasn't too long, maybe a half hour. In the meantime, Shappy showed me his "Fish" ID. He laminated a cheat sheet of hand rankings. He printed it up on his computer at home. I couldn't tell if he was trying to act like a fish or was really a fish. He didn't care. He was there to have fun and he was content to loose a couple of hundred dollars. He said he had been playing on Party Poker and had a regular game at his club on Tuesdays. He wanted to get me into the $1000 buy in game. It sounded really juicy but I was leaving before then. Next time. The lineup:That was the pretty much the lineup that sticks in my head. We played at a new table, straight $2. I bought in for $100 because I knew it was going to be a wild ride. I bankrolled Jerry and he had $50 on the table. Shappy started with $100. In the first orbit I had KK twice. Pocket Hellmuths told me to raise preflop both times. I got eight callers once and lucky for me, no aces fell on the flop. Well, both held up and I had an early lead. We ordered a first round of drinks, a Corona for me and Jack Daniels and diet coke for the guys. I wasn't paying that much attention to the table but a couple of guys were calling everything. I was joking around and catching up with Shappy. I played a few hands and somewhere in the middle of our second round of drinks I declared that I was going to play every hand for a full orbit. I started with the big blind a KTs and ended up playing or seeing 14 straight flops. AK lost and I won a huge pot with 57s when I flopped an open ended straight flush draw. I got a little excited because the Hard Rock offers a bad beat jackpot. I missed my straight flush but still won the pot with a baby flush. I had doubled up my buy-in during my see every flop experiment. I was tempted to keep it up, but opted to take a 15 minute break and grab a slice of pizza from the food court and called Derek. I can't recall much from the middle part of the session. I stopped taking notes and was bleeding my stack away on the rake and pots more so than losing to any of the other players at the table. Shappy and Jerry got a kick out of what I'd say to female dealers after I won a pot. While I scooped my pot, I'd toss a $2 chip to the dealer and say, "Thanks, Sweetie." The wondered if I would say that to any male dealers. I told them I just say, "Thanks, Honeybunch." My favorite dealer was a guy who looked like a young, homosexual version of Ving Rhames. He dealt fast and was on top of the action. He definitely picked up the pace of the game. When it was your turn to bet he'd chirp, "Two to you!" and if you folded he'd smile and say, "Too-da-loo!" There was one funny moment when the young black kid next to me, who was the size of an offensive lineman, went heads up with Shappy. At one point Shappy pulled out his sunglasses and put them on. The kid couldn't stop laughing and they battled all the way to the river. I think Shappy rivered the guy and after he scooped the pot he pulled out his cheat sheet and showed it to the kid. I tried not to laugh. ![]() Shappy's Cheat Sheet We had a new waitress, a hot blonde named Haley, of course. I couldn't tell if she was busting on me for switching to ginger ale instead of beer or if she was just joking around. Jerry and Shappy knocked back cocktails at a fast pace. Jerry had nearly lost all of his buy in and I gave him another $50 to rebuy. He won a big pot right away when he flopped a set with 44. He also took down a nice pot with KK. All three of us won with pocket Hellmuths. The last third of the session was all highlighted by the drunken antics of Shappy throwing his money around. Our table was located in the back near the tournament tables. We were along the wall, and my back in Seat 8 was against the rail. At any given time I'd turn around and there would be a group of five or six people standing there. Sometimes I'd ham it up and show them my hole cards. Never got The Hammer though. That would have been fun. When a couple of railbirds tried to hit on Haley, our hot waitress, Shappy leaned back in his chair and snapped at the middle-aged tourists from Long Island, "That's as close you're gonna get, buddy!" They were quiet for a few seconds until one of them finally shouted out, "Go back to losing your money." One of their friends was sitting in Seat 2. And that idiot cracked my KK with AJ when he river'd me. At that point I went on a cold streak. All my good hands were cracked. 10-10 twice, AK, and JJ. Jerry had stormed back and was past breaking even. In the last hour Shappy started overtipping the dealers and ordered more drinks. We were heads up at one point. He had nothing. I knew that. But I had nothing either. I had 46s. He had 59o. I flopped bottom pair and he caught a 5 on the river. My 6s beat his 5s! Insane. That drew grumbles from the table. He ended up pissing everyone off when he gave one dealer a fat tip when she left. He was raising every pot preflop and seeing everything tot he river. He won four pots in a row... each time on the river. He got Mr. Know It All on tilt when his KK were cracked by Shappy's ATo. Even Shappy stung me with his magical river work. My AJs lost to K6o. He caught a four flush on the river to beat my two pair. I was down about $50 and I figured that covered the generous tips, bar tab, and the rake. Not bad for seven and half hours of poker. I was there to have fun and hang out. It was well worth the price since I had a blast with two old friends. Jerry won $25 too! I took my cut. Shappy dropped nearly $300. Almost $80 of that was in tips to the two last dealers. If you count all the other tips for all the pots he won and drinks he bought with his chips, I'd say $150 went to the house and the staff in one way or another. Only half his stack went to the other players. ![]() ![]() Jerry at the grill and Pauly making cocktails We got back to Jerry's where the wives were hanging out. Jerry fired up the grill and prepped dinner: shrimps, steaks, corn, mac and cheese, and sausage. I mixed a few cocktails for everyone and we were ready for a late night feast. After dinner, Jerry started a game of dominos. I haven't played since college and forgot the basics. ![]() ![]() ![]() It's not a tough game and I picked up right away. There's limited strategy involved and I was paying more attention to drinking my beer and talking to Shappy. We played five handed and Shappy's wife Annette ended up edging out Sarah for the win. I almost came in last place too. It's always good to party and gamble and BBQ with old friends, especially ones who live in a warmer climate. Whenever I hang out with Jerry... it's all good. | Permalink | Sunday Picture Dump Here are some of random pictures that I took during my trip to Miami. You can click on the pictures to enlarge. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Permalink | Saturday, February 26, 2005
More Hunter ![]() Drinks with Hunter is a chilling read. There's a cool photo gallery of Hunter from Rocky Mountain News. Check out their news archives for random news on Hunter. Lastly, make sure you read one of my favorite pieces of writing... ever.... called The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson. Here's a bit: In the air-conditioned lounge I met a man from Houston who said his name was something or other--"but just call me Jimbo"--and he was here to get it on. "I'm ready for anything, by God! Anything at all. Yeah, what are you drinkin?" I ordered a Margarita with ice, but he wouldn't hear of it: "Naw, naw...what the hell kind of drink is that for Kentucky Derby time? What's wrong with you, boy?" He grinned and winked at the bartender. "Goddam, we gotta educate this boy. Get him some good whiskey..." | Permalink | Friday, February 25, 2005
Good Morning Springfield ![]() Click to enlarge the cast of The Simpsons Who are your favorite 5 random characters? I'll tell you mine... 1. Otto 2. Bumble Bee Man 3. Moe 4. Uter the fat German foreign exchange student 5. Ralph Wiggum! ![]() ![]() ![]() | Permalink | Thursday, February 24, 2005
The Pope, Paris, Lindsay, and a Jacked Up Jessica BG sent me this interesting email exchange between Lindsay Lohan and Paris. OK so I called BG earlier this evening. He was chilling at his fortified compound in Western Michigan with Frye the Wonder Dog. "Yo dude, would it make us bad Catholics if we bet on when the Pope is gonna die?" I asked. A few minutes later he gave me his answer for out Weekly Prop Bet. 11 Days. He said that the Pope has 11 days to live. I allowed him +/- one day. So if the Pope dies 10-12 days from now... March 6,7, or 8... BG wins $5. Here's to a speedy recovery for JP2! | Permalink | The OC I'll give you two reasons why I dig The OC.... wet lesbians. Summer in the rain wasn't bad either. ![]() Click to enlarge | Permalink | Champagne Monkeys Expect a random post. My brian is all over the map this morning. It's not even 11am and I am already down $80 playing poker for less than an hour. February has been a bad month for me. My bankroll has been brutalized. Anyway... at least I am getting paychecks, new assignments, and published. I had an article published over this weekend, a profile on Howard Lederer. I had another article accepted the other day and will be published this weekend. On a cool note, I was given three new assignments in addition to two I am currently working on. Wow, five pieces in the next ten days. I know I can pull it off. I already got pre-paid for one! An email came my way last night saying that a check was mailed out to me for a future article. That's pretty cool... my first advance. Briana and Jenna both admitted to me that they drink Soy Lattes. Doesn't that make you want to puke? Thanks to Tony Pierce who linked up the Tao of Poker yesterday to his infamous blog. Not that I needed his help to increase traffic, but there was a spike in visitors yesterday coming from his site. So thanks Tony! Man, I'm still shocked that my poker blog is getting 6,000 visitors a week and a lot of them are first timers. 14 months ago, there were thirty readers a day. The Tao of Poker clocks in at 1,000 visits on a weekday and 500 per day on the weekends. Unreal. I should be shot. I'm grateful for the spill over traffic that my poker blog gives the Tao of Pauly and Truckin'. I dream of the day that this little corner of the web reaches 5,000 hits a week. Aside from a few spikes thanks to Google searches for Lindsay Lohan's boobs, Tara Reid's nipple slip, Scarlet Johansen naked, and now Paris Hilton's hacked Sidekick... the readership here is a smaller niche group. In in the end, I am more happy to know that I have thirty or so daily and dedicated readers (like Girtz and Modeski) here on the Tao of Pauly than the swarms of thousands of poker readers. You guys are the first and I'll pull my poker blog before I ever pull this one. Here's a bone (thanks to Boy Genius): Paris' address book. Moving on... It's supposed to snow again tonight. Man, that makes me wish I was still in sunny Miami! | Permalink | Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Miami Trip Report Part I ![]() The High Life I exited the subway and rushed up the stairs at the Times Square station past a few tourists and an old lady with a cane. I glanced down and saw an orphaned playing card. It was the Jack of Clubs. I snickered. I few weeks ago my brother told me he saw a random card in front of our mother's apartment building. It was the Seven of Spades. I thought about picking them up and starting a collection of found art objects. I wondered how long it would take before I found a full deck. Five years? Six years? As I reached the top step and bolted towards the Shuttle to Grand Central, one of L. Ron Hubbard's low-level thugs nearly tackled me. The Church of Scientology gave free stress tests to any busy New Yorkers who took the time to chat with them. A black woman sat in a chair while an older woman with blonde hair asked her a series of questions and took her blood pressure. She was holding a free copy of Dianetics. I shook off my mark with a juke step and blew past him. I stopped off at Hot N Crusty in Grand Central Station for a black and white cookie, an orange Gatorade, and a chocolate donut before I walked outside past the lunch crowd over to the airport express bus stop. I bought a copy of the NY Times from a blind street vendor and gave him an extra $1 as a tip. Really it was a bribe. A pathetic one at that. The security checkpoint at LaGuardia airport was backed up. I estimated the delay at 35 minutes. With plenty of time before my flight, I read the rest of the Times and dragged my bag behind me. A little girl back in line was whining incessantly. I sighed not because she was annoying, rather I felt sorry for her mother who was doing everything to get her to relax and wait in line like the hundreds of other passengers. The mother promised everything under the sun to the young spoiled princess yet she still continued her tantrum. "Mommy, everyone is staring at me." "Yes they are dear. Because you are making a scene." "It's not polite to stare. No one is polite here." That got a few chuckles from the crowd. When I got to my gate, there weren't too many empty seats in the small waiting area. I found one, but it was next to a family who had a dog sitting in their lap. I had a bad feeling I was going to get stuck to them on my flight. The majority of the people on my flight looked like families on a mid-Winter vacation. I wandered over to the Air Canada gate and they had a lot of empty seats. I sat down and read the last fifty pages of Small Stakes Hold'em, hoping that a cute Canadian girl would sit down next to me and start a conversation about Marshall McLuhan and the new Degrassi show. That never happened, so I fielded a few last minute phone calls and ate my black and white cookie. I whipped out a notebook and jotted a few things down. 1:31pm EST... Sometimes airports can be depressing in a solitary kind of way. Not everyone who travels is going on a vacation. And even those who are on vacation, some of them are a little sad that they have to go back home to their real lives. One suit sits across from me eats an over-priced craft services sandwich and tries not to get mayonnaise on his tie. Another suit talks on his phone about his breakfast meeting at the head office. A young woman stares at one of the TVs and tries to lose herself in the CNN broadcast. A lot of sullen faces today at the airport. It's 32 degrees and I can almost feel the warm Florida sun on my skin.I requested an aisle seat something I like because I frequently get up to stretch my legs and hit the bathroom. I drink a lot of water on flights so I'm always pissing. The family with the dog took up five out of the six seats in front of me. The father looked like Neil Diamond and he was taking the wife, three kids, and Arnold the dog to Florida. Do I have to tell you what it was like to sit behind a dog who whined and barked the first hour of the flight? I'd rather not relive that awful experience. The flight was full so I could not change my seat. Sure, JetBlue has their own direct TVs for everyone on board, but not even watching the Big Lebowski could prevent me from thinking of 101 ways to silence the pooch. Someone on board had to holding valium. We could give that to Arnold the dog. How about locking the dog into one of the bathrooms? In the back of my mind I began writing the first draft of my complaint letter to the suits over at JetBlue, how I wish their changed their pets policy and go back to the old days when you chucked Rover or Fluffy down below with everyone's luggage. At least the flight was only two and a half hours and the dog only ruined 40% of my flight. Jerry picked me up at the airport and it was good to be back in warm Florida. My last trip was special and I had not seen Jerry and his wife Sarah since then. It was Thursday night and we ordered some local Italian food at Steve's. That was one great chicken parmigania sandwich, lemme tell ya. We watched The OC and I saw my first episode ever of CSI. I know that Wil just taped his spot so I know have a rough idea what the show is about. I'm looking forward to seeing how his episode turns out. The one I caught was freaky. First of all, I had no idea it took place in Vegas. Second, the episode had this weird baby fetish thing where people gave each other LSD enemas and shit themselves in adult sized diapers. I'm not making that up either. I was tired and crashed after I wrote for a little bit. ![]() ![]() ![]() Jerry woke me up early so I could drive him to work. He gave me his car so I could hit up the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. I went back to his house, took a dip in the pool, busted into the liquor cabinet, sat out in the sun for a while, took random pictures, and read. I avoided the temptation to check my email and read my favorite blogs. I focused on watching Dawson's Creek instead and ate cold pizza. I found out that the poker room at Seminole was 24 hours so I jumped in the car. The drive was 25 minutes up the Florida turnpike to the Hard Rock. I parked in the deck and wandered into the casino. ![]() My initial impression of the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood was that it was much bigger than the one in Vegas. In Florida, they only allow slot machines and poker, so there are no table games. It was around 11:30am and I briskly walked past hordes of senior citizens pissing away their social security checks with each pull of the level. I found the center bar, which was empty and looked cool with dozens of TVs everywhere. I asked the bartender where the poker room was located. He pointed and I found it. The Hard Rock has at least 50 tables. The highest limit is straight $2. They have $1-2 Omaha, Stud, and Hold'em and Straight $2 Hold'em where every betting round is $2 and the blinds are $1/2. I missed the Friday tournament and noticed they ran a $135 and a $250 sit n go. The juice on that was horrible! First place only paid $560 or 41%. The casino kept $245 in juice or 18%. For the $250 SNGs they keep 14% and pay out 43% to the winner. Very profitable for the casino, not so for the poker player. In case you were wondering, here's the Hard Rock's multitable tournament schedule (subject to change): Mondays 6:30pm: $250 + $50 entry fee NL freezeoutI never had a chance to play in the tournaments, but next time I'm down there I will. Anyway, I was shocked I had to wait a half hour before noon on a Friday to get a game. The Hard Rock has an electronic waiting list and they give you beepers that let you know when your seat is ready. I wandered over to the food court nearby. The pizza looked good and I settled on some Chinese food. The General Tso's did me right. I was finally paged. I played for about three hours before I had to leave to pick up Jerry. My table was nothing special. Aside from one young guy who looked like Frodo from Lord of the Rings, it was all retired guys. One guy resembled Morty Sienfeld. Another one I swore was one of those older doctors from St. Elsewhere. In the first orbit I had 47o in the LB. In my head I asked the dealer for a 568 flop. And sure enough that's what I got. I maxed out the betting on the flop and had two callers all the way to the river. Two pair and top pair lost to my flopped straight. That was one of the only decent hands I got. Frodo in Seat 3 kept doing chip tricks for the table. Too bad he couldn't keep his stack. He lost $150 in 90 minutes and left. I lost a big pot with AJo. The flop: 27A. I know, I wish I had The Hammer. Some guy in seat 6 was the Rebuy Guy. By the sixth or seventh rebuy, I was rooting him to stay at the table. He kept pulling $20 out of his wallet and instead of rebuying in once for $100. He insisted that he was playing his last hand but would dig back in when he lost all his chips. Anyway, Rebuy Guy called me with bottom pair on the flop and all my raises with 24o. The turn was a 7 and the river a 2. Oh well. That wasn't as bad as AQ losing to J8o after flopping trips and losing to a one outer gutshot on the river. The guy next to me lost with pocket tens. Overall, I ended up down $50. I gave away a $2 tip for every pot I won, so the majority of my loss went to tips, my bar bill, and the rake. The players were loose and not paying attention at all. Hey it's low limit madness. The majority of the players were locals, a mix of very young college aged guys and retirees. The Hard Rock offers drink service. Unlike Vegas, you have to pay for bottled water, beers, and liquor drinks. Coffee and soft drinks are free. I got great service because I tipped my girl well when I ordered my first Corona. She always came to me first when she hit the table up for drinks. The dealers were fair. One looked like Jessica Alba and she called me "New York" for her entire down. I fought a little traffic and picked up Jerry downtown. We hung out for a bit until Sarah came home from work and then we hit up South Beach for some sushi. We found a mellow place, nestled in between a chic French bistro and a Cuban restaurant. Jerry ordered a bottle of Sake right away and a mellifluous conversation ensued. I ordered an Ashai and I happily wolfed down some salmon, tuna, whitefish, eel, and a spicy tuna roll which I couldn't finish. The eel is my favorite. Desert was green tea ice cream and Jerry and Sarah split an order of Thai donuts. If you ever had them, you know that they are delicious. Coming soon... Part II. | Permalink | 5 Recent Google Referrals in the Last 24 Hours... 1. Chinese rest. in Atlanta busted for selling rats 2. Darryl Hannah mushrooms marijuana 3. Trey Anastasio backstage girl rumors 4. Sex with a horse 5. Hunter S. Thompson Kentucky Derby | Permalink | Pieces of Pauly: A Photo Essay What did I eat in Miami? Here are a few samples. Click on the pics to enlarge. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Permalink | Monday, February 21, 2005
RIP Hunter ![]() Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005 I was trying to find something in Hunter Thompson's writings that made sense of his suicide. When I first heard about his death, my thoughts drifted to Ernest Hemingway, another one of my favorite writers and like Thompson, Hemingway's words took on the role of the father figure in my life during my tumultuous early twenties. Both men were more similar than I ever imagined. They were recognized as the unique American voices of their respective generations. They pushed themselves into the middle of vigorous and dangerous lifestyles. And when they reached their 60s, living in small towns mostly everyone ever heard of, they both viciously shot themselves in the head. Either they ran out of things to write about, or more tragically likely, they accepted the fact they could no longer live up to the reputation of being the great writer that society had dubbed them. Two of the most haunting questions looming over the head of every artist are... What am I going to do when I can't do it anymore? And what am I going to do when everyone finds out I am not really that good at what I do because I'm really a hack who got lucky? I wondered what their answers were as I found myself digging through an old milk crate of assorted books. That specific crate held some of my favorites. I picked up and thumbed through The Great Shark Hunt, an insane book 622 pages in length covering all random ramblings from Hunter Thompson from his early days at the Kentucky Derby (one of my favorites bits of writing no one has ever read, shame on you fuckers!) to covering the McGovern presidential campaign in 1972, to bits on Watergate and Jimmy Carter. That book is full of memories and one of the rare books that has been with me for my entire 20s. It always made the cut and I never sold it, no matter how broke I was. Over a decade ago, an ex-girlfriend, let's call her Sabine the tortured Prozac-popping artist, gave The Great Shark Hunt to me. Actually, she bought it off a used book vendor on St. Mark's Place in the East Village for $4. One Thursday night, a week or so before we started dating, she tracked me down at my after-work bar. When I was 22, I used to knock back Carlsbergs at an old man's dive on Lexington Avenue called Carlow's East. A surly Irishman named Sean, always in his white shirt and clip-on tie, worked the bar with a pissy attitude. I can recall the moment exactly. I poked fun of Sean's brogue with Tony "Knuckles" Tafullio sitting on the stool next to me. Sabine walked over and plopped The Great Shark Hunt onto the sticky Mahogany bar. "I z-ought you would like z-is," she said her sultry French accent. "Thanks." "Shit McGrupp," Tony Knuckles said as he picked up the massive book and began inspecting it, "are ya really gonna read this?" "Yep. I'll loan it to you when I'm done." "The only way I'm picking up that fucker is to beat my girlfriend with it. That lazy bitch. I could bust her up good and I betcha it wouldn't leave a mark." He handed me the book and I thanked Sabine again. I've read it many times since then. I even broke up weed on it in Seattle and cut up blow on it in Brooklyn. Hunter would have been proud. ![]() After that brief flashback, I continued flipping through my ten year old copy of The Great Shark Hunt. I randomly stopped on an article Hunter wrote for the National Observer. A freaked out moment took over. The article was on Hemingway. Coincidence? It was dated 1964 and called "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" In his later years Hemingway left Cuba and settled into a small town ten miles outside of Sun Valley, Idaho. That's where he blew his head off with a shotgun in 1961. Three years later, the 27 year old Hunter Thompson would venture off to Ketchum to figure out why that place at that time for Hemingway. Here are some chilling excerpts, written by Hunter over forty years ago: "Anyone who considers himself a writer or even a serious reader can not help but wonder just what it was about this outback little Idaho village that struck a responsive chord in America's most famous writer. He had been coming here on and off since 1938, until finally in 1960, he bought a home just outside of town...A short time after, with Hunter's words inspiring me to walk out of my job on Wall Street and go home to write a novel, I adopted some of his words as my own personal mantra, "Don't take any guff from these fuckin' swine." A decade later, I would use that quote as an introduction to my third novel. I've been compared to Hunter so many times that it's really an insult to him. He's a real writer and I'm a hack. I'm much more a fuck up than an adventurer. So who cares if we're both drug addicted writers with wacky sidekicks? Shit, everyone's an addict in one form or another and most of them have vanity sites with blogspot addresses which ironically qualifies them as a writer. And for every wild, reckless story I have to brag about, I have a half a dozen more incidents where I got lucky and escaped imprisonment, a hospital stay, and/or deportation. So I have a knack for stringing together words and can hold my mud a lot better than most idiots who try to run with the bulls in Las Vegas and piss in the tall weeds with the big dogs, but that doesn't make me any better of a true visionary that Hunter Thompson ended up becoming. Hunter showed me that speaking from within and bouncing past the structured limits of conventional writing is the way to embrace yourself. Trying to write in the style that my educators scared me into thinking was the proper way held me back from achieving my true potential as a writer. Embracing Hunter's style of freedom of expression was a key to my early stages of developing my craft. I figured out the best way to write a story is to throw yourself into the middle of the story and experience it for yourself like Hunter did in so many instances. That is why I felt and still feel that a lot of my everyday decisions in life and the choices I make influence my future as a writer. I realized that to become a better writer, I had to live life instead of watching it happen from the sidelines. "Write what you know," is the old saying to first time writers and if you don't know shit, then your writing is going to be shit. I knew I needed to take a few risks, so I did that. I pushed myself to the edges of insanity. And was not afraid to seek out the weirdness in the world. Hunter inspired me to do just that. Of course my dream job is similar to Hunter's all-expenses-paid gig with Rolling Stone magazine... to travel the world and cover random events (like the Tour de France or the Oscars or the National Rodeo Finals) for a hipster magazine with an unlimited room service tab and a suitcase full of illegal narcotics, opiates, and herbal supplements, only to get so wasted that I'd turn in the article two weeks late, nowhere resembling the topic my editor had assigned. That would be pretty cool if I got to do that someday. I wish I could say something more and have a better entry to pay homage to my favorite writer. But I'm exhausted from a wild trip to Miami and my mind is frazzled because I'm still undecided about the direction of my writing. Plus I'm very sad to hear about Hunter's suicide. I some way I am happy that he doesn't have to live with that pain that old writers get. And in some way I am sacred shitless because just in case I do end up living for a few more decades, I'm going to have to face that same moment that Hunter and Hemingway had to. Right now that's the last thing I want to think about. I need a few more days to allow all of this to sink in. Poker and blogging were two things I was so passionate about a few weeks ago, but right now they are both unimportant to me. I'm going to take a few days away from the tables, take a break from blogging and from sharing my words with everyone else. I need to write for myself and only for myself right now. Random Hunter Articles The Duke of Hazzard (Salon.com) Thompson's lawyer: It wasn't about Bush (Salon.com) Hunter Thompson and George W. Bush (Salon.com) Gonzo Gone (Salon.com) The Minuteman of the Rockies (Slate) A Sense of Self and Outrage (NY Times) Rollin Stone's Obit | Permalink | Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Hiatus? "It goes to show you don't ever know,I'm taking some time off from blogging. I'll be in Miami for the next several days visiting friends from college, relaxing in the sun, and taking pictures. Updating the Tao(s) is my last priority. I will be playing poker at the Hard Rock, so expect a full trip report upon my return. Miami is an inspirational place for me and I have not been back in over 13 months. My last trip was epic. I'm positive that I'll have a few stories to tell and a slew of pictures to add to my fotolog. Whenever I step out of the loop, I am forced to think about the direction of my life and where my art is taking me. I will be asking myself some of those serious questions including figuring out the future of this blog. Avoiding burnout is something I am desperately seeking. I also know that I have to take some time off to write this year. I'm not getting any younger and I've always wanted to write a novel in Europe. I am going to try to figure out how to make that happen possibly later this fall and decide if I can make a leap back into painting. In the end, I know I have to sharpen up by poker game if I want to scrape together a few bucks off of the fish-o-licious players on Party Poker so I can live the bohemian life overseas for a few months. In the meantime, to get your Pauly fix, you can read the latest issue of my literary blogzine. It features a couple of poker bloggers and my favorite NYC escort, Alexa. I wrote two stories... one of which I worked on for several months and the other one I came up with in less than twenty minutes. Enjoy and thanks for the support.
Thanks again for visiting my blogs. If you are interested in writing for Truckin', I suggest you read the Submission Guidelines. I hope everyone has a good weekend. See ya, Pauly | Permalink | Last 5 Books I Saw People Reading on the Subway... 1. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty 2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 3. Othello by William Shakespeare 4. The Holy Bible 5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | Permalink | Death of a Salesman and Dr. Gonzo There is no Arthur Miller content in this entry. Rather, I shall point you towards: Death of a Salesman: Was Rafik Hariri's assassination a Syrian hit? The article from Slate discusses whether one of the richest men in the world, friend of the Bush family, and the very Pro-western former Lebanese prime minister opposed to the Syrian presence in Lebanon was whacked by the Syrians in one of the bloodiest attacks to take place in Lebanon in decades. An importunate international story like the assassination of Rafik Hariri barely makes a ripple in the vast American media pool of nimrods, retards, and freaks. Behold the Michael Jackson trial is getting 1/3 of the press coverage these days along with the closing of the Zoloft murder case, the NHL lockout, and Bill Gates new launch of IE7. More Americans know what the name of Paris Hilton's dog (Tinkerbell) and have no clue the name of our current Secretary of State. "That's the way it goes in the land of the weird," as Hunter S. Thompson would drone on from his cozy office in his Colorado compound, pounding the keys on his typewriter and taking sips of Wild Turkey in between chain smoking and debunking the daily agitprop churned out by the Bush Junta. Speaking of Hunter, check out his latest article titled Fore!: Shotgun Golf was invented in the ominous summer of 2004 AD, right here at the Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colo. The first game was played between me and Sheriff Bob Braudis, on the ancient Bomb & Shooting Range of the Woody Creek Rod & Gun Club. It was witnessed by many members and other invited guests, and filmed for historical purposes by Dr. Thompson on Super-Beta videotape.Yeah, life can be absurd sometimes. I'm getting paid the equivalent of a full week of minimum wage work from a pimpled-faced, Ritalin-popping teenager slaving away at McLand in Akron combined with the weekly salary of a tattoo-riddled slacker slinging Grande Lattes at Starbucks in West Hollywood. I'm getting paid to infect the masses with my half-baked assertions of poker and gambling. Yeah, I should probably be shot. I would love to write about life, politics, and sports... in addition to getting paid for some of my short stories. Alas, I am not. How else am I going to cover my gambling losses? March Madness approaches... can you smell the greed in the air? | Permalink | Recent Writing Music... 1. Johnny Cash 2. Sidney Bechet 3. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman 4. The Beatles 5. John Scofield with Medeski, Martin, & Wood | Permalink | Tuesday, February 15, 2005
5 Random Google Referrals in the Last 24 Hours... 1. New Orleans crack whores 2. American Idol score sheet 3. Fucking Ann Coulter with a dildo 4. Pauly's Italian restaurant Indiana 5. German teenaged girls with nipple rings By the way Daddy, you gotta take me to Pauly's the next time I go to Indiana! | Permalink | Required Reading Let's start off with another Arthur Miller died so let's talk about how much of a genius he is article from the NY Times. I bookmarked this article (aslo from the NY Times) since it mentions the word "blogs" in the title: Resignation at CNN Shows the Growing Influence of Blogs. I don't link up enough Neal Pollack. So here you go: Grammy whammy! Neal did a little real-time writing on the Grammys. Take a peek. Lastly, how about this article from Poker Magazine.... How to Get Thrown Out of a Poker Game written by yours truly. It was published yesterday. That's the third different website in the last two weeks to publish my ramblings on poker. | Permalink | Monday, February 14, 2005
A Scribe's Weekend ![]() Another article written by your favorite blogger was published yesterday, a book review on Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger. I submitted that on Saturday. Nothing is cooler than waking up and being notified that you have a wire transfer waiting in your account. The webmaster at Professional-poker.com might be one of the best bosses I ever had. He's cool, gives me plenty of artistic freedom, and most importantly... he pays me right away. For the first time in years, I have finally caught up on all of my email. I read everything (I had over 250 at one point to sort through earlier this month) and as of now, I only have four messages in all of my inboxes. Two of them are saved information on future flights for me on Jet Blue. I read every article and visited every website that every one thought could be blogworthy. Thanks to everyone who sends stuff, that's very kind of you all. I can't blog everything but I appreciate the gesture. I completed all the edits for the February issue of Truckin'. I'll be posting the new issue in the next 60 hours. This one looks great. And I'm particularly pleased that I'm no longer waiting until the last day of the month to publish each issue. I woke up early on Sunday and gutted out the third draft of Gumbo. It is finally complete. I am looking forward to blocking out a few hours and sitting down to read it from cover to cover. And then I'll never have to look at it again! Freelance articles, email, my literary blogzine, and correcting the last draft of a novel... not a bad weekend. Ah, and I also penned a Valentine's Day poem, which I'm sure will get me bonus points. I also read the first 200 pages of Super System 2. This week, I expect to crank out two more pieces before I take off to Miami on Thursday. BG poked fun of me when I told him I made up an actual daily schedule. I have been doing my best to stick through it. Last week ended smoothly because I knew what I should be doing at all times instead of having that funny feeling that "I should be doing something important." Yeah it's the middle of February and I'm finally caught up on most of my online life. | Permalink | Happy Birthday Haley! The Tao of Pauly's second favorite actress turns 25 today. Hope it's a good one, H! | Permalink | Last 5 Books I Saw People Reading on the Subway... 1. The Red Moon by Kuwana Haulsey 2. Deception Point by Dan Brown 3. Ballad Of The Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers 4. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers 5. Honeymoon by James Patterson | Permalink | Sunday, February 13, 2005
Scarlet Rules Google For the sixth week in a row, Scarlet Johansen nude, has been the number one referral from Google. A simple mispelling has brought me new visitors and some of them are coming back. That's great. And for that, I'll throw everyone a bone. Here are some yummy pictures of Scarlett Johansson (thanks to The Superficial). | Permalink | Required Reading Attention Must Be Paid was written by David Mamet where he talks about the recent death of Arthur Miller. Here's a bit: Arthur Miller's wonder at his country and his time will redound to America's credit when the supposed accomplishments of the enthusiastic are long forgotten. His work and the example of a life lived with quiet dignity are each an inspiration.For Canseco and McGwire, Little Brotherly Love discusses Jose Canseco's new controversial book about stereoids and how he names names... including slugger Mark McGwire. Here's a bit: Are Canseco's charges inaccurate, unfair and incorrect? McGwire did not respond to requests to interview him, but Canseco has put him and other former teammates - Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro - in an uncomfortable position with his assertions, true or untrue, embellished or not, that they also used steroids.And what is a Sunday morning without reading Thomas Friedman's NY Times op-ed piece called No Mullah Left Behind. Here's a bit: As a geo-green, I believe that combining environmentalism and geopolitics is the most moral and realistic strategy the U.S. could pursue today. Imagine if President Bush used his bully pulpit and political capital to focus the nation on sharply lowering energy consumption and embracing a gasoline tax.And in lighter news, this made me laugh: Teacher Gets 6 Months for Punching Student. Maybe more teachers should beat the shit out their students. We'd have a lot less idiots walking around out there. | Permalink | This Morning's Writing Music... 1. Jimmy Cliff 2. Jessica Klein 3. Grey Boy Allstars 4. Rilo Kiley 5. Django Reinhardt | Permalink | Saturday, February 12, 2005
Death of a Playwright "Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent." - Arthur MillerThanks to Jason Flowers who sent me the quote. If you do not know, Arthur Miller died the other day. I wandered over to Grubby's poker blog to see what he had to say about a fellow playwright. It started out good and then Grubby drifted into tales about his festering addiction to slots since he moved to Las Vegas. There is some decent coverage out there. Make sure you read:
Arthur Miller had a grasp of the working class and was plugged into the inner mind of Americans more so than many of his contemporaries. While Neil Simon penned comedy dramas, Miller wrote hard-nosed dramas. I wish I could say more about the guy that hasn't been said already. He spoke his mind and people hated him for that. He wouldn't rat out his friends during the Red Scare. And he used to bang Marylin Monroe. He's the cat's balls. I read some of his work. It moved me. Some of his themes of how his main characters were internally flawed has influenced some of my writing indirectly. The world has lost a real writer. | Permalink | Last 5 Books I Saw People Reading on the Subway... 1. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 2. The Holy Bible 3. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner 4. My Life by Isadora Duncan 5. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir | Permalink | Dirt Weed and Pirates High pirate content here. Check out Skippy's new film: Gasparilla. I miss the Daily Dave. First Grader Punished for Bag of Dirt is a funny read about a girl and a not-so-intelligent teacher who thought a bag of dirt was.... (gasp) marijuana. | Permalink | Friday, February 11, 2005
Fluffhead Friday Let's pimp myself. I had an article published yesterday on a European website. It was a player profile on Phil Hellmuth. How about a funny new blurb? Make me some turkey pot pie, Biatch!! Dare I utter... only in Michigan? How about a disturbing blurb? Pilot threaten to crash plane into Wall Street. The federalies were not amused. How about a cool blurb? The new Wynn Casino in Las Vegas will be using tracking devices in every chip. I'm definitely not taking one of those home as a souvenir. I've always considered getting a snip job. As soon as I get me some insurance I'll look into this more seriously. I shiver to think there might be a little Tao or two running rampant out there. This is definitely not safe for work... some girl gets caught rubbing one out. Can I give you a hand? Or a finger or four? If I catch up on some writing today, then this weekend I might be able to crank out both Truckin' and work on Gumbo. That would be nice. I'd be happy to get one done. | Permalink | Thursday, February 10, 2005
Bonus Whore
Penny Hardaway grabs Shaq's package to slow him down. I wrote two articles this week and both were accepted. 2 for 2. And I just got paid for one of them. God bless wire transfers from Holland! I'm in the middle of writing the third, which I hope to be done by tonight. Last night, after both my favorite basketball teams lost (UNC and the Knicks), I played online at Empire Poker for five straight hours. I was working off a bonus. Basically I deposited like $500 and I got a $150 bonus. I had to play over 1000 hands... raked hands (which are hands that I actually play and bet with)... in order to qualify. I had to see over 3000 hands before I was awarded my bonus. It took almost a week and I'm done. I got a free $150. Whooo hooo! Free money. That's the equivalent to a one-way ticket from NYC to Las Vegas. Empire just paid for half my trip. I also made a few dollars in the process of working off the bonus while I watched Jason Spaceman play in a tourney with a $350K prize pool. He made the money and took 46th. Good job, dude. Before I crashed I wrote for an hour. Some of my best work happens between the hours of 3am and 5am. Go figure. This past month I switched my writing schedule so I could wake up and do my usual two hours (my own workout) and then I would spend the mid afternoon writing or doing research on freelance articles. I couldn't sleep and woke up early to write and read through a few new books that arrived this morning. I Read the News Today, Oh Boy... How about this little tid bit in the editorial section of the NY Times called The Whitney Expansion. It discusses the Whitney Museum's future plans to grow whcih might cause some ripples into the historic section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Jen over at Gothamist had some sobering news on the upcoming Metrocard fare hike. I discovered that Phish has released a two new shows from 1994 to it's Live Phish site. Here's what it said: This release features two shows from the experimental 1994 fall tour and continues a rich legacy of download and physical releases from the archives. Hold on tight! Phish's back-to-back performances on November 30th, 1994 at Evergreen College in Olympia, WA and December 1st, 1994 at the Salem Armory in Salem, OR are perfect examples of the band's ability to weave their sets of diverse styles of music into cohesive extended journeys. These shows display that talent at its peak, with dynamic sets that showcase Phish's ability to link one song to the next while stretching limits to create a non-stop tapestry of exploration. An added bonus is filler from November 12th, 1994 at Kent State University featuring a transcendent Down With Disease and other gems.Seriously, the two shows look great. Michelle, a friend of mine in Seattle, went to Evergreen and she gave me a bootleg tape of the 11.30.94 show! And I'm going to download the Salem Armory show (Peaches, Mound, Tweezer to open the second set) as soon as I can. Speaking of Phish, thanks to Fish over at This Fish Needs a Bicycle for linking up the Tao of Pauly on her Bloggie nominated blog. We seem to share the same unhealthy addiction to Degrassi. I have this weakness for the way Canadian girls say the word "sorry" and "about". By the way, here's another another segue... fuck Wal Mart, eh! You know that the reason the Wal Mart fail is one of the richest in the world? They do not pay their workers overtime and do not allow unions. When one store in Canada had workers that tried to unionize, the suits over at Wal Mart decided to shut it down entirely! As I am writing this post, I am seriously mutlitasking.... playing poker online at Party Poker, with Dawson's Creek on in the background and sitting on the couch in all forms of dishabille. TBS is airing one of the initial episodes from the first season of The Creek. Anyway, here's what BG sent me in an IM about my all-time favorite TV crush... Katie Holmes: although there's something almost embarrassing about those high waisted pants, she's awful cuteYeah, BG had the day off and I just outed him for watching Dawson's Creek. I admit... my name is Pauly. I am a compulsive gamblor, alcoholic, and sex fiend. The only TV shows I watch are... The OC, Dawson's Creek, and Degrassi. Lastly, I must say that my best thoughts go out to my friend Iggy. They had to bury his best friend's wife yesterday and he's stuck in the middle of a dark patch of life. Hang tough, brother. Untimely deaths make you realize that life is so much more important than poker, blogs, and being flamed by purblind bucolics. I talked to him and suggested that he take a week or so off to just get his space together and live a little. Poker will always be there. Life won't. Time to infect the masses with some more of my words and eat leftover penne bologonese... cold. | Permalink | Dear Jerry Bruce sent me a copy of this letter that Greatful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter wrote to Jerry Garcia two years after his death. There are some meaningful passages in there. Enjoy... Dear JG,Wow. I miss Jerry. | Permalink | Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Picture Day I finally got around to updating my fotolog. I posted a bunch of shots the last few days. Take a peek. I am working on a photo gallery for my paintings. Speaking of which, I heard that BG's smokin' hot neighbor was having a glass of wine in his apartment last night (you dog, you!) and commented on how much she liked my painting that I gave BG for his 30th birthday. Very nice. I wish I had more time to take up painting again. Blogging has pretty much taken over most of my free time. Maybe I'll quit blogging for a month, move to Amsterdam to paint, live on a houseboat near the Red Light District, and smoke a chunk of hashish the size of a spider monkey with neo-hippie girls from Norway who giggle everytime I throw out an obscure Knut Hamsun reference. Moving on. If you didn't know, I won Daddy's Crush Your Bookie football pool. The first half of my prize arrived in the mail yesterday... playing cards from 1864. Holy shit! That was some cool stuff. The cards do not have any numbers on them and the corners are not rounded. These are what soldiers during the civil war were using during their down time. Here's the letter I got with the cards: SnailTrax Inc.Here are a few samples of the playing cards. You can click on the pictures to enlarge... ![]()
Hilton Sisters (circa 1864) and Quad Aces
The Hammer!
Thanks Daddy! Now stop farting around and get back to work! | Permalink | Tuesday, February 08, 2005
CSI Wil Wil just landed a role on CSI. He was told to grow a beard for the part. Man, I wish I got paid not to shave. Good job, Wil! By the way I found out about Buzznet (the site that hosts my fotolog) through Wil a few months ago. He's got some interesting pics up on his flog. I'm going to try to post a few times a week to my flog in hopes that it will become a regular habit. A little diversity in my artistic pursuits is a healthy thing. There are two new pics up since yesterday. | Permalink | Pot Rush Doctors think that smoking marijuana makes the blood rush to your head. You get the munchies too. This was the best part: After a month without cannabis - during which the volunteers agreed to remain in a clinic, with no access to marijuana - Cadet repeated the sonography. The resistance to blood flow of light and moderate users - who usually smoked an average of 11 and 44 joints per week, respectively - was starting to return to normal... But there was no improvement observed in the heavy users, who smoked an average of 131 joints per week.For all you non-math wizards, 131 joints a week is 18.7 joints a day. I've been good with math recently. All that poker playing and odds calcualtions finally paid off for something aside from knowing exactly how much I owe the chick at the store when I buy groceries. Back to my point on joints... 131 a week is a lot of pot. Let's say you sleep for six hours every night... that's an average of a joint an hour. I'd like to party with those folks! I once took 100 bong hits in a day. I smoked myself sober while watching four movies and eating an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers. | Permalink | Freelance Pauly This post is career related and with a moiety of poker content. Although I have supplemented my income over the last year playing poker, I would not declare myself a professional poker player like a lot of insecure people like to do repeatedly to anyone who will listen on the web. It's an identity issue. It's stems from low-self esteem and a rough patch of bad acne in high school. When I first started writing a decade a go, I was reluctant to say, "I'm a writer." And if you ever lived in NYC, you quickly find out that is the first question people ask you. "So, what do you do, Pauly?" "Too many drugs, but my day job is sponging off of a young, malcontent, elevator button heiress." One day everything clicked. I felt like a writer but had nothing to show for it. Thank God I finally finished my first novel while I was working at JP Morgan. I then had something to talk about. I wrote on the subway, on lunch breaks, on the shitter, and stayed up until 4am every night writing. I was clinging onto an identity that I desperately sought, even though I was working for one of the most prestigious brokerage houses on Wall Street. I wanted respect, but more importantly, I wanted to feel good about myself. Deep down, I always wanted someone out there to pay me to write. For my last steady freelance gig, I was a speechwriter. I penned pro-veteran speeches for the American Legion, even though I was not a veteran, nor a member of the American Legion. Although I felt very patriotic, I wasn't thrilled with the work. After my last Vegas trip, I was contacted by a few folks who were interested in publishing me on their websites. I was hesitant at first. I didn't want to be pegged as a "poker writer" when at heart, I was a novelist and screenwriter. My friend Haley came from a show business family. She told me that I started to generate some "buzz" and I needed to take whatever work came my way... because a few months from now, those opportunities might not be there. I took a few assignments and I am proud to say several of my pieces have been published. Online Screen Names: Hidden Tells? is an article that was published on www.pokertv.com. Take a peek. Gary Carson and Ashley Adams are also feature writers for them. In January, I signed a deal with Professional-Poker.com. They are a European website and I'm excited that I will be getting exposure on another continent. I'm under contract to write one player profile a week. So far he's published two; Johnny Chan and Annie Duke. He also accepted an article on SNG Strategy for Beginners. Here's my bio page where you can go back and see my archived articles and player profiles. I intend on writing two book reviews this month for those guys. I am currently working on three pieces for publication on both sites. Thanks guys for putting your faith in me. Stay tuned for more updates on future freelance assignments. I already blew most of my paychecks on a flights to Vegas and Miami. At least I didn't lose it at the tables on Party Poker! | Permalink | Monday, February 07, 2005
The Superbowl The highlight of the Super Bowl was winning the coin flip bet with Boy Genius. It was all downhill from there. My favorite football team has never won in my lifetime. Broadway Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III was a few years before my birth. Only wagering on the games makes it remotely interesting. I broke even. I loathe people who huddle around their TV's to rate and judge a commercial that they will see a jillion times in the next three months anyway. What's worse is all the teasers that you get to see the week leading up to the Super Bowl. I enjoyed watching the Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet to distract me from the slick commercials. Al Cant Hang called me from his party down in Ocean City. He was a little bummed out that his boys lost. It was closer than it should have been. All those turnovers killed the Eagles. I spent most of the second half playing poker online working off a bonus, barely paying attention to the game. I have a shitload of writing to do this week. I'm going to be cutting back my time online this week to work on Truckin' and whipup three or four freelance bits. | Permalink | Sunday, February 06, 2005
Coin Toss: Pauly 1, BG 0 Yep, the Super Bowl began. The coinflip was Tails and I won $5. | Permalink | Super Bowl Picks, BG-Pauly Gamblethon, Paris' Nip, and The High Life I'm going with the Eagles. I'm a Jets fan, so I hate the Pats. Boy Genius posted a few fantasy prop bets. I think this is the year for Philly. I got Philly with the points and with the money line. And I did not steal a pair of Briana's Manolos and sell them to use the money to bet on the Super Bowl... like some internet rumors have suggested. She'd shoot me before I snuck out of her apartment with a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Boy Genius and I are starting up our weekly prop bets once again. If you don't recall, we used to place a $5 prop bet on anything. We gambled on the next celebrity death, height and weight of poker bloggers, Memorial Day grosses for Shrek 2, and even bet on the WNBA. This week... we're gambling on the coin flip in the Super Bowl. He has heads. I got tails. $5 baby! Make sure you read a funny old post of mine called Tony Randall Died and I Won $5. I caught Paris Whatshername's gig on Saturday Night Live. How many times did she say, "That's hot?" She wasn't that bad, but far from good. She was seriously nipping out in one skit. I also saw two Party Poker commercials during the broadcast. They are advertising it as a "poker school" and flashed a "not a gambling site" disclaimer. That made me laugh. How will I spend the rest of my morning? Watching Meet the Press (I heard Rummy & Ted "Where's My Pants?" Kennedy are supposed to be on) while playing a little Party Poker. I also have a few freelance articles to work on this afternoon. I have three pending... a player profile on Phil Helllmuth, a piece on getting thrown out of casinos, and a book review. I'd love to finish all three by Friday. If I can find the time, I'd like to work for an hour on my fotolog and build a new gallery to post pics of my paintings. I drank Miller High Life yesterday for the first time in months. After I got knocked out hte NYC bloggers tourney yesterday, I ran down stairs and bought beer for everyone. Mas was especially pysched that I picked up the High Life. I forgot how much I enjoyed the smooth taste and cracked one open in the elevator ride back upstairs to the Blue Parrot. Gotta love twist off caps. For a domestic beer, it ain't too shabby. I've been on a Carlsberg and Stella Artois kick recently. Lastly, congrats to the Poker Geek. He came in 11th out of 1500+ people on Friday night and won a seat on the next Party Poker cruise. Way to go, dude! I'm very proud of your efforts. | Permalink | Recent Writing Music Included... 1. The Clash 2. Widespread Panic 3. The Rolling Stones 4. Charlie Hunter 5. Bob Marley and the Wailers | Permalink | The Blue Parrot Invitational "By the way Pauly, that was a sympathy fold." - Julie after she mucked her cardsThe bunch of us from NYC got together and played in the first blogger event at the Blue Parrot. We had some cancellations at the last minute. Joaquin had a gutshot wedding to attend to and F Train had to leave the city for a few days due to a personal family matter. If you get a chance, stop by his blog and give him your best wishes. ![]()
A view of Manhattan from the Blue Parrot (19 stories up) The replacements included Julie (3rd place winner in the Holiday Classic in Vegas) and Toni from the TowneHouse. Monte Christo was a no show... what happened? We missed ya, Buddy! Ugarte made his first appearance since his self-imposed exile. Have I mentioned how much fun it is to be caught in the crossfire of discursive banter on random legal topics? The Vicodin helps ease the pain. It was a poor showing on my part. I was bluffed out of a big pot by Julie. And later on, I was the first one knocked out... by my brother of all people. Expect this write up to be short and sweet. I didn't last very long. Make sure you check out the other bloggers (Derek, Mas, and Toby, and Ugarte) for their reports. The buy in was $50. NL format with no rebuys. Nine players, top three places paid. $450 prize pool. T2000 chips to start. Blinds started at 10/20. The levels were 20 minutes long for the first six and 15 minutes from then on. The Players:Level 1: Ugarte was tardy, even though we started almost 12 minutes late. We chipped him down until he arrived. The first few hands are always very tight. Derek raised. Toby called and with an ace on the board he bet out. She folded and he showed his pocket Hellmuths! (Editor's Note: That was for F Train!) Ugarte eventually arrived. We had nine players, five bloggers, four lawyers, a comedian, and Ferrari's two cats roaming around. A couple of hands later, AJs arrived. I like AJs a little more than AJo. I once said that... AJo is like your shopoholic ex-girlfriend. At some point she's going to bleed you dry. Well AJs is like her bi-polar alcoholic twin sister. She looks just as hot but she's one cocktail away from unleashing her inner Tara Ried. So I got AJs. The flop is Jxx with two clubs. Toby bet and I moved all in. Over bet? Absolutely. I just wanted to be the first one to go all in. T1540 and playing a tight game. Level 2: Blinds 20/40. I found myself heads up with Julie who was the big blind. I had AJo on the button. Of course. I raised to $200. Coach folded and Julie called. The flop: Qc-Jc-8x. I don't have any clubs. Julie checked and I bet $500. Julie thought about it and called. I put her on a flush draw. The turn: 6c. She checked. I made a mistake. I checked. I should have bet to see if she had the flush and if she didn't, I could have taken the pot down right there. The river was a rag. She bet $600. I folded. How could I call with SPTK with a possible flush and a straight on the board? Julie showed her cards. A-10o. No clubs. She flopped a double gutshot draw and missed. I was outplayed and had less than T800. I was shortstacked and went after a few pots in late position when everyone checked to me on the flop. One time I had middle pair with a flush draw and raised Julie. She thought about calling and threw her cards into the muck. "That was a sympathy fold." Might have been the funniest thing I heard from that side of the table. Level 3: Blinds 30/60. Derek raised in EP making it $200. Coach had just counted out my stack the hand before. I had T950. I pushed all in with AQs. His raise smelled like AK but I hoped he had pocket 9s or 10s. I wanted to take my chances with a coin flip if he had the pair. He took a while and eventually decided to call. As he showed AKo he said "Looks like a race." He put me on a middle pair. I was toast. I flopped an ace. With two jacks on the board by the river, our kickers played. Knocked out first. No much fun, eh? "I'm going to play a side game with myself," I muttered as I left the table. I eventually snuck out and went downstairs for a couple of six packs of beer. I opted for Miller High Life and Mas was very pleased with my choice.
The Genius of the Poker... Level 4: Blinds 50/100: Toby was knocked out by Derek. She wasn't getting any cards and pushed with a short stack. Her A2 lost to Derek's 66. He was the overall chipleader with 7 players left. Ferrari was next to go. His AK lost to Julie's KJo. She had him covered and he was bounced in 7th. Level 5: Blinds 75/150. Mas has been playing pretty tight all afternoon. He was looking for a coinflip situation with 88. Julie called with AQo and knocked out Mas. She was the new chipleader. Mas joined us in the Losers Lounge and we played $2-4 holdem. Level 6: Blinds 100/200. Toni was the shortstack and moved all in with pocket tens. Julie called her with K6 and flopped two pair! On the river a fourth heart fell and Toni had the 10 of hearts and doubled up with a flush. Level 7: Blinds 150/300. Ugarte's AJo walked into Julie's AA who limped in and then called Ugarte's raise. On a ragged flop, he moved all in. She quickly called with pocket aces and was back to being the chipleader. They held up and Ugarte joined us in the Loser's Lounge. It was now four way action.
On the Bubble Level 8: Blinds 200/400. Derek attempted a steal with 94s. Julie called with AK. He was about to join us in the Loser's Lounge until he flopped two pair. His trip 9s won and doubled up against the chipleader. A few hands later, he got a visit from the Hilton Sisters. Coach moved all in with JTs. Derek called and Coach flopped trips 10s to double up. Level 10: Blinds 400/800. Severely shortstacked Julie had 57o and moved all in against Coach's 55. She flopped a 7 and doubled up. Those guys played four handed forever it seemed. The bubble play went back and forth, while Toni silently built her stack and eventually knocked out Coach on the bubble. In the meantime in the Loser's Lounge, Mas called Ferrari's preflop raise with The Hammer! He flopped two pair and hit his boat on the turn. Good work.
Mas celebrated St. Grubby's Day early! Late Levels: Derek had to move all in with KT. He collected his third place prize when Julie called with AA. It was heads up between the two replacement players... Julie and Toni. 5:55pm EST... Toni's K8 lost to Julie's K7. 5:57pm EST...Toni's K5s beats Julie's Q7s 5:59pm EST... Julie's 92o beats Toni's K9s when she flops a 2. 6:01pm EST... With Julie's slight chip lead, the girls accept a chop. The Final Results:The tourney lasted for almost 3 and a half hours! They played four handed for almost an hour. In the cash games, I got may ass kicked and felt like Marvis Frazier back in 1986 when he got whooped by Mike Tyson. I dropped $80 in less than an hour. It was ugly I won only one hand and had all my middle pairs cracked. 88 twice, 10-10 twice and even 77 once. Toby didn't do too well either. Only Ferrari and Ugarte cleaned up in the side games.
Buckeye's monster hand I took a harsh beating all day. From the minute I woke up and played an SNG on Party Poker, I was not playing well. Even Ferrari's cat was creaming me. Thanks again to Ferrari for hosting and for everyone who attended. We are thinking about having another one in March or April. Stay tuned. Congrats to Julie, Toni, and Derek for making the money. Derek was the blogger who lasted the longest. Good job. Go check out his write up.... here. | Permalink | Saturday, February 05, 2005
Donuts News I kinda snicker at the fact that pimple-faced kids are spitting and putting glass and semen into the items that cops order when they hit up the drive thru. Just like Joe Pesci said in LW2... "They fuck you at the drive thru." Especially if you are a cop ordering Dunkin' Donuts. Only in South Carolina, right Bad Blood? I admit that over 14 years ago, when I was a pledge in my fraternity, I dipped my penis into the cup of beer that one brother (a senior who no one really liked) ordered me to get. We were at a party and I was hanging out talking to a few hotties. There are some guys who have low self-esteem (and/or a small penis) so they often try to put you down in front of other people, so it makes them look better. He was one of those guys, plus he was on a power trip... which made it worse. How could a pledge question a brother? Even though I was one of the most-liked and popular pledges and he was one of the least liked brothers... I had to follow orders. He made me look bad in front of Taylor Quinn, a cute brunette who was the only girl from Alaska that I ever hooked up with. I snuck into the bathroom and stirred his beer around for 20 seconds with my penis. I guess it might have looked funny... me holding a red Solo cup with cheap beer, fresh out of a keg in one hand and using my cock as a swizzle stick with the other. Damn, I miss the hijinks I used to get into when I went to school in Atlanta. | Permalink | Jazz Fest Trey Trey Anastasio Band will be perforning at Jazz Fest this year. Pretty cool. I'm thinking about it. I have not been since 2002. | Permalink | Friday, February 04, 2005
Last 5 Books I Saw People Reading on the Subway... 1. I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe 2. The Holy Bible 3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 4. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier 5. Cat's Eyewitness by Rita Mae Brown | Permalink | TowneHouse Thursday "Pauly, you just got beat heads up by a girl.... again!" - ToniToni hosted another round of $40 buy-in poker tournaments at The TowneHouse. I was running a little late and quickly wandered out of Grand Central Station, past the hordes of commuters heading home after a long day at work, and even snickered at the pretentious idiots smoking cigarettes and yapping on their cellphones in front of Cipriani's. When I rounded the corner by the Whitney Museum annex, which is really a public space with gaudy sculptures, I also laughed at a running inside joke some friends of mine have going. I stopped by a bodega, picked up a six pack of Red Stripe (the official beer of the Tao of Pauly), and I was ready to go. We had 11 for the first tournament (Top 4 places paying) and 10 for the second (Top 3 pay). I took 2nd place in the first and bubbled out of the other. Last night was special because Toby from Nut Heart Flush crashed the event. I told Toni about her poker blog and after taking a peek, she offered up an invite right away. For two nights in a row, I played in a tourney with Toby. By Saturday, we will have played in three in four days together! Pretty random, huh? Last night, Alma won both tournaments. And yes, I got beat by a girl.... heads up again... and blew a huge chip lead. Yeah, just another night of pink chips, bad beats, and inebriated lawyers.
Toni's pink poker chips Enjoy the pic for all your curious readers who wondered what the chips looked like. To read more... click here. | Permalink | Bohemian New York Bohemian New York is worth reading. Here's a bit: Bohemians are useless at saying goodbye; and they never want anyone else to leave. So, they don't say goodbye; they vanish, or they cease to be bohemian, suddenly or gradually assuming responsibilities they have for a long time postponed.Thanks to Jenna for the article. | Permalink | Tao of Pauly Fotolog Updated I finally updated my languishing Tao of Pauly fotolog. Three new pics so far in 2005. More to come. ![]() Mr. Dickhead returns! | Permalink | Thursday, February 03, 2005
WPBT: HammerStars "When the only tool you have is a hammer,I woke up in a good mood on Wednesday. I had an early haircut scheduled with Vinny and he did a great job. I'm losing my hair so I need all the help I can get. We talked about gambling the entire time. He and his wife go to the Borgata in Atlantic City once or twice a month. He plays table games and was asking me about hold'em, specifically about blinds. Vinny is from the old country, and in his early 60s, he still has an accent. "You gotta tella me about the blinds," he inquired. On the way to his shop, I helped an old lady cross the street. Seriously, I'm just like a fuckin' boyscout except I have access to better pharmaceuticals and don't wear knee socks and scarves. I knew my karma was going to be improved after I handed a bum $1 as I walked out of the subway en route to lunch with Briana. I was putting out a gaggle karmic vibes as early as possible. I even offered to pay for lunch. She declined, like she always does. Then again if I sold a sixth of her shoe collection on ebay, I'd get enough to buy in to the WSoP and have a little money left over for a cool pair of shades and a bottle of Vicodin. And the rumors that I stole a pair of her Manalo's and sold them to bet on the Eagles getting points is 100% inaccurate. I took the money line. I offered to stake April H. in this tournament. She wasn't going to play due to an unfunded account. I wanted to get as many bloggers playing as possible and in the mood of keeping up the positive karmic vibes, I transferred her the buy-in. We agreed on a 50-50 split of any tournament winnings. My investment almost paid off, but as long as April H. had a good time... then I had a good time. That was the entire point. Onto the tourney. I had to play at my Mom's and I left my brother's apartment. The download of YIM took forever on dial-up. I found the chat room and it was a little rowdy. I told everyone good luck and herbally prepared myself for the event. I had my notebook, a pen, and an Orange Gatorade (the official drink of the Tao of Poker). 151 players. $3000+ prize pool. I was pumped. One year ago we had 30+. We've come a long way! To read the rest of last night's tournament write up... click here. I did the craziest thing ever... with the worst hand in poker... 2-7, I beat the two best hands... A-A and K-K. I came in 62nd by the way... Derek came in 102. I'm playing in another tournament tonight at Toni's place... the TowneHouse. | Permalink | Where Have You Gone, Robert De Niro? Robert De Niro is doing credit card commercials. I know why he's doing it... American Express is one of the big corporate sponsors of his brainchild... the TriBeCa Film Festival. You can't fault him for getting a few extra bucks to fund his festival which helps out smaller films. I can live with that. But what the fuck is he doing with all the cash he's been getting to act (well that's a tough word to use since he's been phoning in his performances) in terrible movies? Over the last decade he's been slipping... hard and fast. Perhaps it's time he moves behind the camera and follow some of the paths to directing that his peers like Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood have taken and found tremendous success, instead of fucking around lobbing pot and fart jokes back and forth with Ben Stiller in another Meet the Parents vehicle. It's like going to Emeril's house for a huge feast and he ends up popping a frozen dinner in the microwave. De Niro used to be a chef. The chef. What the fuck happened? Without sounding too much like Jim Lipton, it's time for me to quickly evaluate the plunge in the film career of Rober De Niro... from Travis Bickle to Jack "Talk Thai Real Well" Byrnes... the desconstructing begins. 1968-1970: The Early Years Hi, Mom! (1970) .... Jon RubinA lot of his early work is overlooked. He was still finding his way. In Greetings he worked with acclaimed director Brian DePalma for the first time. They would make three films in the late 1960s together and hook up later on in the 1980s. The funniest early role by far was Hi, Mom! where a voyeuristic Vietnam Vet (De Niro reprising his role in Greetings) returns home to Greenwich Village and begins filming his neighbors across the street. Hijinks ensue. He also starred with Shelly Winters in Bloody Mama. Again his work was raw, but you could see glimpses of greatness. The 1970s: The Golden Age of De Niro Raging Bull (1980) .... Jake La MottaDrug films were big in the early 1970s. De Niro did two. Jennifer on My Mind was based on a novel and Born to Win was one of the first junkie films. A lot of folks think De Niro only recently started doing comedy. Nope. He had one of his most hilarious roles in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight as a lost Italian cyclist. The film was supposed to be about gangster Joey Gallo. Bang the Drum Slowly was one of my favorite films as a kid because it was about baseball. De Niro played a slow-witted back-up catcher from the South who befriends the NY Mammoth's superstar pitcher. It's actually a sad film because at the end because De Niro's character, Bruce, gets cancer. A lot of folks called this the baseball version of Brian's Song. I'm a New York guy and it's cool when you see actual New Yorkers play New Yorkers on the screen. Nothing is worse than seeing a guy from California try to do a British accent, let alone a Boston accent for two hours. New Yorkers are a smart breed. We know when the film is shot in Toronto or on a set in Hollyweird. We know what our fuckin' streets look like. We also know when some idiot is putting on an exaggerated accent. De Niro grew up in the Village, just like Martin Scorcese. Mean Streets, a film about low-level thugs hustling in Little Italy, was perfect for De Niro. Johnny Boy is my favorite De Niro role. His other roles are overrated. That film also put Martin Scorcese's name on the map. He followed those roles up with the difficult task of assuming a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II. How does one play the younger version of a role perfected by Marlon Brando? He figured it out and was the highlight of that film. To hell with Al Pacino. He kicked ass and also got an Oscar nomination and eventually won his first Oscar for playing young Vito. ![]() He continued his streak with the gritty Scorcese flick Taxi Driver and made Travis Bickle a household name. Was there anyone more scary than the scenes with Travis and a Mohawk? For you younger readers, Taxi Driver is the film where De Niro improved the infamous, "You talking to me?" scene where he slowly descends into his own insanity. He was nominated for his second Oscar, that time as a Lead Actor. Although New York, New York wasn't my favorite De Niro-Scorcese flick... he did an decent job there. In The Last Tycoon his work is overlooked probably because the critics bashed that film and it's gotten a bad rap ever since. It's not easy turning great novels into films. This adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel had some amazing actors in the film... the likes of Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, and even Tony Curtis! Elia Kazan, in the twilight of his career, directed De Niro in the film that no one I know has ever seen. Too bad. That brings us to... Deer Hunter. The Russian Roulette scene with Christopher Walken is one of the most memorable in all of cinema. He was nominated for his third Oscar in five years. Although Deer Hunter won best film, he lost the Best Actor race to Jon Voight. It's tough for me to group Raging Bull into the 1980s era of films. In my mind it belongs in the Golden Age of De Niro. Some folks consider it his best role. He definitely did the most off-camera work to prepare for the tough task of playing the volatile Jake LaMotta. He learned to box for the film and bulked up during filming so when he played an older LaMatta, he could naturally look like a guy who sat around on his ass eating and drinking. He won his second Oscar in six years, with a stretch of four nominations. He worked with Francis Ford Coppola and Scorcese twice during that Oscar run. Indeed the ten year stretch for De Niro represents the best work he's done to date. Nothing else even comes close to the strength of the perfomances he gave in Bang the Drum Slowly, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, The Godfather: Part II, Deer Hunter, and Raging Bull. 1980s: Starting to Slide We're No Angels (1989) .... NedAt this point, it's all downhill after Raging Bull with a few highlights every few years. In True Confessions, De Niro played a priest in the first of several religious themed roles he would play later in his career. He teamed up Jerry Lewis and Martin Scorcese again in The King of Comedy where he plays a stand-up comic and stalks his favorite talk show host, while desperately trying to get a spot on his show. I really enjoyed his work in Once Upon a Time in America, but it wasn't as good as it could have been. Sergio Leone did a good job directing an ensemble cast. Brazil is one of my favorite De Niro films. Written and directed by Terry Gilliam, a lot of folks don't know about this hilarious flick about a future time with serious Orwellian undertones. Since I went to a Jesuit high school, I was forced to go see The Mission, starring De Niro as a slave trader turned priest. You gotta love films about 18th century Jesuits. The Untouchables and Midnight Run were great films, but De Niro only played a small role in the greatness of the flicks. He chunked up again to play Al Capone. Too bad Sean Connery stole the scenes in that film. I loved watching Midnight Run. There are so many funny scenes in that. I am not a fan of Charles Grodin, but he kept me laughing the entire flick. His scenes with De Niro are priceless. And who could forget the awesome (intense sarcasm there) role as a group bandits on the run hide as priests in We're No Angels. The 1990s: Comeback? Halted! Casino (1995) .... Sam 'Ace' RothsteinI'm pressed for time, so I'll do this quickly. The 1990s started out great for De Niro. It looked like he was on the verge of a renaissance. He impressed me as gangster Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, which is one of my favorite Scorcese films. Joe Pesci stole the show in the film though and that launched his career. He was nominated for another Oscar in Awakenings but I thought that was more of a political nomination and the result of a thin crop of best acting performances that year... Costner and Depardieu... enough said! Then Cape Fear rolled along. Wow. A little bit of Travis Bickle kept coming out, but he kicked ass as the deviant Max Cady. Too bad Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Hannnibal Lecter. If Cape Fear came out one year earlier, he would have won his third Oscar. He did pick up his sixth and final nomination. The well has been dry ever since. He tired his hand at directing. Bronx Tale was pretty good about a relationship with a bus driver and his son, who is influenced by the local gangsters. Not too bad for his debut. he also acted in a slew of bad flicks. Only Casino and Ronin stand out for me. His role as Ace in Casino was great but it felt a little bit derivative based his his past experiences with Scorcese. In many ways, it seemed like a Goodfellas sequel. He did a good job, but Sharon Stone actually stole the spotlight for her role. Aside from a supporting role as a priest in Sleepers and a 14 second sex scene with Briget Fonda in Quentin Tarratino's Jackie Brown... that leaves... nothing left to point out. 21st Century Sell Out? Meet the Fockers (2004) .... Jack ByrnesSo what has he done in the last five years? Crap. A crappy Ed Burns flick. An awful experiment with Marlon Brando that went bad. Pot jokes with Ben Stiller. Another Analyze sequel. And a cartoon. Are you fucking shitting me? These choices are definitely not like the risks he took back in the day. Now he's thinking about a Taxi Driver sequel. Ouch. Shoot me now, Travis Bickle, while you can! | Permalink | Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Territorial Pissing in Michigan This story is for BG and Bob. This is kinda funny: Michigan law states a person cited for disorderly conduct while urinating in public is defined as one who is engaged in indecent or obscene conduct in a public place.Go Spartans! | Permalink | When I Grow Up.... I Wanna Be A Blogger! Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires. - Lao TzuEditor's Note: I wrote this for my poker blog and it's geared to new poker bloggers out there. I figured some of my tips might be helpful for all bloggers. So I'm reposting this here... I read new blogs more frequently than older ones. I understand it take time to come into your own and get excited when people fall into their own voice. Here are six quick tips for the new (or old) bloggers out there who are kinda feeling a little bit lost or caught up in a funk. I hope to get a few established bloggers to add their suggestions in next week's post when I will give you a second round of tips.
Who are you? Tell me about yourself. What is the story behind your online name? What do you do when you are not playing poker? How long have you been playing? Where do you live? What do you play? These are basic things that give your readers a chance to know you are. A lot of times people read specific blogs because they have other common interests. Define Your Objectives What is the significance of the name of your blog? What do you hope to achieve by starting a blog? What are your poker goals? Do you plan on posting about stuff other than poker? If so, please tell everyone up front. When you visit Al Cant Hang's blog, you know right away what you are getting yourself into... "Random thoughts about poker and booze. Mostly booze." Post Regularly Tell us how frequently you intend on posting. Your readers will know if they should be coming back once a week or every other day. You do not have to post everyday but you should post regularly. Set a realistic schedule and stick to it. That's how you get readers coming back. Posting a few days a week is also a way to improve your writing skills. Less Is More Leave the uber-posting to Iggy. The majority of your hits will average about 90 seconds at the most. People will be reading your blog either at work or while they are playing online. Their attention span is short. So keep your post quick and to the point. Don't say in a paragraph what you can say in one sentence. If you want to post a hand history, then figure out how to use a converter and post the results. It takes up a lot less clutter. Why publish one huge post a week, when you can break into three segments? If you do, make sure you let people know it's a two-parter or a series of three or four posts. If it's an interesting story, it's a good way to create repeat visitors. Sometimes Being Interesting.... Means Being Yourself I think it's self explanatory. Try not to create a false online character from scratch. It takes too much work and people know when you are bullshitting them. We're poker players after all, right? Be yourself. To me the most interesting blogs are people who are speaking from the heart. If you are not naturally funny but an astute thinker... let that come through in your blog. Allow your own personality to be expressed through your words. If you are a grouch, then let those rants rip. If you are a complete geek... then geek us out with your geeky observations on poker and all things geeky. If you are a fall down drunk, give Al Cant Hang a call. Spell Check Is Your Friend I'm a horrible speller. I also type super fast so a lot of the times, it's more of a typing error than spelling error. Anyway, blogger has spell check imbedded in the software. Use it. If you have a huge post, ask your wife/girlfriend/spouse/roommate to read it over. It helps get them involved in your hobby. It also shows them that blogging is not as simple as they think and that you are very serious about improving your poker play. OK, I'm pressed for time. I hope this helps. I just came up with all these off the top of my head. I hope to write about more specific tips on blogging next week. If you want help privately, feel free to email me. If you are a blogger and have any suggestions, send them my way so I can compile a list of tips to publish next week. I'll see everyone tonight for the WPBT event. In the meantime, visit Tony Pierce's blog. He has several kick ass tips on blogging. He wrote a hilarious post on how to leave comments. Check both out. Editor's Note: Tony Pierce stopped by and was cool enough to give me the correct link to his post on how to blog. Thanks dude. | Permalink | 5 Recent Addictions... 1. Degrassi: The Next Generation 2. Poker Stars 3. The Grateful Dead Movie 4. Briana's perfume 5. Orange Gatorade | Permalink | College Hoops Roundup Here are my Top 6 teams... according to my observations over the last three weeks. 1. UNC 2. Illionois 3. Syracuse 4. Boston College 5. Arizona 6. Wake Forest I picked 3 teams that are not in the Top 5. Waiting for the big UNC-Duke game. Ohhh... can't wait. | Permalink | Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Random Brain Dump: Poodle Washing, Overalls, and Stock Tips Someone told me they had a dream and they figured out their calling in life. They were going to start a dog washing business... and they woke up the next day and tried to buy the domain: washmypoodle.com. He was crushed when he found it a similar business already existed. Maybe if some parents loved their kids as much as their pets... then their own offspring wouldn't be running around with trucker hats on slightly askew and pants baggy enough to hide both Olsen Twins, Mischa Barton, and a sack of potatoes in the left pants leg. ![]() What's the deal with the lead singer from the Scissor Sisters? I mean, they got one decent song but why overalls? I've been anticipating an ugly trend in the immediate future... hispters on the L train jumping around in overalls. Could this be the overall anti-urban revolution? I remember back in the summer of 1997 I drove cross country with Senor when I moved to Seattle. One of the few things he wanted to do along the way... was to buy overalls. We went to a Wal Mart in Wyoming and he didn't see anything he liked. I thought it was weird but hey, I'm not one to come between a man and his overalls. When I dropped him off at Sea-Tac airport after our two week journey... I felt very sad. He wasn't going back to NYC with overalls. Chicago, Nebraska, Colorado, Jackson Hole, Spokane... not one place had the overalls he was looking for. To this day, I dunno if he ever got his wish. Thank God that fashion is cyclical. Right? Hold onto to your dreams Senor... overalls are coming back! I was listening to old jazz CDs (Charlie Parker is the man) this morning while I slowly read my 87 new emails (not including gmail). That was in just 6 hours. Christ. Do you know how much email I get each day? And imagine if AOL was blocking most of that spam. A few still slip through the cracks. I'm also on a lot of investor email mailing lists and I get "stock tips" for time to time. Then again, how hot is that stock tip if I'm getting in an email? For the most part I have all my money out of the stock market. I think I have more cash floating around in my various online poker accounts then invested in American stocks. The one stock I'm riding strong is a Canadian energy stock. Aside fron hat, my cash is sitting in a few offshore bank accounts. The big question for me is... Philly and the money line or the Pats and the points? I hope to consult my panel of pro football scholars this weekend. Of course I should be asking Haley and Jenna... since they took fifth in my football pool this year. Stay tuned for that post. Anyway.... I've been on a small mini-rush playing poker the last few days. It feels weird because I am winning again. Seriously, I cannot tell you how much better I feel and can sleep at night when I go to bed after a winning session. And when I wake up in the middle of a losing streak... all I want to do is shoot myself in my thigh. If you don't know... I lost all the money that Briana staked me just after Turkey Day. I was getting cold cards and then I made a slew of mental errors. Ironically sandwiched in between was a profitable run to Vegas. That's when I realized I play better poker... live and in person... than online. I've been trying to play as much as I can since that relevation. This week I have no less than invites to four tournaments (well, I organized one...). I'd like to think I am good enough to win all four. Wednesdays tournament is going to be tough. I playing with my fellow poker bloggers online in the first WPBT event on Poker Stars. Last time was had over 130 players. On Thursday, Toni is hosting a tourney at the TowneHouse. Saturday is the Blue Parrot Invitational... and all the NYC poker bloggers will be playing in that event. Ugarte is hosting a Super Bowl tourney out in Crooklyn. I'm a definite maybe for that one. I'm done with blogging today. I'm going to write an article on Annie Duke. | Permalink | Doggie Style Only in Cambodia, eh? Man's Best Friend is a funny read... about a woman who caught her husband in bed... with the family dog. I wonder if she needs a good divorce lawyer. It's a must read for all you animal lovers out there. | Permalink | Michael Jackson Trial Betting Odds I'm getting in on this action... Wacko Jacko Mis-trial (odds 2/1)Lines courtesy of My-Bookie.com. | Permalink | Recent Writing Music... 1. The Grateful Dead 2. Billie Holiday 3. Ben Harper 4. Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon 5. Sidney Bechet | Permalink | HOME
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