Thursday, December 28, 2006

Early Arrival

I got to the airport two hours before my scheduled flight. I'm an airport arrival nerd these days. I waited in the check-in line behind a bevy of perky high school girls. I think they were a soccer team from Virginia. Two of the girls were smoking hot. I popped a half-a-chubby in line when I imagined that at least one of them was a lesbian. I'd pay top dollar to see any of those high school nymphs chow box with Keira Knightely.

I have a lot of time to kill between now and boarding time so I'll write a quick ten minute post. I'm sitting at the wifi hotspot in JFK airport in between a business traveler with bad coffee breath and a well-dressed single mother with an adorable kid that asked too many questions.

"Why are our flights always delayed?"
"Mommy, why does your phone go off all the time?"
"Why do I have to take my shoes off at security?"
"Where's my bagel?"
"Where's Grandma's Christmas gift? I left it in the car."
"Where's our luggage?"

I'm listening to James Brown with headphones, curtesy of GMoney, who gave me some amazing music a few weeks ago. That included.... the Godfather of Soul James Brown. Earlier in the week James Brown and former President Ford passed away. Which man do you think Hollyweird wants to make a movie about? And it's not America's only unelected President. Poor Ford. His life was not exciting enough.

Spike Lee will be directing the James Brown biopic for Imagine Entertainment. I loved the blurb in Variety stating that Spike Lee will be doing the movie before or after the squeal to Inside Man. I guess that depends on if they can find someone worthy (and bankable) to play James Brown. I still say Brad Pitt would be perfect for the role. A well tanned Brad Pitt.

Christmas with the family was average. I wrote for most of the morning and then ate at my mother's which was a chore. There was only five of us at dinner and she made food for 10 people. Too many entrees. There was a pot roast, a Chicken Royale dish, a huge dish of baked ziti, shrimp scampi with pasta, a baked ham, and some sort of potatoes au gratin. Then there was a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. And not to mention the Christmas cookies from the Jewish deli around the corner. The butter cookies dipped in chocolate are always the highlights of my Christmas.

The best part of Christmas 06 was the Jets pulling out a big win on the road, in the rain, against the Fish. The Jets are one more win away from the playoffs which means they'll blow it on Sunday against the hapless Raiders. Ironically, I'll be in the Bay Area on Sunday spending New Year's Eve in San Francisco, so I'll get a chance to see the game on local TV.

Of course last night, the Knicks needed triple OT to beat the Detroit Pistons as Stephon Marbury dropped 41 even though Rip Hamilton scored 51 in a losing effort. The Knicks are the best bad team in the NBA but they have a dim future with their piss poor ownership and management that blows donkey cock.

My haircut yesterday was a success. I gave Vinny the Barber a B+ for his work. He had a picture up on the wall taken at the finish line of the NYC Marathon. He ran it in 4:22. He showed me his split times. He kept a 10:01 minute/mile pace. Remarkable. And he's 61 years old. He wants me to run one with him next year. I told him, "Only if someone offered me $10,000 to do it."

Last Friday, I was given a last minute assignment from a new client. I have never written for them before and although the piece was gambling related (the leveraged buy out of Harrah's Entertainment), it was not about poker. They wanted it in less than a week and about 800-1000 words in length. The editor reads my blogs all the time, so he gave me complete artistic freedom. I worked on that piece all through Christmas and got several quotes from experts.

After rewriting the piece for a third time on Wednesday morning, I finally emailed the article which topped over 1400+ words. I got an email within an hour after I mailed it. The editor liked it so much that he bumped it up to the feature and cover story of the upcoming issue. Yikes. That's like hitting a HR in your first MLB at bat. Definitely a nice ego boost to end the year, especially because it's mainly a non-poker piece which I hope leads to more non-poker work in 2007.

Next stop is Long Beach airport. Nicky wants to go see a Phish cover band tonight in LA. After catching about three hours of sleep in the last two days, that's a definite... maybe.

Last 5 Movie Repeats I've Seen...
1. Hooisers
2. She's All That
3. Ocean's 11
4. Rocky
5. Dazed and Confused

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