Around the Horn: Vegas Reprise, Lost SF Disptaches, and NFL Final Four

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

 I've been blogging under the influence and have been an arrogant prick since 2002. But you knew that already. I didn't need to call a press conference with Oprah to reveal what everyone already knew. That's what Twitter is for.

If you haven't noticed, I'm actively blogging again. I had been on a steady decline. From 2006-2009 I averaged more than one post a day. In 2010, I slowed down to five days a week. In 2011, it was down to only four. In 2012, I only published 25 times (15 posts over the first 11 months and 10 times in December when I wanted to pimp some shit).

Thus far in January... 16 posts and 2 link dumps. I have no idea if I can keep up this output, but I'm posting something at least five days a week, if it is experimental word diarrhea. Ass blasters in word form.There's a method behind this madness. Some of you might have figured out the "why" already.

Anyway, this link dump is devoted to this week's output.

I took a business trip to Las Vegas last weekend and penned four post about returning to the desert paradise and black hole of humanity...

Early Birds - Off to the circus and making the all-too familiar drive from LA to Vegas with my girlfriend; work before play or play before work?

14 Alaskan Crabs - Welcome back to the land of over-indulgence

Tax Exempt Hustlers - Vegas lacks culture; terrible environment for writers so I chose to live in shallow L.A.; door-to-door Mormons and my future as a bible salesmen

Stardust - Po-Mo Depression, flu scares, ghosts, parking lot voyeurism, and time to go home

Upon my return to L.A., I basked in the warmth of the SoCal sunshine. I was fascinated with a potential Lohan trainwreck in a piece from the New York Times.

Echo Canyon - If you haven't figured it out yet, Lohan is Hollywood. We're obsessed. We're smitten. We're repulsed. Our fascination with Lohan's rise/decline mirrors our fascination with the demise of Hollywood.

The other night inspiration struck and I cranked up some jazz music (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Thelonious Monk) and scribbled down...

Emo Pandas, Jesus Fence, and Jack's Obituary - Spying for Panda Express, Jesus Freaks in my alley, and homage to my two favorite speed freaks: Dylan and Kerouac

2012 was a strange year because I wrote a lot but erased most of it. Delete. I barely published on the web especially here. I found a couple of unfinished drafts that were never birthed into Tao of Pauly posts; I decided "what the fuck?" and finally published those "lost posts" along with an explanation on why (sort of)...

Orphans in San Francisco - Some things I wrote last year when I lived in S.F., but for some reason or another, I never hit the orange publish button. It's three smaller pieces... 1) the local neighborhood coffeeshops vs. Starbucks, 2) walking around Sea Cliff totally faded to the tits, and 3) a bum and a drunk hipster ask me for a lighter in front of a dive bar.

I had a profitable weekend in Vegas backing the Niners and Seachickens (lost but covered by a half a point!), bu I got killed betting on the NBA. I revealed that slide in a post on Ocelot Sports

Cold Streak: January NBA Malaise - Losing streaks are never fun, but I learned a lot from my days as an online poker grinder... take some time off, re-evaluate, plug the leaks, return to ABC basics, tweak the game plan, and then get back into the fight! 

P.S. I took a half of day off of NBA betting before I couldn't pass up an amazing opportunity backing the Miami heat against the head-case LA-LA Lakers.

Of course, it's down to four teams in the NFL. I wrote something about the upcoming games for Ocelot Sports...

Betting Preview: AFC Championship - Baltimore at New England

Betting Preview: NFC Championship - San Francisco at Atlanta

Over at Coventry Music, I posted a few things of note...

Nirvana 10/19/91 - This is a video of Nirvana's gig at Tree's Lounge in Dallas. Kurt Cobain crowd surfs and gets into a fight with a bouncer.

Huey Lewis - Ah, nothing says KEY BUMP better than Huey Lewis.

Andy Kaufman and Elvis - No one did a better imitation of Elvis. No one. Dammit. I would have loved to see what Andy could have done with Twitter if he were alive today.

Shut Up and Listen to the Music Play - Inspired by a Top 10 list from Rolling Stone about annoying asshole behavior at concerts, I shared my thoughts on a huge pet peeve... drunks talking during concerts. Show some respect for the musician... and shut the fuck up.

Happy Birthday, Janis - Today would have been Janis Joplin's 70th borthday

If you're a Twitter-aholic, feel free to add @CoventryMusic, @OcelotSports and @TaoFear.

That's it for now. So... GTFOOMO!