Proof that once is never enough, even when it comes to spending time behind bars, this man got arrested for his thirteenth (13!) DWI. My god, man. With all those fines and everything you could probably afford a private driver by now.

I believe I’ve mentioned before that many of the articles I forward along to you are sent to me by my mother. She has the time to peruse the New York Times and BBC and the like and sends along things she thinks I’ll find interesting (Note: I probably have the time to do this too, but instead fill my hours with TV, video games, and staring at some social networking site or another). This article on a woman who’s stalking Raymond Chandler - it’s okay, it’s for a book! - is no exception. My mother forwarded it along to me and for any Chandler lover like myself, it’s an interesting preview of a book that I may end up reading. The book’s about a novelist’s travels through LA stalking Chandler and his wife’s spirit. It’s nonfiction so far as I can tell, and looks interesting.

What this made me think of however is the purpose of this blog (what, you thought it was just a collection of links from my mother and ramblings about the New York Knicks?) - mostly because my opinions are very important and you should care about them. Anyway, this got me thinking about the lengths people go to get inspired, the places they’re willing to travel to write. I understand that this author, Judith Freeman, has a very personal journey to go through in order to, shall I say, exercise the demon of Chandler that dwells within her. I can understand that (one day I may have to do that with Raymond Carver), but it’s amazing the lengths she’s willing to go to do so. The synopsis describes the work almost as if it was a pained, frantic journey. This is my type of writing. It gives the idea and the feeling that a life is enough inspiration. While Freeman is inspired by a life that’s not really her own, it’s still just a life and she incorporates it with her own crazy journey. It’s the idea that you just need to get out there and live in order to get what you need to write. It does annoy me a little that she had to create such an extravagant tale or mystique in order to be inspired, but this is less about inspiration and more about exercising her demons as I said before (or so it seems - remember, I enjoy blanket statements about things I do not know anything about). But more than anything, I like that she’s out there writing the good write. Out there being key.
(more…)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Maybe it’s ’cause it’s Friday and thus the good brew is on my mind, but I found this article on the greatest drinking stories of all time to be quite entertaining. It, in fact, made me want to have a beer (wait, I already wanted a beer). These drinkers sound like my type of people. Week long parties? Where do I sign up? I’m one of those “hangover be damned” fellows who likes to chase a hangover with a nice Rose with brunch (can’t stand Bloody Marys). Yeah, these historical figures are my types. Maybe even my ancestors.

While scrolling through Deadspin as I do all the time (literally, I have very little else to do at my job usually), I came across this little gem and thought it was pretty awesome. I mean, sure, maybe it was a little dangerous, but I think it was okay. After all it was a 47 year old woman driving the car, not some youth who didn’t know how to get along side a car so that her daughter could lean out the window and take a beer from a car next to it. Not that that’s a hard thing to do.

I feel as though no punishments should be handed out. It was all good in the hood. No one was hurt. If there’s grass on the field, play ball. (Wait, what? And actually, that’s technically wrong -though now righted, slightly).

Check out this Deadspin link and tell me you don’t agree. Sure, it’s just a Miller Lite and he’s still a big tool. But I enjoyed it. Especially ’cause he’s at Packers game of all things.

In-laws encouraging people not to buy albums of said rocker who is married to their son, new news. Isn’t the story supposed to be that the parents just want to live off the riches of the younger generations and don’t care what they do as long as they’re cashing in on their cash cow (interestingly enough I believe that the phrase cash cow was used in last night’s Weeds with hilarious results). From what I remember about Elvis and Johnny Cash (note: remember means this is complete hearsay or I learned it from some sort of semi-fictionalization of their stories with famous actors), people told them to lay off the drugs but never told the fans to lay off their records. The father-in-law must be some sort of economist because he’s basically asking the fans for economic sanctions against Amy Winehouse (seriously, with a name like Winehouse who isn’t an alocholic?). He’s attacking the supply side (I believe). Anyway, good stuff.

There’s a lot of jokes I could tell about this one. I know that sounds surprising. Who tells jokes about a dude dieing in a car crash? Well, when that dude is Eddie Griffin (in, not ith), there are, unfortunately, a multitude of jokes you could tell. Don’t worry, they’re all distasteful so I won’t sully your ears with them, but lets just say he’s had some trouble driving before (read: drunk driving crash while he was watching porn on his in-dash dvd player and masturbating) and also, crashed into a train. A train. Ouch.

The man was a talent, no doubt, and I always enjoyed picking him in the late rounds of my fantasy NBA 2k7 drafts so I could frustrate my cousin with his somewhat inexplicable shot blocking prowess and his often strange ability to hit three pointers, but the man had some troubles to say the least. The toxicology report hasn’t come back yet, but I’m guessing something was involved. You don’t just decide to drive past a barrier of a train (though admit it, you’ve thought of going through those things at some point - I mean the train never really seems to come and often comes at a slow pace - am I right? *Crickets*), but either way, tragedy strikes again in the world of talented athletes.

Because there is no beer and you’re going to a soccer match. [via Deadspin]

I’m really going all over the place this morning. CNN, Metro, Wired, Cabinet and now US Magazine. That’s right. Another DWI for Miss Lohan. She’s been in cuffs more times than my entire crew combine. I felt a little bit of my soul leaving it’s hollowed compound deep within my body when I tagged this post with News, but I really didn’t know what else to tag it. So I added Scat. My favorite part of the article, down at the bottom, the commitment to sobriety paragraph. Wooooooooo, doggy.

Seriously though, hire a driver. I’ll drive you. I’ll stay sober all night and drive you around. I really don’t mind. If it will rid the daily news of your presence, I will drive you around. Hell, I’ll drive you all around. Is it that bad to have a personal driver? I stay sober for friends and I sure as hell will do it for pay. Seriously, their publicist should be on top of this I feel. Or someone. At least to spare us the unflattering mug shots.