Hey there. Sorry for the delay, but I've actually been having something of a life lately. To recap:

Tuesday (see below): Sat in "Late Show with David Letterman" audience. I've written a few paragraphs about the experience, and may post it on my site eventually. If you want to read it now, email me. Later that night I went to the re-opening of "The Rocky Horror Show" starring erstwhile Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach as Riff Raff. I intend to write a review of sorts, haven't done it yet. For camp value it was worth seeing again. That Sebastian sure can work a crowd--woo hoo. And yes, he still has hair.

Wednesday: Happy Halloween! Experienced what I would call my first official taste of Manhattan nightlife. Dressed as a Hanson fan (that was hard), and went to see a band called "Satanicide" at the Mercury with my housemate Kent. Satanicide is sort of a hyperkinetic version of Spinal Tap, a spot-on parody of an 80's-era hair band, including roadies, over-imbibing fans and buxom groupies. You might protest that it's been done before, but these guys manage to make it feel fresh, and their songs are pretty rockin. Plus, they do flawless covers of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and that I-haven't-got-a-stitch-to-wear Smiths song (don't ask how they manage to shoehorn these decidedly unmetal songs into the set...). Oh, and bonus is that I had my first official celebrity sighting. After the show we went back to Brooklyn and had a drink at The Boat, where Kent's girlfriend works, and since that place was pretty dead (all the I-hate-Halloween people were there), we went over to the Roxy down the street & had another drink. Three bars, two boroughs and three drinks. A successful night!

Thursday: Feeling the night before. Didn't do much, but I recall that nachos were involved at some point. Oh yeah, also suffered through all twelve innings of game 5 of the world series (on television). Fucking Yankees.

Today (well, officially yesterday as I type this). Went to Monsters Inc. OK, I admit that a large motivation for going right away was to see the Star Wars Episode II trailer, but I wanted to see the Monster movie too. Thank god, because the trailer was a total dud. Sure it was neat to see a couple of new environments, but no music?? Just seeing the images with no sound (besides the Vader breathing, which was interesting for about five seconds) completely killed the excitement. We know it will be visually cool, but I want to get ready for an epic adventure, a sweeping love story--it's a fawking space opera, dammit! With no music the whole thing falls flat. Oh well, I hear there will be another couple trailers coming out soon, so as long as I don't have to go see "Shallow Hal" to see them...

Oh yeah, and the movie? Pretty cute! I laughed, I cried. But remember, I cry at those MasterCard commercials with the two guys going to see the baseball games all across the country, so keep that in mind.

News flash! I went to see the David Letterman show today, which will be broadcast tonight, 11:30pm Eastern/Pacific, 10:30 central. I'm not sure you can see me, but I was sitting I think two rows behind the band, right in front of Felicia, the guitar player. there's an older woman on the aisle, then my friend Matthew, then me. I'm wearing a leather coat. I'll check it out and see if I'm visible--they did an audience camera shot right at the end of the last commercial break before Laurie Anderson came on.

More later...

After about 10 minutes of half-hearted web research, I've self-diagnosed my tummy ache. I'm pretty sure I've got Anthrax. Ha ha! No no, just kidding. I seem to have a textbook case of Cholelithiasis, or gallstones. About 1 in 1000 people get gallstones and never know it, but in about 20% of cases there are symptoms of abdominal pain in the upper right quadrant of the torso, often more noticeable upon deep inhalation and tenderness when palpatating the area. Bingo. Who needs health insurance when you've got WebMD(tm)? Anyway, about 90% of these cases clear up on their own, though complications may lead to infection and/or severe pain ("acute cholecystitis"). The treatment? Eat less fat. Sigh.

The heat is on. Not as in a heist picture--when the fuzz is closing in on our loveable, roguish anti-heroes--but in the most literal sense. The boiler has been fired up, and heat is oozing from the radiators in our home, keeping us from freezing to death (or more accurately, from having to wear a sweater). God bless 19th century technology.

I feel I should record for posterity that for the last couple of days I've had a pain in -- well I'm not sure what it is, exactly. It's just under the bottom of my rib cage, just off-center to my right side. Spleen? Gall bladder? It kind of feels like a gut thing as opposed to a muscle thing or a stomachache. It doesn't hurt constantly--or very badly--but is always there. I can feel it mostly when I take a deep breath or poke my fingers under the bottom part of my ribs. Every time I do either, I hear that old joke: "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Well, don't do that." And me without medical insurance. Figures.

Friday Nell and I went into Manhattan to see "From Hell" in the East Village. It's based on a dense & heavily annotated graphic novel depicting the murders of Jack the Ripper and positing an interesting theory about the who and why behind the carnage. It made me rather nostalgic for the ghost stores and mystery movies in the 70's, like another great Ripper film, "Murder by Decree." These movies were far more plentiful than they are now, until "Halloween" introduced the slasher film to America. Though that was a decent film & arguably the best of it's genre, it literally opened the "bloodgates" for the Jasons and Freddys that hacked apart artful suspense and "whodunnit" puzzlers like so many teenage babysitters. These days we have "thrillers" or horror movies, but few true mysteries. "From Hell" is a welcome return to that genre. I've seen it written up as horrendously violent and gruesome but it's just not true--those reviews are proof that the implication of violence and gore is far more effective than actually showing it. Hats off to the Hughes brothers for a great spooky night at the movies.

In other movie news, I watched "Citizen Kane" on DVD this weekend. I've probably seen it four or five times now, but it's just so great I never get tired of it. Every shot is like a painting of light and the performances are just out of this world--I like it more every time I see it. The supplemental materials on the DVD make it worth buying, or at least making sure you get a 5-day rental & set aside the time to watch everything, including the two separate commentaries--by Peter Bogdanovich and Roger Ebert.

Tonight, my cinematic life continues as housemate Joe and I intend to see "Waking Life," Richard Linklater's latest.