Christmas in missoula

I've had a great fun week here in Missoula with the fam. it's the first time I've been here since thanksgiving 2005, so it was cool to come hang in the ole MT! kate and I drove up from LA on the 22-23 and are driving back down tomorrow. Lots of photos on my flickr page from the visit. we hung with the fam, friends, went on hikes with the dogs, watched some good movies, had a great visit with our old family friends on christmas eve and finally today got to see my bff lewis! it was great!! I'm definitely looking forward to getting home though. I'm sure life in NY has slowed down since I left. ;)
Happy new year everyone! Catch you in 2008!!

Great travel karma!

So, this morning, get to newark airport around 11:30 for my flight out to LA at 1. I had to go through chicago and there was bad weather so my flight out of there is delayed by at least a half hour. I had a really close connection (like 45 minutes)and there was no way I would have made that. So being the very high statused traveler that I am :), American says, how about if we put you on a nonstop flight out of JFK. We'll pay for the taxi over there (it's about $100)and you can have a biz class seat. DONE!! So now I get a luxurious non stop flight no changing planes in biz class. I dont' know how I end up with this ridiculously good travel luck but I certainly enjoy the benefits!

RAS

Another shout out to the Lewdogg for pointing this one out to me but anyone who refuses to use their PIN number to get cash out of an ATM machine will get a kick out of RAS syndrome... Click..

Hoboken clarification

Ok, just to clear something up, my policy about hoboken has not changed, the policy still stands that since I have already paid $1033 to the municipal court of Hoboken, I will not spend any more money in Hoboken until the time passes that I would have given the city that much in sales tax. I figure the boycott will last about 7-8 years. Take that Hoboken!!

My weekend

This weekend was one for the books. On Friday, I was out for a little bit. My cousin Billy (The BK Broiler) and his lovely lady friend Emily came up Saturday afternoon. We did a little shopping, sight seeing, had a nice dinner and then they hopped the train back to NJ. It was fun. Then Saturday night one of my friends had a fun holiday party in Hoboken. There was some serious drama that insued with a trip to the ER, 5am text messages, etc. There's no need to get into that, let's just say it was dramatic. I pulled my groin muscle too (nothing to do with the drama, but it still was no fun.)
Then yesterday, I watched Brett Favre lead the charging Pack to a 12-2 record! Then, my awesome Aunt Mary and a bunch of her family members came to town to see the Radio City Christmas SPECTACULAR and let me tell you, it was. The whole thing was a lot of fun. Dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner (the singing waitstaff) after that and then I brought her down to my hood for a quick tour and pint. After 2 at d.b.a, I put her in a taxi back uptown and hit the hay. I'm SO glad it's almost christmas vacation. 10 days off is really going to hit the spot!

On strike - thoughts about TV

I haven't really mentioned much about the strikes that are happening but I'm right in the middle of all of them here at Times Square. If i look out my window right now I can see the Viacom freelancers strike (story...). Earlier in the month, I was right above the Broadway stagehands strike (our office is right above the production of Legally Blonde - which is great by the way, and back up and running!) and there are Writers Guild strikes going on all over the place.
Now I watch almost no scripted TV, I'll catch an occasional episode of The Office or Law and Order here and there but I don't have any fictional scripted shows that I actually really like. I do, however know a lot of people who LOVE their scripted shows. Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, ER (although I don't know why you still watch it STEVE). I'm really curious to see how this strike will change viewership of shows like that. Will it drop off once the new episodes run out? Will they be able to get their audiences back after they've lost them??
The shows that I really do like, Daily Show, Colbert, Conan, also have writers and it's really interesting to see how this strike has affected them. Daily Show and Colbert generally have just about as much influence on elections and politics as the other legitimate news networks do. This is a huge election season and they've missed a number of big events so far. In addition, this is a busy season for big movie and book releases and everyone and their dog goes onto these late night shows to promote their new projects. I wonder if sales of both of those will drop off because they weren't able to go on and smile nicely and say what a great film/book they have. Finally, a lot of these shows succeed by building momentum (see Colbert's presidential bid that dragged on for weeks) and involve their audiences to keep them coming back. Usually the most they take off at a time is a few weeks. Again, with the months long break we've now seen because of this strike, can these shows rebound and find their audiences again? I hope so, but after watching TV work from the inside out for 4 years, I think this strike might have a lasting impact on the way TV is made, sold, presented and viewed in the future.

They're baaaaack!!

Who else is as excited about the return of the American Gladiators as I am!?! preview is tonight!! My favorite two from the 1990's were Nitro and Elektra. They were unreal. Anyone have any other good oldies but goodies they remember??

To bring back some of the glory who remembers all these competitions??? The Eliminator was UNBELIEVABLE! The HUMAN CANNONBALL!!!? Doesn't get much better than that.
* Assault
* Powerball
* Breakthrough and Conquer
* Joust
* Human Cannonball
* The Wall
* Atlasphere
* Hang Tough
* Swingshot
* The Maze
* Sky Track
* Gauntlet
* Pyramid
* Tug-O-War
* Whiplash
* Snapback
* The Eliminator

I can hardly wait for 9 pm.

My gig

If anyone is interested in seeing what I do... watch these. They're super cool.

questions answered and progress

My Aunt Beth, a new commenter posed a couple questions, so I have some answers. My favorite neighborhood bar is called dba. it is right around the corner from my apartment. The one they went to, across the street and down from the Hell's Angels is called The Edge. Also fun cause they have darts (I love darts), but I like dba more just because they have something like 500 different beers. Amazingly enough they don't have Guinness though. Plus they have a dba cam (click here!) that you can log onto and see what's happening at the bar. That's fun too!
Good question about the big chocolate bar. I had a hershey kiss just this morning, and I think whoever said it was richer and creamier chocolate might be right. Whatever it is, it's really good.
So I've been in Physical therapy for my thumb for the last few weeks. Yesterday we had a big breakthrough. Basically the bottom joint of my thumb wasn't moving AT ALL for the last 6 months. Well, after 4 sessions of having it WRENCHED every which way, I now have about 1/2 cm of movement in that joint and yesterday we got one of the ligaments in the joint to pop. Which, evidently is a good thing! My thumbs up isn't quite as pathetic as it used to be!

Jewish burlesque anyone?

So last night, my friends Allie, Rich, Mike and I went to the most RANDOM event. A jewish burlesque show called Menorah Horah! In honor of hannukah of course. It was at this little bar on the Lower East Side. There were AWFUL MCs (as you should have at every good burleseque show) and silly skits like eating latkes on stage and a routine from flashdance! One of the MCs looked a lot like Kid Rock (minus the white trashness) and the other was so puntastically unfunny it crossed back over into funny.
Then we went back out to my favorite neighborhood bar d.b.a. for a night cap after that was over. Good times!

Sweet Maddy

Sweet Maddy
Originally uploaded by akeegangu

Maddy!

I tried to post a pic of Maddy a few minutes ago, but it didn't work. Here it goes again. She's the cutest little bundle of love!

Deal or no Deal

So I am an avid watcher of Deal or no Deal. Has anyone ever noticed that they always open just ONE too many? They get to a good high deal, then they open one more and BAM, the big one is out. And they go from $18,000 to $350.

kisses vs minis

Since it is the holiday candy season, I pose a question: Is it the shape that makes Hershey kisses taste so much more delicious than the milk chocolate mini candy bars? It's the same chocolate, yet there's something about a kiss that's just better. And on a similar note, I'd like to commend Hershey for keeping that "we wish you a merry christmas" Kiss commercial on for so many years. I've seen it a few times this year and it's a great classic. Bravo for not trying to upgrade something that is really awesome!

ps.

I challenge anyone to make it through the below article without choking up. if you can, I'll be suspicious that you HAVE NO HEART! hehe

And they said he should retire...

Guess he showed them...

Madelyn Keegan Skufca

Big congratulations to my cousin Kim and her husband Casey!! They welcomed a new family member last night, Madelyn Keegan Skufca. She was born late last night, 7lb 6oz and 21". I can't WAIT to meet her. Welcome to the world little Maddy!!

this is tremendous...

Thanks for the tip Lewis!!

Maroon 5

If anyone was thinking about buying a new album for anyone for a nice holiday gift, I would recommend the new Maroon 5 album. I just got it over the weekend and I'm really enjoying it. I've only been through it about 1 1/2 times but I'm thinking it might belong in that rare "start to finisher" category. You know, where you listen to an album from start to finish without skipping any songs. There aren't too many of them. Scissor Sisters first CD, Backstreet Boys Millenium are 2 good examples. heehee