I want to apologize to my fellow ComedySportz players if I sounded angry and frustrated after the show last night. A few things during the show really set me off, and I took things harder than I should have. Sorry, folks! I am better now. :-)

Have a great Sunday!

Temporary end to flux . . .

. . . well, I will give it the weekend off, at least. Perhaps.

I did not get a job I was hoping for today. Yes, I am disappointed, but thankful for the oportunity and that a good friend of mine worked hard behind the scenes on my behalf. So it is back to square three (square one being no prospects and square two being that job I recently left behind me, and square three being job hunting while working at the high school).

No ComedySportz performing this weekend, though I signed up. Sometimes that happens.

Okay, back to Bookworm. Have fun this weekend!

Holy smokes, I don't post for a few days and my commentary section turns into a cesspool of jokes in poor taste. Made anonymously, to compound things. Thank you, ThatGirl, for your voice of reason. And your byline.

Gotta get ready for work now (and no, I cannot blog while at work). I will have limited home computer time for the next week and a half, so postings may be minimal. But everything is going well, as I have said goodbye to a thankfully temporary place of interim employment, have a better opportunity on the horizon hopefully, am having fun in dad mode, and am getting closer every day to the DVD release of "Seinfeld."

Oh, yes. You should go see "Napoleon Dynamite." Coasterama and I saw it on Sunday. It is, in pitch terms, "'Stranger Than Paradise' meets 'Bottle Rocket' meets an intelligent version of 'Revenge of the Nerds.'" To paraphrase Napoleon, "Just go see it. Jeez! You're ruining my life if you don't."

Positive vibes to you all!

Tonight at ComedySportz, a fellow CSzer will be celebrating her birthday (Happy birthday!) at the show, bringing around 20 or so friends along. It should be a blast! So should WWE Unforgiven, which I am going to see live in Portland at the Rose Garden. I may follow that up with the first night of karaoke at The Hideaway, but that remains to be seen, depending on time arriving home and seediness of said bar.

Must run . . . full Saturday . . . see lots of you tonight . . . have a great weekend, everyone!

Kung Fu Karaoke last night was . . . odd. At least for a while. Too many people, too much alcohol in those people, and our fun little group of five people. Just as we were about to leave at around 12:30, the KJ told us that all of the other singers but one had left, and the bar crowd had bailed. We stayed for one more song each. My selections were "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones, The Troggs' "Wild Thing," and the original Bobby Fuller Four version of "I Fought the Law."

Tonight makes three nights in a row of karaoke.

Nick Lowe in Portland on Tuesday! This will be the first time I have seen him live since he opened for Cars (that's right, no "The") on their "Panorama" tour at the Cow Palace circa 1981ish.

Quick karaoke update

Last night at Peabody's was mellow and therefore fun. The place was pretty empty for awhile, then there was a short run, but not not enough to keep the KJ going past 1:00. For the first time in recent memory, Mr. Fun was not there with his private stash of discs, so I sang three songs I have never tried before that our regular KJ has. I started off with surely the most depressing song of the evening, Leonard Cohen's "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy"; next was James' "Laid," which I think I pulled off pretty well, even with those bizarre high notes; and I finished off with The Scorpions' "The Zoo," which, although I did only somewhere between alright and okay on, received an enthusiastic, seemingly non-sarcastic fist-pumping response from a couple of tables.
Kung Fu Karaoke tonight, most likely . . .

Double M, I hope your move goes well today, and best wishes for your temporary new space!

I should probably announce that I have started a new job, though it is only part-time and I am still looking for a full-time gig (ah, state of flux). I am a teacher at a high school; I work with preschool kids aged two to five, as well as the high school students who come in to student-teach the younger ones. Thankfully I really like working with kids. They cause you less trouble than publishing industry salespeople who live off of commissions . . .

I was thinking that my life during this current week is like the mid-eighties all over again: I am working in a preschool program again (like the halcyon days at Phoebe Hearst Preschool in San Francisco); I am on the Rotation Diet; and I saw Prince this week for the first time since his "Purple Rain" tour. If only Coasterama hadn't been watching "Weird Science" the afternnon that I was going to Prince . . . a bit too much perspective! But you know what? The job seems good, and the staff seems great; I am always successful losing weight on that diet; and Prince did nothing short of rule. And you know what else? I loved my life in the mid-eighties, and I love my life now, even during this state of flux.

I think I sense a theme coming on for karaoke tonight . . . Speaking of which, I just remembered that Mr. Fun said I could use his personal karaoke CD to sing Gary Numan and Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and The Smith's "How Soon is Now?" tonight. Think I'll try The Scorpions' "The Zoo" for the first time, as well. Frick yeah!

Here are the results from Portland Wrestling's "Rumble at the Pavilion" on Friday, Sept. 3 at the State Fairgrounds Pavilion at the Oregon State Fair in Salem (attendance approximately 250), which I attended with Lost Actor:

1. Scotty Mac d. Black Dragon in approximately 8:00 to retain the Pacific Northwest championship. Solid match from two of the promotions' better wrestlers.

2. El Mosco de Tijuana d. La Bestia in about 7:00. These two grapplers are from the local Lucha Libre de Oregon promotion. El Mosco is a great, fun-to-watch high flyer who was unfortunately somewhat limited here because of his opponent. We called for El Mosco to deliver the 503, our local version of the 619, and our request was granted, eliciting laughter from our ringside neighbors.

3. Los Villanos by DQ over The Knights of Exxxcstasy (Ladies' Choice & Skagg Rollins) in approximately 9:00 to retain the World Heavyweight Tag Team championship. The Knights worked the crowd to receive tremendous heel heat. We received props from the heels for cheering for them. (To be fair, we cheered all four participatns in this match.) Skag Rollins used a chain to knock out and pin one of the Villanos, but Jessie Jr. ran out to inform the ref about what happened. The ref then called for the DQ decision. I hate that finish, especially when throughout the match, when missing tags, the ref keeps signalling to the audience that he didn't see it, so therefore can't change it.

4. The Grappler & mystery Partner Ed "Moondog" Moretti d. Terry Taylor & Scotty Mac in about 11:00 to retain the Pacific Northwest tag team titles when Grappler kicked Taylor with a loaded boot and then delivered a DDT for the pin. Taylor was only in the ring for two or three minutes total, but entertained throughout with hilarious mannerisms and facial expressions. The storyline behind the mystery partner angle was that recently on TV, Grappler won the tag belts singlehandedly with the stipulation that he could choose his partner afterwards. Moretti was supposed to be a major surprise because he and Grappler had a rivalry that culminated in a bloody cage match recently.

5. Roddy Piper d. Cuban Assasin Fidel Sierra in a flag-on-a-pole match in approximately 7:00. Piper was originally supposed to be the ref for this match but subbed for Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who was announced as being unable to attend because of the hurricane threat in Florida. Lost Actor was taunted on several occassions by Sierra and his valet Fantasy when he waved his own flag at them. Mostly brawling, much of it outside the ring. Sierra hit a gusher. The actual brawling and wrestling was fair at best, but the audience was vocally demonstrative about getting to see Piper participate in a match. I though it was interesting that Piper never got on the mic the entire time, even when being taunted by Sierra. The Knights of Exxxcstasy ran in afterwards to each receive a Piper punch.

6. Raven d. Dr. Luther in about 12:00 with the Evenflow DDT. Basically this turned into a fans-bring-the-weapons hardcore match. Somebody had the foresight to bring a stop sign, and then everything from wrestler-autographed steel chairs to clipboards to American flags were offered (no, neither wrestler used the flag). Best match of the night, all thanks to Raven, who gave speeches before and after the match about being glad to return to Oregon for the first time in 13 years --- he started out in the original Portland Wrestling promotion as Scotty the Body.

Lost actor wound up with probably the best impromptu souveneir possible --- the match-used stop sign, which Raven and Taylot autographed for him! Congrats, L.A.!

More later, hopefully including the requested thoughts about the Prince show. A great Saturday to all! I will be working out at the gym this afternoon and doing sound at ComedySportz this evening. I'm sure karaoke will be in the offing, as well. Take care!