Category: Life

Further compounding the blunt-force trauma to the soul that I received last night as described in the journal entry below, I also happened upon a television program on Bravo about Miami plastic surgeons. I thought to myself, “hey I wonder if my client Dr. Salomon is on that show? Nah, that’d be too weird.”

As I am quickly learning, nothing in the modern world can ever be too weird.

Dr. Jhonny Salomon (not to be confused with Dr. Johnny Salomon, or Dr. Johnny Solomon, or Dr. Johnny Salamon – don’t click the links, I’m just helping optimize him for multifarious misspellings) is in fact being featured on this show on Bravo called Miami Slice. He’s a plastic surgeon in Miami and the show is another in a series of reality shows that goes beyond the usual Lifetime or MTV plastic surgery case studies, and into the personal lives of the doctors themselves. The show throws in a healthy dose of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous/Cribs flavor as it shows off the lavish lifestyles of these plastic surgeons. I watched one doctor send his dog to the vet in a limo. I think I was too numbed from the cruel existential irony of the Pat Buchanan episode of Hardball to realize that every hour of television probably provides me with some support for the coming Apocalypse.

An amusing side note is that, in Jhonny’s bio on the Bravo website, Bravo refers to Miami as “a city where true love is often difficult to find.” My soul couldn’t help but cry quietly in the darkness for the plight of lonely plastic surgeons everywhere who are just looking for true love, for something…real.

Adnan got married last weekend to his longtime schweetheart Kelly. The nuptials were a traditional Muslim affair, wherein the womenfolk are separated from the menfolk while the groom and the father of the bride confer on the dowry. Then we had a nice steak dinner. Kelly was positively resplendent in the traditional garb, but I forgot to bring my camera. So I took pictures the next day of the wicked wedding ink:

I also got to meet up with the Adnan’s relatives, whom we stayed with during the 1998 European Tour. Pictured below are Adnan’s wife Kelly, cousin Umar, brother Farhan and cousin Nasreen. Umar is from England and Nasreen from Germany.

Could they be any cuter, I ask you? Sadly we weren’t able to hang out for more than a few hours.

Finally got the latest Plog up, two days late. Mostly pictures from last weekend’s trip to Northwest Arkansas.

I just got a Chuck E. Cheese token as part of my change from a US Postal Service vending machine. I’m not sure what this means; either Chuck E. Cheese tokens are now legal tender, or they’re indistinguishable from Sacagawea dollars to a vending machine.

Naturally, as soon as I tell Comcast to cancel my basic cable subscription, I have a reason to watch TV: me. I’m going to be on television! This Saturday on the WB at some point in the evening they’ll play Stanley Knox’s new variety show that we taped last Saturday night at Legends, a local sports bar. For those non-Central Arkansans in the audience, Mr. Knox is the former host of the 103.7FM morning show, which was recently cancelled due to two of their minions handing out gay pr0n DVDs to a minor at a recent gay pride parade in Conway. As amazed as I am at the fact that Arkansas actually witnessed a gay pride parade that didn’t end in bloodshed, my glee is tempered by the fact that Arkansans can still be counted on to perform stupid human tricks at just the wrong moments in time.

And yes, you read that right, I cancelled my basic cable. In effect, I am killing my TV. I’m really just allowing it to exist on DVD/VHS life support. My reasons for doing so are three: 1. I don’t have time to watch TV, 2. When I do, there’s not a damn thing on worth watching, and 3. $50 a month is not worth it for The Daily Show alone. So Barry will tape it for me every week. I have to give props to Natalie for showing me that there is life without television. In fact, there’s far more than I realized. I’ll miss you, cable television, but until I can subscribe only to the channels I want for a reasonable price, I’m through with you. Not that this means I’ll stop supporting AETN, though.

In addition to the gig at Legends on Saturday, I also played at Anthony and Ashley Nguyen’s wedding. Good luck, y’all. And on Sunday I went to see KISS at Alltel Arena thanks to free tickets from Jessica. I took many pictures at a party beforehand, and several at the show. The party consisted mainly of people I don’t really know. They were friends of Chris’s but everyone was having such a good time, doing so many photogenic things, I had to pull out the digital camera. I later forgot I had the camera on me for the KISS show, but the security didn’t notice, so I took some pics of the show, as well as Chris’s drunk self, which I had to help carry in and out of the vehicle. Some of the photos are risque, so email me and I’ll send you a link if you want to see the drunken heathens in action. Several of the girls are just horribly hot.

Also, the Zappa people keep delaying the delivery of my Dweezil guitar. I guess I can’t complain, since I got it cheap, but it has been over a month since I ordered it. I am however thoroughly enjoying my Richie Kotzen telecaster, which I played at the gig Saturday. So the tele will be on the telly, as the Brits would say.

I had just returned from a nice dinner with the Lombeidas and their lovely 3 month old, Tori, when I suddenly found myself punctured 9 times by cat claws. I was lying quite happily on my bed, full of Mexican culinary bliss courtesy of Senor Tequila, when Stinker hopped up on me and set to work doing his tiresome biscuit-kneading/purring routine. Suddenly he was spooked for some reason, dug his claws into me a few times, and scurried off the bed and out of the room.

The pain wasn’t as bad as the itching, since I’m semi-allergic to cats. Some ice fixed that, though, but then the bleeding began. So Neosporin was called in, and I suppose I’m patched together. At least I’m not as bad off as Amy was.

In other news, I went to Dallas last week and picked up my pretty new twanger. I traded a Kotzen for a Kotzen. My blue strat for a green tele. I also got to hang out with my friends Odie & Mona and Torrey & Liz. A fine weekend all around. And of course now weekend in Dallas would be complete without a half dozen bargain CDs.

New plog has an assortment of leftover pictures from Harrison and from the last few weeks around town.

A fine weekend I had. Saturday I had my 10 Year High School Reunion, which went really quite well. It was great to see everyone again, and even better to see that so few people had changed much at all. Sunday I ventured back to Dogpatch with some friends for a deeper exploration of the wilderness that our beloved local theme park has become.

There were so many pictures that I had no choice but to arrange everything via a standard Photoshop Gallery. I added some customizations for easier navigation, though. Click here to get lost in the woods with us.

The Dogpatch Exploratory Expedition is ON for Sunday, July 4. Email me if you’re interested in attending.

More ploggy goodness for everyone. I took scenic Byway 7 from Harrison to Russellville and Semi-Scenic Highway 45 to Conway. Much to see and do. Such as Dogpatch. I made a separate Plog entry for Dogpatch. Hopefully more pictures will be forthcoming. I’m going to see if I can get the realtor’s permission to walk around the grounds for photos.

Here’s what I looked like for most of early June: