One week anniversary

Dear Loyal Readers,

It's been 7 days since Staying West emerged from the ashes and now seems the perfect time to reflect on what we've done together to make the Web a more Geoffocentric place. A quick survey of reader comments made privately to me over the last week reveal a common theme -- "Geeeeee, your blog was much more interesting when you were drunk and alone with no luggage in a foreign country where you didn't speak the language."



That kind of goes without saying.

Here are several things I thought I'd post about this past week that didn't pan out:

• That Eater review of Mario pissing me off. It didn't.


• The Bush administration doing something to piss me off. (Dubai? Yawn! I actually want to go to Dubai!)


• Brianna posting about my white trash palette and lack of foodie street cred, demanding an immediate response here. Instead she just wrote another entry all about her.


• Someone transgendered saying something that rocked my world. (Biggest excitement on tape -- Random Lesbian: "There's no such thing as 'straight girls'". Didn't we all know that already?!?)


• Apple unveils the Apple iPhonepodlet


• Sasha Cohen winning gold, and thus demanding another picture and 500 words on her "being Juliet"


• Me winning the MegaMillions. It'll happen this week, I'm pretty sure, though.

Let's not allow these temporary creativity killers keep us down. With any luck this week, a high ranking Bush administration official will be caught in a not-so-straight girl lovenest with Ms. Cohen and there'll be video of it on YouTube and I'll have something to blog about.

Thanks for stickin' with it so far.

GG

If you were wondering...

...exactly why iPods have 80% marketshare, this pretty much sums it up.


More on this thought later...once I'm done editing a corporate video about....(wait for it)....tea towels.

(Edit: For some reason that Steve Jobs picture was bugging me, so you get wooden iPod instead now.)

Oscars

Matty and I have done Oscar picks again this year....only this time as a podcast. It's an (occasional) hoot. Let me know if you want to hear it, and I'll email it you.

Especially let me know if you have extra server space where we can host it -- we're sure it's going to go viral any second now!

Reviewed

Foodie blog Eater reviewed the Mario show that just aired on the Food Network. Huzzah. I actually have to agree with most of their thoughts....especially their last one -- "watch it".

Sunday @ 5pm on Food TV.

Cowboys

For the time being, I'll stay out of the whole "Brianna vs. The World" argument over whether cowboys are real or not. See, Bri believes cowboys currently roam the earth and claims to know (and have been hit on by) a few of 'em. The Rest Of The World believes in cowboys, too. In that, "yes, Virigina, there is a Santa Claus" kinda way.



In that spirit, I give you the best Brokeback post yet. ("Ruby slippers of our time", "I can tell you for sure, they are NOT GAY", "that’s liable to get you hog-tied with piggin’-string and a mouthful a’ mountain oysters", etc. etc.)

photo via Defamer

That Beer...

It may take awhile before any beer is distributed. Yesterday, on 80 "page impressions" this page earned $0.03. Pretty reasonable, actaully.

I was so excited, I wanted Google to mail me my check for $0.03 today. But there's the rub! They only mail out payment once you've accrued $100.00. Although it may be a bit early to establish a trend, if we continue at yesterday's rate, I'll buy someone a beer in little over 9 years.



(At which time, a pint of Stella will probably cost $80...)

Explanation #1

Why I no longer live with Matty.

Remind me....

...never to go to nytimes.com before settling in to watch the Olympics. They totally gave away what I'm going to have to wait until 11:50pm to watch on NBC.



Of course, because of my (life changing) DVR, I'm going to watch the games timeshifted to avoid the ads. Which is kind of funny -- in that the Olympics coverage (whenever the Games weren't in this hemisphere) was the original timeshifted content. Remember, like, Lilleheimer? In those pre-internet days, you weren't gonna know who triple-lutzed and who didn't until NBC told you. You weren't watching it live, you were watching it at a more convenient time (ie, in prime-time).

Unlike, fer instance, the Superbowl, which must be watched live. Or those guys who go to pubs at 4 AM to watch soccer matches in the UK. We've grown up with the Olympics being distilled, chopped together and given narrative in post. And generally, that's how I like my sports: post-produced. Maybe that's why I can't stop watching....even if I know what's going to happen.

Free beer!

So, because I know how immensely popular this site will be, I've added Google AdSense ads to it. Now that there's extraneous text your eyes have to skim over, doesn't it feel more like a "real" blog?


Anyways. Here's the deal. Click those ads, and once I accrue $5.00 in click-thrus, some lucky commenter will get an alcoholic beverage of their choice purchased for them (gratuity included!) at a local drinking establishment. Rock and roll!

Changing Gears

One of the great things about my job is that I get to become a niche expert on obscure topics for the duration of my projects. I've been fortunate to work on a bunch gigs that I've found fascinating -- Ground Zero architecture wars, high profile restaurant openings, the theories behind military technology, engineering failures in Katrina, solving mysterious epidemic outbreaks, etc. For the duration of the project, I usually get immersed in the topic personally--I'll come home from the office and continue to read foodie blogs to see what people are saying about Bobby Flay, fer instance.

I'm in an interesting period right now, where I've finished my Food TV project and am switching to working on Johnny's indie documentary feature about his friend Fae, who is a transsexual transitioning from female to male. It's funny, but I feel the allure of the foodie web waning and am about to get myself sucked into the tranny web. Poor Brianna has already had to endure a visit to the Mango Products website (not pronounced like you think).

I'm getting pretty excited about Johnny's film and all the interesting issues we're gonna try and to bring up in it. So, if this blog has alot of links to post-op surgery pix and ruminations on gender identity (and it's good-time cousin, genderfucking), you know where my mind's at.

New Project

If anybody (who doesn't work in film/TV and/or went/goes to film school) is a pop culture junkie and wants to be part of my movie project, drop me a line. I think all it would involve is a 30 minute interview.

My New Girlfriend(s)

Matty can atest -- I almost didn't go out to the strip clubs in Montreal to stay in the hotel room and watch the US Women's Curling team face Canada last spring.

They didn't medal in Torino over the past few days, but they're clearly the thinking man's Anna Kournikova (Uhhhh...if Anna Kournikova had a hot sister)

Back...lash

My good friend Mario Batali has kept me away from mindless blogging for a while...although I originally created this blog back in December as a clear way to procrastinate from my M.B. job. But now, that's all over and I'm back.

Why?

Mainly, Bri, the new girlfriend, doesn't mention me nearly enough in her blog. I need more online validation...so unfortunately, I have to create that myself. (Googling and IMDBing myself 3 times a day only gets me so far.)

Also, I have opinions and shit.

What should you expect on "Staying West"? Slope-centric brunch reviews, impolite television commentary, Apple fanaticism and (God willing!) Dallas Bryce Howard nip slips. I think it'll be a good mix!

So, hold onto your hats and glasses, 'cause this here is the wildest ride in the wilderness!