Things are better now. Reaching

Things are better now. Reaching out. I recommend it highly.

Just got back from my

Just got back from my friend Laura's "Housecooling Party" (she just moved. Opposite of housewarming. Get it?) and am totally freaking out about my move. Nothing works in my apartment, I'm sleeping on the living room floor after breaking my bed (more on that some other time), none of the phones in my house work and my DSL is handled by the biggest gang of idiots since Mad Magazine. Live is slipping into a gooey mess and I just realized SXSW is next week. Where have I been?

I originally thought I was going to be able to move the last two weeks in March but the way I feel right now, that is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I don't want to write. I'm so angry at myself right now that I'm about one blog away from tossing most of my furniture from the roof.

Excuse me....

Visit Chickclick's hompage now and

Visit Chickclick's hompage now and then cry. It looks like the place has been robbed. I may not be a 16-year-old girl but I got my start in online communities at several CC affiliate sites, most of which are gone now. ChickClick's affiliate program used to number about 30 strong, mostly independent content sites run by one overworked person and a lot of exploited friends. Adds from Mama Chickclick allowed these sites to have a litle money, to survive without driving their creators insane. I was about to become one of those people so I learned a lot from them.

How things have changed. My friend Britton used to work for Snowball, Chickclick's parent company, and told me the site had been gutted and sold for scrap. I think I would have been happier if there had just been a "We're Closed" page up like the one I also saw at Switchhouse this morning instead of this shadow of its former self.

Marrije Schaake, one of the

Marrije Schaake, one of the intrepid six readers here at Where There's Smoke, has pointed that Adam Curry is still very much a celebrity in her native Netherlands. I quote...

"To you, Adam C. may be a huge-hair has-been, but to us Dutch people he's an internet powerhouse, and a Celebrity. He has a multi-media company here which according to some is a huge success and according to others near bankruptcy. Who knows? He has abominable taste, though, or his wife has. Check out www.lapaay.com, her hilarious make-up emporium. We love them both, in all their awfulness."

I stand corrected.

And speaking of Psychic Friends...

And speaking of Psychic Friends...

Did anybody hear that Miss Cleo got busted?

Adam Curry, Mr. Huge Hair

Adam Curry, Mr. Huge Hair from the mid 80's stable of of MTV Veejays, has a blog. Add that to Wil Wheaton-dot-netand Rupaul's blogging efforts and, to my mind, we've seen a new incarnation for this ever-changing medium: As a snicker-free refuge for celebrity has-beens.

Psychic Friends Network, your days are numbered.

Hey, what washed up celeb would you like to see blogging?

The FCC has agreed to

The FCC has agreed to relax restrictions on the amount of ownership major media and cable companies can have in any one region. I fear this decision may spell disaster for alternative and community-based media outlets.

Barry and I took a

Barry and I took a three-hour walk on Saturday back from the Inner Sunset neighborhood all the way to Deboce Park, chatting about our own futures, work styles and relationships. Naturally, he had a hundred great ideas about what I should do with Central Booking now and when I'm ready to move on. This afternoon, I'm going to jot down some of the ideas. He painted a picture of a thrilling yet rediculously busy life for me in my 30's. It always scares me at first but ultimately I think the best advisors are those who think bigger than you, who can imagine your projects much further into the future than you can. My fear is always that the project will overwhelm my life and I'll be strapped in for the duration. I need to remind myself that, if I start something, no matter how big, it's still yours. You in control. you hold the switch.

Saturday a large group of

Saturday a large group of my friends (including Barry) went to see Super Diamond, San Francisco's own Neil Diamond tribute band, at Bimbos 365, one of the city's great nightclubs. Suzan and I were the only ones who had seen them before and everybody had a rockin' good time. I get the feeling though that SD is a band you can only see once in a while, since the show is exactly the same from one date to the next. But even if you turn up your nose at Neil Diamond, I would highly, highly recommend it. The hokeyness alone is worth the price of admission.

It all got me thinking about tribute bands and their unique place in our own musical pastiches. They've got their own booking agencies, managment companies and webrings. They emulate everyone from pop megastars, to art rock wonks, to late 80's metalheads. My favorite, although I've never seen them, is a San Francisco Jackon 5 tribute act composed entirely of white men. Their name? Wonderbread5.

So this weekend, whew! My

So this weekend, whew! My friend Barry was in town whom I haven't seen for nearly three years (four? lots of months? I'm not sure, a real long time). He's a screenwriter in L.A., a career hatched back when we were in high school together in Ann Arbor. He would often bring me ideas which I would dice up and ask questions. He's written like 14 screenplays since then and we've had this critic/creator sparing match for nearly a decade.

He's been having a rough go of it lately and decided to drive up to San Francisco for the three day weekend. He had no particular plans and neither did I.