Mudu Noodle. Be there at 7:15 for the birthday of one your best friends. J and I are there at 6:45, the two of us sitting at a table set for seven. I look around the restaurant for any movie stars. It’s trendy eating, the kind of place that draws overly tanned women in white linen blouses with balding husbands who wear expensive leather loafers. By the time the rest of our party arrives J and I have knocked down two large unfiltered sakes and we’re feeling pretty good. Three of our friends order the fish and then send it back because it’s too fishy. It tasted fine to me. Topics discussed were:

  • adventures in West Hollywood
  • possible pregnancy
  • Buenos Aires is the new Paris
  • karaoke

The karaoke came after dinner. We caravaned to a bar and pretty much had the stage to ourselves. I sang Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue. My voice didn’t have enough vavoom and I guess you could say I’m no American Idol but the point was getting the courage to go up there and make a fool of myself. I succeeded.

More interestingly, on the drive there, a bold and offensive new persona issued forth from deep within my drunken soul. Kind of like a radio personality that everyone loves to hate. I put my digital camera in video mode and pointed at myself then I just went off. Each rant was only about a minute long and there were several of them. Topics included poetry, cops on the road and transcendentalism. I’ll post one of the videos here. Now I have big YouTube dreams. I will post them all on the web and become an overnight sensation. I’d create this whole persona totally fleshed out and made for the masses. Shy in public but in front of the camera a raving maniac. (I need a name!) I’d create a blog with video postings and then as traffic increased I’d put up ads and make lots of money. I’d quit my day job. The Today Show would call and buy me a plane ticket to LA for a 2-minute interview. Miranda July would ask me to cameo in her next film. I would be one of the quirky characters people feel sorry for. J had the idea that I could ask people to write in topic suggestions which I could use for each 1 minute rant. I can see it all now. Can’t you? You’ll understand when you the videos.

Today is the 4th of July and I’m hungover because a seemingly sweet Amazonian-sized woman in a white dress kept buying me shots and then worrying that my girlfriend would think she was hitting on me. In the end she literally ran to j and confessed her sin of buying me drinks on the sly. This was a betrayal to me and my gut says this woman is not to be trusted if I run into her during future karaoke adventures.

In a few minutes j and I and the dog will be headed out the door and up the Pecos river valley to go fishing. I want to catch a big fish and not be struck by lightening. That is my wish for this 4th of July 2008. What is your wish?