(*For the most part. These things are probably understood, but since this blog is in its infancy, a few declarations of principle are appropriate.)
Politics
I won’t pretend I don’t have opinions, that I don’t read newspapers and blogs, or that I don’t vote. I do all those things with fervor. But I do know that if you’re going to blog about politics, you have to be prepared to put a lot into it. You have to be ready to stay current with a volume of scientific, economic, and geopolitical data that I suspect the average Congressperson cannot decipher, as well as deal with explosive tempers, insults, slander and nonsense and barely-coherent idiocy – and that’s just from people who supposedly agree with you. I do not like apportioning that much of my blogging time or emotional energy to it, and so I am generally restrained, if not outright silent, in this medium.
Starf*cking
I have met, seen, worked and talked with a lot of famous people. It’s part of the job. In fact, it is part of life in LA. I know that some people never lose the speaking-in-tongues ecstasy the aura of celebrity can produce. That’s fine – enthusiasm is a good thing. But if I spent every day acting like I was in Ed Sullivan’s audience shrieking at my favorite Beatle, I could not function around here. It is not an appropriate reaction to riding up in an elevator with The Rock or spotting Chuck Woolery at a Walgreens in the Valley (both of which I have done). I am occasionally surprised by my reactions to meeting people, but it’s usually not a measure of their current fame, but rather some childhood memory threatening to yank my grin up to stupid heights – maybe I’ll tell you my Ralph Macchio story someday.
I have found that most famous people appreciate it when you treat them as just folks living and working out here. And don’t act like you know them already; because you don’t. I’m a mostly-unsuccessful writer who does not hang or party with the beautiful people – the deal is: I won’t pretend to be anything else, and you won’t ask me what someone was wearing – I won’t remember anyway.
Relationship Talk
I have a girlfriend – I happen to think she is bright, awesome, and sexy. But we have also only been exclusive to each other for a couple of weeks, and life takes many turns where love is concerned. I will not be discussing them here. I have a blog with multiple filtering levels where friends (and only friends) can access updates of my personal life, and I intend to use it to preserve that distinction with this wholly-public blog. You will likely see references to people I spend time with, but my custom is to do this with nicknames when one has been established.