ninedaves...

july 9, 2008, the first ninedaves post went up. sadly, most of my archives have been destroyed due to bad wordpress caching, so i can't go back. but little did i know, when i was writing that nonsense about wipeout, that i was really writing away a lot of my social life. no more weeknight events - now, it's hurry home and blog. hours and hours on the couch. weekends surfing the web. being a blogger isn't the easiest job. but ultimately, it's one of the most rewarding things i've done in my life. 

okay okay. so it's just blogging. i get it. it's not rocket science. i'm not exactly saving the world here. but shit has it been fun. and throughout the past two years, i've gained much more than i lost. i've gained invaluable writing experience. i've gained a load of new friends. moreover, i've gained a great perspective on life, and an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment that i haven't been able to find in any other area of my life. all for 650 or so words on the real housewives of new jersey.

so thank you. thank you to everyone who's out there who've read one line of the blog in the past two years. you've kept me moving forward. i hope you'll stick with the blog. i hope you'll spread the word to your friends. and i hope i'll have the chance to be here, two years from now, saying thank you all over again.

i'll do anything to support a ninedaves reader. i'll also do anything to support any efforts to raise theater awareness. so when uber-commenter and long-time supporter "the girl" wrote me asking to plug her mom's quest to get funding for a community theater in the pepsi refresh project, it was a no-brainer. 

if you're unfamiliar with the pepsi refresh project, here's the quick of it: pepsi is giving a way a shit ton of money each month to fund raising ideas that change the world. the ideas with the most votes win the grants, so you're in total control. pepsi has been upping the anti recently, pledging an additional $1.3 million to ideas that help in the gulf. it's a pretty cool way to use social media to get people to make this world a better place.

the girl's mom journey to do just that starts in the town of plainfield, nj, where she hopes to start that community theater. i'll let the girl take it from here:

the mayor of plainfield nj recently placed the city in emergency status because of a rash of violent murders (17 in 2 weeks). there has been increasing gang violence and the dropout rate is skyrocketing. when my mom was a teacher at plainfield high school, she pulled in some of the most notorious bad guys and girls into her drama club and kept them in school and out of trouble. she hopes to continue doing more of the same with dreamhouse community theater company. the project will help her to focus some attention on younger kids, getting them involved in something positive before they ever have a chance to go astray (which is something she couldn't do at plainfield high, since her students were already teenagers). it will also allow her to pull more kids off the streets, whether they be high school students, recent grads, or dropouts. we ultimately believe that the more people who are offering alternative means of entertainment and education to kids, the less attractive it looks to join gangs. i promise that i am not just saying this because its my mom, although Iiwould make up some shit for my mom, but in this case i totally don't have to [editor's note: +5 bonus points for honesty]. i watched her teach for years and i know the impact she had on her students, some of them complete nerds and some of them teenage mothers and potheads. to this day people call me "little miss bunton" and ask how she's doing. they tell me how she's the teacher they'll never forget.

wow. that's some heavy shit! that's much better than anything i would have asked for ($600K so i can buy that apartment at one brooklyn bridge park). if her description above isn't a good enough reason to get you click over to the pepsi refresh website and vote for her once a day, i don't know what is. come on folks - let's make this happen! it's 2 minutes of your day! it won't take that long. 

so vote, for christ's sake! click here! and if this shit goes through, which we all hope it will, maybe she'll invite us to opening night of their first production! 

and he needs your help! join him and his revolutionary anti-aging technology! then come back here, hit the comments, and tell me: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!

by now, you've probably heard about what's going on with mel gibson. the jackass actor completely went off the deep end recently, harassing ex-girlfriend and mother of his child oksana grigorieva. of course, like anyone wood, oksana recorded all their conversations and mel's outrageous voicemails, and has slowly been releasing them to radar online. so far, we have seven different recordings, will mel spewing all sorts of racist insults, violent threats, profane tirades, and various other forms of ridiculous other hate.

and i can't get enough.

i mean, holy shit. have you heard these recordings? they are unbelievable. i want the mp3s. i can't handle how amazing this is. have you ever seen someone destroy his life like this so publicly? it's fantastic. and it couldn't have happened to a bigger moron.

i know it's wrong to wish bad things on other people. but damn - mel gibson kind of deserves it! have you heard the shit he's been saying? probably the worst things i've ever heard someone say in my life. and yeah, you can tell mel's obviously suffering from some serious substance abuse / addiction / anger-management issues - but fuck, if you can't get your life together, then you don't get my pity. in fact, it only makes me want to root against you. at this point, i hope there's 100 more tapes that come out with mel actin' a fool. i want this shit to be so bad, mel is forced to run out of the country. i want him begging oprah and the rest of the world for forgiveness. come on mel! tell the mother of your child what you really think of her!

what about you? are you rooting against mel? i pretty sure at this point, no one's on his side. 

last week, i went to portland, oregon for a conference. it was a quick in and out trip - i arrived at about 1am on monday and took the red eye home on tuesday night. since i was there for work, i didn't have much time to actually see the city. i was staying downtown, so i got to see some of the 'hood on the way to dinner (at veritable quandary, one of the best restaurants i've ever been to) on monday night. and i had a few hours to kill before my flight tuesday night, so i got to hit a few bars, another great restaurant (mother's, where i had some divine mac n' cheese), and the uber-popular voodoo donuts for dessert. it was a perfect trip. except for one thing: there were no minorities. 

it's weird to be in a city and turn around and see nothing but white people. like, only white people. i think i saw two black people, one indian, and a hispanic - and i'm almost positive they were all in town for the convention. i'm from new york. i'm used to seeing a rainbow of individuals. and being in a place with only crackers got me a little nervous and uncomfortable. 

adding to the discomfort were the tons of homeless youth walking the streets of portland. homeless 22 year olds begging you for money, and not letting up when you say no. again - a total shocker. the nyc homeless are no fucking joke. these kids just came off lazy and annoying to me. 

but maybe i didn't see the right portland. so tell me folks - anyone been to portland before and have something different to say? 

note: this is a recurring series where readers introduce us to their best friends. pets, possessions, people - whatever they send in, i'll post. this week, we're lucky to have frequent commenter and friend of the blog tc write in. after meeting my adorable best friend and blonde694's best friend, she had to counteract with this adorableness. 

drake is my doggie!  named after rick springfield's character from general hospital (dr. noah drake).  he crawled right into my lap at the pound & we just had to bring him home.  he was rescued from the streets of puerto rico & ended up in a ct pound.  he was there only a couple days before we saw him. that was the last and only day he was friendly to meeting someone new.  he's very protective of his family - overly so.  he's adorable, cuddly & friendly with us - but no one else.  so he's the cutest dog ever - but only friendly to his loving family.  but seriously - how can you not love that face!

so lindsay lohan is in jail. and she probably deserved it. but coming from the guy who's seen every one of her movies in the theater (yes, even just my luck), i'm really sad that it's come to this. clearly a victim of her own self, lindsay never seemed able to escape her parent's antics, the party scene, and substance abuse. i hope that she's able to pull through after this dark time. but i fear, like most of you out there, that nothing can set lindsay straight.

have you ever been let down from an actor before? it sounds like a silly thing, but it's happened to me plenty of times (usually when i find out that their scientologists. i'm looking at you, norton).  

a few weeks back, i saw one of the most horrifying movies i've ever seen: the cove. if you haven't seen it, it's about a cove in japan where they slaughter dolphins, and the quest by some activists to get that cove closed. it's a really powerful movie. and ever since i first saw it, i can't stop thinking about how pissed off our marine life must be. 

which is why i've been loving the recent rebellions of some mammals. like this dolphin in japan, who jumped out of his tank at seaworld. 

or this whale in cape town, south africa, who crashed right into this boat.

nuts, eh?

oh, and there's video of both!

after seeing the shit we've done to them in the cove, i'm rooting for the mammals. you?

i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of you out there probably first heard about the ymca from the village people song of the same name. for me, there was never an actual ymca near my house as a kid, so it actually took me until college to first understand what the ymca was. i didn't actually set foot into one until about four years ago, when i joined the local ymca so i could pretend to work out (i really just paid my monthly fees and wrote it off on my taxes as a charity donation). but apparently, i'm not the only one who avoided the ymca, because they're totally rebranding! the new ymca - now just a y! and for some reason, that's going to make you want to go there. does it?