Welcome to the New Weekly Format

All the brevity of a daily post, none of the challenges of a weekly roundup. It's LordZim Lite!

Well, that famous West Coast toy company finally paid me -- four months after the first time I invoiced them. Finally saw "Gattaca" this week. I see why it got mediocre reviews but has become a near-cult movie. Speaking of mediocre reviews, I tried to watch "Lemony Snicket" last night but just couldn't stand more than about 20 minutes (and I used to like the books). The art direction was all that kept me hanging on, but even that was unequal to the star's powers of repellency.

Uh, allergies? Yes. And how. *sniffle* *honk*

Reading New Yorker doyenne Lillian Ross's "Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism." The art of letting interviewees hang themselves without any narrative assistance.

In the drinks dept., Willie Nelson's small-batch bourbon, Old Whiskey River, seems to be winding down. It's a closeout item at Studio City's Flask Liquors. Across town, Jorge, formerly the best bartender in L.A., is no longer tending bar. He has left the Edendale Grill and is now managing Taix, that antique French restaurant on Sunset in Echo Park. When I voiced consternation at the loss of his mixological powers, he referred me to Luis, the white-haired, steel-eyed fixture behind the bar, who assembled a perfect perfect Manhattan. While the restaurant is a taxidermied relic, replete with silk flowers and dozens of eerie oil paintings, the bar room itself is in the cave-like vein of the Dresden, though less spacious. Part of Jorge's mission is to attract more of those free-spending 20-somethings, which shouldn't be too hard, given that the Echo (Spaceland's little sister) is just across the street.

See? This is why I've stopped blogging. Ho-fucking-hum. To blog, perchance to scream.

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