special request

The first section of this blog is inspired by a special request. Someone asked me to write about the death of Johnny Carson and how the upcoming Oscars affect my life.
First, Carson lived a quiet life away from the limelight ever since he left the show. Jay Leno payed a nice tribute to him a few nights ago on his show.But, when Leno first took over the show, there was some controversy because Jay didn't say anything about Carson on his first episode. I wasn't personally connected to it, though.
I got a call from my friend Les about five days ago. He said he got the offer of a lifetime from our mutual friend Ward.
Let me give you a quick update of who Ward is: he's also a starving artist type right down the road from me in North Hollywood. He does wardrobe design for the show "Nanny 911." He got hooked up with the responsibility of finding ushers for the Oscars to usher celebs from their limos down the red carpet!! So, Ward called Les and asked him to do it. So, Les Bradford is going to be one of six ushers escorting people down the red carpet on Oscar night. Ward WOULD have called me for the job, but unfortunately I'm not in Los Angeles anymore. I'm writing this blog from Knoxville, Tennessee. I'm kicking myself because I left two weeks too early to get the job. oh, well. You'll have to watch for Les on tv, though.
About five days ago, I went up to Las Vegas with my roommates. We stayed there friday night, which was insane! I don't encourage gambling, but I lost a great deal of money on nickel slot machines and the roulette table. Vegas is really amazing, but it's easy to lose a lot of money and/or dignity. I got to see Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, Havannah's, Stardust, and the Belagio. It was a blast.
I left Vegas with everything packed in my car, and headed for Arizona. I saw the Grand Canyon the next day. Then, I headed across the country, staying in bizarre roach motels along the way. I stopped in Nashville and visited a friend, then I made the rest of the trek to knoxville. I just got here late last night. I drove my CRX that has 170,000 miles on it. It's surprising that it made it that far!
Why did I move away from Hollywood? I'll write more on that later. I guess that deserves its own blog.
Oh, another note: Everyone is making a big deal about Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt breaking up. Last May, I heard from a friend that they had seen Brad Pitt with Angelina Jolie at a party. That in itself isn't that strange, but it was kind of strange that they were making out. So, I kind of saw the end coming for them a while ago. I was hoping that the story of Pitt and Angelina being together at that party was an exaggeration, but I guess it wasn't.
The rain storms a couple weeks ago were also really bad. You may have heard about some of the California rain storms on the news, or something. The problem is, most places don't have any kind of drainage system. So, the water pools up on the streets, and everything gets soaked. Driving is really dangerous. Buildings also aren't designed to withstand much rain, so everything starts to leak. Luckily, our apartment building was really solid. But, everyting else was kind of leaky.
That's my news from Hollywood, for now.