Ramblings and Blather

1. London gets the 2012 Olympics, and as a New Yorker I say THANK FUCKING GOD.

2. Our apartment meeting didn't quite go as well as we'd hoped, but that's really the real estate agent's fault - he told us that we could talk the owner down from $1550 to $1450 and gas/electric was included. What the owner actually said was that he wanted $1650 and gas/electric was not included. Obviously, that's a substantial difference. And to be fair, I can sympathize with the owner's point of view - he'd already been renting it at $1500, and he'd have absolutely no problem getting people to pay $1600 for it. He wanted to split the difference and go for $1575, which we can't do - $1550 is as high as we can go, and while there's not much of a difference between $1550 and $1575, it certainly seems that way when $1550 PLUS utilities is as far as you can possibly go while still eating on a semi-regular basis. Plus, if we want a dog, there's just no way we can afford it if we're already breaking our backs. The owner took our credit reports home and will call the agent today; we're already prepared to be let down. The good news is that there are plenty of other apartments in Astoria that we can look at, and probably even afford - hell, Craigslist makes that pretty obvious.

That's all I've got, until the caffiene kicks in.

Just got the call!!! The landlord likes us and is willing to give us $1550, and we are willing to fork over huge wads of cash. We meet tonight to sign the lease; if we get the keys tonight, we will take pictures which I'll post tomorrow.

And, of course, we'll be having a ginormous housewarming party in August, featuring our new BACK PORCH. Also, we'll be at the Beer Garden EVERY DAY. And eowen gets to visit us on her way to and from the subway. And anyone driving in to NYC will have no problem finding us as we are the first exit off the Triboro bridge. And the adrenaline coursing through my veins has started to mix with the caffeine and I'm starting to get a little loopy.

ASTORIA, HERE WE COME!!!

Next up: saying goodbye to our current landlord. He is a catankerous old man missing several key teeth and thinks my first name is Jeremiah, even though I've been living there for over 5 years and my name is clearly written on each check I send him. His solutions to home repair rarely go beyond duct tape and rubber cement, even when major plumbing issues arise; he once tried to extort a "girlfriend security deposit" of "oh... let's say $300" when I told him Kath was moving in because he was afraid that if we broke up that he'd be screwed, even though I'd already had 6 different roommates before we'd even started dating. Recently, however, he's taken a liking to us and hasn't even arbitrarily raised the rent for several months. I'm sure I'll never get my security deposit back, but since we're breaking the lease early so that we can move into a newer building that probably won't completely collapse the next time it rains, I really don't give a shit. It will be OH so nice to not have to deal with that man any more.

Man, I love it when Bill Simmons writes about baseball. His new column about George Steinbrenner isn't necessarily funny, but it is an entertaining read.

Also, David Cross is opening up a bar/performance space on Orchard Street (last item in column). Let it be known that I once lived on Houston Street, on top of Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery, back in 1996-1998, when the L.E.S. was just starting to emerge as something not scary. The shitty apartment that I lived in, which was up 3 incredibly steep flights of stairs and featured 2 "bedrooms" that didn't even have windows and cost just over $1000/mo. when we signed the lease, is probably going for $1700 at the bare minimum; the neighborhood pretty much exploded with awesomeness right as I moved to Queens. If David Cross' bar is the space that I'm thinking of, I'd have been right around the goddamned corner. In a shitty shoebox apartment, but still. God, I'm old.

Stolen from celinabot, this makes me jittery with excitement.
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http://www.filmrot.com/articles/news/006094.php
As revealed exclusively on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in the UK, Ricky Gervais' proposed appearance in the upcoming M:I3 will join his other "thanks but no thanks" appearances in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, the Magnum PI movie and the proposed remake of the Dudley Moore "classic" 10.

His reasons being that he thought the role was getting "too big" for him to handle (refreshing to hear that sort of honesty isn't it?) and that it was "sort of dramatic" and, following his appearance in Alias, he hates doing 'drama' as he isn't very good at it.

Instead Ricky Gervais will... get this for coolness... be taking a role alongside 'The Christopher Guest Players' in Guest's upcoming film For Your Consideration. How brilliant? The man who took the mockumentary made famous by Guest and co and ran with it to new heights of success is starring in what is said to be the master of the sub-genre's last 'mockumentary' feature.

Details of the project are said to be closely guarded but rumour has it, it will involve a documentary crew following an actor and his "entourage" from the point of completing a movie right up to his campaigning to win an Academy Award for said role, despite the fact that it wasn't a worthy performance.

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