No discussions of where my cyber-presence has been, you've heard it all before ...

Undoubtedly, the best line "The Gift", the Velvet Underground's noisy John Cale-read tale of a tormented boyfriend attempting to visit his school girlfriend by mailing himself to her, is "... he tried to picture the look of awe and happiness on Marsha's face as she opened the door, saw the package, tipped the deliverer, and then opened it to see her Waldo finally there in person. She would kiss him, and then maybe they could see a movie." Such a brilliantly witty mockery of Waldo's naïveté in the ways of love.

My prediction that Chelsea wouldn't beat Arsenal or Man United this season was proven wrong on Sunday as the Blues reversed a 1-nil second half deficit on the strength of two impressive Didier Drogba goals to defeat their London rivals. With the victory we moved into second place ahead of the Gunners, five points behind the leaders United but still to play them at the Bridge. It would only be a three point gap if we hadn't blown leads of 1-nil, 3-1, and 4-3 against Tottenham during the week. I caught that match at the Rose & Crown in Palo Alto with old high school friend Adam. A brilliant match, end-to-end stuff, to be sure. It would've been that much sweeter had we held on.

I still think Avram Grant looks like a zombie. That's what i miss most about the Ranieri/Mourinho eras, the sheer emotion displayed by the manager on the sidelines. José would go nuts after a crucial goal. And i'll never forget the joy of Claudio's rampant celebrations after Wayne Bridge scored to knock Arsenal out of the Champions League.

Last weekend was my 1950's movie festival (comparisons between me and the aforementioned Waldo may now commence). On Saturday night V happened upon Rebel Without A Cause on KQED. Neither of us had seen it (i've never seen any James Dean films), so we settled into the couch and watched. I loved it ... i found its commentary on dysfunctional family relationships to be quite insightful and genuine. Teenage disenchantment with the world was brilliantly captured in Jim and Judy. On Easter Sunday, after having a holiday lunch with my family up in Corte Madera, V and i made the drive down to Palo Alto in record time to catch the 7:30pm showing of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest at the Stanford Theater. They've been showing all of Hitchcock's films over the last month or two. Somehow i never saw any of his work either, but was particularly keen to see Cary Grant's case of mistaken identity. A great balance between suspense and humor, with Grant delivering a number of witty lines. I'm hoping to catch a double feature this weekend as the Hitchcock festival closes with Psycho and the Birds.

We also caught a mid-week movie in Redwood City, seeing Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind before it exited theaters. Another flick with a philosophical bent on which i could ruminate for hours. Aside from Mos Def and Jack Black's hilarious low budget recreations of classic movies, the film also focuses a serious eye on the relationship between art and industry and on the place of childlike idealism in the world.

A year ago Bush's approval rating was in the toilet and the presumption was the Democrats would have a cake walk getting their candidate into office. My prediction now? The ever-bumbling left and their front-runners Hillary and Obama have spent so much time and effort dragging each other through the mud and fighting with their party leadership, i wouldn't be surprised in the least if President McCain is sworn in in 2009. Retards. Complete and utter retards. Non-PC, yes, but wholly accurate.

In "i'll believe it when i'm being beaten by a live wall of noise" news, My Bloody Valentine are confirmed to play summer shows in London, Manchester, and Glasgow, their first in over fifteen years. I'm hoping this is a reunion in more than the Smashing Pumpkins sense, ie Kevin Shields and some other stand-ins. Speaking of my former idols, Corgan is suing Virgin Records for damaging the Pumpkins' "artistic integrity", a travesty when he apparently has "worked hard for over two decades to accumulate a considerable amount of goodwill in the eyes of the public". The damaging act? Using their music in a Pepsi ad without his permission. But Billy Douchebag is just fine with releasing four different versions of the Pumpkins' so-called reunion album Zeitgeist in order to bilk his fans out of as much money as possible. What a slime.

More reunions? Bauhaus just released their admitted final album, appropriately titled Go Away White. I heard the first single "Too Much 21st Century" a few months ago and wasn't incredibly impressed, but the album has got a nice review on Pitchfork so who knows.