While I’m coping with this hard disk mess (thanks for that tip on Drobo, anon, looks interesting), various distractions of one type or another ….

* September 5 – Apple’s “special event” during which they are expected to announce new iPods. Various shots purported to be the next generation Nano have appeared on the different gadget blogs but that’s not of any interest to me. I’m hoping for a 6th gen iPod and that it will have the same large touchscreen as the iPhone.

* Finished off the first season of 30 Rock. That show just seemed to continually improve throughout the season. Now I’m watching Damages but not sure why. I probably should be paying attention to Mad Men or Masters of Science Fiction instead.

Also finally catching up with Two and a Half Men, as previously mentioned. If you’ve never seen it, here’s the deal.

You’ve got Charlie Sheen as a guy who makes a great living writing TV jingles. He lives in a beach house in Malibu and lives a life of one night stands with beautiful women.

In moves his brother, Jon Cryer, a nerdy chiropractor, wound up a bit too tight, tossed out by his wife who may or may not be in the process of becoming a lesbian. Cryer has weekend custody of his 10 year old kid (who, thankfully, always acts like a 10 year old kid, not some super precocious TV kid).

Then there’s their mother, played by the great Holland Taylor. And their housekeeper, played by the equally great Conchata Ferrell. And a woman who lives down the beach who slept with Charlie once and has been stalking him ever since. And a succession of beautiful women for Sheen.

Basically it’s the Odd Couple updated to the 00s. My favorite bit is an episode in which Sheen explains that when someone tells him they want something, his standard answer is “I understand,” which people interpret as yes, but which really means “I understand that’s what you want, doesn’t mean I feel like doing it.” I’m gonna start using that.

And one episode had Megan Fox running around in tight little shorts and a bikini. Cannot complain about that.

* In other TV news, Entourage wraps up its season in another week or two. And the week after that is the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Yeah!

* Finally watched Spider-man 3 last night. As comic book movies go, I wasn’t expecting to like it at all and wound up not loving the film but enjoying it more than I expected and staying awake through the whole thing. But let’s face it, Bruce Campbell’s brief role runs away with the entire film; they could have done two hours in that restaurant and I wouldn’t have minded. Too bad I hear he’s not interested in the Bubba Ho-tep sequel.

* 2 or 3 times a week I have lunch at East End Brewery. So the whole staff knows me there. I can smoke, read the paper, chill for an hour or so. I enjoy it. They’ve had a revolving succession of waitresses. Mostly Filipino. Mostly average in looks, but always nice. I haven’t shaved in about a week. Yesterday one of the newer waitresses came up to me and said, “excuse me sir, can I touch?” and started running her fingers across my cheek. I did not mind this at all.

* Senator Larry Craig. How do the Republicans manage to do this so consistently? A family values man who has voted against every gay rights provision that’s come his way gets arrested for soliciting gay sex in a toilet, PLEADS GUILTY, and now is trying to back his way out of that one. A Senator, an educated man who is supposed to be expert in our legal system, says his only mistake was pleading guilty, that he thought that would make it go away? And we’re supposed to buy that?

The best bit is that he started off a press conference this week by saying, “Thank you all very much for coming out today.”

* As you may have already noted, Hilly Krystal died yesterday, less than a year after the closing of his club. The founder and owner of CBGB’s in New York, his bar provided a green field for groups like Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, Ramones, Patti Smith and so many, many others to start, play, develop their sounds, revolutionize popular music.

I only met him a few times, back in the early 80s when I was managing a few bands that never went anywhere. The routine was always the same – I’d go down to the Bowery, play him a cassette and as long as it didn’t suck he’d take out the schedule there and then and schedule a slot for the band. In my dealings with him he was always straight up, honest, no bullshit.

* Check out this jacket:

It has 39 pockets. It has a “Personal Area Network” (so that cables for things like headphones are already wired throughout the jacket. Normally US$250, right now US$200. Ultimate geek and yet, in the photo at least, it doesn’t look at all geeky.