Saw End of the Century. This is a total must-see, totally fascinating, and the footage of Dee Dee Ramone in his weird rap persona, "Dee Dee King" is priceless. Dee Dee came across as a real likeable fellow; now I want to read his books Chelsea Horror Hotel and Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones.

I had a total crush on this cute little blond punk boy in my logic class at UNH. He played guitar in a seacoast band (with his girlfriend, so that was that). He was so smug and dry. I loved it. I remember him ranting about these candy cane socks some girl in our class wore one day. "I hate Christmas socks! 'Look at my Christmas socks! Aren't they cute?'" he spat in some high-pitched fake girly voice. I thought it was hilarious.

Anyway, I totally blew any chance of respectability with him the day we talked about The Ramones. He was going off on how much he loved them and how important they were and they were the best, etc. I told him I was never a fan of theirs until I saw them do a medley of Oscar nominated-songs one year at the MTV music awards. It was brilliant and hillarious and suddenly they made sense to me. Well, this was not the way to suddenly "get" The Ramones. He just looked at me blank-faced and I was mortified.

I got a ticket for a New Yorker Festival panel: "Political Rockers: Music with a Message." The moderator is Sasha Frere-Jones and the panelists are Krist Novoselic, Carrie Brownstein, KRS-ONE and Henry Rollins.

READING

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, author of the infamous "Bumping into Mr. Ravioli" essay that was in The New Yorker. I heard an interview with Adam Gopnik on NPR about a month ago and he said the essay is being made into a movie. It also appears in Best American Essays 2003.