willhines.net

We launched a new website for Us Magazine yesterday. My brain is still unfolding from having worked hard the past week. What have I learned, while doing this site? That people love Britney Spears. You’re allowed to leave comments on the different articles. Most get 10-20. All posts regarding Britney Spears get 100+ comments, easily. And many many many of them use the phrase “Ooops, she did it again.” When news broke that Britney was pregnant, our server was overwhelmed with traffic and we had to move the site to a machine three times as powerful.

Did the stand-up at Eliza and Glennis’ fundraiser. It went well. I mean, I guess. Who’s to say? I wish a mythic figure with Ultimate Knowledge Of What Is Funny would descend from the heavens and give me a grade.

In an otherwise all-female lineup, Birch Harms and I were the sole performers to be heckled. It wasn’t that bad, as far as hecklers go. He called me boring and yelled for Birch to “shut up.” I think he hated the whole show, but was too chivalrous to yell at the women. Or else Birch and I are above-the-board inciting. Glennis McMurray got in this guy’s face and he shut up. I was impressed with Glennis’ fighting instinct. It never even occured to me that walking up to him and asking him to stop it was an option. I think I’ve started to look at all of my interactions as if they’re taking place over the Internet. I was probably composing a livid blog entry to this guy in my head as Glennis stepped over to him and gave him the business.

The next day, Eliza threw a birthday picnic in Prospect Park. It was a good time, even though subway maintenence made us take 4 trains to get there. I attempted to tackle Kevin during a game of catch, and he just shrugged me off like I was a clinging burr from a thornbush. Humbling. Ryan Rogers and I made a run to get groceries from a nearby bodega. We were trying our best to get skewers for Terry Jinn to make some ambitious hamburgers on the grills. Ryan even asked the not-quite-speaking-English clerks if they had ’skewers.’ Awkward pause, a shaking of the head, and we returned without them. It was a form of heckling, I believe.