WAT'S LIST OF THE TOP TEN GREATEST ROCK SONGS EVER.

Oh boy. This was not easy at all. But I managed to think profoundly about my list of what I consider to be the top ten greatest rock songs of all time. I've got 'em all linked for you (just click on each song title) through YouTube; that is, if that website ain't down for maintenance yet again! In no particular order, just because all these songs are amazing pieces of recorded sound:

1) A Day in the Life by The Beatles-The band that changed the face of music forever, especially with this masterpiece. John Lennon never sang so hauntingly and more beautifully than here, with McCartney's playful marijuana bridge, Ringo's underrated drumming and two incredible orchestral crescendos, one of which leads to a final earth-shattering 30-second piano chord that stays embedded in your brain long after the track is finished. Simply memorable.

2) Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd-If they had only recorded this song, this white trash Southern band would've done more than enough. A terrific ballad, which then switches into an amazing fast-paced guitar solo which seems to last into eternity.

3) Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones- A lyrically rich and catchy tune. Nice guitar work by Keith Richards and I love me dem WOOWOO background vocals. This is the Stones at their best indeed. And Jaggger of course, always the great flamboyant rock front man.

4) Where The Streets Have No Name by U2- Is it the glorious sounding organ? Is it The Edge strumming that guitar with the band's imcomparable signature sound? Bono's tremendous voice? I dunno, but this song starts and ends in such a way that stirs my soul. And bonus points to U2, for the video was filmed in my hometown!

5) Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen- Ah yes. No doubt here by most that this is a true work of art in every way. Freddie Mercury sings like an angel, Brian May's guitar is terrific, and we all just love this song because it goes through so many key changes. Is this a ballad? An opera? A hard rock tune? We don't really know, nor care, we just know it's brilliant.

6) All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix-This song was written by the brilliant Bob Dylan who sings and performs his own material horribly. In the hands of rock's greatest guitarist of all time however, this song becomes magic. Gorgeous guitar work throughout; how could it not, right? It was after all, Hendrix.

7) Hotel California by The Eagles- To this day, I'm not really into this band, but I cannot deny this beautiful song. Don Henley sings and drums just right, Joe Walsh and Dan Felder play some mean badass guitar. How can ya not picture my great home state of California when listening to this fine tune? I can see the mission bells now...

8) Pinball Wizard by The Who-This comes from the rock opera Tommy, and stands well on its own as a very powerful rock song. Pete Townshend does some nifty guitar work here, Roger Daltrey's powerful vocals never sounded better, and rock's greatest drummer, Mr. Keith Moon all do an awesome job in telling the story of a very good pinball machine player.

9) Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd- I was torn between this and another Floyd tune called Time, but chose this in the end realizing how truly haunting and disturbing this song about drug abuse is, and how pretty it all sounds despite its bleak message. It's as if you've entered some sort of melancholy dream, and David Gilmour's guitar solo is oh so good.

10) Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin- Yeah yeah, I didn't choose Stairway to Heaven, only because it's so overplayed and I'm sick of it. Now this, THIS IS A GRAND ROCK SONG! Bluesy at first, then come some cool heavy metalesque key changes. Robert Plant's got some strong pipes, Jimmy Paige seemingly plays the guitar with his eyes closed, and John Bonham (a rock drumming genius) does the best drumming of all the songs on this list. Alls I can say is: WOW!

There were some close runner-ups: Guns N' Roses with Sweet Child O' Mine, AC/DC with You Shook Me All Night Long, Boston with More Than a Feeling, and Van Halen with Jump. Damnit, Barracuda by Heart is another awesome rock classic. I also considered songs by Aerosmith, The Doors, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath, John Lennon, and George Harrison; not to forget tunes by Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, or Pearl Jam which were the superior rock bands of the 1990s. And out of this strange odd emo decade? Well, I had Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, and The Killers in mind, each whom have produced some amazing rock songs in the past six years.

But alas, I had to narrow it down. And so I did. This list o' mine though is purely subjective of course.

Seems like everyone has their own top ten list.

WHAT'S ON TV?

Jaysus man!

With work, gym, house chores, a VIP social life (HA!), shaving/trimming my face & pubes, the Internet, and sleeping, I just cannot keep up with all the TV shows I'd like to watch. There's just too freakin' many! I honestly just don't have tha time! It's kind of overwhelming really!

Let's see. I hear great things about and would love to be able ta actually watch: 24, House, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Entourage, The Office, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Weeds, Sex and the City, etc. Yeah, everyone raves about these programs (some already cancelled), and I have yet to find out why. As is, I barely get to watch Smallville, Supernatural, and Family Guy every week, and even then I'm behind with these shows, but do get to check them out fairly regularly thanks to my VCR. Yeah, I still use a VCR to record shows.

I have seen quite a bit of The Sopranos, Queer as Folk, and Ugly Betty tho. The Italian mob show is like watching mini episodes of The Godfather film. The program is decent to me, but not that great. The gay show was purty good, but kind of depressing and all too realistic for me. Now Ugly Betty is quite entertaining; a very sweet tender and witty show that is doing very well. The lead actress, America Ferrera is excellent; a real humble girl who just recently won a Golden Globe and SAG Award. I'm proud to see a positive and popular Hispanic show on TV finally! Inspired by a real silly Colombian telenovela, Ugly Betty has really taken off. I'd like to see more of it though than just the three or so episodes I have checked out.

Yeah, I know there's DVD box sets now on every freakin' TV show ever made and many of the networks now provide them online to be viewed at one's own convenience, but as I said earlier, it's all a matter of me making time, which I often feel I just don't have. Besides, in January of 2006, I became a member of Netflix and made the decision to watch at least two films a week on DVD. So come Saturday nights and Sundays, I have made the effort to become a responsible educated cineaste and thanks to that, I got to see at least 100 films on DVD in 2006. Not bad eh?

As for these fine television programs, I'll just have to go by word-of-mouth and all the accolades showered upon them at awards shows, which I never miss.

Maybe it's time I join the 21st Century and get a TiVo?

WHAT I LOOKED LIKE YESTERDAY.

ANN COULTER MUST DIE.

Ann Coulter! Ann FACKING Coulter. YOU NASTY HIDEOUS REVOLTING CONSERVATIVE WHORE! YE OOGLY SKINNY BLONDE BITCH. People have bought her books! HOW??!! WHY??!!

She insulted 9/11 widows last year and has talked all kinds of shit before and since. Now she's bagging on Hillary Clinton for running for president. More power to Hillary I say, for if Mrs. Clinton is a bitch, at least she'll use her aggressiveness to get something good done for this country. You Ann, are nothing but a venomous cheap insulting c*nt!

Some statements attributed to Ann C*NTler:

"Speaking of which, the horny hick's wife finally ended the breathless anticipation by announcing that she is running for president."

"Liberals love America like O.J. loved Nicole."

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

"There are a lot of bad republicans; there are no good democrats."

"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.' "

Ain't this bitch a winner? WOW. There are still plenty of closed-minded people in this country that think like Ann. People who blindly follow George W. Bush, who believe gays will go to hell, who think global warming is but a myth. How sad.

We cannot afford to have this kind of mentality, for these are crucial times, perhaps the most critical in human history.

We not only got this country to save folks, but the entire fucking planet.

AND THE NOMINEES ARE...

OK!

The nominations for the Oscars (a.k.a. the Gay Superbowl), were announced this morning here in Hollywood, CA of course, and I am quite pleased to see such a diverse list this time around! Last year, the big movie I was rooting for of course, was BrokeHISback MounTINGHIM, which won big awards, but ended up losing the Best Picture to that horrible Crash. This year, I got several favs I'd like ta see win.

I have to admit, I have not seen many of the films and actors nominated, but I'm happy to see the nomination for Alan Arkin as Best Supporting Actor in Little Miss Sunshine. He is so funny in the role of a cantankerous grandfather in that film. Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls for Best Supporting Actress; this girl has the voice and star quality Beyoncé could only wish she had. HAHA! I'm happy to see Penélope Cruz nominated for Best Actress in Volver; she won't win due to Helen Mirren's role in The Queen, but Cruz was so good in an otherwise decent movie. And way ta go Al Gore! His documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth is nominated as Best Documentary, as is the song by Melissa Etheridge, which is actually quite good I must say.

Ah! But the big big nominee for me here is? Pan's Labyrinth. Six nominations! SIX! And in major major categories too, including Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography. Wow. Would've been nice to see the little girl Ivana Baquero and director Guillero Del Toro nominated too, but it's too competitive a race I guess. Still, the movie has been noticed, and deservedly so. Here's hoping it wins big; at least as Best Foreign Film.

I may go see other nominated films and stuff, but don't bet on it. Going to the movies is expensive and I'm liking DVDs now so much betta.

Full list of nominees and other information is here:

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/23/D8MR1A1O1.html

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-23T143304Z_01_N23237898_RTRUKOC_0_US-OSCARS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

http://www.oscar.com/nominees/

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING.

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So a family friend of ours has gone on vacation, and he left us this awesome little guy named Careto to babysit. Or is his name more Italian, like say, Caretto? Anyway, I've never had so much contact with a bird before, and I've come to find out these are some really cool smart little animals! He hates being alone too long, and likes to hang outside of his cage most of the day. Purty freakin' cool! Makes me wanna git my own bird! They seem easier to care for than a dog or cat that's for sure.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, could anyone out there with some bird knowledge tell me what kind of bird this is?

ACTOR JAKEY G. AND SINGER K.D. LANG? ONE AND THE SAME PERSON?!

BINGE DRINKING.

It's Friday! WOOHOO! I missed the gym last week cause I'd pulled my neck and all, but I got tha chance ta go back last night. I have healed! I HAVE HEALED!

You've heard about people drinking so much alcohol that they die, but did ya know you can actually drink so much water at one time that it can kill you? That's exactly what happened to this woman, who really wanted to win a Nintendo Wii and participated in a radio contest where ya had to drink lots of water and not urinate. The woman died of water intoxication, and now the radio station DJs and several other employees are in big trouble; facing lawsuits and penalties of all kinds.

This sounds like a most unpleasant kind of death indeed:

Most water intoxication is caused by hyponatremia, an overdilution of sodium in the blood plasma, which in turn causes an osmotic shift of water from extracellular fluid (outside of cells) to intracellular fluid (within cells). The cells swell as a result of changes in osmotic pressure and may cease to function. When this occurs in the cells of the central nervous system and brain, water intoxication is the result. Additionally, many other cells in the body may undergo cytolysis, wherein cell membranes that are unable to stand abnormal osmotic pressures rupture, killing the cells. Initial symptoms typically include light-headedness, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, headache and/or malaise. Plasma sodium levels below 100 mmol/L (2.3g/L) frequently result in cerebral edema, seizures, coma, and death within a few hours of drinking the excess water. As with alcohol poisoning, the progression from mild to severe symptoms may occur rapidly as the water continues to enter the body from the intestines or intravenously.

Yeah, drink yer 8 glasses, but spread it out evenly throughout the day okay?

IT WAS THE FAULT'S FAULT.

Thirteen years ago today. Yes, on January 17, 1994 at around 4:30a.m. the ground beneath LA shook in the Northridge Earthquake. We didn't have massive loss of life, but property damage was extensive and needless to say, the nerves and psyche of the whole city were pretty messed up for a good while. The fact this quake happened on a day off for most people and so early in the morning probably contributed to a lower death rate.

I had just flown back from my parents' homeland after visiting extended family and I remember it being Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The roar of the quake was loud indeed; felt like a thousand people pounding on the walls of my house. I was still in my late teens; a young innocent horny virgin awoken by the shaking. About a minute after the initial temblor, we had another strong jolt. Yeah, the neighbors stopped by crying and scared. They had shattered glass, appliances, and other stuff on their floors while we luckily had no damage, which is astounding, considering how old the house I used to live in was. Power was out. I remember going outside into the cold dark morning just as the sun was about to rise, and looking up at all those stars; heavenly bodies one never sees up in the sky in a big city like LA, unless the power has gone all out. You could hear the car alarms going off here and there. Dogs barking. Hydrants and pipes were broken. Walls were cracked. No power for us for a good twelve hours, which is actually quite good considering the circumstances, and I do remember there being running water. I often worry about a huge quake doing real damage, where our basic comforts would go away. That would be purty scary, but a real possibility; always hoping we won't have a massive 8 pointer, but thank God for strict building codes at least.

As the sun rose, the damage began to be assessed, and lots of houses near the epicenter here in the SF Valley were heavily damaged. The classic cool mall near my house, Laurel Plaza was destroyed. Much of our local university CSUN was torn up, as were many buildings in Northridge, incuding the popular mall there. The worst death toll was at the Northridge Meadows Apartments, where the upper floors caved into the lower one killing over a dozen that were sleeping below. They say the magnitude was 6.7, but many still contend it was at least a 7.1 earthquake.

It was the largest most destructive quake so far here in LA. It's been over a decade, and I constantly worry when the ground will move again. After all, this is earthquake country. There is no getting around it.

It'll be either us or San Francisco.

THE TRULY TALENTED/GENIUS ARE ALSO TRULY DISTURBED.

Jakey G. was purty good on SNL and it's been freezing cold here in LA these past few days.

I finally watched this movie from the 90s called Shine about this brilliant Jewish piano player from Australia, and found it to be a very engaging film, although it ended a bit abruptly for me. It was a simple true story about this child prodigy who has a terribly abusive dominant father who doesn't want him to go away from home after getting incredible scholarships and offers to study in America and Europe, as everyone recognizes his amazing talent. He finally goes against his father's wishes, and ends up in London, at one of the best music schools in the world. Of course, the stupid stubborn proud father banishes him and David Helfgott finds his independence at this school, but not without the heavy price of schizophrenia attacking him. Just great huh?! You're a brilliant musical genius and crap, and you're also a crazy nutjob, thanks to that stupid mental disorder/disease. What a shitty unfair raw deal!

This is what I've noticed time and time again about truly intelligent/genius human beings; they all seem to be given unnatural talents, yet at the price of their sanity. Anyone who is very very smart also seems to carry hidden internal demons or has a tragic difficult life that tests their sanity time and time again. Beethoven was a masterful composer, but then became deaf and bitter at the world. How awful! To love music and not be able to hear it?! Van Gogh was one of history's great painters, yet was plagued by mental issues, which lead him to chop off one of his ears. There's that very smart mathematician dude that Russell Crowe played in A Beautiful Mind who was also haunted by schizophrenia. Judy Garland was a phenomenal singer/performer, who had a terrible time with drugs. Michael Jackson, an amazing songwriter/entertainer with serious childhood issues that ruined a shockingly brilliant pop career. Tina Turner got beat up by her husband. Mozart had horrible financial issues and died so young. John Lennon dealt with drugs, the U.S. government, and was murdered. The list goes on and on.

The law of compensation I suppose. No one gets away in this life from suffering or getting dealt a cross/challenge to bear. If you're smart, attractive, and rich you're gonna be lacking in some other area for sure. Nobody has it made 100% I guess. The truly truly smart (like me of course, HAHAHAHAHAHA!) could not go through this life without something wrong. Maybe this is why I have anxiety disorder? This is the challenge or hurdle I must learn to deal with in this life? Perhaps someday they'll write a biography or make a film on my life, and the plot twist to my amazing genius will be the dramatic scenes where anxiety takes a hold of my being and some amazing actor like Leonardo DiCaprio will play me and go on to win an Oscar for the role.

But first, he'll hopefully win the Golden Globe, which incidentally are handed out tonight.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

Are ya as excited as I am?! HUH?! WELL?! ARE YA?!

Jakey G. is gonna be hosting Saturday Night Live tomorrow night! 11:30p.m. on NBC. Don't forget okay? That is of course, if ya care. I know not everyone can be as big a Jakey G. fan as I, but come on now. He's a pretty good actor who can only watch his star continue to rise and rise and rise! RISE! LIKE ME! RISE! I RISE WHEN I SEE JAKEY G. Okay, a bit of a hyperbole.

Even if the show sucks, I'll still watch. Ya know, the first time I saw Jakey G. was in that global warming disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow and found his appearance and the film itself to be particularly uninteresting. And then out of nowhere comes that role in Brokeback Mountain and I was hooked. Yes, something about Jack Twist I tells ya. It's really the role that catapulted him into the stratosphere in my opinion. I went back to check out some of his other films like Bubble Boy, and was kind of freaked out at how well he played that quirky character. Definitely not hot. LOLOL. But he certainly looked good in Donnie Darko, which is quite an interesting and most original film; a movie that plays with your sense of the time and space continuum indeed. Ya gotta check out Jarhead too, which is mighty entertaining and not your typical blood, guts, and gore war movie. Really really cool film.

I never noticed that Jakey's sister Maggie is quite cute too. She's engaged or married or hooked up with that other talented actor Peter Sarsgaard who often plays maniacal mentally disturbed characters with real precision.

All the best to my fellow LA born brotha Mr. Gyllenhaal tomorrow night.

I'll be watching.

DO WE HAVE TO READ SUBTITLES?!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes ye lazy Americans. For these films you have to, and to not watch foreign films because ya have to read is a real waste of the human mind.

Pedro Almodóvar is by now, a very celebrated director from Spain, and if you've never seen one of his films, you do not know what you are missing. His latest effort is called Volver, and although not one of my favorites, I still liked this movie for what he does with the actresses. He truly makes them shine in a strange film about death and ghosts. Penélope Cruz looks astoundingly radiant and pulls in a terrific performance; ya wanna see plenty of the camera focused on her ass and boobs, then this is your film. The film is entertaining and strangely captivating, and has been nominated for Best Actress (Cruz), and Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.

The real masterpiece here though is a dark moody film from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. He directed Mimic and Hellboy, and comes out of left field this time with a truly bizarre and creepy motion picture named Pan's Labyrinth. The film is also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes and represents Mexico, even though the entire picture takes place in 1944 Spain after the Civil War. Most of the actors are true Spaniards as well. The story, acting, cinematography, music, and make-up effects in this movie are excellent. What a dark and hopeless time this seems to be! A little girl (the phenomenal actress Ivana Baquero) must imagine or perhaps truly does see a fantastic world that lets her escape from the cruelty of the real world. Sergi López plays a convincing and terribly cruel character with some very violent tendencies which lends the picture some very disturbing gory scenes. It's not often a film stays with me for days after, and this one seems to be one of those. Truly haunting, original, and definitely one of the best pictures of 2006.

The theater was surprisingly packed, and I was pleased to see so many willing to go and see a film entirely in Spanish. Or perhaps they had no idea. Regardless, they all sat in their seats and applauded the picture when it ended. The makings of a cult classic I'd say.

A truly remarkable and unique achievement, I do expect this little film to take home the Golden Globe this coming Monday night and eventually Oscar gold in the Foreign Film category.

And don't forget Penélope's hot bod in that other movie okay?

:)

I'M HURT AND SORE AND LIFE SUCKS RIGHT NOW.

Okay.

I woke up Sunday morning and sort of lifted my head out of bed in such a way that I pulled or dislocated something in my lower right neck and was in severe pain most of the day. Bloody awful! Today Monday it feels a little better, but it still has me annoyed and bothered.

Also, my anxiety has been acting up as of late, and this is because I'd like to go to the gym and exercise ya know? But with my current sore neck and crap, I can't go exercise until this thing heals, so alls I can do really is walk and go up and down steps. No lifting, which sucks donkey penis! I feel like a disabled old man.

I keep telling myself it could be worse. Yes, it could all be worse, but I'm still whining and complaining here. I hate pain or illness as I'm sure we all do and it irks me that in this life we have to go through this crap. ARGH! Takes away from the enjoyment of life really.

I'll have my review soon I hope of two recent foreign films I just saw: Volver and Pan's Labyrinth. Just to warn ya that the latter film is terrific, but very dark, bloody violent, and quite depressing. Both in Spanish with subtitles; real Castilian King's Spanish that is!

YEEHA!

KIDS, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

So as the world entire already knows and is still deeply divided over, Saddam Hussein was executed a week ago. I personally feel he should've just stayed in freakin' prison for the rest of his life and let his conscience and old age get the best of him in the end. How many dictators have gotten away with bloody murder and were never tried for their crimes? Augusto Pinochet just died of natural causes in his 90s, and he killed thousands in the 70s as leader of Chile. Of course, the United States supported him. Go figure. And what about Idi Amin in Uganda? He died of natural causes in exile too and was never brought to justice for his crimes! There's also Pol Pot of Cambodia! WHAT THA HELL MAN?! Just reading their murderous bios gives me the chills!

But here's the crux of this post. Why in tha hell would these kids want to copycat something so gruesomely horrid:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=4904242

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2050341,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2051037,00.html

Uh huh.

NOT ALL SPANISH IS THE SAME, BUT IN THE END IT ALL IS.

The Spanish spoken in Spain and all its former colonies in the present day, is really called Castilian, because it was born and comes from that ancient region in Spain called Castile. Somehow, this Latin dialect came to dominate all the others in the country and by the time Spain became a world power in 1492, it was considered the official language of the state. Even within Spain however, the language is spoken differently, with the southern region of Andalusia having had the most impact on the colonies of the New World, for it was from here that most of the colonists and conquistadores came from to rape and plunder the native peoples.

So here we are, some five hundred years later, with some twenty Spanish-speaking countries worldwide speaking all kinds of different Spanish dialects. It's only fitting, due to the large areas that were colonized by the Spaniards, that regions within each country and from one border to the next speak Spanish differently. It's the same thing that happens with the English-speaking world. There's the Queen's English, American English, Australian, Canadian, etc. And even within a country like the United States, there's differences between New York English and Southern English as we all know.

This exists in the Hispanic world too. Spaniards from central Spain have a distinct "lisp" when they speak and sound very poetic; many consider this to be the King's Spanish. Southern Spaniards have a Caribbean sound to their speech and this is why Cubans and Puerto Ricans sound like them, because they were heavily influenced by the speech of Southern Spain and the Canary Islands. Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans all have their distinct peculiarities, phrases, slang, and speech patterns which usually identifies them to the trained Spanish-speaking ear. Argentines sound as though they are speaking Italian, because so much of their ancestry is rooted in Italy. This is all a hybrid of the languages of the native peoples, uprooted/imported African slaves, and immigration to all regions of Latin America.

I can usually tell where someone is from by the way they speak Spanish. Of course, the most well-known accents to the world are Mexican and Spaniard Spanish, due to film, music, and telenovelas which often seem to come from both of these countries. Plus, most Spanish speakers in the U.S. come from Mexico, which is why Mexican expressions and slang are so well-known here.

But an in-depth study of this very spread out and diverse language reveals many different shades and thousands of oddities which cannot be taught in school out of a basic textbook. This can all be a bit confusing.

As different as it may all be, we somehow can still understand each other.

All 450 million of us.

¡Dios mío! ¿Qué diablos le pasa a la loca de la Britney Spears?

THE SYMBOL OF SAN FRANCISCO.

Okay, the new year is already going fast. JAYSUS!

I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge at night back in the Fall of 2005 and witnessed one of the most beautiful picture postcard sights ever. It was a clear night, the moon was nice and full hitting the water in the bay below, and the illuminated bridge with the city of San Francisco in the background is one of those views I will never forget for as long as I live. If you've never seen the Golden Gate Bridge, you owe yourself a visit to this magnificent structure, which was completed and opened in 1937, meaning this year marks its 70th anniversary! Seems like the damn thing's been there forever.

Of course, me having such a strong morbid side and all, I thought I'd share this tidbit about the popularity of ending one's life by leaping off the bridge:

The Golden Gate Bridge is notorious as a site for suicide . The official suicide count ended in 1995 when the number approached 1,000. In the eight years preceding 2003, there was an average of one suicide jump every two weeks, which brought the unofficial total to over 1,300 suicides. Until the official count was discontinued, suicide locations were officially documented according to which of the bridge's 128 lamp posts the jumper was nearest to when he or she jumped. Currently, it is said that a person jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge every 15 days.

The 220-foot (67 m) fall from the Golden Gate takes four seconds and jumpers hit the water at 75 miles per hour (120 km/h). As of 2006, only 26 people are known to have survived the jump. Those who do survive always strike the water feet first and most suffer multiple internal injuries and broken bones. One young man, John Kevin Hines, survived a jump off the bridge in 2000, though the impact broke his back and shattered multiple vertebrae. As a suicide prevention initiative, there are signs promoting a special telephone available on the bridge that connects to a crisis hotline. A young woman from Piedmont, California, Sarah Rutledge Birnbaum, may be the only person to have jumped from the bridge twice. She survived the first jump in early 1988 but died in her second attempt later that year.

Okay! Sounds great! Yeah, if ya visit the bridge, please don't jump off it. It'll take away from the enjoyment!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!