Michael Craig's Journal

Sorry to be out of touch for a couple days. Pokerworks was doing something or other with its software and they asked me not to post.

OK, in all honesty, that explains away about 6 hours of the 72 since I last posted. While I know you appreciate the unmatched quality of the snippets of my life I share with you, I’ve gotten lots of mail about the QUANTITY of my disclosures. I always imagined that one of my strengths as a journal writer would be that you could keep coming back and finding something new, and I think that’s been the case.

I’ve been crazy-busy and addled by The Little Things.

Ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat

Every thing I touch with four wheels and an internal combustion engine turns to crap. We have 2 drivers and 3 cars in our family and we put such a high priority on our ability to get around that (a) we buy a new car, on average, at least once a year; and (b) we are slavishly devoted to keeping these vehicles in top operating condition.

Jo Anne’s Nissan Murano is on its third week of service at the collision center because, for the second time in a year, someone plowed into her.

No fear, though, we have the VW Eurovan, bought in a moment of weakness in 2001. It usually sits unused, waiting from my Mom and her husband Dave to use it when they come out for the winter. A rainbow of lights went on I started it up a couple weeks back. Two separate brake problems cost more than a grand. It was close to 60,000 miles so I asked Susann, my sultry service representative, if I should do the 60,000 mile comprehensive service. She informed me that I neglected the 50,000 and 40,000 service checks (so much for my image as Car Maintenance King), so that was another $500 or so more.

It’s back in service because the sliding side door won’t close. Again, there were TWO things wrong with the door. I think that’s another $500. I’m on my third day driving a Hyundai which has, as its only optional piece of equipment, a Revolving Smell Revolter. Every time I get in the car, the smell alternates between cigarette smoke and cherry perfume. The thing sits lower to the ground than a Ferrari. It boasts a 6-cylinder engine so it has a bit of pick up, but the effect is completely neutralized by the feeling the rest of the car is make of paper mache.

So Jo Anne is driving my Mercedes. Thank goodness for my almost-indestructible Mercedes, with over 25,000 miles in 9 months.

Almost indestructible.

While in Vegas last week, right before I was supposed to interview David Grey, I discovered one of the tires had gone completely flat. (I just wrote about this for my Mr. Inside column in BLUFF Magazine. It’ll be out in November.)

“Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”

I’m flying through the final parts of the Full Tilt book. There is still a lot to do and not much time to do it, and most of my collaborators are returning from England as I write this.

Then I found out my editor, Colin Fox of Warner Books, is leaving for Simon & Shuster. (Is there a “c” in there?) Any wiggle room I had for this project is officially gone.

Therefore, the only way I can keep them from cancelling the project, refusing to pay the last 2/3 of the advance, and demanding back the 1/3 they paid me, is to finish it on time.

What a gyp.

Like a rolling stone

I’ve been writing this in a rush because I’m due to pick up kids at school in a little while. I’ve also been fielding e-mails about my latest brilliant plan (a/k/a harebrained scheme). I’ve had this idea for a long, long time about writing something on Axl Rose. Naturally, with my snake-handler-like abilities with poker players, I think I’m the perfect guy to profile Rose for the world, maybe even write a book on a profounding strange music story.

Richard Brodie immediately popped in mind. Isn’t that who you think of when you think “Eighties Hair Metal”? I’ve gotten the idea that Richard is something of a high roller, and Guns ‘N’ Roses, I just learned, is playing the Hard Rock in Vegas this Saturday night. I don’t know if Richard CAN pull those strings, but it seems he WON’T. I should have anticipated that GnR is not his thing. He is, after all, the Quiet Lion.

He’s missing out on a great adventure. More important, I’M missing out on it.

So I looked through my Brain Trust rolodex under Unusual Friends and picked out Robin Leach. Robin, Eric Gladstone, and I are working on a TV movie project based on the 2006 Andy Beal games. I reached Robin and the bad news is that he’s in L.A. this weekend. The good news is that he’s working on pitching our TV movie. The other good news is that he’s making calls to get me in to cover the show for his LUXE LIFE column at AOL.

Of course, as I write this, I’m in a panic: I can’t take a day away from the book to go to Vegas for the show. I’ve never covered a musical event. WHAT WILL I SAY TO AXL?

Gotta run, truly.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 at 3:35 pm and is filed under My favourites:.