The First Echo

Glee Cast - Teenage Dream (DJ MichaelAngelo's Sing Mix)(DJ DigiMark Remix Video) from DJ DigiMark on Vimeo.

Sure, spending 8 hours in a shopping mall is a great opportunity to people-watch, but after a while it gets hella depressing to see who (and what) is really out there.

Before I get my Christmas carol on and bust my belt at Thanksgiving, I'm going to play this track on repeat for a while. Cee Lo Green's "Bright Lights Bigger City" is one synthy jam of a single from his excellent album The Lady Killer. And maybe I'm drawn to its simple video because I too long for a little NYC action in the fall and enjoy surrounding myself with shiny pretty things while ridin' in Bentleys, sippin' on some Remy Martin and transporting mysterious suitcases through empty kitchens:

It happened sooner than I had anticipated.

She died in a small parking lot behind a Starbucks in Studio City on a hot Saturday afternoon. I walked out, iced coffee in hand, and attempted to get her going. I was planning to get a head start on some Halloween costume shopping with Christine, my wardrobe stylist friend who wanted to take me somewhere deep in the Valley for some warehouse deals. All I got was a p-p-puttering that made my heart sink. My 2002 Ford Focus, the first car I had ever owned, the vehicle that helped me navigate the traffic-riddled streets of Los Angeles for the past 8 years, had died on me. Luckily Christine had some jumper cables, but they didn't help. The battery was fine. My two-month-old service report had said so. The engine was what was on its deathbed.

My car didn't always have the name Sydney. In fact, she didn't have any name until Kathleen came up with it sometime in 2003 while we were participating in our weekly obsession over the jaw-dropping…