Happy Birthday

To the handsomest guy I know--a mere 28 years young today.

Festivities include: trip to a mall, dinner a food court, and a (hopefully) really bad movie.

Soon, I swear

I'm brewing up a post (and have been for a few weeks) from a meme I was tagged to do from TAPEWORTHY. Also, there's a movie review plus video clips of my favorite film from last year (and easily one of my top 3 films of all-time) in the works.

In the meantime, check out what Phil thought about my folks, and also see how our awesome new king sized bed was packaged.

See ya soon!

Baby boy

Huge congratulations to Keith and Risa on the birth of their son Saul!

Sense from the center

Big ups to the UNANIMOUS supreme court decision from Iowa.



Also, Iowa state senator Matt McCoy--kinda geek hot?
And, aside from the superficial objectification of the senator, I'm curious about his life--how and when he came out, how he feels about the Boy Scouts and why he continues his affiliation with them, even if it is merely as resume bullet.

So Iowa, Vermont, and Sweden have given me some sort of vindication or sense of relief in the wake of Prop 8.

The karmic boomerang as of late? The crappy restaurant at which I used to work just had an eviction notice posted.

New toy

I love it so much.
Sure, its not hooked up to the home network, but its freaking awesome.

Every episode of:
30 Rock, Arrested Development, Buffy, Carnivale, Seinfeld, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twin Peaks, Mr. Show, and a couple I can't quite think of right now.

And if I want to watch a movie, I can choose from:
The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, Fargo, Wet Hot American Summer, Mulholland Drive, The Straight Story, INLAND EMPIRE, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Blade Runner, Robocop, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie, That Obscure Object of Desire, Viridiana, The Earrings of Madame de . . ., Yojimbo, Rashomon, Spider-man, X-Men, Iron Man, and at least a dozen others.

Next up: screwball comedies of the 30's and early 40's like The Bachelor and the Bobby-soxer.

Just $100 for the device, $100 for the 1TB external hard drive, and some quality time transferring my DVD collection to 1's and 0's.

Thanks mom

So . . . I buy my mom gift cards and jewelry and accoutrements from Chico's.
If you're not familiar, I'll wait for you to come back after you've perused the above link. Ok, now that you've poked around some there, I'd just like to point out that the target customer's age is significantly older than models on the web site. Anyway. . .
I used to get her discount. Now I get my discount . . . and a quarterly mini-catalog.
There is something humiliating about a catalog of flowing women's clothes delivered in my name.

I am emailing them today to make certain that no more flyers, catalogs, or mailings of any sort arrive in my name at this address . . . you know, for the environment.

(They are, however, welcome to contact me at my email address with any sales, discounts, or merchandise that might interest me.)

And, no, I don't my mom's name is not "Bonnie."

Go-go chick bye

Well, Mike, Janice, and I ate at Madame K's for what will most likely be the last time. It was a nice send off for a restaurant that holds many fine memories, including, but not limited to, drunkeness, wearing pink boas, and tons of birthdays.
The chicken on my final Go-Go Chick pie was dry. The gorgonzola was sparse and hardly noticable. It was nowhere near the wonderful melty goodness of its heyday,--the days when I would tip both front and back of house--but it was good enough. The amazing orgasm dessert? Just as good as the first one I ever had.
Now its onto new memories at new pizza joints.

But for now, a moment of silence for one of the first places that helped make this town feel like home for me.

(And in case you didn't check out the link above, here it is again, so you can see what fancy duds we were wearing.)

Individually raped

Phil and I went mattress shopping yesterday. Its something I've never done with the person who shares my bed, and its inherent awkwardness was compounded by our sexual orientation.
Fortunately, the sales team at the Seattle Mattress Company has found ways of easing those tensions, like the copy for one of the mattresses which reads "coils individually raped."
When the salesman came over and explained that the mattress contained individually wrapped coils, I was both relieved and disappointed. I also found it difficult to keep eye contact with him afterwards because the visions of him satisfying himself with each coil individually put me in schoolboy hysterics.

For an anonymous commenter

Thanks for introducing me to Grey Gardens.
Looks like Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore aren't screwing it up.

Any interest in that Go-go Chick pie and a couple hours of catch-up?

A long time ago, we used to be friends

There's been talk about it for quite some time, but apparently its already 70% written and all the usual suspects are on board. So, fingers crossed, and a Veronica Mars movie will be here someday soon. (all kinds of linkage: 1, 2, 3)

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

If you haven't done so already, watch the whole series--which you can do for free on Joost. (After 2 years, I think Phil's finally into it.)

Preach on, sister!

I might grow a vagina for Rachel Maddow. Maybe.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Wacking vs. Lofting

Firstoff, Circlesquare's new long-player is every bit as good as this track, so if you likey, you go buy-y.
Secondly, yes, I spend too much time watching people dance on YouTube.
However, I thought this was a good showcase for some fine dancing. Early on, you can see elements of wacking and lofting. No voguing this time, but really, I'm fine with that. Once the dancers get partners, you get some really strong modern choreography. All iterations of the partnering work is smart and efficient. So seek out some new music and more importantly, seek out some good dance--or just turn up some music really loud and dance around your living room.

Executive

You do realize that I started this, right?

Twirl it all around

February. Crap aught neener sure is flying by! We're 1/12 of the way through the year, and what do I have to show for it but date rape and AIDS jokes?

Seriously, though, besides the abysmal, ulcer-inducing economy, '09 has begun fairly well.

I've been keeping good on my New Year's resolution to lose 2 pounds a month. My New Year resolution for '08 was to go to the gym more than in '07. I accomplished that goal by mid-March and attendance subsequently dropped. Not to say that I didn't go to the gym at all for the rest of the year, but it was noticably less.

So this year the goal is more long-term and also very achievable. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

So what else with '09? Well, Tennille visited weekend before. She stayed at the adorable Hotel Max. We went to Seattle's only male strip club Centerfolds which is only two blocks from my house. It was a first for all three of us (Tennille, Phil, and myself). Completely strange experience. Tennille and I were the only ones there when the club opened at 8. Of course, Seattle is totally puritanical so there's no drinking, but we stepped out on a couple of occasions for beverages. Only one of the guys had a nice body. I bought Phil a lapdance from a guy with a ponch. It was sorta hot--but I wish I could have watched the lapdance a la Showgirls.

Saturday we checked out the Hopper exhibit at SAM. I was surprised at the size of his painting and also at his brushwork. His color palette is so soft that some of it looked like pastels. That night we checked out Gainsbourg on Greenwood. I liked the atmosphere and the small plates, plus they were projecting Mon Oncle on the wall behind us. Oh yeah, and the hallway back to the bathroom looks like the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks.

Sunday we went to trivia at Bill's Off-Broadway then followed it up with the Re-Bar. My stomach was completely a mess (probably from all the drinking) by the time we made it to the Re-Bar. The place was about half-full, nowhere near Flammable's heyday, but there were a few faces I recognized in the crowd. The place still manages to be the most un-pretentious dance/club night in town and that alone is reason to go.

So that's what I've been up to--oh and watching a shit-ton of movies.

Now that I've caught up on nearly all of the films from '08, I think I can say definitively, "Yawn." Slumdog Millionaire was nowhere near the top of my list. In fact, its creepy romanticization of the Mumbai ghetto puts it on par with Life is Beautiful for me. Add to that a lead that can't act and all you're really left with is some really nice cinematography and nice story structure. Milk was decent but not great. Some of the supporting characters, namely Emile Hirsch and Diego Luna were distracting. Add to that the melodramatic/operatic slaying at the end and one begins to feel manipulated. The Wrestler has to be one of the most boring affairs I've seen in a long time, again with just poorly cast and badly acted supporting characters in Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. I realize its adapted from a novel, but to become such a formulaic film for the last hour sucked all life out of it--kind of like the title character serving beef at the deli counter. Revolutionary Road is an example of why a great book should never be put on film--filmmakers trying to include way too much of the novel and not finding the right cinematic references to convey the tone of the piece. And although I adored David Fincher's meticulous Zodiac, I really don't even have the time for The Bi-Curious Case of Ben Jammin' Butthole. Frost/Nixon and Doubt are both examples of why plays should not be turned into movies, but (and I can't believe I'm defending him even a shred) Ron Howard was more adept at translation from stage than John Patrick Shanley.

I was happy to see both Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins nominated. Frozen River was such a peculiar little film and Leo in particular was spellbinding, but I really would have liked to have seen her acting partner in the film, Misty Upham get some recognition, as well. Jenkins in The Visitor brought a type of believability to his role that none of the other acting nominees could muster. Sure, the film overall was a bit on the melodramatic, Oxygen network, side of immigration morality, but like Leo, Jenkins grounded the work with his performance.

So now I should rail against The Dark Knight, but Jim Emerson has done a much more thorough job. My problems with it came mostly from its hole-riddlered(!?) plot and inconsistent tones and styles. It wasn't helped any by Christian Bale nor Heath Ledger, both of whom are so much more fixated on the minutiae of creating a character than the realities of delivering lines and progressing the plot and tension.

Ok, so that's my take on the mediocrity of this year--so what were the good films this year?

Not a lot--Let the Right One In, Synecdoche, New York, Burn After Reading, and Wild Combination were my favorites. If you haven't taken the time to see them, do so now.

Class dismissed.

Remix

Has anyone read that book by Lawrence Lessig? I was supposed to read it for work. The subtitle is Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. He was on Colbert the other day and I Tivo'd it. Pretty soon I'm gonna Remix that interview and post it to my YouTube account. But something else happened--one of those synchronistic moments when the planets align and the disco lights of heaven shine down . . .
See, the other day Jimbo posted this funny jpg of Wilford Brimley with one of those motivational sayings, work poster-y borders around it with "Diabeetus" as the title and "Medicare can help" as the subtitle. Matthew and I, and I'm sure a lot of you, have chuckled multiple times at Mr. Brimley's pronunciation of the affliction.
So then, I was at home playing WoW (raiding 25-man Naxx tonight, y'all!) and watching Government Access (what? I can't enjoy a little local policy from time to time?) when lo and behold, the woman on television mispronounciated (read as: Buster Bluth) diabetes the Brimley way. Luckily, my Tivo loves me and sent the mispronunciation (read: correctly) to my computer and I quickly hacked it up and slowed it down.

Here are the results:


Be warned, there is a Wilford Brimley conspiracy.

The cats are trying to warn us.

P.S. If anyone did read that book, a report no more than 1500 words on my desk in the morning.

Moratorium '09

"It is what it is."
". . . at the end of the day."
". . . in this economy."
"Its a no-brainer."

For Phil

Please stand up

Apparently Frank Rich is just as disappointed in the Rick Warren's invovlement in Obama's innauguration as I am. [Op-ed piece]

Peeved

Chalk it up to me being me, but I really hate when people say "two thousand AND eight," instead of, "two thousand eight."
When someone says it, I want to ask them if they said "nineteen hundred AND ninety four" or "nineteen hundred ninety four?"

You're my double shadow

The long nights and cold weather has made me hunger for comfort food. First was the navy bean soup, then the Frito pie. I realize the latter may not be familiar to many of you. I have my youth in Texas to thank for acquiring that taste.

I think the psychological underpinnings of needing comfort come from learning how to share space with the guy I love. Phil moved in at the beginning of the month. Some of his stuff is still in boxes, but most of it unpacked. Half of the bedroom closet contains his clothes now. The laundry pile in the bedroom has (more than) doubled.

We need a bigger bed. Luckily (or unluckily) my graveyard schedule and his swing shift schedule means that he sleeps when I'm at work and vice versa. So its not a pressing matter . . . yet.

I need to say "our" more.

I want him to be comfortable, too.

The broader, social context of needing comfort comes from the residual Prop 8/Rick Waren madness that is nearly inescapable. In my 16 plus years of being an "out" gay man, it hasn't been until recently that I feel the societal ill-will toward my natural proclivities. The latest attack comes from the man that I helped elect to the presidency.

Last week the snow came and justified my agoraphobic tendencies. I had two extra days off work. This city does not handle snow well, which is fine because we only see it every few years.

I played lots of Warcraft. I looked outside to see if the snow was still falling (most of the time it was). We downloaded movies to Tivo. Movies we generally wouldn't watch, and definitely won't watch again.

Trivia:

What movie stars Academy Award winners Kathy Bates and Kevin Spacey, as well as Academy Award nominees Paul Giamatti and Miranda Richardson?

If you answered Fred Claus, pin a rose on your nose!

So that was one of the movies, along with the simply atrocious Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So all this comfort has got me lazy. And all this being attacked has made me feel victimized.

Guess I'll just have to turn all this shit around in 2009. Who's up for being active and pro-active?