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?

Ding!

Ten levels in less than 7 days.
Eat that!

Fried

Yeah, posting's been a little sparse. I think the election really took a lot out of me. Of course I was excited at Obama's win, but the flipside of that was Proposition 8's passing in California. I took last Wednesday off of work and stayed up til six in the morning watching returns.

Keith Olberman just made an emotional plea regarding Prop 8. It is quite good and I recommend passing it along to anyone who maybe doesn't quite have a handle on the issue.


Obviously, I believe that if two people can enter into a civil contract called marriage, that that contract should not be predicated on the basis that the two parties are of the opposite sex.

Add to California's misstep Florida and Arizona's similar amendments. Then Arkansas' refusal to allow "unmarried cohabitating adults" to foster or adopt a child, and finally Kansas' repealing of Affirmative Action and all I see is white man's rage--oh and a lot of self-righteous Christianity.

So . . . I'm just waiting out these final days of the Bush administration.

I'm waiting for President Obama to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I'm waiting for Supreme Court Justice Hillary Clinton to write a majority finding that states cannot write bigotry into their constitutions.


I'm waiting for . . . Wrath of the Lich King to be released on Thursday--when I'm playing my video game, I almost don't care that there is much work to be done.

Rock down to electric avenue

Yikes!
Its been a while.
Sorry for that.

Keepin' this one pretty short and sweet. Heading out of town in a week. I'll try to post a few more before, but I've been so focused on saving gold for my epic flying mount . . . and on getting 75 badges (yeah, I nerded all over the place).

So a couple interested readers have been curious about what music I've been listening to lately.

Well, thanks to Thomas over at AM 180, I dicovered Wye Oak. I really like their sound. Good for a rainy day, and lord knows we get enough of those around here.

I also recently picked up Fabriclive 36 mixed by James Murphy and Pat Mahoney. Its a great mix with some choice old skool cuts as well as some nice contemporary tracks with a nostalgic feel. If you need disco, but like your music a bit more quantized and poundy, then you really can't go wrong with this mix.

Booka Shade has a new mix out on Studio K7!'s long-running DJ Kicks series. Now we're nowhere near the series' heyday of Kid Loco, Kruder & Dorfmeister, and Theivery Corporation, but that's not a bad thing. Booka brings their sound and are pushing their label's newer tracks, like Lopazz's "2 Fast 4 U" and they are able to find a nice balance between what Get Physical produces and what K7 brands.

The mix I just can't get enough of these days is Body Language vol. 5 by Chateau Flight. It culls electro basslines and transmutes them into noiz pop and nurave and back again, but the scorcher that puts the whole disc in place is Ceramic Hello's "Sampling the Blast Furnace." If you don't get splinters from tearing up the dancefloor after that track, then you're not listening to it loud enough.

The most disappointing mixes I've listened to lately are M.A.N.D.Y.'s Fabric 38 and Junior Boys' Body Language vol. 6. Both mixes have some killer tracks, but really what sinks them are the tracks the just don't fit. The Junior Boys disc is also marred with some crummy mixing (I do better with my crap program). M.A.N.D.Y.'s mix tries really hard to include so many sounds that it becomes mind-numbing around track ten and flatout aggrevating by track 15.
The Junior Boys fare a tad better mainly because their track selection until the last five tracks are phenomenal.
If you want a good M.A.N.D.Y. mix, grab their At the Controls album (which admittedly is more track than mix oriented, but still a better disc).
And the JB's, as much as I love them, should stick to producing their own brand of crooner meets synth-pop.

Decisions

I'm torn.
Do I go with the bracers that have +7 Mp5 and a socket or the bracers with Spell Crit and more stamina?
Either way, I'm still the baddest ass paladin in the guild.

I will rule the universe

Ok, let's get something clear. While I appreciate your concern for Janice, it probably makes her skin crawl. Especially since she (most likely) didn't have anything too wrong other than a case of the blues. Then she went to Bumbershoot and got bumber-roughed-up which I'm sure added frustration and aggravation to said malaise.

So I was just being a friend. We've known each other for many (many, many) years and that's what friends do. You say, "Hey friend, sorry you're blue, aren't unicorns cool?"

And then your friend says, "Thanks for trying to cheer me up."

So, even though I haven't spoken to Janice in over a week, I'm sure we'll get together in the not-too-distant future to commiserate over a cup'a'joe.

Ok. So. That's out of the way.

What're my weekend plans? Well, earlier in the week, Matthew had the wise idea of solidifying our stranglehold as kings of homebound nerds. So he went out and bought an $80 board game.

Its called Twilight Imperium and it looks to be uber-nerdy. So there will be a lot of going over the 44-page rule book tonight. And tomorrow will be the first official game. I think that Matt, Phil and I will be the only players. That's ok, that allows me the luxury of interpreting the rules to say, "Jeremy rules the universe."

Average playtime is 4-6 hours. Sweet.
The game should be an on-going thing. Like "the Saturday night" thing or something. Next year is my year of "buckling down," and attempting to build up a chunk of money for a downpayment on a place. So having a long-standing, stay at home diversion could be an excellent way of passing the time. We'd also love to have a rotating cast of nerds come join us, so hit me up if you're interested.

Sunday I'll be initiating the new members of the chorus. Its a simple task. Their handlers come in, trot them around in a circle. I cup their balls and check their teeth, then pick a best in show. Actually, I'll just be relaying my experiences from my first year in the chorus.

I'm still working on OKDJ 11. I don't know what the deal is. I get started with it, then just hate it and scrap it. Check back, though. It could be up as early as next week.

Oh, but you want to know what tracks are on it? Here's a sample:

Simian Mobile Disco - It's the Beat

Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity

Simian Mobile Disco is opening the Decibel Festival on September 20th.

Aretha Franklin to start my week

My first image today was that of a young Aretha Franklin in a slinky grey dress bathed in a pink spotlight. I'll let that set the tone for the week.

What did I do this weekend?
Well, I leveled all three of my characters on WoW, and I auditioned for the Seattle Men's Chorus.
Oh, so now I have to justify myself to you? Fine.

Reasons why I auditioned for the Men's Chorus -

I like singing
What do I have to lose?
Performing on stage at Benaroya Hall and McCaw Hall would be mass rad
Reason to get out of the house once a week
Free refreshments
Meet dudes
Forcing all of my friends to attend at least one show (yes, I mean you!)

So I think my audition went pretty well. I wasn't properly warmed up and I had a lot of phlegm all lodged up in there, but I sang ok. Turns out the cigarettes have been murder on my range (I used to have a 4 octave range, now I'm barely making 2). He had me sight read which was totally gross and something I haven't done in forever--I haven't even looked at sheet music in quite some time. And it wasn't exactly an easy piece to sight read, dotted quarter notes, naturals, and a 4 note jump which was like groping for a book on the top shelf of a very tall bookcase. I'm almost 99% that I'm in--find out on Tuesday by way of phone call.
Keep your fingers crossed, y'all!

Nerdiest. Day. Ever.

Monday after work, I came home and popped on the TV to catch up with my old friend Buffy Summers. Matt awakened shortly thereafter, and I told him about the new Buffy comic book being scribed by none other than Joss himself.
So we decided we'd hit the comic book store that is a mere two blocks from our home. Said store was quite a disappointment. The severely overweight, unfriendly proprietrix acted as though I were crazy when I asked about the trade paperback Astonishing X-Men title. "I haven't carried new titles in over ten years," she said with incredulity.
Matt and I perused and tripped down memory lane. I checked to see how many Power Pack issues they had. If they had the Wolverine appearance. We talked about gatefold covers and foil covers. We talked about the big Image split and my love for Whilce Portacio's much-needed X-Factor stylizations.
The building nostalgia urged us to hop the next bus and head down a few stops to Arcane Comics. An excited 30-something patron exiting the store was already flipping through his purchase. He looked up as he maneuvered getting onto his bike and, noticing Matt's Excitebike shirt, exclaimed, "Awesome shirt man!"
Much like the previous store's owner, Arcane's proprietor was overweight, but his amiable demeanor was much more suited to our laid-back, kickin'-in-the-sunshine day. Without looking up from his computer monitor, he asked if he could help us find anything.
"Yeah," I asked, "Do you guys have the hard cover Astonishing X-Men."
"Naw, sorry, man," he replied, "but I could special order it for you. We've got the two trade paper backs, though. Give me just a second."
I looked to see what was on his monitor and a familiar sight assailed me.
"You play horde or alliance," I asked.
"Mainly horde. Little Alliance."
So we talked WoW for a bit before he pulled out the books I was looking for. Then we talked about when Dark Horse would be releasing the new Buffy book. Like any good fanboy who is also a salesman, he convinced me to check out Marvel's Civil War. Matt picked up some old MacFarlane era Spider-Mans. When we got home, Matt sat in front of the TV; I fired up WoW. We put on a couple episodes of Angel and read our books.
Its ok if you call me a nerd. I know I am.