Memories (like the phone booths on my block)

I was riding the Metro back fro Silver Spring today when Sinead O’Connor’s I Want Your Hands on Me came up on the iPod playlist.

I just sat their on the train flashing on a memory that has to go back maybe 18 years or so. Jon and I were invited to a wedding reception for a nurse who worked with us on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Actually it was Janice’s second marriage….to her ex-husband. Eat, Drink and Remarry said the napkins and matchbooks. Janice was fun. Her husband/ex-husband/husband was kind of a douche. Not that we really knew. They were getting remarried – and for all the wrong reasons: she was preggers. Honestly, isn’t that the worst reason to get hitched? Because your father has added two goats to your dowry is a better justification.

Janice was a fun chick. She and another nurse, Noreen, Jon and myself performed twice at the Oncology holiday party. Once doing Julie Brown’s The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun and the following year doing a weird take on Sisters, from the movie ‘White Christmas’. We took 2nd place the first year and was robbed the next. And that year we had choreography with fans and everything.

I’m sure I was drunk – though I cannot speak for Jon. We hijacked the reception. Jon made me go out to my car (oh….Pteri, you had a good life) and get one of my mix tapes. This wasn’t Hi-N-R-G music. No No…this was late New Order, Depeche Mode, Sinead and the likes. But it wasn’t enough just to get the tape and queue it up. No – we had to take over the dance floor. Together.

Yes, it was Jon and myself ON the dance floor shakin our groove thang to I Want You Hands On Me. Naturally, people just stared! Two men. Together. I’m pretty sure none of these people had seen man-on-man dancing before. Keep in mind – this was before cable.

…and this is how I know I was drunk. I was dancing. Sure, I dance around the house and make up moves that just annoys and enchants my man. I do it to get a reaction. But I was never one to go out at a bar and move to anything they put on that was 168 beats per minute. Ruckiry (not Jon’s boss), I used to drink a lot and would inevitably find my way on the floor. If I could dance or not was irrelevant. Sometimes being the only one out there when something like a B-52’s song (NOT Love Shack) came on.

I’m sure we had our fill of the place and the people, just as the clock turned the bewitching hour of ‘time to hit the gay bars’. I’m also sure we were talked about the rest of the evening.

It sure is amazing what a song on the iPod and a 25 minute train ride will do to bring back memories.

Site of the Month

I had a number of potential sites for the month of August, but the one that I found the most amusing – or at least nostalgic - would be the On-Line-Etch-a-Sketch.

Just like the real thing, I could never do much with this Ohio Arts product (which is no longer made in Ohio and I don’t even think in the U.S.). So at least I’m consistent.

If I wanted something else I couldn’t do in real life, let alone on-line, they just as well should make an internet Hula-Hoop.

By the way, Rebecca gets the credit for this site. …and have you pre-ordered her book yet?

Shopping w/Blobby

Yet another installment in the drudgery that is everyday shopping. The camera-phone makes it a bit more fun – though I get looks whenever I take pics of products. Like I care what people think!

I don’t know why this struck me as so funny – but it did. The popcorn does not seem to be Disney-sanctioned.

And except for using the snack to “Feed the Birds” – I have no other Mary Poppins tie-ins, puns or jokes. I got nothing. Tis a sad day.

When my oldest niece was little, instead of Raffi or Barney, she listened to the soundtracks to Mary Poppins and the Music Man, day in and day out. I blame my mother for that one. These would be the only music my parents purchased since Benny Goodman or Glen Miller’s deaths. So I’ve been exposed to most of the music at one point or another.

And yet I don’t even know Ms. Poppins. I’ve never seen it. The closest I get is the Simpsons version of Shary Bobbins. And you might be thinking it, but I’ll say something Rebecca mentioned to me almost a decade ago: ‘everything comes back to the Simpsons!’

Hasta Luego

I had my Shopping with Blobby post already to go before Alberto V05 decided to resign. I guess you’ll get that tomorrow.

As much as I have been rallying for this to happen, I have to say it took me by surprise.

Albee (as I just affectionately nicknamed him, just as I typed this) has had full support of the Bush administration. He has faced an ineffectual congress – one that isn’t even currently in session, I might add. And he has seemingly gotten away with murder. Or at least torture. Not only gotten away with it – but condoned it and signed off on it too.

So my question is: why now?

My original thought is – something else is coming down the pike that hasn’t been made public. It is probably just my cynical and paranoid mind. Probably.

I still love how Bush says that this whole thing has been politicized. I just laugh and laugh when politicians say that. For g-d’s sake – it is WASHINGTON. Taking a crap is a political statement. And yes, it is political. When you have a guy who fires people due to trying to help sway an election, or sanction torture at the hands of the military – guess what? IT’S POLITICAL.

But anyone who thinks that Mr. V05 was this smart on his own has clearly got their head in the sand.

My secondary thought to my ‘why now’ question revolves around the Turdblossom himself – Mr. Rove. I have to believe there is a connection between his ‘exit’ and the AG.

I’d say that ‘it’s over’, but it’s not. If John Ashcroft has taught us anything: The only thing worse than the devil you know, is the one that you don’t.

YouTube Monday

I feel like I’ve been letting down the readership a bit. I always do when I post a YouTube clip instead of a post post.

That being said, a friend of mine sent me this clip which I found amusing – at least at first showing. It’s not one of those things that will be played over and over.

I was offered the opportunity to get an iPhone as my birthday present a few weeks ago. We even went to the Apple store to play with them….again. I just could not justify that kind of money on a first generation phone. That didn’t even include the plan or breaking my existing service contract with Sprint – though I’d love to. G-d do they have the crappiest service/reception ever. But I digress…..kind of….

I did get taken to my annual birthday dinner last Friday. Ok – maybe it happens every two or three years. Many a-time, the event usually goes by the wayside. Someone is traveling or we never get around to it, but this year I emailed the man and said ‘where are you taking me for my dinner?’ – even though it was almost two weeks ago. I was kind of shameless, but we’ve been really enjoying getting out more and not being such homebodies.

We hit a nice little, but upscale, italian place overlooking the city.

Kind of a cool picture. I didn’t know where we were going or I might have brought my real camera with me – but the phone still captures the essence after a few glasses of wine. (click image to enlarge)

Denton got the most amazing goat cheese ravioli dish with a balsamic reduction, topped with bits of prosciutto and melon. My pasta was ok, but I kept picking from his dish. The chocolate mousse cake with chocolate ganache was not too shabby either.

As for the iPhone? I can live without it. I picked out something that will last a lot longer and not go out of date so quickly. Hopefully not at all. But it’s not here yet – so you’ll hear about it and see once it arrives.

Record of the Month

I figured I’d do a monthly ‘what I’m listening to’ kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it’s my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk – just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually the iPod is playing anywhere else). I am revitalized by an album.

Ok – maybe not me, but my faith in the music industry is been resuscitated.  Or possibly just reanimated.

…and everything that’s old is new again.

I am loving the Arcade Fire’s The Neon Bible.

I don’t know that they or the disk have anything revolutionary to say – but how they say it is pretty frickin’ impressive.  Yeah – their lyrics could be deeper and less repetitive, but because of the music and vocal arrangements along with the production, those things are minor flaws.

It can be argued they pull from many influences- and they do – but guess what?  It works!! The influences are so varied and the arrangements so well put together that the disk is still extremely cohesive.

Sure, I have favourites, like “Intervention”.  How is this not ELO meets the Tragically Hip?  (yes, you read that right!) The pipe organ is a nice and unexpected touch.  During the first five seconds I want to break into the first line of the Alarm’s “Strength”.  But even when the rest of the instruments kick in, the organ remains a subtle, yet strong presence. But the background vocals are pretty good too.

“No Cars Go” is Ultravox meets Big Country. “Ocean of Noise” uses the lower register of a piano and bass beautifully. It also contains a great vocal arrangement that includes “now who here among us/still believes in choice/not I.”

The Montreal-based band (but mostly the vocalist) channels their best Nebraska-era Springsteen, albeit fleshed out, with both and “Antichrist Television Blues” and “Windowsills” (in which the last 40-50 seconds just repeats ‘I don’t wanna see it on my windowsill’ over and over – and yet it I do not find it annoying).

They close out with “My Body is a Cage”. Again with the pipe organ.  I really enjoy this – where it might have been done by Beck, Arcade Fire does nicely on it, The song starts off so minimally and then becomes not quite bombastic, but could border on the overwhelming.  But you have to play it loud – that’s my opinion.

Granted the entire disk is not great.  I’m still struggling with the title track and “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations”.  But only two marginal songs off an entire disk is nothing to sneeze at.

I’ve played the album quite a lot and still really like it. I can’t say it’s a sing-a-long disk, but one could do it. Maybe it is just me, but it is great for a night time drive.

By the Sea

Well, we went out to dinner last night with friends, but I was told I was forbidden to blog about them. I told them they thought that now, but when I actually didn’t they would feel slighted. Only time will tell.

But earlier in the day, I received a call from Becky who is vacationing in Rehoboth. We were to join her, but work issues got in the way. Part of me is glad we didn’t get to go – as it has been raining there constantly. That and the near drowning of her kids!!!

Anyhoo….she called to ask me if I remembered an eavesdropping moment at the same beach maybe a decade or so ago.

Ok – she knew I’d remember, so what she was really asking was to relay it. She was trying to tell her father-in-law the story.

But Denton, Becca and I were lounging in our chairs chatting away at Poodle Beach and these guys behind us were working an NYT or Washington Post crossword puzzle. “Who was Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state?” one of the guys kept asking. Yes, I immediately knew even though it was umpteen years after that administrations time in power. “Haig“….I said…just under my breath, but loud enough where my crew heard me.

“Let’s see….I don’t think it was X” (I can’t remember who he said). “Haig” I said again, and once again sotto voce. “It’s four letters.” “Haig!” I said louder but not loud enough, where my friends were just openly chuckling at this point.

“Who was it?” I think this may have gone one two or three more times where I didn’t even turn around and said in a voice where he could finally finish the clue, “It’s Haig. Alexander Haig!”.

“Oh yeah!”

Glad that was over. Kind of. I amused my friends.

Then Becky went on about how she was proofreading a book for someone and the person interchanged ‘plaque’ and ‘plague’. And we just sat there making up sentences using either or both inappropriately. Laughing laughing laughing. Now it was these guys’ turn to listen to us.

But then to my other side, some newly gay boy was reading Tales of the City. “The characters are like my family…….”

Rain or not – work be damned…..maybe we should have gone this year.

Engage!

Who knew that Steve Jobs was such Star Trek: The Next Generation fan?

Who knew that all the time on the USS Enterprise, Geodri La Forge was just watching downloaded episodes of Lost and The Office instead of doing is engineering job?

The Prime Directive?? Fuck that! I just bought The Incredibles!

Jon pointed out the text in the Apple ad: ‘hands free’ and that is must be so you can eat popcorn at the same time (yes, plant tongue firmly in cheek!). I suppose ‘hands free’ is just in case they decide to allow iTunes to carry Romancing the Bone or Beetlejism.

Minesweeper: The Movie

Denton sent this to me and I found it so incredibly funny.

I think it should be humourous to almost any office worker who has had to work on a desktop PC and had 90 minutes of downtime anytime within the last decade.

Or maybe I’m just alone out there in my thinking. Nah……I can’t be. Someone did not go to the entire trouble of making this video for just me (not that they shouldn’t have).

I do like the movie tagline, which is located right under the title.

Click here to enjoy.

UberGood

We went to go see Superbad this weekend.

Was it a little low-brow? Perhaps. Was it possibly the funniest movie I’ve seen in about the last 5 years? Definitely.

Superbad is a totally R-rated movie. At the end of it, Denton turned to me and said, “words you’ll never hear associated with Superbad: “…and now, the network television premiere of…” There is no way to ever cut it for regular broadcast televion.

For about three seconds we considered bringing the teen niece and nephew, but I thought….’no’. That decision was validated in the first 60 seconds. The theatre wasn’t full by any means, but who was there seemed to be a bunch of male couples. Not like we were a couple – but just guy friends. I am sure we were the oldest folks there.

I’ve never seen any of the Porkys series or an entire American Pie movie, so I really have nothing to compare it to in this genre. But I really wanted to see this mostly because of the creative team behind it – and the cast I knew was good. I mean – c’mon, it’s Seth Rogan. Gimme a Semitic man, in a police uniform and a fu man chu moustache….what’s not to love?

But seriously – the three ‘teens’ were hilarious. Each one funnier than the last – and all with a different style. I’ve seen Jonah Hill (Knocked Up and the 40 Year Old Virgin) and Michael Cera (Arrested Development) and they were great, but the guy who plays McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) almost stole the movie. Actually, they all worked well as a unit.

Save a Ted Nugent song or two – the soundtrack really works too.

I highly recommend it. Honestly, I cannot remember when I laughed so often, so hard and out loud.