Updated Pic

Post sleepy puffiness has decreased (in a way). The lighting is better (kind of). The bags under my eyes aren’t as bad (sort of).

I’m thinking in a few years, I might need to see Dr. 90210. Or Jess DeMaria.

Halloween

Remember this shirt?No. No you don’t. Well, Dity, Morty and especially Jon might. The rest of you – not so much.

Yes, 20 years later, I still own it. I wear it about once a year. Like……..on this day. I was never able to wear it to my old job, but I can at this one. On this day. It is as close as I get to dressing up on All Hallow’s Eve. I suspect, if we ever got trick or treaters, they might get a chuckle out of Old Man Blobby and his shirt. ….but they never come. Maybe this year will be different.

I remember buying this shirt a Puttin’ on the Dog in Columbus. It just jumped out to me and I had to have it. I probably couldn’t afford it. It didn’t fit (at the time). And of course, the only place I really had to wear it to was either the Garage or Wall St (Wednesday nights only, of course!).  Like then, it feels a bit blousy, though I’m sure I’ve…..um…..grown.  Just not in the arms.  The sleeves are still long.

The tag on it, I just saw, says ‘What’s Happening’, and of course now I can only think of Rog, Duane and Rerun.  Great!

I clearly remember wearing the shirt on at least one occasion when I was doing Ecstasy. I do not remember that night specifically, but I can almost guarantee it didn’t end that well. They rarely did. It always ended in teeth grinding, tense/sore jaw and next morning I was always full of tears for not good reason. Not that it ever really stopped me from taking it again and again.

There is some memory of me also wearing jewelry around my neck (it’s not a necklace!) that David G got me. I still have it – I came across it the other day. Yes, it read BIG FAG. That’s how much he thinks of me.

I cannot imagine that during those days that I didn’t wear it at Halloween. It seems a natural. Much more so than doing drag.

Oh – and for the love of g-d, would someone please remind me not to take self-pictures at 6a.  It’s not a pretty thing.

song by: Kirsty MacColl

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).

Yeah – I’m a few months behind on this release. I bought it day one, but just never got around to writing about it.

Hailed even pre-release as a return to R.E.M.’s roots, and the press laid so much credence in this thought – it would kind of be hard to live up to.

The result – they do and they don’t.

Is Accelerate the new Fables of the Reconstruction? No. But I didn’t expect it to be. But on the upside, it’s also not one of their last two or three releases either. While those were not horrid, they were just there and not horribly well thought out.

I enjoyed Accelerate – more than any disk since Automatic for the People – but that is not to compare those two disks. The new release has much much much more guitar – much more of a core band feel. It is a welcome retro feel, but it is not 1980 – make no mistake.

I really enjoy the first four songs – especially “Hallow Man” and “Supernatural Superserious”. Michael Stipe’s vocal abilities haven’t changed too much over the years, but what I never hear anyone go on about is how much Mike Mills’ harmonies really help make the band. I’ve always been a fan of Peter Buck’s guitar playing.

Accelerate isn’t as fun as Document, Reckoning or Murmur – but it’s not meant to be. Of course, I just might be stuck in my own nostalgia. But Accelerate takes the energy of the old R.E.M. and sticks them in the present.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

It’s the time, of the season, where love runs high…..

Oh no, not love.  Virus.  Eh – same thing!

It is that time – flu shot time.  Trying to ward off the flu another year.  So far I’ve done pretty well.  Yeah, I get my annual cold – 3rd week of January – come rain or shine, and yeah, I got the Norovirus almost a year ago, but neither of them were flu.

Most folks don’t even know what flu is.  They think it’s a bad cold:  it isn’t.  They think it happens when it’s cold out:  it doesn’t have to be.

It really just is a nasty virus that is usually spread by folks who don’t who are carriers in their sneezes, coughs, and nasal secretions.  Yummy! 226,000 folks are hospitalized by this annually – 36,000 die.

But so many people say – “oh, it gave me the flu”.  It did NOT.  And what it does is also help those who do not get sick, who are carriers, unknowingly giving it to others.

Anywho…..I got mine yesterdee.  It didn’t hurt or nothin’!

Get it. Get it now.  It takes 6 weeks to take effect, which is good because Flu Season really will not start until January or February – and runs through March.  Watch hospital admission rates rise in March with all the folks with respiratory conditions, because you did nothing!

For shame!

Song by:  Pat Benatar

Shopping with 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!

Tripe.

Blech. Totally disgusting. Though it kind of looks cool. Until the “sealed” package began leaking all over my hand. ….and all so I could get you guys a picture.

See what I go through for you folks? I hope you appreciate it.

But seriously – who the hell really uses this stuff to cook with?

Choice in the Matter

I completed my absentee ballot yesterday. It is getting mailed this morning.

Like a moron, I voted for Nader by accident.

KIDDING!

No, but like a moron, I had licked the inner envelope (yes, there is a second outer one as well!) before I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of my SAT-like circle fill-in process. I was going to use that for the image of this blog entry.

I didn’t dare try to take it out and snap before the glue dried. I’m sure if it came open or I taped it, that the vote wouldn’t be counted. So you’ll have to go with some cheesy image I got off the internets.

I don’t want to get too cushy – but I love that most of the polls have Obama ahead, even in some red and purple states. But overall, he was running 3.9-12 points ahead, depending on the poll. Not to be complacent, but McCain was ahead in three of the state polls, but in none of the national ones.

…and…some polls (IBD, which was had Obama at the lowest margin) at one point last week had McCain favored at like 72% amongst 18-24 year olds.

Yeah, at first you’d say, “ZOIKS”, until you realize that the 18-24 year olds they polled, who they could get ahold of, were mostly on military college campuses. Most other 18-24 year olds use cell phones, not land lines – so they were not being polled.

…and in late last week, IBD only had Obama up by a margin of one.  So even at 3.9, it is improving.

But do NOT go down Easy St.  You still have to vote!

Song by: Aimee Mann

Comic Books

As it gets closer and closer to election day, I’m finding it harder and harder to only do one post a day.  Things just seem to present themselves to me on silver platter.

While wanting to be relevant, I also like to retain the ’stuff & nonsense’ this blog is about – for the most part.   But I’m also finding that time is ticking away where I haven’t even done my Record of the Month or my Shopping with Blobby segments.  Time’s a-wastin’.

Chop Chop!

So for today, since it is Sunday – I bring you something from the Sunday Funnies:  Doonesbury

As timely as it is, and as funny as it is, the subject is already a bit tiresome – no?  It has become apparent that McCain as no other talking point and “Joe” is brought up more in his conversation than She Who Must Not Be Named.

I had to pull this from the Washington Post – and what I found most interesting about it is, that in the Plain Dealer, they cut the first two panels.

I am used to the PD dumbing-down the NYT articles.  Yes, they change as many polysyllabic words as possible and cut a two page article in the Times down to five paragraphs in the PD.  We ain’t done got no edjucation here!

….but comic editing?  This is a new one on me.  I guess I will have to start reading these on-line too – just to see what I’m missing.   For all I know, maybe someone in Apartment 3-G had an abortion!

Song by: Debbie Harry

Tusk

I was going to call this “Bread & Circuses”, but apparently I used that song title back in June. So, now what?

“Baby Elephant Walk”? The White Stripes have a disk called Elephant, but not song title by that name. So I guess I’ll just go with the obvious. Well, obvious to me.

The other day, the circus came to town. To get the pachyderms from the train to the arena, well, they have to walk them up E. 9th St. No other way to really do it. I actually was late to a conference call to go down and see them. The street was already lined with folks just waiting for the free show. Some guy even asked me, “Is there going to be a parade for something?”. When I told him the real reason, he just shrugged and walked away.

I’ve never been to the circus. It was nothing that ever intrigued me. Clowns. Freaks. Sideshows. Guys in tights. One can get that at any gay bar.

…and there was not a PETA protester in sight – which I thought might happen.  ….at the elephant escort, not at the gay bar.

But as I go back to Tusk, I have a weird story to relay that I’ve been carrying around for about 30 years that I’m not sure I ever told anyone, as they probably would just think (more) weirdly of me.

You know me and my dreams (though I haven’t written about one in quite a while). One night back in 1978, I dreamed I was in this huge group photo, sitting on some loading dock that had dozens of people in it, including the members of Fleetwood Mac. The next morning I woke up and WMMS (home of the Buzzard!) made a concert announcement that the band would be headlining the World Series of Rock.

Flash forward another year or so, when Tusk was actually released. Two disks, that had intricate packaging with each record getting two separate sleeves, or basically eight areas of artwork. Some were straight on band pictures, but two were collages of pictures, doodles, and elephants. But one of those small pictures in the collage was one of dozens of people on a loading dock – the exact one I had in my dream 16 months or so earlier.

It kind of freaked me out, but I was 16.

I’d show you the actual image, but nowhere in Goooooooogle can I find it.  I thought geeks scanned and posted everything.

Song by: Fleetwood Mac

Bless the Beast & the Children

(except for RJ)

Everyone knows I tease the ones I love.  Right?  RIGHT?

So, I’m taking a moveon.org thingy that Morty showed a number of us yesterday morning, and then I  just customized it to poke RJ in the ribs.  He knows why.

I guess I could have just email it to him directly, but where is the fun in that?  Isn’t it more fun when someone stumbles up a post that is somewhat about yourself?

You can watch the video here.

Ok – maybe the video was all about him – but the post isn’t.

No, this is actually for all the registered voters who don’t take the time to get to the polls.  You really need to.  Yes, it will be a pain – as the lines will be long, since I’m assuming it will be possibly the biggest turn-out since I’ve been voting.

As it turns out for me, I’ll be voting via mail, since I will actually be in DC on election day.  Oddly enough, I hate that.  I want to be home to celebrate or commiserate.  Oddly enough, DC will probably be dead – as every politico will be out in their own district, or trying to stop the minorities and elderly from getting to their voting stations.

11 more days people.  11 more days.

Song by: the Carpenters

I’m the Cat

Oh she looks cute – but as we all know, looks can be deceiving.  She is 90% good and 100% evil.  All eight pounds of her.

Yes, the math does not add up….but it’s still pretty accurate.  She is 90% good with us and about 100% evil with her sister.  Poor Tovah, she puts up with a lot from this one.  The little one wants to be alpha cat.

Sophie is still the snuggly and purry and more like a dog than a cat.  We can play fetch or tug on a string for hours at a time and she just never gets tired of it.  But she has no issue just walking over and taking a chomp out of Tovah – completely unprovoked.  Sheesh.

And while I (or we) should discourage the behavior, she has now figured out how to open all of the cabinets in the sunroom. You walk in and it looks like the kitchen scene in The Sixth Sense with all the cupboards wide-open.

Soph just gets in – and if the door shuts behind her, she’s ok.  She’ll eventually push her way out.  But more often, she gets in there and pushes things out or finding her hidden toys – mostly strings (as she brings me one right now as I type this).  She’ll just sit at your feet and quietly meow, just asking to play.  It’s really hard to say ‘no’.

I also don’t say ‘no’ at bedtime.  She likes to get between my legs to sleep.  Somehow I accommodate this. It is uncomfortable, but like I said, I can’t say ‘no’ to her. Usually.

Anyway, it’s not that I missed it – I just missed blogging about it:  we rescued her two years ago (three days ago).  Or she rescued us, is more like it.

Song by:  Jackson Browne