Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Festival Fun

The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is in town starting July 12, and I've already got my tickets. Holding down the top spot is "The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror", which will no doubt be exquisitely bad. Hence the top spot. I'm also afire to see the documentary about Alexis Arquette's sex change. I'm not overly interested in tranny issues, but because AA is kind of loopy and I look forward to seeing how he freaks out on camera.

Did I ever mention that he was kind of rude to me at a festival a few years back? I had just come out of a dreadful movie in which he starred ("Piccadilly Pickups", in case you want to avoid it), and I saw him in the lobby. I said hi and complimented him on this Australian movie he'd done some years before, and he kind of looked at me disdainfully, acknowledged that I was an organic being, then turned away. In light of this, I feel fully justified in taking pleasure in his on-camera squirrelly antics.

New favorite lyric:

"Does the man who makes the shoes own you, clown?
You can't even pry the nameplate off, now can you?
Fix it with your tiny fist there
James Van Der Beek and them sisters from Sister, Sister
The only one that's ever felt this is you
The force that's forcing you
To feel like busting up a Starbucks."

Artist: Mike Doughty (Mike Doughty)
Song: Busting Up a Starbucks
Album: Haughty Melodic

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Dream!

I had a strange dream last night, which is so unlike me, I know, I know. In this dream I was a deity; in fact, I was the deity. That sounds really self-centered, right? Wrong! In the dream, being the Big Guy was hard work. There was always some disaster to monitor or prayer to hear, and I never had a minute to myself. When I first became a deity I caused a miracle to sort of announce the new administration, and my chief of staff (yes, I had one) took me to task for it. Admittedly, resurrecting every dead French person and doubling the the radiance of every star wasn't your most subtle of wonders, but my chief was really stern! (I only made the stars brighter for one night, too.) No wonder my predecessor retired. Still, I'm thinking that after a few millenia in the job my 401K would kick ass.

Dan and I were discussing Duran Duran lyrics the other day, and so I came up with this:

"Her name is Rio, but I just don't understand
How some chick's like a river in a dusty land
A prime example of when lyrics are unplanned
You make a metaphor about the Rio Grande."

I really like "Rio", but come on.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Funniest thing I heard all weekend

Yesterday Dan and I went to Fogo de Chao courtesy of Dan's sister and her boyfriend (they rock), and it was pretty neat. A nightmare for vegetarians, admittedly, because they serve mostly meat: chicken, lamb, pork, and beef galore. Really good stuff, though, and the service was constant and gratifying. There was always someone in uniform there to fill your glass, remove a soiled plate and, of course, slice you off another serving of whatever meat was in prospect. Dan said, "It's like the 'Material Girl' video. With meat."

Tee-hee. But now I can't steal that line.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Back from the West!

San Francisco, as always, was delightful. The weather was less cool than I'd hoped, but otherwise things were sunny and clear, with not even a hint of rain. No cloud dared show its misty face! On my Favorite Places list, San Francisco is #2 with a bullet. (London’s #1, in case you were wondering.)

My plane took off only twenty minutes late, surprise, surprise. Unfortunately, I had to deal with a child sitting behind me kicking the back of my seat. His name was Graham, and his sister was Chandler. Urgh. I’m sure that the next kid will be Tyler, Ashley, or Chelsea. An hour into the flight I wanted to ask Mom how she thought Graham would kick with a pair of bloody stumps. Dan’s portable DVD player made the seat-kicking bearable, though, and “Jackie Brown” got me through the 5.5-hour flight.

The room was swank, with a giant bed that could easily have slept three. (It didn’t though.) It was well situated, too, right near a Muni stop, a Whole-Foods-type store that provided my morning fruit cup and a 7-Eleven that sponsored my afternoon milk. The room’s best attribute was that it was free.

Look at my San Fran pics, but I'll make a few observations here.

  1. Restaurant service is slow, slow, slow. I think it's just a West Coast thing.
  2. You know those seats on buses, trains, trolleys that are labeled, “These seats must be yielded to elderly or disabled passengers”? Well, in San Francisco people actually yield them, without even being asked. I don’t think I’ve EVER seen that on SEPTA.
  3. Those San Francisco hills you hear about are NOT exaggerated. I walked up one hill that had to be angled at 40 degrees.
  4. I’m a diehard liberal, but the liberalism there is cloyingly strong. My gosh…I couldn’t enter a store without hearing customers ask if something was organic, locally grown, free-trade, etc. Sheesh! (I left some of my liberalism there, as you’ll see from the pics.)

Coming back my plane took off right on time, a minor miracle in itself, but I paid for it by being seated once again near a child. This time I was behind him, and I had to restrain myself from taking revenge on Graham by proxy. I was the envy of my seatmate because I watched “Dog Soldiers” and a Go-Go’s concert on the DVD player.

Yay nearly free trip!


Friday, June 08, 2007

It makes me uncomfortable!

Know what experience really bothers me? When you see someone on the street whom you know only casually, and that person acts like he/she doesn't know you. Why do people do that? Personally, I give the old smile-n-nod, which says, "I don't know you very well, but with this cool smile and quick nod I hereby politely acknowledge our distant acquaintance." Some people know enough to do the same, but other give you that quick glance and then stonily ignore you, which always makes me uncomfortable. I don't care if he/she doesn't acknowledge me, but the fact that that person is uncomfortable makes me uncomfortable, which probably makes that person more uncomfortable until it becomes this whole downward discomfort spiral. Blech.

Hey, I saw "Notes on a Scandal" today, and I approve. Cate Blanchett is just marvelous...I'd see pretty much anything she was in. I have this rule about not seeing any movie that has a Wayans in the cast, but I'd break it for Cate. Stockard Channing, too.

T minus three days until I leave for San Francisco.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Idly Musing

For some reason, I'm thinking that "musly idling" makes as much sense. Don't disabuse me, please.

Is the wearing of one's keys on a ring attached to a belt or belt hook a new thing, or an old thing I'm just now noticing? Seems I see it everywhere nowadays.

I have many complaints with IKEA furniture - it's too expensive for its crappiness, they make you cart it around the store, you have to assemble it yourself - but on my mind today is those stupid Allan wrenches. Ever notice that you either have six zillion of these or not one? Hey IKEA...use Phillips or flathead like every other damn furniture manufacturer. Yeah, yeah, I know you're Swedish, but knock it off with the hexagonal thingies, all right.

Still going to San Fran next week and still excited about it; even more so, in fact, when I saw that the forecast was for clear weather with temperatures in the low-to-mid 60's. Step back!

I'm going to be deleting some of my old posts because I read them over recently and they annoy me. Also, in one I was a bit indiscreet in terms of name-dropping. So, if you can't bear to be without my years of blogging, save those pages now!

New favorite lyric:

"And the taxis and the trucks
Everybody's blowing their horns
And I got a bicycle bell to ring
And I got a notion to sing as I'm riding along."

Artist: Amy Correia (Amy Correia)
Song: The Bike
Album: Carnival Love