Thursday, August 31, 2006

“We're going to the chapel…”

“…and we're gonna get married.”

No, not me silly.

The Chapel of Love popped into my head as I was sitting here, writing to inform you that I'll heading out tomorrow morning to San Francisco for a friend's wedding.

It'll be the first gay union I'm attending.

I'm excited. It'll be fun.

Posts will be light (well, even lighter than usual) to none.

As a consolation, I'll have more shots of me in a suit to post, when I get back.

Have a safe Labor Day.

Back on Wednesday. Toodles.

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Kiki & Herb

I'd never been a big fan of drag queen acts. They never struck me as entertaining, especially the ones that lipsynch entire songs. I'd gone to my first drag show in Provincetown at the pre-fire Crown and Anchor around 1995. Lavish costumes, exaggerated theatrics and over-emoting, it was fun to watch. However, the allure eluded me. My sense of humor at the time, was probably more in tune with college grade humor. Not to mention, I was more than likely still uncomfortable with being gay and unable to laugh at myself.

Fast forward to last friday.

The BF and I were going to see Kiki and Herb, Alive on Broadway



…with our friends, S and R. We'd stopped by GYM bar for pre-show cocktails. The Robos were in attendance. From RoboPapi, I got my fabulous birthday. (more on that later) C and P, R, D and A, along with plenty of other letters to protect to the names of the not-so-innocent, were also at the bar. Needless to say, it was good to see everyone before we headed off to the Helen Hayes Theatre.

We were joined at the theater by A and F.
Not surprising, the audience was três gay.
We sat in the second row, unnervingly close to the stage, pretty much dead center.

Long short, I had a blast, thoroughly enjoying the show. The nuanced performance from both Kiki and Herb, the high camp. Loved it. It was a first for me. The BF whooped and hollered next to me on my left, never containing his laughter. Lots of knee slapping, I'd never seen the like.

On my right however, I could hear crickets.

A couple, man and woman sat mostly quiet, thunderstruck, unable to make anything of the show. When intermission came, upon returning to my seat, I predicted that the couple would not be coming back for the second act. Not so surprising, they didn't. Shrug.

I don't want to give away too much of the show, but you can click on the picture to link to a NYT write up of the show. If Kiki and Herb is your sort of thing, I'd say, get out and see them before they fake dying again.

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Everything happens…

…for a reason.

Good or bad. Must remind myself of that.

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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Eternals

It's been a while I've been excited about a comic. The state of comics today, if you haven't been reading, it's hard to get up to speed.

Now, there's the Eternals


…a restart of the classic originated by Jack Kirby, now helmed by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, 1602) and one of my favorite artists, John Romita, Jr. (Spider-man, Iron Man, X-Men).

Here's a little description from Marvel

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to bring to you one of the most eagerly anticipated events of 2006 - Eternals. Gaiman is joined by none-other-than superstar artist John Romita Jr. as they reimagine this creation of the legendary Jack Kirby.

Gaiman promises that Eternals will firmly cement the Eternals and their extended mythos into the Marvel Universe… and neither the Eternals or Marvel will ever be the same again. The acclaimed writer of 1602 brings you a tale of adventure, love affairs, and betrayals in the mighty Marvel manner that is guaranteed to be one of the biggest events of 2006.

Immortals with amazing powers have watched civilizations rise and fall…so why does no one remember them? Find out that and more in Gaiman and Romita Jr.'s Eternals.


I've read Issues #1-3 and I'm hooked. It's great to see JR Jr.'s artwork. We even get to see him render ole Shellhead. Fantastic.

My only gripe… the covers.
They're ugly and dingy.



They're a Alex Ross meets Bill Sienkiewicz mish mash. The variant cover(s) by John Romita, Jr. are so much cooler and so much more expensive. It's totally stupid in a circa late '90s Marvel variant cover crazed market way.

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Sunday, August 20, 2006

Lookey-Likey

What do you think… do I look like Andy Lau?



Before I get the funny ha ha comments of "which one is you?"… I'm the one on the right.

Why do I ask? you're wondering…

Friend Neal and his GF were in town last week. Grabbing lunch one day and hanging out, we fell on the subject of Hong Kong cinema. It came out that they'd thought I had a passing resemblance to Mr. Lau. The thought certainly piqued my interest as to what Mr. Lau looked like, so I imdb'd him.

Hmmm… I don't see it.

For kicks, I'd struck an Andy Lau pose, since I had to get trussed up in a monkey suit for a wedding today.

Please excuse that the angle of the shot and the lighting are completely wrong. I was working from memory. The gist is there.

I clean up nice. No?

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Birthday Celebrations

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 36. I’m okay with it.

Celebrations started last Thursday with cocktails with the Robos, RoboCub and BF RoboPapi at GYM bar. Drinks were imbibed, gifts were given. Well, one is on it’s way and I’ll most certainly post pictures when I get it. Regardless, it was a fine start to festivities with two of my favorite people, even if I did get a little soaked from the torrential downpour that started just as we were leaving. I waited 10-15 minutes for the rain to let up and still got pretty wet.

Friday night, the BF had arranged a barbecue at a friend’s house. I’d thought it’d be just us, our friend and his BF. I was mistaken. I was clued in during the week as the BF was running about, dropping things off at said friend’s house. I also found a “To Do”, shopping and invitee list. It was a much larger affair than just a meal I gathered. I’m usually loathe for anyone to go out of their way for me, especially organizing a party. Still, it was nice to see people for my birthday. It turned out to be a beautiful night to hang out in the friend’s backyard. The humidity of the past few weeks was gone.

The BF got smashed, I stayed sober. go figure. I yelled at him to keep things quiet as he whooped, hollered and cranked up the radio. It was about midnight, I was trying to be considerate of the neighbors. Gosh, that makes me seems old, doesn’t it?

My younger brother and his wife gave us a ride home. The BF passed out immediately.

Saturday day was quiet, celebratory in that way because I did absolutely nothing. I neither felt the urge or the impetus to do anything. I’d thought about going to the gym and hitting the beach but it required too much effort. Instead, I sunned myself on the roof and I worked out briefly at home.

Having saved my energy during the day, I released it all dancing in another night of birthday celebration with the Robos. We hit the Roxy, not knowing quite what to expect from DJ Mike Cruz. I’d heard him before at Krash at Club Deep and Krash’s original home in Astoria. I couldn’t really rely on that experience since the house/dance sessions were always interrupted with salsa/merengue.

The music turned out to be a blast. DJ Mike Cruz surprised me and the Robos. It was all fresh and new to me so I couldn’t trainspot any of it. Needless to say, we danced our asses off.

The crowd was thin which was not surprising. It did get “more crowded” but never unbearably so and it mysteriously emptied out around 3:30-4:00 I estimate. There were some handsome men in the crowd. By 5:00 however, it was getting to be the witching hour and the dance floor predators were out. My hackles were raised as they started trolling around for after-dance partners, bumping into me and trying to get my attention. I seriously hate this. RoboCub noticed my tenseness as we’d rubbed up against each other and I turned, ready to clobber whoever it was.

With my defenses at full power and shields at maximum, it was time to leave.
Thanks again to the Robos for helping me celebrate my birthday.

Sunday was another quiet day, spent with the BF’s brother’s family in SI. They had a barbecue for my birthday and cake, italian cannoli cream cake and chocolate jelly ring ices too. Yummy.

Monday, the official birthday, I worked. Too many expensive habits to support. :-P
It was a great day, fielding all the phone calls, wishing me a Happy Birthday. I truly felt blessed for all the friends I have. Thank you to everyone.

It was a quiet birthday day otherwise. Drinks at G and dinner at Rocking Horse with the BF and our friends, O and M, closed out my birthday celebrations.

I turned 36. I’m okay with it.

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Returned, Renewed, Restored, Regressed.

Last week, I wasn’t much in the mood to blog. It wasn’t just the emotional stuff I was going through, flatlining my urge to blog. Simply, I was without my MacBook Pro, my mobile office, my digital pen and paper. Seems silly, but I’d grown accustomed to writing, blogging and corresponding only on my laptop. I tried writing on my work machine. The words didn’t flow as easily.

The week prior to last, I’d put in a call into Apple’s AppleCare unit. The MBP was well within its original warranty. Additionally, I’d paid for the extended warranty, so it was ridiculous not to call Apple and have them at least diagnose the issues I was having. It was a very pleasant experience. The AppleCare rep was courteous and open-minded, listening to my description of the problem.

Albeit I was a little surprised that he was aware of any such problems with the MacBook Pro line.
These problems have been documented and commented like crazy on the Apple Support Boards.
Perhaps Apple itself needs to monitor the boards more for content. Moderators should take notes and pass them along. Head trouble off at the pass.

During our support call, the Apple rep emailed me a data capture program to get a snapshot of the MBP functions during normal operation for the apple tech gurus to examine and diagnose. I did it gladly and waited for them to get back to me.

I was shocked and amazed that the rep called me the next day, saying that the Techheads were interested in “capturing” my computer for further tests. I’d have to ship it to them and they’d replace it with a new system.

Yippee, fantastic news.

Groan. I have to backup everything and “clean” the machine, but only so much. They needed the operating system in it’s current state to properly test and figure out the root of the problem.
It was a bit of a hassle but I had to do it.

SuperDuper! to the rescue.

Backed up and cleaned up, I bid adieu to my poor, ailing MBP on a Friday, leaving me un-mobile for a week.

The New MBP arrived yesterday. Much ballyhooing and celebration.
I tested it with my backed up drive and it was whisper quiet.
Restoration of my hard drive was straight forward and painless. Yeah. SuperDuper!

All was well.

Till today.

The buzz is back.

Sigh.

I’ve resigned myself to accept that it’s something to do with the hardware and the current version of OS. It’s inescapable.




I wrapped that up fast. I was beginning to bore myself.




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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Relief

I hadn't noticed, but I'd been holding my breathe for three days. Well, not literally. I'd be dead and blue if that were true. More accurately, I'd been waiting in bated breathe for any news of my friend.

Not wanting to get into details, it's a tale of woe you'd hear associated with the circuit/party scene. Similar stories I'd heard before, never imagining such an occurrence would befall anyone close to me.

Was it arrogant of me to believe my friends are infallible? or is it hopeful?

Regardless, something happened to a friend during the Pines Party. More scared than I would admit, I was crushed.

I felt guilty. How couldn't I protect him?
I felt angry. Who did this to him?

It was a terrible feeling.

I was told some promising things before leaving Fire Island, however indefinitive. The gravity of what'd happened didn't sink in, until more and more days passed. I called the only number I had, leaving a message.

Waiting in silent anguish, I hoped for a happy resolution.

Wednesday morning, a phone call from a phone number I didn't recognize. His voice was quiet, but sent waves of relief through me. I felt like I'd taken my first breathe in a long time.

I was truly happy to hear his voice and I told him so.

He couldn't really speak at that moment, but he assured me he was "okay." Picking up the pieces as it were.

We parted promising to see each other soon.

I know I'll hug him extra hard when I do. Perhaps give him a slap up side the head after, but I'd hug him again.



Thanks to everyone I've spoken to, and who've commented. You mean a lot.

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Taint

I've been mulling the events of the Pines Party weekend in my head, trying to put thought into word. Nay, struggling is more like it.

I'm afraid it's just not going to happen.

An unfortunate incident involving a friend has marred the memory and experience of the Pines Party. I can't dwell on it in a positive light while I can't confirm the whereabouts and well-being of my friend.

Sorry.

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