October 2008 Archives
The Annual 17th Street High Heel Race made national news. I even saw a clip on the Keith Olberman show, and some friends from Madison mentioned they saw a clip of it on their local news. It's gotten to be a very big event. This year I just wasn't in the mood for the crowds. Sometimes I totally skip holidays, and I guess this year is my skip year. I will be wearing my UPS costume (old pic at left) to the rugby party on Saturday, but it seems I've grown out of my tight chocolate brown shorts. What evil closet gnome shrunk my shorts?
Let me frame the California Proposition 8 issue this way: how much does hate cost? The combined campaigns both for and against Proposition 8 is over a record $60 million dollars. $60,000,000.00. It's both amazing and ridiculous. Imagine all the other things that money could go to: rebuilding New Orleans, renovating deteriorating national park infrastructures, building greenspace recreation areas, and the list of the better things I can think of go on and on. One day we're gonna look back on this crap and shake our heads. If there was a shred of respect I had for the church of Latter-Day Saints, it's gone now. The same for most organized religions. I think it's all a buncha crap.
Fraggle Rock—Underground hippie commune or dangerous Muppet terror cell?
As a long-time blogger I need to get something off my chest. To you readers who are marketers, promoters, or campaigners, listen up because I'm going to give you some important advice about unpaid bloggers and the etiquette involved in asking a blogger to pimp a product, person or event for you for free. I don't get paid for this shit. When you ask me to promote a goddamn Ben Cohen hottie calendar and I do, you send me a fucking calendar, you got it?
I'm not asking for compensation in the hundreds of dollars, I'm asking for a gesture of thanks and consideration. People get paid lots of money to market and promote, and if you think bloggers don't know this you are mistaken. We are not hypertext drones just dying to blabber about the release of your new whatever. One example of a polite gesture of thanks and consideration was when I made mention of a particular DJs theme night at a local club. In return I got a great promo CD, which is one of my favorite CDs to this day. When this person doesn't have any schwag like that, I at least get a thank you message from this polite and considerate promoter.
Last week I endorsed several local candidates. The post was at the top of this blog for four days, and I checked the server logs and that particular entry was visited over 10,000 times. Ten thousand people read that they should vote for _______ _______ . And then you have the cojones ask me to donate to your campaign? Pumpkin, your candidate got a lot of free exposure from that entry, and the words I typed and cute thumbnail image I took the time to crop nicely has value. Just ask the bloggers who do put advertisements on their blog. They get paid by the thousands of page hits and click-throughs to the ads. I don't have ads on this blog, but I do occasionally pimp a person, product or event. And when I do, I think it's polite that I get a little something back - or at the very least please have the sense not to ask me for more. If I pimp your bar, can I get a fucking beer on the house for once? Just one beer for all that exposure? And to the Ben Cohen team, y'all can suck my dick (please?).
I want to give a shout-out for the gays in California who have married or are concerned about their freedom to be recognized by the State of California as a couple. Proposition 8 threatens to rewrite their state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
I encourage all of my California readers to vote No on Proposition 8. Those of you with friends or relatives in California, share these thoughts and encourage them to vote the same. For you California voters, please remember that the propositions are located towards the bottom (or end, if electronic) of the ballot, so don't stop at the big names at the top!
If you're out of state or just want to support the No on 8 campaign, you can donate here or volunteer with the No on 8 campaign.
While the image of a same-sex pair in a wedding ceremony may be frightening to some, I think most people would vote in favor of supporting a same-sex couple's relationship - that is allowing the relationship to be recognized in a favorable way in regards to shared health benefits, tax credits for couples, and the ability to be able to visit your partner in the hospital. Most of my readers are probably in favor of this too, but I think it was important to say a few words about it. There are many gay couples in California and across the country who have been in long-term relationships that should be recognized by the state and the nation, with the same benefits that heterosexuals get from their legal agreement or partnership. These people pay taxes, are productive members of society and should be recognized as such by their state and nation.
Good luck tonight gurls! It's getting good coverage in the Post, so get there early.
I think I'm going to pass this year. My drag is waaay back in the crawlspace and I'm just not up for pulling it all out of storage at the moment.
Flickr set: what your font says about you.
Is your Dungeons and Dragons campaign getting as nasty as this one?
MCCAIN: Yeah, well, you pal around with dark elves.OBAMA: OH NO YOU DIDN'T.
KUCINICH: MY FAMILIAR IS A PURPLE SNOW LEOPARD
In more weird news, if you didn't catch the bizarre story about Austria's late neo-fascist leader, Jorg Haider, and his male lover last week, it's worth a read. And Andrew Sullivan has a noteworthy perspective:
The closet is a deeply destructive thing. It leads many closeted gay men to adopt far right politics as a psychological mechanism to deny their own reality, a syndrome that is also very widespread at the top of the Catholic church, the Republican party, and the Christianist movement.
From Ted Haggard and Larry Craig to Jorg Haider and Roy Cohn, it's a destructive and self-destructive dynamic.
Just call Beyonce Sasha Fierce from now on. Somebody beat me to mastering the "Single Ladies" coreography:
Our last match of the season was fun, but I blew out my back in the final minutes of the match. Better late in the season than earlier. I played a good match as flanker, and foiled the opposing scrumhalf with a good tackle. I knew I had done a good job when the same guy was punching me when the two of us were under a collapsed ruck out of sight from the referee.
Voting day is Tuesday, November 4th (for me), and although my voting trends tend to be in line with typical DC voting patterns, I'm gonna go vote anyway. My vote is more critical at the local level, where we have to rid the neighborhood of several old-time symbols of urban rot and inefficiency.
If you're having a hard time making your decisions on who to vote for, try my time-tested measure, something I call "The Janet Jackson Rule" (not to be confused with "The Pleasure Principle" by the same artist). When thinking about a candidate or organization to support, ask yourself "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" and carefully consider your answers to yourself.
I will vote for active, involved local representatives for the ANC 02 positions, like Kevin Chapple who has done a great job in our ANC 0202 neighborhood. I have met Kevin, Alex Padro, and Theresa Sule (remember these names) at neighborhood meetings and they are communicative, positive, active and involved in their community. I'm generally endorsing along Miss In Shaw, Daddy 5-0 and RenewShaw's lines. I guess that makes us a coven, or possibly a cabal.
Anyway, my endorsements go to the candidates in bold:
2C01 Alexander M. "Alex" Padro (incumbent, at right)
2C01 Mary A. Sutherland
2C01 Sarah Livingston
Alex knows what's up, is involved with the community and has demonstrated the ability to get things done.
2C02 Kevin Chapple(incumbent, at left)
2C02 Leroy Thorpe
Again, I vote for the person who has gets things done. Kevin spends a lot of time solving problems and gives attention to issues in our neighborhood. The alternative is unthinkable. 2C02 will only go backwards under Thorpe's rule. Vote forward.
2C03 Doris L. Brooks (incumbent)
2C03 Jessica Lanza (at right)
Jessica Lanza promises to represent the forgotten people in the new buildings at Gallery Place and Penn Quarter. These citizens may be new to the neighborhood, but they're still citizens and need represenation. PS: Said forgotten people also need to reprezent themselves, so get out there and vote.
2C04 Barbara Curtis (incumbent)
2C04 Theresa Sule (at left)
I've met Theresa, she's active in the community and is a positive force for tangible change in the community.
For those of you in my neighborhood who do not trust your ballots in the hands of Shiloh's Family Life Center or need to vote early, you can vote at the DC Board of Elections and Ethics at 441 4th Street, NW, Suite 250 North. Voters wishing to vote in-person at the Board's office may do so from 8:30 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. between Monday, October 20th and Monday November 3rd (including Saturdays but not Sundays).
And I'm voting for Senator Barack Obama for U.S. President because the White House needs a huge mocha enema and I think we need someone with the middle name "Hussein" as our nation's leader. And because I don't want to look at Senator Twitchy Tapioca Face anymore, and because I'm frightened by Governor End-Of-Days from Alaska.
I don't have much to say this week, other than if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.
"Single Ladies" (Put a Ring On It) on DJ Bravehound's blog. This song is sticking to the inside of my skull like an Alien facehugger. Can't get it out of my head. And the video is spectacular. Beyonce has outdone herself. But what is up with that cyber-hand bling? Is Beyonce the 13th Cylon? I want to be Beyonce for Halloween. Or maybe the Crazy McCain Rally Lady.
And Bravehound is hot. See also his remixes, this one starts out with Robyn. We love Robyn because she's a pixie and she's Scandinavian.
We won another match this weekend. 6 and 1 this season in our division. I half expected to play in the A-side match, since we've had so many injuries and illnesses this season. But I had a fun time as scrumhalf in the B-side match against a buncha hotties. I set up some nice plays and got a few of the more headstrong forwards to listen to me for a change. My voice can be very commanding if I want it to be.
Damn it's cold outside at night. We have several million guppies from our front and back ponds that could go to a good home. All they've been doing over the summer is breeding as guppies do. It's too cold outside for them to survive in the pond, but the goldfish will be fine. If you would like a couple thousand, just ask.
There's been another mugging in the Shaw-Howard area, this time near 1911 5th Street, NW DC. That makes six people I know who've been mugged in the past year by groups of youth in their late teens or early 20s. It's not in the news yet, but the victim has made a crime report about the situation.
The victim was a lone gay man with a backpack wearing headphones walking home at about 9:30pm Thursday night. A group of young black males on bicycles jumped him and took his backpack, then rode away. The victim was not hurt, and they did not yell anti-gay epithets, but it's just another example of the rise of muggings by groups of youth in the city of late.
In more positive news, an arrest has been made in connection with the beating death of a man on the 9th Street corridor.
Regardless of whether it's anti-gay or not, we need to pay attention to our surroundings. I can't believe the number of people I see walking home or jogging at night with their headphones on. Headphones and cell phone conversations lower your awareness of your surroundings and mark you as an easy target. In many of these cases, the perps "came out of nowhere." Only mutants with teleporation powers can do that, and there's a lot you can do to reduce your chances of being mugged.
I keep hearing people claim that being on a cell phone keeps assailants at bay because the potential victim thinks the assailant is less likely to attack them when they're on the phone with someone. That's a myth, and involving yourself in a conversation with somebody somewhere else keeps your attention away from your current situation. Keep your electronics in your pocket, keep your head up and be aware. 
You can see a potential problem from blocks away, or are at least able to dodge or confront potential attackers if you're alert and aware of your assailants. Be aware of your surroundings when you leave a bar, and take a cab home if you're feeling tipsy. Intoxication also lowers your awareness of your surroundings. I'm hoping bartenders, bouncers and doormen can leave a kind word of concern with people leaving the bar as well.
I won't be leaving a bar in a tipsy state this weekend because I'm simply broke. Those boys wore me out last weekend and this week. Assailants shaking me down will only come up with lint, dust and moths flying out of my pocketbook.
This morning I was downtown for my dental check-up and teeth cleaning, yet another assault on my pocketbook. On my way to my 8am appointment, I saw the common sight of a V.I.P. motorcade racing down 17th Street, between I and K. Don't know who it was in the big black vans, but you see that a lot downtown, especially near the White House.
Bonobos hunt and kill other primates for food. Bonobo plays Pac-Man (at end of clip).
Giant "goonch" catfish are eating people in India.
Fun with Flash:
Sarah Palin's Oval Office.
My high school classmate Travis takes pictures and they end up on Andrew Sullivan's blog.
Bruce Willis looks like Bob Mould.
Bruce Willis beard rage.
No 'mo 40oz. from tha likka stow.
BTW: they boarded up slumlord's house today. They trimmed and cleaned up around the place, but it still looks derelict. I hope nobody got boarded up inside.
Attacks by teen groups rising in D.C. and nation.
Freedom fighter from V gives birth to reptile kids. A classic.
"Is she normal?"
"As far as I can tell..."
Wait for it....
The sorghum plants in my treebox are dying off, having served their purpose in feeding the birds and looking weird in the city. So today on my day off I thought it would be fun to take some of their stalks and make one of those spooky Blair Witch Project crosses that scared the kids in the movie. So I tied some dried stalks together and brought them out back to add some lily pond algae and water plants to it. It looks kinda greasy now, but might look spookier in a few days when the algae dies and sets.
It was a busy weekend with two sets of gays in town for a visit. Darth Jersey and his Sith adept came in to visit and check out Gaylaxicon, which turned out to be a wash. Cobban and Ray from beyond Tucson were also here to visit relatives and see the sights.
On Friday we went out to Cobalt with the Sith for some drinks and to swoon over the hot manager Dean. Saturday morning I had a neighborhood meeting to address the slumlord property at 424 Q Street, NW, owned by the notorious scam artist and slumlord Vincent Abell (scroll down to Slumlord #5 in the article). The property is across the alley from my place, and has started to receive new tenants who use the front window to get in and out. It's been vacant for some time now, and attracts garbage and the kids from down the block who like to hang out on the porch of 424 Q and litter. And everyone likes to use the alley and area under the porch for an open-air bathroom. The party never stops on Q street, but things are being done although it will take time.
Later that evening I met up with friends to attend the Miss Adams Morgan pageant in support of Miss Arizona, Bon-Bon Guacamole. While I could not stay long enough to see her talent piece, the portions of the show I did see were top-notch, and they even served Oreo cookies to people at all the tables. There was lots of fun drag but remarkably few Sarah Palins in attendance. Maybe people don't think she's that funny anymore. I don't think we'll be seeing Salsa Juarez or Charlene Hilton this Halloween as I seem to do it every other year or so. It's been a busy fall and I just don't have either of the girls in me at the moment.
Although Gaylaxicon was very underwhelming, at the pageant we did get to see two famous and hot Viper fighter pilots from Battlestar Galactica, Helo and Apollo. They both deserve a Battlestar Galactica PC for pulling off the look so well. Sorry, there is no iPhone version of this device, so you won't be able to tell everyone you got one and it broke. Can you spot the Cylon impersonator in this photo?
The fantastically cheesy 1983 sci-fi series V is set to return to ABC soon. Yaay, let's eat some guinea pigs!
Here's Scott and a friend dressed up as cowboys. Scott's 'stache is REAL! I encouraged him to keep it.
Later on we took all the visiting gay pairs out to Blowoff for some woof 'n roll, and then brunch the next morning at Trio's. After all that hosting, I was worn out:
Today I slept in and took my time.
They look pretty, but they are MEAN.
This breeding pair of angelfish are good parents who frequently spawn and produce young. But as they fuss over the eggs and fry, they are mean to all the other fish in the tank. I'm over it and want a more peaceful tank community.
So I'd like to give them away. They are maybe 3 years old and I got them when they were small, now they are about 3" tall. The female is the silver one, and the male is the marbled one. And while they do produce young, as soon as the fry become free-swimming, they get eaten.
Perhaps a more experienced cichlid aquarist would have better luck with them. If you or someone you know is interested in having them (preferrably in a tank larger than 20 gallons), drop me an e-mail at Jimbo3DC@aol.com to learn more.
There was a fatal stabbing at about 7 a.m. yesterday, just a few blocks from my home. A 40-year-old hotel housekeeper was robbed and fatally stabbed while waiting for a bus in the 1700 block of Third Street, near her home.
In more promising news, there is an outstanding felony warrant for Robert Hannah, aka "Rob," for voluntary manslaughter of Tony Randolph Hunter. Hunter died Sept. 17 of injuries sustained Sept. 7 during an attack and robbery on the 1300 block of Eighth Street NW.
Betty White cracks 'em up on the Craig Ferguson Show pretending to be a staffer for John McCain’s campaign and calling the Republican’s running mate Sarah Palin “One Crazy Bitch.”
I just got my 401k statement in the mail today.
Loss this quarter: -$1,513.63, loss this year (so far): -$2,717.17.
Anyway, let's add some levity with a Friday Woof to Watch Out For. I was scolded last time for not including a very important woof and reigning Goatee Overlord, Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox. Indeed it was a huge oversight and I apologize to everyone (especially Red Sox fans) for not including Youk. I think he needs to add the letter 'f' to end of the word on his shirt in this pic:
"I'm not shaving until I have to put gas in my new Civic Hybrid"
I thought this photo of Chris Cooley and Colt Brennan was festive:
The Redskins are doing well this season, so they have reason to frolic like that.
This morning while I was waiting for the bus to work I was approached by a young man in a nice suit who handed me a flyer and politely asked me, "Do you believe we will survive current disasters like the economic crisis, wars around the globe, and impending global warming?"
"Yes, I do," I replied, and handed his flyer back to him. I did not want the paper to be wasted as I understand how expensive it is to produce nice color copy. Since I'm looking at life in the long-term, I'm concerned about this death cultist's environmentally unfriendly waste of good paper.
The dude was proselytizing for another one of those end-of-days death cults, like the church Sarah Palin attends in Wasilla, Alaska. If a person believes that the end of the world is coming in a few years, how do you think that will influence their day to day policies?
The Rapture is a popular event prophecized by these "Christian" death cults, and Palin's Assembly of God church is one of them. These people believe in the End of Days, basically an Armegeddon prophecized by a series of events or signs that the end is near. They think Obama is one of these signs, as are a slew of other events that may or may not be interpreted as current events.
(BTW/FYI: the 1991 film The Rapture starring David Duchovny and Mimi Rogers is really rad.)
What frightens me is that these people are planning and training for the end of days, and expect it to come soon (they always frame it as coming "soon," like so many other death cults). Therefore many of their daily or long-term decisions are based on a global endpoint. These are the kinds of decisions Sarah Palin will make. It is possible that W is also subscribed to this death cult as well.
Her church also believes that you can "pray away the gay." Last night at the gym I saw a gay who I've seen out and about around town, wearing a McCain/Palin 2008 campaign tee-shirt. If you're supporting representatives from a party whose platform includes the reduction of your basic human rights, with a candidate who would like to wish away your gay, what kind of fucked-up world view do you have about your sexuality?
Self-loathing isn't the specialty of the gays, straight death-cultists practice self-loathing too. Do you really think you're such a bad person that God is going to punish you for being so naughty? He's really going to blow up the world for your sins? Really? That's bullshit. Stop hating yourself and people as a whole, buck up and start loving life, you idiots.
I'd like to think I'm a person of faith, but these crazy-ass death cults give higher powers a bad name. And as cranky as I can get, I don't believe I'm going to witness the end of the world in my lifetime. I think life is too amazing right now to think that some higher power is planning the destruction of the universe. Sometimes I believe life is actually quite mundane and we won't be given the pleasure of witnessing anything exciting like an apocalypse anytime soon. Life goes on, and isn't usually that interesting. My outlook depends on my mood.
Death cults are for people who can't handle reality. Real life is tough, and the next ten years are going to suck. Most people don't have the balls to handle real life, so they lean on some whack mythology to help them cope. Imagining four gnarly horsemen and pearls in the sky is one way out of dealing with the daily hardships in life. If you're looking forward to the end of days, you basically don't have to deal with daily life. To me, that is a weak way of dealing with everyday life. I believe life will go on, and we have to face it and do our best to make the world better. If that kook at the bus stop hadn't come up to me before my morning coffee riled me up, I woulda said the same thing to him.
The accompanying images have nothing to do with this post, other than being part of a previous post I wrote about Betty White and the end of days. One could just as easily believe that Betty White, Fenris Wolf, and the Swedish Chef are signs of the upcoming end of days too.
I can wrap my lips around large plastic party cups and pint glass rims. America's got talent! That's mead in the glass, about to be consumed.
Suze Orman will chomp your head off after her HRC Dinner speech. Photo by Joe Tresh at Washington Photo Journal.
HRC, Victory Fund backs new initiative to train gay bloggers.
I will assist this noble effort by first stating that both gay and straight bloggers have been frakkin' lazy lately. Update yer goddamn blogs goddammit...all of you! Then you might be worthy of a funded training initiative, but not until you show a recent, significant body of work.
Good News: alleged Georgetown gay bashers set for hearing on Wednesday. Now if they could only nab the bashers in Columbia Heights and Shaw.
More Renaissance Festival tomfoolery:
Today a bunch of us geeks went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival to drink mead and eat turkey legs. I just flossed my teeth and now I feel better. I drank a lot of mead and oveheard several comments from the gang, like "Oooh, gurl, he's dressed up like an evil sex sorceror."
Here Glenn and Mark practice their ranged touch attacks with thrown weapons at the battleaxe range:
Skwurl, Chad and me at a pub getting wasted on mead:
Gossamer fairies were everywhere:
"Gurl, that one guy's pretty skinny, maybe he's on crystal mead?"
I always like going there because there's lots of Anne Arundel County rough trade Daddies to gawk at.
The geek social events never stop, as next weekend is Gaylaxicon 2008 in Bethesda, Maryland!
"Nuclear" - nu-klee-ur. Nuclear bombs, nuclear power, nuclear families. Say it fucking ten times right, goddammit. NOT nu-kyoo-lur. Why can't anyone get it right? If you're going to try to prohibit the escalation of nuclear bombs, be a proponent of nuclear energy or promote the nuclear family, at least get the word right.
Vote O'Bama/O'Biden in '08! I'm voting the Black Irish party ticket.
The word "maverick" shall heretofore be banned in 2009 and beyond until further notice. I don't want to hear that word again. Also, I do not want a "normal Joe Six-Pack American" in the position of vice presidency. I'm more comfortable having that type of person delivering my UPS packages, or fine-tuning my car. Or did she mean she wants a vice-president with six-pack abs? That would be hot.
Palin was charismatic and often smooth in her delivery, and to many viewers, that's all that matters I'm afraid. But at least Biden didn't have verbal diarrhea like he sometimes does, and he knew his facts and had a few good zingers. I hope he came off as more competent. Still, I worry and I'm going to be a mess until November.
Now back to our regularly scheduled woof: Eastern European/Russian freestyle wrestling fur photo gallery.
It's Major League Baseball World Series playoff time, and the two teams I'm rooting for have already lost the first day of the tournament. The Milwaukee Brewers are a surprise entry, but the Chicago Cubs certainly get points for most woofy team. I mean like, they're an entire team of bearcubs. Here's some woof to watch out for if you're not necessarily paying attention to the game:
LA Dodgers' Casey Blake, from Des Moines, Iowa, befur and after:
Chicago Cubs 2nd baseman Mark DeRosa and pitcher Ryan Dempster:
I'm sad the Nationals didn't make it into the playoffs, but at least they're not playing against another team with a lame mascot, like say, a sheaf of grain.
In other woof news, check out the cover of the October 2008 issue of Men's Fitness. In a rare act of woof, the normally smooth-centric mag features adorable furry ginger broken-nosed monkey-eared UFC light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin. Links to blog entry with not-so-safe-for-work right-sidebar ads to naughty gay sites.
We have a drag queen superheroine group whose secret base is rumoured to be TOWN Danceboutique:
Diva League member roster:
Shi-Queeta Lee, codename Star Light
Power: super strength
Akasha Cassidine, codename Angel Cat
Power: telekinesis
Ba'Naka, codename Banshee
Power: sonic scream
Blair Michaels, codename Blonde Marvel
Power: cyclonic spin
Costumes by: Shi-Queeta-Lee
