July 2009 Archives

The housing search is depressing. From my estimation of living in DC for as long as I have, the rent goes up about $100 every year. And while I have a good salary, it has not increased along with the inflation of rental prices. And apparently this housing crisis and economic downturn in the rest of the country has not affected rental prices in DC at all.

But my current 'hood is as depressing as the rental prices are high elsewhere. I've got to get out of here as it's gotten worse since I moved here 2 years ago. This week I spotted our block's first prostitute since I moved in, and we have a brand new group of dealers on the block who do their work in broad daylight right on the sidewalk. I guess they're displaced from a less tolerant neighborhood. We've asked for undercover investigators to spend just one afternoon sitting there, but I guess we don't have the political clout that other neighborhoods have. It doesn't take a genius or a task force to figure out what's going on on our block of Q Street.

Other things: Herb has announced the return of Zubaz pants!

Are we becoming an Unscientific America?

Isn't it about time we scale back the security paranoia? I've noticed those ugly jersey barriers have been removed from many Smithsonian museums, and one can hear the sound of small engine planes over DC again. While 9/11 was tragic and horrible, I believe we got caught with our pants down, and have done what we can to secure our safety, but there's only so much you can do before people start getting pissed off, and you can never fully prepare for every contingency. But I believe we've done our best since then and maybe it's time to review our procedures. Do I really have to take my frakkin' shoes off at the airport every time?

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Cliff Lee is woofy.

Spartacus remake to feature Lucy Lawless and lots and lots of beef.

I've been on this Beach Boys kick lately, particularly because of this super-beardy performance of Good Vibrations. That was the golden age of the beard since the Civil War, no doubt about it. The late Dennis Wilson gets first prize for righteous beardiness among the 'Boys for sure.

From Epic Civil War Beardy Boy Xanthos: Fuckin' L.A. I feel that way about DC sometimes too.

So what's up with Lance Armstrong being sponsored by some funky Kazak firm? I may be late on this news, but what's up with this Team Astana business? Astana is the new capital of Kazakstan, formerly called Akmola. The previous capital was Alma-Ata, or Almaty. Look closely and you can even see Kazak Cyrillic on their uniforms:

"Armstrong, who is riding for Astana without salary this year, has previously hinted he might launch his own team next season. When Astana was hit by financial trouble this year and faced the prospect of being thrown out of the ProTour, Armstrong said he could take over the team with the backing of U.S. sponsors."

Of course we love a uniform based on the fabulous colors and style of the national flag of Kazakstan, but what were they doing sponsoring a Tour de France team? Why would Armstrong pick a Kazak sponsor? Is this a post-Borat attempt at boosting positive Kazakstani PR? It's all very weird. If any of you have an explaination for all this please let me know. I sense a story behind all this and I am curious about it.

Wisconsin man kills rabbit with blowgun. Giant squid scare divers. Baldwin spawn Stephen gets BOTFLIES on the reality show "“I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” That's the show that caught Janice Dickinson peeing in the middle of their campsite on camera, followed by her boldface lie denying she did. I hate it when former supermodels pee in my campsite.

Rules for tech gadgets, like don't text when you're standing in a bar with a circle of friends. Politely excuse yourself from the conversation and go text elsewhere. The only thing that is important enough to text about in a social setting is to summon more people to the social setting.

From Mitzhi in Baltimore: contrast/compare straight vs. gay skill contests.

Upcoming movies about disease, vampires and geekery: Carriers (Sept. 4), Daybreakers (Jan. 8), Pandorum (Sept. 18), and Tron Legacy (2010).

I've mostly adjusted to the cultural changes coming from Wisconsin back to DC, but it was weird having an appointment downtown today where I rode my bike past the White House and Old Executive Office. Sadly I don't think my innards have adjusted, as I may have caught a case of Mississippi Mud from my fishing trip on the Big River with my brother.

I remember having the same symptoms after swimming or waterskiing on the river as a kid. Oh well - for every pound gained eating cheese curds and mini donuts there, another pound will just slip away here. The river isn't as clean as we'd like but it was good to go out on the boat, catch a few panfish and smell old familiar river smells.

Here's a photo of what is basically a shrine to me, the mini donut stand at the County fairgrounds:

I had a great time getting reacquainted with former classmates. The reunion organizers did a wonderful job with fun decorations and cakes shaped like a Rubik's Cube or decorated like Pac-Man. The music was a little more metal-oriented than I enjoy but Def Leppard, Quiet Riot and Motley Crue were the only live acts that came through our area back in tha day. That's why I've enjoyed catching up on other acts that are touring again through DC these days like Duran Duran, Janet Jackson and Madonna.

With the advent of Facebook, a lot of awkward conversation starters were refreshingly out of the way. Surprisingly I didn't get that many questions about The Ghey, but maybe people were just being Scandinavian or something. I didn't feel like I had much to say about that anyway.

My hometown keeps changing, and I visited the new beer and wine shop that has been added to the local meat locker that processes venison and other meats. It was a pretty smart idea to keep the business going and I think they'll do well. My mom thinks she's spotted gays shopping there but I think it's more likely well-dressed patrons that don't wear dairy farming clothes. I did not detect The Ghey while I was there, but then again my gaydar sucks and it's hard to tell these days.

To preserve my sanity I like to take some time for a road trip when I go home, and this time I drove up the Great River Road to Alma, Wisconsin to visit an entrepreneur friend who opened a fabulous little bakery on Main Street. Ingredients are all local and the goodies made from scratch every day, and the visit did not disappoint. Many delicious noms were sampled.

The weather was unusually cool with nights in the 50s and some days barely breaking 70. I loved it. One evening we saw something unusual - an adult chipping sparrow was busy feeding a much larger baby. It could only have been a baby cowbird, whose parent invades an unattended nest of a host species, shovels out the eggs and lays its own. The parents raise the parasitic bird as their own and I managed to get a great photo of a parent sparrow feeding the cowbird young:

Like all trips away from one's home base I was hit with many moments of perspective, like how can I get a riverside property around here for under $80,000?

I from Wisconsin! Having a good time and up to lots of mischeif with the classmates. Mom and I went to the La Crosse County Interstate Fair the other day and I even found some mini-donuts too. Many of the exhibits were udderly fascinating:

Heading for the hometown tomorrow. The skies look stormy on the radar, but I hope I get there without delay:

This is what we did this weekend:
Just kidding...close though. A bunch of us drove up to Harper's Ferry and went tubing in this glorious and unusual humidity-free July. Good times and lots of sights to be seen with 20something tubers all around, but I asked aloud why we kind of stuck out as a bunch of 30something men with all these 20something heterosexuals? And someone answered that all the straight people our age are home with the kids. So I guess it's a side-benefit of being The Ghey sometimes - we have more spare time for fun. There are more photos from the tubing trip coming soon but we had to use an ancient photographic technology that utilized a thing called "film" which takes time to "develop." The wait is agonizing.

I'm rambling, I'm tired. I think I poured myself some Pepsi Plus or whatever they call it last night at D&D, and I hardly slept a wink last night. But I got some homework done for this last grad school class. Fortunately it is mercifully casual, or more casual than the last one which was a doozy. But I got an A in it.

Currently obsessed with Alpha Rugby Ginger Paul O'Connell. BBC Sport interview featuring his rumbling voice here.

Cute ginger Captials hockey player Brendan Morrison, originally from Vancouver. Boyd Gordon is a looker too.

The UK's in-house propaganda mag features a casual human interest article celebrating their gay soldiers. It's so not an issue there they put it in their boring PR mag! URUGAY allows gay soldiers! Arrrgh...why can't the US not keep up with this shit?

In today's Washington Post photo galleries there's a pic of an Uighur (Chinese Muslim) in his bazaar butcher stand in Western China (photo #12 ). Not for the squeamish! I would frequently see horse parts for sale in Kazakstan as well - they eat the entire head too, and everything else. I'm told is very low in fat.

Some dude and his chicken Mr. Clucky ignite poultry anarchy in Miami.

Life-size gundam robot in Japan. About all it can do is stand, but it's still cool.

The Onion: Hideous Man-Beast Washes Up On Shore Of Municipal Pool. After last year's Montauk Monster, I was wondering what would wash ashore this summer.

I am going to see a film called Moon tomorrow. I leave for Wisconsin on Thursday for my 20th (ugh) class reunion. I'll take lots of pictures.

Great Falls, Virginia native and sub woofer middleweight boxer Jimmy Lange, is featured in an interesting City Paper article this week. Lange was a cast member in The Contender reality show. He's a cute 'lil 150#er.

The photo at right is Baltimore's J.P. Flaim, a welterweight scrapper. I just thought the pic was appropriate since today is all about cute local boxers.

Damn, I almost got sucked into a rental housing scam on Craigslist. I knew $1000 for a two bedroom was too good to be true, even in Shaw. The contact e-mail was bogus, and I started adding things up when the response included filling out personal information on a form. The contact number on the reply e-mail was also bogus, and the poor guy at the 703 area code had already changed his voice mail to say that the ad was a scam that unfortunately used his number. Beware of sketchiness on Craigslist. In my housing search I think I will rely more heavily on my network of friends and acquaintances.

Anyway, I'm still looking to move by September or October. Everything's negotiable, but I'm primarily looking for quiet, peace of mind, and quality of life. No more living in "edgy" neighborhoods - the 'hood just isn't that romantic anymore. I would like to be on the Green or Red Lines, have some garden or outdoor space, and an absent roomate would all be nice. I'm good with animals, plants and tidy humans. I must have light though, I will not compromise that need this time. No more Gollum-holes.

Today's Deep Thought: recent ridiculous hijinks by so many elected officials (Barry, Palin, Sanford) has really inspired me. If these clowns are elected to such high positions, how come I'm not a governor/mayor/senator? How do these people become so delusional? How do they get to a point where they think no one will notice their lies, adventures or illicit actions? And don't they have work to do? Get to work, fuckers, I voted for you! Goddammit. OK I didn't vote for any of the above, but I mean if you have a civil servant job get your distractable ass to work and stop fucking around.

And most politicians seem to have a spouse. So what happens when a prominent politician is single? If they date, is it scandalous if they're fucking around a lot on their own time? Would the media make a big deal about me if I was governor and was spotted making out with someone at Town? Or would they let it slide because I'm a bachelor?

I found another nice picture of Michael Phelps (future Ms. President Barrett), wet, with a fu 'stache:

Even though he's a smoothie, he's starting to grow on me like algae.

I met a heterosexual female reader of my blog the other night! I was shocked. I know of a couple of you are out there, but I'm guessing y'all are few in number. Post a shout-out in the comments and reprezent if you like.

Spring 2010 Bear Fashion Preview. Prada Bears all over the world are delighted with new options in pastel.

From Sturtle, a teaser trailer for the film adaptation of the ultra-depressing, post-apocalyptic book The Road. While I loves my post-apocalypse stories, I thought the book went on and on...and I didn't like the ending either. That said I'm looking forward to an hour of depressing greyness and a bag of popcorn! From the previews it looks like the story will be somewhat true to the book.

For those of you who prefer pre-apocalypse, here's the teaser for the remake of V. The priest is hot, and it looks like that one lady who played Adria the Orici in the Final season of Stargate is in it, and that lady who played Neo's girlfriend in The Matrix. Hopefully the show will fill the emptiness inside me since BSG ended. And we had better see at least one guinea pig or small mammal eaten alive by the bad guys, or it's not worth the effort.

And from Jennie, a haunting interpretation of your favorite Beyoncé song by Antony & The Johnsons. It took me a minute to realize what song he was singing.

You've heard of killer bees, but howabout bee-killers? Back home in Beltsville, researchers have sequenced the genome of one suspect responsible for colony collapse disorder (CCD).

Hope y'all had a festive 4th of July weekend. 'merca. I didn't do anything fantastic but survived the war zone that our block became over the weekend. Firecrackers going off until 4am - good times. Some fireworks even made it into the front pond. I'm sure the angels down the block had nothing to do with it. Naturally, they haven't cleaned up all of the leftover fireworks either and the 'hood looks like a dump. It's a party every day here in Neverland, and no one ever, ever has to do anything that resembles work. And it is strange how in such tough economic times, people have enough money for hours and hours' worth of pyrotechnic entertainment.

And then we have some new hipster hillbillies across the street who have frat-style yard parties throughout the night. "DOOOD! THROW ME ANOTHER NATTY-BO!" But at least when they're home their 23 dogs aren't barking. When they're gone their dogs get separation anxiety and bark at everything that walks by all day. I can't wait to get outta this dump by September, do or die.

I kind of like watching the cheesy, 4th of July family-friendly entertainment on the Mall coverage aired on PBS, usually hosted by the cheesetastic Jimmy Smits. This year they featured the odd combination of Natasha Beddingfield and the Sesame Street Muppets. Although from the looks of the crowd, it might not have been all that crowded down there. I shoulda left the madness of the 'hood to see the fireworks down there for a change.

Especially considering the freakishly nice July weather we've been having...dry and in the 80s during the day, and often down into the 60s at night. Usually we are punished in July with our typical swampy humidity. I should probably stop marveling as not to draw attention from the spiteful spirits of humidity and heat.

Clearly I need to get out of DC. Fortunately, next week I head home to Wisconsin for my 20th class reunion, held at the town's American Legion hall. Git 'er done. I'll take pictures.