October 22, 2007
good times
Crimeny - you'd think after a week since the Packers beat the Redskins at Lambeau Field in Green Bay that the locals would be over it. I didn't even think about the significance of wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt out on the street last night, and forgot there was a Redskins game that day. So as I'm walking around Eastern market I hear hisses and boos from rabid Redskins fans. Bitter, bitter people. Crazed like purple Baltimore Ravens fans I guess.
The vital match this weekend was a nail-biter and a heartbreaker, with a final score of 25-27. While we were the leaders in points scored in our division as of last week, I don't quite understand why we don't have a likelihood of getting into the playoffs. The officials have been silent on this matter, so perhaps there is still hope. Winning Saturday's match would have sealed the deal, however.
It was a nice Saturday to be outside, and later that day the South Africa Springboks beat England to win the rugby world cup in France. Blowoff was a crazed event, and I saw lots of friends and got to catch up with many people. We were blessed by an appearance of our coach's wife who dove right into the Saliva Pit after asking politely where it was. Good times.
Some nice things about DC:
- lots of concerts and events;
- free museums!
- a new U.S. Botanic Garden;
- Lactaid is available at most major grocery stores.
Team Photo from this Saturday:
I don't think I'll have time to throw together a costume for Halloween this year. Just too busy with work and stuff, and well, I just feel busy. Charlene takes a long time to prepare, and I haven't had much luck with a kung-fu Shao-Lin type of costume either. I haven't even had time to dig out the plastic pumkin purse for trick-or-treating. I will have plans to be out of my house on Halloween. From past experience, the neighborhood kids come to trick or treat in no costume, say "Gimme candy!," and leave without saying thank-you. I seem to skip Halloween every other year, and this is an 'off' year.
Posted by jimbo at 1:55 PM | Comments (2)
October 18, 2007
women are indeed allowed in the saliva pit
Last night the little spot in my head flared up where I got multiple sinus infections in college while I was taking scuba class. As I ascended up the water column during a test while my sinuses were clogged, something burst and I bled profusely through my nose. (You shouldn't go scuba diving with a sinus infection, fyi) From then on it always hurts a little when the air pressure is changing quickly, so I expect some rain to come through soon. Hopefully it won't dissipate into humidity and dust like all the precipitation has this fall.
This week in my favorite new advice column Ask Bob: women not allowed at Blowoff?!? Horsefeathers! I mean, at the last Blowoff there were a buncha lesbians monitoring fluid exchange in the Saliva Pit. I had no problem with it and they seemed to be enjoying themselves too. There's fun for everyone there - Saturday, Oct. 20, at the 9:30 Club.
Dammit, Chaka-Kahn is supposed to be performing at H2O in town for Howard University Homecoming, and A Year With Frog and Toad (my favorite gay couple) will be at the Strathmore. But tonight is the last practice before a very important match on Saturday, and I need to desperately grasp on to the last remnants of my masculinity the best I can, so I need to be at practice. Anyway, we're top-ranked in our division in the local union, which is very exciting because we've had some really challenging years, with some matches where we did not score a point, or others where we got up to a hundred points scored against us. These days we're not only competitive, but we're winning. The match will be at an idyllic farm in Poolesville, and I hope to get some photos.
I will be going to see Annie Lennox next week with the same bunch with whom I saw Emily, Amy, and Cyndi . It's kind of wierd how all the same artist's names end in the diminutive case. Annie better frikkin' sing because the ticket was a pretty penny.
In order to remain completely superficial and continue to degrade myself by constantly putting physical beauty on a pedistal, here is a random picture of some hot guy with a gun:
No, I don't know him and I can't remember where I found the pic and I can't refer him to you.
Happy thoughts - happy, rainier times in Homer, Alaska at the end of the rainbow:
I worked there in 1993, and visited again a few years ago when the photo was taken.
Posted by jimbo at 12:14 PM | Comments (8)
October 15, 2007
2007-2008 Ben Cohen calendar now available
The 2007-2008 Ben Cohen calendar - a wonderful gift idea for your friend who plays rugby who also loves cute scruffy furry-chested rugby players.
Commentary on yesterday's entry centered mainly on the heated debate about how to properly prepare apple pie filling, which has nothing to do with Ben Cohen but I found it amusing.
Download weekly cooking podcasts at The Splendid Table from American Public Media.
Posted by jimbo at 12:32 PM | Comments (10)
October 14, 2007
masc buds chillin'
First off I need some leads & advice on the following:
- A friend new in town is looking to rent on Capitol Hill / Eastern Market, he's trolling Craigslist and all that of course but any leads are appreciated;
- A rugby teammate in DC is interested in entering the International conflict mediation field and is looking for entry level positions directly related to that line of work;
- I need to kick this reused IKEA dresser out the door as it's barely survived 4 too many moves and is falling apart now that the blessed loss of humidity in the air no longer keeps the particleboard construction together. I'm on the lookout for a new dresser about chest high and torso wide. For this and the above issues, drop me an e-mail at Jimbo3DC@aol.com;
- I want to bake an apple pie again soon. My crusts are fine and it cooks well, but my apple filling is always runny. I use peeled, cored and chopped apples. What's the trick with corn starch to make it less gooey? Add your two cents in the comment area.
Oh Noooo! Mr. Hands left me to take care of his new pet giant katydid:
Today Orally Oriented Josh was nice enough to offer up some space in a car to take me and some masc chill buds out to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. It was a very nice mental health escape from the city.
We didn't hike for long, but were sure to take in the scenery and silence along the way.
Here's Rob, Josh, TJ and myself somewhere off of Skyline Drive:
On Saturday we played a friendly match against the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences rugby team and had a good time. I got to play more than I expected, as a slow wing and a more fun position called a flanker. Between that and all the hiking, sunshine and fresh air I got today, I'll sleep well tonight.
Posted by jimbo at 8:05 PM | Comments (12)
October 11, 2007
gotta be tuff with the scruff
Goddammit: Buffy the Vampire Slayer sing-a-longs cancelled by Fox.
...Fox has pulled the license for ALL their TV shows from theatrical exhibition. This is effective immediately, and of course includes Buffy and “Once More With Feeling”.
From the ShawNeighborhood listserv:
I just heard what sounded like 10 gunshots somewhere north of where I am (6th &P NW )at about 2:55 pm, followed by lots of sirens- sounds like police sirens as well as fire engines and or ambulances. Anyone have any information?Clearly, it was the 12th-Annual Shaw Skeet Shooting Tournament sponsored by the North Capitol Rod-and-Gun Club of Washington, DC. Fish fry to follow and there'll also be live entertainment (polka band!) under the beer tent. See you there.
Oh wait, I thought I was in Wisconsin.
"Gotta be tough with the scruff": MANtage by Barats and Bareta:
Cute with Chris has nice scruff today.
Not scruffy, but nice flattop - Brandon Stokley (Denver Post / Portrait by Cyrus McCrimmon):
The Broncos interviews: Brandon Stokley, by Mike Klis, Denver Post Staff Writer.
Kinda reminds me of Howie Long back in tha day: 
Redskins vs. the Packers this weekend at Lambeau steppe. It will be a no-brainer. Scruff will prevail:
Posted by jimbo at 9:50 PM | Comments (5)
October 1, 2007
hooray for active old men
First order of business: there is an East Central Civic Association of Shaw (ECCA) meeting tonight (Monday) at 7pm at the Third Baptist Church at 5th and Q St., NW. Light refreshments served! Sadly I have class tonght so I can't be there.
Hooray for scruffy old men like Brett Favre (37 - "my age!") who became the NFL's all-time leader in career touchdown passes this weekend:
Yes, my little gaylings and angertwinks, there is life after you pass 25. Sometimes a very rich life full of accomplishments and joy.
I'm still surprised I had such a good time at the Megadeth concert last night. It was a refreshing change from the urban rut I've been in I guess. Dipping into different crowds and worlds is good for you and gives useful perspective. Do something you wouldn't normally do this month. I have an outfit for you that will help - her name is Charlene Hilton.
Posted by jimbo at 11:39 AM | Comments (19)
September 26, 2007
back from the beach
First off, I thinned out my water garden iris in the pond. Soaking up the previous cesspool nutrients has been good to them this summer. If you have an aquatic garden with lots of sun, and space for a pot about the size of a KFC bucket, this iris could be yours! Contact me if you meet the prerequisites and we can talk about when you can come pick up the extra iris.
Have you downloaded the new Duran Duran single 'Falling Down' yet? It sounds nice. Simon hasn't lost his voice, that's for sure.
I'm back from the beach with Delicate Flower, Clay and Martini Gurlatalova. The weather was cooperative and it was a nice getaway. Here's a few more photos:
Everyone brought their dogs:
Lemme tell ya children: the secret to eternal youth is to avoid excessive drinking, smoking and sun. There are a lot of beach residents with that leathery look that I should avoid since I tend to stay out of the sun when I can.
I managed to do some birdwatching and took photos here and there:
Lawrence Bruno Nero Dallaglio was not at the beach. I just thought this photo was hot:
I loves my ornery Dadtastic English ruggers. However, I haven't been watching much of the Rugby World Cup lately.
The black eye sure was a conversation starter at the beach. People normally don't approach me in public otherwise. Ironically the meaner, black-eyed look somehow allows a conversational 'in' that people would not consider otherwise. No complaints here. I'll have to get beat up more often.
Posted by jimbo at 8:14 AM | Comments (5)
September 18, 2007
cue stereotypic downtrodden caucasian fife music
Nellie's Sports Bar gets a shout-out from Matthew Yglesias in The Atlantic online today. Does a gay sports bar mark the advent of the end of straight culture? I personally don't think Nellie's is going to undermine the fabric of heterosexuality any more than I have undermined the fabric of the gay blogosphere for almost 10 years now. Foodie review of Nellie's in the Washington Post.
Speaking of anniversaries, real-live hunky muscledawg-porn-crazed blogger Jocko celebrates his 7th, and mentions the upcoming release of a live-action Iron Man movie feauring Robert Downey, Jr. as the troubled Tony Stark. It is perfect casting considering both the actor and the character have a history of struggles with substance abuse. I'm looking forward to seeing the film. It's been a good time to be a former comic book geek.
I got my plane tickets the other day from Aer Lingus to get over the pond to Dublin for the next Bingham Cup big gay rugby tournament in June 2008. FYI: Lingus has a promotional special at the moment, having recently established new service out of Dulles last month. The next Bingham Cup is gonna be a smash, with lovely mushy peat-based pitches this time. Book your tickets today!
We will be getting jiggy over there, I assure you.
Posted by jimbo at 1:14 PM | Comments (4)
September 15, 2007
pastoral pitch
Today we played an A-side and B-side match against a team from Chambersburg, PA, which was apparently somewhere near Camp David. The weather was lovely and I got to play scrumhalf:
We won both matches. Chip played too, and at the ripe age of 50, he still looks radiant, even after a match:
Zoom in to see my bloody nose. I got elbowed in the face in a tackle which sent me into a little rage, but I got over it and he was nice about it. I just don't have that much more nose to break, so I get really pissy when someone hits it. Luckily, it was not broken, just bloody. Blood tastes really gross when it slides down the back of your throat, mixed with snot, fyi.
Cornfields surrounded the pitch, which was nice and soft. The scene was quite pastoral:
Note the excellent positioning of the Renegades back line at left in this photo:
It was 40 degrees cooler than last week's match, and it made all the difference, especially with no humidity. A nice day to play rugby.
The temperature should be dropping down to the 50's this evening. Since my soul wasn't sucked out of my body from high humidity today, I have the energy to go out to Blowoff tonight. Should be a fun debaucherous time in the Saliva Pit.
Posted by jimbo at 8:20 PM | Comments (5)
September 8, 2007
time for another neighborhood meeting
Today I played some rugby in the September sun, but it wasn't so fun. The temperature was above 90, and so was the humidity. Not fun weather for rugby. After about 20 minutes I felt like I was gonna die. My preferred temperature regime for playing is from like 50-60 degrees or so. I know - I was whining earlier about how fast this summer has gone, but just to let you know, I'm over that now, and am ready for cooler weather.
Anyway, I played a position called flyhalf for the first time today, which I guess our temporary coach thought I had played before. I had played positions on either side of flyhalf, but never flyhalf. It involves a lot more decision making than in other positions I prefer to play, and I don't think I get the ball out to the wing fast enough. Plus it was frikkin' hot and no fun cuz of the weather, and I'm not in shape. More practices will help.
On a different note, I've noticed that since I moved here in June, there is a near-constant presence of young men hanging out at the end of the block, at the corner of 5th and Q, usually outside 446 Q St., NW. A neighbor I spoke with this evening tells me this has not always been the case, and Q street was purportedly a quieter place. But that's what happens on the wavefront of gentrification - things change yearly or even seasonally. Sort of like after a cultural wildfire has passed with destruction, growth, and regrowth - this seems to be an ugly time for this part of the 'hood.
I've lived in other countries and cultures and consider myself pretty tolerant of a lot of things. I pass between straight and gay culture daily. I don't mind potsmoking either, but I can tell there's always something extra in those blunts. I've also tried not to feel threatened by a group of youth with seemingly no visible source of income, who don't work or go to school, who all wear the same color clothes. I've let the noisy evenings (often screaming across the street) and street parties that go on until 2am slide. Luckily, I don't have a car, but I would try to park elsewhere if I were you. Anything in their purview seems to be considered their posession, and they will sit and spit on it as they choose.
But when I have hear the word 'faggot' spoken in my direction when I walk home from work every day it starts to bother me. Usually I let that slide in most occasions too. But I don't want to go home and feel threatened every day. It's a bad feeling.
So I'm thinkin' it's time to tap into the neighborhood meetings again, just to see what's being done, or what I can do. Even though I've been a renter, I've gone to neighborhood meetings at my past two addresses. It helps to knock heads and get together and talk sometimes. I know that if a particular address gets enough police complaints or reports logged against it, some kind of warning or eviction notice can be made. I've seen the owner of this property out in his garden (which is very nice) but I'm guessing he's either asleep, passed out, or doesn't care by nightfall, when the crowd starts to gather and the problems begin. One neighbor claims to have seen drug dealings going down at that end of the street. I haven't seen a deal go down myself, but can smell pot all the time from that direction, which like I said doesn't bother me normally, but when it's accompanied by daily street parties, noise, garbage and threatening behavior, it's time for more things to change on the wavefront.
Posted by jimbo at 7:37 PM | Comments (28)
August 24, 2007
silly mammalian labels
Uff da - my legs ache mighty bad today from last night's practice. I was on the opposition of a 15-man team, and we only had about 7 providing defense. That meant me stopping a lot of big fat bears as best I could. We have a lot of new recruits though, which is nice. People are starting to buzz about the Mark Bingham Cup in Dublin in June 2008. It's going to be a pretty penny to get there, but their fields (pitches) and facilities will certainly be better than the last tournament, which was basically in a circuit party format, replete with lube stands at pitchside. I didn't get that part.
I didn't mean to imply in yesterday's post about genuine Midwestern friendliness that any behavior south of the Wisconsin/Illinois border is necessarily rude. I was talkin' about the I-95 'tude that you get around here. I LOVE good Southern boy charm, opening doors for people, being polite to your mamma and all that. I hear tell it's an act, but it works on me, hook, line and sinker. Southern gentlemen are an exotic species in the Northern states. Midwesterners are friendly, Southern boys are polite (usually). Then when they move here something sucks out their souls and makes them unfriendly and impolite. Heavy metals in the water, perhaps?
I thought this was funny:
Llamas make a very nasal hum of concern when they're annoyed. Then they spit green goo on you. I didn't think they were worth the wool, I prefer my goldfish who don't spit on me.
Yes, I have viewed the YouTube video link and website for the new Bear band sensation BearForce1. Thank you for notifying me. I don't think this is the last we'll hear from them, as I think the breeders are gonna eat that shit up like they embraced The Village People. Not that I mind, as that act of acceptance will be the deathknell of both BearForce1 and the entire Bear scene. Then we can all brush off our hands and be who we want to be - sans silly mammalian labels.
Posted by jimbo at 1:17 PM | Comments (2)
July 31, 2007
Declaration of Rugby Dependence
OK bitches: time for you to come out of the woodwork. Rugby is starting up again for a packed fall season, and the more who join the team, the better the practices, and the more we win. Plus, where the 'mos at?
While my team started out as mostly-gay, one day we realized that there are only so many 'mos who are willing to play rugby in one city. So we expanded our recruitment efforts throughout the 'hood to get more players. But I've noticed a drop in the number of homo teammates this season. Just an FYI: we are still accepting people who are new to the sport or those with skills transferrable from other sports. Tonight we had a former football player and a former college cheerleader. Both guys have a lot to learn, but they both have unique insight that they can bring to the team. So do you.
The team dynamics have changed over the years, and the emphasis has focused more on winning - which we have been doing a lot more of lately. And it's been fun. And rugby is a great way to stay in shape, and a hell of a lot more interesting than the treadmill at the gym.
It takes a while to get the hang of the sport. It's a lot more complicated than it looks from the sidelines. It took me a couple of years to gain confidence on the field. I have my good days and not so good days. But it's the challenge of getting over those issues and learning new skills that still appeals to me, even 7 years into the sport. I'm still learning new techniques and skills all the time.
And while you'll eventually get over stuffing your head in between sweaty men's asses, it does have its appeal:
Come and check us out. Practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays at Stead Field, behind JR's on P Street, N.W. (between 16th and 17th streets). Matches are nearly every Saturday beginning in September through mid-November.
Posted by jimbo at 10:26 PM | Comments (10)
June 1, 2007
pre-packing fall geek show update
The Sci-Fi Channel has announced upcoming season 4 of Battlestar Galactica will be its last:
"Galactica" will kick off in November with "Razor," an extended two-hour episode, with the rest of the season slated to run beginning in early 2008.
This is good and bad news for me. I'm glad they won't be stringing along storylines and leaving questions unanswered episode after episode like in Lost. They're trying to get somewhere and it makes sense that they'll hopefully achieve their goal in reaching Earth. But it's sad such a good show has to end.
Geek tip from Chris at BoysBriefs: A limited run six-episode Heroes spinoff, Heroes: Origins, will introduce a new character each week. At the end of the run you vote for your favorite Hero, a la American Idol.
The democratically elected character will then be added to the sci-fi drama as a regular the following year. In other words, think of this as a paranormal version of American Idol.
More proof Kylie likes Dr. Who and is a wannabe Cybergirl:
Geekery research by Kutari Prime who notes that Kylie is dressed like a Movellan Princess circa Tom baker era in the clip. Listen closely for Cybermen creator quotes.
More woofy baseball players, because it's almost summer. Geoff Jenkins of the Milwaukee Brewers:
It's amazing how inspired I am to blog when I have a whole house to pack today. I'll be away from the Internets for a while until Verizon comes to my rescue, which could be weeks, even months. Have a good summer!
Posted by jimbo at 11:40 AM | Comments (8)
May 22, 2007
leprechauns in the dust
My rugby team is composed of about 49% gay men, 49% straight men
...and two leprechauns:
Groundbreaking research finds that if you slow down a Kylie Minogue song it sounds like George Michael. Some queens have far too much time on their hands. But I'm just jealous. Imagine if you could harness that curiosity into more scientific innovation - queens would rule the world and/or take off into space and settle down in a distant galaxy.
Posted by jimbo at 2:23 PM | Comments (6)
May 19, 2007
A Scrum or two on the Potomac
Today we played some fun rugby in the shadow of the Washington Monument the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club Scrum on the Potomac tournament.
Photos by Gurl. Someone from the White House was totally cruising us while we were playing:
Here's me pouting (photo by OMG DJ TM) when I realized those I had invited to watch were not coming:
"Dewey" was kind enough to join us after two on our team got injured. She played the 'hooker' position and held her own amongst the gurls and boys:
"Umm...'scuse me, but that ball is mine."
"HEY GURL! WHAT'S SHAKIN'?" That's Stefan to my right:
It was a nice day for rugby, breezy and somewhat cool. Now it's time for a shower and a nap.
Scrape from rugby that looks a little redder without the whitening flash. I get a tetanus shot every year, but I suppose I could still contract anthrax from scraping it in the dirt.
Posted by jimbo at 6:36 PM | Comments (6)
May 17, 2007
Happy Syttende Mai!
OMG DJ TM™ is hawt. So is the one to his left. Photos by Joe Tresh. Grrrr!
Speaking of whores and harlots, the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club is having a 'harlotfest' tournament this Saturday morning starting at 10ish at the field behind the Holocaust Museum*. A harlotfest is where players are somewhat randomly assigned to their team, as opposed to playing on a team they have practiced with.
It'll be one of the last easily accessible matches of the season, so come watch. Social to follow at Titan.
If that isn't butch enough for you, don't miss The Great Big International Drag King Show 007 at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night, the featured entertainment event for the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition's 2007 GenderYOUTH Leadership Summit.
*Raoul Wallenberg Field (3 blocks West of Smithsonian Metro on the Blue/Orange Line; or 15th and C St. SW between Independence Ave and Maine Ave SW Washington, DC)
Posted by jimbo at 8:07 AM | Comments (2)
May 6, 2007
sunny weekend fun
This weekend the team played at the North Bay Cup tournament, a small one with about 5 other teams. It was a nice day to be out playing rugby:
I played for Team Caveman (I forget the name) as they needed a sub, so I got to play 2 whole matches. Here, the ball is looking for someone to hold it:
They were a nice bunch, but the young bucks were tired out by their 2nd match. Grampaw Jimbo was still ready for more by the end of it.
Photos by target="blank" Crumble.
Posted by jimbo at 2:46 PM | Comments (2)
May 4, 2007
our practice pitch
Here is a photo I took last night of our practice pitch located between 17th, 16th, P and Q Streets, NW DC. I thought the colors and lights turned out pretty cool.
I was feeling ill so was not practicing.
Evidence of the pro-Crocs lobby stamping out newcomers in the horrid footwear business.
OMG a photo of an Olive Warbler I took in March got posted on the World Birds website!
Posted by jimbo at 8:33 AM | Comments (5)
April 15, 2007
the rats in the air ducts are peering at me again
Blog postings will be scant until May, I think. I've been uninspired lately, deadlines looming at work, and a lot of other stuff seems to have started up in life as spring tries to assert itself. I think the moving thing is stressing me out. I've thrown away a number of household items absentmindedly. Garbage in one hand, tool/utensil in another, and I'm trying to do 6 things at once and I throw both handfulls away. I know I'm stressed out when I do that. And the rat nightmares have started up again. I always wake up in the middle of the night during times like this with fleeting memories of large red-eyed rats peering at me from ventilation ducts. But I don't have any ventilation ducts, and most of the rats I see in DC aren't that big. Freaky dreams, anyway.
I tend to have very strong symbolism in my dreams, and I take dream interpretation somewhat seriously. A current search of a few sites basically says that something is eating me up inside:
"To see rats in your dream, signifies feelings of doubts, guilt and/or envy. You are having unworthy thoughts that you are keeping to yourself but are eating you up inside. To hear rats running, or gnawing in the walls, shows that you have been wasting your time and should move on to greener pastures."Or something like that. I'm workin' on it.
My absentmindedness of late led to a disappointing situation today where I had organized a group of friends to go see another friend perform at the brand spankin' new Atlas Performing Arts Center on Capitol Hill. Sadly, I had purchased 8 tickets for Saturday, but told everyone we would meet for a performance on Sunday, and the show was sold out. Big time bummer.
So I think I should step back from any extraneous organizing or commitment for a while. My mind is kind of addled lately. I had already been in the process of doing so but this weekend confirmed the need for a stronger commitement to noncommital.
But I did get outside for some sun before this nor'easter parked its soggy ass on the area Saturday night and today. The team won another match and I got to play for a bit in the B-side game. I like how my tits look in this photo, taken by SuperStar OMG Brettie:
The formation to the right is called a 'scrum' and us skinnier guys just standing around are called 'backs'. I played a position called 'inside center'.
Here's me and Matt chittering away on the sidelines:
Photos by SuperStar OMG Brettie.
Blowoff was fun, but I was only there for a short time before I started to pick up Mr. Bartender like a sack of potatoes and carried him around. Between that and Saturday's match my back is a wreck. I did not see the famous and hot manatee while I was there.
Posted by jimbo at 9:36 PM | Comments (4)
March 31, 2007
voodoo works!
Friday evening I was messing around with my camera, Flickr and booty brought from Arizona to create a small Mayan-Santería-Voodoo shrine to ensure the spirits were on our side for a win in today's rugby match:
The sun and moon loteria candles bring me power from the heavens, the clay ruggers bring camraderie to the team, while the rugby ball sees me as I see it - illuminated and as one.
And it worked! We won against our competitive rivals from Aberdeen, Maryland - Renegades 13, North Bay 7. And such a win is especially delicious when someone on the opposing team calls my teammate a 'faggot' during said game, making the victory that much sweeter.
Geek Alert: there's a new comic book store on 14th Street just next to Sparky's cafe. It's called Big Monkey Comics at 1722-B (2nd floor) 14th St., NW.
Here is an interesting crosswalk design nearby Big Monkey Comics intended to designate a clear pedestrian area to enhance the customer flow to businesses around the 14th and S Street areas, NW DC. 14th St. is otherwise a wide impassable street that isn't conducive to a walkable neighborhood area.
Posted by jimbo at 5:43 PM | Comments (4)
March 30, 2007
I was scruffy before scruffy was cool
Yay for beards abroad and at home:
Facial Hair Required for Royal Air Force Regiments in Afghanistan
DanTan Sets Beard Trend in DC?
As for the second article, I say scruff was going on long before DanTan elevated to DC Diety. Tangherlini just looks great with his beard is all, and proves you can do a good job and still be scruffy.
Phoenix was quite unusual, because by and large the gay boys there had NO facial hair at all. I saw only one other gay boy with facial hair there. I was even asked about my beard while out and about on 3 different occasions. There are far more furry hipster beards in DC, or even Tucson. But when the temperatures started rising I could understand the Phoenicians' penchant for smoothness. It gets frikkin' hot there, too hot for extra fur.
I had my first rugby practice last night, although the practices have been going on for some time. My running outside of practice has REALLY helped this year, and last night wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, except for the hardpan clay-based shitty soil of our pitch, that is. I even got a good run in during a scrimmage, and there are many new cutie pies on the team. One new youngster looks like a less-evolved (that's a good thing) version of SG-1's Daniel Jackson, but with furry arms. Me like young cavemen. Anyway, we have matches tomorrow. Don't know if I'm playing, but the weather is looking good.
Posted by jimbo at 8:28 AM | Comments (1)
March 15, 2007
the sap is flowing
Rusty Dewees is a Vermont performance artist who does a one man show called The Logger. The image is from his 2002 calendar (March: maple syrup season). Caption for the photo: "Hey Aunt Jemima, gather this!" Photo courtesy of Boobob:
And the sap is indeed flowing in the sugar maples of West Virginia, while spring peepers (a very tiny frog in charge of announcing spring) have already been heard in Maryland. While rugby practice has started, I'll be going to my first practice tonight now that it's warmed up a bit. Here's a pic by Blogstar Brettie of me from last fall, 2nd from left, swinging my arms like an ape as I gape at the cute scrumhalf on my team:
Once, not long ago, I wore glasses. But that was before I got laser-enhanced vision, which was well worth the $2,200 per eye:
This photo was taken by BlogStar Brettie last spring at the Bingham Cup in NYC. The gentleman at my shoulder is Raimundo from Anchorage, who was clearly cruising somebody at the time.
Posted by jimbo at 8:58 AM | Comments (1)
February 4, 2007
<+)O 's Hard-as-Rock Superbowl silhouette
Did anyone catch the phallic silhouette against the fluttering sheet during the Purple Rain guitar solo of <+)O's Superbowl halftime performance tonight?
Get me a screenshot, people. It beats Janet's nipple, hands-down, so to speak. Luke Daywalker says Prince looked like Celie from The Color Purple with that 'do-rag.
UPDATE: Here it is - note the strange stains on the sheet. Erotic City cum alive:
There were other, more suggestive silhouette poses in that sequence. I think Camille or Spooky Electric got the better of him tonight, despite his purported association with the Jehova's Witnesses.
While it wasn't his best performance, he gets props for ordering rain from his good friend God for the Purple Rain set, and covering the Foo Fighers' ""Best of You". The song sounded familiar but I didn't figure it out until I went online later to find out what song that was.
Minneapolis is just a 2-hour drive north and across the river (Yes, the Mississippi goes that far north) from where I grew up. We drove to Minneapolis for the kickoff of his Lovesexy tour, and I went up twice for a screening of the letdown sequel to Purple Rain, a seldom-watched movie called Grafitti Bridge. We tried to sneak into Glam Slam but Minnesota's underage law was really strict. Do the math to figure out how long ago that was...
If you're on a long roadtrip and playing 'Six-Degrees of Kevin Bacon' to pass the time, using Prince as a starter is really tough unless you've watched the film Under the Cherry Moon. No cheating using IMDB! A hint is after the break.
Using Peter O'Toole is really hard to do playing Six-Degrees of Kevin Bacon too.
Hint: Under the Cherry Moon featured a little known-actress named Kristin Scott Thomas as the lead female, and Prince's lover, in the movie.
Posted by jimbo at 9:09 PM | Comments (17)
January 26, 2007
Isaiah Washington is dumb, but forgivable
I guess the local rise in crime wasn't just a random observation on my part. People have been getting mugged on T and 14th street a lot lately, our packages going missing (including my birthday care package from mom!) and even murder. The queens are not amused, and we are have begun to marshall our forces. Beware the power of nonbreeding drones of the hive! Like Nikita once said: "We will bury you..."
Kylie Minogue + Scissor Sisters = White Diamond, performed live from the Showgirl tour. OMG KYLIE.
Friday Night TV Pick: Scary 'God Warrior' Marguerite Perrin returns to Trading Spouses at 9pm on Fox tonight.
Here's a documentary about a local DC/Baltimore L.A.R.P. (Live-Action Role-Playing) group. And you thought I was a big 'ol geek.
I think I'll pass on a backpacking trip to Anthrax Isle. But it sounds like a great D&D module adventure title.
I think this whole Isaiah Washington gay slur thing is a bit creepy. Really, the guy is an idiot for using the f-word in Hollywood - he's made his own career grave saying that stuff. But does he really need to go to some gay rehab for saying what he said? Sometimes people say things in the heat of the moment and don't always mean what they say. He and other people (Eddie Murphy, etc.) need to get a little slack sometimes. People make mistakes, people are young and say dumb things, then people change, and people need to be forgiven. People have a hard time forgiving even themselves sometimes. I think The Gay spend waaay too much energy holding anger against whomever was a douche bag in the past. Much too often I hear the same thing, "HARRR! I won't read/watch/listen to 'X' person because of 'Y' crime to the gays in 19XX-20XX." Even when it's been like 10 years since that person said 'Z' phrase and has changed and grown significantly.
Many people have come to me asking, "Jimbo: what do you think of men's leggings?" (Because I'm apparently officially a drag queen now). And I stare back at them, confused. Of course they will be worn by the dandies about town by this summer. But I already wear them now. And I have a question about proper use of leggings and tights: so like if I'm running or mountain biking and am wearing my running tights or biking tights with snuggly padding where it counts, and then have to go grocery shopping after that, is it appropriate for me to be shining my package in the produce department of Whole Foods, or should I slip a pair of shorts over my bulge? I'm always a little bit self-conscious when I do that.
After a rugby match I also like to slip off my rugby shorts and cool my balls off, even though i'm still wearing my compression shorts which keep my balls in place. Is it OK to do that around teammates' family and kids? Are compression shorts more like undergarments or shorts in this instance? I also love my short running shorts even though it is most customary to wear baggy basketball-style shorts in the United States of 'Merca. But I don't like basketball and I don't like running in those long basketball shorts. I prefer my short-shorts even though they make me look like a dork. But my junk sure stands out in them. I think running in those stupid long basketball shorts defeats the purpose, and the cause unnecessary chafing.
That is all. Have a nice weekend.
Posted by jimbo at 11:45 AM | Comments (15)
November 15, 2006
a nice night at the gym
Now that rugby season is over it's back to the gym on a more regular basis. It's tough when it's dark out after work, but I know I have to keep it up to fill the stress relief vacuum left where rugby would normally burn it away. Much thanks to Joe for the Happy Light! I will install it on my wall next to the computer this weekend.
Anyway, lately I've been going to the Washington Sports Club on Connecticut, north of DuPont Circle, as the one south of the Circle has become skanky and smells of mold and stale cum, and the management there doesn't replace missing cable machine handles and stuff. Plus, these days the Kalorama WSC has been smokin' hot for some reason, filled at all hours with something nice to look at. Demographics always shift from club to club, and I move to where I'm most motivated.
So I do my back-craking and stretching exercises, then go to the upstairs deck to do my abs, because if I wait until after my workout I don't always do them. The area is crowded with Jennifers doing six million sit-ups, but waay back in the corner are two 20-something guys apparently humping each other. Interested, I move to get the sit-up device nearest to them, and set it so I can watch them humping in the mirror while I do sit-ups.
Turning off my iPod to hear what they're saying, I can tell they're doing some kind of martial art/wrestling training wearing only shorts and tee-shirts, but no shoes or socks. I did a bit of wrestling back in high school, and even some Muay-Thai kickboxing in Kazakstan, but the moves these two are doing are really unfamiliar. One guy looked Jewishy and had a hot schozz (we'll call him Jacob), and the other has a buzzed head and beard scruff (let's call him Esau). Both Jacob and Esau had furry arms and legs, so much so that they almost had Hobbitt feet. And they were almost in constant contact with each other the entire time, limiting their moves to only a 6' by 6' area of the excercise mat we were all sharing. Considering their appearance and strange grappling moves, I can only surmise that they are practicing some kind of Jew-Fu.
As I begin my set of sit-ups, counting off one...two...three...I see them linking their legs and arms together much like two queens on a couch rolling on ecstacy. Then they come closer, cheek-to-cheek, and just kinda sweat and groan together. Entranced by this close and erotic display of Jew-Fu, I lose myself in my ab set and can't stop looking...
...5,648 reps later I realize I haven't been breathing or blinking for almost ten minutes, and they combatants are still at it. The Jennifers didn't seem to notice. I could do no more sit-ups and didn't want to tent my shorts in the gym, so moved on to do my legs.
It was a good night at the gym...the Jennifers weren't even monopolizing the leg ad/abductor machines, and I completed an entire superset for my legs without anyone asking to work in. Must have been the crazed look on my face. Mmmm...Jew-Fu...
Posted by jimbo at 11:02 PM | Comments (10)
November 14, 2006
NC, SC wildlife photos
I'm back from Kiawah Island, SC and Charlotte, NC after a nice long weekend vacation. The above picture is of a Golden Silk Spider, which was about as big as my palm. While it's good to be home I will miss the genuine southern friendliness we encountered down there, and the sunny warmth too.
This is my first attempt at posting photos saved to my Flickr account, we'll see how it goes. The interface is pretty interesting and user-friendly, and my webmistress will certainly appreciate me using server space elsewhere. More pics after the jump...
The Charlotte Royals and a few guys from Raleigh-Durham hosted us for the match, which we won. However there were only 15 of us there, so no substitutions, so a few of us were hobbling around by the end of it. I got the ball and gave a few good passes:
It was the last match of the season, and it'll be good to have a freer schedule for the winter:
Boys from Durham and Raleigh were present, and I liked this particular posse of friendly bears, especially the one in the white cap. Wuuuufy beard:
Crazy gurls from Charlotte:
My wishes to see a gator were immediately granted the morning after our arrival to Kiawah Island, with a six-footer sunning itself outside our condo. Did you know they only need about 1.5 lbs. of food each week? I was wondering how they got so monstrous with just a small pond to live in. They apparently cannot eat much in the winter, especially if their body temperature drops below 75 degrees or so, as their innards are not warm enough to metabolize food. If they do eat during cold weather, the food rots in their stomach and they die:
These are white ibis, in off-season color. I got this one added to my list and the wood stork too. New word: crepuscular - a creature that is active mainly at twilight ( didn't make it up ) as opposed to a nocturnal or diurnal creature. "The best time to see a bobcat on Kiawah Island is at dusk or dawn, because it is a crepuscular mammal."
I think these are sanderlings, but I'm not good with shorebirds. But I think they're cute!
There was lots of Spanish moss hanging from the trees. I think Spanish moss is God's way of letting trees have weave extensions.
Posted by jimbo at 10:47 PM | Comments (6)
November 13, 2006
brief report from SC
I am still on Kiawah Island, near Charleston, SC After with Chip and BlogStar Brettie. Sorry for the lack of posts and unresponsive e-mail. My access to computers thus far has been limited to Macs, which are generally user unfriendly and unproductive to good writing.
Wooo! Go Terps! Fear the Turtle! Hear us ROAR! Sam had some good passes on Saturday to lead a win against Florida. Sounded like it was an exciting game. Here's to a fun bowl and more exciting Terrapins Football.
I have not yet seen a real diamondback terrapin here, as apparently it is too late in the season. However, I have seen plenty of alligators both big and small, and I have pictures to prove it. We went on a birdwatching trip this morning and can now say I've checked off all the birds on the 'dark herons' page, with new inclusions of the tricolor heron, little blue heron, and even the wood stork.
We won our match against the Charlotte/Durham combined team, followed by a fun social at the Charlotte Eagle. Woofy pics to come. The Atlanta Bucks did not show up, and I have to say I am very, very disappointed with all the Atlanta boys (especially the redheads) because they let me down.
Posted by jimbo at 1:33 PM | Comments (8)
November 9, 2006
a toothy wildlife weekend
I'll be away from blogging most likely until Wednesday, as this weekend I'll be heading down to Charlotte, NC for a friendly set of rugby matches against the Charlotte and Atlanta teams. I am looking forward to it as the Atlanta guys are HOT and my frikkin' honey pot has been on fire for weeks. While there is a regional tournament up in NYC, we were just there in May and it'll be fun to head South for a change.
Anyway, speaking of getting riled up - Uncle Rufus is frikkin' hot.
After the matches and debauchery me an Chip and BlogStar Brettie are heading to Kiawah Island, in Charleston, SC. It's about a 3-4 hour drive from Charlotte, on the Atlantic coast. I may be able to see a real Diamondback Terrapin and possibly some American Alligators. I will go so far as to go out at night with a flashlight to see one. I'll try to take pictures.
Speaking of awesome terrapins, howabout them Terps? We may get to a bowl this year. Props to the quarterback whose performance has improved a lot this season. The Terps were my first college football game ever. It was a lot of fun. So I guess I am both a Packer, a Terp and a Pointer (my undergrad alma mater) as well.
I think this weekend will be absolutely insane in DC due to the election results, especially amongst The Gays. I'm almost bummed I'll be away, as I think everyone will be out partying (except uptight closeted gay Republicans of course). For those in town on Saturday, November 11th, there is much to do. My buddy OMG DJ TM™ will be spinning at Cobalt, starting at 10. And I think Blowoff at the 9:30 Club will also be a total riot. There will be stories. Have fun in my stead.
Posted by jimbo at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)
October 6, 2006
daily beatings
Today's rain and last night's beatings at practice have me kinda uninspired, so I'll just list stuff:
We have an unprecedented 3-1 record for the season. If we win Saturday's match, we'll like be in the playoffs in our division for the first time ever. And we can beat this team. This is very exciting because back inna day the other teams beat us by dozens and dozens of points. Then we started to win, and then we started to really beat the snot out of some teams. Now they take us seriously. The team has developed a lot in the 7 years I've been with it, and this is the pinnacle so far:
Washington Renegades RFC vs. Winchester RFC
Saturday, October 7, Winchester, VA
Kickoff at 1 p.m.
Directions are on the link above. We really appreciate fan presence, as always.
Today I feel like hitting hypocritical closeted gay Republicans who spurt out excuses as they spurted on their keyboards while chatting with teens. I want to hit people that say gays are preoccupied with sex, are naturally alcoholic, are zoophiles, are pedophiles or always have been molested by preists. I want to hit all these dark ages motherfuckers who perform all the acts they condemn. I want to hit politicians who are wasting time and my tax dollars fucking around with moral shit. I want to hit the people who aren't filling in the potholes because they're too busy moralizing. I want to hit self-important smug shitheads who produce nothing but gas.
Tonight: Battlestar Galactica premiere!
Saturday: OMG DJ TM™ spins at Cobalt...it will be packed by Midnight as it always is, I assure you. And he's got another kickin' set ready for you.
Gratuitous shallow cute jock picture posting du jour - Detroit Tiger Matt Mantei:
His MLB stats state that he's been "on the DL" since May. This is exciting news! Now if I could only get him from being Down Low to Out of the Closet, and we'd be a nice match.
Posted by jimbo at 10:26 AM | Comments (2)
September 24, 2006
animal pictures
Lots of animal pictures from the weekend. Will from our team took the following two pics of me riled up and ready for our match against the Atlanta Bucks, which we won despite my pessimism about the outcome before the match. We all played very well and fought hard. My face took a beating too:
Red came to watch, and enjoyed the sights and the social. He's a cool bean. My back held out well during the match, thanks to all the good Valium-induced rest I got during the week:
On Sunday me and Gurl and Bubbles went to the Maryland Rennaissance Festival to see the Renn Fest Geeks and lots of other strange animals. I liked the elephants best:
One of the elephants seemed agitated so I gave him some of my Valium and he said "Thank you for the crack!"
Here's Bubbles and Gurl watching the jousting match:
I wish they had knights on flying ostritches fighting evil knights on vultures and pterodactyls, but I had to settle for horses.
Full plate armor must be hot, but it gives you a +8 to your Armor Class:
Gurl took some good action shots:
Photo by GURL. I had hoped it was kilt weekend, but it was pirate weekend with lots of Capt. Jacks around. But there were plenty of D.I.L.F.s to be spotted:
Longbows provide ranged attacks which are useful against armies and flying opponents such as wyverns and such creatures:
On the way home I got a picture of the semi-feral cat that hangs out in my front yard. I leave some water for her to drink. I've been working on getting closer to her, and she allows me to get up to 2 feet away before walking off:
On Friday our team hosted the Bucks at Titan. Naturally I again got fingered in the ass by some bear, despite the new spaciousness of the place. Next time it happens I'm going to pretend I enjoyed his lascivious advances, but will then pour my beer down his crotch after I pretend to actually want to dig around in his crotch.
Posted by jimbo at 4:53 PM | Comments (10)
September 22, 2006
weekend plans
This Saturday we have home matches against Rappahannock (a local league team) and the Atlanta Bucks (a hot gay team who came to play with us). Kickoff for Rappahannock is Noon at Colmar Manor Park. Kickoff against the Bucks follows immediately after the Rappahannock match finishes. Social to follow at Titan around 3 or 4ish.
Tonight we meet 'n greet the Bucks at the now dark but more spacious Titan at 7ish. I had a stressy week and don't know if I'm gonna go. We'll see how I feel when I get home tonight, if I don't pass out entirely.
I think a buncha us geeks are going to the Rennaissance Fair out in Maryland, which is always a hoot. I hope to see muscular men in kilts, and throw some axes or shoot an arrow at targets (not the men in kilts).
Posted by jimbo at 4:27 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2006
Renegades rugby in the news
Here I seem to be scrutinizing the thighs of the forward pack, but I'm actually preparing to put my shoulder into the meaty buttcheek of the person in front of me. This formation is called a 'scrum':
My rugby team was featured in the fitness section on page E5 in this morning's edition of the Washington Post Express, a free daily newspaper that is mostly read on Metro and public transportation. While the journalist got a few of the rugby details wrong, for the most part it is a good article. Hopefully we'll be able to get some good recruitment out of it:
Straight, gay, whatever: The Renegades are all about the sport. "I didn't know this was the gay rugby team when I joined," said Roberto Santiago, who recently retired due to a shoulder injury. "It took me, like, three weeks to go, 'Oh, I'm in the minority.' It was never an issue."I would contend that these days the team is about half-gay rather than a majority, but I haven't done an actual head count. Hopefully the article will result in more recruitment, as it's been nice that we can scrimmage two full teams during practice since expanding our recruitment outside the gay community. Back in tha day it was challenging to recruit enough gay people to front a more competitive team in our local rugby union, so the board decided to go outside the box, which has been to the team's benefit. While some straight members may not return after learning about the nature of our team, most of them stay and play, I think simply due to the ideal location. Our practice pitch (field) is conveniently located for a lot of players living inside the beltway, while most local union teams practice way out in the 'burbs.
For the gay players who may get off on the idea of playing with and against straight guys, the idea wears off after a few practices. When you see the same people at practice and during matches so frequently, it all just becomes being part of a team. Although it does lead to some interesting conversations at post-practice and match socials, where the straight guys often walk away a bit more enlightened from accelerated learning from Gay 101 and 102 lectures (they usually test out and earn credit). And for that reason I think the integration of more straight players has been beneficial for both the team and for advancing awareness of gay issues.
Our very own M.C. Slanty has some fine footage of one of our teammates puking after drinking from 'the boot', coming up at minute 1:30 on this video:
In this picture I beat the real scrumhalf to the ball, and am digging it out from between the fat guys' legs to deliver it to the skinny folks who can run:
Images courtesy of BlogStarBrettie and D.J. Slanty.
Posted by jimbo at 5:14 PM | Comments (5)
September 18, 2006
a new 'nelly' sports bar in tha 'hood
On Sunday I completely forgot to catch a sneak preview of the new Nellie's Sports Bar just around the corner from me at 900 U St., NW DC. The proprietor is a former neighbor of mine, and I think a gay sports bar is a neat idea. I don't know how much it will live up to the concept, but it's nice to be living somewhere where gay bars are popping up all around where I live!
This just in...video footage on YouTube of our Saturday rugby match. About halfway through the reel you can see me dig out a ball and do a nice scrumhalf delivery. Remember, I'm on the white, blue and scarlet team this time.
In case you didn't already mistrust the current administration, here's disturbing news about how connections to the GOP were/are more important than talent or skill in the rebuilding of Iraq. I can't imagine how much time, lives or my tax dollars have already been squandered by Joe-Bob's buddy Earl who had no international development experience but got sent overseas to manage these projects.
It is true that connections and contacts will get you places here in DC. I use it to my advantage and to help friends get jobs all the time. And to be fair I've worked under Clinton appointees that are complete bozos too. But one would hope that the appointer would give a little more consideration on how well the appointee can perform the job. But as is typical with a lot of those under W, most are incompetent and got their jobs from just knowing someone, many times to the detriment of said department's supposed customers.
Posted by jimbo at 11:18 AM | Comments (6)
June 29, 2006
More Hot Jews
Gabe Kapler of the Boston Red Sox shaved his head this season. While he's neither furry nor very scruffy, now he's a hot muscle Daddy with big guns:
I hadn't posted anything of shallow content lately, so I just thought I'd keep up the good work:
Oh, the chin, and the grin! GRRRR!
Posted by jimbo at 9:16 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
June 20, 2006
Stanley Cup furgasm
Congrats to the Carolina Hurricanes, a sun belt team, who beat out the long-established Edmonton Oilers last night in the Stanley Cup finals. Didn't hear about it? It wasn't even covered in the Washington Post Express this morning, but there were 4 pages of World Cup semifinal news. I guess hockey just isn't that big around here. Turns out the Jimbo pick, Cam Ward, was the player of the game, in addition to being quite woofy for a 22 year-old.
Yeah, drink it:
And after their victory, there was a furgasm on the ice:
When I was in undergrad back in 1990 or so, I lived on the hockey wing of my university. We had division III champions, many of whom were imported from Canada. I was not out of the closet then, but it is no surprise that I came out not long after. At the time when I was living with all of them, I would avert my eyes in the group shower, and would avoid looking into their open dorm room doors to avoid seeing them shirtless kicking back watching television, all scruffy and furry. D'OH! If I could turn back time.
Last evening we had several nice downpours in the area that gave the soil a much needed soaking. I took this picture at the College Park MetroRail station on the Green Line last night:
My plants are thick and green today, and nothing clears the snot out of your head like a run over a misty post-thunderstorm Rock Creek Park.
Thought of the Day: Did we ever find out who did the whole anthrax in the mail thing? How come our politicians never talk about it anymore? Is our mail system safe? Who did it? Does anyone care? I still think about it.
Posted by jimbo at 8:19 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
June 15, 2006
batboy tackles drunk
This morning I was watching the usual blather on the Today show, and they showed a clip from a Red Sox/Twins baseball game from last night. The Red Sox batboy tackled a drunk who had run onto the field. I noticed it was a perfectly executed rugby tackle, and my suspicions were confirmed by this story:
Nate Reese, a 25-year-old batboy made a tackle on a fan who jumped on the field in the eighth inning."Play of the game," Twins reliever Joe Nathan said.
It occurred with David Ortiz at the plate. Two spectators jumped out of the stands and began to run across the outfield, avoiding six not-so-nimble security guards.
One ran by Torii Hunter, giving the affable Twins center fielder a high five. The other headed toward the infield, rounded third and belly flopped on the plate.
As soon as he got to his feet, Reese leveled him and drew a standing ovation.
"There weren't any guards around, so I just thought I'd hit him," said Reese, who was a wrestler in high school and played rugby in college.
"Rugby?" Hunter said to Reese. "You stuck him like you played football, perfect form."
Hunter doesn't know what he's talking about - from the clip I could see it was a perfectly excecuted rugby tackle right there at home plate. Good on ya, Nate.
It's Stanley Cup time, and do you know what that means? PLAYOFF SCRUFF! There's even an obsessive hockey fan blog on the topic, playoffbeard.com.
Tomorrow night OMG DJ Timothy Mykael is spinning at Cobalt, and has sent me a JIMBO.INFO exclusive sneak-peek at some of the track list highlights:
Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hyptonic Tango)
Bette Midler - Fever
Chelo - Cha Cha
Destiny's Child - Girl
Faith Evans - Mesmerized
Gustavo Santaolalla - The Wings
Heather Small - Proud
Kelly Clarkson - Walk Away
Natasha Bedingfield - The One That Got Away
Paris Hilton - Stars are Blind
Pink - Stupid Girls
Rhianna - SOS
The Pussycat Dolls - Buttons
He also promises a few brand new ones and some old classics. OMG!
Dan "Eyes of Smouldering Emeralds*" Tangherlini (or DanTan* as me and Carl refer to the interim WMATA manager) thinks entertainment in the MetroRail system would make things "more fun or interesting or peaceful." I can only imagine my peaceful subway experience with one of those annoying paint bucket drummers filling the station with uninspired rhythms, then having to listen to the summer interns (Jennifers**) as they screech even louder to be heard over the beat.
* I'd better get credit for that term if it shows up elsewhere. Fifty bucks says either phrase ends up in the mainstream press within a month - mark my words.
** The term "Jennifer" was originally coined by Chrisafer, meaning any random 20something new to DC with an internship on the Hill. Jennifer usually has a boyfriend named Mike, and is really loud in large groups and at gay bars.
According to JoeMyGod, Prince will be performing in Bryant Park tomorrow (Friday June 16) sometime between 7-9AM on the Good Morning America show.
Posted by jimbo at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 5, 2006
I am so scene
Despite senseless deaths in Iraq, our idiot President protecting us from the horrors of gay marriage, and other various and sundry portents of doom, we are lucky to have pictures of England rugby's Ben Cohen in underwear on the Internets to help us forget such things:
Ben has the most adorable little kid smile complimented by a lush growth of chest fur, accentuated with a distinct and imminently lickable treasure trail. Shoulders like breakfast-sized bran muffins too.
I went to see Kathy Griffin last night at the Warner Theatre with a bunch of catty queens, and it was a lot of fun. Her routine was LONG, and we certainly got our money's worth from the show. I laughed a lot. I hope she kicks Ryan Seacrest's ass some day (again).
Before that I was a big giant queen and had two big girly cosmos at Halo. We were discussing that apparently some people loathe Halo for some reason. I go there because it's smoke free, and there are usually fewer overly-drunk twinks there who can't handle their booze, because the booze there ain't cheap, so it keeps the cheapos out of the place. Apparently some people avoid going there for fear of being perceived as in "the scene" too much, whatever that means. I am so scene. Fear this queen.
I remember shaking things up there this winter when I had a birthday gathering. Most of the guys who showed up to meet me were either on the rugby team or had facial hair. This was disturbing to the usual crowd at Halo, as one of whom approached us and said sibilantly, "Exssscussse me? Isss thisss Bear night or sssomething?" I love it.
I am going to see X-Men tonight. I hear that it isn't all that consisent with the comics, but these days not even the comics are consistent with the comics. There must be like a dozen X-titles out on the shelves these days. Do not be in shock that I haven't seen the film yet - I don't go opening weekends, or any weekends, for that matter as I don't like huge theatre crowds. Anyone using a cell phone in the theatre, as they usually do in DC, enrages me and it totally ruins the experience for me. On weeknights there are usually fewer opportunities for me to be enraged by movie theatre cell phone use.
Posted by jimbo at 10:57 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
June 1, 2006
"a slippery slope," or the future?
There were a number of discussions, situations and comments that came up last weekend at the big "gay" rugby tournament regarding assimilation, segregation, inclusion and intergration of gays and straights. Let me put them into points, then figure out what I want to say about it, or what you want to say:
Yeah, it was a downer that he was unavailable to me, but I thought it was cool that such a situation could occur with little more discomfort than being shot down by a gay man.
Josh declares The Death of The Ghetto, while West Hollywood is experiencing a demographic change much like DuPont Circle and 17th Street already have. The two issues are apples and oranges. Neighborhood demographic change is unrelated to issues of gay ghetto segregation and integration, and 'hoods will always shift and change, like a riverbed, as Miss In Shaw documents.
Related Link from The Onion:
Series Finale of Will and Grace Ends Eight-Year Truce Between Gay, Straight Communities
As for us being a "gay team," (or not) at first I was resistant to the idea of us increasing our recruitment of straight guys while maintaining our gay recruitment. As it was, there were only so many gay rugby players you can find in one city, and we were getting tired of losing so much. But since then we've become more competitive, and our practices often have enough players where we can play full-team scrimmages of 15-players each. We've won more matches since we've recruited more people, which helps in skill-building at practice since we have full teams to play against several times a week. Frankly, we're a better team with more people, and I think both the straights and the gays on our team are better people, having taken home some perspective from the other side.
I have been surprised by the reactions coming from some of the gay boys I've talked to about the above points. Sure, it's kind of special to be able to front a wholly gay team. But we also have to be competitive. Plus I think ghettoization is bad for you, and gays that live in huge metropolitan areas often suffer a retardation of personal growth and extreme lack of perspective as to how the other 95% of the world works. This was evident in that at times the tournament almost seemed to be a peripheral event for the XXL circuit-bear party, not the other way around. It gives credence to my theory that all things touched by The Gay must ultimately become a circuit party. Anyway, when the music was turned down low enough to be able to talk to the other players at the social events, most said they simply wanted to play rugby, have something substantial to eat, and to not have to shout when they wanted to talk about the day's gladiator events. The thrumming dance music often deafened the spirit of the intended event.
Anyway, as threatening as it seems, I believe the incursion of straights into our team and into gay sports is the future, and a good thing. They go home more comfortable with us, and tell their friends and family about playing with the gays. Otherwise ghettoized gay men with limited contact with straight people are more comfortable and better able to interact with straights after the experience. Integration and mutual acceptance is a hard and slow process, but healthier for everyone involved in the long run.
Posted by jimbo at 10:58 AM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
May 29, 2006
Memorial Day weekend
Hope your Memorial Day weekend was as good as mine:
I had no idea I was so red when I was walking around the View Bar on Saturday night. Joe told me the bar was usually reserved for off-duty porn stars and hookers, and we believe we saw one there, waiting around with his duty bag. I correctly predicted he wasn't going to get much business there that night due to the high availability of other less costly men, and I was right. The hooker left, out-marketed by the availability of sweaty hookers of a different kind.
The 2006 Bingham Cup was a lot of fun, and marked the arrival of hot summer temperatures. NY1 News managed to catch the only game I played in on film, video link included with the story - I think I'm number 14 in the fuzzy video. I was in an odd position as a sub on our A (Cup) side as it would have taken a mortal wound to take out anyone I could replace. But they toughed it through six dusty, hot matches regardless, and we came out 3rd in the Cup division, and the same with our Plate division. The Aussie Convicts won first in both, and the Boston Ironsides first in the Bowl division. I'll have to say that the most exciting match was us versus Manchester, with two nail-biting 'sudden death' match extensions due to a 3-3 tie, ultimately won by a penalty kick from our side. The most surprising ending was during our match against Gotham with a last-second 3-point drop kick from some 40 yards away by our miraculous Leprechaun scrumhalf, which secured a win. Joe and Eddie showed up for the nail-biting match, and I tried my best to explain what was going on and why people were spazzing out. I don't think they got it but they cheered for the hottie #13s on any side. The hottest teams of the tournament were certainly the Sydney Convicts and the brand new and totally muscular team from Cardiff. All blond and red-headed and cute as a button.
Later Saturday evening Glenn showed up at a social and I also got to meet Vasco, with whom I chatted for a while before the sunburn took me down. Glenn also came to watch a few matches on Sunday, and introduced me to Gayest Neil (partner of Plasicaisle) who played with the Gotham team. After the tournament matches were done I made an attempt at a disco nap so was up and ready for the closing party and XXL dance, where Joe and his dreamy friend Ken from Jersey arrived. Also in attendance were CSCFON and OMG Michael Hartney, who was unnerved by my girly screams due to his presence. I was able to out-geek the comic book fan with my vast knowledge of X-Men trivia. While I hear I need to suspend my historical knowledge of the Uncanny ones for X3, Michael was happy to learn that Juggernaut is Charles Xavier's brother, and that the Beast wasn't always so furry.
And speaking of furry, the XXL party was over the top. However, in terms of meeting new friends, my evening began with hitting on one of the few straight guys on one team (who was polite, but uninterested), and went downhill from there. Oh well, I got a lot of rest over the weekend anyway. But this Aussie got me riled up every time I saw him over the course of the weekend: 
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Oi! Oi! Oi!
Dreamy! Dreamy! Dreamy!
Woof! Woof! Woof!
Many more pictures from the tournament at the break, thanks to Blogstar Brettie for any pictures of me...
Psyching up for Saturday morning's matches, iPod mini product placement:
Me and Twan:
I think I had the ball in this photo, in a match against the Seattle Quake.
After the nail-biting double-sudden-death match against Manchester, I'm wondering if I had a heart attack just from watching. Manchester in the background to my left, the Renegades to my right:
My hat keeps me cool:
A particularly woofy ref: 
My favorite Aussie, center, with red chest fur: 
Aussies accepting their Cup win at the award ceremony: 
Yet another scruffy Aussie: 
Aussie accepting Plate win with Mark Bingham's mom, Alice Hoglan: 
I'm trying to reprezent Tha DC but I can't get my fingers to twist correctly like Lora's: 
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May 24, 2006
the sun dog days of spring
It has been a remarkably mild spring here in DC, an actual spring, probably the best one in my 10 years of living here. Usually the weather in this area goes from damp and cold straight to hot and muggy, but we've had almost a month of lovely dry, cool, and sunny weather. While the pollen earlier this spring kicked Bob's ass and many others, I experienced only a bit of extra phlegm in my throat, making for a husky singing voice during April. None of the usual sinus or lung infections I usually get from spring mold either. Maybe the long-term Allegra usage is finally kicking in, or the dry weather may have helped out too. And I've been significantly more robust and healthy since I got my tonsils removed in 2003. Like 185# robust and PALE, as seen in this unflattering MW photo of me and TJ at Blowoff last weekend, looking a lot like Sméagol and Déagol. Anyhow, it's been a good season this year, if not a bit nippy in the evenings. Last night at practice I spotted a sun dog on the horizon, an indicator of ice crystal formation in the upper atmosphere, so I guess the jet stream is still quite cold.
We leave Thursday for the big giant super-gay rugby tournament in NYC, coming back on Monday. I've been selected for the Cup or 'A' side team for the weekend, which was a surprise as I hadn't played much on our A-side all season. I'm told it was due to my flexibility with playing in several positions and the tournament rosters are locked. It will be challenging as we'll be up against the San Francisco Fog, London, and Seattle Quake teams on Friday, none of whom are pushovers. The tournament rounds continue through Sunday, starting at 9:30am each day. Match schedule is on the above link.
The Renegades are hosting a social Saturday evening at 8pm at The View Bar, 232 8th Ave., NYC. And I think I'll probably be going to the big, giant, super-gay Bear circuit party, XXL, on Sunday night in lieu of Allegria. I've been on enough Allegra this year already and can't take any more of it. I hope to meet up with Super-Dreamy Dawg, Joe, Glenn and especially Eric at the XXL party since Eric is now turning into a Bear.
Posted by jimbo at 8:27 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 7, 2006
"...a stately pleasure-dome decree."
Reminder: Mother's Day is Sunday the 14th.
This is my new futon with new pillows:
I tested it out Saturday night with a friend and watched "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was a lot like all the other Harry Potter films: a challenge, a mystery, a bad guy, beat the bad guy. But the effects were really cool. In the foreground of the picture is the hood of my aqarium, far background a lightning rod (doubles as a +1 copper shortspear in times of forced entry) from the roof of my grandparent's house, to the right my big gay shadowbox, to the left the doors to my bedroom.
It was quite an adventure finding a decent local futon store, but I eventually ended up with Ellen's Futon at 1728 Connecticut Avenue 202.518.0057. The woman who works there during the weekday was fabulous, helpful, didn't push for the hard sell, and knew what she was talking about. On the other hand the trashy, twitchy queens trying to hock futons at Z Futons & Furniture at 2130 P St NW were pushy, overtly lascivious and didn't listen to what I wanted or needed. Not only that, but the one salesperson who initially approached me and looked me up and down like a piece of meat, proceeded to hand me over to the next lascivious salesperson who also didn't listen to what I wanted and also lost my sale. I likes my attention but I loathe shopping - please don't make it an uncomfortable experience for me.
During the day for most of the weekend we played rugby in Baltimore. Fortunately it was warm enough for a lot of woofy shirtlessness all over the place. I did not play at all so there was plenty of time to join the shirtlessness and get a nice torso tan at least.
The backdrop homes off the pitch were extremely Baltimore in style. One more Saturday match, then a weekend off, then the Big Giant Gay International Rugby Tournament over Memorial Day weekend.
Posted by jimbo at 5:39 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 3, 2006
scruffy DC United hottie part of World Cup team
I'm not normally the biggest soccer fan, but this has me intrigued:
Ben Olsen is a nice Pennsylvania boy known for his charity efforts. Also interesting is the inclusion of the first Hawaiian American into the World Cup team, another hottie named Brian Ching.
So here's to two healthy, hottie Americans...as opposed to the rest of us. Apparently even the richest white man is less healthy than the poorest British Caucasian. We wake up too early in the morning, work too long, skip too many meals, drive too much, don't walk or exercise enough, and our portions are too big. Our food is shit, and we drink too much caffienated beverages and sugary, acidic soda. Work and independence of transporation rank higher in importance to Americans than personal health. The results of the study are no surprise.
So sleep in, eat smaller portions, walk or ride your bike for a change. Limit your day at work to 8 hours, and any excuse for working longer is just too bad - there really isn't any good excuse to my ears. If you work too much you are buying into a fucked-up American cultural trait that is killing all of us. And for what reason? You get a tacky laser-printed certificate at the end of 5 years saying what a good sport you've been for working so much, even when you are sick.
And thanks for passing your cold on to me, asshole.
Posted by jimbo at 10:41 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 12, 2006
who wears short-shorts?
Last night after rugby practice I was jumped by two evil imps who forced me to drink gnome grog at a nearby smoky fey tavern. Then I was swept away to dinner which was very garlicy but good. Thanks again to the evil imp who bought dinner.
Anyway, much of the evening's discussion centered around my rather short-shorts - the nylon running shorts that I put on for comfort after rugby practice so my balls can cool off because I really like allowing my balls to cool off after a workout. It's a natural thing. I wasn't expecting to get jumped by imps after practice, as I'm usually so tired from being jumped by ogres during practice that I'm too beat to socialize. So normally after practice I will ride home fast on my bike in my short shorts, my balls cooling off in the wind, which makes me feel comfortable and happy. I do not have enough room in my bag to pack clothing appropriate for fey establishments.
So while I was out and about in the fey establishment and nearby restaurant in my short-shorts due to my accepting the impromptu invite into such places, the presence of my short-shorts were constantly being brought to attention by the evil imps, making me feel sooo comfortable in both places. Apparently short-shorts are a HUGE no-no amongst bacchanalian imps since so much attention was being drawn to them. According to these imps runners and athletes are supposed to wear really long bermuda shorts, capri pants, super baggy basketball shorts or something that actually inhibits range of motion because it's important to be cool like that. Fashion before function I guess.
But frankly, I like seeing sinewy runner's thighs exposed to the air, and a hot juicy runner's butt packaged in a delicate nylon pair of running short-shorts. And I hope others feel the same way when they see my junkalicious ass jiggle itself on by, because honies, it's not gonna be this perky for long.
Posted by jimbo at 10:35 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
April 8, 2006
rainy rugby day
Today we traveled to Cherry Hill, NJ to play South Jersey in the Philadelphia metro area. The morning started balmy and rainy then turned chilly, windy and rainy - all day. It wasn't much fun for those on the sidelines or on the pitch, and when I got my chance to play my hands numbed up immediately. In six years of rugby games it was probably the yuckiest match ever. But we did need an entire day of rain in the area as it's been dry as a bone up until this week.
On the way to the match I spotted a stadium where the Aberdeen Ironbirds play, a feeder team for the Baltimore Orioles. Like the Delmarva Shorebirds and Missoula Ospreys, I love oddly-named minor league baseball teams. The Ironbirds' mascot is Ferrous, a sentient jet plane, and Sherman Shorebird & Ollie Osprey for the other two.
How did the Nationals end up with such a retarded mascot, a 6'2" tall eagle chick named "Screech"? I always thought the DC team should have been named the Washington Monuments, with a big granite titan as their mascot. Tougher than a baby eagle, hands down. Even a terrapin is cooler and ornerier than something named "Screech".
I wonder what oddly-named minor-league baseball feeder teams will sprout up around the area to support the Nats?
Posted by jimbo at 8:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 5, 2006
cheer the turtle
Congrats to the Lady Terrapins for their exciting overtime 78-75 National championship win against Duke. Naturally, the students rioted last night near campus. Expel every one of them. Frankly, I don't see any need to destroy property due to any win or loss in a sporting event, and I suspect few of the rioters even knew Maryland had a women's basketball team until late March. Rioting is for bored/boring people with feeble imaginations. Get rid of the morons and the academic quality of the university will go up, I guarantee.
But one student had an astute comment on the riot police coverage:
"I guess the riot police don't think women's fans were good enough for horses." - Erin Brennan, Maryland Student.
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold recently said he decided to express his support for gay marriage in response to what he called a "mean-spirited" Wisconsin constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions, which will appear on the state ballot in November. I'm surprised to see an anti-marriage initiative even gaining steam there. By and large most Wisconsin natives have a pretty fair "live and let live" attitude, unlike me and my righteous opinions, most Cheeseheads hardly give a shit as long as you're doing your thing well. Must be another bunch of loonies that got an iota of power and it went straight to their heads.
Super-cute animal of the day: FAT BABY HIPPO!!!
Posted by jimbo at 11:03 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 19, 2006
i love my new camera
While most of the guys in this picture are not on our team, I liked the action I caputured with my new camera:
On the other hand, using the memory card supplied by the manufacturer only allowed me to take maybe 9 photos before I ran out of memory. But I hear tell the memory cards are cheap and I can get a better one fast, cheap and easy.
After a frustrating 0-0 tie against the A-side, our opponents graciously volunteered to play against the B-side. That game wasn't quite as frustrating for them, but many players who had never played before got some good experience. The sky was incredibly bright for the area, with a few puffs of clouds you might see on a Japanese room screen. It was windy all day and my lips are parched.
Blowoff was great, and I think the nasty windy weather kept a lot of people away, which was fine for me as it was not crowded at all. I spotted visiting bloggers Waremouse John and Bayou John in addition to the usual crowd. I hadn't expected to see Waremouse so when I saw him I jumped up and down and squealed and said, "OHMIGAWD! WAREMOUSE!!! EEEEE!" And he joined me in the squealing, tittering and jumping. At the sound of our screeching, several "masc," "straight-acting," and "laid-back" guys within earshot ran away immediately.
My City of Heroes account died on Saturday - I thought payments were automatically deducted, but I guess not. Siezures have not begun yet but will soon, as I can't figure out the frikkin' unfriendly interface for upgrading my account, and am gonna have to call them by phone and speak with a human tomorrow.
But that allowed me time to clear off the infernal volcano rocks put down out back at least in one small area so I can plant nicer things than the nasty crown-of-thorns plant that is out there (they are pernicious and spread everywhere). After removing a network of hard tree roots coming from a nearby ghetto tree* by chopping at them with the shovel, I was able to dig a small pit to drop my 'pond' into - a fiberglass half-barrel where my pond lillies, irises and guppies grow, and conditioned the rest of the clay-heavy soil with top- and potting-soil. It'll be ready for when our weather stops being so schitzo.
*ghetto tree - any unattractive, pernicious, local species which thrives in the city and can be found in many rental property gardens or even growing out the side of the house. Crown-of-thorns, hawthorne, rotten elm and boxelder trees to name a few. The mulberry tree out front drops sticky-sweet jelly berries onto our sidewalk every summer, creating sticky goo to track into the house and attracts ants, rats and noisy birds that come to gather it at night and in the early morning.
Posted by jimbo at 2:31 PM | Comments (11)
March 10, 2006
sometimes my tries are outside the line
It was very, very good to be back to rugby last night. I had forgotten what a stress reliever it is for me - and of the latent aggression that accumulates after a good practice. I almost took on a DC garbage truck on the bike ride home (driver on cell phone, attempting to run red light while I was crossing - I gave him attitude instead).
And I have never, ever seen so many return players from the past season return in the 5+ years I have been playing. We have never had so many experienced players on the team, and are also blessed with a hell of a lot of good rookies too. It is going to be a very good season for the team. We had enough players to play like 18 on 18 or something, even with some standing out. My cardio level was pretty good, but my reactions and reflexes not so much. I'll bring my brain to practice on Tuesday.
FYI, some other bloggers and readers have expressed interest in the game and team. Yes - rookies can play; no - you don't need previous experience; no - you're not too small/too big to play; yes - you're in shape, shut up and come to practice.
I have received a few e-mails questioning my choice to link to certain conservative/radical/puritan/slutty/whatever bloggers. It's actually funny to compare these e-mails - some people cannot understand why I would chat with or link to someone with a more libertarian or conservative view, while others are up in arms that I have linked to or have socialized with those who practice a more fecund and radical sex life. Believe me, I do have some standards as to who I link to and who I won't (Are they inherently evil or painfully boring? Do they post regularly enough? Are they certifiably insane? Is the blogger in question a walking train wreck?). Frankly, if I have met someone and I like them, or if I think their insights are informed or interesting, I will link to them, but it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what they do or what they think.
If you had been to my 30th birthday party, probably the last time the spectrum of my friends and acquaintances were in the same room, you'd see this is how I also choose my friends - I hang out with rugby jocks, D&D geeks, trashy bath house whores, uppity urban queens, unkempt Bears, and people who used to wear black trenchcoats and ate lunch under the stairs in high school.
I also think in today's highly polarized world, it's important to read these differing ideas and to understand all kinds of people. And you have to make an effort to do it these days. There's not enough conciliation going on today because people are ghettoizing themselves so readily to one side or the other. It is so easy (and comfortable) to hang out with your crunchy world beat vegetarian friends and be derisive of other groups, to hang out with your materialistic friends and talk about your next homeware purchase, or to exclusively go to Bear events and leave it at that. I like to think I'm able to transcend these compartmentalizations, and strive to cross boundaries or be undefined by them. Or as Natasha sings, I am Unwritten.
Considering how our current political leaders are manipulating and polarizing the public for their own ends - dividing us so easily - I consider it an act of rebellion to make attempts to understand people who are different than me, who think in different ways. When you listen to someone who thinks differently than you and try to meet in the middle ( somewhere purple rather than red or blue ) it pisses off Karl Rove and the Republican party.
Plus, it's my fucking blog and I'll link to whoever the hell I want to.
Posted by jimbo at 11:18 AM | Comments (10)
February 20, 2006
Olympic Curling is Totally Hot
Olympic curling has been on every morning now after 7am on the local USA channel 65. While team USA does not have a lot of hotties, I'm all aswoon for auburn-haired, 25 year-old ' Pride of Newfoundland and Labrador ' Canadian curling skip and hottie Brad Gushue.
And I have no idea what a 'skip' is in curling, but Brad is cute when he does it.
Posted by jimbo at 11:10 AM | Comments (4)
November 13, 2005
Where my bitches at?
This weekend ended a good season for my rugby team where we experienced our first fall league win of our team's history, a tie, and many nail biting and competitive matches (9 in all) against local teams in our union. We had the best team recruitment and retention ever, with the ability to play and practice two full sides most of the season. While my bones ache and I'm bruised all over today, I've come out without anything broken or cut (as far as I can tell). I'm not going to bother working out for a while, as my body needs a break for sure. I'm prepared to play next season too, should my grad school courses not become too overwhelming.
Our A-side earned the tournament cup from this weekend's matches in NYC. It was great weather for a day of rugby. Both our A- and B-sides played three matches each, at 20 minutes a half against a pool of 5 teams:
A side: Renegades 17-0 over Boston, 33-0 over Suffolk, and 48-0 over Gotham (NYC) for the Championship.
The Bs fought hard all afternoon: Philly Gryphons A 12-0, Toronto 18-5, but fell in the finals 3-35 to Drew University. Those boys were tough but we came back in the second half more competitive. The Philly team beat us earlier this season but we came back in a brutal match. At one point I was so deep in a dogpile I could not see light from the bottom of it all, and I saw my leg bent at an unnatural angle and was thankful I'm dedicated to good stretching technique. I played OK scrumhalf moves but did manage to get in a lot of rucking and mauling. I rucked over and cleared the ball a couple times too.
Despite such a successful season where we played far better and more competitively as a team than ever, one disappointing question remains in my mind:
My friends, both straight female and gay male continually ask me, "Oooh, introduce me to some rugby players!" Since our team is now 50/50 gay/straight, there's something for everyone these days. Even the promise of free beer and food was appealing to some, where others simply requested to see a how the game is played.
So this season I was diligent to send out nothing less than full-on press releases for each of our home matches complete with a background story of our history with each team and the possible outcomes. Links to pitch locations and start times for both the socials and matches were provided. I even documented the matches on my blog, or provided the same match information of the wheres and whens on entries the week before. With the exception of Joe Tresh and his mighty camera, not one of my friends showed up this season. I understand that the game may be more fun to play than to watch, and that the weather for many of our home matches was far from pleasant, there were many opportunities to come watch. So where were my bitches at? In the future, refer to our match schedule if you're interested in coming in the future.
Anyway, many of the Saturday matches were played on a cool astroturf pitch near the brand new Icahn Stadium with very inspiring and dramatic architechture. Here's to hoping the Big Gay International Rugby Tournament finals are held there too - with visible, accessible and present on-site medical/first aid support from the host team. It was my first time on astrotuf and it was fun, but you can get tackle burns from it. Philly had a hot scrumhalf named Mark whom I gave a comforting pat on the head during one tackle, and an adorable winger named Chris who was from Wisconsin, so that made him double hot. Hi Chris! See you this spring? I couldn't stalk well enough to find Chris' picture, but he was cute and had a trim beard. During the social I saw my favorite dreamy Gotham player and geek icon Jeff, who administers a part of the OFFICIAL Dungeons and Dragons website, so I was totally in awe of him and hope I didn't sound like a complete stalker and D&D groupie when I chatted with him and when I had to give him a big smooch. It was all I could do to not giggle uncontrollably like a 12 year old girl in heat while I was talking to him, despite being a little drunk. Unfortunately he was resistant to my macking and had to move on.
:' (
Posted by jimbo at 7:00 PM | Comments (6)
October 10, 2005
mud, sweat and beers
Friday I wimped out on happy hour with a bunch of DC bloggers in lieu of a long princess nap. 1 1/2 hours tells me I needed it, so I was well rested for the Bob Mould Band concert at the 9:30 club. The music was great and I had lots of fun. TJ ("Mackasaurus rex") made it especially pleasant. >; ) Dumbek has a good rundown of some of the crowd and music here. Judging by the roar of the crowd during what Brettie told me was some of his old stuff, I wish I knew a bit more about Husker Du and Sugar songs. Regardless, it was also a good deal since it was a rather long set of songs. Daddy Rich Morel on the keyboards reminded me of Dr. Teeth. I guess that makes Bob more of a Janice, since he plays guitar, fer sure.
A tropical storm sat her soggy ass on the D.C. Metro area for two days, promising for a very wet rugby match on Saturday. She continued to pour throughout our two matches, the first against a low-down dirty-playin' head-cleatin' team from Winchester. Our A-side tied them 5-5 in a great match, a far cry from when they used to run us over in the double digits. Next year, cupcakes. I played scrumhalf on the B-side match against the Philly gay team. No cleat mashing from Philly, but I got a nice testicle yank from one guy. Bitch, please...I used to date the president of Men of Discipline and did a workshop on CBT - save it for after the match.
The mud was so wet it didn't really stick. It was more like a thick tea by the time we were playing. I'm glad I get a tetanus shot every year.
Philly improves every time we play them. Our B-side lost, but I forget the score.
Our scrums rarely hatched the egg for Scrummy Jimbo.
It was a fun 3rd half social which included a Kangaroo Court. Can you find the product placement in this photo? (photo creds to Brettie)
Posted by jimbo at 9:43 PM | Comments (7)
October 7, 2005
Celebrate Brett Favre Day on October 10
Openly gay Wisconsin State Senator Tim Carpenter (D) passes into legislation Brett Favre Day on the scruffy man's birthday of October 10, 1969.
National Coming Out Day follows Brett Favre Day on October 11.
If I was still living in Wisconsin and still in the closet, the timing of both events would certainly expedite the process of coming out for me.
Photograph by Rick Chapman Photography. More of Brett in this gallery on his site.
Jimbo.info encourages everyone to wear green and gold on October 10, and to not shave, in honor of Brett Favre Day.
Posted by jimbo at 1:35 PM | Comments (9)
September 29, 2005
Renegades rugby home match this Saturday
This coming Saturday, October 1 the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club will play the Pax (Patuxent) River men's rugby team. Kick off is at 1 p.m at Colmar Manor Park. Directions to the pitch are here.
The pitch (field) is Metro accessible, a short walk from the West Hyattsville station on the Green Line.
It is our first home match of the season. We have beaten PAX River before on their home turf in the spring. Last weekend we won our first fall season match against the Unifromed Services University of the Health Sciences (U.S.U.H.S.) team in a nail-biting 10-0 win. So this Saturday should be a good match.
Social to follow at Hamburger Mary's probably around 3 or 4pm or so. Free beer and munchies.
Posted by jimbo at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)
September 11, 2005
GWM seeks clear, scentless, glycerin-based bar soap for lifelong partnership
Drove up Friday night to State College to stay overnight for our first rugby match of the season against the Penn State old boys team The Happy Valley Barbarians. To drive up Saturday morning would have been a drag, and it's not fun to arrive all stiff and tired from the 3 hour drive. We played better than I expected with all the new players, having lost so many due to typical DC turnover. This is a transient town, and turnover is a major issue with recruitment on our team. I was not mentally in the game for sure, but will write that off due to having been away all season and I will be more focused in the next match. Cold showers always feel sooo good after a match, and are required not only to get clean but to cool off from the woofy scenery as we played right after the mostly-shirtless Penn State College team was loitering hotly on the sidelines. Sorry, I forgot my camera.
Speaking of showers, a minor crisis is underway as the soap of my life, Dial Clear Bar Soap, is now missing from all outlets in The District. It was last spotted at the New York Avenue Giant, but is now reported as a missing skin care product, featured on the back of milk cartons in The District at my request. It's a translucent orange bar soap and came in a clear plastic container. I went to the Nancy Boy website to try some kind of alternate, likely expensive, to replace my long lost love. I don't like the standard solid bar soaps or shower gels for showering, as they leave my skin too dry and they are usually too perfumed. An inferior replacement bar soap is currently exuding an overpowering flowery stench from my shower stall, burning my throat and eyes as I write. I prefer scentless glycerin-based bar soaps, and Dial Clear was the only one that produced enough suds to get me clean, especially after rugby. I've tried Tom's of Maine and generic glycerin bars form Whole Foods, but they did not compare. Any suggestions?
FYI: while Nancy Boy is a body care company, the owner has a blog featured on the company website. At first I thought the combo of a company and a blog wasn't a good idea, but the guy is a good writer, especially his description of his time with Up With People, good for a laugh.
Posted by jimbo at 11:59 AM | Comments (10)
July 5, 2005
chavo now white, denounces heritage
WWE Raw superstar hottie and wrestling scion Chavo Guerrero, dressed like Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, blames Hispanics for his success not measuring up to his talent. He denounces his Hispanic heritage, and said he would join middle class America. He is no longer Chavo Guerrero but has legally changed his name to Kerwin White.
A case of fantasy mirroring reality? Sure, it's a professional wrestling schtick that should be taken lightly, but I've seen it time and again in real life. Like the former Jew turned gay Catholic Republican and other such nonsense I've come across in the past.
Been loving The Washington Post's panoramic views (with audio!) and audio/video story features, fyi. They get multimedia, they really do! On the 4th of July panorama, you really get a feel of what it would be like on a hot muggy night with ten bazillion cranky dehydrated tourists on the National Mall.
Posted by jimbo at 12:25 PM | Comments (7)
June 28, 2005
water polo, rugby & gay sports
I used to play water polo before I played rugby. I was OK at it, but I did not excel at it due to not having an ectomorphic body shape. Those long limbed-types would simply use their Mr. Fantastic extenda-arms and dunk me when and if I would get the ball. Plus the team never played many matches, so I switched to rugby, as they play games almost every weekend in the spring and fall. Water polo was an incredible workout though, and it was very challenging, which was the point.
Last night waiting for the Metrorail I saw an "old" player from the rugby team who is leaving town to go to school elsewhere. We talked about how many on the team have "retired" due to pain or lack of time. Now when I say "old", this guy is in his early- to mid-20's and has played a year, which is a lot by rugby standards. It seems like I'm a rugby grampaw for only having played 5 years. The turnover is high once people realize there is a high pain and injury factor involved. I'm not saying I'm immune to pain. I've had some hard years. This year was a good one, despite throwing my back out picking up a goddamn Q-Tip.
I also believe some people have more "hit points" than others (Dungeons and Dragons reference) and can just take more hits, despite their size or stature. Younger people recover faster, and it also helps to just take a break once in a while too. I consider myself more of a Jack Russell Terrier than a rugby bulldog. I'd like to play as long as possible, as long as it does not hinder my ability to bike or run, which I would like to do for longer than that. When I bike through the city or down the trails I feel like I'm jacked up on amphetamines, and it feels good. Running is a necessary stress reliever.
I like to be athletic, and always have. I do not use the term "jock" lightly, as many do on their online cruisey profiles. I was in track and cross country in high school, and did the 400m, 800m, mile run, mile relay, and pole vault. I also come from a fairly active family - us Barretts are hyper folk. My grampa liked to hunt, as did my dad and one of my brothers. The other brother is a tennis and windsurfing fanatic. The hunting brother is a workout monster and has a bod that would put any circuit queen to shame, although it would shock him to know that another man would look at him that way. (That's another issue to address another day.) Anyway, I work out to feel alive, to use my body to perform a function, albeit for a generally useless recreational purpose. But that's the reason for a hobby, it's something that produces nothing other than to give you joy or pleasure.
That is why it kinda stung when another blogger said to me during an in-person blogger gathering a while back that people join gay rugby teams to fullfill unmet masculinity issues. This is not always so.
Yes, our team and many other gay or mixed teams have attracted their fair share of jokers who are attracted to the sport for its image, their perception of the hypermasculine qualities of the game, or to fulfill some pervy muddy rugby fantasy in their heads. After a match or two, such jokers quickly disappear, and/or we are quick to identify those types these days and find ways to get rid of them. I'm happy to say that our team has matured a lot over the years, and the drama factor from such folk has been reduced considerably. We had a very serious year in 2004/2005, and benefitted from the focus. I have personally gotten a lot more focused during practices too.
Anyhow, some people play rugby to inflict pain on others, as they consistently do in other theatres as well. Others play to simply keep in shape. I play for the pleasure of using my body in a coordinated fashion in concert with a bunch of other people to succeed. It is a beautiful thing to get the ball out of a scrum and get it to the backline for a fluid series of passes to the wing, or do dig out a ball from a ruck and run it forward. Even tackling can be fun, if I do it well.
And there is a definite addiction factor to it all as well. After 80 minutes you can feel quite "high," especially after a win. Most of the time you just feel tired, however. I don't know if rugby is any more healthy an alternative to the circuit scene - at least you don't get your head bashed in at the White Party or ribs bruised at the Blue Ball.
I do not play to prove anything other than that I can do it, and that I am still physically able to do right on the field. The sunshine and exercise don't hurt either. After 5 years, I can now see past the hot sweaty dirty meaty thighs in the scrum without getting a hormonal jolt to my crotch. During a match I am no longer distracted by the scruffy faces or the beckoning chest fur pouring out from the 'V' in the enemy's jersey neckline. While I am playing they are simply people to be stopped, neuter beings to be passed by and defeated. I can love them later when I've shown them who's boss, or vice verse.
Now you get a prize if you read this far. My favorite pictures of furry water polo players from this lovely photo gallery from Outsports, the premier source for the homoeroticism of hypermasculinity.
Tamas Kasas of Hungary, considered by many the sport's best player. And other furry aquatic men.
Posted by jimbo at 1:56 PM | Comments (4)
June 8, 2005
baseball makes me horny
Now I've had pics of this guy in my pornucopia* for years, but never knew his name until Dunner pointed him out as Geoff Jenkins of the Milwaukee Brewers, a baseball clone of Brett Favre. Dreamy, nice hair, nice clothes, killer smile, smoove moves, and it doesn't hurt that he can fly. I can't really tell what his BHI* is, but one can only hope.
I am mildly intrigued by the Brewers' sassy new logo, featuring a sheaf of grain (hops?), cuz they're brewers ya know.
Nothing else of value to write about today.
* Pornucopia: a collection of images, movies or items utilized for sexual arousal. Often found in the masturbatorium, a chamber intended for self-arousal.
* BHI: Body Hair Index - the level of body hair coating on a human. Index is scaled for the male of the species only.
Posted by jimbo at 10:17 AM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2005
hot rugby weekend
Joe Tresh is a local photojournalist and bear. You could call him a "cub photographer" if you must. He takes good pictures, and took a lot of shots last week at our practices. Check out his photoblog and a short piece on our team. He took this picture below:
On Saturday we had a rugby tourney over in Aberdeen, Marlyand. The weather started out promising but got pretty hot and humid. I got to play wing in the first 40-minute match, and then did pretty well as scrumhalf in the second. We lost both matches but not by too much. While the other team placed an incredibly hot shirtless touch judge on my side of the pitch while I was playing wing, 5 years of Bene Gesserit Sisterhood training allowed me to keep my mind on the game with a little mantra taught to me by Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides, which I converted for my own uses during matches against particularly hot opponents:
"I must not lust. Woof is the mind-killer. Lust is the little-death that brings total lack of focus. I will face my lust. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the lust has gone there will be nothing. Only the winger will remain."
Gay rugby fans are invited to our last match of the season against our guests the Philadelphia Gryphons Saturday the 21st. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Heurich Park (driving directions, also Metro accessible from Prince George's Plaza station on the Green Line); All Renegades will be at the pitch by 11:30 a.m. for warmup. There will likely be A- and B-side matches, and Jimbo will be playing for sure. Apply sunscreen at least an hour before exposure. Social to follow at Hamburger Mary's probably around 4ish.
Friday's Margaret Cho concert at the Warner Theatre was so funny my head hurt from laughing so hard. "Cessna! CESSNA!" she screamed, making fun of the recent freakout about the harmless, hapless plane that approached DC last week. It looks like her sketch focus is about 90% gay in content, which she doesn't seem to mind. And damn she is MAD about the current creature in the White House!
My long post on local double-standards on race and real estate is linked below. It's too long to add to a typical daily entry. Read on...
Another annoying incendiary article in the Post last week about "gentrification" and "white flight," which in many circles seems to translate to "white people are bad." I'm not sure if the Post, and in many similar cases the Washington City Paper, is actually reporting what most people think or is just playing the race card as is typical for the DC region in order to sell papers. In a nutshell, everything in DC, from politics to public utilities, has to be associated with race in some way or another, and you cannot criticize the rhetoric or you'll be called a racist too. It is why Marion Barry is still in politics successfully. This area is obsessed with race. And usually the finger is pointed at white people as the source of all evil in any case where there is disagreement or conflict. One editorial in Saturday's edition of the Post agrees in my critique of local "Acceptable Bias."
The double-standard I keep coming across regarding demographic change (which always happens over time in either direction in any neighborhood) is this: when black people move into a white neighborhood and the white people complain, it is called racism. But here in the DC Metro region, when the reverse occurs and white people move into a historically black neighborhood and the blacks complain and are quite vocal about the whites "taking over," no one cries racism in the least. At least that's how the media interprets the phenomenon. I don't get it.
"It's almost like there's a hidden landscape, a hidden geography of the county that many whites don't see," said Kirsti Uunila, the county's historic preservation planner. "People who are moving in, they really don't know where they've come."
Translation: white people are dumb, insensitive, with no regard for history. But no one dares call that out around here.
The article also confuses difrerences between class and race:
"The fact is that property values and the job market largely preclude them from moving in." The average home in the county sold for $350,000 last year.The influx of whites into Calvert also has coincided with the rise of the Republican Party in a county that for decades was a Democratic stronghold. In late 2003, when the local GOP claimed more registered voters than Democrats for the first time in recent history, the party chairman said the success was due to Prince George's politicians whose policies had driven Republicans to Calvert.
Translation: white people are all rich Republicans. Excuse me? Not quite ready to invest $350K here, and still voting Democrat. Eeew, I'm offended.
Anyone who has sold their house for four times its original value at a quarter- to half-million dollars should be laughing all the way to the bank. What you do with that profit is your business, but I fail to see any victimization in this. Try crying to me when we compare savings and checking accounts - my salary for a professional position at a university is just a hair above low income here in DC. Granted, burdensome tax rates may be insurmountable and may force people to move, and we all like to live in our "traditional" and historic areas. But what is traditional these days anyway? Does one group of people "own" a region, and no one else can move in or out of it? So should the main street area in my hometown be preserved as a "Norwegian Only" area, since the earliest residents were primarily Scandinavian? No, because people would cry racism. But we can talk about preserving our black history in Calvert County and it's not racism in this case.
I have bitched in a similar way in the past by saying the breeders have also "taken over" 17th street and that our beloved gay ghetto is gone. In reality, the queens who toughed it out in the 80s and early 90s are now also laughing all the way to the bank, having sold their homes to rich yuppies in lieu of larger properties elsewhere. And most gays know that our neighborhoods move and shift. Not quite analagous to the white/black 'hood argument, but similar. We are keenly aware that neighborhoods change over the decades. In DC the gay ground zero ghetto has moved from DuPont Circle proper, to 17th Street, and now somewhere east of 14th Street. It moves, we deal, that's life. I may have to move soon too, but I deal with it. To me the recent alarmist real estate news laced with blatantly racial tones just seems like a lot of incendiary crap that stirs the waters in order to sell papers. For example, in the editorial linked above, the writer notes that Prince George's county was once mostly white, and things there have clearly changed in the other direction.
Just my two cents on an issue that I think both the local media and African American community here needs to heed: the burden of working towards racial sensitivity does not lie solely on the shoulders of white people. It strikes me as a double-standard that is blatantly ignored in this area.
Posted by jimbo at 11:09 AM | Comments (7)
April 18, 2005
this is how we do it
I spent most of the weekend running around like a chicken, with head cut off. Back and forth from Titan/17th St. to my house to rugby pitch and back again. Friday night we greeted the combined mostly-gay team from Raleigh/Durham, who were a fun bunch. On Saturday we played against them and got our first win of the season. They had some mighty tacklers on their team, and in addition to running into the pliant part of a chain-link fence, I also got the wind knocked out of me by one of their players. It has been a long time since that happened.
I played winger (zzzzz...) for almost the whole match, but that was OK because I had stuff going on that evening and woulda been dead tired had I played any other position.
Our team has been having a good period lately, at long last. It's due to a combination of the age of our team, good coaching, good governing body, and I hate to say it but the gay drama is mostly neutralized by the fact that our team is now about half straight. It just seems that every time you get a bunch of heavily ghettoized urban queens together they will often get nasty to each other. I'll have to agree with what one blogger said last week about some high drama on another gay rugby team: "...such behavior is often tolerated or even encouraged and rewarded." I'm starting to see that the bigger the ghetto, the more drama you get. In this case I'm suggesting some integration is in order for some balance and perspective.
Although that wasn't the case when I was on the Washington Wetskins Water Polo Team. There, if you weren't in shape enough to float and play, you really didn't have any business being there to cause drama, so the nasty queen quotient was relatively low. Literally it was sink or swim. In rugby, there is sometimes wiggle-room for poseurs, drama-mongers and sex addicts.
We had three such individuals on the rugby team not long after the Renegades were formed. I called them the Drama Furies, or the Triumvirate of Evil. One considered the team his personal sex pool, and would hit on every new player literally the moment they walked on the pitch. Another was Mr. Contrary, and loudly vocalized his contrasting opinions in very undiplomatic ways on the listserv whenever possible. And the third was simply a yahoo whose behavior also got him kicked off the next organization he joined, and the one after that. Simply a mess. Luckily, we had a team constitution and procedures on our side, and the board decided the shitheads were more trouble than they were worth. They never played many actual matches anyway. I was the deliverer of bad news in the form of a refunded check in the amount of their original membership dues. To this day none of them will speak to me, even though it was a board that made the decision to boot 'em out. Whatever...don't launder your issues on my team, people...your membership dues are better spent at the office of a mental health professional.
Getting rid of shitheads on any team or organization kinda reminds me of my aquarium. This weekend I noticed a wound on one of my guppies, most likely caused by an increasingly aggressive algae eater named Hoover. Granted, Hoover was very good at his job, and cleaned out the carpet of algae in the aquarium completely in under 2 weeks. It's been sparkly clear ever since. But Hoover got bigger and very territorial, and constantly bullies the other more peaceful livebearing fish. They were starting to show signs of stress. After seeing the guppy's wound I had had enough. Hoover got a peaceful death in the freezer, then flushed down the toilet for good. Other communities could definitely benefit from similar procedures - except in this case it would be human waste, rather than fish, that could be flushed away.
Posted by jimbo at 10:38 AM | Comments (5)
March 5, 2005
bring it
I survived my first outdoor rugby practice of the season today. I had predicted I was gonna die from being so sore from the snowboarding the days before, but I guess it was different muscles that got worked. The rugby running must have knocked out all the lactaid in my muscles or whatever. I was honored to be assigned to be scrumhalf for a side at long last, I'm guessing due to my good performance last fall. I really want to stay clear of winger this year, as it's gotten old and frankly, I just don't tackle guys with momentum as good as I tackle the ones up close, and that's what wingers end up doing a lot. Plus I love the scrumhalf position, as it's very A.D.D. friendly. Looks like the turnout will allow for two sides again this year, which will allow for more position flexibility again.
It was probably better that there was no cell phone connection up on top of the mountain, as I would have been tempted to try and spend valuable snowboarding time to correct some current school drama while on the short vacation. On Wednesday at about 4, right before I was set to leave for snowboarding, I made and inquiry about the status of my graduate school application. It was up for consideration February 1st, and I hadn't yet heard a peep about it, not even a rejection letter. I learned that it wasn't even looked at because of my status in the system. The system currently says I'm a non-degree seeking student, which I had to be in order to register for classes that I have been taking while waiting for my graduate school application to be considered. Little did I know, that I had to be a graduate applicant in the system. It didn't matter that three professors and a few Ph.D. students in the program knew I was all excited to apply, and had been waiting for a long time for this. Yes, I know taking classes doesn't guarantee me to get into the program, and yes, I know I'm not a ringer for the program. But hearing that it didn't even get looked at was a punch to the gut...I almost started crying when I heard about it, and that's a big deal for a Norwegian from the Midwest. Just being ignored due to an arcane step in the process is worse than rejection. I haven't wanted something like this in a very long time. I want this more than I want Matthew Fox or Seann Scott, and that's saying a lot.
But I am told there is still hope and things I can do, so on Monday I will call the department back with a clearer mind so I can fully understand what the hell is going on. Plus I will try to get the professors from the classes that I took to try and advocate for me, as I'm told a word from one or two should help a lot. But it's just frustrating that a drone there just put my application in the 'no' pile, even when she knew I wanted to be considered, and didn't let me know, not even with a rejection letter. Just no word, at the mercy of the system. Fuck the system, I'm gonna flex my formidable people skills and make things happen. It's what works in real life.
I am insanely jealous of the travellin' Mighty Jimbo. Whales, penguins, seals, and rusty Russian freighters. Antarctica is the place to see Southern Hemisphere pelagic sea birds as well, although I'm sure the wonder of it all was lost on such a metrosexual bear. And BTW Jimbo, my blog is a bear-lover's site. Bring it.
Perhaps Mighty Jimbo is on to something...who knows, maybe the bear look will be the latest trend to jump over from homos to the breeders? Next thing you know his ripped abs will be history and he'll be wearing flannel, asking his girlfriends to rub his furry beer-gut.
Posted by jimbo at 5:37 PM | Comments (2)
March 4, 2005
snowshoe
Yep, it was quite a drive to Snowshoe in West Virginia, but the powder was good and the weather cooperative. I don't drive much less when I go backpacking though...it's what you gotta do to get away from the urban DC environment. I entered into my Jimbo van Winkle mode and slept after every couple hours of boarding, so I'm caught up. By the end of the trip I got good enough with the board to keep up with Chip and Stefan. 
Posted by jimbo at 9:15 PM | Comments (5)
February 7, 2005
shaw has arrived
Superbowl: whatever. Halftime: I wanted to see Paul McCartney's sagging tit. Commercials: how wholesome!
I went to my neighbors house, Mrs. Kravitz at 601 T, last night to watch the game on the big screen. Pretty boys there, not as friendly as last time though. However, rumour has it that the mistress of the house is working on developing a new gay bar on the 600 block of T Street, which is great news. Not only have my friends and I been talking about the need for a bar, or at least a cafe in our 'hood, but it may possibly be a gay 'sports bar,' whatever that comes to mean. 'Masc buds,' members of the DC Sportsbuds and FoTJ (Friends of TJ) get half price drinks?
Woo hoo! I got my tickets bought for Spring Break in Tuscon. I'll be staying with Homer and meeting Panchesco live! And some hiking, desert flowers, sunshine, ghost towns and ancient archaeological site tours are definitely in order too. I might try to do some crunchy spa thing in the mountains. I hope Richard takes a nice artsy picture of me while I'm there too.
Commentary on photos taken at a Star Wars Convention. Priceless. And don't miss Star Wars: A Lost Hope for a sneak preview of this summer's blockbuster hit!
Ohmigawd I just came across the Dolly Parton version of 'Peace Train.' Yeah I know I'm a late fag on the scene, but it's FABULOUS! I wonder what it's like being Dolly Parton - where you're so fabulous it must form a palpable aura around your plastic surgery work.
Posted by jimbo at 10:17 AM | Comments (6)
December 24, 2004
my favreite green bay packer
The jury is still out on whether or not I agree with Kevin about Favre's new buzzcut: 
I kinda liked him better with hair:
Critique and opinion in the comments section! Favre: buzzcut or flopsy-mop? Discuss. Regardless, his scruff remains, and it's always so frikkin' hot.
Went to the local Valley View Mall today to pick up a few things, and was yet again reminded as to why I like big, scruffy, burly blonde boys. It's because that's what I grew up seeing in front of me all the time. Lots of camo ballcaps, Carhartt jackets....grrrrrWOOOF! The honey pot is surely on fire, despite the cold weather. I even saw my old wrestling coach, who ain't lookin' too bad himself...
Here's what I wrote to submit to the opinion section of the local paper:
Homo for the Holidays
While home celebrating Christmas in the LaCrosse area with my family, I've been alarmed and disheartened by the almost daily anti-gay views featured in the Opinion section of the Lacrosse Tribune. What has happened here while I've been away? I recall growing up with a more "live and let live" attitude in this region, rather than this judgmental environment of righteous castigation.
I am guessing many here believe they've been given the green light by the man in the White House and his party to identify and attack whatever groups necessary in order to avoid greater issues such as the economy, war or health care. It's called scapegoating, a common and simple tool used by politicians. Just keep in mind, Ms. Peaslee, that your opinion has been featured in web logs on both the west and east coasts as an example of intolerance in Middle America. You've gobbled up what Mr. Rove has fed you quite well, and your righteous tummy is showing.
Mr. Griffing implies in his piece from Friday that I am evil. While I am a gay person originally from this area, I am pretty sure I am not evil. I do not wake up every morning plotting the destruction of heterosexual marriages. I was raised Lutheran, and remain a person of faith. I do not busy myself by gnawing at the foundations of civilization. I pay taxes, I love batterfried cheese curds, and I care deeply about the fate of this country and its people. To be called evil and to be told that I am here to destroy society hurts my feelings. Mr. Griffing and Ms. Peaslee: you are big meanies, and you have also been duped by powers outside of this region to view me as an actual threat to your lives.
Gay people just want to share the same joys, misery and challenges that straight people face every day, without having to be hushed by a righteous majority. We are not asking for much.
by Jim Bo, Washington, D.C.
Posted by jimbo at 6:37 PM | Comments (5)
November 23, 2004
we've got woof
Finally, we've gotten our own baseball team here in DC. They picked a boring name in my opinion, The Washington Nationals. They could have picked more historic names such as our previous teams The Grays or The Senators, or even my favorite, The Washington Monuments. Imagine a tough little stone colossus mascot guy. That would have been cute.
Anyway, The Gays are hoping Joey Eischen remains on the lineup for Spring Training. We've got woof! Omigawd we're like the same age!
Posted by jimbo at 5:17 PM | Comments (4)
November 19, 2004
why there is junk in our trunk
From a recent science article I read on Yahoo:
Among the features that set humans apart from apes to make them good runners are longer legs to take longer strides, shorter forearms to enable the upper body to counterbalance the lower half during running and larger disks which allow for better shock absorption.
Big buttocks are also important.
"Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns," said Bramble.
Humans lean forward when they run and the buttocks "keep you from pitching over on your nose each time a foot hits the ground," he added.
Fellas (yeah!), fellas (yeah!)
Has your girlfriend got the butt (hell yeah!)
Well shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake that healthy butt
Baby got back
- Sir Mix-A-Lot
Posted by jimbo at 6:01 AM
November 14, 2004
scrum into my world
New York City is always exciting. You can feel your pulse quicken a bit when you enter Manhattan. But maybe it's the overcrowding and the traffic. Even if you've been there before, you think you recognize this street or that, but then you realize you haven't really scratched the surface yet. On this trip I couldn't help noticing all the 1940's style ironworks on the bridges and things. I think they look cool, like something out of the movies Iron Giant or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which I'm sure were inspired in one way or another by the big city.
We arrived late into Manhattan due to crappy weather which slowed traffic down to a crawl all the way up 95. Remember: rain kills, so drive 30mph below the speed limit, mmmkay? By the time we arrived, few were willing to travel to the pre-match social, which I'm sure was a blast. I was in bed by 10 or so, my roomate coming in later and noted the next morning that he thought I was dead, as I sleep without making a sound. I guess I needed my sleep.
It was snowing when I got up for some breakfast. Food is remarkably cheap there, at least in comparison to DC, and you can always get fresh cafe or deli food to pack, which is great. I'm glad I did get some stuff to go, as the day would be a long one in the cold.
The Renegurls had an A- and B-side ready, and I was set to play on the B-side, and surprised that I was to play scrumhalf. I was a little nervous about it as I hadn't played that position in years, but I'm glad I did. I was told I played well, and the guy I've had some friction with in the past played flyhalf, who plays closely with the scrumhalf. Surprisingly, we were the picture of peace and cooperation, and we played well together. My passes from the asses of the forwards were very clean, and I had a lot of energy that day to dig the ball out from the rucks, mauls and scrums. We played well as a team and won against the Gotham B and Toronto teams, but lost against a skilled and very large Atlanta team. It was a good tourney overall. I noticed I'm a lot less beat up today than after I would play on the backline, as I have to deal with fewer people who've gained inertia. Fat Dude + Velocity = Pain.
Joe stopped by with a friend to brave the bitter cold and ogle some beef, and took some of pictures:
- Do these compression shorts make my ass look big to you?
- No water please, only doughnuts.
- Smackin' those asses...
- I can't see any neotropical migratory birds from this vantage point!
- Our cub photographer, Her Royal Jervishness
In addition to the lack of an on-site ambulance (a good idea at most day-long tourneys with multiple teams and dozens of injuries), a set of port-a-potties were absent, and there were no discrete forested areas in which to poop or pee. In most sports, athletes get worked up and the intestines and bladder tend to tense up before the game. Since the tourney was running from 9am to 3pm, that adds up to a lot of rugger piss and shit. Everyone from our team, and possibly others, were using the tiny receptacle in the tour bus we rented. Soon, a thick stalacmite of shit began to form from the bottom of our bus toilet. This would become a nauseating factor on the bus trip home the next day, which I will touch upon later...
After the tournament, it was off to the NY Eagle for a post-match social. While I was wandering around, I heard this noise like Cookie Monster having a feeding orgasm ('AWWMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP!') I looked over and there was Joe, positioned at the buffet table stuffing himself silly. Considering his reputation, I was surprised to find him pigging out there instead of under the bar or upstairs in the naughty area. Or perhaps he was just carbo-loading for a marathon later in the evening.
During the evening, I finally worked out a good come-back for when people come up to me in a bar and say, "Smile!" or "Cheer up!" Apparently I look like I'm pouting or pissed off when my face is relaxed, or in this case when I'm tired. I may very well be thinking happy thoughts of butterflies and rainbows or puppies or of my pouty face buried between a set of hairy ruggerbear pecs. I wouldn't go out if I was cranky, believe me. So when the inevitable ocurred, I said, "I am happy, my mouth just goes this way," which was followed by a cascade of very apologetic remarks.
The bar was jam-packed with ruggerbears and their camp followers, but I am rarely up for elbowing for space in a bar after a day of edging out beefy legs during the day. Plus, I figuratively shot my load during the tournament, so despite the hotness and interest, I was back in my hotel and out like a light by 9:30.
After 11 hours in a regenerative coma, I got up for some more lovely deli food, and a stroll around Midtown to see the sights and loosen up my leg muscles. Boarding our bus by Noon, the beat-up team was on their way home. The bathroom was somewhat stanky by then, so visits to the small room in the back of the bus became taboo. Then someone noticed a blue fluid flowing down the right side of the bus towards the front, under our seats. Those of us in the back created a hasty waste contianment boom out of newspaper to contain the spill. Then I opened up the bathroom door to see what the problem was. Blue goo with tawny chunks was percolating up through a drain in the floor, which I stoppered with a thick copy of Sunday's New York Times. Within the hour, the bus driver stopped at a rest area to drain the excess effluent, which helped a little. But the bus still stank for the remainder of the trip, and I felt Unclean, as in Old Testament Unclean, by the time I got home.
Posted by jimbo at 7:00 PM | Comments (4)
November 12, 2004
big gay rugby tourney in nyc this weekend
Hey Big Gay Rugby Fans:
Here's the deal for the Big Gay East Coast Rugby Tournament stuff for this weekend in NYC:
Saturday, Nov. 13 from 9am to 4pmish: Big East Coast Gay Rugby Tourney - Randall’s Island, New York, on fields (pitches) 17 and 20. I have no idea where that is.
A social will follow the tourney at the Eagle around 5pm. It will be fun, I can guarantee. The gay teams from Philly, DC, Boston, Toronto, Atlanta and of course NYC will be there.
This will be my last hurrah with rugby, I'm done with it after this weekend. I am losing enthusiasm for it, and I am also tired of feeling like grampaw on Sundays. That and I'm counting my blessings that I can still run and bike and gambol through the forests without a permanent limp.
- Big Gay New York Rugby Team Website: www.gothamrfc.org
Posted by jimbo at 10:26 AM | Comments (6)
October 16, 2004
bloody loogies
3 weeks off from any kind of exercise due to my flu showed today at the rugby match. I got a bloody nose from a stiff-arm to the face during the first half so I had to step out for a bit, so I didn't even play a full game and was still totally beat after the match. We didn't fare well against the Terps, but they were a sporty bunch and played nice anyway. The nose stopped bleeding completely after the match, but right before I went into the social, I felt this thing moving from my nose into my throat...it was this bitter yet salty clot that dislodged and wanted to come out...it wasn't a pretty thing on the sidewalk.
Going out soon for Bob's birthday celebration, and maybe blowoff after that. But I need a nap first. Attention Deficit Disorder Dungeons & Dragons (A.D.D.&D.) with the geeks tomorrow.
Posted by jimbo at 6:39 PM | Comments (3)
September 30, 2004
the washington monuments
Yee haw! DC gets the Montreal Expos! This is a sport I may actually go to see. I often go up with Fitz to watch the Orioles play a few times a year. I'm more about the baseball experience rather than the sport. OK, the woofy baseball players too. Considering it may be a short trip on the Green Line from where I currently live, that would be cool.
Now all this crazy talk jibber-jabber about what to name them has come up. Mayor Williams wants to name them after a historic African American baseball team called the Grays. I like the historic link, but Gray is, well, really boring. I think the Expos is just fine, since DC hosts so many expos and conferences. I also suggest The Washington Monuments, where our mascot could be this tough-looking stone colossus. Wait! Howabout using another tough, survivor mascot: the Snakeheads! Or perhaps the Washington Swamp Rats?
Just as long as they don't name them the Ronald Reagan Washington Nationals Baseball Team.
Posted by jimbo at 1:36 PM | Comments (6)
September 18, 2004
on being scandinavian
During today's rugby match, it was completely overcast with remnant hurricane rain pretty much the whole time. I was wearing SPF 40 sweatproof suntan lotion like I always do, and wearing my REI Elements rainjacket with hood and visor flap - AND MY FACE STILL GOT SUNBURNT! The rugby farmer tan season has begun.
It was a fun match as I like playing in the rain, and it has finally cooled down a bit. We lost to the team we beat once before, but only by 10-3. I played on the B-side, and we lost a bit more. Our A-side is now about 90% straight, which bugged me at first, but I realized hey, how many gay rugby players can you find in one city? We all get along, which is cool. Plus, the straight boys get quite an education during the post-match socials when we play gay teams from other cities.
Going to see Sky Captain with Fitz tomorrow.
Gurl's got the poop shoots, a stomach flu going around here that hit Chrisafer's partner Bubbles earlier in the week. I think I had it when I got back from my Alaska trip too. Kinda cleans you out for a while, leaving you feeling all lean and clean inside.
Speaking of butt issues, I'm looking forward to the cool, dry weather to come in our lovely fall here in DC. While the summer hasn't been as hot as others have been, I'm always OVER the humidity we get here.
On linking to other blogs: I love you all, but I just can't keep up with the explosion of blogs and blogging visitors coming down the pipe of late, or updating those who keep moving their URLs or blog hosts. It's nothing personal if I haven't removed dead links, updated changed ones, or not added others. I'd have to do it every day and I'm busy at work and lazy at home. I don't think I've updated my blogroll on the right here since spring, but again, it's nothing personal. ~ kisses ~
Posted by jimbo at 10:21 PM | Comments (6)
August 29, 2004
hotter than whitney's crack pipe
I'm in one piece after our first rugby match of the season against the Philadelphia Gryphons on their home field. It always seems to be hot when we play them up there, and Saturday was no exception. I'm glad I took it easy the night before in the hotel, savoring my air conditioning. We played A- and B-side matches, with me on the B-side. We won both matches. We have a ton of great new players, most of whom don't have much rugby experience, but do have great athleticism, so it should be a good season. I think the board gave up trying to find enough gay rugby players in DC, as there just aren't that many to find, so we've been stepping up our recruitment elsewhere. Right now I'd say our team is at least half straight. So does that make the team as a whole bi?
I had some good plays and some bad plays, but did make a pass down the back line to a first try for one of the newer players. I didn't spend much time at the social before retreating back to my blessed air conditioning, very dehydrated from the day.
I think I am still recovering today, but did manage a nice shoulder workout at the gym. The Man With The Wooden Toenails was not present, but I was able to grant new nicknames for two other Sunday gym regulars: Nose-Picker and Zit-Popper, both gay and seemingly unaware that anyone can see them doing what they do on the weight room floor. Zit-Popper will go right up to one of the mirrors and start popping those darned blackheads and whiteheads right there in front of the freeweights, and Nose-Picker does his thing wherever the urge takes him, doing a full-finger digger when possible. Well, at least they are challenging the gay stereotype of us all being cultured, refined creatures of discreet grooming.
But afterwards I was with more civilized queer company at The Regent, a nice new Thai restaurant on 18th Street. Me and Bob and Waremouse had a nice dinner and all the waitstaff had good hair product goin' on. We tried to think up names for the blogger reading this fall, confirmed for Sunday, October 24 at our favorite bar DC9. It will feature a few blogger readings from DC, NY and elsewhere, to be followed by a Blowoff-like session of good music brought to you by Bob and Rich. More news to come on that, and sorry I missed the DC queer blogger brunch on Saturday!
Posted by jimbo at 10:53 PM | Comments (2)
August 19, 2004
angelic
Mmmmrowrr...while lean and hydrodynamic is usually not my thing, check out South Africa's swim stud Ryk Neethling. Facialicious gold medalist.
Omigawd so like me and Gurl and Chrisafer and Ed went to our newest favorite smoke-free bar Halo on P St. between 15th and 14th, NW DC tonight. As Seamus had promised, it was filled with people I had never seen before, most likely folks like me who find burning eyes and stinky clothes abhorrent. We had a good time and I found I didn't feel like fleeing from the smog, which was nice. Me liked preppy handsome boy and cute furry hobbit boy, whose yoga Brit interest totally kept intercepting me when I tried to cruise him. Cute smoke-free boys.
Off to my hometown this weekend for the high school class reunion and KornFest! Ta!
Posted by jimbo at 12:09 AM | Comments (7)
August 18, 2004
support your mature out gay olympians
Just read in ESPN magazine about Robert Dover, who's on the US Equestrian team competing as an out gay man. An Olympian since 1984, the 48 year old had planned on retiring before Athens, but returned to compete at the request of his ill parents.
And we must not forget Martina, our favorite former uber-lez Czech, also 48. In June 2004 she became oldest woman in 82 years to win a Wimbledon singles match by defeating Catalina Castano in the first round. In winning the 2003 Australian Open mixed doubles title, she became the oldest person to win a Grand Slam title at 46 years and three months, surpassing record set in 1924. In 2003, at 46 years of age, she became oldest Wimbledon champion, passing Margaret Dupont, who won mixed doubles in 1962 at 44.
Posted by jimbo at 3:20 PM | Comments (2)
August 14, 2004
olympic sobbing
Yesterday I finished a draft of the newsletter at work I want to get out before September, and it felt good to hit that milestone. Except for the splitting headache and upper back pain at the end of the day. I think I really tense up when I'm finishing deadlines on the computer. Amazing how it went away when I got away from the computer and into the gym.
I took it easy last night and watched my favorite sports event of all - the opening ceremonies for the Olympics! My next favorite sports events would be the closing ceremonies, rugby, and the baseball world series, in that order.
I totally buy into the hype of the ceremonies, and was sobbing freely during the whole thing, like I always do. I dunno, maybe its the ideals of peace, competitiveness and oneness and all that that get to me. Plus the ceremonies are just getting so cool these days. I especially loved the Greek mythology that permeated the whole theme. Plus all the hot muscular Greeks that performed in the classical Greek characterizations during the performance. But what was Bjork doing there? While we love her dearly, she didn't seem to fit in with the whole thing. And did the giant Olympic torch look like a big doobie to any of you too, or was it just me?
NBC did a pretty good job of it, except that they SKIPPED KYRGIZSTAN DURING THE COMMERCIAL BREAK, DAMMIT! I noticed anyway. I love seeing all the traditional outfits of each country, and learning about nations I've never heard of. It seems like athletes from any country seem to always be really handsome, or maybe that's me. I see the racial origin of the unibrow seems to originate from Syria, Armenia and Tunisia. Olympic hottie to watch out for: woofy decathlete Tom Pappas of USA, who has Greek heritage.
Posted by jimbo at 1:51 PM | Comments (4)
August 11, 2004
walking with my crotch wide open
Owww...certain parts of my body are unused to sprinting while wearing a waffled runner's jock strap during rugby practice. Things are a bit raw here and there today. Plus, both my big toes shall soon re-emerge from their blistered chrysalis as brand new pretty pink digits that will eventually form hard exoskeletons of their own for the season.
Other than that, my first practice this season last night went well. I am thankful I have been running, biking and doing the stairmaster a lot this summer. As usual, we have lots of new players who outnumber the veterans. Many past players are still on vacation though. This year the new guys are pretty darn good, with only one rugby virgin at last night's practice. The rest seem to either have had football experience, or previous rugby experience. We have two new cuties from England, and one from France, and they are clever mofos. Oh, and we now have a sign language interpreter for our new deaf players. That was interesting to watch, and after practice I found myself looking at people's hands and trying to read as I rode my bike home.
So people have been getting sick here at work lately. I wish to avoid further intestinal discomfort, as I've had plenty of my own lately.
Jimbo: "So Greg, I was hoping I could come over and get those screen shots."
Greg the Grad Student: "Well, I'm in my office tomorrow, but I've had a bit of a fever..."
Jimbo: "Oh, no, no, that's OK, that's fine, just select four screen shots and e-mail them to me...no problem!"
I've been writing a lot of articles for work this week, and I'll have to say blogging every day has prepared me for speed-writing under deadlines.
Perseid meteor showers tonight/early tomorrow morning. Kind of moot in the District, where the haze and constant city lights make viewing celestial bodies far from optimal. I remember Hale-Bopp though...that was cool.
PJ got me on a Human League groove. They are highly underrated. I'm all about Mirror Man, Keep Feeling Fascination, and Together In Electric Dreams these days.
Posted by jimbo at 9:52 AM | Comments (4)
July 15, 2004
adorffable
So like this morning during breakfast I chose to not ignore the latest Britney video on VH-1, and there was the scruffalicious and hazel-eyed Stephen Dorff playing her romantic interest. Together with Britney, they wrecked approximately 36 pieces of furniture in the video. Dorff was also the first in a long line of scruffy hotties in the Blade movie series, and he didn't play the typical shaved smoothie evil vampire either. He was actually a scruffy furry vampire, as some of them should be in order to satisfy the E.E.E.O (Evil Equal Employment Opportunity) Laws. In other scruffy actor news, Ben Affleck has a full beard now. GRRRRWooof!
Please support my rugby team and bid on this Rugby Jock's Game Worn Jersey on e-bay. That's Timmay in the photos. He's really that cute in real life.
The air conditioning is fixed at home, the evil Santorums at bay for now, so my mood has cooled. But apparently I am not alone in my rage. If everyday people are affected like this by the proposed politics from the fuckhead right, imagine working for one of these fuckheads? How twisted would your mind be? How many kinds of mind games would it take to convince yourself to to work for one of these fuckheads? What kind of rationalization does it take to continue to be a gay man who supports Bush, or even his fucked-up party? I only see total emotional wreckage in each case.
Posted by jimbo at 10:25 AM | Comments (7)
June 28, 2004
beckham, schmeckam
Beckham, schmeckam...I'm all about Sweden's Olof Mellberg. He has a distinct advantage over Beckham due to the scruff.
I know where I'm having lunch today...there's a LaCrosse (the sport, not my hometown) clinic outside my building today...beefy calves all over the place.
I spent much of the weekend cracked out of my gourd on painkillers and muscle relaxants. Slept 9 hours both Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday night we went out for a bit for Bollywood night at the Lantern. They didn't really show any true Bollywood movies, just clips and videos. Still the basmati was over the top as I like it.
Posted by jimbo at 10:52 AM | Comments (8)
June 24, 2004
happy 1000th blog entry!
According to my Moveable Type blogging program, I do believe that this is my 1000th blog entry! I lost a few years of entries before that in a server accident, which would make me eligible for a Lifetime Achievement Award for the Bloggie Awards.
CRACK! GIVE ME CRACK NOW! Tonight at rugby practice my lower back was tweaking a little. It was something a minor adjustment back-cracking from big Phil couldn't handle - or so I thought. Later on I brought down a teammate for a tackle, and suddenly the back was spasming...I tried to hobble around and had to back out of the scrimmage. The only comfortable position was flat on my back, a position I remember from 1999 or so when I threw it out in the same place. As of now I'm dosing up on Aleve, Advil, Tylenol P.M. and a few beers, which is allowing me to blog at the moment. I'm walking around the house like Ozzy Osbourne. We'll make an assesment tomorrow morning to see how bad it is, but I'm icing it now too. If it is bad, that means chiropractic appointments, muscle relaxants and at least a month off from rugby. Wish me luck.
There is a group trying to bring in a Major-league baseball team to Londoun County, Virginia to a site 21 miles outside of the city. We already have the lovely Camden Yards ballpark an hour away in Baltimore, plus there are things to do in Baltimore such as the aquarium, the waterfront, and the Ravens stadium. There is nothing to do in Londoun County other than get a good night's rest. NO WAY will anyone brave a long and painful drive out there for a baseball game. To the proponents of this plan (whose names are mysteriously absent from the above linked article) I have one thing to say: HAHAHAHAHAHAA!! Not that I'm opposed to a baseball stadim nearby, mind you. I'd love to see a ballpark built in DC and have the Washington Senators (aka the Nationals) come back again. And I believe the former ballpark where the Washington Senators played is now where Howard University Hospital is located, just two blocks north of me.
Posted by jimbo at 1:22 PM | Comments (9)
June 9, 2004
from a place right out of history
I don't have too much to say about the passing of our 40th president, other than I am getting tired about hearing what a demigod he was 24/7 on the news, and I don't get Friday off. I do know that W is NO Ronald Reagan, however. Please, enough with the lame comparisons. Other bloggers do have some pithy and well-written criticisms of Reagan's presidency. For once, I'm not as angry about this issue as some other people are.
Howevah, I did work at the airport now known as (take a deep breath) Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, or just 'National' as locals call it now like they did back then. My baby is still there in it's original format after 3 years. I guess they are satisfied with my design, but even I will have to admit it's time for a redesign. Honies, that design is tired. However, the Internet-phobic network security managers (Remember Tuvok?) are probably still there, resisting all logical and necessary change. Tuvok once tried to tell me that I needed to rebuild the site in Java (!??!) because it was more secure. An entire open Java session website more secure than good sound server security? Whut ev ah. I work in a better place now, where the network guys get me stuff I need without me even asking. They are mind-reading psychic geniuses here. And our website here does not get hacked at all, as opposed to the monthly panic-attacks we'd get from website hackers at MWAA. Competence, table for one, please?
Anyhow, both the air traffic controllers at National and the DC locals chafed at the renaming of National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 'National Airport' just sounded better, and was more fitting for an airport in OUR NATION'S CAPITAL! Metro dragged its feet in changing the signage for the subway stop all the way into 2000. But the powers that be from other states decided something for us during a Marion Barry administration, because clearly if we vote for a crackhead then decisions must be made for us, right? American-brand democracy at work. So we get a very nice airport with a really long and retarded name, named after a president who peed on the air traffic controllers.
I do feel bad for Reagan's corpse. I suppose if you are a Presidential Corpse, you'll get dragged around and shown to people a lot. Please don't do that with my corpse. Leave me alone, I'm done with life. Plus embalming uses a lot of nasty toxic chemicals, you smell bad, and really, you still look dead. I was never about pretense. I'm going to pass on the embalming. Plus, you bury all those chemicals in the ground which will one day leach into the soil and groundwater. I'm all about a FABULOUS urn, with my gritty ashes within. Yeah, a hand-painted terra cotta urn with my visage embossed on the front. Huge boquets of fresh flowers will be appreciated from the otherworld as well. I recommend sunflowers for starters. And a big fun party with lots of food and dance music in my honor, because remember the first three letters in the word 'funeral' are F-U-N! Someone please write this down or print it out and remember that if I drop dead soon.
I rushed to the downtown Border's bookstore last night to get the latest issue of Out, PC Magazine and Dragon magazine. 0 for 3, as they are not on the newstands yet, dammit.
Hrmmm...I got a nice fresh blister on my big Fred Flintstone toe at rugby practice last night. I guess I don't have to worry about that damn callus anymore. Remember: I share.
Posted by jimbo at 12:43 AM | Comments (7)
May 16, 2004
smack it up, flip it, rub it down
Bubba points out Mike Piazza's full beard. Can I hear a big 'ol WOOF from the choir?
Somehow I managed to get a lot of sleep this weekend, so I'm really caught up which feels great. Thursday night I went home after practice and stayed in, and got to sleep in Friday as I had taken the day off. It was a good thing as I couldn't get my shit together for the life of me, despite having to leave at 2pm. It was a crowded ride up, but we got there with enough time to spare for a nap in a frigid air-conditioned room. Aaaah.
There was a pre-match social at a local Philly bar, and it also happened to be Bear Weekend with some event at that bar. I'll have to say again, I like big hairy guys, but not nececessarily 'Bears' as the two are not always one and the same. But there was one scruffy Italian cub there from NYC who was all up in my kitchen. I raided the cupboard a bit to see what was inside, and he was deliciously furry. However, he was really intense and 'too much'. It's hard to explain, but that little voice inside me was sayin' "Gurl, don't go there." I've learned to listen to that voice more often these days, and I did, so no regrets.
Walking around Philly, I half expected to see a member of New Edition or at least someone from Bell Biv DeVoe. Or maybe Bobby Brown would come out of an SUV and beat me up, but no luck. Dammit. 'Poison' is still one of my favorite albums.
I had wisely packed my earplugs, so the snoring roomate was not a problem, and I got another good night of sleep in our wonderfully cold room. It was a good thing, as the rest of the day was hot and muggy. We played an A- and a B-side match, both of which were won. I played the entire B-side game, but wasn't as fast as I could have been as the calf was still tight. I learned to run with less of a stride, so could still go pretty fast. No spectacular plays on my part, but got one tackle and one short run with the ball. At one point I was right on the goal line with the ball, but didn't realize how close I was, and handed the ball back when I might have been able to make a try. 'doh!
Got back at around 9 last night despite trying to get home quicker. I was beat and was in bed at a reasonable hour, with yet another good 8 hours of sleep. All that sleep must have done my calf good, as it feels pretty good today. I was expecting it to be a solid flaming mass of tension today. Off to garden a bit and maybe get a workout in before D&D.
Posted by jimbo at 12:15 PM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2004
off to philly
I'm off to Philly for the evening, hopefully to play tomorrow in a match against the Philly Gryphons, their gay rugby team. The calf is doing better, but there's still a detectable pinch in there somewhere. Just hold out for one more game!
Posted by jimbo at 10:31 AM | Comments (2)
April 29, 2004
the face! not the face!!!
The head. Why is it always the head? Nothing else. No groin sprains, no shin splints, no muscle spasms. Just knocks to the head. Perhaps it is because I have a big head.
Last night at practice a teammate stomped on my face during a drill and did this to me. I felt his every cleat on my face. Later on I called him a douche bag and told him that all my hopes for getting laid this weekend were ruined because of him. He said sorry and hugged me. Awwww. We have sensitive straight guys on our team. They're cute.
But hey, if it maintains this cherry red color and doesn't turn ochre or puke yellow, I'm already totally accessorized for the Cherry 9 parties this weekend! I'll be on crack patrol (come on...the wolf tending the sheep) from Midnight to 2am Saturday night at Nation. I'm not expecting the work to be too demanding.
Happy Arbor Day! Yesterday we finally got our new tree for our tree box on the streetside. All of the rest of the trees on the blocks are maples. Our new tree is an elm. But at least it's alive. The last tree we got was Dead On Arrival, and when we called to tell them it was dead, they sent a person out to check the tree. Seeing lichen on the bark of the dead tree, they declared it was in fact alive, even though it had no leaves and its twigs snapped like dry matchsticks. Gotta love the DC Urban Forestry Administration.
Too bad the DC government isn't getting too much out of the Casey Trees Foundation, a local nonprofit that so far has done a much-needed inventory of the urban forest of DC. We are long overdue for some good urban canopy management, replacement of problem snag trees, and planting less invasive species whose roots go straight for your sewer lines. Oh yeah, and don't get me started on all the female gingko trees in this town. Another related link: American Forests.
Posted by jimbo at 9:43 PM | Comments (10)
April 28, 2004
somebody stop me
I cannot fall. I will not fail. I do not fear your bulk nor your strike.
Plus, I have good heath insurance now, so STEP OFF!
And why are my teammates off-sides? Yep, that's the Washington Monument in the background, and I didn't mess with the picture in Photoshop to put it there either. Pretty cool, eh? Planes from National Airport take off and land right over us when we're playing there, just like in that U2 video 'Beautiful Day'.
Posted by jimbo at 5:00 PM | Comments (8)
April 21, 2004
the legacy of princess di
All I'm sayin' is, even though the relationship between Princess Di and Prince Horseface wasn't the best, and her death was tragic, THANK GOD FOR HER DOMINANT HOTNESS GENES!!! Her legacy lives on in royal hotness. And jimbo isn't the only former water polo player, as we have learned that certain other Beaverhausen gurls were cute little water babies back in tha day too. But my time in the pool was short, once I discovered my stumpy little arms were no defense against long-limed ectomorphs. All they had to do is dunk me and they were gone with the ball.
Big let-down practice last night. I was cranky, people were cranky, I don't know. I was practicing on the B-side wing in a non-participating position with a backline with no experience. That sucked. Then the more experienced players began confusing the new players with complex John Madden-style plays, with confusing nicknames no less. This was delivered to the new players before spacing and orientation basics were taught. Basics like a defensive back line is flat, and an offensive back line arcs or is at an angle. And they were either paralyzed with confusion or didn't know I have played a few years in the backline, but they didn't listen to me, which pissed me off. And I'm worried we are going to repeat the mistakes we made several years ago, where advanced rugby plays, which are fine for experienced players, are taught to new players before the basics are taught. We spent a lot of wasted hours years ago trying to teach fancy plays without a basic foundation of things like catching and throwing. We jumped the gun big time like that years ago, and suffered for it. Said plays were never implemented as the ball never got past the inside center. I don't want to see time wasted like that again, so I need to remind some of the more enthusiastic backs that are pushing these to focus on the basics for the brand new players. I think they forget what it's like to start in a sport, or have no idea what being unathletic is like.
I'm going to see Hellboy at the Uptown tonight, which should be fun. I keep hearing that it was pretty good.
Posted by jimbo at 10:13 AM | Comments (4)
April 18, 2004
chad made me do it
I feel run over, hung over and sore today, but it was a fun weekend had by all. Friday was a bit crazed from running from work to get home and prep the house for my lovely visitors, followed by a date with a woofer that went a bit longer than expected. Great dinner at Tunnicliffe's (sp?) Tavern on the Hill, where another teammate manages. I rush home again to recieve Minxy and Sor from the Gotham rugby team.
We played an A- and a B-side match against the NY team. Sadly, I did not get the opportunity to smoosh Chad, the paragon of intensity, as he was on the A-side game. I played pretty well on wing in the B-side game, which was a little too close for comfort by halftime. I got my hands on the ball twice but was pushed out of bounds both times, but I did some good support to fast runners going for the goal line. Fitz and Will showed up for the first time and had a good time, and a certain Beaverhausen gurl was able to meet the Minx as well.
Then another notorious Gotham/Renegurls 3rd-half social, to go down again in infamy. Mitzhi showed up (this is my favorite pic of her for all time, hands down, a total profile pic if you ask me), as well as Chrisafer and some of the geek posse. By this time my bonk to the head was starting to show up, and is still as pretty today. Fitz and Will were having a good time too. I got to get to know a certain adorkable rugger from New York while trying to explain to him in a drunken haze that we are just as slutty as their team, it's just that we're more subtle about it. It's all about keepin' it on the down-low here in DC, at least until the beer starts flowing.
And it did. Suddenly Chad declared, "All the backs should take their shirts off!" So we did. People got more friendly with each other, and were pouring out the front door of the bar, mounting ruggers and scooters without their keys and similar tomfoolery.
Tonight I'll be goin' with Chrisafer to watch the latest phenom in karaoke, Mr. Coolrelax himself. Hopefully there'll be some pics, but I promised to respect anonymity, and I will, you'll see.
Posted by jimbo at 5:20 PM | Comments (7)
April 15, 2004
gettin' smacked around
I had a great practice tonight, or at least I thought I did. At least it felt good anyway. I was focused, made a few good tackles, got smacked around a bit and it felt good. That means I'm not shy about the tackles, I think, gettin' smacked around and not being shy about it. You sorta can't really play rugby and worry about gettin' smacked around. You sorta need to get smacked around with gusto, you know? Anyway, I had some good runs too. The highlight of the evening was tackling practice with super-tight bodied new cute guy with thick furry legs. There is also a new scruffy guy there too. And no uptight Republicans on the team told me how homosexuals need to behave tonight either, which made for a good practice. I tried as hard as I could to be an obnoxious homosexual, but nobody noticed or said anything, dammit.
Chad arrives tomorrow night. I'm all stocked up on Cap'n Crunch and Lactaid, so he should be a happy camper and well fed for Saturday's match.
My buddy Travis from high school back inna day (we were both in the Crips gang in our Wisconsin high school) sent me this link the other day. It's a pretty PDF document of homo demographic data for the District of Columbia. How a busy breeder dad of two boisterous red head kids found this is beyond me, but I digress. >; )
Anyway, it's interesting to note that I am approaching the age range demographic of major queer coupling. It is also interesting to note that although the population of DC is primarily African-American, the majority of people who claimed they are queer were white. This is explained by the 'down-low' phenomenon of the African-American gay male community, I'm guessing. According to the colorful map, I live in a very queer 'hood. The other queer 'hood is Capitol Hill. 19% of the queers in DC have children under 18 years old in their household. That would mean that they have either adopted, turkey basted, or have retained kids from their hetero relationships. They are raising children.
Posted by jimbo at 11:14 PM
April 6, 2004
ass melding
I survived practice this evening, and even had fun doing it. The sprinting and the running drills weren't too bad, but the telling part was my anaerobic recovery time, which is at a definite all-time low. You know your ae recovery is bad after a quick sprint to tackle or get the ball, then you have to do it again and the muscles in your legs just say "no." Jelly, much like jelly. At one point my glutes felt like they were morphing together into a single unit, which would be bad for future dates. But they just felt like it, they didn't really meld together as I had feared. It was just a cramp in my undersprinted ass.
I was surprised to hear more than a few "welcome backs" from the small group of players I know that are still on the team. I didn't think anyone had noticed. It was good to see Rai, who dubbed my car the "Escape Pod" because it looked like a Ford Escape and I used it to escape the Death Star during my breakup way back when, and he took me in for a few weeks.
It felt good to run and play with a purpose again. I just feel like a hampster on a wheel at the gym, and that gets old. I gotta exercise for a purpose, or it just isn't fun. There were at least 30 players, many of them quite good. The match against the NY team is in two weeks. One veteran said that we are going to beat them, but as I recall the last time they were pretty pissed that they lost, and I thought they put up a good fight. I don't think it will be an easy match, as they are hungry for a win against us. I'm hosting one of their members, Mr. Minxy, who I have never met but have been e-mailing for quite a while. I got him addicted to rugby like Whitney is to crack. Rugby is for poor people. We don't do that. Rugby is whack.
Fitz and Will: you have been summoned. You are encouraged to come to the match against the New York Gotcham Knights. It is high time you come to a match, and the team president says so too. If I play at all, it'll be on the B-side, which is fine according to my jelly ass' complaints at the moment. I'm currently waiting for my laundry to get done so I can take a shower without blasts of cold water during the warm wash cycle. Then I can wash off that familiar and friendly dirt-sweat-clover smell off me.
Posted by jimbo at 11:44 PM | Comments (2)
hamburger feet
Removed grumpy rant. It might have something to do with the fact that it's now afternoon and my coffee buzz has worn off.
Going to rugby practice tonight with Rai. It should be fun, but it should also be challenging to haul my extra poundage back and forth over the pitch. I should sleep well tonight, but I'm worried my pink virginal feet, no longer calloused from last season, will be raw meat tomorrow. Ugh.
Posted by jimbo at 3:00 PM | Comments (1)
March 18, 2004
latest rugby obsession
Pretty busy at work today, until I found pics of the captain of England's National rugby team, Lawrence Dallaglio. Holy shit...my new fucking blonde Italian rugby daddy. He's got it all to press my buttons: huge thighs, thinning hair, super-scruff potential, visible evidence of chest fur, and a badass attitude:
That would pretty much do it for me.
And on a related note: GO TERPS!
Posted by jimbo at 2:17 PM | Comments (16)
February 24, 2004
love and rugby
I'm happy to say that my mole-ridden dermis has been officially declared cancer-free. The doc said it was instead some common itchy back malady that happens a lot to people. He gave me some creams and salves to deal with it. I got my health, which is good. I'll go again a year from now, just like Kyan says to do on Queer Eye. And if you need a reference to an absolutely adorable dermatologist, let me know. Married, but cute as a button.
Yesterday I was having lunch with Chrisafer's partner Bubbles, and we were talkin' about dating, relationships, love and all that. It ocurred to me that dating a lot like rugby: if you're afraid to get hurt, you're not going to play a good match. You have to go into the game expecting to get hurt, with the reserves to take the hits. Sure, you might not get hurt, which makes for a more enjoyable post-match social and continued career in the game.
Injury was one of the reasons I decided to stop playing rugby. I think my game suffered after one too many cuts and bruises, and the fear of huge hospital bills and the possibility of not being able to run again without limping made me play scared and hesitant.
On a similar vein, I decided I should probably cut back on any thoughts of serious dating for a while, as I've found lately I'm not ready to take the hits and watch the cuts and bruises heal over and over again. I've got too many demanding issues on the plate right now like money, adjustment to the new job, trust, time, and grad school preparation. I believe if you're serious about growing together with someone, you can't play the game scared and hesitant. It makes for a bad match.
But my personal issues seem miniscule in comparison to the times. Our President is now actively and openly supporting a constitutional amendment that assures we do not have the same rights as other people. It's absolutely amazing and terrifying. It may not become a reality, and Bush bringing the issue to the forefront for political gain may work to our benefit in the end. But it still amazes me that a country that has gone through emancipation of slavery, liberation of women, and a supposed ethical superiority to other countries is going in this direction. Looking at Amnesty International's website, I see there are more grave concerns in the world, like child slavery, barbarism in Congo, global famine and AIDS. But I think the progression of equal rights for gays, lesbians and other human beings with alternate sexualities could be an example for the developing world.
Posted by jimbo at 2:13 PM | Comments (9)
December 27, 2003
blood, sports and HIV
I've been uninspired in terms of blog entries lately, perhaps because there's not much going on, which is a good thing. I'm just enjoying the quiet time around the house, working out and playing computer games. I'll probably go out tonight to celebrate my birthday into tomorrow though. I'm waay behind on movies, and wanted to see that Tim burton Fish movie, and of course LOTR. Just an added note: who was geeking out big time when the first LOTR movie came out? Just a reminder of who is always ahead of the curve on blockbuster geek movies.
I've always wanted to write an op-ed piece for the Washington Blade, as you know I have my opinions. However you usually have to be right on top of the subject and get the piece out quickly. I've been a little peeved by the statements made by Cirque du Soliel about firing their HIV+ aerialist. They now state that they are in fact willing to retain HIV+ employees as dishwashers and assistants.
I guess their ignorant assumption is that HIV transmission is possible from extended physical contact in acrobatic positions, and that cuts and other such potential transmissions is less likely in the dishwashing profession. I can tell you that I've cut myself just as much washing dishes at restraunts as I have cut myself playing rugby. When your hands are wet and soft and you're washing big knives and cleavers, it can get pretty gory.
Furthermore, our mostly gay team the Washington Renegades have been playing in the local mostly-straight Potomac Rugby Union for four years now, with no similar reactions from the straight teams in the union as Cirque du Soleil has espoused. I suppose it's a fallacy of an argument to compare rugby to the circus, but here I go.
We can assume there are HIV+ rugby players on our team, and possibly on the other teams as well. Rugby players, especially forwards, are in close contact throughout the 80-minute match. And we bleed a lot. Like totally spurting and gushing, and I have the scars to prove it. When we entered the local union, some concern was raised, and resonable measures were taken to address the concerns of HIV transmission in the sport. The referees will take an excessively bleeding player out of the match until his bleeding is staunched. No known cases of HIV transmission have occured due to rugby-related injuries or contact to date in our local union, or at world gay rugby tournaments.
So Cirque du Soleil is freaking out about acrobatic contact, during which there are far fewer breaks in the skin as there are in rugby. Maybe you'll get a minor abrasion while you're in some kind of acrobatic position, and maybe you'll get a cut from a bad fall. But the show or practice stops when that happens, right? So jimbo give a big 'pttttht!' to Cirque du Soliel for their weak and unenlightened position on HIV transmission during their shows and practices. The circus tradition may be hundreds of years old, but your health policies should not be so archaic.
Posted by jimbo at 11:58 AM | Comments (3)
December 5, 2003
cool renegurls pic
I'm currently working on finishing my last photo gallery from this Fall's Renegades rugby season. It's almost done and I'll provide a link at a later date. However, I found a rather artsy (by jimbo standards) action shot of a lineout against our match against the Marines. Check it out...it's desktop image-worthy.
Posted by jimbo at 9:54 AM | Comments (4)
October 23, 2003
last home game
Hey y'all...our last home match of the season will be at 1pm this Saturday at Colmar Manor Park in MD. Directions to the pitch can be found here. We'll be playing the Marines from Quanico base, and it's always an interesting match. Last year we scored many tries against them, and it's fun to watch them squirm when the queers score a point or two.
I'll be starting my new job on Monday!
Posted by jimbo at 12:08 PM
September 14, 2003
rugby weekend
A busy, busy end of the week. Thursday night I went out with Keith to the Lantern, and later on we were joined by Bubba. I had to make it a short night, as I had an interview the next day.
The interview was probably one of the toughest I've ever had, as it was in a university career center with a woman who specialized in job interviews and development. I felt like I was under a Vulcan mind probe most of the time, as her questions were exacting and difficult. I did fairly well I think, and the screening process is still ongoing, so we shall see.
Met up with Bubba and his host that night at Cobalt, but wasn't in the mood to dance much and there was a long drive ahead the next morning. Sure enough, me and those in my car were just in time for the match. I was suprised I was still slated to start, and I got to play the whole match. We didn't do as well as we could have, but it was fun as the pitch at Penn State was really nice and it was raining, which makes for a fun match.
On the drive back we got lost going in the wrong direction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, making the arrival time back into the District past Midnight. I didn't get as much sleep as I needed, and I was sore as hell for today's match near National Airport. I got to play a good portion of the match, which was more social in nature and was also fun.
Later on I had a big, well-deserved steak dinner with Gurl, and then some grocery shopping. I'm thoroughly beat today, and will be going to bed early for sure.
Posted by jimbo at 8:17 PM
September 5, 2003
swamp stench
Damn, I still smell like swamp gas today (and I did shower last night). Actually, it's the smell of algae, but that's like differentiating between birds and bats, so I digress.
Last night was a good practice, despite the mud and the concrete hazards. Of course, lighting conditions and the unsafe environment may have led to a bad injury to one beloved straight teammate, but what do you do? We must practice. Other teams are having a harder time of it, I hear.
Here's a gallery of pics from the rugby tournament out near Rehomo a few weeks ago. The one of our coach waving his arms is him doing the haka dance.
There's like a half dozen people I know coming into town this weekend for the rodeo and whatnot. Of course, no one's willing to make plans these days, so I will, and to hell with the rest of y'all. I will do my own thing, and you can join me if you want. You know how I feel about visitors: communicate early, schedule, follow through. It's that simple.
Scoured the various DC job websites this week...it was quiet at work but I only found about two jobs I applied for. My resume's up on USAJOBS, Monster, Hotjobs, craigslist, and all that. It's out there. However, I'm not doing a mass-application to any old job. I'm being picky this time. I have to, as I can't lie very well to myself it seems about a job I don't like. I have to like the job, period. But anyway, if you hear of anything, more eyes help me out a lot, and most jobs I get interviews for are through contacts.
Oooh...just downloaded Alicia Keys singing Prince's "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore". Shivers ran down my spine. And apparently there's a version of this song featuring Justin Timberlake? I'd spooge in my pants if I heard that.
Posted by jimbo at 10:48 AM | Comments (7)
May 14, 2003
not fat enough
One last rugby tournament for the spring, and then my Saturdays are free! This will mean sleeping in, cartoons, and long bike rides around town. And it's looking like it will be a mild summer here in DC - knock on wood. Anyhoo, there will be a rematch against the Marines from Quantico...last time we were very close to beating them, and it was sooo enjoyable watching them squirm when we scored tries. With the added confidence of a league win, perhaps we'll have the mojo to pull it through.
Last night at practice, knowing I had no business pushing our new scrum sled, I got on the back of it assuming they at least needed my weight on it and I could go for a ride at the expense of the forwards. It was deemed that I was "not fat enough" and exiled back to the field.
The big scary deadline/travel event at work, originally slated for after Memorial Day, has been delayed at least until August. On the one hand that means a normal, laid back summer for jimbo. On the other hand it may dent into the fall rugby schedule, but at the moment I don't seem to mind. While I thought I was ready for this work deadline, I guess I'll be even more ready for the delayed deadline.
Rhetorical question of the day: Why does everyone I know in NYC assume I should visit them, as opposed to the other way around? Do NYC residents assume none can resist the fabulous gravitational pull of the Big Apple? Come visit my ass in the ghetto.
Bumper sticker seen on the way to West Virginia this weekend:
"Take your kids hunting...so you won't have to hunt them down!"
- Ted Nugent
Posted by jimbo at 10:14 AM | Comments (2)
May 6, 2003
pic from last weekend's match
Here's a pic from last weekend's winning match. As you can see, my teammates were busy tackling the opposition, while I stood and watched. It was typical for my level of play for that match.
Posted by jimbo at 7:56 PM | Comments (1)
May 3, 2003
fear the tardle
Yee-Haw! The Renegades won our first match against a senior-level team in the Potomac Rugby Union. The final score against PAX River was 20-17. They got two easy goals on us right off the bat when we were in dizzy queen mode, but we got it together, mostly due to a well-trained bunch of forwards and good back line play as well.
Last night we raised over $3000 or so at the bachelor auction. It helped to have an experienced auctioneer, and a rather large crowd. Chrisafer, Gurl and the gurls were in attendance, as was The Tardle. I feared the Tardle, for his rage was focused against one guy wearing an 'England' shirt. I don't attempt to understand the rage of The Tardle, but I don't want to be on the wrong end of it.
Auspicious horoscope, concerning my last post:
You may have been wishing for some recognition and appreciation lately. At work, you may have had your eyes on a promotion. The day ahead will show you which path will be the most productive. In order to succeed, dear Capricorn, you have to plan everything carefully and focus on one goal. Mainly, you should be sure you have support for that goal. There's a long, hard climb ahead, but you're bound to make it!
Posted by jimbo at 7:33 PM | Comments (7)
May 1, 2003
i gotta get through this
I'm past the hump, almost to Friday. Gonna make it to work early tomorrow morning to meet the deadline. My document's full of info, but will it make the cut? Still either in denial of the quality of my product or I actually know what I'm doing.
Promoting the bachelor auction yet again...it's tomorrow, with the addition of my buddy Keith.
Much applause to Jocko's treatise on camp and being a gay man. I'm in agreement, happy to be able to be who I am, not how I was told to be in the smoky bars of Central Wisconsin years ago.
I don't know what's up with me and rugby these days...I get cranky right when I walk into practice. Oversensitive most of the time, I swear I get more salt than sugar from the coach and teammates during play. I get snappy and defensive, which I think pushes others away. I can't be that bad, I make good plays, but sometimes I get the feeling the coach and some teammates have given up on me. Isn't trying enough? Yelling and negative feedback is what kept me from team sports as a kid, and I'm not going to put up with it today. I guess I need positive feedback more than I know. When I was in cross country and track and field, I never had to put up with much criticism. It was just me and my running shoes or my pole vaulting.
I'd like to think three years with the sport have added up to something, but maybe I'm in a slump. Or maybe I was hyping up the season for more than it would be. After a year away, I was terribly excited to start again, but I started several notches lower than I thought I would. I've found it's not like riding a bike or skiiing...you can't just get back on again right where you got off.
I also keep getting the feeling that we're not the team that we used to be. I'm glad we're more focused, and our coach is better most of the time. Perhaps the days of our team being more of a social fraternity is over, but I miss the camraderie that I think has been missing. I don't feel like I know most of the people I play with, or I'm not interacting like I should. Insular, impenetrable cells abound. I'll give it another fall season to see how I do and how the team evolves this year.
Maybe it's been my work schedule combined with the game. I've moved mountains to make it to practice when I can, and have rearranged weekend schedules to be able to play, which is most important to me. Perhaps I'm just burnt out, as I have little time for friends, dating, gardening and other things that are important to me. More on this as I process what I'm thinking.
Posted by jimbo at 11:18 PM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2003
faux flanker
Today we played a disappointing match against UMBC and UHSUSHS or something like that. They were great teams to play against, but it seemed like the Renegades had a limited amount of energy and players to spare. We didn't lose by much, but it seemed that the points that were tried against us despirited many of the players. It sucks when you're playing eagerly and it seems your teammates have given up. I wasn't all that either, but had a few good plays run and even got to play flanker in the front row for about 20 minutes, which was interesting. I'll stay in the back line if I can in the future.
Here's one fruit of my labors: a photo gallery of this season's events and matches for our team.
Posted by jimbo at 11:03 PM
April 25, 2003
rent-a-ruggurl
Posted by jimbo at 10:54 AM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2003
a Renegades win
Moods have improved now that the sun is out and I got to play quite a lot outside during our match against the Boston gay rugby team, the Ironsides. We won, the final score was something like 3-48, and I almost got a try. However, thinking that an opponent was right behind me, I passed it to a teammate and the try was lost. Bummer, it woulda been my first try in a 15s match. Local Straight-Acting, Down-To-Earth types came out of the woodwork to watch and socialize after the match as expected.
Here's a pic of me from yesterday's match taken right before the two large gentlemen in the pic gave me a FREE spinal adjustment right when I got the ball. Thanks guys...even with insurance coverage an appointment with the chiropractor can be pricey and time-consuming.
"MOLEYMOLEYMOLEY!" I'm very white, I have a big head and lots of moles.
Posted by jimbo at 11:44 AM | Comments (4)
April 5, 2003
canolis and creamed
Last night I went to Camden Yards again with Fitz and Will and some of their friends. A good time was had by all, although it was a bit chilly. Fortunately, none of us were all that interested in the game, and since the tickets were free, we went off to gorge ourselves on canoli products at Vacarro's in Baltimore's Little Italy area. Mmm...cheesecake.
Today I trekked way the hell out to Winchester to play a match. I sucked, we sucked in general, we lost. My head was up my ass most of the time, but I did get one good tackle as fullback. In the congeniality match I got some scrumhalving in, but was pretty pooped by the end of it. Time for more running!
A broadband apology to all my peeps out there I used to have lunch with and hang out with and all that. I've been a recluse, needing whatever time I have left to regenerate and recharge. I've been working six days a week, many times outside the beltway, which adds to my time away from myself and friends. Hopefully the weekend work schedule will end soon. I'll have to try to figure out how to do quick lunches or something soon too, but no more treks out to Capitol Hill for lunch, OK?
Posted by jimbo at 10:39 PM | Comments (1)
March 29, 2003
gurls vs grrrlz
It was the gurls versus the grrrlz today somewhere in Silver Spring. We played much better against them than last year, and they put up a good match. I don't know the score but we beat 'em and had lots of fun. I got to play both outside center and scrumhalf and did well with both positions. I got quite a few good runs in, and kept my head on my shoulders as scrumhalf. Here's a pic of me and our Scottish teammate after the match. It was good to play again and I hope to get some game pics soon.
Posted by jimbo at 9:12 PM | Comments (8)
March 28, 2003
stingers
Tomorrow we play the Maryland Stingers in a friendly scrummage. It's a women's team, and I guess it would be redundant to say we were playing a lesbian rugby team. Wouldn't it be my luck if I made my first try in a 15s match and have to perform my Zulu duties in front of the women's team. More news on that tomorrow, unless it rains. That would be fine, as I have a ton of chores to do.
Posted by jimbo at 5:23 PM | Comments (4)
March 14, 2003
bring it on
Yo, here's a shout-out to my little buddy who I'm so proud of:
Yo! Pump it up yo pump it up yo pump it up you pumpit!
You da gurl you own da worl' and grab the prize and take it!
You may be small and you may fall but ya gotta git up and shake it!
So don't be afraid, you got it made and you da gurl and you'll make it!
(Jimbo performs a triple sow-cow and a shushunova backflip and splitz for you.)
On the down side, I won't be playing rugby this weekend, due to work commitments this Saturday. Piss and vinegar! I should be able to play next Sunday though.
Last night during our muddy practice at Meridian Hill, one of my teammates complimented me during a rucking drill: "Wow, Jimbo, you really smell nice."
Why thank you. The benefits of showering BEFORE practice. Not everyone goes by this rule.
Posted by jimbo at 3:28 PM | Comments (6)
March 2, 2003
predictable
Jimbo3DC: Hey, saw your profile on bigmuscle.com...I play rugby too.
ClosetedRugbyStud: cool
Jimbo3DC: I'm back at playin' scrumhalf after a year away from the team.
ClosetedRugbyStud: nice.
Jimbo3DC: Which DC team are you on? I play for the Renegades.
ClosetedRugbyStud: hey, i really can't chat right now. i'm working on some work stuff. maybe we can chat later. sorry
Muh huh...I'm sure I'll hear from you real soon, but I'll make sure I won't say hi to you around your buddies during the match.
Posted by jimbo at 9:50 PM | Comments (8)
February 24, 2003
boobhopping
So like we did this circuit training at rugby practice tonight and it's almost Midnight and practice has been over for an hour and I'm like still totally wired and I also took a nap right before practice so like I'm not gonna sleep or anything anyway so one of the stations at our circuit training was like these hemispheres of gymnic balls cut in half so they look like two big boobs coming out of the floor of the gymnasium and you hop from one to the other on one foot and I was like totally good at it from my core body workouts and shit and there's like a TON of guys coming to practice and it looks really good this year and people are already in pretty good shape so I'm really looking forward to our game in two weeks and I hope I don't have to fucking work that day because I'm really psyched to play and since the old scrumhalf hasn't been showing up to practice and he's all flabby anyway so maybe I'll get to be scrumhalf when we play UMBC they're like so fun cuz they're still in college and even though they aren't too woofy they're really cool so it should be fun.
Posted by jimbo at 11:51 PM | Comments (4)
February 21, 2003
more at 11
On deck...there's a beer bar thingy tonight at Windows at 9pm I'll be workin' at. Come on over the beer is cheap and it's fer a good cause. My notes say there'll be some other kinda charity for our team at Titan on Sunday at 8:30, but I won't be there.
Backing up...I had soup in a bowl with Pixie Darling the other day. T'was fun.
And now...meet Matt. Dang it all if he ain't woofy, he's artsy too. He used to play on the rugby team, and one of the rarer artsy alterna-types in town. There aren't many creative types in DC, I must note again.
Moving forward...maybe there'll be rugby practice on Saturday, weather permitting.
One question...what chick/group re-did the dance remix for Garth Brooks' "The Dance"? Me want badly...must do search by artist. Jimbo recommends: 'Point of View' by db boulevard for that ultra-cracked out trancey feel raise yer hands in the air sorta song.
Posted by jimbo at 3:37 PM | Comments (3)
January 12, 2003
rugby jerseys on sale
Ruggers take note: Old Navy's "Rugby Bunch" jerseys are on the clearance rack for $10!!! I got a few for practice, as pick-up games tend to be hard on your favorite 'ol gym tees.
Grrr...curse these mood-moderating medications. I can't wait to be off of them in June or so when I'm adjusted to my new job. (Don't worry, I'll get off them as the doctor directs, not cold turkey.) I started taking them when I was a total mess while unemployed. I'm affected heavily by their side-effects, however. Other things are moderated along with emotional ups and downs. While men are still 'interesting', the interest in sex has waned significantly. I suppose this could be seen as a good thing, as I should be focusing on the new job and all, but it's pretty annoying when sacked up with someone. Not only is the interest not there, but Mr. Willy is not interested either, and doesn't shoot his stuff. Much communication is necessary to keep the partner's self-esteem high as it should be. It's not you, it's the medication! Even the gingko doesn't really help. Oh well, I'll just wait it out I guess.
Posted by jimbo at 3:18 PM | Comments (2)
December 13, 2002
adios woofy mike
'sob!' Our woofy, smelly, hypermasculine straight teammate Mike is leaving the team to go spend time with his rugby-playin' girlfriend in Japan. Going away party is Sunday, and I must maintain my composure, lest I break down into a tearful wreck at his departure. He's sweaty, smelly, chews tobacco, drinks tremendous amounts of beer, belches a lot and scratches his balls constantly, but we love him. After releasing flatulence during practice, he'll often comment "That's a ripper!" The nail in his proverbial hetrosexual coffin was when I was in a scrum with him, and smelled the familiar putrid scent of Old Spice. No queen ever uses Old Spice. He's a breeder, end of story.
Some of the rookie gurls on the team inevitably hit on him during the post-match socials when they get sloppy drunk, and he's man enough to politely decline, or just respond "No fuckin' way!" without getting hysterical. That's so cool, and typical of the other straight guys on our team.
You may roll your eyes, as do some of the less-sagacious hangers-on in our pack, and say "Honey, puh-LEEZ! The only reason they're on your team is to get blown." On the contrary, most of the handful of breeders on our team play with us either because the practices are conveniently located, as they live in the DuPont area, or because a gay buddy of theirs asked them to come check us out. One of the founding breeder Renegades, Pat ("Daddy"), confessed to me why he played with us as opposed to PAC or some other local team. "You guys have fun, you're not too serious about it." Well, we've tried to get more 'serious' lately, but we do know how to have fun, and we have the most fabulous collection of match rugbygear in the Potomac Rugby Union. Our post-match socials are also some of the best in the league. Our team constitution, excruciatingly written by a crack team of anal-retentive lawyer gurls, is now being used by USA Rugby as a model charter. Our skills and fitness levels may need improvement, but we've got our club shit together.
I digress. Mike served as our team captain this season, and was one of the few to work so very hard to get our mojo, fitness and teammanship up to par, and we had an impressive showing this year at the end of the fall season because of it. Despite his breeder status, he's considered "one of the gurls". We'll miss you Mike! (Side note: not missing an opportunity to schmooze for a job, it was Mike's job I interviewed for on Monday. This 'lil job vulture doesn't miss a beat!)
I made it through the unemployment office yesterday in a mere three hours! Turns out my pool of money from my airport webmaster job is still there until February, which is a good thing. Went out with Gurl and Jon last night to Shirtless Men Drink Free, and had a good time. I was "squirrelly", in my own words, and had to get out of the house. Conversation heard between two geeks (who shall go unnamed) last night:
G: "So, you wanna go see Star Trek X on Wednesday?"
J: "But isn't Enterprise on that night? We can't miss Enterprise!"
Priorities, priorities.
Phone interview today for the Wisconsin Historical Society web job. Huge website, lots of potential, and very demanding. They definitely have their shit together, and I was sure to ask about the stability of the position in these changing times. It would really suck if I got there and then the position was "frozen" due to the new Governor's whims. Warning to all job seekers: ask these questions about current budget crisis and job stability. It could come back to bite you later.
Posted by jimbo at 2:02 PM | Comments (3)
October 13, 2002
a renegades win!
Yee-haw! The Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club won it's first match against a local "straight" team! I think the final score was one or two tries (goals) to nothing. Yee-haw! We did win against a very fresh Gotham RFC from New York, but they had just started, and it was more of a recreational match. Earlier this spring, the Washington Poltroons smooshed the Renegades about 50-something to zip, to put today's win against them in perspective. Today the boys played a hard match, and deserved the win. They played as a team and had their mojo throughout the entire match. Bummer I wasn't playing, but it was a fine, cool, wet day to watch a rugby match.
I tore down the garden yesterday, and took some pretty digital cam pics of the decorative gourd harvest. Free seasonal desktop image soon to come once the uploading for Moveable Type works again. Plus, stay tuned for some gratuitous beefcake pics from the upcoming hottie action film, The Transporter.
Posted by jimbo at 7:40 PM | Comments (1)
September 4, 2002
cancellcations
On that note, due to the baseball strike cancellation, Shane and I will be seeing some of this at Camden Yards in Baltimore this Sunday.
Posted by jimbo at 12:10 PM | Comments (7)
August 29, 2002
rugby rowdy
Hmm...I don't think this is the image my team is trying to foster amongst the recruits.
Posted by jimbo at 4:39 PM | Comments (1)
August 28, 2002
haka
Here's the lyrics to the Maori haka dance. It's a dance/song often performed by the New Zeland All Blacks rugby team before their matches, inducing pure liquid testosterone to spew out of their nipples before the match:
Ka mate ! Ka mate ! I die ! I die !
Ka ora ! Ka ora ! I live ! I live !
Ka mate ! Ka mate ! I die ! I die !
Ka ora ! Ka ora ! I live ! I live !
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru This is the hairy person
Nana nei i tiki mai Who fetched the Sun
Whakawhiti te ra And caused it to shine again
A upa ... ne ! ka upa ... ne ! One upward step ! Another upward step !
A upane kaupane whiti te ra ! An upward step, another.. the Sun shines !!!
Hi !!!
Hi. I personally like line five of the song. Our coach is from New Zeland, by the way.
Yaaay! It's raining today! A lot! The supposed leak in the air conditioning unit is actually a roof leak. I'm debating wether or not to call the roomate, who's in Provincetown at the moment. Not much we can do about it at the moment.
Crap. We lost the bid for the 2012 Olympics. Not only would it have been cool, but it would have meant a lot of jobs for the area during a very grim economic period. I can totally see myself working on some organizational committee.
In other DC news, I'll have to make sure I vote for our current mayor Anthony Willams on Sept. 10. The dork hired some moron who forged signatures for his campaign petition. Why on Earth would anyone feel the need to forge signatures for such a popular mayor? So Mayor Williams was disqualified being on the ballot, and must now be a write-in. He was predicted to be a shoe-in, but now some very scary Marion Berryesque candidates are running on the ticket validly.
I am of two minds on this subject. On the one hand I'm proud to have seen this city improve by leaps and bounds under a more competent mayor. However, housing prices and rent have skyrocketeted, and now it's almost as bad as San Francisco and New York City. If it wasn't for my roomate, I really don't know how much I'd be paying for rent right now. As it is, I pay $750 for a room. I should never have left that cheap basement apt. I used to live in.
So if another incompetent cult of personality crackhead gets elected as mayor, businesses will leave the District once again, the quality of service will plummet, and with it the housing prices and rent. That will mean less obnoxious yuppies, strollers, Jennifers, Chandras and Monicas as well (they flee in terror under the threat of the ghetto). The feeble DC groove that has since disappeared will return.
Aaaah...I visit Larry the chiropractor today after a long hiatus. I needed to go weeks ago, but due to my cheap-ass insurance, I had to wait a minimum of 10 days for pre-approval. This makes so much sense when you're in spinal agony.
Phil tells me some of my blog entries have been cut off. Sometimes my entries seem to only go as far down as the links on the right sidebar. Does anyone else have this problem? Do let me know...I'm trying to figure out this bug.
Posted by jimbo at 10:22 AM | Comments (28)
August 22, 2002
tournament
Rugby players, even straight ones, are just as bad as drag queens when it comes to promptness. It's Thursday, I leave for Rehoboth tomorrow morning, and we still don't know many details about the tournament in Lewes Beach. I guess I will pack all my gear and just expect to get up early on Saturday morning and go to the park. I'll whore with Western Suburbs if nobody shows up, or just be a whore that evening at Cloud 9 if there's no tournament. Julian is spinning Saturday night! He's a cutie and spins fluffy music. There is a need to flash my ripped abs at Poodle Beach...my honey pot's on fire yet again. I'll be staying with my buddy Tim at their beachouse. Hopefully it won't be filled with pickled cocktail queens the whole time.
I went to Georgetown last night to buy a few necessities before working out. I can't stand Georgetown. Visiting Georgetown is the best way to come to DC and not experience anything that characterizes the city. No one in Georgetown is from DC, none of the businesses are local, and it's noisy and crowded. It's like visiting another dimension. If you come to DC, avoid Georgetown and stick with Eastern Market, Adams Morgan or especially the U Street corridor (where I live) which has some history linked to the local populace, rather than a bunch of ephemeral imports.
APA's annual convention is going on right now, and this place is a ghost town. Leaving at 4! Mmm...bye! Nothing to do, and tired from being up too late last night.
Earlier this week the weatherman promised a respite from this fucking heat. Yet it's back to the mid- to upper- 90s today again. Grrr. Grass is dead, chunks of crap in the air, and everything stinks and needs a bath outside. According to da man, we're so deep into a drought that we're 7" in the hole (not bad when thought of in other contexts), and would need a tropical storm to lounge off the coast for at least two weeks. Dude, get your shit together, please.
mmm...scruffy distressed limber dancing gap man
I am a sucker for a good dancer. Dance like that for me and I'm enchanted.
Posted by jimbo at 11:15 AM
August 21, 2002
tard pills
What I don't get with some of the guys on my team is this tendency to freak out about skills and plays at the last practice before a tournament or match. Honey, if you don't have your shit together by now, it's a bit too late. Don't panic, there's no point. It's sorta like all the straight people in the gym who are only just now 'getting fit for the beach'. Honey, that gut's not going away by next weekend unless you spend the days between then and now with Tina. The Gurls were workin' on their 6-packs in April, and look at how fierce they are now!
Anyway, where was I? Someone must have distributed free 'tard pills before practice, because experienced players were throwing the ball to no one, dropping, or otherwise volunteering to be the next one to board the short bus. You could not distinguish them from the brand new players. Tourney's this weekend at the beach, see you there, with mojo or not! I hope it's not hot as hell. Considering how my honey pot is already bursting into flame, I must focus my chi on the game and not on rugby players' legs. Must...focus...
You know you're on a gay rugby team when: someone messes your hair up in a ruck, so you wipe some sweat off your body and run your wet hands through your bouffant to re-activate your hair gel.
Posted by jimbo at 10:42 AM | Comments (3)
August 7, 2002
rugby kickoff party tonight
Hey, it's the 2002 Renegades Fall Season Kickoff party on Thursday! See you there.
Posted by jimbo at 11:29 PM
August 6, 2002
tourney pics
The webmaster of the Renegurls site finally posted the photo gallery from the San Francisco tourney trip that I created. Enjoy! This one is my favorite, because of the nice smiles on the nice guys in the picture.
Posted by jimbo at 5:03 PM | Comments (3)
July 19, 2002
head-bangin' action
The back of my neck aches really bad. I can't bend it backwards much nor to either side. All I can do is look down at my shoes. No, it's not sore from that.
Maybe I shouldn't have rammed my head into Tony's gut last night at practice for being an asshole. Sure, he's one-hundred pounds bigger than me with anger management issues, but he doesn't need to be stiff-arming people during a friendly practice game of touch rugby. So he requested that I "bring it on", so I did. Head-charging people with several years of Army melee combat experience is pretty dumb, and needless to say I was in the dirt in a sturdy headlock in a few minutes. Despite my brother's tutelage and having used me as a practice dummy as a child, wrestling was never my fort.
I sincerely doubt he behaves that way amongst straight people. He's one of a string of people I've met who are total assholes to their fellow queers, but polite and civil amongst breeders. It screams of deeply internalized homophobia...'those people don't deserve my respect, since I'm not like them'. Mentally and emotionally he has not accepted himself as part of a community, and thus doesn't need their respect in return. I wouldn't mind him being overly critical with the newcomers, but he himself hasn't shown much improvement in a year with the team. Sounds like another jihad needs to take place...
Check out this word: unctuous. It means slimy, soapy, covered with unguent, or proclaiming from on high. Jimbo often falls in the latter category of the word.
Posted by jimbo at 3:45 PM
July 13, 2002
maximum overwoof
I played really well today, thanks to some unexpected focus. For the first time in a rugby match, I did not have to conciously concentrate on the match instead of the woofers on the pitch. Usually I have some sort of mantra that makes me focus on the game, which I did not have to recite today.
I make a try (goal) in the first game which helped determine a win, and played like an animal for the other 5 games that we played. My randomly selected team consisted mostly of forwards in excess of 230#, which meant quick and small jimbo got a lot of opportunity to be where the ball was. In one game where I took at least 4 bell-ringin' hits from opponents while I had the ball, my larger teammates instructed me to let them take hits like that. Aww...that was sweet, guys.
We made it to the final qualifying matches and ended up in 3rd place out of 14 teams.
In this event with randomly assigned teams, the eight Renegades in the matches were dispersed throughout the 14 teams, which probably does far more to further the cause of gay understanding to the suburbanites than any HRC campaign. We meeted, greeted, socialized and worked together as a team. Get out of the ghetto and on to the pitch!
>: P'
Oh, in one scary scenario, a rabid raccoon wandered out of the woods in broad daylight towards the pitches. Animal control was called to the scene after Chewbacca hit it on the head with a shovel and dropped it into a trash barrel.
Posted by jimbo at 9:56 PM
July 9, 2002
cranky pills
OK, that's it...no more Ripped Fuel, otherwise known to me as Rugby Crack. I took a tablet this morning in anticipation of a full day followed by workout and then rugby practice. But just like every time I took it in San Francisco before a day of rugby matches, I'm cranky, irritable, intolerable and downright grouchy. I've finally figured out that it's those damn pills. I guess ephedrine and caffeine just isn't a nice combo for jimbo. And to think they recommend taking two pills. If one turns me into a bitch, two would be bad news for the rest of the world.
Posted by jimbo at 2:19 PM | Comments (2)
June 30, 2002
sf pride
On Thursday after training we had a lovely mixer cruise on the SF bay. Got to meet guys from all the teams and saw a nice sunset.
Friday was the first day of our tourney. We had an embarassing loss to an unexpectedly good rookie team from LA. Didn't score a try, but we were ready for the London Steelers in the next match, the team to beat. We didn't beat them, but played a good game of rugby. Our final match against the San Francisco Fog's B side was won festively.
Saturday we played the Seattle Quake in an intense match that ended in a 0-0 sudden death. We won and the very hyper Renegades were terribly glad for the win. Our final match against the SF Fog B team ended in a loss, but it was a good match with us up against their goal line for much of the game.
That evening we all celebrated at a post-tourney social in an art gallery, which has probably never seen so many drunken, naked men in a long time. I wanted to go out dancing but after a day in the sun, drinking and rugby I was not up for it in the least.
Today was the Pride march and festival. I initially intended to just watch, but after the 23rd leather/circuit boy float with disco music and bouncing pectorals, I decided to join the parade in the rugger contingent rather than be bored by it. The festival was overwhelming, and I think I only scratched the surface before retiring to my host's wonderfully quiet home. I'm sufficiently Proud for the rest of the year, thank you.
Going to socialize with my host tonight and head out tomorrow morning to return to the refreshing structure and protocol of Washington, DC. Ten years ago I visited San Fran and stayed with a friend. Even though I had just come out at the time, I had decided that SF was "too gay". Today my opinion of San Francisco remains the same, and I'm happy to be living in a city that has a large population of gay men in it by chance, rather than by design. San Francisco is a beautiful, livable city, but it's too much for jimbo.
Posted by jimbo at 9:34 PM
June 26, 2002
SF update
It certainly ain't Code Red here, it's breezy and chilly. Wish I had brought some warmer clothes, but my host has provided extra stuff to wear.
Last night about four Renegades had arrived, but most of the Spartans and Steelers were at the meet-n-greet at the Pilsner. Much beer was consumed, and it was good to see everybody again. It sounds like the tournament is more of an event than the Pride celebration, and judging by the buzz in the air there should be a good crowd, making the matches intense. The tourney got a front page caption in the main SF paper, and top billing in the weekend section.
Today many of us went on a fun trolley tour of the city, followed by a boat trip to Alcatraz. Tonight is the pre-party at the Eagle, and tomorrow training and a dinner.
There's definitely a different vibe here than in DC. Can't walk a block without smelling pot, and there's lots of guys here with Tom Selleck/Chuck Norris style mustaches.
Posted by jimbo at 6:27 PM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2002
remembering
I remember this guy. I remember going to the emergency room in a truck with him. I remember his dislocated shoulder and my split chin. I remember him singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" for the guys from Buenos Aires.
I remember my neighbor, the pilot, walking his dog across the street with his partner. I remember September 11, 2001. I remember the mass exodus of people from National Airport. I remember driving away from the Pentagon, watching it smoke in the rear-view mirror. I remember watching my neighbor moving his partner's belongings into a U-Haul truck.
There may be scant blogging going on while I'm away at the rugby tournament in San Francisco. I'll try to keep y'all posted, but we'll see if I can find a 'pooter while I'm over there.
Posted by jimbo at 7:56 PM
June 22, 2002
who's yer scrumhalf?
Well, our only other scrumhalf just got his foot smooshed yesterday playing soccer, so it's unlikely I'll be doing fullback duty (heh heh). Today my head was clear and I was barking orders like a scrumhalf should, and it felt right.
After some thought, the idea of a hottie stalkee referencing system is a bad idea. DC is not like littleminx's NYC. By now I'm probably only one degree separated from any stalkee on the reference list, and in this town word gets around.
Spending the afternoon chillin' out, havin' jimbo time before the roomate returns. I need some down time after this week, and before next week's craziness.
Posted by jimbo at 4:21 PM
June 21, 2002
fullback?
Last night at rugby practice the coach had me playing fullback. Fullback? I am a teensy, wee slip of a man, a mere buck-fifty...no match for an onrushing forward intent on making a try. I thought I was just filling an empty space, but after practice, he iterated that because I can catch, run and tackle, he wanted me to have some experience with the position before the tournament next week. Apparently the guy who usually fills the position on our team is known to "expire" early, and hasn't been to practice lately. I'm actually counting on the current scrumhalf to "expire" early as well. He claims to run 2-4 miles a day, but his drinking habits and sagging gut tell me something else.
Anyhoo, I don't know enough about American football or soccer to make any comparisions, but in rugby the fullback is the last guy on the defense to stop an offensive guy with the ball from making a try (goal). He's usually big and fast. In a defensive game, the fullback gets beat up a lot. In an offensive game, he's frequently bored. It will depend on how the games go, but I'll be sure to catch that goddamn ball and kick it right back into their part of the field ASAP. I'll be sure to gnash my mouthguard and get ready for the hits.
Posted by jimbo at 9:29 AM | Comments (1)
May 19, 2002
gravelly point
Today we played a rugby match against the Washington Poltroons Old Boys RFC at Gravelly Point, a field near National Airport (hisss!). An Old Boys team are usually more out for the fun in the game, but they're usually older and very experienced. Regardless, we played well as a team, but I can't say much about my individual playing. Perhaps it was the upset stomach last night caused by two liters of Pepsi and General Tso's Chicken ingested during D&D that kept me awake and spewing until 2am.
Anyhoo, for them it's all about the game, so few were injured and we all had a good time. We went over to the marina between the airport and the Pentagon, and it was kinda cool hanging out drinking beer within sight of the Pentagon.
Tomorrow's my last free day before starting a three month or so temp gig at the American Psychological Association. It should help pay the bills until a more lucrative tech job appears on the horizon.
Seamus, Lou and I will be going to Annapolis tomorrow to watch to watch 1,000 eager, screaming, shirtless U.S. Naval Academy plebes charge toward a 21-foot grey monument. They attempt to climb the lard-covered obelisk as thousands of spectators watch with the hopes that they complete the task quickly. This event at the U.S. Naval Academy is known simply as "Herndon" or the "Plebe Recognition Ceremony". It is reportedly one of the most homoerotic Federally-funded event to be seen in the world. Sometimes it takes them two hours to climb the phallic obelisk, piling on top of each other to accomplish the task. I'll give you a full report tomorrow. Pray for blistering hot weather.
Posted by jimbo at 7:10 PM | Comments (1)
May 12, 2002
havre de grace
Having acquired some cheap insurance, I was able to play in a rugby tournament with three other teams in our league yesterday. I'm way outta shape and feel it today, so I'm also looking forward to getting back to weight training.
I only got to play my favorite position for one half of a match. Scrumhalving is more my thing than playing a wing or center in the back line. I'm better suited at directing play during the match than I am being part of the defense. I had some good tackles and some bad play choices. I've got to learn to run with the ball when I get it rather than play hot potato.
We had one team all frazzled as we were at their end of the field several times. The ref was one who allowed all sorts of dirty play, and during one tackle the guy was roughing me about far longer than necessary. When dirty play transpires and the ref doesn't see it, the only way to stop it is to give it back, so I took a swing at the guy who tackled me, but missed. He feigned suprise, but stopped being such a dick for the rest of the game. My head hit the ground pretty hard during one tackle, and was a bit woozy for the rest of the day.
Yaaay, my last shift at the Green Lantern was last night. Now I'll get back to some normal sleep patterns in anticipation for some temp work during normal business hours. My attitude should improve with restful nights of sleep.
Posted by jimbo at 1:16 PM | Comments (2)
April 13, 2002
manchester pics
Pictures from the January rugby clinic in Manchester, England are now posted here. Some others from a tournament in Richmond, Virginia are here.
Gotta work tomorrow while the Renegades play the NYC rugby team. They stopped by the Lantern while I was working the door tonight. What they may lack in skill they'll surely make up in size...them's big boys!
Posted by jimbo at 3:42 AM