Recently in sports Category
New post, put up over here.
Again, please don't change your URL bookmarks and stuff like that. I'm still waiting for Webmistress to point stuff in the right direction....
I spoke with TJ the other day on the phone, and I'm told he's OK but otherwise very busy:
I've had the chance to follow a little bit of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell hearings and listening to some of the politicians take their ridiculous stands on the issue in order to preserve their votes just steams me up. That and the usual comparisons to gays to social ills like alcoholism and tattoos. Still, there were a few sober folks standing up for the removal of the policy, which is long overdue to be removed. It angers me that our insistence to be equal taxpaying citizens always seems to be on trial, whether it's for marriage or the ability to serve our country like other Americans.
And more figureheads are proposing criminialization of the gay within our national borders as opposed to exporting the idea to Uganda. It's almost too ridiculous to take seriously, but their statements show their true colors. They won't be happy until we're put away, and they will try to thwart any incremental steps towards equality no matter what compromises they say they'll agree to, like full marriage vs. civil partnerships. Every day it becomes more apparent that they really don't want us recognized as legitimate human beings. We will always be perceived by such people as less than they are.
Perhaps the closing of Lambda Rising after 35 years serving the gay community was premature:
It almost seems like the forces against us are more vicious and mobilized than they were when I came out in the 90s, I hope in reaction to them realizing that more good people understand that we are human beings.
Our fourth snowstorm approaches, and they say this one is gonna be a doozy. But I hope to be out of town by the time it hits, as I'll be off to the Poconos mountains near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for some snowboarding with this group. Hopefully it will go better than the last time I went on a big group outing. This time I'm gonna focus on the powder, not the meat market and maybe I'll have a better time. Sadly I'll be missing the Tom Goss (also from Wisconsin!) and Matt Alber concert here in DC. Both are mighty woofy and talented.
I stole this image off Joe.My.God's blog some time last summer. The photo makes me smile:
I just purchased my tickets for the 20th Night of 1,000 Stevies event at Highline Ballroom on May 14th. I'm not yet sure I'll be going in Stevie Nicks drag, but I am going to start work on the greatest sequined rhinestoned silk-gauzed tambourine mankind has ever seen. It's going to be a fucking artifact when I'm done, I promise you all.
So last night's Grammy Awards show was more entertaining than previous shows. Well, at least the first half of it was, but the second half was a snoozer and I felt embarrassed for some of the performers. Like the aforementioned Stevie. Girl, who was that off-key performer you were singing with? They kept mentioning that other artist and I've never heard of her and I certainly wasn't impressed. And she keeps getting awards and I don't understand why. Gaga was as crazy as expected, and her duet/medley with Elton John was brilliant, but she's gonna have to shift her disco-schtick soon as it's getting predictable. And why did Beyonce have to ask for United Nations peacekeeping troop assistance in her coreography? And why don't she ever perform 'Single Ladies' live? Is it too hard to perform live? And gurl don't you ever, EVER touch an Alanis song ever again! That was heresy.
The big surprise hit of the evening was Pink and her aerialist act - WHILE SHE SANG. That was amazing, simple, beautiful and elegant with no shocking pyrotechnics, costumes or U.N. troops. While everyone was trying to out-fierce The Ga, Pink came in quietly and took the evening by suprise. GO TEAM PINK.
Plans are in motion to migrate this blog to a new content management system, most likely Wordpress. I've enjoyed Moveable Type over the years but their comment SPAM defenses have weakened of late. I've been flagging dozens of SPAM messages every day and they just won't let up. They make the occasional real comment from crazy fake bloggers seem like a cakewalk, but I just can't take it anymore. I might just start from scratch if migrating the content is a pain. I will have to re-block aforementioned blog comment crazies again, but since they don't seem to understand the concept of Internet Protocol address tracking it's not much of a problem.
Rugby practice starts on Tuesday, February 23rd. It's gonna be cold, but this year we have secured the use of Cardozo High School's artificial turf field for the season. So it won't be hard, cold mud. The faster backs don't care for the artificial turf as it does leave horrible burns if you wipe out running at a fast pace. But I like it because it's a nice, soft pitch to play on most of the time. Start training now if you're interested. A strong core body and/or some decent cardio support are a must. Here's the info:
On Friday I scoffed at the initial predictions of record snowfall as apocalyptic news sells ad space well in this region. Even as it was still coming down Saturday morning, I didn't think it would continue, but it did until late Saturday night. Fluffy and dry too, but the ground was still above freezing so it made the roads very slushy. Nellie's was open Saturday and Sunday nights, and I was delighted to learn Sunday evening that Federal government was closed Monday. I'll have to give props to the OPM for not trying to test road capacity in this area before closing down in the middle of the day like they did in the former administration. Otherwise people just spend 2 hours stressing out driving to work and back again, and otherwise spend the work day stressing about getting back into their cars. We just don't have enough snowplows to go around here, and people simply don't know how to function in the snow here, so just call off the whole day.
I made a point to sticking to my commitment to hike over to TJ and Rob's place Saturday night, and I saw so much foolishness along the way I was totally exhausted from judging people by the time I got home. People in high heels walking in the slush, driving front-wheel Dodge Neons around the city, walking down the middle of the street amongst sliding cars. I mean really, where is it that you absolutely have to drive to in such weather? You never shoulda left home. All toilet paper and eggs jests aside, there's a lot you can do in your snug home, so you should stay there when it's snowing, or else walk to where you have to go. Don't burden city services just so you can go to your foodie party.
British Lions rugby legend Gareth Thomas came out publicly in a moving article this weekend. While he is still an active professional athlete, he has high hopes with continuing his career while being out. His teammates have known about it for at least three years and apparently don't give a shit. U.S. gay athlete poster child and former NBA player John Amaechi predicts he will have a hard time, but comparing U.S. basketball to U.K. rugby attitudes is like comparing apples to apricots in my opinion.
We'll see how it goes. After being on a gay rugby team for 10 years I can assure that people get over it. In fact we only get a few instances of homophobic slurs anymore each year. "The Gay Team" or gay players are yesterday's news in our league, a tired topic, next subject. And it's hard to tell whether an opponent would have said that if they knew the team was gay or not. Did the slur just come out of their mouth because they say that crap all the time, or was the gay thing at the forefront of their thoughts before they said it? You never really know. The funny thing is we're now about half gay, and it's the straight guys who often get the slurs. It's great outreach for giving a non-homo audience some perspective!
Anyway, here's to hoping [again] active U.S. athletes have the balls to come out while they're in the midst of their career. I believe it's becoming less and less of an issue, and once somebody does it, more will follow. Somebody in baseball, football or basketball just has to step forward and do it [during their career]. If you have the strength to persevere with your training and athletic development, you also have the strength to be who you really are. Once that is done the two will complement each other and you'll be a better person.
I'm going to see 'Avatar' in 3-D tomorrow. I've heard great things about it and it will be nice to stare at Sam Worthington for an hour as well. He's also going to star as Perseus in the remake of 'Clash of the Titans'. It seems Gerard Butler set the bar for teeth gnashing in swordfighting flicks, since you now must gnash your teeth as much as possible while wielding a sword. P.S. I'd kill for a high-res .jpg of Sam Worthington's woofy neck scruff if any of you come across better pictures. [ fingerbang ]
On Saturday during the snowstorm I heard some scratching noises from the skylight, and looked up to see a few starlings drinking melted snow water from our roof skylight. Despite all the precipitation, birds have a hard time finding reliable sources of drinking water when it snows and freezes, but like the skylight starlings, they find a way. 
Congratulations to scruffy Grant Cleveland for winning this year's MetroWeekly Coverboy of the year at age 39. That's awesome for two reasons: 1.) because he's not in his 20s, and 2.) he has natural unshorn body hair (well it's clipped here and there, but still...). Could it be that the Age of the Smoothie is over? Is natural body hair finally coming back? My prayers might be answered. But then again every time I get my hopes up I see a guy with ridiculously sculpted eyebrows and then I become sad. Anyway, 2 out of the 3 finalists for the contest had scruff and that's a good thing.
Today on Twitter @MyTrainerBob Harper from The Biggest Loser asked "What do u think about my full beard?" I had to respond positively of course.
Tomorrow morning I'm supposed to go on the annual Audubon Society's winter bird census, but snow is predicted so of course everyone is in extreme panic mode. Thankfully I have enough toilet paper so I'm not gonna die. But Tomorrow's Headlines from WhyIHateDC might read: "D.C. Paralyzed by Snowstorm. 'Divine retribution' for gay marriage says local pastors" or "White House Buried in Historic Snowstorm as Obama Attends Global Warming Summit."
If we don't all die of snow inhalation before then, I have been invited to dine at TJ's house on Saturday evening. TJ doesn't leave his house much anymore, so that's about the only time we get to see him, and we cherish those moments. He's sorta become a lot like Willy Wonka, who never left the factory until everyone won the golden tickets. I think he's getting plowed by Oompa Loompas on a regular basis too.
Our awesome mayor Fenty just signed the bill supporting gay marriage. Now all we have to do is clear it through Congress. There will be hell to pay if some obstructionist Republican prick blocks it. Not only is this next step a big gay issue, but it is also an issue for the citizens of the District of Columbia's ability to rule ourselves, which is just as important to me.
I went to see 'Invictus' last night starring a much-beefed up Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. It was a great story and I learned quite a few things I didn't know about the Springboks and South African politics. It was a great sports movie far less preachy than Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino'. Between that film and 'District 9', this year South Africa clearly wins the World Cup of movies.
And I got my H1N1 shot today but now my kids will die of autism because Jenny McCarthy & Kirk Cameron said so.
I think I enjoyed Christmas for about 4 hours last week, then it was over. The constant stream of holiday music, a never-ending demand for you to be cheerful at all times, and in-your-face consumerism squeezed any remaining joy out of me and now I can't wait until January.
The holiday season is a lot like getting fucked in the ass by a bad, hasty top: it could really be pleasant but instead it's always forced and too fast with no time to actually enjoy it. Because here's how my head is running at the moment:
"OMG I have to finish cards and get that one last gift at PetCo and remember to bring a dessert for the work party and OMG here's another CFC campaign e-mail please give more more more bake sale and how many parties are tomorrow at work and what day is training and Christopher Aaron Clements keeps sending invites for shit every goddamn day and then reminders that he wants us to read the invites and reminders of reminders for reminders then there's everyone else DEMANDING and RSVP NOW and what are you going to bring and oh by the way there's a rally tonight for gay marriage sorry for the late notice but this is like the age of social networking so you don't need advance notice and this is a really important action item NOW and you should keep your evenings free for last-minute activism if you're really dedicated to the cause and did you get back to that one guy about the ride to the event on Saturday and don't forget we're gathering on Sunday and are you bringing a dessert for that too oh by the way one guy is a vegetarian so you can only buy soy product..."
And that's why I retreat and sink into a depression this time of year. Too many demands, too many things I have to do before this day or that day and not enough jimbo time. It stresses me out and I want to withdraw completely. Hmm...I think I'll start doing that starting today! I hereby declare that I don't have to respond, reply, attend, confirm, affirm, RSVP, donate, or check in until January.
For some insight into the charm of certain DC neighborhoods, to www.googlemaps.com and type in 517 H Street NE Washington, DC. Click on the A pushpin and hit 'Street View."
MTV to recast the 1985 film 'Teen Wolf.'
Photo Galleries: Snowbound in Idyllwild, 25 Stories of Culture Shock & Irish rugby fur.
