Recently in woof Category
All is (relatively) quiet in the house. I sent my brother off on his further adventures this morning. Being from Portland, Oregon, I don't think he liked the climate here much, but he had a good time. Although it's been a nice week in the 90s, relatively speaking, as the humidity hasn't been too high. Or maybe I've gotten used to summers here in DC. I just keep thinking that sweat is a moisturizer, and the summers here keep me looking young.
We went to see Hellboy II, which was a lot of fun and visually incredible. The director has a great imagination, and I can't wait to see how he presents The Hobbit. We also went to the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian, and I highly recommend it if you are even remotely a Muppet fan. Under exhibit glass were Bert and Ernie, Manah-Manah and his backup singers, Gobo the Fraggle, Kira the Gelfling, and of course Kermit the Frog. There were also a lot of design and concept notes by Henson, which gave fascinating insight on the final creations and productions.
I start my new job on Monday, but it's not firefighting - the link that has to do with the photo at left comes later in this entry. Summer vacation is over, but I'm excited about the new job. I'll be shopping for new clothes tomorrow with the gurls as most of my work clothes were fairly casual, and the new workplace is a little more formal. All my shirts and pants are kinda grungy, so it's time for new threads.
In accordance with providing a potpourri of pedestrian pastimes, here is a list of lascivious links:
Shirtless Spanish firefighter calendar (image at left is from the 2007 calendar.
New Zealand All Blacks annual naked rugby match on the beach.
Prostate cancer drug can prevent bone loss. The article's interesting, but what's up with the somewhat related image without a caption?
Mormons exposed (also shirtless). So is the calendar's creator, who's under fire from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thanks Boo for the Mormon links.
This evening Mari and I stopped by Long View Gallery in the City at 1302 9th Street NW DC for a sneak peak of some great artwork that officially opens tomorrow. Richard Currier's imagery of fruit were as juicy as Long View's scruffy host Drew.
The opening reception for Currier and Tony Savoie's work is on Friday, July 11 from 6pm to 9pm at the above address. The work will be shown until August 9th.
I'm looking forward to seeing Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit at The International Gallery (inside the S. Dillon Ripley Center) on the National Mall some time this summer. It ends October 5.
The Henson exhibit will be shown in conjunction with the Muppets™, Music & Magic film series at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland July 12 - August 24. Featured films will include all of my favorites, including The Muppet Movie, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and The Muppets Take Manhattan.
Here's my favorite Muppet Fizgig, from The Dark Crystal:
Some say I act a lot like Fizgig when I see something scruffy. I don't see any resemblance...anyway, a long-awaited sequel to this masterpiece film is expected in 2009.
Here's how I feel about that:
Just kidding. Seriously, I had a fun time up 95 with the boys, even though they hauled me across Manhattan each day like an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu.
Blowoff was a hoot again, and they seem to be dying for a different kind of music and enjoyed the set. Saw lotsa bloggers and people I hadn't met yet.
On Sunday we went to a fun party, then to the Pride Parade only to get rained on. I took refuge in a lesbian bar where they only drank watered down margarita mixes. They seemed unhappy about that. But my hair gel stood firm despite the humidity, and we trekked on to another fabulous party. By that time I was all partied out and knew I couldn't make it to SuperSnaxx, so I met up with Gurl and a friend and saw Wall-E instead. It was a cute movie. I liked Wall-E's loyal and indestructible cockroach sidekick.
A quick greeting from Ireland. We're on day 1 of the tournament and I've already been attacked by a Bear, and it was nice. Ginger everywhere . Some photos of my quick trip to the Aran Isles is here.
It was a fun and busy weekend hosting the lovely BrettCajun with TJ over the weekend. Brett wanted to see some rockets and capsules, so I took him to the National Mall and the Air and Space Museum. I liked all the WWII planes and Cold War missile exhibits. On Saturday we hauled him out to all the hotspots, including Nellie's, and then later to Blowoff for a dip into the Saliva Pit. But with all that socializin' and some rugby on Saturday, I'm tuckered out.
I also devoured an excellent book referred by a friend: World War Z - An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks. It's a series of testimonials by the survivors of a fictional worldwide zombie infestation, from outbreak to global offensive against the walking dead. I liked it not only for its post-apocalyptic vision, but also because it wasn't really a story about zombies, it was about people. From the initial outbreak, disasters and tragedies due to human error, to testaments to the human spirit by the end. Not really the happiest ending, but an interesting one. You can calculate your survival risk in the event of a zombie infestation on the book's website.
On Friday we went out to Duplex for some homo cookin', and I had a nice chat with a bulldog:
Later that evening we went to Cobalt for two floors of Beariness, and then to JRs for balance amongst twinkage.
Gurl and Co. came out to watch our last home match of the season, and the weather cooperated. We won both matches and I got to get some time in as scrumhalf:
One more match before the big gay rugby tournament in Dublin, which will be lots of fun.
I'm a lounger, not a fighter:
Great shot by Brettie of a scuffle at the Rites of Spring tournament this weekend in Baltimore. In the photo they appear to be attacking the person in the wheelchair, but that is not the case, just a trick of the camera. I didn't get to play much, but the team played some good rugby against tough competition.
How does Matthew Foxxy-Fox's chest hair disappear on Lost? I'm guessing it's a nutrient deficiency from a diet heavy in island fruits, or some evil force is waxing people while they sleep.
The big paper I wrote last week for my marketing ethics class was about direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements in periodicals marketing anti-HIV medications to the gay male target audience (marketing distribution channel, to those in the business). While chatting with a guy at a fun Baltimore Bear party this weekend, the topic came up again. He kind of shook his head ruefully when the subject of pharmaceutical ads came up, since he was an HIV social worker, and inferred that those ads are a problem.
According to my research, the HIV medication ads showing happy, healthy HIV+ people at the beach or climbing mountainsides feed a surveyed perception that your life is not altered radically under these meds. Also, HIV+ people who read those ads tend to believe that the risk of transmission is reduced (not true) and that they can proceed with unsafe sex practices. Sadly, those ads also affect the perception of the above two issues in HIV-negative people as well, contributing to a rise in unsafe sex and HIV transmission. So basically those sunshiney ads from companies who claim to be helping, actually harm those people who read the ads. Several perception surveys support the above claims, so it's not conjecture.
Such ads by pharmaceutical companies were only allowed in the U.S. after 1996. New Zealand and the United States are the only two countries in the world that allow such advertisements on television and in publications. New Zealand is considering a ban on them as well. The reason most countries don't allow such ads to be printed or broadcast is that they are frequently misleading, or lead to an over-medicalization of daily life. In other words, you can just pop a pill and all your problems will be solved. It's not just a problem with HIV medications, but with parmaceuticals across the board.
In many of these ads the side-effects are frequently not quantified or prioritized. That is, if suicidal thoughts are one side-effect of taking Hivetra (or whatever), it needs to be put on the top of the list, in bold, underlined or whatever. But too often it's listed between headaches and diarrhea (other fun side-effects of HIV medications) in no particular order of severity.
Again, I've stated before that HIV medications are no picnic, and it's not like taking Lunesta or Benadryl. And they don't cure HIV, only treat it and extend your life. The first round of combination drug therapy my roomate was prescribed caused all his mucous membranes to blister - including his lips, nasal lining, rectum and throat. And since many drugs are rushed through the clinical trial period, many longer-term effects of the medications are not discovered until many years later (facial wasting, distended belly, fat redistribution to wierd places).
To me, the creepy part is that it's not uncommon to see these medications take up three pages of ad space in our beloved community publications, like The Advocate, Instinct and Genre. Two facing pages, or three pages is a LOT of ad space to purchase in a color glossy publication. And advertising dollars help pay for the printing and distribution of said publications. These publciations purport to speak to our community, yet are owned by pharmaceutical manufacturers who spend more dollars on marketing than they do on treatment research, and far more on marketing than on research for a cure. I checked: well over $40 BILLION by now. How critical do you think the writers of these publications are about the hand that feeds them?
You do the math - pharmaceutical companies are happy to keep supplying you with a barrage of medications as long as you are alive. And as long as people keep contracting HIV, they're still in business, and so are our community publications.
So there's another reason to continue to keep it safe, it's that in playing safe I'm stickin it to Tha Man. I'd rather not support companies that are profiting so much on a disease, so I will continue my efforts in not contracting the disease.
