New Music... Martin Solveig

Let's end the schizophrenic month of June 2009 with some groovalicious new HOUSE MUSIC from Canadian DJ - Martin Solveig. I think this is some fun stuff.

Born On This Day, June 30th... The Stunning Lena Mary Calhoun Horne

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

Lena Horne had a primary occupation of nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. Besides her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 & brought her 3 Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989. She appeared in 16 feature films & several shorts between 1938 & 1978. She performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning show- Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981/1982; & she sang & acted on radio & television.

Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally & in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers. By 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing & musical training lent he talent to the popular music of the day, rather than the blues & jazz more commonly associated with people of color. Lena's photogenic beauty was close enough to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration & raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph. Lena was closly associated with the songs of her friend-the openly gay Billy Strayhorn. She turns an astonising 92 today!

Quote Of The Day

“A pessimist is someone who feels bad when he feels good for fear he'll feel worse when he feels better."

Stephen Rutledge

Hot Juicy July Mix

The custom mixes by DJ Stevie Steve are in much demand in certain circles....so hot, that I am releasing July's mix a day early. I don't know if I have ever mentioned it, but I LOVE SUMMER!
I have included the lovely video of the Oren Lavie song , which I had posted earlier. It deserves a second viewing.

The Hot Juicy July Mix:
Hot Fun In The Summertime/ Sly & The Family Stone
I'm Beautiful, Damn It/ Bette Midler
The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In)/ Original Cast of HAIR
Heaven/ Brett Dennen
Heaven/ Jai
Heaven/ Los Lonely Boys
Heaven/ Talking Heads
Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel/ Tavares
Her Morning Elegance/ Oren Lavie
In Search Of The Perfect Shampoo/ Michael Franks
It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference/ Todd Rundgren
It Must Be You/ Van Morrison
Struttin' With Some Barbecue/ Louise Armstrong
Barcelona/ Freddy Mercury



If you ask nice, I might burn & send you a disc.

Jay Brannan & Michael Jackson

I wanted to share Jay Brannan's response to the untimely death of The King Of Pop:

Seeing Beer Dogs for the Criminally Insane.

You know what gives me a red rump? There is no bud light lime in any of the stores in Ottawa anywhere. Everyone is sold out. Which one of you is buying it all??? Huh? Get some help, eh? Stop using up all my beers. Sure- I only looked in one store and then just went home, but I'm just going to go ahead and assume by the condescending smirk the beer store clerk gave me when I asked if they had any while pointing at their giant poster of it, that nobody has any. Nobody. Well maybe the french do, but Gatineau is alllLLLllllll the way over there. Also, I am not pleased that the Canadian beer geniuses haven't come up with a Canadian version of lime infused beer, or if they have, they've forgotten to send me a registered notice about it in the mail. It had better not be Kokanee, either. Ew. Not that I would normally touch a regular budweiser with a million bazillion foot pole. The lime kind is A-OK. The only thing more depressing than this whole scenario is reading Post Secrets.

All this after spending the afternoon at the Canadian seeing eye dog farm. I'm not joking. We went for a tour because hey, free donuts and water! Also educational stuff for the kiddies. But it was blistering hot out and all I could focus on was all the bud lite lime I was going to purchase on my way home. The dogs were pretty nice, though. I thought about putting one in my vehicle, because hey... it's not like anyone would see anyway, right? Plus they said that the dogs are totally free, and I think only giving them to the blind is discrimination against the visually unimpaired. Oh man. That was kind of a tactless joke, eh? I'm a jerk. Sorry visually impaired people. If it makes you feel better, I owe money on my taxes. Also, FYI, I put money in the plastic dog and everything, don't write me hate letters, k?. The universe has rebalanced itelf. No bad Karmel for me.

What I should have done, though, if I'd have only known about this whole no lime beer shenanigan, was stop at every beer store on the way home until I found my lime beer. I need a lime beer finding dog. A seeing lime beer dog if you will. I would name him Beery the Beerdog, or Fender.... or Mister Sprinklybeer or Limey Beerstard.

The End.

PS.. check this out. Radioactive, Conjoined, Mutant Strawberry!:

Awesome.

Stonewall... 40 years later

"Before Stonewall, you took your life into your hands when you tried to be openly gay. Whenever we celebrate pride, a component of that pride should be that we are proud of our history & struggle & that we fought back against oppression & managed to have lives under that difficulty."
Martin Duberman, author of "Stonewall"

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a group of Hispanics, hippies, drag queens, & queers got fed up with being harassed by the police because they were gay. It’s hard to imagine police handcuffing, harassing, & arresting gay people for simply gathering in public, but that’s what happened, routinely, before Stonewall’s spontaneous uprising of gay men & lesbians in New York’s Greenwich Village. What happened then galvanized the gay rights movemen?. For younger people, who have grown up in a world with increasing legal protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender (LGBT) community, it’s hard to imagine that just four decades ago, gay people’s jobs, families, & homes were threatened, & their lives restricted or ruined.

While not the first rebellion, the Stonewall riots are the most famous instance of homosexuals fighting back against government persecution. From all accounts, the riots were not pretty or organize. Stonewall was six nights of street riots with some of the least empowered elements of society: the closeted, fearful, & disenfranchised, fighting the police batons & pepper spray with what they had, mostly fists, signs, garbage cans, bottles, & shoes. For gay boomers, the uprising is a defining moment to celebrate as we look back at how far we have come in four short decades & look ahead to the future. In 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn who refused to be intimidated by police oppression had no idea they were about to change history. They just wanted equality. In the 1950s, Rosa Parks had no idea she was about to change history when she refused to move to the back of the bus, either. As she famously recounted, "The reason that I did not move from my seat was that my feet were tired." From such humble origins, movements ignite.

I wonder what we’ll imagine next for the older LGBT community? I wonder if those on the front lines of gay "out" aging will keep walking that line between activism & diplomacy. If the first 40 years of our civil rights movement are any indication, will the next 40 take us into a future of greater equality, with more allies? Will the Stonewall legacy of fighting for being out & equality motivate us to pave new trails for gays & lesbians at age 50+? I think we owe that not only to ourselves & to the generations, but also to those who stood up for us at Stonewall.
I have continue to reflect on all the things many "baby queers" don't know about or care:
Harvey Milk?
Judy Garland?
Camp?
Musical Theatre?
you could be arrested for dancing with someone of the same sex ?
gay bars were hidden & "coded"?
no Internet?
Cole Porter?
Leonard Bernstein?
Tennessee Williams?
Truman Capote?
Montgomery Clift?
James Dean?
Dag Hammerskjold?
Rudolf Nuryev?
Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Walt Whitman?
Rock Hudson?
Tales Of The City?
Frida Kahlo?
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert?
Billie Jean King?
Elton John?
George Michael?
Martina Navratilova?
Billie Jean King?
Greg Louganis?
no Manhunt?
no Craigslist?
Melissa Etheridge ?
no Madonna?
no Rosie?
no Ellen?
no Disco?
no Pride Parades?
no "talk" of same sex marriage?
no President or any politician who would use the word gay (Ronald Reagan?)?
no gay cable TV channels, hell- no cable TV!?!
Noel Coward?
Stephen Sondheim?
Ethel Merman?
Gertrude Stein?
Oscar Wilde?
Harvey Fierstein?
Lord Byron?
Dynasty?
Liza Minelli?
Proust?
Kander & Ebb?
Jerry Herman?
Broadway?
fucking without protection?


let us continue to add to the list...

My brain is a dried up little craisin. Not even zombies would want it in their cinnamon buns.

Alright, Nerdsquad. It's 12:33 am and I have been pretty much transferring files (long overdue) from my old crapattack, dell, missing-the-letter-k laptop to my glorious, new-ish (November=new, right? it totes does. That's right I said totes because I am delirious) macbook FOREVER. If you're on my twitter or FB, you've been skipping over my complain-y updates for hours. and. hours.

I've found that the most effective way to avoid the bajillion glitches in my dell is to use bluetooth to move files. OMG slow. So here is some rambly crap for you to read and enjoy while I watch the progress bar until I am hypnotized and strangle something inanimate. Like that cat over there.

1. Teenagers speak aloud to each other in text. IN TEXT. They SAY "smiley face" and they SAY, "Awww Frowny". Just when I thought emo pants were the most obnoxious things ever, this surfaces. The fact that I say, "Oh Em Gee" occasionally, weighs very lightly on this, though Geeks. For rlz. I stole it from another adult who happens to be totally awesome. Totes. This is what is happening to our youth. We're pretty much screwed when we get really old, eh?

2. The farmer in my Dell

The farmer in my Dell

High Ho Ontario

The farmer in my Dell has been sucking the life out of me all day and I need to step away, but if I do, I might never take the files off of it and I hate the people at the Net Nanny place because they make my life that much more difficult and they lie to me and say it will be easy to format the computer so that it is safe for a pre teen to use it without accidentally exposing his eyes to the unsavory internets- but it's not easy at allllllll, it's a pain in the arse and I need to sleeeeeeeeeep but I'm stupid and promised I'd do thiiiiIIIIiiiiiissssssssss killlll meeeeeeeeee.... (but don't really kill me, internet weirdos, spare me because look how dedicated to stuff I am. You don't find that every day.)

3. So on my old computer were all the old lame-o youtube vidlogs I used to do. That was a stroll down memory lane/back into cabin fever. Wild. Maybe I'll post a montage of them set to some peppy and then very sad early 90s pop music. Maybe I won't.

4. Maybe instead I'll have an oreo straw. I thought plain old oreos and beer were glorious but now you can drink your beer THROUGH an oreo. A straw made of oreos for beer. Think about that awesomeness. I mean really sit down and think about it.

5. I have to stop. This blog is whacktarded.

6. I wish I was at the waterslides right this second.

Men I Am Zany For #9... Nothing Wrong With The Late 40s

For the 9th installment of Men I Am Zany For, I offer three men in their late 40s that seem to me to be better than anytime in their careers. They are very talented & very worth considering for a moment or two. Well, now as I view them for this post, I feel anything but relaxed.

I first made note of George Clooney when he was a supporting player on the first season of Roseanne (1986). I thought he seemed kinda yummy, but I had no idea that he would become my generation's Cary Grant (besides writing, directing, producing, & palling around with Brad Pitt).

Remember Christian Bale as a child actor in Empire of the Sun (1987)? He grew up real nice, don't you think? Check out his subtle work in the underrated Laurel Canyon or so very sexy in Portlander Todd Haynes directed Velvet Goldmine.

I have never quite recovered from my first glimpse of sexy & talented Michael T. Weiss, crouched naked in a box in the first installment of The Pretender (1996). Catch him loooking super hot & being goofy in Jeffery.

Can any of these kids like Zack Efron or Shia Labeouf compare to these men?

Why I Love Living In Portland From May-October

5-Day Forecast - PORTLAND

Today
High: 83°
Low: 57°
Mostly Sunny

Sunday
High: 79°
Low: 52°
Some Clouds

Monday
High: 81°
Low: 54°
Sunny

Tuesday
High: 78°
Low: 53°
Sunny

Wednesday
High: 79°
Low: 57°
Sunny

Photo #3 includes the Fox Tower, the building that I work in.
Photo #4 is my favorite structure in this city- the St. Johns Bridge in NoPo. I never get tired of seeing it.

The Husband & P.A.B.'s First Encounter

I have had more than a few kind comments concerning the fact that the Husband & I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary in October. Someone recently mentioned that we "look too young to have been together so long". I want to say thank you for that! I thought I would share a picture of the first time we met. We first encountered each other at the beach (we remain beach bunnies to this day) & I thought he was sexy & handsome...if a bit standoffish. I was somewhat forward on our first meeting (somethings never change). I feel fortunate that we have that fateful encounter captured on film.

Mullet in a baggie.

Eleanore/Relic/Eleanore. If only we had a mini tuque.

Yesterday was a pretty big event at our house. It was the cutting of the mullet ceremony. Eleanore's baby mullet is now tucked away in a ziplock baggie for when I want to cherish it. She no longer looks like Joe Dirt and is now a princess rainbow strawberry with her little bob.

It's bittersweet... but the mullet was getting less mulletish and more scraggly 'Relic' from 'The Beachcomers. I will always treasure the time in her life when I got to force her to have a mullet and she didn't even know it. Kind of like what I'm going to do to Neil if he ever goes senile or lands in a coma or something... What a hilarious trick! I can't even wait!

Quote Of The Day

"Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it. "

W. Somerset Maugham

R.I.P.

They say that it comes in threes.

Poor tortured soul.

This is how I choose to remember him.

Words To Live By

"It's always something...if it's not one thing, it's another."

Roseanne Roseannadanna

R.I.P.

I am one of the few boys who didn't have the ubiquitous poster in my room... but I did love her.

Farrah Fawcett: February 2, 1947- June 25, 2009

Once In A Lifetime

I was not sure how the Husband would feel. I was afraid to ask. I had just spent 2+ hours having a truly transcendent experience, but he had come down with a major summer cold & had spent time that afternoon in a dentist chair, & I didn't know if he had been comfortable or present during the evening. I was overcome with relief when we were outside, walking down a South Park Block street, & the Husband turned to me & said- "Am I wrong, or was that the best concert we have ever seen (& we have seen quite a few concerts in our 30 years together)?

I had given the Husband 2 tickets to see David Byrne in concert for his birthday (hoping he would take me). The concert is called- Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno, & all the songs were associated with their collaborations. David Byrne is a very important musical artist to us as individuals & as a couple. In 1977 at a party, I heard a song- Psycho Killer that actually changed my mind about listening to music. At that time in my life my musical menu was full of Sondheim & my high school & college favorites: Carole King, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Paul Simon, & lots of MO-TOWN. When I heard my first Talking Heads single I am sure I was quite high, but the song made a very strong impression under any condition. I had never heard something so raw & primal & yet tuneful. I have remained a life long fan. I have every album by Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Byrne's solo albums, his collaborations with Brian Eno- The Catherine Wheel & My Life In The Bush With Ghosts & his Oscar winning score to The Last Emperor with Ryuichi Sakamoto. I have never stopped listening. Three David Byrne songs are in my Top Ten All Time Favorite Songs. My favorite song ever is Once In A Lifetime & I still get shivers every time I hear it.

The concert opened with David doing some patter before the first number instead of after. He noted that there seemed to be no professional photographers in the house & he suggested that the audience feel free to take pictures. Sure enough, the crowd whipped out their phones & started clicking. The first song was Strange Overtones, the hypnotic single off the newest Eno/Byrne collaboration- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The Schnitz's reverberating walls were an incredibly jarring transition from punchy studio sound of the original. Things only went up from there, as the accompanying dancers boosted the visuals. Their dance moves, which traded off with the members of the band, seemed to mimic Byrne's own jerky mannerisms, as well as the themes of the songs, such as dancing with office chairs during the working man anthem- Life Is Long. The entire band, singers (including my friend Redray Frazier, who is from Portland) & dancers were dressed in all white. The choreography was better than any modern dance concert I have attended. Our seats in the first balcony gave us a perfect view of the movement. My eyes kept going back to to the extraordinary male dancer-Steven Recker, so hot, so cute, so talented, so charismatic! The singers danced, the dancers played instruments & at times the entire band would dance. By the time they played Once In A Lifetime the entire audience was on their feet & dancing. For the second encore, an entire marching band in wedding attire came down the aisles & on to the stage where they stripped to silver go-go pants while playing & dancing to Take Me To The River & Burning Down The House!

What a great birthday present... I am such a thoughtful husband.

Mi Familia

This is a visual introduction to my little family.

Silence of the Yams

*LOUD OMINOUS THUMP*

6 year old: Um... I need some paper towel.

Me: Hurgh?

6 year old: The watermelon broke and it's leaking.

Me: The watermelon BROKE? How did the watermelon break?

6yo: I was going to wake you up with it.

Me: With a GIANT WATERMELON? How was that going to go down?

6yo: I was going to surprise you.

*silence*

And there it is. A watermelon laying on the floor, cracked open like a giant, delicious skull. That could have been me....

So my son plots against me with produce. I guess it IS a bad idea to buy him a potato cannon after all... or is it? Maybe I should nurture his interests. Good moms do that, right? Maybe I should be encouraging him to be a produce villain, maybe we should put in a garden for the young Lord Vitamin C so that he can pursue his ultimate goal of ruling the world through fruit violence. Lord knows if I don't support him, I may wake up one morning, impaled by some celery & cheeze whiz. Messy messy business.

That freakshow, Captain Vegetable had better be looking over his freakin' shoulder from now on, that's all I know.

Born On This Day- June 22nd... the astonishing Mary Louise Streep

"Instant gratification is not soon enough. "

She turns an astonishing 60 today. I love her. She is an actor goddess to me. I love here doing anything, but I like it best when she does comedy or singing. Meryl Streep has received 15 Academy Award nominations & 23 Golden Globe nominations (winning six), more than any other person in film history. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, three New York Film Critics Circle Awards, four Grammy Award nominations, a BAFTA award, & a Tony Award nomination. I first time I saw her was on stage in The Taming Of The Shrew with Raul Julia at The Public Theatre in 1975. At the start of her film career, I wasn't on board. She seemed all accents & technique. I was wrong. Her work is inspired, heartfelt & transcendent. My favorite Streep film performances:

Manhattan

Silkwood

Out Of Africa

Postcards From The Edge ( love her singing!)

The Bridges Of Madison County

Adaptation (fearless, as always)

The Hours

A Prairie Home Companion ( again, the singing)

The Devil Wears Prada

& Angels In America

She is funny, self effacing, & the best actor of my generation.

I'm GaGa For The Lady

I am zany for Lady GaGa & I am sucker for a girl with pyrotechnic tits!
I am also coming clean about my secret affair with one of the Jonas Brothers.
Check out this video from the Much Music Awards in Toronto last night:

I Love Artists

I have mentioned in past posts how fortunate I feel to have had such talented lovers, friends & acquaintences in my lifetime. The people that I did theatre in high school, college, summer stock, & professional theatre were most often world class talents & I learned so much from working with them & watching them. I have been excited to discover the fine work of some of my new blogging buddies (Will, I am talking about you). I have always been especially keen for visual artists & even when they were 'difficult" personalities & was still enamored of them because of their talent. After 30 years, I am still deeply in love with my artist/designer husband & he still can thrill me with his work as an artist.

The Husband & I met talented, sexy Craig & his handsome, smart partner James at a New Years Eve party (06/07) in a stunning NW Hills Portland home of a guy couple who were mere acquaintances. I mention this because the husband & I NEVER go out on this holiday, but we felt like shaking things up & attending. The party was a bit swank for our taste, but we met this one couple that we seemed to just hit it off with. They have remained good friends & I enjoy their company immensely. CRAIG VOGEL is a very talented photographer & designer. He sells his fine art photographs & has a line of very cool greeting cards. Craig & James live in deep SW Portland in a beautiful house that they share with their dog- Bella. We recently enjoyed a champagne laden brunch on their tropical-looking, lush back patio/deck. Whenever we visit we look forward to seeing Craig's latest work. Craig is whip-smart, very opinionated, political, easily outraged by injustice, & very fun to spend time with. If there is mention of any Republican/Conservative/Racists/Homophobes shenanigans, it will set off a very entertaining rant by Craig .The above photos are from some examples of his recent work. I think is art is amazing.

The Bureau of Termination (B.O.T.) and awesome photoshops.

Last night I watched The Terminator for the first time. Yes that's right. The first time. Yes I know you're disappointed in me. I know. I should have watched it YEARS AGO. It haunted me for years like a little collection agency, sending me letters through my alphabit cereal.

"Dear Michelle, we can see no reason why you have not watched the Terminator, we have had it playing on the Space channel at very least, monthly since our maiden broadcast on Canadian cable. You have had every opportunity. You have one week to watch it before we begin to take evasive action. Every attempt to contact you has been fruitless. Stop avoiding us. We have even put Arnold in office in California in an effort to have him give you accusing looks through your television. Yes we realize that we should have made him the Prime Minister of Canada or at LEAST given him the order of Canada or put him in the house of commons, because mainly it would be funny to watch the Terminator arguing with Mike Duffy (AKA the Penguin) on the "What's going down on Parliament Hell channel" or made him lead the New Democrat Party into victorious coalition or something...

Anyhow, if you could at least watch 1/8th of it, we'd be willing to forego having you watch the opening credits. This is a great opportunity. We already know that your television is sitting on Ed Broadbent's old teak armoire, which plays into the whole New Democrat thing. What we don't know is why.... But our sources indicate that you have been intending to watch Terminator Salvation and the problem we have with this is that you will not fully grasp why robotanks are driving over perfectly dried skulls if you have not previously viewed the first three."

Kind Regards,
Dale at The Bureau of Terminations I, II , III and IV, Credit Dept." (which was signed in swirly alphabets with little heart marshmallows dotting the I's. I eat a lot of cereal, okay?)

So I submitted the following response via my son's alphagetti:

"ATTN: B.O.T.: I have in fact now watched the first terminator and my fears have been realized. I kind of want a fuzzy, sandy blonde fem-mullet, an aqua jacket with shoulder pads and a vespa that looks like a golden toaster now. I hope you're happy. You have ruined my fashion soul.

Sincerely, Michelle"

See? I can totally pull off the fuzzmullet & shoulder pads. It looks good.

So that's done. Now I have to track down Terminator II or a similar movie featuring Edward Furlong as a greasy Founding-Father-of-Emo teenager.

And this one because, well because who wouldn't want their face to be photomorphed with Arnold's roboskeleton? Also because it will give my ex husband nightmares when he's stalking my blog later... *snicker*

Colton Ford- Losing My Religion

"I want to go there"
post apocalyptic bohemain

Sunday In The Park With Steve

Today is the first day of summer & I am going to have a druid/pagan/hedonist ritual of some sort, probably making an offering in the garden. Summer is my favorite time of year & the period from May-October is very special in Portland. We are blessed with what I find to be the best summer days of any place I have lived or traveled. We enjoy beautiful, warm (80s), low humidity weather. We are 1/2 hour to two extraordinary, scenic nude gay beaches- one in the amazing Columbia River Gorge & one on bucolic Sauvie Island. Portland is less than hour to ocean beaches, high desert, & snow capped mountains (we are in lava spitting distance of 3 active volcanoes). Portland has a multitude of outdoor festivals & concerts in the summer season.

Today is Sunday Parkways in my neighborhood in North Portland - Kenton. North Portland (NoPo) is a peninsula with the Willamette River on one side & the might Columbia River on the other. Where the two rivers meet is the northern most point of Portland. We have had eagle & red hawk sightings in our garden. Our house is within blocks of the Columbia Slough where you can spot beavers, otters, salmon & osprey. The Sunday Parkways are 7-8 mile "temporary parks" along city streets connecting neighborhoods and residents in North, Northeast & Southeast Portland....a relaxed, non-competitive, FREE event featuring a variety of activities in several parks & along the routes. Intersections are staffed by volunteers allowing residents to get to & from their driveways, with larger streets supervised by Portland Police Bureau staff & certified flaggers. Sunday Parkways gives Portlanders a chance to get out & be active right in their own neighborhood. Participants walk, bike, roll, run, stroll, & rollerblade along the route to activities in the parks as well as to nearby shops & businesses in the vicinity. My immediate streets are blocked to auto traffic & the company I work for is one of the food vendors in the park closest to my house (I live in easy walking distance of 4 beautiful parks). The canines & I are going to participate with a long walk (the Husband is working today on a MAJOR design project that I will do a post on later). The canines are thrilled to meet people, other dogs & find bits of fallen food. A civilized start to summer, a season I don't like to be behave in too civilized a manner. Summer to me is going to the beach & being naked, reading, enjoying the garden, cocktails in the Boys' Fort, staying up late & a big dose of "getting down". Happy Solstice to all of you who may read this!

Breaking Up

The Husband emailed me today that Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm In The Middle) & Bradley Whitford (West Wing) have filed for divorce after 17 years of marriage. They seemed like the perfect Hollywood couple to me, living in a fairly modest house in Hancock Park that they did work on themselves. Bright & talented, funny & cool. It gives me pause that 3 couples that we palled around with in the new century have broken up. Our BBFs- D & T, married friends of ours for 28+ years, are calling it quits. The Husband & I hit a very rough patch about two years ago & I wondered if our marriage could survive (doing much better indeed). I loved the Joe Jackson album Night & Day from 1982. It was the soundtrack for my life that year. This song still gets to me in a very raw way... it did in 1982 & it does in 2009.

Breaking Us in Two
Don't you feel like trying something new?
Don't you feel like breaking out of breaking us in two?
You don't do the things that I do
You want to do things I can't do
Always something breaking us in two
You & I could never live alone
But don't you feel like breaking out just one day on your own?
Why does what I'm saying hurt you?
I didn't say that we were through
Always something breaking us in two
They say two hearts should beat as one for us
We'll fight it out to see it through
I say that won't be too much fun for us
Though it's oh so nice to get advice
It's oh so hard to do
Could we be much closer if we tried?
We could stay at home & stare into each other's eyes
Maybe we could last an hour
Maybe then we'd see right through
Always something breaking us in two

How To Write A Post For Your Blog

“I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed! ”

I plan some of them in advance, doing the bulk of the research ahead of time, & I have a list of possible future posts... but mostly a settle down with a cup of tea & just wing it. I had made a personal challenge to do a post on the blog everyday & some days, as the Husband says- "you just pulled that one out of your ass, didn't you?". I usually start with the NY Times page- On This Day In History to discover any birthdays of famous gay people. This morning I wondered if they ever talked about it on the set while filming, because today- June 20th is the birthday of Danny Aiello, John Mahoney & Olympia Dukakis, three of the stars in one of my top 5 movies of all time- Moonstruck. None of this trio is gay, but Happy Birthday to three actors that I love & admire their work.

By crazy coincidence, on Monday of this week, T (the housemate) came home & announced that he wished to have all of us "get in our jammies & watch a movie". We all changed into our pajamas (I own some, although I sleep naked) & we looked through the listings from the evil Comcast, & when Moonstruck came up we all yelled- "yes!". T had only seen it when it first opened & I had not seen it in a decade. I loved this film so much on first viewing in 1987. I was actually overwhelmed by how good every aspect of the movie was: great screenplay (an Oscar for John Patrick Shanley), great acting in even the tiniest of roles, pitch perfect direction from Norman Jewison, on of my favorite movie scores ever by Dick Hymen, superior cinematography by David Watkin). I remember getting in the car after the movie & the Husband turning to me & saying- "Cher needs to win an Oscar for this film!". Seeing this marvelous film again was such a treat. I laughed till I hurt & I cried like the big sissy I can be. Moonstruck is a timeless treasure & a classic. It received 8 Oscar nominations. Cher did win for Best Actress & accepted in an all time crazy Bob Mackie gown & headdress. Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress. Trivia: Cher & Aiello play younger characters; in real life, she was approximately Aiello's character's age (42), & Aiello was approximately twelve years older (54) than his character. 23-year-old Cage (born 1964) plays a character about fifteen years older than his real age. In real life, he is eighteen years younger than Cher (born 1946) & thirty-one years younger than his on-screen brother Aiello (born 1933). There is only a fifteen year age difference between Cher and Dukakis (born 1931).

Early in the film:

Rose: "Do you love him?"

Loretta: "No, Ma".

Rose: "Good. 'Cause when you love 'em, they drive you crazy, because they know they can. But you like him?"

Loretta: "Oh yeah. He's a sweet man, Ma."

Near the end:

Rose: "Do you love him, Loretta?"

Loretta: "Ma, I love him awful."

Rose: "Oh, God, that's too bad."

I love full moons, Brooklyn Heights, Manhattan, Vicki Carr singing It Must Be Him, Puccini, Cher, the Met & the Chagall tapastries & I believe in the power & pain of falling in love.

Men & I Am Zany For #8- Three over 50

I offer three beautiful men who are over 50 (again, trying to boost my own self-esteem & attempt to consider that sexy isn't over in my mid-50s). My heart goes out to Liam Neeson (57) with the loss of his beautiful & talented wife in March. I first took note of the Irish actor in Excalibur (1981) & I have long admired his talent, good looks, & size 15 shoes. I first noticed the very talented Denzel Washington (55) in Chicago Hope & thought he was yumalicious. He has aged very well & seems to be a classy guy. The Police were my most important band of the late 70s- early 80s. I was obsessed with them, listened to them constantly & I was all dreamy over Sting (57) ... oh, the times I touched myself while listening to The Bed's Too Big Without You! I remain a fan of his solo work & I relished his book Broken Music: A Memoir . Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner still turns my crank...plus there is that tantric sex thing.

Things I Saw On The Way To Work This Morning

At 4:20 a.m. on the way to work, I saw:

1. A woman in a white Volvo drinking a mug of coffee & reading a book... while she was driving on I-420/ the Fremont Bridge! I didn't get a picture because when I am driving... I am concentrating on driving.

2. The biggest ship I have ever seen, docked at the waterfront. It was the size of a city.

3. This church reader board (I love church reader boards).

All this on my very early morning, 8 minute commute from NoPo to Downtown Portland.

Things I thought at the Spinnerette concert last night.

1. When moshing, don't run at the non-moshers with your head. I They might put out a nice little elbow, or something blunt from my their new purse and just kinda hold it in your line of plowing.
2. If you arrive at a punk concert dressed like the hamburgler, make sure you meant to or that you can in fact, pull off that look. Ask your friends. Really listen to them.
3. Once you have taken a photo of the lead singer, PUT AWAY THE CAMERA. You don't need 803234238 versions of the same photo and the person behind you (me) may accidentally knock your zippity little camera toward the moshers who do not care about it and will step on it/you when you go looking for it. *snicker*
4. Get your camera out of my way, twinkie.
5. Standing in one spot & shaking sweat from your hair into my left eyeball does not = dancing.
6. I will not move from my pristine spot near the front no matter how hard you try to weasle in with your dweeby friends. I know what you're up to. I am tougher than you, person. Go ahead and try to dance you way in. Do a cartwheel. Pretend to faint in. Not. Moving. :D
7. Don't pat the top of my head just because I talked to you an hour earlier.
8. Band of Skulls is the next awesome. They are better than their name I swear.

Quote Of The Day

"I can do a few tricks, some old & then some new tricks. I'm very versatile!"
Stephen Sondheim
from Gypsy

New Music... Ivri Lider

Ivri Lider is one of the most successful & esteemed Israeli pop artists. This bashful young musician has become a superstar & the "official" spokesman of a generation he calls "the new people of Israel".. A gifted songwriter, composer, producer, actor & poet, Ivri has written, composed & produced pop hits on platinum selling albums & sold-out live shows in Israel. His fourth album, Ze Lo Oto Davar (It's not the Same) is an international hit. Ivri has decided to be open & upfront about his gay lifestyle, an admission that was met with much warmth & support from his fan base.

I guess I have a thing about hot Israeli recording artists, as I featured a post about Oren Lavie on May 9th (check it out!). I didn't think much of the Katy Perry song- I Kissed A Girl, ubiquitous for several months. I am being won over by the song's charms, especially in this fun & sexy cover version. Yummy young man, & very talented.

Open A New Window

I located this window at one of our regular haunts- The Rebuilding Center in the Mississippi neighborhood of Portland (http://www.rebuildingcenter.org/) & bought it on the spot. I didn't know if it would fit or could be made to work... I just knew I had to have it. The Husband & I collect architectural elements- doors, windows, balustrades, columns, banisters etc) & we have redone our house using recycled materials. The husband & our friend Pete installed it & I always make myself scarce when there is major construction. I was told that "it wasn't easy...but we were gonna make it work, damn it!". Here are before & after pictures from last summer's project & another view of how it looks now, just a few days from Summer 09. This new window really opens up the view of the back garden. I enjoy seeing all the birds at their many feeders & in the birdbath. I appreciate having a "handy" husband. All his training as a set designer pays off (he is still at heart- a set designer; he never finishes that parts of projects that "the audience can't see".