Toothbrush edition

Got Today off (my first of three four day weekends around the coming holidays).

The center support bearing on the drive shaft was going on my 1995 Ranger (with 178,000 miles on it). It was making a noise and I backed off driving in recently. Thought it might be a water issue after all the water of Ida.

Here at the AAA Car Care Center for awhile but glad I brought it in. A couple hundred dollars later and I should be back in good running order.

Cold and damp here. Winter is trying to arrive in earnest.

Domestic chores and leisure.

Xmas Day will be a big movie release day. Nine and a few others. I will need my fix of music and Sophia will be my choice.

fuzzyjay and stsergius celebrated their natal day on Thanksgiving!

I hope you had extra fun beyond the usual holiday festivities.

My best to you both!

Hey all!

I'm alive. I'm still far from 100%, but I seem to be doing better. The wrist still hurts if I twist it too much, but it's far better than what it was. I'm still not sure if I actually had swine flu. The medical folks don't even bother testing, they just call it swine flu if you exhibit flu-like symptoms. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Today I've been having coughing fits every few hours, which probably means my body is trying to get rid of the crud in my lungs. I can't wait for it to be over.

Like the idiot I am, I'm still working out as much as I can, although not at the gym. I've got a kettlebell in the house now (standard 24kg one), and I've been doing both hand and left-handed exercises with it, just to do *something*. Interestingly, I've found that the heavier kettlebell has corrected my movements and form. When I used the lighter KB, I used my arms and shoulders too much, when it's really more of a back/hamstring/quads thing. At 24kg, you're far less likely to use your shoulders to lift the KB straight out in front of you from the floor! Because of my wrist, I've had to stop the 100 pushups challenge, which is a bit of a shame, as I did notice my ability to bang out pushups in a single set increased week over week. I'm pretty sure I can hit the target when I start it up again (although I'd have to start from the beginning).

Oh, in other news, the two pieces I purchased from GiltMan arrived, and they're beautiful. I'll post pics soon. I need to figure out how I'm going to do that, as I live in a cave, and black velvet absorbes a lot of light. The trousers fit well, although they need some hemming. The shirt is fine in the shoulders and arms, but should be taken in at the waist, and is a wee tight in the lats/chest, but it's not embarrassingly taut. I was hoping to receive an email/phone call from Mr. Ned, saying that my first fitting is ready, but alas, it hasn't yet happened. I'm not too worried though, as holiday madness happens. I'm going to shoot him an email next week to see what's up.

Thank you all for your LJ entries these last several days. While I haven't commented on most, I've been reading and enjoying the insights into your holidays. I may not be saying much, but I am thinking of you.

2010 is coming right around the corner, and that means the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation. I found this in my memory box. It's a newpaper article in the Wauwatosa News-Times on May 26th, 1988 regarding a Prints & Ads class I took in high school. Ms. Kirby was one of my favorite teachers. Her along with Mrs. Christie were my favorite teachers, as they taught all of the art classes. Check out my awesome hair!


Closer:

Here' some statements that can only be safely said in the confines of a thanksgiving day feast:

( NSFW but funny as hell )

Dateline: Crackerbarrel in Springfield, 2022EST 25 November

I always underestimate - severely - travel time. I actually launched off tonight at what I thought was a reasonable time - 1730hrs. Dr. Templeton suggested a route of Rt 2 to 91S to 90W which would route me around the Great West Bound Traffic Jam that is the Mass Pike. However, its 2024 and I'm just at Springfield. I think I've made good time, but it just takes a long time for me to travel. Period. It's one of the reasons I don't do it much.

I called Mom last night from Downtown Crossing as I was coming back from Zazen. Again, as far as I'm concerned, she sounds good. She always sounded tired when I first moved out here to Boston. The last two conversations I've had with her - last night, and on her birthday at the end of October - she's sounded rested, strong - very much like the mother I knew 20 years ago.

So I'm here eating dinner at Cracker Barrel. I blame this on Mark Anbinder. Years ago when we would go to conventions we would find a Cracker Barrel to stop at either on the way there, or on the way back. This place is one of the few, somehow, where the portions are perfect for me. Given that, I'm not sure how Mark didn't manage to starve to death. :-)

Thanksgiving this year will be at Terror Manor, my parent's place. My sister didn't want to have it at her place because her's is a split level place and she was afraid - with good cause - there'd be mobility problems with Dad. So, I'll help Mom with stuff tomorrow morning (Me helping with cooking? Is this Doc's Secret Plan to Halt the Bleeding of the Inheritance by killing his family? Mmmmmmaybe). I have then been told by all parties involved that I'm spending Thanksgiving night over at my nephew's. This was decided weeks before I arrived. I'll never know what that kid sees in me. If he was only 30 years older and...ummmm...not related to me, I might have a chance at proper adulation! :-)

And with that, its time to get back on the road...


Dateline: Terror Manor, 0124EDT 26 November

Well, I'm finally here. I can never believe how badly I always underestimate travel time. Fortunately I realized it halfway through and called Mom and told her just to leave the door open and go to bed. She listened. I was half afraid I'd find her asleep on the couch when I got here and I didn't.

One of the things I both like, and is disturbing to me, is to drive through Rome and see what's changed from when I knew it last. Rome changes. Terror Manor doesn't. Until now.

There is now a huge, wooden ramp from the driveway to the front door for my father's wheelchair (I have to believe). The bathroom has a metal grab handle in it. The only place I've ever seen anything like that is in a hospital.

Dale is 25 years older than I am. I can remember starting to play D&D 25 years ago. It doesn't seem like that long ago. Now, am I looking 25 years in the future when I see Dale?

Does cynide go bad with time? I hope not. Better stock up.

I'm almost afraid to answer this question, particularly this close to the NEXT holiday, as some of my answer might doom me to nightly visits by well meaning but irritatingly inappropriate spirits of Christmas past present and future. The very last thing I need is to be constantly be accused of 'humbugging' life.

Still, I think i'm beginning to like the non-commercialized (or at least little commercialized) days like Veteran's day and Memorial day, not because of what they stand for but because we don't have 'tradition crossover' involved with them. When I was a child, Christmas was Christmas, Easter was Easter, Halloween was Halloween and so on, und so weiter.

My biggest problem is with the rampant tradition-ripping that is going on nowadays. For instance, where the hell did the concept of an "Easter tree" come into play? Halloween lights? It's clearly that the makers of one type of item or another are trying to cash in on the traditions of other holidays that were never originally intended for their respective items. It's possible now to keep a Christmas tree up nearly all year and just redecorate it for each holiday.

Now understand, I don't really have a problem with businesses trying to find new niches for products. I can see that that is normal and a proper thing for them to do. My problem is with the homogenization of the holidays. Pretty soon, the traditions we keep for the holidays will not matter because they are now the same traditions for all holidays.

For me, the differences in how we celebrate are integral to why we celebrate in the first place. They are markers for time and meaning. They are expressions of truth as well as emotions. They deserve some respect and deserve to be held at leat a little sacrosanct.

Now that that's said, I'm going back to eating my colored Thanksgiving eggs and the St Patrick's day Green Candy Corn.

Namaste

I have a lot to be thankful for in my life.

Thanks to my parents, who not only love me as a son, but have also been there for me throughout the year. I'm very thankful they are part of my life, albeit 2,000 miles away. I love them both.

Thanks to Paul, who supported me through thick and thin this year, and also has been the best ex anyone could ask for. It's been a rough year for both of us, filled with extreme highs, and extreme lows, but when all the dust is settled, we will be lifelong friends. I trust this instinct.

Thanks to Buck for being a fun and awesome friend and podcast partner. Your days in Indiana with your family will be treasured, and you will never regret moving out of California.

Thanks to Matt for being a great friend and a great ear to bend. You are a wonderful and loving person, and I'm thankful we are great friends.

Thanks to Dennis for being an amazing sister-in-sin, and I will always treasure our friendship. The laughs that you and I share are more personal to me that you can ever know.

Thanks to Sean & Matty for being amazing friends. Sean, you know how much your insight means to me, and you inspire me to keep doing what I'm doing in the entertainment biz. Matty, I'm grateful for your compassionate words and feverish passion for the rights for gays to marry. Your hard work will pay off in spades.

Thanks to the staff at I Survived A Japanese Game Show for allowing this fat bear to be a part of a reality show world that most will never see in their lifetime. The experience of being on the show and being in Japan can never be taken away from me, and I will always treasure it...so thanks to everyone involved, including all the friends who surprised me with the reveal. Majide!

Thanks to Dave & Rob who have been wonderful friends throughout the year, and have been there to support me. You guys are amazing, and I love that we are friends. Rob, your sassy mouth makes me laugh to no end, and Dave, your passion for film will take you great heights. I'm glad I got to be a part of Pornography and may it continue to bring you success in the future.

To Scott & Joe, who provide me endless laughs when we are together. You two are a card! I truly appreciate our friendship more than you know, and hope that 2010 can be a fun year of creative art, sports and more frisbee disc golf! You are amazing.

Thanks to Dave & Jeremy who have become great friends this year. You two make me laugh to no end, and I love you both. I'm very thankful that we've gotten to know each other throughout the year, and I look forward to more silly adventures with you two.

Thanks to Dave & Jason (SO MANY DAVES!) for providing the last of the Tuesday Night Dinners, of which I was so happy to be a part of. So many fun memories of Tuesday nights, so much awfully fun TV we've seen together, and thanks for being friends since 2000. We're old!

Thanks to Pat for being a new and fun friend. I love your passion for movies and I look forward to spending time watching a lot of them with you so I can not being such a movie idiot. Hitchcock, baby, here we come! You are sweet and kind, and you have been a great friend.

Thanks to Wayne for being such a sweetie and bringing over amazing food whenever we get together. You are a peach! Thanks for being awesome as always.

Thanks to all my friends, new and old for being there with me and for me throughout the year. The list is way too long to mention, but you know who you are. You've provided me time, energy, love, support and care and I really appreciate it all. I will never forget any of you.

Thanks to all of the friends and lovahs who have provided a bed or a couch to crash for me, or a dinner or whatever they can give throughout the year in my travels in Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and everywhere else I've been. Your hospitality means the world to me, and I thank you.

To everyone who has supported my career in comedy, entertainment, acting, podcasting and every venture I've dipped my toe in. This year was a big life-changing year for me in many ways, and I look forward to my new adventures. I have a lo of irons in the fire for new and exciting projects, and can't wait to continue making you laugh and entertaining people. It's my passion.

Much love to all, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and a wonderful rest of the year.

2009 (and the last month of 2010) has been a great year. I am thankful for many things! Some highlights:

For my husband, Matt, of course. And for the fact that we not only got legally married, but also managed to plan a really big wedding that was such a perfect day, I still can't believe it went off so well.

For Aaron for wedding us on short notice.

For the opportunity to write and direct a play this year. It came at the perfect time, and has been a lifesaver in the mental health department.

For our kitties, an endless source of joy.

For Gary Cotti, who loaned us his truck while he's away, which has been absolutely invaluable now that we're down to one vehicle. And for his continued progress on the personal front.

For the moment after we learned our car was totaled, when Matt and I looked at each other and realized that, despite what had just happened and how it was going to affect us, our problems were insignificant compared to what so many other people were going thru in the world. Yes, it sounds completely hippy and "We Are the World," but that moment has remained fresh in both our minds ever since, and we remind each other of it frequently.

For our friends, who we're even more thankful for recently now that Matt and I are finally out from under a huge project that took up so much of our time. I love that we have so many people all across the country that we consider good friends.

For our therapist. Seriously. The advice we've received, both as a couple and individually, has been invaluable.

For the opportunity to participate in the whole marriage civil rights issue. As frustrating as it's been at times (for a variety of reasons), it's also been very rewarding.

For our health. For two hypochondriacs, this is key.

For the career opportunities that have presented themselves this year, and the creative work I've been able to do and share with fellow creative folk.

For travel. Less this year than in years past, but still fun and appreciated.

And on and on and on. So many things to be thankful for!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it!

:>)

_______________________________

In other news, I am writing this from the rexsteed - Carrasco/Johnson manse in the South Pasadena-adjacent L.A. neighborhood of Highland Park; on this map it's next to Ernest E. Debbs Regional Park,about 1/2-way along the 110 Freeway route. Peter and Steve's condo complex has killer views to the west/northwest over Eagle Rock, Pasadena ...



... and off towards Glendale; as much time as I've spent in L.A. over the past 20-odd years it's a neighborhood that's completely new to me.

The drive from my place to Peter & Steve's is about 88 miles, all but the last three or so on I-5. "The Five" can be fraught with traffic bottlenecks around the Irvine Spectrum, Mission (Mormon) Viejo, the Orange Crush and the sudden transition to Ghetto Freeway when crossing the OC/LA County line; Google Maps doesn't say "90 minutes; up to two hours and 30 minutes in traffic" for nothing. Tonight, however there was just a slight slowing in Norwalk and 65-70 mph the rest of the way. Sweet!

Tomorrow afternoon, the boys (and Steve's homemade Queso and Mexican Chocolate Chip cookies) and I will be headed to Deepest West Los Angeles for Thanksgiving dinner. The hosts are Steve's longtime gal pals Yvonne (from Coronado High School in El Paso) and Monique (from his days at USC film school). (My contribution: a big bottle of Ketel One.



Not espeially creative, but always popular. Gay men, and the straight women who love them? Please. :>) My fag hag sister in the D.C. suburbs swears by Grey Goose, but it's Ketel One west of the Sierras ...)

For those of you who live in a more traditional four-season climate, the weather in Southern CA from Thanksgiving-to-New-Years would/will be a bit disconbobulating. Typically it includes only a bit (or none) of the rainy season, so the days are almost always sunny and very dry. Nights are chillier than one might expect; from around 40F in coastal neighborhoods to the low 30sF farther inland. Daytime highs can be all over the place, with the primary independent variable being the Santa Anas (or lack thereof). Afternoons pushing 80F are not too uncommon, though the high 60s is more typical.

Sacramento native Joan Didion had this to say about the Santa Anas:

Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.

Being an optimist generally, I prefer to keep in my thoughts the rhyme kids learn in elementary school from Santa Barbara to San Diego.


"The Spring is in the Summer ...

... and the Summer in the Fall.

The Fall is in the Winter ...

... and the Winter? Not at all."


Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving 2009, wherever it may take you!

This concert was awesome!! More details tomorrow...

Thanks titoagogo!!!

As you may or may not know, Marc bootglove passed away today.

I have fond memories of Marc being nothing but the sweetest person in the world. In the handful of times I saw him in person at various bear runs around the country and online, he was always supportive and was truly a wonderful person to me.

I will miss his smile and his big hugs. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

( click for larger )

(pink highlighting notes some of biased and sensationalistic words and reporting, as well some of the more maddening or outrageous historical details.)


Life magazine, June 26, 1964

HOMOSEXUALITY IN AMERICA

By Paul Welch
Photographed for LIFE by Bill Eppridge

A Legal-Religious Debate Grows over Personal Immorality

[CONTINUED FROM HERE]


Although the antihomosexual stand taken by the Los Angeles police is unswervingly tough, it reflects the attitude of most U.S. law-enforcement agencies on the subject. Yet within the past decade this position has been criticized by legal and religious groups -- here and abroad -- which have asked for more social and official tolerance of homosexuals. They frequently quote "the Wolfenden Report," the famous statement on homosexuality made in 1957 by a British governmental committee headed by Sir John Wolfenden. The committee recommended that Britain change its sex laws so that "homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offense." In its argument, the committee held the view that "there must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law's business."

The position of the Wolfenden Committee has since been supported by spokesmen from various religions. A group of Quakers in Britain challenged the view that homosexuality is immoral. In a pamphlet titled "Towards a Quaker View of Sex," published in 1963, it was suggested that society "should no more deplore homosexuality than lefthandedness…. Homosexual affection can be as selfless as heterosexual affection and therefore we cannot see that it is in some way morally worse."

A Catholic viewpoint, which does not condone homosexuality but does regard it as a psychological problem, has been provided in a book, Counselling the Catholic, written for U.S. parish priests by Father George Hagmaier, C.S.P. and Father Robert Gleason, S.I. The book makes the point that in order to “bring one’s activity into accord with objective morality, one needs knowledge and one needs freedom. A defect in either will ordinarily imply some lessening of responsibility.” The authors conclude that, because they are subjected to this psychological disturbance, homosexuals do not have this freedom.

Many of the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee were adopted by the American Law Institute when it wrote a model penal code. In 1961 Illinois based a redraft of its penal code on the American Law Institute's paper, which, in effect, says that a person's private sex life is none of the law's business. An explanatory note in the draft of the Illinois code states that it "is not intended to proscribe any sexual conduct between consenting adults unless such conduct adversely affects one of the key interests sought to be protected." The "key interests" specifically in mind were preventing the use of force and child exploitation and protecting public sensibilities and the family institution.

Other states, including New York and California, currently are considering penal code revisions similar to Illinois’. But in Florida early this year the Legislative Investigation Committee’s consideration of homosexuality produced an inflammatory report, calling for tougher laws to support the conclusion that “the problem today is one of control, and that established procedures and stern penalties will serve both as encouragement to law enforcement officials and as a deterrent to the homosexual [who is] hungry for youth.” Its recommendations would make psychiatric examination of offenders mandatory and create a control file on homosexuals which would be available to public employment agencies throughout the state. The report, which included an opening-page picture of two men kissing and photographs of nude men and boys, was so irresponsible that it brought attacks from the Dade County state’s attorney and the Miami Herald, which described it as an “official obscenity.”


[caption 1] On Main St. in Los Angeles, the “frantic hour” comes when homosexuals face their last chance for a pickup that night.


[TO BE CONTINUED]


To read the entire series:
The Way We Were (Reported) - Part 1
When gay was in quotation marks - Part 2
The bitterness of individual homosexuals - Part 3
The Homosexual Faces Arrest, Disgrace - Part 4