that song on my shirt

I haven't figured out what to give my nephew for Christmas. Last year for his birthday (in January) I gave him some really cool local t-shirts.

I hate to repeat myself but he loved the cool/alternative shirts and I want to get him a pack of designs from my favorite online shop Threadless.

I love their stuff and they are having a big sale.

This one particularly caught my eye, even though it is not his style. This is more of a Paul Day/Shilpa shirt.

Sing it with me now:

Mr. Coldmeiser

My apartment has no heat for a week. It's no wonder I still haven't gotten my voice back. And today, in the 40s and raining, I have no hot water.

I'm burning candles and huddling for the heat. For this I pay ridiculous rent?

Hala back girl!

Tuesday night was Shilpa's birthday, and she gathered us together for a fun night at Club Deluxe.

It was a special night for me as I finally got to meet The Hala. Hala and I are Shilpa's no-nonsense, tough love friends and we have heard about each for years but had never met.

The meeting was epic.


Flove the Hala.

Of course, RMJ and I both had to strut out the fancy pants for the occasion.

Quality cocktails with quality people (and quality pizza!)

.

.

A special treat for me was the brief return of Terry Hill, staying in SF overnight a layover from New Zealand Air work flight.

(Don't deduct points for the hat. It was mine actually. I gotta have something to keep the baldness warm.)

A good time was had by all-


Happy birthday Shilpa!

Flickr sets: Mine (very few pics) and Shilpa's (must be her "friend" to view)

Top of the Hill Tops of the Parties follow up

Okay, now that I have pics I can give a proper shout out to David and Sean.

As usual, we met at the old Metro, now the Lookout and took a cab up the hill. We ain't walking up that incline.

And as usual, the cab ride was an event unto itself, cramming us all in there and trying to communicate to the confused driver how to get there. At least we didn't have a dyke march to circumnavigate like last time.



That's me having just taken candy from a stranger. Tis the season.



And you can't see Ryan in the back seat as Shilpa is sitting on him.

As always, we had a lovely time. We love the company, and the venue. The view from the deck was cool in every way (i.e. Baby, it's cold outside.)

and those of us that were "social"

were social

and made it our business to get to know the new faces.

Man, these kids can drink!

A big Merry Mary to David and Sean!

.

.

Flickr set

Were the World Mine

Trailer for the picture Were the World Mine on YouTube.



Sent in by LittleBigChris.

Urban Outfitters continues to be anti-gay lying scum company

It was posted to several blogs ages ago, but many people still do not know that the owner of Urban Outfitters it a rabid homophobe who gives massive amounts of time and money to beat down the gays.

Now there's this. So sickening.

Urban Outfitters has an agreement with a design company for a series of "I support" shirts. After many months of cooperation, they finalized the next in the series: "I support gay marriage."

The shirt was immediately pulled from the shelves without explanation. And when pressed for an explanation, they lied to the design company. And then they started blaming the design company to complaining customers.

With pro-Obama and anti-McCain wear, it's not like Urban Outfitters doesn't sell political merchandise. It's just anything accepting of gays that must be quashed.

Their market is young hipsters, who are pretty much by definition gay-friendly. Their market needs to know where there dollars are going.

Excerpt from the story:

But a week after the shirts had shipped to Urban to sell on the web and in the key market of California – where a law allowing same sex marriages had just passed when their discussions with Urban began – Tara, upon e-mailing the buyer for a sales report, was told that “they had been pulled from all of the stores and the web because of ‘too much bad press.’” Just a week before Proposition 8 was approved, her support shirt was removed from what she thought was “one of the most liberal, open minded stores.” At first she was disheartened at the thought of so much negative reaction to such a simple design proclaiming only the wearers’ personal positive disposition on a very timely and much-discussed issue. But after doing some research to find all this supposed “bad press,” all that came up at the time of the pull was one blog entry, which appeared on a small site devoted solely to combat gay marriage in the time of Proposition 8. Nothing more.

What Tara did find in her research, however, were “a bunch of articles on the president and founder of Urban Outfitters [Richard Hayne], his conservative views, and his contributions to [ousted homophobic politician] Rick Santorum.” Articles covering Hayne’s contributions to multiple conservative politicians and his personal conservatism dated back as early as 2003. This is not a crime by any means, but Tara did not feel that it was sufficient grounds to renege on an agreement. She told me “this is not a shirt with ice cream cones or puppies, it is a political shirt. With quite a few pro-Obama shirts in their store and even some anti-McCain products, this clearly isn’t a company that has a problem being politically aligned, so why?” She wonders if it is “just the homosexual community under attack here.”

Read the rest.

travel season

It's gotten to the point that I loathe airports.

But as I ready to fly home with a bazillion other people for the holidays, it's coll to see how landing at SFO looks from the pilot's seat.



Via Laughing Squid.

Hope is alive.

Day without a Gay

So today is, supposedly, a Day without a Gay, when all good homos call into work gay and don't spend any money or shop to create a visible and economic impact in protest of gay inequality under the law.

This is a great idea in theory. Wouldn't it be something if stores closed, Times Square went dark, or some child was left without life-saving surgery because Dr. Homo called in queer.

Yeah, in practice, the Day without a Gay idea is very Third Grade Gay.

Here's my take. I make this reasoning under the assumption that the goals of this protest are to increase visibility by creating an economic impact (by not working and not shopping) and making it felt in the business sector how essential the gay workforce is.

Gay people who could call in queer to work fall into one of two categories:

(1) People who are out at work and work for a gay-friendly employer.
(2) People who are not out at work, and are not out at work for a reason. It is still legal to fire someone, or harass them, or make their lives a living hell at work, just for being gay.

So, 'mo's in group (1) have no incentive to call in gay and not show up at work because it harms those who are supporting them. Calling in gay would be irresponsible as a valued employee, and put the burden on those who already support being openly gay in the workplace.

I have an important meeting today for which I am essential. These senior professionals actively support me as a person, and as an openly gay man. Almost all of them wrote checks on the spot when I mentioned the drag-a-thon fundraiser.

My bailing on them today would not only not benefit me nor my community, it would harm those who are supportive, and harm my professional reputation-- a self-inflicted wound because I'm gay, and harming the reputation of gay professionals.

So gays in group (1) shouldn't participate because it harms those who are helping.

Gays in group (2) should not participate because it would do minimal harm and have little to no impact on the employer, and puts the closeted employee at significant risk. In order for gay visibility to be achieved, the closeted worker would have to say "I'm not coming in to work today as an act of protest against unfair treatment of gays and lesbians." If they are not out at work, coming out and ditching a day is not likely to curry them any favor. Gays getting fired in a crappy economy helps neither the individual or the movement.

Generally, people who feel they cannot be out at work feel that way for a reason.

So there ends my brief rant. I am not alone. Many other bloggers think this is a dumb idea too.

My brother called me this morning asking if I was not going into work. (I couldn't take his call at the time because I was feeling a little gay.)

Mac has always been a loud voice for gay rights (well, he's always been a loud voice, he just lends it to the cause whenever he can), and he also thinks this is a dumb idea. And has many suggestions as how to help the cause that aren't this.

The topic was covered mentioned in today's Nashille Post (the business newspaper). Mac sent it to me and directed me to the comments. Four of them are his under various names. I weighed in (ha) as Richard Simmons, in homage to Mac's Saturday night (story to come).

PLEASE: let's get some smarmy good bitchy comments going. Click over and add a comment, but try to be funny. I want to try to build a good thread here.

Ho Ho Ho to David and Sean

Sunday was David and Sean's annual holiday party that I look forward to every year. I left my camera in my jacket (quickly whisked to the cloak room), so we mostly took pics with Shilpa's. I remembered to get my camera later and have a few. When I get Shilpa's SD card, I'll add more here, or link to her Flickr set.

First off, BIG hugs and kisses to David and Sean who always manage to gather a diverse and interesting set of people. I love the variety in their social circle and enjoyed meeting a lot of cool new people. And toddlers who were well behaved and cracked me up.

And, as always, love to Pat, Sean's mom. The woman is like 80 pounds soaking wet. I don't understand how a woman who has maybe 3.5 liters of blood in her entire body can drink 4.5 liters of champagne. Luckily for me, I do not fear what I don't understand, I just fetch more hors d'oeuvres and ask for embarrassing stories.

A few quick shout outs until I get more photos:

Tim & Tim: always a pleasure.


Mike and Wife


Mike assures me he is not a player, (he just plays one on TV).

And Bartender Robert,

.
Who I can only image left the party to go fight crime in tights and a cape.

Wow that guy was built.

Christmas specials

Anyone remember that spinning "Special" graphic that used to come on before such shows as "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? I think it was a CBS thing.

For your retro Holiday jones, check out Jeffrey Bennet's site: BetaMaXMas.

Watch 80's holiday specials from his BetaMax collection playing (via YouTube) in his parents' wood-paneled basement.



Awwwwesome.

Shows are randomly loaded. I got the Facts of Life Christmas episode on the first page load. Use the retro remote to the right to change channels (to say Santa on Night Court). Adjust the rabbit ears to get a better picture.

Jammies!

I used to make fun of my brother's nightshirts and gowns and such when he was in that lounge lizard sort of phase.

But I think I could totally "get into" these.

And I think parents with small kids would really get into these.

Footsie Pajamas for Grownups!

what's the big idea?

Shilpa: (Concerned, and suspicious) "Why does this Lane Bryant banner ad show up on every web site I go to?!"

Wilson: Yes, Shilpa. The Internet is calling you fat.

A long time ago

in a galaxy far, far away.

Emphasis on the "long time ago."

poll dancer

As long as I'm on Ironic Sans, this is one of the best online polls I've ever seen.

I had a hard time deciding. I finally decided on 24601 (narrowly resisting 1 1 2 3 5 8 13).

Go vote, then come back here and tell me what number you picked.

bail the bailout

The Wall Street bailout was so effed up. And now the auto industry is tanking (no pun intended) and asking for more taxpayer dollars to save their businesses they have run into the ground.

Loving the "fail" meme, I think that David over at Ironic Sans is a genius designer:

housing crisis

I've only toyed with the idea of buying a place. I am somewhat happily in rent control and I love my neighborhood. And I fret over major purchases that are far less than real estate in SF. An apartment is not an impulse buy for me. Maybe it's a commitment issue for me. I kind of don't want to delve into that level of introspection and self-analysis on a sunny Friday afternoon.

But Kiwi Lance sent some listings my way that are too good to resist. There are a couple of great one bedrooms available in a new building on Potrero Hill for under $400k I'm feeling foolish for not jumping on this. But I do hate moving so. And I love the ten minute walking commute I've got now.

Maybe I should just ask for it for Christmas...

love a parade

Via RMJ: The Celebratory Repeal of Prohibition Parade.

And yet they didn't call me to be grand marshal. Huh.

what do you want to be when you grow up?

GPS

I would have done better in history class if it were more like this.

The song is so catchy it's killing me. But I can't place the original tune. (Update: It's "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo (Get Along Little Doggies)")



I do think it's funny what other guys have done with it: