tetriSF

I love Nashville, but I'm also glad to be back in a town that inspires this sort of behavior, and that this is a town where this sort of actually happens.

Via Laughing Squid: A crew of 36 Freeboard skaters created a life size game of Tetris in neon on a San Francisco hill. Music is a E*Rock remix of “You Can Not Believe It” by Copy.

172 students, 1 shot

This looks like a lot of fun, and a lot of work. And clearly more fun working than I'm having. So engaging:

50 years strong

Golden

I'm flying home to Nashville to participate in the celebration of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. Honesty, I get choked up a little every time I think about it.

The brothers and I, naturally, are preparing a presentation. They have also rummaged and found a book of photos from the wedding and some family photos from around that time. Sister-in-law Stephanie was kind enough to scan these at Walgreen's and send them to me for editing.



I can't get enough of these. What BABIES they were! Mom was only 21, and had graduated from Vanderbilt just the May before. Dad had just turned 23. (They knew each other in high school and did date at Vandy.)



And as Mom told me looking at these, "I was 21. Just graduated college, Had a job programing for IBM, was getting married, and thought I knew everything."

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She claims she is still learning. But with the three boys she has, I think by now she just might have seen it all.

will wet my briefs at this encounter

The reviews for Noël Coward's revamped Brief Encounter at ACT have been RAVE.

I'm seeing it tonight with Out with ACT (and, Heaven help me, they've used me in their promotional materials for the new season).

Unfortunately, my Statler is flying off to Ireland tonight. But the ever so (arm) charming Wil has agreed to accompany me. I am so looking forward to this.

this weekend for me: no Folsom, all Wholesome

I came out to SF for job interviews in September of 1996, and my professional host, amused that I was a gay guy from The South who had never been to San Francisco before, not only dropped me off, alone, in the Castro to "meet my people," but on a whim took me to my first Folsom Street Fair. I was dressed in what I have come to think of as Total Tennessee Frat Boy Drag. And for heaven's sakes, I was dressed in color. And in jeans and hiking boots.

Bruce (heh, a straight guy named Bruce no less) thought I might implode at the scene, but after about five or ten minutes of chaps and cheeks, the shock value wears off.

For the past four years, I have really enjoyed working Folsom as a volunteer in a booze booth benefiting the Gay Rodeo (technically, the Bay Area Chapter of the Golden State Gay Rodeo Association). This will be the first year since that virgin (heh) outing in 1996 that I will miss a Folsom Street Fair. And the surrounding parties and antics.

Instead, I will be going to a much more important and considerably different sort of affair: This Saturday, to the day, will mark my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Which is sort of Folsom I suppose, in that clearly my Dad is totally whipped.

away, my boys

"I'm such a mess, I can't imagine being anybody's anchor."
"Well, you weigh me down."

finding that special someone

"How is he in a relationship?"
"I don't know."
"And what is up with this pairing?"
"I know. It's like Jane Goodall meets Nell."

that's not love coming down like rain

Wow. Atlanta is some serious with the wet. The Shilpa was routed by AirTrans to return from Detroit via ATL. Flight was delayed due to "weather."

Shilpa plopped down the $12 for wifi and logged in to kill some time and report to her chauffeur (me). She told me rain was delaying her departure and didn't know when she'd get back.

I thought it must be serious based on the Facebook updates. My friend Catherine in Atlanta wrote: "There is so much rain in Atlanta, that my 3 yr old is now pretending that his cars are having to turn around b/c of flooding!! "Road Closed, have to turn around." They really do imitate EVERYTHING!!"

I commented about Shilpa and Catherine added "The rain is crazy 2 ppl at least have died from their cars flooding around ATL today. Tell your friend to hit the bar, the ATL in the rain could be a long wait!! if she needs a drinking partner, I might be available! :)"

I let Shilpa know.

Hours later, Shilpa and the other stranded souls boarded, only to deplane another hour later. They were assured that they could make their connections as all flights were being held away from ATL for a while.

Upon ultimate arrival to ATL, Shilpa followed the directions to her connection. Four agents told her it was there. The flights at the gates did not correspond to the flights on the display screens, nor instructions by agents. After more investigation, schlepping back and forth, and ultimately arguing, she found an agent who did in fact know where her flight to SFO was—in the air and departed about an hour earlier.

By all accounts, ATL was a complete clusterfk. Every counter was thronged by frustrated and exhausted passengers trying to make it to their destinations. Shilpa tried dealing with agents on the phone, who where using the same bad information she had been previously fed on the ground. She purchased another round of wifi, which would not connect.

There is not another AirTrans flight to SFO from ATL until Thursday. The best the AirTrans phone agent could manage was to put her on a 3:00 AM flight to Milwalkee (keep in mind she just flew in from Detroit) where she might, might get on an 8:00 am flight to SFO.

Last I heard this was her reserve plan, and was going to wait with the masses to talk to a physical agent to get back sooner, route more directly, or get put on a different carrier.

And she has not been heard from again.

CNN reports today that the travel inconvenience is the least of the troubles—the rains aren't over yet, and seven people have died in the flooding, with another missing and presumed dead in Chattanooga.

Flights at ATL, however, appear to have resumed.

Update: Alert Reader Caroline points to photos of the flooding from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Reports indicate that all fatalities were people in cars trying to ford flooding, or those who tried to rescue them. The missing man and his buddy went swimming in a flooded ditch on a bet. Just a month ago, the area was considered in drought conditions.

And check out this portion of flooded interstate in downtown Atlanta.



What was so important they had to risk driving into that?

CNN/Anderson Cooper's three minutes on it last night:



Update: 26 hours later, the Shilpa has landed.

And forwarded by Alert Reader Skot Land: "This is God's punshishment for Atlanta Police Department's raid on the Atlanta Eagle."

just when you thought AT&T couldn't get worse

It's no secret that AT&T's mobile service is crap, enough that it sullies the good name of crap.

They admit that their network can't handle the traffic of their own subsribers, much less new subscribers, and the concentration of iPhone users (AT&T customers) causes brownouts or blackouts whenever there are large gatherings of creative or tech professionals. The network is so inadequate, AT&T has forced Apple to cripple certain network-intensive apps for the iPhone. The required AT&T service contract is universally seen as the worst feature of the iPhone.

So AT&T proposes this fix: They sell you a box—not provide mind you, sell— and for a month fee—again, for a free— that you can install where AT&T's service is lacking that will reroute your cell calls through your internet connection, an internet connection you are already paying someone else for.

So to actually provide customers with the service they've already paid for once, AT&T wants their customers to pay them again for the same service they are supposed to be receiving, and even then, pay them twice (first for the equipment and then for the service).

This is called "MicroCell 3G." (And here.)

And tech and consumer sites are rightfully shouting WTF?

new meaning to eye teeth

Sight has been restored to a woman who has been blind for nine years by a process and surgeries where they extracted a tooth, carved it, fitted it with an acrylic lens, let it "incubate" in her chest skin, then sewed the whole tooth-lens apparatus into her eye.

Seriously. No wonder I heard about this from a science fiction blog.

Via iO9, story in the Miami Herald.

Video of a press conference/interview:



Shorter news coverage with animated explanation from Good Morning America:

Why we need health insurance reform NOW

In case you missed it: Insurance Company Must Pay $10 Million For Revoking Policy Of Teen With HIV

I believe the term "evil" applies here.

Excerpt:

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible."....

An investigation this summer by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and earlier ones by state regulators in California, New York and Connecticut, found that thousands of vulnerable and seriously ill policyholders have had their coverage canceled by many of the nation's largest insurance companies without any legal basis. The congressional committee found that three insurance companies alone made at least $300 million over five years from rescission. One of those three companies was Assurant.

In Febuary 2008, a private arbitration judge in Los Angeles ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient whose health insurance it revoked shortly after her diagnosis and while she was undergoing chemotherapy. The plaintiff in that case, Patsy Bates, a then-52-year-old grandmother and hair-salon owner, was unable to continue her chemotherapy for several months.

a dirty sort of clean

With all the fog of late my car has been caked in pollen and soot, but I held off washing it until I could support some friends' fundraising car wash. Sure, 20 bucks is a lot for a parking lot car wash, but the AIDS Emergency Fund is a worthy cause in more need than ever.

It didn't hurt that it was the Bare Chest Calendar Men hosting the AEF car wash, and in homage to the standard high school cheerleader bathing suit car washes across America, they hosted a Tighty Whitey Car Wash.


Okay, it was not so much an homage to the traditional "girls getting scantily clad to get car wash business" as much as "knowing their market." But hey, we are for nothing if not equality.

And it was all for a good cause.

More views from the driver's seat on Flickr.

Tracy Chapman wants a ride

'cause The Jamez just got himself a fast car.

J surprised me after work yesterday with a call that he just bought a car, and would be picking me shortly for a quick ride to the beach. Brand spankin' new Mazda 3, fully freaking loaded touring package. Awesome ride.

I've only known James to have a "car" for the briefest of times over the past 13 years, and the quality of said auto merits the air quotes around "car."

Now that his friends are ever so slightly developing their farmland up in Napa, James has ordered some solar equipment and a geodesic dome for a writing retreat space. A such, he'll be commuting up every weekend, and he thought it was time to buy a car. And a sweet, sweet machine it is.



And finally, another friend with a car so I don't have to chauffeur all the time.

Of course, it's just not the same without a miniature of this guy permabonded to the dashboard.

and in southern gay news

The reports on the gay-bashing police raid on the Atlanta Eagle are increasingly appalling, especially not that the police department can't even get their stories straight as to why there were there and what there were supposed to do—not to mention the illegal search, abuse, and detention of citizens who committed no crimes.

The Southern Voice reports that now that the police department and city officials have had a chance to respond, and have done so without integrity or accountability, the civil rights group Georgia Equality is now demanding answers.

Their completely reasonable questions include:

• What concrete steps (such as written policies) will the Police Chief take to ensure that the APD’s LGBT Liaison Offer Dani Lee Harris is notified in advance and involved in the coordination and execution of future police actions affecting the LGBT community?

• How is the city any safer since the raid?

• What percentage of the officers on duty the night of Sept. 10 participated in the raid?

• Why were so many officers needed to investigate non-violent dancing when violent crimes are occurring all over the city?

• How much did this raid cost taxpayers? What is the cost per charge/violation? How many work hours went into the investigation leading up to and the execution of the raid?

• What specific evidence led to the initiation of the raid? What documentation exists detailing that evidence? Why has the reasoning for the raid shifted over time?

• What actions were taken and what language was used by police during the raid and how were patrons treated?

• What training, if any, had the officers who participated in the raid received regarding LGBT community sensitivity and did they follow such training, written procedures, or policies?

• Why were individual arrested and held in custody 19 hours for ordinance violations?

Meanwhile up in Nashville, at times a considerably less progressive town than Atlanta, the Metro City Council, after MUCH strife, passes a measure protecting Metro employees from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Now we just need to extend that protection to all employees within the City, or with whom the city has contracts, not just city employees.


Update: Protest planned at Atlanta City Hall this Saturday (tomorrow).

Fun Thursday

Two great, and very different, shows tonight:

The Country Squires happy hour at El Rio, 6:00 to 9:00: Bay Area Twangsters Christopher Fisher, Doug Blumer, Maurice Tani and Mississippi Mike Wolf get together infrequently to perform material that they don't normally play with their own bands.


Free, and drafts and wells only $3.

Alternatively: The Good Vibrations IXFF Indie Erotic Film Festival, at the Castro Theater.

trading the casting couch for a bench press

From Men's Fitness:
Top 10 Hollywood Bulk-Ups
The most impressive physical transformations in cinematic history


(Or: "How Ryan Reynolds made his career.")

Update: Shall we forget the muscle jail bait that is Kellan Lutz?

kids these days

This is just insane. Honestly, WTF are kids like this thinking? Oh, I suppose they're not, and that's the problem. I am so frustrated that a society, subculture that it may be, can get to the point that it cultivates this sort of behavior as a go-to, that the level of posturing gives way so easily to levels of violence.

From the SFGate: Loud music leads to teen's shooting in Antioch

But then again, beyond games of skill (I'm including real hunters here), I have never bought into the the gun fascination. (Although I do acknowledge that blowing shit up can sometimes be really, really cool.) I find a love for or reliance on firearms to be a massive display of insecurity. Guns are not power, and guns do not confer respect (which these boys seem to so desperately crave). The power will always remain in the gun, and not transfer to the man. The fear that people display when facing down a gun barrel? They are showing respect for the destructive power of the pistol, but this is not respect for the hand holding it.

Too often these days, the cry of justification to violence is "He was disrespectin' me!"

Of course we have no respect for you—you're holding a gun. You have so little respect for or of others, and no respect for yourself, that you've sought to borrow some externally, from a prop. All we see is a frightened little boy in oversized clothes shouting "Look! I bought some respect off the street! I'm holding it! Respect me now!" Uh, no. "Respect" is something non-transferable from objects.

Those who have respect, know it, and have earned it. And they have it inside. Neither respect nor self-worth can be acquired externally. And those that have respect, don't show it nor demand it.

All you've got is a flashy accessory that kills people and creates ripples of pain and destruction around you. That's something you want us to respect?

Oh. I get it now. You're stupid. That explains the gun.

Of course, all this being said, I'm not. So I am not about to get into a shouting match with a dumbass in Antioch over the volume of his ride. If they are insecure enough to demand attention by installing bass speakers with half the mass of their auto frame, they are insecure enough to think that a gun can make a boy a man. And they aren't smart enough to be disinclined to use it.

Update: What's with all the guns today? SFist reports Armed gunman in Levi's Plaza, and the SFGate is reporting that a someone was shot standing outside their home in Oakland today.

buoys and gulls

As big a fan as I am of the clever pun, verbal or iconic, I am easily tired by cutesy terms to distinguish men's and women's toilets. Theme restaurants tend to be the grossest offenders.

Clearly, I am not alone, judging by the public editorial to the somewhat difficult to distinguish signage of "boy dog" and "girl dog" at the Fido coffee house near Vanderbilt University.


I was grateful for and quietly applauded the rouge marker man as I went on to do my own bit of business.

required viewing

This coverage is just genius. Honest interviewing and questioning, with no logical responses. There is no maliciousness or "trickery" on the part of the documentarian, just occasional disbelief at the non-responses. Sure, the interviewer seems there to discredit these nut jobs on their "march" on Washington, but only by giving them the opportunity to speak out, which is what one presumes they want—they are after all marching and chanting and holding signs.

Basically, he lets them answer their own questions with nonsense and discredit themselves completely.

I really didn't have a grasp of how much the anti-health care/tea-bagger movement has nothing to do with either health care insurance reform or taxation. It seems to be thinly veiled bigotry looking for a cover. Out of their own mouths:



Skip ahead a few minutes if you like—it gets really entertaining when he starts asking follow up questions to their own statements. Quality responses include that Obama is the anti-Christ because his name is written out in Hebrew as the anti-Christ in the Bible, a guy holding a "Joe Wilson for President" sign saying, "Oh, I'm not for Joe Wilson for President." And of course people complaining about parts of the Health Care Reform Bill they hate, but cannot say which parts, or that they are tired of Obama's "lies," but cannot identify a single lie.

I am quite impressed with the comportment of the interviewer. This needs to be shown on network news. Perhaps Leno can add it to his Jaywalking segment too.

(Best aside after a protester could not explain his own sign: "Fascism, socialism, communism—these things are apparently interchangeable, if you don't know what they mean.")

if only the intruder had brought a pen

From the Washington Post: College student kills intruder with sword.

post to page

That's it. I need to find some way to turn all these blog posts into a book.

right on Targé

We love the Target for bargain shopping of necessities and basic housewares with a stylish bent, but do you know how to get the most bargains out of your Target run?

The Dealista knows, and she's telling. Learn which days of the week which types of items are discounted, how discount increase over time, what holiday shopping bargains to expect and even where to print out Target special coupons.

from the makers of Bridezilla

Bitchy Bridesmaid, new from Mattel.

Strappy gold shoes sold separately.

graphic/artist

Beethoven plays Guitar Hero.

Mesmerizing.

In your sleeveface!

Mali had a dinner party for the premiere of Glee, and also threw in a little Sleeveface fun. He stopped at Amoeba and bought a bunch of cheap album covers suitable to the meme.

Some of the results were just awesome.





I was particularly pleased with how mine came out:



But the prize goes to Shilpa and Amy as the Judds.


The best title for an unknown track was found on the Fresh Metzger album, although without a turntable we could not sample "Bum My High."

Update: Flickr set.

WTF with Fernando and Greg and Energy 92.7?

I thought it was just me and my crappy reception on the new clock radio. Instead of good music and funny banter this morning, I woke up to crappy hip hop.

I finally remembered to check out what was going on via the web and it seems that either Fernando and Greg are gone for good, or the entire Energy 92.7 is going bye bye. Either way, MAJOR suckage for the Bay Area.

No real news or information the offical website, Twitter, Facebook or the boards. The last tweet said merely "The rumors are true." which does not bode well. Thier Facebook page is full of lamenting comments so it looks like no more F&G, which will make my mornings even more unbearable.

I haven't found out any relevant reporting on the local blogs either. Will link if I find any news.

Update: Missed this on the SFist, on which locals can usually rely. Yep with the sucking: Energy 92.7 dead. The SFist links to the Examiner (they report news still?)

Well shit. Music, news, and community the worse for it. Please don't make me listen to Alice.

love amongst the french toast and cocktails

August brought back the Classic Harvey's Sunday Brunk.

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Feel the love.

e (e cummings) mail

I have a special friend whose e-mails are part stream of consciousness, part poetry and part whimsy. At times, it takes an experienced reader to decode some of his messages, which are always a delight. My favorite response so far was from Gay Greg, who replied to a mass e-mail with "I eagerly await the translation of this message."

At a Different Light bookstore the other weekend, Alert Reader Coco Flores found the e-mail decoder handbook:



Ahem.

As the t-shirt says:
Haiku's are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator.

All right, I'll call your Gooey Louie

And raise you a Gassy Gus.



You know who you are.

happy birthday hour

I'm going to do something big (as soon as I can find an affordable venue) and outdoorsy/dancy for my First Annual 39th Birthday Party. As it was, a few of us just went or happy hour two-for-ones on the actual birthday. This turned out to be a blast, what I remember of it anyway. Again, Shilpa's got most of the good photos. These were in my camera the next day.

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Special shout to Guy who made it out after class, and brought cake! And a big shout out to surprise guest who landed just time from NYC: Rick Marshall (before off to Burning Man of course). Happy to me!

Flickr set.

Welcome Linda

Southern Hemi Linda was here last week and Lance and Greg hosted a BBQ at their place before she had to wing back. Shilpa has loads more embarrassing photos, but I thought I would just note a couple here. I'll link when she gets around to sharing. Love to Linda.

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Please embiggen to see Jeff's face at right. Lance was in form and trying to set up a shoot between him and Shilpa, with kissing. I think I've got video of that mess around here someplace. Jeff''s expression is a mix trying to ignore Lance and stifling a laugh. The Shilpa, as she is, is less subtle.

Lance's throw pillows also work as a adequate graphic representation of all of the voices in my head.

fry guys

Skot Land bought a deep fryer, so had Shilpa, PeeDee and me over to fry stuff. I'm from Tennessee, so my first thought was "awesome." We had tempura batter, beer batter, and some sort of Indian batter—and lots of sht to fry.

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Fryer and table of stuff to fry.
The jalapeños were the most popular, although delicate flower that I am I had to decline. The mushrooms were the best for me. Skot and the Shilpa were very proud of their frying. I was mostly amused by the surprise in the pantry. Which I was not allowed to fry.

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Anyone else old enough to remember the Fry Guys?

No? Just me?

Assholes.

Flickr set.