Last year, I recorded two songs in my home studio for the lovely Wanda Wisdom's Christmas Special.
The tracks were written, recorded and mixed over the course of only a couple days. If i remember correctly, her instructions were to give her something that was somewhere between Burl Ives and John Waters. I'd like to think I succeeded. These short ditties are downright filthy, so parental advisory kiddies.
Amy Sedaris has always been my hero.
Whenever I'm a little down
I know that she's there
to help put things into perspective.
She also teaches me things...
important things like hygiene.
When I saw this poster for a missing hamster, my heart initially went out for the owner of said missing hamster. When I discovered that the poster was from a pole in San Francisco, other concerns came to mind. I'll let you use your imagination.
On a completely unrelated note, I am very moved by Richard Gere and his tireless efforts to free tibet from chinese tyranny.
Anyway, back to Etienne, the missing hamster. I was relieved to discover that this poster was merely a marketing material for some hamster movie. I can now sleep soundly knowing that dear etienne is not lost on the streets of San Fancisco. A huge weight has been lifted.
I must admit that when I was first exposed to Roisen Murphy I was less than impressed. I have sence begun to shift or rather clarify my view. She is a very talented live performer but I am not crazy about the style of production used on much of her recorded material. Regardless, I am completely transfixed by this performance of her song Ramalama Bang Bang. Enjoy
You can learn about the former singer for Moloko by visiting her website.
This place is starting to feel like a funeral home. Yes, I know Billy Mays the oxyclean guy died, but I can't bring myself to post one more R.I.P. on here. Sorry Billy. Not to mention Ed McMahon. Who would have every thought that cracked out Amy Winehouse would have outlived them all?
On Friday, after being soaked to the bone in a rainstorm, I paid a visit to the lovely Ms. Beverly and listened to old records as we tend to do. As I was leaving, we were both commenting on the beautiful light reflecting the sunset from a neighboring building. When I reached the street, I knew something was fishy, because people had stopped their cars and were hanging out their windows taking pictures of the sky.
I looked up and about peed my pants. It looked like a scene from the movie ghostbusters and I was sure that the Stay Puffed Marshmallow man was about to come stomping down the avenue crushing pedestrains and cars like ants. The image for this posting was taken by my camera, but to get a better idea of what was going on check out this great compilation of photos taken during the same evening.
I was unaware that there is a type of clouds called mammatus clouds. You learn something new every day.
As a child I adored the show Charlie's Angels. Sadly today one of its stars, Farrah Fawcett died after a three year battle with cancer. my thoughts and much love go out to her family and friends at this difficult time. May they find peace and acceptance for their loss.
Occasionally a movie comes along that is so horribly bad that it's amazingly awesome. One of those is Coffy with Pam Grier, an absolute classic in my book. The question is, Can Deborah (Debbie electric youth) Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas pull off the so horrible it's amazingly snakes on a plane good with their newest picture Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. It's a challenging balancing act. You watch the trailer and decide.
btw, if this does not go straight to DVD, I am so going to the theater to see this. That is no joke. Who's with me?
Today K goes deep into Brooklyn to return our cable box. As part of a buckling down and tightening of the purse strings we have gotten rid of cable and our landline phone. Not to fret though, the internet is still up and running. Despite being cut off from cable television, I recently caught the trailer for HBO's Grey Gardens starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. I must say that I'm dying to see it. After doing a little research I learned that Drew took a year of diction lessons and completely immersed herself in the role. You can read a bit about her process for taking on the character here. I ran into Drew once on the street and she was sweet as a peach.
And now without further babbling on my part, behold a preview of Grey Gardens...
Last night K and I made chili and watched the Oscars. I thought Hugh Jackman did an excellent job, especially on the dancing/singing numbers.
I was thrilled that Sean Penn won the best actor award for Milk. He definitely deserved to be recognized for the great job he did.
I sense that someone is mad at me, that something has happened, but I don't yet have confirmation. It's just one of those gut feelings where things seem to not match up quite like they should.
I've been very wrapped up in a great deal of stress with my family, much of it is completely out of my control, which just gives me this overwhelming sense of helplessness.
I feel optimistic today, like it is the first day of the rest of my life and that I can just put one foot in front of the other and gain much needed momentum that at times it feels like I've lost. I guess I just feel bogged down or as Kate Bush Would say, "Suddenly my feet are feet of mud. It all goes slow-mo. I don't know why I'm crying. Am I suspended in gaffa?"
I need the soundtrack in my head to switch to Robert Smith singing Doing the Unstuck. It is time for that shift in my perspective.
I am by no means an artist in the aesthetic sense. I draw stick figures and have horrible handwriting. On Sunday K & I went over to Marc's to watch a marathon of Six Feet Under. Claire, played by Lauren Ambrose was trying to draw a perfect circle as one of her assignments for art school but ended up blowing off her work to bone a slutty tattooed musician who she meets at a crematorium while delivering a person's ashes. Lauren frequents the restaurant where K works, so he has probably seen her more times in person than on television. I am told she is very sweet. Back to art. I was over at Beverly's listening to old vinyl on the record player. Her collection is amazing, some of it going back to the 1930's. Laura was there and had begun drawing on one side of a coffee mug with chalk. I felt compelled to pick up the chalk and release what I was feeling. This is the result. As, I said, I am not an artist. (excluding music)
John McCain was scheduled to appear on David Letterman's program, but canceled at the last minute to save the country from economic ruin. haha. I have to say that I think David Letterman is brilliant.
Photos stolen without permission from People's website. Let's see if they hunt me down like a dog and shake me until the nickels fall out of my ripped pockets.
Here's sending a huge congratulations out to newlyweds Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi. De Rossi in case you don't know is quite possibly the most gorgeous celesbian ever to roam the planet. I adored her on Ally Mcbeal and most especially on Arrested Development. Ellen of course is hillarious and not too hard on the eyes at all.
Portia's dress is gorgeous and I don't think I've seen a happier couple in quite some time. I raise a glass to you ladies. Here's to breaking new ground and showing your flannel-clad saphic sisters how it's done.
Let's have a moment of silence for my favorite "Golden Girl" who slipped away from us this morning. She had been ill and suffering dementia for quite some time. I hope she is in a better place, at peace. Thank you Estelle for the countless smiles and laughter you brought us all.
I know. Gasps of homo horror just reverberated through the blog-o-sphere. I will also admit that a few of her songs are guilty pleasures. You never know what's going on underneath my headphones. After all, Ace of Base, Abba and Britney Spears are all on my ipod.
I probably shouldn't have brought up the subject of madonna. After all, you can't throw a brick in a homo bar without hitting a madonna fan in the head. Don't throw a brick in a homo bar, by the way. It's not a good way to test my theory and they have stricter penalties for hate crimes.
I do have to give some respect to Madonna for pushing the envelope. However, when her American Life video came out, she caved under pressure to censor herself.
I must say that I think this is a good example of how censorship ruins art.
Check out the two versions of the video and let me know what you think.
American Life Censored: (the boring version that aired)
American Life Uncensored: (the edgy interesting version that should have aired)
While we're on the subject of Madonna, I think the video to What it feels like for a girl, directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie, is brilliant.
Alright, if you throw a brick in a homo bar, you might hit me. NO BRICKS and NO THROWING!
George Carlin, one of the most brilliant subversive figures in American comedy died yesterday. I absolutely adored this man for telling it like it is, in a way that only he could do.
On Monday, June 16th, the same day that I found myself celebrating 30 years of hard living on the third rock from the sun, California became the 2nd state in the Union to perform legally binding gay marriages. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian born republican (really?) is currently that state's governator.
I must admit that as a young boy I had a small crush on Arnold Schwarzenegger back when he did his Conan movies. There's nothing like a well chiseled gladiator to send a young boy's heart a flutter.
In honor of my schoolboy crush, here's some vintage governator. I think Arnold could have had a real future doing a travel show, but alas, that ship has sailed.
To live in New York is to constantly brush shoulders with celebrity. Sightings are common and frequent ranging from A-list to Z-list. I once worked at a clothing store with that guy Justin who was the runner up in the first American Idol. I must say that he wasn't a very nice person. I once helped Jeanine Garafalo pick out an outfit that she wore later that day to the MTV music awards. I've seen Taylor Dayne without her makeup. She's very kind and short. I once had to arrange a helicopter for a nobel prize winning phycisist and got to talk with Olympia Dukakis about her role in Tales of the City. I love her as Mrs. Madrigal and she confided that it was her favorite role. After 10 years in New York, you start to lose track of celebrity sightings. You can't throw a brick in this city without hitting a model or actor.
Yesterday I had a celebrity sighting of sorts, well not really, but it cracked me up. I was in an elevator and a messenger got in after me and stood in front of me. For some reason I decided to look at the name on the box that he was carrying. It looked heavy. There it was, plain as day "Dr. Ruth Westheimer" the cute little old lady sex therapist. I thought about how I could notate the address in my head and later stalk her. Why would I want to stalk Dr. Ruth? I wouldn't really have the desire to stalk her, but it would be nice to have the information should I go batshit crazy and feel the need to spice things up a bit. After quelling my desire to become a crazed criminal stalker, I began to think about what might be inside that box for Dr. Ruth. It will always be a mystery, but I can always fantacize.
