Clay Aiken

Right in front of me in line at LaGuardia. His dog looks as gay as he does.

Two feet of snow and no power!

Wow, NYC can be wild. Oh wait, that's at home. Two feet and it's still snowing! All of it since this morning. Sad thing is it's going to be warm tomorrow so it will be all gone by the time I get home on Friday.

Here in NYC it's very hot but it's supposed to cool down tomorrow.

It looks like I might be in NYC for the forseeable future, I'm so excited!

Theatre review

Spring Awakening! I finally saw Spring Awakening! It's a rock opera set in the 1890s and was quite quite good. I think Skippy would love it more than his beloved (blech) Les Miserables. I purposely didn't read anything about it and when the woman behind me started talking about the plot before the curtain went up I covered my ears.

I had a third row seat! Perhaps a little too close as the lead was definitely a singing spitter. I do pity the people in the first row, they needed an umbrella. Knowing nothing about the play, imagine my suprise when I saw a boobie (eeeeew) and a guy's butt (yay!) twice! At least it wasn't gratuitious as the whole second act played because of that scene.

Talk is it will win best musical this year at the Tony's and I certainly can see why. Highly recommended especially because it still has the original cast.

Concert review

Remember the picture I posted of the Lincoln Center on Sunday? I was going to see a concert by Matt Dusk. He sings jazz/big band with a more contemporary feel. He was opening up for an Italian tenor so I thought I'd check him out as I'd never even been to the Lincoln Center.

Well it was a big huge mess. First no one could hear him at all. The older folk all started screaming bloody murder. They brought Matt no less than FIVE different microphones and we still couldn't hear him. Then they finally brought him one that worked but we could only hear him if the band wasn't playing. (I have had my hearing checked recently, it is fine!) More screaming by the old folk but Matt kind of gave up trying to get it fixed. So about 20 minutes into the concert I gave up too. If you liked just hearing the band you would have had a good time (I'm not exaggerating).

For those of you who don't know, the Lincoln Center is like DC's Kennedy Center just bigger. The theatre I was in was about 20 years overdue for a makeover and the acoustics (even for the band) were horrible! I was just amazed, my expectations had been so much higher.

I can't even remember the last time I saw a concert, now I know why I'd rather just listen to the music!

I am a geek

Last night I actually went to a game launch party here in NYC. It was for The Lord of the Rings Online. I play the game and had never been to a launch party so I thought why not. So I went to sleep at 6:15 pm, woke up at 10:40 pm and took a cab down to the event. It was full of stereotypical people you would expect to see but it was kind of fun. The swag was good too. Three t-shirts (useful), signed poster and signed box (not so much).

I've also never walked 25 blocks through NYC at 12:30 in the morning either so there!

Something else I can say I've done in my life.

Who knew...

The Lincoln Center was so beautiful?

I miss Queen Bee

I've walked over 100 blocks today here in Manhattan. And still I can't see my ribs!

Here is the place I ate lunch. Some Vietnamese place on 8th and 48th. Not good.

What the....???

I'm sitting here watching Rodney Carrington on Comedy Central. They just panned to the audience and there was a guy sitting there wearing his bluetooth headset. In the middle of the concert.

Sheesh.

It was 70 degrees here in NYC today. I went out an hour ago to take a walk but it's COLD!

I'm dating triplets

They're all named Yummy Roll.

Perspective

Yes the tragedy in Virginia was horrible. 32 dead so far. On the same day, 140 Iraqui men, women and children were murdered due to the bombings in Bagdad. Did you see any coverage on that?

I'm staying the weekend!

I've been extended at my job here in NYC so I'm staying over this weekend. I feel bad about not going home to see Skippy and the menagerie, but it has been almost a year since I did this, and it IS NYC!

Get that thing away from me

The Virginia Tech killer's package was delivered to the NBC Studios in NYC, only 1/2 a block from where I was working.

Eek.

he he

From edbrill.com...

Reuters: Rove in new controversy over e-mails

I'm not writing about politics....

Perino said a White House review showed up to 5 million e-mails to and from as many as 1,700 executive branch employees might have been lost when the administration converted from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook in 2002 and 2003.

Oops.

Link: Reuters: Rove in new controversy over e-mails >

Are we ready yet?

I firmly believe that kids are becoming numb to the constant violence they are exposed to through tv, video games, etc. I know for myself, when ER first came out I couldn't watch it at all. Now I can watch every second of it and not blink once, no matter the procedure. Luckily I still can't watch things like Kill Bill and Grindhouse. Anyone who thinks that all this violence isn't numbing us and making violence more acceptable in our minds is just kidding themselves.

I asked Skip a couple of weeks ago to play the new Lord of the Rings Online game with me. He likes to watch and says he doesn't like to play because he's "not very good" at it. I'm very very good at telling when he's not being honest with me so I pressed him. He finally admitted he just couldn't see himself doing all that killing. You know what? That's totally fine with me and I won't ask him again. Good for him.

5 things about me...

You've seen these lists, right? A lot of them are 100 Things About Me. I tried that and evidently I'm not interesting enough to complete that long of a list, so we'll go with five for now. Aight?

Let's start with a no-brainer...

I could never live here but my favorite city is New York City.
My favorite pie is Grape pie.
The older I get the more I love snow.
I never tried to breakdance but I must admit to voguing a couple of times a long long time ago.
The first movie I ever interpreted in a movie theatre was the first time I saw The Little Mermaid.

Phew.

Deja Vu

Here I am back in NYC eating sushi at Lili's on 57th. So let's see....

Flying through and landing in a major storm is not fun...
If you are so obese that it takes you half a minute to get out of your seat you should not be allowed to sit in the emergency exit row...
I loved the movie Miss Potter with Rene Zelwegger (sp) and Ewan MacGregor...
I love New York City...

Blossom update

Our little angel is mellowing and it is very nice. This morning (around 5:30 am) we were downstairs and she was trying to sleep on the couch. At one point Skip said "Hey!" (to Gaston? who knows) and Blossom perked right up and looked at him. He said "not you" and she immediately put her head back down to go to sleep. She's a smart one.

Sadness

We ended up with over 12 feet of snow this winter. In the thick of it (just around Christmas) Skip and I decided that we needed a 4 wheel drive vehicle as he couldn't even get the Honda to the airport to pick me up. So we ended up with a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid that we love very much. But it's not financially feasible to keep both cars so we are in the process of selling the 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. It really saddens me as that car gets almost 44 mpg even going up and down the mountains every day! It will be interesting, as the only way I have ever sold a car is through CarMax on my way to a new car.

A Lucky Break?

My 12:45 flight to LaGuardia was cancelled due to the storms on the east coast. Luckily I found out a 4 am. The wonderful specialist from India didn't understand me very well but got me on a flight to LaGuardia via Boston. I knew that wasn't the best they could do so I got to the airport 3 hours early and got on a 10 flight direct to LaGuardia.

A lucky break? I hope so. With the weather over there I hope we're not delayed, etc.

If it all works out I'll be at the hotel by 5:30 with plenty of time to have a nice dinner and maybe see a show! Hmmmmm.... what shall I see?

I survived!

SO I had my stress test this morning. First thing they do is start an IV so they can pump you full of radioactive material. Great! Then they shave 7 spots on your chest/stomach for the connectors. So my chest looks very strange at the moment. A 12 minute scan (done laying down) then the actual test. It was pretty easy but I can see where someone who didn't exercise regularly would have had a hard time. After that it was two more scans and then I was out of there. I should have the results in the next few days.

I even have a special card to show security at the airport tomorrow since I'm radioactive!

Brilliant and incredibly sad all at the same time

An article by Harvey Fierstein in the New York Times...

"Our Prejudices, Ourselves"

AMERICA is watching Don Imus's self-immolation in a state of shock and awe. And I'm watching America with wry amusement.

Since I'm a second-class citizen -- a gay man -- my seats for the ballgame of American discourse are way back in the bleachers. I don't have to wait long for a shock jock or stand-up comedian to slip up with hateful epithets aimed at me and mine. Hate speak against homosexuals is as commonplace as spam. It's daily traffic for those who profess themselves to be regular Joes, men of God, public servants who live off my tax dollars, as well as any number of celebrities.

In fact, I get a good chuckle whenever someone refers to "the media" as an agent of "the gay agenda." There are entire channels, like Spike TV, that couldn't fill an hour of programming if required to remove their sexist and homophobic content. We've got a president and a large part of Congress willing to change the Constitution so they can deprive of us our rights because they feel we are not "normal."

So I'm used to catching foul balls up here in the cheap seats. What I am really enjoying is watching the rest of you act as if you had no idea that prejudice was alive and well in your hearts and minds.

For the past two decades political correctness has been derided as a surrender to thin-skinned, humorless, uptight oversensitive sissies. Well, you anti-politically correct people have won the battle, and we're all now feasting on the spoils of your victory. During the last few months alone we've had a few comedians spout racism, a basketball coach put forth anti-Semitism and several high-profile spoutings of anti-gay epithets.

What surprises me, I guess, is how choosy the anti-P.C. crowd is about which hate speech it will not tolerate. Sure, there were voices of protest when the TV actor Isaiah Washington called a gay colleague a "faggot." But corporate America didn't pull its advertising from "Grey's Anatomy," as it did with Mr. Imus, did it? And when Ann Coulter likewise tagged a presidential candidate last month, she paid no real price.

In fact, when Bill Maher discussed Ms. Coulter's remarks on his HBO show, he repeated the slur no fewer than four times himself; each mention, I must note, solicited a laugh from his audience. No one called for any sort of apology from him. (Well, actually, I did, so the following week he only used it once.)

Face it, if a Pentagon general, his salary paid with my tax dollars, can label homosexual acts as "immoral" without a call for his dismissal, who are the moral high and mighty kidding?

Our nation, historically bursting with generosity toward strangers, remains remarkably unkind toward its own. Just under our gleaming patina of inclusiveness, we harbor corroding guts. America, I tell you that it doesn't matter how many times you brush your teeth. If your insides are rotting your breath will stink. So, how do you people choose which hate to embrace, which to forgive with a wink and a week in rehab, and which to protest? Where's my copy of that rule book?

Let me cite a non-volatile example of how prejudice can cohabit unchecked with good intentions. I am a huge fan of David Letterman's. I watch the opening of his show a couple of times a week and have done so for decades. Without fail, in his opening monologue or skit Mr. Letterman makes a joke about someone being fat. I kid you not. Will that destroy our nation? Should he be fired or lose his sponsors? Obviously not.

But I think that there is something deeper going on at the Letterman studio than coincidence. And, as I've said, I cite this example simply to illustrate that all kinds of prejudice exist in the human heart. Some are harmless. Some not so harmless. But we need to understand who we are if we wish to change. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should confess to not only being a gay American, but also a fat one. Yes, I'm a double winner.)

I urge you to look around, or better yet, listen around and become aware of the prejudice in everyday life. We are so surrounded by expressions of intolerance that I am in shock and awe that anyone noticed all these recent high-profile instances. Still, I'm gladdened because our no longer being deaf to them may signal their eventual eradication.

The real point is that you cannot harbor malice toward others and then cry foul when someone displays intolerance against you. Prejudice tolerated is intolerance encouraged. Rise up in righteousness when you witness the words and deeds of hate, but only if you are willing to rise up against them all, including your own. Otherwise suffer the slings and arrows of disrespect silently.

Harvey Fierstein is an actor and playwright.

My stress test

Wondering what's going on with my stress test? Me too, until they finally called me yesterday. It's at 9 am on Saturday. I can't have any kind of tea or coffee 24 hours in advance. I will walk on the treadmill until my heart rate is at a certain level then they will inject me with something so they can take pictures. Lovely.

Two feet!

Supposedly we are getting two feet of snow today and tomorrow. Then it's off to NYC again on Sunday!

That really makes me mad

So Don Imus loses sponsors, his tv broadcast, etc. for a racist remark. Good, he shouldn't be saying that kind of stuff.

So what happens to Isaiah Washington for making homophobic remarks? Repeatedly? In public? Nothing! It's just ridiculous.

Here it is!

So sorry for the wait....

This is a rare 4 picture post. It's too hard to see detail with just the one picture. The cake is so tall that it didn't fit in the back of our Ford Escape Hybrid. We had to take the top layer off.

Are you ready to see a $700 cake?

Skippy is finishing it up now, pictures tonight!

Could it be more perfect?

I'm on my way to the airport to go home and it's snowing!!! I don't think I've ever seen snow in New York City before. Especially as we are currently driving through Central Park!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my Mom and Stepdad's 27th (?) wedding anniversary! Congrats!

Fantasia has her own sign!

Fantasia stars in The Color Purple starting next week. Here is her billboard in Times Square. I don't get the red dress though. Shouldn't it be umm I don't know.....purple?

I didn't want it to end...

I just finished seeing Prelude to a Kiss. I literally did not want it to end it was so good. I wouldn't be suprised if all three leads got Tony nominations for best Actor/Actor/Actress. Of course I was just about the youngest person there but no matter, it was amazing. I might actually see it again in two weeks when I'm back. It would have been just as great without it, but Alan kept dressing and undressing throughout the show! Luckily I was 4th row center so I could study his um acting technique.

What was actually more distracting was that the female lead acted, looked and sounded like my friend Chrissy. And that's a good thing.

John Mahoney (Dad on Frasier) was sublime. He played a guy playing a girl then playing a guy. It wasn't confusing in the slightest and he just made you want to stop your very heartbeat so you wouldn't miss an iota of his performance.

What?

You can't see Matt Lauer back there interviewing some cook?

The Early Show

CBS's The Early Show is filmed right next to The Apple Store and Central Park.

Mecca

The Apple store across the street from Central Park.

Like, omigod!!!

Have you ever heard the song "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas? If not, watch this video first...



AFTER you hear the song, listen to Alanis Morisette's remake. It is hilarious!

Aoki

I'm eating Dinner at Aoki in Times Square before I see Forbidden Broadway later tonight. And Skip is getting us tickets to the world premiere of The Little Mermaid The Musical as we speak!

This hotel!

Let me tell you about this hotel.

There is a motion-activated night light in my room. The lights on either side of the bed have a reading mode which is basically a spotlight.

The 8,000 foot gym opens at 5:30 am. Guess where I'll be at 5:30 am?

The gym has trainers to do personal yoga/pilates sessions in your room! There is no price listed next to these services however. Don't worry, I learned my lesson on that one.

The bed is actually a good one. It may not seem like a big deal when you get to sleep in your comfy bed most nights but most of MY nights I am sleeping in a bed that is way too hard with weird pillows.

I like this hotel. And I'll be here three weeks this month!

Thanks, Google!

Here is how Google wants me to get to work this morning. Too bad it doesn't know I'm walking!

My room at the Hilton

The TV!

My room at the Hilton

The bed!

And I'm off...

Time to go to NYC! I poked around the web this morning to see if anything interesting was happening in Manhattan this week. The best I could come up with is Joey MacIntyre (New Kids on the Block) doing a concert.

As tempting as that is, I think I'll see Prelude to a Kiss instead. I've always had a crush on Alan Tudyk (ever since Firefly anyways) and other than that I'll see what's up at the 1/2 price ticket booth.

Did anyone else have trouble with Daylight Savings Time this morning? Our alarm clock and Blackberry Pearls got me up an hour earlier than normal, at least the computers had the right time...