Homeless Story of the Month

After the movie Thursday night Christine and I shared a cab home and had the driver drop us off in between our houses which are about a block away from each other. It has been established that I live in the hood and with the recent 'crime wave' that is hitting our city a girl needs to be more careful than usual. So I set off to walk the block and a half at a brisk pace. I've been referred to (quite accurately) as a tall drink of water, most of that being my legs, so I was moving pretty fast as was pointed out to me by the homeless man trying to keep up with me.

"I thought I walked fast! Man those legs God gave you are sure working overtime!"

I laughed which seemed to signal to him that he should continue his commentary. It was quite entertaining and completely non-threatening once he made sure I knew he wasn't following me home.

I Used to Want My MTV

Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of MTV's debut. Just typing that makes me feel old. Click above for a nice stroll down memory lane with 25 memorable moments in MTV's history. MTV was a completely different creature back in the day. One could go on for hours discussing whether it is better or worse now. I don't feel that strongly about it so I won't. I will tell you about how I felt so deprived because we didn't have cable in 1981 but the much more pressing concern was not having call waiting and missing all the calls from friends talking about the latest video or how dreamy Mark Goodman was.

We finally (1983) got cable after what seemed an eternity of running across the street to Niki Londo's house to watch SelecTV (or maybe she had "ON" can't quite recall). Though we almost lost it after Madonna's performance at the VMAs that year. Luckily the grandparents didn't care for the music so they weren't paying that much attention to the writhing and dry humping on stage. Seems fairly standard and boring now, but back in the day it was outrageous for TV. You must also take into consideration that my mother was adamant that I not go see Dirty Dancing with my friends (which absolutely crushed my will to live that weekend). A week or so later she saw it and her direct quote was "Oh, it wasn't bad. I really should have let you go". Don't ever wonder why teenage girls are such awful human beings.

Anyone Want to go to Dublin With Me?

So a bookmaker in Ireland joked about holding the world's biggest strip poker tourney and it has now become a reality (press release above).

In August a couple hundred poker players will compete in the largest strip poker game and one lucky clothed son of a gun will be crowned the first World Strip Poker Champion and get a Guinness Book of Records mention. Also included is a "golden fig leaf" trophy which might come in handy depending on which articles of clothing the winner has decided to discard and about $18,000 in cash.

Snippet Turns Into Rant (I Apologize Now)

I'm sure you regular readers are aware of my...let's call it distaste for the current administration. One of the (many) issues I disagree with them on is the Defense of Marriage Act that has been making the rounds in state and federal courts. A blog I check regularly had this to say on the topic (link to blog above):

To almost no one's surprise the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act yesterday affirming that same-sex marriages are not legal here. I think the ruling was probably correct from a legal standpoint that it is the job of the legislature to define marriage, not the courts. I am not arguing today "fer" or "agin" such unions but do make one request.

Please don't be dishonest and continue to call this bill, "The Defense of Marriage Act." There is nothing in the bill that defends anyone's marriage. Whether the Court upheld or overturned the ruling it would not impact a single Washington State heterosexual marriage in any way. Why not at least be honest and call the legislation the, "'I Pick And Choose Some (But Not All) Biblical Verses To Interpret And Make Law And This Is One Of Them' Act?"

We are good friends with a couple here on the island named Jessica and Kirsten. If they could legally wed the only effect on my marriage would be that we'd have to reserve a Saturday for them and buy a gift. It might be worth it to see the bride kiss the bride.

My favorite line is in bold. I was raised in a somewhat religious household. Went to church with my grandmother most Sundays, did youth leadership in High School (which is where my idea to send all Jr. High students to boarding school developed), all in all I have a pretty strong faith. I don't go spreading this around to everyone I know. I don't try to make others bend to my beliefs. I try my best to respect others' opinions and points of view if they can back them up logically.

What I cannot abide is people who don't do these things (oh Plan B how quickly you judge). I have family members who are incredibly conservative (to the point of wearing anti-abortion t-shirts to a holiday function). For many years I've referred to them as my cult family which the rest of the family got on me for until they came around to my way of thinking and realized I'd been correct all those years. They call themselves Christians but happen to be the most judgmental, unaccepting people I have ever come across. I've long believed these types of religious people are bad apples ruining the bunch of Christians who are unassuming, everyday people just trying to lead good lives. 'Good' being completely subjective of course.

Sorry for my Dennis Leary rant which was not my intention starting this post. I just get worked up sometimes. A tidbit for those of you thinking I'm not enough of a liberal tree-hugger - I'm going to see An Inconvenient Truth tonight with some friends. Review to follow tomorrow or maybe even tonight.

The Joys of Public Transportation

Man it was a chore getting into work today. After waiting about 15 minutes in the already hot sun I hopped on the bus and actually got a seat by the window. It was lovely. I settled down, started reading and didn't look up until the next stop two blocks down the road when the bus didn't move for a couple minutes. Huh. Everyone had gotten on or off. The light was green. It only took a moment of keen observation on my part to figure out from the beeping and tilt of the bus that the driver wasn't able to raise the bus after lowering it for the passengers to get in. After a couple minutes we all got off the bus and squeezed onto the one behind us. Then we all got off that bus because it couldn't move due to it being behind the one that wasn't moving. After about 10 minutes the bus was raised and we were all comfortably on our way. Luckily most of us thought it was comical and everyone got seats on the nicely air conditioned buses. The only bad part was that it took me 35 minutes to take a 10 minute bus ride. But hey, at least I got to read more of my book.

Song of the Day

Augustana - California's Burning

Somehow seems appropriate today. Thanks for the heads up on the band Debby! Also listening to a lot of older O.A.R. today. Good stuff.

Songs of the Day

This Time is the Last Time - Mae

Enjoyably mediocre band that has some good tunes.

On a Good, Non-Complaining About the Heat Note

Last night the girls and I went to see the Pink show at the 9:30 Club. Absolutely fantastic. The opening act was this guy Matt Nathanson who is just a cute, funny guy with a guitar. Courtney is calling him Bob Saget because his banter would be crude and hilarious leading up to his songs which would in turn be soft and sensitive. He isn't the best musician in the world but you do end up having a crush on the guy after seeing him live. He's just good, not-so-clean fun.

Like her music or not, Pink puts on a really great show. Her voice sounds better live than on albums and she has more energy than anyone I've ever seen perform. You can tell she obviously loves performing and her interaction with the crowd was genuine. Before she sang her song "Dear Mr. President" she made a comment about how it is a good thing she isn't played on country radio because if she was, she'd be f*cked. Which, while funny, is true. On a side note, Suzy from Rock Star: INXS is her backup singer. Random. If you ever get a chance to see her in a small venue for $25 do it.

Hell on Earth

You know it's going to be a bad day when the heat advisory for your city is extended through 9 pm. I got on a bus this morning at 8:37 am. By the time we went the 10 blocks to my stop the entire bus was sweating because there was no air and it was so crowded there were people standing on the stairs at the front of the bus. Did I mention it is only going to get hotter this week. Ugh.

Song for the Most Humid Day Known to Mankind

Seriously. You go outside and just standing there you start to sweat. Blech. And it has been that way since 8:30 this morning. So today I needed a song that would be fun and different and settled on

Butch Walker - Maybe It's Just Me

Because maybe it is just me that hates DC in the summer. Between the oppressive humidity and the misbehaving tourist kids (I've managed to avoid them for the most part by taking the bus and not the Metro) it is a miserable season here in our Nation's capital.

On a happy note, there is a fun happy hour tonight and I found a fantastic website for super cheap music downloads. I got the Gnarls Barkley cd for $1.47. Can't beat that with a stick!

Booo Disney!

Some of you (I would hope most) have fond memories of Adventures in Babysitting, a gem of a movie from 1987. I have seen it at least 50 times thanks to my brother's still unrequited crush on Elisabeth Shue...and really? Can you blame him? I mean, I wouldn't go gay for her or anything but she's pretty hot. Moving on. I have some terrible news for you. Disney is remaking Adventures in Babysitting. As if this wasn't bad enough, there's more - Raven Symone is going to star. I don't know too much about her other than she's got a tv show where she's the sassy funny girl. This does not bode well for the remake. One of the reasons AIB was so entertaining was that Chris Parker (Shue's character) was such an everyday normal girl in extraordinary circumstances. She didn't get cutesy or sassy to get out of the scrapes she found herself in. And what exactly are they going to do with the (fantastic) scene where Chris and the babysittees find themselves in an inner city dive bar where she has to get up on stage to sing the blues to ensure their safe exit?

I generally don't like remakes at all. I can't think of a single one right now that I truly enjoyed (I'm sure you'll correct me). The movie being remade is usually dumbed down from the original or doesn't work in the current climate because what made the original so good was the commentary on society at the time. Look at some of the classic teen movies from the '80s. Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Weird Science - really any of the John Hughes movies pre-Beethoven. None of these greats would be good if made today.

Almost Makes Me Want To Downgrade the Pod

Nike has this kick ass product for running that works with iPod nanos. Why can't it work with the video ones?

Supernova

No not the Liz Phair song. So yeah, I got sucked into Rock Star: Supernova to the point that I taped it while I was at the concert. I love it. Even if you just tune in for the house band...they are incredible. There are about 4, maybe 5  good singers that would actually fit well with a band that is made up of a member of each of Guns n Roses, Motley Crue and Metallica. That said, seriously check out the house band if you at all appreciate good musicians. And stop mocking me for watching - you know I have a thing for musicians.

Tonight

So I didn't email XM last night (cue Super Chicken theme song and if you don't know Super Chicken I don't know that I want to know you...) but he forced my hand tonight. I have officially ended it (finally!!) but still feel like a complete asshat. Blech. Let's move on to more fun things shall we?

My friend James and I discovered Friday that we both adore The Weakerthans (check them out, they kick ass). I mentioned that they were playing 9:30 with The New Amsterdams (another band I enjoy as evidenced by song of the day a bit ago) on Tuesday (tonight) and we decided in our glee that it would be great fun to go to the show. Well today he realized it would be in his best interest to do his project for grad school instead of going to the concert. I would normally go by myself but it wasn't a sold out show so I didn't want to be the loser in the corner alone. I put out some feelers and Cindy decided that she wanted to go with. Thank goodness she did. The show kicked ass.  Both bands were more than fantastic live - check them out if you can. The only bad thing about the show was this kid in front of me who was about an inch shorter than me and kept backing up into me. You know someone is standing too close when you can't drink your beer without hitting his head.  I'm pretty sure it was his first concert. He made the geeky kids from Weird Science look like the coolest kids ever in the history of mankind. At one point he offered Altoids to the people he was with. I pretty much stood on my tip toes the entire night - hey Barbie calves.

All in all a good night.

Fourth of July Part Two

This one actually includes the Fourth. Honest.

Sunday BWCP wasn't feeling very social and needed some comforting after England's World Cup loss so I headed out there to have dinner and movies in with him. It was a really nice, relaxing evening which I needed after the three previous nights out.  We ordered Thai (yum) and watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am and have always been a huge fan of the Chronicles and thought the movie great as far as movie adaptations go. I did have to leave the room during the sacrifice scene though. Yes, I realize it was a CGI animal but it disurbed me more than any fight or death scene involving humans I've ever seen. After the movie we watched the end of the Yankees game (BWCP is a Yanks fan). We got to talking about perfect games, which turned to a hat trick in Cricket which led me to ask about the rules. After about five minutes of wickets and bowlers and batters and running back and forth I accused him of making it up as he was going along and insisted on a diagram if the lesson was going to continue.

Monday I met some work people out for HH because it was James' last week with us. Good for him, bad for us. We met up at Bar Pilar, had some nibblies and drinks then headed to Courtney's to view the Juggs magazine the previous tenant had left behind. Totally and completely dominates in the category of "Disturbing Things I Will Never Be Able To Unsee". We're going to leave it at that. We all felt dirty in a bad way after and headed to Stetson's to try and cleanse. We played Connect Four and then made the tragic mistake of starting a game of  Life. It isn't the same as when we were kids and really sucked the fun and energy out of us. We headed to Polly's for a bit and then all parted ways.

Tuesday was the Fourth and our friend Katherine invited Jim and I along with some others over to her building's rooftop to watch the fireworks. It was great fun. From her roof we could see four or five different sets of works as well as the neighborhood ones. Luckily the thunderstorms held off and the lightning flashing across the sky during was pretty awesome.

Wednesday was spent doing stuff around the house. Yawn. And that brings us to this past weekend which was a lot of fun. Gots to wait until tomorrow for that one - bed is calling my name.

Fourth of July Part One

The Fourth weekend started on Thursday with a HH thrown by some friends of Matt, who is in Argentina for the summer. I felt an obligation to go because they are making an effort to keep Matt's friends in touch with each other while he's gone. Plus, some of the guys (and gals) can be pretty fun and it gets me out of my circle of friends. That said, I made Katie go with me because I am a total scaredy cat about going places where I don't know if I will know anyone. The intention was to go for a drink or two and then I was off to tell XM I don't want to date him anymore. As I stated earlier, I am an awful chicken and we were having fun so we stayed and I put off the inevitable yet again. Yes, I know I am not being fair to him. He is a really good guy and deserves to be treated better.

Friday was spent watching quite possibly the worst game of baseball ever. Seriously, I went to better games back in 1979 when I had to go to my brother's Little League games. I turned to my friends at one point and asked if anyone else felt like they were in the movie Major League.  Later in the inning, after the pitcher threw for 2 home runs in just 8 pitches, someone in the outfield started doing the Cleveland chop. Guess I wasn't alone. Man, it was bad but at least the beer was cold. I took the bus home for the first time from the stadium and I must say it was much better than dealing with the crowds in the metro station even if it took just a bit more time.

Saturday I met Jim, Agie and Renee in Chinatown for dinner and a movie. Good times at dinner. Jim spilled a bit on his shirt and for some reason felt the need to lick it off instead of, oh I don't know, maybe using a napkin.  Agie and I saw it happen. I started laughing, she called him "Shirtlicker" and the conversation went rapidly down hill from there. We went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" after dinner. Agie and I have both worked (and sometimes still do) for a Miranda Priestly and loved and related to the book. The movie differed from the book of course but was still enjoyable. Lines such as "I'm looking for that piece of paper I had in my hand yesterday" really hit home. After the movie Jim and I went to Stetson's to grab a beer and chat. We ran into a kid who worked on the Alaska campaign with him. We got to talking with him and his friends and before we knew it, it was 3 am. Jesse and I were walking the same way when a homeless man (I'm guessing at this given my track record and his state of dress) said to me "oooh, I like your shape". I was laughing too much to get out any reply other than "then you should call my parents and thank them".

Songs of the Day

Whew! It's been a busy day. After happy hour tonight I am heading home unless Angie catches me in a moment of weakness and somehow talks me into going out with her. I have a busy weekend ahead and it's been a long (but good) day.

1. From California - The New Amsterdams
2. Let It Go - The Clarks
3. Boys Lie - The Clarks

Good fun songs for a good fun day.

The Ultimate Bi-Partisan Ticket

Vacation Backlog

I have been out of the office this week and the last thing I wanted to do was spend time indoors emailing to my blog so I've fallen behind yet again. I'll do some catch up tonight and tomorrow and tell you all about my Fourth of July five day weekend....well not all about. A girl needs to retain some level of mystery.