A recent FaceBook post of mine indicated that I could never bring myself to make Justin Bieber a Hunk of the Day – and I am staying true to my word. So this is not a Hunk of the Day post – it’s sort of a wanna-be Hunk of the Day post, as it features Mr. Bieber mooning the camera. The idiot then went reportedly put it on Instagram, then promptly deleted it. Because, you know, Instagram and things on the Internet are so easily erased and forgotten. For those Beliebers out there – and for those who hate him – here is the butt pic. There’s something in it for everyone. (He is eighteen, right?)
Monthly Archives:
January 2013
January
2013
January
2013
January
2013
Football Talk with My Brother
One of the more unlikely relationships to be strengthened by texting is that between me and my brother. He doesn’t do e-mail or FaceBook or Twitter (and he just stopped following me on Instagram because he’s a wimp) so until last year I didn’t get to correspond with him unless it was in person or on the phone. Now, we have daily interactions, such as this one regarding today’s football game. (I have amended his punctuation errors as best I can, but some things are irreparable and simply must stand as they are.) You’ll get the sentiment.
Alan: Tell me more about this Sunday’s match-up between our beloved Patriots and the Hark the Ravens Nevermore.
Paul: Pats have other weapons besides Gronk. Bill will come up with a game plan in reference to the last time they met earlier in the season. Pats’ win may not cover the spread but will def win… That spread is for people whose team isn’t playing to bet on. Take the points if you want to (gambling tip) but everyone knows the Pats favored by 9.5 won’t lose the game.
Alan: Do we know what color pants the teams will be wearing yet?
Paul: Pats – white or silver, and Ravens – probably black.
Alan: That’s tough – hard to beat black for a classy look. Do you have any concerns about the Pats’ defense?
Paul: Patriots made some adjustments during the season in their secondary and are looking much better as well as their running game which they never rely on any way. They appeared to be more balanced and even if their defense was the same as it was early in the season their offense is still a machine.
Alan: I haven’t been to Machine in ages. Will Gisele sass the reporters again? Love her! Will she be in a glass box?
Paul: Don’t know, don’t care.
Alan: Are you concerned about secondary getting torched by Tori Spelling?
Paul: Pats win guaranteed like Broadway Joe Ho.
Alan: I think I’ll wear my special Patriots hat for this game. Did you just call me a Ho?
Paul: No, Broadway Joe Ho… Joe Namath guaranteed a win way back in the Super Bowl when they were huge underdogs and won on the Jets…. Broadway Joe they called him.
Alan: They say the neon lights are bright are Broadway. They say there’s always magic in the air.
Paul: In the home town of Texas.
Alan: Remember the Alamo. The basement of the Alamo.
January
2013
Who’s Sexier: Ben Cohen or David Beckham?
This may be the toughest question I’ve posed on this website. It’s one of those deeply philosophical debates, one that will likely rage for centuries to come. It has divided the world, pitting friend against friend, destroying relationships and altering the lives of innocent people everywhere. Who is the sexier footballer: Ben Cohen or David Beckham? I’ve got my own theories, and wholly unsubstantiated evidence to back up my beliefs, but in the end it’s in the eye of the beholder.
Here, I’ve given you the basic tools to which you can make your own comparisons and determinations. Personally, my money is on Mr. Cohen. There’s something kinder about him, something more vulnerable and less cocky and arrogant, something that can’t be put into words or even pictures – you just know it when you see it. What do you think?
January
2013
Spotlight on The Circus Project
When kids are different, you just know. You can tell ~ adults can tell. And the quiet kids were never, well, you know, they just don’t fit in. And if you don’t fit in at the beginning, you never really fit in, ever, do you? ~ The Circus Project
As we continue to bask in the glory of a decade of this website (a.k.a. contemplate how wretchedly old we’ve become), today’s Project spotlight shines on the work that was released in April of 2008 ~ The Circus Project. Like any parent, I’m not supposed to have favorites, but if I did The Circus Project would be one of them. It weaves a loose narrative of a lost young man taking up with a traveling circus for a season among photographs that hint at what a life like that might be. More important was the underlying theme of what it means to be an outsider, and what it feels like to never belong.
He grew up quietly, secretly… smartly. Never betraying his hand, never indicating a weakness ~ he had to, he had no choice. What does that do to a person? What does that do to a boy? It’s never cut and dry, never black and white. His shading was… not gray, not dim so much… I hesitate to say darker… his was… quicksilver. It couldn’t be bound by color or description – it defied everything. Yes, that’s what it was – defiance. And he would bleed for it. I think we’ll all bleed for it.
He liked being a part of us, but he enjoyed being alone too. I’ve seen a few solitary circus types, and they’re… different, even for circus folk. You join the circus to be a part of something, when you don’t fit in anywhere else. Loners don’t last long here.
There was one way to escape from the circus. You had to become the ring-leader, the master-of-cermeonies, and you had to chart your own course and destiny. It was that or die.
There’s a cardinal rule, red as sin and diabolically inviolable: there can only be one ring leader.
And they always end up being resented for it…
~ The Circus Project ~
January
2013
Movies of Winter
One of the few consolations for getting through an upstate New York winter (particularly if you don’t ski) is finding solace in the fact that fellow winter-weatherers are going through the same thing. My friend JoAnn usually makes it up to visit at some point in January or February – and her visit acts as a bit of an oasis in the frigid expanse of this most dismal season. We don’t go out much – just a trip to Faddegon’s for the greenhouse, and maybe the Fresh Market for dinner supplies – and the rest of the time we stay cozy and warm in the house, sipping cocktails in the candlelight or watching a movie snuggled in the heavy plush blankets in the cellar. Here are a few of my favorite winter movies to watch on such nights, when the winds whip around the house, and the ice and snow threaten the air:
Beautiful Girls -Â Set in the snowy winter and based on one man’s return to his hometown for a high school reunion, this ensemble piece makes the most of its winter setting, with some ice skating and ice fishing scenes, and an enchanting turn by a young Natalie Portman.
Nobody’s Fool – Paul Newman stars in this upstate New York tale of an aging construction guy, whose lackluster life is mirrored by its wintry surroundings and cheerless snowy nights.
Boys on the Side – This road trip with Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, and Mary-Louise Parker starts off in a Northeast winter, when the girls begin their journey wrapped in coats and dowdy winter hats, but finishes in the sun and warmth of the Southwest. That’s the kind of road trip that inhabits my winter dreams.
Why Did I Get Married – While one of the weaker movies here, the snowy backdrop of a winter weekend get-away lends it a cozy feel, and watching Tyler Perry act all butch is always an awkward exercise in pained entertainment. Janet Jackson is here, and she doesn’t embarrass herself too badly, but it’s Tasha Smith as Angela who steals the show.
January
2013
Happy Birthday Mom
Today is my mother’s birthday, and we’ll be celebrating with a family dinner at our home later today. The menu is a robust lasagna, a side of roasted garbanzo, some greens & beans, and one of Andy’s Birthday cakes. I’m also giving her one of the best presents I’ve ever given anyone, and hopefully she’ll enjoy it as much as I think she will. Most mothers form the backbone of the family, and ours is no different. If there’s one person who has always worked to keep us together, no matter how wayward and wrong we were, it was, and remains, my Mom.
It couldn’t have always been easy for her – the lone female in a house of guys (though I did my best to help with the whole gay thing and all, which probably wasn’t the ameliorative prospect I thought it would be) – and surely she missed out somewhat on raising a daughter, but she never let that diminish her love for my brother and me.
Today she is still the person to whom I turn whenever I’m at a loss as to how to handle something, the voice of reason and reflection whenever I’m in doubt. Though our roles sometimes switch as we both get older, she’s still my Mom – and I’m proud to say I’ll always be a Mama’s Boy.
January
2013
Love, Photographed
This may be my favorite picture of the year, even if we are just days into it. It’s a double-photo of a couple, Wayne and Cody: the one on the bottom shows them when they first met, and the one above shows them eighteen years later. Aside from the neat ‘Whatever happened to…?’ aspect of the piece, and the nifty recreation of a pose (and a shirt!) so many years later, it speaks to me on a much deeper level. The love between these men is still there, the enthrallment to each other still palpable. Who knows what they’ve gone through together, the point remains they are still together – 18 years and counting – and if love could ever be embodied by two photographs, these two may be that embodiment. This is enough to bring tears to my eyes, and for once, in a very long time, they are tears of happiness and joy.
For more on this fabulous couple, check out Wayne’s marvelous website, Owldolatrous. Thanks to them both for giving us all a little bit of hope.
January
2013
Sleeping on the Couch
One of the last major furniture pieces we bought for the Boston condo was a couch. There was a bed, a kitchen table, a computer console, and various chairs (whose trendiness was directly proportional to how uncomfortable they were) but, not being one to sit in front of a television very much, a couch was one of my very last priorities. At the time, I was going to school and working a part-time retail job (if 35 hours a week is part-time), so saving up for big furniture pieces had to be done piece-meal. Fortunately, my parents threw me a bone, and gifted the place with a couch. It was one of those things I didn’t realize how much I missed until it came back into my life.
There was something suddenly thrilling about being on an island of comfort in the midst of an unforgiving hardwood sea. To walk in from a long day and just collapse on the soft-backed pillows, kicking off shoes and giving the pumping of the heart a rest – it was all new to me again, and I loved it.
While most husbands might dread a night on the couch, I’ve never minded it. (Not that I would ever be the husband out on the couch -Â I mean, come on.) It always reminded me of having company over, when my brother and I would have to give up our bedrooms for visiting family and guests – or when I’d have a friend stay over in Boston and I offered to stay on the couch. The excitement that attended such displacement made it a ritual of joy, and so the couch has been a source of comfort and happy memories. Â
Whenever I’m in Boston, I invariably find myself sitting down at some point, usually early in the evening – after coming home from a day out, or in the hours before going out again – not reading or doing anything, simply sitting and enjoying the moment. There is joy to be found in the simplest of things – in this case a couch -Â if we can remember what it was like to be without it.
January
2013
Tom Daley In [Gasp!] A Speedo
While he’s already been a Hunk of the Day, Tom Daley deserves mention again here, as he continues his penchant for parading around in nothing but a Speedo, and I’m not about to stand in his way.
January
2013
Justin Timberlake in Suit & Tie
My first thought on Justin Timberlake‘s first proper single in six years was, “This took six years???” My second thought was that this song is, to borrow one of his lyrics, “shit”. If he was looking to make a big return to the music scene, this just feels too subtle and mellow. It wouldn’t suck so much as an album track – but a lead-off single? No.
PS – No one wants to see Mr. Timberlake in a suit and tie anyway. Take it off, and bring sexy back again.
January
2013
A Key Without A Lock
It sat in the midst of all that chaos – a single ancient key, probably not even fitted to any of the doors currently in place, but retained, as so much of our useless baggage is, “just in case.” A sad-looking thing – items that have lost their purpose or become obsolete are always sad to me – it still holds onto its form, an obstinate refusal to change or morph into something else. Maybe it will be left for those next in line, or maybe it will be thrown out. Some things serve their purpose, and, having done so, depart with grace and no further ado. Maybe someone will hang onto it, carrying it with them as they move somewhere new. It is possible to imbue something with meaning where none really exists. We are, after all, living in a material world. But that’s another story, one that has already been written, and one that will be written all over again. One day, beyond the scope of what most of us can imagine, this key will cease to exist.
Every once in a while I’ll have these thoughts. I’ll question everything I thought I knew, like I did in one of the first courses I ever took at college – an Introduction to Astronomy – when the professor presented us with galaxy upon galaxy, endlessly advancing, and I’ll feel so small and insignificant I momentarily fail to see the point of one more minute. But the moment passes, as does the minute, and then another, and my pondering is replaced by the mundane, the habitual, the continued ebb and flow of life, and I can forget the big questions once again, lulled by a false, yet honest, sense of reality.
Do not ask me what it’s all about. Do not force me into a philosophical conversation about what it all means. Do not even reference this post. I’ll laugh it off. I’ll joke it away. I’ll distill it into the mad ramblings of a moon-fed lunatic. We are all fools. Stay on the inside of the joke.
January
2013
Upon Entering the Doldrums
The Best Dressed Man of the Capital Region (if that’s still even my title) is most likely to be found in something like this comfy get-up until the return of Spring. Yes, I wear sweat-pants and tank-tops when no one’s around, and the weather is getting me down. That lack of style is in full-force for this season. It struck me as I was walking outside the Plaza yesterday, heading up the street to El Mariachi: the gray doldrums of winter are here. Along the way, that nasty mix of salt and dirt and snow mirrored the cloudy sky. From now until April, this is what we in upstate New York will have the displeasure of seeing. It seems like such a long soul-sucking stretch to then, and every year – usually about February or so – I wonder how we will make it. This year that dispiriting moment seems to have arrived even sooner.
I paused on the sidewalk and let the wind rush around me. The thought of a margarita did not hasten my step. The notion of a cozy dinner with my husband did not quicken my pace. The dullness of Albany was having its way, eroding the shiny and sparkly veneer I try to keep so polished. Even my red messenger bag, chosen to highlight the crimson accents of the Burberry plaid of my coat, did not manage to elicit the slightest of smiles. When Burberry fails to thrill, you know the winter, or the location, has you whipped.
The wind pushed me on, toward the fuzzy warmth of a salt-rimmed tequila pool, into which I dove to divert myself, and there I closed out a mundane Monday.
January
2013
Winter Whiskey
The quintessential winter cocktail – at least for me – has always been the Manhattan. It instantly warms from the inside out, spreading its cozy embrace outward from the tummy. It carries just enough sweetness to go down easily, but the burn is ample to appease the most numb and jaded. Traditionalists hold that a real Manhattan is made from rye whiskey, but I have it on good authority that a Kentucky bourbon will do in a pinch (I opted for the Maker’s Mark that was on-hand.) The integral ingredient for appearance purposes has always been a bright maraschino cherry.
My friend Carl, however, advised me to try it with a Luxardo cherry from Italy, generously sending up a bottle of them. He was right, and the difference was delicious. Rich in flavor, velvety in texture – this is a cherry for the adults, and there is no more adult beverage than a Manhattan.
For purists, here is one of the unadulterated versions:
Manhattan
– 2 ounces rye whiskey
– 1 ounce Italian vermouth
– 2 dashes bitters
– Cherry for garnish
January
2013
The Thaw
As forecast and felt in the previous week, we have our first official thaw of the season. The air is thick with fog, water vapor rolls off the snow banks, and the tree limbs of the cherry dangle water droplets like Christmas lights – each orb taking in the muted light and dispersing it in more focused brightness. I don’t dare step into it, for fear of taking in a breath of Spring that is far too far away. Sometimes it’s best not to taste it, so unbearable would the return to our regular winter weather be.
Yesterday the birds were taking turns at the bird bath. A cardinal splashed around in it first, chased away by a pair of bullying bluejays. A woodpecker swayed on the tallest stalks of the sturdy fountain grass, and a squirrel slinked along the backyard fence. Even though it’s winter, the world is still alive, the pulse still beats beneath the melting snow.