Dancing with Myself

Houston's Pig and Poodle Farm

Maggie has started yet another contest.  One is supposed to look around their homestead, so to speak, and give it a clever name based on some characteristic.  That's easy enough:  I live on a freeway.  While my bedroom looks out onto a normal residential neighborhood, my deck appears to sit in a plum tree that flowers late winter and whose leaves catch the sun so fiercely that you can understand why Moses might have thought the bush was on fire.  For those reasons, if I called my place because of a proximity identity, I'd call it The Freeway Tree House.  Not a bad name, but I like the one I chose several years ago based on a dream, Houston's Pig and Poodle Farm, if only in my dreams.

My back porch, only out here they call it a deck. 

This is looking the other direction towards the freeway. As pretty as it is out here, unless you're deaf (which I am from living next door to a freeway), like I started to say, unless you're deaf, it's too noisy out here to truly enjoy. It's good enough for giving the smokers a place, and I grow a few herbs.

Don't get me wrong. I loves my home, but that doesn't mean I can't dream of quieter pastures, even if not greener ones. Wait! I've had an attack of rum induced brilliance. I'll call it the "It'll Do Freeway Tree House." It'll do until the P&P Farm becomes a reality.

California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

In a 4-3 vote, California's Supreme Court has decided that separate but equal doesn't work for Gays and Lesbians when it comes to marriage anymore than it worked for schools in the South.

I've never been so proud of the Court as I am today. 

Three of the four votes are Republican appointees:  Chief Justice George, Justice Kennard, and Justice Werdegar.  Justice Moreno is a Democrat appointed by former Governor Gray Davis.  The three dissents are all Republicans.

The lines have already been drawn by the religious bigots.  There will be a petition on the ballot in November to overturn the Court's decision and write the hatred into the state's Constitution.  Never underestimate the determination of hate. 

Gays and Lesbians in the state will fight the Amendment with all our might.  Governor Schwarzenegger has already said he would campaign against the proposed Amendment.  Senator Obama is going to have to take a position as well.  We already know how Senator McCain feels. 

We have won, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.  The war is not over, but we've just won a major battle.  California is the most cited and followed state in the United States when it comes to jurisprudence.  Our Supreme Court rocks!

UPDATE:

A friend just called and said that the Castro was in full tilt boogey celebration mode.  I'm going down right after lunch and join the party.  We have good reason to celebrate.

SECOND UPDATE:

I generally do not link to Andrew Sullivan.  I have a visceral reaction to him.  I think he is just about the biggest suck-up, self-contradicting piece of crap ever to come down the pike.  He has, however, in his obsessive way, collected some "good commentary on the California Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage.  It's worth a visit and a read.  Afterwards, go wash your hands. 

Here's Something I Bet You Didn't Know

And from a source I bet you would never have suspected, either.

Check out this link from the New York Times.

A Southern Reading Challenge

A new blogger acquaintance, Maggie of Maggie Reads, (she's a librarian in Mississippi) has a reading challenge going.  "It's time for our hot, sweaty summer of reading Southern Books! Are You Ready?!?

"The rules are easy: 3 Southern Setting Books by Southern Authors in 3 Months beginning May 15 through August 15! "

The three Southern books I will read this summer are (1) Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, (2) Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums, and (3) Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg.

Just as long as I don't have to do a book report.

Asshole of the Day, Week & Month

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.  First, the qualifying quote:

“Reasonable people have had enough and are refusing to allow radical extremists to redefine marriage and family into oblivion,” he said. “So-called ‘same-sex marriage’ is a ridiculous and oxymoronic notion that has been forced into popular lexicon by homosexual activists who want to dress up and play house.” [Emphasis added.] - Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at the Concerned Women for America

We just want to "dress up and play house"?  What a fucking idiot, and an offensive one at that.  And why do Concerned Women for America have a male spokesperson?  Mr. Barber suffering from a little gender confusion?

This coming Summer and Fall is going to see a battle royal waged for the heart and soul of both California and the United States.  The shame of it all is that we have to spend millions defeating their amendment without really winning anything for ourselves.  Maybe we can convince Schwartzenegger to consider the vote to be a referendum.  If we defeat the amendment, he signs the same-sex marriage bill into law.

Happy Cinqo de Mayo

Isn't it nice that America gives each of its ethnic groups their very own drinking holiday?  For Mexican-Americans, it's cinqo de Mayo, the day that the French Army of Emperor Maximilian was defeated by the forces of General Ignacio Zaragoza. In Mexico, it's a minor national holiday. In America, it's an opportunity to drink a lot of tequila. In fact, I think the holiday as it's celebrated in the U.S. is the result of a marketing campaign by Cuervo tequila.

Having said that, of course I'm celebrating.  But then, of course, I pretty much celebrate all holidays, minor and major, of all cultural groups in the U.S.  That's the plus size of being multi-cultural.  Mardi gras, St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, Canada Day, July 4th, Texas Independence Day, Crawfish Festival, Rice Festival, Cotton Festival, Save the Salamander Festival.  You probably have one or two of your own.

On Saturday I attended a party in Concord given by a same-sex couple whom I did not know, Tim and Mark.  I was joined in this celebration by at least 100 others equally intent on celebrating this important holiday.  There was a tequila slide carved out of a slab of ice.  The annointee sits at the bottom of the slide which has about a 45 degree angle, while someone pours a shot of tequila into the top of the crevice and by the time it gets to the annointee it's cold.  Of course, I tried it.  I actually tried it four or five times just to make sure I got it.  Boy, did I get it.  The tequila being poured was the top shelf variety, and it sure was good.  There was a huge amount of food, all with a Mexican theme, but not all good.  Enough of it was good, but the chocolate cookies made with jalapenos were a bit much.

Today a bunch of my twisted friends are taking over my neighborhood bar for a Mexican-themed party.  I'm taking pictures at that one.  I do not have words to adequately describe this bunch of desperadoes, but let me say this, they are all desperate and they are all characters.

On an unrelated subject, I have a stalker.  Aren't I special?  He's a tired old guy who hates me passionately.  I'm not sure why he hates me, but he sure does.  He has a blog that is devoted to besmirching my character.  I have been called every name in the book.  Bless his heart.  It must be a terrible thing to be consumed by hate.  Like the old poem goes, he is to be more pitied than censured.  I have no intention of linking to his site.  It's easy enough to find it, just google my name.  Be sure to say hi for me.

Knowing that someone is stalking you, going through your garbage, reading each word you write, hoping for a crumb with which to smear you, causes one to go more slowly and be more cautious.  As a result of my stalker, I haven't posted much lately.  I thought I'd give him more time to go back and read every post I've ever made.  He looks for contradictions of which there are many.  He is titillated by anything Gay, and you know with me, there's plenty of that, too.  He has widely distributed pictures of me wearing a dress thinking that somehow that diminishes me.  Sad, huh?  It's also funny, because I think it's a fabulous picture of me.  I look good!  When he first started attacking me, I was going to put a bayou curse on him, but I realized someone had already beat me to it.  My stalker is old, fat, ugly, bald, impotent, has diabetes and a bad heart.  What was there left for me add?  This, and only this:  I WILL DANCE ON YOUR GRAVE, MOTHERFUCKER.  And that goes for the cow you run with, too, you know, the one that smells like an ashtray.

Now then, where was I?  Oh yeah, having fun with friends.  Happy cinqo de Mayo, or as we say here in California, happy 4th of May, too!

National Day of Silence

Thanks to Joe.My.God. for the link.

Politics versus popular culture

I watched American Idol last night rather than listen to the blather of idiots talking about the Democratic Primary Election in Pennsylvania.  It was a lot more fun.  Go David Cook!

This is the first season of American Idol that I have ever watched.  I just never got around to it before.  Before this past year, I didn't watch television more than a couple of hours a week.  Then my roommate had my television connected to his Dish-thingey.  Now I get three or four hundred channels in high definition.  Lucky me.  Whereas I used to read about a dozen books a month, now I struggle to read two or three.  I don't just casually watch AI, I watch it with half a dozen dedicated Idol enthusists.  We have a pool of sorts with a nice chuck of change to the person who successfully predicts the season's winner.  The rules of the pool requried our picks be made when the the top dozen contestants were chosen.  There are six contestants left on American Idol:  Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Jason Castro, David Archuletta, and David Cook.  My money is on David Cook.  I've also made money on side bets over who gets eliminated each week. 

Bye bye, Brooke.  She stumbled over the lyrics, and if my memory serves me correctly, this is the second time she's done that.  The first time it was less obvious, but the one last night was bad.  I'm not a fan of hers.  She's pretty and has loads of talent, but is totally lacking in charisma.  She has appeared to be on the edge of tears since her opening audition.  Tonight when she's sent home, I expect gushers.  Somebody wake me up when she's left the stage.

I'm also ready for Jason Castro to go away.  He annoys me much the same way Tiny Tim annoyed me back in the 70s.  Anybody remember him?  Think tip toe through the tulips.  Maybe it was his rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow while accompanying himself on the ukele.  To be fair, Jason can sing better than that, but he is about as vapid as I've ever seen on national television.  His is so vapid that he gives stoner's everywhere a bad image.  He had never heard of Andrew Lloyd Webber before American Idol.  By his own admission, he has never seen a staged musical.  I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say he's probably never seen nor heard an opera.  Mitigating in his favor have been his incredible blue eyes.  They're startling.  Simon (yes, that one) said a few weeks ago that if AI were on radio rather than television, Castro would never have made it as far.  I think he's going to be around for a few more weeks because he has connected to a fan base.  I have no idea who those people are, and I wish they'd stop it so we can be rid of this annoying creature.

In my cynicism, I suspect the producers of American Idol of manipulating the results somehow in order to achieve a pre-ordained outcome.  Was it coincidental that half a dozen of the final contestants are rock singers?  Right now I suspect them of working overtime to keep one or two of the women around to the final showdown between Archuletta and Cook. 

David Archuletta is a very sweet and tender White, Mormon Michael Jackson.  He's been trained and groomed by his stage father since he was in diapers.  He comes across as an innocent.  Maybe he is.  He has a promising voice, but I don't feel any emotional connection to his singing.  All of his songs have sort of a sameness to them.  He is, however, technically proficient and incredibly cute.  I suspect he's a ringer, though.  He won Star Search a few years ago, so he didn't exactly wake up one day and say, maybe I'll do American Idol.  He's got a huge following among pubescent girls.  They recognize one of their own.

My favorite is David Cook.  He has an interesting voice, and most importantly, he sells his song.  I actually went on iTunes and bought his recording of Billie Jean, a song made famous by Michael Jackson back in the 80s.  David did a version of the song arranged by Chris Connell.  He got a bit of bad buzz on the Internet because credit was not given to Connell for the arrangement and it appeared that the judges thought is was David's own.  David also has a charismatic stage presence.  Whether he wins American Idol or not, we're going to have plenty of opportunities to enjoy his music.  He's here to stay.

So there's my take on American Idol.  On the other side of the television dial we had the same inane crap being spewed by the many commentators of news as entertainment.  Last night's buzz word was "close the sale."  Obama just can't "close the sale."  That phrase was used on all networks about once every two or three minutes, all night long.  They were still braying it this morning as well.

These commentators are more like town gossips than anything else.  That they influence the outcome in any way whatsoever speaks to the tragedy of our system of politics.  Gossips have the ability to influence people's perceptions.  The pundit-gossips have determined for us that Hillary's a bitch, Obama's an unpatriotic, secret Muslim who can't "close the sale," and that John McCain is an "independent maverick" that relates to Joe Six-Pack because despite the fact that he's married into incredible wealth and has never had a job off the public payroll, he is not "elitist" like the Democrats.  This same group of gossips determined that Dubya was a regular guy, unlike that blowhard Gore and that Frenchified Kerry.  And people keep eating it up, election cycle after election cycle. 

Fuck this shit.  I'm going back to American Idol. 

Passover for the Fun of it

From a friend.

Try JibJab Sendables!

Shag Semeach Pesach!

I haven't had much to say lately, blogging wise.  Oh, I'm just opinionated as I ever was, maybe more so in some areas, less so in others.

There are greater currents flowing through our lives other than my simple drama.  First, peace be unto you, all of you.  Shag semeach pesach.  Happy Passover.  Even to the ones I don't like a lot.  Passover begins Saturday night.  As a Christian, a Jewish Christian, a Protestant Jewish Christian, an Episcopal Protestant Jewish Christian, as a Pentecostal Protestant Episcopal Jewish Christian, as a Buddhist Pentecostal Protestant Episcopal Jewish Christian, as  ZEN Buddhist, Pentecostal Protestant Episcopal Jewish Christian -- (by now I think I've covered my paths to enlightenment) -- I wish each of you Pesach shalom!  Jewish or not, we have all been slaves in Egypt.

May there be peace in Israel.  May there be peace in Iraq.  May there be peace in this country, our home.  May there be peace between thee and me.  May we all celebrate peace Next Year in Jerusalem! as well.  Amen.