Friends

The parents are coming this Saturday. The house needs some cleaning before they get here.

I had this strange dream last night. I don't quite remember how it started, but a bunch of people and I ended up living in a skyscraper hallway of sorts. Of sorts because it was a hallway, but one about as big as our house with giant blue windows that arched to form a roof. The people were a mixture of adults and children from many different backgrounds, nobody was related in any way. We had all just felt some pull to this hallway full of cushioned couches.

We removed half of the couches and filled it with beds here and there, a few dining tables, a single computer (which apparently only I used) and a large screen TV. We all lived there relatively peaceful, going to work and living life as if it were normal.

Then somehow I ended up in St. Louis alone and getting my wheelchair repaired by this near six foot tall 275-315 pound man with brown curly hair, blue eyes, and a brown beard. Every once in a while we'd touch hands and giggle. Then we somehow ended up running into each other on EverQuest II, I asked him out, and he gave me a new battery charger for my wheelchair.

I call up my sister to pick me up and Chuck answers rudely wondering how I ended up in St. Louis. Then I search for the guy to tell him it was me who asked him out and that I may be late in getting home in time to meet him. I also wanted him to come at a later time. His EQII Character's name was Snafodil.

I saw UP! last night - it was fantastic...I think I only cried three times - what a great movie!!

it's wet here...but i still force myself to get out.

Slow night spinning music at the bar. I've finally sort of settled into the new format where I play everything and not simply harsh/heavy punk rock and metal. And my transitions between mini-sets of guitars and electronics are now smooth enough that I wound up playing "Holy Diver" and "Like a Motorway" within 15 minutes of each other.

Weird fact: playing "Like a Motorway" always inspires at least one gay to come to the booth, thanking you for it. I don't know why that is. I like those people. They seem so happy to be hearing the song and grateful that you put it on for them because they'd never considered they'd get to hear it while drinking in a barely lit bar with blowjobs playing on the TV screens.

Best drunk person moment of the night:

Guy standing on booth steps staring at me, when asked what I could do for him says: Play The Creatures.

Me: I don't have any on me tonight. I have some Siouxsie and the Banshees though.

Guy just stares at me while I look for a Siouxsie track. Every so often I turn around and he's still standing on the steps of the booth, just looking at me. I find "Spellbound" and, even though I've played it way too often thanks to at least one Siouxsie request every time I work, I play it again. I need more Siouxsie. I think I have like four songs that I just play over and over. It's not that I dislike her. It's just that every single gay on every single night wants to hear her. It's weird. She's #1, Debbie Harry wins second place, then a big group of random female rock vocalist requests after that.

I play "Spellbound." I step toward The Guy. "Anything else you want?" I ask. He takes my hand and kisses it.
(Dear gays, please never do that, ever. It's not alluring. It's like sneezing cooties. But he was drunk, so whatever.)

Guy: No, that's all. I didn't think you'd know who Siouxsie was.

Me: I'm the DJ. I know.

I also played this:

I've always enjoyed the Black Box-ish thing of putting someone else in the video or on stage to lip-sync an entirely sample-driven track, as though they were the actual singer. This person--who I believe is Saffron, future actual lead vocalist of Republica, a band that I never paid attention to--would have you believe she is both Gwen Guthrie, Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul and possibly either Aretha Franklin or Loleatta Holloway (whichever one of them it is who's responsible for the spoken line: 'True love can be hard to find'). But she can make her legs go Rockette high in the air, which is something.

Anyway, for nerds, major vocal sample taken from:

Thanks to bioskiss (Maslova Viktory) for her fantastic photo that will help me to describe the subject matter for this challenge:


Thanks to texwriterbear (Sean Kramer) for the subject matter for this challenge. This month we'll examine your favorite photo of CLOUDS...but with a twist...add an additional subject matter. If we look through the recap post after the challenge is over, I don't want just a bunch of cloud pictures...even if the clouds are extraordinary, they'll all run together! Use a secondary subject matter and yours will stand out. Use your best creativity to find a subject that will complement the cloud component. The combination should draw the viewer into the photo. See, in the announcement photo above, how the photographer has you looking at the clouds...but the subject of the woman and the toy bear are what make you "feel" the photo. Remember to think outside the box and use components that will make it make it your own.

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X Posted

An interview with 'America's Next Top Model's' Erin Wagner
By Paige Wiser

Now that "America's Next Top Model" is in its 13th cycle, there are only so many ways to keep the concept fresh. Making the girls pose as circus animals? Done. Including a transgendered beauty named Isis? Done. Shaving the models' heads? Done to death.

So this time around, Tyra Banks lowered her standards. Literally. Only candidates 5-foot-7 and shorter were allowed to audition, whereas most runway models are 5-foot-10 or statuesquer. It gave 5-foot-6 Erin Wagner of Spring Grove the chance to try for a career as a petite model. And now that the competition is down to just four girls, Erin is emerging as the closest thing to a villain the producers can come up with.

"I know I came off as bratty, but it's reality TV so I've accepted my edit," says Erin. "Everyone watching should just keep in mind, what you see is not necessarily what you get."

The accused "modzilla" clarifies some of her more scandalous moments.
( Read more... )

From modeling to remodeling

By Scott Tady, Beaver County Times, Pa.

Nov. 15--Beaver County's reality-television sweetheart has found a new TV gig.

Joanie Dodds -- who'd you think I meant? -- will co-host "Run My Renovation," a home-improvement show on the DIY network.

"We just started filming, so it won't be on TV until like January or so," Dodds, formerly of Patterson Township, said. "It films in Knoxville, Tennessee, about every other week, so I'm on the road a lot but it's a super fun experience and I'm learning so much. I even get to drive a big red pickup truck."

Doesn't take much to please the former "America's Next Top Model" runner-up, eh?

Since her appearance on that CW program, Dodds, 28, has become a pro model, spending a few months this year in Italy's fashion mecca, Milan.

But a steady job as a TV show hostess is a bigger deal, even if on a network like DIY, which people with basic cable or standard satellite service can't get without an upgrade.

"I just hope that this is the beginning of an empire for me and I am the next Pam Anderson-Martha Stewart hybrid," Dodds said with a laugh. "I'm going for sexy mogul."

source

Natasha Poly in Muse #19, Leatherette.

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Stanford waitress does Ky. proud on 'Top Model'
Laura Kirkpatrick is a finalist on CW show

By Mary Meehan

On Wednesday night's episode of America's Next Top Model, finalist Laura Kirkpatrick channels Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.

A waitress from Stanford (population 3,399) is making Kentucky proud as one of four finalists on America's Next Top Model.

Laura Kirkpatrick, 19, made an immediate impression during casting for The CW's hit reality competition by describing in some detail how to castrate a bull (squeeze, twist and slash).

She has gone on to produce consistently good photos on the fashion modeling contest and showcase her Southern charm. The judges, including show creator Tyra Banks, sometimes seem a little surprised at the sophistication of the blonde beauty with a truly country twang. This in spite of the fact that another Kentucky woman, Celia Ammerman, originally from Cynthiana, placed in the final four on Top Model last season.

Kirkpatrick, who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, competes against other petite models in Cycle 13, where the hook is that all the women are shorter than 5-foot-7.

The buzz around Stanford is that Kirkpatrick took the top prize, but The CW won't tell and Kirkpatrick is not allowed to say until after the finale, scheduled to air Nov. 18.

But she can answer some questions via e-mail. Here's Kirkpatrick's take on sweet tea, life on the show and her grandma's love of sexy clothing.
( Laura adorableness under here! )

Whitney Thompson Launches Supermodel Line of Candles & Jewelry

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Whitney Thompson is back home in Neptune Beach. As much as she's taking a breather with her family and close friends, she's still business.

In fact, America's Next Top Model is starting a business.

Thompson plans to sell a line of jewelry and scented candles. The wax from the candles can be used as a massage moisturizer. The new adventure is very personal.

"My designs, my candles, my jewelry, all of it is 100 percent me," said Thompson, from the comfort of Jaffi's, the boutique in Neptune Beach where her modeling career began.

The candles come in a variety of scents. The names read like her monthly travel itinerary: Hong Kong Blossoms; London Hot Tea and Ginger; Los Angeles Lilly; Milan Melon; Paris and Berries; and Central Park.

Oh, and there's also a candle called Boyfriend's Shirt. Thompson says it's something that the man in your life might like.

The man in her life goes to Jacksonville University. His name is Logan Chipperfield. He's a punter. Even ESPN is tracking his stats.

Most of the products are made on the First Coast. The jewelry is made by hand by a friend in Tennessee. Everything goes through her.

"Everything is literally touched by my hands," said Thompson. "It's all me. They're my babies. I love them."
( Read more... )

Headed to Las Vegas tomorrow night for IAAPA -- the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo. I'll be there through Thursday night, flying home very early Friday morning.

IAAPA is the yearly convention that I attend, well-documented in this blog and on Flickr, which is a bizarre mashup of high-tech and carny -- simulator rides and 3D films and attraction design firms sharing the same space as toothless carny ride operators running spin-and-pukes, next to companies that make churro carts and wak-a-mole games. I've been every year since about 1993, and it's sublimely wonderful.

Did I mention one of my favorite colleagues is having his company's usual convention cocktail reception party at the Liberace Museum?

Sessilee Lopez and Chanel Iman in Allure October 2009, Bomb Shells.

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Хочу приобрести ф-т Diana хорошего качества за недорого. Но не могу найти таковой. Если кто-то располагает информацией, где его можно поискать...или кто-то хочет его продать-welcome)

Полезную информацию пишите сюда в коментарии, если что-договоримся)

Москва

11:49 Soooo very excited to see THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS perform "Flood" in its entirety at UCLA Royce Hall tonight! www.hurl.ws/846x

15:23 Brunch with Thilo & Paul at Jinky's Cafe loopt.us/H3SzUg.t

20:05 ZOMG! Row B for FLOOD! flic.kr/p/7fF8Ee

20:54 Hey @glass, just met @nerdist at the TMBG show cuz I was wearing your "Special" shirt!

21:43 ZOMG! "Shoehorn with Teeth"... with *puppets*!

22:46 Flutterfetti Finale! #TMBG flic.kr/p/7fLqam

23:07 Yay! "Fingertips" encore! #TMBG

23:45 Cool, met John F. backstage! Too brief for a photo, though. #TMBG

(auto-shipped by LoudTwitter)

Setlist (incomplete and not in order except for the first 2 and last songs)

intro/hateworld
the pit
die hard
hellcorn
your image
getting a grip on things
a guy in a suit and the pope
the pillars of humanity
path to sorrow
so called living, 1991
mindbender
it's all about fear
i'm not a christian punk
death to death
the power of god
straining life
crucial moment

It's been about 16 years since I'd seen The Crucified play. Well, they've been broken up for about 14 years. They were/are one of 2 Christian bands that I really like(d). (The other being shoegazer stalwarts, Starflyer 59.) And it wasn't so much what they were singing about that I liked but more the music. I mean yeah the message was positive but I just wasn't into the preaching and all that. That's not to say that I don't agree with a lot of things they say because, really, a lot of it just common sense. But I just felt I never needed a "religion" to show me what was good and what was bad. And, again, while I don't claim to be a Christian in any way, I have experienced the "power of God" in my life enough times to know that "a higher power" exists. (I mean, I'm in a committed relationship aren't I? That seriously has to be prove that a god exists. Ha ha ha ha.)

Soooo, about a week ago, my buddy Patrick (another old friend from when I was in high school), mentioned that The Crucified were doing a reunion show in San Diego and we planned out a trip to check out the show. I was actually kind of still on the fence about going up until about an hour before we left. I wasn't really looking forward to the 2 hour drive to SD to see a 1 hour show and then another 2 hours to get back home. In the end I just thought, "hey, it'd be nice to see these guys and hear some these songs again live." But I think I underestimated how much I still liked The Crucified because the show really got me going. Seriously, I was transported to me being 17 again.

The minute they opened with the first two songs off their second and final album, The Pillars of Humanity, I was into it. From there they hit almost every point of their history. They played the majority of their two albums, some really old songs from their early demos and the last two songs they recorded as a band before splitting up. I hadn't rocked out like that in quite a while. I even found myself doing the ol' Scott Ian stomp during the breakdown of The Pit. And while it did feel a little strange singing/yelling along with Mark Solomon lyrics like, when you wake up in Hell, ask yourself, was your image worth it, are you proud of yourself? you had a chance to receive, to be a believer, but you turned your back on God to be a crowd-pleaser, the biggest surprise was that I actually still knew all the lyrics!

One of the highlights of the night was hearing them play two songs off the Nailed demo which was recorded when they were like 18 years old. It just great to see that Jim Chaffin is still a kick ass drummer. And the rest of the band did not let up even after 17+ songs.

My only gripe of the night was the overzealous mosher who bumped into me (because I foolishly was standing too close to the pit), then simultaneously stomped and tripped over my foot and fell to the floor. And now I have a bruised and sore foot. Nifty. Otherwise, it was a great show and I'm glad Patrick talked me into going.

A hurricane of flutterfetti filled the air for THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS' finale tonight at Royce Hall.

A great concert -- they did "Fingertips" in its entirety for the encore, quite cool. I even got to meet John F. backstage after the show! Too brief for a photo, though :(

It's been a whirlwind of activity over the past couple of weeks, since announcing my intention to move back to Indiana.

Thanks in large part to bobaloo's help, I have gotten my sh*t together and mailed off everything I needed to mail off to Indiana: 16 boxes, all told. I am also indebted to kweeah for letting me send them via FedEx with his employee discount.

It also helped that knepbear's brother and his boyfriend arrived on Wednesday, which forced me to clean up everything I was keeping in the room where they are now staying. So since Wednesday I have had all my belongings reduced to a couple of discrete little piles propping up the wall in Bob & Paul's dining room, and when it's time to go, all I'll have to do is move it into the car.

So the last few days have been pretty mellow. Yesterday, pat_pending took me on a fabulous "insider" tour of Disney Imagineering and the studio at large, where I got to see a whole slew of projects in progress, many of which haven't even been hinted at on the Internet yet. Not that I would breathe a word about these amazing-looking projects to anyone (they're mostly for Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, and Hong Kong Disneyland anyway - no big scoops to report for DLR or DCA), at least not in print.

Last night was my going-away dinner at Michael's, which was fantastic as always. I actually got to introduce a couple of my friends to Michael's, which is always gratifying since it's one of my favorite LA restaurants. We then headed back to Pat's place for hot-tubbing and viewing gratuitous scenes from the North by Northwest Blu-Ray. And a good time was had by all.

Today was a totally mellow day with Bobaloo - we started off with Korean footrubs, then went to Midori for one last all-you-can-eat sushi binge. To our mutual surprise, we both pretty much held ourselves back and didn't completely stuff ourselves into sushi coma.

And now tonight, I'm hanging out and resting up for tomorrow, which promises to be a daylong spree at Disneyland with Pat and liquid_wayno, among others to be named later. Dinner will be at 6pm at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen (in Downtown Disney) if anyone wants to join us!

On the dark side, Los Angeles seems to keep slapping me in the face on my way out the door. I got a $50 parking ticket the other day when I mistakenly fed the wrong meter - I filled up the one behind my car, and not the actual meter. I told the meter maid this, but she wasn't having any of it even though it happened to be true. This sucks. And since Bob advises me that even skipping out of state won't make the charge go away - that, indeed, it'll make the charges compound and eventually turn into legal warrants - I have to go ahead and pay it in something resembling timely fashion.

I also got my bill for my car's registration renewal, which comes due in January. The listing includes a possible $18 "non-operation charge" if I want to declare that I won't be using the car in California. Really?! Even if I take the car out of state and immediately re-register it in Indiana, as I intend to, I have to pay California to take me off their books? Someone with more California knowledge, please explain this one to me.

I also made the mistake of answering the phone the other day when one of my credit card companies called - I like to think of them as "my fans" who love me so much they just won't leave me alone - and I found myself signed onto a "hardship plan" and committed to a $200 payment on Wednesday the 18th to make one of my two delinquent credit cards go away. It represents a huge bargain over paying the full amount due, certainly - but it's $200 extra that I really don't have.

I mean, I really don't have it, because the most distressing thing of all is, my final paycheck from the Halloween store is MIA. I've been expecting it since Thursday, and it has not yet appeared. Without that check, I can't pay for gas on the return trip, or pay Wayne back for the stuff I FedExed, or make my "hardship plan" payment on my credit card. So I am currently praying hard for that check to appear in my P.O. box on Monday, so that I can leave for home on schedule.

So I've been both mellow AND highly stressed out for the past several days. I'm hoping my day at Disneyland will help out. In the meantime, I just want to say to Los Angeles - I get it already! I'm leaving as fast as I can! You don't need to keep reminding me!

For the kitchen cassette player...


track listing:

glen campbell - gentle on my mind
ferlin husky - wings of a dove
sonny james - you're the only world i know
willie nelson - touch me
george jones - the race is on
roy clark - the tip of my fingers
faron young - hello walls
tex ritter - i dreamed of a hillbilly heaven
wanda jackson - right or wrong

an excellent use of fifty cents

The weather has turned nice for a change, and I am loving seeing sun again. Of course, no good fortune ever goes unpunished, so I managed to catch a bit of a cold. It is nothing serious, just the sniffles really, but it does tend to make me feel tired.

I am drinking lots of tea, of course, and trying not to strain myself too much. I am trying to sleep as much as I can too, but that is hard to do sometimes, what with random morning phone calls, whiny, demanding cats and a tiny bladder!

I have decided on the schedule for the end of the month and into December. I will be driving to MN on the 24th (or there abouts, depending on weather) in order to spend Thanksgiving with my midwest family. I hope to visit some of my friends I haven’t seen in a while, the Lauers, maybe even the Barniers. It would be nice.

I will also see my GP and my financial guy and maybe do some Christmas shopping. I have a good idea what I want to get Robbie this year. He may not be amused by my choices, but I think he will be happy enough with them! With all our expenses these days, we aren’t looking to spend much on each other this year.

I should be headed back to Woodstock in about three weeks from when I leave, which is a long time, but can’t be helped. Then at Christmas both Robbie and I will go to PA to spend the holiday with my East Coast family. That should be fun too. We can’t stay too long since Robbie’s parents will be in Toronto and we will want to spend some time with them too.

Last night Robbie and I went to see 2012 at the local multiplex. What a roller-coaster ride THAT is! Amazing effects, and the disasters just keep coming one after the other. The last time I was this impressed with a movie (from a special effects perspective) was the first time I saw Star Wars. Amazing stuff. It is a long movie, but never boring! I rate it one of the movies you really need to see in a theatre. Watching it at home -- even on a good home theatre system -- would not be the same!