Yay... I just got through talking to Dave on Instant Messenger for the first time since he went to the Dominican Republic... then he had to go... cuz he had to shut down the center where he works... cuz it was Siesta Time...

Why don't we have this concept in the US????

I think the most reassuring thing to me about reading other people's blogs is that there are other people out there as obsessed and even more obsessed with music than I am...

Okay... i brought a new book home with me to read tonite, so no big update... but I did just add a link to a blog that I think is worth reading. One that was vastly improved when i went over to read it tonite over the last time I checked it out. The boy seems to have a new attitude.... and I like it!

So, I've been crawling around on different boy's blogs this morning... and it's amusing to me how I can be thinking "gee, this guy is really cute... really cool..." and then i get to the page where they list books or music or movies or general media likes and suddenly I'm, "blech!"...

I'm shallow...

Well, this was addictive for all of about five minutes... best i did was 510,000 and something...

I've never put in a link... and I don't think i've ever mentioned it, but my AOL Instant Messenger handle is...

zeddnola

So... say hi sometime...

I just took a shower... and...

I have sunburned armpits...

and the day gets BETTER!

Last nite, I left a spastic phone message for the guy from Sunday nite. And he called back tonite. And we had a nice little chat. And, after we both get thru the next few busy days, we're gonna hang...

yay...

And seriously... this is an AMAZING album.

I spent a GREAT day today just doing absolutely nothing but baking in the sun and listening to my iPod at The Country Club. A slim crowd made for a nice lowkey atmosphere, although I was one of the few non-naked guys there.

Today's listening consisted of Sigur Ros, Bran Van 3000, Sophie Ellis Bextor and the amazing new Dot Allison album. Visual entertainment was provided by the three cute and one ugly guy in a group grope in the pool...

Since I keep getting Google hits on " Ricardo Pinto "... if Ricardo Pinto happens to find this page, he should know I think he's awfully cute... and I'm wondering if he still has a boyfriend...

just FYI...

THE song of the moment is... Astounded by Bran Van 3000

Absolute required listening for this summer...

By the way... I just did a massive update on my Wishlist...

the Memorial Day weekend wrap-up... it was a $40 fast cash ATM kinda weekend...

This has been a BEAUTIFUL weekend! It all started with work on Friday. We've been prepping all week for a visit from our Regional Director and our new District Manager. And it went better than we ever could've hoped. They loved us. They loved our store. We really blew them away and it was obvious that we had. When the last thing the RD says to the store manager is, "Thanks, you just made my entire week", that's a very good thing.

Then I went to Toys R Us afterwards and found the new Marvel Legends action figures. I bought Iron Man, the Hulk and Captain America and they're SWEET. Massively articulated and great sculpts. I'm looking at them across my living room right now. *waves at Iron Man*

Friday night, I went out with Jonathan to the Quarter. We started off with dinner at Angeli. Then we wandered over to Good Friends for a drink and the use of the ATM. Then we spent most of the rest of the evening just hanging out and drinking at Lafitte's. Ran into Beau for a brief moment and made plans with him for later in the weekend.

Saturday, I slept late and then salvaged a Weber grill that had been abandoned behind the apartment complex next door. A bit of scrubbing and it was good as new. Then I went to the New Orleans Wine and Food Expo at the Convention Center. I had a free pass to the $75 Grand Tasting and also got my friend Robert into it. A GREAT afternoon spent tasting dozens of wines and champagnes. Robert is a lot (LOT) more knowledgable about wines than me, so having along was a trip.

I've been trying to eat out more at finer restaurants of late and one thing I've discovered while doing so is that I really like nicer wines. So, the Expo was an opportunity for me to learn quite a bit and discover some wines that I might like. A really nice moment was having Robert tell me, "you're good at this" in reference to my attempts to describe the "experience" of each wine. He's not someone to give out untrue compliments. I think I may need to take some wine-tasting classes...

Anyways, after tasting a LOT of wine, here are a couple that I'll definitely be buying (and they're all pretty inexpensive - under $20):

Jacob Creek Chardonnay
Heathfield Ridge Sauvignon Blanc (very sweet, almost tastes like a Riesling)
Heathfield Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon (this wine blew everyone I knew at the Expo away - incredibly yummy)
J Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon
King Estate Pinot Gris (especially the Reserve, but this has been a recent favorite of mine anyway)

After the Expo, I came home and took a nice nap. Can't imagine why I'd need it after a Wine Expo... and then I used the new to me grill to make some burgers.

Then back out to the Quarter with Jonathan to meet up with Robert. Drinking at Lafitte's again and then dancing at Oz. Not normally one of my favorite bars, but since all the little tweaky fags that I hate (um... sorry, Jonno) were in Pensacola, it was pretty fun. Not so crowded that you couldn't actually dance on the dancefloor and lots of cute toursit boys. I did learn that I need to get over the paranoia that I sometimes have. Early in the nite, I saw this boy continually staring at me and talking to his friend and sort of laughing. I was convinced they were laughing at the way I dance. Later in the nite, the boy walks by me and strokes my arm. So the boy LIKED me, duh. Anyways, home around 4 am...

Sunday, bloody Sunday... Got up around noon and headed to Bywater Bar-B-Que to meet Beau for brunch. Very yummy and we sat in the courtyard (gotta love New Orleans). Then we went to The Country Club for the afternoon to lay out and catch some sun. First time I'd been there during they day and I loved it. Very casual atmosphere, 95% gay, of people just hanging out, swimming, catching rays, being naked if they choose to be so, and etc. A nicely mixed crowd of older, younger, hipper, not so hip and not many divas at all. I'll be back...

After a quick shower at Beau's we headed to the Quarter AGAIN, just in time for Tea Dance at the Bourbon Pub. We bounced from there to Oz to Lafittes over the course of the nite. Beau was on the prowl for a boy. I was pretty laid back.

And then...

I met someone very interesting. I was instantly attracted to a guy Beau introduced me to. Older than me by a couple years, but dressed exactly like I would want my future boyfriend to be dressed. (um... not that I'm getting ahead of myself... seriously) He was a goofy obnoxious guy who was singing along loudly to the 80s retro videos that Lafitte's was playing, and making up his own extremely funny lyrics half the time. He had a great green snake tattoo curled around his arm onto his back. His knowledge of semi-obscure 80s dance music rivals mine. He remixes records as a career (sorta unique for New Orleans). He lives uptown, not too far from me. He's damned cute.

And he interrupted his singing long enuff to tell me that I was cute.

And then he interrupted it long enuff to offer his phone number to me. Which I took.

And the last thing he said to me when we left was, "call me."

And I'm gonna...

Now... I still have two days off of work... what to do... what to do...

This has been long tedious week.

The conference that i went to in Dallas was long and boring and I was paired up in a hotel room with a guy that I absolutely can't stand. There was one really cute guy from the corporate offices there though. Not too sure if he likes girls or boys though...

The rest of the week has been consumed with preparation at work for a visit from our Regional Director and our new District Manager. And that happened today.

And it went beautifully. We blew them away.

Now I need a nap...

or a drink...

regardless, I have the next 4 days off work. This is a good thing.

OH MY GOD...

the season finale of Buffy...

the last scene....

OH MY GOD...

the fall tv season cannot start soon enuff...

I feel incredibly boring cuz I ain't said a damned word of interest, if a word at all, of late...

I'm off to Dallas for business meetings (that sounds SO mature) for the weekend. Not a fun trip, flight there one day, meetings meetings meetings, flight back. Feh. And I'm SOO procrastinating packing.

It is SO totally all about fischerspooner right now. Seriously. They are IT as far as I'm concerned.

I know that downloading music and having fast access is old hat to most of you.... but.... wow. I downloaded more songs off of Audio Galaxy in half an hour this afternoon than I have in the last five days.

And I find it really fascinating when I notice on gnutella that someone is uploading from me a song that I downloaded only a few minutes earlier. Craziness.

oh wow... downloading music is SOOO much faster when you're not using dial-up...

so, can someone explain to me exactly why CDs still cost almost $20 each? My incentive to buy them now is what???

At last... at long long last... DSL has come to my home...

The only good thing to happen today after getting too much sun yesterday and being sick as a dog all nite as a result...

I'll update in a bit... if i can get my ass off the sofa for that long...

Accordigng to recent reports both here and here, i'm no longer mysterious...

Wait... i was mysterious???

Not much has been going on around here besides work. Work work work. And downloading music. I just discovered (again with the blond issue) that AudioGalaxy does indeed work with Macs. God help me. GOD HELP ME!!!

Now if only Earthlink could get my damned DSL hooked up...

Looking back at old posts is dangerous... I just realized that I said that Dave was desperate for American music... so i'm going to send him the Hives... a Swedish band...

hey... i'm blond...

Ok... someone else did a much better job at setting up a website for Dave, the ex who joined the Peace Corps.

Go visit the site and be a real saint and take part in the tape contest he's conducting. You computer geeks out there can just burn a CD off your computer and then tape it on a cassette. Dave and his fellow volunteers are dying for some good old American music.

Dave's tastes run to Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Yo La Tengo, etc etc... I'm sending him the whole Hives compilation CD. I know he's gonna dig that.

Seriously, folks, it doesn't matter that you don't know him. Dave would LOVE to get tapes from strangers. And throw a comic book in the box when you mail it.

Finally, a couple of days off of work...

I spent most of yesterday cleaning my apartment and the dog, after grabbing a quick lunch and CD-shopping trip with Jonathan. (I didn't buy anything!) And a lot of time downloadng music off of Limewire.

I'm starting to think that I'm NEVER going to have DSL. Earthlink and Bellsouth still haven't solved the problems. No DSL signal is getting to my house. Ugh. And Earthlink charged me for my first month of DSL service. Although, I do have to give them props for the fact that after I bitched nicely in an email to them about this, they credited back the entire month to me. Nice gesture. Now if only the tech support people would follow up with me like they keep saying they will.

I get really irritated at the people who decide to download music from me while I'm downloading music. I'm like, "hello, i'm on a modem... it's gonna take you for forever..." But, I let them do it...

I think i'm officially getting old now. This past Sunday's New York Times had a big article about the 80s revival and all the new electro bands that are just bubbling under on the music scene. They even had a side article about Fischerspooner. My second favorite band right now just from the one song I've heard.

My favorite is still The Hives. Even more so after seeing their video on MTV2 last nite. OMG. I want the lead singer. Badly. What a hottie. And he's all angry and screamy. Dreamy.

I also finally saw the video for We Are All Made of Stars last nite. What a cool video. Loved all the little cameos. And I still think that the song is the bomb-diggity.

Today's agenda includes a trip to Baton Rouge to shop at Target. Sad, huh? I can't wait for the New Orleans Targets to open already.

It sounds like the workmen who are rebuilding the balcony on the building next door are about to have a smackdown... so it's time for me to go watch through the window...

Karma...

So, all weekend... i get the "manager to cashwrap" or "manager to Info" calls over the intercom. And repeatedly get bitched out by insane people who are upset over stupid things. Not one single valid complaint.

So, tonite... i get one of those calls to cashwrap... and this crazy lady launches into a tirade about how upset she was that the bookseller walked her to a book and handed it to her after she asked about it. Evidently, we must think she's stupid and incapable of finding a book herself. *sigh* She bitches. And bitches. And bitches. Loudly. In front of a line of customers.

And then one of the customers, a man about her age, comes towards us. I'm thinking that her husband wants a piece of me too. And then the man turns to her and says, "maybe if you weren't so rude and loud, you'd get better service."

Heh. She was SO not happy about that. And then she leaves.

And every single customer in line apologizes to us for having to deal with such a rude person. It's as though they feel that they need to take up for us. The very next guy to come up even puts his hand out and makes me shake it and says, "you people are always really nice and really helpful and I appreciate it."

A very good end to an icky weekend at work...

I had about the crappiest nite possible at work tonite and I was about to write that i could really use a couple of nice emails or virtual hugs, and then I decided to quickly read a couple of my favorite blogs. The first one I hit was this one.

Sometimes someone or something out there is paying attention...

The virtual hugs are still welcome tho...

Ok... it's really really nothing to be excited about... but if you click on the Basic Drew link, you can see the first webpage that I did in a couple of hours this weekend. It's the first thing i've ever completely written and managed to FTP and everything...

I'm gonna get better real fast...

It's official... cuz I say so... Spiderman is the best comic book movie ever made.

And I have a pass to see Attack of the Clones before it starts.

It's gonna be an excellent summer at the movies.

Oh... and if that Hulk teaser before Spiderman was any sign... next summer's gonna be good as well.

Oh... there's an email link on the page with the article if anyone would like to respond to it. The author also has a personal link on his website.

This article infuriates me.

The sheer size of this man's ego is unbelievable.

It's not a good thing that he evidently was not treated with the respect and care that he deserved to have given him. But...

Being illiterate is the only qualification for getting a job at a chain bookstore in most places

Gee, I hope that made him feel big and safe in his superior intelligence. And I guess it's a good thing I have Spellcheck...

but in Baton Rouge they've added indolence and dim wits. It's not much of a reading town, so the locals seem content to get their Harry Potters and Idiot Guides there.

Gee, does the man realize that 99% of the people that he works with at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge are residents of Baton Rouge? As are most of the students he teaches? This should make him quite popular. I guess it's a good thing he commutes from New Orleans. Since he chooses to reside here, I would assume that we're a much smarter town.

I'm not personally a big fan of the Harry Potter books, but I do realize that they are children's literature. And generally the purchase of children's literature and the encouragement of children to read are a good thing. Those children grow up to be adults who purchase adult literature. I'm thinking that not many of them will grow up to want to purchase his literature though. Nor would they be his desired audience, I would suppose.

However, this is personal.

Oh really? Gee, I never would have guessed that it was personal. The rational and logical tone of the article disguise that ever so well.

My prediction: Barnes & Noble is going down. Sell your stock.

Gosh. The power of this man. Because staff members at one store in a chain that blankets the country have offended him, the entire chain will most likely be out of business soon. It might make good sense for the financially minded of you out there to pay close attention to the minutiae of this man's life. (Gee, that was a big word for an illiterate like me to have used, huh?)

The book not read by Andrei Codrescu at Barnes & Noble is Casanova in Bohemia, available at independent bookstores.

According to the author's website, hyperlinked at the top of the article, it's also available at Amazon.com. That small independent vendor of books on the Web... I would suggest however waiting six months or so. Most of his previous novels have been quickly available in remainder and bargain sections because the publisher has had to sell of the large volume of stock that they weren't able to sell to bookstores, chain or independent.

Mr Codrescu, writing in anger isn't a good idea... you'd think an essayist of your supposed stature would know this...

However, believe me when I say that i will celebrate the day that i find out that your agent isn't able to interest a major publisher in your next work of fiction because of the poor sales of your previous works.

Not a whole lot going on in my life about now... my doggie seems to be a bit sickly but we're going to the Vet tomorrow morning to see about that. She's sort of drooping and maybe limping a bit. And she ate a bunch of grass and then threw it up. Lovely. At least she threw it up outside.

I went, a bit late in the game, to see Blade 2 today. Ho hum. Pretty pictures, boring story. Why oh why didn't I go see Resident Evil before it went away.... grrrr...

It's new comic book day but I can't really get myself psyched up to go the comic book store. Even though Ultimates came out today... damned fine book...

I found the new Batman Animated 4-pack of action figures at Toys R Us a couple days ago. Very very cool. It has Ra's al Ghul in his proper suit, tie & cape outfit alongside a figure of his daughter, Talia. Oh, and Batman and Robin. Now I just have to wait the months before the other 4 packs with the Penguin and Scarface & the Ventriloquist come out... Yep... geek... i'm a geek...

I haven't been reading at ALL lately. And that's bad. But, Amazon.UK just emailed me to tell me that they've shipped a book I preordered. Whoo hoo. It's called The Standing Dead and it's by a Scottish guy, Ricardo Pinto. His first book The Chosen was one of my favorites a few years ago. He's one of those rare fantasy writers that I don't loathe. Usually, I'm quite adverse to the entire fantasy genre. Books with little magical people bore me.