Oh my fucking god... i DO NOT know where you can purchase the eiffel tower thingie that the Osbournes have in their house... so, if that's why you are one of the seemingly dozens of people who've found my blog through a google search for Osbournes+Eiffel+Tower... you're shit out of luck...

thanks much to Courtney who emailed me with an explanation of why I've been getting all these hits...

someone take pity on me and buy me this! It's a great value!

C'mon... i've had a crappy month...

i'm SOOO tired of waiting for this book....

Hah... take this, James.... guess who I chatted with tonite...

Meanwhile... where the hell has this one disappeared to...?

As the weekend draws to its inevitable close, I now recap for you...

Friday nite, I worked till midnite. My friend Jonathan called me early in the nite and suggested going out. I wasn't sure. But, the idea sounds nice as the nite goes on. I get off at midnite. I call him. He wants to stay home. I go home. I sit around for a bit. I decide to go out.

I get lucky and get a decent parking spot in the Quarter for a Friday nite at 1 a.m. My first stop is Good Friends for a raspberrry stoli cosmopolitan. In my defense, I must admit to having watched a lot of Sex in the City this past week. It's so good, I get another. The bar is pretty crowded for a Friday nite to my surprise. I notice a guy that I think is pretty cute. Midway thru the first drink, he comes over and says hi. I'm a bit surprised, but manage to make decent conversation. But...he has a REALLY annoying voice. Regardless, we talk a while until his friends drag him off to the Pub.

I wander aimlessly for a bit, to Lafittes, which is terribly boring, to 735 and the wind up at the Pub. I buy a bottled water to pace myself for the evening. The bartender, David, is having none of it though. A huge shot appears in front of me on the bar. The polite thing to do is to drink it, so I do. I wind up running into the guy from Good Friends again and talk to him a bit more, but manage to pull myself away from him. As I'm walking around the bar, a reasonably cute guy yells out at me from a barstool. He then apologizes for being so loud, but he evidently really wanted to get my attention. We chat. He's visiting for a wedding and staying on the Northshore. I comment on the horrible long drive he's going to have. His response? "Well, I could always drive back in the morning..." Um... no.

I extract myself again. As I'm walking around the bar, I see a guy who I went on a couple of dates with a couple of years ago who calls me infrequently but never actually makes plans with me. In a playful (and slightly tipsy) mood, I run my finger across his oh so manly chest as I pass him. A couple minutes later he's at my side. He's all, "i was leaving but I could stay if you want me to." I'm all, "hey... you look really good... stay if you want... it's up to you." He goes on with the usual "do you want me to stay" routine. And I act sort of disinterested because I'm annoyed over him calling me so intermittently. And I comment as much. He walks away saying, "I'll be here for a little while yet."

I go upstairs and wander around, running into yet another former date of several times, Jewel. This one being a bit of a major crush of the past as well as a really sweet guy. We're having decent conversation when a really cute blond guy stops to say hi to Jewel. He introduces us and the cute guy kisses me as a greeting. I turn to the bar to get a drink and look back and the two of them have their hands down each other's pants. Seriously. Next thing I know, they've disappeared. Hmmm. I run into Jewel later and comment on the cute guy and wonder whether he's a potential love interest for him. He responds, "no.. he knows the deal between us." Um... okay...

A bit later, I'm tired, so I head home. I go to bed thinking how cool I played it with Mr Intermittent Phone Guy.

Except... I wake up the next morning suddenly realizing that I got Mr Intermittent Date Guy confused with The Really Hot Guy That I See Out Every Once In a While. That wasn't who I thought it was. It was this total hottie that I would never ever normally talk to much less run my finger over the chest of... And he wanted to stay at the bar longer to talk to ME. And *I* blew him off.... Ay carumba... I can only hope he was drunk and doesn't remember too much.

I'm feeling a bit hungover early in the day, so I sit around and do nothing. I watch The Witches on DVD. I love Hammer horror movies... While I'm watching it, my friend Beau calls but I miss the call. He's heading to the Country Club to lay out.

A couple hours later, I get the message and head over there. Hardly anyone is there, but a friend from work meets me there. We hang in the late afternoon sun and have a pleasant time. Then, I head out for a little shopping at the new Target store. Very exciting Saturday nite.

Today I worked all day... And now I'm going read a trashy novel...

HELLSITE!

Yes... yes... oh, yes... there are few things in life that get me as worked up as Hellboy. See geek Drew salivate in utter superdrooly delight.

back in sweet suburbia...

What am I listening to lately? Action by Saint Etienne over and over and over and over and over again.

It's not out yet, but I have my ways... if anyone else out there is a big fan, I can provide it for ya, as long as you PROMISE to buy the new CD, Finisterre, when it comes out this fall.

And if anyone else has the remixes to Action and would like to provide me with them... you can be my buddy...

ladies & gentlemen... we have added comments...

it's even more exciting than a bag of kittens...

I have decided that my new hip happening phrase is going to be "bag of kittens." As in... well he's cuter than a bag of kittens. Or... he couldn't swim at all, he went to the bottom of the pool like a bag of kittens.

When I someday form a band... Bag of Kittens will also be the name of my band.

Take the What
animal best portrays your sexual appetite?? Quiz


linked from the Poppy Z Brite forums...

make of this result what you will...

Last nite after work, I met James, TJ and Jonathan at the Balcony Bar for a couple of drinks and random chat. Twas fun.

Jonathan and I then proceeded to the Quarter for a couple more drinks at Lafittes and the Pub. The Pub was fun because they were playing scads and scads of funny gay moments from sitcoms and old MadTV and SNL sketches. Love when they do that... although I was on Will & Grace overkill by evening's end.

Slept a bit late this morning and now I'm off the Country Club with a friend to catch some rays. And later, I'm gonna get to see my old roommate Theresa, who moved to Portland. Haven't seen her in a couple of years and it'll be great to see her.

ok... i'm just gonna say this once....

in case you haven't noticed...

i have a mad crush...

and he'll be here again in 22 days...

I've mentioned the fact that I bought a new car. What I haven't mentioned is the fact that over the last couple of weeks I've had major problems with my BRAND FUCKING NEW CAR. And I've discovered how aggravating dealing with dealerships and service departments can be. My car developed this annoying habit of jerking very noticeably when I would come to a stop.

So, last week, I took it in to the dealership near where I work, which wasn't where I bought the car. They have it all day. And do nothing to it, not even look at it. I leave it overnite. Halfway thru the day after several phonecalls from me they finally look at it and change out a sensor. But they then call me and tell me that there's an indication of transmission problems and they need to look at that. And they can't do that for another 3-4 days... if i leave my car there the whole time. I go balistic. I call the dealership where I bought the car which is about an hour and a half away and scream madly at them. I go to the local place, get my car and get up at 5 am the next day to take it to the other place. They test it, look at it and inform me that the first place fixed it. They know exactly what the problem is because there's a bulletin from Dodge about it and they assume the other place reprogrammed my car's computer.

I go home.

The car runs fine for two days. And then, as I coast to a stop at a redlight.... a big jerk. So, I call the place of purchase and scream more. Make arrangements to go there on Wednesday. This afternoon, I stop by the local place to find out exactly what they did do to my car last week. Suddenly they're nice. They offer to look at the car that afternoon and to drive me to work.

I accept.

Four hours later, they call me and tell me they're pretty sure it's fixed permanently. I pick it up. It drives better than it has since I got it.

I feel as though seventeen large chimpanzees and one really big ape are suddenly no longer sitting on my shoulders....

unless of course it happens again....

So, when I got to work today, some workmen had been staining or painting or something in the District Manager's office, which is in our store. And the breakroom and back office were full of fumes. And I spent a good half hour in them. Which led to me, the store manager and the other assistant who was there being mighty goofy. And... i showed them my blog.

I know I was high on fumes... eek...

Gee... I usually hate Robin Williams... but I really can't wait to see this movie.

Okey doke... i updated the Archive page now too...

i should also say that I'm not sure about how I feel about suddenly getting deluged with hits because some guy named Ken Layne used me as a
"random site" to illustrate how amusing it might be to confuse journalists... um.... ok... evidently, i'm a proxy for the chief correspondent of the NY Times.

that would be the same James who informed me that my new colors were garish and that the brown really didn't go with the greens... and that maybe I should start watching some gay interior design TV show...

um... no...

thanks to a random IM from James, I adopted a critter to live on my page. His name is Zedd. and he's a marginal little guy...

For the sake of nothing in particular... my recent Google hits:

Belle Sebastian Buffy
Hawkgirl Toys
Fifi Mahoney
All Batman 4-Packs
Shim Sham Club Bartender
New Orleans White Linen Night
Dominican Naked Guys
Marvel Legends Iron Man
Tender Loving Gay Sex
Haysi Fantaysi
Ricardo Pinto
Jon Fluevog
Canteloupe Vodka
Nina Perssons
Brother PC6500

oh... and speaking of the dead Tagboard....

James... it was Gorey...

Dave... who exactly saw my pic?

ok... so i've redesigned everything in an effort to jumpstart my desire to blog.

the Tagboard is gone... i refuse to pay for it... a few links are gone... if people can't be bothered to return my emails, then I can't be bothered to link their pages... and if they're not posting to their page... again, no link...

i'd really started to hate the old design... i like simple... this is simple... it's not as great looking as some other people's recently redesigned blogs... but i can live with this...

currently under renovation....

Apologies to one and all, but i seem to be hopelessly mired in ennui...


just call me Neville...

Oh yeah... and I got an email today from someone who had stumbled onto my blog... and he asked me to email him about possibly writing something for a local publication of some sorts... interesting... very very interesting...

New Orleans is in the midst of summer and how. It's blazing out every day now. The humidity is out to get me, I tells ya.

I've thought more about signs... and I'm still very conflicted about it. I can't tell why without spoiling the movie and I won't do that... grrrr.... I REALLY want to like this movie, but there's this one thing about it that I just unable to... accept. And, believe me, you have no clue what I mean by that...

Tonite was a nice nite. I got off of work and went by the mall. I scored a belt, 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts for about $60. Total. Pants for $12.99... And this is after buying a pair of jeans, 5 shirts, another belt, a canvas bag and 3 pairs of pants for $250 yesterday. Total scores in the clothes department this week.

Then I came home and took Keisha for a nice long walk to the dogpark, where I ran into Tracy & Brian and their adorable son, Iain. I got back just in time to have a friend of mine call and ask if I had been at the mall earlier. Why did he ask this? Because two friends of his saw me at the mall and thought that perhaps I was drewnola from gay.com, so they followed me around for a bit. Evidently they also thought I was nice looking. heh.

Then I did a welcome wagon thing. I went to dinner at Semolina with a guy that I chatted with on gay.com last nite. He's just moved here and doesn't know anyone. I NEVER do things like this, so it was out of character. And it was a nice dinner and nice conversation. And, no babes, it wasn't a date...

A couple months ago, I blogged about how excited I was about the movie, signs. I've also blathered on a bit to a few of my friends about it.

And one of them invited me to go this morning at 10 a.m. to the local press screening of it. So, this morning, three weeks before any of the rest of you, I got to see signs.

It's by the director (who has a difficult name to spell) of Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, so I knew to excite a languid dreamy movie with some twists. And I love those other two movies, so I had high expectations.

And much like I remember feeling after seeing Unbreakable, I'm still processing the film overall. I will say that it has some extremely scary and creepy sequences. Very very spooky.

I won't tell you what it's about. Or how it ends. Or anything else.

It has above caliber acting by everyone involved. All of the actors, including the kids, hit every note in the film just right.

Anyways, more about it when I think it through...

Ok... why I haven't been posting...

because the last week SUCKED!

Last Tuesday, I was blissfully driving to work. And then, while making a perfectly legal U-Turn (something that you have to do constantly while driving in New Orleans... there's no such thing as a left turn here), a Vietnamese teenager whacked into the rear passenger side of my car and threw me out the street into the parking lot of a mall. And there were lots of little concrete barriers on the edge of that mall parking lot. And I went right over all of them.

So, I was physically fine but completely freaked out. The kid stops. I call the police on my cellphone. A witness gives me her phone number. While waitng for the police the kid says to me, "oh... my parents gonna take car now.. this my third accident." It was almost (ALMOST) sort of amusing. (ALMOST... as in not really amusing at all at the time...)

My poor car had the front passenger tire blown completely out and the rim quite mangled. The rear side of my car had lots of crushed impact areas in the metal. And the rear passenger tire wasn't flat but it was pushed in at a strange angle and had part of the leather bib from his car somehow trapped between the tire and the rim.

So, the police come. They ticket the kid. In the meantime, my friend Carlos happens to be passing by and stops when he sees me. And, Denise, my store manager drives over from the store after I call her.

A towtruck takes my car away to some place with the ominous name of Champ's Collision Center.

I go to rent a car later that day and discover that the renewal sticker on the back of my driver's license is missing. No car rental. I get a ride home from my saintly friend, Robert.

The next day Robert kindly takes me to the DMV to fix my license and then to rent a car. But all of this is highly stressing.

So, Thursday begins four days off of work for me. Should've been sweet. I'm feeling a bit better since I have the rental car. And I have a pleasant fourth hanging out with Tom and Brian. We go to the river for the fireworks. And then I go out to the Quarter for a bit with Tom and his friend, Kelly. We dance at the Shim Sham and drink at 735.

Then, Friday, I'm trying to continue to put it all past me. And the call comes around 4 pm. "Mr Zeigler, your car is totalled. We'll cut you a check on Monday. And you have the rental paid thru Wednesday."

Fuck me.... I have 5 days to buy a new car. So, Saturday, I basically carshop from 9 am to 5 pm, covering an area of about 100 miles wide. I finally find a car I like in Denham Springs, a good hour and ten minutes from New Orleans. And they have a rebate going on for $2000 thru Monday.

So, I stop at my parents' house that nite, exhausted and stressed from carshopping all day in a 105 degree heat index. My sister and her family are there. My sister valiantly volunteers to drive to New Orleans on Monday to pick me up so I don't have to deal with getting the rental back to NO after buying a car.

Sunday, I basically sit around and totally stress out all day. And do a lot of research on the Internet.

Monday, I head to work for a 7 am 2 hour mandatory meeting. Then I rush around NO, picking up and deposting the insurance check and getting all my stuff out of and the license plate off my old car. And then I rush back to meet my sister at my store. We head to my parents' again, because my father has to be involved in the haggling.

So, two and a half or so hours later... I'm driving a 2002 Dodge Neon SXT with an EXTREMELY LOUD yellow paint job. It's loaded out with power everything, a sunroof, CD changer, etc... (And if you don't like Neons or think my car sounds cheap and tacky... well, fuck you...)

And I finally feel like a gigantic weight is off my shoulders. Whew.

just as an FYI... i'm still out here... the last week has just been... interesting...

and stressful... and very very busy...

details within the next 24 hours, i promise...

Whoo hoo... I'm currently the first hit you'll get if you search Google for "Redemption Ark".

Anyways...

One of the things I love most about New Orleans is the it's literary pedigree, of sorts. You encounter the city a lit in literature. Authors love it, with good reason.

While Anne R*ce has long been associated with the city, there was another horror author out there writing about the city in much more literate and horrific ways... Poppy Z Brite.

Living in NO and working in a bookstore, as well as being pretty active on the Internet, I'm lucky to have somewhat of a tenuous relationship with her. She shops in my store and we converse a bit there and email infrequently. And she's a genuinely nice person.

She's not published a major novel in years. Several short novels and story collections have appeared from small publishers, but no BIG novel. But, she's finished one. And it's not a horror novel. From what I know of it, it's a New Orleans novel. Other major authors who've read the manuscript, Neil Gaiman for instance, have raved about it. Andre Codrescu (who I personally loathe) called it the best New Orleans novel since Confederacy of Dunces.

And so far, no major publisher has picked it up to publish because it's not a scary vampire novel. But, there's hope. She's got a new agent and I feel confident it's gonna appear on the horizon soon.

Meanwhile, she's publishing a prequel to the novel, The Value of X, through a small press, Subterranean Press. Go here now and download the first 15 pages and see for yourself how good it is.

I'm dying to read the rest of this novel and the other...