The video for Mosh has me reevaluating my feelings about Eminem a bit... although I wish he'd gotten it out there in time to perhaps actually encouraged a few people to have registered to vote when they still could have...

anyways... Fuck Bush indeed...

This is the hottest sexiest sweetest thing I've read in a very long time... (thanks to PJ for the heads up...)

omg... and I got the new STARS album, Set Yourself on Fire, today!

It's FUCKING AMAZING, as I knew it would be. You can order from the Arts & Crafts Store. It's only out in Canada so far... but it's cheap!

I need to write about this past weekend also...

My friend, Kris, had his 40th birthday party this past weekend in Lafayette. Dave (the ex) and I drove over in the midst of the tropical depression to attend. Kris and his significant other, Victor, were incredibly gracious hosts. When I went to print the directions to drive there, I discovered they also contained a confirmation number for a hotel room that they had reserved and prepaid for us, along with a note stating there could be no discussion about the fact the room being paid. (Hah... like I'd argue about that!)

The drive over with Dave was quite nice. He just got back to New Orleans this week after spending a few months travelling, reaquainting himself with the States after his two years in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer. He's thinking of settling back in NOLA for a while and attending nursing school. An idea that I think is fucking fantastic.

So, we got to Lafayette and settled in our rooms just in time for the shuttle to arrive to pick us up. Yep... the shuttle. Victor drove over and picked up those of us who were staying in the hotel.

The party itself was a fucking blast. I really had no idea that I'd be seeing so many faces from my past, friends from 10-20 years ago. There was a lot of hugging and laughing. And there were new friends to make as well.

I was quite happy to drink myself a wee bit silly on Glenlivet and waters, interspersed with a couple of glasses of Veuve Cliquot. Yeah... they had a very nicely stocked bar also.

But... the best part was just hanging out with Kris, Victor, Chad, Buffy, Wende, Dave, Stacey, Jared, Michelle and a couple of other old friends whose names I'm brainfreezing on right this moment. Well... there was another really good part also... a new friend who I met midway through the party who may have monopolized the rest of my evening perhaps (and the greater part of the rest of the weekend...). You're not getting any more info on that... except that I certainly hope to see him again when time permits... and, gee.. um... to mention that maybe they shouldn't have gotten me a hotel room after all, since I didn't sleep in it...

When I arrived home from work today, I had an email from Poppy, asking me if the story she just posted on her website could possibly be true. I immediately doubted that it could be true. So, I did something that couldn't possibly have ever occurred to anyone else to do... I picked up the phone and called all the local B&N stores and asked to check to see if they had the book in stock.

Well, golly gee... of the four stores in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area, two of them had the book in stock. Those two being the larger more urban stores as opposed to the much smaller other two.

And unless I missed a memo about the annexation of New Orleans by New York or California, I'm thinking that this book has evidently been stocked in Barnes & Noble stores outside of those two states.

I'm quite vexed by lefty goths deciding that the Evil Corporation that is B&N is out to get them considering the fact that of late, the right wing fringe-types spend a lot of time obsessing over the fact that we're evidently trying to keep conservative books out of the hands of the public.

Let's review a couple of facts. B&N as a chain is very committed to making any book that you want available to you. Censorship of any type simply isn't part of the culture of the stores. Almost every book published makes it onto our shelves. Do a few slip between the cracks? Sure. Does every book make it into every store? Nope. The larger, two (or more) level stores get a much larger selection than the smaller one level stores.

Shockingly, my store even employs a goth and a couple of near-goths. And every Friday evening, a local group of them meet outside our cafe for coffee (which I'm pretty sure they purchase instead of stealing).

And the idea that a book would not be stocked because it would be stolen is ridiculous. I'm very familiar with shrink numbers for specific departments and trust me, there are entire sections and authors we'd have to remove from our shelves permanently if that were a factor in buying decisions. And I have a very hard time imagining that a buyer for B&N would make such an unprofessional statement to anyone at the publisher. Shame on them if they did. But... I doubt it happened.

Anyways... I hope my incredibly complicated experiment with phoning stores (I know... I know... I'm a little more brilliant than most people...) puts some minds at rest.

The Goth Bible is most certainly available in B&N stores outside of New York and California. As is Unfit for Command...