I just noticed the typo in my last post... "whole." But, I think I like it that way. Right now, I have a big hole... but I think after I sleep a bit, I'm gonna feel more like there's more "whole" in my life...

I'm dying to write about my weekend, but I'm too physically and emotionally drained right now to even attempt to do so. Saints & Sinners was an absolute fucking blast. I had more fun in the past three days than I've probably had in the last 5 years. I met several dozen of the most incredibly generous, talented, witty, sexy beautiful people over those days and I feel like there's a big whole in my life now that they're gone. And no less than three of them stole a little bit of my heart.

But, I need sleep now or I'm going to start crying again... which I've done several times tonight...

Expect many more details and a few pictures in a couple of days when I'm a little more together.

This weekend, I'm going to be the token bookseller at Saints and Sinners, a GLBT alternative literary festival in the French Quarter. It should be an interesting time. I'm going to get to meet a broad spectrum of writers. And I'm somewhat terrified, because it's my first year doing this and it's very hard to try to predict what people are going to want to buy and in what quantity. Inevitably, I'm going to run out of some author's books and they're not going to be happy with me. *sigh* Hopefully, they'll remember that this is all a benefit for NO/Aids and that I'm doing my best and that I've worked my ass off putting my part of it together.

On the other hand, I'm much looking forward to meeting a lot of the authors. I do love me some book-people.

I know I'm being very one track minded here, but how can you not just adore Loretta Lynn after you read this article?

Van Lear Rose is out today, guys... and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's Loretta Lynn produced by Jack White. And it's gonna be one of the best albums you'll hear this year, I promise.

I'm given to hyperbole when I like something. I know this about myself.

But... I just finished what will undoubtedly be the best book I will have read at the end of this year. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason has completely blown me away. Imagine if Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code had a bit more of the style and intelligence of Donna Tartt or Umberto Eco. I've mentioned before that I love literary thrillers that center around mysteries concealed in books or works of art and this book is a masterpiece of this subgenre. But, the authors remember that a great mystery is well served by two things these types of books often lack - great characters and a satisfying ending. And, boy, does this book deliver in both of these areas.

I'm not much on relating plot, so if you want to know a bit more, you can follow the link to the two reviews on the B&N page. What you need to know from me is that I adore this book. I think it has huge potential and I'm going to be handselling the hell out of it to people this year. And right now, I'm floating around on one of those "book highs" that are oh so rare...

Oh... and I'm booked for New York... May 21st through 25th... who's buying me a drink?

Reason #417 that I love New Orleans...

I was just giving my dog a bath in the backyard when suddenly I heard a jazz band getting louder by the moment. I ran to the front of my house, just in time to join most of my neighbors at the street, to find a jazz band and a procession of people dancing in the street past my house to it. Think Jazz Funeral, but not so... um... dead peoply...

Shit like that makes me seriously happy...

I got the coolest fucking present in the mail today from my beloved ex, Dave... a t-shirt with the symbol for el Chapulan Colorado on it!!! Straight from the Republica Dominica! And the tag says the shirt was "Hecho en Colombia"... hee...

If you love the Bumblebee Guy on The Simpsons... well, this is the real stuff...

BWAH HAH HAH!!! omg... i love me some Mark....

Ok, people... i need votes... i'm planning a May vacation and I really wanna go to New York City, mainly so I can shop at H&M, but I'm not too sure how much I'm gonna like the city, cuz I've never been. I also really wanna visit all of my friends in San Francisco, a city that I know I love...

so...

am I crazy to think that I can fit both of them into a vacation?? Say, a day flying... three days in NYC... another day for flying... and four or so days in SF, before flying home?

Input please...

OMG, y'all... Prince is good again. Newflux has the track "Cinnamon Girl" off of his new album, Musicology, posted and it's gooood. While, you're there, get the Tiga track too... it's some fierce dancefloor filler...

Ok... I added a nifty translation thingie over on the side there... and soon, I promise to blog...

Ah.. I've been forgetting... I need to thank Jonno and Richard for their perfect birthday present of A Mighty Wind.

As for the rest of you... Wha' Happened??? :P

So... this summer, I will get my official gay card... I'll be seeing Madonna on her just announced tour... I was already planning a San Francisco vacation and it looks like she's gonna be there about the same time... and one of my best friends is a member of her fanclub and can get us presale tickets... so...

How incredibly lame... emoboy05 has been stealing an image from my friend PJ's site. He probably just learned an important lesson tho... if you're gonna steal an image, you don't wanna link it from the other person's server... cuz... he just might replace the image with hardcore gay porn...

It's nice that a self professed Xian whose likes include "going to church and praising the almighty one, and being the one who cares" has no problem with stealing someone else's bandwidth. I'm sure all of his little emo Xian friends are enjoying their new education into watersports images tho....

My dear friends at Running With Scissors have a new play starting tonight here in New Orleans. Everything they've done has been belly-achin' funny, so I'm sure that this won't be an exception.

U.S. cuts may limit local HIV services. Yet another reason to make sure that you get off your ass this year and do everything you can to remove Bush and his evil people from office this year...

Oh my... you simply MUST watch WONDERFALLS, Friday nights on Fox... last night's premiere was one of the funniest oddest shows I've seen in a really long time...

I expect Happy Birthday emails in my inbox today...

Jason West, the Mayor of New Paltz, NY was
charged with 19 criminal counts earlier this week for marrying gay couples. If you want want to support him, head over to origin comics and make a donation of five bucks or more. The site is run by Damon Hurd, a straight comic book writer who's a resident of New Paltz. He'll even give you one of his comics for making a donation.

Ok... to try to get you Poppy people to come back again... the moment in a Poppy story that relates to me is in "A Season in Heck", which is in The Devil You Know. Here's what actually happened to me the first time I drank absinthe. A character in the story related a similar instance in his past...

Yikes... a big welcome to the sudden influx of visitors that have suddenly appeared at my doorstep on their way out of Poppy's journal...

Dig through my archives... there's a good story or two in there somewhere...

And, if you're cute and gay, I'm single! Drop me a line... or buy me a birthday present from my Wish List... cuz my birthday's Tuesday. *wink*

Ok... so I can tell now... my cool invitation was to go to dinner at my favorite New Orleans restaurant, Marisol, with Poppy Z, another friend of hers and a writer for Entertainment Weekly, who was in town doing an article on her for an upcoming issue. I've been dying to eat there recently, but I've been way too broke, so the invitation to dine on someone else's expense account was splendid.

I was a bit nervous going into the dinner, cuz I'm not generally big on social situations where I don't know people very well and I was going to be dining with two people I didn't know and another who I've had a very casual friendship with (more on that in a bit). But, it turned out great. Poppy did an excellent job of putting together a good party for conversation. Troy, the reporter, was a handsome shy intellectual New Yorker and he reports on books, so we had ready built conversation. And Laura, Poppy's other friend, was a quintessential New Orleans girl who I loved from the second I met her.

So, dinner basically rocked along. We all ate rather hedonistic fare... well, I did anyway... You can read what everyone had over at Poppy's journal. My meal consisted of foie gras en bocal for an appetizer and sesame crusted hebi on red cooked porkbelly and haricots vert (sp?) with a citrus sauce. Poppy blogged that it was a soy-sesame sauce... but I'm pretty sure I remember it being citrus... The foie gras was insanely decadent, flavored with black truffles and cognac, with coarse sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. We also were served oysters on the half shell, but I don't remember exactly what was special about them... but they were quite special.. oh yeah... and the amuse bouche had really yummy caviar in it...

After dinner, we headed down the street to the Spotted Cat for a while for more drinks and jazz. It was just the right amount of crowded with a pretty eclectic crowd. One of my favorite parts of the night was a brief conversation I had with an elderly gent who turned out to be the former curator of the Jazz Museum. Poppy and Troy headed out after a bit, due to his early flight today, but Laura and I stayed and yakked it up for quite a bit. We totally bonded and discovered we knew a couple of people in common. She owns a groovy little shop in the Quarter called Little Shop of Fantasy that sells masks and such.

Anyways, I'm totally indebted to Poppy for a great nite. And a nice upshot from the evening is that I'm finally comfortable referring to her as my friend. I've known her to varying degrees for several years now and it's been a strange progression from fan to internet interaction to a professional relationship. We've communicated and run into each other for quite a while. A moment from my life turned into a minor event in one of her short stories. She gave me her phone number a couple of years ago. She let me read her new novel months before it was published. But, when her name has come up and anyone has asked me, "oh... you're friends with her?", I've always replied, "well, um... sort of."

Fame is an odd beast. I can't quite imagine what it must be to have it. But it sure must complicate things sometimes.

Anyways, I think last nite I finally passed a point where I don't think of this adorable goofy little woman as "Poppy Z. Brite" anymore... now she's Poppy. And yes, damn it, she's my friend. Also, she doesn't know it yet, but Laura and I have plotted more nights of drinking with her in the near future...

Ugh... I'm so weirded out about posting this on some level even... that 'fame' thing...

Well, this was a shock. I downloaded the first episode of Kingdom Hospital and just started watching it. I dunno if it's gonna be good or not, but they get HUGE points for using Ivy for their theme...

I've been having a complete nervous breakdown the last couple of days because I haven't been able to access Suprnova.org to download new torrents. I am SUCH a geek, b/c downloading is how I watch tv now.

Anyways, I browsed their forums this morning and discovered that the site has moved to a new IP address and the DNS hasn't updated yet. (God... I am a geek...) So, if like me, you're hungry for new torrents... use SuprNova.org to get them...

HURRAH!

I'll admit that I never thought much of Firefly, when it originally aired on Fox. But, that was mainly because the network stupidly interfered with the show's creators and showed the episodes out of order. Based on my faith on Joss Whedon's other work, I picked up the DVD set right after Christmas and I found a much more complex show than I expected.

The idea of a western in space isn't new and sounds a little odd, but when you think about it, the early years of space colonization will probably very much be like the old West. It will after all be a new frontier.

Anyways, the rumors have been flying for a while and now's it definite! There's gonna be a movie.

Behold the power of the DVD set. Firefly gets a movie. Family Guy gets new life. Life is good.

I never blogged Mardi Gras... um, ok...

Drinking
Drugs
Sex
Parades
Parties
Sex
Jason from L.A.
Jonno
More Parades
Lorna, my upstairs neighbor
did i mention Sex?
More drinking...
Ex-Sex

Speaking of books... Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton is out in the US tomorrow! I haven't read it yet, never got around to buying the UK version, but the reviews on it have been splendidly positive. I firmly utterly totally completely believe current space opera is best currently written by Brits. I expect this book to further make my case.

Shit... which means I need to get to reading on Codex...

I'm a little over 50 pages into Codex by Lev Grossman and I'm quite involved. There's a certain type of book that's few and far between... literary thrillers involving arcane texts, mysterious messengers and an immersion into diabolical goings-on that spin the main characters down mad pathways.

Past examples would be Eight by Katherine Neville, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Dan Brown attempts to write these types of books, but despite his best efforts and recent popularity, doesn't quite succeed.

Anyways, I'm really digging Codex so far. I'll let ya know how it turns out...

wait... when did craigslist come to New Orleans???

I don't believe in censorship. But I talk about my love of Science Fiction literature on here every once in a while. I've never been a fan of Orson Scott Card's books myself, but I know a lot of people who are. Huge fans even. So, tonite, while reading Poppy's journal I came across her reaction to this hateful piece of shit written by him.

Please... don't ever ever ever buy anything by this hateful bigoted son of a bitch. If you own his books, tear them into little pieces and throw them out, or better yet, find out an address for him and mail the pieces back to him. And be sure to let any friend of yours who is a possible reader of his know where Mr Card's feelings lay. No gay scifi fan should ever unsuspectingly spend one penny of their money to support him, nor should any of their friends.

(And yeah, I know that I'm reacting exactly like he says "we" will...)

I just got home from work and found the craziest coolest invitation in my email. I don't wanna jinx it by talking about it yet. But... I'll be blogging about it either late next Friday or sometime Saturday, assuming it happens...

It involves Liquor, food, pop culture and literature... that's all I'm saying...

I've gone on record before for my hatred of our current political 'regime' in the US. I know friends of mine want me to get angry and rant on here about it some more. But more than angry, I'm sometimes more exhausted and scared and disappointed.

How can a society that's supposed to be so enlightened and mature accept the venom and hatred that our President and other leaders spew in supposed support of 'family values'? It's hate and fear. Pure and simple. They hate me because I'm not like them. They hate me because they don't understand me and they don't want to even try to understand me. So, it's easier to marginalize my exist. To rationalize that what I deserve aren't equal rights. That the simple everyday assurances that everyone should have and that only heterosexuals have when it comes to just about any basic right associated with a relationship aren't rights, they're special privileges.

Our spiritual leaders are right there in line with our political leaders. Somehow, they think the best way to teach the young of our land morals and values is to espouse hatred towards those who are differrent.

And the most upsetting thing to me is that I know my neighbors, people I work with, members of my own family and people I smile at as I pass on the street every day all think the same way. And a lot of them would probably lie to my face about how they actually feel.

It's been a long time since I've been in a long term committed relationship, but I like to think it's possible that it'll happen again. And I'd like to know that if it does, the LOVE that I share with someone is equal in every way to the love that anyone else in this country shares with whoever they choose to love.

Equal, not separate. Equal, as in exactly the same as any great love. Not separate. Not different. Equal. It's about love, you idiots. Stop with the hate already. Just stop...

He's sent me emails saying that everything is fine where he is in the Dominican Republic, but I worry about Dave (ex-boyfriend, bestest friend) because of the current situation in Haiti...

OH MY SWEET BEJIGGLING JESUS... i MUST have this!

Krypto is the BOMB. There is nothing on the planet cooler than Superman's faithful canine sidekick, Krypto. This is fact. Don't even think of arguing the point with me...

You can read Chapter One of Poppy Z. Brite's forthcoming novel, LIQUOR, here...

ok.. i haven't done one of these in a while, but I really liked the result...


Which Famous Homosexual are you?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

VIVE la Fete!

Long live the party indeed! My tunes angel, Walter, introduced me to Vive La Fete earlier tonite and I've been grooving in a total fag-out dance mode all nite... Thank you, Belgium!

YAY! I just found a post from January on (estheronline) saying Esthero has finally finished recording a new album... I have thoroughly worn out the first one over the last couple of years...

so, last nite, i got paged to the Info desk at my store and found my ex (the recent one) waiting for me... i helped him pick out a couple of books... and picked him up after work for drinks...

*sigh* i'm so not over him...

and, c'mon.. how much do we adore that picture of me off to your left right now?

so... how much do we love this picture of The Knife accepting their Swedish Grammy for Best Pop Group?

If you're not hip to THE BEST BAND OUT THERE RIGHT NOW, go here now and listen to some samples...

Since my birthday (3/9) is less than a month away... I went ahead and updated my Wish Lists.... you know, just in case...

Oh baby... me wants this phone!

more music...

Deepest Blue - Give it Away

ok... i know this song is completely clubby and completely cheesy... but I LOVE it. Their first single Deepest Blue is just starting to play in the clubs here in NOLA and I love it too, but I'm totally crazy about the new one. It's just good ole basic vocal house music with male vocals. I dunno.. they just make me happy...

Lene Marlin - Another Day

Lene Marlin is a 23 year old Norwegian goddess who should be an American superstar. Another Day is one of my favorite albums of late last year. If, like me, you were waiting patiently for Sarah McLachlan to put out her long delayed album last year only to discover that she'd been laboring over a boring piece of crap... well, Lene Marlin is the cure for your disappointment. The album is a great companion to the Air and Zero 7 albums I mentioned earlier, though it's much more pop... strong songwriting by the artist herself, lovely vocals, great music.

again, more later....

wow...

I haven't mentioned music (or much else) on here lately, so... here's what I've been grooving to lately...

Zoot Woman - Zoot Woman
my buddy, PJ does a pretty good job of describing why this is a good album in the review he wrote for Pitchfork...

Britney Spears - Toxic
c'mon... you know you like it... with it's Spaghetti Western strings and bumping beat, this is possibly the best song Britney's ever done and is about five kabillion times better than that horrid duet with Madonna... the remixes have just leaked out and the best one by far is the Bloodshy & Avant Intoxicated Mix, which really doesn't change a lot about the song... the worst is by Felix da Housecat... after a couple of other recent mediocre mixes, i'm actually beginning to wonder if he's lost the magic touch... I guess we'll see when his new studio album is out later this year...

Zero 7 - When it Falls
one of the two most anticipated albums of early 2004 for me... it's fucking brilliant, every bit as good as Simple Things... the first single, Home, is probably the stand out track, it's not quite as brilliant as Destiny from the first one, but it's still amazing... absolutely essential late nite listening... along with...

Air - Talkie Walkie
i was lucky enough to score this album well over a month before it came out, and it's a must buy CD... Moon Safari was THE album of 1998, unfortunately while the song Playground Love from the Virgin Suicides soundtrack was equally stunning, nothing else the group has done since Moon Safari has had quite the same elegant beauty about it... but they've reversed a bit and gone back to find the magic that was missing... this album will be firmly lodged in a lot of top 10 lists at the end of this year, including mine...

Blondie - Good Boys
I know this song has been out in the UK for a while, but I just heard it in a bar a couple of weeks ago and it caught my attention, making me turn to watch the video screen... "really good video with a charismatic singer", I thought... i was a bit shocked to see the credits at the end of it... wow... Debbie Harry's not fat any more!... anyways, damned catchy song... who'da thunk it?

DFA
anything and everything that the Death From Above production team touches is blazingly brilliant... LCD Soundsytem's Yeah is tearing up my iPod on a daily basis... their remixes of Chromeo, Le Tigre, Fischerspooner, Floetry, Metro Area, Radio 4, Junior Senior and even Mariah Fucking Carey have all been the absolute bomb... they seriously have the funk....

more later.... i'm tired of typing html....

I don't really go out looking for new blogs to read much anymore, but I followed a link that led me to towleroad. And I'm totally smitten...

There's nothing sexier than a smart guy with impeccable taste in music.

Ladies and gentlemen, Anne Rice is leaving the building...

*yawn*

STAYING POWER...

I haven't felt inspired to blog anything about my life, but I figured I could at least clean up my links on the side this morning. I'd noticed a few days ago that several of the blogs I linked were dead. So... I decided to zap them. The biggest decision was whether or not to delete a really good friend's blog since he hasn't blogged for over 2 months. And then I noticed I hadn't linked Michael aka Dogpoet, so I added him.

Then I went on over and caught up on his always thoughtful musings. And at the end of the first page, I ran into this post.

So... um, I guess Jonno shouldn't be too mad at me for deleting his link, huh?

This is what happens when I get bored...

I actually shed a tear this morning when I read that Anita Mui had died. Heroic Trio is one of my favorite movies of all time. *sigh* I have nothing more to say...

I find this intriguing...

Oh geez... oh my.... oh god... I just watched THAT episode of Alias Season 2... if you've seen it, you know the one i'm talking about...

It aired after the Superbowl last year... the one where EVERYTHING changed... the one that just rocked my world.

GOD... how the hell have I not been watching this show first run????

If anyone wants to get me a relatively overpriced Christmas present that would make me love you forever and ever then head on over to eBay and make a bid...

I got an early Christmas present last night. My favorite band ever is Saint Etienne and they just played a couple of UK shows.

No, I didn't fly to London to see them in concert... i wish... but, they gave out cds at the show of three new Christmas songs. And thanks to the magic of the internet, I've got them now.

Lovely...

My friend Richard has suggested that we should all vote on this MarriagePoll.com in order to skew their intentionally skewed poll.

Go ye therefore...

I was just looking at my referral links and followed one back itno my archives and got a good laugh when I read this old post of mine...

I was excited because I had 3 gb of music on my harddrive...

Bwah ha ha...

Geez, I wish I could afford a 40gb iPod to replace my 30gb...

I don't have much time in my life to watch weekly TV shows, so the advent of TV on DVD has been, IMO, one of the greatest things to occur so far in the 21st Century.

The only reason that I've gotten to see 24, Sex in the City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Alias is because they were released on DVD. Sure, I'm usually a season or two behind, but most of these shows are a hell of a lot more fun to watch in chunks of several hours. I also get to rewatch all of my favorite episodes of Angel and Buffy whenever I want, which is pretty nifty.

Currently, I'm on Episode 3 of Season 2 of Alias. Jesus Christ, I love that show! I'm renting the discs one by one. So, um... if anyone wants to simplify my life a bit by buying me a Christmas present... the box set is the first item on my Wish List.

I'm just saying, that's all....

Suspect Device by Greg Peters is absolutely brilliant this week. This whole episode really pisses me off, but I'm glad the mother has taken such a proactive reaction to the situation. I am rather annoyed that once more the world gets to see Louisianans acting like a bunch of backwoods hicks again though...

I mean, c'mon... isn't California the state we're supposed to be making fun of these days...

I have a little red monkey that lives on the top of my iMac's flatscreen. The other nite he fell off and into the drink I was having while surfing. I wrote a haiku about it...

Tiny red monkey
from flatscreen to cocktail glass.
Happy drunk monkey.

Well, I saw Return of the King this morning... the fastest three hours I've ever spent in my life.

I'm not gonna spoil one thing, but the consensus among everyone I saw it with was that it's everything you want it to be. And I may see it again next Wednesday...

Air... Talkie Walkie...

THERE'S A NEW AIR ALBUM COMING!!!!

and if you liked Moon Safari, you're gonna be oh so happy...

Life is good... I've scored not one, but two, separate passes to see Return of the King two separate times before it opens...

The first is next Wednesday. I'll let ya know how fabulous it is...

HELLBOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trailer is up, yo!

Sturtle started my day off with a nice laugh today...

OMG...
it's finally out!!!!

I know what I'm gonna be reading early next week as soon as it wings it's way across the ocean to me...

Ok... here's the music I'm digging lately...

April March "Triggers"
Aqualung "Still Life"
Basement Jaxx "Kish Kash"
Belle & Sebastian "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
Ellen Allien "Berlinette"
Fluke "Puppy"
Freeland "Now and Then"
Guther "I Know You"
Jet "Get Born"
Kylie Minogue "Body Language"
Lamb "Between Darkness and Wonder"
Lene Marlin "Another Day"
LFO "Sheath"
Ms John Soda "While Talking"
my favorite "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and the remix album
Primal Scream "Dirty Hits" and the remix album :)
Richard X "Presents His X-Factor"
Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Shoot From the Hip"
Soviet "We are Eyes, We are Builders"
Stars "Heart"
Suede "Singles"
Zoot Woman "Useless Anyway"

Jesus Christ... when you haven't blogged in quite a while, it's really difficult to decide what you should blog about...

um... i bought a new phone this week... now if i could just figure out how to use the wireless internet features on it...

and, Thursday nite, I met another New Orleans blogger irl... the guy has some damned sexy arms... and he never seems to stop smiling... but that was probably cuz he was talking to me, right?

oh yeah... i pretty much got my heart stomped on by my now ex-boyfriend who I never told you much about... we'll get to that at some point...

WOW! Way to fucking go, Mr Gaiman! A comic book just made the New York Times bestseller lists!

Awwww... Rush Limbaugh is not having a very good day today...

I hate what our country has happened to our country in the last three years. Our current president has turned a huge budget surplus into what will soon be the largest deficit in the history of our country. He's decimated the fourth amendment. He's turned our government over to big business. He's destroyed our economy, but managed to make the wealthy even wealthier. He's gotten us into a war (and be sure it's not the last one he plans to wage) that has the rest of the world looking at us like we've gone insane. And he lies and lies and lies and we let him get away with it because we never get angry enough to rise up and stop him.

I'm not exaggerating any of this. Do some research. Use Google. Read Big Lies, The Great Unraveling, Lies... and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Bushwhacked, Shrub, Dude, Where's My Country?, and/or Thieves in High Places. Get pissed off. Our country is being run by a president who stole an election. He absolutely does not have your best interests at heart. He is THE MAN.

Until recently, I assumed that we were going to have to suffer through another four years of his presidency, because I didn't really think the Democrats would come up with a viable candidate to challenge him in 2004. I was wrong.

I first heard about General Wesley Clark a few weeks ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention. Then I read an advance copy of Michael Moore's book, Dude, Where's My Country. In the last chapter, Moore makes a powerful argument that Clark is the man who can beat Bush. Now, I tend to think that Michael Moore is a bit of a fruitcake. I love his unabashedly liberal views, but I sometimes question the way he makes his arguments. However, he layed out Clark's views on a series of issues and it demanded my attention. Then I went online and researched Clark some more.

I'm damned excited. Clark is a candidate I can and will be extremely proud to cast my vote for next October. He's pro-choice and doesn't waffle in saying so. He's against the Patriot Act II (remember when I was talking about the fourth amendment? this is what destroyed it). He's for gun control. He's for affirmative action. He's against the war (and he's a four star general). He already has a plan for bringing some economic sanity back to our government. He's pro-enviroment. He has a vision for our country that get me damned excited. He's reclaiming the concept of patriotism from the radical right. And hey... he let a blogger interview him.

Anyways, don't take my word for any of this. Get on the Web and do some research. But, I seriously think that Clark is our best chance to beat Bush in 2004. And I think he can. And, most importantly, I think he could be a truly great president.

So, do some research, and if you agree with me, get involved. It's not too early.

And if you're in Louisiana, for god's sake, go next week and vote against Bobby Jindall for governor!

I'm one of the assistant managers mentioned in this journal posting by Neil Gaiman. What sort of scares me is that when my manager asked him to sign the book, he said something to the effect of "Drew in New Orleans? Oh, he'll want it inscribed. He's on my webpage all the time." Eek. How the hell does Neil Gaiman know who I am?

I swear to god I never threatened to stab my manager though... well.. maybe I did...

Big huggies to Jonno for finding and fixing the problem with my blog template. I swear to god i didn't do anything to it... it just decided one day to rearrange itself...

grrr...

It's Labor Day and Southern Decadence has come and gone once more. The protesters were barely a blip in the weekend. The police did a really amazing job of controlling them all weekend and their numbers were far less than they had said they would be.

And as of yesterday, it seems i'm officially dating someone... we were evidently damned cute leaning against a St Ann street midday yesterday. All of our friends were giving us knowing grins and we noticed one guy stopped across the street to photograph us.

Anyway... more on this later... trust that for now, it's very good though...

I feel that I should point out that item #66 on my Amazon Wishlist is currently on sale for $5.29.

The Hotshot is the utterly adorable boyfriend of my utterly adorable friend Clee out in San Francisco. I hate them both for being such an utterly adorable couple.

Ok... I probably actually love them to death...

Anyways, I'm adding him to my bloggy links.

ok... i added comments back in... if no one uses them... they go away soon...

I've noticed something that creeps me out. Every once in a while, my number of friends on Friendster drops.

So.... um, have I become unfriendworthy? Or did they just quit Friendster? And the sad thing is that I can never figure out who's disappeared...

I added new links over on the side to Poppy and Jeff's blogs/journals. And I edited the little pop up box thingie for Mark's. Not that the little pop up thingies work very well when you're using Safari to surf... fix that, Apple!

I stayed home from work feeling sort of icky today... and i'm bored... so... i'm playing with the colors on here today... i'm sick of the brown background and blue links...

One of my favorite New Orleanians and friends/acquaintances has started a livejournal called Dispatches from Tanganyika. We share titles inspired by John Kennedy Toole... although, mine is actually more inspired by his mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole.

and Rev Grant Storm can go get royally fucked...

I'm ready to rumble... c'mon you, Christian motherfuckers...

The Catholic Church can go fuck itself. I guess Archbishop Hughes is a lot more concerned with preventing gay people from having fun than he ever was about stopping priests in Boston from fucking little boys...

Geez... between Jonno and Poppy, i'm on my way to a new one day record for hits on my page...

now, um... stick around and read more than just the first page... and drop me an email or something and tell me how cute i am...

Goddammit, Jonno... give me some advance warning when I'm gonna get a mention, so I can actually have something halfway decently new written here...

And I suppose you're gonna be wanting me to find the new Belle & Sebastian for you next...

I just finished reading Ilium by Dan Simmons. 592 pages in less than 3 days, and I worked eight hours a day each of those days. Think I liked it much?

This book is the fucking bomb. Dan Simmons is the fucking bomb.

Simmons is a really interesting author. He writes science fiction. He writes mysteries. He writes horror novels. He writes noir thrillers. He writes fantasy. In 1986, he won the World Fantasy Award for his first novel, Song of Kali, beating out The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice and Clive Barker's first novel, The Damnation Game. In 1990, he won the British Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award for his pretty fucking amazing pseudo-vampire novel, Carrion Comfort. That same year, he won the Hugo for his first science fiction novel, Hyperion.

Hyperion was the first book in a series of four novels known as the Hyperion Cantos. And they're some of the best science fiction novels ever written, especially the first two books. When I first read them, they grabbed hold of my imagination and made me realize that I could really love science fiction novels. They were full of big bold ideas but the tales were told through brilliantly crafted characters. And the whole thing was set up against a background that required you to have at least a bit of knowledge of literature to see the whole story. Keats and Chaucer echoed through the stories.

Simmons has been off writing in other genres for a few years now, but he's back to science fiction big time and he's totally on his game. ILIUM is crazy good.

Imagine a far future solar system. The moons of Jupiter are colonized by 'moravecs', organic robots who spend their downtime debating Proust and Shakespeare. Earth is home to only a few hundred thousand 'post technological' humans, who live carefree spoiled lives, but they have no knowledge of technology or literature or simple common sense anymore. And they're going to need all of that soon.

Meanwhile, the 'post humans' have disappeared. They may be on Mars. Something's on Mars. The Greek Gods are on Mars. A twentieth century scholar has found himself resurrected in this future to observe the Iliad being reenacted, or possibly unfolded for the first time... on Mars. There are also Little Green Men on Mars, who spend their lives building giant stone heads.

The Internet has grown and been modified and mutated and is a living entity. The Earth's biosphere is alive. Gods walk the Earth. Gods walk Mars. Time is being manipulated. Other worlds may be intersecting with this one.

Is your head exploding yet?

Reading this book was like shooting heroin. Buy it. Read it.

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for OLYMPOS, the sequel due out next year.

But soon, I'll have ABSOLUTION GAP to tide me over in the meantime...

I just stumbled across a blog by a guy I've seen around New Orleans, and it seems like he's got an attractive brain in his head, so I added a link to it...

I was pleasantly surprised to find this in this morning's Times Picayune here in New Orleans.

Who says the South is behind the times? Not that New Orleans is really part of the South...

grrr... Jonno says I have to blog this...

So... I went to dinner tonight with this boy who I may or may not have a crush on. Afterwards, we stopped by my apartment and for some reason we decide to watch the J-Lo episode of South Park on my computer.

I start to look for the file and realize that I don't necessarily want him to see the porn files I have on my computer. So, I remember the episode is called "Fat Head" and something. I search my harddrive for the word "fat" to find it, thinking it'll be a bit safer that way.

And what is the first thing that pops up as a search result? "Big Fat Cock Piss in Mouth.mpg."

*sigh* I need to delete some files from my computer...

Gee... is it just me? Or is my blog a halfway decent read again?

Poppy Z. Brite was one of the bright lights of the horror fiction genre back in the early to mid 1990s. Her first novel, LOST SOULS was a neogothic decadent tale of vampires set mainly in New Orleans. It was soaked in liquor and blood, dripping with a an exorbitant excess of lush adjectives and descriptive imagery. The characters were big and bold and demanded your attention. The author herself describes it as purple prose.

But, it worked. Boy, did it work. It earned her a somewhat rabid following that she has to this day. At the time when it came out, I thought that I had embraced this book with a passion. With time, I discovered that there were other people out there who felt their lives had been changed by this book. At the heart of the novel was Nothing, a young teen who felt he was always outside of what was normal. Over the course of the novel he discovers a dark corner of the world where he belongs for the first time. And how many teenagers couldn't relate to this?

I recently met and sort of briefly almost dated a 19 year old gay scenester who had just moved to New Orleans. I actually met him in a bar on his first night in the city. I spotted him across the bar at Good Friends and was compelled to cross the bar and find out the story behind this tall thin rail of a boy with his skinny tie and big dark smudges of eyeliner. On our second date, conversation turned to literature. When I asked if he had read Poppy, he sort of mumbled and said, "Yeah, but I can't talk about her." I, of course, pressed onward and he responded that LOST SOULS was a novel that he had loved so much for so long that it sort of embarrassed him. It had been his manifesto of sorts, a guiding force in his life.

A year later came DRAWING BLOOD. It was on the surface a tale of a haunted house but underneath a surprisingly compelling gay love story was what drew most of my attention. DRAWING BLOOD was made up of bits of the subculture of the times... underground comics and computer hacking for the most part, and again it was dark and lush imagery that dominated. The thing that stood out about this novel in contrast to LOST SOULS to me was that I cared about the characters. In LOST SOULS, I found the characters fascinating, but ultimately unlikeable. I might want to be them, but I wouldn't want to know them. Zach and Trevor were characters that spoke a bit more to my heart. I wanted them to succeed, I wanted them to be together.

Three years passed before we saw the next novel from Poppy. EXQUISITE CORPSE marked a big step forward for her. Still decadent and perhaps darker than anything she'd written before, this novel brought us an author who was growing into a more literate style. Set once more fully in New Orleans, it told of the passionate coming together of two serial killers. But it was also the story a young Vietnamese teen who may become their next victim and his former lover, an angry writer living with AIDS. It was an explosive dynamic in-your-face novel that seduced you with the beauty of dissected corpses. But it also explored the inner worlds driving all of these characters.

I thought it was big and bold and brilliant. Unfortunately, her publisher didn't agree with me. They refused to publish the novel. It was too much for them, despite the fact that they were a 'horror' publisher. Her UK publisher followed shortly behind, saying that the main characters were too 'admirable.' Other, more forward thinking, publishers stepped in and saved the day.

Next came a biography of Courtney Love. Yeah, that's right... a biography of Courtney Love. I think Poppy had some fun and made bank from this venture. I've never read it though, despite being fans of both of them.

Next came a novel set in the world of the movie, THE CROW. It was called THE LAZARUS HEART. I loathe this movie. Always have. Always will. So, I didn't purchase or read this novel when it came out. The fact that I liked Poppy's work couldn't outweigh my utter contempt for the movie. So, I skipped it.

Well, a couple of years later, I was looking for something to read and I thought, "oh hell.. I'll give it a try." Imagine my surprise to discover that I LOVED this book. Set once more in, you guessed it, New Orleans, the book simply used the background idea of THE CROW film as a backbone for it's story. It was far superior to the movie (and, IMO, the comic book).

THE LAZARUS HEART was a terribly tragic story with some of the most memorable characters that Poppy had ever put into a novel. Once more, the city of New Orleans itself was a character, dark lush gothic and oozing with excess. It's a far better novel than the franchise it's a part of would ever allow you to believe possible.

A couple of years later came a novella, PLASTIC JESUS. Imagine... a world where John Lennon and Paul McCartney were lovers instead of just bandmates. I'm not particularly fond of the Beatles. So, I found that I wasn't particularly fond of this story.

Another short novel appeared this past year, THE VALUE OF X. Something had changed. Everything had changed. The main characters are Gary and Rickey. Teenage residents of New Orleans. But, now the settings have changed. Instead of a gothic decadent French Quarter, the story is set mainly in the lower Ninth Ward of the city. There's not a drop of eyeliner or an all black wardrobe in sight. The streets are tough, the dialogue true to the distinctive 'yat' dialect spoken on them. The characters are two best friends who are beginning to realize the depths of their love for one another while also discovering the passion that will guide their life... food.

It's an ever so sweet, but never cloyingly so, story about real life... about discovering your place in the world. Instead of the fevered rush her earlier novels gave me, this book made my heart ache. I fell in love with these two boys, but also with their families, the streets they roamed and their city. It's the truest depiction of the real New Orleans that Poppy had written up to this point.

Except that's not quite true. THE VALUE OF X is a prequel to another longer novel called LIQUOR. Poppy wrote LIQUOR before she wrote TVOX.

So, where is this novel called LIQUOR? It hasn't been published yet.

PLASTIC JESUS and TVOX were published by Subterranean Press. A small press as opposed to one of the major publishers. That means they were sold at a higher price and printed in smaller numbers. Poppy didn't want LIQUOR to be a small press book. It's her next big book. And she finished it over 2 years ago.

So, again, where is it?

Well, the stupid publishers wouldn't buy it at first. She's a horror novelist, they said. This isn't a horror novel, they said.

Well, finally Three Rivers Press came along and had the good sense to purchase it. So, here's LIQUOR, coming to a bookstore near you in March 2004.

Well, I just happen to be a bookstore manager in New Orleans. And Poppy just happens to be a regular customer of mine. So, guess what I've already had the opportunity to read?

Only one of the best novels ever written about the city of New Orleans. Gary and Rickey have grown up... mostly. Gary is now G-Man, a nickname he earned working in the kitchens of New Orleans restaurants. They now live in uptown New Orleans and LIQUOR is the story of how they come to open their own restaurant.

The characters are the most realistic portrayals of New Orleanians in a novel since CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. The dialogue is spot on. And New Orleans is, simply, New Orleans... a city of eccentricities and a city in a full on love affair with food and liquor.

Gone completely is the early sensual 'purple prose', replaced with a lean stripped down style of writing that exposes us to a new sensuality. Poppy no longer needs to romanticize the city of New Orleans through adjectives. She's found a better way. The exotic nature of New Orleans is layed out to us this time through the characters, through both their passions and their simplicities.

And the food... oh, the food... There's probably no other city in this country who worships food more than we New Orleanians. And every note regarding this love affair in the book rings completely true. It's not just about the wonderful descriptions of dish after dish in the book that more than once had my tongue protruding slightly from my mouth in lust. It's also about the way the characters, from most minor to the most central, all lead lives in which food is a defining factor of their lives. Food and liquor. And that's New Orleans... food... liquor.

No, I'm not going to tell you any details about the novel, except that it's marvelous. It takes Poppy to a whole new level. You'll fall in love with Rickey and G-Man. If you don't already love New Orleans, you'll fall in love with it. You'll be ravenously hungry time and time again as you read the book.

LIQUOR. March 2004. Make a note...

Grrr...

First there was Friendster... now comes the inevitable opposite...

Yeah... you guessed it... I also turned him onto the Soft Pink Truth as well...

And, of course, Walter turned me onto all of these bands...

Ok... since I earned another link from Jonno this week and it's music related and you've possibly come here to sit in awe of my mighty musical mentoring skills... here's what I'm listening to lately...

Mew "Half the World is Watching"

2Raumwohnung "In Wirklich"

Adult. "Anxiety Always"

Alpinestars "White Noise"

Black Box Recorder "Passionoia"

The Dandy Warhols "Welcome to the Monkey House"

Death in Vegas "Scorpio Rising"

Erlend Oye "Unrest"

Goldfrapp "Black Cherry"

Homy "Music Box"

ok... jesus christ... i'll continue this in a bit.. the sun just came out!

Earlier this week, I got a phone call from a friend of mine asking me to drop by the nightclub he manages. I was sort of iffy about leaving my house until he said the magic words, "Elimidate is filming here tonight."

I left burnt rubber marks on my street.

Elimidate is one of those guilty pleasures that I think just about everyone indulges in, on an at least irregular basis. I don't really watch tv anymore, but I used to eat episodes of this show like popcorn.

So, I went by his club and sat at the downstairs bar for a bit drinking Citron. They were filming in the upstairs of the bar and it was closed to the public. But, finally, my friend appeared and he brought me up the stairs to watch.

So... Elimidate has been forever ruined for me. I know that you, gentle reader, will have a hard time believing this... but, it's very very very fake! I arrived just in time to watch the guy make his final decision between the last two girls. And there was an amazing amount of coaching going on from the show's staff.... "ok, let it all out when he chooses... if he doesn't choose you, make your feelings well known." After the decision was made, they reshot the couple telling each other why they chose one another about five times. The little kiss between them you'll see on the show? That could be the first one they exchanged, or the sixth...

And you know how it always looks like they're in a busy club or restaurant when they make their decision? And you know it's busy, cuz there's a crowd of fun people behind them carrying on conversations and having fun? Well, you'll see that on this episode as well... except the crowded bar consisted of about twenty lame ass mother fuckers fake talking just to have the opportunity to be in the background on a tv show. There was no "fun" crowded club. It was empty and closed to the public. The crowd consisted of a bunch of fake talking idiots and the crew.

A few other people were hanging out watching the show tape. I overheard this really cute blond chick talking about the fact that she was going to be a contestant on the show the next week. So, of course, I had to engage her in conversation about this. Imagine this... the casting people had told her, "ok, you're going to be the bitch." Grrrr. They tell them how to act as well?

The blond chick was pretty blase about the whole thing. She said she had no intention of being the bitch. And that she was hoping that the guy on her episode would be a guy she'd been dating, who was also going to be on the show...

Y'all... tv is fake!

Oh well... a couple of days later my friend who manages the club told me that the blond chick had asked about me... she thought I was cute...

I'm fucking cursed. It's been a month since it was sunny on one of my days off of work. And my fucking tan is fucking fading. Fuck.