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*