ME, NOW

I am in a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. The room is pale yellow and white and the walls intersect with the ceiling at right angles. I am sure the acoustics are terrible, although there is picture molding, which might mitigate that.

I do not know why there is picture molding, because the only picture in the room is hung directly on the wall with a nail. I hate this picture. It is a mass-produced garden scene in the Impressionist style. I have always thought that the Impressionists were overrated and this is not helping their case.

There is a strange lump at the threshold to the bathroom: a tiny ramp to the elevated tile floor. Perhaps something is buried beneath the bathroom: small children? Dinosaurs? One cannot say.

The room is bland and inoffensive to the point of being offensive. Perhaps something more interesting would be here if William Tecumseh Sherman had not burned it to the ground. Or maybe this was the site of a sad candle shop that deserved to be destroyed. Again: one cannot say.

In other news, I had a wonderful time with my bio-mom, Callie, over the past two days. I had never visited Columbus before and plan do so again soon. More on that later.

I should also develop a less sci-fi term than “bio mom” to distinguish Callie from my adoptive mother. I’ll work on that.

REM, Pearl Jam call for presidential debate in New Orleans

A string of acts including REM, Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket have petitioned for the candidates in the US Presidential election to debate in New Orleans about Louisiana coastal wetlands restoration and hurricane recovery.

Ok Go, Jackson Browne, Trent Reznor, Funky Meters, Allen Toussaint are also among the acts to sign the petition which is requesting that politicians focus on issues in the area from wetlands rebuilding and a sustainable hurricane recovery programme.

The Presidential forum is being organised by Google and YouTube, in which members of the public will be able to ask questions of the candidates by submitting YouTube videos. So far, neither Senator Barack Obama nor Senator John McCain have committed to the event. [emphasis totally mine]

via NME.com

Which is not only good news for New Orleans, but also for Pearl Jam, because they probably could use the publicity. Frankly, I’m surprised to see they’re still alive.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official: New Orleans is finally a part of the Google Street View family. Just go to Google Maps as usual, enter a street address, and if there’s a street view available, it’ll pop up right on the map. Sweet!

Based on the view of my house, I’m guessing they’ve been working on this for a while–at least since last year. But whatevs: we’ve arrived.*

* Insofar as a vaguely creepy invasion of privacy counts as “arrived”.

Via DJ Sensational Gravity Boy, a broadside advertising the boyfriend’s DJ gig in Atlanta this Friday. (I will be playing the role of groupie, with occasional outbursts of pushy wannabe pop starlet.)

* * * * *

That’s right, this Friday at Mary’s it’s a…

HOMOSEXUAL WEB 1.0 DJ SHOWDOWN

Join me and real life internet celebutante Jonno* aka DJ Punch & Pie for Happy Hour this Friday @ Mary’s. We’ll have the hottest hits and remixes from the likes of Hercules & Love Affair, DJ Koze, Matias Aguayo, Sebastien Tellier, Dopplebanger, The Grid (the dude from Soft Cell who is not Marc Almond) and even stuff other people like!

DJ Sensational Gravity Boy

w/Special Guest DJ Punch & Pie

Friday, Aug 8, 2008

6ish to 10ish PM

Mary’s Atlanta

1287 Glenwood

Heart of EAV

Want P!O!P! Music + Elektro Disko Beatz?

* IRL? OMG! LOL!

• Removed not one, but two doves from our dining room. (What is it with me and birds?) Apparently they came in through a broken windowpane, which I’ve since mended. I toyed with donning a green skirt suit before going after the Poor Little Things, but it seems I don’t own one. Pity.
• Closed a show. It was a totally fun show to do, but still: yay.
• Began packing for a teensy road trip to see my bio-mom on her home turf, which is, oddly, something I’ve never done. Afterward, I’ll be heading to Atlanta for the weekend. (The bf is spinning at Mary’s: you are witnessing the return of DJ Punch And Pie.) Ladies of the 404, drop a line.
• Became slightly nauseated at the sight of feeder bands in the night sky. I know Edouard isn’t coming for a visit, but what can I say? I’ve been scarred.
• Eaten too much duck before bedtime, which didn’t do anything for my sleep habits, but did reiterate my feelings for foul.

Apparently, reality show juggernaut (and potential Titanic) Project Runway is doing things a little differently this season: in a bid to wring every last cent from the show before it’s dragged kicking and screaming to Lifetime, Bravo is auctioning off every article of clothing that the current crop of talent-challenged tailors lay their clumsy little hands on.

What’s funny is that the winning bids are all over the map. Kelli’s clever vacuum bag ensemble from the first episode generated a whopping $1,025–plus shipping! Blayne’s annoying “Girlicious” thingamabob, however–which everyone said looked like a diaper, but I thought looked like a low-rent rehash of Mole’s “Wrasslin’ Rita” outfit from Desperate Living–generated $60. And the winner was “Blaynesmom”. Double-ouch.

And for those who don’t know/remember the Desperate Living reference:

(FYI: the fat older lady spectator with the bob and the headband who does the “Give her what for!” move is one of my favorite John Waters characters ever–and girlfriend doesn’t say a word.)

MORNING FEROCITY
[courtesy of the boyfriend]

Update: Peter LaBarbera hasn’t said that the congregants at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church brought Sunday’s deadly shooting on themselves–not yet, anyway. However, LaBarbera has used the incident as fodder in his fight against hate crimes legislation:

“It proves our case” that hate crimes laws are not necessary, said Americans for Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera. The media spotlight on Adkisson will “give more attention and better treatment to this case.”

“The fact is, this case will get the attention it deserves,” he continued, “and I believe this man could be given the death penalty, without any extra help from the Feds and any sort of hate crimes prosecution.”

—PageOneQ

Which would be a convenient argument for someone to make if they happened to take LaBarbera and a wiffleball bat miles from where anyone could hear him scream. Not that anyone has, but if they did….

I cannot stand Mad Men.

There, I said it.

I’m sorry, Jonno. Sorry, Jocko. Sorry, most of America’s cable subscribers, but the show drives me crazy, and frankly, I have enough crazy-inducing stuff in my life without fictional characters adding to the mix.

I’ve tried to get into it–really tried. I was a huge fan of The Sopranos, so I’ve given Mad Men countless chances. But instead of the nuanced, engaging characters and stories we got on The Sopranos, Mad Men comes across as a flat, disaffected period piece full of clunky writing and a plot that can be summarized as follows:

It’s the 60s!

People smoke! A lot!

Also: they drink! A lot!

Women aren’t treated well!

Neither are black people! The ones we see anyway!

It’s the 60s!

And so on.

I mean, half of the drama comes from us, the viewers, saying to ourselves, “Did people really think like that? If these folks only knew what was coming! Ho ho!” A history lesson does not a TV series make.

It reminds me of that French and Saunders sketch, “The House of Idiot”–the one that pokes fun at films that are art directed to within an inch of their lives, but forget to offer any substance:

On the upside, Adult Swim is especially good on Sunday nights, so I’ll still get in some quality time on the sofa. Huzzah.