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ODDS & ENDS

  • Valerie Bertinelli came to me in a dream last night. On the phone. She called me. We talked for a very long time. She was flirty. Coquettish. She confided that she was not wearing a bra, and she made little kissing noises. She insisted that she is not–as the loathsome Kirstie Alley claims–fat; she is merely voluptuous. I put her on hold and made myself a sandwich.
  • Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey now says he wants to be a priest. But it’s not simply another case of a self-loathing cockgobbler hitching himself to the church or the military or some other homophobic institution with a uniform fetish. No, Jimmy’s doing it the classy way. He’s converted to the Episcopal church–you know, the one that ordains gay priests? And he’s joined a seminary. In Manhattan. In Chelsea. Apparently, someone wants to have his cakeboy and eat him, too. (Side note: Jim’s domestic life isn’t so rosy, being complicated in part by Jonno’s closepersonalfriend, photographer Richard Rinaldi, who has a penchant for taking pictures of naked men.)
  • Today’s Times-Picayune features the hilarious headline Drug dealer suspect nabbed on toilet! Then they go and ruin it all in the first paragraph by explaining that “Federal agents found a drug suspect hiding in the bathroom of the Central City house that locals said was a neighborhood crack cocaine parlor.” Which isn’t funny at all. Arresting a crack dealer while he’s taking a shit would be a scream, like Alexyss K. Tylor. But hiding from the cops in the can is merely sad, like Rich Little. Very, very sad. (Side note: I’m intrigued, however, to hear that crack dealers in New Orleans are doing well enough to upgrade from mere crack houses to the far-swankier crack parlors. Mazel tov, miscreants!)
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La, la, la…. I love riding my bike through the Marigny on days like this…. La, la, la…. Hey, Mrs. Leblanc…. Yes, bitch, I’m waving at you–even though you cussed me out last week at Big Daddy’s in front of half a dozen drag queens because you said I was ruining your video poker mojo…. La, la, la…. Yes, gutterpunks, I’m smiling at you–even though you ruined Flora’s years ago. Seriously, people: bathing is not a crime, but I’m moving patchouli to the Controlled Substance list…. La, la, la…. Aw, lookit that poor stray dog–is he wearing a collar? Maybe I should call the SPCA–but not the one in Jefferson Parish…. Hey, wait a minute! What the #$%@? What’s that thing up there, mounted on the telephone pole? Kit, enable macrozoom…. Now, go in closer…closer…. Well, I’ll be damned.

A surveillance camera. In my neighborhood. I’m not quite sure how to feel about that.

Frightened? Not exactly. As a predominantly residential neighborhood on the edge of a commercial district, the Marigny has always been a little dicey. I got used to that decades ago.

Violated? If it were mounted outside my bedroom window, and if New Orleans had the police force to monitor it, maybe. As it is, not so much.

Safer? As if. Having a camera in the neighborhood and having a working camera in the neighborhood are two completely different things.

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Jonno, 1997

Ten years ago it became apparent that I could not live without Jonno and he could not live without me.

It was not an easy revelation. It was not simple, either.

For example: I was born and raised in the South. I had lived in New York for a time and hated it. I couldn’t cook. I had an ambivalent relationship with my small family. Jonno was my opposite in these and other matters, and it showed.

More curiously: it was not the first time I’d fallen in love with Jonno. Four years earlier, though, he hadn’t been interested. What motivated his change of heart? How could I rationalize my sudden good fortune?

I couldn’t. And yet there it was, plain as day.

As I left him on that crisp New York morning in 1997, having already changed my flight twice, I turned and saw Jonno waving to me from the corner of 9th and 23rd, waving every time I turned around, waving until I was blocks away, probably waving until my plane left the ground. And with some music that he gave me playing softly on my headphones–music that can still make me cry a little when I’m alone–I began quietly making plans for his move to New Orleans. I think he did the same.

Seriously, honestly, people: how does this stuff happen? And so quickly?

And so, although we haven’t had a ceremony, and in the eyes of most people we’re just a couple of guys who live together and have a house together and walk dogs together (on good days) and nap together (on bad days), this is when we celebrate our anniversary. In our own small way.

Happy anniversary, Jonno.

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“The woman is lonely. Her vagina is cold.” Which sounds like Eve Ensler, but it’s way, way better. Yo, check it.

Thank you, Tyler. Dear goddess, thank you. And thank you Lee + Chris for helping me find it again after YouTube went all stupid.

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In the early mid-90s, I owned a video called Denise Austin’s Rock-Hard Tummies. It featured Ms. Austin in spandex and sweatbands performing a routine of moderately strenuous abdominal exercises in front of a shocking blue backdrop and a half-dozen headless mannequins. The soundtrack consisted of a musak version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. Looped. For 45 minutes. I think that’s longer than most Michael Jackson concerts.

I don’t know how the video fell into my hands, and I don’t know where it’s gone. Frankly, I’d completely forgotten about it until I saw this:

Clearly, the 1980s self-help home video workout aesthetic warrants further exploitation.

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I don’t mean to bash the Times-Pic. Really, I don’t. But when they lob an easy one in the air, somebody oughta take a swing.

Case in point: on the front page of today’s Picayune there’s a story about a report issued Friday morning by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is major stuff, people. You know how David Rakoff’s essays can make you laugh out loud? Well, this is the opposite of that. This is holy-crap stuff–holy-crap stuff, I might add, of significant importance to New Orleanians.

Now flip over a few pages for the editorials. There are three: one on judge Martha Sassone (okay, sure, that’s local); one on NASA’s Inspector General (okay, maybe, since there is a NASA facility in the area, although the editorial has nothing to do with that); and finally, this:


The White House’s annual State Egg Display ought to be above controversy: The Easter tradition, sponsored by the American Egg Board, is an occasion for state pride as well as product promotion.


But this year, a scandal has hatched. Each egg is supposed to be decorated by an artist from the state it represents. The Wyoming egg, however, turns out to be the work of a college student from Illinois.


The blow to state pride is bad enough, but the egg in question does nothing to further the cause of egg artistry. It features a clumsily rendered egg on skis. Maybe that’s because the creator wasn’t chosen for artistic ability but for family connections. His mother works for the American Egg Board.

— Times-Picayune

I’m sorry, what was that? An egg-decorating contest? With a teeny-tiny scandal attached to it? In WYOMING?

Why would anyone at the Picayune write/care about that crap? And perhaps more importantly, what kind of obscure, offbeat, ovo-centric news feeds do the editors subscribe to that would alert them to such a story? I mean, it’s not even a story in the first place. That shit doesn’t rate a press release, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be picked up, even on the slowest news day.

My theory is that the Picayune is secretly run by a cabal of egg industry lobbyists. That, or they’re all just a bunch of fucktards.

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“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” [Keith] Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

“He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said. “… It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

—ABC News, courtesy of The Bent One

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1. So Google Maps is outdated, huh? It’s showing pre-storm images? Wow. That’s some serious investigative reporting, Times-Pic. I mean, it’s not like anyone at the New Orleans Metroblog clocked that shit, like, a year ago or anything.

2. Here’s an interesting idea from our flood-focused friends in the land of mayonnaise and french fries:

MAASBOMMEL, the Netherlands, March 29 — Anne van der Molen lives on the edge of the River Maas, by definition an insecure spot in a country constantly trying to keep water at bay. But she is ready for the next flood.

Excited, even. “We haven’t floated,” she said of her house, “but we’re looking forward to floating.”

Her two-bedroom, two-story house, which cost about $420,000, is not a houseboat, and not a floating house of the sort common across the world. It is amphibious: resting on land but built to rise with the water level. It sits on a hollow concrete foundation and is attached to six iron posts sunk into the lake bottom. Should the river swell, as it often does in the rain, the house will float up as much as 18 feet, held in place by two horizontal mooring posts that connect it to the neighboring house, and then float back down as the water subsides….

—New York Times

Of course, given the limited abilities of New Orleans’ contractors, we’d probably be better off just using water wings and twist-ties, but it’s a nice idea.

UPDATE: Apparently, someone’s listening.

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So there it was in the Sunday paper: Ralph Lupin–doctor, philanthropist, and chairman of the Vieux Carre Commission–called New Orleans’ Sanitation Director Veronica White “a bitch”.

Was it kind? No. Did it demonstrate Dr. Lupin’s media savvy? No. Was it called for? Well, I wasn’t there, but based on every other interaction I’ve had with those people, yes, it was most definitely called for. If you’ve ever tunnelled through the warren of offices in America’s ugliest city hall and felt like Josef K, you know what I’m sayin’.

Of course, now Rainbow PUSH New Orleans–Jesse Jackson’s local PC militia–is complaining that the comment was sexist and that Dr. Lupin ought to be removed as chair of the VCC. And yeah, I guess I think an apology is in order, but come on. “Appalling?” I’ve gotten into arguments with meter maids that have ended in much, much worse.

I suppose that in the future Dr. Lupin should stick to gender-neutral insults like “asshole”, “fuckface”, and my preferred slur of the moment “fucktard” (though that last one does potentially insult the mentally handicapped, especially the ones who can’t fuck). And as long as Reverend JJ & Co. are around, Ralph might wanna hurl his four-letters at white folks, since Jesse doesn’t seem to care what happens to them.