Category: Uncategorized

My band, Manhattan Samba, played with Gogol Bordello recently and I read a few blog entries describing it as the party of the year. It looks like it, too. MY BAD. Damnit.

In other news, people have probably seen this before, I think I may have even seen it before, it’s one of those restores-my-faith-in-humanity-type things, but a bunch of people just spontaneously starting writing these hysterical reviews for a set of $500 ethernet cables on Amazon. Oh God! Amazon took the page down. Where is their sense of humor?? Anyway, I cut and pasted a sample:

“I installed one of these cables between my gigabit ethernet switch and my Canon Pixma 6700 color printer. I know it’s not a sanctioned use, but I was looking for the ultimate in speed and color fidelity. I’m freaky that way.

The first time I downloaded a picture to the printer over this cable, the bits moved so fast the printer collapsed into a naked singularity, right there in my office.

Since then, I can’t find the cat, and my entire set of VAX/VMS 4.7 documentation (DEC Will Rise Again!) (Mmmmm, orangey!) has gone missing.”

“If I could use a rusty boxcutter to carve a new orifice in my body that’s compatible with this link cable, I would already be doing it. I can just imagine the pure musical goodness that would flow through this cable into the wound and fill me completely — like white, holy light. Holding this cable in my hands actually makes me feel that much closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I only make $6.25/hr at Jack In The Box, but I saved up for three months so I could have this cable. It sits in a shrine I constructed next to my futon in Mother’s basement.”

“If Denon had captured the Divine light of creation and distiled it into 1.5 meters of ultramegaradioactive copper, it could not have been better than this cable. Just holding the packaging it comes in, I can see distant galaxies and, though you may not believe it, hear what the aliens there are thinking.”

“I would give this cable eleventy million stars if I could, and once you understand, so will you.”

SYTYCD Comments: I think I watched Katee and Joshua’s routine a half a dozen times. And I think I will watch it a few more times today. God, they’re good.

Comfort and Chris: BLEW ME AWAY. I disagree with the judges. Chris was the weak link, its true, he could have been harder, but still. I was riveted.

Chelsea and Thayne: I love them, but they got the quick step. I wish they would just take this dance out of the competition. Who likes it? NO ONE.

Gev and Courtney: started out labored, but then they got going and I love these two. I love how much he seems to want her for real.

Will and Jessica: Will is so good I have to say, that he really does make Jessica almost invisible. I think I objected when the judges made this point last week, but I have to agree. If you go back and look through this routine, every movement of his, even if it was just to support her, was just hit with such perfection and style and personality and some extra something that puts him in another league, where she just doesn’t belong.

Chelsie and Mark: Loved them, loved the routine. Love, love, love.

(The picture is courtesy of Incandenza on flickr.)

I went to sing last night at St. Luke’s (the Faure Requiem and the Vivaldi Gloria) and the choir director wanted us to repeat the second movement of the Faure, as a prayer for peace for … but I couldn’t hear the country. I asked the person next to me which country he said, and she couldn’t hear me so I repeated myself and then the person in the row ahead of us turned around and shooshed me! I don’t know why this should bother so much but it did! I’m insane. It’s official. (But mindfully insane.) Excuse me! Mean lady! You could have also turned around and answered my question, but no. I’m sorry my hearing problem caused you what? A whole five second interruption to your being able to hear just fine time. Honestly. People. Ugh.

I’ve begun a hunt for new music. I’m tired of almost everything on my ipod. I’ve been enjoying browsing the itunes store, one of the greatest services in the world, I’ve decided, I just wish I could hear the whole song before buying. It’s fine when you know what you want, but when you’re exploring you feel a little vulnerable, paying for music you haven’t really heard except for a few seconds.

This is a picture of a sky scraper made by Chris Burden. It’s up at Rockefeller Center right now and I walked by it the other day. It’s made entirely from Erector Set parts. Of course this sent me off into a nostalgia frenzy. Remember Erector Sets?? Don’t you want to build a robot right now?

Okay, a very little. The other day on my way to the gym I saw a couple of girls posing on the steps of what they thought was Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment in Sex and the City, except they were in front of the wrong building. Carrie’s apartment was one more over and I told them. I said a little! What if they were from Australia and got all the way home before they figured it out?

The rain stopped yesterday so I went uptown to find my haunted mansion. Unfortunately it has since been replaced by a high-rise. And an ugly one, too, in such a pretty spot. This was between 62nd and 63rd, on Fifth Avenue, overlooking the park. Such a prime piece of Manhattan, badly used alas.

I took this picture on Fifth Avenue on my way back home. (What?? What was seen in Sex and the City??)

This guy, James O’Brien, just saved that bird’s life!! [The link I had to a story about this no longer works.] Isn’t that the sweetest picture? The guy looks so happy and the bird is all, “WTF?? Okay, thank you, but you can let me go now.” Which James of course did. This is James’s website [that link no longer works either, unfortunately]. What a nice guy.

So, it’s raining. My plans of going uptown to check out who lives in a former 5th Avenue haunted house and then taking a nice walk home are wrecked. Hmmm. Curl up with a book?

Note to self: Don’t forget to buy a converter box for the little TV in the bedroom which you NEVER use, but on the one in a billion chance that you ever turn it on again, you’ll be glad you bothered, right? Plus, you’ve got the $40 off coupon from the government. It will feel good to use it, even though, technically, you may be using it on something you don’t actually need. Which is insane and belongs in the category: This is How They Get You.

Last summer, along with many people all over the world, I danced with Matt Harding. Here is the result. I can actually see myself! I’m in the New York City one, on the left-ish, in a white top. My favorites: anytime he is dancing with children or animals, dancing with the crabs on Christmas Island, the orchestra in California, the demilitarized zone in Korea, inside Nellis Airspace in Nevada, and India, New Guinea and Turkey.

It’s actually worth it to go to YouTube and click on “watch in high quality.”

SYTYCD Comment: Marquis was robbed!