Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Holiday Favorites
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Person of the Year 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Remembering
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Jeers and Cheers
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Boycotting Supporters of Prop 8
I cannot say it any better than Jim at Jockohomo.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is crying foul as they now somehow feel singled out by the GLBT community protesting the passage of Proposition 8. In a statement released by LDS; “It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election…it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.”
Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8
"To me this vote is horrible. Horrible" Very moving.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
No Limitations
I think most people that are close to me also know that I am a big softy and will well up at the drop of a hat. It sucks. When the family finally sees their new home on Extreme Home Makeover, during various romantic comedies on those cold winter afternoons and when people with a heart bigger than most take the time and energy to give back. Turn on the waterworks.
It should be no surprise then that last night - and my eyes are welling up as I write this - the anxiety of the election turned into often surprising results. As results from Virginia, our former home state, were coming in, our anxiety increased. We poured over the returns county by county with Dave knowing most since he's a native. Red, red, red...but with some large blue counties not counted yet. And a judge earlier that day allowed the absentee votes to be counted up until November 14 - these would be mainly McCain supporters in the military. Optimism began to wane and I went in the other room to watch the Daily Show election night coverage.
A little while later, Dave woke me up all excited. They called Virginia for Obama! They called Virgina for Obama! I jumped out of bed and ran to CNN.com to check out the details. Sure enough...damn! Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virgina...I did the math adding in the west coast. There was no way McCain could win unless he was perfect in the remaining states. The way he sulked around on that stage during the debates....he's no Nadia Comaneci! Slim chance.
Then came the big announcement. Obama won. As Joe Biden would say, "Let me repeat that" Obama won! We were watching CNN and they made the call. I leaned over and gave Dave a kiss on the side of his head and he rubbed my shoulder. Without a word, we both knew that we were witnessing an incredibly historic event and stared at the TV thru clouded eyes.
The details started rolling in. Obama had 90,000 people at his November 3 rally in Manassas Virgina...where we used to live. Grant Park is expecting hundreds of thousands of people - even up to a million in the surrounding area. A spontaneous celebration of 15,000 in DC celebrating around the White House and up on U Street. People around the world celebrating and congratulating the U.S.- and being shown on TV like when they celebrated the Millenium turning from 1999 to 2000.
More importantly, was voter turnout. A whopping 64% of eligible voters turned out - the highest turnout since 1908...ONE HUNDRED YEARS! Almost 137 million people went to the polls according to the estimate from turnout guru Dr. Michael McDonald at George Mason University. Additionally younger voters turned out in droves! This generation that many viewed as apathetic - moved by Obama, war, the economy and the destruction of the environment. It just took the right motivation to awaken that sleeping giant.
The United States elected its first black President. Only 45 years ago in August 1963, Martin Luther King gave his stirring "I have a dream..." speech when civil rights were being pushed and at the beginning of a volatile time in our country's history - Rosa Parks in 1955, Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a ridiculous Loving vs Virgina in 1967 - all focused on expanding civil rights regardless of race.
This was a time when parents would tell their children when they grow up, they can be anything they want...astronaut, teacher, cowboy, nurse, even President of the United States. I'm sure some parents believed their own words and I'm sure some didn't. How could they believe? They were drinking from separate water fountains, getting bussed to different schools and told they couldn't live here or there or work here or there.
The world woke up this morning with a new hope. Regardless of how you voted in yesterday's election, things are different now. Things have changed. So tonight before you go to bed, kiss your child on the forehead and tell them that now you know for sure. They CAN be anything they want. There are no limitations.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Make Time to Vote
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Between Consenting Adults?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Get Angrier!
GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
My Week
2. Larry Craig gave his farewell speech on the Senate floor the other day...finally. Apparently the the chamber was just about empty. What a disgrace he is to the institution, his state and to the country, although it did make for some entertaining videos!
3. Joe Biden hands down beat Sarah Six-Pack in the debate the other evening. Does she ever answer a fucking question that's asked of her?! In addition, I am "oh so happy" that she'll tolerate me. She's scary...and a bitch. *wink* The game was fun though!
4. This smell was coming from my foyer this past weekend. After thinking someone tracked in some 'debris' on their shoes, I did some investigating and discovered that some people are just pure trash. In a glass vase by the front door, someone had apparently yakked. Disgusting.
The sun is shining and its a beautiful day :)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My Little Friend
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
It was fun while it lasted.
Sister Betty and Burqa Boy!
Friday, September 19, 2008
DC
Years later, I landed an awesome summer job working in DC while in between my sophomore and junior years in college. Looking back, I should have appreciated the job and all it had to offer even more. I visited embassy after embassy...afternoon tea at the British embassy, weapons briefings at the Israeli embassy, cultural exhibitions at the German, Brazilian, Chinese, Saudi Arabian and numerous others. There were White House south lawn speeches for visiting dignitaries and briefings at the State Department, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, the OEOB and the World Bank. There were times I sat in the chair of the Speaker of the House, ate in the Senate dining room - where Jess Helms once commented that we both must go to the same barber. Ha. Obviously just not the same school of thought. Still the most fun was visiting the Smithsonian again, week after week, with an enthusiasm for the culture that didn't exist when I was in sixth grade. Although on nice spring days, I would find some shade under a tree on the Mall, put my backpack under my head and recline without a care in the world. Of course, watching the hot men jog their lunch hour away wasn't too bad either.
Little did I know that after graduating from college, I would spend the next 16 years in Washington. Living first between DC and NYC at Marymount University and NYU, then on Capitol Hill, then Alexandria, and finally Fairfax after a short stint in Manassas. As time wore on, I did tourist things less and less.
Last week, after being out of DC for just over two years, I had the opportunity to go back. There were lots of cars, tall buildings, people and concrete for days - all things that I'm not used to now living in this small seaside village. The work with the client wasn't all that exciting but my new perspective on the city was.
The food, from anywhere in the world, is really something that was appreciated when living there...even moreso with the lack of good ethnic food diversity in Provincetown. I ate Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, BBQ, some good home-cooked salmon (Thanks Barge and Yurek!) and not once did my feet take me to a Starbucks or Caribu Coffee - it killed me, but it didn't happen!
After landing at National Airport - no thanks Bob Barr, I will not refer to it as Reagan National - my taxi took me up the George Washington Parkway and past the Pentagon where the newly dedicated monument to the victims of the Pentagon attack on 9/11/01. Moving. Then we passed the Air Force monument - wow, very very cool!
And so the week continued...viewing Washington DC thru a new lens - the fresh, new perspective of an outsider...and I liked it. Being back there, albeit for a limited time, the city was fresh and clean, growing and vibrant but most of all, DC is a very beautiful city. Proud monuments, statuesque buildings, rolling fields along the Potomac, traffic jams and some genuinely nice people...I miss it.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Winston...and beer
Anyway, just since moving up here, Winston has started to freak out when there are loud noises like fireworks or thunderstorms. And I mean FREAK OUT. On July 4th, he pawed open a gate that he never used for two years and ran a good mile away. During thunderstorms, he paces and pants and paws at my leg (or nearest available body part) with the wide-eyed look of horror.
So, a couple weeks ago, during one of the late afternoon thunderstorms passing over the Cape, I was trying to work and once again, the boy was Cr@zY! I turned around from the desk to try and calm him (or maybe to tell him to "relax!") and what to my wandering eyes should appear... but a bottle of Sam Adams Summer Ale. I thought, well, it works for me...Let's give it a shot! After pouring the boy a bowl of the brewski, complete with a big head of suds, he dove right into it like Dad would on a hot summer afternoon at Tea Dance. The beer seemed to relax him a bit. He became less edgy, less hyper and had a mellower look in his eyes - something I learned a long time ago has the same effect on me!
I don't know how much longer the kid will be with me. He's slowing. He's grayed out. His once astounding singing voice coming less frequently and a little more gravelly. But I do know that he likes beer - and it apparently helps him relax. Our time together is surely limited so my spoiled kid will get beer...or anything he wants. Now, if I could only teach him to open the fridge and get Dad another hooch!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Shake the Veep!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Banksy Does New Orleans
The artist has posted pics of his works, including commentary here.
Friday, August 29, 2008
McSame
I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president.
-Karl Rove on Obama's potential running mate choice, Tim Kaine, Gov. of VA. He continued...
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years. I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States? What I'm concerned about is, can he bring me the electoral votes of the state of Virginia, the 13 electoral votes in Virginia?'
Oh, and Palin has been governor for two years and I'm sure Wasilla is just a teensy weeny bit down the line smaller than 105. How can these people take her seriously when their top strategist dismissed her months ago?!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Death of the Paperboy
In addition, we're excited that Rich Morel and Bob Mould will be returning to Provincetown to spin another BLOWOFF party on Halloween night!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Carnival!!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Slow News Day
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
OMG
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Blowoff
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Bears
So, no sooner did the Americana come down and up went the bear flags! One of our regular guests in the off-season, a handsome cub in his own right, became very excited thinking that bear week has begun. Upon finding out that we're still a few days from the start of the fur fest and that Dave's anticipation for the bears led him to put up the flags early, he sighed sadly and vowed to make plans to join us in 2009.
Town is already starting to get a fair share of guys ready to celebrate bear week. In our short time living here, we've come to enjoy the friends we have made...as well as the eye candy! Shirtless men show off bodies, bellies and fur as as badge of honor. The five handsome musclebears that rented the house next to us this past week certainly did nothing to calm us! Not only were they handsome, they were also very kind, nice people with whom we enjoyed socializing all week. btw, Happy Birthday Michael!
Anyway, there is a lot of excitement about next week. I've been getting a barrage of emails, calls and IMs asking about this event or that event, what they should wear...hello?!, if there is a naked Tea....ummm, no, but I'll gladly hold auditions! Fortunately, some good friends are renting the house next door for the week and ANT will be here to once again hold court on the back patio during breakfast. To me, the week is something of a homecoming. I get to spend some time with many old friends and hopefully make some new ones. I also get to meet some of the really nice men that I've been chatting with online...JAY!, Chip, Harry, etc. Maybe I'll even get to see Michael after all these years, if he packs that computer monitor and the mood strikes him for a drive! The laughing, the camaraderie, the sights and the fun...I can't wait!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Summer
So today is the first day that I've been able to sleep in until 7:30am since our cruise this winter - and except for maybe a hangover during bear week last summer! Usually its up by 5:30-6:00am to take the dogs to the beach...rain, sleet, snow or sun...the kids get their run on the beach! They expect it. They demand it!
Yesterday was Dave's first day off from school for the summer. Yes, he's off from school but now he's helping to run the business this summer. I have to say that its really nice being able to be side by side with your partner, taking on the challenges and excitement of the day. It is also a great help with the work load during the day. Now I don't have to climb down the ladder from painting every time someone has an availability question...Dave can answer it! :)
It took us a couple seasons to get into the swing of what things he likes and is good at and what responsibilities I like and/or am good at. Except for some minor hiccups once in awhile, we seem to be moving pretty smoothly ahead as we enter this season. The first season was awful as each of us pissed all over to mark our territory, carving out those responsibilities that we liked and wanted to do. Whew! The faster we both realized we're trying to move forward in the same direction, the better our relationship is! btw, after cup number one of coffee, everything is smooth sailing.
So, even though we still differ on how to decorate a room, where our advertising dollars are spent or how many days a week to have chocolate chip muffins (I vote for every day!), its nice being together. Now if only I can make enough money to hire help to do everything! Then I can socialize all day!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Daddy
My own Dad took off when I was five, moved away and called me when I was 21. "Hello Jim, this is your Father" is the first phone call. I spent a year getting to know him...and his new wife and many girlfriends. While I started drinking coffee in the mornings in those days, his drink of choice was Budweiser. I soon realized that things were not going to work out...and we broke up. As with some of the men (and women) I dated in the past, it just wasn't a good fit. He died a few years ago...unceremoniously, from liver problems.
There are a lot of great Fathers...and Daddys - younger and older, those that care and nurture. Good men. They should be honored on Father's Day...and every day.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Alpha
Anyway, I did it back in the day to get things off my mind - and off my chest. I'm going to continue now for the same reason. So get ready...and welcome to jimpossible!