I'm too old for this shit!

I'd swear that I'd never do this again, but I know I will.  I just need rest, which will come in a few days. This job is so funny.  I get angry and swear off this profession, and yet every time it comes for me I go willingly. 

Just not quite as fast as I used to.

And so it goes:

Well I thought you'd never say it

Ricky Martin: 'I Am a Fortunate Homosexual Man'

Posted 56 minutes ago by Access Hollywood in Stop The Presses!

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- After years of keeping quiet about his personal life, pop star Ricky Martin has announced that he is gay.
"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man," Ricky said in a message posted on his offical Web site. "I am very blessed to be who I am."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Gay & Lesbian Hollywood
Ricky said writing his memoir and thinking about his two twin sons led him to go public.
"To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where [sic] born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment," he wrote.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The 'Vida Loca' Of Ricky Martin
Though the 38-year-old kept his sexuality private throughout most of his career, Ricky said he drew strength from that time.
"These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed," he continued. "What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment. The word "happiness" takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution."
Earlier this month, Barbara Walters told The Toronto Star that her 2000 interview with the "Livin' La Vida Loca" singer, where she grilled him about coming out, was a misstep on her part.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood Dads
"In 2000, I pushed Ricky Martin very hard to admit if he was gay or not, and the way he refused to do it made everyone decide that he was," she told The Toronto Star. "A lot of people say that destroyed his career, and when I think back on it now, I feel it was an inappropriate question."
Ricky also Tweeted a link to his coming out announcement on his Web site, simply writing, "my life."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebrity Gays & Their Gal Pals
In an earlier Tweet on Monday, the singer posted a quote attributed to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. M.L.K.Jr.," he wrote.

It takes a zealot...

I read this morning about attorney Jim Anderson, who has been waging a legal battle with the Catholic Church over abuse allegations for years.  Well, good for him.  I hope he succeeds in bringing down e largest purveyor of hate in the modern world.  Not to mention haven for the delusional, self-loathing, and arbiter of all things holy. 

He says he re-discovered his faith in God when he became a recovering alcoholic.  Well, I hope his God is on his side, he'll need it against those rich bastards he's fighting.

Another headline I simply can't ring myself to read says: " 80's Stars Hall And Oates back in spotlight."  What did they do apologize for all that heinous music?

Last week as a full-time teacher, back to the grind next Tuesday. I'll miss it, hopefully only for a little while.

The show is proceeding apace.  We added the technical elements yesterday, and as I expected the entire show fell apart.  It took them the same amount of time to do the first act as it should to do the entire show.  And we only stopped once for two minutes for  a technical problem.  I can't be anything but accepting of their dilemma, it's a tough process, and they're kids.  They'll get it together, meantime we'll forge ahead.

 Levi Johnston, and Sarah Palin will have reality shows.  Please tell me what is real about those two?  PLEASE!


And as you may have noticed in the sidebar, some Texas hoodlums were sentenced for their heinous attack on gay bar patrons in Galveston. (They chunked 4 pound pieces of rock in the door hitting people in the head.  One young man has no balance and stutters as a result.) One took a deal and got 5 years. The other pled guilty and got 20 years.  I'm sure they'll be fine upstanding Texans when they get out of Huntsville.

Yesterday I inadverte4ntly engaged in a conversation with my LD about job hunting in academia and she asked why I'd only applied for 6 jobs this year because she had applied for 45.  (everything is a tape measure contest with this woman.)Then I informed her that I only apply for jobs thatare west of the Mississippi, and NOT Texas.  Guess who's a Texas native. 

Sick as I am I felt much better after that..

And so it goes.

 

Why do we insist on allowing Texas to remain a state?

Not only did that desolate shithole produce George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson, and Tom DeLay.  it is now becoming known for being the killing field for GLBT men and women. (See sidebar, note how many people have been killed in Texas)

BUT NOW it's the headquarters of censorship, and the colleges are leading the way. Isn't it comforting to know that Texans make sure their children are indoctrinated into their simple-minded ways of thinking. 

From Towleroad.com-


Tarleton State University in Texas has canceled a student-run production of the Terrence McNally play "Corpus Christi."  The play, in which Jesus Christ and his disciples are depicted as gay, was initially chosen by a student for an assignment in a directing class and yanked form the schedule last last night. From the school's Website:
"The four student-directed plays, including “Corpus Christi,” scheduled to be performed at Tarleton State University on Saturday, March 27, 2010, have been canceled this evening by the professor. The professor cited safety and security concerns for the students as well as the need to maintain an orderly academic environment as reasons for canceling the plays. The performance of these four class plays will not be rescheduled."
John Otte, the play's student director, defended his choice: "Never did I choose this play to attack Christians. I am one. This play deals with that subject matter, I believe, in a tasteful way. ... I don't believe in a God who hates me for who I am."
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has also weighed in saying "Every citizen is entitled to the freedom of speech, but no one should have the right to use government funds or institutions to portray acts that are morally reprehensible to the vast majority of Americans."
Last night, the local ABC affiliate ran a segment on the story and asked Tarleton students their opinions about the play. One claims that "Homosexuality is the one unforgivable sin in our society. That's something that you can't get away from. And that's what he's doing, he's trying to present that to the Christian community.

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY!?!??!!?!?

As if Texas knows what THAT is.

Assholes.
 I say force these simple-minded, hypocritical assholes into secession.  AND good riddance.

On a personal note, I was asked by a friend what area I wanted to teach in after I finished grad school.  I said, "Well I'm ok as long as it's west of the Mississippi, and not Texas.  Still true!

Greetings!

Hello!

Yes, I'm still around and functioning...kind of.

Tomorrow is our last official rehearsal, then we go into the throes of tech and dress.  It's just grueling I hate it, but I almost always love the end result.

The show is coming together I think.  They're getting more comfortable with it all every day.  They're just masses of bad habits and I have to be Zen about the fact that I can't fix them all.

Every day I plug away at my endless lists of things I must do and every day it seems I've made little progress and there's something huge still undone.  Oy!

Alas, such are the vagaries of this beast.  It'll be fine.

Last night their new habit was to stop and kibbutz when they got lost.

"Is that right?  No, I said that, now you say this."  All muttered so i ostensibly can't hear it.

So we now have a new rule..#137.

"If you stop and kibbutz when you get lost and don't forge ahead with this show no matter what, we'll stop th rehearsal, reset, and start the show over. if it's 9pm and you think you're down to the last hour and you kibbutz in the middle of a scene, we go back to page 7 and start over.  And we'll do that every time you mess it up, so we might be here a really long time at least once."

The response?

"Well, shit in the bed!"

I think that means they now understand I'm serious about it. Anything else it might mean I DO NOT want to know about.

And so it goes:

O Captain, My captain!

Last night when I came into class to tell them yet again that I wouldn't be able to stay because I had rehearsal one of them said as I left,O Captain, My captain!

I told him to stay off the furntiure.

And so it goes:

Well, Well, well...

It happened after all..sort of. We got health care.  I don't know how significant this will be for most of us, I don't see much change offered to a lot of us who have to buy our own insurance anyway.

But the fact that it happened at all is hopeful.  And Boehner's wailing on the house floor just ads to my glee. Anything to make that Son of a bitch unhappy is worth the price in my book.

For the last decade when he and the rest of Delay's crew were jamming anything and everything the Republican leadership, such as it was, wanted, we had to sit there and take it.  Now that the shoe's on the other foot it seems a might tight.  lol

In the end I think we'll all find that everyone who's in health care to make money will be happy and we'll still be paying out the ass.  

But it's a start.

And so it goes.

Question

If the Health Care bill latst scare tactic, is to tell us it'll cost $940 B, just what do you suppose it'll cost without the bill?

We're gonna pay for this anyway, it's just a matter of degrees.

Oh and let's not forget this little tidbit in the NYT last year:

Five years in, the Pentagon tags the cost of the Iraq war at roughly $600 billion and counting. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and critic of the war, pegs the long-term cost at more than $4 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office and other analysts say that $1 trillion to $2 trillion is more realistic, depending on troop levels and on how long the American occupation continues. 

We can spend 1-2 trillion on a war we shouldn't have even started in, let's be honest here, an effort to grab some free oil, and here we are balking over spending much less to care for ourselves.

Am i the only one who sees a dichotomy here?

Missed One

Yesterday in my haste to get started with the exciting day I forgot one notable Irishman.

 Colin Farrell seems to have lost some of that elfishness he had in his youth.  And perhaps as he's aged he's become a bit more discriminating in his choices of scripts.  I hope so, though I've never been a fan, mostly because of his choice of material, I always wanted to be. 

In any case there's the St. patrick's day wrap up.

The rest of the week doesn't promise to be very easy.  I've got work today and then tomorrow there's door building for several hours and THEN work. 

Very little actual drinking got done this St. Patrick's day, too busy and too late.  Perhaps I can make up for it on Friday. 

It seems to me that blogging may be passing out of fashion.  Good.

More room for the rest of us.

I wish I had the time right now to address some of the issues I'd like to speak to here, but life keeps getting in the way.  I've got to get some apps out to teaching jobs for the fall, and oh yes continue to teach for my boss and direct his show.  Little details like that.

I'm exiled from my friends in the southwest right now. He is out of the hospital and last I heard was doing well.  But last week she started having this major freak out over things that happened during surgery that she's been reading in reports.  It seems that  when they finished the surgery and were checking him one last time, they determined there was a leak in one of his grafts and they went back in and re-sutured it.

her description to me was that they "ripped him open and resutured." 

I told her I thought she was borrowing trouble, and that she needed, first to explain to me what she thought the problem was, and second, needed to accede to her husband's wishes to leave it alone since he is recovering nicely.

She apparently is now not speaking to me. I haven't been texted in a week.

Which is fine, but begs the question, why do people constantly want to borrow trouble when i comes to major life stuff. 

Is it just me or doesn't shit like that come along all on it's own without any prompting from us?

She'll start speaking tome soon I'm sure, but then she and I will have this discussion about creating drama where there is none, and how unacceptable that is. 

We learn such odd behaviors that we're all doomed to repeat.

Lat night I caught part of a film on Encore called What Love is.

It was all dialogue, all very fast, and all very succinct in it's analysis of people and why they do what they do in relationships.  I loved what I saw.  I'll have to see if i can find it again.

We still have no health care, no ability to exercise the right to marry, no protection from employment discrimination, no safety on the streets, and no Harvey Milk to champion our cause.

And so it goes:

Greetings! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hi!

It's been a while and I'm tired.  No time for that really have too much work to do to be tired until after the end of the month.

 The play has reached that point they all do...it's a nightmare.  I'm in charge but not in control. Everyone is attempting to hold me hostage to everything.  Thankfully we all have a week to take a break from each other.

It'll be fine...or not, but I think it will in the end.  To quote Geoffrey Rush in Shakespeare in Love, "It all works out we don't know how, it's a mystery."

Truly it is at this point in rehearsals.  Just gotta be Zen about the whole thing and keep on keepin' on, it'll open and  be the best thing I could make it, and the best thing they could make it I think.

Still lots of work to do on the set, but that group at least is steadfast.  They bring their children to work, but grinning and bearing it is the best I can do.  They'd abandon me if I complained so that hostage I have to be.

Discernment is key. Thank the gods that's my strong suit.

Some cheer is needed so I plan to be extra cheery on this particular St. Paddy's day. Everyone likes happy Irish even if we're not.

So, lift a pint to the Irish today, I'll be abstaining until around 7pm when I get home.  

I'm borrowing a quote today from one of my favorite gay blogs, American Irish.  I've believed the blog is real until this morning when it took a decided softcore turn.  Just didn't seem like the same guy writing it.  I could be wrong I do that frequently anymore.But at the end of today's post he had a cute little St. patrick's day poem:

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

And let's of course, celebrate the Men Ireland graces us with:

And so it goes.

thinking of you..well hgf anyway

Had the best time yesterday at work.  All the classes went well, the rehearsal though the show isn't nearly where I think it should be went quite well.  Lines are a problem though.  Mostly it's concentration.

Next week is spring break and they're off. I'll be there  bit working on the set.  But no real progress until we return the 22nd and then we're hell bent for he horizon. We open on the 1st.

My favorite and most adorable weetheart at the grocery sid to me this morning when I asked for next week's schedule.  "anything for you buddy." 

Lord how I wish it were so. He's so cute I just want to make a bundle out of him.

And so it goes:

  

ahem!

told ya!

Feldman was all over Larry king last night begging us not to jump to conclusions about Haim's drug addiction.  the problem is that Feldman will now see this as an opportunity to promote himself using Haim's death as a soapbox.  We're gonna see Feldman the activist telling us how HE felt when Haim died.   It's surprising really that Feldman isn't more successful in Hollywood than he has been, he's a completely self-absorbed dick, he should be more famous.

And so it goes:

and just in case you've never seen someone who's so pretty it's obnoxious, here's obno numero uno de hoy.

honestly.

Not completely out of touch

I'm waiting for Corey Feldman to resurface and say some stupid shit about how mad he is that no one has asked how HE felt about Haim's death.  We all know the moment is coming...

And isn't it amazing that no Toyota's ran amock until this week? Now they're driving old ladies into walls, and San Franciscan's out of control.  As though either of those things are unusual.

You now how I'm always telling you how stupid people are in general? 

Someone else figured it out too.

And so it goes:

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

I did not die, nor has anyone else, which is very good news indeed.

However.

There have been developments. It's been quite the week.

The Catholic church gets hit by a gay prostitution scandal. lol (karma's a bitch ain't it boys?)

I notice the vatican hasn't said a lot about this little peccadillo.

 


Karl Rove continues to lie to the American Public, as though that's news.

 

The lies about unit cohesion and DADT continue to be told.  I think the insulting thing about all this is the assumption that anyone who is a soldier is incapable of being a thinking person therefore we all have to think for them and in so doing deny that not only do gay and lesbian people already serve in the military, but we have to pretend they don't . Fucking delusional Americans.

As I reported on Tuesday I was to cover my bosses classes Tuesday and Wednesday while he had a cardiac cath and a possible angioplasty. Oh hoho how we all wish that had turned out to be the case.

He called me Tuesday night and asked if I would cover his classes at least through next week, (haha) while he recovered from quintuple bypass surgery. He obviously had no idea what he'd gotten into. Needless to say I've been winging it in front of a classroom for several days.

That's not all!

I went to the college to talk with the dean about this mess on Wednesday and we sat down to talk about everything I'd be doing. She ssured me I'd be compensated for the classes and while we were on the subject how much did I want to finish directing the show the boss was in the middle of directing.

huh?

Learning quickly to fly by the seat of my pants, I told her I'd be happy with the fee I got the last time I directed. Being a true administrator she said, "You want the whole fee even though you're coming in halfway through the process?" I calmly explained that it's harder to come into the middle of someone else's show, particularly since I am NOT prepared for this. I should have charged her double for the question alone.

So if all works out fairly I'll get the fee for direction, technical direction, and paid for the teaching. So far there's no mention of when the boss will return.

 

This all means that I've had to take a leave from the grocery since I can only do so much. They're very understanding about all this.

The weather is finally improving around here and I can't go outside and play waah!

 

My days currently consist of getting up at 6, working out a bit and then  heading to the school by 7:30 so I can do what little admin stuff I know how to do, try and prepare lectures and lesson plans for the classes that day, and put out any fires that may have started since last night.  Then I teach from 10-2, then I go to the theatre and work on the set with the work study students. After that I retire to my lair have a little dinner and then head back so I can  be at rehearsal from 6-11p.  Then I go home to bed to start the whole thing over again tomorrow.  And let's not forget that I still have 6 hrs of my own to teach on Monday and Thursday nights. 

 

So enjoy the post, and the incorporated HGS.  It may be a while before we speak again. This weekend I have to do an analysis of a play in two days that normally takes me weeks.  I have to type up a new program and get it ready for the printer since I don't know where the original is. I also promised I'd do my brothers taxes, and I have to do lesson plans for next week.  There's also the matter of paying my own bills and laundry etc.  That's not to mention the Oscar party, and that my last day at the grocery is Sunday.  

Last but not least I'll mention that fact that my friend in the southwest had quadruple bypass surgery and a mitral valve replacement on Thursday.  He too appears to be doing well.  So there's the concern about him going on as well.  

Wish me well, cross your fingers for the poor cast of the show I'm now directing, (oh I forgot to mention that some press appeared today on our website listing ME as the director of the show.  I'm not really comfortable with that and I now have to tactfully address it on Monday, oy! I'd be Ok with a co-directing thing, perhaps, but taking the show as my own...not so much)

And so it goes:

Love, cause it's all you got.

Those crazy catholics...they're such kidders.

I’d find this laughable if it weren’t so typically mean-spirited and hateful. 

Fucking Catholics.  “Let’s screw everybody since that’s the only way we’ll get to screw the people we hate.” What a loving and charitable policy they’ve developed. 

When,  WHEN will we learn that the biggest and most politically influential church in the WORLD is the single biggest purveyor of hate in the world?

When,  WHEN will we get smart enough to put a stop not only to their influence, but to their tax-exempt influence peddling? 

The Catholics need to be reduced to the level of the KKK, cause they’re just exactly the same.

Dear Pope Benedict XVI:

Fuck You, and the nelly priest you rode in on. 

Love

 *****

 

D.C. Catholic Charities Axes Spousal Benefits to Heterosexuals to Comply with its own Homophobia

Catholic Charities in Washington D.C. has made its latest move in ensuring its homophobic policies remain intact as marriage equality laws are set to begin in the district:
"Starting Tuesday, Catholic Charities will not offer benefits to spouses of new employees or to spouses of current employees who are not already enrolled in the plan. A letter describing the change in health benefits was e-mailed to employees Monday, two days before same-sex marriage will become legal in the District. 'We looked at all the options and implications,' said the charity's president, Edward J. Orzechowski. 'This allows us to continue providing services, comply with the city's new requirements and remain faithful to the church's teaching.' Catholic Charities, which receives $22 million from the city for social service programs, protested in the run-up to the council's December vote to allow same-sex marriage, saying that it might not be able to continue its contracts with the city, including operating homeless shelters and facilitating city-sponsored adoptions."
Catholic Charities ended its foster care program last month because it wouldn't be allowed to discriminate against gay and lesbian married couples.
-Towleroad.com

And ANOTHER!

Last night I find that my brother, also of the same first name as yesterday's victims, is going in next week for an echo to see if he has any cardiac issues! 

WTF I say!

The conversation with my brother did answer some interesting questions though.  This past week I've been having odd reams and horoscopes that didn't make any sense to my life. Then I learned that last week my adoptive father took the wrong sleeping meds got up in the night, fell, hurting himself fairly significantly, and then went back to bed not realizing what he'd done.  (he refuses assisted living)

Apparently the weekend was spent caring for him.  They're now of the mind that they have to force him into assisted living.  (I can't imagine how they came to THAT conclusion, 15 stitches and a pint of blood later.)

So those dreams about someone getting hurt and requiring medical care and those horoscopes saying things about someone saying nice things about me suddenly made sense. (he's always nice to me when he needs my help) They were throwing a monkey in the wrench last week.  I was confused for a few days.

Today however, is consumed with work.  I'm off within the hour to start a day it seems has no defined end.  Oy!  Tomorrow will be a repeat of today.  I'm already looking forward to Martini's on Friday.

Lost 2 more pounds since Saturday!  Woohoo!

And so it goes:

 

I rather like the caption of this photo that suggests it's a wrestler in a lab-like environment. I mean seriously, where else would you keep one?

love, cause it's all you got.

...and another and another...

Three weeks ago I got a text telling me that a good friend has to have surgery to correct some mitral valve issues.  Friday I got an email telling me my boss at the college is having a cardiacc cath tomorrow and possibly an operation.

WTF?

So this week while I await news from the southwest about my friend, I'll be covering all the classes for my boss and waiting to hear about his health as well.

This makes me nervous, especially since they have the same first name.

Oh, and my boss just spent the weekend in the same city my friend lives in. It's not a tourist destination, so it's doubly odd. 

AND Saturday morning I called Hawaii to check on another friend after hearing about the tsunami warning.  I had intended to wait until an early but more decent hour than it was when I first heard, but halfway between early and less early I learned that Hawaiian officials had sounded the emergency sirens statewide so I figured what the hell he's up, and called.

This was the result of that warning:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1544942980&k=ZZAXPZUR45TF6BD1QEVUU4S2WQIB42X1QP1UE&oid=1298405634023
THAT'S my kind of Tsunami!

Also yesterday I was at the grocery and this guy walked up and asked where the hot dog buns were.  It was  my old boss from the radiator store.  He's semi retired, and he looked great.  I was so happy for him, he always worked his ass off for that business so I was glad he got  something out of the demise of the store.

So, since it seems to be a period of happy coincidences I'm well awaiting the next one...and the next...and the next...

And so it goes:
(I've taken the liberty today of posting a picture of the partner of an acquaintance. It's just such a sweet pic and I couldn't resist.  I hope it's ok.)

 

Love cause it's all you got.