The Tin Man » 2006

Sunday, January 1, 2006

I think last night was the best New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had. Everything just came together wonderfully - we were at a friend’s apartment with several good friends, some other interesting people to complete the mix, various alcoholic concoctions, fried cheese, and a big hi-def widescreen TV on which we watched poor Dick Clark struggle to speak post-stroke (it was so sad) and Mariah Carey struggle to sing while her enormous breasts tried to take over the proceedings. The Breasts That Ate Times Square. Has she always had those things?

There was also a detour to Anderson Cooper on CNN, of course.

The party was bookended by two rides on the A train, each with drunken revelers. Ordinarily they would have been irritating, but there was something cinematic about it last night - the couple making out in the seats at the end of the car, the guy wearing the paper top hat with “Happy New Year” printed across it.

And, not to gloat, but at the end of the night, it’s great to go home with someone you love.

While we were riding the train up to the party last night, I remarked to Matt that I can remember what I’ve done on every New Year’s Eve since 1987. I now realize that it’s a little sketchy in the late 80s, but here’s the list:

Ringing in 1986 (age 13): I remember seeing Young Sherlock Holmes with my family, although that might or might not have been on New Year’s Eve.

1987: My brother and I and two of our friends hung out upstairs while my parents’ threw a New Year’s party downstairs. Earlier that night my family saw Little Shop of Horrors at the movies.

1988: Our house, with my family, after having seen a movie earlier that night that I can’t remember.

1989: A hotel in Hong Kong with my family. (We’d moved to Japan several months before.)

1990: A hotel in Cairns, Australia with my family. Welcome to the 1990s.

1991: A hotel in Phuket, Thailand with my family.

1992: My parents’ house, with my family, after having seen Father of the Bride earlier that night; our first “normal” New Year’s after moving back from overseas.

1993: Times Square, or actually 50th Street (a few blocks north of Times Square), with my high school friends, whom I hadn’t seen since graduating a year and a half earlier.

1994: Amsterdam with my family. The streets were crazy.

1995: A party with my best friend and some of his friends at someone’s house in New Jersey. This party had the Ziti Incident. I had to drive three people home in someone else’s car, and someone was holding a big aluminum-foil tray of ziti that spilled over in the car.

1996: My parents’ friends’ house. Very few people, all of them middle-aged. Yawn.

1997: A hotel in Jamaica with my family.

1998: A party with the same best friend and at the same house as for 1995. We all rang in the new year in the basement with plastic cups of champagne.

1999: Alone. I’d met a fun guy that night, but at midnight I was in my car by myself, stopped at the side of the road in the hills of suburban New Jersey, my radio tuned to Z100. Prince’s “1999″ was playing. I looked out at the Manhattan skyline 15 miles east and could see fireworks. It was a bummer of a New Year’s Eve.

2000: A milliennium party at my parents’ house.

2001: The day after a big blizzard, I spontaneously went down to central NJ and celebrated at a gay bar with my friend Mitch and some of his friends. Someone got handsy with me. It was fun.

2002: Party at a big loft in Soho owned by a friend of Mike and Dan.

2003: Same as 2002.

2004: Matt and I hung out at his place and watched the ball drop on TV. Matt had returned from Tennessee the day before and it was nice to be together. Very low-key.

2005: Same as 2004, because Matt and I were both recovering from the flu.

2006: Last night, obviously.

Happy New Year!

12:26 PM | 4 drops of oil

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

I was about to post a blog entry when the outlet to which my computer is connected turned off suddenly without my saving what I wrote. Grr.

Anyway, to reconstruct what I wrote:

I’m depressed about the end of my 11-day vacation (parties, movies) and going back to work tomorrow, but I’m thankful that I had the day off after New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day often feels like a Sunday because you usually have to go back to work the next day, but because I had today off, New Year’s Day felt like a Saturday. I took advantage of the extra day by going out last night with a few friends to Hiro, which is gay on Sunday nights. It was very crowded, very Chelsea/East Village - lots of guys in tight t-shirts - and very loud. Up to a point, it was just what I needed, but eventually I got sick of it.

Yesterday I went to see King Kong with Andy, who was all sniffles and tears at the end. I enjoyed the movie, although it didn’t affect me in the same way. At 187 minutes, it was exhausting, with some great performances by Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, and the ape himself. I forgave the movie because I viewed it as a tribute to the original; I can’t imagine someone coming up with the idea ex nihilo.

Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride II, the 1990s remakes with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton, were on HBO today. I watched both movies, and both seemed all poignant and made me feel sad. I don’t know why. The passage of time, growing older.

So tomorrow I go back to work. The first time I wrote this post, I wrote that I was about to go into the living room because I was feeling sad and wanted to be with Matt. After my computer turned off, I did so. I lay on his lap with my eyes closed while we listened to music. Now I’m feeling a bit better (although still sad), and now I can go to sleep.

12:58 AM | 4 drops of oil

Thursday, January 5, 2006

After two days back at work, I took today off. I’ve had a sore throat the last couple of days. (Illness seems to be going around.) This morning I woke up and felt crappy, so I called in sick and got back into bed. I slept on and off until noon. It… was… wonderful, probably because I felt like a lead balloon.

Then I went out and bought an air purifier. Ever since we moved into this apartment last summer I’ve had occasional stretches of waking up with a dry, sore throat. I figured an air purifier couldn’t hurt, and I decided it was finally time to buy one. So I walked up to Home Depot on 23rd.

Home Depot! In the city! I’d never been to the Manhattan Home Depot before. Matt just went for the first time a few days ago, and that gave me the idea.

They’ve got a big plant selection there. I might have to go back at some point and buy plants. Plants would be so… so… green.

More fun than going to Home Depot was walking up Fifth Avenue on a weekday. There are so many glamorous and good-looking people who must spend entire weekdays walking up and down Fifth Avenue, because they were all out there today. And such beautiful architecture and fashionable shops. It felt like what people who have never been to Manhattan imagine Manhattan to be like.

So now I’m going to relax and read.

2:06 PM | 3 drops of oil

Friday, January 6, 2006

Press release: The New Jersey Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in Lewis v. Harris, the state’s same-sex marriage case, for February 15, 2006. That means a decision could come as early as this summer.

12:04 PM | Comments Off

Saturday, January 7, 2006

Frack.

4:32 PM | 1 drop of oil

Can someone explain to me the gay world’s obsession with Jake Gyllenhaal? I just don’t get it.

8:45 PM | 11 drops of oil

Sunday, January 8, 2006

“One symbol for being gay is a triangle, and when two triangles like each other a lot, they make a Star of David.”

(Bonus: the article mentions the rabbi I had as a kid.)

12:46 PM | Comments Off

There’s a terrific article by Herbert Muschamp in today’s Times’s Arts & Leisure section about 2 Columbus Circle, gay men, New York in the 60s, culture, architecture, and Modernism. Pretty brilliant. “There’s no such thing as a bad drag act. There are only bad drag-act audiences.” I retract part of this.

5:31 PM | 1 drop of oil

Monday, January 9, 2006

Hearing Leo McGarry on The West Wing get asked about his heart attack during the vice-presidential debate tonight: ugh.

12:37 AM | Comments Off

More on the Muschamp article about 2 Columbus Circle:

From Skyline Online: “The article is everything we’ve come to expect from Muschamp: vast verbiage, implausible premises, provocative assertions, and annoying stylistic tics.” (Sounds like one of my readers.) “But his mad ravings are also punctuated by moments of breathtaking brilliance.”

From Tropolism: “queer spaces are always contingent, on the edges. They flourish and disappear. They do not cling to history, but to the present, and to life.”

Interesting.

4:44 PM | 3 drops of oil

Funny.

9:48 PM | 1 drop of oil

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The Basic Case Against Alito.

By all accounts he is a low-key, pleasant man who respects disagreement and does not insult his colleagues on the bench. He is a cautious craftsman who takes small discrete steps towards his objectives rather than daring leaps. Where the law is hard and clear, he does not defy it or try to amend it judicially - though of course as a Supreme Court justice he will have scope to modify even well-settled law.

But wherever there is running room - opened up by gaps in application, conflicts in precedents, ambiguities in statutes - Alito is an activist who works steadily to push the law well beyond conventional boundaries of precedent.

The article delves into the issue of Alito’s views on executive power. Indeed, that issue seems to be a big one in the Alito hearings. But while Alito would likely be on the Court for at least 25 years, Bush has only three years left in office; today’s current events will eventually fade away. Or will they? Until recently, abuse of executive power hadn’t been a big issue since the Nixon years. It could be that the issue is just inherent in Bush’s and Cheney’s style of management and will disappear when the next president (either Democrat or Republican) comes to power with his or her own people and governing philosophy. On the other hand, fear of terrorism is probably going to be with us for a long time, even after Bush leaves office, and the presidency changes people. So executive power could continue to be a big issue from now on. It bears looking at - along with all the other issues, of course.

11:43 AM | 6 drops of oil

How much does a gym membership cost in Manhattan? I’m thinking of getting one, but I have no idea what a good price for a membership is. Any input?

2:12 PM | 4 drops of oil

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

From an article about English people and alcohol:

Drink also featured heavily in the life of George Brown, a Labor foreign secretary in the 1960’s, who is once said to have stumblingly invited a guest in flowing purple robes at a reception in Peru to dance. But it was not to be.

“First, you are drunk,” the guest is said to have replied. “Second, this is not a waltz; it is the Peruvian national anthem. And third, I am not a woman; I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.”

12:19 PM | 1 drop of oil

As evidenced by a prior post, I’m thinking more seriously about joining a gym. I’ve been annoyed at my body lately. More specifically, I’ve been annoyed at my right knee.

For some reason, I woke up one morning two months ago and my right knee felt cramped. Ever since, whenever I stand up after sitting down for a while, my knee hurts and I have to walk it out. It happens when I get up from my office chair, it happens when I get up from sitting on the PATH train. I’m only 32 years old, and my body should not be falling apart yet. I have no idea why the fuck this is happening to me.

Upon hearing this story, two different people (albeit not professionals) have told me that I need to get exercise. So on Monday evening I started doing these knee exercises that I learned last year when I did a little physical therapy.

But I really should be exercising regularly, more generally. It’s important as you get older, and I’m older than I once was. But I loathe exercise. It’s just so boring, and you wind up feeling sore, and you have to wait for people to finish using the machines, and I’m impatient, and it’s expensive. But I should be doing it. I’m just reluctant to, especially because of the money involved. But it’s probably a good investment.

I’m hoping that by complaining to myself about it I’ll actually get my shit together and do it.

3:06 PM | 8 drops of oil

Thursday, January 12, 2006

So, try though I may, I will never be able to pull off the kind of looks that I would like. I will never be the rumpled, bed-headed frat boy (aging or otherwise), or the slick, counter-culture hipster. I will always be the guy most often confused with someone’s English professor from a small, private University with a reputation for radical thinking. Not the worst fate, possibly, but frustrating in our glam/casual universe. Especially for a gay man, for whom your look is like, crucial.

Nice post.

11:59 AM | 2 drops of oil

Impeach Bush.

Yes, it’s a cliché. A bumper sticker. But it needs to happen. The wiretapping is the last straw.

Arguments against an impeachment effort:

Republicans control the House, so Bush will never be impeached;
conviction requires 67 senators, so he will never be removed;
if he is removed, we have President Cheney until 1/20/09;
the time and effort involved in impeachment would be better spent formulating solid policy positions and strategies for 2008 and beyond.

Arguments for an impeachment effort:

Bush deserves to be impeached on principle;
even if a serious effort fails, it will educate people;
a serious effort could tie up Bush’s agenda for the rest of his presidency.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

So this ice-skating couple just did an ice dance on ABC involving an American flag. Totally over the top. It was an exhibition show, though. They probably don’t do that in competition.

I happened to catch the U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Championships on TV last night. I mentioned this to my friend Dave, a big figure-skating fan, who told me they were rebroadcasting the men’s and pairs on ESPN2 today. So I watched some of that. And now I’m watching the U.S. Figure Skating Spectacular (which involved the aforementioned American flag.) So I’m all set to watch the Olympic figure skating next month.

In men’s figure skating, the U.S. champion (as of last night) is Johnny Weir, who referred to a competitor’s choreography last week as “a vodka-shot-and-a-snort-of-coke kind of thing.”

He said he would not censor himself because he was not brought up that way.

Asked if he thought of himself as a role model, he said yes, but only to children who “feel different or stifled or squashed,” because that was the kind of child he was. “No one is Jesus,” he said. “I’m not for everyone.”

He added: “I don’t make statements just to make them. I mean every single word I say regardless of if it’s offensive or mean-spirited. I’m not going to sugarcoat it in any way.”

The other two U.S. men’s Olympic competitors will be Evan Lysacek and Matt Savoie. Both are rather attractive.

Oh yeah, there are some women, too.

Actually, Sasha Cohen is quite fantastic. Matt told me that her name sounded familiar, but I told him he was probably thinking of this guy. As far as I know, he doesn’t skate.

Doesn’t she totally look like Christina Ricci, by the way?

6:17 PM | 1 drop of oil

Monday, January 16, 2006

I’ve done it. I have joined a gym.

2:40 PM | 1 drop of oil

Today is my five-year blogiversary. Happy Blogiversary to me.

Until now I’ve always spelled it “bloggaversary.” But a Google search finds 342 hits for that spelling and 160,000 for “blogiversary,” so I guess I’ll finally conform.

Cookies and cake to follow.

2:47 PM | 3 drops of oil

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Happy 300th birthday to Benjamin Franklin.

He was already a father - and a thriving publisher - when Adams and Washington were in swaddling clothes. He retired from the printing business when Jefferson was 4. He had flown his kite when Madison was an infant; by the time Hamilton was born he had turned to politics, and proposed a first plan for colonial union.

1:37 PM | Comments Off

In Praise of Slow Design: an article about the New Yorker’s nearly-unchanging design.

Many of the magazine’s most idiosyncratic conventions bespoke an almost neurotic reticence. For 45 years, The New Yorker had no table of contents. Ross’s successor William Shawn introduced them without comment in 1969. Until the October 5, 1992, issue, bylines were placed unobtrusively at the end of articles, when they appeared at all, almost as an afterthought. “Regular readers of The New Yorker will note in this issue a number of changes in the magazine’s format and design,” warned the magazine’s fourth editor, Tina Brown, and beginning with that issue, bylines finally appeared beneath the headlines. In the following months, le deluge: Brown would introduce brief article summaries (a.k.a. “decks”) and photography to the interior, bringing in Richard Avedon, Gilles Peress and Robert Polidori as regulars. The incorporation of these features — a table of contents, bylines, photographs — utterly commonplace in nearly every other general interest magazine on earth, were each regarded as a revolutionary, even shocking, innovation within the pages of The New Yorker. Nonetheless, a comparision of that first issue to the one that arrived in my mailbox last week reveals more similarities than differences.

3:13 PM | Comments Off

After joining a gym yesterday afternoon, I went back in the early evening for my first workout. My membership includes a free one-hour personal consultation, but my schedule and the personal trainer’s don’t match up until Saturday. In the meantime, the woman who initially signed me up and gave me a tour of the gym showed me how to use the elliptical machine. (Here are some elliptical machines.)

The elliptical was great. I used it for 30 minutes, and each cardio machine at this gym (elliptical trainer, exercise bike, treadmill) has its own TV screen with several channels. You just plug in some headphones and watch what you want, and the 30 minutes flies by. The best thing was that even though I worked up a sweat, I didn’t feel completely collapsed and dead to the world like I do after I go running. Every so often - maybe once a year - I get motivated to go for a run. I usually do it just once or twice before giving up, because it kills my feet and knees and leaves me completely out of breath. The elliptical machine seems much healthier. My legs felt a little worked out afterwards, I worked up a good sweat, and the distance calculator on the machine said I did the equivalent of at least two miles. I’ll probably do more as I continue.

Once I meet with the personal trainer, I’ll learn how to use the weight machines. That’ll be fun. Maybe?

Back in my first year of law school (almost ten years ago - wow) I started using the university gym. I gave up on the weight machines and the entire gym after just a few days. I don’t think the same will happen this time. I feel more motivated and I’m not going to push myself too hard too quickly. I’m going to be nice to myself and just do what’s healthy.

Yay me.

4:12 PM | 4 drops of oil

God, I love Felicity Huffman.

4:53 PM | Comments Off

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Echo chambers are notoriously distorting. But after reading this, I can’t help it. It’s a total fantasy and totally unrealistic and totally off-the-wall and it would probably be a sucky idea. But I can’t help it. After his recent speech (you can find it here), I want Al Gore to run again.

Hillary’s pissed me off ever since her pandering on flag-burning. I liked the line the other day about the plantation, even though it was awkward, but she’s too much of a politician and lacks Bill’s innate skill. She’ll never win over the 50 percent of the country who doesn’t like her, and she’ll continue to piss off her base.

Gore has said he’s not going to run again, so I’m crazy. Gore’s 2000 campaign was awful, so I’m crazy. Gore is strange and pedantic, so I’m crazy. The media would tear him to pieces, so I’m crazy. And even if Gore has rediscovered his spine, he’d probably lose it once he began another political campaign. So I’m crazy.

I always hated John Kerry. But I always liked Al Gore.

Yeah, I’m crazy. I know. He’s a scholar, not a president. I should give up the fantasy.

In that case, I’m very intrigued by this guy.

5:10 PM | 4 drops of oil

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Hypocritic Oath: Scalia on abortion vs. Scalia on assisted suicide.

Bingo! I agree absolutely. Scalia is such a fucking hypocrite. He’s an activist judge when it suits his beliefs.

1:04 PM | 2 drops of oil

I briefly mentioned John Kerry yesterday. Well, the newest issue of GQ has a long, harsh article about Kerry and his possible attempt to run again in 2008.

“He thinks it’s about him,” says a former Kerry campaign aide who had significant responsibilities in a key swing state. “He thinks all those people worked so hard and gave so much of their time because of him. And that is a gross misreading of the situation. I think he’s under the illusion that over 50 million Americans voted for him, as opposed to the reality that they voted against George W. Bush.”…

Another big-name Democrat who is close to party activists and donors, and who worked hard for Kerry in 2004, is even harsher: “Nobody has enthusiasm for him. We should have won that last time. He was running against that idiot.”

Even better is this exchange reported in today’s New York Daily News.

Wade [Kerry’s press secretary] responded hirsutely: “As a GQ fashionista would say, the magazine’s political coverage has the longevity of the Soul Patch and the sophistication of The Mullet. I won’t lose sleep over the inside-the-beltway musings of a reporter too young to shave and the Chardonnay-drinking pals he met on the cocktail party circuit.”

Crowley [the reporter], who pointed out that he’s 33 while Wade is only 30, retorted: “David Wade should show more respect for his elders. A juvenile response like that is what you get from someone without a real defense. And, by the way, maybe if John Kerry understood fashion better, he wouldn’t have gone on those windsurfing outings, which made his own staff cringe.”

1:58 PM | 1 drop of oil

Friday, January 20, 2006

Interesting.

Interior landmarks are defined as spaces “customarily open or accessible to the public, or to which the public is customarily invited.” But the law does not discuss what happens when tenants move or owners try to cope with post-9/11 fears.

This reporter set out on Jan. 9 to see what luck he would have visiting the interior landmarks downtown. He showed up unannounced at each place, in the garb of a history-minded visitor - spectacles, old Harris tweed jacket, button-down shirt, bow tie, thick-soled shoes (actually, he dresses like that every day) - with a copy of the official Guide to New York City Landmarks tucked under one arm.

He was allowed to walk through just one space without undergoing a search. Two buildings admitted him after scanning him. He was allowed to glimpse a couple of lobbies and sneaked a peek at another. At two buildings, he was told firmly to leave.

The article then lists various interior landmarks, ranked roughly by accessibility. Don’t bother trying to get into the Woolworth Building, apparently.

1:15 PM | 3 drops of oil

Saturday, January 21, 2006

This is such a lame attempt at MTA humor. Humor isn’t funny when it doesn’t make sense.

12:56 AM | 2 drops of oil

Michael used this word last night.

“Adorkable.” I’d never heard it before. I love it.

5:22 PM | 4 drops of oil

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Here’s a profile of Markos Moulitsas, creator of Daily Kos. And here’s an example of why I don’t like Daily Kos:

There was another reason, though, why hundreds of thousands of liberals around the country found themselves addictively checking and rechecking Daily Kos as the 2004 election approached. It made them think Democrats were going to win. Moulitsas wasn’t just posting any polls, he was selecting those that suggested Democrats—from John Kerry to congressional candidates—were heading for victory, while downplaying less encouraging signs. It left liberals trapped in a bubble of reassurance. Heading into the election, it would have been reasonable to assume from the evidence presented on Daily Kos that Kerry was the clear favorite to beat Bush, and that Democrats were likely to pick up seats in both houses of Congress. When none of these things happened, there was a sense of incomprehension. All of Kos’s confident predictions had been wrong.

I dislike shrill, reality-challenged liberals just as much as I dislike shrill, reality-challenged conservatives. It’s never productive to live in a bubble.

1:54 PM | 10 drops of oil

Matt and I walked up to one of our regular restaurants for dinner last night, E.J.’s Luncheonette on Sixth Avenue in the Village, only to find the windows covered with newspapers and some signs saying that the restaurant has closed. I’m bummed. It’s true that the service had gotten too slow in the last couple of months (they’d seemed to have laid some employees off), but the heaping plates of food were yummy, and it was just a short walk away from us.

If a chain restaurant opens up in its place, I’m going to be so pissed. Unless it’s, well, tasty.

A favorite restaurant closes. Just another day in New York.

2:08 PM | Comments Off

The West Wing has been cancelled. Ah, well. It’s probably time.

From the article:

The decision was made last month, before John Spencer died.
We will find out who wins the election. (So much for my speculation that the series would end on a cliffhanger.)
Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme will not be involved in the finale. Darn.

The West Wing began as a kind of behind-the-scenes look at an idealized version of the Clinton presidency. Since 2001, it’s been a comforting alternate universe. It’s time for the show to end, but I would have continued to watch it. I’ll be sad to see it go.

3:51 PM | Comments Off

In-depth profile of David Lat, formerly of Underneath Their Robes and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark, NJ, and now of Wonkette. Lots of interesting details. And I’m a little jealous, for some reason.

3:59 PM | Comments Off

I just met Jim McGreevey.

Matt and I were having dinner with my parents at a restaurant on 16th Street. While waiting for our coats at the coat check, I saw a table of about ten people and immediately recognized my former governor (a.k.a. formerly my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss). I leave most famous people alone, but I couldn’t this time, so I went up to him and said, “Excuse me, are you Jim McGreevey?” He said yes. He stood up and smiled and shook my hand and we talked for about a minute. I told him that I’m an employee of the State of New Jersey. He asked me what department I work in, etc. I wish I could have worked something into the conversation about how I, too, am a gay American, but there was no good segue.

Ah well.

8:19 PM | 5 drops of oil

Monday, January 23, 2006

More on The West Wing’s cancellation:

Since the new year, Wells has been writing the two-part episode in which Leo will die of a heart attack. The cantankerous politician with a soft side and a sense of humor survived a heart attack last season, an illness Wells said he would have never written for the character had they known Spencer would be prone to it. The episode in which Leo dies, five days before the election, will air on April 2, Wells said….

When the show’s writers began researching how the government would handle the death of a vice presidential nominee just before an election, they were surprised to learn there was no constitutional provision for it. Based on the advice of election attorneys, Wells decided that Leo McGarry’s name will remain on the ballot and if Santos wins, he will then appoint a vice president after his inauguration.

12:48 PM | Comments Off

The New Yorker on Battlestar Galactica. This is a great show for people (like me) who like to make fun of most sci-fi shows.

1:16 PM | Comments Off

I teared up at the end of tonight’s How I Met Your Mother.

Matt was all sniffly at the end of Brokeback Mountain while I was completely dry-eyed. And yet my eyes just got all moist at the end of a sitcom episode. What’s up with me?

9:36 PM | 6 drops of oil

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Ick. A profile of the rather creepy 61-year-old CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch.

His biggest obsession, though, is realizing his singular vision of idealized all-American youth. He wants desperately to look like his target customer (the casually flawless college kid), and in that pursuit he has aggressively transformed himself from a classically handsome man into a cartoonish physical specimen: dyed hair, perfectly white teeth, golden tan, bulging biceps, wrinkle-free face, and big, Angelina Jolie lips.

And:

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America’s unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”

The article is written by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who wrote a much-commmented-upon article about frat-boy culture for the New York Times Magazine last year.

Many of the comments in response are entertaining, too.

12:30 PM | 3 drops of oil

I’m not a morning person.

The trainer who’s been helping me at the gym (a 61-year-old, gay, “daddy” type) suggested that I do my cardio in the morning. So I got up extra-early this morning to go to the gym.

“Extra-early” for me was 7:15.

I know, that’s not at all early. But usually I can’t pull myself out of bed until 8:15 or 8:20. My official starting work time is 9:00 am, but I rarely get to the office before 9:25. I just cannot get myself up.

I used to be more of a morning person. In high school I got up at 6:30 every day. Then again, in high school I typically went to bed around 10:30. These days I stay up and watch The Daily Show, and sometimes part of The Colbert Report, so I’m in bed sometime between 11:30 and 12. But it takes me a long time to fall asleep. Even when I fall asleep easily, in the morning I can’t get out of bed. Is it possible I need more than eight hours of sleep a night?

Anyway, I got up “early” this morning, went to the gym and did 20 minutes of elliptical followed by some suggested stomach exercises. The trainer suggests that I do cardio and weights on alternate days.

Perhaps I can get myself out of bed two mornings a week to do cardio. But the weights will probably remain an evening activity. I just can’t start out every day with the hassle of going to the gym.

4:06 PM | 3 drops of oil

The BEAST: 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005. Brilliant.

Some excerpts from what I’ve read so far:

On Rush Limbaugh: “If political discussion were sex, the Limbaugh audience would be a horde of virgins beating off to deranged rape fantasies.”

The appropriate punishment for Charles Krauthammer: “Lockheed-designed bionic exoskeleton he receives from Dick Cheney in exchange for opposing stem cell research goes berserk, ignoring Krauthammer’s excited protestations as it uses its powerful titanium arms to pulverize his loved ones and donate his life savings to Hamas.”

On Tom Cruise: “Cruise is a perfect example of a person who is simultaneously in love with and completely unfamiliar with himself.”

4:49 PM | 1 drop of oil

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

From the Boston Globe:

Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the minority leader, insisted that Democrats are still considering a filibuster, though other senators and top aides say it is extremely unlikely that the party will use the parliamentary maneuver to block Alito. Reid said he would not pressure fellow party members, but he predicted that most Democrats will vote no. Reid said Bush should treat it as a warning to find consensus candidates — and preferably women — for any future picks.

“I think it sends a message to the American people that this guy is not King George, he’s President George,” Reid said.

Excellent. No filibuster, but hey, at least we’ll ineffectually vote no! And yeah, Bush should totally treat this as a warning to find consensus candidates, otherwise the Democrats might ineffectually vote no again. Stop, or I’ll say “stop” again! Idiots. Complete idiots.

You want to “send a message” to the American people, write a letter. You really want to send a message to the American people, stop being spineless wimps.

I’m so fucking fed up with the Democrats.

1:34 PM | 3 drops of oil

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Yes, and yes.

I love the first link. Read the whole thing. Here are the first few paragraphs.

Effective immediately, the Democrats will be known as the lyin’-ass boyfriend party - the perfect date for progressive voters looking to be stood up, bullshitted blind, or left holding the tab.

For five years now it’s been “Please baby, baby, baby, please! I’m sorry I was a no-show last time, but hey, that was because I was working overtime to save up to do something extra special for next time, which is the really big event - right, baby?”

Last April, when the Democrats backed away from filibustering extremist appeals court nominees, it was, “Don’t you fret, baby. We’re not going to go to the mat over small fry like Owen, Pryor, and Brown because we’re saving the filibuster for the big one - you know, the Supreme Court, baby.” Months later, Democrats folded rather than fight John Roberts, the young-ish yes man with a penchant for executive privilege and a wife who used to head an anti-choice organization. After all, they said, they needed to save their energy, and the filibuster, for the next Supreme Court nominee, who would undoubtedly be worse.

Well, baby, the moment of truth has arrived. It’s Alito-time, and the lyin’-ass boyfriends are backpedaling again. Why aren’t they going to raise a ruckus this time? Aw, baby… the filibuster is just so darned hard to use with only 45 senators! And what’s the point of trying to do anything until we’ve recaptured the Senate or the White House?

I have terrible news for the Democrats: being the minority party is not their real problem.

As I said: continue reading.

11:12 AM | 5 drops of oil

Filing taxes is going to be fun this year. I worked in New Jersey for the entire year, but I was officially a New Jersey resident for seven months and a New York resident for five months. For New Jersey I have to file a part-year resident tax return and a part-year nonresident tax return. For New York I have to file a part-year resident tax return. Because I moved specifically into New York City, I have to file a Change of City Resident Status form. And of course I have to file my federal return.

Aaaaaaaaaagh. It’s gonna be a blast.

4:59 PM | 1 drop of oil

Friday, January 27, 2006

The first half of last night’s 100th episode of Smallville made me very happy. (more…)

1:35 PM | 2 drops of oil

Awesome.

1:55 PM | Comments Off

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Sunday evenings in winter are depressing, especially if you haven’t done anything all weekend.

I did do some stuff:

Friday evening I hung out with some friends at Therapy (very crowded) and then watched the Sci-Fi Channel with them.

Yesterday I got up early. Praise be.

I went to the gym, where my biceps, still almost nonexistent, nevertheless appeared able to perform more reps of a particular weight than they could on Wednesday. So while I can’t really see any results yet with my eyes, I guess something must be happening.

I also did my taxes yesterday, though I haven’t filed them yet. I’m really frustrated, because TurboTax tells me I should get a $26 refund from New York while my own calculations tell me I owe New York several hundred dollars. I’ve double checked both my TurboTax inputs and my own calculations. Whom do I trust? And why am I so stressed out by this when I still have two and half months in which to do my taxes? I don’t know. But I like to get my taxes over and done with.

Last night we went out to a Greek restaurant for dinner with my family. Afterwards, we came home and I tried to solve my tax problem again. Unsuccessfully. Doing my taxes on a Saturday night - what a party animal!

Today I went to the gym again and did cardio on the elliptical machine. I’ve found that both the Altar Boyz cast album and “Schoolhouse Rock” songs are great cardio accompaniment.

The rest of the day I’ve been reading the Sunday paper.

And that’s that. We haven’t done anything else all weekend - haven’t gone anywhere interesting, no new neighborhoods, no museums with insightful or entertaining exhibits - nothing. And this is Manhattan.

And tomorrow is Monday and I get to start the whole thing over again.

6:18 PM | 6 drops of oil

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

sigh

11:39 AM | Comments Off

Jeez - tomorrow’s newspaper front pages are going to be crowded: Coretta Scott King died, Samuel Alito was sworn in, Alan Greenspan stepped down, and Bush will have given his SOTU speech. And the Oscars were announced, although that’s not necessarily front-page news, depending on the paper.

3:40 PM | 2 drops of oil

Dammit. First E.J’s closed and now Grilled Cheese NYC has closed, too? What am I supposed to do on trivia night now? Back to boring pizza, I guess.

Harrumph.

11:14 PM | 1 drop of oil