Corner of 36th and 6th.

There is a sax playing an incredibly sad song out of my office window this morning. He is making even Bob Marley sound depressing.

Makes it all harder...

Savage.

Like it happens every year, it's St. Jude's day again.

***"These are my guns
These are my furs
This is my living room.
You can play with me there sometimes
If you catch me in the mood."

***And these are my roots. [tree]

If you must be told...

From The Morning News' iPod Etiquette:

#6 Keep the volume moderate.
No one else should be able to hear your music. That constant buzz emanating from your headphones is only slightly less irritating than your tendency to hum “Like a Virgin” whenever Madonna comes on. Speaking of which…

#7 Don’t get funky on us.
Yes, we know you like music. We can see that it moves you. This is because you’re always moving—bopping your head, dancing, drumming, even singing along. Please, stop it. Otherwise, we’re forced to feign interest in your childlike enthusiasm for a song we can’t even hear. It’s exhausting.

I would never have come up with it myself.

His witticisms are vapors in a toxic fog given off by a soul rotting in its own unhappiness.

Dear Miss Manners...

"I once was broken up with by a guy's doorman. 'I'm sorry Ms. Hobbes, Jonathan won't be coming down. Ever.'" - Miranda

In this age of fast connections, pseudo-reality worlds and empty relationships has it become acceptable to break-up with someone via email?

I feel like Carrie when her boyfriend left her a Post-It note. "Carrie swears that she will refrain from giving Berger the satisfaction of an angry message, but winds up inadvertantly leaving one after badmouthing him to some of his friends at an exclusive club."

I only said I feel like her.

Missed Connection.

I missed the opening of Big Lug yesterday. I actually went there but didn't go in - I forgot my wallet home and couldn't prove I was of legal drinking age - damn genes! Maybe it was for the better after reading today's MO [joking] [now, after reading WLS I kind of feel glad I wasn't there]

But now I'm really looking forward to my friend Paul's debut on Thursday which promises "deep funky house FOR MEN. Sounds great.

Best/Worst of the 80's.

Andrew Sullivan asked his readers to submit what they though was the best and the worst music videos of the 80's.

I have just realized that distinction doesn't really matter - sometimes the best of the 80's was also the worst of the 80's, no? Case in point is this video, which he calls "Best Worst '80s Video Nominee". You decide.

Have I mentioned I met Freddie Mercury in 1985 at a gay dance club in Rio? [Really bad interview with FM in Rio, 1985]

Excuses.

"Sorry I haven't posted in awhile". [via]

Latest Movies, Express Reviews.

The Departed: The Jack. That rat at the end cheapened it to me.

The Last King of Scotland: Din Da Da. Forrester gets a nomination.

Marie Antoinette: I want candy too. Real pretty.

The Queen: Great fun. Mirren gets a nomination.

Running With Scissors: I loved the book so much I was ready to be disappointed. I wasn't.

Shortbus: Sexually numb. The lack of controversy is the biggest surprise to me.

Infamous: Much better than the other. Capote as I have always imagined him to be.

Little Children: Best movie I have seen this year, so far. "It's the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness"

The New Yorker

Cheering myself up.

Some things that make me happy are made of chocolate & marshmallow. Others are just deliciously plain.

Saw Hell House this weekend. The 'play' was written by evangelicals to be performed every halloween to warn adolescents of the easy way to hell (apparently reading 'The Onion' and watching Jon Stewart, among many things). As the Times observed, "because the interest of “Hell House” is more anthropological than theatrical there isn’t a lot for a theater critic to comment on." It's played straight as its creator intended at this warehouse in Dumbo. They did not have to do it any other way to scare all of us.

We’re an entire nation of Marie Antoinettes: "I meet these people all the time: binge consumers, intentionally oblivious young people who see amassing a great shoe collection as their purpose in life." And BTW, I really enjoyed the movie.

What really matters.

Good friends.

A Neglected Language

"More people speak Portuguese as their native language than French, German, Italian or Japanese. So it can rankle the 230 million Portuguese speakers that the rest of the world often views their mother tongue as a minor language and that their novelists, poets and songwriters tend to be overlooked."
New York Times

Update: I'm aliveand NOT being boring.

I am also keeping a different blog on Fashion Trends, for work. If you want to know what the must have tops for next season are...