Talent

Just about any pop singer (Katy Perry, Mariah Carey, Cher, etc) can make a great song in a studio full of sound engineers who can auto-tune and digitally correct their sound.  This is called technology.

But THIS, ladies and gentlemen, isn't technology.  Its called talent:

Technically correct LIVE singing filled with dynamics, emotion, control, and restraint.  These are attributes of talent that can't be duplicated with technology during a live performance.

Kudos to Lady Gaga for a beautiful tribute to these classic American songs, while simultaneously showing the world she's much more than just a pop singer.

Shoe-tastic!

I grew up with 3 sisters and a mother, so 4 women in the house, and having been a young gay boy I have a pretty vivid memory of the styles and fashions of my youth.

I remember my sisters wearing huge platform shoes in the 70s...
and Candies in the 80s.But I don't think anything has had a greater effect on women's shoes than Sex and the City. I bet nobody outside of NYC had ever heard of Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Ch00 before Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha made them household names.

Designer shoes have become a huge industry necessitating custom closets with shoe shelves and in some cases, bedrooms converted into walk-in closets. Its no longer about having the perfect pair of black heels. Now its about having a pair of black heels for each outfit.

And who can forget the Alexander McQueen's armadillo shoes worn by Lady Gaga?
With all the creativity and technology out there, shoe-aholics will be practically orgasmic over these:

Friday fragments

Welcome to Friday fragments, my weekly recap of topics too big to forget, yet too small to be their own post.

My friend Larry supplied me with this gem.

Videos have been added to yesterday's post about the Rehoboth Idol finale. Click here to open the post in a new window.

My twisted friend and frequent hilarity contributor Jared sent me this ditty!

After what feels like forever, Project Runway season 9 starts July 28th! I'm so looking forward to it!!

Since I was not on phone duty today I decided to take the day off, as did Spouse, to help Steven & Thad prime and paint their house. Steven had work but Thad's nephew Jack was able to come and the 4 of us got a LOT done today. In addition to priming and painting we also assembled and installed 2 ceiling fans. It was a fun day!

Jared sent me this, which made me chuckle.

Have you seen the parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" by Weird Al Yankovic? Its called "Perform This Way" and I think its hilarious. Check it out! I've been a fan of Weird Al's parody songs and videos for years.

Spouse & I tried a new restaurant tonight called Bay Leaf. Its kind of like a diner and an Italian restaurant and brick oven pizzeria all wrapped up into 1. I had a large crab cake over macaroni & cheese. It was actually better than I thought it would be. Spouse had lasagna and said it was good too. It was nice to not be disappointed by a new place.

Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend!

Sounds of summer

Everyone knows that a song can transport you to a different place, mood, or decade. Likely all of us have heard a song and then said out loud "Wow, this reminds me of my senior year in high school".

To this day whenever I hear The Carpenters I think of the many weekends Spouse & I listened to Carpenters Classics, Vol 2 as we cleaned, painted, and fixed up our very 1st house together.

I remember exactly where I was the 1st time I heard Madonna sing "Lucky Star" on the radio. I thought she was African American. I knew she would become a star.

Now that the weather has turned and I can no longer deny the end of summer and beginning of fall, I think back on the sounds of summer 2010 and the songs that will someday remind me of the great, great summer I've had.

Bad Romance

Bulletproof

Happiness

In the future when I hear these songs I will be taken back to the summer of 2010 when I spent every weekend at the beach with friends, when I danced my butt off at Mandance, when I drove the convertible with the top down and the radio volume up, when I claimed this summer as mine.

Crush du Jour: Ari Levanael

Weekend highlights

We had a typical Sat morning with me drinking coffee and watching back-to-back episodes of "Sell This House" while Spouse had his personal trainer appointment. After a light lunch on the screened porch we went to the 'Resident Appreciation Day' at Steven's property. He opened the pool (although we didn't swim) and provided food, drinks, a raffle, toy give-aways, face painting, and fake tattoos for the residents of the property he manages. Spouse & I both had a hot dog and soda and I also got a fake tattoo around my bicep. It was a little crooked and began to fade in the shower but it was fun.

Afterward we donned our swimsuits and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day and we decided to go for a long walk on the beach. We ran into Rick & Nick and then Ted & Mark as we walked. Back at home I made my bean and nectarine salad and then we walked across the street to the neighborhood block party. There was lots and lots of great food and drinks and we enjoyed eating and visiting with the neighbors. When the 'Electric Slide' came on, a bunch of us joined in on the dance, although it was a bit difficult to 'slide' on the uneven ground. Afterward Spouse & I watched TV and I actually fell asleep on the couch, which is very unusual for me. Since I was tired I decided not to go to Mandance.

Sun morning we woke up to rain. So we met up with Bryan, Thatcher, PW, Steven, Rick & Nick, and Ted & Mark for breakfast at the Long Neck Diner. They have a great all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. It was fun to relax and talk over breakfast knowing we really didn't have anything else planned for the day. Rick & Nick came home with us so Nick could troubleshoot and fix our wireless router. I had tried to reset the password but only successfully un-secured the darned thing. Within about an hour Nick reset the password and re-secured it and made sure our computers could successfully connect. The rain had stopped so Spouse & I walked the full length of the boardwalk in Rehoboth. It was cool and overcast but it was nice to get some exercise and look out onto the ocean. Back at home we relaxed and browsed online for a while, then met Bryan, Thatcher, PW, and Steven for dinner at Purple Parrot. Spouse & I are not thrilled with the food or prices there, but we joined them anyway since the others like the prime rib special on Sun evenings. Back at home Spouse watched 'Ice Road Truckers' and 'Mad Men' while I watched the MTV VMA awards.

Lady Gaga was there at the VMAs and her "Bad Romance" video won in several categories such as Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, Best Dance Video, Best Choreography, and Video of the Year. Here's a list of the winners. I was happy but not surprised, as I have been saying all along that this video is f'ing genius! She had on a different outfit/costume each time she took the stage. As she held up her long dress to walk up the stage steps she showed off those infamous Alexander McQueen lobster claw shoes:

The Video of the Year award was presented to Gaga by none other than Cher in a remake of her skimpy 'Turn Back Time' costume. She said she was the 'oldest woman with the biggest hair and the smallest outfit' at the VMAs. That was pretty funny! Overall I enjoyed watching the VMAs this year and Spouse enjoyed the fact that he did not have to watch them with me.

Crush du Jour: Robert Mauro

Tightrope

You may have noticed in my last two Weekend highlights posts that I mentioned meeting up with friends at Mandance, while Spouse stayed home.

Although we're alike in many ways, Spouse & I are also different in many ways. One of them is going to clubs/bars. He absolutely hates it, while I find it enjoyable at times if I know my friends are going to be there.

For the majority of our 14 years together (god, writing that made me feel really old all the sudden) we have not gone to clubs or bars. He doesn't drink alcohol and thinks its boring to 'stand around'. I drink and sometimes have fun hanging out and talking/laughing with friends, or better yet, dancing.

Every once in a blue moon he will acquiesce to meeting up with friends at a bar of club, especially if we're out of town. God bless him, he was a trouper when we were in NYC with David Dust and others and did our old school East Village gay bar crawl. He also went out when we were on vacation in Portland last Sept, and again with me and a bunch of friends on New Years Eve. But make no mistake: he would ALWAYS prefer to stay home and flip between the multiple home shopping channels.

Two Saturdays ago Mandance was having a Lady GaGa night and I made those GaGa-inspired glasses. Originally Spouse had said he would go with me (and meet up with a bunch of friends there) but then changed his mind. I was not about to let all my hard work on the GaGa glasses go to waste so I decided to go anyway, without him. He didn't mind at all. In fact, he encouraged me to go and have a good time, presumably so he could stay home and have a good time. So I did, and I had a ball! It was like I had somehow 'forgotten' that I loved to dance. I danced my @ss off and really enjoyed myself, without him.

This past Sat Bryan & Jason tried to convince us to go to Mandance. I needed no convincing but Spouse hemmed and hawed and finally gave them a 'maybe' answer. As I suspected, he wound up staying home again, but encouraged me to meet up with Bryan & Jason (and others we knew would be there) so I did. Again, I danced my @ss off and had a really good time, without him.

At first I felt a slight tinge of guilt for having such a good time without Spouse. Some couples regularly enjoy independent interests, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Our life as a couple has not been like that. We almost always agree to do something or go somewhere together, even if one of us has to coerce the other. But what has happened is some interests (like dancing) weren't experienced or enjoyed for years because the other person never wanted to. Until recently.

If only it was just as simple as agreeing to occasionally enjoy independent interests. Obviously a balance needs to be found. My fear is that if we do that too often, we may find it harder to compromise, and instead just tell the other person "I'll do my thing and you do yours tonight". I wouldn't want that to become the default. I want us to do the things we both enjoy, yet occasionally do together the things that only one of us enjoys. Compromising sometimes helps people see that something is not as bad or unpleasant as they think it is. But find that balance is like walking a tightrope.

Also, if I were to go out dancing most Sat nights without him it might cause people to question the stability of our relationship too. Although that may sound silly to those of you in big cities, such thoughts and comments are reality in small towns where everyone knows everyone.

So, we both seem to be okay with occasionally enjoying independent interests, but I'm wondering if any of you have any advice regarding how YOU successfully balance independent interests and couple things?

Crush du Jour: Leonardo Corredor

Weekend highlights

Wow, what a weekend!

Its started as weekends usually do for us with Spouse's work out and my coffee and episodes of "Sell This House". Then I unpacked all my bags of Dollar Store items and laid them out in themes in preparation to begin assembling the GaGa glasses. (Back story: Everyone knows Lady GaGa is known for her unusual, futuristic glasses. A local dance club was hosting a Lady GaGa night and I said to Steven & Thad and The Bobs that we should all wear GaGa-inspired glasses to the club that night. I went to the Dollar Store and bought 6 pairs of glasses and all kinds of stuff to adorn them. Thad loaned me his hot glue gun.) Once satisfied with the layouts, I began piecing and gluing them together. Spouse came home and decided it was too hot to go to the beach, but I still wanted to go. So he stayed home and watched TV and played around on the computer and I met up with Jason and Vince for lunch, then headed to the beach. It was really hot and the breeze was coming off the land so it wasn't cool or refreshing. Vince said he felt like he was in a convection oven! A little later Patrick and Chris showed up, an we divided our time between the shade of our beach umbrellas and the chilly but refreshing ocean. Finally the wind changed directions and came off the ocean which made it much more comfortable.

I got home about 5:30, had a shower, then worked on the GaGa-inspired glasses some more. Then I met Bryan & Jason, Vince, Patrick, Chris, Charles and Henry for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Spouse decided to eat at home and continue his 'day of relaxation'. After dinner I returned home and put the finishing touches on the GaGa-inspired glasses and had Spouse take some photos. I don't know why I didn't smile in any of these photos - maybe because I was rushed. Since Lady GaGa wore those wild lobster claw shoes in her "Bad Romance" video, Steven suggested a lobster theme for 1 of the glasses, so this is what I came up with:

To go along with her song "Money Honey" I created this pair of glasses:
Yes, that's a calculator hanging from the left side. Not directly related to any particular GaGa song, this next pair has a car/racing theme: One of The Bobs suggested a bear theme so I created this:

This pair of glasses is lined with beaded fringe:

And the last pair had a hula girl theme:

If you haven't already, I recommend you click the photos to enlarge them and drink in the details! Spouse hates going to clubs so he stayed home as I packed my glasses and met up with the boys. After modeling each pair of glasses, I wore 1 pair at a time around the club, enjoying the reactions as guys figured out what I was doing. Then came the fun part: dancing with the glasses on! 3 of the 6 pairs had beads on them that moved around as I danced, and the hula girl's shirt moved as I blew out of the corner of my mouth. I would change into a different pair of glasses after 2 or 3 songs, and even got Bryan, Jason, Vince, and Chris to wear them while we all danced. It was a HOOT!! I really had a great time!

Since Sunday's forecast was to be a few degrees cooler, Spouse decided to join me and the guys at the beach. Again we brought beach umbrellas for shade, and plenty of water and snacks. The wind came off the water most of the time so it was really pleasant on the beach. Bryan & Jason, Vince, Patrick, and Chris joined us and we stayed from 11:45 until 4:30. A big wave knocked some guy into Bryan and both of them tumbled around in the surf. Unfortunately Bryan was wearing his prescription sunglasses and was unable to find them. He only meant to wade; otherwise he'd have taken the glasses off. We all had a great time anyway. As we were driving home the skies turned ominously grey, the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees, and the wind kicked up. I pulled a few huge weeds from the flower bed as Spouse took his shower, and then the storm arrived. Like most summer storms, it was wild and scary for a few minutes, then stopped. Spouse cooked dinner and I cleaned up afterwards. We ate and had a relaxing night watching TV.

Crush du Jour: Tom Sanchez