Friday, October 31, 2008 | by nathan

POISON

Thursday, October 30, 2008 | by nathan

Flamingo

The Flamingo is one of those great "Old-Vegas" monuments that always make me want to listen to a Frank Sinatra album.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 | by nathan

Strange Fruit

Just found this on YouTube; Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" live. One of the most horrifyingly beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, this has long been regarded as her greatest vocal performance, and though I own this on no less than 3 separate recordings, I’ve never seen her perform it live. YouTube, man. YouTube.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 | by nathan

Paris In The Fall

I really don’t think I could recommend the Paris Las Vegas highly enough. It wasn’t the cheapest for sure (nor the most expensive by a LONG SHOT), but its location, room, accoutrements, all were top-notch. Sealing the deal for us, of course, was the fact that when we went to Bally’s to buy tickets for the Price is Right show, we got them at a pretty sweet discount because we were staying at Paris. We ate at two of the hotel’s restaurants, both of which were delicious, and brought home a couple cheezy ceramic balloon mugs that are now proudly displayed in our kitchen. On Saturday we didn’t even leave the hotel, we liked it so much.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | by nathan

Things You Never Thought You’d Learn On A Blog Written By A Gay Guy

We have a lot of lady viewers on this here website, and this video, wherein Amy Sedaris explains all about keeping your lady business all clean, is, frankly, upsetting, but also the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile.  The video takes awhile to start, so just give it awhile after you hit Play. Enjoys!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | by nathan

Why I’m Voting Obama (Part 5)

So, last week I didn’t write about Barack Obama at all, really. I had a whole eloquent piece crafted about abortion, and I deleted the whole thing and walked away. Why? Because frankly I just don’t want to get into that whole bag of BS on this website. I’m pro-choice but that has almost nothing to do with why I vote the way I do, and if you can’t bring yourself to vote for Obama just because of abortion, then I’m not sure you’re convincable in the English language.

Instead, I’m going to let Barack make his closing argument in his own words, which are inevitably better than mine:

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | by nathan

Weekly Reader: 28 October 2008

Ghosts of Halloween
Thinking of decorating your house for Halloween? It’s not too late! These people did it up RIGHT.

Geeky Pumpkins
Some of the geekiest carved (and programmed, and DIY-ed) pumpkins you’ve ever seen. I have an old Mac 512 that I want to paint orange and program to display a Jack-O-Lantern face; just gotta get it running.

World Is A Hustle - Unreleased Track by Lauryn Hill
If, like me, you thought The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was one of the best albums, like, ever, you were probably as dismayed as I was to see her seemingly fall off the face of the earth. She’s been stealthily leaking tracks here and there over the last ten years, and this, the most recent, is AMAZING.

ELECTION LINKS

Palin As President
She’s a disaster of a candidate, but we haven’t heard the last of Sarah Palin. I predict she’ll make at least a bit of a comeback in 2012 in a bid to take on Obama for the top spot. Here’s what that might look like.

Barack Obama Supporter Buttons
These are some of the best campaign buttons I’ve ever seen. My personal favorite is 8-bit For Obama.

West Hollywood Considers Ban on Sarah Palin Drag Queens
"It’s not that we’re against dressing up as Sarah," said West Hollywood mayor, Mayor Jeffrey Prang. "It’s just so tacky. It’s just that it’s like impersonating Marilyn. There’s no challenge. Bangs, heavy rouge to build those high cheek bones and those awful glasses. Voila…you’re Sarah. We expect our residents to lead the way, not come up with something every drunk notary in Toledo will be wearing."

My favorite part of this story is that the McCain campaign actually commented on it, calling it an "Anti-American Attempt to Squash the Republican Vote." Because drag queens are always such swing voters.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | by nathan

It’s All About Details

My apologies for the lack of blogitude since Thursday. We celebrated Brian’s 30th birthday in style by flying our happy asses out to Las Vegas, checking into the Paris hotel, and generally having a wonderful time. Friday we walked around, saw the sights, gambled a little (penny and nickel slots only - we’re the opposite of high-rollers), had the best breakfast of our lives at Bouchon in the Venetian, did a little shopping (more on that later) and, that evening, had dinner and caught the Price is Right show at Bally’s. Saturday we lounged by the pool from 10:30 until about 4 p.m., unaware that at that moment Barack Obama was holding a rally only a few miles away. (We missed it). I took him to dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, and we pretty much just had a wonderful time being together. Everyone wish Brian a happy 30th in the comments, and I’ll be sure to get all caught up on blogging today and tonight.

Oh, right, the photo: I love this picture, even though it’s not especially evocative of Las Vegas. It’s one of the embellishments on the awning when you drive up to the Paris hotel. Turned out fantastically, especially after a bout of Photoshoppage.

Thursday, October 23, 2008 | by nathan

The Most Awesomest Guy Ever

If I needed another reason to love this guy, he’s handing it to me by dressing up as a chicken for Halloween.

Buying this costume at Target was a hoot. Here’s the conversation:

Target Checkout Girl: Um … do you want a bag for that?

Brian: No, I’ll just eat it here.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | by nathan

BEHOLD MY TOTAL LACK OF WILLPOWER