Only anarchists are pretty...

Peter Murphy's gig last night in Milwaukee was great. Not as long as Tuesday's show, but with some lovely surprises. Foremost among the covers last night: NIN's "Hurt", stripped down and done in homage to Johnny Cash. Brilliant.

strtmyorange and I made the most of our mini road trip, as you can see: ( An adventure in Cheeseland )

All in all, a nice little trip for a Sunday evening. The rest of my weekend was spent at home, reading and taking a deep figurative breath before the madness of the rest of this month and next. Events and moving and life changes, oh my!

...the Spartans had a bad night on a bad night to have a bad night. Such is the sporting life.

But here's some news to cheer us up on the morning after: Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover. Excellent! Vindication at last!

...well, not really. But it was one of those rare weekends for me nowadays where I had things going on every day. The sort of weekend where you get back to work on Monday just as tired as you were on Friday.

Friday - saw the Blackhawks/Devils game. Blackhawks won it in overtime. Pretty cool to see Brodeur in the flesh. Also, the puck was dropped by Dan Ackroyd. He drove the Bluesmobile to the game, and watched the game from a box about 2-3 sections away from us. United Center played clips and songs from The Blues Brothers all night. Headed home after that, which took me quite some time (2 buses, plenty of waiting). Got the news that MSU beat Kansas while I was in transit.

Saturday - started phase 1 of the Great Closet Purge of 2009. Packed up costumey stuff, got rid of stuff I don't wear, and freed up some hangar space. I may manage phase 2 this weekend, which will consist of going through the folded stuff on my shelves and getting rid of yet more things. Got to try and slim down my cache of clothes in preparation for the move. I'll let my family members sift through the discards and take what they want, then the rest will head out to charity. Saturday night was Panic, which was a good time, as ever.

Sunday - Watched MSU beat Louisville soundly in a really good game. Since I'm the only one in my March Madness pool who has State going all the way, I'm doing pretty well right now (3rd place out of about 36 people). Then headed to Sidetrack to toast roommate J's birthday.

Friday: Started drinking at 5 p.m. Ended at 1 or 2 a.m. Encore, Clark Street Ale House, Garrett Ripley's, Howl At The Moon (so awful), and The Continental. Never really ate dinner along the way. But did manage to meet a band of firemen from Ireland at Clark Street Ale House, in town for Chicago's St. Patrick's Day festivities. They (OK, I admit, 1 in particular) were responsible for my late night out. And that's all I'm going to confess about that, other than to note that I did drop him off at his hotel and go home alone, feeling a nice little ego boost that's lasted for days. ;) I will, however, provide you with some nice eye candy to let you know the, er, caliber, of a couple of the firemen we met (and yes, the 1 I got to know a bit was of this caliber as well - woot!), though these aren't actual pics of them: The Dublin Fire Brigade Calendar.

Saturday: Finally saw Watchmen, and was mostly pleased with it. It really was well done visually, and very well cast for the most part. I'll be getting the DVD when it comes out. Later on, I saw The Lost Shakespeare Play, which a friend of mine is in. It was quite funny and well-acted, and I highly recommend it. It closes this weekend, so check it out. From there we stopped at Skylark, then I went to Kinetic Playground for Wax Trax night.

Sunday: Much needed day of rest. Finished Galway Bay, which I recommend for a nice, historic, epic yarn. Reminds me a bit in style of The Tea Rose, another book I love.

I'm about to be off on a 3 day weekend, enjoying stuff being safely blown to bits and some booze, for sure. Happy Independence Day, American mates, and don't forget to reflect a bit on true patriotism.

Oh, and speaking of this wonderful country of ours, rejoice in this news: Those stimulus checks sent out by the Bush administration? Are stimulating a certain part of the economy - the porn industry. The jokes just write themselves.

*

And so we have Clinton/McCain with the wins in New Hampshire. It's like Iowa was a victory for the "new school", and New Hampshire was a victory for the "old school" (though yes, I do realize the "new school" isn't that new in terms of idealogy). Either way, we've got us a race for nominations, not a mere anointing of preselected candidates. That's pretty cool, I have to say.

On the whole Hillary crying thing (which, wow, is this really the biggest story on the campaign we can come up with?), I can't say for sure if it was genuine or not, but I tend to think it was. Not being a calculted cryer myself, and in fact, being a do-not-cry-in-front-of-people-at-nearly-any-cost type of person, I think Senator Clinton was simply overwhelmed by the fact that someone asked her something that was rather kind and complimentary. You know how when you're emotional, someone being nice to you makes you even more likely to break down? Seems like that's what happened here, and I totally get that. Anyway, I'm not sure it even had much to do with the results in NH.

Regardless, the race to be the Dem candidate is looking to be between a qualified black man and a qualified woman, and wow, that's awesome. It shouldn't have taken us this long to get here, but here we are, and that's a step forward. Meanwhile, the GOP continues to be the party of the Shiny White Dudes, with nothing new or exciting to offer that I can see. (Also, if you're sitting there thinking: All that is pithy and interesting, Artemis, but how the hell does the whole caucus/primary/party convention thing work and what does it all mean? I direct you to to this handy primer on that very subject.)

Finally, I have invented a new 2008 Presidential Race Drinking Game, and it goes like this: take a swig of something alcoholic whenever you hear any candidate say the word "change", whether it's a speech, debate, soundbite, or in person. I guarantee you will spend the majority of 2008 wasted if you do this.

...1 favorable ruling, 1 call for a job interview, 1 long ride picking up people and booze on the way, 1 night out among family and friends and flames, 1 day of feasting, 1 day of laziness, 1 sad but necessary marker of passing, 1 night of games and companionship and conversation, 1 baby shower, and one more long ride later...back I am at my desk at work. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Such as ones like today when it's more like a Thursday, since tomorrow is my last day in the office this week.

Still had a hell of a time getting out of bed this morning, though.

Out boozing with girlvii and others on Saturday night, which meant I had a pretty decent hangover yesterday. It's a good thing, actually. Because now I have a recent hangover memory, so I will take it easy Wednesday night because I do NOT want a hangover on Thanksgiving. How's that for making lemonade from lemons?

...or don't, it's quite up to you.

My holiday schedule, as far as I know, is as follows:

-Thanksgiving - arriving in GR on Wednesday evening, November 21. Departing GR on Sunday afternoon, November 25. Already have my transport plans in place. Tentative plan for Wednesday night (i.e. the biggest bar night of the year) - boozing at The Meanwhile.

-Xmas - arriving in GR on Friday evening, December 21. Departing GR on Friday, December 28 or Saturday, December 29. Still working on transport plans.

-In case you were wondering what types of situations exist that would call for a late-term abortion (you know, that thing that the U.S. Supreme Court says is OK to ban), this explains a couple of said situations. (Related: You go, Mexico City. Note also that those countries in which abortion is illegal have the most maternal deaths in the world.)

-I just did a round-up of the 2008 presidential candidates' (Dem and GOP only, this time) positions on gay marriage at Boystowners. It's about what you would expect, with a couple of random facts that struck me, namely that almost no Democratic candidates mentioned gay rights/marriage as an identified issue on their websites, and almost all Republican candidates mentioned gay marriage explicitly.

-Wiccan soldiers who died for their country can finally have the symbol of their faith on their headstones. It really took until April of 2007 for this to happen? Really?

-Speaking of soldiers, the Pentagon says that longer tours in Iraq should alleviate the stress on the Army. Tell that to this woman.

-There's a newly-discovered planet out there that's apparently quite Earth-like, though it has a much less bright sun. So let's see, an Earth-like planet, but with more nightlife? Bring on the vampires! Now watch, a bunch of anti-environmentalists are going to be all jazzed about the thought of another planet that could sustain human life, and will use it as an excuse to just tell Earth to go to hell on a rampaging binge of oil, chemicals, energy and trash, because hey, now we can all just move.

-On this day in 1792, the guillotine was first used to execute a French highwayman. So happy Decapitation Day!

-An affirmation of something I've known in my heart for years, just in time for SOF: Fruity cocktails are good for you! Yessssssss!

*Allow me a short fluffy-brained moment: I picked up this bag (and I didn't even realize it was by Hobo) yesterday to replace my Sisley bag that has become more cumbersome (and broken, and annoying) by the year. I love the new bag, is what I'm saying. And it cost way less than the Sisley bag did 5+ years ago.

You may have noticed (or not, I don't know what you folks are in the habit of noticing all the time) that I didn't write on Friday. The reason for that is that I had a nasty hangover from going out to celebrate C's birthday on Thursday night. It wasn't fair, you know. I did everything right: ate dinner, drank roughly 6-7 drinks (as far as I remember, and I think I remember) over the course of about 4 1/2 hours, stuck with one kind of booze, drank a couple of glasses of water, slept in (I had taken the morning off in anticipation of being out late), etc. And then I still suffered through a splitting headache all day, fatigue, nausea, and er, I was sick (it was ew - let's just say it's a good thing I have an office now, 'cause I wouldn't have made it all the way to the restroom). This is not fair, damn it. Anyway, I was too ugh all day to even update. But I still managed to go see The Namesake with girlvii (it was quite a wonderful film) and to buy yet more books, because really, the piles of unread books I have stacked on floor already were getting, you know, lonely and starved for fresh company.

Saturday was shopping for C's birthday gift(s), including a trip to Chicago Comics to look for the new Buffy comics, which I have to go back and buy on Thursday. I've been getting back into graphic stuff lately (OK, in the last few days). I picked up Tales of the Vampires and The Crow (which was such a pleasure to revisit) over the weekend. I took this pic:

It's a spire on a church close to my place. As usual, my photography skills are blah, but that's a cool spire regardless.

Saturday night was C's birthday party, at which there was a real, live belly dancer. She was awesome. I envied her body-confidence (she was pretty curvy, and she just showed it off).

Yesterday I met up with some friends from Michigan and bought more fucking books. I'm addicted. It was a good day catching up and showing them a bit of "my" Chicago.

Random: Will someone out there in the world please buy me this place? Because really, I could be so happy in a little spot like that. I don't know that I'd ever need to leave it. *Swoon*

*

Well, I've somehow made it through this week, and I am truly happy that it's Friday. A couple of days (or, you know, lifetimes) away from the office is very much needed right now. I'm not going to go into detail on why work is worse than it's ever been, but I will say that 1) I've been somewhat overworked and definitely underappreciated this week (and prior), and 2) I've been betrayed by a longtime mentor. Professional betrayal hurts as much as or more than any other kind, I've found. Perhaps because my work is something I've always taken pride in and known I've done well, no matter how shite the rest of my life can be. To have that questioned has left me nothing less than gobsmacked. I really can't be more specific (my professionalism wins out, even in the face of this). Suffice it to say I must find a new career, and soon. I'll be sending out more resumes today.

On that note, check out my Time Out horoscope for this week: "VIRGO: Aug 23–Sept 22 Martyrdom. It’s what’s for dinner on Thu 22—or maybe a working lunch? You’re Cinderella scrubbing the office floor, muttering to yourself. On Fri 23, your energy and mood pick up. Work, especially around the house, is more pleasurable, (and thankfully not the punishment of an evil stepmother). On Sun 25, your energy and optimism shatter like a pair of cheap, plastic slippers. Worst days to ask for a raise Thu 22, Fri 23" It's crazy how dead on that one is.

Last night I watched The Last Days of Disco for the first time in ages (such a good film) and found myself wishing there was a disco night around town where I could go dancing this weekend. After a little searching online, I've found nada. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Polly Esther's.

This weekend's scintillating plans: Catch up with friends I've not seen for too long, wander the city, sew new buttons on my coats to smarten them up, do my taxes (maybe), closet purge (maybe), read (of course), and get back to work on writing the novel. Oh, and cocktails. Plenty of cocktails.

Every once in awhile (OK, all the time), you run across one of these articles about women's bedrooms and how to decorate so as not to scare men off. Punk Ass Blog picks apart another one. Never mind the usual lump-all-members-of-one-sex-together implication of such articles (guys hate entirely pink rooms, guys hate stuffed animals, women love florals, lace and ruffles), let's get down to the base assumption of this stuff: that a woman should change who she is or what she likes to catch a man. Sort of flies in the face of all of that "be yourself" advice that you find in the same places as these types of articles. If you're the 800 Stuffed Toys Lady, or the Everything Must Be Lavender Lady, or even the No Surface Is Complete Without A Doily Lady, there's probably some guy out there who will love that about you. Why should you have to hide who you are? Not to mention that the article pretty much ignores the main reason a fella is going to be entering your bedroom anyway: sex. And if you're already well on your way to getting down, I doubt the guy is going to turn around and leave because you have a lace duvet, some stuffed animals that need to be knocked to the floor, or because you have magenta walls.

-In the I-knew-it file: booze is good for you. Cocktails, anyone?

My vow of "I'm off the sauce until this weekend" lasted until...last night. You all know I can't resist the sangria at Cafe Iberico, though, and I did NOT get drunk or feel at all ill this morning (just over-tired from last night's lack of sleep, thanks noisy downstairs assholes), so that's all right, then...

And I wanted to mention the best quote I heard all weekend when I was home in GR (and that's saying something, as we're a witty bunch). It was from josh_vanity's friend D, recently stuck back in GR after an aborted attempt at relocation to New Orleans (he got out just before Katrina hit, but pretty much lost all of his stuff. I think). He walked up to the bar, snazzy in his recently shorn mohawk and suit-coat-over-t-and-jeans, and said something like, "The post office lost my fucking FEMA check! Old Style, please." bach_is_god and I almost fell off of our bar stools. Then bach_is_god bought D an Old Style. How could you not?