Rough Week

It's been a rough week going back to my day job after having last week off. Is this week over yet? Has my four-day weekend started yet? Unfortunately, it has not. One more day on the grind before I'm free. I shouldn't complain. A lot of people are still on vacation this week, so at least it's been relatively quiet at the office. I'm so ready for 2014 to be over. It kind of sucked, especially toward the end. I'm certainly looking forward to positive changes ahead in 2015. Keep hope alive, folks!

Post-Christmas Greetings

I certainly hope everyone has had a great week. Hopefully, you got a day (or more) off to relax and enjoy some time with family and/or friends. I have been off from my day job all week and it's been pretty chill. A shout out to the El Rey network for their Godzilla marathon showing since Christmas Eve. I love Godzilla movies, particularly the old ones from the 60s. Good stuff. After countless days of cloudy, gloomy weather here in the Chicago area, we actually had sunshine yesterday and we seem to have it today. Woo hoo!

Pivot - Coming in January 2015

My new book, Pivot, is coming January 25, 2015 from JMS Books. It has truly been a struggle to get this one done (for a variety of reasons), but it has been a labor of love. Here's a summary:

After being robbed and assaulted at gunpoint by a black man two years ago, white Chicago dentist Mark Cross is hesitant to go out at night, let alone get involved in an interracial relationship…until he meets Darren Nichols, a black public high school Spanish teacher and basketball coach. Introduced by mutual friends, Mark and Darren soon become a couple, fall in love, and eventually move in together. Despite pushback from their families and an ugly confrontation with Darren’s ex, Mark and Darren start to build a life together. Mark thinks everything is great until he meets Darren’s friend Terrance and suspects that Terrance is the same man who robbed and assaulted him. Mark’s suspicion throws his and Darren’s relationship into a tailspin and forces him to come to terms with his own racial prejudices.

Bubbly and Babs

I totally missed Michael Buble's Christmas special on TV last night. I didn't even know about it until one of my coworkers emailed me this morning asking if I'd seen it. Doh! While I was wasting time watching episodes from the second season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD (and I'm done with that, by the way), Buble was spreading some holiday cheer. Thank God for On Demand because I was able to watch the special tonight. It was cheesy and a little lame, as usual, but I loved it. I like Buble being cheesy and corny. I even enjoyed that Grande girl. She can sing! But the highlight had to be Buble and Barbra Streisand. Babs sounded great in her duet of "It Had to Be You" with Buble. I need a little Michael Buble during the holiday season. With all of the bad news and just awful stuff going on in the world, it's nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy some Christmas music with Mikey Bubbles.

Red Light, Green Light

So Sony made the decision today to pull the movie The Interview from theaters because of anonymous threats, so the film won't be released on Christmas Day. What I can't understand is how this movie got a green light to be made in the first place. Who is the audience for a movie (a comedy!) about an assassination of a real foreign dictator? I don't know. Are there enough fans of Seth Rogan and/or James Franco who would support such a film? Who knows. What I want to know is how many films didn't get the green light from Sony because the studio was too busy working on The Interview? It's a shame independent, minority, and LGBT movies have such a hard time finding funding when schlock like The Interview gets backing from a major studio. The same goes for the book market. Whose book proposals were rejected so James Franco, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Richie, and a variety of other celebrities could have book deals? I know the thinking is that celebrities have a built-in audience, but it's still not right that people who don't have a big name or want to tell a story that isn't cookie-cutter aren't able to get their foot in the door.

The Year Without a Santa Claus

I'm watching The Year Without a Santa Claus for the gazillonith time, but the Hear Miser and Cold Miser songs just never get old. Both Misers are so campy and entertaining. These old cartoons from the 60s and 70s would never make the cut today.

Multi-Culti Casting

I'm in the process of watching the first season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD now (mainly to see Patrick Dempsey), but what I'm really enjoying about the show is the multicultural casting. Shonda Rhimes created a show that has a variety of ethnicities and I like that. There are so many shows on TV that have all white or almost all white casts and Grey's shows that a show can be successful with a cast of people who aren't all white. The real world is multicultural and it's nice to see a show that realizes this.

All Cash

I got a call today from my credit union that there was "suspicious activity" on my debit card. Apparently, someone used my card number to make a purchase today at a Speedway gas station in Ann Arbor. I (A) wasn't in Ann Arbor today and (B) didn't buy any gas. I also have the card in question on me, so apparently someone created a fake card with my number. This is frustrating! With all of the data breaches we keep hearing about in the news lately, I'm seriously considering going all cash for purchases that I'd normally make with a debit card, like for gas and groceries. My father doesn't have a debit card and I laughed at him for being old fashioned. Now that I've been hacked, I'm no longer laughing. But using a card, particularly when buying gas, is so convenient. Will I be forced to go back to the old days when I had to go inside of the gas station and ask for "twenty on pump one"? Ugh.

Little Children

I watched the film Little Children this weekend because Patrick Wilson is on my mind at the moment. (As an aside, I actually saw Patrick Wilson once in Brooklyn. I was on my way home from Trader Joe's and he was there on Bergen Street waiting to start filming for the TV show A Gifted Man. He's very tall and looks exactly like he looks on TV and in the movies. He also has a great ass, something you can see in all its glory in the Little Children.)


But back to Little Children. I saw this movie when it came out and I also read the book. (Both are very good, by the way.) What really fascinated me this time around was the way the movie really captured suburban life. The bored stay-at-home moms who gossip about everyone and everything. The handsome stay-at-home dad who is in a state of arrested development and feels emasculated by his wife. The people who are far too involved in the lives of their neighbors. Watching the movie made me want to reread the book by Tom Perrotta. Maybe I will. I enjoy his work.

Outraged!

This week has been filled with one thing after another for me to be outraged about. First, someone swiped my car on the driver's side rear bumper leaving streaks of red paint. Annoying! Unfortunately, when you have to park on the street, as I do, these things happen, but I'm still pissed. Grrr! Second, my sister's landlord (he's not my landlord because I'm not on the lease!) came by today claiming he hadn't received our rent check in the mail and asking for another check. This guy is such a flake.  My sister thinks he's a nice guy, but to me, he's a flake who's one step above being a slumlord. Seriously. I would never have rented a place from him. And, third, but certainly not least, the lack of an indictment in the Staten Island chokehold case is ridiculous. I could go on, but I won't.


But, in spite of all of the fuckery going on lately, I am still hopeful that things will improve, not just for me personally, but for society as a whole in the new year. I'm about ready to write 2014 off and just move on already.