Stacey Kent

I was listening to the jazz station on Music Choice today and came across a version of "This Happy Madness" by Stacey Kent. I love this song, particularly the version by Karrin Allyson, but Stacey Kent's version is pretty great, too. I'd never heard of Stacey before today, but I am now a fan. She has a very soothing voice. The link below on You Tube has her version of "One Note Samba" from her latest CD.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZNErPix7gU

Too Much Testosterone

I witnessed two guys get into an altercation this evening and the whole thing was kind of frightening. One guy was on a bicycle that had some kind of wagon-like contraption attached to the back of it. The bicycle guy was crossing an intersection and a guy driving a car crossed the intersection and nearly hit the bicycle guy...nearly. Thankfully, the car didn't hit the cyclist. The cyclist was angry with the driver and yelled at the driver before purposely backing his bicycle contraption into the driver's door. This caused the driver to become enraged and chase the cyclist down the street. At one point, the passenger in the car got out and started chasing the cyclist on foot. The cyclist had been riding with a woman who was begging him to just stop making the situation worse than it was, but he ignored her. The three guys (the cyclist, the driver, and the passenger on foot) all took off down the street. The entire situation was just an example of two guys letting their anger control them. Everyone needed to just walk (or ride) away from the situation, yet no one did. Too much testosterone was flowing, I guess.


In an unrelated matter, I'm so annoyed that I won't be able to see The Normal Heart on HBO tomorrow night. I don't have HBO. However, my father is visiting this weekend and staying in a hotel that does have HBO. I really want to take over his hotel room TV tomorrow night so I can see The Normal Heart, but that isn't going to happen and there's no way he's going to sit up with me so we can watch it together. "Hey, Daddy, let's watch this cable movie about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s! It's got gay sex and everything!" Yeah. No. (Sigh.) I guess I'll have to wait for it to (hopefully) come out on DVD so I can get it on Netflix or check myself into a hotel that has HBO.

Poor Bob Benson

When Bob Benson proposed to Joan on Sunday's "Mad Men" episode, I just shook my head. Poor Bob. He knows he can't be an openly gay man and a Buick executive so he wants to give the illusion that he's a straight man with a family by marrying Joan and making her and her son his new family. Thankfully, Joan rejected his proposal. Even though she clearly likes Bob and her mother and son seem to like him also, she knows marrying him is a recipe for disaster for both of them. Yes, a sham marriage would have gotten her a nice house (away from her mother), financial security, and a father for her son, but it also would have probably made her (and Bob) miserable. I suspect Sunday's episode was Bob Benson's last for the series, but I hope it wasn't. I'd like to see him again. I enjoy watching actor (and suburban Detroiter) James Wolk in the role, but there really isn't a place for him now that Joan has turned him down. I'm still holding out hope that he and Pete Campbell will hook up as I'm thoroughly convinced that Pete is really in the closet and just hasn't figured that out yet.

Finally!

Finally a day of good weather here. Woo hoo!

You Don't Love Everyone, So Stop Saying You Do

I'm tired of people coming out and saying something stupid and offensive and then apologizing for their ignorance with the classic line "I love everyone" thrown in. Why can't people just stop the charade and admit the truth: that they don't like certain people and they don't love everyone. If these bigots/homophobes/whatever are so honest in admitting what they hate about people different from themselves, why can't they show that same honesty when confronted with that hatred?

Scrub Daddy

Being the Shark Tank fan that I am, I broke down today and bought my first show item: the Scrub Daddy. It's so cute that I hate to use it!

Lurking

I'll admit it, I like to lurk on various sites. I largely enjoy reading what people are saying about various topics: celebrity gossip, writing, life in general. As I stated in my previous blog post, there is a lot of garbage on the Internet, but there's also a lot of entertaining stuff. I lurk on all kinds of sites: DataLounge, DListed, Celebitchy, Gawker, Jezebel, NPR, and the list goes on.


I was lurking earlier today on the Absolute Water Cooler site and came upon a thread about writers dealing with safe sex issues in their work. If you write sex scenes (whether they're between a monogamous couple or not), should safe sex practices be included? I feel like they should. I think having a man put on a condom won't detract from a sexual scene that follows. But, in reality, safe sex isn't always practiced and I think it's fine to have characters who aren't über responsible also. However, I believe those irresponsible characters should have to deal with the ramifications of their irresponsibility.

Per the Internet, My Babies Are Not Cute

As most of us know, the Internet is pretty much an essential part of our daily lives now. So, for all of the good information and helpful services provided via the World Wide Web, there's also a lot of anger and hate out there to be posted and shared. My current beef with the Interwebs is with the low rankings of some of my books on Goodreads. I normally don't even bother reading reviews anywhere, but I clicked over to see the ratings for two of my books and they both were around two stars. Oy! I didn't read any written views because, frankly, seeing the low starred ratings was enough of a letdown. However, I am a big girl and I know that when you put your work out there for the public, you have to take the good and the bad. If you didn't want people to judge your work, you wouldn't put your work on display. I review many books I've read myself on Goodreads and Amazon and while I do try not to be particularly nasty, I do write what I think: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Still, when you work hard and put out a product that you're proud of and someone comes along and shits on it, it's hard not to be annoyed. It's like someone saying your baby is ugly. If someone doesn't like my work (aka my baby), I feel like screaming, "But I birthed that baby and I love that baby! Why don't you love it, too???" But we're all different people who like different things, so I guess we have to agree to disagree.

Ciao, New York

My short trip to New York is over and I have no idea when I'll be back, but I had a great time seeing friends and coworkers in the city. I didn't make it back to Brooklyn, but I'll certainly try to get there the next time I visit. For now, I must bid farewell to NYC.

Back in New York

I'm in New York briefly for work and I can't believe how great the weather is here. I got into town Thursday so I missed the monsoon that happened Wednesday.