John Morgan Wilson

I always like to mention a good book I've read or an author whose work I enjoy and this time it's John Morgan Wilson. I actually stumbled on his work while looking for gay-themed books at a local library and now I've read all but one book in his Benjamin Justice mystery series. What's interesting about Wilson is that his main character, Justice, is a seriously flawed individual and he doesn't always make the right decisions, but that's why his voice is so compelling. Justice, who begins the series as a disgraced, alcoholic, former journalist whose fall from grace came after plagiarizing a series of articles he wrote (and won a Pulitzer for), is a broken man. Still, he manages to pull himself together and help solve crimes (with a lot of assistance from friends) and he's never ashamed of who he is. He's gay, he made mistakes in his life and career, and he doesn't always treat people well, but he tries to do better and he wants to do better. Every book was not a winner for me in terms of the mystery to be solved. Some felt convoluted and, at times, some of the secondary characters (Maurice, specifically) got on my nerves, but the voice of Benjamin Justice was worth the read.

Mad Men Sucked...Again

I'm almost ready to pull the plug now on the remaining episodes of Mad Men. The last two weeks have been awful. Don and his sad sack waitress friend should just put themselves out of their misery already. I'm giving it one more week to show some improvement before I start skipping the shows and resort to just reading the recaps on Monday.

Say It Ain't So!

This is one of those weeks I'll be glad to put in my rear view for a number of reasons, but a few things in particular stick out in my mind.

First, apparently Jon Hamm was a violet douchebag while he was in college who beat and tortured a fraternity pledge. That surprises me. Say it ain't so, Jon Hamm! Oh, it be so! I can't even see Hamm being a part of any Greek fraternity system, but clearly he was. I love the way people excuse his prior behavior as that of someone who was young (he was 20 at the time). Granted, someone who's 20 still has a lot of growing to do, but I would like to think that person still knows right from wrong. From what I've read, Hamm and his frat brothers really went to work on their victim and beat the hell out of this guy. We're not just talking about a few paddles on the ass. The victim filed charges against these guys and their fraternity was shut down. I'm sure Hamm has changed his ways. He's 44 now and, hopefully, knows better, but it's still a disappointment to hear that he participated in such a violent act against another person.

Second, the whole South Carolina shooting incident was yet another disappointing part of this week but I'm pretty certain this kind of thing happens more frequently than anyone wants to admit. When I heard the latest incident happened in South Carolina, I wasn't surprised. I lived there briefly years ago. The nine months I spent in South Carolina are nine months of my life that I'll never get back. The only good that came from my time there was that I was able to visit Charleston. It's a lovely city and I highly recommend a visit if you've never been there. As for the rest of the state? No comment.

Overplayed and Overrated

While listening to my Essential Neil Diamond collection CDs, I wondered why people love "Sweet Caroline" so much.  (Yes, I like Neil Diamond. Don't judge me!!) "Sweet Caroline" is one of the weaker Neil Diamond songs. Where's the love for "Cherry, Cherry" or "Song Sung Blue" or "Desiree" or (my personal favorite) "Cracklin' Rosie"? To me "Sweet Caroline" is like Billy Joel's "Piano Man": overplayed and overrated.

Speaking of overplayed and overrated, Rahm Emanuel lives to walk another day as Mayor of Chicago? Insert eye roll here.

Disappointed

Disappointment #1: Last night's episode of Mad Men. What a bust. and a disappointment. For this I waited how many months? The only good things about last night's episode were Roger's mustache and Peggy and Joan bitching at each other. (Peggy, Joan has big breasts. What is she supposed to do??? Wear a circus tent???) Don's back to screwing random women and pining for a woman he wrongly rejected. I should have watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. instead last night.

My second disappointment came from a rerun of Queer as Folk episodes (the original British version) on Logo last night. I couldn't get with this either for a number of reasons. First, at times I couldn't understand what the guys were saying. The accents were a little too much for me. (Maybe I should have watched with the closed captions on.) Second, there was too much bleeping of the curse words. That distracted me. And, third, the guys just didn't do it for me. The Brits needed to step up their game with this crew. I know I'm biased by the American version of the show, but come on.

Speaking of British shows, I was thinking about the original British version of The Office with Ricky Gervais today. I remember seeing this show years ago when someone I worked with in Philadelphia loaned me her DVDs. I also remember being incredibly depressed by the show. I thought a lot of it was mean-spirited. Yes, it was funny, but after a while that humor just became depressing. Maybe it hit too close to home for me after working in various offices for so long. I feel like I should watch the show again and see if I have a different perspective.

Business

I'm still annoyed over the whole religious freedom nonsense going on but I'm trying to tamp that rage down. I want to have a nice Easter without working myself into a froth over some bigots out in Indiana (or wherever) who feel that providing pizza (?) for a gay wedding violates their religious faith. If you provide a product or a service for the public in this country, isn't it your job to do just that? Since when do business owners get to pick and choose who can buy their goods or take advantage of their services? It's discrimination no matter how you try to slice and dice it. First it's pizza, then it's shoes. "Hey, we can't sell that guy a pair of shoes because he's planning to wear them to his gay wedding! That's against my beliefs!"  Ridiculous, but that's the kind of ridiculousness the country is, unfortunately, dealing with now. I am happy to see so many people of all stripes outraged over this situation and I'm glad people can see this religious freedom act for what it is: a license to discriminate.

Recalibrating

There's a lot of recalibrating going on this week. The governors of Indiana and Arkansas are both recalibrating their religious freedom bills after blowback from the public and business communities. New Daily Show host Trevor Noah is recalibrating his sense of humor (or lack thereof) after his lazy, unfunny, awful tweets were exposed. Maybe the powers that be at Comedy Central will recalibrate and decide they need a new host for the show. (Personally, I'd prefer to see an American host the show and I would cry no tears if they kicked Noah to the curb.)