Movie Month: July

Other than Hancock, July will be another month of movie madness. Since PIGLFF is going to be in town and I've got a 10-pack. This event has been in existence for quite a while and this is their 14th year. I think I've been attending for the past 9 and although some films are not as stellar as the others and they charge market price for the tickets, I still go because I still find it to be quite the exhilarating experience to see that many gay men out for so many different gay films for the whole week. Come to think of it, I like this better than I like gay pride.

DC used to come to town when his boyfriend was working in Asia and he's alone and bored. So we used to hang out quite a bit during this season, but since his boyfriend came back, he has been quite understandably flaky. Oh well. Every year there's a different design and theme for the festival, this year they used the phenomenon of hanging a pair of sneakers on the powerline and hang a pair or ruby red slippers instead. I've heard that the hanging of sneakers signifies that there's a drug dealer on the block or some says it signifies an athlete graduated college, I wonder what the ruby slippers would mean.

So these are the 10 movies I'll be watching this year:

Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!

I've seen Another Gay Movie 2 years ago. While it lacks substance, it's still gonna be a brainless jolly movie which will promise a few laughs. Compare to the usual artsy-fartsies, this is not too bad.


Boystown

Pablo Puyol is a major hunk, I loved him in 20 Centimeters (It was full frontal, people! And deliciously so.) This is a mystery thriller about hunky Spanish men being murdered in a gayborhood. Mmmm. Hunky. Spanish. Men.


Girls Will Be Girls Shorts

Usually I'm not that into drag queens, but then I like Miss Coco Peru (Right). She appeared in a cute gay film called Trick, she was in a bravo reality show where a gay guy has to find love between a group of gays and pretend gays. And she had her own standup comic broadcasted on Logo. I find her kind of humor hilarious, so I'm sure this is going to be another good laugh. "Ever get cum in your eyes? It BUUURRNNS!"


The Houseboy

This, hopefully, will satisfy my curiosity about polyamory and from the picture, all the character seems quite sexy. There's also another short film about the same subject with this.


Mamma Mia!

This might be a very exciting gay sing-along that the whole theater can participate in. Almost like Karaoke, haha. I better brush up on my ABBAs.



Mulligans

Starring the hunky Charlie David, this is a movie about a father falling for his son's best friend. Sounds like the gay version of American Beauty and I do have some daddy issues, so it'll be hot!


On The Other Hand, Death

This is the third installment of the gay detective Donald Strachey series. I remember watching the first one but I don't quite remember the second one. I do love detective novels and the CSIs. A little bit of gay twist here and there could be fun, but it's always the homophobic closeted senator who did it.


Otto; Or, Up With Dead People

Who's up for dark humor? I am. I loved Shaun of the Dead and Addams Family. Not only the main character is a zombie, but a gay zombie at that and the movie promised explicit zombie sex. lol. We'll see what happens.


The Universe of Keith Haring

I loved his work since I was a teenager, he's one of my hero. Although the location of the film suggested that the film itself is not that good or popular, I'll definitely be paying attention.


Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon

Every year there are some porn related film or documentary out there and this is the one for this year. Jack Wrangler was a porn star in the 70s, I don't think I've seen any of his films but it would be interesting to find out more.


Other than the PIGLFF, I'll probably go see Hellboy II, the Dark Knight and one of the two Brendan Fraser films as well, I'll see which one of them he shows more skin. He's one hell of a hottie, his career should be so much better than it is.

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Movie Review: Hancock

Feel a bit bored and able, so I went out to see Hancock. Again, I'm a big fan of superhero movies and if we can all use our imagination to invent a brand new character, I'm all for it. Let's face it, we all love Will Smith, don't we? I've watched him since Fresh Prince and he's from Philly, he's practically a brother.

Hancock is a superman type superhero that can fly and have super strength, but his lack of enthusiasm and tact in saving people has made him public enemy number 1. He's always drunk and the properties he destroys while performing his rescues are far worse than the crimes itself. While rescuing an aspiring save-the-world PR agent Ray, Ray tries to help by asking him to surrender to the court and go to jail and when the crime rate goes up, the people will beg him to be release and love him for it. Meanwhile, Ray helps Hancock by getting him rid of alcohol and inspire him to be a better person in general.

There are quite a bit of colorful language in that, and of course violence. Hancock definitely has a more urban feel. I love the initial flying sequence where Hancock was drunk and flying zig-zag across the cityscape smashing everything around him to the beat of Ludacris' Move Bitch. Also he can't stand being called an asshole, that's the word that make him mad. Funny, because I have always called my boyfriends assholes lovingly when they make me upset.

Hancock is a movie about self-discovery, a person trying to find his own identity and find a place to belong to. It is also very entertaining, special effects and special powers always are. Like many other reviewers, I would agree that the third part of the movie is a little bit odd and clumsy as if the screenwriter is trying real hard to explain where Hancock originated and struggle to find an ending. I would have loved to find out the origin of his drawings in his jail cell and the meaning of the eagles. Charlize Theron who played Ray's wife is really great and pretty in it. (It's the California overtanned orange skin just a make up? Or does she looke like that in real life?) But all in all, it is a good summer movie. I enjoyed myself. C+


Stephen Colbert is growing on me, I really like this interview of him with Will Smith. Watch Will get stumped by Stephen.

***

After the movie, I was waiting for a bus in front of an Indian buffet for 25 minutes. I finally stopped fighting my urge and went in for dinner. It tasted so good that I was slapping the table in delight. Indians are true magicians of spices, the Tikki Masala Chicken was to die for. After stuffing my face, I got on my bus and it got quite magical. There were a group of about 20 black people in the back of the bus, mostly young girls and their moms, they looked like they were either coming back from a barbecue/picnic or heading out to a gathering. The bus was really packed and after like 3 minutes, they started singing The Wheels on the Bus Goes Round and Round, and then a guy standing next to me yelled "Do Old McDonalds Has a Farm! Do you guy do requests?" More and more people started to sing, and then it's BINGO. Another guy sitting not far from me said "Let's all sing, it's probably the last time you'll sing these junks." I'm like, "You're probably right."

The folks getting on the bus were shocked and dumbfounded but very soon influenced by fun and the good nature. "Is this the party bus?". Another guy says "Don't get off of this bus, you probably won't have this much fun for a while, you miserable people." lol. Well, I don't even think blondes have this much fun. I wasn't in any rush but it had got to end sometimes, so I got off when it get to my stop. On my way back home, I passed by the area where Lucius got attacked and found his keys sitting on the sidewalk, it probably was sitting on a bumper or something like that. I should really have bought lottery tickets.

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Every Tile is an Episode

Classic Sondra - I wonder who convinced her that she had talents.

Well Happy 4th! Missed a post yesterday but I don't think it can be helped and oh, I couldn't find any good meme, so my weekend meme for this week has to be canceled. Sorry.

Thursday after getting my regular 10-pack for the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival or it's cuter nickname PIGLFF, I marched onward to a mahjong game that started at 7:00pm. We played 8 rounds which finished around 3:30am. After some sleep, we played again around 3:00pm in the afternoon for 12 rounds and ended right after midnight. I have little recollection about what I've done in between and my brain is still reeling with mahjong tiles. All I know is that I managed to turn my bag of dimes and nickels into a bag of quarters, which is pretty good in my book. I'll be able to do laundry with that for another good 3 months.

During the course I managed to piss off a guy that have really poor gaming etiquette by giving him pointers. Everybody was quite annoyed by his playing style, and I thought if we're going to be long term gaming partners I should say something for the better good, but apparently he doesn't like to be told but at the same time seeking for approval in every turn. Every tile he picks up is a heaving and hawing, takes him forever to discard and after the discard he still have to hold on to it like he's going to take it back, punching people when he loses, punching people when he wins, and a whole lot more other shenanigans, argh. He would have been beaten up in the mahjong houses. I guess I'm too use to the fast pace online, but then it's never the same.

So I crawl into bed around 1:00am and the phone rang around 3:00am,

Me: "Hello?"
Lucius: "Hey, sorry to bother you so late."
Me: "What's up?"
Lucius: "Do you have a flashlight?"
Me: "A flashlight? yeah."
Lucius: "Can you meet me in front of your building with it?"
Me: "Okay."

I didn't know what to think of it and although it was Lucius but I was still quite begrudging, I'm nice when I'm drunk but not so when I'm tired and I'm terrible in the mornings. So I put on a nicer shirt and went downstairs without even looking at my hair. He was there with his med school buddy and I shook the guys hand and noticing that it was covered in blood.

He told me his buddy is coming over for the weekend from Western New York to hangout, going to a baseball game here and another one in New York City tomorrow. Apparently when they were going out to drink some guy in the bar insulted another friend's wife and Lucius being the upstanding young man that he is defended the girl and had some verbal exchanges with those people and they must have followed him home and jumped him and his buddy in front of my building. Lucius ducked under a jeep and lost his keys somewhere, they did punch his buddy on the nose and he used his hand to stop the bleeding.

We looked around under the cars and around the sidewalk and the street but couldn't find Lucius' keys. They were obviously a bit drunk and in shock. I tried really hard to locate the keys as if I'll get some bonus points if I found them but to no avail. The thugs probably took them or threw them away to add insult to injuries. Lucius was covered in grime but he was fine, his buddy wasn't that badly injured either. It reminds me why I don't go to straight bars. Instead of the male machismo thing, people in gay bars are mainly looking for sex so it mellows them out. I would be the most violent people in a gay bar, I had punched an ex for taunting me after we broke up and got thrown out, but hey, the guy was a jerk.

Funny thing is that Lucius needed a hug and gave me one (grime and all, but I'm not complaining). I offered for them to stay at my place, although I only have one bed and his buddy's straight but I figure I could put my comforter on the floor and sleep on it while they share my bed. It's much easier to figure things out in the morning when we all have the brain power and the light. But Lucius says he has spare keys in the locker room in the hospital, he just didn't want to show up all dirty for his colleagues to see. I told him he can always come up and use my clothes, which he wasn't sure about. He was still really dazed and shocked. I probably would if I was him, this things doesn't happen everyday and imagine the adrenaline. I made sure they had the cash to go back and forth to the hospital which is like 2 miles away and took my shirt off and gave it to him. Good thing Lucius' home have a security system too, so if those were regulars from the bar he frequents and they break into his house, at least someone will come and help.

What's the use of learning Kung Fu if I can protect someone I like? If I was with them, would the situation be any better? I'm pretty sure it'll take another 6 months for me to be at a level that I can comfortably duke it out in real life. I just hope he's not traumatized.

Oh, by the way...


Another bigot hits the ground but there are so many more to go.

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Easy Week

This week has been quite easy breezy for me. A training on Monday, Tuesday outside meeting let me off around 2:00pm, Wednesday outside meeting let me off around 1:00pm. I got a doctor's appointment around 2:00pm today and I'm not expected back in the office, no work tomorrow for July 4th. Other than the boy trouble which was kinda fixed last night, life is not too bad.

Lucius and I went out for a drink yesterday, played some pool, talked. Somehow we managed to avoid the whole thing about me having a major crush on him, which was fine by me. I guess when it comes down to it, we can really be friends. After 3 Smirnoff Ices, I didn't even feel hungry enough to have dinner. We talked and kinda cuddled. I rubbed his feet for him, like I always do. He told me that he has Raynaud's disease which causes his feet and fingers to turn blue sometimes. I can never be sure since I'm a bit color blind but I guess I was right about my initial observation that he was so pale that it looked blue. He was sick from a virus, so our physical contact was limited, I just hope we don't become sexless friends. There's nothing wrong with that, but I enjoyed the benefits. Next Wednesday will be his birthday and I still have to think about what to get him. We're gonna see each other again that day, I suppose since we're just friends I won't get him anything too extravagant. Maybe dinner at an upscale place and flowers? I was gonna get him a Philadelphia map tie, but he shot that down last night with an innocent talk about gifts and I couldn't find great seats for a baseball game which he would have loved.

Sounds like I'm gonna be spending tonight and tomorrow night playing Mahjong with the Gay Luck Club, which would be excellent. Tonight we'll be having a BBQ and probably play until very late which is fine by me. Tomorrow night though is not concrete yet, but I'll be fine with Mahjong and Pizza, anytime I get my hands on those tiles is a good time. If I can watch John Legend's Philadephia Concert on TV at the same time all the better, some friends asked me to go to the free concert at the art museum, but I'm not much for outdoors. It was raining hard last year and they shooed people away by telling them that the show has been canceled and told them to go home and then the show proceeded as usual. Poor shmucks, some of them were there for 12 hours and got nothing. It's not like you can see much anyway, it's much better on TV. I also told an online buddy that I might go drink with him. I did manage 3 bottles last night and didn't feel any effect, maybe my tolerance to alcohol is building up. And if I don't get hungry after drinking, maybe that should be my new diet. lol. On Saturday or Sunday I might go see Hancock, a buddy saw it last night and liked it.

Anyway, happy 4th of July and have a great weekend.


John Legend: Sexy, talented, handsome and wet, what more can you ask for? (I can just eat him up)

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Are We All the Same?

Listening to Dan Savage's Lovecast on iTunes and a caller was commenting if there's a larger percentage of defectives in gay men and catholic men. Dan agreed because gay men and catholic men are taught from a very young age that sex or being gay is wrong. So they have more guilt and hang up about it than the other populations. Self hate, kink, madonna-whore complex, crying after sex and other weird behaviors usually comes from these condemnations. People who loves kink love it because it violates certain taboos in society, probably they are challenging what people told them not to do. Honestly, I was in a catholic boarding school overseas and there weren't that much condemnations and there were any mentioning of sex, which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I have known that I was gay since I was around 14 and I was ok with it. There were no hang ups, no guilt. I did think about it will probably means that my family name ends with me since I'm the only child and having children (especially a son) is quite important for the Chinese. But since I'm a bastard and my mom is dead, I don't feel as much pressure to do that as the other gay Chinese might feel. I have known quite a couple of gay Asian guys who got married even though they knew they were gay just to have children and have their parents off their back. (Secretly I really feel it's selfish and immoral for them to ruin their wife's lives knowingly so.)

All my uncles are still single until their late 30s early 40s and lived with my grandma and me, I have not much clue on how a straight family is like. I once posted about being in Hooters and discovering the life of a straight guy. Sports channels, beer, horrible chicken wings and girls with big boobs in t-shirts. The only thought I had was that they shouldn't really allow young kids in the establishment and I was disappointed with the chicken wings, I heard so much good stuff about it and it was crusty.

The guys in Kung Fu were quite funny too. One time the latino instructor was trying to show us on some moves on a DVD that he made and end up showing us porn. "I don't know who was watching porn on here." Um, right. Stripper talks, every other sentence starts with my wife, my girlfriend... The only difference between straight guys talk and gay guys talk is the unmistakable sense of ego, comparing who's cojones are bigger. I nearly cracked up last night when we were doing squatting exercises, the instructor was bouncing his ass up and down for like 5 minutes showing us how stable our legs and flexible our waists needed to be. We all followed his lead and bouncing our butts up and down like we were bottoming. I didn't know Kung Fu would help my sex life but apparently it will.


Don't get their crusty, crummy wings no matter what the middle-aged waitress with her fake boobs tells you.

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Comedian Appreciations

George Carlin died 9 days ago. Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. There, the seven words that made famous by Mr. Carlin which you can't say on TV under any circumstances. You can say Dick, Cock or Ass if you're referring the other meanings of the words. I always loved stand-up comedians, most of these people have to be intelligent and they are usually observant and sharp witted. Other than making us laugh, some of them are there to point out the oddities and absurdity in the society. The average ones confirm stereotypes, the good ones provoke, the strong ones make us aware of things happening around us and demand change. George Carlin was a strong one, his fight against censorship, or against crazy wingnuts and religious nuts are outstanding.

Of course to like a comic, you pretty much have to share the same world view. Good things most comics are quite liberal minded. There are the blue collar guys who are more conservative minded who still produce a good laugh with their stereotypical white trash talk, although it might just be all an act. Dave Chappelle and Carlos Mencia are happy to use their own racial differences to point out racism in general, as if the whole world would run awry if their people are in the spotlight. Margaret Cho screams on the top of her lung for gender and sexual equality. Of course, Bill Maher and Lewis Black are angels and Jon Stewart is god but Bill Dunham, Stephen Lynch and Dane Cook are entertaining too.

I bought Kathy Griffin's For Your Consideration last Tuesday, I liked her since Suddenly Susan. She made a pretty good name for herself on her reality show My Life on the D-List. She had a few stand up routine building upon Hollywood gossips. It doesn't provoke, but at least it humanizes the rich and famous and make us average folks feel better about ourselves.



We love Kathy because she's good to us gays, and that she can appear to be so desperately fame-hungry. For Your Consideration is a shameless promotion for a Grammy nomination. Honestly her other stand up routines could have easily won her a Grammy. For Your Consideration seemed a little bit shy on big laughs. And I have to say I don't get if Kathy is really attracted to her new beau Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. I'm sure he's a very nice man with a fortune, but I thought she usually go for the pretty boy type and Steve don't seem to take care of himself well enough. Anyway, I wish the best for Kathy. I'm pretty sure she's at least a C-list now, no?

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Changing Detergents

It's the smell of his detergent and the fan above his bed that created the illusion of a world of intimacy. I've been reasoning an explanation of my obsession for him as if finding the cause will cure me off it. I wrote a blog entry and keeping it myself just to vent and I think it helped. I didn't realize how many love songs are in my iPod but when Vanessa Marquez's Good Girl came on, it made me laugh and my mood changed. It doesn't have anything to do with my situation but I can't help but giggle with the chorus.

I don't quite know why I'm so obsessed. Maybe I'm getting older and I still don't have anybody by my side that I can call a mate. Honestly I think I need something meaningful in my life to live for and I felt a connection with Lucius. We are both an insecure child deep down inside. I thought we both needed the same motivations and maybe we can add meaning into each other mundane lives. Maybe that's not what he is looking for, maybe he just wanted to kill time, maybe he needs to figure out what he really wants and he needs a friend to support him in the meantime. It's be hard to stay friends, but I'll try my best to be there after I get all these feelings and obsessions out of my system. Even though I got rejected, I still believe that he's a good person who needs support and care.

Maybe it's consumerism and advance technologies that made everything so instantly available and when something do not appear instantaneously it drives me crazy. Of course, I can buy a dog or rent a boy but I don't think it can replace a boyfriend. The consumer culture has spoiled me and I don't know how to handle rejection. (Pan to me getting arrested for punching the job interviewer for denying me a year later) Rejection does produce a lot of insecurity but I think we all owe Greg Behrendt for popularizing the concept of "He's Just Not That Into You", it saved so many of us trying to find the reason.

Surprisingly, after a night of dreams I felt a lot better. The healing power of sleep is amazing, although my ability to sleep has decreased more and more. I just heard from a commercial that people only sleep 6 hours? I used to be able to sleep for 10 hours and now it's about 7. I don't remember what the dreams were about but I was reminded that Lucius is not exactly perfect, he has a lot of good qualities for sure but he also has a lot of issues. I guess part of me was drawn to him because I thought maybe I could fix him. I mean nobody is perfect and in every relationship you win some and you lose some, but that helped me refocus and eventually move on.

I still have difficulty facing him though, we are still officially friends. I still plan on helping him to move a couch and his birthday is coming up next week. I just really have to learn how to deal with this kind of situation even though it's the first time that happened to me, I doubt that it would be the last.

P.S. Sorry for sounding so crazy and post so much on this little bitty affair. Just needed to vent, maybe at the end I can just reduced the whole thing into the week that I went a little bit crazy.


How could I mistaken us having sex for making love?

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Movie Review: Wall-E vs Kung Fu Panda

Since I'm still pouting, I needed something to drown out my thoughts so I went to see Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda at the luxurious Cinema de Lux. It's the weekend but it's surprisingly not as busy as I thought it would be. The tickets here are $1 cheaper, why wouldn't anybody come here for movies?



Wall-E

Hundreds of years later, the president of the world is also the CEO of the largest chain of stores. Consumerism has grown to such a ridiculous degree that Earth is heavily polluted and the trash problem is uncontrollable. Humans are forced to leave earth and live in a luxurious space cruiseship. Everyone have their own hovering lazy boys with full holographic panels for all available information, sipping burgers in a cup, everything is so automatic that everyone has grown to a size that resembles a 400 pound maggot.

Meanwhile, earth was occupied by a drone of cleaning up robots that stacked all the junks into a skyscrapers. After a while these robots started to deteriorate and malfunction, all that's left is a little trash compacting robot called Wall-E. Wall-E seems to be intelligent and have a certain personality. Other than his job of compacting trash into cubes and stacking them, he collects different artifacts and robot parts. He also watches an old tape of Hello Dolly in his iPod and long for love.

The cruiseship periodically sends surveyor robot to Earth to evaluate whether the planet is suitable for rehabilitation. Wall-E saw Eve the surveyor bot and fell in love. Eve found vegetation on earth and returned to the cruiseship to report to the captain. The computer system of the cruiseship was programmed to abandon earth altogether, but with Wall-E's and Eve's help, the captain strive to go back and save earth.

What it feels like: A Pixar version of those Japanese environmental anime, what Al Gore's movie could be.

Target Audience: From kids to old folks, the film is actually quite mature

Voice Acting Index: No one I know, but it's well done. Not much dialogue in the beginning. Wall-E and other robots can only say a few words. (You would think technology of robotic speech would be much more advance 1,000 years later.)

Funny Index: Robotic Humor, very light but still entertaining.

Fat Index: It's so not ok to be fat.

Life Lesson: Take care of the environment and earth, you can do anything when you put your mind to it.

Unexplained Mystery: What were they gonna do with the trash towers? Where did their food and water come from in the cruiseship

Grade: B+



Kung Fu Panda

Po is a panda who works in his family noodle shop which his father's eager to train him to take over by revealing to him the secret ingredient in the secret ingredient noodle soup. Po, however, always dreamed of being a kung fu master like Master Shifu and his Furious Five in the training ground on top of the hill. His opportunity came when he stumbled into the Dragon Warrior ceremony and was chosen to be the Dragon Warrior in spite of the dismay of everyone else.

A former student of Master Shifu broke free from jail and was seeking revenge, Master Shifu offered a special training for Po while the Furious Five tried to stop that student and failed. Finally, Po learns the true secret of Kung Fu and saves the day.

What it feels like: A preolympic friendly gesture, or Mulan and every other "believe in yourself" cartoon movie.

Target Audience: Kids mostly

Voice Acting Index: Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Angelina Jolie were in it but you almost don't recognize them because there aren't that much dialogue with them.

Funny Index: A lot of physical humor, not high brow but I laughed.

Fat Index: It's okay to be fat just except who you are. Well actually it's good to be fat, you can use your fat as a weapon.

Life Lesson: Believe in yourself, you can do whatever you want in life.

Unexplained Mystery: The villain can escape from that high security prison and fly across a valley, but he can't waste a panda?

Grade: B-

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Movie Review: Wanted

I was feeling a bit blue because of the whole Lucius thing and I needed to do something else to take my mind of it. (I know, I'm a whiny bitch) A friend actually invited me for a boy's night out and since I have nothing to do but free time, I said yes.

It's a night out with the Black Asian Mahjong Brigade (BAMB), other than the fact that I'm the only Asian out her last night. I should really stop calling this group BAMB since we have met several times and only played mahjong once. (Not to confuse this group with the Gay Luck Club) This group has a chat forum online and they love to argue about politics. It actually helps me to know what's going on in the world, but they love to argue for argument sake's, there are a lot of opinion from them and I can get up to 70 e-mails in a very short period of time. So I unsubscribed to the e-mails and just check what they are talking about periodically.

They are all nice people, I got there a little bit late and they already ordered, we had quite a big meal, talked about different TV shows, boys, we kept checking out a cute line cook in the kitchen trying to decide whether he's Asian or Latino. By the end of the meal, all 5 of us shared a giant piece of mile high ice cream pie swimming in chocolate caramel sauce.

Afterwards we went to see Wanted, it's one of those action flicks that looked really good in commercials. I have never seen so much flying cars and curving bullets before. The basis is very much like the Matrix, but about assassins. (I love the word Assassins, there are so many "ass"es.) Angelina Jolie is in it, and also Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy. (I always confuses James McAvoy and Shia LaBeouf) It's about a group of assassins that have existed for 1,000 years called the Fraternity who just lost one of their members and have to train his son to replace him. There's some sex, foul language and a huge amount of violence, which I'm ok with but I can't help but wonder how the 7 year old boy sitting right next to me is going to take it. It is R-rated.

There are a lot of thrills and it is one of those movies that don't require a lot of brain mass to process. Angelina is cool, collected and as sexy as always. There are a lot of things in the movie that wasn't explained as throughoutly as I like it to but I always overthink the minor details anyway. (Huh? They get the name of their next target from a fabric machine?) But just watching the actions and Morgan Freeman cursing is almost worth the $10.

We all thought the movie was a lot of fun, if you're in for a night of brainless action or if you're a Jolie fan it is worth renting it when it comes out on DVD. Maybe I'll go for a Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E binge tomorrow. I got the feeling that The Love Guru is best left for DVD as well. C+

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Chocolate Cake Blues

I used to have a picky-eater for a colleague and somehow she's self-centered or self-important enough to insist on people buying food for her and treating her to lunch as much as possible. The food you get for her can't be too salty or too sweet or too soggy or too exotic or else she won't eat at all. She's in no way a pretty young thing, she had to be in her 50s and I don't know where she got that spoiled mentality of hers. I remember one day we were celebrating another colleague's birthday and I got a chocolate cake for him because he loves chocolate and I do too. When she saw we cut into the cake and it was chocolate she uttered in front of the whole staff: "Nobody loves me, you guys know I don't eat chocolate." in which the other staff and I dropped our jaws in shock. Really? Another person's birthday and it's about what you like? I mean, wow. So from then on, we have an inside joke with the phrase "Nobody loves me..."

* * *

So I went out with Lucius on Thursday, we have been talking about going out for drinks for a long time and I did bring my Chicken Noodle Soup to him and he ate it right away. We sat around his living room watching sports and politics, two things that I'm really not interested but I am interested in the guy so it makes it a lot more tolerable, especially when I'm not really paying that much attention to the TV.

I tried my hardest to play it cool the whole time, trying to find some way to approach the issue without looking too desperate or acting too much like a doormat. We were walking toward a restaurant in the gayborhood until Lucius spotted a scary stalker of his, so we made our U-turn and headed to Old City which is like 20 minutes away. Lucius is apparently very well read and very intellectual, the conversation is about what he read from the New York Times, politics, his anesthesiology work, the places he would love to travel, Cuba, fair trade and cigars, planned obsolescence and its relationship with Henry Ford. While I'm marveled at how knowledgeable he is, I'm a bit intimidated at the same time. He's definitely on another level and I don't think I can catch up.

After some alcohol in my system, I got a bit more comfortable and on our way back home (he only lives half a block from me) I got the courage to test him out and ask him whether he has met anybody interesting lately and whether he was looking to date anyone. (Not very subtle, I know.) He responded that he wasn't really looking to date, he just want to meet some friends and have a good time. So I got my answer there.

I don't know if I was nervous or if the antibiotics I took earlier mixed with the alcohol were acting up, but all the sudden I wasn't feeling too good. So I excused myself around 10 and cut the night short. Before I left, we cuddled a bit on the couch and I blatantly said "Too bad you're not in the market for love, I would have date you in a heartbeat." which I got an "Aw, thanks" in response. He was supposed to go out of town for a training conference for the weekend, and in my imagination he might have asked me to go with him or maybe not, but I don't think I would pester him anymore. I don't want to get too clingy and scare him away, so I probably won't call him first either. Maybe the message will sink in and he'll want to date or maybe we will stay friends, but meanwhile I'll allow myself to pout for a few days and repeat to myself "Nobody loves me..." until it becomes numb. lol. aye...

Don't worry, I'll pick myself up.

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Weekend Meme: The IQ Adventure Test

Borrowed it from Donnie at Donnie's Diversions, it's from OkCupid and it's a lof of fun especially for killing time.

Here's the link and here's my score:



Apprently I'm good at math, well tell me something I don't know. All the little games are fun, just have to read the instructions carefully before you start to play. I wonder if this could be used as a prediction for the SATs or the GREs.

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Music Review - Estelle's "Shine"

I really like John Legend, so I got Estelle's sophomore album mostly because he produced it. It was recommended in Out magazine along with Duffy and Adele's debut album. I mean, how many first name only artists from UK are there? Are people just cutting off their last names as they go? Do we really know each other so well that we refer to each other solely on first name basis? Plus Andy Towle did mentioned the video on his blog, so here goes.

I am really appreciating the cover art and the drawing on the CD, her trench coat and the art reminded me of the Pink Panther and the introduction track called Wait a Minute (Just One Touch) either sampled the beat from the Pink Panther's theme song or it just happened to utilized New Orleans style big band Jazz which I find cute. There is always a comparison and the first thing come to mind is Diana King. It's not as severe but although this is a Hip Hop CD, there is a serious reggae vibe to it. George Michael's Faith was sampled into a charming reggae song called No Substitute Lover.

I have problem understanding how she got so many big name stars to lend their talent to her record. The gem of the album is obviously American Boy, it's a collaboration of Will.I.Am, Kanye West. It's catchy, upbeat and have lots of cute references, I'm sure we'll be hearing this song in gay bars and clubs for the next 18 months. Wyclef Jean helped on two other reggae tracks. Back in Love is a pure John Legend song only with his voice replaced by Estelle's. Even Cee-Lo from Gnarls Barkley lend his talents in Pretty Please (Love Me) which is reminiscent of a Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell collaboration.

The album is fun, but maybe I'm not feeling the reggae as much as I'd want to, I think Sean Paul and even Diana King do it better. I don't really get anything special from her voice, I'm afraid it's the type of voice that would do well in Pop. (Sorry!) But the musical talent behind the record did spruce it up real nice. Lately I see Mr. Legend's talent is kinda misused, like when he played piano man for Fergie at the Grammys (WTF? It is one thing that he wrote the song but it's the Grammy's, don't just play the piano, make it a duet!). He should really quit lending his talent for sexual favors and do something great for himself.

Again, not that I hate this album, but it's just not as exciting as it could be. C+

Favorite Tracks: American Boy, You Are, Wait A Minute (Just a Touch), No Substitute Love.


A lot of cute boys but is it me or does Kanye have too much ego?

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Banksy Pt. 4

Being a graffiti artist, you have to work fast so you don't get caught. You probably need to scout out the place beforehand. A lot of his work are titled by how many minutes he spend on them and they are mostly under an hour sometimes only minutes.

These are the last ones:


MacDonna


I'm sure it'll brighten your day if you see this on the street.


One of these were painted over to resemble Osama Bin Laden.















It would be so majorly awesome if someone can pull off a Banksy themed halloween party. I could probably dress as the dude who painted the big yellow flower or the flower chucker. It'll take a lot of guts to wear nothing but a pair of British flag boxers and carrying some lawn chairs around. :)

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The Fool in Me

Since Lucius has a hectic and unstable working schedule, I haven't been able to see him lately to tell him how I feel. I haven't been able to sleep well, I'm tossing and turning thinking, driving myself crazy with different scenarios in my head, but I guess that's part of the fun.

A few friends have been telling me to proceed cautiously and I'm drawing back from my initial passionate rush to proclaim my love like I'm coming out for the second time. I remember a while back he had been telling me how he was taken aback by some guy who was a bit too clingy, who called and text him a bit too often. Of course, I have my share of these codependent individuals and I understand how much of a put off that can be. But then I don't have any games, so I wouldn't know how to play hard to get. I have certainly ceased my online stalker behavior, although it is a bit hard to fight the urge of looking desperate. As Doug had said, I would know when the time to act is right.

I was supposed to help Lucius move his couch yesterday but he had to work, so we postponed it into next week. We have been texting back and forth about getting some Margaritas some time this week. Naturally I'm enthusiastic about the idea but I didn't want to push the issue. He told me that we might go out tonight but he is feeling a bit sick, so he'll text me to confirm later. Since I got that message, I've been thinking whether I should knock on his door with homemade chicken noodle soup, that way I wouldn't have to say much and he would probably get the point.

I think I need to act less stalker-ish but please understand these things are all in my head and I haven't act on any of these yet, so in reality I'm still in the safe zone. For a person like me, there's only 2 choices in this stage. Go all the way or cut it off altogether, and I'll be damned if I give up before even asking.

It's a good thing I know how to make a good chicken noodle soup though. Since I don't have the ability to hide my love or slow cook a relationship that's the best game plan I've got. And if Lucius is really sick and won't be able to go out tonight, I think I would have it in me to just leave the soup there and leave. Since he's so far from home and nobody's around to take care of him, I hope he'll be touched by the gesture.

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Banksy Pt. 3

According to Banksy, the application process for an art piece to get into a museum is too complicated and too long. So as a shortcut, he would bring his own painting to a museum and hung it himself.

Imitation Art:













Banksy's Originals:

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Banksy Pt. 2

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