The Video Store Effect

The four of you who peruse this blog know about my devotion to smelling good, and perhaps know (since I ceaslessly flog it) that I post on Perfume Smellin' Things as a guest poster. But I also have to give a shout out to March and Patty at Perfume Posse and Ina at Aromascope as well as one of Columbina's other guest posters Kelley, who have amused me with their wit and wisdom, and who have sent me stuff to sniff. As a matter of fact, looking at the some of the swag some of you guys have sent me, it seems that I am seriously behind in actually reviewing these. Well, it's partly the Video store effect: the idea that in a room full of videos, you can't decide which one you want. Actually it's performance anxiety: so many of you (and not just the ones that I have made my lazy a$$ link to) give such lyrical, evocative, transportive prose I feel like Danielle Steele reading the New York Review of Books, to quote Columbina "in a corner, nervously smoking"

But you all have been so generous (and damn these little vials smell fabulous) I promise to try to be as fractionally entertaining and informative as you all are. This is not you're cue to chime in with comments about how great I am. Really.

Oh who am I kidding?

Ageing Sucks, part deux

One of the things I've gotten over the years are migrane headaches. These are less than fun. While there are people who would argue that there is some irony in me getting them, since I am usually the cause of headaches there are few things less amusing than laying in the dark wishing that those nasty little men tromping on your brain in the spiked shoes weren't making you want to puke as well. About a year and a half ago, after a spate of them, I made a radical change of diet, eliminating most wheat, booze, blah, blah, blah. The desired results were weight loss and that was one of the results. One of the side effects that I noticed after a month or so? No migranes. Real? Imagined? Placebo effect? Who knows. I have read that alcohol can be a trigger (ooooh, foreshadowing!)

Of course, after a while the siren call of fettuccine alfredo and chardonnay lured me in. I've gained some weight back. Last night I met friends for drinks. One glass of wine and I knew that I had about 30 minutes to get home before the pounding and the nausea started in (it didn't help that the place was REALLY LOUD). I got home and dealt with it.

No more Cream of Wheat for me....

Perfume-Smellin' Things is having a vivacious discussion today about, among other things, Philly Cheese Steaks. Poor Columbina's Philly-born husband waxed so poetic about them to his bride when they lived in England that when confronted with the reality of white bread, cheez whiz and beef scragglings she was thoroughly perplexed. I've had one, and I can understand both sides of the story- there's something so thoroghly American about this sort of food that foreigners just never get (As we look on in horror at their beloved treats). From cheese steaks in Philly, chili dogs from Pink's in Los Angeles, giant wedges of greasy pizza bought at a vendor on Second Avenue (or an artery-clogging but yummy deep-dish slice on Wabash) to a butter burger and a banana malt from Sully's in Milwaukee, we have a whole country full of high-fat, high calorie comfort food.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Despite my gourmet tendencies (yes, I am a big foodie, I live and breathe Cooks Illustrated and I think Nigella Lawson should have a religion founded around her), I have a weakness for one of these: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The kind in the box. The kind with the powder. Made with margarine, not butter. It has as much to do with real Mac & Cheese (which I also make from scratch, and I have outside evidence that it's pretty damned good) as a roll of plaid shelf paper has to do with a Monet, but it has a sharply compelling industrial taste to it that for me has its own weird allure.

Now that y'all are silently judgeing me, c'mon: what's your favorite bad food?

Anne Heche has allegedly broken up with her husband of seven years. Shockingly, it's for another man!

Time Warner Cable has customer service that makes Adelphia seem like being cared for by your loving grandmother. Cable has been out in my area for the past 3 hours, and all of TW's customer representative have moved to Alpha Centauri or something. After being cut off 10 times, I have now been on hold for about an hour and a half.

Monday I call the dish network people.

Is it any better where you live?

It's on!

Hillary has joined Barack Obama in throwing her hat in the ring for a Presidential Exploratory Committee. I'm shaking with both glee and mirth. I hope one of them is the top dog and immediately nominates the other one for VP. Can you imagine how certain people's head would explode? Not to put too fine a point on it, but the presence of either as Veep would make the president assasination-proof: hate having the evil Hillary as president? How'd you like the black guy? Or vice-versa. I know, I know, everyones going to say that there's no way either one of them can possibly win, and blah, blah, blah. Well, I don't necessarily disagree on some levels, but still, you are not going to be able to chisel the grin off my face this weekend.

I may have to use my meager PhotoShop skills to mock up a number sticker:

Hillary/ Obama '08
Red States worst f$%^ing nightmare!

The Weather Report, part Deux

Well, the lows are still near freezing and the highs are not even in the mid-fifties. For those of you who read (and if you don't, I don't know you) Thom Racina wrote a wonderfully fun book called Deep Freeze, positing the question what would happen if Los Angeles was hit by a blizzard? Answers: lots of really entertaining bad stuff that Irwin Allen would not have had the money to put on film, but makes for a really enjoyable read. Well, it was until I realised this weekend that my house has all the insulating power of a pair of fishnet stockings....

So what's your favorite disaster movie/book? I think I covered my own personal disaster movie moment, what's yours?

I'm cross-posting this here as well as having sent it along to Columbina, because, you know, I get so much more traffic than she does. I also can speak fluent Italian, still have a 30 inch waist, and can fly.

Don't wake me up, k?

For those of you visiting or living in the Los Angeles area, a selection of CB I Hate Perfume scents (including Mr Hulot's Holiday, Russian Caravan Tea and the infamous Musk Reinvention are now available at All Purpose, a new store at 144 South Flores (between Crescent Heights and La Cienega a few steps north of 3rd street. It's a lovely store featuring beautiful menswear, bags and accessories (which are of course unisex). The owners are in talks with Christopher Brosius to create a signature scent exclusive to the store (I'm not telling tales out of school, it's on their site), which I am already salivating to try. Luckily Alessandro, the nice man who I believe co-owns the store didn't comment on my obvious geek-fandom moment when he mentioned it. With ScentBar being about two blocks away at Beverly Blvd., Santa Maria Novello on Melrose Place and Apothia at Fred Segal on Melrose and Crescent Heights, that part of West Hollywood is now officially sniff-central

A quick whine

Earlier in the week it was in the 80's. The predicted lows tonight are in the 30's

Freezing temperatures.

In Beverly Hills.

Color me annoyed, and under a mountain of blankets.

Musicals

Is it heretical for a gay man not to like musicals? There are a couple of exceptions, I can listen to the Patti LuPone Evita, and am curious to see Grey Gardens,but that's about it. Given complete freedom of choice, I'd rather not know What (you) Did for Love, hear about your long, beautiful Hair, and if You're Still Here I'd appreciate it if you'd keep silent about it.

There are, however, a few times that I have witnessed a performance that has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Patti LuPone was one of them: so much so that I cannot think of seeing anyone else in the part. It's just hers. One of the other ones is from a show that's now out as a movie: Dreamgirls. Now perhaps the fact that I saw this movie in the worst possible theater (AMC Universal CityWalk, the first and last time I will ever set Prada in that pest-hole again...), but I found the movie to be a bit overlong and underacted. Jennifer Hudson is very, very good in this, but she is for me overshadowed by Jennifer Holliday. Unfortunatley for Hudson, YouTube has the clip of Holliday singing "I am telling you" from the 1982 Tony Awards. Hudson's version is very good: you can see why she was on "American Idol" (did she win? I've never seen a whole episode of the show: Simon Cowell and La Seacrest make me want to shoot the TV), but Holliday: this is a woman who you can really believe is in the process of losing her man, her job, and perhaps her mind at the moment of this performance. Add to that the fact that she did this every night for how long?

Oddly, having sat through the movie, I was struck with two things: I think that Beyonce is being sort of unfairly eclipsed by Jennifer. Beyonce is very good in subsuming her normal voice to do a Diana Ross style of singing (they did add in a new number for her to Beyonce at Jamie Foxx: she is telling him she is going, and in no uncertain terms); Effie is a showier and in a way more pivotal role. Not that Miss Hudson doesn't deserve her praise, but I think Miss Knowles deserves accolades as well. The other thrill is that a lot of it was filmed in the building I work in. All of Jamie Foxxs offices when they make it big are one floor above me. Okay, well that was just a thrill for me, but I have to take them where I can get them.