Fifth birthday at the Guggenheim

Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of an event that I celebrate as my birthday. My family came over in the morning and we drove into the city to visit the Guggenheim Museum, a very special place in my personal history. I first visited there by myself back in the early 1990s on my first trip to New York City, and it was probably the first time I'd ever been in a modern art museum. Looking up into the famous structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, I began a tour of contemporary art that expanded my conception of what art could be, and I've been a fan of modern art ever since. It was an honor to share this special place with my family.

Here's a photo that Tara took from the lobby - which incidentally is the only place that photos are allowed:



We came home and had an early dinner at Burger Deluxe, a gourmet hamburger diner near my apartment that we've been meaning to try ever since it opened last year. Then we came back to my place for a quick rest, watched some TV, and opened presents. As always, I got some wonderful things - the landmark DC event comic Final Crisis, a new Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper story Dust and Shadow, Marvel Comics' Thor! Ages of Thunder, Terry Moore's follow up to Strangers in Paradise titled Echo: Moon Lake, and a new Vertigo title called House of Mystery: Room and Boredom.

I also got the first season of HBO's True Blood, based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris, which I have been reading after getting caught up with Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. The show so far is extremely faithful to the books, which is nice, and although Sookie is not as cool a character as Anita, the later books do start to capture some of the vampire and shapeshifter political structures that Hamilton brings to life so eloquently. Sookie is much more innocent than Anita, and unlike Anita, generally succeeds in staying that way. Other DVDs I got were the limited edition CD/DVD of Jeff Buckley's Grace Around the World and Peter Gabriel's Still Growing Up - Live and Unwrapped.

After presents we had some cake and went to the movie theater to stand in line for the 10:45 showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Out of respect for blog readers who haven't seen this yet, I'll refrain from saying anything about the movie, but I will say that I enjoyed it.

On Thursday I was supposed to have a job interview, but I woke up to find out that it had to be postponed due to a client emergency. I went into the city to have lunch with my friends Erika and Brigitte, who I'd last seen at Erika's birthday party in May ("Happy Birthday Erika!" - May 16, 2009). We were talking about their ideas for new business ventures that we'll probably continue to discuss in the coming months.

Afterwards I went to my friend Simon's apartment for a Vortex Healing session, something he's giving me in exchange for some PR work I'm doing for him. It was a very interesting experience, and it gave me some insight into how I might improve my life in the coming year, so I will see if I can follow-through on what I received from him.

Vampires galore

Just a quick post before things get hectic this week. Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Simon to discuss a freelance assignment for his Vortex Healing practice, followed by my women's polyamory group meeting. On Wednesday Polina and I are attending the regular Polyamorous NYC meeting (where I won't be presenting), and Thursday we are taking Lori out for her birthday to see an off-Broadway production of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.

This week I neglected to mention that I've finally finished watching all five seasons of Joss Whedon's Angel - that means I have now seen every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, Whedon's enduring contribution to the television zeitgeist. Of course, I am also in the middle of a Firefly marathon that should conclude on Saturday, but I've already seen all those episodes once before.

I'm also reading Laurell K. Hamilton's latest Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel, Skin Trade while at the same time shuttling the older Anita Blake novels to Penny for her to read. She has to get through Micah, Danse Macabre, The Harlequin and Blood Noir before she can read the latest book, but at her reading pace that shouldn't take long at all.

Tara and I went out to the mall today and had a nice time walking around and shopping for various things. It's been a long time since we've had alone time together that was peaceful, although we did get into a spirited discussion over lunch about our philosophical differences in several areas. She's trying to be better about not wanting things out of her relationships that are not forthcoming, something I've encouraged her to do.

At Borders I bought Charlaine Harris' book Club Dead so I could continue the Sookie Stackhouse series once I'm done with Anita Blake. Unfortunately, it's only available in mass-market paperback, so that's only the second such book I've bought for my library since 2005 (I despise reading mass-market paperbacks and will always choose hardcovers or larger format paperbacks if available).

I also bought a DVD of the movie Sunshine, directed by recent Oscar-winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). It's a very cerebral sci-fi movie that's less about action and more about humanity in space, and reflects Boyle's unique artistic vision. I'd heard good things about it, but haven't seen it until tonight, and it's an interesting film that I will probably have to see a couple more times before I can fully appreciate it.

Last Sunday I went to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for a walking tour with one of my lesbian meetup groups. I mostly got excited about seeing some cricket matches being played on pitches in the park areas. Here's a little video I shot of a bowler (the guy running and tossing the ball) and batsman scoring a couple of runs - as the fielder chases the ball, the two batsmen run back and forth between the wickets, scoring runs until the fielder returns the ball to the wicket keeper (the only fielder wearing gloves):

Shoe shopping

Again I'm in the midst of a flurry of activity. Sunday night I drove into Harlem to meet with my bisexual women's group at Sylvia's Restaurant, a famous soul food eatery on 125th Street just north of 7th Avenue. All along the walls were pictures of famous visitors like Denzel Washington and President Clinton posing with Sylvia, the owner. I had their famous barbecue ribs with garlic mashed potatoes and baked mac and cheese. The ribs were pretty good, but I've definitely had better in Texas.

Today it was a dreary rainy day, but I wanted to get out and do some shopping in Paramus. There's a recently remodeled mall called Bergen Town Center with a Nordstrom's Rack, Filene's Basement and Saks Off Fifth that I wanted to check out. I found some nice legwear on clearance at Filene's, but the real find was Nordstrom's Rack, which had a very nice selection of large size shoes. Unlike most stores, Nordstrom's groups their shoes by size, not by style, so I could see everything in my size. If I wanted to, I could have spent a couple hundred dollars on shoes, but as it was, I didn't buy anything. It's nice to know they are there when I want to shoe shop though. I've always liked Nordstrom's Rack ever since I discovered one in Salt Lake City, Utah many years ago.

While I was shopping, I got a call from a recruiter whom I had submitted my new resume to earlier in the day. We chatted for a while and she invited me to drop in tomorrow when I'm in the city for my women's poly group. They are located in the Chrysler Building, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful skyscrapers ever built. I've always wanted to visit, so this will be my chance. I'll visit with the recruiter at 5 pm, then my group meets at 6:30 pm. Then it's back home to watch Game 2 of the Rockets-Trailblazers playoff basketball series.

From the mall I drove to Pearl Art Supply to pick up some packaging for the CDs I'm putting together for my friend Linda, then turned around and browsed at the big Barnes & Noble bookstore. I got a copy of Jill Thompson's Sandman spinoff At Death's Door and found Paulo Coelho's novel The Witch of Portobello in hardcover in the bargain section for only $7.

Time to turn in early then, after I figure out what to wear for tomorrow's interview. Good night!

A room with a view

I had a very good interview with the PR firm in the city on Wednesday. They were mighty impressed with my new and improved resume, and said they were just waiting to hear about a large piece of business from a major insurance company that they might win. If they get it, the head guy said I would be an ideal candidate, because of my background in the insurance and legal industries. He also let slip a piece of inside information that I need to research, as it might help me to gain an advantage in getting a job at a different firm. So all in all, it was not a waste of time.

The nice thing about this firm is the space. The two conference rooms are bright and thoroughly modern-looking, and they both have plenty of windows. As managing director, I would get an office with a window, something I've been craving for the last three years. At Agent K, all the windows were taken up by private offices of the senior executives, except for the three corner offices which were vacated and therefore used as meeting rooms. But you couldn't really look out the window unless you actually walked into the room. All the more commonly-used meeting rooms and the lobby were windowless, and you couldn't see out a single window from the cube farm or even if you took a casual stroll around the office, unless you poked your head into someone's private space.

While I was waiting for the interview to begin, I had a nice view straight down Third Avenue, past my old office and the famous Lipstick Building that I used to walk by every day. I could also almost see the East River and Roosevelt Island beyond. It is by no means as impressive as the lobby of the downtown firm I once interviewed at but I'll take any view after two-and-a-half years in a windowless office. That is certainly one thing I missed about my old job in Houston, where I had an eighth-floor view right above the West Loop, the busiest stretch of freeway in Texas, and downtown in the distance.

The PolyNYC meeting later that evening was sparsely attended, with only about 18-20 people showing up. However, we are seeing an influx of new members, and many of them are GLBT folks. There was a posse of about six or seven lesbians who have come to the last two meetings and contributed a lot of viewpoints that we haven't heard much before. Apparently, if there's one community that processes relationships more than polys, it's lesbians. The topic was how to foster group intimacy, and I got to share some of my thoughts about the importance of touch ("The importance of touch" - April 2, 2008) and found that struck a chord with some of the gay men there, who lamented that most men in our society are conditioned to believe that all touching has sexual meaning.

I've also been tearing through the Harry Potter series with an Anita Blake-like fervor, finishing Books 4-6 in the past two weeks, and starting on the final chapter now. They are surprisingly addictive once you get beyond what's been shown in the movies, but of course the big downside is that there aren't going to be any more of them. If I could only get hooked on Star Wars novels, then I'd be set for life - there's no way I could exhaust that pipeline.

Fantasy books and movies

I am really excited about the news that my favorite fictional character, Anita Blake, is going to star in an original television movie on the IFC channel, according to this press release. Of course I'd prefer if she got the big budget of a theater release, but maybe that will come later. Something to look forward to for next year anyway.

In other book and video news, I just finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this morning and loved it - it made me cry at the end. I ran out this afternoon and checked out the DVD from the library and I'll watch it tonight when it gets dark. I also finished Annette Curtis Clause's werewolf tale Blood and Chocolate yesterday while sitting in the hair salon and it was better than I expected it to be so I'll watch that on DVD soon as well.

I've also been itching to dive back into Neil Gaiman's epic Sandman series and finally finish the four gorgeous Absolute editions sitting on my shelf. Reading Absolute editions is like watching movies on my big screen - it makes it hard to read or watch things in smaller sizes. Since I'm not ready to tackle that reading project yet (I intend to read them concurrently with The Sandman Companion) I'm going to start with another series I've been collecting, John Ney Rieber's The Books of Magic series.

This series continues the original story of the same name penned by Neil Gaiman and I've owned Volumes 5 through 7 for a while now, but only read Gaiman's book and the first volume of Rieber's series. Last night I placed an order for Volumes 1, 2 and 4, and the original issues that make up Volume 3 (because the trade paperback is out of print and extremely rare). So I'll have the first seven books to read and decide if I want to continue collecting them. If they are as good as Mike Carey's Lucifer series then I'll definitely like them.

Lessons learned from Anita Blake

I just finished reading the most recent Anita Blake novel, Blood Noir, by Laurell K. Hamilton, the 15th straight I've read in the series since starting back in December. Yes, unemployment has left me with a lot of free time. The newest book, Skin Trade, comes out in June.

One thing I like so much about the Anita Blake series is the extraordinary development of the central character from book to book. This is what makes her different from the fictional characters such as MI-6 agent James Bond, implacable crusader Batman, or the lovesick characters in the Twilight Saga.

The Anita Blake we see in her debut novel, Guilty Pleasures, looks at the world in black and white, good and evil, alive and dead. She also starts out with a very puritanical view of sex, nudity and monogamy, but over the course of her adventures becomes exposed to many different viewpoints, both human and non-human alike. Some of her choices are forced, but others are the result of getting comfortable with the people in her life. Eventually, she arrives at a place where she can honestly say that her life works, that she has people close to her who "get" her, and she feels as much at peace as anyone in her line of work has a right to feel.

Of course one might argue that Anita falls victim to corruption through her association with vampires, witches and shapeshifters, and the fact that her moral compass and value system changes so much is a flaw in her character, not an asset. On one hand, you can say that values and morals should remain constant and unwavering. On the other hand, you can argue that your circumstances should dictate your values and morality - otherwise, it's very easy to impose your own values on others arbitrarily, just as Javert persecutes a starving Jean Valjean in Les Miserables mercilessly for stealing a loaf of bread.

Of course if you are a reader of this blog, you know that I fall into the latter category. My personal development has been nearly as dramatic as Anita's, and perhaps I've embraced change more easily because I wasn't raised with such a black and white view of the world that usually comes from an orthodox religious upbringing. All my well-documented beliefs about polyamory, pansexualism, living in the present and unconditional love have been shaped by my unique life experiences, not by what I've been formally taught, and certainly not by accepting the commonly held viewpoints and status quo.

Some might view these changes in belief as akin to compromise, and I don't care to argue the semantics. Call it what you will, but I don't believe in absolutes and sticking to the hard line policies. I believe that life is about being open and honest about your choices so that you won't have regrets. I can say that, like Anita, I've created a life that makes sense for me. But even more importantly, I know that if my circumstances change, I can find a way to create a new reality within myself if necessary.

An evening with Anne Rice

I'm taking a bit of breather today after a busy two-day stretch of poly meetings. Every other month my two poly meetings fall on the same week, so on Tuesday I went to my women's poly group and Wednesday I had my co-ed PolyNYC meeting at the LGBT Center.

While I was waiting for the PolyNYC meeting last night, I went upstairs to browse the used book sale and found that someone had given away their entire collection of hardcover Anne Rice books, about a dozen books altogether. I picked up a copy of her seminal novel, Interview with the Vampire, for one dollar. The dust jacket is missing, but otherwise it's in pristine order. This is the third time I've bought this book, and that's an interesting story.

My first exposure to Anne Rice was through one of those book clubs that sends you new books every month unless you tell them not to, and I received a copy of The Vampire Lestat (the second in The Vampire Chronicles). I didn't read it right away, and it sat in my collection for a long time before I actually got interested in the author.

A friend in college named Lara Schultz (one of two redheads in my life from that time period) took me to a book reading at Rice University in Houston where Ms. Rice was a featured guest. I think she was promoting the upcoming Queen of the Damned, the third novel in the series. But since she hadn't quite gotten hit her popularity wave among the goth and gay crowds, or maybe because it was an ill-publicized event, the attendance was very manageable, unlike any of her appearances today. There wasn't even a line at the authors table, so I purchased a paperback copy of Interview and brought it to her to sign, and chatted with her for a while.

Later I loaned that copy of the book to a friend named Michelle Gardner (my predecessor as opinion editor at the college newspaper) who then graduated and skipped town without returning it. I later bought a hardcover edition that I lost in the fire of 2005, but ever since losing my signed copy more than 20 years ago, I've been extremely reluctant to loan books out, as you might imagine. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I've loaned to people in that time period, although important people like my ex (who I lived with and therefore merged book collections) and Tara (who has the same rule) don't factor into that. This year Penny has proven herself trustworthy enough to break that rule, as she has nearly as much reverence for books as I do, although no one can possibly compare with Tara in that respect.

Even though I don't read Ms. Rice's stuff anymore, it's nice having a copy of this first influential book in my collection, since it's the wellspring for a lot of the stories I've been reading lately - The Twilight Saga, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter and the Sookie Stackhouse series, plus I'm watching Joss Whedon's "vampire with a soul" TV series Angel on DVD. What Rice did in 1976 was take the Bram Stoker model and inject a modern and seductive homoerotic element, plus introduce or embellish concepts like "good" vampires, child vampires, the Old World vampire in modern day angle and the first-person narrative to the classic horror story. Even if that woman can never finish a story, her contribution to the vampire mythos will never be discounted.

Year of the Ox

Today is Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox. Nothing special planned for me, just wanted to mark it somehow.

I told my family the other night that when I look back on my time off, the biggest accomplishment so far would probably be reading a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton books. I'm on a quest to read all 18 of the books in her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, and I'm on book nine (Obsidian Butterfly) at the moment, so I'm halfway there. I'm in the part of the character's storyline that has a lot of polyamorous and BDSM themes pertaining to shapeshifters, and I'm discovering that those characters are indeed more interesting than the vampires in the earlier stories. Despite their pulpiness, they are surprisingly rare at used book stores, so I'm checking out some titles from the library to conserve funds.

The other big news at the moment is that I've been invited to join the leadership council of Polyamorous NYC as the Communications Manager. I spent about four hours on the phone last night talking to some of the council members and other people about it, and I'm considering the offer (it's a volunteer position). The organization is going through a lot of changes right now, and I'm still deciding how much a part of it I want to be. A lot will depend on a leadership meeting we're having this Wednesday night and how things go with that.

Absolute Sandman

I was shopping on Amazon.com today, getting my fourth and final installment of Absolute Sandman and I came across these delightful bookends of Dream and his sister, Death. Fantastic!

Only two problems: first is that the set costs $345, which is a princely sum of money, even for me. Second is that I don't have any room for bookends on my shelves because they are too full of books. In fact, I'm about ready to buy a new DVD cabinet to handle the overflow of DVDs that are taking up bookshelf space, but I don't have much room in my apartment for a new shelf of any kind. Must think on this some more.

Speaking of books, I've been tracking my books on GoodReads for the past few weeks so people can see what I'm reading and what's on my bookshelves. Unfortunately, the site does not support comic titles, which make up a large percentage of my reading material, but oh well. You can see my profile and current reading materials by clicking on this link (you don't need to sign up to see this).

Third anniversary

Lots of good stuff happened this weekend. Tara stayed over Friday night and we had a leisurely Saturday morning breakfast to the sounds of Yes instead of our usual classical soundtrack. It was the first time in a couple weeks we've had one of those. Also nice is that she's getting a little more used to sleeping in my bed, which is considerably softer than hers. I try to do my best to make her comfortable when she's at my place, but there's not much I can do about the bed.

Saturday night we had dinner and watched The Rock as a little break since we're out of new Heroes episodes now. It's rather funny watching such a testosterone-fueled movie with a roomful of girls. If the movie wasn't so loud, you could probably hear the eyes rolling in our heads. However, I did balance that out with a solo viewing of The Notebook earlier in the day, which of course made me cry my eyes out.

Sunday I went into the city with Agnieszka for the start of our series of burlesque dance classes. There are 13 or 14 women signed up for the class, one other that we recognized from our last class. Sunday's class was actually the exact same class we took before, but this time we weren't 30 minutes late, so we learned feather boa technique that we had missed last time. Our teacher, Jo, invited us to stay for the following class on dance movement, so we did that class too, before Agnieszka went to see a play with another friend and I went home to eat dinner.

Then yesterday I took Columbus Day off work to celebrate my third anniversary of meeting Tara here in New York. The actual date is Oct. 14, 2005 - an important date in my personal fairy tale. As such stories usually do, it took place on a dark and stormy night, and so many things went wrong, from me oversleeping and missing my flight to her getting soaked in the city all day waiting for me. But miracles do happen, and we were able to meet right where we wanted to, in front of the Tiffany window in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum, barely 30 minutes before closing time. Our first meeting, our first kiss, and the start of this amazing journey together.

To celebrate, I took her for breakfast at my favorite bagel place near my office, then we rode the tramway to Roosevelt Island (her first time) and walked around the south end of the island (which in hindsight wasn't the most picturesque part, but it was also more private).

After we got back from the island we stopped at the tri-level Dylan's Candy Bar, which is a much bigger version than the one in the Houston Galleria. We got some Wonka bars and Tara tried some of their signature Belgian milk chocolate, which she loved. I took a small piece since I was breaking my diet anyway, but I have lost 15 pounds to this point, so I'm not too worried about it.

We took a train up to the Met looked in on some of our old favorites. We also went to the roof to see the Jeff Koons sculptures, a first for me. These whimsical figures seemed to delight the many children at the museum most of all.



We left the Met and had dinner at a new place for both of us called Burger Heaven, which turned out to be a very satisfying place to eat near the Museum of Modern Art. I had a reuben burger and fries, and Tara had a plain burger with a baked potato. Then we took the subway down to Tribeca for a book signing by author Jonathan Carroll for his new book, The Ghost in Love. I've never read any of his books, but the story sounded very interesting from his reading of the first chapter, and I was intrigued by the fact that Carroll wrote another book called Bones of the Moon which was the same story as "A Game of You" in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. So I bought a copy of the new book and had it signed - Tara brought her copy with her from home. He signed mine "Michelle's First - Hopefully it will not be your last."



Happy anniversary, my dearest Tara - thank you, as always, for being in my life. I love you.

Day 23 of South Beach Diet

It's been three and a half weeks since starting my diet on Sept. 15, and I'm pleased that I've lost 10 pounds so far. The results are definitely starting to show. My co-worker commented yesterday that she could tell I'm losing weight - she said I looked sleeker. Today for the first time, I'm having to wear a belt on my "fat" pants to keep them up. But don't worry about my wardrobe, I've got plenty of stuff to wear on my way down the scale.

The attention reminds me of when I did this diet in 2004-2005 when I created quite a stir in my office. My appearance changed so radically - it was like I went from middle-age to college age in a few months. I still chuckle at the time a grocery clerk mistook me for my ex's offspring or younger sibling rather than spouse. Granted, I am younger than her, but by less than a year.

Anyway, I'm still groovin' on Paramore - I bought the album I was looking for yesterday and ripped it to my iPod. I also love this song off their new album, Riot! and I bought it last night on iTunes. I'm pretty sure I've seen this video before somewhere, but I can't remember when. It's hard to miss Hayley's shocking red hair.

That's What You Get


I also love this review of the new album on Amazon:

Ah, youth: the exuberance, the energy, the blistering highs and bottomless depths. It’s an ideal breeding ground for true rock & roll belief. Hence, the youngsters of Paramore unearth geysers of loud, sugary angst on Riot!, their major label debut and follow-up to 2005’s All We Know Is Falling. Small-town musicians who have played together for years, Paramore boasts the appeal of an emo-pop blast developed out of savvy songwriting and musicianship. The sweet spot the band hits--somewhere between Avril Lavigne and All-American Rejects--comes naturally. Lead singer Hayley Williams, barely 18, has big-time vocal depth and genuine charisma besides, and while her singing can sound a little contrived, she delivers with such end-of-the-world conviction that it’s an easy flaw to forgive. Bright and catchy melodies abound, but songs like "Misery Business" and "Miracle" also feature razor-sharp cadences and ultra-clean transitions. Too clean, actually. The production is crystal clear, which accentuates the stumbles (mostly on the ballads) and robs these whippersnappers of the messy highs they surely achieve playing live. But some things can’t be entirely glossed over, and while the more aged among us will sip our Scotch and make fun of their adolescent shenanigans, we’ll also be surreptitiously listening on our iPods after we put the kids to bed. --Matthew Cooke

Also, after much ado yesterday, I found a nice hardback copy of Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris which I've been reading in paperback, but I hate the paperback cover, which is a tie-in to the HBO series True Blood (showing a close-up of a female vampire's lips, fangs and tounge). The hardback cover is so much nicer, a pretty painting of the vampire Bill and heroine Sookie Stackhouse flying over their town, wrapped in a glittering cape together. I'm much more interested in the romance than the blood-sucking, as with the Twilight books.

Update on busyness

I've had a post brewing in my head about my philosophy of unconditional love, ever since I wrote that post about Rent closing on Broadway. However, I haven't been able to get enough time to put it to paper because of the catastrophic events on Wall Street in the past week that has directly affected my largest client. So I've been having to stay later and even work a little at night and on weekends to keep up.

Plus, it's also been a busy week outside the office as well. Tara and I had a quiet date night on Monday watching Big Fish on my Big Screen. Tuesday night I had dinner with Lori at a diner in New York (which was rudely interrupted by a New York cockroach crawling on her side of the booth). Then we went to Barnes & Noble and I bought a couple of adult vampire books (Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton - I just finished the two-part graphic novel and loved it - and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, which inspired the current HBO show Tru Blood). Then last night was my PolyNYC meeting where we had an excellent speaker who is a poly psychologist and talked about poly compatibility.

Hopefully I will have some time soon to get back to blogging more regularly, but for right now, I'll probably have to curtail this a bit. Also, big hugs and sympathy to my Houston friends and readers who are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. I hope everything gets back to normal soon.

Books and movies

I finished "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" last night - one down, six to go! It was a fun read, although it doesn't quite fill the void left after finishing the Twilight Saga. I admit it, I'm a Twi-hard fan of Stephenie Meyer's fictional world of vampires and werewolves. Maybe future Potter books will change my loyalties, but I doubt I'll ever get to the level of the fans in this recent story in the Wall Street Journal:

"Voldemort Hath No Fury Like Angry Harry Potter Fans" - Wall Street Journal, Sept. 8, 2008

Speaking of Ms. Meyer, I was disappointed to read of her reaction to copies of her unfinished draft of her next Twilight book, Midnight Sun, being circulated on the Internet without her permission. "Vampire Novel Is Put on Hold" - Wall Street Journal, Sept. 3, 2008 While I certainly respect her decision to stop working on the book and will support her whichever way she goes in making the point for artists' rights, I guess I think it's a little naive to expect in today's world that leaks aren't going to happen when you create an electronic version of your work and give it to someone. As one fan said, musicians have tracks leaked all the time, but that doesn't stop them from finishing an album. I hope that she pays heed all the fans who are begging for more Twilight stories and changes her mind about not finishing the book someday. The upside is that she posted the partial draft on her Web site so fans could read it without having to find it on a file sharing site.

Tara and I had a quiet date night last night, which was good. We are making some strides in communicating our differing philosophies and lifestyles, and hopefully paving the way for better acceptance and harmony in the future. We watched Madagascar, which made us laugh a little, and want to go see the Central Park Zoo. I got a chuckle out of the fact that the zoo gang visited the subway station at Lexington and 59th Street, a station I had just been in earlier in the day when I came back to the office from the Federal court building downtown. I also pointed out the exact location in Grand Central Station where Tara and I had stood once before, the last time we visited there. Living in New York makes a lot of movies more interesting, I find.

Today I bought the complete box set of the old TV show Get Smart, starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, available from Time-Life for a discounted price of $149 until the end of this month. I don't know why, but I'm feeling very nostalgic for some of these shows from my childhood, and I've always had a secret agent vibe anyway (as some of you know, I've seen every single James Bond movie, and own most of them). Besides, the whole 25-disc set comes in a phone booth collector's box - who can resist that?

Book arrangement

Tara and I had our regular Monday date night and we did something a little different - we organized my bookshelves. Not the most romantic thing to do on a date, but she loves arranging books and I'm too lazy to take on a task that big without help.

Long-time readers will remember what my apartment looks like from my home theater post ("My new theater" - Nov. 25, 2007). I have a three-level built-in bookshelf above my 42-inch flatscreen TV, and I also have another three-shelf standalone bookshelf in the bedroom that has my slightly damaged 37-inch flatscreen on it.

We started with the top shelf in the living room, stacking books from right to left, tallest to shortest. Then we put all the comic trade paperbacks on the left side of the middle shelf, and all the other paperbacks (grouped by author) on the right side. The bottom shelf holds the Harry Potter box I got for my birthday and all the leftovers.

In the bedroom, we put all the books having to do with magick/paganism, and Sherlock Holmes, along with my Lord of the Rings hardcovers on the bottom shelf. The top and middle shelves hold some of my large DVD box sets (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Matrix, Star Trek, Angel, Alien Quadrilogy, etc.) and my *ahem* adult videos. Putting all these DVDs on the bookshelf in the bedroom frees up enough room to finally stop stacking DVD on top of my DVD cabinet in the living room.

Tara also alphabatized all my comics and put them in the small box I bought at the comic store last weekend. The only problem is, I haven't really figured out an unobtrusive place to put that box, so it's sitting next to my file cabinet next to my computer desk. I also cleared out my old catalogs and magazines, putting the ones I wanted to keep in the box I keep in the bathroom.

After it was all done, we sat on the couch and just admired our work for a while, and talked about books and comics. I wish I'd thought to take a before picture so all you bibliophiles could get a kick out of it. It was a lot messier than the picture I took way back in November. We finished the night with some quiet cuddling in bed, said goodnight and she went home.

It was actually a pretty cool date after all.

Twilight mania

Here's an article in today's Wall Street Journal about the cultural impact of the Twilight novels. I'm going to miss reading those ... proof that there is indeed a big part of me that is totally teenage girl.

"True Love Waits" - Wall Street Journal, Aug. 8, 2008

Growing up

It wasn't much of a weekend to write home about. I did my errands, spent time with my family and cleaned the apartment. A lot of the time I was just lonely and more than a little melancholy about my unconventional life choices. Things are still weighing heavily on me, but I'm trying my best to let them fall and move on. At least I have my birthday celebration on Tuesday to look forward to.

I finished a nice little Charles de Lint book yesterday called Little (Grrl) Lost a sweet urban fantasy about girls growing up in different worlds. That topic blended with a conversation with Tara in the movie theater on Sunday while waiting for Hellboy II to start, when we were talking about how things were with each of us growing up. Compared with her, I think I had it pretty easy growing up, which might be why she's so much stronger and secure in her identity and spirit than I am. I think I've taken the easy, well-worn path most of my life, and maybe the bushwhacking is starting to become fatiguing. But I figure there's no turning back at this point, so I might as well press on.

Anyway, we saw Copying Beethoven for our Saturday night movie, which was inspiring as always. I've loved this movie since I first saw it at the Polish Film Festival last year when I first met Agnieszka (with her friend Raymond) and I was happy to introduce it to Bee and Bug for the first time.

Also, I started reading Witchblade: Origins, a comic by the late great artist Michael Turner, who recently passed away. For my non-comic reading, I'm starting The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, which was one of the first presents Tara ever gave me and has been in my collection forever. I think it will make a good follow-up for the de Lint book I just finished.

In the latest chapter in what seems like a neverending series of unfortunate events, on Wednesday Bee fell down her basement stairs and cracked her tailbone, which makes sitting and certain movements excruciatingly painful. If it's true that bad things come in threes, hopefully this will be the coda after her dog attack and stomach flu. I brought my Boppy pillow home from my office to help her with the sitting, and that seems to help. I just feel so badly for her that she's been through so much pain and hardship crammed into the last four weeks, although it has not been without its upside in terms of bringing us closer together.

Holiday weekend update

Well, it's been more than a week since I last posted, so even though I don't feel much like writing today, I guess I should give an update.

Definitely the highlight of the past week was Saturday, when after a slow start, we decided to visit the Met and see a couple of the new exhibits, including the Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy and the J. M. W. Turner exhibit, plus the newly renovated Lehman wing in the back of the museum. The absence of Asher Durand paintings in the new American landscape room upset Tara greatly, as did the lack of medieval armor bothered Bug. Bee, Bug and I were also acosted by a security guard for sitting on the floor while waiting for Tara to come out of the bathroom, and that started me on a rant toward overzealous and inconsistent museum guard behavior. Apparently there will be some forthcoming letters of complaint to the management.

Other than those issues, and a rouge proximity alarm that kept sounding in the superhero exhibit, we all had a great time and a nice visit. In the evening we had a return to Saturday night dinner, after substituting Burger King last week since Bee was still sick. I made the usual Chinese food for Bee and Bug, and an improvised jambalaya for myself, mixing grilled sausage, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers with rice. We followed dinner with a very inspiring movie called heima by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Such primal sounds they make! Much like the wilderness shown in much of the footage used in the film. Definitely the biggest thing to come out of Iceland since Bjork.

Other than Saturday, the rest of the holiday weekend was pretty uneventful. We saw Wall-E and loved it (although that experience was also marred by a couple giggly girls sitting next to us) and Wanted, which was our first rated-R movie in quite a while, and therefore somewhat bracing after a steady diet of PG-13 fantasy and animated movies. Thursday night Tara spent the night again, and it was a little easier than the first time she did it a couple weeks ago. Just more relaxed and peaceful with less drama, which was very nice. In the morning I took everyone out for breakfast at McDonald's, which ended up serving us a little more food than we had ordered, but made us wait longer for it. And Sunday, Tara and I had a quiet date night at home and watched a pretty good Yankees game, with a walk-off single RBI by the rookie left fielder, since Monday I was not going to be home.

Monday and Tuesday I was in Reston, VA, working on a new business proposal with some of our partners on a $200 billion project in the Middle East. Reston reminds me a lot of Sugar Land - a master-planned community heavy on the use of red bricks. The nice part - there were lots of shops around (I bought a shirt at Eddie Bauer and tried on a few things at Banana Republic) and I had a nice dinner at Morton's Steakhouse Monday night. It was the first time I'd had a steak since a couple of years, I think. I had a filet mignon with bernaise sauce, plus asparagus with hollandaise, hash browns and creamed spinach. Plus a hot sampler platter of fried jumbo shrimp, oysters rockafeller, scallops wrapped with bacon and crab cakes. And to top it off - a chocolate souffle with rasberries and cream on the side. Tuesday for lunch I went to a Siamese restaurant and had a softshell crab on a spicy salad and a hot-and-sour shrimp and mushroom soup. So at least I ate well while I was working. In fact, I think I gained a few pounds over the last couple of days.

Last night Bug and I put in our pre-orders for "Breaking Dawn" at the local Barnes & Noble, so we can get them at midnight on August 1. Also, I finished the 11th and final volume of the "Lucifer" series and I absolutely loved it. I actually want to go back and read it all over again, but probably best to tackle something shorter until the vampire book comes out. Lucifer was like Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman," but with a more linear and action-packed story line. Highly recommended for anyone who is a fan of "The Sandman," where the character originated from (not originally, but you know what I mean).

Mid-week recap

I got all dressed up in my suit for court today, and the judge canceled the hearing, so I have some time to blog at work. I really need to get a lighter suit, because it's getting hot these days (not by Houston standards, but they rarely wear suits down there) and I think I'll be going to court quite a bit in the next several months for my high-profile client.

Monday night Tara and I had our usual private time, which I've been sorely missing since she's been sick. We still couldn't do all the things we usually do because of her physical condition, but it was fun nevertheless. We also watched an old movie that I recently bought on DVD, Flash Gordon, something we both knew from our younger days. Some of you may know the theme song sung by Queen (FLASH!! AH-AHHHH! is all I'm going to say, because the rest of the lyrics are too silly to see in print). So yes, we reveled in our girly geekiness for one night, although Tara thought I was doing a nice Princess Aura imitation because I was molesting her on the couch while she was trying to watch the movie.

Tuesday a girl named Michelle contacted me online through one of my poly groups and we started an email conversation about poly. Her boyfriend is poly and she's trying to learn more about it. They live in Brooklyn, where I have a couple other friends that I don't get to see enough, so maybe someday I'll spend a weekend there visiting everybody.

After work, I met my friend Lori at the library and we hung out and talked while she ripped library CDs to her laptop computer. I also checked out Volume 3 of Strangers in Paradise, a comic strip set in Houston that revolves around the relationships of two girls and a guy in a love triangle (at least that's the way it appears at the moment because I haven't read the whole series). The whole concept of the love triangle takes on a whole new meaning when viewed through a poly lens. At one point, a character screams, "Why can't I have both of you?" and of course, I'm thinking, "You can!" It all depends on whether you measure love by how exclusively you experience it, or by some other measure (like whether the person is making you happy or not).

Anyway, I'm off to get some lunch, and perhaps get my nails done. Enjoy the day everybody!

The English Patient

Yesterday on the train I finally finished reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. As anyone who's read my profile, this is one of my favorite movies, and I picked up a used copy of the book late last year and I've been reading it off and on since then. It's a very dense, poetic book, much like Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale (which I still haven't finished, so I guess that will have to wait another year). There are wonderful turns of phrase and stories contained in the book, such as Katharine's final wishes in the Cave of Swimmers, which stick out in my mind. But it's also a little difficult to follow because it jumps around in time and place a lot. If you know the movie as well as I do, it helps to keep you grounded on what's happening.

What is amazing about reading this book is how anyone could take it and turn it into any kind of coherent movie, let alone one that collected nine Oscars. That was quite a feat of screenwriting, yet surprisingly it didn't win for that category, although screenwriter/director Anthony Minghella won for Best Director. Frankly, I don't think I would have enjoyed the book as much if I didn't already love the movie.

In other news, I got my first jury summons last weekend, so I might be serving jury duty in early June. Not something I'm particularly looking forward to, but I guess it beats going to work. I was also in a courtroom yesterday in downtown New York for a client on a very large civil case involving one of my well-known clients. And I have to say, the New York courtrooms are so much nicer than the ones I've been in in Texas. But I guess my Texas court experience has been limited to family and traffic courts, and not the courtrooms where the CEOs fight for billions of dollars.

I forgot to mention on Monday that I had another encounter with Leatherman on the train coming in to work. The exact same thing happened as last time - he requested the middle seat, and the other guy who was sitting on the outside got up and left the seat vacant, and Leatherman just kept sitting in the middle seat rather than sliding over. He's determined to sit next to me, it seems. From now on I'm sitting at the front of the car instead of the middle to throw him off. What I really don't like about him is that he sits with his arms locked and hands on his kneecaps, so his arms intrude on my space. In fact, if I weren't on my guard, his right elbow would be touching my left boob. I wish he'd put his arms on his lap or hold his briefcase like a normal person. And that he'd wear less strong cologne!

I went to a free seminar about investing in real estate that was to be given at the LGBT Center on Monday, but the presenter never showed up. I waited for 30 minutes and then gave up. As I've probably mentioned, I'm thinking about buying a house here in New Jersey next year when my lease runs out, so I need to get smart about the process. Last time I bought a house in Houston, I had a lot of people helping me, including an aunt who is a realtor. This time I'm going to be on my own, although I'd like my family in New Jersey to be involved.

Speaking of the family, Tara is feeling much better now, although still worn out from the ordeal she's had to endure this past week. We had dinner last night and watched The Shawshank Redemption, another of our favorite movies. She wasn't really feeling up for fooling around, but I kind of forced her into it because after a week without snuggles, I was feeling super-horny. So after the movie we had a quick roll in the hay before I had to send her home.

Last week I got word that one of my old co-workers from my Houston PR firm was now working for one of my clients down in Houston. He was actually in the office next to mine during the last few months I was working in Houston, and we were pretty good friends. We met for lunch after I left the company and he gave me some job-hunting advice over hot dogs. So I called him up to congratulate him on his new position and catch up with the news from the old firm. We promised that we'd visit next time we were in Houston or New York together. Unlike the last guy from Houston who knew me in my former life, he's not creepy in that stalker-ish way - he's just a nice, normal guy, and I can trust him to be discreet with whatever I choose to share with him about my new life.

The weather is slowly warming up and spring is just around the corner. I'm rather itching to go outside and play some tennis, so if anyone wants to play, drop me a line. Once Tara feels better, I'm sure we'll start playing basketball again before it gets too hot. Plus, I am looking forward to all the great movies coming out this summer, starting with Iron Man this weekend!

Another quiet weekend

It was a super-quiet weekend, which is always welcome. Friday night I met Lori and her SO Erik after work and we visited the Whitney Museum of American Art. Friday night is "pay-what-you-want" night, so I paid $5. It turned out that I was overcharged, because it's not quite the quality I'm used to with the Met, MOMA and the American Museum of Natural History. We went through all five floors in a little more than an hour, and frankly, I didn't see a single work that moved me, nor were there any works from artists the general public would immediately recognize. Probably the most recognizable artist I saw was Georgia O'Keefe. Anyway, at least I got to meet Erik, of whom I've heard so much about.

Saturday morning I had to get up relatively early (9 a.m.) to go get Yoshi's brakes checked. It turned out they're still okay, although I'm down to about 20-30 percent remaining on my brake pads. I'm thinking again about trading him in for a Mini Clubman Mini Clubman when they come out in February. At that point, he'll have about 130,000 miles on him, and might be ready for a major overhaul - we'll have to see how he holds up.

After my usual errands and food shopping at Costco, I came home, made breakfast and sat on the couch all afternoon, thinking we were going to visit the Met when Bee got off work in the early evening. However, she ended up having to work late, so we canceled the trip, not wanting to be rushed like last time. So I stayed in and watched the 194-minute director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven as the first part of my sword-and-sandals series (director's cuts for Gladiator, Troy, Ben-Hur and 300 will follow in the coming weeks). I don't include Return of the King in that list (the first half of which I watched Sunday night) because that movie transcends the genre.

Sunday I didn't leave the apartment at all because we had a couple inches of snow Saturday night. The roads were okay to drive on, but since I didn't have to go anywhere, I was content to stay inside and enjoy the view. I took some pictures, but forgot to upload them, so I will post them later. Tara and Bee came over in the late afternoon and helped me put up my Christmas tree and move some furniture around - again, pictures following later. I gave Tara a manicure while Bee took a nap and we listened to the DTS DVD-Audio version of Porcupine Tree's Deadwing. Also, I finished reading my Absolute Batman: Hush book that I had bought last week - awesome story, great art, and probably my favorite Batman series not written by Frank Miller.

Only three more weeks until Christmas.