I bet he wears AF clothes too

The other night I was at that old New Orleans gay standby--the Bourbon Street Pub. It was Saturday night, and all I could remember from my last visit were the hot bartenders and go-go dancers. Well let's just say that this is another example of how things just aren't quite the same in this town post Katrina. The guy shaking his booty (a move I believe he stole from me) on the bar was actually a good 45 years old. Granted, he had a perfect body, but there's just something wrong about strippers being over, I dunno, 30. I know that's total age discrimination--but for something superficial like stripping, that's probably socially acceptable. Though its still better than those ultra-chicken twinks that they have dancing at Town on Friday nights. At least he's got some beef. At Town, I always hear, "Where's the beef?!" in the back of my head.

Recover. Rebuild. Rebirth.

The last three years of my life have been in many ways linked to Hurricane Katrina: I experienced the storm first hand in Florida, and the aftermath of it and Wilma were motivators to move to DC. I've also spend countless hours working with documentary producers on the subject, creating and providing video and images of the storm, giving explanations, etc. So naturally, this visit to New Orleans has a certain appeal--see how things have recovered, compare it to before the storm, and get to see the town (version 2.0) that I've dealt so much with from afar.
Things here are definitely on a more reduced scale. Everything seems the same along Canal, Poydras, or the major streets in the Quarter, but the people are fewer and the energy is lower. Last night was the first parade of Mardi Gras festivities--and that was somewhat of a let-down. But an experience, nonetheless. The one thing that amazes me about NOLA, still, is the individuality of this city. Having lived in 5 cities, I can describe how each of them has a certain feel...but the character of NOLA is definitely stronger and more unique than any city I've visited, even more than NY I'd venture to say. I'm sure that, unlike the smell of piss in the street, no storm will wash that away.

All cultural and shit...

Last night The Musician decided to take me out for a night of cultural exploration. As a classical musician, with a MS in conducting (??) and soon to be starting his PhD in the same field, I was out of my league with regard to subject expertise. A rarity for this Aries. Alas, the agenda for the night was dinner at Sequoia followed by a night with the National Symphony Orchestra, featuring violin virtuoso Sarah Chang--at the Kennedy Center. My reviews follow:

Sequoia:
I've always heard good things about this place from The Mexican and the GCC's object of lust. I, however, was not impressed. I started with a glass of Malbec--not bad. We then shared the appetizer of lobster chipotle spring rolls. As a food snob, these were poorly executed. The taste of lobster was undetectable, just the texture. Instead, the palate was over inundated with the fatty textures from the outer fried covering of the spring roll, and the chipotle remoulade-like sauce inside. I gave it a D.

My entree was the seafood stew--being a cold rainy night, I thought this was perfect, but not too heavy less I become drowsy at the NSO. The presentation was huge...a large dish probably 16" in diameter. In it was 1/2 lobster, several scallops, shrimp, swordfish (though the waiter said salmon), and mussels. Lobster was alright, the scallops were a tad overcooked, the sword was good, mussels were old and tasteless, and the shrimp--wow. They came in two sizes, normal ones with the tails on, which were good, and the mini kind you see in very cheap appetizer plates, way overcooked. The saffron broth was enjoyable, along with the crostini with lobster mousse. I give it a B or B-.

Desert was a creme brulee--very nicely done. I do enjoy a nice relatively think brulee crust, so I was happy. I give it an A-.


The National Symphony Orchestra:
The performance was divided into three pieces, the beginning was The Overture to the Magic Flute (Mozart), followed by Corigliano's Symphony #2, and then Brahms' Concerto in D Major for Violin.

I do enjoy Mozart, and the performance of the Magic Flute was quite excellent--though I had to adjust to Leonard Slatkins somewhat odd conducting style, which I will not treat here. Corigliano was boring. He's a contemporary composer, and was, in fact, in attendance. The beginning reminded me of the them to Psycho, the remainder wasn't any better. Brahms was alright--not my favorite piece by him. But Chang did blow us away with her cadenzas in the piece.

An entertaining 3 hours

Yesterday I had my once a month, 3 hour long council meeting--I'd say the name, but I don't want this blog to come up as a Google hit. Let's just say its a Council at my federal agency related to education. Ok. Usually these meetings are insanely boring, but I feel some obligation to go since its somewhat high-level, and good for networking. I usually find the inner fortitude to make it through with only minor doodling in my notebook.

But yesterday I was able to fully enjoy (as much as 3hr policy meeting can be) this affair. As I was looking around the room I noticed some striking similarities between council members and famous people. As they spoke I just replaced their faces with those of their celebrity twins. The first, and most obvious one was someone I work closely with, and have always noticed this similarity:

"I hated her... so... much, It--it..the f--, it--flame...flames...flames on the side of my face, breathing, breath... heaving, breaths... heaving... " OMG, I die every time I see her, the resemblance is so uncanny--even has the same hair, just auburn instead of brunette.

The next is the person who staffs the council meeting--John. I never noticed before yesterday, but he looks just like Monty Burns.


I used to think he was somewhat good looking--could've been the British accent. But yesterday as I stared at his profile, I noticed the resemblance. The same large forehead, hooked nose, tall lankiness, and penchant for holding his hands together.

Lastly, there was an invited speaker. She wasn't a real person, per se, just a stereotype. In this case, it was the most annoying type of stereotype for a true Aries--the cheerleader

With blonde hair and perky boobs, her bubbly personality made me want to leave the meeting an hour early. Its bad that I discriminate, but you can tell she's just not all there. To make things worse, she was all "Yay, awesome" and "Fabulous!" at a somewhat formal council meeting. I'm sure the straight guys, like Mr Burns, were more than enthralled with her presentation. I just gritted my teeth, and kept repeating, "Flames...flames on the side of my face."

I'm running for president

Many people run on single-issue platforms. Ross Perot had his chickens, Steve Forbes was the flat tax, last election W was all about national security, as is Guiliani this year. My presidential platform will be health care. But its not the position you'd imagine.

As I walk to the Metro each morning, I pass the kids going to the Bell and Lincoln multicultural schools. Not once have I ever seen these kids scarfing down something healthy for breakfast as they rush off to class. Nope, its usually something like chips, Doritos, Skittles, etc. Invariably they're also incredibly fat for their age...and growing wider by the day. The problem with socialized health care is that I'll have to pay for their unnecessary diabetes and other treatments. Fuck that! If we go down this road towards socialized health care, I want a requirement that to qualify, you need a BMI below 30. Failure to maintain that BMI will result in the loss of coverage--except the use of fitness related discounts.

Twiddling thumbs

I like to think that I don't have the typical federal work ethic. Actually, I'm quite work obsessed when I'm in the office. Today is driving me absolutely nuts...I have 1 week til I leave for New Orleans for a huge conference and the chance to really make some $$$. My "To Do List" has 7 items on it--each one taking considerable amounts of time, all needing to be finished in a week. But here I sit...twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my computer to spit out the latest iteration of the project I'm working on. Amazing how it takes my system an hour to process 1/2 a job. Let's run down my configuration:

• Dell Precision 690, Windows XP (no 64bit Windows allowed)


• 2x 3.33GHz Intel Dual-Core Processors


• 4GB RAM


• 1TB Storage


• NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 video card

Its a pretty substantial system. Yet here I wait. And wait more. And keep waiting. UGH!! My work OCD is driving me absolutely insane! No wonder I'm so worn out after each work day this week.

Its the thought that counts

I've mentioned before that I'm a food snob. I wouldn't call myself a "foodie", since I don't go around to all the latest and greatest restaurants trying to experience the newest culinary concoctions. But I am sometimes overly critical of food preparations and ingredients. Unfortunately, this means I often assert my prowess in friends' kitchens--I cant help it, its an Aries trait. Now I'm not the world's best cook, by any means. I'm probably just slightly better than the average 29yr old male. So naturally, living with the Imelda and having the opportunity to entertain for our friends makes me happy, along with cooking for the Musician. However, this also means he feels the necessity to return the favor, as happened the other night.

I commuted my ass down to Dumfries, where he lives. The plan was dinner and a movie--but he was going to cook. I was very optimistic. He sent me a text mid-day asking if I like blue cheese. Usually, any recipe that uses a good Roquefort or Gorgonzola gets a gold star in my book. Nope...that just went on the salad. Nice touch though. But the main course: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Sounds good right? Except the turkey was some kind of pressed turkey-like meat substance in a loaf form, with gelatinous gravy. Mmmmm. The mashed potatoes were boxed. Mmmmm. And the broccoli was frozen in cheese sauce. Actually pretty mmmm (again, cheese). But I will admit, I love the idea of a man cooking for me, especially after a tiring day at work. "A for Effort" or should it be "Affort"?

The most important day in politics

...for 10,000 people. That's right, today is the Iowa Caucus. For a state of 2.9 million people, we sure are devoting a lot of time and money. And out of that 2.9m, how many people will actually participate in this most arcane of all political polling events? Basically it works like this....Fred, Sally-Sue, Uncle Elijah and Aunt Ester all go to the local barn, stand around, and at 7pm they go stand in the corner of the candidate they like--but even better is the fact that this is meant to be a peer pressure environment. "Sure, that might be the candidate who's stance on the issues best reflect yours, but this is the COOL corner." I just don't get it.

Iowa--the state of 100 sqaures. Looks like a raibow quilt, eh?

Surpassing the peer pressuring in lunacy...the combined money spent on all television ads equates to about $200 per person in Iowa. Assume that only 10% will actually caucus, that's $2,000 for each cauc (my term for "one who caucuses", pronounced like "cock"). Ridiculous. I think the candidates would get more swing votes if they just cut a $1,000,000 check to a local school.

What's in store for 2008?

I read a good blog passage on the Metro today from The Express. It went something like, "A friend says that what you were doing at midnight on New Years is what you will be doing for the rest of the year." If that's true, I'm happy. I was having sex.

So what were you doing at the stroke of midnight?

POP!

As many of you heard on Monday night, the cherry was finally popped. I have mixed emotions over this--I used to enjoy sex, but it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it would be (but also not as difficult/painful). To quote our much missed GCC, "I tried bottoming, and it really wasn't for me". Oh well. Maybe it gets better with time? Maybe? Please!