Costume Ideas

Jhames discovered this great link a DYI guide to quick, cheap Halloween costumes.

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Hope everyone ('cept those of us in Arizona, Indiana, and Hawaii) remembers to change their clocks back tonite. Now for me to get use to a change in some tv schedules and to remind my parents for the next month that I'm two hours behind them now and not three.

Yes, Virginia! TooStoned Does Have Trees.

Found this on the TooStoned tribe over on TribeNet and liked it so much I decided to steal...er...just post it over here as well. It was apparently taken within the past week on Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains on the north side of the city. The elevation is over 9,000 ft. there and there's even a ski valley located there. (BTW - This is the area where we had the major forest fire June of last year)

It is indeed wonderful to see the leaves changing colors again, which is why I was pro'lly attracted to the photo. I still remember heading up to Woodstock, VT back in 1972 with my parents for a long weekend that October to see the fall colors. If I recall correctly, it was my first time I had been to Vermont so it was a new adventure for me. Driving back down to NYC, we were still somewhere in upstate NY and came across a roadside apple and cider stand/business of a farm which was owned by a family with the same last name as mine. We just had to stop, chat it up, and do buisness with the gent that was there. Alas, we weren't related but had fun choosing our own apples and watching the press moshing them up into juice. Good times.

"Idiots On Parade" Story of the Week Plus a Small Mutt Post

Man Superglues Condom to Penis

Some people....

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Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my becoming owner of my humble abode, Casa de Clutter. It was the first place I looked at when I was house-hunting and decided it was the place. I only looked at other places after the fact, just to make sure I had made an attempt and to prove that I made the right decision. I did...nothing else I saw (about 6 other places) had what CdeC had and at that price. Space, personality, dual cooling (both swamp cooler and a/c for those non-Arizonans out there), a pantry, TWO linen closets, and TWO fireplaces. Not that I ever have used them, mind you, but they sure do look nice. And a yard! Not bad for a condo.

I found out today that the volunteer coordinator's last day is tommorrow. Dunno exactly what happened but I'm not surprized. Nothing against her by any means, but the job can be overwhelming(from what I know...lotsa work involved) and that may have been a factor. Anyway, best of luck to her and I wonder how the center will deal with getting a new one since they need to hire quickly.

On a trivial note on the medical front, I'm getting my flu shot tomorrow! No one has been able to give any out since no one out here was able to get a hold of any but it seems to be starting to make it's way into the TooStoned area now. My doctor's office apparently got a hold of some and they're handing them out now to those "high risk" groups, of which I'm one. One of the very few perks of being asthmatic.

I've been on the wait list for the County Health Dept. for when their shots get in but it looks like my doc's office beat them to it. I'll call up the Health Dept. tomorrow and cancel.

Where Wolf?

Dunno if you've seen the new anti-Kerry tv ad by the Shrub/Cheney campaign that depicts terrorists as wolves, etc. Well, here's a nifty lil' take-off of it that Famous Author Rob Byrnes discovered over at AmericaBlog, which seems to be a nifty site in its own right run by John Aravosis. I haven't had the time to give it anything more that a quick glance but will look into it later after I watch and review Iron Girls 2 for the film festival.

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And for the "Odd Search of the Week", which was done via Ask Jeeves (sheesh! People still use that?): "Why did Estelle Getty cross the road?"

I Don't Mind the Answer to This Quiz

Xander Harris.


Who's your male Buffy soul mate?
brought to you by Quizilla

Spike could join us as well.

When the Moon Hits Coulter's Eye Like a Big Piece of Pie...

Aww! Poor Anne! Some Tucsonan just wanted to feed her!

Columnist Coulter Dodges Pie During UA Speech

And a correction - it was actually 2 guys throwing a pie each. One hit her in the shoulder and the other hit the curtain.

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A slightly belated birthday to Jonno and a happy birthday to Jeff at Gatsby's Ghost.

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And I know I'll be laughed at because of this but I finally found out how to do this little trick and all by accident as well.

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This sounded like a fun event! It was held at The Crest Theatre in Sacramento, CA

If there's any Ed Wood fans out there, check out The Church of Ed Wood

"Make 'Em a Pillow They Can't Refuse!"

 

So tacky, I just HAD to love this! I came upon it's mention over at Davezilla's site. You can find it on sale here for only $70 stuffed, $60 unstuffed plus shipping.

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And speaking of things I couldn't refuse (for fear that I'd get several family members giving me the evil eye for the rest of my life), today's the 31st anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah! Something I still haven't forgiven the parental units for making me do. Me? Hold a grudge? Nah! :-)

Another Quiz!

In the spirit of upcoming holiday, I thought I'd post this one:

Which Halloween Monster Are You?

Here's my result:

YOU ARE A VAMPIRE

Somewhere in your murky past, you were seduced to the dark side. You developed a fondness for velvet and dark fabrics, for long capes and dark red lipstick. You enjoy the evening, the shadow of the night. You tend to be sensual, and whether it's a new conquest or an old flame, a nibble on the neck is quite enticing.

Keep an eye open for the unbelieving, for those who treasure an early sunrise and have a wooden stake or two in their pockets. You never know when those bat-haters will track you down and put an end to your nocturnal pleasures!

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And on an unrelated note - happy slightly related birthday to Aaron.

I KNEW Something Happened On This Date!

 

I knew something I should've remembered happened today but it didn't hit me until I was reading Towleroad's blog and he mentioned that it's the 15th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta (Bay Area) earthquake.

I recall that day really well! I had gotten back home in the Inner Sunset from school (San Francisco State) at about 3:30pm and decided to go take a nap shortly thereafter. I woke up just before 5pm and decided to start knocking off Juno and the Paycock for my Theatre History class before I meandered into the kitchen to get dinner together. I got about 4 pages into it when ZAP! the rumbling noise seguing right into the actual rumble rocking my apartment. Venetian blinds slamming against the windows repeatedly; watching the bookcases in my living room rock back and forth; the creaking and groaning of the building under the stress. I never got dressed so quickly in my life. My heart racing, I went to turn on the tv to see what the news reported...nothing; no power. I went outside to insepct the damage in the area and saw that all the buildings on my block were still standing and the only visible damage was some major plaster cracks on the building at the corner. I spoke to a couple of neighbors and other than some rattled nerves, they were okay. In my apartment, the only thing I had to do was straighten out a few pictures, close a couple of kitchen cabinet doors, throw away the shards of a jar that had fallen off my tv and shattered, sending pennies clear across to the other side of the living room, and to sooth the very frayed nerves of my poor little cat, Nat who hid under a table for 20 minutes.

I went to the corner grocery store to see how things were with the owner Phil, who I had become friendly with. The place was a mess with cans, jars, and boxes knocked to the floor. Luckily, he and Julie the employee were alright. There was small crowd outside gathered around the portable radio Phil had set up on his car and with a couple bottles of booze and soda, were listening in on the news. A short time later, when I was heading back into my building (about an hour after the quake), I heard a phone ring so I figured I'd try to get a call out to my parents in NYC and let them know I was okay. They had just heard the news about the quake and my mom wondered if "it was just in your neighborhood". My parents, God love 'em, are born and bred New Yorkers who have never had to deal with earthquakes so had no idea of what they're like. "Yes," I told them, "and everywhere else within about 100 mile radius." Poor them, tho - it wasn't until later that night when they saw the videos of what had happened due to the quake and they tried to get a hold of me again (which was impossible since Pac Bell blocked all incoming calls to the Bay Area.) My parents dunno the area so they didn't know exactly where my neighborhood was in relation to anywhere else so they feared the worse and alas, had to endure stessed-out time till I landed up calling them the next day.

The power came back on in my neighborhood about 1am that night so at least I was able to watch the news reports on the tv for a few hours while i tried to get some sleep on the couch.

The rest of the general story you know but I managed to survive my frayed nerves and landed up moving back to TooStoned a few months later.

Frellin' A!

 

Farscape: The Peacekeepers Wars starts tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel!! Looking forward to seeing it. It concludes tomorrow night.

I've never been a science fiction fan...dunno why, nothing against it by any means but it just was never a bigt thrill for me. I{ had a couple of fave flicks and tv shows but not anything for me to be considered a fan. I started watching Farscape about a year and a half ago after it had already been cancelled and was in re-runs late night on the Sci-Fi Channel. Lo and behold! I found myself hooked! Go figure! Muppets humor, action, adventure, and a sexy main cast (well, except for Rygel and Pilot) how could you go wrong?

I finally saw what Wayne Pygram (Scorpius) looks like without the make-up in an interview over on The Sci-Fi Channel's Farscape site and he looks like Patrick Stewart but 20 years younger! Now, if I can only see what Anthony Simcoe (Ka D'Argo) looks like in real life!

Anyone Got A Spare $70 Mil?

 


October 10, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE

A Wall Street financial guru is putting his palatial Fifth Avenue penthouse on the market for a staggering $70 million — the highest-ever asking price for a Manhattan apartment, The Post has learned.

Martin Zweig, an author and hedge-fund manager, will open the doors of his three-story co-op apartment, perched atop the swanky Pierre hotel, to serious bidders Tuesday, real-estate sources said.

The swanky penthouse mansion has 16 rooms covering 11,000 square feet on Floors 41 through 43.

It has nine bedrooms, six baths and two half-baths, six fireplaces, four terraces, heated marble floors and a 2,800-square-foot "grand salon" with 23-foot-high ceilings and ornate chandeliers.

The apartment's $48,000-a- month maintenance fee includes full hotel services, such as room service, twice-daily maid service — with robes, linens and mints on the pillows — and a 24-hour concierge.

Zweig, who's in his 60s, stands to pocket a whopping profit if he finds a buyer — in 1999, he paid a then-record $21.5 million for the over-the-top digs.

He bought it from Australian publishing heiress Lady Mary Fairfax, who first listed the glamorous digs in 1996 for $35 million.

The grand salon, one of the hotel's ballrooms, sat mostly empty from the late 1960s until Lady Fairfax combined it with the apartment for $12 million in 1988.

She then spent the next five years and untold millions renovating.

"I'm very familiar with all the great apartments of New York," said the listing broker in 1996, "and I believe [the grand salon] is the most important room in private ownership."

A few months after Zweig bought the mansion, his record purchase price was shattered when troubled tycoon Saul Steinberg put his 34-room Park Avenue triplex, part of the original 90-room residence of John D. Rockefeller Jr., on the market with an asking price over $45 million.

Investment banker Stephen Schwarzman reportedly paid approximately $37 million for the prewar pad in February 2000.

By November 2000, Manhattan saw yet another record-high asking price when Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth Johnson listed her unfinished 20,000-square-foot condo at Trump International Hotel & Tower for $62 million.

Johnson assembled the gargantuan triplex out of several contiguous apartments, and then opted not to finish the project after a fallout with her hairdresser boyfriend.

After no takers materialized, Johnson eventually remarketed the raw property in their original configurations.

The record sales price for a New York City residence now stands at $42.5 million for a 12,500-square-foot duplex condo at the Time Warner Center purchased by financier David Martinez in 2003.

Some brokers doubt that Zweig will get the full $70 million.

"I'll be very surprised if he gets anywhere near that," one broker said. "You can ask the moon, but reality does eventually set in."

Neither Zweig nor his brokers could be reached at press time.

Zweig started an investment newsletter in the 1970s before entering the lucrative fund business in the 1980s. His stock-picking acumen has been compared to that of fellow market guru Warren Buffett.

- The New York Post

Casting Possibilites

 

Keanu Reeves: Go up for a guest shot on "Lost" as a
surfer who turns up on the island for a three-episode
arc.



 


Cher: Bio-pic of Keely Smith

Harold and Maude: The Musical!

 

While I was reading my copy of the latest issue of American Theatre magazine, I saw that one of my top fave flicks of all time was actually made into a musical! The Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, N.J. is staging it from January 5th thru February 13th, 2005 with Estelle Parsons as Maude.

I've NO idea how this will turn out! It could be a complete bomb but then again, it could be great! The original movie is untoppable and Ruth Gordon is the ultimate Maude, in my opinion. I hope it does work out, tho. I'm looking forward to seeing what the reviews say.

Here's the link to the Paper Mill's page for it.

"Even the Most Depraved Barbie Doll Collector Couldn't Top This."

 

The above quote is from John Waters, an admirer of the somewhat ghoulish dioramas, called "The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death", created by the late Frances Glessner Lee. The photographs of them, taken by Corinne May Botz, are now on exhibit at the Bellwether Gallery in New York City.

This New York Times article is the latest addition to my not well known and sometimes morbid interest in bizarre things and thanx to Sturtle for posting about it.

Christopher Reeve - R.I.P.

 

JUST heard the news so I haven't read the article completely yet...

'Superman' star Christopher Reeve dead at 52

OhMyGod!OhMyGod!OhMyGod!

While checking out my sitemeter hits just now, I noticed a link from Defamer. Wondering how I somehow got mentioned on that site, I investigated. It turns out that I, along with several other blogs, got mentioned on their A Dirty Shame blog of October 7th!

I blame being a Leo for being such an attention whore so thank you, Defamer folks for mentioning lil' ol' me!

If Elton John Was a Poodle...

 

Anyway, here's the actual caption for the photo....

A poodle named Peter stands on its hind legs at the World Dog Exhibition in Beijing Saturday Oct. 2, 2004. More than 400 dogs are expected to participate in the 5-day festival, which will feature grooming displays, competitions and advice on dog training. (AP Photo/str)

The FELT Agenda or Adam and Eve Not Adam and Sleeve!

RAG! 

Thanks go to Sturtle for mentioning that the good folks at Gawker Media have added a couple of more sites to their family: Screenhead ("An online review of,um, funny shit"), and Kotaku (for gaming fans).

At Screenhead, there's a link to a wonderful send-off of the Not-So-Rev. Phred Phelps' (may he rot in his own existance) site here: God Hates Rags. There's a great movie there titled "FELT: Tearing the Fabric of America" to check out.

There's other very funny stuff at the Screenhead site to check out as well including a flash cartoon involving Shrub, Gary Busey, a couple of ferrets, and the mention of "nasty butt sex".

Yet Another Learning Experience From the Land of Geekdom

So, tonight I ventured into learning how to use this Hello software for posting pics on my site instead of linking a photo from another site and taking up their bandwidth. (I also hope it'll help in sizing a photo to my template instead of it possibly hanging over an edge) I tried it with the WYSWYG post and it seems to have worked...or to put it a better way, I seemed to have figured out how to futz with the Hello site. Alas, Hello seems to prefer using the Internet Imploder (my name for it) browser which I really can't stand (I've been using NetScrape for years now) but until I can figure out how to have it use it, I'll deal with it for the duration of posting that particular photo and then log out of IE.

Maybe one day I'll become too experienced in CyberGeekhood so as to be jaded and over this giddiness i feel when I can accompish something like this.

Another WYSIWYG Talent Show

talent 

Starring this month:
Allison Bojarski aka The Brazilian Muse, Michael Barrish aka Oblivio, Blaise K. aka Bazima, Ned Vezzini, Michael McA. aka Dog Poet, Todd Levin aka Tremble, and musical guest Chris G. aka JimmyLegs.

Post no.100!

Wow! A bit of a milestone! Go me.

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I was traipsing though some of the boards on tribe.net (now home of the furry catepiller logo) and came upon a link about the Alfred Hitchcock movie Lifeboat which has always been one of my top fave Hitchcock flicks. Well, I knew that it was based on a John Steinbeck novel but I've never been able to find a copy of it anywhere, much to my dismay. Now I find out, because of this article, it was never published and that Steinbeck was not thrilled with how the movie turned out! Here's the link to the article.

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For some odd reason, I developed an intense craving for Schrafft's chocolate ice cream last night! I haven't had it in AGES but VOOM! there it was! Is Schrafft's ice cream still even made? I still have fond memories of their restaurant on 57th St and 3rd Ave in Manhattan.

Just Quickly Posting This Debate-Related Link...

Yeah, I'm still in a "fire bad, tree pretty" state of mind but wanted to post it before last night's debate got TOO old...

The Debate In Pictures

Courtesy of Chris at Uffish.

"God, I Love Baltimore!"

Just got back a little while ago from seeing John Waters give his one-man show followed by a showing of A Dirty Shame. Had an absolute blast! He's truely a funny and entertaining man. A friend attended the private dinner-reception prior to the main events and said he's really pleasant as well.

Alas, I'm a bit too pooped to have the energy to write about it right now but UltraSparky discribed the film much better than I could ever have here.

And apparently, next month John Cameron Mitchell will be in town to help introduce a new film, Tarnation, which he's the executive producer of along with it's writer/director Jonathon Caouette, as well as to talk about Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Happy October, everyone!