6 Reasons You Should Get Into the Gay Rodeo

We’re home from the rodeo, and I’m proud to say we’ve returned having won rodeo experience, new friends, a belt buckle for chute dogging, and a pulled abdominal muscle.  I don’t know what was best about the weekend: the competition itself, hearing the announcer wish Sam happy birthday both days, or hearing him say “the Page boys are married… the family that rodeos together stays together.”

Lots of photos on Sam’s site.

Every time Sam and I go to the rodeo, on the way home, I have the same thought: there’s no good reason that more gay Angelenos aren’t getting involved in the gay rodeo:

1. Hot cowboys and cowgirls from all over, (who have the resources and sticktuitiveness to commit to a sport, travel for it, and keep livestock).

Sarah Palin: Ahmadinejad in Heels

President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Sarah Palin.  One’s a naive, oil-obsessed, holy war-calling, religious extremist, and the other is an Iranian.  Here’s the Lovesick Billy take on this dynamic duo:

Ahmadinejad: Thinks the Holocaust is a myth.

Palin: Thinks evolution is a myth.

Ahmadinejad & Palin: Were not widely known when they entered their presidential election campaigns, although they had already made their marks for rolling back earlier reforms.

Cleaning Up and Moving Toward Sanity

6:30am found me up, coffeed, and organizing the house.  Sam and I are equally chronic trail-leavers: cause for me to go from room to room asking, “Does this belong here?  Where does this belong?  Why the hell did I put this here?”  International power adapters don’t belong in a woven box with cuff links, although when I put them there, it seemed perfectly logical because the box was just the right size.  After re-placing about a dozen things, (feeling not unlike Wall-E) the questions and answers became a meditation, and I thought about the additional trouble I caused myself by just doing what I’d always done, without changing my behavior.

My Grandfather was right, all those times.  Put things where they belong, and you’ll always know where to find them.  To help us, he

The Real Last Word on Sarah Palin

It’s time to stop talking about Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin may not share beliefs with much of the country, and that’s just fine.  She has her hands full with a special needs child, a pregnant teen, and an investigation into her conduct, all of which she’s certain to survive.  It’s okay, because at 44 – by political standards – she’s just a kid.  Her day will come.  Just not this year.

Governor Palin is formidable: a smart, congenial, accomplished woman, passionate about her country. 

The Democratic National Convention

I’m watching the beginning of the DNC, and it is gloriously black. Sure, there are people in attendance who aren’t black, and – God bless them – they’re all bad dancers, but they’re there to shake it for the DNC and national television, for better or worse. Motown is alive in Denver tonight, and a little girl just belted out Alicia Keys “No One” with talent and gusto impossibly contained by her tiny teenage frame. What a breath of fresh air, if for no other reason than the fact that white people can be some of the most boring MFs on the planet, especially when we’re part of a three-day sales job. Besides, America doesn’t look that white and tight-assed anymore, and it’s about time we see her in every color.

America loves minorities: black, asian, latino, and even LGBT (a pan-cultural minority), just as long as they entertain, houseclean, and coif, while we continue being discriminated against or just plain ignored. Being able to legally marry Sam is one of the greatest moments of my life, and even though our marriage is said to be ex post facto, or grandfathered in the event of a constitutional amendment, there still looms a keen sense that half of those around me would like to revoke that basic right.

A lesbian friend of mine just called to ask me what “casar se=hombre+mujer” means

Barack Obama, as You Have Never Seen Him

Sam and I set out last night for one our favorite Mexican restaurants: the newly refurbished El Chavo in Los Feliz. We headed west, by way of Silver Lake when on Sunset Blvd., just before Dodger Stadium, we encountered a wall of rainbow-colored portraits of Abraham Lincoln that looked oddly, and simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar.

A Day at Blond Beach

Sam and I went to Laguna Beach today, to West beach, the ‘other’ gay section of beach since the closing of the Boom Boom Room. The funny news is on our way there, we noticed that the now closed Boom Boom Room is being renovated and converted into – wait for it – The DNC HQ.

If you’ve read me at all, you know that blond men make me giggle like a fraternity pledge. I prefer to bring my own blond (BYOB) wherever I go, but Laguna Beach is fantastic if you like blondes of any sex. There was a point when Sam and I were crossing the street to go to Avila’s El Ranchito (a.k.a. El Coyote Del Mar), when there were no fewer than a dozen blond guys in sight (and all about 23 which doesn’t hurt either). It was like a harmonic convergence of peroxide proportions. I turned to Sam, who saw my face light up, and said,

Election 2008: The Pots Calling the Kettle ‘Uppity’

Sam and I were listening to NPR this weekend when we heard a woman say, “I am sick and tired that every black man with an education is called ‘uppity,’” or something pretty close to that.

We guffawed in total agreement. Show me a white Ivy Leaguer who has been labeled as such. It may be my upbringing in the south, but uppity has always been understood as a code word; always the adjective that precedes a very specific epithet. If I know this, then you know the McCain camp does.

Online Etymology Dictionary:

uppity
1880, from up; originally used by blacks of other blacks felt to be too self-assertive (first recorded use is in “Uncle Remus”). The parallel British variant uppish (1678) originally meant “lavish;” the sense of “conceited, arrogant” being first recorded 1734.

Is Lindsay Lohan Going To Marry Samantha Ronson?

Huzzah. I knew I loved that girl. This is great news. Coming out should save her thousands in rehab, and may just be saving her life.

God knows why they know about it overseas first, but, China Daily, Trans World News, and Yell Malta are echoing British tabloids with the news that Lindsay and Samantha are getting married in L.A. this year. Plus, check out Facebook.

Samantha Ronson is a DJ, sister of killer record producer, Mark Ronson, and arguably the luckiest lesbian in the world.

I wish you girls all the best. You’re a beautiful couple.

Let love rule.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Tim Ferriss

I’ve tolerated a year of Sam and our friend, Paul Horne, blaring about the genius of Tim Ferriss and his Four-Hour Workweek, and it has bordered on insufferable. I’ve dubbed them ‘Ferriss-ites’ (rhymes with parasites) and through the storm of my nay-saying about their mascot, they have remained stalwart and faithful.

There must be something to this guy (plus, he’s blond, hot, and I suspect latently gay) so I’ve conceded to suspend my disbelief as best as I can and read the book.