Flibbertigibbet

Did You Watch the Office Last Night?

Holy cow, that is some funny stuff!

I love:
- That Michael hit Merideth with his car.
- That Merideth got to be in this episode so much.
- That Dwight put Blonde Lady's cat, Sprinkles, in the freezer
- That Jan has totally flipped her wig.

I hope:
- We get to see more of Creed.
- We get to see more Merideth, because I love her.

I like the Ryan is a total douche now, but I don't like how the writers have associated that with his reading of "Ann Rand" in the online clip of what he did over the summer.

I'm also not sold on the new tech guy they introduced.

But we'll see.

My Hero

I'm going to get to go see Martha Stewart delivery a talk about marketing tomorrow!

WOOHOO!

Top Chef

I hate Hung and the producers are setting him up to be the bad guy in the final rounds.

Cute girl is awesome. I love her so much and her food looks DELICIOUS.

I think they're the top two.

Soul Patch is pretty good, but next to invisible in this show. What the hell is that neon green cow pie he made? I kind of want to taste it, though.

Greasy Girl, you're killing me. You were a favorite of mine for a while and now it's like you're not even showing up. Undercooking, underspiced chicken? Are you kidding me?

Mohawk, sorry. You kind of suck. I halfway want to root for you, but you're coming off as too inexperienced, too flighty, too silly to win this.

My prediction for the final three: Hung, Cute Girl, Soul Patch. Greasy Girl, you're getting cut tonight. Mohawk, you're next.

Let's watch, shall we?

Update: No surprise that Hung won. His dish was the best from concept to execution. I love Cute Girl and I love coq au vin, but I suspect that it's not edgy enough to really impress unless executed to perfection.

I was right about Greasy Girl. She's out. Mohawk, you only BARELY made it to the finale. You're still going to lose.

Ok. I need to rant about Mohawk's duet for a second. Why would you use the same puree in both dishes unless it is a theme? Even with the sauce he forgot to put on, the concept of a duet in my mind requires carefully balance counterpoints. I don't even know where he was going with that.

See you next week, Tom Colicchio! Smooches!

Oo, GIRL!

Are you watching Top Chef? Oooooo... this is some DRAMA!

I love it!

I wish I could taste these dishes, though.

iPhone $200 Cheaper

Check out the Engaget live blogging of Apple's "The beat goes on" special event.

Notable items I saw in my scan of the post:
- the iPod Touch - it's an iPhone without a phone and a little more memory. It's too little memory for an iPod, if you ask me, but whatever.

- the iPhone is $200 cheaper. WOO! This definitely makes the iPhone case stronger. I was coveting the new Q this weekend, but now the price points are closer. ARG!

- iPod Nano with Video and such. It's tiny and it's cool.

Almost Back!

Yesterday was my official birthday. There's a certain irony to the socialists having a celebration on the same day, but I think it was lost on most people except those to whom I pointed it out.

I flew back from Miami yesterday morning and then Mister Bookworm took me to a surprise dinner last night. We went to this French-Spanish restaurant here in Astoria; it was delicious. I thought I was going to burst after it was over.

My trip to Miami was awesome. Pharoah and the Boob Doctor were awesome hosts. One of their neighbors even let us use his apartment for our visit, so it was like Mister Bookworm and I had our own place for the duration.

We went to the beach and the pool. I got a little bit of sun, but not much because I put on sunscreen with the SPF 30. I need that because otherwise I do an incredible painful, though amusing, impression of bacon. We went to Villa Viscaya and we also drank lots of mojitos.

While I was gone, I finished my Pink Carnation book and Robert Mayhew's Ayn Rand & the Song of Russia. I'll discuss both in a little bit.

ALSO while I was gone I got a call from a headhunter that was really exciting. I know, it's just a headhunter and I have a lot more work to do in order to find a new job, but it was pretty cool and it reminded me how badly I really do want to find a new job.

So, I'm back home now, but I took the day off, you know, to relax. Since I'm 30 now, I guess I'll nap and .

Pack It Up Pack It In!

Just cuz.

I Bite My Nails

Right In Time
by Lucinda Williams

Not a day goes by I don't think about you
You left your mark on me it's permanent a tattoo
Pierce the skin and the blood runs through

Oh my baby
The way you move it's right in time
The way you move it's right in time
It's right in time with me

I stand over the stove in the kitchen
Watch the water boil and I listen
Turn off the television

Oh my baby
The way you move it's right in time
The way you move it's right in time
It's right in time with me

I take off my watch and my earrings
My bracelets and everything
Lie on my back and moan at the ceiling

Oh my baby

Think about you and that long ride
I bite my nails I get weak inside
Reach over and turn off the light

Oh my baby
The way you move it's right in time
The way you move it's right in time
It's right in time with me
The way you move it's right in time
The way you move it's right in time
It's right in time with me

Thriller!

Michael Jackson fans will appreciate this:

Much thanks to Johndavid for providing it. His remark, "I love that they let the tranny girl wear clothes." (He means street clothes since they're all prisoners.)

Awwwwww...

Get Fuzzy

I love Satchel. He's such a sweetheart and I am so very, very happy that his seeds are growing. Bucky had better not do anything to hurt his plants!

WOW.

Just wow.

One More

Ok. Last one before I go to bed. Promise. You only have to watch the first 30 seconds or so of this video to see the entrance this drag queen makes. In three words: OH EM GEE!

Hat Tip: Joe. My. God.

Lick Poop And Chief Itchy Balls

Since I'm still up, I'm still counting it as YouTube Wednesday. There's that and the fact that the Bookwork sent me two new videos that are also fun:

We Rool At It

Maybe when I get a fancy iPhone, I'll be this good.

Little Girls Don't Really Do That, Do They?

Thanks to Coworker Yim for sharing this one.

Oh, I Wish You @#*&!^% Would.

Continuing with YouTube Wednesday

Hat tip to Hobag for sending me this.

READ A *&@#$ Book!

"Raise yo kids! Raise yo kids! Raise yo goddamn kids!"

It's catchy.

Thanks to the Bookworm for this one.

Walk It Out, Fosse

Thanks to Johndavid for this one.

Just Jammin' Fresh and Def

I love the song "Supersonic "by JJ Fad, but when I tell people about JJ Fad, they always say they've never heard of them.

LIES.

You know that if you were in the roller skatin' rink in the 80's, then you have heard JJ Fad.

First of all, you've heard "Supersonic."

Ok, but they have another good song, too, "The Cars that Go Boom."

Of course, I'm sure many of you are still scratching your head and lying to yourself about how pervasive JJ Fad is in your life.

Here's a couple of other allusions:

- Fergie remade "Supersonic" into that song "Fergalicious."

- Missy Elliot references JJ Fad in her song "Gossip Folks." She says, "You think I ain't know y'all broke-down Milli Vanilli JJ Fad wannabes ain't over here gossipin' bout me?"

Update: I just realized that the video doesn't contain the line I reference above. You need the album version to hear it, I guess.

- Gwen Stefani makes reference to "The Cars that Go Boom" in her song "Wind It Up" She says, "I guess that they are slow, so they should leave the room/ This beat is for the clubs, and cars that go--"

I'm in Hell

Due to some events last night, I'm going to have to proclaim this loudly for all the world to see and hear. I don't care if I never get to have sex with a man ever again.

I do NOT like musicals.

There. I said it. There's no taking it back.

Everyone tells me I just need to see a good one and then maybe I'll like it and I'll admit that I haven't seen a "good" one because I'm too cheap to shell out hella big bucks to see something I think I won't like. But I have seen a couple and I haven't thought they were worth the money.

So, what happened last night?

My friends took me to a piano bar.

I don't like musicals, so I don't know the words to most of the songs they played. I don't actually WANT to know the words because I don't LIKE them anyway.

And yesterday I got to try out an iPhone. And I still don't have one.

So, it seems appropriate that they would make a big musical number out of wanting an iPhone.

Hat tip: Joe. My. God.

iTouched It!

I went and got my hairs did this afternoon and it turns out that my hair dude bought an iPhone and he let me play with it.

It's Sooooper cool.

The data connection is pretty slow, but it's faster than my friend's old blackberry -- although that doesn't say much because I think her blackberry is effed.

I didn't have much trouble typing on it even though I had fat fingers. I actually had trouble getting used to simply tapping and not pressing on the screen.

It's LITTLE. It's a lot smaller than I expected and I was afraid I was going to drop it.

All in all, I was impressed and am excited to see how they improve it for the second generation and get one in January.

30 Rock Rocks

30 Rock is a hilarious show.

You should watch it.

Happy Independence Day!

It's American Independence Day, y'all!

Go watch some fireworks, eat some hamburgers, and celebrate the beginning of the freest country in the history of the world.

Steel Your Money

I'm subscribed to a daily email list that sends out recommendations for all kinds of things. It's called Thrillist and it's pretty damn cool.

Well, today's email was about something so cool I had to blog it: stainless steel wallets.

Founded by a Cooper Union grad, S/S is a DUMBO accessories/tchotske shop carrying everything from titanium cufflinks to 19th Century reprints like Full Revelations of a Professional Rat Catcher (or "Great Exterminations"). Most impressive, however, are their wallets, made from woven, industrial grade steel -- a critical component in petroleum refining, aerospace technology, and other applications far more grueling than withstanding your sweating buttocks. Besides being durable, the wallets are also flexible, and as soft as silk's cousin, Reginald VelJohnson. Aesthetic options include smooth or textured steel, and a steel/leather combo, all of which're available in driving, bifold, and, for the man who fears elevator stabbings, breast pocket versions.

Badass, right?

I checked out the site, StewartStand.com, and found that the wallets run about $95. That's a little steep but when you think about the additional security the wallet provides by way of acting as body armor, I think it's worth it, don't you?

Time Waster of the Day

Throw paper airplanes!

The iPhone is Wicked Cool

Thanks to Diana, I've just watched a demo video for iPhone.

It's SO COOL!

Because I Can

From I Can Has Cheezburger!

Time Waster of the Day

Defend Your Castle!

In this game you have to pick up the little guys and drop them from a high height and let them splat on the ground so that they can't break into your castle. You earn points for killing them which allows you to upgrade your castle.

One of the coolest parts is that you can convert your enemies to your cause and teach some of them to be suicide bombers.

Happy Friday! Changes Coming

I slept in this morning and skipped the gym. It felt really good.

Anyway, my blog may be undergoing some more changes in the next couple of weeks as it sounds as if I will be migrating to a new blogging software. I'm excited about the change, but it also means that my blog template may jump around for a little while until I get it all worked out.

One thing I hope for on this sunny, beautiful, Gay Days Friday is that the RSS feed works better for reader Daniel who has given me feedback on its appearance but never to his satisfaction.

What's your Gay Day's wish?

NEW UNDERWEAR!!!

I am so happy!

The other day I went to jockey.com and ordered a bunch of new underwear and undershirts.

I love new underwear and I love Jockey's sport line of briefs and boxer-briefs. They're so comfortable and they look really good, too!

So, I have a huge box of new undies under my desk right now. I can't wait to start wearing them!

(And, no, Britton, I will NOT post a picture of me trying them on.)

You're Invited

Let's go sit up on my roof and watch the sun go down behind Manhattan.

I think there's some cold beer in the fridge and the weather is beautiful.

Hot, Gay, and on Television

Ok. Listen to me, people: I don't care what you've heard or what you've been told. Anderson Cooper is not the hottest CNN anchor. That title goes to Thomas Roberts.

I'm not saying that Cooper is an uggo even if his face is a little bit pointy. I'm just saying that Thomas Roberts is way hotter.

Check it:

See?

They're both gay, although Anderson Cooper has declined to state his sexual orientation definitively much to the irritation of gay activists everywhere.

And can I tell you something that I hate about Anderson Cooper? I just hate how overwrought and emotional he seems on the news. In his much-lauded hurricane Katrina aftermath coverage the man nearly broke down into tears at every other sentence.

Maybe I'm showing what a heartless, little sociopath I can be. I understand that it was a traumatic scene, but he wasn't looking at dead bodies. He was looking at broken homes. Those aren't even close to the same in terms of lost values. A house versus a life or limb.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. Thomas Roberts is way steamier.

Update: I also just read that Playgirl ranked Cooper number three on their Sexiest Newscasters List in 2004 behind Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann. Yes, Sean Hannity can be attractive (when he's not so heavy) but Keith Olbermann? This is why we can't take a publication like Playgirl seriously.

Happy Friday, All!

I have to say: I am extremely relieved to have merged my two blogs. It makes things so much easier to keep track of.

In other news, I've made some significant progress recently in my job-hunt marketing plan -- something else I don't think I've discussed with you guys.

Basically, I have a marketing plan for finding a new job. It involves establishing my real identity out here on the global intarwebs. You'll recall that one of the reasons for merging blogs involved eroding the brand of my other blog, so to speak. (This is why I am asking you all to try to not reference the name of that other blog for a while! It is very near to my real name and I need Google to start looking somewhere else.)

Anyway, there's that.

Plus, I am working on starting a small business (More on this when the project actually launches. We're in the planning stages still.) with my best friend and I'm tickled to see that moving forward.

And my workout/diet is going well. Especially the diet. I've fallen into a good rhythm with when I eat and what I eat. It goes like this:

- Egg whites first thing in the morning when I wake up.
- A protein bar at 10am
- Lunch consisting of a turkey wrap & cottage cheese or a salad laden with egg whites, chickpeas, and turkey
- A protein bar at 3pm or a bunch of almonds
- Supper consisting of something like tuna steak or chicken breast or something.

And speaking of working out, I'm up to six days a week, which is kind of crazy. In my defense, on three of those days I'm only doing about 30 minutes of cardio. I'd like to do about 45 minutes to an hour of cardio on those days, though. I just can't swing that right now as I am still getting used to doing three days of weights.

And, you know, in spite of the fact that I am launching into a new job search, I will say that work is going reasonably well.

The romance department, as you know, is still without work or prospects. I have to say that it is pretty rough being without smooches right now, but I'm doing what I can to resolve that.

And I think I'm going to go with Justin's suggestion of "Flibbert" over "Flibby." I do kind of like the sound of it and it makes Justin happy. Who knows? Maybe he'd hot and he'll go gay on us.

And tonight I'm going to go see Mika in concert. That should be fun.

Oh! And on the roommate front, I think my frustration with The Law Student has subsided a bit. He wasn't home when I got in last night and didn't come in until about 10. Immediately, he started smoking, but I was busy doing something else and just closed the door to my room. I will have opportunities to confront him about it this weekend.

Speaking of the apartment, I'm going to be cleaning like a madman this weekend. The apartment is simply filthy and although we've made lots of improvements, there is just a general dirtiness about it that needs to be resolved immediately because I'm going nuts.

Once complete, I hope to discuss with The Actor and The Law Student some system of dividing/rotating responsibilities so that the place stays clean. In any case, things simply cannot persist as they have.

So, anyway, that's a summary of my life at present.

Happy Tuesday!

Well, this weekend was a lot of fun. I went to the beach (I did not get sunburned, except in two or three places I mysteriously missed hitting with my subscreen), did some shopping, relaxed, and spent some fun times with my friends.

I did well on my diet last week, but this weekend was a challenge. I only had a few things that I wasn't supposed to eat and I think that's ok.

Now, I'm back in the city and feeling pretty well-rested and ready to get back into things.

Where I Be At

I just realized I haven't posted anything here in a while, so you're probably wondering what the hell is going on.

Well, not much. A lot.

I decided on Monday that I need to launch my campaign to find a new job. It's a beautiful plan that will require a lot of hard work. I expect it to occupy a lot of my free time over the next few months.

My roommate has launched into another remodeling plan in our apartment, so at least a few days are going to be spent working with him on that. (Although, he really didn't consult with me about my availability before starting.)

Work has been good. It's been busy, which is good. But I am realizing that it's not going to get any closer to what I want to be doing and I need to get out there already and get down to what I want to do.

Working out has been going the same as usual. It's good. My trainer is constantly kicking my butt. I started doing cardio in the mornings before work with a friend and we've been at it for about a month now. (She says five weeks, but I really don't think it's been that long.) And it's paying off. I'm seeing some better muscle tone and my strength continues to grow slowly but surely. I'll post some pictures another time when I get time.

This past weekend, I saw Spiderman 3. It was mediocre at best and it was also long. 2 hours and 20 minutes. There were too many villains and the drama was weak. At one point, this little girl behind me sighed loudly and the groaned, "Not the Sandman AGAIN." I almost hugged her.

Immediately after the movie, I hopped into a cab and met some friends. We rented a car and drove to Philadelphia to see Amy Winehouse in concert at the Electric Factory. The space was cool, but the sound wasn't great at all. The crowd was a weird mix of people, which it to be expected, I suppose.

Some skrawny Brit homo named Phillip Wolf or something opened for her. I wasn't into his music and he was the vision of a gay fool wearing shorts so tight that I could clearly see the outline of his penis the whole time. Every one commented on this fact.

Amy's set was short - I'd guess it was about 9 or 10 songs, but I could be wrong - and she was drunk by the time she got on stage. Again, no surprises there. She continued to drink the rest of the time on stage and by the end of it her crazy accent combined with the bad sound and the drinking made her utterly unintelligible.

But I had fun making the little road trip with the boys.

In other news, I've been tossing around a business idea with a friend of mine. A t-shirt company. Who doesn't have one of those? We'll see how that goes. I will, of course, be pimping out t-shirts on this site when and if the time comes.

Romance is dead. It's not dead, really. I find myself actually in a happy state of both wanting to meet someone special that I can dote on and unwilling to tolerate any bullshit. The single life suits me. I am predicting many months of dateless weekends at the moment and that isn't a bad thing.

So, that's about the sum of it.

The weather is getting nice here in NYC. I hope to get outdoors and spend some time playing in the dirt this season.

Beautiful Weekend

Yesterday, NYC got a record amount of rain. At nearly six inches, it was the most rain the city had seen in a 24 hour period in the last 124 years.

My weekend started with a nice, relaxing evening. I went with my friend to the movies. She and I saw one of the worst movies ever made: The Pathfinder. That made for some laughs over dinner afterward.

Then, on Saturday, I hung out with another friend of mine who offered to lend me his and his husband's apartment in Miami for my birthday. See, I mentioned to him that since it will be my 30th birthday, I want to take a little trip somewhere to celebrate. Someplace with a beach and sunshine and it would be nice if my friends would accompany me. And so he said I could stay there if I wanted.

Since his birthday is that month as well, I said, "We should make it a celebration for both of us!" So, it looks like I will be traveling with them for a long weekend some time in September for a little time at the beach in celebration of my 30th trip around the sun.

As mentioned, yesterday did naught but rain, so I spent the day in bed reading and watching television. It was wonderfully restful.

I actually love the rain. It's my favorite weather.

Most people think of rain as being dreary and dismal and surely it does strike me that way if it goes on for many days on end.

But for the most part rain is to me energizing. I especially love thunderstorms -- although those aren't all that frequent here in New York. Rain reminds me of getting clean and refreshed. It makes me think of beginnings and new possibilities. So, I like the rain.

And, on top of it all, I wasn't on the internet all weekend long, which is an amazing thing for me.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Under Pressure! Pushing Down on Me! Pressing Down on You!

I think there are some big changes looming on the horizon for this site. I won't say more right now, but I think you'll like it.

Meanwhile, life is something of a bore right now apart from all my friends' lives being made of suck.

A Dirty Joke

Two priests are in a Vatican bathroom using the urinals. One of them looks at the other one's penis and notices there's a Nicoderm patch on it.

He looks at the other priest and says, "I believe you're supposed to put that patch on your arm or shoulder, not your penis."

The other one replies, "It's working just fine. I'm down to two butts a day."

Amy! Amy! Amy! (Outro)

This is from Amy Winehouse's album Frank. It's a super-fun song.

Amy! Amy! Amy! (Outro)

Attract me
Til it hurts to concentrate,
Distract me
Stop me doin' work I hate
Just to show him how it feels
I walk past his desk in heels
One leg resting on the chair
From the side he pulls my hair.

Amy Amy Amy
Although I've been here before

Amy Amy Amy
You're just too hard to ignore
Masculine you spin a spell
I think you'd wear me well
Amy Amy Amy
Wheres my moral parallel

It takes me
Half an hour to write a verse
He makes me
Imagine it from bad to worse
My weakness from the other sex
Every time his shoulders flex
The way the shirt hangs off his back
My train of thought spins right off track

Amy Amy Amy
Although I've been here before
Amy Amy Amy
He's just too hard to ignore
Masculine he spins a spell
I think he'd wear me well
Amy Amy Amy
Wheres my moral parallel

His own style
Right down to his Diesel jeans
Immobile
I can't think by any means
Underwear peeks out the top
I'll let you know where you should stop
From the picture my mind drew
I know I'd look good on you

Amy Amy Amy
Although I've been here before
Amy Amy Amy
Your just too hard to ignore
Masculine you spin a spell
I think you'd wear me well
Amy Amy Amy
Wheres my moral parallel

Creative energy abused
All my lyrics go unused
When I clock black hair blue eyes
I drift off I fantasize

Amy Amy Amy
Although I've been here before

Amy Amy Amy
He's just too hard to ignore
Masculine he spins a spell
I think he'd wear me well

Amy Amy Amy
Where's my moral parallel

Amy Amy Amy
Although I've been here before

Amy Amy Amy
He's just too hard to ignore
Masculine he spins a spell
I think he'd wear me well

Amy Amy Amy
Wheres my moral parallel

Beauty

Last night, as I was about to give in to the Nyquil-induced, cough-free slumber, I noticed that I can see a star from my bedroom window. Stars are rare in New York because there is so much city light. It was nice seeing the star.

But what is better than the star is what I saw when I woke up this morning. I looked out my window and looked across the river and saw the glorious skyline of Manhattan. There were some birds flapping about the Queensboro bridge and the whole scene was like a post card of pure potential and joyfully laughing anticipation.

This evening, I'm looking again at the city. The Empire State Building is lit in blue and white. She looks like a superstar at the Oscars in the perfect dress and elegant jewels.

And next to her is the Chrysler building shining like an entire constellation of stars.

I love this city.

When I look at it, my spirit soars and laughs. This city is the greatest creation ever to flow forth from the hand of man. It stands on the planet as a testament to everything heroic and good. It is eloquent and sublime, regal and awe-inspiring. I love watching the lights glitter in the crisp night.

It's supposed to start raining later tonight and I won't be able to see the individual lights, but through the clouds and water it will glow and warm the air and water and my soul.

I love this city so much.

Done and Done

My new apartment is a bit run down. It's in an older building that hasn't been renovated nor well-maintained. This is why it's so cheap.

Well, I have a whole month to move in, so I'm taking advantage of the time to do some minor renovations of my own. Namely, stripping paint, sanding walls, patching holes, scraping off superfluous plaster, adding plaster where it's needed, refinishing the hardwood floors, painting the walls new, attractive colors, and really just giving the place a thorough cleaning.

Fortunately, I have an enthusiastic roommate who is very happy to have a new partner in crime for his home decorating/improvement projects. Sure, it's a rental property, but we have to live there. The landlord not only doesn't mind but sometimes pitches in supplies for these projects as well.

Well, I've spent the entire week stripping paint and chipping plaster off of the beautiful trim that lines the room. I'll be honest: I wasn't as thorough as I could have been with infinite time, patience, and a complete set of dental picks, but I think I've made some very significant progress. In fact, tonight I finished stripping the paint.

Tomorrow, I'm moving on to sanding the walls and getting it all ready for paint. If things go well tomorrow night, I may even paint.

Whether or not to paint is a tough call because on Saturday we will be sanding the floors and obviously that will result in a lot of dust and I do not want my fresh paint ruined by saw dust. On the other hand, it will have more than 24 hours to dry in a very dry, very warm environment. I'm eager to see how the colors I chose look.

So, anyway, I'm up late. I'm tired. I'm excited to work some more on my room. I'm REALLY excited to have it all done.

Anywhoodles, it's time for me to hit the hay.

G'nite, y'all!

Happiness is Just Around the Corner

Ok. If you are, for whatever reason, a little bit sad or bummed out, here's what I want you to do:

Put on your headphones or crank up your stereo and play the song "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys.

We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party

Ive got something to tell ya
Ive got news for you
Gonna put some wheels in motion
Get ready cause were coming through
Hey now, hey now, heres what I say now
Happiness is just around the corner
Hey now, hey now, heres what I say now
Well be there for you

The vengabus is coming
And everybodys jumping
New York to San Francisco
An intercity disco
The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party

Hey now, hey now, heres what I say now
Happiness is just around the corner
Hey now, hey now, heres what I say now
Well be there for you

The vengabus is coming
And everybodys jumping
New York to San Francisco
An intercity disco
The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

The vengabus is coming
And everybodys jumping
New York to San Francisco
An intercity disco
The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party
We like to party
We like, we like to party

The vengabus is coming, the vengabus is coming
The vengabus is coming, the vengabus is coming

The vengabus is coming
And everybodys jumping
New York to San Francisco
An intercity disco
The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

The vengabus is coming
And everybodys jumping
New York to San Francisco
An intercity disco
The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

The vengabus is coming

If you are able and it is an appropriate place for you to do so, take off your clothes and dance around in your underwear to this song.

You will feel better. I promise.

A Poem about Hair

Apropros to recent posts, reader Sompopo shared this hilarious poem about hair:

I'm aware some stare at my hair In fact, to be fair, some really despair of my hair But I don't care For they're not aware Nor are they debonair In fact, they're just square. They see hair down to there and go off on a tear. I say, no fair. A head that's bare is really nowhere. So be like a bear Be fair with your hair Show it you care Wear it to there, or to There, or to THERE if you dare. My wife bought some hair at a fair to use as a spare Did I care? Au contraire. Spare hair is fair. In fact, hair can be rare. Fred Astaire got no hair Nor does a chair Or a chocolate eclair And where is the hair on a pear? Nowhere, mon fraire. Now that I've shared my affair of the hair, I think I'll repair to my lair and use Nair- do you care?

When I Say "THOSE" Days, Even I Wonder What It Means

Today is one of those days.

I woke up this morning at 4:45. Well, more accurately, that was the last time I woke up this morning because I had woken up several times before that. I got out of bed not long after that, though.

I was in the office by 6:30.

I left the office this evening at 7. It was a long day.

Then I went and saw The Children of Men. While the movie is well done and more compelling than most adventures in dystopia, the camera work was horrible (even if appropriate to the subject matter) and that, too, made for a long day.

I'm home now.

Oddly, I'm not tired, though. I really kind of feel like going out and checking out the hot menfolk here on this little island.

Let's face it, though: that would not be a good plan. Remember how we're not spending money? Remember how we don't want to get a cold like almost everyone else around this place? It's best I just stay in.

But, Men of Manhattan, hear this: you almost had your heart broken tonight, but it is only my infinite mercy that spared your delicate feelings. All the more reason to line up for tomorrow evening because I'm such a sweet fella.

Coming Home

It was such a thrill yesterday to think of coming to New York, not as a vacation destination, but because I was coming home.

I love this place so much!

Hoodie Addiction

Prior to moving to New York I did not own any sweatshirts.

It may or may not surprise you to know that I have this "thing" about garments with sleeves or waists that "grab." I don't like when the cuffs are close around my wrists. And when the waist is tighter than the body, I feel like the garment rides up.

But, I bought a black hoodie at Old Navy a while back and I kind of loved it. And then I bought this red hoodie from the Gap and I TOTALLY love it. I like to wear it under my leather jacket. It's so soft and warm and the cuffs don't bother me.

I love it! I want one in every color! (Except maybe orange or purple. Those colors do nothing for my complexion.)

Dinner at the Waldorf

My parents and I had a great Thanksgiving. Dinner was delicious. The Rockettes were fabulous.

Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria's Peacock Alley was really quite good once we got over some initial confusion.

First of all, I requested dinner reservations for Thanksgiving. What I did not realize is that the kitchen was closed on Thanksgiving and we had no choice but to accept the Thanksgiving Dinner offer they had going.

It was $120 per person.

This was about $40 per person more than I really was looking to spend.

What irritated me even more (not just that no one mentioned this arrangement to me prior to our arrival) was that the dinner was buffet-style.

If I am going to pay $120 for my dinner, I want someone carrying it to me.

But we resolved to stay and enjoy ourselves and we had a great time.

The food, though buffet-style, was excellent. The turkey, in spite of being kept warm under lamps and sitting out, was moist and flavorful.

They had lobster, oysters, shrimp, and ribs in addition to the turkey. Lots of great vegetable dishes.

And! There were as many desserts as veggies. They had a chocolate fountain in which to dip strawberries and marshmellows and other things. There were brownies and cheesecakes. There were these little fudgey things with gold foil on top and some tiny little eclaires with similar foil.

It was excellent.

So, my only complaint about the food is really a complaint about my belly: I can't eat very much most of the time. I felt like I could not take full advantage of all there was to offer there, but what I did have was great.

Let me add a couple more things: the service was mediocre. It was actually pretty bad at first because none of the people we spoke with initially were able to make themselves well-understood in English, which is a non-negotiable, fundamental requirement for working in a fancy-pants restaurant here.

But once our wait staff fell into their groove, service was excellent. They were EXTREMELY attentive. Perfectly so. I had but to glance at our waiter and it was as if his Jedi/spider sense would tingle and he would come running. A simple gesture and he knew exactly what we wanted.

Our wine was also excellent. We picked it out ourselves, but our waiter told us a lot about it before we opened the bottle and provided a comparison to some other wines. As a special bonus, at the end of our meal, he poured us glasses of one of the other wines, just so we could try it and compare.

In the end, I don't think dinner was worth the $600 bill that included tip. I blame the silly holiday "offering."

The regular menu prices are far more reasonable for that level of service and the quality of food, though. I would certainly go back for that.

Thank You Thanksgiving!

My office closed at 2 today. I worked a little later to wrap some things up, but I was out of the office by 3. The weather here isn't so great today, but I was happy to get out of the office before it got dark.

My parents arrive early tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving and we're expecting to have a great time of it.

I found out last night that a friend of mine from Georgia is in town, so when he gets here, and I've finished cleaning my apartment for my parents, I will head out on the town.

I'm also taking a couple extra days off after my parent's visit just to be a vegetable.

So, this should be a great, long weekend!

Woohoo!

Where Have all the Good Men Gone and Where Are All the Gods?

Don't you sometimes wish you were at home dancing in your underwear and singing Bonnie Tyler songs into your hairbrush?

I know I do.

David Morse

David Morse is on House tonight! He thinks he has an STD.

Now he's giving Dr. House a dressing down. He's kind of scary, but still sooo hot.

Dr. House is taking his temperature rectally! Oh, how the mind wanders!

I feel lightheaded.

Halloween Costume

I didn't have Halloween plans, but I wrote to a friend whom I hadn't seen in a while and she invited me to a party with her. That meant that I had to dig up a costume.

OF COURSE, you're thinking I would dress up like Steve Irwin like on the last South Park episode that everyone is talking about. And, yes, I did consider it, but it was on South Park. I'm SURE it's being done.

And I did also suggest an Amish Schoolgirl (complete with bullet hole in head) costume to my friend.

Yes, I have a completely inappropriate sense of humor.

But I'm not dressing up as any of those because, you see, I'm cheap. I'm just not willing to spend much money on a costume.

So, I'm just gonna find a Superman t-shirt to wear under a dress shirt and tie. It'll be like I'm Clark Kent, see? I have to figure out some way to make my hair do a spit curl. Without spit.

You know, it's too bad orange afro wigs are, like $30, because I was this close to being Little Orphan Trannie.

Eeeee!!!

There's this really cute trainer at my gym who has a client at the same time that I work out with my trainer.

And this morning, I was on my way to work and he saw me on the sidewalk and he stopped to talk to me! I didn't even see him; he purposely stopped and got my attention to chat.

He told me I should roll up my shirt sleeves to show off my arms!

*swoon*

He's so adorable and funny.

Too bad I think he's straight. Still. When cute boys talk to me, I think it's a good thing.

Morse Code

David Morse is going to be on an episode of House MD!

I love that show and David Morse is sooooo dreamy. Did you see that movie Down in the Valley? It wasn't that great, but he was super hot in it. He was all muscley and tattooed and with a goatee and stuff.

WOOHOO!

The Change of Life

One of the things that is contributing to my rising level of general happiness with life these days is an increasing level of self-awareness.

A large part of this is merely acknowledging various facts of my existence and my motives in making some of the decisions I make. I don't always make the right decisions for the right reasons. When you make the wrong decision, it's sometimes hard to admit it. When you make any decision for the wrong reasons, though, I think it's harder to admit that your reasons were wrong; sometimes it's hard to even identify those wrong reasons.

But lately I've been making a strong effort to be honest with myself about who I am even at the risk of not being too pleased with who I am.

Good examples are my earlier post about drugs and the one about my experience with child abuse. Another is my efforts to figure out what to do for a career.

It sounds stupid, I guess, but admitting that I'm curious about what it is like to take illicit drugs doesn't really mesh well with the image I have of how I should be.

And that's the problem I'm trying to dismantle here. The problem is one of an intrinsicist premise in my self image.

Intrinsicism is the idea that there is some inherent value in things without regard to their context. A similar mistake is subjectivism which is the idea that things have any value you want them to have.

The proper way to look at the world is to acknowledge that things ARE how they are and that the value of of things is determined by how they fit within the particular context of a human life.

For instance, an intrinsicist view of penicillin is that it is always good because it cures disease. A subjectivist may look at penicillin and say it's good or bad depending on how they feel about it at the moment, like today I like it because it's a pretty color but tomorrow I don't because it has a bitter taste.

Objectively, the value of penicillin depends on its value to a particular human life. I'm allergic to penicillin. If I take it, I get a crazy rash on my skin. Unless there is some dire reason to take it that supercedes the risk that I will develop a fatal allergic reaction, penicillin is bad for me.

This principle applies to one's emotions, too. It's not helpful to prescribe how one should feel about something and then insist that is how one feels in spite of the fact that one doesn't feel that way. That's called repression or delusion or something bad.

One time Buddhista told me that during her studies of Buddhism she learned to "greet" her emotions.

Like me, she has a strong personality and she prides herself on her ability and independence. She likes being successful and pushes herself to accomplish a lot in her life. I've been fortunate enough to share some good times with her and some trying times.

We came to talk about this idea of "greeting" one's emotions, I think, in discussing how angry someone made me at work one day.

The idea she was recommending to me was to stop and simply acknowledge the emotion of anger and even explore the breadth and depth of it, to fully experience the emotion for a moment before putting it away and addressing the situation that inspired the anger.

Although I don't advocate Buddhism, I found good sense in her recommendation. For one thing, it requires that one stop and be honest about what one is feeling. Rather than bottling up all of one's frustrations and trying to work as if they were not there, you stop to address all of the facts of reality in order to effectively address everything that needs to be addressed, which includes your psychological well-being as well as your outward well-being.

I've gotten pretty good at managing my anger and even my frustration with things I don't like and so I'm trying to take this practice and address other emotions. Maybe it's in a romantic relationship or just friendship. Maybe it's just reflecting on the hurt and insecurity inflicted by an abusive parent. Maybe it's acknowledging intrigue at other experiences in life.

In any case, experiencing an emotion about something doesn't mean that you're a bad person or that you have some weird, deep-seated character flaw. Since emotions are responses to values. Curiosity is an emotion driven by a desire for knowledge and experience.

Taking a moment to identify every emotion I feel and consciously identifying the correspondant causes has been a very helpful. On one hand it frees me up to actually experience an emotional experience completely, but without being overwhelmed or confused by it.

Supposing that one doesn't care for how one responds to something emotionally, given that emotions are responses to values, unless one properly identifies one's emotions one can't possibly identify the antecedent values and the ideas that lead to their adoption.

It's a simple idea that I've held in my mind consciously, but I think I am finally integrating it and shedding what remains of any intrinsicist premise I may have had from my Christian upbringing.

It makes me excited for the future and for life. It feels like a new adventure.

Fidelity: The Video

The music video of Regina Spektor's song, Fidelity, is up on You Tube now.

Check it out.

I've purchased the entire album now and I have to say it is better than a lit cigarette to the eye. Actually, there are a few songs I really enjoy on it. There are a couple that are awful, I think. But I'm still listening to it and haven't been able to process the whole thing.

I think I'd recommend it to you if you're really looking for something new and different, but aren't sure what to buy.

Meanwhile, I recently bought The Patsy Cline Collection and it came in the mail. It's four CDs of old skool country by the mistress of the craft.

Human Interest Story

Human Interest Story, I won't look at you.
I have no time for you.
That beard of bees, it has no power over me
I won't look at you.
I have no time for you.

Those are the lyrics to a funny song on a Dunkin Donuts commercial.

When I first saw the commercial, I didn't understand it because I didn't listen to the song.

After I listened to the song, I thought it was funny, but I couldn't remember what the commercial was advertising.

Now, I know it's Dunkin Donuts, and I love the commercial.

I can't say it's a really successful ad because of how hard it is to catch on to it and recall what I'm supposed to buy from it, but I love it. It cracks me up to see the little dogs getting married and the people lip synching to the song.

It just cracks me up!

WAY better than that Head On series of advertisements.

Halleluja

It's really a little too early to be celebrating, but this morning I woke up without a headache and not very much congestion.

I still didn't sleep well last night. I kept waking up to cough, but after about 2 I settled down and slept until about 7:30 this morning. When I got up I felt rested and clear-headed. I'm still a little congested and have a small, niggling cough, but I feel a LOT better than I did yesterday morning.

I hope that this is a sign that I've "rounded the corner" and am on the road to recovery.

This is very good news because my friend, Buddhista, is in the city today and we will spend the day shopping and carrying on like a couple of ol' biddies.

I'm so happy and excited!

This Morning's Blood Pressure Check

126/76 at 67 bpm

A friend of mine is in medical school right now (and tends to make things up, so keep that in mind) told me last night that there are recent studies showing that the previous normal of 130/85 is actually high and that the optimal level is lower than 120/80.

I really don't know, so I will probably do a little research on blood pressure here in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, I met a friend of said friend who lives here in New York and has a recommendation for a new doctor for me.

I Do Not Take the Drugs

But I love this song.

Where I'm From
By Shelby Lynne

Heaven knows this ain’t no Margaret Mitchell
But the oak trees needs the pines
I know it might sound kinda simple
Lord, but it’s mine Oh, it’s mine

Thought I heard a logman cuttin’ timber
Down the Mississippi line
I’m up the Old Tombigbee River
High as the pines, all the time

Elégamment les bateaux passent
Pendant le flotte avec le vent
All I’m trying to say is
I’m never far away from the
Alabama frame of mind

Jubilation risin’ on the bayou
Celebration in the wind
Father Pat gives benediction
Cross the Coden Cridge again

Crickets spreadin’ rumors by the shoreline
With the lonesome lady wine
Crab trap full of nothin
I’m high as the tide, all the time

Elégamment les bateaux passent
Pendant le flotte avec le vent
All I’m trying to say is
I’m never far away from the
Alabama frame of mind

All I’m trying to say is
I’m never far away from the
Alabama frame of mind

Again, this is my best transcription. I don't speak French (And it would seem she doesn't either) so I had a hard time with those lines. The best thing I could think was that it's to say "Elegantly the boats pass as I float with the wind." I totally made that up while searching for words in French that could be pronounced the way she does in the song.

It's a Good Thing.

It's a good thing I'm in a good mood today because I just realized that I hate my outfit today and my hair looks like crap.

Feelin' Alright
By Len

It’s early in the morning and I’m feeling kind of dumb,
I’m tryin real hard but I’m having no fun,
I’m looking all around and everything looks the same,
It’s like being the smartest kid in class and having no brain.
Sharon’s right beside me,
[Sharon] yeah I feel it too. And if you weren’t my little brother i’d take it out on you,
And D-rock and Moves just lost their fat-man flow,
It’s just a matter of time before my brains all blow.
My brain's all broken, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I feel like I’m chokin’, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I’m goin’ down fast, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I’m not gonna last, but I’m feelin’ alright,
Feelin’ alright.

Bad days are givin’ me the creeps,
And when I have them all I wanna do is freak,
And sometimes I don’t feel really strong
Enough to deal with bad days cause they last too long.

We’ve been thinking hard and figuring out what to make
Of all this stupid shit that makes you not think straight,
So should we just quit?
[Sharon] No, its not cool to run,
Well you know, i think she’s right,
Let’s show em how it’s done.

‘Cause it’s not just a matter of straight up holding your ground,
It’s all about your crew and the vibe you put down,
So if we’re all here, what’s this about a bad day?
We’re not going to take it sitting down, no way!

My brain's all broken, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I feel like I’m chokin’, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I’m goin’ down fast, but I’m feelin’ alright,
I’m not gonna last, but I’m feelin’ alright,
Feelin’ alright.

Bad days are givin’ me the creeps,
And when I have them all I wanna do is freak,
And sometimes I don’t feel really strong
Enough to deal with bad days cause they last too long.

A Pub Song

I don't know any songs that people are supposed to sing in the pub, but I've recently discovered one I think I'd like to learn. It's sung by Cowboy Mouth and the title is "Irish Boy."

Here is my transciption of the lyrics:

Irish Boy by Cowboy Mouth

Well, I had a drink with a friend of mine a week ago today
Who was celebratin' a month and a half too late Saint Patty's Day
Well, I bought him a round and he bought me a round and a bouncer bought us another
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?

Well, we looked at each other and hand to laugh as we lay there in our stink
Well I woulda cried if I woulda thought that every time I thought I'd drink
And if this poor, old, grey-haired ma hadda seen us there she woulda shuddered
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?

Well, my Irish friend, he liked to surf but me I couldn't swim
And he said that he could teach me how and I said I trusted him.
He swore he'd never let me drown he loved me like a brother.
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?

Well, sure enough I drowned and I wound up at the pearly gate
Where Saint Peter said, "You're drunk as hell! Son, you shoulda ate!"
So, he sent me back down to get a bite but instead a bought another
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?
What's an average boy from a good family doin' in the gutter?

Jinxing It

Holy cow, y'all! I had such a nice date last night with a really sweet and really hot guy!

I know it's really too early to say anything about the direction of all of this, but it was such a nice time that I had to come tell you about it.

We just went out for drinks and it was a school night, so it was a short date, but the conversation was relaxed, fun, and dynamic. I definitely wished that we had had more time.

We're going for lunch today. Woohoo!

He's 6'1" with red hair and pretty blue eyes. He's a classical musician who is on tour with a Broadway production. As odd as it may seem, I'm kind of glad he's on tour because it means he travels a bit, which means we can't go out every single night, which is always the temptation when you meet someone new and fun. It's better when there's a lot of anticipation and excitement about your next meeting. You get to think about what was said last time and get hyped up about what might happen the next time.

Anyway, I'm very excited. I have to go to work now.

Update: Lunch with "Red" as we shall call him here was nice. I'm still a little awkward about being seen in public on a gay date and there we were out in broad daylight. Of course, no one could probably tell we were on a date, but the paranoid mind knows no reason on that.

All that aside, it was really great to see him and chat some more. Again, our time was cut short by the fact that I had to get back to work.

I'm a New Yorker, Y'all!

I have had TWO people stop me and ask for direction this week! TWO! ON SEPARATE OCCASIONS! TO TWO DIFFERENT PLACES!

I was in the same place each time, between Amsterdam and 9th on 62nd street walking to my gym. Maybe it was because I was in my gym clothes that told people I was near home.

Now, I won't say that the directions I had to give were all that complicated.

In the first instance, it was a couple who was looking for Lincoln Center. Wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... Lincoln Center is on 62nd St. between Amsterdam and 9th. I just pointed across the street and said, "All of those buildings right there. If you walk up 9th right here, the fountain is in the middle." I was nice about it and they were surprised they were so close. Of course, I thought it was a joke because I saw them walk from that direction.

In the second instance, I was in the same place and this lady asked me how to get to 10th and 61st. Amsterdam IS 10th Ave. The name changes at about 60th St., so she was tricked by that and the construction happening there.

There are only about six native New Yorkers here. Everyone is from somewhere else. So, people LOVE giving directions because it's like, "I'm a New Yorker! I know my way around!"

Wednesday Good News/Bad News

On balance, I'm in a pretty good mood today and life is good.

Good News
The weather in New York for spring is gorgeous.

Bad News
I have a bit of a cold complete with congestion, swollen glands, sore throat, and achiness.

Good News
I got to enjoy a really nice walk through midtown this afternoon as I left work at 3.

Bad News
I left work at three because we had connectivity issues so I'm working from home.

Good News
I got a SWEET deal on a completely legally licensed copy of Adobe Photoshop this week and when it comes in the mail I will be able to start posting pictures for you guys. Now and then. When I feel like it.

Bad News
My bank account didn't need Adobe Photoshop, just like it didn't need for me to pay for 3 months of personal training.

Good News
I hired a personal trainer! I'm gonna be smokin' hot for summer in NYC!

Bad News
My foot surgery from last year really has not healed the way it should. I'm afraid I will have to undergo surgery again to have my foot corrected from the correction.

Good News
Foot surgery is not today and the weather is great!

Fiddle Dee Fidelity

I've heard a few songs by Regina Spektor from a friend of mine. I hated them. So, when my friend IMed me the other night and said, "Check out her new album," I barely raised an eyebrow to indicate my lack of inclination.

"At least check out these two singles: 'Better' and 'Fidelity.' " They're from her album Begin to Hope, which is due out this year on June 13th.

As far as I can tell, Regina Spektor is a Russian version of Ani DiFranco without the extreme lesbionic feminist communist ideology. Which is kind of sadly ironic if you think about it. But she, Regina Spektor, shifts her pitch, warbles, squalls and generally just makes noise most of the time. She does things that sound like abuse of her vocal chords, but I'm not a doctor or a vocal coach, so suffice it to say I don't like it that much.

Well, apparently, she has a new producer and maybe some actual hired help to play the music. I can't speak to the rest of the album because it's not out yet. And "Better" didn't grab me from the clip on iTunes. "Fidelity" sounded a little better, so I downloaded it out of good faith.

LOVE IT.

Fidelity is loads of fun. It's sweet, sure, plucky, fun, and romantic. Spektor uses her "skills" to her benefit here, so I recommend this song. So get on your iTunes and download it today. It's $0.99 and if you don't like it, well, you're not out very much money at all.

Here's my best transcription of the lyrics:

Fidelity
by Regina Spektor

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
Right here in my mind
All of these voices
I hear in my mind
All of these words
I hear in my mind
All of this music
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-eart
And it breaks my ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-eart

Suppose I never ever met you
Suppose we never fell in love
Suppose I never ever let you
Kiss me so sweet
And so so-o-oft

Suppose I never ever saw you
Suppose I never ever called
Suppose I kept on singing love songs
Just to break my own fall

Just to break my fa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-all
Just to break my fa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-all
Just to break my fa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-all
Break my fall
Break my fall

All my friends say that, of course, it's gonna get better
gonna get better better better better better better better better better better

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All of these voices
I hear in my mind
All of these words
I hear in my mind
All of this music

And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart

I hear in my mind
All of these voices
I hear in my mind
All of these words
I hear in my mind
All of this music
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart.
And it breaks my ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-eart
And it breaks my ha-aah-aah-aah-aah-eart
And it breaks my ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-eart
And it breaks my heart
Breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart.
And it breaks my heart.
And it breaks my heart.

It's a Xing Thing

Tonight, the Blogless Fourth Axiom and I dined at Xing. The decor (along with the name "shing?" "ching?" "zing?") is uber hip, but faddish. The walls in the back where we sat are a red velvet. The ceiling and many of the walls and floor panels are a green, yellow, and blue striped plexiglass that is sometimes lit from behind, which presents an interesting contrast to the red and black color elsewhere. I'm afraid the decor is going to be to out of date in a year or so.

I will say that the bathrooms are nice, though. I love the unisex/stall thing the New York does so often and the bathrooms at Xing are dark, but nice and hip.

Anyway, the food was solid.

For cocktails, I had something called a Rickshaw and the BFA had something that came in a Buddha; I think it was the Electric Karma. The Rickshaw was delicious; very citrousy without being excessively sweet, which can make me sick. His drink came in a Buddha with a straw protruding out of the belly button. The result of the position of the straw was a somewhat vulgar scene that we took in good humor.

Before our appetizer came, we were served tiny bits of raw tuna with a tiny bit of cream cheese and garnish. It was good; just enough to pique the curiosity, but not enouogh to really overwhelm.

As an appetizer, we had the "Crispy Asparagus & Avocado Roll." It was great. It had a slight hint of that fishy taste that I associate with sushi, but it was not unpleasant. The outer crust was thin, crisp, and flaky. As I said, delicious.

For entrees, I had the Crispy Chicken and he had the Seared Tuna. I assume he enjoyed the Tuna; I rudely neglected to ask.

My chicken was flavorful and something I would certainly consider eating again, but I would not call it extraordinary. I was mostly disconcerted by the fact that the "crispy" part of the chicken is the skin. Yes, they served me a dish that had crispy fried skin on the outside. I pushed those pieces to the side and ate the chicken, which was perfectly moist. It was served with some fried rice and a blob of green oniony stuff, which was pretty good. I did appreciate that my food was not stacked but each element was placed on its own space on the place.

For our wine, we had a Syrah/Grenache blend. I don't think the wine was well-paired with the food, but it was good. Bold, spicey, only slightly fruity. The wine selection was limited but covered a wide range of prices. The low end was about $30 and the high end approached $100.

Before dessert, we were served a little plate of three things that we could not identify. The first seemed to be a bit of marshmellow. The second was some kind of cookie. The third seemed to me to be a bit of lychee gelatin, the texture of which disgusted the BFA.

For dessert, I had the sorbet (I love sorbet) and the BFA had the chocolate spring roll. He seemed to enjoy his. The sorbet was superior. It was tart without being acerbic or astringent. It was smooth and not at all chunky. I highly recommend it.

The service was generally good. Our waitress had the odd mannerism of not tilting her head forward when speaking to you (or maybe she actually tilted it back) which had the result of forcing her to look down her nose at you. But she was friendly and recommended the most expensive wines to us for our meal.

With the noise and bustle there is no worry that it would be excessively romantic or anything. I would recommend it for a nice meal out with friends or for a first date.

XING
http://www.xingrestaurant.com
759 9th Ave (between 52nd and 53rd)
New York

A Sad Song

There are a few songs here and there that make me tear up when I hear them. One of them is Emmylou Harris' "Red Dirt Girl." It's sweet and tragic. There's a soft, driving beat through out the song that is accented with sweet, moaning guitars.

Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin every song the radio played
Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a '49 Indian
He told her 'Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
Thats where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she learned to bend.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got 'em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end.
At least not for Lillian

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and she had five kids.
Coulda' been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Named Lillian
Who never got any further across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
The night she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground

A Damn Near Perfect Playlist

I am in a fantastic mood this morning. I slept well. I went to the gym to participate in that damnable spin class. I got my clean laundry from those people I pay to wash it. And I walked to work in beautiful weather wearing a new jacket I bought at H&M.

While I was walking to work, I listend to my "I Heart the 80's" playlist on my iPod and the shuffle gave me a damn near perfect playlist for my walk from 10th and 57th to 8th and 39th.

Check it:
Tide is High - Blondie (4:42)
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes (2:24)
Mickey - Toni Basil (4:14)
What I Am - Edie Brickel & the New Bohemians (4:57)
Footloose - Kenny Loggins (3:42)
Karma Chameleon - Boy George and Culture Club (4:01)

Total time in transit: 22 minutes. ("Tide is High" was almost done when I turned my iPod on this morning.)

A couple of those songs are kind of ehn, but they were paced perfectly for where I was when I was walking this morning.

So, join me in having a happy Tuesday!

Forever's Going to Start Tonight

"We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks."

Apropros to nothing this totally 80's moment was brought to you by Bonnie Tyler and a "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Turn on Your Television Right Now!

Oh my god, girl! You will not believe! Hanes has a commercial on right now with all these hot guys playing dodgeball in their underwear. I'm not kidding! You've got to see it!

I'm going to go smoke a cigarette.

Blogging Delayed

Well, I am safely installed in NYC, but everything is still pretty bonkers. Work is fun, but I will be in California for most of the next two weeks and so I won't get the global interweb at my apartment until I'm back.

This means that blogging will be light, if at all, until then.

Hope y'all are having as much fun as I am!

Best Cartoon of 2005

The award for best cartoon of 2005 comes down to Johnny Test and the Life and Times of Juniper Lee.

(The worst cartoon of 2005 is Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, by the way.)

Johnny Test is a kid with flame-like hair whose sisters, Susan and Mary Test, are scientific geniuses. They use Johnny as the test subject for their experiments. There is also a talking dog who drinks a lot of coffee. The show is very funny although the humor does get into the potty sometimes. Like how Johnny got the power to emit giant flaming farts and the dog's name is Dukey.

The Life and Times of Juniper Lee is about a young girl named Juniper Lee who becomes the Te Xuan Ze. The Te Xuan Ze is kind of like the vampire slayer except her job is to keep the magical world from interfering with the regular world. Most people in the show can't see magical creatures, but Juniper has a little brother, Ray Ray, who can and she is also accompanied by a Scottish, talking pug named Monroe. Ray Ray is my favorite character on the show. The humor of the show is mostly pretty innocent and campy and thoroughly enjoyable.

And the award for Best Cartoon of 2005 goes to...

Johnny Test!

WOOOOOOO!!!

Johnny is a happy, outgoing boy who eagerly confronts new adventures. Although the show is more silly than serious, Johnny's problems, no matter how implausible, are solved through intelligence and determination.

Juniper Lee, by contrast, is all about magic. Yeah, she's clever and determined, but she's also a whiner. It's always, "Waaaa! I can't tell my friends that I have magic powers." It's also a very PC show that does its best not to offend both in specific and general content. Funny though it is at times, it's not nearly as good as Johnny Test.

You can catch Johnny Test on the WB Kids line up on Saturday mornings.

This Post is Gay... Just Look Away

So, I was just watching Project Runway and then I was on the global interweb and I found out that Elie Saab is a MOST excellent fashion designer.

And then I started wondering what my (female) date is going to wear to the AIDS Athens Oscar night. Since it's March, I really need to remember to ask her about it tomorrow.

2006: The Year of Kicking Ass

Happy New Year, everyone!

Last night, I went to Atlanta and celebrated the new year with friends. It was great fun.

I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions because I resolve to do things all the time and the psychological impact of the calendar change really doesn't do much for me. Actually, I don't think it has a big effect on many people and that's why they don't stick with these resolutions.

Well, this year, I decided to make one resolution. It's pretty minor and it's only a New Year's Resolution because the New Year coincides with when I wanted to start. I've just resolved that I'm going to pay more attention to what I eat and adopt a diet that supports my athletic goals. Basically, that means low fat, high protien.

I do really like the Ice Scribe's approach of setting a series of goals, though. What makes it work is that she actually keeps up with those things and most all of them relate to aspects of her life that are already in the forefront of her mind. They're also goals that do require year-long effort.

Another friend of mine has a great idea instead of New Year's Resolutions. He chooses a theme and then the whole year he tries to do things that work toward that theme. For example, he might choose something like, "Financial Stability" and then he tries to build habits like controlling spending and finding good investment opportunities. Or maybe he'll choose a theme like "Health" and then he works on his diet and exercise habits.

I think choosing a theme is more effective than making a resolution because the theme then acts as a guiding principle for any number of decisions. Resolutions by contrast are usually very limited like, "quit smoking" or "lose 20 pounds" and although those are good things, a lot more goes into a year and I think it's important to know what goal is up next.

I should mention that a theme should not be overly broad or too abstract, like "be a good person," and it should also apply to things that a person can actually control, so don't set a theme like "Peace in the Middle East."

2005 wasn't really a very great year for me on balance.

Some really awesome things happened. I met Ice Scribe. I renewed an old friendship. I've made a very promising new friendship. I started working out and saw some results.

But I spent way too long on things that did not make me happy at all. In general, all of the difficulties I had stemmed from not maintaining clarity around my values and even evading those facts to some extent.

So, I started in November 2005, but 2006 is going to be the year of kicking ass That's not really a good theme because it's too broad, but I started a couple of months ago re-establishing habits I had broken when I went to B-School and I've gotten back on track with lots of various things in my life.

If I had to break down ass kicking into areas of focus and goals, I would list the following:

Health and Fitness - Continue weight training, incorporate speed training for running, focus on maintaining a consistent diet that supports my goals.

Career - Get a new job in the area of sales engineering. This will give me sales, client, and travel experience.

Education - I'm going to start taking classes from the OAC in September when the new academic year begins for them. I'd also like to work on Spanish, German, and French this year. (I've already started on German, so I have to keep that going.) And, also, I'm WAY behind on my reading.

House - I have several projects in line around my house and yard, but I want to make sure that I only have one or two projects going at a time and that I finish one completely before starting another.

So, it's a happy new year and the goal is to keep going with that.

The Vengabus is Coming

Be out front with your bags in five.

Tis the Season -- For Fun Musical Things on the Global Interweb

First of all, the Gay Boyfriend music video.

I'm tired of boys who make me cry.
They cheat on me and they tell me lies.
I want a love who will never stray
When he sees other girls he looks away.
And if he never kisses me, well, that's alright
Cuz we can just cuddle all night!

Chorus:
Gay boyfriend!
Gay boyfriend!
I don't really care that you are queer!
Gay boyfriend!
Gay boyfriend!
I never feel lonely when you are near!
La! La! La! La!

Go see it now because there is also talk of tight pants and the Tyra Banks use of the word "fierce."

Hilarious!

And, if you are made uncomfortable by the stirring in your loins caused by sing-songy sing-songs about homosexual men, here's something more in the Christmas spirit:

It's a house's Christmas lights set to rock music.

Most excellent!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hot Guys

Jennifer Garner got me thinking about Ben Affleck, which also made me think about Michael Vartan.

I'd rather have Michael Vartan than Ben Affleck.

Which, of course, made me think, I'd rather have David Morse than either of them, though. (You know how the mind tends to wander.) I know, he's like 87 years old (Actually 47, I know).

It's a sickness. I admit it. I own it. I wallow in it. He's just sooooo... Mm! Mm! Dreamy. That's the word I was looking for.

He's gotten better with age, too. When he was younger he wasn't so hot. Now, he's smokin' hot.

Um. What was I supposed to be doing? Work or something...

Cracks Me Up

Anyone who knows me well at all knows that I love cartoons.

Well, there's this relatively new cartoon, Madam Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, that is on the Cartoon Network, like, all the time.

It took me a while to get to a point where I could sit through it because I think it's targeting a younger crowd (I think it's for 5 - 8 year olds and I tend to like the 8 and up ones because they can be a little more serious.) and it's also somewhat ugly.

I do not like ugly cartoons. This is the primary reason I can't stand that horrible Ed, Edd, and Eddie show because it's so hideous.

Madam Foster's isn't poorly rendered like that Ed show, but the world is very chaotic and jumbled, so it's confusing and, to me, upsetting.

Well, it's been on several times while I'm working on other things and I've gotten to where I can sort of watch it as long as I can switch my attention to something else while it's on.

Anyway, I said all this to say that it really cracked me up just now because a character showed up with the name Dancey Pantalones.

Dancey.

Pantalones.

Dancey Pantlones.

And he challenged one of the other characters to a dance-off.

Hilarious!

Fall Fever

I think I have a mental illness. It's the good kind, though. I see cute guys all over the place!

There was this guy in Starbuck's this morning (Yeah, I know) who was totally looking at me. And I even smiled at him! I never do that!

See, I am actually shy. Radical, loud-mouthed and shy. When I see a cute guy, my strategy in the past has consisted of two words: run away!

But a good friend of mine who gets frustrated with me on this point told me that I need to practice eye-contact and smiling and that's what I did this morning! And he totally smiled and nodded back!

The other unfortunate thing is that I can't tell if cute guys are gay. Their cuteness totally short-circuits my gaydar with wishful thinking.

Anyway, one of these days, I will get up the guts to actually ask one of these cute guys out and maybe they'll say yes!

Joy of Living

Ok. I'm trying to type this calmly. But. It is THE most beautiful day outside right now.

It is so beautiful I want to scream and run around and roll in the grass.

The sun is shining. The temperature is in the mid-80's. There is a nice breeze going. The sky is bright blue. It's PERFECT!

It's so nice that when I was outside in it for lunch I felt Love. Capital L even.

This is a day in which it is just not possible to deny the sheer ecstacy of being alive.

What's Going On In My Life?

I'm having a good day!

This weekend was very nice. The roommates are pretty cool people; they have their quirks, but I'm really impressed with some of the things they say and do. I'm not SO impressed by other things they say and do, but I think we can work around it.

Last night I had dinner with some very good friends and it was pleasant. We had a really cute waiter, which even though I didn't ask him out or anything is very fun. When I see beautiful people, I know that I definitely belong in this world.

And I drove around with my windows down and the music blasting.

This morning, I woke up not at all pissed off about having to come to work. I drove in, again with the windows down and the music loud, and I didn't get mad at people in traffic and now I'm at work and I've been really productive already this morning.

So, this week is kicking off to be something really good.

Best Lunchtime!

Today for lunch, I bought a sandwhich and wandered over to the shady campus of the university to eat and read. I read my book for about 30 minutes before I realized I was getting sleepy, so I took a 20 minute nap on the bench there in the shade.

And some retarded people were throwing a party across the street. I didn't know they were retarded; I could just hear the music from the band the hired. The music was actually fine, so it lent a nice bluesy atmosphere to the young summer afternoon in which I napped.

Then I went and got a smoothie and walked back to the office.

It was an absolute delight.

Last Week's Vintage: Little Boomey Shiraz 2002

First, let's get the unpleasant things out of the way.

What can I say? This wine was unremarkable. That means I can't say much, really.

I bought it for the name -- again. And also the colorful, cute label. And the fact that I generally like Shiraz.

This one wasn't rotten, but it wasn't great either.

The bottle actually went bad before I drank more than two glasses of it -- that's how not memorable it is. Fortunately, it wasn't expensive.

Wine Du Jour: An Unwooded Chardonnay

I went to my favorite liquor store in Athens a couple of weekends ago and bought this wine. First, this is my favorite store because they have a big wine selection and the prices are GREAT. If you see a wine in the grocery store, you can usually find it here for $2 or $3 less.

So, I wanted something different and the other thing good about this store is that there's a guy there who knows stuff and, in addition, he knows where all the wines are. And I asked him for an unwooded Chardonnay.

You see, a couple of years ago, I went to a wine tasting at which I tasted an unwooded chardonnay. I was suspicious of it because I don't have a profound love for white wines and chardonnays are so oaky to me that I actually prefer real wood chips to some wines I've had. But that wine I tasted was GREAT. All the citrus in the wine just popped out. It was like drinking summer and I loved it.

Sadly, I didn't write down the brand or anything, so now I just poke around occassionally trying to find it.

So, I asked the guy for one of these.

See, Chardonnays are usually aged in oak barrels. That's where they get the oaky taste. "Unwooded" ones are aged in steel containers, though, so it doesn't pick up those flavors.

This one is no exception.

Now, I have read that wines are sensitive to temperature. What temperature should be used for white wines? I don't know. It's in a book somewhere, but I'm sure it's cooler than that of reds, which I understand are actually supposed to be served at a cooler temperature than you think.

Anyway, this wine. When I first tasted it, I was not impressed. In fact, I think I was imagining some other taste and when I tasted this it was so wrong. So, I let it sit a minute before sipping it again and it was very pleasant.

I definitely detect something like tangerine in this one and it's very pleasant. It also has a creamy note in it. I don't think I can describe it beyond that because it has a couple of different flavors in it and because I haven't worked much at tasting, it reads as a pleasant noise to my tongue. Alas, this is as good as you're going to get in the way of description.

When I look up Chardonnay in my wine book it says of the grape:

The greatest dry white wine grape in the world, despite its proliferation in virtually every commercial wine-making area. Once erroneously thought to be a member of the pinot family, this classic variety is responsible for producing the greatest white Burgundies and is one of the three major grape types used in the production of Champagne.

Well, I think this is a decent wine and I would certainly consider serving it another time. It's the 2003 Gnangara Unwooded Chardonnay from Austrailia.

Moon Dog Acre Redux

So, a couple of readers wrote in to tell me how wrong I was about the Moon Dog Acre wine. They attempted to write off my horrible experience to corkage.

Well, I succumed to their wiles and bought another bottle.

Wisely, I took it to a 3 year-olds birthday party so that I would not wind up stuck with another horrid bottle of wine. Three year-olds will drink anything!

Anyway, we tried it. I didn't like it very much but it was not the "demon piss" that I had before. I would also note that this bottle had a synthetic cork.

The wine was fairly spicy and definitely heavy on the berry and fruit. Since we drank it immediately after opening the bottle, the comment was made that there was no wine in the bottle, because not one bit of it stimulated the front part of the tongue. I found that after it aired, it developed more body.

Still, not my favorite wine. I don't hate it like I did though. Thank you, kind readers, for convincing me to get back on the horse!

So, you can go get this Shiraz if you want to. I say: Stick to Yellow Tail. It's cheap and reliable.

I read in a recent issue of Men's Health that alcohol in ANY quantity is bad for the healthy individual. Studies that have shown that red wine helps people with their heart have downplayed the caveat: if you already have heart disease. The article in Men's Health compares it to radiation therapy for cancer. Which is worse: Cancer or radiation? Cancer. Which is worse: Red Wine or heart disease? Heart disease. That doesn't mean you should drink alcohol at all.

I've also held that the word 'poison' especially with regard to things like alcohol and cigarettes is overplayed. (I don't smoke, though.) I've long thought that it's ok to drink a little bit now and again or to smoke once or twice without sustaining any real harm to your health.

Apparently not. Apparently, the least amount is damaging.

I will look into this further because I started drinking red wine for this purpose. If alcohol is always bad for you, then I shan't drink it any more and that's that.

Tonight, I'm drinking Yellow Tail Cabernet-Shiraz blend, by the way. It's decent, but my tastebuds have been murdered because I made a particularly spicy batch of creole to go with it tonight.

A Special Wine: Not For Drinking

Sooooooooo... I choose wines for any number of reasons. Sometimes I spend a lot on a wine if it looks really good. Sometimes I buy cheap wine because I like the lable. Sometimes I pick one out just because it has a cool name. Sometimes I buy a wine just because I've never heard of it.

Well, I bought this wine because I liked the name and the price was right. I enjoy Shiraz for its bold, berry flavors and not-SO strong tanins. For me, shirazes are great for sipping by the fire or while watching a movie, so when I bought Moon Dog Acre's shiraz I was excited.

Isn't that a cool lable? I was so excited about it that I drank a glass with dinner.

I'm not an expert at wine tasting or anything, but I like what I like. Even so, I try to avoid strong descriptors of wines because there's a good chance that I can't appreciate a wine on the first taste.

This wine is swill. It's demon piss. It is water from which giant sewer goldfish flee in terror. Alcoholics will drink Scope before they'll drink this stuff. My hand to god, it's bad, dude. Real bad.

I drank a whole glass with my dinner and I was really, really upset about the notion of having to drink it for another four nights with dinner. I seriously considered pouring it down the drain, but I hate the idea of a waste. I thought, "Well, maybe it just needs to air out a bit. It'll be better in a couple of days."

Not so.

I took my car to the shop a couple days after I finished off this bottle and I rode in the courtesy van with a nice old lady who talked about wines. I made it a point to counsel her away from buying this wine. It's toxic waste.

Oddly, other people weren't not as amused by the name as I was. They acted as if I should have known it was bad just from that.

Though I disagree with that methodology, the results do speak for themselves.

Moon Dog Acre shiraz of the 2003 vintage is to be avoided and that's all there is to it.

How Much for the Doggie in the Window?

I'm thinking about getting a dog. I want a dog just like this one:

She looks about as sweet as sugar cane to me. Her name is Luna. I could eat her up!

Tonight's Vintage: Routas Syrah 2000

I just opened a new bottle of wine to carry me through the rest of the week:

My wine encyclopedia says of the Syrah grape:

Syrah: A variety whose name, derived from Shiraz, the capital of Fars, a province of Iran, causes most people to believe that the vine must have originated in Persia, possibly as far back as 600 BC. In Hermitage, in the northern Rhone, the grape makes big, rich, tannic wines with a good deal of fruit.

I chose this bottle because of the pretty purple lable. I also knew that Syrah is the same as Shiraz but for locale and I've really enjoyed Shiraz in the past. There's also the cute subtitle, Cyrano, that I found charming. How nice to drink Freedom Wine!

The lable reads:

Cyrano de Bergerac was famous for his nose and for his passions. Syrah is a dark and fragrant grape that is also famous for its nose, and for the passions that it inspires when accompanied by flavorful and spicy foods. Cyrano is made entirely from particularly rich Syrah grown in the heart of Provence. It can be a serious pre-dinner drink but it is even better with steak or chicken cooked in a wine sauce.

I'm having Broccoli and Steak Skillet Sensations.

Since I just opened the bottle, I now take pause to inspect it. The color is indeed dark. It's more brown that the malbec I had this weekend. It's oddly not very fragrant.

My first sip is woefully underwhelming. I've had terrible wines before and this doesn't count as one of them. Initially, I taste nothing. I swish it around and I can pick up a taste that reminds me of spice and a background flavor of berry, which is why I've always liked Shiraz. It is definitely "tannic" meaning it makes me pucker; my oral epithelium feels raw as the wine passes.

pucker... oral epithelium... ummm... moving along...

All in all I am not terribly impressed with this one. I expected a bigger taste to it but I also suspect that my disappointment lies in the fact that this is a freshly opened bottle. I'm usually more impressed once it's had a chance to sit for a little bit in the air.

I'm now on my fifth sip and it is definitely improving...

Tonight's Vintage: Budini Malbec 2002

Tonight's wine is the 2002 Malbec by Budini vineyards, which is in the Mendoza region of Argentina.

I decided to buy a Malbec because I wanted something different and I was standing in the South American section of the wine store. I bought this particular brand because of the funny cat on the bottle. The lable on the back says:

Budini, the rare and beautiful wild Pampas Cat of Argentina, has always been elusive, both in the open grazing lands and in the Andean foothills. our delicious and reasonably priced Budini wines from Argentina are far easier to track down. Using great care and attention both in the vineyards and winery, we produce wines that are bursting with ripe fruit flavors and easy to enjoy.

I am by far no expert, but I believe that those kitties do not have legs that long. But the first thing I taste with this wine is spice. Lots of spice, then a deep fruit flavor.

Since I only drink one glass of wine a night, it takes me a while to finish a bottle. Tonight is the last glass of this wine and so the flavor has changed a bit since I first opened it, late last week.

As I recall, the fruit flavors were more pronounced at first, but it had the tang of a freshly opened bottle. I would say it is still very good even though it was stored at room temperature and has been open for at least four days. Now, the spice of the wine is more prominent, but the finish lasts in a nice way.

My Wine Encyclopedia says of the Malbec grape:

Malbec: This grape is traditionally used in Bordeaux blends in order to provide colour and tannin. It is also grown in Loire, Cahors, and Mediterranean regions, among many others, and was the grape responsible for "The black wine of Cahors" -- a legendary name, if not wine, in the 19th century. However, Cahors is now made from a blend of grapes and is an infinitely superior wine to its predecessor.

I'm sure I know nothing about that except to say that this wine has a very pretty color; it's a nice, clear, bright purple-red.