My Addiction...

I have this thing that happens to me during the summer months... I get all strange. Music makes me a lil' crazy.

I start liking bands like Good Charlotte and Cold Play, especially "The Scientist" video...

It's a summer thing...


But I rarely fall in love with a band.


This summer it's different, I'm not just in love, I'm addicted.



You can find their new video here...
It's called "Just Because".

Jane's Addiction




So maybe this is more than just a "summer love..."

hehe...

O.K., here's how it is. When I was a teen age durlx, I was in a band, not a great band, but a working band; we did teen dances, club dates, and we worked one summer in a house of prostitution, thanks to our bent management company. Anyway, I know what it's like to rock in front of a crowd...

Now, all these years later, I wish that I was them bois once again...

And Jane's Addiction is such a fabulous group; they look sooo gay... like Helium Zeppelin!



Perry Ferrel is a fabulous hoot...



But Dave Navarro is the one...







He is a Guitar God!!!! And so hot!!!

...so who cares if he is going to marry Carmen Electra!, maybe she's like this generation's Liza Mennelli!



Anyway, I am in love with this band! I'm seventeen with a bass player boyfriend again... I can't play this CD loud enough...

It's sweet to feel this energy again...



Other news...

Leaving for San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon for the cheese convention... fabulous! can't wait! Lot's of business... but I hope to be able to meet szel for coffee...

The motor scooter is still fabulous... except today a guy on a Vespa passed me for no reason except that he had a more expensive bike! Eh, big burly guys on Harleys always nod a greeting to me, but these Vespa newbies cop attitude! hehe.

And Robert hosted a fairy dinner next door and ended up with 8 naked men in his pool!

I took care of his cat for the evening... wondering if it was the correct kharmic choice... bwahahahaha!





Maybe next time...

Ford, we will meet this fall....

luca, love you as always...

noah, stay the course...

pebbs...ah...

jazzy!

chrisco...

zilla...

...alex, please come back...


I remain,


durlx


...always waiting for the shoe to drop....

Ten Days...

I have read that it's important to update your journal every day; that's what readers like to see, and I agree.

But as you see, I don't get any where near that...

There are reasons...

First and probably most important in my mind, is the fact that this has always been pretty much a photo journal, and when I don't have a picture, I don't often come up with a post to this journal. I usually just post whatever thought for the day to the various GayCams message boards.

I should probably post those same things here as well, after all it's just a matter of cut and paste, and it is journal after all.

Reason number two: I have been really involved with work. I am having a wonderful time with the new position and the new department and the venerable old store. I am having fun rebuilding a retail space and a team to go with it; it's just the right place to be for me right now. But it does take up most of my thoughts and most of my time. That's very good for now, but it does cut into my time for posting to the journal.

And thirdly: I am spending what little time I have left for communication in quite a few e-mails and quite a lot of time on the phone with my family; because of the changes in my Dad, we all need to talk a lot right now. And of course, there have been the affirmations for Noah... all that toe wiggling...

So, what's yer excuse!

Well, O.K. I'll try to do better... it only takes a minute...

...unless I do pics... then it takes an hour!


So Far, Since Last Time.



Ah Ha! You thought that perhaps you would be spared any more scooter news!

Not a chance! It's still a wonderful thing. Last week, I used a third of a gallon of gas... and as you can see in the pic above, when I go to the dentist downtown on Poydras Street, I get to park in a special parking lot! It's called a bike rack. It's legal, and free, and most of all, it's right next to the ramp for the paid parking garage. People are starting to ask me how much the scooter costs and how it is to ride. I tell them that it doesn't cost much and it's really a lot of fun...

I didn't really realize until just lately, that I am quite the early adoptor here... there are only forty Venice scooters on the streets of New Orleans, and maybe only about a hundred Vespas and maybe about fifty other makers. I know of one other gay Venice owner, (in fact his happiness with his scooter was an influence on my decision), and I have heard of several a-list gays who have recently purchased brand new Vespas. The idea of a gay scooter club is not that far fetched... but I wonder if the $4,000+ Vespa queens will accept us poor knock off boys? hehe!

So, I parked the bike...

...and went to the dentist, his office is on the 14th floor... and I forgot to take a picture from there of the city skyline! Doh! The room that the dentist chair is in has a glass wall! Doh!

I might be forgiven; the tooth he opened for the root canal last week, and couldn't fill last week, was still very infected. Apparently, the antibiotic that we tried for this just didn't work. I've never had a lot of luck with controlling any kind of tooth infection, but this one has been very difficult; it's caused joint pain and fever, just a most nasty little poison spot. He put in a soft filling, and I will try a week of Keflex and hope that it will knock out the infection. Mostly, I tend to power through these kind of things and they just go away, but I guess I need to pay attention to this one.


So, since I was just across the street, after my dentist visit...



I took these photos of one of our most famous landmarks!
The Super Dome!

It is, btw, the most succesful sports stadium ever built that is still standing. (Had to leave room for Madison Square Garden, hehe, they tore down the Boston Square Garden...). It was designed by my friend's Uncle Buster, a noted architect in our city, and it has survived the test of time. In an era when most of the stadiums built at the same time are being blown up and torn away as unsuitable, this building still has some useful life in it. Of course, the owners of the Saints would like a brand new stadium, paid for with our tax dollars... but they could survive quite well in this doma supreme with only some slight modifications and a little sprucing up. It's in the right place in the city:downtown. That's why we've hosted so many Super Bowls; people can actually walk to the game from their parties and hotels. And yet, I-10 is only a block away.



It's a rather amazing building.


Other bits.

...ah, my Dad... he did go to the fireworks with the rest of the family when they were all together in the Boston area, but he told me that he didn't want to. I think it's getting to be just a bit too dis-orienting for him, but my sister said that someone always walked arm in arm on each side of him and that he seemed to be happy enough. The rest of the time, my 3 year old niece took over. My sister said that it was amazing how patient she is with our Dad, and how loving. Very often I am stunned by the emotional depths of this child...


...the American Cheese Society Convention! Soon, but with a change of cast. I will be taking my wine specialist, instead of my ATL. My associate team leader is leaving us in a month, so we had to shuffle the whole deck, but it will all work out very well. We'll be attending the convention and working at it, and spending the rest of the time touring the other WFM stores in the area, as well as visiting some of the local cheese makers. And ten days after I get back from SF, I'll be in FL, with all the store team leaders for a team building in a condo on the Gulf shore. We'll be cooking together and talking about food and cross-merchandising for two days. (This may not be anyone else's idea of a good time, but I get wet just thinking about it all! hehe!) Really, this is what I want to do right now, and I am having a great time doing it!


...Robert still lives next door, and I am eternally thankful for that.

...I won't be able to meet luca in Vegas in August to help him pick out the cabinets, carpets and flooring for the house... but I promised to try and be there for the October meeting with the builders. (Not that I have a thing to say about it! hehe, it's just that it would be wonderful to see him again!)


...I had the great fortune to wake up in the middle of the night and sign on to Noah's chat before I was really awake; don't know how or why, I just woke up then. There were a whole bunch of people there and Noah was brave and strong the day before the beginning of his bone marrow transplant... he's rather amazing... Here's his site, click here>... you might think me daft if I suggest that you try to send him some good energy in a psychic sort of way, but I do ask. I know that it works. If you don't think that it does, then e-mail me and I'll tell you a story or two.


...Pebbles, ya lil' punkin'!


...Jazzy!

...Chrisco, very nice chat the other nite!

...Doc, I'm thinking 'geez! there goes the neighborhood! hehe!

...and me. Still thinking that it's all good... just waiting for someone else's shoe to drop... it could happen...




durlx

Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July!

I worked this morning... it's a retail thing, but then I like doing retail...

I've had more fun at work this last year than I've ever had before in a working environment... and as of tomorrow, it will be one year exactly. (Last year at this time, I was about to leave New Orleans... didn't wan't to, and then everything changed for the better).

I went to work for a wonderful company and because I've learned how to relax when I need to, I am enjoying mostly every minute of the work that I do.



I've been riding the new scooter around town for a week now, and I looove it! It's so practical and so much fun. It takes ten minutes to get to work and the ride is mostly lovely under old oak trees that span Esplanade. But I also had to go downtown to the dentists, and that was nice too, I got to park at the bike rack... the scooter thing just doesn't cost very much to do! The insurance is around $250 a year. The gas... well, after a week, I pulled into the station and parked the bike next to the pump, (I have to use premium...) and I went in and asked for a dollar on number three. I went back, splashed a bucks worth in, and I'm set for another week! About every six bucks worth of gas, I have to add an 8 dollar quart of synthetic oil to the oil reserve.

Did I mention that it's really a lot of fun to ride this thing?

And I am going to start a scooter gang! And for Southern Decadence... ooh, cher.... watch out! hehe.


The Fourth.

I worked this morning... and it ended up that I also worked this afternoon. That's all good, but I didn't get home until many hours after I thought I would, and I missed going to the Lazerous House function... so I missed catching up with Robert and Michelle there.

But I did find Robert next door eventually...



...doing his burning man thing! He kept setting of these firework things in the alley between our two houses and creating all this interesting light and I started taking pictures...

...and the result can be seen HERE.

It's a PhotoShow thing, (Dr. JJ uses the software to good effect, so I tried it.) It may take a while to load (not long at all for dsl and cable), but it should work for you. Let me know if there's a problem.

Very amusing, btw, while we were taking the pics, the local undercover cops came by and asked us if we were O.K. I told them that we were just making photographs, and they seemed to be satisfied with that.

I can't imagine why they thought something might be wrong in the alley... after all, it was only two drunk gay guys blowing off fireworks between two raised houses about ten feet apart so they could get some interesting photos...

bwahahaha... one tiny gas leak and you would never have seen this journal entry.

Anyway, check out that photoshow; I just used all the pics that I took and they seemed to work in the sequence that they were taken in. (The camera was a Canon S230 which I carry now all the time and like because it fits in my pocket. It takes pretty good pics also.)


Other Bits.

My Dad, my sister and her lover, my brother and his wife and my neice are all in Boston and going to the fireworks tonight. I wish I was there with them, but I won't get a chance to see them all until sometime in September.

I am totally booked and psyched for the American Cheese Society Convention in San Fran!

Two weeks later. I'll be at a condo on the Florida coast for 2 days, for store team building.

So, it will be late September before I get a chance to do the northeast...and visit my family.

But then, I must try to return in November... because the wonderful and most amazing FORD will be in NYC! And you know, I love my lovely Steven... he sent me a sarong from Mykoos, you know! Just the thing to wear while riding my scooter during Southern Decadence! Bwahahahaha!

I've sent off my color scheme to luca, so my room will be ready when we make our annual trek to Vegas...

And do you know what...

I'm having a pretty good time right now.

Wish you were here...



durlx