Feliz New Year From Costa Rica

Bueno!

Some Days The Playa Is Just Too Far Away

Gracias a Dios por Los Hotel Pools.

Aqui: Nuestro Desayuno

Costa Rica = Pretty Dang Bueno

Como Se Dice "Eat It" en Costa Rican?

Obligatory post-Blizzard Window Shot:



...and flight path.


Eat it, NYC.

I Call This Trick "Shaping the Next Generation"

Walken On By

So I'm Walken back from the bank at lunch today, and I hear a very familiar voice behind me. I froze, then thought of fear, then of dancing, then of staying away from the side of the boat.

Turned around - yep. I don't get super-excited by celeb sightings, but in this case it was the celeb hearing that got me goosed. Whatta voice. I'd pay to listen to him read the phone book to Michael Caine.

Also? He was talking about Toscanini, which he pronounced Toska-ninny. What a world.

I Could Write A (Million) Book(s)

Have you played around with Google's Ngram yet? It's heaps of fun. You can search the 22 billion books that they have lovingly scanned, and learn lots of information about the occurrence of words throughout written history. Social Science!

For example, I was curious about who showed up in books more: Pearl Bailey, Shelley Winters, or Della Reese. Click on the images to embiggen them.

Go Shelley!

Also, which of the Golden Girls showed up the most in books? I think Betty White might be picking up a few extra points for her commonly-written last name, which is also a colour.


Here's a nice one I liked:
This one was interesting. I wonder if there's any causal relationship between the increase in occurrence of the first two words and that slight dip in the third? I may have to watch Rope again.

God Bless America and all its science!

So Apparently This Happened

What's A Great Sight At The End Of A Long Day?

Doing Right Woman

I was sorry to hear that Aretha Franklin has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

However, if anyone is going to live forever, it's her. If this weird montage of her PBS appearances can teach us anything, it's that true divas know no boundaries.

It's Been A Tough Week

Work is hard. I kinda wanna just watch this on repeat for a few hours.

What? Debbie Gibson's Schedule Was Full?

They sure do make a lot of these movies. God Bless 'em for it.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

The Future's So Bright

I like playing The Sunglasses Game with my nephew on the iChat.

There Ain't No Underwear In Space

No Underwear in Space

I mean, maybe I want HBO now. Is this the sort of thing that girl from the Harry Potter movies will be doing in 30 years?

There She Blows!

A hump like a snow hill!



Does everyone else remember this so vividly?

Birthday Boy Beinecke Boffo

Today is special because it's my friend John's birthday. Things I like about John include: he's nice, he has the same name as my pop, and he spends his day with an X-acto knife trimming prints at the Beinecke Library, which is my favorite G-rated image source on the internets.

It's where I got the gorgeous Pearl Bailey images that are framed in my apartment, and it's where I found these gems - from the Carl van Vechten collection.

I loved Anais Nin at one point. I must have re-read Spy In The House Of Love a dozen times.

God Bless you, Carol Channing.
Ooh, and you too, Midge. I mean, Barbara Bel Geddes.

Tallulah Bankhead with a baby lion? Bring. It. On.

Art is great. I can't wait for my tour of the place!

And That Reminds Me, October-Style

Well, I'm behind in the navel-gazing. Here's what brought y'all here in October:

As usual, about two dozen people searching for my buddy Sirotan. After that?

• ashera cat
• canadian dish
• coco's revenge
• doris day
• farley granger hairy - really?
  
• goodnight kiwi picture
• iggy pop wallpaper - Multiple variations of this! Star Wars wallpaper, I wanted that. What kid wants Iggy Pop wallpaper?
  
• millie jackson caught up
• montgomery clift hairy - what is this with the hairy gay stars of the 50s?
  
• natalie wood signature
• natalie wood spanked - pervs
  
• plural of hairy
• slicins
• thing 1 and 2 pants
• thing one and thing two pants - Is this a Dr. Seuss thing?
• what is slicins
• why is slicins

Why is slicins, indeed?

The best part? Here's the google image result for "Farley Granger hairy."


In Conclusion, here's Miss Della Reese with a song about memory.

Surely, I Thank You For The Memories

Rest in Peace, you Canadian devil. Thanks for brightening up dozens of middle school sleepovers.

If you've got time, enjoy:



If you don't, here's a taste to brighten your morning:

No Groping, But Still Some TSA Love

Port Wine Cheese is my Madeleine

Port Wine Cheese Is A F'ing Time Machine

I'm 16 again at my parents' house.

Thanksgiving: Morning Bun!

Happy Thanksgiving, Now With Table Settings

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's starting.

There Oughtta Be An App For This

How can you see this:

And not choose to do this?

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

"I've Just Had A Baby In The Ladies' Room"

God Bless the internet for coming up with a Bette Davis blooper reel. If only they had Bonus Content back in the day, folks might not just walk in and out of the theatres.

Oh, and you'll have to click through to youtube to watch. Dang lawyers.



She sure liked to cuss!

Sticks and Stones and Freud and Poems

I can't stop listening to this song. Not since Wystan Hugh Auden wrote that poem about pooping for his pal Christopher Isherwood, have lyrics about body functions meant so much to me.

In my head when it's not the Barbadian Grace Jones singing, it's a certain curmudgeon friend of mine reading the lyrics off youtube in dramatic fashion, perhaps even with the Hitchcock voice.

God Bless Friendship, and going to the bathroom, and Rihanna.

This Is What Friendship Looks Like

You start with this:



And end with this:


Thanks Kevin.

These Are The Things I Like Right Now

Here's a fun version of what is my, Amber, and Nick's favorite song:



Click here to check out this fun NYT story Tylden emailed me, which combines my favorite topics of SCIENCE and CAT.

And for good luck? Remember Sexy Mona Bower? To quote Elton John, rock me hard, Tony Danza.

Remember The Bike Man from Diffr'ent Strokes?

This is oddly more confusing.

Foreigners Sing The Darndest Things

I forgot all about Amanda Lear.




Where was she when we were driving to the outlet malls?



God Bless those Foreigners. Every one.

Joyce: A Guy Like Him

Conversation With The Kid

who's the guy on the glass?
that's joyce.
joyce, that's a girl's name.
that's a name.
well, what's with him?
he watches over me.
he only got one eye.
a guy like him that's all he needs.

- Patti Smith (Early Work: 1970-1979)

Internals Plural In My Pants

I mean, why did this take us so long to think of?

Remember how you add "In Bed" to every Fortune Cookie pronouncement and it's kinda funny? And how you say "That's What She Said" after every statement with the words "big" or "hard," and it's only so-so funny but you can't stop yourself?

I saw this over the weekend from the funny lady Kelly Oxford:

How genius is that?

Pete's Dragon in my pants

The Man Who Knew Too Much in my pants

The Trouble With Harry in my pants

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in my pants

Big Business in my pants

The Jerk in my pants (hee hee)

Kiss Me Deadly in my pants

The Third Man in my pants

I just can't stop! And that's just the ones I own!

Now you try to top that (in my pants!)

"I hated the soup and felt little for the can"

Shorty finally finished Freedom. He liked it, but it took him forever to read and I get the sense he had some over-identification issues, so despite the beautiful sentences about the Silver Palate cookbook and an evening of Zinfandel, he was glad when it was over.


Not so with Patti Smith's memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids, which unlike the Franzen's tome, was nominated for a National Book Award.

Smith touched me when I was a late teen and her musings seem ripped from my adolescent heart (the appropriate time & age for over-identification, it seems), and it's nice to see this carry over to my adulthood. Sentence for sentence, it's a tough call - but my money is on her. This one here is the fave so far.

"I didn't feel for Warhol the way Robert did. His work reflected a culture I wanted to avoid. I hated the soup and felt little for the can. I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

And yet, I do love those cows.

Get It? GHOULEPS!

On This Day In History

Remember last October 28th? I posted this pretty funny pic, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, it's David's birthday again! Since his last birthday, he visited NYC once for NYE and we had much fun buying brightly colored pants, suffering the heat of my new apartment (until Jeremy figured out how to turn off the radiator, bless him), ate nice food, and tussled with Zach. He visited once again after that, which was after I ate that bad burrito, but we STILL had a nice time eating a mild dinner and watching a Barbara Stanwyck movie. Aren't friends great?

Here's hoping he visits again soon. In the meantime, here's us c. 1994, celebrating all the loot we picked up at Graceland. God Bless us ALL !

Hee Hee. It's Funny Because It's True

2 Things: Head, Pants, 1 More Thing Edition

Watch Out, Mexico!

NOM was onto something. Storm's Comin'!

Rae of Light

I had nothing to blog today. Then a friend featured this.

I have no understanding of this, but now at least there's content. Win some, lose some. Nice to see you again, Mrs. Garrett.

White Hot Knuckle Thrills!

Here's a nice thing - movie posters done as comic books.

Even thinking about this movie makes me scaredy. I'll never eat Snickers again, nor marry a preacher!


And? Even thinking about this movie makes me sweaty at the ballet bar.

iPoop

It's the end of the world as we know it. Curmudgeons: you were right. Culture is dead.

On the plus side, my nephew is potty-trained.

Grand Ol' Opry

That great Aussie bum Joan Sutherland went up to Heaven this week. I was never a big Opera fan (mostly it's like a long episode of Frasier but with singing), but I do like talent.

Here she is with Dame Ella Fitzgerald & Dame Dinah Shore, upstaging them without even a microphone.

God Bless, Joan Sutherland

Riding The Bus To Brooklyn?

Wait, really? There' s a LIVE celebration of this tonight?

Riding On the Bus With My Sister clips - watch more funny videos

I may just have to cross the waters.

Riding the Bus with My Sister: Live!

Union Hall

702 Union St (between Fifth and Sixth Aves, Park Slope, Brooklyn )
Park Slope, Brooklyn | Map

718-638-4400

Subway: R to Union St | Directions

http://www.unionhallny.com

Prices

Tickets: Free

Description
Author Eliot Glazer (My Parents Were Awesome: The Book) is obsessed with the 2005 made-for-TV sobfest Riding the Bus with My Sister, in which Rosie ODonnell stars as a mentally challenged woman whos a big fan of donuts and public transportation. Hear him talk about the film, and expect plenty of trivia, Koosh balls, guest stars (comedians Matt McCarthy and John Gemberling, among others) and, of course, free donuts.

When

Tonight 10pm

Snickers Really Horrifies

This so makes me never want to eat a Snickers. It's like the Night of the Hunter of candy commercials.

Drei Dinge auf Deutschland

Here are three things I learned while in Germany.

One: if you order Nachos, you get a plate of Doritos with three dips.


Two: they have no idea what QWERTY means. Tzping can be a dooyz.

Three: here's a gratuitous picture of me with culture and coffee.
Das Ende.