leftovers

It's just unfathomable that I haven't, until now, composed the Tiffany entry in my "How I Fell In Love With" series. So, after a remarkable performance from my favorite redheaded pop singer the other night, it is time to correct this travesty! Said performance took place on Tuesday, Oct. 27th at Upright LA Cabaret, in the bar of Vermont restaurant. I'm ashamed to say that I almost considered not going to this show, as I have been to so many Tiffany shows during my time in LA that I thought I'd sit this one out. I am so glad I didn't. The show was Tiffany's most intimate to date, just her and a piano player on a small stage in a cozy venue with just the right amount of tables set up for her friends and fans to witness her belting out a selection of her hits, songs that inspired her, and a few surprises. It was simply awesome to finally hear her sing "Here In My Heart" and "Landslide" but I was really happy to hear her sing ...

I remembered what I had set out to blog about earlier tonight. Recurring Dreams - always a fascinating and bewildering topic to me. What do dreams mean, and moreover, why does certain imagery or a storyline constantly weave itself into our nocturnal movie theatres? This one has been going on for awhile. I always have dreams where we either still live on the farm in Paradise, either as a whole family, just Dylan and I, or just myself. Sometimes we are just visiting, or squatting, or some weird situation has brought us back there. Whether or not any of this is explained within the confines of the dream, one thing is almost always bound to happen. At some point in the dream, at least one car will come down the driveway and we don't know who the person driving the car is. Then, they either turn around and speed back up the driveway, or they keep going deeper into the farm, heading east towards the creek and hills. There's always a slightly sinister feeling to these dreams, l...

so believe it or not, 2009 is pretty much over. Sure, we've still got half of October, then two whole more months, but for all intents and purposes, it's over. We're all going to be so busy from here on out that it's just going to fly by, and whatever is going to happen is gonna happen and we're just along for the ride. Tonight was supposed to be the 10th Annual Celebration of the Hollywood Media District, which has been my employer for the past 7 years. Here's the story of how this came to happen. Back in 2001, things were getting ugly at my first job in LA, and I'll be nice and not mention the name of the place I worked. But, things were getting bad between my employers and I, and I'll go ahead and admit that a lot of it was my fault. I maintain that gays, unlike straights, really don't start going through the regular process of adolescence until they "come out". I mean think about it, in junior high and high school, straights star...

I may be a gay male and sometimes boggled by the female mind (and perhaps occasionally insensitive to certain aspects of womanhood that I don't understand), but part of me also considers myself a feminist. I have been surrounded by strong, independent, intelligent women my entire life. My grandma, Eva Strecker, was a hearty, earthy woman who would wake up early, tend to a huge garden, do the washing, kill a chicken and fry it for dinner, all while smiling and telling stories. My mom followed in her mother in laws footsteps, teaching at a small school in Waldo, KS, taking over when Eva retired. When I was in junior high, my mom and dad both went back to college to get their masters degrees. My mom has always been an inspiration to me and continues to be to this day. My little sister, Adrienne, takes after her and has become the first person in our family to earn a degree in law, and is now a practicing attorney who just bought her own home, and she just turned 28. Hopefully th...

I have so much blogging to catch on that it's been intimidating me into procrastination. So, rather than never finish it, I'm just going to very quickly type out some random streams of consciousness. Music is of course such a big part of my life so I want to describe some of the amazing music I have witnessed in the past weeks. On Sep. 19th, I picked up Brandon and Angela and we drove all the way out to Pioneertown, CA, which is a bizarre little place about 2 1/2 hours east of LA. From Wikipedia: "The town started as a live-in Old West motion picture set, built in the 1940s. The movie set was designed to provide a place for the actors to live, and at the same time to have their homes used as part of the movie set. A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid and Edgar Buchanan 's Judge Roy Bean . Roy Rogers , Dick Curtis , and Russell Hayden were among the original developers and investors, and Gene Autry f...

I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to start taking Architecture classes this fall, and even went as far as registering at LACC (Los Angeles City College) and filling out that FASFA form. But the last day to enroll and pay for classes was the 28th and that came and went. I did think about it that day, but I just didn't feel right about it. I may still do it, but it was going to be a pretty big commitment (6pm-10pm every Monday and Wednesday) and I'm not sure if I need one more thing going on in my life. Right now my life is my day job, and music. A lot of music. I can't even keep track of how many balls I have in the air when it comes to music. Music is what I have loved most throughout my whole life, so it's hard to imagine me doing something else, but the fact is I am getting older and more and more jaded with the music "industry", or the chances that I have of ever making any money from music. I want more money. But will more money make me hap...

This has been a sort of rough week. This morning, my friend (dare I say one of my favorites) left for a new chapter in his life, in Portland Oregon. I had only been hanging out with Kevin for the past 8 months or so, although I have known him for a few years. I'm sure he will have a great life in Portland, and I'm sure I'll be fine here in LA, but it always sucks when someone you enjoy spending time with moves away and you can no longer spend much time with them. Tomorrow morning, my friends Von and Jessica are moving to start a new chapter in their lives, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Von and I go WAY back. I remember in the infancy of my LA life, I would go to gay bars in the San Fernando Valley for the various Karaoke nights and I would notice the two lesbians that would sing, then write in their journals, draw pictures on napkins, and sing again. Amy was the outgoing, wacky one with short blond hair and a strong, melodic voice, and Yvonne was the quiet, reserved one wh...

Ok, so welcome to drunk blogging. Dylan got a palm pre so I am hamburger mary's typing.this. So heres my question. In public restrooms, or anywhere girls will be using the  toilet, I leave the seat up, because I don't want the next guy to come piss on the seat. And I don't want some girl to wonder if I pissed all over the seat and just haphazarly wipe it off. Just so it stays clean and there's no question about it. But some girls say its rude and I should leave it down. What do you think?

I am on a roll here! I just remembered something that I wanted to write about. Often times, right before I fall asleep or as I am falling asleep, I will have sort of a bad dream or bad vision, it's not really a nightmare because I am not completely asleep yet and it is usually just very quick; also it's not usually "scary" per se, but just disturbing or startling. Most of the time, it's that I'm in a car and rear ending another car, but there are lots of other scenarios. Last night, it was a new one. It was just a vision of main street in my hometown, Paradise, but everything was crumbling and it was all overgrown; in fact, the street was gone because weeds had sprouted up through the asphalt. It was so realistic and it shocked me right back awake and left me out of breath for a few seconds. As odd as it sounds, I think it represented one of my worst life-long fears which I'm sure has even deeper psychological implications. What happens to a person ...

I just realized I don't really have any pics of myself on here lately, so here's some from my band playing at Pacific Pride festival in Santa Barbara, CA, last weekend.

It's July, and it's been far too long since I've updated here, due to my procrastination and writers' block. Now it's so hot here in LA, it drains the life out of me. I don't do well with things like heat and bright sunlight. The past few months have been eventful, as usual. My mom and sister came out to visit in May, during the last week of boot camp (they even came with us one morning for our hike up Runyon Canyon). While they were here, the California Supreme Court announced that they would not be overturning Prop 8, and that they found it to be valid, although they did also find that the 18,000+ same-gender couples married before Prop 8 would still be legally married. Hearing the news at the breakfast table with my mom was slightly more comforting than if she hadn't been there, but it also felt worse in some ways because I know that it would mean more to my mom than myself if I ever were to get married. It was a sad day, and driving through Hollywo...

Today was the third morning that Dylan and I woke up shortly after 6am and proceeded to Boot Camp where we worked our heinies off! The camp is a 4 week exercise program designed and facilitated by my friend Robin, singer in my band Invisible Material and a personal fitness guru. On Mondays and Wednesdays we meet at the park for about 50 minutes of training with weight bands and various exercises. Tuesday and Thursday we go hiking in Runyon Canyon and do intervals up the steep hills. Friday is a "fun day" where we do sports and games together. It's really fun despite the difficulty, and there is already a sense of camraderie forming within the group. For me, waking up that early was my first challenge. I'm a true night owl - always have been - and I usually don't like going to sleep before midnight, and often hit the hay much later. But for Boot Camp, I've been getting in bed around 10pm and trying to be asleep by 11. I think the third day of training i...

Did you hear the news about Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Senator who today left the Republican Party to become a Democratic? That alone is pretty awesome, but the best part is that Specter was raised in Russell, Kansas, where I was born. Russell was the nearest big town to our farm, and I even ended up living and working there for a few years while I went to college at nearby Fort Hays State University. Before today, I didn't know too much about Specter other than that he was from Russell and was a republican senator in Pennsylvania. But today I have hope that this is a sign of something bigger, of more people realizing that the "old way" of thinking and doing things does not work anymore in this country. That the religious right does not have the best ideas for nor the best interests of this country. Now, as soon as Coleman finally concedes to Franken in Minnesota (please just do it already!) then the democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senat...

I just do NOT understand some people. These tea parties, which seem to only exist in the vacuum of Faux News and it's blind followers, are supposedly taking place all over the country today as a protest by people who are "outraged" over Obama's tax policies. Now, unless you're some conservative right wing nutjob, it's so easy to see the rediculousness of all this and it's frankly in that realm of "so funny it's almost scary." But the thing about all this that really gets to me are the people who really do think they are being taxed too much and are under the false assumption that they deserve to pay less taxes. Ironically, most of those who are complaining are the same people who believe that the USA is the "greatest nation in the world" and suffer from a severe case of patriotism/confusion over "separation of church and state." They do honestly believe that this is the best nation in the world, mostly because they have...

It's no secret, I love to travel! Since my first solitary, international trip back during my freshman year in college, I have always loved an adventure or a journey, whether near or far. So far this year has already gotten off to a good start with two trips right back-to-back. First, as I've already written about, Dylan and I took a vacation to Boston, MA which also included a side-trip to New Haven, CT. We landed in Boston on a Friday night and my friend Courtney and her husband Tyler were there to pick us up, something Dylan and I aren't accustomed too. Usually when we land somewhere, it's up to us to make our way to the hotel or wherever we're staying (unless we're going to my parent's place in Kansas City, of course). Courtney and Tyler turned out to be great hosts, and the first order of business was taking us out to eat with my friend Bethany, who they had never met, but went ahead and made all the arrangements with regardless! It was so fun to go...

As my blog readers (aka my mom) already know, my partner and I recently returned from our first trip to New England, where we stayed with friends and Boston and had a romantic getaway in New Haven, Connecticut. I intend to blog about the trip itself, but I wanted to do something fun this time and first write a blog about the amazing meals we had on the trip. Right when we got off the plane, my very good friend Courtney (Paulsen) Martin and her husband, Ty, were there to pick us up and we were whisked away to Waltham, MA, to pick up my friend Bethany who I hadn't seen in even more years than Courtney. We went to Solea, a restaurant and tapas bar on this cute little street lined with snow that looked like something out of a movie. The service and food were incredible, and this coming from the guy who normally HATES tapas bars with a passion. But the sangria was yummy and all the tapas were so delicious... we had shrimp, calamari, pork, stuffed peppers, salmon, stuffed dates... I...

I'm back from Boston!!! It was so much fun and I plan to blog all about it, and even do a separate blog reviewing all the wonderful meals we had on the trip, but first there is something else I wanted to get off my chest, which was a realization I had while on the trip. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, gay marriage is legal, and that was the impetus for this whole getaway. In my anger after Prop 8 passing here in California, which I had spent so much of my time and energy trying to defeat, I wanted to support the two states in this entire country that treat people like my partner and I equally. I wanted to see what this fairytale land was like where my committed relationship with my partner would actually be recognized by the government just like any other couple's. Also, I wanted to see my really good friend Courtney who had gotten married herself since the last time I saw her. Anyway while on the trip I finally just realized that I am done fighting and being angry. I fou...

I am literally feeling sick to my stomach, and head, after the CA Supreme Court hearings on Prop 8 today. The outlook does not seem good from what I heard/saw/read... it worries me and I hate being worried. Especially considering how long this has been drawn out. I did not move to California almost a decade ago to be faced with ignorance, religious persecution and intolerance but that's exactly what I've been up against for the past year or so now. Obviously those small-minded assholes have been here the whole time but never were their opinions and their religious preferences thrust on me in such a personal and demeaning way as they have been with Proposition 8. I hate that I have to blog about this shit all the time but this is what I live with. I live with people that I don't know making decisions about my future based on their backwards religious "beliefs" and their ignorance. Dealing with assholes in Kansas was one thing because I was young, placated by...