Thunder and Lightning.

One of the things that I love about living in Upstate New York is the severe thunderstorms we get this time of year. While not nearly as plentiful as the midwest, we do get our share of severe storms from time to time, such as the one that is currently passing through right now.

I feel kind of daring typing on my computer while there’s a thunderstorm passing through.

The current storm is promising 60 MPH winds and nickel sized hail. I have secured the lawn furniture and closed the windows, Tom has assumed his storm position under our bed.

Mother Nature can be so awesome and beautiful. Perhaps typing a blog entry during this storm isn’t a good idea. I should just sit quietly and listen and enjoy the beauty of this storm.

Nervous.

It’s never good to see “You have one voicemail” on the cell phone after math class. Those who would call me know that I’m in school and would usually call me after school, plus I don’t think there’s that many people that would call me anyway, so seeing that I received a voicemail while I was sitting in class gave me an eerie feeling.

It was Earl. He fell asleep while driving on the Thruway today, with the cruise control on, and was awakened by the sound of his car sideswiping a guardrail at 72 MPH.

He’s not hurt and the car has an interesting pattern scraped down the entire length of it but it’s perfectly driveable. It just looks a little ghetto or white trashy right now.

My partner never gets enough sleep and he didn’t eat breakfast this morning. Instead of scolding him, well, maybe I scolded him just a little bit once I knew he was o.k., I told him that I’ll be joining him for a bowl of Cheerios and a glass of juice every morning.

I’ll even be chipper when I do it. Anything to avoid voicemail messages like that.

“True Colors”.

Earl and I were good little concert goers last night and heeded to the request printed on our ticket: “No photographs, recording equipment or outside beverage.” Hence, there are no pictures to share.

That being said, I must say that last night’s show was absolutely fantastic! I think it’s the first show that I’ve ever been to that started on time. At 6:00 p.m. on the nose, there was Margaret Cho, last night’s emcee, out there doing a little stand-up and introducing the first act.

Can I just say that I love Margaret Cho. While her routine is definitely PG-13 and more likely “R”, I really enjoy the fact that she says it like she sees it and she doesn’t hold anything back.

First up was a group called “The Gossip”. With three members, they are two-thirds gay with the third member GBA (gay by association). Lead singer Beth Ditto has a mighty fine set of chops on her. While I’m not a huge fan of the indy rock scene, I really enjoyed the performance.

Up next we had the Dresden Dolls. Completely unfamiliar with their style and messing up their name on the car ride video from yesterday, the Dresden Dolls are fun to listen to. They have this cabaret-punky thing going on that I was like diggin’ man. What I appreciated about the Dresden Dolls is that they were musical, in that they used music theory in creative ways in their music and I really appreciated that.

After the Dresden Dolls, Earl and I jumped up from our seats and went in search of beer and food. We secured a couple of reasonably priced Bud Lights and Chicken Fingers baskets when I saw a familiar face coming through the crowd. I walked up to my one of my best friends from high school, whom I have not seen in 20 years, and said “Hi Scott.” He replied with a “hi”, quite uncertain of who I was. I coaxed him with a “It’s John” and he still didn’t recognize me (which I was finding a little surprising) and then reminded him who I was in which he gave me a big hug and kiss after realizing that this bald, bearded guy was the flaming red-head from his high school days.

Scott and his partner Mark, along with Scott’s nephew Steve and his wife Michelle(oh gosh I hope that’s right) and Earl and I caught up on old times during the next act, Rufus Wainwright. While Rufus played in the background, we made plans with Scott and Mark to get together and reignite our friendship by going camping at Hillside together this summer. I’m really looking forward to that.

Rufus was good too.

Next up was Debbie Harry, probably most famous as the lead singer of Blondie. Back in my radio days I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with Debbie backstage at a Fly 92 concert before her performance. She mentioned then that she wasn’t big on performing her Blondie stuff, and apparently she still feels the same way because she didn’t perform any Blondie hits at all, opting for stuff from her next album as well as “French Kissin’ in the USA”. Her new stuff is fun and I enjoyed her performance, but some others around us were looking to hear “Heart of Glass” or “Call Me”.

By now it was fully dark and the lights were dancing around the pavilion. Up next came Erasure. Fantabulous! Absolutely wonderful. Earl and I were on our feet the entire time. I love how tonight’s performers had at least one band member performing with a keyboard and a Macbook Pro. We were both out of breath singing “A Little Respect” and jumping up and down to “Chains of Love”.

To bring the show to a close, Cyndi Lauper performed for nearly an hour. The one that brought this show together, she is amazing. I really like the arrangement she did of “She Bop”, turning it into a rock-based track. Her final number was a beautiful arrangement of “True Colors”.

Earl and I are now proudly wearing our purple wrist bands, a gift from Cyndi to all last night. They say “Erase Hate” (see the link in the sidebar on my or Earl’s blog).

For more information on the True Colors Tour, take a look at this short Wikipedia entry.

Microsoft and NYS Election Law.

According to this blog entry (link), Microsoft is actively trying to get a relatively new New York State Election Law to be changed. This is pissing me off.

I was unaware but am quite happy to see that the Empire State has some of the strictest regulations in the country regarding electronic voting machines. One of the regulations is that the software must be “open source”, which means that anyone can take a look at the programming code that makes up the software and observe as to what makes the program tick. This removes any doubt about vote tampering through back-door and other unscrupulous means.

Microsoft doesn’t like open source software all that much; all versions of Windows and the vast majority of Microsoft programs are “closed source”, which means that only Microsoft knows what goes on inside their programs. This has made me nervous in the past, as I’ve worked for a computer company and I know what goes on inside corporate walls. The NYS election law requires that any software used on electronic voting machines must be “open source”, and that would include the Windows operating system that it’s running on. Microsoft doesn’t like that. Electronic voting machines would have to run Linux or FreeBSD (both open source, to the best of my knowledge) in order to comply with the election law.

Small wonder I stick to my aging Mac PowerBook G4 instead of using Windows Vista on my HP laptop.

My question is: why do we have to use electronic voting machines at all? The lever and flip the switch machines that we’ve used in New York have worked fine for a good number of years. Why this huge push to change to something else? They’re basically used just once a year, I’m sure someone somewhere could maintain and repair these machines for their annual duty.

True Colors.

True Colors.

Earl and I are back from the “True Colors” concert at Bank of America Pavilion in Boston this evening. Completely wiped out from the experience, we’re settled into our hotel for the evening. I’ll have a full report tomorrow.

One thing that blew my mind: I ran into a very close friend from high school. We have not seen each other in 20 years. I’m giddy beyond belief.

Newton, Mass.

Earl and I are settled into the Sheraton in Newton, Mass. for the night. If you’re driving eastbound on the Mass Pike, be sure to wave because we’re in the hotel room that’s situated over the roadway.

We’re getting ready to head to the “Bank of America Pavilion” to see “True Colors”, featuring Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Deborah Harry, Dresden Dolls, Gossip and Margaret Cho.

I think it’s going to be a great night.

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Fantastic.

Fantastic 4

I’ve often complained about the conduct of the general public at the large movie multiplexes. People chat and send text messages on their very bright cell phones, have discussions as if they were sitting in their own living room and in general show a basic disregard for the others around them that are trying to enjoy the movie.

Luckily, there’s two solutions to this problem. The first involves waiting for movies to come out on DVD. With much of the junk that Hollywood serves up unapologetically cold these days, this is usually not a problem, however, there are movies that sometimes you just can’t wait for. Which brings us to our second solution, and that’s the local drive-in theatre.

We are fortunate to have a drive-in theatre within 10 miles of our house. “The West Rome Drive-In” has been serving our community since 1951 and is still packed on summer nights. During the daytime hours on the weekend, the drive-in doubles as a flea market. The sound system was upgraded a couple of years ago. They occasionally repaint the screens. The concession stand is delightfully dirty.

There’s nothing like sitting in the comfort of your own vehicle with the one you love watching a great movie being piped in over your car stereo system in glorious Dolby digital.

By the way, I really enjoyed “Fantastic Four”. I found it to be far superior to Spiderman 3. Get to a drive-in this summer!

Perfection.

When I was a wee lad I was very active in the musical programs in my high school. (A gay teenager, active in the music programs, go figure!) I was in the concert and marching bands playing tuba, I participated in all the choruses I could singing baritone and I was in the yearly high school musicals. I even ventured out on a limb once or twice and participated in community theatre as well.

My high school band director was a notorious perfectionist. An amazing musician, he demanded the best performance possible from all his students and had no qualms with dismissing those that weren’t making the grade. He was fair but very demanding. I had the utmost respect for him and looking back I guess I learned a great deal from him, which shaped my personal demand of perfection when it comes to performing. I think that’s why I’m so critical of today’s vocalists and I can’t watch American Idol anymore, audiences are all too eager to give standing ovations to mediocrity these days.

On the flip side of the high school music program, we had three different vocal directors during my school years. I found one to be considerably more demanding than the other two and I think she made a considerable impression on me in the perfection department as well. She didn’t believe in putting mics on us when we were on stage, we were to fill the auditorium with our voice and sing to the back wall. A tank of a woman, she also had no problem telling you when you weren’t fitting the bill. I’ll never forget the time that she told me to “butch it up and walk like a man” in 10th grade during a rehearsal as a knight in “Camelot”. Mortified, to this day I still suck in my gut and square my shoulders when I walk.

I’ve been doing some random searches of high school and college stage performances on YouTube, more specifically “Godspell”, “Fame” and “Pippin”. Wow, there’s a lot of crap being performed on stage these days and yet audiences are going wild. Now I’m not saying that what I sing or play is the bees knees of high school performances. I was never destined for Broadway. While my hearing is pitch perfect and I can sing a song in the proper key without a pitch pipe or accompaniment, I know my limitations and accept them and that’s why I often choose not to perform when prompted by family members. If I can’t make it perfect, I’m not going to do it.

I am quite content on my educational path to a civil engineering degree and have no desire to teach music on a regular basis (been there, done that, no thanks), however, I can’t help but think that there must be way for me to contribute to the musical arts in the community. The Alumni Band (up to 20 members so far!) is one step in that direction. But looking at these performances on the internet, I think I’m alarmed that what could be excellent performers are instead floundering performers that have no sense of the time signature of a piece while they bounce around the melody doing idiotic “runs” that would make Randy Jackson swoon and Paula Abdul giddy. I think it was Barbra Streisand that told Rosie O’Donnell, as Rosie was blaring out a tune like a fog horn, that “less is more” when it comes to singing a song.

Where am I going with this thought? I have no idea. I do know that when I performed “We Beseech Thee” from Godspell for an audition at SUNY Fredonia in 1987, it was much better than this (he says, with a smug look on his face).

Perhaps when I go for a community theatre gig, someone can post my performance on YouTube so I can inspire someone else’s blog entry and critique.

The Ditch.

Earl and I have lived together for nearly 11 years. In that time we have had two beds. The first bed was Earl’s queen sized bed from his wild days, a hand-me down from his oldest sister. While quite functional, we opted to buy a new bed when we moved into the new house in 2003 and did the proper thing with the old bed, we gave it to his brother Rick. When we spend the night visiting his family, we usually stay with Rick and Helen and sleep in our old bed. My butt still fits and my leg surrounds the springs like it was yesterday.

It’s familiar and comfy.

When we first slept on the new, king sized bed, it felt foreign. It wasn’t all worked in like a hotel bed, it was shiny and firm and new and felt like we were sleeping on something that bent our backs in the wrong direction. After a few weeks and a few rides on the bed, it finally felt familiar.

This feeling didn’t last as long as I thought a new bed should.

I’ve played by the rules. Every three months I turn, rotate, flip, spindle and attempt not to mutilate the mattress as directed by the wise sage at Raymour and Flanigan. Sometimes I achieve this feat alone. Do you know how hard it is to turn, rotate, flip, spindle and attempt to to mutilate a king sized mattress alone? It’s a daring feat, what with the threat of the mattress falling out the window, scaring the cat and/or falling on me while I plea “help me, help me” in a pitiful voice. But the wise sage said you had to do this to the mattress, so I did.

When you look at a picture of Earl and I, you may notice that while we were are two bear sized guys, I’m a little smaller than he is. Can someone please explain to me why I have the bigger, deeper crevice in the mattress? Regardless of which way the mattress has been turned, rotated, flipped, spindled and hopefully not mutilated, there I am lying approximately one foot average sea level lower than Earl.

I have affectionately named this crevice “The Ditch”.

“Sweetheart, it’s time to get up!”, comes the voice from above, as he peers down into the ditch prompting the serfs out of slumber. “The cat says it’s time for tuna.”

I tell the cat to “go tell it on the mountain.” I have noticed that while Earl does have a smaller version of The Ditch on his side of the bed, mine is deeper and stretches from sea to shining sea. I like to think that the cat sleeps on the Continental Divide between us.

Truth be told, I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way.