J.P.

I’ve been wasting more time online here tonight and came across some information on recently booted American Idol contestant Mikalah Gordon. First of all, I will admit that I found her singing voice to be three flat steps shy of ‘horrid’ but she had a certain pep and sparkle that one couldn’t deny.

In a recent interview with MTV, she was quite honest in saying that the AI audition process isn’t fair, because there are some contestants that have no television exposure prior to the audience voting segments, and then there are some that have been plastered all over ever promo and episode. Those without the exposure obviously don’t have a fan base so there’s that issue going on. I give her props for stating her feelings on this.

The other thing that I find quite cool about Mikalah is that she isn’t giving up on her dream and wants to pursue a career in television, more specifically, she’s looking to get on a sitcom with hopes to play Fran Drescher’s daughter in a show currently under development. As an aside, I realize that the grammar in that previous sentence is hideous.

Yes, I slammed her a bit on the idolonfox.com community boards, but I must give credit where credit is due. Mikalah, you have a personality that shines. Reach for the stars baby and best of luck in pursuit of your dreams!

I have my iPod cranked while I type this entry, so please bear with me if I’m not coherent as I type along.

“Chains (S&M Mix)”, Tina Arena.

There’s a rule at work for when you’re on call. On call karma works like this – busy week, quiet weekend. Quiet week, busy weekend. The on call Gods rarely bless you with a completely quiet on call or conversely, damn you to a busy week and weekend.

I’ve been damned by the on call Gods.

As they say, “April showers bring May flowers”. Apparently April is in fast forward or something this year, because we are getting soaked and soaked with lots of rain. To keep it interesting, it’s very windy as well with up to 30 MPH gusts. This does not bode well for the telephone network. Rain and wind + telephone wires = no dial tone for Grandma. It’s simple math.

I tried to take a nap in between calls today but that was not meant to happen as I’ve been beeped on and off throughout the day.

“Smalltown Boy”, Bronski Beat.

Instead of trying to do anything constructive around the house, I’ve decided to do work on the recording studio and search the internet, hoping to find my long lost knowledge of dance music for the past 30 years or so. I’m coming across songs that I haven’t thought about, much less heard, in the past five years since leaving the Top 40/Dance radio gig.

Sirius 66 “The Beat” has added a new afternoon dj. His name escapes me at the moment, but one of the things I really like him is that he is openly gay. A part of me is extremely jealous. I wasn’t really hidden when I was on the air, though I didn’t mention it that much. Working in a smaller city and such it probably wouldn’t have been the best strategy for the station. Who knows, maybe I was just paranoid and it would have added to the ratings. I don’t think the company that owned the radio station really wanted us to be known as “the gay radio station”, though several of our CDs in the library were gay related and I must say the sound of the station was simply fabulous.

“It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (The Moran Anthem Mix”), Céline Dion.

One good thing about this on call week fiasco is that I get next Friday off. Earl and I are trying to decide what to do after his meetings. Do we want to go to Foxwoods Casino? Do we want to drive down to Bristol, Pa.? Do we want to go to Boston? Decisions decisions!

“Chains of Love”, Erasure.

Back to the radio thing. Maybe I should start up an internet radio station. One of the DJ’s that worked on my old station, who shall remain nameless because she turned out to be a complete nut job, started an internet radio station that was quite good. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long as she busted with the dot com bust. But at least she gets an “E” for effort. Too bad she was such a whacko. The only jock I know that enjoyed the letters from the prisoners. (My friend Dana probably knows who I’m talking about – maybe she’ll give you the name).

“What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)”, Information Society.

One of the things that Earl and I have chatted about today is our office arrangements. Since moving into the house, we’ve shared one of the spare bedrooms as our office. The problem with that arrangement is that I am a chatty type that likes to play music clips and sing out loud and thrash around the room dancing, while he is content to do his little thing on the internet. He concentrates, I distract. When we started on the recording studio, I moved my office stuff into the other bedroom. Honestly, I didn’t like that arrangement. I felt too separated from him. You’d think having laptops we wouldn’t be holed up in the office, but old habits die hard. So I rolled my desk back into the original office today (feeling like a teacher pushing the movie projector around the elementary school for some strange reason), leaving the other room just for the recording studio. I’ve only distracted him once. Let’s see if I can behave myself.

I doubt it.

“Déjà Vu (Johnny Budz Radio Edit), The Roc Project & Tina Novak.

As I mentioned in last night’s entry, I’ve discovered a new dance song called “Come Rain, Come Shine” by Jenn Cuneta. Sirius 66 “The Beat” lists her as Jennifer Cuneta. After doing a little Googling, I’ve discovered that she used to be known as “J. Cee”, who performed for the radio station I was programming, Wow FM, at Summer Bash II. The song is available on iTunes, so I promptly downloaded it and burned it to a CD for the car. I’ve played it five or six times today already. I find it to be a truly great song and the type of tune that prompted to get into the whole dance music business in the first place.

Anyways, one of the great things about this tune is that it is a spring/summer type song. Upbeat, full of life. It perfectly compliments my commute today in that it is currently 60 degrees and sunny here in Upstate New York. I’m ready to uncover the pool and patio furniture and start celebrating the outdoors after a long winter’s nap. Trees are taking their first steps towards budding, more and more birds are headed north for a change and there’s few traces of snow left in persistent shady areas around our property. There’s a wonderous spring and summer that lies ahead this year. Good things are going to happen… for me, for us and for those around us.

I have a weekend of on-call ahead, but I’m not too upset about it because the weather is suppose to turn rainy until Monday. Rainy weather usually means more overtime or comp time when I’m on call, so perhaps I can make it a short week next week. I’m already taking Friday off, courtesy of comp time I’ve earned this week, to accompany Earl on a business trip to New Haven, Conn. This is a first for us. He’ll be in high powered meetings and I’ll be off shopping. I’m wondering if I’ll be invited to that fabled wives’ luncheon I’ve mentioned in the past, where these dainty, well kept wives straight out of Stepford are enjoying tea and crumpets, white gloves and all, while I’m eating a rueben on rye and a big gulp with my elbows on the table. I guess “huzbear” doesn’t translate to “wife” very well.

I’ve been haunting the American Idol message boards again on idolonfox.com. I take a perverse pleasure in getting all the teenyboppers wired up with my flippant comments.

For example, one of the remaining contestants is named “Anwar”. I just refer to him as “Anwart”. You’d think I had just set their hair on fire the way they go on about it. He’s not even that good of a performer, the way he sings through his nose and bats his eyes like a really bad Disney character. News for Anwart, batting eyes does not work well on the radio. I’ve tried.

Then there’s Constantine which I refer to as Constantscream. Someone posted that he reminds them of “Lnt. Dan” on Forrest Gump, I thought she typed “Lint” and commented that he does look like belly button lint. The teenage cell phone set really didn’t like that one.

It’s the one liners, little zingers, that work the best. I especially like responding with “Who the hell is Fantasia?” in her fan club. Like the American public remembers that mess of a winner from last year. Thank God I’m not in radio anymore.

One thing we all seem to agree on is that Paula Abdul is looking either very drunk or very stoned these days. Hell, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly seemed much more sober on the old “Match Game”, and they were drinking three meals a day at the time, with a beer chaser no less.

I was really excited about American Idol at the beginning of this season but I’ve kind of lost interest. The remaining contestants are mediocre at best, each deserving a “Meh” as far as I’m concerned. No one will remember who they were next year.

Speaking of radio – I heard a really, really good dance song on Sirius 66 “The Beat” today that has Wings’ “Silly Love Songs” in the background. I need to find the name and artist of that track.

I found the title: “Come Rain Come Shine” by Jenn Cuneta. Fabulous! Update: Now I know why I like the vocalist. She was “J Cee” back in 1998 and performed at Wow FM’s Summer Bash II! I’ve met her. I’ve talked with her! It’s a fabulous track and she’s fabulous!

Now back to my juvenile behavior over on idolonfox.com.

I was listening to the gay radio station on Sirius radio this afternoon on the way home from lunch and I heard them talking about the executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I’ve mentioned that I plan on riding in the Ride for Missing Children again this year, as I did back in 2003. According to this show I was listening to, the Executive Director made some somewhat homophobic remarks about gays being in the Boy Scouts and that old tired story.

It’s got me thinking about whether I want to ride in the Ride this year or make a charitable donation to a more open-minded, child-oriented charity instead. Would my contribution to the ride be welcome?

Something to think about.

Today is officially a sweet day. The birds are coming back home after vacationing in the south for the winter. The sun is out. The temperatures are in the mid 50s. The snow is disappearing quickly.

It’s days like these that make it all worthwhile. On-call doesn’t seem as bad. Worries seem to follow the snow and disappear.

Tom is getting a little picky with going outside as he gets older. When he first joined the family eight years ago, he was outside regardless of weather. Even in the deadest of winter, he’d go out, sit on the porch and survey the area to make sure everything was as he intended. Since moving to the new house last year, he doesn’t seem nearly as interested in going out in the wintertime. It’s the same routine day after day. He’ll make motions like he wants to go out. I’ll open the door. He’ll sniff the air, catch a glimpse of something and stare at it for about 10 seconds, twitch his tail three times and then he’s done. As the nicer weather grabs hold, now he’s in and out like a yo-yo. Out the back door. In the front door. Out the front door. In the back door. This afternoon I’ve finally given up and just left the back door open during my lunch hour. There’s really no bugs to worry about this time of year, and the fresh air does wonders for the house. And he can come and go as he pleases. Since I’ve started writing this entry, he’s been in and out around 15 times. A stroll around the deck, inside to eat two bites of kibble and then back outside. I think my lunch hour is disturbing his routine or something.

My only frustration with the onset of spring is that I can’t get out there and ride my bike because of on-call week. I’m hoping that everything stays nice through next week so I can get out there Monday night and do some serious training. The Ride For Missing Children is a month and a half away, and I need to get my legs in shape. By the way, if you’re interested in contributing to this worthy cause, please contact me. Any amount is most welcome.

If you get the opportunity, get out and enjoy the weather. Put some spring in your step!

With Earl out of town tonight and with me on call, I was a little bored. So I decided to fool around with our digital camera and see what I could do with a tripod and a timer. I even played “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred and turned on the fan to blow around my hair. Having a shaved head and all, you probably couldn’t tell.

Here’s my “bad boy” look.

Today I started another week of on-call duty. I have mixed feelings about the whole on-call thing. On one hand, the geek in me really appreciates the fact that I have the responsibility of on-call and that a whole telephone network is relying on my organization and knowledge to keep it running. God help us all. On the other hand, when I’m on call I feel like I have an electronic leash in the form of a pager. I’m unable to cross an imagined boundary around our house lest I get zapped and beckoned back. Last time I was on call I tried to eat in the mall food court. I had just paid the cashier and had been handed my chopsticks when “beep beep beep beep beep!”, a SigAlert for WonderTech. I shot away the food after nibbling one bite of my Bourbon Chicken and headed out, looking for the closest phone booth or better yet, a dark corner where I could spin into my WonderTech stars and stripes.

I had a friend who got one of those electronic dog collars for his dog. He proclaimed the wonders of the Invisible Fence. Being a true humanitarian, he tried the collar on himself and ran across the fence’s boundary to feel what it did to his dog. It knocked him on his ass.

What a fool.

This whole electronic leash concept can be frustrating at times. I’m not one to be bound against my will, kinky weekends in the woods notwithstanding. (Did you hear that sound like someone was falling out of a chair? It was my mother collapsing on the floor as she read that last sentence). Anyways, I think of myself as a free spirit. Quicksilver. A fleeting shadow, a distant sound… now I’m paraphrasing Endora’s speech in the second episode of Bewitched.

Anyways, when I’m on call I end up surfing the internet. A lot. You’d think I’d be sick of the computer since I have to stare at it all day and half the night. But I always find little interesting tidbits to look at. For example, way back in December I mentioned that Earl and I saw another bearish couple while we Christmas shopping but didn’t know who they were or where they were from. We just exchanged knowing glances, a wave and moved on. Surfing around for information on the upcoming pride celebrations this spring, I found one of the guys pictured on a site about a gay sculpture being erected in Rochester (It’s by the Atlantic-Beacon Sculpture Committee). That was kind of cool. It certainly makes this world seem like a much smaller place!

As far as Mondays go, this one hasn’t been too bad. I’ve started working out again. Thank goodness for my iPod. It makes cycling and jumping around like a fool, all in the name of exercise, bearable. I’ve found that working out in the morning kickstarts the day in a good way.

I’d tell you more, but my leash in beeping.

I like to think of myself as an organized geek. Everything has a place and every place has a thing, even on a hard drive or webserver. Imagine my surprise when I found this page buried on our website.

I made this page quite a while ago and somehow never built a link to it. I had completely forgotten about it. That’s not like me. Being my dramatic self, I wonder if I’m slowly losing my damn near perfect memory as time goes on.

What was I saying?

I routinely blab about my desire to lose some weight and eat healthy. It’s been somewhat difficult following that path the past week or two, mostly because I’m lazy, a little bit due to the weather and somewhat because of my surgery two weeks ago. However, there is one other factor contributing to my binging ways.

It’s Girl Scout Cookies season.

Earl and I had thought that we had made it through Girl Scout Cookies season unscathed. “We made it through without a ton of Simoas!” “Thin Mints be damned, we’re going to be thin!”

Last Sunday Earl and I did a little shopping. On our way out of Media Play, I noticed a card table stacked with colorful boxes, a hand lettered decorative sign and a cute young lady decorated with pins and badges like a four star general, accompanied by her adult chaperone. She smiled an innocent little smile and asked “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?”

How can you say no to that innocent face.

Being victims of Girl Scout Cookies seasons of past, we instantly noticed that there was a new type of cookies this year. I’d tell you the name, but the box never made it home. These cookies, as described by our salesperson, “if you like icing and cinnamon with a touch of strawberry, these cookies are for you” were absolutely delightful. Earl and I weren’t even out of the store parking lot before the plastic was removed and we were downing the cookies.

As I wiped the crumbs off my face with my sleeve, eyes glazed in sugar induced nirvana, I gazed at the back of the box looking at the nutrition information. “200 calories”. Two hundred? For this whole box?

Silly me. For two cookies. I didn’t even want to venture into fat grams land.

Oh well. That was the best 1,200 calories pig fest I had enjoyed in a long while. You’d think that we had consumed our $3.00 purchase quickly and that the Girl Scout Cookies threat was over with for the year.

No.

We’d actually purchased four, as in one, two, three, four, as in thousands of calories, as in Thin Mints, Simoas, Peanut Butter somethings and these cookies I can’t remember the name of.

Maybe we’ll have better luck next year.