cgm13.net :: the boy wonder: August 2003

Big plans the weekend include traveling back to the heady days of the early 1990's by finishing up the second half of "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season" dvd box. Ah, yes ... 1991. And now you as well can travel back to those grand ole days via this Johnny Marr/Bernard Sumner collaboration ...
Electronic - Try All You Want [5.16 MB]

Video Update:
Watched "Bowling For Columbine" last night. It's funny, disturbing and well worth seeing. And, no. Michael Moore doesn't come up with any real clear-cut answers to why America has so much gun violence, but he does raise many interesting points. All in all, I am really surprised that this documentary got the Oscar this year ... not that I don't think the film is great. But, it squarely points the finger at some very "sacred" American institutions as the potential causes. So, why was anyone surprised when Moore used his acceptance speech as a political platfom? The movie is tinged with his political stance. Best Moment of the Movie: Charlton Heston gets put on the spot about his NRA mania. Watching him squirm as he dodges Moore's questions is worth the rental price alone.

Hmmm. Thinking about adding some interactivity to this site with a comments system.

One week, baby. One week!!!

Er ... a few months ago I said that I thought "Futurama" was slightly better than "The Simpsons." After having re-watched half of third season of "The Simpsons" on dvd last night, I would like to reatract that very rash statement.

Roger and Me, circa 1988
Feeling a little regretful for the past few days ... brooding on the past, wishing it could be changed. Dumb and stupid. I haven't seen or spoken to him in seven years. 1996. That was the year after he tried to convert me to Mormonism. That was the year he got married and never looked back. Seems like the wounds would heal in that time. Doesn't it? Or maybe I have some major "martyr" complex about this and just need to get over myself.

Just A Reminder ...
"The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season" hits stores today! Yes. I am a big geek and already have my own copy.

Home Ownership Update:
Well, the last three days have yielded some exciting developments. The appraisal on the house came back Friday morning and it was in the range that most sane people (not my aunt and uncle) expected it to be in. So, Saturday was spent contacting the relatives and giving them the news on the appraisal and what the bank would loan me. They have accepted. Saturday night was spent being pretty excited about the prospects of home ownership and dreaming up all sorts of things that I could do to the house to make it nicer and more "me." On Sunday the realization of what I was getting ready to get myself into hit and I was nervous all damn day. Now, the bank and I are in the process of drawing up an "Offer to Purchase" so that aunt and uncle can sign and thus get the ball rolling on the rest of the paperwork. The loan officer says that we should be able to close by this time next month. So, another month of paperwork and some worry and the house should be mine. Whee!

I just won a copy of the out of print Grace Jones "State of Grace" vhs on eBay. Whoo! I feel so gay right now.

You know you have hit a pretty sad state of affairs when, at 8:00 in the morning, you start talking to the peanut butter and honey sandwich you are making.

If'n I remember right, somebody gets to see Bjork live this evening ...

Oh, shit. A remake of "Dawn of the Dead" is underway and planned for delivery by Universal early next year. I think I am going to be sick now.

So, the roomie, his woman and I watched "Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses" again last night on dvd. Yeah. I really like this movie. It has been one of those love it or hate it films in the horror community (not unlike "The Blair Witch Project"). Sure, the plot gets convoluted. Sure, Mr. Zombie's direction is a little heavy handed at times ... mainly with all the grainy, camcorder cut-in's. What makes the movie work for me is that you can tell there is a love of the genre smeared all over each bloody frame. The movie is not at all like something that would come from the Dark Castle cookie cutter. All in all, it's a great film to kick back with a beer, watch and revel in the shear bloodletting and mayhem. Whoo for Doctor Satan! The dvd also come with an audio commentary from Rob Zombie which is insightful about the "making of" and has hints about just what a bastard step-child the production was for Universal. I wish that he had talked in-depth about the struggle to actually get the movie into theaters, but maybe there are some lingering legalities that keeps him from bad-mouthing Universal and MGM. Yeah. Go and check 'er out.

And now, I am suddenly getting lots of spam from fellas looking to be in gay porn.

Good Advice from Tyler for someone who is also in my boat:
So consider this a slap and a push. I don't know your friend. He's just a person. I agree that he's quite beautiful (of course -- you're not gonna have a crush on an ugly unavailable boy!). But, Babe, he's a big boy and he'll live. I'm sorry that your friendship has probably ended -- but you know something? For your emotional well-being it probably should. That's harsh, but it true. You can't be a fully functioning adult who doesn't self-medicate with regular doses of 420 to keep your brain silent and your emotions at bay while still in such a relationship. I suspect that you also douse your turmoil with a good splash of vodka regularly too. Well, it certainly works, but the long-term costs of that kind of medication are devestating. So stop it.

It's good to know that I am not the only dumb gay male out there.

Hmmmm. Seems that nobody likes Grace Jones or else nobody is reading this site anymore.

In other news:
My arch nemesis (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) has shaved his head. It has been said about town that we look like twins now. Yeesh. Some say it's true, but I wonder if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

BJ brings up a disturbing point about all the millions of gallons of ice cream that went to waste during the blackout. Poor ice cream.

Hah! The appraiser did the walk-through of the house and didn't even look in a single closet. So, my porn was safe. Whee!

Of course, I worried about the house stuff all weekend. The appraiser comes this afternoon to begin the process of slapping a dollar value on the house. I need to get there early so I can hide my porno videos. Whoo.

It's time for the weekend. I don't have any theatre to do. I am not gonna worry about this whole housing situation. I'm going to kick back with a beer and groove. You should too.
Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper [5.5 MB]

Most of my favorite NYC bloggers have been posting. Hopefully BJ is doin' well.

Yeah, I am a sucker ... I might just have to see "Freddy vs. Jason" this weekend. It looks stupid and excessive, so it could be a lot of fun (just like "Jason X" was). In other news, New Line Cinemas has finally launched the site for the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." There you can download the trailer and images from the movie. More thoughts on this later ...

I really, really hate local news channels. They always try and take an event that effects thousands of people hundreds of miles away and turn it into a "local" story. Last night during their 11:00 pm broadcast, the local ABC affiliate decided that it was important for Western North Carolina to see an interview with representative from Progress Energy Carolinas to assure us that our power supply was ok. C'mon, folks. The major blackout happened a little after 4:00 pm, so I think that if it was going to spead it would have hit us long before the 11:00 news. Then again, if the local news irritates me that much, maybe I should just turn it off.

In a way I am kinda glad this blackout happened. Seeing New York City on the news last night has revitalized my interest in being there at the beginning of next month. Just to walk the streets, see the sights and the people, take in a show or two, romp through a museum, visit a sex club ... it should be super fantastic. And, I hope y'all in the "blackout" zone are all doing well.

When in doubt, post some porn. Yea, porn!

The first round of paperwork is on its way back to the bank. Time for some distraction. Yeah!

Gulp. The package with a bunch of paperwork arrived today ... lots of pages to sign, W2's and paystubs to gather. Plus, I have to cough up $335 to get the appraisal on the house done. Bye-bye, money. Bye-bye, sanity. Hello, paperwork. I hate this. All this worry over where to live has totally killed the excitement about the New York trip. Fortunately, since I am good friends with the trip planner, payment for said trip has been postponed until all this home business gets straightened out. Dear God, let me survive one more month.

You know, I might be handling this whole "home ownership" stress a little better if I were getting laid on a regular basis.

So, here is something to be excited about.

I know that I haven't been a bunch of laughs this past week. I am still feeling stressed out about the whole home ownership thing. As a back-up plan, I get to start looking at other houses this week in case dealing with my aunt and uncle becomes a wash-out. Yeesh. Didn't do anything overly fun this past weekend other than sit around and worry ... which equates to sleeping too much, eating too little and staring at the television too much. In good news: "Wit" had its final performance yesterday and I am now theatre free for a while. Yeah! And, despite money concerns, I will indulge myself with "Furturama: Volume 2" when it hits stores tomorrow. Plus, we are only two weeks away from the release of "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season." Whoo-hoo!

Yeah. Posts have been very scattered this week. Need to get my head back together. I let the little things freak me out too much. Home ownership would be a good thing. Equity. Tax breaks. Investment. Fixed Interest Rate. These are the buzz words of my life right now.

Now more terrifying than the "Blue Screen of Death" on older versions of Windows is the new "Send Error Report" button in Windows XP. Yeah ... like Microsoft is actually going to do anything about the trillions of error reports that are sent each day. Just one of the many reasons I own a Mac.

Yeah. I also got to see "Boy Meets Boy" the other night. I don't think that I like the show too much. It seems like it could get really mean before it ends. And I am not talking about the competition end of it. They kept stressing throughout the show that James doesn't know that some of the mates are straight. So what happens when he really falls for one of the straight men masquerading as a homo? Hmmm. I guess he will just get his heart broken like the rest of us idiots. Let's just hope that his gaydar is really, really good.

So, now I have to start looking for a back-up place to live in case this whole home ownership shite falls through. Yipee (said with much sarcasm).

CGM13 World News is on standby. So. Freakin'. High. Strung.

I find that when I get really freaked out about big, life altering things (such as said house purchase), I tend to become even more self-destructive. Yeesh. Where's a psychoanalyst when you need one?

And I thought BJ was the only one who got these kind of e-mails ...

It's official. My aunt and uncle are insane with the price they want for the house ... 30,000 over what the realtor thinks is reasonable. We'll see what happens.

I did get to see the much talked about "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" last night and really enjoyed it. Campy, silly, bitchy homo fun (even if they are contributing to the ambiguous straight guy culture). I do think I have fallen in love with ultra cute food geek Ted Allen. Mmmmmmm.

Well ... the good, the bad and the ugly of the weekend.

The Good: Two of the three shows that I have been working on are now done. "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" bit the dust on Friday night. "Oh Coward!" went belly-up on Saturday evening. That means I only have "Wit" to go and I will be done with theater for a while.

The Bad: Saw the new ending to "28 Days Later" and was not overly impressed. As I said earlier, sometimes happiness isn't all that bad. Though I do think the alternate ending would have worked better if it had been properly paced. It was just too slow.

The Ugly: The aunt and uncle are unexpectedly in town and dropped the bomb of house purchase again. Only this time I have until Thursday to decide and work things out as they want to talk to a realtor while they are in town. Why they couldn't have given me a heads-up one month ago is anyone's guess. So, now I have to scamble to find out the real info for the house 'cause I think that they are nuts with the price they are asking ... regardless of the fact that I can't afford it at that price even if I wanted it. I meet with a real estate agent this afternoon so she can look at the house and confirm or deny my relative's craziness. So, I am looking at staying put and purchasing the house or looking for a new place to live. Ugh.

Gonna be quite. I am in a really pissy-ass mood today. Too much stuff and too many people are irritating me. Some things will end this weekend which is good. Out with the bad and in with the tolerable.