carrying the light

Friedrich Nietzsche:


And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

i was born into a family of comics. not professional comedians, but a tribe of folks who muffle and sensor their emotions with humor. i learned to laugh at a very early age, and i learned to make others laugh at about the same time. i also have been journeyman-trained in many techniques to make another bust a smile or guffaw or something in-between. and  when i went out on my own, i gravitated to another family of clowns. many of these wonderful souls are still friends today. and we still share this gift of light and laughter and usually infect those around us.

this has always been something i have been very natural at and has been a source of pride as well. i can actually say it's something i am pretty damn good at.

this skill has come in handy on many occasions for me. it can help ease the tension in a diverse range of situations. it can break the ice in a new social surrounding. it can cut through the communication breakdowns in a multitude of possible scenarios, including language barriers, racial and cultural chasms, and age or generational distance.

people, in general, love to laugh. they more than like it, they truly enjoy it. there is a chemical release in the brain that eases much more than just the moment. it softens perception. it cools things down. i am thrilled this is part of my toolbelt that i bring to my daily life. i have seen its wonder and magic in action almost every day.

i have been with others who aren't of the same skillset and it only strengthens my position on gratitude for this particular tool. i prefer to be known as a fool or a joker than a tool and a prick. i have made serious efforts to reel in the subject matter i use for humor. before my sobriety, much of my humor was dark and i offhandedly would create laughter at the expense of another with nary a thought. today, however, i take pause before throwing a quip out into the space around me. i want to put out good energy and make room for good to return.

and when i pass, i would be very content with an urn or a tombstone or an epitaph that read "he carried the light"


today's sound choice is an oldie but a fave of mine. here is hybrid with "finished symphony". i honestly believe this song carries the light as well. the feeling i get transcends traditional "pop music" and lifts me to a higher place.

some bits of wisdom

some things really are worth singing about...



and then there is the great bear loving clip posted at gay wisdom

chuckles

another guy who no longer has a monkey on his back.


i just felt like a chuckle today. i googled david sedaris and came across this article i hadn't read in "new yorker"


you may have seen this clip already. if that's the case, i'll bet you won't mind if i ask you to humor me and revisit this. the sedaris siblings are nothing short of brilliant in my eyes. they possess this uncanny ability to read the everyday promotional material and insert their own brand of ridiculous and leave us with a smile on our face and a tear in our eyes. have another giggle today and go visit gaybipolar guy

there ain't nothing like a dane

anyone who knows me also knows that i have a big, stupid thing for dane cook. i think that his comedy is raunchy, honest, and fresh. and i think i love watching his body writhe around while he does his schtick the most of all.

so this is a song by him? it intrigues me, however, it's from his new film- good luck chuck. and he does a good job. who expected this? but here we go anyway- dane cook singing "forward". click on this post's title for more info on the film.

BWE Presents: Dane Cook's "Forward"

Posted Yesterday

Bestweekever.tv couldn't help but listen to the newest Dane Cook single, "Forward". We loved it so much we made a video for it.

here is one of the many reasons he makes me laugh:

gay top gun

i know this has been around, but it still makes me smile. the enthusiasm that q shows near the end shrieking "swordfight! swordfight! swordfight!" still makes me ooze with laughter.

just a short list of some of the more vague lines from the film:

Hey man we could of had him! Hey we could of had him man!

I was invaded!

Move your ass get up here! I'm engaged!

Woods been hit! Woods been hit, shit, Woods been hit!

Ok Wood I'm taking the lead

You up for this one Maverick?

No, no, no - there's two O's in Goose boys!

Okay Mav, lets turn and burn!

We're in his Jet Wash!

He's going vertical, then so am I!

Get your butts above the hard deck.

I'm not going to sit here and blow sunshine up your ass.

Bullshit ten minutes! This thing will be over in two minutes - get on it!

Hard deck my ass, we nailed that son of a bitch!

Splash that sucker, yeah!

'Goose whose butt did you kiss to get in here?'... 'The list is long but distinguished'

"You can be my wingman anytime".... "Bullshit, you can be mine"

I want somebody's butt, I want it now, I've had it!

saturday morning cartoons

saturday morning cartoons

tag- you're it

richard kearns at aids-write has tagged me and so i participate. random facts. random facts. let's see.

there is a little history of tagging if you click on the title of this post.




i "came out" in 1974 on my 16th birthday. it was more a declaration of independence than anything else. i remember feeling as if i had just joined the foreign legion and would have a life filled with adventure. i also remember feeling that i had joined the band of brothers who celebrated an expression of self while one marched to the beat of a different drummer. i lost this particular exhilaration during the first gay clone fad in 1980. this august 26 will herald 33 years of being an out gay man. (check out finetune playlist "around 1974" in sidebar).



my first trip to paris was riddled with visits by ghosts. we had an apartment on isle st. louis and i had trouble sleeping most of the 7 nights we were there. one even tapped me on the shoulder one night asking me to come and play. it was very druid-like or something along those lines. i woke up to a hooded figure standing over me motioning for me to go through a holographic doorway. naturally, i did. (btw, i hadn't started doing tina yet, so i wasn't tweaking).



i used to date a boy named todd thennes (pronounced tennis)- he loved christmas and absolutely loved decorating christmas trees. we gave him the nickname todd tennenbaum. he decorated most of my friends xmas trees long after he and i disbanded. he was sweet and saucy. we all miss him very much. my friend david left the last xmas tree he did for his house up for 10 years (ewww yes), only just taking it down this past june.



i was very drunk after a 3 martini lunch at the walnut room at marshall fields in chicago. the two friends i had lunch with and i all stopped in an adult bookstore in the loop and there was a one-legged man in one of the stalls in back. i most definitely picked up on some secret sadness in that booth and proceeded to give him a knob job. it was really silly, but it was something i felt i had to do. my friend bruce bliss was scandalized. he told that story about me until the day he died. my friend blue seemed to take it all in stride.




i won 2 spelling bees in my junior high and both ended me up on the local television show. the second year (8th grade) my mother gave me money to get a haircut and i spent it all playing pinball, so i gave myself a haircut. of course i seriously botched the job. i had definitely begun to learn how to work her nerves.



one of my best vacations was on a bare boat charter in palau. we were cruising the rock islands and the weather was absolutely perfect. there were 5 of us snorkeling in coral arch and reveling in the beauty of the nature there. we threw line overboard, caught a snapper, and had the very best sashimi i have ever had (or probably will have) in my life. the next day we snorkled in jellyfish lake. it was formed by limestone structures separating the water from the ocean and the jellyfish have evolved to be nonpoisonous. to get to the lake, one has to climb up about 100 ft of very slick limestone and then scale down the other side to the lake. to get out is the opposite action. the really crazy thing was that at the foot of the limestone, in the middle of the ocean, was a woman's red high heel just laying there. really in perfect condition.



one of my favorite meals is grilled vegetables- portobello mushrooms, beets, turnips, peppers, eggplant, served over fresh spinach with balsamic, olive oil, sea salt. this meal makes me very happy......grilled beets and portobello make me smile.




my friend blue and i spent about 2 hours circling a small area in prague looking for a gay bar listed on the map. the city was laid out in 1100 ad and is not a grid but more like a honeycomb. we kept finding ourselves at the same dead end spot and we couldn't seem to figure out why we couldn't find it. after circling for about 2 hours most of the grappa we consumed after dinner had worn off, we managed to look up when we found ourselves in the same spot again. we were in the correct spot it seemed, just about 100 feet down a straight-up ravine from where we needed to be. we ended up having a blast that night. actually we loved the whole time in prague.




when i was managing medusa's chicago, i used to have the pleasure of taking the entertainers to dinner. i got to take esg, the violent femmes(gordon gano was cool) sharon redd, and divine. divine was really pretty sweet and ordinary. he was very unassuming and well mannered. he noticed what most of the women around were wearing and commented on them. i remember admiring his lack of ego.

so i am tagging lorenzo, staggo, and firehorse. if you've been tagged already, please forgive me. just send me the link to that post. cheers...

a day of beauty

i found this on dr. dick's and i thought it was really funny.



there is more interesting men's sexual health info there today...

giggles

betty butterfield is a giggle...

and so is eugene mirman

and can we talk butch dingo?


have fun..