Ladies and gentlemen it's my pleasure to introduce...

Miss Crystal McNugget!! Unfortunately I did not yet have the equipment to pull videos from my digital camcorder to my laptop after Halloween. On the bright side and much to Dan's expected horror....I do now =) Allow me to preface this for a moment. This past Halloween my boyfriend Jake dressed up as Heidi, Kelly was Jeffrey, Jimmi was Laura, I was Tim and Dan was a self proclaimed winner of the modeling portion of the competition. In case you aren't following, we dressed up as the cast from last season's Project Runway.

In any event I decided to dust off my digital camera and for a few days we recorded our exploits. Little did we know that Dan's alter ego would emerge through the course of this weekend adventure. So ladies and gentlemen....I'm very proud and terrified to announce Miss Crystal McNugget.

Some Americans need a swift kick in the pants

Since the birth of our nation, freedom of speech has been walking a meandering line between a "God given right" and an elusive concept. The beginning of this millennium has arguably ushered in a profound degradation of this right we hold so dear and I fear that many Americans are losing sight of this basic and necessary gift.

As disgusted as I was when the hate slinging followers of Fred Phelps decided to hold anti-homosexual protests at the funerals of fallen American service men and women, I most certainly had to bite my tongue and remind myself that it was their right to do so. Tasteless and evil in my eyes, yes, but still their right.

Today I was thumbing through the news and came across a little article which resonated with me. As innocuous as the situation in this article may seem, I think it sheds light on a much larger and horrifying trend in our society. First and foremost, to the individuals crusading against this woman's wreath: Shame on you. I must have overlooked the portion of the Bill of Rights that states freedom of expression doesn't cover holiday decorations.

Secondly, since when did the peace sign become 1) negative and 2) satanic? I would hope that every citizen of this country would wish for world peace because we are light years from attaining it.

Finally, I am all for patriotism and unity but I am utterly against the homogenization and pervasiveness of so called mainstream American ideals. We are a country of many religions, of many backgrounds and of many ideals. If the manger scene in your neighbors front yard during Christmas offends you, close your blinds. If the homosexual couple down the street is trying to adopt a needy child into their loving home and you don't agree with it, bite your tongue. If your child is off fighting a war overseas and you see people protesting against war, hold your head up high and remember that your child is defending their right to speak their mind. I think many of us are a bit overdue for a dose of tolerance and should lay off the finger pointing and whining.

Traditions

Tomorrow morning I'm heading back home to Texas to partake in one of my favorite family traditions...the Thanksgiving bonfire. I know, "how down home bumpkin of you Nick". This is an old and very fun tradition my family has had since I was a young lad. My grandparents used to own a large ranch north of Dallas which they'd use as a rural get away from the city (Dallas). The night before Thanksgiving they would have the entire family and close family friends gather at the ranch where they had spent months building a bonfire. We'd all show up and there would be a huge treasure hunt across the 160+ acres of property in which the winning team always walked away with some awesome prize. Afterwards we'd have dinner and would head out into a clearing in the woods to torch the bonfire. I've always had fond memories of these events but they ended up selling the ranch when I was about 15. Bummer.

After I went away to college my mom and step-father decided they wanted to get out of Austin and built a ranch about 40 minutes outside the city. Of course they brought back the tradition of the bonfire but with a twist. My parents know how to party. Aside from our entire family attending we generally have 75 to 100 of our close friends as well. Here are some pictures of the bonfire last year. Jake and I built it.




You may notice Miss Coco Merlot in that picture (second from the right)


This is the path we light to show guests the way out to the bonfire.



I'll post some picture of this years bonfire when I have some time. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!

Kramer Loses It

So I just got home from work and decided to get a dose of the ever depressing news when I came across this shocker. Fortunately I managed to find the unedited version of the video on YouTube. I'm virtually at a loss for words. Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) utterly lost his cool during a stand-up routine at the Laugh Factory in LA. I agree that it is in poor taste to interrupt a comic while he's doing his thing but this reaction is abhorrent.

WATCH BILL MAHER TONIGHT

This is been making some waves in the blogger community but has gone largely unnoticed to the rest of the public. Last night Larry King interviewed Bill Maher and in the interview Bill stated that many top ranking GOP members are gay. He went so far as to out Ken Mehlmen (RNC Chairman). CNN quickly edited this out of the broadcast and cease and desist orders have been sent to YouTube by CNN to remove all CNN videos from their site. Looks like this ruffled some feathers in the Grand Ole Party. The Huffington Post is still airing the original and edited versions of this interview.

It appears that Bill has sworn to out more closeted GOP members tonight on his show Real Time with Bill Maher. Everyone set your Tivo's, DVR's or VCR's to record it!!

Pot Hole...On the Rocks

So here's a little anecdotal fluff piece of advice from my meandering experiences....shopping carts can kill. This week I had my step-mother fly in from Houston and my sister fly up from LA. We had a great dinner Wednesday night at The Slanted Door and then met up again tonight for cocktails. Let me preface that by saying my sister and step-mother met up for drinks at 4pm...by the time I joined them....they were...umm....yes, "that". Either way, I played the "I need to catch up" game and we had a smashing evening. My boyfriend met up with us for one more round, a bit of food and then my sister, he and I began our short trek home. A side note about my family...we're a goofy bunch after cocktail hour.

Picture the three of us walking down the street. My sister and I notice a small abandoned shopping cart on the sidewalk. We may have two years between us but we definitely share a brain and along those lines had the same thought. "Hey Tierney, why don't you hop in the cart...I'll push". See picture below:

Take this picture as the 5 4 3 2 1 countdown to sibling catastrophe. Immediately after Jake snapped this shot I decided that we needed to hit warp speed.

As you may have noticed we were on a sidewalk and this sidewalk had a ramp down to cross the upcoming street.

Mission number one, make it down the ramp at high speed with my sister in the wonky cart.

Mission accomplished.


Mission number two, make it across the street at high speed with my sister in the wonky cart.

Mission accomplished.

Mission number three, make it up the ramp at high speed with my sister in the wonky cart.

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POT HOLE

Woops, didn't see that coming. Rushing towards the on-ramp to the sidewalk, the wonky cart hit a wonky, hidden pot hole and the drunken unthinkable happened in full view of A) fashionistas B) tourists C) locals D) my boyfriend and most embarrassingly E) the homeless.

The moment those two front wheels hit the deep, wet hole we came to an abrupt and painful stop. My sister was all but ejected from the cart and the force of the impact caused the cart to roll over itself with me entirely flip flopping over it. And there it was.....Nick's family road kill. The first thing I processed was my boyfriend expediting his stride down the street to deminish his association with our calamity. Immediately after that realization my hearing decided to rejoin my other senses and I heard, "OOOHHH MUUUHHH GAWWWDDDD....DDAAATSS TRAGIC". Where did this comment eminate from you ask? One of the homeless. That's right. For the first time since I moved to SF I had a homeless person feel the need to verbally deem me more tragic than themselves. Humiliating yet in my drunken stupor I found it humorous. Finally I decided to stand up and stop allowing people from stepping over me at which point I began looking for my sister......this deserves yet another paragraph.

I pan back over my shoulder to find my poor little sister with her ass stuck inside the extremely tiny/narrow shopping cart (again reference the picture above) but her face had landed smack down in the foulest San Francisco street corner cesspool. Everyone insert their OMG faces here.

So as I stated at the beginning of this post...this is an anecdotal fluff piece of experience from my life but mark my words, shopping carts can kill. Everyone write your newly elected Democratic congress persons and senators about this newly emerging terorist threat! Also ask them for a wet-nap for my sister's face.

Freedom

Freedom

This is absolutely brilliant. It gave me chills. I'll let this video speak for itself.....it speaks volumes.

Highly Annoyed

Last night two of our friends held a get together at their apartment on Castro St. for Halloween (a big thanks to you both for doing that). At some point we all decided to migrate down to mix with the party crazies on the street below. Never in my life have I heard such vitriol directed at gays. I could barely take 5 steps without hearing some ignorant moron utter something to the effect of, "fucking fags, I fucking hate the castro".

WHY DO YOU COME THEN?????

I don't like shoving my hand into a deep fryer....SO I DON'T DO IT!!!!!

Granted this was my first Halloween in the Castro and though I was told to expect a large straight/unruly crowd, I was shocked at the train wreck that we were navigating through. Perhaps next year the price of admittance should be a that you have to blow the person you come with. That might weed out the ignoramuses.

Of course the night had to be topped of with some unnecessary gun violence.

So here's my no brainer theory as to why these "people" show up and cause problems. What do humans do when they're curious about something? They look into it. What do humans do when they feel guilty or embarrassed about looking into it? They lash out. SO...all of our gay bashing party goers just can't accept the fact that they want something shoved up their ass. Deal with it people....or don't show up to our events. I pity you.