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For some reason I was compelled to look this up, don't know why, maybe it was that rainbow hankie draped over my mirror...  Anyway, do you remember this crazy music video from a few years ago?  Well, I guess it was more like five years ago.  I have the more recent Junior Senior album, but I might have to look around for the one this song comes from, "D-D-Don't Stop The Beat."  Come on, it's still infectious!

A lovely Patrick Wolf cover of a BB song I came upon while trawling the internets... the beginning is a little, um, otherworldly, but hey, so is Patrick!

Has Patrick's voice ever sounded so gorgeous?  Oh yeah, all the time. 

Haven't had a chance to mention this yet, but on Wednesday night I (unexpectedly) got to see "Eleven Minutes," the documentary about Jay McCarroll of Project Runway!  The whole thing started when I met Andrew after work for dinner, and while we were eating he mentioned that he was meeting his boyfriend later to see a movie from the Frameline LGBT film festival.  I said something about remembering that one of the films included was about the first winner of Project Runway and I wanted to see it but didn't know when it was screening.  To which he replied, "That's what we're seeing tonight!"  SO, I ended up going along and it was of course awesome.  The film's directors were there, and so, more importantly, was Jay!  Yaaaayyyyy!  He was very funny, and pretty much hogged all of the attention up on the stage.  There were some technical difficulties at the beginning of the movie, and so Jay got up on the stage while things were being sorted out and entertained the sizable audience for several minutes.  There were a bunch of other funny things that happened, let me think... Oh yeah, a crazy Asian guy ran up onto the stage when they first introduced Jay, and I was actually fooled for a minute thinking it was him.  Then Jay got up on the stage and was like, "What the fuck was that?"  Hilarious.  I also found it very funny when Wendy Pepper showed up onscreen for a few seconds in the movie, and the audience hissed her!  HA!  Oh, and we all got free "Macy's Pride" hankies, weird, but whatever. 

Also, Jay mentioned that he will be selling his line on QVC sometime near the end of July.  It's QVC, yeah, but if his clothes are still as cute as they were on Project Runway and in the movie, I'm ALL OVER IT! 

Me neither.  What will the teenagers and smart-asses of the future quote to each other?  Jeez.  Well, I'm sure his material will be around for a good long time.  Thank Joe Pesci for that!

Wow, was it really a year ago that I last got tattooed?  Seems like it's been FOREVER.  Anyway, yesterday was my first session for the piece at the bottom of my back, which I have been turning over in my mind for years and so it's such a relief to go ahead and do it.  I couldn't be more pleased with my new artist, Sam, who was very enthusiastic about my pelican idea and shared stories about watching pelicans dive-bomb the waves while she was out surfing.  She was also great to talk to during the session, and really helped to draw my jumble of ideas into an awesome and cohesive piece, that works fantastically well with my existing back tattoo!  Yes!
So, here is the finished outline (still a little red looking, ha, my skin is a little more tender down there than in other places!):

The line is from "The Far Field," by Theodore Roethke:
(Section 3)

The river turns on itself,
The tree retreats into its own shadow.
I feel a weightless change, a moving forward
As of water quickening before a narrowing channel
When banks converge, and the wide river whitens;
Or when two rivers combine, the blue glacial torrent
And the yellowish-green from the mountainy upland,-
At first a swift rippling between rocks,
Then a long running over flat stones
Before descending to the alluvial plain,
To the clay banks, and the wild grapes hanging from the elmtrees.
The slightly trembling water
Dropping a fine yellow silt where the sun stays;
And the crabs bask near the edge,
The weedy edge, alive with small snakes and bloodsuckers,-
I have come to a still, but not a deep center,
A point outside the glittering current;
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river,
At the irregular stones, iridescent sandgrains,
My mind moves in more than one place,
In a country half-land, half-water.

I am renewed by death, thought of my death,
The dry scent of a dying garden in September,
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire.
What I love is near at hand,
Always, in earth and air.

Ahh, I LOVE that line.  Anyway, my next appointment is not until after I return from Florida, at the end of July.  Sam graciously agreed to do a little work on my existing back tattoo, adding some more blue to the water and possibly correcting the tail on one of the mourning doves (should be pointed, not square, arrggghhh why didn't I find that out until after the tattoo was done?).  I'm mostly excited to see how the color on the pelicans comes out, and of course will update here as soon as anything changes!

Good lord, I feel like I have been waiting FOREVER for PW to release new material!  Although there is still no word on his upcoming album, I did get my claws on his track from the soundtrack to the new movie, "The Edge of Love."

Phew.  Now when on earth is that Shepherd's Bush Empire show going to come out on DVD?

IT IS SO DAMN HOT.  I mean, I got home from work about 45 minutes ago (9:30 pm), and it was 80 degrees according to the car's rearview mirror.  JEEEEZ.  Hey, I know it's hotter in a lot of other places (hello, I'm going to one of them next month) but that's why people live here, because we can't handle real weather!  I was sitting in Lafayette Park this afternoon before work, and even in the shade of a huge tree, on grass, the heat was just killer.  When the wind blew it felt like a furnace.  Of course there were the usual maniacs lying out in the sun practically naked, as is the usual San Francisco reaction to a sunny day.  But even they couldn't lie out for more than half an hour before bursting into flame.  Too bad I have a full day scheduled tomorrow, otherwise I might head down to the beach and throw myself into the freezing water.  Mmmm...

I have been on the go quite a bit since arriving home from Wisconsin, and a very important date went by without my even realizing: Ginger's 3-year anniversary as my roommate!  I can't believe it was only three years ago that Gin first set foot in this apartment, having flown from Chicago only a week or so before that after my Grandma Emily died.  I feel like we've always known each other, and I hope we continue to do so for many more years!

I arrived back in SF without incident on Tuesday, and have already settled back into my old work routine.  Well, at least I have a tattoo appointment on Saturday to look forward to!  Yay!  Anyway, here are the last of my Madison photos, covering visits to a couple of dog parks with the family puggle, Ruby, and a few random house shots:

We had beautiful weather the day my mom and I went to the zoo.  It's free to the public and open year-round, although my mom says that certain areas are closed during the snowy months.  The only animal we didn't see was the tiger, who apparently is the sister of Tatiana from the SF Zoo, the one who killed Carlos Souza on Christmas day.  Don't know if her not being on display had anything to do with that notoriety, but there were plenty of other animals to coo over. 
First we saw a couple of birds: