Tuesday, April 15, 2003

April 15, 2003

Throw it on the stack: More regular reading for the informed adult video consumer, Gay Porn Blog. [pointed out by Jonno]

Well, DIP my switch! It's gadget porn nostalgia galore at Pocket Calculator Show, an eclectic look back at "a generation of electronics with a soul." Chock full of geeky digital wristwatches, early computers and Walkmans and...ooo, just go look! [It's an all-Jonno day around here.]

Members only: Never let it be said I won't put mine in something interesting or entertaining when the opportunity presents itself. The estimable Jonno convinced a couple dozen boy webloggers to show off their tallywhackers for your amusement and for the chance to win fabulous prizes. (And he didn't even throw us any beads!) It's Penis Blog, and it's your challenge to match the weblogger to the wang. Are you up to it?

Thursday, April 10, 2003

April 10, 2003

Unsolicited plug: I'm gonna order, like, a couple dozen of these. The Power Strip Liberator Plus, designed to get those bulky AC adapter blocks up and away from power bars, freeing precious outlets. I might finally be able to tame some of the cable jungle under my desk! [tip o' the hat to Poor Clio]

Let My People Come to the Theatre: Two brief, fascinating histories of musical comedy's oft-overlooked underbelly, Adult Musicals of the 1970s and Industrial Musicals.

In 1963, the Xerox Corporation was the Cinderella story of the business world. When they introduced their weighty 914 copier in 1959, they had the ability to produce only 5 models a day, and costs were in the tens of thousands. Few thought that a bulky slab of metal like the 914 would perform well at all, much less revolutionize the copy business. Lucky for Xerox, the critics were wrong. In fact, they were way off. The 914 became known as the most successful product in history, doubling and tripling Xerox's sales figures over the next several years. In 1961, Xerox sales had reached 61 million. In 1962, they hit 104 million -- far more than company president J.C. Wilson could ever have imagined. In 1963, Xerox was poised to introduce their first desktop copier -- the 813. Since Wilson had flown his entire inner-circle of managers and salesmen to London the previous year to celebrate the 100 million mark, he wanted to try something different this year. Something rewarding, something that Xerox employees would remember forever.

What would he do? Well, Xerox quickly hired the Jam Handy Organization, a pioneer in the industrial film business. Jam Handy in turn hired Wilson Stone, an experienced film and Broadway composer. A cast and crew were hired, and voila! Xerox introduced Take It From Here, a musical about the company that was performed for their leading salesmen and executives at a banquet for two nights only, and then pressed in miniscule amounts as a souvenir record strictly for the attendees. The songs were big, brassy upbeat numbers following the adventures of Charlie, a good-natured rookie salesman for the company who learns why Xerox holds the key to a wonderful future.

Friday, April 4, 2003

April 4, 2003

I'm slipping: I missed a big gay memo or, at least, an issue of Entertainment Weekly. It embarrasses me to admit it but, until today, when a friend asked me to record an episode for him, I swear I thought Graham Norton had a cooking show. I don't know why. Maybe it was just the cadence of the name. Jacques Pepin. Tyler Florence. Graham Norton. They all sound like guys with cooking shows.

I don't watch cooking shows. I've never seen The Iron Chef or Food 911 or even -- despite the title -- The Naked Chef So I'd never bothered to watch this spunky, impish Irish comic before. Why didn't somebody tell me?! OK, it's not particularly brilliant. It's not art. It's barely camp. But it made me laugh a little bit more than I'm accustomed to doing whilst watching the BBC. And that's earned So Graham Norton a Season Pass, at least for a little while.

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

April 2, 2003

Wasn't it groovy? If you're arriving late to April, you may wish to check out what everyone else saw yesterday when, for one sunshiny day, The BradLands became the temporary home of a lovely lady, a man named Brady and their brood. It was The BradyLands.

Want more foolishness? Why not visit The BrandLands (2002) or The Bardlands (2001)?

Got plans for May 2-4? Consider Toad Suck Daze. No, really.

Playing it straight: It should go without saying that I'm pleased, proud and slightly confused to have this site right here named Best Heterosexual Weblog in the 2003 Antibloggies. I'll confess I've sometimes been a bit "straight-curious" and, in college, even experimented with heterosexuality by sleeping with several straight men. (Since I already own the book I was going to give as a prize, last night in celebration I took myself out for six beers.)

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

April 1, 2003

OK, here's the story: It's a sunshine day in The BradyLands and, as you can see, we've made a Bunch of changes!

Check it out! There's a whole website dedicated to our family so now you can explore not just The BradyLands but the whole Brady World. Isn't that groovy?!

Plus there's actually whole encyclopedia about us. It's not nearly done, but it looks really cool.

Greg has his own site, run by some guy named Barry Williams.

You can find out all sorts of stuff about our groovy TV variety show here. (And even though she didn't bother to show up for our song-and-dance show, it seems like Jan is in a band! Or is she?)

Ugh! It's always Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Sure, they had a school bus that was kind of keen but they really weren't all that special. Did they have spinoffs? Did they have step-brother/step-sister veiled lust? Did they have Robbie Rist? They did not. We were robbed!


Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, who writes a swell weblog called Pop Culture Junk Mail, visited our house! (At this site, you can check out the blueprints, just like Dad designed!)

Wow, here's a really nifty website all about us by one of our fans!

You can own a little bit of Brady!

As you know, since Mike and Carol figured out their love was much more than a hunch, the Bradys became one of most famous "blended families" in the world. You can learn more about "stepfamilies" at this site.

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

September 28, 1999

FREE THE DFC!: Andy Ihnatko has a nice piece about the peculiar appeal of the Dysfunctional Family Circus, a five-year web phenom now under threat of closure by the Man.

TUNEZ: Los Straitjackets, sultans of guitar-driven surf sounds, at the Hi-Pointe Thursday night.

Monday, September 27, 1999

September 27, 1999

DISPATCHES FROM THE BRADLANDS: Cocktail Conversation: "Two thoughts occur to me simultaneously. The first is that, absurdly, with gaggles of gorgeous men present, Jeff is spending his time cruising the apartment. The second is that Darin is nowhere in sight."

Sunday, September 26, 1999

September 26, 1999

I'VE ONLY GOT A FEW HOURS TO GET THERE!: Presidential "hopeful" Pat Buchanan turns tail and runs from a gay radio show, claiming a commitment to rush over to The Today Show. Apparently, timing is everything.

HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY: New juice for my Mac coming next week, courtesy of the great folks and four-footed furballs at Small Dog Electronics.

MORE ABSOLUTE PLEASURE? Rumblings about a Rocky Horror Picture Show sequel. (I suppose Shock Treatment doesn't count, eh?) [via MrBarrett] (TransCon 1999 is coming up October 30!)

Friday, September 24, 1999

September 24, 1999

SIGH: You culd lern alot from the muvies. Spotted on the marquee of the Esquire Theatre in St. Louis: "For the Love of the Game" (actually For Love of the Game) and "Double Jepardy".

A MAN OF VISION: McSweeney's looks at the secret DC Comics correspondence that questioned the use of Superman's burgeoning repertoire of eyeball skills.

Superman #102: Superman manages to resolve what would appear to be an intractable set of simultaneous crises (including a Doomsday machine, Lois Lane being held hostage, and a Kryptonite hailstorm), by using what are referred to as his "Defeating-His-Enemies Vision" and his "Hail-Reversing Vision." This sort of thing is quite unsatisfying for the discerning reader, and, to put it bluntly, can only be attributed to laziness at the story-construction level.

USELESS INFORMATION CAN BE INTERESTING: and vice versa. This great personal site has dozens of great stories about wacky bits of history and science. They're all well-written and quick reads. I especially liked the story of Citibank Tower's near-collapse, poor neglected Nikola Tesla, and the farce that was the 1904 Olympics, held in St. Louis. Of course, The Great Boston Molasses Disaster is especially timely, since the 1919 event echoes a similar oddball blob of goo some 80 years later.

PIECHART: Songs Ricky Martin's Manager Keeps Turning Down

Thursday, September 23, 1999

September 23, 1999

WEBLOG-ROLLING: Alice's smooth and yet tangy Strange Brew has moved. Please make a note of it. And This is News, at least to me.

AW, SHUCKS: A certain someone is visiting just about every weblog they can find and posting her/his personal impressions about what they find. If you approach this with the right frame of mind, and realize that it's simply one person's opinion, and not intended as either a slam or a gush, I think it's an OK thing to do.

Of course, I'm not just saying that because he/she said, of The BradLands: "Now this is more like it. A thoughtful log by an experienced blogger and actual writer. The copious peripheral content makes the experience as much as the log itself. I got lost here for over an hour during the initial evaluation. Enough said." Well, thank you, whoever you are.

STRANGE AND WONDERFUL: Lileks has an awful day, and it turns out that awful days can be pretty wonderful after all. [Tomorrow and thereafter, this Bleat will be archived here.]

PERHAPS MARGARET MEAD WAS MISTAKEN: Small, Dedicated Group Of Concerned Citizens Fails To Change World

COOL TOOLS: License Plate Maker (the source--with some tweaking--of the above), Label Maker, Dave Barry column maker.

Monday, September 20, 1999

September 20, 1999

CONFERENCE REDUX: Back from the Atlanta conference and despite being away from my office only two days, I'm buried beneath voice-, e-, and snail-mail. Which I am currently ignoring to update my poor, neglected weblog.

The NLGJA conference was a fine experience, as always, although a number of participants and speakers from the east coast were waylaid by Floyd-related airport closures and other travel concerns. Some random observations:

• Stranded in New York when the airports were closed, opening reception speaker Katie Couric appeared via satellite and charmed the crowd. Although her remarks were offered off-the-record, I will say that it was extemely disconcerting to see Katie Couric say "shit." It probably wouldn't have jarred me as much had she been at the podium in the room, but looming over the crowd on a giant TV, it was just plain odd. (All in all, however, I am now more in love with K-k-k-atie than ever.)
• Nicest moment of the conference: Meeting and chatting with Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard's mother.
• I knew I was in the south when I ordered iced tea and had to remind myself to order "unsweetened."
• The new Philips Arena is a damn sight better than the ancient Omni. Go Thrashers!!
• Most fun conference panel: Coin-flip between the informal Indigo Girls chat and the "Beyond Ellen" entertainment panel with the ever-witty Gail Shister and way-cute, way-intelligent Popular creator Ryan Murphy, among others.
• Student interns put together some great conference video, audio and website reports each day of the conference. Way to go!

RAY STOPS TALKING: Ray Suarez, easily the most listen-to-able talk radio host, is leaving NPR's Talk of the Nation. At least he's staying public broadcasting.

WEBLOG-ROLLING: New 'logs I like include one from Anil Dash and the Lake Effect (a Blogger joint).

GO ON THE PAPERS: Lileks has added a wing to the Institute of Official Cheer about the odd intersection in history of dogs and newspapers (or, rather, dogs in newspapers). Check out Dateline: Kennel

Monday, September 13, 1999

September 13, 1999

THAT'S THE NEWS AND I AM OUTTA HERE: Sproadic or no updates at all through Monday, September 20, as I hit the road for Atlanta and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association annual conference in the peachy city. There are nearly 200 other weblogs you can browse in my absence, or you can drop in on Lileks and tour the Fargo site. Of course, SLILAG continues through Thursday. See y'all later!

Saturday, September 11, 1999

September 11, 1999

SPACE BALLS: Residents of the International Space Station and future Shuttle astronauts will have a spherical helper and playmate, thanks to the dreamers at NASA and the Trekker-astronauts who requested a tricorder for future missions. Cool!

SISSIES ON PARADE: My obligatory Peter Merholz mention du jour: Today, he links to this article about the sissy in American movies, continuing the thread about the wiles and woes of the Gay Seeming Straight Male.

PLUG, PLUG: And, of course, you are keeping up with the St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, aren't you?

Friday, September 10, 1999

September 10, 1999

LEST YE FORGET: The St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival continues this weekend and next week at the fabulous Tivoli Theatre, right here in River University City. Upcoming highlights include The Velocity of Gary, Eileen is a Spy (with guest director Sayer Frey), Better Than Chocolate, Defying Gravity and Edge of Seventeen.

IT'S PETER'S FAULT: A year ago, "weblog" was hardly a common word, and then it was used to describe sites like this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and you get the idea. Then the supremely urbane Peter Merholz decided it would be fun to pronounce "weblog" as "wee'blog" and I thought that was kind of cute. Then folks started truncating that to merely "blog" and -- ugh! -- it's stuck! (The BradLands is, I suppose, roughly blog-like. In fact, if you kiss my blog, it becomes a handsome prince.)

So, now then. Where are we headed? Will personal publishing soon be described as being "as simple as falling off a blog"? Shall we see ultra-conservative gays start weblogs and dub themselves Blog Cabin Republicans? Track the tides with an Ebb Blog? Is blog- (or -blog) poised to become the prefix/suffix of the next century? Will we soon suffer from (and tire of) blogorreah? Despite its whimsical provenance, it's an awkward, homely little word.

Goodbye, cyberspace! Hello, blogiverse! Blogosphere? Blogmos? (Carl Sagan: "Imagine billions and billions and billions of blogs.")

All of the above drivel is noted by way of mentioning that two folks wrote to point out I left out a blogging tool yesterday. Well, sort of. Blogger is neither pita-like nor GrokSoupish. It's a tool for publishing a weblog that is edited on the Blogger servers and published on yours. It's pretty cool, but oy! That name!

Peter is, however, cute and winsome and talented, so that trumps my annoyance.

Thursday, September 9, 1999

September 9, 1999

MORE INK FOR THE LINKS: The Chicago Tribune looks at weblogs (the website sensation that's sweepin' the nation!), and spotlights hometown favorite NowThis and northern light Windowseat, among others.

WEBLOG-ROLLING: Here's a "pita" worth bookmarking: Fishstick. (What's a "Pita," you ask? Why, where ya been, friend? It's a handy-dandy all-in-one weblog maker, perfect for those times when you don't have the energy or resources to roll your own. If pitas aren't your style, how about some GrokSoup? Same idea, different implementation.)

FLASHBACK: And, via the self-same Fishstick comes this gallery of Dynamite magazine covers, a fond memory for us card-carrying members of the Scholastic Book Club who dug the funky 'zine after we outgrew the Weekly Reader. Trust me, in 4th grade, anyone who was anyone read Dynamite!

Saturday, September 4, 1999

September 4, 1999

COMING SOON: Check out the bigger-than-ever lineup in the St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, at the Tivoli Theatre, September 8-16. (Yes, I built the website, stumbling through Frontier's learning curve, with a little help from my friends.)

WEBLOG-ROLLING: Although it's always a good read, it's been a particularly juicy past few days at Steve Bogart's NowThis.

ALSO: A nice, new-to-me personal site and weblog, matthewkingston.com.

ATTENTION FILM BUFF: Every movie musical on TV this month.

SIGH: Growing up near Hannibal, Missouri -- the boyhood home of Mark Twain, dontchaknow -- one would hear about attempts to ban this or that Twain book from school curricula periodically. It was usually Huckleberry Finn, but few of the acerbic humorist's books were immune. Looks as though the misguided madness continues.

BETTER NEWS: Rehobeth Beach is one of my favorite vacation spots, and this Washington Post piece details how the straight and gay communities there have found common cause. [via Julienne]

Monday, November 30, 1998

November 30, 1998

THE LOT OF ACTORS: Three people die and find themselves lined up at Heaven's Gate confronted by St. Peter.

"Before you enter, I have one question for each of you," St. Peter says. And he asks the first person in line, "How much money did you make last year?"

"About $400,000," the person says.

"Oh, a doctor," St. Peter says. "Please enter through that door there." St. Peter approaches the next person in line. "How much did you make last year?" he asks.

"About $250,000, give or take a little," the person replies.

"Oh, a lawyer," St. Peter says. "That door right there." Then St. Peter turns to the third person. "And how much did you make last year?"

"$5,164," the person answers.

And St. Peter says, "Have I seen you in anything?"

-- the favorite joke of Colleen Dewhurst

---

Glorious weather! How hard to believe it's the end of November, especially when the temperatures have pushed up into the 60s each day of the past week. I've spent three leisurely afternoons lounging on the back deck, watching the breeze blowing the leaves around (must rake!) and trying to teach myself Perl.

The latter has been an interesting exploration. HTML coding aside, I haven't done anything remotely resembling programming in quite a few years; I mean, dammit Jim, I'm a writer, not a programmer. Turns out, though, UNIX is like riding a bicycle and writing server scripts in Perl looks to be a dern sight less challenging than in C. I can do without a strenuous mental challenge right now.

The eventual goal is to write an online registration hack for COCA Online. Prayers and wishes of luck gratefully accepted.

---

More reflections on turning thirty:

In other words, thirty is merely one's 10,957th consecutive failure to eat a truly balanced breakfast. [The Finger]

---

Weblog fun: I continue to discover and enjoy fellow "pre-surfers" through various links and kismet. Flutterby! has been around a while, and is proving an enjoyable mine for interesting reading, including...

Bowers v. Hardwick redux: There is some speculation that the overturning of Georgia's antique "sodomy law" may not stick. [CNN]

Yay! Let's go to the Belt-Sander Races!

A nice website dedicated to the art of Maxfield Parrish.

Weblog fun too: More to explore, including peterme, jjg and Hack the Planet. (The trio is pretty tech-edged, but fun for the layman too.)

Funny Papers: Flutterby! also reminded me that it's been a month or so since I caught up with the folks at User Friendly, a more-Dilbert-than-Dilbert comic set at a small ISP. Recommended daily laffs.

---

CriticWatch: At least one critic in St. Louis has seen the Dr. Death 60 Minutes segment the rest of the area was denied access to. Rich Byrne sorts out his thoughts. [The Riverfront Times]

Meanwhile, critics across the country are weighing in on the show's decision to run the segment in the first place. [TV Rundown]

My $0.02: I would have liked to have seen the 60 Minutes piece in its entirety. I support the right to choose when one will end one's own life when suffering hopelessly. Kevorkian gives me the creeps. The whole affair is sullied by the fact it took place during the November "sweeps."

Monday, October 12, 1998

Special Notoriety Edition

"Sic transit gloria mundi."

Translation: Fame is fleeting.

Or: Gloria is ill, but she's traveling on Monday.

What a surprise! I just happened to check the counter logs for the ol' BradLands earlier today and noticed that a single-day record of 102 folks had dropped by the place. A quick glance at the referers told me dang near all of them came by way of PlanetOut, the wicked neat gay and lesbian news and entertainment site that chose me their Person of the Day!

Woohoo!

As you can imagine, there's quite a bit of celebrating going on in the 'Lands today. You like us, you really, really like us!

So, a hearty welcome to all of you who came to the Lands from the Planet. I'm glad you're here and I hope you'll take some time to explore.

Drop me a line and let me know who you are and what you think of the BradLands. And stop in again...things change pretty often around here!

Monday, September 21, 1998

September 22, 1998

"Summer is a time of random magic such as this, of surprising spirits conjured up between the sheets of my bed in a room overlooking Provincetown harbor. Here, stranger's kisses expose souls to me. The uneven scar on one boy's abdomen, the crinkles at the corners of another's eyes reveal more truths than I could ever discover in a more consistent lover.

"It is the last summer in which I am to be young." -- from the opening chapter of The Men From the Boys (q.v. September 17, below)

This sounds like more fun than it probably would be: I freely admit to being a Disney fanatic. The films and feature-length cartoons are great, of course, but what really enthralls me are the Magic Kingdoms, the theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando, DisneyLand and World respectively. I honestly believe if I were permitted to set up housekeeping in one of the World Villages at EPCOT Center, I would be happy. Disney parks are, after all, billed as the happiest places on Earth. But let's consider just the Anaheim park for a mo: Could one man ride every attraction old Walt's kingdom offers in just one day?

And things like this annoy the hell out of me: Jon Carroll rails at the cold efficiency of centralized customer "service."

Tried to call your bank lately? You can't. You can call a woman in Omaha who can give you account information, but suppose you have a different sort of question. Maybe you want to ask if the ATM machine is fixed yet, or if you left your sunglasses behind on your last visit, or even if your branch handles trust accounts.

Destined for my "To Read" Pile: D.A. Miller's Place for Us, a contextualizing essay on the Broadway musical and its relevance to po-mo (and possibly even po-gay) gay men. [Salon review]

Compare and contrast: Mr. Starr, Mr. Flynt. Mr. Flynt, Mr. Starr. Both would have probably been impossible under the CDA, but how does Hustler Online really compare to the web-readable special prosecutor's report?

Wicked cool: LEGO is going Asimovian, with neato-mosquito robotics kits that will probably appeal as much to big kids like me as to little ones.

Meanwhile, in TV Land...

It's time to start picking the weak and infirm from the new fall lineups, so head on over and hang with The Vidiots for the latest round of the TeeVee Ghoul Pool!

Of course, everyone scans the fall TV sked and thinks they could do it better. I mean, c'mon, Meego was a joke, right? Something that got blurted out at a pitch meeting while the network execs were high on crack?

Well, maybe some folks can do it better. The New York Times Magazine asked some to try, and a few of the tongue-in-cheek ideas might actually fly. Hell, I'd tune in! Check out what Conan O'Brien and Tony Kushner suggest putting on the air.

Must-She Monday First Impressions:

Suddenly, Susan: Suddenly snoring.
Caroline in the City: Not for very much longer, she isn't.
Will & Grace: First effort was funny, if stilted. If it survives, it could fly.

Monday, September 14, 1998

September 15, 1998

"For six years I was a visitor to a distant celestial body, the planet Television... Six years later I left, awed by the peculiar wonders I encountered on this voyage... I learned that even if they lose money... the networks will preen when they win the prime-time ratings race, like three vain toughs battling for bragging rights to a street corner. I learned network officials can sound like cancer patients, who, after a rare peaceful night of sleep, delude themselves into believing their long nightmare is over." -- Ken Auletta, Three Blind Mice

Quote quoted from a quote on TeeVee.

Television commercials often disturb me. It's not simply the worship of the mercantile they practically demand, it's the gol-darned lack of common sense too often displayed. Have you seen the Enterprise Rent-a-Car "Pick Enterprise; We'll Pick You Up" spot? Doesn't it seem odd the car speeding to pick up the stranded motorist is completely wrapped in Kraft paper? Does this strike you as safe driving behavior?!?

I taped the Emmy Awards Sunday night (all four hours), but I still haven't watched most of the tape. The first few minutes with Costas were tedious and the first few video retrospectives enormously unsatisfying. But David Hyde Pierce's acceptance speech was quite moving. I'll soldier on.

I'm visiting Los Angeles and Las Vegas later this month, and I'm taking suggestions for places to enjoy a quintessentially cheesy Vegas experience. I'm already planning to stay at the Excalibur Hotel, resplendent in its Arthurian camp. A visit to the Liberace museum is on tap. And, of course, I'll be taking in the Star Trek thingy at the Hilton. But I'm open to any and all suggestions of classic Vegas cheez.

I mentioned a few days back that I'd discovered James Lileks' site on the web, and I bring it up again because I'm thoroughly enjoying my exploration of it, particularly his memories of his youth and hometown. Latest fave: a gentle, annotated photo memoir of his father's filling station.

If any restraint at all has been demonstrated in the whole MonicaGate (and why the hell did "gate" become the suffix of choice to denote "scandal"?), I think it's been on the part of The Gap for not immediately running a big sale on little blue cocktail dresses. But maybe it's just that they are making enough money -- piles and piles, in fact -- on the Old Navy side. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Saturday, September 12, 1998

September 13, 1998

If only just for today, The BradLands is a safe space on the Internet, free of discussion regarding Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Kenneth Starr or even hometown favorite Mark McGuire. I can't take anymore. Can you?

I saw Clay Walker in concert at Six Flags last night, maybe the most fun I've had at a show all year, despite the sucky comp seats I was assigned and the fact the show started 35 minutes late. This kid is gonna be better and bigger (in the fame sense) than Garth maybe someday really soon.

<SITENEWS> As a consequence of my crazy schedule, The BradLands hasn't seen much except perhaps weekly refreshing lo these many months. The infrequent summer entries have been moved to the archives (see BradLands Backwash below). I'm trying to do better. Really I am.

I've also adjusted the parameters so that any links you select from this newspage will open in a separate window on your browser for (I think) more convenient surfing.</SITENEWS>

Reminder: St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival continues through Thursday at the Tivoli Theatre. COCA welcomes comedian Reno and her film Reno Finds Her Mom today at 5 p.m.

For now, short takes on a few links of interest I've been accumulating...

How long do we, collectively, spend waiting for web pages to load? [New York Times]

<DIGRESS>For various reasons, a significant slowdown in web and general Internet response times was predicted for last Friday. I didn't notice any untoward pauses; did the network strain actually materialize?</DIGRESS>

A nice review of the new Sondheim biography that, IMHO, is a surprisingly sterile treatment that goes pretty far but often not far enough. [Washington Post]

Now here's a sport you don't see on ESPN! Hey kids, let's all go squirrel fishing this weekend (now with RealVideo)!

What?!?! Orlando is still standing? Hmmm...I guess it's OK for gay people to visit DisneyWorld after all. Robert Kirby gives the right-wing a ribbing. [Salt Lake Tribune]

"Idea moguls" sounds like something you'd want to avoid while skiing your id, but it's also the headline on this look at the young turks behind the TV scenes these days. ("Skiing the id?" Jeez, I'm tired.) [Forbes]

Friday, September 4, 1998

September 5, 1998

"While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior." -- Henry C. Link

(Quote thanks to the A.Word.A.Day listserv.)

Ch-ch-changes: I'm contemplating a redesign of The BradLands, primarily to better integrate some new on-going features. Given my schedule, it may be awhile coming, but I welcome suggestions.

I mentioned the St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival last update, and they refreshed the site the very next day. Check out the diverse lineup of films coming to the Tivoli Sept. 9-17. Also noted, Lileks.com is back up and with a wonderful re-design.

Holiday weekend reading:

Don Marsh, possibly St. Louis' finest broadcast journalist (in an industry where that's increasingly an oxymoron), called it quits at KDNL a few weeks back. In this RFT interview, he candidly reflects on the status quo in local TV news. [The Riverfront Times]

Within the past week, two things have happened --- and I can give you 1,000 of them. Just before I left Channel 30, I was asked, "How do you spell 'Maryland Heights'? Is it M-A-R-I-L-Y-N?" And I went, "What?" And this is by somebody who's been in this community for four years. Another one of our reporters asked me, "I did an interview and a name came up that I didn't recognize. Have you ever heard of someone named James Michener?"

When James Reston died, I said to the 10 o'clock producer, "We ought to have something on that - a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner." And he said, "Who is James Reston?" And this is a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and didn't know who James Reston was, but could make a graphic sing on the air.

Is it possible that purity remains in America's pasttime? The Arizona Diamondbacks' Travis Lee, profiled in the long piece, seems almost too good to be true. [Phoenix New Times]

He's as innocent as a saint. He is devoutly religious. He doesn't smoke or drink. He rides his bike to the field and lets his high school buddies crash at his apartment. He bakes chocolate chip cookies for his family. He chews Dubble Bubble gum, which he frugally buys by the case at Costco. Although he's a multimillionaire, he calls home only on Fridays when the rates are lower. He'd like to meet a nice girl and settle down and buy a house with a couple of golden retrievers in the yard. He volunteers to work with children at middle schools -- though he calls it "hanging out" and not "work."

And what of the fast life and death of Philly dentist Stephen Grosse? The former frat boy and party doyen met with an appropriately dramatic end. But did he have to? [Philadelphia Weekly]

(These last two links courtesy of the ever-fabulous Obscure Store & Reading Room.)

Monday, August 31, 1998

September 1, 1998

"Friendship is like money, easier made than kept." -- Samuel Butler

Yay! I just discovered one of my favorite humorist-columnists has a piece o' the web. Of course, with my usual incredible timing, I run across the site just after he's suffered a catastrophic server crash, but he promises to re-build. Check out the daily ruminations of the author of Notes of a Nervous Man and Fresh Lies, James Lileks.

Who knew? KMOV-TV (Channel 4 in St. Louis) has a website? Looks to be mostly CBS-stock content, but it's nice to welcome another local station to the web. (KETC, I note with some vestige of former employee pride, was first among St. Louis teevee to stake out a website, followed shortly thereafter by KPLR. Perennial ratings leader KSDK's site has been "under construction" and devoid of content ever since it went up. And where, oh where, is KDNL? KTVI? KNLC? Huh? Hmm?)

Speaking of sites under construction, the 7th Annual St. Louis International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival comes up September 9-17. The film lineup hasn't made it to their site yet, but I've scanned a bunch o' stills for the webmistress, so it should be there real soon now.

Wednesday, June 3, 1998

June 3, 1998

"28. I will meet somebody nice, away from a bar or the tubs or a roller-skating rink, and I will fall hopelessly but conventionally in love.

29. But I won't say I love you before he does.

30. The hell I won't."

-- three of Michael "Mouse" Tolliver's "Valentine's Day resolutions" from More Tales of the City

What I'm reading now: Goodnight, Nebraska: A Novel by Tom McNeal. [A taste of chapter one, courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune]

Another addition to the 'To Read' pile: A Boy Named Phyllis: A Suburban Memoir by Frank DeCaro. (I'm also planning to re-read David B. Feinberg's Eighty-Sixed in the next week or so, and it's about time for my semi-annual re-reading of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City sextet, apropos to the airing of the new mini-series adaptation on Showtime.)

Speaking of which, props to Showtime for producing and airing the latest installment of Maupin's Tales for the screen, but what programming genius decided to debut this as counter-programming to the Tony Awards? Are they honestly expecting a massive gay exodus tuning out Broadway in favor of Barbary Lane? We shall see.

Monday, June 1, 1998

June 1, 1998

"This is the theme to Garry's show, the opening theme to Garry's show. Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song. I'm almost halfway finished. How do you like it so far? This is the theme to Garry Shandling's show." -- Randy Newman, It's Garry Shandling's Show theme song

Look, ma! I'm a domain! It's official: The BradLands now have a home of their own. Starting here, starting now, this site and all its descendents make the move to www.bradlands.com. Put it in your bookmarks and come back often. (Along with my new domain name comes a new e-mail address. Please direct your correspondence to sitemail@bradlands.com.)

Here's something cool: The history of Apple Computer, told through the tee-shirts made up for each project team. Almost even cooler than the website is the pricey coffee-table book it's hawking. I'm saving my pennies.

On a related note, the (non-tee-shirt) history of the Apple ][ computer, the platform on which I cut my programming teeth.

What I've added to the 'To Read' pile: Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison, the subject of this Salon Magazine interview.

Have a little fun with consumer culture at www.placing.com. You can even play along. (You've heard of Carl Steadman, haven't you?)

What I Believe In, #23: I don't believe in cavernous monster-chain bookstores with contrived-to-be-hip coffeehouses tucked in a corner. I do believe in friendly, locally-owned, small bookstores with genuinely hip coffeehouses next door.