i need a vacation. . .

well, the 60th birthday extraveganza went off without a hitch, but by sunday night i was ready for a two day nap . . . there are some pictures already posted of the various events (ewa and i got a new digital camera and took it everywhere we went. . . ewa wants to document our life more in pictures. . . maybe as future evidence?). if you want to check them out, shoot me an email and i'll send you a link.

so here's the recap . . .

after feeling hungover all day friday from extra strong magarita's thursday with raymond (close family friend and houseguest) and ewa, we headed out to mccormick and kulletos in ghiradelli square for pre-saturday night party dinner for close friends and family (about 16 of us). dinner was pretty good, and the views were incredible . . . .

after dinner, the younger folks (my sister kaley, cousin nicola, lovely ewa, and mr. raymond) headed out to the marina for drinks. not my first choice, but we were all dressed up and it was right around the corner. ended up meeting up with my friend gary, and then a second group that had nick, his loverly lady friend, and derrick. we hit 2 or 3 bars, and needless to say we all got a bit liquored up - here's some pics:


raymond, nic, and ewa at cosmos

end of the night. . . some bar

saturday we started slow, ran some errands for my mom who was freaking out about getting everything done in time for the party that night, then napped, and got ready to go. i wasn't feeling to hot - two nights of heavy food and heavy drinks was taking a tool on the body. we got all spiffed up, and headed over the parents place on telegraph hill. they had decked it out for a a sit down dinner for about 40. fully catered, waiters, bartenders, the whole thing was great. we did a light roast and toast of the b'day boy before the shuttle showed up to take us downtown to my cousins new restaurant/club, roe. they had rented out the bottom floor complete with dj and wine bar, and we danced and drank until the wee hours of the night. . .a good time had by all . . .

us at the house

the family . . .

gary and me at the club

we ended up not being able to make it the sunday event, sunday brunch at mooses. instead we headed out to fremont for a going away party for one of ewa's friends. we had a great time - at a lot of food, played in the park, even went out on a little raft in a lake - it was a good lazy sunday afternoon. . . sunday night we slept!

we're off again tonight - we are heading out to westport kentucky to visit uncle gene for a big 4th of july bash on the farm. my dad will be there too, and it should be wild drunken weekend . . . just what i need.

pictures (heavily edited i'm guessing) and stories (even more heavily edited) to follow. . .

the weekend . . .the week

damn it's been a busy week. . . work and life have been running me ragged and it's about to get busier. . . no rest for the weary, and in today's case. . . no rest for the hungover (the margarita's at cafe marimba felt like they had a bottle of tequila in them. . .)

this weekend is my step fathers 60 birthday spectacular, as as nobody in my family does anything small, there is an event tonight, a big dinner party tomorrow night capped by dancing downtown, brunch on sunday, and a cruise on the bay monday . . .i'm tired just thinking about it. . . .

one of the many guests from out of town in staying with us - Raymond, my mom's decorator and close family friend. he walked into out place, moved a few things over a few inches, and the place suddenly looked a thousand times better. . .he has some big plans for our house. . . could padded walls be in our future (the non crazy kind)?

one thing i was able to see this week was the giants beat the crap out of the dodgers and get into first place (you can read all about it here c'mon, i know you are dying too. . . ). it was goooood.

also, added a link to "fahrenheit 9/11" in the links section - check out the site and the trailer. haven't seen it yet, so i'm not going to get on my soapbox and tell you all you must see it, and that it is the most important movie to see ever. . . .i'll let you decide for yourselves, but i sure as hell am going to see it, and if i like it, i'll let you know.. . .

lastly, it's gay pride this weekend - always fun to be had this weekend - taking the decorator down to the castro after the step-fathers party. . . hehehe. as peaches christ says in the subject line of her weekly email to her devoted fans: "A pride message to the gay: You're a whore darlin'... this pride, lets be honest".

hehehe

midnight mass

every year about this time, i can feel the excitement in the air . . .i know it coming - the best part of the summer is almost here. . . it's. . . MIDNIGHT MASS!!!!

for those of you not familiar with this glorious of all glorious events, you're missing out, and with summer here, you get a chance to see what it's all about.

here's the low down, peaches is a 6 foot tall drag queen who had the brilliant idea to show classic, campy movies at the stroke of midnight on saturdays during the summer. . . in a word. . .genius. i've been going now for seven years, and i can't imagine summer with out it.

so how do you know that may want to go. . . .have you ever heard watched a movie that was so bad, that you laughed your ass off the entire movie for the sheer brilliance of it's camp? have every seen a john waters movie and laughed your ass off? if you answered yes, or have a bit of a twisted sense of humor or are ready to buy a large popcorn so you get a free lap dance from a tranny, then you need to come. if you are staring at the screen blanky, never having heard of john waters, faster pussycat, reform school girls, smell-o-vision, mommy dearest, or are unsure what a tranny is, well, this aint for you . . . .

we are missing the first show, showgirls with elizabeth berkley, but i just got tix for the second show, the john waters classic 'female trouble.' if you're interested, you can go to www.moviefone.com and find the bridge theater and get tix. if you really, really want to go, let me know - i bought 4 tickets, so i have 2 extra. . . .

my favorite peaches christ moment:

ewa saw him/her at a party, walked up, and said, "my boyfriend is a huge fan of yours."

and always remember:

success!

bringing western culture to the masses. . . one bar at a time. . .

RIP. . .

just found a good friend of my close friend gary is no longer with us - it's a sad story . meet him a few times - nice guy, tall as hell with big dreads - RIP adam. . .

the man...

i have been talking with ewa on and off about burning man, and why we need to go, and how incredible and fun and life altering it can be. in my quest to convince her (and i think i might have for september 2005) i sent her a link to an article by mark morford who is a web columnist for SFGate, which the home page for the Chronicle. I remember reading a when it came out a few years ago, and it totally incapsulated everything i remember about going to burning man (this year will mark my third abscence). . . reading it now gives me the chills and gets me excited, and already planning in my head everything i need do to get ready and thinking about what funky arty thing to do for our camp, and who should we invite, and. . . .well, i have a year and a half to plan. . .

check out the article here. some of my favorite parts:

"It not only defies you to capture its essence, it doesn't care one way or the other, because it's all about being in the moment and letting go and drilling down into what you think you know and realizing you've probably been wrong all along because look over there, isn't that a giant dusty red sailboat on wheels decorated like a giant serpent carrying writhing neo-pagan dancers and a single musician playing an electric cello backed by the beat of tribal drums? Why, yes it is.

Isn't that a 75-foot high golden lion being slowly pulled across the playa by 400 participants all sweating and cheering and yelling and laughing? Isn't that a two-story flower stuck in the ground, indicating the presence of a makeshift dance club? Isn't that a full-size horse skeleton half-sunk in the dust as if stranded by nomads, out in the middle of the desert, context-free? Yes."

and . . .

"and by the way it's not all potheads and Deadheads and Phish-heads and nouveau hippie New Age goofballs chanting about pot and patchouli and the Mother Goddess because then it would be annoying and reductive and wrong."

finally. . . .

"As one camper who rode up to the event with me commented when I told her it was my first time, she exclaimed to me how excited she was for me, for what I was about to see and feel and experience, and shaking her head in awe, struggling to find the right words, she finally said, "There is nothing else like this happening in our lifetime, anywhere on Earth."

Which may very well be an exaggeration. But somehow I don't think it is."

* * * * *

oh yeah - forgot to mention we went to a dubutante ball on saturday - black tie at the st. francis - very nice. a girl next to me commented it was the whitest event she had ever been too. she was right - ewa commented that there weren't a lot of immigrants in the mix. . . .it was fun none the less. except of course when the 18 year old kid bumped into my chair, took one look and said, 'oh, i'm sorry Sir' - i wanted to deck him. . . .

it a great time, something different, a tradition that is just high camp and grace.

for the true fans

for those big simpsons fans. . . the ones who sit around loaded and trade lines back and forth and laugh your asses off, you'll love this.

i never finish anything

started watching "the big lebowski" last night, one of the greatest movies of all time (of all time michelle!!!), but didn't get to finish it. such is life. . .i did catch a rerun of south park though, and laughed my ass off - i am always amazed at what twisted bastards parker and stone are. . . brilliant.

*****
ewa and i start house sitting duties today - beautiful house in the richmond near the park, as well as our dog buddy cyrus. this time there is two dogs, the other being a fat minuature beagle puppy who whines all the time. . . sign me up!!!


*****
this weekend ewa and i get to attend the san francisco debutante ball - i know you are all jealous. i am actually pretty excited - it's at the st. francis, is black tie, and will be chock full of society type folks. . . since the closest i get to them is seeing their picture on the society page of the chronicle, i'm looking forward to it. mom and paul are sharing a suite at the st. francis with rossanna (who daughter is the deb we are there to see), so we have a place for pre and post cocktails - a must in my family . . . st. francis beware, the kahns (and supporting cast) are on their way . . .

******

finally, ewa sent this to me, and even though it is a bit long, i laughed my ass off:

If you're over the age of 25 you will enjoy this...
"When I was a kid adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with
walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill both ways through
year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs too
their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a Straight-A average
despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where
they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from
starving to death. And I remember promising myself that when I grew up there
was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids
about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it. But I can't help but
look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so fuckin' easy. I
mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a goddamned Utopia. And I hate
to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it.
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet--we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the goddamned library and look it up ourselves.
And there was no email. We had to actually write somebody a letter--with a
pen. And then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in
the fuckin' mailbox and it would take like a week to get there. And there
were no MP3s or Napsters. You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the
goddamned record store and shop lift it yourself. Or we had to wait around
all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the
beginning and fuck it all up.
We didn't have fancy shit like Call Waiting. If you were on the phone and
somebody else called they got a busy signal. And we didn't have fancy Caller
ID Boxes either. When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was it could be
your boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer, you didn't
know... You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister.
And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with
high-resolution 3-D graphics. We had the Atari 2600. With games like "Space
Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass. Your guy was a little
square. You had to use your imagination. And there were no multiple levels
or screens, it was just one screen forever.
And you could never win, the game just kept getting harder and faster until
you died. Just like LIFE.
When you went to the movie theatre there no such thing as stadium
seating. All the seats were the same height. A tall guy sat in
front of you, you were screwed. And sure, we had cable television, but back
then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu. You had
to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on. And there
was no Cartoon Network. You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning...
....D'ya hear what the fuck I'm saying?. We had to wait ALL WEEK, you
spoiled little bastards. That's exactly what I'm talking about. You kids
today have got it too easy. You're spoiled, I swear to God. You guys
wouldn't last five minutes back in 1985."

better late than never

would it surprise some of you to know that i can be lazy and unmotivated at times. . . i didn't think so. case and point: i just posted pictures from our new years party. . . in my defence, they didn't get developed until the end of april. i also posted some pictures from one of ewa's friends wedding (fall '03) as well as some underwated shots from snorkeling in hawaii - see them here(email me if you would like the link).

* * *
things have finally started to settle down all around. . . we are 95% settled, now it's just the little things that need to get done. had a chance to sail on the bay saturday - paul joined a sailing club and invited ewa and me along with mom and sarah. . . ewa and i did all the work, sarah got sick, and mom glared at paul as the boat heeled over more and more. . . good fun had by all.

also had a chance to catch HPIII (that's what the cool kids are calling the third film installment of the harry potter series. . . well, not really, but they should be). it was pretty damn good - much better than the first two. went with ewa, devora, and my ten year old partner in crime rafeal, everyone liked it and raffi and i saw all the trailers for the movies we are going to see this summer. . . i can't wait.

the good stuff

if you get a chance, read this column by mark moford. I've been champoining him for a while now - read him pretty regularly, and the guy is spot on. . . he's into feeling good and great cheese among other things. . . need i say more.

******

new adventure in moving #173:

we bought a box spring on wedneday night, and while i paid, ewa pulled the car around (on van ness). one of the worker guys pulled to boxspring out to the sidewalk, and when ewa finally pulled up in her honda civic looked at me wided eyed and said 'no' in a thick accent. we finally convinced them to tie to the top of the car for the 7 block ride home, which was completed without incident . . . i off course had my hand out the window on the box spring, "just in case."

i knew it!

this story tells me two things:

1) TV is good
B) I need to go to more baseball games

i did what??

greatest hits from the loooong weekend. . . .

friday night i took ewa and gary to sushi at wasabi and ginger, and even got garym the staunch godzilla's fan (i'm a big fan too) that it was pretty damn good, even though it was a bit more expensive. that cost out weighed by the fact that it is three blocks from our house. . . the occasion was gary's departure to europe today for three months - part of his yearly migration. we had all just put away quite bit of sushi, beer, and saki, when a free round of the large sapporro bottles came to us from the owner. . . needless to say, we were feeling good on the way home.

saturday was a day full of unpacking and moving and sorting and whatnot. we got a lot accomplished and the place was finally taking shape. my old roommate jb was in town, and we met up with him at matterhorn which is this funky swiss fondue place on van ness. it was pretty damn good - i can eat damn near anything with melted cheese!!! i was fading fast after dinner, but made it out to club down at belding place for her friend wallace's b'day celebration. after a few drinks, we bowed out around midnight and headed home.


sunday was another working on the house day, although we did make it out to walk around a bit and enjoy the beautiful day. by late afternoon, the place was looking pretty damn good. we headed downtown to my cousins new restaurant on howard and second, where it was a friends and family event with an open bar. . . ouch. it was pretty tame for a while and the drinks were flowing, but as the night wore on, the second 'lounge' floor turned into an all out club party which was packed full of the beautiful people. at this point, i was quite a few martinis down with no dinner under my belt - ewa was close behind. . . i ended up putting her in a cab home since i was waiting for jb to come around, and then ended up heading home myself - i was blitzed, and woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, and the taste of vodka and olive juice in my mouth. . . always fun. i will say you need to check out the restaurant/club - it's called roe and its going to be a great spot . . .

monday started veeeeeery slow. . . we eventually kicked it into gear, got quite a few more things done around the house, and then had gary over for a farewell dinner of gnocchi and pizza, with the extra added bonus of watching the giants win ten in a row. . . .life is good, and so was the weekend. . .