I'll be covering the Gay & Lesbian Business Expo on March 17. The NY Times will be presenting a panel discussion with some of the cast members and writers of Queer As Folk, which should make a great story with a strong niche-marketing angle.

If I see Brian I'll hit him for being such a meanie!

Um. Just kidding.

My darling Britney, why must you dellude yourself so? Trying to be the next V.C. Andrews?

Holly Faye Lovell sure can sing. Everyone in Biscay, Mississippi, knows that. And when at fourteen she becomes the youngest student ever to win a scholarship to the prestigious Haverty School of Music, her dream of pursuing a singing career is on its way. But for the first time in her life, Holly must leave behind her mother, Wanda. Although they don’t have much in the way of money, there’s always been plenty of love . . . and there’s always been Wanda’s birthmark, an ugly red scar on the side of her face that makes people who don’t know her turn away. Now that Holly's off with her posh new friends and new life, she’s ashamed to find herself embarrassed by her mom and their humble background. And Wanda finds herself wanting to reveal a long-hidden secret . . . a secret that could destroy their bond forever.

...from the new book by Britney and Lynne Spears, due out in April from Random House.

Smack my bitch up?

Change my pitch up.

New Brunswick life is a very odd series on contradictions. During a five-minute walk down a main street one can hear:

"Existentialism has no place in this paper!"

and

"Girl! You know I saw you on Queen Latifah!"

* I actually heard both of those things today at lunch.

Alrighty, kids. Roll up your sleeves and bounce to the beat of the newst dance craze to come out of the tropics. That's right, it's the FACE SLAP.

Top Brazilian performers refuse to sing it. A big-city mayor begged radio stations not to play it and women say it is degrading and dangerous. It's the Face Slap, a lilting, uptempo ditty about a woman who asks her lover to hit her.

Hmm. Wanna try this one, Ben? You can be the chick.

A reply to Eva DV:

I sincerely appreciate your approval and I respect your relationship with My Ben, but, Eva, the constant phone calls, the messages, the emails and IMs have to stop. Now, I understand that once you go TJ you never go back, but, please, you're tearing up my heart - which belongs to only one.

Really, I'm kind of happy to have strengthened the Ann Arbor connection. It's quite harrowing trying to win over the friends, you know? Especially friends with such a long, frightfully incestuous history. But if I can banter with the ho (I mean that lovingly, dear), then I feel like I'm in the clear.

Hi hi hi Ben! Hi Marion! Hi Kate! Hi Graham! And, of course, hi my darling Eva!

First, Michelle Grefrath admonished her child never to pick something off the floor and put it in her mouth, especially off the floor of a major retail store.

Then, she got busy on the phone. More than 20 phone calls later, Grefrath of Franklin still didn't know what to do with the condom she found in her little girl's mouth while they shopped at the Kmart store at 104 Watson Road, off Murfreesboro Pike.

http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/02/02733231.shtml?Element_ID=2733231

Quick thoughts on the Grammys:

1. Britney? Where art thou? (In Sweeden recording, but still, take a day off to show Christina what style is)
2. Christina, trying way to hard to be Latina. The only thing funnier than her hair is imagining what it will look like when the the braids are undone.
3. Someone needs to give the guy from Steely Dan some E. Lighten up, man, you won the top prize!
4. Save some for Shelby Lynne.
4. Eminem and Elton John were not bad, but the standing ovation was a bit sickening.
5. Madonna was entertaining, but the end of "Music" is beyond monotonous.
6. As most people have said, Blue Man Group, Moby and Jill Scott kicked major ass. I saw Blue Man Group when they were off-Broadway way back in 1996 and they were phenomenal.
7. Shakira is still one of my favorites. Her "MTV Unplugged" CD is amazing. She'll be the next big Latin star, ojalá.
8. Jon Stewart's improv jokes were infintely funnier than the scripted ones.
9. Surprisingly, I'm glad Britney didn't win anything. That would have been insane. It's crazy enough that she's a four-time Grammy-nominated artist.
10. Some people think Michael Greene's speech was long-winded and inappropriate, but I thought it was completely perfect. He's a very intelligent guy who spent a lot of time this year questioning lyrics and social responsibility. My only objection was his saying "Welcome" when he began the speech.

More email fun:

******************
Hey there:

I spoke briefly with Cathy Renna at GLAAD yesterday, who praised your professionalism and solid reporting. I thought that was nice.

L
******************

FYI: Renna is the head news media director of GLAAD, the organization that protested Eminem and Elton John during the Grammys.

Check this out:

******************
Dear Sir,

I met your uncle while he was visiting Orlando for the Superbowl, and I
mentioned to him that I was interested in pursuing a career in writing. I
am currently attending college at the University of Central Florida, but he
gave me your email address so that I might contact you in order to inquire
about any writing assignments that you might have available. He was very
vague at the time, however, so I am not even sure what kind of media your
company produces. If there is any opportunity for me to apply for freelance
work with your employer, or if you can simply offer me any advice on getting
started, I would appreciate the response.

Thank you,
XXXX XXXXX

******************
Now, this girl is actually older than I am! Like I have so much journalistic wisdom to impart other than: try to be lucky!

For the past two minutes I've been repeating: Oh my gah. Oh. My. Gah.

New Brunswick and Camden Classes Cancelled
All classes on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus and the Camden campus have been cancelled after 4:30pm. Offices and other operations of the University remain open.

It's God's way of punishing me for waiting until last night to write my Spanish paper, which was due Tuesday. I didn't start until the Grammy's came on (more on that later). How dumb am I?

Photos. Very large. Very many.

Favorite: At a restaurant in Rockridge.

I'm really stressed right now. Silly conversations with Candice about dropping everything - jobs, school - and moving away seem more and more appealing. I would never follow through with such plans, but the desire is disturbing enough for me.

I'm not having a breakdown or anything. I just find it increasingly difficult to say goodbye. Just as I'm amazed by how much more strongly my feelings grow every time I see Ben, I'm amazed by how sad I become when we say farewell. It's tough and it sucks.

On the plan yesterday morning I was not happy. We woke up at the crack of dawn after sleeping for less than 5 hours. And I made the mistake of reading his four-page V-Day letter while waiting to take off. I cried more than I have in years. The flight movie, Charlies Angels, saved me.

I don't know what to say about it. It's real. It's not always easy, but it's more important to me than anything right now. He is more important than anything. And I'll take the tears. They're just fine with me. I'll take the lump in my throat during the drive to Oakland airport. I'll take the phone calls and emails in stead of hugs and dinners.

For now.

The bright side to this long distance-relationship hell (or hades, eh?) is that every time we see each other there are new things to learn, new experiences to share, different adventures to explore. That makes the occassional sadness worth it.

Among other things...

I'm in Oakland/San Francisco and in many ways, I'm home.

We're going to a rave tonight in Santa Cruz that's actually called "Love A-fair." It's a combo of the promoters' 9th anniversary and Valentine's Day celebration. Supposed to be good...

Look at how much things can change in a year.

Sometimes words are the best gift you can receive...

And with that, Happy Valentine's Day. Much love to all ya'll mofo's.

Flight: from Newark, NJ (EWR-Newark International Airport) to Oakland, CA
(OAK-Oakland Intl.)
Depart: 15-Feb-01 at 5:25 PM
Arrive: 15-Feb-01 at 8:57 PM

Flight: from Oakland, CA (OAK-Oakland Intl.) to Newark, NJ (EWR-Newark
International Airport)
Depart: 20-Feb-01 at 7:30 AM
Arrive: 20-Feb-01 at 3:50 PM

This is a very good thing.

Cool!

So...

Michael Greene, the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, is calling me in 10 minutes so I can ask him about Eminem.

So fucking cool.

I'm going to write a story about the Grammy controversey surrounding Eminem.

The thing about Eminem that bothers me more than his hate lyrics is:

The dude took the name of chocolate candy (in a rainbow of colors, I might add) and spelled it out. That's insane!

On a related note, who saw SNL (featuring J.Lo's lip-synching) Weekend Update? I loved Tina Fey's report on the Eminem/Elton John duet. "When asked how he feels about performing with the obviously gay entertainer, Elton John said he was fine with it."

Well, this week is going to be the week of traveling moderate distances to get junk food. First, last night, it was 25 miles to Krispy Kreme, and tomorrow (or sometime) will be 15 miles to In-n-Out Burger (2x2 animal style, fries well done).

[Now, where's my link, bitch?]

Das krackhaus is up and running, finally. Go check it out and see why Candice "you fat bitch" Choi makes me laugh so hard (and inspires me to be such a flaming, childish asshole).

More to say re: summer classes at Berkeley and getting to see Ben this weekend, but I'll save it for later.

Ugh.

Finished Tim's Valentine's Day project late Friday night, sent them Saturday morning, hope thay get to L.A. and Kentucky and Toronto and Las Vegas et al. in time.

The sad, sick truth? I spent more time on these than on any school-related project so far this semester. Coupled with Ben's gift/project, I'm officially sick of red and pink hearts.

The sadder, sicker truth? The valentines probably don't come close to looking like I spent much time on them. I have no artistic ability.

I am pretty excited that I'm getting at least 11 Valentines this year, though. Kick ass, Tim.

This caption from a double-page photo struck me as I was reading the AIDS cover story in Time Magazine:

"A sick man walks from the shower in Harare hospital. soon he will have to be cleaned by nurses. Dignity is one of AIDS' first casualties."

The online version of the photo essay is here.

Quote o' the day, from Randice Choi:

"Until the Seoul Olympics nobody in my school knew what the fuck a Korean was."

The National Mental Health Association is pissed because the Memphis XFL team is called the MANIAX. The team plays in "The Asylum."

I get to write the story. I'm psyched. This is funny as hell.

Within a five minute period, during this morning's edit meeting, our team of sophisticated, polished professionals managed to make references to bush, a vagina and a penis.

To continue the 7th grade motif, I totally got caught dishing gossip five seconds ago. Candice is so not suave.

I find it really hard to take Planet Out news seriously when looking for potential stories at work. Maybe it has something to do with seeing ridiculous personal ads while I'm about to click on the news link.

Today, Ms. Motor City Butch, "a vegetarian with cute cowlicks," is the featured single.

Yo, Britney, it's all about Coke, not Pepsi. But, I guess it will be fun to see what kinds of clever commercials the company can create for her. I'd love to see her kick little Hallie Eisenberg's ass.

Kidding. Maybe.

Going home from work due to snow.

Not just snow, but sleet and ice and slush and rain.

Why do I like winter again?

Tom and Nicole split up.

A statement issued by their publicist said, "Citing the difficulties inherent in divergent careers which constantly keep them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seem best."

Also, he's gay. Duh.

(From an inter-office email)

Top 10 Times in History When Use of the "F" Word Was Appropriate

10) "What the *&%# was that?" -Mayor of Hiroshima August 1945
9) "Where did all these *&%#ing Indians come from?" Custer 1877
8) "Any *&%#ing idiot could understand that." - Einstein 1934
7) "It does SO *&%#ing look like her!" - Picasso 1926
6) "How the *&%# did you work that out?" -Pythagoras 126 BC
5) "You want WHAT on the *&%#ing ceiling?" -Michelangelo 1566
4) "I don't suppose it's gonna *&%#ing rain." -Joan of Arc 1434
3) "Scattered *&%#ing showers...my ass!" - Noah 314 BC
2) "I need this parade like I need a *&%#ing hole in my head!" - JFK 1963
1) "Aw c'mon, who the *&%# is going to find out?" -Bill Clinton 1997

On this, the day after caucus (those of you who don't know, should), I finally made it to the Targum office to use the Polaroid SpiritScan 4000, a scanner for photo negatives. Here is a zing album (all my photos caught up with me, my space is super limited) full of pictures from last month's SF trip and Ben's trip out here.

My favorite: Noses.

I'm off to go throw myself into bed for a few hours before people start showing up for the post-caucus party at our place. I'm fucking exhausted.

Journal: Moving on up...

I just got to Advanced Reporting, where my professor promptly told me she wants to go to the student center for coffee and to critique our stories rather than staying in the clinical computer lab.

Would that be okay with me?

Uh...

There was just an earthquake!!! Small, but fun! My first.