Russia is cuckoo

Remember that nutty Russian youth group tied to Putin’s government called Nashi? No? Ok, read this, we’ll wait. Turns out they’ve gotten creepier and started holding mass weddings at their summer retreat.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that?

Out Magazine asks “Was Yasser Arafat gay?”

Hat-tip Dorian Davis.

Though some of them are really bad reasons

Apparently, people have 237 reasons to have sex.

Update: Via Allah, people who don’t mate at all and seem oddly proud of it.

“There was a time before Roman Grant, and there will be a time after him”

It’s getting dark, too dark to see…

Click on for Big Love aka The Best Show on TV

Song of the Day

Joey by Concrete Blonde.

I love all that emotion in her voice and I usually don’t like chick singers.

Tonight in Brooklyn

I’m going to catch the aforementioned best Trombone player I’ve ever heard at 10:00pm tonight at Barbes (376 9th St near 6th Ave in Brooklyn):

Bob Hoffnar’s Roundup

Featuring:

Bob Hoffnar – Pedal steel
Chris Lightcap – Bass
Charlie Burnham – Violin
Konrad Meissner – Drums
J. Walter Hawkes – Ukulele, Trombone & vocals

no cover, but tip jar passed

The fact that Walter will be singing is reason enough for everyone to run right over to Brooklyn tonight, he’s that good.

Boys and Girls

Fallen Sparrow points to a very interesting series on “Bad Boys” and “Femme Fatales”.

I love this stuff and Allah has been slacking on his Alpha/Beta theorizing lately. While I see certain aspects of my personality in two of the Femme Fatale descriptions (I’ll let you all guess which), I don’t recognize any of the men in my life as the Bad Boys described. I think I may have very briefly dated an Artful Dodger but, in general, the types described don’t do anything for me. I suppose it’s because the Bad Boy will almost certainly have multiple women in their lives and, for me, the mere whiff of interest in someone else makes me lose all desire for the man. I have no fight in me, I don’t compete, and like Ian Brown once sang, I wanna be adored.

So, c’mon commenters. Fess up. Are you a femme fatale or a bad boy, and if so, which type?

Steps

Islamic holiday camp shut down in France

Those insensitive French people didn’t like that kids were being beaten at the camp. It looks like someone needs a little cultural diversity training.

Hat-tip Ark who credits Sarkozy.

Karol Simpson

I prefer the South Park Me but me as a Simpson is pretty cool too. I’ve got the freckles, the smirk and the cheerleader skirt.

Before:

After:

Get your own at Simpsonize Me.

My weekend in review

Friday:

Poker- I have off cycles with poker, when I just don’t feel like playing for weeks at a time. These complement my binge times, when I play every available hour of every day. I’m in an off phase right now, after binging for most of the Spring. The weather has just been too beautiful, and I’ve been too happy, for me to be hunched over a poker table sweating out a hand or caring about my chip stack. I hardly even played during my recent Vegas trip. Still, Friday’s I Had Outs (that’s the poker blog I co-write with Ms. Summers) tournament was such a great time that it might be the inspiration I needed to come out of my hiatus. Tournament recap is here.

Saturday:

The most deliciously lazy day of all time culminated in dinner at Calle Ocho on New York’s Upper West Side at like 10pm. It was seriously great:

Paella:

Cojito (Coconut Mojito):

Some of the best bread I’ve ever had:

A drink afterward at Stone Rose at the Time Warner Center was pretty much icing. Some art at TWC:

Sunday:

Simpsons Movie- At the beginning of the movie, the audience are called suckers for paying to see something they can see for free on TV. By the end of the movie, I agreed with that.

John From Cincinnati- Didn’t watch it! HA! We’re through!

Entourage- Ari crying?! Oh Jesus.

Flight of the Conchords- Weak episode but still a great show.

HBO Commercials-

Big Love looks like it’s really heating up. I hear it’s moving back to Sunday where it belongs. Yeehaw.

Tell Me You Love Me- Looking forward to falling in love with yet another HBO series when it begins in September. The word is this one is sort of porn-y, though.

—-
Great weekend, leave yours in the comment section.

Paranoid Android

Someone is out to get John Edwards. He’s not sure exactly who, though. Click the link and see who wants to spread the word that Edwards is a paranoid freak. It’s not who you think.

And it’s only 2007

Clinton-Obama flap turns ‘08 race negative

Second Song of the Day

If you like hip-hop, or even if you just like songs about lost love, go download “Shot to the Heart”, the Lil Wayne version, immediately. I’m not sure I agree with Lil Wayne that he’s the “greatest rapper alive” but his lyrics on this song are pretty great.

Quote of the Day

He better not have to hire security, every able bodied person in Idaho should volunteer to beat the living crap out of any of their racist neighbors idiotic enough not to know that black athletes marry white women and that’s how it is in America.

-Dawn Summers on the black Boise State running back who proposed to his white girlfriend on television and is now stepping up wedding security after receiving death threats.

The times they are a-changing

Who can forget the first time they saw hookers, crack, a purse snatching or someone getting beat up? All of my “firsts” took place at Newkirk Plaza, the train station on Foster Avenue in Brooklyn. Nicknamed “Newcrack Plaza”, for obvious reasons, the plaza was a gathering place for drunks, druggies, prostitutes and hustlers for most of my childhood. If they weren’t trying to sell you something, they were trying to rob you.

So, it is with some degree of amusement, and excitement frankly, that I’ve watched the gentrification of the neighborhood in the last few years. Ditmas Blog reports the plaza is getting a French Bistro. A French Bistro! At Newkirk Plaza! America, what a country.

Turkey’s election results are scary. I miss when Turkey used to give me a lot of hope.
Hat-tip James.

Not so random thought

I hate when rappers give themselves dumb names. How am I seriously supposed to listen to Lil Wayne?