I'm sorry for the delays. It's been a rough few weeks. I've decided to shut down my Vox blog. It's not working. I'm thinking of creating a new blog. Plus, I want to use my old web site @ Tripod for a new purpose.

I have been very busy the past few weeks. Last week, I went on a spring break vacation to Toronto; it was my first time in a foreign country alone. Needless to say, while there were some disappointments, I had a good time and will consider going back to Toronto in the future.

I'm also thinking of closing down my "Je suis binoclard" blog. I don't think it's working.

Diet Pepsi and Grey Goose
I decided to take the confrontation scene between Joan and teenage Christina Crawford in the movie Mommie Dearest and make it more contemporary, imagining what would have happened if Joan Crawford was a big star in the 21st century.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1551483/diet_pepsi_and_grey_goose.html

I have had three iPods since October 2006. The first one was a birthday present from my brother, a 30GB one. It lasted for two years before I dropped it by accident, and therefore killed it. I came into some financial aid around that time, so I decided to buy a new and bigger one: 120GB. That one lasted until February, when again an accidental drop killed it. After a few weeks of figuring out what to do with it, I went to my local Apple Store and within a week, I had my present iPod gratis. Granted, it is not a brand-new one but one made of previous parts, but it's still pretty damn cool.

I would like to take you on a tour of my iPod, highlighting my favorite podcasts, audiobooks, and music. Let's begin with some of my favorite podcasts:

BRINI MAXWELL: NPR TIPS FOR GRACIOUS LIVING & VIDEO PODCAST

feeds.feedburner.com/BriniMaxwell

Brini Maxwell, the alter ego of Ben Sander, is basically the drag queen version of Martha Stewart, but less of a bitch and more practical and entertaining. Hanging around her in nearly every episode is her friend Mary Ellen, who is a real bitch, to put it mildly. Brini's NPR podcast is five minutes of tips and techniques, and her video podcast shows footage from her late 1990s New York public access show.

FEAST OF FUN (formerly FEAST OF FOOLS)

feeds.feedburner.com/FeastofFools/everything

From Chicago, it's the Feast of Fools, though now it's known as Feast of Fun. I prefer the former. Fausto Fernos and Marc Filion, a gay couple, talk stuff about gay culture and mainstream pop culture in a fun and informative manner.

GLOBAL NATIONAL

www.globaltv.com/globaltv/national/index.html

This is the flagship news program from Canada's Global TV, and is one of the top news video podcasts on iTunes. I have a crush on Kevin Newman, who did time on ABC's Good Morning America a decade ago before heading back to the Great White North. Sadly, he's married.

IN THE LIFE

www.intelifetv.org

In The Life is the first nationally-available program by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. It used to air as a monthly one-hour program on PBS. Now, it's been reduced by half an hour. I really don't like the new format, though I still follow the show. When I watch the podcast, I fast-forward the intros by Michael Billy Bisogno. I actually was in the same room with him once, when he visited LYRIC in San Francisco back in the day. I heard about him beforehand. I saw him on 20/20 on a report of gay teens. I wanted to chat him up, as you will. We didn't even say two words to each other.

LUCKY BITCH RADIO

feeds.feedburner.com/LuckyBitchRadio

Wanda Wisdom, the alter ego of Bradley Traynor, is a "34-year-old single, sober, drag queen hostess with the mostess" from "Minneapolis, Minnesota, the heart of God's Country". Wanda is a drag queen living life one day at a time free of drugs and alcohol, and a lot of her show is devoted to her day-to-day life living clean. But it's also pretty damn fun!

THE STEPHANIE MILLER SHOW - DAILY BITS

www.stephaniemiller.com/

My favorite radio show is The Stephanie Miller Show, syndicated nationally on your local liberal talk radio. Stephanie Miller once had a late-night show in the mid 1990s, but it was canceled after only a few months. Since then, she has concentrated on radio, and has been a fixture on liberal talk radio since 2004. You can get the entire show on podcast, but I subscribe to the Daily Bits segments. There are three daily bits on each show: Right Wing World, which pokes fun at the neo-cons of the world; Stand-Up News, which covers other news; and Tinsel Talk, which discusses pop culture and entertainment news.

I've taken my old blog at vox.com and revamped it. It's now a blog for French-language learners, and I call it "Je suis binoclard". That means "I'm a nerd" in French. If you want to see it, click on http://alexdssf.vox.com/. Thanks.

From my old blog:

I am writing this in the middle of the night.

On Sunday, I attended the LA Pride parade and celebration in West Hollywood. The parade itself was pretty good, and I managed to get shots of most, if not all, of the contingents. But the celebration itself was an absolute nightmare. No, it wasn't the heat. No, it wasn't the congestion. It was the LOUD, THUMPING MUSIC. The celebration took place at a small community park in West Hollywood. There were four music stages (a main stage, a circuit stage, a R&B stage, and a country stage) all concentrated within steps of each other. I managed to get some free swag, but after three and a half hours, I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to leave. What was worse, was that across the street from the celebration, the nightclub RAGE was packed to the rafters with the same people and the same LOUD, THUMPING MUSIC.

I had no ill will towards the parade and celebration themselves. I do have to say, here and now, that I HATE LOUD, THUMPING MUSIC, especially if it's LOUD, THUMPING CIRCUIT PARTY MUSIC. Why the hell is the music turned up to deafening sounds at places like this? It's just sickening!

Will I return to West Hollywood for LA Pride in the future? I haven't ruled it out. But I'm bringing earplugs.

I'll be back in the Bay Area later today by plane.

From my old blog:

The highlights and low points of Saturday's activities:

1. VENICE BEACH - Okay, the musclemen were NOT out in force at the fenced-off Muscle Beach part. Still, it was a pretty good trip. The waves were crashing against the rocks, and I got some really good pictures. The strip along the beach was crowded. Henna tattoo stands were plentiful. I didn't know if we were still in Los Angeles or had been swept away to Marrakesh. I bought t-shirts for my mom and brother Paul, the latter of whom is celebrating his birthday on Monday.

2. HAMBURGER MARY'S IN WEHO - It was one of the worst restaurant experiences of my entire life. For one, the atmosphere is LOUD. I mean, really loud. You can't carry a normal conversation in a place where they play Britney Spears/Madonna/Gwen Stefani mash-ups on a continuous cycle. Second, after I was seated, it took them 15 fucking minutes to give me the menu. After I had ordered, I waited almost 20 minutes for my meal to come in. To put things in perspective, I could go to any bustling restaurant in the Castro and order, eat, and pay for my meal in less than 30 minutes! The rainbow dip, a mix of artichokes, spinach, and cheese, was really good, though. But I couldn't tuck into my Sloppy Mary and had to take a doggy bag. $25 I spent there. It wasn't worth it. What a fucking letdown!

3. CVS PHARMACY IN WEHO - In the San Francisco Bay Area, we don't have CVS Pharmacies. We have WALGREEN'S.

Well, that about wraps it up. I had an early night last night, and now, I'm going to head off to West Hollywood for the LA Pride parade and festival. My camera's nice and charged, and I will be back tomorrow to give you a full report, before I fly back to the Bay Area. Later!

From my old blog:

Yesterday, I wasn't able to check out Venice and its bevy of hot, ripped guys. I will do that today. But anyway, yesterday was spent checking out the Central Library downtown and West Hollywood.

First off: the Central Library. It is located in downtown Los Angeles, within walking distance of City Hall and the Disney Concert Hall, whose outer appearance reminded me of that episode of The Simpsons where Marge Simpson gets J. Paul Getty to create a new concert hall for Springfield, only to see it turn into a prison run by Mr. Burns. Back to the Central Library. It is HUGE. The library is one of the largest in the country, and certainly the largest that I have ever seen. They have a gorgeous rotunda there, and its inner walls are covered with a beautiful painting of the subjugation of the indigenous tribes of the Americas by the Spanish conquistadores. The painting is beautiful, the subjugation wasn't. The collection of books is astounding. They even have a huge swath of books in Armenian!

I didn't apply for a library card, though, which was disappointing. I don't think that there is a Netflix-like service for books. It'd be too expensive, I gather.

On to West Hollywood. It is quite a small city. It could fit into San Francisco an infinite number of times (and considering that the Castro is being more gentrified, we could use a few more gay communities). It is a lot more peaceful and charming than the Castro, but it has the same traffic problem. The main drag (no pun intended), Santa Monica Boulevard, is a bitch to get through. I stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up a few things for dinner. The great thing about staying at a hostel is that you have free access to the kitchen where you can cook whatever you want. I bought four-cheese macaroni/cheese and a flat-bread with caramelized onions and figs. I had the mac/cheese last night; the flat-bread can wait. I also saw the original A Different Light bookstore. It was slightly bigger than the one in San Francisco, and a little more complicated to navigate through.

I spent the rest of the night at the hostel, watching TV and listening to the iPod. The title of this entry comes from an ad that I read in this week's LA Weekly, similar to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The ad was for an erotica convention at the LA Convention Center, a decidedly hetero-sexist event. As conventions go, there was a raffle advertised, and the winner of said raffle would get as a prize, a FREE BOOB JOB! And their name would be announced during the convention. That was the most ridiculous thing that I have ever seen in my life. For one, winning a boob job is embarrassing. Secondly, if word gets out that you won a BOOB JOB, it would be even more embarrassing. A free trip to the Playboy Mansion? Sure. A lifetime subscription to Hustler? Okay. A $1,000 gift certificate to Trashy Lingerie, where that woman on Oxygen's "Snapped" spent part of the insurance money that she acquired after hiring a hit-man to kill off her Hollywood producer husband? Fabulous. But a free BOOB JOB?! You got to be kidding me!

Tomorrow will be the big parade in West Hollywood, followed by the big festival.

From my former blog:

It's Friday, the 6th of June, 2008. I am reporting to you from the Hostelling International LA/Santa Monica, which is located a block away from the beach and a block away from the 3rd Street Promenade. This is what went down yesterday:

I left the house in Vallejo around 6am and took a taxi downtown. After that, I took the bus to the Amtrak bus depot, where the Amtrak bus picked me up around 7am. By 7:30, I was at the Amtrak station in Martinez. I had my bags checked and waited around. At 8:19am, the San Joaquin train pulled into the station, and soon I was on my way.

I had taken the Caltrain before, but the Amtrak was another story. For almost six hours, the train snaked through the vast wonderland of olive trees, farms, and endless plains of symmetrically-planted crops that made up the Central Valley. The train stopped in Stockton, Modesto (my brother Joshua's birthplace), Turlock/Denair, Madera, Fresno, Corcoran, Wasco, and finally, Bakersfield. The train ride was pleasant, but there was one significant drawback. I am the type of person who likes to listen to the radio no matter where I am. In the Central Valley, there was a major abundance of Christian, conservative radio stations. Eventually, I turned off my Walkman and listened to my iPod for the remainder of the train ride.

At Bakersfield, I expected to get my luggage on the same Amtrak bus that I would ride to Los Angeles. No. It was on ANOTHER bus. In any event, the bus left Bakersfield and drove through the mountains and hills of Kern County, and eventually, we ended up in LA-LA Land. I was giddy to be in the city, but I still wanted my luggage. If they lost it, I would have decked a bitch. That didn't happen, though. My luggage made it 15 minutes after I arrived on another Amtrak bus. I was a happy camper.

I wanted to check in immediately at the Santa Monica hostel, but I also wanted to hit HOLLYWOOD. HOLLYWOOD won out. I took the subway from Union Station, where I had made my LA debut, and got off at Hollywood/Highland. The subway is pretty good, I must say. A tad hot, but even the ones in San Francisco can get hot. Upon exiting the station at Hollywood/Highland, my mind was blown away. They say that you can't experience anything unless you actually experience it, or something like that. This was the Hollywood that I had read about, heard about, and seen in movies and television. Well, not exactly. They don't make movies here anymore. Nonetheless, it was amazing. I had my picture taken with a Keira Knightley-from-Pirates of the Caribbean impersonator. I saw the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joanne Woodward was the first star to get a STAR on the Walk of Fame. Why the hell do Ryan Seacrest, Donald Trump, and Vince McMahon have Stars? Ryan's the biggest whore in Hollywood, Donald is an arrogant asshat, and Vince makes his living procuring and promoting fake wrestling and passing it off as "sports entertainment". I guess that answers my question.

I saw Grauman's Chinese Theatre, that place where Jimmy Kimmel films his chat show (it's not really broadcast live, don't you know - when I saw the theatre, there were people lining up to get inside), and the crown jewel known as the Kodak Theatre. I could not believe that this was the place where Oscar hung its hat, where five out of seven American Idols had been crowned (Ruben Studdard won at the Universal Amphitheatre, and Daughtry 2.0 won at the Nokia Theatre near the Staples Center), and where the entire pop culture universe was encapsulated.

After an hour, I took a wild bus ride (re: traffic-congested) to Santa Monica. I checked in around 7pm and was so tired that I couldn't even blog that night. I share a room with several other people. Five bunk beds. The mattresses are pretty resilient (re: tough). I took a shower, and that really made the difference. I went to the waterfront for a few minutes, and after that, I headed to Ye Olde King's Head Restaurant, just around the corner from the hostel. It was packed inside, so I had my dinner outside. Let me tell you: it was the best dinner that I had in years. For starters, I had two vegetarian samosas with mango chutney and mint yogurt. I actually put the mint yogurt on the SALAD! It didn't work. But it did on the samosas. They were crispy on the outside, yet filled with warm goodness. The mango chutney was SLAMMING! I never had mango chutney before. It blew me away.

For the main course, I tucked into shepherd's pie. I had made shepherd's pie before at the house, and it tasted good. The one at Ye Olde King's Head, however, was even better. The meat was flavorful, the potatoes were smooth, and the vegetables held their own. I washed them down with a Diet Coke. After the longest trip of my life, it was sweet validation of my decision to flee the family for a week.

I went to bed an hour after I got back from the restaurant. I wasn't disturbed the rest of the night. I woke up this morning having had the best sleep in years. Today, I plan on touring Venice, checking out the Central Library, and seeing West Hollywood. I'll check back with you tomorrow morning. :-)

I have a blog on vox.com that I was operating before I decided to go with LiveJournal. I have decided to do something interesting with that one: I am going to use it to create a new blog focusing on one of my passions - foreign languages. You'll be hearing more about that later. Anyway, I'm going to erase most of the posts there, with the exception of posts that I did surrounding my vacation in Los Angeles last year, beginning with this:

Next Thursday, I will embark on my first trip apart from my family. I haven't had a vacation, or as the British term it: a "holiday", since 2000, when my parents, as a graduation present, dragged me to San fucking Diego for a week with relatives. Yeah, some present. This time, I am going to be in the Los Angeles area for Gay Pride Weekend (or Christopher Street West), from the 5th to 9th of June. I will be staying at the youth hostel in Santa Monica, and will be traveling to and from the LA area via Amtrak. It turns out that going by train, while taking a longer trip, is more sound on an economic level than flying. With a Student Advantage discount, I will only pay $49 for a one-way ticket, and only that. Airlines prices don't include various fees and shit. But I won't rule out taking a plane back to the Bay Area.

 And now, the 13 finalists (yes, this year there is 13 finalists thanks to a last-minute change that I saw coming) of American Idol 2009:

The ladies of Idol 2009

Alison IRAHETA

Megan Joy CORKREY

Alexis Grace MIDDLETON

Jasmine MURRAY

Lillian ROUNDS

The gentlemen of Idol 2009

Kris ALLEN

Anoop DESAI

Matt GIRAUD

Daniel GOKEY

Adam LAMBERT

Scott MACINTYRE

Jorge NUNEZ MENDEZ

Jeremy Michael SARVER

I assume that at some point, there will be a double elimination in the finals. While I have some fundamental disagreements with the makeup of the final 13, I will at least be watching the shows, unlike last season which was simply abhorrent. Alas, Tatiana del Toro fell short one last time in the wild-card round, despite singing way better than those who did make the cut AND bringing back the Tatiana that we know and love. The only way that her psychic friend's prediction will hold true is if someone withdraws or gets kicked out and the producers realize that Tatiana IS American Idol.

My favorite of the 13 finalists is Adam Lambert. We need a gay guy to win this sucker. I despise that fat fuck Jeremy Michael Sarver and that wife-killer Daniel Gokey. The remaining 10 are decent if somewhat uninspiring. Still, it's a better line-up than last year.

Note that for only the second time in American Idol history, there is not one male African-American singer in the finals. Ju'Not Joyner did very well in his semifinal performance, and should have been given a wild-card spot, but perhaps his off-the-cuff mention of getting a cortisone shot in the ass cost him. Only five people of color made the finals: Lillian (Lil), Jasmine, Allison, Jorge, and Anoop.

I recently said on Facebook that I hate hip-hop. I want to clarify that, collectively, I hate hip-hop. There are some artists and songs in the hip-hop oeuvre that I like and play repeatedly on my iPod, but in general I avoid them like the plague. Why?

Reason 01: Some of hip-hop's most famous personalities are a bunch of arrogant, self-congratulatory, ego-stroking cunts. Kanye West, Jay-Z, Beyonce (that fucking Diana Ross-wannabe white bitch), Eminem (that fucking homophobic white bitch), 50 Cent (he got shot nine times - and one of the should have took), Dr. Dre, Puff Daddy/Diddy/P. Diddy/Sean John, T.I. (hope you enjoy prison, bitch), Lil Wayne, Sean Kingston (bitch can't sing or rap), etc. I fucking hate that bitch Kanye West so much that my hate has expanded to include his minions John Legend and Estelle. Frankly, hip-hop would be better suited without these fucking assholes.

Reason 02: I wasn't exposed to contemporary hip-hop until I moved to San Francisco in 1994. It was the music of everyone that I attended school with... but it wasn't mine. I got bullied a lot in middle school, and the music of the bullies was hip-hop. It may sound ridiculous, but to me, hip-hop = bullying. I have never been able to overcome the bullying that I received in school, and I have never been a true fan of hip-hop.

Reason 03: The swagger, the bling-bling, the posturing... it doesn't appeal to me. It frankly pisses me off. It's not cute, it's not clever, it's not hip... it's bullshit. And I say that as someone who grew up in an urban area and was familiar with all the hip-hop culture that permeated and still permeates life in the Bay Area.

I do like some hip-hop and hip-hop-adjacent music and personalities, namely Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, and old-school hip-hop such as what Queen Latifah used to do. But today, hip-hop has become something so gross that I shudder to listen to it. It doesn't speak for me. It never has. It never will.

I admit that I am a fan of America's Next Top Model. I am NOT, however, a fan of Tyra Banks. The onetime supermodel can put on a good show, but she in all truth is one fucked up bitch. It's downright deplorable when the foreign franchises of ANTM have more successes in creating legitimate top models for their respective markets than the original. A lot of that is due to Tyra; she says that she is looking to revive the supermodel in American culture, but in 11 cycles, she has yet to show us one person who has been able to become a legitimate force in the modeling industry. Elyse Sewell, 3rd in the inaugural cycle in summer 2003, has had the most success of all the ANTM veterans. But not in the USA; her success has been in the relatively small but growing Asian markets.

I don't like her talk show. It seems that Tyra is trying to be the next Oprah, and has gone to extraordinary lengths to model her show and philanthropic activities after her. I'm surprised that she hasn't created a school for disenfranchised girls in Angola or somewhere like that. How does one say "fierce" in Portuguese? Anyway, Tyra likes to talk about HER and what SHE HERSELF has gone through. Even when she was interviewing Janet Jackson, Tyra saw fit to turn the discussion around and focus on TY-TY.

One other thing that annoys me is her rather patronizing view of gays. I'm sure that she likes to fancy herself as an ally (and it was noble of her to foot the bill for Cycle 11 finalist Isis King's surgery to make her the woman she wanted to be), but in practice she doesn't seem to be that understanding. In her world, gays are fierce creatures who make her look good at the expense of themselves. When is Mr. Jay Manuel going to get his due? When is Miss J. Alexander going to get hers? Sutan? Christian Marc? Danilo? Anyone? She doesn't seem to understand that not all gays are snappy, feisty, fierce creatures.

She recently had a bunch of self-loathing gays on her show, some of whom were planning to go "hetero". Now, i admit that I am a self-loathing person, but my sexuality in and of itself has little to do with it. My self-loathing has more to do with the fact that sometimes I don't think I am good enough for anyone or anything. I was self-loathing before I had any sophisticated knowledge of sex and sexuality. And yes, there are days when I hate being gay. But would I go the hetero route? Absolutely not.

Is that all that Tyra thinks there is to gays? Either we're flaming queens or we're self-loathing faggots in her eyes. Tyra has never shown a positive portrayal of gay people who are none of those things. Has she ever interviewed hot gay guys who are not flaming queens? No. The closest that she ever did was a roundtable discussion with straight men who do gay porn, which was ridiculous in and of itself. She has never done anything with lipstick lesbians. Or even bisexuals. Tyra, for all her gay-friendliness, may possibly be one of the most gay-ignorant people on the face of the earth.

SEMIFINAL HEAT 01

1. Ann Marie Boskovich - Sara Bareilles Will Cut You, Bitch
2. Ricky Braddy - 30 Million People Watching... and They Could Care Less
3. Casey Carlson - Every Little Thing She Did Was Bullshit
4. Tatiana del Toro - Charisma. Uniqueness. Nerve. Talent.
5. Anoop Desai - Blue Devil Idol
6. Stephen Fowler - Line?
7. Danny Gokey - McGokey and Dead Wife (or, The Thread for Danny Gokey and His Dead Wife, His Creepy Best Friend, and His Cult)
8. Alexis Grace - Blondes with Pink Streaks in Their Hair Have More Fun
9. Michael Sarver - Idol Gotta Get a Roughneck
10. Brent Keith Smith - Spencer Flat
11. Jackie Tohn - She Brought Down the Window Screen, If Not the House
12. Stevie Wright - Under-joyed

SEMIFINAL HEAT 02

1. Kris Allen
2. Matt Breitzke
3. Megan Corkrey
4. Matt Giraud
5. Mishavonna Henson
6. Alison Iraheta
7. Kai Kalama
8. Adam Lambert
9. Jesse Langseth
10. Nick Mitchell
11. Jasmine Murray
12. Jeanine Vailes

SEMIFINAL HEAT 03

1. Arianna Afsar
2. Felicia Barton
3. Kendall Beard
4. Ju'Not Joyner
5. Scott MacIntyre
6. Nathaniel Marshall
7. Kristen McNamara
8. Jorge Nunez
9. Lil Rounds
10. Von Smith
11. Taylor Vaifanua
12. Alex Wagner-Trugman

I've only had one comment in the six, seven months or so that I've been running this goddamn blog. Why haven't you all visited? What do I need to do to keep your interest up? I can't keep posting YouTube favorites and talk about American Idol all the time.

I'm really frustrated with school. I can't seem to get enough time to study. Yesterday, I was embarrassed THREE FUCKING TIMES in my Beginning Acting class. For one, I could not get the hang of the acting exercise that my teacher, Gloria Weinstock, gave us: say the words "You know, we've been together almost five years" with variations in subtext. Secondly, after a fellow student asked what our subtexts were (we were not allowed to give them out), I muttered to myself, "N.O.Y.D.B." And Ms. Weinstock called me out on it. Thirdly, she said that my class journal was not in the right format. She was right about the last one, but I still felt stupid.

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

FUCK STRAIGHT WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN