Guilty Pleasure I: Nights on Broadway

The first in a series: Guilty Pleasures.

I have always liked the Bee Gees, and their song Nights on Broadway has always been my favorite of theirs. I think because Robin Gibb is my favorite in the group, and this is one of the few songs that he gets to sing lead vocals. (He's the one in the middle. Barry, on the right, is the main lead singer. Maurice was the backup support. He died in 2003, resulting in the remaining brothers saying that they'd never "perform as the Bee Gees again".)

Here is the best (and earliest) version of the song that I have found:

Jeff Buckley

On Wednesday night's American Idol, Randy said about Adam singing Ring of Fire: "It's really hard to say, man. But I must say that I was one of the ones who loved Adam's Jeff Buckley take on that song. Many people don't know that that is Jeff Buckley's version."

I'm a huge Jeff Buckley fan and didn't think that he ever recorded that song. After looking through my (complete) collection of his songs, I still hadn't found it. Before he died in 1997, he had never recorded that song.

After some research, I found this article:

American Idol Judge Randy Jackson Says Adam Lambert Channeling Jeff Buckley on His Version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire"?

Scour the internet as much as you like, you will not find the classic song "Ring of Fire" by Jeff Buckley. Although "Ring of Fire" has been done by at least a hundred artists since it was written by June Carter (the future wife of Johnny Cash) and Merle Kilgore, Jeff Buckley did not record a version. This does not mean that Jeff Buckley never sang the song. He just never recorded it.

So why even bring up the subject? Because American Idol judge Randy Jackson brought it up. On the American Idol results show on Wednesday evening, when Ryan Seacrest was down to the last two finalists left to decide which one would join the other two contestants on the chopping block (one would be eliminated from the three), he asked for comments from the American Idol judges about Adam Lambert's rendition of "Ring of Fire" the night before. That's when Randy Jackson mentioned Jeff Buckley in relation to the song.

Although Jeff Buckley never recorded "Ring of Fire," it is easy to understand why Randy Jackson would bring up the name. Randy Jackson is not on American Idol for just his good looks. He's also a hot producer and musician himself. He has a very good ear for music. He prides himself on his ability, which is why he often uses the term "pitch problems" or "pitchy" when referring to a performance.

Randy Jackson was comparing Adam Lambert to Jeff Buckley, at least on a vocal level. Adam Lambert's version of "Ring of Fire" was done the way Jeff Buckley would have done it. And with the same amazing vocal control as well. And perhaps just as haunting. If one were to surf one's way to YouTube and click up "Grace," "Forget Her," Or "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley, Randy Jackson's words start to make a lot more sense.

It really is a shame that the world lost Jeff Buckley. He was an amazing talent.

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Here's Jeff Buckley doing his song Grace,the title track from his first album.

Best of 2008

Since many magazines, TV shows, and web sites are doing their best of lists this time of the year, I thought I’d do mine.

I am sure many other really good movies were released in 2008, but I only included the ones that Carlos and I saw. (Maybe Carlos will also do a list?)

Plus, my best of lists will NEVER include Will Ferrell or Tom Cruise.

Top 12 Best Movies I Saw in 2008
21
American Teen
Iron Man
Michael Clayton
Milk
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Slumdog Millionaire
Son of Rambow
The Dark Knight
The Express
Wanted

Top 8 Worst Movies That I Saw in 2008
Hancock
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Jumper
Paranoid Park
Pathology
The Happening
The Women
Vantage Point

Top 10 Favorite Movies I Have Rented From Netflix in 2008
(The year released is in parenthesis.)
12 Angry Men (1957)
African American Lives - Volumes I and II (2006 / 2007)
Confessions of a Superhero (2007)
It’s A Boy Girl Thing (2006)
Paris, Je T’aime (2006)
Primary Colors (1998)
Shelter (2007)
Spellbound (2002)
The Curiosity of Chance (2006)
The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)

Top 3 Lists That I Started and then Abandoned
Top 10 Best TV Shows of 2008
Top 10 Best DVD’s of 2008
Top 10 Best CD’s of 2008

If you do best of lists, let me know!

Love Is The New Hate

Long-Suppressed Gay Star Trek Episode Comes Out

I have only seen a handful of Star Trek episodes (counting all of the different series). But I still thought this article was interesting.
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David Gerrold, famous for writing the "Trouble with Tribbles" Star Trek episode, also wrote an episode that included gay characters - but it was shot down by Paramount. Now you can watch it online.

To make the episode, Gerrold teamed up with the fan crew behind Star Trek: Phase II, a web series that's intended to be the fourth season of the original series. He dusted off his gay-themed script, called "Blood and Fire," and also directed it. Originally, "Blood and Fire" was written for Star Trek: TNG, and approved by series creator Gene Roddenberry, but executives at the network balked. Gerrold says they told him they were worried they'd lose their advertisers because "mommies" would call in to complain that they'd seen gay people on Star Trek.

For the webisode, Gerrold re-wrote the script to bring it up to date with issues like gay marriage, and also to make the characters more openly gay. In the original, they were portrayed as friends - the only hint that they were gay was one character asking them how long they'd been together. In the new version, as you can see in the clip here, there's no question that they're lovers.



The episode is about the Enterprise responding to a distress call, and dealing with scary "bloodworms." It introduces a new character, Peter Kirk, the gay nephew of the captain.

According to AfterElton's Brent Hartinger, who has seen the full episode:
There’s tension between Peter and his famous uncle, who is determined to keep him out of harm’s way, even if it means treating him differently than the other crewmembers. Eventually, Peter reveals the real reason he requested a stint on the Enterprise: to be near his boyfriend, Alex Freeman (Evan Fowler). When the couple make plans to marry, Kirk agrees to officiate, but only “after the away mission” — which may or may not bode well for the future of this relationship . . . The portrayal of Peter and Alex's romantic relationship is treated no differently than any of the dozens of heterosexual relationships the various Star Trek incarnations have included over the decades. Indeed, the storyline is incorporated so naturally as to make the “official” Trek's inexcusable lack of gay characters even more obvious.

The first half of "Blood and Fire" goes online this Saturday on the Star Trek: Phase II website. The second half airs in February.

You can see more images and a longer clip at AfterElton.

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This entire article was copied from here.

My favorite posts in the comments section:

So, going where no man has gone before except for that one night at college?

The bottom guy's in red. I don't see them being together much longer.

Thanksgiving 2008 Quotes

I spent five days in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, driving there with my sister Christine and her girlfriend Karlie.

Carlos stayed in New Orleans. (Melissa and Steve were in town.)

Here’s a snapshot of my trip via quotes.

“Karlie says that nothing goes in the back seat except for her.” Christine (the spokesperson for their relationship) to Carlos and me as we smashed my luggage in the trunk, while observing Karlie lounging in the back seat.

“That’s nothing but static. Please turn that off.” Karlie, expressing her feelings about what I was listening to on the radio as I was driving us back to New Orleans.

“You’re welcome to ride with me, but I’m not riding with y’all ever again. Your car has too many rules.” A future quote, whenever Karlie and Christine ask me to ride with them ever again.

“Go away, okay?” Eden, my niece (my sister Claudia’s two and a half year old daughter), carefully explaining to me that she doesn’t want me to be around her. She usually takes about three days to warm up to me. Then she and I bond.

“They have to let me in. I’m a Gay Breeder.” My parents live in Faubourg Marigny, an area of New Orleans that has the largest gay population in the city. My mom loves to swim. The closest swimming pool is a health club two blocks away, usually overrun by nude gay men. That doesn’t bother my mom at all, but my dad figures that they (“The Gays”) will be uncomfortable with my mom being there. My mom responded that she would have to play The Gay Card: “….I must be: two of my three kids are gay.”

Best Quote Ever.

Expert Witness

After my recent jury duty, I thought it would be years before I saw the inside of a courtroom again.

I was wrong.

Let me back up a bit. I have described my office in a little detail in the past. Here are some more. Our office handles all the printing for the entire university campus, including all the forms for the hospitals in our area. Pre-Katrina, I was the sole designer and typesetter of those forms, as well as managing the department that produced and distributed them.

Around campus, I was referred to as simply the Forms Guy. Our customers that have known me since then still refer to me as that, even though post-Katrina I have many additional duties.

As the Forms Guy, I receive regular emails from the hospital’s legal department, asking for copies of current and past versions of certain forms. (I keep on file every present and past version of all 1400+ active forms. I am the only one on campus that has this information.)

Last week, I received a request for a form, and sent it on. The next day, I received this email: “You may be called to court as an expert witness on our forms. Would you be available to discuss that?”

This past Monday, a lawyer for the hospital called me to ask me many detailed questions about a certain form. “How can you tell it’s an original and not a copy? Can you show that the form when sold has writing only on the front? Do you have examples of other forms that when sold are duplex?” And many, many other very specific questions about forms.

This past Tuesday, I was asked to testify in court at a civil trial (including a 12-person jury), and, after some questions about my job, its duties, and some other background information, I was sworn in as an expert witness.

I was on the stand for almost 30 minutes.

From what I can gather, a former patient was suing a doctor. The doctor had written some instructions about the patient on the back of a form that officially did not have a back. (That is, the form didn’t have lines on the back, nor “-front” at the bottom to signify that there was a “-back”.) The next shift at the hospital did not see the writing on the back and didn’t copy it. That missing information caused something to go wrong with the patient’s surgery.

I’m sure there are many more details, and I could have those details incorrect, but I only know about the case what I was told. I did not attend the beginning or the end of the trial. Only my part.

The hospital’s lawyer called me later Tuesday afternoon, leaving me this voicemail: “Thank you for your help today. I’m sorry the prosecuting lawyer was so harsh with you, but you handled him well. I will call you when the jury reaches a verdict. It’s nice to know you’re around. We may need you for future trials.”

She called me Wednesday. The doctor was found not guilty.

New Discovery: Girl Talk

Oddly enough, I found out about Girl Talk because the new CD was reviewed on National Public Radio last week.

Here is one of their songs...



Actually, I guess that would be "his" songs because it's just one guy. To read about Girl Talk, click here.

If you want to buy the new CD, click here.

Keith Olbermann on Gay Marriage

In a follow up to my Hallmark Corners Gay Marriage Card Market entry, my friend Michael sent me a link to a recent segment on Keith Olbermann's show.



It also fits in nicely with this older post of mine.

Thank you, Michael.

Thank you, Keith Olbermann.

A New Day

I'm very pleased with this morning's headlines!



For another side of Barack Obama, see my other blog.