liberation

liberation never felt so good
even though i have felt it a thousand times before
and i'm sure in some way
i shall feel it again and again
it is the sick cycle of life
perfect in its imperfections
remember my friends
nothing is unnatural
because that would be going against nature itself
whatever you do
whatever i do
it is what creates the universe over and over again
every moment
every day

i feel like i am on vacation
yet i feel completely familiar with my surroundings
i have escaped from that dirty prison
i used to keep my belongings in
that tiny cell
humid, tight and sticky
a place i thought i would call home
but never ever could
now i am surrounded by fresh air
now i am surrounded by love
i can see the sky breathing from my window
i can feel the life flowing back into my soul
this platform filled with endless potential
inspiration like a tsunami
invigorating every fiber of my being
and once all my things are put in order
which i feel they almost are
i can go and master myself
for the last damn time
until the next incarceration
until the next liberation

hallmark sets a benchmark

one small step for hallmark...one giant leap for gaykind (hey did i just coin a new phrase? 'gaykind')





Now on the Hallmark aisle: Gay marriage cards

By Sarah Skidmore, AP Business Writer

Hallmark, seeing a new market after California ruling, rolls out gay marriage greeting cards

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Most states don't recognize gay marriage -- but now Hallmark does.
The nation's largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards -- featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. "Two hearts. One promise," one says.

Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay marriage. A handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions.

The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure.

"It's our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can," Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.

Hallmark's largest competitor, American Greetings Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships.

Hallmark started offering "coming out" cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet.

"When I have shopped for situations like babies or weddings for gay friends I have good luck in quirky stores," said Kathryn Hamm, president of the Web site gayweddings.com.

"But if you are just in a generic store ... the bride and groom symbol or words are in most cards," she said. "It becomes difficult to find some that are neutral but have some style."

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates that more than 85,000 same-sex couples in the United States have entered into a legal relationship since 1997, when Hawaii started offering some legal benefits to same-sex partners.

It estimates nearly 120,000 more couples will marry in California during the next three years -- and that means millions of potential dollars for all sorts of wedding-industry businesses.

Hallmark, known more for its Midwest mores than progressive greetings, has added a wider variety lately. It now offers cards for difficulty getting pregnant or going through rehab.

It pulled a controversial card that featured the word "queer" in the punch line after it was criticized by some customers and gay magazine The Advocate last year. At any given time, Hallmark has 200 different wedding cards on the market, including some catering to interracial or inter-religious marriages and blended families.

The Greeting Card Association, a trade group, says it does not track how many companies provide same-sex cards but believes the number is expanding.

"The fact that you have someone like Hallmark going into that niche shows it's growing and signals a trend," said Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the association.

Rob Fortier, an independent card maker who runs his company, Paper Words, out of New York, added same-sex wedding cards to his mix after thinking about what he would want to receive.

"A lot of people think a gay greeting card needs a rainbow on it," Fortier said. "I don't want that."

But for some time, it was difficult to even find the words for what anyone wanted to say, he said.

His first card poked fun at the challenge. On the outside it featured lines that had been scratched out: "Congratulations on being committed!", "Congratulations on being unionized!" and, finally, "Congratulations on being domestically partnered!" The inside wished the couple congratulations on choosing to be together forever.

"It really comes down to language," he said.

John Stark, one of the three founders of Three Way Design in Boston, which makes gay-themed cards for occasions from adoption to weddings, has several new designs sketched out and ready.

But he has hesitated adding more wedding cards to his mix until after the November election, when California voters will decide a constitutional amendment that would again limit marriage to a man and a woman in the state.

"What is scary is to produce a marriage line and then November comes and it's recalled, then we have thousands of dollars of inventory waiting," he said.

The gay-friendly business can be challenging, companies said.

Hamm said although she has found many vendors willing to work with her company, some have asked to be removed from the Web site because of hate mail or some other backlash.

Hallmark says all of its stores can choose whether they want to add the latest offerings.

sticky and sweet!

here's the fabulous cover of the sticky and sweet tour book...possibly steven klein or tom munro's work...not sure yet. it's amazing! i always love when she uses a photograph without her face as the main focus....still you can always tell it's madonna.

i can't wait! so far i'm only going on opening night at madison square garden on october 9th but i hope to get tickets for more shows closer to the dates...


and here's a funny little video of madonna backstage getting ready for her dress rehearsal...it seems the funny and silly madonna of yore never really went away...check it out
madonna getting her hair did

just freakin weird

i'm at a loss for words....could this be any more bizarre?  what's next?  people buried in trophy poses with bats in their hands or maybe set up doing a split or something?   i'd rather be cremated.




Mon Aug 18, 11:42 PM

By The Associated Press


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Puerto Rican man has been granted his wish to remain standing - even in death.

A funeral home used a special embalming treatment to keep the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright for his three-day wake.

Dressed in a Yankees baseball cap and sunglasses, Pantoja was mourned by relatives while propped up in his mother's living room.

His brother Carlos told the El Nuevo Dia newspaper the victim had long said he wanted to be upright for his own wake: "He wanted to be happy, standing."

The owner of the Marin Funeral Home, Damaris Marin, told The Associated Press the mother asked him to fulfill her dead son's last wish.

Pantoja was found dead Friday underneath a bridge in San Juan and buried Monday. Police are investigating.

chauncey treat - joystick

photo above of a giant joystick that is fully functional! these modern day artists are such kids at heart!

but now for the music. here's a delightful track that just blew my mind when i first heard it. it's easy, breezy and beautiful and it is the perfect song for a cool summer night. it's by a new band called discodeine and it's called (you guessed it) 'joystick'. it's great for the beginning of a set...the end of a set or somewhere in the middle to send your crowd into a dizzy, trippy funk.

enjoy!

discodeine - joystick
check them out at www.myspace.com/discodeine

not for the faint at heart

found out about this video courtesy of my new friend james....it's devilishly sick fun! enjoy!
wheelchair rebecca...she's fun!...she's handicapped!....but how did she get in that wheelchair?

compact discs r.i.p.

Cue the Curtain: In-Store CD Sales Nearing an End




Posted by JR Raphael

Video killed the radio star -- so who's to blame for putting the brick and mortar music store star in his grave? It may not be funeral time just yet, but new word this week that Wal-Mart is getting ready to slash into its music-selling strategy signals the start of a long-brewing change.

Here's the deal: The mass market CD section at Wally World is on its way out, the Wall Street Journal says. Execs are sick of seeing struggling sales and wasted space and are "preparing changes" to the store's approach -- likely a significant cutback in the amount of titles carried.

They're not alone, either. Reports indicate 2008 will see a huge drop in in store cd availability across the board, with cuts as high as 40 percent in retailers ranging from Best Buy to Circuit City by the year's end. And we've all seen how few of the standalone music stores are left. Like it or not, the physical manifestation of music is rapidly becoming an endangered species.

So where do we point our accusatory finger? Who's the demon causing our old friend to breathe his dying breath? Well, Napster's the obvious candidate. But calm down, Lars...if the once-free music service hasn't come along at the turn of the century, something else would have done it. If anyone's to take the fall for physical music's fall, it has to be technology in general.

It's pretty simple, really: The demands have changed, and the industry is just now starting to catch up. I see it as a generational shift. A new batch of kids -- i.e. today's teenagers -- grew up with music always available with the press of a button. They never knew the joy of heading to the CD store the day their favorite band's album was set to come out, then heading back home with that cellophane-encased treasure in their hands. To them, music is a concept, not a tangible object. It's a disposable file, not an invaluable possession. The mindset has undergone a massive transformation, and the stores are seeing the result.

As for me? I guess I'm a bit old-fashioned. I may be a professional purveyor of high-tech information, but I still love my CD collection. Sure, I download songs -- but I inevitably end up burning them to disc and printing up a track list to go with the case. And I'd always prefer to have the real CD, complete with color cover booklet, over that.

I suppose, though, change is inevitable. I'll keep my CDs. Odds are, though, I'll have to start buying in stores less and downloading over the Web more. Only legally, of course...back off, Ulrich.

it was bound to happen and i really feel that the record companies deserve this because the amount that each artist recieved was so minute compared to what they charged per cd when they first came out. i do have fond memories of a store a couple towns over from me while i was growing up that was a video store on one side and a cd haven on the other. they would keep a card with your name on it on file and once you bought ten cds you got the eleventh one free! that was in 1990 when i got my very first cd/cassette boombox for christmas and my personal musical journey really began!

chauncey treat : bathroom gurgle

here's a new track from late of the pier called 'bathroom gurgle' and it's absolutely fantastic!  i've posted another one of their tracks a while ago called 'here come the bears' for obvious reasons but this track is so many nasty things rolled into one that it's just brilliant.  it's good for rock parties, it's good for dance parties and it's good for some hot sexual encounters hehe

enjoy!

late of the pier - bathroom gurgle

the rosebush

disapointment
such familiar territory
the lovely trees
and the wonderful vines
have changed to dangerous
rosebushes
but the soil still remains the same
my goals and ambitions
have been smothered
by my dirty need to escape
this new year
has about four months forgotten
and i couldn't tell you
the difference
between one week and the next
i barely wake up each day
because i can never fall asleep
swimming barely in a gooey river
wearing self doubt and anger
like the latest trends
my passion has gone dry
but i still vaguely remember
craving something once and then
achieving something
maybe because i was once
foolish enough
to believe in something

like an angel....

above photo taken by out my new bedroom window (of course i played with the colour haha)

so it finally leaked! madonna's rumoured cover of abba's 'like an angel passing through my room' from the music sessions. william orbit made mention of it years ago and just in time for her 50th birthday it popped up onto the internet. it's really, really pretty and reminds you how wonderful of a balladeer madge is. i've still not heard the original but it was from abba's last studio album 'the visitors'. it's a perfect sunday afternoon gift....enjoy!

madonna - like an angel passing through my room

the plight of the purple pigeon!

i just moved to queens! i hope i see one flying by! i read this story and thought it so bizarre i just had to post it hehe. the thought process and patience involved alone...


Fowl play: Sicko paints pigeon purple in Queens

By LISA L. COLANGELO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A pigeon that was painted purple was discovered in a Queens park. We heard it through the grapevine - Queens has a purple pigeon.



Theroyal-hued bird wasn't born that way, though. Someone with a sick sense of humor - or a problem with pigeons - painted him purple.

"It was terrible," said Joe Mora, an animal lover who rescued the bird Thursday from a Long Island City playground, where onlookers were gawking at the oddly-colored columbine.

"It looks like this was done intentionally...it could have been blinded," Mora said.

Hetried coaxing the lethargic bird to eat while asking anyone and everyone for advice on how to clean paint from its feathers and beak.

Friday,city Animal Care and Control officials transferred the pigeon to Bobby Horvath, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in Nassau County who has extensive experience caring for injured birds.

The young pigeon, about three or four months old, might not survive the prank - if it was one, Horvath said.

"I have never seen anything like it," said Horvath, who is also a New York City fire fighter.

"He's flightless at this point. His feathers are completely rigid," he said.

"His beak and mouth and eyes are clear of paint," Horvath said. "That's a positive thing."

Horvath said the bird has a better chance if the paint hasn't seeped through into his skin.

Mora said he hopes someone in the neighborhood will come forward with information about the bird. He said he has heard stories about a man on nearby Roosevelt Island who dyed his dog's fur purple.

"If this was intentionally done to the bird, it certainly is animal cruelty," said ASPCA Assistant Director Joseph Pentangelo.

prizefighter

damn it damn it damn it
here i go again
clutching a ticket for a roller coaster ride
that i never wanted to embark on
but find myself every couple of years
being forced to endure
besides the disappointment
and unsettling feeling of failure
this time i am confident
i put up a good fight
i didn't or don't have
the familiar excuse
of oversleeping or dancing too late
the night before
this time i gave my all
mentally
physically
emotionally
once again making magical connections
along the dirty and dusty way
friendships i hope will last a lifetime
but nevertheless i obscenely welcome
the transition
i feel like i've finally grown up
accepting my sensational powers
rather than my inadequacies
i've touched many hearts
incited many riots
fiddling very little with compromise
a devil i don't fear anymore
i will find another fortress
spend very little time in a cocoon
i will treat my next reinvention
with more respect than ever
i'll be fine
i'll be a superstar
i'm a prizefighter

happy birthday madonna!

just a simple happy birthday wish to one of the most artistically creative, ravagely restless, savagely intellectual and powerfully potent individuals to ever walk the face of the earth and has had a major hand in shaping me as a youngster and still has the power to do so until this day! here's a brilliant retrospective featuring quotes about her from celebrities and political figures and a quick photo essay representing every year of her career.

enjoy!