The Lovely Miss Dita Von Teese (w/George Michael singing FEELING GOOD):

Thanksgiving

Since so many of you who come here are from outside of America, I’m going to explain today’s American holiday called Thanksgiving. It is a day when you remember all of the things you are grateful for and this is celebrated amongst family and friends with a huge banquet dinner of turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and an assortment of other delicious food. So before I go off to my friend’s house for some traditional feasting and smoking of marijuana (which is perfect because it'll give me the munchies), below is a lovely poem to commemorate this special day …

Today, before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who's crying out to for a companion.

Today before you complain about life - Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you complain about your children - Think of someone who desires children but they're barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep -Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive - Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another -Remember that not one of us is without error and we all answer to the Divine.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and give thanks that you're alive and still around.

Question of the Week: Your Partner's Past

How would you react if you were to learn that your mate had had a lover of the same sex before you knew each other?

My initial reaction would be concern that he was a homosexual in denial for religious or societal reasons. However, having gotten that suspicion thoroughly refuted and debunked …

I would be incredibly intrigued. As most of you know by now, I find bisexual men very, very sexy and I like watching gay male sex. So finding out my lover had a relationship with another man would only make him more attractive in my eyes. I would ask him a million questions about this relationship, would want to know everything: how they met, what he looked like, their first kiss, their first date, their first sexual connection, if they lived together, what it was that made him fall in love with this other man, personal jokes between them, what they did for leisure, if they cooked together or not, what Christmas presents they exchanged over the years, their daily routine … and yes, their sexual proclivities and exploits.

I would, however, also be concerned that he would go back to liking men. I would worry that his relationship with me was just a phase and that, ultimately, he would return to being a homosexual. This would always be in the back of my mind – that I would not be able to compete with all of the good-looking gay men on this planet. I would also worry a little bit that he might go out cruising behind my back. And then, of course, there is the fear of AIDS and my own vulnerability as a woman having sex with a bisexual man.

On the other hand (and this goes back to what I said above about liking gay male sex), I can see myself asking him to pick up a good-looking gay guy and bringing him back to the house so I could watch them fool around … and eventually participate.

Finally, I would feel special: I would be that one woman who made him switch teams.

What about you?

2 Rare French Commercials for SFTLC (George Michael)

Kathy Jeung: George Michael's Girlfriend in the 80s

Some of the most common search engine terms people use to get to this site are "Kathy Jeung and George Michael" and "George Michael's girlfriend." Clearly, people are fascinated with George Michael's all-too-brief dabbling in heterosexuality. So much so, that I've felt compelled to compile the following pictures of the 80s twosome...

TAGS: Kathy Jeung, Kathy Yeung, George Michael's ex-girlfriend, George Michael's asian girlfriend, George Michael's oriental girlfriend, George Michael's girlfriend, Women George Michael dated

Beyond Belief

BEYOND BELIEF is probably my all-time favorite Elvis Costello song. Haunting in its description of middle-age malaise, it’s a good companion piece to PRECIOUS BOX (my all-time favorite George Michael song). Anyway, I recently did a Youtube search and came up with the two clips below. The first is the original Elvis Costello recording lip-synched by a fan in black and white. The second clip that follows – a real gem – is of a young American man singing an acoustic version of this song. I absolutely love this clip: he’s so sweet and earnest and, frankly, cute as hell.

Question of the Week: Drugs and Alcohol

What was your best experience with drugs or alcohol? Your worst experience?
I’ve had many fairly good experiences with recreational drugs, but nothing spectacular. This is a great regret of mine, especially the fact that I have never taken ecstasy. I don’t know why, but somehow never got around to it. Now it looks like I never will get a chance to try it because it would be too dangerous in my situation – I’m on a lot of mood stabilizers and antidepressants. I don’t think mixing those pharmaceuticals with ecstasy would be a very good idea. I'm afraid of ending up having fatal brain seizures like the late actor River Phoenix.

But back to the “best experience” part. I think it was in 1986 when I studied in Dijon, France. Me and my American friends took a train to Barcelona. We bought hashish from somebody in the center town square (can’t remember what it was actually called). But it was a town square type place and all the drug dealers were obvious. They’d just walk around the square saying, “Chocolate, chocolate.” I thought it was strange that there were so many military police around – and yet there were drug dealers everywhere, just selling their goods out in the open. There were also a lot of purse snatchings. We saw at least one a day.

We bought our hash and went down to the beach. It was nighttime. We were the only ones on the beach and we sat down in the sand. Eventually a crowd gathered on the boardwalk behind us – about a hundred people just standing around waiting for something to happen. We had no idea what was going on.

Then, out of nowhere, these fireworks went off above us. It was incredible. We just sat there in awe of this amazing display happening in the black sky. The crowd on the boardwalk cheered.

We were screaming. We were so happy. Kelly said, “Oh my god you guys. I’m gonna start crying, this is so beautiful.”

A couple years later I was living in a big house with all of my friends. It was our last summer in college. We use to have these massive parties where we would do structural damage to the house. One time there were so many people dancing in my room that the ceiling in the living room below was going up and down to the beat of the music. We didn’t realize the ceiling was about to collapse, we just thought it was really neat that the ceiling was pulsating. Some guy (not high like us) saw what was going on and took charge. He commanded us to get everybody out of the upstairs room and into the living room below where it was safer. He and a couple other guys moved the stereo downstairs and the dancing resumed.

I remember taking LSD a couple hours before one of our parties. Or maybe it was mushrooms. I can’t remember. Anyway, I was going to bake some bread, but discovered our oven was broken. So I took the frozen baguette across the street to a friend’s house. She was getting ready to come over to our party. She was in her bathrobe. I asked her if I could use her oven and she said sure. So I popped the baguette in the oven and sat at the kitchen table, making small talk with this person. She was saying something to me when I could suddenly feel my trip begin.

I walked back to my house carrying this warm three-foot long baguette. There were already a bunch of people on the porch, including my friend Randal. He was sitting on the porch railing when he turned and saw me approach. “I baked the bread,” I said, smiling. Randal started laughing and then I started laughing too. He had taken his acid the same time I did, so we were both starting to trip in tandem.

We laughed all night, nonstop. Everything was funny. We were children, easily amused. By dawn the muscles in my face ached. It hurt to smile.

I used to smoke marijuana on occasion because all of my college friends were potheads. I’ve never had to buy my own marijuana because it was always around. Someone else always had some and was willing to share. But, truth be told, I don’t really enjoy getting high on pot. It just makes “me” more “me,” if that makes any sense. I get real quiet and, in a slow, plodding way, start overanalyzing everything. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s not fun either. When I first started smoking it, I would giggle a lot and get the munchies – typical reactions – but then, later, it stopped being fun. It made me think too much; it made me stupid. Everything seemed potentially profound … but then it all seemed so basic once I came down. All my deep thoughts proved to be inane observations. So I stopped.

I tried cocaine once. It was during my sophomore year and my dormitory roommate, Lisa Smith, was showing me how to snort a line off of a mirror. I snorted a line and then, looking at the ceiling, exhaled as if I were smoking a cigarette. Lisa laughed and said that’s how she felt after she snorted – like exhaling smoke. “You’re good at this,” she said. “My first time, I was scared.” But I wasn’t scared, just a little disappointed. Nothing happened, I didn’t feel a rush or anything. I should have done more lines.

My worst drug/alcohol experience? None, really. I’ve never had a really, really bad experience. Maybe once or twice I got so drunk I threw up. Actually, I remember drinking too much wine at this “event” sponsored by my old employer. This was back in 2002 when I freelanced as a writer/copyeditor for a magazine publishing company. Anyway, I was miserable there and didn’t like the people I was around. Everybody was so phony and stuck up. Everybody was jockeying for position. We were all pretending we didn’t secretly hate each other. So I drank a lot of wine just to make the situation bearable. Then I hailed a taxi and on the way home, I threw up all over the backseat of this poor guy’s taxicab. I felt so alone.

So what about you? What are your drug/alcohol experiences?

Fucking Incredible

Live performance of the Beastie Boys performing in 2004 on Late Night with David Letterman. They start out in the subway and then come out up into the street and then into the studio where the show is normally filmed ...

A Picture Is Worth 158 Years

The picture above is from a recent Barack Obama rally in St. Louis . I guess the eye is first drawn to the sheer number of people. Impressive, I agree. But that's not the point of this picture to a historian.

If you look in the distance there, you can see a building with a greenish-copper dome. That's the Old St.Louis Courthouse. For years and years, slaves were auctioned on the steps of that courthouse.The Old Courthouse used to be called the St. Louis State and Federal Courthouse. Back in 1850, two escaped slaves named Dred and Harriett Scott had their petition for freedom overturned in a case there. Montgomery Blair took the case to the US Supreme Court on Scott's behalf and had Chief Justice Roger Taney throw it out because, as he wrote, the Scotts were "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."I found it rather uplifting that, 158 years later, the man who will most likely be the first black US President was able to stand outside this very same courthouse and gather that crowd. Today, America looked back on one of the darkest moments in its history, and resoundingly told Judge Taney to go to hell.

And with that, I’m off to do my duty as an American cititzen and vote for the next president of the United States!