More News Items....

Today I heard the story of Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teenager who was convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2005. The conviction came as a result of Wilson engaging in oral sex with a fifteen year old girl when he was seventeen years old. Though the (oral) sex was consensual, because the girl was only fifteen it was considered a felony. Because of this, Wilson has been sentenced to ten years in prison, followed by one year of probation, and he will have to be registered as a sex offender. He has already served more than two years of this (insane) sentence. "Had Wilson had intercourse with the 15-year-old and not received oral sex from her, he would have been subject to up to 12-month penalty (statutory rape), with no sex offender status, instead of the 10-year minimum term that the judge gave him." This bizarre law has since been modified, but not retroactively.

Meanwhile, this idiot, London Ontario man Robert Neil Robinson, aged 39, was sentenced yesterday for his SIXTH drunk driving conviction after having been pulled over while he was driving in the wrong direction on highway 401 with a Gatorade/Vodka cocktail at his feet and a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. His sentence is six months in prison, the maximum sentence allowable for this kind of judgement.

Has the world gone completely mad?

Some Politics.....

(driveway of Laurel Broten's home)

I'm usually not one to jump on the media-hysteria bandwagon when it comes to the shortcomings or misdeeds of various politicians, but a story in the Toronto Star today just struck me as too annoying not to comment on. The Ontario Environment Minister, (Liberal) Laurel Broten, is in trouble at the moment over her plans to construct a massive garage next to her house in south Etobicoke (near where I spent the first 12 years of my life). The garage will house her four SUVs - ok, so two of them are supposedly low emission hybrids, but still, why on earth would any family need four SUVs? Not to mention, is it really appropriate for our Environment Minister to have four SUVs? Did the family buy the two low emission SUVs after she became Environment Minister to mesh with her "environmentally conscious" job? Are they hoping to be featured on MTV Cribs? Brutal. Which brings us to the planned mega-garage that will probably result in the death of an old tree. Why would anyone need a 19 foot high, multi-level garage? Maybe if they really need all of that extra space, they should consider getting rid of some of their vehicles. Just a thought.

TV Links....or the reason why I never have to leave the apartment again

Last weekend was Gay Pride in Toronto - a yearly celebration of all things gay. Here is a picture of Pride that I found on flickr. It's from 2006, but really, they are all pretty much the same:

I went out on Friday and hagged it up at a few events starting with a drag queen beauty contest; then on to a private party at Wellesley and Jarvis where I knew no one but everyone was very nice as it turned out, it seemed to be a gathering of Air Canada (male) flight attendants for the most part...hot; then to the Delta Chelsea Hotel for a top 40 dance party in the hotel bar; then to a cocktail party upstairs with some boys who were going out to a club. When we were going up in the elevator in the hotel there was a very nice/well-dressed couple travelling with us. Tyler asked them if they were just visiting and it turned out that they were in Toronto to sing at Roy Thompson Hall as part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Meanwhile there were leather clad men leading each other around on leashes in the lobby....Oh dear.....(!)

Later on Tyler and I had a nightcap at Squirley's (really, it isn't a night on the town in my life if it doesn't involve Squirley's - I should buy shares in the place) where we ran into Tyler's friend Leland. Leland recommended the best web site ever to me: http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ where you can stream all sorts of old and new television shows. Needless to say, I have barely left my apartment since then and have literally watched at least two seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which is addictive), some Law and Order SVU, some Weeds, etc. etc. I am going to try to watch Lost and 24 over the next few weeks.

On Sunday I skipped the usual drunk-fest in the Buddies in Bad Times park that I seem to do every year in celebration of Gay Pride. Instead, I took it easy and got my hair coloured at Coupe. I'm becoming so responsible and mature, it's sickening!

Gridskipper & New York City Stuff

This week I discovered a neat alternative travel website called Gridskipper ("the decadent urban travel guide - scouring the globe for chic hotels, hot restaurants, sweet nightlife, and pretty people")
They rely heavily on maps and lists for their travel stories, which appeals to me, and they have quite a lot of New York City stuff which is also cool. Stories such as Notorious New York Hotels , Cocaine is Everywhere (sorry, this one keeps crashing my computer so you may not want to click on that link) and Civilized & Broke in Manhattan
They did a story on an interesting sounding art exhibition called Get Lost: Portraits of Downtown where 21 artists created pieces, including many maps and an intereting typewritten manifesto about how to ride the bus, all about Lower Manhattan - my favourite part of Manhattan.

some cool pictures I found on the net today....

First some images from The Sanchez Brothers website that I found via daily dose of imagery. These are from an installation called Between Life and Death:





And this one I just found kind of funny and odd:




(from Idolator - apparently discarded cds are becoming a problem)

Celebrity Freakshows

Paris Hilton has been ordered back to jail, apparently. This has turned into such a freakshow, and what better timing than on my weekly day of hangover? It has been splashed all over the celebrity gossip-sphere, as well as having "Breaking News" status on all of the major news networks: Fox, CNN, etc. I am eating this shit up.

Meanwhile, Nicole Richie appeared on Letterman the other night to promote a new season of the Simple Life. She is looking a little bit less emaciated, and is starting to regain the attractiveness that she had in the first season of Simple Life. She proved, once again, that she is the comedic force behind the television series. Letterman grilled her about "young Hollywood" and the trend of rich/famous girls gone wild, including Nicole herself who may end up in jail over a DUI situation similar to Paris'. Dave and Nicole had some pretty choice exchanges, including:

Letterman: “It does beg the question, what has gone wrong with young Hollywood? Honest to God, just look around.”

Richie: “Are you saying what’s my problem?”

Letterman: “No No No no. Just generally, I mean a lot of young people are in a lot of trouble these days and many of our top stars are doing time.”

Richie: “Well I mean, I can’t speak for everyone else, but I mean, it just goes to show that, I don’t, it’s obviously not Hollywood. Everyone goes to jail. All over the world.”

Pretty funny stuff.

So You Think You Can Dance

Last week was the season premiere of one of my favourite reality shows - So You Think You Can Dance. The performers on this show are just so talented that it boggles my mind. Like, it would take me about ten years to learn one dance, and I would probably look ridiculous doing it. Right now they are in the open call stage of the auditions where they get to see the good, the bad, and the terrible a la American Idol. Last night's show took place in Atlanta, Georgia, and by far the two most entertaining performers were the "clogging" guy and the guy with scoliosis. The clogging guy was a geeky, skinny, southern kid, but once he started dancing he was totally transformed - amazing! The guy with scoliosis had a pretty severe spine curvature that affected his walk and posture, obviously, but he did this robot dance to Christina Aguilera's Ain't No Other Man that stole the show. He wasn't put through to the Vegas round, but he was offered a part in a movie that one of the judges is involved with. Very fun!
Next week is the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen (aka Angry Chef) which looks fun. More on that later.