Books, Sexuality

Fifty Shades of WHAT

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Eve asked me the other night if I had ever read “Fifty Shades of Grey.” At first, I wondered if she was talking about my yacht club photos.

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But no, I haven’t. I haven’t ever. Which is odd, because I’ll read anything. I guess I was turned off of it from the beginning because it seemed like an orchestrated attempt to create mainstream romanticized porn for people who don’t normally allow themselves the luxury of porn.  With all the hype, people are granting themselves permission. News flash, I’m a guy, and…

allmenYes, ALL guys. So I never really felt the need to take in Fifty Shades. Plus, personally, I’ve never had an interest in the whole dom/sub paradigm. To me it’s right up there with phone sex — too abstracted and contrived to hold any interest for me. We all have our kinks, and I say “meh.”

Then there’s the idea that when something is mainstreamed, it is cartoonified and watered down to an extent that long-time enthusiasts will find it objectionable. So even though I don’t have interest in dom/sub kind of things, I’m pretty well-versed and know all the bullet points, and I object in advance on behalf of those of my friends who live in that world. How’s that for prejudice?

Of course, now that the question has been raised, I feel like I should give it a fair chance just so that I know what I’m talking about. I wonder if it’s out on audiobook. Or should I risk listening to that on the way to (or from) work???

Musicology

Sabina’s Pentatonix tickets…

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Sabina came to me asking to see the seating chart for Patriot Center for the March 19 Pentatonix show that she and I will be attending. After seeing the seats (113 Row W), I convinced her that we should trade in her seats for General Admission floor seats. Despite her initial objections (worries about seeing over tall people) I managed to distill my years of concertgoing experiences and convey the important message of being as close to the action as possible. Plus, as a tiny girl, she’ll be able to squeeze up front.

The disadvantage, aside from the additional expense, is that she will no longer be close to her Internet fan friends way up in section 112.  But please, GA floor is ALWAYS better than nosebleeds.

I think she hopes to be this girl.

Health

Yet another way I’m living in the past…

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Today I revisited an activity I hadn’t participated in since I was, oh, maybe twelve years old or so.  I got tubes inserted into my eardrums again. I had it done a couple of times as a kid, I guess there’s something about my system that causes my ears to not be able to regulate pressure naturally. I like to think that it’s my massive brain squeezing out other required functionality.

In any case, I’m not sure how much better I’m hearing just yet. It does seem better, so far. At least I don’t feel pressure adjustments every time I swallow. I knew it wouldn’t be like magic, because some of my hearing loss is from doing stupid shit – spending too much time around loud noise without protection. But some of it was clearly the result of a pressure differential between inside and outside the eardrum. And now that’s been resolved.

Unlike when I was twelve, this time it was outpatient. I won’t describe the ghastly, barbaric things that I endured today… or maybe I will. Several injections of local anesthetic into each ear canal. Incision into eardrum. Vacuuming up any leftover debris behind eardrum – a process that sounds like jet engines in your ears, and feels like, well, a vacuum, causing highly uncomfortable pressure changes in the ear canal. All of that is better than waking up in a recovery room needing to puke.

Here are some diagrams describing PE Tube Insertion.

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General Musings

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…

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See here how everythingIMG_20150218_105213724_HDR
lead up to this day….

Everything you do, every interaction you’ve had, swirls together to create something sweet and delicious.

And when it’s almost perfect, almost just-right, and the light shines on it, you can see all those things this glorious moment is standing on, and things you once pondered as frivolous take on new meanings. New connections are born, and even history takes on a different perspective.

Your role in the universe is redefined, at least for a moment.

General Musings

Finally got around to watching Blue Ruin tonight…

I finally got around to watching Blue Ruin tonight. I had been hearing good things from people whose opinion I value. I had ordered the DVD, and it had been just sitting here waiting for me to get around to it.  Long weekend = extra day = time to watch Blue Ruin (after watching last night’s Walking Dead, of course, which I missed because we were enjoying SNL’s 40th).

It’s the kind of movie I like. I like difficult movies with dark themes, deep conflicts and ambiguous endings. (Hard Candy, anyone?)  Not that this ending was particularly ambiguous, I guess.  Pretty much everyone involved got what they deserved.

The most important theme, running through the entire movie, is consequence. The characters make decisions, and consequences result from those decisions, which probably could be predicted and prevented, but you know, that whole free will thing gets in the way of common sense and good manners sometimes.

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Art, Mingering Mike, Musicology

Mingering Mike, at the Smithsonian SOON!

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Check out the story of Mingering Mike, which is a magical story of someone’s personal folk art taking on a life of its own, and then go check out the exhibit later this year.

If you’re not completely fascinated and awed by this story, you’re dead inside.  http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/11/-sp-mystery-of-mingering-mike-the-soul-legend-who-never-existed-jon-ronson?CMP=share_btn_fb

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putting more of myself out there