48 Hour Film Project (click here)

48 Hour Film Project
Originally uploaded by duckydale.

I've added a page to my site about my participation in the 48 Hour Film Project - Boston. Check it out!

And in this corner...

And in this corner...
Originally uploaded by duckydale.

Ringside has an album coming out on April 19th and its not normally my "thing" but this synthpop, lazy day duo is making me groove at the moment. I have 4 of their songs and I enjoy them. I enjoy them almost as much as I enjoyed the sythm himself, Mr. Lord of the Flies himself, Mr. Balthazar Getty a wet dream of mine from middle school. Good lord I remember those boys running around half naked, dirty and trying to kill! That's hot.

Changing Directions - Run Ducky, Run!

Changing Directions - Run Ducky, Run!
Originally uploaded by duckydale.

A little gay birdie may have told you that for the past three years I participated in numerous AIDS Rides benefiting both local and national AIDS charities. The reason I originally began these rides was to help educate and raise awareness about this disease as well as challenge myself physically and emotionally to complete these grueling rides. I’ve raised almost $8000 and have ridden over 2000 miles.
Every year I want to keep pushing myself to attempt further distances or tackle a new activity. I was planning on doing an AIDS Ride from Montreal to Boston this summer instead of the ride across Mass. but my financial and “unemployed” status does not favor my participation. I am bummed as it would have been a five day ride through two countries and over 500 miles. What can you do? A guy must eat and have somewhere to live.
For now I believe I will volunteer for the Mass Red Ribbon Ride, possibly being their “film” person, documenting the weekend and their cause. I’ve worked well with AIDS Action and would like to see this ride succeed. This is the make it or break it year and I would still like to participate in a ride I helped form in some way or another. God knows those monthly planning meetings in year one were full of optimism, enthusiasm, and pizza!
Alas I need a new challenge (as if finding a job isn’t challenging enough). For this I’ve decided to tackle the unspeakable for my not so physical of body. I will train this spring and summer for the Boston Triathlon (formerly known as the Monster Challenge) which takes place this September. I know, right? Who? ME you dream stealers! I know how to ride a bike. I can swim a lap or two in a pool or most of the way across Walden Pond. You don’t know!
Starting the first week of April, I will begin my 13 week running regimen that is supposed to have me prepped and ready to run 10k in 13 weeks. It will be hard, but that is why I try to find these challenges each year. If I can’t take a week off for an AIDS Ride through Canada and the US, I can swim in the Boston Harbor, bike down Memorial Drive and run my ass around the wharf dammit!

Jack Jack Attack!

Jack Jack Attack!
Originally uploaded by duckydale.

"Jack Jack Attack" is four minutes of pure comedic enjoyment. Watching what really happened to Kari while babysitting Jack Jack had me in tears. From his fireball persona to his floating through walls this animated short solidifies the fact that Brad Bird is a genius. Her frazzled with the fire extinguisher and mirror the morning after only reaffirms that she was in fact the right girl for the job.

Dueling Canes...

As I was walking in this morning, The Black Maria were blaring on my iPod as I noticed a portly gentleman coming across the atrium with a wooden cane. He was slow, but moving well enough. Not a second later like a whoosh of dust in a Western comes a portly woman ambling towards him with the exact same cane. There is a grand fountain between them and my first thoughts were of a duel. Is there room for only one caned individual in this building? As the tension built (or was that the music) I couldn’t help imagining this fight to the death to see which invalid can stay and claim 2 International Place as their own.

Sometimes I'm So Gay...

At times I don’t believe I fit certain stereotypes about being a flaming queer (like the other day when Jon and I replaced the faucet in our kitchen) but then I find myself thinking I couldn’t be more gay; let’s say like right now when I find myself sitting here singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone” over and over in my head and contemplating the breakup of Alexander Payne and Sandra Oh and why oh why did Mario Vazquez leave me, er... American Idol?

Get That Seat!

The subway trains on the Orange Line (like those on the Red and Blue as well) have seats that line the dirty walls of the car. These seats have enough scooped padding to seat the average ballet class of anorexics not average humans. Given their limited allotment of ass size on any given day, these seats are pushed to their max in the winter when normal sized human beings get on the train in their bulky winter wear. Realistically there is no way to actually seat lets say 4 people in a row, it just doesn’t work. Three is fine because each person can let a partial cheek ride the metal leaving the narrowest of open space or the equivalent of a half seat.
Picture this… every time I am on the train a woman (and honestly it’s only women) will push and pull as she darts for that half space. Almost never saying “excuse me” she wedges her fat middle American white tennis shoe wearing self into that half seat disrupting the seating arrangement that has been agreed upon for the last three stops. Inevitably fat middle American bitchface gets off at the next stop. Her cankles couldn’t handle a :30 second ride to the next fucking stop? I hate these women. Stand, it won’t kill you. We all work all day. We all just got up an hour ago and haven’t had tea. We all would love a seat, but sometimes its just not in the cards you doucebag.

Straight-Edge Stigma

If you didn’t know, you do now. I’ve been straight-edge now for officially 15 years. Straight-edge in case you’ve been living in a cave for the past two decades is when an individual (usually associated with the hardcore-punk scene) takes a personal vow to remain drug-free. That means no drinking, no smoking, and no drugs of any kind. Some people go as far as to include caffeine and sex in the equation but who am I kidding I like some dick and I love me some Diet Coke with Lime. Allow these vices.
Now I am NOT preachy; I don’t go around chastising people on the streets because they are having a glass of wine or shooting up next to me in the theatre. It’s a personal choice I made a long time ago and I’m sticking to it… for me!
The superiority complex I have because of growing up in the hardcore scene and with straight-edge kids does however dip in and out of my now 31 year old psyche on occasion. There are certain things I don’t like to do because of being straight-edge. Let’s give the example of going into a liquor store. It’s weird to me that there is a store for altering a persons being and for encouraging alcoholism. Jon and I went into one last weekend to get Amaretto for a dessert recipe (that would be cooked off) and I wanted to sit in the car because I just felt so awkward about going in. Rationale told me to get. out. of. the. car. you’re being stupid, but there was that moment of hesitation because I didn’t want to be in a liquor store. I acknowledge that it’s not normal and that no one is judging me because I am going into a liquor store. No one is going to take away my membership card! But, there is something that makes me feel somewhat better than that and I want people to know I’m not going in to by alcohol.
I’m sure anyone reading this is instantly thinking: “Hi Judgmental Much?” I guess I am, it’s just that I am proud of being Straight-Edge and Vegetarian for 15 years (formerly vegan for 7) and the attention whore in me wants everyone to know it. I need therapy.

Cleveland Rocks!

Jon and I will be going to Cleveland of all places in May for his niece’s graduation from Oberlin. Flights were dirt cheap, I mean who ever flies to Cleveland? It has never crossed my mind that Clevo would be somewhere my ass would set sights on but alas, it is. What’s the first and only tourist attraction in Cleveland to be visited? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Do they make tires in Cleveland? Is there a giant tire there? Am I thinking of the wrong place? Who can tell me?