Rebel Prince

Rajani recommends the following: from last weekend’s This American Life on the theme “Allure of the Mean Friend,” a segment by Mike Albo, excerpted from his story “The Underminer,” a character whom he describes as “that passive-aggressive friend who makes you feel like committing suicide every time you see him.” It’s read with such a chirpy, breezy tone. So hilarious. You simply must listen for yourself; it’s Act Three–jump to about 34m 55s into the program (RealAudio). A bit of the one-sided conversation:

You’re here early. Oh my god, do you have my scarf? Did you bring it?

No, that’s okay. No, it’s just that I got it in India when I was there and it’s just this really beautiful thing and I really treasure it. It’s just really important to me. It’s not like the cheaply made Barneys co-op stuff that you buy. I don’t mean you buy, I mean “you buy.” Oh, I wish you would’ve remembered. No, that’s okay. You’re so flaky. […]

Oh, order something? No, no, I’m not drinking anymore. Oh, no, go ahead, have fun. I’m just not drinking anymore. I just realized there’s a little bit more to life. But go ahead, have fun. You’re so crazy.

A quick web search turned up another piece, “Introducing: The Underminer,” which appeared a few months ago in The New York Observer.

How cute is Ellen? Today’s show was pretty much a love-fest with Justin Timberlake. I’m so glad to be getting a daily dose of her stand-up comedy–finally, a talk-show monologue that you know is actually going to be funny.

As part of this week’s Travel Channel homage to New York City, Samantha Brown hosts a special hour of Great Hotels, one of my favorite shows, tonight at 8 p.m. (repeated at 11 p.m.).

Calling all straight guys in the greater NYC area (which makes me wonder if my readership even encompasses that particular demographic), Queer Eye is having an “open casting call” for guys who want to be made over on the show. It takes place at Paramus Park this Saturday (11 a.m.-3 p.m.).

TiVo season passes I’ve recently deleted: Big Brother 4 and The Real World: Paris. Yeah, it was about time. Speaking of season passes, I have one for MI-5, a BBC series that airs on A&E. Any viewers out there? I started Tivo-ing it when it began airing a couple of months ago, but still haven’t gotten around to watching it. Having Tivo, and a high-capacity recorder at that, is a blessing and a curse, eh? It’s nice to have so much recording space, but with a few days worth of programming always at my fingertips, will I ever actually watch it all?

It pours. Hey, kids. Thom’s saga of “family health crises, car woe, and appliance death” continues, unfortunately. Go give him some lovin’: “bad things, good people.”

Bravo goes for meta-reality with The Reality of Reality, a series about the TV genre we love to hate, narrated by Kyle MacLachlan (Sept. 8-12, 9 p.m.). Hm, could be interesting–emphasis on “could be.” This week’s Queer Eye is a rerun. Grr.

Ellen Degeneres’ new talk show premiered today, and I missed it! For you local viewers, it airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on NBC 4. This week’s remaining guests: Justin Timberlake (Tue.), Betty White and Sherri Shepherd (Wed.), Megan Mullaly (Thu.), and Dennis Quaid and Lisa Marie Presley (Fri.).

On Saturday, after a brunch of eggs Benedict at Peppers on 17th Street, Thom and I moseyed into Adams Morgan. We spent some time perusing the fine furniture at Skynear, a great store which takes up four floors of a historic townhouse at 18th and Wyoming. They’ve got lots of unique furniture, and in that setting you really feel like you’re in someone’s fabulous home. We just happened to be in the neighborhood for the annual Adams Morgan festival, and came across a long line of art booths set up on Belmont Street. Lots of cool stuff. It was a lovely day for a stroll.

We were a couple of mallrats yesterday. At Pentagon City, we had lunch at Mozzarella’s, then waltzed (or boogied, really) through Crate & Barrel, visited our good friend Kenny Cole, etc. At DSW, I got two pairs of Skecher mules–the same style in black and brown, of course; and at Borders, I got a couple of books, DVDs, and a CD (see below) which I’m listening to right now. Very swank.

• Salon.com’s Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance, ed. Donald W. George (Chron review)
• At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O’Neill (Times review; first chapter)
• La Bohème, Australian Opera, dir. Baz Luhrmann
• Chicago, dir. Rob Marshall
• Live in Paris, Diana Krall

Tired from shopping–it’s hard work!–we got back and watched Gosford Park, one of my favorite movies. It deserves watching a few times, and at least once with the English subtitles. This was my third time, and I think I’ve finally got a handle on all the characters! I still want to make a family tree and a flow chart, though.

How cute are these travel cases? I don’t know that I’d actually get one for myself, but the thought of me striding down an airport concourse like a supermodel, wearing large Jackie O. sunglasses (headscarf optional) and toting a pink suitcase is rather tempting. They’re available in a range of bright, kicky colors (and black, too) from Wishingfish.com, which carries a whole assortment of other fun items. And if the idea of using the cases for actual travel doesn’t float your boat, Danielle just suggested to me stacking them as a kind of side table (with storage space!), which I think is brill, for say, a retro and/or travel-inspired room. That’s the kind of thinking-outside-the-suitcase I like. (Link via last week’s “Sales & Discoveries” column in the Post.)

I think this photo from 1968 of a United Airlines flight attendant, in an A-line dress uniform, sets the mood (from Time.com’s history of flight: “The Fashionable Skies“; more at United’s website):

Fabulous. This is what travel needs nowadays: the return of a sense of glamor. Those hats can stay behind, though.

So I never got around to detailing last week’s events. Here goes. Work was pretty crazy, since we were up against a deadline and severely understaffed. Nothing new there. But all that was ameliorated (SAT word!) by a couple of outings:

• Thoroughly Modern Millie at Wolf Trap. A wonderful musical at a wonderful venue–we had fantastic seats in the front row, slightly stage left. The touring cast is pretty good, especially Sean Allan Krill (Trevor Graydon) and Diana Kaarina (Miss Dorothy). Darcie Roberts makes a great Millie. As Lou Grant might say, she’s got spunk.
• Ben Folds and Tori Amos at Post Pavilion. Great stuff. Ben singing “Song for the Dumped” in a minor key is one of my favorite bits of his. And wow, for someone like me who hasn’t really listened to Tori Amos, the bulk of the concert was quite a crash course in her œuvre. She was churning those songs out. I definitely need to give her stuff more of a listen: I welcome all offers of CD lending.

I had previously joked with Thom that we’re spending so much time together that all I’ll need to do is link to his blog, so I’ll do that now. See also, elf-reflection: “how the other half lives” and “surreal life.”

How about that Boy Meets Boy finale, eh? Like all “reality” shows, it ends with a long, drawn-out episode, in which all the events up to this point are recapped and rehashed, making you realize you didn’t really need to watch the entire season (fine, there were only six episodes, but still, that’s six hours of our lives)–you could’ve just watched the abridged version and gotten the jist of it.

Was there any doubt about Wes? Clang, clang, clang went the gaydar. Brian was too pretty to be straight. I’m not saying there aren’t any pretty straight guys around, but come on, he had too-perfect eyebrows. Dead giveaway. And what of Franklin? In a way, I was glad he was reduced to a sniveling apologist by the end. He didn’t have to justify the concept of the show, but rather his participation in it.

Did anyone notice that the host, Dani, was nowhere to be seen? Perhaps the producers feared for her life after James gave her the death stare a couple episodes ago, when told about the show’s twist.

Anyway, moving on to other bits and bobs: for those of you who missed the Gay Weddings marathon–I’m talking to you, Susan–Bravo will run all eight half-hour episodes on Friday, Sept. 12, starting at 1 p.m.

I finally watched an episode of Comedy Central’s Reno 911! last weekend. That’s pretty funny stuff. I also caught some South Park, in which President George W. Bush speaks before the U.N., raising allegations that the assumed-dead Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction from secret factories in heaven:

Bush: Our intelligence tells us that when Saddam was originally killed, his soul actually went to hell. But while in hell he began a homosexual relationship with Satan, the Prince of Darkness. Satan, however, decided he didn’t want to be with Hussein anymore and broke up with him about August. When Saddam became jealous and tried to kill Satan’s new lover, Chris, Satan had Saddam sent to heaven to live with Mormons as a punishment. Question? Yes?
Ambassador: Are you high or just incredibly stupid?
Bush: I assure you, I am not high.

Last TV note: I remember hearing about the movie adaptation of Ripley’s Game, starring John Malkovich, but after its run in Europe, Fine Line decided not to release it in U.S. theaters reportedly due to dismal economic forecasts. (Even the official website, though beautiful, is nonfunctional.) Pity. But that’s all backstory. The reviews are mixed, but I can finally catch it for myself tonight on IFC.