Author: Mark Alexander

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The Two Things…

…combined into one image that are forever burned in my memory that sent my 19 year-old imagination to overdrive and launched me on a spiritual journey that lasted for the next 30 years.

 

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Quote of the Day

“Republicans, almost entirely steeped in hatred and bigotry and brainwashed by Hate Talk Radio, no longer have that sense of responsibility for a fellow countryman—or for anything else that benefits America or Americans. Nothing gets beyond the hatred and white rage. And there are no lies too outrageous for them to perpetrate in the service of their goals. The Republican Party has turned itself into a party of sedition and madness.” ~ Down With Tyranny

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Denver

…where you will stop at every traffic light no matter what time of day because idling cars are so much easier on the air and the city’s engineers seem to have a pathological need to prevent traffic from flowing smoothly.

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Quote of the Day

“Tranny is an abbreviation for transvestite and transsexual, so I’m free to use it since I fall with that category. Much as blacks can use the N-word. I know tranny from London, where they abbreviate everything—breakfast is brekkie, biscuit is biccie. Tranny is used affectionately on the club scene. Even transsexual advocates like Jayne County and Kate Bornstein have come out and said that these words aren’t necessarily slurs…

“And I’m sick of people thinking they can ban words because they make them feel bad. Boo hoo for you! Any time we choose a different path in life, we’re going to get shit for it—whether you choose to be openly gay, trans or even a straight guy with tattoos all over his face. If you don’t have the balls to take shit, then choose an easy path. And for huge gay organizations like GLAAD to join in to censor Ru or anyone else confuses me. “Gender bender” is on GLAAD’s list of banned words. That’s what Frank-n-Furter, David Bowie and Sylvester were—that’s not a slur except to the most precious, uptight goody two-shoes.” ~ Lady Bunny

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A Little Impromptu Road Trip

I was looking at my Flickr page the other day and realized it’s been quite a while since I got out and did any photography. I think that’s partially because I’m at the point with Denver that I really don’t want any more reminders of this place. All I know is that every time I take my camera out with me I find no inspiration anywhere.

But photography is an itch I need to scratch every so often, and yesterday I really wanted to go somewhere and capture images of something. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t looking cooperative.

Ben suggested we head west and drive to the top of Mt. Evans.

I was less than enthused at the idea. Yeah, maybe if the sun was shining and dark rain clouds weren’t threatening in the west, but not with the way things were looking when he first proposed the idea.

After lunch the sun was starting to peek out in places, and he convinced me that we at least needed to get out of the apartment and go somewhere other than Starbucks. And since Sammy hadn’t yet been on a road trip with us, it might be a good chance to see how he’d react.

I agreed with the proviso that if my camera battery wasn’t charged all bets were off.

Amazingly, the battery in my camera was fully charged, so we set out on our little adventure, and I’m so glad we did.

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Scenes from a Birthday

Yeah, it’s that time of year. It kind of snuck up on me again. For most of my life I’ve been used to it being over 100℉ when it’s time to light the candles on my cake, and living in Denver—or even in San Francisco for that matter—I never got the usual seasonal clues.

I’ve reached the age where birthdays aren’t as big a thing as they once were; they’re more a realization that I’ve simply managed to survive another trip around the sun and that I’m one year closer to retirement.

That being said, this year will be a memorable one. After I initially located it (may the FSM bless the internets with his noodly appendages!), Ben managed to acquire the one gift I’ve been wanting for many, many months: the German language soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ever since I first stumbled across the This is Halloween on YouTube years ago (that I regularly repost here on the holiday) I was hooked and wanted more, more, MOAR!

I had three years of German in high school and an additional two in college. At that point I was relatively fluent, but over the years it’s faded. Back in 2007 or so I dived back in, getting out all my old textbooks and realized I hadn’t forgotten as much as I’d feared. At one point I even connected with a nurse at the hospital I where I was working at the time who was a native speaker, but just when my skills were getting decent—or at least passable—again, she left for parts unknown.

Even though my auditory vocabulary is once again failing me and at best I can only glean bits and pieces of spoken (reading is slow, but as long as I have a dictionary at hand I can manage) German now, that doesn’t mean I still don’t love the sound of the language, and discovering that there actually was an entire  German language soundtrack available to one of my favorite movies literally made me squeal.

And for the occasion of this birthday, we also chose to support a local restaurant, The Creek Seafood Grill. Delicious is an understatement. I had the Cioppino, and Ben had the scallops. Both dishes were incredible. We’ll definitely be returning. Afterward we stopped by Milk&Cake, where I got as much of a birthday cake as I wanted or needed:

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