Daily Loaf

One night, several years ago, after enjoying a few pitchers of beer at The Brass Mug during karaoke night, my friends and I thought it’d be a good idea to do our own fabulous take on Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which also happens to be one of the few times I voluntarily performed karaoke. My then-boyfriend, now-husband joined us on stage, and let me tell you, it was one of the most fun times I’ve had making a fool out of myself (I took all the opera high notes). My husband pretty much falling off the stage at the song’s climactic finale provided one of the night’s highlights, since he managed to land, not gracefully, but without hurting himself.

I just got a link to what I consider a much better rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” this one performed by the entire cast of The Muppet Show. PLEASE watch this. It is NOT lip-syncing but presented with the voices of our dear Muppet friends — and Animal’s part is too classic for words. Literally. It will make your holiday weekend, I promise. [Video still pictured; check it out in all its musical glory after the jump.] Read the rest of this entry »

Carrie Prejean is the latest tabloid queen, poised to gain ever more fame and fortune off her pubic indiscretions. The latest twist in this dethroned beauty queen’s saga comes in the form a “sex tape,” which lawyers for the Miss California USA Pageant unveiled in court against Prejean. The video was apparently so powerful that Prejean quickly settled for little more than what would cover her legal fees. Read the rest of this entry »

To truly understand my outrage at U2 front man, Bono, accepting knighthood from the queen of England, allow me to put it into historical context.

England calls herself the United Kingdom these days. It sounds better than the English Empire. “Empire” got a bad rap in the Star Wars trilogy so for international marketing every scam kingdom on earth now refers to itself as United, like the United Arab Emirates which is a collection of U.S.-hating mongrel sheikhdoms that have a population just over two million people but we kiss their asses just the same.

Bono with his hand up Tony Blair’s ass.

England has killed a great many people in her history, England has looted and decimated many cultures and destroyed many languages and belief systems that she deemed to be inferior to her own.– The United States likes to tout itself foremost as a place of religious freedom in reaction to English repression, but in reality england miscalculated her own sons when it came to the Americas. England had a wonderful formula to maintain control over inferior people, but her own citizens, when left without proper supervision, realized they could just steal the land and franchises awarded to them by their King. To do this they had to spin their project to reflect something noble like freedom of religion and taxation without representation so that commoners might be willing to die for them. Our founding fathers, land owners and franchisees of the Crown crafted two of the most clever pieces of advertising copy every wrought, the Preamble to the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And it worked to gain the support of the working masses, the same ones who do the fighting and dying now.

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Look out for this week’s very special “Vinyl Saturday” releases, exclusive to indie music retailers.

VINYL:

Avett Brothers – “Slight Figure of Speech” 7″
Special Vinyl Saturday (September 5th) 7″ release with pic sleeve.

Big Star – “Feel” b/w “Mod Lang“ 7″
Special Vinyl Saturday (September 5th) 7″ release with pic sleeve.

The Black Crowes – Before the Frost… Until The Freeze
Before The Frost features 11 new unreleased Black Crowes studio songs. The bonus album Until the Freeze adds 8 new original Black Crowes studio songs plus a cover version of Stephen Stills’ “So Many Times”.

Mars Volta – Octahedron
Another special Vinyl Saturday (September 5th) release. 2LP set.

Queen – A Kind of Magic
Queen – Flash Gordon
Queen – News of the World
Queen – Queen
HQ-180 vinyl reissues — some include bonus tracks.

Various Artists – Ze 30: Ze Records 1979-2009
Ze remains one of the great cult labels of its time. With this new compilation, Strut takes a snapshot of the many weird and wonderful fusions that surfaced on its famous taxi cab-influenced yellow and black label. Highlights include one of the earliest outings by Was (Not Was) and a Larry Levan mix of Kid Creole’s biting parable about corruption in the Caribbean.  Other featured artists include Ze label regulars Cristina and Bill Laswell’s Material.

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Unfaithful politicians have been around since, well since as long as there have been politicians. So why do we now expect philandering political figures like Senator John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford to resign because of an affair? Many Americans see infidelity as a major source of the erosion of morals and marriages in modern times. The truth is that spouses have always been unfaithful, it’s just now more socially acceptable to get divorced over an affair. Samara O’Shea of the Huffington Post goes against the grain in her article on adultery, reminding us that if our society was going to collapse because of adultery, it would have happened a long time ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Soon after moving from Gainesville to Tampa only months ago, I began my search for a local poker game. Such illicit activity is not always easy to find.

My old Gainesville poker circuit was pretty robust. There was the Wednesday night game at Damion 2.0’s, Thursday nights at JD’s place and Friday’s at Brother Bill’s, not to mention Mr. C’s debaucherous, bimonthly 17-hour poker binges.

Damion 2.0 Wednesday’s were $20 buy-in cash games with re-buys allowed as long as you had money in your wallet. Things would start around 7 pm, with people coming and going all night long. It was a game characterized by über-aggressive play. With blinds holding steady at $0.25-$0.50, it was rare to see a flop for anything less than $3.25. It was not uncommon to see someone win or lose up to $400 in a single night.

Thursday nights were my original house game at JD’s place, where the liquor was always free-flowing. We’d generally start the night with quarter games, i.e., Five Card Draw, Follow the Queen, In-Between or Screw Your Neighbor. Years back, we’d play tournament style but that slowly made its way to a cash game. A lot of the old school guys dropped out when things got too cutthroat, but the game also gained people as it got more competitive.

Friday nights at Brother Bill’s were much more casual. With as many as 18 players on any given night, Bill’s game was strictly tournament play. A gracious host, Bill’s open bar always kept people animated on a Friday.

I played at all three of these venues for well over a year. The environs were comfortable. Every seat, every table, every format, every friend.

Enter the new house game: Read the rest of this entry »

Don't worry, the fellas clean up pretty good…

I didn’t tell my husband where we were going.  I really should have after suggesting he wear his pink polo shirt. It’s a stereotype, I know, but I couldn’t resist. I’m not saying he voted for McCain, but I’m pretty sure he voted for Reagan. Twice.  I called earlier in the day and asked “Hey, babe, wanna go see a play tonight?”  Rhetorical question; the answer is and must always be “Sure.”

3 Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff: The name alone is enough to get me in the door. The bar in the Crown Theater with half-price drinks ensures that we will stay through intermission.  Never been to Club Nautico, never knew there was a theater in the back room, never knew there was a back room. Gypsy Productions can be counted on to bring fun, campy, sometimes poignant shows to Tampa Bay audiences and they rarely make me feel like I wasted an evening.  3 Guys… was no exception.  It may not change your life but it may make you change your red muumuu.

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Last night, Dereck and I attended the SuperNova Sunday event at NOVA 535 (535 Dr. M. L. King Jr Street N, Saint Petersburg, FL 33701, (727) 821-6682). I’ve been spending a lot of time at NOVA lately, and when I heard they were putting on a weekly party that was part Gong Show and part social gathering, I decided it was time to go do a photo shoot.

More pics after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Is your Kitty Purry? Video after the break

Pandemic?  We don’t need no stinkin’ pandemic.  The world might be in a state of blinding fear but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the faces in the crowd at Katy Perry’s bay area appearance on 4/28.  The Rabid one was a part of the wily crowd and has to say, sex was flowing in the air and it had a palpable taste.

She kissed a girl and hell yeah she liked it. Her pseudo lesbian moment brought the people out en mass to Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg.  Ok, I know what you’re thinking, “who cares about pop music’s current female sensation?”  But a quick study of the mostly estrogen fueled audience yields fascinating results.   Read the rest of this entry »