who's earl grey?

I don't know who he was, but I love his tea.

(And the decaf Twinings I bought smells like candy buttons. Yum.)

no wonder i have a chemical sensitivity to perfume

I returned not that long ago from an advance screening of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at Paramount Studios. The best part may have been not knowing where to find the theater, walking around, and passing under the famous gates. As a film fanatic, I have to admit it was pretty cool to just wander a studio lot.

Anyway, the movie is beautiful, but it's too damn long. And they pulled that Peter Jackson slo-mo bullshit at the end while I squirmed in my seat. And by the way, you have to completely suspend disbelief to buy into the ending. Something I'm almost positively incapable of doing. And I wanted to like the movie. Allie heard it was bad, and it certainly had its moments of camp (without the gay connotation, though). But it seemed promising with a narrator from the present telling us about pre-revolutionary 18th century Paris. And I wanted to sympathize with our protagonist and his incredible sense of smell. I guess I should just be glad that my sense isn't so strong that I become a murderer. And he's ironically drawn to perfume, but then again, even if with my instant migraines, I'd probably be desperate for it in the filthy, stinky 18th century, too.

transgender confusion?

This week I learned of two socially disturbing things. Ok, I probably picked up a couple others somewhere, but these are two prominent ones that are related. First, The Bible's industry news reported that the soap All My Children will debut a transgender character named Zarf. And GLADD was all excited about it. I am all for the greater visability and understanding of transgender individuals, but let's step back for a moment. What the hell kind of name is Zarf? It sounds like an alien. Yeah, that's exactly the impression we want to give the wider, ignorant public about transgenders. They're so fucking weird they don't even have human names. No transgender person I've ever met has introduced himself/herself as anything so ambiguous. Just now I googled "zarf" to verify the name of the soap, and it turns out it's a word found in both Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia, and the principle meaning is the sleeve that protects your hand from that hot cup of whatever. The devil is in the details. If you're going to celebrate diversity, let's do it respectfully.

The next day after learning about Zarf, I was driving west on Sunset headed home when I saw a billboard that reads, "HIV is a transgender disease. Get tested." And yes, the emphasis was in the original. The background features women of all sorts. I get that the city (yes, it was put up by the city's AIDS Council) is trying to target women since most of the other billboards regarding HIV/AIDS awareness feature men, but why use "transgender"? I have never before seen "transgender" used to refer to both men and women. "Transgender" is a confusing enough word as it is. And now your images say one thing, but the text reads another. It's potentially damaging and stigmitizing. What the hell were they thinking?

celebrity breakfast

I generally detest breakfast food, so it's odd when I get a craving for that kind of stuff. Earlier in the week, I decided I really wanted to have pancakes, but I never made it to somewhere to have them. So this morning I decided I was going to have breakfast at the Brite Spot.

And guess who I saw there? Jeremy Sisto! I was sitting at the counter facing the entrance, and he was dining in a booth behind me with a bearded guy wearing a baseball hat (I didn't recognize him). Yes, I'm pretty sure it was him. When I first spotted Jeremy there was a moment of, "You know that looks like...but is it?" Then I heard him speak. He has that sexy, low voice which is unmistakable. I don't know if it was the beard or if he's picked up some weight since the cancellation of Kidnapped but he was a little fuller in the face. Still quite hot though. At the risk of sounding a bit like The Bible's celebrity news, I'll tell you he takes honey and cola with his pancakes, but I won't tell you what color his Prius is!