Return

Goodness, it has been almost a month with no post. Despite rumours to the contrary, I am not in fact dead so no need to mourn. There is so much that has happened that there is no way I can put it all into one post. Instead I will start with the most recent and try to be diligent and post about everything else as this week goes on. So it is wednesday and I am still sleepy from getting back from Vienna at 3:15am. But it was so worth it. This past weekend I went to Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna. Vienna was absolutely beautiful. Its always nice when there is a huge palace sitting right in the middle of the city. I got to make this trip with Carolyn and Laura, so unlike Spring Break I wasnt totally by myself. Although they did go on to Budapest on saturday while I stayed in Vienna so there was a day when I was by myself. That time was spent in art museums and avoiding the rain in a Starbucks. And I encountered what are now some of my favorites. They had a very nice Vermeer, and a huge collection of Rubens of which I am now a fan. I really would like the painting of Ganimydes that is in the Lichstenstein Palace so if anyone would like to steal it for me go for it. Although buying it might be the safer way to go. There was also this very cool painting by Raphael of St. Margaret. I have no idea who she is or what she did, but its still a very cool painting. I feel like coming to Europe has made me like art more. Well the painted variety. And perhaps sculpture as well, since there was this big one in the lobby of the Art Museum in Vienna that I loved. I have to admit part of it was that the guy in the statue was perfect. How crazy that the Roman and Greek ideal male is the same as what it is today. I wandered past the Institute of Art (which rejected Hitler twice) and they had statues on the outside, and I couldnt help thinking how hot the guys were. Very crazy.

Bratislava was surprisingly nice too. I learned not to judge a city by its train station. The Bratislava train station is dirty and old and was obviouslly built during the communist era, but then we wandered into the center of the city and it was beautiful. We ate lunch on a terrace in the warn sun (that was a nice change) overlooking the plaza and Opera House. Then we even got to have gelato outside! Ah what a wonder warmth can be. So I would for sure recommend this trip to everyone. Although dont make my mistake a wear a pair of too small Pumas the whole weekend. By the end my feet and knee were killing me so much I had to take advil just to go to sleep. There was sadly no "tasting of the cuisine" while I was in either country despite the fact that the people were cute and there were couples making out everywhere in Bratislava. It was a little but ridiculous actually. Although this super cute guy was making out with this girl right next to us at a cafe. I enjoyed staring while I ate a great chocolate parfait. The food was great. In Vienna there was candy everywhere! Where London has a pub on every corner, Vienna has a candy/chocolate shop on every corner. There is just temptation all over. How they aren't the most obese people in the world I dont know. And as crazy as it sounds, I had some of the best Italian food every...at an Austrian restaurant. Everything else on the menu was Viener Schnitzel and such, but there was one Italian dish and it was wonderful. I shall update you soon on Spring Break and other developments.

It's All About Entertainment

Well last night was the Oscar's so what kind of gay man would I be if I didn't blog about the goings on in Hollywood. Well I shall not be like that walking sterotype that ET and the Today Show rely upon to give them fashion advice. In fact I shall not talk about fashion at all except to say that Reese Witherspoon looked great as always. Instead let's talk about Best Picture. Of the nominees I had seen two - Crash and of course Brokeback Mountain. Munich is on my list while Capote is not. Personally I thought the Constant Gardner should have been nominated over Capote, but Im not a member of the academy. Now I liked Crash, it was thought provoking and insightful, but I do not think it deserved Best Picture. The critics here in Britain agree with me and believe that Brokeback Mountain lost because many of the members of the Academy are old conservative folks. Also Crash apparently spent $2 million on advertising for Best Picture - quite fishy. Anyways, I think the wrong movie won. I would have been happy with Brokeback Mountain or even Munich which I am looking forward to, but not Crash.

Well since I decided to go for an entertainment theme, I have decided to highlight one of the things the British do way better than we Americans. That is of course thought provoking television. Now the British have plenty of mindless shows, my favorite being "Shameless" and they import a ton of American television shows (I am not behind on either Prison Break or Desperate Housewives). But Channel 4, one of the basic channels done by BBC has a ton of really good documentary-like shows. Tonight for instance they did a brief thing on torture in Eqypt. Then they had a regular show about the rise of evangelicalism within the Anglican Church and the threat it poses to fundamental freedoms. In a couple weeks they are doing a series on the State of Russia which has one of the coolest, yet disturbing promos ever. Imagine a snowy ground in a forest. There is a close up of a tree and you see blood on it. Then you see an open bear trap with blood on it and it looks like something got dragged through the snow. Then the camera follow the trail and you see the bear dragging itself through the snow leaving a trail of blood. This, by the way, is no cartoon bear, but the real thing so I have no clue how they shot it. All the time the promo is going these voices are saying these facts like "more abortions than live births" and such. The first time I saw this and didnt know what it was about I was disturbed at seeing a bear suffering (I do love the furry animals). Anyways, not only is that a cool promo, the show looks really good as well. They also did one about gay Muslims that was very interesting and good to watch since it was related tangentally to my note. Which by the way is now a first final draft so if for some reason you want to read it you are welcome to. I would not, however, classify it as entertainment. I am no BBC.