Best Music, 2008

Every year I say a little less about music, don't I?

This year I'll keep it super short-and-sweet. My favorite album of the year? Robyn, by Robyn. No one is more surprised by this than me. I also loved @#%&*! Smilers by Aimee Mann, Oracular Spectacular by MGMT, Santogold by Santogold, and A Piece of What You Need by Teddy Thompson.

But the mix of songs I made for 2008 is what really sums the year up for me. Previous years saw a CD-only affair distributed to about five people, but in 2008 it's gone completely digital. No half-steps for me! You can download it here.

And here's a tracklist:
1. The Weepies - Can't Go Back Now
2. MGMT - Time to Pretend
3. Aimee Mann - Freeway
4. Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
5. Alphabeat - Fascination
6. Robyn - Be Mine!
7. Cut Copy - Lights and Music
8. Wood Brothers - Buckets of Rain
9. Duffy - Rockferry
10. MGMT - Electric Feel
11. Aimee Mann - 31 Today
12. Martha Wainwright - Love is a Stranger
13. Santogold - I'm a Lady
14. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
15. Teddy Thompson - Jonathan's Book
16. Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
17. Nada Surf - See These Bones

Next year I'll write a haiku.

Unfit to Lead

Obama's new ad sums it up:

Still Hanging

Well, the writers of As the World Turns are clever folk! They know that they've got their audience panting for Luke and Noah to finally--FINALLY!--have sex, and damned if they're not going to make us wait as long as humanly possible. It's got to happen soon; yesterday's episode pushed aside the last real impediment as Noah came home to Luke after considering enlisting. (I know, I know--how stupid!--but at least now we know Noah won't decide to join the Army at some point down the road.)

In the meantime, my friend Andy, who helped make the guys so popular in the first place by uploading their entire story to YouTube, made this video. Watch through the end for a little surprise...



Oh, and after months of toiling in other people's fields, I have one that I'm tending along with some of the coolest folks I've ever met: www.vanandjake.com. Stop by and see the ducks!

Halfway There

Well, we're halfway through 2008 and so far my CD-buying is continuing its tailspin. Consider that four of these albums are on their way to me right now and three of them I only own because I was asked to review them for Amazon and you can see just how much less music I am buying than in years past. Am I getting old? (I don't have an iPod, so I guess that question answers itself.)

Beck, Modern Guilt
Coldplay, Viva La Vida
Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Jackie Greene, Giving Up the Ghost
Cyndi Lauper, Bring Ya to the Brink
Shelby Lynne, Just a Little Lovin'
Aimee Mann, @#%&*! Smilers
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
Bob Mould, District Line
My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
Nada Surf, Lucky
R.E.M., Accelerate
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Santogold, Santogold
Sigur Ros, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Weezer, Weezer (The Red Album)

Together Again

It's been a long, brutal month, but Thursday Luke and Noah will be reunited...by no less than Cyndi Lauper!

That's right--this Thursday, Cyndi Lauper will appear on As the World Turns to play fairy godmother to Luke and Noah. The show is promoting the hell out of her appearance, with a Web promo video and one on TV.

Tune in Thursday to see Luke and Noah kiss and declare their love for one another!

I Made That!

Look, Luke and Noah kissed again!



I get a special sense of joy from this knowing that my bitching about the lack of kissing was one small part of a very large campaign to make this happen.

Congratulations!

Report: DeGeneres, de Rossi plan to marry - Celebrities- msnbc.com

Ellen may not have had any direct hand in yesterday's ruling, but her bravery a decade ago certainly helped kick off the sea change in attitudes about gay relationships we've seen since.

I hope she throws the wedding of the year. She deserves it, and seeing it will help a lot of people understand why gay marriage matters.

Tears of Joy

Gay marriage ban overturned in Calif. - msnbc.com

Funny how this doesn't seem quite as revolutionary as Massachusetts, and yet...it means just as much , maybe more.

And good news: "I respect the court's decision and as governor, I will uphold its ruling," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a statement. "Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this (ruling)."

Wow.

LOOK!

I cannot believe this happened. I am in utter shock. Also ecstasy.

Seize the Day!

Amazon.com: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death: Irvin D. Yalom: Books

This is a tough book to get into. That's not a knock on Yalom, whose writing is engaging and warm throughout despite a chilly topic. But who really wants to ponder their own mortality for 300 pages?

But this is a book that, once you get into it, can change your life. I finished it two months ago, and I am reviewing it now because I've finally had time for it to sink in. I challenge you to read this book and not come away reconsidering your priorities, questioning whether the choices you have made in life are the right ones, wondering if you're letting your fears dominate your life.

So much of what we fear, Yalom argues, is really our fear of death, of the transitory nature of existence, of the one way flow of time. And only by facing up to these realities, and to the possibility that this is all there is, can we wake up, grasp what a gift it is to be alive, and seize the opportunity we have in whatever time we have left.

In short, this seemingly morbid little tome can wake you from your slumber and get you pursuing happiness again. Give it a shot.

This review has been posted on Amazon.com. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death was provided for review as part of Amazon's Vine program.

Nuke Monday

The AP article on Luke and Noah has exploded; it's suddenly everywhere!

Including the front page of FoxNews.com:



And the front page of USA Today's Life section (in the actual paper):



And even, finally, the front page of The Advocate's Web site:

Going Worldwide

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | US soap viewers demand gay kiss

People are reading about Luke and Noah in Britain this morning!

Let My People Kiss!

Unexpected protest at a soap - Yahoo! News

And then it was everywhere. The Associated Press has a story by David Bauder out this morning, and it's appearing on the Web sites of major newspapers, and a lot of smaller ones, across the country. Luke and Noah are everywhere!

EDIT: Including the New York Times, where the story has a better headline: Unexpected Soap Protest Favors Gay Kiss.

Keep It Coming

Their soap smooch made history. Fans ask: Will it happen again? - The Boston Globe

First the LA Times, then the New York Daily News. This morning readers in Boston woke to find Luke and Noah on the front page of their paper's arts section, accompanied by one of the hottest pictures ever committed to print:



















The media blitz continues!

Round Two

Gay kiss is missed on soap

Well, readers in America's two largest cities will learn about Luke and Noah today. The New York Daily News has a piece on the couple and their lack of kissing this morning.

Who knew that if a bunch of people wrote to TV critics, those critics might write articles about the subjects of all those letters?

Going National

Soap fans claim bias against gay characters - Los Angeles Times

Well, would you look at that! A journalist at a big paper has written about the Luke and Noah storyline!

Don't be surprised if this isn't the last you see about them...

Putting a Hole in the Floor

Concerns over Economy Push George W. Bush's Overall Job Approval to New Low

According to this poll, his approval rating is 19%.

That's right. 19.

The previous low in this poll is 25; last month he was at 34. Can Americans really be getting smarter THIS quickly?

A Most Unusual Birthday Gift

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location - New York Times

Thank you, Sam Roberts! An article about the semicolon--one of my favorite pieces of punctuation, right up there with the long dash--is exactly what I wanted for my birthday!

Gimme a Kiss

There are a lot of reasons to be outraged in the world, so I don't expect you to add this to your list. But on Thursday, for Valentine's Day, As the World Turns aired a special fantasy episode in which different couples on the show imagined how their lives might have played out if certain things had happened. In Luke and Noah's case, they imagined what would have happened if Noah had followed his father's wishes, enlisted in the Navy, and never met Noah.

Over the course of the episode, well...


Everyone kissed but them. As the video shows, they were about to kiss in "reality," but an extra walked by.

They have not kissed, on-screen, since September 26. At this point, the show has achieved quite a feat--it has managed to make its portrayal of an extremely romantic young gay couple seem homophobic.

If that strikes you as wrong, feel free to visit the Support Luke and Noah page to find out how you can help.

In the meantime, I've written a sequel to The Photo Shoot. It's called The Dressing Room. It may be the last part of this little tale...time will tell!

Gore on Gays

Remind me, again: Why is this man not president?

Where My Mind Has Gone

rmn21879 - The Photo Shoot

Wondering where my head is at lately? Look above. Warning: real-person slash.

You Can't Show That On TV!

As long as I'm posting things today, I thought I'd share the video below. As you may or may not realize, the reason I haven't been blogging all that much is that I spend my online time helping keep the Luke and Noah Wiki up and running and chattering about daytime TV's first gay couple with others on a fan site that will remain nameless (to protect me from extreme embarrassment).

Well, that gay couple shared daytime's first gay kiss back in August, and a second in September, but now that they're boyfriends--as opposed to a gay guy and a guy who's struggling to accept who he is--they don't kiss anymore. So a bunch of us looked for screencaps of all the little moments of affection that have replaced the affection, and someone put them all together in this video. Enjoy!

Mitt for Brains

The Onion diagnoses Mitt Romney's tolerance problem | AfterElton.com

It's been more than a month between posts, but in the wake of Mitt's remarkable win in his birth state last night, I thought the link above would be a good reminder of why he may be my least favorite of the presidential candidates.

I would welcome him as the Republican nominee, though--I think he'd get crushed in November!