Life Beyond the Casinos

I finally downloaded the pictures from our camera.  I will post a few here, including a picture of our new chandelier we found at an antique store.

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We took a picture of Planet Hollywood because it may be gone soon.  This property seems to be doomed.  It has been bankrupt twice in the last 10 years.  Maybe the new owners can keep it open.  It was once the Aladdin and has nice shopping mall attached called Desert Passages.  Then it became PH and the mall was renamed the Miracle Mile.  Now it is owned by Harrah’s, we shall see what they do to it if anything.

If you don’t have somthing nice to say, let others speak for you:

Myth of the ‘gay lifestyle’ justifies bias

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/06/granderson.gay.lifestyle/index.html

Decadent, isn’t it?

http://www.gaylifestyle.info/

Lifestyle or Licentiousness?

http://www.whosoever.org/Issue7/lifestyle.html

John Stewart comments of George Rekers . . . amongst other matters:

http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2010/05/john-stewart-comments-on-george-rekers.html

Today marks our 11th year together.

DP Bears

 They call these  “Gay Civil Partnership Bears”, but here in Reno we are only DPs.

Tonight we are down to the final six on DWTS.  We are also down to the final six on AI.  I have six more laptops to configure before I go home today….

Okay it not really the mark of the beast but close enough.  Who will go home tonight on DWTS?  I predict that Baywatch girl has run out of personalities or the Romeo has given his last rose (or Niece ate it!).

As for AI, I am looking forward to hearing Crystal nail it one more time.  I am hoping that Lee does something memorable.  I have all but given up on Siobhan.   I am not so crazy about tonight theme Shania, but I am hoping for the competition to heat up.

I loved seeing Wanda on last weeks elimination show/charity event, Idol Gives Back.

Wanda Skyes

We saw two contestants go home on AI. I think America got it right this time. I know Andrew has some fans and so did Katie, but this is a competition and somebody has to lose. I am still looking for the final 3 to be Crystal Bowersox, Lee Dewyez, and Siobhan Magnus, although “turbine” (Tim Urban) is trying really hard.

As for DWTS, that went down pretty well too. I would have liked to see Kate go home but I was just as happy to see soap opera boy leave instead.

Top Eleven

It’s down to eleven contestants.  This week the boys and girls preformed together on one night and on the big stage and looks theme nights and the judges save are back too.  The theme this time was the Rolling Stones.   Amazingly they did a better job at this then they have in previous seasons, but you could tell it just wasn’t working for all of them.  My favorite is still hanging in there, Crystal Bowersox , but others didn’t fare so well.

The judges seem to be given a lot of mixed comments this year.  Don’t do it like the original, don’t mess with a classic just sing it, bad song choice, more energy, that songs to big for you,  you played it too safe.  Is it just me or have we been hearing the same jargon for 9 seasons.   I know Paula really didn’t add much in the advice department, but I really miss her cheerleader attitude and bizarre behavior.  If the contestants were boring at least the banter between Paula and Simon was always entertaining.

So this week we say good bye to Lacey.  To be honest, she was doomed from the start.  Her cartoonish voice just doesn’t have the range for all these horrible theme nights.  I like her, but she is not the girl next door diva singer of Idols past.  I wouldn’t say she should have been the first to go, but she wasn’t going to make it to end either.   For that matter we don’t really have any girls next door or diva’s this season.   A lot of bloggers and critic have been saying that Tim Urban should be gone.   And yet he tried to put his own spin on “Under my thumb”.   Was it as good as the original….well I think a better question is would we have listened to the original if it weren’t for Mick Jagger?  Somehow bands that stay around for 30 years become classic untouchables.   I don’t think it is fair for Idol to even have a Rolling Stones night if they want to compare them to the originals.   We all have memories associated with those hits so we are less open to new interpretations.  

Maybe they shouldn’t tell us who the original artist was and let us just experience it for the first time.  Of course that wouldn’t help with the judges.  I think maybe they have made up their minds during rehearsals.  Enough ranting.   I will miss the quirky Lacey, but we still have some quirkiness left so maybe it’s all good.

One more rant…..what song choices do they actually have….I have heard in interviews with former contestants that they had to switch songs at the last minute because they couldn’t get the rights to sing the one they were rehearsing.   I think it is probably a very small list to choose from so when Simon says of all the songs from the 60’s why did you choose that one…..was there really any choice at all?

Life has a strange way of presenting itself. I dream (in color) of my wondrous past….rewritten, because it wasn’t so wondrous. These dreams organize the past and my memories in such a way as to make them perfect.

When I am awake I will try and make each day perfect so my dreams don’t have to do all that work.

So, now that I have set an impossible goal for today, maybe I should just go back to bed.

The new year bring hope and promise for a better future. 2009 was long and tedious with so many life changing events since my last blog in 2005. Where do I begin? Let’s see I was supposed to go to New Orleans for Labor Day (Southern Decadence) and you know what happened to that plan, Hurricane Katrina, Rev. Storm, etc. We converted our tickets (thankfully we had purchased trip insurance) and went to Las Vegas instead. Spent too much money and came back to work to find I had been laid off and to top it off it was my birthday. Nice present. So things went down hill for 4 years (well not really, but it was bad).

Now I am living in Reno and working for a great place. The money is about 1/3 what I used to make but I am happy! My partner has retired and we enjoy time with our family. No more fancy vacations for a while but learning to live on less is good. The stress is gone!

That’s 4 years in two paragraphs, of course lots of other things happened but this is 2010 and I am ready for great things to happen! Maybe we’ll return to New Orlean this year, after all I am turning 50, we need to celebrate.