What?!?  Concert time again?!?  Two ib a week?!?  Well, that's how things worked out.  Different venue.  Different genre.  Different crowd.  The band was Third Eye Blind and the venu was the outdoor Sandia Amphitheater.  It was a beautiful night and we had great center seats (as opposed to Ringo where we were off to the side.  It was a more mixed crowd with very few walkers and wheelchairs.  The show started off weird in that the band suddenly appeared and did an obscure song.  Was this an opening act?  They were tight.  The guitar and vocals sounded like TEB, but I wasn't sure.  Finally they broke out into "Graduate", and I knew it was them.  The show reminded me of last year's "Offspring" concert where I knew the classic songs of the early 90s while the younger crowd was more familiar with their newer stuff.  No "woohoo" girls since we were all rockin' out.  The show ended with "Semi-Charmed Life"  (when I soberly drunk-dialed Dexter Fox to lrt him hear it) with an encore of "How's It Going To Be."

Kitty and myself as well as my sister went to go see Ringo Starr and his all-star band again last night.  I had to check the old LJ archives to see when was the last time we saw him was, and the answer was 3 years ago.  In reading the post I could pretty much do a cut and paste.  The lineup was identical with the omission of Edgar Winter.  The song list was pretty much the same with hits from Ringo/Beatles, Average White Band, Men At Work, and Toto.  You've also never seen so many wheelchairs/walkers/ oxygen tanks at a rock show.  At least my sister got to experience such a show like this in a long time.  The only downside were two idiotic "woohoo girls" a few rows in front of us who felt like they had to "dance" the entire show.

I recently discovered a magic button in Firefox.  I have been trying to find a text-to-speech function in browsers.  I usually read "right click on highlighted text and you should get an option for read aloud.  Bullshit.  I wanted to "read" candidates' websites for our upcoming primary, and so I tried asking again.  This time I specifically asked for Firefox, and it said to look for an icon near the address bar.  Found it.  It had an option for text-to-voice.  Woohoo!  It worked!  Now I don't have to do cut-and-paste into Outlook which has a voice function.  It's so much easier now to read Procyon's mega-posts *LOL*

My last post like this was only 3 months ago, but the spring lineup this year was pretty solid.  Like I mentioned in my last post, I watch a few of the late night shows.  They usually get some star that I have not heard of schleping their new TV show, and some time the shows actually sound interesting, sp I'll give the show a watch.  Many times the show has been on for years and I'm just now hearing about it.

"The Madison" — Paramount  I think the producers of "Yellowstone" really liked Montana, so they came up with a new story which is another take on "fish out of water."  A wealthy New York City family discovers the beauty of a more relaxed and simple life.  It is a bit contrived to have the young daughter instantky fall in love with the handsome rugged sheriff, bit the overall plot is pretty sweet.  

"The Comeback" -HBO  Jenifer Aniston plays a meta character of an actress who hut it big in the 90s (*cough* "Friends" *cough*) and now struggles to regain and keep relevance in the new always shifting media market.  Her desire for popularity is wonderfully cringe.

"DTF: St Louis" -HBO  It;s a murder mystery wrapped around sexual perversion centered around a hook-up site which stands for "down to fuck."  It has great character development with Jason Bateman at the center.  The story unfolds where nothing is as simple as it seems.

I just got back from another fun-filled long weekend with Al and Dex is SoCal.  I got to experience Southwest's new boarding scheme and my reaction is a resounding "Meh!."  Most people seem to feel the same way, but since they still have a non-stop to Burbank, it works.  Like usual, it was mainly drinking, talking, and listening to tunes.  We tried to do something different on Saturday; going to Long Beach for Fleet Week, but we would have had to wait over 3 hours for a tour.  We wanted Mexican food for lunch, but the boyz couldn't find the nearby place that they once knew.  So it was back to The Domain where we walked to a nearby Mexican place for some really tasty food and margaritas.  On Sunday we went to a drag brunch in W Hollywood.  I took this opportunity to come out a little more, and I went in drag myself.  LJ confession time.  I am not trans, but I am definitely non-binary/ gender fluid.  I have tried to make my appearance as feminine as possible in subtle ways.  I'm really enjoying it in a very safe, controlled way.  Mostly I just do it at home or in safe spaces like a con, or as in this case, a drag show.  The performers were fabulous.  I had a great time including brunch consisting of Barbie French Toast; strawberry angel food cake toast with strawberry syrup, whipprf cream, and rainbow sprinkles.   There was not much more to the weekend except for more beer, whiskey, and music videos from the 70s and 80s.  Fun!

A bit of the Rolling Stones to start the post.  Kitty and I just got back from NYC as part of a Broadway package U won in a charity auction last Dec.  We got 3 nights in a 5-star hotel in Times Square plus tickets to 3 Broadway musicals of our choice.  We added a 4th night so we wouldn't be rushed.  The 1st show was "Operation Mincemeat" which I knew was about fooling the Nazis in WWII into thinking there would be an invasion of Sardinia and not Sicily.  How do you make a comedy about a dead body?!?  It works!  5 actors do all of the roles.  It includes a Nazi rap that equals "Springtime for Hitler."  The audience cheers the performance and s British officer appears and says "Whose side are you on?!?"  *lol*

Next was "Death Becomes Her" which is the musical adaptation of the Streep/Hawn/Willis movie.  It was much more Broadway musical with big cast and sets.

Finally there was "Maybe Happy Ending" which can best be described as an android love story.  It won the Best Musical Tony last year.  There were only 4 cast members, and they did a masterful job.  The set design was relatively simple yet mind-blowing how the stage constantly shifted.  Add LED special effects and you have a really unique experience.

Oh, LJ.  How I have neglected you.  Last Saturday marked the end of the 2025-26 theater season with a musical adaptation of the movie of the same name.  Wow.  It has been 33 years since the Robin Williams movie premiered, and it has probably been that long since I saw the entire movie.  The musical was nice.  Nothing to rave about, but a good, fun performance.  At least it got me to go back and re-watch the movie.

I had to check my archive to see when was the first time we saw this dance company perform in ABQ.  It was 19 years ago!  Thank you LJ!  We saw them again several years ago, and we knew we had to see them again this time.  The only difference is that I now can't SEE much of anything.  I told Kitty that I could barely enjoy about half of the action. Oh well.  We might try to get even better seats in the future.  Maybe I could enjoy the intricate dance moves a little better.

My posts are a few days behind.  Yes, Kitty and I kept up our tradition of watching the annual award show.  This time I was happy that I had seen 7 out of the 10 Best Picture nominees.  Yes, the best film won.  I saw "One Battle After Another" while visiting The Boyz back in January.  I had to re-watch it a few weeks later without the Albear running commentary.  I also could appreciate the fact that even though the situation could apply today, it was a complete work of fiction based on no historical event.  I'm losing my edge when it comes to animation.  I saw none of the nominees and really have no desire to watch K-pop.  I saw 3 of the 5 documentaries, but not the one that won.  Foreign films are no longer possible for me.  We also made no effort to see the short films, something we enjoyed doing in the past.

To modify a quote from Beetlejuice..."I've seen 'The Book of Mormon' 3 times, and it gets funnier every single time!"  That was last Saturday.  This time we invited Scritchwuff because he knew OF the musical and some of its more famous songs, he had never seen the actual musical.  Just by chance Parker and Stone were on Colbert last night so I got even more insight into the musical which is celebrating 15 years.  It is just so good.  Maybe it was just something I needed at this moment, but at one point I did actually laugh until I cried.  The production was stellar.  The whole audience knew what to expect, so everyone was in a great mood.  The power of theater.

I just got back last Wednesday from a 2 week vacation to Hawaii.  Last fall during a weekly C.U.N.T. Scritchwuff and I were lamenting that it would be months before we could enjoy sitting on the patio drinking bourbon at night.  Unless...we go someplace warm.  We loved the chillness of the Big Island, so we asked our travel agent to find us a place.  Since all we really cared about was a chill vibe, she suggested Kauai.  Once Kitty saw there was a Costco there, we were onboard.  Our agent found us a cottage on the beach on the southwest side of the Island in the town of Waimea.  Scrtch and I showed up fist.  Al and Dex showed up a couple of days later.  They left after several days and Kitty showed up for the remainder of the time.  It was everything we hoped for.  Our porch was 100 yards to waters edge with bi rocking and Adirondack chairs.  There were huge trees everywhere.  We had our own gas grill on a patio.  It was literally paradise.  We didn't do a whole heck of a lot over 2 weeks outside of drink and relax.  Here are some bukket points:

The amount of alcohol that was consumed was staggering icluding 6l of bourbon, 6l of wine, and approximately 120 beers.

It has been 3 months since my last media post.  Dark, cold days of winter means time in front of the tube.  So what have been my pleasures?  Let's start off with the talk shows I continue to enjoy.  I blame Al and Dex for this.  When I visit I partake in their daily ritual of "watching clips."  Al compiles the monologues of the previous nights' shows and watches them all.  The attacks against Trump are comic gold.  This is especially true for Colbert who will be canceled in May, and Kimmel who faced the Orange Wrath and survived due to public support (and the Mouse afraid of losing his cheese).  He comes after Trump with both barrels blazing every night.  Then there's "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central which is best on Mondays when hosted by John Stewart, but the rest of the week can be pretty good as well.   While the Boyz just watch the monologues, I watch the whole show.  As soon as a celeb mentions their kids or thir pets, however, it's fast forward time.  The same thing with musical acts.  You sing gospel or start to rap...FF.  There's also Sth Meyers in there, but he's the weakest of the bunch.  Of course there's still Maher and Oliver, but they're always staples.  What else is on?

"Landman" — Paramount — It's still one of the best shows currently on.  S2 saw Sam Elliot joining the cast as Billy Bob Thorton's dad.  There's a powere actor pair right there.

On Saturday night Kitty and I hit the theater once again for a performance by Les Ballet Trockodero de Monte Carlos which is an all-nale dance troupe that perform light-hearted versions of ballet, mostly as ballerinas.  Their talent is top-notch, and it's a pleasure to watch.  We had seen them several years ago , and we had to see them again.

It was theater time again last night and this time it was a bio-mus about Neil Diamond.  Not to be confused with "Beautiful" which was the bio-mus about Carol King.  My feelings towards Diamond's music can best be described as indifferent.  To me it was old lady music like fat, bloated, Las Vegas Elvis or Liberace.  It was there.  I think "Sweet Caroline" became such a hit at sporting events was because of the irony.  It was fun to sing pop pablum that seemed out of place during a baseball or football game.  The plot device for the musical was an older Neil going thriugh therapy after his career.  Poor little Jew boy finds fame and success and whines about it.  Wah!  The show is saved by high-energy performances which were very enjoyable.  Overall, I'm getting bored with the whole bio-mus genre.  We've had 3 this season and that's one too many.  At least next week I get transvestite ballerinas.  Stay tuned!

For the 3rd year in a row I decided to skip FC, this time by choice.  The previous 2 years were no-go because we couldn't find a room.  This year Dex got a room at the Westin, but the $300+ a night price tag made me balk.  Plus, part of the magic of FC was the roadtrip.  It was always a gamble to see if I would hit snow somewhere.  Obviously, my driving days are over.  Instead I hopped a non-stop flight to Burbank to spend a week with The Boyz.  It was a fun week of pretty much doing nothing but chatting and drinking (what I would be doing at the con, but for $1200 less.  My high (low?) point was downing an entire fifth of bourbon over about 9 hours.  I impressed Dex by pretty much quoting every line from "Blazing Saddles."  There was lots of good food and conversations.  Fortunately the temps were around 80, so we spent a lot of time outside listening to KHUG, a commercial-free rock station.

We spent all last week sailing the Caribbean om the ultimate relax-o-cruise.  We wanted a cruise vacation but we all couldn't decide on dates or destination.  Since Kitty was the main roadblock , we let her do the planning.  She found a reasonable length over the holiday on one of Celebrity's brand new ships.  It hit all the right buttons.It went from FL to Cozumel and back.  Al and Dex opted out, so it was just Scritchwuff that joined us.  The entire time was spent eating, drinking, and chilling.  We walked around a little in Cozumel, but we mainly just hing out on the ship enjoying first-class amenities.  The best part of the ship was a hidden speakeasy accessible through a photo booth.  The week just flew by as we just took things as they came.

It was another date night last night.  This time it was planned well in advance.  It was another theater night; one that we approached with some trepidation.  We get season tickets which force us to broaden our horizons.  Every season usually contains something that is new and hot on Broadway.  There's usually a bio-drama which is a biography about some star set to their music.  This is different than the jukebox musical which is a story set to the music of some artist (e.g. "Mama Mia").  There's also usually a revival musical or a repeat of a popular new musical that tours for years.  We appreciate the variety.  Yesterday it was "MJ," the biography of Michael Jackson. I wasn't a fan of his music but he forced his way into my life's soundtrack in the 80's because his music was unavoidable.  He was a tragic figure that I just didn't care about.  I think the way he was potrayed in episodes of "South Park" were spot on.  With that being said, the musical itself was pretty "Meh."  The big musical numbers featuring his songs were done under the pretense that he was rehearsing for his big "Dangerous" tour.  The singing and dancing were nice, and the subwoofer was set to 11.  As a coherent musical, however, it fell flat.

It was an impromptu date night yesterday.  A few weeks ago I had heard they would be releasing a special version of "Kill Bill" shown in theaters in all of its 4+hour runtime.  This movie (or should I say movies) are near and dear to our hearts.  They were an integral part of the love story between Kitty and I.  I checked back in LJ and we saw "KB2" in the theater when Kitty made her first visit to see me in April of 2004.  We watched the first installment on  DVD one night and went to see the second installment the next day.  It was one of Kitty's favorite movies at the time.  So last night we relived a special moment in our relationship.  We noticed numerous differences in the new version including added footage and different takes.  There is also an Easter egg animated short at the end that most people missed because they left during the credits.

We went up another wrung on the social scale by attending a black tie dinner put on by the theater we attend.  We had been asked a few years ago, but it was too short of a notice.  This time we went all out and I rented a tux.  Look!  I'm a penguin!  Kitty also was dressed to the nines so we made a handsome couple.  The entrance was pretty special.  We were all led downstairs and to the orchestra pit.  When we were all there they raised the floor so that we were on the stage.  They then rose the curtain to reveal the tables and Christmas tree.  We found our seats and were treated to the top high school performers from the city.  Dinner was yummy and the wine really flowed.  The evening ended with an auction with the last item for bid was several nights in NYC with 3 Broadway shows plus hotel in Times Square.  It's nice to have "fuck you money."  I won.  It's something Kitty and I have been dreaming of.

It was musical theater night again yesterday with the stage production of "Chicago."  We both liked the movie adaptation of the musical and in fact commented last year that it was a major musical which we had never seen performed live.  Now we have.  It certainly was one of the better musicals which have come out of Broadway over the last few decades.  Needless to say that we both had a lovely time.