hey, old friend

sometimes you find an old piece of music that you haven't listened to for years (and i mean 20 years) and it reminds you what a big dork you are (truly) and how deeply you can feel. tonight -- try not to laugh, you probably don't know it anyway -- it's kei's song by david benoit:

david benoit: kei's song

joe watkins can still blow me

back in april, i made this suggestion regarding political talker joe watkins. just to be clear: the offer still stands.

watkins is again on msnbc this afternoon, fumbling and bumbling and not answering david shuster's questions about mccain's flub last night (in milwaukee) saying that "we've drawn down to pre-surge levels" in iraq (pre-surge would be less that 130,000 soldiers -- by august the number is expected to be 140,000, i.e. we have not drawn down to pre-surge levels, nor will we by august.)

when asked directly about this, watkins begins bloviating about how obama hasn't been to iraq. moments later, when asked about it again, watkins bloviates about mccain's service to this country in vietnam. he never once answered the question.

dear joe: this might work when you're standing in front of your 85 parishioners in philadelphia, but when millions are watching, there's at least a few of us who know you're full of crap.

please turn off all cell phones, pagers, and video cameras...

what if you got to church this sunday and there was a pre-show announcement?

"the use of recording devices of any kind is strictly forbidden in the theater...er...church."

yesterday, barack obama found he had another pastor problem: pastor michael pfleger of saint sabina catholic church in chicago. last sunday, in a guest sermon at trinity united church of christ, pfleger mocked and ridiculed senator hillary clinton. nothing subtle about his performance: it was pathetic, and shameful. and it's on youtube!

certainly obama is not responsible for this man's views, or what he says in his sermon. but there is a connection here: pfleger is a long time obama supporter. and until recently, pfleger's endorsement of obama was quoted on the candidate's website.

in march of this year, pfleger was even coming to rev. jeremiah wright's defense, inviting him to to deliver a blessing at saint sabina church, saying, "dr. wright has been shamefully demonized by 30 second sound bites that have tried to re-define him into someone other than who he is." pfleger is now the "victim" of the same 30 second youtube sound bites that "re-defined" wright. oops.

today, in a press conference in milwaukee, john mccain defended hillary clinton, saying that although their views are very different, he has always respected and admired her. the republican nominee standing up for the assumed democratic runner-up. i'm sure it's a position he's happy to be in.

not sure what positions pastor pfleger likes to be in. but he certainly didn't do obama, or the democratic party, any favors.

so the question is this: do we really want to know what's being said in every sermon? the folks listening to pfleger in that youtube video are cheering in support of his views. is it better that we can all watch it? or should this be something at least a little more private? what effect, if any, should / does this have on obama? and why are there no video cameras in john mccain's church?

his master's voice?

an open letter to the purina pet food company

dear purina,

in this ad for your product beggin' strips, you feature a dog getting very excited about the possibility of eating bacon. the dog jumps around and runs through the house looking for bacon, nearly trampling a young child in the process.

and the dog talks. the commercial even ends with the dog jumping up on the owner, licking her face and saying, "i love you, i love bacon, i love you, i love bacon."

the problem here is misrepresentation: what we hear in this ad is obviously not this dog's voice. clearly, this voice-over was done by a much smaller dog: a corgi, a scotty, a lhasa apso. this is not the voice of a full-grown golden retriever.

i cannot watch the film of "my fair lady" without wondering what audrey hepburn actually might have sounded like singing "wouldn't it be loverly." i have trouble watching natalie wood mouth "tonight" while knowing i'm hearing marni nixon.

similarly, it seems unfortunate to me that you couldn't cast a dog in this commercial talented enough to read his own lines.

sincerely,
tony clements

how to give an apology

msnbc's david shuster (who also voices the muppet bert from sesame street) is using his time on air this afternoon to lecture hillary clinton on how to give an apology. (perhaps clinton should look to shuster's own example from earlier this year, when -- after he suggested that clinton's campaign was pimping out daughter chelsea -- he needed 192 other words before he got to "i'm sorry.")

while most of the country (including the obama campaign) has moved past this unfortunate clinton remark from last friday (where she inadvisedly used the assination of rfk as an example of campaigns that have run well into june) shuster and msnbc are still embroiled in an effort to twist clinton's words to mean something much more ominous than she intended.

yes, clinton misspoke. terribly. i don't disagree with that. neither did she. she came out almost immediately and admitted as much. she expressed regret, especially to the kennedy family.

even randell beck, the executive editor of the argus leader -- the person in the room, the person conducting the interview with clinton -- did not read any ulterior motive into clinton's comments. still, the media (mainly msnbc's keith olbermann and others, like shuster) turned her comment into something completely ridiculous and frightening.

the problem now becomes not that clinton made an egregious error, but that people like shuster continue to not only remind us of it, but remind us of their own sickening interpretation of it.

sydney pollack, 1934-2008

sydney pollack died on monday. pollack directed what i think is one of the best films of all time: tootsie. word is that dustin hoffman wanted the film to be more broad (no pun intended) but pollack resisted, wanting instead to place more emphasis on the difficult relationship between hoffman's character and the jessica lange character.

pollack didn't want to be in the film (he ended up playing agent george fields to hoffman's michael dorsey.) once he agreed, the scenes between he and hoffman were supposedly quite similar to actual arguments the two had behind the scenes:

George Fields: Nobody will hire you.

Michael Dorsey: Are you saying that nobody in New York will work with me?

George Fields: No, no, that's too limited... nobody in Hollywood wants to work with you either. I can't even set you up for a commercial. You played a tomato for 30 seconds - they went a half a day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down.

Michael Dorsey: Of course. It was illogical.

George Fields: YOU WERE A TOMATO. A tomato doesn't have logic. A tomato can't move.

Michael Dorsey: That's what I said. So if he can't move, how's he gonna sit down, George? I was a stand-up tomato: a juicy, sexy, beefsteak tomato. Nobody does vegetables like me. I did an evening of vegetables off-Broadway. I did the best tomato, the best cucumber... I did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their ass.

voicemail two

why i save voicemail messages for so long i'm not sure, but i felt like it was time to get rid of the one from some unknown new york agent (how some modeling company got my cell phone number in the first place i'm not sure.) as is true for many things in life, it sounds great at the beginning, but ends up being...well, a little oogy.

you were right up there: part two

remember this? a post on those great, but awkward lines heard at the stage door after a show? one of the best i heard after the spitfire grill was actually days ago, in the rehearsal hall, after a somewhat shaky run-thru: "thank you so much...it's gonna be so good." huh. well, what is it now?

the best from last night's opening was not a strained compliment at all, but a very dear conversation with a lovely, older couple. they've been to see so many shows at the skylight theater i don't know how they could possibly keep them all straight. and last night, they didn't.

"we really enjoyed that caving show you did - phil collins" the gentleman said. (i did the adam guettel musical floyd collins at the skylight several years ago. at least he didn't say pink floyd collins.)

"oh yes, we've been fans of yours way back to the old skylight," the woman said (the theater moved into a new space 15 years ago) "ever since we saw your performance in zombies from the beyond."

zombies from the beyond is another show written by my friend james valcq (spitfire's co-author and composer.) it had a successful run at "the old skylight" and also ran off-broadway.

i was not in it.

sleepy rumpel-what's-his-name

let's set the record straight here: rumpelstiltskin was a dwarf who spun straw into gold in exchange for a necklace, and a ring, and a baby. it was rip van winkle who had too much to drink, fell asleep, and woke up 20 years later in a rehearsal hall at the skylight theatre.

even a national actor can get his fairy tales mixed up.

barry's emmy, part VI: buying an emmy

i lived in milwaukee for years. i spent lot's of time in this neighborhood -- the historic third ward. how in the world did i drive past this store so many times and then forget it was here? now i'm thinking: who needs to see my friend barry's emmy if i can buy one of my own?

UPDATE: if you're new to MY FRIEND BARRY'S EMMY, you might want to start at the very beginning. it's a very good place...oh shut up.

let's all get married!

the latest ACTION ALERT email from the american family association (a non-profit organization founded in 1977 for "people who are tired of cursing the darkness and who are ready to light a bonfire"):

May 19, 2008

Dear Tony,

As you know, the California Supreme Court has legalized homosexual marriage. This happened despite the fact that voters in California passed Proposition 22 with 61.4 percent of the vote. Proposition 22 defined marriage as only between one man and one woman.

The recent 4-3 ruling, if allowed to stand, would destroy marriage as it has been known for thousands of years. It would lead to the logical conclusion of the following:

• Legalization of polygamous and other aberrant unions as "marriages"
• Legalization of marriage between an adult parent and adult child
• Legalization of group marriage
• Overturn all the marriage laws in the other 49 state

i know only one person i'd want to marry. but i'll start looking for others. i don't have any children. i wonder if i could marry someone else's kids? naah. probably easier if i start workin' on my own. then, when marriage laws are overturned in the other 49 states, i'll marry my children and those other people i find. plus (keep your fingers crossed here) by that time we might have another dog!

(i've included a photo of what i consider to be a fairly sexy dog. i'm a sucker for brainy-types.)

live blogging "spitfire" tech

tech rehearsal for "the spitfire grill" at
the skylight theater in milwaukee, wisconsin.

1:04 p.m.

tech rehearsal is when you add the technical elements of the show: the lights, the sound, the costumes. today's schedule is 1-4 and 7-11. yesterday's 10 out of 12 (you rehearse for 10 hours out of a given 12) was shortened to 5 out of 12 because i'm so far ahead. "tony clements has learned the show so quickly that we can give you all the afternoon off," the director - bill theisen, said on friday night.

what can i say, i'm a quick learner.

1:06 p.m.

i cannot lie for longer than two minutes (which actually comes in handy when you're in a holding room at the police station at 3:00 in the morning.)

our tech rehearsal yesterday was not shortened because of my learning the show so quickly. in fact, if anything, i think i'm behind. there are lots of "pass the sugar" or "switch plates with caleb" moments that i still miss on a regular basis. ugh.

1:23 p.m.

i'm in the dressing room, downstairs. i just checked in backstage with steve koehler. steve is a good friend, and he's playing caleb in the skit. (he's fantastic.) i was listening to him sing yesterday, and started thinking of other shows he'd be great in.

"have you ever done oklahoma?" i just asked him, standing in the dark, backstage.

"nooo," he said, shrugging it off. "never."

"you'd be a great curly or judd," i told him.

"really?!" he said, a little too cocky for my taste.

"yes," i replied. "but i'm talking three stooges and winona's mom."

1:54 p.m.

just rehearsed a tiny little scene sheriff joe (that's me) has with effy (becky spice) toward the end of the play. right now it's all about a small platform and stairs from the funhouse, stepping on the right foot to stop on the top half of a specific step, and landing in a certain light. i still can't remember that sugar passing stuff, now i've got a two-step on the funky stairs. watch me goof it up when you see the show. (no, no...i'll get it right.)

2:42 p.m.

wow. i'm done until our piano dress rehearsal tonight at 7:00 -- way early. see, i'm so far ahead...

i couldn't carell-ess

i just got home, flipped on saturday night live, and host steve carell was doing a not very funny sketch about a weight-loss talk show. then there was a commercial where steve carell interviewed steve carell about the new steve carell movie. the commercial also included a clip from the movie...featuring steve carell.

i bet he's the nicest guy on the planet, but right now i sorta wanna puke.

un-huckabee-lievable

back in february, i hesitantly brought up this very uncomfortable subject. now, we have a former republican presidential candidate (a scary white man campaigning for john mccain) making "jokes" like this.

we won't even talk about his suggestion that only people who grow up with guns understand what's right and what's wrong. but let's talk about giving a major speech in front of the nra and "joking" that someone just aimed a gun at the presumptive democratic nominee.

obama on bush and appeasement

"after eight years, i did not think that i could be surprised by anything that george bush said. but i was wrong...if george bush and john mccain want to have a debate about protecting america, i am happy to have it at anytime and any place because that is a debate that i will win. george bush and john mccain have a lot to answer for."

-- barack obama
at a town hall meeting in watertown, sd, responding to this.

why i quit show business #2

first off, let me say that i'm shocked and dismayed that this is only the second installment of "why i quit show business." but how interesting that it's basically for the same reason as installment #1. last time it was clay aiken in spamalot. this time, it's taylor hicks in grease -- "the soul patrol's gonna invade broadway!"

considering the lead roles in this production were cast via "grease boot camp," this casting is no surprise. keep in mind the last time grease was on broadway, and the rolodex of washed-up stars that happily stumbled through the revolving door of casting (linda blair, chubby checker, debby boone, mickey dolenz, sheena easton, deborah gibson, jasmine guy, al jarreau, lucy lawless, maureen mccormick, mackenzie phillips, joe piscopo...i'm exhausted.) and it's not like washed-up-star-casting doesn't happen in other broadway shows.

yes, pollyanna, it keeps the skit running for another ten minutes. and i haven't seen him, but word is clay aiken is actually pretty good in spamalot. "kind of one-note," a close friend said, "but not bad at all."

but this is what "we" aspire to. this is the gold standard. this is what your family says your whole life -- "when are you gonna be on broadway?"

how do explain an answer like, "blech?"

appeasement at the knesset

if you have any notion that george w. bush will go quietly into the night, or that he and john mccain are not completely joined at the hip, you were apparently napping during this amazing, appalling, ridiculous event on thursday.

our commander in chief used the event of an address to the knesset, celebrating israel's 60th anniversary, to level a snide and slimy attack on barack obama:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – President George W. Bush stirred up the U.S. presidential campaign Thursday by suggesting that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to talk to Iran’s leader amounted to “the false comfort of appeasement.”

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said in a speech to the Israeli parliament marking Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Without mentioning Obama by name, he compared “this foolish delusion” to the appeasement of the Nazis ahead of World War Two.

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement,” Bush said.

just a quick note, if you actually listen to bush give this part of the speech, he doesn't say "argument" he says "argoo-ment." later in the day grandpa mccain jumped on the bandwagon:

COLUMBUS, OH (NewYorkTimes) – Senator John McCain, who has been critical of President Bush on the environment and other policies this week, on Thursday morning wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke in the Israeli Knesset of Senator Barack Obama that talking to “terrorists and radicals'’ was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio.

and then there was this not necessarily surprising but certainly strongly worded and welcome defense of not only democrats, but of obama. from none other than hillary clinton:

RAPID CITY, SD (New York Times) – “President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is offensive and outrageous,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Especially in the light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address.”

a few other prominent democrats had some choice words for bush and mccain too. and my buddy chris matthews of msnbc's hardball seriously kicked some idiot conservative ass today.

open up that golden gate

i don't know if it's the music i'm hearing from the rehearsal hall ("wild bird" by james valcq, sung by elizabeth moliter) or if it's the fact that i haven't seen my partner rob for far too long, but -- now, try not to be cynical -- this brought a tear to my eye. seriously.

and just when you thought the presidential election was gonna be about the economy, or iraq, or health care...here come the pesky gays again. this should shake things up a bit. and i bet in ways and with an outcome that no one is expecting.

rob: malibu?

live-blogging window washing

9:00 a.m.

i wake up. i look at alarm clock. i pull a pillow close to me and roll over to sleep another ten minutes.

10:00 a.m.

bang-bang-bang! someone's at my door. shit. the building's on fire. it's the irs. i'm late for rehearsal. i missed the bus for school. i've slept through the holocaust.

"where am i?" my brain thinks. wait. stop. i'm staying in a small boutique hotel in milwaukee, wisconsin and someone is not knocking but banging on my door at ten in the morning. okay, thank god it's not the irs.

i peek out the eye hole. hmm. tool belt. dirty bluejeans. looks genuine enough. i open. "window man!" the guy exclaims. he's tall, skinny, 60. big old gray mustache. like mr. mcfeely has come to clean my windows. he doesn't look too excited to see me in my new wild animal boxers.

i ask him if he can come back. i'm still asleep. i need to wake up before i let someone touch my windows. i need to have all my faculties running on high. i need to have at least a sip of coffee.

"okeeee," he says kindly. "i've got a couple other apartments i could, let me see..." and he pulls out a ratty slip of paper. "yup, i can come back, in about how long?" he asks me. i don't know, how long does it take to do two other apartments?

"how about half an hour or so?" i say. enough time to make coffee. and remove the putty from the corners of my eyes.

10:28 a.m.

bang-bang-bang! he's back. i open the door. he stays outside. "is it okay?" i think he expected me to dress up or something.

10:34 a.m.

my room faces a tiny courtyard. the next apartment's windows are about ten feet away (just like home.) there's nothing high-tech about this window cleaning. mcfeely removed all the storm windows and screens, put them on the bed, and CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW. he's perched on the ledges outside my room right now. like a senior citizen spiderman. i'm not gonna even think about him falling. but i hope that when i'm his age, i'll be climbing around like that. maybe not outside of people's windows, but...you know. active.

10:50 a.m.

i'm taking a better look at mcfeely, and he's actually much more sam elliott.

10:51 a.m.

i think he's nervous. i think he feels the tension in the room. there's no small talk, just sam doing his job and doing it well. and me in my boxers, watching t.v. and taking pictures of him.

10:52 a.m.

i wonder if he needs my help? i could wipe the windows dry after he washes them. i wonder if he's a democrat? there's political talk coming from the television (surprise.) i wonder if he's rolling his eyes, thinking "why doesn't this asshole turn on fox news?"

maybe he'd rather be watching "the view". i'm gonna change the channel and see what happens.

10:54 a.m.

if you're in milwaukee and you know what channel "the view" is on, call me.

10:55 a.m.

i hate "the view". okay, hate is a strong word. reserved for conservative talk show clowns and leaders of the free world. i don't hate "the view". but sometimes, it's really annoying.

10:56 a.m.

mcfeely (i was right the first time) is back at the center windows. this is taking forever. i wish he would go so i could...well. i just woke up and i just had some coffee, okay? i can't do...much...while he's with me in this small room.

10:57 a.m.

this is boring even me.

11:00 p.m.

we're having a nice little conversation now, about climbing around outside the windows.

11:00 and thirty-two seconds p.m.

conversation over.

11:01 a.m.

what if that actually said 11:01 p.m.? what if the window guy was actually here until 11:00 tonight? wouldn't that be strange?

i've accidentally turned on the last hour of the today show, with kathy lee gifford. i haven't eaten, there's about a half a cup of coffee in my otherwise empty stomach, and i've yet to...you know. that and kathy lee gifford on the t.v. is a recipe for disaster.

11:06 p.m.

ha! gotcha!
okay, it's 11:06 a.m. and he's gone.

"the place is yours," he says as he heads out. sweet old mr. mcfeely. sweet old window washin' guy. sure, i've got clean windows now, but i'll miss him.

i'm gonna need a new tv & more golean crunch

in trying to decide which right-wing, conservative talk show clown most makes me want to hurl my cereal bowl toward the television, i've been considering the usual suspects: sean hannity, glen beck, laura ingraham, bill o'reilly, rush limbaugh.

today, o'reilly pole-vaulted his way into the lead after the discovery of this gem.

(btw, i've linked to a site other than youtube because the clip is already being removed. problems? you can also try here or here to see o'reilly's head pop off the top of his neck.)

you can't make me

plenty of voters supporting hillary clinton in the primaries say they will not vote for barack obama if he ends up being the democratic nominee. "i'll either not vote, or i'll vote for mccain," a woman just admitted on cnn (which is basically the same thing, isn't it -- if it gets mccain elected?)

the woman, interviewed with a group of female clinton supporters, said she never in her lifetime has had the chance to vote for a candidate (clinton) who would fight for literally "all the things that i believe in, for our party and for our country."

but if obama wins the nomination, she's going to vote for a candidate who, within the first year of his presidency, could appoint supreme court justices who would in effect give the court the power to overturn roe v. wade.

(it might be a leap to suggest that since these are women voters, they probably support roe v. wade. it's not such a stretch to suggest that since they are women and staunch hillary clinton supporters, they probably support the historic 1973 ruling.)

there is difference between clinton and obama, yes. but the amount of substantive difference between the two democratic candidates pales in comparison to the differences between them and mccain. still, these women will vote republican if their candidate doesn't win.

are these voters really that uncomfortable with obama, or is this the definition of a sore loser? how many of these women's battles will mccain fight? and how many of their sons will he send to war?

barry's emmy, part V: taking a step back

it's time to take stock. reevaluate, rethink, reexamine, review (thank you thesaurus.com.) look, i don't want to make a fool of myself here, it's just an emmy award. it's not really all that important. certainly not as important as living paycheck to paycheck...

confused? click here to see the emmy obsession in it's entirety.

the ads

the "ads by google" that you see on this blog are not chosen by me, they are generated according to the content of the posts. i can opt to block certain advertisers, but i leave most alone.

that's why in the past week or so, you may have seen ads for your pretty mexican bride, cleaning out your dog's anal gland, and how to determine if your husband is gay.

if only there were a site for all three....

barry's emmy, part IV: the costume shop

i brazenly paid a visit to the skylight's costume shop today (it used to be the skylight comic opera, then it was the skylight opera theater, then the skylight opera, now it's just...um...the skylight. soon it will be known as just sky.) i thought i could get a closer look at my friend barry link's emmy award, but things didn't go exactly as i'd planned, despite my having an excellently laid out plan of attact.

tiny thoughts

• this has gotta hurt. but this must feel amazing.

• d'jever drink yesterday's coffee, re-heated in the microwave, and think it sorta tasted like spaghetti-o's? d'jever pee and think it smelled like sugar smacks?

• what is hillary thinking? no, really. she's an incredibly intelligent woman, right? we know that. so there must be something going on there, some reasoning. in the meantime, obama has moved on.

• while i'm busy rehearsing and sort of non-blogging (and am a bit too concerned about a certain person's golden statuette) i would encourage you to check out blogs from my friends jonathan, brett and jeff. (as well as other recommended blogs under visit these sites.)

• and if you have a bit of time (and a bit of interest) please check out kevin and tomoe, an amazing couple who left big-city tokyo to live a self-sustainable life in a small village in japan. their stories are absolutely fascinating, and the photography is stunning.

did you floss today?

some things are important enough to do everyday. like flossing. calling your mother. avoiding those clipboard wielding greenpeace folks in union square. and reading something new on tuesdays.

if you're checking in to tuesdays today because...well, it's tuesday...here's a bit of spanish news: tuesdays is new everyday. okay, almost everyday. the title of this blog, misleading as it is, does not mean that tuesday is the only day there is new stuff here.

the title of this blog refers to the day back to work in the theater; monday is usually the day off. and no matter how much you love playing the third sorority girl from the left in your big hocha broadway show, or how badly you want to get back to doing your splashy tap solo in "all night strut" at the bristol riverside theater...tuesday is still your monday.

barry's emmy, part III: plan B

ob·ses·sive-com·pul·sive [uh b-ses-iv-kuh m-puhl-siv]
–adjective

1. of or pertaining to a personality style characterized by perfectionism, indecision, conscientiousness, concern with detail, rigidity, and inhibition.
2. Psychiatry. of or pertaining to a neurosis characterized by persistent intrusion of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or the performance of actions, as repeated hand-washing, that one is unable to stop (compulsions).

–noun
3. a person having such a personality style.
[Origin: 1925–30]

the saga continues...

queen for a day

last time i was in milwaukee, i mentioned that i ran into "my prom date from 27 years ago." and that's a bit of slam to my friend anne.

i went to prom with anne because she was one of my best friends. for a chunk of time, we even dated (anne could probably throw her two cents in here as well.) back then i knew i was different (never, never gay) but it wasn't something talked about in waterford, wisconsin in 1981. except in the women's hushed, chatty gossip about an effeminate local man who sewed for a living. or the angry slurs and jokes among the "men" in the town.

it wasn't something i had come to terms with either, in any way. i figured that at some point i'd get married, have kids, and yell "honey, i'm home" as i walked in the door at 5:00 p.m. i never really understood what i would do with this "other" part of me, with these other feelings. the scenario in my head never played out that far. as far as i was concerned, there was no other option.

if i'd followed that path, it would more than likely be about this time in my life that i'd be tearing my family apart. somehow, someone would have found out that while i was coming home from work at 5 p.m, going to school plays, attending pta meetings, and raising a family, there was a secret -- either acted upon, quietly and in private, or not acted upon -- left to fester and grow, fed by the necessary lies.

luckily, i made a different choice: i chose to be honest.

so today, i'm a little knocked over by this story: just over 22 miles from the high school where anne and i slow-danced to "babe" by styx -- anne wearing a pretty lavender dress (hmm) and me in a white tux with a purple ruffle shirt (hmm) -- uriel gomez, an openly gay high school student, was nominated to be prom queen at his school.

and he embraced it.

whatever you think of this kid, or his classmates, we've come a long way. go uriel.

barry's emmy, part II: music practice

i had music practice for the spitfire grill this morning. my old friend richard carsey is music directing the show, and the subject of barry's emmy came up.