The Hollywood Christmas Parade isn't quite the caliber of Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, but it's been a tradition here since 1928.  It features extremely D-List celebrities like Susan Lucci, Lorenzo Lamas, Lee Majors and the minor castmembers of Glee, The Office and a slew of soap operas.  Add some assorted marching bands, balloons, floats and Santa Claus with fake snow on a red carpet and well, you get the idea. 

The temperature in L.A. yesterday afternoon was a balmy 80° F (27° C).  By the time the parade started at 6 PM, it had dropped to a bone chilling, wintry 65° F (18° C).  I'm dog sitting for Garbo & Ruby this week, so we headed to the parade route to meet my aunt and cousins who were dressed like they were at the North Pole!  We enjoyed ourselves, but the real fun came after the parade as I was walking home.  I sneaked on to the red carpet and let the dogs play in the "snow" in front of the Kodak Theater.  They had a blast:

Watching this video is definitely worth 8 minutes of your time.  It shows Caribou Barbie's redneck fans gathered outside a "Going Rogue" book signing event in Columbus, Ohio.  When they're presented with basic questions about her policy positions, hilarity ensues.  Some might argue that this phenomenon is not limited to Palin supporters; but after watching it a few times, I'm inclined to disagree (as are my Facebook friends to the right).  Granted, there are idiots on both sides of the aisle; but these right wing, bible thumping nutjobs take philistinism to a completely different stratosphere.  Nice job Ohio: 

And to think a year ago today Sarah Palin was pardoning the Alaska Thanksgiving turkey, while behind her, live turkeys were being fed into an apparatus to kill them and bleed them out.  Classy. 

On a cheerier note, last Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to participate in a truly memorable and worthwhile project.  My friend Seth, owner of Garbo & Ruby, wrote a song about peace on earth and shot a cross cultural video (starring me) that you may remember.  Hannah steals the show at about 32 seconds, and I make my first cheesy appearance at 39 seconds.  Take a look, but be warned, the song will stick in your head!

The parts I'm in were filmed on the roof of the Hotel Careyfonia.  Here are some "Behind the Scenes" photos that might just show up on VH-1's "Behind the Music" someday after I come out of rehab for the 5th time following my meteoric rise to the top of the Hollywood elite.

Anyway, I hope that everyone stateside has a happy Thanksgiving!  Here are a few recent photos that I posted on  Facebook but forgot to post here.  Gobble gobble!

Sabine (a founding member of the GLY Gang), left for Germany today by way of Boston (to visit Youenn).  It  was so nice having her here these last two weeks.  I miss her already.  (She just called to tell me that she saw Lauren Bacall in the airport after I dropped her off; who was in LA over the weekend to receive an honorary Oscar.  It was Bine's first star sighting this trip and a fitting end to two weeks in LaLa Land!)  The past couple of   days have been jam packed with fun.  On Monday, we went to see the movie "Precious".  Though I thought most of the performances were quite good; the movie left me rather disturbed.  Sadly, I fear that the situations portrayed in the film are not all that uncommon.  It's worth seeing, but it's definitely not the feel good movie of the year!  Last night we went to The Jay Leno Show.  Tyra Banks was supposed to be there, but she got stuck in NYC, so Kevin Nealon was the guest.  Bine and I got separated while  being seated, but I managed to smuggle my camera in and take a couple of shots before a mean security guard confiscated it.  He told me I had to delete the pictures, but I had already removed the memory card and discreetly slipped it in my pocket.  I told him the camera was "out of film".  He pondered that for a minute while looking at the camera and realized I was fucking with him.  LOL.  Then I told him I was just using the camera for the telephoto lens!  I'm sure he didn't buy that story, but there was no way I was giving him my memory card!  He finally got tired of arguing with me and walked away defeated.  During the commercial break, Sabine got to sing with Jay's band.  The problem was, she didn't know the words to Stevie Wonder's, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered"!  After the show, we headed to the Los Angeles Film School for a special free screening of the movie "In The Loop".  It was fantastic!!  The best way to describe it would be "as if Jane Austen and Monty Python collaborated on an episode of "The West Wing".  It's probably the funniest movie I saw all year.  Afterward, we sat in on a panel with the director and some of the cast.  What a great night! 

What a weekend!  Too bad it had to end, because today the Sarah Palin media blitz began. 
I'll get to that waste  of brain matter in a minute, but here's a quick recap of the weekend:

• Drove up to Santa Barbara...managed to avoid a speeding ticket despite a few close calls.
• Eva, Bine & I hung out with Rob & August all day Saturday; enjoying:
• Beach volleyball (I was the photographer).
• A beached sea lion that had been attacked by a Great White Shark (we were told).
• Swimming with dolphins....when Bine saw them she immediately ran into the water and swam to them, even getting bruised by a dorsal fin in the process.
• Another spectacular Santa Barbara sunset.
• A Filipino barbecue courtesy of grillmaster Rob, who has been a "friend in my head" for years and is now the real thing!
• I caught a cold Saturday night as the temperature in Eva's house was about 20° cooler than I keep The Hotel Careyfornia.
• Claudio & Ryan found a Chocolate Lab on the street in Oxnard Saturday.  She and Chazz became best of friends.  We're calling her "D" (for dog) for now, and searching for the owner, but it's been 2 days.  Story developing...
• Claudio & Ryan drove up to Santa Barbara with aforementioned new dog and Chazz, and we had dinner on the beach to yet another breathtaking sunset
• Drove home and have been drinking lots of hot liquids.
• Tonight, Bine & I are going to go see the movie Precious.
• Tomorrow Carolina is coming for lunch and then Bine & I are going to The Jay Leno Show(we were supposed to go last week, but changed the tickets).  Tyra Banks will be the guest.

Here are my favorite photos from the past 2 days:

I completely reorganized my Facebook page the other night. I categorized all of my  friends by the labels you see on the left.  This makes it so much easier to use Facebook.  If I just want to see what my Xanga friends are up to, there's a category for that...same with family, casual acquaintances, people I'm "following" (like Twitter), and so on.  I also deleted a bunch of "friends" that I never talk to.  I added them all originally with good intentions; so if I deleted you by mistake, I apologize, just add me again.  Another big accomplishment was with my photos, all 6,223 photos in 141 albums (which is only 19% of the 32,720 photos on my hard drive).  I got them all categorized correctly and presented in my Photo Albums tab on Facebook.  You have to be a Facebook member to view the albums below, but I don't think you have to be my friend.  I also recently set up a Tumblr.  I'm warming up to microblogging more and more, and I think Tumblr just might be the next big thing.  Time will tell.

So yesterday, I'm walking down Santa Monica Blvd. with Heather & Brian's son who's 7 years old. While I'm holding his hand I reach into my pocket for my camera and discreetly take this photo while trying to distract him with conversation. I wasn't sure if he had even noticed this person on the bike or that the "person" had a beard; but after we passed the bike, this wide eyed little boy looked up at me and said, "Well that was embarrassing!" I responded that yes, indeed it was. He asked why someone would dress like that. I told him that it was probably for attention. He asked "Why?", to which I replied that the person on the bike probably didn't have a mommy and daddy who paid a lot of attention to them, and that they probably liked to shock people to get attention. I told him he was lucky to have so many people in his life that love him. He looked up at me and said, "That makes sense." (I didn't tell him that the person has their own facebook page and Twitter feed and goes by "WeHo Tranny on a Bike". I'll wait until he's 10 for that. More power to Tranny though. She says her calling is to spread joy and acceptance.

Recently my friend Doug sent me a link to this website:

Regular readers of this space know my friend Sabine, or Bine for short.  You know about her resilience, her charm and her joie de vivre.  You might also remember what a tough time she had two years ago when she attended Virginia Tech during the shootings.  You know that her inimitable style and always positive attitude have gotten her, and indeed our entire group of friends, through the best and the worst of times.  She is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise polluted world.  She approaches everything she does with passion and fervor, and is the glue that bonds our international family of friends together. 

LOL, so there you have it.  The story of my phony wedding in Italy.  Just this past summer, as you may remember, Sabine, the two timing tramp, got married to Alan.  In all honesty though, I can't say that I've been entirely faithful in this marriage, LOL.  So in July I traveled back to Italy where we celebrated her "real wedding" for a week in a beautiful Tuscan villa.  Last night, Sabine arrived for a 2 week stay at The Hotel Careyfornia.  Eva and I picked her up at the airport.  Today our friends Heather & Brian arrived with their two adorable kids.  Tomorrow we'll head up to Claudio & Ryan's for a barbecue.  We'll also spend some time up in Santa Barbara with Bassam.  More pictures to follow, but here are a  few from so far this weekend:

Welcome back to The Hotel Careyfornia Sabine!

It was a hot Halloween in West Hollywood this year.  The temperature reached 93° (34° C).  This morning I walked to Pavilions to buy my balloon for my costume.  Claudio, Ryan & Chazz showed up later and I took Chazz up to the roof for sunset.  There was almost a full moon and the sky was beautiful:

9 PM:  UPDATE to the UPDATE:  Levi Johnston just posted my blog on his Twitter page and I got like 300 hits in 30 minutes! Which means that right now, Levi Johnston is sitting in a hotel room in New York looking at picture of Chazz!  LOL!!  Then I got a message on my phone from him that said this:

Thanks Levi!  I appreciate the help!  If my blog can change one person's mind about ever voting for Sarah Palin again, I'll have done my job. 

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7 PM:  UPDATE:  Well, Sarah Palin's daughter's baby  daddy, Levi Johnston, confirmed today, what I blogged about months ago:  Sarah Palin hates retards!  Now I just need him to confirm that she's the mother of Michael Jackson's son, Blanket!  LOL.  I just started following him on Twitter, so hopefully he will follow me and read all of my posts about his whack job, almost monster in law:  He's actually a pretty funny kid.  He just sent this tweet from New York:

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1 AM THIS MORNING: 1 year ago today, I wrote a post called "Yes We Will - Count On It".  It was a exactly one week before the presidential election and I had a conversation with someone who could not fathom a black man in the White House.  This week that same person had the unmitigated gall to send me one of those ignorant emails that spread racism and hate (that I refuse to repost here), telling me I can't deny "history" and espousing the same disgusting "we're the greatest country on earth" blah blah blah rhetoric that angry white men like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh puke out (because an 'uppity negro' in power obviously makes them sick to their stomachs).  Guess what?  Racism is still alive and well in America one year later.  I am looking forward to this documentary on HBO next week though (almost as much as I'm looking forward to Levi Johnston's revelations about Sarah Palin tomorrow).  Check out the kid in the beginning and end of the clip.  His name is Lorenzo.  He's nine years old and he's priceless:

 
Halloween is a week away and I've been far too busy these past few weeks to come up with a costume.  I keep thinking it will be hard to top last year when I dressed as a moose in a bulletproof vest, trying to avoid all of the Sarah Palins with guns!  I got shot twelve times that night:

West Hollywood always has a huge Halloween carnival where they close off Santa Monica Blvd. and host hundreds of thousands of costumed revelers.  It's just at the bottom of my street and I've never gone without a costume.  Then laying in bed last night, I had an epiphany.  I thought of the easiest, cheapest, most low maintenance costume possible.  All I need to do is: 

• Wear a cream colored shirt   
• Carry a clear Tupperware container
• Get a silver foil balloon
• Maybe pop some Jiffy Pop popcorn
• Walk up to every cute Asian "boy" (mind you, they will all be of age) on Santa Monica Blvd and ask him to take a picture with me while fake puking into my Tupperware container and holding the balloon.  After all, I've never had a problem taking pictures with cute Asian boys:

So there you have it.  The easiest costume in history.  I'll be the Balloon Boy's father, Richard Heene.  I guess I'll have to shave the goatee.  Oh well, I'm tired of people telling me it's gray, a fact I'm quite aware of.  Even if people think my costume is lame, it will be a great way to meet new friends and add to the collage below!  LOL.