I’ve been away from Xanga for over a month.  Apologies to my loyal readers…but I needed the time away to work on some other pressing matters.  I did manage to keep Facebook and my micro-blog at Tumblr up to date with photos, but that’s about it.  Thanks to those of you who wrote inquiring as to my whereabouts.  I’m still super busy with work, but something happened yesterday that was too good not to blog about.  The stupidest woman in America is at it again, as evidenced by a tweet she sent out yesterday:

As I was packing today for a trip to my childhood home of Chicago, I came across a poem I had written as a child of 7, in 1972.  It was in the same suitcase I stuffed it in when I last found it two years ago.  (I’m such a packrat!)  It’s good to know that my poetry hasn’t improved much in all these years.  (Exhibits:  A, B, C, D, E, F)

OK, let me rephrase that.  I officiated a wedding ceremony for my first cousin yesterday. 

The event went off without a hitch, save for me forgetting the exchange of the rings before I pronounced them husband and wife.  Minor detail.  Since I was busy performing the ceremony, there’s no viral video of the event.  (I’m usually the one video recording and snapping photos at family events.  I did threaten to attach a “preacher cam” around my neck prior to the ceremony, but in the end opted for decorum.  LOL.) 

The wedding was at Heisler Park in Laguna Beach and the whole thing took about 5 minutes.  I was warned to keep it short, as I have a tendency to be loquacious.  Even so, I did manage to work in a slight jab at Sarah Palin, by explaining to the assembled guests that because of the groom’s upper Midwest vernacular, if he said “You betcha” instead of “I do“, it was NOT a nod to Caribou Barbie.  I also managed to give Apple some free advertising by pulling out my iPod Touch for the official part of the ceremony, joking “There’s an app for that” and hoping apple would give me a free iPad once they got wind of iVows. 

I also threatened to sing “A Whole New World” from Aladdin…in Italian and quoted from “Rent” and La Boheme.  The reception was on Lake Mission Viejo and afterward the newlyweds checked into The Hotel Careyfornia for a 2 hour nap before their 5 AM flight to Cancun.  Today everyone is resting after a whirlwind few days.  I’m readying for the next wave of guests next weekend and then I’m off to Chicago for a week.  Congratulations to Darlene & Gary!  Thanks for asking me to marry you!

“Tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge — we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility — we embraced it. We did not fear our future — we shaped it.” President Barack Obama

We got home from Santa Barbara last night just as the President was finishing his remarks.  Though the debate rages on via my Facebook page (thanks to both the Davids); real reform is on its way.  After this vile display last week, it’s pretty clear that the Republicans and the racist teabaggers really thought this was all about welfare:

Anyway, we had a great weekend with very little sleep.  Bine and Lindsay arrived Friday night along with Carolina, Eva, Vonda, Nate, Bianca and Julia.   We had 9 people sleeping in my little condo, so it was similar to this.  Saturday we went to Claudio & Ryan’s for a Brazilian barbecue.  Sunday we spent a hazy day at the beach in Santa Barbara before dropping Marcelo off at the airport.  Two hours later, I got a text that there had been a small plane crash in Santa Barbara, and Marcelo was being shuttled to LAX.  So off to the airport again I went, and we had him for another night!  Everyone woke up at 5 this morning, and we were on our way back to the airport at 5:30 AM.  Next weekend, Bassam, Bine and I will head up to Tom & Cathy’s in San Francisco to see little Patrick and Youenn (who I haven’t seen since we traversed the Alps last summer!) and Mariana.  Should be another great weekend!  Here are this past weekend’s photos:

What follows, are two completely unrelated stories that are ultimately about hope and inspiration:

I would like everyone to grab a box of tissues and read this story.  I want you to think about it the next time you get angry while driving.  I know I will.  I’m an admittedly terrible driver, and have been guilty of road rage many times.  I’ve been working on driving more calmly for several years, but living in Los Angeles, relapses are easy.  I hope that the memory of what happened to this family and their little boy will forever stay with me when I’m behind the wheel. Life is indeed too short.

When a porn star and a college student driving through the San Fernando Valley fell into conflict, a Bangladeshi American family suffered the consequences

Los Angeles magazine, February 2010

On the Internet you can watch a four-minute video clip of Ayman Arif dancing. The venue is a bedroom in his Northridge home; his stage, a comforter patterned with sunflowers. Taking his cues from a Bollywood spectacular playing on the television, the four-year-old Bangladeshi American boy wriggles, twirls, and bounds. On his bare chest he wears the pink string sash of the Brahman jester he is pretending to be. His mop of brown hair gives way to a wide forehead, and his dark brown eyes are bright with fire as he sings along to the Bengali-language soundtrack. One moment he’s wagging a stern finger, the next he’s clasping his hands to his heart or pumping an outstretched palm toward the heavens.  

On Tuesday, October 9, 2007, some ten months after her son’s impromptu performance made it onto YouTube, Syeda Arif was readying her family for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr—three days of gift giving, party hopping,overeating, and prayer to conclude the fast of Ramadan. At 30, Syeda was petite, with almond-shaped eyes and a husky laugh. She and her husband, Amir, lived in a Bangladeshi enclave in the northwest San Fernando Valley. Her father had been twice nominated to the Bangladeshi parliament, and Amir liked to say that she made friends with the ease of a born politician.

Around noon in the gathering heat of the day, Syeda buckled her two-month-old daughter, Ikra, into the car seat in her Honda Civic and drove to the home of Romey Islam, one of her best friends. The Islams lived in a modest gray ranch house on Sherman Way near Van Nuys Airport. Its soundproof front windows looked out onto a six-lane river of crosstown traffic that, like the row of palm trees lining the sidewalk, continued as far as the eye could follow. Read more…

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And keeping in the vain of “life’s too short”, here’s another article I highly recommend taking the time to read.  It’s an inspiring look at Roger Ebert, perhaps the best known film critic in America.  Those of you in other countries have probably never heard of him, but I’ve always had a special affinity for Mr. Ebert.  He was a fixture in Chicago where I grew up, and his movie reviews with Gene Siskel and patented “thumbs up or down” are legendary.  Five years ago, when the movie “Rent” came out, I was very excited.  Any regular reader of this space knows that seeing the musical “Rent” in 1996 was a seminal event in my life.  I went on to see the show 15 times in 15 different countries!  While I was a bit underwhelmed by the transition from stage to screen; subsequent viewings of the movie made me appreciate it more.  Upon realizing this, I wrote to Mr. Ebert to take issue with a few of the comments he made in his review of the film.  Imagine my surprise the next day, when I got a personal response from Roger Ebert from his personal email address; and he actually agreed with me!  I thought that was a very classy thing for him to do.  At the time, I had no idea of the huge medical ordeals he was facing.  I read this article last night and it brought tears to my eyes. Roger Ebert is a class act. This is the story of a life well lived and it’s worth your time. 

February 16, 2010, 7:01 AM

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television’s most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped.  Read more…

PLUS: Have You Seen All of the Essential Movies?

By Chris Jones

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It was a very busy weekend at The Hotel Careyfornia, filled with many of my blog’s namesakes, primarily dogs (4), kids (3), and sunsets (2).  Thankfully, there was little mention of Sarah Palin and her redneck teleprompter!  Friday, Seth and Hannah came by with Garbo & Ruby.  On Saturday, David & Rebecca came with the two girls and Chanel the dog (just like last Valentine’s Day, when I went to Gay Traffic School!).  Despite snow in 49 of the 50 United States, it was 75° (24° C) in L.A. and we hiked up to the “new” Hollywood sign.  It’s been covered by conservationists temporarily to prevent land development at one of the last untouched parts of Los Angeles. After a quick trip to Millions of Milkshakes, we headed to The Getty Center for sunset (it’s free after 5:00 on Saturdays!).   We capped the night off celebrating the Lunar New Year with delicious Thai food.  Sunday, Claudio, Ryan, Omar & Chazz came to dance the Valentine’s night away at Avalon.  Tonight, Tyson (who took time out of his busy TV appearance schedule), met me and Chazz for dinner at Hollywood & Highland.  I’m exhausted.  Is it the weekend yet??

  
A week of rare stormy weather was capped off by a beautiful sunny weekend full of friends, flowers and food (porn).  Picasa tells me I took 224 photos this week.  Here are a few of them:

Even though I don’t believe in God, I’m inclined to agree with the postulate that everyone likes presents, Santa, peace on earth and all the things that come with Christmas and the holiday season.  I mean, what’s not to like?  My office Christmas party was today and we had a Secret Santa gift exchange.  The person whose name I drew, is an staunch Orange County Republican who thinks Sarah Palin is “hot”. 

As a gag gift, I gave him the book “Going Rouge – An American Nightmare” which is the bitingly real expose of the most dangerous woman on the planet, Sarah Palin.  (I also gave him a real gift, and the gift receipt to exchange the book for something he really wanted!)  The person who drew my name in the gift exchange had a similar idea, and gave me the book, “Going Rogue”, the fictional work of a delusional demagogue by Pontius Palin – The Bobbleheaded Beauty Queen herself.  Delicious irony, right?  In a way, the gifts canceled each other out.  Ah, the magic of Christmas!

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! 

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!

My Dad left Saturday just in time for Claudio’s sister, who’s visiting from Brazil, to check into The H.C.  We had lunch in Santa Monica yesterday, and on the way there, while driving down Sunset Blvd., there were 3 Ferraris and 3 Lamborghinis that were drag racing.  Finally a cop showed up, but none of them even got pulled over!  Anyway, watch the video to see what could have been the disastrous results: