The City of West Hollywood held its annual Halloween Carnaval last night, and it was attended by more than 300,000 revelers.  Since it takes place literally at the bottom of my street, parking was not a problem for me.  I simply walked down the street in my Steve Irwin costume, and entered the mayhem. 

After less than an hour, I was freezing in my shorts and t-shirt.  I have no idea how half of those guys walked around bare chested (and more/less) all night long.  So I ran back home and got a hooded sweatshirt, and ditched the shorts.

Later in the evening, the crowd was so dense that you couldn’t even walk by yourself, you were just being pushed like cattle to move forward.  It made me realize how stampedes can kill people; something I never understood before!  At one point I was walking in the street, next to the curb, and I got pushed to the right.  As I moved my foot up to the curb, it only went halfway, and my ankle twisted to what felt like 90°.  I immediately fell over in retching pain.  My friends literally had to almost carry me home.  I iced it when I got home and when I woke up this morning, my ankle was the size of a cantaloupe!  Needless to say, I’m not walking anywhere today! 

Maybe not a cantaloupe but it hurts!

Anyway, here are some of the pre-sprain photos.  Enjoy!

I thought this was the most creative (and scariest) costume of the evening!

One of my favorites from last night!

This kid was so wide-eyed and adorable.

Run for your life, it’s a cute gay Teletubby!

Holy Chiquita Banana!

Satanic priest and Indian??

Mini-Kiss, that’s why you can’t see them.  LOL

Speaking of botox…Brokeback Botox!

 

 

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And finally, my friend Jennifer sent me this picture of Drew that makes me smile every time I look at it.  In case you’re wondering, Drew is the baby I’m holding in this picture that I sometimes use on my profile, which was taken a year ago.  He’s really growing up!

And my cousin Jennifer sent me this photo of all the neighborhood kids on their front porch before they went trick or treating.  The shark, and the homeless bum holding “The End is Coming” sign, should really win some type of prize.  Priceless!

Seth and I had VIP tickets to see “Real Time with Bill Maher” tonight.  The show airs live at 11:00 PM on HBO.  Lately I haven’t been 100% thrilled with some of his politics, but he usually makes me laugh and his show usually sparks some good discussions. 

Because of what happened last week we were told that security would be extra tight.  This turned out to be a joke.  We drove right into the gate at CBS Television City without even giving our names or showing ID.  However, when I tried to smuggle my cell phone in to take some pictures, the trouble began.  As I went through the metal detector, I told them that I was a doctor, and that I needed my cell phone to text medical instructions to the hospital.  LOL.  They argued with me and called more security.  When they insisted that I could not bring my cell phone in, I stated that if my patients died, it would be on their conscience.    Oh, well, I tried.  So the only pics I got were these lame ones outside the studio in the dark with my mobile.

 

The show was pretty good tonight.  The guest were:  former presidential candidate and Four Star General Wesley Clark, tennis great Martina Navratilova, conservative gay blogger Andrew Sullivan, esteemed journalist Sir David Frost and Republican Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The topics the panel discussed tonight were: 

• The California wildfires and the environment
• Burqas (which contained an uncomfortable burqa fashion show, and Wesley Clark defending women who wear them)
  
• Gay mania & marriage (Question to the Republican candidates:  If you knew you could prevent a terrorist attack, would you have sex with a man? And, if you knew a fetus would become Osama bin Laden, would you abort it?)
• Richard Nixon’s administration
• Hillary demonization
• Arnold for president?  (Wesley Clark was definitely against repealing the Constitutional Amendment that would allow a foreign born person to become president.  I have to agree with him.  He’s really gunning for Hillary.  It made me think that he might be a potential Vice Presidential candidate for her.)
  

Anyway, if you want to see a clip from the show, click here.

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It’s amazing how a disaster can draw people to your website.  I’ve gotten hundreds of hits the last day or two, presumably because of the fires.  These are just from the last couple of days:

I haven’t had this many visitors to my website since I wrote about Sabine’s experience during the Virginia Tech tragedy.

I even had a hit from someplace called:

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

/597779041/spaghetti-di… Weblogs

10/27/2007 12:37 AM

Speaking of the fires, this is hopefully my last post for a while about wildfires, but I had to share these photos I got from Jennifer yesterday.  They were taken from the exact spot where I took my photos the day before, just after the fire had been put out.  If you look at these photos, and compare them to my previous entry, you can see exactly how the fire destroyed that area.  Amazing!

Nothing like a Coors Light while watching your house burn down!

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Apparently my birthday messages to all of my far flung friends have not gone unnoticed,  because when I woke up this morning I had been sent this wonderful PowerPoint presentation, that touched me like no other birthday gift I’ve ever received.  Marcelo even recorded himself playing the guitar and singing!  You’ll have to hear it to know how beautiful it is.  Thank you to my fabulous friends and thanks to all of you who sent such nice birthday wishes.  I’m truly touched.  Thanks also to my family for such a nice time tonight and to my parents and everyone who called today.  42 isn’t bad at all!  Thanks again.  –Carey

GLY,  friend!!!

May this day be even kinder to you…

Here is a techno-humble gift from us.  Forgive my incompetence in packaging the power point slide show with the audio file I made to go along with it.  Daringly, I am asking you to download the music file so you can play it in the background as you watch the slide show.

Some of us are tech-challenged.  Some of us aren’t but can’t be bothered with it.  But together we have the warmth of a mother’s hug…

Marcelo

This is Marcelo, playing the guitar and singing “I Will Survive”  Gloria Gaynor’s got nothing on Marcelo!  Sorry girls (and boys),  I know his accent is dreamy, but he’s happily married.

The “gang” in Brazil on New Year’s Eve

And here are a few photos from dinner with my family tonight:

Andy & Tressa

Where’s Andy?

Guess who climbed into the basketball machine??

Tommy’s toothless smile

Cole & Dar

Andy & Lisa

Jenn & Dar

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“After a B-52 pilot flew over several U.S. states carrying nuclear warheads, the Air Force said that it would discontinue its use of MapQuest.” — Newsweek satire columnist Andy Borowitz

The oxymoronic thing about funerals is that they can be so much fun.  Though the sadness is often overwhelming, the gathering of family and friends from far and wide and the memories shared, often result in laughter to the point of tears, but tears of joy, as we remember a life well lived. 

I learned many things about Dave this week.  I learned about his childhood from his kid brother.  I learned about what kind of father he was from his daughters.  I learned what a good friend he was from over 100 people who came to a memorial on a Wednesday afternoon to celebrate his life.  Of course I knew all of these things already, they were facts.  But as we all stayed up until 4 or 5 AM the past 3 nights and rummaged through boxes of old photos and told stories, these “facts” developed a genesis.  Through Jennifer’s eloquent eulogy to Cole’s tears of anguish at never being able to see his “Bampa” again, I learned how he was adored.  From Lisa’s unwavering spirit after painful surgery to Tommy’s matter of fact innocence in the wake of such a loss, I learned how his spirit was infectious to his family.  From Dar’s brave face and smiles through the tears, I realized how much joy the man she loved brought her every day of their life together. 

He was a man who defied all the odds and his spirit will live on in the family that loved him so much.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the week.  We’ve been joking about how happy we all look in these pictures.  If this is how our family acts at a funeral, imagine what we’re like at a wedding!  LOL.  To wit, a celebration of a life well lived:

Song of the day

Tonight’s weekly family dinner was more somber than most, but as you can see, we tried to not let that show to the kids.  Dave is still in intensive care on life support.  The doctors don’t all seem to be on the same page about his treatment, which is rather annoying.  As of last night we were preparing for the worst but this morning there was a glimmer of hope in the form of a tracheotomy.  As it is, he’s one of the oldest Cystic Fibrosis patients on record.  Please keep him in your thoughts.

As most of you probably know, Saturday is The National Day of Climate Action. If any of you are interested in hiking up to the Hollywood Sign, let me know.  There will be some great photo opps.   If not, there are events all over.  You can check www.stepitup2007.org  for more info.

On this one spring day, there will be hundreds and hundreds of rallies all across the country.  There are gatherings in every state, and in many of America’s most iconic places:  on the levees in New Orleans, on top of melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.  In Florida they’re hoisting a huge boat up in the air to show people where  the water levels will be in 50 years!

There will be rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps. Every group will be saying the same thing: “Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by 2050.” As people gather, pictures will be linked in real time via the web–before the weekend is out, it will be the largest protest the country has ever seen. Here in Hollywood the peaceful demonstration will take place at:

***THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN***

April 14, 2007 01:00PM to 03:00PM

Today, Seth and Jessica dropped off their dogs, Garbo & Ruby (I did a blog for the dogs last year, before I started this one, LOL), for a mini-vacation at the luxurious Hotel Careyfornia.   They brought their 16 month old daughter Hannah (the genius child….she’s working on the Rubik’s Cube, watch out Tyson….she loves it!) and I snapped some shots.  (Mind you, this is in between phone calls from the Ford Child Modeling Agency and Toyota, who needs a precocious red head for their latest commercial.  Two words:  Danny Bonaduce!!)  j/k (Don’t freak out Jessica!) LOL

Hannah really is smart though, she’s got the vocabulary of a six year old, and man can she sing!  She makes Sanjaya sound like William Hung!   Anyway, I’ve got the dogs until Wednesday.  It’s funny, whenever they stay with me they need a vacation afterwards.  I walk them for miles every evening, all around West Hollywood.  They attract a lot of attention.  At home they’re used to going to bed at 8 or 9 with Hannah, and when they’re here, we sometimes go for walks at 3 AM, when I’m done writing this thing!  So, needless to say, their schedules get all out of whack, but they certainly have fun!  Have a good evening everyone.  Hope to see some of you at the rally tomorrow!

Hannah in Garbo’s bed

New York to Paris  – Pay special attention to #23

Thanks to zealousalien for finding this one – Google 411  FREE Directory Assistance. Screw Cingular!

And finally thanks to Bhavin for another reason to love the elitists at Google. Free Wireless Broadband!

And don’t forget GoogleFight.  Let’s try Sanjaya vs. Clay Aiken

Deconstructing Sanjaya

Now they’re saying he can win.  And apparently it’s national news!?

First of all, I’m aware that Sanjaya came before the serious stuff, but I swear every other Google search that comes to my site from anywhere in the world, comes for Sanjaya.  It’s crazy!  Anyway, like a lot of Americans, I’m troubled by the racist remarks of Don Imus.  I’ve never listened to or watched the guy.  Frankly every time I see his face on TV, I cringe.  He makes Howard Stern look like Brad Pitt!  What he said was indeed racist and stupid, though I’m not sure why there’s such a big stink now.  From what I read, this guy has been a hate monger for years.  I wonder why there wasn’t such a public outcry when Mel Gibson or Michael Richards spewed their rants?  I don’t remember this kind of uproar in those two cases.  I live literally a block away from The Comedy Store where “Kramer” went crazy.  There were reporters and of course Jesse Jackson out in front of that place for about 3 days, and then it miraculously subsided.  What’s up with that?

I do believe however, that it is a slippery slope when corporations encroach upon freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution to every American citizen.  Let’s face it; Don Imus has been spewing this hateful nonsense for years.  Why is it news now?  How ironic is it that the 3 year saga of the Duke lacrosse “rape” case was dismissed this week?  Two examples of disenfranchised black women vs. admittedly privileged white males.  I really don’t know what to make of it.  Do you?  There’s certainly enough hate to go around with conservatives though, and they all stand behind the Patriot Act, until it’s their ass on the line.  Take a look:

Limbaugh: Gonzales is “under fire by white liberal racists in the Senate”

Beck continues attacks on ABC colleague O’Donnell

CNN’s, ABC’s Beck on Clinton: “She’s the stereotypical bitch”

Limbaugh suggested Edwards camp “leak[ed]” false information to Politico reporter “to jump-start the campaign”

Beck said “I’m a little ashamed” for calling O’Donnell “a fat witch” — then added, “But she’s so fat”

Beck smeared ABC colleague Rosie, claimed “I never said that Hillary Clinton was a bitch”

These people all think WAY too much of themselves.  Rush Limbaugh this morning was saying that the Imus situation could actually help the troops in Iraq.  I like to listen to Rush sometimes, just because of the whole, keep your friends close and your enemies closer rule.  But this morning, I had to turn him off.

Meanwhile, in Washington, President Bush is still searching for a brain.