« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »

July 31, 2005

Mr. and Mrs. Alex Ellis

Alex and Missy got married last night. It was a beautiful ceremony at the St. Paul Hotel. Beautiful day, a little warm, but sunny with a slight breeze. The ceremony itself was nice and short. Leah, Missy's sister, was the maid of honor. Alex's best friend, Ezra, the best man. Other close friends filled out the rest of the wedding party.

The reception afterwards was much fun. Our table in particular had the best lookers, in my humble opinion. I was happy to be there ;-)

Unfortunately we got 5 minutes from the hotel when I realized that I had forgotton the good camera. Thanksfully the roommate had grabbed the pocket cam - but it's only ya 2 megapixel. At least we have some photos.

Here are a few photos, with the rest in the gallery.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:26 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 30, 2005

High School bartime

I feel lucky to still keep in touch with a few friends from high school. A handfull go as far back as kindergarden. How awesome is it to have friends for 20 years? Even though I see them only rarely, these folks are the people who you'll always think back to a time in your childhood and remember.

Missy is getting married tonight. Alex is from Iowa and a great find - cute, smart, stable - all of the things you'd want in a spouse. I'm really happy for them. They're both good people and deserve each other and I'm sure they've got many good years together ahead of them.

Makes me wonder if I'll ever find a match like Missy and Alex have found. Will I grow old with someone? Will I find that happiness?

More photos of tonight's festivities are sure to come, but in the meantime I met up with some folks last night at the hangout south of the river in the Twin Cities metro area - Champps in Bursnville. While the decor, menu, atmosphere, and everything else you'd want in a bar / restaurant may be lacking, it sure made up for it with HOT college-aged guys.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 09:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A very important message

I received a very important voicemail this week! At least it sounds important. In fact, I've been getting an awful lot of these lately. I'm beginning to think somebody's been writing my phone number in bathroom stalls.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 08:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 23, 2005

The Dark Side of The Force

Tom seems to have left the public spotlight for the time being, but I ran across this made-for-the-internet video clip that I felt was only appropriate that it be shared.

On the image above, right-click and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' - depending on your browser.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 10:31 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

An afternoon at the Rodeo

After some very long hours at work this week, we shut down at 2:00 in the afternoon on Thursday for our company "summer picnic." This year's picnic was themed The Rodeo - Keep Yer Ass in the Saddle.

The company brought in some sort of vendor that puts on Rodeos and we had a blast! Lassoeing lessons, a live band that did some awesome covers (Elton John's Benny & The Jets was awesome - some of the country stuff, not so much), a pig roast, several kegs, Chicken Shit Bingo, and the highlight of the event - a mechanical bull.

This is a shot of me on the bull. It was the best action shot, but didn't turn out so well, so I played with it so you could at least see the expression on my face.

I was one of the first people to jump on. I was a little leary after I was made to sign not one, but TWO waivers, but proceeded to mount the bull anyhow. I wasn't on it more than 10 seconds before I was whipped off, but it was fun while it lasted.

Shortly after I had my go at it, several ladies gave it a shot and I was astonished to find out that the operator was taking it slow with them! I approached him about his sexist mechanical bull operating procedures and was met with a toothy grin response: "I don't want to watch guys - I like the little ladies!"

Well I'll be damned!

Chicken Shit Bingo was the other highlight of the afternoon. A 10' x 10' poster was printed out with every employees photo placed on a grid. On top of that was constructed a chicken coop. Three chickens were tossed in (literally - they didn't seem to want to go), and then fed. I don't know what it is about chickens, but supposedly once they start eating they'll begin shitting shortly thereafter. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but the chickens started to shit. The crowd gathered round would oooh and ahhh in anticipating if one of the chickens squatted as if it may be preparing to eject a bowl movement, and finally, one of the chickens shat on the lucky winner - a designer who subsequently received an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas. I guess it pays to get shit on.

This cowboy was helping us out with the chickens, demonstrating his talents with the lasso, and enjoying himself along with the rest of us. When he spied me taking photos of the bull riders he asked me if I would take a few shots of him for his match.com profile. I obliged and emailed the photos to him just this morning. I hope he finds a nice lady friend.

More photos in the gallery of various coworkers being thrown from the bull.

I took off a little early and headed up to the Albertville outlet mall about 30 minutes north of the cities with a buddy. I am a 100% addict - and that includes shopping, too. I couldn't help but spend money in every store we entered. Two new pairs of Puma's, some fun clogs and a shirt for the roomie at Beneton, new towels at Ralph Loren, and a sporty suit jacket and leather flip-flops with elastic bands for that click-clack sound at Banana.

The weekend is supposed to be hot (97 frick'n degrees) and humid, with a chance of thunderstorms. I LOVE thunderstorms, so cross your fingers for me.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 09:27 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

July 16, 2005

Ode to Michelle

Rarely would I spend the time to dedicate an entire post to an individual, but I just got the Saturday paper and found my friend Michelle plastered all over the Variety section. She deserves the A section, but I guess you can't always have it all.

Michelle and I used to work together at a previous agency. She'd always be the entertainment at happy hour or a company party - picking up the microphone and seducing us with her sultry voice and antics. She could mesmorize even this gay man with even her casual performances.

About a year passed and Michelle decided to give up a promising career in advertising and follow her dreams. She's now Nadine Dubois, the emcee at Lili's Burlesque Revue, entertaining for the masses and enjoying every second of it.

Continue reading for the full story, copied from the strib because their pages eventually expire - and I want to remember this one for a while ;-)

Photos copied from startribune.com, (C) Tom Wallace

Hot stuff: Burlesque is back in Minneapolis

By Kay Miller, Star Tribune Staff
July 16, 2005 LI

Most patrons have a drink or two in them by 10 p.m., when emcee "Nadine Dubois" steps onstage to wild applause at Lili's Burlesque Revue. Scott "Frenchy" Fremont at the drums pounds out a sultry beat.

Dubois -- aka Michelle Langner, 30 -- is draped in a low-cut scarlet gown, the spotlight catching her glitter-dusted cleavage. Her voice is a husky come-hither.

"Clap if you're virgins to burlesque," she says, with a playfully lascivious look. Dubois came late to the role of bawdy temptress, having sung in a Christian rock band after studying theater and opera at Gustavus Adolphus College.

There are maybe 40 people in the audience, most in their 20s or 30s. But Dubois picks Nate, the blond onetime farmer from Fargo sitting in the front row, as the evening's foil after he admits he's a burlesque neophyte.

"I promise we'll deflower you gently," she coos.

Lili's is one of Minneapolis' subcultural gems. On this Friday night, it houses patrons from as far away as New York, North Carolina and Seattle. Audiences are treated to a mix of exotic dancers, bullwhip artists, singers, comics, jugglers, fire twirlers and Frenchy's Big Bang Burlesque Band.

With a pool of 40 artists and a bent toward improvisation, the lineup is different every Friday and Saturday night.

Tonight's show is laced with surprises. A dancer's pasties -- those strategically placed nipple cones -- accidentally pop off. Fire spinner Kristin Doll caps one routine in a back-bend, spewing fire into the air. A ballerina in a black tutu dances on pointe, tossing blossoms until she's topless but for two little flowers.

"Burlesque is not about being naked or hot or sexy," says singer Karen "Chanteuse" Paurus, 39. "It's about allowing somebody to watch you in this very playful, sensual and often really silly circumstance where you're taking off your clothes. Even then, you still don't get to see a naked body. There is always something left to the imagination."

Dubois and Paurus are among the core group of six performers who furnished the room from their own pockets and run the club, auditioning singers, hiring servers, even meeting with the fire marshal. Yet their $15 to $60 a night earnings make day jobs an imperative.

Dubois is a server at the Local Irish Pub and Paurus is an online editor for startribune.com. But Lili's larger cadre of performers includes an English teacher, an art gallery manager, a massage therapist, an actor, a toy company president and a doctoral student in religion ("This is my dirty little secret," says Doll).

For performers, Lili's is a labor of love. For patrons, it's a step back 60 years to Vaudeville's coy sexual tease. Lacy panties, stockings and corsets draped over a clothesline at the window and passion-red walls set the evening's tone: naughty but never nasty. Here, women are in charge.

"Tonight I invite you to strip yourselves of your Minnesota skins," Dubois says. "We want you to hoot, holler, clap, bang on the tables. Around here we call that encouragement. Because if you don't do that, they may not take it off. And that will be a little embarrassing for all of us."

And bless all you dears who buy Dubois a cocktail or drop a little monetary "love" in her tip purse.

Beautiful in their skin

An hour before the show, Liana "GiGi Larue" Jacquet, 23, stands before the crowded backstage mirrors in black panties, pressing hot pink pasties to her bare breasts. Finding the best adhesive is a story in itself. Larue opts for spirit gum, letting it dry to a tacky ring before applying pasties.

"They're like little Shriner's hats with tassels on them," says "CoCo Dupree," a k a Sarah Levorson, 36. The longer the tassel, the better the twirl, says Dupree, who makes pasties while watching daytime TV. She sells them to show patrons for $20 a pair.

"There's nothing better than knowing you helped a 70-year-old woman find a whole new appreciation for her boobs," Dupree says.

Medical adhesive is the most reliable fixant, Dupree says. Still, wardrobe malfunctions are a hazard of the trade and the women delight in describing how they covered themselves with the flick of a fan, feather boa or hat.

Around them, female performers in all shapes and sizes arrive in the crowded backstage dressing room pooped from their day jobs, reviving as they slip into their alter egos.

"We basically make enough here to support our expensive habits -- the feathers, the beads, the costumes, the shoes and stockings that get ripped," Dubois said.

So why do they do this?

"I have power when I'm onstage," said Lady Luck. "Yeah, it's sexual power, but I'm in control. I look at the audience and see people with their mouths open. It's wonderful to be desired."

The work is fun. The talented cast is close. And Dubois has found she's a master at engaging the audience. Her zaftig body is far from perfect. Yet feeling beautiful in her own skin has been surprisingly liberating.

"I wasn't even a girl who would wear a swimsuit in public. Now I feel confident the way I am, not that I have to change into some skinny little thing."

Dubois recalled one woman who came to the show with her emotionally abusive boyfriend. For years he had berated her as ugly and undesirable. In the middle of the show she turned to him and said, "I am so dumping you. None of the women up there is perfect but they're stunning. And I'm that person."

All the right moves

Clothes come off slowly as dancers warm up the Minnesota crowd. Sinewy CoCo Dupree, the embodiment of what the Harlem Renaissance must have been, is a pro at the steamy side glance and excruciatingly slow move.

Soon she'll strip to pasties and stockings. But for now she toys with the audience, taking a five-minute song to slip out of her dress, stripping no further than a corset.

"That was the G-rated piece," Dubois teases Nate. "I have a lot of experience and I might just have to take you backstage."

A blush spreads from his collar to his hairline. But Nate is a good sport. After several drinks, he catches a boa thrown from the stage, smiles goofily when Dubois perches on his lap, buys her a tequila and lopes up onstage to drape the boa around her. Finally he slips a tip into her purse.

"Thank you, Nate. I'm glad you got it that I'm not going to bend over for it," Dubois says.

Nate is the first to shout out naughty words to Dubois's fill-in-the-blank burlesque song.

"I could end the song there but I think you guys deserve more," she says. Nate's eyes bug out as Dubois finally opens her black peignoir, revealing black garters and stockings. She drops the gown. With shoulders moving she gets the sequined pasties spinning in opposite directions.

Suddenly she motions for Frenchy to still his drum.

"Let's talk," she says solemnly. "Let's talk about a few months ago when my parents called and said, 'Honey, we're coming up to see your musical show.' "

The audience gasps.

"No, no, you don't understand. My conservative, Republican parents from South Dakota came. And I forgot to tell them I was stripping." Her parents sat in the front row as Dubois maintained her professional, er, demeanor.

Afterward her mother asked, "Oh, my God, where did you learn to twirl those things like that?" Her father tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Oh, honey, I've changed her diapers. I've seen a lot worse than that."

Kay Miller is at kmiller@startribune.com

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:48 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

July 15, 2005

The latest

Thursday brought an end to an insane week. Insanity seems to surround me, but that's what keeps me going I guess - trying to manage it all. Sometimes the challenge is fun, and sometimes it's not. I was happy the week was over.

From work, I headed over to Dinkytown for a dinner at the Chinese restaurant on 4th street near the Loring Pasta Bar with some friends. Richard had organized a group of friends to see the latest show at the Varsity Theater next door.

I walked into the restaurant and there must have been 30 - 40 people there! I was imagining only six or seven, so I was a little surprised. Richard picked up everyone's dinner and paid for the tickets to the show.

The theatre was a fun experience. It's been redecorated and overstuffed furniture is scatterred in a blackbox fashion amidst the stage. The show was called The Artificial Jungle. It was a funny show, but Jim was bored. We both got naps in - the furniture was too comfy not to fall asleep at the end of a hard week!

Richard is such a generous, good, loving guy - he picked up the tab for the dinner and the show for everyone. I'm grateful people like Richard are in my life today.

Today I slept in - until 8:30am - woo hoo! Stopped in at Spyhouse for some coffee and crosswords, and then headed over for my 11:00 hair appointment at Tommy's on Lake - formerly Schmidty's. My stylist was running behind on his appointments, so I got to spend an extra 20 minutes gawking over the new guy behind the front counter. I didn't quite catch his name, but I thought I heard somebody call him Austin. What is with guys named "Dallas" or "JR" or "Austin" - all things I associate with Texas or Dallas - they're all cute!

Stopped in at home with every intention of changing and running over to the gym, but I ended up vegging out on the couch for 5 hours. I know, I know - napping on a sunny day and waking up on the couch to a Lifetime Television film is not very glamorous.

Decided I was too tired to contemplate the gym, so I headed over to Vera's to grab a piece of cake and relax. Substituting cake for the gym certainly isn't recommended, but this was carrot cake, so it's healthy, right? Aaron stopped in and I had a nice chat with him. I haven't seen him in months, so it was nice to catch up with him. He's such a good egg.

Caught the last half of a non-air conditioned meeting (note to self: wait until winter to go back to that meeting!) and went to dinner afterwards with those folks. Talked to Wanda there for a while. She had foreign podcasters in town - I think they're planning on taking over the world, or something equally dubious.

I'm finishing up my evening where I started the day off - Spyhouse. Dim lights here tonight with some unknown rockband being broadcast from the speakers. And the best part - the uber-hot guy sitting near me with a ripped sleaveless t-shirt, ripped jeans, shaved head, a road construction worker tan - a total badass, you know the kind who are ruthless in bed. And guess what he's doing tonight? He's fucking water coloring!

Since when do the guys of my dreams sit alone in a coffee shop on a Friday night water coloring??? Ahh, such is life - and life is good.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 10:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 13, 2005

Welcome to my workplace

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:41 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

July 12, 2005

Pink Panty Poker

Sounds dirty, doesn't it? That's the point. Crispin Porter & Bogusky has launched another really fucking cool site for one of their kickass clients, Victoria Secret. Go check out Pink Panty Poker.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 09:29 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

July 11, 2005

Movie mania weekend

Been recovering from a cold bug that's been plaguing me for a couple of weeks, so I haven't posted lately. This weekend was spent at Spyhouse, IKEA, meetings, friends' houses, and on the couch - watching movies.

I love watching a good movie, and I'm disappointed if a movie doesn't turn out well - though to be fair, sometimes I deem a movie as having not turned out well because I wasn't in the mood to watch it in the first place. Another common death-sentance is if somebody, or especially if multiple people, tell me that a film is good. When that happens I wind up hyping the movie in my head, creating these grand expectations that no movie could ever fulfill - save Steel Magnolias.

I haven't found much time to watch many movies as of late, so I crammed in five over three days this weekend.

Friday night, end of stressful week at work, looking to kick back and relax - what's better than a movie about superheros, one of which has special powers enabling him to turn into a ball of fire, which subsequently burns all of his clothes off and leaves his greek-god-like physique exposed for more than half of the movie? Chris Evans in Fantastic Four is the new cure for the modern nervous breakdown. But aside from the obvious delight of the gorgeous, aforementioned 24 year old, the film was your standard fare "comic book becomes Hollywood blockbuster" that we've seen an awful lot of lately. Now if only the rest of the producers making these films will nod their head to these guys for making the superheros both attrictive AND naked.

Saturday afternoon brought The Aviator, or Leonardo DiCaprio as he's better known, to my living room. I'd not heard that this was a great film, nor that it was a bad film, more that it was a mediocre, long film. While I think DiCaprio is a great actor, I've never thought he was the heartthrob People magazine makes him out to be. I think his portrayal of Howard Hughes was fantastic - the rawness of the mental breakdown was as real as it gets. To borrow the line all of the Titanic trailers ended with, he really shows how Hughes was the king of the world. And Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn was simply marvelous. Every time I see this woman in a film I find myself attracted to her. I can't quite put my finger on it - she's an older woman without a penis ... I can only pray my attraction doesn't reside in the physical sense. Aside from the artfulness of the film, the history lesson included was quite interesting as well - the characters seemed to me as if they were the Ratpack before the Ratpack. Interesting circles Mr. Hughes ran in - very interesting.

I wasn't expecting much from Hide and Seek with Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning. Sure, De Niro can usually be counted on for at a minimum, a good show, but Ronin and Meet the Fockers weren't exactly Oscar-worthy. Dakota Fanning has become so idolized that I view her as the female MacCauley Culkin of the new millennium. But after watching it, I was happy I had. I was held in suspense. The story was certainly believable, and the film ended with a nifty way to wrap up the story. Though I was disappointed that you were able to figure out how the story would end about 5 minutes prior to the story unfolding, they did it in a fun way that let you continue shitting your pants while you waited for the credits to roll.

Sunday afternoon I simultaneously popped in Swimming Upstream, and popped up a ... nevermind, that's too awful to share. While I won't deny that the prospect of watching hot Olympic swimmers in Speedos for two hours probably played a part in me picking this film from the shelves, I'm glad I did. Sometimes sexual attraction does result in things other than sin! I hadn't heard of the film prior to seeing in the video rental store (I know, I know - I haven't yet jumped on the Netflix bandwagon yet). It's based on the true story of an Australian Olympic swimmer and how he grew up training with his brother under the coaching of their alcoholic, volatile, and highly abusive father. The main character grows up in the shadow of his brother, who holds favorites with pops. The ending had me all choked up - I was pleasantly surprised by this previously unheard of flic.

Not since Philadelphia have I ever felt so much appreciation for what our gay forefathers had to experience in order to allow me to live my life more free of prejudice and ignorance than they were allowed. It's unimaginable to me to know what it must have been like in the 80s to have half of your friends die and watch helplessly as President Regan wouldn't even mention the word "AIDS" until 7 years into the epidemic and over 100,000 people had died of it. Society was turning it's cheek on gay men, saying that we deserved HIV. Yet Ray Cohn, arguably one of the most bigoted and powerful men of his time, died of the very thing that he spit on. Angels in America shows different facets of gay life and how AIDS affected not only those who were infected, but the people whom they loved and loved them. I can only hope that one day this story might find itself on high school syllabus sheets in rural Kansas.

In other news - I seem to have acquired a pair of coffee shop stalkers. Be warned - I'll get you two, and your little dog too!

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:31 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

July 06, 2005

The Fourth of Joooly

Two years ago I couldn't wait until the 4th of July hit. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde was coming to theatres! The trailer, which turned out to be just as good as the movie, but you wasted less time, featured Jennifer Coolidge touting, "You look like the Fourth of July! Makes me want a hotdog, reeeeal bad." I repeated that line for weeks, much to the agitation of my friends.

This year I was sick all weekend and missed the Gay Rodeo that Aaron attended. After three days spent on the couch watching sappy Lifetime movies I forced myself to venture out for the 4th. Jim and I hit three parties:

I'm getting kicked outta Spyhouse now, so gotta run. Go check out the galleries for the full she-bang.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:42 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 04, 2005

Sunday night at the Saloon

Jim and I decided to head down to the Saloon last night. There were going to be a bunch of sober people out and nobody had to work today.

Saw a hot guy playing pool. He took his shirt off halfway through the night, and everybody suddenly became HUGE pool fans - myself included. Not sure why one takes their shirt off playing pool - it's not like you should be breaking a sweat. At the end of the night we concluded he must be straight and just liked all the attention. Okay, so I didn't even make eye-contact, and the straight theory is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Not like I really want to pick up a guy in a bar anyway. Though I was tempted. I used to go to the Saloon several times a week. Oftentimes it involved bringing somebody home for the night. It's a lot different sober. You see the folks who are behaving like you used to. You see the normies who don't have a problem. And then you see the folks that you knew from the rooms that are back at the bar.

It's really sad. I counted five people last night I knew from AA who were out drinking. I guess it's really an eye-opener for me as to how difficult a struggle this whole sobriety thing really can be for some people. I didn't really have an urge to drink last night, but it was discomforting to see these people drinking.

One friend had 8 or 9 years sober and then decided he was never an alcoholic to begin with. Another friend had 3 and half years sober and decided yesterday he was going to do a shot, have a few bears, and then hop right back on the bandwagon.

It makes me sad. In my meeting last night we read a story in which the author talks about the two aspects of alcoholism - The allergy of the body, and the obsession of the mind. The latter is clearly the more dangerous of the two. An allergy you can do something about - avoid whatever you're allergic to. The obsession of the mind is what leads us down dangerous paths, makes bad decisions, and does unhealthy things.

The obsession will eventually lead to a complete change in a person if they continue drinking. They will no longer be themselves. Their whole being will become an addict and revolve around that addiction. Everything else is secondary. Eventually they will lose everything, and it's in the process of losing everything that you feel bad for them. Having to watch it over time, just waiting for the person to hit their bottom, is not pleasant. They will blame everything but themselves as to why they lose this or that. They're living in a delusion of an okay life, until it hits them one day that they are spent. They find themselves empty, with nobody and nothing, to reach out for.

Have a happy 4th of July and be grateful of the gifts you've been given.

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:03 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

July 03, 2005

Blogologue

I was spammed on Friday - big surprise. Except this time, I actually read the email. It was from a certain Ryan Paul North (who can be reached at rnorth1@mn.rr.com). Ryan Paul was informing me of a new show that's part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. I guess I can forgive them for illegally emailing me since they don't have a large marketting budget to legitimately collect email addresses with.

Anyhow, Ryan Paul was promoting this new show called Blogologue - read more about it at the Fring Festival's website. The show description from their reads:

Presented by Hamel Road Theater Project

Blogologue - an onstage, Google driven, Web browsing, sketch comedy, multi-media experience! Born from the best and worst of online blogs (web logs), websites, e-mails, bulletin boards, videos, surfing and spam! "Accessible, funny and a well done commentary on the modern Internet community."

The email was actually kinda cute - it had big bold letters, all centered, red type on a black background. Sorta took me back to the early days of SPAM, so maybe he did it intentionally, trying to look like amateur SPAM. Is there such a thing?

I might actually go to this. Any other interest for ye locals?

Posted by SparklesMpls at 11:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack