I've been spending quite a bit of time at ACAC (cable access) editing my new clip show which I call "The Lodger Showboat." Even though there is minimal nudity and language issues in them, I think I'm going to try and get them aired around 2am on the weekend (and maybe on Wednesday sometime after Lube TV as well). I've been going through old tapes and looking at stuff and trying to find as much weird and unusual stuff as I can for the shows. Right now every episode starts with a Bowie video (after an introduction made by me of my friend Kelly O'Hare shirtless in slo-mo with a song by Plasticland). I found a tape of Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" and the film starts of with several colored zooms onto TV antennas, so now the shows start with that.

"The Lodger Showboat" is slated to air Saturday nights at 2am (after "Raw Time") beginning July 26th.

The other day I came home to find an e-mail from Agliff (The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival) saying that they had accepted a film I submitted to their My Gay Movie festival. The festival was slated for June 26th but had to be pushed to July 17th due to the fact that they had to secure a different theater for exhibition since the new Arbor up north wont be ready for the screening.

I submitted two films to the festival that I made a couple years ago with Tim Norfolk (aka Tim the Wonder Horse). Since then, Tim and I have been kind of estranged and I thought that this would be a cool way to make amends. But when I had a friend tell Tim about the acceptance of the films to the festival, he sent me the most cursory of e-mails saying he was cool with it. I was really hurt and disappointed by his reaction. I thought he would be happy to have a short film we worked on in a festival. Guess I was wrong.

The short films included in MGM are replayed at a showing at Agliff in August. The MGM showing on July 17th was a bit of a disappointment. More about that later.

Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland

Hollywood Talks Turkey by Doug McClennan

Snake Pit Anthology II by Benjamin Scott White

A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe

Hall and Oates - Along the Red Ledge

Tiktok - A Single Glass of Water

The Motels - No Vacancies

Blondie - Eat to the Beat

Ben Lee - Breathing Tornadoes

David Bowie - Rebel Rebel (new version from Charlie's Angel's ST)

Jane's Addiction - Just Because

Sugar Ray - Is She Really Going Out with Him?

Ludacris - Act a Fool

Shaun Cassidy - Wasp

Jim Grady - Everything Is As It Should Be

Urban Verbs - Urban Verbs

Urban Verbs - Early Damage

Tim Curry - Simplicity

Tim Curry - Read My Lips

Tim Curry - Paradise Garage

Tim Curry - Best of…

The Caroler Singers - Frosty the Snowman

Neil Young - Reactor

Hawaiian Pups - Split Second Percision

Urgh! A Music War Soundtrack

Time Square Soundtrack

Sharp Cuts compilation

The Fast and the Furious

Koyaanisqatsi

Shadows (John Cassavettes)

Swimming Pool

Bad Boys 2

Capturing the Friedmans

Holes

The Italian Job

LXG

Melvin Goes to Dinner

28 Days Later (with added alternate end)

7/22 - Ararat (Read my review)

7/22 - Final Destination 2

7/22 - The Life of David Gale (Read my review)

7/22 - Nicholas Nickleby (Read my review)

7/22 - Spun (Read my review)

7/22 - Read My Lips

7/22 - In Praise of Love (Read my review)

7/22 - Big Trouble

7/22 - …And God Spoke (Read my review)

7/22 - The Jim Rose Circus Show

7/29 - Daredevil (Read my review)

7/29 - The Quiet American (Read my review)

7/29 - Solaris (Soderberg) (Read my review)

7/29 - XX/XY (Read my review)

7/29 - Spider (Read my review)

7/29 - Til Human Voices Wake Us

8/5 - Bringing Down the House (Read my review)

8/5 - Agent Cody Banks

8/5 - What a Girl Wants (Read my review)

8/5 - Irreversible (Read my review)

8/5 - The Pornographers (Imamura)

8/12 - House of 1,000 Corpses

8/12 - He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Read my review)

8/12 - Will and Grace Season 1

8/19 - Chicago (Read my review)

8/19 - Bowling for Columbine (Read my review)

8/19 - The Good Theif

8/19 - All the Real Girls

8/19 - The Kid Stays in the Picture

8/19 - Shoah

8/26 - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

8/26 - Levity (Read my review)

8/26 - Raising Victor Vargas (Read my review)

(Dates subject to change)

7/23 - David Lee Roth - Stubb's

7/24-7/26 - Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Midnight - Alamo Downtown

7/24 - Sir Mixalot - Spiro's

7/24 - John Mayer/Counting Crows - VW Amphitheater - San Antonio

7/24 & 7/25 - Taxi Driver/Midnight Cowboy - Paramount

7/25 - Manatee/Dynamite Boy/Cruiserweight - Back Room

7/26 - Sing A-long "Grease" - Paramount

7/26-7/31 - Manito - Alamo Downtown

7/31 - Pong - Emo's

8/2 & 8/3 - The Way We Were - Paramount

8/4 - David Gray - Backyard

8/4-8/5 - Bad Boys - Alamo Downtown

8/5 & 8/6 - Seven Samurai - Paramount

8/7-8/11 - Donnie Darko - Alamo Downtown

8/8 - Manatee/Dynamite Boy - Stubbs

8/8 - Suzanne Vega - Antones

8/9 - Lollapalooza - VW Amphitheater

8/9 - Eels - Lazona Rosa

8/14 & 8/15 - Rosemary's Babay - Paramount

8/14-8/16 - Boogie Nights - Midnight - Alamo Downtown

8/15 - Glen Tilbrook - Cactus Cafe

8/16 & 817 - The Producers (film) - Paramount

8/16-8/21 - OT: Our Town - Alamo Downtown

8/19 & 8/20 - Lady from Shanghai/Touch of Evil - Paramount

8/21- 8/30 - Agliff

8/21-8/23 - Spanking the Monkey - Midnight - Alamo Downtown

8/24 - Cabaret (film) - Paramount

8/25-8/28 - Cinemania - Alamo Downtown

8/26 - El Cid - Paramount

8/26 - 311 - Backyard

8/27 & 8/28 - Out of Africa - Paramount

8/28-8/30 - Harold and Maude - Midnight - Alamo Downtown

8/29 & 8/30 - Lord Jim - Paramount

8/31 - Gone with the Wind - Paramount

9/19-9/20 - MacHomer - Paramount

9/21 - Into the Ring - Paramount Theater

9/30-10/5 - Grease (live) - Paramount

10/2003 - Austin Film Festival

12/5 - Vicki Lawrence & Mama - Paramount

12/26-1/4/04 - Tuna Christmas - Paramount

2004

3/12 thru 3/20 - SXSW Film Festival

3/22 - Momix - Paramount

4/13-4/18 - The Odd Couple w/ Barbara Eden - Paramount

4/27-5/2 - Stomp - Paramount

6/2-6/27 - Two Pianos Four Hands - State Theater

I believe there are angels among us.. But then again, I believe that you should eat a can of pork and beans with every meal, so... consider the source.

Melissa finally turned 21 on Flag Day, June 14th, so we celebrated by going down to 6th Street and getting drunk. In addition to my roomies Mike and Amanda and Melissa's boyfriend Robert, her friend Stephanie and our friend Johnny Oh! also attended. We started at Casinos and had a few drinks before going to Touché and getting some Flaming Dr. Peppers. Then we went to this new club on 6th called the Rock Star Bar. This place has a dance floor with an open window that overlooks 6th Street and plays a nice mix of old school and hip-hop, so we dug it. We got up in the window and danced a lot.

We were about to leave when we ran into some girls I work with, so we invited them to go to the Chugging Monkey with us. I don't really remember much after this but there are apparently pictures of me butt dancing with a bunch of the girls on the tiny dance floor there. We ended the night stopping by The Drink but by this point we had split up and lost track of each other, so the roomies and I headed home and I passed out.

I've been spending a ton of time with Johnny Oh! lately. I went to the Austin Museum of Art the other week with John as we spent the day together. We also had dinner and went to a play called "Tricks."

I was a little early for our trip to the museum, so I went into Wild About music, the store next to the State and Paramount Theaters on Congress. I bought my boss an Elvis CD case for his birthday. (He loves the king!) In the back of Wild About Music, they have lots of local artwork celebrating (mainly Texas) musicians. It's like a cool little gallery and some of the art was really interesting.

The Museum was running a show of contemporary artists from a collection owned by some huge insurance company. It was okay. There was a Warhol (I think it was a James Cagney silkscreen), a Lichtenstein and a few other notable artists. Oddly there was no Raushumberg. (And, no, I don't have time to look up the correct spellings of these guys).

We went to the Brick Oven for dinner. I've always wanted to go there but it wasn't much to write home about. It's a simple little Italian spot with the typical food including pizzas.

The play "Tricks" was at a new space called Arts on Real (pronouced REE-AL) which was over on the east side. This is a pretty easy place to find if you know where to look. The place was still being decorated and completed when we went in mid July. There was only one bathroom open and the A/C wasn't perfect but it looks like it is going to be a fabulous place to see plays once it is completed.

The production had a few sound problems but otherwise went off without a hitch. The acting was fairly good. "Tricks" sort of wavered between a Noel Coward style "catty" farce (There were lots of "Golden Girls" jokes) and a mystery thriller. Even though some of the characters turned out to be evil bitches, the piece wasn't hateful. There were also some scenes involving a baseball player who couldn't face his homosexuality that was a little over-the-top and melodramatic but overall the piece was quite enjoyable.

The acting was fairly decent with Jode Lanclos being the real standout for me. Although he seemed a tad bit old for the puppy dog role he was supposed to be playing, he played the doe-eyed innocent Enrique with luscious zeal. I look forward to seeing more of him. And chances are he will be in more pieces with Chris Steele, a porn star turned local actor. Steele and Lanclos were also in "Making Porn" together a few months ago. John also took me to that play. John likes Steele a bit, I think and he is a decent actor for a guy who used to be a porn star.

The piece was produced by Naughty Austin, so there were several moments in the play where the actors took off their clothes for absolutely no reason. Still, it was done rather well for local theater and tickets were relatively inexpensive so I imagine John and I will see more of their productions.

After the play we went to Boyz Cellar and Oil Can Harry's. At Oil Cans they were having some sort of birthday party for one of their bartenders and there were lots of cute boys dancing. This one little curly-haired blonde boy, who looked like he fell staright out of a 70's YMAC video, was dancing and would shimmy so cutely. I made John give him two dollars.

I had just gotten my crazy short haircut and was feeling sexy and butch. Some weird, drunk older guy tried to drag me on the dance floor and John had to save me.

I heard my friend Alan Campbell on KOOP radio the other day on something called the "El Gringo Show" (or something like that) talking about the recent Supreme Court decision on the Texas Sodomy Law. What an amazing day for gay people of this country. Time to fly our freak flag high girls! Alan was talking about what an important step this was for all citizens of America, not just gay people.

More recently, I saw a show featuring the American Analogue Set at Mercury @ Jazz on 6th Street. An article in the Chronicle told that the band had somewhat broken up when their frontman went to college in the East. Since then they have released a CD recorded prior to his move and toured a bit through his summer break.

Since the band is from Austin, the event was pretty well attended but the audience was horrible. The Mercury is one of those places on 6th street that has live music but considers itself "upscale" simply because it doesn't allow anyone to put flyers on the walls. The audience was full of talkative trendmongers who were there not to see the bands but to hang out at a place that had a cover over 10 dollars. (It cost 12 to get in that night). There were so many annoying sorostitutes there I wanted to slap someone. Trendy little 20-something secretaries and ex-Dell employees that make you want to puke.

The guys looked like they were all named Chip because their dads worked for IBM in 1984 and their parents thought Chip would be a funny, cool name for a baby boy. These are the kind of people that have new tattoos now but will be having them removed when they are 30.

It was a horrible space for the bands to play. If they had had the show at Emo's and charged 10 bucks to get in, I guarantee the audience would have been fans only and would have been so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. That's what you want with a band as beautiful and melancholic as the American Analogue Set.

The opening band was called Shearwater and they were the perfect band to open for AAS. Somewhat reminiscent of Belle & Sebastian, the band craftily swayed through a 40 minute set that proved them a dreamy rock sensitive guy band to be reckoned with.

The lead singer, who played guitar, banjo, accordion and keyboards during the set, looked a bit like Thurston Moore's cute little brother. I could imagine going over to his house on a dreary Monday afternoon and listening to albums by Sonic Youth and Belle and Sebastian while we laid on his bed with our feet touching the floor and stared at the ceiling. I'd want to kiss him but would know that such an action would only irritate and frustrate him. He wore a plaid, button-up shirt, not because he had to but because it's not cool to wear t-shirts with corporate logos on them or with slogans like "Challenge Authority" on the front in his book.

The other lead singer, who mainly played guitar during the set, looked a tad bit like Sean Ono Lennon. They were both cute and fronted the band with the dreamy, swaying, poetic crooning one has come to expect and demand from such bands.

This band was further enhanced by the rhythm section made up of a cute skinny girl playing a stand-up bass and a caveman of an older guy who played a small drum kit and a vibraphone, often at the same time. Shearwater was fucking awesome and I can't wait to see them again. Their best song is an amazing crowd-pleaser called "Whipping Boy."

After the set, the cute lead singer was seen wandering around in the audience wearing nerdy eye glasses and getting non threatening hugs from many of the cute college girls in attendance.

The next band was a bit harder but just as dreamy and spacey as Shearwater. They were called Dead Whale Tide. This is another band I would like to see again. They fared better with the loud crowd because they were a louder band. They sounded much like The Ocean Blue, early U2, and early Church.

The lead singer was bit older and wore creased, ironed blue jeans and the plainest blue t-shirt you've ever seen. He sounded like the lead singer for the Ocean Blue if he sang on the first U2 album. They were cool.

The American Analogue Set set was simply awesome. I first heard of the band when one of their songs was used in a UT students film a couple of year's ago. The film was by a girl in my friend Rich Eckersley's class and was about some girl on a bike who gets hit by a car. (Rich told me her boyfriend was in the band). Since then I've always wanted to see the band live and finally forced myself to go to a show. Now I can't wait to get all of their CD's.

American Analogue Set are beautiful and soulful and melodic and melancholy. They seemed to like Belle and Sebastian but this time crossed with Smashing Pumpkins. These are great musicians with amazing songwriting skills who simply amazed me with their tenderness and broken honesty. They are a band that sounds like submission. Not the submission of the weak but the surrender of the knowing. The lead singer is named Doug and he looks like a Doug but he has the soul of a Seth or an Andrew or a Christian or a Tobias.

I had what is called a Leary Biscuit the other day and let me tell you, I am now leery of them. I got high out of my motherfucking mind! The biscuit is made by placing two graham crackers together and putting peanut butter and marshmallow cream and a pot bud in the center and then baking it. Sort of a pot s'more. Dude, "baked" is the key word. I shant get into specifics but suffice it to say that I had to go home and hide in my room for six hours while rolled in a fetal position praying that it would wear off. I just can't handle pot anymore. The paranoia is deafening.

Austin is not the once thriving city that it was when I got here but then again, this country is not the once thriving country that it was when I got here either.

I've really been eating shitty fast food a lot lately. Within a two day span I had both the new Bistro Jack burger from Jack in the Box and a Great American Burger from Burger King. The bun is better on the G.A.B. but the Bistro Jack is a far superior burger. It's not worth the 3 and a half bucks they want for it, but it's close.

I've been watching too much TV lately. I find myself hunting the same channels. E!, Comedy Central, TV Land, Bravo and HBO. I've caught almost half of the Bill Maher live show and the new Ellen stand-up showcase. They are both really funny. I haven't seen "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" yet but it sounds somewhat interesting. I'm not sure I'm going to watch the Bravo boy dating game show, what is it, "Boy Meets Boy?" The one where one of the guys is a straight guy. That seems cruel. Now if he were a straight guy who could kick back and take a blow-job, that would be different.

I've watched these ignorant and horrible shows on E! where the Paparazzi stalk actors and actresses as they shop or come out of bars and restaurants. What has this fucking country come to? I used to have some respect and understanding for Paparazzi but after seeing how they act and what they do on these shows, I realize they are just horrible vultures, fucking dogs that deserve to be shot. It's sickening.

The Steamboat, which used to be the Bad Dog Comedy Club and a hundred other clubs is now closed as well. This is a cool space at a decent locale with great parking. I never went there when it was Steamboat, mainly because they rarely had anyone I wanted to see playing. But still, it's sad that they've closed it down already. I don't know what you could put in that space that would work. I really don't.

My court date for my ticket for my supposedly loud party back in November was scheduled for July 17th, a Thursday, and then my films got accepted to the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (Agliff)'s "My Gay Movie" (MGM) showcase on that same day. I filed for a motion for a continuance with the court and included my letter of acceptance to the film festival stating that to have both on the same day would be too much of an inconvenience and, surprisingly, the motion was granted. So I didn't have deal with both of these events on the same day.

That morning I went to the Dobie for a sneak preview of the new Alex Proyas film "Garage Days." Also in attendance was Corey and Cargill (probably misspelled that) from cable access TV's "The Reel Deal" and Marjorie Baumgarten from "The Austin Chronicle." When I told Corey this film had sat on the shelf for a while, Cargill disagreed and said Proyas had been slowly circulating it in festivals and stuff, which I don't think is exactly true. This was filmed in 2000 or 2001 and has been pushed back for release in the U.S. for several months, if not over a year.

We also discussed other films and Marjorie told us she had seen "American Splendor" (at Sundance) and "Northfork" and they were both good. We discussed the Polish brothers a bit and also a recent news release that Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" is apparently three and a half to four and a half hours long and will be released in two separate parts.

Later that evening, the MGM showing was a bit of a disappointment. There weren't as many people in attendance as there were last year. Agliff didn't do a very good job about getting the word out this year and it showed. I wasn't surprised that my two films were accepted after seeing the program because most of the other films in contention were not very good. There were a few standouts, like a film called "When Good Toys Go Bad" that had some pretty cool special effects and utilized "Star Wars" and "Xena" action figures but not many. The theater of about 200 seats was only about half full. Also, there was no Gay Youth Media showing this year. The GYM Project short film of last year was definitely the highlight of the event and its absence here left a gaping hole in the proceedings.

Also, Agliff did not do a very good job at getting the word out to the media. Last year there was a lot of press coverage and all the films were listed in the Austin Chronicle by title with the names of the filmmakers included. This year they just had a tiny blurb with no films or filmmakers listed. I was disappointed and mentioned it to Marjorie Baugarten the next day. (More below).

The program was introduced by Agliff head honcho Scott Dinger who promoted the upcoming festival in August and told us that it would also be held at the Regal Metropolitan, where MGM was taking place. Dinger called the Metropolitan, "the best theater in town."

There was a film by Deborah Abbott, a local actress and filmmaker that was okay but a little long. As a poetic ode to the wonders of femininity, it didn't really appeal to me. The other films, including "Circus Freaks" and "Loco" were tiresome, typical and pointless. I was pretty disappointed overalll in the quality of the film. The only good thing was that most of them made mine seem awesome by comparison.

I was accompanied to the showing by my friend Christian who promised to be an attentive "straight date" but didn't really live up to my ideal. He told me he was going to get dressed up in a pink shirt and tie but instead came in a hideous yellow shirt. It was just another disappointment in an evening of disappointments. Also along was Melissa, Mark Brauner, my roomie Amanda, and her friend Khahn.

At the end of the program Scott Dinger came back to announce a few awards. I didn't get one last year and wasn't expecting one this year. After giving the female filmmaker of the "Toys" movie an award (She was in "Toaster" last year with Deborah Abbott), Scott Dinger announced the award for "Best Psycho Stalker." I thought this was going to be an award for the filmmaker of "Loco," a horrible short about a Hispanic guy on crystal meth who kills his cheating lover (at least that's what I think it was about, I tuned out mid-way through because it was so awful). But then Scott announced my name as the winner of "Best Psycho Stalker" and I was so surprised that I walked up to the front of the theater in a daze. I kept waiting for him to say he had made a mistake. Then I realized that they were considering my performance in my short film "The Name Badge" to be one of a psycho stalker, which was kind of scary. That's not exactly what I was trying to convey. I got up to the stage and quipped "I beat the guy from 'Loco' for cyber stalker?" and said "Thank You" and sat back down. I didn't thank Tim (who wasn't there) or Mark Brauner, who helped get the film transferred to DV for the fesitval, or anyone. I was pretty stunned.

After the show, Christian was feeling ill from the buttery popcorn he was eating (or at least that's what he claimed) and went home while the rest of us went to Polvos on South 1st. I had several Margaritas and had a pretty good time hanging out with my friends.

The next morning I went to the Dobie yet again for a press sneak of the rerelease of the Melville film "Le Cercle Rouge." I ran into Marjorie Baumgarten from the Austin Chronicle and chided her for that paper not printing my name (or the names of any of the filmmakers) of Agliff's 2003 "My Gay Movie" which had been presented the night before. I think I made her uncomfortable even though that was not my intention. Marjorie seems to be a very nice person and is one of the few writers of film criticism that I somewhat respect.

We also talked about the Regal company and their plans to open a new Arbor theater in north Austin sometime soon. None of us, including Dan the Dobie manager, knew very much about it. Kevin, the guy who used to manage the Arbor, is apparently going to be at this new facility too. Agliff's "MGM" was originally announced as showing at the Arbor before it was rescheduled and moved to the Metropolitan. At the announcements preceding "MGM," Agliff head honcho Scott Dinger said the festival, held in August, would also be at the Metropolitan."

Later that evening, I edited my fifth episode of my new series and thought about going to see "Fellini: I'm a Born Liar" at the Dobie. But I got out a little late and then remembered that I really don't like Fellini all that much, from the three or four films I've seen. So decided instead to go to the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown at midnight and catch a screening of "Kids." My friend Johnn Oh! joined me.

Parking was horrible and I could only find a free space 8 blocks from the theater at 10th and Lavaca. Walking down Colorado on the same block as the Alamo, I realized that the street has turned into a giant yuppie center with Polyesters, Miguels and the Cubra Libre, all on the same block. This new, trendy, shitty place next to the Alamo, which features Cuban food and has cigars on its menu (how vulgar) has become very popular and there was a long line to get in. The kind of yuppie trash that was going into the place are exactly the wrong kind of people for Austin. They make me ill.

I was a bit early and the showing of odd Japanese films that was taking place before "Kids" was sold out and had not ended yet. I made my way up to the bar in the lobby and asked the bartender if I could buy a drink. Sometimes they're assholes about this but he looked at my shirt and saw my pins I was wearing and said, "Only because you have a Hobble pin on." He was friends with Gene, Hobble's drummer and works part time at The Ritz with him. We talked about the band for a bit and that was cool.

The showing before ended and I saw Martin from "The Reel Deal" and Karrie League, the co-owner of the Alamo with her husband Tim but didn't have a chance to talk to any of them. Johnny showed up and we went into the "Kids" showing. There were some cool trailers before the film but the audience was pretty small. The film started with a quiet scene and you could hear the fucking lousy Cuban dance music through the walls from the fucking piece of shit restaurant next door. It was infuriating. Tim and Karrie are going to have to do something about this because it is totally unacceptable. I was furious.

Then the print of "Kids" was in horrible shape and there was a misframe after the first reel even though this was the second showing of the film. The Leagues have opened several new theaters over the past year or so and their attention to detail has waned. It's sad because the Alamo used to be the best place in the world to see a film. Now, it would have to be a pretty special reason for me to go.

After the movie, we walked to John's car and he drove me to my car at 10th and Lavaca. We sat talking and all of a sudden heard the loud crash of glass breaking. We looked behind us and there were some obviously drunk guys across the street but we couldn't tell what they had broken. Out of nowhere, two DPS guys in full uniform came walking across the parking lot in front of us and were soon busting these guys. I have no idea where these cops came from.

While I was at the Alamo I picked up this local rag called "P.O.V." that has to be the worst example of so-called journalism I've ever seen. The cover piece on the 10 year reunion of the "Dazed and Confused" cast last month was the most obligatory and saccharine piece of crap I've seen published in this town in a long time. Then I realized that "P.O.V." is published by the Nazis at the Austin Film Society and the self-serving puff piece was actually yet another example of the self-congratulatory hype that that institution considers promotion. It's a sickening magazine and further proves how the Austin Film Society is a complete joke. Nowhere on the cover of the zine does it state that it is put out by the Austin Film Scoiety. They try to pawn it off as some sort of alternative press thing. Revolting!

The next afternoon I was back at the Alamo for a cast and crew screening of "Xtraciricular," a local film. Let's just say I was happy to be invited and leave it at that. The Alamo had a waitstaff there but they totally were not prepared for the crowd and took forever in getting me my change when the movie was over. I had to hang around for 15 minutes after the show, praying nobody asked me what I thought of the movie, to get my 17 dollars left out of the 20 I used to pay for a Diet Coke.

Later in the night I went to the Olive Garden with the roomies for dinner and then went over to Melissa as we had made plans to go out to 6th Street. It's so great that Melissa is 21 now!

Robert and Melissa are going to get married in Vegas in October and she is all a twitter about it. It's silly that her parents, who don't really do a God damned thing to emotionally support her, are now buying her wedding dress and flying the four of them out to Vegas and all this bullshit. Hetrosexuals are such dolts. Well, except for Robert and Melissa, they're cool.

We went down to 6th at about midnight and spent an hour at the Rock Star Bar drinking and dancing in the window. Our bartender was really cute and sweet and looked like Sean Hayes from "Will and Grace" but a little less flamboyant. He was cute and nice and probably gets tired of people telling him he looks like "Jack" so we didn't mention it.

We went to this new bar, Bigsby's, which used to be the 6th of Clubs and The Metro. They've totally remodeled it and removed the stage so there will be no more live bands there. They have a cool bar and cooler and some big screen TV's but the music was provided by a jukebox and it was only so-so. They clientele were mixed between yuppies and alternative types so it was okay. They're were lotsa cute guys at least.

We then went to Casino and were waiting at the bar and Melissa and I both noticed this really hot blonde guy in front of us. We were cruising him when, suddenly, I realized it was Oriah (of Hobble). He had called me earlier that day and we had chatted and he had told me he had a new haircut. He looked sexy as hell.

Hobble's next gig will be at the reception for Chopper's wedding, the front man of Kissinger. I'm trying to swing an invite. Their new album is due soon and is going to be called "Gods Work" (I'm not sure I understand what it means since Oriah was insistent that there is no apostrophe in the word Gods. What does that mean?) Oriah also told me that Woody, who owns the 710 Room where Hobble often play, is helping them get the money together to get the CD out and that the band will be doing lots of shows at the club soon, so I can't wait.

We went over to Oriah's table and said hi to Holly, his gf, and the other couple who was with them. The other guy was a sort of long-haired, somewhat gothic, punky dude who is in a band called The New Disciples. He was really nice. Holly seemed to be in a bad mood or something. Maybe its because Melissa was with me, I don't know. She is usually so nice to me.

We didn't want to go home at 2 when the bars closed, so we decided to go over by Toy Joy to where our friend Troy lives. We hadn't seen Troy in eons. Troy wasn't home, however, so we left a note and headed over to Mojo's to see if Johnny Oh! was hanging out there. It's one of his haunts. John was in the parking lot leaving as we came in, so we just missed him. I called him and talked to him on the phone while he drove home. Meanwhile Melissa hooked up with her old friend Andrew, the cutest little guy I've seen in ages, and we hung out.

Andrew, whom Melissa used to date and called Tom, was simply adorable. He took my flirting rather well and I found him totally likable. We hung out for a couple hours and I wished I had made a better impression on him. (I was prety drunk). He seemed to like me but probably perceived me as some weird gay guy who was hitting on him and had little more to offer. He was not only cute but seemed smart and funny and interesting too. I hope I get a chance to talk to him some more. Melissa says he has a few depression issues and she noticed some scars on his legs one time that looked liked they came from him cutting on himself. How such a smart, witty and adorable guy could ever want to harm himself is beyond me. Hopefully he is working through whatever it is that has hurt him so.

Well, 2003 is more than half over and there is so much more to look forward to. Agliff and the Austin Film Festival are just around the corner and I'm anticipating an awesome fall here in Austin.

Lodger 2003

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