Hawleyblog

A Music Post With Some Brand-New Stuff and, Naturally, Some Old Stuff Too

I've been buying up the music from Glee as it hits iTunes, and I've fallen in love with the show. It's a crazy soap opera set in a high school, and the characters' actions are ridiculously over the top, but it's tons of fun. And the music is mostly all fantastic.

My favorite Glee song of the moment is "Don't Make Me Over," which is sung by Amber Riley (Mercedes). Riley makes my spine tingle when she belts out the chorus, whose lyrics express a theme of the show: "Accept me for what I am. Accept me for the things that I do."

I also love "Imagine"; "Taking Chances"; "Somebody to Love"; "It's My Life/Confessions Pt. II"; the incredibly sexist but ultimately irresistible "Gold Digger," with Matthew Morrison's Mr. Schue filling in for Kanye West; and the amazing duet between Lea Michele and guest star Kristin Chenoweth on "Maybe This Time" from the muscial Cabaret.

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I ordered Hem's Twelfth Night right after I saw the play in Central Park with Missy in June. The CD arrived in October, and it didn't disappoint—other than in the lateness of its release. A few of the songs were a little too Ren Festy for me, but "Full Phathom* Five," "Come Away Death," "The Wind and the Rain," "Where Is Fancy Bred?" and several orchestral numbers with no singing, including "Sebastian and Antonio," are all wonderful. "FPF," with Audra McDonald and Anne Hathaway on vocals, is especially lovely.

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When John visited me back in July, he gave me a bunch of cool songs that I said I'd write about in more detail in my next all-music post. That time is now!

John is a big David Gray fan, and so am I, but I don't have DG's Sell, Sell, Sell album on which the fantastic song "Late Night Radio" appears.

I'd heard great things about Regina Spektor but never bought any of her tunes. John gave me "Fidelity" off her Begin to Hope album, and I dig it. You've probably heard it. It's the song where she sings "just to break my fall" and she breaks "fall" into many syllables. And then she sings "better" like "betta." You know what I mean.

I'm fond of KT Tunstall's hits, but I hadn't bought any of them either. Now, thanks to John, I've got a live version of "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" from volume 14 of 93.3 KGSR Radio Austin's Broadcasts series of discs.

K. McCarty's "Walking the Cow" and "Like a Monkey in a Zoo" from the album Dead Dog's Eyeball: Songs of Daniel Johnston are quirky and fun.

And another great song was one I actually already owned on CD, but it was good to get a reminder of it. I'm talking about John Gorka's performance of "I'm from New Jersey" on NPR's World Café program that was included on the Live @ the World Café 10th Anniversary Edition double album. The lyrics are awesome, especially if you also grew up in NJ: "I'm from New Jersey. No, I don't talk that way. I watched too much TV when I was young. ... I'm from New Jersey. It's not like Texas, no. There is no mystery. I can't pretend. I'm from New Jersey. It's like Ohio but even more so. Imagine that. I know which exit and where I'm bound. Tolls on the parkway, they will slow you down."

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My favorite songs from Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs' Under the Covers, Vol. 2, which I bought back in the summer, are "You're So Vain," "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," and a really fun version of "Killer Queen." I look forward to Vol. 3—which would "cover" the '80s—if MS & SH decide to make it.

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I hauled out my Music From Queer Eye for the Straight Guy CD, which came out—hah!—in 2004, to listen to on the drive to South Jersey in September. The first four tracks and song No. 10 are all winners.

Widelife's "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" leads off the CD and, of course, was the Fab Five's theme song. I also love "Good Luck," Basement Jaxx's energetic kiss-off that's so very well sung by Lisa Kekaula: "Good luck, good luck, good luck in your new bed. Enjoy the nightmares, when you're resting your head."

The Chemical Brothers mix of Kylie Minogue's "Slow" allows me to abide by the gay mafia's mandate that every gay man own at least one track by the cute little Aussie. And I like it. I'd buy KM's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" too, but I'm afraid I'd never get its propulsive beat and Kylie's "La la la, la la la la la"s out of my head.

"Move Your Feet" by Junior Senior and Prophet Omega's "An Area Big Enough to Do It In" are both great fun. I knew that had to be Danielia Cotton doing backup vocals on "AABETDII" before I read the credits for the song. I thought I might have written about Cotton, but a Lijit search shows I haven't. I have a five-track CD she put out in 2004 that's very good, and I see that she's released two studio albums and a live album since then. I should check those out.

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I think the Human Rights Campaign is pretty much a worthless organization, but back in 2002, I bought a CD that HRC released called "Being Out Rocks," and it's got some worthwhile songs on it. The ones I transferred to my iPhone's iPod are 1) Ani DiFranco's "In or Out," which is the ultimate bisexual anthem. I love it when Ani sings "It's Mr. DiFranco to you" and "I've got spots; I've got stripes too." 2) Janis Ian's classic ballad about young interracial love destroyed by bigotry, "Society's Child" 3) Catie Curtis's absolutely adorable "Kiss That Counted": " 'Cause this would be the kiss that counted, the one that mattered, my life before me undone. This would be the kiss that counted, the one that shattered my defenses, bringing me emotion. You say, 'It must be 4 a.m.' And I say, 'If I don't kiss you now, I will never sleep again.' " and 4) a live version of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage Aux Folles sung by Harvey Fierstein, because it's the perfect song for stating that you're out and proud.

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On Tuesday night on one of the TVs at the gym, I saw the last half or so of the video for Duffy's "Rain on Your Parade." The black-and-white color scheme; the shifts in lighting; the jacket-, tie-, and sneakers-wearing dancers; Duffy's thighs; the strings; the tympani. I ate it all up. And bought it from iTunes when I got home.

*I'm not sure why it's spelled on the album with a ph instead of an f.

Another Fun Weekend in Cape May, Part II

On Saturday, Dan; Paul; Matt; his longtime squeeze, Heather; and I discussed plans for a going-away dinner party that night for Ed and A.P. They decided to have all of Ed's favorite foods: king crab legs, steaks, and macaroni and cheese from KFC. So we'd have something green, I would buy some zucchinis at Duckies farmstand. Heather also got an ice cream cake.

Somebody mentioned that the party would be a total sausage fest if it weren't for Heather. Matt said he and a friend had come up with a term for the female equivalent of a sausage fest: a box lunch. Hah!

D&P and I met E&A at the Cape May city beach. I've never seen the waves so calm there. The surfers were sitting on their boards, just chilling. The water's usually pretty rough at that beach.

I've noted on the blog before that Paul and I tend to have similar tastes. We were both checking out two dark, hairy, Greek-looking guys who were hanging out with a bunch of other, less-sexy people a short distance from us.

 

I usually go for somewhat beefier guys, but, you know, these guys would do in a pinch. ;-)

And speaking of sexy fellows, here's Dan striding across the beach.

And still speaking of sexy guys, here's a shot Dan took of me wearing my cheap-ass, beat-up sunglasses. Because people on the Internets have been clamoring for more photos of Bill Hawley shirtless. Hah! I swear I didn't put him up to taking it at this angle, but I dig it.

And still speaking of sexi- ... uh, here's a picture of Ed. :-) He's packing up on his last day at the Cape May beach, for at least a little while.

The dinner was a lot of fun. Ed dressed in an even more ill-advised-color-and-pattern-mixing way than he usually does and wore tall white socks with his sandals—but intentionally this time. Or so he claimed. :-)

Here are E&A digging into the king crab.

And M&H doing the same.

M&H have two awesome standard poodles, Cooper, a 4-year-old female, and Cody, who's about a year and a half old, if I remember correctly. Here's Cody with his mama.

People from the campground came and went throughout the evening to offer good wishes to E&A and to have some of the ice cream cake. Here's one of the kids standing tall with Cody.

As regular readers of Hawleyblog know, we're always busting on Ed for his bad taste—in clothes and other things. He has a tacky but irresistibly fun flamingo (also visible in the photo above) that dances to a tune Heather identified as "Teddy Bear Picnic." Dan can do a very good version of the flamingo dance. Cooper wasn't liking the flamingo one bit.

Ed also has a gizmo that looks like a small fire but is really a piece of flame-shaped fabric that's blown upward and lit up to make it look like it's a flickering blaze. We joked that it would be placed as an eternal flame on the lot where Ed's trailer stood as a never-ending reminder of the great man who'd once lived there. Eh, either that or it would end up in the back of someone's closet.

Oh, I've almost forgotten to write about the drink of the summer in Cape May this year. One is visible in the lower-right corner of the E&A photo. It's a mix of lemonade and sweet tea–flavored vodka and is commonly called a Firefly and lemonade, after the most popular brand of vodka that makes such a flavor. It's good shit.

Later that night, D&P, Matt, and I biked into town. We got there about midnight and first went to Carney's. Which was STILL ASKING FOR A COVER CHARGE ONE HOUR BEFORE CLOSING. We blinded them with our collective behinds and went over to Cabanas. A hard-rock trio went on for their last set not long after we arrived. The band wasn't bad, but we weren't liking the vibe of the place. Just a shit-ton of drunken college kids. And none of those drunken guys would take me up on my offer of a hand job. That, AAMOF, could possibly be upgraded to another kind of job if he played his cards right. OMG. JK. 4COL.*

The next day, while E&A cleaned out and cleaned up their trailer, D&P and I took Missy and Claire to Higbee Beach, where we met up with M&H and their dogs. Cody had been a little leery of me on Saturday, but he must have decided I was kosher because he would bring me his fuzzy stick to throw into the water for him to retrieve. And Cooper, who's a fantastic swimmer, would bring me her ball. M&H said that that day was the first time Cody had ventured pretty far into the water.

I gotta say, Paul has quite an arm on him. He could get the ball out a good deal farther than I could. He told me I needed to throw from my shoulder instead of my elbow, or something. I tried to do that, and I got it out a little farther some of the time but I couldn't do it like he did.

Here are Dan and the Gunslinger.

And Claire in the sand.

At one point when the poodles were running and swimming around and retrieving things in the water, Missy acted like she was going to head out into the surf and show them how it was done but then she must have thought better of it and turned around to come back under the umbrella.

Toward the end of our stay at the beach, a small pleasure boat threw down its anchor directly in front of us. There were plenty of places all up and down the largely empty beach where they could have settled, so D&P were annoyed that they decided to go right there. A young boy from the boat wanted to pet first Missy and then Claire, and a young woman who was with that group said he had to ask first, which he did. Later, Claire went over and lay on these people's blanket, and when we left, she didn't want to get up and go with us. Apparently my Emme isn't the only pooch with the nerve to act like she wants to defect to another family.

We got cleaned up back at D&P's trailer, and they did their usual end-of-the-weekend chores. I took a couple pictures of things in the trailer.

Their beach passes from over the years.

And a photo of D&P in their first trailer 11 or 12 summers ago.

On the way back to Trenton, we followed E&A to Ed's home in Swedesboro that he has on the market. Ed needed our help—well, mostly Dan's—in getting a mirror down from the ceiling in a certain room of the house so he could relocate it in the ceiling of the same room of his new house. There was horrible traffic on a back route Ed took, and we stopped to eat at a diner along the way. We said our goodbyes after the job was done and raced off to see whether I'd be able to catch the 11:02 in Trenton. Just outside Trenton, we knew we'd miss it, so we went to the next station up the track, in Hamilton. We missed the train there by a couple of minutes, so Dan drove us back to Trenton and dropped me off at the station there. I got home around 2, but it was totally worth the lost sleep for another great weekend in Cape May.

*That little bit of "comedy" was inspired by Dan's fondness for jokingly saying, like a teenage girl, "OMG. TSNF." I didn't want to look unhip, but I finally had to ask him what TSNF meant. "That's so not fair." At some point during the weekend, I said, "Slob my (or your) knob"—I can't remember the context—and Dan cracked up. He'd never heard that expression before.

Another Fun Weekend in Cape May, Part I

The weekend before last, I got in another Cape May visit with Dan and Paul. I put the woofers in the kennel this time and took the train to Trenton that Friday. The 3:01 Northeast Corridor express sat on the tracks for a few minutes before one of the conductors announced that the train was experiencing mechanical problems. After about 20 minutes, we were told to get on a new train across the platform. The delay meant that Paul would be home from work by the time I got into the Capital City, so D&P picked me up at the station in Dan's truck and we went directly to Cape May from there. (Rather than Dan picking me up and taking me back to their home, where we'd await Paul.) I sat in the sideways-facing seat behind Paul, and D&P's woofers, Missy and Claire, rode in the back, under the cap, with our crap.

That morning, I'd baked Chocolate Mint Brownies using the recipe for Chocolate Brownies from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook as the starting point. I left out the espresso powder, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Two nights earlier, I'd infused the two sticks of butter called for in the recipe with chocolate mint—two bunches from the farmers market and a few sprigs from the plant in my alleyway "garden." I'd taken the mint leaves and stems out of the melted butter and had put it in the fridge in a covered metal bowl to re-solidify. When it came time to make the brownies, I melted the green-tinged butter and the unsweetened chocolate together. I added a little bit more plain butter to make up for the amount I guesstimated must have stuck to the mint and couldn't be pressed out.

I'd bought eggs at the same time I'd gotten the mint. The only farmstand I found that had eggs for sale at that late time in the day was selling them for $7 a half dozen. A sign indicated they were the fancy, colorful ones from Araucana chickens and some other breeds I hadn't heard of and don't recall now. I told the gal who was standing closest to the eggs that I was baking something that called for six large eggs and asked her how many of these smaller eggs she thought I'd need to use to get the equivalent of that amount of egginess. She said nine. Later, when I looked in the cookbook, I realized I'd misremembered the recipe; it calls for only five large eggs. Either way, five or six, I'd have needed more than a half dozen. Rather than walk away from the woman empty-handed, I bit the bullet and actually paid $14 for a dozen eggs. I feel rather silly admitting that. I'm all about buying fresh and local and supporting small farmers because I know how hard the work is and it's better for the environment if we don't buy eggs that have been trucked across the country, but I think I should have drawn the line at $14 eggs.

As my chocolate-and-butter mixture was cooling slightly, I beat the eggs—I used eight of them—and 3 1/2 cups of sugar in my mixer on high speed for 10 minutes. I've never seen this combo get whipped as high as it did this time, which leads me to believe I should have maybe used only seven eggs. The resulting brownies turned out just fine, though, and the mint flavor came through nicely without being overpowering.

On the way down to the shore, we talked about a whole bunch of stuff, including our families. P&D mentioned that in Oklahoma, where Paul is from, people sometimes say "Y'all" when addressing one person. To make it clear that they're talking to a bunch of people, they'll actually say "All y'all." To which I say, *sigh y'sigh*. Later in the weekend, we got to talking about Okies again, and I said, "We kicked out the Indians for this?" And P&D reminded me that the Indians were forced to move from their native lands in the Deep South to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears. I then delivered my stupid fallback joke: "I'd cry too if I knew I was going to end up in Oklahoma."

When we arrived at the campground, D&P found out from Ed that it was going to be his and A.P.'s last weekend at The Depot. They were moving to Delaware, to a town not far outside Rehobeth, so they wouldn't be needing a place in Cape May anymore. Ed was having trouble finding a buyer for his trailer. He'd decided to have a guy who was going to sell the trailer on consignment for him pick it up that Monday because the guy had said he was currently selling two trailers a day whereas in October, at the end of the camping season, he might sell two a week.

The five of us went to dinner that night at Rio Station in the Rio Grande section of Middle Township. I decided to treat everyone. Dan almost never lets anyone pay for anything, but he let me do it that night. The cheap bastard. Hah!

I made fun of everyone for getting fruity drinks—even though the fruity-esque Blue Moon beer with a slice of orange that I got wasn't exactly going to put more hair on my chest. I tried a sip, actually a gulp, of Paul's Huckleberry Lemonade, which consisted of 4 ounces of 44 North Mountain Huckleberry Vodka and 6 ounces of lemonade, served on the rocks. Man, was it good. So I got one of those for my next drink. But I asked that it be put in a dirty glass. And I slapped the waitress on the ass, spit on the floor, and scratched my balls all at once after she brought it to me.

We ate at a table in the bar area because we'd have had a 20-minute wait for a spot in the dining room. That gave us a chance to hear Terry O'Brien of Terry-Oke sing a few numbers. No one in the bar was singing, so Paul and I hounded Dan, who usually enjoys singing karaoke, to get up there and give Terry a rest. He finally gave in and sang "Little Deuce Coupe," which I learned includes the lyrics "she's stroked and bored." Well, I suppose she might be bored with stroking, depending on who's doing it. Hah!

Ed drove us back to the campground, and after a little while, Dan and I biked into Cape May to do some bar-hopping. At Carney's, we saw a band named Famous by Monday that Dan hated and I enjoyed. They did a mix of oldies and recent rock hits to appeal to both the older people who typically frequent that place and the college kids who hadn't yet gone back to school. Dan had more fun checking out a hot guy with magnificent biceps who he assumed was in the Coast Guard. He and his almost-as-attractive friend who also looked like Coast Guard material seemed more interested in each other than they were in the two chicks who were hanging out with them.

I think it was around midnight when Dan and I moved on to Cabanas, where an R&B group called Sensational Soul Cruisers was performing. SSC had four singers who took turns doing lead vocals while the others sang backup. The brothers could sing! And SC's horn section was really good too. My favorite song they performed was "Turn Your Love Around." That Monday, I bought the George Benson original, which was released in 1981, on iTunes.*

Matt, a friend of P&D's from the campground, met up with us at Cabanas. I continued to hit the gin and tonics pretty hard, but they must have been pretty weak because I didn't feel the least bit woozy. And Dan said he encountered a different kind of "cruiser" in the bathroom: a guy who showed Dan his pecker.

*I was planning to make fun of the number of times Benson sang "turn your love around" in this song, but after counting them, I realized it wasn't that terribly many after all. What's gotten into me in this post? I've dissed Okies, tried to get a laugh out of a joke about the forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homes that resulted in the death of thousands of them, and now I'm wanting to mock a revered jazz/R&B artist for his supposedly repetitive lyrics that he didn't even write? Actually, I don't feel the slightest tinge of regret about making fun of people from Oklahoma. They've foisted two of the most backwards and brain-dead U.S. senators, Tom Coburn and James Inhofe, onto the rest of the country. So fuck all 'em'all.

A Visit From John

My friend John is up in the Northeast, visiting from Austin, Texas. He and Hal drove up from New Jersey a week ago yesterday.

John got to meet Rudy for the first time. And he got to see the big-ass kitchen countertop with under-counter storage he and his now ex-wife Joanna (it was a pretty amicable divorce; they still hang out together) gave me when they moved to Texas from Bucks County not long after I moved to Brooklyn. I neglected to take a picture of him with it, though. He was impressed at how precisely it fit between my stove and the wall. I'd measured the space and thought the unit would fit just about right, and I was so thrilled when it actually did. And my Dad was happy too; he'd helped me bring it up to New York from Pennsylvania in his pickup.

Anyhow, enough about my stupid kitchen. John, Hal, Bob, and I (we all know each other from college, and we were all editor in chief of the student newspaper but not consecutively) went to brunch about midday Sunday. We were going to go to Dizzy's, a favorite breakfast spot of mine. But the wait was going to be 15 to 20 minutes, and John said he'd rather go to Donuts Luncheonette, a place a short distance away that has inferior food but that would certainly be able to seat us right away.

We all got breakfasty-type stuff, blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs, and such. Toward the end of the meal, John bit down on a piece of metal wire in his food. Ack! I didn't point out that that never would have happened had we gone to Dizzy's. He and Hal hadn't had anything to eat all day, so I can understand why speed was more important than quality.

After a little while, John, Hal, and I went to Alphabet City to hang out with Abby, who was John's girlfriend when John and I shared the top floor of a house in Trenton in the mid-90s. She and her boyfriend, Adam, are on a street hockey team, the Denim Demons, that plays in Tompkins Square Park. As of this writing, the Demons are ranked third in the BTSH—Black Top Street Hockey—league. The teams refuel at the East Village Tavern after their games, and that's where John, Hal, and I met up with Abby.

The EVT has an impressive selection of beers. Hal offered to get the first round, and I opted for a Blue Point Blueberry, which I'd enjoyed for the first time about a year ago. We could see the bar from our table. Hal and some preppy-frat-boy-looking guy* were chatting and giving each other high-fives, and a few minutes later, Hal brought our beers over. He told us that that guy had paid for our round of drinks. He couldn't remember the guy's name. He said he wasn't used to guys buying him drinks.

A couple of minutes later, the preppy dude walked past our table and Hal motioned for him to come over. John and I thanked him for the drinks and introduced ourselves. He gave his name as Zach and moved on pretty quickly.

John and I finished our beers before Hal did. I told Hal he needed to go work his mojo on Zach so the dude would buy us another round. Hah! Zach seemed to have had a lot to drink, and maybe he was just in seeking-out-bros mode. And maybe his parents pay off his credit card for him every month. Or he's a trust fund kid. Or maybe he found Hal to be irresistible. :-)

It was fun hanging out with Abby. She's a really good dancer; that was her major at Rutgers. She's since gone the direction of a surprising number of people I know and is now a librarian for the New York Public Library. (In the photo, Adam is in the red T-shirt; John is at right. It's not the best picture in the world. I took about 20 candid shots and one posed shot of John and Abby and this one was the most fun/least crappy.)

John brought me a great selection of MP3s to add to my iTunes. I'll write more about them in my next all-music post, but I have to mention Todd Snider's "Conservative Christian, Right-Wing, Republican, Straight, White American Males" now. It's an awesome song and one that's particularly germane to this post, considering that the dudes I referenced in the footnote almost certainly all grew up to be them. The lyrics are great; I especially love that the CCRWRSWAMs are all categorized as "regional leaders of sales." Hah!

Hal and John decided that they wanted to catch a movie that night back in Jersey, but they had time to get dinner with me. Since John was in the mood for Italian food, we went to the go-to pasta joint in my hood, Sotto Voce, which I've been to so many times I shouldn't even have to look at the menu anymore.

It was great hanging out with Mr. Robinson. He and Hal should both move to the city. Hal is actually talking about doing that. He said a lot of the women he was paired up with on a dating site were in Brooklyn. And his eyes always pop out of his head, just like my Dad's, when he's checking out the women in my neighborhood.

While I was in the bathroom at one point, though, John was working on convincing Hal to move to Austin. No way! John tends to go back and forth between Texas and New Jersey every few years, and it's totally time for him to move back up here. Word.

Now, a couple more photos:

John in front of one of the lioness statues at the entrance to Prospect Park near my building

And Hal acting thoughtful at Donuts

*He reminded me of the Princeton University dudes we'd see when those of us working at the crappy newspaper in town would go to the Tap Room—excuse me, the Yankee Doodle Tap Room, oy—at the Nassau Inn to see Ken's band, Red-Headed Boogie Child, perform. Only this guy didn't have a backwards baseball cap on his head. And, I reckon, no Rohypnol in his pocket.

A Food and Drink Post With More of Everything I've Been Writing About Lately

I missed the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck at the Brooklyn Pride festival. I went to the gym in the late afternoon and figured I'd be able to hit the truck for an after-workout treat on the way home. But all of the vendors were gone or packing up by the time I got to the festival location on Prospect Park West near Bartel Pritchard Square. That night, I went to Excelsior (which I learned on Jeopardy! the other night is the motto of the state of New York) and on the way spotted the BGICT outside Ginger's Bar. I got a chocolate-vanilla-swirl soft-serve cone, and it was so gay! How do I know? Because it left my mouth all creamy. Hah!

***

I've made cupcakes twice since my last all-food-and-drink-related post. The first, double batch was for Eugene's and Joyce's birthdays in late June: Marble Cupcakes With Dark Chocolate Frosting. The recipes for both of the components came from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes; if the cake recipe is on Martha Stewart's Web site, it's well hidden. You make a yellow cake batter and add a cocoa–boiling water mixture to about half of it to make the chocolate batter.

Eugene invited a bunch of his friends to a potluck picnic at the Celebrate Brooklyn concert the night of his birthday. The performers were Afro-funk groups Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity and Femi Kuti & the Positive Force. Between all of the yakking and eating, I didn't catch much of the music until near the end of the night, but one song that stood out for me was Kuti's "Beng Beng Beng."

Eugene said the cake tasted like corn, and I said I'd noticed the same thing. I'd used a soft-wheat pastry flour that's lighter than all-purpose flour but heavier than cake flour. I'd also detected the corn flavor in the Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, which had also called for cake flour. I'd bought the pastry flour at Back to the Land and assumed it was the same thing as cake flour. Well, I've definitely learned my lesson about that now.

I couldn't taste corn at all in those cupcakes that ended up consisting of slightly more chocolate cake than yellow cake. And the frosting was good enough to make up for any other glitches. It's got two hits of chocolate in it: melted semisweet chips and the same cocoa–boiling water combo that's in the chocolate cake batter.

I took another dozen into work the next day, Friday, for Joyce's birthday, which fell on that coming Sunday. Joyce said she took it as a good sign that the day before I'd posted on my Facebook wall that "Bill Hawley loves the smell of yellow-cake batter." :-) 

There's Eugene holding a cupcake as the sun was setting slowly in the West near the Bandshell.

A pan of cupcakes before it went into the oven

And the two chocolates that went into the frosting. The melted chocolate chips are on the left.

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I made the second batch of cupcakes for the Gamesters group this past Sunday and for the Schultieses. And so I could finish up the chocolate frosting, which Martha wrote would last for 10 days in the fridge. I decided to go with a pure vanilla cupcake flavored by vanilla beans, and I found a promising recipe online. And I liked how the cakes turned out. They're rather white because the batter's got only one egg in it. They maybe could have been slightly moister. I didn't have enough frosting for all of them, so I ended up eating three plain. The consistency reminded me a little of shortcake biscuits. Certainly not that dry but headed in that general direction.

As I previewed in my most recent post, I decided to put the icing in the middle of the cake like one of Michael's teachers had done. Rather than cut off part of the already frosted cupcake and smoosh it on the top, I first cut the cupcakes in half like buttermilk biscuits and then put the frosting purposefully in the middle.

While I was in transit to the Gamesters group, some guy on the subway commented that they looked like sausage biscuits, and they certainly do.

Bob e-mailed me to tell me the cupcakes were "yumma." I asked whether I'd managed to prevent Abbe and Zane from eating only the frosting. He replied: "Zane ate about 3/4 the way intended. Abbe took off the top, ate it and then began licking licking licking."

***

I made a good Raspberry Vinaigrette using fresh raspberries from the farmers market a couple of Fridays ago for pizza night. The next day, I made another batch of it and liked this version a good deal better.

I blended together a pint and a quarter* of raspberries, 1/4 cup of water, and a couple teaspoons of sugar. I poured that through a strainer to remove the seeds and into a bowl and whisked in 1/4 cup of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Outstanding.

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Twice last weekend, I had the same meal, once for lunch and once for dinner, and it was a humdinger: a pork-and-beef burger, oven fries with fresh parsley and steamed summer squash. Mmmm.

***

My new plan for Huge Pooch Homemade Ice Cream was to sell it at the Park Slope Farmers' Market on 5th Avenue. I spoke with the woman who handles new vendors for Community Markets and she seemed enthusiastic about offering ice cream at the market. She said I'd need a 20C license from the state and I'd probably have to produce the ice cream in an inspected professional kitchen. She said I could most likely find a way to buy some time in such a kitchen and she sent me via e-mail some more information and an application for selling at the market. It's all very daunting. There are many hoops to jump through, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I'd still like to go forward—if not for this season, then to have things lined up for next year.

In the meantime, I made a single batch of Black Raspberry Ice Cream this week. I liked it, though I think it could have used more half and half and less fruit. It was slightly gummy and not as creamy as I'd have liked. But like a very similar flavor of ice cream I've made many times before, Blackberry, it sure was pretty. Especially when sprinkled with a few fresh black raspberries.

*I reckon an even pint would work fine, but for some reason that I can't recall now, I used a pint and a quarter.

A Music Post With Some Stuff That Was Recommended

There for a while, I was listening to two songs performed by Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs over and over, almost to the point of ridiculousness: "Run to Me" and "Different Drum." They're from 2006's Under the Covers, Vol. 1—the so-far only compilation of covers by the two artists. I heard "Run to Me" in a wine store recently and knew I had to buy it. And I bought "Different Drum" after checking out the rest of the album on iTunes. I'm not sure why, but that song has a significantly higher popularity rating than all of the others. I didn't feel like I needed to buy anything else. (I thought I'd probably enjoy MS&SH's version of "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," but it couldn't possibly replace Dar's version in my heart.) But if you could create a groove in your iPod by playing the same songs over and over, mine would have one under the U albums.

Hoffs's voice is amazing. It can be childlike and soft or weighty and worldly. And it's always beautiful.

Here's a video of Hoffs and Sweet performing "DD" acoustically with another guitarist. Sweet had gotten rather heavy when this was recorded, which surprised me for some reason. And he was workin' the scruff and long hair under a baseball cap, which doesn't seem like him either. Ooh, and here's a track from Vol. 2, which is slated for release next month! It's Yes's "I've Seen All Good People/Your Move."

***

Continuing my exploration of Ryan Adams's back catalog, I've been devouring the 2005 album Cold Roses, which he recorded with his band, The Cardinals, and special guest star Rachael Yamagata, who provides backing vocals and plays piano on certain tracks. It's another great collection of music. It's a double album, so it took me a while to get well-acquainted with all of the songs.

There's a definite rose theme that shows up in the names of other songs besides the title track: "Rosebud" and "Blossom." And also in the lyrics of still other songs: In "Cherry Lane," Adams sings, "Every night I read this novel about you holding roses in the pouring rain." And one of my favorites, "Life Is Beautiful," begins, "You plant a rose and if the rose comes up, you're thankful to God, and when it doesn't, you cuss him." And my favorite part of the song, the bridge, which has nothing to do with roses, goes, "Close my eyes, see the glorious sunset, through the windows of a store and I want it. Anyway, if I ever felt haunted, you were there for me. These angry people who are waiting to judge you have their own judgment that they'll have to live up to. Open your mouth and if nothing will come through, remember, you're the one that sings, and it's a gift. And life's a beautiful thing. Oh, don't waste it, doll" (and then there's a guitar solo).

And Adams has a dancing theme and a little bit of a bird theme, particularly bluebirds. Mostly, though, he's got some damn good songs, many of them not so happy, like "Meadowlake Street," "If I Am a Stranger," and "When Will You Come Back Home," whose chorus is almost sadness overload: "If I could find my way back home, where would I go? When everything about me I used to be shivers in the sheets and the blankets of snow, lost out in the woods, were you looking for me? When, when will you come back home? No one leaves the lights on in a house where nobody lives anymore." But the tunes for the sad songs are often upbeat, so you'll be tapping your foot as Adams sings, "If I am a stranger now to you, I will always be. I will always be." 

***

Bob put a bunch of songs by Justin Townes Earle in my iTunes. Bob's favorite recording artist is JTE's father, Steve Earle, and he's become a big fan of Justin as well. My standout songs from JTE's two albums and one EP are "Hard Livin'," "South Georgia Sugar Babe," "What Do You Do When You're Lonesome," "Ain't Glad I'm Leaving," "Midnight at the Movies," "What I Mean to You," "Black Eyed Suzy," "Poor Fool," "Halfway to Jackson," "Someday I'll Be Forgiven for This," "The Ghost of Virginia," and a cover of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait."

***

Jen is a huge fan of U2, especially Bono. She said the band's latest album, No Line on the Horizon, isn't among its best, but she recommended six songs from it that were worth buying: the title song, "Magnificent," "Get on Your Boots," "Stand Up Comedy," "Fez: Being Born," and "Breathe." They're all good but, no, not stellar U2.

***

Greg, my friend on Facebook and a guy I played in the high school marching band with (he was about five times better a drummer than me), was raving about the new Seal album, so I checked it out. It's an album of R&B classics called Soul, and it's mostly very good. The production is top-notch, and Seal's voice is as wonderful as ever. I'd quibble with a few of the selections—did we really need another version of "Stand By Me" or "If You Don't Know Me By Now"?—but most of them are winners, especially "A Change Is Gonna Come," "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," "It's Alright," and "People Get Ready."

A Visit From the Gerbers With a Review of Glee Thrown In

The Gerbers came to the city on Thursday evening so we could all go to the 11th Annual Family Party fundraiser for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's educational programs for kids. Mike and Matt did lots of arts-and-crafts projects, and David successfully bid on a package of New York Yankee tickets in the silent auction. And we all enjoyed some delicious food and drink, including two of my favorite things: macaroni and cheese and malbec.

Earlier in the week, I'd watched the pilot episode of Glee, which I'd gotten for free from iTunes. I decided to give it a shot after reading Craig's three-OMG review on Puntabulous. I thought it was only OK overall, but it's definitely got potential and the music was a ton of fun. I hope the writing gets sharper as the series progresses. As in most high school–based TV shows, the characters are mostly just broad stereotypes. Did we really need another angry, presumably lesbian gym teacher?* That she's played by the excellent Jane Lynch mitigates some of my annoyance. The acting is good across the board, and I especially love Lea Michele, who created the role of Wendla in Spring Awakening, as the very driven and much-maligned Rachel. Her singing voice is absolutely gorgeous. Cory Monteith, who plays football quarterback Finn, doesn't have a strong voice—Michele blows him out of the water when they sing together—but it's pleasing to the ear. And Matthew Morrison, who stars as Will, the Spanish teacher who takes over the glee club, is, in addition to being a fine actor, mighty damn pleasing to the eyes. Morrison also has a Broadway connection; he created the role of Link in Hairspray.

I bought both songs from the pilot that are available on iTunes. I've been listening to "Don't Stop Believin'" almost obsessively. Unlike Journey's original version, it's got horns and some doo-woppy nonsense syllables sung in harmony.** Like the original, it's got some great guitar licks that were supposedly played by Artie, the kid in the glee club who uses a wheelchair. I'm also enjoying "Rehab," which was performed in the show by a glee club from a rival high school.

I didn't realize until I went back to Craig's post and read some of the comments that there won't be any new episodes until this fall. Shite! But Kristen Chenoweth is going to be in at least one episode. And Cheyenne Jackson is going to be a guest star in episode 3. Woo hoo! 

Matt and Mike sang and played the violin at their school's spring concert a week ago Tuesday. I couldn't go because it was my crunch time at work and I wouldn't have been able to make up for the lost time before our deadline passed. David was supposed to have recorded the concert—the boys' last one in elementary school—so I could enjoy it too. But he didn't. We had a back-and-forth on Facebook about it, and he said something like he didn't want to be a jerk and get in everyone's way at the front of the auditorium with his video camera. To which I say, why start worrying about being a jerk now? *zing* At least Dad, Jean, and Granny got to go.

I told Tracey and the boys about Glee and insisted that they listen to "Don't Stop Believing" on my iPhone. Tracey said she preferred Journey's version, but M&M both enjoyed it. In the car on the way back to my apartment, I started playing "Rehab" because the boys had asked me what the other song from the show was, and Tracey told me to shut it off after about 15 seconds because she couldn't stand it. Maybe the boys can watch the show without her. :-)

Here are some photos from the fundraiser, whose theme was Around the World in 80 Days:

Mike and Matt clowning around on the way to the BBG

The boys with their passports. They got a stamp for every activity they did.

Tracey and David

The boys using different kinds of sand to color an elephant drawing

Cute bookmarks M&M made

And a cute duckling poster that was in one of the rooms of the BBG building where the event was held

*She's been introduced only as the cheerleading coach, but I assume she also teaches P.E.

**My favorite consecutive nonsense syllables are the shouted "Jah dah!" between the first and second verses.

A Superfun [title of show] Fundraiser

On Monday night, Joyce, Missy, Nate, and I went to Feinstein's at Loews Regency for a fundraising performance by the cast of [title of show] that benefited The Actors Fund. We had a blast.

Jeff, Susan, Heidi, and sweet sweet Hunter sang a bunch of songs that were either cut from the show, were earlier versions of ones that were in the show, or had been written for the cast to perform at a previous benefit performance. We in the audience were the first to hear the entire "The Tony Award Song" (other than those involved in the production). Squee! In the show, Hunter sings only a few lines of it before he's cut off by Jeff, who reminds him that they'd agreed not to use that song because making fun of the Tonys is too easy. Another highlight was a fantastic song called "The Quartet" that I would eagerly buy from iTunes this second if it were available. JSH&SSH also did a previous incarnation of "Finale," and Jeff and Heidi performed a song called "The Wall"—with Jeff on guitar—that had the same tune as "A Way Back to Then." The whole gang also did a couple of hilarious scenes that had been cut from the show: one in which they're all cheerleaders and a game-show sketch that at one point had led in to the Jeff-and-Hunter number "Part of It All."

I got to see Susan's good-looking husband in the audience, and I confirmed what I was pretty sure I'd read somewhere once: that Jeff and the show's director, Michael Berresse, are a couple. Michael came up on stage to introduce the foursome's last song, and he tearfully mentioned how they're all his best friends, though he's more than friends with one of them, and Jeff pretended like he didn't know whom he meant. And Heidi went over to Michael and planted a kiss on him, like he'd meant her. I'm tellin' you, Michael and Jeff would make some beautiful babies. And so would Hunter and me. I mean, with our cheekbones, how could they not be gorgous? :-)

The food at Feinstein's was ... fine. I splurged and got the $48 Beef Tenderloin with Pomegranate Port Reduction and Artichoke-Filled Twice-Baked Potato, which also came with asparagus and a small broiled tomato. I also ate the cole slaw that came with Missy's turkey burger because I couldn't stand to see the sad little bowl of slaw hanging out uneaten. And because I love me some cole slaw, especially if the dressing is vinegar based, not mayonnaise based. And I got two glasses of 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon. Everything was good. Not out-of-this-world. But decidedly good.

After the performance was over—but not really over because the gang hadn't done an encore—Susan acted as auctioneer for the sale of autographed photos of the two guys with one of the gals. In an earlier incarnation of [title of show], Susan would take a picture of the guys with Heidi and the envelope with the New York Musical Theatre Festival entry inside and then Heidi would take a picture of Susan, the guys, and the envelope. One of each of those photos was made into a poster-size print. Both of them went for $500-plus. I thought about bidding on the photo of Susan, Hunter, and Jeff,* but I just couldn't justify the expense even if it was for such a good cause.

After the auction was over, the cast sang the stage version of "Nine People's Favorite Thing" and then went out into the lobby to sign those photos, meet the fans, and pose for fan photos.

That's a photo Joyce took of Missy, Hunter, and Nate using Missy's camera.

Here's a lesser-quality photo that I took using my iPhone. I wouldn't have posted it otherwise, but Nate actually has one eye completely open in this shot! :-)

Susan and me. Good god, I'm toothier than nine out of 10 Osmonds.

And Hunter and me. In this one, I'm toothier than all 10 out of 10 Osmonds. But how could I not be grinning uncontrollably? I'm next to Hunter Bell! :-)

*I love Heidi, but Susan is my girl. Word.

UPDATE on May 15: Joyce sent me a picture of Hunter and me, and I like how I look better in this one than in Missy's pic. Hunter doesn't have the best expression, but I look good, so whatevers. :-)

Jonatha Brooke

I saw Jonatha Brooke at the Rubin Museum of Art on Wednesday. I had a blast. I'd never seen Jonatha perform before, and she was as charming on stage as I figured she'd be. And ARROHK, I love her latest album, so I was looking forward to hearing that music live. She performed all of my favorite songs from The Works, and her last song before the encore was another song she wrote using the lyrics of Woody Guthrie that she said she finished too late to put on the album. It's called "You and I." She said that Woody had written four pages of lyrics along the lines of "you're this and I'm that." For example, "I'm the dump truck, and you're the gravel." (Or was it "You're the dump truck, and I'm the gravel"?) She said she selected the most romantic pairings for her song. I recall one particularly cool one as "I'm your firefly; you're my nighthawk." (Or vice versa.) I really enjoyed the song, and you would have too.

The Rubin is a museum of Himalayan art, and Jonatha said that Tim McHenry, who manages the performances there, encourages the artists to incorporate the subject matter of the museum into their show. Jonatha told the audience, as she does here on her blog, about Drupka Kunley, a Buddhist sage who was very much a Woody Guthrie for his age. He liked to drink, sing, and follow his penis—which he called his "divine thunderbolt of wisdom"—into as many women as he could. Woody was a romantic, but under the influence of Huntington's disease, he became incredibly sexualized and wrote highly erotic lyrics about the nurses in the hospitals where he spent his later years.

Jonatha told a cute story about what might have happened if she'd named the album after one of the songs on it: "Madonna on the Curb." When people searched on the Internet for Madonna, they'd find Jonatha's album and "Ka-ching!" And for the album cover, she joked, she could have shown a forlorn-looking Madonna slumped over at the curb with Guy Ritchie throwing her shoes at her from an upstairs window.

Jonatha took requests from the audience and so played "Je N'Peux Pas Te Plaire," "West Point," "Linger," and "the train song," as the requester put it, aka "Full-Fledged Strangers." She said that a couple of years ago, she saw Elton John in concert when he had a new record he wanted to promote. He said, You'll hear fucking "Rocket Man" and "Candle in the Wind," but give me four songs (off the new album). She said it's the only time she's ever felt sorry for Elton. I guess it was pretty clear that his audience didn't want to hear the new stuff and he wasn't taking it well.

I was glad to hear Jonatha's older stuff, but I so enjoyed her songs from The Works. And I'd go to hear her at the Rubin again in a heartbeat. It was just her with a guitar and piano, not even a mic. And a friend of hers joined her for the harmonyrific encores, "So Much Mine" and "In the Gloaming," that she used to sing with Jennifer Kimball as The Story.

The museum's basement theater was a very intimate setting, and people in the audience felt free to talk to Jonatha between songs. One woman yelled out, "Look at those boots!" And they were indeed awesome boots. At a totally awesome show.

A Movie on DVD, a Musical on DVD, and a Musical on Stage

I finally recently got around to watching There Will Be Blood, the multiple-Oscar-nominated movie for which Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor at the February 2008 ceremony. I'd had the disc from Netflix since September, I think. *sigh* I thought it was fantastic, an epic tale of the evil that men do for money. Day-Lewis was indeed phenomenal as diabolical oilman Daniel Plainview. And Paul Dano was terrific in the dual roles of Paul and Eli Sunday. Plainview and Eli Sunday were both fascinating characters. As was H.W. Plainview, Daniel's troubled son who was deafened in an oil explosion. It's hard to believe Dillon Freasier, who played him as a boy, was a local (near the shooting location in Texas) kid who'd never acted professionally before. As for Russell Harvard, who played H.W. as a young adult, he makes it so there will be blood flowing to a certain organ of mine. *raises and lowers eyebrows suggestively*

***

The next DVD to arrive from Netflix was a recording of the 2006–07 Broadway production of Company that aired on PBS. I can't say enough about Raúl Esparza. I haven't seen any other versions of Company, but I understand that the rap against the main character of Bobby is that he's usually too dull and passive to be a compelling center for the story. That's not a problem with Esparza. He's so charming in this role. And that voice! If you don't get goose bumps listening to Esparza belt out that final "Being alive!" in the song of the same name, well, you just suck. :-)

There are so many wonderful songs in this show. The title song, "Another Hundred People," "Getting Married Today," "Side by Side by Side." I'm particularly drawn to "Marry Me a Little" and the aforementioned "Being Alive." As "BA" progresses, you can hear Esparza's voice getting more and more vulnerable as Bobby becomes more and more open to the idea of falling in love with and being committed to one person. And I'd have to turn in my official, laminated Fraternal Association of the Gay membership card if I didn't love "Ladies Who Lunch."

***

A couple of Thursdays ago, Joyce, Nate, Missy, and I saw Hair on Broadway. I dug  it. I wasn't blown away, but I had a fun time. And the ending is superb and incredibly moving.

One problem I had with the show is that there are so damn many songs, there's little chance for them to lodge in your brain. At the end of the night, the only songs that had really stuck with me were the ones I already knew and loved: "Aquarius" and "Let the Sunshine In." I wanted more book and fewer and more-memorable songs.

Before the show, Nate said to forget about the movie, which I'd seen, because it's rather different from the show. He and Missy saw the Public Theater's production in Central Park over the summer, when it co-starred the droolworthy Jonathan Groff of Spring Awakening.

And speaking of sexy men, Will Swenson, who plays Berger, writes in his Playbill bio that he's a "Scorpio, of course." Those damn Scorpios think they were born under the sexiest sign in the Zodiac when everyone else knows that Virgos are the hottest. Sean Connery, Raquel Welch, Bill Hawley. Come on!

Here are some photos that Joyce and I took of the cast when they came out to meet the loyal fans:

There's Mr. Swenson, with his "long beautiful hair" under a hat. The two girls directly in front of him were so cute. The girl on the left was wearing a T-shirt signed by all of her friends from theater camp. And that's my girl Missy's head in the foreground.

Gavin Creel, the other leading actor, who played Claude

Allison Case, who plays Crissy. She was a real doll. Superfriendly. If I were a straight guy in the cast of this musical, I'd be sooo hitting on Allison. Hah! A straight guy in a Broadway musical. That's too funny. Where do I come up with this shit?

That was the photo Joyce took, with her camera. I took the others, with my iPhone. Hence their inferior quality.

Bryce Ryness, who plays Woof. Joyce was envious of his hair. Definitely lots of shine and bounce there.

And finally, John Moauro, who played a member of the Tribe. He and Will Swenson were the two guys in the cast who filled me with the most lust. He's so cute, and I love the curls.