It's Also Steak And A Blowjob Day!

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Quote Of The Day

"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

 - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - French philosopher and Jesuit priest.

In my Senior year English class, I sat directly across a handwritten 3x5 card, which had this quote on it.  20 years later, it still inspires me.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Tat Tuesday: Valentine's Day Edition

BME posted the following photo of this stunning tattoo today, and I thought I would share.  The work is by Parisian tattoo artist Nick Bertioli.  I have seen his work many times over the last year.  In my opinion, he is one of the best European artists today.

The piece is very dark.  Once it has had time to heal and have some of the excess ink seep out of the skin, it should lighten up considerably.  As is, it looks very lovely on her arm.

I Am So Moving To San Francisco

Can you believe they do this for Valentine's Day every year?!?





It cost the city $17,000 to clean up the aftermath.  Count me in for 2012.

Mash Up Monday - Singularity

I was trying to find something that was somewhat romantic to post for Mash Up Monday this week, with it being Valentine's Day and all.  It was very difficult to do.  Most DJs aren't in the practice of mashing up love songs.  I did find a nice track from my go-to guy, Norwegian Recycling.  It's called 'Singularity'.  It mashes up the following tracks:


1. Travis - Sing
2. Iyaz - Replay
3. Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone
4. Oasis - Wonderwall
5. Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle
6. No Doubt - Don't Speak


It's quite pleasant, actually.

A Tale Of True Love

It's a remarkable thing to know the exact moment that your life changed.  To be able to tell someone the day, hour, and minute that light shined down onto your path and mapped out the rest of your life.  For me, that moment was September 21, 2005, at 8:29pm.

At the time, I had just turned 30.  I was working as a dispatcher and office manager for the family trucking company, and I was hating every minute of it.  My previous relationships, if you wanted to call them that, were utter failures.  I would go on maybe a couple of dates with a girl and realize there was zero compatibility between us.  Had a number of one night stands.  Nothing meaningful.  I hadn't been in a boyfriend/girlfriend type of scenario since that previous February, and that ended badly.  At the time, I was ready to just give up.

On the evening of September 21st, I received the following message in my Myspace inbox:

"Hey happened to stumble across your profile......great song clip!"

Her name was Jessi.  She was 22.  I looked at her profile.  She had a couple of country music song clips (ugh), but she was pretty cute:

(She's the one on the right)

So I responded,

"Thanks....was sorta fitting at the time....still is...lol.  I really liked your page....except for the country music part...but you made up for it with Nelly......Like your sense of humor.....you're a bit twisted....NICE."

 She continued,

"Hahaha yeah that definetely sums me up ... twisted...And i will agree not ALL country music is good but there are exceptions! if ya wanna chat sometime i'm on yahoo or msn as ixxxxxx_xxxxxs"

I had recently gone to see the documentary 'March of the Penguins', and wrote a review of it on my Myspace blog.  I also wrote a small blog about my memories of 9/11/2001.  She sent me another message a couple of minutes later,

"WOW just got done reading your blogs.....happened to stumble across those too...the 9/11 one made me cry....don't feel bad but i seriously bawled...it took me back to what exactly i was doing when i heard...at the time i was working for MCI and it was located literally right next door to the air force base (in iowa) so i couldn't go to work not that i could have anyways....its amazing how much can change in such a short time.... also very jealous you have seen march of the penguins....i LOVE penguins and haven't had time to see it....guess i will have to catch it on pay per view or something...thats all!"

Our email conversation continued the next morning.  I sent her a message saying,

"that penguin movie was amazing....im a big fan of documentaries.....would like to chat with you later....you seem pretty cool....cute too...lol"

From that point on, we either sent each other instant messages or talked to each other on the phone.  That was on September 22nd.  She invited me to come over to her place for spaghetti on Tuesday, September 27th.  I knocked on her door.  When it opened, I was frozen.  I looked in her eyes, and said "Oh my God, you're beautiful."  Then I kissed her.

I can honestly say now that the spaghetti really wasn't that good.  I think she put sugar in the sauce.  Regardless, I was polite and ate it.  Later that evening, as I was laying on the couch in her living room, she gave me a "cow kiss" across the entire right side of my face.  I almost vomited, but it attracted me to her.  I always wanted someone that was a lover and a buddy.  Someone that would try to give me a "wet Willy" when I was half asleep.  To me, that was a sign of someone that was interested in you, in a sick and twisted sort of way.  It was the best first date I ever had.

Later that week, we were on our second date, and I was realizing that I was falling in love with this woman.  Normally, that would be scaring the shit out of me, but something deep down inside of me knew that this was the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with.  I had already been engaged in the past, and she was the first person I felt safe with.  I could tell her things, things that I was scared to admit to myself. I tried to scare her away.  I told her all of my secrets, and she only got closer to me.

In January of 2006, I moved in with her.  It was a huge adjustment to make.  I had never lived with a partner before.  Nine months later, the two of us were walking through the mall.  A jewelry store was having a sapphire sale.  Sapphires are her favorite stone.  We went in, just to look at the ring settings.  As she was looking at the rings, I called her mom on my cell phone.  I told her mom that I was going to propose to her daughter right now, but first I need her permission.  Her mom was sobbing, but I think she said "yes".  I got down on one knee in the middle of the store.  I told her that I have loved her from the moment I saw her.  I told her that I couldn't imagine my life without her in it, and I asked her to marry me.  She said "yes" too.  I told her to pick any ring she wanted.

As the weeks and months went by, we discovered ourselves.  We realized that all of these years we had been living our lives to make the people around us happy.  Speaking for myself, there were things that I didn't know about myself at 30 that I should have figured out at 15.  It was almost as if we grew up together.  We found each other and found ourselves.  We started planning our wedding.  We decided on Las Vegas, February 29, 2008, Mandalay Bay Hotel.

We had everything picked out.  It was going to be a Beatles themed wedding.  The processional was going to be Regina Spektor's cover of John Lennon's 'Real Love' and we were going to walk down the aisle as husband and wife to the Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love'.  We had hotel reservations and restaurant reservations.  Everything was figured out.  Then at about 2am on a night in early October 2007, Jessi rolled over and softly said, "I think I'm late".

"Late to what?"

"You know, late."

"Like?"

"Yeah."

A half hour later, I'm at a 24 hour Walgreens buying pregnancy tests and a two liter bottle of Coke.  At 4am, we realized we were having a baby.  We also realized that meant on February 29, 2008, my wife would be nearly 7 months pregnant.  "If I'm going to Vegas, I'm drinking."  That's a quote from her.  Not me.  So, on November 23rd, 2007, I married my lover, my buddy, my best friend, and the mother of what would soon be my daughter.  It was a simple ceremony.  We had it in the kitchen of our apartment.  It was just us and three close friends.  Afterward, we had sparkling grape juice and Blue Bunny chocolate chip ice cream.  So, on every November 23rd of every year, we celebrate by having sparkling grape juice and Blue Bunny chocolate chip ice cream.

It has been about five and a half years since that first message.  1,973 days.  And it has been the best 1,973 days of my life.  We have the type of relationship that movies are written about.  Besides the occasional appointment or trip to the grocery store, we have not been more than 30 feet away from each other for the last five years.  Even when I was working, we worked in the same office, for the same department, within 25 feet of each other.  We had the same hours and had the same lunch schedule.  We were together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

We have never had a fight.  We have had maybe two little arguments in the last five years.  We very rarely disagree.  If there is one perfect person out there in the world for you, I have found that person.  I am never letting her go.  Only death will separate us, and even after I die, I have promised to haunt her.  It is the only way she would be able to go on without me.

Happy Valentine's Day Jessi.  You are my love, my strength, my rock, and in so many ways, my better half.  I love you.

Special Valentine's Day Tune From Eminem And Lil' Wayne

Tarran Killam and Jay Pharoah of SNL demonstrate why Eminem and Lil' Wayne make a bad choice of music to woo your woman with.  Killam does a shockingly good job at channeling Eminem:



"KNIFE!!"

5 Of The Best Love Songs You May Have Never Heard

Well, It's Valentine's Day, and by now, for many of you, the flowers have already been given.  The cards have been read.  The chocolates have been eaten, or at least tasted.  And, it might be safe to say, the kissing has already started.  Maybe you already have a number of your favorite love songs in mind tonight.  Maybe you don't.

Perhaps, you're going with a reliable choice.  The "old tried and true".  Like Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'.  Yeah.  That's a good one.  One of my favorites was always Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes'.  I heard it for the first time when I was 12 years old.  It changed the way I listened to music, had that much of an impact on me.  It was the first time I equated music with poetry.  Twenty something years later, it's still one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard.

I wanted to do a post for Valentine's Day that featured a number of love songs that my wife and I really liked, songs that we listen to quite a bit, that have gotten little notice by the mainstream media.  None of the songs below have charted.  Only two of them were released as singles and had music videos released for them.  None of them, to my knowledge, received any radio airplay from mainstream radio.  I hope you like them as much as we do.

First up is a track from a band call Bright Eyes.  It comes from their 2005 album 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning'.  It's called 'First Day of My Life'.  It's a very sweet and innocent song, but I especially like the video.  It was directed by John Cameron Mitchell, director of 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch', and most recently, 'Rabbit Hole'.  The people in the video are real people, listening to the song for the first time:



Speaking of John Cameron Mitchell, as I said, he directed the 2001 film adaptation of the off Broadway show, 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch', in which he also starred as Hedwig.  The soundtrack has a beautiful song explaining the origins of the human race, the males and females of the species, and love.  It's called 'The Origin of Love':



Next up are two songs from my favorite modern singer songwriter, Joshua Radin.  Without knowing it, you have probably heard some of his music before.  In the last 5 years, his songs have been featured on over 75 television episodes, ranging from 'Grey's Anatomy' to 'The Bachelorette'.  He is a friend of 'Scrubs' star Zach Braff.  One day in 2004, Braff brought in a copy of one of his songs into the studio in the hopes of getting it played on an episode.  The rest, as they say, is history.  In early 2008, Ellen Degeneres was at a party at Braff's home and mentioned that she was still looking for someone to play for her and Portia de Rossi at their wedding later that year.  Ellen was introduced to Radin, who played the following song for her on the spot.  That song later became their wedding song.  That song, called 'Today' is on Joshua Radin's 2006 album 'We Were Here'.



My favorite Joshua Radin song is actually a cover of a song originally performed by Yazoo called 'Only You',  back in the 80s.  In the 90s, Erasure covered it with moderate success.  This version, in my opinion, is much better than the original.  It's also found on his 2006 album 'We Were Here'.  Enjoy:



Finally, when the word "punk" is mentioned, "love song" aren't the next two words to immediately follow in your mind.  I can't think of a large number of punk bands that have released a love song as a single.  And, depending on who you ask, Green Day has strayed from their punk roots too much to truly be considered "punk" nowadays.  Nevertheless, one of my all time faves is a track from their 1997 album, 'Nimrod'.  It's a love letter of sorts from lead singer, Billy Joe Armstrong, to his wife, Adrienne.  They were at a point in their marriage where they were constantly arguing.  "I love you" was being said merely out of routine.  But, looking at the relationship, two things stood out.  1.) The pattern that they had fallen into as a couple, and 2.) that he still felt passionately about his wife.  This is 'Redundant':



Hope you liked my suggestions.  Thanks for listening.  Happy Valentine's Day.

This Valentine's Day

This post was inspired by a comment I read on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

When I think about myself, it's hard for my wife's name to not come up in conversation. She is such a huge part of my life, I cannot describe who I am without bringing her up. Especially, if you start talking about fatherhood, or about how I have changed as a person since having my little girl. I'm just speaking for myself, but after just five years of knowing each other it has come to this point. I cannot imagine what it is like for people that have been together for 20, 30, or 40 years.

With that in mind, think about the person that you're with. How long have you been with them? Now, imagine when you go into work tomorrow, taking down any pictures of your life together. Any vacations. Any holidays. All pictures of their family or of them with the kids. When people ask you how your weekend was or what you did, lie. Where you went to dinner, who you were with...you weren't there and they don't exist. In fact, from now on, when you do go out to dinner, you go to places far out of the way and you're always looking over your shoulder. Or, you order in.

You no longer take any personal calls at work. All people in your life no longer have pronouns attached to them. It's no longer "he, her, him, his, she". All people in your live become "them" or "they". Your children lose their mother or father; as far as the world is concerned, you're a single parent. These are just a few of the many tracks you have to keep covered every minute of every day. Sounds degrading, doesn't it. Worst part is, what if you were told that if you made one little slip, you lost your job and faced a lifetime of public ridicule. This is the harsh reality that thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers live with daily.

Admiral Mullen said that repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell(DADT) was a matter of "human integrity". As you can see here, it's also a matter of human dignity. Thankfully, under the Obama Administration, it is getting more difficult to be discharged from the military for being gay. But, you can still have a court martial and eventually be dishonorably discharged under the "offense".

This Valentine's Day, give your significant other a kiss, knowing that in many places across the world, others cannot.