Lengthy spates of partytime lately. The backyard is the perfect place to hang out with a G&T and do the wireless thing. Last night we hit up a trendy trendy thai place in W-burg. Sea. It was ambitious: big, designed, cheap food and expensive drinks, both pretty delicious. It's the place 20-somethings take their parents when they visit, so it's really not quite "the beautiful people," although there were definitely a few. It felt a little bit midtown, but it's hard to argue with a reflecting pool.

After that there was a party. I saw Julia again, and she was drunk and beligerent and funny. We talked a little about the girl situation, and she at least made me laugh some. My friends are pretty fiercely loyal to me, which is nice. It's been a little lonely to tell the truth. I'm missing a pretty big outlet.

But I'm hard at work on life, the universe and everything. I still get hopeful rushes and thrills. Things will work out.

Saw some fucking art last night. Mixed bag but it felt good. I'm not and never have been into the "scene" -- and that goes for every other "scene" out there -- but I do like the sometime sense of community that accompanies really good performance. I know some talented people.

Frank the Enabler struck hard before hand and we showed up to the show very very very high, as well as being wet from biking in the rain. I'm still not entirely comfortable being stoned in public, but I do like showing up places dripping wet and lightly sweating. Helps me tap into the man-juice.

While I didn't expect to be as high as I was, I also -- as HST writes -- need to learn how to deal with smoking marijuana in polite company. However you cut it, I was too stoned to network, which was a setback. It's ok, but I would have liked to more affably commune with some of the people there. Make plans. Promote axiom a bit.

The show itself was a lesson in how to be a good perfomace artist: work hard and have a point which you can communicate. Art is for the audience, not for the performer. At least, that's what I believe. I saw my old classmates Kieth Biesack and Maggie McBrian do something that could have been so much more than it was. I also saw a work of sheer genius pomo storytelling by Zack Steel and Adam Carpenter; two men who I deeply respect as performers.

Then there was some film and some dancing that had a lot of senseless pussy, which was something of a drag. I detest pointless nudity. If you just want to show your cunt or your tits off that's fine but please either treat it as a fun/beautiful thing or have some context around it. This is art, not a nudist colony, and if you take off your clothes it should mean something.

It all culminated in an extremely unsafe and loud solo dance piece by some stranger. It had potential (some really interesting bits of humor and rhythm) but it was also abusive to the audience (aggressive cooch-in-face action) and frankly dangerous (almost hit audience with swinging microphone cord). I'm all for danger, but it needs to be the kind of fantastic danger that the stage makes possible, not real physical danger, and it needs to be used carefully.

I'm hard on these people because they should know better. The don't have my training, but so what? They're older than me, and they made the choice to get up on stage. They should know better. Hopefully they will learn.

But Zack and Adam were so brilliant it made the whole evening well worth it. I ran into Zack back in May at Ren Fayre of all places. Just made a little small talk, but he mentioned that he and Adam were working on stuff. It was quite something. A testament to hard work and talent. Some of us, at least, are professionals.

As I'm sure you're all aware by now, I'm righteously pissed about the 2004 GOP Convention being in NYC. It's not just that these people have screwed the city on several money issues, they also get away with using the wounds of New York as an emotional justification for whatever whack-ass jingo plan they're pushing. They pushed their dates back to early Septemeber, and now reports are surfacing that they plan to lay a cornerstone at Ground Zero during the convention.

This as firehouses around the city are closing. What happened to that first-responder aid and that reconstruction grant? Oh, right. Tax cuts. Don't try to play me, Bush. Don't think you can play NYC. This time it's personal.

It's funny. I used to read the news a lot, the NY times, CNN.com and so on. But since the war I've stopped doing it regularly. I scan the times headlines and read their editorials, but other than that I don't spend time on major news outlets. I read what is referenced in the Blogs, but I don't sit down with the news.

Here's an example of why. CNN is so clearly has an enforced, almost propaganda-like pro-US policy on all their stories these days. It's subtile, but it's there. Look at this article. The substance is about a closed-door hearing about Bush's handling of Iraqi WMD intel, an attack on a US convoy and the civilian death toll. The photos are of a US Solder having fun with a couple kids and our Man in Iraq L. Paul Bremmer at some official ceremony.

I'm all for GIs making nice with the locals and L. Paul getting to exercise his ambassadorial talents. However, the photos and stories are decidedly mismatched. Are there no more relevant photos? Are there no sunnier stories? Cuffs and collar don't match here, and it seems like no one cares.

Perhaps the Onion truly is America's finest news source. Check out their WMD lies infographic.