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While it probably seems that the gay population in San Francisco will use any excuse to have a party, Halloween definitely takes the cake as one of the craziest times for the gay neighborhoods.       Specifically, the Castro goes nuts. I've never been down to it myself, since it's generally insanely packed both coming and going, so I've stayed away. Well, that's only partly true, since I had planned to go last year, but fell asleep at nine the night of to catch a nap and ended up waking up the next morning.       I think I'm really going to try and make the effort to get down there. I mean, I've got my costume all picked out! No going as a pirate for this citizen. I'm going as Ashton Kutcher. I've got my stupid trucker hat, shaggy unkempt hair, and receding hairline all in order for a night on the town. I guess I'll have to get ready for possible mobbing, since resemblance will be beyond comparison.       Happy posioned apples.

So, it appears that one of the latest trends in fun little things to do when you're bored and have a video processing setup at home is to do overdubs. With the latest potical actions, there has been a huge spate of these coming across the wire. One of the best places to find the best stock of them is at www.heavy.com You'll need to have Flash install on your machine to get in to the site, but it's worth the download, as this is one of the more clever and well crafter sites out on the web these days.       If you're just wanting to see one of the highlights, then check out the Gay Bar overdub with Bush & Blair at http://www.heavy.com/index.php?videoPath=/current/stinkyBush/videos/bushblair_endlesslove FInely crafted work that is.

So, I'm walking out of my place, headphones on, destination set, eyes forward, when out of the corner of my eye, there's a guy decently well-dressed smoking a cigarette. He says something to me that I can't hear due to the headphones, but unlike how I usually am when random people start talking to me, I pull out one of the ear buds and ask him what he was saying, which was, "Hey man, give me a dollar." to which I reply, "No."       This of course pisses him off for some reason and for some reason, he decides to say, "Come on, I'll pay you back." I thin, yeah, sure. Here, let me give me my address and phone number so we can reschedule repayment. No, I don't think so and I continue to ignore him and listen to my music while I wait for the light to change.       Apparently this panhandler went to one of the more aggressive schools of ass-paining and he keeps talking to me. At some point, he finally realizes that I truly can't hear hima nd he yells, "What, you don't like black people?!!" This has gotta be one of the dumber things anyone of any walk of life can say. What is he expecting my response to be? My guess is either, "No, no I don't. I'm sorry, here's a dollar. My apologies for assuming that you were black and that I might not like you." or "Yes, yes, I hate blacks. I hate Asian people, Mexicans, Indians, Africans, Germans, and in fact humanity at large. I hate myself soooo much for being a person and being comprised of everything that is unholy and ungood in the world. Here's a dollar."       Obviously, I manage to pay my rent each month by being a bit smarter than that and didn't want to get into it with him. I just looked back at him and said, "No, I don't like being asked for money." He said something I couldn't hear and keep jabbering on as my light changed and I walked off. What an idiot.       This kind of thing happens all the time to a friend of mine who is a CHP. He'll pull over a guy on the Bay Bridge who is speeding and the guy will say, "You're just picking on my because I'm black." and he'll always say, "No, it's because you were doing X miles and hour, which is Y number of miles above the speed limit." "No, screw that. It's because I'm black." "No, and in fact, I'll write up the ticket for Z amount of miles so that it's an infraction, not a misdemeanor so it will cost you less and not go on your record." "Fuck you." "Sir, I can write it for the full amount you were speeding. Please just take the ticket and stop accusing me of things I'm not doing, since I can't tell what color your skin is from my patrol car, just like you couldn't tell that there was my patrol car behind you for the last five miles as you were doing X miles an hour."       That usually ends the conversion, but at some point, some of these guys (and it's not just black, there are plenty of people of all races) will need to realize that they're doing stupid/illegal/backwards things that are not acceptable and they really and truly only have themselves to blame for the consequences or penalties that come their way. Own up.

The new Swayzak video "Keep it Coming" is out - Swayzak Video       It's a pretty good song. Very clubesque, but still enjoyable even if you're not on X or dressed in latex. What I think is even cooler about the song is that the video was shot in San Francisco. At first, you don't think that it was from here, since it looks a lot like a night scene from New York City, but for those who live here, there are some obvious landmarks that come out like the Transamerica Building, The Condor on Broadway, and of course the fact that a good chunk of the video appears to have been shot at Fluid http://www.fluidsf.com which is in and of itself a very cool club.       It's just great to see SF finally framed in the right light (at night) that is deserves even though we don't get much of a rap for being a nightlife town.

I'm not sure if they're really anything to beware of, since it is the middle of October now and to be honest, I'm not really sure if Ides can exist anywhere but in March. At any rate, let's just say that they do exist for any month and this happens to be a funny month, since October is one of the few months without any true holidays in it. Sure, there's Columbus Day, but that's only good for a couple of people in civil service jobs and banks. Basically, everyone that you would really need to get a hold of on a Monday, has it off, so that's just a bogus holiday.       Naturally, there is Halloween at the end of the month. Now, this should be a holiday and lord knows, the Castro has tried desperately hard to make it so, but in reality it's just a cool day that for some reason no one takes off. So, you've got cool holiday that we don't celebrate versus holiday for guy that started the exploitation of the New World. Screwy, really screwy.       I think my biggest frustration with this month froma calendaring perspective is that it's A) Long and B) Without much going on. I'm not just talking holidays here. People don't seem to do much, but be in awe of Fall. No one takes vacations. Everyone seems to be getting ready for the Wintery holidays and that's about it. In fact, can we just scratch off October from the calendars? Wouldn't that make more sense? I guess not, since the Virgos and Scorpios out there wouldn't want Libras stealing their thunder. But hey, I digress. It's been a long week, so maybe thinking about the complete overhaul and dissemination of October should wait until tomorrow.

Dude... Shut. Up.       I am of course speaking to the most annoying Bart train operator in my nearly seven years of riding the silver and blue bullet.       This guy... This. Guy. This guy is like a clown that goes to childrens' hospitals. He knows he has a captive audience and relishes in that fact I think, since he has this screaming, horrid desire to comment on every station that you roll in to. He likes to comment and joke around with with long he holds the doors open and who he's waving to on the platform. He basically subjects riders to a blow by blow account of whats going on in this extremely corny way of his.       I'm sure there are some people who find it cute, but I'll bet that they don't ride the Bart much and more than likely, they're probably fans of "Everybody Loves Raymond." For me, he is pain. I count the stops until he release me from his clutches. I feel like I want to throw myself from the train despite the risk of life and limb.       Today was extra nasty, since my freakin' iPod ran out of juice just before the trip from Walnut Creek to San Francisco Powell Station. Normally I can mostly block the guy out without blowing out my ears too much, but today, I was subjected to the full force of stupidity. "Rollin', rollin', rollin'. Rollin', rollin', rollin'. Rooooockridge station is next folks!" The horror... The horror.

I thought we weren't going to ahve this garbage again, but here it is. This stupid, low flying, aggravating thing of fighter jets flying overhead. Who finds this enjoyable? People in the Central Valley, that's who. So why on earth do they fly these damned things overhead?!!!       Knock it off dammit! If we wanted to know what a warzone was like, we could go to Afghanistan, Iraq or one fo the many other countries that we've managed to screw up. I live here in the USA so that I don't have to listen to fighter jets and bombers flying above me!       Oh yeah, just to be sure I knew what it was, I looked back in the ol' blogola and found this happening about the same time last year.

So, I just recently saw a wonderful play called The Violet Hour, which is currently playing at the SF Playhouse http://www.sfplayhouse.org and it was thoroughly entertaining. The acting was very well done, the script crisp (I believe it started on Broadway originally) and the set and costumes all were great.       I can only assume that the direction was fine, since it's very hard to tell where a director leaves his mark on the stage, as it is really an actors' medium. However, the director was sitting in front of me throughout most of the performance and he ended up being one of the less enjoyable audience members. He would wince at any missed line or dropped bit and I have to say that it was very distracting. It was because I didn't know when things were goofed and I wouldn't have except for the fact that he was sitting in front of me makign faces and body gestures.       It's probably a good thing for directors off all performance art to know, since the audience really is blind to what's screwed up about your work in general. And let's be honest, there will walways be things that are screwed up. When I watch my film, I see things that are goofy, but really, most people will never see them, which is why the director should always sit at the back when watching their productions.

This book, written by Jon Stewart and the staff of the Daily Show is without a doubt, one of the funniest book I have ever read. The craft fo the jokes and the depth of the humor are far-reaching and some of the most brilliant lines of text ever put to print.       First off, the format of the whole book is in that of a grade school textbook. There is even a note in the table of contents for the first chapter about how one of your activities is going to be trying to keep the book open as many of us probably remember from grade school when we got a new book. There are also little side notes that you have to read, chapter inserts you have to read, and accompanying graphics that you have to read. There's an amazing amount to read and you can't skip a word of it, since it's going to make you laugh your ass off.       Probably one of the highlights that I particularly loved was the part comparing the age of a democracy to the stages in the human life. I can't think of anything smarter than how this is done and how it ties in to your democracy (we happen to be in old age by the way.)       You can't really beat it and you should get a copy if you haven't already. You'll just need to make sure that you read anything that is text in it, since you'll be missing jokes if you don't.

It's pretty well established that high fructose corn sryup (and really, there just any comparison to just your basic fructose corn syrup, so pipe down about your old school sweeteners) is a pretty lousy substance:       http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html       http://www.pregnancy.org/article.php?sid=1879       http://www.freeweightlosscenter.com/article21.htm       So what? This stuff isn't in everything right? Wrong. It IS in everything and it's amazing how much of this crap we're eating these days. In fact, it's really funny how it's basically in everything, whether it be a frozen TV dinner or your favorite bagel. There happens to be one thing that it's really not in and that's meat! Yes, that's right. All these Atkins fiends are so crazed about their non-carbohydrate meals, when most of us that are sensible are looking at the bread in front of use and realizing that it isn't really that evil.       I mean, look at Europe and in specific Italy. Sure, they can get bigger later in life, but they eat so many carbos, that by the definition of an Atkins person, they should weigh as much as a medium-sized car! Obviously this is not the case and Americans are by far fatter than the fattest Italians (Pavarotti aside, since he's the equivalent of a rock star and allowed to bulge.)       What's the difference? They're eating breads, pastas and grains that haven't been hit by the high fructose corn syrup garbage. Yes, they're also eating some meats and they walk more than we do, but let's be honest, they eat tons of carbs.       So, let me pose a theory. Atkins doesn't work because you're just eating meat. It works because you knock the HFCS out of your life. This doesn't mean that you have to eat Atkins and god knows, you shouldn't if you want to life any length of time, but it does mean that if you are aware of what you're buying and don't buy products with HFCS in them, you'll pull off the same stunt of weight loss. I eat scads or bread and carbs with very little meat and I'm in good shape. Atkins does work, but it's only a subterfuge of what the real problem is. Trying to skip HFCS is hard, but you can do it!