November 3rd, 2011 - Writing Wednesday

Hello all, today’s already November 2nd and before you know it, you-know-what will be here…Yikes! I don’t even wanna think about that just yet, though I’ve already been seeing that ‘décor’ in stores already… I'm dreading the music already!

Writing Wednesday

Well it’s Wednesday and time to share what I’ve been up to in the past week. I’ve had a pretty busy week overall, writing-wise, and I’ve got plenty more on my plate in the days to come. Hopefully, things will be fruitful (especially if any of you gimme a few clicks, wink!). Here goes:

Gather

Now Gather is the one place where no one can subscribe to me, and it’s the best paying site that I write for. It’s one of the primary reasons for adding these articles to Writing Wednesday and I really appreciate any reads of these pieces as I still try to get my groove on over there…


Source: AT40

Details emerging on new Madonna album

Like many of my fellow Madonna fans, the news that she has been working on a new album finally is very exciting, and some new tidbits came out this week about it, including some info on her first single which features rappers Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

VH1 Divas Live celebrates soul music

The latest “Divas” show on VH1 features exciting performances by Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and more. The concert, which celebrates soul music and some of the places where it thrives, will air on the channel on December 19th.

New Music: Week of October 31st, 2011

This week spotlights new Florence and the Machine and a Christmas album from teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.

Here's "Shake it Out" from Florence and the Machine's new "Ceremonials":






Source: Pracktikel

Y!CN

After almost three weeks, I finally got an article out on Yahoo Contributor Network. It’s a piece I’ve wanted to write about the Wall Street Protests for awhile and I think it’s pretty good. Check it out and stay tuned for more to come:

Occupy Wall Street: Practicing American Principles

Examiner

I’ve been pretty busy with Examiner, too! Check these out:


Source: insidesocal

Cyndi Lauper’s “Home for the Holidays” to benefit NYC’s GLBT homelessness

Cyndi Lauper is a great straight ally, and this one looks like fun! I wanna go!

Fall Festivals this weekend on Long Island

Let the shopping begin!

Long Island Restaurant Week is back

Yup, starting this Sunday, November 6th, great restaurants all over the island will be serving up their best at an affordable three-course prix fixe menu for only $24.95. It’s a sweet deal and you can find links to all of the great participating restaurants within the piece.

NYC Up & Out

This is a review of one of my go-to websites for events of interest to LGBT’s in and around New York City. I get their weekly newsletter, which has given me plenty of ideas for pieces…one day, when I live in the city, I may actually get to experience a lot of the great things on this great website!



Well, I'd say that was a pretty productive week! As always, thanks for reading...

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Song of the Day - You Make Me Feel - Cobra Starship

Source: Panda Toes

Happy Hump Day everyone! Today's song is a recent hit from New York-based 'synth-pop' group Cobra Starship. It's a happy and fun song and a good one for wat looks to be a nice day. Enjoy!





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Song of the Day - In The Dark - Dev

Source: Shazam

Halloween is over and now it's time to get back to the real show. Today is November 1st and I've been listening to lots of new stuff of late, including this sleeper hit. "In the Dark" has been getting lots of airplay both on the radio and here and there in the clubs and I am simply loving it! It's got some great horns, which seem to be hot these days in dance music, and singer Dev has got a sexy, sultry voice. Take a listen:





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October 31st, 2011 - Chopping Down Trees

I should not be doing this! It’s almost a quarter to twelve on Monday night and I should be in bed already. It figures, but over the weekend I had so much time on my hands (Saturday, at least), and though I got some pieces out, I didn’t get what I could have done. I’ve been writing feverishly for about four hours now with few breaks and my mind is just full of ideas. What stinks is that I have little time to write and by the time I even get to some of them, they will be no longer new….it sucks!

Chopping Down Trees

On Sunday, my friends Rich and Bobby came by to help me with a task I first told you about awhile ago, to cut two trees down in my yard. I was well rested from not doing anything on Saturday and so I was ready to get the job done. The two of them came over about 12:30 and we got right down to business…the first tree was down in a flash! It was the tree that had been leaning on my neighbor’s fence since Irene back in August, the one I couldn’t get down myself, but with three of us on it, it was quite easy, though right after that was when the trouble started.

“Are we gonna take this one down?” Rich asked after we had trounced the first one. It was an evergreen that had been standing not two feet from the first one. It was also kind of old and kind of in the way, but I hadn’t ever thought of taking it down before.

“Why not?” I answered, and we got down to working on that one, and it would have been easy too if it weren’t for the wisteria. Wisteria is a beautiful, flowering vine that spreads like wildfire. It blooms only for about a week in May and I’ve always loved it. However, its vines spread all over the place and become tree-like in thickness and strength, and my wisteria had grown so entangled in other trees that you couldn’t even tell where its vines went.

Bobby began to cut the evergreen at the base as Rich and I held on, he to a rope we had tied to the top and me to one of the vines that was entangled in its branches. Within five minutes, the tree was severed at the base, but it didn’t fall down. Nope, the tree hung there by a wisteria vine that had grown through it and on to another tree in my neighbor’s yard. It was a tricky thing, to say the least!

For the next hour or so, Bobby, Rich and I slowly and methodically worked our way through the evergreen from the bottom up, cutting off pieces at a time until we were left with just the uppermost portions just dangling in mid-air. Bobby went home and retrieved a saw thingy from home that kind of looked like a sickle on a long stick. After a couple of missed cuts, we finally found the one vine that had been holding the thing up and it came crashing down.

A Big Mess

Once we had finished getting down the troubled evergreen, we took down the other tree in the front of the house and once again Rich made a suggestion. He said that while we were at it, we may as well cut down this huge, precarious branch from another tree that was hanging over the street…a disaster waiting to happen. I looked up at the huge thing and agreed. Rich got up on the ladder with the chainsaw to begin working on the thick limb, all the while Bobby and I kept our eyes out for passing traffic, me a little nervous for an unfortunate incident.

Right about the time Rich got to the point where he was almost done, the chain became dislodged from the chainsaw. At least he had cut through enough to where all he had to do was tug at the branch and it, too, came crashing down. Out came the hacksaws and we quickly got the 20-foot limb to the side of the road.

At that point, it was around 2:30 and I thanked the two of them for the help and took a look around at the huge mess that now had to be cleaned. I was grateful to them for helping me…Lord knows what it would have cost me to pay someone to do it, and at the same time the loss of the chainsaw really sucked as far as the cleanup was concerned. I spent the rest of the daylight hours doing what I could…chopping leaved-branches off the larger ones, sweeping the driveway and tying limbs together to be taken away. There is still plenty to do, and like everything else in life, time is short.

So I spent the day feeling sore…my back aches and my arms hurt. I tried working out, but I had to stop myself from fear of doing anymore damage to my body. I will get it done one of these days. There’s a giant tree laying across my front yard and another on my driveway in the back, not to mention the 20 footer at the roadside. Ugh! Does anybody know how to fix a chainsaw, lol?

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