Archive for December, 2009
Monday Open Thread: December 28th, 2009
What’s on your minds today?
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The first gay Muslim terrorist has been identified and photographed in Yemen today. Yomamma Bin Shoppin:
H/t Bert
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There’s recently been a lot of emails going around showing Michelle Obama wearing a hideous psychadelic dress that looks like posters ripped from a liberal arts freshman’s dorm room walls:
Not a real photo -- photoshop was used
Amazingly, this gets forwarded to us at least once a week, but it’s not real. It’s a photoshop. You can tell at the top because the real dress (which is ugly in itself) can be seen near her shoulders: it’s a hideous red, white, and black combo with abstract swirls. Hideous…and, ironic, because the real dress is uglier than what was photoshopped over it. So, maybe the White House is behind this. The photoshop’s also a giveaway on Mrs. Utopia’s right side, where her arm disappears into the photoshop swirls of color. As nice as the thought of this woman disappearing is, real dresses don’t have the power to make parts of her vanish into thin air (curses!).
What’s funny is how easily people believe she’d really wear something this outrageous and inappropriate. If someone had photoshopped pictures of Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Rosalyn Carter, or other First Ladies in something this ugly, people would have instantly known they were fakes.
But, the current FLOTUS? It’s actually NICER than some of her outfits. Such as this one:
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MUST-READ: checkout the graph on JoNova for a complete history on The Church of Global Warming, and the decades-long scam it’s perpetrated. There’s a great downloadable PDF that everyone should see. H/t Ace of Spades for the link.
A Hard Rock Christmas in Boystown, 2009
Well, if you ever wanted to see what Boystown would look like in a zombie movie, with the streets deserted, everything dark and creepy, a forbidding rain washing all the colors out, and hapless, random oddballs wandering about in search of food, welcome to Christmas Eve 2009.
The lot of us spent most of Christmas Eve volunteering, as our present to our departed friend Lionel, who made volunteerism priority numero uno in his life (with the random insertion of Spanish words into otherwise English sentences his second great love). Lionel passed away from prostate cancer (or, “prostrate cancer”, as our friend Panda insists it’s called, “since it’s so bad it leaves you prostrate, that’s why they call it that, guys. Stop laughing at me”) this past summer, and we made a promise to him that we’d keep as much of his projects going as we could, for as long as we possibly could. He had a list of people living with HIV/AIDS for which he cleaned their apartments, ran their errands, and made sure they had ample holiday cheer.
Question of the Day: How do you feel about the Kennedy Family?
Here’s a question we received from several readers today, so we’ll address it in its own post: how do you feel about the Kennedy Family?
Well, first and foremost they are the family that covered up the murder of Mary Jo Kopechne, standing behind Ted Kennedy, enabling him to get away scot-free after killing a young woman in a tidal canal in 1969.
It’s always a shock to some of you that Kennedy = the murder of Mary Jo Kopechne, above everything else in our books, but that’s just how it is. We have a good friend named Zach who = drunk driving and involuntary manslaughter to us because, years ago, that’s the crime he committed. Zach, however, copped to it, did his time, and has never had a drink since. But, he’s still defined by his crime to us, and will always be. Such it is with Ted Kennedy, especially since he never came clean, never made amends for what he did, and never had the decency to grant the Kopechne family its one enduring wish: “To just tell us what really happened that night and how our daughter really died”.
Now, complicated things is the fact that pictures of President and First Lady Kennedy hung on our walls growing up. Some of us here met Jackie Kennedy in the 80s, and always loved her for her impeccable style and gentle grace. The woman was not the Saint Jackie many made her to be, but we remember being in New York in the 80s and very early 90s always excited to catch even a glimpse of her somewhere on Fifth or Park Avenues. She remains one of our favorite First Ladies, for the hard work she put into restoring the White House, and the marvelous scheme she engineered, personally, to bring the Mona Lisa to the US on a visit, so millions of Americans could have the chance to see that great work of art. Nothing like that will ever happen again, we’re sure, so the one and only visit La Jaconde took overseas is all because of the wiles Jackie Kennedy employed.
We have to admit we smile when we think of her.
We smile, too, when we think of her son John Kennedy, who we believe would be president right now had he not died in that plane crash in 1999. He might have been Gore’s VP pick in 2000, canceling out the president’s son running on the Republican side of the ticket…or he could have been a VP or presidential pick in 2004. He, too, was always fun to spot out and about in the 80s. His magazine, George, was a favorite of ours — and, historical note, the very first magazine any of us ever had anything published in (even if it was just a letter to the editor). Still, we remember being in college and thinking how cool it was that something we wrote was read by John Kennedy — whom we pictured shirtless, and possibly completely undressed, at the time, of course.
We remember sitting in front of the TV on the day his plane went missing, knowing instantly something was wrong because Dan Rather was talking about something so early in the morning. The tears in the eyes of everyone on screen broke our hearts, as professionals (which we assumed journalists were back then) worked hard to remain composed. We kept wishing and wishing they’d find survivors, and that John, his wife, and his sister-in-law would be found alive, floating on wreckage somewhere. Please. Please. Please. Please. We just repeated that for hours, until finally the plane was found by divers, with the bodies inside.
Oh, that still breaks our hearts. John was the best of both his mother and father.
Caroline, we’ve always believed, is the worst of the two of them.
We’ve encountered her, as well, in New York, and there’s a reason we call her HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy that has nothing to do with her endorsement in 2008 and her power grab for the US Senate seat Hillary Clinton vacated. We tell you repeatedly that how people act in person, to us or those we know, when the cameras are not around means a great deal in terms of what we think of them. We’ve seen how Caroline treats people. She pushes and shoves, whines and complains, and loves pulling the, “Don’t you know who I am?” card her brother and mother NEVER in their lives pulled. Hers is a life of great privilege wasted, a little girl surrounded by the most beautiful dolls, cakes, candies, and ribbons who grew up into a dilettante who does the absolute bare-minimum socially required of her to maintain her lofty socialite status. She is unkind to those who work for her. She’s rude to those she thinks are beneath her. She is the living embodiment of Kennedy Family entitlement.
Maybe we should tell you how we really feel, right?
In terms of the Kennedy Family itself, we think of the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, in which the family used its muscle to get what it wanted, justice be damned. That’s just an 80s rehash of what it did for Teddy in 69, of course, though they had to actually let that case go to trial. Incidentally, WKS lives not far from us here in Chicago and is spotted a lot in Lincoln Park — though he mercifully keeps a low profile and does rub his “royal status” in anyone’s face.
Then there’s Ted Kennedy’s behavior in Washington, with the “Waitress Sandwich” episode forever fresh in our minds. Despite being told over and over by the Democrat Party what a “lion of the Senate” Kennedy was, we don’t remember him as anything more than a red-faced, womanizing, murdering, entitled drunk. He was gluttonous in all of his appetites, most tragically his love of power for power’s sake. He is the defining argument for term limits in the United States Senate.
What do we think of the Kennedys siding against the Clintons in 2008?
That was all about power, not whom they believed should be the next president. The Kennedys did not want two presidents to come from the Clinton wing of the Democrat Party, not when the Kennedys feel they were shortchanged several presidents of their own: Joe Kennedy, who died in WW2, JFK’s second term, Bobby Kennedys’ two terms, and Ted Kennedy’s own imaginary presidency. Add John Kennedy’s presidency to that too, in an alternate universe where his plane never crashed en route to Rory’s wedding, and you have one hell of a familial obsession to prevent any other family on the Democrats’ side from eclipsing them.
All in all, we understand their motivations in this. We still laugh, to this day, at how ineffective these people were in their campaigning. Hillary Clinton decimated Dr. Utopia in Massachusetts and California on Super Tuesday, when the Kennedys promised they’d deliver both states to the Utopia campaign. They even deployed the Hell beast Oprah and dime-store mannequin Maria Shriver to win the Golden State for Utopia, and those two failed miserably as well.
We also understand their motivations in blocking public projects like Cape Wind in Massachusetts, because they go against their family’s interest — despite glaring contradictions with the “green energy” message some of the Kennedys claim to espouse.
We appreciate their machinations in vainly trying to stay relevent via the debacle of HRH Princess Caroline’s power grab for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, followed by her humiliating attempt to become the US Ambassador to the Vatican (which the Pope, personally, stopped dead in its tracks, since the Vatican isn’t right about everything these days, but it sure knows the real deal on the Kennedy Family, that’s for damn sure).
We know these people have an awful lot of money — as many awful people unfortunately do. It is our greatest wish they’d take that money and spend it freely on lavish, perpetual trips around the world, leaving public life for good, and ending the “Kennedy Curse” that’s been on America itself for generations.
The “curse” that’s not really on these people themselves regarding the bad things that seem to happen to them, but the bad things they, themselves, inflict on this country seemingly every few years, in their neverending pursuit of headlines, power, and relevence.
Jihad in the living room
We don’t get to check in with our good friend Abbey in Cleveland as often as we’d like, because we’re all so busy, and Abbey runs her own business, has started an urban farm in one of the worst parts of the city, and takes care of not only her son Lil’ Remy, but also her “Big Byron” too. She’s got all sorts of critters now, too, from rabbits and ducks to chickens and goats. She always has something interesting to say, so we were happy she gave us a call last night to catch up.
In addition to the latest scoop on what’s going on in Cleveland (the city that still hinges all hope on fantasy “economic stimulus” projects like a “Medical Mart”, a new convention center, and, most recently, a casino), we got onto the odd (for Abbey) topic of Islamic terrorism, since Abbey heard about the latest Muslim attempt to blow airliners out of the sky on Christmas in Detroit.
Abbey went into in an interesting analogy we thought we’d share, as it ties into our belief that the only way to stop terrorism is to create a deterrent that will force Muslims to abandon the airline hijacking and bombing schemes.
HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy spends Christmas in St. Bart's
One of the greatest Christmas presents ever came last year, when New York Governor David Paterson gave the Kennedy Family the shaft, refusing to indulge HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy’s bizarre insistance she was entitled to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat once HRC became Secretary of State. When pressed for why she should be a Senator, the best Princess Caroline could ever come up with was, “I wants it. Oh, and my dad was president, everyone loved my mother, and my brother was hotter than anyone can still believe. Did I mention I wants it? ‘Cause I wants it. That usually gets me everything I want, so why are we still having this conversation?”.
It’s interesting to wonder if the Kennedy Family is really finished this time. There’s no Kennedy in the Senate, which we’re certain has nothing at all to do with the poor sales D.C. area liquor stores are experiencing lately. There’s still one in Congress, but he hardly matters. Princess Caroline’s generation is a complete bust; sporadically, Princess herself appears on various boards and charitable projects, but the thing she enjoys most is opening up new Armani stores or giving harried sales clerks a hard time at Bergdorff’s. She’s going to be hosting another “Kennedy Center Honors” telecast, and apparently has been thinking about replacing a retiring Vanna White on “Wheel of Fortune”. The stumbling block to that deal, apparently, is the high number of vowels. “There are too many of them,” Princess insists. “I’m a Kennedy, so I don’t want to be moving around all that much on the stage. One or two vowels are fine, but there are five or six vowels. That’s worse than when I had to have lunch in Harlem with Al Sharpton last year and pretend I didn’t hate being there. I’m getting too old to be playing this much make-believe”.
Princess Caroline’s son, John Bouvier, is 16 now…and has so far managed to keep himself out of headlines and trouble. We wonder if the Kennedy Family will attempt a comeback with him, President Kennedy’s grandson, and reboot the dynasty by skipping Princess’ generation entirely. We’ll have to wait a good 10-20 years for an answer on that.
If it’s one thing we’ve learned about these people, it’s that you should never underestimate them, never turn your back on them, and never think for a moment they don’t have some new scheme up their sleeves to get their hands back on power.
They may be giving up their Hyannis Port palace to turn it into a “Kennedy Family Museum and Historic Site”, but they surely aren’t retreating into shadow and obscurity. Not willingly, at least.
Sunday Open Thread: December 27th, 2009
What’s on your mind this Sunday?
Question of the Day: Will the Healthcare Rationing Bill be a "Great Tipping Point"?
Here’s an interesting article by Jay Ambrose that has us wondering if a “Great Tipping Point” is upon us.
This is a phrase we hear used a lot lately — and even employed by Bill Daley in an Op-Ed letter written this week as a warning to Democrats that the nation is set to turn against them, in a big and irrevocable way, because the Democrat Party is defining itself as the party of:
* profligate spending
* race-baiting
* irresponsibility
* invasive government
* freedom stealing
* socialism
* enemy of small business
We are an interesting point of argument for a “Great Tipping Point” ourselves. One of the reasons we have kept this site going is that this is a journal, of sorts, of the political evolution of a set of diehard, lifelong, take-no-prisoners Democrats who now look upon the Democrat Party as a foreign and alien thing we want nothing to do with.
All of this happened in less than two years.
We went from being guys who walked out on blind dates if we found out the person in front of us was a Republican, to being people who have more Republican and Independent friends today than Democrats. In fact, the majority of people we know who used to call themselves “Democrat” now identify as Independent. The course the DNC set in backing Dr. Utopia and forcing his nomination alienated more lifelong Dems than the party chooses to realize.
We still call ourselves “Democrat” when pressed, out of cultural memory and nostalgia we guess. It’s the same way, when pressed, we’d say we’re “Catholic”, because that’s how we grew up, that’s the school we went to, though we haven’t set foot in a church in a great while. We loved John Paul the Great as Pope, but never listen to a damn thing Pope Benedict says. We don’t like him, don’t have any priests or nuns here in Chicago we especially like, and don’t feel compelled to come running whenever church bells ring in our neighborhood.
It’s the same with the Democrat Party. We love the Clintons, and we will do anything for them as long as we live. We do not like or support the current Democrat president, however. We don’t back his agenda, and we truly believe he is driving this country into the ground on his narcissistic quest to become “President of the World”. As of the latest vote on Healthcare Rationing, there are also no longer any Democrats in the Senate or House that we support, either.
Frankly, the whole lot of them can take a flying leap for all we care. We’d love to see each and every one of them lose their seats in upcoming elections, because that Healthcare Rationing bill is unconstitutional as written, and one of them should have had the guts to stand up to the current president, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi to shut it down so things could start over and the bill could be written properly.
Because Democrats in the Senate, especially, rushed through a bill they didn’t have time to read, when they have no idea how this is really going to impact Americans, just so they could run home for Christmas and declare victory, we intend to do everything we can to see to it all of these people lose their jobs.
The reason for that is clear to us, in one word: incompetence.
Never in our lives did we dream we would be at this juncture, wanting to see Congress swept clean of Democrats at the first available juncture.
What was once a centrist party is now the party of corruption, the party of backroom deals and massive, in-your-face bribes. Anything in Nebraska currently named after Ben Nelson needs to be re-named, pronto. The Great Whore of the Senate has brought massive shame to his state. We’d say the same thing about Mary Landrieu, but with people like Ray Nagin in elected office in Louisiana, her bribe was pretty much business as usual.
The Democrat Party is revealing itself as a collection of crooks who want to steal as much money from the hardworking as possible, to hand it out as welfare to the lazy and incompetent, and to reward loyal voting blocs. There is zero concern whatsoever for the country itself.
Just as Nelson struck a deal so Nebraska would stop paying its fair share for Medicare, foisting that bill onto other states, so Democrats want hardworking people to pay to cover the bills incurred by the laziest members of their voting blocs.
That’s shameful, and unacceptable in our eyes. We want no part of a party that operates this way, and rewards such bad behavior.
We do not, however, think Republicans are tough enough. They aren’t fighting socialism hard enough. The GOP is not offering up a solid enough rebuke of Democrats’ behavior, with a firm battle plan to take back the country and set us all on a course towards prosperity again.
If Republicans did that, we don’t know where we’d end up on the spectrum, but think we’d be able to culturally stop calling ourselves Democrats at all if things reached that point.
What’s interesting to us, in thinking about our own journey these last two years, is the fact that we WERE such partisan Dems, and now we look upon the Democrat Party with great disgust.
So, what about all the Americans truly in the middle, who had no strong allegiance either way?
How do THEY feel about Democrats now?
Are things bad enough that they’re ready to run to the Republicans in droves like they did in 1980?
Have we reached that cultural tipping point?
What do you think?
Action Item of the Day: Where have presidents spent Christmas?
More and more people keep asking us where other presidents spent Christmas, stunned the current president and his family are burning through tens of thousands of dollars A DAY renting three mansions, side-by-side, on the islands of Hawaii, dragging hundreds of staff members thousands of miles from their families at Christmas, all at massive taxpayer expense.
Where’s the outrage from the same peanut gallery that scolded the RNC for spending money on a campaign wardrobe for the Palins? Which, incidentally, is the same peanut gallery that said not a word about the fortune dropped on Dr. Utopia and Joe Biden’s tailored suits during the campaign, and all the upholstery fabric and garbage bags used to make the current First Lady’s campaign wear (assembled by kindergartners’ and schools for the blind).
We don’t know if we’ll have time to get to it today, but we would like to solve the mystery of where each president since at least Kennedy spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If we can get this table filled in, then we can go back further as well:
Where did the First Family spend Christmas in the year:
2009 = Obamas went on lavish $12,000+/day Hawaiian luxury trip, renting three side-by-side-by-side mansions on a beach “favored by Hawaiian royalty”
2008 (Bush) = Camp David (article says Bush spent 12 Christmases at Camp David, which includes his father’s 4 years in office too)
2007 (Bush) = Camp David for Christmas Eve and Day, then on to Crawford, Texas
2006 (Bush) = Camp David
2005 (Bush) = Camp David
2004 (Bush) = Camp David
2003 (Bush) = Camp David
2002 (Bush) = Camp David
2001 (Bush) = Camp David
2000 (Clintons) = White House
1999 (Clintons) = White House, preparing for the Y2K changeover
1998 (Clintons) = White House, then Hilton Head for Renaissance Weekend and New Year
1997 (Clintons) = Sarajevo, the former Yugoslavia, with our troops
1996 (Clintons) = White House
1995 (Clintons) =
1994 (Clintons) =
1993 (Clintons) = Hilton Head, South Carolina (borrowed house from friend)
1992 (Bush) = Camp David
1991 (Bush) = Camp David
1990 (Bush) = Camp David
1989 (Bush) = Camp David
1988 (Reagan) = White House *NOTE: Reagan did this so agents could be with family at Christmas and his staff wouldn’t be pulled away from loved ones during the holidays.
1987 (Regan) = White House
1986 (Reagan) = White House
1985 (Reagan) = White House
1984 (Reagan) = White House
1983 (Reagan) = White House
1982 (Reagan) = White House
1981 (Reagan) = White House
1980 (Carter) = Plains, Georgia
1979 (Carter) = Camp David
1978 (Carter) = Plains, Georgia (as noted in his book, Christmas in Plains, p. 188)
1977 (Carter) = Plains, Georgia (as noted in his book, Christmas in Plains, p. 109)
1976 (Ford) = Vail, Colorado
1975 (Ford) = Vail, Colorado
1974 (Ford) = Vail, Colorado
1973 (Nixon) =
1972 (Nixon) = Key Biscayne, Florida
1971 (Nixon) = White House
1970 (Nixon) = White House
1969 (Nixon) = White House
1968 (Johnson) = White House
1967 (Johnson) = White House
1966 (Johnson) = Texas, personal ranch
1965 (Johnson) = Texas, personal ranch
1964 (Johnson) = Texas, personal ranch
1963 (Johnson) = Texas, personal ranch
1962 (Kennedy) = Hyannis Port, MA (family palace)
1961 (Kennedy) = Hyannis Port, MA (family palace)
1960 (Eisenhower) = White House (per book, Christmas in the White House by Alberto Menendez, he worked for several hours in the Oval that day, too)
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* One way to do this would be to search old newspapers for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of each year, looking for a story about the president at the time, which would most likely say where he and his family was that day
* Add what you find to this thread and we will update the table above, and build it out to show where previous presidents have spent Christmas
* PLEASE include link to your source so this list can be as accurate as possible, as it appears no one else has thought to assemble something like this for reference
* We don’t remember any president spending as lavishly or pulling staff away from their families on the holidays as much as the current president and his “fashion icon” wife, especially not in a time when so many are suffering in a prolonged recession (which this president promised he’d solve by now)
How to solve terrorism in one easy step
Sitting here thinking about the latest attempt Muslims made to destroy a commercial airliner and murder everyone aboard, with whatever they were up to on the Northwest Airlines flight from Holland to Detroit, we’ve realized how easy it would actually be to solve terrorism if Western governments had any backbone — or if a Western, non-government, pan-national movement arose to counter Al Queda and other Muslim terrorist groups on its own.
Terrorism could actually be solved in one easy step, that should go something like this:
* every time Muslims attack an embassy, an airliner, a hotel, or any other Western target, a prominent mosque somewhere will be demolished.
* one such mosque will be leveled to the ground for every 100 people killed in any terrorist attack by a Muslim; since there were close to 300 people aboard the Northwest flight, if the Muslim terrorist aboard had been successful in his plot, that would have been 3 mosques somewhere in the world that would have been burned to the ground in retaliation.
* mosques in shopping centers or in the suburbs aren’t high-profile enough: we’re talking these lunatics’ most holy, sacred sites…leading all the way up to the Dome of the Rock, Haggia Sophia, and all the sites in Mecca and Medina ultimately, if these people don’t get the message and stop hitting Western targets.
Currently, there’s no real downside for Muslims in blowing things up, aside from the loss of their lives. It appears these suicide bombers are certifiably insane, believing they are going to be rewarded for their murder spress with scores of virgins and all the hummas and grapes they can eat in the afterlife. The carrot Islam gives them is much, much greater than the stick they fear in terms of laying down their own lives.
But, we’ve been told that in Islam, it’s taught their sacred sites will never be destroyed, because Allah loves them all so much. Taking out their mosques and the shrines in Mecca and Medina should definitely rattle them – since their Koran swears to them this would never happen. So, once it happens, the Koran will be proved fallible. If the Koran’s wrong about one thing, even the most zealous of these murderers has to see the Koran could be wrong about other things too — and those promises of scores of virgins as rewards for martyrdom might not be true either.
Would Muslims be so quick to bring down airliners if they knew doing so would mean three or four mosques somewhere would be smashed to bits in retaliation?
Would Muslims at large continue to tolerate, if not aid and abet, terrorists if mosques were destroyed every time terrorists struck?
Currently, there’s no real detriment to terrorism for these people. It costs relatively little for them to carry out their terrorist attacks: the price of the weapons used, an airline ticket or two, whatever housing and food went to raise the terrorist bomber, and minimal logistical costs. The costs to the airlines attacked are in the hundreds of millions, including not only the cost of the planes lost, the insurance claims from victims’ families, and other direct costs of the attack itself, but the lost revenue in the months afterwards when many would-be passengers are too afraid to fly.
For terrorism to stop, Muslims need to feel that financial smackdown, too. They need to know, to a person, that when Muslims attack the West, that Muslims will lose the millions they’ve invested in these mosques worldwide, starting with the ones that have special meaning to them.
As special as all those dads and moms are to the children orphaned by Muslims.
As special as all those friends are to those who are left on the ground still trying to process that loss of life a decade later.
As special as everyone ever killed in a Muslim bombing truly is.
We lost a good friend on 9/11 named Jane, when Muslims hijacked planes and turned her office into a crime scene. Another family friend died over Lockerbie, Scotland when Muslims took terror to the air in the 80s.
We want the West to fight back. If governments won’t do this, then the marketplace demands an answer to Al Queda in the form of a new Knights Templar, or something of that sort. Kind of an A-Team that’s summoned into action after a terrorist attack, doing what the US, Israel, and other political entities are seemingly prevented from doing by liberals. It can be totally rogue, and governments can threaten its existence and despise all who are a part of it, but just imagine if Muslims feared a boogeyman out there just waiting to punish them for their evil deeds.
Like spoiled, evil children raising Hell with no fear of punishment, Muslims need to be afraid of something — there’s currently no effective “Wait ’till your father gets home”, when they really and truly do appear to need one.
Too bad there’s not a George Soros type radical billionaire out there on the side of good who can undermine Islam and Muslim terrorism the way these people are continuously and effectively undermining the West.
If you have ever dreamed of seeing Boystown, watch "Tabatha's Salon Takeover" on BRAVO December 29th
Just a quick programming note for you: “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover” on BRAVO is finally airing the episode they shot in Boystown last summer. Tabatha Coffey, the host, traveled here to makeover Chicago Male, a salon where some of us used to get our hair cut (until she remade it, oddly enough). The shop’s right on Halsted, near the corner of Halsted and Roscoe, diagnal from Pie Hole (which has the pizza we love), and right across the street from the 7/11 we talk about sometimes (where all those horrible kids who hang out all day at the Center on Halsted go to start more trouble when the Center closes at night).
We got to meet Tabatha when she was in town filming. A friend of ours lived in the building that houses Chicago Male, and we’d see her in the courtyard out back smoking all the time. She is funny, smart, kind, and SO FRIENDLY. We’ve been excited to see this episode because Tabatha is so great in person, even if we didn’t like what she did with the salon.
Previously, Chicago Male had a really comfy, cozy vibe to it: they used reds, greens, and lots of leather and marble to make the place feel sort of like an upscale ski lodge. We would get there early for appointments just so we could read magazines and hang out. The staff there, however, was TERRIBLE: rude, snotty, wispy little twinks at the reception desk and stylists so flamboyant and full of themselves even we rolled our eyes, as immune to this behavior as we usually are in Boystown. They used to have a great biker chick lesbian named Renee working there, and that’s who used to cut our hair, but she had some health problems and moved back to Toledo, we think, so we stopped going there when she was gone. As comfy as we thought it was in there, we just didn’t want to deal with the twinky staff and attitude in the place.
Well, Tabatha stripped all the warm colors and made the place look like a generic New York City salon: cream walls, lots of black, going for sleek and high-end instead of comfy cozy. A lot of people like it, but it’s not our cup of tea (or coffee, as it were, if we wanted to go for the easy Tabatha Coffey pun, which apparently we just did).
They’ve got a new receptionist too, but just walking past the shop every day, he doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement from the Miss Thang they had before.
Welcome to Boystown!
We’re excited to see the episode, and are going to a Watch Party at Halsted’s Grill on December 29th to see it premiere, where we think they’re going to have a drag queen impersonate Tabatha.
You can watch the show yourselves at home, if you get BRAVO, and have a little Boystown in your own homes as well, where you can dress up like Tabatha yourselves if you want to.
