Tis the season; play with that (rugby) ball

I have pretty much managed to purchase every gift for family and friends this season on-line (Go Amazon Wish List!). I haven't stepped foot in the horrible-and-yet-mind-snappingly-hypontic specticle that is the road crash called Michigan Ave. Really -- it is awful and spellbinding to watch 6 year old girls literally stampede towards American Girl Place (a store that gives me the heebeegeebees just thinking about it). American consumerism at its apex; just the question is apex of what?

Anyway, I have avoided that, mostly because the gawk value doesn't trump my growing dislike of people. Well, people in large crowds anyway.

So I spent most of my weekend holed up in my basement getting caught up on 24, CSI(The show that makes science geeks sexy -- you know we all wear skin tight t-shirts in the field), Line of Fire (for those of you not hip to that show; start watching. Very well done stuff), and of course Tru Calling (bad sci-fi, but I still give props to Faith, even if she hasn't quite got her character down yet.) I saw the first episode -- err, Part I -- of Angels in America. Top notch, really. Although, it does make me unsettled thinking that much about AIDS. The oddly comforting bit was the part with the previous Prior Walters dying from plague (the black one) -- puts this in historical perspective.

The other big event was the Gay Men's Chorus: a Sassy Brassy Christmas. Good stuff -- the lyrics were really funny and the production values were generally high except for the crappy accoustics of the theater -- sitting on the side, the sound was horribly muddled and the horns playing completely overwhelmed the vocals.

I went with Karl and Jeff; our friend Mike was in it. The first time we saw him on stage it was in nothing but a Speedo. I can tell you that being pretty much naked in front of thousands of gay men would be a good incentive to really get lean lean lean.

Of course the men in this year's Stade calender don't have that problem. They are perfect all the time. I am pleasantly surprised to find that August doesn't suck. Or maybe he does which would be an added bonus.