WTF, Halloween.

Day #3: No power. i get why people go insane in solitary confinement. I so get hardened criminals!!! Then, with no real food and those squirrels in head, I can't bear to go out. TG has been heroic by juicing up our electronics. I went hunting for wild game sandwiches and can now see that animal protein clears my head a little. sorry, Bessie.

Love to you all. Have not checked TMZ in days.

No power

no stars today--frowny face!!!

I Can't Really Post

Our power went out. The wind is terrible, stuff is falling from building nextdoor, lots of flooding. i don't care about the stars right now. Just staying safe. And now we must eat the contents of our fridge.

The stars can wait. Pray for us.

Happy Birthday, Pretty Woman!!!

Aw, Julia--you make 45 look goooooooood!!!!

Liev Schreiber Is So Happy (and sniffly) at the Rubin

It's hard to get me out because I'm an agoraphobe on a Sunday but I perked up at the idea of Liev Schreiber, who never struck me as particularly jolly, giving a talk on happiness with CUNY prof Dr. Jesse Prinz only one block away at the Rubin Museum. I anticipated four scenarios:

1. Discussion of happiness in his work, a Liev love-fest
2. Philosophical or buddhist concept of happiness, which would be okay but a little over Dish's head.
3. The self-help model of happiness in 5 sexy steps, as in yayayayyay!!!
4. Narcissistic freeforall.

I planned carefully for five minutes what to wear. I didn't want to look like a hot groupie and, as we know, my gorgeousness would take away too much focus. So I went in jeans t-shirt and no makeup.

Someone began by asking who in the audience was happy and I raised my hand along with a few, not many. I had no problem raising my hand. Over the years, I've lost the expectation of happiness and stopped pursuing it to excess. Morbid topics tend to find me and I'm prone to mild depression. I enjoy tragic stories more than happy ones. I've had some bad years. I've cheated death. Yet, with all this, when happiness presents itself, it's gravy to a life I'm fairly glad to have. TG makes me laugh every day and I feel as if I belong with someone and that his life is as important as mine. So yeah, I'm happy and that's okay. I can still get a charge out of Snapped and Anna Karenina.

The talk was mostly Dr. Prinz elucidating matters pertaining to happiness and I could see him being the engaged hipster professor, his students and colleagues enjoying him. Liev seemed less plugged in, but more prone to discuss his own battle to deal with non-happy states, which is cool. Wasn't that what we were there for? They didn't touch too much upon Liev's impressive work. Perhaps the big thing I learned was that his joy comes from when he's in front of an audience. And he meditates and tugs at his beard constantly.

No mention of Naomi. I looked around to see if she was there. That would be a sighting indeed. He is one lucky bastard...and a fabulous actor.

Happy Birthday, Simon Le Bon!

How could I spend even one minute out of the last 24 hours thinking of anything other than Simon Le Bon's 54th birthday?

Happy Birthday, Charlie Shakespeare von Itch! One of my favorite divas on earth.

Sandy Is Getting Her Own Reality Show!

The biggest celeb right now is Sandy, that PMSing brain child of Mother Nature. Gotta love her for striking during the work week, which could impede my commute, goshdurnnit Yipee skippee!!!.  I'm just thankful this storm is blanketing the election nonsense. TG and I have slacked as far as preparing for the destruction and mayhem. I figure I'll go buy a box of Snickers, some baby wipes (? Brad Pitt says they're awesome), and D batteries, even though I don't have anything that takes them.

So, the rape talk continues and my new favorite person, Melissa Harris-Perry, just did this open letter to stale-GOP-gaffers. Thank you, Melissa, for articulating so beautifully what I've always thought to be true: that survivors of rape are the gift.

I've tried to ignore the signs that Rihanna and Chris Brown are together, that they might attend the VMAs together. I just watch this video and think she dodged a bullet back then. But now, she's in his crosshairs again. That can't be good. I give up on Rihanna and will focus on the genius of Eminem. Today, I had a panic attack for no reason while waiting for the elevator. I felt silly for it. Why then? So, then I queued up my favorite things and here's one of them. Here's another.

And lastly, I have to thank Dishbrothersidekick for telling me that there's a new Good Witch movie tonight, The Good Witch's Charm. I can't get enough of that witchy Catherine Bell. Sadly, TG is watching a documentary on bin Laden. SEXY!

Sandy, Can't You See...?

Who is this stormy wench blistering her rage toward our precious coast JK, Dish loves frightening weather!? Is she just PMSing or really angry at how we treat our planet? You know with such a bad storm, she has to be at the worst part of her cycle. Maybe it's her scary Halloween present? I like to think Sandy is a delicious cookie. Any way you slice it, let's just rush to Duane Reade in a panic to get those D batteries and bottles of water. Let's watch the weather channel endlessly--you already are. Just in case of rising tides, I've been training to swim up to 94th street where I will temporarily live with Dishbrother and Dishbrothersidekick. They won't mind. If that's not drastic enough, I will run to a mountain, just like The Hobbit and Tweennerd did in Deep Impact.

It's all about Sandy and the Presidential race now -- a storm to represent the tumult in our land. We only have 2 months until the Mayans kill us off. I'm soaking up the life, especially that full circle feeling with politics offering the opportunity for old white men to talk about rape as if they know so much. Fresh from my own experience with this nightmare, Anita Hill and William Kennedy Smith were on trial. One had many white men treating her like dumb little girl for coming forward--which happens far too often, especially in cases of date rape and marital rape. The other case was part of the big family machine, therefore the rape never happened. Now, twenty-two years later, rape has become such a hot topic, which I find weird, especially since it's only mentioned in relation to abortion. It's one of those crimes that doesn't get the razzle dazzle treatment of a gunshot wound, though the emotional scars from rape last forever. I'm not outraged or sad that these dumb guys are saying such offensive things. It's just so obvious how sick they are. We can't burn them at the stake. The best thing is to ostracize them and not elect them. My other Dishfeeling is that when a politician talks about rape with such assurance (as in the body shuts down a pregnancy from legitimate rape), he has experience with violence -- who knows how -- and has somehow made it okay in his mind. That's a truly sad person.

With all the rape, economy, stuff, who's thinking about Jessica Simpson's father's divorce and the gay rumors? Well, probably no one.

The most important part about today is that it's Hillary Clinton's birthday. I hope she had a great day, that someone brought her a cake and gave her hugs. It's a loaded three days as three of my favorite celebs have birthdays through Sunday. Hand me a lampshade.