Archive for April, 2008

Dog Kisses

Friday, April 11th, 2008

How do you kiss your dogs? I like to kiss my dogs all the time. Every once in a while, they will let me kiss them on the lips, but it is rare. That is fun though because I really love dog lips because they are thin and black and sometimes shiny like they wear lip gloss.



My medium middle girl, Bronwyn, who is very beautiful and has many nicknames, like “briony” – after “Atonement” or just “brown” or “brownie” – after her coloring, which is a light honey, cinnamon brown with white spots like she is dotted with macadamia nuts, usually gets kissed on the cheeks. She has high cheekbones due to her mixed up dog heritage, so she gets kissed on both cheeks, above her whisker line European style. One cheek then the other cheek. She has gotten kissed like this so much she knows to turn her head slightly to receive it.



My big boy, Ralph, whose nickname is “Ralph Rapherton, private eye,” which is not a short nickname, but a fitting one, because he is a lot like a private investigator because he has an office, which is a small dark space under some stairs in my backyard where he can go in and receive visits from mysterious ladies wearing picture hats, usually gets kissed all over the space between his ears, because his fur is very soft there and feels good on the lips.



My littlest, Gudrun, who I have been calling “Gud-rin” because she is a lot like “exce-drin” in that she takes pain away, has a little caramel colored diamond on the top of her head, which is what we call a “kissing diamond.” She gets kissed there.



Although all my dogs have designated kissing areas, I would like to mention they are also kissed ‘freestyle,’ which means they get kissed in a ‘jazz improv’ way all over their entire dog bodies with the exception of the ‘whisker line’ – too sensitive and can bend and damage whiskers – which are very important! They aren’t just cute! They help the dog keep his or her balance.



Where do you kiss your dogs, cats, children, etc?



Puppy Mills

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Oprah did an important show about the horrible business of puppy mills, which are “dog factories,” where female dogs are caged for their entire lives in order to churn out litter after litter, which are then sold at pet stores. It is an awful and cruel (not to mention disgusting and inhumane) practice. I am glad that Oprah shed some light on this situation, which has been going on for decades without anyone being able to stop it, even though animal rights activists have been protesting the entire time.



Puppy mills are horrible and should be illegal! Purebreds are available all the time at animal shelters, and can be adopted as puppies or older. As an old dog mother of three shelter babies myself, I think it is most rewarding to adopt an older dog, and it is also a lot easier. Puppies are so cute, but can be a tremendous amount of work, and they don’t stay little for that long. Older dogs are great – what you see is what you get! Even if you have your heart set on a purebred puppy, if you do a bit of searching, especially if you go to specific breed rescue groups, you can adopt one without a lot of hassle. I think shelters are the way to go though, because people discard their pets tragically all the time, or they don’t spay or neuter and wind up with litters that nobody wants. Animal shelters are full of squirming puppies who desperately need homes and you never know, your baby could be in there just waiting for you to come pick him or her up!



Please adopt pets from animal shelters or rescue organizations. You will not be sorry!



Bay Windows
The Cho Must Go On

Monday, April 7th, 2008

By Scott Kearnan

“The sex-capade, and a subsequent tangent on pop culture divas…went over well with the packed audience, who was hooting and hollering its collective approval. Her political jabs, peppered throughout the show, were among her best and the show one of her consistently funniest.”

There’s a certain formula that comes with a Margaret Cho comedy show: combine one part sex talk, a teaspoon of potty humor, a hefty dollop of politically incorrect leftist opining, and a few shout-outs to the LGBT community (Cho is married to a man but identifies as “queer”). The result? A seemingly sold-out show at The Orpheum on April 5, a rabid fan base that hangs on her every word, and – if history is any indicator – a DVD special that will allow you to freeze frame any number of Cho’s uproariously contorted facial expressions (now in HD!) for maximum hilarity.

It’s a solid formula; in danger of growing old, true. But it works every time. “Beautiful” is no exception, a solid return to form after Cho’s last national tour of original material, 2004’s “State of Emergency.” That outing found Cho in fiercely political territory, and there’s no doubt that the comedienne is often at her best when she’s fired up over one hot topic or another. But the election-year immediacy of “Emergency” channeled Cho’s (admittedly righteous) indignation over the State of the Union into a rancorous, shrewish show that abandoned comedy for campaigning. Infrequently funny, it often threatened to turn her usually saucy soapbox into a bitter bed of nails.
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Eye Weekly
Margaret Cho at Massey Hall

Monday, April 7th, 2008

By Sean Davidson

“…her latest tour, Beautiful, which on April 4 saw Cho return to the more honest and personal material that marked her earlier years….Cho seems to have re-embraced the best of what made her big in the first place.”

The last time Margaret Cho made the rounds her act didn’t look so good and seemed to be trending downward. The howlingly raw material of her debut I’m The One That I Want and follow-up Notorious C.H.O. had — by the time of Revolution and in particular 2005’s Assassin — given way to a good deal of pandering non-comedy and speechifying that didn’t so much tell jokes as it told her adoring fans what they wanted to hear.

If that sounds like a belated swipe, well, let’s blame it on the lingering awfulness of Assassin and move on to the notable improvements of her latest tour, Beautiful, which on April 4 saw Cho return to the more honest and personal material that marked her earlier years.
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The Boston Globe
Cho is like the friend who will tell you anything

Monday, April 7th, 2008

By Katie Johnston Chase



“Cho laid her dirty comedy on thick at the Orpheum Saturday night, and the near-capacity crowd ate it up. Cho was larger than life on the video screen above her – all the better to see her masterful facial expressions. She can contort her eyes, her mouth, even her nose into the funniest positions, whether she’s imitating her mother imitating Julia Child or reenacting her horrified self…”

PHOTO CAPTION: The comedian was a master of facial expression at the Orpheum. (justine hunt/globe staff)

Margaret Cho is an interesting mix of empowering friend and raunchy sex fiend. Her current tour is called “Beautiful,” as in “We’re all beautiful,” an uplifting message but not an inherently funny one, which is why she sandwiches her short bits about loving yourself between long streams of genitalia jokes.
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Joining The Band

Monday, April 7th, 2008

I am on the road right now, and was just up in one of my favorite cities, Toronto! The best music in the world comes from there, like one of my very favorite bands, The Cliks, and also the band I would most love to be part of: Broken Social Scene. I have daydreams about moving to Toronto and trying to join the band – like just walking backwards with a rain stick onto their stage. Or maybe even a triangle. I can also do a bit of tambourine. That is a really good way to get into somewhere you don’t belong. Just walk in backwards while doing something with your hands. It really works! Plus, Broken Social Scene is one of those bands with so many people in it, I don’t think anyone would notice one more. Anyway, I got to do a cool Canadian talk show, “The Hour,” and the winsome and adorable host George called Kevin Drew right up on the show and we asked his voice mail if I could come on board! Hoping to get a positive response!



Dave Navarro

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Here are some photos of me with gorgeous Dave Navarro!!



Even this didn’t make my G-Shot work.



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