get the ball!

i took this from a video still.  phoebe likes to play fetch in the hallway of her apartment, but not so much at the dog run.  look at that face — she wants the ball!

bye, phoebes!

i took this as we were packing to go home.  i'm always sad to say good-bye to phoebe — as well as to her owners' fabulous apartment — but feel even worse at the idea that she somehow knew we were leaving.

yeah, i'm a sap.

phoebe and joe

phoebe loves bothering joe on the couch.  clearly, joe has not studied his dog whispering techniques very well — he thinks he's giving her the hand while she thinks it's play time.  guess who wins!

phoebe in profile

look at that snout!  definitely not the kind of profile you get with a pekingnese, that's for sure. 

phoebe at rest

phoebe is still less than a year old so she still has a lot of puppy energy.  joe and i tried to wear her out at the dog run during the weekend so she ended up fairly docile around the apartment.  we like manageable puppy — yes, we do!

phoebe

this is beautiful, gorgeous phoebe.  she was a rescued by her owners, john and danny, who are now in ireland on vacation.  luckily, that means joe and i get to dog- and house-sit for a week on the upper west side.  we're living the dream — at least temporarily.

amy

amy
photo credit: jennifer liang

been thinking a lot about our old family dog, amy, who passed away in may of 2001.  joe and i definitely want a dog of our own and are looking forward to our upcoming dog-sitting stint.

i like pekes but can't stand pugs.  is that weird?

erasure

image © 2003 rhino entertainment

i'm a sporadic reader of joe.my.god (not my bf joe) and this entry made me nostalgic for the music of erasure — enough so that i went out and bought a greatest hits compilation (i don't own any of the original albums/tapes/cds). 

granted, my connection with the music is nowhere near as emotionally-charged as what jmg describes, but the music still brings me back to my youth — summer camp, actually.

as heart-wrenching as the jmg post is, the following line made me laugh out loud:

growing up, the majority of people i knew who listened to erasure were asian women — i was surprised to discover much later in life that other gay men besides myself actually listened to them as well.  yes, i know how stupid that sounds — more evidence of my own twisted internal logic. 

still, thinking about it just makes me want to say something cheesy about how music can bring together the oddest combinations of people.  i mean, seriously — gays and asians?  together?  crazy!

futuresex/lovesounds

image © 2007 jive records

i finally broke down and bought the latest justin timberlake album.  i'm more than a little ashamed of my love of pop music, which made me decide to stay away from this one if i could.  however, many many people whose tastes i respect have praised this one enough so that i've finally put my money down for an actual cd. 

what can i say?  his stuff is catchy. 

okay, yes, i did express disdain for his music and debut solo performance on the mtv video music awards back in 2002 ("cheap michael jackson rip-off" were my exact words) and then proceeded to do a full 180 after i met him at a club in the east village less than a week later.  so what?  it's not like we're friends or anything...

(don't i wish!)

anyway, the disc is good overall, but, if you're into iTunes, just download whatever you like from what you've heard over the airwaves.  that's really the best of it.

very much looking forward to the hbo special on labor day.  cutie!

bourne ultimatum

image © 2007 universal studios

i don't know what it is but i just love the bourne movies. 

matt damon is fun to look at, of course, and, as i've mentioned previously, i'm inexplicably fascinated by julia stiles.  joan allen and david strathairn also give good performances in this latest installment, and i very much enjoy the fact that the story wraps up in new york city.  the way the writers integrated the final scene of the last bourne film is also rather clever.  i'm now also inspired to to take a walk over to the east end of 71st street to satisfy my curiosity. 

highly recommended.

jenni's b-day

maddy and jenni

happy (belated) birthday to my big sister, jenni — her first as a new mom!  she turned thirty-five yesterday.  her daughter (and my niece) madeleine is three months old today.

rainbow brite - the movie

i'll say it again — i love joel mchale!

waitress

nathan fillion and keri russell in waitress
photo © fox searchlight

finally went to see waitress the other week at the quad.  fun movie, and i'm quite envious of keri russell getting to act out the fantasy of falling in love with nathan fillion (or, more accurately, with an ob/gyn who looks a lot like mal reynolds).  i'm very sad that we won't see more of writer/director adrienne shelby, though i'm very glad her work lives on.

transformers 2007

optimus on fire
(image © 2007 dreamworks/paramount)

ugh.  although i love julie white as his mom, the movie spent way too much time on shia leboeuf.  the character spike was always a bit player in the animated series — whose moronic decision was it to make him the focus of the film plot?  i don't care about him and his adolescent hormones!  give me gone with the wind with robots, dammit!

*sigh!*  makes me nostalgic for eighties power ballads.  (you got the touch!)

good special effects, though.  there's gonna be a sequel — bet on it.