The Queens Midtown Tunnel Is Getting Old

Some of New York City's bridges get a lot of fanfare and even fireworks when celebrating big birthdays.  But yesterday, the Queens Midtown Tunnel, that workhorse of a road that carries an average of nearly 100,000 vehicles a day into the city, turned 70 and almost no one noticed.

Well, one person who did notice is Ben over at Second Avenue Sagas.  He had a nice little write up about the history of tunnel and the story of its construction.  One interesting fact was that the tunnel had its original brick surface until 2001 when it was entirely repaved.

The Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which brings cars from the city directly to the famed Long Island Expressway, has previously had one big moment in the spotlight.  It had a starring role in the original "Men In Black" movie asTommy Lee and Will famously sped out of the city on its roof. It was surely the fastest commute in the tunnel's long, congested history.

A Pastor In Georgia Comes Out With Pride

In recent years, there have been some dramatic scenes of religious pastors, shamed by private behaviour that has suddenly been made public, being forced to admit their sexuality to their congregations.  Being pushed out of the closet is never pretty, even if it may be somewhat deserved for preaching homophobia.  But here's something different: a pastor who comes out by choice and does so with eloquence and dignity.

James Swilley, who founded and runs a mega church in Georgia with his ex-wife, recently came out to in a Sunday sermon.  The reason?  He was compelled by the rash of gay suicides and his ex-wife's prompting to live his preachings.  What I love most about this CNN interview Swilley gave on Sunday is how straightforward and direct he is in his answers, especially when it comes to some annoying Twitter questions about the Bible.

This is a man of faith who is also gay.  And guess what America...there of many of them out there.  This brave man just decided to speak his truth.

A Real Life Mystery On FOX's "FRINGE"

One of my guilty pleasure TV shows is FOX's "Fringe".  It's a compelling sci-fi show that sometimes deals in real world science and scientific mystery.  Last night's episode, was about a unexplained phenomenon called "Number Stations".

Since the late 1940's, these shortwave radio stations have been broadcasting a seemingly random list of numbers for anyone to hear, usually those with a HAM radio. There are thousands of enthusiasts around the world who listen to and track these odd broadcasts but no one has been able to crack their code.  For years the rumor was that these stations were broadcasting the secret messages of spies during the Cold War.  But the Cold War is over and the numbers stations persist. No government has officially ever admitted to using numbers stations.

The explanation on "Fringe" last night had something to do with agents from an alternate universe giving longitude and latitude clues about where to find pieces of an ancient, buried doomsday machine that, if re-constructed, may likely destroy this universe.  Cool, right?  But if you'd like a more real explanation, I found this CBS News report on YouTube which has some interesting details and a more in-depth report on NPR.

Another Cool Video From OK Go

The indie rock band OK Go has become just as known for their catchy songs as for their inventive videos.  They have a new one out this week called "Last Leaf", a seasonal song of sorts with an accompanying video made up of nearly 3,000 pieces are artfully burned toast.  One wonders not only how they managed to do this but who came up with the idea in the first place.  It's a beautiful piece of animation and a lovely little song too.


Last Leaf

OK Go | Myspace Music Videos

Top 10 Car Wrecks Of All Time

OK--sorry to sound like the HuffPost today but I just found this clip compilation of the top 10 car wrecks from the movies and it is awesome.  Now, anyone who knows me knows I love a good car chase.  This may be surprising as my films haven't exactly been FAST nor FURIOUS.  That's only because I haven't had the budget to wreck some vehicles. In fact, I have a car chase in my upcoming movie PROM QUEENS and a big multi-car chase in my book "A Really Nice Prom Mess".

I have to say that this list is pretty inclusive and definitely has some of my favorites, including the number 1 spot.  The only movie missing is "What's Up Doc" and the VW bug that goes flying into SF bay. This comes from a newly relaunched site movieclips.com that has all sorts of fun clips and mashups.   Check them out!

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Fall In The Bronx At The NY Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is home to a 50-acre Native Forest with trees that are more than are more than a hundred years old.  There was a write-up in the TIMES last week about leaf-peeping around the city in places other than Central Park. There are natural preserves in Staten Island, Queens and even Manhattan at Inwood Park.  But I have to say that the Bronx is pretty stunning.  I was up there recently and the fall colors were amazing.  Enjoy!

 

Kurt Gets Serenaded By Dudes On GLEE

GLEE started out a little rough this season and I almost gave up on it.  Then the "Rocky Horror" episode won be back with some great numbers and surprising casting (Merecedes as Frankenfurter!).  But still the show's been a little stuck in second year gear, as it were.  It looks like that could all change this week...big time.

There were rumors that Kurt, the show's out and about choir boy, was going to be getting an actual love interest.  Well, tomorrow night he meets a guy (played and sung by Darren Criss) from a all-dude prep school and gets serenaded by not only him but the entire boys choir....to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dreams" even!  The singing and do-woop dancing is fab but what really gets me is Kurt's reaction to all of it.  Crazy.  Tune in tomorrow at 8pm for all the gay action.....only on FOX.

The Vote Totals Were Not As High As The Rent

The results for the NY state governors race were not much of a surprise: 2.6 million votes for Andrew Cuomo and 1.4 million votes for nutter Carl Palladino.  But Jimmy McMillan of the wacky "Rent Is 2 Damn High" Party nearly quadrupled his total from the 2006 election.  In that year, he received about 14,000 votes whereas this year, due to his inclusion in the gubernatorial televised debate and the national press that ensued, he hit nearly 40,000 votes. 

This apparently is enough encouragement to keep Jimmy going as he plans to keeps running in the future.  Next up is the NYC mayoral race in 2013.  In fact, realizing his simple platform has national relevance given the hard times all around, Jimmy has even been encouraged to run for President.  However, he says he won't do that just now because he likes President Obama too much.  So while the rent may be high,  Jimmy's ego is through the roof.

Ricky Martin on THE VIEW: "God Doesn't Make Mistakes"

Ricky Martin appeared on THE VIEW yesterday to talk with the ladies about his new life as an openly gay man.  And, of course, to plug his new book.  But I was quite impressed with his frank discussion of his own struggle to come out and how his Catholic faith made that difficult.  Now, he's hoping his honesty can help inspire and even help others.

Below is a clip from the interview where, towards the end, Ricky makes an impassioned plea to teens out there who may be struggling with their sexuality. It was sort of an impromptou "It Gets Better" video but one that was clearly heartfelt.

Not The High Turnout They Were Hoping For

In the flood of election news about the Republican wave, there is one little loss that is worth noting. In California, voters rejected Proposition 19 which would have make recreational use of marijuana legal.  One would think that, since the state legalized medical marijuana successfully a few years back, this one would have passed easily.  But apparently the youth vote did not turn out and the measured was defeated by double digits.  The only area where voters were in favor of it was the Bay Area, but only by a slim margin.

The Wednesday morning quarterbacking on this story is that just having it on the ballot was a watershed moment.  I'd have to say that's true.  For years, stoners have joked about making marijuana legal and here was a state, the largest in the nation, seriously considering doing just that.  While lower voter turnout contributed to the loss, there was also the prickly problem of the fact that marijuana would have remained illegal at the federal level.  The legal morass this would have created was probably a turn-off to most law-abiding citizens.

Well, maybe like Prop 8 in 2008, this is only the beginning of an inevitable march toward legalization.  Given the amount of income it could generate from taxes, it could be increasingly hard to resist as state and federal deficits continue to grow.