Sierra College Recap

As I mentioned last week, I guest lectured at Sierra College on Thursday. Sierra College is located outside of Sacramento, and it's a pretty red part of the State; fortunately, after much battling, they were able run a class in GLBT studies (or as I like to call it, the Gay-BLT, a cultural sandwich that's even better with avocado).

I was quite nervous, but the students had seen me on the Inside TVLand: Tickled Pink special and read Mondo Homo so we were able to hit the ground running.

My one worry was that they would be too smart for me, so I wore tight clothes. That way, if I started sounding stupid, I could flex my arms and run out screaming.

But the class was a joy. The students were bright, passionate and amazing. I forgot how much fun and exciting college could be, and hearing about their lives (going up against the conservative campus, championing social justice issues, etc.) was really energizing. It reminded me that we all need to get off our asses now and then and reach out to others.
An especially interesting point was hearing how much of their lives-- simply by being in this class-- becomes a political statement; that includes the straight students who were in attendance as well. I think those of us in big cities who enjoy our little HGTV-inspired worlds tend to forget that places like West Hollywood or New York are rare. It kind of brings you back home, you know?
Yes, there was much laughter. But hi, who was speaking?

Um, yeah, I am the party favor.
Look at them, hanging on my every word! (I think I was probably talking about Wonder Woman at that point, but who knows?)
Then the class gave me my special shirt and I was very pleased.

After class we went to Professor Johnnie Terry's office (thanks Johnnie for setting this all up) and signed books, answered questions, etc. Super fun.

It was the perfect start to Steve's and my weekend in San Francisco (I picked him up at the airport that night.) Now I'm hitting their student blackboard and answering questions for their final papers...

I hope the questions aren't too difficult... I wonder if I can upload a beefcake shot...

Sierra College Success!

I just finished speaking at Sierra College and they students gave me this killer shirt with sweet messages written on it.
This was seriously one of the best times of my life. I'll post more photos and such when I read San Francisco, but I've gotta get on the road.
Peace,
Rick

Off to Sacramento, San Francisco, and some fun videos

I'm so excited about the next couple days I could pee. But I won't.

Leaving for Sacramento Wednesday evening because the class meeting is Thursday morning. This whole situation of having Mondo Homo: Your Essential Guide to Queer Pop Culture used once again in a classroom has made me consider possibly doing a Mondo Homo 2. Not positive on how that will all come together at the moment but it's working in my head.

I'm also doing some travel stories while Steve and I are in San Francisco and the wine country this weekend. Very happy about that. We both need a break.

BTW, the Wendy's commerical was a lot of work, I got a little sunburned, and I'm STILL laughing about the whole experience. It was brilliant. And I got overtime. I'm also so exhausted that I pray these bags go away before my classroom appearance Thursday morning. Anyway, my plan is to write about it while I'm in Sacramento and have some downtime, but I'm also writing an article on M4M: For an Hour or Forever--The Gay Man's Guide to Finding Love Online. I think I can do both, so wish me luck.

Finally, I've gotten some funny video clips in the last couple days. The first is a political cartoon our friend Aman is working on with a company. If you're conservative... why are you reading this blog? (Kidding. Kind of.) If you're conservative you probably won't like it as it jabs at the Administration with a Super-Friends tie in that is pure genius.

And yes, that is the original audio from the show, which is why it's even cooler.

If you want to learn about Vagina Power vs. Penis Power then you need to check out this link. It's so frickin' funny that I want to run out to a Long John Silvers for some shrimp. Don't watch this at work.

More to come. Wish me luck. I'm already feeling overwhelmed but really excited about the next couple days! -- Rick

Wendy's Commercial Shoot and Sierra College Week!

I'm shooting a Wendy's commercial Monday. As in, I'm an extra running after something in a Wendy's fast food commercial.

Why? I thought it would be silly and fun.

My call time? 5:45am. That means I'm waking up at 3:45 to pick up my friend Amy (who I fully blame for this) and then we're driving out past Magic Mountain to the location.

We're being paid $175 plus lunch. I wonder if Wendy's is catering.

But what's really exciting me for this week? FOUR DAYS until I visit Sierra College to talk Mondo Homo! More about the commercial when I return.

Our Friend on FOOD NETWORK and The Weekend

Some exciting stuff happening. To start, my sister is bringing my neice Hailee up to LA on Sunday so Guncles Richard & Steve can take them to Disneyland-- one of the perks of Steve's job is we have a purple pass that gets us in free. Expect us to be heroes by Sunday evening.

In other news, our friend Paul McCullough from Paul's Kitchen here in LA is one of the contestants on The Next Food Network Star. We've known Paul for years, he's a great guy and an AMAZING chef-- remember, I'm a food critic, y'all. So we're super excited to see where this goes for him.

Below is a picture of Paul plus a write up on the competition. If he makes it through to voting rounds I'm counting on all y'all to help a brother out and phone in!

The Next Food Network Star 3

series to debut June 3

The Food Network has announced that it has begun production on the third season of The Next Food Network Star, a reality competition in which 11 contestants will compete for the chance at their own six-episode Food Network television show. The series will premiere on Sunday, June 3 at 9PM ET/PT.

In each episode, contestants will be tested in a series of challenges and will be judged on "personality, performance and food knowledge," with their skills being evaluated by a rotating panel of culinary experts, including Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis, Alton Brown, Cat Cora, Duff Goldman, Robert Irvine, and season two winner Guy Fieri, among others.

Once the judges narrow the competition to its last two finalists, home viewers -- voting online or via text messaging -- will get to determine who comes out on top and wins the competition. The Food Network will air the winner's six-episode television series in Fall 2007.

"We're upping the ante on this season's challenges, making them more difficult and demanding, so that we and our viewers can judge who should truly be our newest star," said Bob Tuschman, The Food Network's senior vice president of programming and production.

The second season of The Next Food Network Star averaged 1.6 million viewers each week, and more than 2.5 million people watched Fieri be named the winner -- making it the most watched telecast in the cable network's history.

"Last season's winner has become a big success and we're hoping to find another unique talent who can join our roster of talented chefs," said Tuschman.

Ten of the contestants chosen to appear on the third season of The Next Food Network Star were picked by an "internal Food Network panel," while FoodNetwork.com visitors were allowed to vote one of two additional semi-finalists into the competition as an eleventh contestant. The 11 finalists -- who will travel to Food Network's New York City headquarters for the competition -- include:

- Paul McCullough, a 36-year-old private chef and caterer from Los Angeles, CA

- Vivien Cunha, a 39-year-old chef and actress from Winnetka, CA
- Amy Finley, a 32-year-old caterer and freelance writer from La Mesa, CA

(NOTE FROM RICK: This is so weird, I'm from LA Mesa. My Mom still lives there. I wonder if Momknows Amy's family or if Amy went to the same schools I attended. Hmmm... Still voting for Paul.)
- Josh Garcia, a 25-year-old chef de cuisine from Havelock, NC
- Tommy Grella, a 33-year-old certified financial planner from Methuen, MA
- Colombe Jacobsen, a 28-year-old private chef and exercise instructor from New York, NY who was also the FoodNetwork.com finalist
- Patrick Rolfe, a 32-year-old chef from Lake Forest Park, WA
- Michael Salmon, a 52-year-old general manager of two New York-based restaurants from Brooklyn, NY
- Rory Schepisi, a 30-year-old restaurant owner from Vega, TX
- Adrien Sharp, a 29-year-old part-time local television host from Jackson, MI
- Nikki Shaw, a 38-year-old caterer from Manhattan Beach, CA

Recipes for Success

This is the giant loquat tree in our front yard. It is very fertile and produces tons of fruit that the neighborhood kids love picking and eating/throwing/littering. We're even on a map telling people they can come and pick our fruit if they would like.

So last summer, Steve and I realized we needed to pick fruit as soon as it ripened. With global warming and California's recent heat, summer came early.

We've picked for Kurt, Steve's dad, Saydi and her baby (Shoo fly shoooo!), and our friend Michele Miller (no relation to the character on Fashion House; believe it or not, it's a coincidence in my life.)

But Michele has just started a blog about food called Flora Fauna Fortuna that includes many of her yummy recipes. She even found one for "Poached Loquats in Blood Orange Syrup." Her post gives a bit of info about the tiny fruit and it's very lovely.

After seeing Michele's recipe, we thought it only appropriate that we post our favorite loquat recipe here. Of course, ours involves alcohol.

The first thing you have to do is pick or buy some of the tiny fruit, then wash them well (they have a lot of pollen on them).

After that, cut them open, remove the seeds, and freeze them. It's very easy.

Then you need the following:

Pineapple (or your favorite tropical) flavored rum.
Orange Liquer
Diet Hansen's Lemon Lime soda (you can use regular, but this is what we had on hand)
Ice
Blender

Fill the blender 1/4 full with loquats.
Add ice until the blender is full.
Add four parts rum.
Two cap fulls orange liquer

Place the rubber top on the blender but remove the plastic circular plug in the center of it-- you're about to add carbonated beverage, y'all. Turn on the blender and slowly pour in the soda through the top opening until it fills up (we also tried it with flat soda, but added some real stuff at the end for fizz). Add more ice at the end if you need.
It looks scary at first. We know.

But trust me when I say that it tastes yummy! We'll be freezing more this weekend. If you want to try, bring rum. We got plenty of fruit.

"Always Funny Cartoons For Youuuuuuu!"

Our friend Joe has started up his own animation company/ website. He's done these funny shorts you can find on YouTube.

It's just the beginning and the characters/stories are still being developed, but I have a feeling this is going to take off (after all, who doesn't love a mean old Asian boss lady as your evil protagonist?)

Watch stuff on YouTube! (This is the first link, and once you're on YouTube you'll find more of their shorts.)

Check out the HR Cartoon website!

Cray Busy Saturday

On the far left in the cute little red dress is Colet, the head writer for Fashion House and American Heiress. During our time on FH she got engaged and Saturday Steve and I attended her bridal shower down in Newport Beach.

It was held at her sister Jasmine's beautiful home. Jasmine is on the first right and in the middle is Colet's lawyer, Jeff. Yes, you invite your lawyer to these things in you live in LA (and they're friends, but whatever).

The one odd thing was Jasmine's address was something like #5 Tranquility, so along the entire winding road through gated airport security style fences (as if anyone is going to drive that far to toilet paper a house) Steve and I kept trilling in a Fairy Godmother voice:

"Follow the winding road to number 5 Tranquillllliiiiitttttttyyyyyyyy....."

Look, when you're driving over an hour to get to a party where you're scared there will be silly party games and many giggles over lacy underwear you have to make your own fun. Fortunately, all we found was yummy food and good conversation.
No, the event was not covered by E! Networks but that is Giuliana DePandi in the background. She and Colet are long-time friends. Did you know she's dating that dude who won season one of The Apprentice. He was kind of snacky in real life.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes gay men do get invited to these things. We bring nice gifts. Steve and I got Colet sexy fun things from The Pleasure Chest in LA. No leather, but some other naughty stuff. And a boa. Yeah, I know... A boa!
So then we raced up to Book Soup in Hollywood for the book launch of Debbie Rocker's exercise tome Training for Life: Walk Your Way to Fitness and Weight Loss in 14 Days. It was a really fun event and I ran into a surprising number of people I knew.

We love Debbie. We met through mutual friends and have been taking her spinning class, so it's really amazing to see her wonderful success.

Keep an eye out, kids, because Debbie and her Walkvest are going to be on every show and in every store this year. She's the real deal.

As we prepared to leave and have dinner, I got a mysterious call from a New York number. Turns out, David Snyder who produced the Inside TVLand: Tickled Pink special was in town and had no plans. Neither did we, so David joined us for dinner.

Um, yeah, I had my camera.
No, I didn't think to take pictures.
Yes, alcohol was involved.

But we had a great time and are planning on seeing him once we hit New York in June.

Now I've got to dive into work. I leave next week for that guest lecture stint at Sierra College where they're using Mondo Homo in the classroom, and I have a ton of things that need accomplishing before then. More later...

Another Blackout

Hey Kids,
Sorry on the delay, but we had another blackout yesterday so I couldn't get as much work done as I needed. Blog has to wait.

But I will definitely have some news on Monday.
Rick

Random (but exciting) Anniversary Plans

Steve and I love Xanadu, that wondrous roller-skating musical starring Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly. For those of you not paying attention, Olivia plays Kira, one of Zeus' nine daughters and a muse who help inspire artists like Shakespeare and Michelangelo.

In Xanadu she continues that fine tradition by helping a young dreamer (Michael Beck-- you loved him in The Warriors) fulfill his dream of opening a roller disco.

We even own an animation cell and storyboard from the Don Bluth animated sequence. Yes, that's right, animated sequence. Good times.

Steve is always following stories about this cult film. A couple years ago we went to the Xanadu sing-along at Outfest, the LA Gay and Lesbian film festival. Couple years later we (along with fellow fan and author, Dennis Hensley) brought a group to see Xanadu Live where they illegally recreated the movie on stage. And now Xanadu is coming to Broadway.
We knew it was coming, I mentioned it in the blog, but yesterday Steve found out tickets are on sale to American Express customers. So when he came home and without a moment's hesitation bought tickets (Amex sale goes until April 21st.)

Then we realized we had free flights on Delta Airlines, so we booked our trip.

THEN we realized it coincided with New York Gay Pride.

THEN we realized it coincided with our anniversary. Six years. Wow.

Doesn't get much gayer than that.

What a Successful Easter Weekend!

Easter passed and, as I'm sure you know, all went well. The old guy poked his head out of the cave, turned something into something and now winter has ended.

Or there won't be 40 days or 40 nights of anything.

Or that whore Mary won't be hookin' on the corner anymore. I don't know, but suffice it to say it was all good.

Steve and I had a surprisingly busy weekend, and no, we didn't go to The White Party in Palm Springs. (Regardless of what anyone else will tell you, The White Party is a big drug-fueled weekend where everyone comes out of the clubs looking all Picasso. We're too old for that sort of thing so we chose to sleep and eat food in LA instead.)

This meant we went spinning Saturday morning. Steve then did some freelance for a new Disney Princess DVD. Then we bought some new Jonathan Adler sheets for our bed. Then we spent the afternoon with Steve's dad. From there we hit our friends Anthony and Karianne's house for Anthony's birthday.

This is always a super fun event, because all their friends have children. That means loudness, laughing, and some crying when children slam into the wall. But then Steve and I can play the wacky guncles and the kids stop their wailing, amazed that anyone can dance or sing like us.

I pulled my leg muscle doing high kicks. Good times.

On Sunday, in honor of our Risen Lord and Savior, we went for a hike in Runyon Canyon's poostacle course.

(WORD OF THE WEEK Definition: Noun. A public path that is so littered with dog feces that it becomes an obstacle course to maneuver through. Thanks to Amy for that one.)

After a nap on the new sheets--soft comforting goodness, I have to say-- we joined some friends for drinks at Marix in West Hollywood. I'd heard Jesus liked himself some tequila so it seemed fitting. Olé!
FYI - Brian (next to Steve on the left) and Derreck on the far right are single. I'm all about helping the friends out.

Eating Out LA

I know it's been a slow blogging week for me, but I've suddenly found myself with a lot of articles to write.
The other day I mentioned that Steve and I were doing restaurant reviews and needed to hit The Penthouse at The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. Well, we did but the city had a blackout and so they couldn't serve us.

Highlight of the night? Being in an elevator with 50+ year old pervy businessmen who begged the hostess for a hug on the way out. Once we get in the elevator this is what happens.
PERVY #1: Man, they fixed that place up. It looks amazing.
PERVY #2: Really? I couldn't tell because of all the hot waitresses! Man, if only one of them was in this elevator with us right now.

And you would do WHAT exactly? Bang her? What an ass! If Steve and I hadn't been starving we probably would have said something. Instead we drove to California Chicken Cafe for yummy, greasy roast chicken. We'll see what happens tonight.

In more exciting dining news, our friends Larkin and Joshua are finally opening their new restaurant in Eagle Rock. They started having private tastings a few months ago and have built up a loyal following for these special events that feel like you're in on an amazing culinary secret.

Larkin's, the restaurant, serves up amazing soul food. Unpretentious, tasty, and very satisfying. We always leave stuffed.

Even better, the LA Times has taken notice! Congrats to them, and if you want a fun night out this is the place to hit. They should officially open next week on April 13th.

Look what else I'm writing about!
Not the "Show It Technology" but Andrew Christian, the designer; um, and that's not him in the photo, that's a model with his face on my body-- how annoying. (But speaking of this high-tech gadget, it is not dissimilar to what I wrote about in the porn chapter of Mondo Homo: Your Essential Guide to Queer Pop Culture as the item strippers often have built into their G-strings.)

Andrew was lovely, but the story is due soon so it's back to work.

I'm On OUT.com!

We're on Out.com!

Friends at Out.com asked Colet Abedi and I to interview one another for American Heiress. It's a fun and funny interview. Check it out!

A HUGE Night of TV!

In case you missed it last week-- as we did because much of LA was in a blackout due to windstorms-- here is my first onscreen credit for American Heiress!

But guess what? I have another one tonight. Or at least I'm supposed to. There's been some wonky stuff going on with credits (I'm told) but hopefully you'll see my name again.

Very funny stuff, including the show's first catfight!

So tonight, 8pm, MyNetworkTV.
But wait! There's more!

Steve's and my episode of Urban Outsiders is on HGTV Canada tonight!

Watch as our backyard is remodeled, as we laugh and touch and show our matching Lord of the Rings rings, and marvel at all the dirty jokes we somehow got on the air.

Let's hope we don't shock the polite Great White North.

Where will Steve and I be this evening? Well, it's that time of the month where I'm out reviewing restaurants. Tonight we're dining at The Penthouse at The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. Let's pray for celeb sightings!

More tomorrow.

(some of) The Kids in Our Life

This is Christopher...
He has gorgeously BRIGHT blue eyes and kind of looks related to the Olsen Twins when they were babies and cute and on TV, not the old, thin, skanky Skeletor-meets-E.T. versions you see today.

As you may recall, our friends Lynn and Michelle had a big baby shower for their upcoming child. Well over a year ago. Well, here Christopher is... MUCH older. As in "walking" older.

Okay, Steve and I are bad guncles (gay uncles), but between our lives and the ladies' lives and people getting sick and being out of town-- yadda yadda yadda-- it took forever to see him, but this weekend we did.

We hung out at Lynn and Michelle's house (not far from the house used in The Brady Bunch, FYI) and watched cute Christopher play with his momma and Buddha. We also bought him And Tango Makes Three, which we think is one of the best children's books in the world.

Here Christopher is playing with Auntie Megsbian. Such a fun time...







This is Hannah. She is hiding behind some very cute Huggies Pull-Ups featuring the Disney Princesses on them.

Guess what? Guncle Steve drew those Princesses!

(As a side note, the flowers disappear when the diaper becomes wet. Steve had nothing to do with that invention.)

You may recall that the last time Hannah and her parents came over we educated her on the Ghetto Bird, a very rare breed of animal sometimes observed in Echo Park. Hannah did a good imitation.

Now that education involves The Disney Princesses. Here she is, absolutely transfixed with how Prince Charming in Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time looks like me.

Or maybe she was just fascinated that there was such a thing as Cinderella 3. Who can say?

But the definite highlight was when Steve gave her a Tinkerbell jewelry box that he designed. She was so excited to touch it and open the drawer. She promised she would put many things in it. Then she spun down the street singing, "So this is love..."
Much fun. But were we exhausted this morning! Thank God we can be fun and generous and then give them back. It's the joys of being a guncle.