I'm back after a swell weekend in Minneapolis. The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet was a stupendous, hilarious, and deliriously odd retelling of the Bard's tragic romance. What really freaked me out though, was the fact that the actor playing Mercutio was a dead ringer for the younger incarnation of Alan Ruck, who assayed the role of Cameron in Ferris Beuller's Day Off.

On Saturday, we decided to attend a performance of Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Tiny Tim Story (link requires registration). Wow! All I can say is, wow! Now I don't consider myself a huge fan of Tiny Tim's music, I can only listen to it for a while before his voice makes me break out in hives, but I totally respected him as a unique and fearless performer who stayed true to his muse, and still managed to leave an indelible stamp on popular culture. He was also a difficult and exceedingly weird human being; obsessive about cleanliness, prone to spouting outlandish religious rhetoric, and given to wearing adult diapers for no apparent reason. It also seems quite likely that he was a deeply closeted homosexual, which may partially explain his often fiercely repressive views on sexuality.

Continuing on with the gay theme of this entry, now that I have several episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy under my belt, so to speak, I'd like to chime in with my opinion. I'm a straight guy who's been interested in fashion, design, and haute cuisine for many years, so while I find the show's queer makeover experts quite entertaining and the source of a lot of (mostly) good tips, I don't necessarily buy the unspoken premise of the show that male breeders are all a hopeless bunch of social retards that require "fixing". Also, a gal-pal of mine germanely pointed out that the wives and girlfriends of these newly-minted "perfect" men are being sold an essentially false bill of goods since most of them will undoubtably fall off the makeover wagon once a few weeks have passed.

Given the wild success of QEFTSG, I can only hope that someone develops a show in which 5 straight women endeavor to makeover a stereotypical butch lesbian by getting rid of her mullet, work boots, and flannel shirt.

And P.S., someone should tell Carson that giant belt buckles are for cowpokes and steroidal WWF champions.

Finally, are SpongeBob and Squidward the new Kirk and Spock?