Jerry Curl

Here's a nice, mouth-watering appetizer for tomorrow's episode of Heroes . (More at ONTD )

(More at PostSecret )

Amazon.com has begun a digital-music download service to compete with Apple's iTunes, selling restriction-free tracks from more than 20,000 record labels. The MP3 service offers 2.3 million songs from more than 180,000 artists, the world's largest Internet retailer said Tuesday. The songs, most priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, don't have software that limits how customers can store and play the tunes. More than half of the 2 million songs on Amazon.com cost 89 cents each. The best-selling albums cost no more than $8.99, unless marked otherwise. (Via NY Daily News )

The Hispanic vote is neither homogeneous nor loyal to one party. Though the current political moment seems to favor the Democratic Party, experts say that affinity should not be taken for granted. The Hispanic community is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, according to the U.S. census. But its percentage of the electorate is lower than its numbers as a whole because of lower citizenship rates, less voter participation and a youthful demographic. Of the nation's more than 44 million people of Hispanic origin, about a third are too young to vote. But all that's changing. Before the midterm elections in 2006, the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated more than 17 million Hispanics would be eligible to vote in that election. The number represented a 7 percent increase from 2004. The change in the electorate could play a significant role in possible swing states like Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida during the 2008 ele...

Using a Facebook profile, police arrested a suspect in an attack on the Georgetown University campus. The university sophomore appeared in court Friday, charged in connection to what police called a hate-crime attack near campus nearly two weeks ago. Phillip Anderton Cooney of Southlake , Texas, is charged with simple assault with a bias/hate crime specification, according to police officials and an official the U.S. attorney's office. Police said the victim suffered cuts and bruises to the face and a broken thumb in the attack. After the attack, the victim started looking on Facebook to see if he could find the person who attacked him, according to Lt. Alberto Jova of the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit. (Via CNN )

Much to my delight, Rosie O' Donnell will be reprising her role as Dawn Budge on Nip/Tuck this season. Here's our favorite lesbian hanging with show extras. Extras... (Via Pink Is The New Blog )

A chartered boat, The Joe Cool, went missing earlier this week. The four-person crew has yet to be located. Two men - Kirby Archer, 35 and Guillermo Zarabozo , 19 - were found in the ship’s life raft. As the story unfolds and the men are accused of murder, some new, distinctly queer details are emerging. Archer, who’s already accused of stealing $92,000 from an Arkansas Wal -Mart, may have been having a relationship with Zarabozo . Archer’s ex-wife, Michelle Rowe, once testified that her husband has dabbled in gay relationships. And, what’s more, the former Guantanamo military investigator may have met Zarabozo back in the 1990s when the younger man was only nine year old… "Two men plucked from a life raft in the Florida Straits after the boat they chartered was abandoned met more than 10 years ago when one was a boy in Cuba and the other was a military police investigator at Guantánamo Bay, according to the former soldier’s ex-wife.…At the time, Zarabozo ’s family was among th...

Presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a statement supporting the passing of the Matthew Shepard hate crime bill passage yesterday. He also “urges” President Bush to sign the bill, which he threatens to veto: Obama said, "This vote was about who we are as Americans and whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality. Those who commit hate crimes should be punished no matter whether those crimes are committed on account of race, gender, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Today’s vote is a victory for all of us in upholding basic rights and protections in this country. I urge the President to reconsider his veto threat and support this legislation. Passing this bill will help us live up to the principle that in this country, we treat all of our citizens with dignity and respect."

[ Editor's note ] Getting Blockbuster Total Access is the best decision I've made in a year. I'm signed up for the 3 movies at a time for $20 a month plan and I'm relishing every cinematic gem they throw my way. Two nights ago I watched Notes On A Scandal . Based on Zoe Heller's 2003 novel and starring Academy Award-winning actresses Cate Blanchett and Dame Judi Dench (or Dame Doody Dench as I often call her), this film is about two school teachers who form a twisted relationship around a big secret. Doody Dench is an aging relic of a teacher who spends her lonely time writing in a journal and taking care of her cat. Blanchett is the new, pretty pottery teacher at the school where Dench is part of the faculty. After Dench helps Blanchett break up a fight between two students, they form a close friendship. However, during a school play, Dench catches the new teacher having sex with one of the students in her classroom. Dench confronts the married teacher...

In a Senate hearing yesterday regarding the Pentagon's 2008 war spending request, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace reiterated his comments about homosexual immorality , causing a five-minute shutdown of the hearing in which the doors to the chamber were briefly sealed. According to the AP, Senator Tom Harkin asked Pace if he wanted "a chance to amend his remarks in light of his retirement." Pace retires at the end of the week. Said Pace: "Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes. We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it. And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God's law."

I think it's apropos to start off with a rant on one of my favorite bands at the moment, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals . I just purchased their latest album, "Lifeline" and I must say, it's incredible. Recorded right after an exhausting 8-month stint across Europe, Harper and his croonies deliver an album dripping with musical artistry. Because it was recorded in just 7 days, the album has a very "live" and impromtu feeling to it. The lyrics are subtly poignant and the sound is reminicant of good rock from years passed. David Fricke of Rolling Stone put it best when he wrote that, "the performances sound confident and natural, not forced, lazy or merely naked. And the simple attractions in the modest arrangements... hold up, even bloom, with repeated listening." Fricke explains that "it's not that less is more -- only that, in that moment, less is perfect." Song to listen to: "Younger Than Today"

[ Note from the editor ] This blog is intended to fill the endless hours I spend wasting away at my dead-end job. Seeing as how I spend a lot of time online anyway, I decided to carve a little piece of the world wide web for myself and my interests. Here, you'll get a little dishing on movies, music, gay issues, politics, and whatever other random stuff I come across. I hope you enjoy the read and come back as often as your boredom and/or workplace networks allow.