Pathway to our Legacy...

Miss Ginger has taken a few moments from the drifts of glitter in the garage to catch you up on a few things going on around here!  It's been a crazy week!

Last night,  Miss G had occasion to dine at Reef, co-owned by the extremely handsome and uber-sexy Bryan Caswell, of Iron Chef fame!  A perfect choice for comfort food on a cold night, Miss G chose a dish Chef Bryan calls "Redfish on the Half Shell", which is a redfish fillet cut so that the skin and scales remain on one side.  The fish is grilled, scale side down, and the skin and scales get crispy and create a "shell" from which the fillet flakes away.  Simply divine, but the side with which it's served- Fried Mac and Cheese- is even more divine!  You'd think such a thing would be greasy, but what Reef serves is a brick of crunchy on the outside, rich on the inside goodness that is comfort food at it's finest!  Chef Bryan came over and spoke to our hostess for the evening, and he is just as sweet and cute as can be!


And since Miss G mentioned bricks, she's reminded to tell you the purpose of the evening!  Miss Ginger was invited by Str8upwithatwist, whom some of you may know as an occasional blogger, his neighbor Ben, whom Miss G adores, and his co-worker Robin, whom Miss G had not previously met. What Miss G did not know was that Timmy's boss, Katy Caldwell, Executive Director for Legacy Community Health Services, was to be our hostess for the evening.  Miss Ginger LOVES her some Katy, so she was thrilled to see her at the table!  Katy is a cat lover; she travels extensively; she knows a lot of the people Miss G knows:  needless to say, Miss G and Katy can gab on for hours about nothing!  But tonight, we had something special to talk about: Katy asked Miss Ginger and Ben to be co-chairs of Legacy's upcoming "Pathway to our Legacy" capital campaign!! You all know from reading TFBOMGG that Miss G is always ready to help out Legacy, so of course she was thrilled and honored to be part of this milestone!


Currently, Legacy operates it's main clinic in one building in Montrose, an eye clinic in another building across the neighborhood, and it's administrative offices in yet a third small building.  Support functions are scattered among the 3 buildings to make use of every inch of available space, and Miss Ginger has visited the facilities and seen these dedicated folks working in some really close quarters and tight spaces!  


Next September, however, Legacy will move it's main clinic, eye clinic, and all administrative and support functions into a beautiful new, state of the art, LEED compliant building! With all that extra space, they'll even be able to add dental services, to provide even more patient services to the Montrose community! The building is under construction and progressing nicely, and the capital campaign continues to ensure the construction is fully funded!


The "Pathway to Our Legacy" concept is a "paver campaign"  that will create the actually pathway to the clinic and cover the courtyard, as well.  Still in the planning stages, the campaign will give individuals, organizations, and companies an opportunity to show their support for the organization or preserve the memory of a loved one.  Miss Ginger will share more details as they become available!


Meanwhile, she has a Mardi Gras ball to prepare for and only 7 days left to get ready!!!

Miss Ginger Recovers from Snowmaggedon!

Oh, what a night! 


Miss G had to get the Boy out early today to clear the snow off the roof before it collapses!


NOT!

This was about the worst of the "crazy winter storm" that Miss G found on the grounds of Chez Ginger!  A little bit of ice accumulated at the edge of the steps leading from the kitchen.

Of course, the Houston Chronicle, always known to be the voice of reason in the face of crisis, combed the city to find the most compelling photo ops of this hysteric occasion! 

Many friends and readers have expressed concerns for Nog, and Miss Ginger wants to assure you that our little fella is snug as a bug in a rug on his little heated palette, just outside the back door in his little outdoor room.  As you can see on the left of the photo, his electric blanket is plugged in and blazing warm!  He keeps asking for high speed internet, so Miss G is thinking of getting him one of those little netbooks so he can keep in touch with his friend on catbook!  Miss G will have to block Twitter, however... cats and birds don't mix!


Best part of it all?  Miss Ginger gets a "snow day"!  For realz!

Texas Goes Snowpocolypse Crazy!!

This is absolutely INSANE!!!  It's supposedly been lingering around freezing for about 3 days now, and it does feel a tad colder than usual, but Nog's water bowl is not even frozen, so clearly it is not freezing outside.  Tonight, there is a "chance" that we could get 1-2 inches of snow or sleet, or even more likely,if anything, freezing rain.  Yet, here in Houston,  we Houstonian's are doing the thing we love to do best: "hunkering down"! We get plenty of practice hunkering in the summertime, when hurricanes threaten or tornadoes form, and now we get to practice winter hunkering, a skill unknown to most Houstonians!!

It's been apeshit crazy!  Because the power generating plants were built without insulated pipes (because insulating pipes is SOOOO expensive!), water pipes burst and shut plants down, sending the grid into panic mode.  Instead of letting the grid careen out of control like a ship with no wheels, the brain trust at ERCOT instigated rolling blackouts to reduce stress on the grid.  America's Largest Department Store was asked to shut down escalators, air handlers, and accent lighting to reduce consumption.  When word came out that electricity was being acquired from Mexico to prop up the grid, rumors that it wasn't "clean power" with reliable voltage caused people to panic even further.  Of course, modern children can't be expected to sit in a classroom with no climate control, so schools were closed, causing parents to leave work early, blah, blah, blah.  

Now, the Mayor has pretty much asked the city to shut itself down tomorrow.  "Stay off the roads", we're told. "There might be ice!"  "Non essential personnel should stay put."  "Drip your faucets so your pipes won't burst".  So ridiculous!  IF ( and that's a big "if") we get snow or ice, the chances of any of it sticking are slim to none.  95% of the homes around here are built on slab foundations, so the pipes can't freeze or burst.  Yet, these idiots will run their water all night long,  draining pressure from the public water system to the extent that it can't be pressurized. That part's almost a given, so like a good citizen, Miss G has filled her bathtubs with water so she can flush the commodes tomorrow.  She's got the furnace on, so she's not worried about pipes freezing, but she got to thinking that if we do get freezing rain, falling branches will break the power lines, so she went to Lowes to get some propane canisters for her little gas heater. Miss G figures if she has propane on hand, she'll wake up tomorrow and all will be normal. However,  if she doesn't have any propane, Snowmaggedon 2011 will render Chez G an icebox for days on end. So, out she goes to hedge her bets.

OMG!  Lowes looks like it's been looted by rioting Egyptians!  There's a big sign on the door written in magic marker that says "Sorry- no more electric heaters!" There's not a battery or flashlight to be found in the place!  And there are pallets of bottled water up and down the aisles- Miss Ginger presumes to aid those who may have forgotten to fill their bathtubs!

As of now,  Miss G expects to get up and go to work tomorrow. However, there are some pretty treacherous bridges and overpasses between her and tomorrow's site, so if Snowmaggedon comes, she's staying home with the kitties!  The mayor told her to!

Rings Around Uranus!

RDR Spoiler alert!!

Tonight, the queens of RDR went into lame' overload as they filmed trailers for their upcoming movies, "From Earth to Uranus".

But first, there was a lame (no accent aigu) "minichallenge" where they girls had to give ESP clues to their bestie, Dating Game style.  Phoenix and Mariah were the winning team, but were then split into team captains for the playground-style casting call.  Phoenix picks first and chooses Raja (quelle surprise!) and Mariah picks last and gets stuck with Mimi Imfurst.

Immediately, the teams split into groups, choose their roles, and begin table readings of their scripts. Except for Mimi, who insists on taking the table reading to Gloria Swanson proportions, and focuses more on her lighting cues than her lines, polarizing her team even further against her.

Miss G takes a moment here to opine on Mimi.  She wants to like her. She really does!  She knows many of her readers are big Mimi fans, but she's gonna step in the pile here and just say:  "bitch is workin' my nerves!"  In episode one, there was high drama because Mimi can't sew, and she freaked out in the thrift store challenge.  Girl- did you not watch last season? Were you not aware that half the show requires you to create costumes and looks?  Today, more drama and sniffles as she is picked last for the movie trailers.  Well, girl, after that last meltdown, are you surprised?  Then later, in the Interior Illusions Lounge, she becomes defensive when criticized about her lack of realness and her dependence upon camp, at which point she makes a million excuses about the plight of the big city drag queen, the lack of dependable public transport in NYC, wah, wah, wah.  Honey, if you want drag challenges, try putting on makeup in August in Houston, Texas on the 2nd floor of a 150 year old building with only a tiny window unit AC- the shit melts off faster than you can smear it on. But still, we take time to blend!! But I digress....

Mimi has polarized the competition and the audience against her, and it all stems from a clear lack of self esteem!  In one breath she'll be all cocky about "I'm the only one with theatrical training" or somesuch, and three sniffles later she's in meltdown mode because someone said something catty.  My advice, Mimi, is you gotta grow a pair before you can tuck 'em, honey!  And, as RuPaul herself says: "If you can't love yourself, how the hell you 'gonna love anybody else?!"

And now back to the show!

The girls tape their shows under the direction of Michelle Visage and Alexandra Torresani, and it is the mixed bag one would expect.  Manila Luzon was probably the scene stealer of the shoots, doing this cute space monkey character for whom she created a funny, well-executed "language".  Also on top, in Miss Ginger's book,  were Stacy Layne Matthews, who gave us a Maya Angelou meets bride of Frankenstein realness, and the robot twins from both teams:  Shangela and Alexis on Team Mariah, and Carmen and India on team Ashes, I mean Team Phoenix!!

After the taping,  the girls walked the main stage in their best sci fi drag,  and Ru added Lily Tomlin to the panel as the special guest judge.  On the runway, Miss G gives top marks to Mariah, Shangela, and Alexis, for their glamor, creative use of materials, and their space age realness! There were more looks on the bottom, with Phoenix looking a bit too butch and boyish (and not in a good way), Carmen with her hair coming unglued, and Delta Work looking like Judy Jetson Cogswell after having 6 kids and a bad divorce!

In the end, it was Phoenix and Delta left to LSFYL, and Delta pulled out the win by being true to her feminine self, while Phoenix kicked of her shoes (GASP!) and writhed around like a 12 year old boy trying to dance like Lady GaGa.  It was painful to watch!

And the drama continued in the "Untucked" postscript show.  Mariah gets real with a monologue about drag queens being the pioneers of the entertainment industry, which we are!  Her implication is that we push the boundaries (which we do!) and the mainstream media follows our footsteps (which they do!)  Well edited and accompanied by a background of patriotic symphonics, she ends her dramatic diatribe with the kick ass finish:  "WE write the story!"  A classic  reality TV moment, to be sure!

Shangela and Alexis slip off to the Gold Bar to freshen their cocktails and have a little girl talk, where they dish on everyone and every thing- but mostly, they hate on Mimi Imfurst.  They do a bit of hating on Mariah a bit, too, reassuring each other that this show is The Next Drag Superstar, not the Next Tranny Superstar.

To which Miss Ginger says:

Back to the IIL, where Shangela kicks back a few more Absoluts  and decides to "get real"- mostly real mean to Mimi.   Shangela attacks Mimi's lack of polish and glamor,at which point a defensive Mimi accuses Shangela of having a sugar daddy to buy her drag and costumes.


Well, this hits a nerve with Ru's little boygirl, and Shangela proclaims her lack of a sugar daddy, assures us she could have one if she wanted one, and then slings her cocktail across the room at Mimi.  Mimi, in a classic drag queen defense maneuver, slings hers back. People, this kind of realness cannot be scripted!!!  Another of televisions finest moments- that makes 2 in one show!!


The girls kiss and make up, and then go out to the stage to see a shoeless Phoenix get the boot. Which she deserved.  It's a shame we couldn't have mind-melded Mimi and Phoenix into one confident, glamorous drag queen who can defend our art without backstage drama and meltdowns.


Oh, well, that just leaves more airtime for Miss Ginger!!

Miss Ginger is Embarrassed...

to admit how amused she is by this video!  Not that she thinks sexual assault is funny- that's SO not the point!  Nor is it the fact that crime runs rampant in areas with concentrations of relief housing- it seems as though our cities would protect that property the most vigilantly, since they own it!

She is just amused by the passion of the victim's brother- he is ready to THROW DOWN!!  Sister seems to be relatively nonplussed by the whole episode, but Brother Boy is MAD and he's NOT going to take it anymore- HOMEBOY!!

This Has Scandal Written All Over It!!!

January 28, 2011

Tim Tebow to teach Houstonians how to be real men

NFL athlete and Christian activist Tim Tebow will join pastors, Christian musicians and Christian comedians at a sold-out event in Champion Forest next week to discuss how men can step it up to be better leaders in their homes, workplaces and churches.

Miss Ginger would say that judging by the womanizing depicted here, he's up to the challenge of being a "real man"!

"My Minds a Blank!"

Miss Ginger has been so busy lately her mind's blank!!!

She's so busy, she doesn't know whether to scratch her watch or wind her butt!










She's got so much to do before this ball comes in 2 short weeks, she's not sure whether she's coming or going!!


Things are going okay with the costume- she just needs a few blocks of time to get some big stuff finished.  The invitations are kind of mess- cancellations,replacements, etc... she's just about got that straightened out, but she has to pick up more seating cards.


And that reminds her- she needs elastic. And buttons- shit- she forgot about those!


Damn, there's a lot to do!! No wonder she can't sleep!


She needs a personal assistant to go to work for her for the next 2 weeks so she can get all this shit together!  Any volunteers?!