this is fyf

How does this video have almost 4 million views on YouTube?

Watch, then engage in conjecture with me about how this video has racked up 3,843,318 views since it's posting in 2006. Is it the subject matter? Is it the shirtless-ness? Is it the homophobic spewing in the comments? Is it how long it's been up? What is it?

Also, what's the story? What happened to Matt? Was Colin beating on him because he came out of the closet? Is Colin now his boyfriend or do they not speak any longer (or worse, have met some violent end, perhaps as a result of tensions escalating from this early outburst!)?

Civilization Progress Report: British pop sensation Alexandra Burke gives us a reason to blithely ignore America's ideological breakdown

Well, darlings! The time is now. Grab the biggest butter-blasted bag of popcorn you can lay your grimy, terribly-manicured paws on and get a front-row seat to the implosion of American values somewhere in the Financial District. I actually spent the better part of last weekend stranded there for some reason or other and while the old chapels are lovely, and there is something good to be said about how there is a Starbucks every one-third of a block (I'm not sure what this "something good" is, but you are all so very imaginative, you can please fill in the blanks!).  The most useful thing about the Financial District is that if you stumble out to Wall Street, you can pet the bull. If not, you can always just have a sexy dance party. This week, the gasping, choking-for-air body of America presents a pretty compelling case to do either!

• Sarah Palin tweeted some malarky and maybe because (1) they have all forgotten how to be actual news oulets or (2) they're just extraordinarily lazy or (3) they're so hard-up for cash that they've outsourced entire political beats to interns from NYU, once-credible news outlets are still pretending that it's chic to cover Palinesque outbursts. [HuffPo, CNN, New York Daily News]

Civilization Progress Report: All men are made of vegetables.

As it's always best to face Friday the 13th with a good friend, I've brought on Kyle Ashby, who this week pins down the flailing corpse of civilization from an organic supermarket in Portland, allowing me to hook up the necessary respirator to keep it breathing for yet another week.

RG: WELL HELLO, KYLE. HOW ARE YOU?

KA: Greasy, but ultimately palatable. Yourself?

RG: Uhh. I had a dream last night where Tori Amos was singing Dresden Dolls covers. What do you suppose that means?

KA: Well. Like many Tori fans, you want to stay in a committed relationship, but you yearn for a harder edge. Amanda Palmer fills that void. I mean, I know how often I sing "The Power of Orange Knickers."

RG: As often as I sing her ten-minute live version of "Crucify"?

KA: The last time I heard that version, my friend and I drooled on the fans below our balcony seats--but because of sleep, not dumbstruck awe.

RG: Do you know what's terrible? I think that accurately describes my reaction to how insanely people are dealing with the the sudden Prop. 8 repeal. Like, they're overanalyzing it...like the concept of same-sex marriage is so utterly mindboggling.

KA: I don't understand why I'm being congratulated.

 

The next generation will have no best friends.

 

Here's a confession:  I find most people under thirty to be a little off.  This isn't a "old" versus "young" thing.  It's certainly not from lack of exposure.  There seems to be a small army of twenty-something gays.  (This is largely because AIDS killed off so many my age and older.)  The newer generation is everywhere, and for the most part they are great guys, but?  They need a lot of rewarding.  

There was a fundamental shift in parenting and schooling between the seventies, eighties, and nineties.  Where praise was once given for achievement, praise is now also given for effort.  The competitive mindset of my education where trophies were given to first, second, and third place was replaced by a culture of "participation ribbons".  

The generational shift in educational values isn't so much that we can't interact.  There are plenty of "youngs" in my social circle, despite their need for compliment and stroking.  Compared to the generation in school today though, this group is awesome.  The next generation won't even be able to form friendships.