New Header!

Kasey with a "K" has gotten a little face lift! That glorious new header was done courtesy of the very woman who squeezed me out into this horrid world to begin with. My mother, Debra Dickerson.

Everyone may now praise her.

And you may also hire her. She's a freelance graphic designer. She is also available to sing at parties and does perfect impressions of both Liberace and Shakira!*

♥ Gracias, Mamacita! ♥

*Preceding sentence may not actually be the truth.

Another Auld Lang Syne...

2009 was a year to be reckoned with. This should come as no surprise though. As Ogden Nash once wisely inquired, "Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals?"

For many of us, the previous year may have seemed mostly to be just that. An ever-present dark angel with a wicked sense of humor and a bottomless bag of tricks. Always there listening to our thoughts as they would ask "Could it get any worse?" There would be the angel, with his cruel laugh and pointed finger, to show mercilessly just how much worse it can get.

But for all the mirth that dark angel enjoyed throughout the year, or throughout the years rather, there have been a great many more angels of light to silence his cackle and leave him sulking in a corner.

Angels of light in the form of family, longtime friends, an abundance of new friends, and the consistent faith, support, and generosity of them all. Angels of light allowing us to laugh, allowing us to dance, allowing us to grow, to learn, to love, and to hope. Angels of light allowing us to take pride in our accomplishments and pride in who we are.

Angels of light who will not allow us to give up.

So as we approach the dawn of the New Year, with both light angels and the dark in tow, let us march bravely and merrily into the new day. Even if 2010 should prove to be yet another in a long line of proven criminals, we shall face it armed with equal amounts of humor, determination, logic, and idealism.

Let us go forth fearlessly and unabashedly holding to the hope that the future exclusively holds. Always keeping with us the memories and the lessons we've learned, but never looking back with regret for a single moment of life.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."
- T.S. Eliot


With all the love and appreciation in the world, I wish a Happy New Year to you all!

Cheers and have another!

	Mairi Campbell And Dave Francis - Auld Lang Syne .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Unforseen Obsession: Lady Gaga's Paparazzi

I don't know how it happened. I'd heard the song a handful of times. I liked it, but didn't really think twice about it.

I saw the video. I thought it was very intriguing and unique. Didn't think about it much after that. Though it did prompt me to download the song.

Then the other day, while sitting at home listening to my iPod, "Paparazzi" came on. And the next thing I knew an obsession was born. I've legitimately gone insane. I've been listening to the song almost non-stop for 24 hours.

I can only assume that Lady Gaga has employed some kind of subliminal message in the song to alter my mind and heart, because this song now makes me emotional every time I listen to it.

Even now... I can't stop!...

Promise I'll be kind,
But I won't stop until that boy is mine.
Baby, you'll be famous! Chase you down until you love me.
Papa-Paparazzi...

The Players Club

I recently received a generous invitation to spend an evening at the legendary Players Club which is located in Manhattan's Gramercy Park.

This place is phenomenal and overflowing with film and theater related history. Founded in 1888 by Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth and author Mark Twain (among others), the Players Club housed the formation of Actors' Equity and boasts such famous members as Frank Sinatra, Peter O'Toole, John and Lionel Barrymore, Al Hirschfeld, and Helen Hayes (to name just a very, very few in a lineup of film and theater royalty).

I was invited by the ever-generous and talented actor Robert Davi and was given the "Five Cent Tour" by Lee Pfeiffer, also an incredibly generous and intelligent man who was a delight to get to know.

Being in this place and being in such fantastic company was definitely a highlight of my time living in New York thus far. It served as a great reigniting of my passions and goals, the reason I moved to this great city to begin with.

I sincerely hope that one day I may be so fortunate as to include myself in the list of members of this truly phenomenal place whose purpose is "The promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession and the kindred professions of literature, painting, architecture, sculpture and music, law and medicine, and the patrons of the arts."

I would truly consider myself privileged to one day be inducted into this prestigious club, especially considering the fact that Orson Welles was denied. (That tidbit did tickle me).

Many thanks to Robert and Lee, as well as the other entertaining and intelligent individuals I met, for a truly enjoyable evening. I'll be looking forward to the next one.

April 30, 1981

On this day, April 30th, in the year 1981, Kasey was born.

28 years of life have been successfully survived.


So far, it's been a good time.

Fantasmagorical!

I am a sentimental old gay nerd.

There are a lot of times in my day to day life where nothing succeeds at making me feel happy and energetic like a song or piece of music from my childhood. Typically these songs would be Disney or a Broadway musical.

But today brought a completely unanticipated longing for some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A lot of people are under the impression that this is a Disney film but in fact it was released by United Artists in 1968 with the tagline "The most fantasmagorical musical entertainment in the history of everything!"

I intend to incorporate fantasmagorical into my lexicon as often as possible henceforth.

I loved this movie as a kid, although ironically enough my favorite characters were the Child Catcher (played with pinpointed creepiness by Robert Helpmann) and Baron Bomburst (German actor Gert Fröbe) who is on a continual mission to kill his Baroness.

The music and songs are fantastic (as written by Disney legends Richard and Robert Sherman), and on a day as beautiful as today happens to be, the following piece of music has been my anthem all day:

	Paul Mauriat - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

A Merry Old Soul

The cake you're seeing is an exact replica of what lays beneath my glorious alabaster skin. A frosted mirror of my soul if you will.

My gay, gay soul!

According to my dear friend and fellow member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, Lucy, if I were a cake this is what I would look like.

Well I am not a cake.

But if I were a cake, this is the one I would want to be!

This thing looks outrageously delicious and, upon careful investigation and salivation, I learned that it is also low-fat and low-sugar... For a cake. Except I personally would up the sugar level by adding Fruity Pebbles to the top.

Mmmm... Fruity Pebbles...

My birthday is less than 24 days away (April 30th). I will be 28 years old. And I am not kidding when I say I hope I get a rainbow cake.

And possibly a My Little Pony.

Blithe Spirit

Brandon and I had the great opportunity to see the legendary actress Angela Lansbury perform live on stage in the Noel Coward comedy Blithe Spirit. Aside from the fact that a fever struck me right as we were walking into the Shubert Theater, it was an amazing experience. Seeing the 83-year-old actress, Academy award and four-time Tony award winner, was almost surreal. I have been a fan of Lansbury's work since I was a kid watching her in the Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Her performance on stage was so endearing. The rest of the audience obviously loved her as much as I do as she was met with lengthy applause every time she entered and exited a scene. Her age was evidenced in that she sat through a great deal of her scenes and stuttered through a few lines, but that in no way took away from her stage presence nor her commitment and believability in the character of the dotty clairvoyant Madame Arcati. She was and continues to be a sensational actress.

The rest of the cast was superb also! Rupert Everett gave a fantastic performance in his Broadway debut as the lead role of Charles Condomine. Two-time Tony winner Christine Ebersole was wonderfully deviant as the ghost of his first wife Elvira. Surprise delights came from Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson as Ruth Condomine (Charles' second wife) and Susan Louise O'Connor who made her Broadway debut as the Condomines' skiddish maid Edith.

I'm so happy and grateful that Brandon and I were able to attend this performance. This makes the third Broadway show I've seen since moving to New York nine months ago. Just one more reason why I'm so happy to be living in this fantastic city. I'll be loving you always...

Odd

Sometimes the strangest things will enter my head and stay there for an unlikely amount of time and eventually make me sad.

As was the most recent example, the extinction of the Dodo.

I'm sad the Dodo no longer exists. For all of his cultural contributions to art, literature, and entertainment if nothing else. The Dodo has been and continues to be a great spark of the imagination for people the world over.

And while I think there is a certain amount of majesty in the otherwise comical appearance of the Dodo, I think at the very least people would agree that they could fall under the "so ugly, they're cute" category.

The Dodo was native to the island of Mauritius where it had no predators, fed on fruit, and nested on the ground. Because of their peaceful lives in isolation, the birds showed no fear of humans when they were first encountered.

Next thing you know, Man shows up with dogs, cats, rats, pigs, and Crab-eating Macaques. WTF?! Crab-Eating Macaques! These animals then raided the nests of the birds while man started tearing down their natural habitat and hunting them. Add to that a study which showed many animals were killed in a flash flood on the island and it's curtains for the unassuming and adorable Dodo!

It all just makes me mad. They got a raw deal. I want the Dodo back.

James Was Here

Another actor whom I greatly loved and admired since my childhood has died.

Emmy, Golden Globe, and Tony Award winner, and Academy Award nominee, James Whitmore died yesterday at the age of 87.

Whitmore brought me a lot of joy as a child with his performance in the movie Oklahoma! (as Ado Annie's Pa, Andrew Carnes) and by providing the voice of Mark Twain in The Adventures of Mark Twain, a Claymation™ film which I loved (and still do) for its simultaneous creepiness, hilarity, and poignancy.

James Whitmore brought me to tears with his portrayal of Brooks Hatlen in The Shawshank Redemption, was a saving grace (along with Linda Hunt) in the horror film The Relic, and was completely lovable in The Majestic (his last film appearance).

The man's body of film and television work alone spans nearly 60 years.

James was amazingly talented, had a very wise head on his shoulders, and I will miss him very much.

"I have no regrets, real regrets about any darn thing. I think second-guessing one's self and your life is the most futile thing in the world."

Thank You Drunk Drivers!

Dear Drunk Drivers,

Thank you for killing about 13,000 people each year in the United States alone.

Thank you for tearing friends and families apart forever.

Thank you for violently taking away thousands of others' abilities to walk, stand, talk, or even breathe on their own.

Thank you so much for your devastatingly destructive selfishness.

For your completely unforgivable stupidity.

My friend Veronica has you to thank for her broken jaw and her dead sister-in-law.

Keep up the great work, you moronic deadly assholes.

Love,
Kasey

I ♥ Bacon

My dear friend and godchild Lucy introduced me to what is likely to be the highlight of 2009. Okay, that's not true. I plan to have many more. But this will undoubtedly be among the top twenty, if not top ten.

My love of bacon is not a secret. I love eating in general, but breakfast food is one of my all-time favorites. Just give me an omelet and the boy lives!

I also love chocolate. I have an addiction to M&M's and, until my recent relocation to NY, I had an addiction to See's Candy (particularly their Blueberry Truffle).

Now two of my greatest joys in life have been combined by some of the world's foremost chefs and the combination is showing up on the dessert menus of the most chic urban eateries the world over.

That's right. Bacon is a dessert. Chefs are combining bacon with everything from chocolate to tarts to ice cream to cup cakes. And the very idea alone has thrust me into total ecstasy.

Click Here to read all about how bacon has broken free from the tether of the scrambled egg and joined forces with the pastries! Revolution!

My birthday is April 30th. I'm just sayin'.

I Heart Underwear

I really do heart underwear. And I think my passions for it show.

Stop it, you know what I mean.

Someone once told me that I have "the underwear of the gods." Which lead to a completely ridiculous conversation about how the gods didn't wear underwear except on Olympus' monthly Gay Night which is kind of redundant since homosexuality was a prevalent part of Greek culture and history, etc., etc.

Point is I have great underwear. And so should you.

Here are some good places to shop for fashion undies online:

Top Drawers

Fresh Pair

Under Gear


Enjoy dropping trou a little more from now on.