By popular demand, the comments are back. That's according to the demanding little fuckers that emailed me. Heeheehee.

I have been told I can end most of the comments slow-down by simply removing the number of comments shown for each post. We'll see how much this speeds the loading. It may still be slower than with no comments, I'm not sure.

If you do find it slow, please vote here--in the comments for this post--to state your preference: slower with comments, or faster without. Hopefully these will all be temporary.

The Radio people are also scheduling maintenance for 1-3 a.m. PDT tonight. Hopefully that will improve things further, and hopefully it won't crash the system indefinitely.

It's Queer Eye Wednesday--so hard to get to these things the night they air--and in honor of the great joy it brings me, I'll belatedly comment on their big Tonight Show makeover.

As I've so often said, reality TV is all in the casting, so this was by far the weakest effort to-date. It's wasn't just Jay's Buddy Hackett sense of humor--he actually got off a few mildly funny lines. Two big problem, though.

First, the queers had already been there. This big jolly goofball has already been coifed and dressed to death by an army of queens--not that they've been able to foist much style upon him, but they've taken him as far as he's likely to go. Normally the Fab are dealing with a very rough exterior. Jay had already been polished to a gleaming fake glo, so all they could do was dress him a bit wilder, and they just made him look like a pimp.

The bigger problem was personality. Jay's pervasive phoniness was all wrong for a surprisingly earnest show that hinges on authentic emotional involvement from the straightguy. Jay remained skeptical and removed, and of course, totally fake. He proved just how much each episode revolves around the emotional center of the straightguy. Hollow center equals hollow episode.

Katie Couric actually would have worked, except she's so visually effervescent already, what the hell could they do to improve her? Katie would have been the perfect guest if they could have found her in some before state. Oprah would have been great, of course, as well, though I think the show actually works best with a man in the pivotal role. It's watching a rough-hewn guy find his inner Oprah and embrace her that makes this show so amusingly moving. From now on, stick to straightguys with soul.

Thirteen has not yet made it to the hinterland shores, so I cannot yet comment on the movie. But I got hooked on that Once and Again show even after its descent into idiocy, and I can tell you that Evan Rachel Wood is an amazing talent. (Let's just jinx her by calling her The Next Claire Danes.)

Those buffoons on the laughable Emmy committee chose to nominate the fully-serviceable Sela Ward as best actress for that show, but it was Wood who stole every episode she was featured in, and many where she only flitted in the background.

She exuded this powerful inner strength even while curling into her daddy's lap like a kitten. The scene I remember most vividly involved no dialogue. She just walked through a mall with a slightly dazed, kinda panicky, yet persevering look, where you could see her entire future written across her face. One look from this girl can break your heart.

First really staggering child performance I've seen since . . . um, Claire Danes in that television treasure My So Called Life. Or maybe the little boy from Sling Blade, who was equally powerful in American Gothic. What has become of him, by the way? I don't even know his name.

One more state court considering the plunge. From AP:

PHOENIX - A state court is considering whether Arizona's ban on marriage for same-sex couples is a denial of a fundamental right or a reasonable attempt to protect children by promoting family.

A three-judge panel yesterday heard arguments and agreed to decide the challenge filed by two Phoenix men.

Harold Donald Standhardt and Tod Alan Keltner want the Court of Appeals to overturn Arizona's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional and to order a court clerk to give them a marriage license.

The story ends with a note on timing:

At the hearing's conclusion, Presiding Judge Ann Scott Timmer, said the panel would rule as soon as possible. "We know it's an important decision," she said.

Perhaps some lawyer out there could let us know whether that is likely to mean weeks, months or years.

Just watched Boy Meets Boys.

It's that bad. And getting worse with every passing episode.

This alone explains the gay backlash.

If you're straight and somehow torturing yourself with this show, please seek out a more positive representation of gayguys for some balance: your local manbla chapter would be an improvement over this travesty.

The show did contain a few unintentionally entertaining moments, though. First, we were treated to long, dull, interminable footage of Prince UnCharming continuing through his job-interview checklist on each one-on-one encounter--as if under the impression that he was pre-screening candidates for the dates, instead of actually attending them personally. Several were peppered by voice-overs from the datees expressing the obvious: really tough to make an emotional connection with this icecube. All this was wrapped up with James emphatically gushing about the chemistry firmly established among all six remaining contestants. Unfortunately, it occurred to no one on the production team to justapose any of those remarks in the editing room.

But the real howler came in the closing moments--for once the perfect conclusion, because it captured Prince UC so utterly. After 55 minutes of audience torture, the host tart sat James down to reveal the show's shocking twist: one of the three finalists is straight! James responded with the longest blank look in the history of intelligent life in the universe. Finally, a confused smile crept across his face, and he slowly let out a big blonde "wooooooow."

That's our James.

After running neck and neck with Kerry in NH the past few months, Howard Dean has suddenly leapt way out ahead, 28% to 21% in an AP poll. That's a 33% lead in the state Kerry was expected to take easily.

(As an MA senator, his Boston TV ads have been beaming into most NH homes for years--so he has effectively campaigned there his entire Senate career. Dean is also from a neighboring state, but with a fraction of the campaign budget. He has not been buying much Boston TV time the past decade.)

And then there's Lieberman. He stood at 11% in June, which was pretty sad, considering he's also from the region and had by far the highest name recognition. This month, he plunged all the way to 4%. Joe does have the momentum, just all in the wrong direction.