I've felt like crap for a few days. Not sick, but on the cusp of being sick. I feel better today. I'd like to thank my neti pot, a constant diet of Airborne® and a Law & Order: SVU marathon on my Roku for my speedy recovery. I'd be very happy to thank Christopher Meloni in person whenever's he's in Phoenix.

Because this month has been super busy and I've been feeling like sludge this last week, I decided instead of making a new banner, to update a previous one from a couple years ago for the Thanksgiving holiday.

For folks in the Phoenix/Tempe area who would like to donate holiday toys for needy children, please contact Mike. He's looking to get 75 toys donated. Don't hold the fact he dresses his dogs in ugly sweaters against him.

I'm giving audiobooks a try starting with Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key.

This totally cracks me up.

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Permalink | File Under: Banners, Benevolent Blogger, Lists

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm a little late with this month's banner. I've been a little busy.

Before October I started working on it but I just didn't like what was coming out. What I needed was a little inspiration. That came from my friend Mason. He's a super-duper creative smarty-pants who takes awesome photos and uses his friends and family as models.

A few days ago, he days ago he took these Fever Ray inspired photos of his sister. They were just the inspiration I needed and he kindly gave me permission to use one of them. (Thanks Mason!)

The All Souls Procession is just around the corner. It is absolutely one of my all-time favorite things about living in Arizona.

Bring out your dead, y'all.

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Just checking in to say "hey," and post this month's banner.

I want to let you know about something the Audio Nazi®, Mr. Daniel Brewer has cooked up called Pride48.

Starting on June 26th, he and a bunch of gay podcasters from all over will be streaming 48 hours of live podcasting goodness in celebration of Pride month. Until then, he is streaming pre-recorded shows. Be sure to check it out. There's some good stuff there and more and more podcasters are signing up to be a part of it.

Unfortunately, The Female Lesbian Show has yet to commit.

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I hate coming home.

When I walk up to my apartment, I know he's not sitting in the window. When I open the door, he's not standing there welcoming me home. When I go to bed, he's not sleeping on the pillow next to me.

I'd like to say it's getting easier — in some regards, it is — but the sadness washes over me from time to time. Sometimes I'm surprised when and what triggers it.

It will take some time before it feels normal again.

I've found a tremendous amount of comfort in the kind and caring comments and emails you truly amazing people have sent me over the last couple of weeks. It's very humbling and I treasure every one of them.

Thank you all.

On to the business of this month's banner. This has been something that's been bouncing around in my head for quite some time but any time I've try to execute it, it's just been wrong. By creating these banners, I've learned that sometimes they have their own time table and trying to force them just doesn't work.

It is inspired by one of the many beautiful songs written by Jonatha Brooke. You can read the lyrics here. Here's the part that leaves me a weeping mess.

And I'll still look you in the eye
It's the longest goodbye
I'll feel the air, make the catch
But I won't swing back
My timing is clear
And I'll never fear
I'll swing 'til there's no net below
Yeah, I'll swing 'til there's no net below

Enjoy.

Again, I thank you all so very much.

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Permalink | File Under: Banners, Depression, Elliott

Oh hey. Look. I finally put up a new banner. Fancy that.

It would have been up sooner but my brain has felt like a paper sack full of applesauce lately. Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled and grateful to have this job but MAN do they keep me busy. Take last Thursday for example. The only break in my ten plus hour day was a fire drill.

You read that correctly. A FIRE DRILL.

Ugh.

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New Year's Eve came and went along with the copious amounts of wine that disappeared in my gullet.

I forgot to tell John about my habit of wandering off in a drunken stupor. It's really hard to drunk text "CURB" when replying to "Where are you?"

Happy New Year!

Other photos are on Facebook and Flickr.

PS - I changed the banner. You may need to clear yo cache.

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First things first. Kyle wants to see my 6th photo on the 6th page on my Flickr account. So here it is.

My beautiful friends, Kandice and Kristin, at the recent nationwide protest for gay rights.

Speaking of the continuing fight for gay rights, I encourage you all to send President-Elect Obama a postcard thanking him for his promises to the LGBTQ community and reminding him repeal DOMA.

Thanks for the meme, Kyle.

I'm not feeling very holiday-ish so no festive banner this year, but one more reflective of how I am feeling.

Yesterday, I was in a big funk. I felt numb. All I wanted to do was sleep.

That afternoon, I received a thoughtful and encouraging email from someone who reads my blog. It really made a difference and lifted my mood.

Thank you kind sir.

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Permalink | File Under: Banners, Blogging, Depression, Life

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come,
Oh yes, it will.

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Holy cow. I've been making these banners for a whole year now. Yay me!

For this month, I'm going back where it all started, with Dia de los Muertos; one of my favorite things about living in this area. I love, love, love going to The All Souls Procession in Tucson. Last year I didn't get to go because I had cooties. [Insert sad face here.]

Here are some of my favorite photos from 2005 and 2006.

See the rest here and here.

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Check out this graceful back stroke.

She never spilled her drink.

Happy Labor Day, ya'll.

(If you can't see the new banner, clear your cache.)

Comments (3)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Friends, Movies

I found some inspiration for this month's banner.

Goodbye Apple wet floor look. Hello Dark Knighty look.

(You may have to bypass your cache to see this summer's blockbuster banner.)

And by the way, OMG it's raining here!

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I admit it. I kind of phoned it in with this month's banner. I blame the summer heat for draining my creative energy.

And now to continue phoning it in...

I haven't done a reader poll for a while, so if you'd be so kind to fill out this form in the comments, I'd love to know who's reading the site lately.

Name:
Location:
Age:
How Long Have You Been Reading cheap blue guitar?:
How Did You Get Here?:
How Hot Is It Where You Are Today:?
What Are You Doing This Friday?:

Thanks!

Comments (17)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Sharing

This month's banner is in celebration of my new job. You may need to bypass your cache to see the ch-ch-ch-changes.

Today my friends Deek and Matt left Arizona. Matt is going back to his hometown, Chicago and Deek is moving to a far away mythical land known as Columbus, Ohio. I am going to miss them both very much.

Lots of things are changing lately and I must admit, it's a tad disconcerting at times. Unemployment. Loved ones leaving. Sucky new addition to the Indiana Jones franchise. All things I could do without, but I'm determined to find the good in these changes and embrace them.

Like, I have a new job I'm excited about. I have two new places to visit when I want to retreat the horrid summer. And, well, at least I didn't go see Speed Racer.

Comments (4)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Friends, Life

All month long I've been thinking about this month's banner. I batted around many of ideas and sifted through tons of stock images looking for some inspiration. I kept coming up with zilch.

One reason is because of work. I've been pretty busy lately. That's not a complaint. Busy Brian is Creative Brian. But the problem with that is by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is open Photoshop.

Whenever I ask my friends for tag line ideas they always latch onto the "theme" of the month based on holidays and traditions. That rarely speaks to me unless I can be a smart ass about it.

Krystyn had a great suggestion:

plain white, black courier font: "no inspiration for this month's banner"

I was this tempted to do it. Then, the elusive muse finally visited me. She brought with her the bright sun. And after all the recent entries posted in the Depression category, I think this place could use some brightening up.* Don't you?

Along with the new banner, comes a new mix of songs to get your toes tapping for May.

* I'll feel very differently about the sun when it's 122° out. Which will probably be any day now.

Comments (8)
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Happy April Fools Day! Here at cheapblueguitar.com, we celebrate being a fool 365. Or in this year's case, 366.

New month. New banner. You may need to bypass your cache to see the changes.

Check out previous banners here.

Enjoy your day!

Comments (4)
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How is it that I've never blogged on Leap Year's Day? Oh right... I was too busy clawing my way out of depression and hopped up on delicious painkillers.

Silly me.

It is a gorgeous day here in Phoenix. Too gorgeous to sit at a computer under fluorescent lighting redesigning (yet again) the same project I've been working on for a couple weeks.

I ♥ clients. </sarcasm>

I'd rather be outside taking a walk and soaking up some pleasant sunshine. Maybe I'll finally fix my bicycle this weekend so I can take a ride around the neighborhood.

Of course, doing so will cause a sneezing fit and itchy eyes. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't.

*sigh*

I'm putting up the new banner today. Those of you on Internet Explorer may see some random wonkiness in the header graphic. I started to tweak the CSS to see if I could fix it, but then I decided to not bother because you SHOULDN'T BE USING IE! Get a real effin' browser already for chrissakes.

Geesh!

Comments (7)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Life

New month, new banner. Can't see it? Bypass your cache.

I don't have much to say right now, so enjoy this photo of Elliott.

Check out previous banners in the archive.

Comments (7)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Elliott

I started moving some stuff in to my apartment today and I noticed the cord for the cable modem.

Hrm... I'm not liking the looks of this.

Since it is possible I may be without internet when I move in tomorrow, I'm going to go ahead and post January's banner tonight. You may need to bypass your cache to see the changes.

Enjoy your weekend and ringing in the New Year!

Comments (3)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Life

Every once in a while, someone will ask me why Thomas and I aren't dating. Usually this comes from a straight person. For some reason some straight people think the only thing two gay men need to be a couple is to be gay. Once a coworker told me her roommate wanted to set me up with someone she works with.

Co-Worker: She says you two are perfect for each other.
Me: I haven't even met her. How would she know?
Co-Worker: Well, she's heard me talk about you.
Me: And what about this guy makes him so perfect for me?
Co-Worker: Well... he's gay.
Me: I'll pick out the china pattern immediately.

It's funny how they never apply those terms to other straight people. You're a guy and she's a girl. Isn't that enough? For their own, they know it takes common interests, attraction and lots of other stuff.

But Thomas and I get along famously. So why is it we aren't boyfriends? Simple. There are two main reasons.

Reason One: I am not Matt Damon.

If I were Matt Damon, I would probably be blissfully in love with Thomas, have a restraining order against him or be locked in his basement. It could really go any way.

Reason Two: Thomas is not a masochist.

If Thomas and I were dating, a typical conversation would go like this.

Me: What are you wearing?
Thomas: What? It's a vest.
Me: You look like Tyne Daly.
Thomas: It's very warm. I got it at the Renaissance Festival.
Me: Oh. My. God! Where's my camera? I need to blog about this!

End scene.

Thomas gets enough abuse from me as it is. I'm not sure he could handle it 24/7.

PS - I'm putting the banner up a few days early to ring in the holidays. You may need to bypass your cache to see the changes and not see it all wonky-looking.

Comments (9)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Thomas

Daniel has requested that I join him for something called National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), the bastard cousin of National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to do one post every day during the month of November.

Apparently Daniel hasn't noticed I'm a more of a casual blogger. And by casual, I mean lazy.

Normally a request to participate in something like this would have been met with a stern "Hell no!" But Daniel's a nice guy and he caught me during a weak moment resulting from a Halloween cupcake sugar crash.

Plus, he offered sexual favors.

If you feel so inclined to join us, please do so. Also, if you have a blog that dare not speak its name, feel free to join us in the Gay Boy Bloggers group where we will pontificate such topical subjects like, "Kylie Minogue: Lounge Act or Poor Man's Madonna?"

Discuss.

PS - New month. New banner. You may need to bypass your cache to see the changes.

Comments (6)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Blogging

If you are reading this via an RSS reader, then you aren't seeing the fruits of my web design labor this weekend, so do me a favor and pop on over the the site proper and take a gander at the new site template.

When I redesigned the site last time, my intention was to change up the cassette tapes in the header with new music and spruce up the logo graphic every once in a while to mark the seasons.

Obviously, that never happened.

The problem with the old template was it wasn't a blank enough canvas to ever inspire me to change it much. It was just so...blue, which has been the overall theme for four of the five previous site templates. There just wasn't enough there to really work with. That and I had a lot of Doctor Who to watch.

White is a pretty blank canvas, wouldn't you say? I drew inspiration for this layout from a few designers I like who do very clean design. Looking for the side bar? It's waaaay down there on the bottom now. The biggest improvement is one you won't see directly. Instead of nasty tables (which I secretly love), this layout is entirely built in CSS. Can I get an amen?

As for the current banner, I used these awesome Photoshop brushes for the design. With Dia De Los Muertos just around the corner, I thought it would be a nice theme to start with.

PS - If you see something that doesn't work or looks screwy, let me know.

Comments (9)
Permalink | File Under: Banners, Blogging