Personally, it's been another rough weekend. Finalizing the bachelor party arrangements, making sure the groom is going to be taken care of before I get there, getting the tux rented…this wedding better go off without a damned hitch. In the meantime…

• August Wilson has been diagnosed with liver cancer. I first met Wilson a few years back when King Hedley II was at the Alliance Theatre. His talent and incredible storytelling abilities even came through in just ordinary speech. But I'm not going to write the man's obituary; doctors say he might not live to the end of this year.
• I had a lot of fun on Friday - I went to Goofball's friend's friend's house for beer and board games. We started off with Killer Bunnies (sorta like Magic The Gathering but with an easier — and funnier — learning curve) then broke into a round of Texas Hold 'Em and then we split into two groups for other games. My group played Scrabble and the other group played some hex-board type strategy game. Overall, it was a very fun night…and then I started wondering how many Black gay men in Atlanta I could get together for the same thing without someone expecting it to turn into an orgy.
• Speaking of black gay male orgies, can I say I'm glad to not be in Atlanta for more reasons than one this weekend? Although I will miss the Montreux Jazz Festival and Dragon*Con, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I should be back by Sunday evening though to make the Literary Café, but I can be one cranky bitch after a cross-country flight. Even moreso than usual! I should try and make it though, even if my intentions for going are less than literary.
• The AJC has a rather interesting exposé on one of Atlanta's many pimp preachers, Bishop Eddie Long. Some of you may remember the sequined-shirt Sunday snake-oil selling shepherd from his December march with Bernice King promoting several causes; one among which was a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages. According to the AJC article, Long has received a whopping $3.07 million in compensation from his non-profit company and from his church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. And his flock? They approve of his exorbitant lifestyle and opulent home saying "when you come before the priest and he gives a word to you, then it's your duty to meet the needs of the priest." Please…give that nigga a loaf of bread and a fish and put that three mil to some better uses, why don't cha? They call them sheep for a reason.
• While I'm on the AJC's nuts, they also had a story in Saturday's edition about the high disproportion between average Atlanta salaries and both the housing and rental markets. The annual hourly wage to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta is $14.42 ($28.5K annually) and the annual income needed to purchase a "cheap" $165K home is $52,326. Meanwhile, condos sprawl through the metro area like kudzu, apartments disappear or move further outside the perimeter, and the majority of Atlantans live beyond their means just to break fucking even. How the hell does it look when the busboys, waitresses, firefighters and policemen who help keep ITP safe can't even afford to live within its borders? The money crunch is real.
• I finally picked out a phone to get; the Audiovox SMT6500. Aside from being a Windows Smartphone, the styling of it is very chic and I can sync my accounts between the work and home computers as well as e-mail on the fly with the POP3 and SSL capabilities. At $300, this will probably end up being my Christmas present after upgrading The Magi.
  

  Man, that is a pretty phone.