Cirque du Soleil is bringing their Dralion show to Portland and I’ve got my tickets! Come June 14, I’ll be sitting right up front (three rows back from center stage) taking in some of the most wonderful entertainment I’ve ever encountered.

I’ve seen the Mystere show at the Treasure Island, Las Vegas like three times now and it just gets better every time. I’ve also seen the Saltimbanco show, last time it was in Portland. I’m totally excited to see this latest arrival. When the big top goes up, I’ll probably be chomping at the bit.

So I’ll admit that I got the Barry Manilow greatest hits compilation, Ultimate Manilow. I bring that to light right here at the beginning because it implies immediately what you think it does - that I do, in fact, enjoy listening to Barry Manilow.

So do you. Admit it. The guy is, like, a total pop music icon. He’s like Burt Bacharach - the guy has written songs you probably didn’t even know were his. I learned a new one yesterday - Barry Manilow wrote the theme to American Bandstand. I didn’t even know there were words to that song, other than just “Bandstaaaaand.”

A friend of mine at work gave me the pish-tosh when I showed him the album. He was all, “I bet you listen to John Denver, too.”

Hell, yes, I listen to John Denver. I have some very positive childhood memories associated with that guy. So do you. Who hasn’t wanted a bed that was nine feet high and six feet wide? Saying John Denver sucks is like saying “I hate America and all it stands for.” You just can’t do it.

Moving on.

Buffy last night, as an episode, kinda sucked. Hang on before you bitch-slap me for that. Lots happened - we get some closure on the whole “Riley” issue, we get to see Buffy deal with the Spike affair, we see Xander and Anya come closer together, we witness the rebirth of the Buffy/Dawn sisterhood. As a series of events, it was great. I’ve been waiting for resolution on some of those issues. But as an episode… Suck City. It felt like a bunch of random events strung together like a cheap pearl necklace.

The Self-Made Critic has written a great review of the Britney Spears movie, Crossroads. Yeah, it’s making money, but it sounds about as lame as we all thought it was going to be. The review isn’t on his web site yet (I got it via the mailing list), but keep checking for it. It’s great. (I love the Self-Made Critic. He’s the first critic I’ve found that I almost always agree with.)

Finally, I got my copy of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. It’s a 2-DVD set with loads of extras. I can hardly wait. I think I’m going to watch it at work today. That movie rocks.

So I joined this sort of ad-trading network to maybe get some traffic in here. It seemed like a keen thing. It’s called BlogSnob. Basically, you just put a little Javascript dealie in your page (mine’s in the column on the right) and you get a random text link to someone else’s blog. In return, your blog will get advertised on other peoples’ sites.

Hey, I figure it can’t hurt. If anything, it’s something fun and different.

I’m sure others have experienced it, but it’s always an event: The birthday “party” for a child.

I use quotes around “party” because it’s really not a party so much as a “gathering,” especially when the child is under, say, 15. In this case, I got the opportunity to hit the happenin’ scene of the four-year-old birthday.

Now, let me be clear: The four-year-old in question (my girlfriend’s niece) is actually quite cool (except for the fact that every time I see her she runs up and tags me in the nuts). She’s a lot of fun to play with and when she visits I chase her around the apartment with a blanket over my head. (We like to call this “The Blanket Monster.”)

However, much as I like the kid and my girlfriend Jenn’s family, I’ve never been one for large gatherings, especially large gatherings of people I don’t know where the primary function is a “potluck.” That’s exactly what we had this weekend.

Whoever came up with the idea of “potluck” was either a genius or a damn idiot. I don’t even think I have to elaborate on that - if you’ve been to a potluck, you know what I’m talking about; if you haven’t, there’s no way I can possibly describe to you the interesting assortment of dishes that always seem to appear at these things.

Anyway, the “party” this weekend consisted of me eating sort of a potato-cheese concotion and some garlic bread (I’ve never been much for meatloaf, Vienna sausages, or salmon sandwiches in pita bread), watching the kid open gifts, and listening to people I don’t know talk about other people I don’t know in a way that makes me think that I should know what they’re talking about even if I don’t.

It was not quite as entertaining as the wedding reception I once went to that had the clown making balloon animals and the room full of handicapped kids doing the hokey-pokey. Maybe I’ll have to write about that sometime, though I’ll probably go to Hell for it.

FYI, that potato-cheese concotion stayed with me all the way through the hockey game I went to that night. Yowza.

And Jenn’s dad didn’t even wear his Shriner’s fez. What the hell kind of fun is it without the fez?

Well, I’ve finally finished the conversion of my web site from the old “MHS Vortex” style to the new, improved “paraesthesia” weblog style. The Gen¹³ section has pretty much gone the way of the dodo, though I’ve left the last version of the links and collector’s info pages up there so folks coming in can still refer to them if they really want to. The “tributes” sections are gone, too, since they really never got updated or anything. Hopefully you can just read about what I’m into or whatever in the blog.

Oh, and “AssKick!”, as awesome of an idea as it was, is also gone.

I’m also pleased to announce that, in related news, I have MUCH more free space on my account now that all of that stuff is gone. Maybe now I can post some more interesting and changing items in the coming times.