Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Toys R Us Kid no more

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 12, 2008
Post category:Personal
Post comments:5 Comments

One of the primary things that separates the men from the boys is home ownership. More than marriage or fatherhood, buying a home is arguably the biggest commitment the average person can make, because you can always get divorced and disown your kid(s), but hell hath no fury like a mortgage payment scorned!

I’ve never bought into the real estate as investment theory because first and foremost, a house should be a home, so I would never take out anything other than a traditional mortgage. (A VA loan, actually, officially the best thing to come out of my service in the Army.) Way too many people are paying a hard price for overreaching a few years ago when their ~~sucker~~ adjustable rates adjusted sharply upwards and the promise of easy re-financing turned out to not be as easy as they were told it would be and their homes were suddenly worth less than they paid for them. When you buy a house to live in it, and buy one that’s within your means, barring some unexpected life-changing event, you’re going to be all right.

With our lease up at the end of June and the market in New Jersey having tanked compared to three years ago when we were looking last time, we decided to give it another shot and spent the last two weekends checking out more than 20 houses, an enlightening variety that ranged from good solid maybes to “good luck that with that!” We put a lowball bid on one last week but didn’t like the counter-offer and, after a second viewing, had some serious misgivings about its short-term prospects and didn’t put forth a second bid.

Then, completely unexpectedly, our realtor pulled a Ty Pennington and showed us a house that wasn’t on our list and was just far enough out of our price range to make us sad.

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Go see Liberty City

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 12, 2008
Post category:Reviews
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I went to see Liberty City last night, April Yvette Thompson’s multi-layered, one-person account of her upbringing in the infamous Miami neighborhood during the chaotic 70s, told against a backdrop of the rise and fall of the Black Power movement, the Crack epidemic and the Liberty City Riots that led to Miami being declared a disaster area, literally and figuratively. Co-written and directed by an old friend of mine, Jessica Blank (The Exonerated; Almost Home), I went mainly to support her work but came away amazed by Thompson’s acting prowess.

I’ve seen a handful of one-person shows over the years — real ones by real actors, not the self-indulgent features-on-steroids many poets have put together* — and am always impressed by an actor’s ability to believably portray multiple characters with a minimum of props and costume changes, but in Liberty City, Thompson pulls off six major characters (and a few minor ones) without making a single addition to or subtraction from her attire to delineate them, relying soley on vocal inflections, body language and an amazingly expressive face that ages, de-ages and changes genders without ever missing a beat. Her story is a riveting one that weaves her family history with that of Libery City‘s into a 90-minute, intermission-less collection of increasingly emotional (though impressively restrained) anecdotes that lead to a conclusion that is simultaneously heart-breaking and hopeful, and more than a little bit timely.

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Spitzer steps on his own d…

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 10, 2008
Post category:Uncategorized
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I liked Eliot Spitzer, in theory, when he came roaring into Albany, taking over as our Governor from the lame George Pataki and, determined to break the stalemate between state Democrats and Republicans, promised to steamroll anyone who got in his way as he drove the unethical from the temple in one glorious sweep of righteous fury! His crash-and-burn first year was arguably predictable, but his apparent resignation today over a prostitution scandal — you have to figure there’s more to it because politicians have simply apologized for less and moved on with their careers — definitely came out of left field.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, I guess.

Interestingly, Spitzer’s seemingly aborted political career should serve as an object lesson for those who cast themselves as “fighters” in the political arena in such bi-partisan times. If you step into the ring with your dukes up, you’re guaranteed to get a fight and not much more than that. Spitzer fought hard as Governor, losing more than he won, not the least of which was the immense political capital he came into office with, some of which might have saved him today.

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Hello, March. You’re looking good!

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 10, 2008
Post category:Media Personal
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This past Winter has sucked on a number of levels, not the least of which is the apparent Gonzalez Plague that’s been bouncing between the four of us for what seems like three months now. It was India’s turn this weekend — she stayed home sick today after not being able to sleep well with congestion, a sore throat and possible ear infection — while I’m still recovering from my go-round last week.

But March is slowly shaping up to be a banner month for the Gonzalez Clan as the house search — of which I’m not allowed to talk about any more until we have an accepted offer and signed contract — took an interesting turn this weekend. The upshot is we’re well positioned to find something a lot better than we could have hoped for three years ago, and have an outside shot at something particularly amazing if we can pull it off. Fingers crossed, please!

Of good news I can talk about, though, I put in my two weeks notice at the 9-to-5 this morning and as of March 24th will become the Advertising Sales Director for a trio of consumer enthusiast magazines, including the one I’ve been selling for the past year. (Yes, I was poached!) My first day at the new job will be almost 18 months to the day I made the move from marketing to sales at my previous job, a place which has seemingly slipped further into the toilet over the past year, and will put me three years ahead of the “5 Year Plan” I put forth while still there back in 2006, when the latest Marketing Director came onboard.

At that time, I said I wanted to move into sales within 2 years and then into an Ad Director position by the 5th year. Instead, I managed to pull off the former 6 months later and the latter in only 2 years! I’m still waiting for the high to wear off and the pressure to set in, but until it does, it’s celebration time!

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Bill Maher does journalists’ job for them

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 8, 2008
Post category:Media Pop Culture
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One of the more frustrating things about mainstream media coverage of this year’s Presidential primaries has been their short attention span and preference for the low-calorie sensational stories over the meatier issues of the day. ie: Samantha Power calling Hillary Clinton a “monster” (a comment which, taken in context, is hard to argue to with) is somehow more newsworthy than actually vetting Clinton’s numerous exaggerated claims of experience (kudos to the Chicago Tribune for finally exposing that batch of lies).

It’s no wonder the Daily Show is considered a better source of news than the actual networks dedicated to covering news 24/7.

On that note, this back-and-forth between Bill Maher (who I’m no big fan of) and Terry McAuliffe is both refreshing and noteworthy, if much too short:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTWumj6qpmI]

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Know Hope

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 5, 2008
Post category:Media Personal
Post comments:2 Comments

April 22nd is a long way off and my nerves are a little bit frayed right now so I’m going to step away from politics for a while here on the blog and focus on some other stuff (see below).

For a final bit of perspective on the meaning of last night’s results, I cede the floor to the inimitable Andrew Sullivan:

Obama supporters should not be dismayed.

Obama has a tougher, nastier opponent in the Clintons than he does in McCain. If he wins this by a long, grueling struggle, he will be more immune to the lazy, stupid criticism that he is some kind of flash in the pan, he has more opportunity to prove that there is a great deal of substance behind the oratory, he has more of a chance to meet and talk with the electorate he will need to win in the fall.

I think the argument for Obama is easily strong enough to withstand the egos of the Clintons. The more people see that her case is almost entirely a fear-based one and his is almost entirely a positive one, the more he will win the moral victory as well as the delegate count. In the cold light of day, the bruising news that the Clintons are not yet dead seems less onerous.

Know hope.

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Primary Predictions: Prepared for the Worst

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 4, 2008
Post category:Media
Post comments:5 Comments

I’m fully prepared for the highly likely possibility that Clinton wins both OH and TX tonight, albeit narrowly, and if so, will rightfully declare that her campaign will continue through Pennsylvania’s 4/22 primary. The “comeback kid” spin will be dizzying, again, for the next 24 hours, despite the reality being that she won’t actually have managed to put much of a dent in the overall delegate gap, the previous benchmark her campaign had set to measure her viability when they thought this would be finished back on February 5th.

Delegate counts aren’t a sexy story, though, and the media is still engaging in a silly moment of self-loathing thanks to Tina Fey, so the Obama campaign will have their work cut out for them over the next seven weeks.

Assuming tonight doesn’t result in an unexpected blowout by either side — and all spin aside, that’s really what Clinton needs to legitimately justify her staying in the race — here’s what I think Obama’s plan of attack will [should] be to deliver the final knockout blow in Pennsylvania, if not before:

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