Long, hot, busy weekend for us with the beach and with Pride. Because of budget cuts in NYC no parade is allowed to last longer than 5 hours now, which meant that Pride felt severely truncated. On the other hand, it meant fewer commercial floats, more efficiency, fewer politicians, religious groups marching together and less boring-ness in general.
On the other hand, it made me sad, but so many of the changes in it have made me sad over the last few years The Bear and Leather contingents are very small now; the pagans barely bother to show up, if at all, the moment of silence (even with one at 1 and one at 3) doesn't work (as in, there is not silence), and no one where we were sitting seemed to have any reaction to the two men carrying the sign about the closure of St. Vincents which is of major historical significant to the gay community as well as being a general public health concern for residents of that neighborhood.
Also, Lady Gaga has replaced Madonna as the float music of choice.
Senator Robert Byrd has died. Aside from being the longest serving member of Congress and a racist (he was a member of the Klan), I personally recall him for long, rambling and only sometimes relevant floor speeches on ancient Greek and Roman history. It was a source of CSPAN fascination for me in my early-20s. More on Byrd (and his legacy of _good_ works) in comments.
Building Black Audiences for Broadway. Sadly, this strategy didn't save the superb Passing Strange, but I'm really, really glad it's working for other shows and it's keeping Fela! on stage as I'm dying to see it and haven't had time. More audience diversity means more diversity in Broadway offerings and more work for PoC performers and writers, all of which is good for everyone.
This guide was put together to answer "OMG, I've never been to a con before!" type questions for the upcoming Infinitus 2010. Infinitus may be a Harry Potter con, but much of what's there is useful to anyone with first-time pre-con jitters, although it's always best to remember that every con has a different culture and that single fandom cons tends to have very different personalities than multifandom cons.
Camille Paglia is the worst. When she starts to raise my blood pressure, I just remind myself that she once told Salon that she's an intellectual because she's an Aries.
I read that and ... I'm not even sure it made sense? Or what she was arguing for/against? Except possibly that while middle class culture is repressed (which I agree with) ... or that men aren't manly enough?
I was more confused than offended but I got the vague sense it would be offensive if it made more sense.
My grandpa used to have his own business, did some important techy stuff with the logging industry, educated himself after dropping out of high school, and successfully managed his diabetes for years by diet. He served on the water board of his hometown too.
Then he got Alzheimer's. It was all a downhill slide from there.
The con guide was just what I needed to read! It's nice to see something written in a matter-of-fact guidebook tone as opposed to the "you will be roped into a drunken groping orgy cosplay lawsuit internet scandal" feeling I sometimes get from reading flashes of accounts here and there.
I am *deeply* unhappy about what's going on with the Twin Cities Pride. I mean, really? There is a line between First Amendment rights and harassment. That said, there's also First Amendment rights, which is, if I'm remembering correctly, what got us Pride in the first place. (I think I'm remembering the right law suit.)
i saw the asshole on saturday. i said to my friend "grab me if it looks like i'm going to do something that'll get me arrested", and she threw her arm around my waist and i said "oh, good idea", and threw my arm around hers, and then we walked past them looking cozy as all getout with me muttering things under my breath in response to the nonsense they were saying. like, did you know that gay people leave work early? TRUFAX. (i only leave work early sometimes because i am bisexual. that must be it.)
We actually just have the one Pride here, so it's "the" rather than "a." I expect that the ruling will get challenged rather than moving the Fest. There's been issues with progressive groups like the Greens being barred from other mainstream festivals so this opens up the door for them as well.
Every time I read one of those, I think, "There but for the grace of god..."
Had I been born even a little later, that shit would have been my reality. And I had a rough enough time with it anyway.
Yep...same here. I had it bad as a kid, and that would have made things far far worse.
Oh well, on the bright side, my parents were always somewhat broke so chances are that I wouldn't have had a cell phone and I wouldn't have had to put up with harassing text messages as much.
Many thanks for posting the guide for first time con-goers. I've never been to a con before, and just this past weekend, someone I met at a wedding this weekend was trying to interest me in going to a Dragon-Con, the con that the Buffy Between the Lines people hang out at. I've also been pondering going to one of the Doctor Who ones. I think the Chicago Tardis one might be a good start since that one's in town.
The cyber-bullying article was frightening. I used to be bullied a lot when I was in grade school and middle school. In fact, my parents had me switch grade schools in the middle of the year after someone thought it would be cute to push me down the stairs. My family had legitimate concerns that I would get hurt one day. I thank my lucky stars that there was no such thing as cell phones, Facebook, and other social networking sites when I was growing up, because that would have been one other avenue my tormentors could have used to attack me.
I think smaller cons and single-fandom cons are easier for first time con-goers. Chicago Tardis is pretty small (under 1,000 people) and if it's at all like Gallifrey One, made up of awesome, awesome friendly people. Dragon*Con is huge and hard if crowds freak you out, but if you know what you're there for (a given track, which is like a minicon within a con), it's totally okay.
I noticed the lack of leather, bear, and radical faeries as well. It could just be part of NYC's grinding out of the working and middle classes. Their memberships might have been slashed over the last decade as people moved out when they couldn't find affordable housing or lost freak friendly jobs to the point where there weren't enough people to march.
Why does anyone still give Paglia publishing space? Ugh. It makes me want to hit myself in the head with a brick or cleanse my computer screen with fire. I can't believe I actually just read that.
We have our own group of asshats who come to our Pride parade. Generally every float stops in front of them and flips them the bird (literally or figuratively). This year, in a stroke a genius, someone hooked up speakers right where they were stationed and they were completely blocked out. Good work!
I was reflecting with some friends after the parade how its changed in the last 25+ years since I've been going. In the early 80s the parade was still pretty much a Mardi Gras experience. A few gay organizations, some drag queens and leather, a few politicians. Then came the mid-eighties - and the parade became a much more serious occasion...almost like a funeral. HIV/AIDS seemed to be everywhere and nobody knew what to do about it or how to treat it. Except blame gay men.
Over time, as HIV/AIDS became a chronic rather than terminal condition, this issue began to fade to the background. And the GLBT community became a political and economic force that could not be ignored. This led to a huge influx of commercialization and participation by politicians. While this isn't necessary all bad, some of it has a feel of 'hey its an event' so we're here rather than support for the community. Its one thing for the local animal clinic or restaurant to have a float, its quite another for Miller to have the biggest frick'n float in the parade with no real message supporting gay rights, but lots of hard bodied guys and gals gyrating to music and promoting beer. And the politicians - well some are actively supporting GLBT rights, but others seem to be there because 'its expected.'
Not surprisingly, the big issues this year were gay marriage, anti-bullying legislation, and partner benefits. I don't think there was a single reference to safe sex or HIV/AIDS. Is that good or bad? I don't know. What do you think?
That's interesting. I marched in New York Pride in 2001 with a friend who was working for an HIV/AIDS organization, I helped carry their banner. Whereas when I went to San Francisco Pride the following year, I definitely got a more commercial feeling about the whole event (Ian McKellan was the grand marshal and had a Starbucks drink in his hand the whole time; Smirnoff had one of the biggest floats, etc). That's not to say there wasn't reference to safer sex or other health issues, but I can't say it stuck in my mind. The dykes on bikes were truly a sight to behold.
I'm really hoping to get to a local Pride event in Liverpool or Manchester this summer if I can make my schedule work, I'll be curious what the themes are of those.
I used to go to NY Pride in the 90's and all that sounds kind of depressing. At that time, the moment of silence was truly silent. Of course, it was the middle of the AIDS crisis as well.
Camille Paglia gives us an article about sex and the white middle class Dear gods, I read that and my respect for her dropped even further than it had from reading other offensive nonsense by her. Ugh.
Teens, online bullying, parents and schools
I am continually baffled at parents, teachers, and similar people for not remembering how much bullying occurred in schools in the 70s & 80s. Bullying is vile and needs to stop, but claims that it is worse than it was previously are laughable. Of course, as your experience at the school reunion shows, maybe many of these people have simply forgotten what school was like back then.
The bullying and teasing I went thru in elementary school and junior high, I can't even imagine what it would have been like in the current digital age. **shudders**
I am always impressed that Camille Paglia can write so much considering that one hand is always stroking her ego. Possibly there's a macro so that she only needs to type a couple of characters to expand to "As I said before," "I first," "needs me to explain," etc.
Camille Paglia gives us an article about sex and the white middle class that starts with some promise, gets kinda sketchy and then runs off the rails until I start screaming.
I haven't had the stomach/patience to read the bullying or Paglia articles yet, but thanks for the CNN article on bisexuality. It still makes me want to bang my head against the wall that "Bisexuality 101" articles remain necessary in 2010, but a brief glance at the morass of fail in the comments demonstrates they really, really are.
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