sundries

[rm]

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.

Finally, for those wondering about the church group that marched with a blank banner, it was on order from New York's Archbishop.

Please read about someone who wasn't at the parade, the woman in room 609.

CNN has a not too appalling article about bisexuality.

A Pride festival in Minneapolis is thinking of relocating to avoid an anti-gay group that the courts say must be accommodated to spread their message at the festival.

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.

Teens, online bullying, parents and schools.

Tobias Wong was a brilliant young designer who recently committed suicide. He had a severe sleep-related disorder, and may not have been in a truly conscious state when his death occurred. This article is entirely heartbreaking.

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.

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, which is, I suppose what she's there for. I can try to find you the most offensive part to quote, but that would be difficult. Have fun.

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.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I fucking loathe Camille Paglia.

I really hate the fact that the Pride marchers are the ones that need to be accommodating.

Yeah, I'm in a hateful mood.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

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.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Buhwhat?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

She did not! Ha! That's hilarious.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Good grief.

What did Salon have to say to that?

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Well last I checked (which was a while ago) she still wrote for them occasionally, so...

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

That was Paglia?

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.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes to all of that. I didn't realize it was her until after I read it and was like "WHAT JUST HAPPENED THERE?"

By the time she hit "androgyny" and its failure in the bedroom I had a serious case of DONE.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

The article on Storme DeLarverie made me cry. Queer elders really get to me, as does dementia.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to resist a long rant on all the ways Salon annoys me, but will not refrain from saying that my overwhelming sense of Paglia is that her work is strategized remarkably like a fashion magazine: designed to make insecure those she is arguably trying to help so that they will desire to consume more of her message, ad infinitum, because they can never be "cured."

[rm.livejournal.com]

That's both interesting and complex. Thanks for sharing it.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

This is the best thing ever written on Paglia just in case anyone hasn't read it.

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.

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

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.)

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I have their book reviews and food column on my RSS and skip all their political and social stuff. I admit I got a really good recipe from them the other day, though. I avoid HuffPo and Kos, too-- if they have to show celebrity cellulite slideshows to keep their readers interested in the articles, they're doing it wrong.
Paglia, like any other commentator, has to manufacture the demand for herself. That's why there's so much retrograde, normative garbage out there dressed up as daring anti-PC honesty.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

I have to agree as someone who has relatives from West Virginia... back when he was a young man, joining the KKK really was basically like joining the Chamber of Commerce. It's not an excuse, just a sad reflection of the times. But Byrd tried to turn it around and never showed the deep level of support for racist legislation as did other people from the same time, like Strom Thurmond.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

I love that at least some of the issue is that men dress like prepubescent boys by wearing sneakers into midlife. I mean, really....sneakers? She thinks sneakers are part of the problem? /sarcasm

[sykii.livejournal.com]

It seems important to remember both the good and the bad. One of the most alarming things for me about the turn politics has taken in the last (I don't know) 20 years is that changing your mind is now considered anathema, the sign of a weak character. Byrd was able to confront the damage he had already done, and instead of digging in further-- a really common human impulse when we know we're in the wrong-- changed his stance and worked to try to undo the harm. That's an ability I want my elected officials to have.

[sethg]

Maimonides wrote that the true test of repentance is if you are placed in exactly the same situation that led you to sin in the first place, and you do the right thing the second time around.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

You've made my day. Seriously. Oh, Molly!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Dragon*Con is basically like 40 minicons in the same space plus some random people who are just there to PARTY! but at its heart, that advice is sound even for that con. it's taken me a few years how to navigate it so it doesn't send me over the edge (and this year is the big test since I'm doing it without Patty's calming influence as she takes her comps), but it's pretty much neither decadent nor trashy unless you want it to be (I am, however, ENTIRELY a magnet for people who are essentially strangers telling me really wild stories though, which is both hilarious and makes me somewhat lament the passing of my wild and crazy youth).

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

ugh. but i looooooooooooooooooove loring park.

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.)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

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.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Man, thanks for that! Feeling far less hateful now :)

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

That cyber bullying article gave me chills.

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.

The Paglia piece was all over the map and trying to make points it kept wandering away from. Feh.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I generally only visit any of the sites you mention if they've been linked to me by someone else on twitter (by sparkindarkness, for instance, or another aggregator of relevant-to-my-interests articles). And yes, I avoid a lot of commentary like that in the interests of my wellbeing.