sundries

[rm]

When I was a pre-teen, the Atlanta Child Murders were happening, and when I found a green ribbon, as people wore then to say this must be stopped and this must be solved, I pinned it to my uniform at school. I then forgot to take it off before I got home, and was severely chastised by my parents. It won't make a difference, they said. And, You are a child, and with ribbons you never know what you're supporting. It's a memory from over 25 years ago, but one that remains vivid for me, and is still a source of confusion. I don't know what I did wrong.

Not long after, of course, AIDS entered the general public's consciousness. All us twelve-year-old girls talked about how we should all find virgin boys to fuck while something in the world was still safe, and one of the wealthy parents hired the preeminent AIDS researcher at the time to give a lecture for the frightened parents (and here we were, twelve and at a single-sex school) at their townhouse.

And there were, in addition to lessons on how to put a condom on a cucumber, ribbons I did not wear, lest my parents tell me again I was a child, both bad and ineffectual. I remember watching the Oscars and looking at those lapels with such suspicion. All those famous actors, they were bad children too.

I am wearing purple today. It is better to, than not. But no one else seems to be in my moving about the city so far today. I imagine they didn't hear about it. I imagine they don't care about it. I imagine they are like me and not, but certainly, better at defending themselves from shame.

Treble Entendre now has its own fan page on Facebook. So enter that in the search box; find us; join us, if you are so inclined.

In setting that up, I got into a conversation with someone who has an off-off Broadway theater space available in NYC for Halloween weekend. They've cast nine actors so far for a play festival of 60 - 120 second Halloween-themed plays. However, they need more material and are looking to partner with an existing company with actors and writers; they are also happy to receive plays directly from writers working independently. The theater seats 50 - 60 people, and the actors are committed to a 2PM performance on Oct. 30 and a 6:30PM performance on Oct. 31. If you are a writer ANYWHERE and have material for them, or, if you have a team of NYC-local actors and writers, you can contact glorzilla [AT] gmail [DOT] com. Make stuff happen!

Dogboy & Justine started to experience the infamous Kickstarter U -- that is, when you get a lot of donations at the beginning, and presumably the end, but things are slow and nervewracking in the middle. That said, we continue to be on target and moving along. As of this writing, we're up to $1,320 and need to raise at least $55 more today to stay on the current trajectory of slow and steady wins the race.

Thank you all SO MUCH. We don't get contact info to send personal thanks until after pledging closes and the project is successful. While we recognize some names as pledges come in, we actually don't always know who people are, so the big personal thank yous will largely be happening elsewhere down the line.

Check out this cool house in Cambodia.

Sea glass collecting: I love the story about the cache of tiny doll parts. Someone should do something with that in a fiction sense.

None of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the US are in New York. This sure isn't news to me, but I am damn sick of it being news to everyone else.

In the news, the judge in the DADT case has refused to issue a stay on her ruling. Military recruiters have been informed they can accept openly gay applicants, but must warn them that the ruling could be reversed at any time. Several visible public figures in the DADT fight have sought to re-enlist in the military, including Lt. Dan Choi and at least one participant in the case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans. Additionally, the Prop 8 fight continues.

Hopefully, you already caught all that DADT news on your own. Because despite having a degree in journalism and having a long track record doing work both in and about the news media: I am not comfortable being your primary source of news. I aggregate links based on what I find interesting, outrageous, clever, or fascinating. I put them together quickly, while multitasking, and often not having had time to read full articles before I post them. This would be bad journalistic practice, if this link-blogging were an act of journalism. But it's not. However, it's increasingly being perceived as such, which is bad for me and bad for you.

Does that mean no more news links? I doubt it. I'm not that self-disciplined, and I'm grateful that if people aren't seeking out news in other ways, at least they're getting something about how some of the world works here. But, it's not a responsibility I want, nor, increasingly, an obligation I enjoy.

So can we make a deal? I'll spend 5 minutes more a day trying to bring more precision to my links, if you spend 5 minutes more a day exposing yourself to more news that you're not getting from here. Cool?

Good. So now that we've got that resolved, Patty has some pictures of Cardiff to show you. And none of them have anything to do with Doctor Who, Torchwood or Ianto Jones.

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Dude, 60 second plays, really? I wish I could go just to see how on earth you tell a scary story in 60 seconds. (Recite the shorter creepypasta, is the only thing I can think of.)

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

Check out Tweet the Meat for stories in a 144 character format. Some of them are amazing!

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

You are not the only one wearing purple. I am, and I'd say about 1/4 of my flist at least is. Plus there are the people who've turned their facebook icon purple.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, just at work, on the street, etc... I'm seeing no one. And I'm in downtown NYC. Not happy.

[eac.livejournal.com]

When I get dressed this morning there will be purple, and much of my friends list seems to be on board as well, but I am in San Francisco. I will be interested to whether my relatively conservative, predominantly immigrant neighborhood wears purple...

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i'm wearing purple, too, and no one else is, too. i hadn't expected it to be everyone, but a few people, maybe.

it doesn't make any physical changes to the world. but ribbons and wearing colors and things tell people you see them. and that's important too.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I am wearing purple - and so are all of my friends, who run the gamut of gender identity and sexuality.

We are all here, together (and will remain so, even on days when we don't wear purple).

And I agree with you - it is better to wear it than not. Why? Because for me, it is better to engage in any act of love and solidarity - however small it might seem - to stand in contrast to the hatred and fear.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear, now you've got me thinking that I could try submitting one of the monologues from my fannish but-could-be-tweaked-for-mundane-audience all-woman/one-woman play for this. Argh.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I'm wearing purple. I am not out of my office much but I have seen at least three other people wearing purple --one of whom is a co-worker. I work at a university so I've also seen a few students wearing purple.

[andrewducker]

I liked your bit on news links so much that I've run away with it.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

I am wearing purple, but no one will see, because I work from home.

Both Monsters were wearing purple when they left for school this morning, and both had been involved in organizing a Wear Purple event through their school's GSA. I expect I'll hear about a lot of purple today.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Most of the links you post are things I've seen other places, especially since I read the Times online as well! But I enjoy your comments on them, even if it is just whatever you put in the link text.

Have "liked" TrebleEntendre. YAY!

I'm going to save drooling over the Cardiff pictures for a treat later in the afternoon.

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

I'm wearing purple, and so are a few of the students here in the lab at my university in Alabama.

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

And some of the teachers!

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

I completely missed this wearing purple thing until it popped up on Metafilter last night/this morning, so it could be poor advertising (or I just inhabit some completely wrong corner of the internet and I don't really have local offline queer connections).

I was going to say I don't actually own anything purple, but I do have a shirt of two that if they're any colour, it's purple, just nothing that screams purple at me. Guess I'd best go change.

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, that 25 most dangerous neighbourhods thing seems to suffer from some methodological flaws. It looks like they've just taken the number of crimes and divided it by the number of residents, ignoring what the area actually is. The west side Chicago neighbourhood (number one) is where the United Center is, the Navy Yard in DC is the new Nationals' stadium and, if I recall correctly, on of the Atlanta neighbourhoods is a sparsely populated part of downtown. It sort of stands to reason that places with fewer residents but a lot of foot traffic would have higher crime rates than a comparable neighbourhood without a stadium, say. This was posted on Metafilter and someone managed to work out that their calculations may be out as well, as they were assigning crimes for a larger area to a neighbourhood. (One of the neighbourhoods spans two police precincts, I think, and seemingly got assigned all the crimes.)

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

And having lived on the outskirts of that neighborhood listed at number 13 on that list when we lived in South Carolina, I can completely agree with its ranking. Its a baaaaaad neighborhood, Bill almost got carjacked coming to pick me up at work last one night. We had our home & our car vandalized.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I'm unsure what to make of the fact that there are no San Fransisco or Oakland neighborhoods listed, since SF has a few very specific high-crime areas and Oakland has such a rep as having a terribly high murder and other crime rate (which we do, though we have areas with little going on other than low-level property crime for the most part as well.)

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

Atlanta has the most, with four out of 25! WE WIN! YAY! Oh, wait :-(

My ex-roommate got shot in the chest in Atlanta, randomly walking down the street, but he lived. A friend of my husband's got shot walking down the same street and died. And someone shot at me at a hotel in Charlotte once. They weren't really aiming me for me, just spraying a semi-automatic in the air, but it was still pretty scary. I don't like guns in real life, not at all.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Wearing purple, haven't seen anyone else yet, but the day is young on this side of the coast.

Re: the news articles. I don't view them as a primary news source (although I don't always see them all before you note them), but I enjoy your take on them and the discussion that they sometimes spark in the comments.

The homework could be to post in the comments a few more links to prove that you're not our only news source! :) But that could get out of hand, too. I dunno, I'd think that having them appear in a post called "sundries" makes the point already.

[rm.livejournal.com]

You'd think!

But I've run into more than one conversation, both here and in private PMs/emails, where I'm realizing people don't watch or read the news beyond what I'm linking to, which creates a news-hunting and vetting obligation, I simply can't dedicate myself to in a primary way, both because of Hours in the Day and because I am a former investigative reporter, and there's a reason I'm not anymore.

That's because I worked at a wire service in a room broadcasting unexpurgated news feeds (which means the body parts at airplane crash sites and graphic execution footage from repressive regimes). The results of this is that I have a lot of dark humour and a deep, fundamental loyalty to journalists who do the hard, ugly stuff people hate them for. It is a perspective that is largely, rightly, unwelcome; but it is also a perspective I'm entitled to. And we're all better off if those things don't need to come into play here.

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

I, for one, am grateful for your links. I read the general news online, but you have provided links to some very oddball and interesting articles (this one comes to mind (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/garden/22hudson.html?_r=1))

[rm.livejournal.com]

I will definitely be continuing to post off-beat, arts, and pop-culture related things. It's the stuff that's hard news or on the boarder of hard news that I'm getting concerned about.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I'm calendrically impaired this week (actually pretty much all the time), so I'm not wearing purple. People announce dates, and I think, oh, I'd like to do that, and then I find out that whatever event it was is a week past. It's why I'd like to have a Tardis.

I like the Cardiff pics. I see that Patty gravitates toward plant photos. I'm fond of building photos myself.

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

You and me both...though I didn't think I actually had an article of purple clothing with me (I've been living out of 1 suitcase for 3 months) until I found a shirt while doing laundry tonight (that may be why the towels are all weird-colored now...)

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have anything purple to wear today or I would be head to toe purple. will have to check to see if I got bit of purple ribbon.

I know a friend who only has purple laces on some boots, but those are being worn today.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Purple ribbon is also pancreatic cancer, in case anyone asks.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Do you think that was ignorance or fear of safety if they revealed that they were supporting LGBT people?

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

This is all over my teenage daughter's highschool, so yay. Not well publicized - ie, not at all - at the university where I work, which even has a Diversity office for things like LGBT issues, or at my younger daughter's elementary school. And I'm in Canada, which may make some difference.

[gina-r-snape.livejournal.com]

No worries, the Daily Show is my primary source for news.

JUST KIDDING.

btw, do you get NY1? They had video of Lt. Choi on this morning, talking about how he has faith in "at least one branch of government." I thought that qualification was genius.

[notlefthanded.livejournal.com]

You didn't do anything wrong. I wonder what your parents were so afraid of?

I notice none of those "most dangerous" neighborhoods are anywhere near Los Angeles, either. Guess we'd better step up the efforts lest our families decide it's safe to move closer.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It's a deal.

No neighborhoods on that list over here, either.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'm not wearing purple yet. I'm still in work clothes, which come in burgundy, grey and black. But after my shower, I'll find my "Have Broom Will Travel" t-shirt which is purple. My husband isn't wearing purple simply because he doesn't own any purple.

I suspect it was mostly "Didn't hear about it" with a side of "Forgot" or "Don't own any" and a smidge of "Can't be arsed."

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

I am wearing purple today. It is better to, than not. But no one else seems to be in my moving about the city so far today. I imagine they didn't hear about it. I imagine they don't care about it. I imagine they are like me and not, but certainly, better at defending themselves from shame.

I wonder if that says more about the nature of Internet-driven campaigns than it does about people not caring or feeling shamed. Spirit Day definitely does have a strong online presence, at least in the circles I frequent, but the circles I frequent are hardly the whole Internet, let alone the whole country, and I haven't seen a lot of offline promoting of the event. The Internet's a powerful tool for social organization, but it doesn't always have all the necessary infrastructure to support and promote a national event like this, and I wonder what else we could have done to get out the word, especially to people who aren't as Internet-savvy as some of us are.

(And I'm pleasantly surprised that none of the most dangerous neighborhoods are in Baltimore, since I think there was at least one Baltimore neighborhood on the list last year.)