sundries

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.