sundries

I am at the office (having lunch) while Patty explores Lucerne today. The clouds are coming in now, so I'm hoping she doesn't get stuck in the rain and winds up all damp and cold, because that's no one's idea of a good time, especially after we got to wander around Zurich in short sleeves over the weekend (in November!).

We took some great pictures, and hopefully she'll upload hers soon; I meanwhile, brought the wrong cord for getting stuff off my camera, so I may be able to solve this in the UK, but it may wait until I get home.

We've also been eating great, SUPER EXPENSIVE Swiss food. But we're just sucking it up and enjoying ourselves. Meanwhile, I start to plan Thanksgiving menu in Cardiff.

Life is good.

To attract younger parishioners, a Catholic church has opened a nightclub in Rome.

Hajj has begun.

The Church of Latter Day Saints has changed its guidelines on gay people.

Finnish Church okays prayers for gay couples.

Housewives of God: article has more nuance and perspectives that I would have expected. Very interesting read.

Tiny, tiny Tokyo apartment. I wonder when these will come to NYC. After all, a parking space can cost, not uncommonly $500 a month in covered, serviced lots with 24 hours access. Maybe more. I haven't looked in a while.

In Haiti, the Collège Classique Féminin works to survive.

"Our brains are wired to confuse the real and the symbolic." The New York Times piece focuses on matters of war and peace. I can think of some other points of application and interest, of course.

What making breast cancer sexy does to women, both with and without cancer. The increased awareness, discussion and response to breast cancer? Awesome. The gender-essentialism and the thing where a woman is only as good as her tits? Not so much. This one hits very close to home for me.

The life of a gay NASCAR fan.

A model who is trans has scored a major magazine cover simply because she's beautiful. It's sort of a non-story, which is why it's awesome.

First Bollywood film focusing on gay themesis about to be released.

Barclays offers tax offset to gay couples screwed by the combination of DoMA and corporate partner benefits.

Music Mondays

While I'm trying to book various train tickets around the UK (seriously, can anyone tell me where I go online to buy the bus tickets from Hereford to Hay-on-Wye? We already got the train tickets to Cardiff from Hereford) - solved!, mithrigil is telling us about song structure and working with words. As usual, it's super cool and accessible process stuff for people who don't do music (which, you know, would totally be me -- she has to put up with a lot of "so, you know... like this thing, but like this other thing, but sort of also this other thing? OH THANK FUCK you were thinking the same thing, but like, in a way that knows how to think about it" from me).

Meanwhile, Dogboy & Justine is at $3,205 in pledges with 36 days to go. That means we need to raise a little over $75 a day, every day, between now and then.

Things have been slow of late, and we're firmly in the dreaded Kickstarter U. If you've been thinking about pledging, cheering us on, or signal-boosting our fundraising drive, now would be a particularly awesome time to do so. If you have cool ideas about how to can promote our Kickstarter drive, that would be super cool too -- we're thinking of doing a 24-hour blog-a-thon across multiple platforms when I get back to the States.

Because it has come to me through the grapevine that people don't realize this: Yes, lots of our own money and resources are going into this too. We just can't sponsor ourselves on Kickstater -- it's not allowed. So the hundreds of bucks I've put into this (for domain registration, web hosting, graphic design, web design), has come out of my own pocket. Ideally, eventually I get paid back from this endeavor, but as the people making this happen, Erica and I are the last folks to see cash from this.

So why is there cash involved at all?

Because renting a theater costs money. And because artists deserve to get paid for their time -- every single person who works on this project will receive some sort of fee. Period. That includes actors, musicians and techs. When you pledge to support our show, in a small awesome way you're helping artists make their living as artists. It's one reason why we're doing this -- not just to provide an awesome show to the audience, but to provide awesome and unique opportunities to talented folks who, in some cases, might not be easy to cast in more mainstream productions.

No one is getting rich off this. And, right now, I'll be happy if we raise the funds and ECSTATIC if I ever break even.

Do I believe that will happen? I do.

Do I believe this can get past the workshop stage and be big and provide significant economic opportunity for lots of artists? Yup.

Why? Because I come from a marketing background and I have a fantastic Spidey sense about these things.

Why else? Because I have to. I don't really know if belief can change the world, but it does keep me going and helps give me the will to make things happen. I made a choice at a given point in my life to live that way, and it works for me, often in ways weird, serendipitous and lovely.

This show is a big responsibility because it's big on possibility. And I really want it to happen: for everyone involved now, and for everyone who may be involved in the future.

Surviving as an artist in New York is hard. I'm still learning how to do it. Part of that learning is realizing the value of making opportunities that can help other people do it too.