Saturday, November 24, 2007

Morning View - Talent Unlimited

Two blocks from my place is Talent Unlimited High School, which tourists often photograph in the mistaken assumption that it was the location for the movie Fame. The movie was actually set at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School on the Upper West Side near Lincoln Center, but facts rarely get in the way of Manhattan tour guides.

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Friday, November 23, 2007

Thankful

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Thursday, November 22, 2007

2007 AVP Courage Awards

Hosted by actor B.D. Wong (left), the NYC LGBT Anti-Violence Project held its 2007 Courage Awards on Monday. New York State Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell and Verna Eggleston, Former Commissioner of the New York City Human Resources Administration and Executive Director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, now with the Bloomberg Family Foundation were both honored with awards for their work on behalf of of the community. [BELOW LEFT: Eggleston. BELOW RIGHT: O'Donnell and AVP Executive Director Clarence Patton. PHOTOS: Rob Rich/NySocialScene.com.]

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Oh, The Humanity

Last night Eddie and I tried to attend the blowing up of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons on the Upper West Side, something we've never done. What I'd naively presumed would be a casual stroll down Central Park West amidst bustling parade workers turned out to be a gigantic clusterfuck, as the mild weather (60 and clear) brought out over 350,000 parade fans.

The above photo was taken at the point where we gave up. The line in front of us stretched for several blocks, crossed Columbus Avenue, then snaked back downtown in our direction for another few blocks. The people across the street from us in this photo are actually about to enter the balloon area, but we were told it would be about two hours before we got to where they were. Feh.

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Open Thread Thursday

What's your favorite holiday movie?
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

November 24: Santa Saturday

In you are in the metro NYC or Philadelphia areas this Saturday, please consider attending the 34th Annual Santa Saturday in the popular queer arts enclave of New Hope, Pennsylvania. Hosted by the Bucks MC at the Raven Resort, join over 1000 festive folks from the bear, leather and drag communities (and a few from all three) and help raise funds for AIDS and the aging. (Photo: Michael Prestia.)
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HRC Plays Grinch To Wal-Mart

I can't imagine that many of you were going to in the first place, but the HRC has issued an alert requesting that teh gays not patronize Wal-Mart this holiday season.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, is giving Wal-Mart (WMT) a red "do not buy" rating in its new consumer guide, bestowing a lump of coal on the retail giant just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Citing Wal-Mart's refusal to offer domestic partner benefits to its gay and lesbian workers, the HRC said Tuesday that the USA's biggest private employer has "more work to do in furthering equality." It advised gays and their supporters to shop elsewhere.

Wal-Mart rated a red 40 on a scale of 100, down from a yellow 65 in 2006. It was among 54 companies that scored 45 or lower in HRC's 2008 Corporate Equality index, which assigns ratings to 519 large companies. Also in the red: Toys R Us, RadioShack (RSH) and AutoZone (AZO).

Wal-Mart rival Target (TGT) rated a "green" 80, meaning that "consumers should make every effort to support these businesses." Wal-Mart has bucked a corporate trend of expanding benefits for gay employees, says Daryl Herrschaft, director of HRC's workplace project. He says two Fortune 500 companies offered domestic partner benefits, comparable to spouse benefits, in 1990. Today, 269 do
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Finally, something from the HRC that we can all support, although this is a moot issue for New Yorkers, unless they want to schlep to Secaucus, New Jersey. I don't believe I've ever lived anywhere with a Wal-Mart within easy reach. Not that I would have reached. Go to Target for your discount shopping, y'all.

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The Sick Fascination Of The Right

You'll have to embiggen to read it, but the list of the top ten most viewed pages on Conservapedia is sickly fascinating.

Uh, "gay bowel syndrome"? Wasn't that term rightfully drummed out of the medical lexicon ages ago?
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Gate Double-D

All that beer and all that testosterone in one place have created a bizarre halftime ritual at New York Jets home games.

At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.

When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men.
The local news outlets have blared this story nonstop for the last few days. "Shocking!" "Embarassing!" "Think of the children!" I guess they don't watch many soccer matches. Please.
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Poofter Rolls On

Pam Spaulding reports that the Virginia DMV has relented and will allow one-time Larry Craig trick David Phillips to keep his "POOFTER" vanity plate.

Phillips: "This morning the Virginia DMV notified me by phone that I can keep my POOFTER plates. This after I returned directly to the head of the DMV the generic plates supplied with their hate letter, along with correspondence indicating my dedication to my First Amendment rights to self-identify in terms that meets no reasonable test for obscenity. I look forward to receiving the DMV's written apology for this incident."

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How To Thwart Dubya

Here's how the Dems are preventing Bush II from appointing Dr. James Holsinger as Surgeon General during the congressional holiday recess:

Three senators have been tapped to remain in Washington: Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), and Jack Reed (D-RI). Twice a week they will go into the chamber. The gavel will be banged down, and the Senate declared open. Then they will leave. With no recess Bush would not be able to make a recess appointment.

Cheers to those three Senators. I love it.

(Via - 365gay.com.)

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Morning View - Huxtable House

The Huxtable family of The Cosby Show supposedly lived in Brooklyn, but the house used for the exterior shots is actually in the West Village at 10 Leroy Street, between Hudson and Seventh Avenue. In warmer weather you can hardly see the first floor of the house for all the vines.

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Good Work Wednesday

Chicago: Thursday, Nov. 29, the Chicago AIDS Foundation holds its annual World Of Chocolate fundraiser in commemoration of World AIDS Day. At this festive event, guests will sample scrumptious chocolate creations from many of Chicagoland’s finest restaurants, caterers and chocolatiers.The vendors creating the delicacies will compete for top honors in several categories as judged by local celebrities. Other components of the evening include entertainment, a raffle, and shopping at the Holiday Bazaar which features fine gifts and ornaments donated by local merchants. Tickets $75-$100.

SF: The Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation is putting on its ninth annual "Help Is on the Way for the Holidays" -- an all-star benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 2, at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Performers include Mary Wilson, Sally Struthers, Justin Guarini, Anthony Fedorov, La Toya London, Jeannette Bayardelle, Shawn Ryan, and hip-hop dance troupe Mind Over Matter. Tickets $45-$100.

DC: Nov. 30th thru Dec. 2nd, Servicemembers United (formerly Call to Duty) is partnering with the Human Rights Campaign, Log Cabin Republicans, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and the Liberty Education Forum for a three-day tribute on the National Mall to honor the 12,000 Americans who have been discharged under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law since its inception. One American flag will be placed on the Mall for each discharged service member, which will serve as the backdrop for a series of events honoring their service, their sacrifice, and their fight to serve with dignity.

NYC: The Ali Forney Center, New York City's most comprehensive service organization for homeless LGBT youth-announces a memorial celebration of Ali Forney, commemorating his life and recognizing his continued inspiration to others on the ten-year anniversary of his tragic murder. Also commemorated is the 5-year anniversary of the Center itself, providing shelter, safety, and dignity to LGBT young people rejected by their families.The celebration is open to the public, and will place at Judson Memorial Church on Thursday, December 6. Speakers will include Executive Director Carl Siciliano, family and friends of Ali Forney, and others TBA as well as vocal performances.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Kindle Fails To Spark

Yesterday Amazon's Jeff Bezos launched Kindle, their new $400 e-reader that he claims will become the iPod of books. Previous e-readers have failed to catch on, but the Kindle, which can hold 200 books, does have some nifty features, including the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines (Time Magazine: $1.99/mo), and newspapers (New York Times: $13.99/mo.) New content is pushed onto the Kindle via a free network called "Whispernet". Once you've subscribed to a source, it automatically appears in your device.

Some have noted the product's name in reference to Ray Bradbury's famous novel about book burning, Fahrenheit 451, but Bezos claims the name is a reference to "rekindling" an interest in reading. Yeah, whatever. While reviews have been generally unkind, citing the device's lousy web browser among other issues, I can sorta see myself using a Kindle, as I am not a book saver - once I read something, I usually give it away shortly after. But with the Kindle's cost and limitations, I'm not that blown away. I wanted an MP3 player the minute they came out. For the Kindle, not so much.

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The Lesbionic Woman


"Back off, breeder! Now where the hell is my Subaru?"

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LA Gay Center Gala Draws Stars

Hosted by comedian Alec Mapa, Saturday night's Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center's 36th Annual Gala brought out more than 1000 supporters to hear Linda Ronstadt, Jenifer Lewis, and the LA Gay Men's Chorus. (ABOVE: George Takei, Center CEO Lorri L. Jean, Alec Mapa, Jane Lynch, . Photo by David Arenas. BELOW: Alex Mapa and LA Gay Men's Chorus, Jenifer Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Linda Ronstadt. Photos by Beck Starr.)

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Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of Universal Motown, today's Swag Tuesday giftie is an autographed poster for the Scissor Sisters' new performance DVD, Hurrah! A Year Of Ta-Dah, due out December 4th.
This 2 disc DVD set is essential for all Scissor Sister fans!! Included is a DVD of a full live concert filmed at O2 Fest in London including "Take Your Mama", "She's My Man", `Tits on The Radio" and more. This holiday must includes a 60 minute documentary filmed around the world that gives a unique glimpse into the crazy and colorful works of Scissor Sisters. There are extras including videos for "She's My Man" and "Kiss You Off" and other performances.
To win this poster autographed by the entire band, please comment on this post. Only comment once and please remember to leave your email address. Publicists: if you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.
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UN To Reduce AIDS Count By Six Million

Saying they have overstated the reach of the AIDS pandemic, the United Nations' AIDS agency will release a report today reducing their count of total AIDS cases worldwide by six million, to 33.2 million.
The statistical changes reflect more accurate surveys, particularly in India and some populous African countries. Some epidemiologists have criticized for years the way estimates were made, and new surveys of thousands of households in several countries have borne them out.

In only a few countries, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, do the figures reflect widespread behavioral changes, such as decisions by many people to have sex with fewer partners.

Excerpts from the report were given to the news media in advance for release this evening, but an embargo on it was broken by other news organizations. Despite the revised estimates, the epidemic remains one of the great scourges of mankind. This week’s analysis predicts that 2.1 million people died of AIDS in the last year, and 2.5 million were newly infected — or about 6,800 every day.

The agency now believes that the number of new infections each year with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, probably peaked in the late 1990s, or by 2001, at about 3 million.
Good new, of course. But still, 33.2 million.
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Today: 9th Annual Transgender
Day Of Remembrance

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people
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Tonight there will be a candlelight vigil and march. Staging begins at the NYC LGBT Community Center at 6pm. A few blocks away, there will be another rally tonight at 6pm at Sheridan Square on Christopher Street. Across the street at the Stonewall Inn, the HRC is coincidentally staging a networking party where transgender activists intend to protest HRC's recent tactics in supporting a trans-less ENDA. This week the New York Blade published an editorial calling for the resignation of HRC head Joe Solmonese.
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HomoQuotable - Richard Rothstein

"AOL made a tremendous noise about its commitment to the GLBT community and to its queer readers in particular. AOL trades on the important and valuable role it plays in the various communities it serves through its many pages and themes. Partly, I walked away from my original blog, Proceed At Your Own Risk because AOL convinced me that I would be able to share my voice with a huge audience, gay and straight.

But after six months of pouring our hearts and souls into this venture and creating an important and influential--even leadership--role in the queer community--AOL looked at 3.5 million page monthly views, 500,000 monthly unique site visits and the commensurate ad revenues, good will for the AOL brand throughout the blogosphere, the print media and the electronic media and within hours shut it all down." - Former AOL Queersighted blogger Richard Rothstein, on AOL's decision to end its in-house gay blog. Queersighted managing editor Kenneth Hill (AKA the Gayest Editor Ever) was among 2000 AOL employees laid off last month.

Rothstein continues: "And, at the end of the day, I suppose we can't accuse AOL of homophobia or politics. After all, Mary Cheney remains a vice president at AOL and she, as we all know, is a staunch supporter of the queer community, our rights and our voice. And just because a number of AOL's openly homophobic and conservative right wing bloggers remain employed and blogging doesn't mean that the termination of large numbers of senior gay employees means anything. "
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Simplifly


It's really too bad that there's a writers strike right now, the Daily Show and Letterman would have a field day with this.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Please Don't Squeeze The Coffin

Dick Wilson, AKA Mr. Whipple, dead at 91. Remember he also played the drunk guy on Bewitched who was always seeing Samantha's magic?

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Time Machine

Dr. Jeff and I ran into this kid begging on 14th Street near Union Square last night. While he doesn't appear homeless or especially needy, we still both gave him a buck. Probably because of his clever sign and not at all because we are shallow he was funny and cute. And certainly not because we were hammered slightly drunk.

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Taking The Piss

An interesting ad campaign to promote British tourism has appeared on Belgian street corners. The above cubes are positioned so that approaching pedestrians see the pissing punk first, then the delicate teacup into which he is so accurately aiming. The ad agency who created this ad for the Eurostar train says they've received no complaints because the images hit on the two things that Belgians most associate with English: football hooligans and tea. Hey, it makes me want to go. To England, that is.

(Via - Towleroad.)

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Manhattan Monday

- The nine day old Broadway strike will continue though the Thanksgiving weekend as negotiations were broken off again on Saturday. No new talks are scheduled. Analysts are now describing the strike as a "disaster" for holiday tourism. Unrelated: the vanity plate on this car parked in front of my building.

- The feds have approved $1.3B for the construction of the Second Avenue subway line, which has been started and stopped several times since 1929. The first leg of the line should be ready for riders in about 600 years.

- NY 1 anchor Gary Ramsay was canned this week after he made a crank call to one of the station's live shows to rail against one-time Giuliani protege Bernard Kerik. Ramsay worked at the station for the last 15 years. "Journalistic suicide", indeed.

- Angering activists, openly gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is "adamantly opposing" a bill that would expand HIV outreach and services for the poor and homeless in New York City. Quinn says she is concerned about the program's costs and about setting precedent for offering assistance to those with HIV but not for those with other diseases. Quinn is expected to run for mayor when Bloomberg leaves office. I'm liking her less and less.

- Kept off the air by the writers strike, the cast of Saturday Night Live performed the show at the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy theater in Chelsea. Hosted by Michael Cera, the show was described as much racier than broadcast rules would have allowed.

- Inspired by the story of the Brooklyn hipster who found the "girl of his dreams" after seeing her on the subway and creating a website about her, a stockbroker has created SawYouOnTheTrain.com, where Gothamites can post their photos and descriptions of fellow riders upon whom they'd like to make creepy advances. Hey, it beats having them sit next to you.
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Catching Up With The Joneses

A new analysis of the last U.S. census reveals that for the first time, two Hispanic surnames are among the ten most common last names in the country. I can't embed it here, but in the linked story there's a neat scrollable graphic of the 5000 most common last names.

The new top ten:

1. Smith
2. Johnson
3. Williams
4. Brown
5. Jones
6. Miller
7. Davis
8. Garcia
9. Rodriquez
10. Wilson

Also new to the top twenty: Hernandez at #11, Martinez at #15. The Hispanic population of the United States grew by 58% in the '90s and now comprises 13% of the nation. Lee, a surname shared by both whites and Asians (and the most common surname in the world), is #22 in the U.S. My own last name doesn't appear on the list as there are only about 600 of us in the country. I've never met somebody with my last name that I wasn't related to.

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Deadline Looms For Philly Scouts

Philadelphia has given the Boy Scouts until December 3rd to rescind its policy of excluding gays or forfeit the right to continue renting its headquarters from the city for $1 a year, as the Scouts have done since 1928. Market rent on the massive Beaux Arts building, which was constructed by the Scouts themselves, is thought to be about $200,000 annually.

In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts had the right to exclude homosexuals, just as they exclude atheists and agnostics as inconsistent with the values of the organization. Philadelphia's Cradle Of Liberty chapter of the Scouts, the third largest in the nation, sought in 2004 to break with that national policy, but were overruled. The chapter is considering a legal fight, but may wait until new mayor Michael Nutter takes office in January, in the hope that he may be agreeable to some compromise.

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The Naugle Effect

In an effort to stem public sex on the beach, officials in Martin County, Florida are considering installing "talking" motion-detecting surveillance cameras. Upon detecting movement, the cameras would flash a bright light and play a pre-recorded announcement that the area was under surveillance. Recording would begin 30 seconds later. Martin County arrested six men in an undercover beach sex sting during the summer.

Perhaps mindful of the beach sex debacle in nearby Fort Lauderdale, Martin County's tourism head Terry Monagan says the cameras would scare off tourists and may constitute invasion of privacy. Monagan: "My first reaction is that sounds pretty intrusive."

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Homosex To Be Legal In Nicaragua

Surprising international observers, the Nicaraguan National Assembly has announced the decriminalization of gay sex, effective next March. Under the current law, gay sex is punishable by one to three years imprisonment, as is providing sexual health information or services and advocating for LGBT rights. The new civil code does away with all of those restrictions. Most Central and South American nations have decriminalized gay sex in recent years.

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Bob Allen Resigns

Disgraced Florida Republican legislator Bob Allen resigned late on Friday shortly after his conviction for soliciting tearoom sex from an undercover cop. Allen was sentenced to six months probation and must pay court costs and fines. The judge ordered Allen to undergo tests for HIV and STDs and to take a class on HIV awareness. He was also told to stay away from the park where he was arrested and from all scary black men.

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Morning View - Bedpan Alley

Looking north from the Queensboro Bridge, this area of the Upper East Side is called "Bedpan Alley", as many of the buildings you see here are hospitals. I got this shot last week before winter clomped into town on wet, gray boots. Today's random trivia: the East River is not a real river, but a salt-water estuary, or tidal strait, connecting Long Island Sound with Upper New York Bay. It changes direction with the tides.

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